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INTRODUCTIONThis is Book 2 of the GURPS BasicSet, Fourth Edition.Why two books? The last edition,after all, was a single book of 256pages, plus the Instant Characters sec-tion.The short answer is: we added a lotof material. Which translated to a lotof pages. This new edition brings in agreat deal of material thats eitherbrand new or previously appeared inother books (especially the twoCompendiums). This new Basic Setweighs in at a total of 576 pages, morethan double the length of the last edi-tion. Thats quite a stack of paper.We could still have done it as a sin-gle book. But for two reasons, we did-nt. First, that would be a thick, heavybook, suitable for stopping bullets butjust a bit unwieldy to use. And second,it would be an expensive book. Really,too expensive.By dividing the manuscript intotwo parts, we were able to get every-thing that a player has to have intoBook 1. That book has the basic sys-tem rules and everything for charactercreation. What it didnt have, in theearly drafts, was any combat at all . . .so we added a section with the basicsof combat. Now a player needs onlyBook 1 to get into the game.Who needs this book? Well, firstand foremost, the GM. This book goesinto detail about physical feats andcombat. It also covers vehicles andtechnology, animals and monsters,world design, and Game Mastering.Tool kit chapters let the GM createnew creatures (and even PC races),artifacts, character abilities, andentire game worlds.But its not just for GMs. Playerswho enjoy detail and who want to par-ticipate in the creative side of thegame will definitely find this book use-ful . . . and so will players who want tobecome GMs someday. The point issimply that its not required.Nevertheless, the books are intendedto work together. The pages and chap-ters are consecutively numbered, andthe index covers both books and isrepeated in both.In the final analysis, the answer towhy two books? is simply accessibil-ity. We want the system to be easy toplay, easy to learn, and easy to get into.By dividing the text into necessary forthe new player and everything else,we hope weve made the new BasicSet not just easier to carry around, butalso a better introduction to the sys-tem. Let us know how we did. Steve JacksonOTHER SUPPORTAND GM TOOLSGame Masters will also find usefulmaterial in the GURPS GMs Screen,which includes all the tables necessaryto run a GURPS Fourth Edition game,copies of GURPS Lite and the tablesof advantages, disadvantages, andskills from the Basic Set, Book 1, aswell as several variant charactersheets and other useful tools.If you have access to the Internet. . . and nowadays thats almost agiven . . . theres a great deal of sup-port available, including: The free SJ Games webforums atforums.sjgames.com. Pyramid Magazine, which, for$20 a year, gives subscribers severalarticles a week. A lot of these relatedirectly or indirectly to GURPS. Thereare also reviews, cartoons, and otherbits of data and inspiration. e23 is our electronic publish-ing division. Browse over towww.sjgames.com/e23/ and see whatyou find. We have already prepareddozens of PDFs, ranging from shortadventures to whole GURPS source-books, and we get more ready everyweek. This will be a very valuableresource. You can purchase gamematerial online, in PDF format, in thesame shopping cart you use for yourWarehouse 23 orders! And, of course, the GURPS web-site itself (www.sjgames.com/gurps/)is constantly being updated withinformation about all GURPS prod-ucts in and out of print. One brand-new feature will be implemented formany GURPS books by the time youread this: the books complete bibliog-raphy will be online, and every bookthats currently in print will have ahotlink to amazon.com!342INTRODUCTIONWhenever a character attempts toperform an action (e.g., use a skill),roll three dice to determine the out-come. This is called a success roll. Thetask in question succeeds if the total rolledon the dice is less than or equal to the num-ber that governs the action most often askill or an attribute. Otherwise, it fails.Example: If you attempt to pick a lockwith a Lockpicking skill of 9, you must roll9 or less on 3d to succeed. On a roll of 10or more, you fail.Regardless of the score you are rollingagainst, a roll of 3 or 4 is always a success,while a roll of 17 or 18 is always a failure.In general, the player makes the die rollsfor his characters actions. However, the GMmay always choose to roll the dice in secret see When the GM Rolls (p. 344).WHEN TO ROLLTo avoid bogging down the game in endlessdie rolls, the GM should only require a suc-cess roll if there is a chance of meaning-ful failure or gainful success. In par-ticular, the GM should require suc-cess rolls when . . . A PCs health, wealth, friends, reputation, or equipment areat risk. This includes chases, combat (even if the target is stationaryand at point-blank range!), espionage, thievery, and similar adventur-ing activities. A PC stands to gain allies, information, new abilities, social stand-ing, or wealth.The GM should not require rolls for . . . Utterly trivial tasks, such as crossing the street, driving into town,feeding the dog, finding the corner store, or turning on the computer. Daily work at a mundane, nonadventuring job. (To evaluate jobperformance, make monthly job rolls; see Jobs, p. 516.)SUCCESS ROLLS343CHAPTER TENSUCCESS ROLLSRegardless of the score you are rolling against, a roll of 3 or 4 is alwaysa success, while a roll of 17 or 18 isalways a failure.When the GM RollsThere are two sets of circum-stances under which the GM shouldroll for a PC and not let the player seethe results:1. When the character wouldntknow for sure whether he had succeed-ed. This is true of all rolls to gain infor-mation, whether through skills suchas Detect Lies, Interrogation,Meteorology, and Search, advantageslike Intuition and Oracle, or supernat-ural divinatory abilities. In this situa-tion, the player declares that he isusing his ability and the GM rolls insecret. On a success, the GM gives theplayer true information the lowerthe roll, the better the information. Ona failure, the GM either gives no infor-mation at all or lies (the higher theroll, the more severe the lie), as appro-priate.2. When the player shouldnt knowwhats going on. This includes mostSense rolls, rolls to use Danger Sense,etc. Suppose the party is walkingalong a jungle trail. A jaguar is on alimb ahead. The GM should not say,Theres a jaguar ahead of you. Roll tosee if you notice it. Neither should hesay, Everybody make a Vision roll.Does anybody have Danger Sense?Either of these approaches gives toomuch away. Instead, the GM shouldroll for each character in secret. If any-one succeeds, the GM can say, Younotice a jaguar on a branch 20 yardsahead! If nobody succeeds . . . theyrein for a surprise.MODIFIERSThe rules often specify modifiersfor certain success rolls. These bonus-es and penalties affect the number youare rolling against your target num-ber and not the total rolled on thedice. Bonuses always improve yourodds, while penalties always reducethem.For instance, the Lockpicking skilldescription states, -5 if working bytouch (e.g., in total darkness). Thismeans that if you are working in thedark, you must subtract 5 from yourLockpicking skill for that attempt. Ifyour Lockpicking skill is 9, you rollagainst 9 minus 5, or 4, in the dark.A specific scenario might providemodifiers to allow for the relative easeor difficulty of a particular situation.For instance, an adventure might statethat a lock is +10 to open due to thefact that it is primitive and clumsy. Ifyour Lockpicking skill were 9, youwould roll against 9 + 10, or 19. Sincethe highest roll possible on 3d is 18, itwould seem that success is assured.This is almost true, but not quite seeCritical Failure (p. 348).Modifiers are cumulative unlessstated otherwise. For instance, if youtried to open that primitive lock in thedark, both modifiers would apply, andyou would roll against 9 - 5 + 10, or 14.See Culture (p. 23), Language(p. 23), Tech-Level Modifiers (p. 168),Familiarity (p.169), EquipmentModifiers (p. 345), and Task Difficulty(p. 345) for discussions of commonmodifiers.Base Skill vs. Effective SkillYour base skill is your actual levelin a skill, as recorded on your charac-ter sheet. Your effective skill for a par-ticular task is your base skill plus orminus any modifiers for that task. Inthe Lockpicking examples above, baseskill is 9 in all cases, while effectiveskill is 4, 19, and 14 in three differentsituations.The terms base skill and effec-tive skill apply to all success rolls, notjust to skill rolls. When you make an344SUCCESS ROLLSDefault RollsWhen a task calls for a skill roll, you must have some ability with therequired skill in order to attempt the task. Ideally, you want points inthat skill . . . but an untrained person can take a stab at most tasks. Forinstance, anyone can swing a sword although only a trained warrioris likely to have much success at it.A skill that anyone can attempt without study is said to default toan attribute or another skill. This means you can attempt the desiredaction by rolling against one of your attributes or other skills at a penal-ty. This default roll is just an ordinary success roll.Example: Lockpicking skill defaults to IQ-5; that is, anyone canopen a lock, without training, by making a success roll against 5 lessthan his IQ. If your IQ is 10, you can open an ordinary lock on a roll of5 or less on 3d. The smarter you are, the better your chances but train-ing is always preferable!The description of each skill shows what skills or attributes itdefaults to, and at what penalties. If a skill offers multiple defaults,always choose the best one.Example: Interrogation defaults to IQ-5, Intimidation-3, orPsychology-4. If youre not a trained interrogator, you can still getanswers out of a prisoner by outthinking him (IQ-5), frightening him(Intimidation-3), or playing mind games with him (Psychology-4). Ifyou had IQ 12, Intimidation at 14, and Psychology at 13, your defaultswould be 7, 11, and 9, respectively. Roll against 11, the highest of thethree.The Rule of 20If you have a basic attribute over 20, treat it as 20 for default pur-poses. For instance, if you have IQ 25, your default Lockpicking skill(IQ-5) is 15 not 20. No such limit applies to defaults to other skills.No DefaultSome actions are impossible without training. Skills like Alchemy,Karate, and magic spells have no default. If you lack the proper train-ing, you cant attempt these things at all.
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Whenever a character attempts toperform an action (e.g., use a skill),roll three dice to determine the out-come. This is called a success roll. Thetask in question succeeds if the total rolledon the dice is less than or equal to the num-ber that governs the action most often askill or an attribute. Otherwise, it fails.Example: If you attempt to pick a lockwith a Lockpicking skill of 9, you must roll9 or less on 3d to succeed. On a roll of 10or more, you fail.Regardless of the score you are rollingagainst, a roll of 3 or 4 is always a success,while a roll of 17 or 18 is always a failure.In general, the player makes the die rollsfor his characters actions. However, the GMmay always choose to roll the dice in secret see When the GM Rolls (p. 344).WHEN TO ROLLTo avoid bogging down the game in endlessdie rolls, the GM should only require a suc-cess roll if there is a chance of meaning-ful failure or gainful success. In par-ticular, the GM should require suc-cess rolls when . . . A PCs health, wealth, friends, reputation, or equipment areat risk. This includes chases, combat (even if the target is stationaryand at point-blank range!), espionage, thievery, and similar adventur-ing activities. A PC stands to gain allies, information, new abilities, social stand-ing, or wealth.The GM should not require rolls for . . . Utterly trivial tasks, such as crossing the street, driving into town,feeding the dog, finding the corner store, or turning on the computer. Daily work at a mundane, nonadventuring job. (To evaluate jobperformance, make monthly job rolls; see Jobs, p. 516.)SUCCESS ROLLS343CHAPTER TENSUCCESS ROLLSRegardless of the score you are rolling against, a roll of 3 or 4 is alwaysa success, while a roll of 17 or 18 isalways a failure.When the GM RollsThere are two sets of circum-stances under which the GM shouldroll for a PC and not let the player seethe results:1. When the character wouldntknow for sure whether he had succeed-ed. This is true of all rolls to gain infor-mation, whether through skills suchas Detect Lies, Interrogation,Meteorology, and Search, advantageslike Intuition and Oracle, or supernat-ural divinatory abilities. In this situa-tion, the player declares that he isusing his ability and the GM rolls insecret. On a success, the GM gives theplayer true information the lowerthe roll, the better the information. Ona failure, the GM either gives no infor-mation at all or lies (the higher theroll, the more severe the lie), as appro-priate.2. When the player shouldnt knowwhats going on. This includes mostSense rolls, rolls to use Danger Sense,etc. Suppose the party is walkingalong a jungle trail. A jaguar is on alimb ahead. The GM should not say,Theres a jaguar ahead of you. Roll tosee if you notice it. Neither should hesay, Everybody make a Vision roll.Does anybody have Danger Sense?Either of these approaches gives toomuch away. Instead, the GM shouldroll for each character in secret. If any-one succeeds, the GM can say, Younotice a jaguar on a branch 20 yardsahead! If nobody succeeds . . . theyrein for a surprise.MODIFIERSThe rules often specify modifiersfor certain success rolls. These bonus-es and penalties affect the number youare rolling against your target num-ber and not the total rolled on thedice. Bonuses always improve yourodds, while penalties always reducethem.For instance, the Lockpicking skilldescription states, -5 if working bytouch (e.g., in total darkness). Thismeans that if you are working in thedark, you must subtract 5 from yourLockpicking skill for that attempt. Ifyour Lockpicking skill is 9, you rollagainst 9 minus 5, or 4, in the dark.A specific scenario might providemodifiers to allow for the relative easeor difficulty of a particular situation.For instance, an adventure might statethat a lock is +10 to open due to thefact that it is primitive and clumsy. Ifyour Lockpicking skill were 9, youwould roll against 9 + 10, or 19. Sincethe highest roll possible on 3d is 18, itwould seem that success is assured.This is almost true, but not quite seeCritical Failure (p. 348).Modifiers are cumulative unlessstated otherwise. For instance, if youtried to open that primitive lock in thedark, both modifiers would apply, andyou would roll against 9 - 5 + 10, or 14.See Culture (p. 23), Language(p. 23), Tech-Level Modifiers (p. 168),Familiarity (p.169), EquipmentModifiers (p. 345), and Task Difficulty(p. 345) for discussions of commonmodifiers.Base Skill vs. Effective SkillYour base skill is your actual levelin a skill, as recorded on your charac-ter sheet. Your effective skill for a par-ticular task is your base skill plus orminus any modifiers for that task. Inthe Lockpicking examples above, baseskill is 9 in all cases, while effectiveskill is 4, 19, and 14 in three differentsituations.The terms base skill and effec-tive skill apply to all success rolls, notjust to skill rolls. When you make an344SUCCESS ROLLSDefault RollsWhen a task calls for a skill roll, you must have some ability with therequired skill in order to attempt the task. Ideally, you want points inthat skill . . . but an untrained person can take a stab at most tasks. Forinstance, anyone can swing a sword although only a trained warrioris likely to have much success at it.A skill that anyone can attempt without study is said to default toan attribute or another skill. This means you can attempt the desiredaction by rolling against one of your attributes or other skills at a penal-ty. This default roll is just an ordinary success roll.Example: Lockpicking skill defaults to IQ-5; that is, anyone canopen a lock, without training, by making a success roll against 5 lessthan his IQ. If your IQ is 10, you can open an ordinary lock on a roll of5 or less on 3d. The smarter you are, the better your chances but train-ing is always preferable!The description of each skill shows what skills or attributes itdefaults to, and at what penalties. If a skill offers multiple defaults,always choose the best one.Example: Interrogation defaults to IQ-5, Intimidation-3, orPsychology-4. If youre not a trained interrogator, you can still getanswers out of a prisoner by outthinking him (IQ-5), frightening him(Intimidation-3), or playing mind games with him (Psychology-4). Ifyou had IQ 12, Intimidation at 14, and Psychology at 13, your defaultswould be 7, 11, and 9, respectively. Roll against 11, the highest of thethree.The Rule of 20If you have a basic attribute over 20, treat it as 20 for default pur-poses. For instance, if you have IQ 25, your default Lockpicking skill(IQ-5) is 15 not 20. No such limit applies to defaults to other skills.No DefaultSome actions are impossible without training. Skills like Alchemy,Karate, and magic spells have no default. If you lack the proper train-ing, you cant attempt these things at all.attribute roll, defense roll (p. 374),self-control roll (p. 120), etc., yourbase skill is your unmodified score,while your effective skill is your final,modified target number.You may not attempt a success rollif your effective skill is less than 3,unless you are attempting a defenseroll (p. 374).TASK DIFFICULTYIf the GM feels that a success rollshould be easier or harder in a partic-ular situation, he may assess a difficul-ty modifier. This is separate from mod-ifiers for the culture, equipment, lan-guage, tech level, etc. of the personattempting the task, in that it appliesto anyone who attempts the task. It iscumulative with all other modifiers.For instance, if the GM rules thatthe only way to sway a particular audi-ence is to make a Public Speaking rollat -2, the difficulty modifier is -2. Anyspeaker has -2, in addition to personalmodifiers (for culture, language,Voice, etc.), when dealing with thataudience.Many skills suggest difficulty mod-ifiers e.g., the -5 to use Lockpickingskill by touch but the possible varietyof tasks is essentially infinite. Here aresome guidelines for GMs:+10 Automatic. Tasks so trivial thatthe GM should waive the need for asuccess roll, except under extraor-dinary circumstances. Example: ADriving roll to start a car.+8 or +9 Trivial. Situations wherefailure is extremely unlikely, andwould require incredibly bad luck.Example: A Driving roll to drivearound an empty parking lot.+6 or +7 Very Easy. Tasks where fail-ure is possible, but would requirebad luck. Example: A Driving roll todrive down an empty suburbanstreet.+4 or +5 Easy. Most mundane tasks,including rolls made by ordinarypeople at day-to-day jobs. Example:A Driving roll to commute to workin a small town.+2 or +3 Very Favorable. Mildlyrisky tasks that most peoplewould undertake without hesita-tion. Example: A Driving roll tocommute to work in a teemingmetropolis.+1 Favorable. Tasks that most peoplewould hesitate at, due to the risk,but that a career adventurer wouldregard as easy. Example: A Drivingroll to compete in a road rally.0 Average. Most adventuring tasks,and the majority of skill use understress. Example: A Driving roll in acar chase.-1 Unfavorable. Stressful tasks thatwould challenge a novice adventur-er, but not an old hand. Example: ADriving roll in a high-speed carchase.-2 or -3 Very Unfavorable. Stressfultasks that would challenge a pro-fessional. Skilled adventurers stillroutinely accept such risks!Example: A Driving roll in a high-speed car chase on a busy freeway.-4 or -5 Hard. Tasks so challengingthat even an expert will look foralternatives. A true master is stillunlikely to feel challenged.Example: A Driving roll to keep thecar on the road while shooting agun out the window during a high-speed chase.SUCCESS ROLLS345Equipment ModifiersThe quality of your equipment modifies your skillrolls for tasks that normally require equipment:No equipment: -10 for technological skills, -5 forother skills. Note that many skills cannot be used at allwithout equipment!Improvised equipment: -5 for technological skills, -2for other skills.Basic equipment: No modifier. This is the case mostof the time.Good-quality equipment: +1. Costs about 5 basicprice.Fine-quality equipment: +2. Costs about 20 basicprice.Best equipment possible at your TL: +TL/2, rounddown (minimum +2). Not usually for sale!If you have basic or better equipment that is notin perfect condition, the following modifiers apply inaddition to quality modifiers:Missing important items: -1 per item.Damaged equipment: -1 to -3.Equipment modifiers reflect the quality of: Special tools of the trade, for criminal, military,and espionage skills such as Disguise, Explosives,Forgery, Forward Observer, Holdout, and Lockpicking. The contents of your backpack, for outdoor skillslike Fishing and Survival. Your instruments or lab, for scientific and medicalskills such as Alchemy, Diagnosis, Meteorology,Navigation, and Surgery. Your shop or toolkit, for Armoury, Carpentry,Electrician, Electronics Repair, Engineer, Machinist,Masonry, Mechanic, Smith, and other skills used tobuild or repair things. Your studio, for artistic skills Artist, Jeweler,Photography, etc.Example: For First Aid skill, improvised mightmean leaves and clean mud; basic, sterile bandages;good, a standard first-aid kit; fine, a crash kit(found in most ambulances); and best, an entire hos-pital. Missing antiseptic would give -1, while a first-aidkit salvaged from a wrecked vehicle might give -1 orworse for damaged equipment.
