Doing THINGS

A typical ALTERNITY game session begins with the Gamemaster describing a scene or a situation. Sometimes the description is all set up, with hints of dangers and excitement to come. In these scenes, heroes can make almost any decision as to what to do first. Other times the Gamemaster starts in the middle of the action, dropping heroes into a scene where events are already rushing fast and furiously around them. In this case, heroes usually have to react to a specific threat or problem. before going in their own directions. Whichever method a Gamemaster uses to begin a game session (and a Good Gamemaster will mix and match these techniques to keep players on their toes), it all boils down to the moment he says, “That’s the situation. What do you do?”

How you answer that question, and even the way you answer that question, says a lot about your style of roleplaying. That’s something you should think about, because how you play and your approach to interacting with the Gamemaster’s campaign setting determines the qualities your hero brings to gaming sessions.

What Do You Do? Action!

The Gamemaster has set the scene. The tension mounts. Anticipation hangs in the air, in the long space between seconds as you decide what course of action your hero will take. That’s the key word: action! The question “What do you do?” is the Gamemaster’s way of calling the heroes to action, to let them know that it’s their turn to influence the group story in some clever, interesting, or unusual manner.

Heroes in roleplaying games perform actions that have meaning, advance the plot, and get things done. So, how do you answer the Gamemaster’s question?

The quick response is: Any way you want to. A hero can do almost anything you can imagine. Depending on the situation, it might be logical to have your hero talk, move, use a skill, operate a piece of equipment, use a special ability, or do anything else you can think of that seems appropriate at the time. For example, it’s appropriate for a hero facing six heavily armed thugs to dive for cover, run away, pull his own weapon and attack, or even try to talk his way out of the situation. It isn’t appropriate for him to exchange phone numbers with the thugs, burst into song, or ignore the threat the thugs present—unless that’s a part of this hero’s personality, or the player has an unusual plan in mind.

What Do You Do? Style!

The second aspect of this question deals with you rather than your hero. You’ve decided on a course of action for your hero. Do you narrate the action, or do you act out the scene?

Narration uses a style of roleplaying in which a player tells the Gamemaster and the other players what his hero is doing, instead of showing them. This style works just fine for getting information across and advancing the story, but it’s not as involving or intimate as acting it out. Here’s an example: “My hero hides behind a table and tries to talk to the approaching thugs. He’s hoping to use his celebrity status as a famous holofilm star to make the thugs less hostile. He tells them he’ll give them each an autographed holo if they stop shooting and let him go.”

Acting out is a style of roleplaying in which a player speaks and acts as his hero, playing out the scene “in character.” He carries on a monologue when telling the Gamemaster what his hero is doing, and he talks to the other heroes in the voice of his hero. The scene doesn’t involve getting up and moving around; it’s all done at the gaming table, as part of the general discussion and storytelling. A player can speak in his hero’s voice while using his own voice, or he can change it if he’s so inclined to make it different. This style of storytelling can be very immersive, but it can also take long periods of time.

Here’s an example of acting out a scene: “I duck behind a table and say in my best public voice, ‘Hey, aren’t you guys fans of Jack Everstar? I’m Jack Everstar, from the award-winning holofilm movies that broke earning records around the solar system. I’ll even autograph them for you! So why don’t you put down the charge pistols and let me go?’”

The best roleplaying game sessions include both of these methods of play. It all depends on what you’re comfortable doing, and how the Gamemaster and other players want to approach the game. To really make the most of roleplaying, however, it’s best to at least deliver your hero’s lines as you think your hero would say them. It’s like that old saying, “Showing is better than telling.” A roleplayer shows action by speaking in his or her character’s voice.

Playing Roles or Rolling Dice?

The great debate rages on. Should a roleplaying game emphasize roleplaying over dice rolling, or vice versa? A lot depends on your style of play, but the ALTERNITY system encourages a balanced combination of the two.

Some players prefer to experience each adventure in character, roleplaying the entire story with little or no dice rolling involved. Other players don’t want to be bothered with that roleplaying stuff. They just want to roll dice and mow down rows of enemies with the best weapons their heroes can acquire.

The point of any ALTERNITY game is for players and the Gamemaster to come together to tell a satisfying story while having fun at the same time. The Gamemaster brings a plot and the supporting cast to the game. It’s up to the players to provide interesting heroes and lots of interaction (including witty banter, intriguing solutions, and engaging character development). Everyone should play their roles to the best of their abilities and help advance the story.

Don’t rely on the dice and your hero’s skills to such an extent that you ignore ideas as they come to you. At the same time, don’t set the dice aside so that the game becomes nothing more than talking heads. The dice provide an element of chance, a potential for terrible disasters or amazing triumphs—especially when used in dramatic situations.

THE GAME ENVIRONMENT

Your Gamemaster sets his ALTERNITY game in a specific environment. A lot of things go into making this environment, including the specific subgenre of science fiction, the mood and tone of the campaign, and the details of the setting. For the most part, this material is left to the discretion of your Gamemaster and is covered in detail in the Gamemaster Guide. However, there are a few points that players should keep in mind that will help them develop their heroes more fully and direct their style of play.

Campaign

A campaign is the world your Gamemaster develops to set adventures in. Every adventure your hero experiences helps add more detail and depth to the ongoing campaign. “Ongoing” means that the world grows and advances each time the players’ heroes visit it, and that the heroes, supporting cast, and events are linked from game session to game session. In other words, events in one adventure have consequences in the next, and decisions made by heroes carry on with each unfolding adventure.

Progress Levels

The Gamemaster determines up front what specific subgenre of science fiction his campaign fits into. This tells the players a lot about the kinds of heroes they can develop and the adventures they can expect to play. Science fiction is a specific genre that deals with “what ifs.” It usually encompasses the future, but it could be set in the modern day by postulating an amazing breakthrough in technology. Here are a few examples of SF subgenres.

• Combat SF: This subgenre spotlights the future of warfare. The Earth/solar system/galaxy is at war, and every hero has the latest weapons with which to wage it. Combat SF is usually hard, grim, and somewhat realistic, where the heroes seek to simply survive while they try to win the battle of the day.
• Exploration SF: Whether in the near future or the far future, humanity has a yearning to boldly step into the unknown. In exploration SF, this search is expedited by wonderful space vessels or amazing time-travel machines. Heroes work together to see what lies beyond the horizon or past the next star. This can be the most wide-ranging campaign setting, as heroes might be called upon to fight, negotiate, or solve a mystery in order to completely explore the newest planet or region of space.
• Horror SF: From the shadowy concrete jungles of the modern city to the silent darkness of distant space, horror SF presents a chilling challenge to heroes forced to confront the terrors of the unknown. A monster created in a laboratory can escape to terrorize a modern city, or an alien creature can slip aboard an isolated spaceship to systematically destroy the crew. Even the bright light of the future can’t obliterate the fear of the unknown that is an innate part of the human psyche.
• Technothriller SF: This subgenre is set closer to the present day, with heroes involved in espionage, law enforcement, or antiterrorist activity. What makes it SF are the gadgets and weapons available to the heroes—the latest computers, high-tech weapons, and surveillance equipment from the cutting-edge laboratories of major corporations and powerful governments. The plots in this subgenre are usually larger, in to rule (or destroy) the world, and only the heroes can hope to stop them.

