KP005a RulsOfTheVoid v1
Short Description
Rules of the Void Version 1...
Description
V O I D V ULTURES : U LTURES :
ÜLS OF THE THE V OID R ÜLS OF V OID R ÜLSLEIT S YSTEM POWERED BY THE BY THE R ÜLSLEIT S YSTEM
Ten years ago, the powers of Earth and their many solar colonies erupted into vicious, vicious, system-wide war. war. With terrible weapons at their disposal, both sides reduced every planet and moon to irradiated irradiated dustballs. Years of mass starvation and deprivation later, survivors strain out a living by scavenging what remains on derelict ships, stations, stations, and bases. We, the “heirs” of Earth, have become vultures of the vast, lonely void. We pick over over the carrion of a golden age of plenty, when Humanity had the luxury of building whatever we desired.
I’m a scrapper—a salvage expert, if you want to be polite, but I answer to void vulture, scavvy, kender, station-stripper, magpie, even shitpicker. shitpicker. I draw the line at “junk monkey,” monkey,” though, so watch it. My mates and I board halfdestroyed orbital stations, weapons platforms, anything that has some glimmer on it. We bust open the doors, tackle remnant security measures, and plunder whatever’s left on the hulk. Sometimes, folks or...things take up residence in these old bones, so we deal with them, too.
Our townships, the people we do this for, for, never asks questions. They need our salvage to keep flying, eating, and breathing. Maybe someday, if we get enough provisions, we can boost our way to the colonies in Alpha Centauri. Between you, me, and this bottle, though, that’s pie-inthe-sky bullshit, a bedtime story to let the kiddies sleep at night. I’ll be pretty damn happy if we knock over a planetoid and set ourselves up for the rest of our miserable lives, not have to keep diving in the black. Girl’s gotta dream.
created in the Sunset Syndicate Studios designed by Josh Roby & edited by Ryan Macklin art by Ed Heil, Khairul Hisham, Jared von Hindman, and Claudia Cangini
T HE A A CKNOWLEDGEMENTS R R ÜL : : thank thank you, everyone who supported us IRSTLY — F IRSTLY T O THE M EMORY M ARY H EIL O THE M EMORY OF M ARY H EIL
This game exists and has its fantastic art thanks to the backing of the following:
TATION S TRIPPERS S TATION S TRIPPERS Adam D. Ashworth
IRTY S CAVVIES D IRTY S CAVVIES
CRAPPER ’ M ATES ATES S CRAPPER ’S S M
Aaron Hamric
Adam Bousum
David Starner
Johnny Confidence
Reed Zesiger
Adrian “The Wandering King” Mabee
Devon Campbell
Jon W. Kroeger
Reverance Pavane Rich DiTullio
Adam Rajski
Aaron Jones
Alistair Carver
Brendan Adkins
Adrian J George III Albert Andersen
Brent Evans
Brent M.
Alex Tigwell
Gregory G. Geiger
Carl Morgan
Alexander “SquidLord” Williams
Jennifer Brozek
Dave ”Geezer” Steiger
Andre Canivet
RAND M AGPIES G RAND M AGPIES
Judson Lester
Dave Chalker
Andrew Linstrom
Chris Deibler
lograh
Drew Ness
David Pidgeon John LeBoeuf-Little Michael Krzyzek Quintrino HITPICKERS E MERITUS S HITPICKERS E MERITUS
Morgan Ellis
H. M. ‘Dain’ Lybarger Jonathan Jordan
Anders Smith
Antoine Fournier Ashley ”nerdtastic” Cook B C Doull Bazz Brandon McDonald
J UNK M ONKEYS UNK M ONKEYS
Joseph Blomquist
Valerie Lozada
Justin Smith
Ben Roby
Mark Gedak
Chad ‘Skrymir’ Hughes
Mathias Jack
Caine
Michael D Blanchard
Cap’n Joe Jack Spackle
Eric Lytle
Brendan Buggeln “Brian “”Arkayanon”” Holder” Brian Allred
Donald Wheeler
Jonathan ”Buddha” Davis
Dorkian Gray
Jorge Jara D.
Robert Dushay
Drew (Andrew) South
Joseph LeMay
Robert Farrar
Drew Bakke
Josh Crowe
Robert Ruescher
DrWhiteMage
just a guy
Roger E. Burgess, III
Ed Murphy
JWarner
Role Playing Public Radio
Edomaur
Ken Brown
S. Mc’Ooke
el Mīko
Kyle Buehler
Scott Slater
Eric “Imaginos” Edwards
LB Stouder
“Scurvy” Shane Mclean
Eric Brooks
LeonardRichardson
Shane Williamson
Eric J. Boyd
Leroy A. Lee
Shaun Loati
Eric Neustadter
Little Headed Simon
Silas Humphreys Simon ”Shipwreck” Silva
Evan Silberman
Luca Beltrami
Fabrizio Codello
Lukas Myhan
Stephan Szabo
FlyingJoe
Luke ‘Kiwi’ Wiltshire
Stephanie A. Williamson
Garret Narjes
Luke Woods
Stephen P
Gary Ahouse
M. Shanmugasundaram
StevenWarble
Halfdan the Bastard
“Mad Jack” Sands
Stuart (the Dregs) Chaplin
Hans Chung-Otterson
Mark Miller
Threevenge
Captain Awesome and his First Mate Kinda Cool
Iron Tom Bonney
Mark Shocklee
Tim Rodriguez
Carl Rigney
Irven ”Myrkwell” Keppen
Matt Jett
Todd Zircher
Cathy Griffin
J. Andy Wise
Matthew C H Winder
Tom Cadorette
Brian Isikoff
Aaron Enriquez
Eric Zimmerman
Michael Ostrokol
Chris Green Memorial Fund
Jody Giardina
Neal Dalton
Court Dimon
Josh Rensch
Sean Long
Céline .S. Sauvé
J. Kyle
Matthew William DePalma
uam
Sean Nittner
Jack Gulick
Michael Litzenberger
Vasco A. Brown
Justin “MrBoy” Evans
Chris Baldi Christian A. Nord
James Dillane
Michael Sahm
Vernon ”El Robotico” Ling-Li
Leslie J. Furlong
Seth A. Roby
Christian Turkiewicz
James Ritter
Myles Kamps
W. ”Shaman” Obenshain
Marc Majcher
Tony Delgado
Christopher M Sauro
Jason Pitre
Noam Rosen
Warren Sistrom
Mark Vallianatos
One-Eyed Adam D’Espoir
Wayne ”The Cap’n” Coburn
Minerva Z.
Travis ”tensider” Bryant
Clay Karwan
Jay V. Schindler
Clint and Cassie Krause
Jeffrey Hosmer
Oshingen
WayneHumfleet
Matthew Klein
MrZoon ~8Þ
W. Austin Bookheimer
Colin Creitz
Jennska
Paul Edson
Weston Clowney
Curt Meyer
PendaTomlinson
WestopholesPrice
Shervyn
Wookiee Daddiee
Jeremy Fridy
Wayne West
zombiejojo
Duane O’Brien: A Terrible Idea Jeremy Tidwell
DangerMan
Jim DelRosso
PH Graves
William Hahn
Daniel Thoreson
Jim Sweeney
Phil Hurwitz
Winaimed Dragoon
Dave Versace
Joe Beason
Philippe Debar
wraith808
David Bowers
Joe Streeky
Phillip Bailey
Xenomous
David E. Mumaw
John Daniels
Rafael Rocha
Yolgie
David Gallo
John Fiala
Rakin Razenclaf
David Morrison
John Morrow
Ralph Mazza
T HE A A CKNOWLEDGEMENTS R R ÜL : : thank thank you, everyone who supported us IRSTLY — F IRSTLY T O THE M EMORY M ARY H EIL O THE M EMORY OF M ARY H EIL
This game exists and has its fantastic art thanks to the backing of the following:
TATION S TRIPPERS S TATION S TRIPPERS Adam D. Ashworth
IRTY S CAVVIES D IRTY S CAVVIES
CRAPPER ’ M ATES ATES S CRAPPER ’S S M
Aaron Hamric
Adam Bousum
David Starner
Johnny Confidence
Reed Zesiger
Adrian “The Wandering King” Mabee
Devon Campbell
Jon W. Kroeger
Reverance Pavane Rich DiTullio
Adam Rajski
Aaron Jones
Alistair Carver
Brendan Adkins
Adrian J George III Albert Andersen
Brent Evans
Brent M.
Alex Tigwell
Gregory G. Geiger
Carl Morgan
Alexander “SquidLord” Williams
Jennifer Brozek
Dave ”Geezer” Steiger
Andre Canivet
RAND M AGPIES G RAND M AGPIES
Judson Lester
Dave Chalker
Andrew Linstrom
Chris Deibler
lograh
Drew Ness
David Pidgeon John LeBoeuf-Little Michael Krzyzek Quintrino HITPICKERS E MERITUS S HITPICKERS E MERITUS
Morgan Ellis
H. M. ‘Dain’ Lybarger Jonathan Jordan
Anders Smith
Antoine Fournier Ashley ”nerdtastic” Cook B C Doull Bazz Brandon McDonald
J UNK M ONKEYS UNK M ONKEYS
Joseph Blomquist
Valerie Lozada
Justin Smith
Ben Roby
Mark Gedak
Chad ‘Skrymir’ Hughes
Mathias Jack
Caine
Michael D Blanchard
Cap’n Joe Jack Spackle
Eric Lytle
Brendan Buggeln “Brian “”Arkayanon”” Holder” Brian Allred
Donald Wheeler
Jonathan ”Buddha” Davis
Dorkian Gray
Jorge Jara D.
Robert Dushay
Drew (Andrew) South
Joseph LeMay
Robert Farrar
Drew Bakke
Josh Crowe
Robert Ruescher
DrWhiteMage
just a guy
Roger E. Burgess, III
Ed Murphy
JWarner
Role Playing Public Radio
Edomaur
Ken Brown
S. Mc’Ooke
el Mīko
Kyle Buehler
Scott Slater
Eric “Imaginos” Edwards
LB Stouder
“Scurvy” Shane Mclean
Eric Brooks
LeonardRichardson
Shane Williamson
Eric J. Boyd
Leroy A. Lee
Shaun Loati
Eric Neustadter
Little Headed Simon
Silas Humphreys Simon ”Shipwreck” Silva
Evan Silberman
Luca Beltrami
Fabrizio Codello
Lukas Myhan
Stephan Szabo
FlyingJoe
Luke ‘Kiwi’ Wiltshire
Stephanie A. Williamson
Garret Narjes
Luke Woods
Stephen P
Gary Ahouse
M. Shanmugasundaram
StevenWarble
Halfdan the Bastard
“Mad Jack” Sands
Stuart (the Dregs) Chaplin
Hans Chung-Otterson
Mark Miller
Threevenge
Captain Awesome and his First Mate Kinda Cool
Iron Tom Bonney
Mark Shocklee
Tim Rodriguez
Carl Rigney
Irven ”Myrkwell” Keppen
Matt Jett
Todd Zircher
Cathy Griffin
J. Andy Wise
Matthew C H Winder
Tom Cadorette
Brian Isikoff
Aaron Enriquez
Eric Zimmerman
Michael Ostrokol
Chris Green Memorial Fund
Jody Giardina
Neal Dalton
Court Dimon
Josh Rensch
Sean Long
Céline .S. Sauvé
J. Kyle
Matthew William DePalma
uam
Sean Nittner
Jack Gulick
Michael Litzenberger
Vasco A. Brown
Justin “MrBoy” Evans
Chris Baldi Christian A. Nord
James Dillane
Michael Sahm
Vernon ”El Robotico” Ling-Li
Leslie J. Furlong
Seth A. Roby
Christian Turkiewicz
James Ritter
Myles Kamps
W. ”Shaman” Obenshain
Marc Majcher
Tony Delgado
Christopher M Sauro
Jason Pitre
Noam Rosen
Warren Sistrom
Mark Vallianatos
One-Eyed Adam D’Espoir
Wayne ”The Cap’n” Coburn
Minerva Z.
Travis ”tensider” Bryant
Clay Karwan
Jay V. Schindler
Clint and Cassie Krause
Jeffrey Hosmer
Oshingen
WayneHumfleet
Matthew Klein
MrZoon ~8Þ
W. Austin Bookheimer
Colin Creitz
Jennska
Paul Edson
Weston Clowney
Curt Meyer
PendaTomlinson
WestopholesPrice
Shervyn
Wookiee Daddiee
Jeremy Fridy
Wayne West
zombiejojo
Duane O’Brien: A Terrible Idea Jeremy Tidwell
DangerMan
Jim DelRosso
PH Graves
William Hahn
Daniel Thoreson
Jim Sweeney
Phil Hurwitz
Winaimed Dragoon
Dave Versace
Joe Beason
Philippe Debar
wraith808
David Bowers
Joe Streeky
Phillip Bailey
Xenomous
David E. Mumaw
John Daniels
Rafael Rocha
Yolgie
David Gallo
John Fiala
Rakin Razenclaf
David Morrison
John Morrow
Ralph Mazza
ALL TH R ÜLS THE E R Here’s a listing of all the Rüls of Void Vultures. If you print out this document two-sided, you can throw the sheets back and forth across your table. Each front & back are related rüls. You can use this list as a quick way to make sure you didn’t forget any when you pack up, or an easy way to outline which rüls you are and aren’t playing with tonight.
