CONTENTS INTRODUCTION DESCRIBING YOUR CHARACTER Initial Point Allocation Primary Characteristics Secondary Characteristics SKILLS & TRAINING Learning Skills Using Skills Skills, Actions & Fatigue Experience & Advancement PARANORMAL POWERS COMBAT Combat Skills Making the Attack Defense Action Points in Combat Doing Damage CHARACTERISTIC ROLLS TIME & MEASUREMENT EQUIPMENT, COSTS & EXPENSES Appendix A: Skill List Appendix B: Skill Descriptions CREDITS

INTRODUCTION

In a roleplaying game players work together with a gamemaster to create a story. The gamemaster manages the world and the background characters which inhabit it. He lays out the plot, explains situations and determines the results of player actions. You play one of the central characters around which the story revolves. Your character is a unique individual who is part of the game world. The game has rules to help the gamemaster manage the interplay between the characters and their world, so that situations can be resolved in a consistent and logical manner, and so you have a specific measure of your character's limitations and abilities.

Oroborus is a roleplaying game of many possibilities. It is simple, concise and highly adaptable so that it can be used in any setting. The mechanics are flexible and easy to understand so that you need to know only a few rules to handle many situations. It is equally useful if you already have a campaign and are looking for clear, practical rules or if you are planning on developing an original campaign for almost any setting. Oroborus emphasizes character-based roleplaying and encourages players to create and play interesting and complete characters in any setting.

WHAT YOU NEED

The main ingredient in any roleplaying game is imagination, but we all come equipped with that from birth. The only other equipment you will need are pencil, paper and a few 10-sided dice. These are widely available -- they even sell them at some convenience stores. All rolls in Oroborus are resolved with this sort of dice, adding a random element of luck in some situations.

The basic mechanics of Oroborus are shared by several of our other games. Some of these games might be useful in combination with Oroborus, particularly our superhero game Challengers, our mythological game By the Gods and our fantasy game Ysgarth. Each game expands on one aspect of the basic rules with additional mechanics.

Example: Character Concept We're playing a campaign set in Texas during the Range Wars around 1880. My new character is Zwing Hunt. His parents were settlers from northern Germany who immigrated just after the Republic was annexed into the Union, fleeing the crackdown on intellectuals after the Students Revolt. Zwing was born in 1854 and grew up during the Civil War. Like a lot of Texas immigrants his father supported the Union, though the war had little impact in San Antonio. After the war, Zwing studied to be an accountant, and eventually got a job working as bookeeper on a big ranch west of San Antonio. Because he had to escort the payroll to and from the bank in Bandera, he made an extra effort to improve on the pistol skills he had learned as a child. In 1878 his employer was killed by Mexican bandits while running cattle in the upper Rio Grande valley. Zwing led the hunt for revenge and ended up spending some months in Nuevo Laredo. When he returned to San Antonio his reputation as a gunman had preceded him, and he began hiring out as a gunman to ranchers and businessmen. Zwing does not see himself as a criminal. While he may kill for hire, he is not a thief and doesn't kill women and children. He is merely somewhat hardened by his experiences and willing to kill when necessary, though he does retain a strong code of morality. Because of his choice of professions and his generally remote personality he has become gradually estranged from his parents. His relationships with women are usually brief, unsatisfying and paid for. (Note: this character will be used as the source of examples throughout the rules)

THE CHARACTER CONCEPT

In Oroborus you play a character like a character in a novel. The gamemaster provides a setting for your character to interact with and you determine the characters actions and responses to situations he finds himself in. You create the character and make him an interesting and complete person who fits in the world where he lives. The rules will help you describe him in game terms.

Before you begin to assign numbers and define your character mechanically, you should put together a clear personality with background, interests and motivations. Think about who your character is and what he does. Think about what he has achieved and what his goals are. Make a strong mental picture of him as a real person and then when you move on to the next sections you choose statistics and skills which fit your vision of the character. A well thought out character is more than just numbers. It is the heart of roleplaying. Once you have done the hard work of thinking up the character, the point allocation rules allow you to fit numerical values to your conception of the character's personality and abilities.

Knowing who you are and where you are from is one of the most important aspects of creating characters in a Oroborus campaign, consider the setting in which play will take place, particularly the nature of the culture and society and the position of the characters in that setting. Because Oroborus is designed to be used in many different settings you should work closely with your gamemaster to get the details you need.

Character Creation Quick Reference Primary Characteristics Divide 100 points between 8 basic characteristics No characteristic may have more than 24 or less than 1 point. Each of the two groups of 4 characteristics must have between 30 and 60 points assigned to it. Secondary Characteristics Size is 13 for males, 12 for females. You may raise or lower this as you choose. Calculate Action Points - AP = ((REA+CRE)/2) + DEX + AGI - SIZ Calculate Health Points - HP=25+CON+SIZ. Calculate Fatigue Points - FP = 2 x (CON + WIL). Learning Skills Pick a Nationality and Profession. Pick at least 3 Basic and 3 Advanced Skills from the lists for your Nationality and Profession. Assign 50 Basic Skill Points and 50 Advanced Skill Points to appropriate skills. Assign points equal to those assigned to each primary skill to secondary skills underneath it. No secondary skill may have more than half of those points assigned to it. Determine Skill Ratings with each skill. Aptitude + (Facility x Skill Level).

DESCRIBING YOUR CHARACTER

Your character begins as an idea, but in game terms his abilities are represented by hard numbers which are used to determine the results of his actions. In Oroborus almost all of the mechanics of defining what a character can and can't do are based on how the character is described by the player through a system of point allocation. You customize the numbers which represent the vision of the character which you have in your mind, expressing your idea of the character in the terms and measures of the game.

Initial Point Allocation

Nine characteristics define the basic capabilities of each character. In a normal human character they are on a scale from 1 to 24.

Characteristics are divided into three groups of three characteristics each, the Physical, Mental and Social characteristics They come into play in a number of ways, particularly in the application of skills.

Characteristics are described by point allocation. The more points you apply to a particular characteristic the better you are with it. You start with 120 points to distribute between nine Primary Characteristics. At least 20 points must be spent in each group of three, and no more than 60 points may be spent in any one group of three characteristics.

Quick Character Set-Up If you want to get your campaign started quickly, it is possible to speed up character creation substantially. Learning Skills: Before doing anything else, have players pick a nationality and profession for their characters. They then put a check mark on their character sheet next to three skills from each of those lists and two additional skills of their choice. Don't have the players spend any skill points yet. They may spend points on the skills they checked as they need them during the course of play. Also allow them to spend points during play on up to 2 skills which they didn't check in advance. Primary Characteristics: Players select characteristics based on their skills. For each time a characteristic appears in the Facility of a skill that has been checked, put a check next to that characteristic. After this is done for all of the pre-selected skills, assign 10 points to each characteristic. For each check mark it has give it 3 additional points. If there are any points left over, the player may spend them as he needs them during the course of play. Secondary Characteristics: Players should pick size, but don't have them calculate any of the other secondary characteristics until they need them during play. This system works best for novice players. If you are playing with some experienced players give them the option of not following all of these accelerated guidelines. This system will produce somewhat cruder characters than normal, but it will get you started playing much more quickly.

Primary Characteristics

Mental Characteristics

Charm (CHA): How attractive a character is to others. It includes elements like physical appearance, charisma, speed of wit, conversational ability, personal magnetism and natural potential as a leader. It is possible to have a high Charm without being particularly good looking in the traditional sense.

Reason (REA): Decision making and intellectual ability, intelligence, judgment and analytical skill. Important in many technical and academic skills.

Will (WIL): Srength of a character's will and resolve. It is also one of the factors figuring into psychic ability. Important in resisting coercion and other negative influences.

Creativity (CRE): Ability to come up with original ideas, unusual or intuitive solutions to problems or to be creative. It is essential for artists and for many other creative professions and pursuits.

Physical Characteristics

Constitution (CON): Health, vitality and resistence to physical adversity. Important in resistence to disease, damage and illness.

Strength (STR): Physical strength, ability to lift, carry, bend, push and inflict manual damage. It also includes some elements of endurance and ability to withstand damage. Generally the amount a character can lift without strain damage is STR3/20 lbs.

Dexterity (DEX): Manual manipulative ability. This includes opening things, turning them, hiding them and other aspects of manipulation and fine hand movement. To some degree it represents hand-eye coordination, and actions requiring accuracy and finesse, including aiming most missile weapons and hitting and defending in most forms of combat. To some degree it also represents speed of reaction.

Agility (AGI): Physical movement ability. This includes running, jumping, dodging and other aspects of movement . To some degree it also represents speed of reaction. Base movement speed is AGI in meters per Combat Round (6 seconds). Top running speed is generally two times this walking speed (as explained later). Jumping height is (AGI/SIZ) + 1 meter. Jumping distance is (AGI/SIZ) +3 yards. These movement values can be modified by skills. If additional AP are spent the rate of movement can be increased. The normal AP cost to walk is 10AP. If 20 are spent the movement rate is doubled, and if 30 are spent it is tripled, for full running movement. This is an exception to the normal AP rules.

