Game in the Brain

I dont know how to describe when I describe skills in this way: 

Example:

1) select a people or cultural group (example given), the character will know the customs and practices expected to get along and show respect or community. 

1.1) Roll to know how to resolve complicated situations that would be culturally accepted. 

1.2) this includes knowledge of Taboo practices and Topics for that people. 

1.3) Roll to know how to save face. 

writing skills feels like there needs to be concise language for Use. Particularly the technical language like cultural group, showing respect, showing community (that one has accepted the implicit obligations and duties of being part of community), and saving face (resolving a situation where the person’s credibility or social standing is damaged). 

My experience of Skill Description. My problem with some Skills written is

• the Function is not clearly stated. Particularly discussing the situation in a real world and game world manner. The description should answer “What is this skill used for?” This means describing a situation or occasion for the skill. it can be as simple “Saving Face” 
• Benchmarks or Baselines. What is Automatic or Assumed the character knows so as to push the story forward, what would be Points of Uncertainty or Tension – Can the character show they get along with the Locals? Can he forage enough edibles for his team/squad? What the character CAN do or know, and what he may or may not be able to do. 
• To write in a way that PUSHES the Story forward, Advances the Plot, Escaltes the Challenge. One of the lessons I learned in TRPGs that I apply to real life is that I can classify my abilities and Limits in: What pushes the story forward and what causes Tensions/Uncertainty. Like in TRPGs I need to clarify What is the Conflict of this Situation, process the situation in a consistent manner, and make a decisions. 
• Processing Situation in a Consistent manner means having a procedure or checklist. its taking an intuitive thing that is inconsistent and forcing consistency into it and Accepting and being aware when I’m inconsistent. 

But since I dont want to go through a lot of Drafts I will “formulate my spell” or formulate the key wording into short sentence ideas like “Save Face”, “Get along”, “Forage Edibles”, “Quickly Stop Bleeding”, etc… which I will detail in the future. Using Progressive Elaboration 

Lately I’ve had to break up my Survival Skill into a Skill Group or Knowledge Area – which is related Group of Skills. First Aid, Navigation, Investigation, Insight, Area (Culture Group), Area (terrain), etc… 

Side Trip of Throughts: pushing the story forward

As to Why knowing how to push the story forward is a life skill its because I get into a Mental Recursive loop instead of breaking the Loop by taking out of my working memory, writing it down (Puting it in an External memory system like Writing/Documentation/Drawings) and going about it one step at a time. 

Knowing when my Working Memory is having an Error that I cannot detect because my Working Memory is overloaded is having a PC Hang and you cannot call up Task Manager to kill a process. You cannot call up task manager when the the PC hangs.