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CPA: Skills List

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A skill in CPA is a type of player character attribute that symbolizes their knowledge, ability, and intuition with all aspects of a certain craft, trade, vocation, or hobby.

Skills are used to accomplish most things in a typical adventure, such as navigating, negotiating, investigating or fighting.

When skills are used in risky situations, a skill check might be rolled to see how it goes. This is generally rolled as 2d8 + skill level.

Players gain their first skills in character generation, and then may increase their skill levels higher during the game using experience points in advancement.

Focus skills: Player characters in CPA have 2 Focus Skills. These work like normal skills except they are strengthened with powerful Focus Abilities. They represent your character's signature style of adventuring.

There are five main categories of skills.

Skill Categories:

Skill Name Applications Potential failures Focus Abilities
Animals Skill working socially with animals and making animals obey commands, including mounting and riding animals. Used for pet attack rolls and mounted maneuvers. This skill also covers animal-like aliens or bestial monsters, if they exist. The animals run away, attack, are harmed, or learn the wrong thing.
  • Roll this skill with 2d10+skill instead of 2d8.
  • Whisperer: You have an unusually intelligent animal companion that can follow complex commands, and it will follow your commands using your bonus action. This animal is controlled by the GM but is as loyal and obedient as possible. If it dies you can train a new one in time.
  • Biologist: You can roll Animals instead of Medicine when targeting animals, you can roll Animals instead of Science when analyzing microbiology, and you can roll Animals instead of Crafting when crafting with animal parts or products.
  • Primal Empathy: You can roll Animals as a social skill to represent only nonverbal communication with people.
  • Teamwork: While your animal companion is helping you in a specific way with a skill check, you can roll with an advantage die.
Art Skill and speed in drawing, painting, tailoring, weaving, sculpting, as well as art history, lore, investigation, understanding and identification of visual art, art tools and methods. Also applies to architecture. It takes longer, or is worth less to other people, or offends the audience.
  • Roll this skill with 2d10+skill instead of 2d8.
  • Zeitgeist: Artworks you make and distribute after you begin adventuring are guaranteed to become famous over time.
  • Functional Style: You can spend 4 hours and use materials to decorate a piece of gear or vehicle in a specific way. It gains +1 to a statistic you choose. Stacks with crafted mods.
  • Master Drafter: While your Art skill is at least equal to your Crafting skill, add +1 to your Crafting rolls.
  • Artist's Touch: Once per scene, you can add 1d6 to a perception, shooting, piloting, medicine, or other visual-accuracy-related skill.
Athletics Add this skill to your Initiative and HP. Used for climbing, jumping, swimming, pushing, lifting, throwing, breaking things with your own muscle power. You can use it for thrown weapons such as grenades and javelins. Some minimum amounts are required for heavy weapons and armor. Generally when you fail it means you can't do the thing without either hurting/fatiguing yourself, breaking something, or simply can't do it this way.
  • Athlete: Roll this skill with 2d10+skill instead of 2d8.
  • Acrobat: You can climb, jump or fall up to 5 meters safely in any direction, with no roll needed, as one action.
  • Coach: Once per scene, you can give +1d4 to another player who is attempting a strength or dexterity related task.
  • Pushing It: You can improve any skill check you make that involves strength or dexterity at-will by spending your HP or EP to add to the result, 1:1.
Computers Efficient computer programming, hacking and rapid data analysis. See the Hacking Actions table under skill checks. Computer skill can also be rolled to use and attack with remote controlled drones. Learning new computer lanuages usually takes 1d4 days of study, but a skill of 1 means you know all common programming languages.
  • You do not need computer skill for basic computer use in your society.
Your intrustion is detected, your account is locked out, your credentials are banned from the network, your device is fried. Your program is less effective or has unwanted results.
  • Programmer: Roll this skill with 2d10+skill instead of 2d8.
  • Remote Injection: You can attempt to hack robots wirelessly within 10m of your position.
  • Natural Language: You can roll your computers skill as a social skill with robots and artificial intelligences.
  • System Overload: You can attempt to inject a virus to cause a microchip to explode and burn after a short time.
  • Hardware Nerd: You can roll your computers skill instead of Crafting only to repair computerized devices (for example, a vehicle's navigation computer, but not its engines).
