This document must be used in conjunction with the Impresa Express Usage Guidelines and Open Collaborative License 
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This is the Express version of the Impresa™ Modular Roleplaying System. Impresa Modular Roleplaying System and Impresa Express are copyright 2003 by Politically Incorrect Games. All rights reserved. Impresa is a trademark of Politically Incorrect Games.
abilities
Abilities represent the potential and raw talent inherent in every character. Each ability is rated on a scale from zero (0) to six (6). This number indicates how many dice are rolled when attempting skills governed by the ability.
| | | | Rating | | | Description | | | | 0 | | | disabled | | | | 1 | | | child-like or poor | | | | 2 | | | low average | | | | 3 | | | average | | | | 4 | | | talented | | | | 5 | | | gifted | | | | 6 | | | unimaginable ability | |
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| • | Fitness represents the character’s strength, agility, and physical health. |
| • | Awareness represents the character’s sensory ability and is the power of observation and intuition. |
| • | Creativity represents the character’s spiritual, personal, and artistic affinity. |
| • | Reasoning represents the character’s mental ability—logical deduction, rational thought, and memory. |
| • | Influence represents the character’s social standing, charisma, and popularity. |
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| • | Luck is an unusual ability as it does not govern any skills. Instead, its rating may be reduced in order to increase the odds of any skill task (see task resolution), or alter the amount of damage sustained (see combat). Luck may be replenished at the director’s discretion as a reward for good roleplaying. |
skills
| | | | Rating | | | Description | | | | 2 | | | undertrained | | | | 3 | | | novice | | | | 4 | | | capable | | | | 5 | | | proficient | | | | 6 | | | seasonal | | | | 7 | | | professional | | | | 8 | | | expert | |
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Skills represent general knowledge, training, and fields of study. Each skill is governed by a single ability (or special ability) and rated from two (2) to eight (8). Any skill may be attempted unskilled unless it has an asterisk next to it.
fitness-based skills
| • | Archery covers the use and construction of bows and arrows. |
| • | Athletics helps a character climb, swim, throw objects, perform gymnastic stunts, and dodge attacks. |
|
| • | Brawling covers the ability to punch, kick, grapple, and parry in combat situations. |
| • | Driving covers the operation of automobiles, trucks, and motorcycles. It can also cover general vehicle maintenance when used with reasoning in place of fitness. |
| • | Firearms covers the use of any pistol or rifle. It can also cover general gun maintenance when used with reasoning in place of fitness. |
| • | Melee covers the ability to fight an opponent using hand-to-hand weapons such as staves, knives, swords, and clubs. |
| • | Piloting* covers the operation of air-based vehicles such as helicopters and planes. It can also cover general vehicle maintenance when used with reasoning in place of fitness. |
| • | Riding is the knowledge of controlling horses and steering horse-drawn wagons and carriages. |
| • | Sailing is the art of steering and navigating a boat using only the wind and the sails. It can also cover general sail-boat maintenance when used with reasoning in place of fitness. |
awareness-based skills
| • | Criminal covers racketeering, confidence scams, picking locks and pockets, safecracking, hiding from the law, and escaping from bonds such as chains or ropes. Fitness may be used in place of awareness for physical maneuvers. |
| • | Subterfuge is the art of concealing one’s true motives. It also covers disguises, forgery, and sabotage (when combined with the mechanical or electrical aptitude). |
| • | Gambling allows a character to play games of chance and deduce the odds of winning in a given situation. The character can also bluff when this skill is used with influence in place of awareness. |
creativity-based skills
| • | Crafts is the shaping and baking of clay pottery and forging crude metallic alloys such as bronze. |
| • | Design covers all forms of artistic training, including painting, drawing, sculpting, metal working, graphic design, photography, and even forgery. |
| • | Literacy is the art of language and literature. Literacy is used for reading and writing, and analyzing the written word when used with reasoning in place of creativity. |
| • | Instrument is the art of designing and playing musical scores with specific instruments. |
reasoning based skills
| • | Boating is the building of small wooden sea vessels, such as canoes, rafts, or rowboats. It can also cover steering boats when used with fitness in place of reasoning. |
| • | Computers covers the operation, hacking, and basic repair of all computer systems. |
| • | Electrical is the knowledge of designing, building, and repairing electronic devices. |
| • | Financial covers all basic aspects of monetary application including accounting, business management, and trading. |
