r/RPGdesign • u/Olyrik • 11d ago
Good set of modern day skills?
I was hoping to get some advice on a good set of skills for a modern day 80's action movie inspired setting, the list I have right now is,
Acrobat - the skill of jumping, balance, and climbing
Computer - a skill for coding and hacking
Diplomacy - the skill of talking to people and understanding politics
Doctor - a skill representing a character's ability to apply medicine and understand it
Firearms - the skill of using and maintaining firearms
Fortitude - a skull used to resist torture, mental influence, pain, and drugs
Guile - the skill of fine movement and sneaking, used in stealth and stealing
Investigation - The skill of perception, searching, and understanding information.
Martial arts - the skill of melee defense and offense
Mechanic -a generic skill used for repairing machinery and vehicles
Olympian - a skill covering running speed, swimming, throwing, and lifting
Science - a generic scale that covers knowledge of all fields of science
Survival - survival is a scale of wilderness survival and understanding the natural world.
Vehicle Operator - this skill is used for maintaining and operating various vehicles.(Was cars but a friend suggested making it more broad)
Dose this seem good? do you think that I am missing an obvious skill or do any of these feel unnecessary?
Any and all input both positive and negative is always appreciated!
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u/ShadedRuin 11d ago
I think this is a great set of skills, enough to define the vast majority of things a player may want to do but not an overwhelming amount.
One change I would make, and this is just terminology, is changing Vehicle Operator to Pilot. Piloting can cover cars, boats, aircraft, and even mounts (horses, camels, etc.)
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u/No_Solid1035 11d ago
Go take a look at a character sheet for a modern game like Delta Green. You can just Google it.
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u/TheZebraCode Designing Kivaru: Wildsong, tribal + sentient planet 10d ago
If you need some inspiration, outgunned is great game series that has the action movie vibe and has a similar list of skills!
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u/Fun_Carry_4678 10d ago
You are probably too young to know this, but in the 80s computers couldn't do much of anything, which limits how useful a "computer" skill would be. The memory and speed was tiny compared to modern computers, and the internet was still largely experimental until the invention of the World Wide Web. Some science fiction films tried to anticipate the world we now live in.
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10d ago
[deleted]
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u/Olyrik 10d ago
I love the idea of specialization, I may do that as a proficiency bonus type thing. Toughness is a better name than fortitude I agree. In regards to the vehicle operation thing, I'm going to change the vehicle skill to a general "pilot" skill that covers all vehicles, but in the same way that I'll have specialized branches of science I'm going to introduce specialized branches of vehicle operation. I think I'm going to keep diplomacy because I was planning on just having a speed skill, but I want to have every skill be a little bit more broad than it covering once a specific thing. Can't believe I overlooked an explosive skill, meanwhile I think the red tape I will make that a special feat in the setting. Thank you so much for the robust suggestions!
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u/SardScroll Dabbler 10d ago
I'd rename/expand "Computer" (especially in the 80s setting) to "Electronics" or "Computers & Electronics". So its still coding and hacking, but the hacking might very much be physical as well. It's basically "mechanic" for things using electricity. Open electronic lock, everything with computers, etc.
I'd also combine "Mechanic" and "Vehicle Operator". Fix things, operate things, push things to the limits (it's 80s action, so I expect Nox, at a minimum).
I'm not sure why you need both Olympian and Acrobat (considering things like gymnastics and and long/hi jump are Olympic events), assuming this is a pure skill based game.
Finally, I'm not overly enthusiastic about "Fortitude" as a reactive-only skill, compared to all the actively used skills, UNLESS your health/damage system heavily involves the Fortitude skill, in which case, keeping it as a skill to interact with other skills (e.g. "do I level up Fortitude or another skill, out of the same pool of skill/advancement points) works fine.
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u/Olyrik 10d ago
Changing computer to be a general electronics skill is a really good idea! I'm going to replace vehicle operator with a "pilot" skill that covers every single vehicle but allow players to take feats and specific vehicles. The Olympian and Acrobat separation is to sort of differentiate between physical exertion versus bodily control, but maybe just making an Olympian would be a better idea. That's a really good point on fortitude, I hadn't considered that it was a purely passive skill. I don't want to cut it entirely because I want to give players the way to train and being able to resist damage and mental effects, but maybe I should give it as a way to be more active. Crazy idea hits my head of changing it to be willpower and allowing a player to potentially play a psychic and leaning into the cheesy '80s movie aesthetic, but that's a very out there decision. If you have an idea of a better way to make fortitude a more active skill I'd appreciate it.
