Exalted 2nd Ed Review

I just finished a short-run game run by my friend using the Exalted system, Second Edition, by White Wolf Games. This review will be pretty brief because there isn't that much I feel like I need to say.

It does what it does pretty well - that is, allowing you to roll huge dice-pools and do amazing things, primarily in combat. I mean, if you want to level a phalanx of hobgoblins, put an arrow through someone's eye every time you bend your bow, or take a flying leap off of a giant's back and jam a fiery naginata into Dread Cthulhu (hey, I had to get His attention), this is your game.

It is unlike the other White Wolf games, in general, in that the focus seems to be on action. I'm sure you could run an intrigue game, but I imagine there's only so deep things will go when you have all of these abilities devoted to obliterating your foes. Gone, also, is the usual kind of internal moral or spiritual conflict that marks many of White Wolf's games. This game is all about external conflict.

I personally don't like the change that White Wolf has made in general (in Requiem, Awakening, Forsaken, Exalted, etc.) to a d10 system where the difficulty is always the same. Frankly, that takes away a dimension of the game that I liked a great deal - that successes always mean the same thing, and your capacity (dice-pool) is always placed against the difficulty (target number) of a task. In the new systems, the target number never changes. This just lessens the versatility of the dice mechanic for no good reason whatsoever (IMO).

Overall, I give Exalted 2nd Edition 3.5 out of 5 stars. It does what it does well, but is also limited, and the only meaningful conflicts you're likely to have are external. It's definitely fun, and a great way to blow off steam, and to use amounts of d10's that won't even fit in two cupped hands, but I'm not sure I'd be interested in a long-term Exalted game.

Mortal Coil Review

A few days ago I got to demo Mortal Coil, an indie game written by Brennan Taylor and illustrated throughout by Jennifer Rodgers. It is published by Galileo Games and is available through IPR.

Mortal Coil uses a simple token-based mechanic through which players and the GM manipulate the game world and their characers' actions using Action, Power, Magic and Passion Tokens.

What is most interesting about Mortal Coil, however, is that the game begins with the group creating the setting from scratch. The only set rule about setting that Mortal Coil insists upon is that magic always has a price (and I suppose, implicity, that there is magic to begin with).

When I ran the game at the local game store, I broke the session to two Acts. Act One involved introducing the system, creating the setting, creating characters, and answering questions about rules and whatnot. Then there would be a thirty-minute or so break, during which I would come up with a sessions' worth of material, followed by Act Two. Act Two would begin with the first scene and conflicts and go onward from there.

The setting-creation system functions according to consensus, and the result is what is called the Theme Document. The Theme Document contains all of the "facts" of the game the group has described thus far - it is everything agreed to about the game.

Later on, during play, you can actually add facts to the game, or modify existing facts, but you can't contradict a fact once it is written down.

This system of creating the Theme Document went much smoother than I had expected. Listening in, one of the owners of the store was intrigued, and dropped what he was doing to join the game. People built off of each others' ideas, and there were almost no situations where something got a flat "no".

Starting with a general Tone you move to Setting, defining the where and when and what of the game. Next you discuss what form the Supernatural will take in the game, followed by deciding the Magic Level (which determines some rules things like how many Magic Tokens you start with or how much it costs to replenish them). Finally, there is the Situation which brings the player-characters together, and some Villains are fleshed out. At this point, you can also go back and modify earlier parts of the Document if new ideas have come out.

A huge amount of stuff came out of this for the group I was working with (and for this process, the GM has no more power/say than any other player). Here's a bit of what we came up with for this game:

Tone: desperate, epic, hopeful, head-harvesting monsters (not really a "tone" but we liked it), oases

Setting: a group of displaced people from an advanced and utopian civilization arrive in a new world. For shorthand (since it was a one-off game) we called the civilization Atlantis and imagined it as somewhat similar, using what we called "mage-punk" magical technology to accomplish its goals, whereas teh new world would be teeming with overabundant life...and head-harvesting monsters of course.

The Supernatural: we decided that magic was classified by color, and had a cool discussion over what each color we chose - red, orange, yellow, green blue, purple - meant in the game.

