making characters

[seeks the moon]

hello everyone. I recently got into the dresden series on the recomendation of a good friend at work when i was looking for something new to read and wow was i blown away!  then i saw a DF RPG! and i was made a happy man......then i got the game books and i dove in and started reading and went to make my first character (i plan on making multiple to help me learn the system so it will go fatser for me) but for some reason i cant seem to figure out how skill points are spent.  for example if i want a superb skill is it 5 pts? and 1 pt for an average skill? am i reading it right? and how do they "tier" for each superb must i have 2 great? etc etc? any help would be greatly apreciated.

[wyvern]

I usually think of it in terms of skill "stacks" - each skill requires only a single skill below to support it.

So a skill at +1, costs one skill point.
A skill stack that tops at +2, costs three skill points - since it gives you one skill at +2 (costing 2), and one skill at +1.

stack top / costs:
1 / 1
2 / 3
3 / 6
4 / 10
5 / 15
6 / 21
etc.

So, for example, if you've got 30 skill points, you can buy two skills at +5 (and thus also get two skills at each of +4 through +1), or you can buy the classic pyramid with one stack at each height from +5 to +1, or several other variations.

[sinker]

Or, for a less complicated answer, you're right. A skill costs one point per rank. However it must have one skill beneath it that isn't "supporting" another skill. If you have one superb skill then you must have at least one at great, one at good, etc. If you have two at superb then you need at least two at great, etc.

[InFerrumVeritas]

I think of them in terms of packages.

A Superb Skill Package costs 15 skill points and gives you one Superb, one Great, one Good, one Fair, and one Average skill.

A Great Skill Package costs 10 skill points and gives you one Great, one Good, one Fair, and one Average skill.

A Good Skill Package costs 6 skill points and gives you one Good, one Fair, and one Average skill.

A Fair Skill Package costs 3 points and gives you one Fair and one Average Skill.

An Average skill costs one point.

It doesn't help so much for advancement (then I think of them as stacks), but for initial creation, I find it immensely useful.

[seeks the moon]

thanks for the fast and informative answers  they have all been helpful.