Characters are defined by their “Traits,” attributes and skills ranked by die types. A d6 is average, while higher die types reflect much greater ability.
Attributes are primarily passive or innate abilities used for resisting effects like fear or supernatural attacks. Skills are used to actively do things or affect others.
Exceptions occur, but these are the foundational differences between the two concepts.
Attributes don’t directly affect skill rolls. Savage Worlds treats learned knowledge and training as the most relevant and direct factors. A high attribute allows one to increase a skill faster and opens up options to Edges that greatly differentiate two characters with the same skill. Every character starts with a d4 in each of five attributes:
Attributes are used to:
Skills are learned abilities such as firing weapons, hand-to-hand combat, scientific knowledge, professional aptitudes, and so on.
Skills in Savage Worlds are very broad to keep the action simple and straightforward. The Shooting skill, for example, covers all types of guns, bows, rocket launchers, and other ranged weapons.
Core Skills: Five skills are marked with a star in the list: Athletics, Common Knowledge, Notice, Persuasion, and Stealth. These are “innate” abilities most adult adventurers have. Unless an ancestral ability, Edge, or Hindrance says otherwise, your character starts with a d4 in each of these five core skills.
Buying Skills: After core skills are assigned, you have 12 additional points to raise core skills or buy and raise new skills as you see fit. Each die type costs 1 point (starting at d4) as long as the skill is equal to or less than the attribute it’s linked to (listed beside the skill in parentheses, in the list starting on page 52). If you exceed the linked attribute, the cost becomes 2 points per die type.
Skill Maximums: Skills may not be increased above d12 during character creation unless the character’s ancestry starts with the skill at d6. If the skill starts with a d6, increase her maximum to d12 + 1.
Academics reflects knowledge of the liberal arts, social sciences, literature, history, archaeology, and similar fields. If an explorer wants to remember when the Mayan calendar ended or cite a line from Macbeth, this is the skill to have.
Athletics combines an individual’s coordination with learned skills such as climbing, jumping, balancing, biking, wrestling, skiing, swimming, throwing, or catching. Characters who rely on physical power more than coordination can take the Brute Edge to link this skill to Strength instead of Agility.
Battle is an individual's command of strategy and tactics. It can be used for general military knowledge and is critical when commanding troops in Mass Battles
Characters with this skill can handle most any boat or ship common to their setting. They also know how to handle common tasks associated with their vessel such as tying knots, rigging sails, or following currents.
Characters roll Common Knowledge to know people, places, and things of their world, including etiquette, geography, culture, popular technology, contacts, and customs.
Driving allows a hero to control any powered ground vehicle common to his setting. This includes cars, motorcycles, tanks, and the like. (Bikes and other self-powered transports use Athletics, beast-drawn transports use Riding.) Characters in modern settings where vehicles are ubiquitous don’t need Driving for ordinary travel.
Driving rolls are typically only needed in dangerous or stressful conditions, such as Chases.
Electronics allows a hero to use complex or specialized devices such as the control panels on industrial machines or the sensor systems found on spaceships in futuristic settings. Consumer or electronic devices common to the setting don’t require Electronics— Common Knowledge suffices if a roll is required at all. In the modern world, this applies to video recorders, cell phones, etc. Fixing any type of broken electronic device uses the Repair skill.
Faith is an arcane skill and reflects a character's faith in the source of their power.
Fighting covers all hand-to-hand (melee) attacks, whether it’s with fists, axes, laser swords, or martial arts.
Focus is an arcane skill that often is used for more unique, inborn abilities.
Gambling is common in the saloons of the Old West, the back rooms of criminal organizations, the barracks of most armies, or the flight decks of scifi spaceships.
To simulate an hour of gambling without having to roll for every single toss of the dice or hand of cards, have everyone agree on the stakes, such as $10, 10 gold coins, etc. Everyone in the game then makes a Gambling roll. The lowest total pays the highest total the difference times the stake. The next lowest pays the second highest the difference times the stake, and so on. If there’s an odd man left in the middle, he breaks even.
Cheating: A character who cheats adds +2 to his roll. The GM may raise or lower this modifier depending on the particulars of the game or the method of cheating. If a cheater rolls a Critical Failure, however, he’s caught. The consequences depend on the circumstances and who noticed, but are usually unpleasant!
Hacking is the skill used to create programs and “hack” into secured systems. Use of this skill always requires a computer or interface of some sort. Most tasks are a simple Hacking roll. The amount of time it takes is determined by the GM, from a single action to hours, days, or even months depending on the complexity of the project. Success means the attempt works as desired and a raise halves the time required. Failure usually just means the hacker must try again, while a Critical Failure may mean the system locks the user out, issues an alarm, or enacts another countermeasure of some sort.
