# Character Creation For more compact rules and a short guide to character creation, check out the [[Quick Start Guide]]. To make your character, you'll need the following: - HP - Stats - Chroma - Species - Class - Mastery Die - Some skills Feel free to check the [[Character Creation Template]] for some help. ## Stats There are four stats for your character, each tied to a fundamental force of the universe and a color. These stats not only determine your physical abilities but embody a certain approach to solving problems. | Stat | Color | Universal Force | Physical Aspect | Mental Aspect | | --------- | ----- | -------------------------------- | -------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------- | | Vigor | Red | Heat, light<br>The Stars | Movement, burst power | Force of will | | Endurance | Blue | Solidity, gravity<br>The Planets | Toughness, endurance power | Resilience, endurance | | Intuition | Green | Life | Dexterity | Instinct, creativity, perception, charisma | | Wit | Gray | Intelligence | - | Learning, innovation, recall, synthesizing data, prediction | **You will gain stat bonuses when you pick your chroma.** ## Chroma When you get a chroma you get some basic abilities that boost your stats. If you pick a colored chroma you also gain the ability to take adept as a class. All your stats start at 0! Here are the possible chromas: - Red: burst strength, speed (+2 Vigor and +1 to another stat) - Blue: endurance strength and durability (+2 Endurance and +1 to another stat) - Gray: mind quickening and memory boosting (+2 Wit and +1 to another stat) - Green: ups all senses and higher body awareness (+2 Intuition and +1 to another stat) - Clear: a +1 to to three different stats; +2 to your Powerful Item Limit; 2 extra skills; can't become an adept You may instead take a +3 to your chroma stat, a +1 to a different stat, and a -1 to another stat if you wish. ### Having Multiple Chromas You may also pick up to two chromas total! This is *extremely* rare and is often even harder to deal with than having a single chroma (growing up with a power can be difficult as sometimes it pops up while you're young and cause you to be ostracized or get into trouble). To pick two chromas you take a +2 in each stat and -1 in the one other stat, and you're now able to become a multichroma adept (which is just an adept in two colors)! To do this you have to go through the adept leveling once for each color you're becoming an adept in. ## Species There are many species of people in the universe for you to choose from. Most of the species also tend to be better at a certain stat, though that's not a hard and fast rule. In these details I've laid out general personality characteristics of each species. Remember that these are just generalizations; they hold fairly well, but as with any generalization, there will be exceptions. Think of these species like elves in high fantasy: most elves are lofty, intelligent, and graceful, but there are some of them that deviate slightly or greatly. | Species | Common Chroma | Rarity | Physical Description | General Personality and Extra Notes | | ----------------------------- | ------------- | ----------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Humans | Any | Common | There are two varieties of humans:<br>- Ydilikian inherit eye color from both of their parents, with one color from one parent on the inside of the iris and another color from the other parent on the outside.<br>- Valdan humans can have brightly-colored eyes and hair (like an anime protag). | Generalists, adaptable, can be the best or the worst. | | Drokk | Blue | Common | Basically just dwarves: short, stocky bodies, often very hairy, strong and tough. | Tough and dependable. | | Exoziniks ("ex-oh-zee-nicks") | Gray | Common | Grayscale skin, hairless, metal strands for hair and their skin is metal on their hands and feet. Their legs have two joints, they're silicon-based life forms. Irises are any sort of color but shiny and chrome. | They're really into exploration, and they tend to be really curious, both in intellectual fields and in discovering the world. Inventive and resourceful. | | Kaldi | Green | Common | Kaldi look like humans but with richly colored eyes, hair, and skin (from deep, dark colors to very bright ones, but never human skin-tones). They have long slender tails and pointed ears. | Expressive and emotional, graceful and passionate; they like to have fun and appreciate life. | | Pbosh ("bosh") | Red | Common | Thick and stocky, hairless, dark blue and brown skin with 6 gold or brown eyes (2 main ones and 4 secondary). Fully-grown they're 6-8 ft tall, and just about as wide. Usually quite chubby. | Very passionate, caring, intense at times. Love deeply and protect fiercely. | | Rtolka ("ruh-toll-kuh") | Gray | Common | Long thin bodies, four spindly legs that come out in an X from their body. Long arms and deep or bright red skin. Two whiteless eyes that are usually dark blue, black, or white. | They are intelligent, reserved, and need to understand. Dedicated to exactness and the collection and preservation of knowledge. | | Cyclops | Clear | Less Common | Humanoid, look very similar to humans but with one eye instead of two. Often have gray, red, green, or purple skin, and some races have 4 or 6 fingers on each hand. | Cyclops can be all sorts of things, though a cyclops with a chroma other than clear is very rare. | | Walua | Green | Less Common | Small