Now that you are caught up with the core concepts of this game, let’s get down to how everything actually works. This section will overview many of the main mechanics necessary for playing this game. Be warned: there is a lot of math in this game. It’s mostly on the side of your GM though. A lot of what you need to do is front-loaded between sessions and when your character takes a rest. That way, your role-playing can be slowed down as little as possible. For your GM’s sake, and that of your Party Members, please familiarize yourself with this section in particular.

Dice

Before we get started on anything, it is important to know that this game expects you to have at least one standard seven dice set containing a four-sided die, a six-sided die, an eight-sided die, two ten-sided (possibly differently labeled for rolls up to one hundred when used together), a twelve-sided die, and a twenty-sided die. It’s ultimately up to your GM to have dice available for you, even if you have to roll using their personal set, but things run smoother when everyone has at least one set of their own.

After this point, we will not refer to any of these dice using the previous language and instead refer to everything by the roll you need to make as that is how they will appear in every formula. The Dice Rolls are: d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20, and d100. As stated above, a d100 roll consisted of two d10 rolls where one is designated as the tens unit. These are not always used as a Percentile Roll and are often added in as raw values due to the insane nature of power scaling in this system.

There are a few Percentile Rolls in the game, which are when you roll a d100 to represent a Chance of Success as a percentage. In those cases, a Critical Hit (a spark of good luck often giving bonus results) should be treated as rolls between 1 and 5 and a Critical Miss (a spark of bad luck resulting in a reversal of fortune) should be treated as rolls 96 and100 (the same odds as a d20 but with more precision). Otherwise, any description that gives you a Chance of Success roll, the highest possible roll is a Critical Hit and the lowest is a Critical Miss.

Statistics

There are a lot of important numbers in this game that are used both in and out of combat, but not every number will be as important to every character. To make it easier to keep track of these numbers are broken down into the core Attributes and the various Stats they affect gameplay. All Players will need to understand the core Attributes that influence the other Stats, but depending on your character goals you may not need to pay much attention to certain Stats. Especially if your character is not combat-focused.

Attributes

Attributes represent the principle characteristics of any entity in the game. These don’t represent any given capability of the character, but more so their nature. In certain ways, you could say that each Attribute represents power in a different way. You could look ahead to specific Stats you are interested in building, but for a better roleplaying experience it is suggested that you plot out your Attributes based on the ideals your character is striving for.

Might (MIT) represents someone’s outward strength; how much physical force they can apply to the world. This affects things like how much damage a character can deal with their hands, how much they can lift, or how high they can jump.

Vigor (VIG) represents someone’s outward resolve; how much physical force they can withstand. This affects things like how much damage their body can take from attacks, how resistant to disease they are, or how far they can fall and survive.

Alacrity (ALC) represents someone’s general swiftness; how much speed they can generate. This affects things like travel speed, reflexes, or how long they can jump.

Intuition (INT) represents someone’s ability to problem solve; how well they can put their mind into action. This affects things like gathering information, using technology, or learning new skills.

Morale (MRL) represents someone’s internal condition; how to intune they are with their spirit. This affects things like willpower, charisma, or faith.

Luck (LCK) is the odd man out of the other five Attributes. While the others are archetypes of character that lie within any champion, LCK is more of how the hands of fate meddle with your affairs. We don’t know where it comes from. Even those that call themselves gods are stumped. All we know is that some people got it, some people don’t, and it’s not always good. And good LCK is seemingly invaluable.

Stats

Stats are the real values of what any entity can currently do in the game. They are formed through the combination of one or more Attributes and sometimes other game factors such as Equipment, Abilities, or Talents. If you care more about what your character can do than who your character is, you will find the formulas for each in the Character Creation section.

Health Points (HP): A representation of the character’s well-being.  Damage done reduces HP, and if it drops to zero, they faint and leave open the possibility of death. It shows more stability than anything else. A character that loses a limb will initially lose a lot of HP, but later on, if they have been stabilized and rested up, that character still regains full HP, though maybe altered with GM discernment, lacking that limb from then on out. This is affected by VIG,  MRL, and LCK.

Technique Points (TP): This represents the character’s reserves of how much energy they have for using physical abilities. This means anything that uses the body or brain directly. The character can only do so many intense physical activities between rests, though a slight boost can be gained by having a meal. This is affected by MIT, VIG, INT, and MRL.

