Skills Information

Non-Combat Interaction

In TORG, interaction between characters is very important. Your abilities with these skills can be as useful, if not more so, than your ability in combat. The interaction skills are: charm, persuasion, intimidation, taunt, trick and test of wills.

Charm

Charm is used to change the attitudes of the characters you meet. The base difficulty for charm is the target character’s willpower; if the target has no willpower skill, use his Mind instead. A successful charm improves the target character’s attitude toward your character. There are five possible attitudes: enemy, hostile, neutral, friendly, and loyal. To make a charm attempt you must tell the gamemaster what you are saying or doing that would improve the target’s attitude toward you.

Each successful charm temporarily improves the target character’s attitude by one step. After a time, charmed characters return to their base attitude, which was the character’s attitude toward you before the charm attempt began.

Charming characters who like you is easier than charming characters who hate you. The gamemaster will let you know how you’ve done in a charm attempt.

An unsuccessful or minimally successful charm prohibits your character from any further attempts on his target (for a while anyway), although you may “press the issue”. If you roll better than you need to charm a character, you can continue to charm.

Persuasion

The base difficulty for persuasion is the target character’s willpower value; if the target has no willpower skill, use his Mind.

Persuasion is used to persuade a character to take a suggested course of action. You can persuade a character to see things your way even if you do not charm him (but it’s usually easier if you do). When you persuade a character, you have to tell the gamemaster exactly what you are trying to get him to agree to. If you fail your persuasion attempt, you may not try to persuade the target character any further on any subject. Persuasion is made against the current attitude of the target, including any improvement due to charm (obviously, the persuasion attempt must be made soon after the charm, or the target will return to his base attitude).

The extent to which a character agrees to your suggestion depends on his current attitude toward your character. Even if you successfully persuade a hostile character, he is unlikely to do as much for you as would a friendly character.

Intimidation

Intimidation is used to prevent another character from taking action against your character, or at least to reduce his bonus against you. It can also be used to gain information from a character. The target of an intimidation is the other character’s intimidation or Spirit.

If your intimidation is successful enough, the intimidated character’s actions are reduced in effectiveness. A really successful use of intimidation (called an attempt to awe a character) prevents the character from acting against you as long as you do not attack him. He might even give up, or give in.

Intimidation can also be used to interrogate a captive. In this case, the target’s attitude toward the person or thing you want information about helps determine your chance for success.

A failed interrogation roll means that no further information may be gained by that questioner from that target.

Test Of Wills

Test of Wills (short form: test) is used to slow your opponent’s reactions. With spectacular success, you can actually get an opponent to flee or surrender with a test. The target of a test is the other character’s test skill or Mind.

Taunt

Taunt is used in a manner similar to persuasion, but is most often used to force a character to act rather than preventing her from acting. The target of a taunt is the other character’s taunt or Charisma.

When you taunt an opponent, you should tell the gamemaster what effect you’d like the taunt to have. If your total is high enough and the gamemaster allows the effect, the opposing character will do what you want.

Trick

Trick is also similar to persuasion, in that it can be used to force an opponent to act in a specific way.

The use of a trick allows a check against the target’s trick or Perception with the object of slowing him down or negating his action. You should announce a desired effect before rolling for the trick. If your total is high enough, the opponent acts as you desire.

The Reality Skill

Characters with the reality skill are called possibility-rated characters, because they can store possibility energy using this skill. Possibility-rated characters are better connected to the possibility energy of their cosm, giving them several advantages over non-rated characters. For example, non-rated characters roll the die again only on a 10, giving them far less of a chance of performing a spectacular feat.

Uses of the Reality skill

If your equipment or abilities fail because of the difference in realities, your reality skill may get them to function once again. You may try once per round to get your equipment or abilities working.

The reality skill may be used to invoke a reality storm, a contest between two possibility-rated characters from different cosms. This contest is fierce and quite dangerous, ending with one opponent stripped of all his Possibilities. A storm can drain you of Possibilities, cause increasing physical damage to the area, transform you over to the reality of your attacker, even lock you into a swirling maelstrom of primal possibility energy, a cycle of creation and destruction which may never end. Reality storms are therefore to be used only with extreme caution. They can destroy your character.

Unskilled Use

Sometimes your character is faced with an obstacle requiring a skill he doesn’t have an add for. In this case, the character is unskilled.

