Character Skills

In EXODE, for simplicity, skills encompass a very broad range of concepts so that the same mechanics can be used throughout. This removes many of the endless tables and memorization of traditional role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons (D&D). Thus, not only do EXODE skills encompass traditional skills but also things that D&D considers innate abilities and attributes – so that all can be handled in exactly the same simplified, unified fashion.

For example, in many role-playing games, attributes like “Constitution” or “Dexterity” are numeric scores which may or may not modify things like hit points, saving throws or success chances (often requiring a table to sort out). In EXODE, whether you succeeding at not dying when damaged is a direct comparison between damage and TOUGHNESS skill * 2 (which is basically the same as D&D's hit points). Similarly, your chance of succeeding in not taking damage from a hit on the shields to which you are brain-wired (or dying from poison) simply requires a check against your TOUGHNESS skill (rather than figuring out which D&D saving throw table is most applicable).

Skill scores are measured on an open-ended numeric scale and are very dependent upon a character's quality level (QL). For example, Legendary Characters (QL10) without a given skill generally perform on a par with average crew with that skill. As seen in the table of average scores below, the average across all Quality Levels for not having a skill is approximately 50. Variance in skill scores from the average can range from 3 for major negative traits for low QL characters to nearly 100 for major positive skills for elite Legendary characters.

Average Skill Scores by Quality Level (QL)

When checking for success:

  • a skill 50 auto-succeeds at very mundane (difficulty: 25) tasks
  • a skill 100 auto-succeeds at average (difficulty: 50) tasks
  • a skill 200 auto-succeeds at hard (difficulty: 100) tasks
  • very hard tasks/impossible tasks can require a roll from anyone

Details about how the skill checks are done can be found here

Skills Generation

Skills & Traits List

The complete current list of skills and their associated traits is as follows:

Academic Skills & Traits

Individual Skills & Traits

Social Skills & Traits