Perception and Unarmed Combat skills ?

[rust]

For the Godot science fiction setting I am currently working on the characters

will need at lot of technical and scientific skills, which tends to make the cha-

racter sheets a bit overloaded and the distribution of skill points more difficult

than usual - too many skills to assign points to.

Therefore I thought that it could help to to combine the perception skills (Lis-

ten, Sense, Spot) into one Perception Skill and the unarmed combat skills (Brawl,

Grapple, perhaps also Dodge) into one Unarmed Combat skill.

This would eliminate a couple of skills from the list and make it a bit easier for

the players to spend points for the more setting specific technical and scientific

skills their characters will need, I think.

Before I do that - is there any important reason why this would be a bad idea ?

Thank you.

[dragonewt]

Therefore I thought that it could help to to combine the perception skills (Listen, Sense, Spot) into one Perception Skill and the unarmed combat skills (Brawl, Grapple, perhaps also Dodge) into one Unarmed Combat skill.

A general "Martial Arts" type of skill seems suitable. Many sci-fi settings had their characters able to fight with a generic style that covered all various moves (The infamous karate kick and judo throw, or the "Judo Chop!" ), but never gave a style name. If a player wants to have a "flavour" for the style used by their character, use a style name as a special effect, but treat them the same as far as mechanics are concerned. For the purists who really want a degree of differentiation, have a balanced spread of modifiers, such as "Taekwondo - Kicks +20%, Grappling -20%" vs "Judo - Kicks -40%, Grappling +20%, Locks +20%".

To really cut down on the number of skills, you could combine certain specialised medical skills with fighting skills.

[rust]

To really cut down on the number of skills, you could combine certain specialised medical skills with fighting skills.

I wonder whether I should introduce a glove with an electrified thumb as an ille-

gal melee weapon ... and a version with an electrified drilling thumb for the use

against opponents who wear a spacesuit ...

[deleriad]

For the Godot science fiction setting I am currently working on the characters

will need at lot of technical and scientific skills, which tends to make the cha-

racter sheets a bit overloaded and the distribution of skill points more difficult

than usual - too many skills to assign points to.

Therefore I thought that it could help to to combine the perception skills (Lis-

ten, Sense, Spot) into one Perception Skill and the unarmed combat skills (Brawl,

Grapple, perhaps also Dodge) into one Unarmed Combat skill.

This would eliminate a couple of skills from the list and make it a bit easier for

the players to spend points for the more setting specific technical and scientific

skills their characters will need, I think.

Before I do that - is there any important reason why this would be a bad idea ?

Thank you.

With the exception of Dodge this is exactly what RQII does. All Perception skills are folded into one skill and all unarmed skills folded into one skill. Most agility skills (climb, jump, throw, run) are also folded into one all purpose skill called Athletics.

[rust]

With the exception of Dodge this is exactly what RQII does. All Perception skills are folded into one skill and all unarmed skills folded into one skill. Most agility skills (climb, jump, throw, run) are also folded into one all purpose skill called Athletics.

Thank you very much.

The Athletics skill is a good idea, I think I will use it, too.

[frogspawner]

With the exception of Dodge this is exactly what RQII does.

That's Mongoose (MRQ2) I take it, not RQII.

I think a combined Brawl/Grapple is good, but Spot & Listen (etc) should be separate. Just last week I was playing under a GM in the habit of calling for "Perception rolls...". But my character had very good eyesight (but not as good hearing), so I was always having to ask for clarification: "Spot or Listen?". Also, having just one Perception-type skill makes it a bit 'uber' - they're already verging on overly important.

[deleriad]

That's Mongoose (MRQ2) I take it, not RQII.

I think a combined Brawl/Grapple is good, but Spot & Listen (etc) should be separate. Just last week I was playing under a GM in the habit of calling for "Perception rolls...". But my character had very good eyesight (but not as good hearing), so I was always having to ask for clarification: "Spot or Listen?". Also, having just one Perception-type skill makes it a bit 'uber' - they're already verging on overly important.

