Rules are of secondary importance. This is a roleplaying experience, rather than a simulation. Rules and die rolling are there to support the fun, not to control it.
As you read these rules, you might want to consult Indiana Jones's profile. Some stories about his adventures are used as examples here. Seeing how his characteristics are applied in various situations might make things a bit more clear.
The Ladder
Everything is relative. The ladder is used to describe how good or bad something is. It's read both ways: a Good ability gives a +3 bonus when rolling the dice. A die roll of -1 gives a Poor result.
Let's be honest here: it's a lot more fun to say, "I'm Great at Academics" than it is to say "My Academics score is a fifteen."
| Legendary |
+8 |
| Epic |
+7 |
| Fantastic |
+6 |
| Superb |
+5 |
| Great |
+4 |
| Good |
+3 |
| Fair |
+2 |
| Average |
+1 |
| Mediocre |
0 |
| Poor |
-1 |
| Terrible |
-2 |
| Catastrophic |
-3 |
| Horrific |
-4 |
Traits
Traits are the most important features of the character and describes who they are, how they fit into the world, and what is important to them. They can be physical or mental, relationships, training or education, past events, or beliefs. They might be how the character describes themselves or how someone else might describe them.
Traits are always true. You never need to roll the dice for a Trait. That means that if you say that your character is a professor of archeology who served in both the Belgian and French armies in the Great War, then your character is a professor of archeology who's a veteran of the Great War.
Invoking a Trait allows the player to change the story in a variety of interesting and useful ways, including changing the results of die rolls or altering a situation.
A huge ape is living in the ruins that Indy and his companion have been exploring. It's chased them into a tomb and they find themselves without a weapon or an escape route. Indy says, "Wait a minute. As an 'Professor of Archeology', I recall reading a paper by Thornbury about Onifre burial rites. Warriors were always buried with their weapons. There should be a bronze sword or two in here." The GM agrees that's a legitimate aspect and Indy pays a Fate Point. Sure enough, there are a couple of serviceable swords that they can use to deal with the ape.
Abilities
Abilities define how well the character can do many common, everyday activities. Well, at least they're the activities that a pulp hero is called upon to do every day. The most frequent use for an ability score is to modify an action roll, as described above.
The nutshell description of each ability:
Academics — The elements of a proper liberal education.
Athletics — Running, climbing, speed, and agility.
Driving — The ability to operate vehicles (special cases may depend upon the character's aspects).
Engineering — Building and maintaining machinery and structures.
Fighting — Violent conflict resolution with and without hand weapons.
Investigation — Active information gathering.
Might — Physical strength and toughness.
Mysteries — Knowledge of and/or attunement towards the arcane.
Notice — Passive observation skills.
Rapport — Interpersonal skills.
Resolve — Mental toughness.
Science — The physical and biological sciences.
Shooting — Reaching out and touching someone with guns, bows, and the like.
Sneaking — Moving around without being detected.
Wilderness — Hunting, bush craft, and horseback riding.
Your Might will determine the number of Stress boxes on your Health track and your Resolve will determine the number on your Composure track. (This will make more sense in a bit.)
Stunts
The characters are heroes in a story. A pulpy story. They're larger than life and so they each have cool special skills called Stunts. Stunts offer bonuses or allow the character to bend the rules in certain ways.
It's been a long day. A climb up a sheer cliff face came to an abrupt end when a secret panel opened and Indy slid down a long ramp (with lots of bumps along the way). At the bottom, he stood and dusted himself off, only to be welcomed by a massive mook with fists like sledgehammers. After absorbing some pummeling without doing much in return, Indy managed to to pull a strut from beneath a platform, dropping a load of stone onto his opponent. Jumping into a hopper of ore headed to the surface looked like a great plan until it reached the top and dumped him down another chute into a rail car.
As the train starts up and gathers speed, he's battered, bruised, and in no condition for the final boss battle. Reaching deep, he calls upon his stunt "Too Stubborn to Fail" and pays a Fate Point. This allows him to remove four points of damage on either his Health or Composure tracks. In this case, he chooses to use it all on his Health. Telling himself that pain is all in the mind, he starts along the tops of the train cars.
