The Artifact RPG

I was thinking about player characters the other day and thought it would be fun to have a way to make one that is instinctively good at something but doesn’t realize it. This could either be because the skill is something they’ve never tried before or self confidence issues. For instance, a kid that is told he’s stupid his whole life but is really a math whiz. Another example could be someone who is extremely laid back and unmotivated but is excellent at defusing explosives because he doesn’t get scared and thinks clearly the whole time.

To make the character interesting to play several things need to happen. The hidden skill has to be very high, unnaturally so. The character has to be unremarkable in other ways. They might even be bumbling and a total disaster otherwise. This can make the character amusing to play in the right hands. Lastly the skill cannot be something that the character would normally use or it would be hard to explain why they don’t know they’re good at it. A fighting character could be an amazing singer or card player, a scientist being a crack shot, etc.

The questions that come up are, what is the skill, why doesn’t the character know about it and under what circumstances can they use their hidden potential? Also, once they discover their potential do they recognize it?

What Skill?
We’ve already established that it shouldn’t be something that the character would expect to be good at. So how should the skill actually be chosen? I there are three possibilities that come to mind. One, the player picks a skill when they generate the character. The drawback is that the player will be waiting to use the skill as soon as possible, there is no mystery. Two, the GM picks a skill. This preserves the mystery but what happens if the GM picks a skill that the player doesn’t really want to use? The character looses any interest as soon as the player finds out. Three, the skill is left undetermined until there is a need in the game and the player chooses to apply the hidden skill to the task. I like this last option the most as it preserves the mystery and the player picks it hopefully filling a role the player is interested in.

When Can It Be Used? Is It Recognized?
This is an interesting question because if the character first uses the skill and they know they did a good job, unless they have severe self esteem problems, the cat’s out of the bag. They should be able to use the skill any time after the first use. That may be okay and could be a good break for a player that likely hasn’t been accomplishing much up until now. On the other hand, if the player is into playing this enigmatic character and the skill is a subjective one like singing, the character could discount their own skill, thinking people were just being nice. Another possibility is that the character found it so easy that they can’t imagine that other people find the task hard to do.
If the player and GM agree to it, there may also be a psychological barrier to the character using the skill. For instance, the player may not enjoy using the skill. They may feel the action is repulsive or distasteful. Either it takes an act of great will to use the skill or someone has to be in mortal danger to use it.

For The Artifact
To make this kind of character for The Artifact RPG character creation goes as follows. The character gets a hidden skill at +30. Generate attributes as normal but any attribute over thirty is dropped to thirty and the amount the attribute is dropped goes into the hidden skill. If the hidden skill reaches +100 then the character gets a second related hidden skill with what is left over.

When the skill is chosen with any of the methods mentioned above the player decides if the character will recognize the skill. If the player chooses to and they can justify the character not recognizing their skill, they get an additional +20 to the skill.

Anywhere man goes, he’s likely to take dogs along with him. That includes other planets so characters on The Artifact would likely run into or have dogs available. While Earthers are conditioned by exposure to not be afraid of dogs, natives to The Artifact have no exposure to them normally. To them a dog is a frightening creature. This is even more so if their only impression of them is a working dog. Compounding that further is the Earther’s likening Brouragh to “Hounds” and a pack of dogs reacting similar to Seeter.

Here are stats for a medium to large work dog like a german shepherd.

Species Dog (Canis lupus familiaris)
Hight – 60 cm
Mass – 40 kg

Attributes
STR 20
CON 30
REF 45
CHA 50
INT 75
IQ 15
AGI 50
BTY 30
PSY 40
DEX – 10
HP – 7

Diet – Carnivore
Attacks 3
Damage: Bite 3
Defenses: None
Running speed: 65 kph

Special Abilities

Keen Smell: The dog has one of the more sensitive noses in the animal kingdom. Because of this they can sense people, other animals and chemicals they have be trained to detect, even in total darkness. Range Class: C

Habitat – Domestic
Numbers – 1-20

Sentry Dogs
Command Skill-IQ +30
Protect Area-Int +20

Worked on a short leash and were taught to give warning by growling, alerting or barking. They are especially valuable for working in the dark when attack from cover or the rear was most likely. The sentry dog was taught to go with a military or civilian guard on patrol and gave him warning of the approach or presence of strangers within the area protected.

