Quote from: Silverlion;464108I'm a very keep it simple kind of guy. Couldn't you find a functional medium to keep a single option?

I didn't mean that I'd use all three, just that I like the idea behind them. Basically give the skills their own rank levels, and combine them with their base attributes. There would have to be a cap on how high the skills could go, of course. Like maybe in the Monstrous zone (75ish). Most normal human characters wouldn't have any stats much higher than 30 to 40, and for genres with characters that might have higher stat values, it wouldn't be all that bad either.

Of course, there could be an option to use various version depending upon the genre you are working with. My sci-fi game, for instance, uses skills and special abilities, so you'd have to balance them out somehow.

Quote from: TristramEvans;464155If you zer0-averaged the attributes, then you could simply combine them with skills. For example, in the game Tribe 8 the system has something like 13 or more attributes, but they are zero-averaged, so a person only needs to record those attributes that are above or below the norm. Combine this with the skills system and you have something like this:

Manchovie

Fighting: Gd, Strength: Rm, Reason: Pr, Swimming: Lg, etc.

This would allow you to "cut out" the Talent/Skill rules completely, in effect treating attributes/Talents similar to the concept of Aspects in FATE.

I need to get a copy of Tribe 8, I've heard a lot about it, but I've never looked at it.

I see what you're saying - I think. Basically purchase the skills/talents you want your character to be good at, but treat them as attributes in and of themselves? So you don't have to worry about combining the skill scores with the attribute scores at all.

Quote from: TristramEvans;464155Combine this with the skills system and you have something like this:

Manchovie

Fighting: Gd, Strength: Rm, Reason: Pr, Swimming: Lg, etc.

This would allow you to "cut out" the Talent/Skill rules completely, in effect treating attributes/Talents similar to the concept of Aspects in FATE.

It reminds me more of original FUDGE actually - any attribute that isn't Typical just vanishes off the character sheet , and you could possibly let characters define their own set of attributes if they wanted, like FUDGE did. Yeah the skills would presumably end up not affected by the attributes.

Also, thinking about it, I missed one option - the Savage Worlds option where you can buy a skill rating independently, but with a cost discount until you reach your attribute score i.e. if Swimming is Str based and you have Good (10) strength, the cost is 1:1 skill point up to Swimming 10 and then 2:1 beyond that (for example).

Quote from: Jamfke;464191I need to get a copy of Tribe 8, I've heard a lot about it, but I've never looked at it.

It was a gorgeous little game with a very unique setting and a pretty solid rules system, though what I liked most about the game is that, despite there being a metaplot woven throughout the adventures (usually a pet peeve of mine), when they put out the 2nd edition of the player's guide, they just spilled out the entire metaplot and all of the setting's big secrets up to that point in one comprehensive chapter and then basically said: well, you can take it from there however you like.

QuoteI see what you're saying - I think. Basically purchase the skills/talents you want your character to be good at, but treat them as attributes in and of themselves? So you don't have to worry about combining the skill scores with the attribute scores at all.

Exactly. And you can also employ one of FASERIP's rules for combining attributes: when two or more attributes might affect one roll, you compare the higher attribute to the lower. If the lower attribute is more than 2 ranks lower, than the roll get's a -1; if they're equal, the roll get's a +1.