Core Skill System

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1 Skill System

Skill System

The Skill Systems are designed for balance, versatility, and allowing each character to be unique. Easy to learn, hard to master is one of the key concepts of the Major Skill systems. However, specializing and ‘multi-classing’ are still both viable and plausible options without making your character weaker than others. Not to say being weaker is impossible, just that multi-classing is not a guaranteed detriment.

Major Skills

Major Skills are the Skills angled towards smashing, bashing, and otherwise kicking down doors as well as surviving people intent on doing it to you. They are the Skills that acquire and allow Players to use Abilities/Spells that while being as role-playing as possible are also meant more for combat situations.

Acquiring Major Skills

Major Skills are acquired when a Level is gained. You choose four (4) different Primary or Tertiary Attributes and either ‘spend’ their Mods into Major Skills to increase the ‘Points’ of each Skill or choose any Attribute and increase that Attribute by +1 or you gain Minor Skill Points that you can ‘spend’ into Minor Skills that use that Attribute equal to its Stat * 5 and increases their maximum by the Stat. Every so many Points spent into a Major Skill will increase its ‘Rank’. This is based on what is known as the ‘Tier System’ or ‘Increment System’. At first 1Point gains 1Rank, however, to increase Rank again you must spend 2 more Points. To get to Rank 3 you would require 3 more Points after Rank 2 meaning a total of 6Points are required for Rank 3. Not all Points have to be spent into the same Major Skill and new Attributes can be chosen each Level (i.e. if you choose Strength first Level you could increase as many Strength Skills as you have Mod/Points to spend or as few as one Skill and increase its Points by your Strength Mod, at Level 2 you would not have to choose the same Skills or Strength at all). You cannot choose the same Attribute twice in the same Level unless the Template states otherwise. Every five Levels a person gets to choose a fifth Attribute to use for Major/Minor Skill increases for each Level from then on (see Character Progression, Using Experience for details).

Rank	Points	Rank	Points	Rank	Points	Rank	Points
1	1	11	66	21	231	311	496
2	3	12	78	22	253	32	528
3	6	13	91	23	276	33	561
4	10	14	105	24	300	34	595
5	15	15	120	25	325	35	630
6	21	16	136	26	351	36	666
7	28	17	153	27	378	37	703
8	36	18	171	28	406	38	741
9	45	19	190	29	435	39	780
10	55	20	210	30	465	40	820

This makes Major Skills easy to learn, hard to master. At first it only takes 1Point to increase 1Rank, then it takes 2Points, then 3Points, and so forth. Each Major Skill will list the required Attribute to increase it and the effects of each Point and Rank.

OPTIONAL RULE: Retroactive Major Skill Points. As characters Level up their Attributes can increase. This can make Levelling up multiple Levels or creating a high Level character difficult as you will have to complete at least two components of the Levelling process for each Level which can increase the time it takes considerably. Instead of standard rules you multiply the Attribute Mod by number of Levels it was selected for Major Skills, if the Mod increases you retroactively spend the Points as desired into Major Skills. OM discretion is advised as this can alter the power of a person considerably. :ELUR LANOITPO

Using Major Skills

Once you spend Points into a Major Skill you usually gain increases to the 3P’s, once you acquire Ranks you see the real noticeable changes. For example, every Rank in 2-handed weaponry increases your AB with a 2-handed weapon by 1 and lets you choose a Melee Combat Ability while every Point increases WP +1. While Major Skills are your passive bonuses, the Abilities you choose for increased Ranks in Major Skills are what are used in combat in most circumstances.

Major Skill Checks

At times Major Skills will be required to attempt ‘checks’. These checks can be one of two types: Skill Check and Skill Rank Check.

A Skill Check is the Skill Ranks + Associated Attribute’s Mod + d20.

A Skill Rank Check is Skill Ranks + d20.

These checks can be used in opposition of one another, to set a total for difficulty, or otherwise initiate/respond to something. Commonly the different usage will occur when it is against things such as AB/AR versus AC/MS/PR, as AB/AR will generally be higher a Skill Check will be ‘even’ while the lower AC/MS/PR will more likely be ‘even’ with a Skill Rank Check, thus keeping from tipping things one way or another unreasonably (remember to add Level AB/AR as attacker/defender).

Gaining Abilities/Spells

These are what make you versatile in combat and in life. Each Rank of a Major Skill may allow you to choose one or more Abilities or Spells, depending on the Major Skill. Some are as simple as a one-time boost to Minor Skills or combat actions while others require an activation cost each use – usually one of the 3P’s. The Abilities and Spells have varying ways of increasing their effectiveness, usually through spending 3P’s such as DREAD for Spells (see DREAD for details).

Minor Skills

Although not meant for combat, Minor Skills are still a large part of the game. They are the life skills people develop and use in everyday life and jobs or careers (unless you are a career fighter, it is going to be a Minor Skill). Minor Skills include anything from physical activities such as swimming or climbing to recreational skills such as playing a flute or dancing all the way to operating a kiosk or making jewellery. While some Minor Skills can be used in combat (i.e. leaping at your enemy) their intent is fleshing out characters while supplying useful things for earning money, saving money, or things like finding food in the wilderness.

Types of Skills

There are two types of Minor Skills: Universal and Trained. Universal Minor Skills are those that are simple or basic and can be performed by almost anybody, universal would include things such as climbing, jumping, and swimming. Trained Minor Skills are those that are somewhat difficult to attempt without training nor can it be performed as well without training, trained would include things such as accounting, creating objects, and reading and writing. Each Skill and Template will list which type it is.

