Acrobatics is the trained body used deliberately: balance held where there is nothing to hold onto, and tumbling — vaults, somersaults, handsprings — performed on purpose rather than survived by accident. It asks for coordination and wind in equal measure, and unlike most physical skills it is almost never picked up casually. Someone either has spent years on it or has not.
Balance. Each Move action taken along a path three inches wide or narrower calls for an Acrobatics Success Value test, at −1 SV for every inch of width below four. A footing of four to six inches is broad enough that plain Agility will serve instead.
| SV | Balance |
|---|---|
| ≤ 2 | Precarious. The character spends the turn keeping their feet and covers no ground at all. |
| 3–4 | Nerves. A successful Will test buys a single-diamond move as below; failing it leaves the character where they stand. |
| 5+ | Five feet per Value Diamond, never more than a half Move. |
A Move 45 character earning SV 9 on a three-inch beam loses one diamond to the width, leaving four — twenty feet, which is also their half-Move ceiling.
A Critical Failure puts the character on the edge of a fall: they test Agility, and any failure sends them off. A Marginal Success costs the following turn to recover balance, and a Critical Success costs nothing.
Tumbling. An Acrobatics Success Value test taken over several minutes measures a performance, exactly as Dancing does, and its Value Diamonds may sway an audience the same way. A single vault, somersault or handspring attempted during a Move or Charge is instead a plain Success Test:
| Level | Manoeuvre |
|---|---|
| CF | Fails; the character lands prone. |
| MF | Fails; a successful Strength test avoids going prone. |
| MS | Succeeds, but counts as difficult movement. |
| CS | Succeeds as part of ordinary movement. |
What the training is worth elsewhere. Acrobatics stands in for Agility and for Jumping wherever either would be tested, and serves in their place as a Secondary Mastery. Twice its Index applies as a bonus to Block and Dodge tests, and improves the evasion penalty imposed on missile attackers. It is also the skill that decides how well a fall is taken, and how far a body can drop without ending up on the ground.