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| Art Credit: Pixelbay |
I’ve discussed skills in Cypher before and how the skills your player picked during PC creation can customize your campaign. With the Cypher System Open License, though, some GMs may want to truly build a skill list from the ground up.
Within Descriptors come in two varieties. Either as a PC
gets training in a broad category, such as all positive social interactions. The
second type is a narrow skill set, much closer to what most gamers think of as a
RPG skill. These two types of skills balance out against a bonus to pool
points. See Customizing Descriptors for more details.
(Abilities through Types, Flavors and Focuses also adds temporary
training in narrow skills such as Stealth or Perception but only in certain circumstances
like being invisible or swimming. Check out the Tasks category of focuses for
more of these.)
For a skill list as we commonly know it, though, we’ll
focus on the special abilities that assign narrow skills. Also, this type of
list I am omitting the training for stat pools defenses and Initiative.
Incidentally while the sample skill list on page 19 is
helpful, it does not exactly line up with how these skills are worded within the
abilities. The list below might be considered the “official” Cypher skill list:
Areas of Knowledge: History, Geography,
Geology, (and mentioned on the sample list on page 19 – Archeology, Astronomy, Biology,
Philosophy, and Physics)
Assessing Danger
Balancing
Botany
Breaking into Computers
Carpentry
Carrying
Climbing
Computers
Crafting – Computers
Crafting - Weapons
Crafting skill (as mentioned in the sample skill list and
the crafting section: Leatherworking, Woodworking, Metalworking, Machinery,
etc)
Cryptography
Deceiving
Deception
Detecting Falsehoods
Disguise
Electrical repair
Escaping
Healing
Identifying
Identifying plants and creatures
Identifying tracks
Intimidation
Jumping
Lockpicking
Machines - Tech skills
Mathematics
Navigation Night/Land
Perception
Persuasion
Pickpocketing
Piloting
Plumbing
Public Speaking
Repairing
Research
Riding
Robot builder
Running
Seeing through deception
Sleight of Hand
Smashing
Sneaking
Spelunking
Stealth
Stonecraft
Swimming
Vehicle driving
As you can see, even some of these skills blur the lines
between narrow and broad depending on perspective and personal opinion. Honestly,
I’m not dying on a hill for any of these skills.
If you want to make up your own skill list, though, you
are in luck, several of the abilities offer a more open interpretation That make it easy to add your own. Those
that offer training in “Areas of Knowledge” is a perfect example.
It is not a typo that some of them do not have a
Focus or Type listed next to them. These are “orphan” abilities hiding in plain
sight. I have found one or two in the past but I had no idea how many there
were.
Tier 1
Assassin Skill - Focus: Murders
Athlete - Focus: Feats of Strength
Autodoctor
Balance - Focus: Moves like a Cat
Blameless
Crafter - Focus: Crafts Unique Objects
Exploratory Experience
Handy - Focus: Works for a living
Hard Choices
How Others Think
Interaction Skills - Focus: Flavor: Skills And
Knowledge Abilities; Was Foretold
Investigate - Focus: Operates Undercover
Investigative Skills - Focus: Flavor: Skills And
Knowledge Abilities (And at Explorer Tier 2)
Knowledge Skills - Focus: Flavor: Skills And
Knowledge Abilities; Conducts Weird Science (and at Tier 4)
Physical Skills - Focus: Flavor: Skills And
Knowledge Abilities: Type: Warrior; Type: Explorer
Physical Skills -Flavor: Skills and Knowledge
Poetic License
Post-Apocalyptic Survivor - Focus: Scavenges
Stealth Skills - Focus: Infiltrates and Works the Back
Alley
Task Training
Tech Skills - Focus: Flavor: Skills And Knowledge
Abilities; Battles Robots.
Tracker- Focus: Hunts and Fights Dirty
Travel Skills - Focus: Flavor: Skills And Knowledge
Abilities (And at Explorer Tier 2)
Wilderness Life - Focus: Lives in the Wilderness
Wilderness Lore - Focus: Speaks for the Land
Wound Tender: Focus - Looks for Trouble
Tier
2
Contortionist - Flavor: Stealth
Disguise - Focus: Operates Undercover
Extra Skill - Flavor: Skills and Knowledge
Investigative Skills - Type: Explorer (And at Focus: Skills
And Knowledge Tier 1)
Quick to Flee - Focus: Runs Away
Sneak - Focus Hunts and Fights Dirty
Travel Skills - Type: Explorer (And at Focus: Skills And
Knowledge Tier 1)
Tier
3
Master Crafter - Focus: Crafts
Unique Objects
Rider
Tier
4
Expert Driver - Focus: Drives Like A Maniac
Knowledge Skills -Focus: Conducts Weird Science (and at Tier
1)
Master Thief- Focus: Works the Back Alleys
Multiple Skills - Flavor: Skills and Knowledge
Task Specialization -Flavor: Skills and Knowledge
Tier
5
Further Mathematic - Focus:
Calculates the Incalculable
Learned a Few Things - Focus
Learns Quickly
No One Knows Better - Focus: Interprets the Law
That breaks down narrow skills for Cypher and I hope it helps you in your own world building with Cypher. If you enjoyed this abbreviated post. You can find the full version on my Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/ganzagaming.
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