There are two major categories of skills:

• Combat Skills add to your chance of attack or defense in combat.
• Non-Combat skills are used to do just about anything that doesn't involve hitting people.

Skills, like attributes, are Ranked from 0 to Infinity.  NCS come in two major categories:

• Open:  Anyone can try to use this skill, even if they have no Ranks in it.   Example:  Hide
• Restricted:  No one can use this skill unless they have Ranks in it, and sometimes, it can only be learned at all by certain classes. Example:  Knowledge (arcana)

Using Skills

When a character uses a Skill, the character makes a Skill check to see how well the character performs the action.   Roll a D20 and add your Ranks in the skill.  The higher the result on the character’s Skill check, the more successful the attempt. Based on the circumstances, the character’s result must match or exceed a particular number (called a DC, or Difficulty Class) to use the Skill successfully. The harder the task, the higher the number the character needs to roll.

Skill Description Format

• Relevant Ability:  This is the Ability modifier that most often applies to the Skill check. If two (or more) Abilities are listed, it indicates that different Abilities may be relevant, depending on the situation. The GM should select the one most appropriate to the circumstances. For example, the Pilot Skill has the Relevant Ability: Intelligence or Dexterity. When a character attempts to pilot a large cruise ship, the GM should require a Skill check using the Intelligence modifier — the character’s knowledge of the boat’s controls are more important when driving such a massive ship. When the character hops into a small ski boat, however, his or her Dexterity is more important and thus the GM should require a Skill check using the Dexterity modifier instead of the Intelligence Modifier.
• Specialisations:  A selection of Specialisations is provided. When a character gains a new Skill, he or she may select one Specialisation for free. Any time the character makes a Skill check (a character attempting to balance on a thin ledge using Acrobatics: Balance, for example), the character gains a +1 bonus to his or her Skill check. With GM permission, players may select a Specialisation that is not listed if it fits with their character concept. Also, GMs may allow characters to gain two additional Specialisations for a particular Skill by paying the normal cost associated with gaining a Rank in that Skill.
• Description:  The Skill name line is followed by a general description of what using the Skill represents.

Alchemy (Restricted)

• Relevant Ability: Intelligence
• Specialisations:  Analysis, Chemistry, Medical,
• The art of ancient chemistry

• Relevant Ability: Intelligence
• Specialisations: Air, Domesticated, Land, Water
• You have a knack for befriending animals.

• Relevant Ability: Intelligence
• Specialisations: Art, Gems, Goods, Jewelry, Weapons and Armor
• The art of telling how valuable something is

• Relevant Ability: Dexterity
• Specialisations: Shaking Surface, Slippery Surface, Tightrope
• The ability to maintain balance under adverse conditions.

• Relevant Ability: Charisma
• Specialisations: Acting, Fast-talk, Misdirection, Misleading Body Language
• The ability to make the untrue seem plausible.

• Relevant Ability: Strength
• Specialisations: Natural Surfaces, Poles, Ropes, Vegetation, Walls
• The ability to scale vertical surfaces with or without the use of specialised climbing equipment.

Concentration

• Relevant Ability: Constitution
• Specialisations: Clearing One’s Mind, Magic Focus, Single Minded
• The ability to ignore distractions and interference when focusing on a task.

Craft

• Unlike most skills, you MUST take a specialization, as each is a seperate skill.
• Relevant Ability: Intelligence
• Specialisations: Carpentry, Leatherworking, Metalworking, Plumbing, Tailoring, Woodworking
• This Skill represents a character’s ability to work with a variety of materials to repair or produce useful or aesthetically pleasing objects not electronic or mechanical in nature.

• Relevant Ability: Intelligence
• Specialisations: Ancient Languages, Code Cracking, Hieroglyphics, Runes
• The ability to decipher texts either foreign to the character or encoded.

• Relevant Ability: Charisma
• Specialisations: Etiquette, Social Grace, Heraldry, Negotiation
• The knowledge concerning the proper way to interact during social situations, and negotiations, including rules of conduct and persuasion.

• Relevant Ability: Intelligence
• Specialisations: By Passing, Magical Wards, Traps
• The ability to circumvent traps, jam mechanical devices, by pass securities.

• Relevant Ability: Charisma
• Specialisations: Costume, Dialects, Impersonation, Make-up, Prosthetics
• The ability to change one’s personal appearance and/or demeanour in an attempt to deceive others.

