Differences

This shows you the differences between two versions of the page.

--- rules:skills [2012/09/19 18:00] – created sam
+++ rules:skills [2020/03/08 13:13] (current) – sam
@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 ====== Skills ======
+===== Skill Checks =====
+Characters in **YAGS** will normally have a skill in the range of 0 to 10. //Talents// are common skills which everybody has at least some ability in - they are things like //Athletics//, //Charm// and //Stealth//. All characters start with a skill of **2** in these.
+**4** is the minimum level of professional skill, and most professionals will have a skill in the range of 4-5 in their chosen subject. This is a common starting level for new characters.
+Skills of **8** to **10** are considered the upper range for most people, and it is generally recommended that 'unnamed' NPCs won't have a skill higher than 10. These people are the masters of their profession.
+The very best people in the world can have skills in the range of **12** to **15**. The lower end of the range may be the best in a fantasy setting, the higher end in a modern or futuristic setting where there is often much more opportunity to learn and study a specialist subject. However, there is no real upper limit. If someone is immortal, or extremely long lived, higher skill levels may be achievable.
+When using a skill, it is multiplied by the character's relevant //attribute//. The average adult human has a score of **3** in all their attributes. Since a d20 is added to this, a typical professional will be rolling (3 x 4) = 12 + 1d20.
+Typical attribute upper limits for characters are in the range of 5-6. This means masters of their profession can potentially be getting a skill bonus of 60 to 100.
+==== Target Numbers ====
+The Target Number (TN) is the number you need to roll in order to succeed at something. If you roll that number or higher, you succeed. For every 10 points you gain an extra level of success, which may be beneficial in some circumstances. Some example TNs are as follows.
+**10** - A very easy task that a professional can achieve automatically.
+**20** - A moderate task that a professional has a 65% chance of achieving, but which less skilled people will struggle to succeed at.
+**30** - A hard task that most professionals will struggle with (15% chance of success)
+Some TNs can reach 100 or more, but these are reserved for seemingly impossible tasks which most experts will need to find ways to reduce before they can tackle them.
+===== Skill Breakdown =====
 Getting a good balance between too few skills and too many skills can be quite hard, especially when the definition of these limits varies from player to player.
-Unless there's a good reason, Yags tries to keep similar skills which would realistically be all known by a particular type of character as a single skill. For example, Brawl covers punching, kicking, wrestling and dodging - few characters would be interested in learning only one of these and not others, and it's fairly realistic to bunch all such abilities together.
+Unless there's a good reason, **YAGS** tries to keep similar skills which would realistically be all known by a particular type of character as a single skill. For example, //Brawl// covers punching, kicking, wrestling and dodging - few characters would be interested in learning only one of these and not others, and it's fairly realistic to bunch all such abilities together. Exotic martial arts also come off //Brawl// - anyone specialised in such things is going to be good at //Brawl// as well, so it makes sense for them to be a specialisation of the broader skill.
+In fact, all combat skills are heavily simplified. There is a single //Melee// skill which covers all melee weapons not covered by //Brawl//. //Throw// covers rocks, spears and grenades. //Guns// covers all forms of personal firearms.
+Likewise, //Science// is a single skill which covers everything from particle physics to genetics. Obviously, this is a broad range of subjects and it's unrealistic to have a single skill cover everything. This is where Techniques come in.
+> Broad skills also greatly simplifies how related skills are dealt with. For example, if each martial art was it's own skill, how do we handle a street brawler with a //Brawl// of 6 who starts learning //Karate//? If they have a //Karate// of 1, how do they compare to someone with a //Brawl// of 2 but a //Karate// of 3? Either the lower skill is never used, the skilled fighter is greatly disadvantaged if he tries to use new skills, or we need a complex system of skill relationships.
-In fact, all combat skills are heavily simplified. There is a single Melee skill which covers all melee weapons not covered by brawl. Throw covers rocks, spears and grenades. However Bow and Crossbow are different skills, as are Pistol and Rifle. The latter default off each other, but it seems right to keep these as separate skills.
+Some examples of skills are given on the following pages:
-Likewise, Science is a single skill which covers everything from particle physics to genetics. Obviously, this is a broad range of subjects and it's unrealistic to have a single skill cover everything. This is where Techniques come in.
+  * [[./skills/core]] - Core skills common to most genres and settings.
+  * [[./skills/professions]] - Professional skills.
+  * [[./skills/fantasy]] - Skills common to a fantasy setting which aren't part of the core skills.
 ===== Techniques =====
@@ Line 55: / Line 91: @@
 The other type of techniques are Familiarities. These are similar to specialisations but tend to be used in practical skills rather than knowledges. Familiarities tend to be well defined for a particular skill. For example Drive will have a familiarity for car, lorry, bike, ATV, HGV, tank. Not having the familiarity counts as a default, halving your roll for all skill attempts.
-Skills which require familiarity will have a default familiarity which is obtained automatically as part of the skill. For example, Drive assumes familiarity with cars. If you want to be good with a motorbike, you need to buy this as an extra. It's not perfect (since Yags doesn't allow you to be good at riding a motorbike, but not a car), but it keeps things consistent.
+Skills which require familiarity will have a default familiarity which is obtained automatically as part of the skill. For example, Drive assumes familiarity with cars. If you want to be good with a motorbike, you need to buy this as an extra. It's not perfect (since **YAGS** doesn't allow you to be good at riding a motorbike, but not a car), but it keeps things consistent.
 ==== Cinematic Heroes ====
@@ Line 61: / Line 97: @@
 One of the features that Techniques allow is to extend the skill system in a simple way to allow more cinematic game play. It is suggested that the real difference between run of the mill experienced people and true heroes is that the latter tend to have far more techniques. Whilst you may gain a high skill simply from doing the same thing for several decades, techniques are only learned through dedicated training.
-The core Yags rules allow for some quite powerful techniques, but they are alll grounded in reality. There is no reason why a set of martial arts techniques couldn't be added in that allow characters to act like cinematic heroes, for example a chain of Gun Kata techniques which are completely unrealistic, but which may fit well into a Pulp or Anime style campaign.
+The core **YAGS** rules allow for some quite powerful techniques, but they are alll grounded in reality. There is no reason why a set of martial arts techniques couldn't be added in that allow characters to act like cinematic heroes, for example a chain of Gun Kata techniques which are completely unrealistic, but which may fit well into a Pulp or Anime style campaign.
 Currently, such techniques aren't in the pipeline, though they are definitely an option for a later supplement.