The Skill Rating varies from Unskilled to Grand Master, and has a major effect on the Character's chance of success when performing any action. The Skill Rating Modifiers (SRM's) listed below represent this, and are applied to all Success Rolls.
Grand Master +10
Master +8
Expert +6
Professional +4
Certified +0
Novice -4
Unskilled -8
A Character’s Skill Rating is not permanent. As the Character uses a Skill or is Trained, he or she can attain higher Ratings. Progress from Rating to Rating is governed by the Character's Learning Roll, access to Training, and field Experience.
The Base Odds for any feat can be determined by deciding what Skill applies to the task, and checking the following list for the Difficulty Level which is most applicable.
Very Easy 16
Easy 13
Average 10
Very Difficult 7
Extremely Difficult 4
For example, a Character is attempting to walk across a 6-inch wide beam. It is determined that the Skill required is Balance, and the Difficulty Level is Easy.
The Success Roll is equal to the Difficulty Level’s Base Odds plus the Characters Skill Rating Modifier (SRM) in the appropriate Skill. Using the 6-inch wide beam as an example, the Success Roll for a Character with a Novice Rating in Balance would be 13 (Easy) - 4 (Novice Skill} = 9; on a roll of 9 or less on 1D10, he would succeed, and on a roll of 10 or more he would fail. A character with an Expert Rating in Balance would have a Success Roll of 13 + 6 = 19, and would succeed automatically.