Abstraction

In place of hard rules, what Diaspora rewards is narration: narration from the players, and from the referee. Giving details of what you want to happen within the game is as important as working out what roll on the dice is needed for success. Both, of course, will happen. The talk around the table will always be a mix of in-game-character-based narration and out-of-character rules discussion. There are no necessary mechanical consequences of narration in the game, but it may still prove to be the most memorable of the session.

Player authority and character integrity are both important. Because of the fate point economy, it will often be the case that the player wants something to happen that the character would not. Two things follow from this.

First, the referee keeps very little mechanical information secret. Mechanical details, such as aspects and skills, are not hidden from the players (unless there is a game-based reason why that might be). Players are always maintaining a double awareness at all times, and the tension between player and character is something that the FATE system exploits powerfully.

Second, there is a continual back and forth between these two levels, and narration, from the players and from the referee, becomes essential. A player narrates what he wants to happen, which may lead to an out-of-character tabulation of whether a roll is needed and what the target number might be. Dice are rolled, and the result leads to more narration (from the successful player, from the referee, or from the table generally) giving an interpretation of the roll within the game.

Abstraction facilitates narration, because it allows the players to define constraints or accomplishments for themselves. Narration feeds into the rules, which then in turn provide opportunities for the interpretation of a given roll, in the form of more narration. It's all about the stories.

What do Aspects Do?

There are a number of ways that aspects come into being, and a number of ways they can be used during conflict (whether that's just a skill check during regular role-play or a specific roll in a combat sequence).

• you can invoke one of your own Aspects after you roll the dice. You narrate how the Aspect affects the roll and, assuming everyone at the table nods assent and says that's cool, you can add +2 to your roll or re-roll. You pay a fate point immediately.
• you can tag an Aspect on something else that's relevant to the roll after you roll the dice. That could be an Aspect on your opponent, an ally, on a map or any other Aspect that's relevant and not on your character. Take +2 on your roll or re-roll. You pay a fate point immediately.
• You may only tag one Aspect on each related scope per roll:

• one Opponent Aspect
• one System Aspect
• one Scene Aspect (if one exists)
• one Zone Aspect (if one exists)
• one Ship Aspect (if a ship is relevant)
• one Campaign Aspect (if one exists)
• one Ally's Aspect

In addition, any number of free-taggable Aspects from any scope may be tagged and don’t count against your tagging limit (that is, you can tag two free-taggables at zone scope and still tag a third if there is one for the usual fate point cost).

• You can compel an Aspect on your opponent before you roll the dice. In this case you offer your opponent a deal related to his Aspect: he can take the deal and one of your fate points or deny the deal and give you a fate point. Outside of a combat sequence the deal can be quite free-form and it is a negotiation between players and not between characters. You might offer the Referee a deal relating to an NPC, a deal relating to an ally or most commonly a deal offered by the Referee to a character's player. During a combat sequence the effects of a compel are far more constrained (and dealt with in detail in the appropriate section).
• You can compel an Aspect on a scene or zone (or anything for that matter). You offer the referee a deal related to the Aspect: he can take the deal and one of your fate points or deny the deal and give you a fate point. In or out of combat, the deal is free-form and it is a negotiation between players and not characters. You might offer the Referee a deal relating to any scope as mentioned above.

Aspects come into being in several ways:

• player characters start with 10 Aspects derived from the character generation stories. They get a fate refresh of 5 fate points at the beginning of a session.
• spaceships start with 5 Aspects created by the designer (some forced by the design process). They start each session with five fate points.
• scenes, maps, campaigns, and things get Aspects at the discretion of the referee. The referee has an unlimited supply of fate points.
• players can put an Aspect on a character or scene with a Maneuver.

Maneuvers

A maneuver is an action your character takes that will change the status of something and this status change will be represented by the addition of an Aspect. The referee will decide what to roll (either a Fixed Difficulty Roll or an Opposed Roll – see the Resolution section) and on success the target acquires an appropriate Aspect.

Having an Aspect of your choosing placed on an enemy is pretty powerful all by itself, but there is an additional power: an Aspect placed as a result of a maneuver can be tagged without paying a fate point once by the maneuverer or an ally (it is free-taggable). It can be tagged normally subsequently as long as the Aspect lasts, but the first time (and only the first time) is free.

Fixed Difficulty Roll

The referee sets a difficulty level and tells you what skill you need to use. You throw your fate dice, add them to your skill and if it's equal to or greater than the difficulty, you succeed. If you fail or want to improve your result, you can invoke an Aspect and spend a fate point for +2 or a re-roll. If you still are not satisfied with the result, you can try to bring in another Aspect. And so on.

Opposed Roll

You want to beat someone else at something. The defender rolls defensively and you need to meet or beat that roll offensively. Use fate points as before to increase your result. Your opponent may well do the same.

Shifts and Spin

The degree to which you beat your target value is your shift. Shifts may have a mechanic effect. In combat, for example, shifts determine the amount of damage done. If you exceed your opponent when you make a defensive roll that does not have any effect other than being a successful defense, you don't get shifts. Instead, for every three by which you exceed the attacking roll, you generate spin.

Spin can be used by you or an ally to gain +1 on a roll – basically your defensive maneuver put your opponent at a disadvantage or one of your allies at an advantage somehow. You need to use up spin by the time the turn comes back to whoever generated it – he's the last person that can take advantage.

It can be handy to throw some kind of token on the table to indicate spin and let anyone pick it up. Index cards with the generator's name on it greatly aid remembering when it expires.

Declarations

At any time a player can pay a fate point and declare a true fact about the world as pertains to the character’s apex Skill. The referee can return the fate point and modify the fact but cannot simply deny it altogether.

Some special Skills

Profession

Profession is the only Skill that can be taken more than once. It represents the character’s familiarity with the expectations of a given profession. Anyone with two levels in a given profession may confidently present themselves as a member of that profession, whether it be cobbler or diplomat. Note that a knowledge of professional standards can at times be separate from a practical expertise in the necessary subject areas. Profession: Astronomer (which involves the necessary Skills associated with holding the profession) is different from both Science (which might include astronomical knowledge as part of a general appreciation of science) and Navigation (which is the applied knowledge, using astronomy in the field, as it were). A player wishing to play an astronomer may wish to invest in all three Skills, or only some of them; each combination could yield slightly different stories. Profession allows the player to choose a particular career for his character not otherwise covered in the Skill set.

Culture/Tech

Culture/Tech represents the ability to get by on other planets within the cluster, and covers anything that would be part of regular civilian day-to-day life. It won’t make you an atomic plant engineer, but it will let you wire up a VCR. The intent is more exclusive than inclusive—it’s more useful in how it keeps characters from easily performing basic tasks way outside their area of familiarity. Culture/Tech works differently than other Skills, in that ranks indicate the total number of systems in which the character is comfortable: it is not something that is subject to rolls, though lacking the Skill in an appropriate context might create a penalty to rolls on other Skills. For every rank in this skill, you get by in one additional world in the cluster. So someone with Culture/Tech 3 would note all the worlds on which the character is comfortable (i.e. the home world and three others). On the character sheet, they could use the system letter code to indicate their comfort zones: “C/T 3 (A, B, F, D).” This means that someone with an apex investment in the Skill is comfortable on most worlds in the cluster, but it’s unlikely that anyone is happy everywhere. Players may select familiarity with cultures that do not actually exist in order to represent historical knowledge or re-enactment hobbies. If you are playing with the Weapon Familiarity optional rules below, this can be a cool way to build a high technology person with an interest (and facility) in ancient forms of warfare.

Languages (optional)

Some games may wish to add the issue of language comprehension. If so, this Skill can be included. It works like Culture/Tech with each rank corresponding to one language you can speak fluently other than your native tongue. (All characters are assumed to speak one language fluently).

Consequences

Any time you are taking hits to a stress track, you can reduce the number of hits with Consequences. A mild Consequence reduces the incoming hits (usually shifts) by one, a moderate Consequence reduces them by two, and a severe Consequence reduces by four. Normally you can have at most three Consequences and no more than one of each kind. Each Consequence is a kind of Aspect and represents real damage: “Shattered jaw” or “Hopelessly depressed” or “Hunted by loan sharks” are all good. Each is free-taggable by your enemies once. Consequences are discussed in more detail in each combat chapter.

Taken Out

When you take a hit that would go off your stress track, you are Taken Out. Whoever scored that fatal hit gets to decide what happens to you. You could be dead or you could just be unconscious. Or, with a financial hit, you could be slaving away in a burger joint with no prospects of happiness or promotion.

Concessions

At any time in a fight of any kind, if you have not been Taken Out, you can offer a concession. Referees especially like this to keep villains alive for another day. A concession is something you offer to end the combat instead of play it through. If your opponent accepts it, it’s true. Good concessions give something up but keep you in play. Things like, “I tell him the combination to the safe but sneak out while he’s not looking, escaping back to my safe house” or “Our ship escapes through the slipknot but our motors are not working so we’re stranded on the other side” are great.

Automatic Skill Gear

Some Skills imply access to some kinds of equipment. Below are a list of associations that one can afford to take for granted, though, unless the equipment is represented by a “Have a thing” Stunt, it’s not guaranteed to always be with the character—it can be lost or destroyed. This list can be extended, according to the decision of the table: the standard is whatever’s reasonable.

Nothing guarantees the continued presence of the equipment, unless there is also an Stunt to cover it.

Many people will want the highest technology gear for their characters, and it is worth keeping track of the technology rating of anything purchased, if only because that can possibly serve as an Aspect at moments of crisis. Nevertheless, things do not stay at the same quality once they are invented, and a T3 hand computer will be far superior to a T0 one.

Creativity can be rewarded, especially when the benefits come at the level of role-playing, rather than at the level of the specific combat sub-games. A highly advanced knife might not do any more damage, but perhaps is made of a memory plastic—when inactive, it is a simple cylinder of plastic but becomes activated by smacking it against a hard surface, and the cylinder deforms to become a hard, sharp, combat blade.

Similarly, an energy weapon might have a biometric check associated with it, allowing only the owning player to use it (this would be similar to making the weapon integral). Something like this might be hard to find, and it may be illegal, but it does not require a special Skill or Stunt to use.

Fate Points

Players usually regain fate points between sessions, when a refresh occurs. If the referee left things at a cliffhanger, he is entitled to say that no refresh has occurred between sessions. By the same token, if the referee feels that a substantial amount of downtime and rest occurs in play, a refresh of fate points may occur mid-session. Normally each character starts each session with exactly five Fate points.

Experience

During the refresh, a player has the option to change his character in three ways.

1. A player may move any Skill up the Skill pyramid one place (though not past level 5) and then must move a Skill from that new rank down one level. This must happen within the Skill pyramid, always having one Skill at rank five, two at rank four, and so on.
2. A player may change an underused Aspect for an Aspect relating to in-game events from previous sessions.
3. A player may exchange one Stunt.

Characters may therefore change from one session to the next, and can develop Skills and interests as time progresses. Nevertheless there is clear continuity from one session to the next.

Stress Track Recovery

Downtime can remove the accumulated effects of hits to the Health and Composure tracks.

Wealth stress box hits don’t go away as easily as other stress.

Removing Consequences

Consequences fade with time. How long this takes depends upon the severity of the Consequence, which in turn depends upon how it was received.

Mild Consequences are removed any time the character has the opportunity to sit down and take a breather for a few minutes. These Consequences will usually last until the end of the current scene, unless there is no break between scenes.

Moderate Consequences require the character get a little more time and distance. A good night’s sleep or other extended period of rest and diversion is required.

Severe Consequences will generally linger for the entire session following the one it was received. That session should contain a month or so of in-game time explicitly spent recuperating.

Non-Player Characters

It’s not necessary to create statistics for all characters that the referee will bring into play. In many cases the referee need only establish their single Skill rank in much the same manner as he would estimate a difficulty level for a static check.

Non-Player Characters (NPCs) have Skills in a pyramid just as the regular player characters have, but the peak value of the pyramid might be lower than 5. A moderate-threat NPC, for example, might be capped at Skill rank 3 (a “3-cap” character, for short): one Skill at 3, two at 2, and three at 1. NPCs have one Aspect for each rank in their apex Skill, one fate point per Aspect, and Stunts as appropriate (no more than 3).

This is a sufficient representation for thugs, policemen, goons, and villains. While six Skill slots does not seem like many (compared to the fifteen of the player characters), in practice it works because these characters have context-appropriate Skills. NPCs, in most cases, need only be functional in a given environment, for a short time (often only one scene), and are designed for that circumstance.

There remains, however, enough variability that a given opponent may still have a rank in a Skill that the player characters lack, and can then be co-opted and introduced into the larger story.

NPCs have Health and Composure stress tracks derived from their Skill pyramid as player characters do.

When non-player characters have not been made in advance, it is possible for the players to define Aspects for these characters through maneuvers. This might encourage the referee to fill out the card in other ways. The creation of NPCs becomes a collaborative process.