Characteristics Compared Range Reason Will Creativity Charm 1-3 Idiotic Vegetative Plodding Repulsive 4-6 Foolish Docile Dull Annoying 7-10 Clueless Weak Uninspired Boring 11-14 Average Average Mediocre Inoccuous 15-18 Analytical Strong Clever Engaging 19-21 Insightful Obstinate Innovative Fascinating 22-24 Brilliant Steel Will Inspired Enthralling Range Strength Dexterity Agility Constitution 1-3 Feeble Spastic Crippled Feeble 4-6 Puny Palsied Lame Infirm 7-10 Weak Inept Clumsy Sickly 11-14 Average Average Average Average 15-18 Strong Adept Agile Healthy 19-21 Powerful Deft Speedy Glowing 22-24 Herculean Nimble Lightning Vibrant

Background Resources

Before you describe your character in terms of the mechanics you should get to know him in terms of the setting. You should pick a nationality and a profession and get as much of an idea as you can of where he comes from and who he is. To help with this, refer to the skill descriptions and the background material provided in the appendix. If you need more information don't hesitate to ask your gamemaster and even refer to outside source material.

Example: Point Allocation Charm: 13 (an okay guy, but not remarkable) Reason: 16 (he's not dumb, just unmotivated) Will: 8 (with a stronger will he'd be doing the books) Creativity: 7 (he's a killer accountant) Strength: 14 (he's small and wiry) Dexterity: 20 (good eyes, good hands, good aim) Agility: 14 (he's fairly lithe) Constution: 8 (Sort of unhealthy)

Numbers are used to describe the limits of your character's abilities to make it easier to determine the outcome of his actions. Nine characteristics define the basic capabilities of each character. In a normal human character they are on a scale from 1 to 24. Characteristics are broken down into two groups (Mental and Physical) of four characteristics. They come into play in a number of ways, particularly in the application of skills.

Characteristics are described by point allocation. The more points you apply to a particular characteristic the better you are with it. You start with 100 points to distribute between nine Primary Characteristics. These characteristics are divided into three groups of three. At least 30 points must be spent in each group, and no more than 60 points may be spent in any one group of three characteristics.

When allocating points to Primary Characteristics it is generally a good idea not to make them all identical or too close together. The variety of having some higher values and some lower values makes a more interesting and more playable character. If your character is appropriate to the setting and the power limits set by the gamemaster, it should be easy to fit the numerical characteristics to the character conception you have in mind. If you are familiar with the setting and situation before yoiu start developing your character, they will help you come up with a character well suited to his environment and make describing him through point allocation much easier.

Secondary Characteristics

These additional characteristics provide useful measures of character ability in some commonly used areas. They are determined independently or found from the nine basic characteristics and used directly in play mechanics. They can be applied in a number of circumstances and most can be modified through training and skills. In all cases when using the formulae given, round up.

Size (SIZ)

Body height and weight in abstract form. Average Height is: (Square Root of Size) x 50 cm. Average Weight would be: (Square Root of Size) x 20 kg. Variance is plus or minus 20%. Average human SIZ is 13 for men or 12 for women. Size may be increased or decreased at the choice of the player. It may not be lower than 8 or higher than 18 for normal humans.

Privilege (PRI)

This value is chosen by the player on a scale of 1 to 24. It represents background, education, social opportunities and where the character originates in the social strata of his society. Very important in determining awareness of etiquette, manners and proper behavior in various situations, as well as the level of education and general training which the character has achieved. Each point is equivalent to one year of school or similar practical experience. Based on circumstances in play the Gamemaster may increase or decrease the characterıs Privelege.

Fatigue Points (FP)

The capacity of a character to withstand fatigue from any of a number of sources and activities. They are lost at a rate based on specific activities explained later. As they run out a character loses Action Points and eventually drops from exhaustion. Fatigue can be regenerated fairly easily by rest or sleep. Rest restores FP at a rate of 1% per minute rested up to a total of 50% per day (rest is time in which no more than 1/10th of the characterıs total AP are spent each CR. Sleep regenerates FP at a rate of 12% per hour up to a total of 100% of total FP. During sleep no AP may be spent. The skill Endurance can be used to increase FP. They are equal to: FP= 2 x (CON + WIL).

Action Points (AP)

Action Points are a fund of points available each Combat Round which are spent to do any major actions (combat, movement, defense, skill use, etc.). Each action has a set cost in AP, and spending those AP will allow that activity to be maintained for one round. Extra AP can be thrown in to increase effectiveness, as is detailed in the sections on AP and combat. AP regenerate fully at the end of each CR, and some special manipulations are possible as will be explained later. The skill Rapid Reflexes can be used to increase AP. The formula for AP is: AP = ((REA+CRE)/2) + DEX + AGI - SIZ

Health Points (HP)

The amount of physical damage which a character can take. They are broken down by area in the section on combat and wounding, but there is a base which is used as overall HP for gross body damage and to break down for areas. HP regenerate at a rate of STR/5 points overall per day, and STR/20 points per area per day. The skill Damage Resistance can be used to increase HP. Average: 50. HP=25+CON+SIZ.

Skill Points (SP)

Your character starts with 50 Basic Skill Points and 50 Advanced Skill Points. These are used to purchase levels of skills. The more points you spend on a skill the better you are with it. Characters will usually gain more SP of both types during play.

Example: Secondary Characteristics Size: 12 (slightly below average) Health Points: 51 (almost exactly average) Fatigue: 44 (somewhat below average) Privelege: 15 (upper middle class) Action Points: 34 (above average - he's fairly fast) Movement: 14 (dead average) Age: 26 (fairly mature, but not ancient) Wealth: 480UX$ (for the setting this translates to $17.20)

Bonus Points (BP)

Bonus Points are a fund of points which can serve a variety of functions during play depending on the setting of the campaign and the origins of the character. In many cases BP may be used much like Skill Points, but will be reserved for special abilities. Alternatively they may function in a way parallel to Fatigue or Health Points but dedicated to a specific type of use. Characters may receive a specific number of Bonus Points designated by the gamemaster, or they may receive them as a result of certain characteristics or choices they make when creating the character. Unless otherwise indicated by the gamemaster starting characters have 0 BP.

Virtue (VIR)

This value may not be appropriate in all settings. It is chosen by the player on a scale of 1 to 24. It represents moral purity, religious fervor, faith and motivation regardless of faith or sect to which the character belongs. To some degree it also represents adherence to a specific moral or philosophical code. During play characters may be assigned additional pointsof Virtue by the Gamemaster.

Age and Aging (AGE)

Age is picked by the player. Most players create characters with ages in their early or mid 20s. But some players may want to have older or younger characters as dictated by their character conception. Age balances off the penalties of physical deterioration against the benefits of experience and training, usually through reductions of some characteristics and increases in other areas.

Character Wealth

The meaning of wealth varies greatly from setting to setting. Wealth can be anything from a manifestation of social status to a specific amount and type of property. To keep things simple, each character is assigned a value for wealth which can be used to determine what possessions he has. This value is measured in Universal Units of Exchange (UX$). All or most of this wealth should be spent on equipment before play starts. Initial wealth is equal to (PRI2 x 5)-500 UX$. Leftover wealth is usually converted to whatever the particular setting uses as a medium of exchange.

SKILLS & TRAINING

Oroborus is a skill based game, so skills are of paramount importance, working in combination with characteristics to determine what a character can do and how well he can do it.

Selecting Skills

The first thing to do in learning skills is to select which skills you want to learn. To a large extent this is determined by the character's background, within some simple limitations. Once you have determined who your character is and where he is from, you should pick and appropriate Nationality and Profession. Each of these has a skill list. The skills on those lists plus 3 more skills of your choice make up the selection of skills the character has available to learn at the start of the game. Your character does not have to learn all of these skills, but a diverse selection helps make a more playable character. To see the skills available, refer to the complete Skill List in the appendix. To see the skills available, refer to the complete Skill List in the appendix. For detailed descriptions of skills refer to the Skill Descriptions appendix.

What is a Skill Point

Skill Points represent time and effort spent learning specific things or gaining experience through activity and experimentation. One skill point corresponds to about 100 hours of study or other learning experience for the character. What this corresponds to in playing time may be highly variable and some characters may learn better or faster than others, depending on the situaiton they are in.

Types of Skill Points

There are two types of Skill Points. Basic Skill Points may only be spent on generally useful skills having to do with the background and professional training of the character. Advanced Skill Points may be spent on any skills, but they are the only points which may be spent on the most specialized skills (combat, magic, etc.). On the skill list Basic and Advanced Skills are marked with (B) or (A) after the primary skill.

Points gained later in play are referred to as Experience Skill Points and may be spent within a few restrictions to increase existing skills or acquire new skills.

Skill Points can also be gained by training outside of game time, where the character pays for specialized education in a particular area of skill.

All Skill Points are spent in the same way to purchase levels of skills. The more levels of a skill a character has the more effective he is with it.

