Sci Fi Dice

Fantasy Dice Addon

 Credits
Everything: Claus Brnich
except Avatar Art: greglith and DM7 Shutterstock.com

RadicalApproach.co.uk
The creative commons license lets you re-
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rules to write your own setting material or
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This work is a collection with the text and character sheets for Sci-
Fi Dice by Claus Brnich licensed under the Creative Commons
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Thanks to the kickstarters for funding the stretch goal that forced me to write this.
As always thanks to my wife for being supportive, helpful and lovely.

I also want to bring your attention to the excellent Eclipse Phase. An Origins and
Ennie award winning roleplaying game of transhuman conspiracy and horror released
under the same type of creative commons license as this book. The setting was a big
inspiration for me when writing these rules.
Official Website: http://www.eclipsephase.com

Product Code: RASDPDF02

 Table of Contents
Sci Fi Dice........................4
Character
Creation.........................5
Overview......................................5
Ego.................................................5
Avatar..........................................12
Customisation...........................19
Gear.............................................20
Experience..................................21
Metacortex..................................23
Adapted Morphology..............25
Backup Locations......................27
Skills...........................28
Specialities.................................28
Skill Descriptions.....................29
SF Rules.......................34
Basics...........................................34
Senses..........................................35
Attributes...................................35
Fatigue........................................35
Sanity..........................................36
Fear..............................................41
Social Conflict...........................42
Wealth and Rep...........43
Wealth.........................................43
Reputation..................................47
Combat..........................55
Firearms......................................55
Weapon Effects.........................60
Explosions..................................61
Damage..........................64
Inflicted Damage......................64
Damage Consequences............66
Armour........................................67
Burns...........................................68
Suffocation.................................68
Falling.........................................69
Damage and Stress...................69
Biological Healing....................69
Synthetics Repair......................70
Post Trauma...............................71
Vehicles.......................72
Gaming In Space...........75
Fire...............................................75
Gravity........................................75
Alien Worlds.............................76
Weaponry.....................78
Melee Weapons.........................78
Kinetic Weapons.......................79
Energy Weapons.......................81
Firearm Accessories..................83
Micro Launchers.......................84
Armour........................................86
Upgrades......................88
Genetic Upgrades.....................88
Implants......................................90
Character Sheets......91
Example......................................91
Colour Version..........................93
Print Friendly Version.............95
 Sci-Fi Dice
Sci Fi Dice
This book is not a stand alone game sys-
tem, but intended as an add-on to allow
you to use the Fantasy Dice system to
play in a science fiction setting. It could
also be used to set you game in a mod-
ern setting, or if you want to mix
fantasy and science fiction.
As an add-on this book presents mech-
anics that you would need for a science
fiction game, but does not present a full
set of the rules. I would recommend get-
ting a copy of either Fantasy Dice or the
second edition of Crimson Exodus to
use with this game engine add-on.
However, you could also use it with
Turbo Dice.
Although the Fantasy Dice rules are
very versatile every genre has its own
requirements. In a science fiction game
the focus shifts from the heroic and lar-
ger than life characters of a fantasy set-
ting to cool ways to use science and
technology to make yourself smarter,
stronger and faster. Thus there are no
paths presented in this book. Instead
gadgets, implants, drugs, genetic tweak-
ing, computers and AI assistants boost
the characters and make them more
than human. If you wish to keep the
paths from the Fantasy Dice system
there is of course nothing wrong with
that, and as always you can create your
own, but I would suggest that it may be
better to spend the time on creating new
treatments, implants and futuristic tech-
nology instead. These things make the
characters able to survive challenges,
but it also makes them dependent on
technology. Especially as many of their
skills focus on the use of technology.
Another important shift is a brand new
way of creating characters based on
splitting the process into creating an ego
and an avatar and each has its own
character sheet. Depending on your set-
ting a character may be able to swap or
upgrade bodies and so change her
avatar, but the ego stays the same. The
full process of creating your character is
presented in this book. As part of this
the attributes have been simplified to
just Mind and Body, not least because it
is often impossible to identify just a
single attribute to base a skill on, but
also because personal attributes are less
important than skill and technology.
Strength, reflex and senses are still rep-
resented, but handled differently.
A new interesting stat and system to go
with it is Sanity. This is great for games
with an element of horror, but even
when that is not the focus having mech-
anics for mental breakdowns adds a
new element of danger.
4
 Character creation

Character
Creation
This chapter outlines the process of cre- 010 Languages
ating a character, but the details will de- 011 Wealth
pend on the setting and specifics of the 100 Reputation
game you want to play. The goal of this IV. Experience
chapter is to provide the framework for V. Metacortex
you to slot your game into. VI. Adapted Morphology
VII. Backups
Overview
Character creation can be divided into Ego
three stages as shown below. The ego is
The ego is who you are, or rather the
who you are and the jigsaw of your
skills, memories and personality that
memories, experiences and personality.
make up your identity. This jigsaw is a
The avatar is your physical incarnation
fragile collection of experiences and
in the world in which your ego exists.
memories that create your self identity.
The last step is the customisation stage.
As you gain experience you add new
I. Ego
skills and memories to your ego and
001 Background
your personality changes. Often you
010 Faction
will become more competent, but you
011 Personality
also suffer stress and mental traumas
100 Sanity
which accumulate with the years. Those
II. Avatar
exposed to danger and shocking hor-
001 Identity
rors may quickly develop strange
010 Attributes
quirks, and as the strain grows serious
011 Reflex
disorders or even a complete break-
100 Senses
down.
101 Strength
110 Movement Speed
111 Fatigue and Fuel
III. Customisation
001 Skills

5
 Character creation
The foundation of your ego in most
games will be a selected background
and faction that gives you your
strongest skills and determines what
avatars you may start with. However,
there is no reason why a character can't
be created without a background or fac-
tion as long as you still fill in the in-
formation from those steps.
Background
The first step to creating your character
is to choose a background. Where were
you born or created, and who are your
parents or creator? Where and how
were you raised and educated, and how
have you spent your life up until this
point? Keep in mind that your back-
ground is where you came from, not
who you are now.
If your game provides backgrounds
then simply pick one. The following
framework is used to create a back-
ground. Create backgrounds that fit the
setting and are interesting to play. Back-
grounds need not be balanced, but be
mindful that you give every back-
ground something that makes it desir-
able to play. Also, create backgrounds
that make sense to your game.
Description
A short description of the background.
Background Skill
A single skill at D8 which everyone
with this background start with.
Starting Sanity
A healthy ego has a sanity of around
ninety percent. Determine starting san-
ity based on how difficult it is to cope
with the chosen background.
Sheltered: 95%
Normal: 90%
Rough: 80%
Hard: 70%
Painful: 60%
Tormenting: 50%
Wealth
Starting wealth should normally be
poor, well off or wealthy. You may give an
especially privileged background a
starting wealth of rich, but will typically
be rare and paired with a suitable back-
ground skill such as Bureaucracy.
reputation
Usually a single reputation stat based
on your background as Advocate or two
as Known. This reputation will typically
be linked to family, nationality or race.
Advantage
An optional category for any special ad-
vantages for this background.
Disadvantage
An optional category for any special
disadvantages for this background.
Avatar
The avatars available with this back-
ground.
6
 Character creation
Sample Backgrounds life has been structured and directed to-
wards the needs of the corporation. You
A few backgrounds to inspire back-
have always been taken care of, but
grounds for your own Sci-Fi Dice game.
never free and unlike most of your
Cryonaut peers you are not content to live out
You are from a small exclusive group of someone else's vision of your life.
people who had themselves cryogenic- D8 Skill: Academics, Bureaucracy,
ally frozen in the distant past. With the Dominate or Smooth Talking
onset of nanotech it became possible to Starting Sanity: 90
revive these cryonauts and those who Wealth: wealthy
were frozen with their bodies were re- corporate-rep: Advocate
stored to their humanity, while those Avatar: Basic Human, Digital Entity or
who only preserved their brains were Transhuman
uploaded. There were never many cryo-
nauts and only a few survived to be re- Faction
vived, and most of them were of the up-
The faction is the primary group to
loaded kind. Then there were the top
which the character belongs. The
secret military projects...
chosen faction will typically determine
D8 Skill: Academics (history, any)
profession, where home is, allegiances,
Starting Sanity: 70
friends and contacts. It is also possible
Wealth: poor
to be a dissident member of a faction,
any rep: Advocate
living among them, but opposing some
Disadvantage: May not start with more
(or all) of their core values and perhaps
than D6 in Engineering, Software or
agitating for change.
Tech skill.
Avatar: Basic Human or Digital Entity
(human upload)
Space Colonist
You were born on a colonised world or
space habitat.
Description
D8 Skill: Engineering, Exploration or
A short description of the faction.
Science
Starting Sanity: 85 Faction Skill
Wealth: well off A single D8 skill which everyone with
spacer-rep: Advocate this faction has. If same as your back-
Avatar: Basic Human or Transhuman ground skill then the skill is increased
to D10.
Corporate Drone
Your were raised in a corporate arco- reputation
logy, dome or space habitat and your As a baseline your faction will give you

7
 Character creation
three reputation stats rated as Known.
However, you may increase one to Ad-
vocate by dropping the third or take a
negative reputation as Flagged. Alternat-
ively, you could give the faction two
Flagged reputations and one as Top Dog
and one as Known. This reputation will
typically be linked to your profession,
factional allegiances, contacts, friends
and other social networks. If you get the
same rep as for your background your
faction rep takes priority, but you may
choose a new background rep.
Advantage
An optional category for any special ad-
vantages for this faction.
Disadvantage
An optional category for any special
disadvantages for this faction.
Avatar
An optional category if only certain
avatars are available to members of the
faction. If an avatar is immutable, such
as race in a contemporary or fantasy
game, then the avatar chosen must be
available for both the background and
the faction. If it is possible to change
your avatar then you may start with
any avatar available from both your
background and faction.
Sample Factions
Somewhat simplified examples of fac-
tions are provided here. In your own
game you will want to make the fac-
tions specific to your game, while the
examples here are generic templates
like anarchist or scientist faction.
ANARCHIST
You don't like being told what to do
and favour either individualism or vol-
untary organisation with opt-in parti-
cipation.
D8 Skill: Any skill
criminal-rep: Advocate
corporate-rep: Flagged
any rep: Known
Avatar: As appropriate to your setting,
e.g. Basic Human, Digital Entity or
Transhuman
CRIMINAL
You are part of the criminal under-
world. Perhaps a member of some gang
or more sophisticated organisation, or
maybe you prefer going solo.
D8 Skill: Sleight of Hand or Dominate
criminal-rep: Advocate or Top Dog (see
advantage)
Advantage: You may start with crimin-
al-rep as Top Dog, but you then have to
start with one reputation as flagged and
one as blacklisted (-2). Otherwise you
have criminal rep as Advocate, but a
clean record.
Disadvantage: May have a criminal re-
cord.
Avatar: As appropriate to your setting,
e.g. Basic Human, Digital Entity or
Transhuman
EXTROPIAN
You strive to transcend restrictions by
modifying the environment, adapting
yourself and become smarter. Whether
you lean towards some sort of social or-
der or anarchistic free markets you
know that only by technological pro-
gress and self improvement can we
8
 Character creation
achieve a better future. acter consistently, and guides the GM
D8 Skill: Smooth Talking or Tech when awarding you experience points
science rep: Advocate for roleplaying.
corporate rep: Advocate
military rep: Flagged Make sure you discuss your choices
any rep: known with your GM so that they can be incor-
Avatar: Any available porated into the game. Sometimes the
GM may have suggestions for your
Scientist
character, or you may have themes that
You peer into the mysteries of the uni-
you wish the GM to keep in mind and
verse and lift the veil of ignorance, per-
involve your character in as much as
haps some day something will stare
possible.
back.
D8 Skill: Science
Your personality will change over time.
science-rep: Advocate
Characteristics change as a result of
any rep: Known
powerful experiences, especially after a
Avatar: As appropriate to your setting,
horrifying experience. Ideology when
e.g. Basic Human, Digital Entity or
you have a compelling reason for why
Transhuman
your character has changed his beliefs.
Soldier Sometimes you may simply have be-
You are part of the army, airforce, navy, come disillusioned with an idea. Goals
space force or some other military fac- can be changed when they are achieved
tion. or failed, or for similar reason to ideo-
D8 Skill: Firefight, Melee or Pilot logy.
military rep: Advocate
criminal rep: Flagged
any rep: Advocate
Avatar: As appropriate to your setting,
e.g. Basic Human, Digital Entity or
Transhuman

Personality
Your personality depends on a mixture
of your choices as a player and the
events and horrors you have experi-
enced. The purpose of your personality
is to define what your character be-
lieves and how he or she thinks and be-
haves. It helps you roleplay your char-

9
 Character creation
Characteristic view, current belief or way of thinking.
By picking the main characteristic that You may be open or outspoken about
defines your character you are telling your ideologies, or secretive and shy. It
the GM and other players how you may be a political ideology, a religious
wish to portray you character. It should belief or your personal philosophy.
influence how your roleplay your char-
acter and what anyone who has known Such as Capitalistic Anarchist or Social-
you for a long time think of you and istic Anarchist, or more interesting
thus treat you. When the GM is award- twists such as Open-Source Feminist or
ing experience for roleplaying he will Extropian Environmentalist.
often look at your characteristic and
compare that with how you played Instead of being driven by an ideology
your character. your character can be motivated by op-
position to an ideology. Any or all of
Aggressive your three ideologies can be an anti
Arrogant ideology, such as anti-capitalist, anti-re-
Confident ligion, anti-unity and so on.
Compassionate
Curious Use your ideology to guide you when
Cynical your character has to make decisions
Depressed and for roleplaying your character. De-
Disciplined pending on your personality you may
Dutiful try to hide your true beliefs.
Fearful
Impulsive Ideology is primarily a roleplaying aid,
Introspective but optionally, once per session, if an
Honourable action is motivated by, or in support of,
Nervous one of your selected ideologies then you
Optimistic may take a bonus die or re-roll one bad
Paranoid roll. This has to be roleplayed and
Pessimistic should only be used when ideology
Proud really drives your character to succeed.
Rebellious
Loyal The list below is just meant as an inspir-
Shy ation and you may create your own
Social ideologies that fit your setting.
Ideology
You may pick up to three ideologies for Anarchism
your ego which define your world Bioconservatism
Capitalism

10
 Character creation
Communism
Conservatism
Environmentalism
Extropy
Fascism
Feminism
Hedonism
Individualism
Liberalism
Libertarianism
Nationalism
Open-Source
Preservationism
Progressivism
Religion (Buddhism, Christianity,
Hinduism, Islamism, Judaism,
Mormonism, Sikhism, etc.)
Socialism
Theocracy
Unity
Goal
Your goal is what is currently motivat-
ing your character and a good goal
should drive you into action.
Your goal may be fairly simple, or it
may be a long term and complex mis-
sion, but regardless you should have an
immediate agenda for your character. If
your goal is long term then simply
identify what the first step you will
work towards is, and then once you
achieve or fail that select the next step
and so on. If you have a simpler goal
and you succeed or fail then you should
come up with a new one.
It is important to work with the GM to
choose a goal that will work with the
game, and the GM may suggest goals to
the players that fit in with the planned
mission.
Everyone can have the same goal, but
how they may approach it and what
constitutes a success for each character
will often depend on that character's
other personality traits such as ideolo-
gies and characteristics.
Identifying a goal is meant to help you
focus your effort and be pro-active in
the game, and when you achieve a goal
you will earn experience points. You
may even earn experience points for a
failed goal if you made a brave attempt
and learned something. More ambitious
goals will earn you more experience
points, and just working towards an in-
teresting goal that fits with your charac-
ter's personality can earn you experi-
ence points.
Goals can range from liberating the op-
pressed, defending the rights of others
and fighting discrimination to getting
revenge, arresting a local trouble maker
or rescuing someone or retrieving
something.
The GM may have suggestions for
goals, but given the great scope of pos-
sible scenarios you may be playing no
list of goal is suggested here. Instead a
few common drives are listed below.
Rather than a particular goal this is a
theme that drives your character. You
don't have to choose a drive and it may

11
 Character creation
change over time, but it can help to A lower sanity may make it easier to
guide and focus your choices of goals. adapt in some settings, but as your san-
By identifying a drive you may find it ity is stressed you suffer from tempor-
easier to understand why your charac- ary mental breakdowns and from 50
ter is working towards their current points downward you suffer serious
goal. mental disorders that may never be
completely cured even if your sanity re-
Altruism covers. If you gain such disorders they
Discovery must be roleplayed as a serious condi-
Fame tion, but may also result in poor will-
Freedom power, blackouts, fainting, memory loss
Glory and bad judgement when it matters
Immortality most and you are under pressure.
Justice
Love Treatment is often possible, but requires
Loyalty access to facilities and someone skilled
Nostalgia in such treatments and invariably any
Philanthropy treatment will mean blunting or remov-
Power ing troublesome memories. This leaves
Revenge gaps and cracks in your ego which re-
Search duces your sanity and makes you more
Truth vulnerable to future problems. Serious
Religion mental problems may necessitate re-
Wealth moving or rewriting large chunks of
memories, and this can leave you for-
Sanity
getting people, places and entire peri-
Sanity can be any value from com- ods of your life and carry an experience
pletely raving mad at zero to about 95% cost as your edge is lost at least for a
sane. Starting sanity will be defined by while.
your background.

Avatar
The embodiment of your ego, whether a
physical body or emulation of a mind
on which your ego runs. Avatars will
typically be chosen from those available
in background and faction, but in some
science fiction settings you may need to
actually purchase your avatar with
either wealth or reputation.

12
 Character creation
In many settings your ego and avatar
are inseparable and you will have the
same avatar as long as your character
survives. The avatar is your race or
breed of man based on your genetic
heritage. For example elves, orcs and
dwarves in a fantasy game.
However, in some settings your ego
may be transferred from one avatar to
another. For example, in a science fic-
tion setting where you can upload your
mind into a computer or robot, or your
ego can be transferred to a new body. In
such a setting it may also be possible to
back up a version of your ego to be re-
stored in a new avatar if you die. In a
fantasy or horror game you may also be
transferred into another host or possess
another body, and again your ego and
its stats will remain the same while you
take on the stats of the new avatar.
Your current avatar always determines
your attributes, but you only have
physical attributes if you actually have
a physical aspect in the real or a virtual
world.
The avatar also consists of memory ca-
pacity, speed, senses, strength and any
number of bonuses or penalties to skills
and special abilities.
13
Identity
Consider that while your ego is your
true identity the avatar you inhabit will
be what identifies you to others. Thus in
a setting where you may swap avatars
you may also choose to take on a new
identity. Of course, you can always
have multiple fake identities for an
avatar.
Identity And Avatar Swapping
Note that in a setting where people can
swap avatars it can be quite difficult to
know someone's true identity. Behavi-
oural analysis may sometimes be able to
reveal a true identity and a captured
avatar can be interrogated or its
memories retrieved, but for the most
part identity will rely on identity ac-
counts that requires knowledge of pass-
words and code words.
Sometimes this anonymity can be bene-
ficial and some may go to great lengths
to disguise the true identity of their ego,
like destroying the avatar to leave no
evidence.
The difficulty of proving who you are
can also cause a lot of problems as your
reputation and many of your contacts
will be tied to whatever identity you as-
sume and transferring these to a new
identity is not always easy or even pos-
sible. Identity theft may also be very
common, so you need a lot of evidence
to gain trust.
 Character creation
Attributes avatar is a non-physical entity, such as
an emulation in a computer, it does not
In Sci-Fi Dice the ten attributes of
have a Body attribute. Of course it is
Fantasy Dice have been simplified into
possible to gain a temporary Body at-
just Body and Mind. So Agility and
tribute when controlling robotic arms
Dexterity are now merged into Body,
and remote operated vehicles.
while Cunning and Wisdom are
merged into Mind.
All skills rely on either Mind or Body,
although Pilot relies on the Body attrib-
The Strength attribute still exists as a
ute of the vehicle or battle suit being pi-
stat, but is handled slightly differently
loted.
as explained later. Sight is now handled
by the Senses stat which covers Mind
everything from hearing to x-ray vision. Ability to think and remember. Speed,
efficiency and capacity for processing
There isn't really any need for a Spirit information and other mental tasks.
and Demon attribute in a Sci-Fi setting
and as explained below Reflex is de-
termined from the Body and Mind at-
tributes.

