The following rules provide a framework to help storytellers and players build their characters, take challenging actions, and get in fights. As with other roleplaying games, it's important to remember that the rules are only there to support the story and not to get in the way of it; storytellers are encouraged to adjust the rules where necessary to make things more fun, cinematic, and engaging.
Roleplaying games are fun, social experiences that brings friends together, and it all begins with session zero. To ensure that everyone is one the same page about what kind of game you're going to play, it's important to have this first session to discuss the game and create characters as a group. All the players, along with the storyteller, should discuss what kind of game you want to play together and what sort of stories you'll tell. Will it be a tense, resource-constrained horror game or an action-packed combat adventure? Will your party be social and friendly or classic murder-hobos? Will sessions generally revolve around solving puzzles or blowing things up?
By talking ahead of time about the kind of game you want to play, you make sure that everyone is on the same page and nobody is surprised when the wacky hack'n'slash adventure they were expecting turns out to be serious political intrigue. (Or vice-versa.) It also gives the players a chance to work together to build a balanced and cohesive party that has all the necessary skills to face the challenges ahead. Your space western game is going to be a lot less fun if it's all Simons and no Jaynes.
Characters make up the core of any roleplaying game. Your character is your avatar in the game world and they will define who you are and what you are able to do. They are how you interact with the story and with other players. Because of this, the characters in Maelstrom are designed to be flexible. When you create your character, you'll select a set of backgrounds, traits, and equipment that will help you play the person you want to play.
Everyone comes from somewhere and everyone has a story to tell; your character is no exception.
Your character's backstory helps you flesh out that story and add depth to their personality and experience. It provides insight into your character's life before you came to inhabit them and before the campaign. This insight is helpful to you as a player, so you can develop a sense of who they are and what they would do or say, but also to the storyteller who will be building worlds for them to explore. All characters should begin by describing their backstory because who your character is matters a lot more than what they can do.
( Unfortunately, this section seems to have gone missing. So, uh... write a story or something! )
Traits define what your character is capable of and are divided into attributes, abilities, specialties, and Willpower. These are what you'll use to perform actions.
Attributes are the intrinsic traits that broadly define the overall capabilities of a character. All characters have at least one dot in all attributes -- except under extreme exceptions -- with two dots being the human average. Almost all player characters will have 3-4 dots in a few attributes and some characters may have fewer than two dots in one or more attributes.
The physical attributes define the physical capabilities of a character.
Strength is pure muscle power and endurance. It's used for running, lifting, carrying, punching, and other activities where the limiting factor is the raw amount of physical effort the character is able to exert. It is also used to safely absorb certain types of damage.
- 0: Abysmal. You can barely even move under your own power. (Lift 20lbs)
- 1: Poor. You're a couch potato. (Lift 40lbs)
- 2: Average. You can probably do a couple pushups. (Lift 100lbs)
- 3: Good. You work out or do heavy work for a living. (Lift 250lbs)
- 4: Exceptional. You win Strong Man competitions. (Lift 400lbs)
- 5: Outstanding. You are the Mountain that Rides. (Lift 600lbs)
Precision is hand-eye coordination and manual dexterity. It's used for acrobatics, parkour, thrown weapons, aimed shots, driving, and other activities where the limiting factor is the precision and accuracy of the character's motions.
- 0: Abysmal. Walking is hard. Falling down is easy.
- 1: Poor. You sometimes trip over perfectly smooth floors.
- 2: Average. You usually at least hit the dart board and you can probably cross a balance beam.
- 3: Good. You get bullseyes regularly and can cross a tight rope.
- 4: Exceptional. You win dart competitions and parkour across rooftops.
- 5: Outstanding. You're Deadshot, if he was in Cirque du Soleil.
Note: Precise movements usually require a small amount of planning, so sudden or unexpected actions usually cannot be performed with Precision and require Reflexes instead.
Reflexes is reacting and taking actions quickly. It's used for quickdraws, dodging, unaimed shots, evasive maneuvers, and other activities where the limiting factor is reaction time.
- 0: Abysmal. You're even surprised by your own actions.
- 1: Poor. Sloths respond faster than you.
- 2: Average. You can dodge a wrench (or a ball) if it's slow enough.
- 3: Good. You can shoot from a holster and handle a fighter.
- 4: Exceptional. You win speed shooting and drone racing competitions.
- 5: Outstanding. Your quickdraw is better than Wyatt Earp.
Note: It's harder to do things in a hurry, so actions will usually carry a higher difficulty when performed with Reflexes instead of Precision.
The mental attributes define the mental capabilities of a character.
Perception is the capacity to take in and process stimuli. It's used for searching, keeping watch, spotting threats, and other activities where the limiting factor is the ability to see, hear, feel, or smell.
- 0: Abysmal. A fire alarm can go off without you noticing it.
- 1: Poor. People sneak up on you without meaning to.
- 2: Average. You lose your phone occasionally, but usually find it again.
- 3: Good. You could be a detective or guard.
- 4: Exceptional. Where's Waldo is too easy.
- 5: Outstanding. Nothing escapes your notice. You see all.
Intelligence is the capacity to learn and apply information. It's used for research, mathematics, logical problem solving, and other activities where the limiting factor is education or reasoning. A character with high intelligence is good at reasoning through problems and will tend to figure things out slowly and methodically. If successful, they will usually fully understand the situation and be confident in their solution.
- 0: Abysmal. Ogg not know how make pointy stick. (Illiterate)
- 1: Poor. You ain't much fer book learning. (High school or Less)
- 2: Average. You can do your own taxes more or less correctly. (College/Trade School)
- 3: Good. You can do other people's taxes correctly. (Post-Graduate/Master)
- 4: Exceptional. You're a well known and respected thinker in your field.
- 5: Outstanding. Hawking, Einstein, Tesla, Faraday... and you.
Wits is the capacity for cleverness and intuition. It's used for trial-and-error experimentation, intuitive problem solving, out-of-the-box thinking, and other activities where the limiting factor is the ability to think quickly or creatively. A character with high wits is good at thinking on their feet and will tend to figure things out quickly but imprecisely. They may be prone to flip switches without fully understanding what they do.
- 0: Abysmal. There's a hole in my bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza.
- 1: Poor. Even with a map, you always get lost.
- 2: Average. You can usually navigate a grocery store.
- 3: Good. You're pretty decent with a crossword puzzle.
- 4: Exceptional. Your innovative ideas revolutionize small industries.
- 5: Outstanding. The Enterprise crew doesn't come up with solutions as clever as yours.
Abilities are the learned or developed traits that define the specific things a character knows how to do. Many player characters will have 3-4 dots in a few abilities and almost all characters will have a couple dots in many different abilities.
Most abilities have lists of attributes and specialties which are commonly used with that ability.
Talents represent abilities that come naturally to characters, but which may have been honed and trained over the years. When rolling for talents, there is no penalty for having zero dots -- just use the base attribute alone.
Alertness represents a character's passive talent for being aware of their surroundings and noticing threats or items of interest. It's used to do things like set watch around a camp, look for followers, spot an ambush, etc.
- Common Attributes: Perception
- Advanced Specialties: Night Vision, Vacuum
- General Specialties: Terrain (Urban, Forest, Plains, etc), Followers, Ambushes.
Athletics represents a character's talent for physical agility. Where the physical attributes define a character's raw physical capabilities, their athletics defines their level of training and practice. This could be from physical training, sports, or other physical activities. It is used to do things like jump, climb, throw, and run, as well as for thrown weapons such as knives and grenades.
- Common Attributes: Strength, Precision, Reflexes
- Advanced Specialties: Grenades, Power Armor, Zero-G, Acrobatics, Parkour, Specific Exotic Thrown Weapon
- General Specialties: Run, Jump, Dodge, Thrown Weapons, Surprise Attack
Investigation represents a character's talent for gathering evidence, making connections between events, and finding hidden information. It's used to conduct research, process crime scenes, analyse forensics, searching records, and other general skills that might be used to locate information. Most investigation methods require access to people, databases, or other information sources. This can often be acquired lawfully or with proper authorization. But, if not, it can sometimes be obtained via Tradecraft.
