Where Worlds Collide

Chapter 3: Playing the Game

The previous chapter explained how you created a character, and listed the availabilities and powers. This chapter explains how to the play the game once you’ve created characters.

A Kalyr game can encompass investigation of dark and disturbing mysteries, deadly political and social intrigues, swashbuckling combat and arcane psionic battles, or all of these.

Narrating the Action Face to Face

When played as a tabletop game, the Kalyr RPG is essentially a talking game. The players take it in turns to state what their characters are doing or trying to do, and the GM narrates the outcome for each one.

Where the outcome of any action isn’t really in doubt, so there’s no need to roll any dice. An example would be a character attempting something well within their abilities with nobody else is trying to stop them. They can simply be assumed to succeed at whatever it was they were trying to do. Likewise nobody should be forced to roll dice for everyday routine activities. Similarly a lot of interaction between characters can be resolved simply by the players talking in character.

Play is divided into scenes, each of which takes place at a location and serves some purpose in the ongoing narrative. The GM will usually describe the opening scene, and following scenes will follow on logically as the story develops. In most games the scenes will follow sequentially, although there’s nothing to stop an ambitious group from playing out flashbacks to earlier events.

But frequently the characters will attempt difficult things, or get into a significant conflict with other characters, either other PCs, or more likely the GM’s NPCs. This is where the more formal resolution mechanics come in.

Narrating the Action Online

It’s also possible to play the Kalyr RPG by Play-by-Email or Play-by-Message-Board, two mediums which in practice are very similar. The game becomes a writing game rather than a talking game, and by neccessity the structure has to be a little more formalised.

To play a PBeM or PBmB game, you need a forum in which to play. This can be a mailing list, a web- or nntp- based bulletin board, or blogging system which allows comments. There are a number of providers for these; you could even host your own, although you’re often better off joining an existing message gaming community.

Both the player and the GM need electronic copies of each character sheet, because both will need access to the character’s abilities during play.

Posts and Threads

The game is made up of posts and threads. Each individual email or message board posting counts as a post, whether it’s by the GM or one of the other players. A collection of responses to an initial post, followed by responses to those responses, is a thread. A thread should correspond one-to-one with a scene.

A thread can take one of two forms, depending on what’s happening in the game. If the players are talking or exploring, players can post in any order, and may respond to postings by other players as well as those of the GM. All actions are assumed to take place in the same chronological order as the posts took place. The GM may respond to individual player posts as and when required.

When things switch to action, especially combat, the thread becomes turn-based. Players may only respond to the GM posts, and the GM should wait until everyone in the thread has posted a response to the previous GM posting before making one response covering the next round of action.

If some players are tardy in responding, then it’s acceptable to enforce a deadline after which the GM will assume actions for the PC who’s player hasn’t responded. Depending on the normal posting frequency, this can be anything from 24 hours to a week.

What Makes a Good Post

Every player posting should end when it requires something to resolved by another player. This might be something that requires a response from another character, be it a PC or an NPC. Or it might be that the character has initiated a conflict which needs to be resolved. Or it might simply be because the player needs further information from the GM.

Likewise, every GM posting must end at a point where it requires one or more of the player involved to make some for of decision. This might be a tactical one (the goons ran away, do you chase them?)

It helps the readability a lot if everyone writes in the same person and tense; I find third person present works best – “Kylar draws his sword” rather than “I draw my sword” or “Kylar will draw his sword”. GM posts should take the same form – “Kylar finds himself lost in a maze of twisty passages” rather than “You are lost in a maze of twisty passages”.

Dialogue should enclosed in quotes.

Every player post must contain the name of the character, so it’s always clear who’s acting. It should be possible to concatenate all posts in a thread to form a continuous flowing narrative without having to refer to email headers to see who’s saying or doing what.

Private Thoughts and Omnicience

Players may post what a character is thinking as well as what a character says or does. While this means that those innermost thoughts are visible to the other players, it does add a lot of roleplaying depth to the game. The GM should not do the same for NPCs, since those are not point-of-view characters in the story.

Handling Game Mechanics

I find explicit reference to game mechanics in posts containing in-game narrative rather intrusive; they disrupt the flow of the game. There are two ways of handling this:

The first is simply for the GM to handle all the mechanics aspects of the game, so the player’s contact with the game mechanics ends with character generation. This does require an element of trust, in that it’s easy for the GM to fudge things without the players being aware. I’ve never found this to be a problem, either as a player or as a GM.

The second is to handle everything mechanical using private messages. Many web boards support private messages, which can only be seen by the sender and recipient. For an email game, private message are simply emails sent direct without going through the mailing list.

