skill grouping, another thread Options

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the basic argument is about whether or not grouping vaguely similar skills, such as "all melee attacks" or "nearly every ranged weapon" into single groups is more or less realistic than keeping things relatively discreet--edge weapons as opposed to clubs, rifles as opposed to pistols, etcetera.

my stance is that neither route is truly realistic; true realism, in skills, would require such a horribly complex system that it wouldn't be worth playing, even to me. so shortcuts have to be taken. SR, to pick the system that most users here are familiar with, takes the route of making skills largely discreet; Savage Worlds takes the route of making skills largely grouped. i'm putting this out as a point of reference, not so this can devolve into an "SW's dad can beat up SR's dad" argument--though doubtless, it will.

the reason i believe that grouping skills is a valid approach is that many skills share a large base. the basic tenants of unarmed combat--stance, striking points, blocking, taking hits and not bitching out--are formed on the same principles no matter what style you use, and are also shared with the basic tenants of armed melee combat. if Joe trains in karate for four years, and then he finds himself in a fight where he's armed with a knife, he's going to fuck shit up with that knife. he doesn't need to know any fancy moves, he doesn't have to have trained against knife attacks, he just has to know how to stand and how to throw a punch. is he going to be as good with that knife as someone who's trained with knives for four years? no, and that is where skill groups are admittedly unrealistic.

in a discrete skill system, those basics are ignored--and that is just as unrealistic as the way the grouping system ignores the differences between skill types. to use an extreme example, an SR3 master of kung fu (skill 10) who takes a week of classes in muay thai (skill 1) will suddenly get his ass handed to him by anybody who's got any experience in fighting (say, skill 3+)--as long as the kung fu master tries to use his muay thai. there's no cross-training, no addition of previously-learned principles, no synergy. that's just plain retarded. it's at least as retarded as being able to use a blowgun after training in pistols.