Skill and Expertise
Training (Passive) (2 exp):
- You gain a training bonus in a skill of your choice.
- Each training bonus grants +1d6 on the chosen skill.
- You can gain training in as many skills as you want.
- A single skill can only be trained once per tier.
Example
In tier I you can gain one training in melee, acrobatics and perception for a total of 6 exp. In tier II, you can gain a second training in melee and acrobatics, for a total of 4 exp.
Recommendation
When you gain this talent, mark the section “Tra” of the corresponding skill on your character sheet with the amount of training bonuses in that skill as a reminder.
Expertise (Passive) (2 exp):
Requires: Training in the chosen skill
Choose one skill you are trained in. You gain an extra +1d6 on that skill (unique bonus).
You can only gain this talent once. Talents can only be gained once unless specified, but given the nature of Training and Focus, we decided to add this ruling in order to avoid any confusion.
Recommendation
When you gain this talent, and as a reminder, mark the chosen skill however you see fit. You could underline or highlight the skill, or even write an E next to its name.
Focused (Passive) (1 exp):
Requires: Training in the chosen skill
You gain 1 focus in a skill you are trained in. You can gain this talent multiple times but each time it applies to a different skill.
Characters can have more than one source of focus per skill, but only once from this talent. Other common sources of focus are circumstantial bonuses and masterwork items.
Recommendation
When you gain this talent, mark the section “Fo” of the corresponding skill on your character sheet with the amount of foci as a reminder.
Jack-of-all-trades (Ability) (4 exp):
Requires: Training in at least one Strength, Agility, Mind and Presence general skill (a total of 4)
Free Action – Each day, you gain 2 unassigned training bonuses (+1d6 on that skill) to distribute among your general skills. You can assign them before making a skill roll and they last for the rest of the session. You cannot assign this bonus to a skill in which you already have maximum possible training bonuses in.
General Skills
Strength Skills
Athletics (General Skill):
Characters make athletics skill rolls when they perform physical activities like running, swimming, jumping or climbing, etc.
Penalty: Wearing medium armor or heavy armor grants 1 bane and 2 banes on athletics skill rolls respectively.
Physique (General Skill):
Characters make physique skill rolls when they perform feats of strength like bending, lifting, carrying or breaking objects. They also make physique skill rolls when they perform or resist some combat maneuvers like disarm, grapple, push, etc. Clashes involving combat maneuvers have a particularity: the attacker also wins on ties.
Agility Skills
Acrobatics (General Skill):
Characters make acrobatics skill rolls when they make stunts, try to maintain balance, flip, jump, break one’s fall, etc.
Penalty: Wearing medium armor or heavy armor grants 1 bane and 2 banes on acrobatics skill rolls respectively.
Stealth (General Skill):
Characters make stealth skill rolls when they try to hide from others, when they try to move silently, when they try to steal from others and when they try to deceive others through legerdemain, hand tricks or sleight of hand.
Attacking from Hiding
Attacking from hiding counts as attacking unaware targets; this means that the targets are considered defenseless; therefore, there will be no attack and defense rolls, just damage rolls, and the attack will count as if it were made with combat advantage.
Penalty: A character attacking from hiding will reveal themselves after the attack. If they try to hide again in the same place from which they made the attack, they gain 3 banes on the stealth skill roll.
Penalty: Wearing medium armor or heavy armor grants 1 bane and 2 banes on stealth skill rolls respectively.
Mind Skills
Analyze (General Skill):
Characters make analyze skill rolls when they try to:
- Examine something in a critical way and reach a conclusion.
- Identify the causes or results of something.
- Derive information from your immediate surroundings.
- Spot, find or understand clues that might be connected to a given situation.
- Understand the nature or the constituents of something.
- Appraise the value or authenticity of something.
Intuition (General Skill):
Characters make intuition skill rolls when they try to sense motives, understand hidden intentions, read situations and discern lies, deceptions or emotions.
Survival (General Skill):
Characters make survival skill rolls when they perform outdoor activities like camping, hunting, fishing, foraging, etc.; and when they orient themselves while going from one place to another, when they attempt to follow a given path and when they try to avoid getting lost.
Willpower (General Skill):
Characters make willpower skill rolls when they try to resist effects that might affect them in non-physical ways; for example, nervousness, fear, the intimidate maneuver or some spells like enchantments and hexes.
