More than Common
One thing about Palladium skills that would kinda get to me is that you're equally good at everything covered by that skill. Obviously, that's not going to be true. I'm much better at some aspects of history than others, and I'm much better with large swords than with smaller ones. So, I got to thinking about specializing skills in Palladium. I think
I've come up with a fairly reasonable system, but I'd like some feedback on it.
Basically, for every skill they wish to, a player can select one specialization. Every time they do something within the specialization (for example, me working with Medieval History, as opposed to any other kind), they get a +5% to their skill. On the other hand, when they're working outside their specialty (me answering a question about American
History), they get a -5% to their skill. Thus, while I can answer some fairly basic questions about American History, and might do better than the average person, I won't do as well as someone who specializes in it, or someone who didn't specialize at all.
This carries over to WP's, as well. To carry on with the sword example, my real skill (so to speak... its not that big of a skill) is in hand and a half swords... two handed swords are too clunky, and I never feel comfortable with a one handed sword, so I opt to specialize in hand and a half swords. I get a +1 to use hand and a half swords for anything I
might do with them... disarms, strikes, parries, even damages. However, I get a -1 on all those same things when I use a one handed or two handed sword, simply because I'm not good at them. This could instead be applied to certain combat maneuvers (someone who is skilled at defense would get a +1 to parries, entangles and disarms, but a -1 to strikes and damages).
This adds a little bit of role-playing to character creation, though, of course, you still need to keep an eye on the local munchkin.
Comments?