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When the GM RollsThere are two sets of circum-stances under which the GM shouldroll for a PC and not let the player seethe results:1. When the character wouldntknow for sure whether he had succeed-ed. This is true of all rolls to gain infor-mation, whether through skills suchas Detect Lies, Interrogation,Meteorology, and Search, advantageslike Intuition and Oracle, or supernat-ural divinatory abilities. In this situa-tion, the player declares that he isusing his ability and the GM rolls insecret. On a success, the GM gives theplayer true information the lowerthe roll, the better the information. Ona failure, the GM either gives no infor-mation at all or lies (the higher theroll, the more severe the lie), as appro-priate.2. When the player shouldnt knowwhats going on. This includes mostSense rolls, rolls to use Danger Sense,etc. Suppose the party is walkingalong a jungle trail. A jaguar is on alimb ahead. The GM should not say,Theres a jaguar ahead of you. Roll tosee if you notice it. Neither should hesay, Everybody make a Vision roll.Does anybody have Danger Sense?Either of these approaches gives toomuch away. Instead, the GM shouldroll for each character in secret. If any-one succeeds, the GM can say, Younotice a jaguar on a branch 20 yardsahead! If nobody succeeds . . . theyrein for a surprise.MODIFIERSThe rules often specify modifiersfor certain success rolls. These bonus-es and penalties affect the number youare rolling against your target num-ber and not the total rolled on thedice. Bonuses always improve yourodds, while penalties always reducethem.For instance, the Lockpicking skilldescription states, -5 if working bytouch (e.g., in total darkness). Thismeans that if you are working in thedark, you must subtract 5 from yourLockpicking skill for that attempt. Ifyour Lockpicking skill is 9, you rollagainst 9 minus 5, or 4, in the dark.A specific scenario might providemodifiers to allow for the relative easeor difficulty of a particular situation.For instance, an adventure might statethat a lock is +10 to open due to thefact that it is primitive and clumsy. Ifyour Lockpicking skill were 9, youwould roll against 9 + 10, or 19. Sincethe highest roll possible on 3d is 18, itwould seem that success is assured.This is almost true, but not quite seeCritical Failure (p. 348).Modifiers are cumulative unlessstated otherwise. For instance, if youtried to open that primitive lock in thedark, both modifiers would apply, andyou would roll against 9 - 5 + 10, or 14.See Culture (p. 23), Language(p. 23), Tech-Level Modifiers (p. 168),Familiarity (p.169), EquipmentModifiers (p. 345), and Task Difficulty(p. 345) for discussions of commonmodifiers.Base Skill vs. Effective SkillYour base skill is your actual levelin a skill, as recorded on your charac-ter sheet. Your effective skill for a par-ticular task is your base skill plus orminus any modifiers for that task. Inthe Lockpicking examples above, baseskill is 9 in all cases, while effectiveskill is 4, 19, and 14 in three differentsituations.The terms base skill and effec-tive skill apply to all success rolls, notjust to skill rolls. When you make an344SUCCESS ROLLSDefault RollsWhen a task calls for a skill roll, you must have some ability with therequired skill in order to attempt the task. Ideally, you want points inthat skill . . . but an untrained person can take a stab at most tasks. Forinstance, anyone can swing a sword although only a trained warrioris likely to have much success at it.A skill that anyone can attempt without study is said to default toan attribute or another skill. This means you can attempt the desiredaction by rolling against one of your attributes or other skills at a penal-ty. This default roll is just an ordinary success roll.Example: Lockpicking skill defaults to IQ-5; that is, anyone canopen a lock, without training, by making a success roll against 5 lessthan his IQ. If your IQ is 10, you can open an ordinary lock on a roll of5 or less on 3d. The smarter you are, the better your chances but train-ing is always preferable!The description of each skill shows what skills or attributes itdefaults to, and at what penalties. If a skill offers multiple defaults,always choose the best one.Example: Interrogation defaults to IQ-5, Intimidation-3, orPsychology-4. If youre not a trained interrogator, you can still getanswers out of a prisoner by outthinking him (IQ-5), frightening him(Intimidation-3), or playing mind games with him (Psychology-4). Ifyou had IQ 12, Intimidation at 14, and Psychology at 13, your defaultswould be 7, 11, and 9, respectively. Roll against 11, the highest of thethree.The Rule of 20If you have a basic attribute over 20, treat it as 20 for default pur-poses. For instance, if you have IQ 25, your default Lockpicking skill(IQ-5) is 15 not 20. No such limit applies to defaults to other skills.No DefaultSome actions are impossible without training. Skills like Alchemy,Karate, and magic spells have no default. If you lack the proper train-ing, you cant attempt these things at all.attribute roll, defense roll (p. 374),self-control roll (p. 120), etc., yourbase skill is your unmodified score,while your effective skill is your final,modified target number.You may not attempt a success rollif your effective skill is less than 3,unless you are attempting a defenseroll (p. 374).TASK DIFFICULTYIf the GM feels that a success rollshould be easier or harder in a partic-ular situation, he may assess a difficul-ty modifier. This is separate from mod-ifiers for the culture, equipment, lan-guage, tech level, etc. of the personattempting the task, in that it appliesto anyone who attempts the task. It iscumulative with all other modifiers.For instance, if the GM rules thatthe only way to sway a particular audi-ence is to make a Public Speaking rollat -2, the difficulty modifier is -2. Anyspeaker has -2, in addition to personalmodifiers (for culture, language,Voice, etc.), when dealing with thataudience.Many skills suggest difficulty mod-ifiers e.g., the -5 to use Lockpickingskill by touch but the possible varietyof tasks is essentially infinite. Here aresome guidelines for GMs:+10 Automatic. Tasks so trivial thatthe GM should waive the need for asuccess roll, except under extraor-dinary circumstances. Example: ADriving roll to start a car.+8 or +9 Trivial. Situations wherefailure is extremely unlikely, andwould require incredibly bad luck.Example: A Driving roll to drivearound an empty parking lot.+6 or +7 Very Easy. Tasks where fail-ure is possible, but would requirebad luck. Example: A Driving roll todrive down an empty suburbanstreet.+4 or +5 Easy. Most mundane tasks,including rolls made by ordinarypeople at day-to-day jobs. Example:A Driving roll to commute to workin a small town.+2 or +3 Very Favorable. Mildlyrisky tasks that most peoplewould undertake without hesita-tion. Example: A Driving roll tocommute to work in a teemingmetropolis.+1 Favorable. Tasks that most peoplewould hesitate at, due to the risk,but that a career adventurer wouldregard as easy. Example: A Drivingroll to compete in a road rally.0 Average. Most adventuring tasks,and the majority of skill use understress. Example: A Driving roll in acar chase.-1 Unfavorable. Stressful tasks thatwould challenge a novice adventur-er, but not an old hand. Example: ADriving roll in a high-speed carchase.-2 or -3 Very Unfavorable. Stressfultasks that would challenge a pro-fessional. Skilled adventurers stillroutinely accept such risks!Example: A Driving roll in a high-speed car chase on a busy freeway.-4 or -5 Hard. Tasks so challengingthat even an expert will look foralternatives. A true master is stillunlikely to feel challenged.Example: A Driving roll to keep thecar on the road while shooting agun out the window during a high-speed chase.SUCCESS ROLLS345Equipment ModifiersThe quality of your equipment modifies your skillrolls for tasks that normally require equipment:No equipment: -10 for technological skills, -5 forother skills. Note that many skills cannot be used at allwithout equipment!Improvised equipment: -5 for technological skills, -2for other skills.Basic equipment: No modifier. This is the case mostof the time.Good-quality equipment: +1. Costs about 5 basicprice.Fine-quality equipment: +2. Costs about 20 basicprice.Best equipment possible at your TL: +TL/2, rounddown (minimum +2). Not usually for sale!If you have basic or better equipment that is notin perfect condition, the following modifiers apply inaddition to quality modifiers:Missing important items: -1 per item.Damaged equipment: -1 to -3.Equipment modifiers reflect the quality of: Special tools of the trade, for criminal, military,and espionage skills such as Disguise, Explosives,Forgery, Forward Observer, Holdout, and Lockpicking. The contents of your backpack, for outdoor skillslike Fishing and Survival. Your instruments or lab, for scientific and medicalskills such as Alchemy, Diagnosis, Meteorology,Navigation, and Surgery. Your shop or toolkit, for Armoury, Carpentry,Electrician, Electronics Repair, Engineer, Machinist,Masonry, Mechanic, Smith, and other skills used tobuild or repair things. Your studio, for artistic skills Artist, Jeweler,Photography, etc.Example: For First Aid skill, improvised mightmean leaves and clean mud; basic, sterile bandages;good, a standard first-aid kit; fine, a crash kit(found in most ambulances); and best, an entire hos-pital. Missing antiseptic would give -1, while a first-aidkit salvaged from a wrecked vehicle might give -1 orworse for damaged equipment.-6 or -7 Very Hard. Situations thateven the masters might have sec-ond thoughts about. Example: ADriving roll in a high-speed chaseduring a blizzard.-8 or -9 Dangerous. Tasks at whicheven the greatest masters expect tofail. Example: A Driving roll whileshooting a gun in a high-speedchase during a blizzard.-10 Impossible. No sane personwould attempt such a task. TheGM may wish to forbid suchattempts altogether. Example: ADriving roll to steer a car with theknees while firing a bazooka two-handed during a chase through ablizzard.These modifiers assume a trainedcharacter. To get an idea of how tougha task would be for someone workingat default, add the default penalty tothe difficulty modifier.Example: Someone who neverlearned to drive is using Driving at itsDX-5 default. For him, an everydaycommute Easy (+4 or +5) for atrained driver would be Average(DX) or even Unfavorable (DX-1),and almost certainly a stressful experience!The GM can use difficulty modi-fiers in place of other modifiers if theoutcome of a task is too unimportant or the action too hot to justify stop-ping to add up a long string of modi-fiers. For instance, in a car chaseinvolving a car in bad repair, the GMmight bump the difficulty up a level ortwo instead of assessing an equipmentmodifier for the car.Time SpentYou can reduce the penalty for atough task or even get a bonus byworking slowly and deliberately, tak-ing the time to get things right.Conversely, if you are racing to beat adeadline, even the simplest task canbecome tricky.Extra Time: Taking more time thanusual for a task (as specified by therules or the GM) gives a bonus to anoncombat action: 2 as long gives +1,4 gives +2, 8 gives +3, 15 gives +4,and 30 gives +5. For instance, takinga work day (eight hours) to do a one-hour task would give +3. This bonusonly applies if it would make sense totake extra time for the task at hand(GMs judgment). You can take extratime to open a safe or figure out analien artifact, but not to neutralizepoison or chase a fleeing suspect!Haste: Hurrying gives a penalty: -1per 10% less time taken. Forinstance, attempting a task in half theusual time (-50%) is at -5. The maxi-mum time reduction is normally 90%(taking 1/10 the prescribed time), at-9. In a cinematic game, the GMmight allow one attempt at -10 tocomplete a task instantly; e.g., aMechanic roll at -10 to fix a machineby kicking it! However, you cannothasten tasks that require a certainamount of time due to natural laws(e.g., a chemical reaction) or the lim-itations of equipment (e.g., the topspeed of a vehicle). When in doubt,the GMs decision is final.Note that if a skill specifies timemodifiers, these override the genericmodifiers above. For instance, magicspells have their own rules for extratime (see Ceremonial Magic, p. 238)and cannot be rushed save by thosewith high skill (see Magic Rituals,p. 237).346SUCCESS ROLLSLong TasksThe GM may define major projects as long tasksthat require a number of man-hours of work with oneor more attributes or skills. For instance, the GMmight rule that building a rope bridge over a chasmrequires 40 man-hours of DX-based ordinary labor, 24man-hours of Carpentry work, and eight man-hours ofEngineer work.The normal limit on labor for each person involvedis eight hours per 24-hour day. At the end of each day,each worker rolls vs. the skill used that day (the GMrolls for NPCs). A success puts eight man-hours ofwork toward the task; a critical success counts 50%extra. A failure counts as half as much. A critical fail-ure contributes nothing, and ruins 2d man-hours ofwork already done!A supervisor who works a full shift with his work-ers may opt to coordinate his staff instead of workinghimself. Make an Administration roll if organizationmatters more than inspiration, or a Leadership roll inthe opposite situation (GMs judgment). On a success,the workers get +1 to their rolls for the day; on a criti-cal success, they get +2. On any failure, the supervisorcontributes nothing at all.It is possible to work longer shifts. To get an NPC todo this, make an Influence roll (see Influence Rolls,p. 359). Roll against HT on any day you work more thaneight hours, at -1 per hour over 10. On a success, makethe usual skill roll and (except on a critical failure) basethe man-hours contributed on the time worked. On afailure, your skill roll has a penalty equal to your mar-gin of failure or -2, whichever is worse, and you lose FPequal to the size of your penalty but you still con-tribute extra labor if your skill roll succeeds. Treat a crit-ical failure as any other failure, except that you are soexhausted that you cannot work the next day!It is possible to cut corners and reduce the man-hours of labor required, as described under TimeSpent. All workers doing a given type of labor maketheir skill rolls at the usual penalty for haste. Forinstance, the manual laborers working on the ropebridge above could reduce their work to 20 man-hours, but they would roll at DX-5.Likewise, it is possible to take extra time to get abonus. For instance, if those laborers put in 80 man-hours, they would roll at DX+1. This strategy is likelyto backfire if the extra time takes the form of longshifts, however.
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attribute roll, defense roll (p. 374),self-control roll (p. 120), etc., yourbase skill is your unmodified score,while your effective skill is your final,modified target number.You may not attempt a success rollif your effective skill is less than 3,unless you are attempting a defenseroll (p. 374).TASK DIFFICULTYIf the GM feels that a success rollshould be easier or harder in a partic-ular situation, he may assess a difficul-ty modifier. This is separate from mod-ifiers for the culture, equipment, lan-guage, tech level, etc. of the personattempting the task, in that it appliesto anyone who attempts the task. It iscumulative with all other modifiers.For instance, if the GM rules thatthe only way to sway a particular audi-ence is to make a Public Speaking rollat -2, the difficulty modifier is -2. Anyspeaker has -2, in addition to personalmodifiers (for culture, language,Voice, etc.), when dealing with thataudience.Many skills suggest difficulty mod-ifiers e.g., the -5 to use Lockpickingskill by touch but the possible varietyof tasks is essentially infinite. Here aresome guidelines for GMs:+10 Automatic. Tasks so trivial thatthe GM should waive the need for asuccess roll, except under extraor-dinary circumstances. Example: ADriving roll to start a car.+8 or +9 Trivial. Situations wherefailure is extremely unlikely, andwould require incredibly bad luck.Example: A Driving roll to drivearound an empty parking lot.+6 or +7 Very Easy. Tasks where fail-ure is possible, but would requirebad luck. Example: A Driving roll todrive down an empty suburbanstreet.+4 or +5 Easy. Most mundane tasks,including rolls made by ordinarypeople at day-to-day jobs. Example:A Driving roll to commute to workin a small town.+2 or +3 Very Favorable. Mildlyrisky tasks that most peoplewould undertake without hesita-tion. Example: A Driving roll tocommute to work in a teemingmetropolis.+1 Favorable. Tasks that most peoplewould hesitate at, due to the risk,but that a career adventurer wouldregard as easy. Example: A Drivingroll to compete in a road rally.0 Average. Most adventuring tasks,and the majority of skill use understress. Example: A Driving roll in acar chase.-1 Unfavorable. Stressful tasks thatwould challenge a novice adventur-er, but not an old hand. Example: ADriving roll in a high-speed carchase.-2 or -3 Very Unfavorable. Stressfultasks that would challenge a pro-fessional. Skilled adventurers stillroutinely accept such risks!Example: A Driving roll in a high-speed car chase on a busy freeway.-4 or -5 Hard. Tasks so challengingthat even an expert will look foralternatives. A true master is stillunlikely to feel challenged.Example: A Driving roll to keep thecar on the road while shooting agun out the window during a high-speed chase.SUCCESS ROLLS345Equipment ModifiersThe quality of your equipment modifies your skillrolls for tasks that normally require equipment:No equipment: -10 for technological skills, -5 forother skills. Note that many skills cannot be used at allwithout equipment!Improvised equipment: -5 for technological skills, -2for other skills.Basic equipment: No modifier. This is the case mostof the time.Good-quality equipment: +1. Costs about 5 basicprice.Fine-quality equipment: +2. Costs about 20 basicprice.Best equipment possible at your TL: +TL/2, rounddown (minimum +2). Not usually for sale!If you have basic or better equipment that is notin perfect condition, the following modifiers apply inaddition to quality modifiers:Missing important items: -1 per item.Damaged equipment: -1 to -3.Equipment modifiers reflect the quality of: Special tools of the trade, for criminal, military,and espionage skills such as Disguise, Explosives,Forgery, Forward Observer, Holdout, and Lockpicking. The contents of your backpack, for outdoor skillslike Fishing and Survival. Your instruments or lab, for scientific and medicalskills such as Alchemy, Diagnosis, Meteorology,Navigation, and Surgery. Your shop or toolkit, for Armoury, Carpentry,Electrician, Electronics Repair, Engineer, Machinist,Masonry, Mechanic, Smith, and other skills used tobuild or repair things. Your studio, for artistic skills Artist, Jeweler,Photography, etc.Example: For First Aid skill, improvised mightmean leaves and clean mud; basic, sterile bandages;good, a standard first-aid kit; fine, a crash kit(found in most ambulances); and best, an entire hos-pital. Missing antiseptic would give -1, while a first-aidkit salvaged from a wrecked vehicle might give -1 orworse for damaged equipment.-6 or -7 Very Hard. Situations thateven the masters might have sec-ond thoughts about. Example: ADriving roll in a high-speed chaseduring a blizzard.-8 or -9 Dangerous. Tasks at whicheven the greatest masters expect tofail. Example: A Driving roll whileshooting a gun in a high-speedchase during a blizzard.-10 Impossible. No sane personwould attempt such a task. TheGM may wish to forbid suchattempts altogether. Example: ADriving roll to steer a car with theknees while firing a bazooka two-handed during a chase through ablizzard.These modifiers assume a trainedcharacter. To get an idea of how tougha task would be for someone workingat default, add the default penalty tothe difficulty modifier.Example: Someone who neverlearned to drive is using Driving at itsDX-5 default. For him, an everydaycommute Easy (+4 or +5) for atrained driver would be Average(DX) or even Unfavorable (DX-1),and almost certainly a stressful experience!The GM can use difficulty modi-fiers in place of other modifiers if theoutcome of a task is too unimportant or the action too hot to justify stop-ping to add up a long string of modi-fiers. For instance, in a car chaseinvolving a car in bad repair, the GMmight bump the difficulty up a level ortwo instead of assessing an equipmentmodifier for the car.Time SpentYou can reduce the penalty for atough task or even get a bonus byworking slowly and deliberately, tak-ing the time to get things right.Conversely, if you are racing to beat adeadline, even the simplest task canbecome tricky.Extra Time: Taking more time thanusual for a task (as specified by therules or the GM) gives a bonus to anoncombat action: 2 as long gives +1,4 gives +2, 8 gives +3, 15 gives +4,and 30 gives +5. For instance, takinga work day (eight hours) to do a one-hour task would give +3. This bonusonly applies if it would make sense totake extra time for the task at hand(GMs judgment). You can take extratime to open a safe or figure out analien artifact, but not to neutralizepoison or chase a fleeing suspect!Haste: Hurrying gives a penalty: -1per 10% less time taken. Forinstance, attempting a task in half theusual time (-50%) is at -5. The maxi-mum time reduction is normally 90%(taking 1/10 the prescribed time), at-9. In a cinematic game, the GMmight allow one attempt at -10 tocomplete a task instantly; e.g., aMechanic roll at -10 to fix a machineby kicking it! However, you cannothasten tasks that require a certainamount of time due to natural laws(e.g., a chemical reaction) or the lim-itations of equipment (e.g., the topspeed of a vehicle). When in doubt,the GMs decision is final.Note that if a skill specifies timemodifiers, these override the genericmodifiers above. For instance, magicspells have their own rules for extratime (see Ceremonial Magic, p. 238)and cannot be rushed save by thosewith high skill (see Magic Rituals,p. 237).346SUCCESS ROLLSLong TasksThe GM may define major projects as long tasksthat require a number of man-hours of work with oneor more attributes or skills. For instance, the GMmight rule that building a rope bridge over a chasmrequires 40 man-hours of DX-based ordinary labor, 24man-hours of Carpentry work, and eight man-hours ofEngineer work.The normal limit on labor for each person involvedis eight hours per 24-hour day. At the end of each day,each worker rolls vs. the skill used that day (the GMrolls for NPCs). A success puts eight man-hours ofwork toward the task; a critical success counts 50%extra. A failure counts as half as much. A critical fail-ure contributes nothing, and ruins 2d man-hours ofwork already done!A supervisor who works a full shift with his work-ers may opt to coordinate his staff instead of workinghimself. Make an Administration roll if organizationmatters more than inspiration, or a Leadership roll inthe opposite situation (GMs judgment). On a success,the workers get +1 to their rolls for the day; on a criti-cal success, they get +2. On any failure, the supervisorcontributes nothing at all.It is possible to work longer shifts. To get an NPC todo this, make an Influence roll (see Influence Rolls,p. 359). Roll against HT on any day you work more thaneight hours, at -1 per hour over 10. On a success, makethe usual skill roll and (except on a critical failure) basethe man-hours contributed on the time worked. On afailure, your skill roll has a penalty equal to your mar-gin of failure or -2, whichever is worse, and you lose FPequal to the size of your penalty but you still con-tribute extra labor if your skill roll succeeds. Treat a crit-ical failure as any other failure, except that you are soexhausted that you cannot work the next day!It is possible to cut corners and reduce the man-hours of labor required, as described under TimeSpent. All workers doing a given type of labor maketheir skill rolls at the usual penalty for haste. Forinstance, the manual laborers working on the ropebridge above could reduce their work to 20 man-hours, but they would roll at DX-5.Likewise, it is possible to take extra time to get abonus. For instance, if those laborers put in 80 man-hours, they would roll at DX+1. This strategy is likelyto backfire if the extra time takes the form of longshifts, however.DEGREEOF SUCCESSOR FAILUREOnce you have calculated effectiveskill by applying all relevant modifiersto base skill, roll 3d to determine theoutcome. If the total rolled on the diceis less than or equal to your effectiveskill, you succeed, and the differencebetween your effective skill and yourdie roll is your margin of success.Example: If you have effective skill18 and roll a 12, you succeed; yourmargin of success is 6.If you roll higher than your effec-tive skill, you fail, and the differencebetween the die roll and your effectiveskill is your margin of failure.Example: If you have effective skill9 and roll a 12, you fail; your marginof failure is 3.Always note your margin of suc-cess or failure, as many rules use thesemargins to calculate results that mat-ter in play. Even when the rules dontcall for these numbers, the GM mightwish to reward a large margin of suc-cess with a particularly favorable out-come, or assess especially dire conse-quences for a large margin of failure!Extremely high or low rolls havespecial effects beyond those for nor-mal success and failure regardlessof your exact margin of success orfailure.Critical SuccessA critical success is an especiallygood result. You score a critical suc-cess as follows: A roll of 3 or 4 is always a criticalsuccess. A roll of 5 is a critical success ifyour effective skill is 15+. A roll of 6 is a critical success ifyour effective skill is 16+.When you roll a critical success,the GM determines what happens toyou. It is always something good! Thelower the roll, the better bonus hegives you.A critical hit is a critical successscored on an attack. The GM does notdetermine the result. Instead, use theCritical Hit Table (p. 556).SUCCESS ROLLS347Optional Rule:Influencing Success RollsHere are two options for GMs who wish to let players spend bonuscharacter points (see p. 498) to influence game-world outcomes. Beaware that rules of this kind tend to encourage players to sacrifice long-term development for short-term success. This is most appropriate forgenres where the heroes usually win but dont develop much; e.g.,classic comic-book supers. The GM might want to set a limit on howmany points each player can spend this way per game session.Buying SuccessA player can spend bonus character points to alter the outcome ofhis last success roll. It costs 2 points to turn critical failure into failure,1 point to convert failure to success, or 2 points to turn success into crit-ical success. Add these costs for multiple shifts (e.g., critical failure tocritical success costs 5 points). To keep the PCs from winning every bat-tle with a series of critical hits, the GM may choose to forbid purchaseof critical successes, at least in combat.Note that because guaranteed successcan destroy suspense, this optional rule isnot recommended for horror or mysterygames.Player GuidanceA player can spend bonus characterpoints to specify the game-world effects of arecent success. Whenever he rolls a success(or in a situation that didnt call for a roll),he may spend 2 points and add a plausibleelement to the world or scene. A player whorolls a critical success may spend 1 point forthe same effect. This replaces any other ben-eficial effects of the critical success.Example: Dr. Smith is working at theFederal Laboratory for Advanced Weaponswhen a giant robot bursts through the frontdoors, four stories below. Smith makes hisSense roll and notices the attack. Smithsplayer suggests, I was walking past thesecurity station and spotted the robot on amonitor. I go over to the console and trainthe sensors on the robot. The GM hadntpreviously mentioned a security station orsensors, but since that fits his view of theFLAW, he agrees. Smiths player pays 2points and the GM fits the scene in.In addition to being plausible, a suggestionmust be acceptable to the GM and the other players. In general, the GMshould go along with suggestions that are imaginative, that move theplot forward, or that save a PCs life. The GM should not approve asuggestion that would short-circuit the plot, contradict a previouslyestablished fact, or harm or steal the scene from another PC. In bor-derline cases, the player and GM can negotiate.The GM should make a note of any element added using this rule, asit becomes a permanent part of the game world!
