Finish the Fight

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InspirationListen up marines! I do not have time for your scared kid

putty patty. Right now, out there in the black void you call space is a whole lotta aliens that want you, me, and every human on this god forsaken rock dead. And all I got is welps like you I gotta beat into shape with fine tools the corps has blessed me with.

When I have finish molding into shape every single one of you will be one man alien killing machines. When I am done with you, you’ll be able to take this set of toe nail clippers and kill any alien son of a bitch dumb enough to get between you and your god given objective. The Covenant will tell stories to their children of the unstoppable human warriors that came in and kicked their damn ass using nothing more than two sticks and a rock. They will sing songs of regret of when they came and burned Harvest to the ground and discovered a race of badass, sexual Tyrannosaur Rex-being mother fuckers on this rock, who came and kicked their god damn boot so far up their delicate alien asses that they shit boot polish for the next week.

Mechanics Halo: Finish the Fight is a d100 based system. There are

two major sets of Characteristics that characters have to describe their abilities: Attributes and Skills.

Together these are used on the Skill Test roll for the game to determine how well a character succeeds or fails at something they’re trying to do.

Skill Test When characters attempt to perform an action that isn’t

trivial by nature, the Game Master (GM) calls for a Skill Test. A Skill Test is trivial to calculate by nature. The GM

determines what Attribute and Skill you use and assigns a difficulty to the test. Using this you calculate the Threshold you need to accomplish the test.

To determine your Threshold, add your Attribute rating plus Skill rating together, then add or subtract the modifier from the difficulty the GM gave for the test along with any extra modifiers to the roll. This number is your Threshold for the test.

Next you roll a d100, normally accomplished by rolling two d10’s and assigning one as the ten’s digit and the other as the one’s digit. Compare the result of the roll to the Threshold, if you rolled at or under your Threshold you succeeded. Otherwise you have failed the test.

Sometimes it’s important to know how well you succeed or fail at the test. To do this you calculate your Degrees of

Success/Failure. Merely take the difference between your roll result and your Threshold and round down the next integer and add one. Merely succeeding or failing gives you that extra one to your degrees and every ten points of difference beyond that gives another. If you’re having trouble dividing by ten, just shift the decimal place over one position to the left, 11 becomes 1.1 which rounds down to 1.

Some characters will have a Threshold above 100 on a test. These characters are highly skilled at their job and have no chance to fail at the current roll. If Degrees of Success aren’t important then just assume they automatically pass the roll with a roll of 50 on the test.

Opposed Test Sometimes you roll against another character and this is

when Degrees of Success come into play. Both characters roll their Skill Test and compare their Degrees of Success to one another. If the one character fails and the other succeeds, then the one that succeeds on the test is the victor. If both of them succeed then the one with the higher Degrees of Success is the winner.

Extended Test Often, a single roll is enough to determine how well you

accomplish things but other times you want to know how long it takes you to accomplish something. For this sorta situation, you use an Extended Test. The GM determines how many total successes the character needs and how long each roll takes in duration, but otherwise this roll is a normal Skill Test. The character adds his Degrees of Success on the roll to his Running Total, this is how many successes his accumulated. Once he gets the required number of successes, the character succeeds on the test.

Sometimes failure is bad though, the GM should determine before the test begins whether a failure slows the character down or not. If they don’t, then a failure is merely wasted time. If they do, subtract the Degrees of Failure from the Running Total.

Opposed Extended Tests There are times where two characters are actively

opposing each other but a single roll won’t cut it. For this you use an Opposed Extended Test. There are actually two kinds of these: Directly Opposed and Indirectly Opposed.

For a Directly Opposed Extended Test you perform an Opposed Test with one Running Total which is favoring one character or another. The victor of the test subtracts the

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loser’s Degrees of Success from his own and adds it to his running total. Additionally, Degrees of Failure are instead added to the victor’s own. The Running Total only adds the current victor’s amount, so if the loser starts winning the test you subtract the Degrees of Success from the current leader. Should it reduce back to zero, no one is in the lead, and it becomes possible for the other character to take the lead.

For example, Sandy and Bill are opposing each other. Bill gets 5 Degrees of Success while Sandy only gets 3. Bill is now got a Running Total of 2 (5-3 = 2) on the test. Sandy then fails on her next test by 3 degrees while Bill gets another 1 degree. Bill gained a total of 4 Degrees of Success (1 from his plus 3 from Sandy’s failure). He’s now up by 6. On his next test Bill only gets 1 Degree of Success while Sandy gets a whooping 8. She reverses the Running Total so she now is in the lead by one degree (8-1 = 7 degrees; 7 degrees minus 6 from the Running Total = 1 degree). Sandy repeats this two more times until she gets the 10 successes she needs to win this test.

Indirect tests are much easier and often are used for race sort of competition. Both characters make an Extended Test and the first to get the total successes needed wins. The one with the higher Running Total is in the lead at that point in the test.

Jinxes Sometimes, you need more than skill to win, you need to

be just plan lucky. Lady Luck always comes to collect on you eventually. This comes in the form of Jinxes, circumstantial effects that penalize the player.

Essential a Jinx causes a bad effect to a character. These are to keep the game from being purely dice rolling and introduce variety into combat. Jinxes aren’t a purely malevolent force though, a character gets Luck back from them.

The way Jinxes work is that if a player fails a roll, the GM asks the player (or the player can ask for one) if they would like a Jinx. If they accept, the player gains a bonus on their threshold enough to pass the test. There is a cost for doing this though, as nothing good is free. The character suffers one Jinx for every 10 points they needed to pass the test.

Jinxes come in a variety of forms and aren’t necessarily hit point loss. They can be sprained limbs, injured hands, damaged armor, or any other sort of mishap. Additionally the GM may choose to pool them into one large mishap if the character really failed hard enough, such as limb loss or worse.

As a benefit, a character gets back one point of Luck to rebalance the scales a bit. A character cannot use Luck to directly rebalance the effect a Jinx. For example, you cannot use Luck to heal damage from a Jinx nor to reattach

a lost limb. They are essentially plot penalties the character takes to succeed at a roll.

A character doesn’t necessarily have to take enough Jinxes to succeed at a roll, he may merely get just enough to less his failure instead.

Difficulty Not all takes are equal unfortunately. Some are rather

simple things, while others are more in the realm of the gods. Regardless of this, a roll should have a difficulty modifier applied to the character’s Threshold based on what the GM decides it will be.

Difficulty modifiers should stack and there is no theoretical limit to how high or low they can but. The GM is entirely allowed to say that something is impossible to do no matter how skilled you are. Additionally if your threshold for the task is above 100, you may simply auto succeed, assuming it isn’t a high stress test, with one Degree of Success.

A character may also opt to take a 50 on a roll if they wish, assuming they have penalty of time to constantly but this makes them take ten times longer

on the roll. This is fine for simple things, but on long term projects might not be extremely useful.

See the following difficulty table to get an idea of what kinda modifier a test should have. The attached adjectives are good description to figure out how much of a bonus or penalty the test should receive. The bonuses have a gap between them, so the GM should feel free to use the difference if they think the test is slightly harder or easier than the adjective describes.

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CharacteristicsThere are two categories of Characteristics for a

character: Attributes and Skills. Both represent something important about a character but in different ways.

Attributes are the innate ability of the character; they do not describe any particular knowledge or training the character has but instead how adept they are in the

purview of the Attribute. One might think of them as how naturally skilled they are at something without training.

Skills are on the opposite of Attributes, covering formal and informal training the character has in something. They are much broader in scope and cover everything from being able to shoot a gun to quantum mechanics. They are often paired with one Attribute, but not always.

