About
Skills are traits that you can perform actions with, and are the most important part of the Strikermechanica.
There are 7 categories of skills: qualifier, trait, procedure, knowledge, combat, engineering and psionic. They're groupings are besed on where and how they are used.
All skills start at -3, but your sophont will provide bonuses to many of these, which are applied at the beginning of your character. Each sophont as a list of these bonuses.
Techniques
You will see references to techniques in many places.
Techniques are pseudo skills, not being full skills in their own right. They are more like extensions, additional functions or specialisations of skills.
They work very similarly to skills though.
Action & Trait Instructions
An action instruction is a summary form that tells you how to make a roll and what it's saving or checking against. We use these to quickly express what needs to happen.
A trait instruction is also a summary, but does not list an action, but generally a trait, or a modifier to a trait
Each skill (and technique) lists one or more actions that can be performed, some also list trait modifiers.
We'll take the example of the strike action instruction, because it has quite a few extra options in it.
Action Instruction in Text
when you express the strike action as an instruction in text, you put it this way:
strike(round & day+, 1fp) chk(C)= d20 +M*[1](Psiportation) + Vcl-Striker
Breaking this down:
- gives the action name, which is strike
- in brackets we say what is needed for the action. This is usually a duration and a cost (if any).
- In this case the duration is two-part with the first part, being time to initiate the strike (1 round) and the second part, the time taken by the strike overall (1 day or more). This is often a concentration input.
- The cost for doing this action is 1fp per duration increment. Therefore 1fp to initiate and 1fp per day to maintain.
- chk(C) indicates that the roll type is a check as opposed to a save (sv), effect (eff), imposition imp(sv) etc. C just indicates that its a general or miscellaneous type of challenge (as opposed to one of reserved challenges like TC for target challenge, SC for social challenge, PC for perception challenge or CC for complexity challenge)
- the equals sign is there to link the roll type to its specifications.
- the roll starts with a d20
- it mentions that it's the modifier (M) for Psiportation. The * (star) indicates that the modifier should include each focus point used (indicated in the cost side), which is by default 1, so +1 additional to the modifier itself.
- In this particular example (a strike roll), the striking navigator needs also to be familiar with the operations of strikers themselves (as signified by Vcl-Striker) or will suffer the -3 penalty. By specifying a qualifier skill, we are saying that the modifier is either +0, if you have the qualifier, or the -3 penalty, if you don't.
Roll types - Check (chk), Saves (sv), Imposed Saves imp(sv), Set Challenges set(C) and Effects (eff)
This heading lists our 5 main roll types.
| Instruction | Name | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| chk | Check | Roll a d20 add the modifiers and compare it to some kind of challenge - expressed as chk(C), or chk(TC-A) |
| sv | Save | Roll a d20 add the modifiers and compare it to some kind of challenge - expressed as sv(C) |
| imp(sv) | Impose save | You require that your opponent roll a d20 add their modifiers and compare it to the challenge you set - expressed as imp(sv,S,C) |
| set | Set challenge | You set a challenge for an opponent to roll against, should they choose to do so - expressed as set(C) |
| eff | Effect | What happens should you succeed or you opponent fails one of the above - expressed as eff |
Action Instruction as a Property (Skill)
when you express the strike action roll as a property of a skill
strike(round-action & day+, 1fp) chk(C)= +M*[1](this)
The use of the word "this" is referring to the skill Psiportation, which is in the title of the property block.
Action Instruction as a Property (elsewhere)
Action instructions can appear in listings of items of equipment. A common example of this is under weapons, in the case of the VRF flechette:
160:1(cost), 0.1/0.3(wt), 12(CC)
Op: inactive, held ◊ s2a: 1hp 1ep in bonus-act
Usage: ranged-att(main-act)
-> chk(TC)= +M(Wpn-Handguns)
-> eff= -6(Str,min), 500(audio)
-> eff= 15/30(range), 1d4 +M(hp,prc)
-> 1hp for 6act
Description: The pistol is an autoloading, slug-throwing handgun, designed to be easily carried and concealed. The short barrel and lack of rifling means that the pistol has a shorter range and less penetrative power than its much heavier, archaic cousin, the crossbow.