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-6 or -7 Very Hard. Situations thateven the masters might have sec-ond thoughts about. Example: ADriving roll in a high-speed chaseduring a blizzard.-8 or -9 Dangerous. Tasks at whicheven the greatest masters expect tofail. Example: A Driving roll whileshooting a gun in a high-speedchase during a blizzard.-10 Impossible. No sane personwould attempt such a task. TheGM may wish to forbid suchattempts altogether. Example: ADriving roll to steer a car with theknees while firing a bazooka two-handed during a chase through ablizzard.These modifiers assume a trainedcharacter. To get an idea of how tougha task would be for someone workingat default, add the default penalty tothe difficulty modifier.Example: Someone who neverlearned to drive is using Driving at itsDX-5 default. For him, an everydaycommute Easy (+4 or +5) for atrained driver would be Average(DX) or even Unfavorable (DX-1),and almost certainly a stressful experience!The GM can use difficulty modi-fiers in place of other modifiers if theoutcome of a task is too unimportant or the action too hot to justify stop-ping to add up a long string of modi-fiers. For instance, in a car chaseinvolving a car in bad repair, the GMmight bump the difficulty up a level ortwo instead of assessing an equipmentmodifier for the car.Time SpentYou can reduce the penalty for atough task or even get a bonus byworking slowly and deliberately, tak-ing the time to get things right.Conversely, if you are racing to beat adeadline, even the simplest task canbecome tricky.Extra Time: Taking more time thanusual for a task (as specified by therules or the GM) gives a bonus to anoncombat action: 2 as long gives +1,4 gives +2, 8 gives +3, 15 gives +4,and 30 gives +5. For instance, takinga work day (eight hours) to do a one-hour task would give +3. This bonusonly applies if it would make sense totake extra time for the task at hand(GMs judgment). You can take extratime to open a safe or figure out analien artifact, but not to neutralizepoison or chase a fleeing suspect!Haste: Hurrying gives a penalty: -1per 10% less time taken. Forinstance, attempting a task in half theusual time (-50%) is at -5. The maxi-mum time reduction is normally 90%(taking 1/10 the prescribed time), at-9. In a cinematic game, the GMmight allow one attempt at -10 tocomplete a task instantly; e.g., aMechanic roll at -10 to fix a machineby kicking it! However, you cannothasten tasks that require a certainamount of time due to natural laws(e.g., a chemical reaction) or the lim-itations of equipment (e.g., the topspeed of a vehicle). When in doubt,the GMs decision is final.Note that if a skill specifies timemodifiers, these override the genericmodifiers above. For instance, magicspells have their own rules for extratime (see Ceremonial Magic, p. 238)and cannot be rushed save by thosewith high skill (see Magic Rituals,p. 237).346SUCCESS ROLLSLong TasksThe GM may define major projects as long tasksthat require a number of man-hours of work with oneor more attributes or skills. For instance, the GMmight rule that building a rope bridge over a chasmrequires 40 man-hours of DX-based ordinary labor, 24man-hours of Carpentry work, and eight man-hours ofEngineer work.The normal limit on labor for each person involvedis eight hours per 24-hour day. At the end of each day,each worker rolls vs. the skill used that day (the GMrolls for NPCs). A success puts eight man-hours ofwork toward the task; a critical success counts 50%extra. A failure counts as half as much. A critical fail-ure contributes nothing, and ruins 2d man-hours ofwork already done!A supervisor who works a full shift with his work-ers may opt to coordinate his staff instead of workinghimself. Make an Administration roll if organizationmatters more than inspiration, or a Leadership roll inthe opposite situation (GMs judgment). On a success,the workers get +1 to their rolls for the day; on a criti-cal success, they get +2. On any failure, the supervisorcontributes nothing at all.It is possible to work longer shifts. To get an NPC todo this, make an Influence roll (see Influence Rolls,p. 359). Roll against HT on any day you work more thaneight hours, at -1 per hour over 10. On a success, makethe usual skill roll and (except on a critical failure) basethe man-hours contributed on the time worked. On afailure, your skill roll has a penalty equal to your mar-gin of failure or -2, whichever is worse, and you lose FPequal to the size of your penalty but you still con-tribute extra labor if your skill roll succeeds. Treat a crit-ical failure as any other failure, except that you are soexhausted that you cannot work the next day!It is possible to cut corners and reduce the man-hours of labor required, as described under TimeSpent. All workers doing a given type of labor maketheir skill rolls at the usual penalty for haste. Forinstance, the manual laborers working on the ropebridge above could reduce their work to 20 man-hours, but they would roll at DX-5.Likewise, it is possible to take extra time to get abonus. For instance, if those laborers put in 80 man-hours, they would roll at DX+1. This strategy is likelyto backfire if the extra time takes the form of longshifts, however.DEGREEOF SUCCESSOR FAILUREOnce you have calculated effectiveskill by applying all relevant modifiersto base skill, roll 3d to determine theoutcome. If the total rolled on the diceis less than or equal to your effectiveskill, you succeed, and the differencebetween your effective skill and yourdie roll is your margin of success.Example: If you have effective skill18 and roll a 12, you succeed; yourmargin of success is 6.If you roll higher than your effec-tive skill, you fail, and the differencebetween the die roll and your effectiveskill is your margin of failure.Example: If you have effective skill9 and roll a 12, you fail; your marginof failure is 3.Always note your margin of suc-cess or failure, as many rules use thesemargins to calculate results that mat-ter in play. Even when the rules dontcall for these numbers, the GM mightwish to reward a large margin of suc-cess with a particularly favorable out-come, or assess especially dire conse-quences for a large margin of failure!Extremely high or low rolls havespecial effects beyond those for nor-mal success and failure regardlessof your exact margin of success orfailure.Critical SuccessA critical success is an especiallygood result. You score a critical suc-cess as follows: A roll of 3 or 4 is always a criticalsuccess. A roll of 5 is a critical success ifyour effective skill is 15+. A roll of 6 is a critical success ifyour effective skill is 16+.When you roll a critical success,the GM determines what happens toyou. It is always something good! Thelower the roll, the better bonus hegives you.A critical hit is a critical successscored on an attack. The GM does notdetermine the result. Instead, use theCritical Hit Table (p. 556).SUCCESS ROLLS347Optional Rule:Influencing Success RollsHere are two options for GMs who wish to let players spend bonuscharacter points (see p. 498) to influence game-world outcomes. Beaware that rules of this kind tend to encourage players to sacrifice long-term development for short-term success. This is most appropriate forgenres where the heroes usually win but dont develop much; e.g.,classic comic-book supers. The GM might want to set a limit on howmany points each player can spend this way per game session.Buying SuccessA player can spend bonus character points to alter the outcome ofhis last success roll. It costs 2 points to turn critical failure into failure,1 point to convert failure to success, or 2 points to turn success into crit-ical success. Add these costs for multiple shifts (e.g., critical failure tocritical success costs 5 points). To keep the PCs from winning every bat-tle with a series of critical hits, the GM may choose to forbid purchaseof critical successes, at least in combat.Note that because guaranteed successcan destroy suspense, this optional rule isnot recommended for horror or mysterygames.Player GuidanceA player can spend bonus characterpoints to specify the game-world effects of arecent success. Whenever he rolls a success(or in a situation that didnt call for a roll),he may spend 2 points and add a plausibleelement to the world or scene. A player whorolls a critical success may spend 1 point forthe same effect. This replaces any other ben-eficial effects of the critical success.Example: Dr. Smith is working at theFederal Laboratory for Advanced Weaponswhen a giant robot bursts through the frontdoors, four stories below. Smith makes hisSense roll and notices the attack. Smithsplayer suggests, I was walking past thesecurity station and spotted the robot on amonitor. I go over to the console and trainthe sensors on the robot. The GM hadntpreviously mentioned a security station orsensors, but since that fits his view of theFLAW, he agrees. Smiths player pays 2points and the GM fits the scene in.In addition to being plausible, a suggestionmust be acceptable to the GM and the other players. In general, the GMshould go along with suggestions that are imaginative, that move theplot forward, or that save a PCs life. The GM should not approve asuggestion that would short-circuit the plot, contradict a previouslyestablished fact, or harm or steal the scene from another PC. In bor-derline cases, the player and GM can negotiate.The GM should make a note of any element added using this rule, asit becomes a permanent part of the game world!Critical FailureA critical failure is an especially badresult. You score a critical failure asfollows: A roll of 18 is always a critical failure. A roll of 17 is a critical failure ifyour effective skill is 15 or less; other-wise, it is an ordinary failure. Any roll of 10 greater than youreffective skill is a critical failure: 16 ona skill of 6, 15 on a skill of 5, and so on.When you roll a critical failure, theGM determines what happens to you.It is always something bad the high-er the roll, the worse the result.A critical miss is a critical failurescored on an attack. The GM does notdetermine the result. Instead, use theCritical Miss Table (p. 556).REPEATEDATTEMPTSSometimes you will only get onechance to do something (defuse abomb, jump over a crevasse, removean inflamed appendix, please the Kingwith a song). Other times you can tryover and over again until you succeed(pick a lock, catch a fish, analyze apoison). Still other times you will notknow whether you succeeded or faileduntil its too late to try again (translatean old treasure map, order in a Frenchrestaurant, build a ship). Finally, thereare times when you are injured by fail-ure but can afford to fail a few times(climb a wall, impress a savagetribesman).The GM must use common senseto distinguish between these cases,according to the exact situation inwhich the players find themselves. Asa rule: If the first failure kills them ordestroys the object of the attempt,thats that. If a failure causes damage ofsome kind, assess the damage and letthem try again after a reasonabletime passes. (Skill descriptions fre-quently state the time required.) If a failure causes no damage, letthem try again after a reasonable time,but at -1 per repeated attempt that is,-1 on the second attempt, -2 on thethird, and so on until they succeed orgive up. If repeated attempts are the normfor the task (e.g., when attacking incombat), or if its long task, tell themthat their attempt failed but let themtry again at no special penalty, in theusual amount of time.348SUCCESS ROLLSCONTESTSSometimes a situation will arise inwhich two characters must compareattributes, skills, or other traits to settlea competition. The one with the highestscore doesnt always win . . . but thatsthe way to bet. A Contest is a quickway to handle such a competitive situa-tion without playing it out in detail. In a Contest, each competitorattempts a success roll against the abil-ity being tested with all applicablemodifiers and then compares hisresult to his opponents. There are two different ways to make this comparison.QUICK CONTESTSA Quick Contest is a competitionthat is over in very little time often inone second, perhaps even instantly.Examples include two enemies lung-ing for a gun, or two knife throwersseeing who gets closer to the bulls-eye.Each competitor attempts his suc-cess roll. If one succeeds and the otherfails, the winner is obvious. If bothsucceed, the winner is the one with thelargest margin of success; if both fail,the winner is the one with the smallestmargin of failure. A tie means nobodywon (in the examples above, bothfighters grabbed the weapon at once,or the knives hit the same distancefrom the bulls-eye).Margin of VictoryThe amount by which the winnerbeat the loser is often important suc-cess by 5 vs. failure by 5 generallymeans more than success by 2 vs. suc-cess by 1! The winners margin of vic-tory is the difference between hismargin of success and the losers margin of success if both succeeded,the sum of his margin of success andthe losers margin of failure if he succeeded and the loser failed, or thedifference between the losers marginof failure and his margin of failure ifboth failed.Resistance RollsMost abilities that can affect anunwilling subject offer the subject anattempt to resist using an attribute,skill, or supernatural ability. This issometimes a Quick Contest betweenthe attacking ability and the defendersresistance, in which case two specialrules apply:1. The attacker must succeed towin. He cannot win by having thesmallest margin of failure. If he failshis roll, he loses automatically and hissubject does not need to attempt aresistance roll.2. The attacker must win to affectthe subject. All ties go to the defender.
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DEGREEOF SUCCESSOR FAILUREOnce you have calculated effectiveskill by applying all relevant modifiersto base skill, roll 3d to determine theoutcome. If the total rolled on the diceis less than or equal to your effectiveskill, you succeed, and the differencebetween your effective skill and yourdie roll is your margin of success.Example: If you have effective skill18 and roll a 12, you succeed; yourmargin of success is 6.If you roll higher than your effec-tive skill, you fail, and the differencebetween the die roll and your effectiveskill is your margin of failure.Example: If you have effective skill9 and roll a 12, you fail; your marginof failure is 3.Always note your margin of suc-cess or failure, as many rules use thesemargins to calculate results that mat-ter in play. Even when the rules dontcall for these numbers, the GM mightwish to reward a large margin of suc-cess with a particularly favorable out-come, or assess especially dire conse-quences for a large margin of failure!Extremely high or low rolls havespecial effects beyond those for nor-mal success and failure regardlessof your exact margin of success orfailure.Critical SuccessA critical success is an especiallygood result. You score a critical suc-cess as follows: A roll of 3 or 4 is always a criticalsuccess. A roll of 5 is a critical success ifyour effective skill is 15+. A roll of 6 is a critical success ifyour effective skill is 16+.When you roll a critical success,the GM determines what happens toyou. It is always something good! Thelower the roll, the better bonus hegives you.A critical hit is a critical successscored on an attack. The GM does notdetermine the result. Instead, use theCritical Hit Table (p. 556).SUCCESS ROLLS347Optional Rule:Influencing Success RollsHere are two options for GMs who wish to let players spend bonuscharacter points (see p. 498) to influence game-world outcomes. Beaware that rules of this kind tend to encourage players to sacrifice long-term development for short-term success. This is most appropriate forgenres where the heroes usually win but dont develop much; e.g.,classic comic-book supers. The GM might want to set a limit on howmany points each player can spend this way per game session.Buying SuccessA player can spend bonus character points to alter the outcome ofhis last success roll. It costs 2 points to turn critical failure into failure,1 point to convert failure to success, or 2 points to turn success into crit-ical success. Add these costs for multiple shifts (e.g., critical failure tocritical success costs 5 points). To keep the PCs from winning every bat-tle with a series of critical hits, the GM may choose to forbid purchaseof critical successes, at least in combat.Note that because guaranteed successcan destroy suspense, this optional rule isnot recommended for horror or mysterygames.Player GuidanceA player can spend bonus characterpoints to specify the game-world effects of arecent success. Whenever he rolls a success(or in a situation that didnt call for a roll),he may spend 2 points and add a plausibleelement to the world or scene. A player whorolls a critical success may spend 1 point forthe same effect. This replaces any other ben-eficial effects of the critical success.Example: Dr. Smith is working at theFederal Laboratory for Advanced Weaponswhen a giant robot bursts through the frontdoors, four stories below. Smith makes hisSense roll and notices the attack. Smithsplayer suggests, I was walking past thesecurity station and spotted the robot on amonitor. I go over to the console and trainthe sensors on the robot. The GM hadntpreviously mentioned a security station orsensors, but since that fits his view of theFLAW, he agrees. Smiths player pays 2points and the GM fits the scene in.In addition to being plausible, a suggestionmust be acceptable to the GM and the other players. In general, the GMshould go along with suggestions that are imaginative, that move theplot forward, or that save a PCs life. The GM should not approve asuggestion that would short-circuit the plot, contradict a previouslyestablished fact, or harm or steal the scene from another PC. In bor-derline cases, the player and GM can negotiate.The GM should make a note of any element added using this rule, asit becomes a permanent part of the game world!Critical FailureA critical failure is an especially badresult. You score a critical failure asfollows: A roll of 18 is always a critical failure. A roll of 17 is a critical failure ifyour effective skill is 15 or less; other-wise, it is an ordinary failure. Any roll of 10 greater than youreffective skill is a critical failure: 16 ona skill of 6, 15 on a skill of 5, and so on.When you roll a critical failure, theGM determines what happens to you.It is always something bad the high-er the roll, the worse the result.A critical miss is a critical failurescored on an attack. The GM does notdetermine the result. Instead, use theCritical Miss Table (p. 556).REPEATEDATTEMPTSSometimes you will only get onechance to do something (defuse abomb, jump over a crevasse, removean inflamed appendix, please the Kingwith a song). Other times you can tryover and over again until you succeed(pick a lock, catch a fish, analyze apoison). Still other times you will notknow whether you succeeded or faileduntil its too late to try again (translatean old treasure map, order in a Frenchrestaurant, build a ship). Finally, thereare times when you are injured by fail-ure but can afford to fail a few times(climb a wall, impress a savagetribesman).The GM must use common senseto distinguish between these cases,according to the exact situation inwhich the players find themselves. Asa rule: If the first failure kills them ordestroys the object of the attempt,thats that. If a failure causes damage ofsome kind, assess the damage and letthem try again after a reasonabletime passes. (Skill descriptions fre-quently state the time required.) If a failure causes no damage, letthem try again after a reasonable time,but at -1 per repeated attempt that is,-1 on the second attempt, -2 on thethird, and so on until they succeed orgive up. If repeated attempts are the normfor the task (e.g., when attacking incombat), or if its long task, tell themthat their attempt failed but let themtry again at no special penalty, in theusual amount of time.348SUCCESS ROLLSCONTESTSSometimes a situation will arise inwhich two characters must compareattributes, skills, or other traits to settlea competition. The one with the highestscore doesnt always win . . . but thatsthe way to bet. A Contest is a quickway to handle such a competitive situa-tion without playing it out in detail. In a Contest, each competitorattempts a success roll against the abil-ity being tested with all applicablemodifiers and then compares hisresult to his opponents. There are two different ways to make this comparison.QUICK CONTESTSA Quick Contest is a competitionthat is over in very little time often inone second, perhaps even instantly.Examples include two enemies lung-ing for a gun, or two knife throwersseeing who gets closer to the bulls-eye.Each competitor attempts his suc-cess roll. If one succeeds and the otherfails, the winner is obvious. If bothsucceed, the winner is the one with thelargest margin of success; if both fail,the winner is the one with the smallestmargin of failure. A tie means nobodywon (in the examples above, bothfighters grabbed the weapon at once,or the knives hit the same distancefrom the bulls-eye).Margin of VictoryThe amount by which the winnerbeat the loser is often important suc-cess by 5 vs. failure by 5 generallymeans more than success by 2 vs. suc-cess by 1! The winners margin of vic-tory is the difference between hismargin of success and the losers margin of success if both succeeded,the sum of his margin of success andthe losers margin of failure if he succeeded and the loser failed, or thedifference between the losers marginof failure and his margin of failure ifboth failed.Resistance RollsMost abilities that can affect anunwilling subject offer the subject anattempt to resist using an attribute,skill, or supernatural ability. This issometimes a Quick Contest betweenthe attacking ability and the defendersresistance, in which case two specialrules apply:1. The attacker must succeed towin. He cannot win by having thesmallest margin of failure. If he failshis roll, he loses automatically and hissubject does not need to attempt aresistance roll.2. The attacker must win to affectthe subject. All ties go to the defender.REGULARCONTESTSA Regular Contest is a slow com-petition with much give and take forinstance, arm wrestling.Each character attempts his suc-cess roll. If one succeeds and the otherfails, the winner is obvious. If bothsucceed or both fail, the competitorsrelative positions are unchanged andthey roll again. Eventually, one char-acter succeeds when the other fails. Atthis point, the one who made his roll isthe winner.The length of game time eachattempt takes depends on the activity,and is up to the GM. In a combat situ-ation, each attempt takes one second. . . but in a library-research contest,with the fate of the world hanging onwho finds a certain obscure referencefirst, each attempt could representdays of time.Extreme ScoresIf both contestants have a score of6 or less, a Regular Contest can bogdown the game as both sides roll fail-ure after failure. To keep the gamemoving, raise the lower score to 10and add the same amount to thehigher score.Example: For a 5 vs. 3 Contest, add7 to each score to make it 12 vs. 10.Likewise, a Regular Contest canbecome deadlocked if both contest-ants have scores of 14 or more,because it can take a long time beforeanyone rolls a failure. To speed up theprocess, reduce the lower score to 10and subtract the same amount fromthe higher score.Example: For a 19 vs. 16 Contest,subtract 6 from each score to make it13 vs. 10.When both scores are greater than20 e.g., a Contest of ST betweendinosaurs even this will not suffice.Instead, reduce the lower score to 10and multiply the higher score by(10/lower score), rounding down.Example: For a 600 vs. 500 Contest,multiply the higher score by 10/500and set the lower one to 10 to make it12 vs. 10.SUCCESS ROLLS349PHYSICAL FEATSBelow are rules for common phys-ical tasks of importance to adventur-ers. For tasks not listed here, make DXrolls for matters of precision and HTrolls for feats of endurance. To deter-mine weight moved or work done, useBasic Lift. Movement speed shouldgenerally be proportional to BasicMove. For more on basic attributesand secondary characteristics, seeChapter 1.CLIMBINGTo climb anything more difficultthan a ladder, roll against Climbingskill (p. 183). This defaults to DX-5.Modifiers to the roll depend on the dif-ficulty of the climb (see below). In allcases, subtract your encumbrancelevel from your roll as well. Climbingwhile heavily laden is a dangerousmatter!Make one roll to start the climband another roll every five minutes.Any failure means you fall (see Falling,p. 431). If you secured yourself with arope, you will fall only to the end ofthe rope unless you rolled a criticalfailure.The table below gives skill modi-fiers and climbing speeds for somecommon climbs. In most cases, usethe speeds in the Regular column.The Combat column is for climbsinspired by rage or terror, whichalways cost at least 1 FP or doublethe FP cost given in an adventure orassessed by the GM. Climbs in combatrequire a Move maneuver.Type of ClimbModifierCombatRegularLadder going upno roll3 rungs/sec1 rung/secLadder going downno roll2 rungs/sec1 rung/secOrdinary tree+51 ft/sec1 ft/3 secOrdinary mountain01 ft/2 sec10 ft/minVertical stone wall-31 ft/5 sec4 ft/minModern building-31 ft/10 sec2 ft/minRope-up-21 ft/sec20 ft/minRope-down(w/o equipment)-12 ft/sec30 ft/min(w/ equipment)-112 ft/sec12 ft/secThe Rule of 16If a supernatural attack (magic spell, psi ability, etc.) offers a resist-ance roll and the subject is living or sapient, the attackers effective skillcannot exceed the higher of 16 and the defenders actual resistance. If itdoes, reduce it to that level.Example: A wizard has an effective skill of 18 with his Mind-Readingspell. If he tries to read the mind of someone with a Will of 16 or less,he rolls against 16. If his subject has a Will of 17, he rolls against 17.And if his target has a Will of 18 or higher, he rolls against 18.