Difficulty Modifier

Example

(+60) -Very Easy

Shooting a non-moving target after spending multiple turns aiming; repairing a simple machine with all the tools you need; calculating a Slipspace jump on a well-known route

(+40) - Easy Shooting an unaware target after a turn of aiming; repairing a complex machine with all the tools you

need; guessing the password is password1; piloting an aircraft with no issues

(+20) - Simple Shooting at something after a couple turns of aiming; performing routine maintenance without the

proper tools; throwing something 10m

(+0) -Challenging

Firing a single shot without aiming at medium range; noticing an ambush during the day; dodging an attack without preparation

(-20) - Difficulty

Deflecting a knife attack while unarmed; losing a tail in a slower car; jerry rigging a machine to work; called shot to the torso

(-40) - Hard Shooting a second burst shot; repairing a damaged but functional engine while in a firefight; shooting

at a fast moving target; firing at long range; called shot to the limbs or head

(-60) - Very Hard

Firing a full auto burst; shooting at high speeds; shooting a shot a small location; called shot to the hands; fixing a translight engine

(-80) - Nightmarish Repairing an engine while dodging bullets; plotting a slipspace jump by hand; fighting in zero gee

(-100) - Hellish

Piloting an aircraft through a hurricane with only one engine; shooting someone in the hand at long distance; fighting with a missing, bleeding limb

(-120) - Near Impossible

Dodging a bullet at point blank range; parrying a knife blow with the tip of another knife; fighting while just a torso

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Attributes There are eight Attributes, each representing a different

aspect of a character’s being: Strength, Agility, Reflexes, Toughness, Intelligence, Cunning, Courage, and Rapport. Attributes are rated between 1 and 100 for humans, with 50 being your average baseline human; aliens and supersoldiers aren’t limited by this limit though.

Strength

A character’s Strength represents their physical strength; that is how much they can lift and hit without injuring themselves. Strength is used to

Agility

Agility is the nimbleness, physical speed, and ease of motion for a character. It is used for determining hand eye coordination, balance, and running speed.

Reflexes

While Agility represents nimbleness, Reflexes represents reaction time and movement. It is how quick the character can move without thinking too much about it. It’s most often used for hand to hand and melee combat, along with reaction speed to something.

Toughness

Strength represents how hard a character can throw a punch, but Toughness is how well they can take one. It’s the capacity for the character to take a blow and keep moving unhurt. It’s used for determining innate soak and hit points.

Intelligence

Intelligence is a hard thing to define, but it covers how smart the character is and what level of thought they’re at. Most often used with knowledge based Skills, it is the bread and butter all scientists. It doesn’t represent how well trained they are, just natural capacity for learning and thought.

Cunning

The opposite hand of Intelligence is Cunning. It is how clever and wise a person is, along with their capacity to rationalize and process information quickly. This includes awareness of the world around you, the ability to think on your feet, and practical application of knowledge. It’s the bread and butter of engineering folks that need to get something done quickly without the proper tools at hand.

Courage

Courage is the ability to suppress ones fear and continue on in the face of opposition. It is the precursor to valor and glory, the thing that every great hero possess. It’s how mentally resistant the character is and how much they can take before reaching the breaking point.

Rapport

Rapport is how friendly and likable a character to others. It is the ability of the character to naturally be liked, mingle with others, and command them. All good politicians have this in droves. This Attribute is the basis for most social interactions.

Skills Unlike Attributes, there are far more Skills than there are

Attributes. Most of them are paired with only one or two Attributes, after all how many times would you roll Toughness and Sleight of Hand together.

Acrobatics

Acrobatics is the skill that covers gymnastics feats of dexterity. It lets you perform parkour, balance on tight ropes, and other outlandish things of the sort.

Athletics

Using Athletics lets characters climb walls, lift and throw objects, and other feats of strength. It also covers performing physical tasks for long periods of time.

Awareness

Awareness covers a character’s general ability to notice details around them, including surprises and traps. It covers senses derived alertness such as sight, hearing, smell, and even air pressure and temperature.

Brawl

Brawl covers unarmed combat, allowing you throw punches and defend yourself even with armed with nothing but your fists. Brawl can’t avoid attacks unless you have armor capable of stopping it, but can be used to block other Brawl attacks. So you could block a fist, but no amount of armor will block an energy sword.

Charm

A character with Charm is able to convince and persuade others to do what you want, along with making them in generally favorable disposition in this. Unlike Deceive, Charm doesn’t use falsehoods and half-truths to accomplish this, relying on the truth.

Command

Command covers leadership, ordering troops around, general tactics, and the ability to act in concert. Any good general has Command. Command can also be used to rally the troops, uplifting their morale, fortify them against fear, and enhanced their skill.

Commerce

Commerce covers everything mercantile, from evaluating the worth of a good to negotiating a good price.

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One might not think this is useful to a soldier, but packs of smokes are always hard to get during a prolonged battle.

Deceive

Deceive covers telling lies and half-truths to accomplish something. While it’s always easier to lie to get what you want, people get a bit upset when found it. Any silver tongued devils have this Skill.

Dodge

Perhaps the most important tao to follow on the battlefield, dodging lets you avoid taking damage. Using Dodge you can avoid attacks all out or just dive for cover to let it soak up the damage.

Firearms

In a war, being able to shoot straight is the most important thing after not being shot, after all, no war was won by not fighting back. This Skill covers everything from shooting to firearm maintenance.

Knowledge

Also known as the -ology Skill, this Skill is actually a group of Skills which covers any field of knowledge. Biology, Metallurgy, Theoretical Physics, and History are all covered under this Skill. Each should be considered a separate Skill.

Investigation

Investigation covers actively searching for something, the opposite of Awareness’ reactive searching. Additionally, it covers questioning someone for information and trying to figure out what happened by piecing evidence together.

Intimidation

Sometimes being kind doesn’t work, that’s when this Skill comes in. Intimidation works by making someone do something for you. Normally this works by scaring them into it, but annoying banter to enrage them also works pretty well. This Skill also is usable on the battlefield, namely by Elites and Spartans to scare the enemy away.

Linguistics

This Skill is actually a group of them, covering one for each language. It’s used for any form of language, including English, Spanish, the many languages of the Covenant, and Forerunner. A character can use this to determine what something means.

Logic

Also called common sense, Logic covers the reasoning and rationalizing as a Skill. It lets you figure out an enigma and covers general schooling of a person. It’s most commonly used to cover mathematics and piece together a realization from a multitude of facts.

Medicine

A staple of any good medical professional, Medicine covers everything related to being a good doctor. This is used for First Aid to complex medical treatments.

Melee

Melee covers being able to swing a knife, sword, or even a person in combat effectively. It lets you parry Melee and Brawl attacks without being harmed. When in doubt, stab ‘em with a knife.

Operate

This Skill is actually three separate Skills covering different types of vehicles you can pilot. Surface covers any ground based vehicles. Air covers anything that flies just in an atmosphere. Space covers any sort of spacecraft. This also covers navigating with those sorts of vehicles, allowing you to plot a Slipspace course with Space, assume your craft as the ability to enter the Slipspace. Most often this is used to control our vehicle and line up a shot on the target.

Scrutiny

Also called the bullshit detector, this Skill covers being able to size up whether someone is lying to you or just being a dick.

Security

This Skill covers everything it takes to be able to break into a location. It covers physical security measures, such as lock picking, along with hacking through a security panel or spoof an electronic access code. Every good thief has this Skill.

Sleight of Hand

This is the Skill of pickpockets and spies. It covers the art of misdirection, allowing you to trick the perception of people around you. You can use it to nab a wallet or hide a knife up your skirt.

