When telling writers how to norm skills for
realistic characters (
not fantasy monsters, Buffy-esque slayers, Buckaroo Banzai-level generalists, and so on!), we just point to p. B172 and p. B447.
Tactical Shooting adds some other useful guidelines.
- Average People: 8-13
- Skills remembered from school days: 8-9
- Most skills, including hobbies, secondary job skills of volunteers, and primary skills of draftees: 10-11
- Primary job skills of most normal people (including cops, doctors, pilots, and soldiers): 12-13
- Experts: 14-19
- Someone good enough to work under life-or-death conditions (including commandos, field surgeons, and ace pilots): 14-15
- Someone good enough to stand out in his field, however rarefied (top commando, ace of aces, etc.): 16-17
- Best of a generation (e.g., the world's best sniper): 18-19
- Masters: 20-25
- Top master alive (presumably good enough to teach the best of a couple of generations): 20-21
- Confirmed top master of all time: 22-23
- Mythic masters, verging on the cinematic: 24-25
As p. B172 says, you don't achieve great fame by piling on more skill levels. You do it by adding attribute levels and advantages that enhance skills, bypass rolls, remove penalties, etc., and by learning subsidiary skills. A top MMA competitor isn't notable because he has Karate-20. He's notable because he has high ST, DX,
and HT; improved HP, FP,
and Basic Speed; Judo-16, Karate-16,
and Wrestling-16; one trademark technique at 16 for each skill; the maximum number of Style Perks that those skill and technique points allow;
and a few advantages like Enhanced Dodge, Flexibility, Hard to Subdue, High Pain Threshold, and (let's face it) Luck. Having points in Ally (Top trainer) and Ally (Top manager) doesn't hurt, either.