Robert Fisher

(a work in progress...)

General skills were introduced to classic D&D in 1987 with the release of the first gazetteer. This system is not entirely unlike AD&D non-weapon proficiencies.

(A side point to note is that I now tend to think of classes as very broad skills.)

In a Dragonsfoot post, rogueattorney divided the general skills in classic D&D into these categories:

• Basic Skills: Like horseriding, swimming and fire starting, etc.
• Professional Skills: Armorer, farming, glass-blowing, etc.
• Role-playing Skills: Intimidation, bargaining, leadership, etc.
• Game function skills: Tracking, healing, blind fighting, etc.

RA went on to give his own take on these categories. Here's mine:

Basic skills: Everybody can do these things. Success or failure is usually pretty straightforward. A simple ad hoc mechanic can handle the rare occasion when success is uncertain.

Professional skills: These are "downtime" activities. Again, success is rarely uncertain. The only question is whether the PC has the free time.

Role-playing skills: RA claims that these skills take the place of role playing. In other games, I have expected players to still role play, but allowed the skill check instead of solely role playing to determine the outcome. So, I am not entirely against these sorts of skills. Still, a game can go by fine without them.

Game function skills: Some of these are OK. Some of them, though, seem a bit contrived. (e.g. blind fighting)

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Classic D&D

last updated 1 year ago #