Adventurer: Skills List

Note that this is compiled from the main Traveller and the Mercenary SRD document with some tweaking. The list is all OGL.

Administration

This skill covers bureaucracies and administration of all sorts, including management and accounting as well as the navigation of bureaucratic obstacles or disasters.

Advocate

Advocate gives a knowledge of common laws and proceedings as well as the proper ways to argue cases in front of courts and nobles.

Animals

This skill, deals with the general care of animals.

Specialties:

• Riding: The character knows how to ride an animal who is trained to bear a rider
• Training: The character knows how to tame and train animals.
• Veterinary: The character is trained in veterinary medicine and animal care.
• Teamster: The character knows how to drive a team of animals drawing a wagon or cart.

Art

The character is trained in a type of creative art.

Specialties:

• Acting: The character is a trained actor, at home on the stage.
• Architecture: Designing structures and monuments.
• Calligraphy: The character is trained in writing decoratively.
• Dance: The character is a trained dancer and performer.
• Instrument: Playing a particular musical instrument, such as a flute, lute or organ.
• Painting: Creating pictures, frescos, murals and other forms of pictures.
• Sculpting: Making artistic sculptures in a variety of media.
• Writing: Composing inspiring or interesting pieces of text

Athletics

The character is a trained athlete and is physically fit.

Specialties:

• Coordination: Climbing, juggling, throwing (including thrown weapons).
• Endurance: Long-distance running, hiking, marching
• Strength: Feats of strength, weight-lifting.
• Flying: Creatures that fly gain this skill for free at level 0.

Broker

The Broker skill allows a character to negotiate trades and arrange fair deals.

Carouse

Carousing is the art of socializing; of having fun, but also ensuring that other people have fun, of infectious good humor.

Combat Engineering

Specialties:

• Fortifications: The character is trained how to build defenses from trenches to bunkers.
• Building a field fortification (trench, sandbag wall, etc.) 1-6 hours, Education or Endurance, Average (+0). Resulting fortification grants maximum cover equal to half effect (round up).
• Building a defensive fortification (wall, bunker, etc.): 10-60 days, Education, Difficult (-2). Resulting fortification grants maximum cover equal to effect.
• Finding weak point in enemy fortifications: 1-6 minutes, Intelligence, Difficult (-2). Character can ignore the cover DM of targets behind fortification, up to an amount equal to effect.

Deception

Deception allows a character to lie fluently, disguise himself, perform sleight of hand and fool onlookers.

Diplomat

The Diplomat skill is for negotiating deals, establishing peaceful contact and smoothing over social faux pas.

Discipline

The martial Discipline skill covers self-control, ingrained reflexes and training. A character with a high Discipline is adept at following orders and procedures. In game terms, as long as the character is in a situation covered by his training, he may reduce any negative DM by an amount equal to his Discipline skill. This may be done a number of times each day equal to his Discipline skill. This can only be applied skills that the character already has at a skill level of 1 or more.

Discipline cannot turn a negative DM into a positive DM - training allows a character to do the right thing and ignore distractions, but does not give him any extra competence or ability.

Farming

The character can grow and harvest crops and raise livestock.

Gambler

The character is familiar with a wide variety of gambling games, such as card games, dice games, horse-racing, sports betting and so on, and has an excellent grasp of probability.

Heavy Armor

The Heavy Armor skill allows a character to wear heavy suits of armor such as plate mail and fight while wearing them. If the character does not have the requisite Heavy Armor skill for the armor he is wearing, he suffers a -2 DM to all skill checks while wearing that armor for each missing level.

Herbalism

The character knows how to locate, identify and use herbs for various purposes, from medicine to cooking to making poisons.

Instruction

Anyone with the Instruction skill can pass on the basics of their own knowledge to less experienced characters over a period of time. They can, with a successful check, pass skills to other characters up to a maximum level of one less than their Instruction skill or one less than their own skill level in the skill being taught (whichever is lower). Thus, a character with Instruction 4, Admin 4, Explosives 2 and Pilot 5 could teach another character Admin 3 and Explosives 1 (the skill –1) but only Pilot 3 (Instruction level –1).

