Stats
Your MK 1 CASKET (Contained Active Service Killer Escort Tool) has a number of upgrades that could be made to it - which is important, as you're more or less flying around in a pop-up toaster otherwise. These upgrades are permanent and can be replaced as long as your pilot still draws breath (or ammonia soup, depending on where you're from). If you get your ship blown up, we'll just build you a new one after you get back home.
Whatever fool inventor thought it'd be a brilliant idea to have weapons, shields, and afterburner use the same resource would probably be pissed that this gets a single stat. Helps determine how big of weapons your ship can handle, too.
Translates into Strength on foot
Energy affects things like:
- The size of the gun you can have
- Abnormal things requiring large amounts of ship energy - e.g. if you wanted to link your lasers to your backup battery somehow.
- A few rolls involving weapons
Strength affects things like:
- Ability to do anything requiring a special amount of physical exertion - if a wimp couldn't do it, you need a strength roll. Things like:
- Blunt melee combat
- Climbing
- Fist fights, arm wrestling, etc.
- Moving heavy objects
- Being able to comfortably carry more than two infantry weapons
How long it takes you to become a lump of molten metal in a firefight. Backup systems also fall under this category, as well as self-repair nanobots (not that we're giving you any).
Translates into Endurance on foot
Durability affects things like:
- How much damage you take vs many weapon types, including field manipulators and psychokinetic amplifiers
- How much your ship breaks in certain instances
- Special saving rolls vs environmental hazards
- How likely you are to take damage when ramming something of equal size
Endurance affects things like:
- How likely you are to pass out when in pain (more extreme pain is easier to pass out from)
- Things that require a lot of stamina - for instance, running over longer distances
- How much damage you take from environmental hazards
- How badly you get hurt from falling long distances (to a degree)
- How much of a wimp you are when you get hurt
- Does NOT affect how much damage you take from weaponry (with the exception of EMP blasts on robotic limbs)
Regardless of how stupid of an idea it was to fly between those asteroids, this helps you get back out alive. It could also help you win races, if you weren't in a maximum security prison serving indefinite time at the edge of space.
Translates into Agility on foot (Includes things like flying within a couple meters of an object and landing.)
Maneuverability affects things like:
- How well your ship can maneuver in tight spaces
- How well you can pull off tricky maneuvers
- How good you are at dodging incoming weapon fire (particularly slow-moving)
- How likely you are to land safely in difficult places (or at high speeds)
- How good you are at using certain unconventional or robotic melee weapons
- Maneuverability is affected by how many thrusters you have left
Agility affects things like:
- Anything that a total klutz couldn't do
- Gymnastics (standing on hands, doing flips)
- Dodging
- Attacks with bladed weapons
- Moving around in zero gravity
- How good you are at stealth
Helps you hack things more… better. What more could you ask for? Note: Anyone caught attempting to hack one of their teammates will not be summarily keelhauled, but we might tape it and run it later in the theater if you succeed.
On foot, translates into … Hacking.
Hacking (Ship) affects things like:
- Hacking
- How good your ship's hacking software is in general
- Making your software do stuff it isn't supposed to do
Hacking (Foot) affects things like:
- Hacking (PDA optional)
- Making software do stuff it isn't supposed to do (PDA optional)
- Working with non-Tartarus computer equipment
It helps you appear smarter than a four-year-old on occasion. Useful for operating advanced prototype weaponry that requires large amounts of calculations. Or anything that requires calculations, really. Also determines the size of your database.
Translates into Intelligence on foot
Computer affects things like:
- How well you can use field manipulators
- How effective your diagnostics scans are
- The likelihood that your computer has certain software on it
- How good your firewalls are at defending against hacks
- How good your computer is in general
Perception affects things like:
- Perception rolls involving deducing complex knowledge from known facts
- Perception rolls such as trying to find a small object in a large room
- Perception rolls such as trying to search large areas to discover important details
- Detecting hidden things and enemies
Machinery and computer equipment that hooks directly into your brain through special plugs in your head that we've taken the liberty of installing - and you didn't even have to sign. Useful for operating psionic weaponry and (sometimes) not losing your mind. Can also be used to "will" your ship to do certain minor things, but takes a perfect roll (5) to be successful. (The default PSI unit just creates precise, localized, short-range magnetic fields. Turn your ship, wave a robotic arm, etc. Installing amps gives you more abilities.)
