As explained earlier, Talents are your general life skills that aren’t necessarily functional for Combat, but will be used consistently during roleplay and Task Checks. In this chapter, we will break down our interpretation of each Genre and how it applies to the Talents therein, what we intend each Talent to mean, how to roll on Talents you don’t have, how to learn new Talents after the start of the game, how Weapon Talents work, how to create Additional Talents, and how Crafting works.

Unlearned Talents

Even if your character doesn’t have any investment in a Talent, they will likely still need to roll with that Talent across the span of their adventure. You may need to cluelessly fumble your way through a computer system, drive a car, climb a mountain, or try speaking another language you don’t know. In that case, instead of using the normal threshold of Difficulty – Talent Rating, you go down the list, find the Stat associated with the Talent you are rolling for, and use Difficulty – (Stat / 2). If your Talent Rating is lower than half the corresponding Stat, you can choose to roll based on the Stat instead. In that case, from a roleplaying perspective, treat it like it is on the fringe of your experience with that Talent and you are working off your total life experience.

For example: you are trying to climb a tree, but you don’t have the Climbing Talent. Climbing is associated with LFT. Climbing a tree isn’t excessively difficult, so we’ll give this tree a Difficulty of 45. Your LFT right now is 68. So, your roll needs to beat 45 – (68 / 2), or 11. You would basically need to Botch not to climb this tree.

The Total Talent Table

To make it easier to pick Talents for your character after you’ve already become more familiar with the system, here is a table containing all Talents available in the base game. If you would like to learn more about any given talent, they will be broken down by Genre in the next section.

Name	Genre	Stat	Acquisition
Acrobatics	Action	JMP	Intuitive
Acting	Slice of Life	CHM	Intuitive
Animal Handling	Adventure	CHM	Intuitive
Art	Slice of Life	DIS	Learned
Athletics	Action	LFT	Intuitive
Camping	Adventure	FTH	Learned
Chemistry	Sci-fi	DIS	Learned
Climbing	Action	LFT	Intuitive
Computing	Sci-fi	DIS	Learned
Cooking	Slice of Life	DIS	Learned
Dancing	Action	DOG	Intuitive
Demolition	Action	STR	Intuitive
Disguise	Horror	CHM	Intuitive
Diversion	Horror	DOG	Intuitive
Divination	Horror	FTH	Intuitive
Driving	Sci-fi	DIS	Learned
Escape	Horror	DIS	Intuitive
Foraging	Adventure	DIS	Learned
Gambling	Noir	CHM	Intuitive
Intimidation	Action	WIL	Intuitive
Investigation	Noir	DIS	Learned
Knots	Adventure	DIS	Learned
Lockpicking	Noir	DIS	Learned
Mechanics	Sci-fi	DIS	Learned
Medicine	Sci-fi	DIS	Learned
Music	Slice of Life	CHM	Learned
Navigation	Adventure	DIS	Intuitive
Negotiation	Noir	CHM	Intuitive
Prayer	Horror	FTH	Intuitive
Scavenging	Sci-fi	DIS	Intuitive
Slight of Hand	Noir	DOG	Learned
Stealth	Horror	DOG	Intuitive
Swimming	Adventure	LFT	Intuitive
Survival	Horror	DIS	Learned
Teaching	Slice of Life	WIL	Intuitive
Tracking	Noir	DIS	Learned
Trading	Slice of Life	CHM	Intuitive
Trance	Horror	WIL	Intuitive

Genre

As mentioned a few times already in this manual, we occasionally use Genres to sort different General functions, like Talents and Abilities, into categories that help you decide on the sort of character you wish to play. While they mean less in terms of which Talents you should pick up than they do for Abilities, we will still give a description of what we mean by each Genre here, followed by definitions of the Talents that fall under them.

Action

While others run from danger, we run toward it! Action is defined by its fearlessness and bravado, throwing caution to the wind. It is known for its feats of athleticism and solving problems by jumping headfirst into them. Technically, all low-tech Weapon Talents are in this Genre, but they are not susceptible to Advantages and Disadvantages targeting this Genre.

