Persuasion (Spirit)
- Use this skill when you want to make an NPC like you. In a pinch you can also use this skill when you want to convincingly act like a different person.
- However, AIs normally do not pick up tone of voice and emotions well: you take -2 to Persuasion when attempting to use emotional manipulation on an AI-controlled robot or NPC.
- AIs are programmed to look for certain keywords and respond in a certain way. You can use Knowledge: AI, or Knowledge: VR Game World or Knowledge: Powergaming, whichever best fits the situation, to make cooperative skill rolls on Persuasion, or you may get lucky and just hit on the right keywords, gaining a role-play bonus.
Intimidate (Spirit)
- Use this skill when you want to make an NPC afraid of you. You could use this to cow them, making them willing to follow your orders or give up information, or scare them away.
- A show of Strength, Fighting or Shooting prowess, or brandishing an armed grenade will all give you significant bonuses to Intimidate even if you don't have the skill.
- In combat, you can initiate a Test of Wills against an enemy. Intimidate is opposed by Spirit. On success, you get a +2 bonus to your next action against the enemy. A raise also causes the enemy to be Shaken.
Taunt (Smarts)
- Use this skill when you want to insult another NPC, making them angry or humiliated. An infuriated enemy is likely to decide to concentrate his attacks on you, so be prepared!
- In combat, you can initiate a Test of Wills against an enemy. Taunt is opposed by Smarts. On success, you get a +2 bonus to your next action against the enemy. A raise also causes the enemy to be Shaken.
Streetwise (Spirit)
- Use this skill when you're listening at bars or other public areas for information, dealing with merchants, or trying to get information out of someone. Asking around to see if anyone knows where to find a certain artifact would be Streetwise.
- You can use Streetwise against someone to try to learn what makes them tick. This is opposed by their Persuasion.
- If successful, you gain a circumstance bonus to further social skill rolls against that person.
Notice (Smarts)
- This is a passive skill that will let you notice if something is happening at that very moment - it will not give you any advantage in discovering a hidden trapdoor or a stash of scrolls hidden behind that fallen bookcase. It reflects how well you pay attention to changes to your surroundings, i.e. faint vibrations in the earth that herald an avalanche up the mountainside.
Tracking (Smarts)
- In addition to tracking someone or something, you can also use this to minutely inspect your surroundings and discover hidden objects or clues.
- Familiarity with your surroundings will help immensely.
- In a VR setting, you can make a cooperative roll with Knowlege: VR Game World (Avatars or Gloaming) as appropriate.
- In the modern world, if your background suggests you might be familiar with an area, you can make a cooperative Smarts roll.
- Anywhere you live, work, or frequently visit is an automatic +2 to Tracking.
Lockpicking (Smarts)
- For modern characters, they are able to bypass both regular mechanical locks and combination locks and futuristic electronic security systems like cameras, tripwires, and pressure panels.
- Disabling electronic security systems may receive a cooperative skill roll from Repair as long as you can access the machinery that goes into it, i.e. being able to rewire a camera to show a loop requires access to the camera's circuitry.
- For VR characters, they are able to bypass both regular mechanical locks and combination locks and magical locks that act like minigames in the VR setting.
- This doesn't extend to hacking cybernetic defenses, which is a very different skill set.
Repairs (Smarts)
- Allows a modern character to fix or disable both machines and electronics.
- VR characters generally won't have much use for this skill, but some worlds in the Gloaming do offer steampunk-style technology. The VR character must have the Repairs skill; trying to apply a modern character's knowledge of mechanical and electronic devices will not work.
- You need the McGyver Edge to modify machinery from its intended purpose. As long as you have several devices that you can put together which are individually capable of parts of what you want to do, you'll be able to combine their functionality.
- You need the Weird Science Arcane Background to be able to invent things like Quantum Synchrony Transducers. (Whatever those do.) In other words, Repairs can't add Powers to items, it can only take equipment that already have the functions you want and make them work together.
- You need the Cyberdoc Edge to be able to jury-rig cybernetic devices and implants into working again. Without this, you have a high penalty to your Repairs roll and a chance that you may cause your patient an injury. With the Cyberdoc Edge, a normal Repairs roll will get it working again at -2; each Raise reduces the penalty by 1.
Computers (Smarts)
- This replaces Investigation because in the world of Avatars 2.0, there is so much information around that your only hope of finding something in all the various archives is to be good at using search engines and intelligent agents to help you filter the information down to something sane.
- This expertise also allows you to better interact with AIs and AI-controlled NPCs. When asking questions or giving orders to an AI, use Computers. If you're successful, the AI doesn't need to roll Smarts to see if it understood you.
- Use Hacking to break into a computer, use Computers to tell it what to do once you get there.
