Skills
Skills are percentages. Standard skills belong to everyone. Professional skills belong to people who trained for them. Both use the same roll-under rules.
Standard skills
Every character has these. Base value is two Characteristics (or one doubled).
| Skill | Base | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| Athletics | STR+DEX | Climb, jump, run, throw |
| Boating | STR+CON | Small craft |
| Brawn | STR+SIZ | Lift, force, grapple contests |
| Conceal | DEX+POW | Hide objects |
| Customs | INT×2 +40 | Local manners and expectations |
| Dance | DEX+CHA | Performance and ceremony |
| Deceit | INT+CHA | Lies and cons |
| Drive | DEX+POW | Wagons, cars, similar |
| Endurance | CON×2 | Resist fatigue, pain, poison, wounds |
| Evade | DEX×2 | Dive clear |
| First Aid | INT+DEX | Staunch bleeding, wake the stunned |
| Influence | CHA×2 | Persuade and pressure |
| Insight | INT+POW | Read people |
| Locale | INT×2 | Local knowledge and geography |
| Native Tongue | INT+CHA +40 | Your mother tongue |
| Perception | INT+POW | Notice and search |
| Ride | DEX+POW | Mounted travel and control |
| Sing | CHA+POW | Song and voice |
| Stealth | DEX+INT | Sneak and hide yourself |
| Swim | STR+CON | Water |
| Unarmed | STR+DEX | Fists, grapples |
| Willpower | POW×2 | Resist fear, domination, mental strain |
| Combat Style | STR+DEX | A package of trained weapons (see Combat) |
Professional skills
You only gain Professional skills through Culture, Career, later study, or Games Master permission. Once you have one at base value, bonus skill points and Experience Rolls can raise it. Common Professional skills include Acrobatics, Commerce, Craft, Culture (other), Healing, Language, Literacy, Lore, Magic, Mechanisms, Navigation, Oratory, Pilot, Streetwise, Survival, Track, and many setting-specific trades (Electronics, Sensors, Astrogation…).
Magic (POW+CHA) is the Professional skill that casts folk-magic spells. Without it, those spells simply do not work for you.
Difficulty grades
When conditions help or hinder, the Games Master applies a grade. Use one consistent method for the campaign: either the default scaling modifiers or the simplified flat bonuses.
| Grade | Default modifier | Simplified |
|---|---|---|
| Automatic | No roll | No roll |
| Very Easy | ×2 | +40% |
| Easy | +½ again | +20% |
| Standard | unchanged | — |
| Hard | –⅓ | –20% |
| Formidable | ½ | –40% |
| Herculean | ÷5 | –80% |
| Hopeless | Cannot attempt | Cannot attempt |
Critical range is one-tenth of the modified skill. When several grades apply, the worst one wins (outside special stacking rules).
Some combat situations cap a skill instead—for example, riding combat may limit your Combat Style to your Ride rating. That is not a grade; use the lower value.
Opposed rolls
When two skills clash (Stealth vs Perception, Deceit vs Insight, Passion vs Passion), both sides roll:
- Compare Levels of Success (Critical > Success > Failure > Fumble).
- Better level wins.
- On a tie of levels, the highest dice result that is still a success wins.
- If both Fail, the Games Master either leaves the tension hanging and re-rolls, or narrates a mutual setback.
Skills over 100%
If the highest skilled participant in an Opposed or Differential roll has more than 100% (after modifiers), subtract the excess over 100 from everyone's skill for that contest—including theirs. They keep the relative edge; the numbers stay on the dice-friendly side of the sheet.
Differential rolls
Combat (and any contest where the margin of mastery matters) uses Differential rolls. Both sides roll as if alone. Whoever achieved the higher Level of Success gains Special Effects equal to the difference (1, 2, or 3 levels). Same level—no Special Effects from the level gap, though damage may still land.
Trying again
If you Fail and could plausibly try once more (the lock is still there, the wall has not collapsed), the Games Master may allow a second attempt at one grade harder. A second Failure means you have given it your best shot for now.
What skill percentages mean
| Rating | Competence |
|---|---|
| 1–30% | Novice |
| 31–50% | Competent |
| 51–70% | Proficient |
| 71–90% | Expert |
| 91–110% | Master |
| Over 110% | Exemplar |
A proficient warrior at 60% is employable and dangerous. A master at 100% is famous. Neither is invincible—96–00 still fails, and one unlucky Hit Location ends careers.
Passions work like skills
Passions use the same percentage scale and can oppose or augment other skills. Details live in the Passions chapter.