Unlucky 13 Combat Test

James helped me conduct a test of the U13 combat system. This is how it went.

The Player Character

	Player
Fighting	1
Agility	0
Weapon value	Sword 4
Armor value	Leather & Shield 3

This is the PC’s starting health meter:

01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08	09	10	11	12
A	A	A									☠

The Setup

GM: You’re leaving the city. Lord Crowfield sent you to Syresham manor, about 5-6 miles away to the east. He wants you to see what happened there with the light from the sky.

As you leave the town, you encounter the desert it wasn’t desert a few days ago. You find this disconcerting, weird, and alien. It’s sweltering hot. There is just sand and desert scrub as far as you can see. A river—the Lesser Ooze—is supposed to run between the two towns, but you see no sign of a river. Just sand and sun.

As Crowfield fades away behind you, the lack of any landmarks makes navigation difficult. You are in danger of getting lost.¹

From beside you, you hear the sound of something scuffling in the sand. Looking off you your right you see…

The Enemy

GM: Those pincers are about 4 to 5 FEET apart. It is scuffling towards you. What do you do?

	Player	Scorpion
Fighting	1	1
Agility	0	0
Weapon value	Sword: 4	Claw: 2 Stinger: 5
Armor value	Leather & Shield: 3	Chitin exoskeleton: 4

health:

01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08	09	10	11	12
A	A	A				☠	☠	☠	☠	☠	☠

The fight begins

Player: I light a torch.

GM: So you’re dropping your sword and shield, removing your backpack, fishing out the tinderbox and lighting a torch?

Player: No. Never mind. I will stand ready and let it come to me. Watching for the tail at all time

GM: It gets within a few feet–almost grasping range but not quite–and stops. You sense that it’s staring at you.

Player: “Hi, Friend , You do not want to eat me.” I hold my sword high.²

GM: It does a side scuffle, like maybe it’s looking for a way to flank you. |

Round 1, attack phase

Player: I try to hit it claw near me.

Rules & Rolls: The player was the first to announce an attack, so he gets initiative.

The player’s attack (1) is higher than the monster’s agility (0), so the player gets a bonus roll. A bonus roll is the highest 2 dice of 3d12. The dice were 5, 7, and 11, so we drop the 5 and the total is 18. Any roll of 14+ is a success.

GM: You got it, but not on the claw.³

Rules & Rolls: The player’s weapon value (4) is greater than the monster’s armor value (3), so damage is the lowest die of 2d12. The roll was 4 and 7. We keep the 4, which is an open slot of the damage track. The scorpion loses its #4 slot.

GM: Your hit bypasses the armor. Your blade slips in and hurts it.

Round 1, defense phase

GM: It reaches out with the claws to grab you…

Player: I’m going to avoid the hit, of course.

Rules & Rolls: In U13 monsters don’t make an attack roll; the players make a defense roll instead. The player’s agility (0) is lower then the scorpion’s attack (1), so the player makes a penalty roll. Rolling 3d12 resulted in (12, 12, 10). That means the sum of the lowest 2 is 22, a success.

GM: You roll to the side and avoid the claws!

End of Round 1

	01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08	09	10	11	12
Player	A	A	A									☠
Scorpion	A	A	A	×			☠	☠	☠	☠	☠	☠

Round 2, Attack Phase

GM: What do you do next?

Player: I’m trying the same thing.

Rules & Rolls: The player still has a bonus roll to attack, and gets a 21—a success. The damage roll is a 2. Looking at the monster’s health meter we see that the 2 is potected by the armor symbol (◊), so there’s no effect.

GM: You bring your sword down, but it bounces off the scorpion’s carapace.

Round 2, Defense Phase

Player: It’s his attack, right?

GM: Technically speaking it’s your defense.

Rules & Rolls: The defense roll is a 13! That’s the “Unlucky 13” that the system is named for. It counts as a failure, but the player has the option to convert it to a success provided he’s willing to accept a Bad Thing.

GM: You rolled an Unlucky 13! You might remember how this goes. You missed the defense, but I’ll give it to you if you’re willing to take a Bad Thing instead. Are you going to take the bad thing? Or are you going to take the hit and hope your armor saves you?

