Awareness

Attribute WIL
Category Other
Untrained Yes

Free to fraal, human, mechalus, sesheyan, t’sa, and weren characters. This broad skill represents a character’s powers of observation, perception, and intuition. Skill checks are called for when the Gamemaster needs to determine if a character notices something—characters themselves never call for a use of this skill.

Noticing something could be as simple as providing a hint that the character missed in the normal course of play, or help when the character appears totally lost or confused. On a Failure, the character doesn’t notice a thing. Otherwise, any success provides the character with at least a small clue. The Gamemaster can decide that the better the level of success achieved, the more details the character becomes aware of.

Guidelines for Use

The Awareness broad skill and its specialties are examples of how the general rule on dice rolling applies: Dice should only be rolled on a skill check in a situation when the Gamemaster needs to determine if a character is capable of doing something difficult or out of the Ordinary.

More often than not, characters with respectable scores in Awareness or its specialties will automatically succeed when something exists that can be noticed or perceived (e.g., seeing a fallen tree blocking a path). A skill check is called for to see if the character notices subtle details (e.g., a hole in the trunk where an object is concealed).

Modifiers

  • Sensors: Some sensor equipment may provide benefits to Awareness checks.
  • Opponent Skills: Another character’s use of certain skills (such as Stealth or Security) can add modifiers to an Awareness check.

Intuition

Attribute WIL
Cost 3
Untrained Yes

This specialty skill represents a character’s natural instincts—the ability to sense danger when no obvious signs are evident, to avoid surprise, or to make an intuitive leap of logic without the support of hard facts. It is the ability to make a “best guess” in a given situation.

Avoiding Surprise

When no obvious signs of danger are evident, a character’s subconscious use of this skill can enable them to avoid being caught by surprise. The Gamemaster calls for intuition checks; players do not request them.

  • Success: The character isn’t surprised and can act in the surprise phase of the upcoming round.

The “Best Guess”

When a character wants to make an intuitive “best guess,” the Gamemaster may allow a player to call for an intuition skill check on their character’s behalf.

  • Success: Yields a beneficial result; the greater the level of success, the more accurate and complete the conclusion. Note: This use is only permitted to characters who have purchased the specialty skill and should not be allowed more than once or twice in an adventure.

Perception

Attribute WIL
Cost 3
Untrained Yes

This specialty skill represents a character’s alertness and powers of observation—the character notices something either consciously or on a subliminal level. While intuition is a feeling or unexplainable sense, perception works on signs that can be spotted by normal senses (e.g., a broken twig, the click of a gun’s safety, a whisper in the wind).

Spotting Trouble

When potential danger obviously exists in a situation, a character’s subconscious use of this skill can help them avoid being caught by surprise. The Gamemaster calls for perception checks; players do not request them.

  • Success: The character isn’t surprised and can act in the surprise phase of the upcoming round.

Psionic Sense

Attribute WIL
Cost 4
Untrained No

Only characters capable of using psionic powers (such as Mindwalkers) or those with the “Psionic Awareness” perk can purchase and use this skill.

This specialty skill allows a character to detect the activation of psionic powers and the presence of psionic phenomena. It can assist in identifying the type of power, the direction of its source, and the approximate intensity of the psionic user.

Detecting Psionic Powers

The Gamemaster will call for a check when a psionic power is activated in the character’s vicinity, or affect the character or its vicinity.

  • Ordinary: The character senses that some psionic power was activated nearby.
  • Good: If the source is in line of sight, the character can identify the user. Otherwise, they get a general idea of the direction and distance.
  • Amazing: The character can detect subtle, ongoing effects (e.g., mental manipulation or psionic illusions).

Identifying and Tracing

If the character attempts a Knowledge—Psionics check to identify the type of psionic power or an ESP power to trace a detected power, they receive a bonus based on their Psionic Sense result:

  • Ordinary: No bonus.
  • Good: -1 step bonus.
  • Amazing: -3 steps bonus.

Characters capable of using the Clairvoyance or similar ESP power can also apply this bonus to their skill check when tracing the source of a psionic event.