Editing Alternity (section)

==Skills==

Alternity was an entirely skills based system with no class feats.  Perks and flaws were minor feat-like effects priced in skillpoints (ambidextrous for example), but combat was resolved with skills, including armor operation and martial arts, and psionic spells were treated as skill-like except that they consumed psi energy, which if overused resulted in fatigue damage.  Certain skills however have feat-like rank benefits which become available once a certain skill level is reached.  

This "everything is a skill" approach greatly simplified the system (the core players handbook was barely 250 pages), but also meant that aside from mindwalkers the classes were pretty similar and it was largely up to the player to skill out the character they wanted to be.

Most skills could be used trained or untrained.  When a broad skill is untrained, your score in that skill is equal one half of your character's ability for that skill, rounded down.  When a specialty skill is untrained, the difficulty is increased 1 step (so +d4 instead of +0).  For example, if you want to use the jump specialty of the athletics broad skill, and you have not trained either of the skills, and your strength score is 7, then your jump score is 3 (7/2 rounded down).  Not a very good score, especially considering you'll be rolling a d20+d4 and need to get a 3 or less.  Probably not gonna happen.  If you've trained athletics but not jump, then your jump score is your strength score of 7, but the dice roll is still d20+d4 because no specialty.  If you've trained jump to rank 1, then you get to add that 1 to your score, making your score 8, and since you've trained the specialty the +d4 drops off, meaning you need an 8 or less on a d20.