A Mutant Future skill system. Would this be a good idea?

[Agrippa]

I've been thinking of something of a skill system for Mutant Future. Not just a "spend a few points and add a bonus to your rolls" system, more like actually improving your own abilities and even adding on more. This would start modestly, such as being able to throw up to a light load with little or no penalty, tossing a sword at an enemy 50' with a reasonable chance hitting them or swiming for a quarter mile at without rest. Higher ranks would allow for feats of skill such us hurling your full carrying capacity one-handed, throwing your sword a whole mile away and cleaving out a seven mile long trench from solid rock or swiming for days on end in either chain mail or plate armor, possibly even towing dozens such suits of armor with him.

Now all skills would be divided by ability score. Thus you would have Strength, Intelligence and Willpower based skills. You'd also get a number of skill points per ability bonus for every level to be spent on that abilities skills. So if you have a third level pure strain human with an Intelligence score of 18 he'd have nine points to spend on Intelligence based skills, mostly allowing him great benefits from his intellect instead of adding to or subtracting from any Intelligence based rolls. This would include more and better information abuot occult lore or ancient technology on a good roll. If you don't have an abilit bonus in one score, or worse yet have a penalty, you don't gain any skills or skill points related to that ability.

So my question is this, is this a good idea or is it crazy for an old-school style game?

[Wizardawn]

I've pondered such a thing for this but decided against it because it will make a different game than Mutant Future. When I read over Mutant Future, I realized how close it was to the feel of 1st edition Gamma World. Character creation is quite simple as you are all a band of hearty adventurers in the wasteland. When you start adding skills, you then run into D&D style groups of "who wants to play the cleric" or "we need a thief" kinda play. I guess you have to think of your idea similar to Labyrinth Lord (for plain Mutant Future) and then "you" want to make an Advanced Edition Companion of sorts. Before I decided to keep my Mutant Future game "by the rules", I was considering making classes and not skills. Classes like hacker, doctor, soldier...stuff like that. In the end I live by the "technology rolls" for characters. It seems to solve these types of problems for me. What you are thinking is a little more versatile though. Players will not be hand cuffed with class as they can pick skills as they progress...and how good they get in those skills.

- Djeryv

[Agrippa]

I'll still use basic rules like technology rolls and the like. Thet idea isn't that ranks in these skills necisarily make you more likely to succeed, hust that the results will be greater. In same cases you migth even gain certain special abilities, like going into a berzerker's rage. Most of them won't require rolls of any sort. There is an intimidation skill that eventually forces weaker non-fanatical enemies to check morale against you in the first round of combat.

[outlander]

I've built a basic skill system that will eventually appear in the gm/players guide that i've been working on and off for the past 6 months. As with all the material presented in the guide it is purely optional, a GM can use as little or as much as they wish.

The system is done, it's based on percentages with chances of critical successes and failures. It's not a huge system with hundreds of skills, it's very simple with about twenty skills or so, several that are very broad and all encompassing.

Chris

[Agrippa]

To be more precise I was thinking more along these lines. Take somthing like dancing. The lowest rank might allow you to use carefully chosen and enticing moves to improve your odds at seduction. In game terms you add your Dexterity bonus to your reaction roll when trying to seduce someone, if the target is likely to be attracted to your character. Another rank could perhaps grant a counter attack if an enemy misses by, let's say six minus your Dexterity bonus. Now I was even thinking that the final rank would be some thing along the lines of a charm person effect. In this case the attacker makes a mental attack roll using her Dexterity score in place of Willpower. Is this clear enough for anyone? All this said I'm concerned about whether or not it's a good idea to combine essecentially seductive dancing with dance fighting.

I hope this explains what I'm talking about.

[Dyson Logos]

My working notes for Princes of the New Ice involves using a variation on the skills from GORE for the game, which is otherwise mostly cribbed from Mutant Future. Not the combat skills, but the knowledges and so on.

[finarvyn]

I know that lots of folks who play modern/scifi style RPGs want to staples a skills system on for "realism" purposes, but I'm one of those guys who prefers to keep the rules more simple and streamlined.

I like MF the way it is, and I like the fact that MF and LL are so compatible. Those are strong selling points for the rules sets, to me.

Just my two coppers.

[Salvador_kali]

I like the idea of skills, but I hate the horrendous load it throws on the game. Anyone played the new AD&D? Nightmare with skills - you can't even wipe your butt without the appropriate skill.

FUDGE does a good job of blending skills with playability.

[Agrippa]

For the most part I'm not talking about a system with skill checks or the like. Think more along the lines of skill ranks granting special abilities rather than bonuses skill checks. In fact most skills wouldn't even have checks to make at all. Basic proficiency could easily be covered by simply having decent ability scores and just saying your character knows what he or she is doing, preferbly before hand. Skill ranks in this system of course would represent more than basic knowledge. For example, you might have a skill called "berserker's fury" that allows the character to whip himself up into a berserk frenzy. Rank one would raise the PC's or NPC's Strength score by two and grant him two additional hit points per hit die for his Constitution in rounds. No skill checks involved at all. While the "animal riding" skill at higher ranks can allow you to perform greater, and in some cases superhuman, maneuvers and ride creatures more exotic than mere horses with just as much ease. Imagine riding on the back of a tyrannosaurus inside a tornado. You'll have to be pretty high level to pull something like this off, but it could be worth it.

[Adapt]

For the most part I'm not talking about a system with skill checks or the like. Think more along the lines of skill ranks granting special abilities rather than bonuses skill checks.

I've fiddled around with a similar idea for using these kinds of "skills" for Mutant Future. I just went through some of my old notes, and found my list of "skills", which I called "Specialties": Craftsman, Hunter, Medic, Scavenger, Scholar, Scout, Settler, Technician, and Trader. As you can probably tell, each one is really more like a "class" than a skill. Like you mentioned, there aren't a lot of "skill checks" to be made. Most of the Specialties simply give some additional ability. For example, Technicians get bonuses to their Technology rolls, Scouts have a reduced chance of becoming lost in the wilderness, and Medics can treat injuries and heal people. My notes are pretty rough and incomplete, but I'd be happy to clean them up a bit and post some more info here if anyone is interested.