Stuffed Crocodile

I have been tinkering with my own rules for a while now. And while it still isn’t finished (will it ever be?) I am getting to the point where I could see it being used in a game.

Now mind you, I didn’t really come up with this on my own, I just took ideas from other places and added my own spin to it. The very core of the game used to be the Labyrinth Lord SRD, but I drew in parts from other places over time so I don’t know if much of that is left (the skills as d6 values idea definitely came from Lamentations of the Flame Princess)

Anyway, here is my take on a 1d6 based skill system. This replaces the thieves’ skills and adds further skills from various places (e.g. the Search Roll has become a Perception skill, and the Dwarves’ Architecture ability has become a skill). Languages also are now treated as separate skills. The main idea is that these skills are in fact all available to all characters, but some might have more skill in them than others. Every character gains 1 skill point at every level increase, but Thieves/Specialists/Rogues gain them quicker (at 2SP per level)

All of this is of course very broad, as it’s just taking the vestiges of the B/X skill system and expanding on that. But there’s the question if one actually needs a skill system in a B/X-based game at all, and I would say… well, there’s the Thief already. And you got all those other weird special cases. Why not make this easier to handle?

Skills and Languages

Skills

Skills are additional abilities that characters possess.

Skills are presented in a number of X out of 6. They are checked by rolling a d6. If the number of the die is in the value for the skill this check was successful. The referee might check the skill concealed if the outcome might not be immediately obvious to the character.

If a character has an unmodified 6 in 6 in a skill two die are rolled, and the check only fails if both come up as 6s.

All skills start with a value of 1 of 6, except when modified by other circumstances.

All physical abilities have to be attempted unencumbered, or the character suffers -1 per encumbrance level.

Every character gains 1 skill point per level, to be spent on any skill. Specialists gain additional skill points when they start and level up.

List of skills

Acumen: understanding of value and business, business practices and procedures. With a successful skill check the nature, history and value of non-magical treasure and artifacts can be determined and fakes revealed. Any Charisma check or reaction roll resulting from negotiations dependent on trust, trade or protocol gain a +1 from a successful Acumen check.

Architecture: character can look for things out of place, or in place, according to their knowledge of architecture and building. E.g. finding unsafe parts, determining culture of origin, finding hidden parts, etc. The character has to be looking for it specifically

Athletics: more involved exertions of the body, notably the chance to climb a wall or sheer surface without obvious handholds, but also jumping a great distance, etc. Characters must be unencumbered to use this. Failure means fall from random point in climb.

Carouse: the ability to drink and/or party with no or just minor ill effects. In a wider sense, the ability to function while under the influence of intoxicating agemts. (in general modified by Con)

Herbalism: the ability to identify, find, and safely use herbs, spices, and fungi.

Husbandry: management of plants and animals, agriculture and households, in adventuring terms largely the management of horses, donkeys, dogs, and other animals, although the basic skill should be applicable to other situations.

Legerdemain: Hiding small objects, pick-pocketing, swapping out objects with no one noticing, and other trick actions are governed by this. Also the skill of grafting, entertaining, and courting. Legerdemain consists of all deception skills, and successful use will give a +1 to any reaction roll resulting from a successful Legerdemain roll.

Lore: can be used to recall information about places, people, and artifacts from legends, songs, and poems. This can be used to identify artifacts and places with legendary significance.

Perception: the skill of perceiving and interpreting information about the environment. This is also used to hear noises behind doors, search areas, and any other task that depends on trained senses. Searching takes one turn per 10′ area searched. Note: Finding something does not automatically give mastery of it, a secret door still has to be opened.

Performance: if a person can entertain an audience for at least half an hour the performer can use his/her performance skill as a modifier for any reaction roll of an audience member for a day after the performance.

Medicine: Knowledge of health, disease, and injury. Can be used to assess medical conditions. Can also be used for first aid to heal 1d3 of hp directly after damage occurs. Can also be used to prevent death for someone with a mortal wound: after successful check person is allowed a Fortitude Save. Stabilizing the wounded takes all the time of the medic for the rest of the combat. .

Sailing: The handling and steering of boats, and basic navigation. Certain larger ships might need a certain amount of points in this skill to become usable.

Stealth: How well a character can sneak around and hide. To use this those that the character wants to hide from have to be unaware of the character’s presence. This doesn’t make invisible. If there is no way to hide, or if people search the place the character is hiding he/she still is found. If a character attacks after successful use of hiding this is considered a Surprise attack, even if the enemy is already in a fight.

Scholarship: general and specific knowledge about history, dead languages, and other esoteric fields of study. Scholarship might be used to identify artifacts and decipher ancient messages.

Sneak Attack: Sneak Attacks are attacks made by surprise. A character can multiply the damage done by a Sneak Attack by allocating points to this skill. Assume that the damage multiplier is × 1 for all characters, but for every additional point allocated to the skill the damage multiplier is increased by x0.5.

Swimming: the skill of how to swim. In general everyone should at least have some basic knowledge of this. Skill checks become important when situations are dangerous (e.g. traversing a strong current) or under averse conditions (heavily encumbered)

Tinker: manipulating mechanical objects and contraptions is called Tinkering. Most often used to open locks or disengage traps. The character has to have open access to the mechanical parts of the contraption, and might have to have tools fit for the purpose.

Wilderness: Characters can find food and water during journeys overland, and can find the right direction.

Languages

All characters begin with the local common tongue and one additional language, generally the local trade tongue and something culturally related (e.g. dwarvish). Additional languages can be chosen at the DM’s discretion. A character with Intelligence 13 gains one more, one with 16 two more, and one with Intelligence 18 three more languages.
All characters with Intelligence scores of 9 or more can read and write any language they know that has a written form. At Intelligence 9 literacy is basic, reading is slow and difficult; spelling and grammar are optional; quality improves with Intelligence.
Additional languages can be learned by using skill points.

Note: For simplicity’s sake languages are binary, i.e. they only have one point for fluency, no matter how unrealistic that is.

Edit:

• changed the Sneak Attack modifier to 0.5 to cut down on potentially game-breaking assassins

Additional Fediverse Tags:
@rpg @osr