Spirit Points (SP): This represents the character’s reserves of how much energy they have for using non-physical abilities. This means things like psychic or magic abilities and the like. This energy is more intense than TP, so it is used more quickly, but builds back up over time by doing other activities. This is affected by INT and MRL.

Lifting Power (LFT): This is the amount of mass a character can lift above their head with both hands at maximum HP, measured in both the standard scaling number and Kilograms. Realistically, due to kinetic linking, each arm can lift a quarter of what a character can do with both. As HP decreases, LFT also decreases by the percentage missing. LFT is cumulative, and as long as everyone involved can properly grip the target, everyone’s LFT directly adds together. This is affected by MIT and VIG.

Striking Power (STR): This represents how much damage a character can generate with a physical strike. Because the system needs certain numbers for the various formulas and dice rolls, this is given two measurements, including both the standard scaling number and output in Joules. Because STR takes less exertion than LFT, it does not decrease until a character is in Critical Condition and only drops by half. This is affected by MIT, ALC, and MRL.

Physical Defense (PHD): This represents how resilient a character’s body is before it starts to take damage from physical sources. High PHD can reduce damage from a punch, a sword, or even ignore gunfire. Much like with STR, PHD is measured both in the standard scaling number and in Joules. This is affected by MIT, VIG, and Equipment.

Magical Defense (MD): This represents how resilient a character’s being is before it starts to take damage from ethereal sources. High MD can reduce damage from things like ghosts, hexes, or other forms of magic that don’t conjure matter into the physical world. There is no additional measurement for this durability since the soul doesn’t experience things in the same way physical objects do. This is affected by INT, MRL, and Equipment.

Jumping Height (JMP): This represents how much force a character can put into leaving the ground. This is measured both in the standard scaling number and in Meters. This is affected by MIT and ALC, as well as being LFT and Equipment, circumstantially.

Running Speed (SPD): This represents how fast a character can travel on their own. This is measured both in the standard scaling number and in Meters per Second (MPS). This will determine your turn order. This is affected by MIT and ALC as well as LFT and Equipment.

Dodge Reflex (DOG): This represents a character’s physical ability to react to things happening within their Zone of Attention. This is measured both in the standard scaling number and inversely in increasingly shrinking time intervals [see table]. This is affected by ALC, INT, and LCK.

Attention (ATN): This represents a character’s perception and ability to focus on or detect things within their Zone of Attention. This is affected by VIG, INT, and LCK.

Discovery (DIS): This represents a character’s ability to problem solve or come up with new ideas. This is important for various applications like navigating, learning new skills, and recognizing patterns. This is affected by INT, MRL, and LCK.

Status Resistance (RES): This represents how difficult it is for general Status Ailments to affect a character. There are many specific types of Status Ailments that each may have their own specific method of resisting through various Talents, Abilities, Equipment, et cetera, but this Stat will still be used in just about every formula. This is affected by VIG, MRL, and LCK.

Willpower (WIL): This represents a character’s capability to impress their will upon their environment. This is important for studies, specific branches of magic, many types of special Abilities, resisting certain Status Ailments, Existential Conflicts, and overcoming Death. This is affected by Level, MIT, VIG, INT, and MRL.

Charisma (CHM): This represents a character’s inherent ability to sway the environment around them. If WIL is the character’s internal force spreading out, CHM is the external pull reaching in. This influences attraction, social and group dynamics, animal handling, resisting certain Status Ailments, and even some aspects of Fate. This is affected by Level, MIT, MRL, and LCK.
Faith (FTH): This represents a character’s spiritual fortitude. This is important for studies, religious actions, specific branches of magic, group dynamics, and even resisting certain kinds of Status Ailments. This is not a measure of how much belief a character has in any deity, and even those who don’t believe in the supernatural at all can have abnormally high FTH. This is affected by Level and MRL.

Vocations

Vocations are the areas where a character’s specialties come from. Since everyone is a Freelancer in this game, this replaces the idea of traditional classes. Every job needs certain skill sets and your vocational training will fill in those gaps. Vocations advance separately from a  character’s Level with their own resource. 

As mentioned earlier on, Levels use XP and Vocations use AP to advance. Both XP and AP are typically awarded for winning in battle, but it is up to the GM to award them in other situations. It is recommended that they are rewarded when players engage in actions of roleplaying with the world and not just trying to roll endlessly to avoid engaging as a character.

