Symmetrical? Ambivalent? Not sure what the best term is for this idea, but here’s the idea.
Problem: Too many skills on the character sheet.
What’s the difference between Perception, Investigation and Insight? Am I Deceiving or just Negotiating? What skill does my opponent roll to oppose me?
How many skills should an RPG have, anyway? Does it need skills at all?
You can certainly role-play without skills on your character sheet. Some games only have ability scores. Ghost/Echo has no ability scores but has one skill per character (“the thing you’re good at”). Do skills make the game fun? I’m going to say: yes. It’s more than just getting a bonus. The fun is in playing to your strengths: choosing your character’s actions to bring those bonuses into play. A character that’s good at talking their way out of things is going to approach a situation differently than a character that’s good at fighting. That’s role-playing, and that’s what we’re all here for.
But you can definitely have too many skills in a game. I’m looking at you, Call of Cthulhu (you too, Trail).
Solution: Symmetrical Skills
When someone tries to Deceive you, what do you roll to oppose that? You roll your Deception skill. When you try to Sneak in, which of the enemy’s skills are you rolling against? Their Sneak. The idea is, if you’re good at something, then you’re good at sensing or opposing when someone else does it.
This should cut the number of skills roughly in half, right? You only need Sneak, not Sneak and Perception. You only need Deception, not Deception and Insight.
The One-To-Many Problem
I’ve already thought of a problem with this approach. If I’m Negotiating with someone, I don’t know whether they’re Negotiating or Deceiving. We could end up rolling Negotiation vs. Deception. Actually, is that a problem? It is if I rolled Negotiation but my Deception bonus is actually better. Maybe I just roll the dice and the GM picks which of my skill bonuses applies? Sounds like that would slow the game down. And wouldn’t work in a dice-pool game.
If I’m searching a room, should I roll Stealth vs. the hypothetical GM character(s) who might be hiding from me or might have hidden some object from me? But what if there’s nothing hidden here and I’m just trying to notice details of what’s in the room? Maybe we still need a Perception skill. Or maybe the GM will just take my flat roll and ignore my Deception skill bonus.
I think the idea of a symmetrical skill system has promise, but needs work.
Outside The Red Box 