A SNEAK PEEK: The HiBRiD Player's Spielbook, Chapter 2: Step Eight of Eight (Possessions)

Step Eight: List Possessions

Finally, all that remains is to determine your character’s material possessions. Your character’s possessions are closely linked to your character’s concept history, and the genre. If your character grew up on the streets, for example, he is most likely barely going to have two pennies to rub together, unless his history says he recently found a bag of money in the street with no name on it. He is likely to have a few ratty possessions of personal importance but little utility in his cardboard box under the viaduct, a few possessions on his person, and a few coins if any walking around money. On the other hand, if your character is a wealthy thrill seeker bored with his privileged life, he is likely going to have a large amount of money in the bank but not necessarily available on his person, a lot of fancy equipment or gear in a traveling suitcase, a trunk with a number of fashionable outfits, and one or two fancy weapons normally available to civilians that may or may not be durable and functional.

Given these examples, it is easy to see how you can rationalize any number of possessions unique to your character that would not be common to others possessing the same profession or skills. It could also take a long time trying to make sure you capture all the things your character would normally have.

To make determining possessions a quick and easy process, your character’s possessions are classified into five types: Clothing, Concept Kit, Specific Items, Improvised Items, and Holdings.

Clothing

The first type of possessions is the clothing your character is wearing. Your character begins with any clothes you choose, including underwear, socks, and footwear. If you do not indicate clothes on your character sheet, your character is naked.

Hujraad’s Hacks: Naked Characters? Seriously?

Yes. Seriously. Naked. It may seem that it needs to go without saying, but just in case you don’t believe me or are unclear on this topic, I will restate it once again: if you do not list your character’s clothing, your character is naked. This includes underwear and socks.

Concept Kit

Your character is assumed to begin play carrying items related to his concept skills. To reflect this assumption, you may list one concept kit. This concept kit is assumed to contain all of the items necessary for your character to perform the sorts of actions characters typically carried out by characters of the role defined in your character’s concept.

Listing a concept kit does away with the need to list specific items, and is based on the role of your character.

Each concept kit reflects actions not related to combat and never includes weapons or ammunition. A concept kit for a character with “barbarian” listed as the role in the  concept, for example, would be assumed to contain tools for foraging, navigating, tracking, setting snares, and climbing. Major things that would be assumed to be in the kit on a day-to-day basis would be flint and tinder, a few lengths of rope, pitons, an axe for wood chopping, a utilitarian knife, camouflage paint, twine, et cetera.

Hujraad’s Hacks: The Weaponlessness of Concept Gear

It might seem that some character concepts would require if not strongly suggest that weapons be included in a concept kit. As an example, let’s look at a common role for many Wild West games, the “gunslinger”. If you were to make a character with gunslinger concept, of course, your character is going to have guns, bullets, and a gun belt, et cetera. But what else would a gunslinger need that you might not think about? Definitely, a gunslinger would need a good hunting knife, some rations, some tools for taking care of his horse’s shoes, a tent, some firemaking tools, and a bedroll. By listing a “gunslinger’s kit” for your character, you can save the time it would take to write down all of these mundane things, as well as the effort of having to write down other things you might not think of or have the time to think about. This frees you from having to worry about the boring items and get right down to the part of the character creation process that you might enjoy a bit more: designating their character’s custom-designed, unique weapons.

Uses

A concept kit is composed of both consumable items that are used up over time as well as durable items that are not. To simplify this, each kit possesses 20 “Uses”. Whenever an item that might be used to accomplish a task requires the use of a piece of equipment in the kit, the Director will judge whether or not one of these uses is spent. If so, you will subtract one “Use” from the number of “Uses” for the kit. Once the number of “Uses” for a concept kit is depleted, the character must get a new kit or otherwise take measures to get the kit replenished.

Specified Items

In addition to your character’s concept kit, you are free to list any Specified items your character would carry on his/her person that would not be included in the concept kit. Examples of such items include weapons, ammunition, money, car keys, good luck charms, et cetera.

While a concept kit has a mixture of durable  and consumable items, Specified items are classified as either durable items or consumable Items.

Any Specified durable items that may be used repeatedly to carry out the activities of daily living or perform actions while adventuring that can be easily carried in a backpack, tool belt, or by some other readily convenient means are assumed to be within your character’s immediate reach (but may take time to access) if needed, unless something happens over the course of the game, such as being lost or stolen. Examples of durable items include weapons, a wallet or purse, a walking stick, a backpack, eyeglasses, car keys, personal communication devices, or a daily planner or journal.

Any Specified consumable items that will be used up over the course of normal use as game play proceeds must be noted on your character sheet separately, and the number of each item must also be listed. Over the course of the game, as these items are consumed, you will need to keep track of the number remaining. Examples of such items include darts, arrows, rounds of ammunition, money, batteries, matches, food, nuts and bolts, nails, solder, et cetera.

Hujraad’s Hacks: Only Specified Items

If you are not in a hurry, rather than listing a concept kit, you are more than welcome to list each and every individual tool or piece of equipment on your character sheet to your heart’s content as a Specified item. If you choose to follow this path rather than using a concept kit, remember to classify and list your objects separately as durable and consumable Items, and to designate the number of consumable items next to the item’s name on your character sheet.