Hacking (Spirit)
- Security systems of the future are immensely complicated and layered. You need to be able to sense the flow of a system to tell when to fire your intrusion probes, and when to fall back and clean up before their sniffers get a clear trail back to you. Thus, it is Spirit-based, not Smarts.
- Use Hacking to break into a computer, use Computers to tell it what to do once you get there.
Knowledge: AI (Smarts)
- Cooperative skill roll when rolling Streetwise, Persuasion, or Intimidate against an AI NPC or an AI.
- Cooperative skill roll when using Computers to look up something and you have an AI to help.
- Cooperative skill roll when trying to Hack an AI-monitored system.
Knowledge: VR Game World (Smarts) vs Lore (Smarts)
- It may seem confusing that VR characters can have Lore and modern characters can have Knowledge: VR Game World.
- In a nutshell, Lore is a device for getting information from the game. When you look at something esoteric like ancient runes, or you sight a strange creature in the distance, or you hear someone talking about something that happened in the past, the game uses nearly subliminal imagery to give you a translation or fill in necessary background information. If you're watching for it, you'll notice the flashing text, but most players just take it for granted.
- Knowledge: VR Game World is what your modern character knows, and can never be taken away - VR games are prohibited from memory manipulation. It represents an understanding of how the game plays, and your memory of things you've encountered, places you've been, quests you've completed.
- As such, if you've been somewhere before or encountered similar AI NPCs before, you'll have a good idea how a given AI NPC works. You can then roll Knowledge: VR Game World as a cooperative skill roll for Persuasion.
Knowledge: VR Game World (Smarts) vs Knowledge: Powergaming (Smarts)
- These may seem even more similar!
- Knowledge: Game World is about how well you know a game world. If you know it pretty well, you'll have a good idea what's out of place in a scene and what to expect when you've seen or heard about some particular game event being played out. On a successful Knowledge: Game World roll, the GM will give you secret information about what is going on or what details you know that wouldn't be immediately obvious.
- Knowledge: Powergaming is about how well you know games in general. You won't be able to use this to tell someone what an arcane rune means, but you can guess based on the runes' positions in a grid of stone tiles that they are meant to be slid around.
- You can use Knowledge: Powergaming and Knowledge: VR Game World as cooperative skill rolls to each other in most cases.
Riding (Agility)
- Of little use in the modern world. Only very rich people have access to horses and spaces big enough to ride.
- Domesticated and trained riding mounts are plentiful in the VR game worlds. If you don't intend to be able to fight on the back of your mount, you can skip the Riding skill.
- When trying to ride a wild mount or an unusual one, you will need to use Riding to avoid being thrown. An unruly mount may require periodic rerolls.
- If you have an Avatar which is capable of being ridden, you can use your Avatar Link skill instead.
- A Raise on your Riding skill (or Avatar Link as appropriate) will let you ignore the Unstable Platform (-2) Shooting penalty.
Driving (Agility)
- The catch-all vehicle operation skill in the modern world. All hoverbikes and aircars use similar controls. There are still the odd aircrafts and spacecrafts which require Piloting instead, but these are few and far between.
- You won't find any vehicles of this type in Avatars. Steam-driven carriages and trains do exist in the Gloaming's steampunk-styled worlds, but they are uncommon.
- You do not need Driving to operate a standard vehicle in noncombat use, as long as you are in a clear airspace, as opposed to on the ground driving over rough terrain or flying between skyscrapers. They are equipped with semi-automatic guidance and automatic collision avoidance systems.
- In combat circumstances, you would need the Driving skill to switch to manual controls to drive the car exactly where you need to go and avoid obstacles along the way.
- A Raise on your Driving skill will let you and your passengers ignore the Unstable Platform (-2) Shooting penalty.
Piloting (Agility)
- Used to operate helicopters and aerospace vehicles, not hoverbikes and aircars. These are high-speed vehicles and not meant for in-close tactical fights against ground units, but they can exercise VTOL capabilities that let them hover in place over a battlefield.
- Military crafts do not normally support autopilots of the type civilians are used to - while you can set cruise control, it's expected that a pilot will be in full attendance at takeoff and landing, and during battles.
- In the VR game world, Piloting could be used to operate the mechanical types of airships such as the Empire of Star's battleships. However these types of vehicle are fairly rare. Familiarity with the controls would require a high target number on Knowledge: VR Game World; not being familiar would give a -2 Piloting skill roll penalty.
Boating (Agility)
- Used to operate sailing ships of the old fashioned types - wind-powered - which are rare in the modern world.
- Can also be used to operate the "sailing" type of airships such as used by Tasavalta and nearby shards.
- Most airships expect a crew of at least a few sailors. The helmsman uses Boating to guide the ship safely through hazards, and any PCs who are serving as crew may roll their own Boating as cooperative skill rolls.
