BRP Skyrealms of Jorune (Part 3: Skills)

 

Last Edit: 9/6/22

When it comes to BRP, I tend to just hack together my own game with the core elements of the rules, and just bennnnnnnnnd things until they fit. In my mind most games boil down to Stats and Skills, or some blend of the two. I played a lot of Rolemaster Standard System as a kid so I tend to love a big ole list of skills, as no doubt you will be able to tell from the rest of this blog post... :)

I have been asked what skills I have cobbled together for this, and it has changed and then changed again. I tend to go back and forth between being ALL ENCOMPASSING to realizing that I don't need a basket weaving skill (although that is covered by Craft...). hehe. I'm pretty happy with this current batch of them. No doubt it's too many for most of you out there.

I went with skill categories because I wanted to have some category bonuses. As part of character creation, the player can pick 4 categories of skills that their characters are extra good at, and then they have +40%, +30%, +20%, and +10% to place in those. All of the skills in that category get that bonus. I found that this speeds up the process of adding in other percentage points. I've given each skill a base percentage. I thought about doing the RuneQuest way of Stat+Stat but that would be way too much math for the amount of skills I have. 

On top of the category bonuses, and base %, each character gets 400 percentage points and Education x 10 percentage points to place in whatever skill they like. Humans (not Boccord or Muadra) get 50 extra percentage point to put into skills. It sounds like a lot, but with the number of skills there are it seems to work out fairly well. In the playtest my son found that he wanted more, but I told him each character has strengths and weaknesses. Another caveat is that no skill can be above 75% to start.

One last thing. In my version of BRP, the attempt to use any skill allows for a check mark, because I believe that failure is a great teacher. At the end of the session every skill that was used gets an experience roll to see if it increases by rolling higher than the skill percentage. Unlike core BRP though, the increase is only +1% with a successful roll. I really want to run a long campaign with this, and I want that slow progression of skills in there.  

 

SKILL LIST

COMBAT                     +/- (___)
[] 1H Melee Weapon (25%)…...___
[] 2H Melee Weapon (15%)..….___
[] Ambushing* (10%)…..….….___
[] Archery (15%)…………...….___
[] Blind-fighting (1%)…….…...___
[] Brawling (25%)…...…….…..___
[] Charging (20%)….……….…___
[] Dirty Fighting (20%)………..___
[] Disarming (5%)…………......___
[] Energy Weapon (1%)…..…...___
[] Feint* (5%)………..………..___
[] Firearms (20%)……………..___
[] Grappling* (25%)…...….…..___
[] Heavy Weapon (10%)…..…..___
[] Improvised Weapons (10%)...___
[] Martial Arts* (5%)…..….…..___
[] Mounted Combat (1%)….…..___
[] Parrying w/ Weapon (25%)....___
[] Polearms/Spears (15%)……..___
[] Quickdraw* (15%)…....…….___
[] Rapid Reload (10%)………...___
[] Shield (30%)………………..___
[] Throwing (25%)…………….___
[] Tripping* (20%)………….....___

COMMUNICATION  +/- (___)
[] Bartering/Haggling (15%)…..___
[] Bribe/Bureaucracy (5%)…....___
[] Carousing (20%)…………....___
[] Command/Leadership (5%)...___
[] Contacts (10%)…………...…___
[] Diplomacy/Persuade (15%)...___
[] Fast Talk/Trickery (5%)….…___
[] Gather Information (5%)...….___
[] Interrogation (5%)…………..___
[] Intimidation (10%)………….___
[] Lang. Human/Entren…..….100%
[] Lang. ________ (1%).……...___
[] Lang. ________ (1%).……...___
[] Lang. ________ (1%).……...___
[] Lang. ________ (1%).……...___
[] Lang. ________ (1%).……...___
[] Lang. ________ (1%).……...___
[] Lie / Spot Lie (20%)………...___
[] Lip Reading (1%)…………...___
[] Mimicry (5%)…………….…___
[] Public Speaking (10%)…..….___
[] Storytelling(10%)…………...___
[] Thieves’ Cant (1%)…………___
[] Ventriloquism (1%)..………..___