Improvised Items

The next type of possessions your character will possess are referred to as Improvised items. Improvised items represent any of a number of random, nameless, household, items that your character might need at any given time that you would have no way of knowing he would need beforehand. Perhaps your character, stranded on a rural dirt road and camping out until help arrives, feels a sudden need for a bag of marshmallows? Perhaps your character was mystically transported from a rainforest to a desert and suddenly finds a real need for a canteen of water? What if your character went to the library expecting to find an answer in a book, only to find a secret passage instead along with a sudden need for a flashlight? Improvised Items can really save you and your character’s bacon in any of these situations.

Improvised items may be any non-magical, common item of minimal to moderate value that is within the genre of the game setting and easy to legally obtain. Items that are rare, magical, related to weapons, or not within the genre for the game, extremely expensive, or unique in a particular way may never be declared as an Improvised Items.

Improvised Items are classified into two types. The first type, clutter, may be simple items with few if any moving parts, easy to fit into a large pants pocket or small purse, and possess low or no monetary value, typically less than ten dollars in our own world. You can think of these things that you might find in a kitchen junk or desk drawer, behind or underneath the cushions in a couch, or in the very bottom of a purse or backpack. The second type, knickknacks, are items of up to moderate complexity, no larger than a breadbox, and cost less than a hundred dollars in our own world.

Improvised items are not actual items that you list on your character sheet but instead, they are blanks on your character sheet that act as placeholders to be used  during play. When you need an Improvised item, you will simply declare your character has the item as as either a knickknack or item of clutter. The Director will then judge the item and designate which of the two types of Improvised Item it qualifies as. Once your Director classifies the item, you may write it down in one of the appropriate spaces designated on your character sheet. Once all a character’s Improvised items have been all been declared, you may no longer declare improvised items.

Hujraad’s Hacks: Multiple Improvised Items

An Improvised item might not be a single item but several items for a single purpose. If your character finds a flashlight with two dead batteries, for example, and you wish for your character to be able to use it at that very moment, you might say, “I just so happen to have a few batteries among the clutter in my pocket”. In such a case, the Director may just treat it as a single Item of clutter. On the other hand, if the same character needs two miner’s helmets, the Director may claim that each constitutes a single knickknack, so will request you list each of them individually on your character sheet. In short, whenever you claim your character has an Improvised item, your Director has the final say as to whether it is considered an item of clutter, a knickknack, neither, or multiple items, and inform you how to reflect them on your character sheet during play.

Trading Knickknacks and Clutter

In some situations, your character may run out of one type of Improvised item or the other. If you need an item of clutter but have no items of clutter remaining, you may declare the item is a knickknack. If you need a knickknack but have no knickknacks remaining, you may claim the item as two items of clutter. If you need a Knickknack and only have one item of clutter remaining, you may ask one of the other players if they would be willing to transfer one of their Improvised items to you. Similarly, if other player characters have declared all of their Improvised items, you may declare an Improvised item and give it to another player character.

  

Holdings

Holdings are possessions your character possesses elsewhere, that are not within 100 meters of his person. They can be vehicles, houses, investment accounts, and anything else that holds value but your character is not carrying.

You are free to document any Holdings your character possesses so long as your Director approves them and judges they fit in with your character’s history and concept. For example, if you claim your character has multiple homes, 17 high-performance sports cars, and over a million dollars in assets but is a homeless bum, your Director may disallow it unless your character history reflects this seeming contradiction in some way.

Completing Step Eight

To complete this step, first describe and list all the clothing your character is wearing.

Next, look at your character’s concept and concept skills and take a second to think about what sorts of equipment your character would need to perform tasks associated with the concept skills you have chosen and write down a type of concept kit that might reflect these items along with the list of what your character is wearing as clothing. Next to the name of the concept kit, write down how your character is carrying it (in a backpack, distributed throughout your character’s various pants and shirt pockets, in a duffel bag, et cetera) and write the number of Uses it currently has remaining. By default, all concept kits start out with 20 Uses.

Third, after you have documented your character’s concept kit, write down any Specified durable items your character typically carries as goes about his life or adventures. Do not forget to document any weapons carried, as they are not considered part of any concept kit. As you list each item, think of any consumable items related to it your character might need, such as ammunition,  batteries,  and so forth. List these items and the quantity of each item your character is carrying on your character sheet as a Specified consumable item.

Fourth, list your character’s Holdings, and describe where your character lives and sleeps most of the time. Also list any modes transportation your character owns or otherwise has access to (such as a car, horse, hang glider, for example) and describe where they are usually kept. If your character has equipment stored with the method of conveyance, list those items with it as well. If your character has no holdings, indicate that as well.

Finally, because they are placeholders, there is of course no need to designate Improvised items on your character sheet. Instead, just make yourself familiar with where you will document each item as it is claimed on your character sheet and you are ready to begin playing.

