This skill works normally on ancient texts, but also lets your hero break encrypted messages and ciphers, including hacking into computer systems. Librarians are very fond of this skill. Others, like scavengers, use this skill to determine whether or not they have found treasure or just more trash.

Language (Int; Trained Only)

Your brainer begins play knowing one language at rank 6. Characters in Hell on Earth do not get additional languages due to Intelligence bonuses.

Having 1 rank in a language means your character can speak a few words. Two ranks means he can compose basic sentences. Three skill ranks allows a hero to say all but the most complex sentences.

At four ranks, the character can speak simple sentences with an accent good enough to fool native speakers in short conversations. At 5 ranks, the brainer is fluent in the language and can accurately maintain a native accent in fluid conversation. Six ranks in a language allows the speaker to accurately mimic particular dialects.

Literacy is fairly widespread in the Hell on Earth setting (well for those about the age of 20 or above; younger folks just don't have the time to learn to read, they're to busy surviving). A character is assumed to be able to read and write any language she speaks. (Of course, you're welcome to decide your hero can't read based on her background, but that's purely optional!)

Check: A native speaker of the language in question may make an opposed Listen roll either to understand a halting speaker or to discern false accents. If the speaker has 5 or more ranks in the language, those who listen to him should only roll if they have some reason to doubt the character.

Retry: A character may retry as often as needed to communicate his message. If attempting to pass himself off as a native speaker, there is no retrying a failed opposed roll.

Demolitions (Int; Trained Only)

Sometimes you just have to blow the snot out of some giant creepy crawler. And it's usually best if you don't catch your own posse in the blast. This skill gives your character knowledge of how much and what kind of explosive material, where to place it, and how far away to stand when it blows.

Check: Explosives in the Wasted West setting are still notoriously volatile (some things never get improved upon) and even setting a simple charge requires a skill check.

DC Task 10 Disarm dynamite or simple explosives 15 Set fuse 25 Build bomb or complicated charge Opposed Disarm bomb or complicated charge Disarm dynamite or simple explosive: This covers disarming a blasting charge or other explosive that isn't specifically trapped to prevent such tampering. Usually, it involves little more than pulling the fuse or detonator cord.

Set fuse: This covers cutting a fuse to the proper length so that dynamite explodes when your hero wants it to. See Chapter 5: Blowin' Things All To Hell for rules on setting fuses or using dynamite in combat.

Build bomb or complicated charge: This covers creating a device that's trapped to thwart attempts to disarm or remove it. See below for further details on bombs and disarming them.

Disarm bomb or complicated charge: This covers any device crafted specifically to prevent its disarming or similarly protected.

It also covers truly complex explosives, such as those created by mad science. In either case, your hero must roll an opposed check of his Demolitions skill versus that of the character who built the device. If the explosive device is trapped, the bomb detonates immediately if your hero fails the contest.

Special: Anytime your hero gets a natural 1 on his Demolitions skill check while actually handling explosives, the device detonates. The hero gets a normal saving throw against the device but must subtract -2 due to his proximity.

A character with 5 or more ranks in Knowledge (Chemistry) gets a +2 synergy bonus on all Demolitions checks.

A character with 5 or more ranks in Disable Device gets a +2 synergy bonus on Demolitions checks to disarm explosives.

Drivin' (Type) (Dex; Trained Only)

There are a lot of rusted out hulks in the Wasted West. Cars and hoverbikes and planes require a new set of skills. Drivin' provides your hero with the knowledge to drive a motorcycle, pilot an autogyro, or steer a speedboat.

There are currently four types of Drivin' (type) skills: Aircraft (Airships, autogyros, hoverbike, etc.)

Land Vehicles (car, motorcycle, etc.)

Personal (rocket packs, “jet skis,” etc.)

Watercraft (speedboat, barge, etc.)

Check: Normal operation of a vehicle doesn't require a Drivin' roll. Skill checks are normally needed only during combat, special maneuvers, or other unusual circumstances (like riding a hoverbike along the rim of the Grand Canyon). A character driving a vehicle made with occult engineering should make a Drivin' check when he first starts the device to check for malfunction.

Faith (Wis; Trained Only; Doomsayer and Templar Only)

Faith is a hard thing to come by these days in the Wasted West. Usually its reserved for Joan's radioactive zealots, the Doomsayers, or Simon and the rest of the Templars. Either way, it works the same way for both groups, even though the end results are different.

Check: Faith allows a Doomsayer to harness radiation and Templars to call upon the power of their particular order.

