New Skills

Skills

While most existing Call of Cthulhu skills require little modification for Bible Black, the scenario includes a few new skills and unique specializations.

Note: Science Specializations
In the Call of Cthulhu rules, certain skills are written as parenthetical specializations of a base skill, such as “Art/Craft (Music)” or “Science (Physics).” This nomenclature quickly becomes awkward when writing a scenario that uses such skills with regularity. Therefore, in Bible Black, all Science skills are written as the relevant discipline. For instance, instead of “Science (Astronomy),” the skill is simply “Astronomy.” This makes it easier to include them in parenthetical expressions. Also, when the text calls for a Physical Science roll, this includes any one the following disciplines: Astronomy, Astrophysics, Chemistry, and Physics.

New or Modified Skills

The following skills require elucidation for Bible Black.

Art/Craft (Sonification): (Base 00%) Sonification is the act of translating non-audio data into music and sound. This can range from “how would the atmosphere of Venus sound” to complex musical renderings of electromagnetic data from supermassive black holes.

Astrobiology: (Base 01%) A fairly recent field, according to NASA Astrobiology is concerned with the “origins, early evolution, distribution, and future of life in the universe by investigating its deterministic conditions and contingent events.” A player character may take Astrobiology as an individual skill, or may simulate the skill by averaging her Astronomy and Biology skills.

Astronomy: (Base 01%) In the real world, there are numerous specializations in astronomy, from observational astronomy to theoretical astronomy, from cosmology to computational astrophysics. Characters taking over 20% in the Astronomy may indicate a specialty, such as Astrometry, Solar Astrophysics, Radio Astronomy, and so on. This helps the Keeper to modify various skill rolls. For instance, interpreting a data reduction performed on observations taken at the GPCA may represent a Regular difficult roll for a radio astronomer, but a Hard difficulty roll for an optical astronomer.

Astrophysics: (Base 01%) Astrophysics is the study of the physics and chemistry of heavenly bodies and astronomical phenomena. It’s a crucial skill in Bible Black, as radio astronomy is an important tool to astrophysicists. Data, data, and more data is needed to understand how the universe works. A player character may take Astrophysics as an individual skill, or may simulate the skill by averaging his Astronomy and Physics skills. In most cases where an Astronomy roll is required, an Astrophysics roll may be substituted; but not the other way around.

Operate Radio Telescope: (00%) A character with Operate Radio Telescope has the ability to operate radio telescopes and arrays, from a single-dish antenna to a complex interferometer composed of multiple sub-arrays. This includes moving and slewing the antennas, finding correct coordinates, and recording useful data. Most array operators have backgrounds in astronomy, computer science, engineering, math, and/or physics, and many know more about the radio telescopes than most astronomers or technicians. While this skills allows for simple interpretation of data, more complex reductions and analyses require the Astrophysics skill.

Substitutions
A player character may simulate the Operate Radio Telescope skill by making an Astrophysics roll followed by a Computer use roll. Both of these rolls must be made at one degree higher difficulty than the original Operate Radio Telescope roll. For instance, a character asked to make a Hard Operate Telescope roll can achieve the same results with an Extreme Astrophysics roll followed by an Extreme Computer Use roll.

Paranormal Studies: (Base 05%) A character familiar with Paranormal Studies has knowledge of various phenomena generally considered outside the scope of modern science. In order to differentiate this skill from Occult, Paranormal Studies does not include magic, demonology, Tarot, astrology, spiritualism, or anything falling under the realm of higher (or lower) supernatural powers. Paranormal Studies involves fields like ESP, telepathy, parapsychology, cryptozoology, and ufology. (It’s up to the Keeper whether to include the ghost hunting under Paranormal Studies or Occult; it probably depends on whether the character believes in supernatural beings or psychic impressions.)

Streetwise: (Base 05%) A character who considers herself Streetwise understands the liminal world of the underground, and is familiar—maybe even comfortable!—with all manner of illicit, immoral, and illegal activities. Where to buy drugs and how to use them, which massage parlors are actually brothels, which bookies are reliable, how to acquire an unregistered firearm, which cops are straight and which are corrupt, which locals are connected to organize crime, where the best underground clubs are—such questions can be answered by a Streetwise roll.

Bible Black > Auxiliary Materials
[Back to Asynchronous Encounter 11—Random Encounters | Bible Black TOC | Forward to New Spells]

Author: A. Buell Ruch
Last Modified: 6 November 2025
Email: quail (at) shipwrecklibrary (dot) com
Bible Black PDF: [TBD]