What are Skills
Skills are the specific capacities that your character possesses in numerous realms. As you level you gain mastery with these skills, denoting your character's continued increase in aptitude, and their expanded capacity and competence outside of combat.
Skills are based off of a particular Attribute, which communicates the fundamental capacity that your character will utilise in mastering this skill. Some skills like Medicine will have two Attributes, Intellect or Will. This communicates the idea that a character may arrive at the same capacities from two different points.
When a skill has multiple Attributes, you determine (when you add that skill to your mastery pool) what Attribute it is using.
A character may have been trained in a monastery, steeped in religious rites and rituals, and trained to provide care to the sick and wounded who find themselves within the temple. Alternatively, the character may have studied the new science of medicine, training to administer care to the sick and wounded who find themselves in the hospital.
Skills are used to determine the success of various actions you may choose to do. The GM will use these skills to establish what competency is being leveraged to accomplish your goal. Many different approaches can be made to address the same problem, and just as there are many ways a problem can be solved, there are many ways in which a skill can be used.
Checks
Skills are broad, and refer to general competencies, but checks are specific. Checks are the term for a roll which will determine success or failure of an action or event (The GM is checking if you succeed). A check will be called for when a GM decides that there is a possibility of failure and as such they need to check what the result is. Checks are always rolled with d20s, but what gets added to the roll is determined by what skill is used.
When a player wishes to do something that will require a check (as determined by GM), the GM will ask that player to roll a check, and state what skill is being used. The player rolling the check will then do so by, first rolling a d20, and adding in the particular skill's modifier. The GM will determine if the check is successful by comparing the total result rolled to the threshold they determined for the check. If the check is equal to or higher than the threshold the check is considered a success.
Example: Flexible Skill Usage
To communicate the flexibility of the system, please imagine the following: The party is infiltrating a university gala in order to access the vaults hidden on the premises. A character with high Intellect is attempting to pass themselves off as a faculty member, a recent hire and professor of archaeology. A suspicious professor attending engages the player in conversation and is attempting to determine if the player is who they say they are.
Typically the skill of Oratory would be used here. Oratory determines a player's knack for speech, their ability to use their words to persuade, intimidate and deceive. However the player may motivate for the idea that their character attempts to pass themselves off as a faculty member by, during their conversation, genuinely recalling a tremendous amount of information on their supposed field of expertise and the internal workings of the university. In which case the GM would call for a Knowledge check instead.
Thresholds
Thresholds are the numbers that must be reached by a check in order for them to be successful. Thresholds for checks are determined by the GM unless specified by the rules. The magnitude of the threshold communicates the difficulty of what is being attempted. A breakdown of thresholds and the respective difficulty that they represent are as follows:
Accomplished with little to no difficulty, possible by most
Accomplished with ease by those with competence, but poses enough of a challenge that those without competence or experience will fail almost as often as succeeding.
Unlikely for the inexperienced or untrained to succeed at, and will pose a minor challenge to those who are.
All but impossible for those without specific competence to achieve, and a genuine challenge for those who are.
Failure is very likely, even for those with specific training, knowledge and aptitude.
All but impossible, save for those with both skill and luck.
A GM will determine the threshold for a particular check in secret and determine the success of the player's rolls in that check by comparing them to the selected threshold. Some checks have variable thresholds which are thresholds wherein success comes in degrees. Variable thresholds will layout 2 or more threshold numbers and provide two or more benefits which are achieved when succeeding a particular threshold.
GM NOTE: Variable Thresholds
All checks can be made variable by the GM, and it is encouraged. A check does not need to just be an on/off switch, of fail or succeed. A player rolling one number lower than the threshold will still fail, but maybe their efforts were so close that the consequences for failure are lowered. Conversely a player may exceed the threshold to such an extent that the rewards for doing so are increased. Or worst of all for players, but best of all for stakes and narratives: a player may fail a roll so spectacularly that the GM decides to add in even more, yet unseen consequences.
Modifiers
Modifiers are the number that is added to the roll when performing a check. Modifiers can be negative or positive and all sources that influence a modifier need to be summed together before it is added to a roll.
Untrained Modifier
The starting modifier for a skill which a player possesses no mastery in is equal to the Attribute of the skill, plus a major detriment [-5].