Crafting Construction, modification and repair of all tools, machines, weapons, vehicles and buildings. Good crafting results require time, space, materials, and skill. Can also be used to pick locks. See the Crafting Actions table below for specific usages. When you are crafting with quiet and focus, you should generally not roll but just get results based on your skill level. If you fail while crafting under pressure, however: your project may take longer, be less effective, be fragile and prone to backfire, or have intended consequences.
  • Engineer: Roll this skill with 2d10+skill instead of 2d8.
  • Percussive Maintenance: You can make one repair attempt on any damaged device without needing parts.
  • Trusted Builder: You can roll crafting as a social skill only during proposals or discussions or plans to build, construct, demolish etc.
  • Improvisation: You can roll Crafting to locate nearby crafting materials or to fight using crafting tools such as a wrench or nail gun.
History Ability to recall historical and social facts and trivia about your world. You need not always roll this skill, often just having a certain level will ensure you know things. You recall vague hints or false information.
  • Historian: Roll this skill with 2d10+skill instead of 2d8.
  • Legends: Once per day, you can roll another skill with your History skill to represent the techniques of a famous historical figure that you describe.
  • Archaeologist: While navigating, investigating, or exploring ruins or abandoned areas, you can roll one check per scene with +1d6.
  • Master Storyteller: When you are explaining your party's deeds or goals to another person or group, you can roll History as a social skill.
Linguistics Use this skill to converse in and translate rare and foreign languages, as well as to represent your speed and skill in reading and writing. You use the wrong words or translate improperly or partially.
  • Linguist: Roll this skill with 2d10+skill instead of 2d8.
  • Wordsmith: You can now roll this as any social skill to represent elegant use of wordplay, which should be especially effective to educated audiences.
  • Quick Learner: You receive a 1-point discount on the cost of upgrading any skill for which you read a new textbook (minimum of 1 XP cost).
  • Luminary: Written stories, poems and scripts you make during or after your adventure are guaranteed to become popular over time.
Medicine
  • General healing, first aid, surgery, amputations, installing implants and prosthetics, autopsy, diagnosis, anatomy, corpse ID, vaccine development, and microbiology.
  • First Aid: Expending a medical kit, you can spend 5 minutes to heal [your skill level] HP to your own or an ally's untreated wounds, thereby treating them. This does not require a roll.
  • Stabilize: Expending a medical kit, you can spend 1 hour to try to bring someone back from the dying condition (roll vs a TN set based on the wound type). They will not die during the attempt.
  • Diagnose: Expending a medical kit, you can spend 10 minutes to diagnose and learn what will cure a person afflicted with an ailment (roll vs. TN).
Your medical efforts get less information, are less effective, cannot help, or make the problem worse.
  • Doctor: Roll this skill with 2d10+skill instead of 2d8.
  • Medic: You can achieve the above results without a medical kit. When you do use a medical kit, your first aid heal amount increases by +1d4.
  • Healer: When doing any action that requires a medical kit, it takes half the usual time and you only have a 25% chance of expending it.
  • Therapist: You can roll Medicine as a social skill when comforting an injured, distressed, sad or upset person.
Music Ability to play music with voice and any instrument, as well as music history, lore and ability to identify audio instruments, tools and methods, as well as sounds in general. High rolls will impress more people. Regardless of its true value, others find your music forgettable, offensive, or irritating.
  • Musician: Roll this skill with 2d10+skill instead of 2d8.
  • Good Ear: You can roll Music instead of Perception to sense all possible information about a sound or vibration you hear.
  • Songs of Power: Without rolling, you can play/sing a Song of Power - speed, rest, charm, strength, etc, with each taking at least 5 minutes and granting a +1 benefit to your audience lasting 1 hour, [skill] times per day. Same effects do not stack. More can be discovered as well.
  • Star: Songs you create and play after you begin adventuring are guaranteed to become popular over time. After an audience hears a full song you play or sing, you can roll music to interact with them socially.
Navigation Recognize tracks and trails, navigate from place to place and know directions. Works in all environments and can represent your understanding of various environments. Applies to any vehicle or mount as well as on foot. Can be used to help find crafting ingredients. You get less information or go a more perilous way or get lost.
  • Navigator: Roll this skill with 2d10+skill instead of 2d8.