| • | First Aid is the application of basic medical techniques in order to sanitize and bandage small wounds, and act in emergency situations. A successful task indicates that one grade of fatigue is restored to the patient at the end of the day. |
| • | Investigation is the acquisition of data through examination, observation, inquiry, and research. |
| • | Engineering* covers a wide array of construction arts—architectural, civil, and aerospace. |
| • | Legends is the knowledge of superstitions, the occult, fairy tales, and mythology. |
| • | Mechanical is the knowledge of designing, building, and repairing mechanical devices. |
| • | Medicine* is the knowledge of healing and treating the wounded or ill. |
| • | Natural Sciences* covers a wide array of studies, including astronomy, biology, chemistry, geology, and physics. |
| • | Social Sciences* covers a wide array of studies, including economics, law, politics, sociology, and theology. |
| • | Survival is the knowledge of staying alive in the wilderness. Survival allows characters to build shelters, locate food sources, hunt, and follow paths. Essentially, the character becomes the ultimate boy scout. |
influence-based skills
| • | Leadership is the art of delegating responsibility and gaining the trust, respect, and loyalty of one’s subordinates. |
| • | Performance is the art of oration, singing, acting, and stage performance. |
| • | Streetwise allows a character to know how to survive on the streets. It is the urban equivalent to the survival skill. |
| • | Seduction is the art of tempting others to do as you wish, particularly members of the opposite sex. |
| • | Warfare covers tactics and strategies as used by terrorists, mercenaries, and the military. Warfare also covers the use of grenades, mortars, rocket launchers, artillery pieces, and other weapons or military equipment such as explosives when used with fitness in place of reasoning. |
other skills
| • | Composure allows a character to remain calm in the face of danger, temptation, or habit, and is a valuable asset (see Composure tasks). |
gimmicks
Gimmicks are used to better define a character’s background, physical oddities, or personality.
| • | Authority indicates that the character has certain responsibilities which permit him to exercise special rights. He can be involved in law enforcement, the justice department, or even city hall. |
| • | Connections indicates that the character has friends or associates in some sort of criminal, political, community, religious, or military organization which he can call on for assistance. The connections can also take the form of students, followers, or employees. |
| • | Enemies indicates that someone doesn’t like the character and either enjoys or is duty bound to thwart his efforts. The enemy may even go so far as to actively hunt the character or put a price on his head. |
| • | Fugitive indicates that the character is an outlaw and on the run from law enforcement agencies. He should avoid the law as much as possible. |
| • | Internal Compass indicates that the character can never become lost in the wilderness or a city. He can extrapolate his general location from signs in nature. |
| • | Internal Clock indicates that the character possesses a knack for always knowing the exact time and date. |
| • | Mannerisms indicates that the character is physically expressive when he speaks, either through wild hand gestures, facial expressions, nervous tics, or stuttering. This may be suppressed for a turn by making a successful challenging awareness roll. |
| • | Military Rank indicates that the character is in the military and holds an officer’s rank. |
| • | Multilingual indicates that the character can speak up to two languages in addition to his native tongue as a result of growing up in a household or culture where more than one language is used. |
| • | Prestige indicates that the character is widely known in a region, nation, or even the world for one reason or another. He could be a famous musician, actor, political figure, or businessman. |
| • | Servitude indicates that the character is in debt to another person and must pay it off as a servant (butler, maid, assistant, etc.). |
| • | Tolerance to Pain indicates that the character is somehow immune to pain and can ignore all penalties caused by fatigue and injury. |
| • | Vulnerability indicates that the character is extremely sensitive to a specific substance or mystical force (such as ESP). He receives two (2) grades of fatigue when directly exposed and double the normal amount of injury or fatigue when the contact is the result of an attack. |
| • | Wealth indicates that the character is extremely rich. He can usually scrape together enough cash for any deal. |
health
Health is used to measure a character’s current physical condition. There are two types of health which are measured in these rules: fatigue and injury. Both have five grades of severity. The number of dice which a character can use for a task roll is reduced when fatigued or injured—fatigue affects all rolls, while injury only affects fitness and awareness-based rolls. This penalty is not applied from fatigue during combat situations, however, since a character is most likely pumping large amounts of adrenaline to keep him going.
