The Shadow of Yesterday
written by Clinton R. Nixon
copyright 2003 Anvilwerks
updated 04/07/2003
Fiddly Bits
Fiddly bits are all the interesting mechanical parts of your character, consisting of Skills and Secrets. (Arcane Skills and Secrets are handled separately in Chapter 5: Magic, as they just make so much more sense together.) This chapter's mainly a large list, so look and find the information you need.
Skills
After each skill name, you'll notice a pool name in parentheses. This is the pool associated with this skill, and points from this pool can be spent to give you bonus dice when your character uses the skill, which is fully explained in Chapter 4: Rules for Story Creation.
Open Skills
- Athletics (Vigor)
- Athletics is used for running, jumping, swimming, or any other strength-based task not listed as a separate skill.
- React (Grace)
- React is used to move fast, which includes dodging blows and going first in combat. It is not used to out-run other characters, though, as it is only a character's speed in fine tasks. Rough tasks, like running, are covered by Athletics.
- Stay Up (Grit)
- Stay Up is used to shrug off damage, not get sauced drinking, and avoid poison and disease. It is a general measure of how much abuse a character can have inflicted, or self-inflicted, on his body.
- Awareness (Wits)
- Awareness is the skill that covers general perception, and is used to notice what is occuring around a character.
- Resist (Force)
- Resist is dual-purpose: it is used to ignore magical effects and resist social coercion.
- Rapport (Charm)
- Rapport is the general-use social skill, used to make friends, but not influence people. Rapport can keep a character from getting fleeced or killed, but in order to have any real effect on other characters' decisions, Sway or Orate are needed.
Artistic Skills
- Freeload (Charm)
- Freeload is used to get free meals and shelter. Your character can't really get wealthy using Freeload, but you can manage to survive even if broke, which isn't bad.
- Create (Grace)
- Create is used for painting, sculpting, and other arts where a concrete item is created.
- Story-tell (Force)
- Story-tell is used for creating or telling stories, including ballads.
- Music (Grace)
- Music is used for singing and playing instruments, and represents musical talent, not lyrical talent. Music and Story-tell are often used together to make an effective song.
Craft Skills
- Haggling (Charm)
- Haggling is used to get the best price for goods. In the world of Near, coinage doesn't really exist, and this is used to make sure you get a fair trade in barter, which means it can be used to evaluate the quality and worth of goods as well.
- Fine Crafts (Grace)
- Fine Crafts is used for leatherworking, woodworking, and other crafts that require fine manipulation.
- Rough Crafts (Vigor)
- Rough Crafts is used for stonecutting, forging, and other crafts that require a great deal of strength.
- Complex Crafts (Wits)
- Complex Crafts is used for any task that requires a great deal of steps or mixing of different materials, ranging from building clocks and locks to cooking.
Designer's notes: Remember in the Introduction when I told you there's no realism enforced in this game? I meant it. If you've ever played another RPG, you might look at Complex Crafts and think, "Why can my master chef character fix clocks?" It's a good question, but the answer is simple: "He can't unless you decide he can." You decide what your character is good at with Craft and Artistic skills, and if he picks something up later, that's great. You don't have to quantify this: you don't have to write down "cooking" when you take Complex Crafts. Just play your character as you envision him, and if it's thematically interesting for your chef character to fix a clock, go for it.
Fighting Skills
- Melee (Vigor)
- Melee is used to fight with hand-held weapons and fists, and that's about it.
- Bash and Hold (Vigor)
- Bash and Hold is a specialized strength-based skill, used to represent sheer power. It is used for holding doors shut, breaking doors down, lifting heavy things, bending bars, and wrestling other characters.
- Battle (Force)
- Battle is the basic skills and tactics known by any military commander. It is used for giving orders in combat and planning attacks, including ambushes.
- First Aid (Wits)
- First Aid is used for mending damage done to other characters.
Illicit Skills
- Stealth (Grace)
- Stealth is used to sneak up on people, hide from other characters, and conceal objects on your character's body.