  • Good Nose: While on foot, you can roll Navigation like a sensing skill to sense hints of what lies in each direction (including secret doors).
  • Set a course: When making, preparing, or changing the party's plan of action, you have +1 to all rolls.
  • Prepared for Unforeseen Consquences: If you are present for any sudden unexpected disaster, you will get a special chance to make an instant reaction and choose among alternative outcomes.
Perception
  • Use this skill to find clues, items, anomalies and curiosities, using your senses and your investigator's intuition.
  • Add this skill to your Initiative value.
Though you will never fail to find critically important items and information, you may find less information, accidentally destroy valuable items, or something bad happens when you find what you seek.
  • Detective: Roll this skill with 2d10+skill instead of 2d8.
  • Danger Sense: You can always sense danger nearby to you or your allies, no roll needed.
  • Sixth Sense: You can sense nearby supernatural effects with this skill, though not what they do.
  • Investigator's Insights: Once per scene, you can add +1d4 to any one professional skill roll you make.
Pilot Ability to pilot all types of constructed vehicles, including trucks, hovercraft, aircraft, ships, starships and remote controlled drones, but not riding or driving animals. Applies equally to all such vehicles, and mostly to speed, safety and maneuvering. Can be used for vehicle jumps, rolls, ramming or sideswiping attacks as well. You crash, damage the vehicle, or waste fuel, or take longer to your destination.
  • Transporter: Roll this skill with 2d10 instead of 2d8.
  • Mechanic: You can roll your Pilot skill instead of Crafting to perform vehicle repairs.
  • Fast and Furious: Add this skill to your initiative in combat. You can also choose to use this skill as your movement speed skill.
  • Hot Shot: If you start a fight, charge straight into danger, or directly contradict an authority, you have +1 advantage die on all your rolls for that turn.
Plants Knowledge of useful herbs, ability to find useful plant-related crafting materials, and knowledge of biomes defined by plants. Can also be rolled to improve any plant-related action such as climbing trees, cutting through hedges, swinging on vines, etc. You recall only vague hints or partially incorrect info about plants, or use them in a dangerous or wasteful way.
  • Naturalist: Roll this skill with 2d10 instead of the usual 2d8.
  • Herbalist: You can roll this skill instead of Medicine to locate, craft and apply herbal medicine kits with the techniques described under "Medicine".
  • Ranger: You can also roll this skill to navigate/find tracks/traps in heavily forested areas, negotiate or fight with plantoid or fungoid creatures, and craft things from any plant material.
  • Infuser: You can roll this skill instead of Science to craft plant-based injections, poisons, and performance-enhancing drugs.
Science
  • Used for mathematics, chemical science, biochemistry, microbiology, and all crafting of all liquid or powder drugs, potions, batteries and bombs.
  • Can be used to brew cures and vaccines, stimulants and performance-enhanching drugs, explosives and acids.
  • Good brewing results require good time, space, materials, and skill.
The drug or potion you brewed takes longer, requires more ingredients, is less effective, or has an unintended and unknown effect, or the ingredients are ruined and you get no result.
  • Scientist: Roll this skill with 2d10+skill instead of 2d8.
  • Academic Discipline: You can roll Science as a sensing skill to locate ingredients, or as a social skill when discussing scientific topics.
  • Universal Principles: Once per scene, you can roll another professional skill as 3 dice keep highest 2 instead of just 2.
  • Anomalous Materials: You can roll science instead of an arcane skill to identify magical items and perform analyses related to other dimensions.
Stealth
  • Used for sneaking, stealing, being personally unheard and unseen, and criminal history and lore.
  • Hiding is an action, and requires full cover (something that completely blocks sight). In combat, unseen attackers get +1 to hit and damage.
  • Stealth should ONLY be rolled at the critical moment when you may or may not be discovered.
When stealth fails, enemies' alertness level increases. This may be binary or a scale from yellow, orange, to red alert. If picking locks, your tools may break or the lock may jam.
  • Chief Infiltrator: You can roll your stealth skill for up to [skill] allies in addition to you, and they will all share your exact result.
  • Anti-Security: You can roll Stealth instead of Crafting to pick mechanical locks, hotwire electronic locks, and disable mechanical traps and turrets if you have the proper tools.
  • Hidden Talent: Once per scene, you can choose to reroll one professional or social skill roll you made that you don't like, using 1d20+skill instead of the usual dice, but you must keep the second result.
  • Great Deceiver: You can roll Stealth as a social skill but only when you are primarily lying.