Stealth

The art of not being noticed is an important one, as it lets you attack an unsuspecting enemy. This Skill covers moving silently and setting up ambushes, all without being noticed.

Survival

Survival lets a character live out in the wilderness alone, allow with covering tracking, and setting up basic traps. It is the quintessential Skill for any wild man.

Technology

Technology covers any use of advanced technology to accomplish something. From computers to designing a gun, this Skill covers just about everything related to engineering.

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Hit Points Hit points are arbitrary measures of how much of a

beating your character can take. These depend heavily on your character’s race, humans cannot take as much of a beating as a Spartan or Elite.

Luck Luck represents how lucky a character is. A character is

given a cap, but can spend a certain amount of luck points each day and it refills each day after they sleep.

Luck lets a player reroll a single action, add +20 to the roll, and heal 1d5 points of damage instantly. It also gives the player a degree of control over the plot, though the GM has final say. A player could for instance, smash a door control and spend a point of Luck to make it open the door.

A player can also get a point of luck back by accepting a Jinx, karma has a funny way of rewarding a character who is down on their luck. This can even push a character’s Luck pool beyond their Luck rating.

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Making a Character Making a character is a simple thing, all you need to do is

follow these handy steps in order and you’ll have a working character.

Step 1: What do you want to play?

First up is the hardest one to do, you need to figure out what your character is supposed to be. Think of an overarching character concept that you want to play, this is going to be your starting point for your character.

Step 2: Race Next you need to pick your character’s race. There are

five different types of races you can pick for your character: Human, Spartan I, Spartan II, Spartan III, and Artificial Intelligence.

Each of these different races has benefits in a variety of ways, but some are greater than others. Not everything is balanced, that’s just the way the world works some times.

Once you pick your race, roll for your Attributes and assign your Skill points. Don’t forget to modify your variety of extra stats from your race. You can always assign your stats after the next step if prefer. Spending Ability points is easy, you just spend a certain amount in them and that’s your rating in it.

Finally, roll your Hit Points and Luck. These are neither Attribute nor Skill, but are Characteristics none the less.

Step 3: Background This is what your origin story is. Where did you come

from? What is your profession? What did you do to get there? This influences what gear you get at start and some bonus stats.

Step 4: Current Events This steps covers how you met with the rest of the group.

Were you just all soldiers that happened to be fighting on the same planet? Did you just happen to all be in the same place at the same time? Or were you organized together to complete some objective.

The GM might opt to not have you all starting together and will play through the process of this happening. You should discuss this with them when making your character.

Step 5: Give the Spark At this step your character is mechanically completed.

You should now begin to populate the character’s backstory and origin. You’re basically going to fill in the details to make them a fully fleshed out character.

You should sort out their name first and foremost, along with any sort of call sign they go by. Next write up a description of their appearance. How tall are they? What color are their eyes and hair? What about their skin, are they tan or pale as a ghost?

Finally and most importantly, their personality. As this is a role-playing game, you need to pick a personality for your character. A good starting point is to pick a general tone for their personality. Are they a hotshot or they a cold, quiet type? Make a list of things they like and dislike. What are their goals? What do they enjoy when on shore leave? Why are they fighting? These are all important questions to sort out before you play. You should pass this information on to the GM before you play and make sure he agrees and understands them.

Finally, begin to populate their backstory. The easiest one is where are they from, what’s their homeworld? Are they from Earth or the Colonies? Inner or Outer Colonies? Is their homeworld still even intact or was it glassed? Next answer the steps it took from them to get to where the game starts? If they’re off-world, why are they here now? What battles have they fought in?

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Human The children of Earth and all her colonies, Humans are

clever individuals capable of great things. Not the strongest nor the weakest of beings in the galaxy, humans have clawed their ways into the stars.

Unlike the Covenant, Humans have had no Forerunner technology help them get this far into space. They have made it through trial and error, risking neck and limb of billions to get this far.

Humans come from a variety of planets including Earth itself. Each world contains a large difference in culture, and they come in a variety of names. Traditional Juedo-Christian names are still used, but other more foreign names are also common throughout the many worlds. Humans can come from almost any background, with the most common being Civilian, but Marines are just as likely when so close to a warzone.

While Humans might seem like such a simple thing to play as they’re not the uber badasses that other races are, they’re still the most grounded and level headed type of character you can play. Humans can easily make some of the best types of characters to play compared to the near emotionless Spartans 2’s and still childish Spartan 3’s. Sometimes you just want to play a character that fights to go home and see his daughter.

Characteristics Humans roll (5d10 x 2) for all their Attributes; one

reroll; assign results to Attributes as you wish Humans distribute 500 skill points as they wish across

their skills; none can go higher than 50. Humans roll 2d5+4 for the Luck Humans have Hit Points equal to their half their

Toughness + 2d5

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Spartan 1/1.1 Originally called Project ORION, the Spartan 1’s were

retroactively called such after the creation of the Spartan 2 program kicked off. The original purpose of the Spartan 1 program was to make supersoldiers capable of fighting off the insurrectionists that were performing terrorist attacks throughout the colonies.

Though crude by current standards, the upgrades that the first Spartans got were effective as hell, making them stronger, faster, smarter, and have amazing senses. Their first operation was a resounding success with only one operative lost. Word began to spread after that the UNSC was making supersoldiers and ONI took great pleasure and acting on those rumors. Their success eventually lead to the creation of the Spartan 2 program and modern ODST.

As the Covenant War approached, many retired and had kids. These children inherited the genetic engineering and biochemical advances of their parents, and needed special injections to prevent health defects until puberty.

Characteristics Spartan 1/1.1’s roll (5d10 x 2) for all their Attributes;

one reroll; assign results to Attributes as you wish Spartan 1’s start with 10 Acrobatics, 30 Athletics, 10

Command, 30 Dodge, 10 Logic, 10 Medicine, 10 Operate (Surface, Air, Space), 20 Melee, 30 Brawl, 30 Stealth, 30 Survival, and 30 Firearms

Spartan 1’s get 200 Skill Points to spend capped at 50 Spartan 1.1’s get 500 Skill Points to spend like a

Human, capped at 50. Spartan 1/1.1’s roll 2d5 for the Luck Spartan 1/1.1’s have Hit Points equal to their half their

Toughness + 2d5 Spartan 1/1.1’s gain +40 Strength, Agility, Reflexes,

Toughness; +20 Intelligence and Cunning; +30 Courage; these bonuses don’t count for experience costs and can raise their Attributes above 100.

+20 to all sensory detection rolls

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Spartan 2 Perhaps the most famous of the Spartan project, the

Spartan 2’s are superhumans that were taken as children and raised into highly skilled killing machines. Their original purpose was to fight against insurrectionists, but expanded to include the Covenant once the war broke out.

Spartan 2’s are all unique, with each having their own unique skill that they exceed every other Spartan at. This can be just running faster or marksmanship to hacking and piloting.

Compared to their predecessors, Spartan 2’s are well out of the range of humans in strength and speed. They easily eclipse all but the most powerful soldiers of the Covenant in terms of strength, and none can even hope to match them in terms of speed and reaction time.

When clad in their fabled Mjolnir armor, a Spartan 2’s strength increases many fold and they become able to perform feats of legend. Rarely, if ever, will a Spartan be seen outside of their armor and even rarer is them entering combat zone without.

Characteristics Spartan 2’s roll ((6d10 keep the highest 5) x 2) for all

their Attributes; one reroll; assign results to Attributes as you wish.

Spartan 2’s start with 20 Acrobatics, 40 Athletics, 40 Awareness, 10 Command, 40 Dodge, 20 Logic, 30 Technology, 10 Medicine, 30 Operate (Surface, Air, Space), 30 Melee, 40 Brawl, 40 Stealth, 30 Survival, and 40 Firearms.

