In the Storyteller System, Abilities are traits that represent a character's acquired capabilities. Typically an ability rating would be combined with an Attribute rating, representing the character's natural prowess and learned skill coming together to perform an action. Like Attributes, Abilities are rated from 0 to 5. Attempting to perform an action that requires an Ability one does not have imposes an additional penalty on that action, as a rating of zero indicates no familiarity with the given Ability.

Abilities are grouped into three categories:

Talents - things for which the character has discovered an intuitive knack (like performance or subterfuge)
Skills - things the character has learned to do (like drive a car or fire a gun)
Knowledges - areas of scholastic or mental expertise (like science or law)

Talents

Alertness
This is your basic knack for noticing things that go on around you, even when you're not actively looking for them. Alertness describes the attention you pay to the outside world, whether otherwise occupied or not. This Talent is typically paired with Perception and is best used when sensing physical stimuli (as opposed to moods or clues)

1. Novice: You're no mindless drone
2. Practiced: Habitual eavesdropper
3. Expert: Whether from paranoia or good sense, you are rarely caught off guard
5. Master: Your senses are on par with those of a wile animal

Specialties: Noises, Eavesdropping, Ambushes, Hidden Weapons, Crowds, Forests, Animals

Athletics
This Talent represents your basic athletic ability, as well as any training you might have had in sports or other rigorous activities. Athletics concerns all forms of running, jumping, throwing, swimming, sports and the like; however it doesn't cover the basic motor actions such as lifting weights, nor does it govern the athletic feats covered by another ability (like Melee)

1. Novice: You had an active childhood
2. Practiced: High-school athlete
3. Competent: Professional athlete
4. Expert: Top-notch in your sport
5. Master: Olympic medalist

Specialties: Swimming, Rock Climbing, Acrobatics, Dancing, Endurance Running, Specific Sports

Brawl
You are adept at using your body as a weapon. This includes any form of unarmed combat, from dirty in-fighting to highly stylized martial arts. The Brawl Ability may be used in coordination with claws, teeth and other types of natural weaponry. In this manner, even a character who is stripped bare can still represent a formidable foe.

1. Novice: You were picked on as a kid
2. Practiced: You've seen the occasional barroom tussle
3. Competent: You've fought regularly and routinely and generally walked away in better shape than your opponents
4. Expert: You could be a serious contender on a boxing circuit
5. Master: You can kill three men in four seconds

Specialties: Boxing, Wrestling, Dirty Fighting, Kicks, Karate, Judo, Muay Thai, Throws, Submission Holds

Dodge
The first rule of self-preservation, this talent covers your ability to avoid blows, missle fire, or even oncoming cars. Dodge entails taking cover, ducking punch or any methods of getting out of harms way.

1. Novice: You can reflexively duck and cover your head
2. Practiced: You've weathered in a self-defense class
3. Competent: You can evade thrown rocks, maybe even knives
4. Expert: It'd take a skilled brawler to land a punch
5. Master: You can virtually sidestep bullets on open ground

Specialties: Specialties: Cover, Sidestep, Footwork, Leap

Empathy
You understand the emotions of others, and can sympathize with, feign sympathy for, or play on such emotions as you see fit. You are an easy had at discerning motive, and might be able to pick up on when someone's lying to you. However, you may be so in tune with other people's feelings that your own emotions are affected.

1. Novice: You lend the occasional shoulder to cry on
2. Practiced: You can sometimes literally feel someone else's suffering
3. Competent: You have a keen insight into other people's motivations
4. Expert: It's almost impossible to lie to you
5. Master: The human soul conceals no mysteries from you

Specialties: Emotions, Lies, Motives, Personalities, Body Language, Gaining Trust

Expression
This is your ability to get your point across clearly, whether through conversation, poetry or even email. Characters with high Expression can phrase their opinions or beliefs in a manner that cannot be ignored (even if their opinions are misinformed or worthless). They might be talented actors, skilled at conveying moods or feigning emotion with every gesture. Additionally, it also represents your ability for poetry, creative writing, or other literary art forms.

