Skill | Acrobatics

Acrobatics measures your agility, balance, and physical coordination. It allows you to perform complex physical movements, from elegant flips gracefully and rolls to precise landings and balancing acts. Your mastery of Acrobatics enables you to traverse rooftops, evade hazards, tumble safely out of harm’s way, or maneuver through difficult terrain.

Common Uses:

• Balancing on narrow surfaces such as ledges, tightropes, or slippery beams

• Performing flips, cartwheels, and rolls to evade attacks or obstacles

• Landing safely after a fall or deliberate jump from heights

• Dodging environmental hazards (falling debris, swinging traps, collapsing floors)

• Executing rapid, graceful movements in combat or chases

Passive vs. Active Clarification:
Acrobatics is always considered an active skill; you must consciously use it whenever attempting physically demanding maneuvers.

Linked Statistic:
Dexterity (Dex)

Typical Difficulty Benchmarks:

• Crossing a wide, stable beam: Easy (+30%)

• Balancing along a narrow wall top or fence: Routine (+20%)

• Performing a flip over waist-high obstacles: Favorable (+10%)

• Dodging through swinging blades or spear traps: Challenging (–10%)

• Running across slippery rooftops in the rain: Hard (–20%)

• Tumbling safely from a high second-story window without injury: Very Hard (–30%)

Consequences of Success and Failure:

• Success: You perform the acrobatic feat exactly as intended—moving swiftly, avoiding harm, and arriving safely.

• Critical Success (01): You not only accomplish your action perfectly but also gain an immediate tactical advantage, such as improved position or impressing observers enough to distract or intimidate.

• Failure: Your maneuver falls short, resulting in partial success with some negative consequence—perhaps slipping, losing balance, or ending movement in a compromised position.

• Critical Failure (00): You suffer a severe misstep, potentially resulting in injury, complete loss of movement, falling prone, or significant vulnerability to attacks.

Gameplay Example:
Marcus, playing Kaelen, wants to sprint across a narrow rooftop beam to evade pursuing guards. Kaelen’s Acrobatics skill is 65%. Due to the narrow and slippery conditions, the GM sets the difficulty at Hard (–20%), meaning Marcus must roll a 45 or below. He rolls a 32—a clear success—and Kaelen nimbly crosses the beam, easily escaping the grasping hands of the frustrated guards.

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File Created: 04/30/2025
Last Modified: 04/30/2025