Spheres rules: Skills

This page gives the Spheres, rules for skills, including how to get them, what they are and how to use them. The main parts of this page are listed to the left.

These rules require percentile (D100) and six-sided (D6) dice.

Normal rounding is assumed in all cases where rounding is used at all. That is, fractions below one-half are rounded down, while fractions one-half or above are rounded up.

No introduction to roleplaying is given here; it is assumed that anyone who has actually found these rules will be familiar enough with roleplaying and gaming to understand most concepts in the Spheres game.

Assuming that you already have a character, this character will need certain skills as they go through their life. I will not try to define what skills are here; as with the idea of roleplaying, I assume that everyone reading this has a pretty good idea what skills are in most roleplaying games.

Alternately, you may want to look at the main Spheres rules page, the main Spheres page or even -- gasp! -- my main page.

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Part 1: Basic Concepts

Although skills probably don't need to be defined, there are some concepts specific to this system which do require definition. These are given below.

Otherwise, you may wish to return to the top of this page, or to part 2, the skill tables themselves.

Skill Base (SB)

A character's skill base (SB) is her or his innate talent in a given skill. For example, someone may be a natural at cooking, or their particular characteristics may doom them never to become a master of musical instruments. Training is more important than innate talent, though (at least in this system); thus a character's actual ability to use a skill will rarely be equal to the SB, and will usually be more at least by one or two times.

Skill Bases are usually calculated by averaging three characteristics and rounding if required. Thus, SB should always be an integer between 0 and approximately 20. This may not be changed, unless the characteristics themselves change.

For example, the SB of the skill Recoil Longarm (which is used when firing somewhat unwieldy recoiling handweapons), as given on the main skill tables, is equal to a character's DEX, STR and TCH, averaged. A character with a DEX of 10, an STR of 12 and a TCH of 15 would therefore have an SB of (10 + 12 + 15 = 37)/3 = 12.33, rounded to 12, in Recoil Longarm.

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Mastery Level (ML)

As previously stated, a character's innate talent in a skill is rarely enough, but training is usually possible. Characters' real abilities to use their skills are rarely equal to their base talents. This real ability to use a skill is referred to as the Mastery Level, or ML. This will be a number between 0 and 120. ML may not exceed 120 in any case. Attempting to use a skill means a roll on D100 against a target which is based on the ML.

Opening Mastery Level (OML)

Typically, at least at the start of the game, a character's ML will be equal to a multiple of her or his skill base in that skill. This multiple is called the Opening Mastery Level, or OML , and will almost always be a number from 1 to 5. Skills that are easy to learn and be trained in will have high OML's; skills which are difficult to learn will have lower OML's, reflecting the fact that the same amount of time spent learning them will result in less effective mastery.

For example, the above character had an SB of 12 in Recoil Longarm. The OML for Recoil Longarm is 3. If this character studied Recoil Longarm at the normal starting amount (for example, if one of the character's Adult Life Options had generated one instance of the Recoil Longarm skill), the character would then have an ML of 3 x 12, or 36 -- a respectable amount, but nowhere near perfect.

Effective Mastery Level (EML)

As previously stated, any attempt to actually use a skill in the game means rolling D100 against a target based on ML. However, the actual target will be affected by things like availability of equipment, favorable winds or whatever else. Thus, the target which is finally rolled for will rarely be equal to the basic Mastery Level.

Instead, the GM will apply whatever modifiers seem appropriate to the ML. These modifiers may of course be negative or positive. These modifiers do not, of course, mean that the character's actual ability has changed. What has changed is the character's Effective Mastery Level, or EML. Therefore, things which affect the use of skills are often just called EML modifiers.

The EML may never be less than 0 or more than 95. So, then, you may ask, what is the point in having an ML higher than 95? Well, once negative modifiers have been applied (and there are usually more negative modifiers than positive), that 100+ ML may be whittled down to a fraction of its former size. If a given condition gives a -50 EML modifier, a character with a 120 ML will still have an EML of 70, while a character with an ML of 90 will be left with only a 40 EML.

The ML may be improved in the course of play. How to do so will be described below.

