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| shared_worlds:thick_as_thieves_skillsets [2016/06/05 21:14] – [Diplomatic skills] petike | shared_worlds:thick_as_thieves_skillsets [2023/11/10 15:37] (current) – [Diplomatic skills] petike |
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| **Health:** The overall medical status of a character at a given moment. Dependent on various factors. Can be damaged by injuries, illnesses, combat, poisons, can be restored/healed via medicines, resting, a particular diet and certain magical healing items.\\ | **Health:** The overall medical status of a character at a given moment. Dependent on various factors. Can be damaged by injuries, illnesses, combat, poisons, can be restored/healed via medicines, resting, a particular diet and certain magical healing items.\\ |
| **Strenghth:** The overall physical strenghth of a character, especially in more demanding activities such as hard physical labour, melee combat and archery, lifting and carrying objects, etc.\\ | **Strength:** The overall physical strength of a character, especially in more demanding activities such as hard physical labour, melee combat and archery, lifting and carrying objects, etc.\\ |
| **Endurance (Stamina):** The overall capability of a character to perservere and withstand various stresses, injuries, and Fatigue.\\ | **Endurance (Stamina):** The overall capability of a character to perservere and withstand various stresses, injuries, and Fatigue.\\ |
| **Agility (Dexterity):** The overall masterry a character has over his/her common movement skills and movement speeds.\\ | **Agility (Dexterity):** The overall masterry a character has over his/her common movement skills and movement speeds.\\ |
| **Leaning:** Skill at leaning carefully around the corner, in order to get a sneak peek of what might be going on beyond it. Emphasis on //carefully//. Leaning is a skill that appears easy, but it is actually rather hard to master. It's also a risk course of action, even for the best-trained of thieves, as there's always a potential margin of error involved in virtually any lean from behind a corner. Even the most careful ones. As great a skill as leaning is for stealthily observing one's nearest surroundings obscured by obstacles, far too many rookie thieves tend to underestimate its effectiveness and value. Don't be one of them...\\ | **Leaning:** Skill at leaning carefully around the corner, in order to get a sneak peek of what might be going on beyond it. Emphasis on //carefully//. Leaning is a skill that appears easy, but it is actually rather hard to master. It's also a risk course of action, even for the best-trained of thieves, as there's always a potential margin of error involved in virtually any lean from behind a corner. Even the most careful ones. As great a skill as leaning is for stealthily observing one's nearest surroundings obscured by obstacles, far too many rookie thieves tend to underestimate its effectiveness and value. Don't be one of them...\\ |
| **Sneaking balance:** More often that not, the art of sneaking around requires at least a degree of crouching. This is rather necessary in order to minimise one's height-related conspicuousness and the loudness and speed of one's leg movements. Unfortunately, the need for crouched or very slow walking is not exactly a natural style of gait for any humanoid, and can pose some problems. One of the most immediate is one's balance while walking, even on a perfectly safe, secure and wide enough surface. Especially after some long, tiresome or difficult bit of sneaking, there is always the off-chance of stumbling or otherwise erring when you'd least want to. Practing your balance and learning when to not push it too far during sneaking can prove very helpful.\\ | **Sneaking balance:** More often that not, the art of sneaking around requires at least a degree of crouching. This is rather necessary in order to minimise one's height-related conspicuousness and the loudness and speed of one's leg movements. Unfortunately, the need for crouched or very slow walking is not exactly a natural style of gait for any humanoid, and can pose some problems. One of the most immediate is one's balance while walking, even on a perfectly safe, secure and wide enough surface. Especially after some long, tiresome or difficult bit of sneaking, there is always the off-chance of stumbling or otherwise erring when you'd least want to. Practing your balance and learning when to not push it too far during sneaking can prove very helpful.\\ |
| **Crouched walking:** \\ | **Crouched walking:** The stealthy movement skill for situations where lowering your physical height for better concealment in shadows is crucial, and walking speed doesn't need to be fast. Walking upright while sneaking around, even in poorly lit locations, can still give away a thief's presence very easily if he/she is not careful. Crouched walking is a simple tactic offering a reasonable compromise between swiftness of walking movement and the probability of being seen more easily by potential adversaries.\\ |
| **Creeping:** \\ | **Creeping:** The stealthy movement skill for situations where you can afford to walk upright or just slightly hunched down, but still need to walk slowly and carefully to avoid making much noise. Creeping's main advantage is in greater ease of moving fluidly from slower to faster walking speed or even to running, something that's not available for the crouched walking method. Creeping has its uses, but is generally used more sparringly than crouched walking.\\ |