Whatever genre the Gamemaster decides on, it doesn’t mean he can never surprise or throw the players and heroes for a loop by crossing subgenres. In general, though, you know what to expect from session to session.

Each subgenre has a mood and tone of its own. For example, a combat campaign is characterized by stark settings, grim situations, and realistic drama. A horror campaign, on the other hand, presents fantastic situations that are shrouded in shadow, mystery, and a tone of terror. The details of a campaign’s setting will be different depending on the genre the campaign is tied to. (The Gamemaster Guide contains more information on this subject.)

What does this mean to the player? The campaign setting and the parameters of the subgenre determine what types of heroes are suitable, the Progress Level for equipment and technology, and which optional rules are available for play (psionic powers, cybernetic technology, mutations, and so forth).

Each game session presents heroes with situations, problems, and goals that need to be accomplished. Each story is called an adventure. A single adventure can be completed in a session, or it could unfold over a series of sessions, depending on its complexity and the actions of the heroes.

Think of an adventure as a multi-part comic book story, a television miniseries, or even a novel. Each game session covers one issue, episode, or chapter in the unfolding story. The Gamemaster provides the potential of the adventure in the form of plot, background, scenes, and supporting cast. The players, through their heroes’ actions, unlock the potential and create an exciting, dynamic story.

Every adventure has a beginning, a middle, and an end, and an environment in which heroes can do what they do best.

Every adventure is made up of scenes. A scene is a distinct act in the adventure that has its own beginning and ending. A short adventure, for example, might consist of three scenes. Longer adventures can be made up of as many scenes as necessary to reach the conclusion.

Most scenes start by presenting the heroes with a situation that requires some sort of decision. What you decide for your hero will affect the course of the story, sending it down one path instead of another. The options open to a hero are too numerous to list. Your initial decision (and those of your companions) can take the story in unexpected directions.

The situation: You and your companions are exploring a rubble-strewn alley, looking for a stolen computer chip that was supposedly sold there. Suddenly a squad of police appears from around a corner up ahead. You can see them, but they don’t notice you right away. What do you do? You can try to talk to them, you can try to hide, you can run, or you can attack. Your choice will determine how this scene begins to unfold.

You could try to maneuver so you can get to a place that’s shielded from the eyes of the enemy. Or…

The bomb is ticking, its digital readout at 1:16 and counting down to 0:00. You have just over a minute to get past the protection devices and disarm it before it explodes! Or…

The computer virus is spreading, systematically destroying data as it winds its way through the network. It’s a fast, insidious bug, created by a master programmer. You must stop it quickly before it destroys all of the research and wipes out years of important work!

These are just three examples of the possible challenges that will face your hero as his adventures unfold. A challenge scene revolves around a hero’s struggle against the forces of nature, a man-made hazard, or the search for an answer. In these scenes, your hero uses skills without directly interacting with or competing against another character.

Every challenge consists of a series of skill checks that form a challenge path. Your hero must successfully negotiate this path (by making successful skill checks) to overcome the challenge. Only the Gamemaster knows the exact details of a challenge path. As a player, it’s your job to evaluate the situation and make decisions for your hero.

How long is a challenge path? That depends on the scene and the challenge in question. A simple challenge, such as crossing a chasm, usually requires one skill check—the hero either successfully leaps across the open space or he doesn’t. More complicated challenges might require the use of various skills and even multiple successes to overcome them. Each step in the path requires the use of a skill, and it might take several successes before you can move on to the next step. Checks are made at intervals using whatever time units the Gamemaster deems appropriate: phases, rounds, minutes, hours, and sometimes even days or weeks.

Here’s an example of a challenge path in which different skills come into play. Your hero needs to disarm a bomb before it explodes in 4 rounds (16 phases). The first step in the path requires the use of the Manipulation-lockpick skill to remove the bomb’s outer cover. The second step in the path requires a Demolitions-disarm or a Knowledge-deduce skill check to evaluate the bomb’s mechanisms. During this step, the hero discovers that there are four wires—red, white, blue, and yellow. The third step involves actually disarming the bomb. This step requires four successes. In total, this challenge requires a minimum of three actions and six successes to disable the bomb.

In some scenes, the Gamemaster might throw more than one challenge at the heroes. For example, heroes in a space vessel might have to deal with a number of challenges simultaneously. The pilot must navigate through an asteroid field while two Tech Op heroes work to repair the ship’s stardrive and the copilot tries to plot a course to escape once the stardrive comes back on line.

The Gamemaster can also combine challenges with either combat or encounter scenes. For example, the heroes on the space vessel have all those challenges to deal with when the Gamemaster decides to add more trouble to the mix. An enemy vessel appears behind them, firing at their already damaged ship. Then, when things don’t look like they can get any worse, the heroes notice another ship taking position in front of them beyond the asteroid field. This ship demands the heroes’ immediate surrender.

Now some heroes need to handle the combat scene elements approaching from the rear, and others need to deal with the encounter scene elements in front of them. Plus, there are still the challenges inside the ship to deal with! As you can see, a challenge scene can range from a simple situation to an intricate, multifaceted situation. Expect to see all kinds of challenges as your hero progresses through a campaign.

Encounter Scene

After putting on your cheeriest smiles and making sure your weapons are tucked into your coats, you call out to the soldiers ahead of you. “Hello, friends! May we impose upon you for assistance?” When the soldiers don’t act hostile right away, you start to move slowly toward them. Or…

Your hero waits until Sardov leaves the bar. Then he walks over to the young woman Sardov was talking to just moments before. Relying on his natural charms, he hopes to learn something about the elusive spy from this dark-haired beauty. “Can I buy you a drink?” he asks, flashing his dazzling smile and letting that seductive twinkle brighten his dark brown eyes. Or…

The trader was Good; your hero has to grant him that. He knew how to haggle, and he knew he had something of real value in that magnet-sealed container. “Look,” your hero says, “I know what you’ve got there, I know that I need it, and I know that you have no idea what it really is. So let’s cut the fun short and get down to serious business. What’s it going to take to close this deal?”

Heroes must talk to, trade insults with, cajole, seduce, negotiate with, charm, beg, bribe, intimidate, and otherwise interact with the supporting cast all the time. When the thrust of a scene is roleplaying, advancing the plot, and enhancing the story, then the heroes are involved in an encounter scene.

An encounter scene can turn into a challenge scene or a combat scene, but it always starts with the heroes attempting to communicate with the supporting cast. Encounters involve heroes employing Intelligence, Will, and especially Personality skills to get what they want or simply make it through the scene without having the situation turn ugly.

