RPG/Skills and Stats

Using Stats: Sometimes, you are required to make a roll based on a specific stat. These use a single die, of a type decided by your stat. The dice types used for stats are as follows:

2 or Lower: d4-1

3-4: d4

5-6: d6

7-8: d8

9-10: d10

11-12: d12

13-14: d12+1

15-16: d12+2

17-18: d12+3

and so on. d12+x means that you add x to each roll of the die. Dice rolls in MSF High are explosive, meaning if you roll the highest number of a die, you roll it again and add the previous result, continuing until you roll less than the maximum. Certain Advantages give you dice that explode on their second-highest number as well, again you add the result and keep rolling until you get a non-exploding result. Rolling a 12 and then a 3 on a d12 would produce a total result of (12+1)+(3+1), or 17.

Using Skills: Most rolls in the game will be using one skill or another. All skill rolls are made with a stat, as well. If the GM says to make an Intelligence/Science roll, then you roll a number of dice equal to your Science skill, of a type governed by your Intelligence stat, and take the highest result scored. If you have 0 in a skill, you roll two of the stat's dice and take the LOWER result.

Added rolls: Most dice rolls that use multiple dice, including spell or weapon damages, have you take the highest result rolled, shown in the format XdY, where X is the number of dice rolled and Y is the die type. It's important to know, though, that whenever there are multiple sets of dice rolled, the highest results from each set are to be added together. For example, if a gun deals 2d6+2dAcc damage, you roll 2 6-sided dice as a set, 2 dice of your accuracy as a set, and add the highest result from each together. Further, if a roll has a bonus as a simple +, that adds into the result(meaning a +1 to your rolls won't make your dice explode more often). Some damage rolls are specifically noted as cumulative. These are displayed in the formula X+dY, where X is the number of dice rolled and Y is the type. If a damage roll is 3+d8, for example, you would add the results of rolling three 8-sided dice.

Facet Skills: Your character's facets have skills listed as both Specialty skills and Subject skills. Your specialty skill gains a bonus equal to the facet level of the skill that grants it, as a +x to the roll, not as a direct bonus to the skill, as well as the ability to score critical hits with weapons using that skill. For every level you have in a facet, you get a +1 to all rolls made with that facet’s specialty skill. If you have multiple facets with the same specialty, add them together. Your facet levels also grant you access to subject skills, which simply grant you the ability to score critical hits when using that skill to wield a weapon.

Improving Skills: When a racial level is gained, it grants you a certain number of skill points. You may spend these skill points to improve your skills. All skills start at 0, and the cost to improve a skill is equal to the new level in skill points. For example, buying a skill at level one costs a single point, buying it up from one to two costs two points, and so on. You can't "skip" levels, so to go from one to three would cost five points total(2 to get to level 2, and 3 for level 3). You do not need to spend all the skill points you have from your racial levels, the remainder of your unspent skill points are recorded in your "skill points" box on your character sheet.

Current Skill Level	Raising Skill to Next Level	Cost to Raise to Next Level	Total Skill Points spent
0	→ 1	1	1
1	→2	2 more	3
2	→3	3 more	6
3	→4	4 more	10
4	→5	5 more	15
5	→6	6 more	21
6	→7	7 more	28
7	→8	8 more	36
8	→9	9 more	45
9	→10	10 more	55
10	→11	11 more	66
11	→12	12 more	78
12	→13	13 more	91
13	→14	14 more	105
14	→15	15 more	120
15...	→16...	16 more...	136...

Skill List: Skills in MSFH's system are more generalized than many other systems. Sometimes, more than one skill can be used to cover a certain situation, though often one skill will be better suited and therefore have a lower difficulty. Here is a list of skills and their general applications:

Gym (Gym): Most purely physical acts. Climbing, swimming, running, jumping, and the like.

Martial Arts (Mar): Physical acts which require more finesse. Stealth and hiding, tumbling and acrobatics are generally considered martial arts applications.

Science: Study and use of scientific disciplines and the creation of devices made through discovery and invention.

Magic: Memorization and creation of spells and grasp of the arcane procedures, as well as knowledge of the individual elements and their reactions with each other. This skill is also useful for reading auras of people, places, and items, but doing so without a spell is usually difficult.

History: Recall and study of events from the past, either witnessed or learned. Also useful in the use and study of archaic weapons and artifacts.

Music/Theatre: Disguise, acting, performances, and the ability of one to express themselves through the use of their body and voice.

Home Ec: Domestically useful skills such as cooking and cleaning, as well as searching, tracking, and the use of improvised materials.

Art: Creation and invention of creative and expressive things, primarily in the visual and tactile media, though art can cover a bit of everything creative.

Math: Calculations, be they fast or slow, of all things. Many ranged, particularly artillery weapons, use this.

Language: Both the study and learning of foreign language as well as the use of one's own for expressive writing purposes.

Assistance: It is possible for multiple people to collaborate on a specific skill check if it is reasonable for the situation. To do this, everyone contributing to the check makes their individual rolls. The participant who makes the highest roll is the one who checks against the difficulty, while all others are considered to be assisting, with each of them adding their own roll results divided by 5, rounded down, to the check. Nearly any check, even non-skilled ones, may be assisted as long as the GM deems it appropriate, but assisted checks are usually not allowed for rolls made in combat, such as attacks, defenses, or spell casting, or acts of maneuver, such as swimming or sprinting. If an assisting roll fails spectacularly, the GM may decide that it results in a penalty to the check.

It is also possible for someone to assist another person's skill check with a Music with Personality roll in the form of cheering or song. This cannot supersede the roll of the person making the check, but it can provide a bonus equal to the Music roll's result divided by 7, rounded down. Multiple people can contribute in this way, but doing so increases the bonus divisor by 1 for each additional participant. This form of assistance can be performed anytime, even for combat checks (doing so requires a single speak action and affects the next action of a targeted ally), but the GM should consider it to have otherwise more limited applications than same-skill assistance. If the target of this assistance is deafened, the deafness penalty is added to the divisor of the assist roll.