Fate Points
The main characters are pulp heroes and villains. They are larger than life individuals for whom reality itself seems to bend, at least just a bit. Despite that, they're not superheroes. Characters have limitations and repeatedly trusting yourself to the Fates will inevitably result in them leaving you hanging, just when you need them most. This cosmic bank account is tracked using Fate Points.
A Fate Point can be spent to add +2 to the roll for an action. This must be announced before the roll is made. Only one point may be spent in this manner on any roll.
A Fate Point can also be spent after a roll, in order to roll again. There is no additional modifier on the reroll, it is exactly the same as the original roll. If a Fate Point was used to get a +2 bonus, that bonus does not apply to the reroll. On the other hand, whether a Point was used to get the bonus for the first roll or not, an additional point can be spent to get a +2 on the reroll.
Conversely, the GM can award Fate Points to characters by invoking their traits. These are almost always complications. When the GM offers a Fate Point, but before the player knows which trait is being invoked (or how), the player has the option to pay a Fate Point to nullify the invocation.
Indy and Sallah open the Well of Souls. Before they peer inside, the GM offers Indy a Fate Point. Since Indy is always in need of more Fate Points, he reluctantly accepts. The GM smiles and says, "Snakes. It had to be snakes." This invokes Indy's trait "I Hate Snakes".
Every character begins with a pool of three Fate Points. This pool will changed as points are earned or spent. When a scene is complete, the pool resets back to three. Note that even if the character has more than three points, the pool resets back to three. Fate Points are meant to be used, not hoarded.
Indy's had a busy day. He discovered a gang of tomb robbers. Disrupting their activities involved a fist fight that ended with Indy and one of the robbers dangling being nearly buried by a rockslide. Chasing the other robbers down a switchback road resulted in several additional brawls; rolling off a moving truck, down a hillside, and back onto the roof of the truck; and finally tumbling alongside a chest full of Incan treasures off the back of the truck just as it plunged off a cliff. As might be expected, this required the use of all Indy's Fate Points.
Eventually, he makes it back to Lima with the chest, riding the back of an alpaca herder's truck, and can take a bath and get a decent night's sleep. This concludes the scene and the next morning, he awakens to find his Fate Point pool refreshed back to three.
Action Resolution
When a character takes an action, the result is determined by a die roll. This is performed using Fate Dice. These are six-sided dice with two sides showing each of these:
The + and - sides are added up to give a number between -4 and +4. Any appropriate abilities, bonuses, or penalties are applied to generate a final value. (Don't worry about all of this, the die rolling bot will handle it.)
When the action isn't actively opposed, there will usually be a target result that the character is trying to achieve with their roll. This will depend upon the difficult and the stakes. If the roll exactly matches the target, the result is a success with a complication. A result one level above the target is a simple success — the character accomplished their goal.
A result two levels above the target means that the character has earned a shift and can alter the situation in one way, presumably to their own benefit. Every two levels of success beyond that generates another shift.
Results two levels below the target means that the situation has shifted against the character. Multiple negative shifts are possible with a sufficiently bad roll.
Indy's companion is in a barrel, rolling down a steep hill toward a cliff. Indy sees that there is a drawbridge across the gorge that's conveniently aligned, but it's raised right now, being held up by a rope stretching to the other side. He draws his pistol and takes careful aim at the rope. Sadly, Indy's Shooting ability is only Mediocre and it's going to take a Good result to cut the rope. He decides to take the time to carefully aim, which will give him a +1, but that means he will only get a single shot before the barrel reaches the cliff.
He rolls and gets a +2, which is added to the 0 for his Mediocre ability and the +1 for aiming. It's a Good result and the bridge falls just in time for the barrel to bound across it. However, since the role was an exact success, there is the complication that the barrel is continuing to roll away down the hill.
Later, Indy swings across a pit using his whip to wrap around a large branch. He needs a Fair roll to succeed on that, but he gets a Great result. Since that's two levels better than he heeds, he has a shift that he can use to alter the situation.
He decides that the branch broke under his weight and fell into the pit just as he reached the other side, meaning that his pursuers will need to find an alternate way across.
On occasion, there is no specific target and the purpose of the roll is to determine how well or poorly the character accomplished a task.
