Abilities Basics

If you’ve played more than one World of Darkness game, you’ve probably noticed that the Abilities lists (Talents, Skills, and Knowledges) for the different game lines are not exactly alike. Some Abilities are shared across all four of the game lines we support; others are only listed in one or two games. Additionally, Mage: the Ascension introduces a large number of additional “secondary” Abilities, most of which do not appear in the rules for any of the other games.

TowersMUX has made an effort to try to harmonize the base lists for each of the four games, adding additional Abilities to fill in where necessary, to end up with 15 in each category for a total of 45. (Some spheres may have additional sphere-specific Abilities.) All available Abilities are considered “primary”, have the same cost in chargen dots, freebie points, or XP, roll against the same difficulties, and behave the same way in play.

A majority of Abilities are found in at least three of the four game lines and behave as written; these common abilities are Alertness, Athletics, Brawl, Empathy, Expression, Intimidation, Leadership, Streetwise, Subterfuge, Animal Ken, Crafts, Drive, Etiquette, Firearms, Melee, Performance, Security, Stealth, Survival, Academics, Computer, Enigmas, Investigation, Law, Medicine, Occult, Politics, and Science.

Most of the remaining Abilities are found in either the Mage core book or the Book of Secrets; these include Art, Diplomacy, Instruction, Intrigue, Intuition, Seduction, Elusion, Pilot, Technology, Area Knowledge, Finance, Media, and Power-Brokering.

Ability Clarifications

Some of the base abilities require additional clarification:

• Area Knowledge requires a specialty (see below), and provides one free specialty per dot in the Ability — that is, someone with two dots might have specialties in “Tower Hamlets” and “Camden” for no additional cost. If applied to London, the specialty cannot apply to any area of the city larger than a Borough (see Boroughs of London); if applied to an area outside London, the maximum area can be somewhat larger (e.g., Wales, Yorkshire, the Cotswolds, and so on). You may not buy “Subterranean London” as a specialty for Area Knowledge; it’s too large, too unexplored, and too dangerous for that level of knowledge to be gained offscreen.
• Art, Expression, and Performance: Art is the Ability of choice for drawing, painting, sculpting, and other visual arts. Expression is for the literary arts — prose, poetry, speeches, polemics, scripts, and plays. Finally, Performance covers music, acting, and the other performing arts.
• Instruction does not provide an XP discount, but it does make it easier for others to justify XP spends when learning from the character who has it.
• Power-Brokering allows your character to leverage Backgrounds in one area to affect others — for instance, you might use Criminal Allies in place of Law-Enforcement Allies in order to accomplish some urgent task. Depending on your dots in this Ability, and the difference between the area of influence you have and the area you need, your effective Background will be somewhat lower than the actual for this purpose.

Gestalt Abilities

There are also four gestalt Abilities, which represent combinations of or adaptations of existing Abilities.

• Gaming covers board, dice, and card games, as well as other games of chance and skill that are primarily mental rather than physical. It also covers the ability to gauge odds, recognize good and bad situations in a game, and find the best chances of making money from betting on your own or others’ performance.
• Larceny covers sleight of hand, lockpicking, how to understand and defeat security systems, and other skills needed to enter a secured area undetected, liberate items of value from the defenses keeping them safe, leave without being noticed, and convert your acquisitions into cash. Larceny has some overlap with Security, Stealth, Streetwise, and Technology.
• Culture covers awareness of the things that obsess the mortal world. You know about great — or just currently popular — works of art, music, literature, and so forth. Characters with dots in Culture can always come up with an appropriate quote or aphorism and are rarely at a loss for something to talk about no matter whose company they find themselves in. There’s some overlap between Culture, Empathy, Academics, and Media.
• Warfare covers the various different elements of making war: strategy, tactics, covert operations, and how to combine all these elements together to conduct a winning campaign against an enemy. It also covers some unusual skills found mostly in military and paramilitary service, like the use of explosives and how to operate armored vehicles or crew-served weapons.

