A Skill (also called a proficiency) is an abstract number (or, in some cases, a set of dice) which represents a learned skill of a fictional character in a role-playing game.

During character creation, A player character's skills are generally chosen from a long list of such skills. A character may have a fixed number of starting skills, or they may be paid for using character points. In contrast to attributes, very few games fix a player's skills at the start of the game, instead allowing players to increase them by spending experience points or during levelling up. Since some skills are likely to be more useful than others, different skills often have different costs.

Skills usually influence a character's chance to succeed by adding to the relevant attribute. In some games (such as GURPS), each skill has a specific base attribute to which it is always added; in others (such as Ars Magica), a skill can be added to different attributes depending on what's most relevant at the time. Some games (such as Feng Shui) add the base attribute to the skill at character creation time; after that, it is independent of the attribute and is used instead of the attribute rather than adding to it. Most games have a fixed penalty for attempting a task without a relevant skill; Shadowrun gives a complex network of penalties for using similar skills (such as setting off a trap when improperly picking a lock).

Role-playing game terms