Future Imperfect chapter 3

Chapter 3: Combat and Adventuring 

Conflict

You have a Hero, and you know what the numbers mean and how the dice roll. Now it is time to begin bringing his actions to life. A good story is never easy. The protagonist finds obstacles at every turn. Overcoming these obstacles form the basis of both the Hero and the story. Whenever a Hero is at odds with some element of the universe, there is conflict. When that conflict devolves into combat, the Master breaks the game down into "rounds" of about 5 seconds each. This may also be referred to as "combat time".

Once the Master declares combat time, make a Reflex roll and compare it to a TN of Easy (3). Draw 1 card from the Action Deck plus 1 for every success and raise. If you go bust, you get no cards this round, though you might still use a card from up your sleeve. If your hero is injured, subtract the penalty from your Reflex total. Choose two of the cards you have drawn and discard the remaining cards. If one of your cards is the red joker, you may keep that in addition to two other cards (if available). If one of your cards is the black joker, discard it, as well as your highest other card before choosing. A card up your sleeve is considered your highest. After the black joker is drawn, shuffle the deck at the end of the round.

Surprise

Most beings don’t just whip out their pistols and start firing when some tentacled baddie comes jumping out of the black of space at them. They usually just stand there with their mouths agape until their brain kicks in and says they are in deep trouble.

Anytime there's a good chance your character might be surprised, the Master is going to ask you to make a Guts check. The difficulty is Fair (5) if your character's expecting some sort of danger- lncredible (11) if he's not. If you don’t make the roll, you don’t get any cards, and your character can’t act that round. He can act normally in the next round as long as he makes an Easy (3) guts check.

Actions

Once everyone has their cards, the Master starts counting down from an Ace. If you have an Ace, you can take one action. If not, you have to wait until one of your cards is called to take an action. Each card rank (Ace, King etc) is called a step. When one of your cards is called, flip it over and tell the Master what your character is attempting to do. Compare suits to break ties with other characters who have the same cards. The ranking of suits is inverse alphabetical order (spades, hearts, diamonds, clubs). Since the Master has his own Action Deck, it's possible for each side to have an action on the same card and suit. If so, these actions are simultaneous.

Action Speed

Your hero can only do so much during a single action. How much he can do depends on how fast his weapon or action is. Normal actions such as moving, drawing a weapon, or performing a test of wills have a “Speed" score of 1. The Speed score tells you the number of cards it takes to resolve an action. How many cards you have depends on your Reflex roll (see above). Each action is roughly 5 seconds long. An action represents not only a character's raw quickness, but also the chance and ability to find an opportunity for an attack.

Actions and equipment also have Speed scores. If the Speed score is 1 and the character is using a weapon, he can fire up to its "rate of fire" once per card. A Speed score of 2 or higher means that the character's action is a little slower. He needs to spend and hold Action Cards to prepare, aim, or otherwise get ready for his attack. Lay these cards aside to help you keep count. They're spent whenever they come up and can’t be reused. Once you've spent enough of these to prepare your character's action, you can use any remaining card to resolve it. If the deck gets shuffled while you're preparing an action, make sure any cards you're holding to prepare an action get shuffled back in the Action Deck. Use counters to keep track of how many actions you've already spent preparing. A good way to do this is with a d6 or any other easy-to-read die.

Leonid Kovnachuk (Chuk) is covering his comrades with his blast MMG. He is wearing a harness, so the weapon has a speed score of 2. After hearing an unnerving clacking sound, he raises his weapon toward the hallway just in time to see an approaching Klackon warrior. The Master declares combat time, and Chuk rolls an 8 on his Reflex check. He draws three cards and selects a Jack and 7. On Jack he raises his MMG and starts to aim. On 10 the Klackon warrior dashes forward toward him, almost closing the distance. Chuk will not be able to fire until 7 (this MMG is heavy!). Will the warrior arrive before he fires? The Master calls out 9. We will know soon enough...

Simple & Complex Actions

A Hero can perform a simple action together with any complex actions. A simple action is one that doesn’t require much concentration, such as talking, resisting a test of wills, or moving. A more complex action, such as drawing a weapon or starting a test of wills, requires an Action Card. Below are a few examples of what are considered simple and complex actions:

Example Actions

Simple: Talking, moving, resisting a psychological contest.
Complex: Drawing a new weapon, making a stun check, initiating a psychological contest, reloading a weapon, any kind of movement that requires an Aptitude roll.
Extended: Programming a computer, building a shelter, preparing a meal

Waiting

Sometimes you might want to wait until some hero or antagonist does something before you take your action. Say you know some bug-eyed alien is about to come through a door, and you want to wait and blast a hole in it when it comes crashing through.

The way to do this is by waiting and keeping a single card in reserve. When the card you want to reserve would normally be played, tell the Master you're going to reserve it instead and place it face down under your Fate Chips. You can only ever have one card reserved (unless you are preparing an extended action or a complex action with a speed greater than 2, see below).

Anytime you want to play the reserved card, including earlier than normal in the next round, reveal it to the Master, take your action, and discard it.

If you want to interrupt someone else's action with a reserved card, like when the beastie comes crashing through the door, you have to beat it in an opposed Reflex contest. The winner gets to resolve his action first. This way you're never guaranteed to beat someone just because you've got a card reserved.

You can hold your reserved card over several rounds if you like. You have to ditch it when you resolve another action card, you draw a Black Joker (see below), or an opponent forces you to discard through a psychological contest (see below).

If you have a card reserved you may choose to forgo the initiative test each round to hold it. The drawback is, once you play your card, it’s your only action that round. Of course, there is no chance of drawing that black joker…

If you choose to draw, when any of your cards comes up you must either take an action (discarding the reserved card and using the current card) or discard the current card.

Extended Actions

Sometimes, a Hero will wish to accomplish something that takes more than a few seconds during a combat. Maybe he needs to assemble a radio, translate a Forerunner manuscript or place an explosive charge. In this case, the Master will assign a Speed score to the action. This is the number of cards that must be played to complete the action. In some cases, the preparation must all be done consecutively without interruption, in others preparation may be done in chunks as desired. This determination is up to the Master.

When attempting to use a reserved card to perform an extended action, use the following procedure. When it is your turn to take an action, inform the Master that you are preparing, and describe specifically how you wish to perform the action when it resolves. This may include waiting for a set of circumstances to occur. The Master will tell you how many cards this will require. When it is your turn, place your card to the side like you would with any other speed 2+ action. Continue doing this until your trigger condition occurs (if this happens before you have fully prepared, your action is not ready and could be disrupted) or you have enough cards to fully perform your action. If it is the latter case, tell the Master you are placing your final card in reserve, awaiting your described contingency. When the desired situation arises, resolve your prepared action. Preparing extended actions does not forgo drawing new cards each round, however, if you have fully prepared and are holding a reserve card, this does.

While Chuk waylays the approaching klackons, Frost must set the explosive charge necessary to destroy the hall and collapse the cavern. However, she does not want to trap Chuk below, so once the preparation is in place, she will give a signal and Chuk will fall back. Once he has escaped the tunnel, Frost will trigger the explosion and they can make their getaway. The Master declares that it will take 6 cards to prepare and set the explosive charge.