Resolving Contests

Whether you’re playing tabletop or online, sooner or later the game will run into situations where the outcome of some action is uncertain. This is where the formal contest mechanisms come in.

Ability Checks

Most times you want to do something, you’ll be using one of the Abilities listed on the character sheet, and some dice. The game uses Fudge dice, six-sided dice with two sides marked [+], two sides marked [–], and two sides blank. They are commercially available from Grey Ghost Press, Inc: see http://www.fudgerpg.com.

As explained in the previous chapter, Abilities are defined using seven adjectives, known as the Trait Ladder. It’s printed on the bottom of the character sheet for easy reference

Terrible	Poor	Mediocre	Fair	Good	Great	Superb

To make an ability check, roll four Fudge Dice, and compares the results with your Ability. Each [+] shifts the result one step to the right, and each [-] shifts it one to the left. So if you’re using an ability with a level of Good, and you roll[+][+][-][ ], the result if Great.

If you’re in a contest against a force of nature, the GM will set a difficulty, rated on the same trait ladder as Abilities. If you result matches or beats the difficulty, you succeed at whatever you were attempting. If your result is worse than the difficulty, you fail. This is known as an Unopposed Roll.

If you’re in a contest against another character, both characters roll against the most appropriate ability. The character with the best result wins the contest. This is known as an Opposed Roll.

That’s the core mechanic of the game. The following sections explain how you use ability checks to resolved contests.

What is a Contest?

A contest can be something as simple as a single instantanous task, over in an instance, or can be a lengthy conflict extending across hours over even days. It’s important to decide exactly what you’re trying to achieve. In something like a fight, you need to state whether you’re trying to kill, capture, chase off or humilate your opponent. The following are examples of the sorts of things that can be resolved as contests:

Defeat a rival in a duel, be it a swordfight or a psionic battle of wills.
Overcome a natural obstacle such as a steep cliff or a fast-flowing river.
Get past a guard.
Complete a cross-country journey through dangerous territory.
Repair a power-waggon that’s broken down in the middle of nowhere using improvised tools.
Persuade an arrogant and intolerant social superior that it’s in his interest to co-operate with you.
Research a vital clue
Carry out an assassination.
Avoid being the victim of an assassination.
Try to convince a group of heavily armed guild security that it really wasn’t you that assassinated their guildmaster.
Get from one side of the city to another in as short a time as possible, while avoiding running into trouble in bad neighbourhoods.

Describing Intentions

As a player, you should describe not only what you want to achieve, but how you intend to achieve it. The more colourful and detailed the description, the better, especially for an online game, where the choice of words can imply a lot in terms of game tactics; “Narluis charges his foe chanting the clan battle cry” has a different implication that “Narluis assumes a defensive stance and waits for his foe to come to him”. But don’t forget, this is only your intention! There fact that it’s a contest means that you may well fail. Don’t describe it as if you’ve already succeeded.

Deciding What Ability to Use

In many cases, there will be an obvious ability listed on your character sheet for the contest in hand. A fight might need Brawling or Melee Weapons (Nirvork), an attempt at persuading someome might use a social skill such as Fast Talk or Diplomacy, and psionic battles will require psionic powers.

If you don’t have any ability that’s relevant to the contest, your effective ability level will be Poor, unless it falls under an Incompentance, in which case it will be Terrible.
If you have an ability similar to the one required, you can use that one instead, but at a penalty, typically -1 or -2, depending on how close your ability is to the one required. The GM is the final arbiter of which abilities can be used, and what penalty to apply.
Sometimes there’s more than one ability that’s relevant. If this is the case, roll against both abilities, and use the best of the two rolls, provided both abilities are Fair or better.
For some complex actions, you might need two different abilities. In this case, you roll against both, but use the worst of the two results.

Difficulties and Opposition

The difficulty of a contest is measured on the same scale as Abilities, from Terrible to Superb, as in “It would take a Great shot to hit the target at this range”, or “Even a Mediocre swimmer could swim across this”.

Where the character is attempting a task at which they can only succeed of fail, the GM should set an appropriate difficulty. If in doubt, assign a difficulty of Fair, but can and should often be higher or lower depending on what the character is trying to achieve. Swimming across a millpond might only need Poor, while trying to cross a fast flowing river in a storm might require as high as Great.

For something like researching for information, performing in front of an audience, or creating a work of art, the GM should not set any difficulty in advance. It’s not a simple task that can only succeed or fail; instead the result of the ability check will determine how well you did; a Great result searching for information will yeild more information than a Mediocre result, a Superb work of art will be worth more money or impress a patrol far more than a Fair one, and so on.