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Critical FailureA critical failure is an especially badresult. You score a critical failure asfollows: A roll of 18 is always a critical failure. A roll of 17 is a critical failure ifyour effective skill is 15 or less; other-wise, it is an ordinary failure. Any roll of 10 greater than youreffective skill is a critical failure: 16 ona skill of 6, 15 on a skill of 5, and so on.When you roll a critical failure, theGM determines what happens to you.It is always something bad the high-er the roll, the worse the result.A critical miss is a critical failurescored on an attack. The GM does notdetermine the result. Instead, use theCritical Miss Table (p. 556).REPEATEDATTEMPTSSometimes you will only get onechance to do something (defuse abomb, jump over a crevasse, removean inflamed appendix, please the Kingwith a song). Other times you can tryover and over again until you succeed(pick a lock, catch a fish, analyze apoison). Still other times you will notknow whether you succeeded or faileduntil its too late to try again (translatean old treasure map, order in a Frenchrestaurant, build a ship). Finally, thereare times when you are injured by fail-ure but can afford to fail a few times(climb a wall, impress a savagetribesman).The GM must use common senseto distinguish between these cases,according to the exact situation inwhich the players find themselves. Asa rule: If the first failure kills them ordestroys the object of the attempt,thats that. If a failure causes damage ofsome kind, assess the damage and letthem try again after a reasonabletime passes. (Skill descriptions fre-quently state the time required.) If a failure causes no damage, letthem try again after a reasonable time,but at -1 per repeated attempt that is,-1 on the second attempt, -2 on thethird, and so on until they succeed orgive up. If repeated attempts are the normfor the task (e.g., when attacking incombat), or if its long task, tell themthat their attempt failed but let themtry again at no special penalty, in theusual amount of time.348SUCCESS ROLLSCONTESTSSometimes a situation will arise inwhich two characters must compareattributes, skills, or other traits to settlea competition. The one with the highestscore doesnt always win . . . but thatsthe way to bet. A Contest is a quickway to handle such a competitive situa-tion without playing it out in detail. In a Contest, each competitorattempts a success roll against the abil-ity being tested with all applicablemodifiers and then compares hisresult to his opponents. There are two different ways to make this comparison.QUICK CONTESTSA Quick Contest is a competitionthat is over in very little time often inone second, perhaps even instantly.Examples include two enemies lung-ing for a gun, or two knife throwersseeing who gets closer to the bulls-eye.Each competitor attempts his suc-cess roll. If one succeeds and the otherfails, the winner is obvious. If bothsucceed, the winner is the one with thelargest margin of success; if both fail,the winner is the one with the smallestmargin of failure. A tie means nobodywon (in the examples above, bothfighters grabbed the weapon at once,or the knives hit the same distancefrom the bulls-eye).Margin of VictoryThe amount by which the winnerbeat the loser is often important suc-cess by 5 vs. failure by 5 generallymeans more than success by 2 vs. suc-cess by 1! The winners margin of vic-tory is the difference between hismargin of success and the losers margin of success if both succeeded,the sum of his margin of success andthe losers margin of failure if he succeeded and the loser failed, or thedifference between the losers marginof failure and his margin of failure ifboth failed.Resistance RollsMost abilities that can affect anunwilling subject offer the subject anattempt to resist using an attribute,skill, or supernatural ability. This issometimes a Quick Contest betweenthe attacking ability and the defendersresistance, in which case two specialrules apply:1. The attacker must succeed towin. He cannot win by having thesmallest margin of failure. If he failshis roll, he loses automatically and hissubject does not need to attempt aresistance roll.2. The attacker must win to affectthe subject. All ties go to the defender.REGULARCONTESTSA Regular Contest is a slow com-petition with much give and take forinstance, arm wrestling.Each character attempts his suc-cess roll. If one succeeds and the otherfails, the winner is obvious. If bothsucceed or both fail, the competitorsrelative positions are unchanged andthey roll again. Eventually, one char-acter succeeds when the other fails. Atthis point, the one who made his roll isthe winner.The length of game time eachattempt takes depends on the activity,and is up to the GM. In a combat situ-ation, each attempt takes one second. . . but in a library-research contest,with the fate of the world hanging onwho finds a certain obscure referencefirst, each attempt could representdays of time.Extreme ScoresIf both contestants have a score of6 or less, a Regular Contest can bogdown the game as both sides roll fail-ure after failure. To keep the gamemoving, raise the lower score to 10and add the same amount to thehigher score.Example: For a 5 vs. 3 Contest, add7 to each score to make it 12 vs. 10.Likewise, a Regular Contest canbecome deadlocked if both contest-ants have scores of 14 or more,because it can take a long time beforeanyone rolls a failure. To speed up theprocess, reduce the lower score to 10and subtract the same amount fromthe higher score.Example: For a 19 vs. 16 Contest,subtract 6 from each score to make it13 vs. 10.When both scores are greater than20 e.g., a Contest of ST betweendinosaurs even this will not suffice.Instead, reduce the lower score to 10and multiply the higher score by(10/lower score), rounding down.Example: For a 600 vs. 500 Contest,multiply the higher score by 10/500and set the lower one to 10 to make it12 vs. 10.SUCCESS ROLLS349PHYSICAL FEATSBelow are rules for common phys-ical tasks of importance to adventur-ers. For tasks not listed here, make DXrolls for matters of precision and HTrolls for feats of endurance. To deter-mine weight moved or work done, useBasic Lift. Movement speed shouldgenerally be proportional to BasicMove. For more on basic attributesand secondary characteristics, seeChapter 1.CLIMBINGTo climb anything more difficultthan a ladder, roll against Climbingskill (p. 183). This defaults to DX-5.Modifiers to the roll depend on the dif-ficulty of the climb (see below). In allcases, subtract your encumbrancelevel from your roll as well. Climbingwhile heavily laden is a dangerousmatter!Make one roll to start the climband another roll every five minutes.Any failure means you fall (see Falling,p. 431). If you secured yourself with arope, you will fall only to the end ofthe rope unless you rolled a criticalfailure.The table below gives skill modi-fiers and climbing speeds for somecommon climbs. In most cases, usethe speeds in the Regular column.The Combat column is for climbsinspired by rage or terror, whichalways cost at least 1 FP or doublethe FP cost given in an adventure orassessed by the GM. Climbs in combatrequire a Move maneuver.Type of ClimbModifierCombatRegularLadder going upno roll3 rungs/sec1 rung/secLadder going downno roll2 rungs/sec1 rung/secOrdinary tree+51 ft/sec1 ft/3 secOrdinary mountain01 ft/2 sec10 ft/minVertical stone wall-31 ft/5 sec4 ft/minModern building-31 ft/10 sec2 ft/minRope-up-21 ft/sec20 ft/minRope-down(w/o equipment)-12 ft/sec30 ft/min(w/ equipment)-112 ft/sec12 ft/secThe Rule of 16If a supernatural attack (magic spell, psi ability, etc.) offers a resist-ance roll and the subject is living or sapient, the attackers effective skillcannot exceed the higher of 16 and the defenders actual resistance. If itdoes, reduce it to that level.Example: A wizard has an effective skill of 18 with his Mind-Readingspell. If he tries to read the mind of someone with a Will of 16 or less,he rolls against 16. If his subject has a Will of 17, he rolls against 17.And if his target has a Will of 18 or higher, he rolls against 18.DIGGINGDigging rate depends on the type ofsoil, the diggers Basic Lift (that is,STST/5), and the quality of the toolsavailable.Loose Soil, Sand, etc.: A man candig 2BL cubic feet per hour (cf/hr).Ordinary Soil: A man can dig BLcf/hr. One man with a pick can breakup 4BL cf/hr, making it into loosesoil, which is easier to remove. Themost efficient way to dig is with oneman with a pick, and two shovelersclearing behind him.Hard Soil, Clay, etc.: Must be bro-ken up first by a pick, at 2BL cf/hr,350SUCCESS ROLLSDifferent GravityA worlds gravity is measured in Gs, with 1G beingEarth-normal conditions. In comparison, Mars has0.38G and the Moon has 0.17G.Microgravity is extremely low gravity (e.g., that of anasteroid or small moon) for game purposes, anythingbelow 0.1G.Zero gravity is weightlessness, or free fall, as foundin space and aboard any spacecraft not spinning, accel-erating, or otherwise generating artificial gravity.In higher or lower gravity, mass stays the same, butweight changes.Encumbrance and Move in Different GravityIf local gravity is more than 1G, multiply the sum ofyour body weight and the weight of everything youre car-rying by (local gravity in Gs)-1. This is the extra weightyoure carrying due to high gravity. Add this to yourencumbrance when determining Move.Example: You weigh 150 lbs. and are carrying 30 lbs.of gear. On a 1.2-G world, that amounts to an extra weightof (150 + 30) (1.2 - 1) = 36 lbs. Since youre already car-rying 30 lbs., your total encumbrance is 66 lbs.If local gravity is less than 1G, multiply the weight ofthe gear youre carrying by the local gravity, and use themodified weight to determine your encumbrance. Thereis a similar reduction in your body weight; this does notaffect encumbrance, but it lets you jump further (seebelow). In very low gravity, you may be able to movefaster than your Basic Move by making a series of run-ning broad jumps instead of walking!In zero gravity, you float in space (unless using mag-netic boots, thrusters, etc.). If you cant fly, you must pushoff from a solid surface to move. Your Move when doingso is equal to ST/2, rounded down. You will keep going atthat speed until you grab or collide with something!Actions in Different GravityIn gravities other than 1G, the jumping rules (p. 352)need modification. Multiply your normal jumping dis-tances by the ratio of 1G to local gravity. For instance,under 1.25G, you jump 1/1.25 = 0.8 times as far, whileunder 0.2G, you jump 1/0.2 = 5 times as far. (Exception:Do not multiply the bonus high-jump distance you getfrom a running start!) If this lets you jump at least twiceas far as normal, use the rules under Super Jump (p. 89)to determine how fast you can move by bounding along.When throwing (p. 355), multiply distance by theratio of 1G to local gravity, just as you would for jump-ing. Damage from thrown objects does not change, asthis is based on mass.Gravity also affects falls. Multiply terminal velocityby local gravity. See Falling (p. 431) for what thisimplies.In zero gravity, your skills and DX rolls are affectedas well; see Free Fall (p. 197). This does not apply whenfiring beam weapons (unless they have Recoil 2 ormore) or operating vehicles or tools specificallydesigned for zero gravity (e.g., a spacecraft).G-Increments and Attribute PenaltiesIf local gravity differs from your home gravity (seeHome Gravity, p. 17), you might become disorientedand suffer physiological effects. The change in gravityyou can tolerate without penalties is your G-Increment. This is 0.2G unless you have the ImprovedG-Tolerance advantage (p. 60).In higher or lower gravity than usual, count thenumber of G-Increments from your home gravity,rounding down. This determines the penalties you suf-fer. For instance, an Earth native used to 1G treats0.81G to 1.19G as zero G-Increments, but 0.8G or 1.2Gcounts as one G-Increment.DX: You are at -1 DX per G-Increment of difference(-1 per two full G-Increments, if you have the G-Experience advantage, p. 57). This applies to activitiesthat require agility or judging ballistic trajectories; itaffects Broadsword, Driving, and Guns, but not BeamWeapons or Lockpicking.IQ: You are at -1 IQ per two full G-Increments ofhigher gravity, due to reduced blood flow to the brainand general fatigue. Lower gravity has no effect.HT: You are at -1 HT per two full G-Increments ofhigher gravity, because the heart has to work harder.Lower your FP score by the same amount. There is noeffect in lower gravity although microgravity or zerogravity might cause space sickness (see SpaceAdaptation Syndrome, p. 434), or even have lasting illeffects in the long term.See Temporary Attribute Penalties (p. 421) to learnhow attribute penalties affect secondary characteristicsand skills.
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REGULARCONTESTSA Regular Contest is a slow com-petition with much give and take forinstance, arm wrestling.Each character attempts his suc-cess roll. If one succeeds and the otherfails, the winner is obvious. If bothsucceed or both fail, the competitorsrelative positions are unchanged andthey roll again. Eventually, one char-acter succeeds when the other fails. Atthis point, the one who made his roll isthe winner.The length of game time eachattempt takes depends on the activity,and is up to the GM. In a combat situ-ation, each attempt takes one second. . . but in a library-research contest,with the fate of the world hanging onwho finds a certain obscure referencefirst, each attempt could representdays of time.Extreme ScoresIf both contestants have a score of6 or less, a Regular Contest can bogdown the game as both sides roll fail-ure after failure. To keep the gamemoving, raise the lower score to 10and add the same amount to thehigher score.Example: For a 5 vs. 3 Contest, add7 to each score to make it 12 vs. 10.Likewise, a Regular Contest canbecome deadlocked if both contest-ants have scores of 14 or more,because it can take a long time beforeanyone rolls a failure. To speed up theprocess, reduce the lower score to 10and subtract the same amount fromthe higher score.Example: For a 19 vs. 16 Contest,subtract 6 from each score to make it13 vs. 10.When both scores are greater than20 e.g., a Contest of ST betweendinosaurs even this will not suffice.Instead, reduce the lower score to 10and multiply the higher score by(10/lower score), rounding down.Example: For a 600 vs. 500 Contest,multiply the higher score by 10/500and set the lower one to 10 to make it12 vs. 10.SUCCESS ROLLS349PHYSICAL FEATSBelow are rules for common phys-ical tasks of importance to adventur-ers. For tasks not listed here, make DXrolls for matters of precision and HTrolls for feats of endurance. To deter-mine weight moved or work done, useBasic Lift. Movement speed shouldgenerally be proportional to BasicMove. For more on basic attributesand secondary characteristics, seeChapter 1.CLIMBINGTo climb anything more difficultthan a ladder, roll against Climbingskill (p. 183). This defaults to DX-5.Modifiers to the roll depend on the dif-ficulty of the climb (see below). In allcases, subtract your encumbrancelevel from your roll as well. Climbingwhile heavily laden is a dangerousmatter!Make one roll to start the climband another roll every five minutes.Any failure means you fall (see Falling,p. 431). If you secured yourself with arope, you will fall only to the end ofthe rope unless you rolled a criticalfailure.The table below gives skill modi-fiers and climbing speeds for somecommon climbs. In most cases, usethe speeds in the Regular column.The Combat column is for climbsinspired by rage or terror, whichalways cost at least 1 FP or doublethe FP cost given in an adventure orassessed by the GM. Climbs in combatrequire a Move maneuver.Type of ClimbModifierCombatRegularLadder going upno roll3 rungs/sec1 rung/secLadder going downno roll2 rungs/sec1 rung/secOrdinary tree+51 ft/sec1 ft/3 secOrdinary mountain01 ft/2 sec10 ft/minVertical stone wall-31 ft/5 sec4 ft/minModern building-31 ft/10 sec2 ft/minRope-up-21 ft/sec20 ft/minRope-down(w/o equipment)-12 ft/sec30 ft/min(w/ equipment)-112 ft/sec12 ft/secThe Rule of 16If a supernatural attack (magic spell, psi ability, etc.) offers a resist-ance roll and the subject is living or sapient, the attackers effective skillcannot exceed the higher of 16 and the defenders actual resistance. If itdoes, reduce it to that level.Example: A wizard has an effective skill of 18 with his Mind-Readingspell. If he tries to read the mind of someone with a Will of 16 or less,he rolls against 16. If his subject has a Will of 17, he rolls against 17.And if his target has a Will of 18 or higher, he rolls against 18.DIGGINGDigging rate depends on the type ofsoil, the diggers Basic Lift (that is,STST/5), and the quality of the toolsavailable.Loose Soil, Sand, etc.: A man candig 2BL cubic feet per hour (cf/hr).Ordinary Soil: A man can dig BLcf/hr. One man with a pick can breakup 4BL cf/hr, making it into loosesoil, which is easier to remove. Themost efficient way to dig is with oneman with a pick, and two shovelersclearing behind him.Hard Soil, Clay, etc.: Must be bro-ken up first by a pick, at 2BL cf/hr,350SUCCESS ROLLSDifferent GravityA worlds gravity is measured in Gs, with 1G beingEarth-normal conditions. In comparison, Mars has0.38G and the Moon has 0.17G.Microgravity is extremely low gravity (e.g., that of anasteroid or small moon) for game purposes, anythingbelow 0.1G.Zero gravity is weightlessness, or free fall, as foundin space and aboard any spacecraft not spinning, accel-erating, or otherwise generating artificial gravity.In higher or lower gravity, mass stays the same, butweight changes.Encumbrance and Move in Different GravityIf local gravity is more than 1G, multiply the sum ofyour body weight and the weight of everything youre car-rying by (local gravity in Gs)-1. This is the extra weightyoure carrying due to high gravity. Add this to yourencumbrance when determining Move.Example: You weigh 150 lbs. and are carrying 30 lbs.of gear. On a 1.2-G world, that amounts to an extra weightof (150 + 30) (1.2 - 1) = 36 lbs. Since youre already car-rying 30 lbs., your total encumbrance is 66 lbs.If local gravity is less than 1G, multiply the weight ofthe gear youre carrying by the local gravity, and use themodified weight to determine your encumbrance. Thereis a similar reduction in your body weight; this does notaffect encumbrance, but it lets you jump further (seebelow). In very low gravity, you may be able to movefaster than your Basic Move by making a series of run-ning broad jumps instead of walking!In zero gravity, you float in space (unless using mag-netic boots, thrusters, etc.). If you cant fly, you must pushoff from a solid surface to move. Your Move when doingso is equal to ST/2, rounded down. You will keep going atthat speed until you grab or collide with something!Actions in Different GravityIn gravities other than 1G, the jumping rules (p. 352)need modification. Multiply your normal jumping dis-tances by the ratio of 1G to local gravity. For instance,under 1.25G, you jump 1/1.25 = 0.8 times as far, whileunder 0.2G, you jump 1/0.2 = 5 times as far. (Exception:Do not multiply the bonus high-jump distance you getfrom a running start!) If this lets you jump at least twiceas far as normal, use the rules under Super Jump (p. 89)to determine how fast you can move by bounding along.When throwing (p. 355), multiply distance by theratio of 1G to local gravity, just as you would for jump-ing. Damage from thrown objects does not change, asthis is based on mass.Gravity also affects falls. Multiply terminal velocityby local gravity. See Falling (p. 431) for what thisimplies.In zero gravity, your skills and DX rolls are affectedas well; see Free Fall (p. 197). This does not apply whenfiring beam weapons (unless they have Recoil 2 ormore) or operating vehicles or tools specificallydesigned for zero gravity (e.g., a spacecraft).G-Increments and Attribute PenaltiesIf local gravity differs from your home gravity (seeHome Gravity, p. 17), you might become disorientedand suffer physiological effects. The change in gravityyou can tolerate without penalties is your G-Increment. This is 0.2G unless you have the ImprovedG-Tolerance advantage (p. 60).In higher or lower gravity than usual, count thenumber of G-Increments from your home gravity,rounding down. This determines the penalties you suf-fer. For instance, an Earth native used to 1G treats0.81G to 1.19G as zero G-Increments, but 0.8G or 1.2Gcounts as one G-Increment.DX: You are at -1 DX per G-Increment of difference(-1 per two full G-Increments, if you have the G-Experience advantage, p. 57). This applies to activitiesthat require agility or judging ballistic trajectories; itaffects Broadsword, Driving, and Guns, but not BeamWeapons or Lockpicking.IQ: You are at -1 IQ per two full G-Increments ofhigher gravity, due to reduced blood flow to the brainand general fatigue. Lower gravity has no effect.HT: You are at -1 HT per two full G-Increments ofhigher gravity, because the heart has to work harder.Lower your FP score by the same amount. There is noeffect in lower gravity although microgravity or zerogravity might cause space sickness (see SpaceAdaptation Syndrome, p. 434), or even have lasting illeffects in the long term.See Temporary Attribute Penalties (p. 421) to learnhow attribute penalties affect secondary characteristicsand skills.and then shoveled at 2BL cf/hr. Alone man with both pick and shovelcan only remove 0.6BL cf/hr heloses time switching between tools.Hard Rock: Must be broken by apick at BL cf/hr (or slower, for veryhard rock!), and then shoveled at BLcf/hr.All of the above assumes iron orsteel tools! Halve speeds for woodentools (common at TL5 and below).Divide by 4 (or more) for improvisedtools bare hands, mess kits, etc.Time Required and Fatigue CostTo find the time required to dig agiven hole, find the volume of the holein cubic feet by multiplying height width depth (all in feet). Then dividethe number of cubic feet by the dig-ging rate to find the hours of workrequired.Each hour of work costs 1 FP forloose soil, 2 FP for ordinary soil, 3 FPfor hard soil, and 4 FP for hard rock.HIKINGSustainable cross-country speed onfoot depends on ground Move. Startwith Basic Move and reduce it forencumbrance (see Encumbrance andMove, p. 17), injury (see GeneralInjury, p. 419), and exhaustion (seeLost Fatigue Points, p. 426), as appli-cable. The distance in miles you canmarch in one day, under ideal condi-tions, equals 10 Move.If you have the Enhanced Move(Ground) advantage, you may applyyour movement multiple to this dis-tance. For instance, Enhanced Move 1(Ground) multiplies Move by two,doubling daily marching distance. SeeEnhanced Move (p. 52).A successful roll against Hikingskill (p. 200) increases marching dis-tance by 20%. Roll daily. A group ledby someone with Leadership skill at12+ may make a single roll against thegroups average Hiking skill. (Hikingdefaults to HT-5 for those who havenot studied it.) Success lets the entiregroup march 20% farther; failuremeans the whole group must forgo thebonus.When these rules result in differentspeeds for different members of aparty, the party must either move atthe speed of its slowest member orsplit up. Note that a party that hasopted to make a single Hiking roll forthe entire group has already chosennot to split up!TerrainOnce you know your ideal dailymileage, modify it for terrain as fol-lows:Very Bad: Deep snow, dense forest,jungle, mountains, soft sand, orswamp. 0.20.Bad: Broken ground (includingstreams), forest, or steep hills. 0.50.Average: Light forest or rolling hills1.00.Good: Hard-packed desert or levelplains. 1.25.WeatherWeather conditions can furthermodify distance traveled:Rain: Rain halves off-road speed inany terrain. See Roads (below) for theeffects of rain on roads.Snow: Ankle-deep snow halvesspeed in any terrain. Anything deeperdivides speed by 4 or more. Exception:Skis allow travelers to treat any depthof snow as Average terrain. ReplaceHiking skill with Skiing skill (p. 221)when traveling on skis.Ice: Cold combined with moisture due to rain, sleet, snowmelt, etc. results in ice. A coating of ice halvesspeed in any terrain. Solid ice, such asa frozen lake or river, is effectively itsown terrain type; treat it as Bad ter-rain. Exception: Treat solid ice asGood terrain for those with skates.Skating skill (p. 220) replaces Hikingskill when traveling on skates.RoadsIn fine weather, most roads countas Average terrain, regardless of thesurrounding terrain. The best roadsmight even count as Good terrain, giv-ing a bonus.In rain, low-quality roads unsur-faced dirt or gravel turn to mud.Treat them as Very Bad terrain. Betterroads behave as Average (but neverGood) terrain in the rain.In snow or ice, treat roads asAverage terrain, but apply the move-ment penalties given under Weather(above) unless the road is cleared.Time Required and Fatigue CostThese rules assume you spend theentire day preparing for your hike,hiking, or resting, leaving no time forstudy or other activities. This is truehowever small your daily mileage the heavier your load and the worsethe traveling conditions, the moreslowly you walk and the more fre-quently you stop to rest.Should you interrupt your travelsfor adventuring matters, you will bemissing FP when you stop. See FatigueCosts (p. 426) for details.HOLDING YOURBREATHAdventurers often need to holdtheir breath whether to dive or tosurvive poison gas, strangulation, vac-uum, etc. Your HT determines thelength of time you can hold yourbreath, as follows:No Exertion (e.g., sitting quietly ormeditating): HT10 seconds.Mild Exertion (e.g., operating avehicle, treading water, or walking):HT4 seconds.SUCCESS ROLLS351When these rules result in different speeds for different members of a party, the party must eithermove at the speed of its slowest member or split up.
