Mechanics

Six Principles
Vaesen is governed by six principles that can be drawn on for inspiration or used to define the benchmark for how the world should be portrayed and how its people and creatures ought to behave. These principles are:
1. Vaesen are neither good nor evil: The creatures encountered by the player characters have their own daily lives, their own dreams and plans. Some are cooperating with human locals; others are mischievous or downright murderous. Whatever the case, they always have a motive for their actions.
2. Nature is dark and dangerous: The player characters have their homes and headquarters in the city; that is where they feel most safe. Nature represents the unknown – the other, the different – and anything can happen in the dark woods and lonely mountains. No one will find you if you go missing.
3. Scandinavia is changing: The old Scandinavia is being swept away by industrialization, and signs of this often violent shift are everywhere: abandoned farms, paupers roaming the streets, and confused vaesen seeking their place in the new world of factories and steam engines.
4. Knowledge and cunning are the keys to success: The mysteries of Vaesen can rarely be solved with violence. Instead you must use your abilities to study clues, contextualize the information you discover, and convince humans and vaesen to share their secrets.
5. The journey is part of the goal: The mysteries are not merely problems to be solved or overcome – their whole point is to pull the players and the player characters into the story that emerges during the course of the game. Another important focus is each player character’s journey from naive and untrained youngster to seasoned and experienced – and likely scarred – veteran.
6. You will not survive without each other: The player characters will face creatures the mere sight of which can drive a person mad, and beasts that can kill a man with a single blow. The only way to survive is to stick together. The player characters‘ relationships with each other and with important NPCs are crucial, both to the story and for healing injuries that are sustained during the game.

System
ROLLING DICE The characters have numeric ratings for what they are good at – understanding things, fast talking, climbing, and running fast. The rating indicates how many six-sided dice you get to roll when trying to overcome trouble. A six means a success. You rarely need more than one success. If you fail, you may try again, but then you risk getting a Condition. This is explained further in chapter 3. Some tables ask you to roll a D66. This means you roll two six-sided dice, after deciding which die represents the tens and ones, respectively. For example, if you roll a three on the first die and a six on the other, the result is 36.

Conditions
During the game you may have to suffer what are called Conditions, which can be likened to injuries or afflictions. These occur when you fail to protect yourself in dangerous situations, or when you push yourself to succeed. This is described further in chapters 3 and 5.

There are three physical Conditions and three mental ones. Acquiring a Condition means that you get a −1 modifier to skill tests for that type of action. Physical Conditions add a penalty to skills related to Physique and Precision. Mental Conditions add a penalty to skills related to Logic and Empathy. Also note that these modifiers accumulate: acquiring two Conditions adds −2 to your skill test. However, it is possible to cure Conditions during the mystery (see chapter 5), and no matter how many Conditions you accumulate, you may always roll at least one die.

If you have incurred all Conditions of either type, mental or physical, and then suffer yet another one, you become Broken. The player character cannot continue without medical attention.

Being physically Broken can mean that you are exhausted beyond your limits, or have sustained a serious wound. You might be unconscious or dying. Perhaps you have had your leg crushed or been shot in the gut, writhing in agony. While physically Broken you cannot move or do anything but utter a few words at a time. The Game master decides whether you are able to crawl away, roll to safety, or cry for help.

When you are mentally Broken you might be terrified, shocked, or confused. Perhaps you have lost all hope of getting through the situation alive, or lost faith in yourself or your companions. Maybe you can no longer make sense of the world and collapse in tears. While mentally Broken you may move and flee the scene, should you wish to do so, but are unableto engage in any kind of sensible dialogue; at best, you can scream or whimper in monosyllabic bursts.

If you are Broken, you cannot make any successful die rolls, whether physical or mental. You also sustain a critical wound, which means that you must roll on a table to see whether you get a Defect or an Insight. Defects and Insights are described further in chapter 5.

Conditions can help you portray your character: if she is upset, that should be reflected in how you play her. But in the end, it is of course you who decides the extent to which Conditions will affect the way you play your character.

CONDITIONS
PHYSICAL CONDITIONS (PHYSIQUE AND PRECISION) ·Exhausted
·Battered
·Wounded
MENTAL CONDITIONS (LOGIC AND EMPATHY)
·Angry
·Frightened
·Hopeless

EQUIPMENT
Most of the items you find during your mysteries are of the everyday variety, but some can be more useful, increasing your chance of passing your skill tests. You might need lockpicks to open something, or a horse to outride a lynch mob. These items add a bonus to your test, usually +1. Some special or even magic items may grant you a greater bonus, but rarely more than +3.

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Advantage
On the way to a mystery you will be able to gain an Advantage, but only one per mystery. The Advantage might be a new acquaintance who will then be available at the location to help you, a mysterious experience that gives you power, or you maintaining or training with your weapons on the way to the location. The Advantage can also be you bonding with another player character, which will later help you work together.