Escape Artist

• Relevant Ability: Dexterity
• Specialisations: Grappling, Restraints, Tight Spaces
• The ability to escape restraints and grips of opponents, or squeeze through tight spaces.

• Relevant Ability: Intelligence
• Specialisations: Detection, Handwriting, Magical Runes, Paper Documents
• The ability to counterfeit documents and papers or to identify forgeries. This Skill can be used in conjunction with the Computer Use Skill.

• Relevant Ability: Wisdom
• Specialisations: Card Games, Computer Games, Dice Games, Strategy, Role Playing
• The ability to play various games (including betting strategies) well.

• Relevant Ability: Charisma
• Specialisations: Contacts, Gossip, Rumour-mongering
• The ability to find out information about an area, from the day-to-day events to specific pieces of information.

• Relevant Ability: Charisma
• Specialisations: Any single animal such as dogs, dolphins, horses, etc.
• The ability to teach and train animals with an intellect above that of instinctive insects. An animal usually has an Intelligence of 1-3.

• Relevant Ability: Wisdom
• Specialisations: Acupuncture, Diagnosis, Emergency Response, Homeopathy, Pathology, Pharmacy, Surgery, Veterinary
• Healers know how to treat disease and perform first aid, and even surgery when necessary.

• Relevant Ability: Dexterity
• Specialisations: Concealment, Skulking, Tailing
• The ability to hide from detection.

• Relevant Ability: Charisma
• Specialisations: Business, Interrogation, Political, Psychological, Street,
• The ability to convincingly project a “tough guy” image through verbal and body language. A successful check means someone witnessing your performance is convinced you mean any threats you make. How they react after that will depend on how tough they are themselves in relation to the kind of threat you present — they may respond with respect, fear, hatred, or amusement.

• Relevant Ability: Intelligence
• Specialisations: Government, Police, Underworld
• The ability to track a piece of information or person through red tape and electronic media.

• Relevant Ability:  Strength
• Specialisations: Long, High, Pole Vault
• The ability to jump well and consistently. A character can normally jump about 6 feet forward or 3 feel up/back (double range with a running start). This Skill increases the character’s maximum horizontal distance by +1 foot for every two Skill ranks. This modifier is doubled for running starts and halved for vertical or backwards jumps.

• Relevant Ability: Intelligence
• Specialisations: Arcane Symbols, Magic, Rituals, Spells
• Knowledge of magic, its history, and basics of how it works.

• Relevant Ability: Intelligence
• Specialisations: Aquatic, Bridges, Fortifications, Small Buildings, Skyscrapers
• Knowledge of construction methods, architectural drafting, etc. A successful use of this Skill can also find weak points in constructions or help in locating old structural plans.

• Relevant Stat: Intelligence
• Specialisations: One specific area (city, village, forest, sea, etc.)
• This Skill reflects knowledge of the geography and people of a single area. The smaller the area, the more detailed and extensive the character’s knowledge. This Skill may be assigned multiple times to indicate knowledge of several areas.

• Relevant Ability: Intelligence
• Specialisations: Accounting, Banking, Executive, Fraud, Government, Marketing, Small Business
• The ability to organise, run, and understand part or all of an organisation (such as a business, government, or association).

• Relevant Ability: Intelligence
• Specialisations: Archaeology, Art Appraisal, History, Literature, Urban Legends
• Knowledge of aspects of human culture (or another species’ culture).

• Relevant Ability: Intelligence
• Specialisations: Cleaning, Cooking, Decorating, Home Budgeting
• The ability to efficiently organise and run a domestic household.

• Relevant Ability: Intelligence
• Specialisations: Animals, Cycles, Plants, Seasons, Weather
• Knowledge of the things which lurk in the caves and dungeons of the world, from natural phenomena (underground rivers, stalagmites, etc) to how to get around comfortably underground to the strange things which lurk below (Aberrations, Animals, Plants, Beasts, Magical Beasts, etc.)

• Relevant Ability: Intelligence
• Specialisations: One Specific Culture
• Reflects knowledge of the history, religion, ethics, and lifestyle of one or more foreign countries or cultures. Each Rank in this Skill provides familiarity with a distinct culture (a Specialisation). Thus, multiple Specialisations may be listed for Foreign Culture depending on the Skill Rank.

• Relevant Ability: Intelligence
• Specialisations: Civil, Criminal, Customs, Family, International, Political
• Knowledge of legal procedure and practice. GMs may assume that anyone with Rank 6 or more has a license to practice law. All Specialisations, except International, are specific to one country or region only (for example, “Japanese Criminal Law”).