Meanwhile, Chuk is blazing away with his blast MMG. One klackon proves extremely resilient and takes multiple busts to fell, before Chuk can react another klackon warrior is able to close the distance and attack. The klackon smartly chooses to target the MMG, and renders it inoperable. Chuk is heavily disadvantaged in an unarmed combat versus a klackon warrior while encumbered with a harness and MMG (useless at that), so he decides he needs to fall back on his action. By this time Frost has prepared 5 cards toward placing the charge, her next action will allow her to wait for Chuk to pass and then blow the tunnel.

Jokers

Jokers can never be hidden up your sleeve, and as you might have guessed, drawing one also has special effects. The Red Joker allows your character to go at any time during the round without having to make a second Reflex check to interrupt another character's action. In other words, you can always go first. It also allows you to hold an extra action this round, as mentioned previously.

The Black Joker is bad news. It means your character hesitates for some reason. Maybe he's starting to feel his wounds or he's distracted by the bad guys. Whatever the reason, the Joker doesn’t count as an action, and you have to discard your highest other action card. If you have a card up your sleeve, it's considered the highest. If you are in the midst of preparing an extended action, one of your preparation cards is also discarded (unless you already discarded a reserve card). There's another side effect to drawing a Black Joker. Your side's Action Deck must be reshuffled at the end of the current round.

Movement

You often need to know exactly how far your hero can move in a standard combat round. The number of meters a Hero, extra, or vehicle can move each round is its "Rate".

The Rate of Heroes and most aliens is its Dexterity die type. A vehicle's Rate is listed in its statistics. Both creatures and vehicles move a proportion of their Rate every action. Any move up to half the Rate in a single action is considered walking. A move over half (and up to the full Rate) is considered running.

You can’t get extra movement by playing a reserve card, or a red joker. Your character is still limited to two move actions, as above. You may Pick up the Pace during any run action (or red joker), however.

Running incurs a -4 penalty to a Hero or creature's other actions. Passengers in "running" vehicles or on animals suffer the penalty too. The faster you go, the bumpier the ride. If you really need to move, your Hero can "pick up the Pace". Picking up the Pace means your character goes all out and runs, swims, climbs, or rides as fast as he possibly can. The cost is a little bit of fatigue.

Whenever you want your character to pick up the Pace, check the Movement Table and roll the die type listed under "Pickup". Add that many meters to the character's running movement for that particular action.

The number listed under "Fatigue" is the amount of CT the hero loses for pushing himself so hard. A rider can make horses or other mounts pick up the Pace by making a Fair (5) horse riding or teamster roll. In this case, the animals take the CT.

Picking up the Pace on a vehicle requires a Fair (5) driving roll. Vehicles and their drivers don’t take CT for this, but you should check for a malfunction (if applicable, as explained in Chapter Eight). You can’t “run" (double your movement) when swimming or climbing, by the way, and no matter what your climbing or swimming is, you can’t normally move faster than the maximum listed on the Movement Table. You can still pick up the Pace, however.

Movement Rates

The Movement Table below tells you how to figure Pace when a character is running, climbing, or swimming.

Action	Rate	Pickup	Fatigue	Max
Walking	Dexterity	d4	1	—
Climbing	2+ climbing	d2	1	8
Swimming	swimming
Riding	Varies	by mount

Rate is the base movement rate for the entire round. You'll need to split this among your actions when it's important. For swimming and climbing, use your character's Aptitude levels in swimming and climbing as the base number.

Pickup is the type of die you roll to get extra movement by “picking up the Pace". Unlike most rolls in Future Imperfect, don’t roll again on Aces. Transhumans, Avatars, MekPurr and Canines add 1 to their Pickup roll when walking (running). If the character has claws, add 1 to the roll while climbing. If webbed appendages are present, add 1 when swimming

Fatigue is the amount of Concussion Threshold your character loses when he picks up the Pace. Transhumans take no CT when picking up the pace. Max is the absolute maximum your character can move for certain types of actions, such as climbing and swimming.

Rissh K'Toah’s running from a deep-space reptile. His Deftness is 8. Since he's running, he moves 16 meters per round. If he picks up the Pace, he can move an extra d4 meters at the cost of 1 CT.

Encumbrance

The encumbrance (load) is an estimate of the Hero, extra, or vehicle versus the weight of the load. If it matters, you and the Master need to figure out how heavy a load is. A strong character carrying a fainted schoolmarm probably has a light load. Two horses pulling a stagecoach have an average load. If the wagon is full of gold, it would be heavy for even six horses.

The relative loads below are listed along with how much you need to reduce the Hero's or extra's Rate. If a character with an 8 Rate is carrying a heavy load, his Rate is effectively reduced to a 2 for the round.

Of course, what's a heavy load to human might be a feather's weight to an Ursoid Hero. The minimum for each class of load is listed under "Weight" in kilograms*. Racial modifications are discussed in the Race chapter.

For instance, Tara 7’s Strength is 6. She can carry up to 18 kilograms with no problems. From 18 kg up to 36 kg is a light load. From 36 kg up to 60 kg is a medium load. From 60 kg on up is a heavy load.

Load	Weight	Pace
Light	3 x Strength	3/4
Medium	6 x Strength	1/2
Heavy	10 x Strength	1/4

Ursoids add two to the multiplier at each level. Saurians, Transhumans and Avatars add one. Avians and IRSOL subtract one. For example, 5 x Strength is a light load for an Ursoid.

*Ok, science-nerd, I know kilograms are a unit of mass and not weight. They are however, much more familiar than Newtons to the average reader. When the manual refers to Kg, it means a force equal to one Kg on Terra at sea level. Put that slide-rule away, everything is going to be fine.

Psychological Contests

When most folks think of combat, they think of yanking triggers and smashing things to oblivion. That's a lot of fun, but sometimes it's just as much fun to stare down an enemy and send him running back to Proxima Centauri, or trick a savvy extra into thinking some alien's sneaking up on him so you can shoot him in the back.

Of course, in Future Imperfect, there probably is some alien sneaking up behind him, so you might just want to keep your trap shut until the time is right.

Bluff, intimidate, and ridicule are psychological contests that can be used to break an opponent's nerve or concentration. Persuasion is also a psychological contest, but it isn’t generally used in combat.

A psychological contest is an opposed roll versus one of the target's Aptitudes. If the test is being made against a group, use the leader's Aptitude. Initiating a psychological contest is an action. Resisting one is not and is done automatically.

Psychological contests can have additional effects besides just getting the bad guys to do what you want. The number of successes and raises determines the effect of the contest. All this is summed up on the Psychological Contests Table.

Test	Opposed
Bluff	Scrutinize
Overawe	Guts
Ridicule	Ridicule

Successes	Effect
1	Unnerved
2	Distracted
3	Broken

Unnerved

Your character's stern gaze or cruel taunt angers or upsets your opponent. The target suffers -4 to his next action. This includes any "passive" defense Aptitudes like fighting or resisting further psychological contests.

Distracted

The target is totally distracted by your hero's jibe, trick, or surly stare. The target is unnerved, and in addition loses his highest Action Card. If he's got a reserve card up his sleeve, he loses that instead.

Broken

You've broken the bad guy's will—for the moment at least. He's unnerved and distracted and you get to draw a Fate Chip from the pot.

Simple Psychological Contests

Most opposed social interaction takes place during simple psychological contests. When a smooth-talking spacer attempts to learn valuable secrets from a crafty smuggler he met at a backwoods starport, this is a simple psychological contest. This type of action is much more subtle, and open to more interpretation and roleplaying.

