Characters in this setting have one extra level of Fatigue (Debilitated) before becoming Incapacitated—in other words, a character can take the same amount of Fatigue as he can Wounds. This is to help adjust for things like Strain which makes Interface Zero more Fatigue-intensive than in other Savage Worlds settings.
Aside from this extra level, Fatigue works in all ways exactly as presented in Savage Worlds: a character becomes Fatigued, Exhausted, Debilitated, and then Incapacitated. A character who is Debilitated suffers a −3 penalty to all actions.
It is particularly difficult to swim while wearing armor. Characters subtract any Encumbrance penalties as usual from the Athletics (swimming) rolls, but also subtract the natural bonus of any armor worn as well. Ignore magical bonuses, considering only the bonus of a basic suit of that type.
A suit of leather, for example, adds +1 to the user’s Toughness, and so subtracts –1 from their Athletics (swimming) rolls. (Leather also weighs twice as much when wet.)
If this Setting Rule is in play, characters may not Soak Wounds caused by The Drop, nor may they spend Bennies to resist a Knockout Blow.
As always, the Game Master decides when an attacker has The Drop. A butler striking a guest from behind as he dines, a lover stabbing his betrothed with a concealed knife, or musicians suddenly firing crossbows at unsuspecting wedding guests all make thematic sense here.
Betrayal only works when the defender is truly shocked and surprised by their attacker’s actions.
Rail Guns, dragon’s claws, and plasma explosions wreak havoc on soft targets. Mega Damage attacks inflict Gritty Damage (per the Savage Worlds Setting Rule) on any target not protected by MDC armor.
Characters also suffer Wound penalties when attempting to provide medical aid; a healer must subtract his patient’s Wound levels from his skill roll. However, a Wounded character trying to heal his own injuries ignores patient Wound penalties and does not suffer from both effects (there is no double-jeopardy for self-tended Wound penalties).
Gritty Damage: Whenever a Wild Card takes a Wound, roll on the Injury Table and apply the results immediately (but roll only once per incident regardless of how many Wounds are actually caused). A hero who takes two Wounds from an attack, for example, rolls once on the Injury Table.
Injuries sustained in this way are cured when the Wound is healed. Injuries sustained via Incapacitation may be temporary or permanent as usual.
A Shaken character who’s Shaken a second time (from damage) receives a Wound as usual but does not roll on the Injury Table.
Heroes may ignore the Rank qualifications for Edges during character creation. They must still meet any other Requirements as usual. The usual rules for Rank Requirements apply afterward.
This does apply to the bonus Edge granted to Humans.
Everything can be used as a weapon. Whether it's bashing an opponent's head on the wall, smashing a chair on his back or entangling him with a blanket. Readying an improvised weapon is a free action, even if it is hard to reach (like a bucket on the floor) or unwieldy (like a giant stuffed toy). In addition, interrupting with the intent of using an improvised weapon (already readied or not) gives a +2 to the opposed Athletics roll. An improvised weapon may also have a special ability depending on its outlook (GM's call).
- Balanced: May be thrown at double range.
- Heavy: +2 damage
- Hindering: Target is automatically Shaken with a successful attack. It doesn't cause a wound if the target is already Shaken.
- Punny: Attacker receives a +1 bonus to their Fighting, Shooting, or Athletics (throwing) roll if they manage to say a fresh pun just before rolling.
- Ridiculous: Target is Distracted after a successful attack, regardless of damage. Only works once per improvised weapon.
- Sharp: AP 3
- Unsafe: The attacker is Shaken on a roll of 1 (regardless of Wild Die), but also gains a Benny.
Sometimes it’s more important to keep the action flowing than to track how many bullets are left in a gun.
To keep things fast, furious, and fun, all modern and futuristic ranged weapons are assumed to have enough ammunition for the scene.
Certain circumstance can cause a weapon to run out of ammo, jam, or overheat. An action is then required to reload, unjam, or heat-sink the weapon. Such maintenance will be required:
- On any Shooting roll that results in a Critical Failure.
- On a Shooting roll with a Rate of Fire 2 or higher and any Shooting die results in a 1.
- The GM spends a Benny specifically to cause a player character’s weapon to run out of ammo or malfunction.
At the end of a round, and assuming they’re desperate enough, the players may decide to call for a Cliffhanger to get them out of trouble (majority rules if there’s a debate). If so, they roll a die and accept the results of the Cliffhanger table below! This will almost certainly avoid the current danger and grant them additional Bennies or even Conviction, but will open them up to new dangers (and adventures!) as well.
Cliffhanger (d12)
- Captured: The heroes are overwhelmed, drugged, betrayed, or forced to surrender. They escape the immediate danger but begin the next scene imprisoned, disarmed, restrained, or under guard. Everyone refills their starting Bennies and gains Conviction once the escape scene begins.
- Death Trap: The enemy leaves the heroes to die in a device, collapsing ruin, burning building, sinking ship, sacrificial chamber, monster pit, or similar peril. Run the escape as a Dramatic Task, Quick Encounter, or hazardous combat scene. Each hero immediately gains three Bennies.
- Disaster: A massive disaster interrupts the scene: explosion, landslide, storm, flood, fire, stampede, riot, avalanche, magical backlash, or structural collapse. The enemy flees or is scattered. The heroes gain Conviction if they save most of the innocents caught in the disaster.
- Environmental Hazard: The battlefield itself becomes dangerous. The building catches fire, the ship lists, the bridge cracks, poison gas spreads, etc. Hazardous effects ensue, or perhaps the party must perform a Dramatic Task to avoid disaster! Each hero immediately gains two Bennies.
- Breakneck Escape: The fight turns into a chase, flight, scramble, or running battle. The heroes avoid the current danger, but the opposition pursues them, the ground gives way beneath them, or the only way out is reckless movement through danger. Each player character immediately gains two Bennies.
- Out of the Frying Pan: A new threat appears and drives off, destroys, or scatters the current opposition. The new threat is worse, stranger, or more personally dangerous. The heroes draw up to their starting Bennies.
- Perilous Portal: A new path opens to somewhere. The current opposition is left behind, but the path takes the heroes on a significant detour away from their current destination. Everyone in the party receives two Bennies.
- Separated: The heroes survive, but the group is split. Each subgroup faces a different immediate problem before they can reunite. Each hero gains two Bennies.
- Stolen Prize:* The heroes escape, but something important is taken: an artifact, map, prisoner, witness, ally, evidence, treasure, etc. Each hero gains two Bennies.
- Forced Alliance:** A greater threat forces the heroes and their current foes into temporary cooperation to survive or escape. If the heroes honor the truce, they gain Conviction.
- Unwanted Rescue: Someone intervenes and saves the heroes, but not for free. A rival, criminal, old enemy, or some other questionable interloper now has leverage over them. The heroes each gain two Bennies.
- Villainous Escalation: The heroes avoid the current danger, but the larger situation worsens. The villain escapes with the prize, completes a ritual, burns the evidence, frames the party, advances the invasion, or some other major step in their dastardly plan. Everyone gains two Bennies and Conviction.
For more cartoonish and unconventional combat, characters that initiate Tests receive a +1 bonus, or +2 if they make a colorful description of their action (GM’s call).
