A skill represents expertise gained with intensive training or study. Your agent's proficiency in each skills is represented by a percentage value. The higher the value, the more adept the agent is at that particular skill.
Every skill has a base rating. If a skill has a base rating greater than 1%, anyone can attempt to use it. A skill at 0% can’t be used at all. No skill can be higher than 99%.
Unlike the Call of Cthulhu rules, not all skill checks require rolls. If the situation is calm and controlled, it can be assumed that your skill check automatically succeeds. All that is required from the GM is your skill’s value. The outcome will then be based on that value.
Base Rating: 10%
The study of finance and business. Use it to sift through Financial records for anomalies, such as a hidden bank account or money laundering.
Base Rating: 20%
Alertness detects danger. Use it to hear a safety being switched off, to understand the mumbling on the other side of a wall, to spot the bulge of a pistol hidden under a jacket, or to catch someone who is trying to escape notice using Stealth.
Base Rating: 0%
The study of living human cultures. Use it to understand morals, religious beliefs, customs, and mores, and to identify (but not translate) obscure languages. Where History is about the distant past and Archeology studies physical remains, Anthropology is about the behaviors of living cultures and how they relate to each other and the past.
Base Rating: 0%
The study of the physical remains of human cultures. Use it to analyze the way of life of a people from ruins, to determine the age of an artifact, to tell a genuine artifact from a fake, and to identify (but not translate) human languages. Where Anthropology is about living cultures and History is a broad study of the past, Archeology discerns meaning from the remains of peoples long dead.
Base Rating: 0%
Expertise at creating or performing a work that sways emotions and opinions. It also encompasses knowledge of techniques and trends in your field, and the ability to tell a particular creator’s real work from a fake. Anyone can draw a rough sketch; the Art skill reflects knowledge, practice, and talent. Each type of Art is a separate skill: Acting, Creative Writing, Dance, Flute, Forgery, Guitar, Painting, Poetry, Scriptwriting, Sculpture, Singing, Violin, etc.
Base Rating: 0%
Safe and accurate use of mortars, missiles, howitzers, tank cannons, and other heavy gunnery. Use it to destroy troops or a hard target in battle.
Base Rating: 30%
Your Agent trains to get the most out of his or her strength and agility. Strength and Dexterity cover raw physical power and manual dexterity; the Athletics skill represents long practice doing things like running, jumping, climbing, and throwing.
Use Athletics to:
Base Rating: 10%
Manipulating the rules and personalities that govern an organization. Use it to locate and borrow supplies, convince an official to provide information or resources, gain credentials for access to a restricted area, or keep the hospital from delving too deeply into the source of your injuries.
Base Rating: 0%
Deep knowledge of computers, computer systems, and the programs that run them. Use it to recover erased or encrypted data, protect documents from easy access, implant software to hijack a computer system, clone a phone’s SIM card, identify flaws in a security system, impersonate users, or falsify data. It is often complemented by Craft skills like Electrician and Microelectronics.
Base Rating: 0%
Making and repairing sophisticated tools and structures. A job that most people could figure out does not require the Craft skill, only an INT or DEX test. Use Craft for specialized work that needs training: Craft (Electrician) to rewire a house, hotwire a vehicle in a hurry, tap a phone or data line, or spot signs of electrical sabotage; Craft (Mechanic) to jury-rig a machine or get a broken engine working — or to sabotage one beyond repair; Craft (Locksmith) to open a lock without a key; Craft (Gunsmith) to repair a broken firearm. The Handler decides whether a task requires Craft. Each Craft type is a separate skill: Architect, Carpenter, Electrician, Gunsmith, Locksmith, Mechanic, Microelectronics, Plumber, etc.
Base Rating: 10%
Knowledge of criminal and conspiratorial behavior. Use it to identify and predict criminal behavior, deduce relationships between members of a conspiracy, analyze criminal activity, examine witness statements, or know whom to talk to in the criminal underground.
Base Rating: 0%
Safe handling of explosives in a crisis. Use it to disarm a bomb, set a charge to destroy a target remotely, jury-rig an explosive from supplies at the hardware store, or analyze a blast to determine exactly what caused it. Failure when handling a bomb means your Agent needs more time. If it’s a crisis that requires a roll, a fumble means an accidental explosion.
Base Rating: 10%
Alter your Agent’s appearance, voice, posture, body language, and mannerisms to avoid recognition without drawing attention.
