| Skill | Purpose |
| Arts (Focus) | Creating and performing artistic works, including music, acting, writing, painting, sculpture, dance, and other creative disciplines. |
| Craft (Focus) | Building, repairing, maintaining, and modifying equipment, structures, and other physical objects through skilled craftsmanship. |
| Gambling | Playing games of chance and strategy, reading opponents, calculating odds, and recognizing or exploiting opportunities to cheat. |
| Investigation | Gathering information, researching topics, analyzing evidence, and solving mysteries through careful observation and deduction. |
| Search | Finding hidden objects, people, clues, tracks, or other concealed details through careful observation and examination. |
| Survival (Focus) | Enduring and navigating hazardous environments by finding food, water, shelter, and avoiding natural dangers. |
| Thievery | Bypassing physical security through lockpicking, forgery, burglary, disabling traps, and other illicit techniques. |
Arts
Base Attribute: Perception
Type: Focus Skill
Arts represents a character’s ability to create and perform works of artistic expression. It covers visual arts, music, literature, dance, theater, and other creative disciplines.
A character must select a Focus when learning this skill. Each Focus represents a particular artistic discipline and is learned separately. The available Focuses depend on the genre and setting.
Typical Focuses: Focuses vary by genre and setting. Common examples include Acting, Calligraphy, Dance, Music, Painting, Photography, Poetry, Sculpture, Singing, or Writing.
Typical Uses
- Creating works of art
- Performing before an audience
- Evaluating artistic quality
- Identifying artistic styles or techniques
- Entertaining or inspiring others
- Creating convincing artistic reproductions
The gamemaster determines the difficulty based on the complexity of the work, available materials or instruments, time available, environmental conditions, and the desired quality of the finished performance or creation.
Critical Failure: The character’s work is poorly executed, fails to achieve its intended effect, or contains an obvious flaw that diminishes its quality.
Craft
Base Attribute: Perception
Type: Focus Skill
Craft represents a character’s practical skill in building, repairing, maintaining, and modifying equipment, structures, and other physical objects. It covers the hands-on knowledge required to turn raw materials into finished products or restore damaged items to working condition.
A character must select a Focus when learning this skill. Each Focus represents a particular trade, profession, or craft and is learned separately. The available Focuses depend on the genre and setting.
Operating, programming, or configuring unfamiliar devices uses the Devices skill instead.
Typical Focuses: Focuses vary by genre and setting. Common examples include: Blacksmithing, Carpentry, Construction, Electronics, Engineering, Gunsmithing, Leatherworking, Mechanics, Robotics, Starships, Tailoring, Traps, Weaponsmithing.
Typical Uses
- Building equipment and structures
- Repairing damaged equipment
- Maintaining machinery and vehicles
- Modifying existing equipment
- Designing new devices or structures
- Installing mechanical systems
- Creating specialized tools or components
The gamemaster determines the difficulty based on the complexity of the project, available tools and materials, the condition of the item, time available, and the character’s familiarity with the craft.
Critical Failure: The character produces a faulty design, damages the item being worked on, wastes valuable materials, or creates another complication appropriate to the situation.
Gambling
Base Attribute: Perception
Gambling represents a character’s skill at games of chance and strategy. It includes understanding odds, reading opponents, recognizing betting patterns, bluffing, detecting deception, and, when appropriate, cheating without being caught.
A Gambling Test is typically opposed by the Gambling Tests of the other participants. The gamemaster may apply modifiers based on the complexity of the game, familiarity with its rules, distractions, or attempts to cheat.
Typical Uses
- Playing games of chance
- Playing games of strategy
- Reading opponents
- Calculating odds and probabilities
- Bluffing during wagers
- Detecting cheating
- Cheating without being detected
The gamemaster determines the difficulty or modifiers based on the game being played, the skill of the opponents, and the circumstances surrounding the wager.
Critical Failure: The character makes a costly mistake, is caught cheating, misreads an opponent, or suffers another setback appropriate to the situation.
Investigation
Base Attribute: Perception
Investigation represents a character’s ability to gather information, analyze evidence, conduct research, and draw logical conclusions. It is used to solve mysteries, reconstruct events, identify patterns, and uncover hidden connections between clues.
Investigation is often used after a successful Search Test has located clues or evidence.
Typical Uses
- Gathering information from people or public sources
- Researching records, archives, or databases
- Analyzing physical evidence
- Identifying patterns and connections
- Reconstructing events from available clues
- Solving mysteries and uncovering hidden information
The gamemaster determines the difficulty based on the amount and quality of available evidence, the reliability of information sources, the complexity of the mystery, and the amount of time available.
Critical Failure: The character reaches an incorrect conclusion, overlooks an important clue, or follows misleading evidence that complicates the investigation.
Search
Base Attribute: Perception
Search represents a character’s ability to locate hidden objects, notice concealed details, follow trails, observe others, and gather information through careful examination. It is used whenever success depends on finding something that is not immediately obvious.
Search is often used before Investigation, as it locates the clues or evidence that Investigation later interprets.
Typical Uses
- Finding hidden objects or compartments
- Detecting concealed doors or traps
- Following tracks or trails
- Shadowing a person without being noticed
- Eavesdropping on conversations
- Lip reading
- Conducting careful searches of an area
- Reconnoitering an unfamiliar location
The gamemaster determines the difficulty based on how well the object, person, or information is concealed, environmental conditions, distractions, distance, visibility, and the amount of time available.
Critical Failure: The character overlooks an important clue, loses the trail, alerts the target to their presence, or reaches an incorrect conclusion based on incomplete observations.
Survival
Base Attribute: Perception
Type: Focus Skill
Survival represents a character’s ability to endure and travel through hazardous environments. It is used to find food and water, locate or build shelter, avoid natural hazards, track wildlife, and survive in harsh conditions.
A character must select a Focus when learning this skill. Each Focus represents a particular environment and is learned separately. The available Focuses depend on the genre and setting.
Typical Focuses: Focuses vary by genre and setting. Common examples include Arctic, Desert, Forest, Jungle, Mountains, Space, Swamp, Urban, Wilderness.
Typical Uses
- Finding food and water
- Building or locating shelter
- Predicting weather
- Identifying natural hazards
- Tracking or hunting wildlife
- Navigating natural environments
- Surviving extreme climates
- Avoiding dangerous plants and animals
The gamemaster determines the difficulty based on the severity of the environment, weather conditions, available resources, the character’s equipment, and the length of time involved.
Critical Failure: The character becomes lost, overlooks a significant hazard, consumes unsafe food or water, or suffers another setback appropriate to the environment.
Thievery
Base Attribute: Perception
Thievery represents a character’s ability to bypass physical security, gain unauthorized access, and commit acts of burglary or forgery. It is used to pick locks, disable mechanical security devices, create forged documents, and overcome similar physical obstacles through skill and deception.
Typical Uses
- Picking locks
- Opening safes
- Bypassing mechanical security devices
- Creating forged documents
- Counterfeiting currency or official seals
- Identifying forged documents
- Gaining entry without leaving evidence
The gamemaster determines the difficulty based on the complexity and quality of the security, the tools available, familiarity with the item being forged or bypassed, and the amount of time available.
Critical Failure: The character damages the lock or security device, creates an obvious forgery, leaves clear evidence of tampering, or triggers a security measure or alarm.