Supers can combine their powers for truly spectacular results. This works just like the usual Support rules except the Supporting character may enhance their ally’s skill total or damage—though they must choose which before rolling.
If the latter option is chosen, success adds +2 to the ally’s damage total and a raise adds +4. A group of supers who need to take down a big foe can Support a teammate to really deal a powerful blow!
Conviction is a special award granted when a character experiences a great victory or catastrophic misfortune.
Conviction can be spent to add a d6 to all a character’s Trait and damage totals until the beginning of their next turn. This die can Ace, and its result is added to the final total.
Conviction tokens aren’t Bennies and can’t be used as such. They are kept between sessions, however.
A character may maintain Conviction from round to round by spending a Benny (at the start of their turn, before it runs out). Once Conviction lapses, however, the effect ends.
In some settings, heroes can be slowed down by fear, but it does not defeat them. When rolling on the Fear Table use a d12 instead of a d20.
A successful Test (Savage Worlds, page 108) works as usual, but if a Wild Card character succeeds with a raise while in combat, their foe is not automatically Shaken—they rolls on the Creative Combat table instead (Savage Worlds, page 137).
This rule gives players a means of avoiding a terrible twist of fate, but it may come back to haunt them. When a player rolls a Critical Failure, they have the option of spending a Benny to reroll it. However, the spent Benny goes into the Game Master’s pool.
Big Apple Sewer Samurai is a perfect setting to bring characters and concepts from other Savage Worlds settings. However, considering the power difference, existing characters should be remade from scratch using either BASS ancestries and options (Fish Out of Water is an excellent ancestry to cover them) or by creating a custom race with 10 points of positive racial abilities (plus any gained from negative ones) to represent special abilities, gear or rules coming from its original setting. Should some of them prove to be too powerful, like ultra-advanced technology or super powers, then the character is allowed to use it once during their introduction before it runs out of power, is destroyed, or otherwise rendered inoperative.
In some settings, death is a rare occurrence. This options reflects a more narrative fate for great heroes who fall in battle.
When a hero is Incapacitated by lethal damage, they make an immediate Vigor roll and check the results below (don’t use the regular Incapacitation rules in Savage Worlds).
- Critical Failure: The character is not Incapacitated but instead goes out in a Blaze of Glory (see below).
- Failure: The hero is Incapacitated and Defeated (see below).
- Success: The character is Incapacitated and Injured. Roll on the Injury Table in Savage Worlds. The Injury goes away once all Wounds are healed.
- Raise: The character is Incapacitated, but a Healing roll at −2 gets them up and fighting on the next round (with all their Wounds as usual).
Blaze of Glory
Great heroes and villains should have memorable and desperate dooms.
When a hero Critically Fails their Vigor roll due to Incapacitation, they're awarded a point of Conviction and three Bennies. These should be used sparingly, as they are the character’s insurance for lasting the rest of the session until their chosen moment arrives. All effects of the attack that triggered Blaze of Glory are completely negated. This includes being Shaken.
At any point during the remainder of the session, the character may spend that point of Conviction to perform the amazing feat that will result in their death. The Game Master should make this moment as memorable and epic as possible. After the character’s Conviction bonus expires (remember, they can spend Bennies to prolong it), they die, hopefully having taken out some of their adversaries or accomplished a significant goal with their sacrifice.
Of course the Game Master may always work with the player to simply narrate some dramatic and purposeful end rather than gaming it out.
Death isn’t usually permanent in comics. If the player and Game Master want the hero to come back, they can—perhaps transformed with new or altered powers. With the GM’s permission, you may alter a returning character’s profile or create it from scratch. Such a return should be suitably melodramatic. Exactly when and how this happens is up to the GM and the player, but it should be a significant and memorable event in the campaign.
Defeated
The hero is beaten and bloodied but will live to fight another day. They must choose one of the following results:
- Go out in a Blaze of Glory (see above).
- Roll on the Injury Table in Savage Worlds. The injury is permanent.
- Lose one step in an Attribute.
- Lose an Edge.
- Gain a Major Hindrance, perhaps reflecting a permanent mental or physical injury from the fight.
Whenever a character dies, the player makes a new character as normal, but the GM also secretly draws a card from the deck (or choose the best result for his campaign), the value and the suit defining what really happened. See Big Apple Sewer Samurai, pages 26-27, to determine the result.
Below are baseline numbers for Crew, Energy, and Repairs you can use for groups who want that level of detail in the campaign.
Crew
Standard pay is $10K per person per month for leadership positions, $5K for experienced professionals, and $3k for less skilled crew.
Provisions cost $10× the ship’s crew per day. A ship with 30 crew, for example, costs $300 per day in food, water, oxygen, and other basic needs. If a crew doesn’t have adequate provisions for some reason, make a group Vigor roll at the end of each week. Failure results in a level of Fatigue that can eventually lead to death from starvation, suffocation, thirst, exposure, etc.
Energy
The Energy rating for all the vehicles in this book is expressed in days’ worth of fuel and power. This is the number of days’ worth of energy the vehicle stores in its fuel cells (or reactor, warp core, etc.). A Huge starship (see Starship Frames, Science Fiction Companion, page 147), for example,
has 15 days’ worth of energy under normal circumstances.
Fuel costs are $100× the ship’s Size per unit, usually purchased at a spaceport. Game Masters can also use the Supply & Demand table on page 87 if fuel costs fluctuate.
Repairs
Crews can perform some repairs to their vehicles, ships, or walkers "in the field" assuming they have sufficient tools and access to parts.
Vehicular repairs require a Repair roll minus the vehicle’s Wounds and number of person-hours equal to its Size. Each success and raise fixes a Wound or Critical Hit (player’s choice). One raise may also be "spent" to halve the required time. Critical Failures on any of the above Repair rolls mean the vehicle requires a garage, dry dock, starport, or other advanced facility to make any further repairs.
Garage or dry dock fees are $1000 times the Size of the vehicle per Wound or Critical Hit repaired (plus any specific parts that must be replaced).
If this Setting Rule is used, a caster only has one chance to heal a particular Wound. A healer can attempt to heal any new Wounds as they occur, but the power doesn’t affect any Wounds it already failed to improve or are over an hour old.
When the Game Master decides there’s “downtime” (generally a few days to a week), you can choose one of the following activities. Each provides a benefit of some sort, from financial rewards to progress in crafting or rerolls on select Traits. Narrate what your hero is doing then follow the instructions under each activity. Some Game Masters might also require characters spend money on Lifestyle (Fantasy Companion, page 50) during Downtime.
Unless an option says otherwise, its effect may only be gained once regardless of how long the downtime lasts. The options are as follows (see the Fantasy Companion for full details):
- Carouse: Spending time socializing with friends, making new ones, or cementing relationships with contacts. Spend money in exchange for a favor.
- Center: Focus on what brings happiness (e.g. quality time with friends, riding a favorite horse, painting, reading, writing, courting a romantic interest, etc.). Gain Conviction.
- Earn: Go get paid!
- Enchant: Create magic items. Requires Artificer Edge.
- Train: Practice a skill to gain a free reroll for an entire encounter.
- Research: Gain temporary use of a new power or reveal information.
- Rest: Recover Wounds or gain Conviction.
