Skills and Talents

Use the Core skills and talents as printed except for the changes below (Core Rules, Skills and Talents). Here you'll also find the rules for spoken tongues and literacy and 27 Era talents.

Skill Changes

Riding

Adds Riding (Agility) as the 23rd Core skill. Roll Riding to stay mounted, steer or control a mount (The Stable, Riding). Use Survival to read, calm, feed or treat the animal.

Apply The Stable's rules for riding without stirrups throughout 50 BC (The Stable, Tack, Stirrups). Riders gain no charge bonus and add 1 Bane Die to mounted archery. See Gear and Prices for saddles.

Operate

Modifies Core Operate. Drive carts, wagons and chariots with Operate and handle ships with Operate (Sail). Use Riding for mounts. For a team in harness, use Operate until it panics, then use Riding (The Stable, Riding, Teams).

Melee and Ranged

Scopes the sourcebooks' single-skill option. Use Melee for Light or Heavy Melee (The Fantasy Armory). Use Ranged for Light or Heavy Ranged and Gunnery, including siege engines (The Ranged Armory, The Heavy Armory). An officer firing an engine battery can use Leadership or Ranged (The Heavy Armory, Batteries and Broadsides).

Fields of Lore

Scopes Lore. Use one Lore skill for all five fields. A rule or the Core Specialist talent can name a field.

Other Notes on Skills

• Use Craft to work a forge, raise the legion's rampart or practice trades such as carpentry, masonry in brick or concrete, pottery, fulling, cooking and weaving. Use Science for design in architecture or engineering, astronomy and calendar arithmetic. Medicine includes Greek practice and household remedies such as Cato's.
• Use Charm to speak at the Forum, on stage, at dinner or before a jury (Era Rules, Law and Courts). Prepare a case with Lore (Law) and settle out of court with Negotiation.
• Use Streetwise in the Subura, among the crossroads colleges, with Emporium fences or with slave dealers.
• Roll Readiness (Willpower) when a crowd turns, a gang confronts you or someone draws without warning.

Tongues

Modifies the Core Rules, Character Creation, Languages and Literacy. Check the clauses below to see which tongues you can read and write.

Era Talents

Adds 27 talents (Core Rules, Skills and Talents, Universal Talents). Pay the Core rate: 5 XP for Tier 1 or 10 XP for Tier 2. The Role lists at the end of each talent show who favors it. For the free starting talent and the ordinary XP cost of favored talents, see Character Creation and Roles.

Era Book house rule (Decision 117). An Era Tier 1 talent can grant a Boon Die or ease difficulty by one step for one skill in one setting, and also name a 2-Boon spend the Core Rules already permit. The Core Rules reserve this combination for higher tiers.

Client's Due and Patron's Seal work in Patronage and Rank (Era Rules), Front Rank and Tribune's Commission in Legion Battles, and Crowd's Favor and Appeal to the Editor in The Arena and the Games. Use the effects as stated. Worked examples and odds follow the talent entries.

Tier 1: Foundational

Shield Wall (Passive)

If you and an ally beside you are Engaged and both carry shields, add 1 to your Ranged Defense. Add this to your shield's Deflection, within the Core cap of 3 (Core Rules, Adversaries, Defense).

Favored by: Legionary, Centurion, Gladiator and Charioteer, Sailor and Marine.

Marcher (Passive)

In full kit, remove 1 Bane Die when you roll Athletics to march, climb, swim or dig. If you help build a marching camp, 3 or more net Banes on the Group Check leave low works instead of unfinished works at dark (Legion Battles, Camp and Siege Works). Once per session, finish a foot journey of at least two days half a day early (Era Rules, Travel).

Favored by: Legionary, Centurion, Officer, Scout and Huntsman.

Horseman's Seat (Passive)

When you roll Riding to stay mounted, remove 1 Bane Die, which can be the bareback die (The Stable, Tack, Riding saddle). Once per turn, you can get on or off a Scale 2 mount as a Quick Action instead of a maneuver. Modifies The Stable, Riding, Getting On and Off, and Core Rules, Structured Play, Quick Actions, for you only.

Favored by: Auxiliary, Officer, Scout and Huntsman.

Vine Stick (Passive)

When you roll Leadership or Intimidation with troops you command or recruits you train, add 1 Boon Die . Add the die to your unit's Discipline tests and Rallies when you lead it (Legion Battles, Characters in the Line).

Favored by: Centurion; Gladiator and Charioteer (a trainer).

Abacus Hand (Passive)

When you keep, read or audit accounts, contracts, rents, interest or a tax company's books, roll Lore (Trade) with 1 Boon Die. Spend 2 Boons to find what someone meant to hide, such as a mismatched payment, a misplaced name or an unrecorded loan.