Part of the motivation for reducing it to

two attributes was to make things faster
and simpler but it was also done be-
cause the vast majority of skills would
belong to either Cunning or Wisdom,
and most Sci-Fi mind based skills could Body
easily belong to either, or both, depend- Ability to move and manipulate your
ing on the situation or specific task. avatar in the world real or virtual. Fin-
esse, agility, precision and dexterity.
You can of course still continue to use
the attributes from Fantasy Dice if you
prefer and assign skills to them, or you
might simply decide which attribute
applies for a skill roll on a case-by-case
basis.

Most avatars will have both the Mind

and Body attribute, but while an avatar
must have a Mind to host the ego, if the

14
 Character creation
Reflex
Reflex determines initiative and reac-
tion speed. This can be resolved like in
Fantasy Dice, but it is suggested that
the average of the Body and Mind at-
tribute be used. Always round down,
but add + 1 to the result if a fraction was
discarded. So Mind 2 and Body 2,
would give you a reflex roll of 2D8,
while Mind 3 and Body 2 would give
you a roll of 2D8+1.
Senses
Your various senses determine how you
notice things. The baseline is a normal
human sense such as vision, smell,
hearing, touch and taste. Some things
will be detectable as long as you have
the right sense, some will require an
active search or investigation with the
required sense, and some things can
only be detected with enhanced senses.
15
Note that unlike what you might be
used to from other roleplaying games
you never need to roll to detect some-
thing, although as mentioned an active
effort may be required on your part for
hidden things to be revealed, so do
make a point of investigating when you
suspect something.
In the case of sneaking around and hid-
ing the difficulty assigned will depend
on both the circumstances and how
many opponents there are and how
good their senses are.
Strength
Raw power and lift capacity, strength
will influence damage inflicted with
Melee attacks and determine how far
you can throw. It is even used to gauge
resilience and tolerance of an avatar, al-
though in this respect the type of avatar
is just as important. Below is each cat-
egory with the modifier to damage rat-
ing for melee attacks.
Weak: DR -1
Normal: DR +0
Strong: DR +1
Herculean: DR +2
Juggernaut: DR +3
Each category is about twice as strong
as the previous. Someone one category
stronger will have a big advantage in
 Character creation
any contest of strength (about +2D
worth), and if more than one category
will be pretty much guaranteed to win.
Movement Speed
The round speedometer on the avatar
sheet allows you to record your various
movement speed rates for your main
mobility method and the white field at
the bottom can be used to list the type
of system such as hopper, ionic, walker,
winged and so on.
On the left side you can record your
movement rate in combat as meters per
round by drawing an arrow from the
centre to the relevant number. So for a
normal human the number would be 4
and so you would draw an arrow to
that number. If you have a speed in-
between the numbers you can draw the
arrow in-between too.
You can usually run twice this distance
(-1D penalty in combat) and sprint
twice again that distance (no other ac-
tion allowed) unless specifically stated
that the avatar is unable to do so. If you
wish you may indicate your run speed
with a dashed line and your sprint
speed with a dotted line.
On the right side speeds are listed in
kilometres per hour. Conveniently these
roughly map to the movement rate on
the left. So if you can walk 4 meters a
round you are moving 5 km/h, and if
you can sprint 16 m/r that is roughly 20
km/h. However, the purpose of this side
is to record your maximum velocity. If
you have an avatar which can fly or a
synthetic avatar with alternative
propulsion systems then this speed can
be very different from the usual speed
that lets you move and act in a round.
The propulsion system used for your
maximum velocity might be different
from your regular mobility system re-
corded on the left, but make sure both
are named in the white field at the bot-
tom. For example you may use a walker
mobility system with a movement rate
of 4, but have an ionic system that can
move you 40 km/h in an atmosphere.
Remember that travelling at high
speeds makes manoeuvring and target-
ing more difficult or even impossible.
The Athletics or Pilot skill can be used
as appropriate in a chase, race or to
make better time.
If you have several mobility systems
you may wish and be able to fit them all
into the speedometer by using different
colours, but additional and especially
secondary systems are best recorded
among your avatar enhancements with
speeds in brackets.
Movement rate is usually treated fairly
16
 Character creation
abstractly and you will rarely need to
track it exactly, but different movement
rates may allow your greater or lesser
freedoms in a conflict scene.
As a baseline, and for when precise
measurements might be needed, human
avatars are typically able to walk/jog
about four meters in a round at their
initiative without taking any penalty.
For other more unusual avatars two
speeds are typically provided. The nor-
mal movement rate and top speed equal
to a full sprint. Synthetic avatars are
capable of moving at top speed and still
perform actions as it takes them no ef-
fort to maintain the speed apart from
burning fuel (something which most
avatars will quickly do at full speed).
However, the speed of movement will
usually impose a penalty on any actions
as they must compensate for the move-
ment. The exact penalty will depend on
the speed and how much manoeuvring
they must do to avoid colliding and any
other complications.
Fatigue and Fuel
Some avatars may require fuel for some
of their propulsion systems to travel at
high velocity, and biological avatars
gain fatigue from running or sprinting.
Both are tracked the same way using
the fuel indicator that runs left to right
from full to empty. Biological organisms
are fresh on full and then winded, ex-
hausted, drained and finally collapsed
when empty is reached.
17
How fast an avatar is fatigued or
spends fuel depends on its specifica-
tions and will often also depend on the
speed, use and even type of fuel.
Avatar Stats
The following are the suggested stats
you may wish to include for the avatars
in your game.
Description
A short description of the avatar.
Implants
This optional category is for typical en-
hancements associated with the avatar.
Damage Class
The damage class the avatar belongs to
will nearly always be I.
Attributes
The average Mind and Body attribute
for this avatar.
Strength
Rating of weak, normal, strong, her-
culean or juggernaut.
Senses
Typically vision, hearing, smell, touch
and taste, but may also include more
exotic senses such as infrared, ultra-
sound, 360-degree vision, x-ray and
radar.
 Character creation
Advantages
An optional category with any special
advantages for the avatar. Typically
such things as natural armour and res-
istances, natural weapons, unusual re-
flexes, additional limbs and so on.
Disadvantages
An optional category with any special
limitations or prejudices against the
avatar.
Customisation Points
Every player gets one to four custom-
isation points and it is suggested that
this is associated with the avatar. Give
less powerful avatars more points to
make them more appealing to play and
help balance the choice a bit.
Value
Optional category if there is a wealth or
reputation requirement to choose this
avatar, or to buy or hire it if you can
swap bodies during the game.
Example Avatars
Avatars can range from robots and an-
droids, to humans, aliens and stranger
things still. Avatars can be seen as the
races of your Sci-Fi Dice game, but in a
world where ego's can be transferred
between avatars anything that can run
an ego becomes a potential avatar.
Vehicles, spaceships and even space
habitats.
Basic Humans
You are the original! A creature of
nature with random flaws and perfec-
tions.
Implants: None
Damage Class I
Attributes: Mind 2, Body 2
Strength: normal
Senses: Sight, Hearing, Smell (poor),
Touch, Taste
Disadvantage: None, but genetic de-
fects common.
Customisation Points: 4
Value: Well Off / Known
Digital Avatar
Not really an avatar in the strictest
sense as you have no physical body. In-
stead your mind runs on a computer or
distributed network. You might be able
to move freely across the nodes of the
Internet or you may be bound to a spe-
cific set of devices needed to run your
ego. Typically you have perfect
memory recall and are able to think
much faster than basic humans. How-
ever, the limits of the interfaces to the
real world often take the edge of this
advantage. You have whatever senses
are available to the network on which
you are located.
Attributes: Mind 3 (may be lower or
higher depending on the hardware on
which you run)
Advantage: You think faster and you
may relocate quickly if there is suffi-
cient bandwidth and other suitable
hardware on which to run your ego.
You can also potentially access a wide
range of sensors in diverse locations
and monitor multiple feeds, and you
may even be able to remote control
small drones, vehicles and robots.
Disadvantage: You have no body and
18
 Character creation
you may also struggle with being recog-
nised as a living entity in some societ-
ies.
Customisation Points: 4
Value: -
Transhuman
You are more than human. Genetically
enhanced and perfected through tech-
nology and medicine to be the best you
can be. Transhumans live longer,
healthier lives than basics and are often
both smarter and more attractive.
Implants: Neural interface, medical
nanobots (greatly accelerates healing,
stop bleeding and fights of most forms
of disease and viruses with a high suc-
cess rate)
Damage Class I
Attributes: Mind 2, Body 2
Strength: normal
Senses: Sight, Hearing, Smell, Touch,
Taste
Advantage: +1D to any two skills of the
player's choice.
Customisation Points: 3
Value: Wealthy / Advocate
Uplift
Uplifts are animals that have been ge-
netically altered to enhance their intelli-
gence, and often given the ability to talk
through genetic changes or implants.
Chimpanzees, gorillas and orangutans
are prime candidates, but dogs, cats,
dolphins, octopi, whales and any anim-
al of some size and intelligence can po-
tentially be uplifted. The end result will
vary greatly, but the following template
might be used as a starting point.
Implants: Neural interface and voice
19
encoder
Damage Class I
Attributes: The Mind and Body attrib-
ute will depend on the Uplift, but the
Body attribute will typically be 3.
Strength: typically strong, but as per
uplifted animal
Senses: as per uplifted animal
Advantage: +1D to Athletics, will also
have additional abilities and traits
based on the uplifted animal
Customisation Points: 3
Value: Wealthy / Advocate
Synthetic
Synthetics are effectively android
avatars. They may be the bodies de-
signed for AIs or uploaded humans, ali-
ens and uplifts. They are typically de-
signed to be look like humans, but may
be designed to look like anything as ap-
propriate to their function and purpose.
Implants: Neural interface
Damage Class I
Attributes: Mind 2, Body 2
Strength: strong
Senses: Sight, Hearing, Touch (poor)
Advantage: +1D any skill, ARI-2
Disadvantage : Just like digital avatars,
synthetics are often not considered liv-
ing and given fewer, if any, rights.
Customisation Points: 3
Value: Well Off / Known
Customisation
There are two parts to customisation,
skills and customisation points.
 Character creation
Skills
You will already have two skills at D8
(or one at D10) from your background
and faction.
You may select up to four skills at D8
with two specialities each. However,
you can split any number of those into
two D6 skills with one specialities. So
you can for example take 1 skill at D8
and 6 skills at D6, or 2 skills at D8 and 4
skills at D6 or 3 skills at D8 and 2 skills
at D6.
The skills based on the Body attribute:
Athletics, Firefight, Melee, Pilot, Sleight of
Hand and Stealth.
The skills based on Mind:
Academics, Bureaucracy, Dominate, En-
gineering, Exploring, Medicine, Psycho-
logy, Science, Smooth Talking, Software,
Tech
The Pilot skill is based on the Body at-
tribute of the vehicle or avatar being pi-
loted. If none is specified it can usually
be assumed to be two unless the GM
thinks it has poor (1) or great (3) man-
oeuvrability.
Languages
Every character starts with one native
language. In a setting where multiple
languages are normal a secondary lan-
guage may also be given for free. Addi-
tional languages must be learned just
like skills.
Customisation Points
Your customisation points can be used
on skills, reputation and wealth.
One customisation point can buy you a
D8 skill or upgrade a D8 skill to D10.
With the GM's approval you may spend
a point to upgrade a D10 skill to D12,
and if allowed even a D12 skill to D14.
You can buy a rep at Advocate for 1, Top
Dog for 2 or Famous for 4 (if you already
have this reputation from your faction
or background you can change that rep
score to a different rep faction).
You can increase your wealth to wealthy
for 1, rich for 2 and very rich for 4.
You may also spend one or two custom-
isation points on one or two additional
ideologies if you are so inclined and the
GM approves it.
Gear
What gear you can afford depends on
your wealth. Every character has a
wealth stat which reflects their afflu-
ence and so what sort of gear they can
afford, where they can afford to live,
avatars they can buy, how they can af-
ford to travel and so on.
20
 Character creation
Wealth
Your wealth stat may reflect the credits
in your bank account(s), income, assets
and credit score, or it may represent the
gold in your purse and land and valu-
ables. The important thing is that it de-
termines what you can afford.
Reputation
Reputation is your ability to pull in fa-
vours and have people trust and want
to help you. It may simply represent
how well you are liked and respected,
or it may be part of a formal reputation
economy.
In a post-scarcity setting reputation
may be used to trade goods and favours
and contributing and helping gains you
rep, while causing problems, being anti-
social or exploiting others loses you rep.
Reputation is usually specific to social
network. Social networks may be
defined by groups, nationalities, cul-
tures, politics, corporations, organisa-
tions and so on. Your rep in one social
network may affect your reputation in
21
another, but tracked separately.
Sometimes gaining reputation with one
group will earn you negative reputation
with another. Also consider that any
factions, corporations, nations, groups
or even individuals you associate with
can affect your rep score, and their ac-
tions can affect your reputation if your
association is close enough. Choose
your public relations with care.
Note that if you have several identities
then each identity may have its own
reputation and getting them mixed up
will at best cause some confusion, but
can also lead to trouble or a hit to your
reputation.
Experience
After every game session the game
master will usually award experience to
all the players involved so they can ad-
vance their skills, learn new fields and
languages and potentially restore sanity
or gain reputation.
Experience Cost
Experience point costs are listed below.
Note that each skill level must be
learned before the next level can be
learned.
Learn Experience Cost
speciality 8
D6 6
D8 8
D10 10
 Character creation
D12 12
D14* 14
D16* 16
+1 Attribute 20
* optional
Earning Experience
Everyone who participate in a normal
game session earns two experience
points just by actively participating and
contributing to make it an enjoyable ex-
perience.
A player who makes significant pro-
gress towards their goal through plan-
ning or active effort, or who roleplays
according to their characteristic(s) earn
up to two additional experience point.
Two bonus experience points are awar-
ded to all players who try to overcome
a significant challenge that puts them at
risk or really tests their determination.
As the characters get more skilled and
capable they will have to seek out
tougher challenges to continue earning
the bonus experience point.
Two to four bonus experience points
are awarded to all participating players
at the conclusion or climax of a plot or
campaign. To quality the adventure or
mission must have have spanned two
or more sessions, or at the very least
have been concluded in an unusually
long or especially intense session of
play.
Finally you may award a bonus experi-
ence point to any player in a session
who made a special effort to organise
the group or take initiative to move the
action forward, or who came up with
good ideas or made an extra effort to
gain greater insight and understanding
of events, characters, places, story and
setting.
Players will typically earn between two
and eight experience points in a ses-
sions, but may earn more at the conclu-
sion of a major campaign or long run-
ning plot. This should give you a nice
pace of progress, but if you wish to ad-
vance the player character's faster, for
example if you do not play often, you
can do this simply by doubling the ex-
perience points earned in each category
or by offering more experience points
each session just for participating. If
you play often and want to slow the
pace then remove the experience point
for participating and be strict on award-
ing bonus experience.
Multiple Egos and Avatars
When a character earns experience it is
tied to their current avatar. If that
avatar is lost then all that experience is
also lost, as well as any gains from
spending that experience such as up-
grading skills or adaptability.
If a character has only a single avatar
with no backup then this is not an issue,
as losing the avatar means final death,
and if the ego can be retrieved then so
will the experience.
22
 Character creation
It is only an issue with backups or in-
habiting several avatars in different loc-
ations. In this case each instance must
track its own experience until they can
be merged. Note that merging two act-
ive instances of an ego causes a lot of
stress, which is why backups are usu-
ally left inactive for a smooth update
often just an overwrite to the newer ver-
sion of the ego. Stress can always be
avoided with an overwrite, but then the
experience and skills, etc. of the over-
written ego is all lost.
If the game is episodic in nature where
the characters have a chance to backup
between missions then the GM might
restrict spending experience points to
between missions so that different ego
versions need not be tracked. If differ-
ent ego's need to be tracked it can be
fun to have an ego sheet for the backup
version, or even an ego sheet for vari-
ous backups in different locations.
Metacortex
The metacortex can be considered an
extension of the self that can act inde-
pendently from the ego which gives rise
to its existence. The metacortex is an in-
dependent agent created by the connec-
tions of the neural interface with the
brain, but it also extends as a partial di-
gital entity that exists as a sort of dis-
tributed intelligence across all devices
linked to the interface and sometimes
extending tendrils of itself deep into the
networks of the Internet.
23
The metacortex is not an entity in itself,
but rather the extended ego of the host
mind. The host mind is often referred to
as the inner ego in this context. If the
link is severed or the inner ego is killed
the metacortex typically ceases to func-
tion, but not always. Sometimes an old
and well developed metacortex contin-
ues on as a ghost of its former self. Most
are just an echo of intelligence and may
respond to questions or even defend it-
self, but has no ambition or agenda and
exists in a sort of standby mode. How-
ever, there are plenty of stories of such
metacortex ghosts who take on an exist-
ence of their own after contact with the
inner ego is lost. In fiction these are of-
ten portrayed as vengeful ghosts who
track down and murder those it be-
lieves responsible for the death of its in-
ner ego. Although most dismiss this as
fantasy, there is some evidence that a
metacortex could develop sufficiently to
be considered an entity in itself.
Function and Purpose
The metacortex is an intentional and in-
dependent extension of the self which is
intrinsically linked to the brain of the
inner ego, but exists mostly in the neur-
 Character creation
al interface and connected devices and Skill Implants
networks.
Even the most basic metacortex can fil-
ter emails and perform basic software
It works as an assistant and will alert
tasks on its own. However, to do more
the character to news and may conduct
complex things such as deeper research,
research, send messages, filter spam
hacking or any other complicated action
and perform all sorts of roles. Many
the character must pay attention to ap-
also develop distinct personalities and
ply his or her skills to the task.
some people develop a bizarre inner
dialogue with their own metacortex and
However, it is possible for the metacor-
go as far as to give it a name.
tex to learn an independent skill, allow-
ing it to perform complicated actions on
While it is convenient to think of the
the character's behalf with no interven-
metacortex as a simple assistant which
tion from the inner ego. This is achieved
can be used to perform tasks and track
by installing a metacortex skill implant.
email while you are occupied, remem-
ber that it is by definition an extension Metacortex Mind Skills
of the self with a complex personality. Mind based skills allow the metacortex
Even so the metacortex is far easier to to perform a skill action without the
modify than the inner ego and it is pos- character paying attention or spending
sible to install a skill implant on the an action. This allows the metacortex to
neural interface which gives the meta- do research, hack, control devices, give
cortex its own independent skill. This is legal advise or anything else using skills
a very invasive procedure and leaves such as Science, Software, Tech and
the character disoriented as explained Bureacracy.
below.
Only one skill can be installed on the
Metacortex Loss metacortex, but it can be used just as if
it was the character's skill.
If the metacortex is disrupted or des-
troyed it is extremely disorienting. It
A basic D6 skill with one speciality has
immediately gives the character a -3D
a cost of wealthy / advocate, while a
penalty to all actions, which drops by
professional skill of D8 with two speci-
one each round, but stays at -1D for up
alities costs rich / top dog. It is up to the
to several days as the character adjusts
GM if D10 and higher metacortex skills
or the metacortex is repaired, restored
are possible, but if so they likely require
or replaced. This same penalty also ap-
expensive upgrades and are only avail-
plies if changing or adding skill im-
able to the elite of society.
plants.
Note that social skills like Smooth Talk-

24
 Character creation
ing are usually used when the metacor-
tex is negotiating and acting on the
character's behalf online, but at the
GM's discretion can also provide a +1D
bonus to the character as the metacortex
whispers advise, but only if its speci-
ality applies. Such synergy bonuses can
also be allowed when appropriate for
other skills.
A language can also be installed instead
of a skill, but this is only useful if trans-
lation devices are not already available.
Note that the character's Mind attribute
is still used for the skill roll.
Metacortex Body Skills
The metacortex cannot normally take
control of the host body (although there
may be exceptions), but instead of a
Mind skill a Body skill such as Firefight,
Melee, Pilot or even Athletics may still
be installed. This allows the metacortex
to guide the host through physical ac-
tion and so provides a +1D bonus when
the speciality applies.
Adapted Morphology
Optionally, if swapping avatar is pos-
sible then there may be consequences
for doing so. Once such consequence
can be the mental stress and difficulty
of adapting to an avatar with a very dif-
ferent morphology. Such as a man mov-
ing to an octopus avatar with more
limbs, or moving from a biological
brain to a computer simulated one.
25
Furthermore those who have a high
sanity find it much tougher to adapt
than those who are losing their grip on
reality, as a lower sanity makes the ego
less prone to cling to its old form.
Note that being uploaded as a digital
entity is prone to the same stress and
initial shock as a new avatar body.
Morphology
Morphology is the term used to group
similar avatars together. If you are ad-
apted to any avatar in the morphology
group you will find it easier to adapt to
other avatars in the same group.
Switching to a different morphology
makes it hard to adjust due to drastic
differences such as different body struc-
tures and limbs, or alternative substrate
such as switching from a biologically
based avatar to a synthetic one.
When switching to any avatar which
you are not adapted there is always
some shock and stress, but when
switching to an avatar in a different
morphology the effects are much more
severe.
The ego is remarkably adaptable and it
is possible to adapt to new avatars.
There are near endless varieties of mor-
phologies and it is often a call for the
GM which morphology an avatar be-
 Character creation
longs to, but some examples: Hu- of hours equal to half your sanity so
manoid, Avian, Cetacean, Synthetic, Di- for example 30 hours if you have a san-
gital Entity, Spaceship or Space Habitat. ity of 60.

