Skill Mechanics

This page addresses the rules and uses for Skills and Specializations. For a list of all Skills, please see the Skills List page.

• Skills are used by Characters to perform actions, such as healing allies or attacking enemies. When a Character wants to perform an action, their Skill set will determine what they are good at and the rank in those Skills will dictate exactly how effective they are. The selection and progression of a Character's Skills are completely controlled by the Player, making the Skill build a major factor in every Character's abilities and playstyle.

• Every new Character starts with 2 Skills of their choice at Character Creation. These should normally be the two actions you feel your Character will use or need the most. If in doubt about what Skills to choose, narrow your search to whichever Traits you have decided are most important to your general concept. Look at no more than 2 Traits during this decision.
  • For example: if you decided that you want to make a tough character who is always in the heat of combat, it's likely that your two best Traits will be Physique (used for making attacks) and Vigor (improving health, armor and resistances). Look in these two Traits when deciding on your first two Skills.

• Further Skills can be unlocked by spending Perks.
  • Characters gain 1 Perk for every 3 Character levels and may use these at Character Creation as long as they begin with at least 3 levels. If you are creating a new Character, ask your Director what level your Character should start at. Otherwise, a Character gains 1 Character Level every 4XP and a Perk every 3 levels, meaning a Character gains 1 Perk every 12XP. Every game a Character takes part in grants an automatic +1XP, with a bonus +1XP for completing a side objective and +2XP for completing a main objective.

• When using a Skill, Characters gain a +1AP (or Action Point) bonus for each rank the Skill has.
  • For example: if a Character has 2 ranks in the Awareness Skill, then they would gain +2AP whenever they use Awareness to detect sneaky enemies, follow tracks, or make a judgement call on the best place to look for something.
• The difficulty of an action is determined by the number of AP required to succeed, so higher rank Skills make a Character more effective.
  • For example: if a Character simply wants to climb over a low wall, no test must be made. On the other hand, if the same Character wants to vault over the wall at a full Sprint to escape enemies, an Athletics test must be made. If the difficulty for a successful Sprinting vault is 10AP, then the Character must produce at least that many AP or fail the attempt. The more ranks the Character has in Athletics, the more bonus AP they will have and the more likely they will succeed.

• Specializations, or Specs, are situational bonuses for a given Skill. These abilities offer larger bonuses than Skills, but are very specific in how they can be used. As a result, they are best for focusing on a specific playstyle, rather than improving general effectiveness.
• Whenever a Skill is unlocked, all of its Specializations are also unlocked automatically.
  • For example: if a Character unlocks the Awareness Skill, they would also unlock the specializations of Perception, Tracking and Savvy automatically. The benefit of these Specs will still depend on their rank however: rank 0 specializations offer no added benefits. see below.
• Specializations cannot be leveled with XP. Instead, Characters receive a Specialization Point each time they level. Spec Points can be spent on any unlocked Specialization to increase its rank by 1. For each rank, a Specialization grants a +3AP bonus whenever it is used, stacking fully with any bonuses from the general Skill.
  • For example: if a Character levels up once, they will gain a Spec Point. This can be spent to add 1 rank to any unlocked Specialization. If the Character has unlocked the Awareness Skill already, they may choose to spend their Spec Point by adding a rank to the Perception Specialization. Once this is done, any test on Perception will benefit from ranks in both the Awareness Skill itself in addition to ranks in Perception.
• Specializations offer greater benefits per rank than Skills, but are more limited in their usage.
  • For Example: A Character with 2 ranks in Awareness alone will gain +2AP whenever they use the Awareness Skill. On the other hand, a Character with 2 ranks in Awareness and 1 rank in the Perception Spec will gain +2AP from Awareness in addition to +3AP from the Perception Specialization, for a total of +5AP, but since Perception offers its bonus only when the Character is using their senses to detect nearby activity, it offers no additional benefit to following tracks or trying to locate something through logic alone. These abilities fall under Tracking and Savvy Specializations.
• The rank in any Specialization cannot exceed the rank of its parent Skill.
  • For example: if a Character has 2 ranks in the Awareness Skill, they cannot have more than 2 ranks in any Awareness Specialization either, such as Perception. To gain rank 3 or more in one of these Specializations, the Awareness Skill must be ranked up first. This also means that Specs cannot be ranked up until their parent Skill has been unlocked, since this grants the first rank in any Skill.

