advanced role playing game system
Chris Fleming 1997©
This master section serves as explanation for and introduction to this game. The preface section is not entirely important for you to read, but the later sections are important if you want to understand how the ideas and information are presented and organized. I recommend that you read the primers if you plan on learning this game and I recommend that you read the section on campaign specifications if you plan on running a new campaign.
This is a role playing game system, a set of rules that forms the structure of a role playing game. If you don't know what a RPG is you should go here. A game system is like the laws of nature and physics. It determines the outcome of the player's actions. What would happen if one character tried to strike another or intimidate him? What happens when a character falls off of a building? A gaming system such as this one is used to answer these questions and to do much more. This system is reasonably advanced in use. I designed it to handle any genre or scenario and to do it better than any other game. It is usually what you would refer to as an universal system like GURPSTM, FuzionTM and the like. But I try to keep the mechanics smooth and useful as any game made for a specific setting.
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Just please keep in mind that this is just a role playing game system, and there is a lot of role playing information that may not be relevant. I am also a fairly picky person, and I may not incorporate your ideas. So don't feel bad if I don't accept them. However, I do encourage the addition of side projects to provide free settings, worlds, and adventures for this game.
Current versions of this game will be maintained around the net at the following locations.
I have been a role-player for a while. Like most people, I started with Dungeons and DragonsTM and I had fun. But as I grew older I progressed to different games and different systems. I never really thought about the systems when I was younger, but one day out of fascination with comic books I purchased the second edition boxed set of DC HeroesTM Role-playing Game. I was in middle school then and it took me a while to figure out how to play it. It was very different than most systems I had played. But after I had mastered it, it became more than just the comic book characters. I was surprised at how well the mechanics of the game worked. I had never realized how important the system is to the game. A good system is of profound importance to a good role playing game. It shapes the universe in which the characters live. It affects the way you play on the most basic level.
Self-consistency--a plausible internal logic--is a quality required in science fiction and fantasy. If you're going to have a willing suspension of disbelief on the part of the reader or player, you can't keep reminding him that your only guiding principle is caprice.Jon Freeman
I continued to play other titles with friends, though I didn't like being constricted by archaic systems that feel like they have directly evolved from D&DTM. I've collected a good many systems over the years. Some systems are short and sweet, but their scope is to small; they are prepared to simulate very little in the world. Other systems are very comprehensive, but require tables of data to use. And even these monsters of complexity falter in places.
There are many role playing game systems - they all suck. All systems fail somewhere, some seemingly fail everywhere.
I wasn't satisfied with any of the role playing games I owned nor any of the material on the Internet. So for personal purposes I started this project. And what you see before you is the product of years of research, comprehension, imagination, and hard work. At present time I am always adding and changing in order to climb the slow ladder to perfection. I wanted a game to be large in size and cover just about everything but orderly structured and very systematic. I wanted it to be realistic in nature yet simple and fast. I wanted something fun that can handle any genre and any character. I wanted the game that could do anything and do it the best. But most of all I want perfection, and this game will continue to evolve and change until I am satisfied. And I want others to be satisfied as well. My gift to the world, is that no one will ever have to do this again.
I am attempting nothing short of my humble perception of elegant perfection. I do not think this game will ever be truly finished, only better than it was yesterday. Never satisfied, only appeased.
I am a physics student and I have a good grasp for numbers, I am not stating this to assert any superiority, but so that you may understand my interests in a technically sound system. My ideal system would be one that balances realism and power with simplicity. Above all, I will make sure that my game is always credible in the number sense. If someone gets shot in the head, they should die, without any special rule and without any application of common sense. But I do find a great pleasure when I am able reduce the numbers down to a symmetric, concise, and foremost simplistic result. I believe that at its present state this game is very easy to use and extremely scalable, but I find the largest prohibiter to be in actually learning the game and understanding its concepts. Though after learned, it plays like glass.
I do not think that this game will ever become mainstream to young players, unless it is packaged with some fantastic setting or perhaps pornographic fantasy art. But I do believe that advanced gamers and intelligent new gamers will in the least respect this system.
This system is for intended for advanced gamers. My definition of an advanced gamer is one that can perform basic high school algebra. Perhaps even less. Either way, I don't intend on making you use it. If you question your intelligence, take this simple test. Let X be equal to 4. Roll 1DX.
I made this game to do it all and do it all better than anything else, but if you don't like it, I encourage you to find a system that suits your needs. These are my favorite games.
1st Blood of HeroesTM
Blood of heroes is actually a game based on the system Mayfair used for their DCTM Comics RPG. It has symmetric attributes, an exponential number scale, and a bizarre, open ended task resolution design. It is not perfect, but it makes a very powerful and very complete system that can handle the likes of all the DCTM comic book characters.
After DCH had died at the printers (thanks Detective Comics), a small company of nice individuals popped up out of the wood work and licensed the abandoned system, later coined MEGS for Mayfair's Exponential Game System. So BoH and DCH are the same game, minus the super-hero write-ups.
Pulsar Games Inc, being the nice fellows they are, have decided to incorporate many of the useful additions from the net into an supplemental source book as well.
Pulsar Games Inc.TM
www.PulsarGamesInc.com
DC Heroes RPG FAQ
http://www.w3.one.net/~joshdm/dch.html
2nd TorgTM out of print
Torg is a grand old game. Its features include a number scale, a slick open ended task resolution design, an odd magic system, and the "drama deck". Torg was supported by many world books and made for some nice adventuring.
West End Games®
West End Games®, RR 3 Box 2345, Honesdale, PA 18431
www.westendgames.org
3rd GURPS®
If you want a system with resources for every setting imaginable, look no further. Steve Jackson Games makes GURPS books for everything. They even made translations of the popular White Wolf titles. And their books get updated regularly as well.
Steve Jackson Games
Steve Jackson Games Inc.
www.sjgames.com
White Wolf publishing is a trademark of them self.
There is quite a bit of organization to this document. I have tried to maintain a strict set of style conventions, for the sake of clarity.
As this document is primarily maintained in hypertext format, there are no page divisions. This entire document is one long page, and I plan to keep it this way. However, there is a great deal of organization within this document. The following is a sample of how this document is organized. All of the sections are hyper linked.
|
Secondary Subsection Major Division Minor Division |
Within the writing of this game the first, second, and third persons are all referred to, and they all take on separate meaning as to whom they refer. I find that it is difficult for me to maintain this discipline, so please, as always, inform me of any errors.
Within paragraphs, examples are written in italics. This is an example of an example. It's not hard to comprehend.
Modifiers change the quality and cost of an ability. A modifier will be followed by a Cost: X%. When a modifier is placed on an ability, you are to multiply the cost that you would normally pay for that modifier by the modifier percentage. When you have multiple percentages, each percentage is multiplied by the normal cost.
There are many modifiers listed locally for speeds, skills, and especially special abilities. Often times you may want to use a modifier intended for something else to get the desired effect that you want. There is no rule that does not permit that.
This is a vast and complex system. It is very hard to just dive into. Therefore I have written these primers to prepare you from the hell that lies ahead, I mean to present some of the ideas that this system runs on.
What goes in to the mechanical aspect of making a character? I most games it is their attributes, occupation, race, skills, and spells.
This game is a bit different. You have to consider the character's attributes, speeds, sensory, skills, vantages, and special abilities.
And last there are the ability modifiers. These are effects that are placed on the ability to alter it.
In this system, characters are described by their abilities. The ability to run, the ability to think quickly . . . All abilities have a particular function. They all serve a unique purpose.
Abilities are either absolute or relative.
Often times a certain ability is defined within this text, but the player or GM may have something else in mind. Luckily, abilities are flexible. But even if they weren't, I suppose you could always home brew your own specialized abilities.
It is important that you realize that the material in this game does not make up a shopping list of all abilities for your characters. In the following section there are a great many diverse (function wise) abilities that are highly customizable, but this is by no means the answer to all of your needs. There are only few real requirements for any special ability.
After the ability is figured out, the GM should determine how much it should cost. This should be based on its objective qualities and not subjective ramifications of the setting or the ability's appeal. Comparing the ability to the many listed in this book should serve as a good reference as well.
In this game, character creation is much like purchasing a computer or car. You have a certain amount of money to spend, and plenty of options choose from. The money you have to spend in creating a character is called character points, sometimes abbreviated "CP". The options that you buy are the actual abilities of the character. Every player starts with a set amount of character points and purchases all of the individual abilities that will comprise his character.
All abilities cost a certain amount of character points. There are two types of costs: base costs and factor costs.
In point based systems you pay for your character. You pay for his abilities. But it can be difficult to decide what is a part of the character and what is not. In some game systems you are asked to even pay for weapons that the character possesses, but I disagree. Either way, there are many other complications that can show up. Many times, advantages and disadvantages can belong more to the story line and to the GM than the actual character. Other problems can also arise. Therefore the GM should set his preferences early on, so problems will not occur.
If you need more information on this topic, just visit rec.games.frp.misc and post "What do you think about the Arch-enemy drawback?" This question pops up at least once every couple of months.
Problems can arise that appear to be confusing when using a point based system. This can happen when a players abilities are variable. We will take the case of a full conversion cyborg.
The only human parts on a full conversion cyborg are their brain and spinal chord. The physical body is completely interchangeable; therefore it is possible for the character to change body styles and thus change his physical attributes. And from that, the cost of the attributes will. Because of this it would be important to record the total costs for each cyborg body, so you will always know just how many character points the character has in their pool.
Continuing with our cyborg example, let us explore a new possibility. Suppose that the character did something unexpected to the GM and stole a very powerful cyborg body that the character could not afford to pay for with his pool of character points. Then the character would have negative character points. The character is in character point debt. When a character is in character point debt, they cannot purchase any new abilities. The character cannot raise his skill through experience until he has either payed off the debt by earning new character points or dropped some ability that can be dropped, like the powerful cyborg body.
In a point based game there is the opportunity to take on disadvantages for extra character points. This can often lead to abuse, where a character will take on too many drawbacks and get too many character points. That is why you should be very anal about allowing disadvantages or anti-abilities. There are certain times when you should disallow these.
In an ideal world this would not be necessary, but if you don't restrict the purchasing of your players nothing will stop player characters from becoming unimaginative gods. It is important to restrict the characters in several ways. You must restrict how much the players can purchase, what abilities the players can purchase, and how much individual ability the player can purchase.
It is important that the GM announce what abilities are and are not available before character creation begins. The players should know their options ahead of time so that they may better from an idea of their character. Magic powers are only available in a magical setting, science skills are only available in a technologically advanced setting, . . . Just use common sense.
The GM must also decide just how powerful he will allow the player characters to be. The first step to this is by limiting how high any one ability can be. The maximum status is the greatest magnitude allowed for an ability; and generally players shouldn't try push their abilities this high. In fact, few, if any, abilities should be at this level.
Average attributes, for the range of power that the characters are in, are usually 2 or 3 less than the max stat. The max stat applies differently to sensory abilities and speeds. The maximum speed is usually around 6 or 7 less than the max stat, and the average speed is 1 less than that. Though, in all fairness, I would recommend you use common sense over arbitrary numbers.
The GM should note that having multiple maximum attributes within the same class is impossible for a character, i.e. physically, mentally, spiritually. Obtaining a maximum attribute, requires good genes and training so intense that other extreme conditioning within the same class is not possible.
The most important limitation imposed upon all characters is how many character points they will have to spend on their character. How large will the base character point pool be?
Deciding the base character point pool and max stat is easy. The GM simply chooses the power level the characters are to be at. The power level is simply a description of the potential ability of all characters at that level. The power level will generate the characters maximum status, maximum proficiency, and base character point pool. The base CP pool can be either a flat number or a random amount that varies between 80 and 125% of that, 75% + 5D10% in dice terms. The GM should decide if all characters are to be potentially equal or each have a random amount of CP.
| Base Character Point Pool | ||||||
| Power Level | Max Stat | Max Proficiency | Flat Base | Random Base | ||
| Human Ordinary | 9 | 3 | 1400 | 1050 | + | 7D10 × 10 |
| Human Extraordinary | 10 | 4 | 1600 | 1200 | + | 8D10 × 10 |
| Human Extreme | 11 | 5 | 1800 | 1350 | + | 9D10 × 10 |
| Mock-Real | 12 | 6 | 2000 | 1500 | + | 10D10 × 10 |
| Munchkin | X | X-6 bonus | 200(X-2) | 150(X-2) | + | (X-2)D10 × 10 |
It may also be a good idea for the GM to require or limit the spending of different types of abilities to a certain number in order to guide character creation to the GM's vision.
This master section contains all of the material needed to create a character. All of the constructs that go into making a character, as well as some suggestions to measuring the character's alignment and identification as well, are included.
However some of the information referred to may not make complete sense unless you have delved into the actual rules. It is my suggestion that the rules be read as necessary. But you should not be too worried. The amount of rules you need to read in order to understand this section is only a few pages.
Ability modifiers are special side effects that are placed on abilities to alter their function to some degree. Modifiers that improve an ability will also make the ability cost more. Modifiers that hinder an ability will make the ability cost less. There are many modifiers presented here, but they are not all applicable to every ability. You should use some intelligent judgment when selecting ability modifiers. It is also the case that a modifier should not allow more ability than intended - that would cost extra.
All ability modifiers have a cost modifier associated with them in the form of Y%. This percentage is multiplied by the normal cost of the ability to figure the modified cost of the ability.
When multiple abilities are combined into a single power and the result is a much better power than either two separated, the result is a positive combination. The damages and effects are not doubled, but the effects are combined.
When multiple powers are fixed in such a fashion that one power cannot be used without another, and this limits the powers, the powers are negatively combined.
The ability cannot damage, only stun or shock.
What ever effect is dealt on the target, the opposite of that effect is dealt on the user. The user cannot initially defend. So, a magic fire ball could heal a user if it damaged the target, and a healing spell would transfer the damage of the target to the caster.
The effects of the ability compound continuously, decreasing by one unit each turn. So a sticky fire ball that initially did 4 points of damage, would do 3 points of damage the next turn and 2 points of damage the next . . .
An ability can be made where it can be used endlessly without need of rest, or where it can only be used once before the character's entire endurance is exhausted. Any desired effect that lies inbetween should have a cost modifier that also lies in between.
The ability takes one additional unit of time to prepare for. If the ability already takes a certain amount of time to activate, add the units of time from this drawback to that time, instead of just adding the values. This drawback can be placed on an ability multiple times, each time will increase the charging time by one unit. Most abilities have a preparation of 7, one application of this modifier would increase that to an 8.
This drawback is useful in the case of spells that must be sung or read aloud, performed with ritual or dance, or any activity that takes more time than one action.
The use of the power requires a faith roll. The faith roll is a basic SP feat with the difficulty being the impossibility of the effect. The more unbelievable and spectacular the effect, the harder it is to do.
| Effect | Difficulty |
| Healing a minor ailment, summoning rain | 3 |
| Healing an incurable disease, summoning lightning | 6 |
| Resurrecting the dead, parting the sea | 9 |
For the ability to function there must exist some triggering event. Multiple layers of 'Trigger' can be placed on an ability for an even lower frequency of occurrence and shorter period of the event, for more drawback pay.
| Layers of Trigger | Cost Modification | Example Event |
|---|---|---|
| Trigger × 1 | 90% | Emergency Situation |
| Trigger × 2 | 81% | Night xor Day only |
| Trigger × 3 | 72.9% | Full Moon |
| Trigger × 4 | 65.61% | Solar Eclipse |
The magnitude of the ability can be increased or decreased 1d. This should only be applied to abilities without factor costs.
Overloading is the ability to increase the power of an ability by expending more endurance energy. Normally, a character can perform an ability at n units less than full magnitude for their endurance + n in seconds. However, an ability that is overloaded n units can only be performed for their endurance - n in seconds.
So a character could possibly overload an ability magnitude to + their endurance for one second and pass out from fatigue.
The abilities range can be increased to a seemingly unlimited distance, or decreased to physical contact.
| Layers of Similarity | Cost | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Similarity × 1 | 50% | The abilities fulfill the same role, but in slightly different ways that may prove useful in a few instances. For example: a tank might have a cannon and a flamethrower. |
| Similarity × 2 | 25% | The ability adds no real advantage. For example: a tank might have a cannon and a .50 machinegun. |
| Similarity × 3 | 12.5% | The abilities are pretty much the same thing. For example: a tank could just have 2 .50 machineguns. |
The primary stats of the character. They are used in combat and most all character interaction.
Most game use attributes based on function alone. The standard attributes: strength, dexterity, constitution, intelligence, and charisma are all very different. But you could say that charisma and intelligence are different than the other attributes, because they are attributes that cannot be physically measured. You could say that strength, dexterity, and constitution belong to the physical class, while intelligence and charisma belong to the non-physical class. The attributes in this system are divided into three classes: physical, mental, and spiritual.
The physical class describes the physical aspects of the character that directly affect the physical world. Attributes that are used when swinging a sword or dodging a bullet. They are the most commonly used stats when fighting. The physical class of man represents the character's physical body, their entire physical existence, except the thinking portion of the brain.
In the game, these will be the attributes you will use when in combat.
| Attributes | Dexterity | Skill | Power | Integrity | Endurance |
| Physical | Physical Dexterity | Physical Skill | Physical Power | Physical Integrity | Physical Endurance |
| Mental | Mental Dexterity | Mental Skill | Mental Power | Mental Integrity | Mental Endurance |
| Spiritual | Spiritual Dexterity | Spiritual Skill | Spiritual Power | Spiritual Integrity | Spiritual Endurance |
The mental class describes the intellect and reasoning ability of the character. This is not the character's consciousness or self awareness but the computer like logic of the brain. These attributes are used when remembering a fact or solving a puzzle. The mental nature of man represents the cold unfeeling rational of the thinking brain; a mental tool, but not the character himself.
In the game, these will be the attributes you will use when using skills and knowledge.
| Attributes | Dexterity | Skill | Power | Integrity | Endurance |
| Physical | Physical Dexterity | Physical Skill | Physical Power | Physical Integrity | Physical Endurance |
| Mental | Mental Dexterity | Mental Skill | Mental Power | Mental Integrity | Mental Endurance |
| Spiritual | Spiritual Dexterity | Spiritual Skill | Spiritual Power | Spiritual Integrity | Spiritual Endurance |
The spiritual side of man represents his spirit and spiritual mind. Not magic, but the higher portion of the mind, the super conscious if you will. I don't want to get into a discussion of philosophy here, but the mechanical aspect that comes from this is the character's ability to influence and his psychic, chi, and magic or supernatural powers.
In the game, these will be the attributes you will use when casting spells, using psychic powers, and charming.
| Attributes | Dexterity | Skill | Power | Integrity | Endurance |
| Physical | Physical Dexterity | Physical Skill | Physical Power | Physical Integrity | Physical Endurance |
| Mental | Mental Dexterity | Mental Skill | Mental Power | Mental Integrity | Mental Endurance |
| Spiritual | Spiritual Dexterity | Spiritual Skill | Spiritual Power | Spiritual Integrity | Spiritual Endurance |
As you can see there is a second grouping to the attributes. Dexterity, skill, power, integrity, and endurance are all generic functions, they are the basic attribute archetypes. Each class has an attribute that will take on one of the functions.
I should note, that although you have probably never seen it, the idea of attribute symmetry is not unique to this game. I did not invent this idea, nor could I tell you who did. It is more of an evolved thing that is rarely used. But the most advanced use of attribute symmetry prior to this was probably in DCH, which was first published way back in '87 or something. DCH had the same three classes, but three archetype functions, and attributes were used very differently, in fact most of them weren't used.
(DEX) The dexterity function measure the character's quickness and reaction time, the measure of the character's reflexes. These attributes determine if the character gets initiative in battle or not.
| Attributes | Dexterity | Skill | Power | Integrity | Endurance |
| Physical | Physical Dexterity | Physical Skill | Physical Power | Physical Integrity | Physical Endurance |
| Mental | Mental Dexterity | Mental Skill | Mental Power | Mental Integrity | Mental Endurance |
| Spiritual | Spiritual Dexterity | Spiritual Skill | Spiritual Power | Spiritual Integrity | Spiritual Endurance |
| PD | Description |
|---|---|
| 4 | The character has the physical dexterity of a sloth. |
| 6 | The character has average physical dexterity. |
| 8 | The character has the physical dexterity of an athlete. He reacts quickly to most physical stimuli. |
| 10 | The character has perfected his physical dexterity to the pentacle of human perfection. He reacts without conscious thought. |
| 15 | The character has physical dexterity beyond parallel, he can even react in time to dodge bullet fire. |
Mental dexterity is not an actual IQ, but a measurement of mental quickness, responsiveness, and sharp thinking.A character with a high mental dexterity is likely to be witty, while a character with a low mental dexterity is likely to be mentally slow.