If the contest is against another character, you have to pit your chosen ability against whatever ability the other character is using in response. This could be the same ability, a chase might by Running vs. Running, or a duel could be Melee Combat vs. Melee Combat. Or it could be a completely different ability: sneaking past a guard would be Stealth vs. Perception, bluffing you way past the same guard might be Fast Talking vs. Insight, trying to seduce the guildmaster’s daughter would be Sex Appeal vs. Willpower.

Stakes

If the you wins the contest, your PC will achive whatever they were attempting to do. But what happens if you lose a contest? That’s up to the GM to decide. If a character fails in an attempt to swim across a fast-flowing river, the consequences could be anything from getting washed up on the wrong bank further downstream, having to be rescued, or death by drowning.

If the stakes are relatively low, such as a minor inconvenience or embarrassment, there’s no reall need for the GM to tell the player in advance. But when the stakes are much higher, especially when there’s a risk of death, serious injury or some other character-changing consequence, the GM should make the stakes clear and give the player the chance to change his or her mind before the dice hit the table.

Simple Contests

A simple contest resolves the entire action or conflict with a single ability check. You should use simple contests the vast majority of the time. The optional Detailed Contest system, described later in this chapter, should be reserved for a few dramatically important conflicts, such as the big fight with major villain at the end of the adventure.

You resolve a contest against a force of nature with an Unopposed Roll. If the result of the die roll is greater or equal to the difficulty, the character succeeds. If the roll is less than the difficulty, he or she fails. For the sort of contest where there’s no difficulty set in advance, the result of the ability determines how well the character did. A tavern entertainer rolling a Great result for her Performance ability will win over the audience and is likely to get paid and/or get invited to perform there again. A Terrible performance might have earned a pelting with rotten fruit.

You resolve a contest against another character, either against an NPC or another PC, by an Opposed Roll. Whoever gets the best result ‘wins’ the contest. In the event of a tie, the contest remains unresolved. The two parties may continue the contest by rolling again, or may break off and treat the contest as an honourable draw.

Optional Rule: Where appropriate, the winner of the contest should narrate the outcome. For example, if a player character loses a fight, the GM describes the result of the fight. If the player character wins, the player gets to describe it. Contests where the objective is to obtain information rather than defeat an opponent should always be narrated by the GM, regardless of the result, since it’s the GM who knows (or has to make up) the information to be given.

Scale of Contests

You can zoom out or zoom in the level of detail, depending on how important the contest is for the story. You can treat a long complex action as a single contest, possibly requiring multiple skills, and just roll the dice once for the whole thing. Or you can break it down into smaller contests. For instance, you could treat the assassination of an NPC as a single contest, or break it down into ‘reconnaisance of the target’, ‘getting into position’, ‘making the hit’, and ‘getting away afterwards’.

Using Simple Contests for Fights

If you’re used to detailed blow-by-blow systems with detailed rules for weapons and armour, it’s abstracting things a lot to resolve an entire fight with a single dice roll. If you prefer to resolve physical combat in detail, you can use the optional detailed conflict resolution system described later in this chapter. But many times, especially for online games, you don’t need or want to get bogged down in that level of detail for every single fight.

When both fighters are identically or equivalently armed, any differences in weapons and armour will cancel out, and can simply be ignored. When they’re different, the better-armed fighter should have a bonus. A good rule of thumb is to give the better armed and armoured fighter a bonus equivalent to the average of the difference in damage bonus of their weapons, and the difference of the armour bonus of their armour, rounding down. A bonus is also appropriate if one fighter has a weapon with a much longer reach than the other, such as polearm vs. dagger.

Missile combat is even more abstract, since it has to take into consideration things like weapon range, movement and cover as well. Since the Kalyr RPG is very much a roleplaying game rather than a tactical skirmish wargame, it’s often better to just eyeball it rather that attempt to use some complex formula to try and calculate a bonus. In many cases missle combat should be treated as a contest requiring two abilties, the appropriate weapon skill plus whichever is most appropriate of Tactics, Dodge or Steath.

Simple Group Contests

Sometimes there are multiple opponents on one or both sides, for example, large combats or big political debates. To resolve such a contest, roll dice for all participants on each side, and victory goes to the side with the best average roll. The rolls don’t have to be against the same ability.

Where there are unequal numbers on each side, some or all of the side that’s outnumbered take penalties to their ability level: if they’re outnumbered two-to-one, it’s a -1 penalty, if it’s three-to-one, then it’s a -2 penalty. If the odds are something like seven against three, let the one with that highest ability level take the -2 penalty (3:1 odds), while the other two are only at -1. This assumes that the bad guys gang up on whoever looks the most dangerous.