Base Rating: 30%
Evading danger through instinct and re exes. Use Dodge to avoid an attack. Against firearms and explosives, Dodge is only useful to get to cover.
Base Rating: 20%
Handling an automobile or a motorcycle safely in a crisis. Unless the Handler says otherwise, every Agent has a driver’s license and can drive a car safely in normal conditions. Use this skill to keep a vehicle safe in a high-speed pursuit or on dangerous terrain.
Base Rating: 20%
Safe and accurate shooting with small arms in combat. Use it to hit a target despite the adrenaline, panic, and shock of violence interfering with hand-eye coordination.
Base Rating: 10%
The initial treatment and stabilization of injuries. Use it to help a character recover lost Hit Points. By comparison, Surgery corrects a severe wound and Medicine ensures long-term recovery.
Base Rating: 0%
Fluency in another language. Each foreign language is a distinct skill. Having 20% allows halting conversations; at 50% your Agent speaks and reads like a native. The greater the skill, the greater the complexity of the information your Agent comprehends and the less time it takes. You don’t need to roll a Foreign Language skill unless the Handler says the situation is exceptionally difficult.
Base Rating: 0%
Gathering detailed information and evidence using forensic equipment. Use it to record biometric data, determine details about a weapon used or the accelerant that started a fire, discern crucial clues that an ordinary searcher wouldn’t recognize, clean a scene of incriminating evidence, or collect, analyze, and compare fingerprints and DNA samples.
Base Rating: 10%
Safe operation of a tractor, crane, bulldozer, tank, heavy truck, or other big machine in a crisis.
Base Rating: 0%
Safe and accurate use of man-portable heavy ordnance such as machine guns and rocket launchers. Use Heavy Weapons to suppress enemies, or destroy a vehicle in combat.
Base Rating: 10%
Uncovering facts and theories about the human past. Use it to remember or find a key fact about the distant past, recognize an obscure reference, or comb a database or library for information that nobody without your deep education could find. While Anthropology is about living cultures and Archeology studies the meaning of ancient relics, History is a broad study of humanity.
Base Rating: 10%
Human intelligence. This obtains information about a subject — especially information the subject would rather conceal — through observation, conversation, or examining patterns of behavior and relationships. Use HUMINT to recognize signs of dishonesty from verbal cues and body language, gauge attitude and intentions, cultivate sources of information about a subject, determine what it would take to get a subject to cooperate, or recognize clues of what a subject wants to conceal. HUMINT can notice signs of mental illness, but Psychotherapy would be needed to diagnose and treat a specific malady. If your Agent also has Criminology, HUMINT can be used to compile a psychological profile to help find a subject. A subject who deliberately tries to deceive your Agent can attempt a Persuade test to oppose your Agent’s HUMINT.
Base Rating: 0%
Using laws and courts to your Agent’s advantage. Use it to get your Agent’s way in court, to determine the correct procedures for handling evidence in a prosecution or a civil case (and how to undermine them), to bullshit your Agent’s way out of legal trouble, or to minimize legal risks. The Law skill applies to your Agent’s native country; using it with another country’s laws requires special training.
Base Rating: 0%
The study and treatment of injury and illness. Use it to diagnose the cause of an injury, disease, or poisoning, identify abnormalities such as toxins or diseases, identify the cause and approximate time of death, identify the type of weapon used to kill a victim, identify a dead person’s last meal, or prescribe proper long-term care. By comparison, First Aid keeps a patient alive until surgery is possible and Surgery corrects a severe wound.
Base Rating: 30%
Lethal use of melee weapons in combat. Use it to hurt or kill an opponent with a knife, axe, club, or other weapon.
Base Rating: 0%
Knowledge of military culture, techniques, and regulations. Use it to identify threats in a battle field, find accurate ranges, recognize weaknesses in a fortification, deduce the training level of a soldier or unit, reconstruct the events of a battle, or deploy forces advantageously in combat. Each type of Military Science is its own skill. The usual types are Land, Air, and Sea.
Base Rating: 10%
Finding your way quickly with maps, charts and tables, orienteering, instruments, or dead reckoning.
Base Rating: 10%
The study of the supernatural as understood by human traditions, including things like conspiracy theories, fringe science, and cryptozoology. Use Occult to examine and deduce the intent of a ritual, or to identify occult traditions, groups, grimoires, tools, symbols, or legends. Occult can never tell an Agent what’s genuinely unnatural and what’s just superstition or mythology. That’s the province of the Unnatural skill.
