Notes on Skills

Skills are a major component in defining many role-playing games. They usually tell the player not only about the limitations of his character, but about the limitations of his entire species. If a game doesn't have an existing skill for Multidimensional Bungee-Jumping, generally you can't attempt it. Games like Fudge, however, have the benefit of default skill levels. Unless it is explicitly stated that the skill cannot be performed except by characters who have purchased the skill or otherwise acquired it (i.e. it has a default of Nonexistent), then any character can attempt to use that skill at its default level (usually Poor).

This is wonderful for free-form games where there is no set skill list or where the skills are broadly defined. The Fudge rule of thumb is that all skills default to Poor. There is no need to worry about the relative complexity of a skill given the culture and technology of one's world or whatnot. If you purchase a skill, you have it at the purchased level; if you didn't purchase a skill, you can always attempt it as if you possessed it at the skill level of Poor.

I enjoy playing free-form Fudge, but on some occasions I like to play detail-oriented Fudge. For this reason, and also because some players prefer to choose their skills from lists rather than allow them to spring Athena-like from their own heads, I have compiled the Optimum Skills for Fudge (Original) list, a universal list of skills including default skill levels, skill difficulty, and skill descriptions. This information (sans the descriptions) can also be found at the Big Chart of Optimum Skills for Fudge. [Edit: The aforementioned list and chart have been replaced by the Ultimate List of Skills.]

Free-form games without skill lists are fun because they encourage players and GMs to create skills that would never be found on any list. Games with broad skills are fun because character generation is a faster process and many capabilities can be encapsulated by a single concept. Games with professions as skills are perfect examples of this. My own skill list, because it is intended to serve a different purpose (the desire for greater detail), necessarily concentrates on somewhat narrower skills. Technically, I would classify them as medium skills. Most, if not all, of the skills can be defined more narrowly by applying Areas of Specialization or Areas of Further Specialization. These are entirely optional, and GMs are free to specify that certain skills must be taken with an Area of Specialization, other skills must be taken with an Area of Further Specialization, and still others may be taken as is whether they have Areas of Specialization or not. Furthermore, GMs (and players) may invent their own Areas of Specialization or Further Specialization, or they may, of course, invent entirely new skills (something of which I highly approve).

The thorniest problem in creating a skill list is determining the default level and difficulty of each skill. How does one measure the difficulty of Chemistry compared to Skiing, Painting, or Fluency in Navajo? "Apples and oranges" is an understatement. There is simply no truly objective way of doing it. I have two solutions for detail-oriented Fudge. The first solution is that any skill created on the fly has a default level of Poor and a difficulty of Average unless it is a highly unusual and/or unnaturally powerful skill, in which case it has a default level of Nonexistent (unless the GM really wants the player characters to have a chance to try them).

The second solution is my skill design rule of thumb:

• Basic survival and labor skills have a default level of Mediocre and a difficulty of Easy.
• Physical and trade skills have a default level of Poor and a difficulty of Average.
• Academic skills have a default level of Terrible and a difficulty of Hard.
• Highly unusual and/or powerful skills have a default level of Nonexistent and a difficulty of Very Hard.
• Skills that no one without special training or previous study could possibly perform have a default level of Nonexistent, but their difficulty may vary.
• Most unarmed combat skills (except Brawling and Wrestling) have a default level of Nonexistent, but their difficulty may vary.

Obviously, there are some inconsistencies (I wouldn't consider Bicycling to be a basic survival skill nor a typical labor skill, but I think it could be considered Easy by most people who have grown up with them). I know there are people who would consider any physical skill to be Hard or Very Hard, and there are others who would consider almost any academic skill to be Average, but as an admittedly sweeping generalization about the world's population, it works for me, and I hope it might work for you, too (if you need it).

In the end, you can always fudge it.

[Originally posted in Fudgery.net/fudgerylog on 17 February 2007.]