Whereas Attributes are the natural potentials your character was born with, Abilities measure how he puts those potentials to use. Your character may have lightning-fast reflexes, but can he transfer that nimbleness to his car when it fishtails on an icy road? Even the smoothest charmer can look like a putz at a black-tie affair if he doesn't know the correct formalities. Attributes can improve through years of experience, training or study, while Abilities are much more flexible. When your character attempts to do anything, you usually roll a dice pool combining an Attribute and an appropriate Ability.
There are 36 Abilities separated evenly into three separate categories: Talents, Skills and Knowledges. Some Abilities (Expression, Crafts, Performance, Academics, Science) require you to choose a specialty, even if your character's rating is not 4 or higher. For example, a character with Performance may have a grounding in singing, dancing and acting from her off-Broadway experience - but her true talent (her specialty) lies in dramatic soliloquies
Paint a picture of your character's identity and past when choosing Abilities. The things a person knows or is able to do say a lot about her. Even a single dot in an Ability can reveal a fascinating aspect of her identity - especially when the Ability seems to clash with the
character's concept. A company CEO with points in Streetwise? Maybe he rose to prominence from his beginnings in the inner city and never lost touch with the old neighbourhood. Perhaps he's in the thrall of a brutal coke addiction and doesn't trust anyone else to arrange his fix. As long as you remain in the realm of plausibility, use your allotted points as a palette to create a memorable portrait.

 

SKILLS
Skills are equal parts training and instinct. They are developed through experience, practice and instruction. A person with knowledge of proper procedure is at an advantage over one without such training. Rolls involving Skills that your character doesn't have are at +1 difficulty.

 

ANIMAL KEN
Animals aren't keen on anyone touched by the supernatural, and they can't always tell good guys from bad. They may be uneasy in the presence of hunters who make constant contact with the enemy, or in the presence of hunters who are contacted frequently by the Messengers. Animal Ken allows your character to empathize with, if not understand an animal's behaviour. She can use this Skill to train domesticated animals, calm unsettled ones and sometimes even understand what they try to communicate.

 

O Novice: "What's that Lassie? Did Jimmy fall down the well again?"
O O Practiced: You know which animals are fooled by playing dead and which don't mind cold dinners.
O O O Competent: You could train a police attack dog.
O O O O Expert: You could train a lion.
O O O O O Master: You were raised by apes.

Possessed by: Farmers, Animal Trainers, Pet Owners, Park Rangers, Lonely Old Ladies Who Own Cats
Specialties: Specific Kind of Animal, Attack Training, Guard Training, Retrieval Training, Communication, Calming

 

CRAFTS
Crafts allows your character to make and repair things with his hands (although it doesn't cover electronic devices; that's the purview of Technology). Your character can fix cars, build a house, knit clothing, even design mechanical devices. He may also be skilled at creating works of art, like pottery or sculpture. You must always choose a field of Crafts in which your character specializes, although he is handy enough to have general capability in several areas.

 

O Novice: You sewed your own wallet at summer camp.
O O Practiced: You're a handyman around the house.
O O O Competent: You seldom need to call the repairman.
O O O O Expert: Your designs for clothing or art are emulated around the country.
O O O O O Master: You've swamped the patent office with your ideas.

Possessed by: Artisans, Repairmen, Inventors, Farmers, Designers
Specialties: Auto Mechanics, Appraisal, Paintings, Gadgets, Traps

 

DEMOLITIONS
Demolitions is the fine art of making things go boom. With this Skill, your character knows how to make, identify, disarm and use a variety of explosive devices. She also knows where to place explosives inside a large structure for maximum effect, and how to direct explosive power through techniques like tamping. Of course, the most effective bombs require materials that are both expensive and illegal. Demolitions gives your character the know-how to combine components, not the ability to acquire them.