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DIGGINGDigging rate depends on the type ofsoil, the diggers Basic Lift (that is,STST/5), and the quality of the toolsavailable.Loose Soil, Sand, etc.: A man candig 2BL cubic feet per hour (cf/hr).Ordinary Soil: A man can dig BLcf/hr. One man with a pick can breakup 4BL cf/hr, making it into loosesoil, which is easier to remove. Themost efficient way to dig is with oneman with a pick, and two shovelersclearing behind him.Hard Soil, Clay, etc.: Must be bro-ken up first by a pick, at 2BL cf/hr,350SUCCESS ROLLSDifferent GravityA worlds gravity is measured in Gs, with 1G beingEarth-normal conditions. In comparison, Mars has0.38G and the Moon has 0.17G.Microgravity is extremely low gravity (e.g., that of anasteroid or small moon) for game purposes, anythingbelow 0.1G.Zero gravity is weightlessness, or free fall, as foundin space and aboard any spacecraft not spinning, accel-erating, or otherwise generating artificial gravity.In higher or lower gravity, mass stays the same, butweight changes.Encumbrance and Move in Different GravityIf local gravity is more than 1G, multiply the sum ofyour body weight and the weight of everything youre car-rying by (local gravity in Gs)-1. This is the extra weightyoure carrying due to high gravity. Add this to yourencumbrance when determining Move.Example: You weigh 150 lbs. and are carrying 30 lbs.of gear. On a 1.2-G world, that amounts to an extra weightof (150 + 30) (1.2 - 1) = 36 lbs. Since youre already car-rying 30 lbs., your total encumbrance is 66 lbs.If local gravity is less than 1G, multiply the weight ofthe gear youre carrying by the local gravity, and use themodified weight to determine your encumbrance. Thereis a similar reduction in your body weight; this does notaffect encumbrance, but it lets you jump further (seebelow). In very low gravity, you may be able to movefaster than your Basic Move by making a series of run-ning broad jumps instead of walking!In zero gravity, you float in space (unless using mag-netic boots, thrusters, etc.). If you cant fly, you must pushoff from a solid surface to move. Your Move when doingso is equal to ST/2, rounded down. You will keep going atthat speed until you grab or collide with something!Actions in Different GravityIn gravities other than 1G, the jumping rules (p. 352)need modification. Multiply your normal jumping dis-tances by the ratio of 1G to local gravity. For instance,under 1.25G, you jump 1/1.25 = 0.8 times as far, whileunder 0.2G, you jump 1/0.2 = 5 times as far. (Exception:Do not multiply the bonus high-jump distance you getfrom a running start!) If this lets you jump at least twiceas far as normal, use the rules under Super Jump (p. 89)to determine how fast you can move by bounding along.When throwing (p. 355), multiply distance by theratio of 1G to local gravity, just as you would for jump-ing. Damage from thrown objects does not change, asthis is based on mass.Gravity also affects falls. Multiply terminal velocityby local gravity. See Falling (p. 431) for what thisimplies.In zero gravity, your skills and DX rolls are affectedas well; see Free Fall (p. 197). This does not apply whenfiring beam weapons (unless they have Recoil 2 ormore) or operating vehicles or tools specificallydesigned for zero gravity (e.g., a spacecraft).G-Increments and Attribute PenaltiesIf local gravity differs from your home gravity (seeHome Gravity, p. 17), you might become disorientedand suffer physiological effects. The change in gravityyou can tolerate without penalties is your G-Increment. This is 0.2G unless you have the ImprovedG-Tolerance advantage (p. 60).In higher or lower gravity than usual, count thenumber of G-Increments from your home gravity,rounding down. This determines the penalties you suf-fer. For instance, an Earth native used to 1G treats0.81G to 1.19G as zero G-Increments, but 0.8G or 1.2Gcounts as one G-Increment.DX: You are at -1 DX per G-Increment of difference(-1 per two full G-Increments, if you have the G-Experience advantage, p. 57). This applies to activitiesthat require agility or judging ballistic trajectories; itaffects Broadsword, Driving, and Guns, but not BeamWeapons or Lockpicking.IQ: You are at -1 IQ per two full G-Increments ofhigher gravity, due to reduced blood flow to the brainand general fatigue. Lower gravity has no effect.HT: You are at -1 HT per two full G-Increments ofhigher gravity, because the heart has to work harder.Lower your FP score by the same amount. There is noeffect in lower gravity although microgravity or zerogravity might cause space sickness (see SpaceAdaptation Syndrome, p. 434), or even have lasting illeffects in the long term.See Temporary Attribute Penalties (p. 421) to learnhow attribute penalties affect secondary characteristicsand skills.and then shoveled at 2BL cf/hr. Alone man with both pick and shovelcan only remove 0.6BL cf/hr heloses time switching between tools.Hard Rock: Must be broken by apick at BL cf/hr (or slower, for veryhard rock!), and then shoveled at BLcf/hr.All of the above assumes iron orsteel tools! Halve speeds for woodentools (common at TL5 and below).Divide by 4 (or more) for improvisedtools bare hands, mess kits, etc.Time Required and Fatigue CostTo find the time required to dig agiven hole, find the volume of the holein cubic feet by multiplying height width depth (all in feet). Then dividethe number of cubic feet by the dig-ging rate to find the hours of workrequired.Each hour of work costs 1 FP forloose soil, 2 FP for ordinary soil, 3 FPfor hard soil, and 4 FP for hard rock.HIKINGSustainable cross-country speed onfoot depends on ground Move. Startwith Basic Move and reduce it forencumbrance (see Encumbrance andMove, p. 17), injury (see GeneralInjury, p. 419), and exhaustion (seeLost Fatigue Points, p. 426), as appli-cable. The distance in miles you canmarch in one day, under ideal condi-tions, equals 10 Move.If you have the Enhanced Move(Ground) advantage, you may applyyour movement multiple to this dis-tance. For instance, Enhanced Move 1(Ground) multiplies Move by two,doubling daily marching distance. SeeEnhanced Move (p. 52).A successful roll against Hikingskill (p. 200) increases marching dis-tance by 20%. Roll daily. A group ledby someone with Leadership skill at12+ may make a single roll against thegroups average Hiking skill. (Hikingdefaults to HT-5 for those who havenot studied it.) Success lets the entiregroup march 20% farther; failuremeans the whole group must forgo thebonus.When these rules result in differentspeeds for different members of aparty, the party must either move atthe speed of its slowest member orsplit up. Note that a party that hasopted to make a single Hiking roll forthe entire group has already chosennot to split up!TerrainOnce you know your ideal dailymileage, modify it for terrain as fol-lows:Very Bad: Deep snow, dense forest,jungle, mountains, soft sand, orswamp. 0.20.Bad: Broken ground (includingstreams), forest, or steep hills. 0.50.Average: Light forest or rolling hills1.00.Good: Hard-packed desert or levelplains. 1.25.WeatherWeather conditions can furthermodify distance traveled:Rain: Rain halves off-road speed inany terrain. See Roads (below) for theeffects of rain on roads.Snow: Ankle-deep snow halvesspeed in any terrain. Anything deeperdivides speed by 4 or more. Exception:Skis allow travelers to treat any depthof snow as Average terrain. ReplaceHiking skill with Skiing skill (p. 221)when traveling on skis.Ice: Cold combined with moisture due to rain, sleet, snowmelt, etc. results in ice. A coating of ice halvesspeed in any terrain. Solid ice, such asa frozen lake or river, is effectively itsown terrain type; treat it as Bad ter-rain. Exception: Treat solid ice asGood terrain for those with skates.Skating skill (p. 220) replaces Hikingskill when traveling on skates.RoadsIn fine weather, most roads countas Average terrain, regardless of thesurrounding terrain. The best roadsmight even count as Good terrain, giv-ing a bonus.In rain, low-quality roads unsur-faced dirt or gravel turn to mud.Treat them as Very Bad terrain. Betterroads behave as Average (but neverGood) terrain in the rain.In snow or ice, treat roads asAverage terrain, but apply the move-ment penalties given under Weather(above) unless the road is cleared.Time Required and Fatigue CostThese rules assume you spend theentire day preparing for your hike,hiking, or resting, leaving no time forstudy or other activities. This is truehowever small your daily mileage the heavier your load and the worsethe traveling conditions, the moreslowly you walk and the more fre-quently you stop to rest.Should you interrupt your travelsfor adventuring matters, you will bemissing FP when you stop. See FatigueCosts (p. 426) for details.HOLDING YOURBREATHAdventurers often need to holdtheir breath whether to dive or tosurvive poison gas, strangulation, vac-uum, etc. Your HT determines thelength of time you can hold yourbreath, as follows:No Exertion (e.g., sitting quietly ormeditating): HT10 seconds.Mild Exertion (e.g., operating avehicle, treading water, or walking):HT4 seconds.SUCCESS ROLLS351When these rules result in different speeds for different members of a party, the party must eithermove at the speed of its slowest member or split up.Heavy Exertion (e.g., climbing,combat, or running): HT seconds.These times assume you have onesecond to take a deep breath (requiresa Concentrate maneuver in combat).Multiply all times by 1.5 if you hyper-ventilate first or by 2.5 if you hyper-ventilate with pure oxygen. A success-ful roll against Breath Control skill(p. 182) multiplies these times by afurther factor of 1.5. However, if youare surprised and dont have a chanceto take a deep breath e.g., when a gasgrenade goes off in combat halvethese times instead.Regardless of circumstances, eachlevel of the Breath-Holding advantage(p. 41) doubles the time you can holdyour breath.At the end of this time, you start tolose 1 FP per second. At 0 FP, youmust make a Will roll every second orfall unconscious, and are likely to dieunless you are rescued. SeeSuffocation (p. 436) for details.JUMPINGWhen you want to jump oversomething with a Size Modifier 3 lessthan yours or smaller (which encom-passes most ordinary obstacles), theGM should say, Okay, you jumpedover it, and get on with play. Suchjumps succeed automatically. Butwhen the obstacle seems really signif-icant, or if the GM put it there as adeliberate hazard, use the followingrules.Jumping DistanceYour Basic Move determines jump-ing distance, as follows:High Jump: (6 Basic Move) - 10inches. For example, a Basic Move of6 lets you jump 26 straight up. For arunning jump, add the number ofyards you run to Basic Move in thisformula. Maximum running high-jump height is twice standing high-jump height.Broad Jump: (2 Basic Move) - 3feet. For example, a Basic Move of 6lets you jump 9 feet from a standingstart. For a running jump, add thenumber of yards you run to BasicMove in this formula. Maximum run-ning broad-jump distance is twicestanding broad-jump distance.Those with the Enhanced Move(Ground) advantage (p. 52) may applytheir movement multiplier to BasicMove before inserting it into these for-mulas when they have a running start.This is instead of adding the numberof yards run! For instance, a horsewith Basic Move 6 and EnhancedMove 1 makes running jumps as if itsBasic Move were 12.Those who have Super Jump(p. 89) double the final jumping dis-tance for each level of that advantage.This is cumulative with the effects ofEnhanced Move!Remember that 12 inches equalone foot, and that 3 feet equal oneyard (or one hex on a battle map).Jumping DuringCombatThe jumping distance formulasassume you take the time to crouchand prepare for the jump. In combat,this takes two consecutiveConcentrate maneuvers. Halve all dis-tances if you jump without suchpreparation.If you jump over a small obstacleduring a fight (anything with a SizeModifier 3 less than yours or smaller),you must use a Move maneuver, andthe jump costs one extra movementpoint.To jump over a larger obstruction(e.g., a chair) or onto something (e.g.,a table) during a fight takes yourentire turn and requires a Movemaneuver. Unless the jump is extreme,the GM will assume you can make thejump. (Dont interrupt a battle to cal-culate jumping distance every timesomebody jumps onto a chair!)However, you must make a DX rollwhen you make a vertical jump or along horizontal one. A difficult jump(into a pit, for instance) might give -1to -5 to this DX roll. The GM deter-mines whether you must roll, and atwhat penalty. On a failure, you fall. Ittakes two Change Posture maneuversto stand up again. On a critical failure,you fall off the thing you jumped onto,or land badly if you were jumpingdown, and take normal falling damagefor that height (see Falling, p. 431).To clamber onto a vertical obstaclewithout risking a DX roll, take twoconsecutive Move maneuvers. Successis automatic.Jumping SkillIf you have the Jumping skill(p. 203), you may substitute half yourskill level, rounded down, for BasicMove in the distance formulas. Inaddition, you may roll againstJumping instead of DX whenever youmake a difficult jump.352SUCCESS ROLLSOptional Jumping RulesThe following rules for jumping are optional. Only use them if youenjoy extra detail!ST and JumpingBasic Move is a ready-made measure of jumping ability after all, itmeasures running speed, and running is just a series of rapid hops.However, unnaturally strong supers and monsters in fiction can oftenmake mighty leaps without being speedsters. To emulate this, the GMmay allow those with Basic Lift in excess of body weight to use the high-er of ST/4 (round down) or Basic Move in the jumping distance formulas.Jumping with EncumbranceFor added realism, multiply jumping distances by the encumbrancefactors given under Encumbrance and Move (p. 17): 1 for None, 0.8 forLight, 0.6 for Medium, 0.4 for Heavy, and 0.2 for Extra-Heavy.
