by
D. Marshall Burns
alpha draft #1 (3/4/2008)
Contact the author at marksman45@gmail.com
business up front.
what is THE RUSTBELT about?
This game is about the denizens of a place called the Rustbelt, located somewhere
unspecific in America, in the not-too-distant future. It is a lawless, mostly
uninhabited land, where the Rust eats not only the abandoned machinery and ghost
towns, but the laws of nature, reason, and order as well. The setting is grim,
gritty, and hardboiled, with just a touch of fantasy and Wild West flair.
But that’s just the surface. The game is really about goals and prices, choices and consequences. It is about people who live in a place where life is nasty, brutish, and short, and about them trying to find some meaning in that brief existence. It is about hunger, desire, hope, faith, and will in the face of inevitable doom. It is about doing the math, the cold equations, the Algebra of Need. It is about the human potential for good and for evil. It is about corruption, entropy, and inexorable decay. It is about people placed, either through choice, chance, or overwhelming forces, into situations that no person deserves to be in; what are they willing to do, what are they willing to become, in order to deal with it? It is about people pushed up against the wall of circumstance; which one will give in first?
In this game, characters can accomplish literally any goal through some means or other; it is never a question whether or not a character can do something, since the answer to that question is always “yes.” However, success usually comes with a price, so it is a question as to whether or not a character is willing to do something—which extrapolates to whether or not they should do it, whether or not it is worth it. The game is constructed to never answer these questions by itself—that bit is up to the players.
what do the players do?
Guided by mechanics and suggestions (that is, the whole of this document) to
provide adversity and turmoil, set up situations, and resolve vagaries and conflicts,
the players create stories as a group activity by taking on the roles of and
guiding the actions of fictional characters.
At least one of the players must handle the GM role, which essentially consists of handling the details that serve as a backdrop to and/or put pressure on the protagonist(s) and their stories.
who needs to read this document?
Everyone who is going to play. You don’t have to memorize all of it, but
you do need to at least be familiar with the system and setting. Most of all,
you need to know what it is you are getting into.
the real rustbelt.
It’s been brought to my attention that there really is a part of the U.S.A.
nicknamed “the Rust Belt.” This is a coincidence. The game is about
a different, fictional place that happens to have the same name for more-or-less
the same reason.
a note.
Stuff that appears indented and in a typeface like this constitutes informal notes from me, Marshall Burns, the author, regarding examples, implicit points I want to make explicit, things I can’t figure out how to formally codify yet, and things that I can’t figure out where to put yet. Just so you know.
And, yeah, this game is pretty much still alpha, although you’re free to attempt to beta test it. I’m quite confident in its playability (but that might just be my ego talking).
leftovers (an overture).
The region today known as the Rustbelt was once home to bustling population
and a burgeoning economy centered on wildly successful industries based in the
area. Where the landscape was not covered with boomtowns, it was covered with
factories, refineries, quarries, and drill sites. However, the economy proved
to be too dependent on these industries.
In the face of technological advances, outsourcing, and abstruse geo-political
and globo-economical forces, the corporations failed to adapt in time and became
uncompetitive in the market, with the result that the industries became unprofitable.
The corporate heads whispered, “Women and children first,” surreptitiously
dressed in drag, and gradually, systematically, jumped ship as the region sank
into an abysmal depression under the weight of the quietly but rapidly collapsing
infrastructure. The companies downsized then shut down completely. Workers with
the wherewithal to recognize what was going on and the means to act left for
greener pastures, and the region slowly became a wasteland of ghost towns and
the abandoned, rusting machinery that soon earned it its new name.
The people without the means or will to leave when Rust came to rule the Rustbelt clustered together in tiny pockets of humanity as civilization dissolved. The few counties left inhabited by this time became autonomous nation-states as the outside world ignored what was by now little more than a blank patch on their maps.
The wide stretches of land between these counties were collectively termed
the Expanse by Rustbelters and were completely abandoned. As they became abandoned,
they became forgotten. As they became forgotten, they became somehow strange.
Years down the road, Rustbelters began mounting expeditions back into the Expanse
in search of scrap metal and other salvageable resources. The ones that returned
brought back half-mad stories of “unstable geography,” swearing
that the land was “re-shuffling” itself while they weren’t
looking.
Then even stranger were the things that they found. Much of it was the sort of thing they expected: warehouses, dust-ridden ghost towns, old machines; some of the technology had been forgotten. Some people found things in the Expanse that had been lost while they were still in the Counties. But here and there they found other things that were forgotten and had been so for much, much longer. Things that people had long ago relegated to the realm of mere myth and delusion. Forgotten wonders, and, in the inevitable converse, forgotten horrors. Things that should have remained forgotten.
Initially, everyone chalked this up to insanity, drunkenness, or ordinary explorer’s fish-tales. But so many stories came back telling of the same sort of thing. People who could face up to the idea, rather than merely putting the Expanse and matters connected to it out of their mind (as many did), were forced to come to the conclusion that the Expanse was somehow not subject to the same laws as the rest of the world.