Teaching the skill requires an Instruction test on the behalf of the teacher, which takes between 1-6 days less than the time it would normally take (depending on Timing – see page 59 of the Traveller main rulebook). The number of students that can benefit from this teaching is equal to the Effect of the check. During the training, the Referee should severely curtail the activities of all characters involved.

At the conclusion of the training, the learning character(s) must then succeed in an Education or Intelligence roll with a Target Number of 8+. Player Characters cannot teach the Instruction skill to other Player Characters. The greatest assets an individual character has is his pool of skills, so we encourage the Referee to exercise great caution in allowing Player Characters to simply hire Non-Player Characters for their Instruction skill.

Interrogation

Specialties:

• Doubletalk: The character knows how to talk circles around most people, getting them to say or admit to things they never meant to with pressured conversation. With enough time to grill them properly, the character can get anyone to spill their secrets.
• Badgering an admission of guilt out of a captive: 1-6 hours, Intelligence, Difficult (-2). The effect is the DM penalty against the interrogator's inquiries.
• Uncovering a secret through focused conversation: 10-60 minutes, Intelligence, Difficult (-2).
• Torture: This speciality governs the collection of emotional, physical and psychological methods in which an interrogator can get a victim to break. Through an assortment of unsavory methods, the character can get anyone to say what he needs them to.
• Knowing a true confession from a false one: 1-6 seconds, Intelligence, Routine (+2).
• Using pain or discomfort to acquire an answer to an inquiry: 1-6 hours, Education or Strength, Average (+0).
• Using emotional or psychological response to acquire an answer to an inquiry: 10-60 hours, Education or Intelligence, Average (+0).

Investigation

The Investigate skill incorporates keen observation, forensics, and detailed analysis.

Jack of All Trades

The Jack of All Trades skill works different to other skills. It reduces the unskilled penalty a character receives for not having the appropriate skill by one for each level of Jack of All Trades.

Language

There are numerous different Language specialties, each one covering reading and writing a different language. All characters can speak and read their native Language without needing the Language skill.

Having Language 0 implies that the character has a smattering of simple phrases in many languages.

Sample Specialties:

• Common: The common trade language spoken by many of the civilized races, chiefly humans.
• Goblin: The language of goblins, hobgoblins and their kin.
• Dwarfish: The language of dwarves and gnomes. A bastardized version of this language is spoken by orcs.
• Elfin: The language of the elves and other faeries.

Leadership

The Leadership skill is for directing, inspiring and rallying allies and comrades.

• Conveying orders non-verbally: 1-6 seconds, Social, Average (+0).
• Number of words can be conveyed equal to twice effect.

Mechanical Works

The Mechanic skill allows the character to maintain and repair most complex mechanical systems, from windmills to clocks. This skill is also used for picking locks, disarming traps and even building simple mechanical traps.

Medicine

The character is skilled in caring for the sick and wounded. The Medicine skill covers emergency first aid and battlefield triage as well as diagnoses, treatment, surgery, and long-term care.

• Triage: 10-60 seconds, Education, Difficult (-2)
• Able to prioritize casualties based upon their medical requirements.

Melee

The melee skill covers attacking in hand-to-hand combat.

Specialties:

• Axes: Attacking with axes, cleavers and so on.
• Blade: Attacking with swords, rapiers, blades and other edged weapons.
• Bludgeon: Attacking with maces, clubs, staves and other edged weapons.
• Natural Weapons: The favored skill of wild animals, this covers fighting with claws, teeth, and other weapons that are part of you.
• Polearms: Attacking with halberds, poleaxes, spears and other long-shafted weapons.
• Unarmed Combat: Whether it is trained martial arts or street fighting learned the hard way, this is the skill for using your body as a weapon.

Navigation

This skill covers finding your way over land or at sea using landmarks, the stars, compasses, diaries, maps and so on.

