Professional skills represent hard-won knowledge, specialised training and building favourable social networks. Few of them are useful in the heat of combat - they are more suited to engaging with plot, investigating things and performing time-consuming activities.

There are three main categories of Professional Skills:

• Profession Skills represent dedicated training as an engineer, doctor or scientist.
• Spaceflight Skills represent specialist training in flying starships.
  • Basic Console Skills represent standard certification in operating the various consoles on a starship.
  • Advanced Console Skills represent advanced training in starship systems that unlock special powers either in space or on away missions.
  • Advanced Captain Skills represent rare and powerful abilities that can be invoked once per starship mission by a skilled Captain.

^a - Can be bought multiple times. Cost does not increase each time.
+ - Can be bought multiple times. Cost increases by 1 point each time.
* - Prerequisite skill required.

• You may reset a dying character's Death Count with 30 seconds appropriate roleplayed action (time reduces with more ranks).
• Once you have reset their Death Count, you may pause it at 0 seconds for as long as you keep checking up on them every few seconds.

First Aid allows a character to perform roleplayed first aid to reset and pause a character's Death Count. First Aid can be bought up to 4 times, and the cost increases by 1 each rank. With one rank in First Aid, you can reset a dying characters Death Count with 30 seconds of roleplayed action - bandaging, tying a tourniquet, etc. Remember that you must obtain a player's consent to physically touch them - otherwise you must do your roleplaying at a few inches distance. While you are performing this initial treatment, you cannot perform any other actions, including walking or other movement. Every additional rank of this skill decreases the time needed to reset someone's Death Count by 10 seconds, to a minimum of 5 seconds. So with 1 rank, it takes 30 seconds, with 2 ranks 20 seconds, 3 ranks 10 seconds, and with 4 ranks only 5 seconds.

When you have reached the time required, you may tell the character that you are treating to reset their count to zero - they are still dying, but their count does not increase. After a period of treatment, you may pause their Count at 0 seconds as long as you keep treating them - you must remain close to the character you are treating and check on them every half-minute or so, or else they will resume dying. You should inform the dying character that you are pausing their count while you are administering to them. You may, however, perform other short actions while keeping their count paused (such as moving the body, for instance).

A skilled physician is an asset to any crew embarking on dangerous missions

• You can save a dying character, stopping their Death Count with 2 minutes of roleplayed surgery (time reduces with more ranks).
• You can facilitate healing in up to 5 resting characters, so that they regain 1 Body Hit with every 10 minutes rest (time reduces with more ranks).
• You can perform Surgery tasks at events using the Card Draw System, either alone or with a team to treat many Conditions.
• You can diagnose many Conditions automatically, and more ranks allow diagnosis of a greater range of Conditions.
• You can administer a Medicament to yourself or another character (without using an Injector) with 30 seconds of roleplayed action.

The physician skill can be used in one of three ways - stopping a Death Count, restoring hits or interacting with Conditions by either diagnosing them or performing Surgery to remove them. The Physician skill can be bought multiple times, and the cost increases by 1 with each rank.

Physicians can perform emergency medicine to stop a dying character's Death Count. This takes 2 minutes (120 seconds) of roleplayed surgical action, and requires appropriate (and relatively safe physreps - no real knives, needles or similar) surgical tools or devices. You may use this ability on a character whose Death Count you have paused, and it remains paused while you treat them. Once you have done the required amount of roleplayed action, then the dying character is no longer dying and can stop counting their Death Count. Each additional rank of the physician skill you possess reduces the time required by 20 seconds (to a minimum of 20 seconds). So a character with 3 Ranks of Physician can stop a Death Count in 80 seconds, and one with 4 Ranks of Physician can stop a Death Count in 60 seconds, etc.

Physicians can promote healing so that characters regain lost hits. A physician can supervise up to 5 characters who are resting and recuperating, occasionally performing roleplayed medical activities, and those characters will regain 1 hit to a single Location, or one Global Body Hit every 10 minutes. Recuperating characters cannot fight or perform any strenuous activity or move faster than a slow walk within each 10 minute period. Each additional rank of this skill increases the number of hits that the supervised characters recover after each 10 minute period by one.

