Skills

There are 12 skills, 3 for each Stat. Each Class specializes in a specific stat, but any character who sets their mind to it could excel at any skill.

Each skill's total value is calculated as follows: (Associated Stat-10)+(1/2 Level)+Skill Ranks

Skills can be tested or contested. A skill test is an action performed by a single character, who rolls 3d6. If their roll is at or under their current total for the skill they're testing, they succeed at the test. If it exceeds the roll, they fail. If they roll 3, they automatically succeed, and at 18, they automatically fail. On a roll of 4, 1, 3, they succeed extraordinarily, in a manner to be decided by the GM.

An extended test is another kind of skill test, during which the GM lays out a number of successes required and the time each test will take.

Example: Mack wants to fix his dad's truck so he can get around the Land of Smoke and Chasms more easily. The GM tells him that it's an easy repair, but he's improvising the tools, so he settles on a -3 penalty. He tells him each test will take 20 minutes and that 4 successes are required. Mack tests three times, succeeding twice and failing once. After an hour of working on the truck, he is called upon to help out his Client, and scurries off to the computer, leaving the work half done until he chooses to return to it.

Some extended tests may introduce penalties for failure, or critical failure. The GM may decide that the project is irrevocably botched when a certain number of failures have taken place, or that some new item or insight must be gained before it can continue.

Typical skill difficulties:

+4 - Trivial: Climbing a short ladder, rebooting a frozen computer, riding a bike down an empty street.

+2 - Easy: Winning a game of solitaire, pay attention to a conversation and a TV show at the same time, dive to the bottom of the pool and back.

+0 - Average: Sitting through a genuinely scary movie without being scared, spotting some grist that fell behind the couch, alchemitting an at-level item without paying extra.

-2 - Tricky: Designing a sweet ass website, building an average-quality additional floor via the Sburb client.

-4 - Difficult: Resisting stress after being stuck for an hour in bad weather without warm clothing or shelter, climbing up an unknotted rope.

-6 - Impossible: Mustering up the courage to fly into a tornado, resisting stress when an ally is killed in front of you, swimming through a tidal wave.

Traversing
Mangrit

Climbing, Swimming, Running, Flying

Typical actions: Climb a hill, Outfly a tornado, youth roll under a closing door.

Traversing is tested whenever a character attempts some feat of athleticism that goes beyond moving at their normal speed over uncomplicated terrain. The GM assigns the difficulty to a given action, and if a character succeeds their check, they may move the appropriate speed. Generally, a character climbs and swims at 1/2 their move speed.

Jumping is calculated by testing Traversing, with a +1 bonus to the test for every point of move the character has over 10. The difference between the roll and the skill total is the number of feet (not yards) the character clears. Note that if a character jumps farther than their actual move score, they automatically spend their standard action (if it's still available) to move the rest of the distance. If that still isn't far enough to land (or the standard action was already spent) they hang in place and continue their trajectory on their next turn. After making their Traversing roll, a character can choose whether to jump the full value allowed by their role or land nearer.

See Travel for more information.

Daring
Mangrit

Attempting the Impossible, Overcoming Fear, Playing Hero

Once per scene, you can add your Daring ranks to any roll in which you are doing something obviously extremely dangerous, so long as you have a good reason to do so.

Examples: Chicanery check to take a bullet for a teammate, Traversing check to climb an erupting volcano to save the salamander eggs on top, meeting death without fear so that a friend may live.

Enduring
Mangrit

Resisting Elements, Poisons, Emotional Hardships

Every time a character takes damage which takes them at or below 1/4 their HP, they must test Enduring at +0 or fall unconscious. Many Powers or environmental conditions will call on the characters to test their Enduring, usually providing their own modifiers.

Chicanery
Cool

Stealth, Disguise, Theft, Awareness

As Chicanery is most often employed against other characters, it usually comes in the form of a contest. A few common contests:

Stealth: Roll chicanery vs chicanery to move undetected among enemies. Each enemy present gets a check, so use crowds, darkness, and disguise to your advantage! Hiding an item works the same way, with the hider making a check at the time that they hid it, and further seekers rolling against that static number. Various bonuses may be awarded here for lighting conditions, ambient noise, and more.

Disguise: Provided you have adequate materials on-hand, you can disguise yourself as another person or even as a creature. This ranges from vital to completely fucking useless. Any opponents who spot you contest their Chicanery vs your Chicanery to see through the disguise, with bonuses and penalties provided for familiarity with you, with the subject of your disguise, and anything else the GM cares to apply.

Gaming
Cool

Server skills, Gambling, Sburb insight

Gaming is a vast and varied skill that enables players to circumvent some aspects of Sburb. By looking at the scenarios they find themselves in with an eye for game design, players can sometimes gain advantages that those who took things at face value might not--the GM should occasionally call for checks when he presents challenges within Sburb, with characters who succeed at these rolls gaining some advantage for the scene. The skill also covers the ability to play games of all kinds--most importantly, Sburb itself. Running the game as a Server player is somewhat complex, and is covered in its own section.

Gambling: Gambling is fairly straightforward. A character need only contest his Gaming vs his opponents, with the winner taking the pot.

Trolling
Cool

Negative social interactions: Intimidation, Taunts, Lies

Taunt: As a move action, contest your trolling vs a single enemy's to force them to target you above anyone else on their next round. For the skill to function this way, you need to be within the creature's move range. A creature will only respond to a taunt by a given character once per scene.

Intimidate: As a standard action, contest your Trolling vs an enemy's Daring to cause them to back down. Intimidated enemies may flee or surrender at the GM's discretion. Otherwise they simply hang back for an entire round.