- Theft (Grace)
- Theft is used for picking pockets, cutting purses, lockpicking, breaking and entering without being noticed, and safecracking, as well as any other theft-related activity.
- Deception (Force)
- Deception is used to fool other characters, including pretending to be someone else, by outfit or by imitation, forge a document, or straight-out lie well.
- Streetwise (Wits)
- Streetwise is used to know information about the illegal underground, including where to buy illegal things, sell stolen goods, or know who controls organized crime.
Outdoor Skills
- Climbing (Vigor)
- Climbing is used for climbing anything that requires rope or is especially difficult, or more than twice as tall as the character. This is basically rock climbing or tall tree climbing. Getting over a short fence or even onto the roof of a one-story house is covered by Athletics.
- Aim (Grace)
- Aim is used for shooting bows and crossbows and throwing objects.
- Woodscraft (Wits)
- Woodscraft is used to track people or animals, know what sorts of plants and animals are present in an area and their properties, as well as set traps.
- Animal Ken (Charm)
- Animal Ken is the social skill for dealing with animals, and is used to deal with domesticated animals or wild ones, as well as riding animals. Domesticated animals are much easier to control, of course, and this may be used to give them commands. For wild animals, on the other hand, this works about as far as scaring them off, or convincing them not to eat you.
Priestly Skills
- Pray (Force)
- Pray is used for meditation, blessing actions, and performing religious rituals. It involves the character's belief that he is connected to something better than him.
- Orate (Charm)
- Orate is used to sway opinion with speech or demagoguery, and is generally used with crowds.
- Counsel (Charm)
- Counsel is used to bring peace to someone via private conversation, not unlike mental health counseling.
- Discern Truth (Wits)
- Discern Truth is used to tell if someone is being honest, or read a person's intentions.
Social Skills
- Sway (Charm)
- Sway is used to sway individuals through conversation. Unlike Orate, this works better one-on-one, and the character being swayed may not even realize your character's intentions.
- Savoir-Faire (Grace)
- Savoir-Faire is used to act smooth, dance, get a kiss from a lady, and get another character into your character's bedchambers.
- Etiquette (Wits)
- Etiquette is used to know your way around a society, including knowing who is important and where to get favors. It is the non-illegal society equivalent of Streetwise.
- Languages (Wits)
- Languages is an odd ability. It is the ability to speak other languages, but is rolled every time your character comes across a foreign language. Inconsistency in results is explained in-game. ("Of course I understood the other guy - he spoke Low Qek. This High Qek is beyond me.")
Arcane Skills
Arcane Skills are covered in more depth in Chapter 5: Magic.
- Magic: Creation (Force)
- Creation is used to summon forth materials or energy from the void.
- Destruction (Vigor)
- Destruction is used to harm other characters and objects.
- Transformation (Grit)
- Transformation can change one material to another, change one living thing into another, or move points from one pool to another on a character.
- Apportation (Grace)
- Apportation is used for magical movement: telekinesis.
- Enthrallment (Charm)
- Enthrallment is used to force your will on another, including changing their mind or affecting their senses.
- Divination (Wits)
- Divination is used to know the unknowable, see the future, sense magic, or gain heightened senses.
Secrets
Secrets are special abilities a character has, as well as special motivations that drive the character. Secrets are split into two categories, Expertise Secrets (being the former, special abilities) and Key Secrets (being the latter, special motivations.) There are also Arcane Secrets, which are only a special application of Expertise Secrets. Not all Secrets are available to every character, however. There are Species Secrets, which are Secrets only members of that species may learn. There are also some Cultural Secrets, which can only be learned while the game's events are located in that culture.
In addition to the distinction between Key, Expertise, and Arcane Secrets, there is an additional distinction between Open Secrets, Cultural Secrets, and Species Secrets. Open Secrets can be learned by any character. Cultural Secrets can only be learned by a member of the specified culture, or a character who is spending a bit of time in that culture. (The process of learning this Secret from another member of the culture, in the latter case, must be role-played.) Species Secrets can only be learned by members of the specified species.
