Skills and spells and classes go WAY back, from the earliest days of mudding. Unfortunatly, there are some severe flaws in a strict class based system. For instance, if you are anything but a warrior in Diku, you can't even kick an unconcious mob/player! I mean, we are talking the simple act of "pull foot back, then thrust forward" is beyond the capacity of 75% of the players? So, obviously something needs to be done.

Sloth (now in the third generation) solved this by allowing every character all the classes, but non-primary classes were much harder to advance in. While this makes more sense then Diku (or even DND for that matter) it still has problems with balance, and artificial limits and boosts to try to compensate.

My idea for a solution is to throw out the class system for everything but character creation. Everyone can try to do any skill (within their capability level) but if they havn't learned it, they get a base 1% chance of success. What's this mean? Well, it means that even if you don't know how to "kick" like a fighter does, you still can kick someone sleeping/stunned on the ground (sleep/stunned +90% chance to kick) and you can _try_ to get a boot in the guy you just stunned while still tangling with his buddy (fighting, -25% chance to kick)

Of course, kick is a simple skill, but you see how a sanatized, percentage based system has advantages over the stock method of class and skill.

So, now we know why it needs to change. WHAT does it need to change to?

Good question. The system that makes the most sense, (and has a lot of very interesting possibilites) is the Hierarchy of skills that I am currently developing.

First off, I seperate the skill types, re-defining what classes really mean.

• Etherial (magic user)
• Spiritual (Cleric)
• Physical (Warrior)
• Agile (Thief)

• Stealth (Sneaking, Hiding)
• Projectile (Throw, Fire)
• Defensive Combat (Dodge, Parry, Avoid)
• Combat Accuracy (Enhance damage, find weakness, backstab)
• Observation (Detect Hidden, Evaluate, Notice (things like sneaking into rooms, changing weapon, changing weapon hand, what a key looks like for copying))
• Concentration (Lock picking)

• Endurance (Health, movement points)
• Speed (Movement rate, also used in combat calculations)
• Strength (speaks for itself)
• Combat skills (Hit, Bludgeon, Block, Kick, Bash)
• Misc. physical skills: (Push, Hold (as in restrain))

Of course, some of the skill group concepts obviously need work/redefinition, but you get the idea. However, this isn't exactly what the skill system will be like. The idea is to have "basic" skill types, then combine them.

For instance, combining the ideas "Push" and "Kick" gives you "Trip". "Block" and "Wield" gives you "Parry". "Avoid" and "Place Weapon" gives you "Circle" (Ok, this one needs explanation. "Avoid" is, while in the midst of a Melee, with more people on your "side" to _NOT_ be the one being currently attacked. So, combining the ideas of "Avoid" and "Place weapon for maximum damage" (see why I shortened it) gives you "Circle around the mob, then hit it for maximum damage.)

Then the obvious ones: "Sneak" "Place Weapon": "Backstab"
"Hide" "Sneak" "Hunt": "ShadowWalk"
And of course, "Wield" and "Place Weapon" gives you "Enhance Damage"

Some combinations that I need a name for:
"Parry" and "Find Weakness" and "Place Weapon", and
"Dodge" "Find Weakness" "Place Weapon"

Watch a fencing match, this would be wait for the enemy to overextend then get under his guard. These skills would be automatic, though, I.E. if you succeed a parry or dodge, you roll modified on FW and PW to get a chance to hit them.

Some skills have oppisites that are interesting, like the opposite of "Avoid" is "Attract Attention", so if you are the combat specialist, the mages arn't getting attacked. I suppose this is similar in idea to "Protect", but that is a concept more along the lines of "Stand in front of someone and keep them from harm" while attract attention is "Keep the beast centered on me, since I can easally avoid its jaws, but the cleric healing me is a fumblefoot." ;-)

Magic is also an interesting field... in the "reality" of Concept, there is no real destinction between etherial and spiritual. magic is magic. But, there was a social distinction, in that priests and mages have different goals when wielding the power.

Just to keep things consistant (and interesting) Magic is handled similarly to skills, in that there are basic "forces" at work that can be manipulated, but don't do much interesting by themselves. In Concept, the mages devide magic like a rope made of different sized strands. Some example strands:

• "Fire": Protect from Cold (warmth) Burning Hands
• "Water": Create water
• "Earth"

• "Light": glow
• "Air":
• "Distance": tied to the physical scale of reality, can change sizes of things, as long as power is applied.
• "Planar": can affect the planes.
• "Time": Obvious.
  Planer and Distance and time are twisted around each other, forming an easier cord to deal with, "Shape". Dealing with any particular thread of "Shape" is MUCH harder to deal with.

• "Distance" "Time": Motion
• "Fire" "Water" "Motion": Steam
• "Light" "Shape": illusion, like "Static Invisibility"
• "Illusion" "Motion": Invisibility
• "Light" "Distance": "Far Seeing"
• "Time" "Motion": haste
• "Air" "Motion": levitate, fly
• "Light" "Shape": Light orb
• "Light orb" "Motion": "Following Light"
• "Motion" "Shape": retwining the subthreads of reality gives you "Force"
• "Light" "Air" "Water": "Healing Hands"
• "Healing Hands" "Force": Healing (can cure more serious wounds)
• "Healing" "Far Seeing": Greater Healing (Better idea of WTF you are doing)

• "Cold" "Dark" "Time": "Suspend" aka "Preserve" (difficult spell, but can put a mortally wounded comrade into suspended animation until you can heal him.
• "Cold" "Air": Frost blast