Thoughts on skills in BRP
In another thread the subject of what skill percentages mean came up.
I would like to invite people to discuss their views on the subject in this thread. Feel free to quote rules from different BRP games to support your view.
I can break out a couple of different thoughts on the matter.
Case 1) the PC can try anything. If they have zero points in the skill they can still roll for an automatic success on a 01. In fact this is how you can get a starting score in a 00 skill in CoC 5e.
Variations are to allow rolls versus a skill category bonus (usually derived from stats) or to roll against some iteration of a multiple (.5 to 5 times) of a stat.
Case 2) Zero is zero and you can't try it. Held to by some GMs.
I am with the camp that wants to know what 10% Surgery means. Is the guy just really bad at it or less than fully trained? Is he board certified at 10% (shudder) or does that take 40%?
There seems to be a watershed in there somewhere. At 00 the character has no knoweldge of the skill that would let them practice it. At 1% they do and can call themselves a surgeon who can apparently take care of all routine surgery tasks without a roll.
I believe in RQII there were skill percentage requirements for being part of different units (militia, regulars, cavalry etc) so the percentages meant something. What does the skill allow the character to do or know about the subject, current theory, others in the field etc? Again CoC 5e gives an example of pegging a great amount of knowledge that is actually outside of the skill to it. So you get the oportunity to know who the leaders are in the field, to have contacts in the field, etc. Other games break such things up into discrete skills or advantages.
What bothers me about that is that the benefits are not well defined and are subject to both players and GM being inconsistent about there application.
Thoughts?
Joseph Paul
|