Indy has landed in Colonial Nigeria while on a voyage to South Africa. Because he wasn't expecting to spend time there, he hadn't done any specific background research. A local guide offers to take him to some local ruins. When he gets to the site, he tries to remember what he can about the Oyo Empire. His Academic ability is Great, but he rolls a -4! Adding +4 for his ability to the roll gives a net score of 0. Indy's knowledge of the Oyo Empire is only Mediocre — he only has a vague recollection of the subject.
If the action is being opposed by another character, but the situation falls short of an actual conflict, both characters roll and the opposing character's roll is subtracted from the acting character's result. A result of zero means that action didn't succeed, but the situation is unchanged. Shifts are determined as in the case of a target number.
Indy is trying to convince a Bedouin to lend him a camel. The Bedouin is highly skeptical that Indy will return the camel in the same fine condition in which he is receiving it. Indy will roll using his Rapport ability and the Bedouin will roll using his Will ability. Indy's Rapport is Fair, so his roll will be +2. He rolls badly and ends up with a 0. The Bedouin has an Average Will, so he adds +1 to his roll. Fortunately for Indy, the Bedouin rolls equally badly and gets a -1. Indy's roll minus the Bedouin's is +1. Since that's better than a tie, there are no complications but not good enough for Indy to alter the situation. The Bedouin hands over the reins to Indy and berates him with the threat of dire curses if he doesn't return the camel washed and with a full tank of water.
Conflict
As a pulp hero, there are times when the whole world seems out to kill you. That's an overreaction. Most of the time it's just the villains, creatures, and mysterious phenomena that are trying to kill you. Everything else is just getting in your way.
Physical Combat
When all a character has in the fight is their two fists, or their two feet, or the barstool that they just picked up, it's physical combat. If both parties are aware of what's going on, both roll using their Fighting ability. If one side is not aware, the attacker rolls using their Fighting ability against a Poor defense. Appropriate modifiers may be used to account for armor and circumstances.
Ranged Combat
If one character is trying to put holes in another character using some form of firearm, bow, sling, or related device outside of arm's reach, it's ranged combat. This is an opposed action, with the shooter rolling using their Shooting ability, while the target uses their Athletics ability. When shooting at inanimate targets, the size and movement of the target will determine the defense roll. Modifiers will be applied as appropriate.
Mental and Social Conflict
When a character needs to wear down an opponent mentally, socially, or emotionally, the most common pairing is the attacker's Rapport versus the defender's Resolve.
Stress
Stress isn't exactly damage, it reflects the gradual erosion of a character's ability to remain functional. Conflict can result in Stress, but it can also be caused by environmental factors.
Health
Stress caused by physical and ranged combat, as well as the general wear and tear that the characters experience during their adventures gets applied to the Health track. In the case of physical combat and weapons other than guns, the amount of Stress is the difference between the attacker's and defender's rolls. If guns are used, the resulting damage is doubled.
Composure
For mental and social conflict, as well as the psychic damage caused by seeing what no one should have seen, the Stress is applied to the Composure track. Again, the amount of Stress caused by the conflict is the difference between the two rolls.
Indy needs to get access to the closed stacks at the Miskatonic University library. The head librarian, Mrs. Waterford, is intent upon upholding the library's policy of only allowing authorized personnel into the stacks. Because this is a challenge — Indy needs to find a key piece of information as quickly as possible — and because both success and failure are legitimate outcomes — if he fails to get past Mrs. Waterford, he'll have to try another, more risky approach — this is a social conflict. Indy and Mrs. Waterford gird their loins and prepare for combat.
Indy doesn't know this, but Mrs. Waterford has a Good Resolve and thus has six Composure points. Indy makes the first move and tries to use his charm on her. He rolls a -2, which when added to his Average Rapport (+1), gives him a total of -1. Mrs. Waterford displays her professional scowl and rolls a +1, but when her Good Resolve (+3) is added, it totals a +4. When the two scores are combined, the result is a beyond Horrific result of -5 for Indy. He has to check off five of his six Composure points. This reflects his growing impatience and aggravation.
Clearly, Indy is on the verge of losing this conflict. He needs to change strategy. He decides to use his Investigation ability to quickly look around for something to use as leverage against the immovable object of Mrs. Waterford. The GM says that it will take an Average roll to find something. Since Indy wants a result that's good enough to allow him to alter the situation, he decides to spend a Fate Point to gain a +2 on his roll.
