Secondary Abilities
M20 introduces skills we replace with skills available in V20, as follows.
- Martial Arts: Brawl. You need a Specialty of Martial Arts in order to use the Martial Arts moves. With that specialty, you may pick 1 move per dot of Brawl.
- Art Expression: Expression.
- Enigmas: Occult.
- Esoterica: Occult.
Secondaries are also introduced in M20 but we sub in standard skills already in v20. When a mechanic calls for a specific skill. Roll one of the equivalents at standard difficulty, not at the reduced difficulty from a Secondary skill:
- Acrobatics: Athletics.
- Animal Kinship: Animal Ken.
- Area Knowledge: Streetwise.
- Archery: Athletics.
- Belief Systems: Occult.
- Biotech: Lesser of Computer and Medicine.
- Blatancy: Performance.
- Carousing: Subterfuge.
- Cryptography: Computer. Academics may be used at +1 difficulty for manual (de)ciphering and will consume downtime.
- Demolitions: Science.
- Energy Weapons: To shoot, Firearms. To maintain/create/repair, Technology.
- Flying and Jetpack: Drive 4+, Speicalty required.
- High Ritual: Lesser of Occult and Etiquette.
- Hypertech: Lesser of Technology vs Science.
- Lore: Occult. Also, we have a Lores System, take individual Lores.
- Lucid Dreaming: Demesne.
- Media: Leadership.
- Parapsychology: Occult.
- Pharmacopoeia: Medicine.
- Riding: The lesser of your Animal Ken vs Athletics.
- Search: Alertness.
- Seduction: Subterfuge.
- Torture: Intimidation or Medicine.
Custom Talents, Knowledges, and Skills
From the V20 character sheets, Modern Nights characters get a slot for "Hobby Talent," "Professional Skill," and "Expert Knowledge." Taking them is optional and typically only done when the player feels the need to portray a character with a focused, niche talent. These are free-form stats which can hold any name that does not correspond to a combat maneuver and may be as specific as you desire. For example, you could take "Carpentry" as a Professional Skill but you could not take "Dodging". With the exception of Martial Arts (which has its own house rules), you may designate one your custom skills as a secondary ability found in M20 core (listed above) or make something new up.
When that custom ability that you have explicitly purchased becomes relevant, you may roll the ability at a -1 difficulty for having taken something this specific. One may specify a maximum of one professional skill, one hobby talent, and one expert knowledge, as the idea is to still allow characters who have laser focus in a niche talent while maintaining a succinct skill list.
Please note that the secondary abilities which have been mapped to standard abilities cannot be rolled in place of a standard ability. For example, when a character is faced with an Area Knowledge roll vs 6, they can either roll Streetwise vs 6, or area Knowledge vs 5. When a character who has Area Knowledge but no Streetwise is faced with a Streetwise roll, they cannot apply their Area Knowledge skill.
To specify your custom Ability, use the +notes code, creating a +note called "Hobby Talent," "Professional Skill," or "Expert Knowledge" accordingly, and placing the name of your custom ability within that note.
