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Dexterity-Based Skills

Acrobatics

Skill Rate: Staggered

Uses: The Acrobatics skill can be used maintain your balance, and reduce falling damage.

Balance: Whenever you have to walk across a narrow surface, or try to maintain your footing on slippery or shifting terrain, you make an acrobatics check. When balancing, you move at half speed.

You must make a balance check every round. If you remain stationary, you get +3 to the check.

DC

Terrain

0

Flat, stable ground

4

An area narrower than 10 cm

6

Area narrower than 5 cm, or a rope. Shifting terrain.

8

Balancing on a swaying rope

10

12

+1

Area is wet


Techniques:

Passive Techniques

  1.   Rapid Stand: With this technique, standing up from prone takes two seconds less (down to a 2SA from a 4SA).
  2.   Safe Landing: You take 2 points less damage from falling

Active Techniques

  1.   Acrobatic Jump: You may use your Acrobatics modifier instead of your Athletics modifier when making jumps. However, mobility penalties apply.
  2.   Wall Kick:   [Requires Acrobatic Jump] If you finish your jump next to a wall or other sturdy vertical surface, you can immediately make another jump from that wall. You do not count as having a running start. The DC for the second jump is that same as a regular jump would be, but +1 higher.
  3.   Multi Wall Kick:   [Requires Wall Kick, Acrobatic Jump] You may make multiple Wall Kicks, so long as you finish your jump next to a wall each time. The DC increases by a cumulative +1 per jump, however.
  4.   Combat Wall Kick:   [Requires Wall Kick, Athletics: Leaping Charge] Normally, using the Leaping Charge technique requires 4 squares of jumping or falling in a single bound. With Combat Wall Kick, add up the total distance of all of your jumps or falls you made since last touching the ground when using Leaping Charge.
  5.   Skydive:   [Requires Tuck and Roll] With this technique, you can attempt to slow your descent and even control it to a limited extent. Once per round while falling, you can make a DC 8 Acrobatics check as an immediate 0SA. If you succeed,  you slow your descent to 40m/s for that round. Further, you can attempt to glide horizontally. If you succeeded on your skydive check, you can move horizontally at a speed of 1m/s of movement. This takes a move action as if you were moving normally.
  6.   Tuck and Roll: [Requires Safe Landing] Upon landing, you can try to roll to take less damage. Make an acrobatics check with DC 4. If you succeed, you take one point less damage. For every three points with which you beat the DC, you take an additional one point less damage. As part of the roll, you move one square in any direction after landing. If you are landing in liquid instead of on a solid object, you make a dive instead. This functions the same way, except you don't move into an adjacent square.

Reflex

Skill Rate: Staggered

Uses :

Initiative: Your Reflex bonus is added to your Dexterity when you make an Initiative check to determine the order that characters take their turns in at the beginning of combat. Further, there are a number of techniques (Nerves, Jittery Nerves, and Iron Nerves) that increase your odds of going first.

Dodging: The Reflex skill is used to make dodge defence rolls. Every rank in Reflex grants you an additional dodge defence roll per turn. Mobility penalties apply to dodges, as they are dexterity-based. A dodge against a damaging area attack reduces damage by 3 points instead of ignoring it altogether, and non-damaging effects cannot be dodged at all without special GM permission.

Catch Yourself: If you fall off a ledge, are falling by a branch or ledge, etc. you can make a Reflex check with DC 4 to try to catch the ledge and not fall. This counts as one dodge attempt per round, and can be done on anyone‚s turn. You can then make an Athletics check to pull yourself up (a 4SA).

Catch Something: To catch an object that you‚ve dropped (such as by being disarmed) you require a free hand. Make a Reflex check against DC 6. This counts as one of your dodge attempts per round, but does not otherwise take any time. This can be done on anyone‚s turn. To catch something that has been thrown, it must pass through an area in your reach. Make a Reflex check against DC 6 to catch it, as above (counting as a dodge attempt) unless the thrower is deliberately trying to make it difficult to catch. If so, the Reflex DC is equal to the Defence DC of the thrown object (typically 4+the thrower‚s Ranged Skill bonus).

Techniques:

Passive Techniques

  1.   Evasion: You may make dodge rolls against area attacks and non-damaging effects completely. Normally, a dodge against a damaging area attack reduces damage by 3 points, and non-damaging effects cannot be dodged at all without special GM permission.
  2.   Nerves: Increase the die size by one for initiative checks. Typically this means you roll a d8 (unless Reflex is your focus skill, in which case you roll a d10)
  3.   Jittery Nerves:   [Requires Nerves, three ranks in Reflex] Increase the die size by one for initiative checks. Typically this means you roll a d10 (unless Reflex is your focus skill, in which case you roll a d12)
  4.   Iron Nerves:   [Requires Jittery Nerves, six ranks in Reflex] : Increase the die size by one for initiative checks. Typically this means you roll a d12. If you already were using a d12 for initiative, you instead gain a +2 bonus to initiative checks.