fuzzy guys (max 3') with long hair all over their bodies, long round or pointy ears, and wide mouths. | Mischievous and often very whimsical. Like being close to the land and elemental spirits. | | Osadona | Gray | Less Common | Thin and often tall with paper-white skin and jet-black hair. Often have culture-specific piercings and tattoos. | Often somber and intense. They don't reproduce very quickly so there aren't very many of them around. Their culture is focused on fighting evil throughout the supercluster. | | Oro | Blue | Less Common | Humanoid body is made of stone and head is a large, perfectly round stone with what looks like liquid and lights swirling softly within it. They have no faces and eat by assimilating stones into their bodies. Heads are often amber or gray-colored gemstone with other colors swirling within. | Very orderly, with quick minds and dry humor. Many oro are skilled architects or engaged with planning or analysis. | ## Stamina and Mastery Die At Level 1 you get a Mastery Die of a d4 that you add to your rolls when you're using your class abilities. This die will level up as you do. You spend a Stamina every time you use your class abilities, and you can choose to spend up to 3 Stamina to add the same amount of Mastery Dice to your Action roll. You get Stamina = 10 + your Intuition stat + your Wit stat at level 1, and when you run out you gain a Critical Injury and you have to succeed on a DC 15 Action or go unconscious (using your highest Stat + 1d Mastery Die). You may continue to spend Stamina after you run out, but for every 5 you spend you have to succeed on a harder and harder DC (that goes up by 5 every attempt). See [[Critical Injuries#Stamina Exhaustion]] for more info. Your Stamina refills after a full night of sleep (Deep or Safe Rest). See [[#Xenic Actions]] for more info on using Stamina on class abilities. ## Classes Here are the classes you can choose from! Some classes have specific stats that they use and others don't (for example each type of adept must have a specific chroma). Below is a rundown of each superclass, Beginners should probably choose a low-complexity class such as any Adept (Warrior, Tank, Mentalist, or Druid), Warlock, Cleric, Brawler, or Swordmaster. ### Adepts Adepts gain superpowers like strength and durability up, psychic powers, manipulate emotions, or generate heat or cold. Because their powers come from channeling the xeon through their bodies, most adepts don't have many ranged options, if any at all. - [[Warrior|Warrior]] (Vig): warriors are strong, fast, and can do things like create propulsion, lighten themselves, and decrease their friction - [[Tank|Tank]] (End): tanks are durable and strong and can do things like dampen inertia, create force fields, and create cold - [[Druid|Druid]] (Int): druids are dexterous and in touch with their bodies and can do things like sense emotions, heal, and give back Stamina - [[Mentalist|Mentalist]] (Wit): mentalists are smart and strategic and can do things like read minds, create sharp xeon, and do xeon tethering ### Mages Mages make a pact with a powerful entity, such as a god, devil, or titan. Can do a variety of things, such as deal massive damage, change the element of your body, heal or buff allies, or hamper enemies in all sorts of ways. - [[Cleric|Cleric]] (Any): clerics have made a pact with a light entity and are given healing powers, a divine smite, and powers specific to the entity they choose - [[Warlock|Warlock]] (Any): warlocks have made a pact with a dark entity and are given powerful damaging abilities, self-healing, and powers specific to the entity they choose - [[Sorcerer|Sorcerer]] (Any): sorcerers have made a pact with a devil and are given lots of choices for status effects and buffs - [[Demititan|Demititan]] (Any): demititans have made a pact with a titan and can turn themselves and small portions of their environment into different elements ### Magicians Magicians learn how to manipulate the xeon using language or raw substances. Each Magician class usually has a lot of different options, and some magicians specialize in physical effects while others lean more into buffing allies and debuffing enemies. All magicians focus on ranged effects. - [[Physic|Physic]] (Wit): physics have mastered the xenic language and can so command the xeon; they're good at lots of things - [[Possessor|Possessor]] (Wit or End): possessors are physics that use mortal spirits to supercharge their spells, possess others, and control minions - [[Bard|Bard]] (Int or Vig): bards use music or another artform to show their opponents illusions that transfix and beguile them - [[Enchanter|Enchanter]] (Int or Vig): these magicians use gemstones and other materials to enact wild and whimsical magical effects - [[Alchemist|Alchemist]] (Wit or End): alchemists have perfected the art of both mundane and xenic chemistry, and use potions to enact both creation and destruction upon the world (can also be reskinned to a Chef) ### Technologists Technologists create gadgets that you use to manipulate the xeon. Can be anything from a gun or explosives specialist to swordmaster to someone who works with drones. Some specialized in ranged attacks, some like to get up close. - [[Gunslinger|Gunslinger]] (Wit or Int): gunslingers use all sorts of guns to do all sorts of things, including a dealing a lot of damage as well as things like healing, Stamina regen, and hacking - [[Swordmaster|Swordmaster]] (Any): melee