Magic Level: we chose Moderate (I didn't have enough Tokens handy for "high", and "low" didn't make sense because we wanted magic to be as common as technology might be elsewhere)

Situation: the capacity to percieve and manipulate Purple magic is dying out of our civilization, and we need to return with genetic material so we can redevelop the recessive gene that enables this. We have been sent to this teeming continent becuase readings show that a great deal of Purple magic is availble there. We have been sent because we are misfits in our civilization, and because our brushes with Purple magic (which involved death, soul, and art, among other things) made us potentially sensitive. Essentially, Purple magic is taboo in our culture, but still necessary to have a continuing capacity for magic at all.

Villains: our own civilization and its secret machinations, other outcasts from our civilization that were here first, huge and dangerous plants and animals from this continent, head-harvesting monsters.

The game was awesome once we hit Act Two. One thing that Mortal Coil allows is the use of Power Tokens to take over GMing temporarily. I added to this the power to frame a new scene, so that any player can spend a Power Token to frame the next scene. This led to honestly amazing situations, at least for me. I like that in Mortal Coil the GM is limited - s/he has more Power Tokens than any one player, but the players can exert a huge amount of influence over what happens.

One thing that was unclear about the game was how exactly the GM spends her Power Tokens. I ended up spending them to frame scenes when the players didn't and to add complications to scenes as they came up - though I wasn't perfectly consistent with this because I was unclear on how it was indended to work.

Players and the GM are also able to spend Magic Tokens to change the way magic works in the setting. The person sitting to your left, however, has the power to define the cost of the change - remember, all magic has a price.

I don't want to drag this review out. Overall, I'd say that if you want a diceless, fast-resolution system that is heavy on narrative and improvisation, then Mortal Coil is an excellent choice.

I give the system 4 out of 5 stars - I loved it, but one or two things in the rules are unclear, and we found the conflict system had a little difficulty dealing with multiple simultaneous conflicts. Nothing we couldn't work around and still have a huge amount of fun, though, and I recommend it with a clear conscience.

First Poll

I've used a few polls to interesting effect in my other blog, and I thought I'd try one here. I see a lot of international readers, and I know that the people who are reading this blog are "known unknowns" as Donald Rumsfeld might say. So, I'm curious, first on a basic level.

Origins 2007: Steve Jackson

I met Steve Jackson under strange circumstances. I'd seen him around the convention a couple of times, especially in or near the SJ Games booth in the dealer room, but being a shy person I didn't go up to him and say "Hey, GURPS is still one of my favorite systems for any setting, and for years it was the only system I used, and I think your supplements are in many cases second to none"...and so on.

But it turned out that he was hosting a seminar during a time that I was available. The seminar was on...cryonics. Weird, right? I go into the room, and there are only two other people there. And then we have this very weird conversation. In brief, Steve Jackson has paid a large sum of money so that when he dies, he will be frozen by a certain company, to be thawed out at a future date when whatever it is he died of is no longer a problem and when the technology to bring someone out of deep-freeze is developed.

I have to say - Steve Jackson is an intelligent guy who is a classic geek. Not a stirring speaker - more like a guy you'd meet at your local gaming store who's always there and always talking about the latest min-max scheme to make his character invincible. He was clearly tired as well at this point in the convention.

It was exciting nonetheless to meet him - for a long time almost all of the gaming books on my shelves were GURPS books (and I've noticed that my international readers often check out my Eberron GURPS conversion rules).

As a side note, Munchkin Impossible beat out my pick, High School Drama, for the Origins Award for Best Non-Collectible Card Game, by a single vote. (Unlike in our national politics, the popular vote at Origins actually matters!) High School Drama is the first game written by a local from this area named Boyen, and I recommend it very highly. Looking through the game and seeing Boyen demo it a few times, I would have bought it if I wasn't absolutely broke. There's certainly no dishonor to losing to Munchkin, however, especially for someone's first published game. I look forward to seeing what Shifting Skies Press has coming up next - I know Boyen is working on his second game as I type, so stay tuned.