| | Grade | | | Fatigue | | | Injury | | | Penalty | |
| | 1 | | | dazed | | | bruised | | | - | |
| | 2 | | | stressed | | | sprained | | | -1D | |
| | 3 | | | strained | | | wounded | | | -2D | |
| | 4 | | | exhausted | | | maimed | | | -3D | |
| | 5 | | | unconscious | | | incapacitated | | | — | |
Fatigue (noted as
fat) represents excessive effort which wears down a character, causing him to tire. Fatigue can also result from blunt trauma and physical strain. When a character has sustained five grades of fatigue, he falls unconscious. If he receives any more fatigue, it is applied as injury.
Injury (noted as
inj) represents the character’s physical well being and can result from lacerations, breaks, and burns. When a character has sustained five grades of injury, he falls unconscious and is totally incapacitated. If he receives any more injury, the character dies.
creating characters
Characters can be designed in four easy steps.
| 1. | Choose a name, profession, and background. Complete the remaining steps, using this one as a guide. |
| 2. | Up to three gimmicks may be chosen for each character. Each gimmick reduces the amount of points available in step 3 by one or step 4 by three. If the gimmick has a next to it’s description, then it adds points instead of reducing them. |
| 3. | Allocate points to abilities. The exact number of points depends the nature of the game and is determined by the director. No ability may be less than one or greater than six. |
| 4. | Allocate points to skills. No skill may be less than two (unless unskilled) or greater than eight. |
| | Nature of Game | | | Ability Points | | | Skill Points | |
| | dramatic | | | 14 | | | 25 | |
| | loose dramatic | | | 18 | | | 32 | |
| | light heroic | | | 22 | | | 40 | |
task resolution
| | | | Difficulty | | | Description | | | Lifting Capacity | | | | 1 | | | trivial | | | 45kg/100lbs | | | | 2 | | | routine | | | 60kg/125lbs | | | | 3 | | | complex | | | 80kg/175lbs | | | | 4 | | | challenging | | | 115kg/250lbs | | | | 5 | | | formidable | | | 160kg/350lbs | | | | 6 | | | improbable | | | 230kg/500lbs | | | | 7 | | | impossible | | | 320kg/700lbs | |
|
| Tasks are tests of skill and/or ability. There are many aspects of a task which can affect the outcome. All tasks are resolved with ten-sided dice. The proper notation for dice rolls is xD, where x corresponds to the number of dice used. For example, 2D indicates that two dice are rolled.
The number of dice rolled is equal to the rating of the appropriate ability. Luck points may also be expended (and not regained until determined by the director) in order to increase the number of dice rolled by one (1) for each point. The result of each rolled die which is less than or equal to the skill rating is called a step. |
This represents how close (how many steps) the character has come to succeeding at his task. Unskilled attempts must roll a one in order to achieve a step. The number of steps required for success is dependent upon the difficulty of the task.
Automatic Tasks
If a character with a skill rating of four (4) or more is attempting a trivial or routine task which is not resisted or contested, it is an automatic success as long as the number of dice rolled from the appropriate trait only is greater than or equal to the difficulty.
Contested Tasks
A contested task is a direct competition against another character using the same ability and skill. The dice roll with the highest number of steps wins the contest.
Resisted Tasks
A resisted task is one which is attempted in order to counter a previously successful task or thwart one which is directed at the character (an attack, for example) using a different ability or skill.