The referee can decide not to allow the suggested Aspect, but should offer the player something else, another Aspect to help fill the character out. This means that a player’s actions do not need to determine the Skills and abilities of the NPCs they encounter, but that through the process of interaction the players will come to know who it is that they are dealing with.

In most cases, NPCs will not take Consequences: any hit over their stress tracks takes them out of the scene. Only in cases where the referee needs the character kept alive (for plot, or because a player character has an associated Aspect) should NPCs be given Consequences.

Animals

Animals can be modeled precisely as non-player characters, but animal Skill diversity is probably not as high. Instead give them a Skill column: one Skill at each rank starting at some maximum. Add a Stunt to round them out. No Skill should exceed level 6. Some Skills (such as Stamina and Resolve) will not affect tracks, but can still be used to achieve maneuvers and defenses. Any appropriate integral equipment can be modeled based on the nearest human equivalent; in most cases, it should be powered by a new Skill, Natural Weapons. All Natural Weapons or armour would also require a Stunt analogous to Integral Equipment.

Common animal Skills are: Agility, Alertness, Brawling, Charm, Intimidation, Resolve, Stamina, Stealth, Strength, Survival, and Tactics. Some animals also have a Skill in Natural Weapons, which is not available to PCs (humans with built-in weapons from a Stunt use Brawling).

Animals only have Health and Composure tracks, of whatever length the referee deems appropriate, based on the size and mass of the creature in question. A small animal might have one or two boxes, anything about human sized is three to five boxes, larger animals are 6 to 8 boxes, and giant animals may be 10 boxes or more.

Hunting larger animals therefore requires attrition, wearing down the tracks with multiple hits. Such animals can do extensive damage, and then retreat or flee. When they first achieve a hit, the players decide whether or not they want an opposing animal to take Consequences. If they do, then victory means the players can narrate the conditions of the victory (trophy!); if they do not, then the referee does (which may be death, but may also be flight).

Mooks

Sometimes even non-player characters are too much to represent a certain kind of threat. A pack of dogs, say, or a gang of teenagers, doesn’t need full representation in the system. In such cases, establish a threat level to represent how much trouble these mooks are. They will be represented without Skills or Aspects. Instead they have a single stress track that is used to mark all hits. The number of unchecked boxes on this track is also their attack and defense value for all cases. Any hit that goes past the stress track defeats all of the mooks represented by it. With mooks you do not apply the First Blood rules.

What is a Spaceship?

All science fiction spacecraft have a distinctive feel derived from their setting, and this is no different in Diaspora. Spacecraft in Diaspora are big. Space, of course, is bigger, and in the end size didn’t make a great deal of difference, no matter how we chose to simulate spacecraft design.

Spacecraft are built around a symmetrical Frame, attached to which are the motors, which take reaction material and convert it into something pushed out the back end; that’s how ships travel through space. We largely abstract the fuel from the conversion process since the bulk of the ship’s total mass is reaction material, which is consumed and needs constant replenishment. Without reaction material, there’s no way to go anywhere.

Ships cannot enter atmosphere, as the gravity would crush the frame. All travel between planet surfaces and orbiting stations or spacecraft is done through interface vehicles.

When traveling, ships accelerate to the midpoint of their journey, turn around, and decelerate. No dogfights, no Immelmann or Crazy Ivan maneuvers: safe travel means accelerating to a midpoint at 1.0-1.5 G, turn around, decelerate at 1.0-1.5 G, over a period of several days. Ships are built like office towers, with small decks stacked on top of each other, which experience gravity only when the ship is under thrust.

Heat is always a problem, and an inability to dissipate heat can get one into trouble. Burn your engines too much, or fire too many lasers, and you start to have problems in combat yourself, because of an inability to radiate heat into the darkness of space.

Both Heat and Frame tracks can be attacked in combat, from which a ship may receive Consequences. A third track, the Data track, represents the ship’s computer system: data hacking and electronic warfare (EW) generally seemed a fun and powerful dimension to add to space combat.

These concerns combine to suggest that a ships payload section is relatively small (10-30% of the ship’s mass), Given the limits on payload, space for crew, weapons, cargo, and extras is limited. Slipdrives are small to allow FTL travel within the design constraints (i.e. we wanted ships both with slipdrives and with guns), and so the limit on FTL travel comes from the point of departure, well above the ecliptic of the system.

A ship’s V-shift rating models its ability to change vectors: that will represent a blend of acceleration, maneuverability, and structural strength.

Slipping between Systems

Activating a slipdrive is relatively simple: flick a switch and you’re there. A robot could do it. Problem is, you can’t predict within a hundred thousand kilometers where that will be. Nor how fast you’ll be going. Nor in what direction. Since a ship emerging from the slipknot has, essentially, a random vector, in almost every case one loses by going through with momentum. Except in emergencies, pilots tend to decelerate as they approach the knot.

A person with sufficient training and a good computer with up to date information, however, can significantly reduce the unknowns: momentum can usually be preserved, even if the entry vector cannot be governed.

The process requires sophisticated problem solving and pattern matching that is just not available directly to computers until the dream of artificial intelligence is realized (T4). This makes automation practically useless for military operations.

Automated navigation systems always score a -4 on a Navigation roll (that is, they don’t roll: they always generate -4 shifts) unless it has T4 equipment. T4 equipment has arbitrary behaviour under the narrative control of the table or the referee.

All spacecraft have a Heat stress track that keeps a record of how hot the vessel is compared to how fast it can dissipate the heat. This stress track is used in combat. It also absorbs the heat that is generated while traversing the slipstream. On arrival after a slip, a ship with a T2 slipdrive has its Heat track filled. A ship with a T3 slipdrive has its highest box marked, but none below. T4 slipdrives do not generate Heat stress in the slipstream.

If a ship enters combat as it enters the system, the initial detection phase of the ship combat system replaces the orientation check. Ships leave combat oriented.

Note that a much worse roll, -3, would mean a disastrous overshot, and require “a few weeks” to re-orient. The ship might not have enough supplies for that, and suddenly the story becomes one of deep-space rescue.

Moving within Systems

We are postulating realistic reaction motors whose efficiency changes as technology increases, but which are still fundamentally operated by sending some reaction mass out the back at high velocity, usually by heating it. The performance of a spacecraft is measured by its V-shift Skill for game mechanical purposes.

Advances in technology only change little in the fact that reaction mass makes up for a majority of system level ships, with the best mass/payload ratio approaching but not going under 5:1 for 1G of thrust. Radical changes should only be expected at the far end of T4 development.

In general, travel times will be determined by the referee or the table, but you may want more detail. The following table gives some guidelines, highlighting the common case: travel between the slipknot and the habitable orbit zone of most stars.

Interplanetary distances are closest approach. Safe to say that the Oort cloud is forever out of reach to human travel: no one has enough r-mass to run a motor for 2 years and no one would be able to live under 3G acceleration for that time anyway.

Moving around inside the system can be extrapolated from these numbers—the typical distance to a slipstream entrance from a world on the ecliptic is around 5AU, which is a little less than the distance from the sun to Jupiter. Typical destination inside a system will be around that number—much less inside a planetary system, traveling from moon to moon.

Purchasing an Item

Purchasing an item is a Assets Skill check against the Cost of the item. Regardless of success or failure, the character gets the item. A failure does generate a hit on his Wealth stress track equal to the number of negative shifts: mark that box and all the character’s boxes below it. If the box is already marked, then mark the next higher available box and all below it. As always, a character can take a Consequence to reduce or remove the number of shifts. The Wealth stress track accrues hits and is mitigated by Consequences (which again come out of your precious three) and could lead to being Taken Out (in this case smothered by debt, working as a fry-cook forever, or dodging loan sharks).

As Assets is, unlike all other Skills, tied to something fairly concrete, free-tagging multiple Aspects set up by maneuvers simply doesn’t work—or rather it works too well: three characters without a nickel can each perform a maneuver to place a free-taggable Aspect on the situation (or vendor or whatever) and then a character with, say, Assets 5 could tag all three for an extra +6 bonus and buy a star system. Since that’s not what we want out of the economic system, in this case only free tags may not be stacked. Purchases are a personal affair.

The cost of things is determined by the referee: while the economics of a given system will depend on the overall cluster, the table above is offered to give approximate price-points.

If an item falls between two Cost points, the higher number is used. Specific prices and currency are dependent on the system or cluster, of course, but each additional Cost point should represent substantially increased expense. For any character with an Assets Skill, a roll for Cost 1 items should only be required if the result is potentially interesting for the narrative: if failure is boring, items should simply be granted.

Debt and Solvency

Wealth stress track hits don’t go away as easily as other stress. The “combat” of finance is an ongoing issue and characters are never very far from it. Consequently, recovery requires time explicitly spent recovering finances. It only requires that the downtime exists.

Selling Things

When you sell something, you clear the checked Wealth stress track boxes up to the Cost of the item, less one (less two if the object is stolen or otherwise compromised). Selling many small items cannot remove the extremes of financial stress, but can provide “breathing room” on the track. Consequences can also be cleared by selling things. In addition to removing stress hits, selling a Cost 4 item will remove a mild Consequence, a Cost 5 item removes a moderate Consequence, and a Cost 6 item a severe Consequence. This assumes there is a plausible buyer, reasonable title to the object is held, etc.

If a character sells an item that is owned from a Stunt, then all financial effects are cleared, but you lose the Stunt (at the end of the session, a new Stunt is selected, as per the Experience rules; the Stunt selected must reflect the new conditions and the narrative).

No other advantage is conferred from selling something: as the Assets Skill is a character Skill and changes according to the experience rules and in accordance with the player’s wishes (and is balanced with other Skills), characters cannot become “rich” in any mechanical sense except through juggling Skills during the refresh. The Assets Skill, like all game statistics, are effects and not causes: causes emerge only through narration justifying the effects, as with everything else. This means that when your spacecraft has become a crippling burden, making you a combat liability because you are carrying around so many Consequences, selling it has only one effect: clearing your stress.

Maintenance

Some things you have need regular maintenance, and certainly a spacecraft is one of those things. Some resource is being expended and we want to model that in a way that creates pressure.

These rules are intended to integrate specifically with spacecraft economic issues and model a simple cargo ship at least breaking even in regular service; similar rules should be used for any item with a base Cost of 6 or more that a player may own. Treat equipment with the Cheap stunt as two levels of Cost higher than its base Cost. Cheap is never cheap in the long run.

Every session, the first time a spacecraft is at a station equipped to perform maintenance, a maintenance check is made. Every month of downtime that passes during the session, another maintenance check must be made. This includes downtime that occurs in order to make repairs.

If a player has a full Wealth track and a ship, to remove the Wealth stress he needs a month of down time, but still needs to roll on the ship maintenance. This could easily turn into a downward spiral as a month downtime could require another month downtime….

The ship needs to roll it’s Trade Skill against a target value of zero, the target value modified as below:

• Station is a lower technology than the ship: add the difference
• For each Consequence on the ship, add 1 (this pays for repairs if repairs are possible here—so now’s a good time to see how long they take)
• If no maintenance check was made last session (possible if the ship was never at a station), add 2
• If the ship was not used for commercial work since the last maintenance check, add 2 (see below)

Only ship Aspects may be used to modify the roll, and they use ship fate points. This assumes the ship is working full-time to maximize legal cargo or passengers, etc., but still allows two periods of three days per month on planets for shore leave (adventure!). It does not imply anything about how much time it takes to ply the space lanes—presumably the combination of V-shift and Trade value on the ship describe how it makes its money. It does imply that all or most of the flight time is devoted to the ship’s commercial purpose. If the ship has spent more than travel time to and from a slipknot doing something other than servicing their commercial purpose, add 2.

Success indicates that the ship remains solvent: crew is paid, fuel is fresh, docking fees and local taxes are paid, minor repairs are made, and a percentage is kept for annual maintenance. This abstract system does not measure any huge profits: it is assumed that running spacecraft is not going to yield huge personal profits. The ongoing use of the ship is, essentially, the reward (again, unless the player chooses to model profits by raising his Assets skill).

Failure on the roll must be mitigated by Consequences on the ship just as combat damage is, but, since there is no “track” for this damage, it always gets a Consequence on a failed roll, which is repaired as any other damage Consequence. That Consequence will be mild. If a mild Consequence is already on the vessel, then a moderate Consequence is taken. If a mild and moderate Consequence are already on the vessel then a severe Consequence is taken. If the vessel already has three Consequences, then it is Taken Out: inability to accept a financial Consequence means the ship is repossessed (or at least marked for repossession), or suffers some similar fate.

Failure also negatively impacts the owner (whoever has the ship as a Stunt or who holds the title if it was bought during play). On failing a ship maintenance roll, the owner takes a hit to his Wealth stress track according to the degree of failure. This may have its own Consequences.

A failure might also be mitigated by a character’s credit check—-the target value is the amount by which the cargo roll was missed.

