Mediocre (+0) Everyday Items Average (+1) Most street level
firearms, high-end electronics Fair (+2) High-end Firearms,
Top of the line consumer electronics
Good (+3) Average vehicle, SOTA electronics Great (+4) Top-end vehicle, Average house
Superb (+5) Small Mansion
Fantastic (+6) Large Mansion Epic (+7) Military vehicles
such as a tank.
Monstrous (+8) Fighter jet, private luxury jet Colossal (+10) A Skyscraper Unearthly (+11) A private space craft Inconceivable (+12) You can buy real
estate off world.
Stealth
The Stealth skill allows you to avoid detection, both when hiding in place and trying to move about unseen.
It pairs well with the Thief skill.
Overcome: You can use Stealth to get past any situation that primarily depends on you not being seen. Sneaking past sentries and security, hiding from a pursuer, avoiding leaving evidence as you pass through a place, and any other such uses all fall under the purview of Stealth.
Create an Advantage: You’ll mainly use Stealth to create aspects on yourself, setting yourself in an ideal
position for an attack or ambush in a conflict. That way, you can be Well-Hidden when the patrol passes you in the secret villain lair and take advantage of that, or Hard to Pin Down if you’re fighting in the dark.
Attack: Stealth isn’t used to make attacks.
Defend: You can use this to foil Notice attempts to pinpoint you or seek you out, as well as to try to throw off the scent of an Investigate attempt from someone trying to track you.
Technology
Characters with this skill understand the mechanics of how things operate, from primitive catapults, to modern vehicles, and even powered-armor or alien technology. Like with the Knowledge skill, the Technology skill represents a broad knowledge, while Stunts allow you to narrow your character’s true areas of expertise.
Overcome: Technology is used to overcome obstacles that relate to repairing anything from a car, to a computer, to alien and super-science technology. You’ll also use it for hacking through computer systems, as well as bypassing electronic security devices. When you discover a piece of mysterious technology, you’ll also use the skill to figure out how it works, and whether or not it is about to go BOOM! Technology is also used for inventing any non-magical device.
Create an Advantage: Primarily, Technology is used to create situational advantages that will assist you in overcoming obstacles, such as having advanced tools on hand, getting a brain-storm, or having some other type of technological knowledge asset that gives you an edge.
Attack: You probably won’t use Technology to attack in a conflict, unless the conflict is directly about using some sort of machinery. GMs and players, talk over the likelihood of this happening in your game if you have someone who is really interested in taking this skill. Usually, weapons you invent are likely to be used with other skills to attack— a guy who makes an ice gun still needs Accuracy to have a chance of hitting his target.
Defend: As with attacking, Technology doesn’t defend, unless you’re somehow using it as the skill to control a piece of machinery that you can use to block an attack.
Thief
The Thief skill covers your character’s aptitude for stealing things and getting into places that are off-limits.
Thief shares one benefit with Technology, which is knowledge of electronic security systems. So, if your character is skilled and breaking-and-entering, but isn’t necessarily knowledgeable in a broader range of technology, the Thief skill will serve your purposes just fine.
Overcome: As stated above, Thief allows you to overcome any obstacle related to theft or infiltration.
Bypassing electronic locks and motion sensors, pickpocketing and filching, covering your tracks, and other such activities all fall under the purview of this skill.
Create an Advantage: You can case a location with Thief, to determine how hard it will be to break into and what kind of security you’re dealing with, as well as discover any vulnerabilities you might exploit.
You can also examine the work of other burglars to determine how a particular heist was done, and create or discover aspects related to whatever evidence they may have left behind.
Attack: Thief isn’t used for attacks.
Defend: Same here. It’s not really a conflict skill, so there’s not a lot of opportunity to use it to defend.
Treatment
This skill covers the treatment and diagnosis of physical injuries, and is used to treat patients such as with first-aid, quick suturing, or even emergency surgery.
Overcome: Treatment will mostly be used when healing another’s physical injuries, and as such will have to overcome the Opposition to do so. It can also be used to notice when someone else (such as an opponent) is injured and trying to hide, which means that Treatment would be used instead of the Notice skill and would be opposed by the other’s Deceive skill.
Create an Advantage: The Treatment skill offers an interesting range of options when creating advantages on a patient, from hitting them up with Pain Reducing Drugs to giving them a Boost of Adrenaline.
Attack: Treatment is not used to attack.
Defend: Treatment does not apply to a Defend action.
Vehicles
The Vehicles skill is all about operating vehicles and things that go fast— everything from cars and motorcycles, to boats, to aircraft and space vessels.
Overcome: Vehicles is the equivalent of Athletics when you’re in a vehicle—you use it to successfully accomplish movement in the face of difficult circumstances, like rough terrain, small amounts of clearance, or stunt driving. Obviously, Vehicles is also ripe for contests, especially chases and races.
Create an Advantage: You can use Vehicles to determine the best way to get somewhere in a vehicle, and a good enough roll might allow you to learn features of the route that get expressed as aspects, or declare that you know a Convenient Shortcut or something similar.
You can also just read the Athletics description, and then make it about a vehicle. Advantages created using Vehicles often revolve around getting good positioning, doing a fancy maneuver, or putting your opponent in a bad spot.
Attack: Vehicles isn’t usually used as an attack skill (though stunts can certainly alter this). If you want to ram a vehicle, you can attack with Vehicles, but you take the same shifts of harm you inflict.
Defend: Avoiding damage to a vehicle in a physical conflict is one of the most common uses of Vehicles.
You can also use it to defend against advantages being created against you or overcome actions of someone trying to move past you in a vehicle.
Weapons
Shields, swords, maces, batons, fighting sticks—
these are just more tools of your trade when you’re trained in the Weapons skill.
Overcome: Just as with Fight, you don’t really use Weapons outside of a conflict, it’s not often used to overcome obstacles.
Create an Advantage: Again, same as with Fight, and we’ll just repeat it here: You’ll probably use Weapons for most of the advantages you create in a physical conflict. Any number of special moves can be covered with advantages: a targeted strike to stun,
a “dirty move,” disarming, and so on.
Attack: Naturally, this is a skill for melee fighting, which means you’ll have to be close to your opponent.
Defend: Blocks, parries, and deflections— Weapons is a key skill for defense.
Will
The Will skill represents your character’s general level of mental fortitude, the same way Physique represents your physical fortitude.
Overcome: You can use Will to pit yourself against obstacles that require mental effort. Puzzles and riddles can fall under this category, as well as any mentally absorbing task, like deciphering a code.
Use Will when it’s only a matter of time before you overcome the mental challenge, and Knowledge if it takes something more than brute mental force to get past it. Many of the obstacles that you go up against with Will might be made part of challenges, to reflect the effort involved.
Contests of Will might reflect particularly challenging games, like chess, or competing in a hard set of exams.
Will also serves as your defense against psychic and mystical attacks
Create an Advantage: You can use Will to place aspects on yourself, representing a state of deep concentration or focus.
Attack: Will isn’t really used for attacks.
Defend: Will is the main skill you use to defend against mental attacks from Provoke, representing your control over your reactions. It is also used in Defend actions against psychic and mental attacks.
Special: The Will skill gives you additional mental stress boxes or consequence slots. Average (+1) or Fair (+2) gives you 1 extra stress box. Good (+3) or Great (+4) gives you 2 extra stress boxes. Superb (+5) and above give you an additional mild consequence slot along with the additional stress boxes. This slot can only be used for mental harm.
Chapter 8: Stunts
There are three basic things a stunt can do, as detailed below.