1 Foraging/Survival

1 Flying/Gliding

This skill provides the basic knowledge for the use of natural or artificial wings (e.g. feathered wings, parachutes, hang gliders, etc.) and individual antigravity belts (which do not exist in the Tintamar universe), etc. All types of non-combat maneuvers performed while flying/gliding suffer a natural -75 penalty. Attempting to fight while flying or gliding incurs a natural –80 penalty. This skill is used to offset this penalty and automatically reduces the penalty (no roll required).

It is possible to increase the Flying/Gliding skill beyond what is necessary to reduce the penalty and receive a bonus to maneuvers or attacks. If the penalty has been reduced to zero, then half the skill bonus (rounded down) beyond that may be used as a maneuver bonus. For example, if a character’s Flying/Gliding skill bonus is 96, they would receive a +10 bonus on non-combat flying maneuvers ((96 –75) / 2 = 10).

(Athletic – Ag/SD – Special)

1

1 Foraging/Survival

Exploring strange new worlds is a dangerous business. It requires explorers to endure privations, to give up warm beds in air-conditioned cabins for tents in all weathers, and to swap gourmet meals for basic survival rations. Sometimes the tents are lost, sometimes the rations run out. Then explorers must hunt native animals for their lunch (without becoming a meal for the local predators), and forage for berries, roots, wild vegetables and other plants that will provide nutrition to the desperate. This is a character’s bonus for finding water, food, shelter, fire starting (under less than optimal conditions), and other basic survival tasks required when living in the wilderness.

Some environments are so different from an explorer’s native habitat that “foraging” is impossible and even survival may be limited to living in an environment suit and ensuring that no damage occurs to that suit, e.g. the aquatic environment for humans who’ve not been genetically adapted to breathe underwater.

When first developed, one of the environments subskills below should be chosen as the primary subskill. (SysOps may add more environments at their discretion):

Terrestrial:

P

Arctic (-20): including tundra, glaciers, snowfields, alpine mountains, etc.

P

Desert (-20): including sandy deserts, rocky deserts, arid plains, badlands, etc.

P

Forest (-20): including cool and temperate woodlands and rainforests, etc.

P

Grassland (-20): including plains, prairies, savannahs, steppes, and marshlands, etc.

P

Jungle (-20): including subtropical and tropical rainforests, jungles, mangrove swamps, etc.

Extreme:

P

Aquatic (-20): including seas and oceans, specifically underwater habitats

P

Gasworld (-20): surviving in the atmosphere of a gas giant such as Jupiter or Saturn

P

Hellworld (-20): worlds where temperatures exceed 100 degrees Celsius, such as Venus prior to terraforming

P

Iceworld (-20): worlds where temperatures are routinely colder than –150 degrees Celsius, such as Titan

P

Space (-20): airless worlds and the vacuum of space itself

P

Subterranean (-20): underground habitats, extended cave systems, etc.

(Outdoor – In/Re – All-or-nothing)

1

1 ^Forensics

This skill is used to collect evidence (such as fingerprints, body fragments such as blood or hairs that might yield DNA, spent ammunition, and so forth) from the scene of a crime. This skill can also be used to remove and dispose of such evidence in order to conceal a crime or obscure the methods and identity of the perpetrator.

(Subterfuge – SD/In – Percentage)

1

1 ^Frenzy

The character may attempt to work himself into a killing frenzy.

While the character is working himself into a frenzy, no other actions are allowed. The character focuses on a single target while attempting to frenzy, and once frenzied, killing this target is the only goal of the character.

Each round the character attempts to go into frenzy, he makes a maneuver roll on the Percentage column of the Maneuver Table.

This result is recorded each round and added to the previous results. This is done until the frenzy total reaches 200% or above.

At this point the character has succeeded in working himself into the frenzy. Beginning on the following round, he gains a number of benefits from this mighty rage.

P

The character’s mind is reduced to be little more than that of an animal. He will have no thoughts other than attacking the chosen target, and is unable to tell friend from foe.

P

Mind influencing psionic disciplines and spells (Psi Disciplines and Attack spells requiring a Will RR) automatically fail when targeted or cast on the berserk character.

P

Character cannot use Psi Disciplines, cast spells or activate magic items. Magic items that are persistent (i.e. weapon bonuses, ring of regeneration, etc.) are still in effect.

P

Characters cannot parry or use any combat skills or talents except weapon or brawling skills. No custom combat styles may be used.

P

Characters using ranged weapons may use the Aimed Burst, Spread Burst, Suppression Fire, and Well Aimed Shot combat actions. They may not use Careful Aim, Dodging Fire, Escape Blast, Minimize Exposure, or Sudden Dive combat actions.

P

If using melee weapons, the character will move in the most direct path to his target and fight that target until they are dead. If using ranged weapons, the character will move such that he has a clear line of sight to the target and start shooting.

The character is cognizant enough to go around obstacles.

NPCs, fellow player-characters, and other living things are not obstacles, they are foes, and they will be attacked by the character if they do not get out of his way.

P

After killing the chosen target, the character (if armed with a melee weapon) will move to the next closest target in a direct manner and attack it. If armed with ranged weapons, the character will start shooting at the next closest target. When the closest target is dead, the character will then attack the next nearest target.

P

The character receives a +10 to his initiative roll.

P

The character receives a +10 bonus to all attack rolls.

P

The character receives a +10 bonus to his Adjusted Attack Roll (added to weapon size modifier).