Truth be told, no special rules are required for duels. Two or more hombres can use the regular rules for a classic staredown. They can Test each other normally and draw down when they get just the right sequence of events in their favor, such as Testing someone one round and going first on the next before they lose any Distracted or Vulnerable condition.
In the legendary West, however, slappin’ leather is a sacred ritual and requires a bit more formality. And it almost always results in someone riding away in a pine box. See Deadlands: The Weird West, page 47, for details.
One of the signature elements of several genres is the duel. Whether it is Robin Hood fencing with the Sheriff of Nottingham, Jedi and Sith lightsabers clashing, or Rocky Balboa trading blows with Apollo Creed, when the action focuses in on such a contest of champions, we know we’re in for a tense, exciting scene.
A duel is a formalized close combat encounter. The most common type of duel in cinema is a sword fight, but it can just as easily use any other melee weapon or even fisticuffs. Usually the duel is between two combatants, but it is possible to have more duelists on one or both sides. There might even be more than two sides for a truly chaotic duel!
Most strikes in a duel will not land, but they often aren’t supposed to. A duel is more than just hacking at one another until someone falls. It is a chess match, every exchange a move and countermove. Each duelist tries to maneuver, trick, or overpower their foe into leaving an opening for a fatal finishing strike.
In game terms, most duels are a series of Tests, potentially with some powers and other actions thrown into the mix.
Special Rules
- The GM declares the start of a duel. Each player that wishes to participate in the duel declares so. These are the Duelists. Any other character that might intervene, but remain outside the duel, is called an Interloper.
- Deal each Duelist one Hole Card, which they should keep hidden. Use a separate deck for this — not the one you’ll deal Action Cards from.
- Interlopers are dealt Action Cards as normal.
- A Duelist may not make an attack roll against another Duelist unless they declare Checkmate (see below). Note that a Test using Fighting, Shooting, or Athletics (throwing) is not an attack roll.
- All Duelists suffer –2 to Soak rolls for Wounds caused by another Duelist. Wounds inflicted by Interlopers are Soaked normally.
- All the usual Combat Options are available to Duelists.
Tests
Tests work a bit differently in a formal duel.
A successful Test makes the enemy Distracted or Vulnerable as usual, but that condition lasts for the duration of the duel, or until the victim spends a Benny to remove the condition.
Success also lets the attacker draw an extra Hole Card.
A raise on the Test does not make the defender Shaken. Instead, it grants the attacker two new Hole Cards instead of one.
Interference: Interlopers can Support an ally in a duel or even Test an enemy, but they can’t affect Hole Cards — only other Duelists can do that.
Shaken: Characters can’t be Shaken by Tests while in a duel. Powers, physical attacks, or other means of causing a Shaken condition work normally.
Checkmate
At the beginning of any round, a Duelist may declare Checkmate. This means they see an opening and have chosen to try to take advantage of it. But if they’ve misjudged, they may leave themselves open to their foe.
A Checkmate round plays out as follows:
- Each duelist chooses one of the Hole Cards in their hand to play (usually their highest). That is their Action Card for the round and determines who acts first.
- Reveal all Hole Cards simultaneously (including those still in players’ hands).
- Attacks play out as normal. If a duelist’s attack is successful, they gain a bonus d6 to damage for each additional Hole Card they have that is higher than their foe’s highest Hole Card.
- If at least two opposing duelists are still standing, at the end of the Checkmate round, discard all current Hole Cards. Deal one new Hole Card to each remaining duelist and continue the duel.
Dumb Luck allows a player to spend a Benny even after a Critical Failure. The failure still happens in some way, but the character can spend one Benny (and only one) for one more roll. The hero still drops their weapon, flubs their Taunt, or otherwise “fails” the attempt—but if the reroll from the Benny is actually successful, it somehow still results in whatever success the new roll provides.
A character trying to pick a lock might break the lock on a Critical Failure, for example, but only after cracking the lock. Or a warrior who fumbles a Fighting roll might hit a foe as if they’d thrown the weapon!
The player and Game Master should work together to describe the scene in some fun or bizarre way that explains how the mishap ultimately results in success.
A Critical Failure on an arcane skill check does not automatically result in Fatigue. Instead, roll on the Dynamic Backlash table (Savage Worlds, page 138).
Operators of power armor, starships, vehicles, and walkers can increase the power to some systems by reducing it to others. Assuming a working power core and electronics, operators can choose one system to boost. Power can be increased to shields by diverting it from propulsion or weapons, for example, or to energy-based weapons by reducing the feed to propulsion or shields.
Diverting power in this way is a limited free action available to the operator as long as the ship, vehicle, or walker has power and working electronics. Once power is diverted, it remains that way until the end of the character’s following turn.
The operator (or AI) chooses which system to boost, and can degrade one other system for a partial boost, or two other systems for a greater boost.
Here are the specific effects for Propulsion, Shields, and Weapons systems. A vehicle must have the system to divert power from it.
- Propulsion: Boosting power to propulsion increases Handling by +2 if diverted from one other system, or +4 if diverted from two. Diverting power from propulsion reduces Handling by 4.
- Shields: Boosting power to shields adds +2 to their Soak rolls if diverted from one other system, or +4 if diverted from two. Diverting power from shields reduces the Soak rolls by 4.
- Weapons: Boosting power to weapons adds +4 to energy-based weapon damage if diverted from one other system, or +8 if diverted from two. (+1 or +2 Wounds if using the Heavy Metal rules, see Science Fiction Companion, page 93.) Diverting power from weapons reduces their damage by 4 (–1 Wound if using Heavy Metal).
Use these rules to add more detail and realism to the game when your party ventures into space or visits dangerous new alien worlds. See the Science Fiction Companion, page 82.
When a Wild Card enemy character is hit by a successful attack and the GM thinks it’s appropriate, one of their henchmen, goons, or other allies jumps in front of their master and takes the attack instead.
Wild Cards make natural healing rolls once per day instead of every five days (or once per hour if the character has Regeneration).
Bumps & Bruises: Wild Cards recover one level of Fatigue from Bumps & Bruises (Savage Worlds, page 125) every four hours instead of the usual 24.
With this rule, the Language skill is abolished. Characters speak whatever languages, at whatever fluency, is appropriate to their background.
Most characters will only speak their native tongue. But plenty might be bilingual and/or have minor knowledge of other languages.
If there comes a time when a die roll is necessary to determine if a character can communicate or understand something in another language, make a Common Knowledge roll, with appropriate modifiers depending on the character’s background.
If deciphering ancient inscriptions or trying to understand detailed writings in a foreign tongue, roll Research.
Learning new languages or improving fluency should be discussed between the player and the Game Master. There is no need to spend Advances.
Every character belongs to one of two generations: Juve or Adult. This reflects the character’s age and the wealth of experience they possess in the harsh world of 2027.
Juves vs. Adults
Most player characters in Cybergeneration are juves. A juve’s primary disadvantage is lack of experience. No matter what die types they roll, a juve just doesn’t have the honed skills that an adult does. Any time a juve is making a Trait roll against an adult, the juve suffers –2 to the roll. This penalty applies even if the adult is not currently present (e.g. a netrunner’s autonomous programs, a corporate headquarters’ security system, etc.).
At the GM’s discretion, there can be exceptions to this rule, and even situations in which it is the adult that suffers a penalty instead of the juve (see Genspeak, below).
