Primary & Speciality Hero Kids™ Skill System

This alternate Skill System is designed to be used with the Hero Kids™ RPG and is intended to replace the skills and skill usage rules of the core
system. This is not a stand-alone system and requires the full Hero Kids™ RPG in order to function. Under this alternate skill system, Heroes have
two kinds of skills to draw from to perform various tasks during the roleplaying adventure, Primary and Speciality Skills.

A​
Primary Skill covers a broad range of actions and add one extra die to Ability Tests involving that skill. Thus, if performing a Dexterity (Stealth)
Ability Text, a Hero would roll their Dexterity die pool, plus one die for the Ability Test, and one die for the relevant Primary Skill.

A​
Speciality Skill covers a more specific focus of actions relating to the associated Primary Skill, and reduce the difficulty of a test by one. Thus, a
Hero performing a Dexterity (Stealth/Traps) Ability Test at difficulty 6 would roll their Dexterity die pool, adding one die for the Ability Test,
one die for the Primary Skill, and at a reduced difficulty of 5 from having the Traps Speciality Skill.

Pairing Attributes and Skills

Skills can be used with any of the three Attributes, providing the usage is appropriate. Pairing a Skill with Strength signifies a forceful use of the
skill, pairing it with Dexterity implies a more precise use of the skill, while pairing it with Intelligence indicates a thoughtful or studied use of the
skill.

For example, a Strength (Athletics/Climbing) Ability Test may represent exerting yourself to climb a physically demanding surface, while a
Dexterity (Athletics/Climbing) Ability Test may refer to a technically challenging climb requiring a lot of agility, and an Intelligence
(Athletics/Climbing) Ability Test may be confirming your ability to recognise the best method or equipment to use in performing a climb so as to
avoid a particular hazard.

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Expanded Skills List

This is the “expanded” listing, not the “comprehensive” or “complete” skill list. It can and should be edited and reworked to suit your personal
tastes. Want a “Jumping” Speciality Skill within Athletics? Feel Herbalism should be a Primary Skill separate from Medicine? Want to add
“Healing” as a Speciality of Medicine? Want to remove the “Barter” Speciality? Need a “Programming” Speciality of Technology? Want to add the
Primary Skill “Courage”? Any of these and more are valid for YOUR game. This is my proposed starting point. Adjust to taste, and please share
the results with me.

(Primary) This is for anyone who excels at movement

Athletics: ​ (Primary) Appreciation of and experience with the handling
Currency: ​
focused physical actions. ​
Speciality Skills: Acrobatics, Climbing, and value of money and trade. ​
Speciality Skills: Bartering, Bribery,
Running, Swimming, Throwing. Trading.
(Speciality) This covers gymnastic actions such as
Acrobatics: ​ (Speciality) When to trade goods and how to turn a
Bartering: ​
tumbling, jumping flipping, hanging upside down, tightrope walking, profit doing it.
etc. (Speciality) When it’s safe or appropriate to pay off
Bribery: ​
(Speciality) This is used when climbing a tree, cliff,
Climbing: ​ someone and how to recognise WHO to pay and how much to pay.
wall, or rope. Trading: (Speciality) How to recognise what goods will sell
(Speciality) The art of moving your legs as fast as
Running: ​ best in one place or to one customer, and which goods are best to buy
you can. for resell elsewhere, where best to sell gained goods, and how to turn a
(Speciality) Moving gracefully and quickly in water
Swimming: ​ profit in all of this.
without drowning.
(Speciality) This covers throwing ​
Throwing: ​ (and catching) an (Primary) Skill in the use of heavy weapons such as spaceship
Gunnery: ​
object accurately at an intended target. weapons, tanks, castle artillery, siege weapons, etc. where the weapon’s
use emphasises accurate operation of the device rather than the precise
body mechanics of a sling or a bow. ​
Speciality Skills:​
none at present.

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 Alternate Primary / Speciality Hero Kids™ Skill System