Any player can create new Secrets, which must be approved by the GM before using them in play. For a Key Secret, first decide whether it will come into play often or irregularly. If often, set one minor circumstance under which the character receives 1 XP, and a major circumstance under which the character receives 3 XP. If irregularly, set one minor circumstance under which the character receives 1 XP, a normal circumstance under which the character receives 2 XP, and a major circumstance under which the character receives 5 XP. Every Key Secret has a Buyoff as well - a reversal of the character's behavior which immediately nets him 10 XP, and the Secret is removed from the character.
Expertise Secrets do not follow such specific rules about their creation, but do have some limits. An Expertise Secret must cost your character something or rely on a special circumstance. If no points from any pool are spent using the Secret, only one bonus die can be added to a situation. If pool points are spent, more than one bonus die can be added (but no more than one per pool point spent) or the Success Level of an action can be increased by one, although never to Transcendent. (None of the above should have made any sense unless you've read Chapter 4: Rules for Story Creation, by the way.)
Open Secrets
Open Key Secrets
These, and all Key Secrets, have a Buyoff, a condition under which you can erase the Secret from your character sheet and gain 10 experience points (XP). This Buyoff occurs only when you, the player, wants it to happen: you can lose a battle with the Secret of Bloodlust and still keep the Secret. If you want your character to undergo a change in his personality, though, adding to the story, you can take this Buyoff by fulfilling it. When you take a Buyoff, your character receives two advances automatically.
Secret of Love: Your character has a deep love, whether friendly, erotic, or familial, for someone else. Gain 1 XP every time this character is present in a scene with your character. Gain 2 XP whenever your character has to make a decision that is influenced by them. Gain 5 XP every time your character rescues them from harm.
Buyoff: Sever the relationship with this person.
Secret of Unrequited Love: Your character has a love for someone who does not return this love. Gain 1 XP every time your character attempts to win their affection. Gain 2 XP whenever your character has to make a decision that is influenced by them. Gain 5 XP every time your character rescues them from harm.
Buyoff: Abandon your pursuit of this person.
Secret of the Vow: Your character has a vow of personal behavior that he has sworn not to break. This could be a dietary restriction, a requirement to pray at sunbreak every morning, or something else like that. Gain 1 XP for every adventure in which your character does not break this vow. Gain 2 XP every time your character does not break this vow even though it causes him minor harm or inconvenience. Gain 5 XP every time your character does not break this vow even though it causes him great harm.
Buyoff: Break this vow.
Secret of the Mission: Your character has a personal mission that he must complete. Gain 1 XP every time he takes action to complete this mission (2 XP if this action is successful.) Gain 5 XP every time he takes action that completes a major part of this mission.
Buyoff: Abandon this mission.
Secret of Faith: Your character has a strong religious belief that guides him. Gain 1 XP every time he defends his faith to others. Gain 2 XP whenever this character converts someone to his faith. Gain 5 XP whenever this character defends his faith even though it brings him great harm.
Buyoff: Your character renounces his beliefs.
Secret of the Guardian: Your character has a ward. Otherwise, this works just like the Secret of Love.
Secret of Bloodlust: Your character enjoys overpowering others in combat. Gain 1 XP every time your character defeats someone in battle. Gain 3 XP for defeating someone equal to or more powerful than your character (equal or higher combat skill.)
Buyoff: Be defeated in battle.
Secret of Arcane Might: As the Secret of Bloodlust, but applicable to magic.
Secret of Glittering Gold: Your character loves wealth. Gain 1 XP every time you make a deal that favors you in wealth. Gain 2 XP every time you finish an adventure with more wealth than you started with. Gain 5 XP every time you double your wealth.
Buyoff: Give away everything you own except what you can carry lightly.
Secret of the Coward: Your character avoids combat like the plague. Gain 1 XP every time your character avoids a potentially dangerous situation. Gain 3 XP every time your character stops a combat using other means besides violence.
Buyoff: Leap into combat with no hesitation.
