Action Resolution
Every action in this game is built from three elements: an Ability that represents natural aptitude, a Skill that represents training, and a Risk set by the GM that represents how dangerous the situation is. Skill and Risk work against each other. Training reduces danger, and danger erodes the benefits of training. What remains after that contest, combined with the character's raw Ability, forms the dice pool.
When the outcome of an action matters, follow the same process every time: determine the Ability, determine the Skill, set the Risk, build the pool, roll, and resolve.
The GM sets the relevant Skill and the Risk. Together, the GM and player determine the Ability. The GM makes the initial call, but players may request a different Ability if they can justify their character's approach. A character powering through a wound might roll Strength; another character refusing to acknowledge the pain and pressing on might roll Will. The approach determines the Ability, but the GM has final say.
Abilities
Abilities are who a character is — their natural aptitude, the raw material that training builds on. Two characters can have the same skills and face the same danger, but their Abilities determine the shape of how they act. One leads with force, another with cunning, another with sheer stubbornness. Abilities are the foundation everything else rests on.
There are six Abilities: Strength, Agility, Intellect, Presence, Perception, and Will.
- Strength measures physical power, toughness, and resilience. It covers not just how hard a character can hit, but how much punishment their body can absorb, how long they can push through exhaustion, and how well they endure harsh conditions. A character with high Strength is both powerful and durable.
- Agility measures speed, reflexes, coordination, and fine motor control. It governs how quickly a character reacts, how precisely they move, and how well they handle tasks that demand dexterity — from dodging gunfire to picking a lock.
- Intellect measures reasoning, memory, technical aptitude, and problem-solving. It covers the ability to analyze information, think through complex problems, and apply knowledge under pressure. Engineers, scientists, tacticians, and medics all lean on Intellect.
- Presence measures social force — the ability to influence, persuade, intimidate, deceive, or inspire. A character with high Presence commands attention when they enter a room. Whether that attention comes from charm, authority, menace, or sheer magnetism depends on the character.
- Perception measures awareness — the ability to notice details, read a situation, sense danger, and pick up on things others miss. It is about input, not processing. A character with high Perception sees the gun under the coat. What they do about it is a different question.
- Will measures raw willpower — mental resilience, force of self, and the capacity to impose one's will on the universe. It is the Ability most directly tied to Focus, the supernatural force that underlies all existence. A character with high Will can push through pain, resist influence, and — with training — bend reality.
Ability Ratings
Abilities are rated 1 to 5. Most people sit at 1 or 2 in any given Ability. A 1 is not a weakness. It is simply unremarkable, the default for anyone who has never needed to develop that area. A 3 or 4 represents genuine distinction, the kind of aptitude that shapes a career or a reputation. A 5 is rare enough that it defines whoever has it.
| Rating | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 1 | Baseline. Unremarkable. Most people never push past this. |
| 2 | Developed. Trained, practiced, or naturally inclined. |
| 3 | Notable. Stands out in a crowd. People notice. |
| 4 | Gifted. Rare, even among professionals. |
| 5 | Exceptional. Borderline supernatural. |
An Ability of 0 represents a complete inability. The capacity is not diminished; it is absent. This is only allowed with explicit GM approval.
Build the dice pool as normal. If Skill and Risk cancel completely and no dice remain, the action is an automatic failure. In practice, most rolls using a 0 Ability will produce pools of pure Skill dice or pure Risk dice with no Ability floor beneath them. Success is possible but thin; failure and critical failure are far more likely.
Players will rarely want this limitation. But certain character concepts or story beats may call for it — a species that physically cannot produce a given output, a permanent injury, a fundamental psychological absence. The GM should allow it cautiously. Any action that relies on the missing Ability is likely to go badly.
Skills
There are 15 base skills, organized by domain. Skills marked with (D) require a discipline (see Disciplines below).
Physical
- Athletics — climbing, running, swimming, jumping, raw physical exertion.
- Stealth — moving unseen, hiding, tailing, physical infiltration.
- Survival — harsh environments, tracking, field craft, endurance under hostile conditions.
Combat
- Combat (D) — armed and unarmed violence. Disciplines include Firearms, Melee, and others as appropriate.
Technical
- Engineering — repair, construction, jury-rigging, ship systems, power systems, mechanical and structural work.