Origins 2007: Luke Crane

One cool thing that I got to do at Origins this year is to meet Luke Crane twice. The first time was at a seminar he and a few other writers (the authors of Inspectres, The Riddle of Steel and With Great Power) held, the purpose of which was to help aspiring writers and game designers learn the nitty-gritty details of self-publication. Basically, we got to benefit from some of their mistakes and what they had learned in their own self-publishing.

Luke talked for about 95% of the seminar, occasionally prompting one of the other authors to contribute. You get the impression that his mouth is always trying to catch up with his mind, and he's an active speaker, walking around the room in his socks, cracking jokes, swearing, but also providing a wealth of information and specifics.

The second time I met Luke was when he won an Origins Award for Role-Playing Game of the Year with his game, Burning Empires (AKA "The Brick"). He was running a Burning Wheel game in the same room where I was in a Burning Wheel/Artesia crossover game. It was fun to congratulate him and to watch him flip out. Burning Empires was definitely my vote for the award in that category. I also got to meet some other people who came to congratulate him - others from the Forge, a podcaster or two, and whatnot. Some I have to admit I didn't know at all, or didn't recognize (since I know these people primarily through their voice or their writing).

I think its cool that Luke was running a game when the awards ceremony was going on, and I think its cool that shortly after getting the statue, he was back to running his game, and the statue was put to the side to make room for the dice. I think that's a guy with his priorities straight.

Back from Origins 2007

...and it was amazing. Loved it. I'll post more about it when I have the energy, but the most exciting thing is that I might be writing a SciFi RPG system for Jolly Roger Games. By pure happenstance I was at the right place at the right time to pimp myself, as it were, and got to talk to a guy from JR who is looking for someone to write a system, and then some supplements, for a SciFi setting that he's already finished. I won't say more than that, but suffice to say, I'm really excited - and I need to put together writing samples ASAP.

Epic: Advancement

There are lots of systems for character advancement out there in the RPG world. Most of them amount to a system where, at the end of a roleplaying session, the characters are all granted some number of experience points (or character points or whatever) which are then either 1) accumulated until a power where there are enough to advance the character a level (D20, HARP, Rolemaster) or 2) spent like a form of currency to purchase higher skills and other abilities (GURPS, White Wolf, BESM). There are also methods out there that base advancement on what you try to do in-game - the more you roll dice for an ability, the more that ability goes up (Call of Cthulhu/Chaosium, Burning Wheel)

For Epic, I wanted a system of advancement that is more direct, so instead of experience, you use your experiences to advance. As much as possible, I took out the extra step of accumulating experience points entirely. Essentially, each player in a game has a chance to describe what their character has experienced during the game that taught her something or tested her in some way. The other players and the GM help the player decide what category this experience falls into - if an Attribute, what Attribute? If a Skill, which Skill? The experience is then recorded as a note, or typed up as part of the game - whatever will help the player remember it in the future.

I am thinking that three such reflections on experiences per game session should be the maximum - this shouldn't go too long, but there should be a chance to advance more than one thing in a given session. Right now, I like a rule of threes, so that when a character has had three noteworthy experiences in a given 'category' that category is increased one point. If each experience from a given session has to be in a different category, this means that nothing will advance more than once per three sessions, which is a pace that I like.

This experience system also counts to advance your Connections, which I haven't blogged about yet, but these are basically a character's social relationships - friends, family, allies, enemies, employers, etc. Any number of the character's experiences in a given session can be social ones which advance, or move in a preferable direction, one of her Connections (i.e., reduce an Enemy, or increase a Friendship).

Another thing that this system accomplishes, which I like a lot, is that it roots advancement in the narrative of the game in question. A character accumulates stories and advances thereby. Not only is that incredibly well-suited to the genre of epic fantasy, but it is also a great way to keep interest in the game going. You are telling players to have interesting experiences in order to advance, which I think is the best way to do it.

This system can be used at the beginning of a game as a way of re-capping what happened last session, which would be a great method for groups that don't meet that often. You can also have a blog or forum set up for the game, or have the players collectively write vignettes about what is going on in the game.

