Some Questions On RPG Design (pt 1)

Some Questions On Roleplaying Design (Part 1)

Although I have experience with a wide range of game systems, both in hands-on GMing use and in intensive play/reading, I am always looking to refine my knowledge of what people currently believe produces good tabletop roleplaying experiences for specific styles.

Since I, like many folks, am working on a game design, I am looking for some feedback on specific questions that are banging around on my desk, and hoping that the folks reading here can help me out with their opinions on these subjects.

Assume that I am working with the following concepts as a given:

The System is Skill based, not class based. Characters are generally front-end heavy in construction rather than growth heavy in regards to things that are not skills.

System uses Dice for randomization, probably a percentile based system with use of a singular reference chart for oppositional comparisons and determining 'levels of success' (similar to but not the same as Zamani, the old Pacesetter's version of Chill, Pacesetter's Timemaster, etc.) Primarily depending on single roll actions (Active Roll vs Passive/non-rolling opposition).

System Setting is Fantasy oriented rather than Science Dominant, and that the time period technologies will be for somewhere between Bronze Age and at latest Elizabethan era (limited firearms, explosives, medicine, pre-Newtonian Physics known to the populance) and that there will be non-human species, magic (both religious and non-religious).

Now, having established such we come to the first questions:

How many Skills are Too Many? That is, how many skills available to choose from is too many? Since growth, in this case, goes mostly into skills and skill improvement is it better to have broad coarse skills or many tightly defined skills or a mixture based upon the areas of focus vs the areas of background or setting look & feel?

What I mean by this is, should there be a separate skill for each language? What about each type of magic (Summoning, Warding, Locomotion, Healing, etc.)? What about types of Weapons (Swords, Axes, Maces, Bows, etc.)? Should there be both broad and narrow focus skills (that is, a tree system where you can choose to simply buy 'combat' or to specialize in 'swordsmanship'?) What about types of Knowledge (Animal Lore, Plant Lore) or Crafts (Cooking, Blacksmithing, Engineering, Animal Husbandry)?

Do skill trees make the character creation process to complex and too slow? Does long lists of skills dissuade players from building complex characters?

Note: By Skill Tree I do not mean the misuse of the term as used in computer games that has been carried over into some tabletop roleplaying gaming. I mean the term by the old design concept where the tree is a listing of complexity:

Combat ( Broadest Skill Category)
Melee Combat (Slightly Less Broad)
Armed Melee Combat (Less Broad)
Blades (Even Less Broad)
Rapier (Less Broad)
Italian Rapier Style (Narrow Focus)

So one could buy the broadest, most expensive level of skill, or pay slightly less for the slightly less broad and so on down to the Narrow Focus.

Someone skilled only at the Low end would take a penalty to their skill for trying to use it to perform a more broad version of the skill, which would increase with each step.

Some games that have variations on this are the 'defaults' of GURPS 3rd edition, the Skill Groups of Hero v5, etc.

--
(I'll continue this series of questions, referencing back to the info in this one, based upon the feedback I get to this one. If no one response then I will assume that there is no interest in the subject and not post anything further).