Active Techniques

  1.   Harm's Way:   [Requires Lightning Reflexes] You may make a dodge check in place of an adjacent creature. If you succeed, you are hit by the attack in the creature's place. You can use this ability after the creature has tried (and presumably failed) to defend. This uses one of your dodge defences per round.
  2.   Thrown Into Danger: [Requires Harm‚s Way] Before using Harm‚s Way, you can spend 2 of your round‚s allotment of dodge attempts to make an Immediate 1-second move. This move must be used to move towards a target that you are using Harm‚s Way to defend.
  3.   Efficient Dodger:   [Requires 5 ranks in Reflex] Once per round, when you make a successful dodge, you can choose to redirect the attack to a creature adjacent to you. The attacker makes an attack roll using identical modifiers, weapons, abilities, etc. as the original attack. The new target must be a valid target for the original attacker ƒ in reach or range, no intervening obstacles, etc. The new target may defend normally.

Ranged Skill

Skill Rate: Staggered

Uses : Attacking with a ranged weapon, determining the complexity of attack combos. You use your Ranged Skill bonus when making ranged weapon attack rolls, and it is added to the DC to defend against your ranged attacks.
Techniques:

Combo Components:

  1.   Double Tap: [Attack Combo +1] If you are firing a semiautomatic weapon with a combo including this component, all attacks count as Burst even if the weapon does not normally have a Burst rate of fire. This includes increasing the recoil, range penalties, etc. Every attack uses two bullets, not three (as is normal for Burst).
  2.   Far Shot [Attack Combo: +1]: double the range increment of ranged weapons used in the combo.
  3.   Improbable Aim:   [Attack Combo +1] You can aim at a target as part of attacking with this combo.
  4.   Shoot From the Hip: [Attack combo -1]: All skill checks made as a part of this combo take a -1/-1 penalty. You may apply this as many times to a combo as you have ranks in Ranged Skill, its effects stack.
  5.  

Example: Multi-Weapon Combat

This example will illustrate how dual wield, multi wield, and double throw interact with each other.

Colonel Mauve the walking arsenal finds himself surrounded by five knife-wielding ninjas. Fortunately, he's prepared. On his turn, he uses his combo "Storm," which consists of four attacks. Mauve draws a pair of knives using Quick Draw in his right hand and throws them both at ninja #1 (his first attack, using Double Throw). Mauve uses his second attack to throw his last knife at ninja #2 (granting him an extra attack from dual wield). Mauve still has two normal attacks remaining, but is now out of weaponsⓦ except the ones his mother gave him. He punches ninja #3 in the face twice (his second and third normal attacks, granting him a second extra attack from Triple Wield) and uses his fourth attack to punch ninja #4. He still has two extra attacks, which he uses to clobber ninja #5 with his fists.

In total, Colonel mauve made six attacks:

  1.   One with a pair of knives using double throw
  2.   One with a third knife, granting an extra attack (from double wield)
  3.   Two punches, granting another extra attack (from triple wield)
  4.   Two extra punches from the extra attacks earned using double and triple wield.

Unorthodox Reload : [Attack Combo +1] [Requires Rapid Reload] You may reload once during this combo, so long as you could normally do it in one second or less. You may add this component multiple times, each time reloading once more.

  1.   On the Exhale: [Attack Combo +X] You get a +1/+0 Precision bonus to attacks made in this combo. On the Exhale adds 2 complexity points per attack (including extra attack, trips, punches, kicks, etc.) in the combo.

Active Techniques:

  1.   Deadly Aim: You may spend 6 seconds aiming (instead of the usual 1 second) to get a +1/+1 Precision bonus on your next ranged attack roll.
  2.   Cold Sniper: [Requires Deadly Aim, Steady Aim] You can use Deadly Aim with only 3 seconds of aiming instead of 6.
  3.   Indirect Fire: you may fire low-powered projectiles (including bows, thrown weapons, catapults, grenade launchers, artillery, and most spells) in an arc half as high as it is long. Without Line of Sight, you need to guess the location of your target and suffer penalties as if Blind. By doing this, you can ignore fairly low obstacles. If you know where your target is by other means, you obviously don't have to guess their location.
  4.   Steady Aim: If you aimed before your attack, you can ignore 1 point of cover bonus to your target's Target score.
  5.   Rapid Reload: With this technique, reloading most weapons takes one second less. Weapons that take two rounds or more to reload take one round less. If this would decrease the time it takes to reload a weapon to below one second, it becomes a 0SA.
  6.   Lightning Reload: [Requires Rapid Reload] With this technique, reloading most weapons takes two seconds less. Weapons that take two rounds to reload take one round less, and weapons that take three or more rounds to reload take two rounds less. This replaces the benefit from Rapid Reload. If this would decrease the time it takes to reload a weapon to below one second, it becomes a 0SA.