For any other avatar the penalty starts

at -2D and lasts for a number of hours
equal to your sanity. After this it is re-
duced to a -1D penalty that lasts for a
number of days equal to your sanity -
Initial Shock unless you spend experience points to
adapt as explained below under Adapt-
The initial shock from moving to a new
ing.
avatar - resleeving - always imposes a
temporary penalty.
Regardless, the dur-
ation of the shock is
For an avatar you
doubled if there are
have adapted to
complications during the
this penalty is -1D
resleeving, or it is rushed or
and only lasts until
done without the usual psychoso-
you've had a chance to
matic procedures which typic-
rest for an hour or so.
ally involve drugs to
help calm and
stabilise the
mind and a
person or
AI with psy-
chology
training to
ease the
ego into its
new
avatar.

If you have not adapted to Stress

the particular avatar the
effect depends on the
avatar's morphology. If it is similar to a
morphology you have already adapted
to you take a -1D penalty for a number
As part of your
initial shock you
also take stress which reduces your san-
ity. Resleeving into an avatar you are
adapted to you take no stress unless

26
 Character creation
there are complications. If the avatar is
in the same morphology as an avatar
you are adapted to you take 1 point of
stress, but for any other avatar you take
1D6 stress.
If there was a complication during the
resleeving, or it was rushed or it did not
follow proper procedures then you take
an additional 1D8 stress or as appro-
priate to the circumstances.
From Backup
If your ego was retrieved from your
dead body you take an additional 1D4
stress if you died peacefully and 1D8 if
you died suddenly or suffered. This is
assuming your ego can be retrieved
with existing technology and the brain
is sufficiently intact.
Backup from Archive
If you are retrieved from an archive you
suffer 1D4 stress if there is a lack of con-
tinuity or a big memory gap from the
point at which you were archived. Add
another 1D4 stress if you do not know
what happened to your previous ego
incarnation or you realise that you are a
fork (i.e. a copy).
Adapting
Everyone is usually adapted to their
starting avatar, but permanently adapt-
ing to additional avatars is done by
spending experience points equal to
half your sanity divided by ten (round
down).
You can normally only adapt to an
27
avatar once you've been in that avatar
for at least a number of hours equal to
your sanity and the initial shock has
worn off.
Backup Locations
You may also be able to backup your
ego to be retrieved if your avatar and
current ego is destroyed. This ensures
that you have a safe restore point, but
any experience gained in the meantime
and not backed up is lost as is any new
skills, experiences, memories and
knowledge the avatar has gained in the
meantime. Stress is also lost of course,
but being restored from backup is
stressful in itself (see Adapted Morpho-
logy). Thus, although having backups
provides some insurance it does not re-
move tension from risk. Also, be aware
that depending on the legal system
used backups may be responsible for
the actions of their ego when revived.
Frequent backups are always recom-
mended when possible.
If backing up your ego is possible in
your Sci-Fi Dice setting it is a good idea
to keep a separate character sheet for
each backup. A backup is usually also a
service and so will likely cost money or
rep to maintain, or it may be provided
as a job benefit or social service.
 Skills
Skills
Each skill covers a wide range of activit-
ies and can be used to cover knowledge
directly related to the skill as well as so-
cial networking with contacts, old ac-
quaintances, teachers and such related
to the skill.
All the skills on the character sheet and
the usual specialities are described here.
New skills and specialities can be added
if needed.
Specialities
The specialities for each skill is listed
here.
Body
Athletics (acrobatics, climb, cycle, hang-
glide, jump, parachute, ride, row, run, ski,
swim, throwing, zero-g)
Firefight (crossbows, flamethrowers,
grenade launchers, handguns, long guns,
machine guns, launchers, sniper rifles)
Melee (axes, clubs, daggers, flails, pole
arms, shields, swords, unarmed, whips)
Sleight of Hand (pick locks, pick pocket,
safe-cracking, shoplift, tricks)
Stealth (blend-in, hide, sneak, shadow)
Vehicle Body
Pilot (aircraft [fighter], aircraft [glider],
aircraft [large], anti-aircraft gun, anti-tank
gun, battlesuit, car, flying, helicopter,
hovercraft, motorcycle, ship, speedboat,
submarine, spaceship, tank, truck, VTOL,
walker)
Mind
Academics (arts, astronomy, culture per
culture, geography per planet, history,
philosophy, theology)
Bureaucracy (business, administration,
finance, law, management, politics)
Dominate (command, cross-examine,
intimidate, taunt, threaten, torture)
Engineering (aeronautics, boats,
computer hardware, communication,
demolition, energy shields, engines, habitats,
implants, mining, nanomachines, nano-
blueprints, power systems, powered armour,
robotics, sensors, shipwrigh, spacecraft,
vehicles)
Exploration (asteroid belt, artificial
habitats, Mercury, Venus, Earth-Cities, Earth-
Wilderness, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus,
Neptune)
Medicine (general, first aid, forensics,
gene therapy, pharmacology, pathology,
psychiatry, surgery, veterinary)
Psychology (brainwash, character, detect
lies, emotional state, motivation,
psychosurgery)
Science (archaeology, astrobiology,
astrophysics, astrosociology, biochemistry,
biology, botany, cryptography, ecology,
engineering, forensics, genetics, geology,
linguistics, mathematics, memetics,
nanotechnology, neuroscience, physics,
sociology, thinking software, xeno-
archeology, xenoliguistics, zoology)
28
 Skills
Smooth Talking (bargain, bluff, bribe,
calm, fast talk, impersonate, ingratiate,
persuade, seduce, trick)
Software (app-coding, hacking, malware,
misdirection, nanofabrication, search,
security, thinking software, trace,
simulspace)
Tech (explosives, gadgets, nano-fabrication,
medical systems, power systems, sensors,
security, weapons)
Skill Descriptions
Skill descriptions.
Body SkillS
Roll a number of dice equal to the Body
attribute. Only possible with a body
whether virtual or real.
Athletics
Ability to manoeuvre your avatar. Pos-
sible actions will depend on the type of
avatar.
Firefight
Handling yourself in a firefight. Using
all types of guns for offensive actions,
but also defensive actions such as taking
cover, pinning your opponent down
with shots and avoiding getting hit.
Melee
Handling yourself in close combat with
a weapon or unarmed, both to attack
and to parry, dodge and block Melee at-
tacks.
Sleight of Hand
Fine and stealthy use of hands or other
29
limbs to pick mechanical locks, shoplift
and other tricks.
Stealth
The ability to go undetected.
Mind Skills
Roll dice equal to the Mind attribute.
Academics
Academical knowledge.
Bureaucracy
Knowledge in bureaucratic fields. Can
allow managing and running anything
from a business or merchant spaceship
to a nation or corp. Especially useful in
knowledge about the law and various
political systems and famous politicians
and major players. Can also be used to
seek out political contacts, legal help
and business associates.
Dominate
Project superiority to gain advantage
over others. Can be used to control an-
other person or dominate a crowd, and
is also used to interrogate someone for
information.
Engineering
Engineering deals with designing new
stuff, modifying and repairing things,
and diagnose glitches, but can also be
used to understand the purpose of unfa-
miliar devices and machinery and how
they are made and function.
Exploring
Knowledge of how to navigate and sur-
 Skills
vive in various environments such as on
a specific planet, asteroid belt or in hu-
man built artificial habitats. Includes
general orbital knowledge, and know-
ledge about their moons as well as
dangers such as radiation, heat and at-
mosphere. Earth is divided into surviv-
ing and navigating in the cities and in
the wilderness.
When exploring new and unknown en-
vironments a penalty will apply based
on how exotic it is, and how much re-
search the character has been able to do
on that environment beforehand.
Medicine
Understanding and practising medicine
on biological beings.
Pilot
Pilot relies on the Body attribute of the
vehicle or battle suit being piloted.
AIs are often used to control vehicles,
but occasionally a person wants to dir-
ectly take control. There may not be an
AI or the ego might be inhabiting the
vehicle. Also, while an AI pilot is very
good it cannot compete with the flexibil-
ity and intuition of a fully fledged ego
such as a digital entity or AGI (artificial
general intelligence).
The pilot skill covers all sorts of vehicles
from cars, boats, gliders and aircraft to
spacecraft. If connected to a mind inter-
face the difference is mostly in how the
vehicle handles itself and most control
systems are fairly similar. Still, if ex-
posed to a new and unusual control sys-
tem a training session or time to practice
might be required to avoid stiff penal-
ties.
This skill applies whether technically a
vehicle or an avatar. Piloting a remote is
same, but there is usually a penalty as
explained in the vehcile chapter under
remote controlled vehicles.
Tracking and firing upon targets with a
vehicle weapon system or turret is also
controlled using the Pilot skill, but non-
targeting or automated weapon systems
can be triggered with a simple Tech
(weapons) roll, or no skill or roll may be
needed at all if it cannot fail. Automatic
targeting is very good, but so is elec-
tronic warfare making manual control
more reliable and sometimes the only
option.
Psychology
Forming an idea of the motivation and
character of a person, or group of
people, from behaviour, body language,
what is said and voice. The difficulty
depends on how many clues are
provided, how well the character knows
the type, how long she has observed
and how well the person hides her true
intentions.
Uplifts, artificial general intelligences
(AGI) and humans have difficulty un-
derstanding each other. Uplifts and hu-
mans have a -1D penalty when analys-
ing each other, and a -2D penalty to un-
derstand AGIs, and AGIs have a -2D
30
 Skills
penalty understanding anyone who is
not themselves an AGI. This applies to
all psychology rolls including brain-
washing and other psychological ma-
nipulation. As always to make Psycho-
logy roll there must be a profile, inter-
view or opportunity to observe the sub-
ject's behaviour.
There could be even steeper penalties
for strange beings, and any attempt at
Psychology would likely be futile when
dealing with mysterious aliens or super
intelligences.
Brainwashing requires a degree of con-
trol or influence over the target and
time. It can make a person believe some-
thing specific, and typically makes the
person subservient to a cause or person.
Science
Researching and understanding things.
This is a powerful knowledge skill, but
also useful for conducting experiments
in your field and building sound theor-
ies. Understanding of course also allows
manipulation.
Only the science of known specialities is
known and can be attempted, although
for generic or common knowledge in
other fields a roll can be made with the
GM's permission. There may also be
some overlap between fields.
The die rating of Science reflects sci-
entific training, intuition and ability,
while the specialities reflect knowledge
in a particular field.
31
Smooth Talking
Sweet talking or tricking people. Also
covers public speaking to appeal to a
crowd.
Software
Working with code, scripts, apps, virtu-
al interfaces and all manner of software.
Software trace includes recovering de-
leted data. Hacking is all about circum-
venting security, spoofing, slicing
through firewalls undetected, breaking
encryption, etc. Security is all about en-
cryption, firewalling, monitoring and
keeping data and devices safe from
hackers and viruses. Virtual worlds are
very robust self contained universes,
and speciality is about knowing their
weaknesses, back doors and how to ma-
nipulate them. Search can be used to
mine vast amounts of data to learn
something or draw a conclusion, or find
something specific in a vast sea of data
or anywhere on the mesh.
Tech
The general ability to use devices, gad-
gets, computers, machines and all sorts
of technology without in-depth know-
ledge about how it actually works. It is
both a use and knowledge skill.
Someone skilled in Tech knows how
things plug together, user settings, how
to navigate menus, how to power things
on/off, etc. It does not allow repairs or
modifications, but it does allow those
skilled to plug existing tech together to
create new systems or boost power and
performance by adjusting settings.
 Skills
Language
A language always costs 16
experience points to learn
and no effort is made to dif-
ferentiate between language
skills, but the GM may al-
low gradually learning a
language by gradually
spending experience points
(simply write the experience
spent with the language and
roleplay accordingly)

All characters start with one

language skill unless other-
wise is specified. English or
Chinese are among the safer
bets, but Spanish or Por-
tuguese is also likely to be
spoken widely. Real-time
translaters are probably
everywhere so language is
rarely a problem, but there
may always be special situ-
ations when there is no ac-
cess to translators, and
speaking a language can
sometimes help add a per-
sonal touch.

Characters are assumed to

be able to read/write unless
specifically stated that they
cannot, in which case it has
to be learned separately for
16 experience points.

32
 Skills
Skills and Social Contacts Pilot for finding a pilot for hire or know-
ledge of where to get a good deal on a
Nearly everyone has a social network
Mars buggy.
consisting of friends, parents, teachers,
colleagues, partners, lovers, acquaint-
The Bureaucracy skill is particularly
ances and other people you might know
useful as it allows networking with law
in person, online or indirectly. Although
enforcement, politicians, administrators,
players and GM are welcome to work
judges and other such people.
together to create named contacts before
play, and during play they will make
The Smooth Talking or Dominate skill
new links to employers, colleagues,
may be used to extract information that
merchants and people who might both
can lead to a contact of course.
help and hinder the players.
Use your imagination, but don't be
For the most part though social net-
afraid as GM to make it difficult when
working is kept abstract and handled
pushing plausibility. Melee might be
through the rep system. You might need
used to find a famous martial artist or
to roleplay conversations and dealings
Firefight to find renowned mercenary,
with people as you seek out favours, but
or Sleight of Hand or Stealth to tap into
you don't need to keep track of your so-
the black market or network to an assas-
cial network. However, when trying to
sin.
obtain information or services that is
hard to come by, reputation might not
Familiarity with the community and its
be enough and the GM might require a
culture will have a big impact, and trav-
skill roll to pull in a favour. In these
elling from Earth to a deep space habitat
cases simply use the skill most appro-
expecting to network to call in some fa-
priate to the situation.
vours is unlikely to work. In such cases
Smooth Talking and Dominate are more
For a professor the Academic skill might
likely to be of use as help is tracked
be most appropriate. For a scientist or
down the hard way although other
engineer the Science or Engineering
skills may still help the player with how
skill. Medicine for finding a doctor or
things are done.

33
 SF Rules
SF Rules
Sci-Fi Dice uses the Fantasy Dice game
engine as presented in Fantasy Dice and
Crimson Exodus, or you can also use
the basic Turbo Dice rules. This chapter
presents special considerations and
rules for a roleplaying game set in a fu-
ture or modern day environment. You
will still need Fantasy Dice or Turbo
Dice to actually play the game.
There are some changes made, such as
how Senses now replace the Sight
attribute, but as always you can of
course choose to stick with the Fantasy
Dice way of handling things if you
prefer.
Basics
Like in Fantasy Dice most rolls are skill
rolls, and you should only roll when it
really matters and you are willing to
accept the consequences of failure.
Rolls, scaling, difficulties and all the rest
is explained in Fantasy Dice and so is
not repeated here, but a new optional
way to determine the degree of success
or failure is described below.
Results
In Fantasy Dice only the highest die is
counted and the degree of success or
failure depends on by how much the
die beats or fails to beat the target
number.
Another, equally fast, and potentially
more fun way to resolve the degree of
success is by the number of dice that fail
or succeed. As always only a single die
needs to match or beat the difficulty to
succeed, but the degree of success is
determined by the number of dice that
match or beat the difficulty.
Dice Degree
1 Marginal
2-3 Normal
4+ Exceptional
In the case of failure the degree of
failure depends entirely on the number
of dice rolled. This means that if you
roll a large pool of dice and none
succeed the failure will be worse.
In an opposed roll a matched result is a
draw - both sides have a marginal
success and a marginal failure at the
same time. However, if one side has a
higher result then when determining
the degree of success a matched result
counts in the winners favour.
34
 SF Rules
If a draw is not possible due to the
nature of the conflict both sides must
consult their next highest die and this
continues until one side has a higher
result, or runs out of dice which is an
automatic loss. Such a result is always
marginal.
Senses
Noticing things is an important and
basic ability. Every avatar has a range of
senses which can be used to determine
what is noticed whether seen,
smelled, heard or felt.
Anything obvious and detectable by
one or more of a character's senses can
be assumed noticed. If something is
hidden or hard to notice, then an active
declaration to search, investigate or
otherwise examine the area or object is
required. If such an action is declared
by the player anything hidden is
revealed as long as the character has the
right senses.
A roll is typically not required, but if a
skill might be needed to detect that
something is amiss, then a difficulty
might be assigned for the relevant skill
to determine if the character can detect
the oddity, detail or hidden element.
For example, the Tech skill to notice
that something is wired wrong or
bugged with a listening device, a Pilot
skill to detect sabotage of a car, aircraft
or spacecraft and so on.
Occasionally something may only be
35
detectable to those with enhanced
senses. Something may just be so
vanishingly small or well hidden that
anyone without the right enhanced
sense cannot detect it. Enhanced vision
can help someone see frequencies and
colours otherwise invisible. Enhanced
hearing can allow listening to whispers
or distant conversations, while
enhanced smell can be useful to detect
poisons or to track people by their
scent.
Note that some enhanced senses, such
as x-ray vision to see through walls
requires active use by the character and
so a search using them must be
declared.
Attributes
In Sci-Fi Dice the attributes are
simplified to only Mind and Body. As
in Fantasy Dice the attribute determines
the number of dice rolled for a skill and
so all skills are grouped into Body and
Mind skills. The average attribute as
always is two and when you need to
make an attribute roll then roll a
number of D8 equal to the attribute
score. Use Body for all physical
attribute rolls and Mind for all the rest.
Fatigue
Fatigue is tracked just like in Fantasy
Dice, note that it may also be gained
from mental stress, although the
symptoms will likely be slightly
different. Synthetic avatars such as
androids and robots usually do not
 SF Rules
suffer from fatigue, but may potentially
run out of energy under extreme
circumstances, typically if they are
unable to recharge for long periods, use
high powered systems repeatedly, are
exposed to energy draining effects or
their energy supply is damaged.
Sanity
Sanity is a new and important stat in
Sci-Fi Dice. The higher your Sanity per-
centage, the more sane you are. A
somewhat simplified way to look at it,
but it serves well as an explanation of
what your Sanity score means. How-
ever, even a normal, well adjusted adult
will only have a Sanity of about 90%,
and it is practically impossible to go
above 95%.
Even AIs will never be completely sane
due to flaws in programming, hardware
or just faulty logic and mental weak-
nesses. It may be difficult to judge the
Sanity of super intelligent artilects,
posthmans and aliens, but it is unlikely
that they also do not have their unique
flaws. Keep in mind that the more
something claims to be completely sane,
the more likely it is to be utterly mad.
Sanity is lost from stress and restored
through rest and treatment. If your san-
ity ever reaches zero you are completely
raving mad.
Stress
Stress can be generated by fear, injury
or when taking a new avatar. Any self
aware and intelligent being suffers
stress, although synthetics are often
more resistant to the effects of fear.
Stress can also be induced with psycho-
logical torment, drugs and so on. Mer-
ging different forks of your ego, modi-
fying the ego with new software based
skills, greatly boosted cognition and
otherwise manipulating the ego can
also cause significant stress.
Stress is subtracted from Sanity and can
cause immediate mental breakdown
and long term mental disorders when
the sanity gets as low as 50.
Mental Breakdown
Mental breakdown happens when
stress overwhelms you. An immediate
condition that lasts until you've had a
good chance to rest and collect yourself.
A good night's sleep or a bit of food or
comfort from friends in a safe place is
usually enough, and they rarely last for
more than a couple of scenes. Drugs
and other mind modifiers may also
snap you out of it, but these typically
cause anywhere from 1 to 6 points of
additional stress and so should not be
abused and may themselves lead to
minor symptoms.
You exhibit minor symptoms if you suf-
fer 3-6 points of stress in one go, and a
major symptoms if you suffer 7 or more
points of stress at once. You can suffer
several symptoms of mental breakdown
in a single scene.
36
 SF Rules
Sometimes you may want to determine see anything.
symptoms randomly by rolling two 2-3 Faint: You collapse losing con-
dice six and adding the result together sciousness.
to get a result from the symptoms listed 4 Frenzy: You go completely crazy and
below, but you can also choose those attack anything or anyone nearby in a
that fit the situation or come up with mindless frenzy.
your own. 5 Hallucinations: You see things which
are not there and perceive things in
Minor Symptoms
twisted and often terrifying distortions
1-2 Anxiety: Distress and uneasiness
of reality, unable to distinguish between
causes sweating, breathing difficulty
what is real and what is hallucinations.
and may lead to headache.
6 Loss of Will: You follow a lead and
3-4 Dizziness: You feel confused and
react, but are unable to take initiative or
light headed giving you a -1D penalty
make a decision having lost all inde-
to all actions.
pendent thought and spontaneity.
5 Indecisiveness: You feel insecure and
7-8 Panic: Overwhelmed with fear you
hesitate to make any choice. You always
behave irrationally, fleeing blindly
react last and get the lowest initiative.
without regard to safety, screaming,
6 Irritability: You feel angry and an-
closing your eyes or otherwise acting
noyed and you are abrupt, rude and ag-
hysterically.
gressive in your manner and speech
9 Paralysis: You are completely unable
making social interaction difficult and
to move or speak, frozen as if para-
potentially causing you to explode
lysed.
when things do not go your way.
10 Seizure: You collapse with violent
7-8 Logorrhea: You feel an uncontrol-
spasms and unable to control yourself.
lable compulsion to talk incessantly and
11 Vertigo: The world seems to spin
loudly, and most of it is incoherent and
around you making it difficult to keep
repetitious.
your balance or move. You are forced to
9 Mute: You find yourself unable to
stay still or crawl and any attempted ac-
speak.
tion will suffer a severe penalty.
10 Nausea: You feel sick and may
12 Vomiting: You start vomiting uncon-
vomit, you gain one fatigue.
trollably and once you can't vomit any
11 Numbness: You feel numb and cold
more you retch and dry heave in pain-
making anything that requires precision
ful spasms.
difficult.
12 Tremors: You shake uncontrollably
giving any physical task a -1D penalty Madness
and making standing still impossible. Madness takes root when your sanity
Major Symptoms drops too low and cannot be cured until
1 Blackout: You lose vision, unable to the sanity is restored, and even then

