From:	markus.widmer@******.at (Markus Widmer)
Subject:	Skill packages
Date:	Wed, 28 May 2003 11:24:47 +0200

Penta John C wrote:

> An idea I remember from the old MechWarrior RPG. Never actually
played
> a game with it, but I reemember it. Anyhow, they had a neat thing
for
> character creation: The concept of skills packages to represent,
say, a
> college education, an advanced military training course, and so
forth.
> Wonder if people could do that here. Define a list of skills, and
> levels.

Sounds a lot like character classes in Call of Cthulhu or Warhammer
Fantasy Role-Play. They work with a compromise between
character-class-systems like D&D and point-based systems like
Shadowrun. With your character's profession or career comes a set of
skills associated with the particular experienced gathered in training
and practice. None of these systems, however, have fixed skill levels
for the different skills in a set. I don't know the MechWarrior RPG,
though.

A list of skills associated with a particular job or background might
be helpful for new players generating a character, or for GMs looking
for NPC templates. I wouldn't propose skill sets as a knew system of
character generation, though. It is more work, but also more fun, for
the GM to put the players through the process of justifying each of
their skills with an appropriate element of their character
backgrounds. It's the definite mechanism against munchkins.

Markus