 

O Novice: You mix a mean Molotov cocktail.
O O Practiced: Pipe bombs
O O O Competent: Car bombs
O O O O Expert: High-yield explosives
O O O O O Master: You deal strictly in megatons.

Possessed by: Bomb Squads, Radicals, Construction Workers, Soldiers
Specialties: Timers, Triggers, Disarming, Everyday Chemicals, Placement, Electronics

 

DRIVE
Your character knows how to drive a car. With high levels in this Skill, he can pull off tricky manoeuvres at dangerously high speeds. This Skill also imparts an awareness of cars' limits and how to push them. This understanding can be very useful when a BMW full of gun-toting bloodsuckers decides to chase your character's utility van. Additional dots also offer expertise in a broad range of vehicles - motorcycles or 18-wheelers, for example.
If your character doesn't have this Skill, he can still drive, but only an automatic. Any Drive rolls made are based on the appropriate Attribute only, at + 1 difficulty. Of course, you may not want your character to know how to drive at all.

 

O Novice: You can drive any type of car, automatic or stick shift.
O O Practiced: You fight rush-hour traffic on a daily basis.
O O O Competent: Taxi driver or professional trucker.
O O O O Expert: Stock-car racer.
O O O O O Master: You're as comfortable driving a car on two wheels as you are on four.

Possessed by: Race-Car Drivers, Truckers, Punk Kids, Commuters, Chauffeurs
Specialties: Off-Road, Motorcycles, Reverse, Heavy Traffic, Turns, Tailing, Getaways, Ramming

 

ETIQUETTE
Your character is knowledgeable in the formal behaviours of society. This Skill typically extends only to the environment with which he is most familiar, but the truly polished are learned in the protocols of several cultures. High scores in this field can make your character respected and remembered in situations where formality is paramount.

 

O Novice: You took ballroom dancing classes at the community centre.
O O Practiced: You've been to a few charitable dinners.
O O O Competent: Perhaps you served a stint as a sommelier or a maitre d'.
O O O O Expert: You are a true diplomat, comfortable in any formal setting.
O O O O O Master: You are either royalty or a person who caters to royalty.

Possessed by: High Society, Diplomats, World Travelers, Politicians, Snobs
Specialties: Business, European Customs, Asian Customs, Seduction, Networking, Sycophancy

 

FIREARMS
Torches and pitchforks are weapons of the past. A modern-day hunter who uses traditional weapons against the supernatural - and lives - quickly learns to adopt more modern means of subduing prey. This Skill covers a broad range of weapons from derringers to machine guns, and includes knowledge of how to clean, repair, unjam (Wits + Firearms), and recognize them - plus, how to kill others with them. Firearms does not, however, include heavy artillery like mortar rockets or antitank guns.

 

O Novice: You subscribe to Arms and Armaments.
O O Practiced: Many a clay pigeon has met its end thanks to your skilful trigger finger.
O O O Competent: An avid hunter of wildlife or otherwise.
O O O O Expert: Your friends call you "Crack-shot."
O O O O O Master: You've fired more bullets than any single brigade ever will.

Possessed by: Law Enforcement, Survivalists, Military Personnel, Gun Nuts
Specialties: Solid-Slug Guns, Scatter-guns, Sprays, Sniping, Called Shots

 

MELEE
Sometimes it's best to fight monsters without waking up the entire neighbourhood. That's when hand-to-hand weapons come into play. Melee is the Skill to use all manner of such arms, from the classic wooden stake to martial-arts implements to improvised weapons such as broken bottles and folding chairs.

 

O Novice: You can show off with a sword and not cut yourself.
O O Practiced: Even when your rifle runs out of ammo, you're far from helpless.
O O O Competent: You prefer the grace of a rapier to the tactlessness of a gun.
O O O O Expert: You could be on the Olympic fencing team.
O O O O O Master: You display an undeniable skill that has virtually been lost in the modern age.

