[DT] Pools of Radiance (for now)

[Oedipussy Rex]

Next up (hopefully): Skills

You know what? I'm not going to call them skills. Instead we have two versions.

Talents
Fall under Finesse. New talents can only be added between "adventures" (the GM determines what constitutes an adventure. It could be the completion of a mission, or simply getting to the next level of a dungeon.) Unless otherwise stated, the cost for Talents is 1 CP to add a die to the pool or increase a die one Rank.

Use of a Talent is accomplished when a roll of its pool meets or exceeds the required number of Successes. The Target Number and required Successes usually varies by the circumstances.

Below is what I have so far. There's more, but I haven't written up anything on them yet. Not even disjointed word mumbles.

Alchemy - Character is able to identify substances by studying their alchemical properties -- Fool's gold, fake gems, acid, etc. With enough skill (and financing), the character can create said substances.
Animal Handling - Allows the character to handle and train pack and draft animals.
Mimic Animal - Imitate the sounds animals make.
Assimilation - Pick up the small nuances of a culture -- the mannerisms, speech patterns, taboos, etc.
Blind-Fighting - When fighting in near or complete dark, use this pool instead. Costs 2 CP.
Boating/Sailing - The character learns the skills to truly handle boats and ships. Not just how to paddle from hither to yon, but how to sail a ship safely through coral reefs or survive in a canoe going down rapids.
Camouflage - Allows the character to make himself, others, or objects appear to be a part of the landscape.
Cartography - Map-making. Yes, surveying, but also includes the ability to hraw a map while on the move.
City Familiarity - Character knows the ins and outs, the ebbs and flows, of a city. He knows what streets to avoid if wanting to go somewhere quickly, and what bazaars to hit when needing to get lost in a crowd. He knows the alleys and rooftops, and what groups control them. Must be taken once for each city.
Direction Sense - The character has an uncanny ability to know what direction he's facing, even in places where the usual clues don't exist, like in a cave or dungeon. Can only be taken during character creation.
Disguise - Change one's appearance.
Distance Sense - Character is able to determine distance traveled. This skill does not take into account turns, hills, etc. Such a character could tell you that he traveled 6 miles, 305 feet to get from a village on one mountain to another across the valley, but he couldn't tell you that the distance is only 1 mile 872 feet as the crow flies.
Funambulism - As any fan of Ə knows, tightrope walking.
Linguist - This talent allows the character a chance to add a new language when encountering it for the first time. If the attempt fails, it cannot be tried again until the pool has been improved. To make an attempt, a roll of the pool must result in an award of a Character Point (all Successes or Max number on the die). The Target Number depends on the difficulty of the language, the similarity it has to a known language, etc. This CP is used to create the new Language pool. Linguist can only be taken at character creation and costs 2 CP.
Time Sense - The character knows what time it is and thus knows how much time has elapsed. Can only be taken at character creation.
Tailing - An urban skill where a person is followed at a distance without being aware that he is being followed.
Tracking - A wilderness skill. I really shouldn't have to go into it.
Weapon Improvisation - Character is able to use a chair leg, broken bottle, etc., as a weapon. Costs 2 CP.
Weather Sense - By studying the current conditions, noticing how certain animals react, etc., the character is able to predict future weather conditions.

Knowledge
There's the Knowledge stat and there are Knowledge pools. Work the same way as Talents.

Again, a brief list.

Heraldry - Knowledge the crests and symbols of a land, family, religious order, etc., and basic facts about said entities.
Herbalism - Not just the names of plants, but also the beneficial, benign, and malignant qualities of the different parts of the plant.
Languages - Know a different language. Must be taken for each language.
Numeracy - Complex computations won't go awry. Can take a quick look at others' computations and determine if the result is feasible.
Reading/Writing - Must be taken for each language. Does not have to be a language the character can speak.
Sign Language - <insert dry description here that no one will read because it's pretty obvious>
Toxicology - Knowledge of toxins, poisons, their antidotes, and how to make them.


At this time I want to try to clarify something about Character Points: there are essentially two kinds, adventure CP and pool CP. Adventure CP are earned for completing an adventure. Again, the GM determines what constitutes an adventure. Adventure CP can be spent on anything -- creating new pools, improving pools, increasing Health, or improving width stats. Pool CPs, Character Points earned from rolling a pool and each die is either a Success or the largest number on the die, can only be spent on the pool that earned the CP or the width stat that the pool is under (except for the Linguist pool as explained above).