techies use tech swords to mostly deal a massive amount of damage - [[Brawler|Brawler]] (Vig or End): another brand of melee techies that use a full suit complete with tech gauntlets and boots to do all sorts of things - [[Emitter Specialist|Emitter Specialist]] (Wit or Int): emitter specialists use emitters to shield, repel, heal, buff, and debuff over time in an AOE range. - [[Dronemaster|Dronemaster]] (Wit or Int): dronemasters utilize drones to harass and fool enemies and heal and protect allies - [[Explosives Expert|Explosives Expert]] (Any): explosives experts not only use bombs to destroy and harm but to heal, buff, and debuff ### Spiritualists Spiritualists make relationships and pacts with xenic spirits and use them to affect allies and enemies, deal damage, or manipulate the elements. Ranged. - [[Mystic|Mystic]] (Any): make relationships and pacts with spirits and use them to buff allies, debuff enemies, and all sorts of crazy stuff - [[Summoner|Summoner]] (Any): like Mystic but can make their spirits solid and use them to attack, push and pull enemies, and reposition allies - [[Elementalist|Elementalist]] (Vig or End): makes relationships with xenic elemental spirits and manipulates the elements with them; good at changing the environment and dealing damage at range ## Class Detail Chart | File | Superclass | Stat | Complexity | Range | Focus | | -------------------------------------------------------- | ------------ | -------------------- | ---------- | ----- | ------------------------ | | [[Warrior\|Warrior]] | Adept | Vig | Low | Close | Damage | | [[Tank\|Tank]] | Adept | End | Low | Close | Tank, Utility | | [[Druid\|Druid]] | Adept | Int | Low | Close | Utility, Support | | [[Mentalist\|Mentalist]] | Adept | Wit | Low | Med | Utility | | [[Cleric\|Cleric]] | Mage | Any | Low | Med | Support | | [[Warlock\|Warlock]] | Mage | Any | Low | Med | Damage, Effects | | [[Sorcerer\|Sorcerer]] | Mage | Any | Med | Med | Damage, Effects | | [[Demititan\|Demititan]] | Mage | Vig, End, <br>or Int | Med | Med | Damage, Utility, Effects | | [[Physic\|Physic]] | Magician | Wit | High | Far | Damage, Utility | | [[Possessor\|Possessor]] | Magician | Wit or End | High | Far | Damage, Utility, Effects | | [[Bard\|Bard]] | Magician | Int or Vig | High | Far | Support, Effects | | [[Enchanter\|Enchanter]] | Magician | Vig or Int | Med | Far | Utility, Effects, Chaos | | [[Alchemist\|Alchemist]] | Magician | Wit or Int | High | Far | Effects, Utility | | [[Gunslinger\|Gunslinger]] | Techie | Wit or Int | Med | Far | Damage, Utility | | [[Swordmaster\|Swordmaster]] | Techie | Any | Low | Close | Damage | | [[Brawler\|Brawler]] | Techie | Vig or End | Low | Close | Damage, Utility | | [[Emitter Specialist\|Emitter Specialist]] | Techie | Wit or Int | Med | Far | Effects, Support | | [[Dronemaster\|Dronemaster]] | Techie | Wit or Int | Med | Far | Utility, Effects | | [[Explosives Expert\|Explosives Expert]] | Techie | Any | Med | Far | Damage, Effects | | [[Mystic\|Mystic]] | Spiritualist | Any | High | Far | Utility, Effects, Damage | | [[Summoner\|Summoner]] | Spiritualist | Any | Med | Far | Damage, Utility | | [[Elementalist\|Elementalist]] | Spiritualist | Vig or End | Med | Far | Utility, Damage | ## Health and Injuries Everybody starts with 10 HP + your Vigor stat + 2x your Endurance stat at level 1. Whenever you get below a Success on any sort of risky check you take at least one Injury! There are three tiers of Injuries that you can take, and each deal you a certain amount of damage. Most Minor and Severe Injuries aren't any different from one another and are given different names for thematic flavor. Feel free to incorporate your injuries into your roleplay! | Injury | DMG | Consequence | | -------- | --- | ------------------------------------------ | | Minor | 1 | -2 on the next Action you take | | Severe | 2 | Lose a Stamina | | Critical | 3 | -1 on *all* Actions until Injury is healed | ### Minor Injuries Each Minor Injury deals 1 point of DMG. For each Minor Injury you take a -2 on the next Action you take. List of Minor Injuries: - Bruised - Cut Up - Dazed - Winded - Tired ### Severe Injuries Each Severe Injury deals 2 points of DMG. For each Severe Injury you lose a Stamina. List of Severe Injuries: - Lacerated - Contused - Injured Limb - -2 to using that limb - Concussion - Poisoned - Minor Curse - Can't be cured by regular healing, must get the curse cleansed - Exhausted - Can't be healed by regular healing sources - Comes into effect when you stay up too long or haven't eaten or drank water in too long (or any other environmental effect that wears on you after a while, such as extreme heat or cold) - Goes away when you sleep, eat, or hydrate (or whatever else caused the issue) - Can have multiple instances of this Injury for different sources of exhaustion ### Critical Injuries Each Critical Injury deals 3 points of DMG. For each Critical Injury you get a -1 on *all Actions until the Critical Injury is healed.