Defense
Opposes Melee Combat and Ranged Combat.

This skill is rolled once per round by each person who is being attacked. The shifts by which the attack roll exceeds the defense roll determines the scope of the damage.  Different types of armor add a bonus of up to +2 to defense, sometimes dependent on the type of weapon being used.  Also, if a character is actively avoiding more than one assailant, that will decrease his defense.  A character can choose to ignore some attackers and focus on avoiding only the one powerful one, if he chooses, and he will not suffer this penalty against the powerful opponent, but effectively has no defense against the weaker ones.


Full Defense:  If a character focuses on avoiding his opponent(s) and does not try to make an attack, he is considered to be on “Full Defense” and he gets an extra +2 to his defense.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:07, Thu 18 June 2020.

Endurance
Endurance is the ability to keep performing physical activity despite fatigue or injury.  This skill determines the character’s Health Stress Track, as well as being used as a normal skill for fighting off poisons or disease, resisting torture, and staying awake for extended periods.

The Health Stress Track determines how much physical abuse a character can take, so it is a dangerous idea for a heroic character to ignore it.  The Health Stress Track starts at 5 + the value of the character’s Endurance skill, and there is a stunt to increase it by one more.  See the chapter on Conflict and Damage for a complete description of how the Stress Tracks are used.

Might
This is a measure of pure physical power, be it raw strength or simply the knowledge of how to use the strength one has. For lifting, moving and breaking things, Might is the skill of choice.  In a combat, Might can be used instead of melee combat if the objective is just to move the opponent rather than give him damage.  Of course, if you are fighting on a rooftop or near the edge of a cliff, just moving him is probably enough.  In this case, the opponent still defends with Defense (or Athletics/Acrobatics, if he prefers), but 3 shifts of success would be enough to throw the opponent off the cliff.  One shift would force the opponent to drop to his knees to avoid be over-leveraged, and two shifts would leave him hanging on the edge of the cliff at the character's mercy.

Athletics
Agility, balance, focus, speed, and coordination are all wrapped up in the skill Athletics.

Sub-skills

• Speed
• Acrobatics, Climbing, and Balance
• Eye-hand coordination

Athletics is also a catch-all for many actions that otherwise would not have an appropriate skill, subject to the GM's approval.  For instance, if the player wants his character to attempt to swim across a turbulent river, he would use this skill (Acrobatics sub-skill).  However, first he will have to convince the GM that it is reasonable, given the character's background, that he would be a skilled swimmer.  The GM might decide to instill a -1 or even -2 penalty if he remains unconvinced.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:11, Thu 18 June 2020.

Burglary
The generous act of relieving others of their material burdens.

Sub-skills

• Pick locks
• Disable Security Systems
• Sleight of Hand (includes picking pockets)

Picking locks or disabling security systems will require different levels of success depending on the determination and investment of the owner.  These are some guidelines, but the GM should adjust for the circumstances.  A drug kingpin with a brother who is a security expert might have installed an epic security system on his house, for example.

	Legendary (+8):  Bank Vault
	Epic (+7):  Jewelry Store Safe
	Fantastic (+6):  Typical store safe, best home safes
	Superb (+5):  Typical home safe, bank entry door
	Great (+4):  Typical business entry door
	Good (+3):  Expensive home door with deadbolt
	Fair (+2): Typical home door or car door
	Average (+1): a flimsy latch, as on a screen door

Success in disabling a security system generally implies not activating it.  However, in some cases – such as a mechanical trap of some sort – successfully disabling it might just mean activating it in a way that is harmless.  The point here is that failure means failure.  The player can't, after failing on his disable attempt, then say, “Ok, I'll just stand way over here and trigger it with a stick.”  That represents a success, so that description might be used for a zero-shift or one-shift success, not for a failure.  A failure implies that he misinterpreted it somehow, the place he thought was safe turned out not to be, and someone gets hurt.  If it was only a one- or two-shift failure, it won't be a serious injury, but something bad definitely happened.  Note that there is some overlap with Outdoorsman/Snares and Traps, in that both can be used to disable mechanical traps.  For that purpose, the player can use whichever skill is better.

Sleight of hand ability uses a combination of dexterity and knowledge of misdirection.  It is much easier to slip a card off the deck when the mark is looking elsewhere.  This ability, the knowledge of how to manipulate where people are paying attention, can also be used when there is no actual hidden hand movement, just when the misdirection is needed.  It is opposed by Investigation or Alertness:  When the opposition is purely visual, then use Investigation, but against an attempted pickpocket, where the opposition is as much awareness of body position and touch sensitivity, use Alertness.