This skill is connected to a character’s mind or presence attribute.
This skill counts as a mind or presence general skill when determining the total amount of general skills you have put ranks in but not for both.
Presence Skills
Charisma (General Skill):
Characters make charisma skill rolls when they try to affect others on a personal level, for example by befriending, manipulating, seducing or leading.
Coercion (General Skill):
Characters make coercion skill rolls when they try to influence others through threats and extortion.
Characters also make coercion skill rolls when they perform the Intimidate attack maneuver.
Deception (General Skill):
Characters make deception skill rolls when they try to trick, bluff, persuade or lie to others.
Handle Animal (General Skill):
Characters make handle animal skill rolls when they try to befriend, direct or calm down animals.
Social (General Skill):
Characters make social skill rolls when they try to affect others on a social, political, commercial or collective level, for example when gossiping, gathering information, trading, bartering, bargaining, bribing, debating, mediating or being diplomatic.
Willpower (General Skill):
Characters make willpower skill rolls when they try to resist effects that affect them in non-physical ways; for example, the intimidate maneuver or some spells like enchantments and hexes.
This skill is connected to a character’s mind or presence attribute.
This skill counts as a mind or presence general skill when determining the total amount of general skills you have put ranks in but not for both.
Kin-Related Skills
Perception (General Skill):
Characters make perception skill rolls when they use their senses in order to be aware of their surroundings, and when they try to notice hidden characters or things (see the Spot maneuver).
This skill is not connected to any attribute; instead, it is determined by a character’s base perception. A character’s base perception depends on their kin or type.
For example, a human’s base perception is 2, as their kin indicates.
Penalty: Characters gain 3 banes on perception skill rolls when sleeping.
Combat Skills
Initiative (Combat Skill):
Characters make initiative skill rolls when they have to resolve the order of turns in which they would act in a given situation or during each round of combat.
This skill is connected to a character’s agility attribute.
Alternatively, in social encounters where characters compete to act first, they can roll for initiative but using their presence attribute instead of their agility.
Penalty: Wearing medium armor or heavy armor grants 1 bane and 2 banes on initiative skill rolls respectively.
When calculating initiative order, player characters win on ties.
Defense (Combat Skill):
Characters make defense skill rolls when they try to avoid getting hit.
Defense skill rolls are usually made in clashes against attackers using the melee and ranged skills, as well as skills related to magical attacks.
Defense skill rolls are also used in clashes against physique skill rolls when the attacker performs physical maneuver attacks like disarm, grapple, push, etc.
This skill is connected to a character’s agility attribute.
When calculating successes in combat clashes, attackers win on ties against defenders.
Melee (Combat Skill):
Characters make melee skill rolls when they attack in melee with weapons or unarmed.
Melee skill rolls usually clash against defense skill rolls.
This skill is connected to a character’s agility attribute.
When calculating successes in combat clashes, attackers win on ties against defenders.
Ranged (Combat Skill):
Characters make ranged skill rolls when they attack in range with weapons.
Ranged skill rolls usually clash against defense skill rolls.
This skill is connected to a character’s agility attribute.
Penalty: Attacking adjacent characters with ranged weapons grants 2 banes on ranged skill rolls.
Penalty: Making ranged attacks while riding grants 2 banes on ranged skill rolls.
When calculating successes in combat clashes, attackers win on ties against defenders.
Special Skills
Special skills are mostly reserved for characters that are trained in them, but it is up to the GM’s ruling to determine if a non-trained character can attempt them since not all special skills have the same level of exclusivity. For example, although singing requires practice, dedication and effort, characters with good presence could do well when attempting perform (singing) skill rolls, or a character without any training in a given craft could attempt one with the proper tools and under the guidance of a master. GMs could also determine if a non-trained character can attempt a special skill roll with or without penalties given the circumstances.
Channeling (Special Skill– Divine Power):
This skill allows characters to learn and cast divine powers.
Channeling has the following rules:
- Characters must learn a divine power (by spending exp) before they can cast it.
- When a character becomes trained in channeling, they also gain a devotion value (see Calculating Devotion below).
- A character’s devotion can vary but it cannot go beyond its maximum value.
- Characters must have at least 1 devotion in order to cast divine powers.
- Characters can regain devotion with abilities such as Prayer, Consult the Spirits or Offering.
