Golden Rules 1. If the rules stop the game from being the fun game we want it to be then they shall be taken out back, placed in a sack and beaten. Suitibly chargrined and much changed by the experience their battered corpse shall serve us more faithfully. 2. If it's enjoyable and in genre then you get a style die. James Bond style action, quips, good descriptions - anything. If it's good, you get dice for it. 3. Players always roll. If you're doing the hurting - you roll to hurt. If someone is trying to hurt you then you roll to avoid being caught or being hurt. GM sets difficulty, and spends style to arbitarily increase it. Damage Rules If you fail to avoid getting hurt - then spend a style point. Otherwise you'll be out of the fight (and depending on how you were being hurt and whether there's a nearby medic or not you may well be dead - see the chart below) If you do spend the style point then fate is averted. The amount of hurt is reduced by one level per style spent. And later the medic gets to bump you by a level on the chart. Scale of hurtiness. Name. Description. How you get that way. What you can do. 1. Dead. Dead dead dead. This is inflicted only by massive and personal attentions. Crocodile pits, for example. When dead, you're dead. A good mad scientist might be able to make you rise to feast on the brains of the living I suppose - but beyond that you'll not be doing much. 2. Dying. Comatose and bleeding. This is the usual result of successful automatic gunfire. You can't do anything and will die in the next scene if you don't get help. 3. Out of it. Unconcious or just unable to stand. This is the usual result of explosions or being knifed. You can't do anything and won't wake up until you get some kind of help. 4. Badly hurt. Limping, broken bones, - you can't apply your skills. This is the usual result of being beaten or mildly shot. 5. Action Hero. Scars, bruises, burns, cuts etc. Anything you like that looks stylish, it doesn't hamper you in the slightest. This is the usual result of spending style. It can be hard to actually hit someone with lots of advantages in a situation - and you may want to only slow them down. In this case you will do well by attacking their advantages. Let's say a mad scientist is escaping on his rocket-ship. He's far away, wearing body armour (mad scientist he may be, stupid he aint) and protected by his ships moon-shield (work with me here...) Hitting him would be pretty difficult - 3 base (at that range even an agent has trouble) and two advantages - and maybe the GM is throwing in style. (He's got a moon rocket. It has the word 'moon' in it. Of COURSE he gets to spend style.) Against this, you'll probably miss. But perhaps you should shoot out the field effect device. That's still a hard task (3 dice) because of the range - but it's got no armour or mad scientist bonus. Blam! Away it goes. And now he's only got a defence of four before style... Working together as a team in this way should assure a stylish victory. Style * You may spend a point of style at any time to steal the camera. Interrupt someone else and take an action. You don't get an extra die for this action though - the point is spent just to skip the queue. You can spend an Artha die this way - but it's a waste. Equipment Purchase Each session the team gets a number of points depending upon the expected difficulty of the mission. They can (and probably should) satockpile a few of these points - but they can also bargain with the GM for more. The disadvantage here is that the GM gets points to spend on equipment for the opponents too. Points are shared among the whole team. Bonus points (and first spending rights) for campaign contributions. The GM doesn't get to mirror these. Flat Purchase or roll Cost scale ( 1 = +0 ordinary equipment for the whole team (it can give a bonus, but usually won't. Ordinary pistols, for example.) 1 = +1 bonus ordinary equipment 2 = +1 bonus unusual or hard to get 3 / 4 = +2 bonus ditto 5 / 6 = Getting into Jek territory) For flat purchase, simply spend points equal to the equipment level you want to buy. If you don't have enough points then you can try and wheedle with the various people on base for loans. You can spend equipment point on this just like style on an ordinary roll. The roll is probably a social one - but the various people might just be persuaded to bend the rules through other contests. You'll owe them big if the equipment doesn't come back in perfect shape, though... Equipment bought through this system remains the property of the tower - you don't get to keep it between missions. (Well, you can buy it again next time) For personalised gear, you need to spend Artha. Artha (xp spend) rules example Meeting her fourth electronic code-locked door of the day, tired and frustrated Emma decides to spend Artha. I may not be naturally talented (1 die thoughtful) - but this is the fourth one today (1 die situation). "I see the pattern!" I exclaim (1 style die from the Artha spend) and now have the lockpicking skill (1 die for the newly gained skill) The Artha is gone - but the skill remains forever. Deciding that this probably still isn't enough dice, Emma spends her second point of Artha (1 style die) - declaring that her watch was secretly modified to contain one of those little x-ray machines to show the tumblers. You know, like in that film. (+1 die for the gadget) She now has six dice, and the door flops open. The personalised watch gadget is hers to keep forever. Character Creation Rules (It does! Really!) Thbe first thing to remember is that you are filling out an application form in character. Sell yourself in a positive light - but don't lie too obviously. The second thing is - that application form becomes your character sheet. And here is how: The adjectives are your attributes. In order from 1 to 6. You get 3 dice in the first two, 2 dice in the second two and 1 die in the two you place last. The 'top three skills' become your skills, at one die each. Look at the sample skill list for inspiration. An exceptionally narrow skill may be worth 2 dice. Your weakness and the triggers are both roleplaying aids - and also grant you a die (each, if you can roleplay multiple emotions at once) when they are in effect.