Juve Wealth
Juves do not have the kind of resources that adults do. Most have to get by on an allowance or whatever they can scrounge up. Even rich GoldenKids and GlitterKids generally have their finances controlled by their parents or agents. The Wealth die for Juves is always decreased by one die type. This means that most Juves begin with Wealth at d4. A Juve with the Poverty Hindrance (such as a Squat) is dead broke.
Yeah, there may be a million types of local “slang”, but all yogangers share at least a few common words that the Dead Guys can’t decipher with a Com-CRAY cybercrypto box.
Genspeak is the universal lingua-franca of the Cybergeneration; a polyglot of computer binary, random sounds, short choppy words, and slang terms with multiple meanings. This is about whether a juve can talk right in front of the Dead Guys without them understanding. Genspeak can even be embedded into graffiti to leave messages for other juves.
Using Genspeak usually requires no roll. If any nearby adults have reason to be suspicious, it is an opposed Common Knowledge roll. However, unlike usual circumstances, juves do not suffer a penalty for making a Trait roll against an adult in this case. In fact, it is the adult that suffers a –2 to their Common Knowledge roll
Creatures that are two or more Scales smaller than another may attempt to climb up the larger foe with an opposed roll of Athletics. If the smaller creature wins, they're attached and moves along with the larger creature on its turn. If the larger creature wins, the smaller creature falls or is shaken off, taking appropriate Falling damage.
If the smaller creature is in an appropriate spot (GM’s call), they ignore up to two points of Called Shot penalties when making a melee attack. This lets a hero clamber up the back of a dragon, for example, and strike it in the back of the neck, eye, or other vulnerable spot.
Whenever a Wild Card takes a Wound, roll on the Injury Table and apply the results immediately (but roll only once per incident regardless of how many Wounds are actually caused). A hero who takes two Wounds from an attack, for example, rolls once on the Injury Table.
Injuries sustained in this way are cured when the Wound is healed. Injuries sustained via Incapacitation may be temporary or permanent as usual.
A Shaken character who’s Shaken a second time (from damage) receives a Wound as usual but does not roll on the Injury Table.
Kids have a lot of growing up to do. Much of that happens during their three years in middle school where they quickly develop from kids into young adults.
To reflect this, kids begin middle school with the following disadvantages which do not net them any extra Hindrance points.
- Young: The student begins with the Young (Major) Hindrance
- Small: The youngster starts with the Small Hindrance
- Strength Penalty: Kids subtract 1 from all Strength rolls (including damage!).
- Maximum Attributes: All attributes are capped at d6 during character creation, except one, which may be bought up to a d8. During Advancement, no attribute may be raised above d8.
- Maximum Skills: All skills are capped at d6 during character creation except two, which may be bought up to d8. During Advancement, no skill may be raised above d8.
Advancement
Instead of gaining Advances by session, player character kids gain Advances and shed the limitations of their Young Hindrance after various milestones listed on the Advances Table (see Pinebox Middle School, page 44).
At the end of the first semester of 6th Grade, for example, the students get a skill point, and a normal Advance and an upgrade to their clubhouse at the end of the 6th Grade. This means a student becomes Seasoned after the first half of the 8th grade.
After graduation kids Advance normally. Congratulations! You’re all grown up! (But don’t tell your parents; you’ll make them sad…).
In this setting, a distinction is drawn between single-action and double-action revolvers:
- Single-action revolvers (SA) require the user to cock the hammer before they can pull the trigger and fire. This means a gunhand can use the Fan the Hammer Edge with these guns (but not the Double Tap Edge).
- Double-actions (DA) are faster and more reliable. The weapon’s action cocks the hammer automatically, allowing a gunslinger to point and shoot. These revolvers fire single shots quickly, allowing use of the Double Tap Edge (but not the Fan the Hammer Edge).
Using an unprotected and connected system or device is a single roll of the Hacking skill. A hacker could connect to the wiring in an apartment, for example, and turn the lights on or off to Support an ally or use as a Test against foes.
More complicated hacking, such as breaking into a secure system, requires a computing device of some sort, the Hacking skill, and a connection to the target network. See the Science Fiction Companion, page 84 for details.
Sometimes the law moves too slow to suit people. Sometimes it’s just not around at all. At such times, vigilante posses often take care of matters with a dose of frontier justice. This means chasing the suspect down like an animal. If caught, he’s the guest of honor at a hemp party. That’s a hanging for you tinhorns, and it’s one of the worst Hazards to be found in the Weird West.
If a character is first dropped a few feet (usually from horseback or a gallows), they make a Vigor roll (−4). Failure means their neck snaps and they're dead! A Critical Failure does exactly what you might think. Though if someone’s being hanged, they’re probably not gonna need that noggin of theirs anymore, are they?
Assuming the victim survives long enough to start worrying about little things like breathing, make a Vigor roll (at −6) each minute or suffer a level of Fatigue. Don’t worry, Stretch, it won’t take long.
The GM and their Wild Card characters don’t start with Bennies, but every time the players spend one it goes into the GM's pool where it can be used for any of their characters. If this rule is in play, Jokers no longer grant Bennies to either side.
Calculating the damage of Heavy Weapons, their Armor Piercing value, and targets with high Armor can be a little daunting in the middle of dogfights, mech duels, and hover tank battles. To simplify that process, weapons and vehicles are given a "Class." When an attack successfully hits a target, simply compare the weapon’s Class to the target’s Class and consult the table below to see the effects.
DAMAGE WOUNDS
Weapon Class is two or more No Effect
levels below Vehicle Class
Weapon Class is one level 0*
below Vehicle Class
Weapon Class is equal to d3*
Vehicle Class
Each level Weapon Class is +1 Wound
above Vehicle Class
*Note: The operator must make a maneuvering roll or go Out of Control (Science Fiction Companion, page 95).
Raise: A raise on the attack roll increases the number of Wounds caused by +1. This can take a 0 result to 1 unless the base result is "No Effect."
Collisions: When vehicles collide, treat each one as a weapon with a Damage Class equal to its vehicle Class. A raise on a roll to ram increases the Wounds caused to the target by +1.
Warheads
Some warheads (SFC, page 48) work differently when using the Heavy Metal rules:
- Armor Piercing: Reduce the target’s Class by one if it has at least 10 points of Armor.
- EMP: If the target takes any Wounds from this attack, its electronics are knocked out (see page 44) but any Wounds that would be taken are reduced by two.
- High Explosive: Reduce any Wounds caused by one, but if any Wounds are caused, roll one additional Critical Hit.
- Nuclear: All targets within a half-mile radius take 10 Wounds.
- Phase: Increase the weapon’s Class by one. The target’s shields add +4 to their Soak rolls.
- Plasma: A raise on the attack causes two additional Wounds instead of one.
With this rule in play, Wild Cards who are Incapacitated from a damage roll make a Vigor roll as usual but treat Critical Failures as regular failures and ignore the rules for Bleeding Out.
How a hero might survive what should be certain death is a chance to get creative. An adventurer who falls from a towering cliff, for example, might land in a pool of water or crash through the branches of a forest far below.
If the situation is particularly heroic or if it serves as a major story point, the GM and player can decide the character perishes. A hero who confronts a massive demon on a crumbling bridge, for example, might take the fiend with them with their final blow.