- Common Attributes: Intelligence, Wits, Perception
- Advanced Specialties: Forensics, Missing Persons
- General Specialties: Research, Computer Records, Crime Scenes
Melee represents a character's talent in a close range fight. It includes both armed and unarmed combat and is used for fists, brass knuckles, swords, hammers, polearms, riot shields, and even the occasional wrench.
- Common Attributes: Strength, Precision, Reflexes
- Advanced Specialties: Power Armor, Energy Weapons, Swords, Specific Exotic Melee Weapon
- General Specialties: Clubs, Grapple, Shields, Spears, Brawling, Surprise Attack, Specific Martial Art
Performance represents a character's talent for the performing arts. It's used to sing, dance, act, play an instrument, or give a speech. While this ability can determine the quality of a performance, it does not influence the content. As with all social actions, only roleplaying will determine whether or not your speech, lie, etc is believable. Without a good reason or story, even the best actor in the galaxy won't convince a guard to let them into a restricted area.
- Common Attributes: Precision, Wits
- Advanced Specialties: Specific Musical Instrument (Piano, Guitar, Drums, etc)
- General Specialties: Dancing, Singing, Acting, Speeches
Stealth represents a character's talent in hiding, moving silently, and otherwise keeping out of sight. It's used to avoid detection in a crowd, find good hiding spots, or move silently.
- Common Attributes: Wits, Precision
- Advanced Specialties: Power Armor
- General Specialties: Terrain (Urban, Forests, Plains, etc), Surveillance
Streetwise represents a character's talent for surviving and navigating urban environments. It is used to safely navigate unfamiliar places, find people to buy or sell illicit goods, locate information brokers, and avoid getting mugged.
- Common Attributes: Wits
- Advanced Specialties: Black Markets, Criminal Networks, Megacities
- General Specialties: Colonies, Outposts, Research Stations, Industrial Stations, Docks, Shipyards
Technology represents a character's talent for using modern technology. It's used to interact with computer systems to retrieve information, recover lost data, and gain unauthorized access. It is also used with other consumer technology such as communications, security, and navigation systems. While Technology may be used to gain access to insecure systems, or use pre-written exploits against secure ones, proper software development and hacking requires Computer Science.
- Common Attributes: Intelligence, Wits
- Advanced Specialties: Hacking, Data Recovery, Data Forgery, AI Modules, Remote Access
- General Specialties: Data Storage, Communications, Security Systems, Navigation Systems
Skills represent abilities that characters have learned through training and practice. When rolling for a skill in which you have no dots, the difficulty is increased by 1. Then, use the base attribute alone. In some cases, the storyteller may allow an alternate roll or action to allow a character to "figure it out" and avoid the penalty.
Artistry represents a character's skills at creating things via drawing, sculpting, sewing, etc. Unlike Manufacturing, the Artistry ability doesn't usually result in useful, precisely-engineered items. However, it can still be used to create useful soft goods such as textiles, maps, documents, and even forgeries.
- Common Attributes: Varies
- Advanced Specialties: Forgery, Electronics, Metalwork
- General Specialties: Sketching, Painting, Sculpting, Photography
Driving represents a character's skill operating cars and other ground vehicles. It's primarily used to maneuver ground vehicles but also includes fundamental user-serviceable tasks like refueling and changing tires. However, proper maintenance usually requires Engineering.
- Common Attributes: Precision, Reflexes
- Advanced Specialties: Motorcycles, Transport Trucks
- General Specialties: Gravitic Vehicles, Cars, Trucks, Buses
Firearms represents a character's skill with pistols, rifles, shotguns, and other similar weapons. It's primarily used to perform attacks with these sorts of weapons as well as to safely handle, reload, maintain them.
- Common Attributes: Strength, Precision, Reflexes
- Advanced Specialties: Power Armor, Energy Weapons, Extreme Range, Advanced Maintenance
- General Specialties: Pistols, Shotguns, PDWs, Battle Rifles, Sniper Rifles, Surprise Attack
Heavy Weapons represents a character's skill with grenade launchers, RPGs, missile launchers, mortars, cannons, and other large, physically-operated weapons. It is also used to reload, disarm, and maintain these weapons.
- Common Attributes: Strength, Precision
- Advanced Specialties: Power Armor, Mortars, Artillery, Advanced Maintenance
- General Specialties: Grenade Launchers, Missile Launchers
Piloting represents a character's skill at operating both aircraft and spacecraft. With the ubiquity of high-efficiency aerospace thrusters, these craft are often quite similar and any character who is able to pilot one is also able to pilot the other. However, atmospheric flight -- along with some other types of maneuvers -- are generally more difficult. Additionally, is only used to follow a pre-set flight plan or travel within a small local area; plotting a new route to a distant location requires Navigation.
- Common Attributes: Precision, Reflexes
- Advanced Specialties: Atmospheric Flight, Close Quarters, Fighters, Freighters, Power Armor
- General Specialties: Space Flight, Shuttles, Frigates, Cruisers
Remotely Weapons represents a character's skill operating remotely-operated fly-by-wire weapons systems such as those mounted on vehicles, space stations, buildings, etc. It includes both the turreted and fixed weapons of vehicles, as well any weapon which is controlled via keyboard, joystick, or other indirect control mechanism. Firing remote weapons is usually a mental task, but quickly responding to and shooting down threats can require reflexes instead.
- Common Attributes: Wits, Reflexes
- Advanced Specialties: Defensive Fire, Power Armor, Mining Equipment, Advanced Maintenance
- General Specialties: PDCs, Missiles, Torpedoes, Rail Guns
Survival represents a character's skill at surviving in harsh or austere environments. It's used to build shelters, find food, decontaminate clothing, manage oxygen tanks, etc.
- Common Attributes: Intelligence, Wits
- Advanced Specialties: Extreme Temperatures, Radiation, Biochemical Agents
- General Specialties: Terrain (Urban, Forests, Plains, etc), Vacuum, Non-Breathable Atmosphere
Tradecraft represents a character's skill at breaking into placing, stealing things, and conducting espionage. It's used to pick locks, disable alarms, hide weapons, set traps, disarm traps, and carry out other clandestine activity. Conducting a heist or breaking into a records vault will usually require some level of Tradecraft. However, making useful sense of the information stolen will usually require some level of Investigation.
- Common Attributes: Wits, Precision
- Advanced Specialties: Lockpick, Pickpocket
- General Specialties: Weapon Concealment, Dead Drops, Traps, Surveillance, Alarms
Knowledges represent things that characters have learned through research or training. If you would roll for a knowledge in which you have no dots, you cannot even attempt the action. In some cases, the storyteller may allow an alternate roll or action to allow a character to "figure it out" and use the base attribute alone with a penalty.
Computer Science represents a character's knowledge of computer hardware and software development. It's used to create new programs, modify or build computer systems, create algorithms, train AI, find exploits, etc. However, interacting with existing tools and systems as an end-user usually requires Technology instead.
- Common Attributes: Intelligence
- Advanced Specialties: Hacking, AI Research, Quantum Computing
- General Specialties: Encryption, Programming, Data Processing
Engineering represents a character's ability to maintain, repair, and upgrade all the various systems usually found on a ship or space station. Similar to a vehicle mechanic, ships' engineers are able to install new parts or jury rig systems to bypass damaged parts. However, creating new parts usually requires Manufacturing. However, this trait can also be used to service ground vehicles, aircraft, power armor, outposts, and other mostly electromechanical objects.
