[Basic] Skill of the week: Heraldry

[johndallman]

Heraldry is the IQ/A skill of recognising and creating identifying symbols, which defaults to IQ-5. Its default description is for settings where coats of arms (plus crests, flags, tartans, etc.) are a vital part of recognising important people, where it also defaults to Savoir-Faire (High Society)-3. Other settings might have different versions, such as Corporate Symbols, defaulting to Current Affairs (Business)-3, or Graffiti Tags, defaulting to Streetwise-3. The skill takes Cultural Familiarity modifiers, and has modifiers of +5 to -5 for really well known to deeply obscure symbols. No skills default to Heraldry, and the Non-Iconographic disadvantage makes you unable to learn it.

Actually knowing the skill is likely to mean you can do some basic things automatically, such as recognise the local duke's and king's arms, but other things, such as designing a coat of arms for a fake foreign noble, ought to be left to an expert. Heralds were originally messengers between lords, and thus had to understand and explain coats of arms. That role evolved into the profession of diplomacy. Some countries still have "officers of arms", and most militaries have an organisation responsible for symbols, medal designs and so on.

Heraldry is a common skill on templates for knights and nobles, and for fantasy bards, who often act as heralds. Banestorm expands on Heraldry a bit, giving it slightly different rules from historical Earth. DF gives bandits and orc-tribes distinctive marks to be recognised. Infinite Worlds points out cross-world familiarity penalties for this (and many other) skills. Low-Tech adds the specialisations of Cattle Brands, defaulting to Farming-3, and Punishment Marks (Criminology-3), and Magic adds Mystic Marks. PU3 and PU7 have several examples for this skill. Social Engineering adds several specialisations, from Athletic Uniforms to Religious Iconography.

It seems rare for Heraldry to be a primary skill for solving in-game problems, although it's often useful for avoiding errors, social or worse (an character of mine has the Uniforms and Insignia specialisation, important when you're infiltrating a foreign military).

How has Heraldry been important in your games?

[Not]

I haven't seen mention of regimental ties. This is a real thing, but I first encountered it in the BattleTech novel Ripost; an infiltrator is given away because he's wearing the wrong academy sash, or perhaps spurs, at a ball. This might default to savoir faire, Military and not High society.

[johndallman]

I suspect that's (Insignia and Uniforms), from Social Engineering, which does indeed default to Savoir-Faire (Military (or Police))-3.

[evileeyore]

I use both Heraldry for recognizing established complex organizational markings, such as military battalion patches, squad patches, service medals, noble coats of arms, governmental department uniforms (if regulated), regulated organizational symbols (hazard symbols and the like), flags, etc.

I also give more than a +5 (up to +10) for simple recognition of extremely common, important, organization symbols; say recognizing the FBI logo for modern citizens of the USA or a Marshall's tin star in the old west.

I also allow Savoir-Faire (specific type) (culture) to sub in on this without the over generous culture bonus.

[WaterAndWindSpirit]

I believe someone on this forum (don't remember whom) told that gang colors or handkerchief codes (leave a handkerchief partly hanging out of your pocket tied in a specific way to indicate you're gay/bi/het/into BDSM/into just about any fetish out there) are valid Heraldry specializations.

In a resistance based campaign, you could probably use heraldry to recognize resistance symbols, which could be invaluable if you're trying to locate a supply cache or a secure hideout. But I'm saying this cause I'm excited about XCOM 2 so I may be wrong.

[Ashtagon]

I've seen the following that I would accept as valid specialisations:

* Medieval coats of arms
* military uniforms, medals, and badges
* superhero costumes and insignia
* corporate logos and branding

I wouldn't count the "gay handkerchief code" as a valid Heraldry, because there, the intent isn't to establish a unique identity for an individual or organisation, but to act as a cipher for specific meanings. That is, the code transmits ideas and preferences rather than identity or membership in a group.

Similarly, "resistance symbols" (if similar to tracking signs) seems more about messages than identity. I'm not sure off-hand what skill is appropriate for such codes and ciphers, but I wouldn't choose Heraldry.

[Not]

Signaling that you're a swinger or a homosexual in TL7 America is... what? 5 point secret? Gesture? Detect (vague)? IQ roll?

[mook]

At a recent con game of "The Warriors," the PCs all had Heraldry (as 'Colors'). I think I may have overstepped the scope of the skill a bit, but the higher their margin of success, the more they knew about the gang in question (leaders, numbers, reputation, turf, fighting style, etc...).

I suppose for a non-one-shot game I'd use Colors to identify a gang member, and Area Knowledge or Streetwise for knowledge of that gang, but the "all-in-one" approach worked fine (and let the PC with the skill at 14 contribute a ton of helpful tidbits).

[malloyd]

Originally Posted by mook

At a recent con game of "The Warriors," the PCs all had Heraldry (as 'Colors'). I think I may have overstepped the scope of the skill a bit, but the higher their margin of success, the more they knew about the gang in question (leaders, numbers, reputation, turf, fighting style, etc...).

That actually seems like a relatively fair use. "I can link items on these two arbitrary lists" isn't really a useful skill.

"Those are the arms of Sir John of Westbrook".
"Is Westbrook around here?"
"You don't know"
"Is Sir John likely to be a dangerous opponent?"
"You don't know"
"Is Sir John important in *any way whatsoever*?"
"You have no idea"

Is this something it made sense to pay points for? Recognizing somebody needs to give you more than just a name to be worth more than a perk. A paragraph capsule biography might be enough, but "on a successful skill roll you can replace Blue-and-white-shield-guy with his actual name, without taking 5 seconds to ask" is not something I'd expect players to rush to buy.

[johndallman]

Originally Posted by malloyd

Recognizing somebody needs to give you more than just a name to be worth more than a perk. A paragraph capsule biography might be enough...

Now I remember it, that's what the Recognise skill, which is largely about heraldry, does in the Pendragon RPG.