When a player is playing a character with a high mental dexterity, the GM should allow the player extra time to make his decisions. For instance, if the character has a mental dexterity of 10 and the player is deciding where to direct his next punch, he should have more time to decide than another player whose character has a mental dexterity of 6. Of course all of this is up to the GM.
| MD | Description |
|---|---|
| 4 | The character is slow to perform common mental tasks; slow to respond. |
| 6 | The character has average mental speed. |
| 8 | The character can respond quickly to questions and can perform math in his head at a quick pace. |
| 10 | The character's mind calculates at blinding speed. Between him and a trained calculator user, he will always win. |
Spiritual dexterity measures the ability to quickly manipulate magical energies. It is used when hastily aiming a spell or spiritually resisting a spell. It is also used when attempting to perform an act of persuasion or intimidation.
Spiritual dexterity is the quick command of power and influence. A character with a high spiritual dexterity can influence with a surpassing frequency.
(SKL) The skill function measure a character's accuracy and coordination. These attributes are used in strike and evasion actions to determine how well the blow or dodge was made.
| Attributes | Dexterity | Skill | Power | Integrity | Endurance |
| Physical | Physical Dexterity | Physical Skill | Physical Power | Physical Integrity | Physical Endurance |
| Mental | Mental Dexterity | Mental Skill | Mental Power | Mental Integrity | Mental Endurance |
| Spiritual | Spiritual Dexterity | Spiritual Skill | Spiritual Power | Spiritual Integrity | Spiritual Endurance |
| PS | Description |
|---|---|
| 4 | The character has poor balance and is down right clumsy. |
| 6 | The character has average balance and physical skill. |
| 8 | The character has the balance of an acrobat and the coordination of juggler. |
| 10 | The character has impeccable physical skill. He is able to walk a high wire, while juggling, effortlessly. |
| MS | Description |
|---|---|
| 4 | The character suffers from dyslexia, is bad at math, and has a difficult time expressing himself |
| 6 | The character is of average intelligence. |
| 8 | The character has a high IQ and has an aptitude for math, logic, and computers. |
Spiritual skill measures the ability to focus and control magical energies. It is the skill of influence that is used when aiming a spell or spiritually evading a spell. It is also used when attempting to perform an act of persuasion or intimidation.
Spiritual skill is not the ability nor power to influence and use supernatural power, but it is the knowledge of it's working. The understanding of "I" and of the forces used.
(POW) The power function measures raw strength. The ability to lift heavy weight and inflict great damage in attacks. On the universal table they are measured in kg, but no one can lift heavy weight with their MPor SP unless they have first purchased some telekinetic power.
| Attributes | Dexterity | Skill | Power | Integrity | Endurance |
| Physical | Physical Dexterity | Physical Skill | Physical Power | Physical Integrity | Physical Endurance |
| Mental | Mental Dexterity | Mental Skill | Mental Power | Mental Integrity | Mental Endurance |
| Spiritual | Spiritual Dexterity | Spiritual Skill | Spiritual Power | Spiritual Integrity | Spiritual Endurance |
Physical power is the measurement of the character's muscular strength. A character can lift weight equal to the character's physical power value in kg. He can carry half that amount at half speed.
When an aerodynamic, balanced object is thrown
Physical Power - Mass = Effect: distance, initial speed, approximate initial damage
Spiritual power is the maximum damage that can be done with any magical attack. It is also used when determining how much the character's presence can affect others when intimidating or persuading.
The character's spiritual power is a pure measurement of the realization and the consciousness of the "I" within him. A character with a high spiritual power will impact and influence those around them. There is power behind his thoughts and desires. And, unfortunately, this can also lead to egotism, pride, and conceit. A character without a strong spiritual power has less power to influence.
(INT) The integrity function measures resistance to damage and capacity for damage.
| Attributes | Dexterity | Skill | Power | Integrity | Endurance |
| Physical | Physical Dexterity | Physical Skill | Physical Power | Physical Integrity | Physical Endurance |
| Mental | Mental Dexterity | Mental Skill | Mental Power | Mental Integrity | Mental Endurance |
| Spiritual | Spiritual Dexterity | Spiritual Skill | Spiritual Power | Spiritual Integrity | Spiritual Endurance |
| PI | Object |
|---|---|
| 5 | Average Human | 6 | Trained Athlete |
| 7 | Extraordinary Human
Poor Concrete |
| 8 | Quartz
Glass |
| 9 | Aluminum |
| 10 | Brass |
| 11 | Copper |
| 14 | Steel |
| 18 | Tungsten |
The spiritual integrity attribute is used when resisting spells and coping with harsh emotional distress.
Spiritual Integrity is the ultimate measure of confidence and individuality. A character with a large spiritual integrity will not easily be swayed by the influence of others. Character's with low spiritual integrities can be manipulated like sheep.
(END) The endurance function represents how long a character can push his abilities before fatigue. And, endurance acts as a character's resistance and capacity for disease and non combat related damages.
| Attributes | Dexterity | Skill | Power | Integrity | Endurance |
| Physical | Physical Dexterity | Physical Skill | Physical Power | Physical Integrity | Physical Endurance |
| Mental | Mental Dexterity | Mental Skill | Mental Power | Mental Integrity | Mental Endurance |
| Spiritual | Spiritual Dexterity | Spiritual Skill | Spiritual Power | Spiritual Integrity | Spiritual Endurance |
Spiritual endurance is used when performing powerful arcane magic or long exhausting rituals. It can be damaged by "drain" spells or soul stealing magic.
Spiritual Endurance is a good measurement of a character's strength of convictions. A character who suffers from spiritual endurance damage over a prolonged amount of time is vulnerable to depression and will feel like giving up.
Speeds are purchased separately for each terrain, i.e. land speed, air speed, sea speed. So, each individual speed must be tended to, as you would with the individual attributes. All speeds have a value of meters per second.
| Unit Math | Normal Math | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Time | = | Distance - Velocity | Time | = | Distance ÷ Velocity |
| Distance | = | Velocity + Time | Distance | = | Velocity × Time |
| Velocity | = | Distance - Time | Velocity | = | Distance ÷ Time |
| units | m/s | kmph | mph |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 1 | 3.6 | 2.24 |
| 1 | 2 | 7.2 | 4.47 |
| 2 | 4 | 14.4 | 8.95 |
| 3 | 8 | 28.8 | 17.90 |
| 4 | 16 | 57.6 | 35.79 |
| 5 | 32 | 115.2 | 71.58 |
| 6 | 64 | 230.4 | 143.16 |
| 7 | 128 | 460.8 | 286.33 |
| 8 | 256 | 921.6 | 572.66 |
| 9 | 512 | 1743.2 | 1145.31 |
| 10 | 1024 | 3686.4 | 2290.62 |
Acceleration is used when characters are changing velocity, like taking off from rest or stopping. I usually don't recommend going so far into detail, but sometimes the situation may require an exact answer. And when playing with mechs and vehicles, stuff like this is considered fun.
| Unit Math | Normal Math | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Time | = | Velocity - Acceleration | Time | = | Velocity ÷ Acceleration |
| Velocity | = | Acceleration + Time | Velocity | = | Acceleration × Time |
| Acceleration | = | Velocity - Time | Acceleration | = | Velocity ÷ Time |
The character's maximum acceleration is equal to half his velocity, or in units the velocity minus one. So by using the previous equations you can see that the time it takes to reach full speed is 2 seconds. The distance covered is equal to his velocity; more detail is put into calculating the distance in a later section.
However it is much easier to stop than to take off; the character can decelerate at twice that or equal to his velocity. So from the equations you can see that it takes only 1 second to decelerate to rest. The distance covered is equal to half the velocity.
| Unit Math | Normal Math | |||
| time | velocity | distance | velocity | distance |
| 1 sec | speed-1 | speed-2 | ½speed | ¼speed |
| 2 sec | speed | speed | speed | speed |
And for those of us who want to know what is happening in that initial second of acceleration from rest, I present this table. I find that this system works best not with grid paper, nor hex mapping, but a simple piece of string marked at 1, 2, 4, 8, and 16 meters, or any amount of units convenient to the size of the scale.
Accelerating on land requires friction, because if you don't have enough friction you will slip. In fact the acceleration is directly limited by the terrain. If your acceleration becomes limited by the terrain, you may have to recalculate the time it takes to reach full speed.
| Terrain | Accelerationmax |
| Icy Terrain | 0 |
| Wet Terrain | 1 |
| Sandy Terrain | 2 | Good surface | 3 |
Determining the distance covered by a character that is accelerating is ugly. That's all I have to say.
Under deceleration, the acceleration term in the formula is negative. When accelerating from rest, the initial velocity term is zero.
When a character accelerates to X velocity in one second, there is an amount of stress placed on that character, a physical power X. If the stress of the acceleration overcomes the character's PI, he will pass out.
When a character moving at his maximum speed he cannot simply make a 90 degree turn and keep going at full speed. A character is limited in his speed when making a turn, and if he surpasses this limit he will not make the turn he so desired.
| Angle | Velocitymax |
| 45° | V-1 |
| 90° | V-2 |
All of these velocities require maximum acceleration: watch out for slipping.
In the atmosphere, a certain amount of resistance is put up at high speeds. This resistance is a constant PP that can hinder and even damage the character. The resistance values on this table are for streamlined objects. Numbers in red represent Mach 1, the speed at which sound travels through the substance. The number in blue represents terminal velocity, the maximum velocity of a falling object.
| Speed in units | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | X |
| Atmospheric Resistance | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 10 | 13 | 16 | 19 | 21 | 24 | 3X-14 |
| Water Resistance | 2 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 10 | 12 | 28 | 34 | 40 | 46 | 6X-32 |
The most damaging factor of moving through the atmosphere at incredible speeds is not the actual friction from the air, but that when the character has passed the speed of sound, he is compressing the air in front of him rather than cutting through it.
What is the atmospheric resistant good for? It shows you that cape-wearing heroes that fly faster than a speeding bullet need a high PI or their skin might peel off. What is water resistance good for? It shows you that if you jump out of an airplane over the ocean, it will hurt.
When character reaches the upper limits of 8 units of speed and beyond in atmosphere, the character causes sonic boom with cone shaped shock waves. This occurs because there is a distortion in the way the air flows around the traveling object. The result is an effect similar to thunder. But a sonic boom will cause more than walls to rattle. Sonic booms will shatter windows and leave your ears ringing, perhaps bleeding.
The character can accelerate to full speed in an instant and decelerate from full speed in an instant as well. Normally it takes a character about two seconds to get to full speed, but this character can accelerate near instantaneously. For all numerical purposes, distances traveled should be calculated as if the character never had to accelerate from rest, but started at full speed.
Another consequence of this is the ability to make ridiculous turns at full speed. The character can simply make a 90 degree turn at full speed. Nothing looks so bizarre.
Stress from accelerating by a person with instantaneous acceleration is + 1.
Digging or traveling through loose soil. Hard soil will reduce this speed. To find the speed at which the character can dig through a substance, subtract the resistance, or PI, of the substance from the character's units of DIG.
Speed = DIG - PI
| Substance | PI |
| Sand | 3 |
| Dirt | 4 |
| Hard Soil | 5 |
| Concrete | 7 |
| Stone | 8 |
Flying through the atmosphere. Possible explanations include telekinesis, gravity manipulation, and winged flight.
The character has the ability to seamlessly glide through the air. When traveling the character adds their units of height to their units of gliding to determine how far the character can glide. When gliding the character will accelerate to additional units of velocity as he decreases in altitude. Therefore the character must dive, and give up possible potential distance, to increase his velocity. But, the character is still limited to a terminal velocity of 7 units.
Running over land; the ability all normal humans have. The human running ability is generally between a 2 and a 3. A RUN of 12 can temporarily run across the surface of water, if the character only weighs around 100 or so kg.
Traveling in the vacuum of space. This speed includes flight at a reduced amount. Just because you can fly in space, does not mean that you can survive there. You must have a high PI (at least 12) or relating power and must not have to breathe regularly.
Swimming under water, but does not include breathing underwater, surviving great depths, or overcoming the bens. Human swimming is generally around a 0.
As with speed, strength, and smarts, the character's sight and smell must also be measured. Sensory abilities determine how and how well the character can sense his environment. From this the character is able to communicate and locate targets. A lack of good perception will hinder these abilities. Speech is no good to a deaf person and a rifle is no good to a blind person.
In this game, sensory abilities are an invaluable utility for the characters, but they can also be very involving to understand and use. If you were to run a game where no characters were blind or deaf, had sonar or radar, or had any special sensory abilities at all, you may want to just skip the sensory construct all together and just make the perception check a mental feat of some sort. Because of the complex nature of sensory abilities in general, I consider them to be optional, but they can be very fun to use.
Different animal species will communicate through their best sensory abilities. Human beings for example communicated through vocal language and tone of voice, movement and facial expressions, and, to a lesser degree, pheromones. These all correlate with the human's best sensory abilities: vision, hearing, and smell. If the player is to choose a character of an alien species, he should think about how the character communicates by his sensory abilities. And depending on the species, communication between the races may not be physically possible.
As with most other abilities in this system, the sensory ability can be simply described with its name and magnitude. However, senses are very complicated things to represent, so many aspects of the sense are represented in one term.
Some abilities, like aiming a gun, require the character to be able to have a sufficient vision (or sonar, etc) sense. If the setting is ill-suited for the character's sense, they may be at a disadvantage.
Consider a blind character striking wildly at some target within striking range. To find the probability that the blind character will hit we will construct a sphere around the character that extends equally in all directions to meet the target. So imagine a sphere around the character that is just the right size so that the target is touching that sphere. The probability that the character can hit the area of the target would be the ratio of the area that the target takes up on the surface of the said sphere to the surface area of the sphere. So we would divide the size of the target by the surface area of the sphere. In unit terms, this would be around size - 2×distance - 2, where size is the size of the target (1 unit for a human), and distance is the distance from the character to the target and the radius of the sphere.
Changes to the obtained unit probability may be occur from the result of area effects, like size and spread out attacks, or if the character knows the general location of the target. If the character can confine the target to half the probability sphere, he may add one unit . . . However, if the character is wrong, he is sure to miss.
The result should be a negative unit. To make that probability rollable, you would first check the real number that the unit is equivalent to. This will be a decimal number less than 1. Multiply that by 100% to obtain a percentage, and then try and roll under that percent on the percentile dice.
If the player can roll within this percentage, this only means that the character is striking within the correct direction. A standard attack must still be made. Striking in the right direction is no guarantee for success.
Hearing sound vibrations that travel through the air and water with your ears. It cannot be used in space, because of the lack of medium.
The spectrum of sound is determined by the frequency of the sound.
The range in units determines how far the character can hear a whisper, about 10 decibels. The average human's range is tens of meters. A quality of 7 can hear a heart beat from close range.
Sense of atmospheric pressure. Humans have a very limited form of this sense with their sinus cavities. In space, it obviously registers no pressure.
Electrosensory provides the ability to detect electric and magnetic fields and electrical current. This sense used almost always in an underwater environment, as water (especially salinated water) is a good conductor and air is not. And unlike most other sensory abilities, electrosensory is almost always not passive. Electroreceptive species give off a neural discharge. So, two creatures both using electrosensory can more easily sense each other.
An animal's nervous system gives off a certain signature in the form of an electric field. So an electroreceptive species can use its specialized abilities to locate an animal's signature. This is mainly used to detect prey and prospective mates. Also the ability to detect magnetic fields provides the electroreceptive species with the ability to detect the north and south poles of the earth and thus the species has an innate sense of direction.
The senses of taste and smell similar abilities; each give a specific flavor to certain molecules found in the air or in food and drink. Typically the sense of smell is superior to that of taste with respect to sensitivity.
The spectrum of taste is determined by the medium through which the substance is tasted.
The sensitivity of the sense of smell is determined by how far the character can sense a trace of pungent material substance.
The perception of electromagnetic radiation as it emitted from and reflected off of objects to perceive color and intensity of light.
The spectrum of EM is determined by the frequency of the radiation.
A note on the visible range. The visible range of light is actually very small in comparison to all of the other groupings. Also, the visible range is right on the edge of the ultra-violet and infrared ranges. (The distinction is actually arbitrary.) Therefore I would let it be the case that ultra-vision and infrared vision include standard vision, but with much less distinction between the visible colors red, green, and blue.
| Quality | Geometry | Reference | Resolution & Color Depth |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9 | 3D the character can now see depth | Telescoping the character can zoom into small areas as if he were closer to the event | |
| 8 | |||
| 7 | Focusing the character can focus onto a particular object in order to view it better | perhaps the future quality for hi-res theaters | |
| 6 | 2D Layers The character sees layers of two dimensional images | ||
| 5 | Object Orienting the character can pick out objects from his vision and identify them better | standard computer monitor quality, SVGA | |
| 4 | |||
| 3 | 2D the character sees a flat picture | Shape Contrasting the character can separate an object from its background | the character can sense primary colors |
| 2 | |||
| 1 | Motion the character can sense that objects are moving | blurs of black and white shades | |
| 0 | the character can only sense the presence or absence of light |
Touching with nerve endings and does NOT have a range. This perception covers the sense of contact pressure and vibrations felt through a solid medium. Because the sense of touch has no spectrum or range, the factor cost is set at a base amount and the sensitivity is the amount of units purchased.
Knowledge skills are the type of skills that every character has. Because they are driven in and are nearly innate, they are not fully dependent on the character's mental faculty. They are not physical or reasoning skills, they are memory abilities, although they do require practice and experience. If new skills could be downloaded into your brain, they would be knowledge skills.
The communications skill is a measure of how diverse the character's communication abilities are. How many languages the character knows, and how fast they can learn a new language.
| Skill | Communications |
| 0 | single native language |
| 1 | bilingual |
| 3 | a few related languages |
| 6 | an entire family of languages |
| 10 | all common languages, picks up new languages in just a matter of weeks |
Measures the general level of education received and the general amount of knowledge the character has. This does not directly cover occupational skills.
| Education | Studies |
| 0 | No formal education |
| 2 | GED |
| 3 | High school graduate |
| 4 | Junior College graduate |
| 6 | BS |
| 7 | Masters |
| 9 | PhD |
A skill used to find local land marks, terrain, addresses, or specifics of a specific area. The character may also be familiar with local inhabitants and their customs. The specific area must be selected with the purchase of the skill, because it will determine the skill's cost, but if the area is rather barren and dull, such as a dessert, the cost can be decreased by the GM. In game this skill is used to make memory checks against the specifics. The difficulty of the specifics is to be determined by the GM.
| Knowledge | Area Coverage |
| 1 | City |
| 2 | County |
| 4 | State |
| 6 | Continent |
| 8 | Planet |
| 10 | Solar System |
| 15 | Galaxy |
This skill is used with a standard memory check feat (ME) against the difficulty of the task.
| Memory Task | Difficulty |
| Popular Land Mark: The Clock Tower | Automatic |
| Area Type: any mall, hotel, or grocery store | 2 |
| Specific Area: a specific mall, hotel . . . | 5 |
| Hard to find area | 8 |
| Obscure or unknown area | 10 |
Skills abilities are skills that the average person is unable to perform without experience. A skill ability must be learned from scratch, because without it the character will usually fail when attempting to perform it. Many skill abilities can be performed by a character that does not possess the skill, with unskilled use, but heavy drawbacks will incur. Skills abilities generally require a feat roll to use. Unless stated, they are considered to be the action type of a SKL feat by default.
The character's skill is below his normal aptitude. He will perform this skill at -1d below the utilized attribute.
The character is better at this skill than his regular aptitude would allow. He performs at +1d above the utilized attribute.
Basically making a skill supernatural alters the effects of a skill to make it subtly magical. It does not make the character any better at the skill, but it adds for some very interesting side effects and sometimes gives new utility to the skill. Also, the character is able to purchase ungodly levels of the skill, because things no longer have to be explainable. So, for instance a character could buy the escape artist skill at 15 units and could escape from being frozen in a solid block of ice. This is only applicable to physical and mental skills.
This skill allows the character to perform both acrobatic and gymnastic stunts including rolls, tumbles, flips, somersaults, and tightrope walk. Swinging from ropes and some tumbling can be performed unskilled with no negatives, but complex maneuvers will incur negatives. Note that not only circus performers have this skill, but most movie stunt men do also. And even fake wrestlers must have a working knowledge of tumbling.
The character is skilled in climbing, repelling, and the use of climbing equipment. Climbing speed is determined by the character's physical power and weight. Physical Power-weight=maximum opportune climbing speed under ideal conditions. Yet even for extremely strong characters, this ideal climbing speed is limited to RUN -2. *Full climbing gear provides a +3d to skill, but unskilled climbers cannot use climbing gear.
| Climbing Conditions | Difficulty | -d to speed |
| Tree | 3 | -2 |
| Cliff | 6 | -3 |
| Vertical Cliff | 8 | -4 |
| Wall | 9 | -4 |
| Sheer Wall | 10 | -5 |
| Wet | +3 | -2 |
| Ice | +5 | -3 |
The ability to escape entanglement such as hand cuffs, rope, or a strait jacket. The character is skilled in untying knots single handily, contorting the body, and popping joints in and out.
| Entanglement | Difficulty |
| Rope | 4 |
| Tightly bound Rope | 5 |
| Hand Cuffs | 7 |
| Strait Jacket | 8 |
| Chains & Shackles | 9 |
The art of duplicating signatures, documents and art.
| Skill | Task |
| 5 | Athletes Signature |
| 7 | Old currency |
| 9 | Fail safe currency |
The skill of unlocking locked locks with the aid of a lock pick, or in some instances a credit card. *This skill does not include the ability to pick electronic locks, the electronics skill is needed for that.
| Skill | Task |
| 5 | Door Lock |
| 6 | Dead Bolt |
| 8 | Safe Lock |
| 9 | Vault Lock |
The skill of stealing worn jewelry, wallets, and purses without the knowledge of the victim. The thief must make a physical skill feat against the target's current awareness, i.e. sensory.
