Houseruling skills into the game

[Vault13Dweller]

A lot of other RPG's have skills, non-combat abilities that the character has at their disposal. Why not put some into Mutant Future? The ones I have in mind to put in at the moment are Armorcraft, Weaponcraft, Robotics Maintenance, Mechanics, Medical Knowledge, Charm, Navigation, Scavenging, Technology, Athletics, Foraging, and sailing. Now the skills wouldn't have any major bonuses or gamebreaks in them, they'd just provide small bonuses to rolls involving their area depending on the rank the character has reached in that skill. The player gains ranks by practicing or using the skill, learning from a teacher, or from random chance at leveling up, all of these at the ML's discretion. I'm working on typing up for specific descriptions for each of the skills right now.

What do you think?

[Atomic Ray]

If you want the old school feel, where not everything is completely balanced I would shoot for a primary skill beyond the class direction...with added unrelated skills or bonuses to existing skill(s) with level advancement...and extra starting skills for the high INT guys, equal to extra languages perhaps.

It is up to the player to use this potentially mundane skill(s) in some effective manner...a butcher skill could add bonuses to dealing with other butchers, getting information, gossip, hiding from bad guys, etc.

Something along those lines

[Vault13Dweller]

Here's what I've thought up so far for skills, and I've scratched the "Mechanics" skill.

Armor/Weaponcraft: Your character has knowledge of the production and/or maintenance of armor and weaponry. Upon training in Weaponcraft, you must choose; basic, primitive firearms, advanced melee, advanced firearms, or explosives.

With the right supplies and equipment, your character may craft his own weaponry or armor. Upon crafting, use the technology condition chart on page 42 of the rulebook, and roll a d20 on the Functional column. The result determines the quality of your product. For each quality above 3, improve the item's purpose by 1 (if it's armor, decrease its AC, if it's a weapon, add +1 to its damage). For ever quality below three, degrade the item's purpose by 1.

Your ability to repair damaged items of your training by +5% per rank.

Robotics Maintenance: You have knowledge of the inner workings of a whole manner of robots. You get an additionla 5% success chance when repairing robotics, and if you dedicate yourself to the task, can assist an android ally in repair allowing them to restore an additional 1d3 hit points a day, if they are also working on repairs.

[Atomic Ray]

Sounds good.

[Vault13Dweller]

I've come up with the rules for the other skills, please critique honestly. I know the paragraphs aren't exactly grammatically correct at the moment, but I'll come back and edit them later. Probably.

Medical Knowledge: You have received some kind of formal training or learning and have advanced knowledge of human anatomy. For each full day of rest, you gain 1d6 hp rather than 1d3. You may also focus your efforts on caring for a friendly pure human or mutant human, and they heal 1d6 hp rather than 1d3 hp, though you still gain 1d3 hp per full day of rest when caring for a friendly. If a friendly mutant human, pure human, or mutant animal is infected with a disease, you may focus your efforts on caring for them, which will decrease the disease's duration, effects, and increase your friendly's chance of succeeding their saving throw, the effectiveness of these being at your ML's discretion depending on the details. If you contract a disease yourself, you may also receive a bonus to the above through giving instructions to a trusted friendly when taking care of you, this of course also being at your ML's discretion.

Charm: There's just something about you that people seem to like, and you know just how to craft your words to persuade someone. When convincing/hiring a retainer, you get -1 to your roll per rank in Charm. Your retainers and followers also gain an additional 5% experience per rank in charm whenever experience is gained. The price of hiring specialists is also decreased by 5% per rank in Charm. You also seem to be able to talk your way out of conflict. Those you hire also seem to stay on with you longer, and are more loyal. (ML's note: At your discretion, if the character trained in Charm communicates with a monster party you have to roll to determine their reaction for, subtract 1 from the roll for every rank the character has in Charm depending on how well they role-play what they say. When rolling morale for the Charming character's retainers, at your discretion add 1 to the roll for every rank in charm)

Navigation: You have experience and knowledge when it comes to traversing the wilderness. You have less of a chance to lose your direction when traveling across land. (ML's note: At your discretion, whenever you roll to determine if the party loses direction at the beginning of each day of travel, decrease the party's chance of getting lost by 5% per rank of Navigation, it is at your discretion whether or not this bonus applies when traveling by sea)

Scavenging: You have had enough escapades picking through the ruins of the past to know what to pick out and take. When foraging for food in an urban area, with a rank 1 in Scavenging, you are able to find enough food for an additional person in addition to your roll. With a rank 2 in Scavenging, subtract 1 from your roll to scavenge, but going no lower than 1. With a rank 3 in Scavenging, subtract 2 from your roll going no lower than 1, and you find enough food for an additional person. At your ML's discretion, you also know how to take only the working and expensive bits off of technology and machinery, giving you a bonus to repairs of items that use those parts, and trading goods (at your ML's discretion).

Technology: You have some kind of formal training, learning, or experience when dealing with with technology of all sorts. Decrease the length of time required to study technological artifacts and repair technology by 3 minutes for every rank in this skill. Increase your chances of success on technology rolls and technology repair rolls by 5% per rank in this skill. (at your ML's discretion)

Athletics: You have spent more time training your body than the average wastelander, you are able to carry 5% more weight per rank in this skill without being over-encumbered. When making an ability check to climb, apply a bonus of 1 to your roll for every rank in this skill. When swimming, you have a 5% less chance to drown per skill rank in any situation. You can also go turns additional to your skill points without having to rest. (Skill rank 1 you can go 6 turns before resting, etc.)

Foraging: Throughout you many treks through the wilderness, you have learned what plants and animals to heat and how to hunt for food more effectively. When foraging for food in a wilderness area, with a rank 1 in Foraging, you are able to find enough food for an additional person in addition to your roll. With a rank 2 in Foraging, subtract 1 from your roll to scavenge, but going no lower than 1. With a rank 3 in Foraging, subtract 2 from your roll going no lower than 1, and you find enough food for an additional person. At your ML's discretion, you also know naturally occurring substances that can be used as medicine and for other purposes.

Sailing: You've spent enough time at sea to earn your sea legs. When repairing a ship, you count as additional crew members equal to your skill rank. At your ML's discretion, when at sea you get a 5% per skill rank bonus to all checks.

[Malcadon]

Awhile ago, I came-up with an idea for an Attribute-vs-Attribute task resolution system, that could be combined with a simple Attribute-based skill-system.

The Attribute-vs-Attribute task resolution is simple enough: use the Mental Attack Table, but using the most appropriate attributes given the situation, or assign an appropriate Target Number (e.g. 5 = easy, 10 = moderate difficulty, 15 = hard, 20 = vary difficult) to the defender's score. Basically: Defending/passive player's Attribute score (or static TN score) + 10 - Attacking/Active player's Attribute score = Number that must be rolled equal to or better on a d20 to succeed. (usually have mental defense scores 10-points higher on game notes to keep things quick and simple)

With skills, the player gets a few Skill Points to assign to skills. Unlike the D20 system, you don't have to pile a lot of points to each skill. Each Skill Point adds a +1 to the attribute when making at Attribute Test. That is, a PC with DEX 17 and Athletics +3 would have a DEX of 20 when rolling to jump across a ravine. I have never came-up with a skill list, nor a method of generating initial Skill Points or how to improve them.

A natural conclusion to this system is to drop the normal level-based to-hit system in favor of an Attribute-vs-Attribute attack system. This could make the level system redundant or even obsolete.