Disciplines & Skills

Skills represent a competence or knowledge in something, and how well you might perform in a certain area. There are 30 different skills in Drifter which are separated into 4 Disciplines (5 if you’re a Wielder). Whenever you want to execute an action, you spend the requisite energy cost before rolling the dice. The result of your throw is then compared against your Discipline’s rating. This will tell you the outcome of the action you took.

Rate Disciplines

When you are creating your character all your Disciplines start at 18. You have 6 points that you can distribute as you see fit, reducing the Discipline rating, representing your character’s skill in that area. Your final Discipline rating for each category represents the final number you need to reach to achieve a Fortune result for skills under that category.

Skill Specialization

There are some skills that you are practiced at performing, almost second nature. When creating your character you get to pick three skills, each from different Disciplines. When you are performing an action with a specialized skill, you can reduce the cost of that skill by 2, this reducation only applies once per round and can be split between actions. In addition, once per scene you can reroll that skill as if you had spent an Intervention Point.

Discipline List

Exploration

Skills used to explore or traverse the environment.

Awareness – Noticing unusual things and details around you.

Balance – Remaining upright and steady so that you don’t fall.

Climb – Scaling various surfaces.

Jump – Propelling yourself over obstacles and chasms.

Lift – Pushing and lifting heavy objects.

Reflex – Getting out of the way of attacks and hazards.

Sneak – Moving silently and unnoticed.

Swim – Maneuver through water and other liquid bodies.

Survival

Skills used for camping, navigating and surviving outside the sanctuary.

Cartography – Drawing and reading maps.

Cook – Preparing various ingredients to make a meal.

Craft – Creating objects in a given art or trade (such as wood-working).

Forage – Finding food, water, and shelter.

Fortitude – The capacity to resist physical punishment from the likes of poisons or pain.

Heal – Treating injuries, poison and disease.

Nature – Understanding the natural world and predicting the weather.

Track – Following and identifying a trail left by someone or something.

Combat

Skills that are likely to be used by fighters in combat.

Aim – Using ranged and projectile weapons and objects against a target.

Defend – Defending yourself from attacks.

Fight – Fighting in close quarters combat, utilizing anything from weapons, fists and claws

Maneuver – Moving effetely across the battlefield

Social

Skills that will be used for most social interactions

Empathy – Determining the emotional state of the target character or creature.

Handle Animal – Familiarity with taming, rearing and riding various creatures.

Influence – Changing someone’s behavior to do what you want them to.

Intimidate – Getting others to do what you want them to through use fear and threats.

Lead – Rallying or encouraging a group of individuals to take certain actions.

Negotiate – Getting the best agreement, price or terms.

Perform – Carrying out a memorable or distracting performance.

Resolve – The willpower or ability to push through exhaustion or pain and resisting fear and intimidation

Skill Descriptions & Use

Listed below is every skill and its intended use. Each skill is also grouped with their corresponding Discipline as well as ability score (which reduces the cost of performing that action). In some instances, you might use a different ability score for a skill than is intended, for example, using Swiftness over Intuition to search a room when you’re in a hurry.

Following and identifying a trail left by an animal or person to follow where it has traveled to.

Disciplines & Skills