The character is skilled in deceiving vision with quick hands and trickery. This kind of skill is most common in Vegas or on the streets of large cities. This skill will aid the character in cheating during card games and quickly hiding drug paraphernalia from police. This also includes palming.
Stealth is the skill of sneaking around without getting noticed.
*Note that daylight and weather will also affect this skill as it affects the sensory ability.
| Skill | Task |
| 5 | Dense Terrain |
| 7 | Some Obstructions |
| 9 | Open Terrain |
Acting covers the ability to disguise one's self as another and to act as another does. It is not necessarily a theatrical skill; a good actor will not make a grand performance, but merely play his role and blend in to the background. In adventures, acting is such an important skill, because it allows the character to blend in with the general public and get out of trouble.
Artistry covers all the basics of the visual arts field. The character is trained in sketching, painting, sculpting, and other forms of expression.
The character is trained in the basics of music and their application to a general array of instruments. The character has the ability to record and read sheet music and he can carry a beat.
Includes the operation of many popular operating systems such as those made by Microsoft, Apple, and any UNIX variants. This skill reflects the character's proficiency and knowledge of a computer. Anyone can use a computer, but it takes skill to perform some tasks.
Programming is the ability to create new programs and change or exploit existing programs. The character is likely to be familiar with most popular compiled and scripted languages, and perhaps a few mark up languages.
Cracking is the skill of exploiting vulnerabilities of securities. The character can cut and paste script kiddies, overflow buffers, create viri, and misspell words with ASCII characters so he can be 3l33t.
Cracking does NOT give the character the ability to decode encrypted information, unless the encryption is a commonly used (and cracked) scheme or the key is known. The cryptography skill, a very powerful computer, and up to months, even years, of processing time must be used for this rigorous process.
| Operation | Difficulty |
| GUI using a graphical user interface | 3 |
| CLI using a command line interface | 5 |
| Scripting making interpreted programs and performing difficult operation tasks | 7 |
| Programming creating and modifying binary programs to serve exotic tasks | 8 |
The skill of breaking and reading codes, ciphers, and secret languages. The character is able to break most types of codes and encryption, the only question is how long it will take.
| Task | Difficulty |
| Cipher | 3 |
| Encryption Algorithm | 6 |
| Alien Language | 9 |
The character is fully trained in the capture, handling, and breeding of various animal types.
The study of life. From the microscopic amoeba to the gargantuan blue whale. The character will be knowledgeable on the processes of life and the habits of living creatures. This skill can be invaluable to gain insight on encountered plants and animals.
Medical science covers the ability to diagnose and treat physical ailment. The character must make a feat for every process of the task. Mental Skill feats need to be made to understand and solve the problem, mental endurance feats should be made to remember all the information having to do with the illness and its treatment, and if necessary, even physical skill feats may have to be made for surgery.
The character does not have to purchase all of the medical science skill, but unlike most skills, medical science cannot be broken into sub skills. You can, however, purchase specialties that only have a portion of the skill.
| Specialty | Cost |
| Medicine pharmaceutics, herbal medicine | 60% |
| Therapy PT, acupuncture | 50% |
| Doctor | 100% |
Placing a fair market value to knickknacks.
The character is current on trade laws, routes, and where to export/import goods.
The skill of creating maps.
The basic detective work. The character can determine where shots were fired from, bullet calibers, the basic suspect description, and many other things.
This skill covers the skill of navigating and recording terrain. The character is skilled in memorizing landmarks and can construct maps. Navigation could be considered as a more applied cartography skill. This skill is best paired with astronomy, that way the character can navigate by starlight.
The character is skilled in battle tactics. The character will know how to approach the enemy as to avoid flanking and ambush. The character can also predict what choices the enemy will make beforehand.
The character can follow the target from a former location even after the target has left. *Note that daylight and weather will also affect this skill as they affect the sensory abilities.
| Condition | Difficulty |
| Soft Surface | 2 |
| Compact Surface | 5 |
| Hard Surface | 9 |
| Vehicle or Large Animal | -3 |
| Trail is old | +1 |
| Trail is 1 day old | +2 |
| Trail is 2 days old | +3 |
| Bad Weather | +2 |
The use, construction, and detection of various types of traps and trapping techniques. Traps do not refer to simply animal snares, but any type of triggered weapon or snare, usually some what mechanical in nature. Basic traps rely on tripwires and simple triggers. More complex traps will use weight sensitive balances, motion detection, and even heat detection. These advanced traps will require some mechanics and electronics knowledge to construct.
The ability to find food and shelter in an uncivilized area. The character is skilled in constructing lean-to's and other forms of shelter. The main concern is usually warmth. Most stranded persons die of exposure more than any thing else. The character is also skilled in locating water sources and edible material. Just so you know - sometimes poop is considered edible material.
The study of stars and celestial bodies. The character can determine his relative position and direction by the stars, tell the time of day from the sun, tell the time of month from the moon, and many other things.
The science of molecular processes. Their functions and kinetics. With the proper facilities the character can analyze and synthesize various chemical compounds.
The ability to repair and maintain all electrical apparatus. Includes wiring, circuitry, and battery dynamics; as well as the fundamentals of currents and fields (magnetic and electronic) and some processor logic.
Maintenance and construction of just about anything that doesn't require power, and some things that do. The character can construct and modify buildings, bridges, assembly lines, and even airplanes. But first, and foremost, the character understands the concepts of classical mechanics; concepts like force, work, power, potential, energy, acceleration, momentum, and all that jazz.
The science of light. Lasers, mirrors; reflection and refraction. A mixed bag of geometry and physics.
The science of heat; en-trophy and enthalpy. The character has a strong working knowledge of gases, combustion, and engines. This skill is heavily required when working with any type of engine or refrigerator.
The broad knowledge of law in general. The character knows the Local laws and procedure of his residing country. They are also familiar with the great legal works of great Greek and Roman thinkers. Besides remembering rules, law requires a bit of logic, rhetoric, and believe it or not, ethics.
The character is up on the run down on the streets. The character knows what streets are who's territory and what colors clash. Facts of note include gang colors, gang symbols, gang signs, and where's the best place to get illegal goods.
The caster places a magical door on any surface that allows the caster to travel through to the other side in one step. The character subtracts the INT of the medium from his POW to find the maximum distance through which the door can travel.
The power will open any door or opening that is physically closed. A magically sealed opening will require a magical feat chain. Also, this power cannot create an opening if there is not one already there.
The caster closes a door or opening to where it cannot be opened by physical means. To open the door, the magic of the power must be destroyed.
The character can heal any minor afflictions, including colds, hic-ups, nausea, and up to any amount of damage the character is able to. The GM should note that characters that do not want to be healed cannot be healed.
Healing is performed in two parts. First, a skill feat is made against the relative severity of the damage. The relative severity of the damage is not the actual amount of damage in units, but the amount of damage in ratio to the character's integrity. If you look on the damage table in the rules section, you will see the descriptions of relative damage. Second, if the skill feat was successful, a power feat is made against the amount of damage, and that success is the amount of damage healed.
This table determines the difficulty of healing physical damage.
| Damage | Difficulty |
| Minor cuts and scrapes | 1 |
| Black eyes; cuts requiring stitches | 3 |
| Extreme uncomfort | 5 |
| Heavily disoriented | 7 |
| Stricken unconscious | 10 |
| Comma | 15 |
The character can bring a terminally dead character back to zero health. The power can only work on physical death and the target must have less than overkill damage. The caster must make a spiritual feat roll against the difficulty; the effect equals healed damage, but may not necessarily bring the target back to life. Also, damage can only be healed up to the point where the character is no longer dead. The GM should note that a character that doesn't want to live cannot be resurrected.
| State | Difficulty |
| Comma | 1 |
| Respiratory failure | 2 |
| Cardiac failure | 5 |
| Brain Dead (verge of overkill) | 9 |
| Long sense dead | 20 |
The character creates a magical suit of armor. His spiritual power is divided into the armor's dPI, PPI, and PI, while drawback negatives can be taken from dPD and dSpd.
Place a mental field around the character with his POW that protects him from physical attacks.
Allows the character to create a particular weapon from his mind. They divide their POW among its dPP, dPA, dStrike/dParry (the modifier for strike and parry count as the weapon's dPS attribute, units can be put into these stats together and then unbalanced between them), and PI, while drawback negatives can be taken from dPD and perhaps dStrike/dParry. This weapon is an extension of his mind and cannot be separated from him.
Allows the character to control pure psychic energies. With this power the character can construct objects with sum attributes equal to his POW. The character can also mimic telekinesis, psychic weapon, and psychic field.
Usually controls some particular element and does physical damage. Examples include air control, electrokinesis, hydrokinesis, magnetism, pyrokinesis, and telekinesis. Their PS, PD, PP coincide with the spiritual attributes.
| Element | Bonuses | Limitations |
| Air control | +3d knock back | requires air |
| Cryokinesis | +4dPP against heat | lowers temperature but cannot control cold substances, such as ice |
| Electrokinesis | +3dPP against electronics
free volume effect in water |
requires conduction |
| Hydrokinesis | +2dPP against heat | requires humidity or source of water |
| Magnetism | can easily wipe magnetic memory | object must contain magnetic material |
| Pyrokinesis | +3dPP against cold | requires oxygen |
| Telekinesis | Exerts force on anything with mass | can only mimic force |
To add memories, the character makes a mental feat chain against the target and the effect is equivalent to the detail and importance of the memory. The target does not have to act upon this memory, but it can affect his judgment. The target also does not have to believe the memory, but it will remain in his mind.
The character can also erase short-term memory equaled to the effect gained from a mental feat chain.
Tries to draw out information from a character's mind. The information gained is dependent on how successful the probe was in exceeding the target's INT with a feat chain.
The character makes a supernatural feat chain to simply neutralize any one supernatural power the target may be using for a time equal to the effect gained.
When attacked supernaturally the character can make a mental feat chain against the attack and if they are successful, the effort of the attacker is used to feed the character's endurance or integrity. If the attack is greater than their power, the character takes damage as if they didn't try to resist.
The character can absorb a supernatural attack and then release it as an attack of equal strength. The counter attack must be released in the form of a specific power. The character can make a supernaturally feat chain against the attack and if they are successful, the effort of the attacker is reversed upon the attacker. If the attack is greater than their power, the character takes damage as if they didn't try to resist.
Are mental powers that directly attack their target's integrity or endurance. They may even attack the other nature, but not with the after mentioned bonuses.
The character adds his POW to his integrity or endurance when resisting a specific power.
Specific: probes, control.
Creates a shield from the character's POW that protects the character from supernatural attacks.
With a supernatural feat chain, this power allows the user to take complete control over someone and use his body like a robot. The controlled target will act like a robot. Effect gained equals the maximum control time.
Allows the character to temporarily ± his POW into bonuses for the target person or item. The character can only uphold one enchantment at a time.
Allows the character to paralyze or stun a target for a time equaled to the effect gained. The target may try to break free of this condition as often as possible.
Allows the character to completely block out the sensory of the target for a time equaled to the effect gained.
The character can trade any correlating stat or power with the target after performing a spiritual feat chain against him.
With Voodoo, the attack is made and defended with a spiritual chain, but damage success is not dealt to the SI but the PI.
Allows the character spirit body to travel into other known planes of existence for a length of time equal to his END and a speed equal to his POW. After the given time is elapsed, the character can no longer sustain their travel, and will in fact exhaust themself. Return to the physical body is instant and easy as the body and soul are connected by a fine silvery thread that acts as an umbilical chord.
The character has the power to use his own body as a medium through which ethereal entities can contact the physical world. It should be noted that contacting the dead is a separate power, some dead souls just don't want to talk, and some powerful beings may want to keep the Medium's body. Prolonged usage can cause permanent spirit disembodiment.
The ability to use sensory abilities like an out of body probe, allowing the character to sense past uncountable obstructions into a space as if the character were there. The character must either focus on an object or location, and they will receive sensory information at an amount determined by a SKL feat. For instance, a character with this power may not normally be able to see past a large wall, but this power would allow the character to, if it is within his range.
The power of cognition is the power of knowledge. To know the past, present, and future of a particular. In order to have this power, the character must be in tune with the mysticism of the universe. In some settings, this power, or a derivative, is a prerequisite to being a magician.
The character also possesses the power to read the past of a particular, or postcognition. The character can sense events that occurred in that particular's past. The more dramatic the event, the easier it is to read.
Finally, the character has the power to read the present, the power to read psychic emanations. All objects and persons radiate some level of emanations; these are usually in the form of strong emotions or little tid bits of information that pertain to the particular. The reader will have a good comprehension of the present situation and emotional state of the particular. This ability will also allow the character to sense great changes in the cosmic balance.
Precognition is the ability to sense what the future may hold for the read person. Life, death, love, success, treachery, or danger. The more dramatic the fate, the easier it is to read
| Difficulty | Event |
| 2 | Death |
| 4 | Tragedy |
| 6 | Treachery |
| 8 | Danger |
| 10 | Discomfort |
This power gives the character the ability to detect if a specific is within range and, if possible, to locate the specific, and further, if possible, to determine the quality of the detected specific. The character makes a SKL feat against the distance of the specific. The amount of success will then determine if the character can sense the location of the specific. 2 units will determine the relative distance; 4 units will determine the relative direction. Finally, if there is any amount of success beyond that, it will be used to make a qualitative analysis of the specific.
ExamplesThe character can communicate between the corporeal world and the coexisting ethereal world. The character cannot see into the ethereal but can act as a medium between the two worlds.
Allows the character to remove someone from the effects of control or possession by making a direct feat chain against the controller/possessor.
The character has a supernatural insight into knowledge and truth without any comprehension or logic. The character can pass judgment using his intuition alone on problems that are binary or have multiple choices. The GM must secretly roll the SKL roll against the matter at hand and if successful, the GM will disclose to the character the correct answer. But if the feat fails, the GM will make a random choice and disclose that to the character.
The difficulty of the feat is determined by how much better the one correct answer or choice is than the others and the fate of the choices.
| Difficulty | Example |
| 4 | One choice will bring life, the other death |
| 6 | One choice will bring pain, the other pleasure |
| 8 | One choice will bring success, the other failure |
The character has a mental bond with another character or animal. This bond may vary in strength from telepathy to a mind link. The bond must be with a preselected person and it can overcome any amount of distance.
Allows the character to join with the target's mind and know everything about that person. However, the character will only remember information equal to a memory check. Any possessive forces or psychological disorders may also affect the character.
This is a very tricky sort of spell. First the caster must make a successful feat chain to enter the target's body. After that success there may be a constant struggle between every being that resides within the body. You may consider it multiple personality disorder. A strong mage may take over the character or just play with him. But, during all of this, the caster's body is without a soul or security from possession! Also if the caster is some how exorcized from the target body they will never get back to their own body without a spirit traveling power.
The character has the power to force his thoughts, emotions, and desires upon others. The character makes a standard feat chain against the opponent. The success of the feat chain is the strength of the forced thought upon that opponent.
The character can fool a person's senses and even their emotions. This is most easily compared to what a master hypnotist can do. This power has two parts: suggestion and illusion.
Suggestion is the ability to make a target "want" to do something. With a supernatural feat chain, gives the target one order at a time that makes the character want to fulfill the order. The order must be somehow communicated to the target and orders that the target may strongly oppose, such as suicide, can increase the difficulty by up to two times.
Illusion is the ability to fool the target's mind into sensing something not real. With a supernatural feat chain, allows the character to implant illusions into the target's mind for a time equal to the effect gained. The character has negatives on the universal table equal to the number of targets. The character can create false objects or even make real objects disappear. The quality of all illusions is determined by the caster's skill. If any character attempts a perception feat, the GM should allow an attempt to overcome the illusion spell as well.
The character has the power to sense thought the psychic emanations of thoughts, feelings, and desires from from entities, and objects and locations.
Entities that the character senses give off emanations of their current thoughts. Strong desires and emotions are easily sensed and can even be overwhelming. But if the entity is in no particular strong mood their natural "characteristic" color will show through; and the true nature of the individual can be sensed.
Objects and locations also share the remnants of the emanations of the individuals around them. A sensitive character will sense a vibe about a particular place. Perhaps nice people live there or a terrible tragedy has occurred.
To make a quantitative judgment, the character must make an POW feat roll; the more the powerful the color, the easier it is to sense. If there is too little color, the character will not sense it. To make a qualitative judgment, the character must make a SKL feat; the better the feat, the more information the character will receive.
| Difficulty | Quantity |
| 0 | a million souls release |
| 1 | a great magic war |
| 2 | a great summoning |
| 3 | a wicked ritual |
| 4 | a spell cast, a magic item, a magician |
| 5 | a strong emotion |
| 6 | a sentient life form |
No power is more evil in nature than soul stealing, not even the darkest necromancy. Performing a successful soul stealing is comprised of three parts. First the caster must physically kill the target character. Then, before the target's soul leaves his body, the mage must make a successful magical feat chain against the target spiritual integrity. Last the character must place the soul in a "prison" object. This prison object can be anything from a clay jar to a piece of jewelry. The captured soul will then remain in the prison until the object is broken or the mage is killed. After all the work is done the fun starts. The mage can now use any of his spells as if they had the group power and/or group endurance power bonus with the additional power of the captured souls. The mage can also call upon any particular captured soul to cast a spell, but no group power/endurance abilities can be used. This may be the ultimate power for an evil power monger, but a soul set free will take ungodly retribution.
The reason that the soul is placed in the prison object is that if the soul were to reside within the mage's body, then the captured soul could struggle with the mage for control of his body. As all personas with in any body can struggle for control. Like a person with multiple personalities. But when the mage places the soul in a prison object, the soul can't struggle with anything save the other souls within the prison object. And fittingly, a good mage will place only one soul in a prison object, least they wear each other out.
Allows the character to communicate to machines in their own language that the character some how understands. This does not give the character control of the machine, but an intricate knowledge of it.
Allows the character to mentally communicate to a target a distance away equal to his POW. Two characters with this power can talk with no effort.
In a real psychic campaign, the character must first have the abilities of psychic sensitive and psychic charismatic, as they are the primal methods of receiving and relaying information in a telepathic manner.
After performing a successful spiritual feat chain the caster can trade bodies with the target, but if the spell fails the characters soul will be temporarily displaced and if the character does not posses the spirit travel power they may not be able to find his former body. *If the spell is stopped with a spell reversal the spell will not reverse but the caster's essence will be thrown a distance from the caster equal to the amount of failure.
The character neutralizes physical damage as they are attacked. The character makes a supernatural feat chain against the physical attack and if it succeeds then no damage is taken, otherwise damage is taken as normal. However, the character can only neutralize an amount of damage equal to his PI.
The character can also overcome pain, hunger, thirst, and fatigue by making a POW feat roll. However, as the effect wears off, these desires will all come back.
The character is immune to being mentally phased or shocked. The character is also immune the effects of charismatic influence, fear, or surprise. They can never undergo shock from mental trauma but the character does take the normal penalties associated with mental damage. The character also has no trouble pushing his mental limits. If a doctor told the character they had three months to live, the character would not be stressed at all.
Allows the character to enter a death-like trance where they do not age and they can exist without food, water, or air for an extremely long time. The character can only be physically attacked during that time.
Allows the character to animate a substance or picture into a physically lifelike creature with abilities derived from the character's POW.
Allows the character to travel between dimensions based on the "distance" between them. The character must make a magical feat roll against the difficulty. The GM should set this travel difficulty, but basic guidelines are provided.
| Difficulty | Realm |
| 2 | Earth |
| 6 | Spirit world |
| 10 | Astral Plane |
| 18 | Hell |
The character creates a limbo pocket in which they can store an amount of mass equal to his POW.
The mighty power of transforming one thing to another. Two things are changed. The target's appearance is changed and the target's stats are changed. The appearance change is made with a SKL feat. A good SKL feat will make the target appear more like what it is supposed to. It's like forging a signature. The better skill, the more you can fool someone. The next part is the stat changes. Stats may change up and down as you like, but the total change, positive or negative, must be made with an POW feat. However, the target can resist if they want to. And then the caster must defeat him with spiritual feat chain. And then the total change, effect and time, is limited to the effect dealt. Normally the time of change is only limited by the caster's END.
| Skill Difficulty | Example |
| 2 | water |
| 4 | an ice cube |
| 6 | a t-bone steak |
| 8 | a flower |
| 10 | a finely cut diamond |
This power gives the caster the ability to reflect damage from an attacker upon the attacker if the character can perform a successful magical feat against the damage and a spiritual chain against the target. The power must be purchased for each individual resistance attribute.
