A skill represents a character’s trained ability at some activity — a weapon, a craft, a lore, a social art. Each skill is rated by a Mastery Level (ML), derived from a Skill Base that the character’s attributes decide; whenever the outcome of using a skill is uncertain, the character makes a test against it.

Skills are tested exactly as attributes and mystical abilities are, by the procedures in the Resolution chapter — a Success Test for a single uncertain act, a Success Value test for sustained work, an Opposed Test against another character. Nothing about testing a skill is peculiar to skills. What this chapter covers is which skills exist, what each of them is for, and how they attach to a character.

Skill Body Assignments

Body Roles specify which of the body roles each body part enables. Every skill specifies which body roles it needs. If the given role is impaired or disabled, then the associated skills become impaired or unusable. For example, Climbing might list both Manipulator and Locomotor, in which case impairment of those body parts would impair the skill as well.

When you test a skill, every body part holding one of the roles that skill lists is consulted:

If any of those parts is unusable — a grievous wound, or a limb lost outright — the test automatically Critically Fails. No roll is made.
Otherwise the test suffers the worst impairment penalty among those parts: −5 or −10 or worse. Penalties do not stack across parts; the single worst applies.

A skill that lists no roles is never impaired by injury, however badly hurt the character is.

See Body Structure for the roles in full, how parts become impaired or unusable, and how a human’s parts are tagged.

Skill Descriptions

Combat

Archery - Striking distant targets with bows and crossbows; reading windage and elevation.
Boomerang - Throwing curved wooden sticks for hunting and warfare, with returning and non-returning variants.
Dodge - Evading attacks by shifting body; instinctive defense in combat.
Initiative - Battlefield experience and tactical awareness; acting first in combat.
Melee - Close combat with hand-held weapons; positioning, technique, and tactical awareness.
Shock - Physiological resilience to absorb violent blows without incapacitation.
Sling - Hurling stones and lead bullets from a sling with accuracy and force.
Throwing - Hurling daggers, axes, javelins, and projectiles with accuracy and force.

Combat Techniques

These are the Folk unarmed techniques: the roster a folk character carries. Other creatures do not use them — an animal, mythic, spirit, or construct carries bespoke strike modes derived from its own anatomy, and most of what it carries (claw, gore, beak, tail, quill) has no folk equivalent at all.

Where an entry is marked Folk below, its impact dice describe a folk body part: a folk bite is 1d4 piercing where a cave bear’s is 1d6+9. The unmarked ones carry no impact dice — they are manoeuvres rather than body parts, and read Strength and reach from whoever performs them, so they hold for any creature able to perform them at all.

Folk Bite - Teeth, at the range where nothing else will reach; small, precise, and it draws blood.
Grab - Seize a limb — to take the weapon out of it, or to hold it still.
Folk Headbutt - The forehead driven into a face, from too close for anything else to work.
Folk Kick - A boot driven out — the longest reach a person has without a weapon.
Limb Block - Warding a blow with a limb — desperate bare-armed, deliberate in a mail sleeve.
Press - A shove: putting an opponent where you want them, and sometimes on the ground.
Folk Punch - A closed fist — the plainest thing a person can do in a fight, and the weakest.
Trip - Taking the legs out from under an opponent, and the fight with them.

Craft

Every trade below that makes an article makes it by the one routine in Crafting — workshop, expense, test, result, masterwork. Each skill’s own entry gives only what is particular to that trade.

