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HMS Apollyon Specialist Skills

Overview

This module expands the specialist or thief-facing skill layer into a broader x-in-6 package for exploration-heavy play. The stated goal is not to turn the game into skill resolution first. It is to provide mechanical support where player knowledge is insufficient, where specialist training should matter, or where repeated fictional procedures need a stable time-and-risk cost.

The article explicitly argues that skills are most useful when they answer questions players cannot reasonably solve out of character, or when using the rule creates a clear tradeoff through turn cost and encounter risk.

Core Design Position

The module uses an x-in-6 chassis modeled on Lamentations of the Flame Princess rather than percentile thief skills.

Its design goals are:

  • broaden specialist identities beyond burglar-assassin archetypes
  • let other classes lean into expert niches without requiring new classes
  • support factional, scientific, medical, and expeditionary play
  • preserve player problem-solving by restricting skill use to the right domains
  • make each roll consume time and exposure, not just grant free certainty

One of the module's best arguments is procedural: a skill roll usually costs a turn and therefore implies an encounter or exploration check. Failure is often wasted time, not cartoon catastrophe.

Skill Families Added Or Reframed

The module covers both niche specialties and generalized adventuring skills.

Technical and knowledge skills

  • Engineering: machines, artillery, siege work, mechanism interpretation
  • Medicine: battlefield care, post-combat healing, stabilization of the dying
  • Chemics: poison handling, compounds, medicine support, hazardous substances
  • Scholarship: ruins, ancient inscriptions, artifact origin, dead knowledge
  • Arcana: magical investigation, identification, scroll use, magical forensics
  • Acumen: appraisal, bureaucracy, commerce, negotiation protocol

Field and operation skills

  • Survival: foraging, tracking, environmental interpretation, shelter, monster-part extraction
  • Piloting or Sailing: transport control, navigation, dangerous vehicle handling
  • Animal Handling: training and control of war or pack beasts
  • Tinker: locks, traps, small-device repair, jammed firearms
  • Search or Awareness: secret doors, hidden objects, careful inspection, listening, trap notice
  • Force: efficient breaking, brute-entry procedures, heavy physical manipulation

Social and infiltration skills

  • Legerdemain: disguise, sleight of hand, bribery, deceit, impersonation
  • Stealth: concealment, infiltration, movement past alert threats
  • Acrobatics: climbing, leaps, difficult movement, occasional combat mobility

Why It Matters

This is not just a longer skill list. It reframes the skill layer around campaign function.

  • Technical play becomes mechanically legible.
  • Specialists can become medics, engineers, scholars, or animal handlers rather than only thieves.
  • Search and trap play are tied back to exploration turns and risk.
  • A referee gets permission to treat failure as delay in many cases, preserving momentum.

The module is especially useful for science-fantasy, ruin-scavenging, faction intrigue, or expeditionary campaigns where knowledge domains matter as much as stealth or burglary.

Comparison Hooks

Compared to classic percentile thief skills, this module:

  • is easier to port across classes
  • handles a wider range of non-thief expertise
  • fits better with turn-based exploration costs
  • leaves more room for referee rulings because the categories are broader

Compared to unified modern skill systems, it remains sparse and setting-facing. It is not trying to model everything. It is trying to give explorers enough procedure to interact with machines, ruins, poisons, wilderness, and institutions.

Referee Use

Use this module when you want:

  • a wider expert niche map without writing new classes
  • x-in-6 odds instead of percentiles or d20 skill modifiers
  • search, trap, and technical tasks to consume exploration time
  • science-fantasy or post-collapse play where engineering, medicine, and scavenger knowledge matter

Avoid it if the table prefers purely fictional handling for all noncombat tasks or if the existing game already has a strong unified skill engine.

See Also

Sources

  • https://dungeonofsigns.blogspot.com/2014/11/normal-0-false-false-false-en-us-x-none_30.html