General Skills

Acrobatics
The Acrobatics skill comprises ability to jump, perform aerial manoeuvres and maintain domain over elevated ground. Whenever there's risk of fall, this skill will be probably your primary way of getting through.

Often, a single Acrobatics check will make use of 2 or even 3 of it's linked attributes.

Linked attributes:
 * Agility - Influences quickness of response and recovery from a fall.
 * Dexterity - Influences precision and control of manoeuvres.
 * Strength - Influences height and distance obtainable through jumps.

Athletics
Most activities revolving around direct mobility and travel by a character's own physical abilities, also possibly repetitive and strenuous tasks. Athletics tests include: climbing, sprinting, swimming and even maintaining a constant pace of regular activity while focused on various things.

Linked attributes:
 * Agility - A highly weighted attribute when there's some danger included in the test.
 * Strength - Being the attribute that govern actual muscular power and speed (not agility), Str influences overall speed and performance.
 * Vigour - Influences endurance when performing an Athletics check. Very important when dealing with longer periods.

Balance
Balance is a highly dexterity-dependant skill useful when, well... you have to maintain balance of course! Aside that, it's also useful when staying precise and steady under the risk of fall. Because of that, sometimes you may be confused between a Balance and an Acrobatics check. For that, consider that Balance checks are more related to static positions instead of tumbling and aerial manoeuvering. It's also noteworthy that Balance checks can be entitled when some weight has to be kept on check.

Linked attributes:
 * Dexterity - Meaning coordination, precision and control, Dex is the very central attribute of the Balance skill. You can expect every test of this skill to make use of it.
 * Strength - Useful when there's a considerable weight to be kept in balance.
 * Vigour - Because long-term tests of balance make use of one's endurance.

At first, this skill seemed too situational to be made a separate one, but in the end, Balance remained useful in numerous situations, so it's got a spot of its own.

Deception
When one's objetcive is to deceive, lie, pretend something or whatever, the Deception skill is at hand. It's centered on the idea of fooling someone else through many means, including disguises, forgery, verbal lies and even passing false information through gestures and body language.

Linked attributes:
 * Charisma - Related to convincement through dialogue and interpersonal language by voice and gesticulation.
 * Mind - Some kind of proof-reading through your deception quality. Mnd is used when you can get active feedback when lying or fooling someone and also to establish self-criticism for this matter.
 * Reasoning - Used ehen your acting is not the key to deception, instead being forgeries or many other kinds of non-spoken deception, including, for example, fake tactics during command of troops.

Engineering
Everything related to operation of mechanisms is here. Although the subject is quite strict, the applications of the Engineering skill can be quite ample.

Linked attributes:
 * Dexterity - Used when manual ability is critical for operating some machinery or mechanism (including picking locks).
 * Mind - Governs focus of the task. Necessary when the test requires perception of the operation in question.
 * Reasoning - Whenever there's need of deduction and understanding of logic behind it, Rsn will be a key attribute for the check.

Escapism
From Houdini to McGyver, the ability to get out of undesired physical restrictions is very often valuable.

Linked attributes:
 * Agility - When a task requires joint flexibility and quickness, like escaping from a rope.
 * Dexterity - Exploiting an object's weakness or fine characteristics, relying on pure skill like the old trick to break hadcuffs' locks or picking safety pins beyond normal reach of tools.
 * Reasoning - Altough picking locks is usually an Engineering skill, when those locks are locking you, the thing is quite different. While it may seem similar at first, you will actually be using tricks, cunning and improvisation instead of tools and ability to get the job done.

Etiquette
Being classy is not easy. Etiquette is something you need to impress nicely and be agreeable, charming and neat, and it requires training and great effort. A brilliant soul knows it's essential to attend to etiquette rules all the time to combat all the barbarism present in the world.

Through the correct exercise of this skill, you're sure to get people to like being near you and, while not necessarily making those life-long friends, at least will ensure people to not dislike you, which is always a great thing, don't you agree?

Linked attributes:
 * Charisma - So, you are polite, educated, and eloquent. You will get far.
 * Dexterity - Because being clumsy is not nice.
 * Vigour - Sometimes, one has to make sacrifices and take some silent suffering to avoid inconveniences.

Insight
Know those people who almost seem like they're reading your mind, then unveils story plots with uncanny certainty some 2 years before the end is released? When those people are not leak hackers and gossip mongers, they are simply people with good insights. That's what this skill does: it's your ability to not be fooled and to make correct deductions.

Linked attribute:
 * Reasoning - Because, you obviously need logic and effective work of information to make deductions.

Investigation
Differently from Insight, the Investigation skill revolves around the collection of intelligence/information instead of making conclusions. Uses of the Investigation skill include: searching for clues and objectives, tracking and examining whatever thing you wish.

It's not a deep skill, but you will surely find it useful all the time.

Linked attributes:
 * Mind - Focus and diligence are important matters when looking for something.
 * Reasoning - To link the current task to collection of information.

Legerdemain
Manual skills of various applications. Hand tricks, hat tricks, card tricks, and every kind of on-the-field illusionism or prestidigitation is the emplyment of this skill.

Linked attributes:
 * Charisma - Influences your overall look and subjective impressions. It's important to seem cool and appealing for it to work!
 * Dexterity - Because you won't be able to make Léger de mains without honed manual coordination.
 * Mind - It's important to stay focused and read the needs for the tricks. Mnd is also used when trying to defeat another's trick through ability and experience.