The suggested out-of-combat patterns for rewards are as follows: if something difficult for a character (it takes a long period of in-game time, forces them to make rolls, or stretches them outside of their comfort zone) they should be given XP, and if it is something work-related (completing gigs, using vocational abilities to overcome tasks, or actions that work toward character goals) AP should be given. If the activity overlaps, it is reasonable to award both.

There are a limited number of Vocation paths given in this manual, though more will be available later on in other material. On Earth, the paths in this book are delegated by organizations: the Fighters Guild, the Hunters Association, the Grand Coven, and the Thieves Assembly (though your GM can choose any other way to handle Vocations as they see fit). Each of these organizations starts with two Vocations. You do not need to join these organizations to advance in the Vocation, so think of them more as vendors of knowledge looking to sell you skills. You can choose to join up with one for various though, which will be described in the section on Guilds and Factions.

The Fighters Guild comes with the paths of the Hoplite and the Wǔshù jiā. The Hoplite is a classic weapon and armor specialist. They aren’t against using modern weaponry, but they prefer being just outside of arms’ reach and dancing with their target in bladed combat. The Wǔshù jiā is a master of hand-to-hand combat. They use martial arts to devastate opponents even at risk to their own body.

The Hunters Association comes with paths of the Scout and the Guerilla. The Scout is an expert in tracking and trapping targets and taking them out without direct confrontation. They prefer the use of bows, riffles, and knives. The Guerilla is a combatant that uses an array of armaments to fend off multiple opponents from both afar and up close. They prefer ballistics and explosives, focusing more on tactical warfare than brute force.

The Grand Coven comes with paths of the Witch and the Shaman. The Witch is a disciple of destruction. They weave spells harnessing the elements and forces of chaos to devastate the battlefield. The Shaman is a healer who deals in both medicine and blessings. They prefer to allow others to do the fighting for them while they call upon higher powers to aid their allies.

The Thieves Assembly comes with paths of the Swindler and the Hitman. The Swindler is an expert in all manners of street life. They use their wit to manipulate others to gain information and other valuables to aid their cause. The Hitman is a professional killer who specializes in taking out their target without getting caught. They prefer the use of stealth, disguise, and extremely long-range weapons.

Remember, you can change Vocations any time you take a rest or in any safe area in which a rest is possible. This is important because outside of areas where you can change Vocations, you can only spend AP on General abilities and those of the currently equipped Vocation.

Abilities

For the sake of clarity, we will use the term Ability to refer to everything your character can use AP to learn during or after Character Creation. These are functionally how your character evolves over time. Not to be confused with any traits your character gets from their Heritage, or inherent to your active Vocation, or the Talents you pick during Character Creation. There is an entire section dedicated to which Abilities are available for purchase later in the manual, though more will be made available through additional materials later on. Your character will start with a certain amount of AP to spend during Character Creation, depending on what Level you start.

There are many ways to gain AP in this game. The most consistent source, though maybe not the best, is leveling up. Depending on what your group agrees on, you will get at least 1 AP every Level; especially recommended for long campaigns or if the GM offers many more ways to get AP. For shorter, quicker campaigns, such as one-shots, you can go more for something like 5 AP every Level. Completing Combat will also award AP and will be covered in that section later on. Other methods will depend on your GM, but technically, they can award AP any time they feel like it for any reason. Some recommended examples include: story milestones, successfully completing Events (suggestions will be in that section), critically succeeding on sufficiently difficult task checks, or sufficiently playing in-character when it is inconvenient to the player or party. It is really up to how your GM feels. You aren’t entirely reliant on them, however. Some traits you can pick up from your Heritage, Talents, or even current Vocation can offer methods of farming AP. Be sure to weigh all your options when designing your character.
Abilities come in many kinds, which we will go into greater detail in that section of the manual. The only thing we wish to further emphasize here is that the best experience for everyone involved in your campaign is obtained by choosing Abilities that reflect your character narratively. It is highly discouraged to meta-game your purchases unless your character is specifically built around those decisions in advance.

Task Checks

Outside of combat Abilities, almost every dice roll will be a percentile Task Check. Many of these will be directly related to the Talents you can pick up during Character Creation. Unless a module specifically tells you something is a Task Check or what the difficulty is, it is up to your GM to figure out when you should roll and the Chance of Success. They may decide your character could easily do the task without rolling or that the task is so far out of their ability that rolling is useless. Anything in between, it is time to roll that d100. The Task Check will be the difference between the Chance of Success and your corresponding Attribute, Stat, or Talent level; only taking into account the highest three orders of magnitude of the larger number.