Avoiding the strangeness was easy when it stayed in the Expanse. But eventually, it started spilling over into the Counties. Strange people started cropping up, people who didn’t look quite like people should; massive, ten-foot tall brutes, or nocturnal people deformed with greenish skin and yellow eyes, or frail-looking people with haunting eyes who would be standing on the corner one moment and vanished as soon as you looked back. Mutated creatures appeared, at first just strange insects and birds, and finally odd, twisted beasts loping through the fields and streets. On a few occasions, they say the dead walked the earth.
It appeared that, without human reason to keep it in check, the Rust grew
gradually stronger out in the Expanse until it was able to intrude into other
arenas and start consuming not only the abandoned machinery and ghost towns,
but reason, civilization, and the order of the universe itself. At least, this
is what the metaphysicians said. But some metaphysicians will say anything.
Some people examined the Rust, poking it, prodding it, trying to figure out
ways to use it. Garage scientists, visionaries, and outright madmen used it
to rediscover ancient mystical arts, and even invent new ones. Various schools
and sects cropped up, all claiming to hold the key to true knowledge. Many of
them could actually accomplish magical feats, many were mere charlatans, and
many more were simply delusional.
Others took advantage of the slow chaos produced by the Rust and became mobsters, black marketeers, drug barons, pirates, mercenaries, robbers, and marauders. There was the Time of the Warlords, during which several people who had seen the Mad Max movies a few too many times cobbled together rag-tag militias and tried to take control of the ‘Belt, but that was a minor episode than ran its course.
Then there were those who embraced the Rust. They became the
class of people known as the Adventurers, a strange, wild sort of people to
match this strange, wild land. To these people, driven by a sort of mutant strain
of the Old Pioneer Spirit, the Expanse was nothing short of a fairy-land, a
dream world: a place to fulfill their dark fantasies and thirst for exploration,
discovery, and of course wealth and fame; a place of danger, of excitement;
a place to test the very fabric of one’s being.
But most Rustbelters, like most people everywhere, just tried to carry on as
normal, as they had ever since before the Rust came creeping in. They had, from
the beginning, maintained their newspapers, police forces, public transport,
city governments, postal services, and everything else they were used to, in
a determined if ineffective attempt to at least maintain the appearance of normal
reality, even if behind the scenes the armature was slowly being eaten away
by the Rust. The strangeness and brutality was, to them, just another thing
to worry about on a long list of things to worry about, in the mix with fixing
the clothes-dryer, making it to work on time, getting laid, and having enough
food to eat.
character model.
psyche.
The Psyche is a set of qualitative components that paint a general picture of
who the character is psychologically. They are interrelated and can influence
each other during play (see the Character Dynamics chapter). All of them are
related to certain Tough Questions (see below).
Note: for convenience, I will be using the pronoun “you” to refer
to the character in this section.
Hunger - This is a basic, fundamental need that drives and
motivates you. This is the shining goal you quest for. It is a hole in your
personal fabric that yearns to be filled. Freedom, true love, power, truth,
honor, acceptance, salvation; these are Hungers.
• You need not necessarily be conscious of your hunger.
• The desire to live is implied and does not qualify as a hunger.
• If you want wealth, fame, or power as a means to some end, it does not
qualify as hunger; however, if you want one of these things for its own sake,
as an end in and of itself, then it does qualify.
Who wants money just for the sake of money? Well, f’rinstance, there’s misers, and probably some insane people who are psychotically driven to collect money. Then there’s the Treasure Seeker’s Union, whom you can read about further on.
Vice - Vices can be viewed as smaller, more specific Hungers that definitely can be satisfied, but only for a limited time. Indulgences, addictions, things that are not necessary for everyone but have become necessary, or at least highly desirable, to you; that’s Vice.
“Vice” is kind of a loaded word, so it needs a definition for the purpose of this game. Any pleasurable activity is a Vice if it starts to influence your choices. Habitual smoking is a Vice, and so is being “in the right” all the time. Basically, if you feel put-out in some manner when you don’t have it or can’t get it, it’s a Vice.
Each Vice’s influence over you is rated with a Grip value from 1 to 20, with 20 being the most intense and consuming.
Faith - This includes beliefs, hopes, and any concepts that you give credence. Religion, the power of love, the bonds of friendship, human decency, the validity of science; these are examples of things people might have Faith in.
But it’s not limited to that. Being in denial is a kind of Faith, and so is racial prejudice. Every concept you put stock in, every axiom that guides your worldview, and every rationale you use to justify your actions is Faith.
Woe - This is grief, sorrow, guilt, regret, or remorse. The death of a loved one, the loss of a friend, failing in the eyes of your father, an act of cowardice, a crime, a sin; these are the sort of thing that produces Woe. Anything that the character beats himself/herself up over inside, whether it produces depression or rage, that’s Woe.
