Skills Draft 1
In TA, skills represent anything that a character has particular training in. Characters can spend 1 skill point to increase their skill bonus for a particular skill by 1. They can choose any skill to improve, whether they already have bonuses to it or not. As long as improving a skill does not cause the related skill bonus to exceed a characters skill cap, anything is fair game.
When creating your own skills, there are a few routes you can take. These are given as skill categories here, but these categories are not absolute. They're intended as fuzzy groups to help you decide on what skills you may choose, and some skills could feasibly fit into more than one of them.
A sample list for each category is given here, but this is only a guideline. If your character is trained in something that isn't covered by anything here, talk to your GM about adding it. If you feel like a different descriptor more accurately fits your character's know-how, go with that rather than something on the list. The sample lists given for each category assume that you're playing in a typical fantasy setting.
When a skill is written with (type) after it, like "Culture (type)", this indicates that a subtype of that skill should be chosen. For example, with "Culture (type)" you could choose "Culture (tribal)" or "Culture (noble)".
Skill Generality
When creating a new skill, take some care to not make them too specific or too general. A skill of "education" is will usually be too broad, while "history of warfare in the early 20th century" is almost certainly far too specific. If you do want to go for a skill that is fairly general, the GM may rule that you can do so only if you spend two skill points for every increase to its skill bonus. Similarly, if you want a skill that the GM deems to be rather specific,
What exactly constitutes a specific or general skill depends largely on what setting the game takes place in. "Chemistry" might be too specific for a modern setting, but could be an appropriate skill in a science fiction game.
Academic Skills
Academic skills cover anything you may have studied or otherwise learned about the world.
Academic Skills
| Skill | Description |
|---|---|
| Arcana | Lore surrounding magical traditions, arcane artifacts and spells. |
| Cosmology | Studies of the wider universe and other planes of existence. |
| Culture (type) | Knowledge and experience surrounding the customs and lifestyle of a particular culture. |
| Engineering | Scientific principles used in designing structures and devices. |
| History | Studies of historical events and ancient civilisations. |
| Linguistics | Knowledge of the principles of languages and their structure. |
Academic Skills
| Skill | Description |
|---|---|
| Nature | Knowledge of natural environments, processes, and creatures. |
| Religion | Studies regarding the religions and gods of the world. |
Combat Skills
Combat skills are a character's skill level with a particular form of fighting.
Whenever you make an attack roll using a weapon or other form of attack that falls under one of your combat skills, you add the skill bonus to your attack roll. If you have multiple skills that apply, only add the highest bonus. Additionally, your GM may decide that a weapon you are using is sufficiently close to one of your combat skills even if it is not explicitly covered by it. In this case, add half the relevant skill bonus for the purposes of making the attack.
Combat Skills
| Skill | Description | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Axes | A haft with a weighted, bladed head. | Battleaxe, handaxe, greataxe |
| Blades | A sharp blade with a handle. | Dagger, greatsword, longsword, rapier, scimitar, shortword, sickle |
| Blunt Weapons | A heavy bludgeoning weapon. | Club, greatclub, light hammer, mace, maul, quarterstaff, warhammer |
| Bows | A ranged weapone using a flexible material and string to shoot arrows. | Longbow, shortbow |
| Crossbows | A ranged weapon that uses stored mechanical energy to fire projectiles. | Hand crossbow, heavy crossbow, light crossbow |
| Flexible Weapons | A weapon featuring a length chain, rope or leather. | Flail, whip |
| Polearms | A long shaft featuring a thrusting or bladed tip. | Glaive, halberd, javelin, lance, pike, quarterstaff, spear, trident |
| Spiked Weapons | A weapon featuring one or more sharp spikes. | Morningstar, war pick |
| Thrown Weapons | Weapons that are used by being thrown. | Dart, dagger, handaxe, javelin, light hammer, net, spear, trident. |
| Unarmed | Fighting using your bare hands. | Bare hands, spiked gauntlet |
Alternative Combat Skills
The example combat skills given relate to a particular category of weapon a character might use, though this doesn't necessarily have to be the case. Rather than category-based skills, you could use combat styles that describe a particular fighter archetype or background. For example you could conceivably have combat styles like "gladiator" or "berserker", though this will generally be a little harder to adjudicate.
