Why I dont like skills in ttrpgs
I mentioned in my post on basic mechanics that I’m not a huge fan of the skill system common to many TTRPGs, but I didn't go into much detail about why.
I understand the purpose of skills; they are a good way to distinguish between innate ability and trained ability. Your wizard might be extremely intelligent, but if they haven't taken the time to study the world's religions, they won't possess knowledge in that area. That’s a cool concept, but the mechanic creates a few problems I don't like.
1. The illusion of choice
Any system featuring skills has to limit how many a character can have, and that limitation brings a problem: a large portion of skills become practically mandatory. Your Rogue will almost always choose Stealth, Sleight of Hand, and Acrobatics, partly because they likely have high Agility and want to invest their skill slots in something that actually benefits them.
2. Balancing the number of skills
You have to decide how many skills to include, and no matter what you choose, there’s a trade-off. If you include too few, you might end up with a wizard who has a general "Knowledge" skill, making them good at everything considered knowledge, even things that don't make sense for their character. But if you include too many, things get messy; it becomes difficult to even find or remember which skills your character is proficient in.
3. "Can I roll Insight?"
When skills are listed right there on the character sheet, it’s tempting for players to treat them like buttons in a video game, "click to use Insight", instead of narrating their actions, like saying "I want to observe his posture and mannerisms, does he look nervous?". Of course, the rules don't mandate this behavior, and a good player won't make that mistake, but that doesn't take away the fact that the system makes this behaviour so easy.
4. Intimidation with Charisma
This is a somewhat specific issue because not every skill-based system handles it this way, but it is very common for skills to be grouped by attribute: Athletics with Strength, Thievery with Agility, Deception with Charisma. The problem arises with skills like Intimidation, which fall into a gray area; if you take that grouping literally, your 2.5-meter-tall barbarian that is made of pure muscle can't intimidate anyone simply because he isn't good with words.
Ultimately, all the issues I’ve mentioned can be somewhat resolved through house rules or good roleplay, but if you have to rely on external workarounds like that, it means the system is failing you, which is exactly why I removed skills altogether.