Medicine
Knowledge over health, hygiene and procedures. This skill comes in use whenever the matter is messing with biology to get desired results, be it beneficial or detrimental.

Typical uses include ministration of concotions and miscellaneous substances, surgery, and, most importantly in a RPG, First-Aid.

Linked attribute:
 * Mind - Mental training is the base for reading symptoms and proceeding with treatments.

Music
This skill comprises overall musical abilities. Uses are quite constant and never deviate from putting up a skilled performance and playing songs/arrangements/et cetera.

Linked attributes:
 * Dexterity - Coordination for playing instruments with correct time and tuning (and, well, also one's vocal ability is somewhat a matter of control and coordination, right?).
 * Mind - Perceiving musical patterns and every aspect of a performance require mental diligence.

Nautics
Because seafaring is much more demanding than the average person would think, this skill is highly valuable when making it up to aquatic environments. Things from reading water currents and predicting marine events or winds to correctly manning a vessel and even enduring the hardships are directed by this skill.

The uses of Nautics are highly diverse, but every one is related to vessel operation in fluid media.

Linked attributes:
 * Mind - Reading winds, water currents and (who knows?) seismic activity that may get in the way or be exploited effectively.
 * Strength - Ship controls and tasks are hard! It's best to have some decent conditioning to venture in the sea.
 * Vigour - Very often, situations will be demanding and stressful to both mind and body. It's essential to be able to endure it or you may take a hard blow to your dignity or life.

Perception
More like being trained to spot and listen than having actual sensorial acuity (which is a trait, by the way). Perception is a very basic skill to distinguish what matters from what's just the "background" in question.

Linked attribute:
 * Mind - Mental focus. Enough said.

Perform
Basically acting on stage, passing a message through body language and making impressions regarding it. The Perform skill is just like music, but more dependant on practical charisma than general mental focus.

Linked attributes:
 * Charisma - Influences subjective and coreographic aspects of your performance.
 * Dexterity - To control precisely your movements. Obviously critical to the success.
 * Reasoning - When there's need of mimicking or adapting an aspect of your performance. Rarely used with this skill actually.

Persuasiveness
When you need to convince someone, you may have to appeal to subjective and emotional ways. Usually, the objective of persuading someone is either to convince them of your point, or to make them aligned to your will, or even to make then in awe or fear of you and there are many ways of doing it.

Just like many aspects of emotional matter, checks of Persuasion are meant to reduce an opponent's Resolve (though not necessarily an enemy). It's basically a straight alternative to combat for defeating someone as one has to simply crack the opposing resolve to fight, but there's more than that for this skill.

It's recommended that you take a look at the Resolve Mechanics.

Linked attributes:
 * Charisma - For persuading through interpersonal dialogue. Cha may be considered the primary attribute for Persuasion.
 * Strength - The right attribute when you desire to intimidate someone through sheer might.
 * Vigour - When you're "attacking one's will by defense". In other words, you try to exploit what's most vulnerable, and that's when it's their will to fight as you weaken their confidence on defeating you through damage.

Riding (also Driving)
Now that's a simple skill to understand. Riding means the ability to guide animals with skill end efficience, while also protecting your mount from danger and keeping steady on the saddle.

Note that it shares the same spot with Driving, which may be presend depending on setting. In this case, the mount is not an animal, but a land vehicle.

Linked attributes:
 * Dexterity - Control and precision. All clear.
 * Strength - Sometimes, force is needed to stay in the saddle and guide your mount or you're the one who may end up being guided.
 * Vigour - When endurance is necessary for the completion of a task.

Stealth
This skill is about being discrete and staying out of sight (not related to mimesis and camouflage). Those skilled in Stealth can sneak up behind opponents and get the advantage of first strike, or even completely avoid hostilities. Because of it, Stealth is a very basic skill.

Linked attributes:
 * Agility - When quickness and flexibility are the key.
 * Dexterity - Precise control is needed to avoid producing noises or noticeable movements that can blow your cover up.
 * Vigour - As always, when it's a matter of endurance, in this case, for example, holding breath or keeping an uncomfortable position.

Survival
When facing adversities, one's greatest ally is its own common sense.

That's what Survival is about: staying alive and being prudent. It's applications range from simply having wise concepts about a matter, to improvising many things with simple materials and make a living out of what you've got.

Linked attributes:
 * Mind - Focus on the task. You need mental training to face adversities and keep cool.
 * Vigour - When things are already going bad, it's best to be able to withstand some misfortunes than to promptly perish to them.

Writing (also Linguistics)
Everything you know about words in general, it's rules and writing systems from proper languages (not body language!). When reading and writing a letter, this skill is your major insight about what's behind the symbols and cyphers. Writing also represents your ability to construct enjoyable texts and pass on information or even impressions through them to readers.

Differently from Etiquette, the Writing/Linguistics skill is not really about eloquence, but instead about knowing the language and alphabet.

Linked attributes:
 * Dexterity - Because your writing has to look good, or at least be readable.
 * Mind - Concentration and diligence are keys to write and understand what's in front of you.
 * Reasoning - A basic attribute when desiring an impact through a text written by you. Also, when cyphers are in play, you have to apply logic and deduction.