- Medicine — treatment, diagnosis, surgery, stabilization, pharmacology. The practice of keeping people alive.
- Piloting (D) — operating vehicles and spacecraft. Disciplines include Fighters, Small Craft, Capital Ships, and Navigation.
- Science (D) — research, analysis, theory, laboratory work. Disciplines include Physics, Xenobiology, Xenoarchaeology, Chemistry, Medicine, and others as appropriate.
- Security — locks, alarms, access control, electronic bypass, breach procedure, cryptography. Both physical and digital protection systems.
Social
- Coordination (D) — managing complex systems, people, and information flow under pressure. On a ship bridge, in an operations center, running intelligence assets, or coordinating troop movements. Disciplines include Tactical (weapons systems, targeting, ordnance management), Operations (damage control, resource allocation, department management), and Communications (signals, comms management, electronic warfare).
- Influence (D) — moving people. Disciplines include Persuasion, Deception, Intimidation, and Insight.
- Leadership — inspiring, directing, rallying, and coordinating people under pressure. Command authority and earned trust alike.
- Savvy (D) — knowing how the world actually works. Disciplines include Criminal, Military, Government, and Corporate.
Supernatural
- Focus — channeling willpower to produce change in the universe. Disciplines TBD.
Skill Ratings
A character is either trained or untrained in a given Skill. That distinction is binary and exists before ratings enter the picture. An untrained character has no meaningful training and suffers +1 Risk when attempting actions with that Skill. A trained character has at least foundational knowledge and avoids that penalty.
Trained Skills are rated 0 to 5. Most working professionals sit at 1 or 2. A character at 3 is someone others seek out. A 4 has spent years honing their craft and has little left to learn. A 5 is vanishingly rare — one of a handful of people alive operating at that level.
| Rating | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 0 | Trained but green. Foundations without experience. |
| 1 | Junior. Can do the job with oversight. |
| 2 | Professional. Competent, reliable, self-sufficient. |
| 3 | Specialist. Sought out for their expertise. |
| 4 | Master. Among the best in their field. |
| 5 | Peerless. The 99.9th percentile. A handful of equals at most. |
The gap between untrained and Skill 0 is small mechanically — just 1 Risk — but it matters at the table. Skill 0 encourages characters to act outside their strengths without the sting of the untrained penalty. It keeps the spotlight open. A pilot with Skill 0 in medicine can stabilize a wound. An engineer with Skill 0 in firearms can hold a corridor. They are not good at it, but they are not punished for trying.
Meanwhile, the untrained penalty exists to make truly desperate moments feel different. When the completely unskilled character steps up because no one else can, that +1 Risk matters. Even with high Ability, they are looking at a coin flip at best. That is the dramatic beat the system produces: not helplessness, but real stakes on courage.
Being untrained does not forbid action. It makes it more dangerous. An untrained character can attempt anything plausible for their background. A scientist can pick up a gun and point it the right direction. A deckhand can grab shuttle controls in an emergency. They are taking on more risk, not requesting permission. The GM may rule that certain actions cannot be meaningfully attempted without specific training, equipment, or access. That is the exception, not the rule.
Disciplines
Some skills are too broad to train as a single competence. These skills are marked with (D) and require the player to pick a discipline when training the skill. The general version of a discipline skill does not exist on a character sheet. Combat is not a skill; Combat: Firearms is.
Each discipline skill lists suggested disciplines, but players can work with the GM to define a freeform discipline with narrative justification.
Cross-training. Training a second discipline under a base skill you already have is cheaper than training an entirely new skill. The shared foundation makes the transition easier. A marksman picking up melee combat is cheaper than a marksman learning medicine. (Exact XP costs are defined in character creation.)
The discipline system can be dropped entirely for lighter, faster play. If your table prefers a streamlined experience, treat all discipline skills as flat skills — Combat covers all combat, Piloting covers all piloting, and so on. Disciplines are purely additive complexity. The core system works without them.
Specialties
A specialty represents deep familiarity with a specific application of a skill — the thing you have done a thousand times, the narrow domain where danger does not rattle you the same way.
Any skill at Skill 1 or higher can take a specialty. Taking a specialty costs XP and requires narrative justification. Your character must have a reason, grounded in their history or their play, to have developed this particular depth of experience.
