The Dice

The dice work mostly like they do in Edge of the Empire (EotE, p10). As a reminder: Successes cancel with Failures Advantages cancel Threats Triumph and Despair do not cancel. “Upgrade” means turn a ‘Difficulty’ die into a ‘Challenge’ die, or a ‘Ability’ die into a ‘Proficiency’ die. If all dice are already upgraded, add a ‘Difficulty’ or ‘Ability’ die. Rolls are always a dice pool (EotE, p18).

The one difference is this: boosts do not stack. Let’s say, you have a feat that gives you “2 boost dice” on your next attack (for reasons). Right before your turn, that cute nerdy girl playing the shy librarian spends one of her advantages to give you a boost. Unfortunately for her, you do not roll three boost dice; you only roll two, since the boost she gave you and the boost your feet gives you do not stack. Ever.

Healing, Getting Hurt, and Dying

Each character has a damage threashold equal to the starting threshold of the class + Vitality. Damage that equals or exceeds the threshold staggers the character or moves them downward on the condition track. A character can move back up the condition track by spending stamina. Whey they move back up the condition track, the staggered condition is removed.

The Condition Track

As you take damage, you may end up moving down on the condition track. The condition track is a simple measurement of “how you’re doing”.

When you take damage equal to or greater than your damage threshold the first time, you are staggered. If you take damage equal to or greater than your damage threshold while staggered, you move one step down the condition track.

Damage and Threshold

Sometimes attacks can do devistating amounts of damage. When an attack not only beats your threshold, but beats mulitples of your threshold, you move that many multiples down on the condition track. For example, if a character has a threshold of 5 and gets delt 10 damage, that beats their threshold twice; they would move down two steps on the condition track, instead of one (assuming they were staggered). Here’s a chart to help explain:

So, as another example, if a character had a threshold of 5 and took 20 damage, (but wasn’t staggered) they would be staggered, and move 3 steps down the condition track. This makes devistating attacks matter, while still keeping things simple enough for the general case.

As you move down on the condition track, tasks get harder:

Helpless, Unconscious, and Death

Helpless characters always count as staggered. If the damage that drops you to Helpless would have moved you further down the condition track, you fall unconscious instead. Once you are unconscious, anything that would cause you to move down the condition track instead causes you to spend a point of Stamina.

If you are unconscious and at 0 Stamina, you die.

Stamina

Your character can only recover so many times in a day. Your Stamina is defined by your class, plus your vitality. Most healing powers or powers that allow you to go up on the condition track say, “expend one point of Stamina”. When you reach 0 Stamina, you cannot recieve the benefit of an effect that requires you to expend Stamina.

Your Stamina is restored when you take an extended rest.

Damage types, Soak, and Vulnerability

There are several damage types, as well as a few explicit types. If a power deals damage and has the ‘weapon’ keyword, that damage dealt is ‘weapon’ damage. If the damage value has a type name before the word damage (“Intellect + successes fire damage”), damage is of that type instead. A power can deal damage of multiple types. If neither of those are true, the damage is untyped.

Soak increases a character’s threshold against damage of that soak’s type. If damage is of multiple types, there must be soak to each type; the lowest value is used.

Vulnerability increases damage taken by a damage of the specific type.

Most armor provides soak vs weapon.

The basic damage types are:

• weapon
• fire
• electric
• poison
• acid
• force
• cold
• holy
• unholy

Turns and Initiative

To make an initiative check, roll your Vigilance, no difficulty. What you get is your Initiative score. You then go in order, sorted by what you got. The sort order is as follows: Triumph > Successes > Advantages > Players > NPCs

That means that, for example, if I roll 1 Triumph and 2 advantages, I go before the person who rolled 4 successes. If an NPC and I both roll 2 successes, I as a player would go first.

Turns follow the EotE style: Action - Attacking, skill checks, difficult tasks, etc. Maneuver - Moving, opening a door, activating a switch, etc. (maximum of 2 per turn) Incidentals - Talking, moving, switching from stun to kill, etc.