Acrobatics
JMP / Intuitive
Feats of dexterity and agility. Need to hop a low fence that doesn’t need full-on climbing, swing down from one balcony to another, or just want to do a flip? This needs to be used for something more difficult than leaping your JMP rating, but you can still divide the height of the feat by the JMP multiplier to help gauge what the Difficulty Rating should be.

Athletics
LFT / Intuitive
Feats of strength and speed. Not used purely to lift or run, but if you need to do something specifically skilled in this realm, like playing a sport, grappling with someone, or even using Equipment less in the same way you’ve been trained for combat and more in line with sporting activities.

Dancing
DOG / Intuitive
More than just dances, this skill covers your ability to memorize and perform choreographed routines, as well as finding the rhythm with your body. Even a martial arts form could fall under this Talent.

Demolition
STR / Intuitive
Be it your own body or Equipment held in your hands, you developed the skills needed to bring down the house. Breaking stones, tearing apart a gate, or taking down a wall. You won’t always be successful with your goals, but you will definitely try and happily break things in the process (raised Difficulty to not break things in the process).

Intimidation
WIL / Intuitive
There are many ways to get people to do what you want, but sometimes scaring them is the way to go. You may need to figure out how you need to intimidate that particular character to lower the Difficulty, but yelling, threats, or extortion are always good options.

Climbing
LFT / Intuitive
You would think this should be covered by Athletics or Acrobatics, but while those focus on the strength of your muscles and skills to use them, this focuses on your grip, tendon, and ligament strength. Climbing isn’t just used for scaling buildings or rock surfaces, but could be useful for opening manhole covers or metal grates. Rationally, all those Talents can be used for a lot of the same things, but the Difficulty will change depending on which one you use in which situation. If your GM tells you which one is harder, don’t argue… too much.

Adventure

The journey is its own reward. Adventure is all about the trip itself and everything that happens along the way. It isn’t purely about the wilderness, as you can have an adventure in the city you grew up in, but it is about the skills that come in handy going from point A to point Z and all the points in between. Talents and Abilities in this Genre typically include both the aspects that help you find your next destination, but also keep you alive along the way.

Animal Handling
CHM / Intuitive
All things animals! See a cat on the street? Rent a horse to ride? Gonna start a dairy farm? You need all of this knowledge and experience so the geese don’t bite you.

Camping
FTH / Learned
All the skills needed to set up camp and survive against the elements. A seasoned camper can keep Morale even when it is downpouring and their catch of the day just got swept away in the rain. Pitch the tent, start the fire, dig a fridge, or a toilet, catch some fish, clean it up, and enjoy a night to the sounds of the wilderness.

Foraging
DIS / Learned
When out in the wild, you’ll need to be able to source supplies and make sure they are good ones. Figure out what is edible around you. Find bait. Locate usable wood for fires and lean-tos. One of the most important Talents to your survival away from the city.

Knots
DIS / Learned
There are many kinds of Knots. Some are made by combining others together. The complexity of composite Knots, the material conditions of what they are made with, and the situations that require them are virtually unlimited, so you better study them.

Navigation
DIS / Intuitive
Being able to find your way wherever you go is really handy. Reading maps, memorizing landmarks, recognizing important locations, and being able to give directions to others. A strong navigator can find where they are going just from looking at the sky at night.

Swimming
LFT / Intuitive
It’s a bit self-explanatory, but Swimming conditions can keep rising as high as a tsunami can for or as bad as storms can get. Those who know the basics can get by in most situations, but the strongest swimmers might even go straight up waterfalls.

Horror

What goes bump in the night? What causes you the dearest of frights? If Action is the danger you run towards, Horror is the danger you run from. It’s all about unavoidable, tense situations that threaten your life and all the traits needed to survive them. They are especially helpful in paranormal situations.

