Acuity Skills
Artillery
This skill is used for the targeting of crew-served or emplaced weapons like projectile artillery batteries, mortars and surface-to-surface or surface-to-air missile or rocket launchers. These larger weapons do not rely so much on a steady aim and hand-eye coordination, but one’s ability to read charts, interpret data and other factors to place ordnance on target and not hundreds of meters off course.
Arts (As appropriate)
This skill is used to make various reproductions or representations in a variety of media, such as sketches, painting or sculpture.
Astrogation
Space navigation (also known as astrogation) is the ability to plot optimal courses through tachyon space, and allows one to figure their location in real space based on the distance, direction and relative magnitude of stellar bodies. Using space navigation will usually require access to starsector atlases, appropriate sensors for long-range scans, and almost certainly computers and programs to crunch the numbers. When plotting an FTL course, meeting the target number will place the ship as near as possible to the gravity well of the target system. Failing the roll will increase the difficulty of the piloting roll and will transition the ship from tachyon space much further away from the target, possibly requiring several extra hours or days to get in-system. Any escalations might shave time off the subjective time spent in tachyon space, or use less fuel than expected.
(Designer’s note: Is there the potential for a astrogator/pilot minigame here?)
Awareness
The Acuity trait is a general measure of how perceptive a character is, but some people are specially trained or hyper-vigilant to the point that it is difficult to slip something past them unnoticed. The Awareness skill is used passively to detect movements of people or creatures that are sneaking. This skill is also used when the character is actively looking for items, clues or evidence. It can be used to spot tracks, but to follow a proper trail, the tracking skill should be used.
General Technical Aptitude (electronics, mechanics)
This skill is used to build, modify or repair electronic devices or machines. This use of this skill, is intended for short-term fixes, field applications or relatively simple tasks. Large scale projects will likely fall under the appropriate engineering skill. Care should be taken with electronic tasks to ensure the proper skill is used; bypassing an electronic lock or security system would be better suited for the security systems skill. Working on a minicomp is a job for the programming skill or system operations: computer skill. If any of those devices were busted, you could roll out your GTA: electronics skill to fix them, but that’s about it.
Investigation
This skill is used to pick useful information out of a mess of data, to put clues together to learn the big picture, or simply track down people and events electronically or through interviewing witnesses or suspects. Police, detectives and certain types of mercenaries (like bounty hunters) will often be trained investigators.
(Designer’s notes: This has been referred to as the “give me a hint” skill, with the implied potential for players to broadly claim that they want to apply their investigation skill to a person or a bunch of paperwork and expect the master to give them answers. Sometimes the master will have to determine salient information that might be deduced from any particular scene and figure out ways to impart it to the players. The investigation skill could just be one additional potential vector of information. Surely, just because someone is using investigate, it doesn’t mean they should be able to find information that is simply not available; we all know about squeezing blood from stones. However, if the player asks more pointed questions and offers some kind of a direction to the answers he is seeking, an investigation roll may determine how successful he is at extracting the information or determining the absence of information. Maybe the investigation skill could also be used to help players eliminate red herrings, allowing them to focus on more pertinent leads)
Navigation
Navigation is the ability to figure out where you’re at and how to get where you are going. Land navigation requires the ability to orient based on landmarks and geographical features, the local sun, moon(s) and stars (depending on planet type, its rotation, orbit and axial tilt). Navigating on the sea might require star charts or tools like a sextant. Using land navigation may require maps or the appropriate area knowledge skill. Not all worlds will be so well-established to have satellites or orbitals that beam data (like GPS services) down to the surface.
Comp Tech (Program Design, Hacking, System Operation)
Computers can be wonderful tools, but to get them to do anything but take up space and collect dust, one must have the Comp Tech skill. Commercial or specialized programs may allow a person to utilize a computer system with little to no programming skill, but getting a computer to do something new (or something not intended by existing programs) requires the program design specialization. When you are trying to get a computer to operate outside the bounds of its programs or get information from it or whatever networks it is linked to, use the hacking specialization. System Operation is for regular use of computers to achieve most computer-oriented tasks.