Physicians can perform Surgery to treat many Conditions - broken bones, some infections, infestation by horrible alien parasites, etc. Surgery can be risky, and may fail or even have negative consequences for the patient. Surgery uses the Card Draw System, and requires several minutes of roleplay with appropriate surgical tool physreps. Any character with Physician can assist other characters performing a Surgery - a larger team of Physicians increase the chance of success.

Physicians can also administer a Medicament to themselves or another character without using a pre-loaded Injector. This requires 30 seconds of appropriate roleplay - typically using their own tools to prepare and inject the dose.

Players of Physician Characters should familiarise themselves with the following rules sections:

• Card Draw System
• Conditions
• Medicaments

Companies with complex equipment need talented engineers to maintain and improve their gear

• Engineer is the skill you use to work with machines, devices and tech. It grants abilities that can be used in both uptime and between events. Engineer can be bought multiple times, and the cost increases by 1 with each rank.
• You can repair physical armour and SUNDERed items with 2 minutes of appropriate roleplayed action (time decreases with more ranks).
• You can perform engineering tasks at events using the Card Draw System
  • You may be able to repair or tinker with other technology discovered in play.
  • You can repair items that are Broken.
  • You can assemble Installations from Components.
• Each rank grants 1 Engineer Work Slot, which allow you to Modify or Maintain the Devices you submit at the end of each event.
• Each rank grants knowledge of 2 Mods.

Engineers can fix damaged items and damaged armour. A character with 1 rank in the Engineer skill can spend 2 minutes roleplaying to repair an item that has been damaged with the SUNDER call or to restore 1 lost Armour Hit to a single location. Each additional rank of the Engineer skill you possess reduces the time required by 20 seconds (to a minimum of 20 seconds). So with Engineer 2, you can perform a repair in 100 seconds, with rank 3 it will take 80 seconds, and so on. After rank 6 (20 seconds), you cannot get any faster at repairing things without using some kind of special artefact, tech device or similar.

Engineers can also work on certain technology found at events - they can use the Card Draw System to repair Broken devices, or disable or modify them in the field. These items will either have an accompanying lammie, or have a Ref nearby that you can ask. Engineers can also create ad-hoc technological solutions to problems that they find at events using Components & Installations.

Engineers can also do work between events to improve their equipment, as long as they can afford it. Each rank of the Engineer skill allows you to work on 1 lammied item in between events - either maintaining it to extend its life, or applying a Mod to it to make it better. Items that require maintenance, and can be modified are referred to as Devices, and should have a Mod and Maintenance cost indicated on their laminated card (lammie). You can either apply a Mod that you know to the item, or extend its lifetime for 4 more events - both of these uses will cost a certain amount of Credits to buy materials and extra services to get the job done. Items that you wish to work on (and the credits to pay for them) must be handed in with your pack at the end of the event. The more Mods that an item has, the more expensive it is to Mod it further and maintain it - see the Devices page for more details.

Each rank of the Engineer skill also grants the knowledge of 2 Mods, which can be used in between events to improve your equipment. Mods represent improvements to equipment like weapons and armour, or wholesale alterations to things like Tech Devices that radically alter their function. Some Mods may require other prerequisites to learn. You can choose to swap out one of your known Mods with another by contacting the Game Team between events, but the swap will not take place until the next event - this represents changing your career focus onto a different suite of technology.

Players of Engineer Characters should familiarise themselves with the following rules sections:

• Card Draw System
• Devices
• Components & Installations
• Mods

• Each time you buy this skill, you are able to learn 2 additional Mods.
• You must have the Engineer skill to purchase this skill.

You can dedicate character points to learning new Mods. You may buy this skill multiple times, at 1 character point for 2 additional Mods each time.

• Pre-requisite for Science Specialisations.
• Grants the ability to use Scanners to locate, investigate and sample things.
• Grants 1 Research Point which can be used to research anything.

Scientist is the primary skill you use to investigate your environment and unlock the secrets of strange, alien substances and artefacts. Groups that embark on missions without some properly-equipped scientists may run into trouble if they encounter something out of the ordinary. This skill can only be purchased once.

Scientist is the first skill that all scientists must acquire, and it is needed before a character can start buying any more specialised Science skills. The Scientist Skill grants the ability to use Scanners - specialised scientific devices that can be used in 3 ways - to locate, investigate and take samples of phenomena in the field. Scanners use the Card Draw System, along with the Science Specialisation skills below.

