Metacognición

Bonds and restraints are as prevalent in the Steampunk age as they ever were; but for every foolproof trap, there is always a better fool. Escaping from captivity is a skill learned by criminals since they were street urchins and cultivated also by more fortunate folk who simply dislike being restrained.

Check: Make a check to escape from restraints or to squeeze through a tight space.

Restraint DC of Escape Check

Ropes Opponent’s Use Rope check +10

Net 20

Manacles 35

Tight space 30

Grappler Opponent’s grapple check

SKILLS

83

‘You still haven’t answered my question. What do you want?’ His tone was incredulous; Heshia was acting strangely and his first instinct was to go on the defensive. This was only made worse by his prostrate position. While he was receiving treatment for his wounds, Jerrek had to be on his stomach with his back facing the elf woman. This was about as vulnerable as he could get, which was far more exposed than he ever wanted to be to one of her kind, team mate or not.

‘Relax, human. I am just doing my job. If I wanted you dead, you would be.’

Jerrek groaned. ‘You keep saying that. Trust me, woman; you’d have to work pretty hard to keep me down.’ He tensed, wondering if that comment would earn him a dagger in the back or a clout to the head. He was not even sure why he had said it. Heshia just had a way of getting under his skin.

Before he knew it, the elf had done something with her bandages that had both his arms bound and a line of gauze down to his ankles. The binding was tight, but not terribly painful. That changed as soon as he struggled. The slipknot on the bandages tightened and he felt the circulation to his hands and feet begin to cut off. ‘What are you doing, elf?’ he demanded angrily. ‘What are you playing at?”

He heard something new from Heshia, something he had never expect to leave her lips - a laugh. ‘You said I would have to work hard to keep you down. I wanted to see if you were right.’

For ropes, chains and other restraints, a character’s Escape Artist check is opposed by the Use Rope check result of the opponent who tied the bonds. Since it is easier to tie someone up than to escape from being tied up, the opponent gets a +10 bonus on his Use Rope check.

For a tight space, a check is only called for if the character’s head fits but his shoulders do not. If the space is long, such as an airshaft, the Games Master may call for multiple checks. A character cannot fit through a space that his head does not fit through.

A character can make an Escape Artist check opposed by his opponent’s grapple check to get out of a grapple or out of a pinned condition, so that the character is just being grappled rather than pinned. Doing so is an attack action, so if the character escapes the grapple he can move in the same round.

Try Again: A character can make another check after a failed check if the character is squeezing through a tight space, making multiple checks. If the situation permits, the character can make additional checks as long as he is not being actively opposed.

Special: A character can take 10 on an Escape Artist check. A character can take 20 if he is not being actively opposed; a character can take 20 if he is tied up, even though it is an opposed check, because the opponent is not actively opposing the character. A character with the Nimble feat gets a +2 bonus on all Escape checks. A character with five or more ranks in Escape Artist gains a +2 synergy bonus to Use Rope checks when binding someone. A character with five or more ranks in Use Rope gains a +2 synergy bonus to Escape Artist checks when escaping from rope bonds.

Time: Making a check to escape from being bound by ropes, handcuffs, or other restraints (except a grappler)

requires 1 minute. Escaping a net is a full-round action.

Squeezing through a tight space takes at least 1 minute, maybe longer, depending on the distance that must be crossed.

Forgery (Int; Some Trained Only)

Papers are becoming more important with the advent of the printing press. Documentation floods the halls of organisations with orders, petitions and authorisations.

In this bureaucratic mayhem, enterprising ruffians can mimic such works using their trained abilities.

Check: Forgery requires ma terials appropriate to the document being forged and some quantity of working time. In order to forge a document, the character needs to have seen a similar document before. The complexity of the document, the character’s degree of familiarity with it and whether the character needs to reproduce the signature or handwriting of a specific individual all provide modifiers to the Forgery check, as shown below.

Document Type

Check Modifier

Inspection Time Simple (forged letter) +0 10 min Moderate

(ship manifesto)

-2 20 min

Complex

(identification papers)

-4 1 hr

Difficult (property deeds)

-8 4 hr

Extreme (royal decrees) -16 24 hr

The Games Master makes the character’s check secretly so the character is not sure how good his forgery is. A forger is allowed to know the check result and gains a retry if the document’s final check is 10 or less. Quality is hard to judge, but a lousy piece of work is recognisable to all.