Healing has multiple uses, from treating Wounds to diagnosing diseases and analyzing certain kinds of forensic evidence.
Forensics: Healing can also be used to analyze evidence that relates to anatomical trauma, including cause and time of death, angle of attack, and similar matters. Success provides basic information and a raise increases the details uncovered.
Intimidation is the art of frightening an opponent so that he backs down, reveals information, or flees.
Intimidation is an opposed roll resisted by the opponent’s Spirit. In combat, this is a Test. Out of combat, a successful roll means the foe backs down for the most part, reveals some information, or slinks away when the opportunity presents itself. A raise might mean he backs down for the remainder of the scene, spills all the beans, or runs away as fast as he can.
In or out of combat, a Critical Failure means the target is immune to this character’s Intimidation attempts for the remainder of this encounter!
Networking: Intimidation can also be used as a “macro” skill to simulate several hours of working the streets. See Networking to see how to crack some heads for favors or information.
Notice is a hero’s general awareness and alertness. It’s used to sense sights, sounds, tastes, and smells, spot clues, detect ambushes, spot hidden weapons on a foe, or tell if a rival is lying, frightened, happy, etc.
Success conveys basic information—the character hears movement in the forest, smells distant smoke, or senses someone isn’t being completely truthful.
A raise grants more detail, such as the direction of a sound or odor or what topic a person is avoiding or lying about.
Occult reflects knowledge and experience with the paranormal and supernatural.
It can be used to decipher strange pictograms, recall information about supernatural creatures, remember cures for monstrous maladies like lycanthropy or vampirism, or perform rituals.
Finding information in a library, newspaper morgue, old tome, the internet, etc., uses the Academics skill. As noted there, however, if the investigator’s Occult skill is higher she may use that instead.
A good entertainer can lift the spirits, rally a crowd to action, or simply earn a few bucks from the locals. Specifics depend on the situation, setting, and how well the character is known in the area.
Performance covers singing, acting, playing an instrument, or similar tasks that require an audience to appreciate.
Raising Funds: The amount of money a character can raise by performing is extremely subjective, but as a general rule a successful performance raises 20% of the setting’s Starting Funds with a success and 30% with a raise. The GM can multiply this amount by the performer’s Rank if she feels it’s appropriate. These numbers work for typical performers who might be known in a small establishment or area. Larger performances can greatly boost the performer’s fee, but also require more time, energy, and setup.
Deception: Performance can be used instead of Persuasion if the character is attempting to deceive, bluff, or disguise herself and the GM agrees it makes sense in the context of the situation.
Persuasion is the ability to convince others to do what you want through reason, cajoling, deception, rewards, or other friendly means. Persuasion isn’t mind control. It can change someone’s attitude but not their goals. A bandit may let you keep a sentimental piece of jewelry with a good Persuasion roll but still takes all your other goods.
When used to Support allies it’s an unopposed roll. If the target is resistant, it’s an opposed roll vs. the target’s Spirit. The GM should modify the roll as she sees fit based on roleplaying, any pertinent Edges or Hindrances that affect the conversation, and the circumstances.
Piloting allows a character to maneuver airplanes, helicopters, jet packs, or spaceships.
A being with the innate ability to fly (he has wings, for example) uses Athletics instead
The arcane skill that psions use to activate and control their psychic abilities.
This skill allows you to judge whether someone is lying to you, gauge a person's motives, and similar usecases. It is usually rolled as a contest against Spirit (actively) or Persuasion (reactively). It qualifies for Scholar.
If you successfully use the empathy power on a subject, you may then roll Psychology (with the Empathy bonus) and use the higher of the two rolls to gauge the information above.
Repair is the ability to take apart and/or fix mechanical gadgets, vehicles, weapons, and simple electrical devices. It also covers the use of demolitions and explosives.
How long a Repair roll takes is up to the GM and the complexity of the task. Fixing a Wound on a compact car in a post-apocalyptic setting might take an hour. Fixing a Wound on the same car in the present day might take four hours if the character wants it painted, polished, etc.
Success means the item is functional. A raise on the Repair roll halves the time required.
Tools: Characters suffer a minor penalty (−1 to −2) to their roll if they don’t have access to basic tools, or a major penalty (−3 to −4) if the device requires specialized equipment.
Electronics: Repair can be used to repair electronic devices, but is limited by the hero’s Electronics skill. Use whichever skill is lowest.