(Primary) This represents being learned about things of

Knowledge: ​ (Speciality) You have the training and practice in
Repair: ​
the world around them. ​
Speciality Skills: Animals, History, Lore, restoring proper form and function to things which have been broken
Magic, Nature. or simply cease to function.
(Speciality) Knowing details about the animals of the
Animals: ​ (Speciality) You know all the dirty tricks used to
Traps: ​
world. Their lifecycles, strengths, and weaknesses. ensnare, imprison, entomb, mangle, or otherwise impede people who
(Speciality) The scholarly study of past events based
History: ​ are going where they’re not wanted. Making, finding, and disabling all
on archival recordings. manner of traps is your speciality.
(Speciality) The accumulation of socially shared
Lore: ​
knowledge. (Primary) You’ve learned about the illnesses and injuries one
Medicine: ​
(Speciality) The study of magic; its history,
Magic: ​ can suffer, and have become skilled in treating them as best you can.
practitioners, and capabilities. This does NOT confer any ability to This covers everything from first aid, to surgery, to prescribing
perform magic, this comes from having dice in one’s Magic Die Pool medicinal substances, to making your own cures, to even using magical
and having magical Attacks, Actions, and Abilities. restoratives such as potions. This skill does NOT confer the ability to
(Speciality) Knowing details of life and the ecosystems
Nature: ​ cast healing magics, or to craft magical potions. ​
Speciality Skills:
of the world, how all plants and animals contribute to the functioning Herbalism, Potions.
of the world. Recognising specific plants and animals, and their abilities (Speciality) This covers an in depth ability in
Herbalism: ​
and uses. identifying and gathering medicinal plants, where they can be found,
the crafting of herbal remedies with specific effects, and when to apply
(Primary) Being skilled at working with your hands and
Mechanic: ​ which remedy.
using tools to perform specialized tasks. ​
Speciality Skills: Build, Repair, (Speciality) You can recognise different types of
Potions: ​
Traps. magical and non-magical potions, ascertain their effects, and determine
(Speciality) This skill focuses on creating a new object,
Build: ​ when or if to use given potions.
sometimes from blueprints and custom parts, sometimes cobbled
together from random materials on hand.

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 Alternate Primary / Speciality Hero Kids™ Skill System

(Primary) You know what to say, how to say it, and who
Negotiation: ​ (Primary) This is everything pertaining to controlling methods of
Pilot: ​
to say it to so as to get what you want, or to reach an agreeable getting from place to place via some form of conveyance more involved
solution for all involved in a dispute. Sometimes a Hero will use this than your own feet. ​
Speciality Skills:​
Driving, Riding, and Sailing.
skill for virtuous purposes, sometimes for nefarious ones. ​
Speciality (Speciality) This focuses on vehicles such as horse
Driving: ​
Skills:​
Bluff, Intimidation. carts, automobiles, and other surface vehicles where one must manually
(Speciality) This is the art of convincing someone to go
Bluff: ​ steer.
along with what you are saying or doing as though it is valid, when it (Speciality) This is applied towards any creature one
Riding: ​
may not necessarily be so. guides to have them carry you elsewhere, whether the creature be a
(Speciality) This is the art of imposing your will
Intimidation: ​ horse, dolphin, dinosaur, or dragon.
upon someone else to do or agree with what you want. (Speciality) This covers all the specialized skills relating
Sailing: ​
to controlling a sailed watercraft.
(Primary) Did you notice that? If the answer is usually yes,
Perception: ​
then you have the Perception skill. It represents one’s ability and (Primary) This is the art of sneaking around, concealing
Stealth: ​
training in picking up on the details that others often overlook. oneself, and otherwise using such things as your surroundings, your
Speciality Skills:​
Search, Tracking, Navigation. attire, and other methods to evade detection of yourself or an object.
(Speciality) If it can be found, then you’re the one to
Search: ​ Speciality Skills:​
Disguise, Hiding, Traps.
look for it. (Speciality) This is the ability to make one thing look
Disguise: ​
(Speciality) Everything that moves leaves a trail, and
Tracking: ​ like another. For example, making yourself look older, or making a trap
you can find and follow it. look like an ordinary section of the floor.
(Speciality) Knowing how to determine where you
Navigation: ​ (Speciality) This skill focuses on making something or
Hiding: ​
are, and how to get to a specific other location is the foundation of this someone go unnoticed. Effectively using the shadows, or knowing just
Speciality. Whether used by woodsmen, sailors, or ship captains, the how to best hide behind a group of trees comes under this.
methods of “reading” and plotting a course through one’s chosen terrain
are much the same.

