Skills represent what your character is good at. They are a coarse way of both describing who your character is, what adventures he’s had, and what things he can do. They are also a means to add a little bit of random chance to the narrative of your adventure, through dice rolls. Will the thief get the lock open before the city guards catch you? The only way to know is to roll the dice. Literally.

A Word on Skills

The intention of a skill check is to provide a means for tasks to be accomplished without needing to dive into the details of the task. This makes it a judgement call for the GM; does he make his players make multiple rolls for the various steps on a task? Possibly, but he runs the risk of having the story he’s telling get bogged down.

We have made the decision to prefer narrative whenever possible. Because of this, things like your characters 25 years studying biology are not codified in your character sheet; that’s part of how you play your character. Instead, our list of skills is an attempt to provide a framework around the type of tasks heros are likely perform, and track your skill at them. Because combat is tactical, not narrative, we already had to decide the rules for how someone swings a sword, or shoots a gun. Our skill system is an attempt to expand that to the exciting, adventurous tasks a group of heros is likely to perform along their quest.

Note: Not every system is perfect! It’s likely that we have missed a skill that would be useful for your group’s particular adventure. That’s alright; talk with your GM, define what the skill’s uses are, and add it. The system intentionally supports this.

Making a Skill Check

A skill check is made by rolling a dice pool. A dice pool is made of the character’s skill dice, and opposing dice. When assembling the pool:

1. Gather the number of , , and told by the GM
2. Find the higher of the ranks in a skill, or the ability tied to the skill. Take that many die.
3. Find the lower of the ranks in the skill or the ability tied to the skill. Swap that many for
4. Add any if your GM tells you to.

For example, an easy task for a character with 1 rank in mechanic and 4 intellect rolls . The same roll is made for a character trying the same task, but with 4 ranks in mechanics and one intellect.

Degree of success

In SSRPG, there is the concept of ‘degree of success’, since multiple successes are possible. For all tasks, a single success means you accomplished your goal, however five successes might mean you do it in a fraction of the time, with a flourish. It is up to the GM to decide what your multiple successes mean, if anything. Skill checks are intended to be cinimatic, so the GM should feel free to play with your degree of success; perhaps if you only got one success you barely defused the bomb at the last second; however if you got five successes you deftly cut the wire with minutes to spare.

Advantages and Threat (Optional)

Since we use EotE dice, we also have and symbols that show up on various rolls. In SSRPG, these are only used (optionally) when making out of combat skill checks. If the GM decides to use them, an should signal that an unexpected positive event has happened as a result. For example, if you’re defusing a bomb and fail, but have an maybe you cut the wrong wire, but instead of blowing up, it reset the countdown. Now you have a little more time to get it right.

The symbol, on the other hand, means than an unexpected negative event has happened. Using the bomb scenario, perhaps you succeeded in cutting the right wire, but you triggered the alarm. Now you’ll have to deal with armed guards coming for you.

Don’t treat it as an obligation

The Advantage and Threat system is designed to give a nice cinematic spice to events; it should not be treated as a strict contract. Sometimes it makes no sense for something positive or negative to happen on a give roll. In those cases, the GM should ignore advantage and threat. It’s all about telling an interesting story; if you’re unsure what to do, always follow this rule:

If it’s fun and interesting, do it. If it’s annoying or tedious, ignore it.

Sticking by this can make and a nice cherry on top of your story telling.

Difficulties

How difficult a skill is will determine how likely you are to succeed, or not. We have a table of difficulties, and they’re general meaning:

Dice	Difficulty
—	Simple: A routine task where the outcome is rarely in doubt. Not rolled, unless the GM wants to know the degree of success, or die indicate a possible complication.
	Easy: A routine task that poses little challenge to most characters, but failure is still possible. Ex: finding a address in a city you live in.
	Average: A routine task where success is common enough, but failure isn’t surprising. Ex: finding an address in a city you’ve never visted before.
	Hard: A task that is challenging for most characters. Success is still feasible, but failure is far from surprising. Ex: Picking a complicated lock.
	Daunting: An atypical task that pushes characters to their limits. Success is still possible to achieve, but will be very difficult. A character with the proper training and resources will still fail more often then he succeeds at this task.
	Formidable: A task that seems impossible. With proper training, access to the right resources and a good deal of luck success might be possible, but the outcome is very uncertain, even for skilled characters.
	Impossible: A truely impossible task, for a non-hero. Only the best in the gallaxy can even attempt tasks like this, and when they succeed, legends are born.

Upgrading Difficulty

Sometimes, due to a complication, the base difficulty needs to be increased. To do so, you follow the following rules:

1. If there is a , convert it to a .
2. If all dice are already , add a .

Repeat them the number of times the challenge needs to be upgraded.

