History Main / SkillScoresAndPerks

** The ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyZombies'' side mode has "Perk-a-Colas" in their stead, such as "Juggernog", "Speed Cola", and "Double Tap Root Beer". Known for the [[EarWorm rather catchy jingles that the machines play]].

* Equipable Perks are a major part of the online multiplayer aspect of the ''Series/CallOfDuty'' franchise, with effects ranging from extra endurance, to extra ammo, to more accurate, aiming, etc.
** The ''VideoGame/CallOfDutyZombies'' side mode has "Perk-a-Colas" in their stead, such as "Juggernog", "Speed Cola", and "Double Tap Root Beer". [[EarWorm Known for the rather catchy jingles that the machines play]].

* In ''VideoGame/ReachinPichin'', depending on what Peachin evolves into, he has different skills and abilities. Some are passive and activate automatically, with others must be activated manually.

* Being based on the TabletopGame/D20System, the ''VideoGame/KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' games feature both skill scores ("skills") and perks ("feats" and "powers"). Skill scores range from hacking, through persuasion, to first aid and are upgradeable multiple times per level (skill points gained depend on the class and the INT stat). General feats (mostly combat moves, but also skill bonuses) usually come with one or two upgrades and can be taken every other level (depending on the class). Powers can only be learned by the Jedi at a rate of one per level (more for some classes). Powers associated with the Light or Dark Side of the Force additionally gain bonuses from your KarmaMeter standing.

* ''Webomic/GrrlPower'': Sydney's orbs [[http://grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1166 apparently come with a skill tree.]] Fans quickly noted that the large number of nodes that have already been filled in imply that she's essentially working off someone else's save file.

* ''VideoGame/MassEffect1'' has a hybrid skill score/perk system wherein "talents" encompass both passive (armor, weapon) and active (biotic & tech attacks) skills. Talents can be leveled up multiple times, increasing their efficiency and unlocking additional perks and even further upgradeable talents at certain levels (forming an implicit skill tree). ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' and ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' replace them with "powers"--active combat skills, which are essentially perks with up to five (mutually exclusive at level 4+) upgrades available for each of them. Most talents and powers depend on the character's class and are available from the start, but some are only unlocked after certain story events.

!!Tabletop game examples:

* ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}}'' is a classic example. Character traits fall fundamentally into four distinct groups: attributes (the four base stats), skills (based on said attributes and then improved individually), advantages (perks) and disadvantages (essentially 'anti-perks', handicaps to saddle one's character with for more character depth and bonus points...[[BluntYes okay, primarily the bonus points]]).
* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' was late to this particular party for once. The now-familiar skills-and-feats scheme was introduced only with the game's third edition; before then, support for skills for non-thief characters was noticeably delegated to optional rules or even altogether absent, and "perks" existed almost solely in the form of racial and class abilities that might get unlocked with advancing level but generally didn't involve much choice. Moreover, both pre- and post-third edition these skills were and are handled more like perks themselves, with characters able to choose to have a given skill or not but little in the way of means to improve it ''further'' after that. The fifth edition made feats an optional mechanic that replaces generic stat increases and reduced their selection, while giving each feat additional properties, so they are no longer detached abilities or bonuses but entire expansion packs for the character.
* Both the [[TabletopGame/OldWorldOfDarkness Storyteller]] and the [[TabletopGame/NewWorldOfDarkness Storytelling System]] are based around "traits", which are basically a hybrid mash-up of stats ("attributes"), skill scores ("abilities" in oWoD, "skills" in nWoD), and upgradable perks ("advantages"). The latter include both storyline perks (like background) and active abilities (like the [[TabletopGame/VampireTheMasquerade vampiric Disciplines]]). Attribute scores range from 1 to 5, abilities/skills and advantages from 0 to 5. Occasionally, levels up to 10 may be allowed. Trait levels are [[PointBuildSystem acquired by spending character points]].
* The ''Film/{{Serenity}} Role Playing Game'' has a nontraditional version of this. Skills and perks are purchased from a shared point pool at character creation and changeable at GM discretion (the RPG does not use a ClassAndLevelSystem). There's a set of core skills that can be used with UsefulNotes/{{dice}} up to d6, then specialized into sub-skills that can use from d8 to d12+d2. Perks, called traits, are broken down into assets and complications and provide various bonuses and penalties.
* ''TabletopGame/{{Ironclaw}}'' has skills and Gifts, adding skill marks increasing the size of the dice rolled. The biggest changes between editions included the consolidation of several skills and changing many specific skills to Gifts, as well as instituting flat costs of 4 XP per skill mark and 10 XP per Gift rather than varying costs, and making spells Gifts.
* ''TabletopGame/DragonAge'' features Focuses and Talents, which vaguely correspond to Feats and Skill Scores. Focuses represent a particular expertise in a narrower subset of certain [[TheSixStats Attribute]] checks (e.g. "Perception: Seeing") and give a flat +2 bonus to rolls where they apply. Talents have three levels, each of which gives the character a unique gameplay advantage. New Focuses can be learned at every new level (alternating between primary and secondary class Attributes), while Talents can be acquired or upgraded every other level.
* ''TabletopGame/ApocalypseWorld'' and its many hacks use a unique variation of perks called "moves": apart from the "basic moves" available to all player characters (which describe which {{stat|s}} to roll for in specific situations and what the roll results mean), each additional move is character/playbook-specific and can range from switching out stats in basic moves (e.g. "roll for intelligence instead of charisma when trying to manipulate someone") to giving them entirely new abilities. The design is purposefully open-ended to allow seamless invention and integration of new moves into play.
* ''TabletopGame/LaceAndSteel'' has a large number of skill scores subdivided into Social, Courtly, Knowledge, Military, Movement/Perception, Crafting, and Magical categories (but no perks). To use a skill, you need at least level 0 (no modifier) in it, which you get for free in a handful of universal skills, plus in a number of skills associated with your social class (e.g. nobles get free Social and Courtly skills). You can buy additional skill levels (including level 0 in new skills) with TechPoints at character creation to increase the bonus to corresponding rolls, although non-class skill levels cost more than class ones, and higher levels cost more than lower levels. In-play, however, skill levels are gained via StatGrinding: at the end of an adventure you roll for every skill you've used in its course to gain XP in it, increasing it by a level if you reach that level's cost (same as at character creation).
* ''Fate'' games have a variety of different ways to ''refer to'' its Skill Scores (most have Skills, but Fate Accelerated uses Approaches instead, while ''Jadepunk'' has Professions) and even a couple of different names for Perks (most use Stunts, but ''Jadepunk'' has an Asset system instead that modifies the Stunt basis), but most of them exhibit this. Some also have a third thing, Extras, used to build things like magic systems, super-powers, or giant robots.
* ''TabletopGame/PlanetMercenary'' has 40 Skills, most which have Specialties that allow for rerolling one of the three dice when using a subset of the skill. [[spoiler:Carbosilicate Amorphs get additional secret Specialties that unlock actual abilities]].

In RealLife, the human brain acquires new knowledge and puts it to use via a spectacular cascade of electrochemical reactions taking place across a heavily networked biological cell grid. Learning and improving one's skills is a continuous, life-long process, while expertise in one field often proves [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transfer_of_learning unexpectedly useful]] in other, seemingly unrelated domains. But complex neuroscience has no place in video games, because a) it violates the RuleOfFun, b) [[GeniusProgramming programming]] [[ArtificialBrilliance such a system]] [[ArtificialStupidity is next-to impossible]], and c) [[BreadEggsMilkSquick it runs a high risk of spawning]] [[AIIsACrapshoot a murderous AI on your computer]].