Favored by: Equestrian House and Publicanus, Merchant and Moneylender, Scribe and Accountant, Household Steward.

Forum Voice (Passive)

When you address at least ten people at once, add 1 Boon Die to Charm. This includes an advocate's verdict check (Era Rules, Law and Courts). Use the dice in Elections for the canvass instead (Era Rules, Patronage and Rank). Spend 2 Boons to single out one named person in the crowd. He answers on the spot or suffers public shame (Era Rules, Patronage and Rank, Dignitas VI).

Favored by: Advocate, Senator's House, Priest and Diviner, Tutor and Philosopher.

Temple Rite (Passive)

When you sacrifice, read signs or expiate a prodigy before people who observe the rite, add 1 Boon Die to Lore (Rites) and Charm checks. Spend 2 Boons to persuade them that the sign means what you declare, favorable or unfavorable. This changes the audience's reaction only.

Favored by: Priest and Diviner, Vestal Virgin; Senator's House (an augur).

Hippocratic Training (Passive)

Roll Average instead of Hard Medicine for Care on campaign or without rest, clean water and food (Era Rules, Medicine and Illness, Care). Treat up to two patients in one house or camp on the same Care check. Roll Medicine with 1 Boon Die for a Critical Injury or a delivery.

Favored by: Physician and Midwife.

Crossroads Hand (Passive)

Choose a city quarter at creation. Roll Streetwise with 1 Boon Die there and when dealing with its crossroads college. Spend 2 Boons to find out who pays the local hired men this month.

Favored by: Innkeeper and Shopkeeper, Thief and Informer, Entertainer and Courtesan.

Household Keys (Passive)

When you roll Perception or Streetwise about the people or stores of a house you know or serve, add 1 Boon Die. For 2 Boons, learn who came or went in the past day and when.

Favored by: Physician and Midwife, Scribe and Accountant, Household Steward, Innkeeper and Shopkeeper.

Reins and Team (Passive)

When you drive a chariot, cart or team, roll Operate with 1 Boon Die, including every race leg and save (The Arena and the Games, The Chariot Race, gives odds without this talent). If the team panics, reduce the Riding difficulty by one step, to a minimum of Easy (The Stable, Riding, Control).

Favored by: Gladiator and Charioteer, Farmer and Bailiff.

Field Craft (Passive)

Roll Survival with 1 Boon Die to track people or animals, or Stealth with 1 Boon Die near a camp or lair. Spend 2 Boons to learn what passed, how many and how long ago, or to take a tracked beast alive with a net or pit.

Favored by: Auxiliary, Scout and Huntsman.

Oarsman (Passive)

Aboard ship, take 1 Bane Die for the ship's motion out of any Athletics, Melee or Operate (Sail) pool. Use Easy instead of Average Survival to follow a coast in daylight with land in sight.

Favored by: Merchant and Moneylender (a shipmaster), Sailor and Marine.

Market Eye (Passive)

Use Easy instead of Average Negotiation or Craft to value goods, livestock or an enslaved person (Gear and Prices). Roll Negotiation with 1 Boon Die when you trade at a market.

Favored by: Merchant and Moneylender, Farmer and Bailiff, Household Steward, Artisan and Builder, Innkeeper and Shopkeeper.

Dinner Couch (Passive)

When you attend a dinner by invitation, Read the Room at Easy instead of Average (Era Rules, Patronage and Rank, Attitude V). On any social check at dinner, spend 2 Boons to find out one guest's debt, quarrel or wish.

Favored by: Senator's House, Priest and Diviner, Vestal Virgin, Tutor and Philosopher, Envoy and Interpreter, Entertainer and Courtesan.

Workshop Hand (Passive)

Roll Craft with 1 Boon Die at a workshop, building site or estate. Once per session, finish a day's work you supervise by midday, such as laying a course of wall, harvesting a field or forging a batch.

Favored by: Farmer and Bailiff, Artisan and Builder.

Interpreter (Passive)

Speak two additional tongues at no XP cost. With no tongue in common, roll Easy instead of Average Charm or Perception to pass a simple message (Tongues). If you interpret between two parties, one party rolls Negotiation with 1 Boon Die.

Favored by: Scribe and Accountant, Tutor and Philosopher, Envoy and Interpreter.

Hearth's Custody (Passive)

Requires the Vestal Virgin Role. Keep wills, treaties or objects entrusted to you in the house of Vesta. No check removes them. Only the Pontifex Maximus may order their removal. Roman citizen audiences mark Vestal at Welcome 1 or better (Era Rules, Patronage and Rank, Attitude). Once per campaign, spare a condemned person you happen to meet on the way to punishment by swearing the meeting was accidental (Plutarch, Numa 10.3).