Note: Icreasing difficulty should follow the following progression:

1. Add a to the check.
2. Upgrade the difficulty.
3. Increast the difficulty to the next level (aka: add a ).

Trained vs Untrained

We consider a skill ‘trained’ if it has at least one rank in it. This has several advantages; it means that tracking what skills you’re trained in is the same as tracking what skills you have spent points on.

Skill Challenges

Standard Skill Challeng

A skill challenge is a useful way to spice up a session. Instead of just the occasional skill roll to determine whether or not a player succeeds at a minor task, skill challenges are group tasks that must be accomplished, and represent a possible branch in the narrative. One path (the perfered) will open up if the group succeeds the challenge, the other if they fail.

Note: A frequent mistake made is to think of the success of the task associated with the Skill Challenge as tied to the success of the skill challenge itself. That should not be the case; success of the task is presupposed. Instead, what a skill challenge determines is how the characters accomplish the task. For example, failing a skill challenge to escape a spaceport that’s been put on high alert doesn’t mean they don’t escape. Rather, it means that they now have to contend with a fleet of police vessels in orbit. Failure of a skill challenge should introduce a major complication, but should not block success of the overall goal.

Running a Skill Challenge

The basic mechanics of a skill challenge are simple:

1. The GM pick the number of successes required (generally 3). This is also the number of failures to indicate a failure of the challenge.
2. The GM describes the situation, and allows one player at a time to roll a skill to try and progress the task. The GM sets the difficulty based on the action described.
3. (Optional) If a player attempts to use the same skill more than once, the difficulty is upgraded due to fatigue.
4. Once either the required number of successes or failures are hit, the challenge is over.

The most difficult part of running a skill challenge is setting the difficulty, and making sure there are enough possible ways to approach it that multiple skills can be used. As a GM, you should encourage your players to come up with creative uses for skills. You should also attempt to build challenges that highlight different specialties in your group; you might not be able to build a skill challenge that all your players are good at, but if you have one that some excell at, make sure your next one is geared towards the other people in your group.

Skill Challenges should be a highlight of a session, not a chore.

Dramatic Moments (Optional)

Dramatic moments are points in a story when the action is at it’s most furious and the stakes are high. Think of them like a skill challenge on steroids. GMs should use them to punctuate a story arc, or as a final moment of desperation for the heros. Dramatic Moments are always time sensitive. (Trust us, it’s more exciting that way.) Also, they frequently involve (or happen during) combat.

First, the GM must decide how many rounds the players have to perform their task. Typically, Dramatic Moments are 5 to 10 rounds. For a guideline, take how long you would normally expect the party to accomplish the task. Now, subtract a quarter of that.

Once the GM has decided how many rounds it takes, he must decide the difficulty of the task. This should be fairly high; this is the perfect chance to make the heros work for it. Keep in mind, however, the players will need multiple successes to complete the task in the time limit allotted.

Now the player’s are ready to complete the task. Initiative is rolled as if in combat, regardless of if there are enemies around. All turns follow normal initiative rules, with one exception: at the top of every round, the players must declare who will be their representative in accomplishing the task. It can be the same person every round; the GM just needs to know.

On the representative’s turn, they have the choice to act normally, or try and progress the task. If they choose to progress the task, the GM will give them a skill to roll, and the difficulty. (Note: it is possible to have tasks with rising difficulty. These moments are a place where a GM can really have fun.) If the player succeeds, the task has progressed, and the players are one step closer to victory. However, if they generate a Despair, the GM should add a complication (such as guards showing up, etc.)

The task is considered complete once the group has a total of 5 successes. Failures in this case do not matter; successes are only cumulative and do not need to be concurrent.

Remember, Dramatic Moments are supposed to be fun for both the players and the GM. Feel free to experiment with what works best for your group. And if they don’t work, feel free to skip them. They are just one more way to spice up your adventures!

Skills List

By default, all Characters have all Skills available to them. Thier class will give them free ranks in some skills, and as they level they will get skills points to put into these skills.

General

• Arcana - Intellect
• Acrobatics - Agility
• Athletics - Brawn
• Charm - Presence
• Deception - Presence
• Discipline - Wisdom
• Divinity - Wisdom
• Endurance - Vitality
• Insight - Presence
• Intimidate - Presence
• Lore - Intellect
• Mechanics - Intellect
• Medicine - Intellect
• Nature - Wisdom
• Research - Intellect
• Software - Intellect
• Stealth - Agility
• Streetwise - Wisdom
• Thievery - Agility
• Vigilance - Wisdom

Vehicle

• Avionics - Agility
• Driving - Agility
• Riding - Presence
• Sailing - Intellect
• Starship - Intellect

Skills Explained

All skills embody both the ability to perform actions related to the skill and knowledge about the skill. If you’re trying to identify what type of spell the assailant was using in the security footage, the character with 3 ranks in Arcana can probably tell you.