In a simple test of will, the initiator of the test makes his roll versus a TN set by the relative skill of the other being. Consult the following table.

Opposing die type is	TN
Less	3
Equal	5
Greater	7
More than 2 greater	9

If the target has 3 or more levels in the appropriate skill, add one to the TN.

Stakes

Before initiating any simple test of will, the initiator must make it clear what he is attempting to accomplish. Once both parties understand what is at stake, each has an opportunity to spend chips or otherwise affect the die roll. The Master must be sure that the player knows the potential consequences of each possibility. All declarations of stake are subject to Master approval.

Antares Darkeye wishes to blather the desk sergeant at the local precinct long enough for Harry to sneak past and get into the jailer’s office. He decides he will tell the sergeant a fictional story about a crime he witnessed last evening, and ensure to keep him engaged and unaware of the surroundings. Matt (the player of Antares) declares that if he can win this test, the sergeant is engaged in his story long enough for Harry to get past. If he is able to get a raise, Harry can get in and out without being seen. If Antares fails, however, the sergeant sees through the ruse and maintains his vigilance, noticing Harry before he can get to the jailer’s office.

Players should be encouraged to develop their entire stake scenario. If they have a good and creative set of circumstances the Master should make every effort to accommodate them. If the player does not have a full idea, or if the Master believes the proposed scenario is inappropriate, he should make a counter declaration to the player. The player should not roll until they know the stakes for all likely possibilities. Once the dice are cast, the action is taking place. There is no way to cancel the action, though if another player (or NPC!) wishes to attempt to interrupt, an opposed Quickness test may be attempted to interrupt, as described in the initiative section.

Game designers note: Most players understand and accept consequences in physical combat. The enemy rolls, they are hit by a specified weapon, the damage is applied: Simple, and without argument. Social combat is another thing entirely. Specify the stakes, such as NPC wants to know where some Hero is hiding. Player responds, I would not tell them under any circumstances! Yet, a skilled and savvy talker might get the information anyway. They might know when the Hero lies, they could note body language and deduce the truth, there are many possible ways an NPC (or Hero!) could gain information even without cooperation. The stakes are the stakes, and this is not equivalent to losing control of the character, any more than taking damage from a gunshot is. I refuse to take the damage from this blast under any circumstances! Sounds silly, doesn’t it?

The same goes for fear or compulsion. Fire is scary, we know this. Depending on the scope of the game, that might not matter. Players might be free to declare they run into the burning building to look for some dropped item. In a grittier game, a GM might want to use fear rules. A giant monster shows up, make your fear roll.

Often, social consequences, fears and compulsions could be better handled with the carrot than the stick. Instead of deciding that the master NPC has convinced a Hero to reveal vital information, invoke a sliding scale cost based on the NPC skill roll that the player must pay to resist. Pay a chip for each success or reveal the information, your choice. Allow the player freedom to determine his reaction, but no matter what, if the cost is not paid the NPC learns the info (somehow). In other words, the Hero might remain completely silent, but some movement, some tic, some inconsequential movement gave away the vital info.

Some players strongly rebel against what they perceive as losing control of their character, even though functionally it is no different than taking damage from a physical attack. Some players enjoy roleplaying the negative consequences. The best solution is to know your players, and use the method that will work the best for your crew. Give the players the game they want!

Fear and Terror

Some things are a lot more unnerving than an adversary hurling insults in your general direction. These sorts of psychological contests can be either active or passive: a scary alien inherently causes fear, but it could use an action to augment the resulting fear.

When the Master calls for a Fear test, the Hero rolls his Guts with a difficulty TN set by the Master and consults the following table.

Successes	Effect
0	Broken
1	Distracted
2	Unnerved
3+	No Effect

Going bust on a Fear test results in the Hero being terrified.

If Fear wasn’t bad enough, there is also Terror. A Hero may not spend Fate Chips in any way during a Terror test. Otherwise, it is the same as a Fear test.

Going bust or drawing a black joker is extra bad. If a Hero goes bust on a Terror test, he draws no cards in the next draw phase, takes no actions (including active defenses) and just cowers in place. The hero is catatonic. During the following draw phase he becomes terrified. Same goes for drawing the black joker.

Terrified

A terrified Hero breaks and runs. During the next draw phase, the Hero draws a single card, and when it comes up, must run full movement away from the Terror causing event.

Shooting

There often comes a point when you need to turn some dastardly villain’s head into space goo. ln simple terms, all you need to do is figure out your Target Number and roll your shooting dice. If one of your dice comes up equal to or higher than the TN, you've hit.

While you're reading this part, remember that you should figure out all the modifiers for the Master instead of making him do it all for you. That frees him up to interpret the results in grisly detail and keep all the bad guys and their modifiers straight.

Weapons

The first thing you need to figure out when you want to blow something to Kingdom Come is what kind of weapon your character is going to fire. There are lots of options in the known universe, from black powder muskets to plasma pistols.

Most weapon groups have their own classification. See the descriptions and skill list for an explanation of what works where. Whichever weapon your character uses, that's the kind of shooting concentration he needs. If he doesn’t have it, he can use his Deftness instead, but since this is a "default" roll, you must halve the total (round down).

If your character has a related concentration—say he's firing a laser pistol when he's used to blasters—you can use the related concentration but you have to subtract 2 from the roll. In case you forgot, this was all covered in Chapter XX.

Rate of fire

So how many shots can you fire per action? That's easy. A Hero can fire up to his weapon’s "rate of fire" each action. Pistols and rifles have a rate of fire of 1. You need several actions to plug multiple bad guys in the same round. Only automatic weapons have higher rates of fire.

The Attack

Once you've figured out what kind of dice to roll, it's time to figure out the TN you need to make some dirt-slow loser do some daisy pushing.

Range

The Target Number you're looking for is Fair (5) plus the range modifier. To figure the modifier, count the number of meters between the shooter and the target and then divide it by the weapon’s Range Increment, rounding down as usual. The number you get is added to Fair (5) to get the base TN of the shot. See the Shooting Table on page XX for the range increments for any kind of weapon you might be curious about.

Now that you've got your TN, you might have to add or subtract a couple of modifiers to your shooting roll. These things come up often in a gunfight, so be sure to keep track of them. Sometimes even stranger things can happen. Then it's up to the Master to figure out a modifier for that particular situation.

Situation Modifier Firer is running -4 Firer is mounted -2 Firer is wounded Varies Size Varies Target is moving -4

It's a lot harder to hit a target when you're on the move. As you might remember from our little discussion on movement, any action in which your character runs (exceeds his movement for the action), he suffers a -4 penalty to any other things he might try to do during that action (like shooting whatever's chasing him).

Target Size

If a target is half the size of a man, subtract a penalty of 1. If it's one-quarter the size of a man, subtract 2, and so on, to a maximum of -6. The opposite is also true. A target that is twice as big as a man gives the character a +1 bonus, a target three times the size of a man has a +2 modifier, and so on, up to a maximum of +6.

Target Speed

Of course, it's harder to hit a moving target than one that's standing still. Any time a target is moving faster than a relative Pace of 20, subtract 4 from your roll. "Relative" means you need to take into account how fast the target and the shooter are moving in relation to each other. If a rider is chasing a train, for instance, no penalty for speed applies.