Step Eight Example: Johnny Parkour

Excited to be almost done creating his character, Ogun finally turns his attention to his character Johnny’s possessions. Being athletic from the circus, he decides that Johnny wears loose fitting clothes that allow him to move quickly and writes down the following:

Stretchy Cotton Underwear

Baggie, well-worn canvas trousers with pockets

Comfy socks

Short sleeved cotton shirt

Flannel button down shirt

Light trapeze boots

Light leather gloves

Leather Duster

Balaclava

With Johnny’s clothes complete, Ogun moves on to determining his concept kit. The role for his character is “provacateur”, which really does not describe what sorts of things Johnny does from day to day. Johnny’s descriptor of “acrobatic” helps, but not all that much. Ogun turns to Johnny’s history. As he reads it, Ogun realizes that Johnnys Mission to find the missing fortune teller would suggest a need traveling gear, maybe some survival gear, and exploration equipment, like rope, a 3 meter pole, flashlight, matches and so forth. He decides to group these together in his mind and records the following on his character sheet, underneath the word “Balaclava”:

Adventurer’s kit (Backpack)-20 Uses

With the majority of his needs taken care of, Ogun decides to determine Johnny’s Specified items. Having aspects geared towards using marbles, he definitely decides he needs them but not many other weapons. He also decides that the circus folk gave him 100 dollars to start on his journey, which he keeps in a wallet that fits on the inside pocket of his duster. He writes the following Specified consumable items on his character sheet:

4 Pouches (1 in each pocket) of 200 marbles each - 200

1 Pouch (Clipped firmly to belt) of 200 marbles - 200

Wallet with 100 dollars

He then adds his Specified durable items:

Lucky lemur’s foot

1997 Saturn SL with 450,000 km on the odometer

With his Specified items out of the way, Ogun finally turns to Johnny’s Holdings. For the most part, Johnny lives and travels about with his circus family, so he possesses no Holdings of his own; everything is owned by the circus family as a whole and everyone within their family shares their possessions with one another. He shares a tent with his parents, though he has his own room. He is currently driving his dad’s old car, but since it is readily available to him, he has listed in his Specified Durable items. The nice thing about this is that though he has not a  lot of wealth, he does have a significant number of resources available from the circus family should he need some things while in pursuit of his Mission.

With this final step complete, Johnny Parkour is ready to dive into the action!

A SNEAK PEEK: The HiBRiD Player's Spielbook, Chapter 2: Step Six of Eight (Character Aspects)

Step Six: Determine Aspects and Action Modifiers

Like all heroes, player characters possess abilities that enable them to rise above “normal” folks, whether obvious (such as superhuman strength or the ability to walk through walls) or more subtle (such as a will strong enough to resist the apathy of a decaying society). These abilities are collectively referred to as aspects.

Aspect Types

There are two types of aspects available to all characters in all genres. The first type of aspects are known as cinematic aspects. Cinematic aspects are used to reflect the sorts of the things that only seem to occur in motion pictures and defy any logical explanation. Because the game is meant to be cinematic in nature, these effects are embraced and reflected purposely by these aspects.

Hujraad’s Hacks: Rationalizing Cinematic Aspects

Many of the effects created by Cinematic aspects are often what moviegoers might consider either “movie magic” (How come any time a car crashes it explodes in a fireball, even when there is no fuel in the gas tank?”), writer’s fiat (“Hey! Whenever he points his gun at a group of guys and blindly fires, they all fall down!”), or a mistake that occurred somewhere in the filmmaking process (“Wait a minute, that boat wasn’t there a second ago!”). Whenever your character uses or gains a benefit from a Cinematic aspect, you should make an attempt to explain it from either a filmmaker’s or actor’s point of view and really elaborate as you describe your character’s actions. Some possible ideas for referencing in your description include the storyboards, the screenplay, the film editing, the wardrobe or props departments, the actors’ methods, or even the random crew member who got sick on a day of shooting.

The second type of aspects are known as descriptive aspects. Descriptive aspects are used to reflect some sort of physical or mental feature of your character in terms of a specific game stat. The mechanics of these aspects are explicitly described in each aspect description, however, how the aspect is reflected in your character is entirely up to you. When you select a Descriptive aspect for your character, you will need to document on your character sheet under the aspect’s description how it looks or appears to other characters.

Hujraad’s Hacks: A Descriptive Aspect Example

If you have a character with scales, thick skin, a strikingly hairy chest or even simply described as “tough” in the character concept you have written, you might reflect these features by increasing your character’s STUN or ARMV stat using one of the Descriptive aspects.

Aspect Descriptions

Unlike your character;s origin traits and skills, the aspects your character possesses are much more specific in what they enable your character to do. The rest of this section will describe the available aspects you may purchase for your character. Each aspect will first be presented with its name followed by five parameters that reflect the game rules you will follow when selecting and using the aspect. Any parameters with a value of “N/A” (standing for “Not Applicable”) listed for the aspect do not need to be determined or recorded for the aspect. Following these parameters, you will find a more specific explanations of the aspect’s effects.

The Cost Parameter

This parameter lists the number of aspect points from your aspect point pool that must be spent to purchase the aspect for your character.

The Initiation Parameter

This parameter reflects the amount of concentration required for your character to use the aspect. For this parameter, each aspect will be classified as one of the three following types.

Constant aspects are always in effect considered an innate part of your character similar to your character’s origin traits. They require no concentration on the part of your character to use and do not require the determination of an action modifier for the aspect.

Involved aspects are learned abilities similar to skills. They require all of your character’s concentration to use and using them is considered an involved action. You will need to calculate an action modifier for these aspects.

