Skills (Orion Supplement)
| World of Orion |
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| Player Info |
| World Reference |
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| DM Info |
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Skills
Skills in Orion are run differently than in other campaigns. In Orion skills are run in levels, gaining experience points in them as you use them. Once you gain enough experience with a certain skill, it advances a level. The level of the skill is equivalent to your bonus when using that skill. Because of this, their are no restrictions on the bonuses to various skills depending on your level. In this way the campaign gains an aspect of realism. A person who is poor at thieving or fighting or whatever, you name it, can be very good at swimming, or designing bows. In this way also a sense of connection and achievement may be garnished from gaining bonuses to skills. You work hard to get better at skills, they are not just given to you as you level up.
You do, thankfully, start with a certain number of skills, depending on your class and intelligence like normal, however there are no class skills like normal. When choosing your starting skills, try as much as possible to incorporate them into your history or past. If you start with 5 ranks in move silently, but you've been a clumsy barbarian all your life, it would be difficult to figure out where those ranks came from.
Using this system you may also gain levels and experience in the most mundane skills. It is left up to the discretion of the DM to decide what is skill worthy and what isn't. For example, if your character sits down to gamble with some friends (or enemies) after, depending on how well he did, he would gain experience in gambling. However, if a character steps into a small tub of water after the end of the day and soaks there, he would not gain experience and levels in bathing.
All skills mentioned within base DnD rule books and SRD information, or others of the like are considered moderate skills for experience and leveling.
Experience gained from skill checks is equal to twice the result on the die roll. You may make as many checks per day as the skill normally allows, gather information could take an hour or two, however bluff can be used in minutes.
Simple skills
Simple skills make up a very small portion of the players skill arsenal. However much more common then complex skills, which most players will only have one or two of, they are no were near as common as moderate skills. Simple skills often include everyday tasks and some may be considered mundane, or hardly ever used. It is at this point were the DM must make the decision if it is skill worthy or not. Simple skills, while they may be trained by friends, can almost always be self taught. You can gain experience in many simple skills without prior training in their use.
Examples:
- --Bargaining
- --Gardening
| Level | Experience |
|---|---|
| 1st | 0 -- 500 |
| 2nd | 501 -- 1,000 |
| 3rd | 1,001 -- 2,000 |
| 4th | 2,001 -- 3,000 |
| 5th | 3,001 -- 4,000 |
| 6th | 4,001 -- 5,000 |
| 7th | 5,001 -- 6,000 |
| 8th | 6,001 -- 7,000 |
| 9th | 7,001 -- 8,000 |
| 10th | 8,001 -- 9,000 |
For each additional level beyond the 10th add another 1,000 experience.
Moderate skills
Moderate skills are the most common skills that will be used by players. Most of a players skills will be moderate skills because they are the most commonly used ones. A moderate skill actually includes quite a large range of skills, from simple moderate skills, to skills that could almost be counted as complex. Moderate skills are often learned by on ones own and self taught, however a large number can be, and are trained by friends or mentors. Most moderate skills you can use and gain experience with even without taking the time to formally or properly self train them.
Examples:
- --Gambling
- --Survival
- --Move silently
| Level | Experience |
|---|---|
| 1st | 0 -- 1,000 |
| 2nd | 1,001 -- 2,000 |
| 3rd | 2,001 -- 4,000 |
| 4th | 4,001 -- 6,000 |
| 5th | 6,001 -- 8,000 |
| 6th | 8,001 -- 10,000 |
| 7th | 10,001 -- 12,000 |
| 8th | 12,001 -- 14,000 |
| 9th | 14,001 -- 16,000 |
| 10th | 16,001 -- 18,000 |
For each additional level beyond the 10th add another 2,000 experience.
Complex skills
Complex skills are very rare among the world of Orion. These skills can almost never be learned by player characters without external aid. When attempting to train and learn in a complex skill the characters may have to embark on an adventure, or even a miniature campaign just to find somebody who can teach them a complex skill. This is not always the case, however it is the most common. Taking into account the extreme lengths that must be undertaken to train complex skills you can probably judge what is fair as being a complex skill. However, like all skills, complex skills may be stumbled upon by accident when attempting to complete a certain task, however almost all require you to be trained first before use.
Examples:
- --Knowledge (Forgotten Lore)
| Level | Experience |
|---|---|
| 1st | 0 -- 1,000 |
| 2nd | 1,001 -- 2,000 |
| 3rd | 2,001 -- 4,000 |
| 4th | 4,001 -- 8,000 |
| 5th | 8,001 -- 12,000 |
| 6th | 12,001 -- 16,000 |
| 7th | 20,001 -- 24,000 |
| 8th | 24,001 -- 28,000 |
| 9th | 28,001 -- 32,000 |
| 10th | 32,001 -- 36,000 |
For each additional level beyond the 10th add another 4,000 experience.
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