Skills in the Cypher System are quite powerful. Being Trained in a skill reduces the difficulty of a task by 1 full step, and if specialized by 2 full steps (in Cypher Speak it eases the roll).
In a group of 3 to 5 PCs you have a lot of diversity, but solo characters need access to a wider variety of skills than a group Character does.
Lets have a peek at an official addon to the game, and see if it provides a suggestion on how to build an auxiliary skill frame work.
Looking into the Revised Cypher System Rulebook, at the end on Genre Fantasy section, there is a rule for learning magical spells for your non magical characters. It is rather simple so I can recap it here. You take a spell as a long term advantage (3xp) after you have secured an in game manner of purchasing it. Then, when you want to cast the spell it takes either a great length of time (10 minutes to 10 hours) or an expenditure of your shortest remaining recovery roll. That makes sense. You are either giving up time or giving up vitality. It is a good optional rule because the cost, especially in time, can have major impacts as the world goes on around you.
Skills are more powerful than spells though. A skill is always “on”. But does it have to be?
Here is my tentative skill hack. I haven’t play tested it long, but I believe it will work pretty well.
First, you have to have already purchased a full cost skill for your next Tier. Not really a problem there. Next, you have to have an in game opportunity to have learned the skill. Maybe one of your retainers has been giving you an asset in it. Or perhaps you have taken a chunk of down time to learn it. Perhaps even paid a tutor (a good way of draining off treasure in any RPG).
When you (wearing your GM hat) have decided you have a solid in game reason for having that skill, you pay 3xp for a long term benefit. You now have the skill, but most of the time it is switched “off”. You have it in an amateur fashion. When you wish to activate it, you must spend 1 xp, and you get the use of it as a short term advantage for however long is the reasonable length of time for that skill. If it is Research, it would be the full time you are in the library or questioning sages. If it were blacksmithing it would work for the length of creating a sword or dagger. You can’t become specialized in these skills you keep in cold storage, but I would say that when you go up a Tier, if you wish to purchase it for your next level a reduced price of 2xp would be reasonable to pick it up, thus upgrading it to a full time skill.
Very broad skills like “all positive social interactions” and weapon and defense skills (which are treated differently than other skills in the rulebook) would be off the table, as that would over boost the characters power. (but there are no suggestions you can’t pick them up as a short term benefit: see below)
I am going to give this more playtesting, but the cost to benefit looks about right; if you want more power you must drains off your xp, to use it.
It is worth mentioning, that this isn’t strictly necessary to pick up a very short term skill you may need only once. Short term benefits can give you a skill that will last for about 1 game session for 2xp. That is written write into the book, but you lose it entirely when you are passed the session. If you think that you “got the knack” for picking locks in this particular dungeon, as they are all essentially the same, then just spend the 2xp and call it good. If you want to pick locks occasionally but don’t want to devote your full skill expenditure on it (because it won’t come up that much) maybe this hack would work better for you.
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