Reactive aspects automatically initiate themselves in response to a specific stimulus or condition listed in the aspect description. They require no concentration on the part of your character to use and require the determination of an action modifier for the aspect.

The Related Attribute Parameter

This parameter is used when determining the action modifier for Involved and Reactive aspects. For these types of aspects, this parameter will list one or more attributes associated with the aspect. If two or more attributes are listed, you may use the highest attribute when determining the action modifier for the aspect. Constant aspects will have an “N/A” listed for this Parameter.

The Grading Parameter

This parameter reflects your character will be able to improve the aspect over the course of your character’s life or if the aspect can have differing levels of effect from character to character. For this parameter, each aspect will be classified as one of the two following types.

Ungraded aspects are binary in nature; your character either does or does not possess the ability outlined in the aspect description. These aspects always create the same level of effect and normally cannot be improved over the course of time. Ungraded aspects are always assigned a grade of “N/A”.

Graded aspects exhibit different levels of power or can be improved over time. When first purchased, these aspects are assigned a grade of 1. Graded aspects may be increased in grade by spending aspect points on them during character creation. Increasing the grade of the aspect in this way is referred to as upgrading an aspect.

Modes

This parameter reflects aspects that use similar game mechanics to resolve actions when they are used, but have different secondary effects. For example, suppose one character may be able to shoot heat blasts from his hands while another may be able to shoot ice blasts from theirs. In both cases, the character is able to inflict damage on an opponent, however a heat blast might catch the environment on fire while a cold blast might cause all the items in the environment to become brittle and break. For this parameter, aspects will be classified as one of the following two types.

Moded aspects will have a number of modes listed for this parameter from which you will need to choose when either purchasing or upgrading the aspect. The effects of each mode will be detailed in the aspect description.

Unmoded aspects only have one absolute effect and will have “N/A” listed for this parameter.

Cinematic Aspect Descriptions

Blindfighting

Initiation: Constant

Cost: 6

Grading: Ungraded

Related Attribute: N/A

Modes: N/A

This aspect enables your character to fight effectively and without penalties in the absence of light when engaging an opponent within your character’s Action Range. Opponents taking successful measures to conceal themselves from all of your character’s other senses or perceptive abilities are able to negate this ability.

Catchphrase

Initiation: Constant

Cost: 8

Grading: Ungraded

Related Attribute: N/A

Modes: Specific Word or Phrase

This aspect reflects a trademark word or phrase that your character characteristically utters whenever committing a dramatic, comic, or heroic action. Once per game session, if the Director judges the use of the catchphrase as sufficiently dramatic, comic, or heroic, you will receive one floating point of Ité to spend on the action being committed.

Flash of Brilliance

Initiation: Constant

Cost: 8

Grading: Ungraded

Related Attribute: N/A

Modes: Intuition, Recall

This aspect enables your character to pull information from seemingly nowhere (or from the Director's mind) that would somehow aid him in accomplishing a task. To reflect this ability, once per game session, your character receives one floating point of Ité that may be spent in the way specified by the mode when not engaged in an Action Scene.

The intuition mode of this aspect reflects an ability to draw uncannily accurate conclusions and discern patterns when presented with scarce and misleading information, no matter how out of the ordinary or obscure the conclusion might seem. You may use this aspect to request a clue from the Director at times your character needs to know something when there would be no real logical way of knowing.

The recall mode of this aspect enables your character to remember any single piece of information he has ever learned without the need for a task roll.

Go Ballistic

Initiation: Constant

Cost: 5

Grading: Ungraded

Related Attribute: N/A

Modes: Specific Thrown Missile Weapon, Specific Mechanical Missile Weapon, Specific Melee Weapon, Specific Unarmed Attack, Specific Object

This aspect enables your character to make an attack not specified as a ballistic attack as if it were one. Whenever your character makes a successful attack of the type specified by the mode, every 1d6 (3) points of damage in the Damage Code is replaced by 1d10 (5). In addition, any ARMV possessed by a target successfully struck by the attack will be ignored unless it is specifically designed to resist ballistic damage

Gore

Initiation: Constant

Cost: 8

Grading: Ungraded

Related Attribute: N/A

Modes: N/A

This aspect reflects a unique knack for describing on the more graphic effects of their attacks on defeated opponents. Once per game session, you will receive one floating point of Ité to use on a combat action if the description of the action eviscerating one or more opponents is dramatically appropriate or sufficiently disturbing or entertaining, as judged by the Director.

Heroic Indicator

Initiation: Constant

Cost: 1

Grading: Ungraded

Related Attribute: N/A

Modes: Freeze Frame, Heroic Appearance, Theme Music

This aspect enables you to create a minor inconsistency within the game setting one time during or after an Action Scene that both the players and the characters notice. This aspect has no specific effects within the game rules, however it can have other effects while roleplaying the character at the Director’s discretion.

Hujraad’s Hacks: Heroic Indicator

While the Heroic Indicator aspect has no effects in terms of game mechanics, it can have still great effects while playing the game. For instance, when trying to differentiate a character with a Heroic indicator from a massive sea of people flooding the street.

