Mythos Machine - Skills Organization Revision Planning

Currently working on simplification of the Skills System. Right now, due to the evolution of how I created the system, and then programmed it, there are three methods for organizing Skills: Generic, Skill-Class, and Skill-Book-Class. These three were created to solve different problems. The Generic is the simplest to maintain as a list on a piece of paper. The Skill-Class is the easiest to understand. The Skill-Book-Class is the easiest to understand in context to the Mystic Powers system which also uses Books. In the end there can be only one, because having three systems is too complicated and opens the door to people mixing the systems and getting confused.

Here's how the current three methods work (expert from the Mythos Machine World Weaver's Strategy Guide):

Generic Skill Building
You create your skills assigning them a status of Primary, Elective, Combined or Prohibited for each of the four Cardinal Classes, Thief, Fighter, Spell Chanter and Cleric. This way, when Characters go to select their Skills the system looks to see what Class the Character is, and then displays the skills that fit their Class. So for example if you had a Character who is a Multi-Class like Fighter-Thief, then the system would show the Character Primary and Elective Skills for all Skills that are designated as belonging to Fighters and Thieves, and not show Skills designated as belonging to Magic Users and Clerics. This Generic Skill Building Method takes a bit more time and more thought but it also means that when you create new classes you don't have to assign specific Skills to it. In that sense it's more generic and easier.

Class Specific Skill Building
Conversely, you may find it easier to Assign each Skill to specific Classes. You can do this when you create the Skills or you can do it afterwards. Or you can do it when you create a New Class. To do so you go to the Edit Skill screen and click the "Show Additional Item Options" button, and you will see a check list that you can select from. You can either go to Edit Skills and decide which Classes each Skill belongs to, or you can do it the other way and go to Edit Classes and choose which Skills each Class has associated to it. If you want to use this method, then when you create new Skills assign them all Elective for every Class.

Skill Book Building
Lastly, you may find it easier to Assign Skills to specific Skill Books, and then associate each Book to the Classes you want. Again, if you want to use this method, then when you create new Skills assign them all Elective for every Class.

I think the clearest method for the Mythos Machine is probably going to be the Skills-Class method.  You create a skill and then you assign it as Primary to specific Classes. Everyone else can learn it as Elective. In this system there won't be any way to prohibit skills from being learned by characters who might choose to learn it as an Elective Skill but that is an acceptable price to pay if the result is a simplification of the system overall. So I think that is the direction I will go with it. Of course I will ruminate over it and try this and try that before deciding, but I think Skill-Class will turn out to be the best option.