Villains: The reverse is also true—villains rarely die either! Heroes should play this in the spirit it’s intended—they shouldn’t attempt to cause some sort of gruesome and undeniable death to a villain who falls into their hands, for example. They should instead turn the captive over to the authorities—even though they know full well he will eventually escape to plague them once again.
The heroes and villains of this setting are larger than life. During character creation, your character may take one Seasoned Edge. They must meet all other requirements for the Edge as usual. This Edge isn’t free—the usual Rank requirement is just waived.
Characters can spend a Benny to gain the one-time use of a Combat Edge. They have to meet the Rank and any Edge requirements as usual but can ignore Trait requirements. Multiple Bennies can be spent in one round for multiple Edges, either for different effects or in order to meet a needed requirement to gain another Edge.
Kid-focused adventure settings feature young people learning how to negotiate life’s obstacles. How to handle difficult situations is often obvious to us as players—most of us are grown and have already saved the world a few times (at least in games!)
Kids don’t have that experience yet, so the GM is encouraged to occasionally reward players with Bennies when they embrace the tropes of being young people who don’t quite understand the world yet, believe they’re immortal, or make mistakes that make perfect sense in the eyes of a child.
Kid Tropes
Here are a few common tropes of the genre GM's might reward the players for…
- Take a dare: Especially a double dog dare!
- Trespass: Especially into the old Jenkins’ place where you’re sure you heard Sparky barking!
- Believe everything you read or see: Fall for obvious (to you) lies, tricks, or traps.
- Refuse to share: Remember, you’re a kid, and figuring out your social boundaries is part of growing up.
- Toys as weapons: Even if they don’t actually work (but see Soft Weapons on page 29).
- Arguing at the worst possible times: Which comic handles Spider Man the best? Is Star Wars better than Star Trek? And who’s stronger: Superman or the Hulk?
- Cry, get mad, or pout: Have a complete breakdown about things that aren’t actually all that important.
- Shortcuts: You wanna show everyone you know the town better than they do—even if you actually don’t.
- Always be looking at your phone: Refuse to make Notice rolls because of it! (In the game, not at the game table—that’s just rude, dude!)
Any time a character takes damage that would propel them in dramatic, comic book fashion—such as a punch or energy blast but probably not a sword slash or bullet (GM’s call)—they take “Knockback.” See the Super Powers Companion, page 30 for details.
Using this rule, the Language skill measures a character’s overall understanding of communication patterns rather than a specific language.
Each language is a proficiency of the Language skill, granting +2 to Language rolls to speak or understand it. In some settings, entire language families might be used as proficiencies.
Acquiring a new language proficiency costs the same as raising a skill below its linked Attribute. So, during character creation, a language proficiency costs 1 skill point. After character creation, an Advance can grant two new language proficiencies, or a new language proficiency and increase a skill below its linked Attribute.
Native Language: A character does not need the Language skill to speak or understand their native language. Any time a roll is needed involving their native tongue, roll the higher of their Language or Common Knowledge skills at +2 (counteracting the -2 penalty if they lack the proficiency).
When using this rule, the Linguist Edge adds +2 to all Language rolls. Furthermore, any time a Linguist uses an Advance on a Language proficiency, they gain two languages.
Use the standard rules for Improvised Weapons in Savage Worlds if a character has d12+2 Strength or less, or when throwing standard Improvised Weapons (see Savage Worlds). More powerful characters can use much larger and heavier objects to bash their enemies! See page 32 of the Super Powers Companion for details.
Super-powered characters often have faults and responsibilities as great as their incredible powers. They may take one additional Major Hindrance during character creation, and use the additional points normally.
Kids in Pinebox must occasionally perform eldritch rituals to protect their friends and family or repel some terrible beast. Rituals open portals to other places of dark and dangerous energy. Within some of these portals lurk dark forces eager to prey on the innocence of youth.
The following rules are in play anytime the kids attempt to cast a ritual.
At the start of a ritual that involves any willing participant with the Young Hindrance, the lead ritualist must draw a card on the High Strangeness Table (Pinebox Middle School, page 66).
All participants with the Young Hindrance must make a Fear check before cards are dealt for the first round of the ritual! See Rituals on Activation on page 74 of Pinebox Middle School for details on casting).
Black Magic!
Rituals that cause real harm to others are considered “Black Magic.” Its use quickly corrupts young and impressionable souls.
The first time any player character with the Young Hindrance participates in a Black Magic ritual, they acquire a “black mark”—an invisible indicator that one has tampered with evil forces. They also automatically acquires the Danged Hindrance (see Pinebox Middle School, page 13). If they already have it, they acquire the Haunted Hindrance instead (see page 14). Either Hindrance may be bought off with an Advance, but only with a good narrative reason and the GM's permission.
Even if the effect is removed, the “black mark” never goes away. If a child ever gains a second “black mark” they fall permanently under the control of the Game Master. The player must make a new character, though their old might show up again in the future—as a villain!
Black magic is…
- A spell that raises the dead, or puts a hex or curse on another person.
- A spell or magical effect that causes intentional injury to a living, earthly being (demons, undead, and other “unnatural” creatures don’t count).
- A spell that dismembers or sacrifices another being.
- Any other use of a magical spell, talisman, or ability the GM feels is malicious, cruel or excessively harmful.
After all modifiers are accounted for, the maximum penalty to affect or hit something is −10. Similarly, a character’s maximum Parry bonus is +10 from all sources (not counting the base derived Parry from Fighting).
Referring to the plucky main character of the Home Alone® movies, this rule helps ensure our young heroes don’t inadvertently become murderers (or end up dead themselves).
Provided they are living, breathing human beings, students, teachers, burger flippers, cops, and yes, even villains all suffer nonlethal damage by default.
Unless the player or Game Master intends to inflict lethal damage at the time of their attack, even attacks that would normally be fatal only succeed in rendering the target Incapacitated. Of course, this doesn’t apply to zombies, evil robots, or other supernatural baddies!
Exceptions are certainly possible for your individual group, but this rule exists to ensure any character death in the game, though not impossible, is treated with deliberate consideration.
Best used at Power Level III and higher, Mega Destruction means combat between supers wreaks terrible havoc on the landscape.
Anytime a super-powered being is Knocked Back into a building, at least part of it collapses. If a brutish villain hurls a chunk of concrete at a hero and misses, it plows through buses, cars, and entire traffic jams with terrible results.
In a lighter game, innocents are seen limping away in clouds of rubble. In darker games, civilian casualties are innumerable.
Mega Destruction has massive campaign consequences for heroes if they don’t try to maneuver their foes away from populated areas. Terrible tragedies often trigger government intervention or gain the attention of powerful extraplanar or divine beings or agencies.
Villains may take advantage of this, knowing heroes must be extremely careful with their powers if battling in the middle of crowded city streets.
All characters begin play knowing half their Smarts die type in different Language skills of their choice at d6.
A character who takes the Linguist Edge knows a number of languages equal to their Smarts (instead of half their Smarts).
Incapacitated Wild Cards are dealt Action Cards as usual during a fight, though Edges like Quick and Level Headed or Hindrances like Hesitant don’t apply. If dealt a Joker, the fallen hero immediately regains consciousness and returns to the fight Shaken. Wounds and Injuries remain in full effect, but they stabilize if they were Bleeding Out.