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Skill Rolls

How does a character actually use a skill? As stated before, when a character attempts to use a skill, his or her EML for that situation will be calculated. This EML will be a number from 0 to 95. Once the EML is known, roll D100. Any result equal to or less than the EML is a success; any result greater than the EML is a failure.

Thus, 96-100 are always failures. However, simple success or failure are often not descriptive enough. Therefore, all successes and failures are divided into two types each: Critical and Marginal. A Critical result is any roll that is a multiple of five, thus: 5, 10, 15, 20... 90, 95 and 100. A Marginal result is any number that is not a multiple of five. There are therefore Critical Successes, Marginal Successes, Marginal Failtures and Critical Failures. These are usually abbreviated as CS, MS, MF and CF. These four results are the possible Success Levels, or simply results, of any skill roll.

Thus, if a character had an EML of 71 and rolled a 15, the result would be a CS. If the roll were 32, the result would be an MS. If the roll were 72, the result would be an MF. If the roll were 75, the result would be a CF.

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Characteristic Rolls

As with skills, the basic characteristics may sometimes be tested. This is done in a slightly different way than with skills. When a characteristic is to be tested, the GM will assign a multiple based on difficulty, typically from 1 to 7 or so. A difficulty of 1 is extremely difficult, while a difficulty of 7 is quite easy.

Once the multiple is known, multiply the characteristic to be tested by this. The result should be a number between 0 and 120, unless the task is amazingly easy (in which case no roll should be necessary) or the character has amazing characteristics. The number is then treated like an EML (including the fact that it may not actually exceed 98) and tested as such.

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Skill Index (SI)

Occasionally, a general index (rather than the specific 0-120 ML) of a character's skills may be required. For example, when calculating a character's actual running speed in combat, the base number is her or his Speed, plus a small percent of the character's Running skill. Such a general index is called simply the Skill Index, and is equal to the skill/10, dropping fractions.

SI is also useful when characters are discussing their abilities with each other.Very few people bother to take vocational tests allowing their mastery levels to be talked about with any precision; most instead have at most a general handle on how well they are able to use the skill. If descriptive adverbs are desired, the following table gives suggested ones.

If SI is…	…then character is able to use the skill…	If SI is…	…then character is able to use the skill…
0	Not at all.	6	Quite well.
1	Barely at all.	7	Proficiently.
2	Poorly.	8	Expertly.
3	Marginally.	9	Adeptly.
4	Competently	10	Masterfully.
5	Well.	11-12	Quite masterfully.

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Specialization

For most skills, it is neither practical nor desirable to list all possible permutations of it. For example, Biology is a truly huge field, and to try to detail every sort of biology which exists in Known Space would be beyond the capacity of any rules system. Thus, there are Specializations.

A specialization is a specific field of endeavor within a skill that the character does particularly well. For example, a biologist may be specifically an pseudo-entomologist, studying the insect-like creatures of Ur. In fact, there are several levels of specialization possible. Thus, a scientist may be a biologist who specializes in pseudo-entomology, with a further concentration in mountain pseudo-entomology, and a specific focus on one particular species of pseudo-insects. In the same way, each skill may have several types of specialization, as well as several levels.

When a character reaches EML 50 in a skill, he or she may take a Specialization. This should still be fairly broad, though obviously no broader than the skill itself. The exact parameters of the specialization should be determined in consultation with the GM. The character then receives a +10 EML bonus in this area, and maintains the normal ML in other areas of the skill. Again at ML 70, the character receives a further specialization, and again at 90 and 110. Further specializations may be taken either to add specializations in other areas, or to deepen specialization in one area. Deepening specialization means choosing an even more discrete segment of the previous specialization, not additional knowledge over the entire specialization. Thus, the above scientist would have three specializations within Biology: one in pseudo-entomology, one further one in mountain pseudo-entomology, and a final one in the specific species. The scientist could also have chosen to study another type of biology altogether instead of one of these specializations, but could not then have known so much about that species.

