On the matter of raising "general" skills vs. more specific skills, I think
I see that we're all agreeing that it's a cheap thing if you allow players
to raise the general skill for the same cost as a specific one - i.e. that
there should be some benefit to specialization in this sense, yes? What
about the simple expedient: if you use an Ability (or whatever) with an
improvisational modifier you can, at the end of the adventure:
- take the improvised skill at 12 or what you were at after the modifier,
whichever is better for 1 HP; or,
- improve the general skill by 1 for the hp cost of (-1*improv modifier
applied) [the least bad one throughout the adventure, if multiples apply].
Therefore, let's say you have Bluster 18. You need to bargain a merchant
down, so the narrator says sure, you can use Bluster at -3. Then, at the
end of the adventure you could specifically take Haggle with Merchant 15
(for 1 hp) or improve your Bluster by 1 for 3 hp.
(Yes, I know then there's no penalty for people improvising at -1, but
that's not much improvisation....)
So the effect is, the less relevant an experience is to a general skill, the
less easily its lessons are applicable to that skill (if you REALLY need a
rational basis).
Comments?