Translates into Willpower on foot
PSI affects things like:
- How good you are at using psychokinetic amplifiers
- How good your ship's PSI unit is
- Using exotic weapons
Willpower affects things like:
- Your ability to use most exotic weaponry
- The amount of PSI-amps you can safely use
- How good you are at resisting mind control tech
- How good you are at shielding your mind from telepathy
- How likely you are to panic when you see something extremely terrifying/shocking/disturbing
- How well you can control your actions in dreams
- How likely you are to regain consciousness in a given turn if unconscious
Your CASKET comes pre-installed with two robotic arms and pincers. The more we upgrade them, the stronger and more useful they'll be to you. Upgrading them more will also let you install even better equipment later on, after you've earned your keep.
Translates into PDA skill on foot
Robotics affects things like:
- How good you are at using your CASKET's robotic arms
- How good you are at using your CASKET's robotic weaponry
PDA affects things like:
- How likely you are to set your PDA to the correct settings if scanning
- The accuracy of your scans
- How good you are at using the PDA for anything except hacks
Your engines are what make you move, dumbass. Did you really expect me to explain everything to you? Fine. This controls how good your thrusters and primary engines are, how fast you move, all of that good stuff. Also afterburners. Regardless of whether or not all that went over your head, I'm not explaining it any further.
Translates into Run Speed on foot
Engines affect things like:
- How much faster your ship is than everyone else's
- The maximum distance you can travel per turn
- Whether you're likely to fall behind or catch up when chasing someone
- How good you are at escaping things
Speed affects things like:
- How fast you can sprint (can occasionally double or even triple actions, letting you accomplish a lot more in a battle)
- How good you are at putting on sudden bursts of speed
- How likely you are to escape something (or someone) you're running from
- How likely you are to catch up with something (or someone) that is trying to escape you
- How well you can multitask
- How good you are at stealth
Skills
Most people are good at something - most, mind you. You lot are probably the worst bunch of misfits and cowards I've ever seen, so here's your chance to prove you're better than a mildly sentient doorjamb. Simply mark down what you're good at and we'll get you processed - unless you're not good at anything, in which case you were really stupid to let us catch you. Actually, you all ought to get a low mark on intuition to begin with.
A handy skill for when you want to talk a bullet out of embedding itself in your face. Handles all sorts of interpersonal communications. Probably not used much. When it is used, though, you can potentially talk enemies into assisting you. Every turn, the member of a party of 3 or more gets a roll for charisma, and if successful, all actions of allies in the group get a +1 to rolls. A good skill for leaders.
Charisma affects things like:
- How well your interactions with NPCs go
- How likable NPCs find you
- Whether the group around you gets a leadership bonus
- How good you can extract information from (hostile) npc's (through torture, questioning, etc)
That tingly feeling you get when somebody plants a nuke in your latrine. Helpful for guessing your way through defusing a dozen bombs or for finding your wake back home after twice that many drinks. Specifically: Used for making uneducated guesses about things you couldn't possibly have any knowledge about.
Intuition affects things like:
- Avoiding certain types of weapon fire
- Deducing/guessing things when there's not enough information available
- Doing certain things requiring guesswork, like tossing a grenade over a wall
- Detecting hidden enemies
Making things, breaking things, fixing things, and otherwise turning stuff from X, into laser guided, thermonuclear Y. Also helps you repair or patch both ships and other automated systems. Helpful in things like coolant leaks, which will likely happen. Also translates into medical ability.
Handiwork/Medical affects things like:
- Discerning what's broken by looking at it
- Discerning how serious an injury is
- Fixing things
- Patching things
- Patching wounds
- Crafting items out of parts or other items
Anything that goes pew-pew and shoots a potentially lethal something when you pull a trigger or mash a button.
