[freeroleplay] Further thoughts on system design

[Troy Truchon]

Actually I'm rather liking the idea of a skill based system. Too often
it seems that the degree of thought put into attributes is just a big
waste of time. We have enough arguments in the real world about what
makes one thing better than the other and by how much, why clutter a
game with the same thing. I mean which is important, how strong you
are, or how good you are at using that strength.

The only system I know that does anything like this is Risus. For
those unfamiliar with it Risus is a rules light, and pretty tongue in
cheek, universal RPG system. The gist is that each character has a
series of scores that represents how good they are at being what they
are. So for a ninja -cyborg-monkey-pilot-munchkin you would have
ninja(4), Cyborg(3), Monkey(3), Pilot(2). These represent how good you
are at what you are. the system really doesn't care about anything
else.

I suppose what I'm really trying to think of is a more serious version
of this. Essentially your character would be composed of some basic
statistical info (height, weight, species, etc) things that really
aren't up for debate. Then you would have all their skills. Basically
all things would be treated as a skill. We don't really have to care
how strong the character is, just what he can do with that strength.
We also don't need to worry about how smart he is, just what he knows.
For things we really need "attributes" for (how far he can travel with
out rest for example) we would derive it from the relevant skills.

Anyone know of anything similar? or any reason why such a system is
probably unworkable? i think it may do away with one of the biggest
quibbles in character design.

-- 
Troy J. Truchon
Computer Service Technician