Reflex Skills
Battle Readiness
When the going gets exciting and things turn violent, some people are better suited to act quickly and decisively. They have honed their decision-making process, run through scenarios in their head, know what to look for from their opponents and how to take advantage of an opening. This will often lead such battle ready individuals to acting more swiftly in combat and more frequently. All Heroes will have Battle Readiness as a default skill at level 0, allowing them to use their full Reflex trait to determine the number of action cards drawn for initiative. Each level after 0 will add another die to the pool. Regardless of how many cards are drawn, a character can still only keep two of them (unless one is the 0 or 53 cards). Some henchmen or rabble may not have this skill; if they do not, they should make initiative checks as though unskilled (Halve their die result and round down).
Quick Draw (Melee-short, Melee-long, Pistol, Long Gun, Others)
If the enemy gets the drop on you, you’d best be able to arm yourself fast. It usually takes an action to draw a new weapon in combat. If you’ve got this skill, you can draw a new weapon and use it in the same action. Small, light weapons are easier to draw quickly. Small, one-handed weapons such as knives, laserswords, lightswords, body pistols and light pistols have a TN of 3 to draw. Standard and heavy pistols, small SMGs and larger one-handed melee weapons such as clubs and swords have a TN of 5. Rifle or carbine sized weapons (often carried on a sling) have a TN of 7 to draw. One cannot normally "quick draw" a heavy weapon unless the user is carrying it mounted to a recoil harness, and even then the TN is 9. If you fail, you spend your action drawing the weapon normally and simply can’t use it until your next action. If you go critically fail the quick draw roll, however, you have dropped your weapon. Check the scatter element on the card. The weapon lands a number of meters away equal to the fragment on the card.
Mobile Infantry
Cap troopers are the stuff of legend, the bogeymen in the night of a distant battlefield. When a patrol comes across an enemy position that was smashed flat and they heard no chatter about it from above, you can bet the M.I. had a hand in it. The mobile infantry skill allows one to effectively use exoskeletal strength suits and various power armors; without this skill, one cannot master the negative feedback systems employed, and will wind up seriously injuring themselves, others or just making a mess of everything around them. A character’s level in mobile infantry will act as a cap on any martial arts, athletics or other gross-motor skills (Master’s discretion). You may be a kung-fu master outside the armor, but if your skill while moving inside it is minimal, the armor will be a hindrance. The trade-off, of course, is the protection it offers and other on-board systems. Additionally, Cap troopers are expected to wage war "on the bounce." Most power armor models employ advanced locomotion systems such as jump-belts or contragravity harnesses, and they often field multiple weapon systems; the soldiers that use power armor are experts at multi-tasking. While performing any continuous action, a character trained in Mobile Infantry can make a TN 5 skill check. If successful, they do not have to discard their action card for the continuous action.
Speed Load
In the thick of a firefight, guns will run dry depressingly fast, especially if you’ve got an automatic weapon and are heavy on the trigger. Speed loading helps keeps your guns blazing while missing as few beats as possible. For weapons such as revolvers, tube-magazine weapons (like pump shotguns or some rifles) or rifles with internal magazines (such as most hunting rifles), it normally takes one action to reload a single bullet or shell. A successful speed load check at TN 5 allows a character to slam up to 3 rounds into a weapon during a single action. If a weapon has a magazine or powercell, a TN 5 speed load roll removes the old mag and slaps a new one in place in a single action, otherwise it takes two actions. If you fail loading single bullets, you will still be able to load in one round, excepting critical failures. If you fail to load a magazine, you don’t get it in at all; maybe the empty is stuck or the fresh mag snagged when you tried to get it out of the pouch. On a critical failure, the gun is jammed, which will require a TN 5 weapon skill check or TN 3 Armorer roll to clear. Try again next turn and remember that sometimes haste can cut both ways…
