Editing Rising Sun Eternal: Character Creation (section)

=== Skill Descriptions ===

==== ''Administration'' ====

Base Rating: 10%

A knowledge of how bureaucracies work and what kinds of records, paperwork, tallies, etc. it invariably generates. Use it to sift through detailed ward records or house accounts to find that one quirky point that just doesn’t seem to fit the usual pattern. It’s also used as part of official administrative duties.

Use this skill to rapidly navigate your way adeptly through administrative records to find what’s important. Note that this skill is primarily about interpreting information you have; if you need to actively go out and track down tallies, records, etc. that would be covered by the '''Research''' skill.

==== ''Alertness'' ====

Base Rating: 20%

Alertness detects danger. Use it to hear a bow being strung, to see the shadow on the other side of a shoji screen, to spot a concealed item hidden under a kimono, or to catch someone who is trying to escape notice using Stealth.

==== ''Appraise'' ====

Base Rating: 10%

The ability to quickly determine the true (intrinsic) value of an item. This is an important skill in ensuring that bartering exchange deals are favorable to you. It is also helpful in know what items or resources others might be willing to trade to obtain.

==== ''Art (Type)'' ====

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 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, Dance, Forgery, Music, Poetry, Sculpture, Singing, Storytelling, etc.

==== ''Athletics'' ====

Base Rating: 30%

Your Protagonist 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:

• Outrun someone (see '''OPPOSED TESTS''' on page 47).

• Jump an intimidating gap.

• Climb in a crisis.

• Land safely in a fall of up to three yards.

• Hit a target with a thrown rock or put a javelin exactly on target.

• Catch something without warning, such as catching a dropped glass globe.

==== ''Buddhism'' ====

Base Rating: 10%

This skill represents knowledge of the canon and creeds of Buddhism, and the practices of the various Buddhist sects. This is practical knowledge as much as theology, and a highly skilled practitioner of Buddhism can be assumed to be a monk, nun or priest.

==== ''Building'' ====

Base Rating: 10%

Building or constructing anything from a low wall to a mile-long viaduct. The most basic levels of the skill are enough for simple domestic jobs; the highest levels are dazzling temples, or robust fortifications.

==== ''Charm'' ====

Base Rating: 20%

Changing someone else’s viewpoint or convincing them to do something for you through guile, cunning, “buttering-up”, or other such subtle techniques. It’s not about threatening them (that’s covered by the '''Harangue''' skill) or using logic to convince them (that’s '''Persuade''') but covers all those other soft-touch methods. With Charm you might be able to connect with an individual on a more personal level – maybe even seduce them – and such changes can become long-held attitudes or beliefs. If the target of the skill starts from an antagonistic viewpoint, some form of OPPOSED TEST will probably be needed to overcome their negative impression.

==== ''Craft (Type)'' ====

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 (Mechanic) to get a broken apparatus working — or to sabotage one beyond repair; Craft (Locksmith) to open a lock without a key, and so on.

A common specialization is '''Craft (Jury-Rigging)''' which represents an ability to create lash-ups of equipment to perform a function when the proper tool for the job is unavailable.

The Game Moderator decides whether a task requires Craft. Each Craft type is a separate skill: Blacksmith, Carpenter, Jury-Rigging, Locksmith, Mechanic, etc.

==== ''Disguise'' ====

Base Rating: 10%

Alter your Protagonist’s appearance, voice, posture, body language, and mannerisms to avoid recognition without drawing attention.

==== ''Dodge'' ====

Base Rating: 30%

Evading danger through instinct and reflexes. Use Dodge to avoid an attack. Against Missile Weapons and catapulted rocks, Dodge is only useful to get to cover.

==== ''Drive'' ====

Base Rating: 20%

Handling a carriage, chariot, or other ground-based conveyance safely in a crisis. Unless the Game Moderator says otherwise, every Protagonist can drive safely in normal conditions. Use this skill to keep the conveyance safe in a tense pursuit or on dangerous terrain.

==== ''Farm'' ====

Base Rating: 10%

The essential peasant’s art of coaxing food out of the ground, rearing and keeping livestock, etc.

==== ''First Aid'' ====

Base Rating: 10%

The initial treatment and stabilization of injuries. Use it to help a character recover lost Hit Points. By comparison, Medicine ensures long-term recovery. (See '''HEALING''' on page 47.)

==== ''Foreign Language (Type)'' ====

Base Rating: 0%

Fluency in another language. Each foreign language is a distinct skill. Having 20% allows halting conversations; at 50% your Protagonist speaks and reads like a native. The greater the skill, the greater the complexity of the information your Protagonist comprehends and the less time it takes. You don’t need to roll a Foreign Language skill unless the Game Moderator says the situation is exceptionally difficult.