* As soon as you become incapacitated (reach 0 HP) you get knocked out and have to start death rolls for your Critical Injury. Each Critical Injury has slightly different death rolls. You can have more than one Critical Injury, but when you become incapacitated you only do the death rolls of the most recent, most intense Critical Injury that you've taken (Normal Critical Injuries < More Intense Critical Injuries < Death Blows). Death Blows make you incapacitated and unconscious immediately. See [[Critical Injuries]] for a list of critical injuries and their death saves. List of Critical Injuries: - Normal - Bleeding Out - Blunt Trauma - Intense - Bleeding Out FAST - VERY Blunt Trauma - Withering - Necrosis - Maimed - Major Curse - This Critical Injury reduces your max HP by 1 every day and if it ever reaches 0 you die instantly. - Stamina Exhaustion - Gain this Critical Injury when you run out of Stamina - The only Critical Injury that goes away on a Deep Rest - You might pass out upon taking this Critical Injury! Click [[Critical Injuries#Stamina Exhaustion|here]] for detailed rules. - Diseases and Poisons - Deterioration - Deep Disease - Brutal Poison - Death Blows - Demolished - Obliterated - Disintegrated ## Skills Pick two skills that you're good at! They can be specific as you'd like, but can't be so general that they applies to most things. When you use a skill you can apply a +2 bonus to it in addition to the plus of whatever stat you're using. If the stat is especially specific you can even have a +3 bonus on it! Here's a list of some example skills: [[Skill List]] As you adventure you may gain more skills! Check [[Gaining New Skills and Decaying DRs]] for more info. ## Leveling Up ### Level 0 Stats - +2 to a stat for chroma and +1 to one other stat (or +3, +1, and -1) - You may also take two +2s to different stats and a -1 to another one if you decide to take two chromas - HP = 10 + Vigor + 2x End - Stamina = 10 + Wit + Intuition - add 2 skills (+2 for a general skill or +3 for specific) ### Leveling Chart Stat cap is +5. | Total <br>Char. <br>Level | Mastery Die | Stamina Max | Stat Bonus and Skills | Powerful<br>Item <br>Limit | Powerful <br>Item <br>Max Tier | | ------------------------- | ----------- | -------------- | --------------------------------- | -------------------------- | ------------------------------ | | 0 | d4 | 10 + Wit + Int | See above | 2 | I | | 1 | d4 | 12 + Wit + Int | add skill or +1 to existing skill | 2 | I | | 2 | d4 | 14 + Wit + Int | +1 stat | 3 | I | | 3 | d6 | 16 + Wit + Int | +2 to 1 skill | 3 | I | | 4 | d6 | 18 + Wit + Int | +1 stat | 4 | II | | 5 | d8 | 20 + Wit + Int | add skill or +1 to existing skill | 5 | II | | 6 | d8 | 22 + Wit + Int | +1 stat | 6 | II | | 7 | d10 | 24 + Wit + Int | +2 to 1 skill | 7 | III | | 8 | d10 | 25 + Wit + Int | +1 stat | 8 | III | | 9 | d12 | 30 + Wit + Int | +2 stat | 9 | III | ### Some Notes - Yes, HP only scales with your stats! - See [[#Group Actions]] below for your Group Action Bonus per level. - Powerful Items are magical or technological items that take a large amount of focus to use and require time to learn how to tame them, so there's a limit to how many you can have at one time and how powerful they can be. - Cybermods count as Powerful Items. # Gameplay ## Scenes and Actions All rolls are 2d10! Your stats are your plusses, so if you have 2 vigor then you add a +2 when you do vigor checks. Think of each little section of your RPG as a scene in a TV show: a period of time where you're in a place doing a series of things as a group. When you want to do anything in a scene that has some sort of difficulty or risk attached to it then you will do an Action: you will roll 2d10 against an Action Difficulty, and how well you do will determine both you successful your efforts are *and* what kinds of consequences you take from doing that Action, positive or negative. When you roll against an Action Difficulty you either get a Strong Success, Success, Mixed Success, or Failure, and if you do super well you might complete your Action with no damage or negative consequences to speak of. If you get a Mixed Success, however, you will probably take some damage *as well as* accomplish at least a bit of what you're going for. Failure, obviously, means you don't achieve any of what you want to do and you suffer negative consequences. Whether you succeed or fail, whatever happens should move the story forward! Failure should never stop the narrative momentum of the story, only provide negative consequences that keep moving things along (such as an injury, increasing heat on your location, breaking someone's trust, make things difficult for your party in the future, etc.). ### What Constitutes an Action? Some Actions will explicitly take an enemy's health away, but more often it'll just be open-ended, allowing you to do whatever you want with your abilities. You can use multiple powers or abilities in one Action without spending more Stamina as long as all the powers and abilities are focused on achieving one goal. Using multiple powers or abilities on one Action never increases the damage the Action does; if the Action is particularly smart or creative *that* might make the Action do more damage, but using multiple powers alone won't increase the damage. A good rule of thumb is that any Action in combat should never take more than 10 seconds to complete, and each action should feel like a distinct *action* your character is doing. > [!NOTE] Action Example > A Warrior with propulsion powers wants to flies up and punches a floating enemy with their super strength. This could all be done with one Action and only spending one stamina even though the Warrior is using two powers (propulsion and super strength). You can use skill plusses in combat if they apply to what you're doing in combat. Remember, the table's judgement is the final authority on what is possible in the world! **Rulings matter more than rules!