Rules

These abilities are open to any character at character generation and are not specific to Expertise. A Player can pick as many of the Free Skills as they like. You do not need to include Free Skills on your Guildcard, unless you are missing some of them as per a Weakness or if the player so chooses. (All, unless stated, are Skills). 

Buckler – Use of small shields up to 20 inches or 50cm in diameter. (Physreps must abide by  the Origin Weapon Policy, which can be found here) 

Forage – The player may go out into the hunting ground twice per day to look for food and ingredients. They may come across foraging points or monsters that they can harvest. A player cannot use both of the uses of their Forage skill in the same Hunt or Quest session. (See: The World of Origin: Hunts and Quests)

Grapple – This Skill allows characters to move, carry or resist being moved or carried by other creatures. Creatures and objects can have an IC weight that Grapple can be used to overcome. An attempt to Grapple a creature must be roleplayed by placing a hand on the intended target’s shoulder or upper arm (or anywhere along its torso or body if the target is non-humanoid) and calling Grapple. You may only Grapple one target at a time. 

A base character has a Grapple Value of 1. This means they can successfully Grapple an unresisting character of Weight 1. Armoured and large creatures weigh more, therefore Grapplers may need to work together to perform a successful Grapple. An unresisting creature of Weight 5 will need 5 creatures with Grapple Value 1 in order to be moved. Unresisting, unconscious, or creatures on their Death Count can only be moved once the Grapple Value has equalled or exceeded their Weight. Counting out loud when you join a group of Grapplers lets the target of the Grapple know when their Weight has been lifted. Players must keep track of their Grapple Value, and their armoured and unarmoured weights. 

Grapple does not interrupt durative effects such as Death Count or Paralysis, but a successful Grapple can be used to interrupt Spell vocals and performances. If a Grapple is interrupted and the Weight of the target exceeds the current Grapple Value, the target is dropped and may resume their previous actions. A character may contest a Grapple attempt by placing a hand on their opponent’s shoulder and calling Grapple in return. Whomever has the highest Grapple Value (or if Grapple Value is the same, highest Weight) wins and the victor holds the loser stationary. The loser is then considered to be unresisting, and normal Grapple rules can commence. 

Instruct – Once per day, a character can choose to instruct another creature in any Ability they are currently in possession of. Character Progression rules must be obeyed (see: Character Progression). The instruction must begin and end in sight of a referee, and roleplay should include elements of the ability you are trying to teach. For example, demonstrating a spell and helping another character practice spell vocals, or studying the movement or theory behind a skill together. Instruction sheets should be filled out to keep track of character progress. Only 1 ability can be taught per session. Abilities may take multiple sessions to learn, and a ref will be able to tell the instructee when they have successfully learned the studied ability. It is considered unless told otherwise that a character can only be instructed or instruct one ability at a time. (see: Downtime, for more information.)

Light Armour – (See Stacked Abilities)

Literacy – The Character can read and write very simple script in common tongue (OC: English, for the purposes of this game), but cannot read or write any “Expertise” documents written with Advanced Literacy. These include Research papers, Dossiers, Blueprints, Ritualised or Religious texts, Coded texts and Pact Documents.

Numeracy – The character can count and can do basic or complex arithmetic. 

Pray – All characters can beseech a Deity, Element, Force or Spiritual entity for aid. The character must be conscious, have one or more Hit Point on their Head and Torso and be able to speak or perform a Prayer. The Pray skill must be performed within sight of a referee, who will tell you if the prayer is successful, or if it may have an effect later on in play time. The prayer can have a number of effects, and may be used to grant a number of temporary benefits or detractors to any other player, NPC or monster. If more people take part in a prayer it may have greater effect. 

Read Maps – The character can interpret basic information from geographical maps and create simple directions (but cannot accurately map out a landscape for long term use). 

Single Handed Weapon – Use of one handed weapons up to 42 inches or 101cm in length. A strike from a standard 1 handed weapon does 1 HP of damage to the targeted location. one handed weapons can also count as Blunt or Bladed weapons depending on physical appearance, which will have different effects on different Monsters. (Physreps must abide by  the Origin Weapon Policy, which can be found here)