Skills and Talents

The Old West uses the 22 skills and the universal talents of the Exodus NDS Core Rules (Skills and Talents). This chapter lists what the Era changes: one added skill, the languages, the fields of Lore, and 39 Era talents. Everything not named here is as the Core Rules print it.

Skill Changes

Riding

Riding covers staying on, steering and keeping a mount under control (The Stable, Riding). Its characteristic is Agility. Calming, reading, feeding and doctoring an animal stays with Survival. A wagon, coach or freight team is driven with Operate; Riding is used only when the team panics.

Fields of Lore

Lore keeps one skill. Its fields are labels. A rule may call for one (Lore (Law), Lore (Land)), and the talent Specialist can name one:

Other Notes on Skills

• Craft covers the trades: smithing, carpentry, leatherwork, wheelwrighting, gunsmithing, cooking, laundry and sewing. Science covers surveying and assaying, Medicine covers a doctor's work and the herbal and home remedies of any community.

• Subterfuge covers sleight of hand and cheating at cards.

• Streetwise covers the gambling, drinking and parlor-house trades, and the cattle and horse thief's networks.

• Stealth covers moving unseen on the open plain as well as in a town.

• Craft also covers setting type and running a hand press, and working a telegraph key. Reading a cipher is Lore or Science.

• Lore (Trade) covers keeping books, reading a pay roll and auditing a freight bill; Lore (Law) covers pleading a case and drawing a complaint; Lore (Land) covers filing and proving up a claim.

• A team on a forced march (The Stable, Riding, Travel) makes the driver's Average Operate check in place of the riders' Riding checks; on a failure one animal of the team is lame the next day.

Quick Skill Boundaries for the Era

Languages: Tongues

Adds to the Core Rules, Character Creation, Languages and Literacy.

Languages in the corridor include English, Spanish, German, Irish, Welsh, French, Swedish, Danish, Chinese (Cantonese and Taishanese, the speech of Guangdong), and the languages of the Tribal Nations: Lakota, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Shoshone and Ute. Sign talk, the shared gesture language of the Plains, was known to many traders and scouts.

Era Talents

Era talents use the Core Rules' costs: Tier 1 costs 5 XP, Tier 2 costs 10 XP, Tier 3 costs 15 XP. Tier 3 talents are not available at character creation (Core Rules, Character Creation, Starting Talent); they are earned in play. A talent marked Ranked or Choose One follows the Core Rules.

Favored talents. Each Role (Character Creation and Roles) lists favored talents. A Tier 2 or higher talent on the Role's favored list costs 5 XP less, to a minimum of 5 XP. The free starting Tier 1 talent must come from the favored list if the list has a Tier 1 talent. Favored talents can be Core talents or Era talents. (Modifies Core Rules, Character Creation, Starting Talent.)

The table gives each talent's tier, activation and who it suits. The rules follow.

Tier 1: Foundational

Easy in the Saddle (Passive)

Once per turn, you may mount or dismount a Scale 1 or 2 animal as a Quick Action instead of a Maneuver. The Average Riding check to vault into the saddle and move in the same turn becomes Easy. This is an exception to the Core Rules' limit on Quick Actions, as Fast Hands is.

Rope Hand (Passive)

Add 1 Boon Die to attacks with a Lasso and to checks to rope, hold or lead stock. Once per turn, recovering a Lasso from a target and readying it is a Quick Action.

Eye for Stock (Passive)

Judging an animal before you buy it (The Stable, Training and Keeping, Quality) is an Easy Survival check, or Average if the seller is hiding something. On a success you learn the animal's quality and whether the seller is hiding a fault.

Reads the Fine Print (Passive)

Remove 1 Bane Die from Lore checks to read or recall the terms of a deed, claim, contract, warrant or statute. Spend 2 Boons to spot one term that works against the person who drew it up.

Poker Face (Passive)

Add 1 Boon Die to Deception checks to bluff or hide your intentions in Stakes. Opponents' Perception checks to read you in Stakes add 1 Bane Die.

Many Tongues (Passive)

Learn two additional languages at no XP cost. When you share no language with someone, the check to convey a simple message (Average Charm or Perception) becomes Easy.

Steady Nerve (Once per Scene)

In a Showdown, add 1 Boon Die to your Stare. The first time in the scene you would suffer Strain from a Showdown, suffer 1 less, to a minimum of 0.

