Technical Skills

Technical skills apply the -1 penalty for defaulting if a character doesn't have an appropriate specialization. That is, a character may have Artisan (Painting), but they will still have to default when welding. A character who becomes trained in any Technical skill gains a specialization in that skill for free. A character can't have a specialization in a skill they don't have any ranks in.

Artisan

The Artisan skill is used when you want to produce a physical object of some level of workmanship - whether you’re going for aesthetic quality or simple utility.

There are a few more specializations in Artisan than in most Technical skills, in no small part because there are many materials that involve wildly different skills. It is recommended that these specializations are taken as applying to Artisan uses that are "close enough" - so a calligrapher might use the Painting specialization since in both cases they’re applying pigments to surfaces.

Specializations: By Medium (Painting, Sculpture, Metalwork, Carpentry, etc.)

Electronics

Electronics is the skill used to make the tools of modernity go. Everything from toasters to computers uses electronics to function. And a character with the electronics skill can figure out how it functions and alter it.

Specializations: Wiring, Software, Repair, Hacking

Medicine

Medicine is the art of treating injury and illness to promote good health. Characters use this skill to patch injuries in their pets and team mates. Remember that the realm of horror runs on movie physics, meaning that characters who receive proper medical care are able to make impressive and full recoveries from amazing injuries.

Specializations: Veterinary, First Aid, Long Term Care, Psychiatric

Operations

Operations is the skill of making machines and systems go. One part mechanical engineering and one part heavy machinery operation. This is distinct from making machines (generally artisan), running computer programs that make systems go for you (generally electronics), or driving (generally driving). You make an Operations test when there is not a 1:1 correspondence between your muscle movement and the action of the machine. So it's Operations to pilot a boat and Driving to walk a mech around.

Specializations: Piloting, Industry, Repair

Research

Knowing things is important, but the fact is that your brain probably can't hold all the information you might possibly want to have available - and doesn't always keep the things you do know readily accessible. When you need information that you don't actually have in your head, you can use the Research skill to go look it up.

Researching things overall is fairly uniform, but there are particular methods of looking things up that might not be obvious to people who don't use that system in particular. Specialization in Archives indicates an ability to look up information in data logs, newspaper histories, and other chronological information stores. The Library specialization involves looking up information in stores classified by content, and Datamining covers sifting through internet searches, wikis, and highly disorganized information for something useful.

Specializations: Archives, Library, Datamining, Interrogation

Rigging

Rigging is the skill of MacGyvering and Rube Goldberging things. It is the skill of practical and impromptu engineering. Including lockpicking, plumbing, and clockwork. Rigging is used for most non-electric jury rigging as well as the creation, operation, and repair of most steam punk technologies.

Rigging can also be used to break stuff in a manner which will be most effective. It can break things in such a way as to make them not look broken, to not break things in such a manner as they do look broken, and to make things break in such a manner as to explode.

Specializations: Fluids, Gears, Disabling Stuff, Explosives, Traps, Structural Weaknesses

Sabotage

Sabotage is the art of breaking stuff in a manner which will be most effective. Sabotage can be used for "rigging things to explode" rather than the actual Rigging skill. Sabotage can be used to break things in such a way as to make them look not broken, to not break things in such a manner as they do look broken, and to make things break in such a manner as to explode. Remember that events in After Sundown have a pyrotechnics budget, so things tend to explode big.

Specializations: Explosives, Disabling Stuff, Structural Weaknesses, Traps