See the character classes and Chapter Seven: Powers, for complete information.

Gamblin' (Int)

Most folks can hold their own in poker and other games of chance. Professional gamblers roam the surviving towns and can turn a few bullets into an armory.

Check: Your brainer can use this skill to get goods to trade or keep. There are a couple of ways to handle gambling in Hell on Earth: single hand or multiple hands.

Single hand: For a single hand, all the characters involved in the game must decide on the stakes. The characters then make an opposed Gamblin' skill check. The losers all must pay the winner of the check an amount equal to the stake.

Multiple hands: To represent a longer period of gambling—say one hour—use this method. All participants decide on the average stake per hand. Next, everyone makes an opposed Gamblin' check. The character with the lowest result pays the difference in their rolls times the average stake. Then, the character with the next lowest roll pays the character with the next highest roll, and so on. If there's an odd man left in the middle, he breaks even.

Cheating: Not everyone who shuffles a deck of cards is honest. A character can add to his Gamblin' skill check by declaring he's cheating. The lowdown snake can choose to add from +1 to +10 to his Gamblin' roll. Everyone in the game or those watching closely from the sidelines makes a Spot check opposed by the gambler's Sleight of Hand roll. The cheater must subtract his cheating modifier from his Sleight of Hand roll. If the cheater is caught, at the very least he can expect to lose his winnings. It's more likely he's shot or strung up.

Retry: Sure—as long as your hero's stake holds out! Special: A character with 5 or more ranks in Bluff or Sense Motive gains a +2 synergy bonus to Gamblin' checks. These bonuses stack.

If your gambler is the cheating kind and has 5 or more ranks in Sleight o' Hand, he gains a +2 synergy bonus. This bonus also stacks with those from Bluff and Sense Motive. However, anytime he uses this bonus, he is considered to be cheating (see above), although the synergy bonus does not add to his opponent's Spot roll to catch him like normal cheating tactics do.

Gunplay (Dex; Trained Only)

Shooting things is a way of life in the Wasted West. Everyone who can get their hands on a gun learns how to shoot it, but there are those few who are especially talented. These individuals can pull off some of the most uncanny shots ever seen and earn a few bullets on the side performing tricks for other brainers.

Use this skill if you want your hero to be able to make trick shots or spin her sixshooters like some movie hero.

Check: This skill allows your hero to perform all manner of gunhandling maneuvers. Some of those tricks are nothing but a lot of flash, but others might just give your shootist an edge in a gunfight. Some of the more common uses of this skill are listed below. Other uses are possible, but the Marshal has final say on what your character can and can't accomplish with this skill.

DC Task
20 Trick shot (entertainment only)
20 Road agent spin
25 Border shift
25 Distracting shot Trick shot:

This covers shooting a shot glass off a friend's head, putting a bullet hole through a quarter tossed in the air, and so on. While it looks fancy and is sure to impress the ladies (or brainers), it really doesn't have all that much use in a combat situation. Unless your hero is suddenly attacked by shot glasses or quarters, that is. In effect, your hero can substitute his Gunplay skill check for a standard attack roll when making showy trick shots out of combat. This use of the skill requires a full round action for each trick shot attempted.

Road agent spin: This is a favorite maneuver among the black-hat-wearing crowd. The hero holds her pistol or pistols out butt-first, as if to surrender to her opponent. Then, assuming her Gunplay check is successful, she quickly spins and flips the smokewagons, turning them on her opponent as a free action. Your character can immediately make a Bluff check (opposed by her opponent's Sense Motive skill); if she wins the contest, the poor sap is surprised and your hero catches the opponent flat-footed! Of course, if your hero fails the initial Gunplay check, she's left with her guns tangled up in her fingers and looking really foolish. If she gets a natural 1 on the attempt, roll 1d6. On a 1-3, she drops one gun. On a 4-5, she drops both guns (if she had two). On a 6, she accidentally shoots herself! Border shift: This maneuver is a favorite among heroes who carry two guns but don't fight two-fisted. To use this maneuver, your hero must have both guns drawn, one in each hand. When her primary weapon runs out of ammunition, she can then, as a free action, attempt a Gunplay check to make a border shift—tossing the two guns from hand to hand so as to move the fully loaded pistol to her shooting hand and the empty one to her off hand. She can continue firing in that round without pause up to her full number of attacks. If she fails the roll, the swap takes place, but it ends her attacks and any other action for the round. Should she roll a natural 1 on the attempt, she drops both weapons! Distracting shot: Your hero can, as a standard action, place shots dangerously near an opponent, kicking up dirt or debris, knocking over nearby items, or just whizzing disturbingly close to his ears. She can attempt such a distracting shot even if her target is behind total cover, as long as she knows where the opponent is located (so she can't use this maneuver against an invisible or otherwise unseen foe). The opponent must immediately make a Will saving throw against a DC 15 or be limited to a partial action on his next round. This tactic is handy for keeping a target relatively pinned down during a protracted gunfight.