Disguise
CHM / Intuitive
Sometimes you just need to hide who or what you are. Could be cops after you. Could be a stalker. Could be a monster. But if the thing looking for you can’t tell that you are what it is looking for, you might get a moment of rest. Disguise can help infiltrate or escape. You might change to look like another person, another animal, a plant, a grandfather clock, or even a big rock. The better your skills and the quality of the supplies on you, the more possibilities you have.

Diversion
DOG / Intuitive
A distraction might be all you need to survive. Think quick, or don’t think at all and let the flow take you just the same. Throw your voice. Throw a rock. Knock over a cleaning cart on your way by. The Diversion might not even save your skin, but your party members or NPCs as well.

Divination
FTH / Intuitive
Calling upon the powers that be for aid. Sometimes it is prayer. Sometimes it is a fortune reading. Sometimes it is an attempt to ward off danger. It doesn’t always matter what you believe in as much as often it just matters that you believe. Though, obviously the favor of specific entities with the power to do something about the situation would definitely help.

Escape
DIS / Intuitive
Everything you need to know about getting away. You might need to get out of a straight jacket, cuffs, or some complicated contraption. You might need to figure out how to get out of a collapsing room or through a non-standard window before something gets to you. This is less about reacting quickly and more about putting your mind to the problem in a timely manner and with composure, often while on the move.

Stealth
DOG / Intuitive
Similar to Disguise, this Talent is also about avoiding detection and can work well in tandem with it and others, such as Acrobatics, Athletics, Climbing, or Navigation. The key here is about eliminating sensory output. Making no noise. Remaining out of sight. Remembering to wear deodorant that day. A master can not only adapt to any environment, but plan a route and keep proper distance for themself and others.

Trance
WIL / Intuitive
Meditation. Getting in and out of hypnosis. Shifting between dream states. Waking up. Trance goes in both directions and can at times even help dispel illusions. The more skilled you are with this Talent, the more you can even aid others enter and leave Trance.

Noir

While Noir simply means black and isn’t typically a top-level Genre, we will be using it in this context as a way to collect things related to crime, mystery, and espionage to make it easier for us all to understand. Noir is best pictured by the dreamy haze of the unknown, the grungy, visceral nature of reality, and cutting a path between the two through wit and determination.

Gambling
CHM / Intuitive
Cards, dice, slots, roulette, horse racing, and leisurely bets. You know the art of bluffing and feinting, and you always do your research. A good gambler is as prepared as they are charming. They know when to hit and when to fold, and when to a shot no one else would dare.

Investigation
DIS / Learned
Often on a case, especially in a new city you’ve never been to before, you don’t know everything you need to know. You need to go out and question people, read journals, sift through trash, and check under every stone until you find answers. Investigation skills can be equally good in a dungeon, too.

Lockpicking
DIS / Learned
As long as it isn’t reinforced by Magic, Madness, Existenscience, or the Divine, it can be picked by tools and skill alone. Set locks will have fixed Difficulty Ratings, but you can also pick doors, file cabinets, safes, lockboxes, lockets, diaries, padlocks, and more, even if it wasn’t written into the story. The Difficulty will rise with the price and purpose of the lock.

Negotiation
CHM / Intuitive
Smooth talking can be even more effective than Intimidation, depending on the situation. Discussion is a dance and you like to tango. You can negotiate lower prices in some cases, business deals, hostage releases, peace between nations, or a couple to stop arguing for at least an hour.

Slight of Hand
DOG / Learned
Pickpocketing, shell games, magic tricks, planting bugs, and unfastenning the inside liner of your friend’s jacket while he is wearing it when he isn’t paying attention just to be annoying. Paired well with Diversion, many situations can be resolved by letting your opponent think they prevented you from getting what you wanted and then pocketing it just as the walk away.

Tracking
DIS / Learned
Useful in both the city and the wild, being able to pick up on the trail of your target is invaluable on the chase. You might need to identify footprints or pawprints, displaced objects, left behind waste, or any other clue that tells you the direction your target went from its last known position.