Stealth

Skill Rate: Fast

Uses : Sneaking, Sneak attacking
Size Modifier: subtract your scale from your stealth modifier

Sneak : You may move stealthily up to half your speed. Make a Stealth check every round. You are undetected so long as your Stealth Check beats observers' passive Perception DC. The observer takes standard penalties for distance. As long as someone has not detected you, they are flat-footed to your attacks. If you attack from hiding, your stealth check gets a -6 penalty until your next turn.

Pick Pocket: as a 4SA, you can attempt to snatch an item from a flat-footed target. Make a Stealth check opposed a perception check made by your target. If you succeed (meet or beat his roll), he didn't notice you swipe the object. If the object is larger than can be conveniently hidden in your palm, you get -1 or more on the check. If your target notices you trying to rob him, you can make an opposed Wrestle check to steal it anyways.

Off-Screen Thievery: A character with Stealth can use his skill to steal money from the surroundings. Make a stealth check. You can generally get your result squared in silver marks for every day out robbing in a town of average wealth, per hour in a wealthy area, or per minute in an extremely wealthy area (like a palace). The GM secretly sets a DC from 2 (barely defended) to 4 (average defence) to 6 (well defended) to 8 or higher (paranoid security). A result lower than the DC results in the character not making any money. The point of off-screen thieving is to not derail the campaign with one character's hijinks, while still being able to use his skill. For attempting to steal a particular item, don't use off-screen thieving. Instead, this qualifies more as an adventure in and of itself.

Techniques:

Combo Components:

  1.   Sneak Attack : [Attack Combo -1] This combo only functions when you attack a flat-footed or flanked foe. For every three ranks you have, Sneak Attack subtracts an additional 1 combo point (1 at 1-2 ranks, 2 at 3-5, 3 at 6-8, etc.

Passive Techniques:

  1.   Rapid Sneak: You may move up to 3/4 your speed while Sneaking.
  2.   Sniper : When attacking while hidden, you only take a -3 penalty to stealth.
  3.   Quick Pocket: You can make Pick Pocket checks in 2 seconds instead of 4.
  4.   Concealed Faith:   Supernatural Add your Stealth modifier to the DC to detect you with Holy Sight.
  5.   Concealed Casting: Supernatural Add your Stealth modifier to the DC to detect you, or any spell you cast, with Magic Sight.
  6.   Subconscious Stealth:   [Requires Blend In, A True Ninja, Hide in Plain Sight] You only take a -1 penalty while using Hide in Plain Sight.

Active Techniques:

  1.   A True Ninja : If you desire, you can always considered to be "taking 0" on Stealth checks. This means that, when you are just going about your daily business, in order to be seen or heard someone must beat 0+ your Stealth modifier with a perception check. You suffer no movement penalties. You may, of course, choose not to be sneaking at any time, but it is assumed that you are if you do not specify. You may still only hide if you have cover or concealment, as per usual.
  2.   Backstab:   [Requires Sneak Attack] If you hit flanked foe with a light weapon, you deal +2 damage.
  3.   Superhero Exit : [Requires Hide in Plain Sight] observers do not automatically succeed on their observe check if they are directly looking at you, so long as they are flat-footed. (this is commonly combined with a distraction to slink away)
  4.   Blend In: You may make stealth checks in crowds of people as if you had cover or concealment. Your check automatically fails if you are strikingly different from those you are trying to blend in with.
  5.   Hide in Plain Sight : You may hide even without cover or concealment, but at a -3 penalty to sight-based stealth. Also, if you try to hide while already under direct observation, the observer automatically succeeds on his Perception check.
  6.   Sneaky Run: You may move your full speed, but take a -2 penalty to Stealth until your next turn.
  7.   Catch by Surprise: [Requires Quick Draw] if you quick-draw a concealed weapon, you catch your opponent flat-footed for the purposes of any attacks or combos made with that weapon the round you drew it.
  8.   Distant Distract:   [Requires Distract, Distract All] . You may distract any opponents who can see or hear you.
  9.   Distract All:   [Requires Distract]. When you use Distract, you may instead distract all enemies within 10m.
  10.   Distract: Make a Stealth check as a 4SA against the passive perception DC of one target within 10m. If you succeed, he is flat-footed until the start of your next turn. Every time you use Distract on someone, they get a cumulative +3 bonus against your next Distract attempt. This bonus decreases by one point every 24 hours.