For really big combats, when there are large numbers of NPCs on the PCs side, don’t bother to roll for every NPC involved in the battle. Just game out the actions of the PCs against a proportionate section of the enemy. As goes the PC’s fight, so goes the whole battle.

Modifiers

Ability levels and difficulties are often modified by circumstances. Here are some examples for different kinds of conflicts.

Anyone who’s Hurt is at –1, while one who is Very Hurt is at –2 in a conflict of the same type as the Hurt was suffered. (See the section entitled Damage to see how you get Hurt)
Anyone who’s Incapictated is at -1 even for conflicts of a completely different type. It’s difficult to argue when you’re in pain from physical wounds, or to fight when you’re flustered from social humilation.
+1 bonus for very good equipment or circumstances: e.g a very fine weapon or a fully-equipped workshop.
-1 penalty for very poor or improvised equipment, e.g a cheap blunt sword, or a field repair without proper tools.
In a conflict between two characters, one many have a situational advantage of +1 or even +2. This covers anything from simple positional advantage in a fight to a something like a priest resisting an attempt to indimidated him when he’s in his own temple and backed up by a few temple knights.
In attempts to persuade or influence someone, you suffer a -1 penalty against someone of a different race, or -2 against someone of a different race who’s Very Intolerant.
Similarly, when trying to persuade someone of higher social rank, you suffer a -1 penalty for each level of difference in between the target’s highest connection and yours. Depending on the context of the conflict, this may be any connection, or may only involve connections with the same organisation.
If you outrank your target, you get a +1 bonus instead.

Some Examples

Marlith wants to keep a critically wounded man alive until they can get him to a professional healer. The obvious ability to use here is First Aid, and fortunately Marlith has listed on his character sheet at Fair. The GM rules that a Good result will be needed to stabilise the wounded man, and a Fair result just about keep him alive, but at the cost of making it harder for the professional healer when he manages to get to her. Any worse result, and the wounded man will die before they can get him to the healer. There aren’t seriously high stakes for Marlith himself, only for the wounded man. But the wounded man is just an NPC, so the GM doesn’t need to spell out the stakes. The dice hit the table and Marlith’s player rolls [ ][+][-][ ], for a result of Fair. The critically-wounded man lives, but only just.

Luanu, a technician from the Academy of Knowledge, is working against the clock trying to repair the control mechanisms of a submarine. Since these are complex electro-mechanical linkages, this would require both the Mechanic and Electronics abilities. She has Fair at both of these, but she’s working in a well-equipped workshops of the Academy of Knowledge, which gives her +1, making her effective ability levels Good. The GM rules that a Great result for both abilities is needed to do a proper job, a Good result in both will mean some undiscovered flaw will cause problems later on, and a worse result means that the craft won’t be ready in time. Luanu’s player rolls [ ][ ][+][+] and [+][+][-][ ], Superb and Great results. Because this was a better result that was needed, the GM rules that the craft is ready with time to spare.

Kylar is Great at Melee Combat (Narvork), but he’s managed to lose his sword. When he’s cornered by his enemy, he spots a big studded mace on the wall. Kylar isn’t trained to fight with a mace, but tries to use it anyway, taking a -2 penalty, making his effective ability in this fight Fair. Fortunately for Kylar, his opponent, the knight Kluranyr, Great with Melee Combat (Narvork), had got himself into a fight earlier in the adventure, and is now Hurt (–1 to all actions). He is thus only Good with his sword until he’s healed. Kylar’s player declares his intentention isn’t to fight to the death, but to grab the mace and knock Kluranyr to the ground, giving him time to escape. Since the stakes are high in this case, the GM tells Kylar’s player that if he loses, he’ll be badly wounded and taken prisoner. Kylar’s player decides to go for it, and rolls [+][ ][ ][-], Fair. Unfortunately for him, Kluranyr rolls [+][+][ ][ ], a Superb. Sadly Kylar will now depend on his clan rescuing or ransoming him. Since Kluranyr values Kylar more alive than dead, one of his minions does patch up Kylar’s wounds, but he’s to weak to attempt to escape.

