Does anyone know of either any systems or have house rules that model skill advancement via the Dreyfus model of skill acquisition?
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asked Sep 21, 2011 at 13:29
Sardathrion - against SE abuseSardathrion - against SE abuse
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1\$\begingroup\$ Maybe a duplicate or at least closed linked to rpg.stackexchange.com/questions/6393/… \$\endgroup\$– Sardathrion - against SE abuseCommented Sep 21, 2011 at 13:30
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2\$\begingroup\$ The Dreyfus model, as described on this page, breaks down skill acquisition into five discrete levels. Sounds like White Wolf's Storyteller/ing to me. \$\endgroup\$– JadascCommented Sep 21, 2011 at 14:04
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\$\begingroup\$ The five model does not allow for innovation thus the sixth stage. But yeah, good comment. \$\endgroup\$– Sardathrion - against SE abuseCommented Sep 21, 2011 at 14:07
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\$\begingroup\$ Thanks. I don't think it's good enough as an answer, as there's no attempt in that mechanic to "model" anything in particular. But, if you wanted to do a quick-and-dirty version of those ideas, the WW system wouldn't do badly -- especially with the "double cost at character creation to have a 5" rule. \$\endgroup\$– JadascCommented Sep 21, 2011 at 14:14
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3\$\begingroup\$ Such a system is pretty unlikely to exist, because at best most games don't model the cognitive features of a person, just their behaviour; and skill systems are so focused on task outcome that a skill system that bothers with the fine details of why they succeeded/failed at the cognitive-competence level would be a strange beast indeed. \$\endgroup\$– SevenSidedDieCommented Sep 21, 2011 at 15:47
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You could argue that any skill system which has five (or so) levels could be mapped onto the Drefyus model. White Wolf's Storyteller has up to five dots for skills; Shadowrun 4 typically limits skills to 6. (Edit: in fact, I'm almost positive that one of the SR3 handbooks listed what one typically did at different skill levels in a Dreyfus-like way--but it was just flavor text.) They don't, however, limit what a character can do to the Dreyfus categories.
But you could also argue that you don't want to model advancement via the Dreyfus model given that it's somewhat contentious and not extremely well validated. For example, in Review of Educational Research v. 76 pp. 383-412 (2006), Unveiling Professional Development: A Critical Review of Stage Models by Gloria Dall’Alba and Jörgen Sandberg, we find that:
Empirical research has shown not only that embodied understanding of practice forms the base for the development of professional skill but also that experienced and inexperienced professionals understand and engage in practice in contrasting ways [long list of refs]. This is the case even at one level of skill acquisition within the Dreyfus stage model (see, for example, [lots more refs]).
That is, you see lots of variation within a "level", to the point where it's somewhat questionable whether there even is a level. Therefore, it's not at all clear to me that Dreyfus has actually done any better than role-playing games at modeling advancement in an abstract way.
