Skill Cards

Resisting fatigue, pain, toxic environments, harsh conditions, starvation, decompression effects, sustained strain, and prolonged physical pressure. Fortitude is about refusing to stop working when your body is giving you reasons to. It governs not just injury tolerance but the capacity to keep functioning under environmental and physiological stress.

In Void Drifters, Fortitude matters in vacuum emergency situations, in environments with bad atmosphere (low oxygen, particulates, heat), during long hauls without adequate rest, and when characters are already hurt and pushing through it.

Example uses:

• Continue working during a slow-decompression event without panic or impaired function
• Endure extended transit in a survival suit with depleted environmental systems
• Push through accumulated injuries to complete a task before collapsing
• Resist the effects of a stun weapon or chemical irritant long enough to act
• Stay conscious and functional at the edge of your Wound threshold

Acting under sudden pressure, staying alert, resisting surprise, and keeping your nerve when a peaceful situation turns dangerous without warning. Readiness governs how prepared you are mentally when the situation changes faster than you expected.

Readiness is the default defensive skill for resisting fear, intimidation, despair, coercion, and sudden mental pressure when the resistance is about nerve, composure, or staying functional under pressure. Other skills may apply: Fortitude against environmental dread, Lore against a threat you can intellectually contextualize. When the resistance is about not breaking, Readiness is usually the right call.

Readiness also governs the Surprised initiative check. When a peaceful scene turns violent without warning, your Willpower + Readiness determines how fast you respond.

Example uses:

• Act first when an ambush breaks out in a corridor you thought was clear
• Hold your nerve during an aggressive interrogation without breaking composure
• Resist the destabilizing pressure of a threat that is specifically designed to frighten
• Stay functional during a sudden decompression event when everyone else is panicking
• Notice that something is wrong before you can identify what, and act on that instinct

Tracking, foraging, navigation, shelter, reading dangerous terrain, and staying alive away from infrastructure. In Void Drifters, Survival extends into hostile planetary surfaces, vacuum protocols, emergency procedures for failing ship systems, and the practical knowledge of how to extend your life when the environment is actively trying to end it.

Survival in the Meridian Verge is not only about wilderness. A crashed ship on a hostile moon, a failed life-support system in a derelict section, a landing on an uncharted world with no survey data: these are Survival situations as much as any jungle or desert.

Example uses:

• Navigate across an uncharted planetary surface using stellar positioning
• Establish an emergency shelter in a damaged ship section with limited supplies
• Identify which local flora is edible and which will kill you before you finish the thought
• Manage vacuum exposure protocols to extend survival time when a suit is compromised
• Read signs of recent habitation or activity in an apparently abandoned facility

Criminal networks, black markets, freeport contacts, illicit goods and services, informal information channels, and reading the social landscape of places that operate outside official oversight. Streetwise is not about crime as a skill; it is about knowing how the informal economy works and how to navigate it.

In Void Drifters, Streetwise covers every freeport, every rim station, every transit hub with a shadow economy running beneath the official surface. It is how you find a fence, locate contraband, identify a syndicate contact, read which crews are dangerous, and know which fixers can be trusted and which ones are already working against you.

Example uses:

• Locate a black market arms dealer on a freeport station without asking the wrong people
• Read the social dynamics of a criminal operation and identify the actual decision-maker
• Find passage on an unlicensed freighter that does not ask questions
• Identify which information brokers are reliable and which ones sell to both sides
• Understand what a criminal organization's territorial markers mean without asking

History, cultures, factions, political powers, known space knowledge, and the institutional memory of the Meridian Verge. Lore answers "what do I know about this?" once something has already been noticed. It covers not just facts but interpretation: what does this faction's presence here mean, what does this symbol represent, what happened in this system's history that explains the current situation.

In Void Drifters, Lore spans the political history of the five powers, the religious traditions of the Jaziri faithful, the cultural practices of each species, the operational histories of major factions, the layout of known space, and the kind of institutional knowledge that a well-read person accumulates over a career.

Example uses:

• Identify which power a ship's hull markings belong to and what that implies about its mission
• Recall the terms of a historical treaty that affects a current negotiation
• Recognize a religious symbol and understand what obligations it places on its bearer
• Know enough about a faction's internal structure to predict how they will respond to pressure
• Connect a current threat to a historical precedent that suggests how it will develop

Treating injury and illness, diagnosing conditions, stabilizing the critically wounded, managing recovery, understanding living bodies, and identifying medical risks before they become emergencies. Medicine covers the full range from battlefield stabilization to extended care.

In Void Drifters, Medicine operates in environments where proper facilities are often unavailable: field surgery in a ship corridor, trauma stabilization with a kit designed for three people when six are down, xenobiological complications when the patient is not human, and the improvisation that comes with practicing medicine on the fringes of known space.