There really isn’t a set sequence of play for an encounter scene, and no checks need to be made to see who acts when. An encounter scene is an opportunity for players and the Gamemaster to use their roleplaying talents; the Gamemaster presents a situation and lets the heroes and supporting cast interact for as long as the story is moving and everyone is having fun. Skill checks are called for only sparingly. to augment the players’ roleplaying and to determine the reactions of the supporting cast. When the discussion ends, so does the encounter scene.

More information on encounter skills appears on page 97 in Chapter 4: Skills, and in the descriptions of the various skills.

Combat Scene

Fighting these soldiers isn’t going to help you find the missing briefcase, but you figure it’s better to be on the offensive here than to put yourself in a vulnerable position by trying to sneak away or pretending to be harmless and friendly. So, you ready your weapons and begin spreading out into an attack formation. Or…

Your hero didn’t want it to come to this, but the bruisers at the door aren’t giving him a choice. He needs to get in to see Gorden, the crime lord of Port Orgen. If these bruisers want to do this the hard way, he’s more than up to the job. “You know,” your hero says, “I really didn‘t want to work up a sweat today. This is all your fault,” With that, he charges the bruisers, moving fast and hitting hard as the situation turns into a brawl! Or…

The quiet of the night has your hero on edge. Something’s going to happen, he can feel it. He checks his charge rifle, making sure for the third time that the clip is locked and loaded. He starts to walk the perimeter of the camp again when the crack of a weapon resounds out of the night and something fast and hot buzzes past his left ear. “I hate firefights in the dark,” he mutters, bring ing his weapon up to bear and look ing for a target.

Heroes get involved in combat all the time. It’s not always the best solution, but sometimes heroes have no choice but to get into a knock-down, drag-out fight with the bad guys. When this happens, the action takes place in a combat scene.

Combat involves heroes using attack broad skills and their specialty skills—Heavy Weapons, Melee Weapons, Unarmed Attack, Modern Ranged Weapons, Primitive Ranged Weapons, Vehicle Operation, or System Operation against other characters (usually members of the supporting cast). Also, heroes use the Athletics-throw skill when they want to hurl knives, rocks, or grenades at enemy targets. Of course, not every attack skill is appropriate in all situations. If a hero doesn’t have a vehicle, then Vehicle Operation won’t help him in that particular fight.

Combat scenes are the most rigidly structured scenes in an adventure—when lives are at stake, it’s critical to know exactly when everyone is performing actions and what the immediate consequences of those actions are.

The procedure for making action checks, as described on page 12 in Chapter 1: Fast-Play Rules, always begins a combat scene. Thereafter, heroes and supporting cast take their actions in the phases when they’re entitled to, and any damage that results from those actions is applied at the end of the phase in which the action took place. The scene continues phase by phase, round by round, until one side or the other is defeated or manages to break contact with the other side.

In a combat scene, most actions involve an attack or defense of one kind or another, but heroes are only restricted by the imaginations of their players and the parameters of the situation.

ROLLING DICE

When the Gamemaster wants to determine if a hero can successfully accomplish an action in a certain situation, or how well the hero is able to perform, he calls for a dice roll. Dice provide a method for measuring a hero’s success and for determining random outcomes when success is not guaranteed.

Situation Die Modifiers

Because every action in every situation is different, the game system uses a sliding scale to determine which situation die you roll with the control die. This scale uses steps shown on the “Situation Die Steps” chart on the following page. The steps are also printed on your hero sheet. Here’s how to read the chart:

The arrow pointing down shows that you count steps in that direction when the Gamemaster gives you a “Penalty” modifier. Remember, penalties are positive numbers (+1 step for example).

The arrow pointing up shows that you count steps in that direction when the Gamemaster gives you a “Bonus” modifier. Remember, bonuses are negative numbers (-2 for example).

All of the possible situation dice are displayed in order on the chart, ranging from +3d20 (an extremely high penalty) to -d20 (a very favorable bonus). Each line on the chart represents a step. As you identify the factors that affect your hero’s ability to succeed in a certain action, you move up and down along the steps as the situation modifiers direct you until you determine the actual situation die to roll.

How do you do this? Start by finding the base situation die for the action your hero is attempting. Then count the steps for each situation modifier, either in the “penalty” or “bonus” direction, that the Gamemaster assigns to the action. Where you end up indicates the situation die you need to roll to attempt the action. See “Finding the Right Situation Die” on page 49 for an example of how this is done.

Much more detail about the different types of situation modifiers is contained within the next few pages. If there’s something about the concept that you find difficult to understand so far, don’t worry. By the time you finish reading about the types of actions a hero can attempt, you should have a clear picture of how to handle any situation that may arise during the game.

Situation Die Steps

Several lists of situation die modifiers are presented throughout this book and in the Gamemaster Guide. Depending on the level of detail you look for in a roleplaying game, you can make use of all these lists. Or, if you and your Gamemaster prefer things less complicated, you can use what we call the “eyeball approach.”

Instead of identifying every situation modifier and having you move up or down the table to account for each one, your Gamemaster will come up with a general assessment of the situation—“eyeballing” it instead of examining it in detail—and simply direct you to use a particular situation die. On the “Situation Die Steps” chart, the column labeled “Situation Description” is specifically designed to help your Gamemaster when he’s using the eyeball approach. All he has to do is pick a descriptive term that basically describes the situation, and the step penalty or step bonus that applies to your action is instantly determined.

Especially after you become aware of what factors qualify as situation die modifiers, you may find that the eyeball approach is accurate enough to meet your needs—and the activity of the adventure will move along a little more briskly because you aren’t stopping to do all the calculations.

In addition to the basic rules covering the use of the control die and the situation die, there are three more rules to keep in mind when playing.

The Most Important Rule

When you roll dice, some results indicate automatic success or automatic failure, regardless of the combined result of the control and the situation die.

Finding the Right Situation Die

Therefore, in most situations, if a 1 comes up on the control die, the hero succeeds. Even if the combined result of the control die and the situation die would normally indicate a Failure, the 1 on the control die turns a Failure result into an Ordinary success. The Gamemaster always has the option to declare a situation too difficult to allow an automatic success. If a hero attempts an action with a situation die of +d20 or higher, the automatic success rule doesn’t apply.

Remember, not every action requires the roll of dice. When something is so easy or routine as to not require a skill check, then that’s considered an automatic success, too.

Critical Failure and the Bad Luck Rule

Sometimes, no matter how skilled a hero is, things don’t work out. There’s always a chance for an action to fail or for something negative to occur whenever a hero tries to do something beyond the scope of the routine. In the ALTERNITY game, this possibility is represented by the “bad luck” rule: When a player rolls for his hero and the control die comes up 20, something bad happens.

