# Skills
...for as books report, of Sir Tristram came all the good terms of venery and hunting, and all the sizes and measures of blowing of an horn; and of him we had first all the terms of hawking, and which were beasts of chase and beasts of venery, and which were vermins, and all the blasts that long to all manner of games.
—Malory, Le Morte d’Arthur, book X, chapter 52
Skills are a way of measuring actions that characters can attempt to do in the game. Actions like eating, walking, and talking are automatic and do not require Skill rolls. A roll is needed for Skills because they describe actions that hold an inherent chance of failure.
A Skill roll is needed when an action is a contest, when the character is under strain, is being watched by nobility, is trying to hide something, and so on. No knight or lady is expected to master all or even most of the possible Skills.
| Skill Roll | Result |
|---|---|
| Critical Success | The character executes the intended action and takes an experience check to the Skill. The Gamemaster may grant a positive modifier to a follow-up resolution of relevant Traits, Passions, or Skills. |
| Success | The character executes the intended action. An experience check should be gained only if the knowledge is somehow significant to the story or the characters, at the Gamemaster’s discretion. |
| Failure | The character fails the intended action. |
| Fumble | The character fails the intended action but takes an experience check to the Skill. The Gamemaster may impose negative modifiers to follow-up resolution of relevant Traits, Passions, or Skills. |
# Glory for Skills
Skills grant Glory when performed in significant, public venues. A success without witnesses does not count. Some Skills grant Glory only for specific circumstances, such as First Aid being used to bring a character back to life or to save a ranking noble. The amount of Glory gained for a successful Skill roll is equal to 10 points, or the character’s APP Characteristic in the case of Courtly Skills. Critically successful rolls double that amount.
The Gamemaster is of course free to award Glory for any Skill roll owing to extraordinary circumstances.
# Skill Groups
Skills are broadly grouped together based on character profession and scenario settings. The groups overlap and share several of the same Skills.
# Combat Skills
Any time a character fights, they use Combat Skills. Weapon Skills are a type of Combat Skill and are specific to the weapons being used. See Weapons for more details on those Skills. Non-weapon Combat Skills are those relating to orchestrating combat and riding warhorses and other mounts.
Battle, Brawling, Charge, Horsemanship, all Weapon Skills
# Courtly Skills
These Skills are those most often used in courtly settings, where characters must interact with nobles in a more refined and decidedly non-hostile manner. At times the Gamemaster might request a specific Courtly Skill roll (“Everyone make a Dancing roll!”) or may have Players roll on any number of Courtly Skills of their own choosing, in which case the particular Skill rolled may vary from character to character.
Compose, Courtesy, Dancing, Falconry, Fashion, Flirting, Gaming, Intrigue, Literacy, Orate, Play Instrument, Recognize, Religion (any), Singing
# Knightly Skills
Certain Skills are required for the office of knighthood. Few knights master them all. They mostly deal with finding, identifying, and killing people in a variety of ways, as politely as possible.
Awareness, Battle, Brawling, Charge, Courtesy, First Aid, Horsemanship, Hunting, Recognize, all melee Weapon Skills
# Non-Knightly Skills
Knights are forbidden to learn or practice these Skills. Using these automatically diminishes Honor and makes the knight a laughingstock among their peers. They do not appear on the knight’s character sheet for this reason.
Chirurgery, Industry
# Woodcraft Skills
If tramping about wintry high moors or becoming hopelessly lost in the deep woods or stuck in muddy pastures amidst herds of braying sheep is your character’s idea of a good time, these Skills may prove helpful.
Awareness, Bow, First Aid, Folklore, Hafted Weapons, Hunting, Spear, Stewardship
# Skills Defined
Detailed explanations of most Skills and their use in the game are provided in the following section. Some Skills have situational modifiers, listed within the description. If a Skill normally grants Glory, this is noted as well.
# Awareness
Use this Skill when a knight is listening for a sound, trying to spot something hidden, or notice something out of the ordinary. This Skill measures the character’s attentiveness to their immediate surroundings, using their five physical senses and a mysterious “sixth sense.”
Modifiers Combined modifiers may never be higher than +/–20. The modifier for Light Source is applied when attempting to spot a light source in darkness.
