Bunnies And Burrows Skills And Stunts

Return to Fate Core Bunnies and Burrows

Important Note: As the skill list is smaller than usual for Fate Core, characters start with 16 skill points arranged as follows. Initially, skills are capped at Great (+4).

2 Good (+3)
3 Fair (+2)
4 Average (+1)

Anthropology

This skill is the study of humans and their stuff. Unlike other animals, humans are alien at best, monsters at worst. A cat might try to kill you, but at least you can communicate with it (if it's willing) and understand why it's doing what it's doing. Even successful use of Anthropology will never give completely clear answers. It can be used to guess at what a human is about to do, but with only the vaguest idea of why. Most rabbits would avoid human areas completely if not for the fact that they often grow the best food in their gardens, and sometimes have other fascinating spoils.

Human machinery is just as confusing to a rabbit. Even simple things, like latches, knobs, and levers, require an Anthropology roll to figure out. Anything truly complex, however, is beyond a rabbit's understanding; skilled bunnies could get a car door open, but even a Legendary success won't let them drive the car! Anthropology is especially useful for identifying and escaping the traps set by humans. It's the closest thing rabbits have to a "manual dexterity skill."

Overcome: Use this skill to answer questions about humans and human technology, to identify a man-made trap and what it will do, to recognize the scent of nearby exhaust, and so on. If a trap is hidden, you must first use Notice to spot "something odd," then Anthropology can tell you what.

Create an Advantage: Useful around human areas for knowing to do things like knocking over Spilled Oil and turning on Distracting Machinery — or to predict what a human is going to do once the dog starts barking (Yelling Human can help a Stealth roll).

Attack: No! Attacking a human? Are you crazy?

Defend: You can use Anthropology to defend against human attacks, if better than your Athletics.

Anthropology Stunts

Note that you cannot have a stunt which improves your understanding of human motives or complex machinery.

Pet Empathy: You may substitute Anthropology for Empathy and Fauna when dealing with fully domesticated animals.
So Fluffy!: Humans find you adorable. The first time each session that a human would be in conflict with you, it must roll Will against your Anthropology or Rapport to be able to attack you. On a failure, it can attack someone else and may try against next turn to overcome your obstacle. On failure by 3+ shifts, it's overwhelmed and will try to befriend and/or capture you nonviolently. (This stunt has no effect if you or any other rabbit has attacked the human recently.)
Trap-Savvy: +2 when using Anthropology to identify or interact with man-made traps.

Athletics

Unchanged from Fate Core. Use this skill or Fight to throw blowball herbs and similar light things. You may also defend against any attack, even a human's ranged attack, though note that Fight is also an option for defending against animal attacks.

Athletics Stunts

Acrobatic Evade: +2 to overcome with Athletics when another character presents an obstacle to you moving between zones.
Dazing Counter: When you succeed with style on a defend action against an opponent’s Fight roll, you automatically counter with some sort of nerve punch or stunning blow. You get to attach the Dazed situation aspect to your opponent with a free invoke, instead of just a boost.
Graceful Silence: Your natural poise and grace enable you to pass quietly and undetected. You may use your Athletics skill in place of Stealth whenever silence alone would help you move undetected.
Self-Preservation: +2 to Athletic contests when you're being chased by someone.
Sprinter: You move two zones for free in a conflict without rolling, instead of one, provided there are no situation aspects restricting movement.

Deceive

Unchanged from Fate Core. Language is usually a factor when using Deceive, unless the GM agrees that the concept is universal and can be conveyed non-verbally.

Deceive Stunts

Bait of Words: Gain an additional +2 to Deceive whenever you invoke an advantage you personally created by using Rapport on the target.
Fast Talk: You get +2 to overcome obstacles with Deceive, provided you don’t have to talk to the subject you’re trying to deceive for more than a few sentences before blowing past them.
Lies upon Lies: +2 to create a Deceive advantage against someone who has believed one of your lies already during this session.
Mind Games: You can use Deceive in place of Provoke to make mental attacks, as long as you can make up a clever lie as part of the attack.
Play Dead: When you create the advantage Feigning Death, no foes will attack you until the aspect is overcome (usually with Notice).
Takes One to Know One: You may defend against lies with Deceive instead of Empathy.

