The skill system used by Palladium Books has a number of problems. Skills are presented as being needed to perform certain actions, but individual descriptions and titles are misleading as a person without the skill "Cook" can still prepare a meal, just not one of exceptional quality. Furthermore, actions that use these skills that should be routine could require a skill roll, such as for Pilot: Automobile. Generally speaking, under normal circumstances, a person should not "fail" to drive a car down the street. This particular issue is addressed in some places by stating that skills should be rolled only under extreme circumstances. Using Pilot: Automobile as an example, the skill would only be rolled when the car was being used for extreme conditions, not everyday ones. However, this rule is not specifically stated at the start of most skill sectiona and while it makes sense, it is not clearly stated which skills should always be rolled and which should be rolled only under extreme conditions.
Further problems with the Palladium Books skill section is the inclusion of obvious skills, such as Math: Basic, and the exclusion of a basic skill list, which would be skills that every character has. Why is Math: Basic even a skill? Why does it even have a chance of success? Even worse, why burder players with playing characters that cannot even add 1+1? A list of skills known by every character could vary from setting to setting, but it helps eliminate a need to have every class or every race have Language: Native (98%) in each and every entry.
Skills are rolled based on a percentile system which may seem like a good idea, but it becomes nonsensical when skills reach over 100% chance of success, which often occurs as characters get to higher levels. Palladium Books's method of handling this is to cap all skills at 98%, always leaving some chance of error, which simply forces players to always roll whenever they use their skills, instead of just letting them succeed if they are that good at a particular skill. The rules are also silent on how to combine percentages above 100% with penalties: are the penalties applied before or after the skill is shifted to 98%? The IQ attribute is also used poorly for skills as the +1% to all skills from an IQ of 17 is far less useful then the +1 to damage from a PS of 17, the +1 to strike, parry, and dodge from a PP of 17, and even the +1 to save vs. psionics and insanity from an ME of 17. A +1 modifier on a strike roll or a savings throw would be equivalent to a +5% modifier, making them far more important. Aside from meeting minimum IQ attribute requirements for specific classes there is very little incentive to have a high IQ attribute. This document presents a series of optional rules that can be used together or individually to address some of the problems outlined above.
In the original rules, a character improves in all skills they know each time they reach a new level of experience. While this may seem acceptable, it is not very interesting. This rule seeks to add some interesting choices for a player when his or her character reaches a new level and add a use for the IQ attribute other than an initial skill boost applied to all skills.
Character's no longer automatically improve all skills when they advance to a new level, instead they gain a number of percentages that they can divide however they see fit amoung the skills they know. The number of percentages that a character gains per level is entirely based on a character's IQ attribute. For each IQ attribute point a character has, they gain 3 skill percentage points. For example, a character with an IQ attribute of 11 would gain 33 skill percentage points. Having an exceptionally high IQ, above 16, still provides an IQ bonus to skills, but instead of applying the skill bonus as listed in the book when the character first learns the skill, increase a character's available skill percentage points per level by that number. For example, a character with an IQ attribute of 18 would receive 58 skill percentage points per level (18x3 = 54 + 4 = 58) that can then be divided amoungst the skills he knows.
Unfortunately, a player cannot simply pore all those points into one skill during a single level, instead each skill has a maximum percentage for any given level of experience. This maximum percentage level can easily be determined from the book using the original rules for skill advancement. For example, if a skill had a base percentage of 40% and +5% per level of experience, this would mean that the maximum percentage it could be at level three would be 55%. The player could boost the skill by 5% per level or the player could skip that skill for several levels and then boost that skill by a lot at one time.
Skills that are composed of multiple sub-skills, such as Gymnastics or Lore: Magic, must have each sub-skill boosted independently. Skills without percentages, such as Weapon Proficiencies, Hand-to-Hand Combat skills, and many Physical Skills, do not need percentage points, so they are unaffected by this optional rule. Finally, any skill percentage points that are not spent when a character gains a new level are lost.
This optional rule has a big advantage of allowing different classes to focus on different strengths. Warrior-type classes that have only a few skills do not usually require a high intelligence, and this is reflected in how many skill percentage points that player gains each level of experience, while at the same time, scholar classes with lots of skills are generally smarter and have a higher IQ attribute, which neatly translates into more skill percentage points. This system does pose a disadvantage for characters with a lower IQ, but it is more realistic as it creates a better gap in the capabilities of smart characters compared to those with a lower IQ attribute.
This optional rule allows the skill system for resolving skills to be replaced with one that makes in a lot of ways. Currently, under the system used by Palladium Books, skills have a certain percentage chance of being successful, such as 55%. When performing that skill, the player or GM rolls a percentile and a roll from 01-55 means the skill was successfully used, while a roll of 56 to 00 means the use of the skill failed. This system may seem effective, but it can create bad impressions when skill percentages begin to exceed 100% once a character reaches higher levels.
When using this optional rule requires changing how skills are recorded. Instead of simply recording the static percentage of a skill, such as 55%, and then modifying that skill with applicable penalties or bonuses, a skill roll modifier is recorded. This modifier is determined by combining all modifiers to a skill, from levels of experience to classes to IQ attribute. These modifiers are recorded as +X and are used to modify a roll on a d100 (percentile dice). The roll, plus the modifiers, are combined and compared against a number that represents the difficulty of successfully performing a skill. A roll, with modifiers, that meets or exceeds the difficulty number is considered to be successful.