Jorlak is at the library of the temple of Zardor, researching details of an ancient battle against a psionic monster, which might give him some clues on how to fight the mysterious entity terrorising the city. He has Research at Good, but he’s also Good in Ancient History. The GM decides that both abilities are relevant here, so he lets Jorlak’s player roll against both. The GM doesn’t set a difficulty, but will interpret the results after Jorlak’s player rolls the dice. The rolls [-][ ][+][-] for Ancient History, for a total of -1, resulting in Fair, and [-][ ][+][ ], for Research, a result of Good. He takes the better of the two rolls. This means that he found some useful information. Since this is an information-gathering task, it’s up to the GM to narrate the result. He determines that several books of history and legend give consistant stories about the nature of the monster. Jorlak now knows they’re up against a Drarth, and has some ideas of it’s abilities and weaknesses.

Kolath, a senior legion officer is questioning the head of Security from The Academy of Knowledge, trying to find out precisely why the guild fired an artillery weapon within city limits. He’s convinced that the guild are hiding something, and wants the truth. He has both Insight and Intimidation at Fair, which he pits against the guildsman’s Good Fast Talk and Fair Willpower. Kolath’s intention is to get information out of the guildsman. The guildsman’s intention is to throw Kolath off the scent. Since Kolath’s using Intimidation rather than Diplomacy, he’s taking a direct and confrontational approach. Kolath’s player rolls Good for Insight and Fair for Intimidation, while the guildsman rolls Fair for Fast Talk and Good for Willpower. The GM interprets this as the guildsmaster fails to crack under questioning, but the answers he gave don’t ring true. Kolath is now convinced he’s lying, but still doesn’t know the details.

Karela the assassin needs to sneak past a sentry to get inside a guildhouse. She has has Good Stealth, but she’s wearing a black cloak and soft-soled shoes, giving her a +1, raising her effective ability to Great. Unfortunately she’s accompanied by Elisar the Knight, who’s Fair Stealth sbility is reduced by -1 to Mediocre, because of the creaking armour he insisted on wearing. The guard has Fair Perception. Both of them will have to beat the guard in order to sneak past. The GM tells Karela’s player that if they’re spotted, the sentry will raise the alarm, and they would be pursued. Karela’s player decides it’s too much of a risk with Elisar’s creaking armour, and decides on a change of plan; Karela will sneak in alone, and will then try to find a way of letting Elisar in through an unguarded entrance.

Damage

In many conflicts, the stakes are that the loser (and in some cases the winner as well) can take damage. There are three types of damage which a character may suffer.

Physical damage represents actual wounds, typically suffered as a result of getting hurt in combat, but can be injuries as a result of failing some other physical activity, such as falling.
Mental damage represents mental or psychic wounds, typically suffered as a result of psionic combat, but can also be the result of shock or other mental trauma.
Social damage represents harm to your reputation and social self-confidence, as fallout from social conflicts.

Damage is marked on the damage track at the bottom of the character sheet

	Scratch	Hurt	Very Hurt	Defeated	Destroyed

Not all conflicts result in damage. A bad result in information-gathering just results in bad information. In many cases the result of a failed conflict is to escalate things by initating another conflict, one that will result in damage. For example, a failed attempt to sneak past a sentry might result in a fight with that sentry. And sometimes the stakes in a contest can be a specific amount of damage. A duel to first blood might result in the loser taking a physical Hurt, regardless of the margin of victory in the opposed ability check. Of course, such a fight will really be about reputation and honour, so the real damage will be social, not physical.

Where there’s no set amount of damage explicitly set in the stakes of the contest, the damage is based on the margin of success in the contest, which will be a positive number for the loser, and a negative number for the winner.

For group contests, calculate the margin of success by comparing the character’s roll with the average roll of the other side, rounding down. In some contests, especially armed combat, this number needs to be modified, to take account of things like weapons and armour.

If one party persues the contest aggressively, such as taking a confrontational approach in an argument, or wading into battle swinging his sword, this adds 1 or 2 to the damage to both parties. If both contestants take the same approach, add these numbers together.

Conversely, if one party takes a cautious and defensive approach, subtract 1 or 2 from the damage for both parties, more if both parties take this approach. One party taking an aggressive approach and the other being equally defensive will cancel out.

Certain gifts add damage inflicted or subtract from damage received, as do the damage bonuses of weapons used and the armour bonuses of armour worn.

You’ll end up with a number for each participant in the contest. If the number is zero or negative, you’ve got through unscathed; your opponent failed to land a physical or verbal blow on you. If the number is 1 or more, you suffer damage on the appropriate column; 1 is a Scratch, 2 Hurt, and so on.

Example of Damage

Kylar is armed with a Narvork, the kandar longsword (+3), and is wearing hardened ulsoghir hide armour (+2). He also has the Extra Damage gift (he’s a big guy, so when he thumps you, you feel it). His opponent this time is a bandit heavy armed with a mace (+3) and wearing lightweight armour that’s only worth +1.