Player: It’s unlike me, but I’ll take the Bad Thing.

GM: I would have too. It’s better than taking damage. He tried to get you with his tail but you blocked with your shield.[^tail] The stinger got caught in the shield and yanked it off your arm. The shield goes flying behind the scorpion. You no longer have a shield unless you try to go get it.

End of Round 2

While no one took damage this round, the player did lose his shield, making his #3 slot vulnerable.

	01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08	09	10	11	12
Player	◊	◊										☠
Scorpion	◊	◊	◊	×			☠	☠	☠	☠	☠	☠

Round 3, Attack Phase

Player: So what’s next?

GM: You tell me! What do you do next?

Player: What is it doing? Can I try to cut off its tail?

GM: The last thing it did was try to impale you, but got your shield instead. Now it looks like it’s trying to grab you. It sounds difficult to cut off the tail instead of just hitting it where-ever you can. If you want to do that, I’m taking away your bonus.

Player: No. I keep with what safer without running away.

GM: What I will do is say that if the opportunity presents itself, you’ll favor the tail over other parts. In game terms, if your roll is 20+ you can say it was the tail, otherwise it’s a normal hit.

Player: Cool

Rules & Rolls: The attack dice were (3, 9, 10), for a total of 19—a hit.

GM: You missed the tail by one, but your blade makes contact with the beast’s thorax.

Player: I’m rolling for damage.

Rules & Rolls: The attack dice were (3, 9, 10), for a total of 19—a hit. The damage dice were (6, 6)⁴ so the creature’s 6 slot is now filled.

Player: Does it look like I am doing anything to it?

GM: Your blade slipped between its chitin plates, and thick black ichor starts dripping into the sand. It’s twitching a bit…

Round 3 Defense Phase

GM: …but it reaches out to you with its claw! Make an agility roll to avoid.

Rules & Rolls: The dice were (7, 7, 11) for a total of 14, exactly what he needs to dodge out of the way.

GM: You barely dodge out of the way

End of Round 3

The player is still unscratched. The scorpion took a hot on the #6 slot. That means any hit of 6+ will take it out of the combat.

	01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08	09	10	11	12
Player	◊	◊										☠
Scorpion	◊	◊	◊	×		×	☠	☠	☠	☠	☠	☠

Round 4, Attack Phase

GM: (The scorpion is in rough shape. I decided that it would probably run away. James usually likes to let things run away instead killing if he doesn’t have to, so I decided to prompt him) Do you attack? Wait? Run? Give it money?

Player: I attack!

Rules & Rolls: The dice are (3, 9, 12 = 21), a hit.

GM: I said I would give you the tail if you rolled more than 20, so your blade lands a hit the tail and…

Rules & Rolls: The damage dice are (4, 11).

GM: Your damage roll was a 4. You had already done the 4 slot before, so we move this up to the 5 slot.

	01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08	09	10	11	12
Player	◊	◊										☠
Scorpion	◊	◊	◊	×	×	×	☠	☠	☠	☠	☠	☠

Player: Good! Did the tail get cut off?

Round 4, Defense Phase

I already mentioned that the scorpion already decided to run away this round. The fact that it took another hit only solidifies that choice. Instead of attacking it’s running away. The player doesn’t need to defend.

GM: The stinger is dangling, and the scorpion is backing away from you.

Round 5, Attack Phase

Player: Can I attack as it backs off?

GM: It’s backing off, but sure. You can make an attack if you want.

Player: I do.

Rules & Rolls: The player rolls (1, 12, 12 = 24). A CRIT!

The scorpion doesn’t have any open damage slots, except for those covered by armor. It makes no sense to tell the player that he scored a crit but that the hit didn’t pierce the armor. The only logical thing is to skip the dice and just let it die.

GM: You swing wildly and a stinger drops off completely. More ichor drops to the sand. The scorpion twitches violently, then collapses and stops moving. You are victorious!

Epilogue

I think the combat went well, but it needs more testing. The exchange above actually carried over two days and I did all the dice rolling. I want to try it through Roll20 with the player rolling himself. James wants to try it with multiple combatants on both sides.

How did it read to you?

