Skill Rank	Description
0	Unskilled (for Basic Skills) or Familiarity (for Advanced Skills). A character can try it, but he’s not very knowledgeable about it.
1	Proficient. A character has some experience in this field and can handle routine tasks pretty well. Difficult tasks might require some help but he could get by.
2	Skilled. You’re not quite an expert, but you’re good. Routine tasks are no problem for you and difficult tasks can be handled.
3	Very Skilled. You are now an expert. Easy tasks are a breeze and even the most difficult of problems can be overcome.
4	Extremely Skilled. You can be considered a guru. You can do routine tasks in your sleep and you’re on the cutting edge when it comes to applying this skill.
5	Incredible. One of the best in the world. A true master. You can do things that few others will even attempt.
6+	Legendary. Anyone with a value of 6 or more in an outer skill is a genius in that area. Others in your field look at you in amazement at what you can do. People may write books or sing songs about you and this skill.

Skill Flips

There are two ways that skills are used in the game:

• Unopposed Skill Flip
• Opposed Skill Flip

With an Unopposed Skill Flip, a character is working against the situation and himself. He needs to do something like performing a task or remembering a fact and no other character is actively working against him. When this happens, a character must meet or exceed a Difficulty Target Number (DTN) given by the GM. The harder the task is, the higher the target number.

If two or more characters are working against each other, they will both make checks and the results will be compared. These are Opposed Skill Flips.

Note: The Flipping “Too Many” Cards rule only applies to opposed flips. An unopposed skill flip would not be affected.

Unopposed Skill Flips

When a character uses a skill, he may not always succeed. The amount of ranks in a skill, the environment, and the difficulty of the task itself all play a part in success or failure.

A character will flip a number of cards equal to his skill rank plus or minus any flip modifiers. He will then choose one of the flipped cards to use (usually the highest) and adds the current value of the Aspect that matches the skill. He will then add in any other possible modifiers to get a final value. That final number is compared to the target number to see if he succeeds or fails.

Unopposed Skill Flip Summary
Character making the attempt:
Flips a number equal to his Skill Rank plus or minus any flip mods
Chooses one card to keep
Add in associated Aspect
Adds or subtracts any flip shifts
Compare result to the DTN. Equal or exceed the DTN to succeed

Difficulty Target Numbers (DTN)

Unopposed Skill Flips are made against a Difficulty Target Number (DTN) set by the GM. The player’s check must equal or exceed that value to achieve success. For a task with a DTN of 15, you must end up with a final skill flip value equal to or higher than 15.

Description	DTN
Extremely Easy	5+
Very Easy	7+
Easy	9+
Average	12+
Hard	15+
Very Hard	18+
Near Impossible	21+
Impossible	25+

In the Skill descriptions, you will find more specific examples of Difficulty Target Numbers based on circumstances related to that skill.

Example: “Wrongway” Tony is going to attempt a Knowledge: History check. He has a Skill Rank of 2. Knowledge: History is linked to the Acquired Intellect aspect. Tony has a value of 3 in [AI]. He will flip 2 cards and take the higher one and then add 3 to that value.

Opposed Skill Flips

There will be many times when characters will use their skills in opposition to one another. A thief trying to sneak past a guard is going to use his Stealth versus the guard’s Notice. A con artist trying to scam someone is going to use his Persuasion versus his target’s Discipline or Assessment. For Opposed Skill Flips, the GM decides the appropriate skills to be used by the participants. He then chooses any Flip Mods or Flip Shifts to be applied to the characters involved.

The characters participating in the action then flip a number of cards equal to their skill ranks plus or minus any Flip Mods. The participants then add the value of the Aspect that matches the skill they are utilizing. Lastly, they add any other Flip Shifts to get a final value. Whoever is higher wins. In the case of a tie, compare the value of the Aspects that were used, and the higher one wins. In the case of a tie in Aspect values, then the character who initiated the opposed skill flip wins.

The following chart shows some examples of Opposed Skill Flips:

Activity	Skill (and Specialization)	Opposing Skill (and Specialization)
Sneaking past a guard	Stealth (Silent Movement)	Notice (Patrol/Guard)
Lying to someone	Persuasion (Lying)	Assessment (Detect Lies)
Scare someone into revealing info	Intimidation (Interrogation)	Discipline (Resist Interrogation)
Winning a singing contest	Perform (Singing)	Perform (Singing)
Imitate another person	Disguise	Notice [SP]

Opposed Skill Flip Summary
All parties making the attempt:
Flip a number equal to Skill Rank plus or minus any flip mods
Choose one card to keep
Add in associated Aspect
Winner has the highest value

Advanced Skills

Craft, Knowledge, and Profession are Advanced Skills that require the character to choose a specific sub-type of that skill when selected. If a character chooses a Craft skill, he must choose what type of craft he is skilled in, such as blacksmithing. Likewise, Knowledge is broken down into multiple separate options, such as Academia, Arcane, Geography, History, and so on. The Profession skill can encompass specific jobs and the types of professions are up to the discretion of the GM. These skill types can be further broken down into specialization if the player and GM agree that it makes sense.

