Moving Skills Around

[MrNexx]

So, talking with Whills about his move of Willpower and Intimidate to Perception got me thinking:

What other skills would you move to another attribute? What would make more sense elsewhere?

One suggestion I have: Astrogation should be Knowledge, not Mechanical.
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[Telsij]

I have moved some of the more commonly mentioned ones, so I gather there aren't too many controversial skill realignments in my House Rules.

Off of the top of my head, among others I'm likely forgetting, I've moved: Brawling to DEX. Intimidation, streetwise and willpower to PER. Vehicle blasters to MEC (under a combined Gunnery skill, ala Introductory Adventure Game).

On a semi-related note, I've moved the "sense motive" aspect of con out of an opposed con roll. I instead have people roll either search or investigation, when assessing character and/or gauging truthfulness.

I have seen Sensors and Astrogation moved to TEC, though I have left them in MEC for now, though I often use Com-Scan as my combined Communications and Sensors skill.

Semi-OT, but as is also common, I've combined the various piloting skills into starship piloting (with the types of craft as specializations, eg: starship piloting: space transports), the various ship repair skills into one starship repair, etc. I have also sometimes folded bargain into persuasion as a specialization, or vice versa.

[Whill]

A lot of skills overlap attributes so there isn't only one correct attribute assignment. In the end all GMs just have to make a choice but it is interesting to consider the rationales we use to justify our assignment. Telsij, it seems you and I think alike in a lot of ways.

[garhkal]

[Naaman]

After reading what has been posted so far, it seems like it boils down to each GM's interpretation of what an attribute or skill represents.

I see strength, dexterity and mechanical as physical attributes, and knowledge, perception and technical as mental attributes, with technical having a sort of specialiazes, apllicable knowledge and knowledge having more to do with information storage/cognitive recall.

[griff]

Moved running to strength
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[garhkal]

[Bren]

I resist the urge to shuffle skills around.

The RAW is designed to emulate the original trilogy films and the skill divisions are fairly balanced with that presumption in mind. Most shuffling that I've seen people suggest ends up overemphasizing Perception (which already has a lot of skills and is used for initiative in 2E+) and sometimes Dexterity (which has nearly all the ground combat skills) while underemphasizing Knowledge, Technical, and sometimes Strength. Strength already has the fewest skills of any attribute so I am reluctant to take skills like Brawling away from Strength. Knowledge and Technical are often less favored as attributes so I don't want to see them weakened by removing skills.

If I was playing a setting that wasn't Star Wars, like a fantasy or pre-1900 historical game, I'd be more inclined to move a skill like Beast Riding to Perception and to consider tweaking how skills like melee combat and parry and brawling and brawling parry work and what attribute they are under. But in Star Wars I just don't see those as the pre-eminent skills so I'm less considered with what "realistically" makes sense and more concerned with "does that seem like how things work in the original films."

For example, in the original films who uses Beast Riding? Han and Luke. What attribute do Han and Luke clearly have in common and at a high level? Mechanical. And Mechanical, which is used for piloting, must have some aspect of hand-eye coordination and balance as part of what makes someone good at Mechanical. Hence Beast Riding ends up under Mechanical not because it is the most logical or reasonable attribute but because in Space Opera the heroic pilot would be able to ride/drive fast whether he is riding or driving a ship, a speederbike, or a Taun-taun. And because Han and Luke can do all of the above.

[Whill]

I really haven't shuffled much. But whatever floats your speeder!

[Naaman]

The discussion about the knowledge attribute and its realism or value in-game prompts me to mention that we have to draw a line somewhere.

In reality, people learn different ways. Some are hands-on learners, others are auditory, etc.

For me, I must intellectually understand something in order to be able to apply it. If my mind cannot grasp the concept, then my hands (or whatever) will not be able to perform the skill. For example, I "learned" to drive a stick shift without ever getting behind the wheel of one. I read up on how a clutch and transmission physically work, and was able to get into a manual transmission for the first time and make it go on the first try. There was a learning cirve, of course, but it was because of my "knowledge" that I had any idea of what to do. Same goes for learning to shoot a gun, for me. Once I understood the physics and kinetics involved, I was able to easily outshoot the people with "higher dex" even though we all started learning at the same time.

BUT!!!!!!!!!! Do we REALLY need to account for such nuances in a game? We could make arguments all day long about what it means to "know how" to do something. But at some point, let's just start generating some characters and start playing.

[garhkal]

[Naaman]

Generally speaking, I tend to leave the skills where they've been put, although I do acknowledge that some of the skills really do belong other places.

I believe that the "running" skill is all together a dumb skill (or at least, it's a dumb name for what the skill does). I think running should be purely a strength skill, and should be used to determine the outcome of a chase between characters with otherwise identical move characteristics (or perhaps to overcome the difference in base move when the "slower" character is a more trained runner, or whatever).

Intimidation also belongs under perception, but that it is under knowledge doesn't bother me at all, so I just leave it (no, I cannot "logically" justify it).

There are a few others that irk me, but generally, I just leave stuff where it's at.

That said, most of the changes that people have mentioned make perfect sense to me, even if they aren't changes that I feel are necessary.

[garhkal]

[Telsij]

Whill's covered some of this ground already — and I agree that my approach and his have similar reasoning. And I agree that there is a base of KNO that undergirds all these skills, so in the end, it's really where you want to draw your semantics line-in-the-sand, right?

[Raven Redstar]

I do like the idea of using Investigation to counter Con. I think that's how I'll do it.
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