Skills, Again
Yeah, I know…”skills again? Sheesh!” You’re thinking. Well, That’s because skills are one of the most customize-able parts of FATE. So here I am, again, talking about the skills I have chosen, and why.
From Whence it Came
My skill list is derived from a mix of three different FATE games: The Dresden Files, Bulldogs!, Diaspora, and Free FATE. There are quite a few different skills in each, since they each have their own niche that they fit into. What I did was compare what skills they had in common, and used that to determine the “essential FATE skills” that I really needed.
Trimming the List
The games above that I used have what I call Skill Bloat. Each have an enormous list of skills, some of which are too similar for my tastes. For example, DFRPG has discipline and conviction. Even though I am currently playing in—and ran for a bit—a DFRPG game, I still have to look at my cheat-sheet to see what the differences are.
Dresden Files has 25 skills, Bulldogs! and Free FATE clock in at 28 each, and Diaspora has a whopping 37 skills! That’s a lot! To be honest, 25 from Dresden isn’t too bad, but for me the magic number is 20-23. It just feels right, no real rationalization beyond that.
Making the List
I went back and forth for quite a while trying to figure out how slim I wanted to go, and what skills I wanted to cut. Heck, I even started an 8-page thread over on RPGnet to help me decide if I should nix perception skills. So I’m going to say up front that I did, in fact, nix perception-type skills.
Originally, I was going to combine weapons and fists into one melee skill. However, after some time thinking, reading blog/forum posts, and a want for no fewer than 21 skills, I kept them separate.
Enough Babble, Give Me the List!
Thanks for sticking with me this far. So here’s my list, and a quick description of what each can be used for.
- Academics - Book knowledge. Roll for assessments/declaration, and “do I know about that?”
- Athletics - Just like any other FATE game. Movement, dodge, etc. The “Move yourself” skill
- Burglary - Breaking & entering, also slight of hand. Picking physical locks, pockets, and opening doors/windows. Being a thief
- Contacts - How well you know someone who knows someone. Knowing what the word on the street is. Also good for assessments/declarations
- Deceit - How well you lie. Social attacks, hiding things on you, and counterfeiting stuff.
- Empathy - Assessments/declarations in social situations, defend against deceit, and get a feel for a location
- Endurance - Gives you physical stress boxes. Read any other FATE game, and that’s what it does
- Engineering - Making/fixing things, jury-rigging, and vehicular manoeuvres. Also used for removing vehicular stress/consequences
- Fists - Attack/defend in melee combat. Can also be used for manoeuvres in combat.
- Guns - Who doesn’t like to shoot things? In Halo, shooting is important for Spartans, UNSC troopers, and Covenant forces alike
- Intimidation - Social attacks, manoeuvres, and interrogation. Forcing your ideas/personality on others
- Leadership - Giving orders and being in charge. Can be used to augment subordinates skills, or give orders to the crew of a vehicle
- Medicine - removing in-combat stress, helping heal physical consequences. Also good for assessments/declarations having to do with biology
- Might - Physical force, wrestling, and moving others. Just like in every other FATE game
- Rapport - Your general social skill, how well you get along with others. Social agility to intimidation’s brute force
- Resolve - The mental equivalent to endurance. It’s the default social defense roll. Also, social stress boxes
- Requisition - How well you can get the gear that you want. Roll vs. cost to see if you can get what you request for your mission
- Stealth - Concealing yourself when moving or staying still. This skills is also used to detect those sneaking around you
- Survival - Getting along in the wild. Assessments/declarations when not in a more “civilized” locale
- Systems - The is the software skill to engineering’s hardware bent. Cracking encryption, getting the computer to work right, etc. Vehicular manoeuvres
- Weapons - Armed melee combat. Attack, defend, and manoeuvres. This skill is also used for smacking them with the stock of your weapon
Where’s Perception?
Like I mentioned earlier, there’s no perception skill. Why is that? I don’t like ‘em. Players tend to rely more on them than I would like, and I have the gut reaction to have them roll for erroneous things. So I removed the temptation.
Perception rolls can be replaced by other skills. To counter a stealth skill, just roll stealth itself! Let’s face it, if you know how to hide yourself, why wouldn’t you know where others will hid? Also, when investigating something, roll empathy to get the general feel of the locale, or academics to research what you’ve found.
What about Driving Skill?
To answer this, I point you to the FATE Fractal. Vehicles are treated like characters. They have skills themselves that are rolled. If you’re trying to speed away? Roll Speed. Dodging enemy fire? That’s a manoeuvreability roll. You want to shoot someone? Fire control is your answer!
This does a few things that I am very fond of:
- Giving the vehicle the skills reduces the skill list - This allows specialization of character while all being decent behind the stick.
- Reduces the inflation of player skill + vehicle modifier - Gunnery (+5) added to fire control (+3)? That’s way high! How the heck is “systems-guy” supposed to block with “angled the sheilds” when the most he can get it +5?
- Keeps the math smaller - It’s 4dF + Skill, not 4dF + Skill + Vehicle. One less step means it’s just that much faster.
Even though the skills are on the vehicle and not the character doesn’t mean they can’t take stunts for flying! Stunts are still there, just at the end of the stunts chapter.