Skill Name Applications Potential failures Focus Abilities
Insight Use this social skill to sense when a person is lying, hiding something, stressed, afraid, or any other nonverbal cues they might be hiding. You learn less, nothing, or are perceived as staring rudely.
  • Insightful: Roll this skill with 2d10 instead of the usual 2d8.
  • Raindrops on Roses: You can always sense at least one of a person's favorite things after 1 minute of conversation or observation.
  • Intense Focus: At any time, you can spend 1 HP to gain +1 on any task that can benefit from intense focus, such as crafting, computers, science, shooting or perception. Does not stack.
  • Learn From Mistakes: After you or another party member fails a skill check, declare this ability and note the number on one of the dice. Thereafter, you can substitute this result for one of your dice on a future roll. Maximum of 1 die stored at a time.
Leadership
  • Roll as a social skill to persuade groups and individuals to follow a cause you set forth, or perform public speaking or storytelling.
  • In addition, you can make an inspiring speech [skill] times per day by spending 1 minute to inspire one ally use one of their skills with +1.
Your speech causes your audience to become bored, nervous, discouraged, offended or angered.
  • Leader: Roll this skill with 2d10 instead of the usual 2d8.
  • Distinguished: People will perceive you as the most important person in the party.
  • Friends in High Places: You have +1d4 on social skill checks with other leaders.
  • Humility: Once per skill, before you roll a check, you can tell the party a story about how you failed spectacularly at a certain skill you now posess, in your youth. You then get a guaranteed basic success on that task.
Negotiate Use this social skill when you need to get a good deal on a simple purchase or a big contract or treaty. You are viewed as cold and selfish. The target might agree but regret their decision or claim unfairness.
  • Negotiator: Roll this skill with 2d10 instead of the usual 2d8.
  • Diplomat: Once per battle, if the enemy can hear you and shares a language, you can call for parley with a guaranteed success (on the call, not the result).
  • Dignitary: Your first request for a meeting with a specific authority figure such as a monarch or CEO is approved without needing to roll.
  • Lawyer: You have +1 advantage die when negotiating on the subject of your party's or another person's illegal activities.
Talk Use this social skill when you want to build relationships, get people to like you, and ask for favors using casual, friendly conversation. You are viewed as overly needy or ungenuine. The target might agree to a favor but at the cost of trust.
  • Chatty: Roll this skill with 2d10+skill instead of 2d8.
  • Party Animal: Attending a celebration, holiday party or festival heals you 10 health points and 1 point of exhaustion, and leaves you with a +1d6 that you can apply to any skill roll until your next party (maximum of 1 charge at a time).
  • Charmer: People will view you as inexplicably more presentable, personable and attractive than the rest of the party.
  • Flattery: While you are chatting with someone, they won't notice your first attempt to steal, snoop, cast magic, or plant traps/devices.