Good Credit (Passive)

Your Credit limit is three times your Starting Stake in place of twice, and an unpaid Debt does not impose its Bane Die for the first month.

Mine Wise (Passive)

Remove 1 Bane Die from checks made underground or in a mine working caused by dim light, tight spaces or bad air. A Science check to judge ore, pan a creek for colour or read a vein is Easy.

Hunter's Eye (Passive)

Add 1 Boon Die to Survival checks to find, stalk or read game, and to your first Ranged attack against an animal in a scene. Spend 2 Boons on the Survival check to take enough meat for a party or a camp for a week.

Whip Hand (Passive)

Add 1 Boon Die to Operate checks to drive a team, a wagon or a coach. When a team panics, the Riding check to bring it back (The Stable, Riding, Teams) is Easy in place of Average, and the Operate check for a team on a forced march (Other Notes on Skills) is Easy in place of Average.

Circuit Rider (Passive)

Where a congregation of your faith keeps a house, a ranch, a station or a camp, you and your mount have a bed, a meal and feed without a charge or a roll, and that house counts as a ranch for Keeping a Horse (Era Rules). Add 1 Boon Die to Charm checks to preach, to teach a class, or to conduct a wedding, a funeral or a service.

Head for Figures (Passive)

Add 1 Boon Die to Lore (Trade) checks to keep, read or audit accounts, prices, freight bills, pay rolls and tariffs. Spend 2 Boons to find the entry someone wanted hidden: a payment that does not match, a name on the wrong page, a shipment that never arrived.

Proved Up (Passive)

Add 1 Boon Die to Craft and Survival checks to build, plant, harvest, fence, doctor stock or winter a claim. The Lore (Land) check to file, prove up or defend a homestead or pre-emption claim (Stakes, a claim before an official) is Easy in place of Average.

Tier 2: Adept

Gentle Hands (Passive)

Reduce the Temper of any mount you ride, drive or train by 1, to a minimum of 0. The check to break an unbroken animal to the saddle (The Stable, Training and Keeping) is Easy in place of Average.

Long Rider (Passive)

On a forced march (The Stable, Riding, Travel), the Riding check is Easy in place of Average. On a failed forced-march check your mount is not lamed; it loses the half-again distance instead.

Quick Reload (Passive)

Reduce the Prepare of any firearm you wield by 1, to a minimum of 1. A weapon with Limited Ammo is reloaded one Maneuver faster, to a minimum of one Maneuver.

Far Shot (Once per Scene)

When you take a Maneuver to aim and then attack with a rifle at Long or Extreme range in the same turn, reduce the attack's difficulty by one step (Hard to Average, Severe to Hard).

Reads Sign (Passive)

Add 1 Boon Die to Survival checks to track riders, herds, wagons or people on foot. Spend 2 Boons to learn the number and kind of tracks (riders, animals, loaded or empty) and how long ago they passed, within a day.

Sickroom Skill (Passive)

When you give Care for an illness (Era Rules, Illness), the maximum Boon Dice you can give the patient is 4 in place of 3, and you may give Care to two patients in a day. When a Calamity on your Care check would expose you to the illness, you first make an Easy Willpower check; on a success you are not exposed.

Plain Words (Once per Scene)

When you interpret or carry terms between two parties, add 1 Boon Die to one party's Negotiation check, or remove 1 Bane Die caused by language or custom. You must share a language with each party. Spend 2 Boons to learn which term each side is not saying aloud.

Color of Law (Passive)

When you show a badge, commission or warrant where it counts, add 1 Boon Die to Leadership and Intimidation checks to arrest, order a crowd to disperse, or demand a name. If you carry a warrant, the 1 Bane Die for being Outside Jurisdiction (Era Rules, Law in Play) does not apply to the arrest check; the 2 Bane Dice for another nation's country or another sovereign's ground still apply.

Pulpit Voice (Once per Scene)

As an Action, make an Average Charm check to address a crowd of ten or more. On a success, move the crowd's Attitude toward one named person or group one step in either direction for the rest of the scene (Era Rules, Prejudice). A Closed crowd cannot be moved by this talent.

Plat and Section (Passive)

You can survey and draw a plat as an extended Science or Craft check. A plat you drew counts as evidence: add 1 Boon Die to Lore and Negotiation checks in a dispute the plat bears on (a boundary, a claim, a right-of-way).