The Scientist skill also provides 1 Generic Research Point, which can be used between events to research things and learn more about them, or teach other characters what you have already learned. Most Research Points that a character can acquire are specialised, and can only be used to research things relevant to that specialisation, but all Scientists have 1 Research Point that they can use to research anything at all.

Players of Scientist Characters should familiarise themselves with the following rules sections:

• Card Draw System
• Research
• Scanners
• Artefacts
• Exotic Substances

• Each rank grants 1 Research Point in the field of specialisation.
• Each rank gives a bonus to Examine and Sample actions when using Scanners on a phenomena of the relevant type.
• You may use your Research Points to synthesise Exotic Substances relevant to your field of specialisation.

There are 3 science specialisation skills which grant greater mastery in the fields of Etheric, Corporeal or Life Sciences. Each specialisation can be purchased multiple times, but the cost increases by 1 point with each rank. Each rank of a specialisation grants you 1 Research Point for that specialisation - you can only use these points to research phenomena or artefacts with that specialisation.

A specialisation also makes it easier to investigate or sample phenomena of the same type using a Scanner. When performing an Examine or Sample action, each rank of the relevant specialisation that the Lead Character has grants +1 Green Card.

Taking a Speciality allows you to use your Research Points in that field to synthesise rare substances that you can use to boost or alter other game items. Each speciality has its own category of rare substances to synthesise, which only work on a specific type of game item (or characters). These substances can only be applied by someone with the relevant speciality. When you use Research Points to synthesise substances, you will get a random selection of the relevant substances - using Research Points in this way represents taking the time to seek out relevant phenomena in the galaxy in the time between events and extracting useful substances from them, which is a hit-and-miss process.

Etheric Science deals with energetic phenomena - bizarre spatial phenomena, strange energy fields, novel particles and the like. In the field, Etheric Scientists might be able to detect disturbances in magnetic fields or sample exotic radiation. Etheric Scientists can spend their spare Research Points to synthesise Exotic Particles and apply them to tech to give it a short-lived bonus in power or effectiveness.

Corporeal Science deals with physical inorganic materials - rare minerals, unknown alloys and strange chemicals. In the field, Corporeal Scientists might be able to extract samples from resonant mineral deposits, identify how to denature toxic chemicals or harmonically shatter a door. Corporeal Scientists can spend their spare Research Points to synthesise Exotic Reagents and add them to injectable pharmaceuticals (Medicaments) to alter them - increasing or decreasing their potency or duration.

Life Science deals with organic material - exotic fungi, rare plant extracts, potent venoms and biochemical toxins. In the field, Life Scientists might be able to detect nearby life signs, discover the weak point of a hostile hive entity, or interfere with biological processes. Life Scientists can spend their spare Research Points to synthesise Exotic Biotics and infuse them into other characters to grant unusual effects and conditions.

• Aptitude cannot be purchased by adult characters - it is a special ability that is only possessed by children aged 7-11.
• You can pause a dying character's Death Count by roleplaying treating their wounds. They stay on the same number as long as you treat their wounds.
• You can heal one or two characters who are resting. They regain 1 lost Body Hit every 5 minutes while you are roleplaying looking after them.
• You can damaged armour and broken items by roleplaying fixing them. It takes 1 minute of fixing to repair 1 Armour Hit or a broken item.
• You can use Scanners to Survey or assist another character with Examine or Sample actions.

Aptitude represents a certain natural grace and ability in a broad range of fields, expressed by the brightest of young minds. Children who travel with starship crews often pick up the basics of a wide variety of disciplines, from watching engineers and physicians at work, to playing around with devices and other technology. Once they get a bit older and commit to specialised training, then these broad abilities are usually forgotten.

A character with Aptitude has basic abilities similar to that of an Engineer, Scientist, First Aider and Physician. These abilities are designed to give young players a flavour of different parts of the game, and allow families to roleplay as a group and have everyone be useful and valued.

An Ascendancy crew piloting a starship in battle

Spaceflight skills represent extra training and familiarity with operating the various stations on board starships. Although anyone can operate starship stations, characters with these skills will be able to get more out of their ship than untrained personnel. Additional crew with these skills can also assist via their own stations and smaller tasks to boost all of the operations on board starships - a ship with an elite crew of broadly-skilled voidfarers will have a huge advantage over a crew of planet-bound rookies.