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and then shoveled at 2BL cf/hr. Alone man with both pick and shovelcan only remove 0.6BL cf/hr heloses time switching between tools.Hard Rock: Must be broken by apick at BL cf/hr (or slower, for veryhard rock!), and then shoveled at BLcf/hr.All of the above assumes iron orsteel tools! Halve speeds for woodentools (common at TL5 and below).Divide by 4 (or more) for improvisedtools bare hands, mess kits, etc.Time Required and Fatigue CostTo find the time required to dig agiven hole, find the volume of the holein cubic feet by multiplying height width depth (all in feet). Then dividethe number of cubic feet by the dig-ging rate to find the hours of workrequired.Each hour of work costs 1 FP forloose soil, 2 FP for ordinary soil, 3 FPfor hard soil, and 4 FP for hard rock.HIKINGSustainable cross-country speed onfoot depends on ground Move. Startwith Basic Move and reduce it forencumbrance (see Encumbrance andMove, p. 17), injury (see GeneralInjury, p. 419), and exhaustion (seeLost Fatigue Points, p. 426), as appli-cable. The distance in miles you canmarch in one day, under ideal condi-tions, equals 10 Move.If you have the Enhanced Move(Ground) advantage, you may applyyour movement multiple to this dis-tance. For instance, Enhanced Move 1(Ground) multiplies Move by two,doubling daily marching distance. SeeEnhanced Move (p. 52).A successful roll against Hikingskill (p. 200) increases marching dis-tance by 20%. Roll daily. A group ledby someone with Leadership skill at12+ may make a single roll against thegroups average Hiking skill. (Hikingdefaults to HT-5 for those who havenot studied it.) Success lets the entiregroup march 20% farther; failuremeans the whole group must forgo thebonus.When these rules result in differentspeeds for different members of aparty, the party must either move atthe speed of its slowest member orsplit up. Note that a party that hasopted to make a single Hiking roll forthe entire group has already chosennot to split up!TerrainOnce you know your ideal dailymileage, modify it for terrain as fol-lows:Very Bad: Deep snow, dense forest,jungle, mountains, soft sand, orswamp. 0.20.Bad: Broken ground (includingstreams), forest, or steep hills. 0.50.Average: Light forest or rolling hills1.00.Good: Hard-packed desert or levelplains. 1.25.WeatherWeather conditions can furthermodify distance traveled:Rain: Rain halves off-road speed inany terrain. See Roads (below) for theeffects of rain on roads.Snow: Ankle-deep snow halvesspeed in any terrain. Anything deeperdivides speed by 4 or more. Exception:Skis allow travelers to treat any depthof snow as Average terrain. ReplaceHiking skill with Skiing skill (p. 221)when traveling on skis.Ice: Cold combined with moisture due to rain, sleet, snowmelt, etc. results in ice. A coating of ice halvesspeed in any terrain. Solid ice, such asa frozen lake or river, is effectively itsown terrain type; treat it as Bad ter-rain. Exception: Treat solid ice asGood terrain for those with skates.Skating skill (p. 220) replaces Hikingskill when traveling on skates.RoadsIn fine weather, most roads countas Average terrain, regardless of thesurrounding terrain. The best roadsmight even count as Good terrain, giv-ing a bonus.In rain, low-quality roads unsur-faced dirt or gravel turn to mud.Treat them as Very Bad terrain. Betterroads behave as Average (but neverGood) terrain in the rain.In snow or ice, treat roads asAverage terrain, but apply the move-ment penalties given under Weather(above) unless the road is cleared.Time Required and Fatigue CostThese rules assume you spend theentire day preparing for your hike,hiking, or resting, leaving no time forstudy or other activities. This is truehowever small your daily mileage the heavier your load and the worsethe traveling conditions, the moreslowly you walk and the more fre-quently you stop to rest.Should you interrupt your travelsfor adventuring matters, you will bemissing FP when you stop. See FatigueCosts (p. 426) for details.HOLDING YOURBREATHAdventurers often need to holdtheir breath whether to dive or tosurvive poison gas, strangulation, vac-uum, etc. Your HT determines thelength of time you can hold yourbreath, as follows:No Exertion (e.g., sitting quietly ormeditating): HT10 seconds.Mild Exertion (e.g., operating avehicle, treading water, or walking):HT4 seconds.SUCCESS ROLLS351When these rules result in different speeds for different members of a party, the party must eithermove at the speed of its slowest member or split up.Heavy Exertion (e.g., climbing,combat, or running): HT seconds.These times assume you have onesecond to take a deep breath (requiresa Concentrate maneuver in combat).Multiply all times by 1.5 if you hyper-ventilate first or by 2.5 if you hyper-ventilate with pure oxygen. A success-ful roll against Breath Control skill(p. 182) multiplies these times by afurther factor of 1.5. However, if youare surprised and dont have a chanceto take a deep breath e.g., when a gasgrenade goes off in combat halvethese times instead.Regardless of circumstances, eachlevel of the Breath-Holding advantage(p. 41) doubles the time you can holdyour breath.At the end of this time, you start tolose 1 FP per second. At 0 FP, youmust make a Will roll every second orfall unconscious, and are likely to dieunless you are rescued. SeeSuffocation (p. 436) for details.JUMPINGWhen you want to jump oversomething with a Size Modifier 3 lessthan yours or smaller (which encom-passes most ordinary obstacles), theGM should say, Okay, you jumpedover it, and get on with play. Suchjumps succeed automatically. Butwhen the obstacle seems really signif-icant, or if the GM put it there as adeliberate hazard, use the followingrules.Jumping DistanceYour Basic Move determines jump-ing distance, as follows:High Jump: (6 Basic Move) - 10inches. For example, a Basic Move of6 lets you jump 26 straight up. For arunning jump, add the number ofyards you run to Basic Move in thisformula. Maximum running high-jump height is twice standing high-jump height.Broad Jump: (2 Basic Move) - 3feet. For example, a Basic Move of 6lets you jump 9 feet from a standingstart. For a running jump, add thenumber of yards you run to BasicMove in this formula. Maximum run-ning broad-jump distance is twicestanding broad-jump distance.Those with the Enhanced Move(Ground) advantage (p. 52) may applytheir movement multiplier to BasicMove before inserting it into these for-mulas when they have a running start.This is instead of adding the numberof yards run! For instance, a horsewith Basic Move 6 and EnhancedMove 1 makes running jumps as if itsBasic Move were 12.Those who have Super Jump(p. 89) double the final jumping dis-tance for each level of that advantage.This is cumulative with the effects ofEnhanced Move!Remember that 12 inches equalone foot, and that 3 feet equal oneyard (or one hex on a battle map).Jumping DuringCombatThe jumping distance formulasassume you take the time to crouchand prepare for the jump. In combat,this takes two consecutiveConcentrate maneuvers. Halve all dis-tances if you jump without suchpreparation.If you jump over a small obstacleduring a fight (anything with a SizeModifier 3 less than yours or smaller),you must use a Move maneuver, andthe jump costs one extra movementpoint.To jump over a larger obstruction(e.g., a chair) or onto something (e.g.,a table) during a fight takes yourentire turn and requires a Movemaneuver. Unless the jump is extreme,the GM will assume you can make thejump. (Dont interrupt a battle to cal-culate jumping distance every timesomebody jumps onto a chair!)However, you must make a DX rollwhen you make a vertical jump or along horizontal one. A difficult jump(into a pit, for instance) might give -1to -5 to this DX roll. The GM deter-mines whether you must roll, and atwhat penalty. On a failure, you fall. Ittakes two Change Posture maneuversto stand up again. On a critical failure,you fall off the thing you jumped onto,or land badly if you were jumpingdown, and take normal falling damagefor that height (see Falling, p. 431).To clamber onto a vertical obstaclewithout risking a DX roll, take twoconsecutive Move maneuvers. Successis automatic.Jumping SkillIf you have the Jumping skill(p. 203), you may substitute half yourskill level, rounded down, for BasicMove in the distance formulas. Inaddition, you may roll againstJumping instead of DX whenever youmake a difficult jump.352SUCCESS ROLLSOptional Jumping RulesThe following rules for jumping are optional. Only use them if youenjoy extra detail!ST and JumpingBasic Move is a ready-made measure of jumping ability after all, itmeasures running speed, and running is just a series of rapid hops.However, unnaturally strong supers and monsters in fiction can oftenmake mighty leaps without being speedsters. To emulate this, the GMmay allow those with Basic Lift in excess of body weight to use the high-er of ST/4 (round down) or Basic Move in the jumping distance formulas.Jumping with EncumbranceFor added realism, multiply jumping distances by the encumbrancefactors given under Encumbrance and Move (p. 17): 1 for None, 0.8 forLight, 0.6 for Medium, 0.4 for Heavy, and 0.2 for Extra-Heavy.LIFTING ANDMOVING THINGSBasic Lift STST/5 pounds gov-erns the weight you can pick up andmove. The GM may let multiple char-acters add their BL (not their ST)whenever it seems reasonable; e.g., tocarry a stretcher or pull a wagon.One-Handed Lift: 2BL (takes twoseconds).Two-Handed Lift: 8BL (takes fourseconds).Shove and Knock Over: 12BL.Double this if you have a running start.The GM can also make allowances forprecariously balanced objects, tomake them easier to tilt.Carry on Back: 15BL. Thus, youcan carry more than you can lift byyourself . . . but every second that yourencumbrance is over 10BL (that is,Extra-Heavy encumbrance), you lose1 FP.Shift Slightly: Depending on yourfooting and the way you are braced,you could shift or rock 50BL.Pulling and DraggingWhen you pull a load behind youunassisted, use its full weight. Halveeffective weight if you are pulling asledge over snow or ice, divide effec-tive weight by 10 for a two-wheeledcart, and divide effective weight by 20for a four-wheeled wagon. (Rememberto add the weight of the sledge, cart, orwagon to that of the load before divid-ing!)In all cases, if the surface is smoothand relatively level for instance, aconcrete floor, a proper road, or afrozen lake halve the effective weightof the load. This is cumulative withthe effects of a sledge, cart, or wagon.Final effective weight pulled, afterall modifiers, cannot exceed 15BL ifyou are to have any hope of movingthe object at all. Determine yourencumbrance level using effectiveweight, and work out Move normally.Lifting and MovingThings During CombatIn combat, you can pick up an itemthat weighs no more than your BasicLift by taking a one-second Readymaneuver. To pick up anything heav-ier requires multiple, consecutiveReady maneuvers: two if using onehand, four if using two hands. To pickup an unwilling character, you musttake a second to grapple him first (seeGrappling, p. 370). He may attempt tobreak free during the time it takes youto pick him up!To kick, body-block, shove, or oth-erwise shift an obstacle in combatrequires an Attack maneuver. You canmove or knock over up to 12BL thisway. If you have enough space to runyour full Move, you can knock overtwice this weight (24BL) by slam-ming into it at a run. This requires aMove maneuver. These rules are forinanimate objects; see Slam (p. 371)for rules governing attempts to knockover someone who can actively resist.If using a combat map, be sure tomark the map or place a counter toindicate an object that has beenknocked over. This is especially impor-tant for a feature that was drawn onthe map! Likewise, objects picked upby fighters should be removed fromthe map.In all cases, if an attempt seemsreasonable, do not pause the battle tocompare weight to BL. Use commonsense. Make it fun!Lifting SkillA successful roll against Liftingskill (p. 205) increases your Basic Liftby 5% times your margin of successfor the purpose of picking up heavyobjects. For instance, if you haveLifting at 14, a roll of 9 lets you lift anextra 25%. Roll once per lift.SUCCESS ROLLS353
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Heavy Exertion (e.g., climbing,combat, or running): HT seconds.These times assume you have onesecond to take a deep breath (requiresa Concentrate maneuver in combat).Multiply all times by 1.5 if you hyper-ventilate first or by 2.5 if you hyper-ventilate with pure oxygen. A success-ful roll against Breath Control skill(p. 182) multiplies these times by afurther factor of 1.5. However, if youare surprised and dont have a chanceto take a deep breath e.g., when a gasgrenade goes off in combat halvethese times instead.Regardless of circumstances, eachlevel of the Breath-Holding advantage(p. 41) doubles the time you can holdyour breath.At the end of this time, you start tolose 1 FP per second. At 0 FP, youmust make a Will roll every second orfall unconscious, and are likely to dieunless you are rescued. SeeSuffocation (p. 436) for details.JUMPINGWhen you want to jump oversomething with a Size Modifier 3 lessthan yours or smaller (which encom-passes most ordinary obstacles), theGM should say, Okay, you jumpedover it, and get on with play. Suchjumps succeed automatically. Butwhen the obstacle seems really signif-icant, or if the GM put it there as adeliberate hazard, use the followingrules.Jumping DistanceYour Basic Move determines jump-ing distance, as follows:High Jump: (6 Basic Move) - 10inches. For example, a Basic Move of6 lets you jump 26 straight up. For arunning jump, add the number ofyards you run to Basic Move in thisformula. Maximum running high-jump height is twice standing high-jump height.Broad Jump: (2 Basic Move) - 3feet. For example, a Basic Move of 6lets you jump 9 feet from a standingstart. For a running jump, add thenumber of yards you run to BasicMove in this formula. Maximum run-ning broad-jump distance is twicestanding broad-jump distance.Those with the Enhanced Move(Ground) advantage (p. 52) may applytheir movement multiplier to BasicMove before inserting it into these for-mulas when they have a running start.This is instead of adding the numberof yards run! For instance, a horsewith Basic Move 6 and EnhancedMove 1 makes running jumps as if itsBasic Move were 12.Those who have Super Jump(p. 89) double the final jumping dis-tance for each level of that advantage.This is cumulative with the effects ofEnhanced Move!Remember that 12 inches equalone foot, and that 3 feet equal oneyard (or one hex on a battle map).Jumping DuringCombatThe jumping distance formulasassume you take the time to crouchand prepare for the jump. In combat,this takes two consecutiveConcentrate maneuvers. Halve all dis-tances if you jump without suchpreparation.If you jump over a small obstacleduring a fight (anything with a SizeModifier 3 less than yours or smaller),you must use a Move maneuver, andthe jump costs one extra movementpoint.To jump over a larger obstruction(e.g., a chair) or onto something (e.g.,a table) during a fight takes yourentire turn and requires a Movemaneuver. Unless the jump is extreme,the GM will assume you can make thejump. (Dont interrupt a battle to cal-culate jumping distance every timesomebody jumps onto a chair!)However, you must make a DX rollwhen you make a vertical jump or along horizontal one. A difficult jump(into a pit, for instance) might give -1to -5 to this DX roll. The GM deter-mines whether you must roll, and atwhat penalty. On a failure, you fall. Ittakes two Change Posture maneuversto stand up again. On a critical failure,you fall off the thing you jumped onto,or land badly if you were jumpingdown, and take normal falling damagefor that height (see Falling, p. 431).To clamber onto a vertical obstaclewithout risking a DX roll, take twoconsecutive Move maneuvers. Successis automatic.Jumping SkillIf you have the Jumping skill(p. 203), you may substitute half yourskill level, rounded down, for BasicMove in the distance formulas. Inaddition, you may roll againstJumping instead of DX whenever youmake a difficult jump.352SUCCESS ROLLSOptional Jumping RulesThe following rules for jumping are optional. Only use them if youenjoy extra detail!ST and JumpingBasic Move is a ready-made measure of jumping ability after all, itmeasures running speed, and running is just a series of rapid hops.However, unnaturally strong supers and monsters in fiction can oftenmake mighty leaps without being speedsters. To emulate this, the GMmay allow those with Basic Lift in excess of body weight to use the high-er of ST/4 (round down) or Basic Move in the jumping distance formulas.Jumping with EncumbranceFor added realism, multiply jumping distances by the encumbrancefactors given under Encumbrance and Move (p. 17): 1 for None, 0.8 forLight, 0.6 for Medium, 0.4 for Heavy, and 0.2 for Extra-Heavy.LIFTING ANDMOVING THINGSBasic Lift STST/5 pounds gov-erns the weight you can pick up andmove. The GM may let multiple char-acters add their BL (not their ST)whenever it seems reasonable; e.g., tocarry a stretcher or pull a wagon.One-Handed Lift: 2BL (takes twoseconds).Two-Handed Lift: 8BL (takes fourseconds).Shove and Knock Over: 12BL.Double this if you have a running start.The GM can also make allowances forprecariously balanced objects, tomake them easier to tilt.Carry on Back: 15BL. Thus, youcan carry more than you can lift byyourself . . . but every second that yourencumbrance is over 10BL (that is,Extra-Heavy encumbrance), you lose1 FP.Shift Slightly: Depending on yourfooting and the way you are braced,you could shift or rock 50BL.Pulling and DraggingWhen you pull a load behind youunassisted, use its full weight. Halveeffective weight if you are pulling asledge over snow or ice, divide effec-tive weight by 10 for a two-wheeledcart, and divide effective weight by 20for a four-wheeled wagon. (Rememberto add the weight of the sledge, cart, orwagon to that of the load before divid-ing!)In all cases, if the surface is smoothand relatively level for instance, aconcrete floor, a proper road, or afrozen lake halve the effective weightof the load. This is cumulative withthe effects of a sledge, cart, or wagon.Final effective weight pulled, afterall modifiers, cannot exceed 15BL ifyou are to have any hope of movingthe object at all. Determine yourencumbrance level using effectiveweight, and work out Move normally.Lifting and MovingThings During CombatIn combat, you can pick up an itemthat weighs no more than your BasicLift by taking a one-second Readymaneuver. To pick up anything heav-ier requires multiple, consecutiveReady maneuvers: two if using onehand, four if using two hands. To pickup an unwilling character, you musttake a second to grapple him first (seeGrappling, p. 370). He may attempt tobreak free during the time it takes youto pick him up!To kick, body-block, shove, or oth-erwise shift an obstacle in combatrequires an Attack maneuver. You canmove or knock over up to 12BL thisway. If you have enough space to runyour full Move, you can knock overtwice this weight (24BL) by slam-ming into it at a run. This requires aMove maneuver. These rules are forinanimate objects; see Slam (p. 371)for rules governing attempts to knockover someone who can actively resist.If using a combat map, be sure tomark the map or place a counter toindicate an object that has beenknocked over. This is especially impor-tant for a feature that was drawn onthe map! Likewise, objects picked upby fighters should be removed fromthe map.In all cases, if an attempt seemsreasonable, do not pause the battle tocompare weight to BL. Use commonsense. Make it fun!Lifting SkillA successful roll against Liftingskill (p. 205) increases your Basic Liftby 5% times your margin of successfor the purpose of picking up heavyobjects. For instance, if you haveLifting at 14, a roll of 9 lets you lift anextra 25%. Roll once per lift.SUCCESS ROLLS353RUNNINGYour running speed, or groundMove, is equal to your Basic Movescore modified for encumbrance seeEncumbrance and Move (p. 17). Incombat, running is just a series ofMove maneuvers. Use the moredetailed rules below when it is impor-tant to know whether the heroes catchthe plane, escape the savage pygmies,or whatever.SprintingSprinting is all-out running. It isvery fast, but also fatiguing (seeFatigue Cost, below). Use it when youneed to cover a short distance quickly,and can afford to arrive at your objec-tive somewhat fatigued.You can sprint if you run forwardfor two or more seconds. Add 20% toyour Move after one second. Forinstance, with a Move of 7, you couldsprint at 8.4 yards/second after run-ning for one second at 7 yards/second.On a battle map, where movementinvolves discrete one-yard hexes, dropall fractions to get a round Move score;in the example above, you would haveMove 8. Assume that even the slowestsprinter gets +1 Move. Thus, sprinterswith Move 9 or less can move one extrahex on a battle map.If you have Enhanced Move(Ground), you can accelerate by yourBasic Move every second until youreach top speed. Use your EnhancedMove multiplier instead of the 20%bonus above. For instance, with BasicMove 7 and Enhanced Move 2, yourun at Move 7 the first second, Move14 the next second, Move 21 the thirdsecond, and your top speed of Move 28in the fourth second.You may only move at your maxi-mum sprinting speed if the ground isgood and you are running more or lessstraight at some goal. Any deviationfrom forward movement requiresyou to run at normal ground Move forone second before you can resumesprinting.Paced RunningIf you need to run a long distance,you will want to pace yourself to avoidexhaustion. Paced running averagesexactly half the sprinting speed calcu-lated above. For instance, with aground Move of 7, you would run at4.2 yards/second on good ground;thus, you could run a 7-minute mile.Fatigue CostAfter every 15 seconds of sprintingor every minute of paced running,roll against the higher of HT orRunning skill (p. 218). On a failure,you lose 1 FP. Once you are reducedto less than 1/3 your FP, halve yourMove for any kind of running; seeFatigue (p. 426).Note that since paced running ishalf as fast as sprinting but burns FPat one-quarter the rate, you can runtwice as far before you run out ofenergy. This is not true for those withthe Machine meta-trait (p. 263),because they do not fatigue in gener-al, such characters will always sprint.SWIMMINGUnless you are Amphibious (p. 40)or Aquatic (p. 145), you must rollagainst Swimming skill (p. 224) anytime you enter water over your head.Swimming defaults to HT-4. Rollwhen you first enter the water, andagain every five minutes.Modifiers: +3 if you entered thewater intentionally; a penalty equal totwice your encumbrance level (e.g.,Heavy encumbrance gives -6); +1 ifyou are Overweight, +3 if Fat, or +5 ifVery Fat (see Build, p. 18).On a failure, you inhale water!Lose 1 FP and roll again in five sec-onds and so on, until you drown, arerescued (see Lifesaving, below), ormake a successful Swimming roll andget your head above water. If you suc-cessfully recover, roll again in oneminute; if you succeed, go back tomaking rolls five minutes apart. Yes,you can shout for help!You may try to get rid of armor, etc.after making your first successfulSwimming roll. Roll vs. DX for eachitem you try to remove; roll at -4 toremove shields, helmets, or torsoarmor. A failed roll means you inhalewater, with penalties as above.Once you reach 0 FP, you mustmake a Will roll every second or fallunconscious, and are likely to dieunless you are rescued. SeeSuffocation (p. 436) for details.Swimming SpeedLand-dwellers such as humanshave water Move equal to BasicMove/5 (round down), although it ispossible to modify this slightly; seeMove in Other Environments (p. 18).Minimum water Move for such char-acters is 1 yard/second.Amphibious and Aquatic beingshave water Move equal to their fullBasic Move.When swimming long distances,use a 10-second time scale. The num-ber of yards you can swim in 10 sec-onds is equal to 10 times your waterMove, modified downward forencumbrance (see Encumbrance andMove, p. 17). For instance, water Move1 and Heavy encumbrance would letyou swim four yards in 10 seconds.354SUCCESS ROLLSFlyingWhen flying, use the Hiking (p. 351) and Running rules with thesechanges: Substitute air Move (equal to twice Basic Speed, dropping allfractions) for ground Move (equal to Basic Move). Apply modifiersfor encumbrance, injury, and fatigue exactly as you would for groundMove. Substitute Enhanced Move (Air) for Enhanced Move(Ground). For high-speed flight (running), handle acceleration withEnhanced Move as described under Sprinting. Substitute Flight skill (p. 195) for Hiking skill and Runningskill. Ignore terrain, but note that wind and other weather conditionscan have comparable effects.