Defensive skills help to protect your character in and out of combat, as well as other benefits.

Defensive Skill Name Applications Degrees of Success/Fail Focus Abilities
Dodge
  • This skill is used to try to avoid physical harm, from either enemies' attacks in battle, or from explosions or falling debris. Because this is a perilous game, it's tough to avoid harm completely.
  • Add this skill to your Initiative value.
  • Critical success: You take no damage or harm.
  • Standard success: You take half damage, reduced by your armor to a minimum of 1 damage point.
  • Fail: You take the enemy's full damage or harm, reduced by your armor.
  • Critical fail: You take a critical hit; you take double damage, reduced by your armor.
  • Nimble: +1 to all dodge rolls and +3 to HP. You can choose to roll dodge instead of Meditation vs. projectile or explosive spells.
  • Repositioning: Whenever you succeed on a dodge roll, you can opt to instantly jump or roll up to half your movement in any direction you choose without provoking attacks.
  • Nine Lives: Once per day you can guarantee a critical success roll for yourself with dodge.
Meditation
  • This skill can be rolled to resist magic attacks, psychic damage, other mental effects, or to be calm and focused in tough scenarios.
  • This skill can also be rolled to sustain your concentration on spells and other things whenever it is threatened by attacks and distractions.
  • In both cases, roll vs. the enemy's attack TN.
  • This skill improves your energy point regeneration rate (You regenerate [skill] points per hour of meditation or rest).
  • Critical success: You take no effect from the enemy's spell or mental effect, or your concentration is maintained and empowered.
  • Success: You take minimum damage or effect from the enemy's spell or mental effect, reduced by your armor if applicable, to a minimum of 1. Your concentration is maintained.
  • Fail: You take the enemy's full damage or harm, reduced by your armor. Your concentration is lost, with normal consequences.
  • Critical fail: You take a critical hit from the enemy's magic or mental effect, taking more than maximum damage, reduced by your armor if applicable. Your concentration is lost, with extra-dangerous consequences.
  • Steel Mind: +1 to Meditation rolls and +3 to HP.
  • Unwavering Stance: While you are only either lightly armored or unarmored, add half your Meditation skill, rounded down, to your damage reduction.
  • Mantra: Add your Meditation skill to your EP. If you did not already have EP, gain 5 + Med EP. You can spend 1 EP to improve any defense roll by +1 (does not stack).
Resilience
  • This skill adds directly to your maximum health points (HP).
  • This skill also improves your health regeneration rate: You regenerate health equal to [1 + Resilience] per 8 hours of healthy food and comfortable rest.
  • This skill can be rolled to resist intense heat, cold, disease, poison, radiation, pressure, and other un-dodge-able hazards.
  • Resilience can also be used to represent proactive endurance, for example in drinking contests or staying silent when hurt.
  • Critically successful rolls result in minimum damage from hazards and superhuman endurance.
  • Successful rolls result in half damage from hazards and successful endurance.
  • Failed rolls result in full damage from hazards and failures to endure physical challenges or temptations.
  • Critically failed rolls result in maximum harm from hazards, illness, infection and exhaustion.
  • Resilient: +5 HP. Your HP regeneration amount from resting is twice as fast: 1 + Resilience per 4 hours. You also recover from exhaustion at double the normal rate.
  • Durable: +1 to Resilience rolls and +1 global damage reduction.
  • Endurance: You can roll resilience instead of other defense skills versus fire, ice, lightning and poison spells and weapons.

Arcane skills are psionic or magical skills used to attempt supernatural powers called spells. These powers are not meant for mortal hands, and each attempt with them is dangerous.

Rule: Arcane skills cannot be learned or upgraded without arcane focus skills. One arcane focus skill allows learning that skill, while a second allows future investment in any arcane skill.