R ÜLS OF V OID ÜLS OF THE THE V OID CHARACTER R ÜL: how to make your very own void vulture. On the back is a sample character. character. DICE R ÜL : how to roll dice and what the maneuvers do. On the back is… LITTLE R ÜLS : a quick overview of some of the more fiddly interactions between maneuvers. ADVANTAGE & T OKEN R ÜL: when the dice don’t like you, here’s how you spend Advantage points and Tokens. Tokens. On the back is… CRITICAL R ÜL: when the dice do like you, here’s how you see exactly how awesome you are. DAMAGE R ÜL : when somebody gets hit, here’s what you do. Includes Soak and Autosoak. Autosoak. On the back is…
NPC RÜL : this is where the GM creates the threats that he tries to kill you you with. On the back of… HAZARD R ÜL: as if dudes who want you dead isn’t enough, here’s how the GM builds tech and other challenges that he also uses to try and kill you. TOWNSHIP R ÜL : if you survive a salvage operation, you get to go home… to the crappy hovel-spaceship that you call home. This rül takes up the front and back. GM R ÜL: how to run the game so that everybody has fun. On the back of… of…
CREW R ÜL : work together to blow shit up in your awesome* dreadnought DREADNOUGHT R ÜL: collect components and build your own ride BATTLE R ÜL: when dreadnoughts mix it up, this is how it goes down ÜBERDAMAGE R ÜL : dreadnoughts don’t do normal damage… they do überdamage GAMBITS : a quick overview of the more fiddly interactions that occur in a Battle DIRECT H IT R ÜL : criticals for dreadnoughts!
PVP R ÜL : when you get into fights with your friends, this is how you see who wins.
BOGEYS R ÜL : dreadnoughts for NPCs
H ORRORS V OID ORRORS OF THE OF THE V OID
SYSTEMS R ÜL : the township is “self-sufficient” like
powers? Are they PSI R ÜL : do the PCs want Psi powers? okay being mutants? here’s your replaceCYBER R ÜL: lost a leg? Well, here’s ment. It works great most of the time! time! matter, crybaby, nearly MEDIC R ÜL: what’s the matter, dead? Here’s a band-aid.
PROGRESS R ÜL : when you rock out on a difficult task, here’s what you do.
ADVANCED A DVANCEMENT R ÜL: when “you win, level up” isn’t good enough
DERELICT R ÜL : this is how the GM orchestrates your doom. On the back of… of…
ALIEN T ECH R ÜL : what’s this button do?
LOOT R ÜL : clear a room, rifle through the bodies. Here’s what you find.
READNOUGHTS OF THE THE V OID D READNOUGHTS OF V OID
WRECKS R ÜL : scavenging from wrecked dreadnoughts to build your own? Here you go.
CURRENT E VENTS R ÜL: what happens on the township this month (spoiler: not good things) CAMPAIGN R ÜL: tips on how to string together all the rüls into a long-term campaign
* “awesome” might be be used ironically, here.
HAT D ICE D EED ? W HAT D ICE D O O I I N EED ?
All of them. Well, except d20s. So I guess just all the ones that are totally awesome.
N OMENCLATÜRE OF THE V OID ASS: towards the rear of a ship; possibly a corruption of the nautical term “aft” BRIDGE D ICTATOR : the person in charge of a township whose rule depends on his control of the ship’s bridge and all its systems COIN: Commodity in Nullspace, a chunk of resources compressed into a convenient pocket size. CRITTER: any creature of sub-human intellect, sometimes much larger and more dangerous than the name might suggest
INTERDICTION P ATROL: mysterious ships that appear, declare townships or derelicts “under interdiction,” destroy them, then disappear. Possibly automated systems from the Solar Wars, gone rogue. MUTANT: any number of creatures with DNA loosely based on humanity, modified by intentional experimentation or cosmic radiation. Sometimes ugly, usually insane. NEW S OLAR O RDER : your local fascist threat with a hate-on for anything that isn’t “pure” human… like you, most likely.
TANK : void vultures too dumb to get behind cover, but nonetheless useful for drawing enemy fire TIN -POT M URDERER : not everything trying to kill you is alive. A lot of them are old security systems, still in working order, defending against invaders like you. TOWNSHIP : a spaceship packed with refugees desperate for supplies before starvation and riots claim half the lives aboard. Home.
NINJA: individuals who find and hide loot before their fellow void vultures see it
VESTA G ATE: the last functioning linear accelerator in the solar system, capable of launching a township to humanity’s interstellar colonies. Controlled by a predatory cartel.
ROCK : an asteroid; some of the best living in the solar system is on asteroid bases
VOID S YNDICATE: a loosely-organized criminal enterprise that preys upon the weak (like you)
DERELICT : a space station or asteroid base, once inhabited by respectable folk, now abandoned to mutants, outlaws, and alien horrors. Filled with discarded supplies.
SHIT B EETLE : a small, unarmored transport— little more than a cabin strapped to some boosters—used to transport void vultures to derelicts and back
GARDEN : still-functioning eco domes on abandoned derelicts. Semi-mythical at best.
SNOWBALL: a comet, sometimes harvested for water or carbon dioxide
VOID V ULTURE : an unfortunate refugee possessed of useful talents in violence while simultaneously expendable in the eyes of their township, sent on dangerous salvage missions to collect necessary resources.
FALL D OWN A W ELL : to descend into a planet’s gravity well far enough that you can’t get out again. Whoops.
SOLAR W ARS : the series of wars that destroyed human civilization in the solar system, technically still being fought by the ragged remains of Earth’s nations
DECON : short for “decontamination,” the process of reboarding your township and shedding your hardsuit, weapons, and any loot you might have picked up for inspection by township officials
FROSTY: comets whose orbits have been altered and are now guided by automated systems, waiting for a signal to send their payloads (usually groups of three comets) crashing into a target. Said target “gets a Frosty” and is usually destroyed.
SPARKLEBOY: a giant, mirror-plated robot crewed by two or more pilots, ostensibly laserproof, this choice of ship is generally considered to be compensating for an anatomical lack
T HE C HARACTER R ÜL : roll for maneuvers, choose equipment load-out, pick alignment. To make a Void Vulture, start with a character sheet. you’ll roll some dice and use them to determine your maneuvers. Then you’ll pick your equipment, alignment, and a name. You start at level 1. Doesn’t matter how old you are, everyone starts out as a grunt shitpicker.
M ANEUVERS Roll 12d6 to determine your master maneuvers. How many dice came up 1? That’s your Shoot score. Number of dice that came up 2? Your Heave score. 3s are Dash, 4s Rally, 5s Connect, and 6s go to Fix. Add one to Shoot, Heave, and Dash. Write that number down in the big boxes along the lefthand side of the character sheet and add “d6” after the number. Each master maneuver has two specialized maneuvers listed beneath them. Pick two of these twelve to be precise: write “d4” into their smaller boxes. Pick two more specialized maneuvers to be powerful: write “d10” in their smaller boxes. Make these decisions based on what sounds cool. If you really have to know how things work right now, take a look at the DICE R ÜL .
E QUIPMENT
ALIGNMENT
Pick a load out based on what sort of badass salvager you are. Write each piece down in the main equipment slots, and modules (the part after “with”) in the smaller slots.
Pick one. Write it and its payoff into the Alignment box under Tokens:
MARINE : Klaussman 5-90 “Zip” Gun 2d8 with Plasma Grenade Launcher 2d8 (area, 6 ammo), Prokhas Milspec Hardsuit 2d8,
SCRUPULOUS : You are a good person, at least that’s what you tell yourself. Earn a token when you turn down an opportunity because it’s wrong.
REAVER: Armscor Heavy Combat Hardsuit 2d8 with Vibroblades 2d10, Niké Enhancement IV Drip 1d6 with 1d10 InstaRage Drug pack (6 ammo) COMMAND: Colt Handcannon 2d6, Prokhas Milspec Hardsuit 2d8, Kobayashi Command HUD 3d6
PRINCIPLED : You’re a white knight in dark times. Earn a token when you protect another.
UNPRINCIPLED : You’re out for yourself. Earn a token when you benefit and the rest of the team doesn’t. ANARCHIST : You’ll bring it all down. Earn a token when you undermine the status quo.
RECON: Armscor 2-20 Rifle 2d10 with Interactive Scope 2d4, Savoy-Chirac Light Hardsuit 2d6
MISCREANT : You know that for you to gain, others must lose. Earn a token when you take valuables from another person.
ENGINEER : Savoy-Chirac Repeater 3d6, Kobayashi CombatEng Hardsuit 2d6, Tech Kit 2d6
DIABOLIC : You have a plan, and it requires unsavory tasks. Earn a token when you complete one of these tasks.
Then customize your gear: Make up a 2d6 module and a 2d10 module anywhere you like.
ABERRANT : There’s something wrong with you. Earn a token when you inflict needless pain.
Give yourself three tokens to start off with, not that you deserve them.
D ON ’T F ORGET A N AME Come up with your own or pick: Kauffman, Trix, Steiner, Majoset, Richter, Jeb, Geronimo, Melody, Ramkhan, 96, Mack, Sparks, Cam-Cam, Fish, Maggyva, Princess, Solomon, Bell, Carson, Emms
Rulsleit: Void Vultures
i
n
i t
Maneuvers
Equipment
Shoot
2d6
Name Princess
Gun:
Player Ryan Macklin
d4 Spot
Actor Dame Maggie Smith
Throw
2
Armscor Heavy Combat
Heave
4d6
d10 Smack
2d8
2d10
Hard Suit
Catch
d4 Dodge
5
Alignment:
3
Dash
5d6
Tokens
Vibroblades
Soak
4
Township Downtown A-B
Unprincipled - beneft
when others don’t
spend to reroll
Niké Enhancement IV Drip
1d6
1d10
InstaRage Pack (6 ammo)
Level
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
Advantages
Rally
3d6
d10 Charge! Banish
3
Connect
od6 0
Command Intimidate
Fix
1d6 1
Hack Rig
Salvage
spend to dial dice up and down
T HE D ICE R ÜL : roll lots of polyhedral dice; you want to roll low and high. When you need to do something: pick the maneuver based on what you’re doing and maybe a piece of equipment. For maneuvers, grab that many d6s unless you’re using a specialized maneuver and it’s precise or powerful for you, use d4s or d10s instead of d6s. Add equipment dice with any modules that are in use (which is often all of them). Roll them together. Pick out the lowest die rolled. This is your precision. If you rolled a 1, you’ve achieved a critical success. If you rolled multiple 1s, you’ve achieved a double-critical, triple-critical, or whatever. You’ll compare your precision against your opposition’s to see if you do what you intended. Ties go to defenders. Pick out the highest die rolled. This is the power of your action. For each 1 rolled, add 1 to your power. You’ll use power to rate how effective your maneuver was: damage, advantage, cover, soak, and progress are all rated in this way. To see what you do with your results, see the DAMAGE RÜL (damage and soak), the PROGRESS RÜL, the ADVANTAGE R ÜL, and the LITTLE R ÜLS (cover, area effect). At right is a breakdown of the usual precision and power result for each maneuver. The GM might have you roll a maneuver for something slightly different. A few maneuvers have little tricks; these are marked with s.
*
SHOOT: precision determines if you hit; power determines damage or advantage for cover fire. SPOT : precision determines if you spot a hidden thing; power determines ensuing advantage.
RALLY : precision determines how solid your confident exterior; power determines psych damage avoided.
*
Soak and Rally are the only maneuvers that do not take up an action.
THROW: precision determines if you hit; power determines damage.
CHARGE !: precision determines if you charge; power determines how much damage you autosoak.
HEAVE: precision determines if you move or jam the item; power determines the ensuing advantage.
BANISH: precision determines if you shut down psychic invasion; power determines how much psych damage you deal in doing so.
SMACK: precision determines if you hit; power determines damage.
CONNECT : precision determines if you make a connection; power determines how much an advantage it gives you.
SOAK : power determines if you avoid damage; precision determines how much you get hurt. (Yes, power first. That’s not a typo.) Soak and Rally are the only maneuvers * that do not take up an action.
DASH : precision determines how few or many attacks you’re exposed to as you run to safety or some other advantage; power determines the ensuing advantage. CATCH : precision determines if you catch a thrown or flying item; power determines ensuing advantage. DODGE : precision determines if you avoid all damage; power determines further damage autosoak.
*
If you’ve already acted this round, you can sacrifice your action next round to dodge.
