Character Skills

This page will detail all of the individual skills available to your character.

General Rules
These are the rules that will apply to all Skills. Additionally, there are also definitions to some of the terms as it applies to the rules for Skills.

Rank
Every Skill has Rank. This represents how skilled your character is in that particular skill. Each Skill will have a Rank between 1 and 6 (8 augmented). If a you have any skill with a Rank of 0 (which there will be quite a lot), then you have no training in this Skill. Some skills can be attempted without training (such as most physical skills and some weapon skills), but if they are then when rolling for successes, the player uses only the governing Attribute and suffers a -3 to the roll. As always, you cannot be reduced to 0 or negative dice, but to add onto this, only 6's count as successes.

If you have Ranks in a particular skill, to perform an action using that skill, you take the number of Ranks and add it to the number of the governing Attribute. The result is the total number of dice you will roll. This is modified by Recoil and other modifiers for visibility, range, character Condition, and cover.

Sphere
Skill Sphere is a group of skills that are governed by a Main Attribute. This does not necessarily mean that all the skills are related to each other. For example, most Weapon Skills are in the Agility Sphere, but so is Stealth and Acrobatics. All it means is that this group of skills all use the same Main Attribute to determine total dice.

Additionally, they are grouped for Character Creation, as each Sphere gets a number of starting Skill Points based on the governing Attribute.

Buying and Improving Skills
As stated in Character Creation, you have a number of Skill Points to buy ranks in each skill based on its Governing Attribute. After Character Creation, it is still possible to buy new skills, but you must use Experience Points (XP) and it is a bit more expensive.

To buy 1 rank in a new skill (raising it from 0 Ranks to 1 Rank) will cost 10 XP.

To raise an existing skill of any rank costs a number of XP equal to the rank you are going to (e.g. if you have 4 Ranks in Stealth, it will cost you 5 XP to raise it to 5 Ranks).


 * NOTE: the Human Racial Bonus that gives them an XP discount for buying and improving skills applies, but cannot reduce the cost to 0. This really only affects Humans raising a skill rank from 1 to 2, which will cost them 1 XP. This does not affect buying a new skill too adversely as the normal cost of raising a skill from 0 to 1 is 10 XP, thus it would cost a Human 8 XP.

Specialization
Not all Skills have Specializations, but for those that do, additional Ranks can be added when performing that Specialized action. For example, a Specialization under the skill Medium Blades would be any specific sword, Rapier for instance. In this example, Medium Blades would be the Broad Skill and Rapier would be the Specialization. Broad Skills and Specializations will be termed this way for all Skills.

Buying a Specialization at Character Creation costs the same as any other skill. Buying a new Specialization or improving an existing one, costs the same amount of XP. However, the Specialization cannot be more than the ''' Broad Skill. If your Medium Blades Broad Skill is 5, your Specialization in Rapier cannot go above 5 until you have raised your Broad Skill''' to 6.

Using Specializations is a bit different. Instead of combining the Broad Skill and the Specialization, you get to re-roll any low dice equal to the number of Specialization ranks you have. For example, If you have 4 in Medium Blades and 2 in Rapier, you will get to re-roll any 2 low dice ONCE per skill check/Action. This counts for Contested and Tested skill checks. What constittutes a "low roll" is any dice showing less that 4, or 1, 2, 3. If the dice shows 4, 5, or 6, it cannot be re-rolled. Regardless of result, even if it is low again, the second roll is the FINAL result. Here is an example.

Tommy the Rogue has 4 ranks in Light Blades and 2 ranks in Daggers. When striking an opponent with his dagger, Tommy rolls 4d6 for his ranks in Light Blades plus 4d6 for his Agility, for a total of 8d6. He rolls to strike an enemy and rolls the following:  4, 5, 5, 6, 3, 2, 1, and 6. A pretty good roll. But thanks to his Specialization in Daggers, he can re-roll 2 low dice, or the 3, 2, or 1. He picks the dice showing 2 and 1 and re-rolls a 6 and a 3. His final roll is 4, 5, 5, 6, 3, 6, 3, and 6. Since it is a combat action and a Contested roll, only 5's and 6's count so he scores 5 successes. Were he using a light blade that was not a dagger or knife, a weapon not covered by his Specialization, then the original roll of 4, 5, 5, 6, 3, 2, 1, and 6 would be his final roll with only 4 successes.