** And a decision that is cool, fun, or evocative is more interesting than one that follows the rules strictly. ### Doing an Action Whenever you or the GM wants a character to try to accomplish something you or the GM will state that you want to do a certain Action. If there's any question whole table will then discuss how difficult this Action is, whether its even possible to do in the world, and how risky what you're trying to do should be. *This is supposed to be a conversation, and everyone gets a say in the process of making an Action roll.* The GM gets final say, but doing an Action roll should feel something like hammering out a scene in the writer's room of a TV show. ### Xenic Actions Xenic Actions are Actions you do with your Class Abilities or with a Powerful Item (such as a cybermod or a magical item), and each one takes at least one stamina. When you do a Xenic Action you get to add your Mastery Die to your 2d10 + Stat roll, and if you decide to Overcharge by spending more stamina than one then you get to roll your Mastery Die equal to as many stamina you spend and add them to the Action Roll. The Overcharge Limit is always 3! So you can only ever add 3 of your Mastery Die to an Action Roll. When using class abilities, feel free to freestyle a little bit beyond the bounds of the abilities themselves! As long as it fits more or less within the bounds of what your character should be able to do, then you can do it. Certain Class Abilities won't actually make you do an Action Roll, such as starting a passive effect like a heat aura or bubble xenic shield. These abilities still use a stamina when activated and often will have a time limit. > [!NOTE] Example Action > A character wants to do a hard thing (Action Difficulty is 25). They're going to Overcharge by spending 3 stamina on a Xenic Action instead of 1. > > The character doing the action has a d6 for a class die and is using Vigor for this action (which happens to be +3). > > Their roll is 3d6 + 2d10 + 3 which in this case equals 31. They succeed on their action! ### Group Actions Group Actions are actions that you take together with your allies, and are more powerful and effective than individual actions but harder to pull off. You may choose to roll with any amount of allies in your group in order to do something together. Each character should roll separately and resolve their Action consequences at the same time. In addition, each person that's rolling gets a bonus to their roll depending on how high your party tier is. Always take the bonus of the lowest levelled character. The Non-Xenic Action Bonus applies to anybody who's not using a class ability as part of the Group Action. | Party Tier | Character Level Spread | Group Action Bonus | Non-Xenic Action Bonus | | ---------- | ---------------------- | -------------------- | ---------------------- | | S | 8-9 | +4d Mastery Die roll | +8 | | A | 5-7 | +3d Mastery Die roll | +6 | | B | 3-4 | +2d Mastery Die roll | +4 | | C | 0-2 | +1d Mastery Die roll | +2 | Keep in mind that if your group is ignoring an enemy in combat to do a Group Action together then the risk goes up for at least one person or everyone! That enemy will want to take advantage of everyone in the party focusing on one action. Here are all the possible results: - All participants get a Strong Success or Success and the action succeeds completely. - Any participant gets a Mixed Success, and the action achieves some level of success, but whoever gets a Mixed Success will still suffer some consequence. - If any any participant gets a Strong Success the GM may decide to have that override any negative consequence the Mixed Success might introduce. - Any participant Fails the action and they fail at their part of the Group Action, which makes everyone take some sort of consequence! The action may still do something of what it sets out to do depending who got what level of success, but there will for sure be consequences for everyone because that one person failed. > [!NOTE] Example Group Action > A party of 3 characters wants to do a *really* hard thing, so they to decide to tackle it together with a Group Action. Each character decides how they'll contribute to the Group Action, and then each rolls separately. > > **The Prep** > - Two characters are rolling with an Action Difficulty of 35 and a Action Risk of Extreme, and the third rolls with an Action Difficulty of 20 and an Action Risk of Medium. > - The characters are all level 5, so they get +3d Mastery Die rolls and their Mastery Die is a d8. > - Character 1 decides to Overcharge by 1, so they spend 2 stamina total to roll 2 Mastery Dice. > > **Results** > - Character 1 rolls 2d10 + 2d8 (stamina) + 3d8 (Group Action) + 4 (Vigor) and they get 42, which is more than 5 over 35 (the Action Risk), a Strong Success. >- Character 2 rolls 2d10 + 1d8 (stamina) + 3d8 (Group Action) + 3 (Wit) and they get 33, which is less than 35 (the Action Risk) but not by too much, so that's a Mixed Success. >- Character 3 rolls 2d10 + 1d8 (stamina) + 3d8 (Group Action) + 3 (Intuition) and they get 28, way over 20 (the Action Risk), a Strong Success. > > **One character gets a Mixed Success, but the other two get Strong Successes, so the entire Group Action Succeeds because their Strong Successes make up for the Mixed Success!