Imagine a game
Imagine a game with this kind of ability/skill list:
Force (physical power/strength)
Grace (agility, balance, flexibility, stillness)
Delicacy (fine motor control, sleigh of hand)
Command (demanding attention to provoke action in an audience; giving orders, inspiring speeches)
Perform (demanding attention to provoke an emotional response in an audience)
Sway (talking with someone to affect how they think or feel; flirting or persuading)
Deceive (talking with someone to hide something; lying or misleading)
Converse (talking with someone to share information or understand)
Perceive (see/hear/taste/feel/smell what others might miss)
Learn (ability to learn and retain knowledge; ability to reason things out)
Withstand (perseverance, stamina, fortitude, etc)
What kind of game is this? Clearly social, right? This is a game that assumes you’re going to be talking to a lot of different people and it matters how well you can relate to people in different ways. Command and perform are you to an audience. Sway, Deceive, and Converse are conversations. Converse is boring because it doesn’t have a goal, which means it should probably be dropped. Regular conversation doesn’t require a roll. Dropping converse makes it easier to determine which social skill to roll. Are you talking with someone or in front of a crowd? If a crowd, are you trying to provoke action (command) or an emotional response (perform)? If not a crowd, are you trying to influence their behavior/thinking (sway) or keep them from figuring something out (deceive)?
In contrast, it only gives three options for physicality--your overall strength, agility, and fine motor control. The lattermost being good for pickpockets, stage magicians, and clockmakers alike--anything that requires delicate, careful work. (Delicacy needs a better name). Another way to think about it, I suppose, is this: Are you trying to move yourself (grace) or make other things move? If making other things move, does the task require power (force) or care (delicacy)?
This also has one mental skill: Learn. The game is assuming that you have the basic knowledge needed for whatever you do. Learn enables you to add more knowledge and skills, determines what you already know, and possibly enables you to set up bonuses for social rolls.
Withstand is social, mental, and physical. It should probably also be dropped. Instead each character ought to have defense scores for mental, social, and physical “attacks” or tests.
Empathy is not on the list. You can get empathy as a bonus to a roll maybe if you convince the GM your character can indeed empathize. No insight. Perceive could let you notice microexpressions, but it still isn’t a lie detector.
