I haven’t even started my campaign and already I’ve decided to include a house-rule, and I blame BX/Blackrazor for his ‘thief skills automatically succeed’ mechanic; but, rather than steal the idea wholesale, I’m giving it my own tweak instead; and I am using the LotFP Weird Fantasy rules for the game.
As each character, the thief/rogue-like Specialist in particular, receives ‘skills’ based on a x in 6 chance, I am going to allow these ‘pips’ to be spent to succeed in a given skill, automatically with no quarrel from the DM. After those pips are spent, then further use of skills (when called for, and I aim to only call for them when really needed, such as in the thick of combat or under stress, and so on) are as normal (roll the dice, x chance in 6).
Simple, hopefully effective and we’ll give it a go and see if it works.

Keith Davies
August 24, 2011 at 18:56
Hi Simon,
How many ‘pips’ does a character get, how (and how often) do they recover, and is it necessary to use pips for the first checks you make, or can you choose to roll normally when you still have pips remaining and save them for later?
K.
theskyfullofdust
August 24, 2011 at 19:07
Well, according to the LotFP rules, each starts with 1 pip, except for the specialist (rogue) class that has points to spread across the various skills. Some are further modified by abilities (Open Doors by Strength mod, for example). I’ll allow the player to choose when to spend the ‘freebie’ , so they can save it for those special moments.