How many people use Skills in THW games?

[infierno]

As I'm working on my first full THW rule set, I've come across the Skills section and it occurs to me that I've never actually used them in a game.  How many of you guys use Skills?

I'm thinking of trying out Skills in the next game I play, as it seems like a nice way to add a bit of diversity to characterization - such as a tough Rep 5 enforcer with low Savvy who can be easily tricked or manipulated.  So, I'm wondering how people use them.  Do you just roll skills for NPCs when you need them, or do you integrate it into your PEF resolution process?

I voted "no" because up until now I've never used Skills.

[Shon Maxx]

I like Skills because they add gameplay options. I’ve even added them to my CR games.

[infierno]

Dec 6, 2021 2:56:00 GMT Shon Maxx said:

I like Skills because they add gameplay options. I’ve even added them to my CR games.

Do you mind going a bit into how you use them?  Curious to see examples of how people use them

[atomicfloozy]

I'm finding I'm using them more and more where characters have different alignments in WHAT and when a character in New Beginnings has to do something she isn't trained to do. It removes some of the god-like ability from me when I play solo.

I used the Savvy Skill in a recent encounter where part of my band had to pretend to loot dead bodies to attract the attention of a hidden sentry while another member snuck up on the sentry. Once the sentry was engaged, the rest of the band charged up the hill while bandits charged up from the other side. Whenever I have to use stealth of sleight of hand, I use Savvy Skill Challenges.

[infierno]

Dec 6, 2021 3:47:57 GMT atomicfloozy said:

I'm finding I'm using them more and more where characters have different alignments in WHAT and when a character in New Beginnings has to do something she isn't trained to do. It removes some of the god-like ability from me when I play solo.

I used the Savvy Skill in a recent encounter where part of my band had to pretend to loot dead bodies to attract the attention of a hidden sentry while another member snuck up on the sentry. Once the sentry was engaged, the rest of the band charged up the hill while bandits charged up from the other side. Whenever I have to use stealth of sleight of hand, I use Savvy Skill Challenges.

Yeah, I like the idea of Skills balancing out higher rep characters so they don't feel quite so universally good at everything.  Looking at the poll results, I appear to be an unschooled pleb for not using skills thus far

Thanks for sharing the anecdote.  So was that a Difficult challenge, or an Easy one? 

[Shon Maxx]

When I ran a few CR games (one Star Trek and one Victorian), I used Ed's UIC table but resolved challenges as PEFs. Pass 0d6 and no challenge, pass 1d6 and it's easy, pass 2d6 and it's normal, pass 2d6 and doubles and its difficult. After resolving a number of challenges equal to your Rep, roll for a possible confrontation.

[atomicfloozy]

Perhaps I should be using a table, but I've resolved most of my challenges as normal challenges. I think I've used the "easy" and "difficult" challenges only once or twice.

[Ed the Two Hour Wargames Guy]

I use them for Challenges. Try to pick a lock - Savvy. Interaction - People. Drop off a roof and not break a leg - Rep.

[davidlhsl]

I voted Yes, although I notice I'm not using them in my current sessions with After the Horsemen. This is likely due to the fact that I tend to default to whatever rules I'm currently playing, even though I love to mix and match rules. However, I do use skills in ATZ and 5150.

I am, however, using Attributes in ATH; and I use them in other settings. I used to play without Attributes for the longest time, even when the rules used them. I did this to speed things along, but I'm now finding it a great way to add a bit of texture to the characters. The Attributes in ATH actually feature bonuses and penalties to Interaction and Savvy challenges, so that does make skills pretty redundant in ATH.

Going back to skills, I tend to pick Savvy over People in my Star. If I recruit someone with a People rating of 5, I would let that character handle the NPC interactions as my "mouthpiece." That does mean I forfeit my chance at increasing Rep d6. For NPCs, I like to determine Peo and Sav based on a d6 roll: 1-3 = Peo is Rep, Sav is Rep-1, and 4-6 is the opposite. I can't remember the context, but I'm pretty certain I once based an NPC interaction using Sav instead of Peo because I was trying to persuade an NPC using a reasoned argument.

[Ed the Two Hour Wargames Guy]

That's the sweet thing, the tools are easy to tweak as needed.

[Shon Maxx]

Last year I didn't buy many games because the mail was a pain to get unless it was a letter. Instead I used Chain Reaction and borrowed some rules from Swordplay, like Skills, Extraordinary Effort, Sweet Talk, and Increasing/Decreasing d6. I then took Ed's Universal Interaction and Challenge table and used it for everything. I even modified it for PEFs (Pass 1d6 means Rep is 1 lower, Pass 2d6 is same Rep, and Doubles means higher Rep) and number appearing, where a higher Rep meant less opponents would appear . . . most of the time. Finally, I rolled Rory's Story Cubes to fill in the blanks.

For my Star Explorers (Star Trek knock-off) game, I had my team (two Rep 4, Two Rep 3) perform Mental Challenges when exploring the planet. After exploring for a while (4 skill checks), I rolled and got a Confrontation. Using the table and story cubes, my team ran into a giant intelligent cyborg super-gorilla. Actually (remember when I said, 'most of the time?'), they ran into FOUR giant intelligent cyborg super gorillas.

In short, my team (well half of them anyways) got Really good at making Physical Challenge rolls.

[Ed the Two Hour Wargames Guy]

Challenges can change your Story and the unknown stops your games form getting predictable and boring.

[karl]

I like the simplicity of having a single number to control everything, and I don't even think it that impausible to have characters who are generally good or bad at everything.

I use skills only if a character really is unusually skilled or bad at something.

An idea I have been toying with is to play with D12 instead of D6, doubling all the values, to allow for a somwhat greater range (6 - 10) of REP values, rahter than the normal 3 - 5. But I haven't actually gamed with that yet.

[Ed the Two Hour Wargames Guy]

Keep us posted on the d12 idea. The math is the same so should work.

[davidlhsl]

Dec 16, 2021 10:55:15 GMT karl said:

I like the simplicity of having a single number to control everything, and I don't even think it that impausible to have characters who are generally good or bad at everything.

I use skills only if a character really is unusually skilled or bad at something.

An idea I have been toying with is to play with D12 instead of D6, doubling all the values, to allow for a somwhat greater range (6 - 10) of REP values, rahter than the normal 3 - 5. But I haven't actually gamed with that yet.

I've considered the same idea of d12 and even d10, but I never attempted it. I think it would definitely work, esp. d12.