(Designer’s notes: Potential for a hacking mini game?)
Scrounge
This skill is the ability to find common items in a hurry. Sometimes this means settling for less than what is needed, but a good scrounger (or requisition specialist) can usually come up with something that gets the job done. The Master sets the difficulty of finding a particular object depending on the item and the amount of time available. Also, just because you have found something doesn’t necessarily mean it is free for the taking; you may still have to beg, borrow or steal (or just buy it) when you find it.
(Designer’s note: Possible scrounging/salvaging minigame?)
Scrutinize
Any IPA investigator worth his salt can tell when a smuggler is lying through his teeth. Scrutinizing someone may not tell you everything, but it could help point out inconsistencies in another person’s story. Scrutinize is the ability to judge another person’s character, see through disguises or detect lies. A character with this skill is better able to resist persuasion attempts, and may be more less prone to get caught up in a deception.
Security Systems
Alarms, motion detectors, electronic locks. They are all intended to draw attention if people breach other layers of security. If attempting to bypass an electronic lock or alarm system, the character can make multiple attempts with no penalty, but after each failure, he must make another roll versus the system’s TN. If this second roll fails, his attempts have had some consequence. He might have tripped the alarm, set off a silent alarm that will summon security forces to ambush him, or frozen the lock to require an administrator override. Sometimes, breaking into an electronic system using the GTA: electronics skill (dismantling a keypad, for example) will expose the guts of the device and make the job of defeating the system easier. At the Master’s discretion, cracking a device that has been broken into may yield a +2 bonus, but any one investigating the scene later will see the damage and probably raise an alarm of their own…
Starship Mechanic (repairs, upgrades)
Starships are incredibly complex vehicles, and keeping them operating at peak efficiency (to say nothing of just making sure they are space-worthy!) will demand that you have some ships’ mechanics on your crew. Some mechs specialize as damage control (DC) crews, some try to eke a few extra light-seconds out of the TISA drives or add custom smuggler cubbies. The scope of these types of upgrades will usually be relatively narrow or short term; a secret stash for illicit goods may be quite small, or a boost to the ship’s drives might only last for a few minutes or hours before a part breaks down. To effect major changes to starship systems or to repair and maintain a large ship requires the appropriate engineering skill. Kaylee from the Firefly is a starship mechanic; Montgomery Scott aboard the USS Enterprise is an engineer.
Tactics (Land, Space, Naval)
The ability to overcome a greater force with a lesser one, or oppose an enemy while minimizing casualties is often accomplished by leaders who uses better tactics. Making wise or foolish decisions will ultimately fall to the player’s choice; the successful application of tactics adds an ineffable something to your actions, or those of your crew, hopefully giving you the edge you need in a fight. If a member of the crew takes a speed 1 action, he can attempt to size up the battle and relay vital orders and information to members of the crew. He makes a TN 5 check, and if he succeeds, everyone nearby (or that he can communicate with) can draw an additional card at the beginning of the next round, with one extra card for each escalation. For a space or naval battle, a successful tactics check allows the captain to issue an additional order during a combat round, with one additional order for each escalation. (See starship combat in chapter XX).
Tracking
Good trackers usually find whoever or whatever they are looking for. Of course, on an alien world, that may not always be a good thing. A successful tracking roll helps a character find a trail, stay on it, and maybe even figure out how many targets he is following. One’s ability to track at all will depend on the terrain; finding out where someone went in a city would probably require investigation or streetwise. The difficulty for following tracks is shown on the charts below:
Targets trailed TN
1-2 11
3-4 9
5-8 7
9-15 5
16+ 3
Condition Modifier
Snow +4
Night -4
Rain since tracks were made -4
Rain before tracks were made +4
High traffic area -4
Target is large/heavy +2
Target is a vehicle +4
