One of the hallmarks of AresMUSH is that it comes with everything you need for a game built-in, including Chargen, Skills and Combat. You can code your own skills/combat plugin, but by default Ares comes installed with the FS3 system.
FS3 was designed for the unique environment of a MUSH. In a tabletop RPG, you might make dozens of die rolls in a single night. On a typical MUSH, you might go weeks or months without making a single roll. Although it’s handy for conflict resolutions, FS3 is more useful as a tool to help you flesh out your character. The S3 stands for “Simple Skills System”, and FS3 is designed to get you into RP with minimal hassle in Chargen and minimal review time required from the app staff.
There’s no such thing as a “perfect” skill system, because everyone comes to it with their own set of expectations and goals, but there’s always room for improvement. FS3 debuted in 2007 and the 2nd edition came out in 2011. AresMUSH will contain FS3 3rd Edition, currently being beta-tested on the Ares alpha sandbox game.
The two biggest headaches for players in 2nd edition were Quirks and Background Skills. Quirks straddled an awkward middle ground between traditional advantages/disadvantages and personality traits. Background skills, likewise, caused no end of confusion, with people unsure what skills to take and how to rate them.
In 3rd Edition, Quirks are gone - replaced by free-form fields where players can describe RP Hooks and Goals. It’s a shift that I hope will encourage people to think about how to work their character into RP.
Background skills have been split into Expertise (for things you’re good at) and Interests (for things you dabble in). Both are unrated, like Languages.
The dice have also undergone an overhaul, but it’s still fundamentally a roll-and-count-successes system.
Update: In the final version of 3rd edition, there are three levels for background skills: Fair (for interests), Exceptional (for expertise) and Good (an in-between).
It takes a little getting used to, but it’s part of a philosophy of de-emphasizing points and simplifying Chargen. Why stress over whether your “Baseball” hobby should be a 2 or a 3? Does it matter? Why waste time juggling skill points between the skills that are important and the fluffy skills that will probably never be rolled?
I suppose someone can find an example where a background skill made the difference between life and death, but I think such scenarios are few and far between.
Interests and Expertise can still be rolled if you really need to. They just use automatic ratings based on your Aptitudes (skill knacks that have replaced Attributes).
You can read all about the new edition here. It’s not too late to provide feedback! Pop by AresCentral to chat, email me or comment below.
I also just wanted to give a special shout-out to PirateSpice and Boo for their help crafting the 3rd edition and the crew of their sandbox game for being my guinea pigs.