The BASICS
No adventure is without risk. And no Adventurer worth their salt hungers for anything less then a adventure frought with many perils. It might be nice if everything you touched turned to gold. But you aren't a meater. That's why we created a nifty little bag of cogs to help you sort out who takes the egg or what ends up going to blazes.
The majority of the game system is generally only necessary when an adventurer is attempting to accomplish an action which might succeed or fail depending on random chance. Such an action could be almost anything: shooting a revolver at an enemy, persuading a wealthy mill owner to invest in a risky venture, or climbing a sheer cliff face, for example.
Each such action, known as a ‘task,’ is resolved using the same system. The basic task resolution process is as follows:
- All tasks in the game are resolved using a ‘dice pool,’ whereby the adventurer performing the task rolls a number of dice equal to their dice in the relevant Skill, plus their dice in the relevant Attribute
- Each roll of ‘1’ or ‘6’ counts as a success. Add up the total number of successes you roll.
- Any roll of a ‘6’ can also be rerolled, for a chance at a additional success.
- Generally, you need two successes in order to complet the task, although in some cases the Gamesmaster may grant you a partial victory if you score only one success.
Of course, some tasks are inherently more difficult than others, and sometimes other factors are at work, either for or against you. Two additional game mechanics – black dice and opposed rolls – accommodate these conditions.
Black Dice and Pool Modifiers
The inherent difficulty of a task is represented by a number of "black dice." Black dice are rolled at the same time as the regular dice pool roll. They are usually rolled by the Gamesmaster, as she needs to account for all difficulties (both known and unknown) to the player. For each ‘1’ or ‘6’ that comes up on the black dice, one of the adventurer’s successes is negated. Black dice do not roll again on a ‘6’.
There are also times when a task is considered easier than average. In these cases, rather than black dice, the adventurer receives extra dice to add to their dice pool. These are treated like any other modifier to the dice pool.
While Difficulties are rated in groups of ‘3’s, there are times when an adventurer may receive numbers of black dice in-between. Furthermore, the Gamesmaster may assign a number of black dice between difficulties if she feels a task is more challenging than one rating but less challenging than another. Most Difficulties fall between Average and Incredibly Difficult. Higher difficulties should be reserved for very seasoned adventurers, as beginning adventurers would not be expected to make them.
Difficulty Rating Black Dice /Pool Dice Definition
Very Easy Automatic success Even a completely unskilled person has little chance of failure
Easy +6 pool dice Not difficult with even a little training
Routine +3 pool dice A skilled person does this all the time
Average No modifiers A skilled person would normally achieve this task
Difficult 3 black dice There is significant opposition to the task
Very Difficult 6 black dice Only a trained professional has a real chance
Incredibly Difficult 9 black dice Very tough opposition or circumstances
Extremely Difficult 12 black dice Only an expert has a real chance
Fantastically Difficult 15 black dice An expert would consider this folly
Ridiculously Difficult 18 black dice A very lucky expert might succeed
Legendary 24 black dice Only someone at the top of her field has a chance
(Impossible) (36 black dice) Hoping against hope for the slightest of chances
Automatic Successes
Regardless of difficulty, some adventurers are so skilled in certain areas that Average or even Difficult tasks are very easy for them. When performing a task, the player always has the option of trading 3 dice in her dice pool for a single success. She can do this as many times as she has multiples
of 3 dice. Thus, an adventurer with a dice pool of 6 can automatically succeed at Average tasks. While automatic successes don’t eliminate black dice, they can negate them, although this often requires very large dice pools.
Degrees of Success
Sometimes, you’ll want to know the degree of your success. As stated above, a partial success usually means that you’ve succeeded but not entirely: your lock picking tools may be broken, you may be hanging off the edge of the catwalk you tried to jump onto, or you may have fixed that engine but now there’s a fuel leak. Degrees of success are hardwired into combat and magic rolls. There are times, however, when your degree of success can have a greater, perhaps lasting, impact.
For example, you wouldn’t want to settle for a regular success if performing in a concert or opera; the critics won’t be kind in tomorrow’s newspaper if your performance was merely ‘adequate.’ And while a regular success is enough on a Medicine roll to patch someone up, your number of successes would be inversely proportional to the size and appearance of the healed scar.
The number of successes remaining, after black dice have been applied, indicates how well the task was performed.
Successes Gained Degree of Success
1 Partial Success – Just about managed it
2 Success – Task completed methodically
3 Good Success – Completed with some flair
6 Impressive Success – A demonstration of mastery
10 Virtuoso Success – An amazing performance
15 Awe-inspiring Success – People will talk about this for years
20+ God-like Success – You must have beaten the world record
Opposed Rolls
When another person or creature is working directly contrary to the adventurer’s actions then that other agency makes her own skill roll in opposition. In this case, the adventurer who scores more successes than her opponent achieves her desired end. Black dice are rolled against both adventurers as normal, to represent situational difficulties and any inherent difficulty of the task.
