Forums of the Megaverse®

Some skills such as Outdoorsmanship or Hunting give a bonus to other related skills. What happens when such related skills aren't selected by the player?

1) They aren't available until the skill is selected (when reaching new levels, for instance) at the base skills plus the bonus.
2) They are automatically available at the base skills plus the bonus.
3) They are available with a skill percentage equal to the bonus from the "mother skill".
4) Other options. Please, elaborate.
Thanks.

They character can use the skills as if they taken them at their base skill (no IQ bonus), but the skills don't increase in level at all unless they select that skill (when they do, they get all the normal applicable bonuses, like IQ, OCC Related, and synergy).

The official method for defaulting a skill that you don't have is to roll percentile dice against the appropriate attribute.
The bonus would either act as a stand-alone percentage (as with #3 above), or it would be added to the attribute when defaulting a skill.

I don't like that method because there some skills that are so complex that you need to take the actual skill in order to have any hope of succeeding. Skills like Surgery, it's easy to see the rationale with it, but there other skills that are in a more grey area, such as the piloting skills, especially airplanes or military vehicles. Most military vehicles don't need keys, they just have an ON/OFF switch, and someone who wasn't trained to drive them probably would not know this.

My biggest gripe about the default method for handling these situations is because they give munchy rules lawyers who try to bend any and every rule that they can to try and justify to the GM's why they should have a chance at succeeding at doing something they don't have a skill for. I know because I was involved in a couple of games where this has occurred.

dragonfett wrote:I don't like that method because there some skills that are so complex that you need to take the actual skill in order to have any hope of succeeding. Skills like Surgery, it's easy to see the rationale with it, but there other skills that are in a more grey area, such as the piloting skills, especially airplanes or military vehicles. Most military vehicles don't need keys, they just have an ON/OFF switch, and someone who wasn't trained to drive them probably would not know this.

The GM decides whether or not you can default a skill check. He/she can always say "No."
Just like he/she decides whether you can use a skill to do something in the first place.

Killer Cyborg wrote:The official method for defaulting a skill that you don't have is to roll percentile dice against the appropriate attribute.
The bonus would either act as a stand-alone percentage (as with #3 above), or it would be added to the attribute when defaulting a skill.

Thanks!