* The original ''VideoGame/DeusEx'' features both skill scores and perks (dubbed "augmentations"). Skill scores are upgraded using [[PointBuildSystem skill points acquired from completing missions]], have four levels (Untrained, Trained, Advanced, Master), and improve your performance with different types of weapons, or non-combat actions (lock-picking, electronics, medicine, etc.). Augmentations are picked up as items on missions and implanted into Denton's body slots, giving him new abilities. They can likewise be upgraded. ''VideoGame/DeusExHumanRevolution'' does away with skill scores and instead translates experience points into Praxis Points, which in turn can be invested into any augmentation unlocked in the perk tree (justified by that all augs are already built into Jensen and only need to be activated).

|| Each skill levels "unlocks" the next one, but\\

* ''VideoGame/MassEffect1'' has a hybrid skill score/perk system wherein "talents" encompass both passive (armor, weapon) and active (biotic attacks) skills. Talents can be leveled up multiple times, increasing their efficiency and unlocking additional perks and even further upgradeable talents at certain levels (forming an implicit skill tree). ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'' and ''VideoGame/MassEffect3'' replace them with "powers"--active combat skills, which are essentially perks with up to five (mutually exclusive at level 4+) upgrades available for each of them. Most talents and powers depend on the character's class and are available from the start, but some are only unlocked after certain story events.

* The underlying game system of ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' series is based mainly around skill scores, which are [[StatGrinding increased by using them]] (which also indirectly increases their governing character stats), but ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsIVOblivion Oblivion]]'' added a number of perks, which are unlocked by reaching certain levels in skills: e.g. a Power Attack at Blade 25, no shield wear-out at Shield 50, jumping off water surface at Acrobatics 100, etc. ''[[VideoGame/TheElderScrollsVSkyrim Skyrim]]'' expands the available perks to an entire tree (one per skill score); perks now have prerequisite perks and corresponding skill score levels and can be bought and upgraded with perk points (gained with every level up) once unlocked.

In RealLife, the human brain acquires new knowledge and puts it to use via a spectacular cascade of electrochemical reactions taking place across a heavily networked biological cell grid. Learning and improving one's skills is a continuous, life-long process, while expertise in one field often proves unexpectedly useful in other, seemingly unrelated domains. But complex neuroscience has no place in video games, because a) it violates the RuleOfFun, b) [[GeniusProgramming programming]] [[ArtificialBrilliance such a system]] [[ArtificialStupidity is next-to impossible]], and c) [[BreadEggsMilkSquick it runs a high risk of spawning]] [[AIIsACrapshoot a murderous AI on your computer]].

* The ''Film/{{Serenity}} Role Playing Game'' has a nontraditional version of this. Skills and perks are purchased from a shared point pool at character creation and changeable at GM discretion (the RPG does not use a ClassAndLevelSystem). There's a set of core skills that can be used with dice up to d6, then specialized into sub-skills that can use from d8 to d12+d2. Perks, called traits, are broken down into assets and complications and provide various bonuses and penalties.

|| Can be leveled up multiple times (between 3 and 100) || Usually cannot be leveled up, although other perks may be upgrades ||
|| Skill levels have index numbers or generic labels ("novice", "trained", "master") || Each perk or upgrade has a [[NominalImportance unique identifying name]] ||

|| Unlocked level by level; may be {{cap}}ped by another stat or CharacterLevel || May have prerequisite perks, character levels, skill and stat scores ||
|| Improved by [[PointBuildSystem spending]] TechPoints, by [[StatGrinding repeated use]], or automatically with [[LevelUp each level]] || Usually acquired by spending TechPoints, occasionally [[NonstandardSkillLearning otherwise]] ||

* ''VideoGame/PathOfExile'' has an enormous perk tree consisting of 1300 nodes available to each class, although all nodes are passive bonuses (active skills are instead imbued into items). Furthermore, a majority of nodes are unspectacular permanent bonuses to one of the character attributes (strength, dexterity, intelligence), but buying them is required to get to the juicy, [[NominalImportance named perks]] that provide significant combat advantages.