In action stories, there’s no such thing as too much talent. Whenever it makes sense, the GM may allow one skill to aid another. The assisting skill is the complementary skill while the skill actually needed for the task is the master skill.

To encourage teamwork, the person using the complementary skill doesn’t have to be the one using the master skill, unless splitting up these rolls would make no sense, even in an action story. For instance, an infiltrator using Stealth to sneak through a door might benefit from a face man using Fast-Talk to distract guards. In that example, Fast-Talk would be complementary to Stealth.

To use a complementary skill, simply roll against it. The result gives a modifier to the master skill: +2 for critical success, +1 for success, -1 for failure, or -2 for critical failure. This modifier is cumulative with others, such as equipment bonuses and BAD.

Unless explicitly noted, though, the complementary skill roll isn’t subject to BAD. Its purpose is to empower the heroes to offset the bad guys’ numbers and teamwork – which BAD abstracts – using their own. Thus, applying BAD twice would rarely be fair!

Many specific tasks name complementary skills. Players are encouraged to suggest others. If the GM agrees, a master skill might sometimes be able to benefit from several complementary skills! A skill can never serve as complementary skill and master skill at the same time, however.