==== ''Harangue'' ====

Base Rating: 10%

The art of browbeating someone into agreeing with your point of view or agreeing to do something you want them to do. This technique is not a subtle attempt to engage with their good nature (that’s covered by the Charm skill) or their logical reason (that’s Persuade) – instead it’s all about bluster, shouting, and threats. But sometimes these can be more successful than other techniques, although the individuals on the receiving end are unlikely to enjoy the interaction quite so much.

==== ''History'' ====

Base Rating: 10%

Uncovering facts and theories about the past. Use it to remember or find a key fact about the distant past, recognize an obscure genealogy, or comb through annals that nobody without your deep education could find.

==== ''Insight'' ====

Base Rating: 10%

Insight obtains information about a person — especially information the subject would rather conceal — through observation, conversation, or examining patterns of behavior and relationships. Use Insight 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.

Insight can notice signs of mental illness but Reassure would be needed to assist with a specific malady. A subject who deliberately tries to deceive your Protagonist can attempt an opposed test comparing their Persuade against your Protagonist’s Insight.

==== ''Knowledge (Type)'' ====

Base Rating: 0%

The systematic study of the processes of the world. This is more than common schooling; anyone can attempt an INT test to remember facts from whatever (rudimentary) schooling they received. It is usually book knowledge, but can also be the systematic knowledge of unlettered men. Each Knowledge area is a separate skill: Astrology, Grammar, Herbology, etc.

==== ''Law (Type)'' ====

Base Rating: 0%

Use this skill to understand and manipulate the power structures that exist within society, to either influence outcomes or bullshit your Protagonist’s way out of trouble.

Different societies have their own systems of law – the understanding of each is a separate skill. Because all societies are based on common human behavior, you can attempt to use your Law skill at ''half'' chance to navigate the vagaries of a an entirely new and unfamiliar social order.

==== ''Literacy'' ====

Base Rating: 0%

In Japan, Literacy is a separate skill from your native tongue, and often the prerogative of certain classes and groups. In such settings, it has to be learned separately.

==== ''Mechanics'' ====

Base Rating: 0%

The tradesman’s ability to fix or build devices which operate according to some simple mechanical principle. This includes traps, simple clocks, automata, etc. Large-scale devices might fall under Building instead. Fixes that require specialized training or apparatus are likely to fall under specific Craft skills (e.g., Locksmith), however this skill might still provide some basic assistance with those tasks.

==== ''Medicine'' ====

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 a dead person’s last meal, or prescribe proper long-term care. By comparison, First Aid keeps a patient alive until healing is possible.

==== ''Melee Weapons'' ====

Base Rating: 30%

Lethal use of melee weapons in combat. Use it to hurt or kill an opponent with a sword, club, or other hand-held weapon.

==== ''Military Training (Type)'' ====

Base Rating: 0%

Many people spend a part of their careers in some form of military service to a lord or a sovereign, or just an independent mercenary. A great many people are also employed in the giant bureaucracy that keeps the military supplied and functioning. This skill represents first-hand training and experience obtained through time spent in one such military service. Use it to apply military tactics or strategies to a situation, to recall specific details about a particular unit type, or to know your way around common war gear.

==== ''Missile Weapons'' ====

Base Rating: 20%

Safe and accurate shooting with common Missile Weapons in combat. Use it to hit a target despite the adrenaline, panic, and shock of violence interfering with hand-eye coordination, or to allow for windage and distractions when sniping prey.

==== ''Navigate'' ====

Base Rating: 10%

Finding your way quickly with maps, charts and tables, orienteering, the stars, or dead reckoning.

==== ''Occult'' ====

Base Rating: 10%

The study of the supernatural as understood by human traditions, including things like magick, folklore, and secret societies. Use Occult to practice sorcery, to examine and deduce the intent of a ritual, or to identify occult traditions, groups, grimoires, tools, symbols, or legends.

==== ''Peoples'' ====

Base Rating: 0%

The knowledge of other human cultures not your own. Use it to understand their morals, religious beliefs, customs, and mores, and to identify (but not translate) their languages. Where History is about the distant past, Peoples is about the behaviors of living cultures and how they relate to each other and yours.

==== ''Persuade'' ====

Base Rating: 20%

Changing another’s deeply held decision or desire. Use Persuade to get your Protagonist’s way when the subject is so stubborn, what your Protagonist wants is so valuable, or the deception is so flagrant that Charisma isn’t enough.

With Persuade, your Protagonist might convince a witness that what she saw was innocuous and not unnatural, talk a ward head into helping you cover up an outbreak to avoid a mass panic, or draw useful information out of an unwilling subject. This skill also allows your Protagonist to resist persuasion and interrogation in opposed Persuade rolls.