Retry: Yes, although your hero may often look foolish when she attempts a fancy maneuver the first time and fails! Special: A hero with 5 or more ranks in Gunplay gains a +2 synergy bonus to Intimidate checks made while she's flashing her guns about.

Hex Slinging (Int: Trained only; Hexslinger Only)

You must have this skill if you are a huckster character.

Check: This skill allows your hero to actually cast a hex. You can find all the details in Chapter Seven: Magic.

Holdout (Dex)

It never hurts to have a backup weapon stashed away in a vest pocket or boot. Or maybe your character is a spy trying to sneak a message or other contraband across the border. Either way, this skill lets your hero hide things on her person.

Check: When your character hides a weapon on her person, make a Holdout check. If the final result of your hero's check is below 15, another character can notice the hidden gun or other item on an opposed Spot check versus your hero's original roll. On the other hand, if your hero's result was 15 or higher, only a blatant pat-down search, requiring a full round action, has a chance of uncovering it.

In this case, your hero rolls another Holdout check, this time in an opposed test against the opponent's Search roll. However, the searcher gets a +5 circumstance bonus to his roll.

Retry: No. Your character hides the item in question to the best of her ability, given her clothing and the circumstances, the first time she does it.

Special: A character with 5 or more ranks in Disguise or Sleight o' Hand gets a +2 synergy bonus to Holdout rolls. These bonuses stack. Shotguns saddle a Holdout check with a –8 modifier.

Ridicule (Int)

When Hell has come to the world, it puts a strain on most folks. Knowing when and just how far to push your opponent is actually the real talent to this skill.

Check: Like Intimidate, Ridicule lets your character alter others' behavior with a successful skill check. However, since a Ridicule check works on its target's embarrassment and anger rather than fear, its effects are also slightly different. Your character must designate a specific action she wants the target to do. Ridicule can't adjust a target's overall attitude. A smart mouth and insults aren't too likely to endear your hero to an opponent no matter how clever she is! The DC for a Ridicule check is 10 + the target's level. Any bonuses that a target may have on saving throws against mindaltering effects also apply. Ridicule requires a full-round action to use.

If your waster is successful in her mocking, the target has three choices. He can take the action your hero is egging him on to do (call out the town's toughest fighter, play chicken on the nearest highway, join in a game of cards, etc.), ignore the insults, or try to turn the tables on your character with some choice language of his own. The first option is pretty self-explanatory.

If the target chooses the second option, he suffers an effective –4 penalty on any Charisma-based ability or skill checks as he's been made a laughingstock. This penalty lasts for a number of minutes equal to your hero's level.

If he instead decides to fight back with his own insults, he rolls an opposed Ridicule check against your hero's original roll. The loser of the contest then suffers a penalty to his Charisma-based ability and skill checks equal to the amount by which he lost the contest. It's not a good idea to enter a battle of wits unarmed! This lasts for a number of minutes equal to the winner's level.

There is one other option. The victim of your hero's tongue-lashing can just call her out, although he does still suffer the penalty to Charisma-based rolls. So before your brainer goes making fun of the local hero, she'd better be ready to back up her mouth! Finally, Ridicule can be used to throw your opponent off-balance in a duel, like Intimidate or Bluff. See Duels in Chapter Five: Blowin' Things All to Hell.

Retry: Once your waster has failed in a Ridicule roll against a target, she can't try again for at least another day. Although she may still get off a zinger or two, it lacks the impact to significantly affect the target's behavior..

Ritual (Int: Trained only; Shaman Only)

This is the skill used by shamans to appeasxe the spirits and request favors.

Check: A shaman uses this skill to work his magic. See Chapter Seven: Magic.

Sleight of Hand (Dex; Trained Only)

Stealing things is a way of life for some folks in the Wasted West, but it is also one of the most surefire ways of getting yourself put down for good. Sleight of Hand is useful not just for gamblers with a hankerin' for cheating, but also folks ranging from Scavengers to simple pickpockets. This skill lets your brainer manipulate small items without notice.

Check: A check against a DC 10 lets your hero secret a coin-sized object.