The grievousness of a particular Woe is indicated by a Deepness value between 1 and 20, with 20 being the worst.
Limits - Limits are the lines you are unwilling to cross, the prices you are unwilling to pay, the chances you are unwilling to take, and the sacrifices you are unwilling to make in order to attain your goals.
the tough questions.
These are questions, linked to the Psyche traits, that are intended to aid the
players in driving the narrative forward. There are no “correct”
answers to these questions as far as the game is concerned; the right answer
is whatever you, the player, feel strongly about, because that’s what
is going to produce a story that interests YOU. Also, don’t go panicking
and thinking that you have to address all of them; you don’t, you can
pick just one. Or you could not pick any of them; they’re just guides,
something to think about.
1. Is it better to pay any price to satisfy Hunger, or to yearn throughout
life and die unfulfilled rather than hurt others? Is there a middle path? Can
Hunger ever be truly satisfied?
2. Is Vice necessarily a bad thing? Can it ever be truly conquered?
3. Is all Faith mere delusion? Does it matter?
4. Is Woe the punishment for weakness? Is it just more meaningless suffering
in a meaningless world? Or is it the gateway to true strength?
5. Is there any Limit that will not yield in the face of death or total need?
Are Limits what separate Man from the animals? Or are they merely the mark of
the weak-willed?
ability.
These are the character’s raw, basic abilities. They are represented by
numbers, ranging from 0 to 10, with 4 considered an average amount, and a value
of 10 being considered freakish. Ability scores of 10 should be paired with
a description of why that score is so freakishly high.
Why might an ability score be freakishly high? One possibility is that it IS freakish—i.e., the character is a freak of nature, a monster birth. Another possibility is a bizarre or supernatural experience that left the character somehow “touched” with this strange ability — the influence of the Rust is both powerful and versatile. See also the section about the Odd People in the Rust chapter.
Tough – This covers strength, endurance, stamina, and general physicality. It is used for such tasks as moving heavy objects, hitting things, knocking down doors, and hurting people with force-based weapons.
Savvy – This covers common sense, street-smarts, quick thinking, wits, and base cunning. It is used for such tasks as deceit, bartering, fast-talking, operating complex machines and devices, and practicing medicine and other practical sciences.
Grizzled – This covers experience, guts, grit, sand, and how hard-boiled the character is. It is used for such tasks as intimidating people, coping with fear, bloodshed, and traumatic experiences, fighting dirty, and the kind of feats that people preface by saying, “Lemme show you a trick I learned back in the Army.”
Slick – This covers dexterity, agility, speed, and grace. It is used for such tasks as sprinting, jumping, climbing, dodging, operating tools, gun fighting, sneaking, and hurting people with finesse-based weapons.
Thorough – This covers meticulousness, focus, diligence, and patience. It is used for such tasks as noticing hidden features in your surroundings, coping with distraction, analyzing data, research, and sniping.
Personable – This covers charm, attractiveness, eloquence, and general likeability. It is used for such tasks as seduction, impressing people, acting, delivering speeches, and taunting people to distraction.
Note that appearance is not part of the Personable stat. Frankly, there aren’t that many people in the Rustbelt who look good, and who can blame them? If, however, a character is supposed to be beautiful, you can give them a Trait (see below) to that effect.
Cagey – This covers wariness, suspiciousness, alertness, and shiftiness. It is used for such tasks as seeing through deceptions and tricks, picking up on body language and other subtle cues, identifying and avoiding threats, and noticing people sneaking up on you.
Uncanny – This covers luck, intuition, and magical ability. It is used for such tasks as performing most kinds of magic, coping with magical forces, accurate guesswork, and being in the right place at the right time.
traits
These are any special characteristics that you wish to define. Physical characteristics,
relationships, and skills can all be Traits. The impact of a Trait relative
to how the character approaches things and deals with problems (not necessarily
the level of prowess when the Trait is a skill) is rated on a scale of 1 to
5. In the resolution system, when a Trait is applicable, it affords extra dice
equal to its rating (see the chapter on Resolution for more information). Note
that if a Trait falls under one of the Psyche categories, you should probably
put it under Psyche instead (Psyche components can also yield extra dice, so
don’t worry).
condition
This is where you keep track of a character’s status. The first three
categories cover different kinds of damage.
Blood – This covers blood loss, damage to vital organs,
metabolic damage due to toxins and disease, and wounds. When a character’s
Blood reaches 20, they go into shock and become incapacitated. A character who
has gone into shock may die at any time at player discretion, but after a scene
or two involving the character has passed without the character receiving medical
treatment or some magical substitute, the character should probably die. See
also the Last Push option, discussed in the Resolution Mechanics chapter.
Blood is healed over time, but requires medical attention (or a magical substitute
thereof) to do so at a rate of more than 1 a day.
