What makes a good skill system in an RPG? Is it the large number of skills? Is it how useful each individual skill is? Is there a difference between the skill system in a TTRPG or Role-playing video game?

Let’s see if we can find out!

What is a skill in an RPG?

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Skill or ,alternatively, proficiency is how well (if at all) your characters can handle certain types of tasks and challenges. It can vary greatly in a way it's implemented of course. 

For example how well can they pick a locked door, sneak around bandit camp, calm down an angry mob or simply climb a tree.

Usually you can put points into skills at the character creation stage after picking a class (if the game has classes) and later on gain some points each level up.

Furthermore they can usually be enhanced in some way by attributes, equipment, consumables etc.

There’s a lot of different skill systems in RPGs, with the most extensive ones belonging to the TTRPGs, as it’s a lot easier to implement these within a pen and paper game.

What types of skills are there?

While there can be literally hundreds of skills if one wishes to give players a ridiculous amount of options, there are certain “groups” of skills that are quite often used in the majority of RPG titles.

Skill groups such as:

• Social - Anything that deals with people or creatures that are smart enough to communicate with the party/hero. These include trading as well.
• Crafting - Being able to manipulate various resources to create new weapons, armour, simple tools or even creating structures if the game allows it.
• Combat - How well you handle your weapon and anything that aids you in combat. From weapons to defensive equipment and everything that makes fighting more efficient.
• Healing - Anything that helps with keeping characters/NPCs alive and healthy. Could go as far as being able to perform surgery or even adding prosthetics/implants.
• Survival - Being able to survive in any environment, including scavenging for resources and being able to create basic life necessities. Can overlap with crafting.
• Skullduggery - Doing unsavoury things like thievery, assassinations, breaking into places etc. A rogue class primary skill set.
• Acrobatics/Athletics - Anything to do with mobility and physical activities, jumping, climbing, lifting heavy things etc. 
• Vehicle handling/animal care - How well you’re able to fly your spaceship, ride your horse or drive your car. Pretty straightforward, usually involves some sort of animal care/maintenance stuff.
• Magic/psionics/supernatural - Depending on the setting, these are focused on the fantasy/supernatural aspect of the game. Spells, psychic powers, other supernatural stuff and everything in between.

This list could go on for quite a while and there could be more in depth and complex skills included in each group but it should give you a general understanding of the most common groups in an RPG. 

Tabletop RPG vs Role-Playing video game skill systems

As mentioned before, there’s a bit of a difference between skills that you’d see in a TTRPG and a video game. 

Even if it’s a video game within a TTRPG franchise like Dungeons and Dragons, there are certain… limitations when it comes to adding the same number of skills and their application into the video game format.

Let’s try to break it down a bit!

Tabletop RPG

TTRPGs have a lot more freedom due to the presence of the omnipotent, omniscient Dungeon Master (Narrator, Storyteller, Game Master the names change but the function remains). 

The DM hosts a game in the system he wishes to and can further tinker and modify it as they see fit (and whether the players agree to it). Plus, any skill can be applied in a multitude of ways if the player gives a sufficiently reasonable argument as to why a certain skill is applicable in the scenario.

For example, attempting to detect what kind of poison an NPC was afflicted with you could skill check with herbalism/alchemy, local lore, rumour gathering or maybe even find out who the potential attacker was and persuade/bluff antidote out of them! 

After all, TTRPG is an interactive storytelling experience, things can change on the go depending on how the players perform and how far the DM pushes them. Thinking about potential options is part of the fun!

Role-Playing Video Game

When it comes to a role-playing video game, everything needs to be programmed and taken into account, since balanced PvE design is quite complex. 

You want to lockpick the door? No problem. Do you want to blow up or smash the door? Better hope that developers added that option!

Every skill already has a “set” use in certain scenarios, which makes them rather inflexible (depending on how far ahead the game developers planned things out of course!).

Also, the skills are a lot more limited for that reason.

It’s not impossible to find a video game with a highly developed skills system but they tend to be mostly indie titles with very long development time.

Some MMORPGs with open worlds tend to add quite a lot of skills for players to grind to keep them entertained as well.

What makes a good skill system in an RPG?

There’s no one sure way that will satisfy everyone unfortunately since some prefer an extensive list of skills to give them lots of freedom and choices, while others prefer a more trimmed down version to include the important parts that don’t require an actual manual everytime you want to climb a tree or persuade an angry mob.

If it’s a TTRPG, it can be tailored by the DM or simply adjusted during the session, if it’s
a video game it’s usually set in stone (unless some VERY dedicated modders create some cool mods).

The best systems are the ones that give some room to adjust or modify but also don’t force the players to choose only a very class relevant group of skills, while being completely useless in everything else. Though it’s probably not AS important within party based games, where you can actually hyper specialise each member.

All in all, it’s quite a task for both game devs and DMs.

Is there a best RPG skill system?

As with many things, it’s a matter of personal preference, do you prefer freedom at the cost of having your character hyper specialise into few specific skills? 

Or do you like to have less choices but be able to perform decently in a lot more fields?

Both the large number of skills and the small number of skills systems can be enjoyable if done right.

With the latter being more popular, since it doesn’t require much learning or knowledge from the players.

Weapon crafting is easier to understand than let say… blacksmithing(1) with smelting(2) on top of weapon knowledge(3) just to be able to craft a weapon.

Sometimes less can be more but it will probably be simplified.

So, again, personal preference is the key when deciding which system works best for you.

Skill systems in RPGs FAQ

What RPG has the most skills?

While finding a specific RPG would be pretty hard, it’s definitely going to be a tabletop RPG, as they don’t require complex coding and implementation into the game engine.

What is the difference between skills and abilities RPG?

Abilities are usually a bonus “traits” that characters unlock through levelling up or special events/items during playthrough, these can empower characters in various ways.

Skills focus on how well characters handle certain tasks or combat to tackle various challenges. Today they tend to be a lot more interchangeable though.