Required Specialties

Some Abilities have a requirement to select a specialization, even if you don’t have four dots in the Ability in question. You can set these with +note/add me/Specialties=<Ability>/<Specialty and any required explanation>. Required specialties don’t gain the normal specialty bonus unless you have 4 or more dots in the Ability.

Rolling an Ability with a required specialization (and only Abilities with required specializations) where your specialization does not apply carries a +1 modifier to the roll’s difficulty. This does not stack with the difficulty modifier applied when rolling a Skill with 0 dots; only a maximum +1 is applicable.

For convenience, the list of Abilities that require a specialty is reproduced here:

Art, Expression, Crafts, Performance, Pilot, Academics, Area Knowledge, Esoterica, Science.

Sphere-Specific Abilities

In addition to the standard Abilities listed above, that are available to all spheres, each supernatural sphere also has access to one or more additional Abilities. Please see the “Game Rules -> Clarifications and House Rules -> <Sphere>” submenu for specific rules information on a sphere’s particular Abilities.

• Vampire has access to Awareness; the Gargoyle bloodline also has access to the Flying Ability. Ghouls have no additional Abilities.
• Werewolf and other shifter types have access to Cosmology and Primal-Urge; Corax additionally have access to Flying.
• Mage has access to Awareness, Cosmology, Esoterica, High Ritual, and Hypertech; Akashics also have access to the Do Ability.
• Changeling has access to Gremayre and Kenning; the Hsien subsphere instead has Shentao.

But What About … ?

If you’re interested in a particular Ability that’s not listed above, and aren’t sure how best to represent that capability for your character, check the list below for suggestions. It’s worth emphasizing that last word: these are suggestions. Most tasks can be accomplished in many different ways, and as long as the explanation for how a character is going about them makes in-character sense, the range of Abilities that could be used is a very broad one.

