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.