Abilities

From Lunos

Abilities: Abilities are the mechanical representation of all of your character’s skills and attributes. Each ability is rated on a scale from one to five, with five being the highest possible score and zero being the lowest. When you are performing a difficult or important action, you roll a number of dice equal to your combined rating in two abilities, which are determined by the action being attempted. The GM will also set a difficulty for the action, which is the number of successes you must roll to perform the action. A success is any die that rolls a result of one of the top half of the numbers available (so 4, 5, or 6 on a six-sided die). To represent the dependability of a master of an ability, the fifth dot in any ability is not rolled, but is instead automatically a success. If you have no dots in an ability called for, you take an additional -2 penalty on the roll (minimum of one die)

Bonuses: Equipment, Magic, and certain other effects can provide you with bonus dice on a roll. These dice are added to all applicable rolls. Bonuses from different sources stack with each other, but you may not gain more than three bonus dice to any roll.

The d12: You will need up to 11 dice to play this game. 10 of these dice may be of any type, but the 11th must be a d12. If you are using more than one d12, one of them should be clearly distinguishable from the others. This d12 represents the influence of luck on your character’s action. It is treated as a normal dice in all situations except when you roll no successes on your other dice (disregard automatic successes for this effect). If the d12 was a 1, you suffer a ‘catastrophic mishap’ and something goes terribly wrong for your character, usually but not always connected to the roll. If the d12 was a 12, you manage ‘dramatic success’, automatically succeeding on the task as if you had rolled the minimum number of successes required. This plays out in game as a near-disaster averted by shear good luck. Dramatic success only applies if your total dice pool plus automatic successes was at least equal to the difficulty (so no declaring a difficulty 10 action with two dice and hoping to get lucky).

Sub-Skills: Certain abilities represent a field of related skills. These abilities have ‘sub-skills’, which are rated from one to three. If you are called on to make a roll with a sub-skill, roll the associated ability but treat it as if it was one point lower for each dot in the sub-skill you are missing. So if you have Science at 4 and Biology at 1, you make Biology rolls using a Science score of 2. Sub-skill penalties cannot reduce an ability below zero, and if they reduce an ability to zero you do not take the standard -2 penalty for not having points in a required ability.

Agility: overall mobility. Examples: Dodge (Reflexes), Attacks (Melee), Dancing (Dance)

Animals: skill at dealing with animals. Examples: Veterinary (Medicine), Training (Socialize), Animal calls (Survival)

Awareness: how well your character pays attention Examples: Empathy (Socialize), Spot (Sight), Listen (Hearing), Scent (Smell)

Dexterity: skill at fine manipulation Examples: Surgery (Medicine), Sleight of hand (Sneak), Attacks (Ranged)

Diplomacy: social interaction governed by rules Examples: Bureaucracy (Tactics), Haggling (Socialize), Debate (Politics)

Engineering: technical planning skills Examples: Architecture (Relevant Craft)

Intelligence: your character’s grasp of logical thought. Examples: Military planning (Tactics), Calculations (Math), Memory (Wits)

Performance: skill at impressing observers Special: when doing any action in an attempt to impress observers, use Performance in place of your highest skill

Pilot: control of large vehicles Examples: Naval (Survival), Naval combat (Tactics), Airplane (Reflexes)

Politics: understanding of large scale social interactions Examples: Running for office (Tactics), Give a speech (Performance)

Reflexes: reaction time Examples: React to something surprising (Wits)

Ride: riding an animal Examples: Chase someone (Tactics), Remain mounted (Agility) Special: Combat while mounted uses Ride instead of your highest skill

Sneak: Escape detection Examples: Move stealthily (Agility), Hide (Willpower), Cover tracks (Survival)

Socialize: informal social interaction Examples: Entertaining conversation (Wits or Performance), Lie (Performance)

Survival: interaction with the natural world Examples: Forage for food (Cooking), Navigation (Intelligence), Track (Awareness)

Tactics: making plans for the future Examples: Agriculture (Biology), Analyze another’s plan (Intelligence or Socialize)

Willpower: mental resilience and control Examples: Act unsurprised (Reflexes), Concentration (Wits) Special: Your Willpower determines how high a wound penalty you can function under

Wits: how fast your character’s mental processes work Examples: Come up with an idea quickly (Tactics)

Craft: ability to work with various materials. Sub-skills: Carpentry, Cooking, Drawing, Metalwork, Sewing, Stonework

Music: Musical talent. Sub-skills: Dance, Keyboard, Rhythm, Strings, Vocal, Winds

Athletics: physical skill Sub-skills: Climb, Flight, Run, Swim Special: you must roll Willpower + Wits to avoid panic when making an untrained Swim roll

Perception: sensory acuity Sub-skills: Hearing, Sight, Smell Special: A rating of zero in a sub-skill means that your character does not possess that sense

Science: knowledge of how the world functions Sub-skills: Chemistry, Biology, Geology, Math, Medicine, Physics

Body: innate physical toughness and strength Special: Body costs twice as much as other skills. It also determines your health levels (see the Combat section)

Knowledge: Knowledge refers to a large set of sub-skills that represent knowledge of other people and organizations. There is no “Knowledge” ability for them to modify, they usually apply as penalty when dealing with unfamiliar people. In the rare cases where a knowledge should be rolled, apply the points in the sub-skill as automatic successes instead of rolling them. Languages represent how well your character speaks a language. 1 point represents a basic understanding, 2 points represents full competency, and three points represents mastery. All languages are the official language of the culture listed after them on the character sheet, except for Tradespeak, which is the language of travelers and merchants. Culture refers to the understanding of the people in a particular area. 1 point shows an academic familiarity, 2 points represents an outside expert, and 3 points shows a native speaker. Cultures are listed after their associated language on the character sheet. Lore is similar to Culture but for organizations, professions, economic classes, and so forth.

Specialties Specialties cost 3 experience each and represent an extremely specific talent. Examples are things such a particular fighting style, a specific musical instrument, or a sport. When making a roll that falls under a specialty, two of your dice become automatic successes. Specialties can also be used to represent other highly focused skills, such as Morse code or the extensive knowledge of the city sewers.