COMMAND: precision determines if you assert your authority; power determines the ensuing advantage. INTIMIDATE: precision determines if you are intimidating; power for the psych damage you inflict. FIX : precision determines if you make the device better; power determines how much progress you make. HACK : precision determines if you gain control; power determines progress. RIG : precision determines if you rig some tech successfully; power determines damage.
You may sacrifice a piece of equipment or * 3pts of advantage to make a Rig maneuver area effect.
T HE L ITTLE R ÜLS : for tricks and stunts and general badassery I NITIATIVE
AREA E FFECT
C ALLED S HOTS : P OWER & C ONTROL
When a fight breaks out, everyone rolls Dash. You’ll make a maneuver in the order of precision, starting with 1s and going up. Doublecrits go before single crits, triple-crits before doubles, etc. If multiple people have the same initiative number, they’ll act simultaneously.
Some equipment has an area effect. When you roll to use this equipment, roll as normal and then sacrifice any remaining die out of your roll to use another die as a second power die against a second target. If you sacrifice a 1, you may make another attack against the same target. You may do this until you run out of dice.
If you want to make a called shot for more power (often in combat, but sometimes in nonviolent cases like an acrobatic stunt), you must do so before you roll your dice. After you roll, sacrifice your lowest die. If there’s a tie, remove one of them. Whatever’s the lowest die now is your precision. Your power is your highest two dice added together.
If everyone has made a maneuver and the fight isn’t over, roll initiative again.
AMMO
C HAOS OF B ATTLE
You can try to Rig more ammo by cannibalizing equipment. GM rolls the to-be-reloaded and the to-be-cannibalized equipment against you. This can blow up in your face—literally!—hurting you and destroying the materials.
Alternately, you can make a called shot to control the damage you deal. You still sacrifice your lowest die as above. Your power is your highest single die, or less than that if you choose. If your damage would cross a damage threshold on an NPC, you may elect to stop there without dealing further damage.
If you don’t want to go just yet (like if you’re waiting for cover), you can hold your action.
Whenever a player rolls dice, the GM also rolls dice. He’ll get his maneuvers from the NPC RÜL and the HAZARD RÜL . Which maneuver to roll is usually obvious: you Shoot, they Dash or Soak. Other times, especially when you’re Heaving or Rigging or the like, the GM is going to roll something to represent the ambient chaos around you. This is a Chaos of Battle roll. It works like any other roll: beat its precision to do what you’re trying to do.
M AD D ASH You can roll Dash to gain advantage at the low cost of exposing yourself to danger. NPCs get a number of free attacks equal to your precision (minimum one), hoping to beat that precision and hit you. These free attacks do not take NPC actions and serve as the GM’s opposition roll. Don’t fuck up that roll, vulture.
Some equipment has an Ammo number. You can use it that many times, then it’s gone.
T HE A DVANTAGE & T OKEN R ÜLS : advantages for fudges, tokens for rerolls ADVANTAGE
T OKENS
Many maneuvers gain you advantages as listed in the DICE R ÜL. Always describe what your character does to get his advantage and describe what the advantage looks like.
You can spend one token to pick up any number of dice that you just rolled and reroll the lot of them. You don’t have to reroll dice that you want to keep—just the ones you don’t.
You can spend an advantage’s points to lower or raise the dice on a future roll where that advantage is relevant. If you’re ducking behind 3-point cover and rolled a 4 5 8 to Dodge, you can knock that 4 down to a 1. You can spend advantage points on your own rolls or others’ rolls. You do this once—there’s no bidding war—and the roller spends his own advantage after everyone else. Spent advantage points are gone forever, so that crate you ducked behind is probably chewed up by machine gun fire now, and is of no use any longer. Most advantages are only good for one battle and are removed when the room is cleared. Some are “lasting” and are good for the whole derelict. Or, at least, until they’re used up.
B IG B ADDA B OOM When you Rig, you may spend three points from an existing advantage to make your attack gain area effect.
You can earn more tokens when you live up to your alignment. You can never have more than five tokens.
T HE C RITICAL R ÜL : add another die to power or roll for a special effect. Whenever you roll a critical success (a 1), you normally add one to the roll’s power. Players may instead spend that critical to cause a critical effect. Roll on whichever of the following tables makes most sense. This die roll is separate from your pool of dice. You may only buy one critical effect per roll. The GM’s critical successes always add +1 to power. He does not roll for critical effects.
C RITICAL C OMMAND E FFECTS ( D6 ) 1 CAMARADERIE : your allies roll an extra d4 when defending each other 2 PHALANX : your side-by-side allies roll an extra d10 on Soak rolls 3 SUPPRESSION : your allies roll an extra d10 when rolling for cover 4 FLANK: any two PCs working in tandem give each other 2pt “flanking” advantages 5 MASS CHARGE : your allies roll an extra d4 on any Charge! maneuver 6 BUY TIME : your allies roll an extra d10 when rolling for any progress
Command crits last the duration of a room.
C RITICAL H ORRIFIC V IOLENCE E FFECTS ( D1 0)
C RITICAL S ECURTY S YSTEM H ACKING E FFECTS ( D6 )
1 KNOCKDOWN: you knock your target prone, until ‘stand up’ maneuver, sacrifice high and low dice
1 WINDFALL: you identify and expose a cache of resources elsewhere on the derelict: a 3d8 Loot roll
2 KNOCKBACK: you throw your target back into other enemies; for remainder of round, they may only Soak
2 ACCESS: you acquire broad privileges: a lasting 6pt advantage
3 GUTTED: you gut your target, spilling a pool of blood/ichor/oil (3pt advantage)
3 COIN SCAN : internal scans show locations of nullspace bubbles: add a d10 to every Loot roll in the derelict
4 DISMEMBERMENT : target loses an arm or leg, possibly dropping equipment
4 EM INTERFERENCE : for the next few hours, all psi rolls inflict one damage to users
5 HEADSHOT : an instant kill for mooks, double power damage otherwise
5 POLICE UPLINK : your allies’ HUDs gain a 2d4 module “police uplink”
6 HAZARD : your target blunders into a nearby hazard and suffers its effect
6 POWERDOWN: you may immediately shut power off in any of the derelict’s rooms
7 SPASM: your target spasms, pulling a trigger finger (or equivalent); roll an attack that everyone within range must Dodge or Soak
C RITICAL T ACTICAL ADVANTAGE E FFECTS ( D6 )
8 GRUESOME : your target suffers a gruesome wound, causing all compatriots to Rally vs 3/8 psych damage. 9 ELEGANT: your strike is so perfect it is beautiful; you and all witnesses earn a token 0 WEAK SPOT : double your power; later criticals can be spent by you or others to hit the same weak spot on this or similar targets.
1 ROOMY : pick another PC to add the same advantage on their sheet 2 STURDY: adds d10 points for its bulk 3 VOLATILE: adds d10 points if it explodes 4 MOVABLE: your Heaves auto-succeed 5 SUBTLE : use the advantage in a surprise and add 2d10 to a single roll 6 SCARY: add 2d10 when rolling for cover or intimidation (single use)
T HE D AMAGE R ÜL : get hit, maneuvers suffer. R EACT
F ALLING IN B ATTLE
NPC S
When you take damage, roll Soak (for physical attacks) or Rally (for psych attacks). This is a reaction, and does not count as an action.
If Shoot, Heave, or Dash falls to zero dice, you fall in battle, unconscious and helpless. Your fellow scavvies can wake you when the fighting is over. You can refer to this as the LEFT 4 DEAD RÜL or the FINAL FANTASY RÜL , depending on how old school you are.
Damage works differently for NPCs, because the GM doesn’t need to be keeping track of depleting maneuvers and whatnot. Each NPC has a row of boxes punctuated by thresholds. When an NPC takes damage, one or more boxes are filled in; when a threshold is reached, that event happens. So an NPC damage track might look like this:
If your power beats the incoming damage, you’re fine, no worries. If is doesn’t, you get hurt. If your precision beats theirs, you only reduce a maneuver by one die; otherwise, you reduce by dice equal to the attack’s crits plus one. A double-crit blow would lose you three dice, etc. Write the modified maneuver’s dice in the maneuver’s big box. Use the maneuver’s circle to record its original, undamaged value.
L ETTING E QUIPMENT T AKE T HE H IT Instead of reducing a maneuver, you may let a piece of your equipment take the brunt of the assault. This damages the equipment. Write the incoming damage in the equipment’s damage circle. The equipment is unusable until somebody beats its damage rating with Fix.
AUTOSOAK The Dodge and Charge! maneuvers give you Autosoak, usually as recompense for a stupid risk. It lets you ignore some damage without rolling until your next action. If you have autosoak of 8, you ignore all attacks doing 7 or less damage. If incoming damage exceeds the autosoak, roll Soak as normal.
The only way to actually die in a derelict is a Total Party Kill, when everyone falls in battle. You can call this the YOU ’RE A LL F UCKING D EAD R ÜL .
❏❏❏crippled ❏❏ surrender ❏ dead
T HE P ROGRESS R ÜL : stack up power, then BOOM Sometimes your power die goes towards progress rather than damage or advantage. Each point of progress fills in a bubble of a progress track. When you fill in all the bubbles, the task is complete. One of the most common tasks is dealing with hazards, which the GM builds with the HAZARD R ÜL.
P ROGRESS T RACK L ENGTH The default progress track is ten bubbles long. Particularly difficult or time-consuming tasks will have fifteen or even twenty bubbles. Determined players usually generate between 6-10 progress on a roll, and sometimes more. Called shots allow players to make clever-butrisky shortcuts to boost progress even more.
T ICK T ICK T ICK Every round that a progress track isn’t completed usually entails some sort of consequence. Hazards, for instance, attack any targets within range. A scavvy jettisoned into space without a helmet might need to Soak 10 each round before he’s rescued. NPCs might still be raging all around the scavengers while one of them deals with a sticky situation. GM: If a progress track doesn’t have an associated consequence, there’s no reason to roll. So come up with a consequence!
…THEN BOOM
W EIRD P ROGRESS
If you complete a progress track that would give you the ability to inflict terrible damage— like Hacking an airlock to decompress a chamber on command—you may immediately roll an attack. The GM will tell you which maneuver and equipment (and maybe hazard) dice to roll—whatever makes the most sense.
Occasionally circumstances will warrant using a maneuver outside of Fix to generate progress. For instance, you might use…
This attack is always area effect and does not take your action (you probably already took your action to complete the progress track).
HEAVE: Digging a fellow scavvy out of a collapsed tunnel CATCH : Going hand-over-hand down a pipe over a treacherous fall CONNECT : Convincing a leader to call off his mooks
This is by no means an exhaustive list: the GM should be all creative and shit!
T HE D ERELICT R ÜL : map it, fill it, smash it, loot it Derelicts can be decrepit space stations, abandoned ships, even old moon bases or planetoids riddled with caverns. They’re filled with a lot of danger and a sprinkling of loot. A derelict is made up of a number of “rooms,” most of which are actual rooms (four walls, floor, ceiling) but may also be the dying garden under a hab dome, the interior of a dead engine, or a strip of the outer hull. In each room there are enemy NPCs, dangerous hazards, or a combination of both. There’s also always tons of detritus and crap strewn across the floor and up against the walls, often dragged into place to create crude fortifications—advantages NPCs made for protection. These places are already stripped of what was easy to pick up and inhabited now by folks who don’t care much about little things like aesthetics or safety.
A typical evening’s fun is three to five rooms, each one with their own encounter and problems to overcome with brains or bullets.
Fill the rooms with NPCs and Hazards of the same level as the PCs. If you’re just starting, that’s level one.
Brainstorm a number of rooms: what were they used for originally, and what are they used for now? Network them together with corridors and passages. There should be one route through all the rooms that’s pretty straightforward, but throw in some back d oors, side trips, and secret passages.
There are three kinds of NPCs: MOOKS are cannon fodder designed to make the PCs feel like they’re awesome. Sometimes they’ve got a MINIBOSS with them to make things interesting. At the end of the derelict, there’s always a BOSS : the guy pulling the strings or the thing that’s so dangerous and badass that nobody else bothers it (and it’s sitting on the best loot in the place). Very often, the boss has a little coterie of mooks to help squash intruders like the PCs. The GM creates NPCs using the NPC RÜL .
If you “can’t draw,” get over it. This isn’t art class. The players are going to blow the place apart, anyway.
Always drop a handful of ADVANTAGES into each room for the NPCs to use. A good rule of thumb is 5 points per level, but don’t worry too much about the numbers. It’ll get used up quick and get replenished by NPC actions. Groups of mooks all use a shared pool of advantages More often than not, a room has a HAZARD . This can be something that’s actively hostile to the PCs or something dangerous they’ll need to overcome to progress further into the d erelict. Either way, it’s created with the HAZARD R ÜL .
C LOUD 9 W ORKED E XAMPLE
I N C ASE Y OU W ERE W ONDERING …
At the end of Rüls of the Void is a complete derelict, ready to go for first-level Void Vultures players… or ready to be picked apart by firstlevel Void Vultures GMs.
Townships aren’t derelicts, but any township can be designed as a series of rooms filled with NPCs and hazards. For whatever reason you might need to do that.
