BW PDF - Midnight Campaign

wildernessWhen away from civilization, the wilderness skill canmean the difference between life and death. It canprevent people from losing their way, can be used tofind food or water, or even just to avoid disturbingthe wyvren nest on their way to the next town.Tracking: Tracking an individual with wilderness is madeas an opposed check against the character they aretracking. This can become significantly easier or harderdepending on the terrain, but the skill roll generallyincludes the kinds of things that people do to avoiddetection, such as hiking through streams or leavingfalse trails.Finding Food, Water & Shelter: When someone swingsa sword at you, no skill is more important than Parry.In a similar way, when far from home and out of supplies,no skill is more important than Wilderness. Finding foodis critical to many adventures, and is largely determinedby the environment. Difficulties in finding these suppliesare found in the chart below.Finding food and waterCircumstanceWilderness Req.Lush jungle environment 5Temperate forest, caves 12Desert or sparse environment 20Extreme desert or otherextraordinary conditionFinding DirectionMost travelers use the stars and sky to determine theirdirection and avoid getting lost, but there are situationswhen these avenues are not available. Use the difficultiesbelow as a guideline for determining characters to findtheir way.Finding directionCircumstance25Wilderness Req.Open sky 5Thick canopy, or cloudy area 10Caverns or other indoor locations 25Very difficult conditions, such as indoor locationsafter being confused or blindfolded.30INTUITION SKILLSIntuition skills are centered around the powers ofobservation and on processes that have more to dowith a person’s innate understanding of the naturalworld than it does their powers of intellect.PerceptionThe Perception skill represents the character’s capacityto notice or find things, including the ability to observehidden individuals or objects, to ransack a room,to search for secret doors or switches, or to noticecritical details in a tense situation.Detecting Hiding Characters: The Perception skill is usedto detect hiding individuals. This directly opposesan opponent’s Sneak skill. An invisible or inaudibleindividual gains a +5 circumstance bonus to theirSneak check. A character who is both invisible andinaudible gains a +10 bonus.EmpathyThe Empathy skill is the capacity to read an individual’semotional state and their intentions.Determine Sincerity: The Empathy skill can be usedto directly oppose an individual’s Deceive or Charmskill to determine their sincerity. This is not a perfectlie detector, but when making an opposed check,a successful empathy skill roll should give the playerinformation about their opponent, not necessarily inspecific details, but in their motivation and intentions.Empathy can be either a defensive or an offensive skill.If it is actively used to gain information, it is offensive,so a tie favors this character. If it is used in response toanother character’s Charm or Deceive, it is defensive,and so ties favor the other character.22