On the Deck and in the Hold
Boarding!
Capacity to properly move and fight in a Boarding, to act together with the rest of the Crew, apply the carefully prepared tactic of the Captain or the Crew before engaging in the fight. Its field of application can also include the assault on a bastion or a fortress but such a situation occurs rarely, even in the life of the hottest Pirates!
The details regarding how to use that Skill are given in a dedicated section in the rules: generally speaking first in the Gaming System through the discussion of Strategic Actions, then in a more specific and detailed way in the section regarding Encounters and Fights.
Let us for now only explain that that Skill, according to the case, can be combined to many different Attributes: Nimbleness, Cleverness, Got a Nerve! are the most common.
Be careful not to mix up that Skill with Boarding & Looting Tactics: that one is used to prepare the tactics of the coming fight or to update a tactic in the course of operations.
Level 0 : « Where is Johnny Cutlass!? » « He got caught again in the shrouds… »Level 10 : « This is my best trio, aye! They are able to board the ennemy Ship through the cannon portholes! Thanks to those three outstanding Grenadeers, I developped and fine tuned a dreadful tactic to board even big Battleships… »
DIY of All Sorts
The « Mac Gyver » capacity of the respectable Sea Dog: working wood or metal, sewing a sail or a dress, tailoring, etc. There are so many things you have to be able to do on a Ship! Ropes, Sails, Barrels and so many more need to be repaired and sometimes even to be made! That Skill doesn't cover the repairing or making of complex or precision mechanisms: the Skill Locks & Mechanisms, otherwise very similar, applies for those operations, as well as for opening a locked door for instance…
So, it is in no case a Skill which would encompass all arts and crafts of the Known World but, as its name indicates, it represents a capacity to quickly make by oneself a sturdy and useful device when it is needed or « with the means of the Board » so to appropriately speak, manage to make a repair which holds until the next port or landing… (Note that « means of the Board » clearly implies that, whatever the gift, that which one can make is limited by the equipment and materials available at hand…)
That Skill is most frequently used with Cleverness and Dexterity.
Regarding the different Crafts, these are Skills which can be chosen, each as a Speciality stemming from the Skill DIY of All Sorts: one can for instance choose a Speciality in Boilermaking (Which may reveal as useful for cookery as for the making of cannons…).
Level 0: Avoid hammers, nails and other dangerous ojects of the kind like plague!Level 10: « The Master Carpenter of the Board has no pareil ! Donnez-lui un cageot, il vous fera la maquette de votre navire, sabords compris ! Lors de notre dernier naufrage, il a été capable de nous refaire un bateau (décent…) avec les débris du précédent venus s’échouer et les fûts des quelques cocotiers qui poussaient là ! »
Balance / Acrobatics
Capacity of the Character to juggle, fall without hurting him- or herself (from reasonable heights) and do the cannon-man or q shoz of flying trapeze at the occasion… The field of application of that Skill is rather wide, particularly in what concerns such on-board activities which require to swing in the Riggings of the Ship…
Most of the time, it combines with Nimbleness but having Got a Nerve! can play a relatively important role in some cases. It can also combine with other Skills such as Sabres & Other Blades or Boarding! (covering here only the fighting side of the Skill…) when the Character intends to make a particularly acrobatic move in that kind of circumstances…
Level 0: « Landlubber! Ya, handless swab monkey! Even clim'in' on a stool to refill the ceiling light, ye can't do that?! Ya even can't deserve the plank… Ya'd fall at firs' step! »Level 10: where you the clou in a circus show in a previous life?
Nosing Around
Stick your nose in the others' stuff, quickly search a room from under the carpets to the top of the wardrobes with the instinct of the cleptomane collector, the one who immediately knows where important things are and finds them quickly: the Nosing Around Skill, though quite not well considered, beneficiate a great popularity among the Pirates of the Known World because it is particularly useful for… the Treasure Hunt!
It is most of the time used with Perception, from time to time also with Cleverness. Level 0: « Impossible to find the map, Capt'n! It's just as hard as finding an elefant in a porcelain shop, aye Sir! »
Level 10: Spy for the Government of Kalimantan, specialist of four-leaf clover detection and needle recovery, especially when they are lost in bales of hay…
Riggings & Ropeworks
That Skill is almost exclusively on a Ship of any use: Riggings being mainly the Sails of the Ship and Ropeworks the rope set to manage them or hold them in place, that Skill covers all the actions linked to furling and releasing the Sails, manoeuvring, making knots, etc. It is thus clear that that Skill is strictly limited to the Board of a Ship, with some possible exceptions regarding the use of ropes, pulleys, knots, etc. in another context On voit donc qu’en dehors du cas de la manipulation de cordes et de poulies, usually at the Haven though, in the case of a Pirate's life.
That Skill is linked to the realisation of various operations onboard the Ship. The organisation of the working sequence is managed by other Skills, such as in particular Piloting and, to some extent, Command.
That Skill is mostly used with Nimbleness or Dexterity, according to which one is most suitable for the considered action: to make anew a knot on a static manoeuvre at the level of the Ship's Rail, Dexterity will be relevant; furling the Mainsail, aloft on a yard of the Great Mast will rather require Nimbleness. Associations with other Skills are possible: for instance, the repair of ropes can be rolled versus (Riggings & Ropeworks + DIY of All Sorts).