1. Novice: Your talent has matured past crude poetry on notebook paper
2. Practiced: You could lead a college debate team
3. Competent: You could be a successful writer
4. Expert: Your work is Pulitzer material
5. Master: A visionary such as yourself comes along only once in every generation

Specialties: Acting, Poetry, Fiction, Impromptu, Conversation

Intimidation
Intimidation takes many forms, from outright verbal threats and physical violence to mere force of personality. You know the right method for each occasion and can be very...persuasive.

1. Novice: Crude teenage bully
2. Practiced: Mugger
3. Competent: Drill sergeant
4. Expert: Your air of authority cows casual passerby
5. Master: You can frighten vicious animals

Specialties: Veiled Threats, Pulling Rank, Physical Coercion, Blackmail, Stare-downs

Leadership
You are an example to others and can inspire them to do what you want. Leadership has less to do with manipulating people's desires than it does with presenting yourself as the sort of person they want to follow. This is usually paired with Charisma rather than Manipulation.

1. Novice: Captain of your Little League team
2. Practiced: Student body president
3. Competent: An effective CEO
4. Expert: Presidential material
5. Master: You could be the lord and master of a nation

Specialties: Oratory, Compelling, Friendly, Open, Noble, Military, Commands

Streetwise
The streets can provide a lot of information or money to those who know the language. Streetwise allows you to blend in unobtrusively with the local scene, pick up gossip, understand slang or even dabble in criminal doings.

1. Novice: You know who sells drugs
2. Practiced: You've accorded respect on the street
3. Competent: You could head your own gang
4. Expert: You have little to fear in even the worst neighborhoods
5. Master: If you haven't heard it, it hasn't been said

Specialties: Fencing, Illegal Drugs, Illegal Weapons, Rumors, Gangs, Pickpocketing, Local Slang

Subterfuge
You know how to conceal your own motives and project what you like. Furthermore, you can roots out other people's motives, then use those motives against them. This defines your talent for intrigue, secrets, and double-dealing; mastery of subterfuge can make you the ultimate seducer, or a brilliant spy.

1. Novice: You tell the occasional little white lie
2. Practiced: Vampire
3. Competent: Criminal Lawyer
4. Expert: Deep-cover agent
5. Master: You're the very last person anyone would suspect

Specialties: Fast-Talk, Seduction, Con Jobs, Hiding Emotions, Lying, Misdirection, Spotting Lies, Disguise, Feigning Mortality

Skills

Animal Ken
You can understand an animal's behavior patterns. This allows you to predict how an animal might react in a given situation, train a domesticated creature, or even try to calm or encourage animals.

1. Novice: You can get a domestic horse to let you pet it
2. Practiced: You can housebreak a puppy
3. Competent: You could train a seeing-eye dog
4. Expert: Circus trainer
5. Master: You can tame wild beasts without benefit of supernatural powers

Specialties: Dogs, Attack Training, Big Cats, Horses, Farm Animals, Falconry

Crafts
This covers your ability to make or fix things with your hands. Crafts allows you to wok in fields such as carpentry, leather work, weaving, or even mechanical expertise such as car repair. You can even create lasting works of art with this skill, depending on the number of successes you achieve. You must always choose a specialization in crafts, even though you retain some skill in multiple fields.

1. Novice: High-school wood shop
2. Practiced: You're starting to develop your own style
3. Competent: You could make a living at your work
4. Expert: Your work might be featured in college level textbooks for your field
5. Master: Your artistry is virtually without peer

Specialties: Pottery, Sewing, Home Repair, Carpentry, Appraisal, Carburetors

Drive
You can drive a car and maybe other vehicles as well. This does not automatically entail familiarity with complicated vehicles such as tanks or 18-wheelers, and difficulties may vary depending on your experience with individual automobiles. After all, helming a station wagon just doesn't prepare you for controlling a Lotus at 100 mph.