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LIFTING ANDMOVING THINGSBasic Lift STST/5 pounds gov-erns the weight you can pick up andmove. The GM may let multiple char-acters add their BL (not their ST)whenever it seems reasonable; e.g., tocarry a stretcher or pull a wagon.One-Handed Lift: 2BL (takes twoseconds).Two-Handed Lift: 8BL (takes fourseconds).Shove and Knock Over: 12BL.Double this if you have a running start.The GM can also make allowances forprecariously balanced objects, tomake them easier to tilt.Carry on Back: 15BL. Thus, youcan carry more than you can lift byyourself . . . but every second that yourencumbrance is over 10BL (that is,Extra-Heavy encumbrance), you lose1 FP.Shift Slightly: Depending on yourfooting and the way you are braced,you could shift or rock 50BL.Pulling and DraggingWhen you pull a load behind youunassisted, use its full weight. Halveeffective weight if you are pulling asledge over snow or ice, divide effec-tive weight by 10 for a two-wheeledcart, and divide effective weight by 20for a four-wheeled wagon. (Rememberto add the weight of the sledge, cart, orwagon to that of the load before divid-ing!)In all cases, if the surface is smoothand relatively level for instance, aconcrete floor, a proper road, or afrozen lake halve the effective weightof the load. This is cumulative withthe effects of a sledge, cart, or wagon.Final effective weight pulled, afterall modifiers, cannot exceed 15BL ifyou are to have any hope of movingthe object at all. Determine yourencumbrance level using effectiveweight, and work out Move normally.Lifting and MovingThings During CombatIn combat, you can pick up an itemthat weighs no more than your BasicLift by taking a one-second Readymaneuver. To pick up anything heav-ier requires multiple, consecutiveReady maneuvers: two if using onehand, four if using two hands. To pickup an unwilling character, you musttake a second to grapple him first (seeGrappling, p. 370). He may attempt tobreak free during the time it takes youto pick him up!To kick, body-block, shove, or oth-erwise shift an obstacle in combatrequires an Attack maneuver. You canmove or knock over up to 12BL thisway. If you have enough space to runyour full Move, you can knock overtwice this weight (24BL) by slam-ming into it at a run. This requires aMove maneuver. These rules are forinanimate objects; see Slam (p. 371)for rules governing attempts to knockover someone who can actively resist.If using a combat map, be sure tomark the map or place a counter toindicate an object that has beenknocked over. This is especially impor-tant for a feature that was drawn onthe map! Likewise, objects picked upby fighters should be removed fromthe map.In all cases, if an attempt seemsreasonable, do not pause the battle tocompare weight to BL. Use commonsense. Make it fun!Lifting SkillA successful roll against Liftingskill (p. 205) increases your Basic Liftby 5% times your margin of successfor the purpose of picking up heavyobjects. For instance, if you haveLifting at 14, a roll of 9 lets you lift anextra 25%. Roll once per lift.SUCCESS ROLLS353RUNNINGYour running speed, or groundMove, is equal to your Basic Movescore modified for encumbrance seeEncumbrance and Move (p. 17). Incombat, running is just a series ofMove maneuvers. Use the moredetailed rules below when it is impor-tant to know whether the heroes catchthe plane, escape the savage pygmies,or whatever.SprintingSprinting is all-out running. It isvery fast, but also fatiguing (seeFatigue Cost, below). Use it when youneed to cover a short distance quickly,and can afford to arrive at your objec-tive somewhat fatigued.You can sprint if you run forwardfor two or more seconds. Add 20% toyour Move after one second. Forinstance, with a Move of 7, you couldsprint at 8.4 yards/second after run-ning for one second at 7 yards/second.On a battle map, where movementinvolves discrete one-yard hexes, dropall fractions to get a round Move score;in the example above, you would haveMove 8. Assume that even the slowestsprinter gets +1 Move. Thus, sprinterswith Move 9 or less can move one extrahex on a battle map.If you have Enhanced Move(Ground), you can accelerate by yourBasic Move every second until youreach top speed. Use your EnhancedMove multiplier instead of the 20%bonus above. For instance, with BasicMove 7 and Enhanced Move 2, yourun at Move 7 the first second, Move14 the next second, Move 21 the thirdsecond, and your top speed of Move 28in the fourth second.You may only move at your maxi-mum sprinting speed if the ground isgood and you are running more or lessstraight at some goal. Any deviationfrom forward movement requiresyou to run at normal ground Move forone second before you can resumesprinting.Paced RunningIf you need to run a long distance,you will want to pace yourself to avoidexhaustion. Paced running averagesexactly half the sprinting speed calcu-lated above. For instance, with aground Move of 7, you would run at4.2 yards/second on good ground;thus, you could run a 7-minute mile.Fatigue CostAfter every 15 seconds of sprintingor every minute of paced running,roll against the higher of HT orRunning skill (p. 218). On a failure,you lose 1 FP. Once you are reducedto less than 1/3 your FP, halve yourMove for any kind of running; seeFatigue (p. 426).Note that since paced running ishalf as fast as sprinting but burns FPat one-quarter the rate, you can runtwice as far before you run out ofenergy. This is not true for those withthe Machine meta-trait (p. 263),because they do not fatigue in gener-al, such characters will always sprint.SWIMMINGUnless you are Amphibious (p. 40)or Aquatic (p. 145), you must rollagainst Swimming skill (p. 224) anytime you enter water over your head.Swimming defaults to HT-4. Rollwhen you first enter the water, andagain every five minutes.Modifiers: +3 if you entered thewater intentionally; a penalty equal totwice your encumbrance level (e.g.,Heavy encumbrance gives -6); +1 ifyou are Overweight, +3 if Fat, or +5 ifVery Fat (see Build, p. 18).On a failure, you inhale water!Lose 1 FP and roll again in five sec-onds and so on, until you drown, arerescued (see Lifesaving, below), ormake a successful Swimming roll andget your head above water. If you suc-cessfully recover, roll again in oneminute; if you succeed, go back tomaking rolls five minutes apart. Yes,you can shout for help!You may try to get rid of armor, etc.after making your first successfulSwimming roll. Roll vs. DX for eachitem you try to remove; roll at -4 toremove shields, helmets, or torsoarmor. A failed roll means you inhalewater, with penalties as above.Once you reach 0 FP, you mustmake a Will roll every second or fallunconscious, and are likely to dieunless you are rescued. SeeSuffocation (p. 436) for details.Swimming SpeedLand-dwellers such as humanshave water Move equal to BasicMove/5 (round down), although it ispossible to modify this slightly; seeMove in Other Environments (p. 18).Minimum water Move for such char-acters is 1 yard/second.Amphibious and Aquatic beingshave water Move equal to their fullBasic Move.When swimming long distances,use a 10-second time scale. The num-ber of yards you can swim in 10 sec-onds is equal to 10 times your waterMove, modified downward forencumbrance (see Encumbrance andMove, p. 17). For instance, water Move1 and Heavy encumbrance would letyou swim four yards in 10 seconds.354SUCCESS ROLLSFlyingWhen flying, use the Hiking (p. 351) and Running rules with thesechanges: Substitute air Move (equal to twice Basic Speed, dropping allfractions) for ground Move (equal to Basic Move). Apply modifiersfor encumbrance, injury, and fatigue exactly as you would for groundMove. Substitute Enhanced Move (Air) for Enhanced Move(Ground). For high-speed flight (running), handle acceleration withEnhanced Move as described under Sprinting. Substitute Flight skill (p. 195) for Hiking skill and Runningskill. Ignore terrain, but note that wind and other weather conditionscan have comparable effects.Fatigue CostAfter every minute of top-speedswimming, roll against the higher ofHT or Swimming skill. On a failure,you lose 1 FP. Once you are reduced toless than 1/3 your FP, halve your waterMove; see Fatigue (p. 426).If you are swimming slowly, or juststaying afloat, make this roll every 30minutes.LifesavingYou can use the Swimming skill torescue a drowning person. Make aSwimming roll at -5, plus or minus thedifference in ST between you and theperson you are rescuing. If the playersthink of good lifesaving techniques,the GM may give them a bonus to thisroll.On a failure, you inhale water andlose 1 FP, but may try again after oneminute. On a critical failure, the vic-tim nearly drowned you! This costs 6FP, and you must break off the rescueattempt.THROWINGYou can throw anything you canpick up that is, anything with aweight of 8BL or less. If the objectyou wish to throw is not already inyour hands, you must take one ormore Ready maneuvers to pick it up.See Lifting and Moving Things (p. 353)for details.Throwing an object during combat whether as an attack or not requires an Attack maneuver. You canthrow objects that weigh up to 2BLusing one hand; heavier objectsrequire a two-handed throw. Rollagainst DX-3 to hit a specific target, or against DX to lob something into a general area. Apply the usual modifiers for target size, speed, anddistance.Throwing DistanceTo avoid slowing down the gamewith math, the GM should allow anythrow he deems reasonable . . . butwhen you need to know the exact dis-tance you can throw an object, use thefollowing procedure:1. Divide the objects weight inpounds by your Basic Lift to get theweight ratio.2. Find the weight ratio in theWeight Ratio column of the tablebelow. If it falls between two values,use the higher value.3. Read across to the DistanceModifier column and find the dis-tance modifier.4. Multiply your ST by the distancemodifier to find the distance in yardsyou can throw the object.Example: You have ST 12, giving aBL of 29 lbs. You need to throw a 120-lb. body over a two-yard pit. Divideweight by BL: 120/29 = 4.1. This fallsbetween 4.0 and 5.0 in the WeightRatio column, so treat it as 5.0. Theassociated distance modifier is 0.12.Multiplying by ST, your range is 0.12 12 = 1.4 yards. Oops! The body just hitthe bottom of the pit.Damage From Thrown ObjectsThrown objects inflict thrust dam-age for your ST (see Damage Table,p. 16), modified for weight as shownon the table below. Damage is usuallycrushing, but the GM may rule that asharp object does cutting, piercing, orimpaling damage instead. A fragileobject (or a thrown character) takesthe same amount of damage it inflicts;roll damage separately for the objectand the target.WeightDamageUp to BL/8Thrust, -2 per dieUp to BL/4Thrust, -1 per dieUp to BL/2ThrustUp to BLThrust, +1 per dieUp to 2BLThrustUp to 4BLThrust, -1/2 per die(round down)Up to 8BLThrust, -1 per dieExample: You have ST 28, whichgives you a BL of 157 lbs. and a thrustdamage of 3d-1. You hit a foe with ahurled 50-lb. bag of cement. It isbetween BL/4 (39 lbs.) and BL/2 (78lbs.). As shown on the table above, itdoes straight thrust damage, or 3d-1.SUCCESS ROLLS355WeightDistanceWeightDistanceRatioModifierRatioModifier0.053.52.00.300.102.52.50.250.152.03.00.200.201.54.00.150.251.25.00.120.301.16.00.100.401.07.00.090.500.88.00.080.750.79.00.071.000.610.00.061.500.412.00.05CatchingIf someone throws an object at you, you may make an active defenseroll to avoid it. However, if he deliberately throws it to you by suc-cessfully lobbing it into your general area you can try to catch it. Rollagainst DX or a suitable Sports skill to make the catch, at -4 if you arenot taking a Wait maneuver, but at +1 per two full points by which thethrower made his roll. This counts as a parry with your catching hand.You can also attempt to intercept a thrown object en route to a catch-er. Treat this as a parry against a thrown weapon (see Parrying, p. 376).On a success, you snatch the thrown object out of the air.
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RUNNINGYour running speed, or groundMove, is equal to your Basic Movescore modified for encumbrance seeEncumbrance and Move (p. 17). Incombat, running is just a series ofMove maneuvers. Use the moredetailed rules below when it is impor-tant to know whether the heroes catchthe plane, escape the savage pygmies,or whatever.SprintingSprinting is all-out running. It isvery fast, but also fatiguing (seeFatigue Cost, below). Use it when youneed to cover a short distance quickly,and can afford to arrive at your objec-tive somewhat fatigued.You can sprint if you run forwardfor two or more seconds. Add 20% toyour Move after one second. Forinstance, with a Move of 7, you couldsprint at 8.4 yards/second after run-ning for one second at 7 yards/second.On a battle map, where movementinvolves discrete one-yard hexes, dropall fractions to get a round Move score;in the example above, you would haveMove 8. Assume that even the slowestsprinter gets +1 Move. Thus, sprinterswith Move 9 or less can move one extrahex on a battle map.If you have Enhanced Move(Ground), you can accelerate by yourBasic Move every second until youreach top speed. Use your EnhancedMove multiplier instead of the 20%bonus above. For instance, with BasicMove 7 and Enhanced Move 2, yourun at Move 7 the first second, Move14 the next second, Move 21 the thirdsecond, and your top speed of Move 28in the fourth second.You may only move at your maxi-mum sprinting speed if the ground isgood and you are running more or lessstraight at some goal. Any deviationfrom forward movement requiresyou to run at normal ground Move forone second before you can resumesprinting.Paced RunningIf you need to run a long distance,you will want to pace yourself to avoidexhaustion. Paced running averagesexactly half the sprinting speed calcu-lated above. For instance, with aground Move of 7, you would run at4.2 yards/second on good ground;thus, you could run a 7-minute mile.Fatigue CostAfter every 15 seconds of sprintingor every minute of paced running,roll against the higher of HT orRunning skill (p. 218). On a failure,you lose 1 FP. Once you are reducedto less than 1/3 your FP, halve yourMove for any kind of running; seeFatigue (p. 426).Note that since paced running ishalf as fast as sprinting but burns FPat one-quarter the rate, you can runtwice as far before you run out ofenergy. This is not true for those withthe Machine meta-trait (p. 263),because they do not fatigue in gener-al, such characters will always sprint.SWIMMINGUnless you are Amphibious (p. 40)or Aquatic (p. 145), you must rollagainst Swimming skill (p. 224) anytime you enter water over your head.Swimming defaults to HT-4. Rollwhen you first enter the water, andagain every five minutes.Modifiers: +3 if you entered thewater intentionally; a penalty equal totwice your encumbrance level (e.g.,Heavy encumbrance gives -6); +1 ifyou are Overweight, +3 if Fat, or +5 ifVery Fat (see Build, p. 18).On a failure, you inhale water!Lose 1 FP and roll again in five sec-onds and so on, until you drown, arerescued (see Lifesaving, below), ormake a successful Swimming roll andget your head above water. If you suc-cessfully recover, roll again in oneminute; if you succeed, go back tomaking rolls five minutes apart. Yes,you can shout for help!You may try to get rid of armor, etc.after making your first successfulSwimming roll. Roll vs. DX for eachitem you try to remove; roll at -4 toremove shields, helmets, or torsoarmor. A failed roll means you inhalewater, with penalties as above.Once you reach 0 FP, you mustmake a Will roll every second or fallunconscious, and are likely to dieunless you are rescued. SeeSuffocation (p. 436) for details.Swimming SpeedLand-dwellers such as humanshave water Move equal to BasicMove/5 (round down), although it ispossible to modify this slightly; seeMove in Other Environments (p. 18).Minimum water Move for such char-acters is 1 yard/second.Amphibious and Aquatic beingshave water Move equal to their fullBasic Move.When swimming long distances,use a 10-second time scale. The num-ber of yards you can swim in 10 sec-onds is equal to 10 times your waterMove, modified downward forencumbrance (see Encumbrance andMove, p. 17). For instance, water Move1 and Heavy encumbrance would letyou swim four yards in 10 seconds.354SUCCESS ROLLSFlyingWhen flying, use the Hiking (p. 351) and Running rules with thesechanges: Substitute air Move (equal to twice Basic Speed, dropping allfractions) for ground Move (equal to Basic Move). Apply modifiersfor encumbrance, injury, and fatigue exactly as you would for groundMove. Substitute Enhanced Move (Air) for Enhanced Move(Ground). For high-speed flight (running), handle acceleration withEnhanced Move as described under Sprinting. Substitute Flight skill (p. 195) for Hiking skill and Runningskill. Ignore terrain, but note that wind and other weather conditionscan have comparable effects.Fatigue CostAfter every minute of top-speedswimming, roll against the higher ofHT or Swimming skill. On a failure,you lose 1 FP. Once you are reduced toless than 1/3 your FP, halve your waterMove; see Fatigue (p. 426).If you are swimming slowly, or juststaying afloat, make this roll every 30minutes.LifesavingYou can use the Swimming skill torescue a drowning person. Make aSwimming roll at -5, plus or minus thedifference in ST between you and theperson you are rescuing. If the playersthink of good lifesaving techniques,the GM may give them a bonus to thisroll.On a failure, you inhale water andlose 1 FP, but may try again after oneminute. On a critical failure, the vic-tim nearly drowned you! This costs 6FP, and you must break off the rescueattempt.THROWINGYou can throw anything you canpick up that is, anything with aweight of 8BL or less. If the objectyou wish to throw is not already inyour hands, you must take one ormore Ready maneuvers to pick it up.See Lifting and Moving Things (p. 353)for details.Throwing an object during combat whether as an attack or not requires an Attack maneuver. You canthrow objects that weigh up to 2BLusing one hand; heavier objectsrequire a two-handed throw. Rollagainst DX-3 to hit a specific target, or against DX to lob something into a general area. Apply the usual modifiers for target size, speed, anddistance.Throwing DistanceTo avoid slowing down the gamewith math, the GM should allow anythrow he deems reasonable . . . butwhen you need to know the exact dis-tance you can throw an object, use thefollowing procedure:1. Divide the objects weight inpounds by your Basic Lift to get theweight ratio.2. Find the weight ratio in theWeight Ratio column of the tablebelow. If it falls between two values,use the higher value.3. Read across to the DistanceModifier column and find the dis-tance modifier.4. Multiply your ST by the distancemodifier to find the distance in yardsyou can throw the object.Example: You have ST 12, giving aBL of 29 lbs. You need to throw a 120-lb. body over a two-yard pit. Divideweight by BL: 120/29 = 4.1. This fallsbetween 4.0 and 5.0 in the WeightRatio column, so treat it as 5.0. Theassociated distance modifier is 0.12.Multiplying by ST, your range is 0.12 12 = 1.4 yards. Oops! The body just hitthe bottom of the pit.Damage From Thrown ObjectsThrown objects inflict thrust dam-age for your ST (see Damage Table,p. 16), modified for weight as shownon the table below. Damage is usuallycrushing, but the GM may rule that asharp object does cutting, piercing, orimpaling damage instead. A fragileobject (or a thrown character) takesthe same amount of damage it inflicts;roll damage separately for the objectand the target.WeightDamageUp to BL/8Thrust, -2 per dieUp to BL/4Thrust, -1 per dieUp to BL/2ThrustUp to BLThrust, +1 per dieUp to 2BLThrustUp to 4BLThrust, -1/2 per die(round down)Up to 8BLThrust, -1 per dieExample: You have ST 28, whichgives you a BL of 157 lbs. and a thrustdamage of 3d-1. You hit a foe with ahurled 50-lb. bag of cement. It isbetween BL/4 (39 lbs.) and BL/2 (78lbs.). As shown on the table above, itdoes straight thrust damage, or 3d-1.SUCCESS ROLLS355WeightDistanceWeightDistanceRatioModifierRatioModifier0.053.52.00.300.102.52.50.250.152.03.00.200.201.54.00.150.251.25.00.120.301.16.00.100.401.07.00.090.500.88.00.080.750.79.00.071.000.610.00.061.500.412.00.05CatchingIf someone throws an object at you, you may make an active defenseroll to avoid it. However, if he deliberately throws it to you by suc-cessfully lobbing it into your general area you can try to catch it. Rollagainst DX or a suitable Sports skill to make the catch, at -4 if you arenot taking a Wait maneuver, but at +1 per two full points by which thethrower made his roll. This counts as a parry with your catching hand.You can also attempt to intercept a thrown object en route to a catch-er. Treat this as a parry against a thrown weapon (see Parrying, p. 376).On a success, you snatch the thrown object out of the air.Throwing Skill and Throwing ArtWhen you throw an object that fitsinto the palm of your hand such as abottle, rock, or grenade you may rollagainst Throwing skill (p. 226) to hit atarget or a general area. Furthermore,if you know Throwing at DX+1 level,add +1 to ST before you multiply it bythe distance modifier. Add +2 to ST ifyou know Throwing at DX+2 or better.If you have Throwing Art skill(p. 226), you can use it to throw any-thing. Roll against skill to hit. If youknow Throwing Art at DX level, add+1 to ST before you multiply it by thedistance modifier, and add +1 per dieto thrust damage. These bonusesincrease to +2 if you know ThrowingArt at DX+1 or better.Thrown WeaponsThe rules above are for throwingrocks, bodies, televisions . . . anythingbut weapons. Hurled weapons differ inthree important ways:1. Thrown weapons use ThrownWeapon skills (p. 226) to hit, not DXor Throwing (but Throwing Art doesallow you to throw weapons).2. Many throwing weapons travelsignificantly farther than ordinaryobjects due to streamlining and stabi-lization. Others have less range, due tothe way they are thrown. For instance,you can hurl a throwing knife as far asthese rules suggest, but the range atwhich it will hit point-first and inflictdamage is considerably shorter.3. Throwing weapons have points,edges, dense striking heads, etc. thatfocus the force of impact. They almostalways do more damage than theserules would indicate.EXTRA EFFORTThrough sheer force of will, youcan push your body past its usual lim-its when you perform physical tasks.This is called extra effort. Note thatif you have the Machine meta-trait,you cannot use extra effort!You can use extra effort to increaseBasic Lift (but not ST itself) when dig-ging or lifting; daily mileage when hik-ing; Move when running or swim-ming; distance (but not Basic Moveitself) when jumping; and ST for thepurposes of throwing, making a single356SUCCESS ROLLS
