Lore Skills¶
Skills from the lore skill group are used to research and recall specific information. They are especially useful during rests and downtime.
Rewards for tests made with lore skills typically include learning an extra piece of useful information.
Consequences for tests made with lore skills typically include learning an incorrect piece of information that seems useful, but which actually works against your interests or wastes time. (It's fun to roleplay these kinds of moments, so lean in!) Alternatively, the Director can make medium and hard tests with lore group skills for each hero in secret, then let the players know the narrative outcome without revealing the outcome of the power roll (see the Optional Rule: Secret Reactive Tests sidebar earlier in this chapter).
Lore Skills Table¶
| Skill | Use |
|---|---|
| Criminal Underworld | Knowing about criminal organizations, their crimes, their relationships, and their leaders |
| Culture | Knowing about a culture's customs, folktales, and taboos |
| History | Knowing about significant past events |
| Magic | Knowing about magical places, spells, rituals, items, and phenomena |
| Monsters | Knowing monster ecology, strengths, and weaknesses |
| Nature | Knowing about natural flora, fauna, and weather |
| Psionics | Knowing about psionic places, spells, rituals, items, and phenomena |
| Religion | Knowing about religious mythology, practices, and rituals |
| Rumors | Knowing gossip, legends, and uncertain truths |
| Society | Knowing noble etiquette and the leadership and power dynamics of noble families |
| Strategy | Knowing about battle tactics and logistics |
| Timescape | Knowing about the many worlds of the timescape |
For the Director: Make Your Own Skills
Directors should feel free to make their own skills that they feel are relevant and useful to their campaigns and adventures. For instance, the game doesn't have a Brewing skill for brewing ale or a Painting skill for making art because those aren't tasks that typically come up in a game about fighting monsters and saving the world. However, a Director could decide that their campaign involves poisoned barrels of ale and large amounts of counterfeit art, and that adding these two new skills to the game would make it more fun for the players. The Director simply needs to pick a group for these new skills—in this case, crafting makes sense. They then let the players know that they can swap out any crafting skill they have for these new skills.