Specialties

Players may wish for their character to have a certain area of expertise within an Ability. This expertise is reflected by Specialties. During character creation, distribute four Specialties amongst your character's Abilities. You may also purchase more of them with bonus points.

Your character may never have more than three specialties for an Ability. Keep your concept in mind when choosing specialties (a smooth talking merchant might choose "Wheeling and Dealing" as a Socialize specialty, while a diplomat might choose "Graceful Tact"). You don't need to purchase specialties, but they serve to flesh out the character. They're also useful for building a character who is good at one particular part of an Ability but not all of it and for making a character who has a really superhuman mastery of an Ability.

Unless specified otherwise, specialties cannot add more than three dice to a roll.

See also Basic Mechanics: Specialties.

Changing Specialties in Play

Once a character has three specialties for an Ability, he is barred from purchasing any more. While this certainly helps to define and stake out a character's niche and signature style, further growth in the character may ultimately make the original selection inappropriate or limiting. Characters with three specialties can buy a new specialty at a reduced cost of two experience points, but doing so forfeits one existing specialty for the Ability. Once a story, this swap may be done for free. Learning a new specialty always requires standard training time.