I really like this idea because it is a "heavy orange" as one of my professors liked to put it. There's a lot in there, and it does a lot of things at once.

Here's a brief example:

It could be very simple. A character who is a soldier was involved in a battle during the course of the session. During the battle, the soldier had a harrowing experience where his shield saved him from being impaled by a charging knight's lance (an experience toward the Block skill). He also had to take a unit of scouts and maneuver behind the enemy's position to cut off retreat (an experience toward Orienteering, Stealth, or perhaps Alertness). Finally, the character was able to make his way to one of the captains of the enemy's forces and defeated him in single combat (an experience toward Long Blade, or toward advancing his status in the military - a Connection, or his reputation with fellow-soldiers - another Connection).

As you can see, its both flexible and intuitive (I think at least), so you still have a lot of control over how your character advances. Also, if you're in a game session and didn't have any interesting experiences, then why are you in the game?

Obviously, it could be a lot more complicated, and a group will probably take a couple of sessions to get used to this process - but its definitely one that I'll use in the future, whether I'm finally playtesting Epic or not.

Epic: Weapons and Armor

Rather than have exhaustive lists of various ancient weapons and armor (how does a katar compare to a kopesh?), I've just come up with a way to "build" weapons in what I think is a balanced way that will have the result that I want. After each basic set of rules for building weapons and armor, I'll provide a few examples to give you a feel for the system.

Melee Weapons

For weapons, the basic things to consider are the length of the level that delivers the damage and the for that the damage takes. The lever multiplies the force of an attack - being hit with a baseball bat is worse than being hit with a baton. The form that the force arrives also multiplies - the smaller the area that is hitting the target, the more force is delivered across that area. Flat areas will deliver less damage than long, thin areas (blades), and these will deliver less damage than pinpoint areas (piercing weapons). Mass is also a consideration - why a board with a nail in it will often hurt less than a war-pick, for example - but mass should just be factored in to balance things out.

Smooth surface +0 (club, fist)
Surface with raised points but still relatively "blunt" +1 (morningstar)
Sharpened edge +2 (sword)
Piercing/puncturing point +3 (spear)

Short lever +1 (as long as a forearm)
Medium level +2 (as long as an arm)
Long lever/Sectional +3 (as long as a human body/like a flail)

--> In some cases, like the Spear, the length of the weapon isn't used to multiply the force but rather for extended reach, so damage is reduced to reflect this. To make full use of a lever, a weapon must be swung, like an axe for example
--> The attacker's arm is not counted as the "lever" in question
--> Weapons that use both hands add +1 to their damage
--> Weapons with raised points, the +1 variety, also have the effect of halving protection from Armor - things like the morningstar and flail were designed to deal with armored foes.
--> For all weapons, remember that their damage bonus +1 is the kind of average wound this weapon will deliver to an unarmored foe who is barely hit

Punch +0
Kick +1
Knife +3
Club +2
Staff +3
Bastard Sword (one-handed) +5
Broadsword +4
Spear +4
Halberd +7
Straightsword +5
Flail +4
Greatsword +6


Missile Weapons

The same consideration of how the damage is delivered is important here, but instead of a lever multiplying force, here force is often multiplied mechanically. The process is similar, but since there are also things like elasticity being taken into account, I've tried to generalize and I think the result makes sense.

Blunt +1
Cutting +2
Piercing +3

No Mechanism +0
Short Mechanism +2
Long Mechanism +3
Heavy Mechanism +4

Thrown rock +1
Thrown javelin +3
Thrown axe +4
Short Bow +5
Long Bow +6
Crossbow +7
Heavy Crossbow +8
Sling +3

Armor

Armor is a little more abstract, but I just tried to work it out so it balanced the way I wanted with the weapons. Armor is either a base or an add - base is what the armor is made of (leather, rings of steel, etc.) and add is what reinforces it (metal plates, metal studs or scales, a padded underlayer/gambeson, etc.)