The freeze frame mode of this aspect enables your character to break the “fourth wall” one time during an action scene and make one emotional expression to all the players at the table as well as all the characters in the game. When used, all activity in the Action Scene freezes in place while the “camera” zooms in on your character. As the “camera” zooms in, your character experiences just enough of a slowing of time to strike a pose, speak a phrase, make a hand gesture, or make a facial expression in slow motion. Your character cannot physically interact with the environment as the expression is already considered to be incorporated into the action your character is taking at the time of the freeze frame in terms of game mechanics. Once the expression is completed, all action immediately continues as normal.

The heroic appearance mode of this aspect ensures that your character always looks good in between Action Scenes. In order to use this aspect, the player must describe what is “heroic” about his appearance in terms of what changed after the action scene ended, e. g. ”I know it looked like a lot of blood got on my character’s shirt, but really, it was just a little bit, and so there is really just a small neat round circle of red where my character was hit”.

Hujraad’s Hacks: Examples of Heroic Appearance

You can use the Heroic Appearance mode of this aspect in any number of ways. For example, one player might use this aspect to make his character’s hair always seem to looks clean, well-conditioned, and constantly being blown about in the wind while another player might use it to enable their character to fall into a mud/sludge/sewage pit, finding themselves completely covered in blood and carnage during an action scene, but once the action scene ends, the character’s clothes look just a little worn, his hair is just a little bit messy, and the character appears ruggedly attractive rather than unkempt and stinky. Still another player may choose to have his character’s bright white teeth sparkle in whatever light is available whenever seen by another individual.

The theme music mode of this aspect reflects theme music that always seems to be playing during an Action Scene whenever your character takes an action that is especially heroic. You must designate a specific song or riff that is playing in the background when your character is using this aspect, and may designate whether the music is built into the “soundtrack” of the game or if you have musicians playing the music off-camera that show up briefly for a few seconds just after the Action Scene is over.

Multitask

Initiation: Constant

Cost: 6

Grading: Ungraded

Related Attribute: N/A

Modes: Specified Involved Action

This aspect enables your character to perform the type of Involved Action specified by the mode as a Standard Action.

Presence

Initiation: Constant

Cost: 7

Grading: Graded

Related Attribute: N/A

Modes: Attractiveness, Likability, Obscurity, Prominence, Prowess (Specified Concept skill)

This aspect reflects an innate ability of your character to make an impression on all who interact with him. As a result, your character is able to affect the initial social reactions of non-player characters within Action Range in the manner specified by the mode. Roleplaying and actions by your character after the initial response created by this aspect will determine whether the response remains after the initial reaction.

If your character possesses more than one mode of this aspect, you must designate which of those modes is the primary mode. This is the one that is the default mode when the others are not active. Each of the remaining modes then becomes what is known as a secondary mode that will override the primary mode only when a certain condition you specify occurs. All secondary modes must be approved by your Director before play.

The attractiveness mode of this aspect reflects incredibly good looks. Characters with this mode are so attractive that others will exhibit favorable reactions toward them most of the time unless a previous encounter went particularly badly. Characters with this mode tend to find people flocking to them in social situations.

The likability mode of the aspect reflects a natural, positive, and calm feeling that your character projects about himself and people with whom he interacts are often willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, smile at their jokes, be polite to them, and just generally have a good feeling about them when they are around.

The obscurity mode of this aspect reflects a knack for avoiding notice in social settings. Through a combination of utterly average appearance, quietness in demeanor, and unobtrusiveness in personality, your character is so forgettable that others ignore him completely if they have no reason to notice or be looking for him. Even if your character gets right up in someone’s face, after the incident, your character may be only be remembered as “someone or something that was annoying me but I can't seem to remember what or who now…”

The prominence mode of this aspect reflects a knack for attracting the attention of others. Through a combination of force of personality, physical build, appearance, and self-confidence as well as boisterousness in manner, your character always seems more noticeable to others in a crowd and ensures they will be remembered.

The prowess mode of this skill reflects incredible renown and flair with a specific combat skill. Any who know of or see how well your character fights with the concept skill specified will not only be impressed, but also intimidated, should they be contemplating fighting the character.

Railing

Initiation: Constant

Cost: 4

Grading: Ungraded

Related Attribute: N/A

Modes: N/A

This aspect reflects a unique ability to control railings in the environment. Once per game session, your character may choose to have a railing spring either into or out of existence whenever convenient whether he is on a catwalk, a stairway outside a courthouse, or some other dramatically appropriate location.

Seventh Sense

Initiation: Constant

Cost: 7

Grading: Ungraded

Related Attribute: N/A

Modes: Specified Phenomenon

This aspect enables your character to perceive a phenomenon specified by the mode that would not normally be detectable by the five human senses. Whenever the specified phenomenon falls within your character's Action Range, he is automatically able to perceive its existence as well as any basic information about the phenomenon that can be determined by the asking the Director a simple “yes” or “no” question. Determining more specific information about the phenomenon requires a task roll to determine.

Hujrad’s Hacks: Possible Seventh Sense Phenomena

The phenomenon you select for the Seventh Sense aspect can be anything from specific phenomena such as as traps, danger, radiation, magic, trouble, or a certain type of animal animal, to more vague general feeling such as a feeling “of being watched”, “like something bad is going to happen”, et cetera. You may choose anything so long as it is approved by your Director and exists in the campaign as designated by the Genre Description.

