--turfed--

OK, that's a lot clearer to me. If you get a chance to work this into your games, let us know how it works our for you. Any, other suggestions?

I tried posting my Skills system, but until we fix the "caps" problem, I think it's going to be impossible.  I spent a bunch of time re-writing things in a number of places, but there's too many instances of the Basic Characteristics being abbreviated next to Skills with I - N - T , etc.

Majestic, could you do a quick edit, and put some paragraph breaks in there? It'd make it a whole lot easier to read.

Majestic wrote on Jun 10^th, 2009 at 10:41pm:


Caps "problem" fixed. It wasn't really a problem, just prevents people from forum "YELLING". But I kind of hated taht setting so I turned it off. CAPS AWAY!   

John wrote on Jun 10^th, 2009 at 10:50pm:


No problem at all, guys.

That's not even all of it (I didn't include the Skills list, which is essentially a "secondary" character sheet that we include for each PC.

The reason it's formatted as you see it is to fit with the format for the V&V Rulebook.  They do no spaces between paragraphs, and simply indent each new paragraph (very old school).

I'll adjust it to make it easier to read, and see if I can include the other part.

4.3 GENERATING NONPLAYER CHARACTERS

E. Origin and Background

SKILLS

     Often in V&V it is necessary to know a character’s knowledge or ability in a certain area of life.  Sometimes a Basic Characteristic isn’t enough to reflect the skills or expertise that a person may have.  Following are over 100 Skills that cover most areas and subjects.  When attempting to determine a character’s ability in an area, if the specific Skill can not be found among those given, then either give the character a save in the appropriate Basic Characteristic, or let them make a roll under “Other” (if this better fits the situation).

     To determine how many Skill points that a character gets to distribute, roll 1d6 and add the total to their Intelligence.  This is the total number of points they get to spend on Skills, allocated however the player wants.

     Keep in mind that there are four Skills that most American characters will want to have, to reflect abilities used in everyday life: Charm (used for all kinds of interactions between people), Computers, Swimming, and Driving.  Not every character will have these Skills, however.

     Characters get some “freebies” (usually two of them) for the Skills that are best associated with the rolls they got in their Areas of Knowledge (V&V Rulebook p. 31).  When in doubt, the player can choose what they feel is closest.  For example, the superhero Majestic rolled “Scientist” and “Performing Arts”.  His written origin says that he was skilled in drama in High School, and that he then studied forensics at the FBI Academy.  Thus, he gets Acting and Forensics for free.

     After that, each character then gets 4-6 (1d3 + 3) free "Practical" or "Scholar" skills, to encompass life experiences.  As an example again, Thomas Carter (Majestic) was an M.P. in the Marine Corps, and his interests and hobbies are puppetry, snowboarding, and swimming.  With a roll of a two (for five total picks), he takes 1 each in Military, Criminology, Entertainment, Athletics, and Swimming (to summarize things already listed in his background).

     Thus, since Majestic rolled a 5 (on the 1d6) to begin with, he receives 5 + 13 (his Intelligence), plus the 2 for his Areas of Knowledge, plus the 5 background picks, for a total of 25 total points.  Characters also get a point for each Experience level that they attain.  Therefore, each time a character increases in Intelligence, or goes up a level, they gain a new point to put into a Skill.

     Most Skills will be at Level 1, but each character may want to shine in a few areas, taking things to Level 2 (spending 2 points in that Skill).  Characters who want to become really knowledgeable or skilled at a certain area can go all the way up to Level 3 in a Skill.  In addition, each character can pick ONE Skill that is “favored”, that they can take all the way to Level 5 (which reflects an “expert” level).  The GM should make every effort to insure that two PCs on the same superhero team are not experts in the same exact Skill, thus allowing for variety and giving each character the opportunity to shine in different circumstances.

     Skills rolls are always made on a d20, against a formula of “Skill Level + 9 + (Basic Characteristic/5)”.  If someone does not have any Skill in a certain area, they not only add 0 for the Skill Level, but suffer an additional – 5 to their roll.

     For example, let’s say Majestic comes across a strange piece of hardware at a remote installation in the woods.  The GM decides that a Military skill roll is appropriate, and on his character sheet it shows Scholar: Military 1/13.  He gets the 13 by adding a Skill Level of 1 (the first number listed) to 9, and then by adding the relevant Basic Characteristic (in this case Intelligence) divided by 5.  His Intelligence is 14; dividing it by 5 gives us a total of 2.8, which rounds off to 3.  Thus, 1 + 9 + 3 = 13.  Majestic needs to roll a 13 or less on d20 to determine what the item of technology is and how to operate it.

     For a second example, let’s say Majestic is forced to do an impromptu medical operation in the field.  The GM picks Surgery as the Skill to use, and Majestic must make a roll of 7 or less to succeed.  This number comes from him having no Skill in that area (Skill Level of 0), plus the 9 and the 3, and adds in the – 5 since it is not a Skill that Majestic possesses.  This gives him a total of 7.

     Now, if Dr. Desist, the famous Beverly Hills surgeon, had tried, the results would probably be quite different.  Desist has a Skill Level of 5 in Medical: Surgery.  With his Intelligence of 39 it means that he is 5 (Skill Level) + 9 + 8 (his Intelligence of 39/5) = 22.  This becomes written on his character sheet as Medical: Surgery 5/23.  Dr. Desist needs to roll anything other than a 20 (which always fails, as per Saving Throws in 8.8) to succeed at the same task that Majestic (trained up to a Paramedic) would usually fail at.

