In response to my own most recent post, I thought I'd list two games I've played in the last two years that do a really good job of giving the PCs the skills they deserve right out of the gate.
In Continuum, the skill system allows for PCs to start as experts in their fields without sacrificing the simple language, math and hobby skills that any 20th Century American is sure to have. I liked this a lot, but felt the innovation was a tiny bit wasted, since Continuum characters are slightly-above-average folks who just happened to witness time-travelers, and not super-spies, commandos, wizards or research physicists.
In Amber, the skill system is really vague and simple. You right up a character background, and include statements like "10 years spent aboard ship" or "5 years in the trenches" or "20 years as a classical artist". Then when a situation comes up where you need to read a nautical chart, command a regiment, or paint a masterpiece you can just say "that's easy for me - it's in my background." Obviously, this concept isn't easily ported to a more math-intensive rule system, and most games are a lot more fiddly and numerical than Amber.
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