==== ''Pilot (Type)'' ====

Base Rating: 0%

Piloting, navigating, and captaining waterborne vessels. 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: Small Boat, Longship, Galleon, etc.

==== ''Politics'' ====

Base Rating: 0%

Knowledge of the political and regulatory environment of the kingdom, empire, etc., that you inhabit. This could be used to actively exert political power – especially if you are high in society – or simply to understand and manipulate the existing administrative, fiscal, and other mechanisms of government.

==== ''Reassure'' ====

Base Rating: 10%

Use this skill to understand the mental illness afflicting a person, help an afflicted person along the journey back to sanity, or talk someone down when the mental illness threatens to take hold.

You can also use this skill to assist in social interactions with someone, to calm them from an agitated state in order to extract information from them.

You cannot use Reassure on yourself.

==== ''Regional Lore (Type)'' ====

Base Rating: 0%

Many educated people know a little bit about every place, but if you’ve spent a long time living in (or studying) a specific region you learn so much more. This skill represents a deep understanding of the people, places, and common practices that are unique to one particular region. Use it to recall folktales that villagers tell, unique local words, or unusual ruins and earthworks found in the region. It can also cover quirky superstitions and rites that are particular to the region.

==== ''Research'' ====

Base Rating: 10%

The ability to find specific information in a large repository or buried in files, records, or scrolls. Use this skill to navigate a jumbled archive of ancient scrolls, pull out buried details in account records, or otherwise locate whatever relevant information lies buried.

Note that this is different to the Scavenge skill, which is used to locate physical resources or items rather than information.

==== ''Ride'' ====

Base Rating: 10%

Handling, training, and riding an animal - horses, oxen, whatever. Use it to keep safe on an animal in a crisis and to keep riding animals safe, calm, and healthy.

==== ''Scavenge'' ====

Base Rating: 10%

The world is full of useful items, although most people don’t know where to go looking for the good stuff. Use this skill to loot a battlefield or locate valuable resources like food and water. Anyone can find items in places where they are likely to be found (e.g., food in a larder); use this skill to find things in places where nobody else would think to look.

Depending on the game setting and the scarcity of the item being sought, the difficulty of Scavenge tests and the quality of the items unearthed by successful rolls may vary.

Note that efforts to rummage for information rather than items is handled by the Research skill instead.

==== ''Search'' ====

Base Rating: 20%

Finding things that are concealed or obscured from plain sight. Searching an abandoned dwelling 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 Game Moderator may roll the Search attempt, so you don’t know whether your Protagonist succeeded or failed.

==== ''Shinto'' ====

Base Rating: 10%

This skill represents knowledge of the canon and creeds of Shinto, and the practices of the various Shinto sects. This is practical knowledge as much as theology, and a highly skilled practitioner of Shinto can be assumed to be a priest or shrine maiden.

==== ''Social Etiquette'' ====

Base Rating: 10%

Good manners cost nothing, or so they say, and in this era they are an essential part of ‘civilized’ society. One simple faux pas at court could cost you your honour, your office – or even your head. Use this skill to know what complex rules of etiquette might apply in any given situation and be prepared to follow them instinctively when you need to. Alternative, it may be used to spot situations where someone else is failing to follow one of society’s many little rules.

==== ''Stealth'' ====

Base Rating: 10%

Concealing your presence or activities. Use it to hide a weapon, camouflage a position, conceal an occult amulet, pick a pocket, move silently, follow without being seen, or blend into a crowd. A Protagonist attempting Stealth can be detected only by an opposing Alertness or Search skill (see '''OPPOSED TESTS''' on page 47).

==== ''Streetwise (Type)'' ====

Base Rating: 0%

In cities and towns, there is an entirely separate ‘society’ that exists between the criminal classes, the poor, and everybody else that the high-and-mighty would prefer to believe don’t exist. In fact, there are many different sub-cultures and groups who make up this (largely invisible) under-class. This skill represents detailed knowledge of one such strata of society. It includes extensive details about contacts – who does what and where one might go to obtain any kind of illicit goods or services common to that group. Some groupings may be region-based (e.g., “the docks”), while others represent broad categories of people or services (e.g., “beggars and lepers”).

==== ''Survival (Type)'' ====

Base Rating: 10%

Knowledge of the natural world. Use it to 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. Each type of Survival is its own skill. Common types are Mountains, Urban, Wilderness.

==== ''Swim'' ====

Base Rating: 20%

Most Protagonists 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.

==== ''Track'' ====

Base Rating: 10%

The basics of trailing game through a wilderness – or a mark through a crowded market. Opposed by the Stealth skill.

==== ''Unarmed Combat'' ====

Base Rating: 20%

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 Protagonist’s bare hands (or feet, elbows, teeth, or head).