Padded cloth or soft leather +1 (add or base)
Hardened/lacquered leather +1
Metal rings/studs +1 (add)
Layered metal rings +2
Shaped metal plates +1 (add)
Layered Metal plates +5

Chainmail +3 (padding, layered metal rings)
Composite armor +2 (cloth and hardened leather, Greek style)
Plate mail +4 (padding, layered rings, metal plates)
Plate armor +6 (padding, layered metal plates, Knight style)

--> As you can see, armor doesn't often prevent damage entirely, it just helps mitigate it
--> Also, Endurance counts for a lot in this system. Endurance represents your ability to shurg off pain and your body's ability to recover and function under stress. It seems like it might be unbalanced compared to armor, but I still think a flabby, asthmatic game designer in plate mail will get trounced a lot faster than a trained soldier...

Encumberance and Other Equipment, Special Materials, etc.

All upcoming.

Epic: Physical Conflict

Now that we've covered Dice, Attributes and Skills, we can move on to Physical Conflict, a.k.a. Combat. The Conflict system for Epic is designed to be relatively fast-paced, surprising, and customizable. Playtesting will reveal how smoothly it runs. Overall, I am going for a balance between heroism and realism. I want swords to draw blood, and I want hails of arrows to make the blood run cold, but I don't want heroes laid out by daggers on a regular basis.

The first thing that happens when a conflict breaks out that the players want to resolve with dice (rather than narration, comparing scores, roleplaying or something else) is that everyone needs to figure out who's involved. There's no "initiative" roll in the rules (though you can use one if you wish - read on) so a show of hands as to "ok, who's in this fight?" or "wait, which of you want to join the argument with the Baron?" will suffice.

The second thing is that everyone writes down their first action somewhere on scrap paper and then, once everyone is finished, everyone reveals their actions in any order they wish. These actions are then resolved in any order, with contested actions going handled together to keep things as clear as possible. (More on what kinds of actions you can declare later too)

The third thing that happens is everyone is made clear on what the results were - are you unconscious? Crying? Retching? Fleeing? Giving chase? Etc. If you're using markers or minis, move them around to represent the new positions of the various combatants on the battle map. Otherwise, just narrate, then repeat the first step.

Now, of course, we'll break this down a bit. Here, we're focusing on physical conflict. Other kinds of conflict might get relegated to a later post, but the basis system is always the same --> [Declare] then [Roll] then [Resolve].

Declare

When you declare an "action" in physical conflict, the term is loosely defined on purpose. The intent is for the pace to match the dramatic needs of the situation and the interest at the table. If you want to be precise, an "action" is either movement or about one second of activity - so enough time to get in one good sword swing, slide down a banister, draw a weapon, dive behind cover, etc. If you're not moving very far, you still have time to swing that sword.

A good rule of thumb if using a hexmap or a D20-style battle map is that for every point in Dexterity you can move one hex or square per action spend moving. Otherwise, assume you can move one or maybe two hexes or squares while doing something else. (Don't worry, no attacks of opportunity!)

Now, say you've declared something that is a terrible idea - it leaves you open to a mortal attack, for example. You can spend a point of Reflex in order to change you action - but you can only spend one point to do so per exchange, so it'll be hard to exploit this to get the drop on your foes most of the time. This is simply a rule I have because I personally hate to see PCs die for stupid reasons.

Roll

For a physical attack, just compare numbers after you roll 4dF. If the attacker wins, she hits! If the defender wins, she isn't hit! Ties go nowhere - the defender gets marked up but not damaged enough to note.

If the attack is uncontested (from behind, a surprise, but the defender is awake and active), the attacker rolls 4dF + [Weapon Skill] and compares that to the defender's 4dF + [Dexterity or Perception, whichever is lower] + [Cover]. To make things faster, don't let defenders roll at all - you're at the mercy of the aggressor (or, really, the aggressor's dice). If the attack is against someone who is totally unresisting, and the attacker is skilled and certain in intent, that's it. The defender is dead, or maimed, or whatever the attacker wants.

If the attack is contested, then the roll is 4dF + [Attacker's Weapon Skill] versus 4dF + [Defender's Defense Skill] + [Cover]. Again, for faster resolution, don't let the defender roll.

