Towards a more complete skill list

[deleriad]

In the same way, you could also easily add an Intimidation skill. And the beauty of this approach is that it might be based upon different characteristics than the basic skill. For example, intimidation might be based upon CHA + STR (or even CHA + SIZ) rather than CHA x2. This also allows you to create specialist characters such as an enforcer for the local gang who can intimidate the locals without being gifted with all forms of social interaction.

Yes, that's exactly how I do Intimidation and other cases where an Advanced "specialism" is logically dependent on different core characteristics. As you say, it is implicit in the rules and it works nicely with Improvement rolls because players can decide whether to specialise or stick with the general skill.

[Prime Evil]

The only thing that's missing is a set of guidelines for adjudicating the use of the general skill (e.g. Influence) rather than the specific skill (e.g. Intimidation). Personally, I'd keep this as simple as possible by using the existing rules for Difficulty and Haste on p39 of the Legend rulebook. I'd argue that when using an Advanced skill that is a specialization of a Common skill, simply reduce the Difficulty of the task by one or two levels in circumstances where the specialization applies. Thus, a character might need to make a difficult Influence roll (-20%) to intimidate a street thug, but could perform the same task by making a routine (+0%) or simple (+20%) Intimidation skill roll instead. As an added bonus, I might also be tempted to allow characters with the specialized skill to perform the task in a reduced time rather than with a reduced difficulty if the player wishes to take that option....