You can use your Advantage once per gaming session, which adds +2 dice to a skill test. You must decide whether to use it before rolling the dice, or when pushing the roll (see chapter 3), and explain how you use it. After the mystery your Advantage is lost. Next time you must choose another skill as your Advantage.

EXAMPLES OF ADVANTAGES
· I have trained with my rapier day and night
· Miss Silferdaal seems to like me
· I was blessed by an angel
· I dreamed that I risked my life for my friends
· The conversation with Captain Brungaard resolved our differences once and for all
· With the memory of Professor Brunelius’s kiss, I can do anything

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Skill Tests
MEANS AND ENDS
Before rolling you must tell the others what your player character is doing and what she is trying to achieve. The Game master may ask you to explain further or change your goal. This usually happens when she cannot get a clear picture of what you want to do, or finds your goal too unrealistic. For example, you cannot use MANIPULATION to make an enemy kill itself, or heal hundreds of patients without access to medicine, equipment, or beds.

A SINGLE ROLL
Whenever your player character tries to do something, you make one roll for the entire situation. If you are attempting to sneak through a castle, you do not roll to see if you reach the gate, then roll again to see if you get to the stairway, and then to go up the stairs. One die roll is enough. Sometimes that means the effect of the skill test can last a long time; for instance, it can take many days to craft something or cure a sick person. The only exception is combat.

EXTRA SUCCESSES
Rolling more successes than required means that you are extra successful. You impress yourself as well as others, get more than you wanted, or win renown for your skillfulness. In some cases, the Game master may deem your surge in confidence so great that you heal a Condition.

Some skills let you use extra successes to achieve certain effects, such as helping another player char-acter who has failed the same kind of skill test. Each effect costs one success. The Game master decides whether or not (and for what purpose) you may use your extra successes.

FAILED TESTS
Failing a test means that something detrimental or unexpected happens to you. In most situations the implications are quite obvious. A failed attempt at sneaking means that you are detected. If you are trying to inspire a crowd they may turn against you. Even before the roll is made, the Game master should try to be clear about what happens if the test fails.

In particularly difficult or dangerous situations, failing a test also means that you become afflicted with a Condition. The Game master should inform you of this before you roll. You suffer a Condition of the same type (physical or mental) as the skill you attempted to use, but are free to choose which one. Not all tests should carry the risk of acquiring a Condition – the player characters would quickly be worn down and the game would come to a halt.

Some situations are so serious that you immediately become Broken upon failure. Perhaps you are trying not to get hit by a train or defending your seemingly outrageous behavior before the entire commission.

PUSHING THE ROLL
Having failed a test, you can choose to muster your strength and give it one more try. This can only be done once per action, and must happen immediately after failing a test. This is called pushing the roll.

When pushing your roll, you suffer a Condition. If you are using Physique or Precision you choose a physical Condition – if you are using Logic or Empathy you choose a mental one. You may then re-roll every die except the sixes, should there be any. You can push rolls that have already succeeded, since there are situations where multiple successes make you succeed particularly well.

BROKEN TO SUCCEED
When pushing a roll, you get to re-roll all dice except the sixes. The Condition you acquire as a result does not come into effect until after the roll. It is therefore possible to become Broken from pushing a roll. Only after the roll does the Condition Broken render you incapacitated.

HELPING EACH OTHER
Other player characters can increase your chance of passing a skill test by offering to help with whatever you are attempting to do. The Game master decides whether you really do benefit from their actions. You gain +1 to your skill test for every person helping you, to a maximum of +3.

PARALLEL ACTIONS
When you are doing things at the same time, you cannot help each other. If all of you are trying to sneak past someone or avoid sinking into a swamp, each of you must pass your own test without assistance from the others. However, some skills allow a character whose test is extra successful to give successes to oth-ers (see Extra Successes), and help them that way instead.

Combat

INITIATIVE AND ROUNDS
Combat is divided into rounds. During each round everyone takes turns performing actions. When every one is done, the round is over and another one begins.

Vaesen uses a special deck (really just the cards 1 to 10), players get a unique card and that's your order.

On Gamersplane, we'll use a modified Initiative: everyone gets a card, act in ascending order, aces are lowest, for ties: clubs before diamonds before hearts before spades (alphabetical order).

This order persists throughout the combat.

A round is basically a few seconds.

SWAPPING INITIATIVE
You and another player character can choose to swap initiative cards during combat. You may only swap cards at the start of the round – before anyone has performed their actions. Your player characters must be able to talk to each other in order to swap initiative. In combat, extra successes can be used to outmaneuver the opponent (see skills in chapter 3), forcing her to swap initiative cards with you. If you are fighting a creature with multiple initiative cards, you get to pick the one you want.