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1. If this were a real game instead of a combat playtest, a Wilderness Survival check would happen here.↩

2. If this were a real game, I might have given the player an animal handling roll.↩

3. U13 doesn’t do hit locations. It adds too much complication for too little return. Had he rolled 20+, I would have given him the claw. I still could have given him the claw, it just wouldn’t make any difference.↩

4. I’m tempted to make a rule that would give the player a bonus for rolling doubles.↩

History of the Astral Web, Part 5

This is the fifth in a series of articles covering the in-world history of the Astral Web. I originally wrote the history as 15 or so eras of history. Rather than make one long post, each era is getting its own post.

This week is a little different. This week our era contains a special “sub-era.”

The Story so Far

The First Step: Mankind had terraformed Mars, and established settlements there.

The Departure: Mankind decided to send a million settlers to establish life around distant suns.

Left at Albuquerque: The fleet leaves Earth and is scattered far and wide by some unknown event.

The Awakening (Years 1 - 167): 20,000 humans settle on the planet Dearborn.

Expansion & Empire (Years 168 – 432)

One-hundred sixty-eight years after establishing their colony, the citizens of Dearborn discovered the Nexus principle and developed the first working Nexus drive. Faster-than-light (FTL)¹ travel had finally become a reality.

The people of Dearborn quickly began to travel throughout the galaxy. In their journeys they discovered seventy-four systems inhabited with descendants of the original fleet of colonists. The vast majority of these planets were delighted to be greeted by their brethren.

In an attempt to develop a unified system of government the colonists turned to one of history’s most successful methods of ruling a large and diverse domain: the Roman Republic. Due to the public’s misconceptions on ancient history, the republic quickly became known as the Empire.

Development of Spatial Warfare (circa Year 223)

One of the greatest benefits of the Unified Empire was the development of interstellar trade. Trade allowed each planet to specialize in the goods that it could best produce, and increased the overall quality of life, level of technology, and economic well-being throughout the Empire.

In any society, though, there are always those who feel it’s easier to take than to make. It was such a group, called the Norzeyan Cabal, that developed spatial warfare. Before the Cabal began their pirating raids, no ship had ever needed to be armed.

The Imperial government responded by allowing merchant ships to arm themselves and by forming an interstellar police force called the Imperial Sentinels. While the Sentinels were successful against the Norzeyans, other groups arose and established the need to maintain the Sentinels.

Retrospective

The was originally written up as 2 eras (and a sub-era). The first era was called “Discovery” and was just the first two sentences. The remainder was “The Unified Empire.” For this post I decided that they were both so related that they should be joined as a single era.

This was one of the playable eras. It was intended to be the most Star Trek in feel. It always struck me as weird that the Enterprise kept running into human settlements even though it was “where no man has gone before.” This part of the background was meant to setup a situation where that would make sense. The players could be the crew of an Empire starship exploring new worlds. They would be making contact with other planets that grew out of fragments of the original settlement fleet, trying to convince them to join the Empire.

If I were to do a rewrite, I would change the Spatial Warfare section. It would be more interesting if it happened independently in multiple systems before being contacted by Dearborne. That way the Empire has risk when it makes contact with a new planet.

That’s it for this week.

---

1. In my current incarnations, this is not really FTL travel. I will probably dedicate an entire post to the “hows and whys.” The short version is that these days my nexus drive doesn’t connect distant suns to each other. It connects parallel universes to each other. Thus every sun that the players travel to is really just another version of our sun, though it may have had a radically different history and therefore more or fewer planets. Like I said, there’s a lot more to it, and it deserves its own post.↩

Unlucky 13 Hit Points

This was originally going to be a blow-by blow report of a combat playtest that James and I ran through for my Unlucky 13 (U13) rules. As I was writing it up, though, I realized that my explanation of the “health meter” was making a long blog post far too long. So this week is just about the health meter. The playtest report will come after the next Astral Web post.

This is a modified and expanded version of the damage rules in “The Clout Primer” that appeared in my other blog.

The Health Meter

Instead of using traditional hit points, U13 uses up to 12 individual hit points. A typical human’s meter looks like this:

01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08	09	10	11	12
											☠

The “death” symbol (“☠”) beneath the 12 means that the character is out of action when that hit point is marked off. “Out of action” doesn’t usually mean “dead”—it might mean defeated, unconscious, or captured.

