Talents

Original Boxed Set · Battle Book + Campaign Book

The 1984 Talents List

Talents are skills learned through training and practice rather than super-powers. When a hero performs an action covered by one of their Talents, they shift their relevant ability column ONE TO THE RIGHT for the FEAT roll.

Some talents are starred (*) — these are "special" talents and count as TWO regular talents during character generation.

How Many Talents?

Talent count is rolled randomly during character generation. Typical heroes have 1–3 regular talents, sometimes paired with a special talent. A trained operative (S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, military veteran) may have more.

Talents Table

Roll	Talent
01–04	Guns
05–08	Thrown Weapons
09–12	Bows
13–16	Blunt and Sharp Weapons
17–20	Marksman *
21–24	Martial Arts *
25–28	Wrestling
29–32	Acrobatics
33–36	Engineering *
37–40	Medicine *
41–44	Law
45–48	Detective / Espionage
49–52	Aeronautics (Pilot)
53–56	Military
57–60	Business / Finance
61–64	Scholar
65–68	Journalism
69–72	Computer
73–76	Chemistry
77–80	Biology
81–84	Astronomy
85–88	Genetics
89–92	History
93–96	Geology
97–00	Physics

* = special talent (counts as two regular talents)

Using Talents In Play

Combat talents (Guns, Bows, Blunt and Sharp Weapons, Marksman, Martial Arts) shift the relevant combat FEAT one column right.
Knowledge talents (Law, Medicine, Engineering, sciences) shift Reason FEATs for tasks within that field.
Performance talents (Acrobatics, Wrestling) shift Agility or Strength FEATs.
Information-gathering talents (Detective, Journalism) shift Reason or Intuition FEATs when investigating.

The Judge decides which talents apply to a given action. When in doubt, ask: would a trained X do this better than an untrained generalist? If yes, the shift applies.

Multiple Talents

If two or more of a hero's talents could plausibly apply to the same FEAT, the shift still only goes one column to the right — talents don't stack. The talents listed simply broaden the situations in which the bonus applies.