Skills
How to use skills
The very basics of how a skill roll works is very simple. You check your skill by adding the number of dots you have plus the related abilities, so you will have an extra ‘dot’ for each ability. For example, if you have both mental and persuasion and one dot in deduction you would roll three dice for a roll. If you had, only mental you would roll two dice.
Once you roll your dice, total the result, then compare that to the difficulty of the roll. If you match or exceeded that number, you succeed.
Sometimes, due to talents or due to a desire do more than the standard “yes/no” this section can go into considerably more detail. However, it’s important to remember that the game and its rules are meant to work for you not against you. Everything in here is aimed at providing greater or lesser degrees of clarity, or additional options depending on your needs. If all you need the dice to do is let you know if someone succeeded or failed, that’s fine. This is your game. Play it the way YOU and YOUR FRIENDS want to…
Remember the Golden Rules.
With that out of the way, here are the rest of the rules.
Difficulty
These are the numbers needed to succeed on a roll, by totalling the resulting and comparing to this table. The words here should give you an idea of what level to set for different tasks. After all, it’s much meaningful to think of something as “A challenging task” which can be achieved by “a talented individual”, rather than “Difficulty: 10”.
Your conspirator will usually use the categories to say you need talented roll, to do that, and then will give you usually around three different options to chose from, some will be easier to perform others will be harder. At times they will give a more varied answer like Talented to Heroic.
| Catagory | Difficulty Name | Result need |
|---|---|---|
| Mundane | Easy | 3 |
| Mundane | Simple | 5 |
| Mundane | Routine | 6 |
| Talented | Novice | 7 |
| Talented | Challanging | 10 |
| Talented | Advanced | 12 |
| Heroic | Difficult | 14 |
| Heroic | Hard | 16 |
| Heroic | Master | 18 |
| Legendary | Extreme | 20 |
| Legendary | Obscene | 23 |
| Legendary | Obscene | 26 |
+Catagories
Mundane
Mundane tasks are ones where the point of rolling is more a matter of not failing, than it is succeeding. The only time these tasks usually come up is when someone is attempting something they have neither talent nor training in. These tasks are so passé that to fail them brings attention to you. While routine tasks can be failed by those with talent in the area, it is so rare that a failure is more of a spectacle than a success.
Talented
These are the tasks of those who have some training or aptitude within the area. This is fairly broad and covers everything from the amateur dabbler to the well-seasoned professional.
Heroic
These tasks are so intense that even managing to complete one is a feat in and of itself. These represent tasks so challenging and risky that no normal person would be willing or able to complete them. Only someone truly exceptional, or incredibly desperate would have any chance. At this level, you’re not really thinking about success or failure as much as whether you have the courage or will to even make the attempt.
Legendary
These tasks are so beyond the day-to-day reality as to become the stuff of myth and legend. These are the sorts of feat where people will be telling tales about them for generations – of the astounding skill and abilities of those who succeeded and the valiant but doomed courage of those who failed. Of course, if there was nobody there to see it, nobody would ever believe it in the first place.
Losing isn’t failure
Roleplaying isn’t about winning and losing. It is about story, so a lost roll is setting up an obstacle for your investigator and seeing how they deal with it. Even if a bad roll results in death, it can still have meaning. A death in your favourite book, movie, or television series is usually the most memorable thing within it. Let’s be fair, not every dice roll is going to be a matter of life and death.
In Xor’Veil losing a dice roll does not mean automatic failure. It means that the character’s fate is in the Conspirator’s hands. The Golden Rules say this a story where you have a collective interest in making a great story. As an example, you want to break into a place, so you use thievery to unlock a door, but you roll badly. Maybe the lock is too difficult or you don’t have the right tools. This could lead to frustration on all ends, the Conspirator is attempting to signal something, but the Investigators only see the failed roll and become frustrated. Situations like this are the least interesting option as far as storytelling goes, and there are lots of other options available.
Take that same attempt to break in, and you lose the roll. In response, the Conspirator might say that you manage to break the lock not pick it. This means you can still get in but anyone who checks the door they will know someone broke in… Or, your fumbling causes the mechanism turns with a loud mechanical crack! Guards start approaching your location… Or, you did it but a tiny pin prick, and a feeling of poison coursing through your veins, what is it? How long do you have? Do you have enough time to grab what you need and leave?