• A Character automatically gains 1 Spec point per Character Level. This point can then be spent adding 1 rank to 1 Specialization within any unlocked Skill.
  • For Example: if a Character levels up, they gain a Specialization Point. They can spend the Spec Point to add a rank to the Awareness specialization; Perception. This grants the Character an additional +3AP when using Perception, which will help them use their senses to detect nearby activity.
• Specializations cannot be ranked until their parent Skill has been unlocked.
  • For example: if a Character wants to rank up the Perception Spec to improve their detection ability, they would first need to unlock the Awareness Skill, since the Perception Spec falls under that Skill. For a full list of Skills and Specs, see the Skills List.
• When making a new Character, ask your Director what level your Character should start at; the Character gains 1 Spec Point for each level they begin with. Otherwise, a Character gains 1 Spec Point each time they level up, or in other words, for every 4XP they earn. Every game a Character takes part in grants an automatic +1XP, with a bonus +1XP for completing a side objective and +2XP for completing a main objective.

• When using Skills that a Character has not unlocked, they suffer a -10AP Untrained penalty. Dice are still rolled as normal, using the normal Trait for the test, but the Character must overcome the penalty in addition to reaching the difficulty level of the test itself.
  • For example: In a previous case, a Character needed 10AP to successfully vault a wall. If the Character has not unlocked the Survival Skill, which is used for Athletics, then they not only need 10AP to reach the difficulty level of the action, but they will also need a further 10AP to overcome the -10AP Untrained penalty. This means the Character needs a total of 20AP to succeed. Once the Character has unlocked Survival, the -10AP penalty no longer applies.

Perks are special bonuses which cost no Skill Points and offer a wide variety of unique effects, from simple AP bonuses to unlocking new Skills. Every third Character level, a Perk Poing is gained, in addition to the Specialization Point gained each level. This Perk Point may then be spent to add 1 rank to a Perk of the Player's choice. Spending Perks is the only way to gain new Skills after Character creation. For more information on specific Perks and their effects, see the Perks List.

Character levels represent the Character's growth as they endeavor through their journey on Horizon. A Character can gain an infinite number of levels throughout their lifetime, but their starting level will vary, depending on the Director's conditions for their game. The basic elements of level progression are as follows:

• Characters gain a level for every 4XP they earn in-game.
• Each time a Character gains a level, they receive 1 Specialization point. These can be spent to rank up a Specialization of the Player's choice, granting a +5AP bonus whenever that Spec is used.
• Every 3 levels, a Character gains a Perk Point in addition to the Spec Point for that level. Perk Points can be spent to gain Perks, such as unlocking new Skills or granting bonuses to existing ones.

At Character Creation, the Director will decide what level the Player Characters should start at for their adventure. All bonuses the Character would normally gain as they level up will be granted immediately for each level they begin with.

• For example: if a Character starts at level 3, then they would begin with 3 Spec Points to spend and 1 Perk Point. This is because Spec Points are gained once for each level, while Perk Points are gained only every third level. Since Characters must earn 4XP to gain each level, this also means a level 3 Character would begin with 4XP x 3levels = 12XP to spend ranking up their Skills before play begins.

Experience Points, or XP, are crucial to a Character's development; allowing the Character to improve their abilities as well as gaining levels to unlock new ones. A large number of Skill points are granted when a Character is first created, depending on their starting level, but after this point the only method of gaining more is taking part in games. The number of Skill Points achieved for a session can vary greatly too, depending on your performance as a Player. The exact number will always fall to the Director's discretion, but as a general starting point, Skill Points should usually be awarded as follows:

• 1 automatic point each session for every participating Player
• 1 additional point for every Player when the group completes a Side Objective
• 2 additional point for every Player when the group completes a Main Objective
• 1 special point awarded to Players for an especially strong performance; this can take the form of an impressive feat of bravery or cleverness, good leadership, effective teamwork or a strong delivery of roleplaying. If someone is contributing a lot to the group, the gameplay, or especially both, consider giving them a little extra reward!

During longer-running stories, the Director may wish to forgo the process of gaining XP every game, opting instead to grant a larger bulk reward when the overall story is complete. This can be for many reasons, most notably keeping the Characters consistent throughout the story so the Director will not have to rebalance the adventure each session.