The player rolls 1d20 and, if the result is less than or equal to the ability, the check succeeds. If the roll is greater than the ability, the check fails.
Bonuses or penalties to the roll may be applied, with a modifier of -4 being a relatively easy ability check and +4 being very difficult.
Done. Simple. No hundreds of pages of skills, arbitrary Challenge Rating charts listing actions and skill-specific difficulties, open-ended target numbers that go up to 40 and more, and general "you need a skill for that" actions in many D&D 3.x style and newer games.
Complication. It isn't depth it is cruft. I like the old-style "make an ability score check" sort of ruling when a situation comes up at the gaming table that needs a pass or fail atomic result determination based on a character's ability scores.
You rolled a 16 for Strength? That is good. Expect to be doing all of the "strength stuff" for the part during adventures. What number do you need to roll? Don't open the book, don't look for a skill list, and don't search the Internet for an action to CR table.
You roll a 16 or under, modified for difficulty.
Done.
And please don't say 'I get confused because I roll X or higher in combat and saves and now I have to roll low?' If you can figure out how a d4 works this shouldn't be a problem. I swear that whole unify the directionality of dicing school of game design sometimes just makes things more complicated and you end up with something even more complex and unwieldy.
A Legacy of Huge Skill Lists
I get this feeling long lists of skills have always been with the hobby and they are some game design addiction we can't get away from. What really bugs me are skills in a class-based system that a class should know as part of being their class - yet you still have to buy them. A rogue in D&D 3.x style rules needs to manually buy - with skill points earned every level based off INT - the stealth, climb, lockpick, disguise, balance, and other thief-like skills with skill points every level.
Low INT? Out of luck, you will suck as a rogue. As a bard. As a fighter. As anything because there are combat and adventure related skills that you need to keep up on with those skill points. B/X is a world different than that. You can play a low INT fighter in B/X and still have all the skills you need to do well.
Low INT? Out of luck, you will suck as a rogue. As a bard. As a fighter. As anything because there are combat and adventure related skills that you need to keep up on with those skill points. B/X is a world different than that. You can play a low INT fighter in B/X and still have all the skills you need to do well.
Skills (not based on INT, but by effort) work for a classless Skyrim style game for sure. Level up what you use and create a character from what you choose to know. But for systems with classes? I feel giant skill lists are a bit redundant and weaken the overall class system in the game by laying on a lot of complexity and error-prone choices.
When is a thief not a thief? When the player forgets to buy a class skill their thief needs every level.
In a B/X style game? Use the thief percentage chart for thief skills. Or, if your class should be able to do something, such as knowing mage lore for a wizard class? Intelligence ability check, maybe with a bonus to the roll. Maybe you know it? Apply a difficulty modifier. You don't or shouldn't know it? Disallow the check.
Mages with magic, fighters with weapons, rogues with value, clerics with holy relics - your skill is your class. Make a sensible ruling and keep playing.
Mages with magic, fighters with weapons, rogues with value, clerics with holy relics - your skill is your class. Make a sensible ruling and keep playing.
Done.
But...Customization!
But what if I want to play a thief who can't climb? Well, at what cost total customization? How much do you need to complicate the game to support every single character build and customization, especially in a class-based game where the whole point of playing it is to have meaningful classes that gather together a set of abilities in a package that most members of this class in the game world would know? We say "X is a rogue" and then take away the utility and usefulness of a class system by forcing players to buy the abilities every level in some manual and "oops I made a bad choice but I love the customization" system of skill purchases.
If you want a thief who can't climb, give that character a disadvantage saying "cannot climb" and balance that with some sort of advantage, like "smooth talker" and give them a -4 bonus on social interaction rolls.
Done.
Now every other player in the game doesn't need to deal with a record-keeping heavy and mistake prone skill system every level. You can achieve meaningful character customization without over-complicating the game for everybody, just through an optional advantage and disadvantage system. Want more customization? Take a second advantage/disadvantage pair.
You can ignore it if you want your character to be an average rogue or don't want that complexity, and you aren't forcing a heavy skill system on every player in the game. One thing I love about the B/X Essentials design model is I can add a rule like this into the game easily and the modular design encourages creating new stuff. I am not playing a house-ruled version of Labyrinth Lord with an advantage and disadvantage system, this is a new game based off the core system with some new rules for this flavor of game.
It's cool. Call this a new dungeon game with some crazy name, like Creeping Catacombs and let's play dude! Oh, it is just B/X Essentials with some special rules, it all works the same and you don't need to know much more than what you already do to play.
Done and I am not out $90 for three 3.5-era D&D style game books and hours of reading and study for a new game. Again, B/X as a Linux style base for roleplaying comes up and the comparison is a strong one. A specific game is a distribution, there are a couple things different (for good reasons), but most of what you need to know remains the same.
Modding is Cool
Part of why we have system wars I feel is that too often the games we play do not encourage the game designer in all of us, and they force us to be slaves to 'official rulings' and looking up rules in books. We want all of our questions answered for us, when really, the best answers are the ones you and your group come up with. The best game to play is one you design yourself, because you can pour your enthusiasm and creativity into the design and experience the hobby as it was when it started out, with homebrew systems, people coming up with new ways of doing things, and that spirit of 'let's play this our way.'
Everything is right because we are all game designers at heart.
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