- Atmosphere (Fog, Rain, Smoke, Snow): Light –5, Moderate –10, Heavy –15
- Background Noise: Din (market square) –5, Clamor (crowded feast hall) –10, Cacophony (battle) –15
- Concealment: Light –5, Moderate –10, Heavy –15
- Darkness: Dim (half-moon) –5, Shadowy (quarter moon) –10, Deep (new moon) –15, Complete (underground) –20
- Light Source: Torch +5, Campfire +10, Large Campfire +15, Bonfire +20
- Taste: Detecting foreign additive in a spicy food or beverage –5
- Volume: Raised voices +5, Shouting +10, Trumpets +15
# Battle
Combat Glory: Yes
Battle is the knowledge and ability to lead others in and, if alone, survive a large-scale military conflict, as well as knowledge of warfare in general.
# Chirurgery
Non-knightly
Glory: No
Chirurgery (pronounced “cheh-RUR-jur-ee”) is the delicate art of keeping the mostly-dead alive. It is the only way to help characters who have suffered a debilitating injury due to wounds, disease, cold, fire, poison, or suffocation. Chirurgery does nothing to directly heal the patient but is a process that keeps the patient from deteriorating so that the natural healing processes of the body may take effect. Chirurgery is a very important Skill for ladies, and many holy people also know it. However, it is not the duty of a knight to learn the Skill, and through custom they are forbidden to do so.
# Compose
Courtly
Glory: Yes
This Skill allows the user a chance to create original poetry and musical works suitable to recite solo or with accompaniment by one or more musical instruments. This is not about delivery or recitation, which are covered by Orate, Play Instrument, and Singing. Composing a good, original work enhances the chance that the audience enjoys the work. Before entertaining others, a character may attempt a Compose roll to generate a modifier to the subsequent Orate, Play Instrument, or Singing Skill. A successful Compose roll grants a +5 modifier, while a critical success grants a +10. There is no penalty for failure, but a fumble convinces the character they have written a masterpiece that is in fact quite dreadful; the piece imposes a –10 modifier to subsequent performances.
Players are encouraged to title their compositions and record them on their sheet, so they may say, “My knight is now going to entertain the court with a recitation of his original poem, ‘An Ode to My Horse’.”
# Courtesy
Courtesy is knowledge of the culture, laws, and customs of the noble class. This includes courtly manners, from etiquette to matters of precedence at table; from modes of speech, including protocol, vocabulary, style, and forms of address, to all types of decorum proper to a lord’s court, such as around superiors, ladies, and disfavored people. Courtesy rolls are useful to earn the acceptance of lords and ladies.
Courtesy also includes knowledge of diplomacy: the refined, civilized discourse between lords and kings (or their representatives). It is required when dealing with very powerful nobles in a formal, friendly, or neutral manner. It is knowledge of their personalities, of their preferred style of communication (subtle or blunt, as needed), and, most importantly, of what gifts to give them and when.
# Dancing
Courtly
Glory: Yes
This Skill measures the character’s ability to know the difference between types of dances, and the proper steps for each. Courtly dances are usually performed in groups, with dancers clasping hands and arms, swinging their partners about, and trying to avoid collisions with others. The dance music varies in tempo and duration.
A failed roll means the dancer turns in a mediocre and forgettable effort, while a fumble indicates a collision on the dance floor or similar faux pas.
# Falconry
Courtly
Glory: Yes
Falcons and hawks are trained to hunt birds and other small prey. Such sport is the pleasure of nobles, who sometimes spend considerable money to keep a first-class mews (the building reserved for the maintenance of hunting hawks). Use this Skill whenever knights and ladies take birds into the fields to hunt. Hunting with falcons is a half-day or day-long activity, including time to ride to the field.
Falconry is the sport of emperors and kings. Success at falconry can get you noticed by lords and ladies. A good showing can grant modifiers to you in court for future Courtesy and Flirting rolls.
# First Aid
Knightly, Woodcraft
Glory: For saving a life (10 for a knight, 25 for a banneret or famous knight, 50 for a baron or Round Table knight, 75 for a count, duke, or petty king, 100 for a king or very famous Round Table knight, 250 for the High King)
First Aid is immediate medical assistance. It usually involves binding a gushing wound with an unsanitary strip of cloth; or closing it with some crude stitching. See Injury and Health for details on how First Aid works on wounds.
# Flirting
Courtly
Glory: No
Flirting is a Skill that uses a combination of words, tones, expressions, movements, gestures, and attitudes to communicate charm or to inflame another with lust. Its main use is to gain someone’s interest, though it may also be a source of flattery, entertainment, or delight.