Universal Skills gain their associated Attribute Stat(s) to their Success Rating at all times regardless of amount of Points put into the Skill.

Trained Skills only gain up to their associated Attribute Stat(s) to their Success Rating to a maximum of the number of Points put into the Skill.

I.e. a Skill is Intelligence based and a person has 15Intelligence, if it is a Universal Skill they always gain +15 from Intelligence when using it while if it was a Trained Skill and they only had 9Points into the Skill they will only gain +9 from their Intelligence.

Acquiring Minor Skills

When your character is created all Universal Minor Skills (i.e. Jump) have a base of their associated Attribute Stat that they are listed as using while all Trained Minor Skills will be 0.

At first Level you acquire Wisdom Stat * 10 as an amount of Points you can distribute as you see fit into any Skill up to its associated Attribute Stat + 5.

Every Level gained thereafter you gain another Wisdom Stat * 5 + 10 Points to distribute into Minor Skills as you see fit up to a maximum of its associated Attribute Mod + 5 per Level; if you have not placed Points into a Skill for a few Levels the maximum is associated Attribute Stat + Mod * (Level – 1) + Level * 5 – it cannot be Mod + Mod * Level in case the Stat is odd.

A person can gain more Minor Skill Points and raise the cap as listed in Skill System, Major Skills, Acquiring Major Skills.

While each Template or Campaign might include a wide variety of Skills beyond what is necessary, if you are playing a city campaign a craft or merchant skill might be best, if you are in the wilderness then hunting or wilderness knowledge might be best, it is advisable to spend Minor Skill Points based on the Campaign.

I.e. if a person has 10Wis and 15Int at Level 1 they have 100Points to distribute, in their Int Skills they could spend at most 20Points. Every Level thereafter they would gain 60Points and could increase their Int Skills by at most 12Points. If at Level 3 they have not spent any Points into an Int Skill and want to they could spend at most 44Points into that Skill (20+12+12).

Rank	Points	Rank	Points
1	1	11	11
2	2	12	12
3	3	13	13
4	4	14	14
5	5	15	15
6	6	16	16
7	7	17	17
8	8	18	18
9	9	19	19
10	10	20	20

Unlike Major Skills, Minor Skills are acquired at 1Rank per 1Point, a 1:1 ratio. Due to this, Minor Skills tend to reach higher levels much quicker than Major Skills and continue to progress at a steady rate.

Using Minor Skills

Whenever a Skill is required to do something (i.e. jumping over a gap, swimming, climbing a mountain, etc) you will be required to make a roll against its Level of Difficulty (LoD). Each Skill will list how to determine the LoD or at least a rough guideline (not everything is easily solved). Once you know the LoD the Player can decide to attempt it or ‘auto-succeed’.

When attempting a Skill you first determine the amount of Points in the Skill + Associated Attribute Stat (based on Universal or Trained) + any special conditions (i.e. running jump, racial bonus), this is known as your Skill Total.

Add to the Skill Total + d%(d100). This roll determines what is known as your Success Rating (SR).

If your SR is greater than the LoD you succeed at what you were attempting (each Skill lists what the effects of SR are). Certain Skills even if you are below the LoD you still get an effect (i.e. crafting a mask, you may have failed the LoD but instead just spent more money/materials/time and got a lesser quality mask). Each Skill will list effects of SR in comparison to the LoD (note: some Skills may lack a LoD, you just do as good as the SR details). Each Skill will list extenuating circumstances and special rules if there are any.

Few Minor Skill are ‘flip a coin, success or failure?’, but instead varying degrees of success and failure. Just because you did not jump the 1.8m/6ft chasm gap does not mean you just did not jump, it means you did not get the 1.8m/6ft you wanted at the elevation you wanted. Just because your total roll was not high enough to make a katana does not mean you did not ‘make a katana’, it merely means it was of poor quality (i.e. negatives to damage, negatives to hit, increased chance of breaking, etc).

Auto Success

Auto Success is an option when you are close to the LoD by Skill Total alone. This means you are either so good that the task is menial and easily accomplished for one of your skill or the task is so simple failure is almost out of the question. You cannot fail but you might not achieve full potential. If by just Skill Total and bonuses (i.e. running and jumping), you are within 25 of or over the LoD you can take an ‘auto success’, which means you do not roll the d%(d100) and instead meet the LoD exactly. You can only attempt an Auto Success on a Skill in which you have Points or is Universal.

Max Success

Players may set a ‘max success’ on any Skill before they attempt it. What this means is even if they surpass something, such as jumping 1.5m/5ft but instead roll for a 3m/10ft jump, they would only ‘do as good’ as they set. Their ‘minimum success’ is based on the total SR and if it exceeds what the Player set it instead is lowered to the chosen amount.

I.e. if you have 15Str and 20Points in Jump and 2SR equalled 25.5mm/1” and you only wish to jump 0.9m/3ft (72SR) before rolling the d%(d100) you could state a Max Success of 72. If you then rolled a 64 the SR would equal 72 even though the total should be 99 (64+15+20). If you rolled a 32 the SR would equal 67 because you did not meet the set Max Success.

Critical Success and Failure

There are things such as a critical failure and a critical success. On a roll of 1 on the d%(d100), a critical failure, you roll again and minus that from the SR to a minimum of 0SR. On a roll of 100 on the d%(d100), a critical success, you roll again and add it to the SR again.

I.e. if you have a Skill Total of 35 and roll a 1 you roll again and roll 28 you would have 8SR (35+1-28=8). If you have a Skill Total of 35 and roll a 100 and you roll again and roll 28 you would have 163SR (35+100+28=163).