NPCs and Skill Checks

Not every NPC is going to be fully fleshed out. Many times, the GM may decide to use a DTN and Unopposed Skill Check in situations where it seems like an Opposed Skill Check would be appropriate. An example of this would be trying to persuade a random townsperson to offer aid in an investigation. Instead of a Persuasion check opposed by Discipline or Assessment, the GM would set a DTN based on the general attitude of the NPC.

Taking a 7

If a character is not in any immediate danger and has plenty of time to work, he may choose to Take a 7. Instead of flipping cards, he is assumed to have flipped a card with a face value of 7. Aspects and flip shifts are then added in normally.

Usually, with Aspect values added in, this will allow a character to succeed on Unopposed Easy checks with no chance of failure.

You may only do this on skills you have at least one rank in. You may not normally take a 7 in an opposed check, but the GM may rule that it can be done in rare circumstances where the difference in skill levels between the two opponents is dramatically different.

Skill Flip Modifiers

Skill checks don’t always happen in a vacuum. There are usually outside effects that aren’t taken into consideration with Difficulty Target Numbers or Opposed Skill Checks. Difficulty Target Numbers are set assuming there are no other factors than the difficulty of the task itself. Modifiers come in because of outside things like weather, lighting conditions, advantages and disadvantages, lack of proper equipment, access to high-quality equipment, and so on. Flip shifts and flip mods were explained back in the Basics chapter and they are the mechanism used to represent these modifiers.

The first way to modify a skill flip is the Flip Shift. This happens for minor problems or issues, small benefits, or favorable conditions, having another skill that may complement the one being used, or even for good role playing use of a skill. The value of the Flip Shift is simply added to the value of the Flip. Beneficial and detrimental effects can cancel each other out, resulting in no shift. A flip shift can be indicated using the (shift+X) or (shift-X) nomenclature, where X is the amount that the flip total is modified by.

The other type of modifier is the Flip Modifier. These changes to the flip are usually more serious. In general, this benefit or penalty would be given for major outside effects such as lack of proper tools, serious environmental conditions, or access to tools that make a task considerably easier. Again, just like with Flip Shifts, helpful and harmful major modifiers can cancel each other out. Flip mods can be indicated by using the (flip+X) or (flip-X) nomenclature, where X is the number of cards added or subtracted from the draw.

You can also use combinations of Flip Shifts and Flip Modifiers. These are combined with Difficulty Target Numbers in a way that’s hopefully easy to understand.

Example: Our friend “Wrongway” Tony is trying to remember the name of the author of a relatively obscure history text. He’s going to be using Knowledge: History (2) and Acquired Intelligence (3) again. The GM says that because the book is not well known, even by historians, it’s going to be Hard (DTN 16). With two flips and a +3 modifier from his Aspect, Tony’s odds of succeeding aren’t great. Luckily for Tony, he’s at a library where the book is known to be. The GM rules that Tony can do some research there to get a positive Flip Mod (flip+1) giving him 3 cards.

If Tony’s character also happened to know the name of another book that the same author wrote, the GM could rule that it would be a minor benefit to his searches, granting him a (shift+1). Along with his +3 for Acquired Intellect, he’d only need a 12 and with three flips, he’s got a decent chance.

Levels of Success and Failure

Sometimes a character will flip so well, he will easily exceed the DTN that he needs to succeed or in an Opposed Skill Flip, he will score much higher than his opponent. If that proves to be the case, the GM may allow the success to be slightly better than normal. He may get the job done slightly quicker or do more than just enough to get the task done. It is up to the individual GM and the situation. For Unopposed Skill Checks, a good rule of thumb is that if a character would have exceeded the next higher difficulty rating, he should get some kind of reward.

The opposite is true as well. If a character fails by enough that he would have failed the next lower difficulty rating, he may be further penalized.

Team Checks

For unopposed skill checks, you may have more than one person trying to achieve something. One person is considered the primary. A number of additional people (GM’s decision on how many) can assist as secondary. Secondary participants flip with a DTN one level lower. The first successful secondary grants a (flip+1). Additional successful secondaries grant (shift+1) each. Then the primary makes his flip.