For example, attempting to parry a punch. The number of steps achieved by the original task becomes the difficulty, although in cases where difficulty can vary (ranged combat, for example), the difficulty is increased by the number of steps achieved instead.
Sustained Tasks
Some tasks either require a minimum amount of time dedicated to them or may be easier achieved by spending extra time on the attempt. The director must decide the minimum time required (if applicable; this number can either be in turns, minutes, or hours) and the incremental amount of time at which a character receives a bonus. If a character spends more time on the task than the minimum, add 1D to the roll for each incremental amount of time beyond the minimum spent concentrating. If the minimum amount of time is not met, reduce the number of dice rolled (director’s discretion).
For example, suppose a character is attempting to hack into a computer system. The director determines that it will take a minimum of twenty minutes. If the character is in a rush and only spends ten minutes on the task, the director may decided to penalize him by increasing the difficulty by one (or perhaps two). If the character spends forty minutes so that he gets it right, the director decides that the bonus increment is ten minutes, so the character’s difficulty is reduced by two (40– 20 = 20; the increment is 10, so 20/10 = 2).
United Tasks
Some tasks can be performed by multiple characters with one acting as the leader. Only the leader makes a roll, but he may add 1D for each additional character assisting who is able to use all his dice relative to the skill (all dice for one specific ability are available) and has a skill level of two (2) or greater for simpler tasks (such as lifting), or four (4) or greater for complex tasks (such as surgery). The character with the highest skill level should make the roll.
Prostrated Tasks
A character may exert an extra 1D for any fitness-based task roll by choosing to gain one (1) grade of fatigue. This represents pushing one’s physical self by willpower or the release of adrenaline.
| | | | Composure Situation | | | Difficulty | | | | pain | | | 1 per grade of injury | | | | habits from gimmicks | | | 3 | | | | temper | | | 2-5 | | | | moral behavior | | | 1-4 | | | | addictions | | | 4-5 | |
|
Composure Tasks
There are times when a character must restrain his desires, habits, and responses to stimuli. To do so, he must make a successful composure roll. The difficulty is determined by the director and the ability used is based on the nature of the restraint. |
| • | Fitness is used when the character is attempting to control responses from physical stimuli such as crying out or flinching from pain. |
| • | Awareness is used when the character must recognize and prevent his habits such as nervous tics and unconscious speech patterns like stutters, as well as controlling his temper. |
| • | Reasoning is used when the character must prevent either compulsive patterns of behavior such as addictions, or immoral acts such as sadism and infidelity. |
experience
| | | | Skill Rating | | | Maximum Expenditure | | | | 0 | | | 0 | | | | 2-3 | | | 1 | | | | 4-6 | | | 2 | | | | 7-8 | | | 3 | |
|
| One point of experience is gained whenever a character succeeds at a task of difficulty 4 or higher. This experience point is attached to the relevant skill. It may be used to add extra dice to task rolls, but the skill rating limits the number of points which can be expended per task. |
Twenty (20) experience points can be expended to raise the respective skill rating by one point or learn a new skill with a rating of undertrained (2). Abilities cannot be raised under normal situations. Intense conditioning, however, can result in a slight change in ability (no more than one point). Increasing an ability or gaining a new skill costs twenty experience points which may be taken from any skills based on the relevant ability. For example, intense physical training over a period of several months can increase a character’s fitness rating by one, but he must also expend twenty experience points which may be taken from any fitness skills. All changes are at the discretion of the director.