• Acrobatics: Generally handled under Athletics, although Elusion would be appropriate for its particular use case, and a Performance specialty might better suit someone doing flashy moves for a crowd.
• Archery: Use Firearms instead. Thrown weapons remain under Athletics.
• Belief Systems: Depending on whether your character is more interested in the practical or the theoretical side, this knowledge might be represented by Occult or Academics.
• Biotech: Use Hypertech instead; generally this is only of use to technomantic Mages.
• Blatancy: This Ability is not used here. See Reality and Paradox for information on how to determine when spellcasting is coincidental and when it’s vulgar.
• Blind Fighting: This Ability is not used here. There may eventually be special combat maneuvers (learned with Merits) that emulate the effect, in addition to the numerous supernatural abilities that do so.
• Carousing: A dice roll generally isn’t needed for this skill, but, if there’s some question about whether people are up for a good time, options might include Culture (to know what’s hip and popular), Etiquette (to know what fits the crowd and the situation), or Leadership (to get people to have fun whether they want to or not).
• Climbing: Use Athletics instead.
• Conspiracy Theory: Use Culture instead, possibly with a specialty.
• Covert Culture: Generally this will fall under either Warfare or possibly Academics, depending on a character’s particular bent. Please note that this is a skill specifically about intelligence organizations, underworld criminal networks, secretive paramilitary grounds, etc., and not about counterculture ideas or conspiracy theories.
• Cooking: Use Crafts instead.
• Cryptography: Cryptography could conceivably use Computer, Warfare, or an appropriate Science specialty, as best fits the situation.
• Cultural Savvy: Use Culture instead.
• Disguise: An appropriate Arts or Crafts specialty would be used to help look like or dress like someone else, but Subterfuge or a Performance specialty are best for acting like someone else.
• Demolitions: Crafting (or disarming) IEDs, explosive traps, and so forth is best handled with Warfare. Actual demolitions (safely bringing down a building, for example) could be represented by a Civil Engineering specialty for Science. Please be aware that detonating any significant quantity of explosives in London will draw a swift and forceful response from law enforcement and other interested parties, likely with negative consequences for the characters involved.
• Energy Weapons: Use Firearms (or, if you’re swinging a lightsaber or vibroblade, Melee) instead.
• Escapology: Larceny or Security are both acceptable substitutes.
• Fast-Draw: This Ability is not used here. It’s possible that there might eventually be special combat maneuvers (learned with Merits) that emulate the effect.
• Fast-Talk: Use Subterfuge instead.
• Fencing/Kenjutsu: Learning special armed combat maneuvers is handled by the “Fencing” Merit (under review).
• Fortune-Telling: Use Occult instead.
• Gambling: Subsumed by the “Gaming” Ability.
• Gunsmith: Best handled as a Crafts specialty.
• Heavy Weapons: Subsumed by the “Warfare” Ability. Please be aware that opportunities to make use of this aspect of Warfare are likely to be few and far between at best.
• Helmsman: Technomantic voidcraft are handled with a Pilot specialty.
• History: Use an appropriate Academics specialty.
• Hunting: Generally, use Survival instead.
• Hypnotism: Hypnotism on TowersMUX is generally not effective without some supernatural ability to back it. Knowledge of the theory and history of hypnotism, mesmerism, etc., are best handled by Occult, Academics, or (if available to your sphere) Esoterica instead.
• Jetpack: Use a Pilot specialty.
• Jury-Rigging: Use Technology instead.
• Lore/RD Data: TowersMUX doesn’t support the concept of knowing about other spheres solely through purchase of an Ability. Your character can certainly know some of the legends and myths of the mundane world regarding vampires, werewolves, wizards, etc. — normally handled with the Occult Ability — but actual knowledge is generally only gained IC.
• Lucid Dreaming: Use Occult or (if available to your sphere) Esoterica instead.
• Martial Arts: Learning special unarmed-combat maneuvers is handled by the “Martial Arts” Merit.
• Meditation: Use Occult or (if available to your sphere) Esoterica instead.
• Microgravity Operations: We don’t have a specific Ability for this purpose. Generally, if your character has access to a microgravity environment and has taken the trouble to acclimate to it, they can operate normally. If they haven’t, apply a 5-die penalty to the first physical action in a scene, a 4-die penalty to the next, and so on until you reach 0 dice.
• Mimicry: Imitating wildlife calls is best handled with Survival. Trying to mimic someone else’s voice is more of a Performance specialty.
• Misdirection: Generally, use Subterfuge instead, although Stealth, Larceny, or an appropriate Performance specialty could all conceivably apply depending on the situation.
• Negotiation: Use Diplomacy instead.
• Networking: Use Power-Brokering instead.
• Newspeak: This is primarily a Technocracy Ability and is not likely to be used by PCs. If for some reason you feel the need for it, consider purchasing it as a language.
• Pharmocopoeia/Poisons: If you’re interested in this from the R&D side, a Science specialty is the way to go. If you’re more interested in the practical aspects, use Medicine instead.
• Propaganda: Use Media instead.
• Psychology/Psychoanalysis: Psychology in the abstract is best considered as a specialty for Science; someone wanting to be a doctor in psychiatric practice will want both dots in Medicine and Empathy as well.
• Riding: Animal Ken is the preferred substitute — except for motorcycles or robotic mounts, which would be a Drive or Pilot specialty instead.
• Scan: Generally, use Alertness instead. Depending on the situation, Intuition or Investigation might also apply.
• Scrounging: This is generally handled with Subterfuge or Area Knowledge instead.
• Speed-Reading: In the event that you need to roll something comparable, Academics (to quickly absorb information) is the best substitute.
• Style: If you’re trying to look fashionable in a particular kind of company, Etiquette might substitute. If you’re interested in fashion design, Art or Crafts would be better. And if you’re just trying to get someone to notice you, Seduction is what you’re looking for.
• Swimming: Use Athletics instead.
• Theology: c.f. “Belief Systems.”
• Torture: “Enhanced interrogation” would probably substitute Warfare or Intimidation. A more artistic practice might be an Expression specialty. Either way, Medicine is highly recommended as a supporting Ability …
• Unconventional Warfare: Use Warfare instead.
• Vice: Use Streetwise instead.