Basic Skills

Basic skills are abilities that any character has access to, which do not need to be bought.

Any Menhirs Fate character may:

• Use any weapon combination except Thrown and Ranged Weapons* to inflict damage without using any calls. This includes dual wielding weapons, 2h weapons and polearms. Weapons and their size limits as listed in the Weapon and Armour safety page still apply in all circumstances.
• Use a Shield or Buckler.
• Have 3 global hit points. This may be increased with the Toughness skill or armour.
• Use any armour combination. Armour provides HP depending on the category (Light/Medium/Heavy) but there is no XP restriction.
• Call “May the Gods Witness Me” – for the next minute they cannot be healed and are immune to all damage, but do take the other effects of calls and should roleplay being hurt by attacks. After that minute they die immediately, without going through critical or terminal stages.
• Call “Execute” on someone in the critical or terminal state after 5 seconds roleplaying a huge swing or specific attack in a safe and controlled manner. Please avoid head hits, vulnerable parts and throat slitting as part of execute for safety reasons.
• Ask someone their current hit point status and whether they’re in Critical or Terminal state. Nobody can ask how long you’ve got left on your critical count.

* The only weapons that must be bought into are Thrown (2xp) and Ranged weapons (4xp) – bows and crossbows. This is for game balance, concerns around OC safety and because they automatically inflict calls. These skills can be found on the Vigour skill page.

For any normal ability that has no mechanical effects – e.g. literacy, numeracy – your character can be as capable of it as you choose to represent, so long as you can actually do it yourself. While we are not putting in specific minimum levels or requirements for things like literacy and numeracy we ask that people think about what they are playing and not create a character that is mocking or belittling real life conditions.