Experience may also be gained in the following ways:
after each gaming session
| • | Players who chose to forego violence and roleplayed their way out of a dangerous situation receive two (2) points of experience in any combination of creativity, reasoning, or influence-based skills. This is awarded for each occurrence. |
| • | Characters who have a won an honest one-on-one duel or verbal exchange receive one (1) point of experience in any combination of combat-oriented or social-oriented skills, respectively. This is awarded for each occurrence. |
| • | Players who stayed in character the entire session, not straying from their characters’ beliefs or background, receive three (3) points of experience in any combination of skills. |
| • | Players who have described their character’s actions cinematically or creatively receive two (2) points of experience in any combination of creativity-based skills. |
after each adventure
| • | Characters who acted heroically throughout the adventure receive two (2) points of experience in any combination of skills. |
| • | Characters who accomplished all goals set before them receive two (2) points of experience in any combination of skills. |
| • | Characters who were successful at uncovering dastardly plans, secret plot elements, etc. receive two (2) points of experience in any combination of awareness-based skills. |
combat tasks
Whenever a situation arises which calls for more detail (like combat), the characters act on a turn by turn basis. Each turn represents five seconds. In order to determine the order in which characters act, each player rolls
1D. This is called a reaction roll. They may act in the order of lowest result to highest. If there are ties, compare fitness ratings—higher acts first. Players may also add
1D to the roll for each point of either fitness or awareness sacrificed for the turn in order to increase reaction speed (these points may not be used for the remainder of the turn). The lowest die is used as the result for the reaction roll.
For example, Joe allocates one point from his awareness rating of 4 in order to increase his reaction speed, so he rolls 2D. He may now only roll 3D (4 minus 1) for awareness-based tasks until next turn.
A character may perform one action of any kind per turn, plus as many additional actions as the number of extra dice added to his reaction roll. Additional actions are dependent upon the abilities used to increase his reaction roll—one extra fitness-based task per point of fitness allocated to reaction and one extra awareness, reasoning, or influence-based task per point of awareness allocated to reaction.
The first action occurs in the order determined by the roll. If a character is attempting a second action, it occurs after everyone else has completed their first action; if others are also attempting a second action, the initial reaction roll, once again, determines the order in which they act. This continues in the same manner until all actions have been completed. A character may allocate dice from the appropriate abilities to each action, but once used, they are not available for the remainder of the turn. It is up to the director to determine if multiple actions chosen by a character are feasible given the situation. For example, a character may run across the room and fire his gun, or stay alert while defusing a bomb, but he cannot run across the room and defuse the bomb at the same time.
The following actions may be attempted in a turn:
Move
The character can walk, run, crawl, climb, or swim. Distances are in meters per turn. The amount of dice (or difficulty) used for this action is determined by the desired speed and the skill used is athletics. The director may allow a character to move the desired distance simply by forfeiting the required dice for the remainder of the turn or make the character roll dice—the number of steps indicates the actual distance traveled.
| | Difficulty | | | Walk | | | Run | | | Crawl/Climb | | | Swim | | | Throw | |
| | 1 | | | 2m | | | 15m | | | 1m | | | 2m | | | 3m | |
| | 2 | | | 3m | | | 20m | | | 2m | | | 4m | | | 6m | |
| | 3 | | | 4m | | | 25m | | | 3m | | | 6m | | | 12m | |
| | 4 | | | 5m | | | 30m | | | 4m | | | 8m | | | 20m | |
| | 5 | | | 6m | | | 35m | | | 5m | | | 10m | | | 35m | |
| | 6 | | | 7m | | | 40m | | | 6m | | | 12m | | | 50m | |
| | 7 | | | 9m | | | 50m | | | 8m | | | 16m | | | 75m | |
Attack
The character may attack an opponent. The actual skills used varies by attack. Base difficulty of all attacks is two (2), except for ranged weapons (listed below), and resisted or contested tasks. An
Aiming Modifier is used if one turn is spent aiming ranged weapons—the roll receives +1D.
| | | | Range | | | Difficulty | | | | point blank (pb) | | | 1 | | | | short (s) | | | 2 | | | | medium (m) | | | 4 | | | | long (l) | | | 6 | |
|
Attack Types
Unarmed: fitness & brawling
Melee: fitness & melee
Firearm: fitness & firearms
Thrown: fitness & athletics
Bow: fitness & archery
Weapon modifiers can also adjust the user’s skill level when making an attack roll: |
| • | A Recoil Modifier is applied if burst fire is used or multiple shots fired. |
| • | Maximum Accuracy indicates the maximum number of bonuses which are applied from bracing the weapon. Bracing indicates that the weapon has been made more stable for the purposes of accuracy. There are three types of bracing—using two hands, using a shoulder, and using a mount to stabilize the weapon. Each type of bracing adds one to the skill level for the roll, but two hands must be used in order to receive additional bonuses.