Ceramics - Shaping clay into durable pots, bowls, tiles, bricks, and sculpture.
Drawing - Painting, sketching, fresco work; creating artistic and technical designs.
Fletching - Crafting bows, crossbows, arrows; producing reliable or masterwork projectile weapons.
Glassworking - Shaping molten glass into bottles, goblets, vials, windows, lenses.
Hideworking - Tanning furs and hides into leather goods; producing armor and equipment.
Jewelcraft - Gem-cutting, goldsmithing, creating fine ornamental metalwork and jewelry.
Lockcraft - Designing locks; picking or bypassing mechanical locking mechanisms.
Masonry - Quarrying, cutting, and laying stone for walls, buildings, and fortifications.
Metalcraft - Smelting, forging, and finishing metal into tools, armor, and components.
Milling - Processing grain into flour and meal using mill mechanics and stone-dressing.
Musician - Playing various instruments with technical facility and musical interpretation.
Singing - Vocal performance with control of pitch, tone, and emotional expression.
Textilecraft - Spinning, weaving, dyeing, and sewing fabrics into finished textile goods.
Timbercraft - Forest knowledge for selecting timber and managing woodland for sustainable yield.
Weaponcraft - Forging swords, axes, and weapons with superior balance and performance.
Woodworking - Shaping timber into furniture, tools, carts, and decorative carvings.

Languages

Common - The shared trade tongue that carries a traveler across realms — broad in reach, thin in nuance.
Language - Proficiency in some particular tongue — the generic skill used wherever a named-language entry would overspecify.

Lore

Brewing - Producing ales, wines, meads from ingredients; managing fermentation and aging.
Cookery - Preparing food; transforming ingredients into nourishing, delightful meals.
Embalming - Preparing corpses for burial; delaying decomposition through preservation techniques.
Engineering - Designing bridges, mills, siegeworks; managing stress, leverage, materials.
Folklore - Knowledge of homeland culture, history, traditions, myth and social customs.
Heraldry - Interpreting coats of arms, crests, badges; revealing lineage and history.
Law - Knowledge of legal codes, customs, judicial procedures, guild regulations.
Mathematics - Numerical calculation, geometry, and reasoning for engineering and commerce.
Mercantilism - Trade, commerce, appraisal, negotiation, and understanding market principles.
Perfumery - Blending herbs, flowers, and essences into scents and aromatic preparations.
Physician - Diagnosing illness, treating injuries, performing surgery, and healing wounds.
Shipwright - Designing and constructing watercraft from materials and structural principles.

Mystical

Ritual - Conducting ceremonies, rites, and worship services for one’s faith.

Nature

Agriculture - Cultivating crops, tending orchards, assessing land and harvest value.
Animalcraft - Domesticating, breeding, caring for animals; training and veterinary expertise.
Fishing - Catching fish using hooks, nets, spears; adapting to local conditions.
Herblore - Identifying, gathering, preparing plants for medicinal, culinary, mystical use.
Mineralogy - Identifying minerals, ores, and deposits for mining and building projects.
Piloting - Navigating watercraft through coastal waters, harbors, and dangerous passages.
Seamanship - Operating sailing vessels on open water through sails, weather, and crew management.
Survival - Enduring wilderness through shelter, water, foraging, and hazard navigation.
Tracking - Reading footprints, vegetation, and signs of passage through environments.

Physical

Acrobatics - Vaulting, balance, tumbling; recovers gracefully from perilous falls.
Awareness - Detecting movement, glint of metal, scents; opposing Stealth in vigilance.
Climbing - Scaling cliffs, walls, trees using handholds, ropes, body technique.
Dancing - Performing formal and folk dances; elevating social gatherings with grace.
Jumping - Leaping horizontally and vertically; reaching above normal reach.
Legerdemain - Sleight of hand, purse-cutting, juggling; intricate manual dexterity.
Riding - Controlling mounted animals through communication and empathic connection.
Stealth - Moving unseen through shadows, cover, and ambient noise for avoidance.
Swimming - Moving through water across rivers, during shipwrecks, or beneath surfaces.

Script

Runic - Reading and writing ancient runic scripts carved into stone and wood.
Script - Reading, writing, and interpreting text in specific writing systems.

Charm - Winning trust and favor through warmth, wit, and emotional persuasion.
Command - Compelling obedience through authority, intimidation, and commanding presence.
Discourse - Convincing through reasoned argument, evidence, and rhetorical skill.
Guile - Deliberate deception; distorting facts while appearing truthful oneself.
Intrigue - Detecting hidden motives, deception; unraveling plots and conspiracies.
Theatrics - Performance and disguise through role assumption and identity transformation.

Skills Introduction