A character’s skills represent their accumulated knowledge and training, and are used whenever a character must perform a task covered under one of the skills. Each archetype and path provide certain skills, but characters may select any skill, provided they have the skill points to purchase it.
A character begins play with 5 skill points, and no skill begins higher than 3.
When performing a skill check a character will roll a number of d6s equal to their skill rating plus the associated attribute. Each die with a result of 5 or greater counts as a success, and if the total number of successes equals the difficulty of the task, then it is a success.
Masteries
Certain paths or archetypes grant masteries. When rolling a mastery, each die with a result of 4 or greater counts as a success.
All characters begin play with one mastery, which may be spent on any skill.
Skill Ranks
1- Basic training
2- Enough knowledge to get into trouble
3- Skilled Professional
4- Veteran
5- Master
Active Skills
Ranged
Melee
Unarmed
Spellcasting
Technical Skills
Engineering
Piloting
Gunnery
Athletics
Perception
Arcana
History & Lore
Flame Reading
First Aid
Navigation
Warfare
Artificing
Crafting
Negotiation
Larceny
Religion
Investigation
Hacking
Linguistics
Performance
Stealth
Skill Descriptions
Active Skills
Ranged
Attribute: Agility
Covers the use of all conventional pistols, spellpistols, rifles, and spellrifles.
Melee
Attribute: Strength
Covers the use of all conventional melee weapons, including swords, axes, maces, staves, daggers, and anything else you can think of.
Spellcasting
Attribute: VARIES. See character's expression.
Allows the casting of spells. Does not apply to spells cast through a spellrifle, spellship, etc.
Unarmed
Attribute: Strength
Allows the character to fight barehanded / unarmed.
Technical Skills
Engineering
Attribute: Reason
Allows a character to operate, troubleshoot, and design various types of technology.
Piloting
Attribute: Agility
Allows the user to pilot spellships and spellfighters. Conventional vessels also require Gunnery and Engineering to operate at peak efficiency.
Gunnery
Attribute: Agility
Allows the user to control weaponry on vehicles and ships. If they are a mage this includes spellcannons.
Athletics
Attribute: Fortitude, Strength, or Agility
Athletics governs running, climbing, extended physical activity, acrobatics, sports, or anything else a character needs to do that is physical in nature and not covered by another skill.
Perception
Attribute: Intuition
Represents a character’s awareness of their surroundings. Perception checks can be requested by the GM, or can sometimes be initiated by a player if they’re searching a specific room for a hidden safe, for example.
Arcana
Attribute: Reason
Arcana represents a character's knowledge of magic, magical spells, enchantments, eldimagi, and the gods themselves from a magical sense. Arcana rolls are often called for whenever a character is researching or encountering a magical phenomena or being for the first time.
History & Lore
Attribute: Reason
History & Lore covers history and esoteric scientific or historical trivia.
Flame Reading
Attribute: Charisma or Intuition
Flame reading is a form of Divination, and requires fire magic to use in a basic form, and both fire and dream for its advanced form. Using this ability allows the mage a glimpse of the past, present, or a possible future. The more successes, the more accurate and clear the vision.
First Aid
Attribute: Reason
First aid allows the treatment of basic field wounds, infections, and simple diseases.
Navigation
Attribute: Reason or Intuition
Navigation is used in both conventional and magical vessels, and can be called for whenever a vessel is sailing the Umbral Depths or normal space.
Religion
Attribute: Intuition
Religion teaches the prayers, history, and rituals necessary to commune with one's deity, as well as about other religions. Religion rolls are often required for miracles.
Investigation
Attribute: Reason or Intuition
Investigation allows characters to piece together clues into patterns, and is generally rolled when trying to solve a mystery, or interrogate a victim.
Negotiation
Attribute: Charisma
Allows the character to make deals, come to agreements, and settle disputes. Rolling well will not persuade another PC, but does represent the strength of their oration / arguments. When trying to decide on a price each success beyond the DT (the opponent's negotiate check) reduces the price by 5%.
Negotiation is a broad social skill, and will also also the user to con, charm, bluff, or otherwise deceive someone. In these instances use the target's will as a DT.
Larceny
Attribute: Agility
Larceny is a pretty word for theft. This ability can be used to pick pockets, hack safes, or to forge documents.
Hacking
Attribute: Reason
The character is far more proficient with computers than the average person. Hacking can be used to infiltrate, modify, and control computer systems. Find a file might require a hacking DT 2 check, while taking control of a turret might require DT 3, and infiltrating a highly secure server might require a 4 or even a 5.
Linguistics
Attribute: Reason
The character is proficient in two or more languages. Purchasing the skill prior to character creation grants one language per point. Afterwards the character may make a linguistics check DT 2 to learn a new language over a period of 2 weeks.
Deciphering a language the character does not know requires reference material, and can be accomplished with a DT 4 linguistics check. Each week in study reduces the DT by 1.
Performance
Attribute: Charisma, Reason, Intuition, Strength or Agility
Performance is perhaps the broadest skill as it governs any type of performance. Oration, dance, solving a mathematical proof before a crowd, stand up comedy, shooting an apple off a tree from a thousand meters, and picking up a hovertank could all call for you to roll perform.
The attribute used depends on the performance, and the GM has final say. The roll is open ended, and the more successes rolled the better the reaction, with 5 being the kind of performance someone only sees once in a lifetime.
Stealth
Attribute: Agility
Stealth is the art of remaining undetected. Any time a player attempts to avoid detection they are required to make a stealth check. Their successes become the DT of any perception checks made to detect them.
Warfare
Attribute: Reason or Intuition
Warfare represents tactical and strategic skill in combat. It is used to plan battles, ambushes, or entire wars. If two characters with warfare are in opposition, then each rolls and compare total successes.
Crafting
Attribute: Agility or Strength
Crafting is the physical compliment to the engineering skill, and allows the user to...well craft things. This is a multipurpose skill, and can be used from carpentry to gardening to anything else the GM feels a craft should represent.
Note that if a character with engineering has a forge, then they don't need the craft skill, though many take it anyway.
Artificing
Attribute: Reason or Intuition
The artificing skill allows the user to build magic items, and to work with magical materials. A character need not be magically active to take the artificing skill, however they won't get full use of the skill without already having the greater path of enchanting.
Artificing can be used with enchanting to infuse life into a magical item by combining 2 or more magical materials into a single new lifeform. See the artificing & magic item creation rules chapter for details.
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