Area Effect Weapons

Area effect weapons like shotguns and grenades work a little differently than most weapons. The benefit of either is that one shot releases multiple projectiles. This makes them ideal for unskilled shooters, since they can make up for their lack of talent by filling the air with death. Even better, the closer the shooter is to his target, the more balls are likely to hit and the more damage they can cause.

Anyone firing an AE weapon adds 4d6 bonus dice to his shooting roll. Subtract one bonus die every 10 meters after the first. So at 1-10 meters a shotgun adds 4d6 bonus dice. At 11-20 it adds 3d6, and so on. Shotguns get bonus damage dice in much the same way. However many bonus Aptitude dice are left when a character fires is the number of bonus damage dice he can add if he hits. Since a shotgun has a base damage of 2d6, a successful shot at 10 meters or less actually causes 6d6 damage. Ouch! Ronan’s creeping through a spaceport when a gelatinous alien rises up just under 20 meters away. Having only a shotgun, Ronan unloads both barrels at the thing. At this range, he gets 3 bonus dice per shot. He hits with both and adds 3 bonus dice to each damage roll as well. The alien thing is blown back to the depths of space.

Automatic Weapons

Automatic weapons fire several rounds at once at the expense of accuracy. When a character fires an automatic weapon, he usually has to fire the weapon’s full "rate of fire”. Rates of fire are listed on the Weapon Table, page XX. The shooter's appropriate shooting roll determines how many of these rounds actually hit. Every raise above the TN means an additional shot hits the target. Obviously, a target cannot be hit by more shots than were fired. Determine each round‘s hit location and effects separately.

If the gunner wants to fire at multiple targets, he needs to decide how many shots each target gets, and then he splits his dice among them. A gunner can never aim or make called shots when firing on automatic (see Special Maneuvers).

Violet is guarding a hovercar running through Antares City when a band of pirates on cycles moves in for the kill. She opens fire with the blaster mounted on the roof. Her shooting: Heavy Blasters roll is a 12; the TN is 6. That's a success and a raise, so Violet hits with 2 shots.

Special Maneuvers

Heroes use all kinds of tricks and techniques to make sure they get their quarry.

Called Shots

Occasionally you'll run across some alien that just doesn’t want to die even after you've turned it into Swiss cheese. Hopefully it's got a weak spot somewhere, like an eyeball or the throat. Hitting a specific spot on your target is a "called shot”, and of course, it comes with a penalty. The smaller the target, the bigger the penalty. The table below is for targeting humans, but it should give you an idea for blasting parts off nasty aliens as well.

Size Penalty Guts -2 Legs, arms -4 Heads, hands, feet -6 Eyeball, heart -10

Aiming

Each ranged weapon has an Aim value, expressed as x/y. The first number is how long the weapon takes to aim, as described below. It is also the bonus the weapon receives for each action spent aiming after the first. A weapon may receive the Aim bonus twice. The number after the slash is the to-hit penalty the weapon receives when it is not aimed, as well as the initiative penalty. Taking an Aim action does not cause a Hero to lose a card up his sleeve.

Game Designers Note: In many RPGs there is a tendency for characters to be overly specialized, especially in the case of weaponry. Intrepid players peruse the weapon lists for the one that does the most damage, has the highest accuracy bonus, or has some other desirable quality. In most cases with ranged combat, this is a rifle, often a heavy one. Every combat, no matter whether in an open field or in an elevator shaft involves the hero toting this heavy rifle along for the ride. And why not, they have no skill in any other weapon! This is counter to how things work in the real world (while gaming is not the real world, some level of believability is desired). In many types of operation, a smaller, lighter weapon such as a handgun would be of great advantage due to the increased maneuverability and ease of aim. These aim rules attempt to incentivize “the right tool for the job”. In close quarters, where the range is unlikely to be outside of 10 meters, the speed and lack of large unaimed penalty of handguns should make them an attractive option. In the end, what this leads to is not only more fun and challenging combats, but also more well-rounded characters.

Procedure

To aim, place down your initiative card and declare your intention on your turn. Then put a number of tokens next to the card for how long you wish to aim. Extra aim tokens act as extra aim actions. Each time a card value is counted down, place one aim marker on your initiative card. When none remain, resolve the fire action on your next action. If your next action comes during your aim time, you may place that card up your sleeve and use it any time after the aim is completed. Aim actions may be completed over multiple rounds, and a completed aim may be held over to the next round.

If the target attempts to move out of the field of view before the completed aim, the attacker may choose to immediately attempt the fire action. Consult the number of tokens on the initiative card. If they are equal or greater than the aim number, resolve the shot as aimed, otherwise the shot is unaimed.

If it misses, the movement happens as planned. If it is a hit, resolve an opposed Quickness test. The winner determines if the damage is applied before or after the intended move.

Ronan finds himself face to face with an oversized alien bug barreling down the corridor toward him. He knows he only has one shot left in his blast rifle, so he needs to make it count. When the Master calls out King, he places down a King of Diamonds and declares his intention to aim for 4 steps. A blast rifle has an aim value of 3, so aiming for 4 steps will grant +3 (the first three cancel the unaimed penalty, the fourth adds a bonus).

On Jack, Ronan places a Jack of Spades up his sleeve. He will now be able to fire immediately when the aim action completes at 9. All is going to plan. However, on 10 of Diamonds the bug closes half the distance and the Master declares its intention to turn down a perpendicular corridor with his remaining move, taking him out of Ronan’s field of fire. Ronan checks his counters and notes he has three on his card, so he can fire now without penalty. He squeezes off a round. The range is close for a blast rifle, so the TN is 5. He rolls 3d8 (Blast rifle skill 3, Deftness d8) and gets 3, 5, 7. A hit!

Now he must test his 2d8 Quickness versus the bug’s 1d10. The bug rolls a 9, that will be tough to beat. But Ronan rolls 1, 4, 8+3 (Aces), for a total of 11. Too bad Mr. bug, you are hit before you can get down that corridor!

Two Weapons

A Hero using weapons in each hand suffers -2 to each attack. Any action taken with an off hand is made at an additional -4 (for a total of -6). A hero can fire with each hand up to the weapons’ usual rate of fire. Each shot is a separate roll.

Two handed weapons

Generally speaking, you need two hands to operate a rifle, but if you're good you can do it with only one. Subtract 2 from any one-handed rifle attack. A crazy rifleman could even use two rifles at once, but don’t forget about the penalties mentioned above.

If the rifle requires cocking, this can be a problem. It's difficult, but it can be done by spinning the rifle by lever. If you'd like for your character to do this one-handed too, you need to make an Onerous (7) Deftness check for each rifle. This check requires no actions, but it can only be made once per action. if you fail, you can try again on your next action.

Reloading

Sooner or later, your weapon will run out of ammo. It takes one action to put a single bullet into a pistol or rifle, or a single shell in a shotgun. To swap the magazine in a handgun or rifle requires one action to remove the old and one to insert the new. Of course, you can always try speed- loading to accomplish this faster. See speed-load in Chapter XX. Heavy weapons are a different animal altogether, and each has a Reload attribute listed on the Weapons table. This attribute is the amount of rounds it takes to reload the weapon. Consult the description of each individual weapon for more detail as to the procedure. Primitive black powder and muzzle-loading weapons take forever to reload. Five actions, in fact. They can never be speed-loaded.

