Rogue Skills
Bargain/Bribe
BS Smooth Talking
Cardsharp
Con
Concealment
False Divination
Find Contraband, Weapons & cybernetics
Gambling (Standard)
Gambling (Dirty Tricks)
Locate Secret Compartments
Palming
Pick Locks
Pick Pockets
Pool Shark
Safecracking
Search
Seduction
Shell Game
Sleight of Hand
Streetwise
Streetwise - Con Games
Streetwise - Drugs
Streetwise - Gambling
Streetwise - Networks
Ventriloquism
Bargain/Bribe: This persuasion skill is used when a player character bargains
with an NPC. It's usually used when they haggle over the price of something, but
could also be used in diplomatic relations, to bribe someone, etc. Use of the
skill is resolved as an opposed roll; both characters make bargain skill rolls.
Generally, the character with the higher roll gets the better part of the deal.
If the item over which they're bargaining has a price, use the average price or
the black market price. If the price has no average cost or a black market value
the GM must decide on the this price. In order to determine a bargain/ bribe the
player character must roll his/her Percentile Dice, as well for the NPC or the
person offering the merchandise. Then compare the rolls:
If the PC's roll is at least twice times the NPC's: The purchase price is 3/4 of
the average cost or black market price.
If the PC's roll is higher than, but not twice the NPC's: The purchase price is
10% of the average cost or black market price.
If the rolls are tied: The purchase price is equal to the average cost or black
market price.
If the NPC's roll is higher than, but not twice the PC's: The purchase price is
10% higher of the average cost or black market price.
If the PC's roll is at least twice times the NPC's: The purchase price is 3/4
higher of the average cost or black market price.
If the PC's roll is at least three times the NPC's: The purchase price is 50%
higher of the average cost or black-market price.
The result is what the player character can bargain the NPC down to; he can
always refuse the deal, if he/she wishes. The Bargain skill is, after all,
trying to make a deal -- a payment in exchange for the official's approval. In
this case, don't make a bargain skill roll for the target of the bribe attempt;
instead, the PC rolls the percentile dice, and the NPC rolls the percentile dice
and the higher of the two wins out. In other words if a PC rolls a 45% on the
dice and NPC rolls 35% the player character wins. Now there are several factor
that play in this. The alignment of the character and also their
disposition. There are also penalties for talking to certain alignments. For
instance a Diabolical character is easier to bribe than a Scrupulous character.
Also, take into consideration the disposition such as being Gung-ho, Shy or
Likes to take chances. This will make a PC or NPC despite his/her alignment take
or offer higher or lower bribes.
BS Smooth Talking: The ability to smooth talk oneself out of danger or
potentially embarrassing situations, and the ability to come up with a
completely bullshit explanation for any occurrence. This is the art of making
lame-ass excuses and being able to get away with it. Base Skill: 35% +5% per
level.
Cardsharp: A skill that involves the manual dexterity of hand and finger
manipulation to perform tricks, palming, and other gimmicks of sleight of hand
with playing cards. This includes dealing from the bottom or middle of the deck,
stacking a deck (to a cardsharp's favour), hiding cards up the sleeve (and
elsewhere), fancy and impressive methods of shuffling and dealing the cards, as
well as "marking" cards, card counting and understanding the odds. Marking cards
often includes a complex series of Braille-like indentations, punctures or
trimmed edges so that they are slightly concave or convex, all things that the
delicate touch of the professional cardsharp can feel as he deals the cards.
Other types of "marks" include incredibly subtle, almost indiscernible
variations of the pattern on the back of cards, typically in the right, upper
corner. A failed roll means the character has fumbled the trick, missed (or
misread) one of this secret markings, or was too obvious and is caught cheating!
Base Skill: 24% + 4% per level of experience. Add +4% if the character also has
the palming skill.
Con: A character uses his Con skill to persuade an NPC to do something that
isn't in the NPC's best interest Con can involve reasoned argument and false
logic, or simply throwing a verbal smoke screen to get the target to hesitate.