Riding allows a hero to mount, control, and ride any beast or beast-drawn vehicle common to his setting. This includes horses, camels, dragons, wagons, chariots, and the like.
Those with this skill have studied various hard sciences such as biology, xenobiology, chemistry, geology, engineering, or any other “hard” science. A successful Science roll reveals basic information about a topic, and a raise grants more details.
Shooting covers all attempts to hit a target with a ranged weapon such as a bow, pistol, or rocket launcher (thrown weapons use Athletics)
Many spellcasters use this arcane skill to cast spells.
Stealth is the ability to hide and move quietly. A simple success on a Stealth roll means the character avoids detection if enemies aren’t particularly alert. If the character fails the roll, the enemy realizes something is amiss and begins actively searching for whatever roused them.
Once foes are alerted and active, Stealth is opposed by Notice (a group roll if there are many foes, see page 89).
The GM should apply any circumstantial penalties to Notice rolls for darkness, cover, noise, distractions, and any difference in the target’s Scale (just like when attacking, see Scale on page 106). Sneaking through dry leaves might subtract 2 from the Stealth roll, for example, while spotting someone in the dark uses the Illumination penalty (−4). Don’t apply the same modifier to both rolls, however. If Stealth is at −2 for the leaves, don’t give Notice a +2 for them as well.
Attacking From Stealth: Sneaking up close enough to make a melee attack always requires an opposed Stealth roll versus the target’s Notice, whether the guard is actively looking for trouble or not.
If successful, the victim is Vulnerable to the attacker, but only until the attacker’s turn ends. With a raise, the attacker has The Drop instead.
Movement: In combat, characters roll Stealth each turn as a free action at the end of their move or any action the GM thinks might draw attention.
Out of combat, the distance moved depends entirely on the situation. The GM might want a roll every minute if the group is sneaking around the perimeter of a defensive position, or every few miles if they’re trying to quietly walk the path through a dark forest without alerting the creatures that live there.
Survival allows a character to find food, water, or shelter in hostile environments. It can also be used to navigate wilderness environments, figure out which plants are good to eat and which aren’t, and so on.
A successful Survival roll provides enough food and water for one person for one day; or five people with a raise.
More detailed information on Hunger and Thirst can be found under Hazards.
Tracking: Survival can also be used to detect and follow tracks. Each roll generally covers following the tracks for one mile, but the GM should adjust this as needed for specific circumstances.
The Game Master should assign a bonus or penalty based on the target, environment, and time. Tracking a large group that recently passed through a snow-covered area might grant a bonus of +4, while following a single person over rocks and streams after more than a day incurs a −4 penalty.
Taunt attacks a person’s pride through ridicule, cruel jests, or oneupmanship.
Taunt is an opposed roll resisted by the opponent’s Smarts. In combat, this is a Test (see page 108).
Out of combat, success means the defender backs down, slinks away, or starts a fight. A raise might leave the victim cowed for the remainder of the scene, or make her storm out of the area fuming or even in tears, or attack her tormentor recklessly (perhaps with a Wild Attack on the first round of combat).
A Critical Failure means the target is immune to this character’s Taunts for the remainder of the encounter.
Lockpicking, safecracking, picking pockets, sleight of hand, setting and disabling traps and similar acts of misdirection, sabotage, subterfuge, and manipulation are called Thievery.
If used to pick a lock, crack a safe, disable a trap, or perform a simple unopposed action, success opens or disables the device, and a raise does it in less time, without tripping alarms, or whatever else the GM feels is appropriate.
Sleight of hand, hiding or planting an item, or picking a pocket require a simple success. If foes are actively watching the character, Thievery is opposed by Notice.
The Game Master should assign penalties for particularly difficult circumstances. Picking a heavy padlock might have a −4 penalty, while hiding a revolver in bulky winter clothing might grant a +1 bonus. Failure typically means the character is spotted or it takes too much time (after which the character can try again). A Critical Failure typically sets off the trap, alerts the victim, or jams the device so that it must be opened or interacted with in a different way.
Limited: Using Thievery on an electronic device, such as a keypad, is limited by the thief’s Electronics skill. Use the lowest of the two skills.
Vehicles covers all driving/piloting/boating abilities. When you take this skill, note which type of vehicle you're focusing on, you can add an additional category of vehicle in lieu of increasing the skill one die type.
“Mad” scientists, inventors in worlds with magic (or technology far beyond our own), alchemists, or artificers can be found throughout many Savage Worlds. Though their techniques may vary, all use Weird Science as their arcane skill.