True20 Skills

[Steve Dubya]

Are the way that Skills are assigned ranks in True20 much like the way that they are assigned in "regular" 3.5 D&D, where you have so many Ranks to dish about? That's the way it seems to be reading in the Skill section of the book, but there are parts that seem to be somewhat ambigious.

[Steve Dubya]

I think I found the answer to this here (http://true20.com/files/true20errata.pdf):Page 28: Clarification. Acquiring Skills. Skills for a 1st level character begin at 4 ranks each. This is explicitly stated on page 28 under “Acquiring Skills.”
Hmmmmm. Reading page 28, I'm not seeing where this is "explicitly stated" - the example they give seems to indicate such, but then goes on to describe the more traditional d20 method of parsing out skill ranks with successive levels.

[Jorjowsky]

I'm pretty sure that's how it works, or at least that's how I remember it from reading the book: characters get a few skills at first level, and they're all dead set on 4 ranks. Then, every time you level up, you get skill points that you can distribute however you want (except for the "max ranks in a skill per level" thing, which IIRC depends only on what role you just levelled in).

I'll check the book after I come back from work and see if that's right.

[Enlightened]

I'm pretty sure that's how it works, or at least that's how I remember it from reading the book: characters get a few skills at first level, and they're all dead set on 4 ranks. Then, every time you level up, you get skill points that you can distribute however you want (except for the "max ranks in a skill per level" thing, which IIRC depends only on what role you just levelled in).

I'll check the book after I come back from work and see if that's right.

You are correct.

[Jorjowsky]

Mostly. :) The following quotes are straight from the book: (page references are from the 2006 hardcover edition, the one with the sample settings on the back)

"...the maximum rank a hero can have in any known skill [is] equal to the hero's level + 3." (p.18)

So it's not role-dependant as I said; it just depends on the character's total level. The number of skill ranks you get, however, does depend on the role you just levelled on, as described on p.19-21.

As for the fact that skills start at 4 ranks at first level, it does say so in page 28:

"You choose a certain number of skills your character knows at 1st level, based on your role and Intelligence score. (...) These starting skills begin at four ranks, the maximum rank for 1st level." (Emphasis mine)

It's not until level 2, 3 and so on that you can have skills at different ranks, depending on how you distribute your skill points, just like in regular d20.

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In any case, I agree that the book buries some important information in the middle of dense paragraphs of text rather than presenting it clearly and upfront. As an example, it took me a good while to find the rules regarding levelling up; they could have mentioned them when describing the level-depending benefits in the first chapter (specially since they can be summed up as "characters gain a new level every other adventure"), maybe even in a very brief sidebar, rather than only mentioning it at the end of the rather brief GM advice chapter.