Empathy

Unchanged from Fate Core, except that this skill can be expanded into full empathic healing.

Empathy Stunts

Empathic Healer: See Bunnies and Burrows Empathic Healers.
Lie Whisperer: +2 to all Empathy rolls made to discern or discover lies, whether they’re directed at you or someone else.
Nose for Trouble: You can use Empathy instead of Notice to determine your turn order in a conflict, provided you’ve gotten a chance to observe or speak to those involved for at least a few minutes beforehand during this scene.
Psychologist: Once per session you can reduce someone else’s mental consequence by one level of severity by succeeding on an Empathy roll (difficulty +2 for mild, +3 for moderate, +4 for severe). You need to talk with the person you’re treating for at least half an hour in order for them to receive the benefits of this stunt, and you can’t use it on yourself.

Fauna

This is knowledge and understanding of animals, from your fellow rabbits to their fiercest predators. It encompasses their physiology, culture, and language — both individually and as regards their kingdoms and territories. To some degree, this replaces Contacts specifically for finding rabbits in your own warren who could help you with something, but you'll have to use other social skills to convince them to do so. (The stunts specific to the Contacts skill are not available.)

Overcome: Use Fauna to know about nearby animal kingdoms and rumors of what's going on with them, recognize notable animals, recall which rabbit in your warren might have something you need, mimic a non-rabbit animal, and so on. You may also roll to understand the gist of what another species is saying; the difficulty is Average (1) if they're trying their best to communicate with you or Good (3) if you're eavesdropping or they're otherwise not trying to make this easy. Success lets you communicate basic things (like baby-talk), success with style allows reasonably fluent communication.

Create an Advantage: You can use this to discover or make use of species-wide aspects, like a bear's Slow to Rise, or to represent useful information that you could act on later, such as Threat of War to help a Provoke attempt. Storytellers might use it to create an advantage based on a pack or warren's history.

Attack and Defend: Not usually applicable.

Special: For every level above Mediocre (+0), you can specify two animal languages that you have learned fluently. You don't have to roll when speaking or listening to them. Choose from the list below.

Canine: bear, coyote, dog, fox, wolf, etc. (Note: No, bears aren't canines; they just happen to speak similar dialects.)
Feline: bobcat, cougar, house cat, lynx, etc.
Herptile: all reptiles and amphibians.
High Avian: crow, eagle, falcon, hawk, owl, robin, sparrow, vulture, etc. (birds of prey and songbirds).
Hooved: boar, cow, deer, donkey, goat, horse, pig, sheep, etc.
Insectivore: armadillo, bat, mole, opossum, shrew, etc.
Invertebrate: insects, slugs, spiders, worms, etc. (Note: Even with perfect fluency, don't expect to learn much from them!)
Low Avian: duck, chicken, goose, gull, heron, pheasant, quail, turkey, etc. (ground and water fowl).
Mustelid: badger, ferret, mongoose, raccoon, skunk, weasel, wolverine, etc.
Piscine: all fish.
Rodent: beaver, chipmunk, marmot, mouse, porcupine, rat, squirrel, woodchuck, etc.

Fauna Stunts

Diplomat: Use Fauna instead of Rapport for the purpose of making first contact with or negotiating with another warren.
First Aid: You understand physiology well enough to help an animal's body heal. You may use Fauna to create an advantage for a subject's recovery roll (made by either the subject or an empathic healer) by spending several minutes treating them. The difficulty is Average (1) for rabbits, Fair (2) for other mammals, and Good (3) for anything else.
Friends Everywhere: You can use Fauna to find a helpful contact in unfamiliar warrens and among similar groups of neutral animals. (Normally you'd have to spend a fate point to justify knowing someone there.)
Linguist: You get +2 on rolls to understand languages and may choose four additional languages to be fluent in.
Mimic: You get +2 on rolls to mimic another animal. Also, if you don't speak that language, you can avoid any extra penalty if you stick to really basic phrases ("Help!").

Fight

Unchanged from Fate Core. Use this skill or Athletics to throw blowball herbs and similar light things. You may defend against other animal attacks with Fight or Athletics, but only Athletics lets you dodge ranged attacks (like from humans).

Fight Stunts

See Bunnies and Burrows Bun Fu for additional stunts available only to trained fighters.