Base Rating: 20%
Changing another’s deeply-held decision or desire. Use Persuade to get your Agent’s way when the subject is so stubborn, what your Agent wants is so valuable, or the deception is so flagrant that Charisma isn’t enough. With Persuade, your Agent might convince a witness that what she saw was innocuous and not unnatural, talk a detective into helping you cover up evidence for the greater good, or draw useful intelligence out of an unwilling subject. This skill also allows your Agent to resist persuasion and interrogation in opposed Persuade rolls.
Base Rating: 0%
Knowledge of drugs, from their ingredients and creation, to their effects, uses, and misuses. Use it to identify and produce medicines and antidotes — as well as poisons. Identifying a drug requires at least 20% skill. Preparing a particularly powerful drug safely, such as one with psychoactive effects, requires at least 40% skill or a successful roll. Misusing Pharmacy is a quick way to kill a patient.
Base Rating: 0%
Piloting, navigating, and captaining waterborne, airborne, or aerospace vehicles. Use it to keep a vessel safe in a crisis, such as through a storm or in a dangerous pursuit. Each vessel type is a separate skill: Airplane, Drone, Helicopter, Small Boat, Ship, Space Shuttle, etc.
Base Rating: 10%
The diagnosis and treatment of mental illness. Use it to identify a mental disorder, help a patient recover, talk someone down when a disorder begins to take over, and treat mental illness in the long term. You cannot use Psychotherapy on yourself. Using Psychotherapy to aid someone who suffered exposure to Unnatural forces might cost the therapist SAN.
Base Rating: 10%
Handling, training, and riding an animal — horses, donkeys, camels, whatever. Exotic mounts may need special training. Use it to keep safe on an animal in a crisis and to keep riding animals safe, calm, and healthy.
Base Rating: 0%
The deep study of the processes of the world. This is more than common schooling; anyone can attempt an INT test to remember something from a high-school science class. Science is used to find a key insight about the way the universe works — or at least, the way it’s supposed to work. Each Science is a separate skill: Astronomy, Biology, Botany, Chemistry, Engineering, Genetics, Geology, Mathematics, Meteorology, Physics, Planetology, Zoology, etc.
Base Rating: 20%
Finding things that are concealed or obscured from plain sight. Searching a scene may not require the Search skill, only time and effort, or a sufficiently high INT. Use Search to find an object that was hidden with the Stealth skill, or is otherwise so well hidden or disguised that it needs an expert. The Handler may roll the Search attempt so you don’t know whether your Agent succeeded or failed.
Base Rating: 0%
Signals intelligence. It encompasses encryption, communications intelligence, electronic intelligence, surveillance of radio and digital communications, and the making and breaking of codes. It is often used in con- junction with Computer Science for hacking, and with Craft (Electrician) for installing bugs and wiretaps.
Base Rating: 10%
Concealing your presence or activities. Use it to hide a pistol, camouflage a position, conceal a microphone, leave an envelope at a dead drop unobserved, pick a pocket, move silently, follow without being seen, or blend into a crowd. An Agent attempting Stealth can be detected only by an opposing Alertness or Search skill.
Base Rating: 0%
The treatment of an injury or abnormality by invasive means. By comparison, First Aid keeps a patient alive until surgery is possible and Medicine ensures long-term recovery.
Base Rating: 10%
Knowledge of the natural world. Use it to find tracks and trails, plan an expedition, predict weather, recognize when fauna or flora are unusual, use the environment to gather other information, or find food, water, and shelter.
Base Rating: 20%
Most Agents can swim for leisure. Use the Swim skill in a dangerous crisis: going a long distance in choppy water, keeping a friend from drowning, or getting to a boat before the tentacled thing below grabs you.
Base Rating: 40%
Self-defense. A fight between untrained combatants often involves more shoving and shouting than real violence. Use Unarmed Combat to hurt or kill an opponent with your Agent’s bare hands (or feet, elbows, teeth, or head).
Base Rating: 0%
Knowledge of the fundamental, mind-rending secrets of the universe. Use it to remember, recognize, or research facts about the things humans consider unnatural. This goes far beyond the occult, because the Unnatural skill represents things that are real. Use it to sift through the darkest parts of myth and folklore and recognize which of it is true.
Your Agent’s SAN score can never be higher than 99 minus his or her Unnatural skill rating.