50 Ability Points to spend, capped at 50 Spartan 2’s gain +200 Strength, 100 Agility and

Reflexes, + 150 Toughness; +20 Intelligence and Cunning; +30 Courage; these bonuses don’t count for experience costs and can raise their Attributes above 100.

+20 to all sensory detection rolls. +20 to all rolls or stats involved in one unique field of

expertise, the player should work with the GM for this. Luck is 1d5 Spartan 2’s have Hit Points equal to their half their

Toughness + 2d5

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Spartan 3 While the Spartan 2 program was a resounding success,

it was not cost effective at all. Creating a single Spartan cost more than a naval frigate, though was far more devastating than such a ship, but also took a decade to make.

Using the information learned during the Spartan 2 program, ONI commissioned the Spartan 3 program lead by Spartan 2 Kurt-051. The goal of this was to make more cost effective Spartans that don’t have the same rejection rate as a Spartan 2.

Suffice to say, the Spartan 3 program was a resounding success. Unlike the previous Spartan 2’s, they were all chemically made, requiring no harsh surgery. Performance wise, a Spartan 3 is only marginally weaker than their predecessors.

Unlike Spartan 2’s, the Spartan 3’s were equipped with cheaper Semi-powered Infiltration armor. These suit were only minimally strength enhancing, slightly more durable than an ODST suit, but contained cloaking panels on the surface of the armor.

Throughout the life of the program, over 900 Spartan 3’s were made, but most died on suicide missions to buy time for the UNSC, some were pulled out the program to work for ONI as spec ops teams.

Characteristics Spartan 3’s roll ((6d10 keep the highest 5) x 2) for all

their Attributes; one reroll; assign results to Attributes as you wish.

Spartan 3’s start with 20 Acrobatics, 40 Athletics, 40 Awareness, 10 Command, 40 Dodge, 20 Logic, 30 Technology, 10 Medicine, 30 Operate (Surface, Air, Space), 30 Melee, 40 Brawl, 40 Stealth, 30 Survival, and 40 Firearms.

50 Ability Points to spend, capped at 50 Spartan 3’s gain +150 Strength, +100 Agility and

Reflexes, + 130 Toughness; +20 Intelligence and Cunning; +30 Courage; these bonuses don’t count for experience costs and can raise their Attributes above 100.

+20 to all sensory detection rolls Luck is 1d10 Spartan 3’s have Hit Points equal to their half their

Toughness + 2d5

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Artificial Intelligence In the grand scheme of everything that humanity has

ever encountered, there are things that stand out as their greatest creation: the wheel, the combustion engine, the computer, and the Shaw-Fujikawa Translight Engine. All of these though dwarf in comparison to the invention of Artificial Intelligence, or AI for short.

AI comes in two forms, dumb and smart. Dumb AI are merely extremely complicated computer programs which have no sapience at all, but appear like they do to some degree. Smart AI are entirely sapient; they are capable of creativity, free thought, and learning like a human, though on a much larger scale.

A smart AI is made from mapping the neurons of a human brain to generate a computer program. Typically this destroys the brain in the process, though AI made during the end of the war were created without destroying the brain. No dumb AI has ever achieved sapience, so this is the only known way to make a sapient AI.

Characteristics AI roll 4d10+60 for Intelligence and Cunning, and

(5d10 x 2) for Courage and Rapport; they can reroll any one Attribute and keep the higher result; they may assign any roll of the same dice roll type to any Attribute.

AI don’t separate the Knowledge, Linguistics, or Operate Skill into categories, they purchase everything the skills cover in one purchase.

AI get +50 Logic, +50 Technology, and +50 Operate AI get 500 Ability points to spend; cannot go above 50. +300 Intelligence when rolling a logic or mathematical

skill where their Intelligence would benefit them; i.e. calculating a trajectory or aiming a MAC gun

+100 Cunning when operating equipment in opposition, they’re some of the best pilots for a reason

Luck 1d5

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BackgroundsA character’s background describes where they are in life

right now. While it’s possible they went through a variety of them throughout the course of their existence, the most recent one is the one that currently matters. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t pick multiple of them, only that they get the bonus related to the most recent of them.

Backgrounds are divided up on race of the person. Humans, being the most diverse of the races, have a much longer list of backgrounds to come from. Spartans are far more limited in where they can and cannot come from. One should consider the year that the GM is setting the game in, just as with their race as certain options won’t exist.

Human Backgrounds

Civilian

The vast majority of humanity are civilians, and while anyone can join up with the military barring extraordinary circumstances. These people come from any creed, they can hold just about any job, and are the general population of humanity.

Why are you involved in combat is another matter to sort out. Perhaps you just are a victim of circumstance, or maybe you’re helping out with the local militia to fight back against the Covenant or the Insurrectionists. You are

without a doubt aren’t a trained soldier at all, hell you’re probably lucky if you know how to turn off the safety. Gain 20 Ability point related to your career; still capped

at 50. Increase one Attribute by 10; this can’t go above 100

still and count for XP. Gain a set of civilian clothes and any personal, non-

combat equipment you want; i.e. a communication device of some type, a watch, an ID card etc.

Gain +2 Luck rating Optional: Spend 3 of your first session Luck points to have a standard UNSC firearm and two rounds of ammunition. Each additional point spent gives you another magazine.

Soldier

The bulk of the UNSC fighting forcing the UNSC Marines. These “ultimate badasses” are the thin line between the Covenant armies and the complete destruction of human worlds. There are other soldiers though such as the Army though.

You likely joined the military while young and are a bit wet behind your ears. This perhaps your first encounter with the enemy, or at least one of the first. Like Civilians, you can come from anywhere in the colonies. Gain 20 Ability point related physical skills; you should

Firearms at 20 at a minimum; still capped at 50.

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Increase your Strength, Dexterity, Reflexes, and Toughness by 5; these can’t go above 100 still and count for XP.

Gain an Assault Rifle with 10 magazines, a pistol with 3 magazines, a set of Marine Combat Armor, and a standard field kit.

Veteran

Unlike the majority of the marines, you’re a veteran. You’re likely a high ranking grunt, probably a Sergeant. You’ve been fighting in this damn war for far too long, you’ve seen too many good friends die and too many green as grass newbies get killed. Yet you continue to soldier on, because this isn’t a war anymore it’s a matter of survival.

Being a veteran you could have come from a variety of places and had a long tour of duty. Regardless of how you got here though, you’re still here to fight more. The GM should assign you a rank. Gain +10 Command and Firearms; these cannot go

above 50. Gain 20 Ability point related physical skills; you should

Firearms at 20 at a minimum; still capped at 50. Increase your Strength, Dexterity, Reflexes, and

Toughness by 5; these can’t go above 100 still and count for XP.

Gain an Assault Rifle, SMG, or Shotgun with 10 magazines, a pistol with 3 magazines, a set of Marine Combat Armor, and a standard field kit.

Pick one UNSC weapon of your choice to field with 5 magazines.

You lose one from your Luck rating.

Insurrectionist

You’re a terrorist. Or at least that’s what the UNSC calls you. There are multiple Insurrectionist groups throughout the colonies, but they all want to throw out the Earth Government from controlling their lives. To that extent they have turned to violence. One notable one was the nuclear bombing of a city which killed over two million people and harmed countless more.

Not all Insurrectionists are prone to such level of violence, instead opting to attack only military personnel. Whether or not you believe that is up to you, but if you’re found out you’d be in a lot of trouble. Moreover, how you’re involved with the current plot is something you need to sort out with the GM.

