Your character has an assortment of things that they are good at. These are broadly represented by talents (though some may be represented by quirks!). Talents are fairly specific areas in which individuals have experience or understanding, and can put their knowledge into practice.

Unlike many games, you do not advance in talents as you progress. The talents you take are static through the game.

When a character is under stress, they are not at their best. Familiar pursuits are now more difficult, and jobs that they would have otherwise had no trouble performing become difficult. This, combined with the extreme conditions that the inhabitants of the island find themselves in, can make invoking certain talents when under stress hazardous.

Mechanically, this is represented in Tempest by certain talents becoming struck through depending on the amount of stress a character has accumulated. Talents which are struck through are not permanently lost, but attempting to perform a turnsheet action with a struck through talent is functionally equivalent to attempting that action with no relevant talent at all.

Characters have a total of seven talents, some of which will be unavailable under certain levels of stress. Two talents will be available under any stress level, two will be available only when under low or moderate stress, and three will be available only when under low stress.

You may choose seven talents from the list below and allocate them to your character according to the following statements:

“Even under severe stress, I am still good at [2 talents]”
“Under moderate but not severe levels of stress, I am still good at [2 talents]”
“I am only good at [3 talents] under low levels of stress”

The list below includes all available talents. Please note that the section headings (Administration, Athletics, etc.) are only included to help break down the list, and have no mechanical meaning.

• Planning: developing a clever strategy to get something done.
• Coordinating: making the best use of people and resources.
• Assessing: gaining information needed for planning; judging the success of an endeavour; keeping tabs on an ongoing process; adapting accordingly.

• Fighting: attacking others or defending yourself.
• Swimming: fighting currents, diving, holding your breath.
• Scrambling: moving over difficult terrain, climbing, being agile enough to escape or dodge.

• Rescuing: providing emergency first aid to quickly preserve a person's life.
• Healing: providing physical care to allow a person to recover from injuries and illness.
• Counselling: providing mental care to allow a person to deal with emotional trauma.

• Persuading: using rhetoric to convince people of things.
• Performing: using music or theatrics to entertain or deceive.
• Decorating: using visual art to make things more aesthetically pleasing.

• Sneaking: staying unobserved.
• Disguising: concealing structures and other people.
• Detecting: noticing things that may be hidden and questioning others

• Pathfinding: finding a safe route to your destination.
• Cooking: creating appetising food.
• Grounding: knowing the properties of herbs; gauging the danger posed by wild animals and bad weather; etc.¹⁾

• Weaving: making wool into yarn, yarn into cloth, and cloth into useful items.
• Woodworking: crafting things out of wood.
• Metalworking: crafting things out of metal, including electrical circuits.