Laundry Files: Skills
Mental Skills
Appraise
Estimate an objects value, quality and authenticity.
Useful for bargaining in a marketplace, working out what's worth stealing, or determining whether the statuette on a cultist's alter is a genuine relic.
Bureaucracy
Manipulate the processes and politics withing an organisation.
This is particularly important within the Laundry where bureaucracy complicates even the simplest operation.
Computer Use
Operating and hacking computers. Covers all mundane computer software use but not the writing of occult programs which come under Computational Sorcery.
This skill cannot be used untrained.
Electronics
Use, repair and disable electronic devices.
Equally useful for repairing a computer and disabling a security system.
This skill cannot be used untrained.
Knowledge (Various)
Academic or professional expertise in a subject.
Choose a specialty: Accounting, Art History, Business, History, Law, Literature, Philosophy, Politics, Religion, etc.
Language (Various)
All characters begin fluent in their native language, but points in this skill can indicate that you have some knowledge of additional languages.
This skill must be taken separately for each language your character knows and the rank indicates how well you speak it, with 5 points indicating the equivalent of natively fluency.
At GM description a roll may be required to communicate complex topics in a language you're not fluent in, although even someone 1 with point can communicate simple ideas like "hello", "goodbye" "how much does that cost?" etc.
This skill only covers mundane human languages and not the occult languages of other dimensions and their native horrors.
This skill cannot be used untrained.
Mechanics
Repair and maintain machines that don't involve a lot of electronics.
This skill cannot be used untrained.
Medicine
First aid, surgery, and treating injuries.
Occult
Knowledge of magical theory, cults and their practices.
Most of what you know from this skill is superstition and myth but their is also the occasional truth and since joining the Laundry you've learnt which is which.
This skill covers arcane symbols, magical theory, recognising cults and knowing the history of an ancient tome but doesn't cover spell casting.
It's also the skill used for certain arcane weaponry.
This skill cannot be used untrained.
Perception
Search and investigate. This skill covers any attempt to detect things hidden.
Science (Various)
Covers a wide range of scientific fields.
Choose a specialty: Anthropology, Archaeology, Astronomy, Biology, Botany, Chemistry, Cryptography, Forensics, Genetics, Mathematics, Physics, Psychotherapy, etc.
This skill cannot be used untrained.
Social Skills
Command
Give orders and expect to be obeyed, often possessed by military commanders and covers both ability to lead and intimidate.
Craft (Various)
Create works of art, beauty or just quality craftsmanship.
Choose a specialty: Painting, sculpture, woodworking, blacksmithing, origami, etc
Disguise
Alter your appearance using makeup and prosthetics.
Imitating a specific person isn't usually possible, but your appearance can be altered enough to be unrecognisable.
Empathy
Evaluate a persons social state, emotions or motives.
Etiquette
Social graces and high society schmoozing.
Fast Talk
The art of spin and deceit. Useful for con-artists and politicians.
Perform (Various)
Covers a wide range of art-forms where the goal is to present a performance rather than create a physical object.
Choose a specialty: Acting, Dance, Juggling, Singing, Violin, Flute, etc.
Persuade
Entice others to do what you want through persuasion, charm or seduction.
Physical Skills
Athletics
Climb, run, jump and swim.
Dodge
Evading attacks and getting out of the way.
Drive
Evasive maneuvers and driving while under pressure.
Larceny
Lockpicking, sleight of hand and pick pocketing.
Pilot (Various)
Covers vehicles that are more advanced than a car or truck.
Choose a broad specialty:
- Aircraft (planes, helicopters, etc).
- Naval (boats, ships, submarines, etc).
- Heavy Machinery (e.g. cranes, tractors, forklifts, etc).
- Artillery (e.g. tanks, APCs, etc).
This skill cannot be used untrained.
Stealth
Hiding and moving unseen. Concealing something from others.
Survival
Survive in the wilderness. Find food and water, hunt, track, anticipate the weather and know about plants and animals.
Combat Skills
Artillery
Skilled in operating heavy military-grade weaponry such as rocket launchers, heavy machine guns and vehicle mounted cannons.
Usually limited to military personnel.
This skill cannot be used untrained.
Brawl
Fighting unarmed.
Demolitions
Explosives, grenades, gunpowder and Molotov cocktails. You know how to make and use things that go boom.
Usually only possessed by military personnel.
This skill cannot be used untrained.
Firearms
Covers the use of personal firearms, including pistols, shotguns, rifles, assault rifles, etc.
Weapons that are too large to carry easily or that fire explosive projectiles fall under the Artillery skill.
Melee Weapon
Fighting with close combat weapons, including clubs, swords, and broken pieces of furniture.
Missile Weapon
Covers all non-gunpowder weapons and hand thrown weapons, including bows, crossbows, thrown knives, shurikens, blow guns, slings, etc.
Restricted Skills
Computational Sorcery
In the case of the great circuit of Al-Hazred, the terminator was originally a black goat, sacrificed at midnight
with a silver knife touched only by virgins, but these days we just use a fifty microfarad capacitor."
Magic is just mathematics and a computer can run the algorithms far more efficiently than a human brain.
This skill covers all the fields of Computational Demonology, including the writing of occult software and the setting up of computerised wards and summoning grids.
This skill cannot be used untrained.
Cthulhu Mythos
Your understanding of the One True Religion and the real nature of reality.
Characters cannot begin with points in this skill, it can only be gained by discovering first hand what horrors wait beyond.
This skill is added as a bonus at GM discretion to any role involving interactions with squamous things, including investigation and spell casting rolls but also dodge and combat rolls when fighting horrors from beyond.
Note: Your maximum Sanity can never be higher than 5 minus your Cthulu Mythos.
This skill cannot be used untrained.
Enochian
Occultist John Dee claimed that this language was revealed to him by angels, but he may have needed his eyes checked if he thought creatures with that many tentacles could be divine.
Enochian is a language with a logic-based syntax spoken in certain lower mathematical dimensions, it is the native language of many lesser demons and comes in useful when you need to get information out of one. The Laundry also uses it to control its Residual Human Resources.
This skill cannot be used untrained.
Ritual Sorcery
Knowledge of "real magic". Your power doesn't come from the modern paradigm of mathematics and Computational Demonology, but from the ancient traditions of ritual, sacrifice and sympathy.
Few within the Laundry practice this skill, ritual magic is viewed as inefficient and messy, often taking a dozen ritual sacrifices to do what a computer could achieve using a circuit etched with chicken blood, on the other hand ritual components can sometimes be easier to acquire. A handful of herbs, a pint of blood and a piece of silver are easier to come by than a 5mw laser containment grid connected to a super computer.
This skill cannot be used untrained.