Throwing Things

The throwing skill works just like shooting for most weapons. The Range Increment for all thrown weapons is +1/5, so add +1 to the base TN of Fair (5) for every 5 meters distance. A target at 10 meters is TN 7. The maximum range a character can throw an average size weapon (1-2 pounds) is his Strength die type x 5 meters.

Ronan’s Strength of 3d6 lets him chuck a stick of dynamite 30 meters, with a TN of 11.

Unintended Targets

Sometimes you want to know if a missed shot could hit someone near or along the path of the shot. This isn’t a situation that crops up all of the time. Don’t worry about it if it's not important. If a bystander is a few feet from the target and directly between it and the shooter—as in the classic hostage pose—you can use the hit location chart. If the bystander was covering up the part of the target that was hit, he gets hit instead. You have to figure out where the bystander gets hit based on the situation or another roll. If the bystander isn’t up close and personal with the target, you can use this simple system.

For single shots that miss their target. A bullet has a 1 in 6 chance of hitting anyone within 1 meter of the bullet's path. Start at the bystander closest to the shooter and roll a d6. If it comes up a 1, he's hit. Roll hit location and damage normally. If the roll is anything but a 1, check any other bystanders in the path until you run out of bystanders or the bullet finds a home. A spray of bullets fired from an automatic or area affect weapon hits bystanders on a 1-2. Continue to check each target until all the missed rounds have checked each bystander at least once. Some weapons are very effective at covering wide areas. These weapons have the Suppression attribute. They can hit bystanders within 2 meters of the blast's path.

Melee Weapons

Making fighting Aptitude rolls is a lot like making shooting rolls. First figure out the concentration that matches the weapon you're using. Some basic fighting concentrations are knives, swords, whips, and brawling. The last one, brawling also covers clubs, hammers, brass knuckles and the like. The Target Number of the attack is Fair (5) plus the opponent's fighting Aptitude for whatever weapon is currently in his hand. A Hero gets his fighting: brawling skill if he is empty-handed or has some sort of "club" in his hand-like a bottle or even a pistol. As with shooting maneuvers, an attacker can make "called shots" if he wants (see page XX).

Ronan’s a rough and tumble kind of guy, but sometimes people like to pick on his wiry self. A drunken hero looking for a fight in the spaceport on Rigel III happens to find Ronan’s casual sneer annoying. Ronan obliges the drunkard by punching him square in the face. Since the hero is using his fists, Ronan adds the hero's fighting: Brawling of 2 to the TN of 5, making it 7. Ronan gets a 9 and nails him in the nose.

Weapon Speed

Most hand-to-hand weapons have a Speed of 1, so each action lets the wielder attack one opponent. A few weapons are really slow and have a Speed of 2. These take an action to ready before they can strike.

If a character has a weapon in each hand he can make two attacks during one action. Each of these are rolled separately with a penalty of -2 to each attack. The off-hand attack takes an additional -4 penalty too, so that attack suffers a total -6.

Defensive Bonus

Certain weapons make it hard for an opponent to get in close. An alien with a vibroknife has a hard time burying it in the heart of a marine with a laser sword. The reach advantage of certain weapons is its "Defensive Bonus”.

The Defensive Bonus is applied directly to the attacker's TN when he makes his fighting roll. See Chapter XX for details about each weapon’s bonuses. If one combatant has a greater Size than the other, he may add the size difference to their Defensive Bonus.

Sometimes a weapon’s length can be a detriment. Instead of doing damage, an attacker can designate a Close maneuver. The TN is a standard attack roll, modified as above. The attacker must be wielding a weapon that is shorter than the defender, or be unarmed. If successful, the attacker has gotten in so close that the longer weapon cannot be effectively used. The Defensive Bonus of the longer weapon now becomes a penalty, and they may no longer add their strength to any damage dealt. To regain their previous position, the wielder of the longer weapon must generate some distance. This is done exactly as the Close maneuver, with the Defensive Bonus penalty still applying.

While wandering the back alleys of Antares City, Ronan gets himself on the wrong side of a conversation with a local constable. The constable takes offense, and draws his powered truncheon (DB 1). Ronan was just out for a stroll, and while he has his trusty blast pistol, he does not envision a murder charge in his future, so he raises his fists and prepares for the worst. The constable reacts first, and jabs at Ronan with the electrified end of his truncheon. Ronan is an accomplished brawler (Fighting: Brawl 3), so the constable has a TN of 8 (5+3). He throws his dice and they come up 5, a miss. Ronan sees the crackle of the business end of that club, and knows he needs to avoid it at all costs, so he decides to make a close maneuver, where his brawling will be at an advantage. His TN is 8 (5+2, plus 1 for weapon DB). Luckily, he rolls an 8 and closes the distance. Now he can attack with a TN of 7, while his opponent will attack at 9. Additionally, no Strength will be added to hits against Ronan.

Entanglement

Instead of doing brawling damage some weapons can be used to entangle and/or trip a target. Doing either is an opposed roll of the attacker's appropriate fighting skill versus the opponent's Deftness.

A Hero can break an entanglement by rolling the TN listed on the weapon table. If the weapon is listed as fragile, it would be broken by this (such as with a lariat or simple net). Otherwise, he has to just plain wriggle his way out of it. This is an opposed Deftness roll versus the attacker's skill with the weapon.

The Master should feel free to apply bonuses and penalties according to the situation. Obviously, if your entangled Hero is being dragged behind a hovercycle, it's going to be a bit tougher to break free than it might normally be.

Defense

Before we get into seeing where your hero actually hit his target, there's one last thing you should know. If you really don’t want your character to get hit, he can make an "active defense". To initiate an active defense, declare your intention to do so and discard your highest remaining action card. If you have a card up your sleeve, that is your highest. Otherwise, this is the only time an Action Card lets you act before it's your turn.

Now you can make a dodge or fighting Aptitude roll as appropriate. The TN for the bad guy to hit you is now the greater of either his normal TN or your dodge or fighting roll. You can’t spend any more Fate Chips on your roll once the bad guy starts his attack roll, however.

To make up for breaking our precious rules your character actually has to do something to represent defense. If he's dodging, he needs to jump behind cover or throw himself to the ground. In hand-to-hand combat, an actively defending character has to give ground by backing up 1 meter. Otherwise, subtract 4 from his roll.

Of course, if you've got a card up your sleeve, you can always try to use that to run away instead. When someone levels their weapon at you, slap down that card and tell the Master you're moving away. You've still got to beat the man that wants to perforate you in an opposed Quickness roll. Even then, you'd better have something handy to hide behind, or you're just increasing the range.

Hit Locations

Before you can start rolling handfuls of damage dice, you need to see where the attack actually hit and whether or not any cover intervened. Where you hit a target is often more important than how hard. A good whack on the head hurts a lot more than getting your toes stepped on.

Roll 1d20 on the chart below whenever the Master tells you you've scored a hit. When arms or legs are hit, an odd number is the left side, an even number the right. Hits to the gizzards and head cause extra damage as you'll see under Bleeding & Squealing below.

The hit location chart works best with humans and things that like to think they're human, but it can also be used for critters with a little tinkering. The Master may use a special chart for really weird aliens, but this one works most of the time.

Gizzards are all the target's vital parts, by the way, like the all-important groin, the heart, lungs, liver, and all those other messy parts the body needs to keep walking and talking. Consider it a part of the torso when applying wounds and wound modifiers.

