Knowledge Skills All talents of this area may be increased by up to 3 points per level. Alchemy (CO/WI/DE) This talent is needed for brewing and distilling "normal" chemicals as well as remedies (there are much more detailed rules in Encyclopaedia Aventurica). The player tells the gamemaster, which remdy shall be produced by her hero and the gamemaster thinks about the additive. Of course, the hero has to be owning the important ingredients already. A failed test may well well be dangerous, it could be a harmless but heavily stinking green cloud or a noise that destroys a whole quarter of a city. So the master should always tell before the Alchemy-test what could happen to the surroundings. Alchemy is also essential to determine the ingredients of an unknown mixture or its pursuit. Since it is often essential to read books while proceeding it is essential to have a Reading/writing-TaP and a Calculating-TaP greater than 4. Otherwise the hero's challenge fails automatically. Reading/Writing (WI/WI/DE) This talent is not a talent to be used for testing, it is just for giving you a value how well the literacy of the hero is. Only Higher values than zero indicate any kind of literacy. 3 or higher indicates a normal knowledge of these skills. Higher values are just criteria for calligraphy or very quick readers. There is only the question remaining whether this might be of interest in a normal role-playing session. Some talents permit their use only if Reading/writing has reached a particular levels, i.e. here: Alchemy. Calculating (WI/WI/IN) Similar to Reading/writing the use of this talent might be rare. A hero with a value less than zero is not able to calculate, although he may decide whether something is much or little. TaP 0 to 2 indicates that he may calculate numbers up to 20 by calculating toes and fingers. TaP 3 is the knowledge of the basic kinds of calculation. TaP 4 is needed for Alchemy and all values above just lead to the genius of calculating. Languages (WI/IN/CH) Although Garethi is the equivalent of german in Arkania, every hero is in the position to speak Garethi with at least 1 point of knowledge out of 4. Additionally she knows her mother tongue (e.g. Thorvjalsk or Tulamidi). So TaP in Languages just indicates that she knows more than the given values above. She might also know other languages that somebody taught her during an adventure or at any time between two chronicles. The numbers behind the Languages imply the highest possible level of knowing this language. Anybody who wants to write something in a language has to know it at highest with 1 point less than highest level. One point in languages is one point in one language. So choose carefully and suitable to your background. The most popular known languages of Arkania are: Garethi (Spoken in the Middlerealm): 4 Horathi (a dialect of Garethi, spoken in the Horasrealm): requires 1 point more to pronounce the words carefully, the written language is the same Isdira (language of the elves, also called elfish): 5 Rogolan (language of the dwarves, also called dwarfish): 3 Tulamidi (language of the Novadi): 4 Thorvjalsk (language of Thorwal): 4 Nivesii (language of the Niveses): 6 Mohish (language of the woodmen of the south): 2 Khezzar (language of the orcs and ogres, orkish): 1 Goblin (language of the goblins goblinish): 1 Trollish: 3 Yulass'H (language of the reptilemen): 6 Beginning with the mastership, i.e. TaP 11, every language is easier to learn by 1 point - this applies to all languages, even those he learnt already but not to his mother tongue. To learn a language will always cost at least one point, though.