Shootist

Initiation: Constant

Cost: 6

Grading: Ungraded

Related Attribute: N/A

Modes: Autoload (Specified Weapon), Deadeye (Specified Weapon), Double Iron (Specified Weapon), Quickdraw (Specified Weapon), Unending Bullets (Specified Weapon)

This aspect reflects a number of cool feats pulled off by gun-wielding, action-movie heroes. When selecting this aspect for your character, in addition to selecting a mode, you must also specify whether one of the following specific types of personal firearms:

· pistol

· maschinenpistole

· submachine gun

· shotgun

· sport rifle

· assault rifle

This aspect may also be applied to any personal missile weapon in genres in which firearms are not allowed or present as outlined in the Genre Description.

The autoload mode of this aspect enables your character to continuously fire the type of weapon specified without ever having to take any time or action to reload as long as there is ammunition remaining on his person. You still need to keep track of ammunition on your character's person as it is fired.

The deadeye mode of this aspect enables your character to quickly fire the type of weapon specified with uncanny accuracy. Whenever using the specified type of weapon, any aimed shot your character makes is treated as a Standard Action rather than an Involved Action.

The double iron mode of this aspect reflects a gift for simultaneously firing one of the specified weapon in each hand without losing any accuracy. Any time your character attacks a single target successfully while simultaneously firing ammunition from two weapons of the specified type, damage from both weapons is applied to the target. When each weapon is fired at two separate opponents, the attack is treated as a single action. This aspect also enables your character to saturate area with two Squares of Coverage if ten or more rounds/missiles are fired.

The mower mode of this aspect reflects an ability to put down multiple nameless bad guys that are lined up in a row or some sort of formation with a single sweeping attack. Upon a successful attack task roll against any single opponent in a group, the damage from the attack is automatically applied to an additional number of opponents in close proximity equal to the Heroic Level designated in the Genre Description. Your character must expend at least ten bullets/missiles during an Action Round to use this aspect.

The quick draw mode of this aspect enables your character to draw, ready, and fire the weapon specified by the mode without spending an action to do so and enables your character to automatically outdraw an opponent in your character’s Initiative Phase or later during an Action Round unless that opponent also possesses this aspect. In cases where two or more opponents draw during the same Initiative Phase, all involved characters make an opposed task roll to determine who draws first.

The unending bullets/missiles mode of this aspect creates a “phantom store” of bullets/missiles that may be fired during an Action Scene before depleting any of the bullets on your character’s person. The number of phantom bullets/missiles a character with this mode may fire during an Action Scene before running out is equal to the Heroic Level of the campaign multiplied by the number of bullets/missiles your character is actually carrying for the specified weapon at the beginning of the Action Scene. All phantom bullets disappear at the end of the Action Scene.

Signature Action

Initiation: Constant

Cost: 7

Grading: Ungraded

Related Attribute: N/A

Modes: Specified Standard Action

This aspect reflects an unnatural bent toward the specific type of Standard Action specified by the mode. To reflect this talent, the player of a character with this aspect receives one point of floating Ité each game session to spend any time the character commits the action specified.

A Signature Action must be related to your Character’s History and describe both a specific action and a specific condition. For example, “whenever rolling initiative while fighting with the ancestral blade of my character’s family” or “attacking a lizard man at the light of the full moon” or “sneaking in an urban environment to steal from the rich and give to the poor” would all be acceptable conditions in most cases. The Director will have the final say on whether the signature action conditions are specific enough for purposes of this aspect.

Trademark Skill

Initiation: Constant

Cost: 8

Grading: Ungraded

Related Attribute: N/A

Modes: Specified Concept Skill

This aspect enables your character to perform actions of awesomeness when performing a task related to his character concept. To reflect this ability, once per game session, you receive one floating point of Ité that you may spend on an action related to the concept skill specified by the mode.

Überstrength

Initiation: Constant

Cost: 10

Grading: Ungraded

Related Attribute: N/A

Modes: N/A

This aspect reflects an inexplicable ability to perform feats of strength beyond the norm for an origin. Characters with this aspect determine their Action Mass by multiplying the result described in their origin by ten.

Damage inflicted when making a melee or thrown missile attack is not directly affected by this aspect, however melee attacks made by a character with the Überstrength aspect may have additional benefits as judged by the Director such as knocking down an opponent who does not have any extraordinary means of preventing it as judged by the Director.

Hujraad’s Hacks: An Example of Überstrength in Action

Two characters, Sheriff Blokk the Dark and Jacques the Plucky French Weightlifter, decide to have a contest to see who is more macho. Both characters possess a STR of +5, however Blokk has the Überstrength aspect. They both walk up to a hippopotamus and decide to each take one punch at its nose to see who can affect it more.

They flip a coin to see who gets to punch it in the nose first. Blokk wins the toss, pops the creature in the nose. Due to the Überstrength aspect, the Director decides that while the damage the blow inflicts is negligible, the force of the blow is enough to cause the hippo to momentarily cringe in pain and back a few startled steps away from the lawman.