Super heroes and villains are notoriously hard to kill—sometimes you just can’t crack that armor or break that impenetrable skin. If this option is in play, helpless supers are immune to Finishing Moves (attackers still get the Drop on them though).
Instead of using Power Points, characters with Arcane Backgrounds simply choose the power they want to activate and make an arcane skill roll. The penalty to the roll is the power’s total cost in Power Points (base cost plus all Modifiers), divided by 2. Round up.
Casting protection (1 point) with More Armor (+1) and the Hurry modifier (+1), for example, has a cost of 3 Power Points. Half rounded up is 2.
Success means the power activates as usual. A raise grants any additional bonuses stated in its description.
Failure means all current powers are canceled and the caster is Shaken. Critical Failure results in Backlash (Savage Worlds, page 151).
Maintaining Powers: Characters can maintain those powers that allow it as long as desired, but each one maintained inflicts a −1 to all further arcane skill rolls.
Power Preparation: A caster may prepare powers by concentrating for an entire round (no movement
or other actions and must not be Shaken or Stunned). If successful, they ignore 2 points of penalties on all powers cast on their next turn. If they do not enact any powers on their next turn, the preparation is lost.
Sometimes heroes find themselves on the brink of death, only to peer over and say “not today”. Heroes may ignore Wound and Fatigue Modifiers Vigor rolls to avoid Bleeding Out.
When using this setting rule, the Hard to Kill Edge provides a +2 bonus to Incapacitation rolls.
Anytime the party encounters a nonplayer character with the Attractive Edge, all potential suitors may make a Spirit roll. The highest roll—or both in a tie!—becomes the object of that beauty’s obsession.
Exactly how that manifests depends on the circumstances. The daughter of an evil galactic emperor might betray her father and help the hero avoid a death trap. The handsome young farmer on a backwater world might fall head over heels for the party’s captain, bringing him or her special treats and rallying the other villagers when the alien horde arrives!
Exactly who becomes obsessed and to what ends they’ll go to is up to the Game Master—but the situation should have the potential to become an epic romance, lasting friendship, or deadly rivalry.
Ever notice how the heroes (and villains) in some movies seem to be made of Teflon while the extras get mowed down left and right? It isn’t because they are exceptionally skilled or wearing special armor; it’s because they are protected by the plot.
To some extent, being Wild Cards already puts the heroes at an enormous advantage. Yet, it’s still possible for an Extra to get a lucky hit and take the hero down in one shot. But sometimes a more cinematic style is needed. With Plot Armor, Wild Cards shrug off the attacks of Extras more easily.
Extras rolling damage can only cause Wild Cards to become Shaken — additional Raises do not cause Wounds. The only way for Extras to inflict Wounds on a Wild Card is to achieve a second Shaken result when they are already Shaken.
Heroes and villains of comics and film often use their powers in new and creative ways. This isn’t just a fun gimmick, it’s a critical aspect of creative problem solving inherent to adventure tales. Here’s how we handle it in Savage Worlds.
Every power stunt costs a Benny and must make narrative sense in some way. This grants the character one use of an Instant power such as ranged attack; or three rounds of a passive power like armor.
Different stunts may be combined, but each effect still costs a Benny. A hero could Push and Interrupt at the same time, for example, for two Bennies.
See the Super Powers Companion, page 30, for details.
Heroes tend to have a few things they rare, if ever, fail at.
Novice Wild Cards may select one skill and apply a Proficiency to it. This is a narrower focus than the skill normally covers and represents a particular application of the skill that the character has an uncanny talent for. Whenever using a skill in a manner described by the proficiency, the character gets one free reroll, even on a Critical Failure. If the character has multiple proficiencies that apply to a situation, they get one free reroll for each applicable proficiency.
Proficiencies stack with Edges that grant free rerolls. Furthermore, if the character has Elan, that Edge’s bonus applies to proficiency rerolls.
At each new Rank, a character may select another proficiency. This new proficiency may be in the same skill or a new one. A single skill may have up to three proficiencies.
There is no set list of proficiencies; players can get creative inventing them. No proficiency should apply at all times — these are niche specialties. For example, a Shooting proficiency should not apply to a particular weapon, as that would clearly be the weapon the character would use at every opportunity.
Some examples of proficiencies:
- Academics: Specific subject (e.g. History, Literature, Psychology)
- Athletics: Climbing, Balance, Grappling, Throwing, Tumbling, Swimming, specific sport (e.g. Baseball)
- Battle: Specific enemy type (e.g. an alien species, a unit type), specific type of engagement (e.g. Siege, Trench Warfare)
- Boating: Knotwork, Navigation, Rigging
- Common Knowledge: Culture, Pop Culture, Etiquette, Geography, Rumors
- Driving: Chases, Racing, Shadowing
- Electronics: Industrial Machines, Remote Control, Sensors
- Fighting: Disarm, Exhibition, Lunge, Push, Roundhouse, Sweep
- Gambling: Bluffing, Cheating, specific game (e.g. Blackjack, Poker)
- Hacking: Cracking, specific type of program/application (e.g. Databases, Games, Viruses)
- Healing: Burns, Diagnosis, Disease, Forensics, Gunshot Wounds, Poison, Stab Wounds
- Intimidation: Blackmail, Bullying, Interrogation, Staredown
- Notice: Spot Clues, Detect Ambush, Detect Lies, Empathy
- Occult: Deciphering, specific type of supernatural creature (e.g. Demons, Lycanthropes, Vampires)
- Performance: Acting, Disguise, Oratory, Singing, specific instrument (e.g. Panpipes, Piano, Violin)
- Persuasion: Bribery, Deception, Fast-Talking, Reason, Seduction
- Piloting: Chases, Evasive Maneuvers, Stunts
- Repair: Automobiles, Carpentry, Computers, Explosives, Robots, Starships, Toys, Weapons
- Research: Books, Databases, Libraries, Print Media, Social Media
- Riding: Beast-Drawn Vehicles, Soothing, Stunts
- Science: Specific field of science (e.g. Biology, Xenobiology, Chemistry, Geology, Engineering, Physics)
- Shooting: Aiming, Exhibition, Firing Into Melee, Trick Shots
- Stealth: Camouflage, Hide, Move Quietly, Sneak Attack
- Survival: Foraging, Locate Water, Sheltering, Tracking, specific environment (e.g. Desert, Forest, Jungle, Urban)
- Taunt: One-upmanship, Peacocking, Provoking, Ridiculing
- Thievery: Concealment, Lockpicking, Pickpocket, Safecracking, Sleight of Hand, Traps
Generally speaking, arcane skills don’t benefit from proficiencies. With GM permission, an arcane skill proficiency might be allowed if it fits the setting. For example, Faith (Holy Ground) could be appropriate to certain horror settings, such as Deadlands. Resist the urge to define the use of a specific power as a proficiency.
Usually, the recovery of Wounds, Fatigue, and Power Points is measured in hours. This more abstract system is appropriate for high adventure games without a lot of downtime.
Resting means the characters are not exerting themselves beyond very basic activity.
Short Rest
The characters spend about 10-15 minutes catching their breath. They may walk at an easy pace but not run.
A Short Rest grants the following:
- Recover one level of Fatigue (unless the specific type of Fatigue specifies a recovery time longer than an hour).