When performing an unskilled action, use the base attribute for that skill as the skill value; in addition, a character performing an unskilled action loses the roll again on 20 benefit. This limits his chance of gaining great success or performing really difficult feats. Unskilled Ords never roll again

Some actions may not be taken by unskilled characters. The skill descriptions specify which may not be attempted unskilled.

If a skill is printed on your character’s template, your character can learn the skill. If it is not, your character may not begin the game with an add in that skill; she may be able to learn it later, after she has gained some knowledge of the world.

Round Skills and Macro Skills

There are two general types of skills. Round skillsare those that are used from round to round, generating totals each time the skill is employed.Most skills are round skills.

Macro Skills are special skills or uses of skills that allow one roll to control a character's fate for a great length of time,sometimes days.Examples include climbing when used to climb in non-combat situations,and survival.Macro skills are noted in their individual descriptions.

Narrowing the Scope of Skills

The skills are intended to be very broad,to cut down on the number of skills of which a player,and you,must keep track. As gamemaster,if you decide that you and your players want finer differentiation of skills at the expense of extra bookkeeping,you can narrow the scope of skills.

For each skill which covers a number of types of equipment,such as melee weapons,the character chooses a primary and secondary item. The primary item receives the full adds for the skill, the secondary item has one less add; all other items cover by that skill have no adds,but avoid the unskilled use penalty.

If using this optional rule,characters may purchase a skill several times in order to have more than one primary and secodary item or ability.

Skill Specialization

Again,this is the sort of rule which adds detail while muddying the bookkeeping,and is entirely optional. It can be used independenly of narrowed scope.

Characters from fiction sometimes have a type of weapon with which they are particularly familiar, or of which they are not quite fond, such as James Bond and Walther PPKs or Green Arrow and bows. Sometimes characters have a particular vehicle or mount, such as Lone Ranger and Silver, with which they are particularly familiar.

List Of Skills

Skills listed in boldface cannot be used unskilled.

CHARISMA:

Charm

Persuasion

Taunt

Training (TK pg.94)

DEXTERITY:

Acrobatics

Beast Riding

Biotech Weapons (SG pg.54)

Dodge

Energy Weapons

Fire Combat

Flight

Heavy Weapons

Lock Picking

Long Jumping

Maneuver

Martial Arts (NT pg. 72)

Melee Weapons

Missile Weapons

Prestidigitation

Running

Stealth

Swimming

Unarmed Combat

MIND:

Apportation Magic

Artist

Business (NT pg. 84)

Conjuration Magic

Corruption (AY pg. 51)

Cybertech (CP pg. 72)

Engineering (NE pg. 66)

Honor (AY pg. 50)

Hypnotism (NE pg. 66)

Medicine

Meditation (NT pg.84)

Mindsense (SG pg.54)

Occult (OS pg. 69)

Psionic Resistance (SG pg.57)

Psychology (CP pg. 73)

Science

Streetwise (CP pg. 73)

Survival

Test Of Will

Weird Science (NE pg. 67)

Willpower

PERCEPTION:

Air Vehicles

Alteration Magic

Camouflage (SK pg.66)

Cyberdeck Op (CP pg. 71)

Direction Sense (LL pg.66)

Disguise (NT pg. 83)

Divination Magic

Egyptian Religion (NE pg. 64)

Espionage (TR pg.56)

Evidence Analysis

Find

First Aid

Forgery (CP pg.71)

Hieroglyphics (NE pg. 65)

Journalism (TR pg.56)

Land Vehicles

Language

Mathematics (NE pg. 65)

Photography (TR pg.57)

Politics/Diplomacy (TR pg.57)

Psionic Manipulation (SG pg.57)

Research (OS pg. 68)

Research (TR pg.57)

Scholar

Space Vehicles

Tracking

Trick

Water Vehicles

SPIRIT:

Faith

Focus

Frenzy (SG pg.54)

Intimidation

Occultech (TH pg.44)

Pain Weapon (TH pg.44)

Petty Crime (TR pg.59)

Possibility Rip (RV pg.44)

Possibility Sense (RV pg.44)

Reality

Shapeshifting (OS pg. 69)

Spirit Medium (OS pg.70)

Swami (OS pg.71)

True Sight (OS pg.72)

UltraCAD (TH pg.45)

STRENGTH:

Climbing

Lifting