NATIONALITIES (c1800) English: Bureaucracy, Diplomacy, Legal, Edged Weapons, Covert, Nautical, Politics, History. French: Movement, Gambling, Artistic, Applied Science, Crafts, Literary, Medical, Natural Science. German: Music, Crafts, Applied Science, Academic, Physical Science, Natural Science, Military, Any 1 Combat skill. Italian: Movement, Athletics, Gambling, Artistry, Academic, Geography, Stealth, Music, Social Science. Chinese and other Orientals: Stealth, Politics, Medicine, Farming, Unarmed Combat, Edged Weapons. American: Riding, Pistol, Athletics, Crafts, Applied Science, Sales, Politics, Unarmed Combat. Irish: Sports, Music, Literary, Social Science, Unarmed Combat, Persuasion. Scottish: Sports, Movement, Mathematics, Natural Science, Business, Medicine, Military, Firearms. Romany: Movement, Sports, Artistic, Languages, Performance, Persuasion. Arab: Riding, Movement, Applied Science, Stealth, Military, Edged Weapons. Russian: Riding, Dance, Music, Artistic, Applied Science, Politics, Any 1 Combat skill. PROFESSIONS Urban Lower Class (PRI 1-10): Crafts, Movement, Unarmed Combat, Stealth, Physical Conditioning. Rural Lower Class (PRI 1-14): Crafts, Agriculture or Nautical, Physical Conditioning, Natural Science, 1 Combat Skill. Urban Middle Class (PRI 11-18): Applied Science, Natural Science, Physical Science, Business, Legal, Politics, Artistic. Rural Gentry (PRI15-18): Applied Science, Agriculture, 2 Combat Skills, Military or Academic or Clerical, Artistic. Aristocracy/Upper Class (PRI19+): Sports, Artistic, Military or Nautical, 1 Combat Skill, Etiquette, Languages.

Skill Point Spending Guidelines

Your character starts with a list of available skills based on his choice of nationality and profession. This initial skill list includes all of the skills listed for his nationality and all those listed for his profession, plus three additional skills of your choice. You must spend your initial BSP and ASP on skills from these two lists. You must divide your ASP between at least 3 different skills and may not spend more than half of them on any 1 skill. You must divide your BSP between at least 3 different skills and may not spend more than half of them on any 1 skill. The lists for Nationality and Profession will vary depending on the setting. Profession may be equivalent to social class in some settings.

Example: Learning Skills Skill SL APT FAC SR Firearms 30 20 1 50 Pistol 15 1 65 Rifle 7 1 57 Fast Draw 6 1 56 Maintenance 2 1 52 Unarmed Combat 10 14 1 24 Boxing 5 1 29 Attack 3 1 32 Defense 2 1 31 Dodge 5 1 29 Mathematics 15 16 4 76 Accounting 8 4 108 Languages 10 14 5 64 European 5 5 89 German 2 5 99 English 3 5 104 Literacy 5 5 89 Gaming 5 16 5 36 Card Games 3 5 48 Gambling 2 5 44 Rustic 10 16 5 66 Hunting 2 5 76 Tracking 3 5 81 Riding 5 5 91

Learning Skills

Purchasing: You learn skills by spending Skill Points. Each Skill Point spent on a skill becomes one Skill Level. The more Skill Levels a character has with a skill the better he is at using it. There is no top limit to the number of skill levels which may be purchased, and as the character gains Experience in the course of the game he may add more SLs. Skills, levels and amounts spent should be kept track of. Once points are spent they are treated exactly the same way regardless of source.

Contribution: Skill Points are spent on Primary skills, each of which has a number of Secondary skills listed under it. Once you have spent points on a Primary skill you may then distribute an equal number of contributive points to the Secondary skills under it. You may not put more than half of these contributive points into any one Secondary skill. In some cases Secondary skills will have Tertiary skills under them. These get Contributive points from the skill above them in the hierarchy as well. Some secondary or tertiary skills may be listed under more than one primary skill. Such skills may get contribution from both primary skills which apply.

Experience: As Experience is gained and spent it must be evenly divided between Basic and Advanced skills. As an optional rule you may wish to limit Experience SP spending to no more than 10-Skill Level points at a time, with a bottom limit of 1 point. This provides a limited learning curve.

Learning Time: Learning skills takes time, so as a character gains SP he may spend them, but it should take about 1 game week per SP spent on skills. It is possible to unlearn skills to change the emphasis of training as well, but it takes one game month to switch a SP from one skill to another.

Using Skills

During the course of play characters will find themselves in situations where their knowledge and training will help them. That knowledge or training is represented in the skills which they have learned, and how competent they are with those skills determines the outcome of situations where those skills can be applied.

Determining Skill Rating

Your chance of success with a skill is determined by your Skill Rating. The higher it is, the better you are with the skill. It can be thought of as your percentage chance of success with simple tasks to which that skill applies, except when it is opposed or modified for more difficult circumstances.

Skill Rating is equal to Skill Level times Facility. Aptitude is added to this to find the final value. Your Skill Level is the total number of Skill Points you have spent on a skill. Facility is a value assigned to the skill to represent how easy it is to use. Each skill has a Facility listed on the skill list. Aptitude is a characteristic assigned to a skill to represent natural ability to perform that task. It functions as a straight numerical bonus added to Skill Rating.

When using a Secondary or Tertiary skill your total Skill Rating is based on the total of your Skill Levels with it and all the skills directly above it in the hierarchy. So if you had a 10 SL of a Primary skill, 5 SL with a Secondary skill under it and a 3 SL with a Tertiary skill under that, your total SL with the Tertiary skill would be 18, and your Skill Rating with that skill would be 18 times the Facility of that skill.

Skill Resolution 1D100 Result Level of Success Over Skill Rating Failure 0 Under Skill Rating Marginal Success 1 Under Skill Rating/2 Superior Success 2 Under Skill Rating/5 Exceptional Success 3 Under Skill Rating/10 Critical Success 4

Success with Skills

To determine success with a skill you roll 1D100 and try to roll as low as possible. Until you learn the pattern of results you can check this value against the table to the right. Failure means the skill just doesn't work. Marginal Success means minimum adequate results are produced. The skill works, but not well. Superior Success means the skill does what it is supposed to do. Exceptional Success means that the skill meets the users highest expectations. Critical Success indicates a superlative result, better than one could ever hope for.

Example: Using Skills While Zwing is between jobs he stops into the Golden Eagle Saloon to play some cards. He's played a number of hands and isn't doing terribly well His skill at cards is 48. An average, unskilled player would have a 30, but he's playing with players who are reasonably skilled, with ratings of 50-60. In the middle of the game, the one player who's doing worse than he is pulls a gun and holds the other players at gunpoint while a confederate gathers all the money. They then leave the saloon, mount waiting horses and ride out of town as fast as they can. Zwing and two other players go after them. They take a few shots with their pistols and miss as the thieves are riding away. Zwing has a 65 rating with Pistol, but because of the range and the moving targets the gamemaster assigns a difficulty of 3, requiring an Exceptional (LoS 3) result. He also has only 1 round to fire because the targets will be out of range after that. He spends 24 AP (3 times normal) to double his base Skill Rating to 130, but he still needs to roll a 33 or less to hit given the difficulty. He rolls a 35, so he has a near miss. Zwing mounts his horse and rides off after the two thieves. This uses the rest of his AP for that round. Because he is riding at high speed through a town, the GM requires a roll with a 1 difficulty. Zwing has a 91 in Riding, and makes it with ease by rolling a 75.

Adjustments for Difficulty

Some situations are more difficult than others. In such cases the gamemaster will assign a Difficulty level between 0 and 4 to the situation and success under those circumstances will require a higher Level of Success roll than normal. This is equivalent to subtracting the Difficulty from the Level of Success value the character rolls. So, if the character rolled a Superior (LoS 2) and had a Difficulty of 1, his result would be a Marginal (LoS 2-1=1). A 0 Difficulty represents optimal conditions and a 4 represents the worst possible conditions. For example, climbing a set of rough stairs cut into a cliff face might require a LoS of 1 for success, while climbing a smooth cliff face with only a few handholds might require a LoS of 3.

Comparative Skills

When the skill of one player is competing against the skill of another both players roll and the result is based on the relative Levels of Success of their rolls. If both achieve the same skill result (on the table above) they neutralize each other. If one achieves 1 step better than the other he gets a Marginal Success result. If he achieves two steps better than his opponent he gets a Superior Success result. If he beats his opponent by 3 steps he gets a critical Success. Thus, a Superior Success rolled against a Marginal Success would become a Marginal Success instead.

Skill Aptitude

A character's Aptitude is a bonus added to his Skill Rating based on an aptitude cahracteristic specified for that skill. Aptitude is added directly to the total Skill Rating of a character with any skill to which it applies.

In addition, characters may use Aptitude to increase Facility with selected skills. A character may add 1 to the Facility of up to 3 skills to which his highest characteristic applies, 1 to up to 2 skills to which his second highest characteristic applies and 1 to 1 skill to which his third highest characteristic applies. No more than 1 can be added to any skill. Skills with starting Facility of 2 or less cannot be increased this way. If two characteristics are of equal value the player can choose which order they rank in.

Action Points & Skill Use

Everything you do takes time. In game terms how long it takes to do something is represented as a cost in Action Points. Each character has a set number of AP and they regenerate every round. Every action has a cost in AP. When that cost is paid the action is completed. A character who has a large number of AP can complete a given action faster than a character with fewer AP.

AP Spent Result 1 x Cost 1 x Skill Rating 3 x Cost 2 x Skill Rating 6 x Cost 3 x Skill Rating 10 x Cost 4 x Skill Rating

There are three general types of actions, Continuous, Extended and Immediate. Continuous actions cost a certain set number of AP each round during which they are being executed and these points are spent as long as the action continues. Extended actions take place over a large period of time and have an AP cost which may be spent over any length of time at a variable rate determined by the character. Immediate actions have a single total AP cost and when it is paid the action has been completed, even if it takes more than 1 round to meet that cost, For example, walking is an continuous action, casting many spells would be an extended action and swinging a sword is an immediate action.

