The main use of skills and attributes is in determining the success or failure of actions the characters attempt. Actions depending on the use of skills and attributes are called tasks. Most of a referee's job will consist of adjudicating character attempts to accomplish various tasks.
Some tasks are obviously impossible, such as building a new truck engine from scratch without a machine shop and a storehouse full of materials. Other tasks, such as filling a gas tank with gasoline, are so simple that it is assumed any character can carry them out successfully. In between these two extremes, however, lies a multitude of tasks, which the referee will be called on to adjudicate. Some tasks used repeatedly during the game (such as foraging or firing a rifle) are covered in detail in the rules. Others are up to the referee to determine.
When determining the success of a character's attempt to carry out a task, the referee should ask himself two questions: How difficult is the task, and what skills or attributes are important to the task? Each task is a D10 roll against (equal to or under) the character's relevant skill or attribute.
Difficulty: While there are numerous shades of difficulty in tasks, for game purposes all tasks are broken down into three categories: difficult (Difficult), average (Average), and easy (Easy).
For example, a mechanic needs to repair a villager's tractor. The referee first decides roughly what the vehicle's problem is (not strictly necessary, but it helps both players and referee visualise the situation), then decides if repair is Difficult, Average, or Easy. If the engine needs a short length of wire cut and fitted into place, the mechanic's job is Easy. If it needs a hole in a metal tube soldered, the task would be Average. If the engine needs a new timing gear filed from a piece of sheet metal, the task would be Difficult.
The referee may further decide to break the task into two parts. Using the above example, the referee may decide that the vehicle needs a part the mechanic does not have and cannot make.
In this case, determining the problem would be an Average task, but repair would be Difficult, and perhaps impossible (which might lead to an adventure to locate and obtain the proper part).
Useful Skills and Attributes: The referee must decide which skill or attribute is important to performance of the task. In the above example, the character's Mechanic skill is obviously the important one.
For ease of description, in the remainder of this rules section, skills and attributes are collectively called assets.
Abbreviations: The chance of success in a task is completely described by its difficulty the asset used. The many tasks described in these rules are sometimes expressed in an abbreviated form as Difficulty: Asset. For example, Easy: Swimming refers to a task using Swimming skill as an asset.
Determining Success: Once difficulty and the relevant asset have been determined, the task is resolved as a roll against the Character’s asset. If the task is Average, roll against the asset itself. If the task is Easy, multiply the asset by two; if it is Difficult, divide the asset by two, rounding fractions down,
Thus, returning to the mechanic in the example above, if he had a Mechanics skill level of 4, he would need to make a D10 roll of 2 or less to succeed at a Difficult task, a 4 or less to succeed at an Average task, and an 8 or less to succeed at an Easy task.
For another example, suppose a player character wants to break down a door. The referee decides this is Difficult: Strength. The character has Strength: 7; dividing this by two gives the character a target number of 3 for success.
More than One Asset: Sometimes more than one asset can be applied to a single task. In most cases, both assets are necessary to performance of the task; whichever one the character has least of should be used to determine success. For example, the referee may decide repairing a range finder is a difficult task requiring Computer and Electronics.
There are other possibilities too. Easy (Biology or Medical) means an Easy task in which either Biology or Medical skill is sufficient by itself; use the higher of the two. Average: Civil Engineer or Difficult: Combat Engineer means the same task may be performed using either asset, using different difficulty levels. Finally, various mathematical formulas may be used: Difficult: (AGL + Thrown Weapon) uses the sum of two assets; Difficult: Metallurgy + Mechanic)2 uses the average of assets.
Additional Difficulty Levels: It is also possible for the referee to describe tasks more or less difficult than the three categories used here, or intermediate in difficulty. Simply multiply or divide the character's asset by larger, smaller, or intermediate numbers. For example, a "very difficult” task might require dividing the asset by three to determine the chance of success. A task intermediate between Easy and Average might multiply by 1.5,
Opposition: In some cases attempts to complete a task will be met with opposition from other characters. There are three types of opposition.