The most common designs of Spacer Collective Markers

Having a Spaceflight Skill necessitates getting a Spacer Collective symbol either on an ID card, or (as is more often the case) tattooed onto your hand, wrist, face or other patch of skin that you can easily show to the Spacer Collective Representative. These take a specific shape and identify the character as having been certified in the advanced use of that station. They cannot be falsified – please do not give yourself a mark resembling a Spacer Collective tattoo unless you have bought the skill. Spacer Collective Markers are best simulated by drawing the symbol on with eyeliner pens or even biro (or printed out on a laminated ID badge). See this page for reference images of the two main types of markers.

Each basic Spaceflight skill is linked to one of the 5 Consoles on a Spacer Collective ship, and gives a special bonus to your ship when using that Console. In addition, the basic knowledge of a ship's systems can also grant a small bonus even when you are operating a different Console. Each Spaceflight skill has 2 Ranks available - the first Rank in each Spaceflight skill costs 1 character point, and gives both a Primary Bonus (which applies when you are operating the relevant Console) as well as a Secondary Bonus (which applies when you are operating a different Console). Rank 2 has only a Primary Bonus, and is intended for characters who wish to specialise in one of the main ship roles.

When you log in to your Console at the start of a mission you will be given the opportunity to enter your skills, which will then grant the relevant bonuses to your ship. The Secondary Bonuses of every character logged into a Console will be applied to the entire ship, so specialised crew groups can gain large cumulative benefits if they have a broad range of space skills.

Once you have obtained Rank 2 in a Console Skill, you can then purchase Advanced Console Skills for that Console, as well as an Advanced Captain Skill.

The Helm console controls the movement, speed and direction of a starship. On Spacer Collective Jump Ships, they also operate the Jump Drive.

• Rank 1 Helm Console
  • Primary Bonus: +3 Turning Speed. This allows your ship to perform tighter turns and manoeuvres.
  • Secondary Bonus: +3 Impulse Speed. This allows your ship to move faster under its main drives.
• Rank 2 Helm Console
  • Primary Bonus: +6 Turning Speed. This replaces the Rank 1 Primary Bonus.

The Weapons console locks on to targets, loads torpedo tubes and fires beam weapons. A good Weapons officer works with the Helm, Engineer and Science Officer to maximise their ship's firepower and avoid being destroyed themselves.

• Rank 1 Weapons Console
  • Primary Bonus: -1 Beam Cycle Time. This allows your ship's beam weapons to fire faster.
  • Secondary Bonus: +1 Damage to 1 Beam Weapon. This makes your Beam Weapons do more damage. Multiple characters with this skill spread their secondary bonus evenly across the ship's available Beam Weapons.
• Rank 2 Weapons Console
  • Primary Bonus: +2 Beam Cycle Time. This replaces the Rank 1 Primary Bonus.

The Engineering console allows for ordered distribution of the ship’s reactor power and coolant reserves to where they are needed. With a skilled engineer at this station, a starship can function far beyond its normal parameters.

• Rank 1 Engineering Console
  • Primary Bonus: +40 Hull. This allows your ship to soak up more damage without being destroyed.
  • Secondary Bonus: +50 Maximum Energy. This allows your ship's batteries to hold more power in reserve.
• Rank 2 Engineering Console
  • Primary Bonus: +80 Hull. This replaces the Rank 1 Primary Bonus.

The Science console operates the ship’s sensor arrays, allowing objects and planets to be scanned for more detailed information. A skilled Science Officer at this station can gather useful information about enemy weaknesses.

• Rank 1 Science Console
  • Primary Bonus: +500 Tactical Sensor Range. This improves the visibility range of the Helm and Weapons consoles.
  • Secondary Bonus: +10 Shield Strength. This improves your shields, allowing them to soak up more damage.
• Rank 2 Science Console
  • Primary Bonus: +1000 Tactical Sensor Range. This replaces the Rank 1 Primary Bonus.

The Relay console allows the ship to communicate with nearby ships & stations, launch probes, and hack into enemy ships to disable their systems. A skilled Relay Officer acts as a link between the rest of the crew and can sometimes get a starship out of a battle before it even starts.

