Playing the Game

The Goal: You are treasure hunters. The Conductor gives you a tip-off to a piece of treasure somewhere dangerous. Your goal is to bring it back for sale.

Saves: A Save is a roll to avoid danger from a risky action or situation. Roll d20. If you roll equal or under the appropriate Ability Score you pass. A roll of 1 is always a success and 20 always a failure.

Turns: On their side’s turn, each individual can move and perform one action. When it is unclear which combat side should act first, each character must pass a DEX Save to be able to act before the opponents.

Attacking: All players declare who they are attacking before any dice are rolled. Attackers roll the Damage die dictated by their weapon, causing this much Damage to the target.

Attackers wielding two weapons roll Damage for both and keep the highest single die.

Multiple attackers targeting the same opponent roll their Damage together and keep only the highest single die.

Armor: Armor subtracts its score from the result of any Damage rolls against the wearer. It can never be higher than 3.

Impaired: Attacks that are Impaired, such as firing through cover, or fighting in handcuffs, roll d4 Damage only, and cannot receive Bonus Damage.

Damage: When an individual takes Damage, they lose that much HP. If they take more Damage than their remaining HP they are wounded, and any remaining Damage is removed from their STR score. They must then pass a STR SAVE to avoid Critical Damage.

Combat Tips

• Before you roll any dice, check for any extra combatants that are attacking the same target, then roll the dice together, otherwise they miss their chance to attack that target.
• Damage that occurs outside of the normal turn sequence of combat, such as stepping on a trap on your own turn, causes Damage independently.
• Ranged attacks cannot be used if you are engaged in melee.

Bonuses: Under certain circumstances an attack receives a Bonus, noted as +d6, +d8 etc. This is rolled as an extra attack against the same target. Remember that only the highest single die causes Damage. Attacks against a completely helpless target always receive +d12.

Critical Damage: A character that takes Critical Damage is unable to do anything but crawl until they are tended to by an ally and have a Rest. They die of their injuries if left untended for an hour.

Blast Damage: Attacks marked with Blast affect all targets in the appropriate area, rolling separately for each target. They range from explosive or automatic weapons to giant sweeping limbs. If in doubt as to how many targets can be affected, roll the weapon’s die.

Resting: A few minutes of Rest and a drink restores a character’s HP, but risks a wandering encounter.

Restoration: Ability Loss and other serious ailments require the aid of a Specialist Service to recover. Free services exist, but quick fixes cost money.

Ability Loss: If a character has their STR score reduced to zero they are dead. If their DEX or CHA are reduced to zero the character is paralysed or catatonic respectively, and cannot act until their Ability is restored. They must be carried to safety.

Combat Manoeuvres: If the players want to do something like disarm or trip someone in combat, the side most at risk makes a Save to avoid consequences.

Death: When a character dies, the player creates a new character. Find a way to have them join the group as soon as possible. Here, quickness is required over realism. Remember, a new character replacing a dead one results in a £1k Debt for the group as an administrative fee.

Bulky Items: Generally, items that need two hands to carry, or are otherwise awkward, count as Bulky. Anyone carrying more than two Bulky items is reduced to 0HP.

Deprivation: Someone Deprived of a crucial need (e.g. food, water or warmth) cannot benefit from Rests.

Oddities: Characters acquire devices with unusual abilities as they explore the world. These Oddities do not require a roll to use, but generally they have a very specific power, limited number of uses, or carry some other disadvantage.

Reaction: When a social reaction to a character is uncertain, the character must pass a CHA Save to avoid a negative reaction.

Morale: The leader of a group must pass a CHA Save to avoid their followers being routed when they take their first casualty, or lose half of their total numbers. This applies to opponents and allies but not player characters.

Retreat: Fleeing to safety under pursuit requires a DEX SAVE and somewhere to run to.

Assumed Ability Scores: Any Ability Score not listed is treated as 10.

Detachments: Large groups of combatants fighting together are treated as a Detachment.

• When they take Critical Damage they are routed.
• When they reach STR 0 they are wiped out.
• Individual attacks against Detachments are Impaired, unless they cause Blast Damage.
• Detachment attacks against individuals receive +d12 and cause Blast Damage.