The character can create an area of sanctuary where if any act of violence is about to occur, the violent person must make a spiritual feat chain against the power; if the violent person fails they are magically escorted outside the sanctuary.
The character can transform from a three-dimensional form to one of only two-dimensions. When the character is in this form they become weightless and cannot be physically touched; can travel through thin openings if they are long enough; the character does not make noise, nor heat, nor smell; they can only be sensed through sight, and even that is difficult. During this transformation, the character can travel at a speed of their SP.
Allows the character to summon, but not control a specific by overcoming its spiritual integrity. Unlike most other psychic and magical powers, the character does not have to be aware of the specific, but it must be within the caster's range.
Allows the character to teleport a distance equal to his SP. Any teleportation beyond the character's perception may result in death.
The character can control all aspects of weather up to his power level. The caster can manipulate fog, rain, lightning, hail, and wind. The power can be multiplied as normal, so large storms will require great power.
The character deals X damage to a target's integrity or endurance and receives X damage.
Magic is the power to replicate all other powers that exist within the setting.
| Roll | Backlash |
| 00 | Create Rift |
| 01-03 | Summon Greater Demon |
| 04-09 | Summon Lesser Demon |
| 10-20 | Random effect on random persons |
| 21-31 | Caster takes damage |
| 32-49 | Magic Ability is weakened |
| 50 | Magic Ability is strengthened |
The incredible power to emulate all other powers by faith alone. There are two steps to using this power. First making the appropriate faith roll and second using the emulated power as normally.
The faith roll is a basic SP feat with the difficulty being the impossibility of the effect. The more unbelievable and spectacular the effect, the harder it is to do.
| Effect | Difficulty |
| Healing a minor ailment, summoning rain | 3 |
| Healing an incurable disease, summoning lightning | 6 |
| Resurrecting the dead, parting the sea | 9 |
The next thing to do is to find the power that best represents the desired effect and then use it with the character's spiritual attributes.
The character has the incredible power to bring his words to life. If they focus on anything they say, they can make it reality. The effect of the power usually occurs in a subtle manner, but fierce words will reign with the might of thunder.
First the character declares a reasonable statement, like "Meldor your powers are weak and pathetic!" Then the character will make a spiritual feat chain in order to try and fulfill that declaration. In this case, the caster would make a spiritual feat chain against Meldor, and if successful, the caster would actually weaken Meldor's ability. If there is any question as to how to determine the results of the chain, just try to replicate another power.
Any specific must make a successful spiritual feat chain against the caster before the specific can come within range of the caster to affect him.
The character sacrifices his own life to receive temporary heightened ability.
| Time | 1 point of damage | a full INT | Death |
| 1 battle | +1d | +2d | +3d |
| 1 melee | +2d | +4d | +6d |
| 1 action | +3d | +6d | +9d |
The stats that receive the bonuses must be preselected.
Allows the character to comprehend and speak in any form of vocal language by making a SS feat against the foreign languages relativity to the caster's own.
| Difficulty | Language |
| 1 | Different dialect |
| 3 | Same language group |
| 5 | Same continent |
| 6 | Same planet |
| 7 | Aliens with similar vocal chords |
| 11 | Something perceivable |
A trained knowledge of an ability where it is not the ability which is special but the expertise to which the person performs the ability. This type of skill gives bonuses when under the area of training. The bonuses are usually associated to the character's SKI, but in some proficiencies a portion of the bonus may be associated to the character's DEX or POW. Proficiencies can be purchased multiple times for multiple bonuses. There are three general types of proficiencies primary, secondary, and tertiary. Primary proficiencies cover a large area of specialty. Secondary proficiencies cover a medium level and are included in a primary proficiency. Tertiary proficiencies cover a small area of training and are included in a secondary proficiency. The normal costs for proficiencies are as follows.
| Coverage | Unit Cost |
|
8
4 2 |
The level of skill is not fully determined by how much is spent on a proficiency, but how many bonuses the character has.
| Bonuses | Level |
| +1d | Novice |
| +2d | Intermediate |
| +3d | Expert |
| +4d | Master |
| +5d | Legend |
Besides direct bonuses, proficiencies will give the character other advantages. The character can now perform alternate variations of the normal actions. See combat actions. Proficiencies can apply to many types of combat, but not all proficiencies will be able to perform all combat actions. For instance, if you have a hand gun proficiency, you cannot perform a jump kick. Use common sense; if the proficiency seems to be able to perform too many actions, then maybe it should be a more general proficiency.
Primary
Secondary
Tertiary
Primary
Tertiary
Primary
Tertiary
Primary
Primary
Primary
'Royal' Yoga is a system of exercises and meditations used by the practitioner to advance himself to a higher state of awareness and being. A yoga practicing mage would be trained in focusing the mind, controlling the autonomic systems of the body, using pranic energies, and the medium of influence and the astral.
But note. Although the character may think differently, he is most unlikely to be a true Yogi. The character is most likely a street magician or traveling magic man or healer.
Vantages are positive or negative factors in the characters life and being that affect him in different ways. They are the quirks and character flaws; and they are the fortunes that give the character that edge. There are two types of vantages, advantages and disadvantages.
Unlike other abilities, vantages are external to the character. They are more related to the story of the game, and therefore some GM's may opt to leave out the vantage construct completely.
The character may choose to have secret advantages and drawbacks. If so, the character only allots the character points and the GM notes the advantages/drawbacks on a separate sheet of paper. The GM then integrates them into the adventure but never tells the character exactly what the advantage/drawback is. The GM must make sure that the advantage/drawback does not have to be role-played. For instance, a secret temper drawback would not work because the player would not know to act out the temper but schizophrenia would make an awesome adventure, because the player would never know that everything he experiences may not be real.
A positive amount means that the character has some type of positive fame and is likely to be easily noticed in a crowd or the character has a good reputation and is likely to receive positive attention. For each unit of popularity the character receives a +1d SS when persuading a fan.
A negative amount is a disadvantage. The character is infamous and feared and is likely to be easily noticed in a crowd. Or the character has a bad reputation. Or the paparazzi and fans hound the character so terribly that the character's popularity has become a disadvantage. For each unit of anti-popularity the character receives a +1dSS when intimidating or a -1dSS when persuading someone whom recognizes him.
| Spiritual Skill Bonus | Example |
| -3d SS | Hitler |
| -2d SS | Communist Leader |
| -1d SS | Wanted Felon |
| +1d SS | Local News Anchor |
| +2d SS | Misc. Pro Athlete |
| +3d SS | Elvis |
| +4d SS | Jesus Christ |
The amount of time the character can possibly naturally live. Value×100 in years. Ten units of extended life span should be considered immortality.
Negative units can be used as a drawback. This drawback is not allowed in short campaigns.
Each character is thought of as starting with 2 limbs used for fine manipulation (the arms and hands), and 2 limbs with out fine manipulation used for movement (the legs).
One of the character's hands (usually the left) is, by default, the character's off-hand. This hand is -1dPS when handling devices that require some amount of coordination.
For each extra limb the character possesses they receive a +1dCOO to grapple. The extra limbs do not otherwise manipulate the character's stats, but may allow the character to perform extra feats, such as carrying multiple weapons.
Resources determines just how much money, goods, and man power is at the character's disposal. It determines just what the character owns, his income, and what he can do financially.
Resources is measured in units and normally 0 units would be the lowest economic bracket of the era with the amount doubling every additional unit, but the relativity of wealth does not always conform to the universal table. 0 should equal the lowest of the lower class, 5 should equal the middle class, and 10 should equal one of the richest persons in the world. A character receives his unit value of wealth for annual income and begins with ten times that amount in life savings. A portion of the character's annual income should be taken by the GM for any taxes and payments. If the character wishes to own any house, car, or other equipment, the items should be paid for with his savings. The character should also have a job or reason to fulfill his income rating.
The disadvantage form of this is debt, equal to its opposing income value. Horrible debt leads to debtors prison, or slavery. Most slaves will have a few units of this drawback as they do not even own their own life.
Specific ties to organizations or individuals that can some how help the character. The difference between a connection and helper is that a connection will only provide for the character, with information and resources. A connection will never directly help the character by fighting or stepping into the line of fire, but a connection may also call upon the character for information or resources as the character does.
A negative amount of this results in organizations having a grudge against the character. A particular source may even hunts the character with harmful intent.
| Ties | Organization |
| -8 | Wanted Terrorist |
| -6 | High Bounty |
| -3 | Mafia Contract |
| -1 | Stalker |
| 1 | Thug Gang |
| 3 | Local Police |
| 5 | LA PD |
| 8 | FBI |
| 10 | MIB |
In gaming terms, superiorities that benefit the character but may have no direct contact to fighting or reasoning.
The helper advantage is actually a modifier that is placed on an entire group of abilities that represent all of the abilities of that helper. The helper modifier can be layered; the higher the multiple of helper modifiers placed on the abilities, the less dedicated the helper is and the lower the cost of the abilities.
The character has an advisor, guide, or subservient helper that will aid the character when necessary. The cost is equivalent to the character point cost of the helper multiplied by the cost modification of this modifier.
| Layers of Helper | Cost | Dedication |
| Helper × 1 | 80% | Extreme dedication, a full-fledged bodyguard |
| Helper × 2 | 64% | Major dedication, will perform dangerous tasks, such as fighting |
| Helper × 3 | 51.2% | Mediocre dedication, will perform larger chores and heavy labor |
| Helper × 4 | 40.96% | Minor dedication, will perform tasks and work |
Advantages brought on by the character's residing government. They're numerous political advantages that exist, but only a few common advantages are provided.
Disadvantages are facets of the character that hinder them. The use of disadvantages allows you to create the tragic hero, one who seems infallible save one little problem. Disadvantages can add an exiting dynamic to any character but they can also prove to be the most evil thing any GM has ever encountered. Quite often the GM should be very strict about disallowing drawbacks. Drawbacks should always limit and hinder the character.
The character is part of a complex social group, where the good of the many is much more important than the character's own wants and needs. Note that the responsibility drawback should not be taken along with this, because this drawback includes the responsibility of the groups needs.
| Drone | Organization |
| 4 | USSR | 8 | Sparta |
| 10 | Ant Colony |
| 15 | Borg |
These are drawbacks that are related to the character's rights as a citizen.
For some reason or another the character has certain responsibilities and cannot get out all of the time. This may be due to school, job, or children.
| Responsibility | Example |
| 2 | The character has job and cannot always get off to adventure. |
| 4 | The character has a job and family and isn't ever free for an extended period of time |
| 6 | The character is a doctor and is always on call. They are also required by law to stop and help any injured in an accident. |
| 8 | The character is a policeman and is always on duty. They are also expected to keep up a better example than others and may even loose their job over some controversy |
| 10 | The character is a slave |
The character begins the adventure with no recollection of the past. The GM should not allow the player to look at his character sheet, that way the player doesn't know the character's abilities, so it is as if he had amnesia.
A positive amount means that the character is extremely attractive. For each unit of attractiveness the character receives a +1d SS when persuading, impressing, or seducing someone attracted to your sex. Just because a character does not have the attractive advantage, does not mean that the character is not good-looking, just not enough to turn heads.
A negative amount is a disadvantage. Whether you are ugly or alien looking, people scream when they see you. For each unit of appearance the character receives a +1dSS when intimidating or a -1dSS when persuading someone who finds him strange.
| Spiritual Skill Bonus | Beauty |
| +1d SS | Stands out in a crowd |
| +2d SS | Super Model quality |
| +3d SS | Mortal-goddess |
| +4d SS | Something unworldly, irresistible, and perhaps supernatural |
The character has a distinctive feature(s) that can be used to identify the character easily. This disability is for the purpose of the character being identified easily. It does not imply that the character is scary, and it must be the case that the character's distinctive feature is unique.
| Magnitude | Ramifications |
|---|---|
| 1 | Something that can easily be concealed. A small tattoo perhaps |
| 3 | Something that only a large amount of clothing can conceal. A massive tattoo perhaps. |
| 5 | Something that can only be hidden from a distance. Green skin perhaps. |
| 7 | Something that just can't be well hidden, but doesn't jump out at you from a distance. A third arm for instance. |
| 9 | The character can't go around in public, even from a distance. Perhaps the character is a big purple dinosaur. |
The character has the phenomenal power to increase their mass without taking up more space. They draw ambient mass-energy into their body and undergo an incredible physical change. Every time the character uses one unit of the power they receives the following modifications: +1dPP, +1dPI, -1dSpeed, -1dPD, and +1dMass.
UNIT MATH: Density = Mass - Volume
Because the mass of the character increase and their volume stays constant, the character's density increases. At a couple of units the character will find that he sinks more easily in sand and mud. After many units of densify are used, the character will even sink into solid ground and wooden porches.
The character has the incredible power to lower the density of his body to a liquid or even gaseous state. Every time the character uses one unit of the power they receive the following modifications: -1dPP, +1dPI to physical contact attacks, and -1dMass. Also, on a side note the character can subtract his units of power from any atmospheric resistance encountered at high speeds. The character can swim through any low viscous substance a couple of units less dense than the character and travel on any substance three units denser than the character.
| Intangibility | Consistency |
| 1 | Elastic, pliable |
| 2 | Gelatinous |
| 3 | Viscous liquid (like oil not glass) |
| 4 | Watery consistency |
| 8 | Fog like consistency |
| 10 | Thin gas |
UNIT MATH: Density = Mass - Volume.
| Substance | Unit Density | Density (kg/m2) | |
| Air | 0 | 1 | .2 |
| Grain Alcohol | 9 | 789 | |
| Water | 10 | 1,000 | |
| Table Salt | 11 | 2,160 | |
| Aluminum | 11 | 2,700 | |
| Lead | 13 | 11,300 | |
| Gold | 14 | 19,300 | |
Determining the natural density of the character is easy. If the character floats in water, they are less dense than water; if the character sinks in water, they are more dense than water, but never by more than an entire unit for human-like beings.
Instead of breathing, eating, and drinking the character gets nourishment in another fashion. The nourishment must be specified and fulfilled.
The character's body temperature remains constant with his environment; therefore the character cannot be read by thermal or infrared sensory.
The character has a voracious appetite and must eat an extremely large diet to stay healthy. The cost is determined by how much food the character needs to eat each day.
| Metabolism | Minimum Caloric Intake |
| 1 | 4000 |
| 2 | 8000 |
| 3 | 16000 |
| 4 | 32000 |
| X | 4000×2x |
The character has a unique digestive system that protects him from ingested poison, bacteria, fungi, and other inedible or normally harmful things. However, this does not protect the character from things which are externally dangerous such as grenades and uranium.
The character has no need to eat, breath, or release waste. In place of a respiratory and digestive system the character will have another means of gaining energy.
The character can cling to walls and ceilings with no effort. The amount of power determines how much weight can be supported and what speed the character is limited to. Slick surfaces will reduce the power. Adhesion is also limited to the character's physical power. The character can traverse near to level surfaces at full speed; 45 degree angles at -1dRUN; vertical slopes at -2dRUN.
The character may also increase his maximum running acceleration by his units of adhesion, if his terrain limits him.
The character is naturally slippery and aerodynamic. They may add the units of power to the evasion rolls against bashing attacks and grappling attacks and he may subtract up to 5 units of power from speed when determining atmospheric resistance and up to 14 units of water resistance.
Bashing attacks are considered to be those without penetration ability. Punches, clubs, and collision are all bashing damage, while guns and knives are not because they penetrate.
An amount of objects/characters up to that of the units of power (not value) is fused physically, mentally, and spiritually. The attribute values are totaled; skills and powers are capable. The characters are joined for a time period equal to the caster's SE. The characters must act in unison and any incompatibilities may result in trauma. Also, possessive demons and insanity may be spread or changed.
The character can split into as many selves as the units of power. There is one master self (controlled by the player) and all the rest are subordinate (controlled by the GM) and do not possess the split power. For every value of splits there are negatives equal to the units to all attributes and powers. Rejoining is up to the master self and can only be done at touching range. The whole self will take damage equivalent to the value sum of all the damages. If the master self dies the subordinate selves will not be playable by the player and the GM will decide their fate. If a subordinate self die, the whole self will take unit negatives for the value of dead split self permanently.
A character with dumb luck will some how do something incredibly lucky when ever he fumbles. But, the character still can fail feats as all other characters do. The only difference, is that rolling a minimum is equal to rolling a maximum, and committing a fo paux is equal to maxing out a limit break.
Consider a character about to use an Uzi for the first time. Two opponents enter the room and the character prepares to fire the Uzi. The trigger is pulled and nervously, the character drops the Uzi at the first jerk of recoil. The trigger locks and the Uzi falls to the floor spiting out rounds everywhere. After the clip has been exhausted, miraculously all of the opponents are dead, shot by the wild Uzi fire. This is an example of a character with dumb luck committing a fo paux.
In drawback form of this, the character will always fail when he is sure to succeed. Rolling a maximum is like rolling a minimum, and rolling a limit break is like committing a fo paux.
This advantage is the same as Luck except the effects are placed on his peers. The other PC's in the character's group may choose to use the bonuses on their selves. Once per hour of gaming, a friend of the player can announce the use of this advantage. The character will receive a +1d bonus to one dice action for every unit of fortune. Or the character can forfeit his hourly advantage and have the ability to reroll any roll once in the gaming session.
The drawback form of this is the same as the drawback form of Luck except the effects are placed on the character's peers. Once per hour of gaming, if a friend of the character maxes out, the action will automatically fail.
Once per hour of gaming, the player can announce the use of this advantage. The character will receive a +1d bonus to one dice action per unit of luck. Or the character can forfeit his hourly advantage and have the ability to reroll any roll once in the gaming session.
A negative amount of this is a disadvantage. Once per hour of gaming, if the character rolls a max out, the action will automatically fail.
The character can absorb and then expel certain kinds of physical energies, including electricity, light, and heat. To absorb the energy, the character must make a successful ability feat against the attacking POW. If the character fails, they take full damage. The character can then take that amount of energy in units and expel it back out into the environment.
The character emits some specific damaging substance or effect. The power's PD, PS, and PP are equivalent to the amount of power. The attributes of the power then can be unbalanced among each other if chosen. The physical power attribute may be further unbalanced between PP and PA; otherwise, the PA is considered nonexistent.
Example of unbalancing the attributes: Death Ray (a 7 unit power) {PD 5 PS 7 PP 9}.
The character must not only decide what he shoots out, but from where. The eyes, hands, and chest are all common choices.
The expulsion can be a non-elemental effect, not having any advantages or drawbacks. But most characters are likely to select an expulsion, like fire or ice, which will have advantages and drawbacks that balance out. Examples of specific projectiles are provided.
| Specific | Bonuses | Limitations |
| Acid | +3dPP against metal | requires a liquid form; can be diluted in water |
| Explosive | +3d knock back
+3dPP underwater |
always a volume effect; the caster is the focal point, always |
| Fire | +3dPP against cold | requires oxygen |
| Frozen Air | +3dPP against heat | requires air |
| Ice Shards | +2dPP against heat
+2dPPP |
requires humidity |
| Laser | +3dPD from speed | ineffective to surfaces that may reflect or refract the beam |
| Lightning | +3dPP against electronics; free volume effect in water | requires conduction |
| Shrapnel | +3dPPP | no volume effect |
| Sonic | +3dPP underwater | does not work in a vacuum |
The character emits some natural effecting specific. The power's PS, PD, and PP are equivalent to the amount of power. The attributes of the power then can be unbalanced if chosen.
| Specific | Effect |
| Darkness | Effect of darkness may reduce EM vision that much
Absorbs its power in light (includes infrared, heat vision) |
| Fog | Effect of fog will reduce vision that much
A Fog: 7 will reduce sonar -1d; Fog: 8 reduces –2d . . . |
| Light Flash | If shined into unprotected eyes, (usually just by winning initiative) Light Flash will instill blindness for a time equal to the effect.
The effect can brighten that amount of darkness |
| Sound Bang | If unleashed around unprotected ears, it will cause deafness for a time equal to the effect. |
The character radiates some form of damaging substance that does not affect the character, but is harmful to everyone else. The damage is the amount of disadvantage taken.
For every unit of this disability purchased, it takes that many days longer for the character to accumulate a full rest count.
Not only does the character not heal, the character looses an amount of health equal to the amount of degeneration purchased, each day. In order for damage to be recovered, the character must be repaired or treated medically.
This disadvantage can result from being a zombie, being an alien from a non-oxidizing atmosphere, or being deathly susceptible to the common cold. A mechanical character would purchase zero units of this disability, as they do not heal, but do not loose health over time.
The character makes an additional unit amount of rest counts each day for his selected resistance. This power must also be chosen separately for each resistance attribute.
The character has the incredible power to increase in size and mass in a uniform amount. Thus the character's density stays constant and they are nothing but a larger version of their self. The character is merely magnified in proportion. The character can grow to double size for every point of the power. For every time the character doubles in size they receives the following modifications: +1dPP, +1dPI, +1dSpeed (any non-flying speed); the character is -1d to strike normal size opponents and opponents are +1d to strike the large character.
