The Fourth Edition of the GURPS Basic Set ditched skills sorted by category for one big alphabetical listing. That has its merits, but I like having categories as well, as a nice way to quickly check whether a character is equipped with the perfect set of skills.
Well, the GURPS folks took care of that wish shortly after the Basic Set‘s first publication with Skill Categories. Compiled by GURPS fan Eric B. Smith, this freebie download brings groupings back to skills.
Now, how about the same for the Dungeon Fantasy Roleplaying Game (DFRPG)? With no official DFRPG take on Skill Categories yet gracing gamers’ tables (or PDF readers), I’ve taken it upon myself to whip up a version for my favorite fantasy RPG. Grab it from the download link below. But first, a few notes:
Notes!
- DFRPG deals in a pared-down subset of the full GURPS skill set, so my document is naturally shorter – a scant two pages, perfect for a front-and-back printed handout. (I’ve included skills’ Attribute and Difficulty, but to keep everything on two pages, I’ve left out the skills’ page numbers in Adventurers.)
- Yeah, I tried to get cute with mimicking the DFRPG look and layout, but don’t go measuring page border dimensions and matching up fonts to see how well I did. I didn’t try that hard.
- Mimicking DFRPG‘s funky page dimensions would also be cute, but with printing in mind, I went with plain ol’ international A4.
- It became quickly clear that perfectly copying the categories from Skill Categories was both difficult and unnecessary. There aren’t enough skills in DFRPG to flesh out categories like DESIGN/INVENTION, NATURAL SCIENCES, and TECHNICAL. Other categories seemed safe to consolidate under new names, and yet others categories I renamed to… well, to yield a better layout when arranged all alphabetically. (Hey, the thing’s free.)
- Some of my categories have a lot of skills, so I’ve subdivided them with subcategories.
- It goes without saying that inclusion in or exclusion from a category is highly subjective! Yes, Acrobatics and Climbing have a game association with thieves, but athletic skills like Running, all combat skills, plenty of business skills, and so on can also be used in heists and the like, yet they can’t all fit under one category. In the end, I had to hew toward selecting skills strongly associated with illegal acts, deception, etc. to put together the category. So: To get the most out of this aid, use your good sense to size up all categories of potential interest to your PC’s design.
- Skill Categories‘ separate CRIMINAL/STREET, POLICE, and SPY categories would seem a good approach in my document, but the lists end up overlapping a lot. While the consolidated CRIMINAL/SPY/STREET category I ended up with is pretty long, subcategories keep the list manageable without lots of space-eating overlap.
- An observation: A nice thing about skill categories is that their relative sizes – as arbitrary as the list lengths may be – offer a peek at where the game places its focus. My big categories are ESOTERIC, CRIMINAL/SPY/STREET, and the collected COMBAT categories. Yep, that’s DFRPG for you: PCs all up in magic and mysticism, shady undertakings, and a whole lot of muscle-powered foe-whacking. (The EXPLORATION/OUTDOOR and SOCIAL categories also make a good showing.)
- A bonus feature: I’ve included off-the-list skills conjured up on Adventurers p. 93 (Housekeeping, Skating, etc.), marked by asterisks.
- Another bonus feature: All skill specialties are named, either in the lists or in the callout box on the second page listing skills with numerous or open-ended specialties. Bonus to the bonus: These include a handful of specialties culled from works in SJG’s DFRPG series other than Adventurers. (There’s a Riding (Frogs) skill? Yep, it’s in print, in Companion 3.)
Here’s something that’s not a feature: This is a quick work (I’m calling it “ver. 0.1; read that as “beta version”), and I’ll bet it contains omissions and/or errors. Do you see any skill I’ve totally dropped? An incorrect Attribute or Difficulty? Presentation-related bugs? A categorization that really, really strikes you as wrong? Leave a comment, or send email to tbone at this site’s domain. Expect small updates for some time.
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Header image: I’m telling you, even Vikings were all about the Boating skill. Vikings! Why do players never want Boating skill?
Northmen Land on Iceland in 872. Oscar A Wergeland, 1877.