The Usage line contains an action instruction presenting the check (chk) with the Target Challenge (TC), but also the effect (eff) when the check is successful. The eff is broken into two parts:
- the effect on the user of the weapon and the surroundings
- the effect on the target of the weapon within the stated range
fire(main-act) chk(TC)= +M(Wpn-Support) with 4(Str,min), m(recoil), sniping, 250/750(range), 5(q) eff= 3d12 +M(Wpn-Support) (hp,prc), 4(pen)
The action instruction also presents the conditions under which the chk is made, in this case, you can see:
- 4(Str,min) the minimum Strength modifier required to use the weapon effectively. The check is made under disadvantage, if you don't meet this requirement.
- m(recoil) the recoil that this weapon produces when fired. With any kind of recoil, you must use a re-act to steady the weapon between firings, or you are at disadvantage for the next check.
- sniping indicates that the weapon can be used while you are prone without disadvantage
- 250/750(range) is the short and long range of the weapon. The check is made with disadvantage on long range.
- 5(q) is the quiet rating of the weapon (5 is low, so this weapon is loud and easily heard).
Aspected Action Instructions
An aspected imposed save:
feint(bonus-act) -> imp(sv,Insight,8 +R(Cbt-Melee) +M(Deceive))
The feint action requires a bonus-action and imposes an Insight save on your opponent, with challenge equal to 8 + the ranks (R) you have in Cbt-Melee + your modifier (M) for Deceive.
Example Skill Listing
Now that we've covered some of the ways in which instructions are expressed, let's look at a whole skill listing. By taking a really detailed example, we can explore all the ways in which skill traits and actions are presented.
Category: Engineering, Knowledge
Usage: operate(act) -> chk|sv= +M
◊ know(free-act, R, Tech) -> chk= +M
◊ make(day+, R, Tech) -> chk(CC)= +M
◊ modify(day+, R, Tech) -> chk(CC)= +M + (CC-Q - CC)
◊ bypass(main-act, R, Tech) -> chk(CC-S)= +M -> set(PC)= 8 + M(Stealth+S)
◊ modify-rig(main-act, R, Tech) -> eff= give(d) ½•M to artefact chk|sv
◊ disable(main-act, R, Tech) -> chk(CC)= +M
◊ repair(hr+, R, Tech) -> chk(CC)= +M + (CC-Q - CC)
◊ repair-rig(main-act, R, Tech) -> chk(CC)= +M + (CC-Q - CC)
Usage (aspect): provenance -> Tech
◊ diagnose,salvage,search(min, R, Tech) -> chk(CC)= +M(Investigate) +R
◊ appraise(min, R, Tech) -> chk(CC)= +M(Finance) +R
◊ haggle(min, R, Tech) -> chk(SC)= +M(Persuade|Deceive) +R
Description: Encompasses understanding of engines, and drive systems, whether that means propulsion or traction systems, or systems like gradients, which are a combination of the two.
Machinery is an engineering skill and is largely knowledge-based, which explains the presence of the know action
know(free-action) chk(CC)= +M(Machinery)
To know something related to the field of machinery takes no time at all and is a direct check on the Machinery skill with a challenge (C) determined by the GM, but is often calculated by 8 + twice the rarity number of the artefact, if this applies.
Aspect Line
The top line is added if either or both of the provenance aspects apply, and/or if any of the usual skill aspects apply (which is usually one or more of Body, Mind, Cbt, Eng, Soc or Vcl).
In this case the Tech provenance aspect is listed. This means that, by default, you use this skill with your tech aspect. In the case of humans in Striker, this is nearly always Tech-Modern. Therefore the actions and traits specified in this skill assume that you are working with Tech-Modern machinery artefacts. If you encounter an artefact that is best characterised by the Tech-Ancient aspect, then you will be at disadvantage working with it (unless you had tyhe Tech-Anc aspect as well).
Actions Line
Apart from the aforementioned know action, there is a make, modify, repair, operate, as well as the generic, gen action. The actions make, modify, repair and operate are very standard actions for engineering skills, and have differing assumptions.
Each of the actions can be given the slightly longer notation to explain them better:
make(day+) -> chk(CC)= +M(Machinery)
modify(hr+) -> chk(CC)= +M(Machinery)
repair(hr+) -> chk(CC)= +M(Machinery)
operate(main-action) -> chk(CC)= +M(Machinery)
It suggests that making something will take a minimum of a day (but probably longer), modify and repair are likely to be in the order of hours, and operate is given the nominal main-action, but probably depends on the device being operated.
The time taken is the main difference between these check instructions, each are checked against a complexity challenge, which is mostly determined by the complexity of the artefact subject to the make, modify, repair or operate.
All of these actions are checked directly against the Machinery skill.