Example uses:

• Stabilize a crewmember who has taken a critical injury before they bleed out
• Diagnose a xenobiological condition affecting a Ssarathi crewmate that standard scanners misread
• Manage recovery for multiple injured crew during a transit when proper care is unavailable
• Identify that a contact's symptoms suggest poisoning rather than illness
• Perform field surgery with improvised tools in a pressurized but unsanitary compartment

Engineering theory, physics, xenobiology, chemistry, analysis, and the understanding of how systems work in principle. Science is the knowing side of technical work: why something functions, what the failure modes are, how to analyze a result, what the theory predicts. Science is not building or repairing; it is understanding.

The boundary between Science and Craft is the doing versus knowing divide. Science explains why the drive failed and what the repair requires. Craft performs the repair. Science designs a new system. Craft builds it. Both skills are valuable, and the best engineers use both.

Example uses:

• Analyze a sample of unknown material and identify its composition and properties
• Calculate the structural stress on a hull section and determine whether it will hold
• Identify the xenobiological agent responsible for a crew illness and determine treatment protocols
• Evaluate a salvaged drive component and determine whether it is compatible with the ship's systems
• Understand a scientific or technical briefing and identify what the presenter is not saying

Repairing, building, modifying, maintaining, salvaging, and improvising: ships, equipment, weapons, tools, structures, and systems. Craft is the doing side of technical work. When something is broken, Craft fixes it. When something needs to be built or modified, Craft builds and modifies it.

In Void Drifters, Craft is the engineer's core skill. It covers everything from field-patching a hull breach to integrating salvaged components that were never designed to work together, to the improvised fixes that keep a ship running when the right parts are three systems away.

Example uses:

• Patch a hull breach with salvaged materials under time pressure
• Jury-rig a damaged weapons system to fire one more time before it gives out
• Modify a standard pressure suit to support a Ssarathi crew member's body plan
• Disable a piece of equipment by selectively removing components that look untouched
• Fabricate a replacement part from available stock when the original is unavailable

This skill is specific to Void Drifters. It is not in the Exodus NDS core skill list.

Slipstream navigation, route calculation, stellar cartography, transit execution, and emergency course plotting. Astrogation is the operational act of getting a ship from one place to another through slipstream corridors: reading corridor data, calculating transit windows, plotting courses, managing navigation hazards, and recovering when a transit goes wrong.

The boundary between Astrogation and Science is the difference between doing and knowing. Astrogation plots the course and executes the transit. Science understands why corridors form, how slipstream physics work, and what the theoretical models predict. A ship's navigator uses Astrogation at the helm and Science in the briefing room.

Example uses:

• Plot a course through a disputed corridor system that avoids patrol intercept windows
• Calculate an emergency exit from a transit that is going wrong before the window closes
• Identify navigational hazards in unfamiliar corridor data and route around them
• Reconstruct a damaged nav chart using partial data and dead reckoning
• Determine whether a reported corridor has shifted or collapsed based on available survey data
• Trace a corridor past a terminal seam to find where it goes next

This skill is specific to Void Drifters. It is not in the Exodus NDS core skill list.

Ship computers, artificial intelligence interfaces, electronic warfare, sensor systems, communications networks, hacking, countermeasures, and the full range of digital system interaction. Electronics is the doing side of working with digital infrastructure: configuring, exploiting, defending, attacking, or communicating through electronic systems.

The boundaries matter here:

• Electronics vs Craft: Electronics interfaces with and exploits digital systems. Craft physically repairs or builds the hardware those systems run on.
• Electronics vs Science: Electronics does: hacking a lock, running countermeasures, configuring a sensor suite. Science knows: understanding cryptography theory, AI architecture, sensor physics.
• Electronics vs Astrogation: Electronics operates the ship's nav computer and sensor array. Astrogation interprets the data that system provides and plots the course.

Example uses:

• Hack an access panel to override a door lock without triggering the security log
• Run electronic countermeasures to mask the ship from sensor sweeps during an approach
• Interface with a directive intelligence through its designed interaction protocols
• Intercept and decrypt a communications signal without being detected
• Diagnose and isolate a virus or intrusion in a ship's computer network

Warmth, appeal, humor, sincerity, likability, and the ability to make people feel good about you and what you want. Charm also covers performance: music, oratory, storytelling, acting, and any attempt to move, entertain, or win over an audience. Where Deception asks people to believe something false, Charm asks them to like you enough that they want to help.

In Void Drifters, Charm operates across species and cultures, which is worth noting: what reads as warmth to a Coreworlder human may not translate directly to a Ssarathi crew or a Jaziri port official. The GM may adjust difficulty based on cultural distance.

Example uses:

• Win over a suspicious dockmaster by projecting competence and good humor
• Perform at a freeport gathering to build goodwill with a community you need help from
• Convince a hostile contact that you are genuinely trying to help them
• De-escalate a tense situation by finding common ground before anyone makes threats
• Make a first impression that opens doors before you have established any credentials

Lying, false identities, misdirection, disguising intent, scams, bluffs, forgeries of behavior, and concealing the truth from people who are looking for it. Deception is Charm's darker twin: where Charm makes people want to help you, Deception makes them believe something that is not true.

