Culture

Ability Score Int; Trained Only

You are a student of the vast number of known cultures in the galaxy, and you have a deep and rich understanding of the undercurrents of cultures and language in general. Each time you take a rank in Culture, you learn to speak and read a new language.

Decipher Writing

You can use Culture to decipher writing in an unfamiliar language or a message written in an incomplete or archaic form. It takes at least 1 minute to decipher approximately 250 words of writing or fewer. The GM often rolls Culture checks to decipher writing in secret. If you succeed at the check, you understand the general content of the text. If you fail, you don’t understand the text. If you fail the check by 10 or more, you entirely misconstrue the meaning of the text. You can’t take 20 on a Culture check to decipher writing unless you are trained in the Computers skill and have access to an information network or downloaded data set. In this case, there is no chance of misconstruing the information presented in the writing.

The DCs for Culture checks to decipher writing are based on the complexity of the text as well as other circumstances determined by the GM.

Recall Knowledge

You can use Culture to recall knowledge about a culture’s customs, laws, government, leaders, prominent inhabitants, legends, religion, history, and related topics.

• Civics: Law, legislation, litigation, and legal rights and obligations. Political and governmental institutions and processes.
• Current Events: Recent happenings in the news, sports, politics, entertainment, and foreign affairs.
• Popular Culture: Popular music and personalities, genre films and books, urban legends, comics, science fiction, and gaming, among others.
• Streetwise: Street and urban culture, local underworld personalities and events.

Linguistics

Contents show You are skilled at working with language, in both its spoken and written forms. You can speak multiple languages, and can decipher nearly any tongue given enough time. Your skill in writing allows you to create and detect forgeries as well. You can decipher writing in an unfamiliar language or a message written in an incomplete or archaic form. The base DC is 20 for the simplest messages, 25 for standard texts, and 30 or higher for intricate, exotic, or very old writing. If the check succeeds, you understand the general content of a piece of writing about one page long (or the equivalent). If the check fails, make a DC 5 INT check to see if you avoid drawing a false conclusion about the text. (Success means that you do not draw a false conclusion; failure means that you do.) Both the Culture check for Linguistics and (if necessary) the INT check are made secretly by the GM, so that you can’t tell whether the conclusion you draw is true or false.

Create or Detect Forgeries Creating a forgery can take anywhere from 1 minute to 1d4 minutes per page. Detecting a forgery using Culture for Linguistics takes 1 round of examination per page.

Forgery requires writing materials appropriate to the document being forged. To forge a document on which the handwriting is not specific to a person, you need only to have seen a similar document before, and you gain a +8 bonus on your check. To forge a signature, you need an autograph of that person to copy, and you gain a +4 bonus on the check. To forge a longer document written in the hand of some particular person, a large sample of that person’s handwriting is needed. The Culture check is made secretly, so that you’re not sure how good your forgery is. As with Disguise, you don’t make a check until someone examines the work. Your Culture check is opposed by the Culture check of the person who examines the document to verify its authenticity. The examiner gains modifiers if any of the conditions are listed on the table above.

With sufficient ranks in Culture, you earn the following.

• 5 Ranks: You can use Culture instead of Sense Motive to intercept and interpret secret messages (as the Bluff skill). You gain a +1 insight bonus on Perception and Disable Device checks to detect or disarm written magical traps. This bonus increases by 1 for every 5 ranks beyond 5 you possess in Culture.
• 10 Ranks: If you succeed at a Culture check by at least 10 when examining writing, you can learn the precise meaning rather than general content, and you never draw false conclusions on a failed check. A successful DC 30 Linguistics check reveals the general meaning of speech, a successful DC 35 check reveals 1d4 pieces of specific information, and a successful DC 40 check reveals exact meaning.
• 15 Ranks: You can decipher magical writings (as read magic) by succeeding at a Culture check (DC = 25 + caster level). If you identify a written magical trap in this way, you gain a +2 circumstance bonus on Disable Device checks to disarm it.
• 20 Ranks: You can attempt to decipher magical or non-magical text at a rate of one page per round. If you instead spend 1 minute per page, roll twice and take the better result.