​Making Rolls: ​Ability Rolls

Action Rolls based on Abilities cannot usually be increased by spending more time doing them. This requires skill.

Ability Rolls only need to be rolled when in a stressful situation (such as combat, or extra effort). Otherwise, a die roll of 7 can be assumed.

The character can make an Extra Effort when making an Ability Roll. The character can increase any ability after the roll is made, in order to increase the Quality and to succeed at the roll. The ability that was increased is immediately decreased by the same amount it was increased. If a character with a 17 strength makes a Lift Roll, and increases strength to 24 (8 point increase), strength drops immediately to 9 (17-8). These lost ability points return per hour when resting.

Abilities cannot be increased so far that the ability will drop to less than 0.

Combat Roll: Look up twice Agility on the Sphere Chart for the character’s Combat Roll. Combat Q can be applied to Attack, Defense, Speed, or Damage. The Combat Roll costs 1 EP (it starts at Row 5).

The character’s Attack must be greater than or equal to the opponent’s Defense. If the Combat Roll fails, apply the negative Q evenly to Attack, then Damage, then Defense. It’s possible, if unlikely, that the target has a negative Defense, so a negative Attack can still hit. Note that the miss goes directly to Damage, not to the Doubling Chart. Defense Q is still divided by 2 and rounded towards 0.

Sight bonuses/penalties to Combat, Size Difference modifiers, and learning divided by 10, round down, are all added together, along with any other modifiers, for the Bonus Pool to the Combat Roll.

Attack and Defense only apply to one opponent. If the character wants extra opponents, each extra opponent counts as a penalty of 1 to the Combat Roll’s Bonus Pool. The character’s Defense counts against all opponents. The player must apply Attack separately for each opponent. In order to attack multiple opponents, they must all be in front of the character, and the character must be able to attack them in a ‘sweeping’ manner, such as with a telephone pole, a beam power, or a semi-automatic weapon. Each attack takes place on successive segments (except for automatic firearms). Whether or not a multiple attack can be performed must be handled on a case-by-case basis.

Discernment Roll: The Discernment Roll is vs. half Newoen, rounded down. This is the ability to know what is the right, true, and good course of action. If successful, the character knows what the good or evil action is in that situation. The Discernment Roll doesn’t use EP, and has a Performance Time of 6.

Hand Damage: This is the damage done by a character when attacking unarmed, and the damage added to a weapon which depends on strength. Look up mass divided by 10 on the Doubles Chart, and add strength divided by 4 (round down). If Strength is greater than Mass, add Mass/4 instead of Strength/4.

Hand Damage is not normally rolled. A character with a Mass of 100 kg and a strength of 14 will do 7 points of hand damage on a successful fist attack.

Hand Damage starts at row 7 on the EP use chart. When characters use their maximum Hand Damage, it costs 3 EP (that heal per round). The EP cost can be reduced by doing less damage. Use the standard EP cost progression, but start at 3 EP (Row 7). A character who can do 9 points Hand Damage who decides to do 7 will use 1 EP. If the character does 6, it only costs 1 EP for every 5 attacks. Note that Hand Damage costs EP whether or not the attack is successful.

Healing Roll: The Healing Roll is an automatic roll. It costs no EP and cannot be increased via Extra Effort. The roll is vs. Constitution (Sphere Chart). The character’s current Body DP is added to the Bonus Pool.

If the roll is for mental healing, there is a bonus equal to newoen divided by 4, round down, to the Pool.

Physical Healing Roll Q is automatically applied to healing DP, strength, agility, constitution, and EP, in that order. The Healing Roll is made each hour (for Bludgeoning DP, for abilities that heal per hour, and EP that heals per hour of sleep). It is made each day (for Penetrating Damage), and each month, for Injury Damage.

Mental Healing Roll Q is automatically applied to healing EP (Astral Form), charisma, and learning, in that order. It is made each hour (for abilities that heal per hour, and for EP that heals per hour of sleep).

VP and EP (things that heal per round) are handled slightly differently. Take the Healing Roll and add the Bonus Pool (Sphere Chart, of course). Half this (round up) for the VP that is restored each round. The same amount of EP (round down) are restored each round. The character must be resting to regain lost VP and EP.

