Basic Rules

~Skill Tests~

--What are skill tests? You roll a skill test whenever you want to do something, like hacking a computer, picking a lock, crafting a mod, and most importantly, ATTACK!!


1. Choose Attribute + Skill
-----Choose the associated attribute and skill for the test and add the two up, your dice rolls need to be EQUAL TO OR BELOW this number. (Also called the TARGET NUMBER.)

2. Check Difficulty
-----The difficulty is the number of successes you need to accomplish what it is you are rolling for. (Usually a number between 1 and 5).

3. ROLL THE DICE!
-----Every time you go to roll a test, you always start with 2 d20s in you pool. You can gain extra d20s by spending Action Points or having certain perks, but will never roll more than 5d20 for a single check.

4. Check for Successes
-----Each die the results with a roll equal to or less than the target number generates 1 success. Any die that rolls a 1 scores a critical success, and generates 2 successes.
-----If the skill that was rolled is one of your tag skills, then you score a critical success for every result that rolls equal to or less than your skill rank.
-----Each die that results with a roll of 20 generates a complication.

5. Check # of Success against Difficulty
-----If the number of successes generated is equal to or more than the difficulty, you succeeded! If not, you failed :(.
-----For every success generated more than the difficulty, the party gains an Action Point!

Concepts Expanded:

Complications:
---Complications can either introduce a new problem, such as a gun jamming or breaking a lockpick, or make future tests more difficult, like increasing the difficulty of bartering with a certain shopkeeper by 1 for future tests.
---If we cannot come up with a complication in the moment, the GM can also just add 1 Action Point to their pool.

~Action Points~

When do you gain Action Points?
—Action Points (AP) are gained every time you generate more successes on a check than the difficulty. So if you roll a test and generate 3 successes, but the difficulty was 2, then that extra success becomes an Action Point.

Who can use them?
—When you gain an Action Point, you can either use it immediately to do extra damage, take additional actions, etc. Or, that Action Point gets added to the Group Pool. Anyone can use the Action Points that currently reside in the Group Pool. Though, the Group Pool can never have more than 6 Action Points in it.

But what about the Game Master?
—Whereas the players start with their pool at 0 Action Points and gain them as they go, the Gamemaster begins the game with 1 AP per player in their pool, and gains them/can use them in all the same ways the players can. And!, there’s no limit to how many AP points the GM can have in their pool.

There aren’t any Action Points in the Group Pool, but i really wish there were!!
—Well luckily for you, there’s an easy way to fix that. If you’re desperate for an extra d20 for a roll or just really need to do a couple more points of damage, then you can spend AP like normally, but instead of taking away from the Group Pool, you add the cost of your action to the Game Master’s pool! Neat, huh?

~

Well, what are Action Points used for?

—Buy d20s. (Cost: 1-6 AP) Before the dice are rolled, buy extra d20s for your dice pool for a skill test. Want to pick a lock, but the pesky difficulty is set at 3? Buy some extra dice to increase your chances! Buying 1 extra d20 costs 1 AP. Buying a second one costs an additional 2 points. Buying a third costs an additional 3 AP. You can never buy more than 3 extra dice for a test.

—Obtain Information. (Cost: 1 AP) Ask the gamemaster a single question about the current situation, based on your test. The GM will answer truthfully, but maybe not completely. (Currently unsure how to use this one really, perhaps if you fail your test, you can spend an AP to ask it directly to me, or the party is stuck and would like a hint.)

—Reduce Time. (Cost 2 AP) AP from a successful test can allow the test to take less time, when time is important. This effectively halves the amount of time a test takes.

During Combat: (Can also use the ones above, but the ones below are specific to combat.

—Take Additional Minor Action. (Cost: 1 AP) Take 1 additional minor action on your turn. You can only take a maximum of 2 minor action on your turn.

—Take additional Major Action. (Cost: 2 AP) Take 1 additional major action on your turn. Any skill test attempted using this extra major action has its difficulty increased by 1. You can only take a maximum of 2 major actions on your turn.

—Extra Damage. (Cost: 1-3 AP) On a successful melee attack or thrown weapon attack, you can spend AP to add 1dF per AP spent, up to a maximum of +3dF for 3 AP.