Damage

Damage is usually determined by one of two kinds of dice rolls. The type of roll to make depends on the cause of the damage and whatever protection the character has.

Title	Roll	Criteria
Major damage	1d12	Damage from firearms, explosions, etc.
Greater damage	2d12kl1	Weapon value > Armor Value
Standard damage	3d12kl1	Weapon value ≤ Armor Value

The die rolls use the “selective results” dice notation. The short version is that “kl1” means “keep the lowest 1 die.”

Use the information above to extrapolate damage rolls outside of combat such as falls, poisons, etc.

Example 1: Jalice is wearing light armor (armor value AV 2) and she’s being attacked by a very large rat with dagger-like fangs (weapon value WV 1). Based on the rat’s weapon value and Jalice’s armor value, she’ll take standard damage if the rat bites her.

Example 2: The very large rat does not have armor (nor a particularly tough hide), so its AV is 0. Jalice’s dagger¹ is WV 1. This means Jalice will inflict a greater damage roll to the rat if she hits.

Armor

Armor has two mechanical effects. The first one has already been discussed: it is used to determine the type of damage roll to make. The second effect is that armor prevents damage in the lowest boxes on the health meter. We use the letter “A” to show this on the health meter.

The number of boxes protected is equal to the armor value.

Example: Jalice is wearing light armor (AV2) and carrying a shield (AV+1) for a total AV of three. This means her first three boxes are protected by the armor and can not take damage. Jalice’s health meter looks like this:

01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08	09	10	11	12
A	A	A									☠

Example 2: Jalice finds herself fighting a very large rat. She gets hit, and it roll 3 for damage. Because the 3 box is protected by armor, the hit is ignored and nothing is recorded.

Hit Points are Individuals

The Health Meter is a group of 12 individual boxes.

Example: The next round, the very large rat hits Jalice again. This time it does 7 damage. Jalice’s health meter now looks like this:

01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08	09	10	11	12
A	A	A				✗					☠

The next time the rat hits, it rolls a 5 for damage:

01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08	09	10	11	12
A	A	A		✗		✗					☠

Only One to a Box

If the indicated hit point is already marked off, go to the next higher one that’s available.

The “real” number can make a difference for healing, so even though you’re marking it in a higher box, record the actual number.

Example: Continuing the example from above, Jalice gets hit yet again. The damage is a 5, but that spot is already taken so we record it in the №6 box as follows:

01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08	09	10	11	12
A	A	A		✗	(5)	✗					☠

If any future hit is a 5, 6, or 7 we would mark the 8 spot.

The upshot is that most battles end from a lower blow that gets elevated to the №12 box. It also means that the players usually² have plenty of notice that they should run away.

Shock Recovery

Damage is a mix of shock and physical trauma. Shock can be treated after the combat by using the medic/first aid skill. Each wound (i.e. each filled box) gets a skill check.

If you succeed, subtract the lower of the skill check’s dice from that wound. If you’re rolling 3 dice due to high or low skill, take the lower of the two dice that count.

If the roll is a failure, reduce the wound by one level instead.

Each wound can only be treated once.

If time is important, assume that each wound takes about 10 minutes to treat.

While it is logical to treat the most serious wounds first and work your way down, it is easier to start at the bottom and work your way up. This is because healing the lower wounds “opens up” those boxes for the higher wounds as they get healed. This avoids a lot of erasing and re-writing. However, if the GM plans on interrupting the characters with a surprise encounter during their healing phase, it’s kind of a jerk move to make them leave their most serious wounds untreated. Don’t be a jerk.

Example: Jalice finally defeats the very large rat. This is her current condition:

01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08	09	10	11	12
A	A	A		✗	(5)	✗					☠

She has three wounds to heal. She has the First Aid skill. That means she’ll roll 3d12 and drop the lowest die for her skill checks.

