Skills
You will be choosing your skills on a scale of expertise ranging from 1-5. As PC's, you have a skill cap of Rank 5. Don't worry, there will be chances for all of your skills to grow, even beyond five. But for that to happen, I need to see expressive and considerate respect for the scale, which I will detail for you below. Now, I want you to realize that this scale is not a solid thing. It's intangible in the reality of the world you're playing in. It's easy for some guy to say, "Hey, you're pretty good at that," even if your That skill is anywhere between 0 and 3. Nobody will ever say to anyone, "Man, 4 is damned good, but I saw the Sheriff the other day and he's got a 5!" It's relative. The lines between each number is blurred. It's one of those things where you can't tell where the line is until you've crossed it a considerable distance. A 5 doesn't promise you perfection, and a 0 doesn't mean you'll always fail. You don't even have to have a 5 to become renown for what you do. I hope this scale evens things out for you a bit, however.
The Scale
There are some things you just don't know, you know? And that's okay. You don't need to know everything. So what if you've never held a gun? At least you probably know which end the bullets come out of: the shooty end! (The loud, scary part). You might be able to cook an egg if you tried. I wouldn't go out into the wilderness alone without help, though, if I were you. Maybe you've never had to defend yourself any, or maybe you're too frail to even try, but you'd better find yourself a hideyhole instead of throwing punches in a bar brawl, or you're going to get caught in a kind of violence you've never thought about before. And you'd better make that hideyhole a small, dark closet because you just lack ALL kinds of subtlety.
There are some things in your life that you simply did not practice. Maybe you just never considered it, or maybe you're just unfit for that kinda thing. Tier 0 is a housewife who's never touched a pistol, or a small child who finds Higashi poetry just too boring to even acknowledge as a thing, or a native of a far off land who's never seen a train before. Don't worry, if you set your mind to it, you may just find yourself a new hobby. The advancement from Tier 0 to Tier 1 varies in difficulty to everyone personally
You're getting the hang of it. Maybe you were too ignorant before or just needed time to come into it naturally, but the pieces are slowly being laid out before you. You just have to give it your best to put them all together. You can put a bullet through a tin can at five paces pretty much every time. If you put your mind to it, you could rustle up a fair stew out in the rough. Feeding and caring for your horse ain't that hard and you're pretty comfortable taking him out for a slow ride. You don't have to worry about breaking your ankles wearing those high heels at the part, long as you walk. And while you're at that party, tell a joke or two, you might get some much-needed laughs. And go ahead and offer that Higashi girl a dance - if you smile and ask politely, she'll probably say yes.
There is always more to learn, and this is just the beginning. It's important to keep at it if you want to get any better, but you've come out of your proverbial shell and you've got a world ahead of you. Tier 1 is a girl who's started looking after her father's horse, or farmer who knows what kinds of snakes are venomous, or a young boy just taken in as a blacksmith's apprentice. From here, advancing to Tier 2 is easy if you keep a steady pace of practice.
You know what you're doing. You don't really have to try in order to recreate what you've already learned. You've figured out how Monty cheats at cards, and you know how to cheat him right back. Putting your fist across that jackass's mouth won't take nothing but a sidestep and a harsh delivery. You know when your husband is lying to you. If you concentrate, you can hit a coyote running out of your barn with your hunting rifle. And when you're cooking for three every evening, you start to get decently creative with meals. Work order says you gotta bang out some more spoons and forks, and you could probably have a dozen of each forged and ready if you start in the morning and stop in the late afternoon. That Higashi girl at the party? You know better than to ask her to dance. Her traditional pale yellow dress means she belongs to someone - and she's waiting to get married.
Maybe you've had to work to get this far, or maybe you're just a natural. Either way, Tier 2 is a comfort zone where a lot of average folk stop. You could probably make a meager living out in a small town, if it's a trade skill you have, because you've got a solid grasp of the fundamentals, but you'd struggle with anything more complex. Tier 2 can be represented by a young Higashi swordsman, or a generic nurse in a decently-sized Norton town, the average bandit, or a flexible girl who can do the splits. If you want to get better, you have to have the determination to keep pushing yourself. Advancement to Tier 3 will not be terribly difficult for those with focus.
You're good at what you do. You know every natural cave in the area, and you're pretty sure which one has clean water running through it. At your best, you could toss a tin can in the air, look away, and shoot it through the middle. But who needs a gun when your steely gaze alone can force a man into admitting he stole Clara's jewelry box? You can tell he's guilty from the sketchy way he looks around when he speaks. You could swindle Clara into -giving- you her jewelry box. You are confident in your blade discipline, and could easily make your living as a bodyguard or soldier. You live off the land, and it's rare when you go hungry. You could run a mile in under seven minutes, climb a rough stone cliff, or lift semi-packed wagon off it's axle so someone can repair it. You sneak into your neighbor's house at night, steal his prized antique clock, repair it, sell it to your new fence for a good price. You can sense desperate thief in your house from a light sleep.
