OD&D for Star Wars - Skills

[Deleted]

Just using the word "Skills" will automatically bring up reactions in people so I should probably call this "How to Resolved Non-Combat Actions".

There are several OSR sci-fi games and their approach to skills fall into two groups: A set of skills based on their class and level, or a number of skill points that can be used to buy skills. These types of systems were great for more Star Trek themed games, where each character has different strengths and all have to work together. But, Star Wars isn't quite like that. Look at Luke, Leia, Han, & Chewie. The can all fix stuff, fly stuff, and shoot .... well, they're all pretty bad shots. This is why I'm leaning away from class-based skills.

In my fantasy gaming, I use an archetype-based skill system. The characters define what their characters is (forex a fighter could be a barbarian, knight, swashbuckler, etc) and gain a bonus to rolls when their actions match their archetype. Unfortunately, I can't really figure out a natural set of archetypes for the SW universe.

All this makes me think of Peter Gaylord's old Blackmoor character sheet. Here, a character's skills and ability scores are listed together and use the same point scale. This seems like a good way to things. The end result is that a character will have a mix of physical attributes (strength, Dex, etc) as well as various talents (flying, fixing, etc). I'll treat them exactly the same in resolution (making a Strength test will use the same rolls as making a Flying test).

I still haven't decided how to generate such characters although I'm leaning towards different die rolls based on the character's race/background in a manner similar to Runequest. I'm also unsure just how much a character's level will figure into the various tests.

[snorri]

You could choose five basics skills (pilot, mechanician, escape...) and use the save mechanics as skills.

[Finarvyn]

I ran an OD&D Star Wars campaign in the 1970's and used a class-based system. I tried to imagine what typical characters of each class could do and decided to "wing it" from there. I assumed that pretty much anyone could be a basic pilot, for example, the same way that pretty much anyone today can drive a car.

I'm not opposed to having skills, but in general I prefer not to bother with too many of the detals. You might look at the Castles & Crusades RPG (or Amazing Adventures) for inpiration. Check out how each class has a couple of special things it can do, and how the SIEGE engine is used to determine success. It also factors in level. C&C has a pretty elegant system, IMO, which is very old-school D&D compatible.