When this occurs on an attempted action that can be failed, the 20 indicates a Critical Failure result. This means that the attempt fails in the worst possible manner—a gun jams, a key breaks, a friend wanders into a hero’s hail of bullets, a computer program freezes, and so forth.

If a Failure result can’t happen on this attempt, then the 20 indicates bad luck. The attempt succeeds, but it’s tainted by something negative. This negative consequence doesn’t have to occur immediately, but an incident of bad luck should come into play in the near future and be at least indirectly associated with the action that spawned it.

Making the “bad luck” rule work requires a bit of roleplaying on the part of players. You know that a control die roll of 20 indicates that bad luck is on the horizon, but your hero doesn’t. Until the incident of bad luck has passed, you need to roleplay your hero without making decisions for him based on knowledge he doesn’t have.

In certain situations, the Gamemaster can decide to roll the dice in secret to determine degrees of success, so that if a 20 does come up, the players don’t know it.

Beyond the Extremes

In most cases, heroes roll situation dice that fall between the two extremes of -d20 and +3d20. What happens when modifiers build up that take the situation die beyond these extremes?

On the bonus side, a -d20 situation die should help most heroes succeed at the task at hand, and that’s the most favorable situation die a Gamemaster should allow.

At the other extreme, modifiers that push a situation die beyond +3d20 indicate that the task at hand is getting about as close to impossible as it can get—but for a hero, no action he takes that can be resolved by a dice roll is automatically impossible. So, for every penalty step beyond this, another +d20 is added. It’s conceivable for a character to have to roll a control die plus a penalty of +4d20 or more to accomplish a really difficult task.

Example: Mad Dog Morgan decides to leap across the empty space between two buildings to escape a raging fire. He has to dodge explosions and falling debris as he races for the roof’s edge, all the while carrying his wounded and unconscious buddy, Zug the mercenary. Add to that the bad guys who are firing shots from a hovering aircar, and the Gamemaster determines that this is a Nearly Impossible task (+7 penalty) and decides that the check is tied to Mad Dog’s Athletics skill. Mad Dog has a skill score of 13 and a base situation die of +d4. The +7 penalty pushes the situation die to +4d20, so Mad Dog needs to roll 13 or less on 5d20 (control die +4d20) to succeed. He has a chance of making it to safety, but in this case it sure doesn’t look Good for our heroes.

PERFORMING ACTIONS

The process of making action checks and the structure of an action round were explained in Chapter 1: Fast-Play Rules. The details presented here describe how to handle some unusual circumstances, and expand the scope of what heroes can do in an action round.

Possible Situation Modifiers

• Base Situation Die
• Opponent’s Resistance Modifier
• Range Modifier
• Cover Modifier
• Dodge Modifier
• Skill Situation Modifiers
• Other Situation Modifiers

Who Goes First?

All actions in a phase are considered to occur simultaneously, regardless of the order in which the players roll dice for their heroes and regardless of when the Gamemaster rolls dice for the characters he’s representing. The result of each character’s action in a phase is applied at the end of the phase. If these results impose penalties on a character, those penalties take effect at the start of the next phase.

Example: Mad Dog and Sor Deskul both achieved Good successes on their action checks. This means they can both act in the Good phase. Mad Dog decides to swing his chainsword at his opponent. Sor Deskul counters with a blow from his gravmace. Both score hits. Damage is applied before the next phase begins.

Heroes who haven’t yet taken an action in the phase always get to act ahead of heroes who’ve already taken one or more actions. If two or more heroes get the same degree of success on their action checks and it’s important to know which player rolls dice first, the heroes take their actions in order of their action check scores—highest score first, lowest score last. The lone exception to this rule is a hero whose action check is a Critical Failure; he goes last in the Marginal phase, regardless of any other action check results.

Assisting Actions

Sometimes characters want to help each other accomplish a task. A hero can assist another hero’s action as long as the Gamemaster agrees that the task is one for which assistance can be given and accepted, all of the participating characters have an action in the same phase, and the characters are all working toward the same goal.

For example, if one hero wants to help another one figure out how to disarm a bomb (using the Demolitions skill), or add his persuasiveness to an attempt to get a guard to accept a bribe (using the Deception skill), the characters can combine their actions into a single skill check.

One of the heroes working together is selected to be the lead character in an assisted action. This is usually the character with the best score in the skill being used, but players are free to select whomever they want to be the lead character. First, all of the helpers make skill checks. The results they achieve provide bonuses or penalties to the lead character’s skill check: Critical Failure, +2 step penalty; Failure, +1 step penalty; Ordinary, -1 step bonus; Good, -2 step bonus; Amazing, -3 step bonus.

This modifier is applied to the lead character’s skill check, in addition to any other modifiers that may apply. If the task being performed requires a complex skill check (see page 62 in Chapter 4: Skills), then the modifier for the helper is applied to the portion of the complex skill check that’s presently being undertaken. For as long as he continues to assist, the helper must make skill checks on each attempt to complete the complex skill check, just as the lead character does.

To assist, a character must possess at least the broad skill being used. An untrained character can’t assist in an action, but a trained character can try to coach an untrained character through an action (the pilot on the ground giving instructions by radio to an unskilled passenger who’s trying to land an airplane).

Postponing an Action

In some situations, a character may decide to postpone an action and take it later in the round. He may want to react to another character’s action or just wait to see how a particular situation develops, or maybe he wants to help someone else perform a task (see the preceding section).

There isn’t any situation die penalty or bonus for postponing an action. However, a character who does this runs the risk of losing one or more of the actions he’s entitled to during the round (but see below). For example, a character who has two actions per round gets an Amazing result on his action check. Instead of acting right away in the Amazing phase, he decides to wait until the Good phase to use his first action. If he had decided to wait until the Marginal phase, he would take one action then and lose his second action as the round ends.

There’s one other way to postpone an action. This is used when a character really wants to go first in the next round. To do this, he must get at least an Ordinary action check in the current round and then spend all of his available actions doing nothing but waiting. Before the start of the next round, when other characters are making action checks, the character who postponed his action is treated as though he rolled an Amazing action check—he’s entitled to act ahead of all other characters in the Amazing phase of the next round if he so desires, and can take one or more other actions later in the round as long as he is normally entitled to take two or more actions per round.

Two Actions at Once

In general, a character can perform one action in a single phase. However, the Gamemaster might rule that sometimes a character can use a single action to perform two related physical activities in one phase.

In such a case, the primary action (the one that the player considers more important) receives a +2 step penalty. The secondary action receives a +4 step penalty. Separate action checks are rolled to resolve each attempt. These penalties are cumulative with any other situation die modifiers that might apply.

Some examples of related physical actions:

• Attacking with a weapon in each hand (which is covered in its own section on page 57).
• Attacking while performing some kind of stunt, such as leaping over a chasm and firing a weapon (but see “Combat Movement” on page 55 for the basic rules concerning moving and attacking).
• Balancing atop a precarious perch while making an attack.
• Using the Unarmed Attack skill against two opponents at once.