Arcane Skill Name Applications Potential Failures Focus Abilities
Chronomancy Viewing of the past, future, and alternate realities. Modifying these, changing the flow of time. You may be charged more SP, you may be subjected to unwanted time-effects, change the timeline irreparably, or see visions of inevitable doom.
  • Acceleration: Add this skill directly to your initiative value.
  • Compressed Study: This is a special level 3 spell; it allows you (only) to perform a day's worth of academic tasks by spending only 30 minutes in an extradimensional space of compressed time, starting with a 10-minute ritual.
  • Visionary: You never get less than a basic success on your level 1 and 2 Visions spells.
Cryomancy The use of arcane water, ice and cold primarily to destroy enemies, but also as a tool. Failed cold spells may be less effective against targets, cost more sp, harm allies, or work entirely too well, or invite an unwanted elemental being.
  • Arcane Freeze: All your cold attack spells will arcane-freeze on hit if possible.
  • Heat Sink: While it is raining, snowing, or while you are at least half submerged in water, you have +1 on this skill.
  • Create Water: This is a special level 3 spell. When cast successfully, it summons 3 gallons of water from another dimension to a location you choose within 10m.
Electromancy The use of arcane lightning primarily to destroy enemies, but also as a tool. You may accidentally shock yourself, your friends, erase important data, lose additional EP, or start a fire.
  • Lightning Speed: You can add this skill to your initiative and you can use it to calculate your movement value.
  • Shocking Hit: All of your electric attack spells will shock enemies on hit if possible.
  • Energizing Touch: You can choose to transfer your energy points to/from allies at-will by physical contact.
Illusion Creating sensory illusions to deceive other beings. The illusion may be less effective, cost more sp, or may be too real.
  • Uncanny Dodge: If you fail a dodge roll, you can spend 3 EP to roll it again with your Illusion skill.
  • Blend In: If you fail a stealth roll, you can spend 3 EP to roll it again with your Illusion skill.
  • Sense Illusions: You will always instinctively know if there is an illusion nearby, no roll needed.
Metaphysics Detecting & dispelling magical effects, modifying and upgrading other spells, combining and triggering spells. Failed metaphysical manipulations may cost more EP, result in magical explosions, chaos magic effects, dimensional rifts, or anger deities.
  • Expanded Mind: +3 to Energy Points.
  • Third Eye: You can cast the spell "Sense Arcane" at-will with no point cost or risk, like a professional skill.
  • Spellweaver: You get a +1 to rolls whenever you cast a spell that interacts with another spell in any way (dispel, enchant, etc).
Necromancy Spells that primarily create undead minions but also provide weapons and tools related to death, bone, and poison. Losing control of one's undead minions is a constant danger to students of this school, as well as the standard risks.
  • Mindless Servitude: Your successfully summoned undead minions do not require your concentration.
  • Army of Death: You may have up to [your skill level] undead minions in service at a time.
  • Pallid Mask: You have advantage to intimidate mortals, you have advantage to resist poison and disease, and you gain a limited ability to speak with carrion feeding animals.
Pyromancy The use of arcane fire, heat, and smoke primarily to destroy enemies, but also as a tool. Stories of foolish firemages are legendary for causing disasters in many societies. You may accidentally burn everything or summon vicious demons.
  • Ignition: All your fire attack spells ignite enemies on a successful hit if possible.
  • Inner Flame: You can cast spells even while in the dying condition, and healers have advantage on rolls to stabilize you. If you are killed, you can choose to have your body violently explode.
  • Warmed by the Glow: When meditating, sleeping, or working in front of an open flame (non-arcane), lava flow, hot spring, or direct sunlight, you recharge EP at double the rate.
Telekinetics Moving objects without touching them, and transforming or changing things on a molecular level. You may accidentally damage objects, have less control over objects, or move things entirely too quickly.
  • User of Force: When using your basic, unmodified, nonviolent TK Manipulation abilities, you can choose to get a basic success without rolling.
  • Arcane Duelist: You can cast any Telekinetics spell that is usually an action, as a bonus action, for +1 to its EP cost.
  • Ethereal Acrobatics: If you fail an athletics or dodge roll, you can roll it again with TK at a cost of 3 EP.
Telepathy Reading minds, mental communication, mental harm and healing, and mind control. You may accidentally give away your own thoughts and intentions, cause unintended harm or nightmares, summon thought-demons, or engender unintended hostility.
  • Guarded Mind: You can roll Telepathy instead of Meditation to resist hostile telepathic effects targeting you or your allies.
  • Arcane Charm: If you fail any social skill roll, you can roll it again with Telepathy at a cost of 3 EP.
  • Projected Emotions: You can cast telepathy spells on targets that you cannot see at a cost of +2 EP.
Teleportation Near-instant translocation of yourself and other things, with some restrictions, by use of trans-dimensional shortcuts. You may not go as far or as accurately as you wanted. You may teleport only parts of things. You may teleport things you did not intend to teleport. Some targets may be lost in other dimensions.
  • Geometric Awareness: You can cast the L2 TK spell, Spatial Awareness, with your teleportation skill.
  • Planeswalker: You can cast "Sense Rifts" with no risk or point cost.
  • Shifter: Teleporting yourself only has no cooldown when used for distances under 30 meters, and you can use at as a bonus action for +1 ep cost.
Vivithurgy Healing, reshaping and otherwise modifying living biological entities. Failed vivithurgy spells often cause unintended mutations.
  • Faith Healing: You gain the option to cast any of your basic unmodified HP healing spells with no roll and a guaranteed basic success.
  • Quick Heal: You gain the option to modify a basic HP healing spell to a Bonus Action by increasing the EP cost and difficulty by +1.
  • Telekinetic Healing: You gain the option to modify a basic HP healing spell to be used at a distance of up to 15m by increasing the EP cost and difficulty by +2.