37
 SF Rules
madness is not automatically cured.
Once you have suffered it can never
truly go completely away and may re-
surface in the future if sanity drops or
you are put under a lot of stress.
However, the effects of madness are not
necessarily a constant problem. They
may remain dormant or under control
for periods, but sooner or later they al-
ways overwhelm you and even while
dormant they may be suddenly and un-
expectedly triggered.
Suffering from madness is serious and
should be roleplayed as such. Apart
from direct problems that arise from
dealing with insanity, many are also
prejudiced and will take a negative bias
shift when dealing with you.
The severity of your madness depends
on how low your sanity drops. It starts
when your sanity reaches 50 and
usually you will choose an appropriate
condition from those listed below or
come up with one of your own as
agreed between the player and game
master.
The madness is primarily roleplayed,
but the game master can use conditions
to prompt the player for certain
reactions and impose penalties, fatigue,
fear and other game effects based on the
severity of the condition and
circumstances. The condition grows
gradually worse as Sanity drops. Every
ten points of sanity below fifty is a
major milestone where the condition
should get noticeably worse, so 40, 30
and 20 and 10. It is primarily up to the
player to roleplay this descent into
madness, but the game master can
suggest, and sometimes impose, new
negative consequences as madness gets
worse.
Once your sanity reaches 10 you are on
the brink of total insanity and your
madness will manifest itself violently
and dramatically. If you ever reach zero
you may never recover, and trying to
climb back out of such a complete loss
of ego coherence will take years of
dedication by experts or extremely
expensive and experimental treatments
that may come with their own side
effects and consequences.
Insomnia
Depression, irritability and memory
problems and frequently falls asleep
during the day. Any task that requires
concentration becomes more difficult
and over time learning becomes harder.
Reduced social skill proficiency on
bad days.
Tedious and concentration based
tasks take a penalty.
Forgets things
Doesn't pay attention
Every time you want to spend exper-
ience points you must succeed at a
Sanity roll. If you fail the XP cost of
everything is increased by one when
Sanity is above 20 and two other-
wise. This lasts until you spend the
XP and then you must roll again.
38
 SF Rules
Neurosis You develop a compulsion which
You are filled with feelings of anxiety you can only resist when the urge
and obsessional thoughts that lead to presents itself by succeeding at a
compulsive and repetitive acts. As your Sanity roll.
neurosis gets worse so does your de-
Manic Depression
pression, anger and irritability and you
Your mood swings between periods of
are easily confused. Your inability to
depression and a few days of mania
control your impulses gets worse and
with elevated mood filled with optim-
you develop either pyromania, klepto-
isms and decreased need for sleep. Each
mania, a gambling addiction or another
period of depression or mania lasts
severe compulsive disorder. Your
from a few weeks to many months de-
thoughts become increasingly dark and
pending on how far the madness has
disturbing and your growing insecur-
progressed and whether treatment is
ity, low self esteem, cynicism, aggress-
available.
iveness and so on lead to difficulties in
social situations.
During depression you feel sadness,
anxiety, guilt, anger, isolation and
When placed under stress in social
hopelessness and generally a lack of ap-
situations you must make a Sanity
petite and motivation. As your manic
roll or your dark thoughts cause you
depression gets worse you also develop
to behave with low self esteem, cyn-
fatigue, shyness and apathy, as well as
icism or aggression sabotaging any
pain and irritability. Eventually it may
social interaction. The exact beha-
get so bad that you start to imagine
viour and consequence will depend
things and have self harming or even
on your remaining Sanity.
suicidal thoughts.
You develop compulsive and repetit-
ive habits which you must perform
During a period of mania you only
at inconvenient times and if you ig-
need to sleep for a few hours and you
nore them you get uneasy, irritable
have a lot of enthusiasm and optimism
or angry resulting in possible penal-
no matter how bad things are. You tend
ties.
to talk fast and your attention span is
On bad days your depression in-
generally low and you are easily dis-
creases the difficulty of everything
tracted. As you sink deeper into mad-
you do by one or increases the time
ness you stop paying attention to
everything takes.
danger and engage in risky behaviour
If faced with difficult choices or un-
and you may engage in reckless and
usual behaviour or situations be-
even violent activities without any
comes confused and may be unable
thought about the consequences. As
to act, react very slowly or have any
you descend deep into madness you
difficulty increased.

39
 SF Rules
lose touch with reality and get pos-
sessed by delusional and often grandi-
ose ideas, and rage when things get in
your way.
Paranoia
You are filled with fear and suspicion of
everyone around you. You struggle to
trust others and unable to use Smooth
Talking for anything other than bluffing
and tricking others. As you descend
deeper into madness you are unable to
even trust your closest friends and
family and you believe everyone is out
to get you. Eventually if you sink deep
enough into madness you may isolate
yourself or try to harm those who you
think are out to get you.
Phobia
You develop a persistent and strong
fear of a certain situations or things.
When exposed to your phobias you feel
anxious and if you are taken by surprise
or unable to get away you may suffer
from panic attacks. As you sink deeper
into madness you develop more severe
reactions and new phobias. When faced
with a phobia treat it according to the
rules for fear.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
Usually the result of extremely
traumatic experiences with a constant
sense of danger and fear that never
completely goes away. While the
symptoms come and go they grow
worse as you descend into madness.
While you may suffer at any time
certain triggers such as a particular
noise, image, words or smell may bring
on a severe and immediate reaction.
You feel a need to avoid anything that
might remind you of the traumatic
event and trigger symptoms, almost
like a phobia. You often get a bad
physical reaction such as a pounding
heart, rapid breathing, nausea and
sweating causing stammering or
hesitation and a -1D penalty as long as
the trigger remains.
As you get worse you have increasingly
disturbing nightmares that prevent you
from getting proper rest and may leave
you fatigued and you start having
sudden flashbacks where you are
distracted by memories and eventually
even start acting as if your traumatic
event is happening all over again. This
can lead to dangerous, unpredictable
and aggressive behaviour. Over time
you also grow emotionally numb and
lose interest in life. You become more
and more irritable, have sudden
outbreaks of often violent anger, can't
concentrate and are easily startled and
always nervous. This may prompt
frequent fear rolls (i.e. a Sanity roll), but
rather than flee, faint or panic the
sufferer lashes out violently and may go
completely berserk if the roll is badly
failed.
Schizophrenia
Emotional blunting and intellectual
deterioration periodically reduces the
Mind attribute by one. As you descend
deeper into madness this lasts longer
and you start to struggle to speak
coherently or to even make sense, and
40
 SF Rules
eventually you start to suffer from The safest way to reduce stress is long
delusions and hallucinations which term rest. If you are willing and able to
distort how you see reality. retire to peaceful and harmonious sur-
roundings you regain 1 point of Sanity
Recovering Sanity every month. This means, however,
that every point you recover also re-
Sanity can be recovered in a number of
duces your maximum by one point
ways, but never easily. However, it can
you will never be quite who you were.
never recover to above 95% and every
time you recover Sanity the maximum
When you are desperate you can also
is permanently and forever reduced by
spend experience points to restore San-
one percent. This applies to each treat-
ity at a rate of 5 points of Sanity re-
ment, period of rest or any other event
stored for every experience point spent.
that recovers one or more Sanity points.
So if you get treated and recover 4 San-
Note that restoring Sanity will not auto-
ity points your maximum will now be
matically cure madness, but will over
94%. If you then achieve your goal and
time lessen the effect and make it more
recover another 2 then your maximum
manageable to live with. Completely
Sanity will be 93%. Write Sanity on the
curing madness can potentially be
character sheet as: current / maximum.
done, but will require long term treat-
ment. It may also result in loss of
One way to restore sanity is through
memories as treatment often involves
treatments aimed at reducing stress and
editing out troublesome memories.
healing the ego. The good ones are typ-
ically very expensive and aren't always
Finally, any stress can be avoided
available. Furthermore they aren't al-
entirely if the experiences of an ego fork
ways successful and can even make
is not re-integrated or an uploaded
things worse. It also leaves you vulner-
backup is restored from before the
able to manipulation, interrogation or
stress was gained, but then the
even brainwashing.
experience and knowledge is also lost.

A successful mission where you achieve

goals that align with your ideology can
also restore sanity, but note that cata-
strophic failure can also cause stress.
Typically 1D4 to 1D12 Sanity is restored
depending on if the achievement was a
minor win or a decisive and life chan-
ging victory.
Fear
When faced with horrors and extreme
danger or exposed to torture,
intimidation and discover things that
undermine everything you believe it is
natural to feel fear.
Under most circumstances a character is

41
 SF Rules
able to deal with it, but will exhibit
signs of fear such as a racing hear,
trembling and clammy hands. Synthetic
avatars and digital entities typically
show no signs of fear, and this helps
them cope with fear, but it does not
make them immune.
Sudden Danger
When faced with immediate danger or
extreme pain you must make a 1D100
Sanity roll. In extreme circumstances
when faced with outrageous horrors or
intense torture there may be a penalty
to the Sanity for this roll. Typically this
will be -10 to -30, but it could poten-
tially be even greater when faced with
unimaginable terror.
If you roll under your Sanity you stay
in control, but you must still retreat, at-
tack or otherwise deal with the source
of the fear and if you do not or are un-
able to you suffer stress from 1D4 - 1 to
1D12 - 1 depending on the intensity and
horror of the situation.
If you roll over you sanity you fail to
stay in control and panic. You immedi-
ately gain 1D6 to 1D12 stress depending
on the experience and so suffer any-
thing from a minor to a major mental
breakdown. As explained in the section
on Sanity.
Synthetics get a +10 bonus to their San-
ity for this roll, but a roll of 100 regard-
less of Sanity always results in a panic.
Social Conflict
Social conflicts can take the form of de-
bates, interrogation, bribes, seduction or
any other social interaction where one
character is trying to dominate, trick,
persuade or take advantage of another
character. A social conflict can also be
about asserting status, leadership or
otherwise making an impression.
The social conflict rules in Fantasy Dice
can be used more or less like they are
written. Note that in Sci-Fi Dice Domin-
ate covers interrogate and public speak-
ing is done using either Smooth talking
or Dominate depending on the circum-
stances.
When an attribute is called upon to res-
ist a social conflict then the Mind attrib-
ute is always used.
It is also suggested that other skills can
be used to complement social skills and
give them a bonus (or penalty if know-
ledge is lacking), such as Firefight to
speak knowledgeably about guns when
dealing with an arms dealer or Bureau-
cracy to deal with a bureaucrat such as
a judge or police officer.
Psychology is useful outside a social
conflict, but can also be used in a social
conflict. It can optionally be used to de-
fend against any appropriate social at-
tempt, or may simply give a bonus.
42
 Wealth and Rep

Wealth and Rep

Everyone has a wealth class as well as a
reputation class for each social network Wealth Class Credits
they interact with. In Debt Owe credits*
Broke 1 - 10
The wealth class indicates the amount Poor 10 - 100
of credit you dispose, whether credit Well Off 100 - 1000
chips in your pocket, access to a bank Wealthy 1000 10 000
account or credit rating. Rich 10 000 100 000
Very Rich 100 000 1 000 000
In contrast your reputation class indic- Millionaire 1 000 000 1 billion
ates your status and renown, and so Billionaire 1 billion 10 billion
how big favours you can pull in with a Super Rich 10 100 billion
specific network such as the scientific Hyper Rich 100 billion+
community, business networks, hacker * Someone in debt can be assigned a negat-
circles or any other social network that ive wealth class depending on how much
may exist. debt they have.

Wealth You do not need to track your credits as

What you can afford is determined by
your wealth class which represents
credits at your disposal as shown in the
table below, but this may include cred-
its invested, owed or credited due to ex-
pected earnings or corporate status, so
all of it is not necessarily immediately
accessible.
The credits listed for each wealth class
are just meant to indicate roughly the
bracket for each class and not absolute
numbers. Credits are abstracted in fa-
vour of wealth class as a stat, and costs
are listed as wealth class required.
gear and services are listed as belonging
to a wealth class. This greatly simplifies
record keeping as you can afford any-
thing in your wealth class or below
without worrying about the exact price.
Note that the wealth scale increases dra-
matically and so it gets harder and
harder to amass enough credits to climb
another wealth class. So while it is relat-
ively easy to go from poor to well off, it
takes a lot more for a wealthy character
to get rich, and so on.
Most characters will start as poor, well
off or wealthy.

43
 Wealth and Rep
Income
Your wealth class is your spending
power after living expenses and in-
comes are taken into account.
It is assumed that you earn an income
from investments whether personal or
managed by banks and likely also
collect a salary or revenue of some sort.
The income depends entirely on your
character's background, faction, social
standing and wealth. You may work for
a hypercorp, or earn royalties on such
things as the sale of software, nanofab-
rication blueprints or a share of the
profit from manufactured goods or raw
materials.
Income and living expenses are usually
handled off-screen and it is not neces-
sary to worry too much about it, but it
can help to flesh out your character and
add detail which might come into play
if you give it some thought and make a
note of it on your character sheet.
If for any reason a character is com-
pletely cut off from their income they
must strikeout their wealth class with a
line through the centre, such as
wealthy. When this happens wealth
drops permanently each time you reach
your spending capacity as explained
under cost and affordability.
Regular Fees
Some services, such as insurances, cost
a regular fee. This is no different from
one-off costs, except that it is a regular
expense. So if you are wealthy and you
pay a regular fee with a cost of wealthy
you cannot afford anything else for that
wealth class (see cost and affordability).
The period of a regular service is usu-
ally not important as it will be a per-
manent drain on your wealth from peri-
od-to-period. Often services are as-
sumes to be renewed each month, but if
more convenient services can be as-
sumed to have a duration equal to each
mission scenario see accounting period
below.
Cost and Affordability
You can afford anything which is equal
to or less than your wealth class, but
you can only acquire one item or ser-
vice at your wealth class and up to five
items one wealth class below that each
accounting period. The accounting period
can be one month or each mission scen-
ario whichever makes more sense and
makes keeping track easier. Monthly
makes most sense if you track time
carefully, while for each scenario makes
more sense if your game is run as a
series of episodes with off-screen time
assumed between sessions.
How much you can afford in an ac-
counting period is your spending power.
So if you are wealthy you can afford 1
item or service with a cost of wealthy
and 5 with a cost of well off. However, if
you do not spend anything at your
wealth class you can afford up to 10
items with a cost up to well off.
44
 Wealth and Rep
If your wealth is two or more above the affordability are meant as guidelines
cost there is rarely a need to worry and do not need to be tracked in detail
about how much you can afford. as long as they are followed in spirit.

If you go above what you can afford in Maintaining Wealth

any class in a given accounting period
Each accounting period you or an as-
your wealth class will immediately and
sistant, must use the Bureaucracy skill
permanently drop by one as you are
to see how you manage your finances.
draining your account faster than your
income can sustain and depending on
The difficulty depends on your wealth
the source of your income may mean
starting at easy for well off and increas-
that you had to sell off stocks or sell
ing one difficulty for each wealth class
some or all of your royalty rights to a
above that. If successful your finances
hypercorp.
are healthy and your spending power
refreshes as normal, but on a failure
Thus if you are wealthy and buy a
your finances are hurting and your
product in the wealthy wealth class
spending power is halved for the next
when you are already maintaining a
accounting period due to bad invest-
service affordable only to the wealthy
ments, overspending or other market
your wealth would immediately drop
factors.
to well off and the next accounting peri-
od you would not be able to renew your
You can of course employ an account-
service.
ant or AI for managing your wealth, but
only once you are at least wealthy and
You can also purchase a service or item
the service costs one below your current
one class above your wealth, but you
wealth each accounting period.
are overreaching and this will cause
your wealth class to immediately and
permanently drop one class. So continu- Wealth Class Difficulty
ing from the example above if your Poor/Broke -
wealth class was well off, but you Well Off easy
needed to maintain a service in the Wealthy tricky
wealthy class you could do so for a Rich hard
single accounting period, but your Very Rich extreme
wealth class would immediately drop Millionaire insane
to poor. Billionaire+ Beyond one man

Tracking Spending Pooling Wealth

The numbers suggested under cost and It takes ten people of a wealth class to

45
 Wealth and Rep
pool their resources to afford something
of a higher class.
Earned Wealth
When you earn wealth from a job, sale
or stolen goods your wealth will typic-
ally rise to that wealth class, but some-
times your wealth class may end up
lower for example if you need to pay
taxes or launder illegal earnings.
To establish an income for your newly
earned wealth you typically will need
to invest it for an accounting period be-
fore you can start spending it, and to re-
flect this your wealth class permanently
drops if you acquire anything at your
newly earned wealth class in the first
accounting period.
When earned wealth is divided it is re-
duced one wealth class for up to every
ten people it is divided between. So rich
earnings can make one person rich, but
anything from 2 to 10 people wealthy.
Gaining wealth equal or below your
own wealth class helps to maintain
your wealth, but does not increase it. It
does, however, reset your spending for
that accounting period up to the earned
wealth so that you can acquire more
gear or services without taking a hit to
your wealth.
You might wish to invest or save wealth
to increase your wealth. This requires
not spending anything more costly than
two below your wealth class for the ac-
counting period and then achieving an
exceptional accounting roll success with
the difficulty for the new wealth class.
You can of course hire an accountant,
but their success is not assured and they
will take payment of your current
wealth class regardless if it succeeds or
fails.
Loan
You can get a temporary wealth class
by borrowing credits usually through
your reputation. You can establish an
income on the borrowed credits same as
for earned wealth as long as you can in-
vest it for an accounting period. When
you pay back the loan your wealth class
drops back to what it was before as you
pay off the borrowed credits and in-
terest accumulated. It is usually best to
track wealth from a loan separately
from your own wealth.
Bargaining
It is possible to try and talk down the
price or find a cheaper deal or maybe
stolen goods sold at a discount. This is
usually done through roleplaying a so-
cial conflict using Smooth Talking or
online using Software although profi-
ciency in a skill related to what is being
bought may help reduce the difficulty.
The GM sets the difficulty depending
on the item and circumstances. Only a
single attempt at bargaining can be
made for an item in any given account-
ing period. If another player tries the
46
 Wealth and Rep
difficulty will usually be higher because You have a separate reputation class for
of the previous attempt. each network and this reputation is tied
to an identity. If a character has mul-
Reputation tiple identities reputation must be
maintained for each one depending on
Reputation classes work just like wealth the identity assumed.
and in the table below the equivalent
wealth class for a given reputation class Time
is shown, although wealth may be
meaningless in new-economy societies. Using reputation is rarely instantan-
The favour is provided simply to make eous. How long you must work your
it easy to keep track of the favour level way through your network and how
you can pull off. When reputation costs deep you need to dig, as well as by
are listed only a favour level or reputa- what method you exploit your reputa-
tion class may be provided, or they can tion, depends on the favour required.
be specified together using brackets,
such as Known (2). This is useful to As a simple reference it takes a few
keep track of what favours are above minutes for an Unknown (1) class of fa-
and below your reputation class. vour, an hour or less for a Known (2)
class favour, a few hours for an Advoc-
ate (3) favour, a day for a Top Dog (4)
Reputation Wealth Favour
favour, a few days for a Famous (5) fa-
Blacklisted In-Debt #
vour, a week for a Celebrity (6) favour,
Flagged Broke 0
a few weeks for a Mega Celebrity (7) fa-
Unknown Poor 1
vour and then months. However, the
Known Well Off 2
exact time-frame must always be de-
Advocate Wealthy 3
cided based on what sort of favour is
Top Dog Rich 4
being attempted and how it is ap-
Famous Very Rich 5
Celebrity Millionaire 6
proached.
Super Celebrity Billionaire 7
Mega Celebrity* Super Rich 8 Exploiting Reputation
Godlike* Hyper Rich 9 Exploiting reputation is usually role-
* These are reputation levels beyond what played, although a Dominate or Smooth
mortal men can hope to ever achieve. Talking roll may often be appropriate,
# Blacklisted characters have a negative or a Software roll if soliciting help on-
reputation which is inverse of the usual line or through a virtual reality. Under
classes, so you can be Blacklisted (-1) or normal circumstances you do not need
Blacklisted (-9). Both are bad as you are have any particular skill or make any
cut-off, but -1 is redeemable whereas -9 rolls to pull in your reputation favours.
would likely get you killed on sight.

