On Skills and Perception

This evening I was working on a very seminal list of skills for Yaqqothl. I came up with six skills:

• Appraise
• Athletic
• Diplomacy
• Perception
• Underground Mastery
• Wilderness Survival

Then, while I was having a shower, I realized that all these skills are already covered in the 3LBBs or simply ignorable. It was kind of a shock to me. One by one:

• Appraise: You need an NPC to do that, and this is fine because characters are not merchants: they are adventurers.
• Athletic: There are rules to climb, jump and even swim in the 3LBBs, and this is all the athleticism I personally need.
• Diplomacy: Use the reaction table!
• Underground Mastery: If you can already find secret doors, traps, slanting passages and so on just by rolling a die, what use is an exploration skill?
• Wilderness Survival: Anyone can set up a camp. If the characters have to hunt, you have stats for animals (check the supplements, the Monster Manual or whatever you want).

And finally, the most shocking one. I always wondered why there weren't rules to handle Perception in any pre-WotC edition of D&D . But now I realize they were always there: the Surprise roll is Perception. For example, say Grog the Rogue is moving silently to assassinate a guard. This is OD&D, so it is enough for the player to say "Grog moves silently", and he can do it easily if not wearing heavy armor. The DM knows that the guard is surprised on 1-2 in 6, and decides that since Grog is moving silently the probability that the guard is surprised increases to 1-3 in 6. Then he secretly rolls the die to check how the situation evolves...

I feel like I'm really getting into OD&D.