Sweat – This covers weariness, mental stress, soreness, nervousness, and other fatigue of a physical or mental nature. When a character’s Sweat reaches 20, the character is completely exhausted and becomes incapacitated; this can be overcome through willpower but results in taking 1 point to Blood. Also at 20 Sweat, further Sweat hits carry over to Blood as the character’s cells begin breaking down due to fatigue-related toxins. Sweat is healed over time when the character is not engaged in strenuous activity, at a rate of 1 every hour, or double that while sleeping.
Tears – This covers emotional damage, pent-up feelings,
and turmoil. Tears are healed over time very slowly, about 1 a week, but can
be healed at a faster rate due to emotional connections between characters,
or purged through emotional outbursts; the more intense the outburst, the more
Tears are removed. Of course, emotional outbursts might get a character into
trouble.
When a character’s Tears reaches 20, the character becomes so depressed,
distraught, and/or overwrought that he/she is incapacitated; this can be ignored
through willpower, but doing so results in taking 1 point to Sweat. Also at
20, further Tears hits carry over to Sweat as the hormones released by emotions
begin to have a fatiguing effect on the body.
Judging the amount of Tears healed by an emotional outburst is one of the GM Tasks, as is judging how quickly an emotional connection can speed up the recovery of Tears; see the GM chapter.
Effects – This covers special effects that might be applied to a character, beneficial or detrimental. These would include but are not limited to such things as injuries (broken bones and such), blindness, panic, having been seduced, and magical boosts or hindrances.
willpower.
Every character is granted access to a vague force called willpower. Willpower
has the potential to overcome just about anything the character could come up
against (see the Push mechanic in the Resolution Mechanics chapter) and to ignore
all but the most literally crippling trauma (see above). You know those stories
you hear about a mother lifting a car that has turned over onto her child? Or
those stories about a drug fiend that broke through a locked door with his bare
hands to get his fix? Or those stories about the boxer who just wouldn’t
stay down, until finally he wore the other guy down enough to knock him out?
Or those stories about investigators wracking their brains, going without food
or sleep in order to make time for research and analysis? Or those stories about
critically injured soldiers who cradled their guts in one arm and crawled back
across the No Man’s Land to the medics? That’s willpower at work.
The player controlling a character is in complete command of whether the character can actually make use of willpower, to what degree the character uses it, and how often the character uses it. There is no willpower score to determine whether it works (it works when you say it works) or to determine if it’s currently available (it’s always available). If you want your character to be strong-willed and able to chew his/her own arm off if necessary, you can do that. If you want your character to be weak-willed, unable to tolerate pain, and unwilling to push his/her physical and mental limits, you can do that too. You can even have a character who starts out weak-willed and finds his/her inner strength in a moment of crisis. It’s up to you.
character dynamics.
This chapter describes the mechanics of characters’ Psyche components, which are dynamic and will probably change many times during play.
hunger.
Hunger is central to the character’s psyche; everything stems from Hunger.
The players have the choice of whether or not their characters pursue satisfaction
for Hunger, and they can change their mind at any time about this. If Hunger
is ignored or denied, then Hunger becomes Frustrated.
Frustrating Hunger has one of the following consequences (the player chooses):
1. The character takes on Woe representing regret over the decision to ignore
Hunger or the failure to satisfy it, whichever is applicable.
2. The character channels the Frustration into an emotional outburst, anywhere
from violent rages to dramatic crying jags (player’s call). Such emotional
outbursts may get the character into trouble or alter people’s opinion
of him/her.
3. The character suppresses the Frustration and takes a hit to Tears. Everytime
this happens, put a mark next to the Hunger on the character sheet to indicate
how Frustrated the Hunger has become; the number of marks indicate how many
Tears the character takes on. Suppressed Frustration can be alleviated by pursuing
the Hunger, or numbed by indulging in Vice.
4. The character takes on Faith that the Hunger is wrong. This prevents further
Frustration, until such a time as the Faith is Lost (see below), but any current
Frustration remains.
Hunger can be numbed by indulging in Vice.
vice.
You also have the choice as to whether or not your character indulges Vice.
Every time a Vice is tempted, you must make a choice:
1. The character indulges, which increases the Grip the Vice has on the character
(make a mark next to the Vice on the character sheet to indicate its level of
Grip).
2. The character resists. In this case, the character can either take on Woe
(regret over not indulging, specifically; “Man, I really should have let
myself have a good time that night,” something in that vein), or take
on Faith that the Vice is wrong. When Vice is resisted, withdrawal is experienced—the
character takes a hit to Sweat equal to the Grip of the Vice periodically (once
between scenes, or more if the scenes are widely separated chronologically).
Depending on the nature of the Vice, special effects may accompany withdrawal.
The Grip of a Vice can be reduced by taking on Faith that the Vice should be
eliminated. Once this condition is met, every time the Vice is resisted, the
Grip is reduced by 1. In this case, Woe should not taken on for resisting, but
withdrawal still occurs.
Indulging in Vice can be used to numb Hunger, Woe, and Lost Faith. It will also
remove withdrawal for the Vice in question and also heal any Woe representing
regret over not indulging the Vice in question.
faith.