A character can take more time and try harder to make himself more effective with an action. This is represented by spending additional Action Points. If more AP are spent the character's Skill Rating or the magnitude of effectiveness goes up, but at a decreasing rate as indicated to the right.

Sample Action AP Cost Broadsword Attack 11 Create Mist Spell 150 Dodging 12 Longbow Attack 20 Picking a Lock 50 Riding 15 Walking 10 Wearing Chainmail 7

With continuous actions increased AP spending must be carried out within each round that increased results are desired. Immediate actions can be carried over from one round to another, but no more than one round worth of AP can be spent on an immediate action from the point at which it is initiated, and it cannot be paid for incrementally. Multiple actions can be carried on at the same time if the AP are available.

Many skills are considered Passive skills and you may not spend additional AP to increase effectiveness with them. Most knowledge and craft type skills are considered Passive skills.

Skills, Actions & Fatigue

Activity is, by its nature, tiring. When activities are undertaken they cost a set number of Fatigue Points (FP), either specially established, or based on the number of AP expended. In general, a character loses 1FP per 100AP expended. This means that an average character could carry on full action combat without resting for about 7 minutes. FP can be restored, as previously noted, usually by sleep or rest. In combat and other intensive actions AP and FP will be expended at a high rate. If Psychic abilities are used they may have additional costs in both AP and FP as indicated. Costs for most skills are given with the skill lists. Generally, when engaging in unspecified activity, FP should be expended at a rate of 2 per hour, even if one is more or less sedentary. In more active circumstances the 1 FP per 100 AP expended rule should apply.

Experience & Advancement

In addition to the starting fund of Skill Points which every character has they gain experience which translates into more Skill Points as they go through life. Additional SP can be gained either through training or through more a more immediate process of events and practice.

Experience from Play

In the course of play advancement in skill and experience is handled by the acquisition of additional Experience SP for the characters as a result of their experience during play. There is no hard and fast rule as to how many SP to give out during play, but it should depend primarily on the length of playing time and the quality of imagination, originality and personality development displayed by the particular character. The range should be about 2 ESP per hour, with the least realized characters getting 7 or so for a typical 5 hour session and the most realized getting as much as 12.

During the course of a game session players should make note of which skills they actually used during that session. This is usually best done by putting a check mark next to those skills on the character sheet. Once the adventure is over they may allocate the SP which they gained to any of those skills, broken up along the guidelines described in the skill section.

Experience from Training

Characters may also study or train to gain Training SP. This is usually done outside of game time, and again, it is at the discretion of the gamemaster. The function of this is to improve skills not used in the adventure setting, learn new skills, or to augment those which a character already has. In general, characters should not gain more experience SP through this method than they do through adventuring, though if they spend much time studying the amounts might be roughly equal, depending on the frequency of play.

The standard correspondence of SP to time is 20 hours to one SP. If you assume that game time runs 3 times as fast as real time and that characters spend no more than 20 hours a week in training, you can figure that they gain 3 SP every real-time week. If you run game-time faster than that or if a character has the leisure and will to spend more than 20 hours a week in study and practice, adjust SP gain appropriately. This works as a pretty good rule of thumb, though you may wish to place an absolute limit of no more than PRI/2 TSP gained between playing sessions. These SP should be accounted for by appropriate payment to trainers, teachers, schools and the like. This payment should generally amount to $100 - (3xPRI) per SP, adjusted for the economy of the setting.

When a character undertakes training he should devote his attention to that, and should be penalized if he gets involved in other activities or distracted to any significant extent. The player should also specify in advance what his character is studying or training in and it is on those things which the SP should be spent, divided appropriately according to the time spent on each skill.

Advancing in Skill

As a character gains more Skill Points from whatever source, they can be spent to improve skills which he already has or to learn new skills which he can find someone to teach him. The system of purchase for additional Skill Levels is exactly the same as for starting SL.

Additional Skills

While the skill list provided in these rules is extensive, it would be foolish to think that it represents all the possible skills. If a player wants his character to learn a skill which is not on the list, there's no reason why you can't add new skills.

When adding skills use the already existing skills as a guideline. Find the most similar skill in topic and difficulty to the new skill and use it as a basis as far as determining what characteristic it is based on, Facility, etc. Beyond that the GM should use his best judgment.

Don't create a new skill if the skill is already adequately covered by an existing skill or is just a more specific sub-set of an existing skill. You can allow a player to learn the existing skill instead with a note that he has specialized in a particular aspect of it.

PARANORMAL POWERS

Paranormal powers are a special sub-set of skills which are available in some settings and allow characters to do things which would not be within the ability of normal humans. Whether or not characters can have access to these abilities depends on the setting and the discretion of the gamemaster. In addition, how they are learnt and powered may also be setting-dependent. Ask your gamemaster or see the source material for the particular setting for detailed information. Some sample settings are explored in the appendices.

Paranormal skills can create substance out of nothing, direct natural and supernatural energies, and alter the very nature of the character. In many cases they require an expenditure of time and Fatigue Points when used. They are learned like skills and can be trained and improved in effectiveness like skills. Depending on the setting you may have to purchase paranormal powers with Bonus Points, though in some settings they may only require the use of Advanced Skill Points.

There are two basic types of Paranormal skills. Abilities cause things to happen and Affinities establish a relationship between the character and a particular element or substance. While abilities can be used on their own, they are most effective when combined with Affinities.

When starting out a character should learn at least one Affinity and a variety of Abilities.

Using Paranormal Powers

Using a Paranormal Power costs the character Action Points and Fatigue Points based on the Power Level of what he is doing. Once a character has selected his Paranormal skills, the key thing to using them is determining specific applications of those skills so that a cost can be assigned to those applications. It is a good idea for players to determine a selection of specific applications of Paranormal skills in advance so that these calculations are less necessary during play.

If you learn a Paranormal Skill, what you can do with it is highly variable depending on the amount of power you want to put into it and how you choose to structure the effects.

Each use of a Paranormal power is judged according to four criteria, Magnitude, Targeting, Range and Duration. (MTRD). Not all uses of Paranormal Power will require that each of these characteristics be used. These elements and their effects are described below.

Magnitude (M): This indicates the amount of raw power put into an effect to overcome resistence or generate damage. Each 1 added to Magnitude can add 1 to base damage, or 3 points of AP damage, or 5 points of FP damage, or 5 points of Movement Speed, or 1 point of damage reduction for duration, or 3 points of one time damage absorption (or parallel amounts for other forms of damage). If several effects are desired the points spent are cumulative prior to multiplication for the final value. Damage can also be considered equivalent to speed or force, with each point of damage roughly equal to 5mph of speed. Where doing damage is not the primary objective, Magnitude is used to overcome the inherent resistence of the target. The scale of Power Ratings is: Mineral (1), Vegetable (2), Animal (3), Human (4), Lesser Spirit/Demigod (5), Greater Spirit/Deity (6). The indicated Power Level will give that type of target a resistance roll equal to the appropriate characteristic times 5. Each time the Power level is spent again it can reduce that multiplier by 1. So to give a human target no resistance at all to the effect would be a Power level of 20 (5x4). Resistance is generally used for things like summoning or controlling particular targets.

Targeting (T): Targeting determines who or what area is effected by the power being used. Targeting can apply to individual targets specifically aimed at or aiming at a defined area or volume to be effected. Each individual target which the power is specifically intended to effect after the first, or for each additional target/object manipulated or created adds 1 to the rating for Targeting. If the target is a 3-dimensional area or volume, add 1 point to Power rating per 5 Cubic Meters. When the target of the effect is a single being of larger than man=size volume, volumes up to 2 Cubic Meters are free, but for anything larger than 2 Cubic Meters the volume must be paid for. If the target is a physical area, add 1 point of Power per 3 Meters radius. If target is best measured by mass, add 1 point of Power per 50 Kilograms

Range (R): Power Rating is increased for each increment of range from the target to the center or locus of the effect. The increments are 1 Meter (1), 10M (2), 100M (3), 1000M (4), 10,000M, 100,000M (5). Each additional 100,000M adds 1 to Power Rating. No additional points are required for a power which only works on the character himself. This classification also covers temporal range (backwards or forwards in time) at the same rate as the incremental scale given under Time. If range is circular, the distance figured from is the diameter of the circle.

Duration (D): 1 Power rating per increment of duration. Increments are Immediate/1 Combat Round (1), 1 Minute (2), 10 Minutes (3), 1 Hour (4), each additional Hour is 1 more Power Level.

