Some Possible House Rules I'm Considering

[bigbobsr6000]

I'll agree with Dark Saint here.

And I agree with Misfit KotLD

[GA]

I think its a good idea but I would increase the skill percentages. RCC skils should be maybe 60 or 65. OCC Skills 55 or 60. You may want to increase some skills and decrease skills on how hard they are to perform. Driving a normal automobile should be pretty high so should basic radio. Other skills like detect traps or ambush should probably be relatively low. Cryptography as well.

And I think you do have to factor in some degree of OCC bonus for certain skills or perhaps skill groupings. 20% 15% and 10% should cover it in terms of degrees. You probably don't need to get more specailized than that.

[Daikuma]

I've been experimenting with giving the PCs a per level increase in a percentage points "bank" equal to all per-level increases (In O.C.C. skills and O.C.C. related skills, not secondary skills) plus their IQ bonus in points, and then letting them assign the points to whichever skills they want to improve, up to a % equal to their IQ per level.

This reflects the character's focus of continuing study and perfecting of skills they feel they'd most be interested in improving.

I also do not allow secondary skills to automatically improve per level (hobbies aren't hobbies if you study them that much), but I do allow them to be "bought up" to real O.C.C. related skills, at a rate of one per level, and the player has to use the "per-level" of the chosen skill of their points per level award to move it across at the same level.

This means a character with 45% in the secondary skill of advanced math decides he wants to study it further and make it a full blown area of knowledge for him. He gets, say, 80 percentage points to assign as he chooses per level, so he pays 5 points from his total, and Math: Advanced, is now a 45% O.C.C. related skill.

The player also gets to choose a replacement secondary skill at the following level, by paying twice it's per level cost from his available points.

So the character decides at 3rd level he wants to fill slot formerly occupied by Math: Advanced with Radio: Basic. He devotes 10 points of available per-level award, and he has Radio: Basic at the base level for the skill, where it will stay unless he decides to "Buy it up" to O.C.C. skill at level 4 or after.

I found that letting the player shape their skill growth does a lot more to insure that they use skills and role play more often than if they are automatically bumped at each level.

-Just a thought
D.

[Daikuma]

House rules are house rules but isn't that kind of dipping into what you were trying to get away from in the first place?

I tried something like what Lee is trying a few years ago and it backfired. Since they never had to look up the rules, the players stopped understanding what the skills were about, and as a result became even less involved with making detailed characters.

Now, you'd think this would work even for hack n slash, but when you have characters asking if they can use their electronics skill to program a computer, it really slows down game play, because nobody knows what they can and cannot do.

Also, the experience point tables are different for a reason. If you start everything at first level, and your Vagabond and your Dragon hatchling progress at the same rate, then by level five either your dragon player is going to be bored silly or your vagabond is gonna be a fine red mist, because the levels aren't truly reflecting a learning and growing process. The dragon progresses more slowly because many things are easy for someone who is of a more powerful species than they are for a human being or simple D-Bee attempting the same things. If they stay on the same path, then the Dragon should be at level 3 or 4 when the vagabond is at level 6 or 7 (at the least).

The reason D20 can use this system, is that in many of the D20 games, everyone is human power level and the classes are much more technical in their layout (as opposed to Palladium classes, which are very free form for power level - they are written as a literary excercise first, and then given powers and abilities which may or may not make them munchkin).

I would say the one thing he could keep is the making the level advancement all 5%. I've never been able to really justify the +3% for one skill vs. +5% for another, especially if the skill with +3% you use twice as often as the one you would get +5% for. Of course, it's also why I am using the current system I mentioned above.