Do PCs know their skill levels and difficulties

[Bren]

First some background:
• Players know the attributes and skill levels for their PCs.
• GMs know the attributes and skill levels for both PCs and NPCs.
• GMs know all difficulty numbers. Players may or may not know this.

What do the PCs know?
1) Do they know their own attributes and skills or just an approximation.
2) Do they know others attributes and skills or just an approximation.
3) Do they know the difficulty number.

1) I generally assume characters only know an approximation of skills and attributes.

2) Just an approximation. What I do, I generally assume that for skills small differences (less than 1D) are essentially undetectable to PCs and NPCs. If the difference is large 2D or more than I assume characters know that someone is noticeably better or worse than they are.

For stats or attributes I assume differences of +1 or so are undetectable, but differences of 1D or more are detectable as noticeably stronger, faster, etc.

The longer characters interact and work together using particular skills and stats, the more subtle differences they will be able to detect.

3) Depending on the task and skill a PC may know an approximation of the difficulty e.g. they may know that is an easy task or that something is at least very difficult. They don't know the exact difficulty number. Though the player may know this or be able to calculate it from observation.

[CRMcNeill]

You also need to factor in how certain people will lie or exaggerate their prowess or ability for personal reasons. In The Far Orbit Project, there was a selection of characters who could be recruited from Starforge station to fill out the Far Orbit's crew, but as you read their descriptions, a couple of them had reputations that exceeded fact. I would think that PCs might be able to make a judgment of an NPCs general prowess by seeing them in action, but that getting a specific rating (i.e. down to the exact Dice + pip rating) would only be possible through scientific testing equipment.
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[cheshire]

Generally I prevent my players from "table talking" about their skills. I tell them that they can talk about their confidence in their ability to accomplish the task. They can say, "I'm pretty experienced," or "Oh yeah, I can do that easy," but I frown upon, "I've got 5D in..."

What is interesting is when you have someone who has a really high skill, but has just rolled poorly several times and thus earns a reputation for being kinda crappy at their proclaimed specialty.
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Before we take any of this too seriously, just remember that in the middle episode a little rubber puppet moves a spaceship with his mind.

[Ankhanu]

Think about your own life...
You don't know exactly how good/bad you are in something, but you have a rough idea where you should sit in the bell curve. Likewise, you don't know exactly how difficult tasks are... but you have some idea of how difficult they should be based on your general idea of what you can or can't do.

What you provided is pretty reasonable to my eyes.

For example, I enjoy playing guitar. I know I'm better than some people, but am pretty damn bad compared to many... even within my own sphere of friends. If I was to put it in game terms, I might have a Musical Performance: (s)Guitar of about 2D+2 to 3D, whereas a couple of my friends might be more in line with 4D+1 or so... and the difference is noticeable.
Alternatively, my Musical Instrument Repair skill, while not at a professional level, is higher than most of the other amateurs I know... though not significantly so in some areas. I know that I can do a complete basic set up on almost any guitar design... but I wouldn't attempt installing new pickups until I've had more practice with a soldering iron.

I don't know exactly how good or bad I am, but I have an idea of my limits, and I have an idea of where those limits lay within the greater scope of other players/repair folk.

Characters should be seen the same. The GM probably shouldn't say that the difficulty is 15, but saying Moderate is ok. It gives an impression, but doesn't give a definitive. They have a good idea on whether they're likely to hit a Moderate, but doesn't give an exact threshold.
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[garhkal]

[Fallon Kell]

I'd say that the more dice someone has in a skill, the more accurate their guesses about the level of that skill in themselves and others. I'd also say characters generally have a better idea of how good they are than about how good others are. Finally, I think that in most instances a character would be aware of the approximate difficulty of a task. Again, the more skilled they were, the better their estimates would be.
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[Rerun941]

It also depends on how long the PCs have been together. PCs starting the game as a group of Rebels who have been on missions together as part of their backstory should have a better idea about each other's abilities as a matter of group survival.
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[Bren]

[jmanski]

[garhkal]

Some times my 'cruel' sides pops out, and even when they have no need to worry, i still as
"are you sure you like that total"??
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[Ankhanu]

[garhkal]

It's my favorite phrase to let them know they MIGHT want to think about character points.
I change it up to "your not happy with that total.. ARE YOU!" when they NEED to spend cp (to avoid dying)..
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[Hellcat]

[cheshire]

At what point does the Dunning–Kruger effect kick in?
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Before we take any of this too seriously, just remember that in the middle episode a little rubber puppet moves a spaceship with his mind.

[Hellcat]

I'd say that'd depend on two factors. First, how hard-headed the PCs are. I mean if they've competed eight times to compare their skills and the 2D PC does consistently poorly then you'd think they oughta say "We'll I'm clearly the worst of us so I shouldn't be given the rifle to do any sniping with." But a more hard headed PC might say "Oh, the sun was in my eyes, that's why I dead so poorly," or "Oh I had a terrible cold and that threw off my aim," or even "Well this isn't the rifle I normally use and that's why I did so bad. If we were using MY rifle I'd have gotten a kill shot every time."

The second factor being how hard headed that PC's player is or how much their trying to be the hero. The PC can't say "Oh, the WD may let me do better than you guys. Come on WD be good to me baby! All 6s, all 6s!" The player can, however, say the WD may be their friend and they may even throw in as many CPs and FPs as they can to let their low level PC do well enough to out shine a high level PC. Sure, we use our CPs and FPs to improve our chances, but we also use them to level up our skills (and attributes). If a player wants to be so hard headed that their going to spend CPs and FPs like crazy to get their character to preform as well as a higher player rather than saving some to improve their character's skills, then sooner or later their character is going to bite them in the backside.
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