If a character examines an item, he/she may attempt to judge the item's quality. To do this, he/she should make a dice roll using his/her Valuation (including relevant specialisms) + PE.
The difficulty for the dice roll depends on the item's quality. All items have a quality rating as follows:
| Quality | Difficulty | Meaning |
| Abysmal | 2 | The item is very likely to fall apart or stop working |
| Poor | 3 | The item looks worse, is more likely to break and works less well than a normal item (the referee may give penalties on dice rolls when poor quality items are used) |
| Competent | 4 | The item is normal quality |
| Good | 6 | The item looks better, is less likely to break and works better than a normal item (the referee may give bonuses on dice rolls when good quality items are used) |
| Excellent | 8 | The item looks very good, is unlikely to break and works very well (the referee may give bonuses on dice rolls when excellent quality items are used) |
Depending on the type of item being examined, a character may substitute a different relevant skill for his/her Valuation as follows:
| Type of item | May use the following skill instead of Valuation |
| Works of art | Art |
| Sports equipment | Athletics |
| Climbing equipment (e.g. picks, spikes, etc.) | Climbing |
| Crafted objects (e.g. leather, woven fabric, embroidery, shoes, baskets, rope, yarn, pots, candles, etc.) | Crafts |
| Mechanical devices (e.g. locks, traps, safes, etc.) and wooden objects (e.g. furniture) | Engineering |
| Domesticated animals and farm produce (e.g. corn, vegetables, seeds, etc.) | Farming |
| Medical equipment | Medicine |
| Melee weapons (e.g. knives, swords, axes, etc.) | Melee or Smithery |
| Mining equipment (e.g. picks, shovels, etc.) | Mining |
| Musical instruments | Music |
| Ships and boats | Navigation |
| Polearms (e.g. spears, javelins, etc.) | Polearm or Smithery |
| Mounts or teams of animals used to pull vehicles | Riding |
| Chemicals, potions and scientific equipment | Science |
| Shields | Shield or Smithery |
| Missile weapons and projectiles | Shooting or Smithery |
| Skis or skates | Skiing/ Skating |
| Armour, weapons, jewelry and precious stones | Smithery |
| Animal skins | Survival |
| Throwing weapons, balls and juggling items | Throwing or Smithery (for weapons only) |