47
 Wealth and Rep
However, sometimes it is not obvious
who to talk to in your social network, or
what to say where. Whether to find in-
teresting gossip, get expert advise and
track down someone with required
knowledge, access, contacts or skills.
Same goes for knowing how to get what
you need or how to spread your own
rumours and memes. Especially when
you want to keep things quiet and not
raise any flags.
To do this you can use your skills to
network through your web of personal
and impersonal connections to find
who and what you need whether
through direct communications, using
the mesh, monitoring profiles, forums
and VR hubs or by any other means
such as mining databases, news
archives and blogs.
Which skill you use will depend on the
network you are trying to exploit. Your
Academics skill is obviously useful for
networking in universities and other
academic institutions, Medicine for hos-
pitals and the medical community and
Science for mining the scientific com-
munity. Bureaucracy is very handy for
political and law enforcement contacts
and well as corporate networking and
connections into institutions and gov-
ernmental organisations.
However, pretty much any skill can be
useful in networking, although the
player must be able to explain how the
skill helps to network in each particular
case. For example, Software is an obvi-
ous skill when seeking hackers or secur-
ity services and a Pilot skill may help if
using rep to get access to a private
hangar or learn about arrivals and de-
partures to a space habitat. If network-
ing to find a particular weapon dealer
then Firefight might be useful and so
on. Be creative, but keep skill use plaus-
ible and make sure the most suitable
skill is used. If players suggest a skill
mainly because it is their strongest skill
and there are other more appropriate
skills that could be used then simply in-
sist on rolling the most appropriate
skill.
You will need to decide what social net-
works exist for your game, but it is best
to have a few broad networks perhaps
five to ten or so.
Favours
All sorts of favours are possible, but a
few typical ones are listed below to help
guide you. Note that Blacklisted and
Flagged people effectively have negative
and zero reputation respectively and
can never acquire anything on reputa-
tion. If you have no standing with a net-
work you will usually be treated as if
you have a reputation of Unknown after
a quick background check, as long as
nothing negative pings back from the
search.
Rep Services
A quick hand with some-
Unknown (1)
thing for a few minutes.
48
 Wealth and Rep
Simple hour service, basic
Known (2)
legal assistance, loan*: poor
Day's job, beatings, short
shuttle ride, simple psycho-
logical or medical help, up-
Advocate (3)
loading, major legal assist-
ance or favours, loan*: well
off
Medium term service, mov-
ing a body, homicide, get-
away shuttle, industrial
sabotage, large volume
Top Dog (4) shipping, medium shuttle
ride, serious psychological
or medical help, new
avatar, get out of jail, loan*:
wealthy
Long term service, dismem-
bering a body, multiple
homicide, major embezzle-
Famous (5)
ment, relocate to an aster-
oid, long space-shuttle ride,
loan*: rich
High profile assassination,
Celebrity (6)
mass murder, terrorism.
M. Celebrity (7) Very serious stuff.
* You can usually get a credit loan at the lower
end of the credit range equal to one wealth class
below your reputation class. Failing to pay back a
loan as agreed can result in serious reputation
burn.
Rep Information
Common: where to eat,
Unknown (1)
who's in charge
Public: Gray market con-
nections, bad neighbor-
hood, obscure public data-
Known (2)
base info, local crime syn-
dicate, public hypercorp
news
49
Private: Unlisted hypercorp
facility, who's a cop, crime
Advocate (3) syndicate members, intern-
al hypercorp news, who is
sleeping with whom.
Semi-Secret: Black market
Top Dog (4) connections, secret hang-
outs
Secret: Exotic black market
connections, secret corp fa-
cility, hideout, secret hyper-
Famous (5)
corp projects, undercover
cops, who's cheating on
whom.
Top Secret: Black-budget
labs, illegal hypercorp pro-
Celebrity (6)
jects, scandalous data,
blackmail material.
Information on high profile
people and their personal
M. Celebrity (7)
involvement in top secret
operations.
Burning Rep
It is much easier and faster to lose rep
than gain it. Rep can be lost by your ac-
tion or sometimes inaction, but mostly
you lose rep when you burn it.
Whenever you pull in a favour in your
reputation class or below it your rep is
not affected as long as you do not
overdo it.
However, if you pull in favours above
your reputation class you will take a hit
and this is referred to as burning repu-
tation. Just as for wealth you can pull in
a favour from a rep class one higher
than your current reputation class, but
your reputation then drops one class.
 Wealth and Rep
Excessive favours also burn reputation, favour from helping you and so in es-
but what is excessive depends on the sence you are asking for a free favour.
type of favours being requested com- Sometimes you can get around this by
pared to your reputation. paying them credits or exchanging in-
formation or promises of a free favour
Favours three or more classes below in return, but if not your reputation
your reputation can be requested as of- takes a hit and if the favour is equal to
ten as you like as long as they are not your rep you drop a class as your
excessively exploitive. Thus if you're closest contacts rate you down.
Top Dog (4) you can request as many
Unknown (1) type favours as you like, Freebies
as long as those favours do not hurt or
Using your reputation to get stuff is
ruin those you request the favour from.
usually ok in economies that rely only
on reputation and so do not use credits.
Favours two classes below your reputa-
However, if you wish to buy something
tion can be requested twice a day with
with reputation when they would nor-
no risk of you taking a hit, favours one
mally be expecting credits you must
class below yours can be requested once
burn your reputation and drop a repu-
a day and favours from your reputation
tation class unless you are at least two
class can be requested about once a
reputation classes higher than the fa-
week.
vour requested, and even then your rep
will take a small hit which will eventu-
Secret Favours
ally cause rep burn if you overdo it.
Keeping something quiet so that others
on your reputation network cannot find Discounts
out is difficult. You can always just take
You can use your rep to get a discount
a chance that it will not reach them, but
for goods and services if you have
the greater the magnitude of the favour
enough rep on the relevant social net-
and the higher their reputation the
work. A discount usually means that
more likely it is they will find out. If
the wealth class is reduced by one class.
they have a higher reputation class than
you and you are asking for anything
If you have a rep class one or more
they might have an interest in they will
above the corresponding wealth class
likely hear about it.
you can simply pull a favour to get a
discount. However, if your rep is equal
In order to keep it quiet you need to
to the wealth class you want a discount
keep it to a minimum of contacts and
on you will still need to make a roll as
you need to make sure they don't talk
described under bargaining for wealth,
about it. This means they cannot gain

50
 Wealth and Rep
but you can pull a favour to reduce the
difficulty by one difficulty.
Paying Extra
In any economy where credits are used
you can pay extra to prevent burning
reputation. You can do this when you
need to pull in a favour one class above
your class or you request excessive fa-
vours. To pay extra you must have a
wealth class one above the value of the
item or service, although if you have a
wealth equal to the value you can
choose to drop your wealth one class in-
stead.
Illegal Favours
On a criminal social network illegal fa-
vours are the norm, but on most other
networks the reputation class of the fa-
vour will increase one or more classes if
the favour is against local laws, and es-
pecially if against local moral and ideo-
logical values.
Gaining Rep
Reputation can be gained through
trade, but mostly it is gained through
your actions and behaviour. This can be
purchased with experience points if the
GM agrees, but usually it is roleplayed.
If you do favours for members of a rep
faction you will likely gain reputation
depending on your results possibly
also with other factions. Gaining rep
with one faction can lose you rep with
another and vice-versa. Even if you are
not trying to gain (or lose) reputation
members of factions aware of your ac-
tions will always rate you and so you
always risk gaining or earning reputa-
tion just by interacting with people.
Anything you do which is flagged fa-
vourably with some members of a net-
work will count towards you gaining
reputation.
The lower your starting reputation, the
easier it is to gain rep with the excep-
tion of those who are Blacklisted. To in-
crease a reputation class you must per-
form deeds in a reputation class higher
than your current class, and for the
higher classes a single deed is not
enough in most cases. Likewise it is rare
to rise more than a single reputation
class in a short period, but if your deeds
are extraordinary the GM might raise
your rep two classes to reflect your met-
eoric rise in fame.
The most obvious way to gain reputa-
tion is to perform favours as described
earlier, but you only gain reputation
from responding to favours presented
to you, and only if you fulfil the favour
to the satisfaction of the person needing
the favour. Seeking out people and of-
fering them your goods, services or in-
formation does not count as a favour,
but it may still gain you rep as shown in
the table on the next page.
Gaining reputation from simply selling
stuff only happens if you repeatedly sell
things not available anywhere else or of
exceptional quality, novelty or at in-

51
 Wealth and Rep
credible discounts. However, in new
economy cultures it is bad form not to
lend stuff when you are able to people
of good standing and so you can actu-
ally lose rep for hoarding and not shar-
ing.
The things listed in the table are just
suggestions and the GM should make
his own decisions on what sort of repu-
tation you might gain from your ac-
tions.
Reputation Effort to Gain Rep
Blacklisted * Remove an existential
You must prove yourself,
typically doing several fa-
Flagged
vours or showing commit-
ment over time.
Make a notable contribu-
Unknown tion or job no one else
wants to do.
Minor business or scientific
Known contributions or public vic-
tory.
Serious business or scientif-
ic contributions, designing
something interesting, cre-
Advocate
ating a meme, star of the
news or victory after seri-
ous risk.
Impressive business or sci-
entific contribution, design
a new tool everyone wants,
Top Dog
succeed at a big and diffi-
cult project or victory
against the odds.
Start a new hot fashion
trend, major business or sci-
entific contribution, corpor-
ate acquisition, stop or
Famous stage a major act of terror-
ism or lead a major assault
to victory against all odds,
invent something revolu-
tionary and game changing
Directly avert a major dis-
aster or save thousands in a
public event, start or put
Celebrity down a revolution, make
contact with aliens or do
something truly exceptional
that has a huge impact.
threat for all of your spe-
cies, win a major war, pub-
Super Celebrity
licly save millions or
change everyone's lives
with your actions.
Save billions or change the
Mega Celebrity world forever with your ac-
tions.
Take transhumanity into
the posthuman era, destroy
a superior alien species
Godlike
bent on the destruction of
your species, become un-
disputed ruler of all.
*Being Blacklisted means you are shun by
everyone on the network as you've either
abused favours or you are generally con-
sidered a bad person by the network. Black-
listed character's have a negative rating
which must first be reduced to zero before a
character can again start gaining rep fa-
vours. This negative rep goes from -1 to -9
just as for normal rep and the lower the
negative score is the harder it will be to im-
prove your reputation again.
52
 Wealth and Rep
Losing Rep
Besides burning reputation, standing
can be lost by failing to help members
of your network when they approach
you for information, gear or services
within your means to provide. Such re-
quests will often be completely unre-
lated to your current mission or activ-
ity, but making sacrifices to help is part
of being on a reputation network and if
you do a good job you might even gain
reputation.
How much of a risk you run of losing
rep depends on the reputation of the
person asking the favour compared to
your own. If you have a higher rep
score you are unlikely to lose rep unless
you repeatedly and always refuse to
help, or if you do not help when it
would cost you nothing to do so. If you
are of the same rep, however, you are
more at risk and especially if you have a
lower reputation in which case you bet-
ter have a really convincing excuse.
How you refuse a favour is almost as
important as the reputation of the per-
son asking for the favour. If you have a
reasonable and verifiable excuse for
why you can't help or trade you are less
likely to take a reputation hit.
You may also take a reputation hit if
you lose professional credibility, make
big public blunders, double-cross
friends and so on. The severity of your
discretion measured against your repu-
tation class is the main deciding factor if
53
you lose rep. If you have low reputation
you can drop a class simply by being in-
volved in a messy dispute or pissing off
the wrong person. If you're an Advoc-
ate you will likely have to ruin an im-
portant event, endanger someone the
network cares about or be the focus of
bad news. If you're Top Dog you have
to do something major to drop a rep
class, such as screw up a major mission,
get someone killed or associate with
hated rivals or enemies of the network.
Any higher rep than that and you'll
have to do something pretty spectacu-
larly bad, get someone important killed
or actually betray your faction to a rival
or enemy.
Stagnation
If you do not interact with your net-
work for a prolonged period you might
lose one or more reputation classes as
contacts are lost, circumstances change
and trust in you drops as members of
the network do not see you contributing
or interacting with the network.
Stagnation rarely happens in less than a
year, but if there are major events or
dramatic changes taking place that af-
fect the network's members and you are
absent then you're reputation will likely
drop much faster potentially in weeks
or months if you are unreachable, or
even days in the case of extreme dis-
asters.
If your reputation drops from stagna-
tion you have a grace period upon your
 Wealth and Rep
return to revive your old reputation Off The Radar
status. To do so you must not push fa-
Note that anything that happens in
vours beyond your new reduced repu-
secret without anyone able to ping their
tation and refrain from burning or oth-
networks with negative or positive
erwise losing reputation. Any addition-
feedback will not affect your reputation.
al loss of reputation will make the re-
Stealing, cheating, assassinations and so
duction permanent. You must provide
on only hit your rep if you get caught or
favours or do something notable
you are suspected, and of course with
enough for your previous reputation
the criminal networks these things may
class and if you succeed then your old
actually earn you rep.
status will be restored to you as if you
had never left.

54
 Combat

Combat
Combat works as in Fantasy Dice, but burst or full automatic.
this chapter deals with the special con-
Single Shot
siderations of combat in a modern or
Can only be fired once for a single
science fiction setting.
action in a round.
Semi-Automatic
Firearms
Semi-automatic weapons are capable of
Most firearms are easy to fire and to re- quick, repeated fire. They may be fired
flect this it is allowed to fire the same multiple times in a round and each shot
semi-automatic, burst or full automatic is handled as a separate attack.
weapon in both the primary and sec-
Burst
ondary action. This makes firearms
Bursts are released with each trigger
deadly, but note that it is possible to
pull that consumes 4 shots of
take evasive action from such a hail of
ammunition. It may be fired multiple
fire as described under firearm defence.
times in a round and each burst is
handled as a separate attack.
Recoil
Beam weapons and advanced futuristic For each attack you can sweep across
projectile weapons have no or the target and receive a +1D bonus, or
negligible recoil. However, for less concentrate fire and receive +1 to the
sophisticated projectiles and heavy damage rating.
guns a -1D penalty accumulates for
Full Automatic
every shot after the first until a whole
Full automatics release a hail of bullets
round is spent not firing that weapon.
with a single trigger pull that consumes
In the case of burst fire the penalty is
6 + 1D6 shots. It may be fired multiple
-2D and for fully automatics the penalty
times in a round, each is handled as a
is -3D. If the weapon is properly
separate attack.
mounted or secured the recoil can be
eliminated.
For each attack you can sweep across
the target for a +2D bonus, or
Rate of Fire concentrate fire and receive +2 to the
Weapons are capable of one or more damage rating.
modes of fire: single shot, semi-automatic,

55
 Combat
Multiple Targets ing, the second -1 DR, the third -2 DR
and so on.
Attacking multiple targets with a single
action is possible if the targets are
Remember that by engaging several op-
grouped together. Only a single attack
ponents in an attack you risk getting
roll with a penalty is made, but each
multiple counter attacks. Always re-
target must defend separately.
solve the result against all targets first
and then resolve counter attacks in or-
Attack Targets Penalty der of target initiatives (roll if neces-
Burst 2 -1D sary). Each counter attack must be de-
Full Automatic 2 - fended against separately and takes an
Full Automatic 3 -1D action.
Full Automatic 4 -2D
Continuous Beam 2 - Counter Attacks
Continuous Beam 3 -1D
Continuous Beam 4 -2D Counter attacks from defending against
ranged firearm attacks with a firearm is
Melee weapons can also attack multiple allowed (even though it is a ranged
targets grouped together and close attack). This follows the usual counter
enough. How many opponents can be attack rules with a normal counter
targeted depends on the situation and attack using your secondary action on
the weapon used, but some suggestions defending with normal success and a
are given below. +1D bonus on exceptional success.

Attack Targets Penalty Range

Dagger 2 -3D Some suggested ranges are provided
Sword / Axe 2 -2D for weapons, but as always do not
Club / Mace * 2 -2D worry about tracking exact distances,
Longsword / Greataxe 2 -1D but use the ranges to roughly estimate if
Longsword / Greataxe 3 -2D a penalty applies.
2 handed club / mace * 2 -1D
2 handed club / mace * 3 -2D To reflect the much greater ranges of
Halberd 2/3 -1D firearms four range intervals are
Halberd 4 -2D suggested:
Whip 2 -1D
Whip 3 -2D Short: No penalty
* Crush weapons take similar penalties, Medium: -1D
but in addition have their damage rat- Long: -2D
ing reduced by one after each target. So Extreme: -3D
the first target takes the full damage rat-

56
 Combat
Note that in a lower gravity weapons
firing projectiles will travel further, but
this does not make hitting a target
significantly easier and so should only
affect the extreme range. A simple
method is to simply divide the extreme
range by the gravity so that when
gravity is below 1g it will get longer,
and when above 1g it will get shorter. If
the extreme range gets shorter than
long or medium range it becomes
extreme range. Obviously, if there is no
gravity the projectile will never stop
until it hits something or all the energy
is drained from atmospheric drag.
In vacuum there is no drag so you may
choose to extend all ranges slightly, but
neither is there any guidance for many
forms of smart ammo which means that
many homing or guided projectiles are
reduced to simple dumb projectiles.
Under water (and in similar liquids) the
range is severely limited and unless the
projectile has been designed for such
use ranges are reduced for nearly all
projectiles.
Under water projectile ranges:
Short: contact
Medium: 1 m
Long: 2 m
Extreme: 3 m
Beam weapons are almost useless if
fired under water and badly affected by
many gases. However, in a thin
atmosphere the extreme range may be
57
doubled, and in vacuum it should be
tripled and the GM may allow targeting
things at almost any range - with the
appropriate penalties.
Ammunition and Reloading
Reloading typically takes a full round,
but can vary depending on the weapon
and situation. Players should keep track
of their ammunition, but if running out
is not a real risk then there is no need to
keep an exact count. Thus the GM
should tell the players when they need
to track ammunition and when it is not
important.
Suppressive Fire
A character firing a weapon in full-auto
mode may choose to lay down
suppressive fire over an area rather
than targeting anyone specifically, with
the intent of making everyone in the
suppressed area keep their heads down.
This takes all actions, uses up 20 shots,
and lasts until the characters next
initiative. The suppressed area extends
out in a cone, with the widest diameter
of the cone being up to 20 meters
across. Any character who is not behind
cover or who does not immediately
move behind cover on their action is at
risk of getting hit by the suppressive
fire. If they move out of cover inside the
suppressed area, the character laying
down suppressive fire gets 1D4 free
attacks against them.
Attacking Things
 Combat
There will doubtlessly be times when Doors and furniture are often construc-
you will want to hack down a door, ted from polymers, wood and alumina.
shoot out a lock, break a window or in- Such structures are usually quite dur-
cinerate a large cocoon. It is rarely ne- able, but can be damaged with a de-
cessary to roll when attacking inanim- termined attack.
ate objects. As long as you will reason-
ably be able to damage or destroy Note that using the right tool for the job
whatever you are attacking the action makes a big difference. An axe can
can simply be narrated and resolved in break down a wooden door quite fast,
a reasonable timeframe. while an assault rifle will only riddle it
with holes.
If there is some difficulty involved such
as blasting something at a distance or Multiple Weapons
hacking through a bridge before your
It is possible to wield a weapon in each
pursuers can cross the GM should as-
hand or tentacle whether a dagger or
sign a difficulty to succeed. Ammuni-
a sword.
tion is of course expended as usual, and
melee weapons may be blunted, broken
You need an action for each weapon
or otherwise damaged if used against
you want to attack with and unless you
hard objects or structures.
are ambidextrous you will take a -1D
penalty to your off-hand(s) attack(s).
Note that most habitats, spaceships and
colony domes are made from advanced
Alternatively, you can attack with sev-
composites, alloys, concrete, hardened
eral weapons in a single action against
polymers and metallic foam that are
the same target. You must roll each at-
resistant to damage. Usually specialised
tack separately, but all your attacks take
cutting tools, extreme force or very high
a -1D penalty for every attack beyond
powered weapons are needed to punch
the first. So if attacking with two dag-
a hole through walls, floors and ceilings
gers you take -1D to both attacks. Fur-
especially outer walls and airlocks.
thermore the target defends against all
your attacks with one action. The main
Internal walls, windows and insulation
benefit of such an attack is that inflict-
on a space habitat is usually more low-
ing damage of the same severity twice
density. While solid enough to with-
will increase the final severity by one.
stand a human fist a determined attack
by a strong synth or pretty much any
If you try to attack two or more targets
weapon will quickly be able to punch
with the same action you take -2D for
holes through it. High security sections
every target beyond the first - to all
may of course have reinforced walls
your attacks. So if armed with two pis-
and armoured glass.

