Chapter Two: Attributes and Skills
Note: In Star Wars, Second Edition, this section was Chapter Four, Attributes and Skills," pages 72-91.

Knowledge Skills

Use the following general guidelines for selecting difficulties:

• Very Easy: General, common knowledge that almost anyone would know.
• Easy: Most people would know this.
• Moderate: Professional level of knowledge. The average person who has an interest in the subject would know this much.
• Difficult: Professionals would know this much about a given subject; the average person would be hard-pressed to give much information.
• Very Difficult: This represents detailed, comprehensive knowledge of the subject. Professionals and scholars would probably have to research a subject to gain this amount of knowledge.
• Heroic: Only a very small number of people would know this much information.

Scholar

Time Taken: One round to several days.

Specialization: Particular field of study-archaeology, Jedi lore, history, geology, physics.

This skill covers formal academic training or dedicated research in a particular field. Scholar also reflects a character's ability to find information through research. Characters often choose a specialization to reflect a specific area which they have studied. Specializations are subjects often taught at the great universities throughout the galaxy, including archaeology, botany, chemistry, geology, history, hyperspace theories and physics. Specializations can also be topics a character can research on his own.

Scholar represents "book-learning," not information learned from practical experience. Gamemasters can choose to allow players a limited benefit under certain circumstances-the character is applying theory in a real-world situation.

The scholar difficulty is based on the obscurity and detail of the information sought.

Tactics

Time Taken: One round to several minutes

Specializations: Type of military unit-squads, fleets, capital ships, ground assault.

Tactics represents a character's skill in deploying military forces and maneuvering them to his best advantage. It may be rolled to gain general knowledge of how to best stage certain military operations: blockading a planet with a fleet, invading an enemy installation, assaulting a fixed turbolaser battery.

This skill may also be used to determine the best response to an opponent's move in battle: what to do if the enemy entraps your ships in a pincer movement, how to proceed in the assault should reinforcements arrive, what to do if a unit becomes trapped behind enemy lines.

Although tactics rolls might reveal how best to handle military situations, the final outcome of a battle hinges on other skill rolls- command for the leader, and the combat rolls of both forces.

Tactics difficulties should be based on various factors in a battle: how many units are involved, the setting, and the difference in training and equipment between units.

When rolling this skill, characters are often seeking ways to deal with military situations. The better the result, the more hints a gamemaster should give to help the character win the battle. Hints can take the form of reminders about different moves the enemy can make, suggestions on how to maneuver the character's forces, or (for especially good rolls) risky and unanticipated moves which could throw the enemy off guard.

Mechanical Skills

Astrogation

Time Taken: See Chapter Seven, "Space Travel and Combat."

Jet Pack Operation

Time Taken: One round

This skill represents a character's skill at using jet packs. Jet packs rely on pulling in surrounding atmosphere and mixing it with fuel, so they can only be operated within atmospheres.

Rocket Pack Operation

Time Taken: One round or longer

This skill represents a character's ability to use personal, self contained rocket packs. These backpack units contain all the chemical thrust components for propulsion and maneuvering, and can be used in zero, low and high atmosphere conditions.

Strength Skills

Brawling

Clarification: Brawling has a difficulty of Very Easy unless the target parries.

Lifting

Lifting difficulties depend upon the weight of the object to be lifted.

Increase the difficulty based on how long the character wishes to lift the object:

After the first hour, the character must make a new lifting or Strength roll every hour at the same difficulty as for one hour. If the character fails the roll, he must rest for twice as long as he was lifting the heavy weight.

Technical Skills

Using Repair Skills

Repair times, difficulties and costs are generalizations. They may be customized as needed in game play.

The first repair roll is made after 15 minutes of work. Additional repair roll times are noted in skill's description and altered depending upon the situation.

The costs are always a percentage of the item's original value. If someone else does the work for the characters, double or triple the cost.

Drives: A Difficult repair roll is needed to replace a destroyed drive. The cost is 35% of the craft's original value.

Hyperdrives: A Moderate repair roll is necessary to fix a damaged hyperdrive.

Maneuverability:

Move or Space: To repair lost "moves," check the chart below for difficulties and costs.

Shields:

Weapons: Difficulties depend on how badly weapons are damaged. The repair cost is a percentage of the weapon’s original cost, not the cost of the vehicle it’s mounted on.

Improving Vehicles, Vessels and Weapons

Modification Limit: Stats may only be increased one "pip," one Move level or one hyperdrive level at a time.

Increases in the charts below reflect modification above the original stat. Using theses rules, no system may be improved more than +1D+2, or more than 4 moves.

A new improvement roll can be made every month of game time. As with repairs, the costs are a percentage of the item’s original value; if someone else does the work, double or triple the cost.

Hyperdrives: The difficulty and cost depends upon the old hyperdrive modifier compared to the new one.

Failure on these modification repair rolls could permanently damage hyperdrives, or cause them to function sporadically.

Maneuverability:

Move or Space:

To boost a starship's Space stat, use the chart below. (The ship's new Move can be found on the chart "Ships in an Atmosphere" on page 110 of Star Wars, Second Edition.)

Shields:

Weapons: Can improve fire control and/or damage.