If a character experiences or witnesses events that run counter to a Faith,
a choice must be made:
1. The Faith becomes Lost (draw a line through it on the character sheet).
2. The character takes on additional Faith or modifies the existing Faith to
“explain away” the experience.
3. The character explains it away as punishment for failing his/her Faith and
takes on Woe.
If a character’s actions run counter to a Faith, a choice must be made:
1. The Faith becomes Lost. If applicable, the character may (at player discretion)
also take on Vice related to the action.
2. The character takes on additional Faith or modifies Faith to justify the
actions.
3. The character takes on Woe as guilt over breaking the Faith.
Lost Faith also impacts the character. Whenever an event or experience Triggers
(reminds the character of) Lost Faith, the character experiences an emotional
reaction, usually bitter in nature. Similar to Frustrated Hunger, this reaction
must be either released in some manner of emotional outburst or suppressed.
Suppressed emotions regarding Lost Faith work in the same manner as suppressed
Frustration.
Faith facilitates subduing Vice.
At the player’s discretion, a characters can “re-think” his/her
Faith and thus modify or disavow it.
woe.
When Woe is Triggered (an event or experience causes the character to recall
the Woe), the character has an emotional reaction, and a choice must be made.
1. The character has an emotional outburst. The intensity of this outburst should
vary with the Deepness of the Woe.
2. The character suppresses the emotional reaction. This results in a hit to
Tears, the magnitude of which is equal to the Deepness of the Woe.
3. The character takes on Faith that the source of the Woe is not worth suffering
over. This suppresses future reactions when the Woe is Triggered, but emotion
suppressed in this way need not come into play until the Faith is Lost or the
player decides for it to do so.
Woe that is triggered repeatedly should become Deepened, incrementing its Deepness
value. Also, if a source of Woe is experienced again, or a similar experience
occurs, the Woe should probably become Deepened
Woe can be Healed by absolution, redemption, or forgiveness (whichever is applicable
to the Woe in question). Indicate this by reducing the Deepness, or, if the
Woe is healed entirely, drawing a line through the Woe on the character sheet.
Healed Woe no longer impacts the character when Triggered, but the wound can
be re-opened, as it were, by experiences similar to what created the Woe in
the first place. In this case, the Woe should start again with a Deepness higher
than it was before.
Woe can be taken on freely at any time the player decides the character rues
something he/she did or failed to do, or even feels guilt over something that
is not actually his/her fault.
limits.
If a character breaks a Limit, a choice must be made.
1. The character feels bad about it and takes on Woe.
2. The character takes on Faith justifying the action and the Limit is modified
or lost.
3. The character feels good about it, loses the Limit, and takes on Vice.
A lost Limit can never be regained; the character has crossed that line and cannot go back.
ethically questionable actions.
If the character commits an ethically questionable action (any action not justified
by the character’s Faith), a choice must be made.
1. The character feels bad about it and takes on Woe.
2. The character takes on Faith justifying the action.
3. The character feels good about it and takes on Vice.
The purpose of these mechanics is not to limit player choice, but to give it real consequences that affect the characters and the game in concrete, observable ways. As such, the role and freedom of player choice should never be infringed by other players, GM(s) included. It is not a question of “what the character would do”; what matters is what the player controlling the character wants the character to do.
character creation.
Character creation in this game is pretty much laissez-faire. There are no points to buy things with, you give the character whatever you think is appropriate. However, creating a useful character requires that you keep a few things in mind.
the character is essentially
a tool for creating a story.
A character needs to be interesting, and they need to have flaws. Which means
don’t give them all 9s on the Abilities and don’t give them a bunch
of Traits at 5; that would just be boring. Also remember that 10s indicate freakish
levels of prowess!
You don’t have to go crazy on this, but the character needs to have some starting Psyche. This should always include a Hunger. Try also to come up with at least one Vice, Faith, Woe, and Limit each. However, if you can’t think of one at the moment, don’t worry about it; they can be added later. When you’re setting a character’s Psyche, keep the Tough Questions in mind—particularly the ones regarding which you have strong opinions.
Also, consider creating the situation of a given session first, then creating principal characters, so that their Psyche components can be keyed for optimum pressure in the situation. If possible, pick characters who are implicit in the situation to be the principal characters, then “create” them (supply them with stats). See the Preparation chapter.
no character is an island.
Remember that characters exist as part of their surroundings and part of some
manner of community, however disconnected they are from those two things (a
distant, uncaring relationship is still a sort of relationship).
names.
Characters, of course, must have names. Normal, everyday names are still popular
in the Rustbelt, with the addition of some stranger names. Nicknames and single-word
names are also very common, especially in the adventurer and outlaw cultures.