If the difference is 0 or below, you succeed without rolling. Rolling gives no benefit, even if you Crit.

If the difference is between 1 and 5, you have to Botch to fail, but a Crit doesn’t give any bonus. 

Anything between 6 and 95, normal rules mentioned in the Dice section apply. 

If the difference is between 96 and 100, you have to Crit to succeed, and any failure should have minor consequences, with a Botch carrying even more weight.

If the difference is between 101 and 150, you can still roll if you choose, but only a Crit can succeed, and any failure at all is a Botch.

If the difference is 151 or higher, you would result in failure no matter what. If you choose to roll for some reason instead of backing out, any result is the same as a Botch.

We’ll provide a few examples for you to make it easier to understand.

At the beginning, you will likely run into the following: you need to get information from a security guard who isn’t as loose-lipped as you’d like; it is his job to secure things after all. He has a WIL rating of 56, and you want to challenge him with your CHM of 27, because you didn’t pick up any Talents that might make this any easier. Since they are of the same order of magnitude, it is straightforward: 56 – 27 = 29. Not a hard Chance of Success to pass at all. Guess he was as loose-lipped as you’d like.

Now, let’s jump forward to something more complicated: there is a huge boulder blocking a cave you want to enter. The boulder’s weight gives it a rating of 1200 against LFT. You only have an LFT of 42. These numbers are really far apart and need to be worked into more rollable numbers, so we take the highest three orders of magnitude, or you might also know it as the first three significant figures, of the highest number involved. In this case, it leaves us with 120, and then, equalized, your rating is 4. 120 – 4 = 116, which means you could, somehow miraculously, move the boulder if you manage to Crit, maybe only enough for human bodies to squeeze past if your GM is being reasonable, but you may also throw out your back if you roll anything less than a 96. That’s okay, your party members want to help. One has an LFT rating of 71 and another of 87. Combined, you all have a rating of 200, or 20 after being equalized to the boulder. 120 – 20 = 100, which isn’t incredibly greater odds, but at least it means if you fail to Crit, you’d have to Botch for anyone to throw their backs out. Have the member of the group with the best luck roll this one.

We showed you how to resolve static Task Checks against NPCs and the environment, but now we will show you how to resolve a static Task Check against another PC (this will also apply to NPCs that are supposed to function as PCs, which is when your GM creates an entire Character Sheet for it instead of a briefer Encounter Sheet). In this case, we are using the lowest number rule, like the Percentile Rolls mentioned earlier on in the manual. Let’s say your character is drunk and thinks it is a good idea to arm wrestle your friend, who happens to have super strength. They, being equally wasted, agree. You have an LFT of 82 and they of 915, but you are only using your arms (one to wrestle and the other on the table to stabilize), so cutting in half, they would be 41 and 457, respectively. Since these are already within the first three significant figures, you can go straight to rolling your d100. The person who rolls beneath their rating (impossible for your friend not to here) and furthest from it wins. You roll a Crit of 2 and beat your rating by 45, but unfortunately, the gap is so wide that even your friend rolling a Botch of 97 still beats his rating by 360. They win, and reasonably with a gap wider than our normal 150 allowance for miracles, your GM should probably punish your character with at least minor physical injury. With this method, it is probably best not to even try something like this if your ratings are more than 150 away from each other.

If you wish for a more chaotic experience, an alternative method for PC vs PC task checks exists. Let’s take the same example, except that even though they are already within the first three significant figures, we are going to further reduce them until the largest number is below 100. That leaves your friend with 45 and you with 4. Sure, you have to Crit beneath 4 to even have a chance to win, but now your friend can also miss. If, like the previous example, you roll a 2 and they roll a 97, you can miraculously beat your super strong friend in an arm wrestling match. In either case, if one character’s rating is far enough from the other that it disappears when you reduce them down, no roll is necessary, and the higher wins by default.
Note: If you are playing more of a narrative/discussion focussed campaign that is going light on the math, just have your GM give you a reasonable percentile Chance of Success for any situation. If you all agree that you have a 75% Chance of Success, then we are cool with that as well.