** ### Combat For each beat (or round) of a combat scene, each character can do one Action. Beats can be anywhere from 10 sec to upwards of 30 sec depending on how the scene plays out. If the character is trying a high-stakes Action then there's a chance they'll take an injury or something negative will happen. **No matter what happens, any sort of failure should push the story forward: no stalling, no dead-ending.** At the start of each beat we decide what each pc wants to do, determine the Difficulty and Risk for each action, and then we lock it in. Once it's locked in the players roll and then the story starts playing and the time for deliberation and debate is over. After the players have resolved their Actions the enemy team gets to reposition and signal whatever they're intending to do for the next turn, which may increase the Risk or Difficulty of certain actions the party might make, or influence what the party decides to do. The party then decides their Actions again, rolls for them, and if anybody Fails or gets a Mixed Success then the enemies get to do at least some of what they were intending to do. Almost every Action in combat should be *at least* of Medium Risk and is often higher than that. As enemies (or groups of enemies) take damage, they'll move from phase to phase, and in each phase the behavior and goal of the enemy will change. For example, they might start very aggressive or get timid and run after you've beaten them up a bit. ### Scene-Specific Genre Rules Not all scenes are created equally, and the XRRPG is designed with genre-mixing in mind. Some scenes will be grounded, others will include intense, anime action, some others will be more like a western. **Feel free to gently shift the rules from scene-to-scene as long as it serves the story that you want to tell.** Feel free to play with genre tropes as you move scenes. Make sure that the Action Risk and Difficulty is equal to what the scene demands! A superhero-style scene may be less difficult than a more grimdark scene, but the risk might be the same. If you want to go all slapstick comedy on them, use Bit Risk to lower the stakes and up the absurdity. As you do all this shifting, keep in mind that the consequences and worldbuilding that a GM and table set up should remain continuous across all scenes. ### Trial of the Spirit Sometimes during a particularly intense or pivotal moment the GM will call for a special kind of check called a Trial of the Spirit. This check can be of any difficulty (though it probably should be pretty hard) and has a unique type of risk tied less to physical harm or consequences and more to the repercussions of a character *failing to live up to their own values*. A Trial of the Spirit can be called for in any situation where your character is being pushed farther than they've been pushed before and there's a chance they'll fail to rise to the moment. The check should usually align with the character's strongest stat and should deal less with whether your character has the skill to succeed and more with *whether your character decides or has the strength to push through the pain or discomfort of the moment*. #### Types of Trials of the Spirit - **Vigor** Trials deal with whether your character has the *force of will* to push through even though they're being beaten down or held back. - **Endurance** Trials pertain to whether they have the *resilience and grit* to keep moving against grinding, brutal opposition or odds. - **Intuition** Trials deal with whether the character chooses to trust their *intuition, instinct, and unique point of view* or choose their own *self-expression or identity* when other sources or forces are telling them not to. - **Wit** Trials test your character's ability to *synthesize conflicting data, make sense out of chaos, admit when they're wrong, or cut through to the truth* when there are forces that are telling them to give in to falsehood or to a simpler, more convenient narrative. - There's also an option to do a *more general version* of a Trial of the Spirit where the character does a check with their strongest stat *in any situation where they're tempted to do the wrong thing, go against their values, or give up when things get hard*. The more general Trial of the Spirit can be useful because Vigor and Endurance Trials tend to be easier to figure out how to implement in a story than Intuition and Wit ones. #### When and When Not To If the GM proposes a Trial of the Spirit that doesn't match up with how you think your character would act then feel free to speak up: you have the final say on whether your character would or wouldn't face a Trial of the Spirit in this moment. You might choose to not to if failing a Trial of the Spirit would make your character act in a way that is against their core beliefs or values. Since these checks can be powerful character moments you may always choose to fail a Trial of the Spirit voluntarily, or to do the check with disadvantage in a particularly difficult moment! Both failing and succeeding a Trial of the Spirit should move the story forward! For example, if failing a Trial means that the party loses faith in your character and abandons them then that might not be the right choice (though it really depends on what story you want to tell). If you're a GM, try to choose Trials of the Spirit that create interesting story options whether the character succeeds or fails. A character taking a cowardly option or giving in to a moral failing can open a story up to themes and opportunities for character growth that it wouldn't ordinarily