Jacques then steps up and strikes the hippo, however his blow has no effect due to the small amount of damage inflicted by the blow. The Director decides that the poor hippopotamus gets a free attack. It opens its mouth, plunges its massive teeth through the Frenchman’s abdomen, and starts whipping him back and forth like a rag doll, shredding his intestines and breaking all of his vertebrae in the process.

Weapon Family

Initiation: Constant

Cost: 5

Grading: Ungraded

Related Attribute: N/A

Modes: Axes, Bludgeons, Curved Blades, Drawn Missiles, Exotic Weapons, Flailed Weapons, Launched Missiles, Long Blades, Medium Blades, Pole Arms, Rope-and-Chain-based Weapons, Short Blades, Thrown Missiles

This skill reflects a unique ability to pick up any archaic weapon that falls within the family specified by the mode and wield it with no penalties for being unskilled in its use. If your character possesses one or more grades in a concept skill for a weapon belonging to the specified family, the player may use that skill’s Action Modifier for tasks when using any other member of the weapon family.

Hujraad’s Hacks: A Weapon Family Example

Colorado Smith has a concept skill of Whip with an Action Modifier of +12 and a Combat skill with an Action Modifier of +6. He purchases the Rope-and-Chain-based mode of the Weapon Family aspect. Now, any time he uses a whip, a lasso, a rope, or a similar weapon, he uses his Whip Action Modifier of +12 rather than the Combat Action Modifier +6.

Wire-fu

Initiation: Constant

Cost: 7

Grading: Graded

Related Attribute: N/A

Modes: N/A

Each grade of this aspect increases the dimensions your character may jump upward and forward as specified in your character’s origin traits by one meter per grade.

Hujraad’s Hacks: An Example of Wire Fu

From a standing start, a human can jump forward 2 meters forward and vertically. From a running start, the maximum distance is 10 meters (5 Action Moves/round x 2 meters). A human character possessing the Wire-fu aspect at a grade of 2 can jump 4 meters forward and vertically from a standing start and up to 20 meters forward if running at a full sprint for a round.

Descriptive Aspect Descriptions

Attribute

Initiation: Constant

Cost: 7

Grading: Graded

Related Attribute: N/A

Modes: N/A

This aspect enables you to increase one of your character’s attributes by one point per grade.

Form Stat

Initiation: Constant

Cost: 3

Grading: Graded

Related Attribute: N/A

Modes: Action Mass (Specific), Action Move (Specific), Action Range (Specific)

This aspect reflects something about your character that would increases one of your character’s Action stats. If your character has different action stats for different forms of movement, you must select which form of movement the aspect applies to. For example, if your character can walk and fly or has multiple loads based on different body parts, you will need to select which part of your character's form (flight vs. walking, tail vs. arms, et cetera) is affected by this aspect.

The Action Mass mode of this aspect represents something that enhances how well your character is able to throw or lift things Each grade of this aspect increases your character’s Action Mass stat by one kilogram.

The Action Move mode of this aspect represents something that enhances how well your character moves. Each grade of this aspect increases your character’s Action Move stat by one meter.

The Action Range mode of this aspect reflects your character possessing a higher sensitivity to the environment. Each grade of this aspect increases your character’s Action Range by one meter.

This ARMV mode of aspect reflects one or more physical features that actually affect your character’s Armor Values. The cosmetic or physical feature you specify increases the Armor Value specified by the mode by one point per grade.

The PHYS mode of this aspect increases a character's PHYS stat by one point per grade.

The STUN mode of this aspect increases the heroic factor by one point per grade when used for calculating a character’s STUN stat.

Resistance

Initiation: Constant

Cost: 2

Grading: Graded

Related Attribute: N/A

Modes: Specific Damage Type

This aspect reflects a natural ability to resist a specific type of environmental or hazmat attack specified by the mode. When an attack of the type specified by the mode is directed against your character, you may inform your Director of the resistance, and she will add the grade of this aspect to the DR of the task roll.

Completing Step Six

The Genre Description will designate a number of points in an aspect point pool to spend on your character’s aspects.

Hujraad’s Hacks: Genre-Specific Aspects

Like skills, the aspects available to your character are closely related to the genre of the game. In addition to the Descriptive and Cinematic aspects available to all genres, there may additional aspects unique and specific to the genre of the game you will be playing. Any genre-specific aspects available for your character will be described in the Genre Description.

Selecting Aspects and Modes

To complete this step, you will first look at your character concept and choose one or more aspects that most closely fit(s) the character you were hoping to play. If an aspect has one or more modes listed, you will need to select one and record it on your character sheet

Determining Aspect Grades

Next, for each aspect you select, you will need to determine its grade. For ungraded aspects, you will assign a grade of “N/A” while for graded aspects you will assign a grade of 1.

After determining each aspect’s grade, you will subtract a number of aspect points equal to the cost parameter of the aspect’s from your pool of aspect points.

Hujraad’s Hacks: Upgrading An Aspect

If you select a graded aspect for your character, you can choose to upgrade it while you are creating your character. To do so, you simply spend an additional number of aspect points equal to the cost of the aspect for every additional +1 you add to the grade of the aspect. If you do this, make sure you keep track of the number of points in your aspect point pool you spend so that you don’t run out of points before purchasing all of the aspects you want for your character.

