Skills

A character may learn any number of skills, including Combat and Martial Arts.

These skills, abilities in broad areas of expertise such as climbing, diplomacy, and hunting, have been divided into two categories: General Skills and Specialist Skills.

General Skills include the more common and easily taught abilities which lend themselves to group instruction and are split into three classes.

Specialist Skills require more intense training, individual instruction, and special facilities.

Whenever a character is not on a mission or wounded, he may spend time training to improve his skills.

However, not all Orca units have access to teachers in all skills.

As a character moves up in the Orca hierarchy more varied skill training becomes available, as shown in table 1.1 of section 1.1 under the column labeled “Training Class”.

Each Orca member may train in any General Skill whose classification number is less than or equal to his rank's Training Class.

Specialist training differs from General Skill training in several ways.

First, it is not in the standard Orca training regimen;

second, it is not available to characters set up in the wilderness;

and third, Specialist training is available only after application and acceptance.

Any time a character gains a promotion that makes his new Rank (given on table 1.1) larger than his prior Rank, he may make an application for Specialist training in one skill.

The chance of acceptance equals the character's Learning Roll, unless otherwise specified in the Specialist Skill descriptions which follow.

If accepted, the character enters a six month dedicated training program.

During this time he may not go on any missions and cannot train in any other skill.

At the end of this period he receives 80 Training Rolls in the specialized skill and adds the subject to the list of available skills in which he can train.

Further training in that skill follows the rules of section 3.2.

If not accepted, he must wait for his next promotion to reapply.

Each General and Specialist Skill is described below to outline the situations in which each is useful.

Class 1 General Skills

Balance and Footwork: Expertise in moving upon uneven surfaces and maintaining balance in a situation such as tightrope walking.

It aids a character when crossing narrow beams, standing on a moving surface, or moving on cluttered battlefields.

Bard: Overall knowledge of the history and culture of a land through its songs, ballads, tales, and written history.

This skill includes reading, writing, and basic math, as well as fluency with musical instruments, dance, poetry, and composition.

Combat: Attack and defense using weapons and armor.

Besides fighting, described in Chapter 6, this skill is used to deflect and block archery projectiles.

Diplomacy: Negotiation and communication proficiency.

It aids in gaining employment, bartering, settling arguments, arranging truces, and avoiding fights.

Fall Recovery: Ability to fall properly, minimizing damage and time required to re- gain footing.

First Aid: Medical Aid up to Medical Skill Level 6.

Horsemanship: The riding and care of horses.

This skill is required for mounted combat or maintenance of a horse.

Martial Arts: Unarmed combat using hand strikes, kicks, locks, holds, and throws.

Unarmed fighting is covered in Chapter 6 and is listed under Combat in the Action/Reaction table.

Class 2 General Skills

Archery: Firing the bows, ballistae, crossbows, and slings found on the Archery Data Table (3A).

As skill increases accuracy improves and ability to use bows of greater pull is gained.

Archery in combat is detailed in section 6.4.

Climbing: Free climbing and the use of climbing equipment.

This helps a character scale trees, walls, buildings, and cliffs.

Hunting: Knowledge of the outdoors, with emphasis on trapping, tracking, and stalking.

This skill helps a character move silently and survive in the wilds.

Infiltration: Moving quietly and undetected to penetrate guarded or secured areas.

It aids in sneaking up on guards, picking locks, and avoiding traps.

Perception: Remembering and detecting details of a situation and the emotions of others.

This talent helps to tell if a person is uneasy or lying.

Traps and Spotting: Detecting and building mechanical and tactical traps.

It aids in spotting traps, ambushes, alarms, and hidden objects.

Class 3 General Skil1s

Con/Acting: The art of acting, impersonation, and disguise.

It also includes skills used in smuggling and forging.

Espionage: Training in organizing, compiling, and gathering information by methods ranging from subtle questioning to forming networks of spies and informants.

It also includes the ability to operate undetected in enemy territory.

Scouting: Exploring and mapping unknown territory.

This helps in cutting travel times, detecting danger, and reconnoitering enemy positions.

Sleight of Hand: Manual dexterity with small objects.

It aids in picking locks and pockets, and in doing sleight of hand tricks.

Thrown Weapons: Skill in throwing the weapons listed on the Archery Data Table (3A).

Specialist Skil1s

Armorer: Designing, fabricating, and repairing weapons, armor, and other personal articles of war.

At low levels this allows the character to make various minor repairs, while at higher levels he may make plate armor, temper weapons, or forge weapons of superb quality.

Art: Skill in a specific field of art such as painting, sculpture, or dance.

Construction: The ability to build or supervise the building of structures and equipment.

At low levels the character may build simple wood structures, while at higher levels he can supervise the construction of castles, bridges, cathedrals, and aqueducts.

Magic: There are seven subjects of Magic: Earth, Air, Water, Fire, Mental Magic, Body Magic, and Astral Projection.

A character studies each of these subjects as different classes and separate Learning Points are kept in each.

The use of Magic is the subject of Chapter 8.

Medicine: Training in the fine art of healing.

Someone of Medical Skill Level 2 would be a paramedic, while one of skill level greater than seven, a physician.

Medical aid will vastly improve an injured character's chances of survival.

The importance of having at least one person in the party skilled in this art cannot be overemphasized.

Science: Knowledge and discipline in the physical sciences such as chemistry, physics, and geometry.

Seamanship: Mastery of sailing and the sea.

At higher levels this includes ability in complex navigation and combat maneuvering.

Special Fighting Forms: There are four special fighting forms:

Wind, which emphasizes speed;

Earth, a defensive form;

Fire, an attack form;

and Water, a fluid defense to offense counter-attack style.

Each style is learned in a separate class, so in actuality they are four different Specialist Skills.

There is a percentage chance equal to the Learning Roll for acceptance to Wind school, Learning Roll divided by two for Earth, and Learning Roll divided by three for Fire or Water.

These skills greatly augment the Combat or Martial Arts ability of a character and are discussed in section 6.7.

Skills [R-FRP-8.1.3.1]