Are there any RPGs that implemented skill improving by using, in a decent manner?

[7hm]

In the world of roguelikes, Dungeon Crawl Stone Soup has a learn by use system and is loads of fun. The fun-factor remains despite the usual drawbacks of a use-based system, I think, because the largely linear and roguelike nature of it forces you to stay focused on moving forward and not dying instead of metagaming too hard (though I'm sure plenty of people do that).

I was going to mention this one as well. The revised skill system they introduced a few versions ago helped eliminate most of the pointless "let rat wail on you for two hours to increase shield skill" type behaviour. Mind you, DCSS is combat oriented, and has a really tight scope. The skill system itself only really has the one non-combat skill (traps&doors). That said I think that using this as a basis for a larger RPG would be possible.

 

[Raygun_elf]

Yes but Darklands also implemented permadeath in a rather problematic way, it encouraged the player to savescum and you couldn't really learn from death/defeat in way you're supposed to in an RPG. Also in my opinion it focused too much on hyper-realism and didn't give the player enough information in-game (not referring to the manual btw), even going so far as not showing choices that are unavailable due to the player not having a high enough skill requirement, resulting in the player really not knowing such options even existed in the first place, and the skill requirements for them. It's good if you want to spend half a lifetime replaying the game multiple times with different types of characters (which isn't a bad thing because DL is so good) to discover all the hidden options, but for those who only like to play a game through once they will never appreciate just how dense/deep a game Darklands is.

But on the topic of skill improvement by use, the concept is sound but obviously some mechanisms are needed to prevent it being exploited by grinding.