If you want to choose a combat skill like this, talk to your GM first to work out exactly what it covers and what it doesn't. For example, a "gladiator" combat skill may cover shortswords, slings, hand crossbows, javelins, spears and nets.
Languages
Learning languages is treated a little different to most other skills. Rather than using your skill bonus in a particular language with certain ability checks, your skill bonus with a language determines your level of fluency with a language. When talking in a language that isn't your native tongue, you may want to roleplay your level of fluency. A lack of fluency with a language will generally increase the difficulty class of social ability checks you make while speaking that language. All characters are assumed to be fully fluent in their native tongue.
Language Fluency
| Skill Bonus | Fluency |
|---|---|
| +1 | You know some basic words, but communication is difficult. |
| +2 | You can form simple sentences, like asking the location of common buildings or asking for the time. Any communication more complex than a simple sentence is difficult. |
| +3 | You can make get through most general conversations in the language, but discussing detailed topics is difficult. |
| +4 | You are fully fluent in the language. |
Physical Skills
Physical skills are any skills that involve using your body efficiently and effectively.
Physical Skills
| Skill | Description |
|---|---|
| Acrobatics | Balance and aerial mobility. |
| Athletics | Traditional athletic tasks, like climbing, running, jumping or swimming. |
| Brawn | Applying raw physical force. |
| Sleight of Hand | Tasks relying on quick manual dexterity, like concealing items on your person and pickpocketing. |
| Stealth | Moving without being detected and hiding. |
Practical Skills
Practical skills measure your ability to perform a task that is useful in some way. This is usually the largest skill category, as it covers anything from first aid training to pottery skills.
Two large groups of skills that full under this category are crafting skills and professional skills - anything that provides a service to others or results in something being created. There's a lot of overlap between these two groups, so don't worry about
Practical Skills
| Skill | Description |
|---|---|
| Animal Handling | Interacting with animals, whether to influence their emotions, predict their actions, or control them. |
| Appraisal | Determining the value of items. |
| Gaming (type) | Playing a particular type of game. |
| Infiltration | Breaking past physical security mechanisms. |
| Instrument (type) | Using a type of instrument. |
| Investigation | Analysing information to draw conclusions. This may be in the form of using clues to determine prior events, or poring through books to find a useful detail. |
| Medicine | Providing first aid or performing a diagnosis. |
| Navigation | Moving over long distances without straying off course or becoming lost. |
| Professional (type) | The set of skills utilised by a particular profession. |
| Survival | General bushcraft skills, such as creating shelter or lighting a fire. |
Skill Subtype Examples
Provided here is a couple of examples of skill subtypes for some of the skills given here. As usual, these are suggestions, don't feel restricted to only picking an option here if it is allowed by your GM.
Culture: Noble, rural, tribal, urban. Gaming Set: Dice, playing cards, chess. Instrument: Bowed strings, percussion, plucked strings, strummed strings, vocal, wind. Professional: Alchemist, architect, architect, baker, barrister, bookbinder, brewer, butcher, calligrapher, carpenter, cartographer, clerk, cobbler, cook, driver, farmer, fisher, fletcher, gardener, glassworker, herbalist, jeweler, leatherworker, locksmith, mason, merchant, miner, painter, potter, sailor, scribe, sculptor, shepherd, smith, tailor, tinkerer, trapper, weaver, woodcarver.
Supernatural Skills
Supernatural skills are a bit different to the other skill categories. They measure your aptitude at a certain type of supernatural ability, whether that is using your knowledge of the arcane to conjure fire or entreating a deity to smite a foe.
For more information on using supernatural skills, see chapter X.