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 Alternate Primary / Speciality Hero Kids™ Skill System

Stealth ​
(cont.) (Speciality) Everything that has a function has a
Hacking: ​
(Speciality) You know all the dirty tricks used to
Traps: ​ method to its function, every method has rules and you know how to
ensnare, imprison, entomb, mangle, or otherwise impede people who circumvent them to gain unauthorized access. This covers everything
are going where they’re not wanted. Making, finding, and disabling all from lock picking, to breaking into computer systems, to circumventing
manner of traps is your speciality. security systems, to accessing functions in machinery or electronics
beyond their intended or normal usage.
(Primary) The word “technology” usually connotates such
Technology: ​
(Speciality) You know all the dirty tricks used to
Traps: ​
things as computers, rayguns, robots, and spaceships. However, the
ensnare, imprison, entomb, mangle, or otherwise impede people who
workings of a crossbow, drawbridge, trebuchet, or a pressure-plate
are going where they’re not wanted. Making, finding, and disabling all
triggered pit trap equally involve the development and application of
manner of traps is your speciality.
technological skill. This skill grant familiarity and skill in identifying and
using the technology of your time, whether it be satellites or water
wheels. ​
Speciality Skills:​
Hacking, Traps.

Skill Advancement
The easiest way to add new Primary and Speciality Skills is to simply award ​
Skill Points to each Hero when the players successfully completes an
adventure. How many Skill Points to award is a matter of personal taste, but I recommend 1 or 2 per adventure. If you’d rather link Skill Points to
an external measure, then award 1 Skill Point for Easy or Moderate adventures, and 2 Skill Points for Hard adventures.

Another way would be to award a Skill Point for every 5 or 6 encounters, this will result in Heroes sometimes not getting a new Skill Point at the
end of an adventure, and other times getting one part way through an adventure. You will need to track your number of encounters leading up to
the next Skill Point. These are all minor concerns, but have your preferred method settled upon before introducing this system to your own little
Heroes.

Once they have some Skill Points, they can redeem them for new Primary Skills at a cost of two Skill Points, and new Speciality Skills for one Skill
Point. Don’t allow Heroes to gain new skills in the middle of an adventure though, Heroes need the time between adventures to learn new things,

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 Alternate Primary / Speciality Hero Kids™ Skill System

attend their training, and practice new skills. Your players may grumble the first time they are told they can only gain new skills after the adventure
is done, but if you’re consistent from the beginning, they’ll just accept it as the “new normal”.

Hero Translation Guide

Great! We have all these shiny new skills, now how to represent them on our existing and future Heroes. Also, what are the new starting skills for
all the canon Heroes? Have no fear, here are the conversions for the Heroes included in the core rules:
● Male Warrior: ​
The Perception Primary Skill and Tracking Speciality Skill.
● Female Warrior:​
The Negotiation Primary Skill and Intimidation Speciality Skill.
● Female Hunter:​
The Knowledge Primary Skill and Lore Speciality Skill.
● Male Hunter: ​
The Perception Primary Skill and Tracking Speciality Skill.
● Male “fire” Warlock: ​
The Knowledge Primary Skill and Magic Speciality Skill.
● Female “water” Warlock: ​
The Knowledge Primary Skill and Magic Speciality Skill.
● Male “Hammer” Brute: ​
The Negotiation Primary Skill and Intimidation Speciality Skill.
● Male Rogue: ​
The Stealth Primary Skill and Hiding Speciality Skill.
● Female Healer: ​
The Medicine Primary Skill and Herbalism Speciality.
● Male “Kitchen” Knight: ​
The Negotiation Primary Skill and Intimidation Speciality Skill

The additional Heroes featured in the Expansion series can easily be translated using the same guideline of granting them one Primary Skill and one
Speciality Skill. There is one Hero from the Fantasy Expansion ​
Hero Cards III ​
I will include here, the ​ (he has “Hammer Strike” as
Dwarven Knight ​
his Melee Attack) as he has no actual skill listed, just two healing potions, some money, and the Darkvision ability. I recommend giving him the
either the Perception Primary Skill and the Search Speciality Skill, or the Currency Primary Skill and the Trading Speciality Skill.

Using This System At The Game Table

To show these new skills on your Hero Card, you could just write them on the back of the card, although you then may need to keep flipping your
Hero Card to make sure you don't forget what skills your Hero does or doesn't have. Alternately, you can download and print the one-page ​
Hero
Card Extension ​
I’ve made and attach the Hero Card to the top of the sheet. This gives you a convenient place to write down both their new Skills

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 Alternate Primary / Speciality Hero Kids™ Skill System

and any new Inventory they acquire from their adventures. If you're strict about the use of inventory cards, then you can simply use the Inventory
section as a place to put them instead.

Hero Kids™ is a trademark of Justin Halliday and is used with permission. No challenge is intended.
Official Hero Kids™ rpg website:​
http://herokidsrpg.blogspot.ca/
​

The contents of this document are © 2015 ​

Spiralbound Studios​
and Adam Bragg.
Contact ​
Spiralbound Studios​
for all product support and more Hero Kids™ material.
Email: ​
[email protected] Web:​
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