Sometime it can take the form of a bargain - "do this for me and I'll do that
for you" - but in a Con, the conner has no intention of fulfilling his/her part
of the bargain. Note: You can not make an NPC do something that is against their
alignment. When a character makes a Con attempt, determine a difficulty number
for the attempt, depending on how likely the target is to believe the player
character (All penalties are accumulative):
Very Easy (your own grandmother) - 0%. Any situations in between may be + or -
5% that is up to the GM and/or the players.
Easy (a naive teenager) - 10%. Any situations in between may be + or - 5% that
is up to the GM and/or the players.
Moderate (An Infantry guard who doesn't have orders preventing it) - 20%. Any
situations in between may be + or - 5% that is up to the GM and/or the players.
Difficult (local town police) - 30%. Any situations in between may be + or - 5%
that is up to the GM and/or the players.
Very difficult (Dog Boy) - 40%. Any situations in between may be + or - 5% that
is up to the GM and/or the players.
Whether the target has a particular reason to trust or like the character (+0%),
or distrust or dislike him/her (+10% if they hate the other character). Whether
what they are asked to do is particularly risky, dangerous or costly (+10% for
risking their lives). If the character's roll is higher than the victims roll,
his/her target does what he/she wants. You can use the number rolled as an
indication of the degree of success; if it's much higher than the victims (at
least twice as much), the victim may volunteer additional help, and may never
realize he/she has been had. If it's close, the victim may do as asked, then
realize he she has been duped as the player character walks away. Note: Robots
without a human brain, Royal Guard, etc., plus characters above the level of 12,
can not be conned. Base Skill: 30% + 5% per level of experience. A failed roll
means that the Con did not work and depending on who the intended victim was,
the character may be in big trouble or no trouble at all and manage to annoy the
NPC.
Concealment: Is the practiced ability of hiding something on ones body or in
hand, usually by continually moving it around from hand to hand or place to
place unnoticed. Objects must be no larger than 14 inches in height and length,
6 inches in width and weigh 10 lb. or less. The smaller and/or lighter the item,
such as a knife, gem, small sack, etc., the easier it is to conceal (add a bonus
of +5%). Larger items such as a book or club or statue or other similarly larger
and heavier objects are more difficult to conceal on ones person for obvious
reasons. A penalty of -5% applies to items over 7 inches (remember 14 inches
maximum) because it is more difficult size. Larger than 14 inches are impossible
to conceal. Base Skill: 20% + 5% per level of experience.
False Divination: This is a fraudulent form of fortune telling, or divination,
where one pretends read the future. This could be casting the Yarrow Sticks for
an I Ching reading, drawing from the Tarot, "contacting" spirits, or more
fantastical means. However, the con artist is fixing the results, by stacking
the cards, arranging the sticks, or just plain lying. One form of false
divination can be taken per skill slot spent on this skill. Beware; on a roll of
01 or 00 (GM's choice), a false divination may come true, to the detriment of
either the diviner or the customer; GMs, make them squirm! Base Skill: 24% + 3%
per level of experience.
Find Contraband, Weapons & cybernetics: The character with this skill knows
where to find arms dealers, smugglers, body ship-shops, M.O.M. and Juicer
conversions, criminal cyber-docs and illegal medical treatment, as well as how
to spot them. He is also familiar with their practices, hang-outs, gang or
criminal ties, general practices, code of conduct, pricing structures and modes
of operation. Likewise, the character has a good idea of what Black market
weapons and cybernetics should cost and what these people pay for contraband
items (typically about 20% of what they sell it for). The character also knows
the penalty of being caught with an illegal weapon, implant or bionics. For most
societies, any M.D. weapons, concealed weapons and sidearms are forbidden inside
large population centres. This skill is especially appropriate in the modern
cities of Rifts Japan, as well as in large cities of the Coalition States, the
NGR, Atlantis, and other large, modern cities. Base Skill: 26% + 4% per level of
experience. Note: This skill should be considered a separate skill apart from
streetwise.
Gambling (Standard): This skill enables the character to skillfully play in
several games of chance. The character knows the rules of 1D4 games, plus an
additional game for every 2 points of the characters I.Q. (round up). In
addition to rules, the character understands the theories of mathematical "odds"
(+5% bonus to math skill), some basic strategies and tactics for winning
consistently, when to hold them, fold them, etc. Base Skill: 30% + 5% per level
of experience.