Supernatural Skills
| Skill | Description |
|---|---|
| Abjuration | The creation of magical protection, whether in the form of barriers, negating other supernatural effects, or banishing extraplanar creatures. |
| Conjuration | Magically transporting and creating objects. |
| Divination | Magically gathering information, such as seeing into the future or viewing distant places. |
| Enchantment | Influencing or controlling another creature's thoughts through the use of magic. |
| Evocation | Creating and controlling magical energy to cause certain effects such as creating balls of fire and healing wounds. |
| Illusion | Magic which deceives the senses of others. |
| Invocation | Calling on a higher power, such as a god or otherworldly demon, to produce an appropriate effect. |
| Necromancy | Magic that manipulates the life force of creatures. |
| Primal | Calling on the powers of the natural world and ancient traditions. |
| Psionics | Inducing certain effects through the use of psychic powers. |
| Transmutation | Changing the properties or shape of an object through magical means. |
Alternative Supernatural Skills
The example supernatural skills given here are based on the conventions of other popular tabletop roleplaying games, but you could easily base them on the magic system of any other work of fiction. For example, you could have specific supernatural skills for manipulating each of the four elements. Even more so than with other skills, this category really is an opportunity to let your imagination run wild.
Skill Checks
The skill check is the main mechanism by which the intentions of a player are translated to in-game actions in Tabletop Arcade. There is a simple procedure when a character attempts to make a skill check:
- The Narrator decides on a difficulty class for the action. The "Setting a DC" table can be used to help here.
- Whoever is making the check describes the action, and checks to see if the character performing the action has any skills that apply.
- The Narrator determines one or two attributes that influence the action, and decides which skills apply.
- The Total Attribute Bonus is worked out. If the Narrator only chose one attribute to influence the action, this is double the relevant attribute modifier. If the Narrator instead chose two attributes, this is the sum of both attribute modifiers.
- The Relevant Skill Bonus is worked out. This is the largest skill bonus among the skills that the Narrator allowed.
- Roll a d20, adding the Total Attribute Bonus and the Relevant Skill Bonus to the result. Sometimes, additional rules may modify this result further. If the final result is equal to or higher than the chosen DC, the action is a success. Otherwise, the action fails.
Setting a DC
| DC | Relative Difficulty |
|---|---|
| 5 | Very Easy |
| 10 | Easy |
| 15 | Moderate |
| 20 | Hard |
| 25 | Very Hard |
| 30 | Near-Impossible |
Skill checks shouldn't be used when an action is deemed either impossible or insignificant by the Narrator. In these cases, the Narrator just decides on the outcome.
Additionally, you should be aware of how many skill checks you use. For example, if Mary is planning to do a full day of blacksmithing, you could split determine the results using many different checks using different attributes. Inspecting materials, building the heat of the forge, forming the blade, finishing with fine engraving. Or alternatively, you could just use one check for the whole day of work.
Generally speaking, it's a good idea to only roll the dice when the results actually matter. So if Mary is spending her day attempting to forge a weapon fit for a king, with her work under fine scrutiny, maybe the first approach is worthwhile. But if she's just knocking out some quick weapons for the local militia, the latter is probably preferable.
Attack Rolls
Any skill check that is rolling against a target's defence score is called an "attack roll". Attack rolls function almost identically to skill checks, with one main caveat: critical hits and critical failures.
Whenever a character rolls at or above their critical threshold on the die, the attack is a critical hit. Critical hits always hit the target. Additionally, the attacker can roll the attack's damage dice twice before adding attribute modifiers. A character's critical threshold is normally 20, but this can be modified by feats and special circumstances.
On the other hand, a critical failure occurs when the d20 roll for an attack is a 1. In this case, the attack fails regardless of any modifiers or the targeted defence score.
Variant: Critical Rolls on Skill Checks
As an optional rule, you can choose for critical successes and failures to apply to skill checks in a similar way to attack rolls. If you do so, a roll of 20 on a skill check results in an automatic success, and a roll of 1 on a skill check is an automatic failure. Do not use a character's critical threshold to determine automatic success, only ever award automatic success on a natiural 20. If you use this optional rule, the Narrator should be particularly vigilant about not allowing characters to make skill checks for impossible actions, as doing so always comes with a very slim chance of success.