General Skills

Arcana

Sorcerers and Wizards alike practice magic through the use of the arcana skill. They study the arcane, learning ancient truths about the world, or deepening their understanding of the magical nature of the universe. Arcana can even be used to make magical elixirs, or to transcribe sigils.

Uses: identifying a spell, reading a magical scroll, crafting a magic item, casting a ritual

Acrobatics

Simply put, ‘acrobatics’ is the ability for your character to move with speed and precision. This could be leaping from rooftop to rooftop or dodging bullets; and agile character is one who is always right where he wants to be.

Uses: dodging, jumping, dancing

Athletics

Atheltics is the power your character can put behind an action in the short term. If an atheltic action takes a significant amount of time, it will eventually become an endurance check.

Uses: jumping, swimming, breaking down a door, climbing

Charm

Charm is all about making people want what you want them to want. Or, put another way, it’s all about manipulation. From flirting with the bar maiden to negotiating a peace treaty between two warring factions, you are using your force of personality and likability to make others agree with you.

Uses: flirting, negotiation, distracting

Deception

Similar to charm on the surface, deception is about manipulating people through falsehood. Instead of trying to make yourself likeable enough that they want to agree with you, you’re spinning half-truths and bald-faced lies to get them to do what you want. This difference between the two can be blurred, sometimes, but it comes down to this: Does your character believe what he’s saying? If so, it’s charm. If not, it’s deception.

Uses: lying, telling stories, impersonating people, disguises

Discipline

Discipline is learning how to control your body using nothing but your own willpower. Being able to take a punch without wincing, or remain calm in the face of frightening circumstances requires deep mental reserves, honed over hours upon hours of training.

Uses: keep calm, mind over body, endure torture

Divinity

Even in a world of magic and technology, there’s still room for believe in the spiritual. Divinity is not just your knowledge about spiritual things, but also how intune you are with your own beliefs. Characters with a high Divinity can sometimes even commune with thier deities.

Uses: Identifiying a religous symbol, appealing to a Deity for assistance, channeling spiritual power

Endurance

Endurance is the ability for a character to exert themselves for long periods of time, without exhaustion. It’s also the ability to resist poison, or other negative physical effects. Characters with a high endurance can put themselves through quite a bit of physical torture, and make it out just fine.

Uses: resist poison, carry heavy load, resist getting drunk, run or swim long distances

Insight

Some people have the ability to innately empathise with other people. Others have the ability to simply know when a person is lying. Characters like these have high insight skills. Insight is about the ability to understand other people, think like them, understand what they may be feeling or thinking and why. It can also be used to out think someone, and say, beat them at a game of chess.

Uses: detecting lies, noticing how someone feels, outmaneuvering an opponent

Intimidate

Intimidation is the other side of the coin from charm. Whereas charm is about making people want what you want, intimidation is about making them afraid enough to go along with what you want. There are two ways to manipulate people into doing what you want; if you’re being kind about it, that’s charm. If you’re not, that’s intimidate.

Forcing surrender

You can force a surrender against an opponent that has more than half their maximum number of wounds (or has spend more than half of their stamina). The difficulty is your Intimidate vs their Willpower, upgraded according to thier hostility before the battle:

Hostility	Results
Ally	Upgrade your intimidate score twice
Friendly	Upgrade your Intimidate score once
Neutral	No upgrade
Unfriendly	Upgrade your difficulty once
Hated Foe	Upgrade your difficulty twice

If you have any success, the enemy will drop initiative, unless attacked again.

Uses: making enemies surrender, force prisoners to reveal information

Lore

Every culture has it’s own version of fairy tales. Every group has its own history, and who’s to say what’s myth and what’s fact anymore? Lore is not just the acquisition of these stories, but a deep understanding of them and their meaning. In addition, it’s the ability to retell these stories in vivid details. Characters who always have a fact on hand, or who always have an exciting story to tell, all have high lore skills.

Uses: solving riddles, retelling stories, remembering the characters from mythology

Mechanics

People with high mechanics are the wizards of the technological world. From fixing a starship, to simply repairing a watch, players with a high Mechanics skill will always have something to fix.

Uses: fixing a hyperdrive, fixing a clock, building pneumatic claws

Medicine

There are many ways to heal in [SSRPG], but that doesn’t mean that good ol’ fashion medicine is worthless either. Not only does it allow you to heal critical injuries, but it gives you knowledge of racial anatomy, or how to make healing potions.