     If it is deemed appropriate, the GM may impose a penalty of -3, -5, or even -10 from a Skill roll to reflect difficulties or other factors.  If something is virtually impossible, allocating a penalty of -15 or -20 would be preferable to making the character roll their Skill on d100.

     Note that under the “Medical” Class above, it is not necessary for a person to have points in ALL of the various Skills, though it is possible.  For example, a surgeon might have a Skill Level of 3 in Surgery, but might have no Levels devoted to First Aid or Paramedic.  For most basic Medical issues, the GM will likely have the surgeon roll under Surgery (his highest Medical Skill).  Thus, a person with a Skill Level in Paramedic generally knows things regarding both First Aid and Paramedic, and a person with a Skill Level in Surgery is knowledgeable in First Aid and Paramedic as well (without having to devote Skill Ranks to the other, more basic Skills).  The GM should usually have the character pick their highest Medical Skill among the three.

     There are three ways to increase in one’s Skills.  Every time the character goes up in a relevant Characteristic, they have a chance at causing their total to go up in every Skill that is tied to that statistic.  Also, when a person trains in Intelligence, or goes up a level, they gain a point for each (just like they do at character creation).  The third way is by training in a specific Skill.  When a player does that, they should receive a BONUS of +3 to the Skill they trained in.  This is not added to the Skill Rank itself, but to the overall total.
    



Skill Formula:  (Areas of Knowledge) + INT + 1d6 + Practical (1d3+3) + (Level)

MAX RANKS = 3 (FAVORED SKILL MAX. = 5).

Then, on the character sheet itself, it will list a value for each and every Skill, such as:

Bargaining 2/16
Archery 1/13
Politics 1/15
Literature 0/8

etc., etc.

For villains, I don't go through the hassle of listing all of their Skills.  At most I give them 3, or maybe 5 (sometimes a few more for a major villain).

So, then, when the time comes, it's always resolved on a 1d20.  If someone is trying to pick a lock, they simply consult their character sheet.  If it says:

Lockpicking 1/15, then they have to roll a 15 or less to succeed.  If the GM determines that it's a REALLY hard lock, he or she might just modify the roll by -5 or something.

Pretty simple and straightforward, it gives a LOT of weight to Intelligence (and quite a bit to Charisma, the "worthless" dump stat).   

The skill lists placed here are already comprehensive. Nice job!

In terms of the mechanic, I use this:

Skill Rules:
All players start the game with a number of skills equal to: Int /10 (rounded) +4

Anyone may add skills during a level advancement/training.

When using a skill, your chance at success is (primary stat for the skill + Level) x 3%
Example: John’ skill at Archeology is (his Intelligence (21) + his Level (3)) x 3 = 72%

Anyone may take any skill twice. Doing so makes the final multiplier a 4, not a 3.
Of your starting skills, one is assumed to have been doubled already, and is the character’s Primary Skill.
Example: Kirk’s primary skill is Computers: (Intelligence (15) + his Level (4)) x 4 = 76%

Conditions and Difficulties can modify a die roll negatively or positively, as determined by the GM.

Majestic's post in Reply #18 gave me an idea.

What if all your starting skills were predetermined by your 2 Areas of Knowledge?

Then later skills can be whatever they decide to train/advance in.

Example:
Area of Knowledge, Crime, gives you a skill package of:
Streetwise, Stealth, and any two of the following:
Lockpicking, Bribery, Forgery, Disguise, Seduction, etc., etc.

The lazy man / purist in me likes it.

Not ready for posting just yet, but my skill system is predicated on not specifying things any finer than the areas of knowledge.  You can roll a skill check on things that fall in your area of knowledge.  So, if you have the Criminal area of knowledge, you can make a skill roll on anything you can justify to your GM as being part of that.

I always wanted to try Daredevils.

Me too.
Daredevils was perfect for that 30's pulp fiction genre: Doc Savage, Sam Spade, the Shadow, Indiana Jones.

I'm gonna start a thread to continue this.

I liked the system that they used in th James bond game made by Victory games

Doctor Foom wrote on Jun 12^th, 2009 at 1:58pm:


That's how I've always played it, with the caveat that some nuanced skills might come the character's origin and powers. I've always followed that guidelines laid out in the rules that a characters' Intelligence and Age/Level will influence how effective those skills happen to be.

Here's a question for Majestic and others who uses an expanded list of subskills.

The revised rules give some guidelines about how inheritor works, and in other sections: medicien and legal, and crime. I basically interpret the other knowledge areas as useful background areas about the character.

With some of the practical skills, like "survival" or "investigation," how does this affect the player in game terms? Are there specific bonuses they receive?

Fer Doctor Foom, this might apply to some of the skills I saw on yer sight? How, for example, would "leadership" (Soldier) help a character beyond the reg. charisma bonuses?

It sounds like some of you have thought about skills in more detail than me, so I'm interested in seein' what you've thought through.

SuperFriend wrote on Sep 15^th, 2009 at 11:18pm:


For most of our Skills, the GM makes a call in each and every situation, so it's very much up to each individual GM.  A number of our GMs are even so free-form that they say "Okay, Player A, go ahead and give me a roll if you have a Skill with any of the following: Medicine, Physiology, or Forensics!"

So for the Skills you suggested above, a roll on Survival would be rare (obviously it would be more common in a fantasy campaign than in a supers), but I can imagine a GM might simply make a character in such a situation roll to see how their character makes it through the night (say in a snowstorm or alone in the mountains, etc.).  Investigation would be a much more commonly used Skill, and it usually would be the GM asking the character to make a roll, and if he/she succeeds the GM might give the character a clue or point them in the right direction.

Hope that helps; don't hesitate to ask if you've got more questions!