Some GMs like to get picky and rule that player characters can’t do a lot of common everyday tasks at all unless they are of a certain character class or have taken a specific skill. Such GMs will not allow a character to do something as simple as ride an old nag down a calm town street if they aren’t a knight or don’t have the horse riding skill without making all sorts of rolls to see if the character falls off or if that old nag throws him.

While I’m normally against adding rules to a game to try to limit bad GMing, I’ve decided that it is important in a simple game like Microlite74 to make it clear that characters start with basic adventuring skills. They might not know how to ride in a steeplechase, but they can ride a horse. They might not be able to swim the channel, but they can stay afloat and swim well enough to move about slowly in a pond. Etc.

I’ve added the following to the tiny set of skills rules in all versions of Microlite74:

Basic Adventuring Skills: Unless a player specifies otherwise about a character at character creation, all characters are assumed to have basic practical adventuring skills such as maintaining weapons and armor, riding a horse, setting up a camp, swimming, climbing, cooking, first aid, etc., and have a rough idea of the value of common coins, trade goods, gems, and jewels. Success should simply be assumed unless there are unusual conditions.

All characters are adventurers and are assumed to have a basic competence with normal adventuring tasks. Note that this doesn’t mean you cannot have a Microlite74 character who can’t swim at or who burns water when he tries to cook a meal if you really want to, it just means that if you want such a character, you need mention “sinks like a rock” or “can’t cook” on your character sheet.