Driving
Driving any kind of land vehicle will fall here.  The more specialized the vehicle, the higher skill it will take even to start it up.

Sub-skills

• Cars and small trucks
• Motorcycles, jet skis, snow mobiles
• Heavy trucks (semis, tanker trucks, dump trucks)
• Heavy machinery (cranes, front-end loaders, etc.)

Basic driving tasks in regular passenger vehicles do not require any skill or roll at all – the skill will apply to doing maneuvers, driving significantly faster than normal, or under unusual conditions.  However, even basic use of heavy trucks or heavy machinery require at least a point of those skills.  Most heavy machinery is inherently at -1 to use, so even basic tasks will require two points in the specialty.  Doing more complex tasks with the vehicles – using a crane to extract a safe without hitting any walls, for instance – might require a Great (+5) or even Superb (+6) result.

Piloting
This skill applies to all vehicles that are not land-based.

Sub-skills

• Planes
• Helicopters
• Lighter than air ships (balloons, zeppelins)
• Watercraft  (Ok, not exactly piloting, but close enough, and it had to go somewhere.  This skill covers sailing, motorboats, and other boats)

As with the Driving skills, the GM should use judgment on how difficult the vehicle is to pilot, from Average (+1) for a sail board in a light wind, to Legendary (+8) for a jumbo jet in a storm with 2 engines non-functional.

Ranged Combat
Damaging someone or something from way over here.

Sub-skills

• Thrown weapons (includes grenades, molotov cocktails, knives, spears, darts)
• Bows, crossbows, miscellaneous (e.g. blowgun, slingshot)
• Firearms
• Energy weapons

Opposed by: Defense

As with melee weapons, the weapons themselves will have a bonus from -2 to +1, and the range can impose an additional penalty.  Some weapons can only damage a single target, even if the skill roll is much more than is needed to take out the minion.

An improvised thrown weapons (e.g. a rock) is a -2 weapon:  It just isn't in the same league as a bullet fired from a handgun.  Plus it will suffer from range penalties a lot sooner.  A dart that is heavy and intended as a weapon (that is, not a gaming dart) is a -1 weapon and might have a cap of one shift of damage but it might carry poison that inflicts additional damage as long as it broke the skin.  Use common sense and remember that even an expert is not going to do more damage with a thrown bean bag as a beginner could do with a shotgun.

Firearms and many thrown weapons make a lot of noise, which can have its own consequences.  Energy weapons tend to be harder to find and more expensive, but are quite silent in their use.

Stealth
Not being noticed, in a variety of ways.

Sub-skills

• Staying out of sight (opposed by investigation)
• Moving silently (opposed by alertness)
• Mixing into a crowd (opposed by investigation)

The sub-skill 'staying out of sight' is as much about understanding where people (and cameras!) are looking as it is about staying in the shadows.

'Mixing into a crowd' is the skill of not being noticed even though you are in plain sight.  This is the relevant skill to use when tailing someone, whether doing it on foot or in a vehicle.  This does not require a disguise, unless the character is in some place where not having one causes you stand out excessively.  Mixing into the crowd in a locked-down army base is nearly impossible without a uniform, for instance.  Therefore, the GM should impose a penalty of -1 to -3 depending on the need for a disguise, or if a disguise was attempted and seen through.

Intimidation

Resisted By: Resolve or Intimidation

Intimidation is the art of forcing others to back down using only a menacing glare or a threatening stance, and it is resisted by Resolve or the character's own Intimidation skill, whichever is higher.  (It's hard to intimidate someone who is better at Intimidation than you, even if he has a low Resolve.)  Someone with a high Intimidation roll can chase off several minor characters (considered to have a Social Track of 1) at once. However, note that minions, especially of evil characters, might have a situational aspect of "More Afraid of My Boss Than of You" and therefore will behave as if they have a resistance of 2 or 3. They still don't get a roll (being minions) but a character with a Fantastic (+6) result will only scare off two or three of them.

Resolve

This is the skill used to determine the character's Social Stress Track — how many points of "social damage" he can take before dissolving into a quivering mass of jelly, or running away screaming.  The Social Stress Track starts at 5+ the value of the character’s Resolve skill, though there is a stunt that will add one more.  See the chapter on Conflict and Damage for a complete description of how the Stress Tracks are used.