Gambling (Dirty Tricks): This is the other side of gambling in which the
character is skilled at cheating in games of chance. This includes knowledge of
dice, stacking the deck (in one's favour), sleight of hand tricks to hide cards
up sleeves or in the palm of the hand, dealing from the bottom of the deck, and
other cheats (must have the palming skill for the latter two). Base Skill: 30% +
5% per level of experience.
Locate Secret Compartments: Vaguely similar to the espionage skill of detect
concealment, this skill focuses specifically on finding and opening trap doors
and secret compartments constructed within building s and furniture. The
character is familiar with all standard types of trap doors, hidden floor and
ceiling panels, secret rooms, and secret passages, as well as the usual methods
of opening them. This gives the character a solid idea of where such secret
doors are most likely to be found, how to identify and access them, and their
typical construction and design. This knowledge also includes finding secret
compartments concealed and built into furniture, boxes, toys, the heel of a
boot, clothing and other objects. It takes about 2D4+6 minutes to properly
search the walls and floors of a 10 foot square area or any one piece of
furniture or object. Roll once to locate and again to open it. Base Skill: 20% +
5% per level of experience. Add a bonus of +5% if the character also knows
Carpentry and another +5% if he has the General Repair or Field Armourer skill.
Reduce this skill by half when trying to detect camouflage and other forms of
concealment. Also reduce by half if an attempt is made to deactivate or safely
trigger a trap.
Palming: Simply the ability to pick up and seemingly make a small object such as
a coin, key, playing card, knife, etc. disappear by hiding or concealing it in
ones hand. Adds a bonus of +5% to pick pocket skill. Base Skill: 25% + 5% per
level of experience.
Pick Locks: The character knows the methods and tools for picking/opening key
and basic tumbler type locks. This does not include sophisticated computer or
electronic locks. It takes 1D6 melee rounds for each attempt to pick a lock. A
failed roll means the lock holds; try again. Base Skill: 30% + 5% per level of
experience.
Pick Pockets: An ability to remove items from a person without their being aware
of it. If a pick pocket attempt fails, the item has NOT been removed and there
is a 67% likelihood of the intended victim recognizing the intent of the action.
Base Skill: 25% + 5% per level of experience.
Pool Shark: This skill teaches the character the physics and geometry of the
pool table. Studying this skill allows the character to perform trick shots as
well as the ability to prepare for the next several shots in advance. This also
allows the player to regulate his/her game to win or lose depending on the
situation. This skill demonstrates the basic skills of angling and ricocheting
as well as English and "jumping" the cue ball for more difficult shots.
Requires: Basic math. Base Skill: 40% + 5% per level of experience.
Safecracking: This is a specialized skill in which the character studies the
strengths, weaknesses, and construction of safes and how to open them without
damaging the contents inside. The fingers of the safecracker are so sensitive
that they can "feel" the subtle calibration of combination locks and other
locking mechanisms. When using explosives, they can use their abilities to such
precision that they can "blow" the lock off a safe, security door, safe deposit
box and similar without creating a big, area affect explosion or inflicting
damage to the contents (a failed safecracking skill or demolitions roll means
the explosion was too much and the contents are damage). Base Skill: 20% + 4%
per level of experience. Bonuses: Adds +5% bonus to the lock picking and
demolitions skill. Penalties: Requires Focus, concentration and keen hearing,
Characters with a M.E. under 15 are -10% on this skill.
Search: Used when trying to locate someone or something. When the target is not
actively hiding or hidden, the user must roll and of course there are penalties
(all penalties are accumulative):
Very Easy (when you know its exact location) - 0%. Any situations in between may
be + or - 5% that is up to the GM and/or the players.
Easy (when you know its approximate location) - 10%. Any situations in between
may be + or - 5% that is up to the GM and/or the players.
Moderate (when your information on its location is a few days old) - 20%. Any
situations in between may be + or - 5% that is up to the GM and/or the players.
