I'm looking at using this for a setting of my own that has more than 8 iconic character types. Does having more than 8 skill classes impact or unbalance the rules beyond potentially slowing down character development?
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I think you might be thinking of the skills as d20 classes. Don't; instead think of them as the building blocks from which classes are built. There isn't a 'Paladin' skill; instead if someone wanted to play a paladin, I'd tell them to take levels of Warrior and Cleric. Druid? No problem. Cleric of a nature god and scout should do the trick. Some tweakery would probably be in order, but BBF can handle that, pretty easily I think.
But to get back to to the original question, no, I don't think BBF is going to be 'broken' by more than eight skills. But beware 'snowflake syndrome;' making a skill for every new person, organization, etc. Look for ways to combine existing skills to accommodate new things.
Thanks for comments, Wanderer, but I'm not trying to create snowflakes. I am using some of the existing ones (Scout), and just reskinning some of the original ones with a few tweaks to fit the setting (Warrior to Soldier). However, it is not a stock fantasy type game and cleric doesn't fit for example. In addition, there are enough archetypes that don't fit that I can't necessarily create them all as you suggested (though I do agree in general with your statements)
Just a note @Wanderer: for Paladin, I'd actually say P: Leader, S: Warrior, and 1st lvl: Cleric.
Yeah, Paladins would probably be a combination of Leader, Warrior, and Cleric. Adjusted to taste, of course. YMMV.