Foul Failure
Sometimes you will roll so badly that you will get more black dice successes than dice pool successes, cancelling them all out and with some left spare! In this case, you have suffered a Foul Failure. Not only have you failed, but you have failed spectacularly badly; your skill alone was
nowhere near good enough to overcome the opposition. If you are climbing, you not only fall but break some vital piece of equipment. In combat, your weapon might break or jam. When inventing something, your creation might turn against you, or manifest powers you didn’t expect or plan for.
The Gamemaster will adjust the consequence of the Foul Failure by the number of black dice successes that are outstanding. So, the results of 1 outstanding black dice success won’t be as bad as that of 5 (in essence, reversing the Degrees of Success table). However, any Foul Failure is bad, even catastrophic; the question is, just how catastrophic?
Group Rolls
A group of adventurers may pool their resources on a specific task. The team chooses one person to make the actual Attribute + Skill roll while the others roll their skill only, adding any successes to the leader’s roll as automatic successes.
Trying Again
Unless you get a Foul Failure, you may normally retake a failed task roll, unless the situation prevents it. Each additional try garners a cumulative 1 black die penalty as frustration sets in. The Gamesmaster should feel free to add additional black dice if new obstacles or environmental changes make the task harder. If the adventurer walks away and comes back to the task after some time has passed then she may try again with no penalties.
COMBAT
The world is a dangerous place. Peril 'round every sweet shop, rummaging through the trash. When fate puts the squeeze on you, sometimes the only thing you can rely on is a your little Darling and your wits. If you don't have either of those, a brick works just fine too.
Thought not always necessary, sometimes adventurer's must resort to violence to a solve a problem. Of course, its always their fault. You did absolutely nothing to provoke them. You were just minding your own business when the brigands viciously smashed their ugly mugs into your poor little fists. Its fine.
Whether you are engaged in backstreet fisticuffs, a large scale military invasion or a duel amongst gentlemen (he totally took what I was saying about his wife out of context), the combat is broken up into a series of rounds. Each round has a series of actions that can be taken. Everyone takes a turn and then repeats the process until the problem is solved or you are dead, whichever comes first. (It will probably be your death. Sorry. Just saying.) Before any conflict is started, the table rolls to determin Surprise and Initiative.
Surprise
The initiative rules presume that all of the combatants can see each other or at least be alert. Sometimes an adventurer may try to get the jump on an opponent by waiting in ambush or acting in a non-threatening manner. In such cases the adventurer is looking to win initiative without rolling.
In this case, the adventurer makes an appropriate skill roll (e.g. Hide & Sneak for an ambush; Bluff for looking nonthreatening) that is opposed by an appropriate skill roll (e.g. Perception for Hide & Sneak; Empathy for Bluff). If the defender beats the roll then she is not surprised and may act normally. If the attacker wins then she automatically wins initiative that round.
If the attacker wins by 3 successes (a Good Success) then she has caught her prey completely unawares; the defender may not defend herself until the next round. It’s possible to catch some defenders flat-footed while others are able to react.
Initiative.
At the beginning of each round all combatants make an Initiative roll to determine the order in which actions are taken. The combatant with the highest total acts first (unless she chooses to hold her action). The combatant with the second highest total acts next, and so on.
In the event of a tie, the combatant with the largest Initiative rating goes first. If still tied, then each of the tied combatants rolls her Initiative pool again and the winner goes first. If
still tied, repeat as necessary.
In addition to going first, you get a +2 on all actions against opponents that rolled lower for initiative.
A combatant that wins initiative against an already engaged opponent may choose whether to continue the attack or disengage. Combatants that have been attacked have little choice but to act against their attackers lest they become easy targets.
Time and Actions
Combats are roughly organised in 3-second rounds. Any adventurer involved in (or present during) a combat may perform one action each round, sometimes more. Any adventurers not involved in the combat can still act, but what they are trying to do may take several combat rounds.
Actions
In each combat round, you may perform one action. Anything you could reasonably do in three seconds or less counts as an action. In combat, typical actions include attacking, defending, or manifesting magic. Some actions you could take are;
- Engage in an attack (whether unarmed, with a melee weapon, or with a ranged weapon).
- Defend yourself.
- Attempt to grapple an opponent, or to escape an opponent’s grappling hold.
- Draw a weapon or pick up a nearby object
- Reload a weapon.