- Unless specified otherwise, when a divine power uses a character’s devotion to determine a numeric value, it uses the character’s current devotion value and not the maximum devotion value.
- When a character casts a divine power that grants an ongoing effect, these do not occupy regular concentration slots; instead, the character uses their current devotion value to determine the amount of divine powers they can concentrate at the time. Concentrating on divine powers in such a manner does not decrease the character’s devotion value.
- Some divine powers have the miracle keyword. When casting one of these, a character must make a test (Channeling vs difficulty 10). If the character rolls 10 or more successes, the miracle is cast, but chances are that the character will not roll 10 or more successes. If that is the case, the character can sacrifice an amount of points from their current devotion value equal to the amount of successes needed to reach 10. If they do so, the miracle is cast. If the caster does not have enough devotion to sacrifice it and reach 10 successes, the miracle is not cast and the caster loses all their remaining devotion points.
This skill is connected to a character’s mind or presence attribute.
Calculating Devotion
A character’s devotion score is equal to the sum of the following elements:
- +X, where x is the character’s tier.
- +1 if the character has no doubt in their belief.
- +1 if the character follows the principles of their belief (rules, traditions, tenets, dogmas).
- +1 if the character displays the symbols of their belief (clothing, amulets, decorations, etc.).
- +1 if the character partakes in the small and daily rites/responsibilities of their belief (praying, washing, fasting, etc.).
- +1 if the character partakes in the larger and weekly/monthly rites of their belief (ceremonies, gatherings, worshiping, offerings, sacrifices, etc.)
- +1 if the character leads the weekly or monthly rites of their belief in their community.+1 if the character carries an important relic/fetish of their belief.
Note on terminology: For ease of use, this skill uses the term belief to group up all possible religions, systems, traditions and practices that deal with the divine and spirituality, as well as the term tenet to refer to the rules of those beliefs.
Note on terminology: The section Calculating Devotion uses the terms weekly and monthly (when referring to larger rites) as placeholders; if needed, adjust these timeframes to the setting’s beliefs.
Cooking (Special Skill):
Characters make cooking skill rolls when they perform complex tasks related to the culinary arts like putting together extraordinary dishes, impressing others with food and preparing meals for large crowds.
Characters do not need training in this skill for everyday cooking or in order to cook conventional meals.
This skill is determined by your mind attribute.
Forgery (Special Skill):
Requires: Literate
Characters make forgery skill rolls when they try to forge documents, handwritings and signatures.
This skill is connected to a character’s agility attribute.
Mechanics (Special Skill):
Characters make mechanics skill rolls when they plan, construct, disable and operate apparatuses or machines. Depending on the task, tools might be needed in order to use this skill.
This skill is connected to a character’s mind attribute.
Medicine (Special Skill):
Characters make medicine skill rolls when they try to maintain another character’s health and when they try to prevent, alleviate or cure diseases, illnesses and sickness.
Characters also make medicine skill rolls when they perform the Stabilize, Wake Up, Stop Bleeding and Dress Wound maneuvers.
This skill is connected to a character’s mind attribute.
Perform (Special Skill):
Characters make perform skill rolls when they take part in the composition and presentation of performing arts.
Each time you gain training in this skill, you must choose between assigning it to a new type of perform or improving one of the types of perform you are already trained in. The types of perform are:
- Acting
- Dancing
- Drums
- Singing
- String Instrument
- Wind Instrument
This skill is connected to a character’s presence attribute.
Poetry (Special Skill):
Characters make poetry skill rolls when they compose and recite poetry.
This skill is connected to a character’s mind attribute when they compose poetry and to their presence attribute when they recite it.
Ride (Special Skill):
Characters make ride skill rolls when they engage in complex tasks related to riding such as fighting, hunting and chasing on mounts. This skill also covers controlling mounts and vehicles led by mounts in complicated situations.
Characters do not need training in this skill for riding a horse while it walks or trots on a peaceful road.
This skill is connected to a character’s agility attribute.
Penalty: Wearing medium armor or heavy armor grants 1 bane and 2 banes on ride skill rolls respectively.
Penalty: You gain 2 banes on ranged attacks while mounted or riding a chariot.
Runecasting (Special Skill – Magic):
Requires: Literate
This skill allows a character to learn and cast runes.
Runecasting has the following rules:
- Runecasting and runes count as magic.
