TESTING
There once was a game called D&D. It was played out with dice, a pencil, and some paper. The dice were for an element of randomness. The paper had a long list of numbers on it, and the pencil was for writing on the paper and changing the numbers. Whenever something was to happen, you looked at the numbers on the paper, rolled the dice, did some quick arithmetic, and found out if that thing happened or not.

Later on, there was a computer. The computer replaced the dice, and generated the random numbers. It also replaced the 'quick arithmetic' so we didn't have to do the math ourselves. Finally it replaced the pencil, and it updated the paper full of numbers for us. The only thing it didn't replace was the paper full of numbers. And I want to know why. I think it's high time to get rid of it.

As I mentioned in my thread about skills on this board, I think there should be so many skills that we couldn't look at them all even if we wanted to. So, why present them? Make the world into a "numberless" world, where we look through our characters eyes, and not their stat sheet. Let the computer do the thinking and calculations, and everything, and we just play our character.

However, there has to be some way to determine how proficient we are at certain things. We need to know how our skills have increased, and if we're able to do certain things yet.

To solve that problem, I suggest 'testing.'

I'll use the example of archery, although testing would be used for all general skills, from magic, to jumping, to baking. You pick up a bow, notch an arrow, and shoot at a target. Do you hit? Where do you hit? If you do that 10 times, how many times do you hit? This is how we judge our skill in real-life. This is how we should judge our skill in-game.

Perhaps a Master teacher won't teach you the finer points of archery until you reach a certain level. Instead of waiting till our skill clicker on the character sheet reads '50'. We should make periodic trips to the archery testing range. The master would actually tell us. "I won't train you until you can hit 9 out of 10 targets from the second range position." So we practice, then we test. If we don't make it, we practice (by adventuring perhaps) some more.

Now, when we have in-game communications, we are instantly role-playing because there's no other way to play. We never say, "I have a 50 in archery and a 24 in baking." Instead we say, "I can get 7 out of 10 from the second range, and I got a 45 on my last pie-test." That's called in-game communication. Novelle idea!

Naturally with hundreds of skills, we can't test each skill individually....but you really don't need to. You really just need to test groups of skills, or 'activities.' Shooting a bow accurately may have 20 different skill checks associated with it. ALL those skills contribute to your score in the archery test, and that's sufficient for your character knowledge.

Testing is cool. Testing is 'in-character'. Testing is Role-playing for free and without really trying. TESTING IS THE FUTURE!! Get rid of the archaic notions of character sheets and statistic lists. I want to BE my character. I want to LIVE in the world. If possible, EVERYTHING should be presented to the character as if it was 'in-the-world.'