- Walk, run, sneak, leap, swim, or otherwise move up to your maximum movement
- Perform magic.
- Activate or otherwise briefly utilise a marvel or piece of machinery.
- Open or close a door.
- Stand up, sit down, or lie down.
Multiple Actions
All adventurers can take one action per round +1 for each point of Dexterity (if positive). However, there is a penalty for taking multiple actions and the adventurer must declare her intent to use multiple actions prior to acting in the round. All dice pools used by the adventurer are reduced by dividing the number of total actions taken in the round, so two actions halves all dice pools, three actions reduces
dice pools to a third, etc. Fractions are always rounded down, so splitting a dice pool of 5 in half leaves you with 2 dice in the pool.
If an action would take longer than a single round then you forfeit any additional actions until the long action is complete.
Free Actions
An adventurer may perform certain activities as well as their combat action. These ‘free actions’ must be performable without interfering with, or distracting from, the adventurer’s other action(s). As a rule of thumb, if you don’t need to roll dice for it, the action is free. Free actions include speaking short sentences or resisting the effect of a drug or poison. Merely being aware is a free action even if it requires a Wits + Perception roll.
Certain activities that require intense concentration may preclude the adventurer from carrying out some free actions simultaneously, or add black dice to any dice pools rolled for free actions, if applicable.
Combat Basics
Movement in Combat
All adventurers have movement speeds derived from their Dexterity. Movement speeds define how far an adventurer can move in a round, which is particularly important in chases, or whether you can engage a ruffian in the same round that he is shooting at you.
Vehicle speeds are also given in ‘yards per round.’ Ground vehicles can typically accelerate or decelerate by anything from 5 yards/round/round (for anything horse driven) to 30 yards/round/round (for a powerful steam driven creation). To determine approximate miles per hour speeds from yards per round, multiply by 2/3.
Drawing a Weapon
If some participants in a melee already have weapons drawn and readied and others don’t, those who don’t must either fight barehanded or take an action to ready a weapon. Reloading a weapon, be it a bow or a shotgun, often takes at least one complete combat round. Drawing a weapon does not require a roll but as it counts as an action it does require the adventurer to split her dice pool if she wishes to attack in the same round.
Drawing a weapon can be done whilst moving, so if an adventurer has to spend a round moving into position they can be assumed to be readying a weapon as well.
Melee Attacks
To make a melee (hand-to-hand) attack, you must be ready with a melee weapon, be it a sword, cosh, rifle butt or just your fists. The use of each weapon is governed by a particular skill. An opponent may counter or evade.
Counter
The opponent may counter by attacking his attacker. Both combatants roll to hit. The one with the most successes lands a blow and hits his opponent.
Evade
The opponent can evade by using his appropriate combat skill and adding Dodge as a complementary skill. If the opponent beats the attacker’s successes then she is not hit, but she does no damage to the attacker.
Ranged Attacks
Ranged attacks include everything from thrown rocks, through bows and arrows, to bolt action rifles and the advanced weapons invented by magicians and technologists. An opponent generally either shoots back (a duel) or relies on her Dodge roll.
Duel
In a duel both participants shoot at each other; if the opponent is unarmed then she’ll need to take two actions to draw and fire. The combatant with the highest number of successes wins; she didn’t so much dodge as get her shot off first, or the opponent simply missed.
Dodge
It is significantly difficult to dodge bullets and arrows; in effect, it is only because the opponent is moving that she is more difficult to hit, rather than any real skill at evading bullets! If the weapon is fired from close range (usually about 6-10 feet away), the defender is only allowed to add half their Dodge skill to their Dexterity for their dice pool. If the weapon is fired at point blank range, the defender can only use their Dexterity to evade it.
A point blank range opponent can attack the shooter, in essence treating the ranged weapon as part of a melee attack. The opponent takes a 3 black dice penalty on her roll if the ranged weapon does not require reloading.
Damage
If the attacker gets at least one more success than the defender then she lands a blow. Getting smacked with a weapon hurts rather a lot. Each weapon has a damage rating, which is the number of dice you roll to see how much damage you do to your opponent. When you’ve rolled those dice, you add up the successes you score and that is the number of Health pips your opponent must knock off his adventurer sheet.
You can improve your damage roll in a few ways. Firstly, in a melee attack you can add your Strength dice to the damage dice before you roll (Strength penalties count, but all attacks do a minimum of 1 damage die regardless of penalties). Secondly, the number of successes over your opponent’s defence roll that you score in your combat roll automatically adds to your damage successes.
If you find yourself unarmed, your fists do a base of 1 damage die. Kicking an opponent does a base of 2 damage dice. Unless you are using brass knuckles, all punching and kicking damage is considered ‘bruise damage’ (see p.170).
