Skills

Skills represent abilities a character can train to develop and that may grow throughout adventures.

Skills are measured in ranks from 0 to 60, with special thresholds at every 5 ranks.

Skills may be classed as Mental, Physical or Social. Although they will be primarily influenced by a corresponding Inclination, a skill may be added to any of the Inclinations depending on the purpose of a skill check.

Lores and Crafts are similar to skills, but, at character creation, are treated differently.

Skill Checks
Skill checks add skill rank and an appropriate Inclination to determine step and a check is made by rolling the dice appropriate to the check against a Difficulty determined by the gamemaster. A result equal or greater than the Difficulty represents a success and a result below represents a failure. A result 10 greater than the Difficulty represents a greater success, while a result lower than Difficulty-10 represents an abysmal failure.

Character Creation
To create a character of level L, a character must select 5 skills as Primary skills (those start at a rank equal to L-1 x 5) and 5 skills as Secondary skills (those start at a rank equal to L-2 x 5). Note that the character does not need to have the same skills reaching Lx5 and L-1x5 to get to the next level, any combination of skills fulfilling that requirement will do.

Analysis:
Use this skill to carefully search a room, looking for clues; to determine if a document is a forgery; to examine an object; to look at some tracks and determine who or what left them; to investigate a room to determine what happened there; to discern the symbol on a distant flag; to appraise the value of an object; to find objects hidden on an individual by patting them down.

Awareness:
Use this skill to notice the dissonant sound of a hunter trakcing the character in the forest; to perceive slight bulge denouncing a hidden knife in a messenger's sleeve; to divine the scent of rot coming from beyond a closed door; to become alert at the presence of a curse on a figurine the character is about to grasp.

Medicine:
Use this skill to offer first aid to a comrade after a battle, tending to recent injuries; to help drain poison from a wound; to identify the disease and divine the treatment for the cough racking a weak oldman; to supervise the healing for a friend after a fall that broke her leg; to settle the bones in the leg of a lamed dog.

Reflexes:
Use this skill to react quickly at the sign of a threat; to step back from a piece of ruined floor before it collapses; to avoid the snatching jaws of a trap as it attempts to close around the character's hand; to dodge, clumsily avoiding an attack by sheer speed of action.

Resolve:
Use this skill to stay awake through a night-long watch after a grueling day of march; to ignore the sound of cacophonic bells while trying to concentrate on opening a lock.

Security:
Use this skill to set a perimeter to prevent intruders from entering a camp; to set a trap on a path likely to be taken by an intruder; to design the security procedures of a building or camp; to disarm a trap; to pick a lock.

Survival:
Use this skill to find shelter for the night; to find food during a day of travel; to hunt; to fish; to navigate from one place to another using the character's senses and any indications of path.

Tactics:
Use this skill to plan an ambush; to detect a likely place of ambush; to drill troops to fight in coordination; assess enemy combat capacity; to command an unit.

Agility:
Use this skill to find balance when it is threatened; to break a fall, decreasing its wounding effects; to escape bounds when tied up, shackled or grappled; to contort one's body to get into tight places; to maneuver when flying; to maneuver during a foot chase.

Athletics:
Use this skill to climb a vertical surface; to jump over a fence; to maneuver from horseback during a chase; to maneuver during a foot chase; to ride a beast; to run as fast as possible over a short distance; to win a sports competition; to swim across a river; to make a display of strength (such as throw a disk as far as possible or to break a hard object); to break down a barrier with sheer strength, battering down a door and entering a closed room.

Close Combat:
Use this skill to strike with a melee weapon; to use a weapon to parry a blow; to use a shield to block a ranged or close attack; to deliver an unarmed attack, such as a punch, a kick, a bite or a claw rake; to grab an opponent in bring them into a grapple; to fight with axe, flail, hafted weapon (such as polearm, lance, spear or staff), knife, mace or sword; to make a presentation of combat artistry; as the basis to an advanced or exotic fighting style (such as boxing, martial arts or cloak fighting).

Conceal:
Use this skill to hide oneself in shadows; to mask a passage in brickwork or a hillside; to camouflage one's presence in the scenery; to stash a small object on oneself; to smuggle an object hidden on a vehicle or in other objects.

Endurance:
Use this skill to avoid weakening from thirst and hunger; to resist fatigue; to force oneself to keep marching over several hours; to avoid the effects of intoxication.

Prowl:
Use this skill to sneak, moving unperceived by guards; to shadow a target, following them without being noticed.

