Skills
The next thing for you to do is to
decide which skills you want. Skills
are more specific than stats. They are
arguably the most important part of the game, and most definitely the most important
part of this book, because they not only tell you what your character is good
at but give you a starting point for the many actions you can do while
role-playing through your adventure.
You’ll start off with 18 Character
Points (CP) to spend on skills, and
once again the Gamemaster may adjust this number if s/he thinks it will make it
more appropriate for a particular character.
You’ll notice that different skills cost varying amounts of CP to raise
to the next level.
Virtually every skill has a Base
Stat which shows what kind of abilities are needed to do it well. Unless there’s a note to tell you otherwise,
the Level of the skill is the number of dice you roll (plus one Wild Die), and
on top of that you add the Base Stat to whatever dice roll comes up.
Specializations
If you feel that you absolutely must
be more specific about a spell than it’s listed, you can choose to specialize
it if you want. First, approve your
specialization with the GM. Then, write
it down on your character sheet under the skill it’s a specialization of. Raising this specialization by itself costs
half as much as the skill does (round up when you get a fraction, unless you raise
by more than one level at a time).
Raising the regular skill will inherently raise the specialization, also.
For instance, say you want your
character to earn the Knowledge skill of “Eras” at level 1, but would like to specify
that the Middle Ages is the era he’s studied the most. You might write this down:
Eras: Level 1
Middle Ages: Level 3
The “Eras” skill normally costs 1
CP, so earning it at Level 1 would cost 1 CP while raising a Middle Ages
specialty up two more levels would only cost 1 CP instead of 2. (Whether you have to earn a skill at Level 1
before you can specialize in a certain area of that skill is the GM’s call)
Skill
List
This next part of the skills section
lists most of the skill you’re likely to need during the game. Don’t feel limited by them, though. The story is yours, and therefore you should
be free to use, create, and change and skills you want to. Some skills have descriptions of how they
can be used at different levels just as a convenience to you; the skills
without these descriptions work similarly.
Hopefully they’ll be simple enough that you’ll find using them
self-explanatory.
Regular Melee Cost: 2
Type:
Learned Skill
Base
Stat: Agility
Learning
this skill will give you skills in all sorts of small- to medium-sized
weaponry. It’s mostly used for swords,
but with it you can also fight effectively with knives, rods, small maces, and
basically any type of weapon that is treated as an extension of your forearm.
To
use:
When
a character fights with a regular melee weapon, it usually requires two
rolls. The first roll is to decide
whether the blow hits the target it was intended for (“To Hit”); the second
determines how much damage it inflicts (“To Damage”). This will be explained in depth in the Combat section, but for
now we’ll describe what stats and skills are important when using weapon
skills. To hit, you roll the number of dice equal to your
Regular Melee skill and add it to your Agility. To damage, you roll your weapon’s damage level and add it to your
Strength.
Possible
Specializations:
Sword
Short Axe/Spear
Staff/Mace
Level
1: Has just started learning about hand-to-hand combat; usually only supports a
companion.
Level
2: Quite promising and moderately skilled. Good at one-on-one.
Level
3: Has reached an advanced level of fighting; can take on several people at
once.
Level
4: A fantastic fighter. Can fight
off a dozen average fighters at once.
Heavy Melee Cost: 2
Type:
Learned Skill
Base
Stat: Agility
Many
anime characters don’t like limiting themselves to weapons that weigh less than
a small person! Heavy Melee works just
the same as Regular Melee (roll skill to hit, roll Strength + Weapon to
damage), but it’s only used for weaponry that the requires the wielder to put
the full force of their body into the attack. This could be a battleaxe, a very
large club, a naginata, a heavy spear, or even a claymoore. A character who uses these kinds of weapons
must also have fairly high strength, or he or she may have an even harder time
fighting because of their weapon’s weight.
Possible
Specializations:
Bastard Sword (any big sword)
Battleaxe/Long Spear
Heavy Mace/Club
Level
1: Finds it difficult to hit things, but capable of a pretty good attack.
Level
2: Gets in a good thrashing most of the time, but has weak spots.
Level
3: Easily gets around the size of their weapon to deliver multiple crushing
blows.
Level
4: Who needs multiple attacks — hit them all in one swing!
