Stats

Stat Description
Tough Physical toughness, resilience, strength
Sharp Quick wit, calculating mind
Cool Calm under pressure
Charm Persuasiveness, etc
Heart Emotional intelligence, creativity
Weird Supernatural power

10 stat points at level 1, max +5. All stats increase by +1 per 2 levels.

Advancement

11 Build Points at level 1. Each one can buy:

Rolling

All rolls are 1d20 + a stat, and are referred to as "plus (stat name)". Example:

Some rolls are opposed, meaning more than one person is rolling, and the higher number wins. Simple enough.

All other rolls are judged as follows:

What failure, mixed success, and complete success mean depends on the move you're using. Refer to that move's description for more details.

Special notes:

Moves

Everyone can do these:

Act Under Pressure

This covers trying to do something under conditions of particular stress or danger. Examples of acting under pressure are: staying on task while a banshee screams at you; barricading a door before the giant rats catch up; resisting the mental domination of a brain-worm; fighting on when you’re badly injured.

Kick Some Ass

This is used when you are fighting something that’s fighting you back.

Cost: you expose yourself to danger. The enemy harms you (except in certain circumstances).

Brace For Impact

Whenever you suffer 1 or more hits, you may roll +Tough to reduce the damage.

Take a Shot

Use this move when attacking with a ranged weapon outside of reach of anyone who would fight back. If inside that range, use Kick Some Ass instead.

Read a Bad Situation

Roll +Sharp to read a bad situation.

Data Points:

Note your data points, as you can invoke them in the future. For instance, if you ask "what's the best way in?" and the GM replies "the wall looks easy to climb", then you could invoke that Data Point later to gain advantage to Act Under Pressure to climb said wall. Data Points can only be invoked once.

Manipulate Someone

This move is used when you want someone to do something for you and they don’t want to do it. To get them to do what you’re asking you’ll need a good reason. What counts as a good reason depends on what you are asking for and your relationship with them.

Protect Someone

When someone else is about to suffer harm, and you can conceivably intervene, use this move and roll +Tough.

If you have any supernatural Powers, you can invoke one of them and roll +Weird instead of +Tough, if it makes sense. For example, you could use Frost to create a wall of ice, blocking an attack, but you probably couldn't use Fire to block it (although maybe you could at least cause some harm to the attacker or give them an opportunity to decide not to attack).

Bond With Someone

When you have a moment to truly connect with someone--be it a long conversation on a cloudless night, or an intense firefight forcing you into close quarters, or a shared dreamstate caused by an evil psion--you can roll +Heart to bond with them.

Use Magic

If you have supernatural Powers, you can roll +Weird to try to do something with them other than the default use, as stated in their description.

Cost: Use Magic always has a Cost, chosen by the GM (see below).

Effects

Glitches

Costs

Skills

Skills are areas of capability that enable you take additional moves, but are not themselves supernatural.

Skill Description
Investigate You can roll +Sharp to investigate a mystery
Archaeology You can roll +Sharp to learn something about a physical artifact
Hacking You can roll +Sharp to intrude into a hostile computer system
High Society You can roll +Charm to gain information or resources by interacting with wealthy or powerful people, or +Sharp to recall something important about one
Underworld You can roll +Cool to gain information or resources by interacting with scoundrels and ne'er-do-wells, or +Sharp to recall something important about one
Mercantilism You can roll +Sharp to locate hard-to-find items for sale, or +Charm to get a great deal
Animals You can roll +Heart to calm or befriend a biological creature with emotions but sub-human intelligence
Linguistics You can roll +Sharp to interpret a new language, or to determine if you speak an existing one already (success: conversational, mixed: halting)
Mechanic You can roll +??? to fix machines, vehicles, etc
Research You can roll +Sharp to learn something important given access to research materials

Feats

Feat Description
Parry As a reaction to a melee attack, you can roll +Tough to deflect it. You succeed if your result beats the attacker's.
Aim You can roll +Cool to set up a ranged attack to be taken later. On success, gain +2 forward; on mixed, gain +1 forward.
Tumble You can roll +Cool to move quickly through threatened areas
Block As a reaction to a melee attack against yourself or a nearby ally, you can roll +Tough to mitigate the damage
Revenge When you successfully Block, gain +1 or +2 forward to your next attack against the instigator
Shield Cover Attacks against allies near you suffer -1

more to come

Powers

Like skills, but supernatural.