+1 indicates that the weapon can only be braced by using two hands.
+2 indicates that the weapon can be braced by using two hands (+1) or two hands AND a shoulder (+2).
+3 indicates that the weapon can be braced by using two hands (+1); two hands AND a shoulder (+2); or two hands, a shoulder, AND a mount (+3). |
All hits are assumed to be non-specific. In other words, the damage is caused by hits to the chest or from general bruising. If a specific body part is targeted, the attack roll receives an increase in difficulty by one. A success indicates that the targeted body part is hit.
Optional: If the roll is not successful, but it would have been successful if a specific body part was not targeted (i.e. one less difficulty), the attack is successful, but the specific body part is not hit.
Other modifiers may be applied to attack rolls. Environmental situations may increase the difficulty. For example, it may be improbable to hit someone in the dark or challenging when he is running. Other factors such as technical knowledge may increase a character’s skill level for specific tasks. For example, a character’s engineering skill may add a few extra levels to his firearms skill to correct a jam.
Defend
The character may defend against an opponent. The skill used varies by defense. The number of steps from the defense roll becomes the difficulty for all attacks except firearm, thrown, and bow/crossbow; the difficulty is merely increased for these by the number of steps achieved.
Defense Types
unarmed block: fitness & athletics
unarmed parry: fitness & brawling
shield/melee block: fitness & melee
melee parry: fitness & melee
dodge: fitness & athletics
Use Skill
The character may attempt a non-combat related skill. Sustained tasks will obviously take longer than a single turn. The director is free to decide which tasks may be used in one turn or require additional time.
weapons
| | Weapon Type | | | Recoil | | | Max Acc | | | Damage | | | PB | | | S | | | M | | | L | | | Ammo | |
| | snub nosed pistol | | | - | | | +1 | | | 1inj | | | 5m | | | 10m | | | 40m | | | 75m | | | 6 | |
| | 9mm/.45 | | | - | | | +1 | | | 2inj | | | 5m | | | 10m | | | 40m | | | 75m | | | 9 | |
| | magnum | | | -1 | | | +1 | | | 3inj | | | 5m | | | 10m | | | 40m | | | 75m | | | 6 | |
| | carbine | | | -1 | | | +2 | | | 4inj | | | 5m | | | 10m | | | 40m | | | 100m | | | 20 | |
| | assault rifle | | | -2 | | | +2 | | | 5inj | | | 5m | | | 10m | | | 50m | | | 100m | | | 20-50 | |
| | heavy machine gun | | | -3 | | | +3 | | | 6inj | | | 5m | | | 20m | | | 50m | | | 150m | | | 50-100 | |
| | hi-tech laser pistol | | | - | | | +1 | | | 5inj | | | 10m | | | 20m | | | 30m | | | 50m | | | 50 | |
| | hi-tech laser rifle | | | - | | | +2 | | | 7inj | | | 10m | | | 20m | | | 30m | | | 75m | | | 100 | |
| | club | | | - | | | - | | | 2fat | | | - | | | - | | | - | | | - | | | - | |
| | knife | | | - | | | - | | | 1inj | | | - | | | - | | | - | | | - | | | - | |
| | staff | | | - | | | +1 | | | 3fat | | | - | | | - | | | - | | | - | | | - | |
| | sword | | | - | | | +1 | | | 3inj | | | - | | | - | | | - | | | - | | | - | |
| | arrow | | | - | | | - | | | 1inj | | | 10m | | | 25m | | | 75m | | | 100m | | | 1 | |
determining damage
| | | | Armor Type | | | Rating | | | Protection | | | | heavy clothing | | | 2 | | | fatigue | | | | leather armor | | | 3 | | | fatigue | | | | medieval armor | | | 2 | | | fatigue & injury | | | | older bullet-proof vest | | | 4 | | | fatigue & injury | | | | modern armored vest | | | 5 | | | fatigue & injury | | | | hi-tech armor | | | 7 | | | fatigue & injury | | | | hi-tech force field | | | 8 | | | injury | |
|
| In order to determine damage, roll a number of dice equal to the weapon’s damage rating. Unarmed attacks inflict fatigue and use one die, plus and extra 1D if the attacker’s fitness is three or greater. Melee attacks use an amount of dice equal to the damage rating and +1D if the attacker’s fitness is three or greater. The attacking character may also expend luck to increase damage. For each point expended, he may roll an additional die for damage. |
Each die which is equal to or less than the armor rating (add one to armor rating if the target’s fitness rating is four or greater) prevents one grade of fatigue or injury from penetrating. Each die which does penetrate inflicts one grade of the relevant damage to the target character. Note: armor rating is used only if the type of armor protects against the appropriate source of damage (fatigue or injury).
