Innovation

The Innovation skill is a Core skill every character receives in their starting package. A character’s Innovation skill represents their general ability to take apart, jerry-rig, or use items for alternative purposes. Characters with high Innovation typically are creative tinkerers who can solve problems with the items available to them.

Innovation covers numerous activities such as: making and using improvised weapons, taking apart and putting items back together, and making alterations to items to modify how it is used. Innovation does not include crafting items from scratch or designing/engineering new items. Crafting new items, especially from scratch requires a Knowledge skill related to the item being crafted.

E.x. Crafting a brand new dagger would require the skill Blacksmithing, but adding parts to the hilt of a dagger to add an additional function (e.x. adding a bottle opener, adding decorative embellishments, or making the hilt hollow to add a secret compartment) would be under Innovation. 

Skill Levels

Apprentice 1-25

People with innovative mindsets start by working with the items they already have and find alternative uses for them. It begins simple, like using a blanket to cover your head from the sun when a hat isn’t available. An item will usually have a very strong resemblance, or very similar structure and shape, to another item that is being substituted (i.e. using a broom or mop for fighting when a staff isn’t at hand). Innovators focus on disassembling and reassembling items at this stage rather than attempting to apply alterations or additions to an item. Many attempts to use an item for a purpose unrelated to their design end up being unusable afterward, regardless of whether their application was successful or not (i.e. hitting a bottle over someone’s head).

Journeyman 26-50

Many items that an Innovator sees begin to have more versatility. They will now understand how to make an item useful for a function it was not designed for (i.e. using a magnifying glass to start a fire, or using a metal weapon to reflect sunlight as a signal). Additions made through unprofessional means to an item (such as adding a bottle opener to a dagger without any Blacksmithing) are only temporary and may need to be replaced often. An Innovator can combine multiple scrap pieces of material together to create something rather simple, and of low quality (i.e. making a child’s toy from thread, cloth, and scrap metal).

Expert 51-75

Expert Innovators are able to surprise average people rather often with their ingenuity. They have the ability to combine multiple items into something that doesn’t sound like it would work, but will. Manipulating an item into a new shape to serve a temporary purpose is possible while having only a small chance of ruining the item from doing so. Making additions through unprofessional means that are not just aesthetic to an item are able to last a long time before breaking or falling off.

Master 76-100

These are the MacGyvers of Siliren, able to piece together something from nearly anything that is within sight. Impromptu repairs sometimes don’t need other parts, as they can cannibalize from the item they are repairing to fix it (i.e. taking extra material from one section to patch a crack or hole in another). Additions made to an item through unprofessional means are just shy of being permanent,  lasting nearly as long as the original item can last for.