Example: Using Paranormal Skills Zwing Hunt isn't exactly a mystical guy so he'd make a poor selection for this section. However, he occasionally plays cards with an old Kiowa named called Ghost Walker Jim (Thakehineha). Among his skills, Thakehineha knows 18 SL of Manipulation and 12 SL of Earth Affinity. His top secondary skills are Manipulation/Become at 81% and Earth/Beasts/Cougar at 63%. This means that if he rolls within his Becomer percentage he can take the form of a Cougar, assuming he takes the time and pays the cost. For this particular use of paranormal skills the Power Rating would be 8 (4 for Human Resistence plus 4 for a Duration of 1 Hour). This would mean an AP cost of 1152 (12x12x8) and a FP cost of 24 (1152/50). This means that with his 35 AP it would take Thakehineha a little over 3 minutes to complete the transformation to a cougar. However, depending on his Affinity roll his costs may be increased. Unless he has a cougar to work with, he is going to be on the Remote affinity table, so only a very, very good roll will let him off without an additional increase in time and fatigue. An average roll is likely to give him only a marginal success and a doubled set of costs. Of course, as a true professional, he probably carries some cougar teeth with him, which raises his affinity to Indirect instead of Remote, reducing any cost increases by a quarter. So, assuming he rolls a 35 on his Ability and a 45 on his Affinity, after concentrating and doing appropriate rituals for about 5 minutes, Thakehineha becomes a cougar for the next hour.

Rating Powers

When a specific application of a Paranormal Power is designed, it is given a Power Level based on attributes as explained above. The character can adjust the level of each of these to determine what the exact effects are. The Power rating of any specific application of a Paranormal Power is equal to the values for MTRD added together, but not all applications of a power are required to use all of those elements, based on the best judgment of the gamemaster, and some of those elements may have a 0 value, which you ignore in your calculations.

Action & Fatigue Point Cost

The Power Level of a particular application of Paranormal Power combined with the AP Modifier of the skill used determines the cost to use it in Action Points and Fatigue Points.

With an active power the Action Point Cost of a given Paranormal Power application is equal to the Action Point Modifier of the Affinity used plus the Action Point Modifier of the Paranormal Power used, all multiplied by the Power Level of that particular use. ((APM+APM)xPL) This cost may increase if a poor roll is made on the Affinity skill. The Fatigue Point Cost is APC/50. As with other skills, the player must roll successfully to use the skill for it to produce a result. Additional AP can be spent to increase SR with a Paranormal skill under the standard rules for increasing SR with immediate use skills. In some settings there may be an additional cost, based on the Power Rating or other factors, paid in Bonus points or some other value.

These standard AP and FP costs are set for a very low power level campaign. In higher power campaigns the AP and FP costs may need to be adjusted. Usually the best way to do this is by establishing a universal divisor for AP, perhaps dividing AP by 2 for a medium power level campaign and dividing it by as much as 5 for a high power campaign.

Using Paranormal Powers

When you use a Paranormal power, you roll for results against both your Ability skill and your Affinity skill on the standard skill table, but the possible results can be rather special.

If you do badly on the roll for your Ability skill all sorts of things can go wrong with the power. If you do badly on your Affinity roll the power can be substantially weakened.

Success with Ability Skills

Ability skills are rolled on the normal skill table. Different degrees of success produce different results.

Failure means the effect doesn't work at all. A Marginal result causes the Ability skill used to be altered to one of the other skills at the same level in the hierarchy and under the same primary skill. With a Marginal result the target picks which skill it is changed to. The level of power remains the same and the gamemaster resolves any problems with interpreting the results. With a Superior or better result the effect works as intended.

Using Affinity Skills

Affinities are essential to the effective use of Paranormal powers. Affinities establish a relationship between the character and his environment and make it easier for him to effect certain substances or make it easier for him to use his abilities when their use is associated with appropriate substances.

There are three degrees of affinity. Direct Affinity means the use of the ability targets or directly manipulates the subject of the affinity. Indirect Affinity means the affinity subject is present and directly involved in the use of the power, but is not the target. Remote Affinity means that the affinity subject is invoked or in other ways explained to in the use of the ability.

When you use an Affinity you roll against the Affinity skill and the result of your roll determines a reduction in the Power Level of that use, limited to no more than half off the starting PL.

Roll Power Available Over SR None Under SR 0/-1/-2 Under SR/2 -1/-2/-4 Under SR/5 -2/-4/-8 Under SR/10 -4/-8/-16

The first value is the adjustment to Power cost with a Direct Affinity, the second is with an Indirect Affinity and the third is with a Remote Affinity.

The APC and FPC are determined based on the new, adjusted PL.

You may not voluntarily spend additional AP to increase your effectiveness with an Affinity.

Innate Powers

It is possible for a character to have powers which are entirely internalized, always in effect and do not require any conscious thought or activation. These Innate powers are purchased differently from regular powers and are not dependent on the use of skills.

Innate powers are generally manifested physically as changes in physical form or characteristics. Among the most common uses is in giving the character additional limbs, natural armor or the ability to fly. Their Range is limited to the character himself. Their Duration is unlimited. Damage and Magnitude levels are variable. They can neither be turned on or off, and what specific effects and affinities are logical as innate powers is up to the discretion of the gamemaster.

Each innate power has a set cost which is paid in Action Points, Fatigue Points and Skill Points. This is based on the Power level and the skills which would be used if it were being done as a regular skill. This cost is equal to the APM of the Ability times the APM of the Affinity times the Power level, all divided by 10. This cost can be paid as a permanent loss of Action Points, Fatigue Points or Skill Points. These points are lost at different rates. AP are traded at 1 for 1. It takes 2 FP for each point of innate power cost. It takes 3 Advanced Skill Point for each point of an innate power. An innate power can be paid for in any combination of these points, but at least one point of its cost must be paid in each type of point. These costs are a reduction of the character's total ratings for the points they are paid out of and do not regenerate.

For example, an innate power with a cost of 10 could cost 1 AP, 2 FP and 8 ASP, or it could cost 8 AP, 2FP and 3 ASP. The best approach depends largely on the nature of the character.

Externalized Powers

While many characters may wish their powers to be inherent in themselves, some may wish for them to be in the form of external devices or mechanical aids. This is the result of the character's psyche becoming fixated on an object as the focus to his understanding of himself. This makes him more vulnerable and less versatile in the use of his powers.

In many cases, this may result in a reduction in cost on that item. Depending on the nature of the item in question there is a percentage reduction of the cost of the powers available through it. Most powers require FP to work, and in the case of most tools they must have a Power Source built into them to provide this, or else be linked to the character with the Mechanical Interface power, thereby using his FP. Those powered independently should be given a 'Power Source' type power as part of their makeup and run off of the Energy Points which it generates. There are three basic types of mechanical aids, Objects, Vehicles and Garments. In all of these cases some GM discretion is involved, and all reductions should be adjusted for the specific case.

Objects: These are items which are carried or are wielded, can be set down, and are in no way attached to the user. They may take any powers, with a basic cost reduction of 33% (30-36% range). If the item is smaller than 8in square and less than 4lbs, the reduction is only 30% as it is easily hidden. If the item is, for some reason unusually easy to lose or

damage reduction could go up to 36%. Other factors to consider might be if it is usable only by the owner (up to 3% less off) or unusually noticeable or conspicuous (up to 3% more off). Cost reduction should never be more than 36%.

Vehicles: Vehicles can be given powers. As with all items, these powers are in addition to any natural characteristics. Vehicle cost reductions range from 24 to 30%, averaging 27%. The same principles as above operate, depending on the characteristics of the vehicle. Generally, each person worth of occupancy should reduce reduction percentage by 1%, and some of the other cases given above should apply.

Garments: This class usually means armor, though it may mean other things as well. In this case, all of the characteristics of the item are determined by the powers, including the armor protection, and it should be treated separately from normal, bought armor. Cost reductions should range from 18-24%, averaging around 21%, with such factors as comfort and concealability counting (3% less off if it looks like normal clothing.

In addition, logical benefits can be added where power and function meet, perhaps 3-6%. This would be in cases of hand held missile weapons which fire elemental attacks, armor, absorption or deflection for a garment, flight or speed movement for a vehicle, etc.

In general, GM discretion is the key here. Putting powers into an item means that it and they can be destroyed or removed, or fall into the hands of an enemy. This should be weighed against the reductions. It should be fairly easy to work reductions and custom designs out with players doing most of the work and GMs approving or modifying designs. One additional aspect of this is the application of skills. If the character has appropriate mechanical and technical skills for the powers and object involved, he should receive reductions to fit. Generally, such reductions should come to no more than 15%, about 1% per 10% on the application roll for the major appropriate skill. Good examples would be things like woodworking or metallurgy, but ultimately what fits is up to the GM.

Special Flaws

In some cases a character may want to acquire what is essentially the opposite of a power, a special weakness or flaw which functions like a power, but only in a negative way. For example, instead of a Protection Ability which prevented damage he might have a Vulnerability which caused him to take additional damage. Theoretically each Ability has a parallell Liability. Levels of a Liability do not count in any way towards levels of the corresponding Ability, and a character cannot have both an Ability and its Liability. The value of a Flaw is determined by multiplying together the APMs of the appropriate Affinity and Ability and multiplying this by the Power level of the Flaw. In doing this, the APMs are modified based on the level in the power heirarchy they fall. Primary powers are not divided. Secondary power APMs are divided by 2. Tertiary power APMs are divided by 3. After the modified APMs are multiplied together, that value is divided by 20 to determine the number of BP the character gains for having that Flaw. For Time of Effect, Power values should be subtracted from 6 and the result should be used in determining Power Level. Flaws have no purchase cost associated with them and are always considered innate abilities. The gamemaster may wish to limit the use of this option depending on the campaign.

COMBAT

Combat uses the same basic skill system. Characters purchase attack and defense skills with specific weapons or techniques, and the SRs with these skills are compared to determine the results of attacks.

