Chapter IV: Skills & Talents
for what you’re trying to do. You then roll percentile dice and if your roll is equal to or less than the characteristic, you succeed. Table 4-1: Test Difficulty also applies to Characteristic Tests. You can also make Opposed Characteristic Tests and again these work the same way. Example: Karl, a Tomb Robber, has found a heavy stone sarcophagus. The lid is extremely heavy but Karl is determined to push it off so he can loot the corpse. The GM calls for a Strength Test. Due to the weight of the lid, the GM rules that this is a Hard task, which imposes a –20% penalty. With Strength 37%, Karl thus has a 17% chance of shifting the lid. He rolls a 45% and fails to budge it. Characteristic Tests are sometimes called for in other circumstances, such as resisting poison, torture, disease, or magic. These tests are explained where appropriate. g aInIng s kIlls You automatically gain the skills of your Starting Career. These skills represent what you’ve learned in your life up to the point that you began your adventuring career. As you gain experience, you’ll be able to move into different careers. This gives you the opportunity to learn new skills. Each skill you learn in this way costs you 100 experience points (xp). See Chapter 3: Careers for more info on changing careers. Example: Wolfgang, a Coachman, gains the following skills automatically from his Starting Career: Animal Care, Drive, Haggle, Navigation, Perception, Ride, Secret Signs (Ranger), and Speak Language (Kislevian). He finishes the Coachman career and becomes a Roadwarden, a career that includes the following skills: Animal Care, Drive, Common Knowledge (the Empire) or Gossip, Follow Trail or Secret Signs (Scout), Navigation, Outdoor Survival, Perception, Ride, and Search. He does not gain all the skills of his new career automatically, so he must buy the skills he doesn’t have already (for 100 xp each). Before he can finish the Coachman
player rolls a 14%, a success. The GM rolls for the Watchman and gets a 28%, also a success. They must now compare degrees of success. Theodoric beat his chance by 11%, achieving one degree of success, while the Watchman only beat his by 2%, so he has zero degrees of success. Theodoric just manages to sneak by the Watchman. C haraCTerIsTIC T esTs Sometimes you may want to do something that isn’t covered by a skill (using brute strength to knock down a door, for example). In these cases, you can make a Characteristic Test instead. This works almost exactly like a Skill Test. The GM determines the most appropriate characteristic
s kIll m asTery If you get access to the same skill in different careers, you can (at your option) spend another 100 xp to gain an additional +10% when using the skill. You can buy the same skill no more than three times. This represents additional training and experience with the skill that you’ve gained as you’ve advanced from one career to the next. Example: Helga, an Apprentice Wizard, begins with the Academic Knowledge (Magic) skill. She finishes her first career
and becomes a JourneymanWizard. This career also includes Academic Knowledge (Magic). Helga now has a choice. If she’s happy with her current understanding of magic, she can leave things as they are. If she’d like additional expertise, she can spend 100 xp and buy this skill again. This Skill Mastery gives her a +10% bonus on Academic Knowledge (Magic) Tests. If Helga later became a Master Wizard, which also includes the Academic Knowledge (Magic) skill, she could opt to buy it again. She could not buy Academic Knowledge (Magic) a fourth time.
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