For the wound in the №5 box, she fails her first aid roll. The 5 now becomes a 4:

01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08	09	10	11	12
A	A	A	✗		(5)	✗					☠

For the №6 box, her First Aid skill roll is (4, 5, 11). Dropping the 4 leaves her with a total of 16—a success. The lower die was a 5 so the wound is reduced by 5 levels. Even though this is the №6 box, the wound was only a 5. So this wound is healed completely:

01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08	09	10	11	12
A	A	A	✗			✗					☠

Finally, she bandages the №7 wound. Her roll (2, 4, 11) is a success, to reduce the wound 4 levels. 7 - 4 = 3:

01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08	09	10	11	12
A	A	A✗	✗								☠

The fact that there is a wound in the №3 box in no way affects that the box is protected by armor. If she were to take a 3 damage in another encounter, it would still be ignored because of the armor.

Natural Recovery

Every morning following a day of full rest, make a Health roll for each wound. On a success, that wound reduces one level.

Weaker Encounters

The 12-box health meter is meant for leading characters: player characters and major villains. Often you will want to have weaker adversaries: the major villains army of storm troopers, minor monsters on lower dungeon levels, etc.

For your typical “first level monster”—something that should drop in one or two hits, use a wound track with only 4 “safe” boxes. Any hit of 5 or above will drop the monster out of action:

01	02	03	04	05	06	07	08	09	10	11	12
				☠	☠	☠	☠	☠	☠	☠	☠

Very weak encounters—say a single, normal rat—shouldn’t need a wound track. If the characters hit it, it’s down.

Stronger Encounters

Sometimes the enemy should be harder to kill: the mighty dragon, the vicious troll, or maybe the Space Alien That Won’t Die.

Only in the vary rarest circumstances would you want to extend the boxes beyond 12. One of the features of U13’s combat id that no matter how unlikely, even a single shot has the chance to kill. By making the №12 box non-fatal, you remove that possibility.

The easiest way to make an adversary more dangerous is to add more armor. Raising the AV to 6 means that only 25% of successful hits will actually cause a wound. Very high armor is especially appropriate for that great old dragon with impervious armor and one missing scale…

Classic fantasy’s troll would probably have a full 12-box health meter, but at the end of every round allow the troll to regenerate by simply reducing every wound by one box.

The Space Alien That Won’t Die can be made tougher by adding more boxes. I said it’s a bad idea to have boxes beyond, the №12 box, so we add duplicate boxes of the lower numbers. That means lower hits will take longer to become serious. Something like this:

01	01	02	02	03	03	04	05	06	07	08	09	10	11	12
														☠

Roll20 Concerns

I plan on running my U13 games online, probably through Roll20. Roll20 has a hit point tracker built in, but it only supports the traditional “hit point pool.” I’m not sure how to run this on Roll20.

Inspiration

This was heavily inspired by the “Recording Wounds” section of Fudge.

Epilogue

This is a long post. I’m certainly glad that I broke it out. It wasn’t this long in the original post, but it didn’t explain it as well and it didn’t have any examples. I think this is a much better explanation.

What do you think? Will it work? It worked well in the test that James & I ran, but that’s a sample size of 1. Do you have any solution for the Roll 20 issue?

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1. If the rat’s fangs are “dagger-like,” does that mean Jalice can have a “fang-like dagger?” ↩

2. For those that like numbers, when the weapon value is greater than the armor value there’s only a 0.7% chance that a single hit will result in a take down. When the armor improves this drops to a 0.06% chance.↩

History of the Astral Web, Part 4

The is the fourth in a series of articles covering the in-world history of the Astral Web. I originally wrote the history as 15 or so eras of history. Rather than make one long post, each era is getting its own post.

All the posts so far have been the “pre-History” of the campaign. No one is sure when those events occurred because they don’t know how much time passed in the sleeper ships. This post begins the “recorded history.” “Year 1” of the campaign calendar begins with the settlement of Dearborn.

The Story so Far

In The First Step, mankind had terraformed Mars, and established settlements there.

In The Departure, mankind decided to send a million settlers to establish life around distant suns.

In Left at Albuquerque, the fleet leaves Earth and is scattered far and wide by some unknown event.

The Awakening (Years 1 - 167)

One of the settler’s ships was commanded by Captain Melissa “Mel” Dearborn. Her situation was typical of the others. She awoke from suspended animation and found herself in charge of a small group of about twenty ships that had somehow become isolated from the main fleet. Afraid, alone, and orbiting a strange new world, she did the only thing she could: she launched the Changeling torpedoes and began to create a new home.

