- Academics: (choose one) (Wits): Any sort of specialized non-applied knowledge you can only get through intensive education (Archeology, Astronomy, Astrophysics, Biology, Botany, Sociology, Economics, Geology, Linguistics, Mathematics, History, Physics, etc). Most theoretical, applied and social sciences are covered by one specialization of this skill. Use it when a PC wishes to call upon a specific body of knowledge. For example, "Academics: Chemistry" could be used to identify a particular substance or understand an unusual chemical reaction. You can buy this skill multiple times, as long as you choose a new specialization each time.
- Animals (Wits or Charisma): Veterinary, handling, training and care of animals and transgenic animals.
- Arts (Charisma): The expression or application of creative ability and imagination.
- Athletics (Strength): Physical sports, climbing, swimming, jumping, sprinting, etc.
- Broker (Charisma): The Broker skill allows a character to negotiate trades and arrange fair deals. It is heavily used when trading.
- Bureaucracy (Wits): The ability to navigate bureaucracies, decipher legal codes, and efficiently manage administrative tasks. This skill covers a broad spectrum, including handling paperwork, tracking inventories, managing ship manifests, and overcoming bureaucratic obstacles or disasters. Characters with it are adept at maintaining order in complex situations and ensuring that records are accurate and up-to-date.
- Carousing (Charisma): The skill of socializing with flair and creating an atmosphere of enjoyment. Carousing involves not only having a good time yourself but also ensuring others around you do too.
- Computers (Wits): Fluent use, writing and modification of software. Also includes electronic intrusion and counter intrusion techniques (ie. hacking and protection)
- Deception (Charisma): Your ability to act, bluff, con, impersonate, fast talk, lie, misrepresent, and pretend. This skill does not include threatening someone, even if you do not plan to carry out your threats - use Intimidation in this case.
- Demolition (Wits): Making, placing, and disarming explosives and explosive devices
- Driving (Agility): Controlling ground vehicles and non-flying drones and robots of various types.
- Electronics (Wits): Design and maintenance of computerized devices, sensors, robots and drones. Covers only the hardware, not the software.
- Engineering (Wits): Design, operation and maintenance of spacecraft’s systems and other very advanced equipment. This skill covers life support systems, power plants, sensors, fusion and plasma drives, etc.
- Gunnery (Agility): The use and maintenance of large, vehicular, or non-portable weapons systems. Firing these weapons is more like playing a video game than firing a gun. The smallest weapons of this sort require a team to transport and assemble before they can be operated.
- Intimidation (Strength): Convincing someone to do what you want based on direct threats (implied or actual)
- Investigation (Wits): The art of searching, sifting, mining, and interpreting data, analyzing evidence, piecing together clues, solving mysteries, and making logical deductions from groups of facts.
- Leadership (Charisma): The ability to guide, inspire, and motivate allies in the heat of battle or challenging situations. A character with Leadership can make checks to provide advantage to their allies, boosting their effectiveness and morale.
- Mechanics (Wits): Design, maintenance and repair of most equipment - gear, guns, etc. Some very advanced equipment and spacecraft components are handled by the Engineering skill. Robots and computer systems are handled by Electronics.
- Medicine (Wits):This skill includes performing emergency and long term medical care as well as the diagnosis and treatment of common diseases and poisons. Higher levels includes surgery and the diagnosis and treatment of rare diseases and afflictions.
- Melee (Strength): Hand-to-hand combat and the usage of claws, clubs, quarterstaff, blades and other melee weapons.
- Navigation (Wits): The art of finding your way, whether using AR maps, a compass, the stars, or an astrogation AI. Use it whenever you need to plot out a course, determine a direction, or otherwise keep from getting lost.
- Notice (Wits): The use of your physical senses (including cybernetic) and awareness of the physical world around you. Also includes the ability to scout out dangers and spot threats, unusual objects or out of place people. This skill differs from Investigation in that it is noticing things by chance or constant awareness, rather than actively analyzing clues.
- Palming (Agility): The skill of handling items quickly and nimbly without others noticing. Use it to conceal an item on your person, shoplift, pick a pocket, surreptitiously discard something, or perform a magic trick.
- Persuasion (Charisma): Convincing someone to do what you want through the use of negotiation, words and gestures. This does not include persuasion through threats or force (that is covered by Intimidation) or by lying (covered by Deception).
- Piloting (Agility): Used to maneuver, control, or avoid crashing a space or flying vehicle, whether you are in the pilot’s seat, remote controlling a robot, or directly connected to it.
- Profession: (choose one) (Wits): Used to perform work-related tasks for a specific trade not already covered by a specific skill (i.e. asteroid mining, hydroponics, designing a building’s security system, etc.) or to reference specialized knowledge that someone trained in that profession might have. You can buy this skill multiple times, as long as you choose a new profession each time.
- Ranged weapons (Agility): This skill covers a variety of ranged weapons that can be held with one or two hands, including pistols, rifles, etc. It differs from Gunnery in that they are man-portable and can be operated by a single person.
- Reflex (Agility): The ability to get out of the way of incoming attacks, debris or even inconvenient passers-by. This skill differs from Athletics in that it is reacting to something, rather than actively doing something.
- Resilience (Strength): Physical and mental fortitude against threats to your body like sleep deprivation, hideous climates, malnutrition, poisoning, diseases, stunning, dazing, etc. This skill reflects the PC’s ability to be pushed beyond reasonable limits.
- Stealth (Agility): Use this skill whenever you need to physically hide or move with slimeth to avoid someone sensing you, whether you are hiding behind a tree, sneaking past a guard, or blending into a crowd. Stealth can also be used to follow people (shadowing) without them detecting you.
- Stewardship (Charisma): The art of serving and caring for high-ranking individuals, including nobles and high-class passengers. Stewardship encompasses a wide range of skills, from proper etiquette and addressing protocols to culinary expertise and tailoring. Characters with Stewardship excel at creating a comfortable and luxurious environment for those they serve, attending to their needs with grace and efficiency.
- Streetwise (Wits): This skill reflects a character that is well-versed in local power structures, criminal networks, and influential figures. This skill allows them to navigate the complex web of urban life, know criminal contacts and fixers in their homeworlds, and quickly adapt to and integrate into the underworld of unfamiliar worlds.
- Will (Charisma): Similar to Resilience, this is your mental fortitude against threats, but this time to your mind. Includes making sense out of chaos and coping with emotional traumas, fear, loneliness, depression or any other emotional surge.
- Zero G (Agility): Working, moving and maneuvering effectively in zero G and microgravity environments, including operating complex vacsuits.