First, a character may be trying to succeed at a task and another trying only to prevent him. One or the other must succeed. If a character were trying to break down a door for example, a character on the opposite side might try to keep the door in place In this case, the asset used is the asset of the character making the attempt minus the asset of the character trying to prevent him. Obviously, if the second character's asset is higher, the attempt fails automatically.
Second, two or more characters may be trying to succeed at the same task in a competition in which it is not certain that anyone will succeed. For example, two characters are racing to solve a complex mathematical problem. Both characters roll, in this case Difficult: (Intelligence and Education), and the one who succeeds is the one who rolls the furthest below the roll he would need for success without opposition. (Of course, it is possible for all contestants to fail.)
For example, suppose two characters are rolling with 2 and 4 target numbers; the first of them rolls a 2 and the second rolls a 3. Since the first character rolled two less than required for success, while the second character rolled only one less, the first character wins.
The third case is like the second, but this time one of the characters must succeed. An example would be a footrace or determining the winner of a hand of poker. Characters roll as above. It none of the characters rolls success, the winner is the character who failed by the smallest amount. Roll again in case of ties.
Outstanding Success: If a character attempts to complete a task and beats his target number by four or more, he has achieved outstanding success. If for example, a character needed to roll 8 or less, and rolled a 2, that would be an outstanding success.
How the referee handles outstanding success is dependent on the situation. Generally the task is done much more quickly than would usually be the case, or some extra bonus is awarded. A mechanic might not only repair a tractor, but also improve its functioning in the process and gain particular gratitude from the villagers. The man trying to break down the door might also knock the man holding it shut unconscious, or knock it off its hinges with such noise and force that the occupants of the room are forced to roll for panic.
Catastrophic Failure: This is the opposite of outstanding success. If a character fails in a task and fails by at least four, roll again with the same required roll. If the character fails again, he has suffered a catastrophic failure. (If he succeeds, it's just a regular failure.) The mechanic in the previous example might not only fail to repair the tractor, but he would also break some other important part. The man trying to break down the door might hurt himself in addition to not breaking down the door.
Catastrophic failure should not be overused. In a great many tasks there is no obvious effect of a catastrophic failure, and it should not be rolled for - a geologist who fails to find an iron deposit should not also break his leg. Catastrophic failure's major purpose is to deter characters from attempting tasks (especially dangerous ones) far beyond their abilities.
SKILLS AND ASSOCIATED TASKS
Not all skills and tasks are discussed here many are described in other rules and are not repeated. Other uses are fairly obvious most uses of attributes, for example. However, some skills require further explanation, and some common tasks are worth describing in more detail here. The following are intended as general guides only; there are too many tasks to list more than a small fraction, and difficulty may be increased or decreased by too many factors to cover in detail.
Aircraft Mechanic: Tasks using this skill are similar to normal Mechanic skill tasks, but are applied only to aircraft.
Biology: Make antibiotics: Difficult. Assess condition of animal before purchase: Average. Detect disease in animal: Average.
Chemistry: This skill can be used to synthesise many useful substances; many have military uses: gunpowder (Easy), dynamite (Average), smokeless powder (Average), primer (Average), plastic explosive (Difficult), blood agent (Average), blister agent (Difficult), irritant gas (Average), HC smoke (Easy), white phosphorus (Difficult). (Gunpowder can be used in appropriate single shot weapons, while smokeless powder and primer are needed to reload ammunition.) Catastrophic failure when making these substances is truly catastrophic. Many other compounds of a less violent nature can also be synthesised, given the right equipment (or something close to it) and the proper raw materials).
Civil Engineer: This skill is used to construct things, mostly bridges and buildings. Failure results in time and materials overruns. Catastrophic failure may sometimes result in collapse, but generally it results in just a need for emergency repairs to forestall a collapse. Most tasks will require additional labour. Direct construction of simple bridge: Average. Build small shed: Easy. Reinforce lightly damaged structure (bridge, house, etc.): Average. Direct reinforcement of heavily damaged structure (bridge, house, etc.): Average. Assess condition of structure: Average.
