Random skill ranks

Aglondir · July 01, 2019, 06:24:16 PM

Roll 3d6 in order. Or roll 4d6, drop lowest. Random attribute ratings have been an element of the hobby since it began. Some people like it, some people hate it.

But how would you feel about random skill ranks? I'm not talking about random skills, like Traveller. Rather you pick your skills and then roll 1d6 to get the rank of each, rather than spending points. For context, I'm thinking of a d20 (3e) character.

Great idea? Stupid idea? Just meh?

JeremyR · July 01, 2019, 06:34:19 PM

That's not too unlike how it happened in early BRP. You'd check a box next to a skill if you used it during an adventure, then roll to see if it improved afterwards.

But the problem with 3e, not so much the rules themselves, but the support material, is that it was largely assumed characters would max out certain skills every level, so the there was difficulty inflation. Like thieves could pick locks better, but locks would always be harder to pick as they went to level appropriate places.

Aglondir · July 01, 2019, 07:26:29 PM

Quote from: JeremyR;1094262That's not too unlike how it happened in early BRP. You'd check a box next to a skill if you used it during an adventure, then roll to see if it improved afterwards.

But the problem with 3e, not so much the rules themselves, but the support material, is that it was largely assumed characters would max out certain skills every level, so the there was difficulty inflation. Like thieves could pick locks better, but locks would always be harder to pick as they went to level appropriate places.

Good point D20 adventures. Maybe the idea would work better in a different system. Like the Action System, where atts range 1 to 10 and skills range 1 to 10. Or Interlock. Or Unisystem (?) Or even Trav, but you should use a d3.

insubordinate polyhedral · July 01, 2019, 08:56:50 PM

I would love to try out playing a character rolled this way. I think this is a cool, promising idea especially for when I feel stumped in chargen.

Might be crazy, but the system that popped to my mind to try this with is Savage Worlds (probably because I have Savage Worlds on the mind though). If you kept the point buy mechanic as it is but used the die to determine how many points you spend, the outcome could be really swing-y and interesting characters. That could be gamed by choosing the order in which skills are rolled, or assign the skills numbers and roll for assignment order as well.

Aglondir · July 01, 2019, 09:06:44 PM

Quote from: insubordinate polyhedral;1094275I would love to try out playing a character rolled this way. I think this is a cool, promising idea especially for when I feel stumped in chargen.

Might be crazy, but the system that popped to my mind to try this with is Savage Worlds (probably because I have Savage Worlds on the mind though). If you kept the point buy mechanic as it is but used the die to determine how many points you spend, the outcome could be really swing-y and interesting characters. That could be gamed by choosing the order in which skills are rolled, or assign the skills numbers and roll for assignment order as well.

Should work... maybe a table. Roll d6:

Result: Skill rank
--------------------
1: d4
2: d6
3: d8
4: d10
5: d12
6: Roll again

Delete_me · July 01, 2019, 09:12:03 PM

Might be fun indeed. Definitely needs to be checked against the system's math, but it could provide some incentive to move away from the maxed out skills mode and branch out a bit.

Aglondir · July 01, 2019, 09:52:25 PM

Quote from: Tanin Wulf;1094278Might be fun indeed. Definitely needs to be checked against the system's math, but it could provide some incentive to move away from the maxed out skills mode and branch out a bit.

Right, that's exactly my design goal, to move away from maxed-out skills (i.e. every skill is max rank when you make your character) and to give the character a more organic feel. How did you get a +6 in Survival? There's bound to be a story there.

insubordinate polyhedral · July 01, 2019, 10:34:32 PM

Quote from: Aglondir;1094284Right, that's exactly my design goal, to move away from maxed-out skills (i.e. every skill is max rank when you make your character) and to give the character a more organic feel. How did you get a +6 in Survival? There's bound to be a story there.

I was wondering earlier: Do you think a single character in a party could be rolled with this method and have a successful campaign, or would it need whole-party buy-in?

GeekyBugle · July 01, 2019, 10:42:25 PM

Quote from: Aglondir;1094284Right, that's exactly my design goal, to move away from maxed-out skills (i.e. every skill is max rank when you make your character) and to give the character a more organic feel. How did you get a +6 in Survival? There's bound to be a story there.

So make your character not maxed out an have every use of the skill count for the character getting better at it. Like BoL does it. And you could roll for how good your character was at it at first.

Shawn Driscoll · July 02, 2019, 12:43:55 AM

Quote from: Aglondir;1094260Roll 3d6 in order. Or roll 4d6, drop lowest. Random attribute ratings have been an element of the hobby since it began. Some people like it, some people hate it.

But how would you feel about random skill ranks? I'm not talking about random skills, like Traveller. Rather you pick your skills and then roll 1d6 to get the rank of each, rather than spending points. For context, I'm thinking of a d20 (3e) character.

I know you're not talking about random skills, like Traveller. But your idea does give me some ideas for quick-gen Traveller characters when needed, using a d4.

Aglondir · July 02, 2019, 01:18:49 AM

Quote from: Shawn Driscoll;1094296I know you're not talking about random skills, like Traveller. But your idea does give me some ideas for quick-gen Traveller characters when needed, using a d4.

That would totally work. Maybe a d3?

Edit: Or a d4-1 for zero-level skills.

Aglondir · July 02, 2019, 01:21:43 AM

Quote from: insubordinate polyhedral;1094290I was wondering earlier: Do you think a single character in a party could be rolled with this method and have a successful campaign, or would it need whole-party buy-in?

I think it would work better if the whole party used the same method, for consistency.

Aglondir · July 02, 2019, 01:25:53 AM

Quote from: GeekyBugle;1094292So make your character not maxed out an have every use of the skill count for the character getting better at it. Like BoL does it. And you could roll for how good your character was at it at first.

Is BoL = Barbarians of Lemuria? Never read that one. How does it work?

Shawn Driscoll · July 02, 2019, 02:44:45 AM

Quote from: Aglondir;1094299Edit: Or a d4-1 for zero-level skills.

Yes.

GeekyBugle · July 02, 2019, 02:48:22 AM

Quote from: Aglondir;1094301Is BoL = Barbarians of Lemuria? Never read that one. How does it work?

Yes, it is. Here, have the draft version so you can read it yourself. It's really pulpy and not really "OSR" but with OSR feel. You pick 4 careers (backgrounds) instead of individual skills, divide 5 points from 0 to 4 among them, the higher the number the more expertise in said background. the more you use a background during play the better you become at it.

So you could change dividing the initial points for rolling 1d6 and the rest stays the same. As A matter of fact I like it so much I'll try it myself the next chance I get at running a game.