Empathy
Empathy is the ability to understand what others are thinking, by interpreting facial expressions, body language, manner of speaking, and accents and language.

Sub-skills

• Reading Emotions (opposes Deceit/Spoken)
• Understanding Backgrounds
• Leadership

Reading Emotions is used for lie detection and other evaluation of current emotion. It is used to oppose Deceit/Spoken and it can also be used to interpret the emotions of someone who is not necessarily being deceptive. For example, after viewing a video without sound of a conversation between three people, with a fair (+2) result a character would know who is the superior and who is the inferior or supplicant, and whether orders or threats were given or a request was made. With a great (+4) result, the character would know what the other party felt about the order/threat/request. With a fantastic (+6) result he would have a pretty good idea what the actual order/threat/request was.

Understanding Backgrounds involves picking up on accents, phrasing, posture, and expressions to determine people's backgrounds. Where are they from? Were they military? Former addicts? etc. Often a successful roll will lead to guessing one or more of a person's aspects, which can lead to a freely-tagged aspect.

Leadership is important if you want minions of your own. Also, there are stunts to bring out the best in other characters and to help people work together.

Diplomacy
Diplomacy is the art of convincing others to do what you want them to do, think what you want them to think, and reveal secrets that they would otherwise keep hidden. True diplomats maintain an impressive network of contacts who are glad to help them at need.

Sub-skills

• Contacting Network
• Information Gathering
• Convincing Others

Contacting Network has to do with the depth and breadth of the people the character already knows (and the people they know), plus the loyalty that people in the network tend to show to the character. Someone high in this skill knows how to contact a hit man, can get a message to the Pope, and "knows a guy who knows a guy…"  If a character has lived in a city for the past 10 years or more, then he is +1 in this skill within his home city, -1 in the rest of the country, -2 outside the country.  If he has moved around within a country in the past 10 years, he has no bonus or penalty within his country, but is still -2 outside it.  Any city he has spent at least a month in within the past two years, he is, at worst, -1.

Information Gathering is more about getting information from the street when the contacting network is not available (i.e. the character is far from his home turf) or for learning about specific things that might have happened recently. For example, if you need to score some weapons-grade Plutonium, the Contacting specialist would be the person to find it. However, if you want to know who it was who hit the government Plutonium storage facility last week, the Information Gathering expert would be more likely to get a good result.

The Convincing Others specialty possibly has a fair bit of overlap with Deceit/Spoken.  Any problem that could be solved with one could be approached in a different way such that it can be solved with the other. The big difference is that Convincing Others does not necessarily include a falsehood, but instead appealing to a person's fears, needs, honor, whatever works best for that particular opponent.

Deceit
There are many ways to deceive others, and most of them fall under this category.

Sub-skills

• Disguise (opposed by Alertness or Investigation)
• Forgery (opposed by Investigation or some Knowledge skills)
• Spoken (i.e. lying, conning)  (opposed by Empathy/Reading Emotions)

Disguises are limited by the materials and time available, but a specialist will probably have a kit with him to make quick changes that will fool even a careful eye.  A reversible coat, a big hat, and a limp can make someone nearly unrecognizable.  When you add a wig or some facial hair, only an expert will penetrate it.  If the character does not have access to any sort of disguise gear, the GM should apply a penalty of -1 or -2 to the attempt, or perhaps even just say that it is impossible without locating the right equipment.

Only the most skilled forgers attempt to make fake money, and the security systems in wealthier nations make it nearly impossible.  However, forgery can also apply to identity documents, contracts, artwork, even antique furniture.  In these cases, the opposing skill might be Arts or General Science.

Resources
Resources is simply a measure of available wealth, but the specific form this takes, from a secret family silver mine to a well invested portfolio, can vary from character to character (and may be indicated and enhanced by their aspects).

Rather than track dollars, credits, or whatever, Resources is an indication of what purchases a character is able to make during an adventure.  See the cost list in Appendix ??, in which the costs are simplified to just a Resources level.  Each character can assume that he can buy one item per adventure of his resource level, plus two or three items on one level below his.  For special items that the entire group wants, two characters with the same Resource level can combine to obtain one item at the level above.

GM's should be careful that players don't abuse this simplified system by gradually collecting top notch items, making their characters overpowered.  Items will wear out, be stolen, be required in trade to pick up the new items, etc.  Remember that this game is about story-telling, and there's no story if there's no challenge.  As a rule of thumb, a character should only rarely have more than two items at his Resource level, and never more than one above it.  The exception is characters with Resource skill at Moderate (0) or Average (+1) level – they should have a weapon and tools for any skills above Fair (+2) but none that produce bonuses, even if the other characters could trivially acquire them.  This is somewhat arbitrary, but there it is.