When a specialty applies — the player must justify it and the GM must agree — you may reroll up to [skill rating] in Risk dice, once per roll. Specialties do not make you more skilled. They make you more reliable when things are dangerous.
Discipline skills can also take specialties. Combat: Firearms (Sniping) 3 means a trained marksman who is especially reliable when sniping. The specialty reroll applies when sniping specifically, not all firearms use.
Examples: Engineering (Reactors) 3, Athletics (Climbing) 2, Medicine (Trauma Surgery) 4, Piloting: Small Craft (Docking Maneuvers) 2.
Like disciplines, the specialty system can be dropped for lighter play. It is purely additive. Removing it changes nothing about how skills, dice pools, or resolution work. Add it when your table wants more character depth. Leave it out when you want speed.
Risk Ratings
Risk is the GM's tool. It is the only number in the dice pool that the player does not control. It measures how dangerous, unstable, or committed an action is. Risk does not ask whether the action is possible, only what is at stake if things go sideways.
Risk is rated 0 to 6. Most actions in play sit at Risk 1 to 3. Risk 4 and above should be rare, and when they appear, every player at the table should feel the weight of it.
| Rating | Meaning |
|---|---|
| 0 | Trivial. No real consequences for failure. |
| 1 | Routine. A slap on the wrist. Bruised pride, a stern look from a superior. |
| 2 | Consequential. Lasting but survivable fallout. A performance review, a fight with someone you care about, a night in a holding cell. |
| 3 | Dangerous. Real harm is on the table. Injury, death, termination, arrest. Mortal peril enters the picture. |
| 4 | Severe. Someone is likely to die. Lethal force is expected. If caught, the trial is public and prison is certain. A critical failure here is life-altering. |
| 5 | Critical. Multiple deaths, messy and public. Emergency broadcast territory. Shoot-on-sight. There will be no trial. Even ordinary failure changes your life. |
| 6 | Catastrophic. Your world ends — maybe not every world, but yours. Thousands or millions of lives in the balance. If you are caught, you will learn what a fate worse than death looks like. |
Risk 0 actions have no meaningful consequences for failure. So why roll at all? Because the outcome can still be interesting. Risk 0 is the GM's tool for giving a skilled character a moment to shine. No danger, no cost. Just an opportunity to remind the table that when things are good, they are good. Picture an operative with Skill 4 in firearms at the range. Risk 0. Every round lands center mass, smooth and unhurried, like breathing. That is not a test. It is a statement. Use these moments sparingly. They land harder when they are rare.
The Dice
The game uses three types of dice, each with their own symbol distribution.
Ability dice carry Blanks and Successes. They represent raw capability.
Skill dice carry Blanks, Successes, and Critical Successes. They represent expertise — more likely to succeed, and more likely to produce exceptional results.
Risk dice carry Blanks, Failures, and Critical Failures. They represent danger. Risk dice never help. They only threaten.
Using Standard d10s
If you do not have custom dice, use ten-sided dice numbered 1–10 (treat 0 as 10).
| Die Type | 1–6 | 7–9 | 10 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ability | Blank | Success | Success |
| Skill | Blank | Success | Critical Success |
| Risk | Blank | Failure | Critical Failure |
On any single die, Blanks appear 60% of the time. The remaining 40% produces a result — Successes on Ability dice, Successes or Critical Successes on Skill dice, Failures or Critical Failures on Risk dice. Criticals appear on a 10 only — rare enough to matter, common enough to show up in play. The system is built around this distribution.
Resolving an Action
Every action follows seven steps. Steps 4 and 6 are optional. If the rolling player has no modification to apply, they pass instantly. The typical unmodified roll flows: intent → stakes → pool → roll → resolve.
Step 1: Declare Intent
The player states what their character is trying to do.
Step 2: Set the Stakes
The GM sets the relevant Skill and the Risk. Together, the GM and player determine the Ability (see above). The GM has final say.
Step 3: Build the Pool
Start with Ability dice equal to the relevant Ability rating.
If the character is untrained in the relevant Skill, add +1 Risk.
Then compare the Skill rating to the final Risk rating. Skill and Risk cancel one-for-one.