Some examples of names that have been used in the game before or in stories
written about the Rustbelt:
Persnickety Kendall; “Risk” Abrams; Big John McClellan; Syco Ratchet Davies; Matchley “Match” Daws; Brian “Mountain Ox” Lobain; Darwin D.; Madorran Kil; “Uncle” Nash Blast-Radius; Rostand Bliss; Spider; Maria Blaza; Rosenstone; Joie St. Sepulchre; Blackhart Joe; Ophelia Sand; Lorelai Jacks; Baron ver Magnusson; Jim the Cutter; Red Molly; Simon Straw
resolution mechanics.
Resolution in this game is designed to serve a specific function: to aid the players in deciding what does and does not happen when things could come out in one of several different ways, and to determine the effects of the events in terms that are dramatic, consequential to the characters, and significant the story-process. It does not model what a character would “really” be able to do, nor does it attempt to. Your character can accomplish whatever you want them to accomplish—for a price. The question is never, “Is the character competent enough to do this?” Rather, it is, “How much would it cost the character to do this?”
basic flow of resolution.
Step 1: Intent - The first step is for the player to declare
the character’s Intent. This should include three factors:
10. The character’s Goal, what it is they’re trying to accomplish.
11. The character’s motivation for attaining the Goal. This factor will
probably be implicit in most situations, but it may occasionally require verbalization.
12. The Task (course of action) the character will perform in order to accomplish
that Goal.
The distinction between Task and Goal is crucial. For an example, picking a
lock and breaking down a door are Tasks used to accomplish the Goal of getting
on the other side of a locked door.
If multiple characters are going to be doing something at the same time, all
of the involved players declare their characters’ intents during this
step. Until the dice hit the table (step 4), the players can change their mind
and return to this step as many times as is necessary to satisfy everyone.
Remember to think about the repercussions an action might have on your character’s
Psyche through the Character Dynamics system!
Step 2: Danger & Challenge - The Danger is an event that will occur if the Task fails. It may be something that poses an immediate threat to the character, or it may be something that poses a threat to another character whom the initial character cares about, or it may be the failure of a long-term goal. Not all situations will include Danger, but Danger makes things more exciting.
Some examples of Danger:
• When stealthily infiltrating a compound, the Danger is that someone
might see you.
• When trying to get past a door to rescue a friend from dangerous persons,
the Danger is that they might kill him before you get there.
• When trying to jump out of a window to escape a bomb, the Danger is
that the bomb will go off before you make it.
The Challenge a numerical value representing the difficulty of the Task; that is, the amount of expertise, effort, and/or presence of mind necessary to accomplish the task. If there is no chance of failure, the Challenge is zero. Now, the purpose of this resolution system is to facilitate the handling of dramatic turns of events, so there’s another instance when the Challenge should be zero: the goal is not really important to the character and there is no Danger. If there is no pressure, there should be no Challenge.
Basically, Challenge is zero (there’s no need to roll) for things like unlocking doors with the proper keys, getting a cup of coffee, walking down the hall, et cetera, but it’s also zero for things like picking locks when the character has no imperative goal to fulfill. Which is another way of saying that locks (for example) that are difficult to pick should be introduced into the story only when picking said lock is important for the story—remember this if you are going to be GM!
If the Challenge is not zero, it should be at least 2 (because the minimum possible performance roll is 1). A Challenge of 10 means that a slightly above-average person (with a relevant Ability of 5) could accomplish it without breaking a sweat roughly half the time, while a Challenge of 15 means that an extraordinary person (with a relevant Ability of 10) could do it without breaking a sweat roughly half the time. Challenges above 20 should be reserved for things that a single person could not accomplish by ordinary means, or magical feats (the Challenge values for which are determined according to specific rules in the Magic chapter). For simplicity, it is recommended that Challenge values be set in 5-point increments.
Characters who are attempting different tasks at the same time will face, of course, different Challenge values. If a character is acting against another character, the Challenge is the other character’s performance roll (see below).
Setting the Danger and Challenge is one of the GM Tasks; see the GM chapter.
Step 3: Abilities, Traits, and Equipment - Next, determine which Ability and what Traits, Psyche components, and special equipment, if any, would help the character accomplish the Task with the greatest ease. Remember that only one Ability should be applied per character per Task, but multiple Traits, Psyche components, and special items might be relevant.
Judging what Abilities, Traits, Psyche components, and items are relevant to a given Task is one of the GM Tasks (that is, the buck stops with the GM); see the GM chapter.
Step 4: Performance - Next, the dice are rolled. All rolls should be made publicly, for all players to see. At least one ten-sided die is used; Traits grant an additional number of dice equal to their rank, and some special items may provide additional dice (this should be reserved for items that are indeed special—for instance, pre-Rust guns, magical artifacts, and special devices). Psyche components provide 5 dice. You do not add the values of the dice together; you select the highest value, and add it to the Ability being used. This total value is Performance, and represents how well the character can perform the task without suffering consequences.
Step 5: Comparison & Decision -The final value of Performance is next compared to the Challenge value. If Performance meets or exceeds Challenge, then the character performed so well that the Task is accomplished and the Goal attained without any repercussions for the character.