58
 Combat
tols and you fire at two enemies at the
same time you roll separately for each
attack and subtract -2D from each one.
Each defender can defend as usual.
Touching Someone
Simply touching someone does not
require a roll under normal
circumstances, but if trying to touch
someone who is actively evading you
then make it a Melee attack as normal.
Common reason for such attacks would
be to apply drug patches or contact
poisons both which which might be
made more difficult if the target is
covered with clothing and armour with
only a few bare patches of skin.
Another reason is to shock someone
with implants.
Indirect fire
It is possible to target an enemy you
can't see by using a spotter whether
another person communicating to you
or remote sensor system. Such indirect
fire typically takes a -2D penalty, but
adjust according to the situation.
However, seeker missiles may be able
to home in on a pre-programmed target
or by using a target indicator such as a
laser to point out the target. Such
attacks are usually Tech skill rolls and
the difficulty will depend entirely on
the tech, target and situation.
Firearm Defence
Like in Fantasy Dice you can dodge any
59
ranged attack, but you can also spend
both actions to take evasive action
against all incoming fire. This imposes a
-1D penalty to the roll and you can do
nothing else except move a short
distance, but anyone targeting you
must beat the resulting dodge roll.
You cannot block incoming fire and
parries are -2D and requires a shield
that can stop the projectile or beam
fired.
Hunker Down
If you simply want to duck behind
cover and avoid getting hit then you
can hunker down behind something,
around a corner or anywhere where
there is no line of sight. Doing so
prevents you from attacking or seeing
what is going on, unless you have
senses or tech which allows you to see
through the cover.
If you have not yet acted you can
hunker down at your initiative by
moving behind cover if within reach.
Note that being hunkered down can
mean hiding behind a wall, ducking
behind a car, jumping through a
window or any number of other
scenarios and the situation will
determine whether you are standing,
kneeling, hunched or prone.
Any attack against a hunkered down
opponent requires moving until line of
sight can be established or firing
through the cover. The person
 Combat
hunkered down can of course hold their
action to attack anyone who pursues, or
may attempt to move away to always
keep behind cover. The latter is best
handled using a contested Athletics roll.
If maps are used to track positions then
it should be fairly straight forward to
judge how far and where someone
would need to move to see someone
hiding behind cover. If the combat
situation is more abstract then this is
ultimately a decision by the GM.
If the person behind cover is actually
hiding and someone is searching then
that is an opposed Stealth challenge
with penalties and bonuses depending
on how easy it is to hide and senses
used for the search.
If targeting someone hidden behind
cover the difficulty will range from easy
to insane depending on if you can be
seen with the attacker's senses and how
well the attacker knows your position.
Even if the attacker hits the must first
penetrate the cover which acts as
armour. If you can see through the
cover and have defensive actions you
may even react and defend against the
attack.
Weapon Effects
Some weapons need a bit of special
handling and so the rules below are
suggested.
Cone Weapons
Cone weapons have a fire effect that
expands out into a cone and so can
affect multiple targets standing close
together and the damage rating is also
affected by the range.
The table below shows the suggested
maximum number of targets and
increase or reduction in damage rating
or cone weapons at different ranges.
Range Max Targets DR
Short 1 +2
Medium 2 -
Long 3 -1
Extreme 3 -2
Beam Weapons
Beam weapons that fire in a continuous
stream of energy make it possible to
sweep across or home-in on a target.
Thus, for every attack beyond the first
against the same target in the same or
following round a continuous beam
weapon gets a +1D bonus to the attack
as you can adjust the beam more
precisely. The bonus carries over from
round-to-round, but can never go above
+2D, and if you stop shooting at the
target, or switch or react to a different
target, then the bonus is reset.
Shock
Some weapons try to incapacitate
through the use of electric shock. Shock
weapons only work on class I targets
unless stated otherwise.
60
 Combat
Armour does offer some protection
Each rating of armour worn reduces the
duration of any incapacitation from the
shock by one round, but does not help
against being stunned unless
specifically designed to insulate against
shock (typically combat armours).
Synthetic avatars are disrupted by an
electric shock too, unless they have
been specifically shielded. If shielded
shock durations are halved unless the
shielding is specifically designed to
make the synthetic avatar immune to
shock. Although synthetics are
designed to not short-circuit or burn
our on contact with an electric current,
shock insulation is typically seen as an
unnecessary expense at production and
is expensive to add to an existing
avatar.
Minor Shock
A discouraging shock meant to per-
suade the target to desist or surrender.
The shock is painful and immediately
stuns for that and the following round.
Strong Shock
The most commonly used shock attack
meant to disable without hurting. The
painful current causes 1D6 rounds (2D6
if small or vulnerable) of incapacitation
followed by the same duration of being
stunned due to the lingering effect and
pain.
Severe Shock
Used only by the ruthless or to control
synthetics the most severe shock attacks
cause lasting damage. It works like a
61
strong shock, but for 3D6 rounds (6D6
for the small or vulnerable) and causes
DRI-3 burn damage at the point of
contact. Synthetic avatars which are not
shielded have a 50% chance of
overloading - effectively knocked out.
Explosions
Explosives have a blast area that
expands outwards in a sphere from the
centre, although shaped charges may
direct the blast in only one direction.
An explosion causes crush damage
from the sheer force of the explosion
and burn damage from the heat and
flames. Any character close enough to
the explosion to take damage is either
hurled back or knocked over depending
on its strength, and will be bruised or
dented. The damage can be described as
both crush and burn as appropriate.
Normally the damage rating is reduced
by one for every three meters from the
explosion's centre, but grenades, mines,
rockets, dynamite and other explosives
may specify a greater or smaller radius
per damage rating.
An explosion has an armour
penetration rating of PR3 unless
otherwise is specified and the location
is determined as normal if relevant.
Most explosions will scatter deadly
shrapnel in a wide range. Whether
splintered wood, metal or whatever else
contained the explosives and was
 Combat
nearby. Anyone less than twelve meters
away must roll 2D6. If they roll above
their distance from the centre, they are
pierced by a piece of shrapnel causing a
piercing wound with the full damage
rating of the explosion at the centre.
Armour does reduce the wound
severity, but because of the force of the
explosion the shrapnel has PR2.
A shrapnel bomb built to generate a lot
of shrapnel increases the risk of being
hit so add an additional die to the roll
for a 3D6 roll.
Grenades and Launchers
The Athletics skill is typically used to
throw grenades and similar explosives,
while the Firefight skill is used to fire
launchers and the Tech skill used to
employ shaped charges, dynamite and
other rigged explosives.
An attack with explosives places the
centre of the explosion. While the
attacker only makes a single attack roll,
anyone within the blast radius who is
aware of the attack can react as usual.
As long as the attacker gets at least one
success the blast centre is placed as
desired, otherwise it overshoots, falls
short or goes off target as appropriate
or randomly determined.
Detonation Mechanisms
Grenades can have any number of det-
onation mechanisms. The simplest is
detonation on impact or based on a
timer, but they can also be detonated
using a remote signal or after having
travelled a pre-programmed distance.
If a timer is set at the start of a round
then it will detonate in the same round
that it is set if less than 3 seconds. Give
the detonation an initiative based on the
timer set of roughly D6+6 if one second
or less, D6+3 up to two seconds and D6
up to three seconds. This adds uncer-
tainty to when exactly it will explode
and puts tension on if people will reach
their initiative and jump to cover before
it detonates.
However, often a grenade is thrown at
someone's initiative and unless they are
set to less than a second they will det-
onate on the following round with an
initiative of D6+6 for two seconds and
D6+3 for three seconds and so on.
In the case of an impact based grenade
its initiative may be rolled based on cir-
cumstances or perhaps 1D12 to keep it
really random.
Note that in all cases where the initiat-
ive is higher than the current initiative
the grenade detonates before anyone
can act, but does not mean that it blew
up as it was thrown.
Throwing Back Grenades
It is possible that a character may be
able to reach a grenade before it deton-
ates and throw it back (or away in a safe
direction). The character must be within
62
 Combat
movement range of the grenades loca- If the character fails the test, however,
tion, and must succeed at a tricky or they may find themselves at ground
hard Athletics or Sleight of Hand to zero when it detonates see detonation
catch a rolling or sliding grenade. If mechanisms above.
they succeed, they may throw the gren-
ade off in a direction of their choice us-
ing Athletics, but with a -2D penalty.

63
 Damage
Damage
This chapter covers damage inflicted on
both biological and synthetic avatars, as
well as objects such as vehicles or even
space stations. It is largely the same
system used in Fantasy Dice, but
explained in some detail here due to the
introduction of damage classes and
handling of damage to synthetics and
vehicles. Also note that in this version
of the rules the severity is increased
when an additional wound is inflicted
of the same severity in the same
location.
Combat is kept fast by only applying
the immediate impact of any damage
inflicted without worrying about the
gritty details.
The intention is that the full extent of
the damage only needs to be assessed
once the smoke settles and adrenaline
wears, and even then it can often be
ignored and is mostly relevant for the
players or important NPCs.
This also adds uncertainty and
suspense as blood loss and other long
term consequences can still cripple or
kill a victorious combatant if not treated
properly, or disabling damage to a
system may turn out to be easily
repairable.
Inflicted Damage
A successful attack inflicts damage
according to the damage rating of the
weapon or attack used and the
adjectives used by both the attacker and
the defender. Armour worn reduces
that damage. The same damage
severities are used for everything, but
targets are separated into different
classes depending on their size and
toughness.
Damage Classes
Damage is divided into three classes.
All targets fall into one of the three
classes, and every weapon and attack is
rated according to its class.
Class I: Soft Targets such as humans,
animals and most synthetics and hu-
man sized robots, as well as fragile
vehicles such as a glider.
Class II: Hard Targets such as cars,
boats, planes and large or hardened
synthetics and robots, as well as very
large and though biological creatures.
Class III: Large structures such as
ships, spacecraft, space stations, habit-
ats, colony installations and buildings.
64
 Damage
Larger objects than class III are usually
best divided into class III components,
and sometimes class III targets have
vulnerable class II components.
Damage Severity
Weapons and attacks are assigned a
damage severity from 1 to 5, from least
to most severe.
The severity is repeated for each class
and the table below shows how the
damage severity is described, and the
effect on the target.
Damage Description Effect
1 stunned stun
2 wounded -1D + stun
3 crippled -2D + stun
4 incapacitated incapacitated
5 dead dead
For machines and synthetics being
stunned can be described as being dis-
rupted, while wounded is better de-
scribed as damaged and dead as des-
troyed. The effect remains the same.
Damage Rating
The damage class and severity combine
into the weapons damage rating (DR).
For example a class I mark 3 weapon is
DRI-3.
Inflicted Damage
The inflicted damage harms anything in
the same damage class according to its
severity. Thus a class II attack with a
65
severity of 3 (DRII-3) will cripple any
unarmoured class II target.
Against lower class target the damage
severity inflicted is the maximum sever-
ity of 5. Any damage reduction such as
cover or armour is halved (round
down), and the damage severity of the
attack must first be reduced to the same
class as the target before the severity is
reduced. Thus a class II attack with a
severity of 1 (DRII-1) will inflict a
deadly severity 5 attack against a class I
target. If the target takes cover for -2 DR
and has AR2 for an additional -2 DR the
damage reduction is halved to -2 DR,
and so reduces the attack to class I
severity 4.
Against targets of a higher class the at-
tack inflicts no damage, but if the dam-
age severity is increased beyond 5 the
attack will scale up to the next class, but
starting from severity 1. Any armour or
damage reduction by the target is how-
ever doubled. So a class II attack of
severity 5 (DRII-5) against a class III tar-
get does no damage. However, if the
damage rating is increased by +1 DR it
will do class III, severity 1 damage.
Only the most severe damage needs to
be recorded. Being repeatedly damaged
with lesser damage only causes stun,
but if hit a second time with the recor-
ded damage severity the severity is in-
creased one step.
It is possible to target a weak spot on a
higher class target, if such can be identi-
 Damage
fied, and cause damage to that compon-
ent as if it has a lower damage class.
The component must have some sort of
weakness and the attack must be tar-
geted. For example a camera lens may be
targeted on a heavy robot or the tires on
a car.
Damage Consequences
The immediate effect of the inflicted
damage is fast to resolve and requires
no additional rolls or table lookup.
Damage does not stack so only the most
severe damage inflicted matters, except
that every time you are damaged it
stuns you and if you are hit again in the
same location with the same severity
the inflicted damage is increased by one
severity.
A target in a higher class than the inflic-
ted damage suffers no harm or con-
sequences.
Stun
Stun is the result of shock or massive
pain, and loss of control and system
disruption in synthetics and vehicles.
Being stunned imposes an immediate
-1D penalty that lasts until the end of
the following round. Stunned
characters may defend and attack as
normal, but with the -1D penalty.
A walking avatar or vehicle is limited to
a walking pace for that duration and if
running or sprinting when stunned
must pass at an Athletics skill check to
avoid tripping and falling. The
difficulty starts at tricky for running and
hard for sprinting, but may be higher as
suits the circumstances.
Any vehicle or avatar that is hovering,
rolling or flying must make a Pilot
check to stay in control and may crash
on a failure depending on the situation
and severity of the failure. The
difficulty might start at easy for damage
severity 1 and increase by one for each
additional severity, but may also
depend on the attack and other
circumstances such as moving at high
speed or engaged in tricky manoeuvres.
-1D or -2D Penalty
The -1D or -2D damage penalty is
applied immediately and stacks with
the stun penalty while that lasts. This
reflects pain, system failures and
reduced functionality due to the
damage.
The penalty is permanent until the
damage can be fixed or the wound
heals, but emergency repairs or first aid
treatment with the right equipment can
immediately reduce the penalty by one.
Incapacitation
Incapacitation takes you out of the ac-
tion. This indicates severe and serious
damage and can easily result in a dead
or destroyed avatar. In fact it is as-
sumed that any NPC who does not re-
ceive prompt treatment is dead or des-
troyed.
66
 Damage
The avatar will remain incapacitated
and unable to act in any capacity until it
receives treatment, but with emergency
repairs or first aid treatment with the
right equipment the avatar can be re-
vived. A revived avatar suffers -2D to
any action and is extremely vulnerable
to further damage. Any further damage
in the same damage class will return the
avatar to the incapacitated state.
Dead
Depending on circumstances a dead or
destroyed target is either unconscious
and dying from massive damage or
completely annihilated, decapitated or
otherwise terminated on the spot. Re-
gardless the character is unable to up-
load or act, but the difference might
matter if someone is attempting some
form of emergency treatment.
It is up to the situation and GM if emer-
gency treatment is feasible, but even
when it is the result is very unlikely to
save the avatar. Unless there is immedi-
ate access to extremely sophisticated
medical treatment the best that can be
hoped for is time enough to extract in-
formation, upload the avatar or say
goodbye.
Armour
Armour is qualified by class and ar-
mour rating just like weapons.
Heavier armours typically impose man-
oeuvring penalties which impose a -1D
67
or -2D penalty to all Body based rolls as
well as reducing speed and accelera-
tion. Very sophisticated armours may
achieve their ratings partially through
some sort of shielding or energizing of
the material, but these armours con-
sume large amounts of energy and so
can rarely be powered for long and may
be unstable or have particular vulnerab-
ilities.
The class of an armour is usually the
same as the target, so a class I target
will wear ARI-1 to ARI-5 armour. Wear-
ing armour of a higher class upgrades
the target to that class, but the armour is
then considered a vehicle and must be
piloted using the Pilot skill. For ex-
ample a mech, battlesuit, power armour
or armoured exoskeleton.
Armour Penetration
Weapon armour penetration (AP) only
affects armour of the same scale (it com-
pletely penetrates any armour below its
scale). So PRI-1 would reduce ARI-3 to
ARI-2, but would not affect ARII-1 at
all.
Armour Degradation
If armour is repeatedly hit with damage
equal or greater than the armour rating
the armour may have its rating reduced
by one permanently or temporarily
depending on the armour and attack.
This is left up to the GM, but a simple
rule is to have this happen after three
such hits in a single scene, assuming the
 Damage
armour can be repaired or maintained into the burnt skin, so treat as if slash
between scenes. trauma for the sake of blood loss. There
is also a high risk of infection.
Burns
If bad internal trauma is indicated it
Any tissue damage caused by heat,
means the burn will leave a permanent
flame, radiation, boiling water,
scar. If crippling internal trauma is
electricity, friction or corrosive
indicated the burn has gone deep
chemicals like acids and alkalis is
enough to cause permanent damage
considered a burn. As burns get more
and will leave serious scarring and
severe they destroy deeper layers of
potentially some minor disability. With
skin and tissue. The greater the
deadly internal trauma the burn is
temperature, voltage or corrosiveness
normally not survivable without
the deeper it goes. A burn attack must
treatment.
be assigned a wound severity and the
trauma inflicted is handled as for any
Armour can protect against flames, hot
other type of wound. If the burn is
objects and acids. However, if exposed
inflicted by a focused attack the location
for any duration the armour will
is determined as usual. Otherwise the
become hot and may even start
location must be decided by the
burning. A simple system is to reduce
situation.
the AR each round it is exposed to an
ongoing attack. Most armour is useless
Treat burn trauma like any other
against electricity.
wound with the same impairment, stun,
incapacitation and healing times.
Flames and acids may continue doing
damage after the attack if the acid is not
Burns cause blood loss, shock and
washed off or if clothes catch fire. This
hypothermia. The Trauma book
must be explained by the attack or
handles burns by grouping them into
determined by the GM and will
1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th degree burns, with
continue to increase the severity of the
symptoms and risks for each degree. It
burn.
also has special trauma tables for grim
and mortal electricity burns.
Suffocation
If the Trauma book is not used, then A suffocating character will be
resolve the post trauma for a burn like unconscious in about half a minute,
any other wound, by checking for brain damaged in around four minutes
bleeding and internal trauma. Burns and suffer massive brain damage and
cause severe blood loss as fluids leak death soon after in about seven
minutes. If the airway is only partially