- Make one natural healing attempt (if within the Golden Hour).
- Recharge 5 Power Points (plus any extra from Rapid Recharge or similar sources).
Long Rest
The characters settle down for at least four hours. This is an opportune time to set up camp, cook some food, or get a nap. They may not travel during a Long Rest unless they are being conveyed in a vehicle, such as a stagecoach or ship.
A Long Rest grants the following:
- Recover up to two levels of Fatigue, regardless of the source.
- Make up to four Healing attempts (if within the Golden Hour).
- Recharge all Power Points.
During the course of their adventures, the heroes of the campaign may find occasion to buy and sell goods or salvage the wrecks of their enemies. See the Science Fiction Companion, page 87.
In small town settings, most students have some sort of history or connection with one another—especially those in their own grade level. If the GM doesn’t have a relationship in mind already, they can use the Schoolyard Connections tables (see Pinebox Middle School, pages 46-47) to quickly put together some history between a nonplayer character student and whichever of the heroes they're interacting with (or each of the player characters if you prefer).
Start by rolling on the Reaction Table from Savage Worlds, reproduced below for convenience. In addition to any of the player character’s reaction modifiers from Edges and Hindrances or other factors, subtract 1 for each difference in grade level between the two students.
If the reaction is negative, roll on the Negative Reaction Table. If positive, roll on the Positive Reaction Table instead. Then roll on the Recent Commonality Table to see when they last might have run into each other.
Individuals with PPE-based Arcane Backgrounds may take PPE from willing allies as a free action. Unless noted otherwise, beings without a PPE-based Arcane Background have Size+4 ambient PPE available, which recharges at the rate of 1 PPE per hour of rest.
Siphoning PPE has a Range of the siphoner’s Smarts, and any PPE beyond the siphoner’s maximum must be used immediately or as part of a Ritual, with any excess dissipating immediately.
Taking PPE from unwilling subjects requires the drain Power Points power found in Savage Worlds, which may also be used on those without Arcane Backgrounds in Rifts. The process is the same, though such individuals only have the number of PPE listed previously.
Blood Sacrifice: If a being is sacrificed as part of a Ritual, it’s remaining PPE is doubled and available to the caster of the Ritual, see Additional PPE under Magic Rituals on page 122 of the Tomorrow Legion Players Guide. Killing sentient beings to power ritualistic magic is an extremely vile, evil act.
Savage Worlds skills are intended to be broad. If it’s important to have more detail for
some reason, the GM can decide some skills require specialization. A character chooses one particular use of that skill to roll normally, and subtracts 2 from the total when using it in any other way.
Gaining an additional specialization counts as raising a skill below its linked Attribute. So a character can gain two new specializations with an Advance, or mix and match to gain a specialization and increase a skill below its linked Attribute.
The skill specializations for this setting are as follows:
This rule is appropriate for settings where bullets are flying and you want to keep the action moving.
When reloading single projectiles in a weapon with a capacity greater than one, a character can reload a number of shots equal to half their Agility die with a single action.
Reloading a single round, clip, magazine, or speed loader is a limited free action.
A character who needs to reload multiple rounds can attempt to do so, but this can be hard to do with adrenaline pumping through their body. As an action, they must roll Agility to reload two rounds, plus two per Raise. Failure means no progress toward reloading was made that action.
As usual, if running while reloading, the Agility roll is made at the usual -2 penalty for running.
The slightest noise can cause a herd of cattle to stampede, and when it does it brings a dang sight of difficulty for any cowpokes in its path.
Anyone caught in a stampede must Evade as an action on their turn or take 2d6 damage (more from certain critters, as listed in their description). Add a bonus d6 if the unfortunate soul Critically Fails to Evade.
It usually takes three successful Evasions to escape the tide of a typical herd, but shorter sprints to solid obstacles like rocks or buildings might also carry one away from danger. You don’t have to make all three Evasion rolls in a row—just three total.
Rounding up a stampede of cattle usually takes a few hours for the unlucky cowpokes responsible for them.
Reputation is key to surviving and thriving. Reputation is the key to getting the best work, to keeping enemies at bay, and getting favors when needed. Street cred increases as you do impressive things or prove yourself reliable. It drops if you use it, you’re unreliable, a failure, or the target of ‘social assassination’. It’s hard to get, harder to keep, and worthless if you don’t use it.
Street Cred is represented by a die type. It isn’t a Trait, but it acts like one—with Acing, Bennies, a Wild Die, and benefitting from allies’ Support. The roll can be modified by the value requested, risk to the supplier, and current availability at the GM’s discretion.
Street Cred is rolled to gain favors, such as temporary allies or supplies. For complete details see Interface Zero 3.0, page 149.
These rules make tracking a group's supplies more abstract. Simply note a starting supply level of Very High, High, Low, or Out for anything you think is important to keep up with—usually ammunition, food, and fuel.
After a fight or long trip, reduce the supply one level. Increase or replenish them whenever the party is able to resupply. Missiles, torpedoes, grenades, and the like should be tracked individually.
Sometimes a power might work particularly well in a given situation, or in tandem with another power. A character doused by a water controller, for example, might take additional damage from an electrical attack. A villain subjected to a particularly personal and terrifying illusion might suffer a penalty when resisting the fear power.
Positive synergy occurs if two powers affect a target in the same round and would narratively combine in some way to create a larger end result. The first power works as usual. The second gains a +2 bonus to the skill roll and any resulting damage. If the power is resisted, the target resists at −2 instead.
Negative synergy occurs when two powers or effects should stifle each other, such as when fiery blasts hit a target who’s just been doused by water. This reduces the attacker’s skill roll and damage by 2, or adds +2 to the target’s resistance.
Synergy is separate from Support rolls, and stacks with it in appropriate situations.
Environmental Synergy
Certain environments might increase or reduce a power’s effectiveness as well. A hero with a plant-based ranged attack might get a bonus if they're in a lush jungle or a magical arboretum.
A super might also suffer penalties if they find themself in an adverse environment, such as a water controller in the desert or a fire blaster in a heavy rain.
In extreme situations, the penalty may be greater or it may even be impossible to use a power, such as an earth-based ranged attack that relies on throwing rocks or concrete when no projectiles are available, or attempting to shoot fire in a vacuum.
The bonus or penalty applies to all uses of the affected Power Types, including Tests.
Sometimes it is important to emphasize the bond shared between friends. When the heroes form a committed team of some kind — a superhero league, a werewolf pack, a detective agency, a rebel cell, etc. — they may share Bennies as per the rules for the Common Bond Edge.
Benefiting from your teammates Bennies means actually working as a team. If a character has a penchant for going off alone or ignoring team plans, the GM should suspend the Team Bonding benefit until they learn to work with their comrades.
If Team Bonding is used, characters with the Common Bond Edge can share Bennies (including receiving them) even with characters they cannot communicate with.
When advanced tech and high-performance machines intersect with combat and dangerous environments, things tend to break. In Savage Rifts, this is triggered by Critical Failures when making Trait rolls involving high-tech gear including advanced electronics and composite materials (but not Modern or older gear, see Savage Worlds). Some examples include:
- Using infrared binoculars and rolling a Critical Failure on a Notice check.
- A Critical Failure on a Soak roll, weakening the Armor value of EBA.