~Luck Points~

What are luck points?
--In addition to being one of your attributes, your Luck also provides Luck points that you can spend to shift the odds in your favor in a number of different ways. You can spend Luck points to do one of the following options, both during freeform play or on your turn in combat.

How many do I have, and when do I get them back?
--Every player begins each quest with a number of luck points equal to your Luck attribute. You regain all of your luck points at the start of the next quest. You can also, once per quest, reflect on your personal trinket to regain one luck point.
---For this game, I am going to define "quest" as an Act. The beginning adventure has three Acts, each with 2-3 scenes in them.
---"Reflecting on your personal trinket" for this game will mean that you can, in character, describe how you got your trinket, an important moment your character had with it, how it saved your life, or maybe even how it almost got you killed, up to you! Just make it personal!

Well, how do I use them?

--Luck of the Draw. You may spend a Luck point to introduce a helpful fact or detail about the situation you’re in, something that you’d have to be lucky to encounter. You could find just the right items or the right kind of ammo while you’re scavenging, find a key to a locked door, or a clue to a computer password. The gamemaster may prompt you with an opportunity to do this, or you may suggest when it could happen, but they can veto your suggestions, or ask you to spend multiple Luck points to make it happen.

--Stacked Deck. You may spend 1 point of Luck, before you attempt a skill test, to use LCK instead of the default attribute used for that test to determine your target number. Obviously, this only really has a benefit if your Luck is higher than the attribute it’s replacing.

--Lucky Timing. During combat, at the start of any round, or immediately after any other character or creature has acted, you may spend 1 Luck to interrupt the normal initiative order and take your turn for this round immediately. This counts as your normal turn—it simply allows you to act earlier—and you cannot do it if you have already taken a turn this round.

--Miss Fortune. You may spend one or more Luck points to re-roll dice in a dice pool you roll. You may re-roll one d20, or up to three dF, by spending one Luck point, and you can spend multiple Luck points on a roll. Each die may only be re-rolled once—you cannot re-roll a die that has already been re-rolled. You must accept the re-rolled result, even if it is worse than the original roll.

~Me Rules~

(These is not official rules in any way, instead homebrew things that I will put in place)

Travelling in the Wasteland
The New Black Swamp is a wild, dangerous place, and traversing it can be perilous.

Everytime the group travels through the wasteland, from one location to another, or whenever narratively fitting, I will roll 2d20 at the beginning of your journey. (Subject to change)
On a roll of:
2 - 10: I will roll again on a Wild Wasteland Encounter table I found and edited/added to
11 - 30: Roll on a general encounter table, or create one more narratively fitting. (Not all combat focused)
31 - 39: The journey goes off without a hitch and you get there safely!
40: Idk, but it'll be something special (could be in good or bad ways, maybe both!)

~Long-Term Recovery~

Rest:

Rest is the easiest way to recover from damage, though it is slow. If you can find somewhere to sleep, for at least six hours, you regain all lost HP.If you’re able to get eight hours of sleep somewhere safe and comfortable—your own bed in a settlement you belong to, for example—then you are considered Well Rested as well, and your maximum HP is increased by +2 until you next sleep.

When you sleep, if you have any injuries (treated or otherwise), make an END + Survival test with a diffi￾culty of 1. The complication range on this test increases by +1 for each injury that has not been treated. If you succeed, you may recover from one of those injuries, plus an additional injury for every 2 AP spent.

The difficulty of this test varies based on how active you were during the preceding day. (More info later if it comes up)

You may only benefit from one sleep in any 24-hour period.

~Assistance~

Difficult tasks are often completed through teamwork. When someone else is attempting a test, you can assist them if your GM allows it. Describe how you are helping and decide with the GM which attribute + skill combination you’re using—it doesn’t have to be the same combination as the person you’re helping. Then, roll 1d20 and add any successes you generate to theirs, providing they score at least 1 success of their own. If they didn’t generate any successes, then you can’t add your success to the total.

You can’t buy additional d20s if you are assisting, you can only roll 1d20, but your d20 doesn’t count towards the limit of 5 that the player attempting the test can roll in their dice pool.

While assisting, you can score critical successes or complications as normal.