Level 10 : « That Boy is able to walk on the highest yard of the Great Mast even in the turmoil of the wildiest tempests! » (Which, even if it is no story of a drunkard, requires a successful Roll versus (Riggings & Ropeworks + Balance / Acrobatics) and the Mali for that are very likely considerable!).Popguns & Shot
That Skill covers the correct use of fire arms to fight: load the weapon, lock in cock position, possibly aim and finally fire. Those operations are not so simple with the achieved technology level of the fire arms of the Known World and an enrayement can easily happen. At that point, repairing a damaged weapon, as well as all the necessary mending and maintenance of a fire arm in general fall in the field of application of the Skill Locks & Mechanisms. A Specialisation in Fire Arms would be useful there to ensure repairs of good quality. The routine care (oiling and other cleanings…) still depends, however, of the present Skill.
A specified type of weapon can be chosen as a Speciality. Some rare or exotic weapon types (Such as some blunderbusses with rotating loader - a sort of ancestor to the machine gun - by the way almost as dangerous for their user as for the targets…) must be taken as a Speciality for the weapon type to be usable by the Character. If the Speciality Level in such weapon types is at zero, then the Game Master will apply a systematic Malus to the Character who, no matter what, wants to use one.
That Skill is used mostly with Perception but Dexterity can sometimes come into discussion.
Level 0: Pistols and other Blunderbusses have a unfortunate tendancy to explode in your hands… You were lucky up to now, no serious accident occured… But take good care!Level 10: You never miss your target or it is almost like that. On a Ship, at first sight, the clever Captain doesn't miss the chance to post you as a Sniper (marks(-wo-)man) when the time comes for Boarding!
Powder & Cannonballs
That Skill covers the correct use of artillery equipment: load the powder, then the shot, aim, ignite and finally fire. The manipulation of Cannons requires a fair mastery and extreme care because potential accidents are frequent and heavy. The routine cleaning of Cannons falls in the field of application of that Skill but repairs rather belong to DIY of All Sorts, preferably with an adequate Specialisation, such as Boilermaking which would fit for repairing the gun of a Cannon.
The Skill Powder & Cannonballs should not be mixed up for Balistic (see in The Wardroom section). The first applies to the use of Cannons per se while the latter applies to the computation of the trajectory and the required Shot to achieve a given result according to the target and situation. That one is a Skill required for the Captain or a Master Artilleryman to manage the fire power of the Ship.
The Skill Powder & Cannonballs is most often used with Perception or Nimbleness. Level 0: « Sink me! Tell me what ye're doing like ye're 'bout to kiss the nozzle of the cannon, daf'buggarrh! Fire's in the hole! »
Level 10: Le Capitaine vous a confié les puissants canons de chasse du navire les yeux fermés. Même à une distance de plus d’un mille nautique, votre coup fait mouche et cause de grands ravages sur les navires ennemis !
Locks & Mechanisms
That Skill covers the repair of mechanisms such as clocks, locks, complex navigation tools, (match-, wheel- or flint-) locks of guns or traps, etc. The making of simple mechanisms is possible. The use of that Skill is strongly conditioned in that case by the equipment and materials at hand. Lock-picking also falls in the field of application of that Skill and, here as well, depending on the lock complexity, some (even makeshift) tools, will be necessary…
Even if that Skill is the one which is used when repairing the mechanism of a fire arm, it has no link to the Skill Popguns & Shot seen here above. The latter one is used for the manipulation of such weapons in order to fight.
That Skill is most often used with Cleverness and Dexterity.
For what concerns the crafts that are associated to that Skill, such as Locksmith or Watchmaking, these are possible Specialisations stemming from it. Unless one possesses the Specialisation in Watchmaking, it is very unlikely that one can make a clock of good quality with the sole Skill Locks & Mechanisms (To understand the way a clock works, however, is possible.).
Level 0: « Do you intend to pick that lock? Well me know ya, Matey, ye'w'd better just break the door open! »Level 10: No lock can resist you! A perfect work! You are even able, in a record time, to lock the door again after you did the job. The intrusion will be very difficult even only to be suspected that time again…
Look-Out
As its name indicates, that Skill is particularly recommended for the Look-Out post – Well, it seems a bit redundant to say that! – but it is not limited to it since it includes more generally all situations where a Character observes with attention its environment, in search of a land, of embushed ennemies or of something unusual in a familiar place (the « game of the seven differences »).
It is most of the time used with Perception, possibly with Cleverness if the action is decided by the Character - typically, the search of a land - but it can also sometimes be used with Power when there is no clear intention of the Character - typically when suddenly feeling that there is something unusual in a familiar environment.
It is mostly a visual Skill but it can require any other sense, such as hearing or even smelling.
Level 0: Since you can't recognise a gull from a flying fish, it is difficult for you to « read » in the behaviour of animals to guess the approach of a land… Furthermore, since you are always caught in a cold, you have no risk to smell the peculiar and delicate scents which so nicely signals its near presence… You run however well the risk to randomly wander about during long long days over the ocean!Level 10: Even amidst the thickest fog you feel when the Ship closen to a dangerous reef or a welcoming island under all latitudes!