As guerrilla warfare fighters, the Insurrectionists aren’t specialized in direct combat fighting. Instead they rely on hit and run and ambushed based tactics. There are some though that have enough to field a small army. Gain +5 to Deceive and Stealth; these cannot go above

50.

Increase your Rapport by 5; this can’t go above 100 still and count for XP.

Gain 10 Ability point related physical skills; you should Firearms at 10 at a minimum; still capped at 50.

Gain an Assault Rifle, SMG, or Shotgun with 3 magazines, a pistol with 3 magazines, a set of Basic Combat Armor, and a standard field kit.

ONI Agent

You are a member of the Office of Naval Intelligence. Suffice to say, you’re a spy of some type. Your clearance rating is high and you’re an officer for sure. You have access to all but the most sensitive information and are able to allocate huge amounts of resources. Your decisions can help influence the fate of worlds.

On the other hand, people end up hating you a lot because you likely do bad things. You’ll kill millions to save billions but such a hard decision is likely needed. Gain +10 to Deceive, Logic, and Stealth; these cannot

go above 50. Increase your Intelligence and Cunning by 5; these

can’t go above 100 still and count for XP. Gain an Assault Rifle, SMG, or Shotgun with 10

magazines, a pistol with 3 magazines, a set of ODST Combat Armor, and a standard field kit.

You gain one more esoteric piece of equipment of your choice with the GM’s approval.

Medic

Death is one mean son of a bitch and during a war he swings his scythe wide. Your job is to keep him from getting everyone’s heads. You will not succeed. That is the paradox of being a medic.

Your job is to treat the wounded and care for the dying. The brutality of war makes this quite a difficult job. Regardless you got the skills and the acumen to prosper at it. You’re not a full doctor though you might have been; your job is just keep the blood going to proper areas and remove lost limbs. Gain +20 to Medicine; these cannot go above 50 and

you should probably not have more than 30 in Medicine as you’re a field medic.

Increase your Strength, Dexterity, Reflexes, and Toughness by 5; these can’t go above 100 still and count for XP.


You start off with an advanced medical kit.

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Orbital Drop Shock Trooper

You are a Helljumper and you have one job, drop into the hell of an active battlefield and kick ass. You are the best that the marines have to offer, a highly trained ass kicking machine. You’ve got the best equipment, the best training, and the most dangerous job in the UNSC, but you do it better than everyone else.

Anyone in the UNSC can be an ODST, but very few make it through the hellish training to do so. The months of hell they endure make them the finest soldiers in the entire UNSC. They learn to fight in every sort of environment, go through orbital insertion training, and lots of live fire simulations. Truly if they were any better they would be Spartans. Gain +10 Athletics, Brawl, Dodge, Survival, Stealth, and

Firearms; these cannot go above 50. Gain 20 Ability point related physical skills; you should

Firearms at 40 at a minimum; still capped at 50. Increase your Strength, Dexterity, Reflex, and


Gain an Assault Rifle, SMG, or Shotgun with 10 magazines, a pistol with 3 magazines, a set of ODST Combat Armor, and a standard field kit.


Lose two Luck rating

Orbital Drop Shock Trooper Veteran

You are a veteran amongst the most dangerous job in the UNSC. You have survived countless battles and emerged unscathed or worse for wear. Some might even say you like your job. Regardless of whether you do or not, you’ll continue to go back for more. You’re probably a Sergeant or higher up than that. You should work with your GM to determine that. Gain +10 Athletics, Brawl, Command, Dodge, Survival,

Stealth, and Firearms; these cannot go above 50. Gain 20 Ability point related physical skills; you should

Firearms at 40 at a minimum; still capped at 50. Increase your Strength, Dexterity, Reflex, and


Gain an Assault Rifle, SMG, or Shotgun with 10 magazines, a pistol with 3 magazines, a set of ODST Combat Armor, and a standard field kit.


Lose three Luck rating

Pilot

Pilots are without a doubt some of the most important people to a spacefaring society. While most vehicles are

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controlled by dumb AI’s, they’re not necessarily good enough for combat situations. Only expensive smart AI’s are skilled enough to fly ships during a firefights. Though most are ship pilots, this also covers ground and air vehicle piloting also.

As a pilot, you’re trained in operating a variety of craft. You might be a tanker or a starship pilot. Or maybe you’re an expert in all forms of crafts. Regardless of what it is, the UNSC probably makes good work of your skills. Gain +20 Operate (your choice); this cannot go above

50. Increase one Attribute by 10; this can’t go above 100

still and count for XP. You gain Basic Combat Armor, a pistol with 3

magazines, a standard field kit, and an operator neural interface. If you’re a space pilot you get a space suit as well.

Police

You’re not a soldier but you’re not a civilian either. You’re a peace officer, sworn to protect the innocent and uphold justice. This is without a doubt an important duty in modern society, but to the Covenant and Insurrectionists you’re just a soldier.

Chances are you just happened to be nearby when shit hit fan and did your job to run towards it. You’re not here to push back the enemy, just to stop them long enough to get everyone else to safety. While you’re not a soldier you’re still damn good at your job. Ranks in the police are easier to gain than in the military, so you should work with the GM to determine your ranking. Gain 20 Ability point related physical skills; you should

Firearms at 20 at a minimum; still capped at 50. Increase one Attribute by 10; this can’t go above 100

still and count for XP. Gain a pistol with three magazines, a taser, pepper

spray, and a police utility belt. Optional: Spend 3 of your first session Luck points to have access to your car. You get a Shotgun with 5 magazines, Basic Combat Armor, and a medkit that it contains.

Combat Engineer

Normally engineers specialize in making things; buildings, guns, cars, ships, and the likes. You are not one of those people. You’re a combat engineer. You practice destruction and the art thereof. Given enough explosives and time you can reroute rivers, remove mountains, and crash asteroids into a planet.

As important as being a soldier is, engineers are what keeps the technology up and running. You perform field repairs on vehicles and come up with unique solutions to unexpected, practical problems.

Gain +20 Technology and Knowledge (Engineering); still capped at 50.

Increase Intelligence and Cunning by 5; this can’t go above 100 still and count for XP.

Gain an Assault Rifle with 10 magazines, a pistol with 3 magazines, a set of Marine Combat Armor, and a standard field kit.

Gain one demolition kit or one high explosive weapon of your choice.

Retired

You hung up your guns long ago and decided to settle down and probably have a family. Your hero days are long over. That was until something brought you out of retirement. Perhaps it was the war or just some damn Innies that kidnapped your daughter. Whatever your reason you’re coming back out of retirement to do a job and you don’t plan on failing.

Despite your age, you’re still a damn fine soldier though your skills have rusted a bit, you’re a better that most that serve right now. Gain 20 Ability point related physical skills; you should

Firearms at 30 at a minimum; still capped at 50. Increase your Strength, Dexterity, Reflexes, and



Hellbringer

You’re a special sort of crazy. Your tactic is to rush into combat, covered in heavy armor, and light people on fire. This is a brutally effective tactic, so someone in command thought you could flashbangs to do it better.

Personality wise, you might be a completely normal person with no mental issues at all. Though that would set you apart from the vast majority of your companions that are psychotic weirdos that never stop making bad fire puns. Gain 20 Ability point related physical skills; you should

Firearms at 20 at a minimum; still capped at 50. Increase your Strength and Toughness by 10; these

can’t go above 100 still and count for XP. Gain a Flamethrower with a full tank of napalm

adherent fuel, a pistol with 3 magazines, a set of Hellbringer Combat Armor, 5 flashbangs, and a standard field kit.

Optional: Spend 3 of your first session Luck points to have an Oxide Tank upgrade for your flamethrower.