T HE L OOT R ÜL : clear a room, take their stuff Once a room is cleared, the GM rolls for Loot: 1d10 per mook, 2d8 per miniboss, and 3d4+3d6 per boss. The roll’s power determines how many COINs are on the bodies or stashed in the room. The roll’s criticals (1s) determine how many pieces of equipment can be salvaged. If there’s a question of who sees what loot first, the PCs can make opposed Spot checks. The player with the lowest precision gets first pick of what his character sees before the others. If there is more loot, the next-lowest precision picks from what is left and so on. A room’s COIN stash is usually in one group, but if there are six or more COINs, it is split into two caches.
R ANDOM E QUIPMENT For each critical, roll 4d4+2d6+1d8+1d10+1d12 and do the following:
E QUIPMENT T YPE
C HARACTERISTICS
Do duck-duck-goose around the table up to the value of the d10 and ask that player what kind of equipment is in their equipment slot equal to the d8. (If the d10 is 2 and the d8 is 4, ask the second player around the table what’s in his fourth equipment slot). The equipment they’ve found is a different model of the same kind of thing. If it’s a blank slot…
Check the d6s against the following list:
1: Heads Up Display 2: Melee Weapon 3: IV Drug Kit
5: Flexible 6: Fearsome
If the dice match, the equipment has an area effect and an ammo number equal to one of the d6 results.
6: EVA Gear
Based on the results, the group can figure out what kind of whatever it is. A 3d10 rugged, fearsome Hardsuit could be a Harley-Davidson cruising suit. A 2d8 high-energy module for an IV Kit could be an adrenaline enhancer (and as a drug, it boosts to 4d8, 6 ammo).
7: Communications Gear 8: Espionage Equipment 10: Something really good. Alien tech or DNA, a township life support system, the cure for a plague…
Explosives, drug modules, and medtech always have 6 ammo and two more dice.
4: High-Energy
AND T HEREFORE …
The lower of the d6s is the number of dice that the equipment is rated at.
AMMO AND B ONUS D ICE
3: Rugged
5: Medtech
9: Cybernetic Prosthesis
Add together the 4d4 and round down to an even number to determine die size.
2: Subtle
4: Tech Kit
N UMBER OF D ICE
D IE S IZE
1: Delicate
M ODULE ? If the d12 came up 6 or higher, the equipment is a module (accessory or software?) and must be plugged into a reasonably appropriate piece of equipment to function.
T HE NPC R ÜL : just maneuvers and damage tracks NPCs only have a handful of Maneuvers; their Equipment does not have stats. Most of their maneuvers don’t specialize: Rally, Charge, and Banish all have the same dice. Those that are specialized are listed separately. This simplifies them a great deal; the GM has enough to do without also spending time figuring out which dice to roll. Each kind of NPC has a different set of maneuvers, a different load-out of dice, plus additional dice from levels.
M OOKS Mooks travel in packs equal to the number of PCs plus 1-6. Each one gets its own action each round and has its own damage track, but uses the same dice. Level 1 Mooks have 12d6 to split between four maneuvers: Shoot or Throw or Smack, Heave, Dash, and Rally. You can roll 12d4 to determine this randomly as with PCs, or just assign them. Each additional level adds a d10 to any maneuver (like Heave 3d6+2d10). For each maneuver, add a descriptor like Bone Spikes or Booster Packs. This is mostly just a splash of color that will make it easy to describe the action later. Mook damage tracks are simple affairs: boxes then surrender then boxes then dead. Your basic mook has two boxes before surrender. Every d10 in Heave adds another box. All mooks have one box between surrender and dead.
M INIBOSSES
B OSSES
Sometimes a pack of mooks is headed up by a leader-type, or sometimes just an especially powerful individual. These are minibosses: they make the fight a little more interesting, and often have useful information and/or stuff.
Level 1 Bosses have 18d6, 8d4, and 8d8 to split between their six maneuvers: Shoot, Smack, Heave, Dash, Rally, and one of Connect, Fix, or Psi (yes, that’s the same list). Same deal as with minibosses: mix die types if you like, no skin off my nose. Each additional level adds either 2d4 or 2d10.
Level 1 Minibosses have 18d6, 3d4, and 3d8 to split between six maneuvers: Shoot, Smack, Heave, Dash, Rally, and one of Connect, Fix, or Psi. The GM can elect to mix die types, knowing that this will complicate things a little in play — not insurmountably, but it’s one less niggling thing. Each additional level adds a d4 and a d10. Don’t forget descriptors! Minibosses have damage tracks with three thresholds: crippled, surrender, and dead. Minibosses start with three boxes before crippled, plus one more per d10 in Heave; the same number of boxes goes between crippled and surrender, and then one-fifth of those go between surrender and dead (minimum one).
E XAMPLES ? The Cloud 9 sample derelict at the end of Rüls of the Void has tons of examples. And there’s a lot more where that came from in Derelicts of the Void .
Bosses have the most elaborate damage tracks with at least three thresholds: two, plus one per level. The last two thresholds are always surrender and dead, but thresholds before that can include crippled, enrage, flee, and some others I haven’t come up with yet. Before the first threshold and between every following threshold, the boss has four boxes.
T HE H AZARD R ÜL : obstacles and progress tracks Hazards are the immobile and dangerous features of a room. Think of them as the room’s teeth. They may be traps, security features, or simply sucking holes in the hull. Hazard have three elements: effects, resists, and progress tracks. EFFECTS are what make them dangerous: laser turrets, nanowire triplines, hard vacuum, and the like. Most hazards only have one effect, though a special few have more than one. The effect has a die rating like a maneuver. Precision determines how hard the effect is to avoid and power determines how much damage, advantage loss, or equipment failure it causes.
Hazards always act first every round of play. RESISTS are what keep them working, and what scrappers will need to confront in order to shut it down. Most hazards have one resist, though a special few have none: you can’t shut it down. PROGRESS TRACKS show if the hazard is dangerous or disabled and work like NPC damage tracks. Filling in those bubbles requires Fix (if it’s malfunctioning) or Hack (if it’s supposed to kick your ass). Power goes to their progress track.
Hazards don’t have to be destroyed to “clear” the room they’re in: they just have to be avoided or circumvented. Of course, that also means they’re still there if later action causes the PCs to backtrack.
C REATING H AZARDS
L OOTING H AZARDS
To create a Hazard, split 8d6 between its Effect and its Resist. Each level adds another 2d4 or 2d10. A hazard has ten boxes in its progress track per level and any number of thresholds.
Disabling hazards does not yield loot, but a couple Fix or Hack rolls can turn a once-threatening hazard into a useful weapon or tool. Once a hazard is disabled, rolls can work its progress track back upwards. Each threshold reached unlocks one of its effects for use by the PCs. You can list it under Salvage. Later, Rig can sacrifice it for an area effect attack or install it as a module.
E XAMPLE H AZARD : W ASTE E XTRACTOR , 3 RD LEVEL This portion of the station used to be a chute through which the community’s trash was dropped. It processed tons of trash per second, slicing and grinding it up. The nigh-atomized refuse would then be sorted by chemical and electromagnetic processes. That last part isn’t working any more, but the b lades still are. Effect: Whirring Blades 4d6+4d10 Resist: Emergency Shutoff 2d4+4d6 ❏❏❏❏❏ stuck on “on” ❏❏❏❏❏❏❏❏❏❏❏❏❏❏❏
meltdown ❏❏❏❏❏❏❏❏❏❏ disabled
The GM should still be rolling opposition, here— use the hazard’s resist. If the GM’s precision is better than the PCs’… well, gruesome things happen in the Void. Best case scenario is that the GM’s power turns into damage. Worst case scenario and the hazard re-activates, and now it’s angry. So very angry.
H AZARDS GET LONELY When you design a derelict, it’s considered respectful to give hazards some NPCs to keep them company. That, and mooks falling into hazards makes for a more entertaining action sequence. It also gives the PCs a decision to deal with: handle the mooks or tackle the hazard.
T HE T OWNSHIP R ÜL : stock up, heal up, and train up. H OME
ADVANCEMENT
H OME F IELD ADVANTAGE
After the derelict is cleared and looted, scrappers return to their township and unload their salvage. Different townships have different arrangements with their scrappers, but a common theme is having little use for half-broken equipment looted off of bodies and a profound hunger for the resources encapsulated in COINs. A township’s situation and goals will greatly affect its relationship with its scrappers.
At the end of any successful run in which the scrappers return to the township with salvage, all survivors gain a level. They may choose one of the following:
Players can make one maneuver in their Home scenes, which, yeah, can be used to create lasting advantages to take to the next derelict…
INCREASE: one maneuver by one die
So get your creative scheming on.
Every time the PCs return to the township, the players describe one facet of the place. At the end of your first run, somebody should probably name it. Players can also describe its size, needs, governance, culture, migratory route, and so on. Then they each describe a short scene where their scrapper interacts with this new or elaborated detail. This is where the GM gets in on the fun, riffing off what the players have described and making everything more difficult. If you’re into that roleplaying thing, you could stretch this part out and explore who the characters are as people, what keeps them in this terrible line of work, who they love, and what combat drug withdrawal looks like. Or just pack up and plan out the next opportunity to kick down doors, squash aliens, and take their stuff.
SPECIALIZE : one maneuver to d4 or d10 RETIRE : this scrapper quits; make a new scrapper with the same number of levels as this one , adding one advancement for each level beyond 1. (Yes, the level you just got is included.)
If your township has a hospital facility, you can get your damaged maneuvers patched up; if you have a workshop or something, they can fix your busted equipment. (If the township didn’t have such amenities before, use your inbound detail to make it so. You might need to pay, glad-hand, or intimidate your way to getting serviced, though…). Restore your maneuvers to full power and erase damage tallies. If the events of the last run called your motivations or ethics into question, you may swap your current alignment for any other alignment.
S ALVAGE Somewhere in between those Township scenes, the GM should also describe a short scene in which they scrappers turn over their salvage. It’s up to the players how much they turn over willingly; it’s up to the GM to decide if he needs to plan out this scene as a room with NPCs and advantages, if you know what I’m getting at. Keep a running tally of how much salvage has been turned over to the township; the players may add details about what those resources are being applied to. COINs can just be tallied. Equipment that is turned over to the township can be cannibalized for parts: roll its rating to find how many useful parts and tools it yields.
A L ITTLE M ORE T OWNSHIP R ÜL : complicating things P ROBLEMS AT H OME Home scenes are usually quick and simple affairs with perhaps a single maneuver to create an advantage for next time. Very occasionally, the GM might through in some mooks or even a miniboss and have a fight in the township. When this occurs, the NPCs are a level lower than the PCs (who just leveled up!) but there is rarely a Loot roll. Any damage the PCs take carries over to the next derelict.
COIN S ( ROLL 1 D6 PER COIN) If the GM wants to get really creative and have a wide-ranging problem at home—like a revolt or an invasion—it’s best to create the entire township as the next derelict. Run some hampered Home scenes as the PCs return and discover that not all is well in Denmark, perform Advancement as normal, and then plan to solve those problems in the next session.
It was common practice throughout the war years to encapsulate small quantities of valuable resources (water, soil, minerals, even produce) in nullspace bubbles. This reduced bulky cargo into easy-transported modules, each a small, flat cylinder. Today, they’re highly sought after, both to crack them open and use the resources as well as a currency all their own. They’re called Commodities in Nullspace, or COINs for short. Sometimes it matters what’s inside: 1 WATER: potable if not fresh, but often “perfectly” sterile 2 SOIL : from Earth or synthetic 3 GENESTOCK : seed or cryogenically preserved eggs 4 MINERALS : raw materials are hard to come by in space 5 AIR : usually compressed, sometimes pure oxygen (oh, the possibilities…) 6 PRODUCE : nothing like a bushel of apples that time forgot
T HE GM R ÜL : Kill Them All… in Style Y OUR P ART I N T HIS
R OLL O PPOSITION
T HE T RICK
When you GM Void Vultures, you control the derelict and its denizens. In each room, you try to kill the PCs. Be merciless, don’t hold back, and—most importantly—do it with style.
Whenever the players pick up and roll dice, they’ll probably need you to do so as well. They’ll need to compare their precision die with yours to see if they succeed.
STYLE : every single thing in Void Vultures is grungy, tattered, and dangerous. Everything explodes. Life is cheap, blood goes everywhere. NPCs are never reasonable, conservative, or safe. They exist for you to throw them at the PCs.
Usually, it’s pretty plain what you should roll. If they’re rolling Shoot maneuvers, you’re going to be rolling Dash (for Dodge) or Heave (for Soak). Or you can a leader-type’s Command, whether or not he’s in the room.
Because the scope of this game is so constrained, everything falls into a handful of broad categories. It doesn’t matter how crazy the action is: it’s still going to do X damage or set up an advantage of Y points. So go crazy.
