No two people are identical, despite what the censors want to tell you these days. Everyone knows various things and at differing levels than each other. This section attempts to describe some of the various skills that will be useful to characters in the dangerous world of the future. Skills come in three types.
Vehicle skills are all those which deal with the driving and operation of vehicles, be they two or three wheeled bikes, to jetcopters. As new vehicle types are introduced, new vehicle skills may be needed for their operation.
The basic vehicle skills include:
- Drive
Used for driving cars, Interceptors and Renegades.
- Biker
Used for driving motorbikes, combinations and trikes.
- Trucker
Used for driving any large ground vehicle, including eighteen wheel tractor-trailer rigs.
- Jetcopter
Used for piloting jetcopters and helicopters.
As far as vehicle skills go, their usage is exactly as Drive, found in the basic rulebook.
A combat skill is one that is generally used for attacking target, either in or outside of a vehicle. Some skills can be used when in or on a vehicle (such as the
Handgunner skill), and some can only be used from with (such as the
Gunner skill).
Combat skills include:
- Close Combat
Used when two pedestrians are battling it out in melee.
- Gunner
Needed for the operation of vehicular mounted weaponry.
- Handgunner
This is used to fire all sorts of weapons available to pedestrians. It is not usable for vehicle weapon systems.
- Thrown Weapon
Used to accurately guide thrown weapons, like hand grenades to their target.
These skills all give a positive modifier equal to the skills level, to the to-hit roll for a particular set of weapons. They do not add anything to damage rolls, critical rolls or any other rolls.
Close Combat is used when pedestrians are engaged in melee combat and gives its bonus to melee weapons, such as chains, knives, broken bottles and chainsaws.
Gunner is the skill used to fire all vehicular mounted weapons.
Handgunner deals with hand guns, such as pistols and machine guns.
Thrown Weapon gives its modifier for use with throwing weapons, such as knives and (mainly) hand grenades.
The last type of skill - General Skills - is basically a catch-all for all other non-game specific skills. These are mainly role-playing skills and can absolutely anything, such as computing, journalism, research or anything else that may be deemed appropriate. Players should consult their gamesmasters for skills that can be useful in their campaigns.
Because these skills don't have any relevance to the Dark Future game, a new method of determining whether the skill is successful or not is required. This is very easy to work out. Simply roll 1d6, add the skill level and then consult the following chart.
| Die Roll | Skill Roll Result |
|---|
| 0 or less | Critical Failure |
| 1-5 | Failure |
| 6-9 | Success |
| 10+ | Critical Success |
Other modifiers may be added or subtracted to this roll at the gamesmaster discretion (such as wound status, lack of parts, difficult job, distractions, rush job).
A natural 1 is always a failure.
The job was botched completely, and the task isn't just failed, it has failed spectacularly, making the situation worse or harmful. Depending on the task, the failure may not even be noticed until the situation arises for it to be tested (such as writing a computer program).
The task has been failed, but no further ill effects has been gotten. Depending on the task and situation, another roll may be made later on, or someone else may have a go.
The task was successful and whatever was needed to be done, is done. The character may be happy.
Not only was the task a success, but also the results are way beyond what was called for. This may mean that additional information was found, a repair was flawless or something extra positive occurs.