If two attacks are simultaneous - i.e., A attacks B and B attacks A, its assumed they're both going for it and they're both going to roll their attack as if it was unresisted. Time to spend Reflex or take it on the chin.

If two characters are trying to move in an opposed way - that is, one is fleeing and the other is chasing, or one is trying to maneuver closer to the exit and one is trying to cut her off, then they make a contested roll and the winner gets what they want. The margin of victory should help the GM and the players narrate how things go. Winning by 1 point is a minimal win. If the contest is ongoing, then the winner adds her margin of victory to the next roll (i.e., gaining on someone she's chasing). When the margin of victory exceeds the Dexterity of the other person, the maneuvering is over (the fleeing character escapes, etc.) In many of these cases, a Skill will also apply - Fitness (Running) for the chase scene, or Acrobatics (Evasion) for the maneuvering, especially in a confined place.

Generally, when one person involved says what Skill they're using to do what they want, the skill to oppose this should become clear. If no Skill applies, just use an Attribute -3.

For all other situations, make contested rolls, or have the player roll against a difficulty number set by the GM.

Resolve

Conditions describe how a character is doing during a physical conflict. For example, a character could be sickened, or prone, or flying through the air, etc. Rather than have the tedious list of conditions that is in the back of the D&D DM's Guide, the GM and players are encouraged to negotiate bonuses and penalties that would apply in the situation. Its easier to give only bonuses - so, for example, attacking a prone opponent could grant a +2 bonus on your attack roll. (What matters is the distance between the numbers being compared, not what the numbers are)

Wounds are a little more specific. There are six general varieties of Wounds (and a few effects):
0-1: Minor (scratches, cuts, bad bruises, livid welts) -1 Appeal until covered or healed
2-3: Moderate (cuts, serious bruises, jammed fingers) -1 everything
4-5: Serious (gashes, cracked bones, broken fingers or toes, punctures) -2 everything, lose 1 Vigor
6-7: Dire (deep punctures, severed blood vessels, hemhorraging, broken bones) -3 everything, lose 1 Vigor per minute
8-9: Crippling (shattered bones, severed limbs, punctures all the way through) -4 everything, lose 1 vigor per Endurance in turns (or seconds)
10+ Mortal (you are going to die without immediate intervention) no actions, lose 1 Vigor per round or second

Each Wound is treated as its own unique snowflake of pain and suffering. So those penalties stack with each other - three Moderate Wounds give you a -3 to everything. Vigor loss is not cumulative, however - you just keep track of Vigor loss from the worst Wound. When you're out of Vigor, you slump to the ground, utterly spent, and fall unconscious.

As you can see, things get bad quickly. Here's how you get Wounds, then we'll talk more about how to avoid them.

When you are hit during a physical conflict, the attacker notes their margin of success. You then make a contested roll during the Resolution phase - the attacker rolls 4dF + [Margin of Victory] + [Strength] + [Weapon Damage] and the defender rolls 4dF + [Endurance] + [Armor]. The defender's number is subtracted from the attacker's number. If the result is positive, you've got yourself a Wound. If not, you've shrugged it off and you move on.

Some Variations

Some people like rolling for initiative and then going around the table in order, declaring their actions each in turn. (Actually, I do too, I just like this better) If this is what you're after, go for it! Roll 4dF + [Reflex] and the highest initiative result goes first and so on. Ties go to the higher base Reflex. If those are tied...work it out cleverly.

If you really like a Burning Wheel-style system where you declare multiple actions ahead of time, go for it. As always, you spend Reflex to change actions after they're declared. Then you go down the list, Rolling and then Resolving action 1, action 2, and so on.

You can always keep the defender from rolling to speed things along. For an ever faster option, you can get rid of the dice altogether. The dice are there to add an element of fun and surprise to what's going on, but the numbers are all there from the start. Drop the dice and Epic still works just fine.