You can take, at most, 2 maneuvers in a turn. In order to take a second maneuver, you must either not take an action, spend 1 advantage, or grant combat advantage until the start of your next turn. Note: Unlike D&D, there is no run mechanic. Instead, it’s assumed you take a second manuever.

You can take as many Incidentals as you like, however, you cannot perform the same Incidental twice in one turn, unless otherwise stated. For example, if you take an incidental to swig a potion, you can’t swig an infinite number of potions; you can only swig one.

A note on talking

Humans can listen comfortable at 160 words per minute, and auctioneers can still be understood at 250 words per minute. This means that in a 6 second combat round, you should be able to say anywhere from 16 to 25 words. Call this an average of 20. That’s the length of the first sentence of this paragraph. Since we’re all about reducing cognitive load, and making things easy, let’s call this “A few short sentences, or one long one.”

Saving Throws

Some powers will put an effect on a character that a ‘save can end’ or ‘save ends’. These last until the character makes a successful saving throw. Saving throws are done at the end of your turn. To make a “saving throw”, roll . If you get at least one success, you’ve made your saving throw, and the effect that you were trying to save against ends.

Note: effects from the condition track apply to saving throws as well!

Taunted, Taunting, and Taunts.

Some powers or abilities will refer to ‘being taunted’ or ‘the taunting character’. Taunts are a way to direct attacks of opponents. If a character taunts an opponent, that character is referred to as the ‘taunting character’. The opponent is referred to as ‘taunted’.

A taunted character that takes an attack action or uses an attack power that does not include the taunting character as a target takes a on the attack.

A character can only be taunted by one character at a time. If another character taunts the taunted character, the previous taunt no longer applies.

Characters

A character is usually created and controlled by one player. They are a hero in the system, above average, with capabilities beyond the normal inhabitants. Here are their stories.

Abilities

Abilities are similar to EotE. They are measured from 1 to 6. We’ve split them up more like D&D4e in terms of what they mean, and what they do. They are as follows:

Brawn (Strength) - A measure of physical power. Vitality (Constitution) - A measure of health, stamina, and physical robustness. Agility (Dexterity) - A measure of hand-eye coordination, reflexes, and swiftness. Intellect (Intelligence) - A measure of ability to learn and reason Wisdom (Wisdom) - A measure of common sense, self-discipline, and empathy. Presence (Charisma) - A measure of force of personality, persuasiveness, leadership.

Average in these abilities is 1, while ‘superhuman’ is 5 to 6. An ability can never go to 0, otherwise the character is considered dead.

Abilities will be picked at Character Creation. All stats start at 1, and the player is given 4 points to increase them. Then, as you level, you will be given the ability to increase one, or all, depending on the level.

Defenses

Defenses are broken up into three skill-like attributes. Each is attached to two possible abilities. When determining a defense, use the higher of the abilities to determine how many dice to roll.

Reflex (Agility or Intellect) - Your ability to dodge, sidestep, or otherwise avoid attacks. Willpower (Wisdom or Presence) - Your strength of will, self-discipline, and devotion. Fortitude (Brawn or Vitality) - Your inherent toughness, mass, strength, and resilience of physique.

They work like skills, in that they are dice pools, but they are a pool that represents the difficulty of hitting you. For example, let’s say I have a character with an Agility of 3, and a Reflex of 2. That means that all attacks against my reflex are at a ‘Hard’ difficulty, upgraded twice ().

Skills

Skills are the core of the system. Anything from attacking in combat, picking a lock, medical treatment, casting a spell, and negotiating a peace treaty is done through a skill check.

Skills are intended to be used when the outcome actually matters. Just going to the store to pick up milk is not worthy of using a skill. Attempting the same trip when the store clerk has secretly poisoned the milk will likely require some skill rolls (such as detecting the poison or resisting its effects once ingested).

Skills

Feats

Characters can have feats as well. They are limited to a total of 6, after which they must retrain a feat to gain a new one.

The intention with feats is for them to be a ‘cherry on top’ as far as character creation goes. They should give you that extra little tweak to gameplay, or flavor that you were looking for. Since we only have 6, they will be more powerful than D&D’s feats.