It took almost twenty years for the terraformers to finish, but when they did the new world was ready. Twenty-thousand pioneers stepped foot on their new frontier, and created a home.

Mel been killed by a hornbeast trying to establish the homestead. The settlers named their new world “Dearborn” in her honor.

An Explanation

I view each of the eras to fall into one of three categories: prehistory, playable eras, and bridging eras.

The previous three eras were the prehistory. They’re just setting the stage and providing the context for everything that comes after.

This era is the first of the “actual” history of the Astral Web. It’s what I consider to be a playable era. I think it would be great to set a campaign in this time period. A group of star travelers arriving at a strange new world, with no way to leave and nothing but what they brought with them trying to establish a new home.

“Bridging” era are just pieces of glue that joins the rest together.

Skills in Unlucky 13

Over a year ago I talked about talents in Crowfield. As I’ve mentioned before Unlucky 13 (U13) is pretty much Crowfield with all the D&D bits stripped out.

U13 will not have the six basic ability scores of D&D. It won’t have the 4 basic ability scores of GURPS. It won’t even have the 3 basic ability scores of Big Eyes, Small Mouth. It will have skills that aren’t linked to any attribute. I originally got the idea from Steffan O'Sullivan’s Fudge, but Dave Arneson’s Blackmoor campaign did the same thing back in the early 1970’s.

We’ll return to the FAQ format, and some of this may seem familiar.

What are skills?

Skills allow characters to do something better than they could if they didn’t have the skills. An example might be walking across a narrow ledge. Anyone can try it, but a person with the Balance skill has a better chance to succeed.

So U13’s skills will have levels?

Yes.

How do the skill levels work?

In theory skill levels range from -∞ to +∞.

In practice I envision that skill levels will range from -1 to +3.

What do the skill levels represent?

The baseline is skill level 0. It represents the ability of the average adventurer without any special training or aptitude in the skill.

Example: A fast flowing river might be too dangerous for the average town dweller to swim across, but a for an adventurer it’s just a normal challenge.

Skill level -1 means that, for whatever reason, the character is particularly inept in that particular skill.

Positive skill levels represent increasing levels of ability.

The following table summarizes the above:

Skill Level	Description
-1	Inept
0	Average Adventurer
+1	Apprentice Professional
+2	Journeyman Professional
+3	Master Professional

As mentioned in the previous question, the range extends in both directions. If the strength of a dragon was important to the story, it might be considered to be +100. On the other hand, a squirrel might be -20.

The scale is centered on the player characters. In a campaign where all the player characters are squirrel adventurers, that is the new baseline. A squirrel adventurer would have a strength of 0, and a human might be considered 50.

NOTE: Despite using it for this example, there is no skill called “strength.” Strength is considered a specialty of the Athletics skill.

How do you use a skill?

It’s easy!

Just roll 2d12.

You never, ever modify the the roll.

If the result is 14 or better, you succeed.

If it’s 12 or less you fail.

Wait—if 14+ is a success, and 12- is a failure, what about 13?

We call that “Unlucky 13.”

If your roll is exactly 13, the GM will offer you a choice:

• The player can choose to accept the failure, or
• The player can choose to succeed, but they have to accept a Bad Thing. The Bad Thing will often, but not always, be related to the task that was attempted. The players may or may not know what the Bad Thing is when it happens.

Wow! That is Easy! Is that really the whole system?

Ok, it’s not quite that easy. Read on.

How does the skill level affect the result?

If your skill level is equal to the opponent’s, this it’s exactly as above: roll 2d12; 14+ or better is a success and 12- is a failure.

If your skill level is less than your opponent’s then instead of rolling 2d12, you’ll roll 3d12 and sum the lowest two dice. If your skill level is much less then your opponent’s, then you roll 4 dice and sum the lowest two.

Likewise if your skill level is higher (or much higher) than your opponent’s, you’ll roll 3d12 (or 4d12) and sum the highest two.

If you ever think about rolling 5 dice, you probably shouldn’t. At that point the GM should just rule that the task succeeded or failed without requiring a die roll.