There is no penalty applied to Healing Rolls because of low EP or low DP.

Hold Breath Roll: This is vs. Constitution plus half Strength, with a bonus equal to current Body DP. There is a penalty to the Quality equal to the elapsed time, in rounds, on the Sphere Chart. The Quality reduces EP cost. The roll is only made once for any specific attempt, and the elapsed time penalty builds as time passes, thus increasing the EP cost. When Quality becomes less than 0, EP cost moves beyond Row 9. At Q of -1, the EP cost is 6 per round (Row 10).

For every 5 points of EP lost in one round, 1 point of DP (bludgeoning) is lost, to the head.

The Performance Time for Hold Breath is 10. If the character hasn’t completed Holding Breath before the necessary time, the character is affected by whatever gas was being avoided. If the character was simply trying to hold breath before air was lost (due to a vacuum), there is a penalty to the roll equal to the number of segments remaining for the Performance Time. If a character starts to Hold Breath at segment 34, and all air is sucked away at segment 36, the penalty is 8.

Jump Roll: The Jump Roll is vs. agility plus strength. There is a bonus equal to twice height (on the Square Chart). The Quality can be applied to reducing the EP cost and to the height of the jump. Look up the Q applied for the height on the Result column, and read to the Square Chart, for the height in centimeters.

The amount of time (in segments) the character is in the air is found by looking up four times the height jumped (in meters) on the Square Chart.

The distance a character jumps horizontally depends on speed at the time of jumping, and the amount of time the character was in the air. Take the character’s speed in meters/segment and multiply by the number of segments the character was in the air for the horizontal jump distance.

For purposes of grabbing something, characters can add up to their height to either the height jumped or the length jumped. A Combat Roll (close combat) is required to actually grab something in a jump.

Jumping, like movement, is a passive action, and has a Performance Time of 6. It can be started on the same segment as Move is started.

On a failure, the character still jumps, but not as high.

If the character’s density is extremely low, multiply the time in the air by the atmospheric density plus the character’s density, and divide by the character’s density. Movement should be multiplied by the same amount.

Lift Roll: The Lift roll is vs. Strength minus 9, plus the character’s Mass on the Sphere Chart. The Quality must be the object’s mass (Sphere Chart). Quality can also reduce the EP cost and Performance Time. A failure costs 1 EP. The Performance Time for a Lift is 10 segments.

For powers, the Performance Time is 20 segments. For powers that can lift at a distance, look up the distance to the object, in meters, on the Sphere Chart for the Q required for distance.

Inanimate objects (ropes, webs) do not normally need to roll the Lift Roll. Their Lift Q is the Roll plus the Pool (Sphere Chart, of course).

Move Roll: The Move roll is vs. Agility plus half Strength (round up), plus the character’s Height on the Square Chart. The Quality can be applied to increasing or decreasing the character’s current speed, to turning, or to reducing the current EP cost for movement. EP cost for movement (at the end of each round) is always the cost of the last Move Roll.

The character’s current speed is the total Q so far applied to speed, on the Sphere Chart (a Q of 0 and 1 are practically the same—.9 vs. 1). There is a penalty to the Move Roll pool equal to the total Q so far applied to speed. If negative Q is allowed for movement (using the fractional results on the Sphere Chart), this does count as a bonus.

If the roll is missed by more than 5, subtract the amount the roll was missed by from the current movement Q total. Also, add 1 to the EP cost row for every 5 points the roll was missed by. This extra EP cost will last until the player makes a successful move roll or stops moving.

When attempting to decrease speed, the character can automatically decrease the movement Q total by the current movement Q, on the Sphere Chart. A Move Roll is required, however, and if the Move Roll is failed, reduce the decrease by half the failure.

In order to turn, the character must use 1 Q point per 45 degree turn.

Speed is in .1 meters per segment (decimeters/ segment). Each .1 meter/segment is equal to 5 meters per round, 25 meters per minute, and 1.5 kilometers per hour.

Always round Movement to 2 digits, unless you want to make a complex rule really tough. If a player wants to, Movement Q can also be applied to Defense, with 2 points of Q adding 1 point to Defense (against all enemies). In this case, the same amount that is added to Defense is subtracted from Attack, if the character is attacking. The Defense Q must be re-applied every time a new Move Roll is made.