Races

Races are basically flavor, with a small amount of specialization. Each race will generally give you +1 to two skills, or +1 to any two untrained, as well as some sort of racial feat or trait. See the list of Races for more details.

List of Races

Powers

A power is usually an action take in combat. They can do anything from hurting the enemy to helping an ally.

Power Name

The name of the power.

Frequency

How often the power can be used. At-Will powers can be used as often as their Action allows. Encounter powers only recharge after a short rest. Daily powers only recharge after an extended rest.

Further Type

More classification information about the power. If applicable, will have the class and level of the power. May also have if the power was from a class feature, or just an attack power.

Flavor

A flavorful description of how the power might look or work.

Action

What action the character must take to use the power. “No Action” means the power can always be used. “Incidental” or “Free” can be done as long as the character can take actions; “Free” may have a trigger associated, described in on the sections. “Maneuver” can be done in a maneuver action. “Action” is done during the usual action in a turn. “Retaliate” means it is used when an opponent provokes a retaliation, or under a specific trigger.

Range

How far or close a target can be for the power to be effective. Ranges are “Personal”, “Melee”, “Close”, “Sight”, “Range”, or “Area”.

Personal

The power only effects the character using the power. Use of this power does not provoke.

Melee

The power effects targets within brawl or melee weapon range. Use of this power does not provoke.

Close

The power effects are area very nearby the character. Use of the this power does not provoke.

Sight

The power effects any square the character can see. Use of this power does provoke.

Range

The power effects a target that is not in the immediate vicinity. Use of this power does provoke.

Area

The power effects an area that is not in the immediate vin city. Use of this power does provoke.

Range Specific

Depending on the range given, this may be blank, give a number, state ‘weapon’, give two numbers separated by a slash, blast number, or burst number. Personal range powers will have a blank range specific. A power that has a number targets a square no farther than that number. Two numbers sperated by a slash indicate short/long range; a target up to short range has no penalty, while a target at long range means the use gets a ; anything further than long range cannot be targeted. ‘Weapon’ means use either the melee range specified by the weapon, 1 if using brawl, or the short/long range of the weapon if using a ranged weapon. Blast is used exclusively by close powers; blast is a square that shares a corner or side with the character, but cannot intersect the character; the size of the square is N x N. Burst is used by area or close. If area, it will give the “burst N with Y”, where Y is the same as range. The target square is the origin square; when used with close, the character is the origin square. The number after burst is the radius. So a burst 1 will create a 3 by 3 area centered on the origin square.

Section

A power will then have several sections describing how the use the power.

Target

What can be targeted by this power, and how many. Creature is any target, even oneself. Self is only yourself. Ally is any friendly other than yourself. Enemy isny non-friendly.

Attack

Offensive Skill vs Defensive Skill. If there is more than one offensive skill, the attacker chooses which skill to use. If there is more than one defensive skill used, the defender chooses. Any power that has this entry is considered an attack. If there is more than one target, roll the attack against the most difficult target and use the result for the hit.

Skill

If the power is not attempting to effect another, this is used instead. It will list both the skill needed, and the difficulty.

Opportunity Cost

The number of advantages that are needed to be spent from the opportunity pool to use the power.

Recharge

If a power is an encounter power, it can become availble to use again (after having been used) under the given conditions, or paying the listed cost.

Requirement

Any other requirements to use the power.

Hit

What happens if there are 1 or more successes.

Miss

What happens if there are 0 successes.

Effect

What happens if the power is used regardless on if a roll made was successful.

Sustain

If the power provides an effect that would end at the end of your next turn, on your next turn you can take the action listed in the sustain section to extend it until the end of your next turn, rather than the current turn.

Special

Anything that breaks the rules specific to the power.

Basic Powers

All adventurers have the following powers:

Level 1 Ability Scores

All stats start at 1. You then get 4 points to place where you like, with no one ability being higher than 3.

Classes

List of Classes

A class provides:

• Base Damage Threshold
• Bonus (+1) to a defense.
• A primary attack power source
• Two secondary attack power sources
• ‘class skills’ - choose X number of skills from the list (of Y number), get 1 rank in them.

After that, advancement is done using the Level Up Table.