The Palladium Game System: How I Would Redo it! Part 7: The Skills List

Consider this to be a work in progress. I am probably not gonna have any more time to work on this till next Monday so I want to strike while the iron is hot!

Skill Descriptions: A Skill will list its Name, and available Tech Levels if it has any. (In P/M/H or ANY format. Guess what the letter stands for? Can't? WHY ARE YOU HERE? Oh yeah, Tech Levels are an optional rule now so check section X if you want to deal with it. ANY means the skill works in all tech levels by itself.) Then there will be a simple description of the skill as warranted. Remember that ANY class can learn any skill. It is up to the GM to determine if your character can learn the skill given your campaign and what is happening with it.

Note: Where there is an X shown, it means you select a generalized type. Such as Drive Vehicle X means you would pick say, Boats, Animals, Automobiles, or Motorcycles.

SKILLS:

SIMPLE SKILLS:

Physical:
Unarmed Combat: (ANY) The ability to hurt things with your bare hands, feet, head, or items designed to improve your ability to do so like brass knuckles.

Blade Combat: (ANY) The ability to use knifes, daggers, swords, axes or any similar type of weapon.

Blunt Combat: (ANY) The ability to use weapons designed for blunt force trauma like hammers, maces, blackjacks, ect.

Polearms Combat: (ANY) The ability to use spears, halberds, and all those long distance weapons only Gary Gygax cared about.

Thrown Combat: (ANY) Slings, throwing weapons, javelins, grenades, rocks.. the skill to take something and throw it at a target.

Bow Combat: (ANY) Bows, crossbows, and similar types of mostly physical projectile combat.

Firearms Combat: (P/M/H) The skill to use any sort of projectile or beam firearm that can be used on the go. Pistols, submachine guns, assault rifles, shotguns, that sort.

Athletics: (ALL) You know how to jump, climb, run, crawl, and slide under things, plus lift weights and all those other things most gamers never do. Like play baseball and football.

Drive X: (P/M/H) You can drive any civillian vehicle type appropriate to your time period. Motorcycles, bicycles, automobiles, horses, construction vehicles, boats. That sort of thing.

Mental:

Education: (P/M/H) You can read, write, and do arithmetic, plus whatever basic knowledge is taught in school for your place and age of growing up. Level 1 is roughly a 6th grade US education, while Level 5 is a Master's degree.

Knowledge X (P/M/H) You know lots about a modestly generalized topic. History, science, the country you grew up in.

Computer Use: (M/H) You can operate a computer or other form of electronics such as a cell phone.

Construction X: (P/M/H) You can build and repair things of a simpler less technical type. Buildings and simple machinery mostly, though some more advanced things may be allowed. X would be what type.

Social:

Bluff: (ALL) Your ability to lie and misdirect someone. Popular with conservatives.

Charm: (ALL) Your ability to impress or seduce someone.


COMPLEX SKILLS:

Physical:
Artillery Combat: (P/M/H) The ability to fire siege weapons such as the catapult, trebuchet, mortars, howitzers, and other ground based heavy weaponry of the sort. Usually indirect fire type weaponry.

Heavy Firearms Combat: (M/H) The ability to fire bazookas, heavy machineguns, rocket and grenade launchers, heavy anti tank beam guns, and other support weapons.

Drive Advanced X: (P/M/H) You can drive any advanced or combat vehicle type appropriate to your time period. Mecha, tanks, combat aircraft, civillian aircraft, trains, advanced seacraft. That sort of thing.
Mental:

Technical Construction X: (P/M/H) Advanced mechanical and electromechanical construction and repair skills. X being Aircraft, Automobiles. Mecha, Powered Armor, Firearms, Computers, or any other sort of complicated electromechanical topics you can think of. Pick one per skill.

Medical Science: (P/M/H) You can heal people. Level 1 is First Aid, level 5 is advanced brain surgery Doctor Frankenstein sorts of things.

Skullduggery: (P/M/H) Lockpicking, computer hacking, trap laying.. your character can break into things they aren't supposed to, or set these sorts of things to stop others.

Social:

Interrogation: (ALL) Users of this skill can get information or actions out of an unwilling target. Threats, physical coercion, or similar such methods.

Command: (ALL) Users can get mostly willing targets to do what they want. From organizing a team to build a home, to armies going to war, command covers it. Its your ability to get someone to do what you want them to via a means of authority.

(Updated on February 5, 2009)