I agree with Xor somewhat, having tons of skills and not knowing what their limits are was part of the fun in Fallout. How many people got the Kama Sutra Perk in Fallout 2 for example? You had no idea what it did except enhance your sexual performance. Would the game be as fun if it said +2 endurance check during sex? (or whatever it does, I still don't know)
The idea of being an outdoorsman, or being a science guy, or a sex master was great from a role playing point of view, you didn't pick from Skill A and Skill B, you picked from skills and perks that all conjured something in your head. And that's how they worked in practice too, science could be used on computers or during conversations, it wasn't just a skill, but a resume of who you were. In a way, they were informed choices, because you knew the direction you'd want to take your character in, but you didn't know the full consequences. It's the mystery part in the roleplaying that's so interesting.
And really many games have some elements of this, it's probably why Fallout had some skills, perks or choice here and there that made sense in-character but weren't fully explained, it's just deeply engrained into PnP. For example you play as an half-orc or Elf in Arcanum, some people could hate you. But the game doesn't say at character creation -10 relations with humans, it's sort of hinted that there might be racial tensions and with the setting you're in. By playing, you discover your half-orc is hated and looked down upon and that shapes up the type of character you become.
