Skills — Quick Reference

What Skills Are

Skills represent trained ability layered on top of raw attributes. Every skill links to an attribute (Agility, Body, Charisma, Intuition, Logic, Reaction, Strength, Willpower, or the special Magic/Resonance attributes), and a dice pool for a task is normally Skill Rating + Linked Attribute, modified by circumstance.

Categories

  • Active Skills – anything a character does: shooting, driving, hacking, spellcasting, sneaking, negotiating, etc.
  • Knowledge Skills – things a character knows. Split into Academic, Professional, Street, and Interests sub-types. Rarely rolled in combat; mostly used for legwork, background, and information gathering.
  • Language Skills – fluency in a specific language. Handled narratively most of the time; only rolled when precise or difficult communication matters.

Skill Groups

Several related Active skills are bundled into a Skill Group (e.g., Firearms = Automatics, Longarms, Pistols). Buying the group is cheaper than buying each skill separately, and using any skill in the group uses the group rating. The moment a player raises one skill inside a group independently, the character loses the group and now has separate individual ratings — usually a worse deal in the long run, but sometimes worth it for specialization.

Ratings & Specializations

  • Ratings run 0–6 for most starting characters (7 is possible with the Aptitude quality); magical/technical assistance can push a modified rating up to 1.5× the base.
  • A Specialization (e.g., Pistols (Revolvers)) adds +2 dice whenever it applies, costs a small amount to acquire, and can’t be combined with skill groups.
  • Defaulting: if a character lacks a skill entirely, she may still attempt the task using just the linked attribute at a −1 dice pool penalty — but some skills (mostly Magic- and Resonance-linked ones) can’t be defaulted at all.

Key Skill Families

  • Combat Active Skills – Archery, Automatics, Blades, Clubs, Dodge, Exotic Melee/Ranged Weapon, Heavy Weapons, Longarms, Pistols, Throwing Weapons, Unarmed Combat.
  • Magical Active Skills (require the Magician/Adept/Mystic Adept quality) – Arcana, Assensing, Astral Combat, Banishing, Binding, Counterspelling, Enchanting, Ritual Spellcasting, Spellcasting, Summoning.
  • Physical Active Skills – Climbing, Disguise, Diving, Escape Artist, Gymnastics, Infiltration, Navigation, Palming, Parachuting, Perception, Running, Shadowing, Survival, Swimming, Tracking.
  • Resonance Active Skills (Technomancers only) – Compiling, Decompiling, Registering.
  • Social Active Skills – Con, Etiquette, Instruction, Intimidation, Leadership, Negotiation.
  • Technical Active Skills – Aeronautics Mechanic, Armorer, Artisan, Automotive Mechanic, Chemistry, Computer, Cybercombat, Cybertechnology, Data Search, Demolitions, Electronic Warfare, First Aid, Forgery, Hacking, Hardware, Industrial Mechanic, Locksmith, Medicine, Nautical Mechanic, Software.
  • Vehicle Active Skills – Gunnery, Pilot Aerospace, Pilot Aircraft, Pilot Anthroform, Pilot Exotic Vehicle, Pilot Ground Craft, Pilot Watercraft.

Using Skills in Play

  • Most tasks are a Success Test: roll the dice pool, count 5s and 6s as hits, compare to a threshold or an opponent’s roll.
  • Opposed Tests (social skills, stealth vs. perception, forgery vs. detection, etc.) pit two dice pools against each other; net hits determine the margin of success.
  • Extended Tests (research, lock-picking, repairs, tracking, chemistry) accumulate hits over multiple rolls against a total threshold, with each roll representing an interval of time.
  • Perception, Etiquette, Charisma-linked social skills, and several technical skills each have their own worked-out mini-rules for thresholds and modifiers (visibility, distraction, crowd reactions, tool quality, and so on).

Attribute-Only Tests

Some situations call for a roll with no relevant skill at all — Composure (Willpower + Charisma), Judge Intentions (Intuition + Charisma), Lifting and Carrying (Strength + Body), and Memory (Logic + Willpower) are the most common examples, each with its own threshold guidance.