CC Skills

## **Skills – *and How This Game Works*...**

Skills are a key part of character creation. To some degree, by describing what the character can do, it describes who the character is. It is a log of the experience so far, and the basis for what they can accomplish in the future. Skills are more than capacity, they are *identity*.

Before we get into the nitty-gritty of skills lists and levels, let's look at what skills do: they are what allows the characters to do stuff. A specific action taken to achieve a specific result is called a *task*. *Speculation* uses the Probabilistic System (PROSYS) for non-combat tasks, and the Combat System (COMSYS) for combat-related tasks.

We list the skills themselves under the Probabilistic System, though some could just as easily be classed in the Combat System. When looking for the description of how to accomplish certain tasks, look under the skills likely to be associated...

## **Skills: the Foundation of PROSYS**

The **Degree of Difficulty** (DoD) is an arbitrary value placed on any given task. It's like the Olympics: the harder something is, the higher the number. Heck, people in the Pentagon know that when the DoD gets involved, everything gets harder...

It's coldly clinical but it's statistically true: either you can do something or you can't. That's why education and experience are so important. It's *the best* who train every waking minute – to make sure they stay that way. For that Olympic example, modern athletes that compete against themselves (such as gymnasts) are asked to accomplish a task, or a series of tasks, that are so difficult that it's at the edge of their capacity – and usually the edge of modern human capacity.

There is always a random element to it, intangible and uncontrolled factors, and both the ProSys and the ComSys account for those with modifiers... which may be significant.

***Degree of Difficulty (DoD) rating chart***

 11-20
 21-45
 46-65
 66-85
 86-100
 101-150
 151-200

The low-level professional will have a skill in the upper 30s, while recognized experts will be in the 60s. Nationally-celebrated consummate artisans may be as high as the 80s. More falls into legendary status.

For tasks that are extreme or impossible, it's up to the PC to arrange assistance: bring in help, or use tools that will give bonus mods. And then just a little bit of luck...

## **The Skill Set**

Skills are no less than the character's real weapons. Everything from primary (professional) skills to hobbies are covered here, and there is more than just knowing what steps to take.  Skills also include things like basic literacy and knowledge of abstract information.

Besides motivation, skills are the greatest seperation of the professional adventurer from the mundane citizen. Taking that into account, we assume characters have a greater than average drive and awareness that allows them to learn and survive.

For this section, we create a temporary number called the learning trait (LT). This is simply the average of the three mental traits.  If your character build is based off one of the templates, you already know what the LT is:

**Learning Trait** (LT) = MR + MA + MS / 3

* Joe Shmo LT = 65
* Above-average Joe LT = 80
* G.I. Joe LT = 95 (etc.)

This Learning Trait reflects the complex relationship to the intelligence and wisdom of a character (reflected in the MR), their awareness and neurologically-influenced capacity to think (their MA), and the initiative and self-discipline that drives them (their MS).

### **Skill Number**

The number of skills a character starts with is based on the effective number of skills the average person accumulates over the course of their life. For most, this number peaks in the early 20s, may trickle in a few more in the 30s, and skills are sometimes shelved as people age or as professions, activities and hobbies fade. This rule generally reflects non-college educated and/or non-militarily trained individuals. There are exceptions to every rule, and those exceptions tend to prove the rule. A professional adventurer tends to be that exception.

**SKILL NUMBER CHART**
 Joe Shmo
 Above-average Joe
 G.I. Joe

For the percentages left over (if any), round to the nearest whole number. If you rounded down, add 5 points wherever you want, if you rounded up, treat it as an additional skill.

These numbers assume some formal education in these skills, whatever it is, *and* some level of practice afterwards. If training is unavailable for the skill (learned strictly by OTJ/JIT/hard knocks), it is penalized by 20%. To find out if training was available, consult the character's life story.

### **Skill Rating**

The level of each of the skills is the ***Skill Rating***, and is specifically proportional to how smart a character is. This is a direct call on the *Mental Reasoning* (MR) attribute, itself a measure of both data collected (book smarts) and applied context (wisdom).

Speculation tends to be generous with primary skill ratings – assuming it's confidence in those skills that leads characters to believe they run towards danger while others (smartly) run away.

The bulk of the secondary, tertiary, auxiliary and ancillary skills tend to be picked up in short classes and/or lifestyle exposure and therefore are considerably lower on the ratings scale.

### **Transcendental yardsticks**

So how does one quantify and qualify the experiences of life?  Easy, refer to the character's life-story and look for key words. In some cases, there will be very specific training and education, which may be interpreted as the learning moments to create the bulk of a skill, of which experience then refines and compounds.

Certain character packages have been created as a template for players to lean on. This includes common adventurer backgrounds such as different levels of professional police and military experience.

### **The Experience Clause**

The aforementioned clause does duly attribute survival to the wisdom of the grizzled over the speed of the youth. The Skill Ratings resulting from the table above account for characters between the ages of 18-29.

 This gives ol' *Firsty* an additional 9 points to put where the player wants. In this case, they're going to dump all 9 points into their fighting skill.

### **Fine Motor Skill** **(FMS) Clause**

The Fine Motor Skill (FMS) clause notes the nature of extremely complex physical endeavors, and disallows responsibility or culpability of modifiers for such actions in which the act is a combination of several physical processes in addition to compensating for, and taking advantage of, all other factors which may influence the situation. In such circumstance, any mods, malevolent or benevolent, will be duly noted and will exclude the addition of any other mods (such as a trait bonus to a firearms skill) by the letters FMS (an acronym) by the skill in question.

### **The Genre Clause**

Certain genre scenarios may also have special training and education opportunities. From Science Fiction, we get the likes of Neo jacking in to the net ("Whoa. I know Kung Fu...") to characters stumbling across a wizards *Book of Learning*, there may be exceptional methods of learning skills.

### **Post-Secondary Education**

Surviving a scenario in a campaign may uncover a glaring point of character ignorance in their new operational role. Players can work with the Ref to arrange some meta-narrative about finding training and education appropriate to the setting that would fill that key gap. Or... that could become a scenario all its own (Harry Potter turned magical education into a *campaign*).

## **The Skill List**

Speculation has an extensive skill list, generally breaking fields down as categories, with an expectation that modern-setting characters will have specific skills from within those categories.

* Click here for the **Skill List**
* Click here to return to the general **Character Creation start page**