If the character is not wearing armor and his fitness rating is less than four, no roll is required. Instead, he receives one grade of injury or fatigue (depending on the source of damage) per die.
A character may expend luck in order to ignore one grade of fatigue or injury per point. If a character receives two or more grades of injury, or three or more grades of fatigue, he is knocked down and must spend the next turn returning to his feet or may act on the ground with a -1D on all fitness-based tasks as well as reaction rolls. If the amount of damage dice rolled against a character is greater than his fitness rating, he is also knocked down.
other damage sources
Fire and Smoke
Fire can cause either
fatigue from smoke inhalation or
injury from burns. If the character is in an enclosed area filled with smoke, a roll is required to determine the number of grades of fatigue sustained (use the character’s fitness rating as the armor rating). The damage rating from smoke can vary from one (1) to two (2) points of fatigue, and the damage rating from the actual fire can vary greatly—a small flame would be about one (1) point of injury while a serious fire would be five (5).
Asphyxiation
A character can normally hold his breath for a minute or two at the most when prepared. When caught off guard, however, he receives damage. This requires a fitness-based composure roll in order to avoid gaining one (1) grade of fatigue. Another roll is then made after a number of turns equal to the character’s fitness rating, and so on until he is no longer being asphyxiated or he dies. Once the character is unconscious, he receives injury instead of fatigue.
Falls
Falling a great distance can cause either
fatigue or
injury—a fall on a padded surface may cause only fatigue damage, while a fall on jagged rocks would most likely cause severe injury. This is treated in the same manner as a damage roll from an attack. The damage rating is equal to one (1) per six-foot drop. This can also apply to being thrown by another character as part of an attack, such as by martial artists (add one to damage for every three steps achieved in the attack).
Exposure
A character who has been in the wilderness during periods of extreme heat or cold, or has been otherwise exposed to the elements, is subject to one grade of
fatigue per day until he can find shelter or receive medical attention. Characters with the survival skill can avoid gaining fatigue each day with a successful task roll.
Injury is also possible from severe conditions such as frostbite or dehydration; the exact details are up to the director.
wound recovery
Fatigue may be decreased at a rate equal to the character’s fitness rating per day. Injury may be decreased at a rate equal to the character’s fitness rating per week. The first aid skill can increase the rate at which fatigue is restored by one grade, while the medicine skill can increase the rate for fatigue and injuries.
luck recovery
Luck points can be replenished when the director feels a character has done a fine job of roleplaying. Gaining luck is both easier and quicker than experience. The director may award one luck point when:
| 1. | The character has successfully talked himself out of an otherwise violent situation. This does not apply to mere influence rolls, rather pure roleplaying on the player’s part (creative use of dialogue or ingenuity when it comes to describing his actions). |
| 2. | The character has accomplished a personal goal or mission directive. This could be an obligation, matter of duty or honor, compassionate behavior, or selfless pursuits. |
