(Developer's Diary) Skill List

[MongooseMatt]

The range of skills in Dark Conspiracy have been through quite a few permutations, but I think we have just about settled on them. We (obviously) used the current Traveller list as a starting point, but a few had to come out, others inserted, and some simply renamed to better fit in with a modern world setting.

As things stand, this is what the skill list looks like (skills with specialities are marked):

Advocate
Animals (handling, training, veterinary)
Art (performer, instrument, physical media, virtual media, write)
Athletics (dexterity, endurance, strength)
Business
Carouse
Computers (coding, hardware, operation)
Deception
Diplomat
Drive (hovercraft, track, wheel)
Electronics (comms, remote ops, sensors)
Empathy Use (computers, drain, foreboding, healing, project mind, sense mind)
Engineer (aerospace, civil, electrical, industrial, mechanical)
Explosives
Gambler
Gun Combat (archaic, pistol, rifle)
Heavy Weapons (artillery, portable, vehicle)
Investigate
Jack-of-All-Trades
Language*
Leadership
Mechanic
Medic
Melee (unarmed, blade, bludgeon, natural)
Navigation
Persuade
Pilot (airship, rotor, wing)
Profession*
Recon
Science*
Seafarer (ocean ships, personal, sail, submarine)
Stealth
Streetwise
Survival
Tactics

 

[Limpin Legin]

Looks good. Nice to see Carouse and Jack-of-all-Trades still available for DC roleplayers.
Renaming Flyer(airship, rotor, wing) to Pilot(airship, rotor, wing) when Pilot is already a reserved skill name in Traveller is perhaps the biggest clash.
And no Drive(mole)! Shucks, there goes my Thunderbirds adventure ideas.

 

[hopsnbaer]

What skill would be used to see through a deception, or sense motive? It does not really seem to be a thing in the system. I usually use a Deception vs Deception, Science (Psychology), or similar. You could just as easily, use Investigate, or Recon.

 

[Jame Rowe]

Renaming Flyer(airship, rotor, wing) to Pilot(airship, rotor, wing) when Pilot is already a reserved skill name in Traveller is perhaps the biggest clash.

It does make sense for the setting being non-spacefaring.
Though I might suggest adding in "aerospace" for spacecraft. With a bit of work, it could be used for any non starship.

 

[Limpin Legin]

It does make sense for the setting being non-spacefaring.
Though I might suggest adding in "aerospace" for spacecraft. With a bit of work, it could be used for any non starship.

Does it make sense for the Pilot core rule to mean interstellar travel and Pilot in the setting game to mean terrestrial travel? Rules-as-written 'Pilot' will mean two different things, depending if you are talking Core or talking Setting.

 

[Condottiere]

Vehicle/category/subcategory-operator

 

[Jame Rowe]

Does it make sense for the Pilot core rule to mean interstellar travel and Pilot in the setting game to mean terrestrial travel? Rules-as-written 'Pilot' will mean two different things, depending if you are talking Core or talking Setting.

More of the "if we're calling the category Pilot, then put the CRB Traveller version as a specialty called Aerospace (or Spacecraft, if preferred), in order to keep the option available while avoiding confusion and skill bloat, because the DC setting does canonically have spacecraft that could be taken by an ex NASA/ESA/etc character."

 

[Limpin Legin]

That would fix it for me, just it looks like it would mean updating Mg 2e CRB as well as releasing a new Mg DC.

 

[Jame Rowe]

That would fix it for me, just it looks like it would mean updating Mg 2e CRB as well as releasing a new Mg DC.

Not really, just have a note in the DC book about how some of the skills have been changed for the setting; plus add that this isn't intended to supersede the skills list in the Traveller CRB.
Though any group which prefers the DC skill list to the TCRB* is free to swap it in.

:* No, not TCRI. Get your head out of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, MG can't use it because of copyright.

 

[Limpin Legin]

Looking forward to it

 

[tadkelson]

The range of skills in Dark Conspiracy have been through quite a few permutations, but I think we have just about settled on them. We (obviously) used the current Traveller list as a starting point, but a few had to come out, others inserted, and some simply renamed to better fit in with a modern world setting.

As things stand, this is what the skill list looks like (skills with specialities are marked):

Advocate
Animals (handling, training, veterinary)
Art (performer, instrument, physical media, virtual media, write)
Athletics (dexterity, endurance, strength)
Business
Carouse
Computers (coding, hardware, operation)
Deception
Diplomat
Drive (hovercraft, track, wheel)
Electronics (comms, remote ops, sensors)
Empathy Use (computers, drain, foreboding, healing, project mind, sense mind)
Engineer (aerospace, civil, electrical, industrial, mechanical)
Explosives
Gambler
Gun Combat (archaic, pistol, rifle)
Heavy Weapons (artillery, portable, vehicle)
Investigate
Jack-of-All-Trades
Language*
Leadership
Mechanic
Medic
Melee (unarmed, blade, bludgeon, natural)
Navigation
Persuade
Pilot (airship, rotor, wing)
Profession*
Recon
Science*
Seafarer (ocean ships, personal, sail, submarine)
Stealth
Streetwise
Survival
Tactics

Which ones are gonna be the background skills per the normal Traveller Creation rules?
I am starting to gen up some initial NPC ideas just to test the waters for 2026

 

[MongooseMatt]

Which ones are gonna be the background skills per the normal Traveller Creation rules?

As things stand...

Animals 0
Art 0
Business 0
Carouse 0
Computers 0
Drive 0
Electronics 0
Language 0
Mechanic 0
Medic 0
Melee 0
Navigation 0
Persuade 0
Profession 0
Science 0
Streetwise 0
Survival 0

 

[tadkelson]

As things stand...

Animals 0
Art 0
Business 0
Carouse 0
Computers 0
Drive 0
Electronics 0
Language 0
Mechanic 0
Medic 0
Melee 0
Navigation 0
Persuade 0
Profession 0
Science 0
Streetwise 0
Survival 0

Thank You very much

 

[TrippyHippy]

Occult or Paranormal skill? Or is that a speciality of Science? Or is it not relevant?

 

[Condottiere]

 

[MongooseMatt]

Occult or Paranormal skill? Or is that a speciality of Science? Or is it not relevant?

Heh

There are Science (occultism) and Science (paraphysics) skills... but the problem is that, in this era of Dark Conspiracy nobody knows anything. About anything.

This is going to be a big feature of the game to begin with, and players will be charged with finding stuff out about the Dark as much as they will be responsible for pushing it back. They will constantly be thrown into situations where they start off knowing nothing about what they are facing. Gradually, if they survive, they may begin to put things together.

Those skills will appear in the next era of Dark Conspiracy but they don't exist at the moment because... well no one knows enough about what is going on.

 

[MongooseMatt]

Actually, this all makes me think that we should dive into how missions are structured. Developer's Diary coming up!