Skills

Animal Handling
You know about animals, whether from having a dog when you were a kid or from growing up on a farm. Caring for, feeding, and teaching tricks to animals are covered by this skill, as is riding, if appropriate.

Specialties: animal training, riding, veterinary, zoology

Artistry
You are able to express yourself through various artistic media and can evoke a reaction in an audience. You may have an innate talent, or benefit from formal schooling.

Specialties: appraisal, cooking, forgery, painting, photography, poetry, sculpting, writing

Athletics
This skill is used for most displays of physical prowess, including both strength and finesse. This skill allows you to run, jump, throw, climb, swim, and play sports.

Specialties: climbing, contortion, dodge, juggling, jumping, gymnastics, parachuting, parasailing, pole vaulting, running, swimming, weight lifting, football, tennis, scuba

Combat, Guns
To squeeze the trigger, and obtain the desired result, use the Guns skill.

Specialties: gunsmithing, pistols, machine guns, rifles, shotguns, submachine guns, rifle grenades

Combat, Heavy Weapons
This skill covers the biggest guns, and some may require more than one person to operate. To differentiate from Guns, Heavy Weapons are typically mounted somehow.

Specialties: artillery, catapults, demolitions, forward observer, mounted guns, repair heavy weapons, rocket launchers, ship's cannons, aerial gunnery

Combat, Melee Weapon
Swinging blades and wielding clubs requires this Skill.

Specialties: clubs, knives, melee weaponsmithing, pole arms, swords, whips

Combat, Ranged Weapons
Any personal weapons that aren't Guns falls under this Skill, including bows, grenades, and javelins.

Specialties: blowguns, bows, crossbows, darts, grenades, javelins, ranged weaponsmithing (not explosives), slings, throwing axes, throwing knives

Combat, Unarmed
If all you have are your fists (or feet, elbows, forehead, etc), and you want to hurt the other person, you use Unarmed Combat. Various Martial Arts styles fall in this category, though their use of weapons (other than the improvised beer bottle or rock in the hand) do not.

Specialties: boxing, brawling, judo, karate, kung fu, savate, wrestling

Covert
This skill helps you do things, usually illegal things, without being caught. Use this skill to move silently, hide, blow a safe, pick a pocket, or evade a pursuer.

Specialties: camouflage, sabotage, forgery, infiltration, open locks, sleight of hand, stealth, streetwise, surveillance

Craft
Anytime you create something, you use the Craft Skill. Alterations can also sometimes use this Skill, though repairs are most often covered by Mechanical Engineering. Most projects will require complex Skill checks.

Specialties: architecture, blacksmithing, carpentry, cooking, machining, leatherworking, metalworking, pottery, sewing

Discipline
A variety of mental/psychological skill sets fall under Discipline. This skill represents some sort of training, learned in the military, in a martial arts dojo, or among Buddhist monks, or a lot of self-help books. This Skill allows you to resist interrogation, focus without being distracted, or scare someone into submission.

Specialties: concentration, interrogation, intimidation, leadership, mental resistance, morale, inner peace

Engineering, Mechanical
Taking things apart and putting them back together falls under this skill. You don't need it to change a light bulb or change a tire, but you will to rebuild a carburetor.

Specialties: create mechanical devices, machinery maintenance, mechanical repairs, plumbing

Engineering, Technical
For situations involving electronics and the more sci-fi parts of mechanics work, you need this Skill. Radar, sonar, radio waves and whatnot are beyond the abilities of Mechanical Engineering.

Specialties: communications systems, demolitions, electronics, Tesla coils

Expertise, Medical
Taking people apart and putting them back together require Medical Expertise. You don't need it to put on a bandage, but you surely do to stop the femoral artery from bleeding.

Specialties: dentistry, forensics, general practice, internal medicine, neurology, pharmaceuticals, physiology, surgery, toxicology, veterinary medicine

Expertise, Scientific
You probably went to a major school to learn this stuff, but maybe you taught it to yourself in your basement lab, with a LOT of experimentation.... The general skill represents foundational scientific knowledge, with each specialty representing detailed study in a given field.

Specialties: earth sciences (chemistry, geology), life sciences (anatomy, biology, botany), mathematical sciences (physics)

Influence
Sometimes there are gentler ways to get things done than resorting to a gun or your fists. Words can often be more effective. This Skill will help you win friends and influence people.

Specialties: administration, barter, bureaucracy, conversation, counseling, interrogation, intimidation, leadership, marketing, persuasion, politics, seduction, streetwise

Knowledge
From winning trivia games to recalling a vital chemistry formula from your high school days, Knowledge is the Skill of choice. General knowledge comes first before branching into specific areas through Specialties. This skill generally covers "book learning" rather than applied knowledge.

Specialties: art, cultures, history, law, literature, philosophy, religion, sports

Linguist
This skill covers understanding languages other than your own. General knowledge represents some understanding of various syntaxes and a little various vocabulary, but not fluency; you won't be following any conversations or obscure references or dialects. Specialties represent increasing degrees of fluency in various tongues.

Specialties: Arabic, Spanish, Latin, German, French, English, etc.

Perception
Use this Skill to notice things going on around you. You can pick up the little things, or spot something in the distance.

Specialties: deduction, empathy, gambling, hearing, intuition, investigation, read lips, search, tactics, tracking

Performance
You can hum a tune, make an impression on the dance floor, or otherwise create an impression on an audience. You can also use it for more nefarious, deceptive purposes.

Specialties: acting, dancing, costuming, impersonation, oratory, singing, various types of instruments (keyboard, stringed, percussion, etc)

Survival
If you end up buck naked in the desert, or, for that matter, the Arctic, this is the Skill for you.

Specialties: aerial survival, aquatic survival, general navigation, land survival, nature, tracking, trapping

Vehicles, Drive
If it rolls (or in more esoteric circumstances, walks), this Skill will allow you to operate it. Basic maintenance and navigation is included.

Specialties: Cars, industrial vehicles, land navigation, tanks

Vehicles, Pilot
If it flies, you need pilot to fly it. This skill also includes supporting abilities, like charting a course, maintenance, and basic troubleshooting. Use this skill to fly through turbulence, perform maneuvers, or pursue an enemy craft under a bridge.

Specialties: aerial navigation, stunt flying, fighters, bombers, auto gyros

Vehicles, Sail
Marine craft of all kinds require this skill to avoid ending up keelhauled.

Specialties: aquatic navigation, canoes, powerboats, sailboats, scuba, submarines