Wiki Category: Abilities

Skills list

The following is a beta version of the Milhamah RPG basic skills list. Currently overlap exists among some skills, and some will likely be added or cut to the final version:

Acrobatics (ללינ): Balance, Tumbling, Gymnastics, Escapology, contortion, stunts, dodging, juggling
Aesthetics (צור): Visual arts, fashion, clothing trends, beauty, design
Administration (נהל): Dealing with bureaucracy, leadership, tactics, strategy, law 
Agriculture (חקל): Farming, gardening and livestock
Athletics (אתלט): Jumping, climbing, swimming, running, fitness, track and field, lifting, pulling, pushing, throw (distance)
Building (בונ): Large-scale Construction, masonry, Architecture, shipbuilding
Business (סחר): Commerce, marketing, shopping, appraising
Crafting (יצר): Tinkering, repair, craftsmanship, workshop, small-scale carpentry, smithing, tailoring, etc.
Culinary (בשל): Cooking, butchering, baking, brewing
Demolition (הרס): Sabotage, making and defusing explosives
Domestic (בות): Housework, chores and menial labor
Electronics (חשמל): Create or control computers, coding, gadgets, robots, AI, forensics, forgery, hacking, cryptography
Engineering (הנדס): Deals with mechanics, tinkering, repairing, crafting inventions 
Gaming (שחק): Gambling, board and dive games or chance
Investigation (דרש): Analyzing evidence, collecting evidence, identifying clues, gathering info, interrogation
Languages (לשנ): Linguistics, ease of learning foreign languages, and lip reading (WIS)
Lore (רבי): Cultures, humanities, trivia and languages Art, fashion, history, music, philosophy, politics, popular media
Manipulation: Bribery, seduction, intimidation, flattery, begging
Marksmanship: Ranged combat, longarms, pistols, shotguns, archery, aiming
Martial arts (לחמ): Close-quarters combat, brawling, melee, stick/bladed Weapons, grappling, boxing
Medicine (רפא): First Aid, Pharmacology, Herbalism, treat illness, surgery, diagnoses, cybernetics
Natural science (ידע): Astronomy, chemistry, climate, weather, geography, geology, oceans, physics, biology, genetics
Navigation (נוט): Orientation and cartography
Negotiation (סחר): Persuasion, debate, bargaining, Diplomacy, Carousing, conversation, etiquette, negotiation, streetwise
Performing (צגי): music, oration, dancing, acting, instruments
Psychology (נפש): Insight, reading minds, sense motive, concentrate, meditate, resist pressure.
Religion (אמנ): Knowledge of spirits, gods and application of doctrine and rituals
Security (בטח): Lockpicking, Traps, Hacking, safecracking, forging, counterfeiting, defusing bombs, alarms
Socializing (חבר): Etiquette, diplomacy, politicking
Speech Acts (דבר): Research, theory and using the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis to turn speech into reality
Stealth (סתר): Hide, sneak, disguise, blend in, pickpocket, sleight of hand, conceal, snipe, ambush, recon, silent move
Streetwise (רחב): Urban survival, navigate criminal underworld without getting into trouble
Surveillance (שגח): Tracking, Perception, Hearing, Searching, Spotting, awareness, eavesdropping, listening, sense, insight
Taming (אלפ): Animal handling, animal magnetism
Trickery (רמא): Deception, Disguise, Forgery, Ventriloquism, Bluff, legerdemain, con artistry
Vehicles (רכב): Driving/Piloting/steering, riding animals
Wilderness (שרד): foraging, securing food, water, shelter outdoors, predict weather, nature, hunting, fishing

Homebrewing skills

When choosing skills, if one is not on the list and is important to the storyline, feel free to homebrew it and add it on.

If doing a specialty of a skill, you can only use the skill when it applies to that specialty. Like Crafting: Woodworking or Crafting: Blacksmithing, or Perform: Singing. But Narrator beware: Make sure the specialty is actually a narrow specialty and not just a synonym for the base skill!