A big part of being a hero is dealing with surprises, and a bad dice roll can be seen as a chance to show what your character can do in a pinch, when something unexpected rears its head. This is more interesting than just losing, losing isn’t failure, but when it is be a good sport about it.
No Dice!
Sometimes a circumstance will arise where a person would have no dice due to their Investigator having no dots in a section, and no abilities that relate to that skill. In these cases, FIRST apply any circumstance bonus that conspirator may apply. Then, if you still have no dice, you must instead roll two dice and choose the lower of the two.
Sixes
The maximum number of dice you can ever roll, even with action points, is six. If you have six dice in your pool already, you can still spend action points to enable you to re-roll a die. Your other alternative, should you find yourself with excessive dice, is to gamble.
It’s a Gamble
In Xor’Veil, you may be legendary at your craft, so the mundane is below you. Hell, for the truly exceptional (or arrogant), those with talent are below you, so why not make a gamble by risking everything on those extra dice?
When you make a gamble, you must announce it before you make the skill roll. Then, you set aside a number of dice. The number of dice you set aside is up to you, but if you win on your roll you can gain narrative control. For each dice you set aside, you may add an additional detail to your success
+ Example
Amy is playing Lothario Rake, a dashing, but somewhat caddish investigator who uses his well-honed social skill to make his way through high society, keeping his ears open for any juicy gossip or salacious information and, should the need arise, the chance to make some money in the bargain.
Lothario has heard word of a big, and extremely exclusive party. It is quite the social foray, and it would be challenging for most people to even get in… but this is meat-and-potatoes to Lothario Rake, who can (and frequently does) socialise with the best of them. By the time he arrives, Amy knows exactly how he’s going to approach the situation.
Lothario has both Charisma and Persuasion as well as three dots in Socialise. This means she will be rolling five dice for him on socialise rolls. This is far more than is needed for a mere Challenging task (Difficulty 10) of getting into the party, so Amy starts to consider her options:
She might decide that Lothario is no gambler, his mother didn’t raise no rube, and it wouldn’t do to be seen to be hustled out by the guards. So, she just takes the dice and rolls, beating the difficulty with ease. The Conspirator responds:
“Lothario flashes a smile and gets past the door guard”
Alternately, Amy might think, “It wouldn’t do for Lothario Rake not to make an entrance!”, however, she still wants to ensure he has a good chance of success. She knows she can still fail on three dice needing a ten so she sets aside one extra die. Beating the roll with a 13 (a 6, a 1 and two 3’s), she takes narrative control and says:
“Lothario flashes a smile and gets past the door guard. As he does, every woman in the courtyard has noticed and a flush of crimson adorns their cheeks when they do.“
Amy is feeling fairly liberal so she is going to take a bit of a risk and sets aside two dice. She beats the roll 12 a six, and two threes. So she takes narrative control and says:
“Lothario flashes a smile and gets past the door guard and every woman in the courtyard has noticed him, a crimson red adores their cheeks when they do. Especially the belle of the ball, with just a smile a she has more than a flush.”
Amy is a bit touched tonight and has decided that she can win no matter the odds. And sets aside three dice. She matches the roll 10 a six and four. So she takes narrative control and says:
“Lothario flashes a smile and gets past the door guard and every woman in the courtyard has noticed him, a crimson red adores their cheeks when they do. Especially the belle of the ball, with just a smile a she has more than a flush. Then she approaches him with a hidden smile behind a fan and coos ‘will you share the next dance’”
House wins
With any gamble, however, there is always a risk that things will go wrong. As explained earlier, this isn’t necessarily a catastrophic failure, but will result in the Conspirator throwing some additional hurdles at the Investigator. Taking a gamble makes the announcement that you think you can win, despite the odds. A success allows the Investigator to take control of the situation, and show off their skills to the best effect, however, a failure is an opportunity to do the same.
+ Example
We return to the party, with Lothario keen for his entrance to make an impact, only this time, the dice will be against his player, Amy.