Combat Engineer: Place demolition charge (with engineer demo kit): Easy. Improvise detonator/fuse, etc. (in absence of engineer demo kit): Difficult. Improvise antipersonnel obstacles: Easy. Improvise anti-vehicle obstacles: Average. Camouflage position: Easy.
Detonating explosive by radio is a risky business, not because it is hard but because it is so easy (some electrical blasting caps can be accidentally detonated by induced current from stray radio signals, and must be specially shielded to prevent this). Rigging an explosive to be radio-detonated requires an explosive charge, a standard electrical blasting cap, and a radio detonation receiver (all with the charge), plus a broadcast unit to send the required signal. The task is Average: (Combat Engineering / Electronics) given proper equipment, Difficult: (Combat Engineering/Electronics) given improvised equipment. Ordinary failure means the charge does not detonate. Catastrophic failure means the charge detonates prematurely (at a time determined by referee, at random if desired).
Improvising a radio detonation receiver or transmitter from a normal radio is an Average: (Combat Engineering/Electronics) task. The task becomes one level more difficult without an electronics tool set.
Disguise: The main ingredients of this skill are not greasepaint and false moustaches, but acting skill and confidence. Its most common use will be to impersonate a foreign soldier or national. In combination with Language skill, it is used to mimic an accent. Fooling a native speaker of the language is Difficult: (Disguise and Language); fooling a non-native is Average: (Disguise and Language level of speaker Language level of listener); fooling someone who doesn't speak the language at all is Easy: (Disguise or Language). Disguise can be used to gain a cursory examination for documents (Average); see Forgery for the importance of this.
Electronics: Make a radio receiver (Average) or transmitter (Difficult) if spare parts are available.
Fishing: Catch fish without adequate equipment: Difficult. Catch fish with adequate equipment: Average. Fabricate equipment: Average.
Forgery: Forge signature if an example is available: Easy. Alter a document (Average), or create a new document (Difficult). These tasks are one level easier if the document is expected to survive only a cursory glance (see Disguise).
Geology: Locate workable ore and mineral deposits of coal or iron: Average; other metals: Difficult.
Gunsmith: Fit telescopic sight to rifle (includes sighting in): Average. Fit starlight scope to rifle (Easy: Gunsmith). Fabricate zip gun: Average. Make crossbow or crossbow bolts (Average). Reload cartridges, given brass and powder: Average.
Horsemanship: Saddle break unbroken horse: Difficult. Failure results in slight injury to the rider. Assess condition of horse before purchase: Average. Conceal condition of horse before sale: Difficult.
Hunting Bow: Make arrows (Average) or bows (Difficult).
Interrogation: Interrogation involves two major factors: the state of the prisoner and the nature of the information the interrogator is seeking. Rather than try to combine the two, here are some tasks to use as guidelines. Prisoner is: demoralised and frightened (Easy), fatigued, stupid, or boastful (Average), security conscious (Difficult). Information sought: name of unit (Easy), scraps and hints requiring player interpretation (Average), strength and location of unit or major secrets: (Difficult).
Language: Communicating in a given language is Average: (Language of speaker and language of listener). Communicating in a language the character does not speak, using his skill in another language of the same group is Difficult: (Language of speaker and Language of listener). (For example, using knowledge of Polish to speak to a Czech.). Both the previous tasks become one degree easier if attempting to communicate very simple concepts ("I'm hungry"), especially if sign language is used to help ("Where are we?” while pointing at a map). Identifying languages: one the character speaks (Easy); a language of the same group (Average); a language of the same family (Difficult). Groups and families are shown on the Language List.
Leadership: Inspire NPCs to obey your orders: Average. Recruit NPCs: Difficult.
Lockpick: Pick simple key locks (like those on desks, briefcases, and some doors) and hot-wire vehicle: Easy. Pick key locks on jail cells, handcuffs, and deadbolt door locks: Average. Open combination and key locks on padlocks, safes, and strongboxes: Difficult. Difficulty levels assume lockpick tools are available. They become one level more difficult if lockpicking tools are not used. Improvise lockpick tool: Average. Locks on vaults and high security establishments (in espionage missions particularly) require tools and are always Difficult.
