The Island - Playing with Fate - Skills

Skills of the Island

The first topic of my design blog for the Island is going to be adaptation of the skills from Fate Core. The book gives a good list of skills, but for my purposes I think I'm going to have to add a few more. In addition, I may be altering some of the existing skills so they fit more with the theme of my game.  For the moment, here is the skill list that will be used in the Island RPG. After I will discuss each of the skills that have been added or had their names altered, as well as why. The new and changed skills on the list are in bold:

Air Magic
Athletics
Contacts
Deceit
Earth Magic
Empathy
Fighting
Fire Magic
Intimidation
Investigation
Lore
Notice
Physique
Rapport
Resource
Ride
Ritual Magic
Shooting
Stealth
Survival
Thievery
Trade (specific profession)
Water Magic
Will

Before I move to explanations, I should state that the descriptions of the elemental magics will ring similar. I don't mean to be repetative, but I am trying to phrase them as they are most likely to appear in the final product itself.

Air Magic - Like the other elemental magic skills, Air Magic requires an air-based Aspect of some kind. Air Magic is the ability to manipulate the very air; summon gusts, carry messages on the very wind. Turned inward, Air deals with speed and the ability to fly and motion in general. As can the other magic skills, Air Magic can combine to create more powerful effects (sample effects will be provided in another post).

Earth Magic - Like the other elemental magic skills, Earth Magic requires an earth-based Aspect of some kind. Earth Magic is the ability manipulate the earth; create walls of rock, cause earthquakes. Turned inward, Earth deals with hardiness and the ability to stand firm. Again, Earth can combine with other magic skills to create more powerful effects.

Fire Magic - Like the other elemental magic skills, Fire Magic requires a fire-based Aspect of some kind. Fire Magic is the ability to manipulate flame; ignite flammable objects, create massive walls of flame. Turned inward, Fire deals with fighting prowess and passions. Fire can combine with the other magic skills to create more powerful effects.

Ride - This is the Drive skill, simply renamed. As the Island is a fantasy world, I felt it more appropriate as a skill.

Ritual Magic - Ritual Magic is the one magical skill that doesn't require an Aspect to be able to use. However, in order to combine it with another non-magical skill it is recommended that the character have some Aspect that would lead to combining them. Ritual Magic can be used on its own to assist in healing consequences or temporarily granting advantages.

Survival - This is a skill that I added. While I assume that survival skills would generally fall under Lore, I felt the setting might deserve having Survival as its own skill. Not only would this be knowledge of what's basically safe to eat, but it would enable one to be able to built sturdy shelters from available materials, create fires, things that reading in a book wouldn't automatically grant one the ability to do.

Thievery - This is the replacement skill for Burglary. I felt like Thievery might be a little broader ranging. In addition, burglary sounds to me more urban, while the Island is mostly anything but.

Trade (specific profession) - This replaces Crafts. In addition to assisting with creating objects (Trade - Smith, for example) it could be uses to assist in bartering (Trade - Merchant), etc.

Water Magic - Like the other elemental skills, Water Magic requires a water-based Aspect of some kind. Water Magic is the ability to manipulate the rivers and lakes; ice daggers to fling at enemies, spray gouts of water to put out flames. Turned inward, Water could give the ability to turn invisible or move more gracefully.