If Challenge exceeds Performance, however, the player must make a decision. One option is to Give, which means that the character did not perform well enough to accomplish the task, forfeiting the goal, and facing the Danger if there was any. The other option is to Push, which means that the character accomplishes the task through sheer willpower and pays the Price (the difference between Challenge and Performance), also avoiding the Danger. Depending on the nature of the Task, the form the Price takes can vary. If more than one form is possible, the player chooses between them (see below for more about this).
Note that there’s not really a limit as to how far you can Push. You can put your hand through a foot of steel if you really want to—you just won’t recognize it afterwards.
Step 6: Effect & Narration - This is where the players narrate what actually happens and any consequences are applied. The sequence of the actions is indicated by Performance (the character with the highest Performance acts first) unless a player willingly passes priority to another player.
By default, each player has exclusive narration rights regarding the actions of characters under their control, but such rights may be temporarily granted to another player for this purpose.
During this step, if necessary, a player can change their mind about how they want to narrate the outcome. Once everyone is satisfied, the narrated events are considered to have actually happened in terms of the in-game, imagined world.
Narrating a combat exchange includes describing where the attacks hit (there are no “called shot” penalties) and to what effect. The extent and nature of combat damage is subject to some additional rules; see below.
If someone Gave when there was a risk of Danger, the Danger should also be narrated at this time. If it poses a new, immediate threat to one of the characters, that will call for another round of resolution.
Narrating for non-player characters, Danger, and the surroundings of a scene is one of the GM Tasks; see the GM chapter.
antagonistic goals: where it
gets complicated.
Character-on-character conflicts use the same principles as the above resolution
outline, but these sorts of conflict also present a number of complex situations
which, while using the same rules, benefit from individual attention.
Type 1: Mutually Exclusive Goals - If two entities’
Goals are mutually exclusive (that is, they cannot both happen at the same time),
it can end in one of two ways: one attains their Goal and the other doesn’t,
or neither attains their Goal.
Let’s start with two example characters; Riggs and Caldwell, we’ll
call them. Assume that Riggs’s goal is to hit Caldwell, while Caldwell’s
goal is to avoid being hit. In this case, each character’s Challenge is
equal to the other’s Performance, such that it’s essentially Performance
vs. Performance. Depending on the numbers and who pushes and/or gives, different
results are possible. Let’s look at them one at a time:
Type 2: Deadlock - Deadlock results when entities with mutually exclusive goals have an equal claim to success, either because of tied performance values or because everyone pushed and nobody gave.
There are two ways to resolve a Deadlock:
1. The players controlling the deadlocked characters all agree to Give, in which
case no one attains their goal. This is only applicable when the Deadlock results
from tied performance values.
2. The players controlling the characters write down a Price bid (i.e., how
much extra Price they’re willing to have their character pay) and reveal
them simultaneously. Whoever bid the highest wins but must pay the amount of
Price that they bid.
Type 3: Non-mutually Exclusive Goals - This is when two entities have goals that are antagonistic but not mutually exclusive (that is, both goals could feasibly be attained despite each other). This either ends with one or both of the goals being attained. Combat where both opponents are trying to hurt the other at the same time is probably the most common example of this category.
This one is pretty simple to resolve; the person who out-performs the other gets their goal without a cost, and the other either gives (to avoid the Price), or pushes, in which case they pay the Price and they attain their goal as well (after the first guy, chronologically speaking, unless the first player allows otherwise). If the performance values are tied, both goals are attained without Price.
Type 4: Interference, Mutually Exclusive Variant - This is
the most complicated conflict to resolve. This is when one entity tries to do
something, and another entity tries to interfere in a way that is mutually exclusive
to the first goal. To resolve this, you must first resolve the conflict between
the entities, then, if still applicable, the conflict between the first and
his/her Task.
Let’s go back to Riggs and Caldwell. Assume that Riggs’s Goal is
to get on the other side of a locked door, and the Task is to pick the lock.
Caldwell’s Goal is to prevent Riggs from picking the lock, and the Task
is to pull Riggs away from the door. Now, since the dice have yet to hit the
table, Riggs has the option to either give up on the door for now and deal with
Caldwell, in which case the conflict will probably end up as a different conflict
altogether, but let’s assume that he continues trying to pick the lock.
Caldwell will be looking for Performance higher than Riggs’s, while Riggs
will be looking for Performance higher than Caldwell’s and higher than
the Challenge of picking the lock (separately, not combined). Depending on the
numbers, different results are possible. Let’s look at them one at a time:
Type 5: Interference, Non-mutually Exclusive Variant - This is when one character tries to do something and another interferes in a way that doesn’t in itself prevent the first character’s goal, but can make it more costly in the hopes that the first character will Give. This can end with either one or both goals being attained. In this situation, the first character is more likely to alter their goal before the dice come down, but they might chance it and go ahead. This works similarly to Type 4, but it is far simpler to resolve.
