>>5583976Not every scenario needs to make every skill, or even every skill people are good at, useful. You've got a whole chronicle filled with different scenarios. For this group, only Watoto has points in Occult and Politics, and only Yuul has points in Expression. So they won't see a huge amount of use from other PCs but each of those skills is super useful. Chronicles don't have to be combat focused in the least either. I'll go over the suggested actions for each of those three Skills as it'll give you an idea of how useful they can be.
Occult deals with folk lore of all kinds, and at higher dots represents a character who knows bits and pieces of the truth, it handles "Debunk a fake", "Identify a sliver of truth", and"Relate similar myths". Now if you're a Hunter being able to know fact from fiction is very useful, basically everything has a weakness and exploiting said weakness is super useful here. It's also good for maybe figuring out how it hunts, and who it hunts, where it might nest. Certainly useful but not exactly necessary, everything can always be handled in more ways than one. You might have Contacts to help here, Survival Skills could let you track the monster, social maneuviring could get key info from witnesses, etc.
Onto Politics, this is all about political structures and processes, knowing who is in charge and the best way to leverage the system. "Identify authority", "Navigate bureaucracy", and "Mudslinging" are its sample actions and these might not seem awfully relevant but they can be used to great effect. If you know who the authorities are you can avoid them, useful for vigilante types, but you can also try and leverage them to your aims too. Maybe you want to put some pressure on a local union to have their workers strike giving your cell free reign of some docks to hunt what is living there. Maybe you want to bend a cop's arm a bit, get him not to bother the chief and just tell you what you need to know and not to bother will all that paper work. Or you might just want to start a gang war to burn out some vamps. Politics is your friend in all these situations. You don't need it though, you could get what you want through sheer Intimidation, maybe you've got some Allies higher up you can cash in a favour with, or you might just not care and deal with the consequences of vigilante justice as they come.
Expression is conveying emotion and thoughts through any medium you like. It can be painting or sculpture, dance or music, poetry or public speaking. If its making something aesthetic or emotional then it's a matter of Expression. Suggested actions include "Composing a poem", "Dance performance", and "Reciting a prepared speech". Have you ever been in a situation where you've thought "If only I could give a rousing speech, that'd get these guys in gear"? What about an argument you're sure you could have won if you just had the right words? Maybe wished you could craft the perfect letter that hits just the right emotions to finally get that shaky ally to take your side? Expression achieves all of these. But if you're bad with your words you might have some Status with some folk that give those words a lot more punch, maybe you're just so Fast-Talking you what you're saying is a lot less important than how much you're saying, or you could just have the Resources to no have to worry about talking your way around a problem at all.
As for that last bit, both STs and players are responsible for it. ST's should always be providing multiple opportunities to deal with most things, but the player needs to know what their PC can do and engage with the setting too. ST's should also be receptive to a player's ideas if they hadn't thought it up, but they should be able to say "no" if the idea doesn't make sense for some reason. RPGs are a group story telling experience, you've all gotta put a bit of work in to make the most of it. There is a bit of a basic rundown of this at the start of the book, which I've attached.