Amy decides that Lothario is no gambler, so, she just takes the dice and rolls. This time, she loses the roll. The Conspirator says that was unexpected and announces:
“Lothario flashes a smile and the guard eyes him with suspicion”
Alternately, Amy decides to take a small gamble. She wants Lothario’s entrance to make an impact, but doesn’t want to make a major faux pas at the outset. She knows she can still fail on three dice needing a ten so she sets aside one dice. She narrowly fails the roll with a result of 9 (a 1, two 3’s and a 2). In response, the Conspirator asserts narrative control and says:
“Lothario flashes a smile and the guard eyes him with suspicion, barring his way. “Who are you?” he asks, eyeing Lothario up and down, before telling another guard, “Be on lookout for gate crashers!””
Amy is feeling fairly liberal, so she is going to take a bit of a risk and sets aside two dice. She loses the roll with a result of 9 (a 6, a 2 and a 1). The Conspirator asserts narrative control and says:
“Lothario flashes a smile and the guard eyes him with suspicion. They let him in, but all of them are watching him, an underling over and whispers something in the guard’s ear. The whole feel of the room is bad, the air thick with suspicion and the possibility of imminent violence. Lothario catches a familiar figure through the crowd his long-time rival, Debonair Sprightly here, and his chatting amiably with the belle of the ball.”
Combined rolls
Combined rolls are where two skills are combined in a single roll. You get up to three dice from each skill. Take each skill half the number of dots you have in it (round up), and you get that many dice from that skill for roll.
Example:
A distraction may work in such a way, you use from one half thievery and one half from guile.
Or one half from stealth and one half from style.
Combined partner rolls
Some combined rolls only need one person to perform one half the roll and the other can be performed by another.
Team-work rolls
Team work rolls are for when one member of the group is far superior in a single skill than the rest of the group and they use their ability to aid the group. The group elects a leader, after the re-roll phase before the action phase, the leader may swap any one of their rolls with other group member.
Example: The group lead Alex is one of four investigators, Tim, Allen, and Jay. They all need to pass a novice stealth check to get passed these yawning guards.
Alex is exception at stealth and has the talents relating to it, he rolls, 6,4,4,3,3, not a bad roll however. Tim, Allen and Jay are not as good. Tim has two dice, rolling 1,4. Allen has one dice, rolling a 2. And Jay rolls a 2 as well. Alex has a few choices first he swaps his 3 with Tim’s 1 so that he passes. Then he has to choose between Allen and Jay they both rolled twos and only have one dice so he can only get one of them to pass. So one will get caught… or they will have to use an action point see page reference.
Phases
Initially, this may look very complex but, is mainly designed to make sure everything is clear, and to avoid confusion. If you are here it is due to some confusion in times of confusion always remember the Golden Rules, all of this is for clarity, and you shouldn’t need to reference it in normal play.
Phases describe how the game resolves rolls mechanically. This is to ensure that there is no confusion as to how rolls are resolved, when to apply any modifiers or when re-rolls should occur. Eventually, this process should become reflexive, but at first, it can help to have this list to hand.
Add Dice
Total the number of dots you have with a skill and abilities, and then gather that many dice.
The conspirator applies any modifiers that may add any additional dice your roll.The Natural Roll:
This is the roll without any modifiers or re-rolls being applied to the roll.
3. Lock-in Phase:
One of the abilities you can buy with action points is that you may lock-in your natural roll. This means that no abilities (whether yours or your opponents) or any environmental forces may affect your roll.
4. Re-roll phase:
a) Your re-rolls:
Some abilities may allow you to re-roll dice or a single die, first you may apply re-roll to dice and then set them aside.
b) Challenge re-rolls:
This is where you or an opponent may affect another investigator’s or antagonist’s roll. Set those dice aside. The aggressor always goes first.
c) Resolve the re-roll:
Re-roll those dice set aside for re-rolls and then add them back to the dice roll with their new results.
5. Action phase:
This is where you add an action dice to your dice result. If you roll a six on it, you may re-roll any other dice you have rolled. If you roll a six on that dice, you may roll another, until you stop rolling sixes or until all your dice are sixes, whichever comes first.
6. Apply modifiers:
Some talents may cause dice results or totals to be modified. Now is when you do that.
Total, Compare, or Contrast:
Total your dice roll, compare it to the difficulty needed to succeed, or contrast it to the opponent’s roll.