- Common Attributes: Intelligence, Wits
- Advanced Specialties: Jury Rigging, Power Armor, Weapon Systems, Reactors, Gravitics
- General Specialties: Spacecraft, Aircraft, Stations, Ground Vehicles, Life Support, Electrical, Mining Equipment
Humanities represents a character's knowledge about human societies, culture, history, languages. It is primarily used to understand the political, social, historical, or cultural context of past events. It's also used to understand specific languages or to study linguistics in general. (All characters are assumed to be fluent in a common language.) Historical politics and laws are covered by Humanities but current events, politics, laws, and contracts require Statecraft.
- Common Attributes: Intelligence
- Advanced Specialties: Linguistics, Specific Language (Chinese, Russian, etc)
- General Specialties: History, Philosophy, Religion, Literature, Anthropology
Manufacturing represents a character's ability to create hard goods out of metals, plastics, ceramics, composites, etc. It includes both the knowledge required to properly operate manual manufacturing equipment and to create toolpaths and blueprints for autofabricators. While the goods produced by Manufacturing can be precisely machined parts and tools, they usually lack an artistic flair. For that, Artistry is often used instead.
- Common Attributes: Intelligence, Wits
- Advanced Specialties: Mechanical Design, Electronics, Explosives, Textiles
- General Specialties: Autofabrication, Manual Machining, Metals, Plastics, Ceramics, Composites
Medicine represents a character's knowledge about the human body, pharmaceuticals, and medical devices. It's used to diagnose, treat, and prevent injury or disease. It's also used to operate all non-automatic medical equipment and to use automatic equipment more effectively.
- Common Attributes: Intelligence
- Advanced Specialties: Surgery, Battlefield Medicine, Zero-G, Prosthetics
- General Specialties: First Aid, Wound Management, Poisons, Radiation
Natural Science represents a character's knowledge of the physical and social sciences. It's primarily used to provide information or develop solutions from a theoretical basis.
- Common Attributes: Intelligence
- Advanced Specialties: Astrophysics, Quantum Theory, Gravitics, Jump Technology
- General Specialties: Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Earth Science, Astronomy, Economics, Psychology, Sociology
Statecraft represents a character's knowledge of the modern political landscape, governments, corporations, and jurisdictions. It's used to understand the relationships between the myriad governments and corporations, navigate complex jurisdictional boundaries, negotiate interplanetary or corporate deals, find legal loopholes, and cut through bureaucratic red tape. Statecraft only provides information about current and recent events, Humanities is required for a true historical perspective.
- Common Attributes: Intelligence, Wits
- Advanced Specialties: Statutory Law, Contracts
- General Specialties: Corporate Politics, Government Politics, Specific System (Sol, Maelstrom, etc)
Navigation represents a character's knowledge orbital mechanics, trajectories, and maps. It's used to plot routes which are faster, use less fuel, avoid certain areas, limit visible engine burns, or approach the destination from a certain direction. This primarily applies to interplanetary routes, but can also be used for any planetary route long enough to warrant an aircraft. Once a satisfactory route is generated, Piloting is usually required in order to correctly follow it.
- Common Attributes: Intelligence
- Advanced Specialties: Stealth, Close Approach, Precise Arrival, Jump Plotting
- General Specialties: Gravity Assists, Low Energy Transfers, Constant Thrust, Suborbital Routes
Specialties represent areas where characters have focused their training or experience. Each specialty is connected to a single ability, but characters can unlock multiple specialties for each ability. There's no limit on the number of specialties which can be acquired for a given ability, but the amount which can be used in a given roll is limited by the number of dots in that ability. You can even have a specialty in an ability which has no dots, but this will have no in-game effect until you purchase the ability as well.
Each ability is listed along with a number of suggested general and advanced specialties. However, these lists are not exhaustive. Work with the storyteller if you'd like to specialize in something not listed; they will determine if it's a reasonable specialty and whether or not it's general or advanced.
General Specialties represent focus in areas that are not otherwise considered exceptionally challenging. Characters with these specialties will generally perform better at related tasks, but characters without them are assumed to at least some general familiarity from the attribute and are not penalized.
Advanced Specialties represent focus in areas that are more challenging or require specialized knowledge and practice. Characters with these specialties will perform better at related tasks, similar to general specialties. However, characters without them are at a significant disadvantage. Attempting an action without an appropriate advanced specialty usually adds a threshold to the roll. (See: required specialties)
All characters have a Willpower trait which represents their capacity to push through pain, withstand mental or emotional stress, resist torture, and remain productive in the face of impossible odds. Willpower is commonly used to temporarily resist the effects of things like tear gas, drugs, alcohol, hypoxia, intense fear, and even wounds. It's also used to more quickly recover from the incapacitating effects of tasers, flashbangs, electrocution, etc.
Unlike other traits, Willpower is on a scale from 1 to 10 and is always rolled alone. Additionally, Willpower is spendable, which means that it has both permanent and current ranks. A character's current rank can never exceed their permanent rank, but can be reduced and recovered through gameplay. When purchasing more Willpower, the cost depends on your character's maximum rank but they gain a dot in both their current and maximum ranks.
Willpower is almost always rolled at the storyteller's request in order to resist or recover from one of the negative effects listed above. The number of successes on your roll will usually determine how well, or how quickly, your character was able to resist the effect. This roll uses your character's current rank rather than their permanent rank. Also, Using willpower is not considered an action, so it doesn't suffer from wound penalties.
Fortunately, failing a Willpower roll doesn't always mean that your character succumbs. After making a Willpower roll, you may choose to spend a Willpower dot to cancel your roll and succeed automatically. Your number of successes is set equal to your remaining Willpower dots. (You may not spend your final Willpower dot in this way, as doing so would result in zero successes and fail.)
Botching a Willpower roll reduces your character's current Willpower by one dot per uncancelled botch. In addition, you cannot spend Willpower dots to cancel a botched roll.
Spending a Willpower dot reduces your current Willpower rank by one dot until you recover it. This allows you to ignore wounds or guarantee success on Willpower rolls, but comes at the cost of reducing the dice pools for all future Willpower rolls. Spent dots can be recovered, and the dice pools increased again, but only slowly and outside of combat.
In addition to spending dots to automatically succeed Willpower rolls, you may also spend them to ignore wound penalties. Once per turn, a character may spend one Willpower dot to ignore their injuries and roll their next action without a wound penalty. (Note: Crippled limbs cannot be used to perform actions and Willpower does not remove this effect.) If a character spends their last Willpower dot in this way, they don't suffer the effects of zero Willpower until after they complete the action.
Characters recover Willpower by resting in a safe, comfortable environment. If a character feels threatened or in danger, or if they are particularly uncomfortable, they are not able to recover Willpower. This is up to the discretion of the storyteller but generally requires being in a place with little to no risk of being attacked, no significantly adverse environmental conditions, etc.
Once a character is able to recover Willpower, if they are at zero dots, they may immediately recover the first dot. Otherwise, they will regain 1 dot every 12 hours. If they actively rest or relax for that time, they may regain 1 additional dot per success on a difficulty 8 Willpower roll.
If a character is reduced to zero dots in Willpower, either by botching a Willpower roll or spending their last dot to resist their injuries, they no longer have the will to carry on. Characters in this state may not make any actions and are considered incapacitated. However, they will continue to act passively to keep pressure on their own wounds, hide, crawl away from danger, cooperate with other characters carrying or dragging them, etc.
If another character is sufficiently motivating or encouraging, they may spend one dot of their own Willpower to restore nearby incapacitated characters to one dot. This can only be done at the discretion of the storyteller and will usually require roleplaying the manner in which the character convinces their companions to carry on the fight.
Once a character is longer directly threatened, even if their overall situation is still tenuous and stressful, they can recover by themselves and act normally. This requires being fully out of combat for at least one turn and can usually be accomplished by finding a decent hiding spot, being fully behind sturdy solid cover, or fleeing. However, this only resolves the incapacitation and does not recover a dot of Willpower. In order to recover a dot, they need to find safe place to rest.