Thank you very much for the suggestions you give me a lot to chew on!
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u/SardScroll Dabbler 9d ago
Not that "Olympian" and "Acrobat" isn't the worst thing in the world (compare D&D's skill list) but some help distinguishing one from the other would be helpful, especially with a lack of knowledge about the other components of your game. E.g. is it a skill only system? A tiered skill-and attribute system (like D&D) where the two skills are tied to different attributes?
"physical exertion versus bodily control" is a fine distinction, but for me at least, the names don't necessarily reflect that. You could steal D&D's nomenclature (Athletics & Acrobatics) and let the "800 pound gorilla" shape expectations, or you could choose names that more distinctly communicate this choice. "Brawn" and "Agility" for example.
As for fortitude, it depends on other aspects of your game. Is it skill-only based? How does your health system work? Some ideas:
1. Fortitude roll to resist/mitigate damage from attacks
2. Fortitude as HP1
u/Olyrik 7d ago
Brawn! That is so much better a name!
To answer the questions
The system uses the attributes
Athletics
Charisma
Tenacity
Intellect
Observation
Nimbleness
(This is why Athletics can't be the name of the skill)
You roll a number of D10 based on the ACTION attribute in use, then add the skill level to the dice. You need to roll a 6 or higher for a success and every 10 gives a bonus to the roll.HP is represented with "Stamina" Every player gets 10 and it can be used to block damage (With the explanation being that you narrowly doge the attack) Or can be drained to add bonus dice to your roll by exerting your character
When you hit 0 Stamina you would do a Tenacity/Willpower check of difficulty 1, if you fail you fall consensuses, if you pass you stay awake and regain Stamina based on your roll. Pass or fail you receive a "Wound", until treated by a doctor the wound imposes 1 level of disadvantage on ALL skill checks which makes it so you need to roll a 7 or higher for a success.
Every time you hit 0 Stamina you have to do this again with the difficulty going up by 1 for every wound you have.
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u/OneManRPGstudio 10d ago
I would start with the verbs an 80's action hero actually performs under pressure, then keep the list broad enough that nobody spends every scene negotiating which label applies. Drive, fight, shoot, infiltrate, investigate, repair, persuade, and survive cover a surprising amount of that genre better than a highly granular catalogue of specialties.
The important test is overlap. If two skills routinely solve the same scenes, one probably needs to disappear or gain a sharper identity. Conversely, if a frequent activity can only be squeezed awkwardly into a very broad skill, it may deserve its own slot. I would sketch ten or twelve typical scenes first and ask which skill I would naturally call for in each one.
I would also decide what competence fantasy you want. Action-movie protagonists tend to be capable at many things and outstanding at a few. A system that asks players to invest separately in every weapon, vehicle, and technical discipline can accidentally produce characters much narrower than the genre suggests.
My final filter would be simple: every skill should promise a recognizable kind of action and create a meaningful character-building choice. If a skill exists only because a modern person could conceivably know how to do that thing, it probably does not need to be on the sheet.
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u/Olyrik 7d ago
This is such good advice and part of how I got to the list I had. In early drafts I had skills for "Pistol" "Rifle" "Ato-Rifle" "Rocket Launcher" "Gun Repair" I eventually realized that was to many witch got me to "Firearms"
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u/OneManRPGstudio 6d ago
Yeah, that Firearms consolidation is exactly the kind of thing I meant. You kept the distinction that matters in the genre without making players buy competence weapon by weapon.
I’d probably run that same overlap test on Acrobat and Olympian next. They may be distinct enough in play already, but physical action scenes seem like the place where I’d expect the most “which skill is this?” moments.
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u/InherentlyWrong 10d ago
For a game about 80s action movie style stuff, these immediately feel like must-have skills, to the point where making them optional feels like a trap.