Resolving draws
If in an opposed roll and a draw occurs, each person gets another die from their six and rolls it. The person who rolls highest wins, if they still draw repeat the process until one person has no dice the person with no dice left loses. If they used all six of their dice and they are still tied, they each roll their lowest dice until one person rolls higher.
Skills
Mental Wits Skills
+Academics
Traditional Definition: Learned or scholarly but lacking in worldliness, common sense, or practicality.
Skill: Mental + Wit + Dots
Game Definition: Academics is the skill that is used for knowledge gained through the rigours of study. This can be broad categories, such as the knowledge of geography or it can be more specific, such as how mountains affect rainfall. It is generally used when wanting to know the veracity of a statement. While it can often provide useful knowledge, it can sometimes be of limited practical application
+Theivery
Traditional Definition: The act or practice of thieving; theft.
Skill: Mental + Wit + Dots
Game Definition: Thievery is the skill of criminal ability, from picking locks, to wallets. This covers a broad range of skills, from sleight-of-hand, to the ability to escape bonds. It covers everything that would be gained through a life of crime. While some people may have thievery skills while not being criminals, there is a strong chance that they either deal regularly with the criminal element, or learned these skills from someone with criminal ties.
+ Reason
Traditional Definition: Learned or scholarly but lacking in worldliness, common sense, or practicality.
Skill: Mental + Wit + Dots
Game Definition: Academics is the skill that is used for knowledge gained through the rigours of study. This can be broad categories, such as the knowledge of geography or it can be more specific, such as how mountains affect rainfall. It is generally used when wanting to know the veracity of a statement. While it can often provide useful knowledge, it can sometimes be of limited practical application
Physical Wits Skills
+Intimidate
Traditional Definition: To force into or deter from some action by inducing fear.
Skill: Physical + Wit + Dots
Game Definition: Intimidate is the skill of gaining compliance through fear. A lot of people think of intimidation as a blunt instrument, however, it can be used through subtle means. This can be done by suggesting implied negative social, threatening livelihood or personal consequences for action. Intimidation is as much the appeal to authority or expertise as it is the threat of violence.
+ Stealth
Traditional Definition: Secret, clandestine, or surreptitious activity.
Skill: Physical + Wit + Dots
Game Definition: Stealth is the skill of acting without detection, or of disguising one’s true actions through deception or misdirection. Stealth covers instances relating to physical acts of stealth, while guile covers emotional or social stealth.
+ Wisdom
Traditional Definition: Knowledge of what is true or right coupled with just judgment as to action.
Skill: Physical + Wit + Dots
Game Definition: Wisdom is the skill of intuition, of knowing when to leave before things get hectic, that someone hates you with a glance, or if someone is on your side or the other side. It is not only being able to listen to your gut, but to hear what it is saying.
Physical Allure Skills
+Athletics
Traditional Definition: The practice of athletic exercises; the principles of athletic training.
Skill: Physical + Allure + Dots
Game Definition: Athletics is the skill of physical might, of using the body for peak performance in activities like running, jumping, and throwing. It is used to make the body perform for you.
+Grace
Traditional Definition: Elegance or beauty of form, manner, motion, or action
Skill: Physical + Allure + Dots
Game Definition: Grace is the skill of natural charm and form. This manifests as both raw charisma and natural flexibility. It can cover the ability to glide from partner to partner on the dance floor at a fancy ball, or to glide from one conversation to another at a high-minded salon. It is used to show acrobatic performance and charm without manipulation.
+Animalist
Traditional Definition: A person driven by animal appetites
Skill: Physical + Allure + Dots
Game Definition: Animalist represents your knowledge of nature, your primal connection to it, and your ability to harness that connection. A person with high animalist skill may be more in tune with their animal nature, or it may be the result of learned knowledge and experience. As a result, they will have an awareness of how nature works, animal behaviours or the natural world and how to deal with it.
Charisma Allure Skills
+Etiquette
Traditional Definition: Conventional requirements as to social behavior; proprieties of conduct as established in any class or community or for any occasion.
Skill: Charisma + Allure + Dots
Game Definition: Etiquette skill represents a knowledge of high society. From which spoon to use at the dinner table, to who to bow to or shake the hand of, etiquette represents a knowledge of the labyrinthine rules used to determine correct social behaviour and exclude outsiders. This often comes with a knowledge of who is important and who isn’t.
