Abilities - Abilities allow you to do certain types of actions. Abilities often have an ability level which may give you a bonuses to success when those actions require a success roll, but if you have an ability with no levels, it is often better than not having the ability at all.
Natural Abilities - A character's race gives them some abilities and bonuses to abilities levels. The PPV of these natural abilities and levels are part of the race's PPV, but any ability or skill development beyond that adds to the character's total PPV.
Basic PPV - An ability's basic PPV is the player point value (PPV) of the ability. This does not include the PPV of any ability levels. The basic PPV of a natural ability is part of the race's PPV, so it is not added again to the character's PPV. The basic PPV of most abilities is usually 1 to 5, but especially valuable abilities can have a higher basic PPV. Unless otherwise specified, the basic PPV of an ability is 0.
Ability Levels - The player point value (PPV) of a character's ability level and their race's ability levels are kept seperate, so a character can add 5 levels of ability for 32 points even if their natural ability level is 4. The character's total ability level would then be 9. This table lists the PPV of each ability level:
Level ½ 1 1½ 2 2½ 3 3½ 4 4½ 5 5½ 6 6½ 7 7½ 8 8½ PPV 1 2 3 4 6 8 12 16 24 32 48 64 96 128 192 256 384
General Abilities - Some abilities are general bonuses which can be applied to many actions. For example: Hand to Hand ability gives you bonuses to close range fighting with hand weapons or natural weapons. The basic PPV of most general abilities is 2. Every game using the Hack and Slash should have it's own ability list, adapted to the needs of the game and it's setting, but here is an example of a general ability list:
Acrobatics Art Climbing Communication Craftmanship Detection Hand to Hand Intelligence Marksmanship Music Power Recovery Regeneration Running Stealth Strength Swimming Teaching Toughness
Strength and Regeneration - These abilities are related to hit points, so they need to be included in the game's list of abilities to use the hit point system. Strength reflects the character's general speed and strength relative to their size, and Regeneration is the character's ability to heal quickly. The basic PPV of these abilities is 0. (See Action Rules/Hit Points.)
Power and Toughness - The character's toughness bonus from size is increased by a half point for every 2 levels of their Toughness ability. The attack power bonus for size is increased by a half point for every 2 levels of Power ability. The basic PPV of these abilities is 0. (See Characters/Description/Size.)
Movement Abilities - Movement abilities like running, swimming and flight give the character special advantages based on their movement ability level. (See Action Rules/Maneuvering.)
Running - The distance a character can run for each hit point they use is their stride plus an extra half stride for each whole level of running ability. The basic PPV of this ability is 0.
Swimming - Swimming bonus is the number of quarter meters a character can travel per hit point each round when over half submerged or over one's head in the water. When attacking from a situation where swimming skill applies, stun damage is halved, except in the case of grappling attacks. The basic PPV of this ability is 2.
Flight - Flight bonus is the number of meters a character can fly per hit point each round. The basic PPV of this ability is 20.
Intelligence - This very useful ability can be used in the place of most other abilities, but using intelligence instead of the appropriate ability has an extra difficulty bonus of 5 points. Intelligence cannot be used in the place of Hit Point abilities like Strength and Regeneration or Movement Abilities like Running, Swimming or Flight. The basic PPV of this ability is 0. If this Intelligence ability is used in a game, all characters must have it and use it when they attempt an action they do not have another ability for.
Skills - Skills are specialized abilities. You can use a skill's ability level as a bonus to related actions, or often you can combine the skill with another ability (usually a general ability.) The basic PPV of skills is usually 1. When you use the skill with another ability your bonus is the other ability's level plus half of the skill's ability level (The result is rounded down to the nearest half point, so half levels of the skill don't contribute to this bonus.) For example, if your Hand to Hand ability is level 5, and you apply your level 4 fencing skill, your bonus with the fencing weapon is 5 plus half of 4, resulting in a bonus of 7. Sometimes a skill can be used with different abilities in different situations. These are some examples of skills:
Acting Animal Handling Cooking Gardening Law Literacy Medicine Piloting Sailing Sign language Slight of Hand Speed
The best bonus for the least PPV is usually acheived by balancing the PPV of the general ability with the PPV of the skills used with that general ability.