In Void Drifters, Deception covers the whole range from the small social lie to full cover identities to elaborate long-con operations. It is also the skill used to maintain a bluff under direct questioning and to project calm confidence when your ship has no weapons and the contact is armed.

Example uses:

• Convince a customs inspector that the cargo manifest is accurate when it is not
• Maintain a cover identity under questioning from someone who is specifically trying to break it
• Bluff through a checkpoint with false credentials and a confident manner
• Misdirect a contact about your actual purpose at this station
• Act completely relaxed while deciding whether to run

Bargaining, diplomacy, contracts, trade, compromise, favors, and getting to terms that both sides can accept. Negotiation is not about winning; it is about finding a deal. It covers formal contracts, informal arrangements, trade bargaining, diplomatic pressure, and the back-and-forth of two parties who both want something and have to figure out what that costs.

In Void Drifters, Negotiation is how crews get paid, how factions reach agreements, how disputed cargo gets resolved without violence, and how deals are structured in environments where breach of contract can mean being dead in empty space.

Example uses:

• Negotiate a contract with a client who is trying to offload risk onto the crew
• Reach terms with a faction contact who wants more than you can offer
• Secure passage through controlled space by trading information for clearance
• Resolve a dispute between two parties who are each convinced they are right
• Renegotiate a deal mid-job when the situation has changed significantly from the briefing

Commanding, rallying, organizing, directing groups, establishing authority, and holding people together when the pressure is on. Leadership is not just command: it is the capacity to make people want to follow, to organize effort toward a goal, and to keep a group functional when things are going wrong.

In Void Drifters, Leadership applies to crew coordination during crises, organizing a response to a station emergency, directing allies in a fight, and the kind of authority that does not require a title: the person on the crew who everyone looks to when the plan has just collapsed.

Example uses:

• Direct crew stations during an unexpected combat encounter aboard the ship
• Rally a demoralized group after a failed operation
• Coordinate a multi-element action across separate teams working in parallel
• Establish authority quickly in a chaotic situation before someone makes a bad decision
• Keep a crew cohesive through a long and difficult job with rising tension

Threats, menace, interrogation, dominance, cold resolve, and forcing compliance through fear or force of will. Intimidation is the application of pressure until someone decides that cooperation is less costly than continued resistance. It is not always shouting: sometimes it is the very quiet statement of exactly what will happen.

Readiness is the default defensive skill against Intimidation. A character resisting coercion, threats, or fear-based pressure rolls Willpower + Readiness unless another skill better fits the specific nature of the threat.

Example uses:

• Convince a detained contact to answer questions by making the alternative clear
• Establish that you are not to be interfered with through posture and delivery alone
• Break a hostile negotiation by demonstrating that you are not negotiating
• Stop a fight before it starts by making it obvious how it ends
• Hold a position under pressure by projecting absolute certainty that you will not move

Pilot replaces the core Exodus NDS skill Operate. The mechanical function is identical.

Operating ships, small craft, atmospheric vehicles, and ground vehicles under pressure: flying, maneuvering, docking, evading, pursuing, managing difficult approaches, and keeping control when something has gone wrong. Pilot is the skill of being in the seat when it matters.

The boundary between Pilot and Craft is the difference between operating and repairing. Pilot gets the ship through the asteroid field. Craft patches the hull afterward. A pilot who is also maintaining their own ship uses both skills; they are not substitutes for each other.

In Void Drifters, Pilot covers every vehicle class: interstellar ships in open space, small craft during boarding actions or scout runs, atmospheric vehicles on planetary surfaces, and ground vehicles when the job requires them. The principles transfer even if the physical handling varies.

Example uses:

• Navigate a crowded freeport docking corridor under time pressure without clipping the berth
• Execute an emergency burn to break pursuit from a faster ship
• Thread a ship through an asteroid field with minimal sensor data
• Dock with a tumbling derelict vessel that is not under power
• Fly a surface approach in hostile atmospheric conditions on a planet with no traffic control

This skill is specific to Void Drifters. It is not in the Exodus NDS core skill list.

Mounted ship-scale weapons, fire control systems, point defense stations, torpedo targeting, and the technical work of weapon management at ship scale. Gunnery is operating a weapons station, not firing a personal weapon.

The boundary between Gunnery and Ranged is clear: Ranged covers personal weapons fired by hand. Gunnery covers weapons mounted on ships and vehicles, operated from a dedicated station with a targeting system between the operator and the weapon. The physical act is completely different.

Example uses:

• Lock and fire the ship's main weapons battery during a combat approach
• Run point defense to intercept incoming missiles before they reach the hull
• Manage weapon heat and power distribution during a sustained engagement
• Calculate a firing solution on a maneuvering target at extreme range
• Operate a fixed gun emplacement defending a station position during a boarding repulsion