Difficult (when you're following a cold trail - week or month old information) -
30%. Any situations in between may be + or - 5% that is up to the GM and/or the
players.
Very Difficult (when nobody's seen it in years) - 40%. Any situations in between
may be + or - 5% that is up to the GM and/or the players.
If the target is hidden, the hider's hide/sneak skill roll increases the
searcher's difficulty number. Take one round to use when attempting to find a
hider in your immediate area (spot an ambush before they attack you). When used
in detective work, can involve minutes performing a computer search (provided
the character has Computer skills), or days tracking down a witness and
informants. GM's remember there is a difference between the military use and the
civilian use of searching. Please keep this in mind when the characters are
using this skill. Counts as Three Skills, unless otherwise stated. Base Skill:
30% + 5% per level of experience.
Seduction: This "skill" involves considerable practice and experience in this
difficult game of con artistry. This character will have studied extensively the
nature of the male/female mind (and anatomy) so as to understand how to best
seduce a potential sexual partner. Though this skill may be useful to
prostitutes, massagers, and even psychologists, it is mainly used as a deceptive
ploy to gather information from someone when they are at their weakest. Intended
targets will not necessarily be turned into putty, even if the roll is
successful. The G.M. should take all mitigating circumstances into account when
tabulating bonuses and penalties. If the victim suspects that he is being
manipulated, and resists, then there is almost no chance of success (also,
consider sexual orientation and compatibility). Base Skill: The M.A. + P.B.
attributes + 4% per level of experience.
Shell Game: It's the same the world over. All the character needs is a flat
surface, three shells (or cups, or bowls), a pea, and a gullible customer. The
idea is to keep moving the shells around and let the customer bet on where the
pea will appear. Missing the roll (getting over the base skill on percentile)
means that a customer has a genuine chance of spotting the correct shell and
wins. Or, if the pea was hidden or palmed, the customer is likely to see the
trick. Three Card Monty is the card variant of this skill, found in the more
urban areas. Base Skill: 20% + 4% per level of experience.
Sleight of Hand: This skill counts as TWO skills. A skill that involves the
manual dexterity of hand and finger manipulation to perform certain feats. One
of the tricks, or gimmicks, of sleight of hand is to distract the observer's)
with one hand and palm or otherwise manipulate an item with the other hand.
Sleight of hand also includes a basic level of escape artistry. Techniques
include hand positioning, tensing, popping joints in and out, the study of
knots, and usually a hidden lock picking tool's). Bonuses: +5% to palming, +5%
to pick pockets, +10% to escape artist, +6% to concealment. All are one time
skill bonuses applicable immediately. To escape from locked chains and manacles,
the character must have the lock pick skill as well. Note that an escape artist
does NOT need to see the knots, locks or manacles that hold him. Escapes and
lock picking can be done by touch and/or sound, as well as sight.
Time Restrictions and Penalties Although the sleight of hand skill provides
added skill and nimbleness of hands, the character is still restricted by time
and the odds against him. The following penalties apply whenever the character
tries to pick a lock or escape his bonds. They generally reflect the complexity
and difficulty of the job. In some cases, more than one penalty may apply. For
Example: The character may be handcuffed, arms and legs/feet tied, and then
locked in a chest (total darkness), for a cumulative penalty of -25%. ALL
penalties are cumulative. Note: ALL the locks and vaults may be of the highest
quality and supposedly unpickable; however, they are not super sophisticated.
Bank vaults, professional security systems, electric locks, and electric alarm
systems, are beyond the capabilities of the magician/escape artist. See
electrical skills. A failed skill roll means that the time has been spent in a
futile attempt. Try again! The same attempt by any character other than the
stage magician will take three times as long.
Escape and Lock Pick Penalties:
-0% Rope and typical knots: One melee
-5% Rope and superior knots: 1D4 melees
-0% Key padlock: 1D4 melees
-5% Combination padlock: 1D6 melees
-15% Security combination lock: 2D6 melees
-5% Typical door key lock: 1D4 melees
-10% Security door key lock: 2D4 melees
-5% Any standard key lock (doors, chests, etc.): 1D6 melees.
