D20 3.root(-36): Skills

One of the basic ideas of the role-playing game is that different characters are better or worse at different things. For instance, Conan the Barbarian was good at climbing walls and rather personable (from what I've heard, anyway; I haven't read the books), but not very good at understanding how magic worked or the nature of the gods (a good thing, too, given that he technically lived in the Cthulhu Mythos universe). Merlin understood how to use magic, and how to plan a battle, but not how to read people. Anansi the Spider is good at both reading and manipulating people, but not much good in a stand-up fight.

Skill descriptions are written as follows:
Key Ability: The ability associated with the skill. All skill checks combine the key ability with the skill ranks and any other modifiers to determine the modifier on the check. This is the only part of the skill description that is never repeated; all uses of the skill use the same key ability.
Use: How the skill is used.
Trained Only: Whether that use of the skill may only be used by someone with ranks in the skill.
Time: How long the skill takes to use. Continuous skills may not have the time period broken up. Interruptible skill uses may be broken up, but generally have conditions attached to each time period (such as a minimum amount of time required or a maximum amount of time that can pass between periods); any time period spent working on the skill use that does not meet these conditions does not count toward the time requirement.
Contradiction: Whether a success margin and a failure margin contradict.

Margin Rate: The amount used for determining margins.
Success Margin: Options as to what a margin of success may be applied to.
Failure Margin: What happens on a margin of failure.
Try Again: Whether the check may be retried.
Armor Check Penalty: Whether an armor check penalty applies to the skill use.