Actions
You get one Slow Action and one Fast Action per round. You can use your Slow Action to perform a Fast Action instead.

TYPICAL SLOW ACTIONS
ACTION (SKILL)
Attack with melee weapon (CLOSE COMBAT)
Attack with ranged weapon (RANGED COMBAT)
Unarmed attack (FORCE)
Wrestle, push, grapple (FORCE)
Flee (AGILITY)
Persuade (MANIPULATION)
Lure enemy to a certain place (AGILITY)
Perform ritual (often takes several turns)
Survey the situation (VIGILANCE)
Treat injuries (MEDICINE)
Climb a wall (AGILITY)

TYPICAL FAST ACTIONS
ACTION (SKILL)
Draw weapon/ Swap weapon
Stand up
Dodge (reaction) (AGILITY)
Parry (reaction) (CLOSE COMBAT/ FORCE)
Break free (reaction) (FORCE)
Hold (reaction) (FORCE)
Chase (reaction) (AGILITY)
Resist magic (reaction) (Depends on the magic)
Shout more than a few words
Turn around
Close a door
Put out a candle
Move within the zone
Move into the next zone
Take cover

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CLOSE COMBAT
Attacking an enemy requires a skill test. Unarmed attacks are performed with FORCE. When armed with melee weapons you use CLOSE COMBAT. For ranged attacks you use RANGED COMBAT. You need one success to hit your target, dealing damage as indicated on the Weapons table. The damage value shown is the number of physical Conditions that afflict the enemy as a result of your attack. When rolling multiple successes you can choose to deal additional damage (for more on using extra successes incombat, see the skills in chapter 3). For each success the opponent suffers another Condition.

Human NPCs and animals don’t suffer Conditions, but have a Toughness value instead, which works in a similar way. For instance, an NPC who is hit for 3 damage loses 3 Toughness points and gets 3 fewer dice on the next test.

RANGED WEAPONS
The Weapons table shows the range of ranged weapons. The value indicates how many zones your weapon can reach from where you are standing. A zero means that you can only use that weapon against enemies in the same zone, whereas a one or more means it possible to attack enemies in adjacent zones. A revolver with range 0–1 can be used in the same zone as your enemy or one zone away. A rifle with range 1–3 can be used against enemies one, two, or three zones away but not against those in the same zone.

DODGING AND PARRYING
When attacked, you can use your fast action to parry in close combat, or dodge a gunshot or some other ranged attack. Both of these are reactions you can use at any time during the round, even if it is not your turn. This means that you can choose to "save" yourfast action in case you need to parry later in the round – but you can also use it before your turn.

You dodge or parry by passing a skill test. You use AGILITY to dodge, and FORCE or CLOSE COMBAT to parry depending on whether or not you are armed.

Each success deducts one success from the enemy’s attack. If you deduct all the enemy’s successes, the attack misses. By rolling more successes than required you may choose to swap initiative cards with your enemy.

You must choose to dodge or parry before you know whether the enemy has succeeded with her attack.

HOLDING AND WRESTLING
When attempting to wrestle or grapple your opponent, you make a FORCE test. Your opponent can use a reaction to break free, also using FORCE. If you succeed, she is restrained and cannot perform any actions other than breaking free or shouting. Preventing your opponent from speaking by putting your hand over her mouth requires an extra success.

The opponent is restrained until you let her go or she breaks free. Once per turn she may use a fast action to try and break free. You can use hold as a reaction. The two of you then make an opposed roll for FORCE. The person being held must get more successes than her opponent in order to break free; if you get the same number of successes the situation remains unchanged. If you do not use a reaction to hold her, she only requires a single success to break free.

The person being held can parry, but cannot attack or flee until she manages to break free.

FLEEING AND CHASING
You use AGILITY to flee. A successful skill test means that you leave the fight; if you fail, you remain in the same zone. You cannot flee if doing so would require you to move through a zone occupied by an enemy (this does not include the zone the character starts her turn in).

An opponent standing in the same zone as you can try to prevent you from fleeing. She uses a reaction to chase and then makes an AGILITY test. Each of her successes deducts one success from your result. If she manages to deduct all your successes, you stay in the fight. Both of you have moved one zone in the direction you were fleeing.

AMBUSH AND SNEAK ATTACK
In order to ambush or sneak attack your opponent you roll STEALTH against VIGILANCE. If successful you may draw an extra initiative card and pick the best one. Each extra success adds +1 to your first action of the round. If the sneak attack fails you are detected, and your opponent may draw an extra initiative card and pick the best one. If there are several ambushers only one of you makes a STEALTH test. The result applies to all of you. In some situations, the Game master may decide that no skill tests are required in order to surprise your enemy. You may automatically draw an extra initiative card.