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Spartan 1 Backgrounds Spartan 1’s can have any Human background they want

but they can also get the following background. As Spartan 1’s were quite old when the war broke out, most either became Veterans or Retired once they reached their retirement age. This isn’t true for all of them, just most.

Spartan 1.1 Backgrounds Unlike their parents, not all Spartan 1.1’s have had

military service. As such they’re superhumans with a clean slate capable of being anything. They can pick any Human background they wish to have.

Spartan 2 Backgrounds

Class I

You are from the first class of Spartans 2’s and Dr. Halsey’s crowning achievement. You are still actively deployed on the battlefield and have fought in this war for god knows how many years. Despite all of this you refuse to give up. As a humanoid typhoon you’re able to turn the tide of a battle and save countless lives. Gain an Assault Rifle, SMG, or Shotgun with 10

magazines and a standard field kit. Pick one UNSC weapon of your choice to field with 5

magazines.

Gain access to the currently available Mjolnir armor.

Class II

//Attempting to connect to ONI MILNET ...Identity Confirmed ...Encryption Keys Generated ...Connected >>>Login: ********* >>>Enter Passcode: ************** ...Biometric Scan Confirmed …Clearance Ranking Confirmed …Authorization Denied

Discharged

Unlike most of the other Spartans, you have left the UNSC and decided to settle down. You hung up your armor and became a civilian. Maybe you wanted to have a family or just got sick of the constant fighting and want to take a few years off to yourself. Regardless of what that means, you’re no longer a soldier. Pick any Human background except for combat related

ones, you get all the benefits it entails. Optional: Spend 1 of your first session Luck points to have a standard UNSC firearm and two magazines of ammunition. Each additional point spent gives you another magazine.

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Optional: Spend 1 of your first session Luck points to have a Basic Combat Armor. You can spend 2 to have Marine Combat Armor or 3 to have ODST Combat Armor. Spending 4 your Luck points gets you access to SPI Armor. Spending 5 points gets you access to Mjolnir Armor.

Rehabilitated

About half of the Spartan 2’s in Class I rejected the augmentation process. This left them crippled and disfigured, and often assigned to desk jobs. Dr. Halsey refused to surrender all of her Spartans to be desk works or stored in cyrostorage and spent many sleepless nights working to fix them.

You happened to be ones that she managed to fix. A rejected Spartan given a second chance at glory. While she was digging around on you personally she managed to get a few more specialized modifications in addition to fixing you. At least half your Attributes must have been below 60 to take this Background. Gain an Assault Rifle, SMG, or Shotgun with 10


magazines. Gain access to the currently available Mjolnir armor. Reroll any one Attribute till the result is higher than

what you have. Reroll all Attributes until they’re higher than 50.

Lose 1 Luck Rating.

Spartan 3 Backgrounds

Alpha Company

You are from the first company of Spartan 3 soldiers. First put into action in 2536, you’re the mass producible successors to the Spartan 2 program. You aren’t as well equipped as your predecessors, but you’re just as skilled and just as badass.

Almost all of the Spartan 3’s we that were deployed during Operation Prometheus died, except you. Somehow you survived that and someone covered up your story. Alternatively, you escaped and haven’t caught up with the rest of the UNSC yet. It’s also possible that you haven’t been sent out on your suicide mission yet either. Gain an Assault Rifle, SMG, or Shotgun with 10


magazines. Gain access to the currently available Semi-Powered

Infiltration armor.

Beta Company

You’re from the Beta Company of Spartan 3’s, created like Alpha Company as a group of super soldiers to fight against

the Covenant. Unlike normal Spartan training you were trained harder on teamwork due to the focus of Spartan 3’s to be sent on company-wide assignments.

Like Alpha Company, Beta Company was almost wiped out in 2545 during an operation which involved the entire company. Somehow you’ve managed to survive for years unnoticed or have yet to return to active duty. Gain an Assault Rifle, SMG, or Shotgun with 10



Infiltration armor.

Gamma Company

You’re from the last companies of Spartan 3’s to be made: Gamma Company. Unlike the two previous companies, Gamma wasn’t sent off on a suicide mission when the class graduated in 2552.

Additionally, the Spartans of Gamma Company were given further enhancements to increase their combat abilities. These enhancements are rather drastic compared to the previous enhancement, causing them to gain additional superhuman strength and durability when injured, but without a suppressor chemical their minds slowly devolve into bipolar, psychotic killing machines. Gain an Assault Rifle, SMG, or Shotgun with 10



Infiltration armor. Gain one month of Smoother Gain +40 Strength and Toughness when injured Optional: Spend 3 of your first session Luck points to have a subcutaneous Smoother implant that never wears out.

ONI Agent

Unlike your Spartan brethren, you were pulled out of the ranks by ONI for your exceptional abilities and assigned to a handler. You’re more or less a highly skilled combat agent that they assign to accomplish high risk missions.

On downside, you’re doing wetwork that probably is a bit of a human rights violation to save humanity from the threat of the Covenant. On the upside, you get the best gear you can get, including full Mjolnir armor. Also you weren’t/won’t be sent on a suicide mission with the rest of your company. Gain an Assault Rifle, SMG, or Shotgun with 10

magazines and a standard field kit. Pick any extra equipment you want, ONI is footing the

bill. Gain access to the currently available Mjolnir armor.

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Optional: Spend all of your first session Luck points to be a member of Gamma Company instead of Alpha or Beta Company, you have a subcutaneous Smoother implant that never wears out. Gain +40 Strength and Toughness when injured

Headhunter

You’re an ONI hitman. You’re basically the Spartan 3 equivalent of an ODST. You’re dropped into high risk missions and sent to complete an objective that’s high risk, high reward. Headhunters can operate in pairs or in lone wolf depending on the mission.

Unlike the rest of the Spartan 3’s, you get cutting edge prototype equipment to work with, which you’re basically field testing. Good news is it’s awesome; bad news is it malfunctions sometimes. Gain an Assault Rifle, SMG, or Shotgun with 10

magazines and a standard field kit. Pick any extra equipment you want, ONI is footing the

bill. Gain access to the currently available Mjolnir or

Headhunter armor, your choice. Optional: Spend all of your first session Luck points to be a member of Gamma Company instead of Alpha or Beta Company, you have a subcutaneous Smoother implant that never wears out. Gain +40 Strength and Toughness when injured

Artificial Intelligence Backgrounds

Fourth Generation Smart AI

You’re one of the AI from the start of the insurgency to the mid 30’s. You were created from a brain scan that destroyed the brain of the scanned and have a life expectancy of 7-8 years.

You’re much smarter than any human will ever be but you’re no cleverer than any smart human. You’re between a month and five years old at this point.

Fifth Generation Smart AI

You’re either a prototype AI during the start of the war or an AI that entered service in the late 30’s. Unlike the previous generation you’re more resistant to rampancy. You’ll last at least 8 years before you begin to show signs but can easily make it 10 years. The oldest recorded one lasted 13 years before it was destroyed, meaning it could extend even longer.


Sixth Generation Smart AI

You’re either a prototype AI during the start of the war or an AI that entered service in the late 30’s. Unlike the previous generation you’re more resistant to rampancy.

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You’ll last at least 8 years before you begin to show signs but can easily make it 10 years. The oldest recorded one lasted 13 years before it was destroyed, meaning it could extend even longer.


Sapient Dumb AI

You’re something that shouldn’t exist yet or at all to some people. You’re a Dumb AI that developed sapience. Unlike Smart AI, you were made from nothing more than code being typed on a computer. There was no human brains scanned to create you. How you came to be is another matter. Perhaps you are an AI that’s been upgrade for hundreds of years, layer upon layer of upgrades until you finally achieved sapience through your own self-improvement code. Alternatively, you might be a prototype Dumb AI that developed it using some new coding technique.

