Skill Names

🧰Skills can be custom-named.

A 🧰Skill’s name must refer to an area of knowledge or a type of adaptation, or sometimes elements of both.

An area of knowledge could be ‘Geology’, ‘Rocketry’, ‘History’, etc.
A type of adaptation could be ‘Strength’, ‘Resilience’, ‘Agility’, etc.

Coverage

🧰Skills are used to determine how likely an action is to have the desired outcome.

🧰Skills can only be used to improve actions which the 🧰Skill is relevant to.

For example, ‘Strength’ is relevant to the task of ‘lifting a heavy rock’.

A 🧰Skill which is relevant to an action has ‘coverage’ of it.

Vagueness and Specificity

Vague Skill names have coverage of more actions, but do not cover them as strongly as precise 🧰Skill names.

When an action requires specific knowledge or adaptation, a vague Skill name won’t be sufficient.

In these cases, the Storyteller may ask for one additional 🧰Skill which is more specific.

It is a good idea to have a few vague Skills, since when two 🧰Skills are used, the highest rating of the two is taken.

The advised level of vagueness for this is, for example ‘Science’, ‘Combat’, ‘Technology’, ‘Charisma’, etc.

Common Sense

🧰Skills do not need to cover actions which are not challenging, such as ‘common sense’.

This may not always apply depending on the narrative setting. The Storyteller should make this clear.

Up-Coverage and Down-Coverage

🧰Skills have coverage of everything they contain, as well as everything they require.

For example, ‘Science’ contains ‘Biology’, so it covers it.
This is called ‘up-coverage’.

Similarly, ‘Rocket Science’ requires an understanding of ‘Physics’, so it covers it.
This is called ‘down-coverage’.

Down-Coverage does not bounce back up again, thus having 'Rocket Science' does not cover 'Anatomy', even though 'Science' is required for 'Rocket Science'.

Ambiguity

If a 🧰Skill name could be used for multiple separate areas of knowledge or adaptation, it is ambiguous.

For example, ‘Versatility’, ‘Accuracy’, etc.

In these cases, the 🧰Skill is usually disallowed.

The only exception is if there is no better word for the single thing it is intended to refer to.
In this case, the 🧰Skill requires a small note to indicate what it is for.

Benefit

🧰Skills must be named for qualities which are more useful if their level is higher.

For example, 'Combat', 'Diplomacy', 'Vision', etc. are simply better if their level is higher, than if it is lower.

The Storyteller should decide if a 🧰Skill name follows this pattern strongly enough, judging according to whether it's worth making it a 💠Special instead.

For example, 'Fat' is a quality of a Character which could clearly incur benefits and detriments.
In this case, it should be added as a 💠Special instead of a 🧰Skill.
Alternatively, consider making the benefits themselves 🧰Skills, such as 'Insulation'.