Skills

Skills are one of the most fundamental ways you can define your character in the Resistance system - not only do they state what a character is good at, but they also inform the core actions that will take place in the game.

As such, it’s hard for us to dictate a “core” set of skills that can be transported over to any system. Instead, we’re going to talk about what goes into making a skill list, and then show some examples of our own.

Making A Skill List

Skills are the levers that you give your players to interact with the world, and as such they provide a guide to the sort of actions that they are expected to attempt. The skills you leave out are in some ways just as important as the skills you put in - for example, putting a DRIVE or PILOT skill says that vehicles are important, and important enough to get their own skill (rather than using, say, CHASE or KILL depending on what the player is attempting). Leaving that skill out (in a game that features vehicles) communicates that the vehicles themselves aren’t that important - it’s the characters, and what they want to do, that is.

We would advise on fewer skills, rather than more, and grouping skills together when possible. For instance: if you choose FIGHT, which covers any and all violence, rather than SHOOT, MELEE and UNARMED or even SHOTGUN, RIFLE, PISTOL, SNIPER, etc - this shows that while you want combat to be a part of the game, you don’t care about the nitty-gritty of how it’s done and instead want to focus on the end results.

You could go even further and decide that your game doesn’t focus on violence, so you don’t have a FIGHT skill at all, and instead think in terms of what the characters would want to achieve with fighting. Instead of having a specific skill for it, the character could tap their SCARE skill or their PROTECT skill, and in-fiction, say they’re doing it through the application of violence.

If you don’t put a skill in the game, player characters can still attempt that action, but it doesn’t get a bonus dice when they do. Of course, if it’s an impossible action, then it fails, and if it’s a simple action, then it succeeds, and there’s no need to break out the dice at all.

Domains

Domains aren’t intrinsically linked to action types, like skills are, but instead to areas of the game world and contacts you might have.

Domains are a way of explaining what’s important in the world - the different areas of influence that make up the story that you’ll be telling together. They’re also a way of giving characters broad competency within certain areas, allowing them to act more effectively when operating in that space. Within the fiction, this shows that the character is experienced with the sort of things they can expect to face; in mechanical terms, it allows a character to specialise in areas of the setting, rather than skills, and thus confer competency (and spotlight time) when those areas arise.

For example, in a game about warring noble houses, each house (and the attached territories and customs) might be Domain; in a game set in a single city, the Domains could represent different factions, areas, social strata and areas of knowledge - HIGH SOCIETY, LOW SOCIETY, GOVERNMENT, COMMERCE, CRIME etc.

Knacks

If you possess a skill or domain and gain it a second time, you gain a knack - proficiency with a particular facet of the broad spectrum covered by the skill or domain. Using a knack allows you to roll with mastery but, as ever, you cannot gain more than one dice from mastery per roll.

Sample Knacks

DECEIVE

Roll with mastery when you:

• Create forged documents
• Use a disguise
• Impersonate a named individual
• Drop a casual lie into a conversation

LOW SOCIETY

Roll with mastery when:

• In the docks
• Interacting with workers
• Blending in as part of Low Society
• Defending the people of Low Society

“default” Skill And Domain Lists

We don’t have any! If we define a “standard” fit, we start to define the setting and world you’re building through the actions and situations that are important. Instead, we’ve provided three sample sets - you can use these in their entirety, for inspiration, or as a starting point for one of your own.

Traditional Fantasy Skill List

• ATHLETICS - Run, jump, climb trees.
• DECEIVE - Lie, cheat and carry off disguises without being discovered.
• HEAL - Repair damage suffered to the body or mind.
• INTIMIDATE - Scare or threaten people into doing what you want.
• INVESTIGATE - Learn information that others have tried to conceal.
• MELEE - Hit things up close with swords, clubs or your bare hands.
• PERCEIVE - Notice things that others might not.
• PERSUADE - Convince people to do what you want via charm and pleasantries.
• RANGED - Hit things at range with arrows, thrown weapons, or spells.
• RESIST - Struggle on through pain, foul magic or hardships.
• SNEAK - Conceal yourself or items from the notice of others.

Traditional Fantasy Domain List

• ARCANA - Magic and the occult.
• DEMONIC - The territory and categorisation of the infernal legions.
• DUNGEON - Dangerous places full of monsters, traps and treasure.
• FEY - The lands and customs of the fair folk.
• OUTLAW - Crime, banditry, and robbery.
• RELIGION - Gods and goddesses.
• URBAN - Cities, technology, and civilisation.
• WILD - Nature, animals, and unoccupied land.

Vampire Hunter Skill List

• INSIGHT - Work out if someone’s on the level or not.
• STEALTH - Hide from sight.
• ENDURANCE - Endure blood loss, vampiric mind control, exhaustion, etc.
• KILL - Viciously end the life of someone, or something, else.
• TRACK - Hunt and follow a target.
• INVESTIGATE - Search the places a target has been to uncover more information on them.
• CONVINCE - Persuade someone to see things from your point of view.
• RUN - Move as fast as you can.
• WEALTH - Use money to get what you want.

Vampire Hunter Domain List

• CRIME - Breaking the law to get things done.
• DHAMPYR - Half-blood vampires who integrate into human society.
• HIGH SOCIETY - Posh folk with money and power.
• LOW SOCIETY - Common folk without money or power.
• PHANTOMS - Ethereal leeches who harvest the life-force from humans.
• POLICE - Government employees devoted to keeping the peace.
• PRIMALS - Bestial vampires who dwell in wild places and adopt animalistic traits.
• STRIGOI - Old-fashioned traditionalist vampires who rely on spirit-magic.
• WILD - Woods, mountains, swamps - anything far from civilisation.

90’s American High School Drama Skills

• CHARM - Be nice to get what you want.
• CONCEAL - Hide yourself, your intentions, or other things from people.
• DEFEND - Protect yourself or others.
• FLIRT - Turn people on.
• HURT - Do people harm, either physically or socially.
• LIE - Tell mistruths to get what you want.
• MEND - Repair broken hearts, bikes, legs or other things.
• STUDY - Investigate information, remember facts and come to your own conclusions.

90’s American High School Drama Domains

• GOTH - Depressing music, deep emotions, and audacious makeup use.
• JOCK - Sports! Sports! Sports! Also makeouts, parties and belittling others.
• NERD - Book-smarts, all-night study sessions, anime trivia.
• PARENTS - Anyone more than ten years older than you who doesn’t work at the school.
• PREPPY KID - Spend daddy’s money, dress up nice, probably be a lawyer someday.
• PUNK - Crime, rebellion, fighting and vandalism.
• STONER - Connections to dealers, masterful class-skipping, unusual tangents.
• TEACHERS - Anyone who works at the school.
• THEATRE KID - Cause a scene, learn lines, get obsessed with interpersonal drama.