All characters have a certain amount of health. Attacks and other damage sources will cause your character to take damage and lose health. As they lose health, they'll begin to suffer from wound penalties. Enough damage will eventually incapacitate them or even kill them outright.
When your character gets hit by an attack or encounters some other hazard, they're one or more levels of damage. This damage can be bashing, lethal, or aggravated. Depending on which type of damage it is, and whether your character is wearing armor, you may then have an opportunity to reduce the damage by soaking it. Finally, once you know how many level of damage your character is actually taking, you'll mark it down.
There are three types of damage. These damage types are all dealt the same way, and result in the same wound penalties, but are soaked and healed differently.
Bashing damage represents blunt-force trauma. It can be caused by fists, sticks, clubs, and even explosions. Bashing can incapacitate a character just as quickly as other types of damage, but is far less likely to kill them and much easier to heal. It can also be soaked without armor.
Lethal damage represents cutting or piercing injuries. It's usually caused by firearms, knifes, and other edged or ranged weapons. As the name implies, lethal damage can quickly be fatal. It's slower to heal than bashing, but faster than aggravated, and it can't normally be soaked without armor.
Aggravated damage represents burns, radiation poisoning, and other forms of wide-spread cellular destruction. It can be caused by fire, chemicals, radiation, high-current electrocution, etc. It doesn't kill any faster than lethal damage but is much harder to heal. It can only be soaked with certain types of armor, depending on the source of the damage.
Soaking allows your character to take less damage than they otherwise would. Usually, characters are only able to soak bashing damage, but wearing armor can also let them soak lethal damage as well as some forms of aggravated damage. Your character's armor will describe what effects it has on their ability to soak damage.
Soaking damage is similar to an opposed roll against the incoming damage. Whenever your character is about to receive damage, you'll roll a certain number of soak dice. When taking bashing damage, your soak dice pool is your character's Strength attribute plus any bonus from their armor. For lethal and aggravated, only the armor's rating is used. Unlike other rolls, however, soaking damage is always at a difficulty 6 and isn't affected by wound penalties. In fact, you get to make soak rolls even when your character is fully incapacitated. However, you can't get exploding 10s on soak rolls, nor can you add experience dice.
After rolling your soak dice, subtract your successes from the incoming damage. If you failed, botched, or couldn't roll any dice, then you take the full damage. (Botching doesn't add any additional damage or anything, but the storyteller may add an amusing description if they wish.)
On your character sheet, there is a series of boxes representing your character's health.
When your character takes damage, after potentially soaking it, you'll mark it down in these boxes. Each level of damage that they take fills a single box. However, they are marked in different ways:
- Bashing damage is marked with a single diagonal line from one corner to another.
- Lethal damage is marked with two diagonal lines, like an X.
- Aggravated damage is marked with two diagonal lines plus a vertical line, like an asterisk.
Each type of damage adds a single line over the one before it and this isn't an accident: though each level of damage taken fills one box, the more serious types of damage are recorded at the top and push the less serious types down. So all your character's aggravated damage will be in the top boxes, above all their lethal damage, which is above all their bashing damage. (In practice, they'll rarely have all three types simultaneously.) This doesn't affect the total amount of damage, so wound penalties are mostly unchanged, but means that less serious damage types are healed first. Marking the damage like this makes it easy to convert a lower damage type to a higher one so you can move the lower one down.
Example: Your character has already taken one level of lethal damage and two levels of bashing, so their health chart looks like this:
[X][/][/][ ][ ][ ][ ][ ]. They then take another level of lethal, which pushes the bashing damage down to look like this:[X][X][/][/][ ][ ][ ][ ].
With the exception of the top one, each box on a character's health chart has a wound penalty listed next to it which increase in value as the character takes more damage.
Whenever your character has taken damage, they suffer the wound penalty marked next to the bottom-most box they have damage in. Subtract this many dice from the dice pools for all actions your character makes. (Keep in mind that Soaking damage and rolling Willpower are not actions and are not affected by wound penalties.)
Your character may ignore their wound penalty an action by spending Willpower.
Example: Your character has taken three levels of damage and they are at the "Hurt" wound level. Because of this, they'll have one fewer dice on all their rolls until they heal. If they take another level of damage, they'll be at the "Injured" wound level and suffer -2 dice on all their rolls.
The bottom-most box on your character's health chart is marked "Incapacitated" with no wound penalty. If this box contains damage, your character is unconscious and unable to act at all.
If this box contains bashing damage, each additional bashing damage your character receives will convert their top-most level of bashing damage to lethal. Once this box contains lethal or aggravated damage, then the next level of damage -- no matter the type -- will be fatal. It's definitely possible to beat someone to death; it just takes a bit more effort.
Taking fatal damage most likely means that your character is dead and gone forever. Sometimes, the storyteller may decide to offer your follow players a chance to revive your character but, usually, dead is dead. The journey continues, though, so take this as an opportunity to try something new with a new character. Sometimes, the storyteller may decide to offer your follow players a chance to revive your character.
(As a storyteller, if you choose to allow the revival of a dead character, you should also add a permanent penalty to them; perhaps in the form of a new flaw. This is especially true if the technology used is likely to be available to them again in the future. Otherwise, death stops being meaningful, players stop experiencing any real risk, and the game gets boring.)
( This section isn't ready yet. There's an open issue to add it )
It's important to take the time to flesh out your character's backstory and personality before you even start considering the numbers on you character sheet. Having an interesting character design before you start will make it a lot easier to pick out an interesting and varied selection of attributes, abilities, and specialties.
Try to resist the urge to "min-max" your character and, instead, select the traits that most fit the personality and history of your character. Even if your character is going to be primarily a gunslinger, consider putting a couple dots in Artistry to reflect their sculpting hobby, or some dots in Law and Academics from back when they dropped out of law school. Remember, your storyteller will be able to weave those sorts of backgrounds into story hooks and challenges, but only if you have the traits to actually face them. Because of this, diverse and varied characters make the game more fun for everyone.
Once you're ready to sit down and start filling out a character sheet, you'll go through a few steps:
- Select starting attributes
- Select starting abilities
- Spend starting experience
- Purchase starting equipment
Your character automatically starts with one dot in each of the six attributes. This is the minimum number for normal, healthy characters but almost all of your attributes will end up being higher than that.
Start by selecting either Physical or Mental as your characters's primary attribute group; the other is their secondary attribute group. (Don't bother writing this down; they're only used for this step.) You'll get more dots in your primary group than your secondary one, so consider whether your character should be more brains or more brawn. You can arrange these dots however you want.
- In your primary group, allocate 6 additional dots.
- In your secondary group, allocate 4 additional dots.
Keep in mind that attributes are very expensive to increase, so you'll be stuck with your starting allotment for a while.
Unlike attributes, all abilities start with zero dots.
Assign dots to your character's abilities with the following rules:
- Choose 2 abilities and assign each of them 3 dots.
- Choose another 4 abilities and assign each of them 2 dots.
- Choose another 6 abilities and assign each of them 1 dot.
- You may not combine these dots; you must select twelve different abilities.
When assigning dots, keep in mind that there is a penalty to use skills and knowledges are more difficult or impossible to use without any dots in them. So, while it can be tempting to put as many dots as possible into talents, it's usually better to spread out your dots somewhat evenly. Of course, the most important thing is to make sure your character's abilities match their backstory and your style of play.
All characters start with 3 dots in Willpower.
Characters don't start with any specialties automatically.
Your character always begins with a certain amount of experience which can be spent immediately to improve their traits further.
When deciding how to spend your starting experience, consider picking up several specialties. These can be a very cost-effective way to improve your character's capabilities significantly. This is especially true for advanced specialties because it's significantly more difficult and dangerous to perform tasks which require them. Also consider increasing Willpower by a couple points, since this too can only be increased via experience.