Persuade

Persuade is a more casual, informal version of Diplomacy.

Philosophy

The character has knowledge in a scholarly subject.

Specialties:

• Alchemy: The study of materials, substances, reagents and reactions between them. Also covers the use of alchemical apparatuses and methods, as well as the identification of substances.
• Astronomy: The study of celestial bodies.
• Engineering: The study of machines and structures.
• History: The study of past deeds and events.
• Logic: The study of methodical thought and reasoning.
• Mathematics: The study of numbers, formulae and calculations. Also covers geometry.
• Natural History: The study of the natural world - not just plants and animals but also geology and the climate.
• Spiritualism: The study of magic, the occult and the spiritual world.
• Theology: The study of religions philosophy. While the Religion skill covers the basic tenants and the practical and ritualistic sides of each faith, theology covers deeper philosophical meanings, cosmology and comparison between various faiths.

Professional Trade

A character with a Trade skill is trained in producing some useful goods or services.

Sample Specialties

• Armorer: The character is skilled in making and repairing armor.
• Forging a bladed weapon: 1-6 Hours, Education, Routine (+2)
• Blacksmith: The character knows how to work with hard metals such as iron and steel and could produce weapons.
• Carpenter: The character is trained in woodworking.
• Fletcher: The character knows how to craft bows and arrows.
• Leather-Worker: The character is skilled in leatherworking.
• Clockmaker: The character knows how to construct machines such as clocks and complex traps.
• Miner: The character is skilled in mining and mine excavation.
• Stonemason: The character knows how to construct stone structures.
• Tailor: The character is skilled in the production of clothes.

Ranged Combat

The Ranged Combat skill covers a variety of ranged weapons.

Specialties:

• Bow: Using long, short and composite bows.
• Crossbow: Using crossbows of various sizes.
• Sling: Using slings.
• Blowpipe: Using blowpipes

Recon

A character trained in Recon is able to scout out dangers and spot threats, unusual objects or out of place people.

Figuring the quantity of recent passers by using ground tracks: 1-6 minutes, Intelligence, Average (+0)

Covering one's own tracks: 1-6 minutes, Intelligence, Average (+0) or Difficult if performed without slowing travel (-2). Covers the tracks for a number of additional allies equal to effects.

Figuring the type of armor worn by a target by its ground tracks: 10-60 seconds, Intelligence, Very Difficult (-4).

Recruiting

Recruiting 0 allows the character to recognize anyone who shares a career path term with him, and the knowledge of what that path is.

Recruiting 1 grants the character the ability to know the average skill level of a character that shares a career path term with him.

Recruiting 2 allows the character the ability to know the highest and lowest skill (and level) of a character that shares a career path with him.

Approaching a possible recruit in an appropriate manner: 10-60 seconds, Social, Routine (+2). The character can approach a number of possible recruits at one time equal to Effect.

Religion

The character is well versed in the believes, practices and ritual of a specific religion.

Seafarer

The Seafarer skill covers all manner of watercraft and sea travel.

Specialties:

• Sail: This skill is for wind-driven watercraft.
• Oars: For small craft using oars.

Siege Engineer

The various specialties of this skill deal with the construction and operation of siege engines such as catapults, ballistae, trebuchets, battering rams and bombards.

Signals

The character knows how to send and receive signals over distances too far for verbal communication via flags or other visual means.

Stealth

A character trained in the Stealth skill is adept at staying unseen and unheard.

Steward

The Steward skill allows the character to serve and care for nobles and high-class customers.

Streetwise

A character with the Streetwise skill understands the urban environment and the power structures in society.

Survival

The Survival skill is the wilderness counterpart of the urban Streetwise skill - the character is trained to survive in the wild, build shelters, hunt or trap animals, avoid exposure and so forth.

Tactics

This skill covers tactical planning and decision making, from chess games to squad level combat to naval engagements.

Specialties:

• Military Tactics: Coordinating the attacks of footmen or horsemen on the ground.
• Naval Tactics: Coordinating the attacks of a warship or fleet.