Ranged Combat:
Use this skill to shoot down a target; to fire a missile weapon (such as a bow, a sling or a crossbow); to throw a weapon (such as an axe, bolas, a javelin, a knife, a net or a simple rock) at a target; to strike at distance with a tethered weapon (such as a whip, a chain or a lasso); to properly target with ranged magic; to step aside, avoiding a ranged attack; to hit a target with artillery (such as balista or catapult); to drop a missile with precision from a higher position (including from flight); to serve as a targeting forward observer for those firing artillery or serving as snipers; to hit with an innate projection, such as attacking with poisonous spit.

Sleight of Hand:
Use this skill to pick a pocket; to steady one's hand; to make a display of prestidigitation, moving a small object from one place to another; to conceal a small action from observation; to juggle.

Animal Handling:
Use this skill to calm an animal; to guide a domesticated animal; to train an animal; to give a trained animal an order.

Artistry:
Use this skill to make an entertaining performance (such as acting, combat art, dancing or storytelling); to design emotion stirring architecture; to create a convincing disguise with makeup, clothes and prothesis; to sing pleasantly; to make emotion causing paintings on canvas, paper or flesh; to make pleasant or impressive carvings; to draw; to dance; to sculpt; to play a musical instrument; to embroider; to write pleasing poetry; as the basis for the ability to forge documents.

Composure:
Use this skill to avoid being influenced by emotions; to resist fear; to resist temptation; to resist taunts.

Conversation:
Use this skill to be an entertaining guest at a party, likely to be called to the next one; to calm exalted emotions, making people at ease with one another; to persuade an individual to perform a simple task at low cost and low risk to them; to subtly suggest something, implanting an idea or notion on an interlocutor; to socialize, demonstrating a capacity for savoir-faire, being a good company during a period of time and ingratiating oneself to another; to offer a bribe without offending its intended target; to distract an interlocutor, making them less aware of their surroundings; to guide the direction of a conversation onto or away from a desired topic; to enthrall an interlocutor, making it a challenge for them to get interrupt the conversation with the character; to flirt; to subtly interrogate an interlocutor, finding out what they think of touchy, but not secret or taboo, subjects without resorting to rewards or threats; to use innuendo, discreetly conveying an information during a conversation; to canvass a population (such as a neighborhood, the patrons of a bar or dockworkers), talking to several people about an overt subject over a span of time.

Deception:
Use this skill to put on an act, making people believe the character is feeling emotions they do not feel; to impersonate someone the character is not, either an existing individual, anyone different from oneself or a person from a category the character does not belong to (e.g. a slave, a foreigner, a courtier); to state untruths without letting it show that they are anything but; to observe an individual without letting it show the character is interested;  to stage a conflict, a false situation with accomplices, simulating a heated debate or an exchange of blows; to prevent others to discern the character's true emotions and intents; to subtly instill an emotion on a target over an extended interaction (such as anger, boredom, depression, disgust, uncertainty, insecurity, jealousy, joy, lust, patriotism, peace, tranquility, sadness, unrest, pity); .

Insight:
Use this skill to discern a target's emotions; to sense a target's motivations; to divine a target's intents; to notice a lie; to read body language; to empathize with an individual, feeling some of the emotions they are feeling; to gauge how much is necessary to bribe an individual; to divine a target's desires;as the basis for advanced understanding of an individual (such as profiling).

Negotiation:
Use this skill to haggle with a customer to sell at the best price; to bargain at the market to buy at the best price; to broker a truce between rivals; to negotiate the value of a bribe; to broker compromise, proposing a reasonable deal to get out of a touchy situation (such as a hostage situation or a stand-off).

Presence:
Use this skill to captivate an audience, keeping their attention focused on the character; to cause a good first impression, making people the character meet for the first time have a favorable impression of the character; to provoke a burst of strong, short-lived emotion on a target (such as hate, wrath, despair, aversion, fear, joy, desire, annoyance, impatience); to intimidate a target, instilling uncertainty when acting against the character; to beg a small favor from a target, the favor must be one the target may act upon immediately; to make an oration, keeping a public's attention and instilling an emotion in them; to make use of sex appeal, enticing a target with promises of lust to be fulfilled; to impress a target with the character's personality (creating an impression of trustworthiness, of greatness or of danger); to distract a target, making them less aware of an impeding action; to browbeat a target into taking an action of limited danger or cost; to coerce a target into taking a dangerous or costly action; to make a display of peaceful intent.