On a successful Trade roll, crew members may use any shifts to clear their Wealth stress track hits. The crew will have to negotiate who gets to use how many shifts, if that proves an issue. Each shift may be used to remove one hit anywhere on one character’s Wealth track, at the decision of the owning player (or as negotiated by the table). Shifts from a Trade roll cannot be used to clear Wealth Consequences.

Scale

There are four “scales” to combat in Diaspora: personal combat, space combat, social combat, and platoon combat. This demands that we address the issue of the interface between them: what happens when a guy shoots a spaceship? Or the reverse?

Nothing.

To make that a little clearer, individuals do not affect space combat directly. Spacecraft do not affect personal combat directly.

There is no strict mechanical interaction between stats in one mini game and stats in the other. Any interaction is part of the table process of negotiation for effect common to all the combat systems. So, shooting your laser (a personal combat weapon) at the hull of a spaceship does not cause hull damage (a space combat statistic) to the spaceship.

It might, however, be done to add the Aspect Weakened Hull to the zone in the context of personal combat. A spacecraft firing a shipboard weapon at people on the planet’s surface does not do Health damage, but it might place the Aspect Under bombardment on the zone in the context of personal combat, or it might be the equivalent of an area-effect grenade going off (or more).

But the point is, the resolution must come into the context of one of the mini-games: there is no interface. Bombarding a planet might add the Aspect Ruthless killer on a ship in the context of space combat, but the planetside effects, if pertinent, would need to be determined in the context of personal combat. If during social combat someone starts firing an assault rifle, the social combat is deemed unsuccessful, and a new map is drawn for the personal combat. Any strict mechanical linkage between Skills and stats of one system and Skills and stats of the other system will be intrinsically broken, though, so don’t do it.

Structure

The rules for each of the sub-systems have at least the following parts: the map, the Sequence, and detail of the Sequence. The map describes the terrain in which combat is fought. In all sub-systems, it is abstracted, like so much of Diaspora, to allow a rough-and-ready feel without a great deal of preparation.

The Sequence outlines the order of combat, and is presented both in outline and with detailed explanations. Wherever relevant, a list of equipment is provided: guns and armour in the chapter on personal combat, typical units for platoon combat, and ships in the chapter on space combat.

Mini-Games

There are four combat mini-games in Diaspora.

Personal combat

whenever things go south in a scene and the result is violence. Personal combat assumes that there’s an interesting map to be drawn and that there is something at stake. Before starting establish what the objectives are and what’s at risk—are the characters trying to escape? Trying to capture something? Beat a clock? Draw the map, set a timer if appropriate, and go. Player character Skills are highlighted.

Space combat

when, in space, some vessel wants another vessel to behave other than the crew desires, go to combat. As with any other combat, set the risk and set the objective. Space combat rewards escape, evade, and incapacitation over simple destruction: equal ships beating on each other is less interesting. Ship capabilities are highlighted with characters having minor influence on results.

Social combat

whenever a role-playing scene is stalling with players over-thinking, planning, or otherwise not getting down to the nuts and bolts of a problem, take them to social combat. This turns the problem into an immediate tactical one where they have to solve specific problems in easily managed pieces. Use this to break up any session that’s nursing a problem but not dealing with it. This is going to handle seductions, debates, murder mysteries, and year-long political battles. Character Skills are in the spotlight.

Platoon combat

in military campaigns, you will sometimes find that there are scenes needing resolution that involve dozens or even hundreds of people, vehicles, and other weaponry. This is the tactical warfare mini-game, letting you get down to traditional wargame objectives with FATE mechanisms. Tank assaults, commando raids, or desperate defensive hold-outs are all well modeled. Player character Skills take a background role, influencing results but dominated by the effects of technology and tactics.

Overhead Map

An overhead map may have several zones. A region that is hard to pass may be split into more zones. Visual cues on a map can be used exactly as a worded Aspect. There may be zones without Aspects. These are areas that don't offer tactical options. The personal combat system presented here is well suited to simple maps.

Cross Sectional Map

Spacecraft will typically be organized with small decks stacked along the axis of thrust so that the ship’s acceleration provides “gravity” for the occupants. This presents a minor problem for running personal combat: the decks are not going to be very big or very interesting, so a familiar overhead deckplan view might not be the best way to proceed.

Another possibility is to display the ship in lateral cross section instead of the usual overhead view and increase the abstraction. In this case (or any case where you want to use a cross section instead of a floorplan—a fight in an office building, for example) it will be handy to invent a Stunt that makes a whole set of zones (a deck or a storey) behave accordingly. We’ll call that set of zones a “level.”

Cluttered

a cluttered level is full of things that block line of sight and make movement difficult. It can still be huge (two, three, four, even five zones), but the clutter means that weapons cannot be used beyond range zero.

Complicated

a complicated level is such that it is impossible to acquire line of sight past an adjacent zone. around the shaft, or a floor in a hotel with many rooms. The maximum range characters can engage in is one zones regardless of the number of zones in the level.

Open

an open deck has no interesting obstructions and characters can engage at any range.

When using a cross sectional map, it is not necessary to represent literally the features of the interior.

As with the overhead map, borders are given numeric values for the number of shifts needed to cross.

Attack

If an attack action is declared, the player will announce their character’s action for the round and will interpret it, with the assistance of the caller, in game mechanical terms as a Skill test roll of some kind with appropriate results.

Attacks roll 4dF + the appropriate Skill and add the weapon’s harm value. The Defender rolls 4dF + an appropriate Skill + any defense conferred by armour. Armour defense is reduced by weapon penetration, though no lower than zero. See the weapon tables to find the harm and penetration values for weapons. See the armour tables for the defense values of armour.

A weapon used inside its minimum range or outside its maximum range applies a modifier of -2 to the roll. Brawling and Close Combat weapons may not be used outside of the weapon’s maximum range unless they have a Stunt that allows it.

Both attack and defense rolls may now be modified by invoked Aspects, tagged Aspects, spin (though only one of each type: see Playing with Fate) and any other available modifier.

The difference between the attacker’s roll and the defender’s roll after all modifications is the number of shifts. If this number is positive, the attack was successful. If zero or negative the attack fails. If the result is -3 or lower, the defender gets spin.

For each successful attack, damage is noted, and mitigated as per the Damage section below. If this is the first time the character has been hit in this session, the damage is to both Health and Composure stress tracks as per the First Blood section below. Free tags resulting from Consequences are immediately available to the next opponent character to announce action (or any following opponent, until the free tag has been tagged).

Leave defensive rolls on the table (note the value on a piece of paper or the map if Aspects have been tagged or invoked—the value left at the table is the roll + Skill + any Aspect related improvement). If the character is attacked a second or further times, before acting, use the roll on the table whenever the same skill is used for defense. This “one defensive roll per round” rule has tactical ramifications. First, if you get a bad defensive roll expect to be ganged up on. Second, if you get a great defensive roll you could generate multiple spin counters.

When it’s your turn to act, remove your defensive roll record.

Move

Any combat action allows a character to move a single zone. If, however, the player declares his whole action to be a move, he may roll Agility (or MicroG if in a microgravity environment) against difficulty zero and count shifts. He may use these shifts for movement in addition to his free move of one zone for up to two additional zones.

A character may move no more than three zones in a single turn, including the free move. Excess shifts can be used to erode pass values, though.

Borders with a multiple move cost to pass through (like a closed door or difficult terrain) can be moved through with one turns’ expenditure (if it’s sufficient) or can be eroded over multiple turns. So, for example, trying to move through a closed door with pass value 2, a player adjacent to it could erode it by 1 and still make a combat action or forfeit his combat action and make a Agility roll. At a minimum he will erode the pass value by 1 but he may well generate enough successes to open the door and move through it. Any number of successes may be brought to bear on border obstacles as long as the three zone movement limit is maintained.

Maneuver

A player may wish to place an Aspect on a zone, a character, or the scene. This can represent anything from distracting the opponent to changing the environment of the conflict. Before the maneuver, the player may choose to move his character one zone.

The maneuvering player makes a roll at 4dF + an appropriate Skill (as chosen when narrating) against target zero. If the roll is successful he places the Aspect.

A successful maneuver roll places a free-taggable Aspect on a person, or zone. Maneuver rolls can be modified by invokes, spin, tags, and so forth as any other roll.

Any free tags placed by maneuvers at this time are immediately available to the next character to announce action (or any following character, until the free tag has been tagged).

Aspects that have been placed on a zone may also be used to compel anyone in that zone, just as that character’s own Aspects might be used in a compel. Write that Aspect right on the map! The caller should determine whether the Aspect placed is permanent or transient.

Permanent Aspects

are Aspects that affect the person or terrain directly for the scope of the conflict.

Transient Aspects

are Aspects that derive from the continuous action of an individual. Transient Aspects last only until the placing character acts again, though he may use the Aspect in this last turn of its existence.

Aspects placed on a character can be removed by the character on his turn. If the Aspect is still free-taggable, he may free-tag it and remove the free-taggability without a roll as his action. If it is not free-taggable, he may remove it with a maneuver against himself at target zero. Success erases the Aspect.

Do Something Else

Players invariably will want to do something that doesn’t naturally fall into one of the above three actions. This is fine, and is subject to table consensus and a plausible narrative. A player may want to jury-rig a circuit, by making a Repair roll (against a difficulty determined by the referee), or shut off the engines, by making a piloting roll (against a difficulty determined by the referee), or any of a host of other things. Here are some further ideas, with mechanisms to deal with them.

Taken out

A character is out of play when he sustains a hit past the end of any stress track. This means a person can be Taken Out without ever taking a Consequence and therefore without ever taking any serious damage! A person that takes eight shifts past his Health stress track cannot be saved. That’s a one-shot kill… or maybe there’s a better way to narrate it?

The attacker narrates taking out his opponent (subject to reasonableness, as determined by table authority). Anything that suits the method (gunfire, punching, whatever) and that genuinely removes the character from play is suitable.

When narrating how an opponent is Taken Out, it is essential to articulate how and if the opponent can return to the game. A ship that has been Taken Out is no longer able to participate in space combat, but could, in theory, be boarded (where it could revert to the personal combat game). Or it could be destroyed (in which case it could not re-enter the game). This gives a lot of power to the victor, and should be an incentive to players to offer concessions when things aren’t going their way. A major opponent Taken Out in personal combat can no longer fight, but the long-term repercussions are determined by the narrative. Being Taken Out might also change features of a character sheet, though this requires some negotiation.

Healing

Characters cannot begin removing Consequences until the associated stress track has been cleared (and this is not instantaneous but rather dependent on the number of boxes and the associated Skill).

First Blood

Getting shot is scary. Even when you are a professional.

When a player marks a Health stress track hit and has not yet marked any Health or Composure boxes, the Composure stress track is also marked at the same value (and all boxes below, as always). After this initial combat shock all attacks are against Health or Composure but not both.

Note that Consequences reduce shifts before they are marked as damage, so they do not have to be applied separately for each of the Health and Composure tracks here. This means that when first hit, a player must decide whether to take a Consequence that will have a doubled effect (but making the character more vulnerable in the next round) or decide to tough it out, in hopes of finishing the fight quickly.

Out of Ammo

Who wants to count bullets? Not us. It’s way more fun to have an Aspect, and let your opponents decide when you run out of bullets. Anyone using a slug thrower automatically gets the Aspect “Out of ammo” to be compelled liberally, but which cannot be free-tagged.

Anyone who has used a slug thrower to make an Area of Effect attack (fully automatic fire, a Stunt that some weapons have to allow multiple attacks in the same zone) gets the Aspect “Out of ammo” to be compelled liberally, and it can be free-tagged each time the weapon is used for an Area of Effect attack.

Military-Grade and Civilian

Any weapon or armour that does not have the Civilian Stunt requires a Military-grade Skill in order to use. It may be the case that it is sufficient at some tables to deny access and not explain, but it might be more satisfying to have a mechanism. A character without the appropriate Military-grade stunt can use the military equipment (at her Skill level), but only by paying a fate point for each roll. Thus the player can have her character use the superior but unfamiliar equipment, but with an attendant loss in fate points.

Hostile Environments

Sometimes a fight will take place in an environment where the integrity of armour is important not only to absorb combat damage but also to resist environmental effects. These environments might include low pressure, high pressure, or toxic atmospheres. In these cases a loss of suit integrity (any Health track Consequence) has serious ramifications.

A hostile environment suit has lost integrity when the wearer takes any Health track Consequence.

Zero Gravity

When fighting in zero or low gravity the scene has the Aspect, “Zero gravity” or “Low gravity.” This can be tagged as usual by participants.

Some weapons are recoilless, and are designed for low gravity, and these will have the Low Recoil Stunt.

All attacks using weapons without the Low Recoil Stunt use the MicroG Skill instead of their preferred Skill (Brawling, Close Combat, Slug Thrower).

MicroG rolls may also be called for to perform movement or other activity in zero or low gravity.

