GS: TTRPG - Expertise and Mastery (Patreon)

I think I forgot to explain these in a previous post. They aren't that complicated and probably don't deserve their own post, but I meant to include them on one of the previous posts and probably forgot because the posts were long enough already. Because they're getting their own post now though, you better believe I am going to blather endlessly about them both!

These two parts of the character sheet are my answer to skills. I've seen a lot of newbies get completely overwhelmed by the stunning array of skills in games like D&D and WoD, and frankly, in most games I played, at least half of those skills NEVER get used anyway. So I opted to do something different. (Which shouldn't surprise any of you at this point, I'm such a contrarian, DOWN WITH THE (TYPICAL TTRPG) SYSTEM). Now I know this is by no means unique, I've seen stuff like this in some other systems, but I feel like it's a much better approach to skills or knowledge than having 20 niche skills when you most commonly use five of them.

Expertise

Expertise is a representation of your character's... well... expertise. It is a broad category that represents what that character knows or is best at, based on what they do to survive or get by. It could be a passion, a profession, a hobby, or a field of knowledge. And you can have up to two categories of Expertise at one time. (I do allow forgetting one and replacing with another, at the cost of time and training up the new level of ability, but a character can maintain two at any one time, max). Expertise might be something like Trader, Mercenary, Tinker, Navigator, Bandit, Bodyguard, Socialite, Entertainer, Apothecary, Hunter, Soldier, Tanner, Doctor.

While Expertise is meant to represent a broad category of skills, something like a Jack-of-all-Trades Expertise simply isn't allowed. When someone spreads themselves thin across multiple disciplines, they usually end up being about average at everything, so Expertise wouldn't apply. It's meant to be something your character has devoted themselves to enough to be pretty practiced and knowledgeable in the field above the average.

Using your Expertise is as simple as deciding whether it applies to the current check or not. If it does, your levels in Expertise (which range from 1 to whatever, it's soft-capped) can be used to pay down Threat further than simply using your Attributes. If it does not apply, then they cannot be used.

When choosing an Expertise, I want players to think of both the obvious and less obvious uses of it.

So for example, Riley's Expertise could be Tinker. There's obvious uses of that, her Expertise might help her any time she's working with Ancestor tech, building things mechanically or working with electronics, fixing things, inventing new things. There's also less obvious uses of it as well, however, where having tons of knowledge of physics and mechanical engineering might be applied situationally in social, trade, and exploration checks. I wouldn't imagine a Tinker to be very adept at socializing with others generally, except in cases where the main topic is, say, the construction and many uses of say, a waterwheel.

Likewise, someone who has an Expertise in Banditry might be particularly adept at moving stealthily, picking pockets, or getting into places where they don't belong, obviously, but it might also apply when intimidating traders, negotiating with other ne'er-do-wells, memorizing guard patrols, etc.

Mastery

Mastery is the one thing your character excels at above all others. It is a narrow, very specific skill you have mastered. It is the one thing in all the world that your character can claim to be a true Grandmaster of. Your character can have only one Mastery, though I allow switching it, via a long training montage or by negotiating with/sucking up to the GM if you ended up choosing one that just hasn't come up even once all campaign long.

Where Expertise is meant to cover a broad category of skills, Mastery is more like one specific skill. Examples might include Picking Pockets, Picking Locks, Moving Silently, Fixing Tech, Bouldering, Intimidation, Mixing Medicine, Seduction, Dancing, Surgery, Armorsmithing, Weaponsmithing, etc. I'm even considering allowing something like Shooting or Sniping with a very specific kind of Ranged Weapon, though that'll require testing.

The reason why it needs to be such a narrow, specific skill is because your character CANNOT FAIL a check to which their Mastery applies. You roll as normal, and if you fail to pay down Threat, no matter the margin, so long as that check falls under the purview of your Mastery, it counts as, at worst, a Partial or Complicated Success. Even if you roll a 19 on Threat and you can only pay it down by 7, that remaining 12 Threat just goes away and you get to have a Complicated Success anyway.

Mastery is the sort of thing that shouldn't come up very often, at most once or twice per Scene. There's probably an argument to be made that in many cases a Player shouldn't even bother rolling if their Mastery applies. When faced with a task they are a master of, they should probably just be allowed to succeed at it. This probably mostly depends on whether or not the GM has a good idea for what their Complicated Success might be.

Also, I think simply writing the word "Seduction" flagged this post as "we detected language possibly violating our community guidelines because PORNOGRAPHIC." Yet again probably wasting the time of some poor Patreon employee who has to review this post now. We live in a world where a basic combination of letters might be PORNOGRAPHIC. While I don't blame Patreon for having to comply with completely braindead laws and rules, I hate our world today.