+Guile
Traditional Definition: Insidious cunning in attaining a goal; crafty or artful deception; duplicity.
Skill: Charisma + Allure + Dots
Game Definition: Guile is the skill of cunning and duplicity. Guile is the ability to say one thing to gain another, hide the right hand from the left, and to smile at the one who betrayed you. Guile is used manipulate language, hide objects from sight, and show one face while hiding another. It can even be used to convince the righteous to fight the wicked, even while the wicked one is in front of them.
+Conviction
Traditional Definition: A fixed or firm belief.
Skill: Charisma + Allure + Dots
Game Definition: Conviction is the skill of determination, religious or ideological conviction, and knowledge. While for some people, this is associated with religious beliefs, it can be applied to any ideology or principle. In addition to belief, this skill should also give them knowledge and awareness of their ideology, and the ability to draw on that belief to endure hardships. Some people with this skill will also have knowledge of rival faiths and ideologies. It can also act as a bulwark against intimidation and threat, though it may be blind to more subtle means of deception.
Charisma Persuasion Skills
+Empathy
Traditional Definition: The psychological identification with or vicarious experiencing of the feelings, thoughts, or attitudes of another.
Skill: Charisma + Persuasion + Dots
Game Definition: Empathy is the skill of gaining insight through feeling. Empathy is the skill that you use to discover and understand the feelings of another person, to understand their motivations, or their pains. While this is best used on a personal level, it can also be used on a group or even societal level.
+Style
Traditional Definition: A particular, distinctive, or characteristic mode of action or manner of acting.
Skill: Charisma + Persuasion + Dots
Game Definition: Unlike other skills style is often used in conjunction with another skill or used when success has already been determined. Style is about looking good, being cool, and stylish. Styles domain is popular culture, fashion, and trends within the city. A person with a high style score may say nothing but come off better than the person saying something of substance. Style isn’t always knowing what to do, but can also cover when not to say or do something.
+Socialise
Traditional Definition: The ability to interact meaningfully with other people.
Skill: Charisma + Persuasion + Dots
Game Definition: Socialise is the ability to make a good first impression, to slow tempers, and to weave in and out of society’s social strata. The ability to socialise may be used for a wide range of activities. It can be used to gather information at a large gathering, to size up groups of people, to discern which people to avoid, and which people might be of use, to gain access to restricted social events, or to get out a situation that went wrong at one.
Physical Persuasion Skills
+Deduction
Traditional Definition: The act or process of deducing.
Skill: Mental + Persuasion + Dots
Game Definition: Deduction is the skill of figuring things out. It is a process where one begins with general information and uses it to apply to the specific, taking logical bounds in thought to come to conclusions. People with this skill can dissect people’s thoughts and reasons for making arguments and discern the process behind such an argument.
+Medicine
Traditional Definition: The art or science of restoring or preserving health or due physical condition, as by means of drugs, surgical operations or appliances, or manipulations
Skill: Mental + Persuasion + Dots
Game Definition: Medicine, unlike most game definitions, needs little expansion. While medical science is constantly evolving, most modern medical techniques have been around for a considerable time. Pharmaceuticals, procedures, and machinery have been the saving grace of many. The Medicine skill represents a person’s knowledge of the body and the ways to heal it.
+Eccentricity
Traditional Definition: An oddity or peculiarity, as of conduct
Skill: Mental + Persuasion + Dots
Game Definition: Eccentricity is the skill of unusual behaviour, knowledge or skills. It encompasses matters of the occult, to rare, arcane or ancient knowledge. Such knowledge, however, can make a person strange and lead to unusual behaviours or habits. Such is the price of knowing the unknowable.
+Action Points
Action points are the backbone of Xor’Veil.
Gaining action points
You earn action points by doing stylish things, progressing the narrative, or just doing something cool. There is no one specific way to get action points. The conspirator will award action points according to how to play.
Using action points
You may use an action point on any skill roll and it adds one single dice If you roll a six on it, you may re-roll any other dice you have rolled. If you roll a six on that dice, you may roll another, until you stop rolling sixes or until all your dice are sixes, whichever comes first.
However, you may use a second action point, if you do, you do you may only re-roll one dice in the pool, if you get a six you may reroll another dice as described above.