If an improvised skull is broader than the typical default skills, such as Thievery incorporating Deception and Stealth, the Narrator should multiply the difficulty to level up based on the number of incorporated skills the improvised skill encompasses.

Leveling up skills

Skills may be improved upon at the Narrator’s discretion. Players exchange Merit Points to gain access to the privilege, but even then, the Narrator sets the conditions. Sometimes a skill improvement might be triggered when that skill is used very effectively or during a critical, clutch moment of the mission. Or it might be the reward of completing a training arc.

The following table shows hoe many MP it takes to boost the typical skill. The Narrator may tweak the scaling system for broader or narrower skills:

  • 1 MP: +1R
  • 1 MP: +2R
  • 2 MP +3R
  • 2 MP +4R
  • 3 MP +5R
  • 3 MP +6R
  • 4 MP +7R
  • 4 MP +8R
  • 5 MP +9R
  • 5 MP +10R
  • 6 MP +11R

 

 

Maritime

Maritime is a skill that encapsulates the techniques needed to steer boats, ships and other watercraft and otherwise survive the open sea.

Brawling

Brawling is a skill that characters use to engage in hand-to-hand combat or martial arts. Punches, kicks, backhands, elbows, knees, headbutts, grappling, takedowns… all of it is included, no holds barred.

Shoresh: גרי, זחל,
Alternative shorashim:
Duration: Usually one round
Stats used: Usually DOM when trying to subdue or destroy a target. VIT is usually used more for athletic and defensive forms of martial arts. In some cases, use GRA when a melee technique is convincingly described acrobatically. SHA may be used when trying to subdue a foe with minimal damage.
Category: Temper
Modifiers: Melee can become more difficult if the user is fatigued, prone or suffers from another status ailment.
Resist skills: Usually Melee or Dodge.
Success: Depending on the degree of success, the user manages to attack and damage the target. Massive successes, or successes against a botch, may cause critical damage to the point of incapacitating or even killing the target.
Failure: Depending on the degree of failure, the user’s attack misses, or is parried or blocked. A severe failure or a botch may mean the user hurts oneself or is open to a counterattack.

Medicine

Medicine is a skill that characters use to use knowledge of anatomy and health to apply emergency first aid, tend to wounds and treat diseases.

Shoresh: רפא
Alternative shorashim:
Duration: At least 5-10 minutes for short-term first aid. Longer term treatment may need to be applied hour by hour, or longer as the Narrator specifies.
Stats used: Usually WIS for book knowledge of anatomy and medicine, or SHA to provide bedside manner or mental wellness. BLE may be used in faith-based medicine, and CRE may be used when innovative or unorthodox treatments are called for.
Category: Taste
Modifiers: Most medicine checks should be difficult and require at least 3+ successes. The rarer the disease, the more grievous the injury or state of illness, and the harder it is to treat, the more difficult the roll. Proper medicine and equipment may make rolls easier or may be necessary for success to even be possible.
Resist: This usually doesn’t have a resist skill.
Success: Depending on the degree of success, the user stabilizes the health condition of the patient or, better yet, treats and improves or even completely heals or cures the condition. 
Failure: Depending on the degree, the user fails to treat the malady, and upon great failure or botches, makes it worse, terminal or deadly.

Swimming

Swimming is a skill that characters use to physically move about in water without drowning.

Shoresh: שחי
Alternative shorashim:
Duration: At least one round
Stats used: Usually LIF if it involves athleticism, endurance swimming and holding one’s breath. GRA may be relevant when it involves agility in the water.
Category: Movement
Modifiers: The strength of underwater currents, the depth of currents, wave height, the length of time underwater, and obstacles can make swimming rules more difficult.
Resist: This usually doesn’t have a resist skill.
Success: This is a broad skill, but it often means getting from Point A to Point B, or swimming to safety without drowning.  
Failure: The user fails to arrive to the target destination. A botch could mean drowning.