explore, and a character pushing through and making the best choice or the hard choice should have some serious positive consequences (maybe not immediately, but there should be payoff eventually). ## Action Mechanics Following are the mechanics of how Actions and Action Rolls work. ### Action Roll Thresholds These are the levels of success and failure that each Action Roll can achieve along with some general details of what they entail. See Action Risk below to see what exactly the consequences should be for each shade of success and failure. Below is a quick summary chart of what each Action Roll Threshold means. Keep in mind that the DMG numbers and Consequences will change depending on how Risky the Action is. | Name | Roll Threshold | Base DMG | Consequence | | -------------- | ------------------------------------------ | -------- | ------------------------------------- | | Strong Success | Roll matches or beats Action Difficulty +5 | 3 | Success, bonus on next roll | | Success | Roll matches or beats Action Difficulty | 2 | Success, usually no negative | | Mixed Success | Roll matches or beats Action Difficulty -5 | 1 | Some negative, you take an injury | | Failure | Roll is less than Action Difficulty -5 | 0 | Negative, you take at least an injury | #### Strong Success Strong Success is beating the Action Difficulty by 5 or more, and means your Action is so successful it makes you move with more confidence. You get a bonus to the next action you do! Unless it's Bit Risk in which case you just *crush* the roll and do something crazy. Deals base 3 damage in combat. #### Success Success is matching or beating the Action Difficulty. Usually you won't take any negative consequences, unless the action that you're doing is so risky that you'll take damage or something bad will happen no matter how well you do. Deals base 2 damage in combat. #### Mixed Success Mixed Success is matching or beating -5 of the Action Difficulty without hitting the Action Difficulty itself. A mixed success is where the player only gets a bit of what they want, with some consequences. Deals base 1 damage in combat, but you also usually take an injury. #### Failure Failure is not meeting or beating -5 of the Action Difficulty, and means you fail the Action. Depending on the riskiness of the Action, however, you may incur more or less intense consequences. You take at least one injury in combat, possibly more. ### Action Difficulty Below is the Action Difficulty, or the number you have to beat to Succeed on your Action. Ranges from Actions you could do with your eyes closed all the way up to Actions that you can only do with intense planning and with a whole team of elite adventurers helping you, and even then you might still not make it. | Name | Difficulty | Name | Difficulty | | ------------ | ---------- | ---------------- | ---------- | | Easy | 10 | Elite | 50 | | Kinda Easy | 15 | Super Elite | 55 | | Hard | 20 | Immortal | 60 | | Very Hard | 25 | Intense Immortal | 65 | | Tricky | 30 | Dragon | 70 | | Very Tricky | 35 | Godlike | 80 | | Extreme | 40 | Greater Godlike | 90 | | Xtra Extreme | 45 | Impossible | 100 | ### Action Risk Each Action carries some amount of Risk, which is the potential for positive and negative consequences for Success or Failure on any given Action. Difficulty and Risk can be wildly different: an Action of Easy Difficulty can be of Suicidal Risk, and an Action of Impossible Difficulty can be of Bit Risk. | Risk | Success Level | Result | | ---------------------------------------- | -------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Bit Risk* | Strong Success | Strong Success on Bit Risk does *not* grant a bonus on the next Action (lol) but means your bit is even more successful than you thought! | | *See below for more details on Bit Risk* | Success | The bit works!! go crazy | | | Mixed Success | You're only partly successful with what you're trying to do and the gm imposes some unexpected consequences. You may take damage but that damage goes away when the bit ends (unless it's funnier for the consequences to be permanent). | | | Failure | Your bit goes horribly wrong! The gm may even temporarily kill your character if it's funny and makes sense for the bit. | | Low Risk | Strong Success | You excel! It gives a +1 on the next Action you do and you don't incur any negative consequences at all. | | | Success | It works 100% and you are shielded from all negative consequence. | | | Mixed Success | It doesn't work 100% but there are only minor consequences or pull out with no conesquence. | | | Failure | The Action fails and if you decide to keep going with this plan future Actions will get riskier and riskier. | | Medium Risk | Strong Success | You excel! It gives a +2 on the next Action you do and you don't incur any negative consequences at all. | | | Success | It works 100%, though there may be some very small negative consequence even if it just means you're giving up one opportunity for another. | | | Mixed Success | There are some more major consequences, even if you do achieve your goal. | | | Failure | Things go badly, people get mildly or severely injured, and/or you're thrown into a horrible situation with potential for things to get much worse. | | High Risk | Strong Success | You excel! It gives a +3 on the next Action you do and you don't incur any negative consequences at all. | | | Success | It works 100%, though you might still incur some minor negative