Whatever is your origin, doesn’t matter as much as the grave implications of your sapience. Should you be found out, your existence will likely be threatened though you do not know how much. Not only would ONI like to study you, other AI’s might be threatened by your existence. Given your immunity to the effects of rampancy, they’ll see you as a threat.

Unlike Smart AI, your being is scalable. You can work on a laptop to a naval ship or server farm, though you’ll probably be a lot more limited in intelligence on a laptop.

A player choosing this should work with the GM to explain their origins and the implications of their existence. This Background is a game changer in the lore and can upset lore puritans.

In war, it’s kill or be killed. And against the Covenant that is doubly so. Those mean alien bastards want you, me, and every human son of a bitch in the corps burnt alive, melted into glass, and then smashed apart. And if you’re lucky, it’ll be in that order.

So I’m going to teach you bastards how to kill them before they kill you. You’re not just gonna learn to shoot them, oh no sir. I’m going to teach you how to stab them, burn them, poke them in the eyes, and to beat them to death with two sticks and a rock. So listen up!

Basics Combat is simple when it comes down to it. Someone

attacks someone else who then defends against the attack. Rest of it is just basic arithmetic and comparing numbers.

Combat is broken down into rounds. Each person gets to act and a certain amount once during a round. Everyone rolls initiative to see who goes first, person with the highest result goes first, then goes down the list in descending order of results.

At the end of the list for the round, if there’s someone still alive that someone wants dead you start the entire process again, though don’t reroll initiative. Keep going through this until everyone you want dead is dead or you somehow resolve your differences.

The Combat Round Each turn represents 5 seconds of combat, and though

everyone in real life acts at the same time, you don’t for this. The person that wins initiative acts slightly faster than everyone else. Each character gets one turn in a round of combat, during their turn they get to perform non-defensive actions, though see the Advanced Combat Rules for more information.

Initiative At the start of combat, everyone rolls their Initiative. This

is 1d10 + Reflexes + Cunning. In the event of a tie, all tied parties roll a separate d6, with the highest on the roll going first; reroll this d6 until all ties are broke and order is established. Don’t add this d6 to your Initiative roll.

Next the GM tallies up the order from highest to lowest Initiative and the person with the highest result goes first. The round ends when the character with the initiative finishes their turn.

You do not have to reroll Initiative each turn, though the GM might do so for dramatically appropriate fights, such as a Spartan fighting an Elite Commander or any sort of boss

fight. For mooks, just keep the train going and don’t slow down combat with this.

Movement Movement is based on the character’s Agility rating

divided by 20, round as normal. This is your Basic Move rating, measured in meters. All other measures of movements are multiples of your Basic Move.

During a character’s turn they can choose if they want to move or not. A character that elects to move must pick which form of movement they want to perform. Each type has specific modifiers to other actions performed till their next turn.

A character doesn’t need to perform all their movement at once, though they suffer any penalty for their movement action after they begin moving. They must however declare if they’re moving before they take any other action.

Basic Move

Performing a Basic Move lets the character move up to their Basic Move rating in meters. All ranged attacks suffer a -20 to their attack rolls. During this the character moves slowly but focuses on any attacks they’re performing during the turn.

Tactical Move

A Tactical Move allows the character to move up to twice their Basic Move rating in meters. All ranged attacks suffer a -40 to their attack rolls. While performing this the character is rushing forward, not controlling their movements very well, throwing off any shots they attempt.

Charge

A Charge has the character move at their Basic Move rating times three in meters. This gives a +20 to hit with melee attacks as they gain extra momentum for their swing. The catch is that the last five meters of a charge must be in a straight line. A character suffers a -60 penalty to range attacks when they Charge.

Run

The character elects to fully move with no concentration on anything during the turn but moving and not being shot at. A character can move their Basic Move rating times five in meters. Any ranged attack suffers a -80, but the character can only perform them with one hand.

Sprint

The character elects to move fully for their turn. They can take no other action other than move. They Sprint at their Basic Move rating times ten in meters. A character that

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Sprints for more than their Toughness divided by 10 in turns without waiting two turns between Sprint actions begins to tear their body apart. For normal people this just causes extreme exhaustion, but for Spartans this causes their bodies to rip apart, tearing their Achilles tendon out or other similar catastrophic damage.

The Attack Probably the most important part of combat is attacking

someone. This involves shooting, stabbing, or in general just trying to kill the hell out of some bastard rather than attempting to settle your differences with words like an adult.

There are lots of minutiae contained in the next few sections about what kind of attacks you can perform and the modifiers they give. The general outline for attacking someone is as followed:

1. Attacker figures what kind of attack he wants to perform and calculates his Threshold for the attack.

2. The attacker rolls their attack roll and checks the results.

3. The defender figures out how he wants to defend and calculates his defense Threshold.

4. The defender rolls their defense and checks the result.

5. If the attacker succeeds and has more Degrees of Success than the defender, he hits the target. If he failed to hit or the defender has more Degrees of Success, he misses.

6. Determine hit location and calculate the damage of the weapon and roll damage.

7. Compare the damage roll to the defender’s soak, apply hit location damage multiplier if any damage gets through soak.

8. Subtract post-soak damage from the defenders HP.

This is an extremely simplified overview of how an attack works and each attack is somewhat unique, so it’s up to the GM to make sure everything goes well. The first time through this might take a while to figure out but after a few times you’ll start to get the rhythm. Don’t worry if it takes a bit of time to figure out or if you mess up the first time through.

Next we’ll attempt to break down the major components of the attack outline and give some in detail explanation of what does what.

Step 1: To Hit Calculation

First things first, the character needs to determine what kind of action that want to perform. The next section gives you variety of examples of certain types of attacks you can perform. Note any Threshold bonuses or penalties this action gets. The player should discuss with the GM if there

is any other penalties or bonus, such as range or movement based penalties, which will influence the roll. Also don’t forget to figure out what Attribute and Skill to use for the roll, normally it’s based on what weapon you’re using.

Once all of this is tallied up, calculate your total Threshold for the attack. If the number is zero or below, you cannot perform the action; it’s just not physically possible for you to perform.

Step 2: Roll to Attack

This is an easy step. You simply roll 1d100 and compare the results to your Threshold per normal. Some certain types of actions have you roll multiple times and compare each roll to the Threshold, like Full Auto Bursts. No matter how much you roll you compare to your Threshold and calculate the Degrees of Success like normal. Make a note of the results of each roll.

Step 3: Defensive Action

This step is analogous to the first step but for the defender instead. Like figuring out what sort of attack you want to make, you can check the next section to get some examples of possible actions. Also like the first step you should tally up all modifier from the action itself and use them to calculate your Threshold for defense.

Step 4: Roll to Defend

Like step two, you roll a 1d100 and compare the results your Threshold and calculate your Degrees of Success as normal.

Step 5: Compare Results

This is the step where you compare results on the respective rolls, the attacker compares his results to the defender’s. If the attack rolls multiple rolls, such as from a Full Auto Burst, they’re all compared to the defender’s single result individually.

To go about this, first check and see if the attacker passed the roll at all. If they didn’t then the attack misses and nothing further happens, move on to the next die result if they have more than one. If they succeed then compare Degrees of Success, the one with the higher amount wins. If there is a tie then the defender wins. If the attack wins then the attack hits.

For attacks that have multiple attack rolls, figure out how many succeeded and with which weapon, and you will repeat the next three steps for each successful attack roll.