In addition, characters who have access to a sizable organization's resources can potentially make bigger purchases than they otherwise would be able, but these should come with significant strings attached. (Usually it is part of the adventure hook in the first place.)  These organizations, even quite benevolent ones, will demand some favor or action in trade for the use of their resources.  These expenditures are tracked by the organization, and as such, if subterfuge is important, personal resources are a wiser choice.

Computer Software
The areas of the world which still maintain some electrical power generally have some level of computers, whether for security, information, or automated industry.  All of these computers and robots need programming, and this is the skill that gets it done.

Sub-skills

• Hacking
• Robotics Programming
• Automation and General Software

Hacking is used to get control of databases, computerized security systems, banking systems, etc. without exactly having authorization.  Once you’ve gained access to a computer system, you can retrieve or destroy data, turn off cameras, or other immediate tasks, but then setting up anything more complex will require a General Software success to program it.

Robotics Programming is necessary to repurpose an existing robot to do something other than its current job.  A robot can only be programmed to do things it is physically capable of, so a simple industrial robot arm couldn’t be programmed to shoot a handgun with any accuracy, but it could be set up to swing around and block the way as someone walks past.  Personal service robots vary from moderately versatile to practically human-equivalent.  Robots for security generally have their programming physically and electronically protected, so a character might need to succeed at Electronics/Computer Hardware even before getting a chance to reprogram it.

Automation and General Software is used for any other programming task, from home automation systems to traffic management (for those few places that still have enough working automobiles to call it traffic) to high-rise elevator controls to election systems to banking account tracking to whatever.

Electronics and Electrical
Communications devices, energy weapons, and computers are all made up of electrical and electronic devices.  Constructing and repairing as well as disabling or breaking these devices all depends upon the Electronics and Electrical skill.

These are still common in a world with limited electricity, because they are so important to the rich and powerful.  However, because electricity has become unreliable, all important devices now come with built-in battery backup.  In other words, just cutting off the power to the security system will not disable it, you will need a successful application of this skill.

Sub-skills

• Radio and recording (includes tracking devices, visual and auditory bugs, GPS, telephony)
• Energy weapons and lasers (construction and maintenance)
• Computer hardware and miscellaneous (includes construction and maintenance of robots, electrical detonators, electric motors, and everything in electronics that is otherwise not covered)

Medicine
Sub-skills

• Poisons and antidotes
• Surgery and Field Medicine
• Diagnostic medicine, diseases, and pharmaceuticals

The poisons available are generally more sophisticated than the ones available through the Chemistry specialty of General Science.  These could include poisons tailored for a specific individual, time-released, multi-step poisons, etc.  (A multi-step poison is one where a person must get all the steps to be poisoned, and is otherwise harmless.  So, for instance, only someone who ate the soup AND smoked one of the special cigars AND shook hands with the baron will suffer the consequences.  Good ones are completely untraceable.)

If a character were to specialize in Poisons, he would still need access to a genetics lab to make targeted poisons, or a professional chemistry lab to make multi-step poisons.  If the cost of the lab (i.e. the Resources skill to own it) is below the unadjusted skill roll, that is a one point penalty to the roll.  This doesn't mean that the character must own the lab himself, just have access to one (perhaps by sneaking in one night).

In addition, apply the following adjustments to the roll.

The process is:
 - Roll Poison Skill roll
 - If this is higher than the Resources value of lab, subtract 1.
 - Adjust for Aspects and skill points spent.
 - Player can intentionally reduce the value to make a weaker poison
 ---- This value represents the hours needed in the lab.
 - Adjust for qualifications from table above
 - Double this result.  Call this the Poison Strength.

Detecting the Poison
The target of the poison may have a chance to detect the poison and avoid eating, touching, or breathing it.  Of course, if the target is being held down and injected with the poison, he probably detects that he's being poisoned but it doesn't help him prevent it from happening.

Typically the GM will roll for the player, and might apply a bonus or penalty of up to 2 points, depending on the situation.


If the poison is properly delivered to the target (s), it will act upon the target's stress track as a single blow of the Poison Strength (the value after all adjustments and then doubling).

