Pilot (Specializations)

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 Pilot (Specializations) (01%) 

The air or water equivalent of Drive Auto, this is the maneuver skill for flying or floating craft. You may spend skill points to purchase any skill specialization. The generic Pilot skill cannot be purchased. An investigator might have several versions of this skill in the spaces on the investigator sheet (such as Pilot Aircraft, Pilot Dirigible, etc.). Each starts at 01%.

Anyone with modest skill can sail or fly on a calm day with good visibility, although skill rolls are required for storms, navigation by instrument, low visibility, and other difficult situations. Bad weather, poor visibility, and damage may raise the difficulty level of skill rolls to pilot air and watercraft.

Opposing skill/Difficulty level:


 * Regular difficulty: make an emergency landing with a light aircraft in a farmer's field.
 * Hard difficulty: pilot the craft in very poor conditions (e.g. extremely bad weather, faulty equipment.).

Pushing examples: pulling the aircraft up and making a second and final attempt at landing; push the vehicle to its limit; making a risky maneuver to lose a pursuer.

Sample Consequences of failing a Pushed roll: the results of a failed roll should fit the situation. It may be that the craft is somehow damaged, and repairs will have to be made before it can be used again (which may prove impossible in remote locations); passengers are injured during the maneuver or accident; you emergency-landed the plane in the jungle, and awake tied to large stones that circle a huge, bubbling cooking pot. Reserve burning wrecks for exceptional circumstances, such as when the pilot is insane, or when taking a crazy risk at high speed.


 * If an insane investigator fails a pushed roll, he or she will believe they are capable of death-defying stunts. They are not.

 Specializations: 

Pilot (Aircraft): understands and is increasingly competent with a general class of aircraft named below. Upon any landing, even under the best conditions, a Pilot roll must be made. The consequence of failure is situation-dependent. Failing a pushed skill roll to land in a flat, grassy field on a calm summer's day may simply indicate a bumpy landing, perhaps deterring more delicate passengers from flying ever again. At the other extreme, failing a pushed skill roll to land on icy tundra during a storm may well result in the destruction of the airplane and death or injury to all involved. Failure commonly represents damage to the craft, which must be repaired before the next take-off. A result of "100" is a memorable disaster.

Each class of aircraft counts as a different skill and should be listed independently, or as the Keeper sees fit.


 * 1920s: Pilot Balloon/Dirigible/Civil Prop only.


 * Present day: Pilot Civil Prop, Pilot Civil Jet, Pilot Airliner, Pilot Jet Fighter, Pilot Helicopter.

Piloting skill may be transferred to an alternative form of aircraft, but the level of difficulty should be increased.

Pilot (Boat): understands the behavior of small motor and sailing craft in wind, storms, and tides, and can read wave and wind action to suggest hidden obstacles and approaching storms. In a wind, novice sailors will find docking a rowboat difficult.