Burn: Once per scene as a standard action, contest trolling against a target to inflict a -1 penalty on one of their stats, or a -4 penalty to one of their skills. This lasts until the scene ends, or the affliction is dispelled.

Lie: As a quick action, contest your trolling vs a target's to get the listener to believe a lie. The GM may freely apply bonuses or penalties based on the lie's believability.

Crafting
Brains

Alchemitting, Repairing, Appraising

Alchemitting is fairly complex and is addressed on its own page, so this entry mostly covers the other uses of Crafting--repair and appraisal. Using the skill in this manner entails testing the skill against a set difficulty to repair broken objects, assess the possible usefulness of an item, or judge the stability of an area.

Repairing: Damaged objects can often be repaired by those with an eye for craft. Short repairs may be done on the spot, but restoring a complex item to function may require special tools and an extended test. Appraising: Captchaloguing a weapon or outfit immediately gives a character the full measure of its combat capability, but items that can't be reached, that can't be Captchalogued, or items that aren't weapons or outfits can be Appraised.

For objects carried by other characters, or ones that are out of reach, the character tests Crafting, adding the difference between their level and the item level to their skill. Further modifiers may come into play as well--if the item is far away, obscured, or viewed via a computer screen, it may be more difficult to appraise. A character may only appraise a given item once in this manner, unless he can get a better look at it any time thereafter.

For appraising parts of the environment, such as a cloudy sky, a flimsy bridge, or a half-working computer, the GM simply sets a difficulty level and the character tests Craft. Checks like this can yield all sorts of information, from whether it might rain to whether your Server player is building a stable extension to your home.

Coding
Brains

Working with computers, programming robots, using the Sylladex, operating SBURB tech

One of the more esoteric skills (and that's saying something), coding covers lots of different skills, the most important being the Sylladex.

Using SBURB Tech: Many consoles and other technology in Sburb are intended to be easily used, and require no skill test.

Testing this skill to activate damaged/inoperative Sburb tech usually takes about 1/2 hour per coding attempt, and once a successful attempt has been made, the items can be used as intended indefinitely by that character and anyone he demonstrates the item's operation to.

The skill can also be used to guess at the possible function of a piece of unknown technology or code without activating it. The consequences for being wrong may vary...

Robotics, Coding: Putting together programs from scratch, or modding preexisting ones, is a complex and time-consuming venture. So too is programming even a rudimentary AI. Generally, the player lays out their plans beforehand, and the GM decides on a rough timetable and difficulty, resulting in an extended test that may be interrupted and resumed.

Understanding
Brains

Tomes, Science, Mysteries, Linguistics, Medicine

First Aid: A character may spend ten minutes and test Understanding. On a success, they heal their target by the difference between their roll and their skill total. This test is at a +0 provided the target has basic first aid supplies. If they are forced to improvise, or if they have advanced equipment, the test may be adjusted.

Nature: The environments a character might explore in Sburb are filled with strange flora, and some of it might be useful. Locating and identifying food, medicine, and the like, might fall under this skill.

Study: Bizarre pictographs carved into the walls of ancient Crocodilian ruins, Eldritch tomes left in a missing mother's closet, the instruction manual for a Betty Crocker Mark VI Beat-O-Matic plasma flail--all of these are indecipherable without proper study. Documents like these might enable a character to operate a weapon or vehicle, to avoid the traps and find the secret doors in a temple, or to gain temporary (or permanent!) access to new power effects. Studying is generally an extended test.

Shenanigans
Spirit

Traps, Pranks, Demolitions, Sabotage

Traps: Traps may be constructed at an alchemiter or in the field. The character who deploys them makes a Shenanigans roll, which anyone who encounters the trap will later contest Chicanery against. If the defender fails their Chicanery roll, they are automatically subjected to the trap.

Sabotage: The opposite of repair, sabotage entails breaking objects that aren't easily destroyed. This requires an extended test and may be quite difficult. If the saboteur wishes to disguise his misdeeds, he may make a Chicanery roll. Anyone encountering the sabotage later may contest their Chicanery against it to notice the damage.

Demolitions: Explosives are a special type of weapon that utilize the Shenanigans skill rather than AT to resolve attacks. See the explosives page for more details.

Pestering
Spirit

Positive social interactions: Diplomacy, Charm, Leadership

Diplomacy: Once per encounter, you can contest pestering against your enemies to attempt to talk some sense into them. This might do anything from getting you out of prison to convincing a swarm of imps to just walk away. You may use this power again in the same encounter if something drastic happens to change the situation, such as a new piece of information appearing or the tide turning grossly in your favor.

Charm: Once per target per encounter, as a standard action, you can contest Pestering vs a single target's pestering to attempt to convince a neutral or friendly consort to join you on your quest.

Leadership: As a standard action, you can test Pestering to reduce the stress of an ally you're communicating with (but not yourself) by 1. Your skill for this test is modified by -1 per point of stress the target currently has.

Focusing
Spirit

Inner Peace, Imagination, The Supernatural

Focusing is the primary skill for many Powers, and has a few uses on its own.

Meditate: Any time a character attempts something under extreme conditions (typing on a phone while fending off attacks, disarming a bomb in a hurricaine, etc), they may test Focusing with the skill penalty imposed by the distracting conditions and, if successful, can perform the activity without any of the penalties that said conditions might apply.

Note that this adds an extra move action's worth of time to the action, whether it succeeds or not. Meditation occurs before the action it aids, and if it fails, the action is automatically attempted anyway.