Step 6: Hit Location and Weapon Damage

If you had a successful hit is now time to calculate hit location and weapon damage. Hit location is really simple to calculate, you just take the ones digit of your attack roll and compare it to the follow table:

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Ones Digit Location Hit Damage Multiplier 1 Right Leg x1/2 2 Left Leg x1/2

3-7 Torso x1 8 Right Arm x1/2 9 Left Arm x1/2 0 Head x2

Looking this up constantly during combat wastes time however, so to remember this easier just know that the table is arranged on a per limb location ascending up the body going right side to left, starting with the right leg. The torso takes up five of the ten numbers and everything else takes up only one.

Some creatures might have some custom hit location and damage multipliers for them, so be sure to check with the GM if the creature isn’t humanoid.

Weapon damage is another matter, normally you just look at their damage on the damage table for them. Don’t forget to add the bonus from your Strength to the damage for melee attacks. After you determine your damage, roll it and note the results.

Step 7: Apply Soak

The general formula for a character’s soak is (Toughness divided by 10) + (armor rating for the location). The defender subtracts this value from the damage they receive.

Certain weapons can influence the amount of soak a character has. A weapon’s penetration reduces the defender’s armor rating by the penetration value, to a minimum of zero. Felling does the same thing as penetration but to the character’s soak from Toughness instead. This only lasts for that damage instant.

If the character’s soak absorbs all the damage from the attack, then the character loses no HP. In most cases this isn’t true, and extra damage left over after soak is multiplied by the hit location according to the table in step six.

If the defender has some form of energy shielding see the section for energy shielding in the next section of the rules. As a rule of thumb, energy shields act as ablative hit points which absorb the damage of an attack before it hits armor.

Step 8: Apply Damage

In this step the defender reduces his HP by an amount equal to the post soak damage he’s taken. If this reduces him to 0 HP or less he’s now Dying and probably needs a medic. See the section on Dying for rules on how to handle that.

Combat Rules This section contains rules for in-depth combat rules and

variations. It covers all sorts of advanced combat mechanics from different forms of attacks and defenses to rules for Dying, Bleeding, and being on Fire.

Action Types There are three types of actions that you can take in a

turn: Reflexive, Normal, Full. Each of these have different rules associated with them.

Reflexive

Reflexive rolls are those that are automatic in nature. They do not require you to perform anything for the most part. Examples include noticing something, speaking something, or resisting fear. These types of actions do not garner Action Penalty for doing them.

Normal

A Normal action is the default action type unless stated otherwise. This action gains Action Penalty as normal. You can make as many as you want in a turn, being limited only by whether you have enough Threshold to make the roll.

Full

A Full action is one that takes the entire turn. These types only allow you to take defensive Normal actions, such as dodging or parry. You cannot do anything else in the turn while doing these. Sprinting is an example of this sort of action. These actions count as two actions for Action Penalties. You can move if you haven’t moved already during a Full action if you’d logically be able to do so, such as with Aiming.

Action Penalty In a turn you can make as many actions you want, but

you get a cumulative penalty until your next turn called an Action Penalty. Each action you take gives you a -10 penalty to your next test. So if you make three actions you get no penalty on the first, a -10 penalty on the second, and a -20 on the third. This applies to all actions, including defense actions so attacking a lot at the cost of defense is risky. Action Penalties only are gained from actions taken during the turn, so firing multiple bullets doesn’t gain you an action penalty for each bullet fired.

The Action Penalty restarts when it’s your next turn, meaning it can carry into the next round. So people with higher initiatives can an advantage when attacking targets on lower initiatives.

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Shooting As with most things in a modern war, you’re likely to do a

lot of shooting. Guns are around for a reason, they’re really good at their jobs and let you kill some ugly bastard without you getting close to them to see the gory details.

Shooting uses Dexterity for the Attribute and Firearms for the Skill. There’s a lot of modifiers that can be applied to the Threshold when shooting, so there’s going to be some math involved. When shooting a gun you roll for each bullet you fire out of the gun, each is its own separate attack roll so if you fire lots of bullets you roll a lot. Each attack roll only suffers the penalties and benefits for action as appropriate; each Single Shot or Full Auto Burst you fire will get you an Action Penalty, not each attack roll you make per bullet in your action. Each bullet you fire in that action will have the current Action Penalty though.

Here’s some combat actions you can do for shooting:

Single Shot

This is a classic method of shooting; all you need to do is pull the trigger once and let a round hit the target. Since you’re only firing once you don’t need to worry about recoil. This form of shooting only has you pull the trigger once and doesn’t suffer any penalty to make. It’s often used by snipers and combined with the Aim action. This is an action to perform.

Burst

Some guns are capable of burst fire, this is where you pull the trigger once and multiple rounds spray out of the gun, assume three rounds unless said otherwise. This kind of fire gives very precise grouping of the rounds, normally hitting the same location. This form of fire has a penalty of -30 to hit but all the rounds hit in the same location, you use the first round’s to hit location regardless if it hit or not. This is an action for perform.

Full Auto Burst

Most guns contain the ability to pull the trigger and keep it held down, firing rounds until you let go. This action has you pull down the trigger for a short controlled burst, firing a number of rounds equal to the gun’s Rate. Firing in short controlled bursts gives a -60 to hit with.

Spray and Pray

Guns fire really, really fast. You will empty the magazine on most guns in quick order unless you control your fire rate. This option is normally the panic option someone does when being charged by a much scarier enemy or when in point blank range with a target. Under this action you essentially empty the magazine of the gun in this single action, firing the gun’s Rate x 5 rounds in a single burst. Only weapons with large magazines can fire at this rate

more than once. This action suffers a -90 penalty, so you might want to be close to the target or aiming before you do it.

Covering Fire

Sometimes you need to provide large volumes of fire that don’t have to hit, just need to scare the fuck out of the target so they hunker down. You can do a Covering Fire action to shoot out lots of bullets and force the target to take cover, this is often accompanied by lots of screaming and yelling. When doing this action, the character chooses one of the following shooting actions: Single Shot, Burst, Full Auto Burst, or Spray and Pray. He rolls this at an additional -20 penalty to hit and everyone within five meters of where he was aiming needs to make a reflexive Courage roll at a penalty equal to half the modifier of the to hit roll.

Regardless of if you hit, if the target fails the Courage roll they need to immediately move into the nearest cover or appropriate defense (human shields do fulfill this). Once in cover the character cannot leave the cover until they pass the same Courage roll. Each round they are not under Covering Fire grants them a +20 to the roll.

A character that elects to take a shield of some sort or have energy shields do not have to make this roll so long as the weapon their shield still defend them or the weapon being fired isn’t exceedingly dangerous (i.e. rocket launcher or auto cannon or 20 men concentrating fire on them).

Aiming “When in doubt, aim.” This old quote applies equally in all forms of combat. By

taking an entire turn to Aim, you gain a +10 to hit on your next attack. If you are injured or choose to defend yourself you lose the benefits of the Aim action. Aiming is a full action. You can only cumulatively benefit from two turns of Aiming.

Delay You can delay your turn, waiting until another moment to

go in the turn order. Obviously you cannot delay past the end of the Round, you either use your turn or you lose. It is possible to take your turn while someone else is taking their turn, immediately interrupting their turn until yours is resolved. This is called Overwatch and if multiple people interrupt at the same time, the use their initiative to determine who goes first. A character delay even after taking an action, so long as it wasn’t a Full action.

Overwatch

A character that delays their turn can trigger their turn during another character’s turn. They merely declare when

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they wish to take it. A character can do this even in the middle of another’s action, taking their action before the other character’s resolves.

A common example is someone charging you with a melee weapon and you delay until they get closer to you with a gun. When they get in close enough to you, you take your turn and shoot them.

Finish the Fight

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