Secret of Conscience: Your character has a soft spot for those weaker than their opponents. Gain 1 XP every time your character helps someone who cannot help themselves. Gain 2 XP every time your character defends someone with might who is in danger and cannot save themselves. Gain 5 XP every time your character takes someone in an unfortunate situation and changes their life to where they can help themselves.
Buyoff: Ignore a request for help.
Secret of Vengeance: Your character has a hatred for a particular organization, person, or even species or culture. Gain 1 XP every time your character hurts a member of that group or a lackey of that person. Gain 2 XP every time your character strikes a minor blow at that group or person (killing a member of the organization or one of the person's lackeys, disrupting their life, destroying their property). Gain 5 XP every time your character strikes a major blow at that group or person.
Buyoff: Let your enemy go.
Open Expertise Secrets
Secret of Enhancement (Attribute): You must select a pool when you take this Secret. You may spend as many points out of that pool to give bonus dice to skills as you like. Cost: none.
Secret of Speciality (Skill): You must select a skill when you take this Secret. Choose a speciality your character has within that skill - for example, cooking pastries for the Complex Crafts skill. You always have a bonus die when your character attempts an action that falls within that speciality. Cost: none.
Secret of Quality Construction (Craft Skill): You must choose a specific Craft Skill when you take this Secret. Your character can craft items of excellent quality. Any item your character creates using this Secret gives one bonus die to a particular skill when using the item, permanently. Cost: 3 Wits.
Secret of Inner Meaning: Your character's art carries a meaning beyond the surface. Use any Charm-based skill at a distance via a piece of your character's art. Cost: 2 Force.
Secret of Reading and Writing: The character can read and write. Cost: none.
Secret of Contacts: Your character knows all sorts of people in all sorts of places. You can use this Secret once per session for your character to automatically know a non-player character in the adventure. You may describe the relationship in a short phrase, such as "old enemy," "wartime buddy," "ex-lover," but the GM gets to decide the history and current disposition of the relationship. Cost: 3 Charm.
Secret of the Unwalked Path: Your character's footfalls leave little trace for others to follow. You can use your character's Woodscraft skill in resistance to anyone trying to track him. Cost: 1 Grace.
Secret of Animal Speech: Your character can speak to an animal and understand its signals with a successful Animal Ken Skill Check. Cost: 2 Wits.
Secret of Herbal Health: Your character can always find an herb that is an effective healing agent with a successful Woodscraft Skill Check in the outdoors. The herb will heal an amount of damage equal to your Success Levels with this Skill Check. Cost: 2 Wits.
Secret of Herbal Poison: Your character can always find an herb that is an effective poisoning agent with a successful Woodscraft Skill Check in the outdoors. If the herb is ingested, the target must make a Stay Up Skill Check and receive as many Success Levels as you did with this Skill Check in order to not go into a deathly coma. If the herb is made into a paste and spread on a blade, the first successful attack with that blade will add an amount of damage equal to your Success Levels with this Skill Check. Cost: 3 Wits.
Secret of the Wild Friend: Your character is bonded with an animal and has gained the ability to communicate with the animal, as well as earned its loyalty. If this is a wild animal or an unfriendly animal, the bonding process must be done in-game. Your character can only have one bonded animal at a time. Cost: nothing.
Secret of the Hidden Pocket: Your character is adept at hiding objects on his person. No matter how carefully searched the character has been, he may pull an inexpensive, small (hand-sized) item off his person with a successful Stealth Skill Check. Cost: 1 Grace.
Secret of Blessing: With a successful Pray Skill Check, your character may bless the actions of a group. You must state a specific goal for them to accomplish. Your Success Level with this Skill Check is a pool of bonus dice any member of this group can use in accomplishing this task. Cost: 2 Force.
Secret of Parry: Your character is experienced in blocking other weapons in combat. This Secret affords several bonuses.
- Your character can parry blows using his Melee skill, rather than dodge them. Cost: 0 Grace.
- Your character's parries can partially stop blows, reducing the Success Level of an attack by your Success Level with the parry. Cost: 1 Grace.
- Your character's parries can move into dangerous counter-blows. Parry - and do damage if successful. Cost: 1 Grace and 1 Vigor.