The character has the incredible power to shrink in size and mass in a uniform amount. Thus the character retains his density and is nothing more than a smaller version of their self. The character can shrink to half size for every point of the power. For every time the character doubles in size he receives the following modifications: -1dPP, -1dPI, -1dSpeed (any non-flying speed); the character is +1d to strike normal size opponents and opponents are -1d to strike the large character.
Looking at this power, you may ask how can I retain my human strength, like that character in the comic books. Link the power to the Densify power. But then you may ask, why am I so slow now. Well aside the fact that you are six inches tall with three inch legs and weight one hundred and fifty pounds, I don't know.
These powers are not suitable for most campaigns. Each individual genre should be limited to one type of time travel, because each type represents only one theory of how time travel may behave.
There are two possibilities to the out come of the soul of the original owner of the body.
The character is always aware where they currently exist on the axis of time. Blackouts and dreams will not cause a loss of time. They will know how much time has past. The character can also adjust to time dilation.
The character is special in that they exist, relatively the same, on all time lines of alternate dimensions. Therefore if a group of characters traveled to an alternate dimension that was almost completely different from there own where no one the characters know exist, that character would still be there, relatively unchanged. An adverse effect of this power is that the character cannot travel through time, it is just not possible. In fact special relativity does not apply to this character. (If you know what that is, you know this really doesn't make allot of sense.
The character always knows what time it is. The character can always tell how much time has passed sense the last time checked. The character can even set mental alarms. Instantly the character can determine the date, time, lunar cycle, and the time past/before sunrise/set.
This power allows the character to slow or speed time in a small area of space. The character can add or subtract his units of time flux to every dexterity and speed within a zero unit sized space, or the character can expand that space and subtract the units of size from the amount that the character can alter time passage. For example, a character with 5 points of time flux can make the passage of time within a sphere of radius one-meter either 5 units faster or 5 units slower. Or the character can make the passage of time within a sphere of radius 4 meters either 3 units faster or 3 units slower.
The character can travel forward in time at a rate greater than the "normal" flow of time. The character travels at a rate of X seconds per normal second, where X is the unit value of power. For instance, if a character had 5 points of time travel, and they used the power for just one second, they could actually travel 32 seconds into the future. This can also be translated as X hours per normal hour or X minutes per normal minute. *This power does not allow the character to travel back to his original position in time.
Where is the character during this process? The character is in an alternate time dimension tangent to the time dimension traveled.
The character can travel both forward and backwards on the axis of time, but there are great limitations. When the character travels into the past and changes it in some fashion, that change will not affect the character's own present time, because that past was actually an alternate dimension of the character's past. Also, when the character travels into the future, it is only an alternate dimension of the character's future and will not affect the character's true future. In effect, it is just a possible future for the character. The character travels at a rate of ±X seconds per normal second, where X is the unit value of power. For instance, if a character had 5 points of time travel, and they used the power for just one second, they could actually travel 32 seconds into the future or 31 seconds into the past. This can also be translated as ±X hours per normal hour or ±X minutes per normal minute.
The character can travel both forward and backwards on the axis of time. The character can affect and disturb both his future and his past. The character travels at a rate of ±X seconds per normal second, where X is the unit value of power. For instance, if a character had 5 points of time travel, and they used the power for just one second, they could actually travel 33 seconds into the future or 31 seconds into the past. This can also be translated as ±X hours per normal hour or ±X minutes per normal minute.
The character only exists once in one reality. You may travel through a million possible realities, but this character will only be encountered once in any fashion.
The character receives a bonus of the power to PI when taking a specific damage.
The character is extremely vulnerable to a particular substance.
The character has a weaker resistance against the substance when attacked, by an amount equal to the amount of disadvantage taken.
The character can be damaged by the vulnerability even if the character is not attacked with the substance, by a damage equal to the amount of disadvantage taken
The character is camouflaged to any sensory ability less than or equal to the power. In order for these sensory abilities to sense the character a successful perception feat of the units of camouflage must be made.
Examples of this power include animals that visually blend into their environment and creatures that have no odor.
The character has the extraordinary power to fall from great heights with out harming himself. When determining how much damage the character takes from falling, the character may subtract one unit of height for every unit of cat fall the character has.
Normally when a character is vitally wounded, their health will continue to decline until he receives medical attention. This can be caused by massive bleeding and or internal damage. But characters with this power will not decline in health; only when the character is dead does their health decline. Also when ever the character is vitally wounded, they don't have to worry about permanent damage from broken bones, concussion, and other forms of reality that usually do not affect comic book characters.
The character can regenerate from physical death as long as a certain amount of the character's body remains intact. When the character physically killed they can make a power feat against all damage past death. If he succeeds, they will not instantly return to life, but they will not lapse into unrecoverable death. Then the character will recover at his normal rate healing. This does not prevent mental or spiritual death and just because the character is regenerating does not mean the character is conscious.
| Ability | Life Requirement |
| 0 | The character can regenerate after heart failure |
| 1 | the character can regenerate after being brain dead |
| 2 | all vital organs must be in pristine condition |
| 3 | Only the nervous, cardiovascular, and respiratory systems must be intact |
| 4 | Only the nervous system need be intact |
| 5 | Only the brain stem need be intact |
| 6 | Only some undamaged nervous tissue need exist |
| 7 | Only some tissue need exist |
| 8 | Only one cell, need exist |
| 9 | Only some DNA need to be intact |
| 10 | the character can regenerate back from any particle in his body; he has complete control over his physical existence |
The character is always conscious and has no need to rest or sleep, however rest will provide a resting sleep count for recovery (see more in the rest and recovery section).
The character is supernatural in nature and light passes through him. The character has no shadow, no reflection, and is completely invisible to all nonsentient machines including cameras and burglar alarms. However, this does not give the character any passive stealth abilities against electromagnetic radiation.
The character completely surrounds their self with a field that prevents the passage of physical damage. Normally this power will only protect the user, but through the multiplier effect, the field can surround multiple persons. The power can be unbalanced between the power's PS, PD, and PI like the expulsion power. But a power chain is only required when initiating the power to block damage. Once the field is up it will automatically block its PI in damage.
The character simply has no vital points. All attacks to any part of the character's body will have the same effect. Attacking the character's head will have no more effect than attacking his leg. Also, the character is not affected by blood loss.
The character will act fine no matter how injured the character is as long as they are not dead. The character can act without penalties while taking hindering and incapability damage to his integrity. Damage resulting death will instantly kill the character. This power must be purchased separately for every desired resistant attribute.
The character is extremely hard to knock down or undergo knock back from damage. The character's power is subtracted from any knock back effect before the knock back takes place.
The character is immune to pain. They can never undergo shock from physical pain and can literally fight to the death, but the character does take the normal penalties associated with damage. The character also has no trouble pushing his physical limits. For example, the character can easily run until he collapses.
The character can increase attributes more than the usual +1d max with character growth. Purchased per class: physical, mental, and spiritual.
The drawback form of this puts the character at peak condition and he cannot increase his attributes through character growth. Payment per class: physical, mental, and spiritual. This should not be allowed in short campaigns.
The character sets aside a certain amount of character points into a pool, to be used whenever necessary. The character points can be added to current powers, attributes, speeds, and sensory abilities only. For every three character points the character spends on the power reserve, the character gains only one character point into the power reserves.
The character is on the verge of going to a crazy house. The unit pay is determined by severity and occurrence. The GM decides whenever to have it occur. The following charts the pay.
| Instability | Disorder |
| 1 | Tourette's |
| 3 | Manic Depressive |
| 6 | Schizophrenic |
| 10 | Wild |
Like a vampire or werewolf the character can only be physically killed in a specific fashion. 5 represents 1 physical means of death, 4 represents 2 physical means of death, 3 represents 4 physical means of death.... This power will not prevent mental or spiritual damage. A means of death that is more of a norm than a ritual may count as two means of death.
The more units of power, the less amount ways there are to kill the character and the harder it is as well.
The character is a virtual Mr. Potato Head. He can separate his body parts and they can act on their own. Each body part will have a set of physical stats appropriate to the body part and the sum of all stats cannot exceed those of the character himself. The units of the power determine how many divisions the person can separate into, how long the character can stay separated, and how far of a range the character can control the parts.
The character can stretch his body to an extreme degree. The character's elastic body will protect him from bashing damage; they can add his units of stretching to his resistance. The character can also add their units of stretching to physical skill while in grappling combat, because of the extreme degree to which they can contort his body.
The character can be traumatized by events that normally wouldn't affect someone. The amount of units reflects the strength of the trauma.
Other than high speed water resistance the character never takes penalties while in water. The loss of leverage and thickness of water does not hinder him.
By mixing powers with bonuses and limits, you can create new powers that you may be in need of. And because of the great plethora of general powers, new and unique powers can easily be created. Just so you understand this, examples have been included.
Flame SelfThis power covers the character with a sheet of fire that damages opponents with a touch and protects the user from fire, but when using this power the character is susceptible to cold based attacks.
| Type | Base Cost | Factor Cost | Effects |
| Expulsion (Fire) | 50 | 10 | +3dPP vs. cold; requires oxygen |
| Combination | 80% | ||
| Personal Immunity | 110% | ||
| Simultaneous | 135% | ||
| Continuous | 80% | ||
| Touch | 90% | ||
| Physical Immunity (Fire) | 5 | ||
| Combination | 80% | ||
| Non-0ffensive Vulnerability (Cold) | -10 | -POWdPI to cold | |
| Combination | 80% | ||
Although this focus of this game lies in its physics, you should never discount the importance of what separates a character from a sheet of paper. Even in the most hack n' slash of games, all character's should have some personality that makes them different; that makes them human or other. This game gives much to be questioned in the way of who the character is.
An identity gives important information about the character. No character can be complete without some useless descriptive information.
It would be nice to have a written account of how the character came to be and why they are the way they are. Any other important details would be nice as well.
How does the character interact with others? What are the character's beliefs and attitudes? What spirituality is the character and why? What behavioral habits does the character have?
An overall evaluation of the character's physical appearance including any costumes or common clothing, unusual features, and physical habits such as a limp. A picture would also be nice, if possible.
Character abilities are skills that will not help the character in battle, or in game at all. In fact these skills may never "help" the character, but they are just nice to have. Examples of character skills are the ability to play a musical instrument or perhaps the character is a comic book guru. Character abilities are free, but the GM should watch for stupid munchkin characters that abuse this privilege. Character abilities are made to give the character personality and a character with every ability soon becomes uninteresting.
The character's alignment is the quality of his character. Good, evil, honor, and valor are all determined by the character's alignment. The character's alignment will be a strong determining factor in his decision making. It is also very informative as to who the character really is. In this game, a character's alignment is divided into his motivations, beliefs, his personality traits such as virtues and vices, and finally his allegiances.
A character's motivation determines what pushes the character to reach his desires and what his desires are.
Personal traits are little descriptive details about the character's psychology. It is probably best to write a short paragraph about the character's personality than to pick selections from a list, but to get you started I have presented some very common virtues and vices.
| Virtue | Vice |
| Moderation | Extremism |
| Tolerance | Intolerance |
| Humility | Pride |
| Chastity | Lust |
| Charity | Envy |
| Courage | Cowardice |
Allegiance define where the character places his loyalty. The character should not only list his allegiances, but how strong the loyalty is. Is it strong enough to stand up for, perhaps even enough to die for.
In this section in lies the heart of the system. Enjoy.
It is customary in most tabletop role-playing games to measure certain aspects with numbers and this game is no exception. Consider the two characters Joe and Mac. Joe has a physical power of 6 and Mac has a physical power of 7. Mac is obviously stronger than Joe, but how strong is each character? What does a physical power of 6 or 7 actually mean? That is the purpose of this section.
All attributes and abilities are measured with a type of number called the "unit". A physical power of 7 means that character has seven units of physical power. And that 7 units of physical power means that the character can lift exactly 128 kilograms. All unit amounts are equivalent to a precise value. A gun that has a physical power of 7 cannot lift, but delivers damage of an amount similar to a man with a physical power of 7.
To include all genres and power levels and lessen the necessity for math, the units in this system are exponential. And more precisely, with each increment, their values double size. A character with a physical power of 7 can lift 128 kilograms, but a character with a physical power of 8 can lift 256 kilograms, and a character with a physical power of 9 can lift 512 kilograms.
The default value for units in this game is 2unit in SI units, kg, m, and s. This is targeted towards general power levels and it gives nice round numbers, that can perhaps be calculated even with out a table or calculator. Using different units is possible, and how to do that is explained later. But if you are new to this system, I recommend that you not do that.
You may criticize the need for this type of scale, but there are many reasons why this exact type of scale is a good choice. I will try to name a few.
For easy play, use integers for stats, but for added realism you may use decimal numbers placed to the tenths or even further. However the table and appendix provided is in whole numbers, so you will need a calculator for measurements.
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| Weight & Mass | Distance | Time | ||||
| Units | Metric | English | Metric | English | Metric | English |
| -10 | 1 gm | 1/8 Oz | 1 mm | 1/32 in | 1 ms | 1 ms |
| -9 | 2 gm | ¼ Oz | 2 mm | 1/16 in | 2 ms | 2 ms |
| -8 | 4 gm | ½ Oz | 4 mm | 1/8 in | 4 ms | 4 ms |
| -7 | 8 gm | 1 Oz | 1 cm | ¼ in | 8 ms | 8 ms |
| -6 | 16 gm | 2 Oz | 2 cm | ½ in | 16 ms | 16 ms |
| -5 | 31 gm | 4 Oz | 3 cm | 1 in | 31 ms | 31 ms |
-4 |
62 gm | 9 Oz | 6 cm | 2 in | 63 ms | 63 ms |
| -3 | 125 gm | 17 Oz | 13 cm | 5 in | 125 ms | 125 ms |
| -2 | 250 gm | 34 Oz | 25 cm | 1 ft | 250 ms | 250 ms |
| -1 | 500 gm | 1 lb. | 50 cm | 2 ft | 500 ms | 500 ms |
| 0 | 1 kg | 2 lb. | 1 m | 1 yd | 1 s | 1 sec |
| 1 | 2 kg | 4 lb. | 2 m | 2 yd | 2 s | 2 sec |
| 2 | 4 kg | 9 lb. | 4 m | 4 yd | 4 s | 4 sec |
| 3 | 8 kg | 18 lb. | 8 m | 9 yd | 8 s | 8 sec |
| 4 | 16 kg | 35 lb. | 16 m | 17 yd | 16 s | 16 sec |
| 5 | 32 kg | 71 lb. | 32 m | 35 yd | 32 s | 32 sec |
| 6 | 64 kg | 141 lb. | 64 m | 70 yd | 64 s | 1 min |
| 7 | 128 kg | 282 lb. | 128 m | 140 yd | 128 s | 2 min |
| 8 | 256 kg | 564 lb. | 256 m | 280 yd | 256 s | 4 min |
| 9 | 512 kg | 1128 lb. | 512 m | 560 yd | 512 s | 9 min |
| 10 | 1 mton | 1 ton | 1 km | 1120 yd | 1 ks | 17 min |
| 11 | 2 mton | 2 ton | 2 km | 1 mi. | 2 ks | 34 min |
| 12 | 4 mton | 5 ton | 4 km | 2 mi. | 4 ks | 1 hr |
| 13 | 8 mton | 9 ton | 8 km | 5 mi. | 8 ks | 2 hr |
| 14 | 16 mton | 18 ton | 16 km | 10 mi. | 16 ks | 5 hr |
| 15 | 33 mton | 36 ton | 33 km | 20 mi. | 33 ks | 9 hr |
| 16 | 66 mton | 72 ton | 66 km | 38 mi. | 66 ks | 1 day |
| 17 | 131 mton | 144 ton | 131 km | 80 mi. | 131 ks | 2 day |
| 18 | 262 mton | 289 ton | 262 km | 159 mi. | 262 ks | 3 day |
| 19 | 524 mton | 578 ton | 524 km | 318 mi. | 524 ks | 1 week |
| 20 | 1 Gg | 1,156 ton | 1 Mm | 652 mi. | 1 Ms | 2 week |
| 21 | 2 Gg | 2,312 ton | 2 Mm | 1,303 mi. | 2 Ms | 1 mo. |
| 22 | 4 Gg | 4,623 ton | 4 Mm | 2,606 mi. | 4 Ms | 2 mo. |
| 23 | 8 Gg | 9,247 ton | 8 Mm | 5,212 mi. | 8 Ms | 3 mo. |
| 24 | 17 Gg | 18,494 ton | 17 Mm | 10,425 mi. | 17 Ms | 7 mo. |
| 25 | 34 Gg | 36,987 ton | 34 Mm | 20,850 mi. | 34 Ms | 1 yr. |
| 26 | 67 Gg | 73,975 ton | 67 Mm | 41,700 mi. | 67 Ms | 2 yr. |
| 27 | 134 Gg | 147,950 ton | 134 Mm | 83,399 mi. | 134 Ms | 5 yr. |
| 28 | 268 Gg | 295,899 ton | 268 Mm | 166,798 mi. | 268 Ms | 9 yr. |
| 29 | 537 Gg | 591,799 ton | 537 Mm | 333,596 mi. | 537 Ms | 18 yr. |
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Let's revisit our old friends Joe {PP 6} and Mac {PP 7}. The two characters are trying to lift a stone that weighs 8 units. Neither character can lift the stone alone, so they are attempting to see if their combined physical power will be successful. If you were to add 6 + 7 = 13, you may believe that the characters could lift the stone because 13 is greater than 8. But 13 units is equivalent to 8,192 kilograms, and that is absurd. The point I am trying to make is that a unit sum is not the same as a value sum. In this scenario we are trying to find a value sum; what is the total value the two characters can lift together. If you look at the table, you can figure that the two characters can lift a total of 128 + 64 = 192 kilograms. And this is not enough to lift the stone.
Many places in this book you will see foo + bar will get you foobar. Unless it explicitly asks otherwise, just add or the numbers as you would normally. Sometimes, I even give the formulas in their unit form and their value form.
When the "values" of two units are totaled, the actual sum is not the sum of the units, but the sum of the values. This type of addition is used when two or more attributes are totaled or when two powers collide. Also I use the "v" to denote value and "u" for units when there may be any confusion. Two characters, each with a physical power of 7u, are trying to lift a 300vkg tree. The combined physical power is not a 14u, because then they could lift 16,384vkg. That would be silly. The combined physical power is an 8u, because 128vkg + 128vkg = 256vkg. So, the moral is 7u + 7u = 8u. Obviously they cannot lift the tree, because 300vkg > 256vkg.
As you may come to realize, adding values can get sticky. So to help with the stress, I try to remember two concrete rules. Warning: this is not true for hybrid units, when the scalar is not 1
Be warned, adding in this manner is only used in adding "values". When adding bonuses such as those that are incurred from weapons, armor, or taking damage, just add the units with plain old math.
When two or more units are added the values are actually multiplied and when units are subtracted the values are actually divided. This is confusing, but it makes the calculations easier and it is mathematically true. Later the rules state: distance in units-time in units=speed in units. If Johnny Flash travels 16m in 2sec, it is easy to see that he is traveling at a speed of 8m/s. You can also use the unit math, 4u-1u =3u or 8m/s. The reason this is true is because of the way powers of the same base multiply and divide. Au1 × Au2 = Au1+u2 and Au1 ÷ Au2 = Au1-u2. Or as it applies in this game: 2u1 × 2u2 = 2u1+u2 and 2u1 ÷ 2u2 = 2u1-u2, where u1 and u2 are the unit values.
Math Note| value | = | 2unit |
| unit | = | ln(value) ÷ ln(2) |
Units are shown to be used for such things as weight, speed, time, distance, and all kinds of measurable qualities. But if that were all units were for, I wouldn't be using them; they are damn confusing. Units are also used to measure abstract things. Things that cannot be normally measured. Things like beauty and reason. But most often, units are used to measure difficulties for feats and potential ability.
As a rule of thumb, when you rate a human skill or ability you can generalize things as such.
| Units | Generalization |
| 4 | Very Poor |
| 6 | Average |
| 8 | Excellent |
| 10 | The limits of mortal ability |
One of the great things hidden in the mechanics of this game is the ability to modify the scale to suit your individual needs. When you alter the scale and use hybrid units or hybrids, the only thing that changes about this game are the costs, and the unit measurements of listed stats. But these things can easily be converted from standard units to hybrids.
The function used for this game always takes the form a×bx, the standard function is 1×2x
Two numbers must be selected, the scalar and the base. The base number is a positive number, greater than one, that controls the span of the numbers. Smaller bases widen the span. Larger bases narrow the span. Many persons may feel that the span of numbers that model humans is too narrow. In the standard units, the base is set at 2, this provides easy numbers and human span of 5. I find that a base of 1.25 is great for a very low powered campaign, it yields a human span of 14.
When I use the term "human span", I mean to implicate the number of possible, normal, human attributes. The standard base has a human span of 5. Attributes generally range from 6 to 10.
The scalar number shifts the scale up and down. The only usefulness I see to using the factor of a scalar would be to shift the minimum, normal, human attribute to the 1 or 0 position. That makes for nice intuitive numbers.