Indy mumbles a brief benediction to the gods in classical Greek and rolls. The gods are indifferent and the roll comes up as a 0, only Mediocre, but when his Fair Investigation ability (+2) and the +2 for the Fate Point are added, the final result is +4, Great result! Most importantly, that's three steps above the Average he needed, so he can make two alterations to the situation.
For his first, Indy notes that Mrs. Waterford is reading a copy of Le Morte d'Arthur. He then tells the GM that he's going to try to overcome her resistance using his Academic ability. Using the second alteration, he states that he recalls a conversation with his father, a noted expert on medieval literature, over dinner one night, in which his father explained in painful detail the source material that Malory used when writing this section.
The GM agrees that this is a legitimate approach and gives a bonus of +2 for its clever nature, which Mrs. Waterford is certainly not expecting. Indy beseeches the gods a bit more vigorously and then rolls a +3. When added to his Great Academics ability (+4) and the +2 bonus, it becomes +9! Mrs. Waterford can only muster a roll of -2 which, when added to her Good Resolve, only gives her a +1. The net score is +9 - +1 = +8, a Legendary result!
This uses up all of the boxes on Mrs. Waterford's Composure track. Flustered by Indy's flood of information, she agrees to let him into the closed stacks, just to get him away from her desk.
Consequences
A quick glance at the number of boxes on a stress track should inspire concern. There are only a few boxes and it's not hard to imagine a conflict going wrong in a hurry. What's the point of being a pulp hero if you can be taken out by a single punch? Heroes can get up, brush themselves off, and continue onward.
That's where Consequences come in. Each character can take one Minor, one Moderate, and one Severe Consequence. These soak up two, four, and six points of damage, respectively. Taking a Consequence means adding a new trait to the character that reflects the damage that had been done. Because traits are things that are always true, taking a consequence also means having to live with the effects of that consequence.
Indy is attempting to hijack the truck carrying the Holy Grail. While he has successfully disposed of most of the German soldiers on the truck, one of them was able to hit Indy with a pistol shot that caused four points of damage. Since Indy has already picked up some Health stress in this adventure, he decides to take the Minor Consequence of "Nicked in the Arm".
Other than hurting and bleeding a bit, this doesn't have much effect until the last German, the unit's Feldwebel, launches himself into the cab of the truck and, after seeing the injury, proceeds to slam his fist into it repeatedly. At this point it becomes a serious distraction and all of Indy's rolls are at -2 until he can get away.
Getting Taken Out
When a Stress track and all Consquences have been used up, a character is "taken out". The effects of being taken out depend upon the circumstances.
When Composure is the target, getting taken out is normally a matter of being worn down to the point where the character is no longer able or willing to resist.
Taking someone out through their Health usually leaves more bruises, scars, and holes. If you're engaged in fisticuffs with an opponent and they run out of Heath, they may have fallen unconscious or become so badly battered as to be unable to continue. Of course, it is possible to permanently take someone out. Firearms, knives, and large angry animals are particularly good at this.
It's worth noting that not all characters are willing to continue a fight until the bitter end. Even the most obnoxious ticket agent is unlikely to continue the debate to the point of suffering lasting mental harm. Similarly, most minor league villains are probably going to flee, concede, or pretend to be dead, rather than suffer permanent maiming.
Recovery
Pulp heroes are nothing if not resiliant and stress tracks are cleared after each scene. Consequences, on the other hand, take longer to recover from.
The recovery process begins when someone is able to provide the appropriate medical treatment. For physical injuries, this means that a Science roll is needed. Mental damage is handled by talking it out with someone using their Rapport Ability. The target number is the same as the number of points of damage soaked, so the difficuty for a Minor Consequence is Fair (+2), a Moderate is Great (+4), and a Severe is Fantastic (+6).
Once the healing begins, a Minor Consequence is cleared after the next scene, a Moderate Consequence takes a matter of weeks to be cleared, and a Severe Consequence takes months (or longer). The effects of a treated Consequence are likely to be different than an untreated one. For example, the character is less likely to be dripping a trail of blood behind them.