Structures and Vehicles: Structures and Vehicles reduced to 0HP are wrecked, and all within suffer d6 Damage.Weapons unsuitable for causing structural Damage have their attack Impaired.

HP is restored by minor repairs, but Wrecked vehicles and structures require lengthy Specialist repair. Colliding vehicles both take d6 Damage. If there is a major weight difference, the heavier gets a +d12 Bonus. Vehicles take no Damage for running over soft targets like people.

Scars: If an attack takes you to exactly 0HP, take a permanent Scar. Look up the amount of Damage caused on the Scars Table.

Specialists can mostly cover up a Scar, but something always remains.

People

Key Principles

• There are all sorts, and they’re everywhere.
• Everybody relies on somebody else for something.
• They’re always in your way.

Memorable Individuals

• Give them an immediate visual gimmick.
• Amplify this gimmick into their personality, or contrast it with something unexpected, but make it big.
• Tie them to another character somehow, or put them right in the way.

The Nameless Crowd

• If you have enough people you can use them as scenery.
• Don’t let them focus in on any one person easliy, give lots of details spread across the crowd.
• The crowd is alwayt moving towards a destination or spiralling towards an outburst.

Everything can be a Person

• If the players have a question, put the answer inside a person.
• If the players want to achieve something, pus a difficult person in the way.
• If you want to tell the players something, say it through the person.

Names

• Full names are difficult to remember, give them a strong forename or surname with a title instead.
• Made up names are even harder to remember, use existing words.
• If you want to hide the meaning of the name, use a foreign or obscure word spelled or pronounced badly.

Mockeries

Key Principles

• Creatures of felt, wood, and string given the spark of life.
• They act human, but their needs are only imitated.
• Children love them, real animals hate them.

Mock Talents

• Every Mockery has an innate talent for a particular task.
• The talent is often trivial, and rarely put to serious use.
• They are excellent but unconventional teachers of their talent.

Theatrical Nature

• Mockeries act like they know they’re on a stage.
• They are more likely to do what is theatrically appropriate.
• At times their sense for theatre can border on precognition or omniscience.

Exceptions

• Mock People are known, but largely despised.
• Mock Objects normally stick to the Underground.
• Some Mockeries don’t really resemble anything, calling themselves Fallacies such as the False Speaker and False Mother.

Machines

Key Principles

• They are one with the Underground, or at least their part of it.
• They instigate change and monitor the results.
• They want to teach you a lesson.

Forms

• They are machines, but always have a way to communicate.
• They are more suited to create than to destroy.
• Their bond to the Underground is often physical.

Protocol

• They follow logic, often to the extreme.
• They are always willing to explain.
• They want to see you tested and altered, and care little about you beyond that.

Creations

• They manufacture creations from the Underground itself.
• Once something is created, they do nothing to control it.
• The solution to everything is either creation or observation.

Aliens

Key Principles

• They are more advanced than us, but in a very specific way.
• Their form reflects their home.
• They bring something with them, and seek to take something back.

Living in Bastion

• There are always barriers to integration.
• They always have a means of communication, however ineffective.
• Their desires are relatable, but through an Alien lens.

Lost in Deep Country

• Some rule as gods.
• Some have established isolated communities.
• Some have become monsters of legend.

Cosmic Variety

• Few can pass for human.
• Few are outwardly hostile.
• It’s not clear where their bodies end and their technology begins.

Monstrosity

Key Principles

• They are made unique, not born.
• They attract attention.
• There’s always a compelling set of reasons to see them destroyed.

Making a Monster

• Every Monstrosity started out as something more mundane.
• Their origin could have been through design, accident, or their own action.
• Wherever they are, their surroundings become more monstrous in turn.

Unique Beings

• There’s nothing quite like them, and they’re instantly recognizable as monstrous.
• They seek places where they can stay solitary but are often drawn to others by a need or curiosity.
• Nobody knows exactly what they are.

Hunters and Followers

• There’s always somebody that wants them dead.
• There’s always somebody fascinated by them.
• These are as likely to be human, animal, Machine, Alien, or Mockery.