In some contexts the shifting of gravity can lead to interesting play environments. This might lead to a permanent penalty on all action in the scene: e.g. “Sloping gravity” (when a ship is rotating under thrust, for instance), where all actions are done as if in gravity (i.e. without the MicroG Skill) and are at -2; or Stuttering microgravity (if a drive keeps kicking in and out), where all actions are as in MicroG, but at -1; or Low gravity, where all actions are at -2, using the better of MicroG or the relevant combat Skill. These environmental effects may be determined by the referee as the map is designed, or they may be a consequence of player actions.

The MicroG Skill does not confer knowledge of the maintenance and repair of any weapons: for that, checks need to be made against Slug Throwers or Energy Weapons, as applicable.

The referee may determine penalties that apply in MicroG environments: without a handhold, it simply may not be possible to throw a grenade effectively.

The Map

Someone is chosen as caller. Either the caller or the table draws a map. Is it a shoot out in an airport? A race to secure a bunker at the top of a hill? A boarding action in a submarine or a spaceship? Whatever the case, you need a map to play on.

You can start with a blank piece of paper, and take turns drawing features, until it looks good enough. Feel free to write words on the map too – these can become Aspects and help clarify what’s what.

Once that is done, divide the map into zones. You don’t want too many, but enough to allow opportunities for getting outside of range, and to allow movement. When drawing zones, it is often helpful to go from corner to corner: that means it is always clear when a character enters an area (from a door, or otherwise along a side) what zone he is in.

The Story

The process of drawing a map has already begun to determine what the story is: is this a fight to the death? Are there teams? Is most of the table maneuvering against a small cadre controlled by the caller (or by someone else)? Is there a difference in tech level between two sides? Whatever the case, articulating the story that is being told might mean that you go back and change the map slightly, add an Aspect to a zone or two, or whatever.

Most important is that the story articulates victory conditions, which need not be the same for all players. Is this a fight to the death? An attempt to capture someone alive? Someone working to escape detection and get out of a building, or sabotage a spacecraft’s drives? Whatever the case, the victory condition might be defined in terms of time: get off the ship in eight turns; spend two turns alone in the engine room setting explosives.

Characters in Wargaming

Once the map and the story are determined, everyone should spend five minutes (no more) making one or two characters to push around the map.

Brawling

Brawling involves the nitty gritty fighting with fists, found weapons, clubs, and knives. Brawling weapons do not have Aspects or Stunts.

Close Combat

The Close Combat Skill covers all melee weapons, all of which are civilian. If a player wishes his character to own such a weapon it should simply be granted. There is no obvious reason to differentiate or restrict. Assets check to acquire a blade anywhere is 1. The Broadsword includes any long two-handed blade, including battle axe. While not a common weapon, where technology and industry have fallen behind, these are the mainstay of the heavy infantry.

Any long stick with a pointy end is a spear. These stats model all pole-arms. Wherever technology has fallen, these cheap and effective weapons will be common. In some cultures spears might also be found as part of a spacecraft’s defensive equipment—a long pointy weapon could be particularly effective in the narrow confines of a ship. Some Close Combat weapons are designed to be thrown. These will have the Thrown Stunt and they get to be re-used indefinitely, as with a firearm or laser. They get the Out of ammo Aspect to model this.

Slug Throwers

The basic cost for a civilian slug thrower is 3, modified by the difference between the weapon technology and the technology of the system in which it is purchased. Thus a T2 combat rifle requires and Assets check of 3 in a T2 system, but 5 in a T0 system and only 1 in a T4 system. Civilian weapons are one level cheaper.

Energy Weapons

The basic cost for an energy weapon is 4, modified by the difference between the weapon technology and the technology of the system in which it is purchased. Thus a T3 laser pack requires and Assets check of 4 in a T3 system, but 6 in a T1 system and 3 in a T4 system.

Civilian weapons are one level cheaper.

Armour

Armour not designated as Civilian can only be employed by characters with the Military-grade EVA Stunt or any Military-grade personal combat Stunt. A referee would be perfectly right to rule by context (say, for example, that chain mail can’t be used with Military-grade EVA), but writing those down as rules would just create a ton of uninteresting exceptions.

Armour has three statistics: Defense, Stamina Mod, and Agility Mod. The Defense rating of armour is the amount by which an attacker’s roll is reduced automatically. It may be modified by the attacking weapon’s penetration value. The Stamina Mod applies to powered armour only—it is the amount by which the wearing character’s Stamina rolls are modified when a Stamina Skill check is made. Note that the Stamina Skill is not modified—the roll is modified, and the Health stress track is not affected.

The Agility Mod applies to all armour, positive values implying powered armour. This value modifies all Agility rolls made by the wearer. Note that the Agility Skill is not modified—the roll is modified. Thus a character with an untrained Agility Skill and powered armour with an Agility Mod of +2 would roll 4dF -1 (untrained Skill value) + 2 (Agility Mod) for any Agility checks. Most armour will have a negative Agility Mod, representing the awkwardness or discomfort of wearing the armour.

Armour has cost 3, modified by the difference between the armour technology and the technology of the location at which it is purchased. Civilian armour is one cost level cheaper.

Detection

Before a fight can start, everyone needs to find each other. Position will be plotted on a linear scale from -4 to +4 on the map. As always, before any dice are rolled, the caller will ask for compels, at which time players can compel each other to fail to act. Failure to act in this case is represented by an automatic result of -4 (dice are not rolled and Skills are not considered: your final result for your Navigation check is -4).

A Navigation check is rolled by each ship’s navigation officer, and all rolls are ranked. Ties are resolved by raw Navigation Skill. The highest ranked Navigator will place two of the ships to be played on the map anywhere except the two most distant lines (-4 and 4). The next highest rank then places a single ship and this continues until all ships are placed. The lowest ranking Navigator places nothing. The ship which wins the detection round may also decide if there will be a positioning roll in the first turn (only). Once all the ships are placed, the winning ship in this phase decides whether to proceed to phase 1 or directly to phase 2. This allows a ship to attempt escape without engaging in combat immediately on being detected—going to phase 1—or it allows it to use the tactical position from the detection phase for an optimized initial combat round - going to phase 2.

In the event of a tie between two ships (as might happen when two standard T2 merchant ships meet, with default navigators), if neither ship is willing or able to invest fate points to gain victory, ships are placed randomly, based on a roll of the fate dice (it is only in this circumstance that a ship may begin at the 4 or -4 band).

Position

As always, before any dice are rolled, the caller will ask for compels, at which time players can compel each other to fail to act. Failure to act in this case is represented by an automatic result of -4 (dice are not rolled and Skills are not considered: your final result for your positioning check is -4).

Spacecraft positions are plotted on a simple linear scale from -4 to +4. Ships begin as they were placed in the detection phase. At the beginning of each round of combat, pilots jockey for position. All pilots roll their ship’s V-shift rating limited by their effective Pilot Skill (i.e. if one character is serving both as Navigator and Pilot, then the Pilot’s effective Pilot Skill is reduced by one). Note also that this is not simply a modifier to the roll: since V-shift is limited by effective Pilot Skill, this penalty might affect performance for the first turn as well.

In addition, ships may apply burn: by running their drives over rating, they can exchange Heat for an advantage in maneuver, improving the V-shift roll. Any ship may declare that it is applying burn, state the value and add that value to their roll (not to the V-shift rating). They immediately take a hit to their Heat stress track equal to the value of their burn, marking that box and all unmarked boxes below it. If the highest box to be marked is already marked, mark the next higher open box. Before marking the damage to the Heat stress track, the pilot may reduce the detrimental effects through Consequences exactly as mitigating combat damage. The caller may allow negotiation of burn declarations at his preference, though generally a declared burn rating by a ship’s player must stand.

Ships may choose not to use their drives in order to bleed heat. Each turn that the V-Shift is not engaged allows the highest filled box in the Heat track to be cleared immediately. This decision results in an automatic -4 final result for the positioning check, which might still be modified by Aspects, but no dice are rolled and no Skill is used. No burn declarations can be made once the caller declares the bidding closed and asks for dice on the table.

Only the highest roller may alter any ship’s positions:

• He may move himself the difference between his roll and the lowest roll, or
• He may move any ship with a lower roll up to the level of the difference between them.

He may not, however, move any vessel more map bands than his own vessel’s V-shift rating. Remember, moving a ship between the 3 and 4 bar (or the -3 and -4) costs 2 shifts, and moving a ship from the last bar off the map costs 3 shifts.

If the winning positioning roll is tied, the next highest roll is the winner. This presents some interesting tactical choices for fate point expenditure: sometimes it’s advantageous to forfeit your awesome roll so that your ally, who rolled lower, can make use of his better V-shift, for example. You might then use an Aspect to force a tie so that you lose control.

If a ship exceeds the band at -4 or 4, they leave combat, whether forced off by others or maneuvered off by their own pilots. In this fashion a really excellent pilot in a hot ship can cut down the odds by positioning enemy vessels off the map until he faces only one opponent. Similarly, more than two ships chasing a single ship can usually keep the lone opponent on the map through positioning.

Electronic Warfare

As always, before any dice are rolled, the caller will ask for compels, at which time players can compel each other to fail to act. Failure to act in this case is represented by the ship being unable to declare a target.

Before any destructive weapons are used, each ship may conduct electronic warfare, pitting its communications officer against the enemy. If a communications officer has Military-grade Communications, she may pick a target and roll the ship’s Electronic Warfare (EW) rating, amplified by her effective Communications Skill (if the communications officer has acted in any of the previous phases, there is a cumulative -1 penalty for each phase she has acted). The defender also makes a roll, of his ship’s EW rating, amplified by the communications officer’s effective Communications Skill. The rating may be zero, in which case there is there is no crewman staffing the position unless this is done by one of the PCs. Ships may have a Stunt (Firewall) that automatically provides a defense value of 2, and which may not be modified. Subtract the defender’s modified roll from the attacker’s.

As with any roll, these results can now be modified by tagging or invoking Aspects and paying a fate point to get +2 or re-roll.

Positive values are treated as shifts against the defender.

Negative values are treated as shifts against the attacker.

Whoever has shifts against him will take a Data stress track hit to the ship. Before damage is calculated, the player may apply Consequences to reduce the number of shifts: a mild Consequence reduces the shifts by one, a moderate Consequence reduces the shifts by two, and a severe Consequence reduces the shifts by four. Recall that no entity can have more than three Consequences of any kind and never more than one of each type.

Once the final number of shifts are determined, the corresponding box on the Data stress track is marked and all open boxes below it are also marked. If the highest box to be marked has already been marked, mark the next highest.

Note that only one roll is made for each ship, so in some cases with more than two ships in play, a single roll may defend against multiple attacking rolls as well as conceivably acting as the attacking roll on a declared target. Note also that a good defense against hacking can inflict damage on the attacking Data stress track, even if the defending communications officer does not have Military-grade Communications.

The Electronic Warfare (EW) defense roll is persistent through this phase, but the total may be added to over the course of the phase through the spending of fate points. An outnumbered ship may still mount a reasonable defense.

Beam Weapons

Beam weapons subsume all relatively short range unguided weaponry, so they may be described as lasers of various wavelengths, artillery, rockets, railguns, electromagnetically propelled storms of small projectiles, particle beams, or anything else that suits the setting developed at the table.

As always, before any dice are rolled, the caller will ask for compels, at which time players can compel each other to fail to act. Failure to act in this case is represented by a failure to declare a target in whatever phase the player ship was compelled.

A ship with a Beam Skill can attack at a value from 1 up to the full Beam rating.

All combat rolls, offensive and defensive, are made at the Beam rating amplified by the gunner’s Gunnery Skill (that is, the Beam rating is used and increased by one if the Gunnery Skill is higher). If the gunnery officer has acted in any of the previous phases, there is a cumulative -1 penalty to the effective Skill level for each phase he has acted. Defensive rolls are made once for each defensive system but stay on the table—that defensive roll you made against Beams stands throughout the Beam Weapons phase, complete with any modifications from invoking Aspects, using spin, etc. Defensive rolls are persistent through the phase, so it can be handy to note them on the ship card or use a coloured 12- or 20-sided die set to the result. Sometimes we write them on the map. Offensive Beam rolls are distinct from defensive Beam rolls (from the Torpedo phase) and should be recorded separately.

A roll with no modification is made to oppose all incoming Beam attacks. Ship’s may have a Stunt (Vector Randomizer) that changes the base from 0 to 2.

When Beams are fired offensively the attacker must declare what Beam rating he will apply. He may apply any value from 1 to the full Beam rating. Note the Beam value used.

Beams firing at three or more bands range subtract 2 from the roll. Attacks are resolved as they are declared, again leveraging social pressure to determine who goes first: the caller closes the call for targets by announcing a final call, and counting slowly to three (if necessary—if your caller is fair and fun, he’ll leave plenty of time), after which no further targets can be announced.

