Unknown Armies:Soul skills

These are skills based on interaction and intuition rather than on mental acuity. Any social skill is a Soul skill, as are most artistic skills.

If you're an adept, your school of magick is a Soul skill. But don't just write down "Magick" by itself—include ths school title, like Magick: Entropomancy, Magick: Cliomancy, and Magick: Dipsomancy. If you're not sure yet, go ahead and write down "Magick" on the character sheet. Just make sure and change it to the name of your school of magick once you know what it is.

Another rule for adepts: Your school of Magick is your obsession skill, you get Cherries. These are special effects triggered whenever you roll a successful match on your Magick roll. You assign a cherry to each match, so that 11 has its cherry, a 33 has its cherry, and so on.

Free Soul skill: Charm

Charm 15%. You have to make a good impression sometimes—maybe with Miss Congeniality down at the pub, maybe in a job interview, maybe with the high priestess of the cult you're trying to infiltrate.

What Charm means

10s	Even your friends find you a bit annoying at times.
20s	You can get along with people, if you have a lot in common. You can flatter the boss without being too slimy.
30s	You can be entertaining and friendly, even with people you don't particularly care for.
40s	Whenever an important client comes into town, your boss asks you to take him or her out to dinner.
50s	You could make a pretty good living as a confidence trickster, provided that you can lie as well as you schmooze.
60s	You have the skills of a great diplomat or a great seducer (or both).
70s	Your honeyed tongue is nigh irresistible.
80s	Even your enemies feel bad about hating you.

Free Soul skill: Lying

Lying 15%. Sometimes you have to lay it on thick for the sake of the greater good—or just to get out of a traffic ticket. Most people can't do it without looking around nervously, blushing, nervously over-elaborating their stories, etc.

What Lying means

10s	You can lie convincingly—as long as it's a white lie and you're telling your listener what they want to hear.
20s	You can put one over on people now and again, as long as you don't have to sustain it for too long.
30s	You can tell a complete whopper with a straight face.
40s	You lie with ease and facility. This is a standard level of Lie skill for people who deceive routinely—crooked salespeople, con artists, private investigators, and compulsive philanderers.
50s	You lie like it's second nature. This is the minimum level of skill posessed by most undercover cops or deep-cover secret agents.
60s	You can instantly create elaborate and intricate lies, and keep track of them.
70s	You can present the most illogical untruth and still be persuasive. You can keep track of multiple identities and stories without getting them confused.
80s	People basically believe anything you tell them.

Soul skill examples

A Friend in the Family. You have a buddy who's a mobster. (Or a forensic pathologist, or an expert in the occult, or whatever.) Your buddy helps you out on minor matters without a roll. ("Hey Rocco, can you spot me a twenty until payday?") Activities involving risk or considerable effort will not only require a roll, but an explanation. ("Hey Rocco, can you help me bury the body of this dead senator I got in my trunk?") You lose points off this skill if you only see your pal at your convenience; after all, who likes a friend who's only around when he needs something?

Aura Sight. Even though you're not trained in a school of magick, you're aware of auras. If you make a conscious effort, you can roll to pick up information about someone's magickal aptitude, health, physical capabilities, mood, and general state of metaphysical health. Demon possession and astral parasite infestation are easily detectable. Only living things have auras, however, so you can't tell if an item is magickal or if a car was last driven by a werewolf.

Commanding Presence. You come across as someone who should be obeyed, regardless of whether you actually have any authority or not. You're the kind of guy who can direct people to the lifeboats in a calm and orderly fashion, tell people convincingly that the situation is under control, and get them to answer questions on the flimsiest of pretexts.

Good Old Whatsisname. You seem awfully familiar to people. Maybe you just have an unusually average face. Maybe you subconsciously imitate the word choice and accent of those you hear around you. In any event, peopel are always mistaking you for distant cousins, old high school acquaintances, long-ago frat buddies, etc.

Hunches. Here's a simple one. If you make a successful roll, you get a hunch. Unfortunately for you, you can't do this in combat—though an existing hunch is valid when combat starts.

Play Dumb. You're real good at convincing people that you're about as sharp as a sack of wet mice. This means they're likely to underestimate you as a threat and often put the best interpretation on your actions. ("Aw, the poor retard just wandered into a restricted area. Show him out and kick his ass a little, but don't bother writing it up.") It can also be used to get people to tell you more than they meant to in the process of explaining what they do want you to know.

Vocal Imitation. You have a knack for recreating sounds with your voice. Not only is this a useful skill for doing duck calls and spicing up your Bill Clinton jokes at parties, it can be remarkably useful for fooling people over the telephone.

Sing the Blues. You may not be musically trained (or maybe you were) but you can sing a decent blues riff or karaoke along to "Boom Boom (Out Go the Lights)" without sounding like a jackass.

Do-it-yourself Soul skills

Persuasion, Acting, Getting Sympathy, Painting, Intimidation, Seduction, Cadging Drinks, Getting Bank Loans, Dancing, Social Worker.