Of course, you can also just increase attributes or abilities if you prefer. Or, hang on to the points and spend them later. This is a reasonable option if you're not yet sure exactly how you want to fine-tune your character's stats.
When creating characters for a new campaign, the storyteller should provide an equal amount of starting experience to all players. The exact number can vary depending how experienced the storyteller wants the starting characters to be, but 30 points is reasonable for a normal game.
If a character is joining an existing campaign, the storyteller should provide a reasonable amount of starting experience to match the existing characters. This can be the average experience earned by the party so far or, if replacing a dead/missing character, the total amount earned by that previous character. (Storytellers, remember: losing a character can be traumatic enough, especially in a long-running game, so don't add insult to fatal-injury by making players start over with weaker characters. Death may be an unavoidable part of life, but game must go on and the point of the game is to have fun.)
Equipment will vary from campaign to campaign.
Work with your storyteller to determine reasonable starting equipment.
Merits and Flaws are a totally optional way to make your character more interesting and varied. Their effects vary significantly but they all cost or award experience points.
They can usually only be acquired during character creation and affect your starting experience point pool. However, if a story event had the potential to significantly affect your character in some way, the storyteller may provide an opportunity to acquire a specific merit or flaw. In these cases, it'll award or cost available experience points.
These lists are not exhaustive, so work with the storyteller if you have a specific thing in mind that might make a good merit or flaw for your character. Also, the storyteller has the right to veto merits and flaws, even those on these lists, if they choose. This may be done to limit "power gaming", or to avoid story problems. For example, they may prevent you from taking the Huge Size merit if the story will heavily feature tiny fighter craft.
Merits give your character a strength or a useful quirk. Each merit costs the listed number of experience points.
2 or 5 points: Your character has an exceptionally well honed natural sense (vision, hearing, smell, taste, etc). All perception rolls have -2 difficulty when using the selected sense. Each sense costs 2 points or get all senses for 5 points.
1 point: Your character is equally capable with either hand. You suffer no off-hand penalties.
1 point: Your character has exceptional balance. All balance-related rolls (tightropes, narrow ledges, etc) have -2 difficulty.
4 points: Your character is enormous, potentially over seven feet tall or in excess of 400lbs. This added bulk allows them to soak some additional damage. Gain one additional health level at the top of the health chart with 0 penalty. However, while this added bulk may make your character more resilient, it may also give them some difficulty. They will consume more oxygen and may find it difficult to fit into some vehicles, space suits, etc. More mass won't protect them from hard vacuum so consider the risks before taking this merit for the health level, and make sure to hang on to survival gear that fits.
4 points: In a vast, cold galaxy your character has found another person that gives their life purpose and meaning. This might be their one true love, a close childhood friend, or someone they served with. This bond inspires your character to always make it home. Gain one automatic success on all Willpower rolls. Beware, however, that the other person will exist in the story and may be vulnerable. If your character believes they are dead or lost, you will lose this merit. Sorry, Mario, your princess is in another castle.
1 point: Your character has an abundance of common sense and tends to make reasonable, sound decisions. This gives no direct benefit towards rolls (including Wits). Instead, the storyteller will warn you when you're about to do something that your character would consider unwise or dangerous. They may even suggest some sensible courses of action. This can be particularly useful for new players.
1 point: No matter what's going on around them, your character is able to focus on the task at hand. You suffer no penalties for being distracted, disturbed, or acting in a loud or adverse environment. You may still need to roll against active interference, such as tear gas or high g-forces, but you suffer no additional penalties to your action if you succeed.
1 point: Some folks just need less sleep than others. Your character is one of these lucky people and only requires 4-5 hours of sleep a night. They suffer fewer penalties from sleep deprivation. They also have a bit more time to get things done during a normal day.
1 point: Your character can do complex math in their head amazingly quickly and accurately. They can perform basic arithmetic instantly, regardless of their circumstances. You, the player, may use a calculator to solve math problems at any time, even if your character is busy, in a hurry, or in combat. Tour character can also perform advanced calculations, such as those required for orbital mechanics, without the need for a computer; though this may still require some time and focus.
1 point: Unless unconscious or otherwise incapacitated, your character is always perfectly aware of elapsed time. They can keep accurate time, down to just a few seconds, for up to an hour and always know the time of day to within a few minutes. Who needs a kitchen timer?
2 points: Your character generally remembers almost everything that happens to them and is able to memorize things in precise detail. They can perfectly recall text, sounds, and images over long periods of time and may even be able to replicate them with the appropriate skill rolls. This skill applies to almost any ordered data, but works less well on high-entropy data like encryption keys.
Flaws give your character a weakness or a troublesome quirk. Each flaw awards the listed number of experience points.
While some flaws may be corrected with cybernetics or prosthetics, doing so will require spending experience points as your character learns to adapt. This cost will usually equal the original number of points awarded by the flaw.
1 or 3 points: Your character is addicted to something. If they're addicted to something relatively mundane and easy to obtain, like nicotine or alcohol, this flaw is worth one point. This likely won't cause much difficulty most of the time. However, if the substance is illegal, dangerous, or exotic, the flaw is worth three points. This substance may have a more harmful withdrawal effects or just be harder to obtain. In any case, characters who are unable to obtain their chosen substance will undergo withdrawals and suffer effects to be determined by the storyteller.
2 points: Your character has a natural sense which is dulled or impaired in some way. They might be hard of hearing, colorblind, or be nearsighted. All rolls have +2 difficulty when affected by the flawed sense. Be careful, as this can push some automatic actions to a higher difficulty and make them require a roll instead. This condition may be correctable by glasses, a hearing-aid, etc, in which case you suffer reduced penalties while wearing the aid. Also, you cannot take this flaw if you have the Acute Sense merit in the same sense.
4 points: Your character suffers from an uncorrectable vision impairment. All rolls where vision is a factor has +2 difficulty. This flaw is used instead of Defective Sense when the vision problem is severe and uncorrectable.
5 points: Your character is entirely unable to hear. You fail all hearing-related rolls automatically. Additionally, many alertness rolls have +3 difficulty as your character is unable to listen out for dangers.
6 points: Your character is entirely unable to speak. Obviously, you may still communicate with other players at the table, describe your actions, etc. However, you may never speak in character. You may also get reduced experience points if you attempt to circumvent this restriction by sharing information out of character. Your character is still able to communicate if they are able to write or use sign language. (Assuming, of course, that they and the person they are communicating with both have the necessary abilities.)
8 points: Your character is entirely unable to speak. You fail all vision-related rolls automatically. Additionally, when you are able to make them at all, alertness rolls have a +3 difficulty. Beware, as this will make many actions completely impossible.
1 point: Your character is significantly shorter than usual at 4.5 feet or fewer. They may have difficulty reaching objects or controls. They'll also move at a reduced speed. However, they may find it easier to navigate small spaces like the cramped maintenance shafts inside ships and stations.
2 points: Your character is hideously deformed or disfigured. Maybe they suffered a severe injury which can't be healed properly, or maybe it's a birth defect. Whatever it is, they are extremely memorable and will have a harder time in many social interactions. On the bright side, they may have an advantage when attempting to scare children.
5 points: Due to illness, injury, or a missing limb, your character is unable to walk without assistance. They must make use of a cane, leg brace, or other device. Their movement speed is severely reduced and they are unable to run or jump. This can be partially or fully mitigated with sufficient mechanical augmentation, though this usually requires one or more Power Armor specialties.
8 or 10 points: Your character is entirely confined to a wheelchair or similar device. Without it, they are unable to move at all. Even with it, they may have severely reduced mobility and will have problem accessing many places which aren't built with them in mind. At 8 points, they still may have the ability to operate specifically-designed power armor or similar equipment. At 10 points, even this is impossible. Either option will severely affect the capabilities of your character, so take this flaw with extreme caution.