In all cases, the Gamemaster has complete discretion over the use of two actions in the same phase, and he has the right to pile on penalties for any stunt that’s extremely complex and detailed.

DAMAGE

DAMAGE represents injury to an object (such as a character’s body) from an attack or some other occurrence that weakens the object. The four types of damage are stun damage, wound damage, mortal damage, and fatigue damage.

Most forms of attack (weapons, fists, grenade explosions, and so forth) have damage ratings, indicating that they are capable of inflicting three possible degrees of damage: Ordinary, Good, or Amazing. The degree of damage is usually tied to the degree of success the attacker achieves on his skill check.

For example, a weapon has this damage rating: d4s/d6w/d4m. If the check for the attack results in an Amazing, the third part of the rating (d4m) is used. If the result is Ordinary, then only the first part of the rating (d4s) applies.

Stun Damage

Stun damage is the lightest type of damage a hero can sustain. It represents bumps and bruises and mild abrasions that can rattle a character but don’t result in lasting injuries. For every point of stun damage your hero receives, mark off one box on the stun rating line of your hero sheet.

Optional Rule: Dazed

If your Gamemaster elects to use this optional rule, stun damage begins to take its toll as soon as your hero suffers enough damage to use up more than half of his stun points. Your hero is dazed, and every subsequent action he attempts receives a +1 step penalty until enough stun damage is healed to leave at least half of his stun boxes unmarked.

Knockout

If all of your hero’s stun boxes are marked off, he is immediately knocked out. Your hero is unconscious and can’t perform any actions until he regains consciousness.

Heavy Stun

After all of a hero’s stun boxes have been marked off, additional stun damage becomes wound damage. For every 2 additional points of stun damage a knocked-out hero suffers in a single attack, he or she suffers 1 point of wound damage (disregard the leftover point of stun damage, if applicable).

Wound Damage

Wound damage is more serious than stun damage. It represents injuries that cause lasting harm to the body, such as severe lacerations and broken bones. (Note, however, that the system doesn’t take into account the effects of different types of wound damage.) For every point of wound damage your hero receives, mark off one box on the wound rating line of your hero sheet.

Secondary Damage

Damage that inflicts wounds also results in secondary stun damage. For every 2 points of wound damage a hero suffers in a single attack, he also suffers 1 point of stun damage (disregard the leftover point of wound damage, if applicable).

Optional Rule: Dazed

If your Gamemaster elects to use this optional rule, wound damage begins to take its toll as soon as your hero suffers enough damage to use up more than half of his wound points. Your hero is dazed, and every subsequent action he attempts receives a +1 step penalty until enough wound damage is healed to leave at least half of his wound boxes unmarked.

Knockout

If all of your hero’s wound boxes are marked off, he is knocked out. Your hero is unconscious and can’t perform any actions until he regains consciousness.

Heavy Wound

After all of a hero’s wound boxes have been marked off, additional wounds are applied as mortal damage. For every 2 additional points of wound damage suffered in a single attack by a hero with no remaining wound boxes, he or she suffers 1 point of mortal damage (disregard the leftover point of wound damage, if applicable).

Mortal Damage

Mortal damage is the most severe form of trauma a body can endure. It represents such injuries as a severed artery or the rupture of a major organ (although the game system does not distinguish between the effects of different types of mortal damage). For every point of mortal damage your hero receives, mark off one box on the mortal rating line of your hero sheet.

Secondary Damage

For every 2 points of mortal damage a hero suffers in a single attack, he also takes 1 point of wound damage and 1 point of stun damage (disregard the leftover point of mortal damage, if applicable). This wound damage does not also cause secondary stun damage, as described in the “Wound Damage” section.

Dazed

Mortal damage takes a toll on a hero immediately. For every point of mortal damage your hero suffers, he receives a +1 step penalty to all subsequent actions he attempts. (This penalty is cumulative—a penalty of +2 steps for 2 points of mortal damage, and so forth.)

Dying and Death

A character who suffers any amount of mortal damage is considered to be dying. At the end of any scene in which a character has suffered mortal damage, the mortally wounded character must make a Stamina-endurance check. The result of this check determines if the victim’s condition worsens: On a Critical Failure result, he suffers 2 additional points of mortal damage; on a Failure, he suffers 1 additional point of mortal damage; on any success result, his condition remains unchanged.

Until the victim receives medical treatment, he must make a new Stamina-endurance check every hour, with effects as described above. If the victim is helped by the application of Knowledge-first aid or Medical Science-treatment, the interval between Stamina-endurance checks is increased from one per hour to one per day.

If all of a victim’s mortal boxes are marked off, he dies.

Fatigue Damage

Fatigue damage represents exhaustion a hero suffers due to extreme exertion. When a hero engages in a fatigue-causing activity, he must make a Stamina-endurance check. The check is made after the activity takes place, or at intervals as described below. A Critical Failure result indicates that the hero suffers 2 points of fatigue damage; a Failure result indicates 1 point of fatigue damage. Any success indicates that no fatigue damage occurs as a result of the activity just completed. Penalties can be assigned to this check, as described below.

Activities that require a fatigue check include movement measured in hours (walking, swimming, or flying), heavy labor for an extended length of time (10 minutes or more), exercise or other strenuous activity (10 minutes or more), or suffering wound or mortal damage in a scene (even if the damage was healed during the course of the scene).

Fatigue checks are made right after the activity (or after the scene ends, in the case of wound or mortal damage) or once per hour of activity. The Gamemaster can change this basic time unit, depending on the situation. (The Gamemaster Guide contains more information on handling situations in which fatigue comes into play.)

Every check for continuous activity after the first one receives a cumulative +1 step penalty—the second check is made with a +1 step penalty, the third check with a +2 step penalty, and so on. Any other penalties or bonuses that might apply are considered as well. In addition, the Gamemaster can assign penalties for moving while carrying a heavy load or engaging in strenuous activity in poor conditions. The effects of fatigue damage are described below.

Dazed

Fatigue damage takes a toll on a hero immediately. For every fatigue box marked, a character receives a +1 step penalty to all subsequent actions he attempts.

Knockout

When all of a hero’s fatigue boxes are marked off, he must immediately make a successful Resolve-physical resolve skill check to avoid falling unconscious due to exhaustion. (Characters who don’t have the Resolve skill make this check using their untrained Will score.) If this check succeeds, the hero can continue to engage in activity for at least one more time unit—but the next time he suffers any fatigue damage, he becomes knocked out and can’t perform any further actions until he regains consciousness.

Dazed Penalties

The penalties that come with suffering any type of damage apply to all checks that must be made by a damaged character, including skill checks, action checks, feat checks, and any other dice rolls made to determine whether a character succeeds at something.

All penalties for being dazed are cumulative, so that a character who is dazed from stun damage and wound damage and also has 2 points of mortal damage operates with a +4 penalty, in addition to any other penalties that may apply.