Power Description
Emotion Roll +Weird to cause a specific emotion in target.
Light Roll +Weird to create light, which can illuminate or even sear
Read Thoughts Roll +Weird to read the thoughts of an intelligent creature.
Barrier Roll +Weird to create a barrier of force to protect someone

more to come

Enhancements

Super-powered abilities, but not moves. Also, they might cost more than 1 BP.

Enhancement Cost Description
Super Strength 5 BP You can lift really heavy objects (like a car) with ease. You can wield them (unwieldy, take disadvantage) to do massive harm (either 3 hits, 2 hits+ranged, 2 hits+area, etc). You can bend bars, lift gates, etc.
Super Speed 5 BP You move real fast.
Flight 5 BP You can fly! About as fast as a bird. Not as fast as someone with Super Speed on the ground.
Walk on Walls 3 BP Walk on walls and ceilings like a spider.
Thick Skin 3 BP You reduce all damage by 1 hit.
Nigh Invulnerable 10 BP Reduce all damage by 2 hits.
Die Hard 3 BP You have 2 extra hits, and the disadvantages of having hits is treated as 2 less. Stackable.

Damage, Hit Points, etc

PCs have no Hit Points; instead, keep track of "hits".

Any normal, lethal weapon designed to hurt humans inflicts 1 hit. Less-lethal weapons usually have a chance to cause a hit or not, or simply cause debilitation. Exceptionall heavy weapons might cause more than 1 hit.

Whenever a PC takes damage--be it from an enemy's weapon, or from falling, or being poisoned--they are allowed to roll +Tough to resist the damage.

Armor and other protective items will grant advantages to these +Tough rolls.

Enemies

Most ordinary enemies will drop after only 1 hit. Rarely is 1 hit instantly lethal, but most combatants are not prepared to fight to the death despite injury. They will typically flee, faint, or falter in some manner.

Certain elite enemies will take the same 3 hits that PCs do. Rarer enemies--usually exceptionally large or supernatural ones--may take even more hits to defeat.

Damage

As a rule of thumb, PCs will not attain weapons or powers inflicting more than 1 hit every time they are used. If these existed, they would automatically be the best choice in the game. Rather, stronger weapons or powers should work as follows:

Rewards and Acquisitions

In your adventures, you may acquire some useful things, both material and intangible, such as:

Ordinary Equipment

Resources are particularly powerful or useful things--not ordinary equipment. If you're in a modern game, a handgun is not a resource, it's just a gun. A "resource" version of a gun would be a cool, extra-powerful gun you couldn't normally acquire (maybe it's magical, or uses restricted military tech).

Acquiring ordinary equipment is done through a move called Acquisition, using a special stat called Wealth, which I'm not really going to get into for now since the first game isn't going to offer a lot of shopping opportunities.

Resources

Anything more useful than what you can buy in a store with petty cash. Examples:

Resources have a value measured in Resource Points, which are equivalent to Build Points. In fact, you may spend Build Points to acquire resources at a 1 for 1 rate. You may also be awarded Resources by the GM as a consequence of your actions in the game (for example, after saving the Don's daughter from a ravening monster, he grants you access to his safehouse where you can discreetly trade and repair your illicit goods and equipment).

I'll get into more detail about what this all means. For now, here's probably the first one everyone cares about:

Weapons

Ordinary weapons inflict 1 hit. Ranged weapons are also ranged (duh) and ammo-dependent. That's all.

A cool weapon can have more bonuses, based on its RP value:

Bonus RP Cost Description
Heavy 1 Inflicts 2 hits, but is unwieldy both to move and attack with (causing disadvantage)
Piercing 1 Invokes disadvantage on +Tough checks to brace for impact, and can ignore 1 point of damage reduction from various abilities that grant it
Guided 1 You can use Act Under Pressure to lock onto a target. Thereafter, the weapon gains advantage to attacks against that target

more to come...

Armor

quick version:

Experience

Whenever you fail at a move, mark +1 experience. This is not used to "level up", as that is determined by the GM based on story beats and is synchronous for all PCs. Rather, Experience is an expendable resource that can improve the results of your actions.

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