Specializations: Transferable Skill Benefit

(Optional Rule)

Specializations are dealt with in one of two ways:

i) Art and Craft, and Science skills are addressed under Skill Specializations in the Skills section.

ii) In the case of Fighting, Firearms, Languages (by grouping), and Survival, the specializations contain much that is common and transferable from one specialization to another. For example, in learning to aim and maintain a firearm, there are more similarities than differences between the subdivisions of firearms. In the case of fighting, there are a lot of transferable skills that any fighter will use (reaction times, judging range, evasions, feints, timing, spotting openings, knowing where to hit, etc.). Contrast these comparisons with Astronomy and Pharmacy (in the case of Science) or Actor and Vacuum Tube Blower (in the case of Art and Craft). Thus within Fighting, Firearms, Languages (by grouping), and Survival, the improvement of one specialization has a transferable benefit to all other closely related specialisms.

When a character first raises a specialization within one of these skills to 50% or over, all other related skill specializations are raised by 10 percentage points (but not higher than 50%). This may happen only once more: when a character first raises a specialization to 90% or over, all other related specializations are again raised by 10 percentage points (but not higher than 90%). During investigator creation, the player may boost a specialization and gain the additional 10 points in each of the others prior to spending further points in those other specializations.

For example: ''When creating his investigator, Matthew spends 25 skill points to raise his Fighting (Brawl) skill to 50%. Any other Fighting specializations will gain a 10% point bonus to their base values. Fighting (Sword) now starts at 30% instead of 20%. He then spends 5 skill points to raise his Fighting (Sword) skill to 35%. In play, Matthew's investigator picks up an axe. Matthew did not put any skill points in the axe specialization, but since he has one Fighting specialization of 50%, his base chance with an axe is elevated by 10 percentage points to 30%.''

''Brian put 20 points in his Fighting (Brawl) specialization, 25 points into Fighting (Axe) and 12 points into Fighting (Sword), thus these now stand at: Brawl 45%, Axe 45%, Sword 32%. In play, he gains a tick in Fighting (Brawl) and gains 7 points, raising the skill to 52%. This allows him to raise his other specializations by 10 points (but not above 50%), so his skills now stand at Brawl 52%, Axe 50%, Sword 42% (note his Axe skill only rose by 5%, to 50% total).''