Subtract the final defender’s sum from the attacker’s to find the number of shifts. The defender may reduce these by applying one or more Consequences:

• reduce the shifts by one by applying a mild Consequence
• reduce the shifts by two by applying a moderate Consequence
• reduce the shifts by four by applying a severe Consequence.

Recall that no entity may have more than three Consequences and never more than one of each kind.

Torpedoes

As always, before any dice are rolled, the caller will ask for compels, at which time players can compel each other to fail to act. Failure to act in this case is represented by a failure to declare a target in whatever phase the player ship was compelled.

Torpedoes attack at the spacecraft’s Torpedo Skill rating.

All combat rolls, offensive and defensive, are made at the Torpedo rating amplified by the gunner’s effective Gunnery Skill (that is, the Torpedo rating is used and increased by one if the effective Gunnery rating is higher). If the gunnery officer has acted in any of the previous phases (including the Beam phase), there is a cumulative -1 penalty for each previously active phase. Defensive rolls are made once for each defensive system but stay on the table—that defensive roll you made with the Beams stands throughout the Torpedo Phase, complete with any modifications from Aspect invocation, spin, or other sources. As these rolls are persistent through the phase, it can be handy to note them on the ship card or use a coloured 12- or 20-sided die set to the result. Sometimes we write them on the map. Though persistent, defensive rolls are distinct from offensive rolls and should be recorded separately.

A Beam roll is made to oppose all incoming Torpedoes. To do this, the beam position must be staffed. If Beams were fired in the Beam Weapons phase, then the roll may be made as usual, amplified by gunner’s effective Gunnery Skill. If Beams were not fired, then there must be a trained crew member available to man the beams in this phase: normal penalties and bonuses apply, but since each crew member may only act once per phase, a ship with a single gunner (as might happen with a skeleton crew) may have to choose between offensive Torpedo fire and defensive Beam fire. Beams so used may also have been fired offensively, and defensive fire may cause damage to the Heat stress track. Ships with no Beam rating or those unwilling to fire Beams defensively, roll with a base of 0 unless they have a Stunt (Point Defense) that changes the base from 0 to 2.

When Beams are fired defensively the attacker must declare what Beam rating he will apply. He may apply any value from 0 to the full Beam rating. Note the Beam value used. If the sum of the offensive Beam used plus the defensive Beam used is greater than the total Beam rating, then the ship takes a hit on the Heat stress track equal to the difference and marks all boxes below as well.

Torpedoes firing at one or zero bands range subtract 2 from the roll. Attacks are resolved as they are declared, again leveraging social pressure to build an initiative order as in the Beam phase. The caller closes the call for targets by announcing a final call, and counting slowly to three, after which no further targets can be announced.

Subtract the final defender’s sum from the attacker’s to find the number of shifts. The defender may reduce these by applying one or more Consequences:

• reduce the shifts by one by applying a mild Consequence
• reduce the shifts by two by applying a moderate Consequence
• reduce the shifts by four by applying a severe Consequence.

Recall that no entity may have more than three Consequences and never more than one of each kind.

Damage Control

Damage control checks may now be made on Frame stress tracks (using one crew member’s effective Engineering Skill) or Data stress tracks (using one crew member’s effective Computer Skill). Since each crew may only staff one position per phase, the same individual may not be responsible for both rolls. If the engineer or computer officer has acted in any of the previous phases, there is a cumulative -1 penalty for each previously active phase. The target number for success is the highest box marked on the relevant track. The number of successes indicate the track box that can be erased. Erase it and all unmarked boxes below it.

The Heat stress track cannot be repaired during combat, except by shutting off engines, as described in the positioning phase.

Recovering Stress Box Hits

Stress box hits are not real damage. They are alarms going off, rattled crew, shrapnel dinging off the hull, shutting down non-essential systems, blowing air to avoid explosive decompression, and so on. Nothing that can’t be fixed with a tiny amount of downtime and nothing that actually affects performance.

Remember that Heat track hits may be cleared by not using drives for a turn. Each turn that the V-shift is not engaged allows the highest filled box in the Heat track to be cleared.

All stress box hits are cleared at the first instance of downtime, whether that’s time in dock or just the time in transit to the slipstream.

Recovering Consequences

In calculating time to repair, there are two scales that must be kept in mind. First, is in-game time. Repairs take time, and this has to be modeled somehow. More important, however, is living with the repercussions of a space combat in real time, from the player’s perspectives. While clearing a mild Consequence is possible right after combat, and a moderate Consequence can be repaired with any respectable facility, severe Consequences should be felt by the players; they should realize that they have seriously hurt their ship. Consequently, the soonest that a serious Consequence can be removed is at the end of the session following the one when it was received: players must carry the effects of severe damage for at least one full session in addition to the session the damage is received, during which time the Consequence should be continually compelled by the referee if the ship is being used.

A mild Consequence can be repaired by an engineer or computer expert (depending on the type of Consequence) without a roll after the combat scene is over.

A moderate Consequence remains until the engineer or computer expert can make a successful check against difficulty zero. Base time for repairs is a week with (positive or negative) shifts modifying the time to repair by one per shift. It requires docking at a repair facility within one technology rating of the ship. If the only repair facility available is of an inappropriate technology rating, treat the Consequence as Severe for repair purposes.

A severe Consequence can be repaired by an engineer or computer expert against a difficulty four. It requires docking at a repair facility within one technology rating of the ship (though the referee may decide that the facility is, despite technology, better or worse equipped to repair the vessel and apply this as a modifier to the difficulty). Repairing a severe Consequence also forces an extra maintenance check. Regardless of when the maintenance work is done, the Consequence is only removed at the end of the session after which it was received. (If the referee needs a guideline for the time of repairs, he may say it takes one month, modified by the number of shifts achieved; such time pressures, however, do not outweigh the need for the severe Consequence to be borne for a full session).

Formation Flying

Formation flying is a means of keeping two ships in the same range band at all times. Ships in formation may not be separated by the positioning rolls of another ship. This allows a merchant to fly with an escort, for example, or a fleet of fighters to maintain a common range for their attacks.

Ships may begin combat in formation. During set-up in the detection phase, any two ships (or more) in the same band may (but need not) be in formation, if the players controlling the ships so choose. Models are pressed next to each other to represent this.

Ships may enter formation with one another during the positioning phase. In the turn in which any ship is moved to band 0, and there is at least one other ship at band 0, the ship entering the band may enter formation with another ship.

Each pilot makes a roll, but the formation moves based on the lowest roll. If repositioned by another ship, the formation is moved as a unit. Ships in formation may only move as fast as the V-shift of the slowest ship allows.

A ship may leave formation at any time during the positioning phase. Formation flying allows all ships autonomy, but is more challenging to maintain than tethering in combat situations.

Tethering

Tethering offers increased performance for ships in formation, at the expense of some autonomy for vessels. Tethering need not be physical, and any viable picture may be used to describe it: slaving the computer, perhaps; tethering could also be useful for slipping (“Convoy”). Two (or more) ships in formation may be said to be tethered, if one of the two following conditions are met: either both ships agree to be tethered and one agrees to lead, or one ship wishes to tether and lead and the other has been Taken Out with a compatible narrated result.

There is always a primary ship when ships are tethered; one leads the other (or others). Multiple ships may be said to be tethered together, but only one can be leading. Only fate points from the lead ship can be spent while ships are tethered. As with formation flying, models are pressed together, but tethered ships gain the temporary Aspect “Tethered.” Tethered ships may not fire on other ships within their formation. They may be disengaged at any point, but only at the discretion of the leader. In the positioning phase, only the leader makes a piloting roll. Tethered ships may only move as fast as the V-shift of the slowest ship, and may not initiate a burn.

Boarding

In any turn, individuals from a lead ship may board any ship to which it is tethered. At this point, the game would normally revert to the individual tactical game: characters fight boarders! See Personal Combat.

However, boarding can be addressed within the space combat game with an opposed roll, where any positive result for the boarders indicates the boarding action to be successful by the end of the following turn. Relevant Aspects include “Boarding crew,” “Bunch of thugs,” “Tight security,” or “Elite marines,” but not “Tethered.” Ties favour the defending ship, however, and any ship that withstands a boarding party for three turns has repelled the boarders, and is no longer tethered. If it was tethered as a result of being Taken Out, it remains Taken Out, but requires new narration, this time provided by the defender (since he succeeded in repelling boarders). (These rules could also become applicable if the players stumble onto a boarding situation, or are asked to escort a target ship that is then attacked by pirates: the pirates board the target, while the characters in their ship maneuver about).

Coupling

All ships have a nose coupling mechanism which may be attached to the base of the mast of any one other ship and can be used to tow (or, actually, push) the other ship. The coupled ship must be Taken Out or tethered, and need not have a working drive.

Two coupled ships move at the lead ship’s V-shift rating -2. The lead ship gains the temporary Aspect “Slow to respond,” and the coupled ship’s counter is removed from the map: the coupled ship may not fire weapons or take any other actions in the space combat game until it is decoupled. Ships couple or decouple during the positioning phase as an action. If ships decouple, the lead ship loses its temporary Aspect and regains full use of its V-shift, and a counter is placed on the current range band to represent the decoupled ship. Derelicts are not placed on the map.

Aspects and Fate Points

Each ship should have five Aspects, revealed to all at the table, which need not be the Aspects given in the ship list. Each ship also begins with five fate points.

Crew

All crew positions are assumed to start at Skill level 2. Pilot is not automatically raised to match the V-shift. Players may spend additional points to raise the Skill level of a given crew position. Ships receive between three and six points to spend: the base is 3. Add 1 for T3 vessels. Add two if the ship is military (all ships are military unless they have the Civilian Stunt). Points may be spent to raise the value of the crew position by one or to make a Skill Military-grade (most often with Pilot or Communications on military ships).

Time

For each zone on the map, create one time box to represent available time to resolve. If you need to know exactly how long something took, the table should determine what the maximum amount of time something (even the best party will disperse by morning). If a victory condition is achieved before the time boxes run out, the maximum time can be downgraded a number of shifts on the Time Track (Dealing With Time, Chapter 2) equal to the number of unchecked boxes. Often, table consensus will determine a very similar result in any case.

The Actors

One of the biggest conceptual hurdles in adopting this system for resolving social interactions is recognizing that not every person in a scene needs to be represented on the map. Part of this is embodied within the zones themselves. Aspects on the zones can indicate the other people involved.

This can in fact be made even more abstract, when you want to make a situation tactical that has become mired or unproductive in regular role-play. By making some of the actors on the map ideas instead of explicit people, you can conduct a scientific investigation or any other information-revealing multi-step endeavour. Make the opposition the Fact and, maybe, an Attractive Falsehood and you can do science. Add in people with conflicting goals (a young whipper-snapper who wants to be primary author on the publication of your discovery!) and the abstract can engage the concrete in both directions.

Victory

Victory conditions should relate to map position. Usually the objective will be to get a certain person or persons into a specific zone before the timer runs out. This can be more complex, however, to achieve different goals: if you want to model persuading a crowd, you could score participants by how many crowd members are in their target zone when the timer runs out. Feel free to push the system around and find other victory conditions.

Sample Maps

Move

For a move action, the player rolls 4dF + Skill, then modify by any Aspects tagged or invoked. He may then move his character this many zones, expending movement points as needed to erode any pass values that might be on borders between his character and his goal.

The move action represents the character aligning himself with his interests (moving towards a target zone) or feigning alignment with another in order to be more effective (moving closer to another in order to reduce range modifiers).

Composure attack

A Composure attack is an effort to remove a character from play altogether by attacking his Composure stress track until he is Taken Out. To begin, the acting player names the target of the attack. The attacker names his attacking Skill and the target names the Skill he will use to defend. Both will narrate their efforts or otherwise justify the Skill selection.

Both players then roll 4dF + Skill and modify through Aspect tags, invokes, and spin. Count the attacker’s shifts and then reduce the shifts by the range between characters. The defender may reduce these shifts using Consequences. He may reduce the shifts by one by taking a mild Consequence, reduce by two by taking a moderate Consequence, or reduce by four by taking a severe Consequence. He may apply more than one Consequence if necessary. Each Consequence becomes a free-taggable Aspect on the character.

The remaining shifts are then used to mark the defender’s Composure stress track: one box on the track is marked at the rank according to the shifts and all open boxes below it (one shift marks the first box, three shifts marks the first, second, and third box, and so on). If the highest box to be marked has already been filled, then the next highest available box is filled. If the box to be filled is past the end of the character’s Composure stress track, then the character is Taken Out. The two players should negotiate what this means, mediated by the referee.

If the attacker fails his roll by three or more (gets three or more negative shifts), the defender gets spin.

The Composure attack represents an attempt to remove a character from play by making her ineffective. It might be an embarrassing anecdote designed to shame the character into removing herself from the scene, or a stinging insult that makes her too angry to act with the social subtlety necessary to participate in this kind of combat. Or something else.