We can sum all that up in a nice table:

Your skill level vs opponent’s	Roll	Sum
Much greater	4d12	highest two
Greater	3d12	highest two
Equal	2d12	the two
Less	3d12	lowest two
Much less	4d12	lowest two

What if there’s no opponent?

There’s always an opponent, otherwise you wouldn’t be rolling. If you’re trying to cross a narrow ledge that spans a pit of lava, then the “narrowness” of the ledge is the opponent to your Agility skill. If the ledge has Narrowness(1) and you have Agility(0), then your skill is less than the opponents.

How does the GM determine the opponent’s skill level?

As a general rule of thumb, follow this chart:

Difficulty	Skill Level	Explanation
Easy	-1	A skill level 0 character succeeds 70-80% of the time
Moderate	0	A skill level 0 character succeeds 45-55% of the time
Hard	+1	A skill level 0 character succeeds 20-30% of the time

Which skill do I use?

In most cases, it should be obvious. If it’s a toss up, the GM should pick the one that favors the player.

The GM will normally pick the most obvious choice. You, as a player, should offer logical substitutes. The GM should consider your suggestion in a positive light as long as you’re respecting your character’s concept.

Example: “Swimming” is primarily an Athletics skill, but Wilderness Survival could be a fitting skill to use in its place is you’re trying to cross a dangerous river. So if a character has Athletics(0) and Wilderness Survival(1), I would allow it. On the other hand, if the character had Athletics(-1) and Wilderness Survival(0) I wouldn’t allow the substitution because the low Athletics score is a more fundamental aspect of the character than the default Wilderness Survival score.

Can I attempt a task if I don’t have the skill?

There’s no such thing as not having a skill. If the skill wasn’t taken during character creation, it defaults to level 0.

How many skills do I get?

You start with three skills at level 1, and two skills at level -1. You don’t even have to pick them before you start to play!

How do I improve my character?

Skill levels can be increased by spending XP:

• To improve a new skill, the cost is equal to the sum of all your existing positive skill levels plus the new level. Example: you have Fighting(2), Agility(2), and Burglary(1). It will cost you 7 XP to raise the Burglary to level 2.
• To add a new skill, the cost is equal to twice the sum of all your existing positive skill levels. Example: you have Fighting(2), Agility(2), Burglary(1), and Will-Power(-1). It will cost you 10 XP to add Medic(1).

Can I see a list of the skills?

Of course! These might change, though:

Agility

Useful for keeping your balance or quickly moving out of the way. Perhaps the most rewarding use of this skill is to make yourself harder to hit while being attacked, but also useful for tightrope walking, narrow ledges, log-rolling, etc. Can also be used to allow you to "catch yourself" from falling into a pit or other such hazard.

Aim

This is the general skill of being able to hit someone over there without going there to do it. Each type of aimed weapon is its own specialty.

Animal handling

This is the skill used to work with animals of all sorts. Each type of animal (horse, dog, cattle, etc.) is its own specialty, as are things like training, riding, etc.

Artist

The ability to make decorative or recognizable items. Specialties would include sculpture, painting, and drawing.

Athletics

This is the catchall skill that includes the physical skills not covered by other, more specific, skills. It includes things like running, jumping, and swimming.

Burglary

This is broad group of the skills used by ne'er-do-wells. Use it to bypassing security precautions in order to gain access to a building or container. You can also use it to move your hands quicker than the eye, maybe to pilfer small objects or pick pockets.

Carousing

This is a social skill, but differs from diplomacy in that carousing is mainly the skill of vices. It includes such dubious talents as drinking, seduction, and gambling.

Craftsman

The basic skill for converting raw materials into finished goods or for repairing broken items. Woodworkers, leather-workers, blacksmiths, silversmiths, and potters are all craftsmen. So are the members of the Hyperspace Engineering branch. This skill is specialized in making and repairing sound, functional items. For decorative items, you also need the Artist skill.

Diplomacy

This is the primary social skill of interacting with other people. Remember that not all diplomats are highbrow society; it can be argued that the most diplomatic are those who have to walk the mean streets every day.

Driving

All vehicles need their drivers, be they chariots, wagons, automobiles, tanks, or starships. Each vehicle type is a specialty.