Dominance: Rabbits "cuff," a light punch to the face, to put each other in their place. When attempting to intimidate another rabbit in this way, you may roll Fight instead of Provoke.
Heavy Hitter: When you succeed with style on a Fight attack and choose to reduce the result by one to gain a boost, you gain a full situation aspect with a free invocation instead.
Spring Attack: Once per scene, you may move one zone on foot, attack with Fight, and then move one additional zone, provided there are no situation aspects restricting movement.

Flora

This skill covers knowledge of the environment — the plants, the land, and the weather. If it has to do with general "outdoorsiness," it's Flora. (Remember that knowledge of other rabbits and animals is covered by the Fauna skill; Flora is for the environment and ecology in general.) It is also the base skill for herbalists (see Bunnies and Burrows Herbalists).

Overcome: Use Flora to identify an herbal concoction, guess what the weather will be in a few hours, track another animal, navigate on a long journey, gather food, design a comfortable warren expansion, and so on.

Create an Advantage: You can recognize and make use of hazards, like Tree Full Of Hornets, or with preparation time set up some advantages ahead of time, like Shallow Holes Dug (to help a Stealth roll).

Attack: No, except as explicitly noted for damaging herbalist concoctions.

Defend: Not usually applicable.

Flora Stunts

Herbalist: See Bunnies and Burrows Herbalists.
Tracker: +2 to Flora rolls to track someone.
Tolerance: You may replace Physique with Flora for the purpose of taking and resisting herbal concoctions.
Snare Sense: For the purpose of spotting and disabling concealed outdoor traps, you can use Flora in place of Anthropology.
Weaver: You can use Flora skill to create woven bags, mats, etc. Treat this as creating an advantage; standard backpacks are Average (1) difficulty. They usually last for several days, so the GM will have you roll Flora whenever an item is used under stress, overloaded, etc.; failure means it finally came apart. (You start the game having a pack with two invocations.)

Notice

Unchanged from Fate Core.

Notice Stunts

Bloodhound Nose: You can use Notice instead of Flora to track someone.
Body Language Reader: You can use Notice in place of Empathy to learn the aspects of a target through observation.
Danger Sense: You have an almost preternatural capacity for detecting danger. Your Notice skill works unimpeded by conditions like total concealment, darkness, or other sensory impairments in situations where someone or something intends to harm you.
Hidey-Holes: +2 to create an advantage with Notice based on finding a suitable location to stay hidden.

Physique

Unchanged from Fate Core.

Physique Stunts

Brawny: Treat your Physique as being 2 levels higher for the sole purpose of figuring stress and consequence boxes. This stunt has no effect if you have Physique 5+; switch it out for Refresh or a different stunt.
Grappler: +2 to Physique rolls made to create advantages on an enemy by wrestling or grappling with them. (See Fate Core House Rules for more on grappling.)
Rapid Healer: +2 on natural recovery rolls. Also, you may spend a fate point to make a recovery roll without first taking time to rest and lick your wounds.
Power Over Finesse: When fighting other rabbits, you can get by with brute strength instead of technique; use Physique in place of Fight to attack and defend.
Rage: When you suffer a physical consequence, you can invoke that consequence for free on your next attack. If you suffer multiple physical consequences, you get a free invocation for each. (Despite bunnies' tendency to flee or freeze, when they do fight, they can be surprisingly fierce!)
Tough as Nails: Once per session, at the cost of a fate point, you can reduce the severity of a moderate physical consequence to a mild one (if your mild consequence slot is free), or erase a mild consequence altogether.

Provoke

Unchanged from Fate Core. Language is rarely an issue with Provoke, as much can be accomplished via action and body language.

Provoke Stunts

Infuriate: +2 to Provoke rolls whenever deliberately trying to get someone angry with you.
Master of Mockery: The first time each fight that you place an aspect such as Enraged With (You) on an opponent, that opponent can do nothing but attack you until the aspect is overcome.
Okay, Fine!: You can use Provoke in place of Empathy to learn a target’s aspects, by bullying them until they reveal one to you. The target defends against this with Will. (If the GM thinks the aspect is particularly vulnerable to your hostile approach, you get a +2 bonus.)
Poison Tongue: You know how to craft the most exquisite insults. +2 to create an advantage with Provoke whenever you eloquently insult a rival.
Wide Reach: Your wit is so profound that you can take a whole audience with you. During a public performance (e.g., telling a story), advantages you create with Provoke attach to each character present. You choose to which member(s) your free invocations apply.

