Algunas conclusiones sobre la validez constitucional de los TBI. El debate actual

The character might come from any one of several social niches. Perhaps his father was a slave, perhaps he was a priest or maybe even a wealthy aristocrat! He may have been a shepherd, perhaps a hill or irrigation farmer, a craftsman or some city dweller. But whatever the details of the character's origins, he has since emerged into the world as a poor man and must make his way without the riches his family might have enjoyed.

A player may select a social class from the table below, or he may roll 1d to determine his origins randomly. The table provides an easily remembered origin for the character.

1d Roll Social Class

1 Outsider. The family were outsiders, wanderers, labourers, shepherds or nomads, often on the move, cut-off from society and living hand-to-mouth, day-to- day. Their place is a low one with little respect.

2 Slave. The character has grown up in a town or city as the son of slaves.

Working day after day in the workshop or household of some wealthy citizen, the character has now gained his freedom (either by buying it, by being awarded it by a generous master, or by running away).

Alternatively, the character’s slave father might have earned his freedom.

Either way, he is now free.

3 Peasant. The family was poor, living in a crowded town house or a village with little spare food. A living could be made from the river or the fields, but taxes took much of this away. Yet the family had a regular income and a place in their society.

4 City-Dweller. The family had mastered a craft and were valued members of the village or town. Other people came to them for goods or services.

The family probably owned a business within the city.

5 Scribe. Educated and well read, the family moved in higher circles than others. The family home might have been a well-to-do town house or well appointed villa in the countryside. They were not aristocrats, but were nevertheless cultured, well paid, highly educated and comfortable.

6 Noble. The family was a noble and honourable one, born to rule

and with legitimate claims to land and villages in the area. Although it may have been a long way from royalty, the family owns vast estates, workshops or other capital and its men-folk are highly educated and involved with the politics of kingdoms, sitting on city councils as

magistrates. A well established and highly thought of family.

The Class Skills

These different social classes provide different types of training for their children. Even without formal training, a character has picked up a decent amount of information - a skill. A skill is a talent or ability which an occupation, social class or profession teaches.

Social class will also have an effect on how educated a character is, or how good they are with their hands. Skill descriptions, attribute bonuses and details of how they can be used in play are given further down.

Social Class Skill CRAFT Bonus LEARNING Bonus

Outsider Find Direction 3 dice 2 dice

Slave Streetwise 5 dice 2 dice

Peasant Carry Burden 4 dice 3 dice

City-Dweller Evaluate 5 dice 3 dice

Scribe Organise 3 dice 5 dice

Noble Seek Audience 3 dice 5 dice

Attribute bonuses are rolled once and any '6' result adds +1 to the relevant attribute score. For example, a City-Dwelling character rolls 5d for CRAFT and gets 6, 2, 1, 4, 5.

Thus he gets a +1 to add to his initial CRAFT score of '1'. Additional '6' results just add more +1 bonuses to the attribute.

Step V - Skills

A skill has no number attached to it, like FATE, LEARNING or MIGHT. A character either possesses a skill or does not. The use of each skill is different and both referee and player must determine the exact use of a skill by checking the descriptions given below.

Carry Burden: The character has plenty of hard experience as a bearer - someone who carries around loads on his back. It means he can comfortably carry far more than his body size would suggest. A strongman might be able to lift the weight over his head, but only a bearer could carry it across the desert all day! A proficient Bearer has double the load capacity of an unskilled character see Initial Equipment, later in this chapter).

Desert Travel: Travel through desert terrain can prove deadly to the unskilled and lack of water will slowly kill a traveller, day by day. The character with Desert Travel knows about the dangers of heat stroke, heat exhaustion, sunburn, sand storms, lack of salt, sand blindness and a host of other problems including the chances of floods in dry desert valleys and the value of wearing desert clothing. A character with Desert Travel suffers minimal damage when in desert

terrain and knows where and how to find waterholes or likely spots to dig for water in stony desert each day. See the later section on deserts in the Adventure Tool-Kit.

Evade: The character can avoid and flee violent confrontations and attacks very easily. If he spends 1 FATE point he gains a +4 bonus on his COMBAT roll to avoid combat. And he only needs to make this roll once to retreat (see Retreating). Evade only works if the PC is not wearing metal armour and is not carrying a weapon heavier than a dagger or club, or a shield.

Evaluate: The character can immediately assess the worth of an item of trade or an item of treasure. He knows what this item should be worth on the open market in a typical city or town. It does not apply to one-of-a-kind items, exotic, magical or previously unknown items, but only typical, commonly known, trade or treasure goods.