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Part 2: Skill Tables

What follows are the actual skills themselves, as well as several other types of information for each:

Group: Each skill belongs to a general group. For example, there are Combat skills, Physical skills, etc. These are usually useful only when determining a character's background options; after game play has begun, such groups rarely enter consideration.
Sub-group: Each skill also belongs to a sub-group. Thus, the Combat skills are further divided into Firearm skills, Restricted skills and Archaic skills, as well as one or two skills which do not belong to a sub-group. Sub-groups are, like groups, primarily useful during pre-game. Thus, a character who has been a police officer will likely have access to some combat skills, but few of them will have been full military-grade skills. Thus, such a character may receive a non-Restricted Combat skill, meaning the character can have any skill which is a Combat skill but which is not Restricted. Some sub-groups also cross group boundaries, such as Illicit skills. These are also useful for purposes of pre-game.
Skill Name: Usually pretty straightforward.
Abbreviation: Occasionally, it may be useful to have a shorthand name for skills, as when trying to save space on an NPC record. For this eventuality, standard abbreviations for skill names are provided.
Skill Base Characteristics: These are the characteristics from which the skill's SB is calculated.
OML: This is the multiple by which the SB is multiplied when first gaining a skill.
Notes: Such things as the fact that a skill is automatic (meaning that all characters receive it to OML level without expending OP's), or that it requires specialization (meaning that the broad type is allowable, but must always be accompanied by a specific ability within the general skill), will be noted here.

Otherwise, you might want to return to the top of this page, or to section 1, the basic skill concepts.

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Academic Skills

Sub-group	Skill Name	Abbreviation	Skill Base Characteristics	OML	Notes
Humanities	Anthropology	ANT	LOG INT MEM	1
Humanities	Archaeology	ARO	LOG LOG MEM	1
Hard Sciences	Astronomy	AST	LOG LOG MEM	1
Life Sciences	Biology	BIO	LOG LOG MEM	1	Specialization required
Hard Sciences	Chemistry	CHM	LOG LOG MEM	1	Specialization required
Social Science	Economics	ECO	LOG LOG MEM	1
Social Science	Forensics	FOR	LOG LOG MEM	1
Hard Sciences	Geology	GEO	LOG LOG MEM	1
Humanities	History	HST	LOG MEM MEM	1	Specialization required
Social Science	Linguistics	LIN	LOG LOG MEM	1
Humanities	Literature	LIT	LOG INT MEM	1	Specialization required
Hard Sciences	Mathematics	MTH	LOG LOG MEM	1
Hard Sciences	Meteorology	MTR	LOG LOG MEM	1
Humanities	Philosophy	PHL	LOG LOG INT	1
Hard Sciences	Physics	PHY	LOG LOG MEM	1	Specialization required
Social Science	Psychology	PSY	LOG INT MEM	1
Social Science	Sociology	SOC	LOG INT MEM	1
Humanities	Theology	THE	LOG INT INT	1

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Combat Skills

Sub-Group	Skill Name	Abbrev.	Skill Base Characteristics	OML	Notes
Firearms	Recoil Longarm	RCL	DEX STR TCH	3
Firearms	Recoil Shortarm	RCS	DEX TCH EYE	3
Firearms	Recoilless Longarm	RSL	DEX STR EYE	4
Firearms	Recoilless Shortarm	RSS	DEX DEX EYE	4
Restricted	Support Weapons	SW	DEX STR EYE	2
Restricted	Heavy Weapons	HW	DEX TCH EYE	1
Restricted	Computer-Assisted Weapons	CAW	DEX EYE LOG	2
Restricted	Demolitions	DMO	TCH LOG MEM	1
Restricted	Tactics	TAC	LOG LOG INT	1
Restricted	Strategy	STG	INT INT LOG	1
--	Thrown Weapons	TRW	DEX STR EYE	2	Specialization required
Archaic	Sword	SOR	DEX DEX STR	2
Archaic	Dagger/Knife	DAG	DEX DEX TCH	3
Archaic	Axe	AXE	STR STR STR	2
Archaic	Club	CLB	DEX STR STR	4
Archaic	Stick	STK	DEX STR TCH	2
Archaic	Mace	MAC	DEX STR STR	3
Archaic	Hammer	HMR	DEX STR STR	3
Archaic	Flail	FLA	DEX DEX STR	2
Archaic	Polearm	PLR	STR STR DEX	3
Archaic	Spear	SPE	STR DEX DEX	3
Archaic	Shield	SHD	STR STR DEX	3
Archaic	Whip	WH	DEX TCH STR	1
Archaic	Garrote	GRT	DEX STR STR	2
Archaic	Bow	BOW	STR DEX EYE	2
Archaic	Crossbow	XBO	DEX EYE TCH	3
Archaic	Blowpipe	BLP	END DEX EYE	1
Archaic	Fast-Draw	FD	DEX DEX TCH	2	Specialization required
Archaic	Martial Arts	MA	DEX AGL STR (varies)	1	Specialization required
Archaic	UNARMED	UNR	DEX AGL STR	3	Automatic

