Abilities & Ability Focuses
  1. Notes

Abilities & Ability Focuses

Rules

ACCURACY

Archery: Proficiency with weapons in the Bows weapon group.

Gunnery: Proficiency with ship-mounted weapons.

Small Guns: Single-grip, short-barreled ballistic weapons.

Large Guns: Double-grip, long-barreled ballistic weapons.

Throwing: Not limited to weapons. Can include a grappling hook, and I'm sure other things, yes.

COMMUNICATION

Aesthegeny

Animal Handling: Interacting with and caring for animals.

Bargaining: Negotiating with others and making deals.

Channeling

Deception: Lying to and tricking others when they are focused on you.

Demeanor: Disguise, unobtrusiveness, imitation. Tricking others when they're not focused on you.

Etiquette: Knowing the social niceties of various cultures.

Expression*: Conveying thoughts and ideas effectively through words. Entertaining an audience with an artistic talent.

E.g.: Dance, Poetry, Scholarly Writing, Singing

Investigation: Interviewing people for information and finding and deciphering clues. [This is incredibly broad & unclear]

Leadership: Guiding, directing, and inspiring others.

Persuasion: Convincing others to agree with you.

Seduction: Making winning moves in the game of love.

CONSTITUTION

Somatokyriarchy

Endurance: The ability to make do with spoiled food, bad water, and poor living conditions with minimal illness. Also, the ability to hide illness or injury from those around you.

Propelling: Moving a muscle-powered vehicle such as a bicycle or rowboat.

Running: Moving quickly in both short sprints and long-distance hauls.

Swimming: Moving across water and staying afloat.

Tolerance: Withstanding the effects of potentially toxic substances, imbibed for recreation or unwitting exposure.

DEXTERITY

Acrobatics: Executing gymnastic, balancing, and tumbling maneuvers.

Crafting*: Making things with manual skills, including the various fine and plastic arts.

E.g.: Carpentry, Carving, Drawing, Forgery, Glass-blowing, Leather-working, Painting, Sculpting, Weaving

Driving: Handling surface vehicles like cars, trucks, or boats

Free-Fall: Maneuvering and moving while in free-fall, usually in microgravity.

Initiative: Reacting quickly under pressure.

Piloting: Operating vehicles that move in three dimensions like aircraft, drones, and spaceships

Riding: Directing a mount such as a horse. Includes Mounted Combat.

Sleight of Hand: Using sleight of hand and deft movements to trick others, hide things, or pick pockets.

Stealth: Moving around without being noticed.

Light Tool Use*: Familiarity with a specialized class of tools to operate on the environment (as opposed to Crafting), such as

E.g.: Lockpicks, Surgical tools, etc.

FIGHTING

Armor Use: Proficiency in combat while wearing bulky or heavy armor.

Melee Finesse: Proficiency with weapons or techniques that rely primarily on finesse.

Melee Power: Proficiency with weapons or techniques that rely primarily on strength.

Shield Use: Proficiency with shields

Unarmed Grappling: Focused on takedowns, locks, chokes, etc.

Unarmed Striking: Focused on punches, kicks, and other strikes.

INTELLIGENCE

Engineering: The design of things with complex mechanisms or detailed characteristics. 

Evaluation: Knowing the value of goods, works of art, and other valuables.

Hyperscription (Sigil Magick)

Knowledge*: Deep familiarity with any science, social science, or professional field, and the ability to apply it. The How rather than the What.

E.g.: Administration, Biology, Business, Chemistry, Combat Tactics, Cryptography, Demolitions, Engineering, Medicine, Navigation, Proprietary Knowledge, Psychology, Security, Survival

Metapsionics

Research: Conducting a systematic investigation, usually using records, archives, and books.

PERCEPTION

Drapetology 

Chronognethy

Empathy: Picking up on and interpreting the feelings and emotions of others.

Exotic Sensation: Perceiving and interpreting the input from senses available to humans only through artificial augmentation. Operating sensor equipment and interpreting the raw readings. May also include psionic remote sensation.

Hearing: Perceiving using your auditory sense.

Intuition: Having a “gut feeling” about certain things you can’t otherwise sense. Is this just a GM hint cheat code?

Orientation: Knowing one's location and orientation intuitively. Forming a mental map passively. Equilibrioception & orientation in a 3D environment. Estimating time as well, why not.

Searching: Finding things that are hidden or obscured, such as hidden compartments.

Sight: Perceiving using your visual sense.

Smell: Perceiving using your olfactory sense. May lack some chemical smells that are technically tastes.

Taste: Perceiving using your gustatory sense. Includes some chemical smells not available to the nose.

Telescience

Touch: Perceiving using your tactile sense. Includes Proprioception, temperature, pain.

Tracking: Following tracks and other signs of passage. 

STRENGTH

Climbing: Scaling walls and other vertical obstacles.

Intimidation: Overawing others with your physical presence and threats.

Jumping: Making standing or running jumps.

Might: Feats of raw power, such as lifting or holding up heavy objects. 

Heavy Tool Use*: The use of heavy tools or elbow grease. E.g., chainsaw forestry, anvil forging, rock chipping.

Steering: Directing and guiding carts, carriages, plows, chariots and other wheeled vehicles.

WILLPOWER

Conditioning: Resisting interrogation, manipulation, and other extreme hardships, including physical or chemical methods, through previous psychological conditioning. Also, self-brainwashing for positive outcomes. Can be useful for those who have been genetically lobotomized of volition.

Courage: Overcoming fear in the face of adversity.

Faith: Deriving inner strength through spiritual or moral belief.

Focus: Focusing your mental energy or controlling your impulses and emotions. Maintaining a sense of identity and a psychological center in the face of shocking revelations, mind-altering narcotics, and invasive techniques.

Psychochirurgy

Telekinesis

*Focus Specifications

  • When selecting a field of knowledge, you must specify either a Specialty, or General.
    • A Specialty gives you an additional +2 to checks within that Specialty, and -1 to checks within the Field but outside of the Specialty. So if you choose Light Tool Use - Lockpicks, you get +4 to Lockpicking and +1 all other Light Tools.
    • Selecting General gives you a broad knowledge, with no modification to the standard +2 to all checks within the Focus.
  • Example Specialties:
    • Institutional Knowledge: Specify Faction, Culture, Corporation, etc.
    • Survival: Specific to a Biome or a specific Skillset
    • Technology:
      • Primitive
      • Mechanical
      • Chemical
      • Digital
      • Crystalline
      • Cryptic