PACING: this game is designed to play fast. Most rooms take 10-15 minutes to play through. Most maneuvers take less than a minute to resolve. Embrace this. Point, shout, keep the energy and pacing up. If a player hesitates, skip them. Come back to them later… if you’re feeling generous. VIBRANT D ESCRIPTION : it’s up to you to set the example. Don’t ever just say, “They shoot you at 3 precision.” Boring. Say, “The guy with the hip-mounted autocannon opens up, and the crates behind you blow apart as the line of fire snakes toward you. Beat 3 precision.” If you do it, they’ll do it, and then you’ll be rockin’. WHO , W HAT, W HERE: The most nuts-and-bolts important bit you do is describe where things are in a room. This sounds small, but knowing who’s in reach and who’s behind cover is essential information for the game to run properly. Don’t skimp!
Other times, it requires some creativity from you. If a PC is Heaving a storage container into the line of fire of hostile bandits, what can you roll? You can roll Dash as they scramble past the obstacle before it falls. You can roll Heave if they try to push it back on top of the PC. You can roll Fix if you’re in the cargo bay and you decide the miniboss has a loading crane.
C ORRECT R ESPONSES There are two responses to “Can I shoot the trunk of the frozen tree and bring it crashing down on the ice mutants?” The weak response to these questions is “Yes.” The better response is, “Hell yes, you do!” There is only one response to, “I Shoot him. 2 precision, 7 power.” That’s when you say, “I’m sorry, I couldn’t hear you over the sound of awesome happening over here. What was the awesome thing that you were doing, again?”
N O , B ECAUSE … The closest you get to telling players “no” is when you tell them they can’t do something because circumstances prevent that action. This isn’t a shutdown; this is a challenge. “No, you can’t slice him up because he’s across the room” challenges players to Charge or Dash across the room. “No, you can’t hack the mainframe because the console is covered with mutant goat-spider silk” challenges players to figure a way to clean it off. (Spoiler: they’ll use fire.) If you’re feeling extra generous, follow up with “but...”, as in “No, you can’t slice him up because he’s across the room, but there are those sweet, sweet frayed electrical cables dangling over his head.” Offer other paths of action if people stall because their path didn’t work out. That’ll keep it snappy.
I AM THE V OID M ASTER ! If “GM” isn’t good enough for you, you can call yourself the Void Master. Just don’t expect the players to call you that with a straight face.
T HE P V P R ÜL : yes. Nothing says the PCs can’t target each other. Just sayin’. I mean, do you even need to print this page?
C LOUD 9: a level one derelict This derelict was once a luxury cruise ship plying the void between the more scenic asteroids in the Belt. Its story is sadly familiar: when hostilities broke out, it attempted to escape the worst of the fighting. It got lost. The passengers got hostile as food supplies ran low. They found something—or were found by it—out in the void. Some of the passengers went mad and started slaughtering the others. Many fled in escape pods; others were not so lucky. Now it floats out there, somewhere between the Belt and the Trojans, still hoarding supplies from its orignal, ill-fated cruise… Cloud 9 is a straightforward introduction to Void Vultures and can be used as something of a tutorial. That said, it is by no means “easy” and will take some ingenuity and cunning on the part of the players to survive. The damage tracks are written with the assumption that you have a scavenging party of five void vultures. If you have fewer PCs, strike out mook damage tracks until you have the right number (if you’ve got 3 PCs, strike out two mooks in each room).
C L OUD 9 D E RELICT 1 /5
( W R e a s f u s e t e C E x h u t r a t e c t o r )
Frozen Waterfall (Ice Mutants & their Chief)
Monitoring Station (Cultists)
Central Septic Tank (The Horror & Cultists)
Wrecked Forest (Eco-Bots) Hangar Bay (Bandits)
Landing Bay (safe)
H ANGAR B AY
W RECKED F OREST
The PCs’ ride drops them off in the open Landing Bay on one side of the ship. Two shuttlesized airlocks lead from there into the hangar bay.
The centerpiece of the Cloud 9 resort experience, its massive eco dome boasted a waterfall from the sky falling into a crystal lake surrounded by deep, scenic forests. Now the dome is shattered, the balmy air gone, and all the vegetation frozen.
This room is an opportunity for the players to seal their understanding of how the dice work and to start playing with their options. There are a lot of eco-bots to confront, which should give the PCs enough time to set up and use some advantages.
The maintenance systems have been working round-the-clock since the accident to keep the gardens well-groomed and vibrantly beautiful. Without air and close to absolute zero, this is impossible, but the robots don’t know that.
Now that the players have a good idea of how to roll dice, encourage them to elaborate on how they describe what they do. Whatever details they throw in, feed them back into your own descriptions.
All they know is some drunk “stowaway” blundered in from the hangar bay, shattering trees and laughing at a frozen squirrel stuck to a trunk, and they had to remove him forcefully. Before they tore him to pieces, he warned that he had friends who’d come looking for him.
This is also an opportunity for the technicallyinclined scavvies to have some fun. The Ecobots are robots, and thus they can be hacked. Use a standard progress track (10 bubbles). At the end, the hacker can disrupt their systems (an attack roll using Hack, and area effect so it can short out multiple bots) or make one ecobot switch sides.
They may not know it, but the PCs are in luck: Cloud 9 has become the hideout of a gang of bandits. Normally there are nearly a hundred heavily-armed men in the Hangar Bay, which they’ve “converted” into crash space. The main force is gone; only a handful remain. Unless the PCs take some precautions, the bandits will see them coming through their external monitors and be ready for them. Use this first room as a tutorial for how to roll dice and deal damage. Don’t worry about being very clever, here. This one is for learning the ropes.
That was months ago, but the eco-bots have been waiting.
B ANDITS (PC S + 2) Shoot 4d6 (zip guns) Heave 3d6 (burly) Dash 3d6 (familiar ground) Rally 2d6 (outlaw pride) Advantage: Crashed Taxi (4pt) Advantage: Gun Racks (3pt) Bandit with red helmet: Bandit with two guns: Bandit in black hardsuit: Bandit with bunny faceplate: Bandit with roller-boots: Bandit with Maori tattoos: Bandit blaring fight music:
❏❏ surrender ❏ dead ❏❏ surrender ❏ dead ❏❏ surrender ❏ dead ❏❏ surrender ❏ dead ❏❏ surrender ❏ dead ❏❏ surrender ❏ dead ❏❏ surrender ❏ dead
The bandits know very little of what is further within the derelict; they’ve sealed off the only passageway deeper after “the incident.”
E CO -B OTS (PC S + 4) Smack 2d6 (waldoes) Heave 4d6 (servos) Dash 4d6 (spider legs) Rally 2d6 (cold rationality) Advantage: Frozen Vines (5pts) Advantage: Tunnels (3pts) Bot with red glowing eye: Bot with pruning shears: Bot labeled “Assissi”: Bot with digging tail: Bot with bulldozer shield: Bot painted yellow: Bot hanging from trees: Bot with chainsaw: Bot with water cannon:
❏❏ surrender ❏ dead ❏❏ surrender ❏ dead ❏❏ surrender ❏ dead ❏❏ surrender ❏ dead ❏❏ surrender ❏ dead ❏❏ surrender ❏ dead ❏❏ surrender ❏ dead ❏❏ surrender ❏ dead ❏❏ surrender ❏ dead
C L OUD 9 D E RELICT 2 /5
I CED L AKE The other half of the dome is where the Olympic-sized lake sits, now frozen solid. Chaise lounges and umbrellas lie scattered around its edge. The waterfall that fell from the top of the dome is now a frozen column of water. Climbing it is also the only way deeper into the derelict, and it is of course infested with Ice Mutants. Chief Everwinter brought his tribe to this “promised land” of frozen vegetation over a year ago. They thrive in hard vacuum, eat ice for oxygen, & hate warm-blooded humans. They will attack on sight. Most of the ice mutants will remain in their hovels carved into the frozen waterfall, exposing themselves only long enough to rain hard-assteel icicles on the invaders below. Everwinter will also lead a party of heavies out to meet the PCs on the frozen lake. After the first two rooms get your players accustomed to how to roll dice, this is the first real challenge of a fight. Players will need to create and use advantages to survive the harrowing that the ice mutants can put out. The first thing that many players will ask is if they can keep out of the range of the snipers’ icicles. This is a great tactic, but Everwinter and his mooks will try to force the PCs back into range. Keep an ear open for whenever the players describe their reactions and hit them with snipers whenever they move closer to the waterfall.
C L OUD 9 D E RELICT 3/ 5
I CE M UTANT S NIPERS (PC S + 0) Throw 4d6 (sharp-as-steel icicles) Heave 2d6 (wiry) Dash 2d6 (slide across ice) Rally 4d6 (fighting for survival) Advantage: Frozen Lake (5pts) Advantage: Hovels (3pts) Sniper with bandolier: Sniper in blood-red hovel: Sniper on precipice: Sniper with icy crest: Sniper at peak:
❏❏ surrender ❏ dead ❏❏ surrender ❏ dead ❏❏ surrender ❏ dead
Shoot 0d6 Smack 3d6+3d4 (ice axe) Heave 4d6+3d8 (mutant muscles) Dash 4d6 (icy treads) Rally 3d6 (my people!) Connect 4d6 (proud leader) Advantage: Frozen lake (5pts) ❏❏❏❏ crippled ❏❏❏❏surrender❏ dead
❏❏ surrender ❏ dead ❏❏ surrender ❏ dead
I CE M UTANT H EAVIES (PC S + 0) Smack 4d6 (icy fists) Heave 2d6 (wiry) Dash 2d6 (slide across ice) Rally 4d6 (fighting for survival) Advantage: Frozen Lake (5pts) Advantage: Hovels (3pts) Heavy with big sharp teeth: Heavy with club: Heavy with spiked shoulders: Heavy with burning eyes: Heavy laughing as he fights:
F ROST -C HIEF E VERWINTER
❏❏ surrender ❏ dead ❏❏ surrender ❏ dead ❏❏ surrender ❏ dead ❏❏ surrender ❏ dead ❏❏ surrender ❏ dead
F ROZEN W ATERFALL PCs will need to deal with this hazard’s effect whenever they try to approach the snipers for melee combat, or when they try to climb their way to the top. Effect: Sharp Ice Stalagmites 6d6 Resist: Treacherous Climb 2d6+2d10 ❏❏❏❏❏ ice boulders fall on anyone
below ❏❏❏❏❏gained the top
W ASTE E XTRACTOR Even luxury liners need to conserve space and power requirements, and so the fabled ‘waterfall from the sky” was in fact the last stage of their sewage system. Once the PCs have climbed to its peak, they’ll find themselves in the bowels of the waste extractor. This portion of the station used to be a chute through which the community’s trash was dropped. It processed tons of trash per second, slicing and grinding it up. The nigh-atomized refuse would then be sorted by chemical and electromagnetic processes. That last part isn’t working any more, but the blades still are. While the system used to grind up the stations’ waste, now it grinds up invaders to the Horror’s sanctum and occasionally those who fall out of favor with the cult. It’s guarded and operated by cultists on the far end. Behind the cultists is a ladder up to the sewage Monitoring Station where the cultists live, sleep, and worship. There is also a smaller passageway, just barely wide enough for a hardsuit, that leads directly to the Septic Tank. It is slick with old sewage remnants, and requires a Dash maneuver to avoid slipping down into the waiting tentacles of the Horror.
C L OUD 9 D E RELICT 4 /5
W ASTE E XTRACTOR Whirring Blades 4d6+2d10 Emergency Shutoff Console 4d6 ❏❏❏ stuck on “on” ❏❏❏❏❏❏❏ disabled
C ULTISTS (PC S + 0) They answered the siren call of the Horror and live to serve, protect, and feed it until they ascend to Godhood through bloody sacrifice to its appetites. Shoot 4d6 (repeaters) Heave 2d6 (slight) Dash 2d6 (nimble) Rally 4d6 (devout) Advantage: Alarm System (2pts) Advantage: TK Deflection Bubbles (8pts) Cultist in red robes: Cultist in saffron robes: Cultist with no-sleeves robe: Cultist with two guns: Cultist with maniac grin:
❏❏ surrender ❏ dead ❏❏ surrender ❏ dead ❏❏ surrender ❏ dead ❏❏ surrender ❏ dead ❏❏ surrender ❏ dead
SPECIAL : cultists can use a Rally maneuver to loudly pray to the Horror they worship, replenishing their TK Deflection Bubbles to the value of their power die.
This room is something of a puzzle. It is long and at the far end are cultists shooting down its length. The cultists are hard to shoot thanks to the blessings of their alien god, and whirring blades make an approach dicey. The straightforward approach will require a Charge or Dash through the Extractor. A Charge’s autosoak might protect PCs from the whirring blades and hail of fire. On the other hand, the more ballsy Dash might get them to the other side with the advantage of surprise (or simply awe the cultists with your guts). Either way, other PCs can lay down suppressive fire to cover their comrades’ advance. Cover will extract dice from the cultists attacks but will not affect the Extractor. Alternately, the PCs can attempt to first deactivate the Extractor using Hack or Fix (it wasn’t originally designed to chop up people, after all). They’ll need to work under fire for this to happen, but a couple Heaves can provide a little protection from bullets. Once the Extractor is disabled, the crossing becomes a lot safer. There is no “correct” way to get through this room; all approaches have strengths and drawbacks. Whatever course the PCs take, be sure to encourage them to describe it vividly and then try to crush them like the insects they are.
S EPTIC T ANK At some point in this doomed cruise ship’s travels, it encountered an ineffable alien nightmare which enslaved the survivors’ minds and slowly consumed their brains. For reasons of its own disgusting biology, it prefers to live in the ship’s old Septic Tank.
M ONITORING THE S ITUATION If the PCs proceed into the Monitoring Station first, they’ll find three cultists and a panoramic view of the septic tank. The Horror will sense them coming, however, and its tentacles and darts can shatter the observation glass. The four cultists down in the tank have the wrong angles to shoot at targets in the Monitoring Station. There are two ladders up, and it takes one round to climb. Only one cultist can be on a ladder at a time, and while they’re there, they can’t Dodge. On the other hand, if the PCs slid down the smaller chute into the Septic Tank, the cultists up in the Monitoring Station are perfectly capable of shooting down at targets in the Tank. It is also exceedingly easier to find the tank’s emergency drain system from the Monitoring Station. Any Fix roll performed here can use the 3d8 Control Board, adding its dice for free.
C L OUD 9 D E RELICT 5 /5
T HE H ORROR
S EPTIC S LUDGE
Shoot 2d6+4d4 (poisoned darts) Smack 4d6+6d8 (tentacles) Heave 3d6+2d8 (monstrous) Dash 1d6 (sessile) Rally 4d6 (god complex) Psi 4d6+4d4 (mind s pike, telekinesis) Advantage: Corrosive Sludge (10pts) Advantage: Surprising Anatomy (5pts) ❏❏❏❏ surrender ❏❏❏❏dead
C ULTISTS (PC S + 0) Shoot 4d6 (repeaters) Heave 2d6 (slight) Dash 2d6 (nimble) Rally 4d6 (devout) Cultist in blue robes: Cultist spattered in feces: Cultist with one arm: Cultist with mohawk:
❏❏ surrender ❏ dead
Cultist wrapped in gauze: Cultist with no cowl: Cultist with cookpot:
❏❏ surrender ❏ dead
❏❏ surrender ❏ dead ❏❏ surrender ❏ dead ❏❏ surrender ❏ dead
❏❏ surrender ❏ dead ❏❏ surrender ❏ dead
The cultists in the Septic Tank will n ot be getting TK bubbles from the Horror; it’s busy squashing the invaders personally!
Is this remnants from the functioning station, or is it, um, by-product from the Horror’s diet of human brains? Effect: Noxious Waste 3d6 Resist: Where’s the Drain? 3d6 ❏❏❏❏❏❏❏❏❏❏ disabled (flsuhed)
E XÄMPLE OF P LAY OF THE V OID Adelaide is running a game of Void Vultures for her friends Bert, Cathy, and Derrick. They have a copy of the game, printed duplex on loose pages, character sheets, dice, and pencils. They want to make characters and run through the Cloud 9 derelict tonight.
G ENERATING M ANUEVERS Each player rolls 12d6 and sorts the results. Bert gets this: three 1s, two 2s, one 3, two 4s, two 5s, and two 6s. He writes 3 in the Shoot box, 2 in the Heave box, 1 in the Dash box, 2 in the Rally box, 2 in the Connect box, and 2 in the Fix box. He then adds one to Shoot, Heave, and Dash, and writes “d6” after each number. For specializations, he decides he wants to be eagleeyed and have an arm a pitcher would die for: he writes d4 in the Spot box and d4 in the Throw box. He also wants to be burly enough to take a beating and a little fearsome, so he makes Soak and Intimidate his powerful specializations, writing d10 in each of those boxes. Cathy gets this: one 1, one 2, two 3s, no 4s, five 5s, and three 6s. Adding one to the first three results, she has a 2d6 Shoot, a 2d6 Heave, a 3d6 Dash, a 0d6 Rally, a 5d6 Connect, and a 3d6 Fix. She makes her Command and Dodge precise, writing in d4 in those boxes, and her Soak and Rig powerful, writing in d10s there. Derrick gets this: one 1, two 2s, three 3s, two 4s, three 5s, and one 6. That gives him 2d6 Shoot, 3d6 Heave, 4d6 Dash, 2d6 Rally, 3d6 Connect, and 1d6 Fix. He makes Dodge and Soak his d4s—he’s slippery—and his Spot and Hack d10s.
E X AMPLE OF P LAY 1 /8
P ICKING E QUIPMENT
P ICKING ALIGNMENT
The players chat about what they’ve got so far. Cathy immediately jokes about how she’s the cowardly master tactician: no dice in Rally but a 5d4 Command. Nobody else is planning on playing a leader-type, so she takes the Command load-out, writing Colt Handcannon on the Gun line and 2d6 in its big box, Prokhas Milspec on the Hardsuit line and 2d8 in its big box, and Kobayashi Command HUD on the line next to the third box, in which she writes 3d6.
Derrick expects to have information the others don’t and to be able to filter it as he sees fit. This sounds amenable to the Unprincipled alignment: he can scout things out, share most with the group, and keep the best for himself.
Cathy gets to add two modules in the smaller boxes attached to her equipment load out. She decides she wants Dynamic Mapping Software for her HUD. She writes this on the line below her HUD and writes 2d10 in the little box next to it. To calm her frayed nerves, she adds a Wrist Stabilizer to her Handcannon, writing that in under the Gun line and jotting 2d4 in the associated box.
Cathy sees where the other two are going and decides on Principled, knowing full well that she’ll have her hands full keeping the other two in line.
Derrick takes an immediate shine to the Recon load-out, so he writes in his Klaussman 2-20 Rifle 2d10 on the Gun line and adds its Telescopic Scope 2d4 on the Gun’s first module line. In the next block of lines, he writes in Savoy-Chirac Light Hardsuit 2d6. For his modules he adds Rocket Boots 2d10 to his Hardsuit and a Silencer 2d4 to his rifle. Bert decides he’s going to go straight-up Marine. He writes in the Zip Gun, Grenade Launcher, and Hardsuit from the load-out along with their dice, then adds a Riot Shield 2d4 and a Terrifying Bear Paint Job 2d10 to his Hardsuit.
Bert has his bad boy thing already in full effect, but Aberrant’s needless pain seems a bit much. Miscreant is more up his alley: taking from others with a laugh and a leer.
Everybody writes in 3 in the Tokens box to start off.
C HARACTER D ETAILS Everybody picks a name for their vulture and an actor who would play them in the movie version of the game. Bert names his guy Bell and goes with Tommy Lister Jr. for his actor. Cathy likes Cam-Cam as a strange name for a strange character and decides that Allison Janney plays her. Derrick names his character Donnyboy and has Jet Li play him in the movie. They’ll worry about what the Township is named when they survive their first salvage run.
I NTRODUCING THE D ERELICT Adelaide starts off: “The shuttle drops you off on the side of the derelict like teenagers left at the mall. This used to be a big luxury liner, but half of it’s jus t been blown away, who knows by what, and now you’re standing outside the hangar bay doors. There’s man-sized hatches leading inside.” Cathy gestures to Derrick. “Show time for… what’s your name, again? Donnyboy? Show time for Donnyboy. Give us an idea what’s in there.” Derrick tells Adelaide, “Okay, so Donnyboy moves up to the hatch and slides through like a shadow. He moves quick and light on his feet, eyes and ears open.”
C REATING ADVANTAGES Adelaide decides to kick things off with a die roll as a s ort of example so everybody can see how the dice work. “You’re going to make a Dash maneuver for me. Pick up your dice for Dash and any one piece of equipment that you think is helping you do what you’re doing.” Derrick has a 4d6 in Dash and he grabs an additional 2d6, pointing at his Hardsuit. “It’s a Light Hardsuit, so I’m not clanking and pounding my way through. Is that okay?” Adelaide nods eagerly. She cares less about whether or not the equipment qualifies in some objective sense and far more that it’s prompting Derrick to describe his character and what he’s doing better. “You’re going to roll all those dice in just a minute,” she says, and picks up 4d6 herself. The bandits inside have a 4d6 Shoot, and since Spot is a specialization of Shoot, they have a 4d6 Spot, too. She rolls the dice, getting two 3s, a 4, and a 6. She separates one of the 3s and the 6 from the rest. “The smallest die I roll is my precision. The largest die I roll is my power. Get it?” Now Adelaide points to Derrick. “Now roll your dice. You want your precision to beat mine, and that means lower than mine. Precise, exacting and elegant: small numbers are better for precision.”
Derrick nods and rolls his 6d6. He gets a 2, two 3s, two 4s, a 5, and a 6. He separates the 2 and the 6 from the rest. “My low die—my precision—is a 2. That beats your 3, right?” “It does,” Adelaide says. “So you Dash into the Hangar Bay and get an eyeful without anybody seeing you. The inside of the hangar bay is a mess. There’s destroyed and trashed shuttles piled up everywhere like cubicle walls. Hammocks are strung between them, and up on the loading dock there’s a jury-rigged table, some beatup chairs, and a cook fire. There are five guys milling about the area, but it’s obviously set up for a lot more, like a small army. The five guys are all in hardsuits, faceplates open, and they’re armed. There’s a monitor screen in the corner, and on it you can see Bell and CamCam outside. The guys in here haven’t seen them yet, but they will shortly. What’s your power die?” “That’s my high die, right?” Derrick asks, and points at the die that rolled a 6. “You get an advantage for your reconnaissance worth a number of points equal to your power die,” she explains. “So you get a 6 point advantage. What are you going to call it?” Derrick looks at his sheet and finds the section for Advantages in the lower right corner. “Uh, how about Lay of the Land?” At Adelaide’s nod, he writes this in on the first Advantages line and jots a 6 in the associated box. “And so I get back outside and tell the others about the five guys, the maze of wrecked shuttles, and the monitors. We have to move now if we want surprise on our side.” “Five of them, three of us, not the worst odds,” Cathy says, and cocks an imaginary pistol. “Let’s kick down the door and start shooting.”
E X AMPLE OF P LAY 2 /8
I NITIATIVE Adelaide makes sure everybody’s on board with this plan and then says, “Okay, then you’ll need to roll Dash for initiative. All I need is your precision; power doesn’t matter much for initiative.” Burt has a 2d6 Dash and no equipment that really screams “hit ‘em fast.” His two dice come up 3 and 4, so he says, “My precision is 3.” Cathy has a 3d6 Dash and a 3d6 Command HUD with 2d10 Mapping Software. She rolls 6d6+2d10 all together. She gets a 2, a pair of 3s, and five 5s. “My precision is 2!” Derrick has a 4d6 Dash and he points at his Rocket Boots. “Can I use my rocket boots in initiative?” Adelaide shrugs. “How are you using your rocket boots to gain the quick upper hand?” “I’m rocketing in at them, guns blazing!” he answers,. She nods, so he rolls his 4d6 Dash and 2d10 Rocket Boots. He gets a 2, a 3, two 4s, a 6, and a 9. “My precision is also 2.” Now Adelaide picks up 3d6 for the bandits. She rolls them once for each mook, quickly pickinh out the smallest die’s result, and pencils it in next to the bandits’ damage tracks. “The five bandits are acting on 3, 5, 4, 6, and 4.” She’s crossed out the damage tracks for the last two bandits as she won’t be using them.
ATTACK M ANEUVERS
C RITICAL H IT
Cathy has the lowest initiative so she goes first. Adelaide asks her what she’s doing this combat round.
“I’m rocketing through the air laying down fire,” Derrick says. “Dunno how precise it’ll be…” He rolls his 2d6 Shoot and 2d10 Rifle. He probably can’t use the scope while flying through the air and the silencer is irrelevant, so he omits them. He gets a 1, two 5s, and a 9.
“Cam-Cam is running in, steeling herself for the battle even though she’s terrified, and as soon as she sees a guy that isn’t Bell or Donnyboy she opens fire.” Cathy picks up 2d6 for Shoot, 2d6 for her Handcannon, and 2d4 for its Wrist Stabilizer. She rolls two 2s, a 3, a 4, a 5, and a 6. She separates a 2 and a 6 from the rest. “Precision 2.” “What’s your power die?” Adelaide asks. “These guys aren’t dodging, so your shots hit them. I’m going to roll Soak and see if they’re hurt. “My high die is 6, so that’s 6 damage?” “That’s right.” Now Adelaide grabs 3d6 for the Bandits’ Heave and rolls it: a 2, a 3, and a 6. She holds up the 6. “Your gun roars and kicks, but the bullets ricochet off his helmet, chipping the red paint. Now you’ve just made him angry.” Adelaide did a slightly sneaky thing, there: she identified which bandit that Cam-Cam was facing down. Since Cathy wasn’t picky about who she shot at, Adelaide just grabbed the first one on the list: the “Bandit with red helmet.” The other two players rolled 3 for their initiative, as did one of the bandits. All their actions happen simultaneously, but the actual die rolling happens one at a time (at least for new players). Burt picks up his dice: 4d6 for Shoot and 2d8 for his Zip Gun. “So I run up the side of a pile of wreckage and fire down at these mercenary guys, shouting and screaming all the way.” He rolls the dice: two 2s, a 4, a 5, a 6, and an 8. “Two and eight.” Adelaide rolls 3d6 again: 1, 2, and 6. She holds up the power die, 6. “You nail him, all right, and the bullet punches right through his gauntlet. But since he beat your precision, it’s just a flesh wound.” She fills in the first bubble on the damage track for the second bandit on the list. “Too bad for you, this guy has a gun in each hand, so while he clutches the wounded one to his side he raises the other to fire back.”
“So a precision of 1 is a critical hit,” Adelaide says. “It’ll add one to your power OR you can roll on one of the critical hit tables for a special effect.” Derrick shrugs. “Let’s keep it simple for now and just add the +1. There’s people reading along and there’s enough to keep track of already.” Adelaide’s 3d6 soak for the bandits comes out three 4s. “He doesn’t beat either your power or your precision, so you get a solid hit on him.” She fills two bubbles: one plus Derrick’s number of criticals. That advances the damage track to the bandit’s surrender threshold. She tells Derrick, “You catch one out in the open, looking dumbstruck up at you, and nail him right through his open faceplate. Spout of blood and he collapses gasping.”
T AKING D AMAGE Now it’s time for “Bandit with red helmet” to take his action, since he also rolled an initiative 3. Adelaide rolls the bandits’ 4d6 for a 2, 3, 4, and 6 and says, “Cathy, that guy whose paint job you scuffed turns and sprays his zip gun in your direction. Bullets go whizzing past you, then (unless you want to lose an action to Dodge) start pinging into your hardsuit.” “So I can Soak for free right now, or I can lose my action next round for a Dodge, right?” Cathy clarifies. “Well, I specialized my Soak to d10 for a reason, so I’ll use that.” She picks up 2d10 for her Soak and 2d8 for her hardsuit. She rolls and somehow gets three 1s and a 2. This leads her to say a dirty word. “He’s got a power 6 hit on you, which you don’t soak,” Adelaide says. “But you do beat his precision, so it’s just a flesh wound. You lose one die from any one of your maneuvers.”
E X AMPLE OF P LAY 3/ 8
Cathy considers and says, “Okay, I’ll take the hit to Dash. Bullet nicks my thigh, let’s say. And the hardsuit probably applies a compress automatically or something, right?” Adelaide nods. “Sure, absolutely.” Again: more details to the game? Awesome. It won’t affect dice, it’s just more color and fun. Cathy’s Dash is normally 3d6. She writes “3” in the small circle to remind herself what it is when she gets an opportunity to heal up. Then she erases “3d6” and writes in “2d6” instead. She’ll have a little hitch in her stride for the rest of the derelict.
D AMAGE TO E QUIPMENT All actions for initiative 3 are over, so now it’s time for the two bandits who rolled 4. The first of these is the Bandit with black hardsuit, who Donnyboy already nailed. “The guy in the black hardsuit is collapsed on the ground, still breathing, but he’s thrown down his gun and is trying to lay low.” “As for the guy on rollerboots…” She picks up 4d6 for the bandits’ Shoot again, rolling two 1s, a 3, and a 5. NPCs never roll critical effects, so both 1s add to the power die, making it power 7. “She’s up on the table at the loading dock. She draws a bead on you, Burt, and squeezes off a single round. Double-crit and a power of 7.” Burt picks up his 3d10 Soak, his 2d8 Hardsuit, and his 2d4 Riot Shield. They come up as 1, 2, 3, 4, and three 5s. Even adding the critical to his power die gives him a 6. He says something under his breath about his dice sucking because he’s being used as a textual example. “You didn’t beat either power or precision, so it’s going to be a solid hit,” Adelaide explains. “One plus the two criticals means you lose 3d6 from one or your maneuvers… or you can let your equipment take the hit.” “I think I’ll do that,” Burt agrees. “I’m hunkered down behind the riot shield, but the shot plows into the barrel of
my zip gun.” He writes the shot’s power, 7, in the damage circle of his Zip Gun. He won’t be able to use the gun or its modules until it’s been fixed. Last comes “Bandit with bunny faceplate.” Adelaide rolls 4d6 again and gets two 2s, a 4, and a 5. “Derrick, the last bandit over in the corner is taking pot-shots at you as you whizz through the air. They’re sloppy and random, but there’s a lot of them. Soak 3/5?” Derrick rolls his 3d6 Heave and 2d6 Hardsuit to get a 3, 4, 5, and two 6s. “I beat power but not precision. What’s that mean?” “It means the bullets go winging off your hardsuit but nothing you need to worry about. The bandit gives up shooting and starts moving in for better range.” This last bit is color, but it helps sell Derrick’s win on the soak roll: the bandit is frustrated by the setback, but is still a threat.
R OUND T WO … FIGHT! Everybody rolls initiative: the three players and the four remaining bandits. The players can put their initiative die out on the init circle at the corner of their character sheets so they don’t have to remember. Burt rolls his 2d6 Dash and gets a precision of 3. Cathy rolled her Dash, now crippled to 2d6, her 3d6 HUD, and its 2d10 Mapping Software; her precision is 2. Derrick rolls his 4d6 Dash and 2d10 Rocket Boots and rolls a double critical: two 1s. Adelaide’s bandits roll their 3d6 Dash and get precisions of 2 (red helmet), 4 (two guns), 3 (bunny faceplate), and 6 (rollerboots).
C RITICAL H IT T ABLE “So I land on the tallest pile of wreckage and line up a shot on the bunnyface guy,” Derrick says, and rolls his 2d6 Shot, 2d10 Rifle, and 2d4 Scope. He gets a 1 precision and a 10 power. “Success!” Adelaide nods and just flat-out tells him, “Bunnyface isn’t going to soak a 10 let alone an 11. You want to roll for a critical?” “I think it’s time for that, yeah. What do I roll?” Adelaide hands over the sheet with the CRITICAL RÜL . “The Critial Hit table goes 1-0, so roll a d10 real quick, just off to the side. This die doesn’t figure into the dice you already rolled.” Derrick rolls a 2 and looks at the table. “Knockback! You throw your target back into other enemies; for remainder of round, they may only Soak. But Bunnyface is already at the back of the baddies, right?” Adelaide shrugs. “So you nail her and she goes sprawling into red helmet guy’s legs. They both get tangled up and can only Soak this round. Additionally…” Adelaide rolls the bandits’ 3d6 Heave for Soak. She knows she won’t beat Derricks power of 10, but she does roll a 1. The shot’s a flesh wound, plus the knockback effect.
E X AMPLE OF P LAY 4 /8
U SING ADVANTAGES For initiative 2, both Cathy and red helmet have their action, but Red Helmet is busy tripping over Bunnyface. Cathy picks up her4d6 and 2d4. She rolls three 2s, two 4s, and a 6. “Didn’t Derrick have an advantage in this room? Can I use it?” “If Derrick’s okay with that,” Adelaide nods, and so does Derrick. “In that case, I’ll spend three points of the Lay of the Land advantage to turn these three 2s into 1s. Triple critical, power of 9. Or wait, I’ll spend one critical on a Critical Hit, so the power will be 8.” “More than they’ll Soak, anyway,” Adelaide grins. “But what are you doing? What does this awesome hit look like?” “Well, since they’re all tangled up with each other, CamCam leaps forward, jams her handcannon up against the side of Red Helmet’s faceplate, and blows him away. And for my critical effect, I get… a 7. Spasm.” Adelaide laughs. “So yeah, you put a bullet in his brain and his whole body jerks, including his trigger finger. The Zip Gun starts spraying like crazy.” She rolls 4d6 and gets a precision of 2 and power of 5. “Cathy, Soak 2/5. And Bunnyface will need to do so, too, and Derrick, you’re up on that spire, so you’re exposed to this, too.” Cathy and Derrick both roll their Soak and Hardsuit dice; both have power dice that beat 5, so neither take any damage. Bunnyface isn’t so lucky: with a power of 4, that’s another flesh wound, and that reaches the surrender threshold. Red Helmet rolls Soak against Cathy’s triplecritical with power of 8 and fails on both counts. That’s four circles of damage, and he is dead.
P SYCH D AMAGE
L OOT R OLL
On initiative 3, Burt and Bunnyface have actions. Adelaide describes Bunnyface whimpering and not moving, so it’s all Burt.
Once the room is cleared, Adelaide picks up 5d10—one d10 for each mook that the PCs defeated, whether that means surrendered or dead. She rolls and gets two 1s, a three, and two 8s. “So you collect up ten CoINs and two usable pieces of equipment. Let’s see what those are.”
“My gun’s all fucked up, so I just charge at the guy in front of me, shouting. I’m going to pummel him with my riot shield.” Adelaide raises a hand. “To clarify. You’re going to Charge, which gives you autosoak as you close to melee range—sort of makes you bulletproof. The actual pummelling is a Smack maneuver, and that happens next round once you’re within arm’s reach.” “Right,” Burt frowns, but then sees something on his sheet. “Or wait. Can I close to melee range while screaming and being all terrifying as an Intimidate maneuver?” At Adelaide’s enthusiastic nod, he picks up dice. 2d10 Intimidate, 2d8 Hardsuit, 2d4 Riot Shield, and its 2d10 Terrifying Roaring Bear Paint Job. He rolls two 3s, three 4s, two 5s, and an 8. “So that’s 3/8. I’ll use two points of Derrick’s advantage, if that’s okay, to bump that down to a critical. So power 9.” There’s no Intimidate critical effect table, so Adelaide picks up the bandits’ 2d6 Rally and rolls it. “With two 5s, I beat neither precision nor power, so this guy with two guns takes two points of psych damage.” “What’s the difference between psych damage and normal damage?” someone asks. “Absolutely nothing,” Adelaide replies. “And two damage reduces this guy to his surrender threshold. By the time you get down the pile of trash to plow into him, Burt, he’s already throwing down his guns and cringing.” That leaves the Bandit with rollerboots up on the loading dock. She gets her action this round—a sloppy shot at Derrick—and the next round, the three void vultures paste her to the wall.
For the first piece of equipment, she rolls 4d4+2d6+1d8+1d10+1d12 and separates the dice by die size. “The d6s came out 3 and 4; the d4s add up to 10. So this is a 3d10 piece of equipment.” The d10 rolled a 2, so she counts around the table, duckduck-goose style. Burt’s the first, Cathy’s the second. “Cathy, what’s in your…” The d8 rolled 3. “…you r third equipment slot?” “That’s my Heads-Up Display.” “Okay. So this is a 3d10 Heads-Up Display,” Adelaide explains. The d12 rolled 4, so it is not a module. She checks the d6s against the Characteristics table. “This bad boy is Rugged and High-Energy.” “A 3d10 HUD that’s rugged and high-energy,” Burt muses. “Hey, maybe it’s a ramming helmet!” Everyone stares blankly at Burt until Adelaide nods. “It is absolutely a ramming helmet.” A helmet isn’t exactly a Heads-Up Display, but Adelaide isn’t going to quibble. “And it’s high-energy because…” “Because it has, like, plasma torches and shit on top,” Derrick elaborates. “Bell totally needs to get that piece.” Burt makes sure that Cathy also concurs, and he adds it to the next blank equipment slot on his sheet. 3d10 goes in the big box; on the line he writes in, “Plasma-Crested Ramming Helmet.” “But that’s not all!” Adelaide declares, and rolls the 4d4+2d6+1d8+1d10+1d12 again. This time, she checks the d10 and d8 first: a 3 and an 8, this time. She goes around the table: Burt, Cathy, Derrick. “Derrick, what’s in your eighth equipment slot?” “I only have six slots,” Derrick says. “What is with this bizarre duck-duck-goose guessing game thing? And I thought setting up Hx was weird in Apocalypse World.” “It’s geared to reinforce the shticks that players create
E X AMPLE OF P LAY 5 /8
for themselves while still introducing new stuff every once in a while,” Cathy points out. “So like, later we might find another Ramming Helmet because Burt has one on his sheet. Or a module for a Ramming Helmet. But there’s so many crazy things that you might have in this game, there’s no way to make random table generate that all on their own. So it gives you a couple prompts and lets you fill in the rest.” “And since you have nothing in your eighth slot—” “—because I don’t have an eighth slot.” “That means it’s something new, and I check the d10, which is 3, and I get IV Drug Kit. And since the d12 is a 10, it’s a module for a Drug Kit.” She checks the other dice. The 2d6 rolled 1 and 2. “This particular packet of drugs in Delicate and Subtle.” The 4d4 adds up to 9, so the drugs will be counted in d8s. The lower die of the d6s is a 1, but since these are drugs, they gain two dice and six ammo. “They’re a 3d8 delicate, subtle pack of drugs with six ammo.” “Delicate and subtle sounds like it’s, like, a concentration booster or something,” Cathy suggests. “Sure. But it needs a name,” Derrick says. “How about Stay Frosty?” Everybody agrees. “Nobody has a drug kit,” Cathy says. “Anybody mind if I just add this to my sheet under Salvage? There’s the possibility that I can Rig it for area effect later. Spray it into people’s faces or something.” Without strenuous objections, she adds it to her sheet. “Who’s carrying the CoINs?” Adelaide asks. Derrick raises a hand. “Oh, I’m Spotting all the CoINs first and pocketing a couple before I show the rest to everybody else. Bell and Cam-Cam are busy with their new toys, after all.” “You little bitch,” Cathy grins. “You were being agreeable because you have an ulterior motive.” “We can have you guys roll Spot to see who sees what
first,” Adelaide suggests. They each roll. Burt gets a double-crit; Cathy a 3, and Derrick a 2. Burt clears his throat and says, “I get to spot something first, right? Can I spot Derrick finding more CoINs than he lets on?” Derrick mutters. “You’re going to demand a cut later, aren’t you?” Burt points at his Miscreant alignment. “And earn a token for it, yes.” Derrick nods. “Well, I earn a token for pocketing two CoINs and showing the remaining 8 to you two.” “And Cam-Cam probably says something about how the township will put them all to good use, and all this risk and pain is worth it to protect our friends and families. Eye roll from you guys?” “Oh yeah.”
