About Skills
Skills refine an attribute, ability, or a more general skill to enable an actor to accomplish specific tasks. The maximum number of skills an actor may allocate is given by the Skillfulness derived attribute.
Skill Defaults
The attribute, ability, or more general skill which a skill refines is called the skill’s default. When building a dice pool to test a skill, the pool is assembled from all allocated dice for the skill plus the pool that would be used if the actor was using the skill’s default. If use of a skill is composed with other skills in a single action and would result in a particular default appearing more than once in the pool, the default’s allocation is only added once. In discussion of a given skill, skill dice refers to this assembled pool.
The skill “Stellar Navigation” and its chain of defaults are defined as:
Stellar Navigation
Ship Systems
Smarts (SMR)
Anders takes over the navigation station from Jens who is injured. Anders needs to succeed at a test of their Stellar Navigation skill to be able to manage the system. The GM rules that the task is of typical difficulty, requiring 2 successes.
Anders has a typical SMR (2) and has allocated 1 die in the skill Ship Systems and 1 die in the skill Stellar Navigation. For the test, Anders collects the following skill dice into the test's dice pool and adds their 5AD:
Their pool of 9d6 gives them a 86% chance of success.
Attempting Unallocated Skills
Unless stated otherwise, a skill without any allocated dice can still be used by applying the test to the indicated default or its nearest ancestor default. However, when doing so, the difficulty of the unallocated skill and any unallocated defaults are subtracted from the resulting dice pool.
In the same situation, Gemma might have tried to take over for Jens. But Gemma hasn't learned the Stellar Navigation skill. Still, Gemma can use her general knowledge of Ship Systems to try anyway. For the test, Gemma collects the following dice into the dice pool:
However, because Gemma has not trained the Stellar Navigation skill, she must subtract 2 dice from her pool (Stellar Navigation has a difficulty of 2), resulting in a pool of 6d6. Because the task is still typical difficulty, her chance of success is much lower, but still a respectable 65%.
Padma has no knowledge of Stellar Navigation or Ship Systems. If she tried to take over navigation, her dice pool would rely only on 2 (typical SMR) + 5AD. Worse, because of her lack of knowledge, this meager pool is reduced by 4 (2 + 2: both Stellar Navigation and Ship Systems have difficulties of 2).
Her resulting pool is 3d6 and has a success probability of only 26%. As smart as she is, she has a pretty low chance of figuring it out in the clutch, and she's probably better off letting the autopilot handle things.
Root Defaults
A skill’s root default is always an attribute or ability. If a skill’s default is another skill, look at that skill’s default. Repeat this process until the default is not a skill. That default is the root default.
The Root Default of the Stellar Navigation skill is Smarts (SMR).
Stellar Navigation
Ship Systems
Smarts (SMR)
A skill whose root default is an ability may not be allocated or used without allocating at least one die to the ability. A skill with an attribute as its root default may not be allocated or used unless that attribute has at least 1 as its value.
There are temporary conditions which may impart penalties against core attributes. While an attribute is reduced below 1, any skills with that attribute as their root default cannot be used until the attribute is raised above 0.
Deena is a beginning Lifecaller. He wants to learn the Call Flame skill:
Call » Flame
Because this skill’s default is the ability Channel Power, he must have at least 1 die allocated to the ability before he can attempt calling flame.
Prerequisites
Skill defaults are always considered prerequisites to learning a skill. Some skills have other prerequisites in addition to their listed default. A skill’s default and all listed prerequisites must be allocated with at least 1 die before the skill may be allocated.
Shaunda wants to learn the skill Pharmacology:
Pharmacology
She has two dice allocated in its default: Biology. But Pharmacology lists Chemistry as an additional prerequisite, and she doesn’t have that skill. Before she can allocate a die to Pharmacology, she must first allocate at least one to Chemistry to meet the prerequisite.
If she tries to use the Pharmacology skill unallocated, she would have to subtract 3 from her dice pool (because while Chemistry is a prerequisite, it is not a default and doesn’t count against her).
Repeatable Skills
Some skills are repeatable. A repeatable skill is one that may be allocated more than once at different rated values for individual specializations. Repeatable skills are listed with either explicit specializations or with a description of the type of specialization or area of focus following a double-chevron (»).
Repeatable skills may be referenced in this text either in their specialized forms or as general categories. Language » English refers to a specialized form, while Language » * refers to a general category.
Repeatable skills cannot be allocated as unspecialized. If a repeatable skill is referenced with a relevant specialization, that specialized skill takes precedence over the more general form.
The Language skill is repeatable because it must be allocated individually for each language learned. Language » English is a different skill than Language » Japanese and these two skills must be allocated separately. The Linguistics skill lists its default as Language » *. This means that the Linguistics skill (the study of languages) has any single language as its default and prerequisite.
The Driving skill is also repeatable. However, in skill listings it will not be enumerated for every possible kind of vehicle. Instead, its specialization is listed as “1 type of animal-drawn vehicle” and may be allocated individually for each vehicle type that the actor chooses to learn. At allocation, the player must choose the specialization. An actor may allocate this skill as Driving » Chariot or Driving » Cart. When referred to as a category, these skills will be named Driving » *.