1d20 Location 1-4 Legs 5-9 Lower Torso 10 Gizzards 11-14 Arms 15-19 Upper Torso 20 Head

Modifiers +/-1/per attack roll raise (choose) +2 When fighting +2 Height advantage when fighting +2 Point-blank range when firing

Raises

Every raise on an attack roll lets the shooter adjust his hit location by 1 point up or down. This way a really good shooter is more likely to get a killing blow to the guts or head areas. Sometimes you won’t want to add the bonus because it will actually make you miss due to cover. Don’t worry, you don’t have to use the bonus if you don’t want to.

Fighting

The really nifty thing about this chart is that it starts at the legs and works its way up. Adding +2 to the die roll puts most hand-to-hand hits in the guts, head, or arms where they should be.

Height

You can also add +2 to the roll if one character has a height advantage over another in a fight, such as if one fellow is on a cycle taking a laser sword swing at some sodbuster on foot.

Point Blank

Point-blank range is used when one character is holding a gun on another, using him like a shield, holding him hostage, or shooting over a table they're both sitting at. In general, the gun should be close enough to touch the target with arms extended. This means that when a hostage tries to break free, his captor is more likely to shoot the victim in the guts or his flailing arms than in the pinky toe. Occasionally you might want to subtract this modifier—such as when someone shoots somebody under a table.

Prone Targets

A Hero laying down is much harder to hit than an alien standing up in the middle of a street. When you make a successful attack roll against a prone target, roll hit location normally. Unless the attack hits the arms, upper guts, or head, it's a miss (assuming this is from the front, of course, adjust accordingly based on facing). This bonus is counteracted when standing adjacent to the prone target. If the firer is within 2 meters of the target, ignore this rule.

Cover

Using cover is one of the most important things a hero can do to save his skin. A Hero who stands out in the open might inspire song, but they'll probably be sung posthumously. Once you know where an attack has hit the target, you need to take into account any cover the target might have there. The hit location table is all set up to help you out. If the hit location is a character's left arm and he's leaning around a corner to fire with his right, the bullet is going to hit the corner.

The table is even broken up into lower and upper guts, so if your character is behind a bar and a shot hits his lower guts, you know it's probably going into the wood instead. That's why it's important you tell the Master exactly what your character is doing, so he can figure out if the hero should get the benefits of cover or not.

Cover penetration

Cover does two things to an attack: it may deflect it or it may reduce some portion of its inertia (which is what ends up causing the damage in the end). Let's cover the first bit first. When an attack hits some kind of cover, consult the penetration value of the weapon. If the penetration value is equal or greater, apply the armor normally, subtracting one from the armor value for each Penetration over the Armor. If it is less, the shot is deflected. Even though the attack hits, the damage it can do is reduced by the “Armor” value of the intervening cover, which we'll explain directly.

Damage

Traits above the human norm go from a d12 to a d12+2, then d12+4, and so on. Damage dice work a bit differently. After a d12, the next die type is a d20. This lets us assign weapon damages to a general category of die type as shown on the table below.

Die Weapon Types d4 Light clubs, small knives d6 Arrows, heavy clubs, pistols, large knives d8 Rifles, swords d10 Heavy rifles, flamethrowers d12 Small artillery d20 Explosives, artillery

Tech Level

People have been getting killed by knives and muskets for hundreds of years. In the future, these weapons will remain just as deadly. What sets a Brown Bess apart from a blast rifle is Tech Level (TL). The nuances of TL will be discussed in Chapter: XX, Gear. Generally, either will kill an unarmored Hero just fine, but higher tech weapons are lighter, faster, more accurate, more efficient and, more importantly (in game mechanics), better at penetrating impeding obstacles.

Armor

Now it's time to show you why weapon damage values are grouped by die types. A .45 caliber Peacemaker and a .22 caliber derringer are both d6-based weapons, but the Peacemaker‘s going to roll more d6s than the derringer. If you're talking about penetration, both weapons go through an inch-thick board about the same (they have the same Penetration number). The Peacemaker still does more damage to whatever's on the other side, however (it delivers more d6s).

When bullets, knives, or anything else go through an obstacle, they lose some of their energy. The thicker and tougher the obstacle, the more damage is absorbed. Obstacles have an Armor rating. Each level of Armor reduces the die type of the damage. An attack that uses d20s (like dynamite) is reduced to d12s by a single level of Armor. Two levels of Armor would drop the damage to d10s, and so on. If the die type is dropped below a d4, it is stopped entirely.

A 3d6 bullet that goes through something with an Armor value of 1, for instance, is reduced to 3d4. A 3d6 bullet that hits something with an Armor of 2 is stopped entirely. This means that anything with an Armor of 2 is bulletproof to most pistols.

Armor stops fighting attacks as well. Fighting damage uses a character's Strength Trait total plus the weapon’s damage dice. If the armor stops the weapon’s damage dice, it stops the character's Strength roll as well—assuming the character's using a weapon.

If a Hero or alien isn’t using a weapon, halve its Strength die type plus any bonuses and round down to the nearest damage die. An alien with a d12+6 has a damage step of d8 (half of 18, rounded down). Of course, the maximum damage step is still d20. An animal with natural weapons, such as a tiger, will have a weapon entry for this. The table below lists some obstacles and their Armor levels. We've also listed the type of die each level stops for convenience.

Armor Material Stops 1 Wood less than 1" thick d4 2 1-3" of solid wood, tin d6

3 4-6" of solid wood, thin metal d8

4 A small tree, bricks, an iron pan d10 5 A large tree, armored train walls D12

6 Multiple Inch—thick steel plate d20

Cover

If you can see any part of your target, it isn’t really concealed. If some cowboy's head is sticking up out of the prairie grass, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out where the rest of his body is.

Partial concealment doesn’t modify an attack roll, since you can usually figure out where the whole target is. If a target is completely concealed but an attacker knows about where the target is (even a general direction), he can attack at -4.

Darkness

The penalties for partial lighting apply to targets greater than 10 meters away. Of course, if a target holds a lantern on a dark night, there's no penalty check. Damage dice are always added together. You can still reroll any Aces and add them to the final total, however.

Rolling damage

Once you've figured out where an attack hit, it's time to roll the damage dice. Every weapon in Spacelands has a listing for "damage." This is the number and type of dice you roll whenever you score a hit.

A hit to a vital spot causes more trouble than a hit to the little finger. Whenever a character is hit in the gizzards, you can add 1 extra die to the damage roll, head adds 2 extra dice. The die type is the same as whatever other dice you're rolling.

Firearms have fixed damage, such as 3d6 for large pistols. When you've hit your target, roll this many dice, but don’t read them like a normal Trait or Aptitude. Instead, add the total of all dice together.

Once you have your final damage total, tell the Master. For every full multiple of your target's Size you do in damage, your attack causes one wound. As always, remember to truncate any fractions. Most humans have a Size of 6, but aliens vary considerably. The target takes the wound(s) in the area rolled on the Hit Location Table.

Hand to hand damage

When a hand to hand weapon hits, the weapon damage is added to a Strength check to determine the final damage. A Strength check, unlike the damage roll, keeps only the highest die and does not total all of the dice. Additionally, the value of the Strength check cannot exceed the value of the weapon damage. If the Strength roll is higher, reduce it to equal the weapon damage. Ronan uses his hunting knife to impale an aggressive drunkard. Ronan has a 2d8 Strength and the knife does 2d6 damage. He rolls all 4 dice and gets 4 and 7 on the d8, and 2 and 2 on the d6s. The high die in his Strength roll is 7, but because it cannot exceed the weapon damage, it is reduced to 4 (2+2). The total damage is 8.