| **Crawling:** \\ | **Crawling:** The stealthy movement skill for situations where you're forced to use the local environment to greatly lower your risk of being seen by adversaries (e.g. crawling in tall grass in a relatively well-lit area, with few shadows to hide in), or for overcoming obstacles where walking upright isn't a possible solution (e.g. crawling threw a tight space with a very low ceiling, etc.).\\ |
| **Facial disguise:** \\ | **Apparel disguise:** In a pinch, a skill useful to just about all thieves, but it is particularly useful for larcenous individuals specialising in spying and intelligence gathering. As the name implies, this skill focuses on how well one has (or can) disguise himself by wearing clothing that helps him blend in with other people, avoiding or lessening suspicion. Effective use of clothing as a disguise is dependent on good knowledge of the local social context, on a carefully thought out approach (pre-planned being the safest) and even a little bit of luck and intuition (once a thief is in the lion's den, with the disguise maybe his only shoddy protection from capture or other reprisals).\\ |
| **Apparel disguise:** \\ | **Facial disguise:** In a pinch, a skill useful to just about all thieves, but it is particularly useful for larcenous individuals specialising in spying and intelligence gathering. As the name implies, this skill focuses on how well one has (or can) disguise his face in order to blend in with a crowd when it's occassionally really needed. Beware though. Unlike with other forms of disguises, this one can be something of a double-edged sword. Disguising your face too much or too conspicuously (e.g. wearing a scarf below the eyes in broad daylight) is bound to actually draw attention to you, including that of law enforcement units. Sometimes, a suitably subtle way of hiding one's facial features can be preferable.\\ |
| **Concealing items:** In a pinch, a skill useful to just about all thieves, but it is particularly useful for larcenous individuals specialising in spying and intelligence gathering. For professional thieves, space for carrying useful gear is always limited. The gear usually has to be worn on the outside, commonly on the person's belt, or more rarely on the back or over the shoulder. A useful way to get around that is training to conceal small objects in one's clothing (e.g. tiny loot in small amounts, smaller and stealthier tools or weapons). All without making it apparent to any bystanders - admittedly, the hardest part of such an endeavour...\\ | **Concealing items:** In a pinch, a skill useful to just about all thieves, but it is particularly useful for larcenous individuals specialising in spying and intelligence gathering. For professional thieves, space for carrying useful gear is always limited. The gear usually has to be worn on the outside, commonly on the person's belt, or more rarely on the back or over the shoulder. A useful way to get around that is training to conceal small objects in one's clothing (e.g. tiny loot in small amounts, smaller and stealthier tools or weapons). All without making it apparent to any bystanders - admittedly, the hardest part of such an endeavour...\\ |
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| Please keep in mind that even thieves skilled in combat are not professional warriors or soldiers. Evading a threat or running away from it isn't cowardly, it's a reasonable and natural choice. Defending yourself is valid, but killing people because they're in your way is not. | Please keep in mind that even thieves skilled in combat are not professional warriors or soldiers. Evading a threat or running away from it isn't cowardly, it's a reasonable and natural choice. Defending yourself is valid, but killing people because they're in your way is not. |
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| **Draw weight:** Only important for bows and hand-spanned crossbows. Depends on a character's Strenghth, Agility, and also the degree of Fatigue. With the sole exception of hand-spanned crossbows, crossbows and firearms do not require draw weight consideration, since they are reloaded via more mechanical means, rather than directly by hand. Draw weight for bows and hand-spanned crossbows is not a replacement for the reloading skill, but runs parallel to it.\\ | **Draw weight:** Only important for bows and hand-spanned crossbows. Depends on a character's Strength, Agility, and also the degree of Fatigue. With the sole exception of hand-spanned crossbows, crossbows and firearms do not require draw weight consideration, since they are reloaded via more mechanical means, rather than directly by hand. Draw weight for bows and hand-spanned crossbows is not a replacement for the reloading skill, but runs parallel to it.\\ |
| **Reloading:** Deals with a character's capability of reloading missile weapons during a certain amount of time. Does not affect throwing weapons. Bows and hand-spanned crossbows are drawn, mechanical crossbows and crossbow-derived weapons are spanned, firearms are reloaded. In the case of bows, Reloading and Draw weight are always counted together, as they are used concurrently while drawing a bow before the arrow is released/shot.\\ | **Reloading:** Deals with a character's capability of reloading missile weapons during a certain amount of time. Does not affect throwing weapons. Bows and hand-spanned crossbows are drawn, mechanical crossbows and crossbow-derived weapons are spanned, firearms are reloaded. In the case of bows, Reloading and Draw weight are always counted together, as they are used concurrently while drawing a bow before the arrow is released/shot.\\ |
