Looking for a skill based rpg.

[S@tanicoaldo]

So I want to get a little away from D&D now that my group is going to make a pause (Weddings and babies and real life stuff) and only come back march I want to get familiar with some new systems, one of my players gave me some savage world books as a gift but I was looking for something different, maybe something skill based rather than stat based.

Any ideas?

[Thrudd]

Most "skill based" systems I can think of also have "stats" of some kind that contribute to the skills. But I'm guessing you mean things not so much like D&D, which I'd say is "combat based" rather than "stat based" (which is a huge list of games). What type of setting are you thinking of? Do you want a generic system or a system that is built for a certain genre or style of playing?

D6 is a generic system that's free - there's a universal system, with books for modern, fantasy and science fiction. Skills are assigned a number of d6's that you roll to meet difficulty numbers.

GURPS is another generic that is a universal system, with many different setting books full of optional skills and equipment for different types of settings. There are attributes with several scores derived from them, but the basics are you roll 3d6 and try to roll under your skill value.

[weckar]

Do you mean 'player skill' based? As in, the skill of the players determines the outcome more than the characters' stats?

[noob]

Do you mean 'player skill' based? As in, the skill of the players determines the outcome more than the characters' stats?

Dnd is a lot skill based.
If you know how to use forgery to destroy a kingdom and have an army defending you at all times then you are not a good dnd player.

[Knaight]

I'd call SW pretty skill based - it has stats, but they're eclipsed by skills in importance. With that said, it's easy to move further in that direction. GURPS is yet more skill based, Fudge doesn't actually require attributes at all, etc. I've stuck to generics thus far, but if you want something with some setting the options expand. Personal recommendations include Warbirds, REIGN (although the stats there are a bit more important), the Ubiquity line of games, and Terra Incognita.

[S@tanicoaldo]

Do you mean 'player skill' based? As in, the skill of the players determines the outcome more than the characters' stats?

No, for exemple I want to explode a wall, istead of using "Int" stat to check how to roll i ahve to use my "explosives skill score" to know how much I have to roll. Something like that.

[Florian]

No, for exmeple I want to explode a wall, istead of using "Int" stat to check how to roll i ahve to use my "explosives skill score" to know how much I have to roll. Something like that.

Ah, you´re playing D&D 5E?

Most of the d100-based game systems make heavy use of more finely granulated skills. Maybe look at Chaosiums Basic RPG and its siblings.

[Becca Stareyes]

As someone mentioned, FATE/Fudge is heavily skill-based, though you may want to find either a worldbook or a game that runs on the Fate system to get an idea about how that works. Granted, for FATE, the skill system can be loosened up enough so that essentially is a stats based system, or run as a skills-based system. (The Fate Freeport Companion essentially does this to model D&D fantasy -- you have six skills that match up to the D&D six attributes; meanwhile the Dresden Files RPG keeps more traditional skills, but still has the magic-casting fun time.)

The Planet Mercenary RPG uses skills as its core 'this is what your characters can do', but I don't know how you feel about a media tie-in RPG when you don't know the media in question. Anyway, it's comedy space-opera about playing officers in a mercenary company. (Players pick a race, a 'command package' (what they do for the company) and a background that all give ranks in either specific skills or 'pick one from this group', and then get extras to customize the character. Advancement is done via adding skills. Races can also give skill penalties and a few abilities that aren't modeled by skills. For instance, uplifted elephants get a few skills (Athletics, Endurance, Perception, a free skill speciality (Athletics: Run), and a penalty to Dodge because elephants are not known for being small and nimble, and the note that their trunks can act as a third hand with limited dexterity).)

[Chogokin]

For me, one of the go-to skill-based games is the Basic Roleplaying System. This used to be Chaosium's house engine, powering everything from Call of Cthulhu to Stormbringer. It got a little more open-source when Mongoose Publishing started publishing Runequest II material, and I believe they are still using it for their Legend rules. A couple of other iterations of it are the Mythras rules from The Design Mechanism and OpenQuest by D101 games.

Back in the day, I used to do a fair amount of gaming with GURPS, but I never got on board with the current 4th edition. Still, may well be worth checking out. They've got a new Dungeon Fantasy set that's kind of tempting.

A fairly new company that's doing a lot of licensed games is Modiphius, which offers the 2d20 system. They've got a lot of settings in their portfolio now, from Conan for fantasy, to post-apocalypse, to science fiction. I've picked up the Infinity rules, which is one of their sci-fi licenses, and it looks pretty neat, definitely something I want to try playing if I can get a group for it.

For lighter games, there is the BASH! system from Basic Action Games, mostly known for superheroes, but they've got fantasy and sci-fi, including a really neat sourcebook for doing swords and sorcery games. I would also recommend Advanced Fighting Fantasy, from Arion Games. It uses a version of the rules system from the Fighting Fantasy game books, modified for tabletop play.

Hope that helps!

[Knaight]

I suspect you'd like GURPS - it's no heavier than Palladium (which I vaguely remember you saying you like), and it's a very solid system for people who like a high level of crunch.