- A Critical Failure on a Shooting roll with an energy weapon or rail gun.
- Rolling a Critical Failure on a Strength check with cybernetic arms.
Whenever a device suffers a Critical Failure, roll a d6 and consult the Technical Difficulty Table (see Tomorrow Legion Players Guide, page 118).
If a device suffers from an additional Critical Failure, it gains the next level of penalty. If something is already at the Severe Failure level, it is rendered useless/destroyed and must be replaced or completely rebuilt.
Note, on a device with multiple systems, only the one specifically in use is affected. So a suit of Power Armor subject to a Critical Failure on a Soak roll just suffers a penalty to the Armor value, not every use of the suit. It is possible to render the Armor completely useless while the rest of the suit is still functional. The same effect applies to Combat Cyborgs, a single failed sub-system doesn’t destroy the cyborg (only actual damage can do that).
Fortunately, Rifts Earth is replete with technicians and engineers (often referred to as Operators) who are experts at repairing machinery. Techno-Wizards are important as well as they are the only ones who can fix Techno-Wizardry devices (using the lower of Repair and Techno-Wizardry).
Characters can attempt to fix any damaged machinery with a successful Repair roll, and if necessary, appropriate parts. The time and penalty depend on the severity of the malfunction. A success and each raise on the repair attempt reduces the Technical Difficulty category by one level. On a failed roll, the required parts are used up with no effect. A Critical Failure increases the severity by one degree—ruining an item at the Severe Failure level.
Repairing a Glitch takes 1d6 × 5 minutes and a Repair roll at −1. A Serious Problem takes 1d6 hours, a Repair check at −2, and parts equal to 20% of the item’s cost. To repair a Severe Failure requires 1d6 days, a Repair check at −4, and parts equal to 40% of the item’s base cost.
Dynamic hand-to-hand combat is the bread and butter of comic book characters! Ignore the Unarmed Defender rule that normally gives an attacker armed with a melee weapon +2 to hit an unarmed foe (see Combat Options in Savage Worlds).
The montage occurs only once in a campaign, typically after a major defeat. Sometime soon after, the GM may work with the players to describe a “training montage.” Tell a story of the trials each character goes through—perhaps how the heroes fail at first but gradually work through their struggles—then award them all +5 Super Power Points. These may be spent on new or expanded powers. If a new character joins the team, they may gain the points by spending a point of Conviction to fully become “part of the team.”
Some settings might also allow characters to transform existing bodies via gene-splicing or alteration rather than growing them from a "child" state. This should usually be a Dev III development, and if allowed, grants characters a new option when they Advance:
- Gain or remove 2 points of ancestral abilities. This usually requires a week of Downtime (the Rest option) to undergo and recover from splicing surgery and d6 × $1,000 in funds.
Transference means putting one’s consciousness into a host body—usually one that’s better or younger than the original. This usually takes place in a high-tech facility over several hours.
Where the host comes from depends on the setting. It might be taken by force, cloned from the original, or even sold to the character by a willing donor for some reason.
Dissonance
Transference incurs "Dissonance," a measure of the character’s loss of self. The new body is called the "host," and the original consciousness is still called the "character."
A character’s Dissonance increases by 1 if the host is a relatively similar clone of the character’s original form.
Dissonance increases by 2 if the character is placed in any other kind of host, or 4 if the host is of a dramatically different form (such as an alien or animal body).
Anytime a character undergoes transference they must roll on the Dissonance table on page 91 of the Science Fiction Companion and add their Dissonance value to the roll. Dissonance is cumulative, so switching hosts often eventually causes significant disassociation.
After each Advance earned inside the host body, the character's Dissonance decreases by 1.
Mind
The character maintains their own Smarts, Spirit, and related skills.
Body
The hero takes on the Agility, Strength, and Vigor of the host.
This can be used to remove a Permanent Injury (assuming the host doesn’t have such an injury).
Skills
The character uses their own Smarts-based skills. They keep their own Agility-based skills, and if the host has higher skills those increase their own by one die type. If the character has a d6 Fighting and the host has a d10, for example, the character’s Fighting is now d8.
Edges & Hindrances
The character retains any Edges that require just a Rank, or require Smarts, Spirit, or a skill based on one of those attributes. The Brave Edge requires Spirit d6+, for example, so the hero would retain that Edge.
Similarly, the character gains the host’s Edges if they require a Rank and Agility, Strength, Vigor, or a skill based on one of those attributes. An Edge with any other Requirement doesn’t transfer. The Channeling Edge, for example, requires an Arcane Background, so the hero would not gain it even if the host had it in life.
The character keeps all Hindrances except those that are purely physical, such as One Eye, Slow, or One Arm. Any physical Hindrances of the host remain as well (GM's call).
Price
The financial cost to transfer one’s consciousness into another is $10K times the Dissonance it causes. If a character’s transference raises Dissonance by 4, for example, it costs her $40,000.
This cost is intentionally high to reflect the tropes of most transhumanist settings, but can be more if illegal, rare, or reserved for certain classes; or cheaper if cloning technology is relatively common.
If a Wild Card chooses not to wear any armor (ignoring shields), they add a +2 bonus to their Soak rolls!
Travel through the rough and tumble wilds of Rifts Earth is hard on vehicles and hardware, no matter how stalwartly built.
Each day of travel requires a Boating, Driving, or Piloting skill check made at no penalty for the first six hours of travel, and a cumulative −1 penalty per six hours of travel thereafter. Fatigue affects vehicles as it does people, with recovery requiring an hour of work and a Repair roll. With success recover one level of Fatigue, or two with a raise. Failure means the Fatigue cannot be recovered without expending 1d4 × 250 credits worth of spare parts. With a Critical Failure, roll for a Technical Difficulty (see Tomorrow Legion Players Guide, page 117).
Villains get Bennies, but at a much slower rate, and while they can be given Conviction if the Game Master desires, it’s not something they earn quite as easily as player characters.
This Setting Rule reinforces that villains do, in fact, get Conviction, helps the Game Master understand when to award it to them, and adds a powerful new ability to even the odds against meddling heroes.
Gaining Conviction
Villains gain Conviction any time they Incapacitate, or capture an important character (GM’s call, but always includes player characters), accomplish some significant part of their scheme, or undergo a major tragedy or triumph.
In the course of play, this means villains gain Conviction as they accomplish their goals, kidnap Dependents, make off with treasures, or destroy some hated target—even if it’s “off-camera.” That lets them start a scene with Conviction, which is another incentive the heroes have for thwarting their plans.
This should usually be visible to the players when they encounter the villain so they know what they’re up against.
Villainous Effects
Villains gain one additional effect when they play Conviction besides the usual d6 bonus to their actions and damage (see Savage Worlds)—they become Unstoppable! This helps even lone villains last a bit longer against those annoying super teams.
Characters can never suffer more than four Wounds in a single hit and therefore never have to Soak more than four wounds either.
Large Creatures: The Wound Cap applies even to creatures with more than three Wounds (due to their Scale or the Resilient/Very Resilient Special Ability). A Huge creature that can take five Wounds, for example, can’t take more than four from a single attack, so it can’t normally be killed with a single attack. The GM can always overrule this in specific and obvious situations, of course, such as massive blasts, falling from towering cliffs or mountains, etc.