- Characters must learn a rune (by spending exp) before they can cast it.
- Characters can only have one rune active at a time. If they cast another rune, the previous rune effect ends.
- Runes have a casting time of 1 action unless specified otherwise.
- Rune effects last until canceled as a free action or until replaced by another rune.
This skill also allows characters to read and understand runes casted by other characters.
This skill is connected to a character’s mind or presence attribute.
Sailing (Special Skill):
Characters make sailing skill rolls when they operate a ship on water
This skill is connected to a character’s mind attribute.
Sanmitsu (Special Skill – Magic):
Requires: 2 exp spent in Shinobi
This skill allows a character to learn and cast kujigoshinhou.
Sanmitsu has the following rules:
- Sanmitsu and kujigoshinhou count as magic.
- Characters must learn a kujigoshinhou (by spending exp) before they can cast it.
- You can only have one kujigoshinhou active at a time. If you cast another kujigoshinhou, the previous kujigoshinhou ends.
- Kujigoshinhou only benefit the caster and have a casting time of 1 action unless specified otherwise.
- All kujigoshinhou last until canceled as a free action or until replaced by another kujigoshinhou.
- You can only cast and benefit from your kujigoshinhou while wearing light or no armor.
This skill is connected to a character’s mind or presence attribute.
Spellcasting (Special Skill – Magic):
This skill allows characters to learn and cast spells.
Spellcasting has the following rules:
- Spellcasting and spells count as magic.
- Characters must learn a spell (by spending exp) before they can cast it.
- When a character becomes trained in spellcasting, they gain an amount of spell points equal to their mind or presence.
- In order to cast a spell, characters must spend the amount of spell points specified by each spell.
- Characters trained in spellcasting recover 1 spell point at the beginning of each turn (this is regardless of the amount of training bonuses).
- Characters cannot have more spell points than the amount determined by their mind or presence.
- Characters trained in spellcasting can also cast spells from scrolls, wands, staves and other similar sources.
- Spells are organized in schools and each school is divided in three circles; first circle spells are the most accessible ones while third circle spells are the most powerful.
- The spellcasting attribute die, mentioned by some spells and abilities, is equal to the character’s mind or presence attribute die.
Characters trained in this skill can learn and casts spells depending on their skill value:
- Characters with a skill value of 3 to 4 can learn and cast First Circle Spells.
- Characters with a skill value of 5 can learn and cast Second Circle Spells.
- Characters with a skill value of 6 or more can learn and cast Third Circle Spells.
This skill is connected to a character’s mind or presence attribute.
Penalty: Casting spells in light, medium and heavy armor increases the costs of all spells by 1, 2 and 3 points respectively.
Skill Value
Skill Value = The corresponding attribute + the amount of training bonuses + 1 if the character has expertise in that skill.
Knowledge Skills
Knowledge skills represent how much a character knows about a given topic. If you are trained in one of these skills, the GM can tell you how much you know about the topic; or, depending on how accessible the information is, the GM can ask you to make a knowledge skill roll against a difficulty before letting you know how much your character knows. Also, depending on the nature of the information, a GM can decide that only characters trained in knowledge skills can roll for them.
All knowledge skills are connected to a character’s mind attribute.
Knowledge of Faith (Special and Knowledge Skill):
Characters make knowledge of faith skill rolls when they deal with information concerning religions, spirituality, mysticism, theology and other similar aspects of faith.
Knowledge of Nature (Special and Knowledge Skill):
Characters make knowledge of nature skill rolls when they deal with information concerning plants, animals, fungi and other similar aspects of nature.
Knowledge of the Occult (Special and Knowledge Skill):
Characters make knowledge of the occult skill rolls when they deal with information concerning magic, monsters, corruption, forbidden disciplines and other similar aspects of the occult.
Knowledge of Science (Special and Knowledge Skill):
Characters make knowledge of science skill rolls when they deal with information concerning mathematics, physics, chemistry, astronomy and other similar aspects of science.
Knowledge of Society (Special and Knowledge Skill):
Characters make knowledge of society skill rolls when they deal with information concerning politics, law, economy, heraldry and other similar aspects of society.
Knowledge of the World (Special and Knowledge Skill):
Characters make knowledge of the world skill rolls when they deal with information concerning cultures, folklore, geography, history and other similar aspects of the world.
Craft Skills
PENDING !!