• Relevant Ability: Intelligence
• Specialisations: Hardware Recognition, Intelligence Analysis, Logistics, Strategy, Tactics, Teamwork
• The character has military-style tactical, staff, or leadership training. In addition, SWAT (or other tactical police units) often includes individuals who pick up similar Skills (and often recruit ex-military personnel).

• Relevant Ability: Intelligence
• Specialisations: Animals, Cycles, Plants, Seasons, Weather
• Knowledge of the interactions of the natural world.

• Relevant Ability: Intelligence
• Specialisations: Astrology, Channelling, Numerology, Rituals, Spirits, Tarot, Voodoo, Witchcraft
• Knowledge of the arcane and mystical arts, and their applications in both historical and modern society.

Knowledge: Religion

• Relevant Ability: Intelligence
• Specialisations: One Specific Religion (Buddhism, Christianity, Muslim, Satanism, etc.)
• The knowledge of how current and historical religions and mythology worked.

• Relevant Ability: Intelligence
• Specialisations: Anthropology, Geography, Politics, Psychology, Social Work, Sociology, Theology
• Understanding of the way people function in society as well as societal behavioural patterns.

• Relevant Ability: Intelligence
• Specialisations: Gang Activity, Influential Individuals, Territorial Divisions (all by region)
• The knowledge of street activity within a particular region or city. This is a vital survival Skill for a person on the streets.

• Relevant Ability: Wisdom
• Specialisations: Background Noise, Eavesdropping, Rural, Urban
• The ability to listen attentively or to perceive unusual or out of place noises.

Move Silently

• Relevant Ability: Dexterity
• Specialisations: Rural, Subterranean, Urban
• The ability to move without being detected audibly.

• Relevant Ability: Intelligence
• Specialisations: Air, Highway, Sea, Space, Urban, Wilderness
• The ability to avoid getting lost, navigating with maps, equipment, the stars, etc. The Navigate Skill will help a character find the fastest/safest route to a destination.

• Relevant Ability: Dexterity
• Specialisations: Combination, Electronic, Padlocks, Puzzle Lock
• The ability to open locking devices.

• Relevant Ability: Charisma
• Specialisations: Comedy, Dance, Drama, Music, Public Speaking, Singing, Fast Talking
• The ability to perform well before an audience, and to evoke an emotional response through the art form.

• Relevant Ability: Dexterity
• Specialisations: Palm, Legerdemain, Lift Object
• The ability to make a small object disappear without notice.

Poisons

• Relevant Ability: Intelligence
• Specialisations: Alien, Natural, Synthetic
• The ability to recognise, concoct, apply, and neutralise a variety of poisons and toxins.

Powerlifting

• Relevant Ability: Strength
• Specialisations: Bulky Objects, Free Weights, Humans, Moving Objects, Small Objects (Hand-Held)
• The ability to perform feats of strength with minimal chance for injury. This includes lifting or pushing heavy objects, stopping objects in motion, and supporting large masses.

Profession (Restricted)

• Unlike most skills, you MUST take a specialization, as each is a seperate skill.
• Relevant Ability: Wisdom
• Specialisations: One Specific Profession (Bookkeeper, Cook, Driver, Farmer, Miner, Sailor, Writer, etc.)
• The character is trained in a specific form of livelihood.

• Relevant Ability: Intelligence
• Specialisations: Crowded Places, Distance, Sub Vocalisation
• This allows a character to understood what is being said by reading lips.

• Relevant Ability: Intelligence
• Specialisations: Legal, Historical, Scientific
• This Skill allows a character to locate difficult to find pieces of data by searching journals, the web, and other media.

• Relevant Ability: Dexterity
• Specialisations: One Specific Species (Camel, Horse, Tiger, etc.).
• This is the knowledge of how to care for a riding beast, how to saddle, mount, and dismount the animal, how to get it to perform difficult or dangerous manoeuvres safely and without balking, and how to best pace it for long distance rides.

• Relevant Ability: Intelligence
• Specialisations: Compartments, Detail Work, Irregularities
• This Skill allows the character to find hidden or concealed objects.

• Relevant Ability: Charisma
• Specialisations: Alien, Female, Male
• A character with this Skill is adept at exploiting their sex appeal. A successful Skill check will convince another person that the character is genuinely interested in them. Whether or not the subject actually responds will depend on his or her own romantic inclinations and sexual preference.