Performing Skills
All skills are based on rolls (see Roll types in Basic Play). Specifically, they are either Contested or Tested rolls with successes. Contested rolls, which are mostly combat actions/attacks, will be a comparison of number of successes, essentially whoever has more success wins. Tested rolls, which are mostly out of combat skills and knowledge skills, are totaled and must meet or exceed the TN to be successful. Normally, there are further benefits for rolling higher than the TN.

As mentioned in Ranks, once you have your total number of dice, you roll that number of dice and count the total successes.

In combat success are scored only on 5 and 6. This usually applies to Weapon Skills, any skill that can be used as Contested (detailed in the Skill description), or any skill used in combat that. Additionally, for Tested rolls in combat, the TN does not change, though there could be modifiers to the roll (usually penalties) that will affect the total.

Skill Spheres
Below are the Skill Spheres and a quick list of all skills within that sphere. Each Skill Sphere will have its own page with the associated skills explained in detail on that page.

Strength Sphere
This Sphere represents skills that normally take Strength or brute force to complete successfully. The Skills governed by the Strength (STR) attribute are as follows:

Constitution Sphere
These are skills that either require continuous physical exertion or resisting it. The Skills governed by the Constitution (CON) attribute are as follows:

Endurance

Long Distance Running

Long Distance Swimming

Resist Torture / Pain

These Skills have no Specializations

Agility Sphere
This Sphere has several skills assocaiated with it and is further broken up into groups. The groups are:

Physical Skills (skills directly involving feats of agility and grace)

Melee Weapon Skills (skills involving the use of hand-to-hand weapons)

Ranged Weapon Skills (skills involving the use of ranged weapons including modern and futuristic firearms)

Piloting Skills (skills involving controlling transport including animal-powered, human-powered, and motorized vehicles)

Unarmed Combat Skills (skills involving the use of various Martial Arts)

Due to the large number, they will not be listed here. Please consult the Agility Sphere page for more detail.

Intelligence Sphere
These are knowledge and technical skills. They range from knowledge about a particular subject to applied mathematics and physics. Next to the Agility Sphere, this Sphere has almost as many skills governed by Intelligence (INT). Like the Agility Sphere, the Intelligence Sphere is broken into a number of categories. They are:


 * Knowledge/Academic Skills: these skills include academic subjects that you would study in school or at university.
 * Technical Skills: these are skills that apply some sort of technique to use. This is not just "hi-tech" skills, but any that use a combination of manual dexterity, ingenuity, and a bit of creativity.
 * Applied Skills: these are skills that further the Knowledge Skills from the previous category and apply them to real-world situations.

Along with these skills, provided they are allowed by the GM, those who choose Path of Magic get an additional skill called Magic. It is an Intelligence Skill and thus adds your Intelligence Attribute to the total dice rolled, but it is governed by it's own rules detailed under Magic. Likewise, those who choose Path of Mind get the additional skill Psionics. It is an Intelligence Skill and thus adds your Intelligence Attribute to the total dice rolled, but it is governed by it's own rules detailed under Psionics.

Wisdom Sphere
This Sphere likely has the fewest skills as Wisdom is not something you "learn" as you would an Intelligence Skill, but rather something you know intuitively. All the same, it does include the following skills.


 * Intuition
 * Handle Animals
 * Direction Sense

Additionally, those following the Path of Piety will have their Magic Skill (Thaumaturgy and all Sub-Skills) added to their Wisdom instead of Intelligence. However, it is governed by it's own rules detailed under Magic.

Charisma Sphere
These are skills that allow you to persaude, lie, or charm your way through life. It also includes a number of social skills that the character can use further their aims, peacefully if they want. The skills are:

Attractiveness

Acting

Bluff / Distract

Diplomacy

Disguise

Interrogation

Intimidation

Perform

Persuasion / Debate

Seduction

Streetwise

Many of these skills are Contested rolls as succeeding in the skill depends on the interaction with whomever they are attempting to lie, persuade, seduce, or compromise.