Movement is passive with a Performance Time of 6.

You don’t need to handle movement on a segment by segment basis. Determine how far a character has moved only on the character’s action, or when the character is being attacked. Editors and players can always call for a movement update for everyone, in order to plan an upcoming action or area-effect attack.

Throwback Roll: Characters who are punched, blasted, or otherwise attacked, may be thrown by the force of the blow. The Throwback Roll is the character’s Mass, on the Sphere Chart. The Throwback Roll has no bonus pool. There is a penalty to the roll of the damage done before skill, Skin Temper, or Ignore Damage modified it. If the character was only hit for VP, there is a bonus of the highest of agility or strength (Sphere Chart). If the character took DP from the attack, the bonus must be strength.

For a character to be thrown back when only VP was lost, the character must have been surprised. If the character lost DP in a surprise attack, the bonus due to strength is halved.

If the Throwback Roll is failed, make the negative Q positive, and look this up from the Result Column of the Action Chart to the Sphere Column, for the speed in meters/segment and the distance in meters that the character is thrown. Half this for attacks that do mainly penetrating damage. Half again for small projectile weapons, such as handguns and rifles.

(For more precision, assume that the character is at a height equal to half the character’s height. Multiply this by 4, that is, multiply character height by 2, and look this up on the Square Column for the number of segments in the air. For most characters, this is 1, making the speed equal the distance.)

The Throwback penalty Q is added to Pushback.

Under certain circumstances, you may want to apply throwback for positive Q (making it negative), thus resulting in fractional throwback, but this should be rare, as it is quite tedious.

Throw Roll: The Throw roll is for throwing things. It is vs. Strength minus 9. There is a bonus equal to the character’s Mass (Sphere Chart). The Q is used for the object’s mass (Sphere Chart). It can also be used to reduce the EP cost or to increase the distance the object is thrown. Look up the Q applied to distance on the Result column of the Action Chart, and read to the Sphere Column, for the distance in meters. A Combat Roll must still be made to hit a specific distance or location.

If the Throw Roll fails, the object is still thrown a small distance. The EP Cost is 5, and the negative Q is looked up from the Result column to the Sphere Column, just as before.

The speed of the object will be the same as the distance, in meters/segment.

Example of Movement

Seraph starts running. He has a strength of 11, an agility of 22, and a height of 1.791. His Move Roll is 22 (agility) plus 5 (half of strength), plus 1 (height on the square chart), or 28. He rolls a 5 and a 1, for 6. The 1 is re-rolled, getting a 4, bringing the result to 2. The Quality of the Move Roll is 28-2, or 26.

Seraph puts 9 of the Q points towards reducing the EP cost to 0. This leaves 17 Q points. He applies all 17 points to Speed, for a speed of 10 dm/segment, or 1 meter/segment. Later (segment: 81) he decides to try and increase his speed. He rolls again, but since he’s got 17 Q in speed already, he has a penalty of 17 to his Bonus Pool, for a total penalty of 10. He rolls 18, plus 10, or 28, for a Q of 0. He cannot increase his speed, and his EP cost just went to 5 EP/round (so he pays 5 EP). He tries again on segment: 87, rolling a 14, for 24 and a Q of 4. He uses 1 point to bring his speed Q to 18 (or 11 dm/segment) and uses the other 3 to reduce the EP cost to 2 EP/round (using 2 EP). He’s not satisfied with that EP cost, however, so on segment: 93, he makes another roll. His Bonus Pool is now -18 (for a penalty of 11). This time, he gets 17, for a Q of 0. EP is back up to 5 EP/round, and he uses 5 EP. He tries again on segment: 99, getting 13, (+11 gives 24) for a Q of 4. He uses this to reduce the EP cost to 1 EP/round (paying 1 EP now, and again on segment: 100, a Payment Segment). He tries one more time on segment: 105. This time he’s more successful. He rolls 5 (+11 gives 16) for a Q of 12. He uses 9 points to bring the EP cost down to 0, and puts the other 3 on Speed Q. This brings the speed Q up to 21, but since 21 and 18 are the same on the Sphere chart, his actual speed doesn’t increase.