CULTURES                 +/- (___)
[] Acubon (10%)……………....___
[] Blount (40%)…………….….___
[] Bronth (40%)…………….….___
[] Cleash (1%)……………....…___
[] Corastin (10%)……………...___
[] Croid (10%)………………....___
[] Crugar (15%)…………….….___
[] Ramian (20%)……………....___
[] Salu (30%)……………….….___
[] Scarmis (5%)………...……...___
[] Shantha (5%)…………….….___
[] Thivin (40%)…………….….___
[] Thriddle (40%)……………...___
[] Tologra (10%)…..………..…___
[] Trarch (10%)……………..…___
[] Woffen (40%)…………….…___

LORE                +/- (___)
[] Alchemy/Potions (1%).……..___
[] Artifacts (5%)………..……...___
[] Crystals/Geology (10%).…....___
[] Drugs & Poisons (1%)……...___
[] Earth-Tec (5%)……….……..___
[] Folklore/Myths (30%)………___
[] Geography (20%)…………...___
[] Heraldry/Symbols (15%)…...___
[] History (25%)……………….___
[] Occult (1%)………………....___
[] Philosophy (20%)…………...___
[] Religion (35%)……………...___
[] Science (10%)……..………..___
[] Warps to Skyrealms (5%)…...___

MANIPULATION      +/- (___)
[] Art:________ (5%)…………___
[] Art:________ (5%)…………___
[] Calligraphy (10%)………..…___
[] Craft:________ (5%)……….___
[] Craft:________ (5%)……….___
[] Dancing (25%)……………...___
[] Disguising (5%)………….…___
[] Escape Artist (15%)…...…....___
[] Forgery (5%)………………..___
[] Heavy Machine (5%)…….…___
[] Juggling* (10%)....……….....___
[] Locks/Traps (10%)………….___
[] Music (15%)…...………...….___
[] Pick Pockets* (10%)………..___
[] Repair (15%)…………….….___
[] Ropes/Knots (15%)……..…..___
[] Singing (20%)……..………..___
[] Scrounging (20%)…………..___
[] Slap Hands (30%).………….___
[] Sleight of Hand (5%)…..…...___

MENTAL                     +/- (___)
[] Appraise (15%)……………..___
[] Concentration (30%)………..___
[] Games/Gambling (35%)……___
[] Healing (30%).……………...___
[] Hypnotism (1%).………......___
[] Identify Item (1%)…...……...___
[] Math (20)….………………...___
[] Meditation/Trance (15%)…...___
[] Research (25%)………….….___
[] Self Control (10%)….…...….___
[] Strategy/War (10%)………....___
[] Streetwise (10%)….………...___
[] Teaching (20%)………….….___

MOON ISHO              +/- (___)
[] Black/Gobey (Isho)…………___
[] Blue/Shal (Isho)…….………___
[] Green/Launtra (Isho)…..……___
[] Orange/Du (Isho)...…………___
[] Red/Desti (Isho)…….………___
[] White/Tra (Isho)….…………___
[] Yellow/Ebba (Isho).…………___

It costs 1-10 CPs to Interfere [B&H]
or 1-10 IPs to Unweave [M] dyshas.

OUTDOORS               +/- (___)
[] Animal Handling (15%)..…...___
[] Boating (15%)……………....___
[] Camouflage (5%)…………...___
[] Camping/Firestarting (20%)..___
[] Cold/Heat Survival (20%)…..___
[] Cooking/Foraging (30%)…...___
[] Dowsing (10%)……………..___
[] Fauna (10%)………………...___
[] Fishing (15%)………...….….___
[] Flora/Herbs (15%)……….….___
[] Hunting/Trapping (10%)…....___
[] Navigation/Stars (10%)……..___
[] Riding (20%)…………….….___
[] Sailing/Sea Legs (15%)……..___
[] Sense Ambush (10%)……….___
[] Tracking (10%)……………..___
[] Weather (20%)………….......___

PHYSICAL                  +/- (___)
[] Balancing (20%)…………....___
[] Blending-in/Crowds (30%)....___
[] Climbing (40%)….………….___
[] Contortions (5%)…………....___
[] Driving/Teamster (20%)……___
[] Hiding (10%)…….………….___
[] Jumping (25%)….…………..___
[] Running (40%)…………..….___
[] Stalking/Stealth (5%)….…....___
[] Swimming/Diving (35%)…...___

*Armor Penalties affect the skill.

I just slapped them all into a 3 column format like so to take up a whole page.

I'll try to dabble with Color & Isho Points in the next post.