Mounted Fighter (Maneuver)

You ignore the Bane Die for shooting in a turn your mount moved with any weapon, and reloading in the saddle costs you no extra Maneuver (The Stable, Mounted Combat, Shooting from the Saddle). As a Maneuver you may hang to one side of your mount: until the start of your next turn you have Light cover (1 Ranged Defense) against attackers on the opposite side, and you can attack only with a pistol or a bow. Modifies The Stable, Mounted Combat, Who Gets Hit, for you only.

Hands Up (Action)

Make an Intimidation check at Average against a Minion group, or against up to four unarmed or unready people who can see your weapon. On a success they comply for the scene unless attacked or given an opening. Spend 2 Boons: they also raise no alarm for one round. Against a player character the check is opposed by Willpower and Readiness, and compliance lasts until the character's next turn after a friend acts or an opening appears.

Paper on a Man (Passive)

Add 1 Boon Die to Streetwise, Survival and Perception checks to find, follow or identify a person with a posted Bounty. The claim check (Era Rules, Notoriety and Bounty) is Easy in place of Average.

Lie Low (Passive)

Your Notoriety drops by 1 each month in place of each season when you stay out of the news and outside its Reach. Strangers who do not know you personally count your Notoriety as 1 lower when deciding whether they recognize you, to a minimum of 0.

Read the Table (Passive)

In Stakes, add 1 Boon Die to Perception checks to read an opponent. Spend 2 Boons to learn the opponent's next Raise, or whether the opponent is cheating.

Column Inches (Once per Session)

You write for, or run, a newspaper. After a deed you witnessed or had from a witness, print it: raise or lower one character's Notoriety by 1 (Era Rules, Notoriety) within your paper's Reach, which is a town for a weekly and the territory for a daily on the wire. This is that character's one Notoriety change for the session unless a Story Point buys a second. The character named may answer in print or in the street; a story that is false is a Deception check against the audience that reads it. Requires a press, or a paper that prints your copy.

Ward Heeler (Passive)

Add 1 Boon Die to Leadership and Negotiation checks with voters, councilmen, commissioners and office-holders of your own town or county. Once per session, name one favor an official of that town or county owes you and call it in: a hearing moved, a license granted, a notice posted or taken down, a deputy sent or kept home. The GM may refuse a favor the official could not do or would not survive doing.

Day in Court (Passive)

Add 1 Boon Die to Lore (Law) and Negotiation checks made before a justice, a court, a land office register, a coroner's inquest or a council. Spend 2 Boons on such a check to delay a ruling, a hearing, a sale or a filing by one week.

Over the Wire (Once per Session)

You keep a telegraph key or a station. Once per session, do one of these: send a message that arrives ahead of anyone riding, driving or taking the train with the same news; or learn the gist of a message that passed through your office in the last week, with an Average Craft check, Hard if it was in cipher. Spend 2 Boons on the check to hold a rival's message for a day without its sender knowing.

Section Boss (Passive)

Add 1 Boon Die to Leadership checks with a work crew: a section gang, a grading crew, a mine shift, a harvest crew, a roundup. Once per session, a crew you lead finishes a day's work in half a day, or keeps working through weather that would have stopped it.

Tier 3: Expert (earned in play)

Fan the Hammer (Passive)

When you fan a Single-Action Revolver (The Black Powder Armory, Percussion and Cartridge Arms), add 1 Bane Die to the attack in place of 2. The weapon still gains Linked 2 for that attack. Modifies that entry.

Name Precedes You (Once per Session)

When you enter a scene within the Reach of your Name, count your Notoriety as 1 higher, to a maximum of 5, for that scene.

The Drop (Passive)

When you win a Showdown by 2 or more net Successes and the loser chooses to Draw, your first attack of round one adds 1 Boon Die, and the loser cannot use the first Maneuver of round one to take cover.

Posse Leader (Passive)

When you call a posse, it has 2 more members, to a maximum of 10, and the Leadership check to call it is Easy. The posse's morale check uses your Willpower and Readiness in place of the group's.

High Roller (Passive)

In Stakes you may Raise three times in a contest in place of twice. The third Raise adds 2 Boon Dice in place of 1.

Core talents are favored choices too; each Role in Character Creation and Roles names its own.