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Fatigue CostAfter every minute of top-speedswimming, roll against the higher ofHT or Swimming skill. On a failure,you lose 1 FP. Once you are reduced toless than 1/3 your FP, halve your waterMove; see Fatigue (p. 426).If you are swimming slowly, or juststaying afloat, make this roll every 30minutes.LifesavingYou can use the Swimming skill torescue a drowning person. Make aSwimming roll at -5, plus or minus thedifference in ST between you and theperson you are rescuing. If the playersthink of good lifesaving techniques,the GM may give them a bonus to thisroll.On a failure, you inhale water andlose 1 FP, but may try again after oneminute. On a critical failure, the vic-tim nearly drowned you! This costs 6FP, and you must break off the rescueattempt.THROWINGYou can throw anything you canpick up that is, anything with aweight of 8BL or less. If the objectyou wish to throw is not already inyour hands, you must take one ormore Ready maneuvers to pick it up.See Lifting and Moving Things (p. 353)for details.Throwing an object during combat whether as an attack or not requires an Attack maneuver. You canthrow objects that weigh up to 2BLusing one hand; heavier objectsrequire a two-handed throw. Rollagainst DX-3 to hit a specific target, or against DX to lob something into a general area. Apply the usual modifiers for target size, speed, anddistance.Throwing DistanceTo avoid slowing down the gamewith math, the GM should allow anythrow he deems reasonable . . . butwhen you need to know the exact dis-tance you can throw an object, use thefollowing procedure:1. Divide the objects weight inpounds by your Basic Lift to get theweight ratio.2. Find the weight ratio in theWeight Ratio column of the tablebelow. If it falls between two values,use the higher value.3. Read across to the DistanceModifier column and find the dis-tance modifier.4. Multiply your ST by the distancemodifier to find the distance in yardsyou can throw the object.Example: You have ST 12, giving aBL of 29 lbs. You need to throw a 120-lb. body over a two-yard pit. Divideweight by BL: 120/29 = 4.1. This fallsbetween 4.0 and 5.0 in the WeightRatio column, so treat it as 5.0. Theassociated distance modifier is 0.12.Multiplying by ST, your range is 0.12 12 = 1.4 yards. Oops! The body just hitthe bottom of the pit.Damage From Thrown ObjectsThrown objects inflict thrust dam-age for your ST (see Damage Table,p. 16), modified for weight as shownon the table below. Damage is usuallycrushing, but the GM may rule that asharp object does cutting, piercing, orimpaling damage instead. A fragileobject (or a thrown character) takesthe same amount of damage it inflicts;roll damage separately for the objectand the target.WeightDamageUp to BL/8Thrust, -2 per dieUp to BL/4Thrust, -1 per dieUp to BL/2ThrustUp to BLThrust, +1 per dieUp to 2BLThrustUp to 4BLThrust, -1/2 per die(round down)Up to 8BLThrust, -1 per dieExample: You have ST 28, whichgives you a BL of 157 lbs. and a thrustdamage of 3d-1. You hit a foe with ahurled 50-lb. bag of cement. It isbetween BL/4 (39 lbs.) and BL/2 (78lbs.). As shown on the table above, itdoes straight thrust damage, or 3d-1.SUCCESS ROLLS355WeightDistanceWeightDistanceRatioModifierRatioModifier0.053.52.00.300.102.52.50.250.152.03.00.200.201.54.00.150.251.25.00.120.301.16.00.100.401.07.00.090.500.88.00.080.750.79.00.071.000.610.00.061.500.412.00.05CatchingIf someone throws an object at you, you may make an active defenseroll to avoid it. However, if he deliberately throws it to you by suc-cessfully lobbing it into your general area you can try to catch it. Rollagainst DX or a suitable Sports skill to make the catch, at -4 if you arenot taking a Wait maneuver, but at +1 per two full points by which thethrower made his roll. This counts as a parry with your catching hand.You can also attempt to intercept a thrown object en route to a catch-er. Treat this as a parry against a thrown weapon (see Parrying, p. 376).On a success, you snatch the thrown object out of the air.Throwing Skill and Throwing ArtWhen you throw an object that fitsinto the palm of your hand such as abottle, rock, or grenade you may rollagainst Throwing skill (p. 226) to hit atarget or a general area. Furthermore,if you know Throwing at DX+1 level,add +1 to ST before you multiply it bythe distance modifier. Add +2 to ST ifyou know Throwing at DX+2 or better.If you have Throwing Art skill(p. 226), you can use it to throw any-thing. Roll against skill to hit. If youknow Throwing Art at DX level, add+1 to ST before you multiply it by thedistance modifier, and add +1 per dieto thrust damage. These bonusesincrease to +2 if you know ThrowingArt at DX+1 or better.Thrown WeaponsThe rules above are for throwingrocks, bodies, televisions . . . anythingbut weapons. Hurled weapons differ inthree important ways:1. Thrown weapons use ThrownWeapon skills (p. 226) to hit, not DXor Throwing (but Throwing Art doesallow you to throw weapons).2. Many throwing weapons travelsignificantly farther than ordinaryobjects due to streamlining and stabi-lization. Others have less range, due tothe way they are thrown. For instance,you can hurl a throwing knife as far asthese rules suggest, but the range atwhich it will hit point-first and inflictdamage is considerably shorter.3. Throwing weapons have points,edges, dense striking heads, etc. thatfocus the force of impact. They almostalways do more damage than theserules would indicate.EXTRA EFFORTThrough sheer force of will, youcan push your body past its usual lim-its when you perform physical tasks.This is called extra effort. Note thatif you have the Machine meta-trait,you cannot use extra effort!You can use extra effort to increaseBasic Lift (but not ST itself) when dig-ging or lifting; daily mileage when hik-ing; Move when running or swim-ming; distance (but not Basic Moveitself) when jumping; and ST for thepurposes of throwing, making a single356SUCCESS ROLLSST roll, or drawing or cocking a bowor crossbow thats too strong for you.You cannot use extra effort to increasethe time you can hold your breath that would be self-defeating!To apply extra effort, make a Willroll.Modifiers: -1 per 5% increase incapabilities (e.g., to add 10% to ST,roll at -2). If you are fatigued, apply apenalty equal to the missing FP. Roll at+5 if you are motivated by fear, anger,or concern for a loved one (GMs deci-sion, but you must usually fail a FrightCheck or a self-control roll for a suit-able disadvantage, or be the victim ofa successful Intimidation attempt, toget this bonus).Extra effort costs FP whether yousucceed or fail. Instantaneous feats(e.g., jumps and throws) cost a flat 1FP per attempt. Ongoing tasks (dig-ging, running, swimming, etc.) requirerepeated extra effort rolls, and cost 1FP per roll. Hiking works differently see below. Pay the FP cost for extraeffort immediately after you attemptyour Will roll. Note that the FP spenton extra effort do not penalize thisattempt, but give a penalty to futureattempts until you recover the FP.On a success, you gain the desiredincrease in your physical capabilities.This does not guarantee success at thetask at hand you could still fail theDX roll for an extra-effort jump, forinstance. On a critical success, you donot have to pay FP for your extraeffort.On a failure, you achieve only whatyou would have accomplished withoutextra effort.A critical failure means you loseHP equal to the FP spent on theattempt including any FP the taskwould have cost without extra effort and the task fails automatically! If youroll a natural 18, you must also makean immediate HT roll to avoid acquir-ing a temporary disadvantage appro-priate to the task (see below for exam-ples). Handle recovery as described inDuration of Crippling Injuries (p. 422).A sufficiently bad HT roll can result ina permanent disadvantage!Notes for SpecificPhysical TasksInstead of rolling against Will touse extra effort, you may make a Will-based roll against a relevant skill(Hiking, Jumping, Lifting, Running,Swimming, or Throwing, as applica-ble), if that would be better.Digging: For every hour of digging,make an extra-effort roll and pay 1 FP.This adds to the usual FP cost. On acritical failure, the injury is to yourback, and will heal only with rest (notFirst Aid); on an 18, you temporarilyacquire the Bad Back disadvantage(p. 123).Hiking: Make one extra-effort rollper day. Extra effort increases the FPyou suffer by two when you stop onthe march (see Fatigue, p. 426). Assessinjury due to critical failure at the endof the day, and base it on the modifiedFP penalty. For instance, if you wouldnormally be missing 5 FP when youstopped, you would be missing 7 FP ifyou used extra effort and if you crit-ically failed, you would end the daywith 7 HP of injury! When usingHiking skill, make a single Will-basedHiking roll at -1 per 5% extra mileagebeyond the basic +20% for a success-ful Hiking roll (-1 for +25%, -2 for+30%, and so on).Jumping: On a critical failure,apply the injury to the foot or leg(GMs option, or roll randomly); on an18, you temporarily acquire theCrippled Leg disadvantage (see Lame,p. 141).Lifting and Moving Things: Forevery minute of continuing effort,make an extra-effort roll and pay 1 FP.(This cost adds to the 1 FP per secondfor carrying encumbrance over10BL, if applicable.) Handle criticalfailures as described for digging.When using Lifting skill, make a singleWill-based Lifting roll, at -1 per 10%extra Basic Lift. This is instead of theusual 5% bonus per point of success.Running: For every 15 seconds ofsprinting or minute of paced running,make an extra-effort roll and pay 1 FP.This adds to the FP cost for failed HTrolls while running! On a critical fail-ure, apply the injury to one of yourlegs; on an 18, you temporarilyacquire the Crippled Leg disadvantage(see Lame, p. 141).Swimming: For every minute ofswimming, make an extra effort rolland pay 1 FP. This adds to the FP costfor failed HT rolls while swimming.Throwing: Increases to ST affectboth damage and distance, but notBasic Lift for the purpose of what youcan throw in the first place. For that,make a separate extra-effort liftingattempt! Add bonuses for Throwing orThrowing Art skill after those for extraeffort.Optional Rule: ExtraEffort in CombatAt the GMs option, fighters can useextra effort in combat. These ruleswork differently from those above mainly to avoid bogging down combatwith extra die rolls and calculations.You must declare that you are usingextra effort and spend the required FPbefore you make your attack or defenseroll. A critical failure on the roll causes1 HP of injury to the arm (if blocking,parrying, or attacking with a shield,weapon, or hand) or leg (if dodging orkicking) in addition to the usual criticalmiss results. DR does not protect youfrom this damage!Feverish Defense: If you take anymaneuver other than All-Out Attack,you can spend 1 FP to get +2 to a sin-gle active defense roll. (You can usethis bonus to offset the penalty for par-rying multiple times with one hand;see Parrying, p. 376.)Flurry of Blows: If you take anAttack maneuver, you can halve thepenalty for Rapid Strike (see RapidStrike, p. 370) by spending 1 FP perattack.Mighty Blows: If you take an Attackmaneuver in melee combat, you canspend FP to gain the damage bonus ofan All-Out Attack (Strong) (see All-OutAttack, p. 365) without sacrificing yourdefenses. This costs 1 FP per attack.You cannot use Flurry of Blowsand Mighty Blows at the same time!SUCCESS ROLLS357Through sheer force of will, you can push your body past its usual limits when you performphysical tasks.
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Throwing Skill and Throwing ArtWhen you throw an object that fitsinto the palm of your hand such as abottle, rock, or grenade you may rollagainst Throwing skill (p. 226) to hit atarget or a general area. Furthermore,if you know Throwing at DX+1 level,add +1 to ST before you multiply it bythe distance modifier. Add +2 to ST ifyou know Throwing at DX+2 or better.If you have Throwing Art skill(p. 226), you can use it to throw any-thing. Roll against skill to hit. If youknow Throwing Art at DX level, add+1 to ST before you multiply it by thedistance modifier, and add +1 per dieto thrust damage. These bonusesincrease to +2 if you know ThrowingArt at DX+1 or better.Thrown WeaponsThe rules above are for throwingrocks, bodies, televisions . . . anythingbut weapons. Hurled weapons differ inthree important ways:1. Thrown weapons use ThrownWeapon skills (p. 226) to hit, not DXor Throwing (but Throwing Art doesallow you to throw weapons).2. Many throwing weapons travelsignificantly farther than ordinaryobjects due to streamlining and stabi-lization. Others have less range, due tothe way they are thrown. For instance,you can hurl a throwing knife as far asthese rules suggest, but the range atwhich it will hit point-first and inflictdamage is considerably shorter.3. Throwing weapons have points,edges, dense striking heads, etc. thatfocus the force of impact. They almostalways do more damage than theserules would indicate.EXTRA EFFORTThrough sheer force of will, youcan push your body past its usual lim-its when you perform physical tasks.This is called extra effort. Note thatif you have the Machine meta-trait,you cannot use extra effort!You can use extra effort to increaseBasic Lift (but not ST itself) when dig-ging or lifting; daily mileage when hik-ing; Move when running or swim-ming; distance (but not Basic Moveitself) when jumping; and ST for thepurposes of throwing, making a single356SUCCESS ROLLSST roll, or drawing or cocking a bowor crossbow thats too strong for you.You cannot use extra effort to increasethe time you can hold your breath that would be self-defeating!To apply extra effort, make a Willroll.Modifiers: -1 per 5% increase incapabilities (e.g., to add 10% to ST,roll at -2). If you are fatigued, apply apenalty equal to the missing FP. Roll at+5 if you are motivated by fear, anger,or concern for a loved one (GMs deci-sion, but you must usually fail a FrightCheck or a self-control roll for a suit-able disadvantage, or be the victim ofa successful Intimidation attempt, toget this bonus).Extra effort costs FP whether yousucceed or fail. Instantaneous feats(e.g., jumps and throws) cost a flat 1FP per attempt. Ongoing tasks (dig-ging, running, swimming, etc.) requirerepeated extra effort rolls, and cost 1FP per roll. Hiking works differently see below. Pay the FP cost for extraeffort immediately after you attemptyour Will roll. Note that the FP spenton extra effort do not penalize thisattempt, but give a penalty to futureattempts until you recover the FP.On a success, you gain the desiredincrease in your physical capabilities.This does not guarantee success at thetask at hand you could still fail theDX roll for an extra-effort jump, forinstance. On a critical success, you donot have to pay FP for your extraeffort.On a failure, you achieve only whatyou would have accomplished withoutextra effort.A critical failure means you loseHP equal to the FP spent on theattempt including any FP the taskwould have cost without extra effort and the task fails automatically! If youroll a natural 18, you must also makean immediate HT roll to avoid acquir-ing a temporary disadvantage appro-priate to the task (see below for exam-ples). Handle recovery as described inDuration of Crippling Injuries (p. 422).A sufficiently bad HT roll can result ina permanent disadvantage!Notes for SpecificPhysical TasksInstead of rolling against Will touse extra effort, you may make a Will-based roll against a relevant skill(Hiking, Jumping, Lifting, Running,Swimming, or Throwing, as applica-ble), if that would be better.Digging: For every hour of digging,make an extra-effort roll and pay 1 FP.This adds to the usual FP cost. On acritical failure, the injury is to yourback, and will heal only with rest (notFirst Aid); on an 18, you temporarilyacquire the Bad Back disadvantage(p. 123).Hiking: Make one extra-effort rollper day. Extra effort increases the FPyou suffer by two when you stop onthe march (see Fatigue, p. 426). Assessinjury due to critical failure at the endof the day, and base it on the modifiedFP penalty. For instance, if you wouldnormally be missing 5 FP when youstopped, you would be missing 7 FP ifyou used extra effort and if you crit-ically failed, you would end the daywith 7 HP of injury! When usingHiking skill, make a single Will-basedHiking roll at -1 per 5% extra mileagebeyond the basic +20% for a success-ful Hiking roll (-1 for +25%, -2 for+30%, and so on).Jumping: On a critical failure,apply the injury to the foot or leg(GMs option, or roll randomly); on an18, you temporarily acquire theCrippled Leg disadvantage (see Lame,p. 141).Lifting and Moving Things: Forevery minute of continuing effort,make an extra-effort roll and pay 1 FP.(This cost adds to the 1 FP per secondfor carrying encumbrance over10BL, if applicable.) Handle criticalfailures as described for digging.When using Lifting skill, make a singleWill-based Lifting roll, at -1 per 10%extra Basic Lift. This is instead of theusual 5% bonus per point of success.Running: For every 15 seconds ofsprinting or minute of paced running,make an extra-effort roll and pay 1 FP.This adds to the FP cost for failed HTrolls while running! On a critical fail-ure, apply the injury to one of yourlegs; on an 18, you temporarilyacquire the Crippled Leg disadvantage(see Lame, p. 141).Swimming: For every minute ofswimming, make an extra effort rolland pay 1 FP. This adds to the FP costfor failed HT rolls while swimming.Throwing: Increases to ST affectboth damage and distance, but notBasic Lift for the purpose of what youcan throw in the first place. For that,make a separate extra-effort liftingattempt! Add bonuses for Throwing orThrowing Art skill after those for extraeffort.Optional Rule: ExtraEffort in CombatAt the GMs option, fighters can useextra effort in combat. These ruleswork differently from those above mainly to avoid bogging down combatwith extra die rolls and calculations.You must declare that you are usingextra effort and spend the required FPbefore you make your attack or defenseroll. A critical failure on the roll causes1 HP of injury to the arm (if blocking,parrying, or attacking with a shield,weapon, or hand) or leg (if dodging orkicking) in addition to the usual criticalmiss results. DR does not protect youfrom this damage!Feverish Defense: If you take anymaneuver other than All-Out Attack,you can spend 1 FP to get +2 to a sin-gle active defense roll. (You can usethis bonus to offset the penalty for par-rying multiple times with one hand;see Parrying, p. 376.)Flurry of Blows: If you take anAttack maneuver, you can halve thepenalty for Rapid Strike (see RapidStrike, p. 370) by spending 1 FP perattack.Mighty Blows: If you take an Attackmaneuver in melee combat, you canspend FP to gain the damage bonus ofan All-Out Attack (Strong) (see All-OutAttack, p. 365) without sacrificing yourdefenses. This costs 1 FP per attack.You cannot use Flurry of Blowsand Mighty Blows at the same time!SUCCESS ROLLS357Through sheer force of will, you can push your body past its usual limits when you performphysical tasks.Sense rolls include Vision rolls,Hearing rolls, Taste/Smell rolls, andall rolls to use special senses such asScanning Sense (p. 81) and VibrationSense (p. 96).To notice something using a givensense, roll against your Perceptionscore, modified by the applicableAcute Senses advantage (p. 35): AcuteVision for Vision rolls, Acute Hearingfor Hearing rolls, and so on.Comprehension Rolls: A successfulSense roll means you noticed some-thing. That is often sufficient, but insome cases, the GM may require asecond roll to understand what youhave sensed; e.g., to realize that theowl hoot you heard is really anIndian warrior, or that the faint scentyou noticed belongs to the flower of aman-eating plant. This roll is againstIQ for details that anyone could fig-ure out, or against an appropriateskill if the significance would be loston anyone but an expert.Danger Sense: If you have theDanger Sense advantage (p. 47) andfail a Sense roll or comprehensionroll to notice something dangerous,the GM will secretly make aPerception roll for you. On a success,you sense the danger anyhow!VISIONMake a Vision roll whenever it isimportant that you see something.Modifiers: Any Acute Visionbonus; +3 for Hyperspectral Vision;modifiers for the size and range ofthe target (see p. 550); -1 to -9 in par-tial darkness. In totaldarkness,Vision rolls are impossible withoutspecial advantages or technologicalaids. To spot something in plain sight e.g., a car coming toward you onthe road roll at +10. This does notapply to attempts to spot hiddenobjects, read text, identify faces, etc.When you try to spot somethingthat is deliberately hidden, the GMmay treat this roll as a Quick Contestagainst a concealment skill(Camouflage, Holdout, etc.), and mayallow or require a skill such asObservation or Search to replacePerception for the roll.Note that the curvature of a plan-et blocks vision beyond the horizon.The normal horizon on an Earth-sized planet is about three miles foran observer five to six feet in height.The GM should increase this fortaller observers or those in elevatedpositions. There is no horizon inspace!Useful Advantages: Night Visioncancels -1 in partial darkness penal-ties per level, and Dark Vision letsyou ignoredarkness penalties.Peripheral Vision gives you a Visionroll to see anything that is not absolutely, positively, directlybehind you and 360 Vision letsyou see even that! Telescopic Visioncancels -1 in range penalties perlevel.Limiting Disadvantages: Bad Sightgives -6 to Vision rolls to spot itemsmore than one yard away if you arenearsighted, or items within one yardif you are farsighted. RestrictedVision prevents you from noticinganything that isnt in the directionyou are looking. Blindness meansyou can see nothing!HEARINGMake a Hearing roll whenever it isimportant that you hear a sound. TheGM will often require a separate IQroll to make out speech, especially ina foreign language.Modifiers: Any Acute Hearingbonus; +4 for DiscriminatoryHearing; -4 for Hard of Hearing. TheGM may make this roll easier orharder, depending on the loudness ofthe sound, surrounding noises, etc.The range at which you can hear asound at no penalty is given on thetable below. For each step by whichyou are closer than this, apply +1 tothe roll, while for each step by whichyou are more distant, apply -1. For instance, to hear normal conver-sation at 8 yards would require a rollat -3.When you try to hear someonewho is attempting to move silently,the GM may treat this roll as a QuickContest against his Stealth skill. Ifyou are actively listening for suchactivity, the GM may allow you tosubstitute Observation skill forPerception.Useful Advantages: ParabolicHearing allows you to hear distantsounds as if they were nearby.Subsonic Hearing and Ultrahearingcan detect sounds that are inaudibleto normal humans.Limiting Disadvantage: If you suf-fer from Deafness, you can hear nothing!Hearing Distance TableSoundRange (yards)Leaves rustling1/4Quiet conversation1/2Normal conversation1Light traffic2Loud conversation4Noisy office8Normal traffic16Quiet rock band32Heavy traffic64Jet takeoff128Very loud rock band256Metallica512TASTE/SMELLTaste and smell are two manifesta-tions of the same sense. Make a Tasteroll to notice a flavor, or a Smell roll tonotice a scent.Modifiers: Any Acute Taste andSmell bonus; +4 for DiscriminatorySmell or Taste (as applicable). The GMmay modify this roll for a particularlystrong or weak taste or odor, and mayapply a penalty if it is specifically disguised.Useful Advantages: In addition togiving a bonus to your roll,Discriminatory Smell and Discri-minatory Taste can reveal sufficientdetail to allow you to identify people,locations, and objects with precisionequivalent to hearing or vision for anormal human.Limiting Disadvantage: No Sense ofSmell/Taste means that you cannottaste or smell anything.358SUCCESS ROLLSSENSE ROLLS
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