Determining Related Attributes

For aspects with either “Involved” or “Reactive” listed as the Initiation parameter, you will need to determine the related attribute for the aspect. To do so, look at the related attribute parameter listed in the aspect description. If more than one attribute is listed, you may choose the more favorable of the listed attributes.

Determining Action Modifiers

Once you have determined the grade and related attribute each aspect, you will need to determine if the aspect requires the calculation of an Action Modifier.

For aspects with “Constant” as the Initiation parameter, you will assign the aspect an action modifier of “N/A”. For any other aspects, you will calculate an action modifier using the following formula:

Action Modifier = Aspect Grade + Related Attribute

Once you have written down each aspect’s parameters you are ready to move on to the next step.

Hujraad’s Hacks: One Line Aspect Descriptions

After recording all of the parameters for each aspect, write a real quick one-line description of what the aspect enables your character to do to for quick reference during the game on your character sheet. For your convenience and to help guide you, one-line summaries are provided for the aspects presented herein in Appendix 5.

Step Six Example: Johnny Parkour

In the Genre Description, Ogun was given an aspect point pool of 50 Points with which to purchase aspects for his character.

Looking at his character concept, Ogun knows before even begins that he wants Johnny to have an over-the-top level of ability with his Parkour skill, so he immediately buys the Trademark Skill aspect. Seeing it has a mode that is not listed as “N/A”, he realizes he will need to specific a mode. He writes down Trademark Skill-Crazy Parkour Skillz on his character sheet and subtracts the cost of 8 from his Action Point Pool of 50, leaving him with 42 aspect points. He then looks at the Grading parameter of the aspect, and seeing it is listed as “Ungraded”, assigns it a grade of “N/A”.

To go along with this aspect, Ogun also purchases the Wire-fu aspect, to pump up Johnny’s ability to jump crazy distances and heights. He writes the name of the aspect on his character sheet and subtracts the cost of 7 aspect points from his Action Point Pool of 42, bringing it down to 35. Noting the aspects Grading parameter is listed as “Graded”, he notes a grade of 1 on his character sheet.

Ogun next decides to enhance Johnny’s acrobatic nature by purchasing the Railing aspect, so that no matter where Johnny is, he will always have something to use as a platform for crazy acrobatic antics. He subtracts the cost of 4 aspect points from his pool of 35, reducing it to 31 points. Seeing it is an Ungraded aspect, he records its grade as “N/A”

Figuring he has more than reflected johnny’s acrobatic nature, Ogun moves on to reflect the role he has described in Johnny’s character concept. Remembering his discussion with his Director Sarah, he pictures his character more of a likable troublemaker rather than a

malicious or mean-spirited sort of character, so he purchases the Presence aspect and specifies the Likability mode. He writes Presence-Likability on his Character Sheet, and reduces his aspect point pool by 7 points to 24 points. He then looks at the Grading parameter of the aspect, and seeing it is listed as “Ungraded”, assigns it a grade of “N/A”.

Ogun thinks about how Johnny might use his abilities to help the other players. Seeing that Johnny’s Combat skill is not one of his strongest, Ogun decides that Johnny will use his extreme mobility in strategic ways during Action Scenes to distract opponents and support his friends rather than diving into the front lines of combat. Ogun decides to give Johnny a bag of marbles that, while they won’t do a lot of damage, might be used in all sorts of interesting ways; a few well-placed thrown marbles might distract an opponent or turn the tide of battle. He reads the Shootist aspect description and decides he will to purchase several modes, specifying “Marbles” as the weapon for each.

He starts with the Deadeye mode so that he can throw marbles at specific targets while still doing cool acrobatic stunts and the Unending Bullets mode so he doesn’t have to bother with counting or recovering any marbles he throws during an Action Scene. He records them on his character sheet and reduces his aspect point pool by 12 (6 points for each mode) to 12. He then looks at the Grading parameter of the aspect, and seeing they are both listed “Ungraded”, assigns them both of them a grade of “N/A”. Ogun also selects the Go Ballistic aspect and specifies Marbles for the mode so that his attacks will not go ignored. He writes Go Ballistic-Marbles on his Character Sheet and subtracts 5 points from his aspect point pool as described in the cost parameter of the aspect, reducing it to 7 points. Seeing it is listed as an “Ungraded” aspect, he assigns it a grade of 0.

Ogun looks at his Character History for further inspiration to see if there is anything mentioned that he can reflect with his remaining aspect points. He decides that another way he can help the other players is by helping them detect dangerous situations before they happen. He chooses the Seventh Sense aspect and specifies “Danger” as its mode. Seeing it is listed as “Graded”, Ogun assigns it a grade of 1.

With all of his character’s aspects selected and their grades assigned, Ogun now moves on to determine the values of any action modifiers that need to be calculated. He look over his character’s aspects, he notes that all of them are listed with an Initiative parameter of “Constant” except for one: his Seventh Sense-Danger aspect which is listed as being “Reactive”, so this is the only one that he will need to calculate an Action Modifier for. Seeing that PERC is the related attribute for this aspect, Ogun adds Johnny’s PERC attribute of +1 to the grade of 1 to get a total action modifier of +2 for the aspect, and writes it down on his character sheet.