Skill Technology Levels
The following lists of skills are divided by the Technology Level (TEC) in which they are initially relevant. Remember that Technology Levels are not intended to simulate historically accurate reenactments or to survive precise examination from a historical or cultural lens. They are guides to facilitate fast, fun gameplay in pseudo-historical and speculative future settings.
Typically, skills listed at any given Technology Level are available at that level and above. Some exceptions to this may be made if a particular skill is anachronistic enough in higher Technology Levels that it is no longer well understood, but these cases will be stated in individual expansions.
Skill Availability by Tech Level
Tech Level |
Skills General |
Ancient |
Pre-Industrial |
Industrial |
Modern |
Future |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ancient (TEC 1) | ✓ | ✓ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ |
| Pre-Industrial (TEC 2) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✕ | ✕ | ✕ |
| Industrial (TEC 3) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✕ | ✕ |
| Modern (TEC 4) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✕ |
| Future (TEC 5) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
General Skills
Skills in the General category are available across all Technology Levels. When allocated for an actor in a particular setting, the skills in this section reflect the knowledge and techniques relevant to the era represented by the setting’s Technology Level.
When allocated within a game setting which is not constrained to a single Technology Level, these skills should be considered to have an additional level of specialization: The Technology Level which the skill’s knowledge domain covers.
As an example, Chemistry as understood by a scientist in the 14th century (TEC 1) is not the same skill as Chemistry as understood by a scientist in the 21st (TEC 4). The theories, nomenclature, understandings, expectations, processes, and tooling possessed by the two scientists are vastly different, and neither would be at home or likely even competent in the laboratory of the other.
Actors may attempt to apply their knowledge to the situation, but the disparity between their training and the future or historical context they find themself in causes significant difficulty.
To model the difficulties that would be experienced by an actor in these cross-era situations, tests involving General Skills receive a penalty equal to the difference between the Technology Levels of the actor’s allocated skill and that of the era the actor finds themself in.
Additionally, if the test involves technology or processes that are anachronistic or unfamiliar to the actor due to Technology Level disparities, the GM may rule that the actor must subtract the skill’s difficulty from the test’s dice pool.
The Professor and her companion Harry are traveling in her Space-Time Box. Harry, who was born in the year 1985 (TEC 4: Modern era) is a medical doctor, and has the skill Medicine (difficulty: 5, default: Skill Biology, Prereq: Chemistry).
The Professor’s ship isn’t very reliable, and by random chance they materialize on a mysterious and deserted space station in the distant future (TEC 5: Future era). The Professor has been injured in the landing, and they’ve both been locked out of the ship.
While exploring the station on his own, Harry finds what he thinks is a medical kit. He rushes back to where he left The Professor, but when he opens the kit he finds an inscrutable array of strange equipment.
Unfortunately for them both, in this era Harry’s medical skill is severely outdated and he can’t make heads or tails of the future medical technology. He realizes he is going to have to make his best guess and hope he doesn’t wind up killing The Professor and stranding himself in this space and time.
Harry’s an accomplished doctor, with 3 dice allocated to the Medicine skill, 3 dice in Biology, and an SMR of 3. With his 5AD and the medkit’s +1, he’s starting with an excellent dice pool of 15d6.
But the difference in Technology Level in these futuristic surroundings means he begins his Medicine test at -1 die (TEC 5 - TEC 4). In addition, because he’s not at all familiar with the futuristic medkit, he’ll be at an additional -5 (the Medicine skill’s difficulty).
Still, with his remaining 9d6 he stands a reasonable 62% chance of reviving the Professor.
Actors with more modern native Technology Levels may choose to learn anachronistic skills from a historical lens. Starting at the Pre-Industrial (TEC 2) level, the skill Historical Skill » * may be allocated and specialized with a specific General skill.
If this skill is allocated, when a test involves applying the specialized skill in a historical context (historical from the actor’s frame of reference), the test is not subject to the skill difficulty penalty, and the Historical Skill’s skill dice may be applied to the test to offset the Technology Level differential penalty.
On their next journey, The Professor and Harry arrive in the Middle Ages (TEC 1: Ancient era). During their adventures, Harry tries to use his knowledge of chemistry (1 die allocated to Chemistry) to improvise an explosive to break open a locked door. The GM has ruled he needs 3 successes to make a compound powerful enough to blow the iron lock.
With his 4 skill dice and 5AD, his dice pool is 9d6, but he needs actual chemical materials to work with.
He’s made friends with a local tinkerer who has access to what passes for a chemistry lab in this timeframe, but 20th century chemistry has come a long way since, and even the names of elements and chemicals are radically different.
Because of these differences and the need to utilize what he has to hand, Harry would have both a -3 penalty due to the Technology Level difference (TEC 4 - TEC 1), and a -3 penalty because of the vastly different lab conditions (Chemistry is a difficulty 3 skill), leaving him with only 3d6. That would be only a 4% chance of 3 successes.
Luckily, Harry had previously made a bit of a hobby of historical chemistry practices, and has allocated 1 die in Historical Skill » Chemistry. Applying this skill neutralizes the -3 skill difficulty penalty, and while he still takes the penalty from the Technology Level difference, he can apply his historical knowledge to the work, adding the 1 die in historical chemistry to the pool for a total of 7d6 and a 43% chance of success; vastly better odds.