Rapport

Unchanged from Fate Core, except that it includes the option to be a cinematically enthralling storyteller. Language is usually a major factor when using Rapport, unless the character is trying to express something blatant (e.g., showing the belly to surrender).

Rapport Stunts

Best Foot Forward: Twice per session, you may upgrade a boost you receive with Rapport into a full situation aspect with a free invocation.
Five-Minute Friends: For a fate point, you can make a steadfast friend in a place you’ve never been, given a chance for five minutes of conversation. Among rabbits or neutral animals, this gets you a close friend; among shady animals, a friendly acquaintance; and among predators, one you can talk with who'll eat you last.
Master of the Mob: +2 to use Rapport on a crowd for anything except storytelling.
Smooth Over: You’re adept at stepping into a bad situation and dialing it down to something more reasonable. So long as you are not the direct reason someone is upset, your attempts to calm them down using your Rapport are at +2.
Storyteller: See Bunnies and Burrows Storytellers.

Second Sight

This is a special skill with no utility unless you also take at least one of its stunts. See Bunnies and Burrows Seers for details.

Second Sight Stunts

Psychic Defense: You may use Second Sight to notice, resist, and overcome the effects of Seer Communication, Seer Domination, or storytelling enthrallment — and to create an advantage that adds passive opposition to someone Seeking you.
Seer Communication: See Bunnies and Burrows Seers.
Seer Domination: See Bunnies and Burrows Seers. You must have either Seer Communication (above) or an aspect related to being feared and shunned.
Seer Visions: See Bunnies and Burrows Seers.

Stealth

Unchanged from Fate Core.

Stealth Stunts

Cunning Evasion: Once per scene, when you successfully defend against an attack with Athletics, you may roll to create an advantage with Stealth as a free action.
Hush!: Your talent with stealth may be extended to others who are with you close by, provided that you travel as a group. As long as the whole group stays with you and follows your hushed orders, you may make a single Stealth roll for the whole group, using your skill alone. (You cannot apply the benefits of other stunts to this roll.) If someone breaks from the group, they immediately lose the benefits, and may risk revealing the rest of you if they don’t manage to pull off a little Stealth of their own. The maximum number of allies that can be with you in the group is equal to your Stealth skill rating.
Freeze: +2 to overcome or defend with Stealth by remaining perfectly still.
Slip Between the Shadows: +2 to create an advantage or overcome with Stealth whenever you are in near-darkness or total darkness.
Sucker Punch: If your target is not aware of you, you can attack using Stealth instead of Fight.

Will

Unchanged from Fate Core.

Will Stunts

Hard Boiled: You can choose to ignore a mild or moderate consequence for the duration of the scene. It can’t be compelled against you or invoked by your enemies. At the end of the scene it comes back worse, though; if it was a mild consequence it becomes a moderate consequence, and if it was already moderate, it becomes severe.
Indomitable: +2 to defend against Provoke attacks specifically related to intimidation and fear, and to fear checks (see Bunnies and Burrows General Rules).
Mathematical Genius: You can count to eight. This goes, "One, two, three, four, four-one, four-two, four-three, four-four, lots!" The real advantage here is that you (the player) receive more information — but in the very specific situation of evaluating one set of 5-8 things versus a different set of 5-8 things, this also gives you +2 to opposed rolls against someone without this stunt. Other rabbits think you're kind of weird.
Mind of Steel: +2 to Will rolls to resist or overcome the effects of Seer Communication, Seer Domination, or storytelling enthrallment. Also, you may use Will (no +2) to create an advantage that adds passive opposition to someone Seeking you.
Resolute: Treat your Will as being 2 levels higher for the sole purpose of figuring stress and consequence boxes. This stunt has no effect if you have Will 5+; switch it out for Refresh or a different stunt.
Strength from Determination: Use Will instead of Physique on any overcome rolls representing feats of strength.

Return to Fate Core Bunnies and Burrows

FCBB Reference