Mundane Skills:
| Skill Level | Cost | Aptitude Level |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | Trained |
| 2 | 5 | Proficient |
| 3 | 9 | Master |
There is wide scope for character description with skills - you can be a playwright with a smooth tongue (Artistry + Charisma), a knowledge-seeker who travels the world (Spycraft + Anthropology) or the head of a large and innovative company (Organization + Charisma). With all skills, we encourage you to take a specialization.
Note, the examples given are general guidelines of things that are likely to succeed at each level. Success is not guaranteed, and there is nothing stopping you from undertaking monumental actions with a low score.
For each skill, a number of specializations are suggested. More information on these can be found on the next page.
Anthropology:
This skill represents investigation into the unknown. It governs how good you are at dealing with other cultures and their traditions, dialects and customs. It makes you a reasonable ambassador when dealing with outsiders, navigating through their tombs and knowing which of their artifacts are valuable. It also makes you the first port of call if someone finds a Thing and they don't know what it does.
| Skill Level | Use |
|---|---|
| 1 | You are well travelled and know how to deal with unusual situations. |
| 2 | You can speak most dialects you come across within a few days of encountering it. |
| 3 | You can pass yourself off as a native in any culture you come across. |
Example Specialisations: Funeral Rites, First Contact, Written words, Symbols, Tomb Raiding.
Artistry:
Talent for the crafts that turn a society into a culture. You will be responsible for the morale of the colony, making sure important things are remembered, and will be able to strongly influence the attitudes and opinions of the new world.
| Skill Level | Use |
|---|---|
| 1 | You are good, people discuss your work over wine and cheese. |
| 2 | Your works of art are inspiring, beautiful or tragic masterpieces. |
| 3 | You create works over which wars are fought. |
Example Specialisations: Poetry, Statues, Musical Theatre, Acting, Eulogy, Nursery Rhymes
Charisma:
Talking to people. Covers speeches, seduction, fast-talking, and anything else that involves influencing people with the power of words. This does not make people have to listen to you.
| Skill Level | Use |
|---|---|
| 1 | You could secure good deals, tell a quick lie, get people to follow you with a convincing speech. |
| 2 | You can deliver powerful speeches, secure profitable accords. |
| 3 | You're a good speaker, able to sway certain people to your way of thinking, secure very good deals, talk your way out of scraps. |
Example Specialisations: Lies, Oratory, Sweet-Talk, Scandalmongering, Trading.
Civil Studies:
The art of designing structures for various purposes, from simple shacks and huts to massive fortresses, as well as civil engineering projects like sewers, canals and roads. Civil Engineers will be in high demand for making the New World a better place.
| Skill Level | Use |
|---|---|
| 1 | Most buildings are within your ability to build: bridges, forts, sewers… |
| 2 | Fragment-spanning bridges and palatial castles are all in a day's work. |
| 3 | You can design anything imaginable, from fragment-wide citadels to complex cities. |
Example Specialisations: Fortresses, Bridges
Fighting:
Its a dangerous world out there. This skill is about anything that involves physically hurting or protecting others.
| Skill Level | Use |
|---|---|
| 1 | You are frequently the winner in street fights, bar-room brawls. |
| 2 | You've got fighting down to an art. People generally steer clear of trying to pick a fight with you. |
| 3 | You're unparalleled, you could easily fight off several people at once. Blindfolded. Hanging upside down. |
Example Specialisations: Pointy sticks, Brawling, Mounted Combat, Dirty Fighting, Defensive Fighting
Geomancy
Through earthworks and weight placement you can rebalance the fragment you are on, altering its course.
| Skill Level | Use |
|---|---|
| 1 | You can rotate a fragment a few degrees through trench-digging. |
| 2 | You can raise and lower a fragment through placing weights in carefully-selected spots. |
| 3 | You can affect a fragment's travel, guiding it towards a destination. |
Example specialisations: Aggressive Geomancy, Fragment Stabilising, Projectile Creation.
Management:
You're good at organising people, from a household to a factory to a government.
| Skill Level | Use |
|---|---|
| 1 | You could organise a merchant company to turn a profit. |
| 2 | You could turn a nearly bankrupt company into a profitable entity. |
| 3 | You could turn a group of peasants into a well-oiled government. |
Example Specialisations: Industry, Lawmaking, Bureaucracy, Trade Routes
Natural Studies:
Tinkering with the basic building blocks of living things, from stitching up wounds, herbal remedies, selective breeding, to midwifery and a knowledge of poisons.
| Skill Level | Use |
|---|---|
| 1 | You could be a decent medicine man. People come for all over your fragment for advice, treatment, or a little something to help grandma sleep better… |
| 2 | Your poisons are nearly undetectable, several times, it seems you've brought people back from beyond the brink. |
| 3 | You are the best at what you do, you could probably breed a horse with wings from a regular stock, or fix a shattered skull with nothing more than a stick and a piece of string. |
Example Specialisations: Poisons, Healing, Midwifery, Forensic investigation
Spycraft:
Being stealthy, making sure you can stay undetected by others, finding out things.
| Skill Level | Use |
|---|---|
| 1 | You could easily break into most homes undetected, and kill someone leaving almost no evidence. |
| 2 | You know the ins and outs of important buildings, how to get in unseen and escape with your objective. |
| 3 | You could make your way into the most heavily guarded places, hide in plain sight from a mob out for your blood. |
Example Specialisations: Shadowing, Breaking and Entering, Evasion, Assassination, Sabotage, Smuggling
Strategy:
Leading mobs, squads, and armies to victory.
| Skill Level | Use |
|---|---|
| 1 | You're experienced, you know how to lead men to victory. |
| 2 | You could win in situations where you're outnumbered or outgunned. |
| 3 | You could defeat the massed armies of the Persians with only 300 Spartans and a few thousand Theban volunteers |
Example Specialisations: Long Campaigns, Defence, Desert Fighting, Guerilla Warfare
Technological Studies:
Creating new machines, covers invention and production of technology.
| Skill Level | Use |
|---|---|
| 1 | You are capable of making machines that will revolutionise life on your fragment. |
| 2 | You're an innovator, capable of building complex machines from simple parts. |
| 3 | The sciences hold no secret from you. |
Example Specialisations: Resource Gathering Equipment, Siege Weaponry, Material Science, Armour