Entertain

This is the ability to hold the attention of others. It includes things like acting, joke telling, singing, dancing, etc.

Fighting

This is the skill of hand-to-hand combat, be it with open fists or mighty swords. Each fighting *style* is its own specialty, thus "sword" is different from "sword and shield."

Health

It's not really a skill, but in game terms the distinction is moot. This "skill" is an overall measurement of your body's attempt to resist poisoning, to heal itself, etc. It can be improved through good diet and regular exercise rather than through study, but in games terms the advancement mechanic is identical.

Knowledge

A general skill that represents everything you know. Specialties could be any subject, such as chemistry, history, or geography.

Medic

This is the art of treating injuries, and diagnosing and treating illnesses. Its effectiveness is largely dependent on the technology employed.

Merchant

The skill of buying low and selling high. It is used for commercial transactions. Haggling, appraising, and marketing fall under this skill.

Observation

A measurement of a your general awareness of your surroundings. Each sense is its own specialty.

Sneaking

This is your ability to avoid being noticed. All sneaking rolls are resisted by the would-be observers' Observation skill. The sneaking character gets a bonus die if the would-be observer is not specifically looking (or listening, etc.) for a sneaky character.

Stamina

The ability to endure long periods of physical labor without stopping. The mental form of stamina is covered under Will Power.

Wilderness Survival

This is the skill of living in wilderness areas. It covers the basics of food, water, heat, and shelter. Each biome is a specialty

Will Power

Will power is the ability to sacrifice your short-term interest in favor of your long-term interest. This includes such things as enduring torture to protect your comrades, turning down a bribe, resisting seduction, and staying awake on guard duty. Unlike most skills, there are no specialties.

What about skills that aren’t on the list?

The list above represent broad categories of skill, so most skills should fit under one of the categories listed. There will be exceptions, though.

The way your GM should handle this depends on the “real world” situation. Let’s consider a skill called “Disguise.” You’ll notice that there’s not a disguise skill on the list. So how would we handle this?

• Situation 1: The Skill is a core component of the game’s genre. If you were playing in a campaign where the characters are all secret undercover agents for the government, then “Disguise” could very well belong in the game. In this case, the GM should add it to the list for that campaign.
• Situation 2: You want the skill the add depth or color to your character. Disguise isn’t part of a typical dungeon crawling fantasy, but it’s not a foreign concept either. If you think it would be cool to play a character with a disguise skill, you might just take #Master of Disguise as a label (called “Tags” in Clout).
• Situation 3: The need unexpectedly comes up during play. If you’ve been playing a campaign for a few months and your character decides to disguise himself, the GM could handle it in a couple of ways. The default way is simply to figure out which of the existing skills it would fall under; there could be arguments to place it under Artist, Burglary, Entertain, or Sneaking depending on the specifics of the situation. The second way is simply to declare that Disguise is its own skill and your character has it at level 0 (after all, you didn’t take it higher or lower during character creation).

What is a skill specialty?

The skills are rather broad categories of skills. People, however, tend to study small subsets of the broader skills. Such a “subset” is called a “specialty.” We denote a task’s specialty in braces after the skill name, such as Craftsman{Blacksmith}.

When a character takes a skill at level 1, he has no specialty. So if you take Craftsman(1), you have level 1 for Blacksmith and for Woodworking. Not very realistic, but it works for a game.

Once you raise a skill to level 2, you must choose a specialty. You only perform at your full capacity if the task at hand falls within this specialty. Other areas within that skill are at 1 level lower.

Example: You have the skill Craftsman{Blacksmith}(3). This means that you have an effective skill level of 3 when performing a blacksmithing task. If you were to attempt a Woodworking task, your effective skill would only be 2.

That’s it!

That’s it for now.

Let me know what you think.

I would particularly like some help with the skill list:

• Are their any glaring omissions?
• Do you see any skills that could be combined? I’m considering merging Burglary and Sneaking. Stamina and health seem similar as well.
• How about skills that could be removed? I’m thinking Artist (could easily be taken as a label). I’m on the fence with Craftsman—it’s marginal in fantasy, but needed in space opera type games.

One last question I have: Do I need to show the math for the XP costs to improve a skill?