Possessed by: Gang Members, Martial Artists, Police, Assassins, Duellists
Specialties: Knives, Swords, Stakes, Improvised Weapons, Aimed Strikes, Parries, Disarms

 

PERFORMANCE
Whereas Expression is the capacity to put words to paper, voice or email, Performance is the ability to take it to the stage. Your character is adept in a performing art and possesses not only the know-how but the stage presence to enrapture an audience. You must specialize in one field, although people skilled in one performing art form usually have some acquaintance with the others.

 

O Novice: Garage band
O O Practiced: Club circuit
O O O Competent: Record label
O O O O Expert: Billboard
O O O O O Master: Hall of Fame

Possessed by: Musicians, Actors, Dancers, Some Talk-Show Hosts, College Kids
Specialties: Various Instruments, Singing, Acting, Dancing, Stage Presence, Comedy

 

SECURITY
This Skill measures both your character's ability to secure an area or person, as well as his ability to bypass others' precautions. It entails the know-how to break into and out of buildings, hot-wire cars and even crack safes. Conversely, it allows your character to set up his own safeguards or recognise the weak points in a defence system.

 

O Novice: You can tie and untie complex knots.
O O Practiced: You can hot-wire vehicles.
O O O Competent: You are familiar with most simple security systems .
O O O O Expert: You know almost every way to protect (or get at) a person or area.
O O O O O Master: Nothing is safe from you.

Possessed by: Burglars, Security Consultants, Law Enforcement, Stalkers
Specialties: Hot-Wiring, Electrical Systems, Escape, Combination Locks, Tumblers

 

STEALTH
Your character knows how to avoid detection, regardless of whether he's hiding or on the move. This Skill also gives him the capacity to shadow other people unnoticed or to conceal items on his person or nearby. This Trait is often pitted against an opponent's Perception to determine whether your character is successful or not.

 

O Novice: You are a hide-and-seek expert.
O O Practiced: You could tail an unsuspecting person through a shopping mall.
O O O Competent: You'd make a great cat burglar.
O O O O Expert: You can hide on a flat plain in broad daylight.
O O O O O Master: Your prey never sees you until your knife is in his back.

Possessed by: Thieves, Policemen, Military Special Forces, Reporters, Assassins
Specialties: Object Concealment, Urban Camouflage, Wilderness, Tailing Prey, Theft

 

SURVIVIAL
Although hunters find that most of their prey sticks to cities, a mark sometimes leads them deep into the unknown. Your character has the practical experience and instincts to survive in a friendless environment and can live there for days or even months if she has to. If your character tries to avoid detection in the wilderness, you can roll only as many dice in Stealth as she has in Survival.

 

O Novice: Infrequent camping trips with the kids.
O O Practiced: Eagle Scout
O O O Competent: You could gather enough food in the woods to survive indefinitely.
O O O O Expert: You could elude an FBI search team for months.
O O O O O Master: African Bushman

Possessed by: Boy Scouts, Hunters (of animals), Survivalists, Hermits, Commandos, Sailors
Specialties: Woodlands, Desert, Ocean, Tracking, Food-Gathering, Shelter-Building, Hiding

 

TECHNOLOGY
Your character is a true child of the modern age. He understands how electronic devices work and has a familiarity with the wide range available to him. Additionally, he possesses the know-how to repair or alter such devices. Technology does not apply to mechanical devices or physical art; that's the realm of Crafts. Likewise, computer technology - hardware and software - is the purview of the Computer Knowledge.

 

O Novice: You can program a VCR.
O O Practiced: You know how to fix fuses and build simple crystal radios.
O O O Competent: With tools and time, you could build a fairly complex device like a television or a motion detector.
O O O O Expert: You can alter almost any existing electronic equipment to make it do new and interesting things.
O O O O O Master: If modern technology could only keep up with you, you'd be performing digital miracles.

Possessed by: Engineers, Inventors, Repairmen, Spies
Specialties: Surveillance, Invention, Vehicles, Security, Customizations