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Communication Skills

Sub- Group	Skill Name	Abbrev- iation	Skill Base Characteristics	OML	Notes
Illicit	Erotica	ERO	CML AGL ELO	2
Performance	Instrument	INS	END DEX HRG	1	Specialization required
Illicit	Interrogation	ITR	WIL WIL ELO	2
--	LANGUAGE	LAN	LOG MEM ELO	5/2/1	Specialization required Automatic 5 native, 2 in same family, 1 other family
--	Lip-Reading	LR	EYE LOG EYE	1	Specialization required
Performance	ORATORY	ORT	WIL ELO ELO	3	Automatic
--	RHETORIC	RHT	LOG WIL ELO	3	Automatic
--	Script	SCP	LOG WIL MEM	5/2	Specialization required OML 5 in own family, 2 in others
--	Sign-Language	SL	DEX LOG ELO	2/1	Specialization required
Performance	SINGING	SNG	END ELO ELO	2	Automatic
Illicit	Streetwise	STW	INT WIL ELO	2
Performance	Ventriloquism	VNT	END WIL ELO	1

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General Skills

Sub- Group	Skill Name	Abbrev- iation	Skill Base Characteristics	OML	Notes
--	Animal Handling	AH	DEX INT WIL	1	Specialization required
--	AWARENESS	AWA	EYE HRG SMT	4	Automatic
--	AREA KNOWLEDGE	ARK	MEM MEM LOG	2 (5)	Specialization required Automatic 5 in own area; 2 in others
--	Computer Operation	CO	LOG INT MEM	2
Wilderness	Fishing	FIS	STR DEX WIL	2
Illicit	Forgery	FRG	TCH LOG WIL	1
Illicit	Lockpicking	LKP	DEX TCH WIL	1
Illicit	Poisons	POI	LOG MEM MEM	1
Wilderness	Survival	SRV	END INT WIL	1	Specialization required
Illicit	Torture	TRT	DEX INT MEM	1
Wilderness	Tracking	TRK	EYE SMT LOG	1
Wilderness	Trapping	TRP	DEX LOG WIL	1

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Physical Skills

Sub- Group	Skill Name	Abbrev- iation	Skill Base Characteristics	OML	Notes
Performance	Acrobatics	ACR	STR DEX AGL	1
Performance	Dancing	DNC	DEX AGL AGL	1
--	DODGE	DGE	AGL AGL DEX	4	Automatic
Gravity	High-Gravity Maneuvering	HGM	STR END AGL	1
--	INITIATIVE	INI	AGL DEX INT	5	Automatic
--	JUMPING	JMP	STR AGL AGL	2	Automatic
Gravity	Low-Gravity Maneuvering	LGM	DEX AGL AGL	1
--	PHYSICAL CONDITION	PHC	END END WIL	5	Automatic
Illicit	Pick- pocketing	PPT	DEX DEX TCH	1
--	RUNNING	RUN	END AGL AGL	3	Automatic
--	Sports	SPT	STR DEX AGL (varies)	2	Specialization required
Illicit	STEALTH	STL	DEX AGL AGL	2	Automatic
--	Swimming	SWM	STR END AGL	2
--	THROWING	THR	STR STR EYE	3	Automatic

