SAPTIS is the acronym representing the six basic skill categories:

• Social
• Animal
• Physical
• Technical
• Intellectual
• Spiritual

All skills should fall under these categories or combinations thereof.

 

A basic level is bought for each category. This allows unlearned abilities/skills to be attempted at an intial level which represents the inherent tendency of the character to perform a type of skill.

 

e.g. an athelete/competitor has a high base physical skill attribute and is better at trying new tasks requiring physical exertion than say, a librarian (unless it's a warrior-librarian, but that's a completely different story ~; ) 

 

 

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Social includes skills such as:

• administration
• trade
  • barter
  • distribution
• communication
  • languages
    • Termita, Vegetative empathy
  • heroic voice
• charm person
  • seduce
  • persuade
  • challenge
  • befriend

 

Animal includes all skills that relate to interactions with

another species, be it insect, plant or warm-blood.

Skills from this category include:

• communication (by species category)
  • specializations for specific areas.
• summoning/calling
• indentification
• location
  • type
  • distance

Abilities that emulate a species special trait that are learned by cooperation

or living with that species are also included. e.g. make web, etc

 

Physical includes all skills that make use of the body's physical

capabilities and the extensions thereof.

• swimming
• martial arts
  • basic proficiency
  • specific moves bought separately
• distort self/space
  • general
  • action specific
• heightened senses
• tracking

 

 

Technical craftsman skills, engineering, tinkering, that sorta stuff

(expand)

 

 

Intellectual includes all challenges of the intellect.

• puzzles
• logic
• problem solving
• hermetic style magic - those based upon calculations of energy flow and it's interactions.
• alchemy - chemical formulas

 

Spiritual involves primarily abilities based upon spiritual spell-casting where the target difficulty is not based in a scientific or functional context as much as it is faith and will. Faith in this case is not merely believing in something but that your immediate fate that is being enacted is appropriate, deserved and true. Through a large amount of faith persons can act if they are empty vessels, a claypot pouring, knowing only by faith that the water will be there for them.

The spiritual skills allow one to act in the ideal way, intuitively, the soul understanding what is right while the mind perceives and the body performs.

• herbology - more than just chemical reactions. The ingredients are spiritually charged and contain essences beyond their chemical components (which are the only active things in alchemy)

 

Skills can be subject to multiple attributes.  For example, communicating with an animal or plant is both a social and animal related task.  The skill of Speak Termita is abbreviated ScAn (where n=level).

 

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How to do a basic attribute roll and a basic skill roll?  Number of dice by skill or attribute rolled to achieve a number.  A number one die less than the number gives partial success (something positive, but not full/desired outcome), within one die greater or equal to number; bare success, each die level thereafter success at differing levels.

 

The dice used on the skills are proportional to the attributes that they correspond to.  Start at d4, d6, d8, 2d4, d10, d12, 2d6, 3d4, 2d8, 4d4, 3d6, 2d10, 5d4, 4d6, 6d4, ... (see dice chart.xls)  Points can be used to increase the die level on a roll to expend more effort.  It takes multiple levels to increase a die level. Each level is spaced apart by the number of +1 steps between making the maximum scores so that they are equal. e.g. d4 and d6 are separated by one level, d4, d4+1, d6.  But 3d4 and 2d8 are separated by three levels 3d4, 3d4+1, 3d4+2, 3d4+3, 2d8.

hmmm, this sounds convoluted and wholly impractical for tabletop players.

 

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With skill rolls, it is possible for a character to intentionally increase the difficulty of the attempt (and therefore an increased lvl of failure) to 'push their limits' and hope to accomplish greater effects.

 

Similarly, the difficulty can be downgraded if lesser effects are required. This represents the character not having to exert themselves or wishing to feign.

 

Energy is expended in performing a skill, which is calculated from:

 

Skill level used

x

the magnitude of the effects

(which is related to the difficulty of the task/attempt)

x

the base cost of the skill

 

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Skills are not simply things like being able to cook and the like. They also include spell abilities and physical aptitudes.  (These links are not yet active, please help populate them or tag your skill pages with the proposed level of skill)

Basic skills list - really simple things that average people can attempt, but with the skill points you do them better

Intermediate skills list - things that require more dedication, training or education to attempt

Advanced - usually requiring prerequisites, these skills are for those who have made something a 'career' of sorts

Master - skills that characters have spent their whole lives perfecting

Legendary - high level craziness here

 

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