1 point: Your character has something terrible in their past which will be a problem if it's discovered. Maybe they did something severely illegal or unethical, or they're not who they say they are. Whatever it is, it's likely to come up periodically and cause trouble for your character. The storyteller needs to know what the secret is, obviously, but other players might not.
1 point: Your character looks remarkably like someone famous or legendary. People will occasionally confuse them and expect your character to be someone that they're not. This can be problematic; particularly if the person is a wanted criminal or known enemy.
4 points: Someone wants your character very, very dead. Worse, they were willing to do it themselves or pay handsomely to see it done. A powerful bounty hunter, mercenary, or other enemy is relentlessly chasing your character and won't stop until one of them is dead. The hunter likely has no qualms about hurting other people and is a risk to your character's companions as well. This makes your character a dangerous person to be around and they may suffer some social consequences as well. Unlike most flaws, this one can sometimes be resolved without spending any experience. However, the hunter may also have allies which will continue the hunt even after you've managed to win or escape.
1 point: Your character sleeps through anything, including alarms. Suffer +2 difficulty when trying to wake up. Additionally, suffer +1 difficulty to all rolls in the scene as your character struggles to fully shake it off and join the world of the living.
2 points: Your character is really, really bad at something even though they try it anyway. Choose an ability in which your character has at least one dot. This ability should also be something important to your character and not just a throw-away ability. (If you don't do this, the storyteller will make it important to your character. Usually in a particularly unpleasant way.) Suffer +2 difficulty to all rolls with this ability.
1 point: Your character can't stand to witness suffering of any kind. They will need to succeed a difficulty 8 Willpower roll in order to participate in any situation which will cause someone emotional or physical pain.
2 points: Your character is absolutely, completely, pants-wettingly, terrified by something relatively common. It could be snakes, spiders, tight spaces, large crowds, or open skies. Whatever it is, they'll need to make a Willpower roll any time they encounter their fear. If they botch, they may be completely incapacitated by fear. If they fail, they'll attempt to leave the situation. If they are unable or unwilling to flee, they will suffer +2 difficulty on ALL rolls while continuing to face their fear. Even if they succeed their initial Willpower roll, they may need to make additional rolls over time to continue resisting their fear.
Throughout the course of the campaign, your character will earn experience which can be used to improve their traits. Experience points are earned for facing challenges, overcoming obstacles, roleplaying, finding interesting solutions, and participating in the story.
The rate at which you earn experience will can vary significantly between campaigns and will usually depend on how often you play, how long the campaign should last, etc. Too much experience means that characters progress too quickly and no longer face any meaningful challenges, while too little can feel slow and unrewarding. It's the storyteller's job to find a happy balance where experience feels meaningful but which lets the players experience the full story without becoming superheroes. (Unless, of course, they're supposed to become superheroes.)
Experience should always be given at the end of a game session in order to avoid disrupting the story. Storytellers are encouraged to use the suggested awards listed below but are free to use whatever awards best suit the needs of the campaign and the players.
Once awarded, experience points are available to be either banked or spent.
A chapter is a relatively small but independent part of a larger story. They're usually told in a single session but some sessions may involve more than one.
Each chapter might consist of a single mission or contract, the events on a particular planet, or some other relatively self-contained chunk of activity. They'll usually contain several different scenes, interspersed with downtime, but should culminate in a natural break in the story. Consider television episodes as an example of the sorts of timescales and events which should be involved in a chapter.
At the end of each chapter, storytellers should consider the following experience point awards. (If there are multiple chapters in a session, make notes and award them at the end.)
Each character should automatically gain a little bit of experience just by being there.
Award one point to all players who completed the chapter.
Characters learn more from creative problem solving.
Award one point to each player who had a clever, unique, interesting, or out-of-the-box solution to a problem.
Stories are more interesting with rich, engaging characters.
Award one point to players who make a special effort to portray the complexity, quirks, and personalities of their characters. This reward is not intended to be a competition between players. Instead, reward progressive improvement from session to session. The standards for the reward should increase each time it is given to a particular player.
Bravely staring down death, and living to tell the tale, brings growth to even the most hardened characters.
Award one point to players who selflessly risked their character's life and limbs for their companions, allies, or the good of the story. (If a character fails to survive the ordeal, consider awarding this posthumously as part of the player's new character creation.)
A story is a larger adventure, usually containing several chapters. Though, occasionally, a story might involve just one particularly epic chapter.
Stories should build up to a significant, satisfying conclusion and tie up many of the loose ends between chapters. Because stories can vary so much, it's difficult to say exactly what a single story should contain. But, if chapters are episodes, consider each story like a season or miniseries.
At the end of each story, storytellers should consider the following experience awards.
We learn more in victory than in defeat.
Award one point to all players if the party achieved their goals or accomplished their mission.
What doesn't kill us makes us stronger.
Award one point to all players if the story was particularly dangerous or harrowing.
No plan survives contact with the enemy, but we can still learn from them.
Award one point to each player who came up with a brilliant Plan B, adapted quickly to changing circumstances, found a new and clever way to their resources, or just flawlessly executed Plan A.
Available experience points can be banked into a single trait to be spent later. Banked points can only be spent on that trait (or a specialty of it, in the case of abilities) and are no longer available for anything else. Doing this allows you to add experience dice to your rolls and is a good way to get some use from your experience points while saving up for something expensive.
Experience points can be spent between chapters to gain new traits and improve existing ones.
The cost to purchase a dot varies depending on the type of trait, but generally increases based on the number of dots you already have. The more dots you have, the more expensive getting another one will be. When you purchase a dot in a trait, the cost of that dot depends on the new rank in the trait according to the following table:
| Trait | Experience Points |
|---|---|
| General Specialty | 2 Points |
| Advanced Specialty | 3 Points |
| Willpower | New Rank x 1 Point |
| Ability | New Rank x 2 Points |
| Attribute | 15 Points |
Points are no longer available once they've been spent, so make sure to use any banked experience points that apply before spending available points.
Most of the time, characters need have some in-story opportunity for learning in order to improve a trait. Characters might accomplish this by practicing during downtime, learning from a mentor, doing research, or just using the trait to take actions in game. The exact requirements will vary based on the trait and how difficult it should be to learn. For example, a character might be able to learn the Melee: Swords specialty after practicing with a teacher for a week, but the Humanities: Mandarin Language specialty might take months.
How strict or loose the storyteller wants to be on this will usually depend on the needs of the story, the party, and the type of game. They may even choose to ignore this rule entirely. In any case, banked experience should almost always be considered as sufficient practice for new dots in attributes and abilities, as it shows the trait was actively used.
Finally, this rule doesn't apply to a character's starting experience, as it's assumed that the character has had opportunities to learn before they joined the campaign. After all, every character has a backstory.
Sometimes a character just isn't quite working out as expected. Maybe they've got the wrong traits, or they're too strong, too weak, or they just don't work well with the party. Whatever the cause, the character just isn't fun to play or is hurting players' enjoyment of the story. This is especially common for new players, where the in-game uses of different abilities and specialties might not have been clear when they first made up their sheet.
In these cases, it's important to remember that the first goal of any game is to have fun. The storyteller should work with the player to make whatever adjustments are needed to sort out the issue and bring the character back into alignment. Try to disrupt the story as little as possible while doing this, and find reasonable in-game reasons for changes, but don't sacrifice fun just for the sake of rules.
Changes to characters might be as small as moving a couple dots around or swapping out some specialties. Or, they might be larger changes in backstory and personality. In the most extreme cases, it may even be necessary to kill off or retire the character and create a new one to replace them. Whatever the case, try to make sure it's fair to all players as well; keep point costs in mind and try to avoid changing the total experience cost of the sheet.