| **Throwing:** Deals with a character's capability of throwing objects, either mundane objects used as improvised decoys and weaponry, or purpose-built throwing weapons. It is a skill similar to the draw weight or reloading skills, but isn't directly related to either of them.\\ | **Throwing:** Deals with a character's capability of throwing objects, either mundane objects used as improvised decoys and weaponry, or purpose-built throwing weapons. It is a skill similar to the draw weight or reloading skills, but isn't directly related to either of them.\\ |
| **Decoy:** Something of a more advanced cousin to the Confuse spell. It creates the titular decoy, which can take on the form of any number of visual or aural illusions. These are usually very short and subtle examples instead of anything grandiose, as their briefness makes them more confusing or even frightening to an affected NPC character. If used wisely and sparringly, it can create enough of a temporary distraction to be a nice trump card for solving trickier challenges to one's sneaking around. This spell is particularly useful to conman and stealth expert character builds. \\ | **Decoy:** Something of a more advanced cousin to the Confuse spell. It creates the titular decoy, which can take on the form of any number of visual or aural illusions. These are usually very short and subtle examples instead of anything grandiose, as their briefness makes them more confusing or even frightening to an affected NPC character. If used wisely and sparringly, it can create enough of a temporary distraction to be a nice trump card for solving trickier challenges to one's sneaking around. This spell is particularly useful to conman and stealth expert character builds. \\ |
| **Repel:** A spell that creates an invisible power barrier or wave blast that can push back an attacking adversary, or attempt to knock him off his feet, etc. The only real combat spell worth the name, but its limitations make it ideal only for defensive purposes instead of offensive combat. This is a generally useful spell.\\ | **Repel:** A spell that creates an invisible power barrier or wave blast that can push back an attacking adversary, or attempt to knock him off his feet, etc. The only real combat spell worth the name, but its limitations make it ideal only for defensive purposes instead of offensive combat. This is a generally useful spell.\\ |
| **Enhance:** A spell that enhances a character's //movement-related// Agility, Endurance and Concentration skills, and ocassionally, his/her Strenghth skill. Be warned though, this spell __cannot be used__ to enhance one's //combat-related// Strenghth, Endurance, Agility and Concentration. This spell can make you jump a little higher or turn around swifter or run slightly faster in an emergency, but it cannot make you wield oversized weapons or reload instantaneously. This is a generally useful spell.\\ | **Enhance:** A spell that enhances a character's //movement-related// Agility, Endurance and Concentration skills, and ocassionally, his/her Strength skill. Be warned though, this spell __cannot be used__ to enhance one's //combat-related// Strength, Endurance, Agility and Concentration. This spell can make you jump a little higher or turn around swifter or run slightly faster in an emergency, but it cannot make you wield oversized weapons or reload instantaneously. This is a generally useful spell.\\ |
| **Heal-up:** A spell that actually //doesn't// heal wounds or injuries, but it speeds up the natural healing processes in a tiny area, such as the area of said wounds or injuries. In essence, it shortens the time needed for a wound and/or injury to heal itself. Bear in mind that restoring lost health still requires proper medicine and old-fashioned healing/resting. This is a generally useful spell.\\ | **Heal-up:** A spell that actually //doesn't// heal wounds or injuries, but it speeds up the natural healing processes in a tiny area, such as the area of said wounds or injuries. In essence, it shortens the time needed for a wound and/or injury to heal itself. Bear in mind that restoring lost health still requires proper medicine and old-fashioned healing/resting. This is a generally useful spell.\\ |
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| ==== Diplomatic skills ==== | ==== Diplomatic skills ==== |
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| **Persuasion:** \\ | **Persuasion:** The most basic and most often used of all diplomatic skills is simply that with which you persuade others to see things your way. It's the backbone of all conmanship and diplomacy - to many people, things that are one and the same. Beware, there's no guaranteed recipe for how to go about using this skill. Every person you're trying to sway is a unique individual, and the situations you're trying to persuade that person in always offer a unique context (even broadly similar situations). But don't fret. There might not be a recipe, but there are many, many different bits of advice for getting good mileage out of this skill. Good advice time-tested by entire generations worth of experience gathering by others. Overusing Persuasion on a regular basis can negatively effect the Trust scale.\\ |