• Rank 1 Relay Console
  • Primary Bonus: Wildcard Secondary Bonus. This allows you to grant an additional Secondary Bonus to any other Console.
  • Secondary Bonus: +5 Probes. Probes are used to scout and monitor distant areas on missions.
• Rank 2 Relay Console
  • Primary Bonus: Improved Wildcard Secondary Bonus. Allows you to grant an additional 2 Secondary Bonuses to another Console.

Advanced Console Skills are special tricks that push a ship's systems to the absolute limits, which can only be learned by masters of a specific set of the ship's systems. Each Console has 2 Advanced Console Skills, one for use while flying the ship in Space, and one which call upon the ship's advanced technology while on a Ground Mission. Advanced Ground Skills cannot be used when in the main event location - you must be on a Mission from a Spacer Collective ship to make use of them.

To purchase an Advanced Console Skill, you must already have the relevant Console Skill at Rank 2. All Advanced Console skills cost 2 character points to purchase. You can purchase both Advanced Console Skills for each console, but each is bought separately.

• Space: Evasive Maneuvers - Once per mission, you can perform a micro-jump to get quickly out of danger or outmaneuver an enemy. Your ship instantly jumps 2U backwards and inverts its direction.
• Ground: Emergency Evacuation - When deployed from a Spacer vessel (on a ground mission), you have a small emergency teleport beacon that can be activated to pull you and a single other character of your choice back to the starship. When you activate the beacon, thirty seconds later you and one other character you are touching is returned to the starship, which must still be intact and in the local system. The beacon also acts as a teleportation stabiliser, so you never receive a Condition from Emergency Teleports (when you are forcibly returned to the starship at the end of your booked slot). Inform the Referee if your group is ever Emergency Teleported. This skill does not affect any Conditions you may receive if a starship you are on is destroyed.

• Space: Concentrate Fire - Once per mission, you can discharge your ship's backup beam capacitors and focus the beams at a precise angle to initiate nuclear fusion at a vulnerable point on a target. This creates a powerful blast equivalent to a nuclear explosion - make sure you are well clear!
• Ground: Concussive Blast - When deployed from a Spacer vessel, you can call down a blast of force from the orbiting ship. Once per mission, after 30 seconds of roleplayed action you may call MASS STRIKEDOWN in a directed arc in front of you.

• Space: Emergency Repairs - Once per mission, you can supercharge the ship's maintenance and repair systems to instantly repair all damaged systems by 20%.
• Ground: Technical Support - When deployed from a Spacer vessel, you are accompanied by a Spacer Collective Micro-Repair drone, which assists you with engineering and repair work. For the duration of the ground mission, you count as having 2 additional ranks of the Engineer skill for the purposes of repairing armour and items that have been SUNDERed (reducing your repair time by 40 seconds). You may also call RESIST to the first SUNDER call that strikes your equipment.

• Space: Sensor Ping - Once per mission, you can hypercharge the ship's sensor suite to instantly scan all ships within 5U.
• Ground: Wide Area Scan - When deployed from a Spacer vessel, you can use the ship's teleport lock systems to gather scan data on the immediate area. When you arrive at the mission location you may ask the encounter Ref for information about the area. This will usually encompass the entire area that the mission takes place in, but the quality of the data will vary. The ship's sensors can usually pick up things like high energy readings, strange anomalies and similar vague impressions, as well as rough directions for them.

• Space: Taunt - Once per mission, you can use the ship's Relay systems to spoof enemy target detection. When used, all ships within 5U will attempt to travel to your current location.
• Ground: Coordinate Hacking - When deployed from a Spacer vessel, you can direct the ship's hacking systems to bathe a specific area in concentrated electromagnetic radiation. Once per mission, after 30 seconds of roleplayed action you may call MASS DISRUPT in a directed arc in front of you.

A skilled ship's Captain must walk the knife edge between victory and disaster, and make crucial decisions in moments of extreme danger. Captains with intimate knowledge of their ship's capabilities can push past safety limits and risk themselves and their crew to ensure their success, whatever the consequences. Advanced Captain Skills grant the power to make these truly risky choices. When these abilities are invoked, sparks burst from overloaded systems, radiation shielding flickers and the hum of the engines rises to an agonising scream, and the ship can perform feats that would otherwise be impossible.