SKILLS

Familiarity* Modifier

Unfamiliar (seen once for less than a minute)

-4 Fairly familiar (seen for several

minutes)

+0 Quite familiar (on hand, or studied at leisure)

+4 Forger has produced other documents of same type

+4 Document includes specific signature -4

* Use all modifiers that apply from this list.

Only moderate level forgeries can be attempted without at least one rank in this skill.

The Forgery skill is also used to detect someone else’s forgery. The result of the original Forgery check that created the document is opposed by a Forgery check by the person who examines the document to check its authenticity. If the examiner’s check result is equal to or higher than the original Forgery check, the document is determined to be fraudulent. The examiner gains bonuses or penalties on his check as given in the table below.

Examiner’s Condition Modifier

Type of document unknown to examiner

–4 Type of document somewhat known to examiner

–2 Type of document well known to

examiner

+0 Document is put through additional tests *

+4 Examiner only casually reviews the

document *

–2

* Cumulative with any of the first three conditions on the table. Apply this modifier along with one of the other three whenever appropriate.

A document that contradicts procedure, orders, or previous knowledge, or one that requires the examiner to relinquish a possession or a piece of information, can increase the examiner’s suspicion (and thus create circumstances favourable to the examiner’s opposed Forgery check) as determined by the Games Master.

Try Again: No, since the forger is not sure of the quality of the original forgery.

Special: To forge documents and detect for geries, one must be able to read and write the language in question;

the skill is language- dependent. A character can take 10 when making a Forgery check, but cannot take 20. A character with the Meticulous feat gets a +2 bonus on all

Forgery checks. A character without a forgery kit takes a –4 penalty on Forgery checks.

Time: Forging a short, simple document takes about 1 minute. Longer or more complex documents take 1d4 minutes per page or longer.

Gamble (Wis)

Rather than plying a respectable trade, many people turn to games of bluff and chance to make their living, particularly in the colonies and other barbaric settings.

As well as these back-street sports, there also are refined games of chance that respectable citizens can partake in and gain a reputation as gentlemen (and ladies) of skill and fortune.

Check: To join or start a game, a character must first pay a stake. The character sets the purchase DC of the stake if he starts the game, or the Games Master sets it if the character joins a game. Stakes run from penny-ante (purchase DC 4) to astronomical (purchase DC 24). A character cannot take 20 when purchasing a stake.

If the stake is within the character’s means (that is, it is equal to or less than his Wealth bonus) the character stands no chance of winning any significant amount. The character might come out ahead, but the amount is not enough to affect his Wealth bonus. Since paying the stake did not cost any points of Wealth bonus, the character does not lose anything either. If the stake is higher than the character’s Wealth bonus before applying any reductions from purchasing the stake, then the character gets a +1 bonus on his Gamble check for every point the purchase DC is above the character’s Wealth bonus.

The character’s Gamble check is opposed by the Gamble checks of all other participants in the game. If playing at a casino, assume the house has a Gamble skill modifier equal to the stake purchase DC. Regardless of the stake purchase DC, the house does not get a bonus on its Gamble check for the purchase DC. If there are many characters participating, the Games Master can opt to make a single roll for all of them, using the highest Gamble skill modifier among them and adding a +2 bonus to the check.

If the character beats all other participants, he wins and gains an increase to his Wealth bonus. The amount of the in crease depends on the difference between the character’s check result and the next highest result among the other participants. Gambling is a risky proposition but it is also one that can only be attempted infrequently with any real success. Every Gamble check made within the same month suffers a cumulative -1 circumstance penalty and a character can never benefit from more than a total of +5 to their current Wealth bonus at any one time.

SKILLS

85

Try Again: No, unless the character wants to put up another stake.

Special: A character cannot take 10 or take 20 when making a Gamble check. A character with the Confident feat gets a +2 bonus on all Gamble checks.

Time: A Gamble check requires 1 hour.