Combat Skills

Combat skills are broken down to the level of Tertiary skills more often than other skills. The Primary skills for combat are generally broad weapon groups (Blade Weapons, Bow Weapons, etc.). The Secondary skills beneath those are specific weapons (Shortsword, Broadsword, etc.). The Tertiary skills under each weapon are Attack, Parry and Disarm (plus possibly Entangle and Unbalance, depending on the weapon).

Attack & Defense

Combat basically comes down to a test of skill against skill. This is much like the use of other skills, but the possible results are far more likely to be deadly, so ability and strategy on both sides needs to be taken into careful account.

Combat Results Skill Result Attack Effect Failure Miss Marginal Targeted by Defender to any location Superior Targeted by Attacker to Chest or Leg Exceptional Targeted by Attacker to Chest, Leg, Abdomen or Arm Critical Targeted by Attacker to any location

Making the Attack

When making an attack, Attacker rolls against his attack skill and the Defender rolls against his defensive skill (if any). The results are compared. The effectiveness of the Attack is modified appropriately for the effectiveness of the defense as outlined in the general skill system for any comparative skill.

Possible results for different levels of success with an attack are listed here. In all cases when there is a choice to be made (between two possible results or choice of location) it is made by the defending player. This is a mechanism to simulate general strategy, not a conscious decision by the defending character to redirect damage.

The targeting result indicated means that player gets to choose from the available locations to determine where the blow actually lands. This means that attacks can essentially be aimed, with the accuracy of the aiming and the desirability of the target determined by the relative skill of attacker and defender.

Multiple Attacks and Defenses

Whenever the character has the AP to spend on a blow the same process can be repeated, while at the same time his opponent makes his attacks in the same way.

Defense

Once an attack has been declared the target may roll against it to defend himself. If he uses the skill Dodge he pays 12 AP to use it for that entire round and may roll against any attacks which come his way, but the Facility of Dodge is very low. If he has the skill to Parry with his weapon or a shield he may use that as well, rolling against individual attacks, but every time he rolls he pays the AP cost for that Weapon and those AP are no longer available to spend on other actions that round. So if a character had 32 AP and a weapon which costs 10 AP to Parry and was being attacked 3 times, he might attempt to parry all three blows, but would have no points left over for any other actions. Or if he also had Dodge he might use Dodge against all three blows, Parry the one which he thought would be most deadly, and have 10 points left over to make an attack.

Action Points in Combat

All attack and defense skills are considered to be immediate actions, except for Dodge which is treated as a continuous action. Each time the AP cost of a combat action is spent that action may be repeated until the character runs out of AP for that round. In addition to being able to increase SR with a combat skill, additional AP spending can also be used to increase the damage of an attack skill. Paying the AP cost of an attack counts towards both SR and damage, but from that point they must be spent on separately if the character wishes to increase them.

Weapon Damage Modifier & AP Cost Weapons WDM AP Cost Battle Axe 5 11 Broad Sword 6 10 Crossbow S 12 Dagger 8 8 Glaive 4 12 Halberd 3 13 Javelin 6 10 Longbow 6 15 Nightstick 7 9 Pistol S 8 Rifle S 10 Shield 6 12 Short Sword 7 9 Spear 6 10

AP and the Attack

Each time the AP cost for a weapon is spent, one attack can be made. These AP are subtracted from the character's total for that CR when the attack is made, and he may make additional attacks, in sequence, if he has more AP. AP are also spent for defense, but defensive AP are subtracted from the total for the round before any other calculations are made.

Attack Skill Rating, Defense Skill Rating or Damage Class can be raised by a method similar to that used for other skills. The basic value of Attack Skill Rating, Defense Skill Rating or Damage Class costs one times the APC. for that skill Spending for Attack Skill Rating includes the cost of Damage Class for the first increment. After that it must be spent for separately. With any of these skills the second time the APC is spent it adds 50% to the SR. The third spending adds another 50% to SR. To double Attack Skill Rating, Defense Skill Rating or Damage Class costs APCx3, but Damage Class, Defense Skill Rating and Attack Skill Rating must each be spent for separately if they are all to be raised. No stat can be more than doubled by spending AP. Increases can be combined to increase more than one of these stats. Remember the Damage Class is a special case. Potentially a character may spend up to 5 times the APC of hand attack skills. Up to 2 of the additional 4 increments can be used to increase Damage Class and up to 2 additional increments can be used to increase SR. Damage Class increases by 50% per increment just like SR, and can never be increased more than 100%.

Simplified AP Use For some games the detail possible in the AP system may exceed what you really need. It is very easy to simplify the AP system into a functional, stripped-down alternative. Simply take the character's AP and divide by 10, rounding up. This is the number of actions that character may make in a combat round. The typical character will have 3 or 4 actions in a round. Using a weapon, dodging, taking cover, parrying or almost any other immediate action counts as one action. If a player wants to improve effectiveness with a skill he may spend more than one action on it. 2 actions increases Skill Rating by half. 3 actions doubles Skill Rating. No more than 3 actions may be spent on any action and actions cannot be carried over from one round to another. If you wish to simplify even more you can restrict characters to spending no more than one action per skill use. This system produces similar results to the normal AP system, and can even be used in conjunction with the normal system, either by letting players use the method of their choice, or by using the simple system as the default and resorting to the more detailed system when it seems more appropriate.

AP and Defense

There are two basic types of defensive skills, those which are continuous and those which are used in specific response to an attack The best examples of these are the Dodge skill and the Parry skill. The Dodge skill allows you to roll for defense against any attacks you face in a round and is paid for once in that round. The Parry skill allows you to roll against any attacks as long as you can afford to pay the AP cost of parrying for each attack you choose to parry. Dodge AP cost is paid off of your total for the round at the start of the round. Parry AP cost is paid as needed during the round.

Sequence of Actions

In some situations the sequence of actions can be very important. Different characters have different numbers of AP, but all spend their AP in the same space of time. Those who have more AP to spend generally act faster than those with less. AP should be compared in important combat to determine who can act first. The lower number should be subtracted from the higher and the difference should be split so that the character with the higher AP can spend half the difference before the other character can begin to act, and half after he has finished his actions for that round.

Borrowing AP

AP can also be borrowed from rounds which are yet to come, or stored up from a previous round. Up to half the AP from the next immediate round can be borrowed, but in that next round, double that number of AP must be paid for that borrowing. AP stored up from the previous round, a period of concentration and perhaps aiming carry over at half value, AP from the round before that carry over at a quarter value, and AP from the round before that carry over at eighth value. Older AP do not carry over.

Keeping Track of AP in Play

In general, AP should be kept track of in a functional way, but should not be monitored obsessively. Characters should work out some standard combat tactics and the AP patterns they form. In general, play it fast and loose in the vast majority of situations. More specific use of AP should be reserved for key moments, such as character duels.

Doing Damage

When a weapon hits the target usually takes damage. This damage can take a number of forms, including physical damage, stun damage and other long and short term effects of wounds.

Example: Doing Damage Zwing pursues the two thieves out of Bandera until they split up just north of town. He takes a guess and continues after the one who picked up the money while two other riders pursue his confederate. Once he gets close enough to the thief he takes careful aim and fires at him with his pistol This requires a Riding roll at difficulty 2, and a Pistol roll at difficulty 2. Zwing spends 20 AP on riding to make sure he holds his seat. He also borrows 2 AP from the next round so that he can spend 16 AP on firing his Pistol to increase his chance to hit. This gives him a 136 with Riding, but he needs to roll a Superior to succeed. He has a 65 with Pistol, but the higher difficulty will make it harder to hit. He rolls a 44 on Riding and makes it with ease. He then rolls a 32 on Pistol, barely hitting the target. The target does not make a defensive roll on Dodge because he is concentrating all his AP on riding away as fast as he can. Zwing aimed for the Chest and because his result is a marginal, the gamemaster redirects the shot to the thief's left arm. Zwing's player rolls 2D10. The lower die is a 4. This is multiplied by 7 for his pistol (Colt Lightning .44), so he does 28 points of damage to the target's arm. The target only has 12 HP in his arm, so 28 points leaves the arm broken and incapacitated. Having hit his target in the Arm and having wounded him pretty seriously, Zwing continues to ride after him. As they ride down into a gully the thief's wounded arm makes it hard for him to control his horse and he is thrown. In this case the gamemaster made a Riding roll for the thief with a difficulty of 3 for the terrain and his wound, and even with 94 Riding and spending all his AP to double his Riding, he needed to roll a 47 or less to succeed. Zwing remains mounted and fires on the thief, who is diving for cover. Zwing must spend 10 AP to control his horse, but spends all the rest of his AP on a single shot with no modifier for difficulty. This gives him a Skill Rating of 130. He rolls a 28 which gives him a Superior result. His target rolls a defensive roll based on the Cover skill because he is attempting to take cover behind some rocks. He only has a 25, but manages to roll a 17. This gives a marginal result which reduces Zwing's Superior to a Marginal as well. Zwing again aimed for the chest, and in this case the gamemaster redirects the hit to the Abdomen. Zwing rolls a 5 on the lower of 2D10, resulting in 35 damage. The thief has only 15 HP in the Abdomen, and at 2 times that amount he must roll to remain conscious and has taken a mortal wound which will kill him in CON/2 minutes. When he fails his WILx3% roll to remain conscious the combat is essentially over. Having gut-shot the thief, Zwing searches his unconscious body and leaves him to bleed to death in the brush without ever regaining consciousness.

