Blades For Blackbird/Rules/Play Rules

Using Skills

To make a skill check, roll 2d6+skill: for instance, the modifier for a Fair skill is +1, so for that skill you'd roll 2d6+1. The effects depend on the total rolled:

• 7 or less is a failure: things get worse for the character
• 8 through 10 is a partial success: the character gets some of what they want, but not all
• 11 or 12 is a success: the character gets what they want!
• 13 or more is an advanced success: the character gets what they want, and maybe more!

Modifying Skills

If you have an aspect that is relevant to the action you're trying to take, you can pay a fate point to invoke the aspect and modify the situation before the roll. Modifications you can make are:

• Negate a penalty (ignore penalties for trying to hit a target in darkness for a Sniper aspect)
• Act as though you had a different specialization for a skill that requires a specialization (be expert at any weapon you pick up for a Veteran Soldier aspect)
• Use a physical skill in place of an non-physical skill, or vice-versa (use Community in place of Reflexes to dodge attacks by baffling people with smalltalk for a Silver Tongue aspect)
• Use a skill when normally you wouldn't be allowed to roll at all (use Will to change someone's fate with a Sorte aspect)

These modifications last until the end of the adventure, so if you encounter the same situation again, you don't have to pay a second fate point.

Alternately, after you roll, you can pay a fate point to bump the results by one success level — a partial success becomes a regular success, eg. This only affects the one roll.

Bonus and Penalty Aspects

In some cases, a skill check gives you a bonus aspect. This aspect comes with one free fate point that can only be used in conjunction with that aspect (and in general the bonus aspect has a limited duration). Similarly, some situations may give a penalty aspect. The penalty aspect can be invoked once for free by your opponent before the roll to give a -2 penalty to the die roll.

Combat

In combat, depending on the situation you may be attacking or defending. When attacking, your skill check is to see how well your attack does; when defending, it's to see how completely you defend. If you successfully attack, your opponent takes damage, while if you unsucessfully attack or defend, you do. Each point of damage you take makes you take one or more penalty aspects. If you need to take a penalty aspect and can't, you're out of the fight!

A lot of the time you'll be fighting groups of minions instead of named foes. Minions on their own aren't that dangerous but in a group they can overwhelm you: the modifier to defend (not attack) against a group of minions is (3 - the number of minions). Try to make a skill check to position yourself against a group so they can't all attack at once!

Reading Situations and People

Actions like charming and intimidation are handled via role-playing, without rolling; but you can use your skills to understand what the other person wants or fears or needs. Similarly, you can roll to answer questions about situations and objects, but then you have to decide what to do with the information.

Skill List

The following is the list of skills for the game. Starred skills have specializations (and are rolled at two ranks lower outside their specialization).

• Academics: Scholarship, library research, academic subjects that are mostly theoretical or observational (philosophy, mathematics, history, astronomy, cartography, ancient languages, etc)
• Athletics: Physical activities involving the whole body that require both dexterity and strength and take more than a few seconds: climbing, jumping, swimming, rolling.
• Brawn: Physical activities primarily involving raw strength: arm-wrestling, shouldering down doors, pushing boulders.
• Community*: The ability to act as a member of a particular social group: gathering information, fashion, bluffing, understanding motives. Specializations are by profession (soldier, pirate), location (Vodacce), or social class (peasant, noble). If the campaign is set entirely within a particular social group (the PCs are all pirates, or all in Vodacce), specializations should be smaller than that group (pirates belonging to group X, or people from Numa).
• Fingersmithery: Physical activities involving manual dexterity, hand-eye coordination, and general cleverness: sleight of hand, lock-picking, knot-tying, juggling.
• Nature: Knowledge of animals and the natural world: finding safe food and water in the wilderness, building fires, interpreting animal behavior, gathering and using herbs.
• Reflexes: Anything that involves quick reaction and/or spotting: dodging thrown objects, reacting when ambushed, finding a hiding spot while being chased. Generally not a suitable skill for actions taking longer than a few seconds.
• Riding: Horse selection and care, as well as riding them. Usually a roll is only required when performing tricks or unusual maneuvers while on horseback (or, for instance, jumping out a window and landing on a horse). Covers other basic horse-drawn vehicles like carriages.
• Sailing: Ship building, piloting, navigating, rigging, etc. In most situations only one person on a ship needs to have sailing to operate the ship, though having more helps. Does not cover gunnery or boarding, beyond getting the ship in a reasonable position to attempt them.
• Science: "Applied academics" that are mostly hands-on: alchemy, biology, chemistry, medicine, creating and analyzing poisons. Building large machines.
• Stealth: Concealing people, actions, or things; or detecting concealed things: sneaking past a guard, making a surprise attack, setting up an ambush, finding a secret door.
• Weapons*: Evaluating, attacking, and defending with weapons. Specializations are by type (bows, heavy, guns, fists) or by profession (duelist, assassin, soldier).
• Will: Resolve, persistence, endurance: hanging onto a hot object, resisting a sleeping drug, leading troops on a steady charge into gunfire, staying watchful on a long guard shift. Generally not a suitable skill for actions taking less than a few minutes.