Skills in RPGs – Episode 174

News: We are working on a new podcast called Night Clerk Radio, where we review vaporwave, dark ambient, and other haunted genres of music. Our website is live with a trailer. We plan to launch soon! Synopsis: Skills in RPGs are an important element but many games don’t get them right. Many games have too many skills while others have no skills at all. Caleb and I talk about good and bad skill systems in RPGs and how it has changed over the years. Caleb also brings up real life skills, like rhetoric, versus their in-game equivalents. Shout Outs * Red Thread: A book about mazes and labyrinths. Excellent if meandering. * The Testaments: A sequel to the Handmaid’s Tale * Pagan Autogeny: An indie video game about exploring a dead MMO. * Oblivion Song: A comic about rescuing people from alien hellscapes * Japanese Video Game Obscurities: A book about weird video games * How To: The XKCD creator explains how to do various tasks * Medical Police: A sequel series to Children’s Hospital. Very funny! Song: Harps and Dreams by Indreba