Skills
Things your character can do.
Skills range in value from 0-3 0 is untrained 1 is a beginner 2 is a professional 3 is an expert
Types Of Skill Tests
Skill tests come in a few various types.
Fixed Difficulty
A standard skill test, will have a negative assigned, and it will be either pass or fail. These are written as SKILL(+/- VALUE). If no value is mentioned in brackets, the skill test is assumed to have no bonus or negative to the roll.
So a Confidence(-1) would be a confidence skill test with a -1 to the roll. Physique would be a skill test with no penalty or bonus.
Variable Difficulty
This is a test where you will receive more information or success based on how well you do. Variable difficulty skill tests care about your Step Of Success
An example is collecting flowers, your character may get additional flowers based on their number of steps.
Step
When talking about variable difficulties, rules may reference step your steps. A step of success is 1 additional on your dice roll above what was required, 4 steps of success is a “14”. A step of failure is 1 less on your dice roll above what was required.
Project
Sometimes a character will fail an Action in a Scene but really want to succeed or move forward with the goal. In this case the Player Character may opt to make the Action into a Project by spending a Power. In this case the Game Master and Player Character should work together to determine why the player failed in the first place, this could be because the character lacks all the information, tools, or materials they need to complete the current action.
Examples of projects would be, sweet-talking a guard captain into letting you have their troops, powering a device to destroy a magic barrier, coordinating the plan of attack for a massive battle, identifying a creature you are hunting. Treating a king who has come down with a mystery illness.
The Game Master then decides on the difficulty of the project, whether it requires 1, 2, or 3 resolutions to complete. Then in the course of the game the players may use materials, tools, and additional storytelling to complete resolutions.
If the number of resolutions is met, the Character may complete the project. There is no additional skill test required, after all the initial work, the project will succeed.
As an example, say a hunter is trying to identify the creature that has been slaughtering farmers’ cows. He has Memory and knowledge of monsters, though he doesn’t have many clues to go on yet. After witnessing the injuries on the cows, he makes a skill test to see if he knows of the creature and fails. He really wants to know about the creature and so turns this into a project. The GM determines this is a 1 resolution project. To work on resolving this he needs more info he decides to go into town to ask about strange occurrences. After some additional narrative time, the hunter discovers that the creature had avoided a woman wearing a lot of silver jewellery, the GM considers this to be a resolution and lets the player complete the project. As a reward for completion the GM provides the hunter with the information that it is a Werewolf and the abilities and attributes of the creature.
Aid
When multiple characters are all attempting to perform the same task together, instead of each performing a skill task separately, the Most Skilled of the group performs the skill test. If another person has the same bonus the Most Skilled receives a +1 bonus. This can be applied to people with lesser bonuses as well.
So, if two characters with a (+5) bonus on an action are working together one rolls with a (+6) bonus.
Similarly, if three character are all working together on an action, one has a (+5) and the other two have a (+4) the two (+4)’s combine to a (+5) and then the two (+5)’s combine to a (+6).
If two characters are working together on a task and one has a (+5) bonus and the other has a (+4) bonus, the overal bonus for the test remains a (+5).
Hindrance
In a situation where a group of characters is obligated to perform an Action but some are Untrained the Most Skilled receives a (-1) to their bonus per untrained person. This is applied after Aid is calculated.
Examples of hindrance would be if your party was running from a giant boulder, people untrained would slow you down. Similarly if you were attempting to spot danger in the woods while traveling, untrained characters would be distracting or noisy keeping those trained from focusing as well. A situation that wouldn’t cause hindrance would be if a character was building a tool, even if party members aren’t trained, they also aren’t obligated to help.
Untrained
Any untrained skill test is at an additional -2.
Examples would be trying to spot enemies with Understanding, or jumping across a ledge with Physique.
Critical Failure
Rolling double 1’s on a skill test is always considered a failure.
Critical Success
Rolling double 6’s on a skill test is always considered a success. If you wouldn’t otherwise have succeeded, you are considered to have 0 Step Of Success on the skill test.
Doubles
If you roll two identical values on a skill test (1,1), (2,2)… (6,6) this is considered doubles. Some Actions special rules may reference Doubles.
Lucky
A lucky skill test rolls 3 six sided dice and the roller may select the 2 to use.
Unlucky
An unlucky skill test rolls 3 six sided dice and the Opponent selects the 2 to use.
Character Skills
The list of skills should cover any activity a character would be expected to do related to their primary attributes.