Obstruct

The player obstructing begins by identifying the zone that will be obstructed. He then rolls 4dF + Skill - Range, modified by any Aspects tagged or invoked. If he obtains a positive result, he may apply the number of shifts as pass values on any borders in the zone. The total of all pass values added cannot exceed the number of shifts. So, if a player generated four shifts he could create a single pass value of four on one border, or a pass value of three on one border and one on another, or any other combination of pass values adding up to no more than four.

The obstruct action represents efforts to pin a character into his current mind-set or deflect him from ideas that would be contrary to the acting character’s interests. This might be attempts at levity in order to block off a more sober zone, awkward geek behaviour in order to make it harder to get into an intimate zone, or similar.

Maneuver

The player maneuvering begins by identifying the target of the maneuver. This target is typically a zone, but may be a character or the entire scene. He then announces the Aspect he intends to put on the target and narrates the effort. He then rolls 4dF + Skill, modified by any Aspects tagged or invoked. If he obtains a positive result, the target acquires an Aspect described by the acting player. This Aspect is free-taggable once by any ally. Putting an Aspect of “Long-winded anecdote” on a zone will give other players a reason to avoid that zone, lest they be mired in a boring conversation, and unable to escape.

Permanent Aspects are Aspects that affect the person or zone directly. This includes things like “Liar,” “Out of cruditées,” and so on. Transient Aspects are Aspects that derive from the continuous action of an individual. “Making socially unacceptable small talk,” “Spitting,” and so on. Transient Aspects last only until the placing character acts again, though he may use the Aspect in this last turn of its existence.

The caller determines whether an Aspect is permanent or transient.

Move Another

The move another action is an attempt to force another character to move along the social map in a direction desired by the attacker. To begin, the acting player names the target of the attack. The attacker names his attacking Skill and the target names the Skill he will use to defend. Both will narrate their efforts to justify the Skill selection.

Both players then roll 4dF + Skill and modify through Aspect tags, invokes, and spin. Count the attacker’s shifts and then reduce the shifts by the range between characters. These shifts are then used to move the defending player: one zone or pass value per shift, exactly as a move action.

If the attacker fails by three or more shifts, the defender is awarded a spin token.

The move another action is a careful effort to persuade. It represents effective rhetoric, brilliant argument, seduction, and like forms of persuasion. The acting character is trying to manipulate the target character directly.

Recovering Consequences

A mild Consequence can be self-medicated with a bottle and some time alone once the scene is over. No roll is required and it is cleared as soon as the social combat scene is over.

A moderate Consequence remains until the end of the session in which it was incurred.

A severe Consequence must be carried through one complete session in which the associated stress track is never marked. If it is incurred during session one, it is gone no sooner than the end of session two, and if the associated stress track takes hit in a fight during that session, you’ll need to hold the Consequence through yet another one.

Line of Sight

Because we want to empower indirect fire units (artillery), we need ways to block line of sight (LOS). To this end each zone is marked with a center point (which need not be exactly in the center, but close is good) that contains a number representing the altitude. Base level should be zero, and increment up or down one or two. No need to go crazy. The guideline is as follows.

If you draw a line between your zone’s center mark and your target zone’s center mark and that line is obstructed by a zone with a higher altitude than your zone, LOS is blocked. You may only engage this unit with indirect fire.

If the target zone is lower than yours and you draw a line between your zone’s center mark, LOS is blocked when that line is obstructed by a zone with the same or higher altitude than your zone. You may only engage this unit with indirect fire.

You can always fire into an adjacent zone.

Some terrain features block line of sight but not through elevation (a forest or a town, for example). If you want to model these features, give each zone an altitude as normal, but for zones with blocking terrain add another number indicating the effective altitude for tracing LOS though it.

This rule works best if raised terrain (like the hills in the example above) have zone divisions along their ridge lines as this prevents firing across the ridge to terrain below on the opposite side. Each unit may be in only one zone at a time, and a zone may contain any number of units. The system does not represent where within the zone a given unit is located.

Zone Aspects

Zones may have Aspects on them at the start of the session. A terrain icon drawn on the map is an implicit Aspect and may be tagged normally.

Pass Values

While generally mobility is well modeled by the size of the zone and possibly by adding an Aspect, it may be the case that a border has features that intrinsically limit mobility (a low wall, for example). In this case apply a pass value and a direction in which the pass value applies. Pass values are not eroded—they must be exceeded in order to continue through in the direction they specify. Shifts spent on passing through a border with a pass value do not count against maximum movement.

When working with pass values, always consider whether it is more effective to model the terrain with a simple Aspect. Simply placing the Aspect, “Raging river!” on river zones would attract compels that are much more interesting. Also, keep in mind that just making zones small intrinsically impedes movement, providing a third way to model difficult terrain.

Some actions work by placing pass values, allowing the ability to funnel enemy movement in certain directions or into specific zones with finer granularity than placing Aspects provides. tracing from the unit itself or the ground level), its altitude is 1.

Aircraft Re-arm Track

If aircraft are used in the scenario, add a re-armament track: six boxes with the first labeled “RE-ARM” and the last labeled “LAUNCH!”

Artillery Battery Zones

Artillery that are represented off map should be placed in a zone on an artillery card created and placed at the side of the map. If the artillery is capable of operating at range from their leader, the artillery card can have multiple zones and one unit placed in each. Units on an artillery card can move from zone to zone on the card in the same way as they would on the main map, but they cannot move onto the main map.

Infantry

Infantry units represented a small number of individuals of similar or concerted equipment: a unit typically represents 2-5 individuals, though it could be as many as 12. Specific weapons and armour per individual are not modelled except as they are represented in the Skill and Stunt list.

Infantry have a 3-cap Skill pyramid. Infantry units choose one Skill at rank 3, two Skills at rank 2, and three Skills at rank 1. They have a Morale track two boxes long. If the unit has Veteran at rank 1 or 2, the Morale track is three boxes long. If the unit has Veteran at rank 3, the Morale track is four boxes long.

The maximum movement for infantry is two zones. Infantry units may move a maximum of two zones regardless of their movement roll.

Armour

Armour units are individual tanks, cars, or other mobile armoured platform. They represent all of the equipment present on precisely that model of vehicle.

Armour has a 4-cap Skill column. Armour units have one Skill at rank 4, one at rank 3, one at rank 2, and one at rank 1. They have a Morale track one box long. If the unit has Veteran Skill 1 or 2, the Morale track is two boxes long. If the unit has Veteran Skill of 3 or 4, the Morale track is three boxes long.

The maximum movement for armour is four zones. Armour units may move a maximum of four zones regardless of their movement roll result.

Artillery

Artillery units are equipment capable of Indirect Fire which are kept off map. They move only in a notional sense insofar as they can roll Movement as a defensive roll against counter-battery detection and Indirect Fire. Infantry-based artillery (such as mortar or grenade launcher crews) should be represented by including an Indirect Fire Skill on an infantry unit. Artillery batteries that need to be represented on the map for purposes of the scenario should be represented by their attending personnel as lightly armed infantry units.

It can be handy to create an off-map artillery card for artillery platoons, especially if they have a command range greater than one. This will greatly simplify aircraft attacks on the artillery platoon. Artillery has a 3-cap Skill column. Artillery units have one Skill at rank 3, one at rank 2, and one at rank 1. Their Morale track is two boxes long. If the unit has Veteran Skill 1 or 2, the Morale track is three boxes long. If the unit has veteran Skill 3, then the Morale track is four boxes long.

Artillery may make Movement rolls to change position on their battery card if there is more than one zone on the card. Moving artillery units do not remove SPOTTED markers, however.

Artillery can only fire on targets that are in line-of-sight to a friendly unit that is currently attached to a platoon (or does not need to be) and has no Out Of Communications (OOC) counters.

All artillery units in the same platoon are considered to be in the same zone as their leader for purposes of command and communication, and for purposes of any attacks that affect all targets in a single zone when attacked by aircraft, unless they have a Stunt that allows a greater command range. All members of an artillery platoon not situated on the map must be on the same artillery card (they cannot be spread over multiple cards). Not all units in an artillery platoon need to actually be artillery units (there might be an infantry leader unit supplying comms and other coverage and an armour unit supplying AA for example). Non-artillery units in an artillery platoon must be in the off-map artillery card in order to be associated with the platoon. This means that, although the leader unit might be represented by something other than artillery (an armour or infantry unit might be more advantageous) it will gain no advantages from its mobility on the map.

Aircraft

Aircraft are independent units and therefore require no leader unit. They also move differently from other units: an aircraft unit may place itself on any zone on the map when its turn to act comes up.

Aircraft are automatically spotted when they are on the map.

Aircraft movement is different from other units:

Aircraft begin on the LAUNCH! box of the Re-arm track.

While on the Re-arm track, an aircraft unit may make Movement rolls to progress along the track.

An aircraft on the LAUNCH! box at the beginning of its turn may be placed on any zone on the map. Its turn is now over.

Once an aircraft acts while on the map (usually in the turn after it has moved there), it is returned to the RE-ARM box of the Re-arm track.

An aircraft unit on the map may act as any other unit except that it may not make a Movement roll.

Aircraft have a 4-cap Skill column. Aircraft units have one Skill at rank 4, one at rank 3, one at rank 2, and one at rank 1. They have a Morale track one box long. If the unit has Veteran Skill 1 or 2, the Morale track is two boxes long. If the unit has veteran Skill 3 or 4, then the Morale track is three boxes long.

The maximum movement for aircraft is zero zones as they are not represented on the map. Aircraft units do not move on the map in the same fashion as ground units and so do not make Movement rolls except to decrease their re-arm time.

Aircraft increase range by 1 for all distance calculations (both against them and against other targets).

Aircraft can only be attacked by the Anti-air Skill.

Leadership

Each platoon has one, and only one, leader unit. An infantry, armour, or artillery unit can be designated a leader.

A leader unit may perform a action in addition to its normal action. It may, therefore, make two actions in a turn.

Leaders have one Stunt chosen from the leadership Stunts list in addition to the Stunts for their base unit type.

Leaders add two morale boxes to the unit to which they are attached. The maximum movement for leader units is their base unit’s maximum movement. Leader units contribute one extra fate point to the platoon (one for the leader and one for the base unit).

Leader units have two Aspects—one for the leader and one for the base unit—in addition to Out of ammo.

Skills

All Skills are eligible to be chosen by any unit type.

Anti-air

base roll to inflict harm on aircraft units

Armour

base defensive roll against fire

Camouflage

base roll to avoid detection

Command

base roll to improve (repair) morale

Signals

base roll to jam or unjam a unit’s communications

Direct Fire

base roll to inflict harm in line of sight

Hand-to-Hand

base roll to inflict harm in the same zone

Indirect Fire

base roll to inflict harm beyond line of sight (including off map)

Movement

base roll for movement. Units without the movement skill are only capable of advancing a single zone (the one-zone free move) per turn.

Observation

base roll to detect and locate enemy artillery fire

Specialist

a sink Skill that has no mechanical effect, for placing on the apex Skill of a unit that is not designed for the represented forms of combat (example, artillery crews as infantry or a staff convoy as armour).

Veteran

modifier to Morale track

Units may only roll Skills for which they are trained. The only exception is when defending against an opposed roll, in which case the untrained Skill is presumed to be zero. The only case presented here is Armour, though with an appropriate Stunt Camouflage may also qualify.

Typical Units

Typical infantry Skill tree

Camouflage 3, Direct Fire 2, Observation 2, Armour 1, Hand-to-Hand 1, Command 1. Infantry are used to capture and hold territory as well as to provide spotting for heavier units. They have NCOs capable of regrouping broken units and are adept at close combat as well as ranged. They excel at not being seen.

Typical armour Skill tree

Armour 4, Direct Fire 3, Movement 2, Anti-air 1. There are two core types of armour—assault tanks designed to move into heavy fire and attack units spotted by associated infantry, and tank hunters, which would swap Armour and Direct Fire.

Typical artillery Skill tree

Indirect Fire 3, Camouflage 2, Movement 1. artillery’s immediate objective is to destroy spotted enemy equipment. It does so by projecting a huge volume of fire, which makes it suddenly very vulnerable. It offsets this vulnerability by immediately moving and re-hiding.

Typical aircraft Skill tree

Direct Fire 4, Observation 3, Anti-air 2, Movement 1. Aircraft Skill trees are capped by their primary design goal—Direct Fire for ground attack vehicles, Observation for reconnaissance craft, and Anti-air for interceptors. Most aircraft will be capable in all of these. Movement for aircraft indicates their re-arm time—high Movement rates indicate rapid re-arming cycles, trading off for specialty effectiveness such as ground attack or anti-air capability.

Stunts

Cavalry

this unit is undersized and overpowered, so its maximum move is increased by one (infantry, armour, or artillery only). Infantry units may take this Stunt multiple times: the unit may be thought to have an intrinsic vehicle for mobility. When taken by an armour unit, the Stunt is designated, “Light.”

