Natural 7

Skill Creativity

Over the last year or two I've discovered that some of my favorite games include a very player-driven skill system. I don't mean the rigid skills described in Dungeons and Dragons (perception, acrobatics, etc.) and I also don't mean the action-types described in Blades in the Dark (attune, command, hunt, etc.). Rather, I'm talking about the skills that generally have no literal description in the rules book, and are presented to serve the player's creativity and the GMs willingness to let problems be solved.

Let's look at a few examples of what I mean:

Troika! Advanced Skills

In Troika! you roll a random character background, such as Pond Prophet, which gives you a set of Advanced Skills. Having a specific Advanced Skill for a situation where it applies gives you increased odds at completing that task, obviously.

However, the book only describes the use-cases of a few Advanced Skills available in the character creation section. This is because some Advanced Skills are quite esoteric and weird! You might have the Etiquette skill, and therefore know that you are good at making first impressions (p. 57 of the book). Alternatively, you might have Exography (the study of remote places, I think?) which is never mentioned again in the book.

These Advanced Skills are useful only if the player and GM come to an agreement of what they mean and when they actually apply. An Exographer might realize that they are really good at diagnosing what caused the downfall of an ancient civilization, something that might not have even crossed their mind if the game didn't give them to freedom to strain and grasp at the threads of sense tied to an almost-extinct word.

I like that Troika! makes you think in these rare cases when an Advanced Skill has no description. You are granted the creativity to extrapolate beyond your background to who this character is and what they ought to be capable of.

Synthetic Dream Machine Traits

Firmly among my top three favorite roleplaying games is Luka Rejec's Ultraviolet Grasslands. You can check out the rules within the newly completed Vastlands Guidebook for free!

Ultraviolet Grasslands is powered by the Synthetic Dream Machine, a weird system of supreme creativity. In this game, players have traits: "the innate, acquired and inherited, qualities and characteristics that make a character unique. This includes ... backgrounds, professions, mutations, downloaded skill packages, implanted prosthetics, corruptions, and memorized powers."

A mouthful, but there they are. Traits are anything about your character that isn't a held item or a person (funny enough, your character's "friends" actually do count as traits for the purpose of mental inventory management). Traits give your character a bonus to any dice roll related to them. They can also give passive mechanical benefits, like extra damage with lances or the ability to digest any organic material.

Like Troika! some of the traits have descriptions about when they might be useful listed in the book. However, you can generate your own traits, which won't have any definite description. In my experience, this allows players to set their characters up with collections of traits that they enjoy, and then whenever a situation presents itself to them, they focus on how their traits could possibly apply in order to get a bonus to their rolls.

For example, the trait "Remote Operator" might allow a character to remote pilot a drone from well beyond its normal connectivity distance. Alternatively, because this character also has traits related to mental power, they might try using mind control.

This freedom presents new opportunities for creativity from players simply because they can give their characters skills in anything imaginable.

No Description Games

These next three games maintain the UVG manifesto: players make their own skills. However, none of them have anything written about when those skills would apply. It's entirely up to a discussion (negotiation) between player and GM about when/if a given action is possible. These discussions are a lot of fun because they often get everyone at the table thinking, laughing, and wondering how they can use their own skills in creative ways.

Daggerheart uses Experiences to drive skill creativity. Your background informs these experiences, giving you a pair of phrases to describe something unique about your character.

Examples include "Fake It Till You Make It" and "This Is Not a Negotiation" among others. How do these apply to dice rolls? Can they apply in combat situations? You only get two Experiences at the start of the game, and finding ways to make them both applicable in combat and non-combat situations can be very fun.

Can you use "Fake It Till You Make It" to pretend to be charmed by a gang boss, only to stab him in the back after an ally trips him? Can you use "This Is Not a Negotiation" to execute a foe mid-battle? Obviously both of those are great out of combat, but the trick comes to expanding them across all possible situations you might find yourself in, to get the most bang for your buck.

Dungeon Reavers uses Vocations & Affiliations in a similar vein. They are single words tied to a single stat. You get one Vocation when you make your character (something like Woodcutter, Merchant, Squire, Apprentice, Archaeologist, Linguist, Diplomat, etc.) and they give you an advantage when making checks related to it. Affiliations are relationships gained during play.

This is an extremely limiting method of producing creativity. On the other hand though, pearls are made only under extreme pressure. I find that picking a Vocation can be super important to developing how you'll play this character. You want the Vocation to be meaningful in the game, and it would be nice to use it every session or every other session. That means picking something broadly useful, yet unique to the character. It also requires the same negotiation with your GM about if your Vocation applies. More dialogue is more better!

The final RPG I'll mention is Paradiso's RPG (the game that shall not be named here). In this game you are encouraged to find Expertise (skills, bonds, or backgrounds) in order to get bonuses to your dice rolls. If you can get all three Expertises, that's really good.

Your character begins the game with two backgrounds and a mixture of two skills/bonds. That means it is entirely feasible for a character to get the maximum Expertise bonus right from the get-go. How awesome would it be for your to present your Mercenary who is both good at Haggling and a member of a Mercenary Company to negotiate with a crime lord: "I'm a professional mercenary, I can get more of my buds to help out your little circus here if you just give us a little extra cash beforehand."

Trying to maximize the utility of your backgrounds, bonds, and skills takes a lot of effort, but is really, really worth it both as a creative exercise and for the purpose of overcoming challenges in the game. Constantly considering what is useful about being a Cook, or the Showmanship skill, or knowing a Ship Crew, can all lead to fantastically creative problem-solving opportunities.

Final Thoughts

Incorporating opportunities for players to get inventive with their skills and abilities is what makes roleplaying games very fun for me to play and run. Having game rules that require players to explain why a certain trait or bond applies to a given situation is fantastic and allows everybody to use what makes their characters unique over and over again.

One major drawback of so much skill creativity can be the brainpower involved. It's mentally exhausting to continuously debate whether or not your Discipline skill allows you to swallow a centipede without chewing. On the other hand, practice, practice, practice and you're creativity skills will only improve!

How can you incorporate more skill creativity in your games?

Things on my radar: