Win When You Need
Start with something similar to Chaosium’s Basic Roleplaying: skill-based d%, roll under.
Add an extra skill that starts at 0, called Madness or Fate or Nightmare or Event.
When you roll a skill you can, after the roll, add a number of bonus dice (d10s). The result is added to your roll. It is also added to Madness.
When you sleep - finish a long rest, break between sessions, etc. - roll a d% check for your Madness. If the roll is under, you experience something terrible. A nightmare is loosed on the party, you gain a permanent insanity, you are sucked into the dream world, etc.
You can only add as many Madness d10s as your Dreaming rating. Madness can’t exceed 99.
Abilities start at 10 or 20, skills start at 0 (academic) to 40 (quotidian), with most having a base of 10-ish. Abilities cap at 50, skills at 100. It’s very hard to get all the way there.
Target number is always 100.
Equipment or preparation is very valuable, usually adding +10 to +40. This is part of what makes combat clumsy and dangerous - it’s hard to be prepared for combat.
The difficulty of a task is stated as a modifier to the roll. A diff of +50 is very, very easy. A diff -25 is quite hard.
For example, an average person (ability 15, skill 25) has a 40% chance to succeed on a base diff task. With a -25 diff mod, it’s 15%.
Critical success is when you get 50 over your target; critical failure is 50 below.
When you roll a 96 to 00, roll again and add to the die roll.
A roll of 01 is always a failure (and usually a crit failure).
Health is also rated at 100.
When you take damage it’s equal to the attacker’s Force ability. Weapons may add to that.
Reduce the damage you take by your armor and half your Resilience rating (damage threshold), minimum 1.
Recover Resilience Health per night or day of rest.
When you hit 0 Health you’re dead.
Abilities include…
Force
Resilience
Cool
Intellect
Awareness
Force is your ability to effect change on the world around you in short, dramatic bursts. Shooting a gun, shouting down a rival, or lifting a burning beam are Forceful tasks.
Resilience is how well you push through or ‘bounce back’ from a hit, physical or emotional. Taking a punch, getting over a breakup, or holding your breath could all be resilience.
Cool is remaining cool under fire, or being actually, well, cool, calm, and detached. Driving a car, chatting up a stranger, or sneaking into a restricted area are Cool tasks.
Intellect is how quickly you think and how much information you can ingest. Witty repartee, recalling an ancient secret, or building a robot are Intellectual tasks.
Awareness is how clearly you see things, and that includes the systems that run the world. Awareness lets you work a job, know who you need to pay off, fix a broken doorknob, or spot the police car around the corner. Basically, it’s an overall measure of your competence day-to-day.
Pistol, Revolver. Attack with Force/Handguns, diff +0 or -10/-30. Deal Force + 20 damage on a hit. Reload 6/3 turns. Ranged 25/50/100/250 ft.
Fireaxe. Attack Force/Weaponry, diff -10. Deal Force + 10 on a hit. Close range.
Machine Gun. Force/Gunnery diff -10 or -20/-30/-40. Force + 50 damage on hit. Reload 10/5 turns. Ranged 50/100/200/1,000 ft.
Leather Jacket. Bulky, +10 armor.
Bulletproof Vest. Bulky, +25 armor. Loses 5 armor each time it blocks damage from a gun, or 10 when hit by a blade.
Knight’s Armor. Bulky, archaic, loud, weird, +40 armor, or +20 vs firearms.
Things are rated on a keyword system too, a bit. I.e., everything is rated ‘good’, ‘poor,’ and so on, corresponding to a bonus or penalty. This is mostly to help GMs estimate stuff.
Terrible -50
Awful -40
Bad -30
Weak -20
Poor -10
Normal +0
Fair +10
Fine +20
Good +30
Superior +40
Incredible +50
So a weak Cool/Driving check is a check of d% + Cool + Driving -20, against a target of 100.
Normal is usually not tagged; it’s just omitted.
These qualities van also be applied to items, circumstances, etc., stacking with any difficulty. So a check to climb a mountain might be Resilience + Climbing, with a +30 bonus for good equipment against an awful task (-40).
Skills can be all over the place. The budget should be generous, and the skills pretty narrow.
Skills that can cover others, because they’re similar, usually, will mention that and the penalty. I.e., each firearms allows you to use each other at a penalty. Pistols -10, rifles -10, automatics -20, gunnery -30.
High abilities grant free perks. Get to Int 25? Free language!
Each ability has a list of eligible perks related to the ability.
On level-up you get:
Free skill increases
Ability increase
10 skill points
One perk
Skills are capped at 50 + the skill’s base value + your level. Abilities are capped at 25 + your level.
Free skill increases: each time you use a skill, mark usage. If you get a crit success OR failure mark 2. Max 10. When you level up roll d% and add the usage marks. If your result is OVER your skill, add a free point. If you add a point erase all your uses; if not, keep them for later. Don’t roll for free increases on any skill you haven’t got usage for.
Ability increase: add 5 points (or 1d10, GM preference) to your abilities in whatever combo you’d like.
Skill points: spend 10 to add to your skills. The first point in a skill costs 5.
Perk: choose a perk for which you meet the requirements.
Starting characters:
Start at 15 for all abilities. EITHER add 1d10 to each or spend 25. If spending, you can’t raise scores over 23.
Start with 100 points for skills. Spend wherever you’d like.
Take up to 3 flaws.
Pick 3 perks.
Spend $250.
Start the game.
Flaws
When you take a flaw you can select a free perk. You can take 0 to 3 flaws at character creation.
Reduced Ability - Reduce an ability by 5 points. You can take this multiple times.
Ignorant - Reduce your starting skill budget by 10. You can take this multiple times.
Awkward - Socialization is tough for you. Spending Madness on Cool checks costs and extra die for you. When you add dice to Cool checks select one die and don’t add it to the roll; it is still added to Madness. This means you can’t add just one die to a Cool check.
Uneducated - You struggle with academic topics. (Int)
Sickly - You get exhausted easily, and don’t recover quickly. (Res)
Meek - You can’t seem to act decisively. (For)
Scattered - You have trouble staying on top of things. (Awr)
Broke - You start with $100 less. You can take this multiple times.
Intolerance - You have an allergy or vulnerability to some substance. Choose a common or uncommon substance and a severity (mild, severe, or deadly). Uncommon/mild grants you no perk; common/deadly grants you two (and counts as two flaws).
Incompetent - Pick one combat skill, one active skill, and one lore skill. These skills reduce their base by 10 (i.e., a skill with a base of 20 is now 10; 5 is now -5; etc.).
Slow Learner - When you roll for free skill increases you don’t add your usage marks.
Perks
You get three at character creation, plus one every time you level up.
Improved Ability - Increase an ability by 4 points. You can take this multiple times, adding 1 less each time.
Trained - Gain 10 skill points. You can take this perk multiple times, gaining 1 less point each time (minimum 5).
Quick Learner - Add double your usage to free skill improvement rolls.
Suave - You’re chronically unbothered. When you add two or more Madness dice to a Cool check, choose one and don’t add it to Madness. You still add it to the roll, however.
Effective - You get things done. (For)
Smart - Mind over matter. (Int)
Perceptive - You have a handle on the world. (Awr)
Sturdy - Nothing keeps you down. (Res)
Power-Lifter - You can lift & carry 50 lbs extra.
Huge - Your lifting increases by 25 lbs, you gain 5 natural armor, 5 bonus damage, and your clothing doesn’t fit.
Natural - Pick one skill. Your base for that skill is increased by 5. You can take this perk multiple times, choosing a new skill each time. You can only take this at character creation or for skills in which you have no training.
Wealth - You gain $100 at character creation.
Tough - You gain 10 natural armor.
Quick Healer - You recover from injuries in half the usual time.
When you purchase stuff at character creation you can use a flaw to go into debt. This is a special flaw that you can buy off. You can spend up to $200 more than your budget. Buying it off costs the same, plus 10% of the original debt per game session (220, 240, 260, etc.; no compounding). If you end the session with debt, roll %. If the result is over your new debt + interest / 10 (i.e., a debt of $165 is a 16% or lower to succeed), you are accosted by collectors. The first time they’ll threaten you; the next they’ll start taking your stuff, and that of your companions; the third they’ll take their pound of flesh.