Favored by: Vestal Virgin.

Tier 2: Adept

Client's Due (Once per Session)

Once per session, reduce the difficulty of an Ask to your patron by one step, to a minimum of Easy. Your owner counts as your patron if you are enslaved. Very great becomes Hard, Great becomes Average, Ordinary becomes Easy (Era Rules, Patronage and Rank, The Petition). If granted, owe 1 Favor even with 2 or more net Banes . Keep the one-step penalty for a letter and the cap of 3 Favors owed (The Petition, III).

Favored by: Advocate, Senator's House, Equestrian House and Publicanus, Thief and Informer.

Patron's Seal (Once per Session)

Once per session, use your letter or seal, the seal of a house you keep or a client speaking for you to shift one audience marker two steps toward Neutral instead of one (Era Rules, Patronage and Rank, Attitude IV). Or raise a Neutral marker or the audience's Neutral to Welcome 1. The shift lasts one scene. Closed 3 stays fixed, as does an audience of a Peregrine's own people if the patron is Roman (The Enslaved, the Freed and the Peregrine, IV).

Favored by: Advocate, Senator's House, Equestrian House and Publicanus, Envoy and Interpreter.

Front Rank (Once per Scene)

Pick one use per scene. In a Legion Battle (one scene), if your unit loses a Clash, restore 1 Discipline before paying the loss's Discipline cost, to a maximum of 6. The unit still loses the Strength step (Legion Battles, The Clash). In other combat, when an enemy Engaged with you targets an ally Engaged beside you, declare before the roll that the enemy attacks you instead.

Favored by: Legionary, Centurion.

Tribune's Commission (Passive)

Take this talent with the Officer Role or when a general appoints you to his staff in play. Lead a cohort or wing and roll its Discipline tests with 1 Boon Die (Legion Battles, Characters in the Line). You sit on the general's council and add 1 Boon Die when you petition him (Era Rules, Patronage and Rank, The Petition).

Favored by: Officer.

Crowd's Favor (Once per Scene)

Choose one use per scene. In a bout (one scene), spend exactly 1 net Boon from a hit on a flourish for +1 Crowd Favor, or ignore one Crowd Favor table entry that would lower your score (The Arena and the Games, Crowd Favor). Before a crowd at games, a theater or a public meeting, spend 2 or more net Boons from a Charm check to speak or perform. Name one person present for the crowd to cheer. The cheer gives 1 campaign-work Boon Die on that person's next canvass roll, within the usual limit (Era Rules, Patronage and Rank, Elections III).

Favored by: Gladiator and Charioteer, Entertainer and Courtesan.

Appeal to the Editor (Once per Scene)

When you lose a bout (one scene), a GM-run editor grants missio automatically at Crowd Favor 3 or 4. At 0 to 2, roll your appeal at Average instead of Hard if you've won a bout in this city. You can appeal once per bout (The Arena and the Games, The Editor's Decision).

Favored by: Gladiator and Charioteer.

Debt Ledger (Passive)

Roll Negotiation or Intimidation with 1 Boon Die against someone who owes you money. Call in one debt per session. The debtor pays at once, performs a service the GM judges worth the debt or becomes your antagonist. For loans you make, use Era Rules, Money and Credit.

Favored by: Equestrian House and Publicanus, Merchant and Moneylender.

Horse Archer (Maneuver)

When your mount moves this turn, ignore the Bane Die for shooting a bow or throwing a javelin (The Stable, Mounted Combat, Shooting from the Saddle). Also ignore the stirrupless archery die (The Stable, Tack, Stirrups). Spend a maneuver to turn in the saddle as your mount moves away from an enemy. If you shoot or throw a javelin at him this turn, he adds 1 Bane Die to attacks on you until your next turn starts. Modifies The Stable, Mounted Combat, for you only.

Favored by: Auxiliary.

Herald's Staff (Passive)

If you carry your sender's letters and the audience recognizes your office, cap its markers at Wary 1 toward you for the scene, except for legal bars (Closed 3). Once per scene, the first NPC in that audience who would attack you without orders from his superior hesitates. Spend 2 Boons on Negotiation before an audience to be heard before anyone else waiting.

Favored by: Envoy and Interpreter.

Worked Examples: The Subsystem Talents

The odds below come from the simulations of each subsystem with the talent applied. Each pair of figures, without and with the talent, comes from one run, so a figure without the talent can differ by a few tenths from the one another chapter prints for the same pool.