1. Novice: You know how to work an automatic transmission
2. Practiced: You can drive a stick shift
3. Competent: Professional trucker
4. Expert: NASCAR daredevil or tank pilot
5. Master: You can make a Yugo do tricks out of a James Bond movie

Specialties: High Performance, Motorcycles, Off-Road, Pursuit, Shaking Tails, Stunts, Aircraft Pilot, Small Fixed Wing Pilot, Fighter Jet Pilot, Cargo/Airliner Pilot, Glider Pilot, Helicopter Pilot, Speedboat Driver, Small Sailboat Pilot, Boat Pilot, Off-road, Wheelies, Curves, Stick Shift, Sudden Stops, Heavy Traffic

Etiquette
You understand the nuances of proper behavior, in both mortal society and Kindred culture. Your specialty is the culture with which you're most familiar. This is used during haggling, seduction, dancing, dinner etiquette and all forms of diplomacy.

1. Novice: You know when to keep your mouth shut
2. Practiced: You've been to a black-tie event or two
3. Competent: You know your way around even obscure silverware
4. Expert: Her Majesty would consider you charming
5. Master: If the right people came to dinner, you could end wars - or start them

Specialties: Formal Dinners, Business, Street Culture, Kindred Society

Firearms
Executing a mortal with a sword starts investigations. Clawing someone to ribbons shakes the edges of the Masquerade. So Kindred adapt, and many have devoted their energies to learning how to kill with guns. This represents familiarity with a range of firearms, from holdout pistols to heavy machine guns. Of course, the doesn't include heavy artillery such as mortars or tank guns. But, someone skilled in Firearms can clean, repair, recognize, and of course, accurately fire most forms of small arms. This is also used to unjam a gun (Wits+Firearms)

1. Novice: You had a BB gun as a kid
2. Practiced: You while away the occasional hour at the gun club/range
3. Competent: You've survived a firefight or two
4. Expert: You could pick off people for a living
5. Master: You've been practicing since the debut of Winchester

Specialties: Auto-Fire, Bow, Pistol, Rifle, Shotgun, Sniping, Trick Shot, Revolver, SMG, Cross-Bow, Fast-Draw, Gunsmith, Shotguns

Melee
As the Kindred maxim runs, "guns mean nothing to a lifeless heart". A blade is often worth far more, as is the skill to use it properly. Melee covers your ability to use hand-to-hand weapons of all forms, from swords and clubs to esoteric martial-arts paraphernalia such as a sai or nunchaku. And of course there is always the utility of the wooden stake...

1. Novice: You know the right way to hold a knife
2. Practiced: You may have been in the occasional street fight
3. Competent: You could make a college fencing team
4. Expert: You could keep order in a prince's court
5. Master: Your enemies would rather face a SWAT team than your blade

Specialties: Knives, Swords, Improvised Clubs, Stakes, Disarms, Axes

Performance
The Performance skill governs your ability to perform artistic endeavors such as singing, dancing, acting or playing a musical instrument. You are almost certainly specialized in one field although true virtuosos may be talented in many forms of performance. This represents not only technical know-how, but the ability to work an audience and enrapture them with your show.

1. Novice: You could sing in the church choir
2. Practiced: You could get a leading part in a college production
3. Competent: You're in demand at the local clubs
4. Expert: You have the talent to be a national sensation
5. Master: You are a virtuoso without peer

Specialties: Dancing, Singing, Rock and Roll, Acting, Guitar Solos, Drunken Karaoke

Security
This entails the familiarity with tools and techniques for picking locks, deactivating car or burglar alarms, hot-wiring automobiles or even safe-cracking, as well as countless forms of breaking and entering. Security is useful not only for theft, but also for setting up the "unbeatable system" or deducing where a thief broke in.