RECOVERY

How your hero recovers from damage depends on his condition (conscious or knocked out) and the type of damage he has suffered.

Stun Recovery

All stun damage is fleeting. It disappears at the end of a scene, regardless of how much stun damage a character has suffered. It can be repaired during a scene by the use of Knowledge-first aid, Medical Science, or some other form of medical treatment.

A hero who is knocked out (all stun boxes filled) can be revived by medical aid—or may be able to recover naturally, as follows: He remains unconscious for the remainder of the round in which he was knocked out and all of the next round. Starting in the round after that, when all conscious characters are making action checks, an unconscious character begins making Resolve-physical resolve checks in an attempt to bring himself out of it. On a Critical Failure or a Failure result, he stays unconscious. On an Ordinary, he regains 2 stun points; on a Good, he gets back 4 stun points; on an Amazing success, he recovers 6 stun points (but can’t recover more than his maximum number of stun points). On any success, the character becomes conscious but can’t attempt any other actions in the upcoming round.

Wound Recovery

Wound damage doesn’t go away by itself. It affects a character until he receives medical aid or until he rests long enough to heal the damage naturally (see “Natural Healing”). If a character is unconscious because all of his wound boxes have been marked off, he can’t regain consciousness until at least 1 point of that wound damage is healed.

Mortal Recovery

Not even a long rest will help a character who has suffered mortal damage—in fact, resting without being treated will eventually cause his condition to worsen. Mortal damage can only be repaired through the use of the Medical Science-surgery skill. A dying character (one who has at least 1 point of mortal damage) will remain in that condition until the damage is repaired or until he dies.

Fatigue Recovery

Fatigue damage can only be recovered when a character is in a complete state of rest—sleeping, or sitting quietly and not moving about. The amount of damage recovered is tied to the result of a character’s Resolve-physical resolve skill check: Critical Failure, no fatigue points recovered; Marginal, 1 point recovered; Ordinary, 2 points recovered; Good, 3 points; Amazing, 4 points.

Fatigue recovery checks are made once per hour of complete rest, but the Gamemaster can alter the time unit from hours to some other interval, depending on the situation. Any physical activity negates the benefit of rest the character has accumulated during the current time unit.

COMBAT ACTIONS

In a combat scene, heroes are liable to attempt certain actions that don’t often come into play during a challenge scene or an encounter scene. These “combat actions” are described below.

Combat Movement

In a combat scene, most characters move by walking or running. If a character has the ability to fly (either naturally or artificially), that option might be available. If the scene takes place in water, a character might have to swim to move around.

TABLE P11: COMBAT MOVEMENT EFFECTS

In some cases, a character might try to sprint. Combat movement (as opposed to all-out movement, described below) works essentially like any other action. During a round, whenever a character has an available action, he can move for a single phase at his listed rate. However, it’s also possible for him to move and perform some other action in the same phase. That additional action usually receives a situation die penalty, as shown on TABLE P11: COMBAT MOVEMENT EFFECTS. Note that a character who is using his swim movement rate can’t move and attempt another action in the same phase, and a character who moves at a walk can perform another action with no penalty.

The movement rates for easy swim and glide are provided for those times when a hero is in water or airborne and simply wants to travel without covering distance as quickly as possible.

All-out Movement

If all a character wants to do is cover a lot of distance as quickly as possible, he can elect to engage in all-out movement. When doing so, he moves a number of meters per phase equal to his movement rate for the type of movement he’s employing— sprint if he’s on land, swim if he’s in water, and fly if he’s airborne—and he keeps moving in every phase for as long as he is able or willing to do so. He can’t perform any actions except movement, though he can stop or duck behind cover whenever he reaches a suitable place.

To use this form of movement, a character must declare his intention to do so during a phase in which he has an action. In that phase and every phase thereafter until he stops, the character does nothing but move. After he decides to stop, he can do nothing else for the remainder of the current round.

Theoretically, a hero can use all-out movement as often and for as long as he wants. Realistically, however, it’s probably not possible for someone to use all-out movement for more than a few rounds before adverse effects set in. The Gamemaster will decide if a hero is abusing the “privilege” of all-out movement, and may assign penalties or assess fatigue damage accordingly.

Moving While Encumbered

While it might seem like a Good idea for your character to be able to carry everything from a plasma gun to a portable workshop, most people can’t put up with such a huge load for long. If your Gamemaster chooses to enforce a more realistic game, she may require you to keep track of your character’s encumbrance—the total weight of all gear at one time.

Keeping track of encumbrance isn’t always necessary. If your character owns a starship, it’s reasonable to assume that he leaves a lot of his personal possessions stowed in a locker and only retrieves items as he needs them. On the other hand, if your character has just been marooned in the middle of an arctic waste and has to hike out, it’s quite reasonable for the Gamemaster to ask you to decide which items your character wants to take.

Effects of Encumbrance

Any character can carry a load equal to twice his Strength score in kilograms without feeling any adverse affects. For example, a human with a Strength of 10 can carry 20 kg worth of equipment without losing a step. A character toting equipment that weighs more than twice his Strength score in kilograms suffers penalties; see TABLE P12: ENCUMBRANCE.

TABLE P12: ENCUMBRANCE

The reduction in movement rate applies both to combat movement and overland movement. The penalty applies to all actions related to Strength and Dexterity-based skills, as well as the character’s Strength and Dexterity resistance modifiers. (For example, a character with a +1 Dexterity resistance modifier who is loaded down with gear weighing five times his Strength score has his resistance modifier reduced to -1 for as long as he remains encumbered.)

Although it’s possible for a hero to lift more weight than six times his Strength score in kilograms (see the discussion of Strength feats on page 63 in Chapter 4: Skills), STR x 6 is the limit that a character can carry while still retaining the ability to move at an appreciable speed.

Example: Grimes is wearing attack armor (15 kg), carrying weapons and sensors totaling 7 kg, and wearing a backpack stuffed with supplies and survival gear that totals 26 kg. His total load is 48 kg, and he has a Strength score of 12. The load weighs STR x 4, so Grimes is slowed to 75% of his normal movement rate, has a +1 step penalty to the use of Strength and Dexterity skills, and his resistance modifiers in those Abilities are reduced by 1. If he can dump his backpack before getting into a fight, his load drops to 22 kg, which puts him under the STR x 2 limit and means that he can move and fight with no penalty to any of his actions.

Traveling Long Distances

TABLE P13: OVERLAND MOVEMENT

Operating in Zero Gravity

Light gravity, or no gravity at all, can be difficult for characters to deal with if they aren’t accustomed to it or don’t have some sort of assistance. Any physical action a character attempts while he’s in a zero-gravity environment carries a +3 step penalty in addition to any other modifiers that might apply.

In a light gravity environment (comparable to being on the Moon, for instance), the penalty is +1 step.