Martial Arts Cost: 3
Type:
Learned Skill
Base
Stat: Agility
Evade Cost: 1
Type:
Natural Skill
Base
Stat: Agility
Aim Cost: 1
Type:
Natural Skill
Base
Stat: Perception
Aim
is the skill used whenever eyeballing a target is absolutely necessary. Firing bows and guns are good uses of the
Aim skill. Since Aim relies heavily on
a character’s senses, their “to hit” roll uses Perception. Damage, on the other
hand, is based on their reflexes and coordination, so when damaging add your
Agility to the Weapon’s roll.
Possible
Specializations:
Bow and Arrow
Gun
Level
1: Can hit a moving target if given enough time to let off several shots.
Level
2: Usually able to hit a nearby moving target or a target that’s several
hundred feet away.
Level
3: Can hit targets from far away or under changing conditions.
Level
4: Can hit a bird in the forest on a foggy day!
Throw Cost: 1
Type:
Learned Skill
Base
Stat: Perception
Timing
and coordination are especially important with throwing weapons. Throw is used specifically for small thrown
projectiles, i.e. knives, throwing stars, and bolas, and in addition any
Regular Melee weapon or lightweight item you decide to throw. Rolling for thrown weapon attacks works the
same as Aiming, but the skill is a little different. Throw also governs the use of rope-like weapons such as whips and
grappling hooks.
Possible
Specializations:
Knives/Throwing Stars (also called
“Shuriken”)
Discus/Boomerang
Whip/Chain
Level
1: Gets the weapon spinning properly, but misses quite a lot.
Level
2: Can regularly hit within 2 feet of where they’re aiming if thrown one at a
time.
Level
3: Rarely misses anything within their throwing distance unless it’s moving.
Level
4: Accurately picks out and hits multiple nearby targets at once.
Lift ‘n’ Toss Cost: 1
Type:
Natural Skill
Base
Stat: Strength
Lift
‘n’ Toss is unlike Throw because it’s used for simply picking up and heaving
objects as hard as you can. Both
hitting and damaging are determined with Strength, but it’s easier to dodge
than other attacks.
Level
1: Can throw rocks bigger than their fist.
Level
2: Could swing a heavy bookbag hard enough to knock someone over.
Level
3: Could toss your computer at you with one arm.
Level
4: Don’t get her angry or she might pick up that boulder over there and drop it
on your face!
Boxing Cost: 2
Type:
Natural Skill
Base
Stat: Strength
Squash Cost: 2
Type:
Natural Skill
Base
Stat: Strength
“Squash”
is for using the full force of one’s body to bulldoze over someone or
something. You’re free to use any part
of the body you want as long as all force is put into the blow. (Squash can also be used similarly to “Bonk”
— imagine a beefy warrior who is always accidentally squishing his friends!)
Level
1: Can trip you if you’re not paying attention.
Level
2: One good hit will knock a large person over.
Level
3: Could pin a weight-lifter to the wall.
Level
4: Just get out of the way!!
Bonk Cost: 1
Type:
Natural Skill
Base
Stat: Vitality
Ever
seen what happens when a little anime schoolgirl gets really angry at a
seven-foot tall 300 lb. bad guy? It
would probably involve something like a mallet to the head, a jab to the gut,
or even a running headbutt, beating the stuffing out of the unlucky
recipient. And he didn’t even see it
coming!
Bonk
is the silly alternative to fair fighting.
It rolls just like regular combat, except the Bonker rolls his or her
Bonk skill and the Bonked defends by rolling his or her Vitality or Strength
stat, whichever is higher. If both
sides are angry at eachother and simultaneously try to Bonk one another, they
each roll their Bonk skill against the other, and a Bonk fight may ensue (you
know — dust clouds, big yellow stars, punctuation flying everywhere, etc). Some bickersome characters tend to do this
to other party members!
Damage
is done the same as regular damage, except that no one can really be truly
injured from a good Bonking. They’re
just put out for several rounds. Being
“Stunned” and “Losing Balance” are the same, but instead of getting hurt:
*
at Damage Level 2 the victim is unable to do anything for two rounds (or about
10 seconds);
*
at Damage Level 3 they’re put out for a good four rounds (or about 25 seconds);
*
and at Damage Level 4 instead of being mortally wounded they’ll be knocked
unconscious for anywhere up to five minutes or so, at the GM’s discretion.
Level
1: Capable of delivering an especially nasty slap to the face or elbow to the
ribs.
Level
2: A little firebrand who is knowing for knocking people over when angry.