The mathematical definition of the hybrid unit
| value | = | scalar×basehybrid |
| hybrid | = | (ln(value)-ln(scalar))÷ln(base) |
Converting units to hybrids and vica versa
| hybrid | = | (ln(2unit)-ln(scalar))÷ln(base) |
| unit | = | (ln(scalar)+ln(basehybrid))÷ln(2) |
Converting unit changes to hybrid changes and vica versa
| dAtth | = | ln(2dAttu)÷ln(base) |
| dAttu | = | ln(basedAtth)÷ln(2) |
The next task you must perform is to generate a hybrid - value table so that you can use your hybrids, and a unit - hybrid conversion table so that you can convert the stats included in this book to your own scale. Also, if you want a particular span and start, you can use the following formulas.
| base | = | 20span-1 |
| scalar | = | 50(.05)start/span |
At this point you are probably wandering how I could ever pass this task off as an easy process. And it is, because you don't have to do any of the math. A computer program is provided with this game, that will calculate and table all of this. You can find it here.
The final change comes in the costs. The base costs of abilities are fine, but the factor costs are intended for standard units, therefore you must translate the magnitudes of the abilities from hybrid units to standard units. And again, you don't have to do the math, the character calculator will take care of that as well as sub abilities and ability modifiers.
The tie breaking rules are prioritized. Rules should be followed from first to last, until the tie is resolved. This rule is usually the opinion of the GM.
A feat roll determines the outcome of a performance that utilizes only one attribute. So, feat rolls are often called feats of physical power, feats of skill, feats of endurance, or by whatever attribute is used. There are two types of feats that occur, opposition feats and talent feats. Opposition feats are those in which there are two forces that either are opposing each other or competing with each other. Examples of an opposition feat could include arm wrestling or racing, because in each only one attribute is used and there are two persons either opposing or competing against each other. Talent feats are those where one force attempts to perform at a certain level. A person trying to lift a heavy weight or jumping a ditch is a good example of this, because the weight or ditch isn't fighting the character. Its difficulty is constant.
The feat roll assumes that the feat is performed as quickly as possible with full effort. If the feat is perform over an extended period of time, charging rules come into play. Then you will see that the higher attribute always wins.
On a more mathematical note, the technique used to make a feat roll must fulfill few rules.
It is understandable that you may not feel comfortable with a single method for making feat rolls. Therefore I have presented multiple methods for making a feat rolls.
With the relative ability method, rolls range from ½ attribute to the whole attribute in a rectangular distribution. Therefore, ½ the attribute will be an automatic action, as this is the lowest roll.
And because dice start at one and not zero, the feat roll would look something like the following
If you make a table, you will get something like the following. However, you will notice that many of the rolls call for imaginary dice, like D5 and D9.
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The above method is most useful to those of use who like to remember concrete, logical rules. But some people just like to look at a table to determine what dice to roll. So I have constructed a table of standard feat rolls, all using real dice. However, this method follows no real pattern, and it's not something you want to memorize. There are more methods than listed, so I generated every possible combination of die rolls with a nasty computer program and selected those that looked the nicest. I also extended the table quite a bit, just in case you are using some kind of freak attributes.
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With the variable die method, particular die rolls are made depending on the randomness of the situation. The N factor is the amount of randomness in the roll. It is left as a variable for different types of feats. Some feats being naturally more random than others. I find it to be a bit of a chore to juggle both the amount of difficulty and the amount of randomness.
You may want to leave N to be a constant number; this will make for every easy die rolls. When using hybrid units, the numbers should be modified. Higher die rolls for lower bases.
| Randomness | N | Feats |
| Low | 2 | Meticulous chores, like lifting heavy weights. |
| Normal | 4 | Performing a normal function, like punching. |
| High | 6 | Performing skills with many variables at hand, like driving on a wet road. |
| Extreme | 8 | Using an ability in a way that it might not have been intended for. |
Many people complain that this game is too realistic and no fun to play, because people die too fast. This method will produce and average of much lower numbers and will add allot of randomness to the game, more like fantasy games are. This is also a very simple roll as well.
For the playing card method, a deck of cards must be constructed such that the highest card in the deck is the max stat.
If the max stat is greater than 10, the face cards should then be scaled by some integer so that the max stat is reached. Possible scales are given below.
| Card | Unit | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Ace | 1 | ||
| # | # | ||
| Jack | 11 | 12 | 13 |
| Queen | 12 | 14 | 16 |
| King | 13 | 16 | 19 |
The probability method is an odd method and is not fully supported by this game. It's not finished yet either.
Consider two characters of equal ability in an opposition feat. The probability that one character should succeed is 50%. Now consider one character with one unit less ability, having half the value of the other character. We could say that the chance of success is now half, or 25%. One less unit, and the chance of success is 12.5%, and so on.
For the standard unit, the probability feat works as follows.
| Difference | Probability |
| 0 | 50% |
| 1 | 25% |
| 2 | 12.5% |
| 3 | 6.25% |
| 4 | 3.125% |
| 5 | 1.5625% |
For hybrid units, a custom table must be made like the following.
| Difference | Probability |
| D | 0.5×base-D |
Opposition feats consist of two variable forces that are either opposing or competing against each other. The two opponents both make a feat roll. The highest roll wins by an amount equal to the difference.
Harry {PD 7} and Willis {PD 9} are two gunslingers in a duel. To see which gunslinger draws his gun first, we must have a feat of physical dexterity. Harry makes his roll (7) and Willis makes his roll (8). Thus Willis draws his gun first, with a difference of 1.
The opposition of a talent feat is constant. It is the feat's difficulty. Difficulties are measure in units just like attributes and tables of difficulties can be found all through out the skills section. And as stated earlier the opposition of a talent feat is constant. It is also at its maximum, because it doesn't vary. Therefore the number that needs to be beaten by the character is the difficulty.
Jason the Spider {PS 9} is attempting to hold his balance while running during an earthquake. He will make a physical skill feat roll. The difficulty is set at 6. Jason rolls a 7. Jason is just able to run during the earthquake with an effect of 1.
A feat chain is a series of feat rolls that determines the results of more complex procedures like combat maneuvers. The feat chain is commonly used in combat, using powers, persuading, and many other things. Generally the feat chain consists of three different feats. A dexterity feat, to determine initiative; a skill feat, to determine accuracy; and a power vs. resistance feat, to determine damage. The results of each feat will affect the next feat.
Before any chain or feat is performed, each player must always declare his action. A player can never declare or change his action in the middle of a feat chain. But a player may decide to cancel his action and defend or do nothing immediately after initiative is determined.
It may be a good idea for each player to declare his actions in secret to the GM, because the characters never know what the players are declaring. This prevents problems with abuse of player knowledge.
Initiative determines how fast an action occurs, or which actions occur first in time. Each action is played out in order of highest initiative to lowest initiative. Actions with higher initiative occur first and because of this, sometimes characters with low initiative don't get to perform their actions because they get smacked upside the head.
If a character gets initiative over another character, that loosing character will be at a disadvantage to react to the faster character's action. The success of the initiative is actually taken as a negative dSKL to the slower character if he attempts to make an action against the faster character.
But initiative is not always needed. If only one character is performing an action or if the order of actions doesn't need to be determined, initiative may not need be determined.
The strike determines if the attacking character(s) succeed in actually hitting the target. If the target defends, the attacker may miss. A failed strike roll will miss the intended target.
Depending on the level of precision and realism you want to obtain when you play, there may be a few things you should consider when you strike. These are addressed in latter sections.The results of the strike roll determine just how accurate the action was. Highly successful strikes are likely to have hit vital areas of the body, like the head, neck, and eyes. The GM should infer from good strike exactly where the blow was landed. Hitting the target in vulnerable areas will do more damage. Thus the success of the strike roll will decrease the resistance of the target. But, resistance is constant difficulty, so it cannot be reduced completely. A resistance can only be reduced to half from a good strike roll.
The success of the strike roll can only increase damage so much as the integrity is vulnerable in certain locations or against certain angles. If the integrity has no vulnerabilities, a well placed blow is no better than a poorly aimed blow, with both having the same power behind them. The one half limit is only a rule of thumb. The GM may want to bend this as she sees fit; she may even want to consider two numbers for damage resistance, the second being the resistance of most vulnerability.
The damage determines how badly the target is wounded. The attacker must succeed in his strike to incur damage. There is one notable difference about this feat. The INT opposition is constant, like a difficulty.
Summary
Little Billy {MD 6, MS 6, MP 6} decides to attacks his playmate {MD 4, MS 4, MI 4} with a psychic surge.
For initiative, Billy rolls a 5 and the playmate rolls a 3. Billy wins initiative by an effect of 5 - 3 = 2. Therefore, the playmate now has an effective MS of 4 - 2 = 2, to defend with.
To strike Billy rolls a 5; and the playmate rolls a 2. Billy succeeds in the strike by an effect of 5 - 2 = 3. There fore, the playmate's effective resistance is 4 - 3 = 1, but limit this to half the resistance = 2.
For damage Billy rolls a 6; and the playmate's resistance is a 2. So, the damage the playmate incurs is 6 - 2 = 4 and that is enough to stun the playmate, and lethally injure them.
*It should be noted that this method of resolving a chain assumes that the character is fully exerting himself. If the character is not able to give full effort or does not wish to give full effort, he may reduce any of the utilized attributes.Often times, even though a character looses initiative, the player will still want to carry out his action. It is possible for a character to attack while being attacked, but this is usually a disadvantage.
The moment of an ability is the measure of time needed to complete the activity, this is usually not necessary to determine (I don't even know of any systems that can do this), but it can prove useful. The moment and the rolled dexterity feat (or just the feat roll, if it is not a feat chain) will determine the exact amount of time that is required to complete the activity.
The moment is given as a number, if it is not given then it is 7 units by default. That number is the required dexterity feat for completion time to be zero units or one second. So, a character who rolls a 7 for initiative can deal a punch in one second. Feats that fall short of the moment will take longer to complete, and feats that are better will take less time to complete the activity. For feats below the moment, just take that difference as the time it takes to complete the task. For feats above the moment, just take the negative of that difference to be the time it takes to complete the activity. So an initiative of 5 will take 7-5=2 units or 4 seconds. While an initiate of 9 will take 9-7=2, and -2 units is .25 seconds.
The basic rules are all you really need for combat, but If you have played other RPG's, you may be confused about the pace of time. Unlike other games that slice time into 'rounds' of action, X looks at each action individually, allowing for real time simultaneity in combat, provided that you take the extra step and factor in the moment of each action.
From the moment, the time that the action spans is determined. But there is just one question, who's action do you use, the attackers or the defenders, and what if there are multiple opponents? Actually, neither, both, Mu. You always take the highest initiative to measure the time span of the action that matters. And just so you understand why, let's review the four common possibilities for one-on-one combat.
And what about multiple opponents? Just look at each attack individually, and note that some attacks take less time than others, and because of that, in the same amount of time, a faster attacker may get in more attacks. Basically you have to record the the time totals for each character; and let the character with the lowest time total make their next action first.
Goon1 and goon2 are roughing up Sarah the milking cow. They all roll initiative. Goon1 gets a 7, goon2 gets a 6 and Sarah gets a 5. The goons both attack, but now goon1 gets to attack again before goon2, because his action took less time. Now lets say goon1 rolled a 6 for the initiative of the next attack. That's 1 second from the first attack plus 2 seconds for this current attack for a total of 3 seconds. The second goon only has a total of 2 seconds from one attack, therefore his turn is next. Meanwhile, what about Sarah, when does she get to dodge again or attack. Well, she can attempt a dodge against every attack, unless she is defending someone else at the same time. But, you can just try to dodge everyone altogether. And she may attack, when she stops defending. This may seem difficult, but if you keep track of everyone's time totals and current actions, everything will be clear.
When a feat is performed in the regular manner, it is assumed that it is performed at full effort, in the shortest amount of time feasible. For instance, a character with a physical power of 8 can lift 8 units of weight, but the character may not be able to lift 8 units of weight, instantly, every time they try. The character may need a little extra time to prepare and a little extra time to perform. Then they should be able to lift the weight. This is called charging.
When a character charges, they spend extra time performing the feat and in return they perform closer to their full potential. The amount of randomness is decreased; there is less chance for the character to fail.
A feat roll usually looks something likeMax: PP 10. Max tries to quickly lift a 9 unit weight off of the ground. He makes a feat roll of (1D6 + 4) 8. Max fails. He then squats and prepares before lifting, spending and additional four times longer than usual. The lift then becomes automatic, 1D2 + 8 > 8.
The idea of performing beyond limits is not new to roleplaying. Almost every system has some form of this. This system is no exception. Whenever you max out a roll, make a secondary roll, and depending on your reality level you may incur bonuses. If your secondary roll also maxes out, you may make another roll. And if you max that roll out . . .
The converse can also be true. Whenever you roll a one, reroll. And if you roll a one again, the action automatically fails. This is called a faux pas.
The amount that a person can perform past his potential is directly related to the reality level of the world the characters exist within.
In all characters there is a possibility of injury and death by many different means. This game takes a very good approach to understanding damage as it applied to all of the integrity and endurance attributes, as they can take damage. But before I can begin, I will discuss the concepts that form this theory of damage.
Both integrity and endurance attributes take separate damages and can lead to injury and death. They all have a damage capacity. And that damage capacity is a simple scale that ranges from negative the attribute to positive the attribute. This scale represents the character's hit points. At full health, the character is at positive the attribute, and as the character takes damage, the amount of hit points they have decreases. And as the hit points decreases, the character will begin to feel the effects of the damage, eventually become stricken unconscious, and possibly even killed.
When noting the amount of damage a character has taken, you can first consider the difference between positive and negative amounts of health. When the character has a positive amount of hit points, they are very much alive. This damage is considered non-fatal damage. When the character has a negative amount of hit points, they are either dying or dead. This is considered fatal damage.
| + | Non-fatal |
| - | Fatal |
And as damage is taken, the character be hindered in that area. For instance, if a character has taken a great deal of physical damage, all his physical actions will have negative modifiers.
To rate the character's health, the following table is used. The character's health is divided into the upper positive half and the lower negative half. Each half is split into thirds. If a character has a positive amount of health, you must determine in what range does the character's health lie (in ratio to their full health). The highest third is for 66% to 99% full health, the middle third is for 33% to 66% full health, the lower third is for 1% to 33%, . . .
Each range of health will yield important information. The amount of negatives placed on that class of attributes, the number rest counts needed to heal up to the next segment (this will be explained in the latter section), and the status of the character's over all condition.
| Health | Negatives | Rest Counts | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 100% | Full Health | ||
| 3/3 | -0d | 1 | Cuts, scrapes, bruises, and black eyes. There is pain, but it may not be noticeable until afterwards. |
| 2/3 | -1d | 2 | Deep bruising, minor concussions, and bruised ribs. Real pain begins. The character is now truly suffering. |
| 1/3 | -2d | 4 | Hair line fractures, concussions, and a punctured lung. The damage is starting to take it's toll. The character is not functioning very well. |
| 0% | Point of Inability | ||
| -1/3 | -3d | 8 | Severe concussions, a broken bone, and some internal hemoraging. If conscious, the character is disoriented, perhaps even in a state of shock. |
| -2/3 | -4d | 16 | Internal hemoraging, blood loss, and perhaps some organ damage. The character needs emergency medical treatment, though it is possible that they could survive without professional care. |
| -3/3 | -5d | 32 | The character's health will continue to decline without immediate medical treatment. It is very unlikely that the character is conscious. |
| -100% | Absolute Death | ||
To recover the character must make rest counts. The most fatal damage is recovered first, but the most fatal damage takes the longest to recover. The previous table shows how many rest counts are needed to progress in healing to the higher requirement.
All that is required is to find rest count requirement the character's damage status is in. The amount of rest counts listed is the amount needed to progress to the requirement above it. For characters with multiple units of healing from one rest count requirement to the next, the GM should divy up that health so that the character does not just heal a whole bunch at once.
Jane the crack whore got beaten severely when she didn't pay her pimp. Her health was reduced to zero, i.e. she was beaten unconscious. After checking the above table, the GM determines that it will take Jane 4 rest counts to heal the first third of her health, an additional 2 rest counts to heal the second third, and an additional 1 rest count to heal back up to full health. That makes a total of 7 rest counts. That's two weeks working on the street for Jane before she's up to full strength.
You may wonder why the damage healing method in this game is so odd, but consider this. In an average rpg, a character will heal 1D6 hitpoints per day. That means, on average, a character with twice as many hit points will take twice as long to heal. Why should the "tougher" character take longer to heal?
A consequence of improperly treated injury can be infection. Unlike contact damage, infection attacks the character's endurance. The bacteria or virus literally makes a feat against the character's endurance. If the GM is picky enough, she may even keep record of the power of individual diseases. Plagues are fun like that, one day they may miss you, the next day they may kill you.
If a character takes a specifically nasty blow or injury, it is possible that they may retain some soreness even though they have healed to a healthy status. And this means that the character will also retain some negatives. Something as silly as a twisted ankle can put the character at a -2d for all lower body actions, for weeks.
There is a psychological effect that is associated with pain and terror of all kinds. The strong overcome it and the weak succumb to it.
You can try to resist it or you can just take it, but if you are defeated by it, you will break. A character may attempt to "fight" the trauma by making a successful POW feat against the shock trauma. If this failed or is unattempted, the trauma directly attacks the character's integrity, but deals no actual damage. The effect measures how much the character is psychologically effected.
When a character is damaged physically or psychologically it hurts. In this game we call this shock. For any amount of damage taken there is an equal amount of shock. And there are certain circumstances that will cause psychological shock without even damaging the character; these are considered traumatic events. Traumatic events can effect characters psychologically. Mind trauma shocks the MI; soul trauma shocks the spiritual integrity. No form of trauma damages the character's integrity, but they can have many negative effects. The character may go into shock, lash out, or even take on permanent disorders.
When a character becomes subjected to the same trauma over and over, they becomes better at dealing with it. For the value amount of times the character has experienced the event, they receive a unit amount of bonus towards resisting the trauma.
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Taking large amounts of damage will often result in bad consequences for the character, in addition to the normal hindrances.
Whenever a character takes enough damage, so that they take on additional negatives, they are momentarily stunned - they automatically loose the very next initiative. This allows a character inflicting damage to possibly follow up and combo the character repeatedly into unconsciousness.
If a character ever takes an amount of damage equal to or greater than to his resistance in one action, the character has suffered some sort of permanent, and possibly deadly injury.
A character can exert them self at full capacity for a period of time equal to their endurance value in seconds. A character can exert them self at n units less than full capacity for a period of time equal to their endurance + n value in seconds. If, somehow by bend of rules the character is able to exert them self at n units above full capacity, they can do it for a period of time equal to their endurance - n value in seconds.
When a character reaches fatigue, normally, they are unable to further push them self. At this point, the dexterity, power, and speeds correlating to the endurance and the endurance in it's self will be reduced to -1 their former and will remain so until the character completely makes up for that exertion.
Only a character with a strong desire and determination will have the drive to push himself this far, or a person on drugs.
The character must rest for all time spent at peak activity. Unrested time will count against the character if activity reoccurs. Consider the character's endurance as a pool of time. During activity, that time is taken from that pool, and during rest, time is placed back in that pool.
For example: Shawn the track runner has a PE of 7. He runs at maximum speed for 128 seconds and falls on the ground heaving in pain. Now, some of his stats are at -1 their former. Shawn only rests 64 seconds before he gets up and sprints full speed (which is now 1 less) for 64 seconds and falls on the the ground vomiting and choking. Now some of his stats are at -2 their normal. Shawn only rests 32 seconds before he musters the strength to get up run some more (at -2 now, which is pathetic) for 32 seconds and falls to the ground and with his strength at a -3 he is unable to get up.
The amount of time a character needs to sleep each night is dependent upon their lowest endurance and the amount of activity they have undergone.
| Lowest endurance | Sleep needed per day | Regular Sleep |
| 5 | 8 hours | 8 hours every day |
| 10 | 4 hours | 8 hours every two days |
| 15 | 2 hours | 8 hours every four days |
| 20 | 1 hour | 8 hours every eight days |
For each sleeping period the character misses, they will function at one unit less with their dexterity, skill, power, endurance, and speed. When certain mental and spiritual attributes get too low, the character will begin to suffer psychologically. Extreme loss of sleep, that is, the character is not allowed to go to sleep, may result in may result in actual damage to the character's PE and ME.
In this game we divide combat into three types: long ranged, close ranged, and grappling
In this section we present methods for performing irregular actions, those that are performed differently and have different consequences than regular combat actions. When figuring in changes with these irregular actions, it is important to know that the proficiency bonuses are still added as well. It is also important to know that only proficient characters can perform any of these special actions.
When a character attacks it is assumed that they make a normal attack. A regular feat chain is performed. This goes for punches, kicks, elbows, knees, and the regular use of a power. However, some attacks, like flying kicks, take a special amount skill and are performed in a slightly different way than the regular feat chain.