For every secondary person who tries to help but fails the check, there is a (shift-1) penalty.

If someone fails by enough, the GM may decide to increase the DTN by one category higher.

Specialization

Specializations are additional focused training in a certain area of a skill. You can have the First Aid skill and be specialized in treating poison, for example. Most skills will have a list of possible specializations, but the GM and player are free to work out others if they desire. A specialization gives you an extra card on the flip (flip+1).

The benefits from specializations do not stack. If you have more than one specialization that may apply to a skill check, you may only use one of them.

Familiarities

Craft, Knowledge, and Profession skills can have Familiarities. A Familiarity allows a character to flip with a skill value of 0 (two cards, keeping the low) which is normally not allowed for Advanced Skills. A Familiarity costs fewer points when purchased during the process of making a character.

A Familiarity represents very basic knowledge of the topic chosen. The GM can also rule that all characters have familiarity with certain things based on the campaign, such as a relevant Knowledge type.

Putting It All Together

The GM will specify a skill to use and a potential specialization, along with any environmental conditions. If the character doesn’t have the specialization, he can still make the test, he just won’t get the benefit of having one.

Example: “Wrongway” Tony is in an alley, trying to climb up an old rickety ladder to get to the second level of a saloon. It’s raining hard and visibility is next to nothing. The GM asks the player to make an Athletics skill check and allows the Climbing specialty to be used. Climbing a ladder is listed as having a Difficulty Target Number of 5 (Extremely Easy) under the section on Athletics, but the GM generally should keep target numbers secret.

Unskilled Skill Checks / Aspect Checks

There are times when there is no skill appropriate to the situation. There are two ways to deal with this. The first is just to come up with a compromise and use a different skill that is close enough. The second is to use an Aspect Check. The Aspect Check is handled just like a Skill check with the Aspect determining both the amount of cards and the bonus amount he adds in.

For example, a door might require a Hard Strength check to bash in. A character with a Hard Strength of 3 would flip 3 cards and add 3 to the final result.

Activity	Aspect
Breaking down a door	Hard Strength
Remembering a face	Acquired Intellect
Figuring out a puzzle you’ve never seen before	Innate Intelligence
Tying up a foe with rope	Soft Strength

Skill List

The following is the list of skills, associated Aspects, type, and some recommended specialties. The GM is free to work with a player to come up with additional specialties.

Skill	Aspect	Type	Specializations
Acrobatics	SS	Basic	Balancing, Contortion, Quick Stand, Tumbling, Breakfall
Animal Handling	MC	Advanced	Calm Animal, Train Animal, Specific Animal
Appraisal	SP	Basic	Buying and Selling, Bartering, Specific Objects
Assessment	MC	Basic	Analyze Person, Sense Motive, Detect Lies, Detect Influence
Athletics	HS	Basic	Climbing, Swimming, Jumping, Running, Lifting, Individual Sport
Craft	AI	Advanced	Varies by Type
Discipline	IE	Basic	Resist Charm, Resist Intimidation, Resist Fear, Resist Torture, Leadership
Disguise	PC	Advanced	Appearance, Body Language, Voice, Disguise Others
Dueling	SS	Advanced	Evaluation, Focus
First Aid	AI	Basic	Critical Care, Long Term Care, Poison, Disease, Surgery, Herbalism
Intimidation	PC	Basic	Combat, Interrogation, Social, Subtle
Investigation	AI	Advanced	Academic, Forensic, Street, Conversation, Deduction, Surveillance
Knowledge	AI	Advanced	Varies by Type
Language	AI	Advanced	Spoken, Written
Notice [IP]	IP	Basic	Arcane, Details, Illusions, Search Area, Patrol/Guard
Notice [SP]	SP	Basic	Details, Distance, Search Area, Lip Reading, Patrol/Guard
Perform	MC	Basic	Dance, Specific Instrument, Oratory, Singing, Acting
Persuasion	MC	Basic	Lying, Charm, Diplomacy, Bribery, Manipulation
Profession	AI	Advanced	Varies by Type
Ride	SS	Basic	By Animal Type, Stagecoach/Wagons, Mounted Combat, Long Distance Travel
Stealth	SS	Basic	Silent Movement, Hide, Ambush, Shadowing
Survival	AI	Basic	Find Food and Water, Find Shelter, Identify Plant, Identify Animal, Tracking, Navigation
Thievery	SS	Advanced	Pick Pockets, Palm Object, Lockpick, Traps, Disable Traps, Forgery, Gambling