Secret of Disarm: Your character can disarm an opponent with a successful Melee Skill Check. This is resisted by a Melee Skill Check from the victim. Cost: 1 Grace.
Secret of Shattering: The weight of your weapon can be used to destroy other weapons and armor. With a successful Melee attack, your Success Levels (not including any damage bonuses or the like) are removed from the damage bonuses of weapons or damage reductions of armor. If reduced to 0, the item is destroyed. Cost: 2 Vigor.
Secret of Mighty Blow: Your character can strike with extreme might. Increase the Success Level of a successful hit by one. Cost: 1 Vigor.
Secret of the Sudden Knife: Your character is a master of the assassin's art. In a surprise attack, the victim is automatically bopped if your character hits. If he fails his Stay Up roll, he is automatically collapsed. Cost: 1 Vigor.
Secret of Lightning Strike: Your character is lightning fast. When in a complex resolution situation, including combat, you can advance your character to the front of the initiative order at any time. Cost: 1 Grace.
Secret of Knock-back: Your character's blows send people flying. Knock back a stricken character one yard per Success Level. Cost: 1 Vigor.
Secret of Throwing: Any weapon is a dangerous missile in your character's hands. He can throw any weapon as an attack, using the appropriate attack skill. Cost: 1 Vigor/10 feet.
Secret of Evaluate: Your character's battle experience has give him the ability to read an opponent well. Evaluate your character's opponent not in descriptive terms, but in game mechanics, on a successful Battle roll. (You can ask for any of the following information, one bit per Success Level: Vigor score, Grace score, Grit score, best combat skill and score, specific skill and score.) Cost: 1 Wits.
Secret of Flying Leap: Your character can make amazing leaps. Using this Secret, he jumps 10 yards per Success Level in a Athletics Skill Check. Cost: 2 Vigor.
Secret of the Signature Weapon: Your character has one weapon with which he is bonded. You gain a bonus die to any action taken with that weapon and any other character else attempting to use the weapon receives a penalty die. Cost: nothing. (Note: to change this weapon, this Secret must be taken again.)
Cultural Secrets
Qek
(coming)
Khale
Secret of the Perfect Chord, Sorrow: With a successful Music Skill Check, which can be resisted with a Resist Skill Check, your character can evoke tears of sorrow in all listeners. Cost: 1 Charm.
Secret of the Perfect Chord, Joy: With a successful Music Skill Check, which can be resisted with a Resist Skill Check, your character can evoke tears of joy in all listeners. Cost: 1 Charm.
Secret of the Perfect Chord, Sleep: With a successful Music Skill Check, which can be resisted with a Resist Skill Check, your character can put all listeners to sleep. Cost: 1 Force.
Secret of the Forest's Embrace: Your character gains a bonus die to Stealth and Battle when in thick forest. Cost: nothing.
Ammeni
(coming)
Ammeni (Zaru)
(coming)
Maldor
(coming)
Oran
(coming)
Goren
(coming)
Vulfland
(coming)
Species Secrets
Human Secrets
Secret of Knowledge: Humans can learn and adapt better than any other species on Near. Choose one skill that is not currently rated at A. That skill is now rated at A for your character. Cost: nothing.
(more to come)
Elven Secrets
Secret of Reincarnation: Upon death, your character always returns to this world. Your character might spend a thousand years elsewhere, but it is only a slight passing of time in this world. Your character returns with one point subtracted from every skill, and points may be shifted among his pools, but is otherwise the same. However, where and when your character turns up is up to the GM. (GMs: this should be within the same session.) Cost: nothing.
Secret of the Creator: Your character has an attunement to the forces of magical creation. You always have a bonus die when your character uses the Magic: Creation skill. Cost: nothing.
Secret of Bright Aura: Your character's aura is brighter than normal, allowing you to take no penalty dice in Awareness Skill Checks in the dark, and allowing your character to see even in pitch-black darkness. However, no characters take penalties for shooting at you or noticing you in the dark, either. Cost: nothing.