Using Vigor and Clarity

Vigor can be spent once per turn to add +1 to any muscle-powered roll, such as damage, or swinging a heavy weapon, or wrestling, etc. If two people spend Vigor at the same time, the one with the highest current Vigor wins and gets the +1 and the other one just wasted another precious Vigor...

Clarity can be spent to concentrate when there are distractions - which is always the case during a battle. It enables you to temporarily do things like fine manipulation or recall details during a fight. Say you're fleeing a mob, and come to an alleyway, and can't remember which doorway leads to the back entrance to your hideout. If you spend a Clarity, you focus and recall the tidbit in the nick of time. If you don't, you might still be there panicking and yanking on doors when the mob turns the corner...

Magic, Weapons and Armor, Tactics, Large-Scale Battles, Etc.

All to be covered in future posts.

Epic: Skills

In the Epic system, Skills are how things get done most of the time. Skills are rooted in, and modify, Attributes. Untrained, a character trying to do something by default, without the appropriate Skill, rolls against their Attribute -3. This means that some simple and mundane things will be possible without Skills, but nothing at all advanced will be possible except in the case of truly exceptional Attributes of 8 or higher. The maximum, generally speaking, that a character can have in a skill is +3, and Skills at this level will be much more specific.

There are three basic levels of Skills that make up three tiers arranged in increasing specificity. The first tier is Basic, and it includes Skills with a -2 (minimal) and -1 modifier. Skills at this tier are very broad - to advance further you must be more specific. This is to represent the fact that, for example, studying to become a sword-master involves learning about other melee weapons, as well as other kinds of weaponry, and all things related to combat at some level, including tactics, use of a shield, etc. As the Skills rules function, a sword-master would have Skills arranged this way:

Combat - Melee - (Swords) +3

What this means is that this character has a -1 to any Skill in the Combat category, a +1 with any Melee weapon, and a +3 with Swords because of his specialization. A more detailed treatment would look like this:

Combat - Melee - (Long Blade) +3, (Axes) +2, (Polearms) +2
-Missile - (Crossbow) +2
-Defense - (Dodge) +3

This means that the character in question has a -1 with any Combat skill, a +1 with any Melee or Missile or Defense skill, and then the specific bonuses apply to the specializations in parentheses.

In order to get to this point, this character needs to have bought up Combat to -2 and then to -1, then bought up Melee, Missile, and Defense to +0 and then to +1, and finally bought up Axes, Polearms and Crossbow to +2 and Long Blade and Dodge to +3.

This will be handled later, but all of these moves cost the same amount of Experiences (yes, the plural is intentional - more in the Advancement section), which means that as you advance Skills will become more specific and will also develop a bit more slowly, which is just for the sake of realism. Its a lot easier to learn the basics of a given category than to begin to specialize, and it is harder still to continue to develop. For example, a geneticist might have Skills that look like this:

Physical Sciences - Biology - (Genetics) +3

In high school she took college-level science classes, getting a grounding especially in Chemistry and Biology (Physical Sciences). In college she majored in Biology, taking classes in Organic Chemistry and Ecology as well. Then she did her doctoral work at a Genetics lab, etc. So to answer a question about Physics, she has a -1 as she triest to think back to her last physics class or what phycisist colleagues talk about. To answer a question about shark behavior, she has a +1, since she covered that in her general study of Biology. To answer a question about tetromere function, she has a +3, because that's in her speciality.

Following are just lists of Skills organized under each of the categories that I use for my Bronze Age Fantasy setting. For games that prefer simplicity, you can slow down advancement a bit and just let characters buy up the general skill categories - warriors have lots of Combat, scholars have lots of Lore or Natural Science, etc. The Skill system is very scalable depending on how much detail and realism (and bookkeeping) you want. These lists assume the maximum amount, so you have an idea of what I'm talking about.

For these lists, general categories are in bold, with particular skills in italics, and then ("-") specializations are listed after dashes beneath the italic skill they are based on. So, each bold term includes everything under it, and each italicized term includes everything beneath it. Some will be followed by descriptions if the skill isn't necessarily clear. Specific rules for each Skill get a little more complex (obviously), so they're relegated to another post later on.