To determine the number that needs to be rolled to see if a skill is successful is a two step process. The first step requires calculating the normal difficulty of performing a skill, which is determined by taking 100 and subtracting the skill's base chance of success. For example, if a skill had a base chance of 30%, then the base difficulty of the skill would be 70 (100 - 30 = 70). This base difficulty can then be modified by the GM based on the circumstances. For example, working with alien or unfamiliar technology often carries a penalty of -40%, which would translate into an increase of +40 to the base difficulty. For example, a fifth level character under the original skill resolution system with a skill with a base chance of 35%, a bonus of +5% per level of experience, a class bonus of +15%, and no IQ bonus, that is trying to use that skill on alien technology would have a modifier of +40 (+15 +5x5 = +40) and would have to beat a difficulty number of 105 (100 - 35 +40 = 105), so the character would have to roll a 65 or better on the d100 to successfully use the skill.
This system could be further reduced to being based on a d20 roll instead of a d100, but that would require adapting skills that have use base chances and modifiers that are not divisible by 5. It is much harder to change a skill that looks like 13% +1% per level into a d20 base roll then a skill that looks like 45% +5% per level. The advantage of this optional way of handling skill resolution is that it easily adapts to skills with over 100% and eliminates the necessity of having a cap of 98% on all skill use. For example, if a character is such a genius at electical system that he can understand and work with completely alien systems with high success, he should be even better on more familiar electrical systems, but under the original resolution system, they both might have a 98% chance of success. One of the main advantages of this system is that it allows high level characters to perform routine tasks, such as the Basic Mechanics skill, on familiar material, without having to make a roll, since with their modifiers even rolling a 01 on a d100 will still result in success.
Some skills seem like they lend themselves to being used against other skills, but the Palladium Books system has no way of handling that. For example, Detect Ambush is used to both set up an ambush and detect one and concealment is directly opposed by detect concealment. However, with the skill resolution system in place, it seems that trying to set up an ambush or conceal something is doubly hard. Of the four possibilies (roll to Conceal succeeds or fails combined with the roll to Detect Concealments succeeds or fails), there is three combinations that will lead to the object not being concealed, only a successful Concealment roll and a failed Detect Concealment roll means the object is concealed. This weighs things heavily in favour of detecting concealment, ambushes, or similar activities. This optional rule seeks to address this issue and that of other obviously opposed skills by adapting the optional rule presented above for Skill Resolution.
Using the skill resolution optional rule, characters determine a modifier on their rolls, such as +40, and each character with an opposed skill has such a modifier for their skill. Instead of comparing against a base difficulty to determine success or failure, characters instead roll a d100 and apply their modifiers and whoever has the highest total number is the victor of the opposed skills. For example, if a character with a Concealment skill modifier of +35 was trying to conceal an object from a character with a Detect Concealmean skill modifier of +25, both characters would roll a d100, add their modifiers and if the concealing character's result was higher, then the object is concealed, but if the other character's result was higher, then the attempt to conceal the object was detected. Ties should go to the players in any opposed skill.GMs and players should be able to determine which skills should be used with this optional rule, but one important skill to mention is Prowl. Prowl should obviously be used as an opposed skill, but what skill does it oppose? Introduced in Nightbane was a feature called Perception, which allowed characters to notice things. It was used like a savings throw with a base of 14 and characters received a bonus to their perception rolls as they grew in experience. This feature would be perfect to oppose skills such as Prowl or Pick Pocket, and even Concealment, Detect Ambush, and a number of related skills. Unfortunately, Perception used a base d20 instead of a percentile like normal skills. If you wish to use Perception to oppose skills, then simply roll a d100 instead of a d20, ignore the base chance of success, since it is only used for opposed rolls, and multiple any bonuses a character might have to his or her perception rolls by x5 to get the modifier, and don't forget to add any IQ attribute bonus to the final result. For example, a Human with an average IQ and a bonus of +3 to his Perception rolls would have a modifier of +15 when using Perception as an opposed skill. It is recommended that Perception is allowed to be used if a character does not have the appropriate opposed skill or if Perception's bonus was higher then the actual opposed skill. Perception should only be used when it is applicable to the situation, so it could help against Concealment, but not with a Radio: Scrambler skill opposed by a decoding skill.
How does someone fail to add two numbers together? Ask the Palladium Books skill system. Using the rules as presented in the book, any time a character wants to add 1+1 together, that character would have to roll a Math: Basic skill check. This, of course, makes no sense and I highly doubt anyone actually plays Math: Basic in that way. In fact, it has been stated by official Palladium Books employees that most skills should only be rolled when doing something extraordinary and does not always reflect what a character can and cannot do. For example, a character without Cooking can still cook, just not at five star restaurant quality, a character without Pilot: Automobile can still drive, just cannot perform fancy car maneuvers without losing control, and a character without Computer Operation can, presumably, still turn on a computer and check his or her email. If this is all true, why even give most of those skills percentages? With some skills, they should always have percentage skills, such as using Pilot: Jet to maintain control while performing a complex aerial maneuver and Basic Mechanics to actually fix something, but what does it mean when a character fails the Computer Operation skill? Does the computer explode?
This optional rule introduces a list of skills from across the Palladium Books settings that are considered to be Static Skills, that is skills that do not have a percentile associated with them. This concept is already used by Palladium Books for weapon proficiencies, the Sniper skill, the Hunting skill, and the majority of the Physical skills. This optional rule simply expands the list of these skills to include such mundane skills as Computer Operation and Radio: Basic.
A character with any skill that is considered to be a Static Skill does not need to keep track of its percentage chance of success since any use of it is considered to be successfull. Once a character has Computer Operation, that character can perform all of the tasks listed under the skill's description without chance of failure. Due to the automatic success nature of this optional rule, the number of new Static Skills was kept purposely small and the skills listed were chosen because the result of failure was so insignificant as to make the result of the percentile meaningless.