Acuity Skills

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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. Range is not such a determining factor when it comes to the accuracy of artillery, but range to target will greatly determine the drift of any ordnance that does not hit its mark. Regardless of range, the initial shot from an artillery unit will have a TN of 9. If the firer has line of sight to the target, he can act as his own spotter. Without line of sight, the artillery unit will require spotters to help "walk" subsequent fire missions closer to target. With reports from a spotter, the TN for each ranging shot is reduced by 1, to a minumum of TN 3. If the shot misses, multiply the step + 1 of the card by how much the check missed the TN. This will yield a deviation percentage that is then multiplied by the range of the shot. Refer to the scatter element of the action card to determine the direction that the shot drifts. If the blast radius is large enough and the check is close to the TN, the round may still affect the target. If the firer chooses not to alter his aim, he can continue to rain fire on the same location. Any time the firer chooses a new target location (rather than ranging shots to close in on a target), the process starts over and the TN goes back to 9.

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
Performing a hyperspace jump requires more than aiming one's vessel toward the target and punching the warp button. Before a pilot can make an FTL jump, an astrogator (who is sometimes also the pilot) must plot a course. The path the ship takes through tachyon space is influenced by events and objects in real space for which the astrogator must account, lest the ship transition from hyperspace wildly off course or off target.

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
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. If using GTA for a task that requires engineering, GTA may (at the Master's discretion) be used as an associated skill, but if it is an extended action, GTA will only yield half the number indicated from the effect (damage) section of the action card drawn. 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 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 note: 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. Use of the investigation skill could just be one additional potential vector of information. However, just because someone is using investigate, it doesn’t mean they should be able to find information that is simply not available where or when they are looking; we all know about squeezing blood from stones. If the player asks more pointed questions and offers some kind of a direction to the answers he is seeking, though, an investigation roll may determine how successful he is at extracting the information or determining the absence of information (as opposed to the bland exclamation of "I use my investigation skill! What do I find?"). The investigation skill might 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 navigation may require maps or the appropriate area knowledge skill, especially when navigating by the stars; the night sky may look very different from one world to the next when you are looking at it from worlds that may be tens or hundreds of light years from your homeworld. Not all worlds will be so well-established to have satellites or orbitals that beam data (like GPS services) down to the surface, so the ability to navigate should not be dismissed.

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, and also to counter hacking attempts. Program Design is used to make custom programs to accomplish specific tasks.
(Designer’s notes: Potential for a hacking/programming 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. In some respect, scrounging may work like the streetwise skill, insofar as streetwise can help you find things, but scrounging does not guarantee that the items are technically available!
(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 (unlike the lockpicking skill), 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, bypassing a device that has been broken into may yield a +2 bonus, but any one investigating the scene later will see the damage which will probably raise an alarm of its 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. As with the GTA skill, if a task calls for an engineering check, the starship mechanic skill may be used as an associated skill, but any effect (damage) on the action card is halved. 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. Starship Mechanic is a skill that may be called upon during starship combat by technical or engineering personnel.

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, tactics is a skill that may be called into play.

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