Physical Damage

Once a part of the body is hit, damage is determined. Each character has a damage value for the weapon he is using. To determine the weapon's damage value when a particular character is wielding it, add together the character's STR and SIZ and divide by the Weapon Damage Modifier for the weapon - (STR+SIZ)/WDM.

To determine damage done, roll 2D10, take the lower of the two numbers and multiply that by weapon damage. The average base damage with a broadsword in the hands of an average character is 5, so with an average die roll he would do 15 or 20 points of damage.

Damage is done to the character's Health Points. Each body area has a specific number of Health Points assigned to it, and if it takes damage equal to that value the character suffers negative results. Health points by area are determined from the basic Health Point value. When an area takes 1, 2 or 3 times as much damage as it has Health Points assigned to it various results are produced as indicated on the chart below. An average character would have 13 Health Points assigned to his arm, so an average blow with a broadsword would incapacitate the limb.

Area Area HP 1x 2x 3x Head HP/5 U # D Hands HP/5 I B S Arms HP/4 I B S Feet HP/4 I B S Legs HP/3 I B S Abdomen HP/3 U # D Chest HP/2 U # D

U=Unconsiousness for # of Combat Rounds equal to total damage. #=Death (in CON/damage multiplier # of minutes - 2x HP = CON/2, 3x HP = CON/3). I=Incapacitated (must roll within (WILx3)-Damage on 1D100 to use). B=Broken or Bleeding. S=Severed (Unconscious in CON-Damage Rounds if not treated). D=Immediate Death. Under normal circumstances a Wound heals in Damage/HP days.

Firearms

Depending on the setting, a variety of different kinds of firearms or other mechanically assisted weapons may be available to the characters. Firearms tend to be more powerful, more expensive and more complex to use than hand-powered weapons., and their availability is primarily restricted by the technology level of the setting.

Using Firearms: Firearms have an AP cost for firing, plus secondary AP costs for drawing/readying and reloading. These costs vary greatly depending on the type of weapon and the technology level. Once a gun is loaded the AP cost for firing may be paid for each shot, with the results produced varying depending on the weapon. Loading cost listed for firearms is per round loaded.

Firearm Damage: Damage varies greatly depending on the type and power of the firearm. Firearms do damage based on their Weapon Damage Value, which is equivalent in function to the final adjusted damage value found from dividing the WDM of a hand weapon into the Strength and Size of the weilder. Firearm damage is not adjusted for the strength or size of the user, it is just multiplied directly by the lower die of a 2D10 dice roll.

Difficulty for Range Distance/RM Difficulty 1-10 0 11-30 1 31-60 2 61-100 3 101+ 4

Firearm Range: Firearms are rated for accuracy over distance with a Range Modifier. This is a simple number which is divided into the distance to the target and the result is subtracted from the Skill Rating of the character firing the weapon. If a gun has a RM of 10 and the target is 50 Meters away, the character's SR is reduced by 5. Alternatively, the GM may wish to simplify this slightly and use range to generate a Difficulty rating for the attack, using the table to the right.

Designing Firearms: While it is possible to generate lots of specific statistics for a wide variety of firearms, some simple guidelines will allow you to design customized firearms for your campaign. As a rule there is a balance between the Damage, Range Modifier, Magazine, Rate of Fire and AP costs of firearms, and if you can maintain that relationship you can generate any kind of firearm. Basically, the AP costs of the weapon are balanced off against the Range, Damage, Magazine and Rate of Fire. On the plus side you have Damage + Range + Magazine/3 + RoF/2. On the minus size you have Fire AP + Load AP/2 + Ready AP/2. The negatives for AP are subtracted from the total for positive aspects. For modern weapons the result should be 0. For each 100 years in the past the value should go down by about 5. For each 100 years in the future the value should go up by about 10. This system is approximate, but results should be kept within a deviation of a few points, with more room for deviation for older weapons.

Weapon Dam Ran Mag RoF Fire AP Load AP Ready AP Crossbow (1300) 8 5 1 1 8 24 16 Arquebus (1500) 10 2 1 1 10 50 15 Musket (1600) 8 3 1 1 8 35 13 Flintlock Pistol (1700) 7 3 1 1 8 25 10 Colonial Long Rifle (1700) 9 6 1 1 10 30 15 Lee Enfield Rifle (1850) 8 5 1 1 8 20 13 .50 Sharps Rifle (1870) 10 6 1 1 10 20 15 .44 Black Powder Revolver (1850) 7 4 6 1 8 20 9 .44 Single Action Pistol (1870) 7 4 6 1 8 10 8 .32 Lever Action Rifle (1870) 7 6 8 1 12 12 12 Double Barreled Shotgun (1800) 12 2 2 1 10 12 12 Lever/Slide Shotgun (Modern) 12 2 6 1 10 8 12 .22 Automatic Pistol (Modern) 5 5 8 1 6 6 8 .38 Police Special Revolver (Modern) 6 3 6 1 6 6 8 .45 Colt 1911 Automatic (Modern) 7 4 8 1 7 6 8 .22 Automatic Rifle (Modern) 6 10 8 1 6 6 12 .306 Automatic Rifle (Modern) 7 8 8 1 7 7 13 9mm Submachine Gun (Modern) 7 4 20 3 10 6 12 7.56mm Assault Rifle (Modern) 6 6 20 5 15 5 12 Needler/HE Minifragment Gun (+100) 3 4 50 10 10 6 8 Explossive Flechette Gun (+100 Years) 10 4 40 3 10 6 10 Gauss Gun (+100 Years) 15 12 10 1 12 8 12 Energy Weapon/Blaster (+200 Years) 20 8 10 1 10 2 10

Firearm Magazines: Many firearms which have multi-round magazines have clips or magazines which are easy to reload. These may have been loaded with cartridges in advance, so when reloading by inserting a new clip the AP cost for reloading is only paid once and you get a full magazine again, assuming you prepared full clips in advance.

Fully Automatic Weapons: Fully automatic weapons fire a burst of bullets each time the trigger is depressed. In many cases they will be able to fire a burst or single shots at the user's choice. When a burst is fired, the firing time indicates how long it takes for that number of bullets to be fired. When rolling to hit with a burst, the Level of Success of the result applies to the first bullet. Each subsequent bullet has 1 subtracted from the LoS. However, the person firing the weapon may choose to pay the firing AP cost an extra time to establish a new starting LoS for any bullet in the burst. So, with a 5 round burst he might have a LoS of 3 with the first bullet, 2 with the second, 1 with the third and then pay to start over again with the 4th, essentially bringing his stream of fire back on target.

Subduing Attacks

If a character wishes to subdue his opponent without killing him, he can choose to reduce his actual damage and do damage to his opponent's Action Points instead. When damage is dealt he may reduce the actual damage by up to half of its value and for each point of damage given up this way he may do 3 points of damage to his opponent's AP, taken off of the next round of combat. So if an attack did 10 damage, that could become 5 real damage and 15 AP damage off of the target's AP for the next round. If a character takes enough AP damage he essentially becomes immobilized.

An attack can also be made with the objective of knocking an opponent unconscious. In such an attack actual damage is halved, but it is treated as if it were doubled, but the doubled value can only produce an unconsciousness (in head or torso) or incapacitated result (in limbs).

Falling & Impact Damage

Sometimes people fall down. Sometimes they fall down cliffs or off buildings, or get hit by trucks. When that happens it hurts them, sometimes it's fatal. The results of falling and being hit by large moving objects are fairly similar, resulting in both overall and located damage. Both overall and located damage is normally treated as club damage unless the surface is serrated or covered with spikes.

In the case of a fall, impact damage is based on the distance fallen and to some degree on the character of the surface where they land. Base damage from a fall is equal to (Square Root of Height) x 10 HP in overall damage with height measured in meters. Final damage is determined by taking this value, rolling 2D10 and multiplying the base damage times the lower of the two numbers rolled.

Height Base Damage 1-3M 10 HP 4-8M 20 HP 9-15M 30 HP 16-24M 40 HP 25-35M 50 HP 36-48M 60 HP 49-63M 70 HP 64-80M 80 HP 81-99M 90 HP 100+M 100 HP

For violent encounters with a moving object base damage is equal to (Square Root of (Mass x Velocity))/10 HP, with velocity in Km/Hour and mass in Kilograms. Thus, a fall from a height of 36 meters would do an average of 180 points of overall damage, about the same as getting hit by a mid-size (1500kg) car going 60kph.

In addition to overall damage the character should take located damage. The number of located attacks should be equal to the overall damage divided by 10 and rounded up. Each of those attacks should be rolled randomly and have a base damage of 1/5 of the overall damage amount. So in the previous example of a 36 meter fall or an encounter with a mid-size car the victim would also take 4 or 5 located attacks on average for a typical damage of 12 points. To locate random breaks and bruises, roll 1D10. 1=head, 2=Right Arm, 3=Left Arm, 4-6=Chest, 7-8=Abdomen, 9=Right Leg, 10=Left Leg. On a leg or hand result, roll 1D10 again. A roll of 8-10 is a hand or foot hit.