Example Calculation
A creature that has no mastery in Precision and an Agility score of 3, will have a modifier of [-2] for their Precision checks.
[-5 + 3] = [-2]
The Skills
Here is a list of the skills a character can master. Their attributes, simple description and some examples of how they may be used in game.
Might
- StrengthA character's physical strength and bodily power. The practised application of one's trained strength and speed.
Might influences a character's success when trying to climb sheer surfaces, leap across gaps, break down doors or barriers, shove or grapple opponents, carry heavy burdens, or perform any feat of brute strength.
Precision
- AgilityA character's fine motor control, coordination, and accuracy. The marriage of focus and finesse under pressure.
Precision influences a character's success when trying to pick locks, disarm traps, perform sleight of hand, aim ranged attacks, craft delicate items, or execute acrobatic maneuvers requiring exact timing.
Stealth
- AgilityA character's ability to move unseen, unheard, and unnoticed.
Stealth influences a character's success when trying to move silently, hide in shadows, pick pockets, physically hide oneself, blend into crowds or escape pursuit without trace.
Knowledge
- IntellectA character's education, lore, and learned understanding of the world, and how they apply that understanding to the world around them.
Knowledge influences a character's success when trying to recall historical facts, decipher ancient languages, identify symbols or artefacts, understand novel ideas or theories, or comply with Byzantine bureaucratic systems.
Investigation
- IntellectA character's ability to scrutinise, deduce, and uncover hidden truths, not just notice details, but piece together patterns.
Investigation influences a character's success when trying to search a room for clues, reconstruct a crime scene, detect forgeries, solve puzzles or riddles, or follow a trail of evidence.
Engineering
- IntellectA character's grasp of construction, mechanics, and the manipulation of physical systems as well as their skill in the construction and maintenance of complex machines and automatons. It is the understanding how things fit together, and how to make them fall apart.
Engineering influences a character's success when trying to construct or sabotage structures, operate complex machinery, assess architectural stability, design, create or disable clockwork devices and automatons.
Awareness
- Intellect / WillA character's perceptiveness of objects and their surroundings.
Awareness influences a character's success when trying to spot hidden enemies, notice traps, hear distant sounds, detect ambushes, perceive invisible or ethereal presences, or maintain alertness while resting.
Naturalism
- Intellect / WillA character's understanding of the fauna, flora, and the complex systems they inhabit. Their ability to survive and thrive in the wild and untamed places of the earth.
Naturalism influences a character's success when trying to track creatures, identify plants or poisons, navigate the wilderness, calm or direct animals, predict weather, forage for resources and identify the Natural from the Supernatural.
Medicine
- Intellect / WillA character's expertise in providing medical care, their understanding of anatomy and wounds.
Medicine influences a character's success when trying to stabilise the dying, nullify poisons, perform surgery, diagnose and treat.
Esotericism
- Intellect / WillA character's capacity to comprehend, withstand, and wield the knowledge and powers that underpin reality. Not mere scholarship, but the dangerous art of touching the infinite without being consumed by it.
Esotericism influences a character's success when trying to decipher grimoires and encrypted rituals, identify supernatural entities, perform or disrupt magical ceremonies, resist psychic assault or mind-shattering truths, commune with entities or traverse otherworldly realms, as well as recognize the signs of creeping corruption or dimensional bleed.
Religion
- WillA character's understanding of the divine, the profane, and the hierarchies of higher and lower powers. The practical knowledge of rituals, ceremonies, spirits and the specific practices of various religions, not just your own.
Religion influences a character's success when trying to identify holy or unholy symbols, perform or counter religious rites, recognize certain supernatural entities, interpret omens, navigate the internal politics of religious institutions and recall religious rules, practices and teachings.
Insight
- WillA character's intuition and observations of others' motives, thoughts, intents and feelings.
Insight influences a character's success when trying to detect lies, discern someone's emotional state, predict a person's actions, sense hidden motives, or determine if someone is being magically influenced.
Oratory
- WillA character's command of speech, persuasion, and social influence. Their mastery of the spoken word and the performance that accompanies it.
Oratory influences a character's success when trying to deceive, intimidate, charm, negotiate, deliver compelling speeches, rally allies, or convince someone of something.