Scout or Patrol Dogs
Command Skill-IQ +30
Protect Area-Int +20
Detect Ambush-Int +20

In addition to the skills listed for sentry dogs, scout/patrol dogs were trained to work in silence to aid in the detection of snipers, ambushes and other enemy forces in a particular locality.
The scout dog and his Quartermaster handler normally walk point on combat patrols, well in front of the infantry patrol. Scout dogs could often detect the presence of the enemy at distances up to 1,000 yards, long before men became aware of them. When a scout dog alerted to the enemy it would stiffen its body, raise its hackles, pricking his ears and holding its tail rigid. The presence of the dogs with patrols greatly lessens the danger of ambush and tended to boost the morale of the soldiers.
Scout Dogs are often most effective in close quarters and are less suited for open terrain.

Drug/Bomb Detecting Dogs
Command Skill-IQ +30
Chemical Detection-Int +20

Both types of dog are used to find traces of chemicals found in drugs or explosives that have been hidden or even buried.

Canine Flak Jacket

Only protects the vitals on the body of the dog. Most dogs will not tolerate bulkier armor.
AR 8
HP 5
Cost: 15,000 Yen

Remote Command and Monitor

A camera and microphone allows the trainer to see and hear what is going on around the dog. An around the ear speaker allows the trainer to speak commands that only the dog will hear.
Cost: 20,000 Yen

Sai asked me a while ago if it was possible to tame beasts for The Artifact. The answer was “There should be!” Then we hammered out a basic system to do just that.

What we came up with was that each animal under training should be treated as an NPC that the player would keep track of but the GM would still control.

The animal would learn skills from the trainer. These would be basic skills like Fetch and Sit. The first skill that an animal has to learn is an IQ skill called “Commands”. This is like a language skill. The animal has to check against it to see if it understands that the trainer is speaking to it and to understand which command is being given. If the animal fails, it has no idea you want it to do something so getting this skill high is a priority. This makes dumb animals more difficult to train and slower to advance. Animals that are considered domesticated have a skill cost of one (1) XP per skill advancement. Wild animals have a skill cost of two (2) per advancement. Each command is a skill by itself that must also be learned. So “Attack” is a skill that the animal would learn but it would be an Agility skill that the animal would use when it understands the command.

Each new skill requires at least one week of dedicated training time. Each week an animal is trained they get 1 XP. After the first week of training, as long as the animal practices or uses the new skill, they get 1 XP per week to spend on advancing skills.

Domestic and Wild Animals

There’s a big difference between training a horse and training an alligator. One animal is domesticated, the other is wild but both can be trained.

When attempting to train a domestic animal the PC rolls for their Charisma + Animal Training skill. The first time they attempt this, the animal gets to resist by making a Psyche roll at the same fraction column or lower than the trainer’s roll. If the animal fails the Psyche roll they will obey. After the first failed Psy roll, the animal will listen to the trainer.

Wild animals always check against their Psy for every command, no matter how long they have been trained. This requires a higher Animal Training skill for wild animals to get consistent results out of them.

New Charisma Skill

Animal Taming – <specific> (2)

The character chooses a specific type of animal they want to tame. This skill allows a character to teach skills to a species of animal. This skill is used in Charisma rolls to see if an animal will follow that individual’s training. Also, each week that the trainer makes a successful roll for an animal that animal gains 1 XP that is used to raise one of the animal’s skills.

Possible Animal Skills

There are so many thing that an animal can be taught to do, this is a brief list of skill ideas.

Fetch
Follow
Sit
Attack
Ride
Find