Skills represent general categories which define a character’s knowledge and experience in various areas. With levels ranging from 0 to 5, each level in a skill provides 1d6 towards rolls for that skill.
At level 2, the Combat skill allow players to choose a combat stance which grows in strength with the level of the skill. These stances provide additional options when a character fights under the conditions required by the stance.
Specialties
For each skill a character may have 1 or more specialties representing specific subdivisions of expertise within that skill. If a player makes a roll associated with one of their character’s specialties, regardless of the skill used, they gain an additional +1 bump to the roll. However, the boon from multiple specialties do not stack. Specialties are also important when a character has an out of body experience as they help determine what the player character’s spirit can influence and interact with.
The below table lists example specialties focused in each skill:
| Skill | Example Specialties |
|---|---|
| Academics | Physics, History, Law, Chemistry |
| Animal Handling | Wolves, Training, Animal Needs |
| Athletics | Climbing, Running, Kayaking, Swimming |
| Combat | Knives, Hammers, Fist, Handguns, Bows, Rifles |
| Connections | Carousing, Corporations, Elections |
| Crafting | Architecture, Engines, Art, Alchemy |
| Insight | Body Language, Bluffs, Emotions |
| Investigation | Crime Scenes, Traps, Stake-outs |
| Larceny | Locks, Slight-of-hand, Security, Forgery |
| Medicine | Emergency Care, Surgery, Illness |
| Negotiation | Speeches, Intimidation, Seduction, Bartering |
| Occult | Cultural Beliefs, Ghosts, Cults, Fey |
| Performance | Dance, Piano, Drama |
| Stealth | Wilderness, Camouflage, Crowds, |
| Subterfuge | Hiding Emotion, Disguises, Lying, |
| Survival | Foraging, Navigating, Tracking |
| Technology | Programming, AI, Security, Robotics |
Skills
Academics:
The Academic skill covers an individual’s academic prowls; how well they can study, find sources, and interact with academic culture. It also covers basic education, while specialties cover focused studies in specific areas.
Animal Handling:
The Animal Handling skill covers most non-combative interactions with animals, such as training, pacifying, and inciting them. It covers knowledge of animal behaviors and how to appropriately react to them. Although humans are technically animals as well, this skill generally focuses on creatures that rely on instinct to survive.
Athletics:
This skill covers a characters physical ability when combined with routine training. It can be used in an agile manner, such as to weave through an obstacle course or leap from tree to tree, but it can also cover more brawny matters, such as climbing a sheer cliff or tackling a person. Lastly, it is used for tasks that need great endurance: distance running, holding breath under water, or to resist physical exhaustion.
Combat:
This skill covers both melee and ranged attacks and the use of weaponry. More information on melee and ranged weapons can be found in the equipment section.
In short, one-handed weapons deal 1|3 damage and two-handed melee weapons deal 2|4 damage. Ranged weapons also have an ammo count which can be spent to apply additional effects to an attack. One-handed ranged weapons have 2-3 ammo and two-handed ranged weapons have 1-5 ammo, both with a Far Away range. Lastly, thrown weapons take a -2 penalty against Far Away targets, but add the wielder’s strength to the damage.
By specializing in a weapon a character can improve their attacks with it in a variety of ways, detailed in the equipment section.
At level 2 the player chooses one Melee or Ranged Combat Stance to advance along with this skill. Each stance provides new maneuvers as the character levels up the skill. A character can only be in one stance at a time, but may switch stances once as part of any action on their turn (assuming they have another).
Note: Both ranged and Melee attacks have their own advantages and disadvantages. Melee fighters can add a character’s strength bonus to damage and have more opportunities to make opportunity attacks. Ranged fighters can spend ammo for additional damage or other effects but face penalties against targets that are behind cover, prone, or engaged with them. These are further detailed in the Action Scenes section.
Connections:
This skill deals with one’s ability to gather people, find resources, organize group events, and host events. It is used when spreading rumors and dealing with scandals, carousing, and to gather information about events, such as who the host and important figures are and what the expected behavior and fashion is. The skill is also used to reach individuals that no PC has the Contact merit for. Furthermore, the skill can be used to understand the inner work-processes and hierarchies within an organization.
Crafting:
The Crafting skill covers a character’s general creative and tinkering ability as well as their crafting and mechanical knowledge with any specialty for the skill. The craft skill is used to assemble and disassemble devices. Crafting often works will in conjunction with the academics, computers, investigation, and occult skills, which may be used to decipher the functions of items and to figure out the necessary ingredients for a new invention.
A character with a crafting specialty in glass blowing might also use their general crafting ingenuity to fix a car’s broken tire, but not build an engine. Inversely, a car mechanic should be able to work on many car engines and maybe even build one from the ground up, but while they might be able to glue a vase back together, their skills don’t translate well to the shaping of molten glass.
Some spells can assist in crafting, making it possible when otherwise impossible or providing a situational modifier to a craft roll, but magical spells cannot replace the craft skill. A metal bending mage still needs knowledge, if not a hammer, to create a gun.
Insight:
Insight encompasses a person’s capability to understand others, read body language, and to know a person’s underlying character. It is used to detect lies and to notice subtle reactions characters have to events. Insight can also be used to figure out what pieces of information or resources can be used to sway individuals.
Investigation:
The Investigation skill covers an individual’s ability to make logical leaps, notice obscure clues, and uncover the hidden truth of things. The skill can help deduce where items might be, what left the wound in a corpse, or where what areas of a room are most important for a building’s structural integrity.
Larceny:
The Larceny skill covers illegal activities such as lock picking, breaking and entering, and theft. Larceny is used when attempting to make a subtle action without notice.
Medicine:
This skill covers the use of medical implements, identify ailments, injuries, and to bandage wounds. When player characters are resting they can use this skill to advance their healing clocks to help get over damage.
Negotiation:
Negotiation represents an individual’s ability to get what they want from a conversation from tact and manners, bartering, or via intimidation. The skill is key for resolving conflicts, yet is also useful for gathering information, intimidating others, and calming people down. It is also possible to inflict a small amount of trauma to someone with a well placed insult; see Attacks on Sanity.
Occult:
The Occult skill covers knowledge of the supernatural and is used to discover the effects of magical enchantments and rituals. It also deals with interactions with mundane, supernaturally focused societies, as well as where to find them.
Performance:
The Performance skill is used for acts of entertainment and acting and thus covers the majority interactions that deal with an audience. Furthermore, it can be used to impress or distract individuals.
Stealth:
The stealth skill allows an individual to evade the detection of others. The full results of a stealth roll should often be recorded, as later actions could make individuals suspicious and on guard, letting them make an opposed Perception ability check to search the area.
Subterfuge:
Subterfuge represents one’s ability to fool and lie to others, blend in with a crowd and act as though they belong, and to mask one’s identity as another.
Survival:
This skill is used to survive without a home in urban and non-civilized areas and to get the lay of the land. It may help to track beasts and persevere through extreme conditions. It also helps in interactions with vagabonds, homeless, and other nomads.
Technology:
The Technology skill handles one’s knowledge of computers and software-using technology, general IT, electrical engineering, hacking, and programming. The skill also is used to gather a general understanding of how pieces of technology might work, be setup, or otherwise used.