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Professional Skills

Sub- Group	Skill Name	Abbre- iation	Skill Base Characteristics	OML	Notes
Merchant	Accounting	ATN	LOG LOG INT	1
Performance	Acting	ACT	WIL ELO MEM	1
Merchant	Appraisal	APP	EYE LOG MEM	2	Specialization required
--	Architecture	ARI	LOG LOG INT	1
Artisan	Art	ART	DEX INT EYE (Varies)	1	Specialization required
Administration	Bureaucracy	BUR	LOG WIL MEM	1
Artisan	Craft	CRF	DEX STR TCH	1	Specialization required
--	Fashion	FAS	INT INT ELO	2
Merchant	Finance	FIN	LOG INT MEM	1
Administration	Law	LAW	LOG ELO MEM	1	Specialization required
--	Physician	PHY	LOG INT MEM	1	Specialization required
Administration	Protocol	PRT	MEM MEM ELO	2
--	Research	RSR	INT MEM WIL	2
Merchant	Trading	TRD	INT INT WIL	1
--	Writing	WRT	INT ELO ELO	2

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Technical Skills

Sub- Group	Skill Name	Abbrev- Iation	Skill Base Characteristics	OML	Notes
Technology	Biotech	BOT	LOG INT MEM	1
Systems	Computer Programming	CMP	LOG LOG INT	1
Technology	Cybernetics	CYB	LOG INT MEM	1
Systems	Drive systems	DRV	LOG INT MEM	1	K-D drives, ion drives, etc.
Systems	Electronics	ELC	LOG INT MEM	1
Systems	Enviromental systems	ENV	LOG INT MEM	1	Life support, air conditioning, etc
Systems	High-energy systems	HES	LOG INT MEM	1	Fusion plants, particle accelerators, etc.)
Technology	Materials	MAT	LOG INT MEM	1
Systems	Mechanical systems	MEC	LOG INT MEM	1
Systems	Optical systems	OPT	LOG INT MEM	1
--	Repair/Build	BRP	DEX LOG INT	2	Specialization required
Navigation	Starship Navigation	STN	LOG LOG MEM	1
Navigation	Surface Navigation	SRN	LOG LOG MEM	1
Systems	System	SYS	LOG INT MEM	1	Specialization required Other system types not already mentioned
Systems	Weapon systems: High-energy	WSH	LOG INT MEM	1	Gauss weapons, lasers, stunners, etc.
Systems	Weapon systems: Low-energy	WSL	LOG INT MEM	1	Gunpowder weapons, spring guns, etc.

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Vehicle Skills

Sub-Group	Skill Name	Abbreviation	Skill Base Characteristics	OML	Notes
Civilian Driving	Car Driving	CRD	DEX DEX TCH	4
Civilian Driving	Truck Driving	TRD	DEX STR TCH	3
Civilian Driving	Hover/Aerodyne Driving	HDR	DEX TCH INT	3
Civilian Driving	Motorcycle Driving	MD	DEX AGL STR	3
--	AFV Driving	AFD	STR DEX DEX	2
Sea	Sea Piloting	SEP	TCH INT WIL	2
Sea	Undersea Piloting	USP	TCH INT WIL	1
Aerospace	HTOL/STOL Piloting	HSP	END DEX TCH	1
Aerospace	VTOL Piloting	VTP	DEX TCH INT	1
Aerospace	Lighter-Than-Air Piloting	LTP	TCH INT WIL	2
Aerospace	Interface Piloting	INP	DEX TCH WIL	1
Aerospace	Starship Piloting	STP	LOG LOG INT	1
--	Human-Powered Vehicles	HPV	STR END AGL	3
--	Animal Riding	ANR	STR AGL AGL	2	Specialization required

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The Spheres game rules: Skills.

Part 1: Basic Concepts

Skill Base (SB)

Mastery Level (ML)

Opening Mastery Level (OML)

Effective Mastery Level (EML)

Skill Rolls

Characteristic Rolls

Skill Index (SI)

If SI is…

…then character is able to use the skill…

If SI is…

…then character is able to use the skill…

Specialization

Part 2: Skill Tables

The tables:

Academic Skills

Combat Skills

Communication Skills

General Skills

Physical Skills

Professional Skills

Technical Skills

Vehicle Skills