Finally, there can sometimes be a problem which is totally the storyteller's fault. Maybe they gave too much experience, or some over-powered gear, or maybe they adjusted a rule and it's not working out. Whatever it was, it's important for the storyteller to be honest about their mistake and work with the players to correct it. Remember that getting an ability or item nerfed can be unpleasant for players, so make sure the correction will be better for everyone in the long run. When possible, try to make adjustments which give things rather than take them away - just be careful to avoid making the whole party too powerful for the story.
Characters do many things in the world; they drive cars, fly spaceships, shoot guns, investigate crime scenes, and so much more. Many of these actions are mundane or trivial and only require saying what your character is doing. (Nobody wants to roll dice to eat breakfast or drive their car through normal traffic.) For everything else, characters use their attributes and abilities, along with some dice, to determine if they succeed, fail, or royally screw things up.
The first step of performing an action is to decide what your character is going to do and announce it. You might say, for example, "I hop on the motorcycle and fire it up." For many actions, this is all that's required. But for some actions, the storyteller may have you roll for it. The storyteller should take the situation into account as well when deciding whether players should roll. After all, it's really easy to start a motorcycle in your driveway for a lazy drive but it's a whole other thing to start it while under fire and trying to escape with your life.
Some actions are also just straight up impossible. No matter how much you say "I fly like a bird!" the only thing your character will end up doing is flapping their arms like a lunatic. Generally, the storyteller won't have you roll for these and just tell you that you fail or suggest that your character would know it was impossible before you even attempt it. However, a particularly mean storyteller may have you roll anyway, purely to determine exactly how hilariously you screw up.
While most things your character does are technically actions, you generally don't need to think about them individually. Outside of combat, players should just roleplay their characters, decide what they want to do, and do it. Try to avoid things like "Can I make a stealth check?" or "What do I need to roll to search the room?" Instead, describe what your character is doing: "I blend into the crowd and try to get out the back unnoticed" or "I grab my forensics kit and search the room, looking for anything that might be relevant to the case." When a roll is needed, the storyteller will say so.
When you announce an action that your storyteller wants you to roll for, they'll decide which traits you'll need to use. Usually, this will be an attribute and an ability. However, occasionally be one or two attributes will be used instead. While there may sometimes be only one trait used, there should never be more than two. The number of dice you'll roll, called your dice pool, is determined by how many dots you have in each of those traits: one die per dot for each trait.
Example: A character is taking fire and the player decides to start his motorcycle and try to get away. The storyteller thinks that getting the key in the ignition and driving off without stalling is going to require precise movements and familiarity with the bike. She says to roll Precision + Drive. The player has three dots in Precision and two dots in Drive, so his dice pool contains a total of five dice.
Many actions can be accomplished in many different ways and with many different traits. Rather than just stating which action you'd like to perform, it's usually better to describe how you're trying to go about it. This will help the storyteller determine which traits to use and makes sure that your character performs the action in the way you intended. This also helps build your character's personality and demeanor in the minds of other players and leads to a richer roleplaying experience for everyone.
After you declare an action, the storyteller may offer a choice of different ways of performing it. They may also tell you which traits would be used for each option. While it can be tempting to just use whichever option gives you the larger dice pool, it's important to consider your character's personality and what their objectives are. Just because you're better at doing something a certain way doesn't necessarily mean that's the right way to try and do it. Keep in mind that different approaches may have different difficulties as well, so just having more dice doesn't mean it's going to be easier.
Example: "I'm going to make my way through the crowd and follow the target." announces a player. The storyteller asks him if he'd like to push and shove people out of the way with Strength + Brawling or slip through gaps in the crowd with Precision + Streetwise. He knows he'd have more dice if he brute forces his way through, but he also knows that his character wouldn't want to make a big scene and draw attention. Ultimately, he decides to take the smaller dice pool and slip through the crowd instead.
Once you've decided what you're going to do and gotten your dice pool, the storyteller should specify a difficulty. Some storytellers will use the default difficulty for most actions and only mention it when it's different, rather than saying it every time. Your storyteller should make it clear how they intend to do this.
While the difficulty can be set anywhere between two and ten, it will usually be between four and eight with most actions having the default difficulty of six. When you roll your dice, you will get one success for each die which shows the difficulty number or higher. Additionally, you'll also get a botch for each die which shows a one. You lose one success for each botch and the total number of successes remaining then determines how well your character does. If manage to roll more botches than successes, you botch the roll and fail spectacularly.
Example: A player is taking an action with a dice pool of five and a difficulty of six. He rolls and gets 1, 3, 4, 6, 7. Two dice are showing a six or better, so he gets two successes. But he also rolled a one and loses a success, for a total of one success remaining. Had the difficulty been higher, he would have wound up with zero successes and potentially botched the roll entirely.
For particularly challenging or dangerous actions, the storyteller may specify a threshold. This represents how much effort it's going to take just to have a chance to succeed. Having a threshold means you are much more likely to fail and dramatically increases the chance of you failing catastrophically.
When you have a threshold, any successes you get up to that amount are removed immediately. Not only do they not count towards your total successes, they don't even count for avoiding botched rolls.
Example: A player rolls for their action with a threshold of two. They roll two successes and a botch. The two successes are then immediately removed by the threshold, leaving zero successes and a botch. This is a botch, even though the roll would have been pretty okay without the threshold.
In addition to the base threshold, the storyteller may specify one or more advanced specialties which are required for the task you are attempting. For each required specialty, increase the threshold by one unless you use that specialty.
When you take an action that your character has one or more specialties in, you can use those specialties to increase your odds of success and reduce the thresholds from required specialties.
In order to use a specialty, you must be using the ability that it's associated with. The specialty must also directly relate to the action you're taking. Required specialties always relate to the action and, by using one, you get to ignore the threshold added by that specialty. However, you may only use one specialty per dot that your character has in the associated ability. This means that you cannot use a specialty at all if, for some reason, you don't have any dots in the ability. It also means that you may not be able to use all the required specialties for an action if you don't have enough dots, even if you have the specialties available. (Keep this in mind during character creation.)
Finally, using at least one specialty on a roll grants the awesome power of "exploding tens": whenever you roll a 10 on any die in the roll, add two additional bonus dice. Like regular dice, any successes rolled on bonus dice count towards your overall successes. However, unlike regular dice, 1s are ignored instead of adding a botch. Even better, 10s on bonus dice count as well and can add even more bonus dice. (That's why it's called exploding tens.)
The exploding tens effect doesn't stack, so using multiple specialties is only useful when they're required, but having multiple specialties can be a cost-efficient way to increase your character's effectiveness in different circumstances.
Example: A player is trying very long distance using a sniper rifle. The attack uses Precision + Firearms, has a difficulty of 8, and requires the Extreme Range advanced specialty. Her character has three dots in Precision and one dot in Firearms with the Pistols, Sniper Rifles, and Extreme Range specialties. Two of her specialties apply to the action, but she can only use one of them due to her rank in Firearms. She chooses to use the Extreme Range specialty so she can ignore the threshold from it.
She rolls her dice pool and gets [1, 4, 7, 10]. The botch and a success cancel each other out but she's still allowed to add bonus dice for the ten. She rolls her two additional dice and gets [1, 10]. The 1 is ignored, because it's on a bonus die, and the 10 adds a success plus two more bonus dice. She rolls [4, 8] on these for one more success. Thanks to her specialties, she was able get two successes on an attack which would have otherwise botched.
If you have experience points available, you use one of them to potentially boost your successes.
Once per roll, you can add an experience die. First, resolve the roll. If you haven't botched, you may bank one of your available experience points in a trait that you used for the action. Then, add a single bonus die to your roll. This die is the same as those added by using a specialty and does not botch on a 1. Plus, if you're also using a specialty, it can get exploding tens like any other die.
Once you've determined your action, dice pool, and difficulty, it's time for some of that sweet, sweet randomness.
