Checks // Action Points

What are Checks?

When a Character’s course of action is uncertain, dangerous, or puts the character at risk, the GM will call for a Check.

To start, explain what your character is attempting to do.
Describe what you want to achieve, and what approach your character is taking.

Is a Check Required?

Only call for checks if the outcome has the potential to create interesting consequences.

If a character has all the skill required, ample time to work without pressure, or there’s nothing to be lost through failure, then there’s no need to call for a check.

Gather your Dice Pool

Create a pool of Advantage (AD, or PLUS) dice and Threat (TD, or MINUS) dice; 6-sided dice in two different colours.

You start with 0 PLUS or MINUS

Add Advantage Dice PLUS (Max 10) for:

Add Threat Dice MINUS (Max 10) for:

If for any reason you have 0 PLUS. Roll 1 PLUS but add an additional 1 MINUS

• GM Advice: Don’t feel you need to run this like a checklist each time.
• For a basic check, start with Skill + Expertise VS Threat Rating. Add the top 2 or 3 most obvious or impactful Advantages and Threats and make the check.
• Any player can suggest factors that might add PLUS or MINUS, work together to build the pool. The GM has final say.
• The exception to this is Trauma, which should always be factored in.

Assisting Allies

• If one or more allies are assisting you in some simple and straight-forward way, add +1PLUS.
  Multiple people providing simple assistance does not add more than +1 PLUS.
• For more complicated assistance, the people helping may need to make their own checks first.
  E.g. Hacking security, causing a distraction etc.
  In these cases, each Major or Minor Success adds +1 PLUS.

Using Expertise

You can use multiple Expertise in a single Check, as long as they’re attached to the same Skill being used.

• If you have a relevant Expertise attached to a different Skill, you can make a case for how you apply it in a different context.
  The GM has final say about whether or not it is appropriate.
• The tables above include examples where an Expertise might be relevant to multiple skills, such as Intimidate (Fighting, Influence), or Sneak (Mobility, Subterfuge). Judge appropriateness based on the context in which the Expertise is being used.

Roll the Dice

1. Discard any PLUS and MINUS showing 11,22, or 33
2. Pair each remaining PLUS with one of the remaining MINUS, and discard them.
   The faces don’t need to match. Any PLUS cancels out any MINUS.

   The Remaining unpaired Dice are your Result

The Result

Outcomes

• Major Success: 1 or More PLUS Remaining.
• Minor Success: A single MINUS, or no PLUS/MINUS Remaining.
• Hollow Success: 2 or More MINUS Remaining.

Any remaining 6 or 6 (dice showing 6’s), become Boons and Banes, granting additional Advantages, or causing additional Consequences.

Interpreting the Outcome

Depending on the Outcome, the Player Character (PC) rolling the check may Succeed flawlessly, gain an Advantage, or, more often, suffer some kind of Consequence.

• Major Success could mean:

  • You do it, with no Consequences
  • You do it, and there’s an additional Advantage

• Minor Success could mean:

  • You do it, but it might be less effective
  • You do it, but with a Minor Consequence
  • You don’t do it, but avoid any Consequences

• Hollow Success could mean:

  • You do it, but it might be drastically less effective
  • You do it, but with a Major Consequence
  • You do it, but with a couple of Minor Consequences.
  • You don’t do it, but suffer a Minor Consequence

• Boons: Add additional Advantages

• Banes: Add additional Consequences

Whatever happens, use the result to describe the outcome and progress the story.

• GM Advice: “Fails” are called “Hollow” Success, to emphasise that they don’t have to result in saying “No” to what a player attempts to do.
• A Hollow outcome may still result in progress, but come at a major cost. When it makes sense in the fiction, ask the Player if they want to push ahead and suffer the consequences, or back down (play it safe), to reduce them.
• Ideally, even “Failure” should present a new challenge to overcome, and/or push players toward an alternative solution.
• Crucially, remember that you only need to call for a Check when the result has the potential to create interesting consequences.

Advantages & Consequences

Below is a list of example Advantages & Consequences. Mix and match from the lists below, or make up your own.

Advantages & Consequences can be anything, follow the flow and do what makes the most sense in the fiction.
How often you lean on Wounds as Consequences can drastically change the tone and lethality of your game. Choose what best fits the experience you are after at your table.

Advantages

• Improve Effect:
  
  • More Damage: Deal Additional Wounds (When Attacking)
    
  • Counter: Deal Wounds in Return (When Defending)
    
  • Conditions: Inflict a Condition
    
  • Intel: Gain Additional Information
    
  • Progress: Make more progress toward a goal.
• Improve Position:
  
  • Create an Opportunity: Feint or distract to add +1AD to your next roll.
    
  • Set up an Ally: Ally acts straight away and gains +1AD to their next roll.
  • Momentum: Players Gain Momentum
• Recover:
  • Refresh: Restore an Action Point.
  • Shrug it Off: Overcome a Condition so it no longer affects you.

