This section describes the eight advanced skills that require specialist training to use. If your skill level in an advanced skill is zero, you don’t get to test that skill – you automatically fail. Just like with the general skills above, each skill below lists examples of what failure, limited success and critical success could mean. The GM decides the details.
COMMAND (EMPATHY)
You are the leader of a ship or maybe a troop of soldiers. In a crisis, you call the shots, but you know that you are never stronger than your unit. Your task is to make sure your com-rades perform at their best. Unity is strength.
command uses different rules during space combat (Chapter 7), but can otherwise be used whenever you help others (page 58) – the positive modifier your help gives the other person is equal to the number of sixes on your command roll, as long as the other person follows your orders. command can also be used to help others recover Mind Points – read more in Chapter 5.
CULTURE (EMPATHY)
You are a person of wisdom, with insight into a wide array of subjects. You have studied the diverse cultures and peoples of the Horizon, and know of their traditions, faiths and superstitions. You are also familiar with their home planets’ beings and animals. Test culture to see if you can recall something advanced, like the proper greetings among the Sogoi of Kua, the trade routes across the Salam plains on Algol, or if bokor can be driven off through prayer. If you have access to old books, databases or the Foundation’s infologs, you get a positive modifier.
FAILURE
You don’t know, or you are mistaken. The GM gives you false information.
LIMITED SUCCESS
Your knowledge is limited. The GM gives you correct but brief information.
CRITICAL SUCCESS
You know the subject like the back of your hand, and come to think of something that gives you an extra bonus.
DATA DJINN (WITS)
Terminals, sensors and advanced data systems are all part of everyday life in the Third Horizon. Most computers are voice operated, but interaction through touchpads, data stylus or via the user’s cybernetics is not uncommon. Most people in the Horizon can use basic data systems, but advanced operations require a data djinn test – for example entering protected systems, modifying or writ-ing new programs, or counteracting spyware and attack memes. data djinn is also used to operate ship sensors (more in Chapter 7).
FAILURE
Something goes wrong, and the result is the opposite of what you had hoped.
LIMITED SUCCESS
You reach your goal, but it takes longer than expected, and some sort of complication arises along the way.
CRITICAL SUCCESS
You reach your goal, and achieve some unexpected bonus effect (up to the GM).
MEDICURGY (WITS)
Having this skill means that you are trained in the healing arts, how to care for the ill and the wounded, and how to treat psychic maladies. Skillful medicurgs also perform cosmetic surgery and bionic sculpting. As a medicurg, you also know how to use special medical equipment like med labs, spider doctors and mobile trauma units.
The main use of medicurgy is stabilizing and treating wounded people – read more in Chapter 5. The skill can also be used to recover Mind Points and to make diagnoses, for example recognizing drug abuse or the effects of poison, and identifying injuries or psychic illnesses.
FAILURE
You have no idea as to what is ailing the patient, or you make an incorrect diagnosis. The GM gives you partial or false information.
LIMITED SUCCESS
You have a good guess as to what the problem might be. The GM gives you correct but brief information.
CRITICAL SUCCESS
You make a correct diagnosis, and you remember something that gives you an extra bonus.
MYSTIC POWERS (EMPATHY)
In the last few years, reports of mystics, people with special powers, have started to surface. The reaction didn’t take long – among the religious cults, mystics have either been murdered or worshipped as heralds of the Icons, depending on the cult’s beliefs. The Bulletin’s newscasts on Coriolis have reported from council meetings on the highest political level debating the legitimacy of the mystical powers.
To acquire this skill when creating your PC, you must pick the sub-concept Mystic (page 35). You can, however, acquire this skill during play, regardless of concept – this means that dormant powers within you suddenly manifest themselves. Each mystic power counts as a separate talent (Chapter 4). When activating a power, test mystic powers. Each activation gives the GM one Darkness Point.
FAILURE
The power misfires somehow – giving you false information or some other undesired effect. The GM decides the details.
LIMITED SUCCESS
Through tremendous concentration and force of will, you activate the power.
CRITICAL SUCCESS
Mystical energies surge through your body, activating the power and triggering an unexpected but positive bonus effect. Details are up to the GM.
PILOT (AGILITY)
You are one with your ship. You pilot hundreds of tons of metal through the Darkness, you pierce ice winds and mile-high sandstorms and make sure you all live to tell the tale. Roll for pilot when you operate a vehicle – any-thing from hoverbikes and ground loaders to gravships and space vessels.
The rules for using pilot in space combat can be found in Chapter 7. You will also test pilot when you operate a normal vehicle and attempt a risky maneuver.
FAILURE
You fail. Depending on the circumstances, the outcome can be anything from embarrassing to fatal.
LIMITED SUCCESS
You perform the maneuver with the smallest margin possible.
CRITICAL SUCCESS
You perform the maneuver flawlessly, and you achieve an unexpected, positive side effect, such as creating an obstacle for an enemy. The GM decides the details.
SCIENCE (WITS)
You are an academic trained in the scientific tradition. You are well-read on everything from astrophysics and geochemistry to bionics and socio-arithmetics. Test science to see if you can figure out something that requires advanced scientific knowledge, like how to calculate a portal jump or where to find xenon gas pockets on a frozen megaplanet. If you have access to relevant databases, you get a positive modifier.
FAILURE
You don’t know, or are mistaken. The GM gives you false information.
LIMITED SUCCESS
Your knowledge is limited. The GM gives you correct but brief information.
CRITICAL SUCCESS
You know the subject like the back of your hand, and come to think of something that gives you an extra bonus.
TECHNOLOGY (WITS)
Others may view technical gadgets as almost magical, but you understand their inner workings. The skill is used when handling machines, mechanics, electronics and explosives.
You can repair anything from a small gadget to a spaceship (Chapter 7). The skill is also used when blowing things up.
FAILURE
Something goes wrong, and the result is the opposite of what you wanted.
LIMITED SUCCESS
You reach your goal, but it takes longer than expected, and some sort of complication arises along the way.
CRITICAL SUCCESS
You reach your goal, as well as achieving some unexpected bonus effect.
Understanding artifacts
You can come across strange artifacts on your adventures in the Third Horizon. All artifacts have a knowledge requi-site – certain skills or talents you must have to understand the artifact. You must pass a SCIENCE test to understand how to use the artifact (even if you understand what it is, your PC may not). Each PC can make one attempt. If you fail, you must gather more information – or wait for another PC or the GM to explain the object to you.
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