# Folklore
Woodcraft
Glory: No
Folklore is knowledge of the culture, laws, and customs of the common class. It includes knowing the different rights of serfs, tenants, and tradesmen, and the proper forms of address for village elders and town leaders. Folklore helps when figuring out what commoners are doing, or when trying to evaluate how they feel. Deference to commoners is never necessary, though a Folklore roll can be used to make them more agreeable, forthcoming, and less afraid. Folklore is also knowledge of common traditional beliefs and stories, passed down through generations by word of mouth. When characters meet fairies, they may make a Folklore roll to see if they remember anything about these fairies from nursery stories or from tall tales told around the hearth.
# Gaming
Courtly
Glory: Yes
The Gaming Skill allows the user to play various games like chess, tabula (a Roman game akin to modern backgammon), or gwyddbwyll (“wooden wisdom,” a popular game similar to chess or draughts) effectively and with aplomb, whether in competition or for entertainment. When playing games of chance, such as hazard (knucklebones), make a series of unopposed resolutions, with the highest successful number winning the pot. Reroll tied results to find the final winner. The winner of strategy games, like tabula or chess, is the winner of an opposed resolution.
# Horsemanship
Feudal society is an equine society. Horses are central to its nature and critical to the existence of a knight.
Everyone knows how to ride at any pace, and this activity requires no rolls. Only difficult circumstances, such as jumping ditches and hedges, racing, chasing, horse care, covering long distances at speed, or riding side saddle at a trot, canter, or gallop require Horsemanship rolls.
# Hunting
To find the results of a common hunt, simply roll Hunting against the quarry’s Avoidance value. The Hunting Skill can also serve for tracking, traveling through the wilds, and for concealing one’s own trail to throw off followers. Hunting rolls can also be made to identify animals and plants, and to know the qualities of wild locations. It is used for wilderness survival, including finding water, knowing edible wild plants, constructing shelters, and knowing directions.
Modifiers
- Familiar Grounds: +5; for example, in one’s home county.
- Without Hunting Dogs: –5; when tracking quarry, a pack of hounds normally accompanies the hunters. Do not apply this modifier for wilderness travel.
- Tracking: +5 large prey; +10 wounded prey; +15 if in the snow or mud.
# Intrigue
Courtly
Glory: Yes
Intrigue is the Skill of learning secrets at court. It is the Skill of learning a secret by knowing whom, when, what, and how to ask. It is the Skill of sifting truth from lies.
If one wants to poison people in secret, to foment rebellion, or to assassinate rivals, one should not roll Intrigue. Such dark practices must be roleplayed, not left to random dice rolls.
Modifiers Many modifiers may apply to an Intrigue roll, primarily based on familiarity with the court or the staff being questioned. Depending on the type of information one searches for and the people one speaks with, success first with an unopposed Courtesy, Religion, or Folklore roll grants a one-time +5 bonus to Intrigue.
- Foreign culture: –10
- Unknown court or source: –5
- Hostile court or source: –5
- Familiar court or source: +5
- Source is a family member: +10 In some cases, an Intriguer may oppose another, especially if they think the other is a spy.
# Literacy
Courtly
Glory: No
Use this Skill to read and write Latin, Ogham, Saxon runes, or Pictish symbols. Each is a separate Skill on the character sheet.
Modifiers Reading musty old tomes can often prove challenging due to issues with the written media.
- Poor penmanship: –5
- Smudged, faded ink; old, worn parchment or papyrus: –10
- Inscribed on mossy or weathered stone: –5
# Orate
Courtly
Glory: Yes
Orate is the verbal Skill that can influence another person or group, stir emotions, or change minds. It may be argumentative, persuasive, coaxing, or cajoling, depending upon the need. Orate may entertain through the dramatic recitation of poetry, epics, and stories. When the purpose of Orate is to convince someone, it is always an opposed roll. The person trying to convince another is the orator. The person or people resisting may use any appropriate Trait, such as Modest, Honest, Suspicious, perhaps even Valorous.
Modifiers The Compose Skill may enhance or diminish an Oration, as described under that Skill. Depending on the audience, success at an unopposed Courtesy, Religion, or Folklore roll may grant a +5 bonus to Orate.
Orators may color their speech with some creative treatments of the truth to tell a better story, make a more convincing point, or simply deceive their audience: The Player attempts a Deceitful Trait roll. Success provides a +5 to the Orate Skill, while a critical grants a +10. A failure at this roll requires a subsequent Honest roll, as normal. Fumbling the Deceitful roll means the speaker inadvertently tells the truth.
# Play Instrument
Courtly
Glory: Yes
Characters know how to play the three noble instruments: gittern, harp, and lute. The gittern is a handheld instrument with a neck and four strings, ancestral to the modern guitar. It is also called a psaltery or citole.
