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I goTz the maD skillZ, Man!
Finally we come to the part on skills. Because the lists for Earth
Unmasked! are just much too long, I will merely cover guidelines
and point costs.
The formulas for determining the amount of points you have for each
skill category:
A | Academic/Scientific | Mind + (Logic times
Complexity Value) |
B | Athletics & Physical | Mind + (Discipline times
Complexity Value) |
C | Social | Mind + (Empathy times Complexity
Value) |
D | Occultism & Religions | Mind + (Insight times
Complexity Value) |
E | Artistic | Mind + (Passion times Complexity
Value) |
F | Technological | Mind + (Adaptability times
Complexity Value) |
For Earth Unmasked!, the CV, or Culture/Setting Complexity
Value, is five. This number is merely the Setting Complexity Value,
however, and a character's Complexity Value can go up or down as
a result of certain positive and negative traits. In addition, all
players receive a bonus 75 skill points that can be put towards skills
in one category only. These bonus points represent one area of
skill development that the character probably focused on during the
course of their life/education.
Contests of skill are determined by multiplying the skill ranks
by five, and then rolling 1d100, trying to get a number under the
percentile chance of success. The average skill level is nine to
twelve ranks. Furthermore, all characters, unless otherwise determined
by Positive or Negative Traits, have a number of free ranks in the
following skills:
Familiarity: Native Culture | 5 |
Area Familiarity: Birthplace | 5 |
Area Familiarity: Residence | 5 |
Native Language | 10 |
Geography | 5 |
History, Native Culture | 5 |
Mathematics, Basic | 5 |
Read/Write | 5 |
Thrown Weapons | 5 |
Climbing | 5 |
Unarmed Combat | 5 |
Bludgeon Weapons | 5 |
All skills available to Cosmic Guardians
characters can be found on page 92 of the Earth Unmasked! Manual. If you want a skill
that's not on the list, meet with me and we'll discuss it. As an example,
when I first played in this system, I added two new skills the day I
started playing: Crystal Metaphysics and Tarot Interpretation.
Positive and Negative Traits
These are special character facets that fall outside the rest
of the calculated facets of a character. Some of them can affect
skills, some of them affect scores of your Aspects or Attributes,
and still others are just minor advantages or disadvantages that
make your character who they are. However, just as in the case
of skills, there are too many available Traits to list here, so I
will merely once again provide a reference link: page 46 of the Earth Unmasked! Manual.
However, there are certain skills, listed below, which are not
available to the characters of the Cosmic Guardians game:
- Access to the Akashic Library
- Citizen of Atlantis
- Merlin
- Minion
All save the Merlin trait are negotiable, however. These are merely
mechanical restrictions to make things easier for your poor GM at
the outset.
Destiny Points and Experience
Experience is actually handled quite differently in Cosmic
Synchronicity. Skills can be improved two ways. At the end of every
game session, all skills that were used are marked. Then, before the
next session the player makes a roll to see if their trait improves. The
number you roll must be higher than the current percentile value of
your character's skill, minus their total ranks in Adaptability. If you
succeed, the character's skill goes up by one rank.
The second method happens outside of play, in between story lines. If
you wish to increase a skill via studying or practice, let me know and
I will help you determine how many hours it will take to increase the
desired skill one rank. If there are enough hours available for the study
to take place between plot lines, you will automatically succeed. Keep
in mind, however, that if your character plans on eating, sleeping, and
holding down a job, they cannot devote 24 hours a day towards learning
a skill!
The other form of experience is referred to as Destiny Points. Destiny
Points can be used in a number of ways:
- To increase an Attribute by one rank will cost three Destiny
Points. Only one such rank increase per session, please.
- To learn a new Skill will cost three Destiny Points. Only one new
skill per session, and only with GM's permission, please. The character
will start with one rank in the new skill.
- To add a new Background Element, such as a Contact, or a GM hint,
will cost three Destiny Points.
- To add ten Mortality Points to your Character will cost five Destiny
Points. Keep in mind you will have to recalculate your character's
totals for each extremity and the torso. This can only be done in the
time between every other session.
- Players can also spend one destiny point to either re-roll an
Initiative, Healing, or Damage die, or to reduce the percentile value of
a Skill or Attribute roll by 20%. Certain Positive Traits can be bought
with Destiny Points, and you can also use them to buy off certain Negative
Traits, at GM's discretion.
- Characters are awarded one Destiny Point just for showing up, and
one to four additional Destiny Points dependent on exciting or amusing
roleplay, plot advancement, or completion of an objective/storyline.
Character Sheets
As you are probably now pretty intimidated by the sheer amount of
numbers you will have to deal with, there is a quick and dirty solution
for handling this without spending hours calculating and recalculating. On
the Cosmic Synchronicity page there are
spreadsheets set up for Lotus 1-2-3 and Excel. All you have to do is
plug in the Attribute, Aspect, Trait point values, and Skill ranks,
and everything else will be calculated for you.
Ask Not What Your GM Can Do For You...
Because I'm a fella that likes to have players that can think for
themselves, I've included a special house rule for the Cosmic Guardians
players. If a player successfully researches something Out Of
Game for the purpose of figuring things out In Game, then their character
will make an automatic success roll to discover that piece of knowledge,
provided that the character has the appropriate Academics/Sciences
skill, or the Research skill. If the piece of knowledge significantly
advances the plot, I will award one to two Destiny Points. So it's to
your advantage to dig out your old college textbooks, folks!
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