These penalties are lessened for a hero who has the Acrobatics—zero-g training skill; see the skill description on page 71 of Chapter 4. Also, a sesheyan character has an innate advantage when operating in zero gravity or light gravity; this information is contained in the zero-g training skill description.

If the optional rules for mutants (see Chapter 13) are used, it’s possible for a hero to obtain a mutation that enables him to function better in light gravity.

Aiming

A character making an attack with a ranged weapon or a direct fire heavy weapon can spend an action aiming to increase his chance of success. This provides a -1 step bonus to his next attack, provided he makes the attack in the next phase in which he is entitled to act.

For example, a hero who gets two actions per round makes a Good action check. He uses one action in the Good phase to aim at his target. In the Ordinary phase, he uses his second action to make the ranged attack, with a -1 bonus for aiming.

If the hero spends the Marginal phase aiming, the -1 bonus is applied in the next phase in which the hero can act (depending on the action check he makes in the next round). Of course, if the target moves out of sight before the hero can act, the aiming bonus is lost.

Attacking with Two Weapons

A character can arm himself with two weapons, so long as each weapon is an object that can be wielded with one hand. These weapons can be of any type.

If a character tries to attack with both weapons at the same time, the penalties described earlier in “Two Actions at Once” apply to the attempt: Any attack a character makes with the weapon in his off hand (the one he normally doesn’t use) receives a +4 step penalty, and any attack with the weapon in his skilled hand receives a +2 step penalty. These penalties are reduced if a character has the Ambidextrous perk; see Chapter 5: Perks & Flaws.

Attacks with two weapons are considered simultaneous—that is, they both occur in the same phase—provided that the Gamemaster is allowing characters to perform two actions at once (see page 51).

Thrown Weapons

How far a hero can throw an object depends on his Strength score. Short range is equal to the hero’s Strength score in meters; medium range is STR x 2 meters; and long range is STR x 4 meters. These distances apply for throwing small, light objects, such as balls, grenades, rocks, or similar items. Objects that are significantly larger or heavier can’t be thrown as far.

Weapons designed to be thrown include knives, daggers, spears, hand axes, javelins, and shuriken. (Descriptions of these weapons can be found in Chapter 11: Weapons & Armor.) In addition, heroes might try to hurl balls, ball-sized rocks, bricks, or even empty guns at opponents. Damage adjustments for Strength apply to any attack made with a thrown weapon.

TABLE P14: THROW SITUATION MODIFIERS

This table summarizes the difficulty of using a thrown weapon based on the type of object and the range of the target. As shown on that table, a hero actually gets a situation die bonus when trying to hit a target at short range with an object that is designed to be thrown. Objects that are small and relatively light (weighing up to 3 kg) but aren’t designed for throwing cause the hero to receive a penalty, even at short range. For heavy objects (weighing more than 3 kg but no more than one-half of a character’s Strength score in kilograms, rounded down), the penalty is +4, and no heavy object can be tossed beyond short range.

Grenades need to be treated a little differently from other thrown objects due to their explosive radius. In other words, you need to know exactly where a grenade lands, since it doesn’t have to hit its target to inflict damage. There are two types of grenades in the ALTERNITY game system: standard and gun-launched grenades. (Chapter 11: Weapons & Armor has descriptions and statistics for all available grenades.)

Standard grenades are any of the normal fragmentation, concussion, or energy grenades that are manually tossed at a target. A hero can toss a standard grenade a distance equal to his normal throwing distance. He uses his Athletics-throw skill. Treat a grenade as an object designed to be thrown for purposes of determining situation modifiers. Cover modifiers are applied to the throw situation die if such cover protects from the blast.

Gun-launched grenades are fired out of grenade launchers. This requires the use of the Heavy Weapons-indirect fire skill. Ranges depend on the grenade launcher being used. Refer to TABLE P20: ACCURACY BY RANGE on page 67 in Chapter 4: Skills and the accompanying text in the description of the throw skill to determine how far a grenade lands from its intended target.

If it’s important to know the direction of the miss from the target, a simple random determination might suffice: Roll d4, assigning each of the possible results to the four basic directions (ahead of the target, behind the target, to the left, to the right). The Gamemaster Guide has more detailed information on how to determine exactly where a grenade lands.

Holding Your Breath

Any character can hold his breath for at least a number of rounds equal to one-half of his Constitution score (round down). If he tries to keep holding his breath longer than that, he must make a Stamina-endurance check at the start of every subsequent round, with a cumulative +1 step penalty on each check after the first one. On a Critical Failure result, he suffers 4 points of stun damage, on a Failure result 3 points, on an Ordinary success 2 points, and on a Good 1 point.

If he gets a Failure or a Critical Failure result on a Stamina-endurance check, or if he loses all his stun points, he is unconscious and in danger of drowning. He makes a Stamina-endurance check in every round thereafter, marking off wound points after all his stun points are gone and then marking off mortal points when all his wound points are used up. If he isn’t rescued before his last mortal point is lost, the character dies.

Example: Jack Everstar is really in over his head this time—shackled to a concrete block that happens to be at the bottom of a lake. His companions are looking for him, but don’t know exactly where he is. With a Constitution of 9, Jack has no problem holding his breath for 4 rounds. At the start of the next round, he gets a Critical Failure on his Stamina-endurance check and thus loses 4 stun points. One round later, he makes his next endurance check with a +1 penalty and gets an Ordinary—2 more stun points lost.

His next endurance check is made with a +2 penalty, and Jack gets a Failure result. He loses 3 more points of damage—his last 2 stun points, which immediately renders him unconscious, and 1 wound point (since all his stun points are now used up).

Jack can still survive if he loses 7 more wound points and 3 of his 4 mortal points. But the penalty on his endurance checks gets worse each round—+3, then +4, and so on. He’s probably going to be chalking up a lot of Failures, suffering 3 points of damage each time. If his pals don’t find him soon, Jack is a goner.

IMPACT DAMAGE

Heroes have a habit of getting to very high places, engaging in some kind of breathtaking fight scene, and then falling off. This usually results in a miraculous rescue or a plunge to the ground below. As the old saying goes, “It isn’t the fall that gets you, but the sudden stop at the end.”

If a hero winds up falling from a high place, he suffers damage when he hits the ground or some other hard object, as described below.

When a falling hero finally hits bottom, his player makes an Acrobatics-fall skill check (or a Dexterity feat check, if he doesn’t have the fall specialty skill). Damage, as shown on TABLE P15: IMPACT DAMAGE, is determined by the result of the skill check or feat check and the distance fallen:

• Ex refers to an extremely short fall (a distance of less than 3 meters) or a collision with a vehicle traveling no more than 20 kilometers per hour.
• S is for a short fall (3 to 10 meters), or the equivalent of a collision with a vehicle traveling 21 to 60 kph.
• M is for a medium fall (11 to 30 meters) or a collision with a vehicle traveling 61 to 120 kph.
• L is for a long fall (31 to 60 meters) or a collision with a vehicle traveling 121 to 300 kph.
• T is for a fall in which the victim’s body approaches terminal velocity (a distance of 61 meters or greater), or a collision with a vehicle traveling at more than 300 kph.

