Feb 28, 2018, 6:46 PM

@the-sands IME it is much safer and easier to completely ignore the 'fluff' around a skill level description and just focus on the mechanical meaning of a skill/stat and the difference in levels as a function of "what can I reasonably do with this level". Because the whole 'a 5 means you're one of the best in the world' is complete nonsense, and it's almost always complete nonsense in any system that tries to say so.

More, it then becomes cringey because games start freaking out about 'oh no, this person has a 5! Why is a world-class patisserie in Podunk, ME' or wherever? You need to justify this level of skill!' when the honest justification is, "A 5 is what gives me the least chance of utterly failing when I do a moderately challenging task of what is supposed to be my specialty, and even WITH a 5, I'm still more likely than not going to fail unless I am also using my Magic Pastry Power that gives me +5 to all pastries made under the light of the full moon. And let's not even talk about if the GM decides this tower of cream puffs is difficult enough to rate a penalty."

And yes, in most systems, you're explicitly not supposed to have people at professional or above levels of competence roll for basic tasks involving that skill unless there's some sort of extreme stress or consequences for failure - but GMs do it alllll the time, so players adapt to that.