| **Haggling:** Trading things, whether with money or via barter methods, can often be quite the hassle. This is where your bargaining skill can really come in handy, saving you some additional money or items you might have otherwise been forced to trade. Whether you're haggling with shop owners operating among the thieves' guilds, or those that are part of the regular (and mostly legal) commerce of the city, a skill like this is one that money can't buy.\\ | **Haggling:** Trading things, whether with money or via barter methods, can often be quite the hassle. This is where your bargaining skill can really come in handy, saving you some additional money or items you might have otherwise been forced to trade. Whether you're haggling with shop owners operating among the thieves' guilds, or those that are part of the regular (and mostly legal) commerce of the city, a skill like this is one that money can't buy. Overusing Haggling on a regular basis can negatively effect the Trust scale.\\ |
| **Deception:** \\ | **Compassion:** The skill at performing acts of empathy, understanding and selfless acts, all in a manner that could potentially raise the player's reputation and thus also the Trust levels of an individual NPC or even a group of NPCs. The downside of using this skill is that insincere attempts at compassion can be potentially revealed, either quickly or gradually, based on the perceptiveness of an NPC, or that certain NPCs might not think highly of the player showing compassion in a certain context or even at all. Using Compassion on a regular basis will (generally) positively effect the Ethics scale.\\ |
| **Distraction:** The skill at orchestrating situations (simple or complex) via social means, all in order to take away a certain person's or group's attention away from one thing, then refocus it on another thing. From fooling someone into looking the other way or falling for a (seemingly) mundane accident happening nearby, to providing temporary plausible cover for fellow thievy operatives during a heist or getaway, well-used examples of distraction can make or break many situations where potential success hangs by a thread. Successful distractions are objectivelly hard to pull off, especially for prolonged amounts of time, but fooling people's immediate reflexes by psychologically outsmarting them is one of the ultimate tricks up any experienced thief's sleeve.\\ | **Deception:** The skill at creating ruses, half-truths, false impressions or just straight-up cunning fibs about some situation or about some individual or place. This skill can be used by more upstanding players as well as more manipulative-minded ones, but is trickier to use than most. The major downside is that attempts at deception can be potentially revealed, and the resulting repercussions do not bode well for the player, particularly his reputation in terms of the Ethics and Trust scales. Using Deception on a regular basis will negatively effect the Ethics scale.\\ |
| **Intimidation:** Sometimes, when all other diplomatic skills and milder methods fail, a professional thief has to resort to something... harsher. The intimidation skill doesn't necessarily mean you have to rough someone up. Really knowledgeable thieves will tell you that playing on another person's fear or weak spots can do wonders, whereas directly threatening or even harming that same person would probably yield little. One needs to find the right balance between sBare that in mind when using this skill. \\ | **Distraction:** The skill at orchestrating situations (simple or complex) via social means, all in order to take away a certain person's or group's attention away from one thing, then refocus it on another thing. From fooling someone into looking the other way or falling for a (seemingly) mundane accident happening nearby, to providing temporary plausible cover for fellow thievy operatives during a heist or getaway, well-used examples of distraction can make or break many situations where potential success hangs by a thread. Successful distractions are objectivelly hard to pull off, especially for prolonged amounts of time, but fooling people's immediate reflexes by psychologically outsmarting them is one of the ultimate tricks up any experienced thief's sleeve. Using Distraction on a regular basis does not have an effect the Ethics scale.\\ |
| | **Intimidation:** Sometimes, when all other diplomatic skills and milder methods fail, a professional thief has to resort to something... harsher. The intimidation skill doesn't necessarily mean you have to rough someone up. Really knowledgeable thieves will tell you that playing on another person's fear or weak spots can do wonders, whereas directly threatening or even harming that same person would probably yield little. One needs to find the right balance between using Intimidation in an almost surgically accurate manner. Use Intimidation too much and too often, and Ethics and Trust ratings plummet like a stone, too little and the player is laughed off by NPCs for behaving like a wannabe tough guy and a fool. Bare that in mind when using this skill. Using Intimidation on a regular basis will negatively effect the Ethics scale.\\ |
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