Mechanic: Assess condition of vehicle before purchase: Easy. Conceal condition of vehicle before sale: Average.
Medical: In addition to the tasks outlined on page 203 and 244 245, this skill can also be used to treat diseased animals; add one difficulty level to all tasks.
Melee Combat: Knock a surprised opponent unconscious without killing him: Easy. Disarm opponent: Average.
Melee Weapons Expertise: During the character generation process, players may wish to pick a melee weapon as the object of their character's single-minded training and practice sessions. That weapon then becomes a sub-cascade of the Melee Combat (Armed) skill on their character sheet. The detriment to this is that Melee Combat (Armed) skill for other melee weapons will be considered half of the specialty weapon. The benefit is that the character may be able to do extra damage with the weapon. This damage is applied as an additional modifier to the damage roll for the weapon, and it is equal to the skill in the specific weapon, multiplied by the character's strength, and the result divided by 10 (rounded down). In equation format, the formula is: Damage Modifier = [Melee Combat (Armed: Weapon Speciality)xSTR]รท10.
Metallurgy: Smelt ore into metal, given smelter: Easy. Make simple alloys, given forge and proper raw materials: Average. Forge and cast metal objects, given raw materials, forge, and tools: Average. Construct forge / smelter, given excavating and construction tools: Average. Lack of a smelter makes conversion of ore into metal impossible. Lack of a forge makes other tasks two levels more difficult.
Meteorology: Predict weather later today: Easy. Predict weather tomorrow: Average. Predict weather the day after tomorrow: Difficult.
Mining: Operate open surface mine without mishap: Easy. Operate deep shaft mine without mishap: Average. The skill can also be used to make tunnels in rock (Average but slow) or soil (Difficult but fast). Ordinary mishaps represent slight injuries. Catastrophic failure in deep shaft mining represents a cave-in; in open surface mines, it represents a serious wound. Additional labour is required for most mining operations.
Motorcycle: Jump a five meter wide ditch: Difficult. Assess condition of motorcycle before purchase: Average. Cross soft ground without bogging down: Average.
Mountaineering: Climb steep slope or sheer rock face with good handholds: Average. Climb sheer, mostly smooth rock face or building wall: Difficult. These tasks assume no special equipment. If equipment is used, the difficulty levels are one lower. Rappel down: Easy. (A character may also help others to climb by climbing up first and lowering a rope; difficulty for them is the same as climbing with equipment.)
Observation: Spot tripwire or boobytrap: Average.
Parachute: Land safely in most terrain is Easy. Land safely in woods, cities, swamp, or water: Average. Land in a particular spot: Difficult with a parachute, Average with a paraglider. Rigging or checking a rig: Easy. Flying a hang glider: Average. Repairing a parachute or hang glider: Easy. Making a parachute or hang glider: Difficult.
Pilot (Fixed Wing): Take off or land using open field: Average. Take off or land multi engine plane using open field: Difficult.
Pilot (Helicopter): Hover in a helicopter: Average. Hover in a helicopter during a brisk wind: Difficult.
Scrounging: When a character attempts to scrounge a specific object, he looks in a particular place. The referee determines difficulty based on his opinion of the likelihood of the object being in such a place. The higher a character's Scrounging skill, the more likely he is to find useful things in unlikely places.
Scuba: Avoid a mishap while using an aqualung or rebreather is Easy: (Scuba + Swimming). Navigate underwater is Easy. Avoiding detection from watchers on the surface is Average with an aqualung or Easy with a rebreather.
Small Arms: A catastrophic failure at firing any small arms indicates the weapon jammed. Clearing a jam is Easy.