Special forces

this unit is not automatically spotted when it shares a zone with an enemy unit (infantry only).

Wireless

unit is attached to an integrated communications net, increasing command range by 1. May be taken multiple times.

Engineer

may use a successful maneuver roll to use up the free-tag on an enemy-applied Aspect or make two maneuver rolls on the zone it is in instead of the usual one (infantry and armour only).

Guerrilla tactics

attacks from this unit never generate spin for the defender (infantry only).

Highly trained

this unit has one additional morale box.

Infantry carrier

this unit can carry infantry (armour or aircraft only). One infantry unit in the zone can move with this carrying unit (including traversing the Re-arm track for aircraft). The infantry unit cannot act this turn (before or after the move). The unit can begin the game carrying its infantry load. For aircraft, when the aircraft re-enters the map, the infantry is deployed and may act normally; the aircraft may not otherwise act while deploying infantry. Carried infantry do not have to be in the same platoon as the carrier.

Interceptor

if this unit is on the LAUNCH! box, it may enter the map any time an enemy aircraft enters the map and act immediately before the target aircraft can act. It may act only against this target aircraft (aircraft only).

Irregulars

this unit is an irregular non-professional unit (a sink Stunt, chosen only to model a unit that is less effective than other units of the same technology level). Other sink Stunts can be invented to fit the scenario: Slow, to represent a low rate of fire, etc.

Long range

ignores one zone for attack roll range modification. May be taken multiple times.

Orbital

this unit can only be attacked by fire from other orbital units (artillery only). Orbital units that are attacked with the jam action, however, take damage as though attacked with weapons (in addition to the effects of jamming).

Prepared positions

this unit was set up long before the battle (artillery only). Before combat begins, it may add a the Aspect of “Locked in” to any two zones on the map. This Aspect can be free-tagged by any allied artillery unit, and remains an Aspect on the zone which may be tagged normally thereafter.

Scatterable mines payload

this unit can deliver area-denial ordnance (mines). Pass values placed by the unit from an interdiction strike are permanent (artillery and aircraft only).

Scout

this unit can continue movement after entering a zone containing enemy units (infantry and armour only).

Skill substitution

With an appropriate narrative, additional Stunts may be designed to allow Skill substitutions. Each unit may only ever have one Skill substitution Stunt. The following are offered as representative examples.

Agile

can use Movement in place of Armour (armour only).

Graphite payload

this unit can deliver payloads designed to interrupt electrical and electromagnetic function (artillery and aircraft only). It may use its Indirect Fire Skill to effect Jam attacks (which would normally use the Signals Skill). Note that this combines with Zone Effect to jam all units in a zone (regardless of owner).

Shoot and scoot

this weapon system is designed to be fired while on the move or to move very soon after firing a mission. It may use its Movement Skill instead of Camouflage (artillery only).

Technology enhancement

increase any Skill by one. This Stunt may be taken at most twice per Skill, for a total bonus of +2. Stealth technology: designed to hide, this unit can use Camouflage in place of Armour (armour only).

VTOL

this unit is designed to stay on target—once on the map it may remain, moving a maximum of 1 zone (its free move) per turn (aircraft only).

Zone effects

this unit may attack all units in the target zone with one roll at -2 (armour, artillery, or aircraft only). Units do not need to be spotted to be attacked in this fashion.

Stress Tracks

All units have a single stress track, Morale. A platoon may expend Consequences to mitigate hits past the end of the track on a unit. A platoon has three Consequences to allocate and each can mitigate two shifts. As is standard in FATE, a platoon Consequence becomes an Aspect and may be free-tagged once or compelled or tagged normally to affect any unit in the platoon.

• Infantry units have a base Morale stress track of two boxes.
• Armour units have a base Morale stress track of one box.
• Artillery units have a base Morale stress track of two boxes.
• Aircraft units have a base Morale stress track of one box.

Unit Morale tracks are modified by the unit’s Veteran skill. Leader units also gain a bonus Morale.

• Leader units increase the base Morale stress track by two.
• Units with Veteran 1 or Veteran 2 increase their Morale stress track by one.
• Units with Veteran 3 or Veteran 4 increase their Morale stress track by two.
• Units with Veteran 5 or Veteran 6 increase their Morale stress track by three.
• Some stunts may further alter the length of the Morale stress track.

Aspects

All units have one descriptive Aspect chosen by the owner and add one fate point to their platoon. All units also have the Aspect “Out of ammo.” A unit, when spending fate points, expends platoon fate points. When a unit gains a fate point through a compel, that fate point belongs to the platoon.

Move

Roll Movement and move the number of shifts, up to the maximum movement permitted.

If your movement places you in (or passes through) the same zone as an enemy unit, both you and it gain a SPOTTED marker of value 3 and the moving unit ceases movement.

For artillery, roll Movement against a SPOTTED marker value and reduce its value by the number of shifts.

For aircraft units, move the number of shifts along the Re-arm track. Aircraft on their LAUNCH! box may be placed (without a roll) on any zone on the map or any battery zone off the map. Aircraft in a battery zone may be attacked exactly as spotted artillery, though only with Anti-aircraft Skills from a unit on the same artillery card as the spotted artillery unit.

If movement takes a unit out of line-of-sight from all enemy units, reduce any SPOTTED marker by one.

For each zone that a unit enters during its movement, an enemy may compel it to halt in that zone.

Moving is not affected by range or line of sight.

Attack

Add a SPOTTED marker to the attacking unit to a maximum of four. Roll your appropriate attack Skill against enemy Armour Skill on any unit with a SPOTTED marker, counting shifts as damage. Subtract range to target. Add the minimum range of the attack type (zero for hand-to-hand, one for direct fire, two for indirect fire). -3 shifts gains spin for the defender.

This extra arithmetic is basically saying that the range count, for purposes of modifying the attack roll, starts (as zero) at the minimum range of the weapon.

Indirect Fire may not act at range zero or 1. Direct Fire may not act at range zero. Hand-to-Hand may ONLY attack at range zero. Anti-air may attack at any range but recall that all ranges from ground to aircraft are increased by one. Range from aircraft to aircraft are counted normally. Artillery attacks targets without range modification. Attacks on artillery in an off-map “battery zone” are at effective range 10 zones when attacked by on-map units.

Before marking shifts as damage, the shifts may be reduced by applying Consequences. A platoon can have a maximum of three Consequences: one mild, which can reduce incoming shifts by one; one medium, which can reduce incoming shifts by two; and one severe, which can reduce incoming shifts by four. A Conesquence is a free-taggable Aspect on the platoon. A platoon may have no more than three Consequences—one of each type.

A hit that would mark a box past the end of the unit’s Morale track takes out that unit.

Attacking is affected by range and line of sight.

Remember that the defending roll, after modifications by invokes, stays on the table for the turn!

Interdict

Select a target zone. Roll your appropriate attack Skill against target zero. Subtract range to target zone. Distribute shifts as pass values on any border for that zone (thus 4 shifts could place a pass value 2 on two borders, 4 on one border, 1 on 4 borders, or any other combination). Interdiction lasts until the beginning of the attacker’s next turn. Interdiction attacks grant SPOTTED markers exactly as attacks.

Interdiction is affected by range and by line of sight.

Rally

Roll Command against highest Morale track hit to repair track hits by shifts (as repair on spacecraft). Can roll against any unit in the platoon.

Rally is not affected by range or line of sight.

Jam

Roll Signals against another unit’s Signals. For each shift generated, place an OOC counter on the attacked unit. Failure by three or more generates spin for the defender. Note that this attack is especially effective against a leader unit.

Jamming is not affected by range or line of sight. Targets need not be spotted. Units can have no more than four OOC markers.

Unjam

Roll Signals against zero and remove the shifts in OOC counters from yourself. If this unit is a leader unit, it may remove OOC counters from members of its platoon.

Unjamming is not affected by range or line of sight. It may be performed by units not currently in platoon membership.

Maneuver

Roll any Skill and suppply some narration to describe the effect. Subtract range to target zone. Success places an Aspect on a zone. The Aspect is free-taggable once by an allied unit. Use maneuvers to model artillery cratering (“Cratered”), forward observation (“Laser designation”), covering fire (“Keeping our heads down”), and so on. Maneuvers that use Direct Fire, Indirect Fire, or Hand-to-Hand grant SPOTTED markers exactly as attacks of those type.

Maneuvers cannot be used to place an Aspect on a unit. They can only be used to place Aspects on a zone.

Maneuvers are affected by range but not line of sight. The table has to agree that the maneuver works despite the range and line of sight facts, however.

Permanent Aspects are Aspects that affect a zone directly. This includes things like “Cratered roadway,” “Forest fire,” and so on. Transient Aspects are Aspects that derive from the continuous action of an individual. “Targeting laser,” “Covering fire,” and so on.

Transient Aspects last only until the placing unit acts again, though it may use the Aspect in this last turn of its existence.

The caller determines whether an Aspect is permanent or transient.

Spot

Roll Observation against Camouflage for any artillery that has fired or any other unit in Line of sight. Place a SPOTTED marker on the unit including the number of shifts (or a SPOTTED token for each shift if you’re using glass beads or coins or similar). Failure by three or more generates spin for the defender. If the unit already has a SPOTTED marker, increase it by the number of shifts.

Spotting is not affected by range but is affected by line of sight. Units can have no more than four SPOTTED markers.

Cover

Roll Camouflage against a target value of zero and reduce any SPOTTED markers on the unit by the number of hits achieved. Covering is not affected by range or line of sight. It may be performed by units not currently in platoon membership.

Limitations

You may not use the same Skill for your action that was used in defense (unless allowed by a Stunt).

Creating Scenarios

Units of the same technology level should be roughly balanced unless you deliberately take sink Stunts or Skills.

When constructing scenarios you will want a way to weigh the effectiveness of different units. This system has been designed so that a unit is roughly equal to any other unit, the exception being leader units, which are the equivalent of two normal units. Units of differing technology levels are different in power but not hugely so—they differ by a small number of Stunts. Depending on Stunts taken, a good rule of thumb is that each difference in technology is about 25% more unit power.

Within the context of the RPG, scenarios will often be unbalanced, with the players struggling to make do given the odds as determined by the situation in which they have found themselves.

As a stand-alone wargame, though, some approximations of balance are possible. Nevertheless, we recommend that, above all, you run a scenario that’s interesting. Create units and organizations with a goal and an engagement with a purpose and it doesn’t matter a ton who wins it—the simulation will be fun either way. It might even be the case that victory conditions can be created or modified as the game progresses, or even at the end. The victor is the side that achieves its goal. Revisit victory frequently during the game—the goal may change! An ambush might be won and become a pursuit which is lost. A breakthrough that starts going especially well for the runners might turn into a meeting engagement, or even an opportunity to secure objectives.

As a wargame, progress can even be determined by an arbitrary time limit. Set a number of turns after which victory will be evaluated. At this time, the game is over. If you want to continue (perhaps with new objectives!), set a new timer and perhaps allow some reinforcements in. Six to ten turns should be plenty.

Purpose

Engagements come in a limited number of forms. By all means, dream up your own scenario from whole cloth, but you may find these categories useful for setting the scene.

Meeting Engagement

Roughly equal forces meet by accident or intent on the field and engage to destroy. Armies start on opposite sides of a map.

Pursuit

A small force is pursued by an equal or superior force. The small force wishes to disengage. The large force wishes to destroy. Armies start with pursuing force on one edge and the pursued force near the middle-ish. You want a long map for this. The more units the pursued force gets off the map, the better.

Breakthrough

A dug in force attempts to keep another force from disengaging. The disengaging force needs to get most of its units through or get special units through. Start with the blockade force setting up in the middle of the map and the runners on one edge. They must exit the opposite edge with their objective units intact.

Ambush

A strong force has entered the region to patrol and is surprised by an inferior but entrenched force. Set up as Breakthrough but balance units differently (patrol is stronger), and give defensive advantages (Aspects on zones or units). The ambushers should win by inflicting lots of harm and then escaping. The patrol wins by surviving the ambush and destroying the ambushers.

Tactics

One of the chief sources of tactical pressure, aside from the obvious one of move and fire, is the choice of unit action order. The actor must elect to act with specific units in an order he prefers, but counter-activity or action results may have cascading effects on remaining unit action.

Simulation through Aspects

Smoke? A maneuver to place the Aspect “Smokey” on a zone. Cratering charges? A maneuver to place the Aspect “Cratered” on a zone. Time sensitivity is often sufficiently modeled by the free-tag mechanism—smoke is only especially effective the first time it’s tagged; thereafter it’s another source of advantage at normal cost. Another simulation effect that Aspects can create is the idea of a forced move. If you want an enemy unit out of a zone, there is no mechanism that forces him to do so. This is because we want to retain as much player autonomy as possible: everything should be a choice. So make him choose: with as many units as you can muster, use maneuvers to pile free-taggable Aspects on his zone. Now he has to choose between leaving the zone and sitting in the same place as a potentially massive free bonus to an attack roll.

