Chapter IV: Skills & Talents
— b asIC and a dVanCed s kIlls —
T he basic rules for Skill Tests assume that your character has the skill in question. But what if you want to try a skill you don’t know? Is that a possibility? The answer lies in the skill type, which is denoted in each skill’s description. Skills have two types: basic and advanced. Basic skills are in common use throughout the Old World and simply growing up in the Empire will expose most characters to the rudiments of these abilities. Even if you don’t have a basic skill, you can attempt to use your natural aptitude in lieu of formal training. Roll a Skill Test as normal, but halve the Characteristic (rounding up). If you don’t have a basic skill, any attempt to use it requires a Skill Test. There will thus be times when a skilled character doesn’t even have to roll (swimming in calm waters, for instance) but an unskilled character still would. Example: Kurt, a Mercenary, is trying to bargain down the price of a new sword. He doesn’t have the Haggle skill, but it’s a basic skill so he can still give it a try. Kurt has Fellowship 33%, but he must halve it because he doesn’t have Haggle. Kurt thus has a 17% chance (Fellowship 33/2=17) of successfully haggling the price down. Kurt’s player rolls a 05, a success! Kurt has bargained the merchant down and gets his new sword at a reduced price. Advanced skills require training and experience. If you don’t have an advanced skill, you can’t even attempt it. No matter how smart you are, for instance, you won’t be able to read the script of ancient Khemri without study. T he r ole of C IrCumsTanCe Not all Skill Tests are created equal. Climbing a fence is laughably easy, for instance, but scaling a sheer cliff is insanely difficult. The GM can assign bonuses or penalties to Skill Tests depending on the circumstances. While published adventures will call out these modifiers for you, there will still be many instances when the GM has to determine them on the fly. Making judgments like this is a big part of being a Game Master. For each Skill Test, the GM should determine the difficulty, and then consult Table 4-1: Test Difficulty to determine the appropriate modifier. GMs may decide to assign even greater bonuses or penalties than those shown on the table, but such modifiers should only be used in extremely unusually circumstances. It is recommended that all modifiers be given out in 10% increments to keep skill use simple. GMs who prefer more finesse, however, can hand out modifiers in 5% increments if they like. Example: Hilda, a Bounty Hunter, is trying to find the tracks of her quarry. Hilda’s player makes a Follow Trail Skill Test. Under normal circumstances, she’d simply use her Agility characteristic as her base chance of success. However, the GM decides that the rain last night washed away most of the tracks. He deems the task Very Hard and imposes a –30% penalty on Hilda’s Skill Test. With her Agility 41%, Hilda would normally have a 41% chance of following the trail successfully, but after the penalty this drops to only 11% (41–30=11). Hilda’s player rolls a 35, which would have been a success under better circumstances, but in this instance the rain foiled her and the Skill Test failed. d egrees of s uCCess For the majority of tests, it is enough to know whether or not you succeeded or failed. Sometimes, however, it is useful to know how well you succeeded. This is particularly useful with social skills like Charm and Gossip, as it gives the GM a guideline to help determine NPC attitudes.
Measuring degrees of success is straightforward. You compare the result of your Skill Test with your percentage chance. For each full 10% you beat your chance by, you achieve one degree of success. Your GM will let you know if degrees of success are important for a particular test. Example: Rurik, a Kislevite Kossar, is trying to get some information about a man he’s looking for from a bartender. He makes a Gossip Test to see what he can find out. His Fellowship is 32% but the GM decides the bartender is suspicious of foreigners and so rates the test as Challenging (–10%). This gives Rurik a 22% chance. He rolls a 01, the best possible result. Since this is 21% under his chance, Rurik achieves two degrees of success (one for each full 10%). The GM decides that not only will the bartender admit the man is a customer, he’ll also tell Rurik where the man can be found right now. You can also measure degrees of failure in a similar way, with each full 10% you failed the test by equalling one degree of failure, but it is not often necessary. o pposed s kIll T esTs Sometimes you have to test your skill versus that of an opponent. This is known as an Opposed Skill Test. If you were trying to hide from a searching Roadwarden, for example, you’d use your Concealment skill while the Roadwarden would try to find you with his Perception skill. In these types of situation, both parties roll Skill Tests. The GM can assign modifiers to either or both tests as appropriate. Whoever makes a successful test wins the contest. If both characters make successful tests, whoever achieves the most degrees of success wins. If the characters have achieved the same degree of success, the lower dice roll wins out. If both parties fail, the GM should choose from these options, as appropriate for the situation: • Stalemate: Neither side gains the advantage. Next round both parties can roll again. • Re-roll: Have both parties re-roll now until there is a winner. Example: Theodoric, an Outlaw, needs to sneak behind a town Watchman. This is a Silent Move Skill Test, opposed by the Watchman’s Perception Skill Test. Since Theodoric will be passing close by the Watchman, the GM decides this is a Challenging test and assigns a –10% penalty to the Outlaw. Theodoric has a 35% chance normally, modified down to 25%. The Watchman has a 30% chance of detecting him. Theodoric’s
T able 4-1: T esT d IffICulTy Difficulty Skill Modifier Very Easy +30% Easy +20% Routine +10% Average No modifier Challenging –10% Hard –20% Very Hard –30%
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