Small Arms Expertise: Characters may specialise in a particular type of firearm. This specialisation is indicated in a different manner from melee weapon expertise, and its benefit is not increased damage, nor is there a decrease in skill levels of Small Arms (Pistol) or (Rifle). Rather, the expertise is recorded with the weapon stats, in the equipment section of the record sheet; and the benefit is enhanced chances to hit, as detailed on the table below. The only detriment is expenditure of experience points (see Skill Improvement in the basic game) to "purchase" the enhancement, again as indicated on the table below:
SMALL ARMS EXPERTISE
Level XP Cost Auto Miss STR Bonus
Default - 17-20 -
I 10 18-20 1
II 12 19-20 2
III 14 20 3
The "level" number is merely a convenient way of keeping track of what effects have been bought. The "XP Cost" is how many experience points must be spent to buy the enhancement (each level must be paid for separately). The "auto miss" column indicates any change to the automatic miss rule for fire combat (see the basic game). The "STR bonus" column indicates effective additions to the firer's strength for purposes of withstanding the specialty weapon's recoil.
Example: Vanna has a Strength of 5, has a Small Arms (Rifle) skill of 10, and has spent 9 experience points to purchase a level I expertise with the AK-74. Her skill is listed as "Small Arms (Rifle) 10: AK-74, I." Her skill with all rifles, including AK-74s, is 10, but she gains two benefits when firing an AK-74. First, if she fires with quick shots at a short range target and rolls a 9 and a 10, she will hit with the first (despite the auto miss rule) and miss with the second (despite her skill level). Second, her adjusted strength of 6 (5 plus the expertise bonus of 1) is sufficient to handle the recoil for two shots with the AK-74.
Small Boat: Rolls to avoid mishaps are necessary only in combat (Easy) or during unusual situations like overloaded boats, bad weather, or white water (Average). Sailboats are one level more difficult. Operating a small boat at all requires some skill but does not require a roll under good conditions. Navigate to within 10 kilometres of landfall (per 100 kilometres sailed): Average. Ditto in bad weather or at night: Difficult.
Snow Skiing: Avoid mishap under normal conditions: Easy. Avoid mishap at night, in bad weather, on steep slope or when burdened: Difficult.
Stealth: Approach to within one meter of a sentry in daylight: Difficult. Ditto at night: Average. Approach to within one meter of animal: Difficult. Conceal trail (so as to make tracking one level more difficult): Average.
Swimming: Floating is Average when wearing clothes and Easy without clothes. A loaded character (one with other than light personal equipment) cannot float (or swim). If the task is failed, the character sinks (and will drown if he remains in the water). If successful, the character floats and may swim. Each character has a swimming endurance equal to five times his Constitution. Floating without clothes uses zero endurance points; floating while wearing clothes uses one endurance point per minute. Maximum swimming speed is meters equal to Swimming skill per combat round. A character uses five endurance points per minute when swimming at full speed and one endurance point per minute at half speed. If the character is wearing clothes while swimming, double the endurance cost and halve the speed. Swim while towing another person: Average. Dive without aqualung to depths of one to five meters: Average. Ditto to six to 10 meters: Difficult.
Thrown Weapon: Pin target's sleeve to wall with thrown knife while barely nicking skin: Difficult.
Tracked Vehicle: Cross rocky terrain without throwing track (minor suspension breakdown): Average. Cross soft ground without bogging down: Average.
Tracking: Follow in snow, loose soil, or sand: Easy. Follow across rock: Difficult. Detect disease in animal from carcass: Average. Determine time since quarry passed through: Difficult. Determine number of animals or people in party: Difficult. Night increases all tasks by two levels of difficulty.
Warhead: Arm/disarm weapons from the character's own army: Easy. Arm/disarm foreign weapons: Average. Repair a faulty nuclear weapon: Difficult. Catastrophic failure results in accidental detonation.
Wheeled Vehicle: Cross soft ground without bogging down: Average. Cross rocky ground without damaging suspension: Average. Heavy rain makes all driving tasks one level more difficult.
SKILL IMPROVEMENT
As a person grows older and more experienced, it is natural that he will polish his existing skills and learn new ones. In a sense, Twilight: 2000 picks up the threads of the lives of the characters in midcourse. Thus, they already have considerable knowledge of the world, but as time passes they will learn more.
Experience: As players find themselves in situations which require the use of skills, they will gradually learn to use them better. In the game, this is represented by experience points.