On the table, cross-reference the success achieved with the proper category to determine what kind of damage the victim suffers. The Gamemaster can apply other modifiers based on the situation and the actions of the characters, as well as on the substance fallen upon (spikes, rocks).

Note: On worlds with lighter gravity than Earth, reduce the distance fallen by one grade (medium becomes short, for example). On worlds with heavier gravity than Earth, increase the distance fallen by one grade (medium becomes long).

TABLE P15: IMPACT DAMAGE

Using a Parachute

The best way to take a quick trip in a downward direction is with a parachute strapped to your back—but there’s still no guarantee that the landing won’t cause damage.

Making a parachute jump only requires a check (using the Acrobatics-daredevil skill) if the situation makes it a high-risk activity. Night jumps, jumping from buildings and cliffs, low-altitude jumps, and jumps made in high winds or bad weather are high-risk situations. Also, any parachuting attempt by a character untrained in the Acrobatics-daredevil skill is considered high-risk.

On any high-risk jump, a Critical Failure indicates that the chute doesn’t open and the character suffers damage according to the full distance he fell. (See TABLE P15: IMPACT DAMAGE.) On a Failure result, the parachutist suffers damage as for a Short fall, and even an Ordinary causes damage as for an Extremely Short fall. (The character makes an Acrobatics-fall skill check immediately, and the result is applied to Table P15 to determine how much impact damage he suffers.) On any other result, the parachutist lands without injury, and the degree of success may have an effect on how accurate the jump was.

SURPRISE

Sometimes one side or the other gets the jump on its opponent. Surprise occurs when one side waits in hiding to ambush the other, successfully sneaks up on the other, or otherwise takes an opponent unawares.

At the start of a scene, if one side or the other is in a position to surprise its opponent, the Gamemaster calls for Awareness-intuition checks. In some situations both sides can be equally surprised, in which case both sides make intuition checks. The Gamemaster assigns penalties to this check if the characters are occupied or in a rush. Bonuses can be assigned for being cautious or using some type of sensor.

Being Prepared

On the other hand, a group can be prepared for an encounter, thus gaining a bonus to avoid being surprised. For characters to be prepared, they need to fulfill two requirements, as outlined below:

• Time to prepare: Heroes can’t avoid surprise while they’re rushing down a corridor or when the situation suddenly changes. They can prepare if they find a suitable location to defend, if they move slowly and cautiously, or if they have reason to think an attack is imminent.
• Focus: Heroes can’t be alert for sudden attacks if they’re busy doing something else. To be prepared to resist surprise, they must concentrate on staying alert and watchful.
• Awareness check: If a hero meets the above two requirements, his player makes an Awareness-perception check with a -1, -2, or -3 bonus based on the quality of his preparedness. Any degree of success indicates that he can’t be surprised in the present situation.

Effects of Surprise

At the start of a scene in which at least one character failed his Awareness check, a special surprise phase occurs. Any character who isn’t surprised can take an action in this phase. When all unsurprised characters have acted, the surprise phase ends and normal action rounds start.

LAST RESORT Points

When a hero faces extreme danger, when great injury or even death seem inevitable, or when a hero just has to pull a miracle out of thin air in order to save the day, he may have the opportunity to use a last resort point.

Like skill points, last resort points can be stored and spent. The rules for how many last resort points a character can have are on page 38 in Chapter 2: Hero Creation.

Effects of Last Resorts

A last resort point can be spent to alter the result of any skill or action check, changing the degree of success by one grade. A hero who wants to improve his success can spend a point to change a Good result into an Amazing result, or a hero who wants to hinder an opponent can change the opponent’s Good result into an Ordinary result.

Heroes and members of the supporting cast can have last resort points. The Gamemaster Guide has details on how last resort points are assigned to the supporting cast.

Rules for Using Last Resorts

• Only one last resort point can be spent to alter a skill check or action check. (Members of the Free Agent profession can spend 2 points to alter the degree of success by two grades, if they so choose.)
• Last resorts can’t be used to offset each other. Once a last resort is declared on an action, no other last resorts can be used on that action.
• The use of last resort points is declared in order, starting with the character who got the best action check. In the case of a tie, use die rolls to see who goes first.
• The use of a last resort point must be declared after dice are rolled but before any results are applied. For example, if a villain rolls an Amazing attack, the hero must declare his last resort use to change it to a Good result before the villain calculates damage.
• Only a character directly involved in an action can spend a last resort point on that action. For example, a hero can spend a last resort to alter his own skill or action check, or to alter a skill check whose result directly affects him.
• Last resorts can’t be used to accomplish what would otherwise be impossible. If the Gamemaster determines that there’s no way to succeed at a particular action, then a last resort can’t be used to turn a Failure into an Ordinary.
• A last resort spent on a Critical Failure alters the outcome to a Failure. Bad luck is averted, but the action still doesn’t succeed. (A Free Agent, able to spend two last resort points at once, can change a Critical Failure into an Ordinary.)
• Last resort points can be purchased with stored skill points. A hero can buy last resort points between adventures, up to the character’s maximum.

TYPES OF SITUATIONS

Sometimes a Gamemaster assigns a level of quality to a situation. This categorization can refer to such features as the rarity of goods, the presence or absence of light and sound, the nature of the circumstances, or some combination of these factors.

• Goods and Items: Ordinary items are common, everyday objects that have value and worth. Examples include common food and drink, run-of-the-mill equipment, and cheap lodgings. Good items are of high quality and therefore more expensive. Examples include four-star restaurants, designer clothing, top-of-the-line equipment, and stylish lodgings. Amazing items are rare, extraordinary, and very expensive, such as gourmet food, exotic and unique equipment, and luxury lodgings.
• Light and Sound: The amount of light or sound present in a hero’s vicinity can affect the success of an action he attempts. Ordinary illumination is equivalent to normal daylight. Ordinary sound is normal background noise. Good illumination is similar to the brightness of a sunny day, or the inside of a well-lit room. Good sound is loud enough to make normal conversation difficult. Amazing illumination is equivalent to looking directly at the sun, or a high-intensity light bulb. Amazing sound drowns out everything else in the area. These categorizations can also be applied to conditions of low illumination, ranging from Slight (a night sky under moonlight) to Extreme (total darkness, such as inside a windowless room or a deep cave).
• Circumstances: Slight circumstances are straightforward, with a modicum of difficulty and an air of routine to them. Moderate circumstances have a moderate degree of difficulty and an air of tension associated with them that makes these scenes more dramatic. Extreme circumstances have a high degree of difficulty and an intensity that make these scenes climactic and of key importance.