You're quite competent. You've reached a plateau in which your horizons have broadened. You have room to stretch what you've learned, and you can improvise now. You're ready to advance to the complexities. Tier 3 is a doctor fresh out of medical academy, the average Higashi sentry of a small town, a skilled and clever street thief, and any child who could be considered a prodigy. It takes ever more dedication to get better, and it will be difficult without help.
You are truly a fine example of your craft. You might even be a little famous, depending on where you're from. Your mighty draw of the gun or sword is enough to overwhelm most challengers. Your dazzling smile is enough to get you pretty much anything you want. You make less noise walking normally than an amateur thief trying his absolute best to be silent. A few well-placed strikes and a little leverage is all you need to fend off a group of street thugs. You are highly evasive, and even skilled gunmen have trouble keeping a bead on you - they're so predictable, your Higashi blade can even deflect some of the nearer bullets. Your cooking is exquisite, and the Governor asks for you by name. You could pick out a disguised, lesser assassin from a crowd of people. At the card table, let's just say that you always get the right hands just when you need them.
You've reached a milestone. You've emerged into the world of competitive survival. You're not the only professional, and there is -always- someone better than you, but you know that you just have to keep one step ahead. You're on the edge of a realization that there is a wisdom in your path that you can't quite conceive yet. But if you stay sharp, fluid, cool, you'll find what you're looking for. A veteran sheriff of a rough and rowdy town is a Tier 4, as is a lesser shinobi of the Iyshou Clan, the average Samurai, a skilled doctor practicing in a metropolis, and the winner of a city-wide marksmanship competition. If you want to progress to Tier 5, you're going to need to open your mind, accept every mistake you make as an invitation to a greater wisdom, and to give yourself, fully, to your profession.
It's funny how simple things are, the better you get. You don't even have to think about it any more, really. It's second-nature to you. You're a snap-thought away from a stunningly fast draw and another dead challenger. The weapon in your hands is no longer a tool, but an extension of yourself. You could split an arrow down the middle with another arrow. From the moment you walk into a room, it belongs to you - every intrigued thought and curious thought a slave to your beauty. Your art is loved, critiqued, copied, and stolen all around the world. Whether it's the smothering crowd of the city or the cold dark of the night, you embrace it as your true home and become virtually invisible. The man at your right is debating on bluffing you with his mismatched hand, the man across from you has pocket aces, the woman next to him spiked your drink, and you're pretty sure the quiet man at the bar is the Black Bay Strangler.
You're a master. You are unquestionable in your abilities. You're probably famous, respected, feared, envied, or any combination thereof. There are those who seek you, either to test your skill against their own, to learn under you, or to kill you to say that they could. Your skills, unless kept private, are very attractive. A Tier 5 can be defined as anyone who has little more to learn. For example, the founder of any Higashi Martial school, an undefeated Cowboy gunslinger, an honored Higashi swordsmith, a highly observant crime detective, or a world-class thief/conman. Your experience after this point is purely personal. No one can teach you anything further. As always, you have to open your mind wider to a world of infinite possibilities, and discover for yourself the limits, if any, of your craft.
What can make you better than you already are? Slight adjustments. There's always something that can be fine-tuned in just the right way to make you just a little bit faster, cleverer, more efficient. However you get to this point, you know that you're probably the best. You sing for opera houses filled with hundreds, for the Monarchs themselves, and every soul touched by your flawless purity is moved to tears. You can draw, cock, fire from the hip, and holster faster than the human mind can register movement. You are the leading mind in your field of science - text books will be rewritten by your advancements. You could reverse the deadly effects of Black Vein Sickness with a tin of milk, some fungus, and an open flame. Whatever, you're the pinnacle of human physique and bodily health, you don't even remember the last time you got sick. You've truly become one with the shadows, and even a palace full of nervous guards is oblivious to your approach to kill the Emperor. Your keen sense of danger prickles at your brain, even before the assassins reach your house.
It's taken most of a lifetime, most likely, but you're a grandmaster now. You make advancements where there previously were limits. Sometimes, you may even push the boundaries of what is natural. Sometimes it might bother you as to how the things you do are possible. Can you really just know what someone is thinking before they do? Did Master Oreko really behead Sensei Koda from ten paces away? Can Kaname-Ko shinobi really step through shadows? Are you really know is, you're at a level unmatched by anyone, and there's on one way to keep going.
Legends have walked this world. The stories of them are eternal. But are they true? Jack Munden, the Cowboy of all Cowboys, could empty his revolver into a playing card at a hundred paces away, in the time it took to register the gunfire. Tales tell of Daigoro Katsumori slaying the five grandmasters of the Shattered Path all at once. Could Kung Lao, the Iron Monk, really be over 300 years old?