Uses: healing critical injuries, making a healing salve, locating a pressure point

Nature

Nature is, first and foremost, knowledge and intuition about nature and natural creatures. Characters with high nature skills understand the kinship we share with the natural world, and as a result, are able to survive in it that much easier.

Uses: forage berries, identify animals, tracking

Research

There is a phrase, “learning how to learn”. That is, in short, what the research skill is; how good are you at finding the information you’re looking for? We see this all the time; how many times has a friend asked you a question that you answered by typing it in a search engine and clicking the first search result?

Uses: gathering information from book or computers, knowing what the best place to look for information is

Software

We assume that almost everyone can use technology. This skill is more about hacking into computer systems, or writing security software, or any other advanced software based usage.

General use

Difficulty	Task
-	check your email; file taxes online; research general topics
	Access someone else’s personal computer or email account; create a secrity system for your own computer.
	Access a corporately secured computer; access a server on the same local network.
	Access a corporately secured computer remotely; disrupt or destroy a local network.
	Decrypt encrypted data without the proper key; disrupt or destroy a region network.
	Bring down the global/galatic network.

Securing your computers

To secure your own computer, server, or network, first choose how difficult it should be; that is your opposing die pool. Any success means anyone attempting to bypass or distrupt your computer will need to succeede that same check. could mean you have left some holes open. Each upgrades the difficulty by 1. The effect of a is up the GM and may not be apparent for a long time.

Uses: hack the Gibson, write a virus, recover deleted emails

Stealth

Stealth is not just the ability to move unseen, but also unheard. It represents all things sneaky. Also, characters that are able to move through a crowd without sticking out have a high stealth.

Uses: moving silently, blending in with a crowd

Streetwise

From finding an object on the black market, to getting a job with the local mob boss, characters with the streetwise skill know how to handle themselves with the most unsavory of characters. These skills and knowledge are hard-won, and most characters will have the scars to prove it. In addition, characters with streetwise know how to feel out a crowd, and find out ‘the word on the street.’

Uses: gather information from people, make a deal with the mob, find an object on the black market

Thievery

Sometimes, even heros need to take an item that doesn’t belong to them (and sometimes your ‘heros’ hardly deserve the name). That’s when they’ll be glad they brought someone along that has a high thievery skill.

Uses: breaking into a building, picking a lock, picking a pocket

Vigilance

Vigilance represents a character’s situational awareness. Characters with high vigilance are rarely surprised by an attack, and always know where you set your mug the night before, despite their drunken haze.

Uses: detecting an ambush, searching for a secret passage

Vehicle Skills

Driving

In some settings it can be difficult to figure out exactly where the difference between ‘driving’ and ‘piloting’. The rule of thumb to use is this: can you consider it a ‘ground vehicle’? Does it have wheels, or operate near the ground? If so, then driving is the skill to use.

Uses: evading the cops, racing a motorcycle, piloting a hover vehicle

Piloting

Escaping the pursuing Imperial fighters, doing a bombing run against a hardened bunker in a F-22, or navigating a hot air balloon around the globe, all of these are examples of piloting. If the vehicle is small, fast, and not ground based, then it probably involves piloting.

Uses: dogfighting in a starfighter, flying a jetliner, controlling an EVA suit

Riding

Sometimes you need to charge into the fray riding your psychic tandem war elephant. Other times, you just need to jump across the gap between floorboards, riding your faithful mouse, dodging the evil cat lord. When you do, you will be glad to have a high ride skill.

Uses: riding a horse, riding a dewback

Navigating

Large vehicles can’t be ‘driven’, or ‘piloted’. Sometimes they’re just so large, the only way you can control them is to ‘navigate’ them. You’re plotting a course well in advance, because once you’re committed, there’s no time to attempt to change course.

That isn’t to say that more agile vehicles don’t have to use navigation, either. In some settings, faster than light travel involves intense, painstaking calculations. That is an example of a vehicle that normally uses Piloting needing to use Navigating instead.

Uses: charting a course for a starship, sailing a boat across an ocean, calculating the jump to hyperspace

Gathering Information

There are three ways to gather information; from a specific person, from a group of people, or from reference material, like a book or the internet. The intent in [SSRPG] was that each of these tasks should have their own skill to use. The usage goes like this:

You gathering information from:	Use:
A specific person	If they are willing, Charm, otherwise Intimidate
A group, or people in a given location	Streetwise
A reference source (Book, computer)	Research

Knowledge Skills

As you may have noticed, [SSRPG] does not have pure knowledge skills. Even heavily knowledge based skills, like Lore have actions they can perform. Our intention is that all skills be both active, and represent the experience and knowledge gathered through training and use. As you level, you gain skill points to put into your skills; this is meant to represent the experience and wisdom you’ve gained through your use of those skills. So, by design, all skills are ‘knowledge skills’, and all skills have active components.