Extras

The default game mechanics lend themselves to a lightweight pulp style of gameplay, which can be enhanced or altered by using the following extra rules to add details when desired.

Advancement

If character progression is desired for a campaign, characters should mark any skill failures in order to have a chance at improving those skills at a later time.

During extended downtime, a character’s player may choose to advance, possibly improving their character’s skill ratings. They roll a d100 as an improvement check, and can increase all skills marked with failure that are rated at or below the improvement check result. Unmark the skills’ failures and increase the ratings by 1%. A skill rating can never exceed its related attribute's maximum rating.

Training

A character can spend time actively practicing, studying, or training to improve a skill, instead of solely relying on hands-on learning. A dedicated training session—typically a work day’s worth of focus (about 8 hours)—allows the character to increase that skill by 1%, avoiding the need to make an improvement check.

Learning Talents

Characters are able to eventually learn new talents over time. After 20 total training sessions focusing on a specific skill, the player may make a talent check by rolling d100 and comparing the updated skill rating: on success, a new related talent is gained. If failed, the character can attempt another talent check after the next training session. Once a talent is gained, the 20-session count is reset.

Corruption

Interacting with particularly harmful sources can result in a character suffering corruption, a semi-permanent reduction in one or more attributes. If a source of damage is noted as corrupting, its damage reduces both the current and maximum rating for the affected attribute. Typically, healing this type of damage requires supernatural intervention: a ritual, powerful artifact, or otherworldly task.

Once an attribute’s value is corrupted down to zero, the character is permanently lost to the corruption, and there is no coming back.

Crafting

Crafting professions are talents tied to the most relevant skill. Craftable items have a complexity rating that determines how much effort must be put into creating it. Complexity is tied to specific qualities of the resulting item, usually rated up to 100. Larger or much more complicated crafting projects can have correspondingly higher complexity, or the project can be broken into multiple crafted items.

Each contributing action is a skill roll, taking a set amount of time to perform. Work attempts are independent and can generally be separated by time. A successful skill roll increases the progress made by the result, until the total meets or exceeds the complexity rating. A critical doubles the progress result, and a fumble reduces the progress by the result amount.

Particularly high quality crafting gear can make related crafting rolls easy; similarly poor equipment (or lack thereof) can make them hard. Some crafts can also be performed more carefully, making it easy but taking relatively longer.

Entities

Entities (NPCs, non-human creatures, monsters, special items, etc.) can have tags associated with them to describe abilities and special aspects. Entity tags include:

• Armored (X): natural armor with X Body resistance
• Eldritch (X): otherworldly and terrifying; causes immediate corrupting Xd10 Mind loss, and triggers a sanity check on each interaction, corrupting further Xd10 Mind on failure
• Flying: close-range actions on them are hard, while in the air
• Immortal: cannot be killed; enters a fugue state or vanishes upon zero attribute(s)
• Scary (X): shocking to witness; triggers a fear check on encounter, reduces Xd10 Will on failure
• Spectral: incorporeal and ghostly; Sense rolls against them are hard, only takes Body damage from Weird weapons
• Uncanny: disconcerting and unnatural; hard Will skills against/near/within them
• Undead: triggers a Will check on encounter, failure results in panic and 1d10 Will loss
• Vulnerable (Type): takes double damage from all sources of Type damage
• Weird (X): wildly offputting, infused with magick; triggers a sanity check on encounter, reduces Xd10 Mind on failure

Instead of skill ratings and talents, NPCs have skills noted as strengths (with ↑) or weaknesses (with ↓). Action checks against strengths are hard, and checks against weaknesses are easy.

Many artifacts, relics, books, and tomes exist that contain or describe supernatural energy or knowledge not meant for humans. Most of these items are either Weird or Eldritch, with the distinction being whether they’re simply infused with chaotic energy (Weird) or directly contain some inherent chaos or deeper cosmic truths (Eldritch).

Equipment

Equipment can have tags that denote some quality or detail important to their use. Equipment tags include:

• Fragile: critical Body damage tears this material, reducing its protection.
• Heavy: hard movement checks when carried.

Armor has a protection rating (for Body resistance), and weapon damage has a type that describes how critical hits cause additional damage:

• (Default): add 1d10 to damage.
• Blasting: double damage.
• Piercing: maximum damage (e.g., 40 for 4d10).
• Periodic (Burning, Cutting, Toxic, etc.): deals occasional related damage until dealt with effectively.

Weapons have a range, the relative distance that its effect can reach. If possible, a weapon action made outside of its normal range is hard.

• Touch: in physical contact.
• Close: within arms' reach.
• Near: within lunging distance.
• Far: within throwing distance.
• Distant: within shouting distance.

Substances

Drugs and chemicals offer a range of temporary effects for characters. Availability and legality are highly dependent on a chemical’s effect and local authorities.

When a character consumes a substance, they make a Body check. If their current Body rating is higher than the potency, the roll is easy. On success, only beneficial side-effects occur; on failure, both beneficial and harmful; on a fumble, they suffer only the harmful effects.

Becoming dependent on an addictive substance is possible: all action checks are hard until they pass a Body check (normal difficulty, attempted daily), or the character consumes the substance again (doesn’t clear the dependent status).

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