The bandit charges, swinging his mace. His goal is to sacrifice his life to buy enough time to let his leader escape, and try and take the Legionnaire down with him. This is a very aggressive attack, for +2. Kylar, professional soldier that he is, stands his ground, readies his weapon and waits for his opponent to come to him. His goal is take the bandit out of the fight before the leader can get away.

Both combatants end up rolling results of Great in their ability checks. This means the contest isn’t resolved in one round, and the margin of success is zero. Both parties can still take damage though; The bandit does +3 for the mace and another +2 for the aggressive attack. Even subtracting 2 from that for Kylar’s armour results in +3, which leaves Kylar Very Hurt, which the GM describes as several broken ribs. The other guy comes out worse. Kylar’s +3 for the sword, and +1 for that extra damage gift, and another +2 because of his opponent’s manic attack results in a whopping +6. The bandit’s armour only takes one away from that; this leaves him as Destroyed. Kylar runs him through and leaves him for dead.

The real conflict, which is whether or not the bandit leader, who Kylar wants dead or alive, manages to get away remains unresolved. And now Kylar is badly wounded.

Once the final damage is determined, it is recorded on the wounded fighter’s character sheet. Each individual wound is described as a Scratch, Hurt, Very Hurt, etc., as previously described, and should be marked in the box on the character sheet. A single Physical Very Hurt result will look like this:

	Scratch	Hurt	Very Hurt	Defeated	Destroyed

This character is at –2 to all skills since he’s Very Hurt. If he then received a Hurt result, he would check it off like so:

	Scratch	Hurt	Very Hurt	Defeated	Destroyed

This character is still at –2 to all skills. The Hurt result is not cumulative with the Very Hurt result; only the penalty for the highest recorded wound level counts.

If there is no open box for a given wound result, the character takes the next highest wound for which there is an open box. If the character above, for example, takes another Hurt result, we see that there is no open box in either Hurt or Very Hurt, so we have to go to Defeated. This means he’s out of the fight, and the sheet would look like this:

	Scratch	Hurt	Very Hurt	Defeated	Destroyed

Note that an “H” is recorded under the Defeated label. The character is indeed defeated — he can’t fight any more — but for healing (and scarring) purposes, he has only received two Hurt wounds and one Very Hurt wound — never an incapacitating wound in one blow. Since such blows are harder to heal from, this is important.

As another example, a character that takes two Very Hurt results without taking any other hits is Defeated, since that is the next highest wound level.

Note that three boxes are provided under Scratch. A Scratch wound will not make a fighter Hurt until he receives his fourth Scratch.

Effects of Damage

If you’re Hurt or Very hurt, you suffer penalties on future die rolls; physical damage will give you penalties on physical activities, mental damage penalties to mental abilities, and social damage to your social skills.

Defeated means you can’t use those abilities at all. If you’re physically defeated you’re too badly wounded to be able to continue. If you’re mentally defeated, you’re too shocked or stunned to do anything. Socially defeated means you’ve been reduced to quivering rage or so humilated that no-one will take you seriously.

Destroyed is worse. If it’s physical damage, you are literally about to die if you don’t received prompt medical attention. If it’s mental, you’re comatose, and run the risk of suffering permenant brain damage or insanity. Social damage isn’t immediately life-threatening, but does mean your reputation and social standing are in ruins, and you could be exiled, expelled from a group, or imprisoned.

Getting rid of damage

Physical and Mental damage can be healed through medical skills or psionic healing powers. Social damage can be reversed by taking action to reverse whatever humilation caused the damage in the first place.

A Scratch is too insignificant to require a roll on a healing skill (although it might require a kiss to make it better…). Scratches go away at the end of a scene.

A Good result on a medical or psionic healing skill heals all damage one level (Hurt to healed, Very Hurt to Hurt, etc.). Scratches do not count as a level for healing purposes. That is, a Hurt wound that is healed one level is fully healed. A Great result heals all wounds two levels, and a Superb or better result heals three levels.

Healing with medical skills takes time: the success of the roll merely insures the physical or mental trauma will heal, given enough rest. It takes a day to heal a Hurt, two days for a Very Hurt, four for Defeated, and a week (or more) for Destroyed. Psionic healing is much faster, taking hours instead of days,

For example, a character with three wounds (two Hurt results and one Very Hurt) is healed with a roll of Good. After the appropriate time, the two Hurt wounds will be fully healed, while the Very Hurt wound will now be a Hurt wound (and carries a –1 modifier as such).

Otherwise, all damage heals on their own at one wound level per week of rest. That is, after a week of rest, an Defeated character becomes Very Hurt, etc.