Events

Events are defined as any sort of staged encounter or scene that the players engage with. This may involve Task Checks; however, they alone don’t make something an Event. A good way to know if something should be considered an Event is if it requires turn order or time to pass. The primary Event is Combat (discussed in the next segment), but other types can include puzzles, auctions, negotiations, traps, races, time trials, and more. 

Once you have established that you are in an Event and require turn order, it is time to set up and roll for initiative. This roll is just a little bit different than the ones you’ve seen thus far in the book, and that is mostly to keep things simple; although we will offer an alternative method if you want to let your extreme speed characters lap everyone else, we just don’t think that is very fun for everyone, and should still only be used if all of your group wants it. 

Method 1, the preferred method, involves equalizing your dice roll to your stats. To start, everyone involved in the event will roll a d100 + ALC before every round starts. Once everyone has their roll, look at each character’s SPD and adjust your roll to the same order of magnitude. For example: if your SPD is 51 and your roll is 35, no adjustment is needed; if your SPD is 8 and your roll is 79, you adjust it to 7; if your SPD is 1248 and you roll 115, you adjust it to 1150. Place everyone into the turn order with the largest number going first and counting down, skipping to each character or object involved, until 0 is reached to resolve one round. 

Each character is allowed 1 Full Action per turn that round, but they may choose to divide their roll by, and up to, every two orders of magnitude they have on the slowest member in the turn order for extra Full Actions. Basically, if the last turn is 25 and you rolled 673, you can divide your turn in half because you are two orders of magnitude higher (+1), having two Actions at 337 instead; if in the same scenario, you rolled 150,448, are four orders of magnitude (or two sets of two higher; +2) higher and could divide it either in half, for two Actions at 75,224, or in thirds, for three Actions at 50,149. Aside from this aspect, the size of your number doesn’t matter, just the turn order. If there are no turns between 4543 and 215, or between 215 and 0, the rotation skips all the missing numbers in between. To make it easier, below will be a table that contains the maximum number of actions you can choose to have based on how many orders of magnitude faster you are than the last turn, for what will likely apply to most campaigns you will ever play. Just take the number in the table (or lower) and divide it from your roll to get your new turn number and action count.

Order of Magnitude Difference	Maximum Number of Actions	Order of Magnitude Difference	Maximum Number of Actions
0 – 1	1	10 -11	6
2 -3	2	12 – 13	7
4 – 5	3	14 – 15	8
6 – 7	4	16 – 17	9
8 – 9	5	18 – 19	10

Method 2, the method that lets your characters lap each other and take forever to get to your slowest character’s turn, follows the previous method’s dice roll exactly the same, but gives characters a turn at every other order of magnitude interval. That sounds confusing, but it’s not as you just drop off the last two significant figures at a time until no one is left, just very time-consuming to get through and not recommended, even though it might be a bit more realistic order. Examples: a roll of 82 would only have one turn at 82; a roll of 4,061 would get a turn at 4,061 and a turn at 40; a roll of 33,550,336 would get turns at 33,550,336, 335,503, 3,355, and 33. As you can see, this might end up taking way too long, but how you play the game is up to your table, and some may actually prefer this method. You can also feel free to simply turn order even further, however you please. The priority is your fun.

A character may also take as many Empty Actions as they would like, though we recommend no more than the order of magnitude of their roll. If using method 1, all Empty Actions could be used together at once or in any order they wish, since everything happens together in one turn. If using method 2, typically try to limit it to two Empty Actions whenever a turn comes up that round, or at least try to keep track of how many you’ve used. 

An Empty Action is defined as any quick Action with no weight to it. This could include: roleplaying leading up to or following your Full Action (you should roleplay your Full Actions as well, whatever they are), a quick shout to a party member (keep it brief to about one phrase each), your allotted Movement, or any Abilities that specifically mention Empty Actions.

A Full Action, on the other hand, is any Action with weight to it. This includes: Attacking, using an Ability not otherwise stated to be an Empty Action, performing a Task Check, extra Movement, using Consumables, switching out Equipment, or engaging in full dialogue with someone during an Event (length of which is to your GM’s discretion)
A Total Action is defined as an Action that consumes your entire turn before rolling, removing you from that round altogether. You must declare that you are taking a Total Action during the initiative roll, but you don’t have to say what kind you are doing until prompted by the GM; they just need to know you are not in the turn order that round. Some Total Actions include: purchasing Abilities or Talents during an event, attempting to Flee (it may not be possible to do so), any form of Divine Intervention, or Abilities that specifically mention the term Total Action.