Conventional affects things like:
- Using almost any type of gun, be it shipbased or infantry
Covers non-death-tube armaments like explosives, melee weapons (oh, hell yes), physics manipulators, and so forth.
Unconventional affects things like:
- Using most melee weapons
- Using explosives
- Using grenades
- Using field manipulators
Things which blur the line between weapon and supernatural force. Includes amps, implants, genetic augmentation and most alien weaponry.
Exotic affects things like:
- Using most exotic weapons; includes particularly unusual ones
- Figuring out how weapons work you've never seen before
You know that thing, at that place where the stuff does the thing? Yeah, of course you do. You know every detail of it down to the color of the fourth hair on its pinky finger. Useful as an arbitrary trivia stat - you'll know more about your gear and more about the universe around you with this skill. You get to choose a set number of things to learn prior to each mission, too. Could be used for learning astrophysics, alien sign language, or anything else.
General Knowledge affects things like:
- Letting you learn things pre-mission
How good you are at using external things you tack onto your ship. Makes drones and other things more useful, along with a lot of other miscellaneous crap. Also helps with if you need to improvise mid-turn. If you're vague, I'll roll auxiliary. Saying "glue this to that" when you don't have any glue will make me see if you can maybe stick it through it somehow - and it'll work if you get a good Auxiliary roll. May have negative side effects, but it'll work.
Auxiliary affects things like:
- Improvisational rolls mid-turn
- How good of a ship you can pilot
- Manipulation of drones and other remote-controlled things
- Use of a lot of ship upgrades and miscellaneous infantry items, tools and suit upgrades
Character Creation Rules
Everyone starts with zero levels in all stats and skills. Then, you add positive levels on top of this foundation, but must take a greater penalty each time you do so. In other words, having a total of +1 positive initial levels means you must take a total of -1 levels elsewhere, i.e. you can add one to Energy (Energy +1) but must subtract one from something else, like Durability (Durability -1)
The amount of negative levels you take increases with your total positive levels:
- +1 levels means you take -1 levels elsewhere
- +2 levels means you take -3 levels elsewhere
- +3 levels means you take -6 levels elsewhere
- +4 levels means you take -10 levels elsewhere
- you cannot add more than four levels total.
- initial levels cannot be less than -2.
- initial levels cannot be more than 2.
To give a further example, let's say I want to put two points into Durability. That means I must take three points from something else, so I set Energy to -1 and Computer Systems to -2. Then, let's say I also want to add a point to Engines. That's a total of +3 (2 for durability and 1 for Engines), so I therefore must subtract a total of six. I already have -3 between Computers and Energy, so I subtract another one from Energy, subtract another from Hacking Systems, and then subtract another from PSI Unit. I now have a total of +3 against -6.
Stats are separate for both Stats and Skills - you can't put +3 into Stats and then try to subtract six from Skills - it doesn't work that way. You could technically keep all your stats at zero and just mess with your skills even if you wanted, or have +2 in stats and +1 in skills.
Starting late
If you start late, you'll get extra stat/skill points depending on how late you start. In addition, you'll also be able to be "mentored" by other player characters following each mission, permitting them to give you a small quantity of stat/skill points until you're caught up with the rest of the group. The exact value you get at the start varies by GM, but at my table you get ((M-1) * 750), where M = the number of the current or upcoming mission. To keep things balanced, there is also a penalty applied if you join late.
- If you join at mission 2 or later, you are no longer allowed to choose +1, -1 for your starting skills/stats, prior to adding the extra bonuses. NOTE: This is temporary until I have time to work out lots of related math.
Levelling
For every successful mission, you get 1000 points to put in any of your skills, and 1000 points to put in any of your stats. Levelling stats/skills costs as follows:
- lvl -2 to lvl -1: 1000 points
- lvl -1 to lvl 0: 500 points
- lvl 0 to lvl 1: 500 points
- lvl 1 to lvl 2: 1000 points
- lvl 2 to lvl 3: 1500 points
- lvl 3 to lvl 4: 2000 points
- lvl 4 to lvl 5: 2500 points
Points last between missions, so if you can't spend them all you can use them after the next mission.