Combat skills help the user both attack with and defend from weapons. Levels in combat skills increase your accuracy, damage, Initiative, and health.

In combat, you roll your combat skill to try to hit an enemy's defense target number, which the GM will tell you. If you hit, you apply damage, with some skills giving lower "graze" damage on a miss as well.

Having a weapon skill as a Focus Skill allows a player to apply a special attack effect on a hit, such as a shove, cleave or grapple. To gain more benefits, check out the combat talents.

Combat Skill Name Applications Statistics Focus Abilities
Shoot
  • Covers all projectile-launching weapons, from slingstones to planetary defense cannons. For thrown weapons such as javelins and grenades, you can also use Athletics.
  • Some heavy cannons may require a certain minimum athletics skill to shoot without a fixed mount.
  • Shoot skill can also be used to intimidate with projectile weapons, but the specific action (trick shots etc) must be described and risked.
  • Add your Shoot skill to your Accuracy roll.
  • Add your Shoot skill to your Damage roll.
  • Add your Shoot skill to your maximum Health Points.
  • Add your Shoot skill to your Initiative value.
  • Starting at level 4, missed shots apply graze damage of 3.
  • Sharpshooter: +1 to all Shoot rolls and Shoot damage, and +2 to HP.
  • Veteran's Eye: Can spend 2 EP to guarantee one normal projectile hit or miss result, before or after you roll.
  • Snap Shot: While wielding a loaded ranged weapon, you can make 1 extra shot per round during an enemy's turn at -2 accuracy.
Melee
  • Covers all attacks with melee weapons such as swords and spears, including the use of objects as melee weapons.
  • Can also be used to intimidate, destroy, cut, or lever things.
  • Most special attacks allowed, but Brawl is superior for throws & chokes.
  • Add your Melee skill to your Accuracy roll.
  • Add your Melee skill to your Damage roll.
  • Add your Melee skill to your maximum Health Points.
  • Add your Melee skill to your Initiative value.
  • Starting at level 1, missed swings apply half damage.
  • Gladiator: Additional +1 to Melee rolls and +1 to damage, and +5 to HP.
  • Veteran's Arm: Once per battle, you can guarantee one basic hit or miss result for any attack involving you in melee range, before or after you roll.
  • Opportunity Attack: You get one free melee attempt on enemies who voluntarily leave your reach without spending an action to disengage.
  • Charge: If you use 2 actions to move into melee range, you can make 1 free melee attack.
Brawl skill
  • Brawl skill covers all martial arts, wrestling and unarmed combat. To use it, you must generally have your hands or feet free, though some species such as reptillians may be able to make tail swipe attacks as well.
  • Can also be used to intimidate people or destroy things, though punching stone or metal may hurt you.
  • Brawl skill allows a wide variety of special attacks, including grapples, throws, chokes, pins, etc.
  • Add your Brawl skill to your Accuracy roll.
  • Damage with Brawl is two times your skill level, or 1 if you are untrained.
  • Add your Brawl skill to your maximum Health Points.
  • Add your Brawl skill to your Initiative value.
  • Starting at level 1, missed swings apply half damage.
  • Martial Artist: +1 to Brawl rolls and +1 to Brawl damage, +5 to HP.
  • Resolute Technique: Once per battle, can guarantee one basic hit or miss while brawling, before or after you roll.
  • Duck and Weave: You can roll Brawl as a defense skill against any type of attack made against you in melee range.
  • Charge: If you use 2 actions to move into melee range, you can make 1 free brawl attack.