Balance Decisions

These balancing ideas roughly follow the rock-paper-scissors principle, which is basically the idea that every unit type should have some important function and should be defeatable by some other unit type. No single unit type should dominate: if you go all armour, infantry will kick your ass. If you go all artillery, aircraft will cut you up. And so on.

The balancing relationship between unit types is as follows:

Infantry

is intended to be flexible, capable of adequately subsuming multiple roles. An observation unit can also be a credible anti-air threat and be adept at re-hiding. An assault unit can also be a credible defensive unit.

Armour

is intended to be dedicated and reactive. They do a couple of things extremely well and will generally suck up one Skill slot for Movement just to take advantage of their intrinsically high speed limit.

Artillery

is intended to do lots of harm but be vulnerable to reactive attacks from other artillery. It is also intentional that aircraft are the bane of artillery in all cases. A configuration that includes artillery has to consider the possibility of enemy air power and dedicate some counter-measure or they will get their artillery cleared.

Aircraft

are intended to do periodic but precise and devastating harm. They are highly vulnerable while on the map (always spotted, always in line of sight), again by design, but also extremely precise in their deployment while there (range 1 to any target they choose to kill). Countering aircraft requires deployment of specific equipment: either other aircraft or AA capable units. Putting a little AA capacity in all infantry is a good buy.

Non-Human Races

If you want to create a non-human race, start by deciding what’s really different, in game mechanical terms, between them and the total range of abilities to be found among humans. Designing a balanced race really means not going beyond these parameters, which, in the largely abstract system presented here, allows for a seven-point range between -1 (untrained) and 5. Wording of Aspects can increase this effective range (both for humans and for the aliens) by and additional +/- 2 (creating a modified eleven-point range, -3 to 7).

Non-human races are best modeled by augmenting the existing rules as subtly as possible—that is, the best aliens for the purposes of Diaspora are going to be those with few game mechanical differences no matter how bizarre the story behind them might be: you might introduce a new Skill that represents some feature specific to these aliens and maybe even require that all members of the species have it, but we recommend resisting structural changes to how a character is created.

Formulating a non-human race (or converting one from another source) may then be framed in terms of general statements that are applicable when measured against a normal human. They may suggest some Skills should be higher than others, or that some should be lower, and Stunts that would be more common in the race than in humans. These differences form the mechanical description of the race. These differences do not change the number of Stunts or Skills or the shape of the Skill pyramid; they only describe certain features of the choices one would make within those constraints in order to create a believable alien of that type.

The parameters for creating members of other races lie completely with the discretion of the player, subject to referee and table approval, of course. All choice, of course, remains with the player, as there are always exceptions to any general rule.

Optional: All aliens may be thought to have an automatic Aspect, not human, to be compelled liberally whenever something built for or designed by humans is encountered.

Psionics

With the referee’s permission, Psionics can be introduced. The precise mechanics would require table consensus, but what is important is that the balance between characters not be thrown off. Anything should be able to be modeled with an appropriate balance of Skills, Aspects, and Stunts. If something is happening that will be seen as exceeding human norms, it should require investment in both a Skill and a Stunt. Typically, there will also be an appropriate Aspect.

What follows are ten ideas for how some psionic abilities could be modeled within the game system. In each of them we are assuming a common Skill powering all the abilities, Psionics; it may be desirable to have different Skills: one for Telepathy, one for Teleportation, etc., in a Psionics-heavy campaign). Some are just maneuvers, some are stunts, and some are alternate ways to use skills.

Awareness

add a Stunt “Swap a skill” to use Psionics for Alertness, with +2 to the roll with the restriction that it may only detect the existence of sentient minds. (Perhaps making it military-grade would allow an clairvoyant image, a flash of what a detected mind sees?)

Mass Suggestion

add a Stunt “Swap a Skill” to use Psionics for Oratory.

Psychic assault

select Have a thing as a Stunt to get Integral Equipment: Knife, but let it be a psychic attack (perhaps Composure damage only, in exchange for +2 penetration).

Rather than tied to brawling Skill, it could be powered by a new Skill “Psionics.” Some range could be modeled perhaps by allowing attacks at range 0-1, but doing only damage 1.

Regeneration

add a Stunt “Swap a skill” to use Psionics for Medical. Because age is not modeled in Diaspora (all characters have the same number of Skills, and players determine the shape of their own Skill pyramids), it costs nothing to add descriptive features to this such as, “eternally young,” because there are no associated mechanical effects. If this is the character the player wants, let them have it, as long as there is some character investment (perhaps through an Aspect).

Shield

want to resist a psychic assault? Take an Aspect “Psionic shield” which will give you +2 to any defense, as long as you are willing to spend a fate point; fortunately, the investment need only come after the dice have hit the table, and you might win without any investment!

Telekenesis

add a Stunt “Swap a Skill” to use Psionics for Agility. (Perhaps making it “Military-grade” would allow an initial range of 1 or 2 zones, instead of zero; that would then represent a player investment of two Stunts and a Skill).

Telepathic suggestion

As a maneuver, use Psionics, to put an Aspect on nearby individuals to give a free-taggable Aspect to a future action by yourself or an ally.

Telepathy

with the Psionics Skill, take the Stunt “Swap a Skill” to use Psionics for Intimidation (the victims are always aware you are reading their mind, and they may attempt to resist with Resolve).

Technopathy

want to communicate with machines? Add a Stunt “Swap a Skill” to use Psionics for Computer, or for Repair (or, with two Stunts, both!).

Teleportation

short-range, line-of-sight teleportation can be modeled with Psionics, which replicates the movement bonuses possible from Agility.

Some campaigns may wish to model the psychic toll that using such abilities represents. If so, each use of Psionics that achieves a Superb (+5) or better result costs a fate point, in addition to any points spent ensuring the success. Since the restriction for players will be the same as it is for any characters run by the referee, such a restriction, while onerous, should ultimately favour the players who have greater resources of fate points.

Landing a Spaceship

Spacecraft design in Diaspora precludes the possibility of landing a spacecraft easily: they are simply not built to balance on their tails in an atmosphere. If transferring between orbit and the surface is a plot your table doesn’t want to tell, however, there are options.

Given that an interface vehicle costs one build point in the spaceship design process (see next section), a table might decide that any ship that invests two build points can land in an atmosphere. The choice to be able to land a ship (avoiding highports, orbital stations, any surface-to-orbit transfer, etc.) is offset by the additional investment in frame construction. The most capable ships will continue to be those specialized vessels without the ability to land.

Assumptions

These are the rules of the Diaspora universe as they pertain to space flight.

Build Points

Statistics

Stats at or below zero indicate a component that cannot be used offensively. All stats have a maximum value of technology rating plus two.

All stats start at value zero and can be increase by 1bp/stat point up to stat point=T, and by 2bp/stat point up to the cap. Thus, rank cost by technology can be found on the following table:

The statistics are:

V-shift

influences positioning roll and heat accumulation

Beam

attacks offensively and defensively against Torpedo attacks, possibly accumulating heat

Torpedo

attacks only offensively, no heat, has the Out of ammo Aspect

EW

attacks offensively if the crew is trained for offensive EW and is reflective in that offensive and defensive rolls are compared and the loser takes the shifts in damage

Trade

influences monthly maintenance rolls

A ship which doesn’t invest points in a statistic possesses a default value of zero.

Stress Tracks

Stress tracks start at three boxes and cost 1bp to increase or give back 1bp to decrease except the Heat track, which costs 2bp to increase gives back 1bp per decrease.

Hull track

a measure of structural integrity

Data track

a measure of network and comms integrity

Heat track

a measure of heat sink capacity

Stunts

Aspects

All ships have five Aspects. Determine the required Aspects and then fill the remaining slots with Aspects that suit the ship’s purpose and history.

Huge

if the Trade value is greater than or equal to twice the technology rating, the ship is Huge. If the V-shift rating is equal to or greater than twice the technology rating, then the ship is Huge (implies large amounts of reaction mass).

Cargo hauler

if the Trade value is 3 or more, the designer may choose this Aspect or “Passenger liner.”

Passenger liner

if the Trade value is 3 or more, the designer may choose this Aspect or “Cargo hauler.”

Falling apart

if a ship has the Cheap Stunt, then it also gets one Aspect that is largely negative, represented by the “Falling apart” Aspect. The table should feel free to rename the Aspect to reflect the specifics of the ship’s cheapness.

Fighters (optional)

Given the use of reaction drives in Diaspora, effective single-pilot fighters are technologically implausible. Still, they can be fun, and vessels that carry small amounts of reaction mass would be capable of extremely high acceleration for a short while.

Fighters are small ships to aid in combat, but which may not enter slipstreams. Any spaceship which buys the Stunt “Carries Fighters” (2bp) may reduce its Trade value by 1 for each fighter carried, to a minimum of zero: this decrease affects all rolls involving the Trade value, as the small fighter occupies space that could be used for cargo or other means of economic viability. Fighters may be launched in any combat phase that the parent ship chooses not to act when it otherwise could do so. If the parent ship chooses the Beam combat phase, the Beams may not subsequently be used defensively, however.

All fighters are military vessels, and pilots require Gunnery and Military-grade Pilot Skills. Fighters are designed by buying Beam, Torpedo, and V-shift values (as per ship design) and all tracks have two boxes. They may buy “High-capacity magazine” and “Automated defense” Stunts, but no others. Fighters have one aspect, but no fate points, and any fate points spent come from the parent ship (or the pilot, if a PC); similarly, any consequences taken are given to the parent ship.

At T2 fighters are built with 6 bp; at T3 fighters are built with 8 bp (2+2T).

Brawling and Close Combat Weapons

Brawling and Close Combat weapons are blades, clubs, and other designed melee weapons. They also include thrown weapons such as spears, shuriken, and (at higher technologies) grenades.

Slug Throwers

Once we reach slug throwing technology we have more credible technology dependence. Build points for Slug Throwers use the formula:

Energy Weapons

Energy Weapons become feasible at higher technology levels than slug throwers do, and become more effective. The build point equation for energy weapons is:

Statistics

Agility requires the Stunt Flexible to increase one point and the Stunt Lightweight to increase another. Agility is added to player Agility Skill for tests. Agility requires a Stunt to increase, and cost is Stunt dependent. Agility can only be increased above zero with the Power Suit Stunt.

Stunts

Civilian

this armour requires no special training to don and use. Unless this is Stunt is purchased, the armour is Military-grade. 2 bp.

Flexible

this armour can be easily shifted with the wearer, allowing greater mobility, decreasing the Agility penalty by 1. Can only be taken once. 2 bp.

Lightweight

this armour is made of a lightweight material, decrasing the Agility penalty by 1. Can only be taken once. 3 bp.

Pressure Suit

this armour acts as a pressure suit, carrying its own supply of oxygen and power for heat and communication. Requires T-1. 1 bp.

Power Suit

this armour is powered. It allows the purchase of power suit stunts. Requires T1. Stamina checks made by the wearer are made at +2 (this does not confer any changes to the Health stress track, however). Armour acquires the Out of Juice aspect.

Servos

wearer does not receive the -2 Agility penalty for wearing this armour. 2bp.

Sensors

Alertness rolls are increased by 1 while wearing this armour. Alertness is considered increased for the purposes of combat order selection or similar checks. Can be taken multiple times. 2bp.

Crushing fists

wearer receives +1 to his harm when Brawling while wearing this armour. His Brawling also does normal lethal damage rather than Composure damage (unless he prefers otherwise). Can be taken multiple times. 2bp.

Armoured penetrators

wearer receives +1 to his penetration when Brawling while wearing this armour. His Brawling also does normal lethal damage rather than Composure damage (unless he prefers otherwise). Can be taken multiple times. 1 bp.

Long range

armour does not have the “Out of juice” transfer aspect. 2bp.

Jump jets

armour has limited flight capability. Wearer gains +2 to any Agility checks for the purpose of movement and has no maximum movement rate. 3bp.

Transfer Aspect

this armour has some special feature not covered here that is modeled by applying an Aspect to the wearer. This Aspect can be tagged in addition to the allowed character Aspect invoke as it remains, technically, on the armour. 1bp.

Aspects

Armour with a Defense value that cost more than (4+T) and does not have the Lightweight Stunt gets the Aspect, “Very heavy,” which referees should happily compel to ruin roads, damage bridges, and get the authorities mad. It might reasonably be compelled against Stealth checks and so forth too.

Armour with the Stunt Power Suit also gets the Aspect, Out of Juice, which one might compel to restrict actions in order to conserve energy.

Armour with a Defense value higher than tech level that has the Stunt Civilian and does not have the Stunt Lightweight also gets the Aspect Industrial Equipment.

Cost

The base cost for armour is 2 for Civilian and 3 for non-Civilian. Armour with the Power Suit stunt costs 4 regardless of its Civilian status.