Wounds

Everyone—Heroes, aliens, and geriatrics alike can take the same number of wounds in each body part: five to be exact. Most heroes can shrug off a single wound, but more than that starts causing some serious trouble. Check out another of our famous tables to get a better picture of what we're talking about.

Wound Level Description 1 Light 2 Heavy 3 Serious 4 Critical 5 Maimed

Light wounds are bruises, shallow but irritating cuts, and muscle strains.
Heavy wounds are sprains, deep but non threatening cuts, or multiple bruises.
Serious wounds encompass fractured or broken bones or deep and bloody cuts.
Critical wounds are life-threatening cuts across major arteries, compound fractures, or internal bleeding.
Maimed is well...maimed. If a character's wounds reach the maimed mark in his guts or head, he's critically injured. This generally means dead, but given the state of advanced medical technology, there may still be hope. Consult the Gear chapter for more information. If a limb becomes maimed, it is severed, crushed, burned to a cinder, or otherwise out of action forever.

Wound Markers

Now things get a little trickier. You need to keep track of damage in six different locations—your character's head, guts, right arm, left arm, left leg, and right leg. Wounds taken to the gizzards and upper and lower guts add to those in the guts area.

Don’t worry, though. The character sheet in the back of this very book has a coffin on it that you can use to keep track of how close your hero is getting to filling a pine box. Use colored paper clips to keep track.

Wounds are only added together when they're taken in the same location. For instance, a character who takes a light wound to the right arm in one round and a heavy wound in the same arm later would then have a serious wound in that arm. If a character takes a light wound to the head and then takes a heavy wound to his leg, they aren’t added together.

A character can’t be killed by wounds to the arms or legs. He can take enough Wind (see below) to put himself out of action, but he can’t die until he bleeds to death or someone plugs him in the head or guts.

This makes it possible for a hero to get cut and shot to pieces, but one more scratch to the arm can’t kill him unless he bleeds to death. Only a hit to the head or guts directly sends a Hero to his doom.

Wound Modifiers

Wounds are not pleasant company. Blood drips in your eyes, broken fingers make it hard to pull triggers, and crunchy ankles make it a real pain to run from sharp-toothed aliens. As you might have guessed, the pain and suffering that are the result of wounds subtract from a character's dice rolls. The exact penalties for each level of wounds are shown below. Wound penalties are never subtracted from "effect" totals such as damage or psionics, but they do apply to everything else.

Wound Modifier Light -1 Heavy -2 Serious -3 Critical -4 Maimed (limbs) -5

The penalty depends on the highest-level wound your hero has suffered. If he has a light and a serious wound, for instance, you have to subtract the penalty for serious wounds (-3) from all your action totals. Where the wound is doesn’t really matter.

Another word on all this pain and suffering business. Whenever a character takes damage, there's a chance he might miss the next action from shock. When your character takes damage, he has to make a "stun" check. Stun checks are made by rolling the character's Vigor against the wound’s level, as shown at the bottom of this page. Don’t forget to apply the penalty for the worst wound your hero's taken so far as well.

If you make the roll, nothing happens. If you fail it, your character's stunned and can’t do anything besides limp a few meters and cry like a baby until he makes a recovery check. Your character needs to make a stun check every time he takes a wound unless he's already stunned.

Recovery

You can try to recover from being stunned during any action. This is called a "recovery check," and it takes one entire action. A recovery roll is made just like a stun check, except the difficulty is your highest current wound level. One last thing. Your character goes unconscious immediately if you go bust on any stun check. The amount of time he stays down is 1d6 hours or until someone makes a Fair (5) medicine roll to wake him up.

Wound Level TN Wind 3 Light 5 Heavy 7 Serious 9 Critical 11 Maimed 13

Winded characters might lose consciousness for a few minutes or fall to the ground trying to catch their breath. It just keeps getting better. Every time your character takes a wound he also takes Wind from sheer fatigue and exhaustion. Wind is shock, fatigue, and in the case of Wound trauma the time characters winded from wounds associated with losing bits and pieces of your favorite anatomy. For every wound level your character suffers, he also takes 1d6 Wind. If he's hit by an attack but doesn’t actually take a wound (because the damage total was less than his size), he still takes at least 1d6 Wind. Like damage, this roll is open-ended.

Winded characters get no Cards add can’t perform actions unless the Master feels like letting them whisper or crawl a short way at the end of the round. Winded characters generally fall by the wayside. Heroes who continue to take Wind after they run out might die. When a character is reduced to 0 Wind or lower he becomes “Winded”. This doesn’t necessarily mean he’s passed out, but he does feel like crawling into a hole and whining like a baby.

Death

There are lots of ways to expire. Here are a few more ways to bring death and destruction upon your foes.

Bleeding

Serious damage is likely to start a fellow bleeding like a sieve. Whenever a character takes a serious wound, he begins bleeding, losing 1 Wind per round. Critically wounded characters bleed 2 Wind per round. Severed (maimed) limbs bleed 3 Wind per round. A character reduced to negative his starting Wind level by bleeding has bled to death.

Boom!

Dynamite, grenades, bombs, and all other explosives really hurt any fool who happens to be next to them when they detonate. Every 10 meters afterward, the damage of the explosion drops by a die. The damage might be more under certain special circumstances, but this way works best for most situations.

A hero standing up to 10 meters away from a single stick of dynamite would take all 3 dice. The damage at 10-20 meters would be 2 dice. 21-30 meters is a single die, and targets at greater than 30 meters take no damage. Though they might get a little deaf.

Once you've figured how many wounds the characters take and given them the chance to cancel some or all of the wounds with Fate Chips (see Chapter XX), you need to see where the characters take the wounds. Roll a hit location for each. Hits to the head and gizzards don’t do extra damage in this case.

Brawling

Certain kinds of attacks, like fighting: brawling, are generally considered nonlethal. When one fellow hits another with his bare hands or a light club such as a chair leg or a bottle, he rolls his damage dice and causes 3 points of Wind for every wound level he would normally have caused. Every full 2 wound levels causes a real wound.

Heavy clubs like pistol butts, ax handles, or entire chairs allow the attacker to choose whether he would like to cause lethal or nonlethal damage. If he just wants to cause Wind and try to knock his opponent out without causing serious injury, he can do so. Or he can bash the other fellow's brains out to his heart's content.

Hey, it's a harsh world out there.

When Ronan smashed that bottle over the enemy's head, he did 15 points of damage. Since the enemy has a Size of 6, the attack would have done two wounds if it had been made with a deadly weapon. Since it was just a bottle, the hero suffers 6 Wind and takes one wound. Lucky stiff.

Martial Arts

Some types of unarmed fighting are more effective than others. Over the centuries many styles of fighting disciplines have developed in all corners of the galaxy. These rules cover two types of unarmed fighting. The basic rules work just like any other skill check. If your brawling or martial arts level is 3, roll that many dice for your check and apply damage normally. Martial arts has a Defense value of 1, brawling 0. However, brawling also covers the use of any acceptable improvised weapon (at the Master’s discretion). Advanced hand to hand combat adds a new level of detail to the combat experience, but it is optional. The rules for creating and using martial arts are covered in Chapter: XX Skills.