consequences due to the risk of the Action! | | | Mixed Success | There are major consequences, you sacrifice something for the partial success, or you get severely injured. | | | Failure | Things go *extremely* badly, someone gets a Critical Injury, or you ruin your plans for the future. | | Extreme Risk | Strong Success | You excel! It gives a +5 on the next Action you do and you might incur some very slight negative consequences. | | | Success | It works 100%, but there is probably still some sacrifice that you have to make or you take some damage. | | | Mixed Success | Things go really badly, sacrifices are required to even get out, you take a Critical Injury. | | | Failure | Things crash and burn, something like multiple pcs getting incapacitated, captured, or killed outright. | | Suicidal Risk | Strong Success | You excel! It gives a +7 on the next Action you do but you still incur some pretty severe negative consequences! Chance of death is slim. | | | Success | It works 100% but you incur *extreme* negative consequences (like you take a critical injury *at minimum*). Maybe a 50% chance of going unconscious immediately and starting to do death saves. | | | Mixed Success | Things go super badly and you mess things up deeply for yourself and/or the party. You probably also take several Injuries, one of which is Critical. 75% chance of unconsciousness and death saves. | | | Failure | Under most circumstances you instantly die, no death saves or anything. You might also Critically Injure your teammates or ruin the plan completely. | #### \*Bit Risk Notes Bit Risk is for when you wanna do a comedy bit! Consequences are exaggerated and insane, whatever works for the comedy of the moment. Usually the higher the difficulty of the Action check for a Bit Risk Action the more insane the outcome can be, but it all depends on what's funnier for the moment. Feel free to completely break the physics of the world! Go all looney tunes on them, whatever is funniest for the group. You can use Bit Risk to solve smaller problems, but try not to use it to defeat a powerful enemy or solve a big problem. Doing so can really undermine the dramatic stakes of the moment and end up being anticlimactic (or warp the tone of a campaign towards comedy or silliness, which might be what you want). Sometimes a joke is funnier if there are actual consequences involved! Bit Risk is best used sparingly. Bit Risk never spends stamina! ## Adventuring Rules ### Resting You may take one **Shallow Rest** per 24 hours which heals up to half your HP worth of Injuries (rounded down). It must last at least an hour in which you must rest or sleep without doing any strenuous tasks. You may do chill social interactions or really anything within this time, but it can't be strenuous or stressful or else it will interrupt your Shallow Rest. You can't heal Critical Injuries with a Shallow Rest! You may take one **Deep Rest** per 24 hours which heals all of your Mild and Severe Injuries, resets your Stamina Exhaustion Limit, and gives you back all charges of any per-day class abilities. The Deep Rest must last at least 6 hours (and will last 7 or more if your character can spend the time). **Safe Rest**, on the other hand, is a Deep Rest done in a place that's very safe, such as a home base, a hotel or tavern, or your spaceship. You can only do one Safe Rest per day, in which it heals all your Mild and Severe Injuries and one Critical Injury. Safe Rests count as Deep Rests when it comes to resetting per day abilities. > [!NOTE] Resting > **Shallow Rest:** Can only take one per 24 hours, heals half your max HP's worth of Injuries. Lasts an hour. > **Deep Rest:** Can only take one per 24 hours, heals all your Mild and Severe Injuries, resets your Stamina Exhaustion Limit, and resets any per-day class abilities. Lasts at least 6 hours. > **Safe Rest:** A Deep Rest that also heals one Critical Injury. ### Load Limit No hard load limit, but you can only have up to 2 large weapons or implements on your body at one time, and only 5 weapons total. You can store more in a pack or another storage device. ### Fall Dmg You take a Minor Injury if you fall 15 ft, a Severe Injury if you fall 30 ft, and a Critical Injury if you fall 50 ft. For every extra 20 ft after 50 that you fall you are dealt an extra Severe Injury. ### Pushing the Roll If you ever fail a check or attack that you want to try again you can choose to push yourself and reroll the Action roll. If you do this, gain a level of Spirit Decay. The effects of this Spirit Decay come into effect *at the same time* as the Action you're doing. You can only push the roll once per turn! Check the [[Spirit Decay]] page for info on the effects of Spirit Decay. # Rule Modules and Other Resources - [[Kids in Mechs]]: Pilot Mechs! Check out [[Kollopsis Mech Parts]] for a list of parts to build a mech from. - [[Spaceship Rules]]: Pilot around a big spaceship! - [[Drug Rules]]: Take drugs! Includes massive buffs. - [[Reputation and Relationship Rules]]: Make people hate you! Or love you, your choice. - [[The Stress Meter]]: Get stressed! Rules for horror games or anything more stressful than a regular adventure rpg. - [[Webrunning]]: Run on the web! The web runs a little like a dungeon crawl where every node you go to is its own little world. - [[Spirit Anchors]]: Extend your lifespan! Implant a device that lets you revive yourself if you die. - [[Tips for GMs]]: Run a game of XRRPG! Just a handful of tips.