Negative Ability Score Modifiers and General Skills

Let’s say my Constution is 3. That means my Constitution modifier is -3. When I set my general skill ratings, they begin at 1/6 plus the governing ability modifier. I assume this cannot go below 0/6. Since my Sang Froid is governed by Constitution, it is reduced to 0/6.

If my starting Lifepath is Americaine, I gain 1 Sang Froid (from the skill World Weary). Does this make my final Sang Froid rating 1/6?

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If you have less than 1/6 you drop to 1/10. That should be the minimum score.

If you have a negative modifier that reduces you to skill 0 but you take LP skills to overcome the deficit, the total LP skill levels has to exceed the penalty for you to be able to use the skill.

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That makes sense. Would it be reasonable to mark this as [Sang Froid -1/6] to keep track of the deficit you need to overcome before the skill may be used? (With the understanding that you would still roll 1/10 until your advance the skill to at least 1/6.)

Yes. Obviously this a problem with the character sheet!

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I have a follow-up questions: If your skill roll is modified by exertion and a difficulty modifier, in what order would you modify your skill roll? Let’s say, I spend one year and get (+5), the difficulty ist (-2) and I have a Skill of 3/6.
My options are:
a)(+5)+(-2)=+3
(+3)+(3/6)=7/8
b)(+5)+(3/6)=11/12
(11/12)+(-2)= 9/12

What would you recommend?

If it’s an ability modifier, you should have that factored into the rating listed on your character sheet. So a 3/6 rating becomes 11/12.

But if there’s an additional negative modifier on top of that, you subtract it from the target number, not the die step. So that 11/12 becomes 9/12.

It’s a bit counterintuitive to start, but this is one of my favorite aspects of the system. Negative modifiers have a noticeable effect, but higher skill ratings grant more cushion so the system rewards expertise in characters (without inflating the numbers).

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Yeah, I understand that part!
But in my example there was also a modifier from exertion. If I spend mortal coil do I factor that into the additional modifier (-2, in our case) or do I handle mortal coil like an ability modifier?
I would handle it like an ability modifier, but I am not sure how it was intended to be.

Bonuses first, penalties second.
after 5/6, pluses increase die steps, minuses reduce the target number.

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