In Fudge, for which FATE is an implementation, the skill list is an important part of the setting; what skills are present tell you the sort of things characters are expected to be able to do, and the sorts of things which will be important in the game.
The current draft Skill List has 45 skills. While I’ve trimmed it down quite a bit from earlier versions, which owed a lot to my fifteen-year old GURPS version of the setting, I still feel this is too many for a FATE implementation, which relies on much broader skills.
Thoughts are:
- Get rid of Gambling – since Thlan (a chess-like game whose rules are unspecified) fills the same in-game niche. If we still want games of chance or gambling dens, fold into Streetwise (for lower-class games) or Kandar Social Graces (for upper class ones)
- Merge Brawling and Kandar Fu into a generic Unarmed Combat skill. Having these as separate skills was never any more than colour.
- Merge Art, Music and Performance into a single skill, with specialisations.
- I’ve considered merging Nobility and Rank, since they’re functionally almost identical, but I can see too many character concepts wanting both.
- Make Artillery a specialisation of Missile Combat?
- A catch-all “Profession()” for any profession where the primary skills aren’t covered by any other skill, and isn’t a craft. That will replace things like Agriculture.
- Do we need Animal Handling? In my largely urban-based games it’s not something that’s ever come up, and none of my 30+ player characters have ever taken the skill. The sort of thing that could be rolled into professional skills for people like stablehands or farmers?
- Area Knowledge. Fold into Streetwise (for urban areas) or Survival (for wilderness areas)?
Can you suggest any more?