Find Direction: The character is always sure from which direction he has just come, can retrace his steps perfectly, and has an uncanny knack of being able to determine the direction north, with only the minimum amount of observable clues.

Hard To Kill: The character is hardened to pain and wounding, he has an in-built armour factor of 1. Any wounds inflicted upon him are reduced by one point.

Hiding: The character is expert at concealment and ambush. He is able to literally cover his tracks to prevent pursuit and can hide behind or within many different features to avoid detection. When someone attempts to spot the character that searcher gets an automatic -2 to his roll. A common use for Hiding is to ambush passing characters and gain complete surprise.

Killing Blow: The character has trained to hit certain parts of a target’s anatomy in hand-to-hand combat. He knows just where to strike for most damage, whether throat, eye, groin or heart etc.

This precision attack costs 1 point of FATE, but provides the adventurer with +4 on the damage that he inflicts (if the attack is successful). This bonus is good only for that single attack.

Killing Shot: The character has trained to hit certain parts of a target’s anatomy in missile combat. He knows just where to strike for most damage, whether throat, eye, groin or heart etc. This precision attack costs 1 point of FATE, but provides the adventurer with +4 on the damage that he inflicts (if the attack is successful). This bonus is good only for that single attack.

Mounted Combat: The character is trained to fight hand-to-hand from horseback and gains a +2 bonus to hit, regardless of what hand-to-hand weapon he uses or whether his opponent is on horseback or not.

Normally an unskilled rider would be at -2 to any attack!

Open Lock: The character is an expert at picking locks. Locks are very expensive in the Desert Kingdoms, used only by noble families, some very rich merchants and royalty. Locks are big and heavy. To use this skill a tool is required, either pre-prepared or improvised. A CRAFT roll is required to successfully pick a lock.

Organise: The character is trained to solve problems, to be efficient, to maximise resources and minimise waste! The Empire trains an army of scribes with the ability to organise and many consider this army more potent than its legions! A character with organise can always seem to speed up any team effort, always find a way to stretch resources just enough, can scrounge desperately needed items, and always find some way to cut corners. It may take some thinking time (or calculating time if that is more appropriate) but he can usually do it.

Parthian Shot: Used to shooting arrows from horseback, the character can use his bow without penalty while walking, running or riding. While on horseback he can even shoot backwards - a very useful manoeuvre when fleeing the battle!

Read Tracks: Fresh tracks and spoor can be identified and interpreted, allowing a tracker to assess the possible direction and number of an animal type.

Certain terrain, time and bad weather will all badly degrade animal tracks.

Humans, too, leave distinctive and tell-tale tracks that can (in ideal circumstances) betray direction, speed, numbers, burden carried and even how long ago they were made.

Seek Audience: The character is familiar with court etiquette and ritual and is readily able to 'play the system' to use the right amount of flattery and demand to get to see a high-ranking personage. A very useful skill!

Silent Movement: The character can creep about in total silence, making him a great thief or assassin! He cannot run or perform any other exertions, but must move slowly and cautiously. Note that this skill is not some magical power. If the character is walking on pebbles then he cannot rationally avoid making a noise ...

Streetwise: The character has experience with crime and the criminal underworld in one or more of the large cities of the Desert Kingdoms. FATE can be rolled to establish a contact in a city with members of a criminal gang (perhaps thieves or assassins). Bribes are standard for such contacts. Rolls can also be made to make a variety of illegal deals within this underworld culture, to find certain people or be introduced to an important figure.

Traps & Secret Doors: The character can spot traps and secret doors more reliably than others (who trust to FATE) and knows just how to deal with them.

He can disarm or otherwise bypass traps, and can open a known secret or concealed door. Rather than possessing acute eyesight, the character has a

‘feeling’ that a trap or secret door is in the immediate area. This helps to prevent this skill ruining an adventure.

When a character with this skill nears a concealed trap the referee can simply tell the player that ‘there is a trap nearby’. The character is thus on edge and forewarned but is still not sure where the trap is or what it is, indeed he may even still become a victim of the trap! The same goes for the existence of a secret door.

War Cry: The character can work himself into a terrible frenzy with a ritual war cry that might scare his opponent and give himself courage. A war cry must be screamed while engaging a fresh opponent, and costs him 1 point of FATE. It provides him with a +2 to hit against any opponent(s) for 1-6 combat rounds.