Skill Descriptions
This is an example section to demonstrate the customization of character skills. Below is a sampling of the different words one might use to describe character abilities. I used the basic attribute of agility for this example.
AGILITY - THE ABILITY TO MOVE WITH SPEED, GRACE, OR DELICACY.
Acrobatics: The character with this skill can perform acrobatic feats such as jumping, tumbling, and balancing. At higher levels, his skill enables the character to evade environmental obstacles or attacks from foes through a great range of agility and speed. Tumbling can also be used to reduce the damage of falling.
Evasion: Similar to Acrobatics, a person with this skill is skilled at evading dangerous situations. A skilled fighter might have focus in dodging strikes, or an explorer might be skilled in leaping away from falling boulders. Other Names: Dodging,
Escape: The character is often able to get loose when restrained by bindings, or grappled by a foe. Or it could simply mean that the character is good at fleeing conflict in a broader sense. Other Names: Contortion, Bond-Slipping, Slippery, Bein’ Greasy.
Manual Dexterity: This skill enables fine-tuned manipulation of small objects with the hands. A person with this skill might be able to flip a coin through their fingers, twirl a knife or gun, repair a brittle glass figurine, juggle multiple objects, or swiftly palm a playing card.
Alternatives to Manual Dexerity:
Sleight-Of-Hand: Palming, hiding, or stealing small objects
Fast Hands: To quick-draw a gun or knife, rapidly reload a firearm, snatch objects from the air, swat a fly, or deflect an arrow.
Nimble Fingers: Manipulate small tools skillfully, tie intricate knots, or even to pinch bleeding arteries.
Ambidexterity: The ability to use both hands with equal skill. One might wield two weapons in each hand, be able to switch hands for the purpose of forging a signature, or any other dexterity-based task with greater versatility.
Lock Picking: This skill allows the opening of locked doors by manipulating the inner workings of locks. One might also use this skill to lock doors, jam or break locks, and at higher levels, open large safes or vault doors. Alternatives: Lock Bumping, Safe Cracking,
Okay, so if you wanted to specify that your character is a fast draw of her gun, you could put down 3-5 ranks in Quick Draw or Fast Hands on her sheet. Quick Draw is specific. She's a fast draw. However, Fast Hands implies that she would, in fact, be a quick draw, but she might also be a talented thief who is able to take objects faster than the eye can register, or she's good at gambling games that involve manual dexterity to deceive. OR you could just put down "Agility - 4" and be really goddamned fantastic at just about everything I just listed.
It just depends on what YOU wish to express with your character.
Feats
Feats are, in a way, both less and more than Skills. Feats represent special combat techniques, tricks of the trade, learned habits, or skills with circumstantial differences. A Feat is designed to give a character an edge - they allow a character to perform unusual stunts, or boost a character's normal Skill in certain situations. Feats can be natural, developed, or taught. Some feats are more difficult to learn than others, and may require a certain rank in a kind of skill before being granted. Here are some examples of Feats, in rough order of easiest or most natural, to hardest or more involved:
Rank 1 - Pig Wrangler: Boy howdy, you know how to wrestle yourself a pig. Big pigs, little pigs, fat pigs. You might know farm animals or how to roughhouse with your brothers, but when it comes to subduing a sow by force, you know just how to put'er down.
Rank 2 - Egg Pioneer: You might be a fine cook, but your egg dishes are excellent. You know all kinds of egg-related recipes, and have developed a few yourself.
Rank 3 - Quickchange: You're able to supplement your skill in disguise and imitation with the ability to rapidly change outfits through a combination of strategic layers and distraction.
Rank 3 - Safe, Model Forkes 10b: As a kid, you began your safecracking career by practicing on your father's expensive Forkes 10b home safe-vault, still used today for its effective design. Because of your intimate knowledge of this fairly common but reliable safebox from your childhood, you don't even have to - try- to crack it. It's as if it's never locked for you in the first place.
Rank 3 - Last-Second Draw: When a foe strikes at you with a sword while you are in a relaxed position, you are skilled in using your seemingly defenseless posture to bait your opponent, drawing your sword to deflect his eager strike at the moment just before contact, and retaliating without slowing.
Rank 4 - Ring the Golden Bell: A difficult technique even for martial masters, you're able to strike out with your hands and feet to land a blow on a target out of your body's natural reach. To "Ring the Golden Bell" with a punch from five paces away.
Rank 5 - Marble Lotus Rising: Outnumbered, surrounded, but not hopeless. The Marble Lotus Rising technique, developed by one of the most revered female masters of Jiani Lotus Clan, is a difficult and deadly attack that will completely disable up to five unarmed, close-quarters opponents in the space of a breath.