68
 Damage
blocked the times will be much longer.
However, if the character is strangled,
the arteries may also be constricted and
she could be unconscious in as little as
ten seconds, suffering massive brain
damage and death in a couple of
minutes.
Falling
Falling causes crush damage with a
severity dependant on the distance of
the fall, while the damage class is
always the same as the victim falling.
Falls of less than two meters do not
normally cause any trauma.
The severity should be adjusted for the
surface where the character lands.
Landing on jagged rocks may
dramatically increase the severity while
landing on soft sand will reduce it.
Armour does not offer much protection
against fall trauma. Treat fall trauma as
PR2.
When relevant the location is
determined by rolling 1D8. An
additional location takes trauma of one
lesser wound severity for every few
meters fallen, as shown in the table
below, up to a maximum of four
locations. Each location is chosen
randomly and if the same as a previous
location it is ignored. Thus luck may
limit the number of wounds.
69
Meters Locations Damage
2-4 1 1
5-8 2 2
9 - 12 3 3
13 - 16 4 4
17+ 4 5
An Athletics skill roll may allow
reducing the damage by one by landing
better. Assign an appropriate difficulty
for the situation.
Damage and Stress
Whenever you take serious damage you
may gain stress. You gain 1 stress for a
DRI-3, 2 for DRI-4 and 3 for DRI-5,
although synthetics or anyone using
stims or blocking pain take one less.
This is just the immediate stress for the
damage. If you suffer traumatic post
trauma effects it may cause further
stress, but the amount will depend
entirely on the horror of the situation as
explained under Fear in the Gameplay
chapter.
Biological Healing
Regardless if the Trauma book is used
or not healing is handled the same way,
although Trauma does introduce
additional complications to deal with.
Natural Healing
It is rare that healing is not treated and
greatly speeded up, but without
 Damage
treatment damage takes a long time to
heal. Each mark rating as listed below
takes a number of weeks to heal before
it is reduced to the next lower rating
and so on until fully healed.
Severity 1: 2 weeks
Severity 2: 3 weeks
Severity 3: 4 weeks
Normally damage severity 4 and 5 will
not heal naturally and lead to death if
not treated, but if survivable add an ex-
tra week for each.
Each wound heals separately from each
other, but also at the same time. So if a
character has two severity 1 wounds
they would both heal in two weeks.
This is reflected in only the most severe
wound being recorded.
A week of healing is normally seven
days, but may be more or less
depending on conditions and treatment,
and an infected wound does not start to
heal until the infection is cured.
Treatment and Recovery
The difficulty for treating a wound with
basic medical equipment starts at easy
and increases by one for each rating:
Severity 1: easy
Severity 2: tricky
Severity 3: hard
Severity 4: severe
Severity 5: extreme
The difficulty may be significantly
reduced by medical equipment and
healing tanks and other sophisticated
devices may come with its own skilled
AI requiring no healing skill to use.
Treating someone dead from a
severity 5 wound may not be possible,
and is a call for the GM depending on
the circumstances and technology used.
First aid can immediately reduce
impairment and return an incapacitated
character to action as described earlier
under Damage Consequences, but will not
help with the healing of the wound.
Even basic medical treatment will
reduce the healing time by up to a
week, and more sophisticated medical
technology can reduce this to days or
hours.
Synthetics Repair
Synthetic avatars do not heal and so
must be repaired using the Tech skill,
and potentially Engineering to replace
parts unless blueprints are available.
The difficulty of repairing a synthetic is
very similar to treating a wound and
the technology used will have a big
impact on the final difficulty. Note that
in the case of severity 4 damage the
computer brain centre may be damaged
causing stress and memory loss to the
ego, while for severity 5 damage it may
have been destroyed.
Emergency repairs can immediately
reduce impairment and return an
70
 Damage
incapacitated synthetic to action just
like first aid can. This is a temporary fix
and proper repairs should be completed
as soon as possible to fix vulnerabilities
and guard against unexpected system
failures down the line.
How long repairs take will depend on
the equipment used, but the severity
rating can be used as a starting point:
1: minutes
2: couple of hour
3: several hours
4: days
5: weeks or longer
Post Trauma
The details of the damage inflicted is
not considered in this book, but the
Trauma book can be used to add a layer
71
of realism in the form of a highly de-
tailed system for determining and de-
scribing body trauma after or during
combat. It deals with infections, shock,
broken bones, damage to internal or-
gans, brain damage, nerve trauma and
much more.
The trauma book will only be useful for
wounded biological creatures. Synthet-
ics being a futuristic technology that
does not yet exist will require imagina-
tion and a bit of improvisation if you
wish to describe the damage in any de-
tail. Loss of cooling fluids can lead to
overheating, just like blood loss can
lead to shock. Damage to components,
miniature motors, signal pathways and
the central energy sources may cause
degraded performance and functional
failure. Loss of sensors and damage to
processing units may impair cognitive
abilities, and so on.
 Vehicles
Vehicles
The combat rules as described can be
used for combat with vehicles and
spaceships. Both attacking or defending
while in a vehicle is covered by the Pilot
skill, and so if trying to evade incoming
fire it is an opposed roll using the Pilot
skill.
Consider that in the future most
vehicles are likely to run on automatic
or be piloted by an AI. Robots may also
be considered vehicles if they carry pas-
sengers and the line between synthetic
avatars and vehicles may be quite
blurred.
Vehicle Stats
Vehicles and robots can be assigned the
same stats as any avatar. The most im-
portant stat is the Body stat as this de-
termines how manoeuvrable it is and is
used for any Pilot rolls using that
vehicle. Additional bonus or penalty
dice may also apply based on how easy
the vehicle is to handle and other cir-
cumstances.
If the vehicle is AI controlled it will also
have a Mind attribute and it may also
make sense to describe its sensors as
senses and give it a strength in the case
of robots. Speed and fuel/power are
also relevant stats.
Chases
If moving at high speed it does not
make sense to track a conflict round-by-
round. Instead handle it as a chase with
Pilot roll challenges to avoid obstacles
and race, shake or follow another
vehicle. Consider terrain and weather,
but also the road conditions and other
traffic.
A chase is often against the clock to
reach a destination before a specific
time or another party. In such a race the
pilot must decide what risks to take, es-
pecially in an urban environment, and
the GM should introduce Pilot skill
challenges with appropriate difficulties
and interesting consequences for fail-
ure.
To make a chase more exciting make a
series of rolls for critical situations
along the route, but if you want to
move the action to the next scene
simply make a single roll and narrate
from that.
Ranged attacks from a fast moving
vehicle will also often suffer severe pen-
alties making it hard to hit targets.
Crashes
A vehicle can be damaged just like any
avatar, although most larger vehicles
72
 Vehicles
are damage class II, and even smaller The tables below are just suggestions
vehicles have some armour rating. for various speeds and can be used to
estimate the damage caused based on
It will be rare for a vehicle to explode, the vehicles size and speed. The tables
but receiving damage can easily knock are useful for quick lookup, but as can
it off course or send it swerving po- been seen the damage increases by one
tentially off the road or into a wall or step above 10 km/h and then every 20
another object. When appropriate to the km/h beyond that. Simply start from the
situation and damaged inflicted make a size of the vehicle with damage
Pilot roll to avoid crashing. Let the roll between I-1 for a tiny vehicle to I-5 for
and situation determine if the vehicle something like a truck and adjust for
crashes and the consequences. A mar- the speed and any other relevant cir-
ginal failure for example may simply cumstances.
cause the vehicle to slide sideways and
stop or swerve off the road but not ne- Crawl: Speed up to 10 km/h
cessarily crash. More serious failures
Vehicle Size Damage
may mean hitting something or
Tiny I-1
someone, or even for the vehicle to flip
Small (humanoid) I-2
over and go into a spin which could
Medium (small vehicle) I-3
cause serious damage to both the
Large (car) I-4
vehicle and the occupants. When it does
Huge (truck) I-5
crash into something the damage de-
pends on speed as outlined below un-
der collision damage. Slow: Speed 11 30 km/h
Vehicle Size Damage
Collision Damage
Tiny I-2
The following are guidelines on how to Small (humanoid) I-3
handle vehicles colliding. Medium (small vehicle) I-4
Large (car) I-5
If the collision is with a pedestrian or Huge (truck) II-1
object which is much lighter than the
vehicle then the damage inflicted to the
Moderate: Speed 31 50 km/h
vehicle will usually be superficial, but a
Pilot roll might be required to keep it Vehicle Size Damage
under control. Tiny I-3
Small (humanoid) I-4
When a vehicle collides the damage Medium (small vehicle) I-5
class of both the vehicle and the object it Large (car) II-1
crashes into, as well as velocity, determ- Huge (truck) II-2
ine the damage caused.

73
 Vehicles
Fast: Speed 51 70 km/h provides and speed and movement of
the vehicle. If the attack must penetrate
Vehicle Size Damage
the chassis of the vehicle or a window
Tiny I-4
then that works as an armour rating
Small (humanoid) I-5
(AR) to reduce the damage.
Medium (small vehicle) II-1
Large (car) II-2
Remote Controlled Vehicles
Huge (truck) II-3
If a vehicle is controlled by remote con-
High Velocity: Speed 71-90 km/h trol there is typically some delay and
sensor input is sent to the controller and
Vehicle Size Damage a command is sent back. This delay
Tiny I-5 might be negligible for short distances
Small (humanoid) II-1 and sophisticated interface technolo-
Medium (small vehicle) II-2 gies, but can be extreme if remote con-
Large (car) II-3
trolling a spaceship.
Huge (truck) II-4

For the person controlling the vehicle

In a head-on collision add the velocity
together for both vehicles, but one
vehicle may take more or less damage
depending on the difference in mass
between the vehicles.
Passenger Damage
Any passengers may take damage dur-
ing a collision. Use the vehicle damage
as the starting point, but adjust down
according to how much the passenger is
protected. It is suggested you do this
randomly to reflect the uncertain nature
of collisions. For example you can re-
duce the damage to a passenger by
1D6+1 if wearing a seatbelt, but only
1D4 if not wearing one.
Targeting Passengers
It is of course possible to target the
driver or passenger of a vehicle if they
are visible to the attacker. Such attacks
must be targeted and should receive a
penalty for the cover the vehicle
remotely to be able to do so the vehicle
needs to have sensors to allow the oper-
ator to see where the vehicle is going.
This is likely to be commonplace in a
sci-fi setting, but the type of sensors will
be very important to determine how
well they work in poor weather or at
night, and how aware the operator is of
the surroundings.
The Pilot roll for most remote con-
trolled vehicles should receive a -1D
penalty, unless the link is very fast and
high quality sensors feed directly to the
operator using VR technology.
The controller signal can of course be
jammed or hacked, and simply driving
underground may disrupt control. The
difficulty of jamming or hacking a con-
trol signal will depend entirely on the
technology used.

74
 Gaming In Space
Gaming In Space
This chapter mentions a few considera-
tions for any game set in space, whether
on a space habitat, spaceship or alien
world.
Fire
A fire can be a great threat in space and
pose a urgent and dramatic threat. Any-
thing that comes into contact with ex-
treme heat or flames can potentially
catch fire. Whether it does will depend
on the flammability of the material and
how hot the source is or fiercely the
flames burn. This is best left as a de-
cision for the GM based on what is
plausible.
In a vacuum there is no risk of fire as
there is no oxygen and venting the air
supply into space is a very effective
way to extinguish a fire, but may mean
a dramatic reduction in how long the
life support can keep the crew and pas-
sengers alive.
In the low gravity of a space habitat fire
tends to expand in a sphere surrounded
by a halo of smoke, but it also spreads
very slowly as oxygen is pushed away
from the fire by the gases expanded by
the heat. Simply shutting off air circula-
tion may be enough for such a fire to
die down.
75
Gravity
Once people are used to living in a cer-
tain gravity or even a zero-g environ-
ment moving around becomes second
nature and no special skill or roll is
needed. However, when going from
low to high gravity, or vice-versa, it
takes some time to adapt during which
the GM may require Athletics rolls to
move around effectively. If the differ-
ence in gravity is severe or the trans-
ition is very sudden a -1D penalty
might apply for a while to all physical
and social skills. Social skills because
such characters will appear like clumsy
and awkward teenagers as they mis-
judge how to coordinate their new en-
vironment. How long it takes to adapt
is up to the GM, but will generally be
faster if the characters have experienced
the transition before.
Note that biological avatars will need to
either have been engineered or receive
treatment for long term zero-g stays to
avoid deteriorating health.
Zero-G
Any environment which has no or min-
imal gravity is considered zero-g, such
as a space habitat, spaceship, asteroids
and very small moons.
 Gaming In Space
In zero-g everything is weightless and
so will float until some force such as a
push, atmospheric conditions or a mi-
cro gravity force causes it to move.
However, objects still have inertia de-
pending on their mass which means
that the greater the mass the more force
is required to give it acceleration and so
cause it to move.
Once something is moving in zero-g it
will continue forever in that direction
until another force counters the effect. A
force can be rockets, a push, collision
and so on.
Remember that many things behave
very differently in zero-g. For example
it is not possible to cry in space as the
tears can't flow and so moisture simply
accumulates on the eye. Liquids, such
as water or blood, scatter into clouds of
drops that go everywhere. Drink must
be sucked from sealed containers.
If performing complicated manoeuvres
in zero-g a badly failed roll may mean
crashing into an obstacle and spinning
out of control.
High Gravity
While there is no high gravity worlds in
the solar system, apart from the gas gi-
ants, there could be exoplanets with
such gravity or it could be the result of
a rapidly accelerating spaceship.
Moving around in high gravity takes a
lot of effort and so fatigue is quickly
gained. In addition to this, for every 0.2
g over 1 that a character is not ac-
climated to increase minimum and con-
stant fatigue by one. So from 1.2g to
1.4g a you would be constantly winded,
1.4g to 1.6g constantly exhausted (-1D)
and so on. Movement rates are also lim-
ited as for normal fatigue rules i.e. no
sprinting when exhausted and not even
running when drained.
Alien Worlds
Most planets and moons are not
friendly to life, and the void of space
even less so.
Temperatures are often extreme, ran-
ging from the burning hot inner worlds
of Venus and Mercury to the frigid
moons of the gas giants and asteroids in
the belt. Space suits can insulate against
cold and to some degree protect against
heat, but a suit malfunction or sabotage
can quickly leave you dead.
The gas giants have violent weather
and crushing pressures the deeper into
the atmosphere you go, and Jupiter
bathes its moons in deadly radiation.
Radiation from the sun is also a prob-
lem in space and requires careful
shielding of spacecrafts and habitats.
Most of the moons, with the notable ex-
ception of the moon Titan, do not have
an atmosphere, while the atmosphere
on all the planets, Titan included, are
toxic to unmodified terrestrial life. Acci-
dentally breathing such atmospheres
76
 Gaming In Space
can have a wide range of consequences, once it reaches class III only every day.
but is best modelled by immediate fa- Thus vehicles and larger structures can
tigue which increases every 1D6 rounds resist serious damage for longer.
until the character collapses dying.
Holding your breath will buy time, but Vacuum
the character will still asphyxiate.
If exposed to the vacuum of space an
experiences spacer will know to exhale,
Note that the atmosphere on Venus is
close their eyes and curl up. This makes
not only toxic, but also corrosive. This
it possible to survive as much as a
causes burns and damages equipment
minute in vacuum with no negative
and even vehicles. Start with superficial
consequences. Anyone else will likely
burn damage and then increase one rat-
damage their lungs and may temporar-
ing every round to reflect that while the
ily or permanently lose their eyesight.
corrosive effect does not go deep it af-
fects the whole body. Armour and
Regardless the cause of death for vacu-
clothing has little effect if not environ`-
um exposure is asphyxiation. Halve the
mentally sealed, but heavy clothing
normal times. If the victim did not ex-
may delay the effect.
hale or take a protective pose then re-
covering will take much longer and
Unless shielded vehicles and gear starts
may require medical care to avoid
with a burn damage I-1 after 1 minute,
death.
and increases one rating every minute
thereafter. It will also increase the dam-
Without insulated protective wear ex-
age class so that after 5 minutes it will
posure to vacuum also causes hypother-
be II-1, but once it reaches class II it
mia from extreme cold.
only increases in rating every hour, and

77
 Weaponry
Weaponry
This chapter provides some stats and
suggestions for you to base your Sci-Fi
Dice weapon arsenal upon. Consider
that many weapons of the future will be
likely be linked to neural or implanted
optical targeting software which helps
outline hostile targets and potentially
dangerous weapons using image recog-
nition and other clever sensors. Such
software will also be able to predict
movement and trajectories providing
bonuses to any attack.
Melee Weapons
A few potential weapons of the future
for close combat.
Baton
The clubs of the future, batons can re-
tract and be extended with a flick of the
wrist, push of a button or signal
through implants.
Cost: well off / known
Bottle
A commonly improvised weapon. It
can be wielded with the Melee skill, but
without a speciality, or thrown using
Athletics. It has a range of about 3 / 6 /
12 / 24 meters, but adjust for strength.
Cost: well off / known
Machete
Sharp cutting polymer machete with
78
blade that goes limp and flexible when
deactivated and can be rolled up and
concealed.
Cost: well off / known
Monofilament Whip
An extremely dangerous weapon, but
also very difficult to master and poten-
tially dangerous to the wielder. Attacks
are -2D and on an exceptional failure (or
fumble) the full severity of the attack is
inflicted on the wielder in a random loc-
ation.
The whip is not truly a single molecule
in width, but close enough to be able to
slice through flesh and other soft targets
with hardly any resistance. The material
is produced on an atomic scale making
it extremely strong, but although it can
potentially slice through even metal
there is always a risk it will break when
used against hard targets (including tar-
gets wearing armour with rating two or
more). If such a target is hit then it
breaks if any of the dice rolled ended
up as 1 or 2, and the damage inflicted is
reduced to DRI-3.
Cost: wealthy / advocate
Retractable Claws
Implants that allows the wearer to ex-
tend razor sharp claws either at the flick
of the wrist or through a neural link.
Cost: well off / known
 Weaponry
Shock Baton Firearms
The severity of the shock can be set for
most shock batons. This can be minor Pistols
shock, strong shock or severe shock. Pistols are easy to carry and quick to
Cost: well off / known draw, and easy to hide. Heavy pistols
Shock Gloves are larger with a smaller ammunition
Shock gloves produce a minor shock clip, but have better range and more
when activated when a target is penetration and stopping power.
punched or grabbed. Cost: well off / known
Cost: well off / known Submachine Guns
Vibroblade Larger than pistols they typically use
Vibroblades can be swords, knives, the same ammunition and have a wide
spears or axes where the blade vibrates selection of fire rates with larger clips.
at a high frequency. Cost: wealthy / advocate
Cost: well off / known Automatic Rifles
Melee Weapons DR PR Rifles use their own ammunition and
Baton DRI-3 - and must be held in both hands due to
Bottle DRI-2 - their size. They have much better range
Machete DRI-3 - when braced on some form of support.
Monofilament Whip DRI-5 2 Cost: wealthy / advocate
Retractable Claws DRI-3 -
Sniper Rifle
Shock Baton * -
Shock Gloves * - Sniper rifles are designed for use at
Vibroblade DRI-4 long distance and have great penetra-
Unarmed DRI-2 - tion and stopping power. However, if
used without being braced and sighted
* see description through the scope they receive a -1D
penalty and have much shorter range at
which they are likely to hit anything.
Kinetic Weapons
Cost: wealthy / advocate
This section deals with weapons that
Machine Gun
fire bullets and other projectiles. Each
A heavy support weapon that must be
weapon is listed with its rate of fire
mounted to achieve its potential. If not
modes as follows.
properly mounted the range at which it
will likely hit anything is dramatically
SS: Single Shot
reduced and it takes a -1D penalty on
SA: Semi-Automatic
top of that that is assuming the user is
BF: Burst Fire
strong enough to hold it while firing.
FA: Fully-Automatic

79
 Weaponry
Cost: wealthy / advocate
RailGun
Railguns uses an electromagnetic pro-
jectile to fire projectiles on conductive
rails at extreme velocities. Railguns
have exceptional range and penetration
and actually creates a shock and heat
wave upon impact that can disintegrate
and sometimes incinerate the target.
Only conductive railgun ammunition
designed to withstand the extreme ac-
celeration can be used, and the weapon
must be used in two hands. It also re-
quires a battery to power the rifle. A ba-
sic battery holds enough power for two
clips, but more advanced batteries
might be able to fire hundreds of shots
before having to be changed or re-
charged.
Machine Gun DRI-5 2 50
Modes SA, BF, FA Range 10/30/50/70*
Mounted Range 40/200/1000/2000
Railgun DRII-2 3 15
Modes SA, BF Range 10/45/75/105
Braced Range 20/150/750/1500
* Firing without brace (and scope for
sniper rifle) -1D
Ammunition
This sections explores a few variations
of ammunition. For simplicity it can be
assumed that ammunition is specific to
a type of weapon.
The suggested costs assume ammuni-
tion is legal and freely available. In hab-
itats and societies where supply is re-
stricted the cost may be higher.

