The Castles & Crusades CK Guide has this passage on page 329, which is critical to understanding the game, but also a concept in game design that makes the game different from the rules-heavy 5E and Pathfinder 2 games. This is also a fundamental concept in game design.
Castles & Crusades is a game designed around the SIEGE Engine, in which the participants propel the events forward, not by pre-defined skills, but by what they are willing to attempt. Conan does not hesitate to leap from the tower’s height because he is Conan, a warrior, a hero able to do what he knows he can achieve through his Crom-given attributes, his strength, dexterity, and wisdom. These attributes guide him on his leap, and he does not wait until he perfects a leaping and or falling skill. He leaps, trusting to the gods and his own powers to land safely. He doesn’t wait until he has a leaping skill. He leaps.
Roll the die.
Skill-based systems tend to restrict a player’s reactions. They define what their characters are willing to attempt. Players don’t allow their characters to leap unless they possess a leaping skill or at least a landing one. They swing with a great cleave attack not because they have gripped their double-bladed battle axe with two hands and attempt to use all their force and power, but rather if they have a feat that allows them to carry out this motion. These skills should enhance role-playing, but because they are generally built around what the character can and cannot do, they tend to drive the mechanics of the game. The more mechanics a game possesses, the more limits are placed upon imaginative role-play. These limits restrict the SIEGE Engine, but worse they restrict the free form and easy play that Castles & Crusades thrives upon.
Skills should be additions to role-playing the character, not expansions of the archetype.
In C&C, if dexterity is a primary score, you are assumed to have all the "skills" associated with a high-ability character in that area. Want to grab onto a ledge or climb a wall? Your target number is 12, and you assume all the "skills" come with that primary ability score choice.
No skills are needed.
Then again, this is how builds in many other games typically work; if you have a high ability score, you buy the skills in that area. You focus on DEX feats if your DEX is high. People naturally stack skills and abilities in 5E and almost every other game that allows skill purchases.
So there are no skills. In fact, this design concept extends through the rules and applies to ability score checks, saves, skill-bonus feats, and every other power-creep dongle system many games rely on (often to sell you new books). In 5E and Pathfinder 2, you can't do 90% of the game. The rules lay out the 10% you can do.
C&C is the opposite; the rules cover 90% of the game you can do, but the other 10% is the classes, spells, and options you did not select. Those narrowly focused "can't do" areas constitute class identity. The rules state that if this is in another class's wheelhouse, you do not add your level to the roll. Are you a cleric and trying to pick a lock? The CK will decide to disallow or allow the roll if there are tools and a slight chance, but you will not add your level to the roll.
This is what makes C&C so fun to mod. I do not have to account for 90% of the game when making a change or addition; it follows the same framework as the rest of the rules and sits in its own place while the rest still works as expected.
My C&C Gamma World hack uses this concept and makes the mod "plugin" seamlessly to the main rules. I had to account for the higher starting hit points in Gamma World and fix a longstanding weakness in melee and ranged damage, but once I did that, everything else worked fine. Gamma World becomes a "stuff book and setting guide" while C&C provides the rules and classes. But the wonderful part is you can play Gamma World with classes and progression, and you have an option with Amazing Adventures for even more "vault survivor" classes.
In a 5E port of Gamma World, you would need to rewrite all of the classes, feats, subclasses, skills, and many other things to even approach a playable game. The effort would not be worth it, and the complexity of the port would be so high it would be easier to play the original or write an entirely new game. The 5E core rules are acceptable. Writing a game to the complexity level of a full D&D implementation is the problem - at least, what people expect.
But that 5E mentality supports the consumerist RPG model. They create a complex system you need to keep "buying into," and content creators will be "constantly fed" to make you a "prospect." But smaller games aren't attractive! Considering how much money and time you save with rules-light - or single book - games and the modding capacity, they fit my lifestyle and budget more than games you need to constantly consume.
Yes, YouTube and theory-crafting are excellent, but 10 years later, when thousands of pages need to be tossed out for a new version and thousands of more dollars sunk into an edition, you will regret buying in so deeply. Level Up A5E protects against that for my 5E books, but I am not buying in further to most 3rd party 5E books soon since I have so many.
C&C fits my needs and budget for everything OSR, and makes it more manageable since it throws out the saving throw tables.
You could hack Old School Essentials and Gamma World similarly, but questions about technology skills would arise. C&C has two optional skill systems, a roleplaying skill system and a profession-style skill system - which cover skills nicely. If you wanted one character to be a "mechanic," just make the skill and add it to the character sheet - done.
But the core concept of "add level to rolls except when it steps on another class" makes it easy to modify C&C into a Gamma World game engine. Most of the fantasy tropes and class identities port right in. The few special "tech knowledge" cases can be modded via professional skills. I don't need to write many conversion notes or write an entirely new game and cover subclasses and progression charts for dozens of new classes.
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