- If Skill is higher after cancellation, the remainder becomes Skill dice.
- If Risk is higher after cancellation, the remainder becomes Risk dice.
The pool always contains either Ability + Skill dice or Ability + Risk dice. Never both Skill and Risk dice together.
If a roll would have more than 6 uncancelled Risk dice after all modifiers, the action cannot normally be attempted. The GM may waive this in extraordinary circumstances.
Angus is picking a lock on a maintenance hatch while his crew keeps watch. He has Agility 3 and Security 2. The GM sets Risk 2 — a decent lock, with an alarm if he fumbles.
Step 1: Intent. Angus declares: "I pick the lock."
Step 2: Stakes. Ability is Agility (3). Skill is Security (2). Risk is 2.
Step 3: Build the pool. Angus is trained in Security, so no untrained penalty. Skill 2 cancels Risk 2 exactly — nothing left over. The pool is 3 Ability dice.
Step 4: Modify the pool. No modification. Angus isn't in a Structured Scene, so Momentum is not in play, and he doesn't burn Willpower. Pass.
Step 5: Roll. Angus rolls 3d10. Result: 4, 8, 2. That's one Success (the 8).
Step 6: Modify the roll. No modification. No specialty applies, no Momentum to spend. Pass.
Step 7: Resolve. No Criticals. No Risk dice in the pool, so any Success is a clean win. Success. The lock pops, the team moves through.
Had the GM set Risk 3 instead, Skill 2 would have canceled all but 1 point of Risk. The pool would be 3 Ability dice + 1 Risk die, and that lone Risk die could have turned the roll into a Failure or Costly Success depending on what it showed.
Step 4: Modify the Pool (Optional)
The rolling player may apply one pre-roll modification to the pool. No stacking. Pick one or skip this step.
- Press (Momentum spend). Take +1 Risk to gain +1 Momentum. (See Momentum.)
- Brace (Momentum spend). Spend 2 Momentum to remove 1 Risk. (See Momentum.)
- Willpower upgrade. Spend Willpower to upgrade Ability dice to Skill dice in the pool. (See Willpower.)
- Other abilities or effects that modify the pool will say so explicitly.
Step 5: Roll
Roll the pool.
Step 6: Modify the Roll (Optional)
The rolling player may apply one post-roll modification. No stacking. Pick one or skip this step.
- Specialty reroll. If a specialty applies, reroll up to [skill rating] Risk dice. (See Specialties.)
- Correct (Momentum spend). Spend 1 Momentum to reroll the entire pool. (See Momentum.)
- Other abilities or effects that modify results will say so explicitly.
Step 7: Resolve
Check for Criticals first. Criticals override everything else.
- If any Skill die shows a Critical Success, the result is a Critical Success.
- If any Risk die shows a Critical Failure, the result is a Critical Failure.
Four Successes and one Critical Failure on a Risk die is still a Critical Failure. This is deliberate. Risk means something. If you roll Risk dice, you are accepting the possibility that a single bad result can override everything else. That is the price of commitment.
If no Criticals are present, read the remaining symbols based on the dice type in the pool.
Ability + Skill Rolls
- At least one Success: Success.
- No Successes (all Blanks): The player chooses: accept a Costly Success, or Fail. No Risk dice were present, so the character is not trapped. They can hesitate, abort, or simply come up short.
Ability + Risk Rolls
- Success(es) and no Failures: Success.
- Failure(s) and no Successes: Failure.
- Both Successes and Failures: Costly Success.
- All Blanks: Costly Success. The character was committed to a dangerous action. Inaction under pressure is not free.
Result Bands
Every roll produces one of five results.
Critical Success. The character succeeds and gains a boon. They get what they want, and something extra breaks their way.
Success. The character succeeds cleanly. They achieve their immediate goal.
Costly Success. The character succeeds, but there is a complication, consequence, or price. If Risk dice were part of the roll, the cost is mandatory and the GM determines what it is. If no Risk dice were rolled, the player chooses whether to accept the cost or simply fail instead.
Failure. The character does not achieve their goal.
Critical Failure. The character fails and suffers a serious additional consequence. Something goes wrong beyond ordinary failure.