If you run out of Health dice, you keep counting damage on the 4 grey shaded dice on the adventurer sheet. However, if you reach this point you are suffering from your wounds. Whichever shaded ‘reserve dice’ you most recently marked pips off from applies its black dice penalty to your dice pool for any subsequent actions.
Armour
If you are wearing something that might offer you protection, it has an Armour Value (AV). In Melee Combat the Armour Value reduces the amount of damage you take from any blow, on a point for point basis. So, for an attack that does 4 points of damage to someone protected with an Armour Value of 2, the attack does only 2 points of damage. The armour points are taken from the final damage successes, not the damage roll.
Now many armors, both modern and archaic, are still struggling with the problem of firearms. You might be able to shrug off a blade or stab, but few armors can withstand the penetration of high velocity projectile. Even Archers were feared by heavily armored knights. In modern times the Webley and the gatling gun have replaced the bow with terrifying results. However, armor in the modern day might just save your life. In a Ranged Combat the Armor Value adds an equal number of Black Dice to the Damage Roll. For every success on the Black Dice, a Damage Dice success is negated. For example, with an AV of 4, the DM rolls 4 black dice. The attacker rolls 4 damage dice, 2 of which are successful. The DM rolls 1 success on the Black Dice. The armor successfully deflects 1 damage and reduces the target's health by 1.
There are some special armors that can completely reduce the total damage as if a ranged attack was a melee attack. And likewise, there are special bullets that are being designed to penetrate armor and other obstacles.
Called Shots
Occasionally an adventurer may wish to target a specific part of a defender’s body, whether it be to bypass Armour Value or to target a clockwork limb or other marvel. Doing so adds black dice to the roll according to the following chart.
Body Part Black Dice
Arm or leg 3
Hand or foot 6
Eye or ear 12
INJURIES & RECOVERY
Many a grave marker on Boot Hill is the final resting place of a brave adventurer. Unfortunately, the adventurer is the one who suffers from a cunning blade or a errant bullet. Never fear! Heroes are made of sturdier stuff and often recover from their wounds to fight another day!
Injuries
The amount of injury a adventurer can take is represented by the number of Health Pips they have. On average, an adventurer has 2 dace (4 pips) + their Fortitude Dice. Its generally assumed that the first few health pips ticked off are cuts, bruises and scrapes which will heal on their own time. Large amounts of damage, on the other hand, represent serious injuries (such as a well aimed bullet, a piercing blade or a explosion) represent serious injurty that could maim or kill.
Bruise damage
If I had a shilling for every hero who claimed "it twas but a scratch!" I would have made a small fortune by now. But indeed, many adventurers suffer scratches, scrapes and bruises. This is by far the most common kind of injury. Recovery from such injuries can heal within a day or so. On average, you can heal two thirds of your bruise damage at a rate of 1 health pip per half hour.
Damage Penalties
When you run out of Health pips, all is not lost. You can continue to take damage on four additional ‘reserve’ Health dice (marked in grey on the adventurer sheet), but by this point you are so badly injured there is a black dice penalty to your dice pool for any and all actions you make. The penalty itself depends on which of these reserve Health dice you have got down to: -2, -4, -8 or -16. You’ll also be feeling the effects of shock and blood loss, and your body is trying to shut down and heal. So, each round, you must roll Resolve + Fortitude and score at least 1 success to remain conscious.
If you fail and pass out, you may continue to make Resolve + Fortitude rolls to try and regain consciousness, as long as you still have some reserve Health left. After all, you might fail the roll one round and wake up the next, dropping in and out of consciousness as your wounds affect you. Waking up and re-joining the combat costs you your action for the round, so you need to remain awake for a second round if you want to try and land a blow.
Healing & Recovery
Sometimes it is necessary to come to the aid of a fallen comrade and lend your healing arts to keep them on this side of the Void. If you are healing in a initiative order during a combat or social scene (yes, sometimes you must heal the wounded pride of a fellow adventurer. I highly recommend a duel with pistols.), you must take your turn successfully perform a Wits + Medicine roll. You can restore 1 Health pip per round for every success you rolled.
Once out of the stress of combat, healing is a little easier; however, it is still a slow process. When you have been wounded, you may seek medical attention; if someone with the Medicine skill is at hand, they can easily provide this. They make a Wits + Medicine roll (if the patient is in no danger of death) and each success they get restores 1 Health pip to the patient. If this doesn’t replenish their reserve Health dice, they remain unconscious. However, after a good night’s sleep, they awaken with all the reserve dice plus 1 Health pip restored.
