How many skills is too many for a fantasy game? I'm playing

Without specifics this doesn't mean much. Are you using GURPS? 3.5? How specific are these skills? How difficult would it be for players to accommodate the challenges of these skills with what they have in character creation?

>>54379655
120 skills is too many. I can tell you that immediately.

A game should aim for somewhere in the neighborhood of "there are enough to provide some distinction" and far away from "do you expect me to read all this shit."

Some of the best games in recent memory have cut down their skill lists to absolute bare bones and the results have been pretty good. I'd say in most cases you want to consider 12 skills that are outside the standard adventuring skills to call out.

Most adventurers can do things like forage, climb, swim, dungeoneer, etc. Things that are appropriate to their backgrounds and profession, basically. But not every adventurer is going to be a trained cook, or locksmith, or artificer, or alchemist, or clergyman. Those are the things you should be emphasizing with your game's skill system, whatever it is.

I like 13th Age's Backgrounds because they tend to provide players with a primary skillset that makes sense for the character, a secondary skillset that's a bit more esoteric, and occasionally a third one that's very specialized.

>>54379655
What game is that? I would love to play a game with 120 skills.

>>54380145
This.
I dislike a large "skill list" because what always ends up happening is that it becomes too hard to be decently rounded in the things you should be proficient at. 3.PF fighters are a glaring example of how to do skills wrong, they are a direct result of poor skills. DH1e is another example, with skills that can literally only be used in exceedingly specific circumstances (Carousing) that may never come up in a game at all. At least DH hinges on getting bonuses to tests based on gear, prep, and the specific situation; you are not going to get drunk because you failed a single Carouse test, or die of hypothermia due to a single failed Toughness test in a snowstorm.

>>54379655
>120 skills
Might as well let players just write what they want at this point.

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>>54379655
Shit nigga, FATAL has more than 200. Whatever game you're playing isn't the worst but it is one of the worst.

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>>54379655
It is again a question that can not be answered in a vacuum.
>How granular are skills?
>What do attributes cover?
>How rules heavy is your game?
>What is your target Audience?
>What are your setting and genre?
>How complex are skill rolls?
>How long is a skill writeup?
>How self explanatory are skills?
>Are there Magic rules or feats in the system?
>What areas are handled by skills?
>Do skills have prerequisites or reference eachother?
>Do skills differ in their interaction with other mechanics?
...

The lighter the cognitive load of the single skill, the more skills you can afford.
If more skills cut down on a greater volume of special rules, advantages, backgrounds or feats, a larger list here might be the preferable choice for a overall lighter game.
But keep in mind that any large section will discourage some demographics. Don't let yourself be bullied into a type of game you don't want to make either.

Personally I like, large skill lists. The pure names are often enough to determine the coverage and if they all work under the same skill rules your "super heavy" system is just "how to do skill rolls"+ 120 words.

>>54379655
>It's "you have 100+ skills but only 10 skill points" episode

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>>54380815
Even that could work if skills are like jobs.

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>>54379655
This, do skills like this and tie them to stats.

Having specific skills will only make your players try to pick the ones that will be most relevant to what they're doing as opposed to what would make sense for the character.