1. Novice: You can pick a simple lock
2. Practiced: You can hot-wire a car
3. Competent: You can bypass or disable house alarms
4. Expert: You can crack a safe
5. Master: You could get a bomb out of "or into" the Pentagon

Specialties: Concealing, Lock-Picking, Pick-Pocketing, Security Systems, Safe-cracking, Hot-wiring, Electrical Alarms, Pressure Plates, Deadbolts, Cars

Stealth
This is the ability to avoid being detected, whether you're hiding or moving at the time. Stealth is often tested against someone else's Perception. This is, for obvious reasons, highly useful in stalking prey.

1. Novice: You can hide in a darkened room
2. Practiced: You can shadow someone from streetlight to streetlight
3. Competent: You have little difficulty finding prey from evening to evening
4. Expert: You can move quietly over dry leaves
5. Master: Nosferatu elder

Specialties: Camouflage, Crowds, Darkness, Woods, Hiding, Silent Movement, Shadowing

Survival
Although vampires have little to fear from starvation and exposure, the wilderness can still be dangerous to a Kindred. This allows you to find shelter, navigate your way to civilization, track prey and possibly even avoid werewolves (although this last is exceedingly difficult). When you use stealth in the wilderness, you cannot toll more dice for your stealth rating than you have in Survival.

1. Novice: You can survive a 5-mile hike
2. Practiced: You "roughed it" on a regular basis
3. Competent: You know poisonous mushrooms from edible ones
4. Expert: You could live for months in the wilderness of your choice
5. Master: You could get dropped naked into the Andes and do all right for yourself

Specialties: Foraging, Navigation, Meteorology, Shelter, Tracking, Hunting, Camping, Woodland, Arctic, Desert, Mountains, Jungle, Ocean/Shipwrecked, Fishing, Fly-Fishing, Deep-Sea Fishing, Trapping

Knowledges

Academics
This catchall knowledge covers the character's erudition in the "humanities" : literature, history, art, philosophy, and other "liberal" sciences. A character with dots in Academics is generally well-rounded in these fields, and at high levels may be considered an expert in one or more areas of study. Not only can this impress at salons and other Elysium functions, but it can also offer valuable clues to certain past --and future-- movements in the Jyhad.

1. Student: You're aware that 1066 is something more than a Beverly Hills area code
2. College: You can quote from the classics, identify major cultural movements, and expound on the difference between Ming and Mogul
3. Masters: You could get a paper published in a scholarly journal
4. Doctorate: Professor emeritus
5. Scholar: Scholars worldwide acknowledge you as on of the foremost experts of your time

Specialties: Anthropology, Art, English, History, Law, Religion, Research, Culture, Geography, Humanities, Philosophy, Political Science, Psychology, Sociology, Economics, Poststructuralism, Impressionist Painting, Imperial Rome, American Realism

Computer
This represents the ability to operate and program computers, as well as the savvy to keep up with the latest technology.

1. Student: Point and click
2. College: You can process data with relative ease
3. Masters: You can design software
4. Doctorate: You can make a very comfortable living as a consultant
5. Scholar: You're on the bleeding edge

Specialties: A.I., Data Retrieval, Graphics, Internet, Programming, Virus’, Networking, Computer Engineering, Code Breaking, Computer Languages, Data Retrieval

Finance
You know the ins and outs of commerce, from evaluating an item's relative worth to keep up with currency exchange rates. This can be invaluable when brokering items, running numbers or playing the stock market. Sufficiently high levels in Finance allow you to raise your standards of living to a very comfortable level

1. Student: You've taken a few business classes
2. College: You have some practical experience and can keep your books fairly neat
3. Masters: You'd make a fine stockbroker
4. Doctorate: Corporations follow your financial lead
5. Scholar: You could turn a $20 bill into a fortune

Specialties: Stock Market, Laundering, Appraisal, Foreign Currencies, Accounting, Fencing, Corporations

Investigation
You've learned to notice details others might overlook, and might make an admirable detective. This represents not only a good eye for detail, but also an ability to do research and follow leads.