With molecular manufacturing tech- Standard

niques it may be possible to produce Standard ammunition with the ratings
railgun pistols and machine guns. as listed in the kinetic guns table.
Cost: poor / unknown
Cost: rich / top dog
Armour Piercing
Designed to penetrate armour: PR+1
Kinetic Guns DR PR Ammo
Cost: well off / known
Light Pistol DRI-3 - 16
Modes SA, BF Range 10/20/40/60 Low Calibre Clip
Heavy Pistol DRI-4 1 8 Light calibre bullets reduce recoil by
Modes SA, BF Range 10/40/60/80 one penalty die and doubles the pos-
Submachine Gun DRI-4 - 20 sible clip size for twice the ammo capa-
Modes SA, BF, FA Range 10/30/50/70 city, but the damage rating is reduced
Automatic Rifle DRI-5 2 30 by one.
Modes SA, BF, FA Range 10/30/50/70 Cost: well off / known
Braced Range 20/100/500/900
Hollow-Point
Sniper Rifle DRI-5 3 12
Modes SA Range 10/30/50/70* Hollow-point bullets are designed to
Scope Range 180/400/1100/2300 deform and widen once they penetrate
a target, thus inflicting more damage. -1

80
 Weaponry
PR, but +1 DR
Cost: well off / known
Plastic Bullets
Plastic bullets are designed to cause
minimal damage for crowd control. -3
PR and -2 DR.
Cost: well off / known
Correcting Bullets
These projectiles can correct for wind
and other atmospheric conditions and
so reduce all range penalties by one.
Cost: well off / known
Guided Bullets
Guided bullets can steer through an at-
mosphere to stay on course to their tar-
get, but in vacuum or a thin atmosphere
are no different than standard ammuni-
tion. In an atmosphere they receive a
+1D bonus to the attack when fired, but
how this is achieved depends on the
method used.
Homing: Neural interface or
smartlink system is used to
home in on a locked target.
Laser: A laser is used to pin-
point the target.
Motion: Forward directed
sensors home in on any move-
ment.
Cost: wealthy/ advocate
Rocket Propelled Bullets
Rocket propelled bullets work like
guided bullets, but have rockets to help
them steer. This allows them to travel
for twice the normal range and allows
them to home in on a target even in va-
cuum and thin atmospheres. They are
also much more able to steer and so get
a +2D attack bonus. These bullets are
larger, however, and so the ammunition
the weapon can hold is halved.
Cost: wealthy/ advocate
Extended Magazine
Most ammunition types come in exten-
ded versions with double the number of
projectiles, but it makes the weapon
bulkier and so imposes a -1D penalty
unless the weapon is braced or moun-
ted, and makes it hard to conceal.
Cost: increase wealth class by one
Energy Weapons
Energy weapons uses a power source to
fire a electromagnetic beams of various
types to discourage, disable, blind or
kill the target.
Energy weapons are generally less ef-
fective against armour than kinetic
weapons. They often have a negative
PR rating which is then added to the ar-
mour rating of anyone wearing armour.
However, they do not require ammuni-
tion, have good range and may have a
broad field of fire. They do require a
power source, and this is usually in the
form of a standard or nuclear battery.
The listed number of shots is for a
standard battery, while a nuclear bat-
tery can fire ten times this or more.
Most energy weapons will be designed
for recharging, but with an option to ex-
81
 Weaponry
change the battery with a backup for
continued use in the field.
Cost (standard): poor / unknown
Cost (Nuclear): wealthy / advocate
Laser Beam
Lasers focus light to burn the target and
come as both pistols and rifles. Lasers
have double range in vacuum, but half
or less range in difficult weather condi-
tions involving mist, rain or even heavy
smoke or dust.
The actual beam is invisible to the hu-
man eye, but may be seen with en-
hanced vision.
Cost: well off / known
Dazzlers
These lasers are designed to blind and
disorient the target temporarily or per-
manently. Most dazzlers are designed
to blind temporarily, but some also
have settings that blind permanently
(may be illegal).
The dazzlers come as both handgunds
and rifles, with the main difference be-
ing their range. All dazzlers have a
wide spread which means an attack
only needs to hit the target to blind, al-
though on a marginal success the target
is only partly blinded and so takes -1D
for 1 + 1D12 rounds. On normal success
temporary blindness lasts 1 + 1D12
rounds, while on exceptional success it
lasts 12 + 1D12 rounds.
If set to permanently blind then on a
normal success the target is completely
82
blind for 12 + 1D12 rounds and then
partially blind (-1D) unless sight can be
restored through medical technology.
On an exceptional success the target does
not recover sight without treatment.
Dazzler rifles can typically be set to
wide fire to blind multiple opponents
grouped together. Anyone within
roughly a 30 degree arc is affected, but
this reduces the range to one tenth.
Dazzlers can be countered by closing
your eyes, but that of course leaves you
blind. Glasses or lenses can also be
worn that reduce the effect by one suc-
cess degree, or two degrees if the wear-
er is willing to accept a -1D penalty for
the reduced vision through such heavy
filtering.
Cost: well off / known
Microwave
Microwave weapons are designed to
heat the water in the skin to cause pain,
but can also be used to destroy electrical
equipment that is not sufficiently shiel-
ded. Thus they may be effective against
both biological and synthetic avatars.
The pain inflicted is -1D on a marginal
success, -2D on normal success and -3D
on exceptional success. The pain contin-
ues as long as the beam is firing and
then an additional 1D6 rounds.
It can be set to wide fire affecting every-
one grouped together in roughly a 30
degree arc, but this reduces range to
one tenth.
 Weaponry
Cost: wealthy / advocate fire in 2D6 rounds of frantic effort.
These times can be reduced if receiving
Plasma Rifle
help from others.
Plasma rifles have the greatest stopping
power of any beam weapon and is even Cost: rich / top dog
more deadly than most kinetic Stun Gun
weapons. It achieves this by heating
Stun guns zap the target with a power-
plasma to tens of thousands of degrees
ful electronic current shocking the tar-
and then firing a ball of plasma through
get with a severe shock.
a tunnel of vacuum created by a power-
ful laser. Cost: wealthy / advocate

The plasma weapon is very susceptible Beam Weapon DR PR Ammo

to atmospheric conditions and range is Laser Pistol DRI-3 -1 50
only a third in mist, rain, heavy smoke Modes SA Range 10/20/40/100
or dust, but has double range in vacu- Laser Rifle DRI-4 -1 100
um. Modes SA Range 20/100/200/300
Dazzler Pistol Blindeness 50
The plasma ball shines very brightly Modes SS Range 10/20/40/100
making it very visible. This radiation of Dazzler Rifle Blindeness 100
energy means that it quickly loses its Modes SS Range 20/100/300/600
punch at a distance and for each range Microwave Pistol Pain 50
interval beyond short range reduce the Modes SS Range 5/10/20/40
damage severity and its armour penet- Microwave Rifle Pain 100
ration rating by one. Modes SS Range 10/20/40/80
Plasma Rifle DRII-2 3 10
On an attack with exceptional success a Modes SS Range 10/20/40/100
flammable target also catches fire in an Stun Gun severe shock 200
oxygen atmosphere. Being on fire gives Modes SA Range 10/20/40/60
the victim +2 stress and causes the
wound severity to increase by one
every 1+1D6 rounds after the attack,
Firearm Accessories
and biological avatars are stunned for A few useful weapon accessories for
the duration due to the pain and horror. firearms.
Extinguishing the plasma fire is quite
Gyromount
hard and requires fire extinguishing
A stabilising harness to allow using the
equipment, vacuum, water or a fire
gun as if braced or mounted while car-
blanket and two rounds of effort.
ried. Wearing a gyromounted weapon
Without these a concentrated effort may
gives the carrier a dodge penalty of -1D
strip off burning clothes and put out the
for rifles and rail guns, and -2D for ma-

83
 Weaponry
chine guns. It also limits movement
speed to a run for rifles and rail guns,
and walk for machine gun.
Cost: wealthy / advocate
Scope
A wide range of scopes are possible.
Most will be able to zoom in on distant
targets and see detail. This may at the
GMs discretion double the range inter-
vals if the weapon is braced and there is
time to aim.
Scopes can also be used to transmit the
weapon's field-of-view to the user's
neural interface, smartlink or goggles.
This not only allows seeing around
corners or above cover, but also makes
it possible to see infrared at night and if
the weapon has a gamma ray emitter it
may even see through walls using x-ray
and other unusual wavelengths.
Cost: well off / known
Laser Sight
A laser sight paints the target with a red
dot making it easier to hit and so gives
a +1D bonus to the attack. However, it
also makes it a lot easier for enemies to
know when they are being targeted. In-
visible lasers in the infrared or ultravi-
olet spectrum can be used along with
enhanced vision or optics to allow the
user to see the laser.
Cost: well off / known
Biometric weapon lock
The gun is cued to the biometric profile
of the authorised avatar and will refuse
to fire if anyone else attempts to use it.
Many versions of varying sophistication
84
exist, and in especially brutal societies
the weapon might even self destruct po-
tentially killing the offender.
Cost: well off / known
Silencer
Sophisticated silencer can make most
guns silent, but generally halve the
range of each interval.
Cost: wealthy / advocate
Flash Suppressor
Reduces muzzle flash, but cannot elim-
inate it completely. Does nothing to re-
duce the glaring ball of plasma fired by
plasma guns.
Cost: wealthy / advocate
Neural Interface
Most weapons have some form of
smartlink that interfaces with the
wielder's goggles, contacts or neural im-
plants to outline targets, identify
threats, estimate distance and move-
ment speeds and other targeting data.
This makes it much easier to hit and so
gives a +1D bonus to attacks with such
weapons when linked (this stacks with
bonuses for guided bullets). It also al-
lows recording everything for later ana-
lysis or to transmit real time to remote
observes.
Cost: wealthy / advocate
Micro Launchers
Micro-missile launchers come in a
range of sizes, but all fire self-propelled
guided missiles. The guidance system is
typically a neural interface or other
smartlink system, but can also be based
 Weaponry
on laser guidance or homing in on Missile Range*
movement or other pre-programmed Armband Range 70/180/600/2000
criteria detectable by the missiles Pistol Range 150/300/1000/3000
senses. Rifle Range 300/1000/3000/10000
Armband Launcher * Missiles can usually not target any-
The smallest launcher holds only 3 tiny thing closer than about five meters.
micro-missiles, and can only fire a
single missile per round. Grenades
Cost: wealthy / advocate Grenades are typically thrown using
Handgun Launcher the Athletics skill.
The handheld launcher carries larger
missiles than the armband, but holds Grenade Thrown Range*
only 4 micro-missiles and can only fire Mini 4 / 8 / 16 / 32
a single missile per round. Standard 3 / 6 / 12 / 24
Cost: wealthy / advocate * Adjust for strength.

Rifle Launcher
Micro Missiles and Grenades
The rifle is a two handed weapon, but
can fire missiles in semi-automatic The following is a few different types of
mode and holds 8 micro-missiles. grenades and micro missiles. The tiny
micro-missiles of an armband have
Cost: wealthy / advocate
their damage and penetration rating re-
Underbarrel Launcher duced by two (never below zero), while
The underbarrel launcher is identical to handgun launchers and mini grenades
the rifle launcher, but designed to be have DR and PR reduced by one.
mounted on another rifle for a second- Concussion
ary fire mode. Concussion grenades and missiles cre-
Cost: wealthy / advocate ate a blast wave that slams into anyone
caught in its radius. In addition to the
Launcher Mode Ammo physical damage it can cause an Athlet-
Armband SS 3 ics roll must be made to avoid being
Pistol SS 4 knocked down. The difficulty is equal
Rifle SA 8 to twice the damage inflicted before any
Underbarrel SA 8 armour is taken into consideration.
Cost: wealthy / advocate
The range depends on the launcher as
shown here. EMP
EMP missiles and grenades disrupt

85
 Weaponry
electronics in a radius of 20 meters for Sanity roll they are incapacitated for
armband missiles, 50 meters for hand- 1D6 rounds with disorientation and
gun missiles and mini grenades and 100 possibly vomiting, after which they re-
meters for rifles and standard grenades. main stunned for the remainder of the
Shielded electronics are usually protec- scene.
ted from any negative effects, but if
close to the centre of the explosion the Additionally, anyone in the radius who
GM may still require a roll to see if the do not have anti-glare protective eye
shielding holds up. wear suffers a lingering -1D penalty for
Cost: wealthy / advocate 3+1D12 rounds.
Cost: wealthy / advocate
Frag
Frag grenades and micro-missiles are Plasma
anti-personnel weapons that disperse Plasma explosions do not create a shock
small projectiles or fragments when it wave, but the super hot plasma ejected
detonates. Treat as splinter explosions by the detonation burns everything in
and so roll twice for being hit by any the radius with extreme heat and may
fragments as per the explosion rules. set things on fire same as for a plasma
Cost: wealthy / advocate rifle.
Cost: rich / top dog
Smoke and Gas
Smoke and gas grenades and mi-
cro-missiles cover a large area with vis- Type DR PR
ion impairing gas or disabling or lethal Concussion DRI-4 3
gas. The actual area covered will de- EMP - -
pend on the size of missile/grenade Frag DRI-5 1
used as well as weather and other at- Smoke and Gas - -
mospheric conditions. Flash Bang - -
Cost: well off / known
Plasma DRII-1 3

Flash Bang
Flash-bang missiles and grenades aim
to stun anyone caught in the 10 meter
blast radius (5 meters for handgun
launchers and mini grenades, or 2
meters for armband launchers). Anyone
in this radius is stunned and must make
a Sanity roll. If they fail, they must im-
mediately leave the area of effect. If
they fail by more than 30+ above their
Armour
This section presents a few ideas for the
sort of armour you might use in your
Sci-Fi Dice game.
Lightweight Shield - ArI-2
A transparent shield that allows visibil-
ity even when the shield is raised to
protect the head, torso and arms. The
shield can be covered as a directional

86
 Weaponry
armour, but this usually means that no
action is possible beyond the shield. Al-
ternatively it can be used to parry in-
coming attacks as per normal melee
rules.
Cost: well off / known
Ballistic Helmet - ArI-2
Protects only the head, but has excellent
visibility and can be fitted with all sorts
of tactical systems and antenna for in-
creased broadcasting ranges.
Cost: well off / known
Kevlar Vest - ArI-1
Provides basic protection for the torso
without any movement impairment,
and can be discreetly worn underneath
clothing.
Cost: well off / known
Tactical Vest - ArI-2
Protects only the torso, but provides
good protection of this large vital area
without any movement impairment. It
is usually too bulky to be worn under
clothing, but can be fitted with pockets
and straps to allow carrying grenades,
water, protective masks and all sorts of
gadgets within easy reach.
Cost: well off / known
Reinforced Vest - ArI-3
Reinforced vests use plates to provide
extra protection, but are heavier and so
wearers will suffer from fatigue sooner
than those wearing lighter armour.
Cost: well off / known
Body Armour - ARI-2
Body armour completely protects the
entire body without affecting move-
ment, and can be hidden under cloth-
ing.
Cost: wealthy / advocate
Heavy Body Armour - ARI-3
Protects all locations, but is too bulky to
be hidden under clothing and imposes
a -1D penalty to most physical actions.
Typically also insulated against shock
attacks.
Cost: wealthy / advocate
Exoskeleton - ArII-2
A fully enclosed, powered exoskeleton
that provides exceptional protection to
all locations, including shock insulation
and is sealed against hostile environ-
ments and extreme temperatures. The
suit also enhances the wearers strength
to that of herculean. It increased move-
ment to 6 m/r (12 m/r jog or 24 m/r
sprint) and can sprint tirelessly at 30
km/h and jump twice as far as normal.
The exoskeleton is big and bulky and
may impose a penalty to actions in a
confined environment, and small-scale
fine grained actions such as picking a
lock, picking up a hair and so on will
suffer heavy penalties.
Cost: rich / top dog
87
 Upgrades
Upgrades
This chapter suggest some possible up-
grades and implants for your Sci-Fi
Dice games, but what is possible will
depend entirely on your setting.
Upgrades can be genetic modifications,
drugs, implants, grafts, cybernetics or
anything which improves an avatar.
Upgrades is to Sci-Fi Dice what paths
are to Fantasy Dice. It is the way the
player characters gain an advantage
and improve their chances of survival
in face of frequent adventure and hos-
tile challenges. However, unlike paths
upgrades are not exclusive to the player
characters and special VIPs. This means
that the players may face NPCs which
have the same or better upgrades, but
the players should have better means of
recovering from disaster than in
Fantasy Dice. Whether through medical
therapies, backups of their ego or emer-
gency support.
Genetic Upgrades
Genes can be edited, deleted, added
and modified to create a range of biolo-
gical avatars, not least animals uplifted
to human level consciousness. With suf-
ficient technology and the use of viruses
or other nanotech it may also be pos-
88
sible to update an existing avatar, but
this is a far more involved procedure.
The details are left to the GM based on
your setting.
This section simply suggest some of the
things you might be able to upgrade
and how that might work in Sci-Fi Dice.
Enchanced Senses
All five senses can of course be im-
proved upon. Eyesight that can see in a
much wider light spectrum, ears that
can hear a greater range of frequencies,
superior sense of smell and so on. Such
modifications in a sense make those so
enhanced more aware.
However, it is also possible to add en-
tirely new senses. Echolocation, inner
compass and the ability to see through
walls to some extent using x-ray vision
(the last may require an x-ray emitter to
make full use of). Such new senses open
up entirely new possibilities, such as
making it possible to shoot people
through walls or navigate with relative
ease in pitch black darkness. Try to ex-
plore how new abilities can be used and
how they may affect society and the set-
ting if they are widely available.
 Upgrades
Animal Splicing
Taking traits from animals and giving
them to humans is much easier than
trying to create a whole new trait. Con-
sider all the various traits and abilities
of animals and how they might be use-
ful to a humanoid. Some suggestions.
Carapace Armour ARI-2
Natural armour with flexible chitin
plates such as worn by crocodiles and
some insects. The result is a strong, yet
flexible armour, but obviously it does
impact appearance.
Chameleon Skin
The ability for the skin the mimic the
patterns and colours of its surroundings
to blend in. Such an ability may be
triggered by fear as well as controlled
consciously. More sophisticated up-
grades might even make it possible to
create any pattern or image the charac-
ter can think of for the ultimate body
decoration.
Fangs
Fangs for a deadly DRI-2 bite (pierce).
Claws
Claws, potentially retractable, DRI-2
slash.
Electric Charge
The ability to carry an electric charge to
give off a minor shock at will just like an
electric eel. Repeatedly using this ability
will likely be very fatiguing.
Gills
Allows breathing under water.
Gecko Pads
The ability to crawl on walls and ceil-
ings as long as moving carefully and al-
ways having at least three limbs touch-
ing. As longs as not wearing gloves and
shoes this gives a +3D bonus to climb-
ing.
Hibernation
The ability to sleep for extended peri-
ods with very little metabolic activity
and so survive without food and water,
as well as minimal oxygen, for long
periods of time is an excellent survival
traits for space travellers.
Gorilla Strength
Musculature that is naturally strong.
Poison Glands
An upgrade that goes well with fangs
or claws is the ability to produce pois-
ons that can be injected with a bite or
scratch.
Nightvision
The ability to see in low light condi-
tions.
Monkey Feet
Feet that can grab and hold is extremely
useful in zero-g and so gives a +1D bo-
nus to many such Athletics rolls and
also makes it possible to hold up to four
tools while free floating.
Monkey Tail
A useful extra tail that can hold objects
and gives a +1D bonus to climbing and
balance rolls when not covered by
clothing.
89
 Upgrades
Implants
Implants can range from cyber wear to
biological grafts, artificial organs and
nano engineered structures in the body.
Implants are not explored here as they
will depend on your setting and there
are a lot of very good resources for that
in various sci-fi settings, but the neural
interface is mentioned because of the
importance of the metacortex and a few
other examples provided.
Neural Interface
A computer-brain interface which al-
lows direct exchange of information
between a biological brain and digital
devices and computers. This means that
anyone with a neural interface is con-
stantly linked to all their enabled
devices, weapons and always online on
any available networks.
This has given rise to the metacortex as
an extension of awareness and self. An
extended ego which is able to act in par-
allel and perfect symbiosis with the in-
ner ego of the brain to create a higher
awareness of the digital world.
Metacortex
Any character with a neural interface is
able through their metacortex to access
networks and all linked devices, includ-
ing smartlinked weapons. As a part of
the ego the metacortex is always aware
90
of what the character wants to achieve
and why, and so is able to act inde-
pendently to retrieve data, send mes-
sages, control devices and much more.
See the character creation section on the
Metacortex for more.
Artificial Limb
Whether medical replacements, practic-
al tools or fashion statements artificial
limbs can be made strong (ARI-1) while
still looking like a real limb. It can also
be wielded like a club (DRI-3 crush).
Nerve System Booster
A rewired nervous system gives a +1D
bonus to reflex due to faster reaction
speeds. It may be possible to combine
this with drugs which also boosts reflex
for even greater bonuses, but this will
likely cause fatigue and may have other
side effects.
Nano Immune System
An implant which produces medical
nanobots may not only make the host
nearly immune to disease and viruses,
but could also greatly accelerate heal-
ing.
Skeleton Replacement
Replacing or coating the skeleton with
something more durable and fracture
resistant may make the character effect-
ively immune to fracture complications.
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