SHADOW U. NEW SKILLS, CONCENTRATIONS, AND SPECIALIZATIONS by ANANDA%BSU.DECNET%[MSUS 1 BITNET] at [Sdsc.Edu] The first campaign I started included a rocker and a theatre-type. Due to the dearth of related skills in the skill listings, I worked on creating my own. After a few sessions and a few new non-player characters, new concentrations and specializations also cropped up. FORMATS: GENERAL SKILL concentration (specializations) GENERAL SKILL concentrations specializations PERFORMING ARTS Instrumental music and vocal music encompass the ability to play instruments or sing well, and can be considered a measure of how good a musician a person is. Performance encompasses how the musician interacts with an audience. A person could be a technically brilliant musician, cutting lots of audio tracks, yet never do a single concert because of an inability to deal with an audience. INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC instrument family--e.g. saxophone, clarinet, flute, guitar, synth, etc. specific instrument--e.g., alto sax, bass guitar, etc. VOCAL MUSIC choral, barbershop, rock, opera, etc.; vocal synth specialization is some aspect of the specific concentration MUSICAL COMPOSITION vocal (choral, barbershop, rock, etc.) instrumental (chamber music, symphonic, jazz, etc.) PERFORMANCE actor, singer, comedian, musician specialization is a specific style of the concentration Performance is stage presence and working with an audience. ACTING simsense, movies (flat films), stage plays, trid (by medium) comedy, drama, western, horror (by genre) This skill could possibly switch the concentrations with the specializations. I have it arranged this way because more actors talk about making 'the big step' from one medium to another (especially trid to movies) than from one genre to another. Also, anything to simsense is a much bigger step than between any two genres, since the latter doesn't usually require the actor to get cybered. NON-PERFORMING ARTS ARTISTIC COMPOSITION & DESIGN two-dimensional (painting, drawing, etc. [by general technique]; color or black and white), three-dimensional (sculpture, holographs, etc.), animation (children's, adults', educational/instructional, etc. [by audience or purpose]) WRITTEN COMPOSITION fiction genre -- e.g. mystery, romance, poetry, western, science fiction, fantasy, suspense, `popular fiction', etc. novels, novellas/novelettes, short stories non-fiction genre -- news, science (either general or a specific field), self-help, diet/nutrition, etc. books/texts, articles (e.g., magazine, journals, newspaper, etc., as appropriate), etc. scripts -- simsense, movies (flat films), stage plays, trid (series), music videos comedy, drama, western, horror (by genre); documentary, etc. The reason that the genres are concentrations and the lengths are specializations is that a person can easier write different lengths of works within a different genre than write works of similar length across different genres. Scripts are the exception; script authors seem to cross genres more frequently than they cross medias. ACTIVE SKILLS UNARMED COMBAT Fist-fighting (brawling, boxing) Throws Grapple is renamed Wrestling (take-downs, holds, escapes) ELECTRONICS Security systems (while it is true that many security systems are tied into a computer, there are many that aren't.) SOCIAL SKILLS LEADERSHIP Gang INTERROGATION Verbal (interviewing) Machine-aided (lie detectors, etc.) Coercive (torture) (sick, I know, but just the thing for your next cyberpsycho npc who is determined to get that tidbit of info that your players didn't know they had.) NEGOTIATION Bargain (haggling, barter) Con (duping someone; persuading someone to do something they normally wouldn't do) ETIQUETTE Media (Journalists, Rockers, Musicians, Actors, etc.) Organized Crime (Yakuza, Mafia, Seoulpa rings, Tongs, inter-group relations) Religions/Cults (by religion or cult, inter-group relations) Tech (Technicians, Armorers, Mechanics, etc.) Military Government Military and Government specializations include: specific branches or departments inter-branch or department relations local- or state-level groups About the Organized Crime concentration: Although arguments can be made to include this under the Street concentration, the different groups listed as specialization possibilities are highly organized and have their own rules of conduct, which are very different from the rules of etiquette that would apply to gangs and other Street elements. This would seem to argue for the various mob groups to be specializations of the Corporate concentration. However, the primarily illegal and extra- legal orientation of the mob groups does not fit the Corp. concentration. Making Organized Crime its own concentration solves these problems. KNOWLEDGE SKILLS THEOLOGY Christian, Hindu, Muslim, etc. history of the religion or church, rituals, customs, etc. LANGUAGES Move Estonian from the Baltic family to the Finnic family. One person speaking Finnish and one speaking Estonian can understand each other fairly well. Romance family: add Ancient Latin, Medieval Latin, and Church Latin. There are sufficient differences between the three to differentiate them. Sign Languages: American Sign Language, Perkins-Athabaskan Sasquatch Special Languages: Pidgin English (the City Speak equivalent of many semi-aboriginal groups in South America, Africa and Asia) SHADOW SKILLS Jerry Stratton Here are some skills you won't necessarily learn at the city college. You'll most likely need to find a teacher in security or in the shadows. These are all special skills, and fall under the heading of Action skills. These require 2x Karma to train in, so referees take note: they are general skills, and cover quite a bit of ground. OPEN LOCKS Opening locks covers hard locks (padlocks, etc.), electronic locks, and computer locks. Each type requires its own special tools, and characters can concentrate in any of those three types (or any other types that may exist). A hard lock kit costs 200¥. An electronic lock kit costs 400¥, and a computer lock kit costs 800¥. Opening locks is usually an unresisted test against the lock's rating, with extra successes reducing the base time to unlock. Some especially tough locks will have a threshold less than or equal to their rating. IMPERSONATION Impersonation covers all forms of impersonating other people: ventriloquism, disguise, and mannerisms. Each of those three can be concentrated in. Using this skill is usually an unresisted test against a number chosen by the referee, using the Skill Success Table. A troll trying to impersonate a human, for example, will find it nearly impossible. The referee will need to take into account the backgrounds and appearance of the impersonator and the person being impersonated. A street punk impersonating a CEO will find it a difficult task, unless the street punk has knowledge of corporate etiquette. The number of successes show how well the impersonation succeeded. Only one success will be necessary to fool most people. People who know the person being impersonated will have a threshold up to their intelligence. If the street punk tries to impersonate the CEO to the CEO's wife, the punk will need at least one more success than the wife's intelligence. Impersonating the CEO to his secretary will require only 1 extra success (a threshold of 1). The impersonator can reduce the target number by studying what needs to be done. If the street punk above finds someone willing to show him how a corporate CEO acts, he can make an Intelligence test vs. the target number (6), and the successes here reduce the target number when making the actual impersonation attempt. The street punk's intelligence is 3. He rolls 1 six. This brings the impersonation target number down to 5. Characters cannot study to bring down target numbers that are high because of physical reasons (a troll impersonating a human). The referee will have to decide which part of the target number is physical and which mental. It takes target number days to study for the intelligence test. A disguise kit costs Rating times 50¥ and weight three times Rating kilograms. The rating is the maximum target number the kit can deal with. A rating 5 kit can only be used for challenging or easier impersonations. SLEIGHT OF HAND Sleight of Hand covers picking pockets, magic tricks, and diverting attention. Each of those can be concentrated in. Sleight of Hand is usually an unresisted success test against the target's intelligence (perception). The referee may assign a threshold for particularly difficult sleight-of-hand attempts. Picking a pocket is fairly easy (no threshold), but picking a pocket inside several layers of clothing will be more difficult (a threshold of 1 or 2). A magic kit will cost 50¥ or more, depending on what the character is going to do.