Costly Success is the most common dramatic result in the game. The GM should not replace the character's intent with a different outcome. The action still succeeds. The cost defines how ugly, loud, temporary, expensive, or dangerous that success becomes. Good costs change the situation. They create new problems, burn resources, draw attention, or narrow future options.
Contested Rolls
When a character's action is opposed by another character — whether a player character or a GM-controlled one — the contest is resolved as either an active or passive contest.
Active vs Active
Both sides know they are in a contest and are actively trying to win it right now. A sword fight. Two pilots racing to dock first. A negotiation where both parties are pushing for different terms. An interrogation where the prisoner is actively resisting. Both characters are present, aware, and acting with intent against each other.
Both characters build their pools at Risk 0 — pure Ability + Skill dice. Both roll. Successes and Critical Successes cancel against the opposing roll's Successes and Critical Successes, one-for-one. Whoever has remaining Successes wins. If the result is completely even, the initiating character may accept a Costly Success or choose to Fail.
The normal 7-step flow still applies to each side's roll. In particular, either side may spend Willpower at Step 4 to upgrade Ability dice to Skill dice, or spend Momentum to Correct at Step 6. Since the pools contain no Risk dice, specialties and Brace do not apply.
Hanako is questioning a captured smuggler in a holding cell. He's stonewalling with a smirk, fencing with her instead of just enduring the pressure, trying to read what she actually knows. This is an active social contest.
Hanako has Presence 3 and Influence: Persuasion 2. The smuggler has Will 3 and Influence: Insight 2 — sharp enough to read her tells and catch the angles she can't actually back up. Both build at Risk 0.
Hanako's pool: 3 Ability + 2 Skill = 5 dice. Smuggler's pool: 3 Ability + 2 Skill = 5 dice.
Both roll. Hanako gets 2 Successes. The smuggler gets 1 Success. After cancellation, Hanako has 1 Success remaining. Hanako wins. He folds and gives up the stash location.
Had they each rolled 1 Success, the rolls would have fully canceled — a tie. Since Hanako initiated, she'd choose:
- Costly Success: She gets the intel, but she paid. Maybe she promised leniency she can't actually deliver. Maybe she tipped her hand about what the League really knows, and he'll leverage that in court. Maybe he'll flip the pressure back on her the moment his lawyer arrives. She won this round, but the scene left worse than it started.
- Fail: She walks out empty-handed. The smuggler now knows her case is thin, and he'll exploit that. He invokes counsel before she can re-approach. The League loses its best lead, and every subsequent move on this investigation is harder because this interview happened and produced nothing.
A tie in an active contest is never "no harm done." Both of Hanako's fallback options change the situation. The only question is how she wants to pay.
Active vs Passive
One side is acting. The other side's competence is an obstacle, but they are not actively making choices against the acting character right now. A guard on patrol who might notice something. A person being lied to who is not yet suspicious. A lock built by a good engineer who is not present.
The passive side does not roll. Instead, the higher of their relevant Ability or Skill becomes the Risk for the acting character's roll. Resolve as a normal action.
Angus is sneaking past a guard on a catwalk. The guard is on patrol, not actively searching. Passive contest.
The guard has Perception 2 and no relevant trained skill. The higher of their Ability or Skill sets the Risk — Perception 2 wins, so Risk 2 for Angus's roll.
Angus has Agility 2 and Stealth 2. Trained, no untrained penalty. Skill 2 cancels Risk 2 exactly. Pool is 2 Ability dice. He rolls, gets a Success, slips past clean.
If the guard had been a trained sentry — Perception 3, Stealth (Patrol) 2 — the higher (Perception 3) would have set the Risk at 3. Angus's 2 Skill wouldn't have fully canceled it, and one Risk die would have joined his pool. The odds get ugly fast.
When to Use Which
The test is simple: is the other side making a choice right now? If yes, it is an active contest. If their competence is simply a wall the acting character is running into, it is passive.
Passive and active are not permanent labels. They are moments on a spectrum. The fiction moves between them.
Sneaking past a guard is passive. The guard spots something and starts actively searching. Now it's active. Lying to someone is passive. They call you on it and start pressing. Now it's active. A locked door is passive while the lockpick works; it becomes active the moment the thief hears footsteps behind them.
Recognize the transition when it happens. Resolve the next roll the new way.