Advanced Captain Skills can only be used by a ship's Captain, and only once per mission. When they are used, they will grant one or more members of the crew Conditions - radiation exposure, burns, decompression and various other ailments. For each Advanced Captain Skill you purchase, you must have one Basic Console Skill at Rank 2 - so in order to have 2 Captain skills you must have 2 different Console Skills at Rank 2, etc. All Advanced Captain Skills cost 2 character points.

With this directive, success of the mission and the survival of the ship are placed above all other concerns. The ship's structural integrity systems are kept powered at all costs, compromising the bridge compartment's life support and safety systems. For 5 minutes (300 seconds), the ship becomes Invulnerable to all damage. At the end of the mission, an extra 3 Conditions are randomly assigned to the crew.

When time is too short, and distance too far, the Captain can issue this directive to overcharge the ship's drives to breaking point, pushing against the very laws of physics to reach their destination in the nick of time. The acceleration becomes more than the ship's dampening systems can resist, causing bones to snap and veins to burst. The warp bubble around the ship thickens inwards, distorting space and time within the bridge compartment, and the ship almost vibrates itself apart under tidal forces. When this ability is used, all maneuvering systems are fully repaired, and the ship's Warp speed, Impulse speed and Turn Rate are massively increased beyond all reasonable limits. At the end of the mission, an extra 3 Conditions are randomly assigned to the crew.

All Captains know that the ultimate responsibility for their ship lies with them alone, and some brave souls are willing to make the ultimate sacrifice to keep their crew alive. When the ship's hull has failed and its structure is coming apart, a Captain can issue this directive to save their crew first, and ensure that they hold it all together until everyone has reached the escape pods. When a ship is destroyed, a Captain with this skill can invoke it to draw the negative consequences onto themselves and up to 2 other crew members. Rather than each member of the crew being offered a card draw for a Condition, the Captain and their nominated crew members share out the card draws for the rest of the entire crew. So for a crew of six, if the Captain nominated 2 other crew members, they would each get 2 draws.

Energy is a ship's lifeblood, and the Reactor is its beating heart. Without energy, a ship lies dormant and weak until its batteries are restored - but sometimes that weakness is not an option. In times of great danger, when power is desperately needed but in short supply, the heart must be squeezed for every last drop. With this directive, the Captain unlocks the safety protocols in the ship's reactor, and ignites a barely-contained inferno of power. Containment systems fail and hard radiation leaks out into the crew compartments, while power floods into the batteries and capacitors, burning out conduits and capacitors. Once per mission, when this ability is invoked, the ship's energy is increased to 2000, which lasts for 10 minutes - after this time, the maximum energy the ship can hold will be reduced to 750, as crucial systems have been burnt out. At the end of the mission, an extra 2 Conditions are randomly assigned to the crew.

Professional skills are the part of the system that represents accomplished technical characters - doctors like Simon Tam and Phlox, engineers like Geordi LaForge or Tony Stark, and scientists like Jadzia Dax or Rodney MacKay. These characters often perform key roles in science fiction stories, using their skills and expertise to solve problems and advance the plot rather than brute force. Most of the professional skills are fairly cheap to purchase a few ranks in, so you can have a more general character with enough science to get by, or have a groups that consists entirely of engineers as well as their own specialities. Alternatively, players who want to play full-on scientists or doctors can purchase multiple ranks and still get useful bonuses.

The majority of professional skills deepen a character's skills as they progress in ranks - while taking a few ranks will allow you to do a few focused things, taking more ranks will allow you to do more things at events, and to do more work between events in downtime. In the case of Engineers, more ranks also allows them to repair SUNDERED items and damaged armour more quickly, while scientists get better results from using their Scanners.

Scientists may seem underpowered, as they only get the ability to use items that must be bought to even do anything in uptime. However, the key strength of Scientists is their ability to do Research, and interact with Artefacts. With enough Research, Scientists can unlock the powers of Artefacts which can be used in uptime to create very powerful and often unique effects - these abilities get unlocked for the scientist who researched them, and stay on their character, but can be taught to other characters using research points. This allows a group to rapidly learn how to use an Artefact that one of their number has mastered, but will take a long time to start from scratch should someone else steal it. Some artefacts, if researched enough, can be duplicated by Scientists.

The ability of Specialised Scientists to synthesise Exotic Substances is to give them a use for those research points if they don't currently have a relevant artefact to work on - they can make a random selection of buffs to use or sell.