Drowning

It's a lousy way to go but it happens. Every round a character swims in rough water, his first action must be a swimming roll. The TN depends on the water as shown below. If the swimmer doesn’t make the TN, he takes the difference in Wind.

A character without the swimming Aptitude is in big trouble. When he's in any kind of water over his head, he has to go through the steps above.

Water TN Swift creek 5 Rapid river 7 Rough ocean 9 Stormy seas 11

Falling

A fellow might walk away from falling a few meters with no more than a bruise or at worst a broken limb. Take a dive off a cliff in the Grand Canyon and he's smashed flatter than a pancake. A character takes 1d6+5 damage for every 5 meters fallen, up to a maximum of 20d6+100. Any wounds are applied randomly to separate body areas, ignoring extra damage for heads and gizzards. Landing in water reduces the damage by half or cancels it entirely if the character makes a Fair (5) swimming roll. Landing on a haystack, awning, or other soft obstacle reduces the damage by half if the character makes an Onerous (7) Deftness roll.

Fire

Characters in dense smoke have to make an Onerous (7) Vigor check during their first action each round to avoid suffocation. A wet cloth over the mouth and nose—or similar makeshift protection—adds +2 to the roll. If the character fails the Vigor roll, he takes the difference between the roll and the Target Number in Wind. Should he ever happen to fall unconscious, he continues to lose Wind in this way every round until he dies.

The damage applied to a character who is actually on fire depends on just how big the flames are. A small fire, such as a burning sleeve, causes 1d12 damage at the beginning of every turn to whatever area is on fire. A larger fire causes 2d12 to the affected areas. A character totally consumed by flames takes 3d12 damage, with the wounds applied to every area at once.

Healing

A fellow using his intestines as a belt probably ought to see a doctor. Medical technology varies greatly around the known universe. Consult the description of the appropriate gear, if any is being utilized..

Wind is easy to get rid of. On a Foolproof (3) medicine roll of any kind (including default), someone can bandage scrapes or give the sufferer some water to restore all Wind. This takes about 5 minutes. Otherwise your hero gets his Wind back at the rate of 1 per minute.

Real wounds are trickier. A medicine roll can be made up to one hour after an injury. A character with the medicine.-general Aptitude can heal light and heavy wounds. Only a doctor with medicine: surgery can heal more severe wounds.

The doctor has to roll once for each wounded area. If successful, the roll reduces the area's wounds by one level. The TN depends on the wound level. Maimed limbs cannot be healed by normal means, but you can still try to stop the bleeding.

Wound Level TN Wind 3 Light 5 Heavy 7 Serious 9 Critical 11 Maimed (limbs) 13

After one hour, a wound can only be healed by time (or certain technologies which we'll get into later). Doctors really can’t do a whole lot for a broken bone that's surrounded by swollen tissue or a gash that's already started to heal on its own without advanced medical facilities.

A character can try to heal a wound every 5 days by making a Vigor roll against the same difficulties listed above. If the roll succeeds, the wound improves by one level. Natural healing rolls are made for each area. A character with wounds to an arm and his guts would roll twice, possibly improving the condition of each location by one would level.

Fate

Fate is a fickle bitch. Sometimes she smiles on you, and sometimes she spits the biggest, nastiest thing you've ever seen on your head. In Spacelands, both the good guys and the bad guys can store up a little bit of fate to save their rears in dire situations. Fate, in this case, is represented by poker chips which come in three (actually, four-black is covered later) colors (blue, red, and white). The Master starts the first game session with a pot of 10 blue, 25 red, and 50 white chips. The mix won’t change except under very special circumstances which we'll tell you about in Chapter XX (Masters only, please). At the start of each game session, every player gets to draw up to three Fate Chips at random from the pot. For example, if a player has two chips remaining from the previous session, he draws one, or if he has five, he draws none. The Master also gets to draw one chip that he can use for all the extras and bad guys.

If you quit playing and decide to finish later, or the game is part of a campaign, everyone needs to write down the type and number of chips they had so they can pull them out the next time. There's a space on your character sheet for just this purpose. When you do get your chips back at the beginning of the next game session, make sure everyone gets their old chips before anyone draws their new ones.

Players also get rewarded with specific Fate Chips during play. Mainly you get these for roleplaying your character's Hindrances (if applicable), or learning from a failure. Fate chips are not awarded for success or for rolling dice well. Success is its own reward!

The Master's Handbook has more specific information on how heroes earn both Fate Chips and bounty points, but if you don’t happen to be a Master, ask yours.

Fate Chips

A character can use his Fate Chips in any one of 3 ways: to improve Trait and Aptitude checks, to save his skin by canceling wounds, and to trade them for bounty points. White Fate Chips give the character one extra die per chip spent, just as if he had an extra point of Aptitude or Coordination. The player can spend these chips one at a time until he is happy with the result or decides not to spend any more (or runs out of chips).

Red Fate Chips let you roll a bonus die and add it to your highest current die. This is like an Ace, except that the first die isn’t necessarily the highest it can be. Only one red Fate Chip can be spent on a single action.
Blue Fate Chips are just like red chips, except they can be used even if you go bust.
One note: You can’t use White or Red Fate Chips if you go bust.

Any Fate Chip may be spent to make an unskilled check a skilled check, provided you are invoking an Impetus. More about Impetus in Chapter XX.

Saving your skin

Fate Chips can also be used to avoid getting your character's head or other important parts of his anatomy blown off. Spending a Fate Chip doesn’t make wounds "heal" or stop an attack—it just reduces the effects or makes it so it never happened in the first place. Whenever your character takes damage, you can spend chips to negate some of it. This applies to damage from a single attack. If your hero's shot twice in the same round, you have to reduce each attack separately.

These wounds are negated before any Wind is rolled. If you need to negate Wind (after taking damage from bleeding, drowning, brawling or something else), each level of Fate Chip negates 5 points of Wind as shown below.

Chip Wounds Negated Wind Regained White Up to 1 5 Red Up to 2 10 Blue Up to 3 15

Bounty

Fate Chips can be converted into bounty points between scenarios as well (see the next page). Blue chips are worth 3 bounty points, red chips are worth 2, and white chips are worth 1. A player can spend Fate Chips helping other members of the crew. This sort of working together is encouraged. One rule, however, is you cannot spend a Fate Chip to reduce the damage another player takes if that player has any chips of his own.

After a fellow tussles with the antagonists of the known universe, he either gets a whole lot smarter or a whole lot dead. At the end of each night's game session the Master may give you something called a "bounty". Bounties come from exceptional roleplaying or handling failures well.

Every player character in the crew gets a share of the bounty. If there are leftover points, they stay in the pot until the next time the group gets a reward. You can then use your bounty points to raise your character's Traits and Aptitudes if you'd like.

New Aptitude levels cost whatever the new level is. If you want your character's shooting to go from 3 to 4, it costs you 4 bounty points. You can only raise Aptitude once per story arc, and only one level at a time

Raising your Coordination in a Trait costs two times the new level. So to go from 4d6 Strength to 5d6 would cost 10 points. Traits can be raised as well. The cost equal to three times the die type of the level. To go from a d4 to a d6 would cost 18 bounty points. You'll probably have to save up for a while to pull this off. You don’t have to, but it makes for a better story if you say exactly how your character starts getting stronger or smarter. Maybe he spends his off hours lifting weights or reading technical manuals.