F IX D AMAGE TO E QUIPMENT “My gun took a hit for me,” Burt reminds them. “How do I get that repaired?” “I can help with that,” Cathy offers, and picks up 3d6 for her Fix maneuver. “What’s the damage on it? 7? Eugh. Well, I can try. Adelaide, do you roll opposition?” Adelaide shakes her head. “If you were doing this in the midst of battle, I’d roll. As it is, the damage dealt to Burts gun is the only opposition you need to contend with.” So Cathy rolls. A 2, a 4, and a 6. “Hm. A 6 does not beat that 7. Not quite enough. Oh wait, there’s still one point of Lay of the Land left, right? So let’s say they’ve got a weapon rack back there against the wall, and it’s got replacement barrels of just the right gauge. That’ll turn this 2 into a 1, which makes it a critical, which adds one to my 6, making it a 7.” Burt erases the 7 from his Zip Gun’s damage circle. He can use it again… until it takes another hit for him.
M AKING B ATTLE P LANS The void vultures continue through the derelict. They fight the Eco-bots and then come up to Chief Everwinter’s frozen stronghold at Iced Lake. The waterfall—the only way deeper into the derelict—is fortified with snipers and and guarded by heavies, all led by their terrifying chief. They can’t take the waterfall without going through the heavies, and while they engage the heavies they’re at the mercy of the snipers. With Everwinter gloating at their cowardice, they consider their options. Cathy grabs her 5d4 Command, 3d6 HUD, and 2d10 Mapping Software dice. She gets an astounding quadruplecrit and a power of 10. “So here’s what we’re going to do,” she says. “Bell is going to get in there, get up into those sniper nests, and splatter the snipers. Donnyboy, you’re going to lay down cover fire while he does so.” Technically, either Burt or Derrick could roll Rally to refuse the order, but not only do they think it’s as good a plan as any, there’s no way they’re going to beat four crits. So they both get a 10pt Plan of Attack advantage to share in executing Cam-Cam’s plan.
C OVERING A M AD D ASH Even though Burt rolled a lower initiative than Derrick, he holds his action until Derrick lays down cover fire for him. Adelaide first rolls dice for Derrick’s opposition: a Chaos of Battle roll. She decides to use Everwinter’s Command, which is 4d6: he rolls a precision of 1. “I set up just out of their icicle range and my gun starts going pow pow pow, not fast, but insistent. The ice starts puffing all over and the mutants dive for cover,” Derrick says, and rolls his 2d6 Shoot, 2d10 Rifle, and 2d4 Scope, coming up with two 2s, a 4, two 6s, and an 8. On its own, the roll won’t beat Everwinter’s; the ice mutants’ discipline will prevent the cover from doing any good. But the void vultures have a plan, so Derrick spends two points of the Plan of Attack to turn his two 2s to 1s. Now he has a double-crit, which beats Everwinter’s precision. Bell will have 10 points of cover (Derrick’s power die of 8 plus two for the double-crit). Now Bell picks up his dice. He has a 2d6 Dash and will
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elect to use his new 3d10 Plasma Crested Ramming Helmet as well. He rolls a 2, a 3, two 4s, and a 6. He could spend three points of the Plan to turn his roll into a double-crit, but he’s pretty sure Derrick’s cover will protect him. Instead, he spends the eight remaining points of the Plan to boost his power die to 14. This effectively rolls over the old Plan advantage into his new advantage, which he writes in as “In Your Base.” “Bell gets behind his shield, angles his plasma-spewing helmet forward, and starts pounding forward, directly at the ice fort. He plows into whatever’s in his way without stopping for anything.” Adelaide now gets two free attacks, and chooses to make them from the Snipers, who have 4d6 Throw. The first roll comes out 5 and three 6s: completely useless, since its precision of 5 is nowhere close to beating Burt’s precision 2. The second free attack, though, rolls 1, 2, 3, and 5. This would beat Burt’s precision and have a chance of scoring a solid two-die hit. Burt, though, spends six points of his Cover advantage to raise the 1, 2, and 3 all to 4. Adelaide spends some NPCs advantages in response: three points dials a 4 back down to 1. This leaves her with a single-crit with a power of 6 (power die of 5 plus one critical). This beats Burt’s Dash precision, so he will have to Soak. Burt rolls his 3d10 Soak, 2d8 Hardsuit, and 2d4 Riot Shield. He comes out with a power of 8. “Icicles rain down around you,” Adelaide tells him, and one clobbers against your shoulder plates, but nothing quite catches you.” Now Bell is behind enemy lines with a 14 point advantage to spend on destruction.
AREA E FFECT
C ALLED S HOT
The Heavies and Snipers all make their attacks to dislodge Bell before he does any damage. The last four points of Derrick’s Cover means the Snipers have little luck, and when the Heavies weigh in, Cathy spends 8 points of the Plan advantage across four of Derrick’s Soak rolls and he comes out without a scratch.
Which leaves the Heavies and Everwinter, and Burt all alone behind their lines. Now that there are no more Snipers to cover, Derrick takes his action that he’s been holding until Burt was finished.
On his next turn, he says, “I’ve been waiting for a good opportunity to use my grenades. Bell leaps clear of the press of bodies and brings out his zip gun. He toggles the switch to grenade launcher and takes aim at the sniper roosts up above. The gun huffs when I pull the trigger, and then… boom.” Burt rolls his 4d6 Shoot, 2d8 Zip Gun, and 2d8 Plasma Grenade Launcher. He gets two 1s, two 2s, a 4, a 6, a 7, and an 8. “So the first Sniper gets a double-crit, power of 10 grenade to the face,” he says. “And there are two more, so…” He sacrifices two dice—one of the 2s and the 4— by sliding them away. This lets him slide the 6 and the 7 forward as secondary power dice. “So the other two take 6 and 7 power hits?” “The other two take 8 and 9 power hits,” Adelaide corrects. “All the attacks have the same precision, so they’re all double-crits.” “In that case, I’ll spend one advantage to knock this 2 down to 1. That makes the hits 11, 9, and 10, right? All of them triple-crit.” Adelaide looks at the Snipers’ 2d6 Heave and shrugs. With no advantage points left, the best result is a single-crit, 7 power. They’re all taking four hits of damage. “Your grenade arcs up to their icy crenelations and platforms, and a second later, WHOOSH! It’s just a ball of fire. Ice mutants come tumbling down, screaming. They’re all dead before they hit the ice below.” Burt decreases his Grenade Launcher’s ammo number from 6 to 5.
“Now I take careful aim at the big chief’s head,” he says, “and squeeze off one perfect shot. Gonna make a called shot, here.” He picks up his 2d6 Shoot, 2d10 Rifle, and 2d4 Scope. He rolls two 2s, a 3, a 4, a 5, and an 8. He slides one of the 2s away, sacrificing it for the Called Shot. There’s still a 2 remaining, though, so that is his precision. His power is his highest two dice added together: 13. “So that’s precision of 2 and power of 13,” he says.
S PENDING T OKENS But then he picks up one of his tokens and tosses it in Adelaide’s direction. “Wait, I want to roll this over. I can do better.” He pulls the sacrificed 2 back into his pile and picks up all the dice except the 8 and one of the 2s. He rolls the rest, coming up with two 1s, a 4, and a 10. He sacrifices one of the 1s, setting it aside. “So that’s a single-crit, power 19.” Adelaide picks up 4d6+3d8 for Everwinter’s Heave and rolls it. She rolls no 1s and the highest die is an 8, so Everwinter takes two bubbles of damage. “Your shot hits him right in the back of the neck in a spray of dark purple mutant blood. He whirls around and snarls as if the bullet was a personal insult.”
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H AZARD E FFECT AND D ODGE R OLL At the top of the next round, Adelaide points at Burt. “So you ran up to the base of the frozen waterfall and blew off a chunk of it with a plasma grenade, right? Burned snipers and giant chunks of ice falling everywhere.” “Yes. I did that,” he says proudly. “Right. One of those giant chunks of ice is falling on you.” She picks up 6d6 for the Frozen Waterfall’s Effect and rolls them, getting two 1s, a 2, a 4, and two 6s. “Doublecrit hit for 8 power.” “That’s a three-dice wound if I don’t avoid it, right? And I’ve got no advantage left. I think I’m going to use my action to Dodge. If that doesn’t work, I’ll Soak. Two chances are better than one, right?” He picks up his 2d6 Dash, 2d8 Hardsuit, and its 2d4 Riot Shield. “I’m running as fast as I can, riot shield up over my head to catch the smaller bits.” He rolls and gets one 1, two 2s, a 4, a 6, and an 8. “I have to beat 8, right?” “No, for a Dodge you want to beat the precision, not the power,” Adelaide corrects, leading Burt to curse. He tosses one of his tokens to her and picks up everything but the 1 and the 8. He’s very lucky: he rolls two more 1s, giving him a triple-crit. “So what’s my power of 11 do for me?” “It gives you autosoak,” Adelaide explains. “It’s like you’ve already rolled a Soak of 11 for the rest of the round. Which means I’m just not even going to try and hit you with my NPCs.”
NPC ADVANTAGE
H AZARD : R ESIST
Instead of rolling to hit Burt, Adelaide decides to have Everwinter whip his remaining Heavies into a bloodthirsty frenzy. “The big chief raises his giant ice-axe into the air and brings it pounding down on the ice. The burly mutants around him start howling in response, zipping across the ice towards Donnyboy and Cam-Cam.”
A few rounds later, and Everwinter is dead on the ice. The PCs consider the spire of ice they’ll have to climb to get to the top.
She picks up Everwinter’s Connect dice, 4d6, and shakes them. “Cathy, can you give me a Command roll for the discipline of your little unit? It won’t count as your action; it’s for my difficulty.” Cathy rolls her 5d4 Command, 3d6 HUD, and 2d10 Mapping Software and rolls them. “My superior positioning has a precision of…” She rolls. “…3, apparently.” Adelaide rolls her 4d6 and gets a precision of 2 and power of 6. She scribbles in “Murderous Rampage 6pts” next to her Heavies.
Derrick points at his character sheet. “I’ve got fuckin’ Rocket Boots. Why is this an issue?” “To get the whole party up to the top, you’ll need to overcome the Hazard,” Adelaide explains. “So sure, part of that can be you rocketing up to the top, but then you’ve got to throw down a line or something, right, and they start scaling the ice tower. And the passage into the next room is buried inside the little passages at the very top of the waterfall, so you’ll have to crawl inside and through at some point. Not to mention, somebody shot a plasma grenade into the thing so it’s unstable as fuck.” It should be pointed out that Adelaide is making up all of these details as she goes, using the “No, because” tactic. Derrick grumbles but picks up dice: his 2d6 Hardsuit and 2d10 Rocket Boots, plus… “What is this, Dash?” Adelaide nods. “Sounds good to me.” Derrick rolls them all and gets two 1s, a 2, two 3s , two 6s, and a 7. “A double-crit as I rocket-jump from clump of ice to jutting stalagmite! Power of 9.” Adelaide rolls the Treacherous Climb and gets a precision 3, power 8. Derrick’s precision wins out, so she ticks off 9 bubbles on the progress track. This crosses the hazard’s first threshold, so Adelaide picks up dice. “Something about your jumping around, or maybe it’s the aftermath of the explosion, but something dislodges and falls towards Bell and Cam-Cam watching you from the ground…”
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F INALE The group goes on to kick a little more ass and take a few more names, eventually finding their way to the big Boss of the whole derelict. I’d tell you how that went, except I don’t want to give away the ending. How about you play?
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