Attempting to pull the stunt with a larger item, like say a grenade, requires a DC 15 check. Your light-fingered hero can also accomplish simple magic tricks, like making a coin appear or disappear or palming a playing card on a DC 10.

If another waster is watching your hero closely, your character must make an opposed Sleight of Hand roll against your watcher's Spot check. If she wins the contest, she catches your hero's bit of legerdemain, although as long as your hero makes the task's base DC he still pulls it off for anyone not watching so closely.

Attempting to take an item from another person is a Pick Pocket roll, not a Sleight of Hand check.

Retry: Trying to fool the same person twice with a Sleight of Hand roll raises the DC by at least +10 if your hero's earlier attempt failed. If it succeeded, she suffers no such penalty.

Special: Sleight of Hand can be used as a substitute for the Quick Draw feat on a roll of 20 or better.

A character with 5 or more ranks in Sleight of Hand gains a +2 synergy bonus to both Pick Pocket and Profession (stage magician) checks.

Speed Load (Dex)

There's nothing more embarrassing than running out of ammo in the middle of a shootout. With this skill, your hero can get bullets back in his shooting iron faster.

Check: Reloading a single bullet into a pistol, rifle, or shotgun usually takes a standard action. On a DC 15 skill check, your brainer can instead load one round as a move-equivalent action, though this still provokes an attack of opportunity.

Alternatively, on a DC 20 skill check, your character can load up to three rounds in his smokewagon on a single standard action. You must decide which option your character is going to attempt before you roll the dice. In either case, failure means your waster takes a standard action and reloads a single round. On a 1, the character drops all the rounds he was trying to load on the ground.

Some cap-and-ball revolvers can use speed load cylinders. These are fully-loaded cylinders that your hero can slap into his sidearm with a full-round action. With a DC 15 Speed Load check, your hero can instead swap out cylinders as a standard action.

Special: An unskilled Speed Load check is actually just a Dexterity check.

Survival (Wis)

A veteran waster knows which bugs to eat and which ones to step on.

Check: A successful Survival check feeds a person for one day. Increasing the DC by +2 provides the bare necessities for one other person.

The DC depends on the environment. An area with plentiful game and water has a DC of 10. Someplace where food and water is available but scarce has a DC of 15. In the desert, the DC of survival is 20 or better.

Special: You can only make one survival roll per day.

Tale Tellin' (Cha)

A good story teller does many things. He preserves an oral history of his world and gives hope and inspiration—or words of caution—to his listeners.

Tale Tellin' has an even more important use in the world of Hell on Earth. After a successful adventure, a hero who tells the tale of his posse's triumph can actually reduce fear in a community previously affected by the horrors the heroes faced.

The Marshal has the full scoop on this use of Tale Tellin' in Chapter Eight.

Tinkerin' (Int; Trained Only)

Driving a car from Junkyard to the Grand Library is a whole lot easier than walking the same trail. On the other hand, if that gadget breaks down, you'd better know how to fix it. Tinkerin' allows your character to repair—or even build—intricate devices and gizmos.

Check: The Marshal sets the DC to repair a damaged device or contraption, based on the complexity of the gizmo, whether or not it was designed by a junker, and the severity of the damage done to it.

As a rule of thumb, simple repairs to non-occult engineered machines are usually DC 10 to 15. Difficult repairs of a simple device or simple repairs on a complex one are DC 20, and a difficult repair of a complex machine may be as high as DC 25.

Occult engineered devices are harder to fix when they break down. More often than not, those sorts of gizmos appear to violate at least one of the basic premises of engineering and physics! The DC to repair a junker's gizmo is based on its construction DC, which you can find listed in Chapter Seven: Powers. For a simple repair, the DC is 10 lower than the construction DC, more difficult repairs are 5 lower than the original DC, and truly complex or extensive ones are the same as the construction DC. When the damage gets to that point, it's often almost as easy to just start over from scratch! Trying to use Tinkerin' without at least a basic set of tools (wrenches, hammers, etc.)

nets your character a –5 circumstance penalty.

Your character can try to rush or “juryrig” repairs on a device. This reduces the DC for the task by 5 and cuts the time in half, but each time the machine is used afterwards adds a cumulative +1 to any Malfunction checks (see Chapter Four: Equipment for information on malfunction checks). Taking the time to make a proper repair and a successful check against the full DC for the job removes these penalties.

This is also the skill a junker or his assistant uses to actually construct the gadgets he designs. Full details on this use of the skill are located in Chapter Seven: Powers.