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.

• Skills are improved by adding ranks. This is achieved by spending XP directly on the Skill you want to improve. Each rank costs 1XP.

• All Skills have a maximum rank equal to 2x Character level.
  • For example: a Character with level 12 cannot have any Skill ranked higher than 24, since 12 x 2 = 24. Specializations (see below) also cannot exceed the rank of their parent Skill. If a Skill is rank 6, none of its Specializations may be higher than rank 6.

• 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.

• 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.

• 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.

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.