General Skills

About
A “skill” is a particular kind of knowledge. Karate, auto mechanics and the English language are all skills. Each of your skills is represented by a number called a skill level; the higher the number, the greater the skill.

When you try to do something, you (or the GM) will roll 3 dice against the appropriate skill, modified as the GM sees fit for that particular situation. If the number you roll is less than or equal to your (modified) score for that skill, you succeed!


 * *A roll of 17 or 18 is an automatic failure. Certain skills are different at different tech levels (“TL” for short). Such skills are designated by /TL.

Learning Skills
To learn or improve a skill, you must spend character points. Skills are divided into mental and physical. The tables below show the point cost to learn each skill.

Skill Defaults

 * Most skills have a “default level.” This is the level at which you perform the skill without training. Nobody can know every skill; a default roll can save your life. A skill has a default level if it is something that everybody can do... a little bit. For instance, the “default” for Lockpicking is IQ-5. If your IQ is 11, and you have to pick a lock, you can do it on a roll of 6 or less. Why? Because 11 minus 5 is 6, so 6 is your “default” skill at Lockpicking. You fumble around with the lock, sliding a credit card around the latch like the detective in a movie you saw once... and sometimes it works!


 * *Some skills (especially Very Hard ones) have no default.

Skill Point Cost
*''Further increases follow the same progressions: 8 additional points per level for physical skills, 4 per level for Very Hard mental skills, 2 per level for other mental skills. ''