Skills and Knacks, a first draft

Skills

Making Skill Rolls

Skill Rolls combine a Skill and Trait. To perform a Skill Roll, roll a number of dice equal to your Skill + Trait and keep a number of dice equal to your Trait. This Skill Roll is set against a TN determined by the GM.

Unskilled Rolls

A character may attempt to make a Skill Roll without the appropriate Skill, but faces a number of penalties for doing so.

1) The character must roll his Trait alone, with no additional dice.

2) No Raises may be declared on an unskilled Roll, and Free Raises cannot be used.

3) You suffer a -5 penalty to the total of that roll.

Knacks

Each skill has a series of knacks associated with them, some Basic, some Advanced. A knack is a specific aspect of utilization for a given skill. Knacks may be advanced or basic. When a character has a skill, he is considered skilled in all the Basic Knacks that skill has.

Advanced Knacks, on the other hand, represent a specialized training not common to all praticioners of the skill. In order to add an Advanced Knack to one skill you possess, you must spend 3 HP.

 

Having the Knack, Basic or Advanced, allows you to perform the actions described in the Knack's description (such as Attack with a Fencing Weapon or a Surgery with Medicine) using the Skill associated with the Knack. If you don't have a Knack and want to attempt that action any way, you can, but you are considered Unskilled for that roll (and take the appropriate penalties). This means you must make any rolls with your Trait alone, can't make any raises and suffer a -5 penalty.

Specialization

Specialization is a special Advanced Knack that applies to a very specific use of the skill. For example, while the Fencing Skill gives training in both Attack and Parry, the Specialization(Parry) Knack gives greater ability with when using the weapon to Parry. Likewise, while the Strategy Skill gives one a general knowledge of battle, the Specialization (Skirmish) Knack grants a keener understanding over small combats.

You can have the Specialization Knack for any of the Skill's Basic Knack. When using a Skill for an action covered by that Knack, you may add your Skill Rank to the total of your roll. If more than one possible Specialization applies to a single roll, you only gain the bonuses of one.