In an overpowered attack the character strikes as hard as possible, perhaps even enough to injure himself. In doing so, the character's attack becomes very inaccurate.
| -n
+(n-1) |
dSKL
dPOW |
where n is a number less than or equal to the characters level of proficiency |
A flailed attack is one where the character strikes quickly at the opponent in order to fend him off or just get a shot in. The flailed attack is more accurate than normal, but it lacks the power of a regular attack.
| +(n-1)
-n |
dSKL
dPOW |
where n is a number less than or equal to the characters level of proficiency |
A charge is a collision, where the attacking character simply charges strait into the target. Examples of this include the shoulder charge, or the spear.
SPDu+MASSu is substituted for POW in the damage roll.
A charging attack is one where the character is in motion while performing some attack. Unlike the charge, where the motion is the attack, in a charging attack the motion amplifies the attack. Examples of this include a dashing punch or kick and even a leaping kick. For additional information, see Moving Target/Attacker
-SPDdPSA hold is when the target is placed in a position from which they are at an attacking disadvantage and it is difficult to escape from.
To attempt a hold requires a feat of physical power between the two characters. If the character is successfully placed in the hold, they are -1dPS and -1dPP. And further more the attacker is able to attack the specific part of the body that is in the hold without having to make a strike roll.
The mount is the position in which the mounted character is lying back down and the mounter is atop him with his legs straddled around the mounted character's waist. The characters are directly facing each other. If a character is ever mounted, the fight is usually over. His legs become virtually useless and his upper body attacks loose all leverage to the mounter.
Attempting a mount requires a feat of physical power between the two characters. If a character is successfully mounted, they will loose the their leverage.
The feint is a deceptive trick move that fools the opponent into a reaction that will leave him at a disadvantage. The feint is then followed by real maneuver. The feint is only an introductory move. The feint will either draw an attack or defense from the opponent. And the character will either follow with a defense or attack respectively. However, the feint is completely useless if the opponent fails to react at all.
When performing a feint you must decide if you will feint to an attack or feint to a defend. Then a normal strike roll is performed (after initiative of course). The success of the feint will be used as negatives to the opponents next strike roll, whatever it may be. However, if the attacker committed a feint to an attack and lost initiative the second round, then opponent will not take negatives, because the attacker could not commit him to a defense.
A guard cancel is attack that does not intend to damage the target, but lower his defense for a follow up attack. A very successful guard cancel may even disarm the target.
A regular feat chain is performed, but the success does not deal damage. It will lower the target's skill for a follow up attack, if the attacker can get initiative.
A strike that cannot be countered because the attacker does not overstrike or even fully extend the action.
-1dDEXAn attack that strikes directly and cannot be parried or blocked, except with a true shield or wall.
-1dPOWWhen a character defends against a psychic of magic attack the character resists that attack in the normal manner. When a character defends against a physical attack that character is evading the attack. The character is literally dodging. Blocking and parrying is not an option, this can only be performed by a skilled character
Blocking is a form of defense that is forceful. Blocking is almost like attacking the oncoming attack. Any character can perform a mental or spiritual block, but a physical block or parry can only be performed by a proficient character.
The parry consists of the character placing his arm, or whatever object they are parrying with, between the attack and himself. Parrying can be used with a weapon.
When the character tries to perform n actions in one action, there is some degradation in ability, but it still may be possible.
to each actionChi abilities are applied to hand to hand proficiencies with the supernatural skill modifier. And thus they are not realistic.
Although high velocity projectiles only incur a certain amount of damage, they penetrate with much higher ability. Their PPP (Penetration physical power) is used like PP to determine effect, but the damage is limited to the actual PP. This damage may seem too weak, but it must be noted that the damage is ultimately likely to be internal. The damage has a high possibility of causing severe internal damage, which, without immediate medical treatment, will continue to weaken the character with passing time, to the point of death.
Melee weapons may also have penetration values. Thrusting and chopping weapons may have a dPPP that is added to the total PP, to determine the used PPP.
Some armours, namely bullet proof vests, give special protection against penetrating attacks. Their dPPI, or penetration physical integrity bonus, is used against penetrating attacks. But this dPPI is not used against blunt attacks, only penetrating attacks.
A power's effective range is normally limited to the POW of the power; the power is limited to one target, but by spreading out the power, the character can attack multiple targets at a lessened POW and range. This is a very easy task to perform. Simply take the amount of targets and subtract the units from the power's strength. But if the targets are spread apart, the negatives may be greater or even impossible.
Johnny Flame wants to hit two targets 1m apart with his fireball {PS 8, PD 6, PP 8}. Johnny sacrifices 1 units of POW to spread the fireball to two targets at a PP 7. If Johnny were to attack only one thug with this spread out attack, Johnny would have a +1dPS, because the attack covers a larger area and is more difficult to avoid.
Visit the "Size Matters" section in Special Circumstances section for more information on using spread out attacks.
Any shield will not only hamper the type of damage intended to the person in the shield, but to any of that type of damage directed from the inside the shield to hurt someone outside the shield. Armadillo Jack brings up a physical force field, but now he cannot shoot the enemies he is protected from with his rocket launcher.
Distance can hinder accuracy. When attempting to attack a target a distance away, the distance will act as a negative dPS to the character's strike. Therefore, positive unit distances will hinder the character's aim and negative unit distances will aid the character's aim.
Weapons that can be aimed are a bit different. They are made for use over long distances. An aimed weapon, if aimed correctly, can be used a distance of the character's vision or the weapons effective range before the character will incur distance negatives.
Big targets are easy to hit. Small targets are difficult to hit. When size and area is referred to, it is not an exact measurement of volume or surface are, just imagine a circle or sphere with a certain radius.
Attacking small or large targets modify physical strike rolls; modifiers are equivalent to size (value of meters) or relativity units, positive or negative. Attacking a human is relatively easy, the main body is about a meter is size, and therefore there are no modifiers to strike. However attacking his head might have a minus one to attack. And on the other hand, attacking a giant would be a plus one to strike.
You should also note how you can miss a specific target, yet hit the more general target. A person aiming for the heart may fail the strike roll by one unit, which is not enough to hit a target as small as the heart area, but is good enough to hit the main body.
With attacks that are spread out, as with using a flame thrower, the area covered by weapon will also yield bonuses to strike. Attacks that cover areas greater than human size will yield strike bonuses equal to the area covered. So, an explosive grenade that covers a area with a 2 meter radius would yield a +1 bonus to strike when used against one just one target. However, if you were to attempt and strike two adjoining targets, you would not receive the bonus, because the area of coverage just covers the target. The bonus is only given when the area of coverage extends well beyond the target.
When a character is punching and kicking something that has a greater physical integrity than the character, the character may take damage to his fists and feet. This is clearly seen if you try to punch a tree. If you intently strike the tree with a much force as you would strike a punching bag, you will break the bones in your hand and split open the skin covering your knuckles. The reason this happens is because your fist is less resistant than the tree and will absorb some of the damage more easily than the tree will.
Base damage is the difference in PI between the character and his target. If the damage roll for the attack exceeds your own physical integrity, you will take damage to the hand or foot, up to base damage, depending on the damage roll.
Pulling a punch and or wearing protective clothing can reduce back damage. Protective clothing, especially made for punching and kicking will help just as much as armor.
| Circumstance | Effect |
| Padded Gloves | -1d |
| Shoes | -1d |
| Boots | -2d |
However, if a Shao-lin monk strikes the tree with even greater strength, their hand will not bleed, because they has toughened their PI and they know what they are doing. Character's with a certain combat proficiencies can take their units of proficiency use them for back damage prevention. So a character with two units of karate proficiency and a physical integrity of 6 can chop a block of wood with a physical integrity of 8 without worry of breaking his hand. It is all a matter of skill.
Heavy bleeding, as by the loss of a limb or internal injury, will drain at the character's physical endurance constantly till death. A character can loose up to a unit of physical endurance every minute, depending on the severity of the hemoraging.
If you are shot in the arm, with the exception of blood loss and mental trauma, you will not die. The arm can be destroyed, but you will not die. 50 units of damage can be dealt to the arm, but you will not die!.
If you have the time and patience, it is a good idea to think of each limb as separate from the body when recording damage. (All having the same PI) They can be destroyed individually, and they can take individual negatives as to their ability. Some games divide hit points into many separate parts: the fore arm, the hand, . . etcetera. It is not often that I use my hand without using my entire arm or visa versa. It is practical to only think separately of each limb and the trunk+head; and this keeps play somewhat fluid.
Is equal to the height in units multiplied by two. 18 units of damage is the maximum damage that can be taken by falling (and not landing on your head), due to terminal velocity.
However, characters that are especially aerodynamic or nonfictive must add their of power to the normal 18 unit maximum to determine their maximum damage that can be taken from falling.
A character can go without water for a time equal to their PE value in 30 minute increments before they begins to loose PE.
A character can go without food a time equal to their PE value in hours before they begins to loose PE.
The effects of radiation are complex to represent in game form. I will try to use a more generalization of effects than any actual unit amounts.
Radiation is all around you. Hell, you couldn't even see if it weren't for radiation.
You must note what kind of "harmful" radiation comes in contact with the person. Not all radiation can ever be dangerous.
Normal background radioactivity is relatively harmless. Working in a power plant, or in radiology, isn't likely to affect the character. But what type radiation gamers will be more likely to come across is something lingering in the aftermath of a nuclear war. This amount of radiation can be extremely dangerous. It is important that you know what the effects of this. Just remember, that with nuclear weapons and meltdowns, it is usually the extreme heat that kills you.
| Dosage | Short Term Dose | Long Term Dose |
| 10 Sieverts | Immediate and severe sickness followed by death within just days. | There is no long term |
| 5 Sieverts | Severe sickness and a high likely hood of contracting a fatal cancer. | Increasing sickness to death. |
| 1 Sievert | Minor radiation sickness. The characters will be nauseous and their immune systems will be depleted. | May cause the character to contract a fatal cancer a few years later. |
| .05 Sievert | Little if any effect. | May eventually contract cancer. |
But you might say, "hey what about "super guy" radiation doesn't hurt him." Well, they probably have an incredibly high physical integrity and physical endurance, far greater than that of any human or animal. So the GM should use his discretion wisely with the subject of the effects of radiation on persons of incredible toughness.
A character can hold his breath a time equal to their PE value in seconds before they begins to loose PE.
When determining how temperature can damage the character, you must first choose the character's body temperature. For humans this is 37° C. Now, when the character is in an environment that is not close to their natural body temperature, they are constantly attacked, and if the physical power of that attack overcomes their physical integrity, they will most surely die within time.
The strength of the attack is equal to the difference of the temperature of the environment and the character's normal body temperature in ° C, in units. This assumes that the character is appropriately dressed. Being naked in the snow or dressed warmly in an oven can increase the physical power by 1.
| PP | °C | °F |
| 4 | 16° | 28.8° |
| 5 | 32° | 57.6° |
| 6 | 64° | 115.2° |
| 7 | 128° | 230.4° |
| 8 | 256° | 460.8° |
| 9 | 512° | 921.6° |
| 10 | 1024° | 1843.2° |
However, this is not a good model for super low temperatures, but it is not likely that the character will come into contact with such super low temperatures, it is hard enough to reproduce them in the laboratory.
As far as gravity is concerned, all the rules in this game are base on the acceleration due to gravity of earth, or one g. Under more g's characters are –1dto all speeds, PD, and PP for every increase of g's. Also falling damage and maximum falling damage is increased. And when the amount of g's overcome the character's PI the force begins to damage the character.
When a character is hit, the attacker makes a physical power feat against the difficulty of the opponents integrity. That feat determines the damage that is incurred. But secondarily, that physical power feat is also made against the difficulty of the character's weight to determine knockback. Knockback is the distance that the character is "knocked" from the attack. Blunt attacks, or those with no penetration, will incur full knock back. But penetrating attacks will have the their PPP subtracted from the knockback. And if the character is knocked into a hard object like a wall, then subtract the knockback from the character's integrity to determine how much additional damage is taken when the character strikes the wall.
Occurs when the character is in zero gravity or swimming in deep waters. All characters are -2dPS and -2dPP.
All characters are -2dPD and -2dPP while submerged in a liquid of viscosity similar to that of water.
Imagine two characters running at each other head on. Each lowers their head to spear the other. How much damage will each character take? Well, the better question to ask would be, how much physical power is applied to each character?
Normally, when one character spears another, you simply add his mass and his speed to find the resultant physical power applied to the target. But in this scenario both characters are rushing towards each other. Therefore the speed each character is more, relative to the other. So, the value sum of the characters' speeds is used instead of just one character's speed. It is important to remember that a value sum of the speeds is taken and not a regular unit sum. The reason is because the actual values of the speeds are added together and not multiplied.
The previous assumes that the two characters are running at each other head on. If one character were to be retreating from another, you would subtract the value of his reverse speed from the oncoming character's momentum. And if the characters were attacking each other at angles, then you would have to use trigonometry to find the vector components, and that should not be allowed during a role playing game, and therefore I will not discuss that.
When two objects collide damage may occur. When looking to find the ~physical power applied to one object, we find the relative momentum of the other object. To do this we take the difference in velocities between the two objects and multiply that by the mass of the other objects. The most difficult part is finding the velocity between the two objects. You must visualize that one object is at rest, then imagine what the total velocity of the other object would be as it collides. For two objects that collide head on you will add their speeds together. For two objects that are traveling in the same direction, you subtract the smaller speed from the larger. Objects that collide at angles, will require some geometry and I will not go into that. But once you have found that total velocity, you also use it to find the damage on the other object.
For two objects that collide head on, where object 1 has a mass m1 and a speed s1 and object 2 has a mass m2 and speed s2, the damage for each is found as such.
| Damage to Object 1 | Damage to Object 2 | |
| Unit Math | (s1v+s2v)u+m2u | (s1v+s2v)u+m1u |
| Real Math | (s1+s2)×m2 | (s1+s2)×m1 |
But remember that these formulas are for head-on collisions. If the one object is moving from the other, the velocities will be subtracted. I am not going to explain this in detail, mainly because I really don't expect many people to understand this ugly stuff. It requires a little knowledge of physics.
A drunk driver in a large truck collides head on with a mid-sized sedan. The sedan weighs 10 units and is traveling at a velocity of 4 units. The truck weighs 11 units and is traveling at a velocity of 5 units.
The physical power dealt against the sedan is (4v+5v)u+11u~=17u. The sedan is smacked silly by the large truck. But, by looking at the automobile tables you may notice that the average car will protect you from about *** units of damage, so the passengers have probably taken around *** units of physical power against them with seat belts and airbags.
The physical power dealt against the truck is (4v+5v)u+10u~=16u. But, by looking at the automobile table you may notice that the truck will protect you from about *** units of damage, so the drunk has probably taken around *** units of physical power with seat belts.
In melee combat, collisions occur when performing shoulder charges, spears, tackles, and even jump kicks. Unlike a rushing attack, collision attacks don't incur accuracy penalties, because all of the accuracy is directed towards the motion. With rushing attacks accuracy must be directed towards the actual attacks as well as the motion.
In a rushing attack, the attacker is -dSpeed to physical skill and +dSpeed to physical power. This is when the attacker is rushing the target head on. An approaching target will add to the relative speed and a retreating target will take from the relative speed.
Perpendicular movement will also decrease accuracy, but it will not increase the damage.
With long ranged attacks, you are only concerned with perpendicular motion. It directly subtracts from accuracy.
When you are directly facing the opponent, perpendicular motion is the side to side motion, and all other motion is either approaching or retreating.
Influence is the ability to alter others views and opinions and basically getting people to do what you want. To try and influence some one, you just make a spiritual feat chain. There are many ways in which you can influence some one and many reasons to do so.
| Influence | |
|---|---|
| Persuasion | Intimidation |
| Seduce - Charm | Instigate - Taunt |
| Deception - Confuse | Interrogation |
| Humor | Command |
| Calm | Motivate |
The target's resistance can be affected secondarily (by things other than the influence feat chain) in two ways: the relationship between the influencer and the target, and preconceptions of the target.
The relationship between the influencer and the target is an important factor. An enemy isn't likely to be charmed by the character. An extreme enemy can have their RES as much as doubled in resistance to the influencer's persuasion.
Often times, preconceptions of the target will affect the character's ability to influence him. Enemies are less likely to be charmed, and friends are more likely to be duped, but in either case if the character tries and tries again to influence the target, each time gets more difficult, like the boy who cried wolf. Could you imagine a hooker that can easily be seduced? A crack whore, for instance, could have their RES as much as doubled in resistance to seduction as a result of their psychological callous.
The reaction of the target completely depends on the effect gained by the influence feat. You can't simply make some one kill them self be cause you succeed in a feat chain, it would take a grand success of more the targets resistance, like shock. In fact, if you fail, you may offend the target.
| Effect | Example |
|---|---|
| Complete Miss | The influencer's attempt fails completely. An undesired effect may take place. |
| Negative Effect | The influencer's attempt strikes a chord, but the results will not be that intended. |
| 0 | A poor attempt. Completely ineffective. |
| 1 | A nice attempt, but only good enough for smile or grimace. | 50% RES | Very effective. Good enough to sell a Rollodex. |
| 100% RES | Extremely effective. A little more of this and you can start your own cult. |
| 150% RES | Enough to force someone to do something they are very inclined not to. |
Occult Actions are performed by those characters with occult proficiencies and usually occult or psychic and magic related powers. The word occult refers to the "science of the supernatural". An occult practitioner is open to a wide range of new abilities that a normal person is not, just as a trained practitioner of the martial arts is open to a new set of abilities. The basic function of these new abilities is a wider scope of influence and the ability to manipulate spiritual energy.
The occult practitioner is not limited to the few means of influence that normal man is. The practitioner can suggest any emotion or psychic state. And the practitioner can do this even without words and sight, but that requires full concentration.
In highly magical campaigns, characters may find themselves in situations where their are in the astral plane, in the psyche of another, trapped in a magical prison, or in some other sort of supernatural location. In such places, the laws of physics are very different. As the characters are no longer in the physical world; their physical stats become useless. Only the characters mental and spiritual stats are used. The characters may soon find that they can use the sheer power of will and aura to affect the supernatural world around them. However, this is all left up to the whim of the GM. I only mention it to point out that this kind of situation is what symmetric attributes should be used for. Characters can engage in deadly combat by using only their mental and spiritual stats to duke it out. All sorts of things are possible.
The Matrix represents a mental world where the characters are set to preselected physical attributes, but are able to use their mental attributes when they become enlightened. The characters are still constricted by certain rules, namely gravity, solid surfaces, and death. But the smart characters (hint: they were all hackers), are able to use their incredible mental stats to break the limits of a normal human being.
Over the course of a campaign it is likely that the characters will progress in their skills and even pick up a few new tricks. Character evolution is mostly an implementation of the GM. She has full control over this delicate procedure. Too much character evolution and the characters will become far to powerful; too little development and the game may get stagnant. I propose a few different options to the GM, because I do not think that one model will clearly reflect every game and every situation.
As the character develops, his attributes unfold in the sequence of physical, mental, spiritual. For a reference of average attributes, review the section on races, it lists character profiles for humans, dwarves, elves, . . .
The physical attributes of a character top off around the age of 20 or when ever physical maturity is reached for the race. Around 6 months of strenuous physical training can bump individual attributes up one unit. Extreme physical training can continue to increase the individual physical attribute to near it's peak; each additional unit will take at least double the previous amount of time to bump up. When the characters attributes are highly developed, they can become rusty if substantial exercise is not maintained. However, the rusty attributes can be retrained more easily.
The physical attributes begin to degrade around the age of 50 or much earlier if the character slows down his physical activity. The attributes, except PI, will generally decrease around a unit, by which ever are used the least.
The PI attribute is generally lower than the other physical attributes and it is also much harder to develop. PI increases and decreases much less and slower than the other attributes.
The mental attributes can continue to increase beyond the age of maturity to around 30, if the character continues to attend schooling or exercise their mental faculties. Mental attributes can be trained and increased like their physical counterparts. But they tend to degrade less and are more easily retrained.
Mental degradation occurs as the brain does, around the late 60's. But, the numbers can vary from character to character. Not all of the attributes are likely to degrade, and not always as much as their physical counterparts.
The spiritual attributes can continue to increase up till the character's death. They only decrease from psychological detachment; this can be caused by mental illness.
Independent if the GM decides to use normal or leveled growth, the characters are still under the restrictions of plausibility and story continuity. Characters are regulated as to how and how much they can develop.
Methods of character growth.
Practice and hard work will always pay off. Characters can always train to increase their skills and to learn new ones.
To learn a new skill, the character must first have the potential to learn it and then have some one to teach it to him. And then he must practice, allot.
Having the potential to learn a new ability can mean very different things depending on the situation. For a character to learn a psychic ability, they must be psychic, for a character to learn a spell, they must have some innate ability. And most of all the character must have decent attributes for the attributes that will be used. It is the decision of the GM if the character has the potential. And for supernatural powers, this has allot to do with the setting.
The character must have somewhere to learn the skill from. This is usually another willing character who is able enough to teach.
When the character finally does learn the new skill, it will initially begin at a value lower than the teacher's and lower than the attribute it is based upon. Limiting modifiers should be placed on the ability to hinder it in this way. Later experience can hone the ability.