Sci-fi

Dreaming of the future and never giving up on progress. Sci-fi, of Science Fiction, invokes the technological innovation of humanity, and thus, includes everything from machines to chemistry and more. Guns, vehicles, computing, and new medical advancements! All this and more in the future you were promised. All high-tech Weapons Talents are in this Genre, but they are not susceptible to Advantages and Disadvantages targeting this Genre.

Chemistry
DIS / Learned
Mixing meds or potions. Separating metals. Harnessing radiation. Making batteries. The study of Chemistry makes society run. This Talent can be used to identify and handle chemicals, and if combined with Crafting specifications, can create many chemically processed Consumables and Equipment.

Computing
DIS / Learned
Hacking, programming, running an automated factory, or even just doing an internet search. This Talent covers everything involving digital technology that handles its tasks by doing constant background calculations and navigating them. Combine with Mechanics to deal with both the hardware and the software.

Driving
DIS / Learned
Also known as Piloting, if you prefer. This Talent covers the motor control and knowledge needed to helm any vehicle. Many vehicles are more Difficult to drive than others, especially the more complex the systems get. In some cases, a Setting may require specific licenses for different vehicles, but you don’t need a different Talent after obtaining your license, since motor control tends to carry over between things, and it is more the knowledge you need. Instead, you can make a note in your Wallet of the individual licenses you have, or you can just tack them onto this Talent, like Driving: Motorcycles, CDL, Mechs, Ariships. That last option might get full fast depending on the Setting, so track it however best suits your needs.

Mechanics
DIS / Learned
Hands-on and dirty. Grease and sprockets. If you want to work on rotors, repair a car, or even just change the chain on a bicycle, you are covered. This field has tons of hyperspecialized sub-Talents, like Mechanics: Engines and Mechanics: Reactors, so the more complex the act, the harder the Difficulty becomes exponentially for the basic Talent.

Medicine
DIS / Learned
Not so much the mixing of potions, but overall medical practice. From first aid to understanding pharmaceuticals, all the way to cybernetic implants. This field has tons of hyperspecialized sub-Talents, like Medicine: Surgery and Medicine: Nanotech, so the more complex the act, the harder the Difficulty becomes exponentially for the basic Talent.

Scavenging
DIS / Intuitive
Being able to tell what found material is useful. Finding wood without rot or metal without rust in the middle of a city alley, or identifying minerals out in the wild. Scavenging is useful for any character interested in Crafting, especially those involved with metallurgy and technology.

Slice of Life

Every day is a celebration! Slice of Life features snippets of daily life activities ranging from morning routines to daily errands or even chance encounters between friends and strangers. It is the levity in between the mess that keeps us grounded. Thus, this Genre includes Talents and Abilities that help amongst the humdrum of life, such as hobbies or house skills.

Acting
CHM / Intuitive
Getting into character. This type of performance can be used simply to entertain or to aid in deceiving somebody. Paired well with Disguise.

Art
DIS / Learned
Technically, every discipline is an Art, but in this case, we are specifically talking about the Fine Arts: illustration, painting, sculpting, et cetera. This Talent not only has countless sub-Talents to it, but can also be used in conjunction with many other Talents for interesting results.

Cooking
DIS / Learned
The ultimate survival Talent, no matter where you are. If you have ingredients and a fire going, you can improvise, learn recipes, and keep everyone well fed.

Music
CHM / Learned
Singing, playing instruments, writing Music, reading Music, and more. If you want to play a specific instrument, you can spend time learning it separately and add the information to your character in the same way as gaining different licenses in the Driving Talent.

Teaching
WIL / Intuitive
Your character’s capacity for explaining things to other characters. Not just showing them the concepts of a subject, but also getting them to understand what you mean in any situation where someone might be confused. You can also teach other characters aspects of your other Talents and Abilities, up to the rating of this Talent, though the same Learning rules for learning new or Additional Talents and Learned* Abilities, you just now qualify as a trainer. To qualify specifically as a Vocation Trainer, you must have spent at least 50 AP in that Vocation and know the Learned* Ability the other character is trying to learn.