P

The character ignores all Damage Caps when using melee weapons.

P

The character receives a bonus of +20 against all Stuns while frenzied.

P

The only DB bonus the character receives is for armor, shield and magical items (if they exist) (i.e. no Qu modifier, no skill modifier, etc.) Characters will not deliberately use cover (but may benefit from it if there is cover available.)

P

The character is not unconscious once he reaches 0 Hits. He will continue to fight on until he is dead.

P

The character will ignore all non-lethal, non-stunning and non-disabling damage until the frenzy is over. In particular the character will ignore penalties per se, but can still lose limbs, etc., rendering the frenzy ineffective.

P

The character will stay in a berserker rage for a number of rounds equal to his Constitution modifier. During that time, frenzied characters will attack anything in front of them, friend or foe. Once this time is up, the character will collapse in a state of total exhaustion and be unable to move for a number of rounds equal to the amount of time spent in the frenzy. They are then at -20 to all actions for another hour until they have regained their strength.

Breaking the Frenzy: Once the character has entered frenzy there is only one way to get him to come out of it early. That is by stunning him. Should the character receive a critical that indicates that he receives one or more rounds of stun, and fails his RR against that stun, he immediately drops out of the frenzy.

Frenzied characters with Stunblocker neuralware options can be unstoppable.

1 Example: Silth guards have attacked Corporal Maximilian’s comrades. Maximilian rages with anger and begins to work himself into a berserker frenzy. On the first round he makes a Frenzy percentage results maneuver roll which results in a 75 (Roll of 35 plus skill of 40). This shows a 70% completion, which

is recorded in the berserk pool. On round two, he rolls again and gets a result of 90%, which is added to the pool giving a running total of 160%. On round three, the result is 80% which brings the grand total to 240%. Maximilian is now berserk for round four. The chief Silth guard will never know what hit him. Hopefully his comrades will be able to drop to the ground and roll out of his way, before Maximilian turns on them in his uncontrollable fury. Maximilian will remain in this frenzied state for 9 rounds due to his constitution modifier of +9.

[Concentration – SD/Co – Special]

1

1 ^Gunnery

Gunnery covers the use of weapon systems such as cannon, mortars, missiles, and all varieties of vehicle-mounted weaponry.

(Weapon Skills cover personal combat.) Each weapon system type must be learned separately and a list of suggested specializations follows:

P

Archaic Ballistae: ballistae, bolt throwers, and other mechanical direct-fire weapons, etc.

P

Archaic Catapults: catapults and other mechanical indirect-fire weapons, etc.

P

Blackpowder Cannons: antique cannons, (demi-) culverins, carronades, and other gunpowder direct-fire weapons, etc.

P

Blackpowder Mortars: bombards, primitive mortars, and other gunpowder indirect-fire weapons, etc.

P

modern direct-fire systems: autocannon, laser cannon, modern cannon, particle beam cannon, plasma cannon, etc.

P

modern Indirect-fire systems: howitzers, mortars, etc.

P

Modern Missiles: space missiles, standard missiles, surface-to-air missiles, dropping bombs from aircraft, etc.

(Combat – Qu/In – Combat)

1

1 Horticulture

“The Sergeant always said that when the war was over, he was going home to Freiland and live out his days on his own farm. So during the False Peace, home he went. Shortly after, the Silth struck Freiland hard. Never heard again from the Sergeant, but I reckon the Silth would not have taken his farm without a real fight.”

This skill provides a bonus for the identification and care of plants. It allows knowledge of farming and other plant-raising techniques.

(Outdoor – Re/In – All-or-nothing)

1

1 Interrogation

This skill is used to obtain information from an intelligent creature, with or (more usually) without its cooperation. Interrogation can involve word and mind games to catch the victim in an unguarded admission, the use of drugs to reduce inhibitions, sensory deprivation, and threatening or inflicting induced or actual pain. Skilful interrogators are adept at focusing the ramblings of drugged victims into fruitful answers and sifting truth from lies and omissions. Fanatic inquisitors won’t stop until the unfortunate prisoner admits what they want to hear, true or not.

(Influence – Pr/In – RR)

1

1 ^Jumping

This skill defines a character’s ability to leap over, through, above, or past obstacles. The jump can be from a running or standing start. See the table below to calculate how hard the jump will be in standard Earth gravity – divide the distances by number of “gees”

for alternate gravities, see also Jumping and Gravity, Adventuring.

P

Pole vaulting (-10): This skill provides a bonus for using a pole to increase your jumping distance. You must have a running start for doing this.

(Physical – St/Ag – All-or-nothing)

The Jumping Table

Difficulty Broad Jump Running Broad Jump Standing Pole Vaulting High & Wide

Routine B.L. x 1.0 B.L. x 0.5 1m x 1m

Easy B.L. x 1.5 B.L. x 0.7 2m x 2m

Light B.L. x 2.0 B.L. x 0.9 2.5m x 2.5m

Medium B.L. x 2.5 B.L. x 1.1 3m x 3m

Hard B.L. x 3.0 B.L. x 1.5 4.5m x 4.5m

Very Hard B.L. x 3.5 B.L. x 2.0 6m x 6m

Ext. Hard B.L. x 4.0 B.L. x 2.5 9m x 9m

Sheer Folly B.L. x 4.5 B.L. x 3.0 12m x 12m

Absurd B.L. x 5.0 B.L. x 3.5 15m x 15m

In document HARP SF (Page 68-71)