Destroyed

Being reduced to Destroyed in any kind of conflict is a traumatic thing to happen. Even if you don’t actually die (physically or socially), it’s the sort of thing that causes permenant changes to a character. Therefore, if a character is reduced to Destroyed, they gain a new Key, which must relate in some way to the conflict. It’s up to the player to choose an appropriate Key. Players are encouraged to be creative here. For example, losing a fight might well result in a Physical Disability resulting from the injury. But it could equally be a Fear, or even a Goal (revenge?).

Detailed Contests

The detailed contest system is intended for highly dramatic contests where there’s a lot at stake. It lets you zoom in and play out a conflict on a blow by blow basis.

Either a player or the GM may request that a contest be played out in detail. You’d typically use it for things like the big fight against the major villain at the end of the adventure, anthough there’s nothing to stop you playing out all fights in detail if you really want to. Detailed contests aren’t restricted to fights; you can use them for any kind of contest, especially high-stakes social conflicts.

A detailed contest consist of multiple rounds, and continues until one party either admits defeat or is unable to continue. Each round consists of an opposed ability check, just as in a simple contest. A round doesn’t last any fixed length of game time; it could represent but a few seconds for a duel, or a period of days or even weeks for a long drawn-out political campaign.

If the result is a tie, the round results is a stand-off. In a fight, the fighters either circled each other looking for an opening, or exchanged blows on each other’s shields, etc. nobody is hurt. In a social conflict, neither side has gained any advantage. How it might be described depends on the actual rolls, two Superbs might be “they fought each other to a standstill in a flurry of blows and parries”, two Terribles might be “They flailed at each other ineffectually and missed”.

If the result isn’t a tie, and the winner rolled at least the minimum level needed to score a hit, check for damage on the appropriate damage track (Physical, Social or Mental). This works in much the same way as Simple Contests, except for one important difference: The total damage is halved (rounding up) before looking up the wound track. This is because each round of the detailed contest is not intended to represent the entire fight. A contest between two evenly-matched opponents should last for quite a few rounds.

The contest continues until one party either reaches Defeated on the damage track, or one party admits defeat and withdraws from the contest..

A detailed contest may take place entirely within one scene, as is likely for a fight. At the other extreme, a complex social conflict might be drawn out across an entire adventure.

Specific rules for Detailed Combats

These rules are all completely optional, for those that like some degree of crunchy tactical combat. Groups that don’t like that level of detail should feel free to ignore any or all of them.

A minimum result of Poor is needed to hit a (roughly) equal-sized opponent. That is, a human or kandar needs to score a Poor blow (and still roll better than his opponent) in order to hit another human or kandar. If both opponents roll worse than Poor, the round is a standoff.
If one opponent is significantly bigger than the other (of a different Scale, at least), he needs a Mediocre or even Fair result to hit his smaller foe, while even a Terrible result will allow the small fighter to hit the larger. (Of course, te fighter still needs a better roll than his opponent). Extremely small targets, such as a small animal, may require a Good or even a Great result. Sometimes it’s hard to swat a fly!
If the two combatants are using weapons with different reach, one of the combatants will be at -1. In the first round of combat, the fighter with the closer range weapon will have the -1 penalty. In subsequent rounds the penalty goes to whichever fighter lost the previous round.
If the one combatant has a Close reach weapon, and the other has a Long reach weapon, the one with the close combat weapon can’t attack at all in the first round. All he can do is dodge. However, if he manages to dodge, he can duck inside the range of the long weapon, and the positions will be reversed in the next round.
Subtract the value of a shield from the opponent’s weapon skill. A small shield has a value of +1 in melee combat only, while a medium shield has a value of +1 in melee combat and +1 to defense against ranged attacks (if the shield material is impervious to the weapon). A large shield (+2 in all combat) is cumbersome to lug around. The larger the shield carried, the more the GM should assess penalties for things such as acrobatic and other fancy maneuvers. Shields can also be used offensively to push an opponent back, for example, or knock someone over.
Compare combatants’ weapon sizes and shields. If one fighter’s weapon plus shield value is +2 (or more) greater than the other fighter’s weapon + shield value, the fighter with the smaller weapon is at –1 to his combat skill. (Example: one fighter has a Two-handed sword: +4 to damage. His opponent has a knife and an average shield: +1 to damage, +1 for shield makes a total of +2. The knife wielder is at –1 to skill in this combat since his weapon modifier is –2 less than the sword fighter’s.)
Aiming at a specific small body part (such as an eye or hand) will require a minimum result of Good or Great to hit and also have a –1 to the trait level. If a result of Great is needed and the fighter only gets a Good result but still wins the Opposed action, he hits the other fighter — but not in the part aimed for.
All-out offense, such as a berserk attack, grants a +1 to the combat skill (and an additional +1 for damage, if successful). However, if an all-out attacker ties or loses the Opposed action, the other fighter wins, and gets +2 to damage!
An All-out defensive stance earns a +2 to the combat skill, but such a combatant cannot harm his foe except with a critical result.
A successful All-out Defense and a successful Perception or Tactics roll produces a –1 penalty to the opponent on the next round. The fighter takes a few seconds to scope out the area and maneuvers to take advantage of any terrain or conditional irregularity. Similar combat subtleties are possible, and encouraged — taking a successful All-out defense one round can allow a player to try an acrobatics maneuver the next combat round without risk of being hit, for example.