Timing

Skill Rate: Fast

Uses: A character with the Timing skill has, as the name implies, excellent timing ƒ whether deliberately or simply through chance. At very low levels, the Timing skill could be used to, say, calmly walk through a crowd without bumping into anyone, arrive at a bus stop precisely as a bus arrives, or hit an unusual amount of green lights. At higher levels, a character could run through a crowded area or drive through heavy traffic at high speed, run through a corridor of swinging pendulum traps, or jump off a bridge ƒ and land on a passing garbage barge. This skill relies heavily on GM and player co-operation. Timing, like the Ingenuity skill, has no techniques. Instead, it has deliberately broad application if it‚s basic uses. This skill has as many uses as the player‚s creativity will allow, but some common examples are listed below.

Crowd Navigation:  This use of Timing is fairly mundane, but can also be extremely useful. Normally, moving through crowds of people limits characters‚ speeds to 1m/s or lower. The character can make a Timing check to move at higher speeds through crowds. If desired, the character can also make optimum use of the surrounding crowd members as cover. Simply make one check per round and consult the chart for the results. Obviously, a character can‚t move faster through a crowd than he can move in open terrain ƒ the maximum movement speed may still be higher than the character‚s normal move speed, so the character simply moves at his normal speed.

Check Result

Sparse Crowd

Dense Crowd

5 or lower

normal speed, no running, no cover

1/4 speed, no running, medium cover

6

Run at 2x speed, light cover

1/2 speed, no running, medium cover

8

Run at 3x speed, light cover

normal speed, no running, medium cover

10

Any speed, medium cover

Run at 2x speed, heavy cover

12

Any speed, heavy cover

Run at 3x speed, heavy cover

14+

Any speed, heavy cover

Any speed, heavy cover

Serendipity: This broad use of Timing means that a character uses a combination of good timing and simply being lucky to great effect. He describes what he wants to have happen (such as a garbage barge appear underneath a bridge he wants to jump off of) and the GM sets a DC based on how likely that is.

DC

Plausibility

Example

4

Fairly Likely

Arriving at a parking lot just as someone is pulling out

6

Unlikely

Looking over a bridge and seeing a passing truck to jump onto; a bus arriving within 1 minute of arriving at the bus stop, hitting a green traffic light if desired; saved from an awkward moment by a phone call; running out of gas near a station

8

Very Unlikely

A bus arriving at precisely the instant you arrive at a stop; hitting only green traffic lights while driving; seeing a convenient grain or garbage barge passing underneath the bridge to land on

10

Extremely Unlikely

Transit security searching for bus tickets when you have one and your pursuers don‚t.

12

14

16

Driving at top speed through a crowded street without risking a collision

18

Nearly Impossible

20+

Theoretically Possible

Walking through a storm without being rained on,

Other possible uses could include running across a prison yard without being tagged by a searchlight, escaping from a prison cell while the guards are on patrol elsewhere or are changing shifts,

Consequences of Failure: Characters cannot retry Timing checks, but the consequences of failure can vary. Generally speaking, failing a timing check doesn‚t mean that something bad happens, just that nothing surprisingly good happens. So, a character could fail his check to have a bus appear conveniently. This doesn‚t mean that a bus will never appear, or that it will be late ƒ just that this character has the same chance of catching a bus as a normal person would. However, this could have dire consequences. Say a vigilante is being pursued and is cornered on a bridge. He makes a Timing check to have a boat pass underneath (DC 8) and fails. No boat passes, so he has to escape in another manner. However, if he was pressed for time and  jumped off the bridge before checking for a boat, he‚d make the same check (DC 8). If he failed, he‚d hit the water and might drown (Acrobatics check to minimize falling damage, Athletics to swim). Even on a success, he would need to make an Acrobatics check to minimize falling damage upon hitting the barge, and maybe an Athletics or Acrobatics check to even land on it at all.

Limitations: Timing can never be used as a substitute for another skill. So, a character can‚t use Timing to run through a hail of bullets ƒ instead, he‚d have to make defence rolls such as Reflex checks to dodge the attacks. Similarly, Timing shouldn‚t be used offensively (e.g., “lightning strikes the person shooting at me!”) or overused.


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