Some Alternate Skill Systems (Part 3)

Here's a game I stumbled upon completely by accident, and instantly fell in love with.

Lady Blackbird, by John Harper. This free RPG handles dice pools in a really interesting way, and it's one that I think I could quite easily combine with my desire for a Lifepath system.

In Lady Blackbird, when trying to perform a task, you start with one die (a d6).

• You then select a "Trait" that you believe applies to your situation. This nets you another d6.
• Every Trait has a selection of "Tags" that are associated with those Traits.
• Tags are effectively short, one- or two-word descriptive phrases that modify your Trait--you might have "Pilot" as your Trait, and that's used in any situation where being a pilot would make sense, but it's how you pilot that determines your Tag. Are you being Daring? Are you using Evasion tactics? Are you reading Maps? All those underlined words are Tags.
• If you use one or more Tags, add one or more d6es, as appropriate.
• Each 4, 5, or 6 on those d6es is a "Hit" (a success). Each 1, 2, or 3 is a "Miss" (a failure). Very "Vampire Skills", wouldn't you say?

Traits (top row) and Tags (bottom row) in Lady Blackbird.

Source: Paul Stefko, on Youtube

Now, I can see a lot here I can use. First of all, I can have a selection of nice, broad Skills, ala The Sims 1 and 2. I can have Creativity, and Logic, and Mechanical... or Skills that would find more use in a sitcom world. And the Tags can be totally user-defined!

Each Attribute for example, Introvert vs. Extrovert, would have a list of associated Skills, similar to how D&D handles Skills. Persuasion is always Charisma-based, Perception is always Wisdom-based, and so on (except when the Dungeon Master chooses to apply other Attributes to Skill checks, of course).

So, Introvert/Extrovert might have the following Skills associated with it (for example):

• Social Media
• Charisma
• Dance

And then each of those Skills would have a list of "sub-skills" that work like Tags in Lady Blackbird. 

"Social Media" might have Algorithm Manipulation, #SponsoredAds, Social Networking, Thirst Trapping, Shitposting, Doomscrolling, Meme-Making, Trolling, and Reply Guy-ness.

"Charisma" might have Public Speaking, Flirting, Joking, Flattery, Lying, Listening, Small Talk, Approachability, and Masking.

Some of these could be provided by the game (gained during a Lifepath-based character creation system), while the player could also be encouraged to add their own, where any gaps they feel are present can be filled, gaining a new Tag whenever they match all of their d8s.

For example, let's take Driving as a Skill. You can either drive or you can't, but just because you can drive, that doesn't mean you can parallel park, it doesn't mean you know the best routes to avoid rush hour traffic, it doesn't mean you know where to go without a GPS, and it doesn't mean you know how to fix your car when it breaks down. These are all Tags you can gain as you progress in your Driving Skill, gained during moments of sudden insight or from prolonged periods of driving where something has suddenly clicked for you.

Another useful thing about using Tags (What do we think about "Talents"? Harkening back to the Talent Badges of TS2) is that there'd be no need to impose a limit on the number of Talents you can accrue over the course of a campaign as I would if it were purely based on a set number of Skill ranks (since you can only "level up" in a Skill 5 times with a d8). If they're user-defined, then there's no reason to believe that every single Talent would be applicable to every single use case--sometimes you'd use two Talents, sometimes you'd use five, it all depends on what you're trying to do in that particular moment.

This creates a strategic element, where you're not just on easy street because you've got the biggest number around, but instead you're constantly trying to analyze your character and what they're capable of to make the most use of them in the moment.

A system of this nature is incredibly versatile and really does a good job of handling the kind of legwork I'd need a game set in real life to cover.

It:

• Allows the game to cover any conceivable Skill one might develop in real life.
• Can be used for non-Skill purposes, including careers, fashion choices, physical traits, and so on.
• Eliminates the need for a "level" system; you could be in the endgame, a master of your craft, but learn a new Skill that you're relatively inexperienced with and still be challenged accordingly.
• Allows me to freely add Talents in a Lifepath system; there's no such thing as "too many" or "an unbalanced number" of Talents, you can only use the Talents that are relevant to your situation.
• Is easier to wrap ones' head around than "I have 5 Creativity"; instead you're Creative AND you can use oil paints, are familiar with Expressionism, have a collection of good brushes and high-quality paints, and a steady hand.
• Represents the idea of "unlocking new interactions" as you level up in a Skill that you might see in a video game; you're quite literally assigning new Talents that say "I can do this specific thing now".

More and more I'm convinced that a dice pool is the way to handle Skills, but the high numbers that such a dice pool would accomplish would be WELL above the target number that an Attribute-defined target number could provide (assuming a max of 7 dice--1d8 for attempting the check, 1d8 for applying a relevant Skill, and 5d8 for the maximum number of dice you can add and still unlock a new Talent--you'd have a maximum roll of 45, a minimum roll of 18, and an average roll of 31-32).

I think this kind of system would only really work with GM-defined difficulties, with a D&D-like difficulty class of static numbers, or a V:tM-like set of required successes.

Rolling under a target number simply can't work with this system, at least as far as I can see.