Secret of Commanding Aura: Your character's aura is royal in form, imposing its force on those who would see it. You receive a bonus die on any Charm-based Skill Check. Cost: nothing.
Secret of Protective Aura: Your character's aura is physical in form, slowing blows that would hit your body. You receive a bonus die on any Skill Check to avoid attacks. Cost: nothing.
Secret of Masking Aura: Your character's aura can grow invisible, hiding the fact that you are an elf. This ability can be turned on and off at will, and no other Aura Secrets can be used while this ability is active. Cost: nothing.
Secret of Past Knowledge: Your character retains vast knowledge from his times wandering. You can increase any skill to 9 for one Skill Check only. After you have rolled this Skill Check, make a notation so you do not ever use this Secret with that skill again. Cost: 3 Wits.
Secret of the Generalist: Your character has learned so much in his travels that all skills are equally easy for him to learn. All skill categories are rated at B for your character, including Open Skills, permanently. Cost: nothing.
Secret of the Ascetic: As an elf, your character has learned to want nothing beyond what he needs and to have no physical cravings. Gain 1 XP every time your character is offered worldly delicacies, including exquisite meals, riches, or sex. Gain 3 XP every time your character turns down such an offer, even though it causes him great difficulty.
Buyoff: Become a human.
Goblin Secrets
Secret of Adaptation: Two skill scores on your character sheet with the same associated attribute are swapped. Cost: 3 points from the associated attribute.
Secret of Metamorphosis: You can freely swap your pools around, including the current number of points and the maximum in each pool. This can only be done once per adventure. Cost: nothing.
Secret of Body Weaponry: Your character has grown some sort of weapon from your body. This counts as a +1 damage weapon and you must choose whether it is sharp or blunt. This Secret may be taken multiple times in order to gain a more potent weapon (maximum of +3 damage) or extra weapons.
Secret of the Affliction: A goblin character must have the Secret of Love or Secret of Unrequited Love in order to take this Secret, and must take this Secret when either of the above Secrets are taken. Gain 1 XP every time your character is insulted or ostracized by other goblins for the Affliction. Gain 3 XP every time this reaction causes great difficulty for your character.
Buyoff: Become a human.
Designer's note: I know people are going to wonder what in the world I mean by "become a human." Here's the breakdown, which I don't know how to present yet:
Goblins are the primordial clay from which humans are made. In a world where evolution doesn't follow the rules it does in the real world - that is, it's very Lamarckian - humans are just what happened to evolve from goblins, and anything else could come from that clay. What makes humans human, though, is loving and being loved, which is the key here. "The Affliction" is nothing more than a goblin becoming something more than what he is.
In the same vein, elves are merely humans who have transcended need. Unlike goblins, who sate all their desires at will, they shunt all human desire. To deny that and indulge in human desire makes them something less than what they have become.
Of course, tell a human, a goblin, or perhaps an elf any of this, and they'll think you're out of your mind.
Ratkin Secrets
Secret of Rat Size: Being a Ratkin, your character is smaller than most people in the world, and can use that to his advantage in combat. Gain a bonus die any time your character is avoiding an attack from someone larger than him or any other situation in which his reduced size may help (i.e. an Acrobatics Skill Check to wriggle through a pipe.) Cost: nothing.
Secret of Rat Vision: Your character is gifted with excellent night vision. Gain a bonus die on any Awareness Skill Check at night. Cost: nothing.
Secret of Rat Familiarity: You gain a bonus die on all Animal Ken Skill Checks involving rodents. In addition, your character can speak to rodents in their own language. Cost: nothing.
(more to come)
Vulfen Secrets
Secret of Tooth and Claw: Your character's teeth and claws are dangerous weapons. They count as a +1 damage sharp weapon. Cost: nothing.
Secret of Wolf Familiarity: You gain a bonus die on all Animal Ken Skill Checks involving canines. In addition, your character can speak to canines in their own language. Cost: nothing.
(more to come)
Arcane Secrets
Arcane Secrets are covered in Chapter 5: Magic.