Level
3: Indignantly beats characters to a pulp when embarrassed, and then sits on
their head.
Level
4: Knocks people upside the head and they fly to the moon, disappearing in a
tiny twinkle.
A note to the GM about Bonk:
Bonking
is for games that are a little on the silly side. If you’re the GM and are aiming for a game that is more serious,
such as a Martial Arts Drama or Deep Horror, you may want to keep players from
using this ability and others like it.
In fact, it may be better to encourage them not to even play the types
of characters who would excel in skills such as Bonk in the first place, to
prevent the problem from coming up.
Also, if you want a big, buff humorous character who simply doesn’t know
his own strength, try “Squash” instead.
Big Chance Cost: 1
Type:
Natural Skill
Base
Stat: Vitality
You
know what happens when a character does something completely outrageous in a
tight spot; so crazy that it makes all their companions nearly have a heart
attack? Well that character is just
very good at taking huge chances. ^_^
Big chances may have a hefty payoff, or they may fail completely and
leave the character in a real bind.
Rolling a Big Chance:
First,
the player should declare that their character is going to take a Big Chance on
their upcoming roll. This is a free
action, so you can do it whenever you want, but
the player has to think up a good reason why what they’re doing is a big
chance. The easiest times to take a big
chance are when an enemy is caught unawares and isn’t expecting the character
to do something, or when the character is trying to accomplish a difficult task
in a big rush.
When
all is agreed and it’s time to roll for that action, first you roll the Big
Chance skill. The wild die doesn’t act
normally for this roll. If it comes up
as a 4, 5, or 6, you add the entire roll
(wild die and Vitality stat included) to the character’s next roll. If the wild
die comes up as a 1, 2, or 3, you subtract
the entire roll from the character’s next roll.
Success
could mean a huge comeback for the party, failure could put everyone in a very
bad spot. However, the GM is encouraged
not to let a failed Big Chance kill a character off, unless s/he was knowingly
doing something that was extremely dangerous to life and limb (i.e. attacking a
20-foot tall demonic necromancer who knew it was coming).
Big Chance not raised any
levels:
Character can take 1 Big Chance per adventure.
Level
1: Character can take 2 Big Chances per adventure.
Level
2: Character can take 3 Big Chances per adventure.
Level
3: Character can take 4 Big Chances per adventure.
Level
4: Character can take 5 Big Chances per adventure.
Recovery Cost: 3
Type:
Natural Skill
Base
Stat: Vitality
Recovery
is a very important skill, especially in battle. It measures a character’s
ability to bounce back after being injured.
It’s an action just like any other, except that in battle you can’t do
it in conjunction with multiple actions during the round, and the difficulty
doubles. Also, in battle if your
character reaches Hurt, Fallen, or Fatal Wound, they can only recover one damage
level without further help.
Recovery: Difficulty:
Recovering fully from Lost
Balance Easy (6-10)
Recovering from Hurt back to Lost Balance Challenging (11-15)
Recovering from Fallen
back to Hurt Difficult (16-20)
Recovering
from Fatal
Wound back to Fallen Extremely
Difficult (21-25)
Operate Cost: 2
Type:
Learned Skill
Base
Stat: Technical
Operate
is all about piloting, aiming, and otherwise working machinery, inventions, and
other complicated devices. Use it to fight
with any mechanical weapon more complicated than a gun.
Invent/Modify Cost: 2
Type:
Learned Skill
Base
Stat: Technical
Build/Repair Cost: 2
Type:
Learned Skill
Base
Stat: Technical
Sabotage Cost: 2
Type:
Natural Skill
Base
Stat: Technical
Eras Cost: 1
Type:
Natural Skill
Base
Stat: Knowledge
Knowledge
about the timeline of the Blue Crescent.
Specializations are up to you; they can include certain types of
knowledge — such as cultural, mythological, and legendary — specific eras, or specific
regions.
Disguise Cost: 2
Type:
Natural Skill
Base
Stat: Knowledge
Magic
Type:
Learned Skill
Base
Stat: Knowledge
(If
you want to learn magic, skip ahead to the Magic section to learn how to use
it.)
Con Cost: 2
Type:
Natural Skill
Base
Stat: Perception
Distraction Cost: 1
Type:
Natural Skill
Base
Stat: Perception
Sneak Cost: 2
Type:
Natural Skill
Base
Stat: Perception
Thievery Cost: 2
Type:
Natural Skill
Base
Stat: Agility