Sometimes, it is useful to list what the generic action on a skill looks like. Engineering skills can be like this as they can be used in all sorts of ways. The gen action is the catch-all for this purpose.
gen(act) -> chk|sv= +M(Machinery)
This part of the listing is general: covering any task that you need to perform that is not covered by one of the other actions. It specifies chk|sv to indicate that you may be using this skill under a check (chk), or under a save imposed on you (sv). The gen listing also sets a duration of main-action as a default, because is the most common duration.
Aspect-Actions Line
There are three aspect actions listed: diagnose, salvage and hide. Aspect actions are listed separately because they are a little more complicated and involve other skills. Any aspect action uses Machinery as an aspect on some other skill for a particular action.
diagnose(min+) -> chk(CC)= +M(Investigate) +R(Machinery)
salvage(min+) -> chk(CC)= +M(Investigate) +R(Machinery)
hide(main-action) -> set(PC)= +M(Stealth) +R(Machinery)
Aspected rolls like the above are usually expressed with the aspect last
diagnose(min+) -> chk(CC)= +M(Investigate) + R(Machinery)\
This is because the aspect (Machinery) is providing the aspect (in this case, a technical component) to the primary skill being checked (Investigate).
In fact, we saw this ordering in the first example on this page:
strike(round & day+, 1fp) -> chk(C)= +M*(Psiportation) + Vcl-Striker
Here the aspect is the qualifier skill Vcl-Striker.
Choosing Skills
When you are beginning your character or advancing in level, you are asked to pick some skills and techniques from listings to distribute some ranks. The listings are presented in the backgrounds, professions and vocations that apply to your step in character development.
Below is an example listing from the bounty hunter archetype in the investigator profession.
4 ranks spread to these skills
Disguise-Tools, Qtm-Tools, Scan-Tools, Surveillance-Tools, Vcl-Air, Vcl-Ground, Vcl-Space
Perception, Resolve, Agility+BOD|ASP**, Insight, Stealth+BOD|ASP*, Deceive, Investigate, Persuade, Society, Survival
4 ranks spread to these techniques
Disguise (Deceive|Perform)*, Sleight-Of-Hand (Deceive), Interrogate (Investigate), Surveillance (Investigate), Track (Investigate), Bushcraft (Survival), Revival (Survival), Tenacious-Save (Resolve|Survival)*
First-Strike (Cbt-Melee|Cbt-Ranged*), Vital-Harm (Cbt-Melee|Cbt-Ranged*), Wpn-Blades-Short (Cbt-Melee), Wpn-Clubs (Cbt-Melee), Wpn-Fistload (Cbt-Melee), Sniper (Cbt-Ranged), Wpn-Flechettes (Cbt-Ranged), Wpn-Handguns (Cbt-Ranged), Wpn-Rifles (Cbt-Ranged)
* You can choose one skill to base this technique, if you need the technique under another skill, you must take the technique again, based on the new skill.
** You can choose one aspect when putting your first rank on this skill, you must spend a rank on getting a second aspect.
The asterisks introduce two important concepts around using skills.
Choosing Skill Bases
The first asterisk explains how techniques can be based on more than one skill. The individual character decides, when placing thier first rank on the technique which base applies. If they want to use this technique under another skill base, it becomes a new technique with the same name but with the new skill base.
As an example, where you see First-Strike (Cbt-Melee|Cbt-Ranged*), you can initially take the technique as First-Strike Cbt-Ranged) and put a rank on it. However, you might want to assign the next rank on First-Strike (Cbt-Melee). The two First-Strike techniques operate separately in the game, one is used in the context of melee combat, the other in the context of ranged combat.
Choosing Aspect Types
The second asterisk explains how the skills of Agility and Stealth are special in that their meaning (and practice) differs greatly depending on whether you are using them on their own (the BOD use), or with a technical aspect (Such as a Vcl qualifier, Society skill, or engineering skill etc. - the ASP use). This is because sneaking along a corridor trying to stay quiet is quite a different skill to hiding your tracks when hacking into a computer system. The ability to set up Stealth as a sneaking along a corridor skill, or Stealth in a more technical way, allows you to hone your usage of these skills, without giving you abilities that won't make sense. Just because a pilot is brilliant with Agility when flying a spacecraft in fancy ways (using Agility with the Vcl-Space qualifier, improving their spacecraft's TC) they aren't automatically great at dodging the blow of a Vibroblade (Agility benefiting their own TC).
So similar to choosing skill bases, you can set up Stealth as a BOD skill or Stealth as an ASP skill