• Relevant Ability:  Intelligence
• Specialisations:  Crystal-Gazing, Mirror-Gazing, Pool-Gazing, Sense Scrying
• This reflects your ability both to make use of scrying powers and to detect when you are being scried.

• Relevant Ability: Wisdom
• Specialisations: Body Language, Mannerisms, Speech
• This represents the knowledge of determining when a person is not being honest or forth coming.

• Relevant Ability: Dexterity
• Specialisations: Card Sharking, Fine Manipulation, Stage Magic
• A character with this Skill has superior manual dexterity, greater than that suggested by his or her Dexterity score. This includes the ability to perform “magic” tricks, palm small objects, cheat at cards, plant an item on someone, etc.

• Relevant Ability: Intelligence
• Specialisations: Any One Language, Braille, Code Language, Sign Language
• This Skill reflects an aptitude for languages and their historical usage. Additionally, a character will be able to speak and write one foreign Language for each Rank in this Skill. Thus, multiple Specialisations will be listed for Languages — the first is the character’s native language(s), while the others are foreign languages.

• Relevant Ability: Intelligence
• Specialisations: Any School of Magic, Creation of Spells, Learning Spells, Recognizing Cast Magics
• This reflects your knowledge of the casting of spells, and is used to learn spells, to create spells, and to recognize spells being cast.  Non-Spellcasters can only use it to recognize magics.

• Relevant Ability: Strength, Dexterity, or Constitution
• Specialisations: Baseball, Basketball, Cricket, Football, Hockey, Volleyball, etc.
• The ability to play well in a team or individual sporting event with specialised rules.

• Relevant Ability: Wisdom
• Specialisations: Ambush, Movement, Tailing
• This the ability to locate people or creature trying to hide their presence.

• Relevant Ability: Strength
• Specialisations: Competition, Deep-Sea Diving, Free Diving, Scuba, Snorkelling
• The character is skilled at swimming or diving. The GM may assume that any character in a modern setting (or perhaps any setting) can swim even without this Skill.

• Relevant Ability: Dexterity
• Specialisations: Dive, Flip, Roll, Somersault
• The character is skilled at acrobatic tumbling and flips.

• Relevant Ability: Charisma
• Specialisations: Dive, Flip, Roll, Somersault
• This skill can be used to figure out how to operate magical devices you otherwise could not activate.

• Relevant Ability: Dexterity
• Specialisations: Knots, Handling Loads, Securing
• This Skill allows a character to adeptly use rope for any number of purposes.

• Relevant Ability: Wisdom
• Specialisations: Guide, Hunting, Identification, Natural Hazards
• The character is familiar with local wilderness areas. The character can find subsistence for him or herself and others and avoid natural dangers.

• Relevant Ability: Intelligence or Wisdom
• Specialisations: Aquatic, Arctic, Desert, Forest, Jungle, Mountain, Plains
• The ability to successfully trail or track someone or something while outdoors in a rural or wilderness setting.

Combat Skills

Archery

• Relevant Ability: None (Offensive Combat Skill)
• The ability to accurately shoot with a bow or crossbow.

• Relevant Ability: None (Offensive Combat Skill)
• The ability to attack effectively with a hand-to-hand melee weapon.

• Relevant Ability: None (Defensive Combat Skill)
• Specialisations: Axe, Baton/Club, Knife, Improvised Weapons, Polearms (spears, naginata, etc.), Shield, Sword, Whips/Chains
• The ability to defend well with a hand-to-hand melee weapon.

• Relevant Ability: None (Defensive Combat Skill)
• The ability to avoid ranged attacks, but this does not enable a character to actually dodge bullets. Rather, it is a combination of situational awareness and tactical movement as well as knowing when to keep moving (to present a more difficult target) and when to drop for cover.

• Relevant Ability: None (Offensive Combat Skill)
• This Skill is used for weapons created using the Special Attack Attribute that emanate from the character’s body, rather than a device or weapon. For example, eye beams, fireballs fired from the hand, or sonic blast shot from the mouth would qualify for this Skill use, but a laser gun (Gun Combat Skill) or a deadly boomerang (Thrown Weapon Skill) would not.

• Relevant Ability: None (Offensive Combat Skill)
• The ability to accurately throw weapons or objects at a target.

• Relevant Ability: None (Offensive Combat Skill)
• The ability to attack without weapons.

• Relevant Ability: None (Defensive Combat Skill)
• The ability to block armed or unarmed melee attacks without using a weapon.