Trading
CHM / Intuitive
Not to be confused with Negotiation, which pairs well with this Talent, this is all the technical aspects of business. Understanding prices, profits and revenue, currency differences, the direction of trends, and so on. A Trading roll might even help you gauge how much something might sell for when you bring it back to town, or what place might buy it for the most. The more you know about it with a specialized Talent can definitely help, but a good trader can speculate the local market value of an unknown good just by knowing the local market alone.

Weapon Talents

Weapon Talents are necessary for improving your Attack hit rate for any Weapon-type you will encounter in the game. Because we don’t know what sort of Weapons you may or may not come in contact with, and we want growth in this area to be fun and rewarding, Weapon Talents are something that develops naturally through using Weapons in gameplay. 

As mentioned back in the Character Creation chapter, every character will start out with 10 rating in whichever Weapons are equipped to your hands. If you have a different Weapon-type equipped in each hand, that will still be 10 rating for each type. This is purely because your character is expected to have been using that Equipment for a while before the start of the campaign. They effectively already have a 0 rating in all other possible Equipment-type.

From the start of the campaign onward, every time your character lands a hit with that Equipment-type, they gain 1 rating for that Equipment, even if no damage is dealt. If a Critical Hit is landed, they get 2 rating instead. So, the more they use their Weapons, the better they get with them. This is tallied up and added to their rating after the Event has concluded and they have time to reflect on the encounter. If the Weapon hit occurs outside of an Event for whatever reason the GM deems necessary (such as shooting down a bird or something), they can add the rating immediately.

The one advantage Humans have over other Races is that they get better with all Equipment faster than anyone else. Every time they land a Hit, gain 2 rating of that Equipment Talent instead of 1, and 4 rating for Critical Hits instead of 2. Always check to see if your character’s Race has any benefit to learning any Talent.

Additional Talents

Like Weapon Talents, there are other types your character can learn. But that is also the catch: all these Talents must be Learned. These include languages of the world, knowledge on particular subject matter, crafting (which will be expanded below), hobbies, or specific things they could want to get good at. There could even be a specific sub-talent to one of the main listed ones above that you would like to learn to get better odds in a specific situation, like Acrobatics: Gymnastics or Driving: Space Shuttles. The GM should always give a lower Difficulty Rating when you have Talent catered to the situation. 

All you have to do to earn these Talents during a campaign is have your character spend the proper amount of in-game time studying and pass a Task Check after. The intervals are fixed CoS: 1day =3%, 1 week = 25%, 1month = 100%. If you spend a month studying, you don’t need to roll to learn, but who has that much time before your party has moved on? Then you just define the Talent by defining it like Knowledge: Martial Arts or Language: Cantonese. Once learned, you get 10 rating in it right away and the same rules apply as Weapons where every time you get a successful Task Check, you gain 1 rating, 2 rating for Critical Successes. You can also spend study time again to gain another 10 rating per week of study after you’ve learned, without a Task Check at the end.

Crafting

Later on, we will add an expansive Crafting system on the website that will help both players and GMs create Equipment, such as Consumables and Weapons, scaling forever with upgrades and cost ratings for everything. Be on the lookout for that. For now, this is the simple Crafting system.

If you have picked up a Crafting Talent, like Smithing, Tailoring, Machining, or Carpentry, you can take inventory related to your Craft and fashion it into Equipment, to your GM’s discretion. They can have stores sell the materials, or you can Scavenge them in your adventure, and allow you to Craft any A-tier or lower item already listed in the game, as long as your Talent Rating is as high as the Equipment’s Tier as listed in the Equipment chapter. They can also allow you to Craft custom weapons within reason, using the items listed in the Equipment chapter as a guide, for quick Crafting solutions. 

Crafting takes time, often hours, so you must have the opportunity to take a rest to Craft unless it is basically light repair work. Because it takes so long to Craft, you also improve in it at a higher rate per usage than other Learned Talents. Every Equipment successfully Crafted gains you 5 rating in that Talent, 10 when Critically Successful when engaging in the expanded Crafting system. In this simplified system, you don’t need to roll as long as you have the time, so you can only ever gain 5 rating per use.

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