Roll a number of ten-sided dice equal to your dice pool. Each die can have one of three results:
- Each die showing a number equal to or greater than your difficulty is a success.
- Each die showing a 1 is a botch.
- Each other die is a failure. (Sometimes called a simple failure.)
If you're using a specialty, also roll any bonus dice that you earn. Remember that 1s are not botches for bonus dice, so be sure to keep them separate.
Count how many dice are showing a number equal to or greater than your difficulty number; these are your successes.
If you have a threshold, immediately remove that number of successes. Any successes removed in this way don't count at all and aren't considered cancelled; they effectively never happened at all. (Note: this affects successes, not the dice themselves. So it does not prevent you from adding bonus dice by using a speciality. It can still remove successes from those dice though.)
Ones are bad. Count how many dice are showing a 1; these are your botches. Each botch you roll cancels one of your successes.
If you still have any successes, then congratulations! You've succeeded your action. How well you did is determined by how many successes you still have. For most actions, a single success is enough to just barely make it while three or more means you did a really good job. The storyteller will describe your action and the potentially-glorious result.
If you had no successes or botches left, then you've simply failed. You weren't able to accomplish what you tried to do. You missed your shot, lost the person you were following, or couldn't hack the computer. The storyteller will describe what went wrong. Still, it could have been worse...
If you rolled more botches than successes, then you've botched. Not only did you fail, but things went very wrong. Perhaps the part you were trying to fix is permanently broke, or you gun is jammed, or you've crashed and ruined your car. Whatever it was, the storyteller will describe uncomfortable results of your utter failure ...usually in graphic detail.
If you haven't botched and have an experience point free, you can try to improve your roll by adding an experience die.
All this counting of dice can sound a little complicated and slow at first.
Fortunately, there's actually a really easy way to figure out your result quickly:
- After you've rolled your dice, pick out the failures and remove them.
- Roll bonus dice according to the specialty rules and discard failures.
- Remember that 1s are simple failures on bonus dice, not botches.
- If you have a threshold, take that many of the successes and remove them.
- Pair up successes with botches and remove each pair.
- If you have any successes left, you've succeeded with that many successes.
- If you have any botches left, you've botched.
- Otherwise, you've failed.
Sometimes it can be tricky to determine which traits should be used for an action, or what difficulty and threshold to set. This section provides some suggestions and tables to make it a little bit easier. However, it'll also vary greatly depending on what sort of game you're running and how much of a challenge you and your players want. Start with the guidelines here and then adjust to suit your story and your players.
To select the appropriate traits, it's important to be very familiar with the descriptions of all the attributes and abilities. You should almost always choose one of each of these. Which ones will depend on exactly what the player is attempting to do and how they're trying to do it. Often times, there'll only be one combination that make sense. However, sometimes there will be several different options to choose from. In these cases, try to ask the player for more information about how they're trying to perform the task or let them choose which traits to use.
Many tasks can be performed with either precision or reflexes, depending on the preference of the player. However, they should not be treated equally.
Precision should not be allowed whenever the character is reacting to something sudden or unexpected, or if they had no way to mentally prepare for the event. As a rule, precision should only be used when the character is paying attention to the task since the previous round. For attacks, this means that they need to have either aimed or shot at their target last round and that they can't have gone fully behind cover since then. (They don't necessarily need a fully unbroken line of sight, but they need to have at least watched where they went.) Alternatively, they could make precision attacks against any targets inside a small area which they've been actively covering since last turn.
Reflexes should always be allowed, but also generally be more difficult. Increase the difficulty by one whenever a player uses reflexes, as compared to an equivalent precision-based action. If you have players who want to primarily use reflexes for their combat actions, consider giving them equipment to mitigate this difficulty. One option is to call the increased difficulty a "Reflexive Action Penalty" and provide weapons which explicitly ignore it.
As always, remember to very the described outcomes to match the traits used to achieve them. For example: a character using precision to navigate a debris cloud might be described as "gracefully gliding through, maintaining the safest possible distance from each fragment", while a character using reflexes for the same thing might be described as "darting through gaps in the wreckage and deftly dodging bits of shrapnel as they wiz past".
Importantly, the difficulty should never change after the dice have been rolled.
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At difficulty 10, a single die is as likely to botch as it is to succeed. Higher than that and success is completely impossible, since you can't roll an 11 on a ten-sided die. Because of this, it's usually a good idea to add a threshold instead of increasing the difficulty above 8 or 9.
Some actions are so difficult that a simple success isn't enough and one or more successes are needed just to break even before progress can be made. For these actions, the storyteller can set a "threshold" of success. This threshold counts against any successes a character rolls, before any ones are are counted. This not only makes it harder to get a success, but also makes it easier to botch. A little threshold goes a long way.
Usually, a threshold is used to set a task that is just extremely difficult to perform. In these cases, the action's difficulty is also set high. Just be sure to keep in mind that, with a high difficulty, the average number of rolled successes will be low. At difficulty 9, even a threshold of 1 makes for an extremely challenging feat. The odds of a botch are high and odds of failure even higher.
Thresholds can also be used to make tasks that aren't particularly difficult, but where there's a lot that can go wrong. This represents the need of the character to get a bunch of things right in order to succeed in their objective. In these cases, the action's difficulty is set lower -- sometimes even lower than normal -- and a reasonable threshold is used.
Finally, determine which advanced specialties apply to the action and make them required.
Example: "You climb the stairs and find yourself at the landing pad. There's no railings here, but there's a guard standing near the edge ahead of you. It's really windy all the way up here but you're pretty sure the metallic floor will make it extremely hard to sneak past him without being heard." describes the storyteller. The player decides she wants to charge the guard and push him over the edge before he can react.
Considering the situation, the storyteller offers a choice: "It'd be so, so easy to budge him off the ledge, but you recognize that the loud, slippery floor makes this super dangerous. In game terms, it'll be strength plus athletics at difficulty 5 and a 2 threshold. You gonna go for it?" The player's character has pretty good stats and she decides to risk it. She picks up the dice...
With a threshold of two, the player will immediately discard two successes from her roll. If she has no remaining successes and any ones, she botches. Otherwise, she subtracts her ones from her successes as usual. There's a few possible outcomes:
- If she has at least one success remaining, she'll successfully push the guard off the edge. Only one success might give her a bit of a frightening close call, while more will have her move quickly and quietly.
- If she has no remaining successes, but didn't botch, the guard hears her coming and pushes her back. They're both still on the platform but it's probably going to be a pretty scary fight.
- If she botched, she successfully pushes the guard but slips and goes over the edge as well. The storyteller offers a reflex + strength check to try and grab onto the edge just in time.
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The table below provides some very basic stats for ranged weapons.
| Weapon | Damage | Range | Rate | Capacity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revolver, Light | 4 | 12 | 3 | 6 |
| Revolver, Heavy | 6 | 35 | 2 | 6 |
| Pistol, Light | 4 | 20 | 4 | 17+1 |
| Pistol, Heavy | 5 | 30 | 3 | 7+1 |
| Hunting Rifle | 8 | 200 | 1 | 5+1 |
| Battle Rifle | 7 | 150 | 3 | 42+1 |
| Sniper Rifle | 8 | 250 | 1 | 10+1 |
| Shotgun, Pump | 8 | 20 | 1 | 5+1 |
| Shotgun, Auto | 8 | 20 | 3 | 8+1 |
The table below provides some very basic stats for melee weapons.
| Weapon | Damage | Damage Type |
|---|---|---|
| Sap | Strength + 1 | Bashing |
| Club | Strength + 1 | Bashing |
| Staff | Strength + 2 | Bashing |
| Knife | Strength + 1 | Lethal |
| Sword, Light | Strength + 2 | Lethal |
| Sword, Heavy | Strength + 3 | Lethal |
| Axe | Strength + 3 | Lethal |
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