If the character is fully developed (a mature adult) the character can only raise an attribute one unit. Under extreme circumstances the character can raise the attribute an additional unit.
With player rewarding players are rewarded for their role playing efforts and this in turn makes their characters better. Player characters are rewarded for conflict, thinking, and playing. Non-player characters can only be rewarded for conflict, if rewarded at all. The idea of player rewarding brings a certain amount of competitiveness to the game as players will compare their experience points to others. I find player rewarding to be fun; it makes the RPG more like a game.
Conflict experience can result from fighting, arguing, or any negative character interaction. Conflict experience can also result from abstaining from unnecessary conflict. The two factors of conflict experience are opposition and the consequence of failure. Opposition considers the power of the enemy versus the character; the consequence of failure considers how fatal failure could possibly be (to the character or others). The resulting experience is calculated as such.
| Minor opposition | Equal opposition | Major opposition | |
| Harmless Failure | 10 | 25 | 50 |
| Punishing Failure | 25 | 50 | 75 |
| Deadly Failure | 50 | 75 | 100 |
Thinking experience can result from clever ideas, deduction, judgment, and insight. The two factors of thinking experience are the necessity of insight and the usefulness and quickness of the idea. The necessity of the insight considers how much this thinking may help the character. The usefulness and quickness of the idea considers the speed and wit of the thought process and not the value of the idea. The resulting experience is calculated as such.
| Unnecessary | Necessary | Critical necessity | |
| Fair idea | 10 | 25 | 50 |
| Good Idea | 25 | 50 | 75 |
| Quick and Clever Idea | 50 | 75 | 100 |
Playing experience results from how well the player acts the role of the character. The two factors of playing experience are playing in character and role playing. Role playing considers how well the character acts and plays a role, but not that the role exhibits qualities of the correct character. Playing in character considers how well the player follows the guide lines of the character. This includes following the characters alignment and motivations. This also includes correctly portraying the character's intelligence, will, spiritual skill, and other nonphysical attributes.
| Little acting | Some acting effort | 100% Acting | |
| Follows some guidelines | 10 | 25 | 50 |
| Follows most guidelines | 25 | 50 | 75 |
| Within all boundaries | 50 | 75 | 100 |
Experience can also be gained from anything the GM feels necessary, but try not to over reward because of the great potential of experience in this system.
Experience is totaled and after the player has a total of 1000 experience points, the character is rewarded with 1% of the character's base character point pool in extra character points to spend on character evolution. The next character reward requires the character have a total of 2000; then 4000; then 8000 and so on. So for a character with 2000 character points in his base character pool, they will receive 20 character points on a level up. The player is free to spend this character points on any aspect of the character providing that the character takes the necessary steps to advance himself. Characters only grow better in the skills and powers they use and practice and not the ones they ask the GM for. No character can learn how to fly over night.
This system of character point growth is important in theory for two reasons. Number one, stronger characters grow stronger. If two characters receive the same amount of experience, the character with the larger base character point pool will gain more, because they have more potential. Number two, gaining character points becomes more and more difficult; this simulates any learning curve.
Unlike the system, this appendix is not meant to do everything. There are simply too many weapons, and articles of equipment for me to even categorize. And besides, looking up individual weapons in an endless repository is not something I would enjoy. The purpose of this appendix is to wet your palette; to give you a taste of how to integrate weapons and armor into your game; to give you an understanding of how the character stacks up against other races and animals; and to give you some inspiration on how you can possibly make your own setting with individually tailored races, occupations, and weapons. I encourage the GM to develop her own setting into something unique. But there is plenty material here to base most any game off of.
Character templates are presented to make character creation easier. A character template will give the average attributes, speeds, and sensory abilities of a race or character type and sum up the costs. This also gives the player a general idea of how his character stacks up to the rest of the populace.
Human
XXX character points
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Dwarven
XXX character points
The mysterious, subterrainian race known as the dwarven are known to be one of the first sentient races. This is thought to be because of the many ancient, cavernous dwarf-cities in existence. The Dwarves are master craftsmen, architects, and miners. And their size is not a sign of weakness, but of their evolutionary need to live in cramped underground quarters. A full sized dwarf can be up to twice as strong as a human.
Dwarves have a near human-sized torso and head, but shorter limbs. However, they are built like rocks. There broad stature makes them as wide as they are tall.
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Elven
XXX character points
The magical race known to mankind as elven were once the kings of men before the great war. Now they live in secluded kingdoms, far from the shadow of man. Elves tend to be other arrogant towards other races, not because they are better than the other races, but because they know that they are. Ever since the great war elves and dwarves haven't gotten along.
From afar elves are indistinguishable from humans. But, they are a tad taller in stature, more royal in appearance, and they have long pointed ears.
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Ogre
XXX character points
Ogres are generally more stocky in appearance than humans. Their limbs are shorter to conserve heat and their muscles are more well developed. The easiest way to distinguish an ogre from a human is from their large brow, and protruding jaw. But despite this, ogres are not as dumb as they look, but they do have more instinctual needs than humans. An intelligent ogre is not likely to delve into any artistic studies.
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Wolven
XXX character points
The wolf-like race known as the wolven are woodland dwellers. They live off the land as hunter-gatherers. They have a very distinct code of honor. Their cross-clan rivalries can spark bloody wars, but they are fairly peaceful with other races. But as the human territory encroaches their own . . .
Wolven are large thick-furred beings with broad stature and dominating composure.
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Character modifiers are alterations that change the very nature of the character, perhaps even genetically.
Character packages are like occupations or classes in other RPG's. But because there are no real character classes in this system, I decided it would be nice to make life a little easier for you by further diminishing your choices when making a character. Sometimes, too much choice can be distracting and annoying.
This appendix is provided for animal encounters, but may not correctly represent all of any animal's attributes. The GM should feel free to alter any stats.
If the game is being run within a magical setting, the GM may want to announce that all animals have the sense magic power and that domestic animals have a +3d bonus.
Anaconda
Anacondas are the largest and heaviest snakes in the world. A recently fed anaconda can last months, perhaps even a year, without eating again.
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Bear (large)
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Cheetah
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Crocodile (large)
The crocodile is the oldest surviving dinosaur on earth and the closest living relative to the bird.
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Elephant
Elephants are the largest of all living land animals. Their trunks are versatile organs that can be used as a trumpet, snorkel, straw, feeler, hand, or strong arm.
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Gorilla
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Horse
It should be noted that of all the horses on earth only the zebra is truly wild. All other wild horses such as the mustang are formerly domestic. Zebras cannot be broken.
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Lion
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Viper
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Wolf
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Electric Eel
The electric eel is found in the Amazon River. It is not a true eel but an electric fish. Other electric fish include the electric ray and electric catfish.
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Giant Squid
The titanic and fantastic creature known as the giant squid is hard to fathom. In recent centuries this creature was as believable as mermaid. Giant squid are the fastest of all invertebrates and are thought to attack and kill sperm whale.
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Great White Shark
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Killer Whale
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String Ray
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Tiger Shark
The tiger shark is the second largest of all sharks.
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Bat (small)
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Condor
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Falcon
Falcons are famous for being trained as hunting birds.
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Vulture
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The ancient weapon category is used to describe any weapon that does not utilize modern technology, we do not mean to imply that the weapons are old.
Melee weapons are hand-held weapons that are used in close combat.
| Tech Level | Substance | dPI | dWeight |
| 0 | Wood | -3 | -2 |
| 1 | Bronze | -1 | 0 |
| 2 | Iron | 0 | 0 |
| 2 | Steel | +1 | 0 |
| 3 | Titanium | +1 | -1 |
| 3 | Lithium Alloy | +1 | -2 |
| 4 | Beryllium Alloy | +2 | 0 |
| 4 | Vanadium Carbides | +2 | 0 |
| Weapon | dPD | dPP | PI | Hand(s) | Length | Weight | |||||
| strike | parry | throw | chop | thrust | |||||||
| Ball & Chain | -2 | +1 | +1 | -3 | +2 | 8 | 1-2 | .9 m | 2.0 kg | ||
| Bull Whip | +1 | +1 | -3 | 4 | 1 | 2.5 m | 1.5 kg | ||||
| Flail | -1 | +2 | +1 | -3 | +1 | 7-8 | 2 | 1.6 m | 2.5 kg | ||
| Manriki-Gusari | -1 | +1 | +1 | 8 | 2 | 1.7 m | 1.1 kg | ||||
| Battle Axe | -1 | +1 | +1 | -2 | +1 | +1 | 8 | 1-2 | .8 m | 2.1 kg | |
| Mace | -1 | +1 | +1 | -2 | +2 | 9 | 1-2 | .7 m | 2.0 kg | ||
| Tonfa | +1 | +1 | 7-8 | 1 | .6 m | 1.0 kg | |||||
| Bo | +2 | +2 | -3 | +1 | 7-8 | 2 | 2.8 m | 1.4 kg | |||
| Pike | -3 | +1 | +2 | 7-8 | 2 | 5.5 m | 6.5 kg | ||||
| Pole Axe | -2 | +1 | +1 | +1 | +2 | +1 | 7-8 | 2 | 2.1 m | 2.9 kg | |
| Spear | +2 | +1 | +1 | +1 | +1 | 7-8 | 2 | 2.0 m | 2.0 kg | ||
| Dagger | -1 | -0 | +1 | +2 | 6 | 1 | 0.4 m | 0.5 kg | |||
| Long Sword | -1 | +1 | +1 | -2 | +1 | +1 | +2 | 8 | 1 | 0.8 m | 1.5 kg |
| 2-Handed Sword | -3 | +2 | +2 | -3 | +2 | +2 | +2 | 9 | 2 | 2.0 m | 6.3 kg |
| Fencing Blade | +2 | +2 | -2 | +1 | +3 | 7 | 1 | 1.0 m | 0.8 kg | ||
| Katana | +2 | +2 | -3 | +1 | +3 | +1 | 9 | 1-2 | 1.1 m | 1.4 kg | |
| No-Dachi | -2 | +2 | +2 | +2 | +3 | +1 | 8 | 2 | 1.9 m | 4.0 kg | |
| Throwing Axe | +1 | +1 | +1 | +1 | 8-9 | 1 | .4 m | .9 kg | |||
| Throwing Knife | +1 | 8-9 | 1 | .3 m | .3 kg | ||||||
| Shuriken | +1 | -2 | 8-9 | 1 | .1 m | .1 kg | |||||
| Cape | -2 | +2 | 7 | 1 | .35 m | .5 kg | |||||
| Small Shield | 0 | +1 | 9-10 | 1 | .35 m | 1 kg | |||||
| Large Shield | -3 | +2 | 9-10 | 2 | .6-1 m | 5 kg | |||||
| Weapon | dPS | PP | Hand(s) | User PP | Moment | Range | ||
| PPP | Pull | Recoil | Load | Fire | ||||
| Sling | 0 | 7 | 1 | 7 | 8 | 100 m | ||
| Blow Gun | 0 | 6
6 |
1-2 | 7 | 7 | 30 m | ||
| Short Bow | -1 | 7
10 |
2 | 6 | 5 | 7 | 7 | 90/225 m |
| Long Bow | 0 | 8
11 |
2 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 90/275 m |
| Pistol Crossbow | -2 | 7
9 |
1-2 | 7 | 5 | 8 | 7 | 40/225 m |
| Medium Crossbow | -1 | 8
10 |
2 | 8 | 6 | 8 | 7 | 45/275 m |
| Heavy Crossbow | -2 | 8
11 |
2 | 10 | 7 | 9 | 7 | 60/330 m |
| Siege Crossbow | -3 | 9
12 |
2 | 11 | 8 | 10 | 7 | 80/425 m |
Because of the great variety in contemporary weapons, I have listed only the most generalized of calibers. From the calibers you can determine the damages, penetrations, and negatives from the kick.
Guns are listed by a very broad span of calibers. Specific calibers may vary in statistics by no more than 1 unit. You should note that specific calibers are generally only compatible with that same caliber, off the top of my head I could name three types of 9mm rounds that are usually incompatible with each other.
A handgun will usually hold around 6 or 7 rounds; extended clips may hold up to 13 rounds, and more for small calibers. Submachine guns generally hold between 20 and 40 rounds in a clip, and can fire between 5 to 10 rounds in one second.
The given effective range for most handguns is about 50 meters.
| Caliber | PP | PPP | Recoil | |
| .22
5.45mm |
.25
6.35mm |
7 | 10 | 5 |
| .30
7.62mm |
.32
7.65mm |
8 | 12 | 5 |
| 9mm | 8 | 13 | 5 | |
| .357 | 9 | 14 | 5 | |
| .38 | 8 | 14 | 6 | |
| .40
10mm |
.41
11mm |
9 | 14 | 6 |
| .44 | .45 | 9 | 14 | 7 |
| .50
12.7mm |
9 | 15 | 7 | |
A rifle can generally hold between 5 to 30 rounds in a cartridge. Bolt action rifles just hold one round in the chamber. Machine guns, however, will hold between 50 to 250 rounds in a magazine or belt. Most machineguns can fire between 10 to 20 rounds in a second.
The effective range of a rifle is usually between 500 to 1000 meters; high powered sniper rifles and machine guns can have effective ranges up to 5000 meters.
| Caliber | PP | PPP | Recoil | |
| .22
5.45mm |
.223
5.56mm |
8 | 12 | 5 |
| 6.45mm | 6.5mm | 8 | 13 | 5 |
| 7mm | 9 | 15 | 5 | |
| .30
7.5mm |
7.65mm |
9 | 14 | 5 |
| 7.92mm | 8mm | 9 | 15 | 5 |
| .50
12.7mm |
10 | 15 | 8 | |
| 14.5mm | 10 | 16 | 8 | |
Special round modifications are placed on the rounds to increase performance. These are very generalized modifications, and can be placed on rounds multiple times (up to two mods per round) and in conjunction.
| Mod | dPP | dPPP | Notes |
| Armor Piercing | -1 | +2 | The round either has a hard core or jacket and perhaps is coated with Teflon for even more penetration. A hard core may even be combined with a soft jacket for a round that is both armor piercing and expanding. The round expands less in the body and does less tissue damage, and it is also more likely to travel through the body. |
| Expanding Round | +2 | -1 | The rounds are fixed in such a fashion that they expand on entrance into the body and deal much more tissue damage, but because they expand, they penetrate less. Expanding rounds are more likely to jam than regular rounds, but this depends on how well they are made. |
| High Power | +1 | +1 | High power rounds are pressure packed with more gun powder or perhaps some other type of explosive. High power rounds are more likely to fire prematurely or explode inside the chamber than regular rounds. |
A shotgun only hold one shell in the chamber, or up to 8 shells in a tubular mag.
| Shotgun | dPS | PP | PPP | Recoil | Range |
| Sawed Off | +2 | 10 | 11 | 7 | 15-18m |
| Buckshot | +1 | 10 | 11 | 7 | 50-75m |
| Slug | +0 | 10 | 12 | 7 | 50-75m |
| Weapon | dPS | Recoil | PP | PPP | Range | Area |
| Fragment Grenade | NA | NA | 10 | 13 | thrown | 4 mR, +2dStrike |
| High Explosive Grenade | NA | NA | 11 | 17 | thrown | 4 mR, +2dStrike |
| Flamethrower | +3 (area) | 6 | 10 | NA | 50 m | |
| 40 mm Grenade | 0 | 9 | 11 | 18 | 350 m | 3mR, +2dStrike |
| 120 mm Shell | 0 | 10 | 12 | 19 | 100-3000 m | 10 mR, +3dStrike |
| SAM missile | +3 (guidance system) | NA | 14 | 21 | 6000 m | 15 mR, +4dStrike |
The discovery of superspace is probably the single greatest scientific achievement of mankind. It happened during a quantum mechanics experiment with a certain type of theoretical complex wave. The purpose of the experiment was to separate the wave into its real and imaginary parts, so that at least the real part could be measured. The imaginary wave was to pass freely into space. Well, as it so happened, in an adjacent room, a lab researcher was in the direct path of this imaginary wave. Just moments after the completion of the experiment, the researcher was found dead. Cause of death, unknown; the entire body had just quit. No one thought the complex wave experiment was at fault. But as more experiments were done, at a certain frequency, any one in the path of the imaginary wave would die without natural cause.
Despite several unfortunate deaths, the scientists knew that they had discovered something incredible. They had stumbled on to a new field of science that had never been comprehended, or perhaps never recognized. More calculations were done and many more experiments.
What the scientists found was that that specific undetectable wave wasn't touching the physical body of the victims, this they expected.. But it was affecting something with properties of a class similar to its self and displacing that something from the physical body. And without that something the physical body would soon die.
What the scientists had before them was a new realm of science. The superspace, filled with superwaves and superparticles, all with superphysical properties. That experiment was actually delocalizing the very soul of the being in its path. Yes, science had discovered the soul, at least that's what they referred to it as. No single discovery ever had so dramatic effect. And no technology ever had such enormous possibilities for good and evil.
As the experiments continued, the results became more bizzare. Beings were found that only existed in superspace, but they were very real. There was no magic to it, no great mysticism. These supercreatures ranged from parasitic like blobs to very intelligent and extremely perceptive things. Most of the few intelligent species found were shocked and curious at the discovery of space and of us. Some however . . .
The existence of a phenomenon was discovered in extremely low temperatures, .001 K and below, where certain condensates would dissolve into nothingness. This perplexed many scientists, because it completely contradicted the longstanding theories of conservation of mass, charge, and energy.
As physicists contemplated what was happening to the condensate, one particular young scientist hypothesized the existence of negative heat, or dark heat (this not being the same as a simple reduction in heat), but the idea was quickly rejected by the consortium. If the theoretical dark heat did exist, calculations revealed that there would also have to exist dark energy in general, and more bizzare dark matter. As time passed, and more study was done, the formally rejected theory was found to be very close to the truth.
Dark mass energy did have the property of negating mass energy. In fact, mass energy and dark mass energy can be created in equal parts from virtual space, under special constraints. When dark mass energy and mass energy come in contact, they cancel each other out. The side effect of this, is that dark mass energy is extremely difficult to detect. You cannot see it, because like a black hole, it will steal your photons. But after new methods of dark matter detection had been invented, it was found that there was an incredible amount of dark matter floating around the universe, that had been previously undetected. And, many scientists speculate that the universe its self was created from nothing into equal parts energy and dark energy.
The vibro blade is a method of cutting using only air. It relies on the principle of in phase sound. In phase sound propagates in a less chaotic and more direct path than regular sound. And in phase sound is not heard unless you are in its path. In phase sound is also considerably more intense than regular sound as well.
A proper vibro blade will fire a high amplitude in phase wave and its correlating opposite at the same target in space from two different angles. When the two waves meet, they cancel each other out. And in doing so, they tend to rip apart most solid materials.
A vibro blade weapon is a hand held device that, because of its size, is limited to a range of only centimeters.
Short Range Lasers are a phenomena that occurs when the electromagnetic wave travels a distance half its wavelength and then reverses direction. The light wave becomes trapped in an endless cycle, traveling back and forth, the distance of half its wavelength.
The SRL blade is a device that acts as a handle, a SRL emitter, and a magnetic guide for the beam. The result is a powerful close hand weapon that can easily slice a man in two.
The actual em waves are invisible to the human eye, as they are a type of radio / micro wave. However, the beam heats the surrounding air into plasma which can easily be seen by the human eye.
When an SRL blade is used to attack and is either parried by another SRL blade or resisted, there is a weight to the blade. It feels like you are striking with a elastic weapon. The reason for this is the magnetism involved. The reversing wave is held in place by a magnetic guide; there are allot of electric and magnetic fields involved. Just know that SRL blades can be parried and resisted and it will feel like you are using a real blade.
| Armor | dPD | dSpeed | dPI
dPPI |
PI | Coverage (weight) |
| Leather | 0 | 0 | +1
NA |
8 | vest, half/full suit 5 kg |
| Chain Mail | -1 | 0 | +1
+1 |
9
9 |
vest, half/full suit 20 kg |
| Scale Mail | -1 | -1 | +2
+1 |
10 | half/full suit 25 kg |
| Plate Mail | -2 | -1 | +2
+2 |
11 | helm, half/full suit 30 kg |
| Class I | suit: -1 | 0 | +1
+1 |
9 | concealed 1 kg, vest 1 kg, suit 9 kg, helm 1.5 kg |
| Class II | suit: -1 | 0 | +1
+2 |
10 | concealed 1.5 kg, vest 1.5 kg, suit 10 kg, shield 1.5 kg, helm 1.5 kg |
| Class III | suit: -1 | 0 | +2
+2 |
11 | vest 3 kg, suit 11 kg, shield 1.8 kg, helm 1.5 kg |
| Class IV | suit: -1 | 0 | +2
+3 |
12 | vest 3 kg, suit 12 kg, shield 2.5 kg |
| Class V | suit: -1 | 0 | +3
+3 |
13 | vest 4.5 kg, suit 13.5 kg |
This section is useful in showing how vehicles can be described in this system, and thus played in combat.
Smart vehicles can pilot themselves, and use their own weapons. Often times, individual weapons will have their own smart attributes separate from that of the vehicles piloting ability.