Master Ability List

Outlaws of the Water Margin employs an ability system quite unlike most rolegames. Consequently, I thought a "master ability list" would be useful for reference during character creation, and during play.

• Reading the table

I've divided the table into two major sections: Basic abilities (triple cost), and Specific abilities (single cost). Where there's a note in a row, the note applies to the whole row, or only the aptitude or skill if marked with an asterisk.

In some cases, an aptitude can be sensibly associated with more than one skill, or vice versa. An entry in (parentheses) in the list is there only to signal this kind of secondary association.

• Tweaks made

I've made a few small tweaks to the official Outlaws rules. Some are, I think, of a clarifying nature, while one or two adjust the way certain abilities are handled.

Group aptitudes
Aptitudes listed in italics are Group aptitudes. They are associated with Cascade skills (see below). You can apply a Group aptitude's bonus to any sub-type of the associated Cascade skill. For example, if you chose Fighting +1, you may use that bonus with Martial Arts:Unarmed and with Martial Arts:Sword.

When you apply this bonus to a task for which the character does not have a Cascade skill sub-type bonus, the character suffers at least the -2 penalty for not having a skill bonus (in some cases, the referee can decide the task is impossible without some rating in the skill bonus--being naturally good at Languages, for example, doesn't really help you speak a language you have absolutely no skill with).

Cascade skills
Skills that include a word in square brackets (like [type]) are Cascade skills. You must buy a separate bonus for each specific sub-type of Cascade skills. For example, you must buy two separate bonuses to give your character Martial Arts:Unarmed and Martial Arts:Sword.

Ability shuffling
I've shuffled some of the ability definitions around. Here's a brief list of the changes from the original game:

• Added "Diligence" and "Will" basic skills.

• Changed "Football" skill to "Sports [type]" Cascade skill, and added a Sports Group aptitude to allow for characters who want skill at sports other than Football. Remember to keep this distinct from Games.

• Changed "Foreign Languages" skill to "Foreign Language [type]" Cascade skill.

Outlaws of the Water Margin is © 1998 by Paul Mason, and is published by Panurgic Publishing. The contents of this page are not in any way intended as a challenge to this copyright.

Made with GNU Emacs.

Basic abilities

Specific abilities