Specialties
Attribute and Ability Traits have an additional element
that can enhance their effectiveness: specialties. When
a character has a rating of 4 or higher in a given Trait,
the player can select a specialty for the Trait in question.
On rolls that determine the success of an activity related
to that Trait specialty, the player counts every 10 rolled
as two successes, not just one.
As an example, let's say that Spider Chase, a Verbena
flow-artist, has Athletics 4. She's especially good at
spinning fiery gear, so her player selects Fire-Spinning
as a specialty. During a show, Spider executes a
double-handed spinning toss with two flaming staves.
The player, Inky, rolls Spider's Dexterity (three dots) +
Athletics (four dots), for a total of seven dice. Four of
Inky's dice come up as successes, but two of the four
successes are 10s. Spider, then, has six successes,
thanks to her specialty. The staves spin high into the
air; Spider pauses, cocks her head, makes a "Come
on…" gesture to her audience, and raises her hands
just in time to perfectly catch both flaming staves and
continue her dance. The crowd, as they say, goes wild.
The various Traits below have a number of suggested
specialties. You can invent new specialty along the
lines of the suggested ones, so long as the Storyteller
approves that new specialty. Original specialties should
not be too broad (Keyboards for a Computer specialty)
or potentially abused (Inflicting Damage as a Strength
specialty). And even if you don't start off with 4 dots or
more in a given Trait, you can still choose a specialty
for it; certain Traits – like Crafts – actually require you
to choose a particular specialty. That specialty won't
grant the additional-success bonus until you reach
a rating of 4, but it can flesh out your character by
showing areas of expertise that will eventually help
your mage excel in future tasks.