On the other hand you could say "my character is better at punching people than kicking them so there should be separate skills for that." It's a question of focus. I find BRP's default skill list to be overly long and prescriptive these days. I would rather just have one perception skill, one stealth skill, one brawl skill etc by default because as a GM I don't really care if an NPC heard or saw a PC or both, just whether or not they are aware of them. If then a player wants a character who is shortsighted but has good hearing then when it becomes important to the PC I can assign modifiers. I would much rather do that then clutter up a character sheet with multiply differentiated perception, stealth, athletic, brawling skills and so on. That way the differentiation between skills is significant.

[dragonewt]

On the other hand you could say "my character is better at punching people than kicking them so there should be separate skills for that." It's a question of focus.

I covered that in my example in this thread. It allows for a minimised and general skill set, however, for those who like the detail or want/need an extra degree of definition in some cases, they can have it (without adding more skills or rules).

In the case of perception, I like differentiating between the senses. And you also need to take into account mental comprehension, deduction, speed of thought and reaction; a character with 20/20 eyesight might still miss a detail because they have unfocused thoughts or do not process the input they receive.

The way to do this would be to have a single generic perception skill, and have modifiers, similar to advantages/disadvantages of some systems.

Eg:

Perception: 50% (General combined capability of all senses and the ability to respond to data) - All that is needed for an uncomplicated session that is light on skills (maybe because the players like it that way, or want to focus more on story telling, etc...).

• Damaged ears = -20% to rolls involving hearing.
  
• Loves eating carrots = +10% to rolls involving eyesight.
  
• Cognitive dissonance and denial of spooky things = -30% to rolls involving the supernatural (maybe the result of a SAN loss).
  

The idea is that modifiers are only added as required, while the single general "Perception" is all that is needed for most characters most of the time. This is something I am working on with some of my mechanics experimentation. One key question is the distinction between natural capability and trained skill (if there is such a difference). Also consider that the modifiers can be applied to other skills where appropriate (eg: Good eyesight aiding a visual precision oriented driving skill roll).

Edited October 16, 2010 by dragonewt

[deleriad]

The way to do this would be to have a single generic perception skill, and have modifiers, similar to advantages/disadvantages of some systems.

This is exactly the way I think. It also makes it much easier to use the MRQ idea of common skills that everyone knows and specialist skills that you have to have explicitly learned at some time. It keeps the character sheet much simpler and more focused.

Last night I ran the good old Haunting Scenario from CoC for three people, two of whom had never role-played before using a hacked together version of CoC for Sanity & Hit Points, RQII for skills & combat and Savage worlds for the card-based initiative system. The simpler skill system made it much easier for the new players to find the skills they wanted while having a small number of specialist skills foregrounded on the sheet made it obvious how their characters were differentiated. Good fun was had by all.

[dragonewt]

It also makes it much easier to use the MRQ idea of common skills that everyone knows and specialist skills that you have to have explicitly learned at some time.

Call me pedantic, however I derived this mind-set and approach from other sources, long before MRQ. It has been core concept in a lot of minimalistic systems, as well as a part of the approach of systems such as Interlock (eg: Mekton). Although CoC was possibly an initial leader in this area in the early days (compared to the traditionally crunchy systems of the day).

Edited October 16, 2010 by dragonewt

[rust]

The way to do this would be to have a single generic perception skill, and have modifiers, similar to advantages/disadvantages of some systems.

I like this idea very much, mainly because it keeps my general skill list shorter

and at the same time encourages the players to decide whether and where they

want more detail and individuality for their characters by choosing modifiers for

the general skills.

I am not yet sure how well this will fit into the setting in question, where certain

modifiers and combinations of modifiers would be so obviously useful that every

player character would be likely to have them. On the other hand, this would al-

so be the same with separate skills.

Besides, in this specific setting the players will create their characters without

knowing exactly on what kind of planet their characters will have to operate, so

the risk that all will take the same modifiers is low.

I have to think it through a bit more, but I really like it.