1. Student: You've read your share of Agatha Christie
2. College: Police officer
3. Masters: Private detective
4. Doctorate: Federal agent
5. Scholar: Sherlock Holmes

Specialties: Artifacts, Body Language, Crime Scenes, Cryptography, Autopsies, Puzzles, Riddles, Science Experiments, Forensics, Shadowing, Search, Discolorations

Law
With all the lawyers and lawmakers out there, this can prove very useful. Law can be useful for filing suit, avoiding lawsuits or getting out of jail. What's more, even the Kindred keep their own laws, and more than one vampire has saved his own unlife by deftly exploiting a loophole in one of the Traditions.

1. Student: You've watched your share of courtroom drama
2. College: You're either studying for or just passed the bar exam
3. Masters: Ambulance chaser
4. Doctorate: Major public figures have your number --just in case
5. Scholar: You could find the loopholes in the Devil's contract

Specialties: Criminal, Suits, Courts, Contracts, Police Procedure

Linguistics
You begin play with the native language of your choice for free, but if you want to speak any other languages, whether modern or ancient, Linguistics is a must. This allows you to understand additional languages but at high levels also offers a more general understanding of linguistic structures. Linguistics may allow you to recognize accent or decipher word puzzles.

1. Student: One extra language
2. College: Two extra languages
3. Masters: Four extra languages
4. Doctorate: Eight extra languages
5. Scholar: 16 extra languages

Specialties: Romance Languages, Kanji, Idioms, Hieroglyphics, Written Expression, Ciphers

Medicine
You have an understanding of how the human body, and to a lesser extent the vampire body, works. This entails knowledge of medicines, ailments, first-aid procedures, and diagnosis or treatment of disease. Medicine is of great use to those Kindred with an interest in repairing, damaging or reworking the human body.

1. Student: You've taken a CPR course
2. College: Premed or paramedic
3. Masters: General practitioner
4. Doctorate: you can perform transplants
5. Scholar: You are respected by the world's medical community as a modern-day Aesculapius

Specialties: Emergency Care, Pathology, Pharmaceuticals, Physical Therapy, Surgery, Anesthesiology, Neurology, Pediatric, Ob/Gyn, Organ Transplants, Poison Treatments, Pathology

Occult
You are knowledgeable in occult area such as mysticism, curses, magic, folklore and particularly vampire lore. Unlike most other Knowledges, Occult does not imply a command of hard, factual information; much of what you know may well be rumor, myth, speculation or hearsay. However, the secrets to be learned in this field are worth centuries of sifting legend from fact. High levels of Occult imply a deep understanding of vampire lore, as well as a good ground in other aspects of the occult; at the very least, you can discern what is patently false.

1. Student: You've paged through a New Age section of Waldenbooks
2. College: There seems to be some unsettling truth to some of the rumors you've heard
3. Masters: You've heard a lot and actually seen a little for yourself
4. Doctorate: You can recognize blatantly false sources and make educated guesses about the rest
5. Scholar: You know most of the basic truths about the hidden world

Specialties: Cultural Beliefs, Ghosts, Magic, Monsters, Superstitions, Witchcraft, Gypsies, Fortune Telling, Paganism, Theomancy, Alchemy , Kindred Lore, Rituals, Infernalism

Politics
You are familiar with the politics of the moment, including the people in charge and how they got there. This can aid you in dealing with or influencing mortal politicians, or even offering insight into the local Cainite power structure.

1. Student: Activist
2. College: Political science major
3. Masters: Campaign manager or talk-radio host
4. Doctorate: Senator
5. Scholar: You could choose the next President of the United States

Specialties: Bribery, Elections, Federal, Local, State, Scandals, Lobbyists, Dogma, Radical, Camarilla

Science
You have at least a basic understanding of most of the physical sciences, such as chemistry, biology, physics and geology. This can put to all forms of practical use.

1. Student: You know most of the high-school basics
2. College: You're familiar with the major theories
3. Masters: You could teach high-school science
4. Doctorate: You're fully capable of advancing the knowledge in your field
5. Scholar: Your Nobel Prize is waiting for you

Specialties: Biology, Chemistry, Geology, Metallurgy, Physics, Statistics, Civil Engineer, Physics, Astronomy