SWFate-Athletics

From Toosigma

This measures the character’s general physical capability, excepting raw power, which is a function of Might. Athletics covers running, jumping, climbing, and other broadly physical activities you might find in a track and field event. Characters with high Athletics include athletes, soldiers and outdoorsmen.

Athletics is often the “when in doubt” physical skill, and it can get a lot of use. There’s sometimes confusion as to when to use Athletics and when to use Might. As a rule of thumb, Athletics is used to move yourself, Might is used to move other things and people. When an action calls for both, they may modify one another. If there is no clear indication which should be primary, default to Athletics as primary and Might as secondary.

Contents 1 Trappings 1.1 Jumping [Athletics] 1.2 Sprinting [Athletics] 1.3 Climbing [Athletics] 1.4 Dodging [Athletics] 1.5 Falling [Athletics] 2 Stunts 2.1 Gymnastics 2.1.1 Contortionist [Athletics] 2.1.2 Acrobat [Athletics] 2.1.3 Safe Fall [Athletics] 2.1.4 Slippery [Athletics] 2.2 Speed 2.2.1 Marathon Training [Athletics] 2.2.2 Fast as a Leopard [Athletics] 2.2.3 Faster than a Leopard [Athletics] 2.3 Uncommon Movement 2.3.1 Human Spider [Athletics] 2.3.2 Mighty Leap [Athletics] 2.3.3 Equestrian [Athletics]

Trappings

Jumping [Athletics]

This is not the Olympics – jumping is something one does to get over obstacles or across bottomless chasms, and in those situations the GM will set a fixed difficulty to be met or exceeded. Generally, that difficulty is going to be the bare minimum to clear the distance, so beating that by a few shifts is often a good idea. Outside of that, jumping is often just considered an extension of normal movement. For GM advice on setting difficulties and designing jumping challenges, see page XX.

Sprinting [Athletics]

A character may use their Athletics to move faster by taking a sprint action. Normally, characters may only move one zone on their turn by turning over one of their shifts as a supplemental action. Characters who spend their entire action moving are sprinting; rolling Athletics against a target difficulty of Mediocre, they may cross a number of zones and borders equal to or less than the total shifts of effect. In the absence of borders, characters can always move a minimum of one zone. See page XX for additional details.

Climbing [Athletics]

Athletics is the skill for climbing. The GM will set a difficulty for how hard it is to climb a given obstacle. At the GM’s option, shifts may be used to speed the process if the character succeeds. For GM advice on setting difficulties and designing climbing challenges, see page XX.

Dodging [Athletics]

Athletics can be used as a defensive skill to respond to attacks in physical combat, and works very well in conjunction with taking a full defense action (yielding a +2 to the roll; see page XX). The one important thing to note is that taking a defense action means that you can’t use Athletics for other things, like sprinting.

Falling [Athletics]

When characters fall, they bypass the physical stress track entirely, and hop right to a consequence, with the severity of the consequence being determined by length of the fall. Characters who fall can roll Athletics to try to limit the severity of the result. For guidelines on the severity of falls, please see the chapter on Running the Game, page XX.

Stunts

Gymnastics

Contortionist [Athletics]

You can fit into and through spaces and shapes that no normal human readily can. Normally, contorting tasks are impossible to attempt, or at best default to a (non-existent) Contortion skill rated at Mediocre. With this stunt, you can use your full Athletics score instead, and have rationale to attempt feats of contortion that are simply unavailable to others.

Acrobat [Athletics]

You are able to perform any number of impressive acrobatic feats. Difficulties assigned for complex maneuvers while acting (e.g. walking on a tightrope, doing brain surgery while hanging from a trapeze) are reduced by two. Falling rolls gain a +2 bonus. When used acrobatically, your Athletics skill can never be used to restrict another skill, only complement it.

Safe Fall [Athletics]

Requires Acrobat.

The character can skip effortlessly down sheer surfaces without harm, allowing him to safely fall great distances. When the character falls, but is near a solid surface, such as the wall of a shaft, or has sufficient other things like ropes to offset his fall, all falls are treated as two categories shorter (and may be reduced another step with Athletics as normal).

Slippery [Athletics]

Requires at least one other Athletics stunt.

You gain a +2 to all attempts to defend against knockback or push attacks, as well as any attempts to escape from bonds.

Speed

Marathon Training [Athletics]

You know how to conserve your energy when undergoing lengthy athletic activity (long-distance running, multi-day climbs, etc). You may use Athletics instead of Endurance under such circumstances, and in most other cases may complement any Endurance rolls with your Athletics.

Fast as a Leopard [Athletics]

Requires Marathon Training.

You are incredibly fast on your feet. Whenever taking a sprint (but not move) action using Athletics, the value of that action is improved by two. Alternately, you may set aside this bonus in order to be considered on an “even footing” in a race with a mounted beast or a car (in 1920, cars aren’t that fast).

Faster than a Leopard [Athletics]

Requires Fast as a Leopard.

You are simply, astonishingly fast. Whenever you roll to sprint, it’s at +4; you can reduce this to +2 and be considered on an even footing with a horse or a car. Furthermore, you face no penalties for moving one zone as a supplemental action.

Uncommon Movement

Human Spider [Athletics]

The character can climb surfaces he oughtn’t be able to. He receives a +2 bonus on any climb, and by spending a fate point, he may eliminate the effects of all difficulty modifiers resulting from the environment or the characteristics of the thing he’s climbing (so he can climb a slick, mostly flat surface in a rainstorm at much less difficulty).

Mighty Leap [Athletics]

The character’s leaping ability borders on the superhuman. The character may reduce any height related borders (see page XX) by up to three.

Equestrian [Athletics]

The character can use Athletics instead of Survival for all maneuvers when riding horses or other riding animals.