Core Skill Engine

This is a D20 system that also utilizes D12s and occasionally other dice. The Skills in this system are designed to be intuitive and to guide nearly every possible action that could be taken in the game. However, it should be noted that each game will be unique and Gms and players can decide which skills to use in a campaign.

There are many skills, too many for any one character to master all. Teamwork is encouraged. 

Survival Skills

Combat Skills

Subterfuge Skills

Social Skills

Spellcasting Skills

Crafting Skills

Skill Tags:

*= Saving throw skill. (10 +(Skill)) These skills always ignore the -3 untrained and instead use a +0 Untrained.

^= Skill has passive (5 + (Skill)

~= Setting specific, Gm Optional

Skill Rank Bonus Notes

• Untrained -3 Still usable by all, disadvantage common.
• Novice +1 Limited experience, early training level
• Proficient +3 Solid understanding
• Expert +5 Formal Training, years of practical experience
• Mastery  +10 Decades of experience, deep mastery and style

Skills can be improved in a few ways normally. 

Survival

This is usually the character living through battles. Though this is not the only factor. Surviving encounters of various types also count. However, it is up to the Gm to determine if the encounter is worthy of gaining a skill point. Skilled gained in this way are skills used in the encounter and thus the point must be used on one of these. 

Training

Characters can seek to improve their skills. This is a downtime minigame, involving dcs set by the GM. This can appear in several ways. Including Solo training arcs, finding and studying manuals, or finding GM made NPCs, that have higher ranks of skills. Tools for crafting dcs and npcs and other resources will be in its own section for GMs to use. These take small training arcs which the GM can set.

Quests

As characters complete quests they gain a skill point. It is recommended to place this in a skill they used to complete the quest, but these skill points are not limited to specific skills. Quests can be related to characters and their dynamic stories or beyond that with gm made quests or plot points.

Mastery

Skill Mastery is Locked behind a Quest of training. Gms design these difficult trials. These trials are meant to be difficult and take many attempts and fails. Because the bonus is large between expert and master, these trials are intentionally designed to take many attempts and to be difficult. More details will be given in Downtime.

With any trained skill of proficient or greater training level, a player can set that skill as a Favored specialization. To do this the player will detail what they want to specialize that skill in. Such as a focus in a sub-discipline, style, or technique. An example would be a specific weapon or armor. This Favored Specialization grants a +2 to any checks with that specialization. PCs innately can have 1 favored specialization and can gain more from age categories or GM milestones or training arcs. 

Core Skills

Endurance*

Bushcraft^

Tracking^

Climbing

Swimming

Navigation^

Animal Handling^

Riding^

Fishing

Packcraft^

Medicine

Herbalism

Piloting~

Vehicles~

Core Skills

Defense*

Melee Combat 

Ranged Combat

Unarmed Combat

Armored Combat^

Shield Combat 

Grappling

Tumbling^

Tactics^

Calvary ^

Marksmanship

Demolition

Vehicle Combat~

Naval Combat~

Ariel Vehicle Combat~

Core Skills

Perception*^

Stealth^

Sleight of Hand^

Lockpicking

Trapwork

Escape Artist

Investigation^

Cordcraft^

Disguise^

Shadowing^

Sabotage

Appraisal^

Forgery

Interrogation

Cryptography^

Hacking^~

Core Skills

Insight*

Persuasion 

Performance

Intimidation

Deception ▵

Charm ▵

Etiquette ▵

Speechcraft ▵

Literacy ▵

Bartering ▵

Folklore ▵

History ▵

Seduction ▵

Leadership ▵

Languages (Multi-Slots) ▵

Core Skills

Focus* 

Spellcrafting

Countercasting

Wardcraft^

Divination

Enchanting^

Summoning

Restoration

Theology

Necromancy~

Biomancy~

Technomancy~

Core Skills

Engineering*

Smithing

Cooking ▵

Equipment Maintenance ▵

Invention ▵

Alchemy ▵

Leatherwork

Masonry

Woodcraft

Tailoring / Textiles ▵

Tinkering (Jury-Rigging) ▵

Siegecraft ▵

Mount Care ▵

Vehicle Maintenance ▵~

Jewelry Crafting ~

Glasswork ~

Saving throws and Skill Checks in this system rely on the following framework.

Base

Difficulty Level, how hard the check will be.

Simple/no save needed.

Easy/5-10

Normal/11-15

Hard/16-20

Very Hard/21-25

Near Impossible/26-30

Epic/31+ or potentially reversed 5 or below.

If a check is too high a gm can declare it to just be impossible.

After the Difficulty is set there can be +modifiers which could increase the save difficulty. this could be other variables and distractions. 

Then -modifiers could be accounted for. Like taking more time or using tools. These variables reduce the DC.

This framework will be reflected later in crafting and casting and other systems.

Disadvantage and advantage both can stack and cancel each other out to 3 times each. Advantage and disadvantage can come from many sources especially in combat. 

Advantage is roll additional dice and take the highest. 

Disadvantage is roll additional dice and take the lowest. 

If they cancel each other, then it's a straight roll.