Award one experience point per session unless the player really screwed up, plus a bonus point for any particularly dangerous, or particularly intensive, skill used. Referees can award an additional bonus point for a player who is particularly good at staying in character during the session or who performs a notably heroic deed. Referees should not award points for easy or mundane tasks, even if they are especially successful. The option in all cases is the referees, but he should be guided by two simple principles. First, the reward should fit the task. Random and meaningless use of skills should not be rewarded by experience points. Rather, experience should be gained only when the task at hand needs doing. Second, skills are acquired gradually, and experience should reflect this. If players begin zooming up in skill levels, the game will soon lose its challenge.
At the same time, each player should note (perhaps with a pencil checkmark, so it can be erased before the next session) the skills used during the session. The experience points awarded can then be converted to levels in any one or more of the skills used.
Conversion: Experience points are converted to increases in skill levels during a lull in the characters' activities, perhaps during a day spent in rest and maintenance (the periods between active adventuring, in other words). When the referee thinks the time is right, the characters' accumulated experience points may be converted to increased skill levels.
To do this, the character spends experience points to buy levels in a skill. To buy a level costs points equal to its numerical value: to buy Mechanic: 5 costs five experience points (assuming the character has Mechanic: 4 already). A character must already have achieved the level immediately below the one sought, although a character can advance more than one skill level at a time (to go from Mechanic: 3 to Mechanic: 5 would require 4+5=9 skill points, which could be expended at the same time).
If the character's experience points for the skill are not converted, they may be accumulated. Points acquired may be used to build up any skill.
For example, Monk has accumulated six experience points by the time the referee lets his party assimilate its experience, and he decides he needs to improve his Small Arms (Rifle) skill. His current skill level as a rifleman is 4. To advance to Small Arms (Rifle): 5 requires five points, leaving him one point left over for another use on another skill or to save for a later time.
Option: If the players don't mind the bookkeeping involved, referees may award points in specific skills, for use only in that skill (Mechanic experience points, for example, or Chemistry experience points).
Initiative: A separate point system exists for improving Initiative. Referees should award one point for each session in which there is a firefight, awarding an extra point for a particularly outstanding shot or a superior feat of hand to hand combat. Initiative points are used to buy increasing levels of Initiative just like any other skill, but Initiative experience points can only be used for Initiative. Additionally, it requires the square of the next level in experience points to increase level. For example, to go from level 1 to 2, requires 4 Initiative experience points, from 2 to 3 requires 9 points, etc.
Advance by Observation: If a player observes another player successfully accomplishing a task, the observing player gains one experience point. This observation must be a close up examination of the task and must have the cooperation of the character actually performing the task. If the referee considers the skill sought to be a complicated one (such as Mechanic), the task should take longer than usual (perhaps substantially longer), as the character performing the will often have to pause to explain what he is doing or to answer questions. A character may gain experience points from observation if the observed character's skill level is at least twice as great as the skill level of the observing character.
Some skills are used for tasks which do not take specific time periods and which cannot be explained or taught except by direct example. (Observation is a good example of this.) Characters may gain experience through observation of these tasks. For example, if a group of characters encounters a group of NPCs, the character ' Observation skill is that of the character with the highest skill, modified downward for having people along. If the group is successful in surprising the NPC group, characters gain an experience point in Observation by watching an expert at his craft.
Instruction: A character may be taught a skill. Teaching a skill is Average: Instruction. The instructor may teach a number of students equal to his Instruction skill level and must have a skill level in the skill being taught. An instructor cannot teach a student whose level in the subject taught is equal to or greater than that of the instructor. The task takes one period per day for one week (seven consecutive days). Successful completion of task (rolled for at the end of the week) results in experience points for both the students and the instructor. The instructor gains experience for accomplishing a task as explained in experience rules. Students gain a number of experience points (in the skill being taught) based on the number of students taught.
If the number of students is less than half the instructor's skill level, each student gains three experience points. If the number of students half or more of the instructor's skill level, each student gains one experience point.
New Skills: A player who has a skill level of 0 in a particular skill may attempt to learn the skill. This may be done either through observation or through instruction. Since the character has a skill level of 0, his experience cost will be one. However, he must either observe the skill in operation or be taught it by someone with Instruction skill.