Falling characters may make a roll for Cat Fall and in some situations a Dodge roll is appropriate to avoid moving vehicles. The Level of Success of the roll reduces the amount of damage as follows: LoS1=1/2 Damage, LoS2=1/4 Damage, LoS3=1/3 Damage, LoS4=1/4 Damage.

Poison Damage

Poison can damage a character in a variety of ways. In general poison damage is treated as damage against overall Health Points, though the results of poison damage may be highly variable. In general when poison overcomes 1 times damage overall its effects are felt by the character, be they paralysis, hallucination, incapacitation, illness or even death.

All poisons should have an assigned value for Maximum Damage (MD). Each poison should also have a value for Potency, a numerical rating indicating how fast it acts. with 1 being the fastest and no real limit on how high the rating can be. Once that is determined, there are several ways that damage can take effect. It can be an ascending progression of effect, a descending progression of effect or a linear progression of effect .

To determine what a poison does, divide MD by Potency. Call this value X. For a Linear poison X indicates the number of points of overall damage which the victim takes per CR from that poison. In a descending progression the victim takes 8X in the first round, 4X in the second, 2X in the third and 1X in all remaining rounds until the poison has run its course and the victim has taken the total MD. With an ascending poison effect the victim takes X/8 in each of the first two rounds, X/4 in the second round, X/2 in the third round and X for all remaining rounds until all the damage is done.

Not all poisons are readily available. They should be rated for Rarity based on MD and Potency. This rating should be roughly equivalent to the X value previously mentioned. This can be used to modify a skill roll to create a poison using the Chemistry, Alchemy or Pharmacology skill by subtracting it from the Skill Levels of the character doing the research. It can be used to determine the expense of buying a poison at a rate of about X Squared times 10 dollars per dosage. It can also be used to determine the time to develop a new poison at a rate of X Squared hours of research. All of this should be adjusted for factors like the detectability of the poison and the ease with which it can be administered.

Unusual Combat Tactics

Some special attack tactics may be appropriate in special situations, for example a charge, tackle or trip. These should do mostly AP damage based on the forces involved. You can trade off real damage for AP damage. By reducing the real damage to half of its normal value you can double the amount of AP damage done, for example. In most cases how such tactics are handled is up to the gamemaster, following the guideline that the AP cost for the attack or action should be proportionate to the effectiveness of the attack in incapacitating or damaging the target.

Healing & Recovery

Characters heal normal Health Point damage at a rate of STR/5 points overall per day, and STR/20 points per area per day. If a wound achieves a I or B result and is not properly treated, there is a chance that full use of that limb may not be restored. This may result in characteristics point loss in DEX or DEX which ever is appropriate. In addition, wounds to the body which achieve a # result may lead to a permanent reduction of STR for the character if not treated properly. In general, proper treatment requires a successful First Aid roll immediately. B, P and # results both also require a successful Surgery roll within 72 hours, and a # result also requires a successful Life Saving roll within STR/# rounds or the character will die. In situations where characteristic loss is appropriate an I result costs 6 points, a B result, a P result or a # result costs 12 points. If therefor each required roll which is made within the required time, this is reduced. If two rolls are required, each reduces by half. If three, each reduces by a third, etc. If required rolls are not made, half of the amount they would have healed is healed naturally at a rate of 1 point per week.

Armor

Armor reduces damage directly. It has a value between 1 and 7 and that amount is subtracted from any damage done to the area covered by the armor. Armor is bulky and has a cost in AP which reduces the available AP of the character wearing it every round. Some types of armor may not be available in some settings, depending on the technology level. Some armor may also have specific additional restrictions or special characteristics.

Armor Type Value AP Cost Leather 1 3 Studded Leather 2 4 Boiled Leather 3 5 Ringmail 4 6 Chainmail 5 7 Scale/Light Plate 6 8 Heavy Plate 7 9 Kevlar/Equiv 5 5 (Modern) Powered Armor 10 8 (Future)

Life After Death

Because some settings for Oroborus are highly magical in nature, it is very possible that characters may come back from the dead in one form or another. With skills like Incarnation and Reincarnation, they could create a new body or be born into a new form, and other skills offer other possible ways to stay around magically. For this to be possible they must be able to use their skills while they are dead or in spirit form. In this form all affinities are automatically treated as indirect, which makes them somewhat less effective. In addition, because they are not in physical form, no abilities which would be dependent on physical presence or force will work either. Spirits are also invisible and unable to speak without the assistance of appropriate powers. This limits their ability to seek aid. Finally, spirits only have a number of hours equal to their WIL before they are dragged off to their appropriate afterlives, so if the character can't figure out a way to come back to life in that time he's out of luck.

CHARACTERISTIC ROLLS

In situations where a character attempts to do something or attempts to respond to a situation which cannot be dealt with under the skill system or by simple logic, it may be appropriate to make a characteristic based roll of some sort. These rolls for avoidance or effort are generally percentile rolls in which the character has to roll and adjusted 1D100 on the standard skill table. The basic multiplier is 3 but this can be modified greatly for AP and the situation and characteristics involved. A difficulty adjustment may be taken into consideration just like with skills, depending on the situation.

There are two basic types of Characteristic Rolls, those for active characteristics and those for passive characteristics. For passive characteristics characters get an automatic 3 times the characteristic roll at no AP cost. For the first 20 additional AP spent this can be increased by 1 multiplier, to 4 times the characteristic. If another 40 AP are spent this can be raised one more increment to 5 times the characteristic, but that is the highest it can be raised. Passive characteristics are STR, APP and PRI.

For active characteristics AP must be spent to have any kind of roll. Each multiplier for the characteristic costs a flat 15 AP with a maximum limit of a 5 multiplier. Thus, for 45 AP the character could have a roll with a multiplier of 3. Active characteristics are CRE, STR, WIL, CHA, DEX and REA. If a roll is made successfully the character generally succeeds at what he is attempting or avoids what he is trying to avoid. Active characteristics can also function as passive characteristics in some situations at the judgment of the GM.

In some cases a roll may be made on a combination of characteristics. When this is done, average the characteristics together and then multiply them by the appropriate multiplier. It is also possible to make rolls against secondary characteristics in some circumstances where they apply most appropriately.

Remember that these rolls are only used in situations not covered by other systems already explained.

Different circumstances dictate rolls against certain characteristics. Noted below are the various primary and secondary characteristics and when rolls should be made against them.

Strength is most likely to be rolled against when lifting, breaking, bending or moving an object, or when competing against another person in a trial of pure strength, such as arm wrestling.

Dexterity rolls are likely to be made when opening things, manipulating things, trying do something quietly or with great speed or finesse.

Agility rolls are likely to be made when dodging, trying to perform unusual maneuvers, trying to avoid tripping, or moving silently.

Reason rolls are most often made when trying to understand a situation or sequence of events, or when trying to deduce or analyze something.

Will rolls are most likely to occur when resisting pain or against some sort of mental or psychological attack. A number of mental attacks may essentially be treated as attacks against the target's WIL. It should also be noted that levels of the skill Resistance adds in directly to the WIL of persons making WIL based rolls in many cases.

Creativity rolls are made when trying to reach an intuitive conclusion, find an imaginative solution to a problem, or deal with a work of art or the creativity of another person.

Charm rolls are made for determining ability to lead others, to keep their attention, to be persuasive and generally be appealing in the long term.

Virtue rolls are likely to be made when considering moral issues or issues of faith and belief.

Privilege rolls are made in situations where it is necessary to make the proper decision in issues of manners, etiquette, protocol or social precedence.

Size rolls are made when trying to squeeze through small openings, or reach something high up. In cases where small SIZ is desirable then 20-SIZ is used.

CREDITS ORIGINAL DESIGN David F. Nalle MECHANICS WONKS Hans Dykstra, Richard Trainham OFFICIAL RULE ABUSER Jim Mason PLAYTESTERS Brian Tweedy Cliff Hall David Feaster Howard Alt Ian Hense Jason Hsu Jenny Ariola Mark Moody Mike Markovich Paul Reeves SPECIAL CONTRIBUTORS Eric Olson Lew Bryson Rick Bueker Copyright 1999, Ragnarok Press ISBN 1-58408-100-7 Release 2.8

TIME & MEASUREMENT

For the most part time is measured in standard units. These are the Combat Round or Round (appx 6 seconds), the Minute (10CR), the Hour (60MN), and other standard units of measure. A CR is the time which it takes to spend all of a character's AP, and is very important for combat and skill applications.

In most cases distances are measured in meters and kilometers. All distances represent real distances from the character's perspective. Volume is measured in cubic meters and weight is generally in kilograms.

EQUIPMENT, COSTS & EXPENSES

Trying to define costs for a wide variety of items in a bunch of different settings is virtually impossible to do with any accuracy. Certain types of items will cost more or less based on technology, available resources and other factors peculiar to a particular place and time. Universally, higher technology items are cheaper in later eras than they would be in earlier eras. All we can really do is establish a rough medium for comparison which we call the Bread, Board & Beer index. The Universal Unit of Exchange ($/UX$) is the amount it costs to feed and house one person for one day in any given setting. This is the equivalent of buying two meals, a room for the night and three beers at average prices. In contemporary America that's about $35. In the Civil War era it would have been less than $1. Prices on the price list are given in terms of UX$, so if something is priced at UX$10, it would cost $350 today or $8 or so in 1860.