Nature Attunement
Travel
-Boating, Sailing, Geography, Orienteering

Survival
-Foraging, Fire-building, Specific Terrain, Weather Sense

Hunting
-Tracking, Trapping, Fishing

Animal Handling
-Riding, Training, Husbandry, Teamster

Expression
Writing
-Poetry, Fiction, Exposition

Visual Art
-Painting, Drawing, Sculpture, Calligraphy

Music
-Specific Instrument, Composition, Singing

Movement
-Dance, Pantomime, Weapon Art

Athletics
Throwing
-Stones, Balanced Weapons, Improvised Weapons

Fitness
-Specific Game, Running, Jumping, Swimming

Acrobatics
-Balance, Contortion, Tumbling

Combat
Hand Combat
-Grappling, Striking, Redirection

Melee
-Short Blade, Long Blade, Axe, Polearm, Bludgeon, Flail, Net, Whip

Missile
-Blowgun, Sling, Crossbow, Bow

Defense
-Dodge, Shield, Evasion

Tactics
-Grand Strategy, Siegecraft, Skirmishing

Crafts
Smithing
-Blacksmith, Jeweler, Weaponsmith, Armorsmith

Woodworking
-Carpentry, Shipbuilding, Bowyer, Cartwright

Engineering
-Military Engineering, Machinery, Architecture, Irrigation, Masonry

Cooking
-Baking, Brewing, Poisons, Specific Style

Weaving
-Reed Weaving, Cotton Weaving, Silk Weaving

Tailoring
-Specific Style,Military, Noble

Language
Specific Language

Linguistics
-Language Group, Region, Runes, Secret Languages

Healing
Apothecary
-Herbalism, Poisons, Alchemy

Mending
-Surgery, Rehabilitation, Physiology, Diagnosis

Veterinary
-Animal Type, Vet Diagnosis, Vet Surgery

Lore
Literature
-Modern, Oral Tradition, Ancient

History
-Ancient, Regional, National, Common

Religion
-Ritual, Specific Culture, Sacred Texts, Mythology, Secret Lore, Symbology

Philospohy
-Logic, Ethics

Law
-National, Sacred, Treaties, Common Law, Bureaucracy

Politics
-Geography, Heraldry, Noble Houses, Trade

Natural Philosophy
Farming
-Husbandry, Specific Climate, Management

Animal Lore
-Specific Climate, Birds, Fish, Beasts, Reptiles

Astrology
-Chronology, Navigation, Foretelling

Mining
-Geology, Gemology, Delving

Plant Lore
-Herb Lore, Agriculture, Toxins, By Climate

Socialization
Manipulation
-Seduction, Deception, Persuasion, Intimidation

Etiquette
-Carousing, High Court, Religious, Military, Streetwise

Leadership
-Inspiration, Instruction

Social Dynamics
-Sense Motivation, Sense Emotion, Lie Detection

Larceny
Stealth
-Hiding, Shadowing, Camoflage, Silent Movement

Legerdemain
-Holdout, Conjuring, Pickpocket

Alertness
-Observation, Investigation, Sight, Hearing, Smell/Taste, Touch

Metaphysics
Meditation
-Breath Control, Clarity, Transcendence

Empathy
-Auras, Psychometry

Warding
-By Spirit Type (this is covered in the Magic section)

Summoning
-Same as Warding

Cosmology
-Spirit Worlds, Subtle Magic, By Pantheon

Mysticism
-Invocation, Discernment, Insight

Evocation
-Santification, Exorcism


Calling on Skills in game is a simple or complex as you want it to be. The GM will usually call for a roll - and its only 'official' if the GM does so, though players can always suggest rolls for things they want their characters to attempt. The GM will call for a Skill roll that comes from the second tier - so, for example, not Nature Attunement but rather Travel. If the PC in question as a specialization that applies, then the higher number is rolled. Otherwise, just use the Skill.

If you don't like this system, go ahead and just use the categories: Nature Attunement for surviving and getting around in the wild, Metaphysics for almost everything magical, Natural Philosophy for things you know about the physical world, etc. Mix and serve.