When the poison is created, the player must specify whether the poison kills its target or merely knocks out the target.  If the result on the stress track is 'done' then it will kill / knock out.  For other consequences, the target will be disabled according to the severity of the consequence, just as if he had taken a physical blow of that level.

Example:  Dr. Lamson want to make a knock out poison that will affect only Aduz Agave.  His Medicine / Poison skill is 5 and he rolls a 1 for six points.  He is using a lab that costs Resources 7, so there is no penalty there.  He then spends a FATE point and applies his aspect of “Make 'em all sick” to increase the roll by 2.

The value adjusted for Lab and FATE points is now 8, which means he will need 8 hours in the lab to create it.
 - Knock-out poison (non-lethal) (-0)
 - Targets only Aduz and he has a DNA sample (-1)
 - It is Hard to Detect (-1)
 - It is a cream (topical delivery) (-1)
 ----- For a result of 5.  Doubled is 10.

So, if properly delivered, it will act as a single blow with 10 shifts.  Dr. Lamson arranges for Aduz to “win” a free massage at a local parlor, and he arranges for the masseuse to use the cream he has prepared as the lubricant.  The GM decides that Aduz is so trusting and has not expressed any suspicion about he good luck, so he imposes a penalty of -2 to Aduz's Alertness roll to detect the poison.  Rolling a 1, plus his Alertness skill of 3, minus the penalty is not enough for Aduz to detect the poison.  He gets his massage, which is a 10 point hit on the big man's stress track.  This is beyond Aduz's 'done' level so he is knocked out.
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:19, Wed 10 Feb 2021.

Mechanical
Sub-skills

• Engines (includes internal combustion engines and electric vehicle motors, plus the drive train and steering systems)
• Firearms:  Construction and maintenance
• Construction (includes basic building construction, plumbing, heat, and air conditioning systems)
• Basic mechanics (includes parts of a vehicle that aren't covered under Engines, including body work; mechanical clocks, watches and the like; also any mechanical traps or devices.)

General Science
Sub-skills

• Physics and Math
• Chemistry (including explosives, some simple poisons, polymers, organic chemistry.)
• Botany and zoology
• Everything else

Humanities
Sub-skills

• History
• Law, politics, current events
• Languages

A character's Humanities/Languages skill determines how many additional languages he speaks over his native tongue.  If he tries to converse with someone in a language that he doesn't know, choose the closest language that he does know and apply the following penalty to a roll against this skill.


The number of shifts of success after the penalty will determine the proficiency and speed of the conversation. Barely succeeding will mean a lot of hand gestures will be needed and the process will be very slow. 3 shifts would mean nearly fluent conversation, or the character could follow an overheard conversation between two native speakers. 5 shifts would mean that a native speaker would not be able to tell that the character is not himself a native speaker.

Arts
Sub-skills

• Literature, Writing
• Singing, Performing
• Drawing, Painting

Alertness

The Alertness skill has two important purposes.  First, it is used actively by the player when starting a combat.  Each player makes a FATE roll for his Alertness skill and the GM makes one for the NPC's.  Actions go in order of highest to lowest.  The GM can choose to make a single roll for an entire scene, or he might prefer to roll each round.

Secondly, Alertness is used passively, to detect and react to unexpected events.  The GM can choose to roll for the players to see if they notice someone hiding, or he might have them roll for themselves to see if they detect an ambush before it is sprung.

Investigation

Investigation is the combination of keen observation and the ability to glean information from facts.  A skilled investigator can look at the blood spatter and the position of the bodies and tell you the exact sequence of events that resulted in the scene.  He will immediately notice details that are out of place and will put them together.

Investigation is also used to see through disguises, to spot forgeries, to detect mechanical traps, to avoid being fooled by misdirection, etc.  The ability is generally visual, though the GM might also have it apply to sounds and scents, as appropriate.

Outdoorsman
Outdoorsman is a collection of skills that can be associated with successfully living in the wild.  When assigning penalties for moderate and severe consequences, some uses of this skill (horseback riding, building a snare) should be considered to be a coordination skill.

Sub-skills

• Riding and Animal Handling
• Tracking and Scavenging (includes finding food and water in hostile environments, making ropes, knives, axes from natural sources, and having a basic intuition for the outdoors)
• Snares and Traps (includes making and disarming of physical traps.  Spotting them is Investigation.)

Note that there is some overlap in the last sub-skill with Burglary/Disable Security Device, in that both can be used to disable mechanical traps.  For that purpose, the player can use whichever skill is better.