Fudge Points

At the start of the game, characters gain one Fudge Point. They may gain additional Fudge Points every time one of their Keys comes into play in a way that significantly affects the game. Fudge points are a metagame mechanism that enables players to alter events in the game in their character’s favour.

Significant NPCs get Fudge points as well as PCs. Major villains get as many as PCs, henchmen might get one or two. Cannon-fodder types don’t get any at all.

You can spend Fudge Points for any of the following:

You can retrospectively alter the result of one dice roll affecting your character, raising or lowering the result by +1 or -1. This can be a roll you made, or a roll made by the GM on behalf of an NPC. You can’t change the roll made by another player, although you can change your own roll in an opposed action against another player character.
You can get an automatic +2 result instead of rolling the dice. You must declare this before you roll; if you’ve already rolled the dice and don’t like what you’ve rolled, the best you can do with a Fudge point is to take a +1.
You can reduce the severity of any wound by one level, including reducing Destroyed to Defeated.
You can make some small but logically plausible addition or change to the game environment. Suppose, in the middle of a fight, you want to throw an opponent out of a second floor window into the street, but the GM didn’t mention a window. Spend a Fudge point, and there’s a window. Then, of course, the NPC you threw out can spend his own Fudge point, so that there’s a cart loaded with something soft right under the window to break his fall. If you’re feeling really cruel, you can spend a second Fudge point to make that cart filled with manure. The GM has the power of veto for any use of Fudge points in this manner.

Any Fudge Points left unspent at the end of the session can either be carried forward into the next session, or be spent on improving abilities. Players have to decide whether to burn up Fudge points in this session to improve their chances of doing things, or to save them up to buy increased skills that will improve their chances of success in the next session.

Character Advancement

Character advancement is strictly optional. For a one-shot game that’s indended to be completed in a single session, it doesn’t make any sense. It’s not always appropriate for a longer game either; sometimes the characters start out as powerful figures from the beginning and aren’t expected to grow in power during the game.

It does make sense, though, for the sort of long-term games where the players start out as callow youths and grow to become major movers and shakers.

Every time a player spends a Fudge Point, they gain an Experience Point. They may subsequently spend Experience Points to increase Abilities or Connections, as follows:

Gain a new Connection or Mundane Ability at Mediocre – 3 Points
Gain a new Psionic Ability at Terrible – 3 points (Character must already have the appropriate power)
Raise a Psionic Ability from Terrible to Poor – 3 Points
Raise a Psionic Ability from Poor to Mediocre – 3 Points
Raise any Ability or Connection from Mediocre to Fair – 3 Points
Raise any Ability or Connection from Fair to Good – 6 Points
Raise any Ability or Connection from Good to Great – 12 Points
Raise any Ability or Connection from Great to Superb – 24 Points
Gain a new Key – 6 points.

Players may spend Experience Points in this way at the end of any scene, provided something happened during that scene that justifies the increase in ability. Most typically a player may raise a character’s ability that was used in a contest during that scene. A player may request a scene whose sole purpose is to raise an ability, most likely one that involves the character receiving training. Don’t forget that it is still a scene in the game (not downtime between scenes), and can be used for roleplaying opportunities.

A player may spend points to raise more than one ability at the same time, but may not raise the same ability two levels at once. For example, if a player had six points to spend, she could gain two new Mediocre abilities, or raise two different Mediocre Abilities to Fair, but she could not raise one ability straight from the default Poor to Fair in one go.

Once a character has gained a total of 8 levels in Abilities or Connections, they gain a new Lifepath. Unless the Abilities and Connections closely match one of the professions or backgrounds in the character generation chapter, this new lifepath will be classed as an Experience. Name it to match whatever most closely matches what the character has been up to in the adventures in which he or she gained those 8 levels.