Covert Ops

Attribute DEX
Category Social
Untrained Yes

The Covert Ops broad skill focuses on remaining undetected and

bypassing physical security. It consolidates the arts of stealth with

the practical skills needed to blend in or pick pockets.

  • Unified Stealth: Merging hide, sneak, and shadowing into a single Stealth specialty.

  • Physical Bypassing: Including Pickpocket and Conceal.

Conceal

Attribute DEX
Cost 3
Untrained Yes

This specialty skill represents the ability to hide objects from

view or sensors. While Stealth is used to hide oneself,

Conceal is used to hide items, such as weapons on one’’s

person, contraband in a vehicle, or a secret compartment in a

room.

Results

The degree of success on a Conceal check provides a penalty to an

observer’’s Awareness-perception or Investigate-search check to

find the hidden object:

  • Ordinary: +1 penalty to observer

  • Good: +2 penalty to observer

  • Amazing: +3 penalty to observer

Hiding Weapons

A concealed weapon is worn in a place not normally searched or not

subject to easy spotting (the small of the back, inside of the

forearm, etc.). The concealed weapon must be either a small

handgun or a blade. Concealment provides a +2 penalty to all but

the most intrusive searches.

Disguise

Attribute CHA
Cost 3
Untrained Yes

Disguise is the ability to change your appearance to look like

someone else or to blend into a crowd.

While the Entertainment-act skill is used for professional

makeup and performance, this specialty covers more immediate and

practical applications of disguise, such as changing clothes,

wearing a wig, or using simple props to avoid recognition.

A character’’s Disguise situation die is modified by the observer’’s

Awareness-perception modifier.

Pickpocket

Attribute DEX
Cost 3
Untrained Yes

This specialty skill allows a character to remove objects from a

person (or plant something) without that person noticing. The base

situation die is determined by the target’’s Will resistance

modifier.

Pickpocket Situation Modifiers

| Condition | Modifier |

| :— | :— |

| Object is in direct contact with target’’s skin | +3 |

| Object is heavy | +2 |

| Object is kept in inner pocket of garment | +1 |

| Object is light in weight | -1 |

| Object is kept in exposed pocket or pack | -1 |

| Victim is distracted | -1 to -3 |

Results

  • Failure/Critical Failure: The attempt fails and the pickpocketer is noticed.

  • Ordinary: The attempt succeeds.

  • Good/Amazing: The attempt succeeds and may offset penalties for repeated attempts against the same target.

Rank Benefits

  • Rank 3, 6, 9, 12 [It Takes One to Know One]: The character’’s Will resistance modifier (only for spotting a pickpocket attempt) improves by +1 penalty to the foe’’s attempt at rank 3, +2 steps at rank 6, +3 steps at rank 9, and +4 steps at rank 12.

Stealth

Attribute DEX
Cost 3
Untrained Yes

This specialty (also known as Unified Stealth) merges the

techniques of hide, sneak, and shadow into a single field of

expertise. It is the art of remaining undetected while stationary

or in motion.

Hide (Stationary)

Ability to stay unnoticed by keeping quiet and still using cover

or darkness.

  • Results: Degree of success gives observer penalty: Ordinary (+1), Good (+2), Amazing (+3).

Sneak (In Motion)

Ability to move silently (up to one-half walk rate).

  • Surprise: If successful adjacent to an opponent, receive attack bonus: Ordinary (-1), Good (-2), Amazing (-3).

Shadow (Following)

Ability to follow a target without being noticed. Modified by

target’’s Will resistance modifier and detected by

Awareness-intuition.