-5% Handcuffs: 1D4 melees
-20% Straitjacket: 2D4 melees
-15% Jail cell door: 2D6 melees
-5% Car trunk: 1D4 melees
-25% Vault door with superior combination lock: 2D6 minutes from the outside,
2D6 melee rounds from the inside.
-80% Electrical lock/bank vault: 6D6 minutes.
-20% Lack of proper tools; must use inferior, improvised tool's), like a hairpin
or belt buckle.
-50% No tools at all.
-10% Total darkness.
Streetwise: This skill instils an understanding of the darker side of city life
and the scoundrels who roam the streets. The streetwise character will be able
to recognize gang members by their actions and philosophies, gang colours
(emblems and clothing that denote membership to a particular organization), gang
symbols and mannerisms, and dangerous locations and gangland haunts. The
individual will also recognize a potential brawl situation, assess a gang
members rank/power in the organization, and know some of the hangouts, modes of
operation, rituals, ethics, and perhaps even notorious gang leaders of the more
infamous street gangs. This skill also includes the ability to recognize and
locate black market dealers/organizations, illegal cyber-doc clinics, drugs and
arms dealers, and similar criminal outfits. Base Skill: 20% + 4% per level of
experience.
Streetwise - Con Games: This skill provides the individual with a great
understanding of one of the dark sides of city life: con artists. He will know
their tricks, games, methods, and practices. He will be able to spot con
artists, and judge if they are cheating, and how. This skill also provides the
character with enough knowledge to set up a con game himself, pulling reasonable
wages from other people's gullibility. Con games can be anything from the simple
shell game known the world over, or can be a huge, elaborate scheme, like
getting investors for real estate, etc. Base Skill: 20% + 4% per level of
experience.
Streetwise - Drugs: This skill gives the character the ability to recognize
characters addicted to drugs, street corner pushers, big time dealers, drug
smugglers, juicers, Japes, and undercover agents looking to bust dealers.
Similarly, the character has a good idea what drugs cost, how to use them and
where to buy them (even if he doesn't use them himself). The character also
knows most of the "street names" of common drugs, recognizes the drug when he
sees it and know the general effects and dangers it represents. He can also
recognize the symptoms in others and can guess what drug a user may be high on
with reasonable accuracy (roll under skill ability). Note: This additional
street knowledge can be included as part of the regular streetwise skill or used
as an additional rogue skill; G.M.'s choice. Base Skill: 25% + 5% per level of
experience.
Streetwise - Gambling: This skill gives the character general knowledge about
many common types of gambling (from cards and roulette, to horses and
gladiatorial combat). Knowledge includes the rules of the games, odds of
winning, best bets, knowing when to stop, spotting a cheating casino/rigged
system, and knowing who to talk to for the inside information (for a price). A
successful roll does not mean the character wins automatically, but correctly
understands all the risks and odds involved, and will win more consistently than
someone who is gambling randomly. Base Skill: 20% + 5% per level of experience.
Streetwise - Networks: This skill gives the character an understanding of the
darker side of computer networks. Computerized networks exist in many high-tech
cities in Rifts, particularly in the NGR. These networks are very complex and
difficult to navigate, but on them one can find all sorts of illegal activity
and illegal contacts and connections. Characters with this skill will know who
and how to ask on the Net about various things, will know how to obtain pirated
software, will be able to buy and sell to the Black Market and others from this
connection. Networks can be very useful in finding large amounts of information
in very little time. Note: Though no more than Computer Operations is required,
the more computer skills the character has, the better he will fit in on the
net. For instance, speaking fluent techno-can will make the character "talk the
talk" of the Net. Computer Hackers will also be able to gain illegal access to
parts of the Net where certain types of people hang out, etc. Add a +15% bonus
if the character has Computer Hacking and/or other Computer-related skills. Base
Skill: 15% + 5% per level of experience. Requires: Computer Operations and
Literacy.
Ventriloquism: This is the ability to speak without moving one's lips. The character can talk, while making it seem as though he is saying nothing. This does NOT include the ability to throw one's voice, although with no apparent source for the sound, a person might be confused. It is mostly a parlour trick and stage act. Base Skill: 25% + 5% per level of experience.