Major Consequences

• Harm: Suffer a Level 1 Wound, or make a Level 1 Wound worse.
• Backup: Add Additional Threat(s)
• A Major Complication: (Story, Scene, Flaw)
  • Imminent, mortal danger. The PC is put in a seriously dangerous situation and must react to it.
  • A painful revelation, time is running out, the pressure increases.
  • An opportunity is lost.
  • A detail about the scene changes in a seriously unhelpful way.
  • A PC’s flaw causes them serious trouble.
  • The action has much less effect.
  • Things go suspiciously well. The PC’s are walking into a trap.
• A Major Drain (Gear, Resources, Time)
  • A piece of gear malfunctions, breaks, or is lost.
  • A critical resource is reduced.
  • The action wastes precious time.
• Two Ticks on a Problematic Clock
  • Progress is made toward a negative outcome.
  • Progress toward a positive outcome is reduced.
  • The crew lose a tick of Status toward their next Rank.
• Any Combination of Two Minor Consequences

Minor Consequences

• Conditions: Suffer a Condition, or turn an existing Condition into a Level 1 Wound.
• Momentum: Players Lose Momentum
• Refreshed Threat:
  • An Enemy recovers from a Condition.
  • An Enemy uses Drugs or an Aug to recover from a Wound.
• A Minor Complication: (Story, Scene, Flaw)
  • Imminent danger. The PC is put in a perilous situation and must react to it.
  • A painful revelation, time is running out, the pressure increases.
  • An opportunity is lost.
  • A detail about the scene changes in an unhelpful way.
  • A PC’s flaw causes them some trouble.
  • The action has less effect.
  • Things go suspiciously well, but the catch will soon be obvious.
• A Minor Drain (Gear, Resources, Time)
  • A piece of gear malfunctions, takes damage, or is temporarily lost.
  • A critical resource is reduced.
  • The action wastes precious time.
• A Tick on a Problematic Clock
  • Progress is made toward a negative outcome.
  • Progress toward a positive outcome is reduced, or no progress is made at all.
  • The Crew gain a tick of Hostility

Clocks & Extended Checks

Sometimes one roll isn’t enough to overcome particularly complex problems, and multiple players may need to work together to solve them.

In these instances the GM might call for an “Extended Check”. These typically take the form of a “Clock”.

Clocks are an easy visual way to display progress toward an objective.

Draw a circle, and split it up into segments.
Each time a player makes a check, fill in segments based on the result.
The more segments a clock has, the more successes players will need to overcome it.

Positive Clock

If the Clock fills entirely, the player’s goal is a achieved.

For example:

• Major Success: mark two segments.
• Minor Success: mark one segment.
• Hollow Success: mark zero segments.
• Boons: mark additional segments.
• Banes: remove segments.

Crack the Vault

Negative Clock

Likewise, you can reverse the Consequences to represent a negative outcome:

For example:

• Major Success: mark zero segments.
• Minor Success: mark one segment.
• Hollow Success: mark two segments.
• Boons: remove segments.
• Banes: mark additional segments.

Security go on High Alert

Opposed Clocks

Clocks are also handy for representing the push and pull of two opposing sides in a conflict. Useful for abstracting and tracking the longer-term power dynamics of factions.

For example:

• Draw a clock with an even number of segments, and fill in half of them straight away.
• Fill in or erase segments as the two sides make moves against each other.
• One side wins if the clock fills, the other wins if the clock empties.

Turf War

Action Points

Action Points are a limited currency that represent a pool of inner strength and resolve that a player’s character can tap into to push themselves.

You begin play with a Maximum of 3AP, and start each job with a full pool. You can increase your AP limit with Advancements.

Spending Action Points (AP)

Spending Action Points allows players to manipulate their odds, the scene, and the flow of combat.

Action Points can be spent on the following:

• Improve Result: Spend 1 AP to improve the result of a roll by one level.
  

  Hollow -> Minor -> Major
  Any Banes still add additional Consequences.

• Ignore Banes: Spend 1 AP to ignore all remaining 6‘s
  

  This doesn’t discard the MINUS. Treat ignored 6 as if they are showing a 5

• Seize Momentum: Steal or Maintain Momentum from the Enemy.
  

  Describe what you do to create a momentary distraction or opportunity
  The Player who spent the point decides who Acts.
  Losing Momentum is unavailable as a Consequence for this first check.

• Tough it Out: Ignore the MINUS penalty of a single Trauma until the adrenaline wears off.
  

  Describe how you steel yourself and push past your wounds
  The Trauma is still there, you’re just ignoring it. It will return once the adrenaline wears off. Typically, the first relatively calm moment to catch your breath.

• Make a Declaration: Change a detail about the scene, or purchase and use equipment you didn’t previously have.
  

  The guard’s comms light up and they hurriedly leave their post.
  The camera at the end of the hall is malfunctioning.
  You pull a grenade (pay the ₩) and jam it into the maw of the Cyberhound.

The GM has final say on what uses are/aren’t appropriate. Work together to reach a satisfying compromise.

Recovering Action Points

Action Points can be refreshed by:

• You can spend a Boon 6 to gain 1 AP.
• If you or the GM invoke Flaw to hinder a check and gain 1 AP.
  Each Flaw can only be invoked once per-job. It can still impact the fiction, but it won’t apply MINUS or restore Action Points.
• When a check results in any number of Banes 6 gain 1 AP.
• Taking Harm that results in a Trauma grants 1 AP.
• At the end of a Job, restore AP back to its maximum.

You cannot recover AP above your Maximum AP.