Skills and How They're Used
Survival in this last Great Frontier boils down to one thing, trusting your skills and experience. While there are a plethora of things you could set your mind to getting done, if you don’t even know how to set started there’s a slim chance you’ll ever get close to succeeding. Through habit and practice – or sheer dumb luck—you’ve specialized your knowledge to just what you need to get by in life. Relying on those abilities you have the most aptitude and knowledge in will keep you alive out here. But hey, with all that wandering you’re doing, your bound pick up some new ones.
Skill definition
In the Down Darker trails setting for Call of Cthulhu, a semi modified list of skills are used—mainly altered for the time period. There are also a few new skills altogether. The percentiles used represent the capacity to perform the task associated to the skill, not the chance of success. It might be easier to think of the percentiles as a scope of all the knowledge in the known world there is of this skill, and how much knowledge your investigator processes? The chart to the right (Skill Points And What Do They Mean?) breaks down each percentage level in simple terms; from novice to master.
Skill Specialization
Some of the skills are broken up into subsets. With these skills an investigator would put points towards a subset skill (like Handguns or Rifles/Shotguns) but not the overarching skill itself (Fighting). Now there may come a time where you know one specialized skill but wish to use its counterpart. In this case a modified or more difficult role might be needed depending on the situation.
How skills are applied to rolls
Opposed Rolls
At some point your investigator will find themselves being opposed by some opponent. When that happens the difficulty of the roll is determined by the skill level of the opponent. Level below 50% regular difficulty Equal or above 50% hard difficulty Equal or above 90% extreme difficulty An example of this: Your investigator is being shot at and they would use their dodge skill to determine if they can get out of the way, or uses the skill Spot Hidden to see if someone is sneaking up on them.
Pushing Skills
In all Call of Cthulhu variations skill checks/rolls have a standard pass or fail outcome, but it doesn’t have to stop there. A player can choose to push a roll (i.e. rerolling). Pushing a roll denotes that the investigator is putting in more time or effort into the task at hand, though this will leave them open to a greater consequences if they fail this pushed roll.Critical Success and Fumbles
When ever a 1 is rolled it is an improved success on a check. On the other side, and roll between a 96-100 is considered a fumbled and an automatic failureIntelligence, Luck, Idea, and Know rolls
Along with the standard skill rolls, there are additional rolls players can make while playing. These additional rolls can be used by any investigator at anytime and approved by the Keeper Intelligence: These rolls are used to determine is the investigator and figure out a puzzle or a riddle, whether the player can figure it out. Luck: A luck roll is used to determine an investigators luck at any moment. Do they find a key item by chance, or perhaps run into someone they lost during a chase? Leave it to fate and roll for luck. Idea: This type of roll is used when investigators, or players, are stumped on a current case. A success will get them back on track, while a failure just means there will be a cost. Know: A Know roll is used to see what sort of knowledge they might have on a place or topic of the world they are in. While a player might know the dangers in a situation, there no guaranty that their investigator would know.Listed below are skills in the Down Darker Trails setting
Key(Uncommon) = an uncommon skill not written on the Down Darker Trails Investigator Sheet.
(Specializations) = a skill that is broken up into various separate skills.
* = a new skill
Accounting (05%)
Animal Handling (05%)
Anthropology (01%)
Appraise (05%)
Archaeology (01%)
Art and Craft (05%) (Specializations)
Charm (15%)
Climb (20%)
Credit Rating (00%)
Cthulhu Mythos (00%)
Demolitions (01%) (Uncommon)
Disguise (05%)
Diving (01%) (Uncommon)
Dodge (half DEX)
Drive (auto) (00%) (Uncommon)
Drive Wagon/Coach (20%)
Electrical Repair (00%)
Fast Talk (05%)
Fighting (varies) (Specializations)
Firearms (varies) (Specializations)
First Aid (30%)
Gamblng* (10%)
History (05%)
Hypnosis (01%) (Uncommon)
Intimidate (15%)
Jump (20%)
Language (Other) (01%) (Specializations)
Language (Own) (EDU)
Law (05%)
Library Use (20%)
Listen (20%)
Locksmith (01%)
Mechanical Repair (10%)
Medicine (01%)
Natural World (20%)
Navigate (10%)
Occult (05%)
Operate Heavy Machinery (01%)
Persuade (10%)
Pilot (01%) (Specializations)
Psychology (10%)
Ride (15%)
Rope Use* (05%)
Science (01%) (Specializations)
Sleight of Hand (10%)
Spot Hidden (25%)
Stealth (20%)
Survival (10%) (Specializations)
Swim (20%)
Throw (20%)
Track (10%)
Trap* (10%)
Starting Percentages
Before designing your investigator, you may have noticed that some skills have percentages next to them from the start. Consider this as a base line of knowledge that the average citizen would have had at the time. This will also be the base line that you add to with your career chosen skills points
General level of ability to do a skill
01%–05%: Novice: complete amateur.
06%–19%: Neophyte: beginner with a small amount of knowledge.
20%–49%: Amateur: possesses some talent or rudimentary training (hobby level).
50%–74%: Professional: allows a character to eke out a living from the skill. Equivalent to a bachelor’s degree in a specific subject.
75%–89%: Expert: advanced expertise. Corresponds with a master’s degree or Ph.D.
90%+: Master: among the world’s best in the skill.
Comparing Results of Rolls
Critical success beats Extreme success. Extreme success beats Hard success. Hard success beats Regular success. Regular success beats Failure or Fumble.
