A character with this skill is familiar with magic items. The character must be literate to advance beyond rank 5. The character has heard many stories and read many books relating to magic items. He knows magic item descriptions and properties. For any given magic item, the character can request the GM to make a skill roll to see if he recognizes the item from any of his stories. Skill roll is 5% per rank, plus Know bonus. Consult the following table for the result:
| Level of Success | Roll | Item
Name | History | Properties
Learned | Flaws and Curses |
| Incredible Success | 226 or higher | Yes | All | All | All |
| Absolute Success | 176 to 225 | Yes | All | 4 | 1 |
| Success ++ | 161 to 175 | Yes | Quite a bit | 3 | 66% ** |
| Success + | 131 to 160 | Yes | Some | 2 | 33% ** |
| Success | 111 to 130 | Yes | Little | 1 |  |
| Near Success | 91 to 110 | Yes | None | 66% * | |
| Partial Success | 76 to 90 | Yes | None | 33% * | |
| Failure | 06 to 75 | No | None | 0 | |
| Absolute Failure | -25 to 05 | No | Misremember some history | 0 | |
| Blunder | -26 or less | No | Misremember all history | 0 | |
* Chance of knowing one property of the item
** Chance of knowing one flaw or curse related to the item (assuming it has one) |
Old Rules
A character with this skill is familiar with magic items. The character must be able to read and write a civilized language at rank 6 or higher to advance beyond rank 3. To advance beyond rank 6, reading and writing skill must be rank 8 or higher. The character has heard many stories and read many books relating to magic items. He knows magic item descriptions and properties. For any given magic item, the character can request the GM to make a skill roll to see if he recognizes the item from any of his stories. Skill roll is 5% per rank, plus Know bonus. Consult the following table for the result:
- Absolute Success The character remembers accounts about the item. They know two “facts” that could otherwise be learned by a successful Ritual of Identification. They also know quite a bit about the history of the item. They can roll again to see if they know more.
- Success The character remembers the stories about the item. They know one “fact” that could otherwise be learned by a successful Ritual of Identification. They know something of the history of the item. They can roll again at minus 15 to see if they know more.
- Near Success The character remembers a little about the item. Roll a d6. On a 4 or less, they know one “fact” that could otherwise be learned with a successful Ritual of Identification. They know a little of the history of the item. They can roll again at minus 25 to see if they know more.
- Partial Success The character remembers very little about the item. Roll a d6. On a 2 or less, they know one “fact” that could otherwise be learned with a successful Ritual of Identification. They know a little of the history of the item. They can roll again at minus 35 to see if they know more.
- Failure The character knows nothing of the item.
- Absolute Failure The character believes that he remembers the item and knows one “fact” about it, and some of the history. In fact, he is remembering a similar item and the history and fact will be wrong. The GM should treat this as if the result were Success, except that the history and fact will be wrong. The GM could even pretend to make another roll for the character, but the result will automatically be Failure, regardless of what is actually rolled.
- Blunder Like Absolute Failure, the characters thinks that he remembers the item very clearly. Treat as if the result was Absolute Success except that the history and facts given will be wrong. The GM could even pretend to make another roll for the character, but the result will automatically be Failure, regardless of what is actually rolled.
Note that successive rolls can never be better than the previous roll. For example, if the character’s first roll came out to Near Success, and the second roll (made at 25) came out to Success, it would be treated as Near Success. Penalties are cumulative. For example, if the first roll came out to Success, the second roll is made at minus 15. If the second roll also came out to Success, the third roll is made at minus 30. |