Schtick Skill: That Thing You Do

[Boll Weevil]

It seems every time I find a novel way of doing something, Herodome Assembled points me to a paragraph I had not seen before in the rules that already exists, and does it better. It's not that I can't read the entire text myself but I have the attention span of a...uh...sorry, the printer light was flashing.

 

I like the idea of buying a skill called Schtick. In our campaigns, each character fills a particular niche like "electronics guy" or "detective" or "scary monster". These characters are built with the requisite skills to make them proficient in these areas. I like that you can use complementary skills together to fill in the cracks. When all else fails, there is Schtick. This is the Skill roll you do to perform them all together to do That Thing You Do. For instance, Scotty from Star Trek. Ever episode he saves the ship, not necessarily with his Engineering roll or his Starship Systems Operations roll but with his Scotty, Press Buttons Until The Reactor Core Stops Leaking skill. Not to be overused, this skill roll describes your character's ability to perform actions that only he/she can do to tell the story. I never use it for villains. It's sole purpose is to smooth out the Skills set to make the campaign PC's the best at what they do.

 

What do you think? Do any of you GMs use a similar tool to reflect this?

[Kevin Schultz]

Re: Schtick Skill: That Thing You Do

 

I use a variation of the Skill frameworks from Ultimate Skill for this: a given skill framework gives you 1 point in every single possible thing that could ever be associated with the framework: contacts, weapon familiarities, background skills, normal skills, etc. A focused framework (New York teenager) will cost 3 points; a broad one (FBI agent) costs 5.

 

Basically, this gives you an 8- roll to do anything you didn't specifically spend points on in the framework. You can increase that skill by purchasing skill levels: 3 points per level for the focued one, or 5 points per level for the larger one. This does not affect CV, but it does affect everything else.

[Boll Weevil]

Re: Schtick Skill: That Thing You Do

 

I have put off buying the Ultimate Skill. Perhaps it is time

[Enforcer84]

Re: Schtick Skill: That Thing You Do

 

When the Student is Ready, the Book will appear in his purchase queue.

[SCUBA Hero]

Re: Schtick Skill: That Thing You Do

 

I don't know if it's in the books or not, but a variation of this came up on the boards a while back... trying to convert something from one of the Star Wars systems.

 

Basically, buy +10 (or however many you want) Skill Levels or Penalty Skill levels with the relevant Skill, and slap on 1 Charge (or however many you want). The idea being that the character is that good, but can't go around constantly being at his peak.

 

So:

 

Dammit, Scotty, I Need Power Now!!! +10 with Engineering (30); One Charge (-2). Total cost: 10 points.

[Metaphysician]

Re: Schtick Skill: That Thing You Do

 

Alternatively, instead of a charge, you could have a large number of skill levels, with some kind of conditional limit.

 

For example, +10 Overall, Only When DNPC is in Danger, Only for Tasks That Help Get DNPC Out of Danger. Whatever you are normally, you suddenly become an unstoppable force of nature when your love interest is threatened.

[Hyper-Man]

Re: Schtick Skill: That Thing You Do

 

When the Student is Ready' date=' the Book will appear in his purchase queue.[/quote']

 

Yes Grasshopper.

[mattingly]

Re: Schtick Skill: That Thing You Do

 

There's a Power skill that can be used for nifty poewr tricks, like sharpshooting, brick tricks, and energy expertise. I see no problem in using it for skills, in addition to powers. If Caotain CSI has spent 30 points in Deduction, Criminology, KSes, and SSes, go ahead and buy him Power Skill (CSI) for use in those rare cases where one of his normal skills doesn't cover the situation at hand.

[Boll Weevil]

Re: Schtick Skill: That Thing You Do

 

Unless your CSI character puts all his Power Skill (CSI) into his

.

[Trebuchet]

Re: Schtick Skill: That Thing You Do

 

Unless your CSI character puts all his Power Skill (CSI) into his

.

CSI: Miami isn't real CSI; it's more of a Miami Vice retread.

 

Coming this fall from CBS - CSI: Miami Vice - David Caruso as Don Johnson as Detective James 'Sonny' Crockett

[Lucius]

Re: Schtick Skill: That Thing You Do

 

I tend to use Professional Skill for this.

If you have PS: Detective, and something comes up that's not directly covered by by Criminology, Streetwise, Deduction, etc. you can roll your PS for it.

 

Lucius Alexander

 

In this case, PS is not Palindromedary Stuff

[SCUBA Hero]

Re: Schtick Skill: That Thing You Do

 

Alternatively, instead of a charge, you could have a large number of skill levels, with some kind of conditional limit.

 

For example, +10 Overall, Only When DNPC is in Danger, Only for Tasks That Help Get DNPC Out of Danger. Whatever you are normally, you suddenly become an unstoppable force of nature when your love interest is threatened.

:nods:

 

"He called the Enterprise a garbage scow!"

[Killer Shrike]

Re: Schtick Skill: That Thing You Do

 

I use Skills like this often, particularly in Supers and other less realistic genres. The problem is its cool when Im the GM, but on the rare occasion that Im a player I find other GM's to be more hidebound and not allow such things. I find it particularly useful for master villains who are supposed to be a challenge for multiple PC's and also story drivers. It doesnt make sense for the entire plot or encounter to fall apart just because I failed to predict a particularly esoteric skill would be circumstantially necessary when I designed the character sometime months previously. Most GM's just wing it anyway, but I figure you might as well just spell it out on the sheet.

 

A character I've recently used it on is Ing. He has:

 

10 AK: Every Area He Reasonably Could Have Been To (INT-based) 21-

10 CK: Every City He Reasonably Could Have Been To (INT-based) 21-

10 KS: Everything He Should Reasonably Know (INT-based) 21-

10 SS: Every Science He Should Reasonably Know (INT-based) 21-

and +3 OL's

 

Even taking the vague / degree of separation penalties he's good to go. If I had time I could go dig up a few other characters with similar effects.

 

 

This has been a practice of mine (and others) for years, but its been formalized in Ultimate Skill. You should definitely pick up the book if you havent already for this and other neat things you can do with Skills.

[Kevin Schultz]

Re: Schtick Skill: That Thing You Do

 

You can also use a limited form of the "Universal X" construct this way; Universal FBI Agent 15-, Universal Ditch-Digger 12-, etc.