The harp is the primary instrument played by the nobility. Most harps are small enough to be hand-held and are rested on the left shoulder (in contrast to modern harps). Most harps have five to ten strings, which are strummed and plucked.
The lute is a troubadour’s instrument. A lute has a round-bottomed oval-shaped body and long neck with two to ten strings running along its length. It is played with the left hand pressing the strings against frets on the neck and the right hand strumming or picking the strings, like on a modern guitar.
This Skill may be taken multiple times, representing a knight’s training in “non-knightly” instruments such as trumpets, horns, or drums. Each instrument requires a separate Skill.
Modifiers The Compose Skill may be useful to enhance or diminish a performance, as described under that Skill.
# Recognize
The Recognize Skill represents the ability to single out specific peers among the nobility. It is a relatively small group of people. You can use the Recognize Skill to discover a person’s identity by their noted physical features and mannerisms, and to recall the details of their reputations. This could include useful tactical knowledge if there is a combat challenge. A successful Recognize roll also grants basic knowledge about the various ruling families and chief personages of Britain. This includes knowledge of their histories, family ties, feuds, and alliances. Apply the roll to one specific question at a time, such as “Does the King of Gomeret now rule Norgales?” or “Who are the Orkney Brothers feuding with now?” Recognize rolls for locals are seldom necessary.
Lastly, a successful Recognize roll allows a knight to learn another knight’s identity based solely on their coat of arms. Heraldry is the system that devise, describe, and regulate coats of arms and other armorial bearings. All knights learn the coats of arms of other knights, so that they can recognize them during battles and tournaments.
Modifiers
- Glory: Knights and ladies grant bonuses to others’ Recognize Skills equal to their Glory divided by 1,000. Thus, if a knight tries to recognize the arms of Dame Tamura, who has 1,950 Glory, the knight’s Recognize value is modified by 2 points (1,950 divided by 1,000 equals 1.95, which is rounded up to 2). Trying to identify Sir Dodinas le Sauvage, with 4,800 glory, adds 5 to the observer’s Recognize Skill. Absolutely no one can mistake the heraldry of King Arthur or Queen Guenever.
- Foreign Characters: –10
- Unnoteworthy Characters: –5 for characters with no Famous (16+) Traits, Passions, Skills, or Combat Skills.
# Religion (Type)
Courtly
Glory: No
This Skill quantifies how much a character knows about the beliefs, rites, sacred calendar, and practices of a particular religion. This includes understanding the roles and responsibilities of religious leaders (e.g. abbots versus bishops, Druids versus Ladies of the Lake, etc.), hierarchies of office (if any), and forms of address. Knights and ladies do not need religious knowledge beyond that represented by their starting Skill values, though Players are free to develop their characters to be as religiously-minded as they wish.
The Religion Skill does not represent faith. The Spiritual/Worldly Traits and the Devotion Passion measure that.
Use of the Religion Skill never brings about magical or miraculous events, though it can be used, like Folklore, to gain knowledge about fairies and (for the Christian faith) fiends, when encountered.
# Singing
Courtly
Glory: Yes
The sound of singing voices pleases all listeners, whether in church, in court, or to a lover in a warm summer glade. Professional bards and minstrels wander from court to court with a repertoire of ballads and lays. The poorer troubadours perform on their own, while the richer hire singers, called jongleurs, to perform. Women sing both to entertain the household on lonely winter nights, to please lovers, and to lullaby children. On some fine spring days, Arthur’s court is like a very pleasant dream filled with melody and harmony.
Modifiers The Compose Skill may enhance or diminish a Singing performance, as described under that Skill. A rude or critical audience imposes a ¬–5 penalty.
# Stewardship
Woodcraft
Glory: No
Stewardship is the knowledge of land management—the ability to plan, administer, and oversee the keeping of a farm or similar holding—which is not normally required of knights. One may also use it to recognize the relative quality of land and settlements, and to organize the defense of local fortifications against assault.
Modifiers
- Add +1 to Stewardship if the character also has a Literacy Skill value of 1–5, +2 for 6–10, and so on.
# Improving Skills
Part of the enjoyment of the game comes from watching your character grow and develop over time. Increases in the character’s Skills is one of the ways to measure Character advancement in Pendragon. Most Players focus on a half-dozen or fewer Skills that they increase over several years of game time. Skills increase permanently during the Winter Phase, by experience in the field, training with a teacher, diligent practice, a boost in self-confidence and reputation, or by supernatural means. See The Winter Phase for more details.