Let’s have another example. Let’s say that Riggs is trying to pick a lock, and Caldwell is trying to hit him. These goals are not mutually exclusive, since they could both feasibly happen. Riggs declines the chance to alter his goal and continues trying to pick the lock. Riggs is trying to beat the Challenge of picking the lock, and also trying to beat Caldwell’s performance (separately, not combined). Caldwell is trying to beat Riggs’s performance, so that he can hit Riggs before he finishes picking the lock, with the hopes of preventing Riggs from picking the lock. Here’s the possible results:
cooperation.
If two or more characters are cooperating to perform a Task or related Tasks
to achieve a common Goal, their Performance values are totaled and compared
to the Challenge. This is a good way to overcome daunting Challenges, or to
minimize the risk of retaliation in combat (there is most definitely strength
in numbers). An example of Cooperation in combat would be holding an opponent
down so your partner can hit them. Note that if two characters are trying to
hit a single opponent in the same turn, their Performance values are not pooled
unless the opponent’s Goal is to hit or avoid both of them (if the single
opponent’s goal is to hit or avoid just one of them, then resolution is
applied between those two characters, while the third can hit the single opponent
unopposed).
Any Price for a cooperative Push (that is, where both players whose characters are involved agree to Push; if only one wants to Push, that’s a solitary Push) should be shared equally, unless one player volunteers to take on more than his/her fair share.
mandated checks.
In certain circumstances, the GM is permitted to mandate checks on the part
of a character or characters. These use the normal resolution rules and are
essentially situations in which there is a Danger that must be confronted. The
following checks are allowed:
• Upon a character witnessing or experiencing human carnage (ranging
from seeing someone mutilated to coming across a corpse) or weird, supernatural
occurrences, the GM may mandate a Grizzled check to see if the character can
suppress response (screaming, panic, nausea, etc., at the player’s call).
Pushing in this case calls for a Price in Tears in the case of human carnage
and Sweat in the case of supernatural weirdness. Note that such an experience
of human carnage may also be a good opportunity to take on Woe… or even
Vice. Also, a character with bloodthirsty Vices probably should not be subject
to carnage-coping checks due to Indulging, and a character skilled in magic
probably should not be subject to weirdness-coping checks except in extreme
cases.
• If a character tries to accomplish something with an injured body part
(running on a sprained ankle, for instance), the GM may mandate a Tough check
to see if they can actually manage it. Pushing in this case calls for a Price
in Blood or further Injury.
• If a character has been performing a physically demanding task for an
extended time (carrying a heavy weight, running, going without food), the GM
may mandate a Tough check to see if the character can carry on. Pushing in this
case usually calls for a Price in Sweat.
• If a character has been performing a mentally demanding task for an
extended time (complex mathematics, studying a strange book, investigating a
crime scene), the GM may mandate a Thorough check to see if the character can
carry on. Pushing in this case calls for a Price in Sweat.
• When magic is being performed, the GM may mandate an Uncanny check against
the ambient level of Rust + d10 (see the Rust chapter) to see if the magic gets
out of hand due to the corrupting influence of the Rust.
• Rust checks, using the level of Rust + d10, may be mandated against
any particular stat. A Rust check basically deals with the Danger of some anomalous
phenomenon caused by the Rust having some sort of negative impact on a character.
The stat used in a Rust check depends on the nature of the phenomenon.
applying the price.
Several possible forms of Price exist: Blood, Sweat, Tears, Injury, Loss, Time,
Danger, and Manaburn. If multiple Prices are possible from a specific resolution,
the player whose character is suffering them can choose one or a combination
of them, as long as the total magnitude is equal to the value of the Price.
Prices are applied after the Task has succeeded and the Goal is attained, even
if the Price incapacitates the character.
Determining the forms that the Price can take and negotiating Injury, Loss, Time, and Danger Prices are GM Tasks; see the GM chapter.
Blood - Blood is applicable any time the Task could result in wounds. This is most commonly applicable in combat situations, where a combatant might Push to get a hit in even after being skewered, and pays the Price by worsening the wound already received. Remember that if Blood hits 20, the character goes into shock.
Sweat - Sweat is applicable to nearly every possible resolution. If the character’s Task could result in the character straining himself in any way, or in any manner of fatigue, breathlessness, mental stress, or nervousness, then Sweat is applicable. Remember that if Sweat hits 20, further additions to it carry over into Blood.
Tears - Tears is applicable if something or someone dear to the character is at stake, as well as in many social conflicts. In the former case, if the player takes Tears for Price, then that someone or something dear suffers in some way for an equal amount. Tears are also applicable in Grizzled checks due to human carnage. Remember that if Tears hits 20, further additions to it carry over into Sweat.
Injury - Injury is qualitative damage (an Effect) that covers a range of implementations, from profuse bleeding to broken bones to severed limbs to gangrene. Injury can usually be taken instead of Blood, and occasionally instead of Sweat. Some Injuries can be treated to alleviate or remove their effects, but nearly all Injuries heal very, very slowly (if at all), and are subject to exacerbation and relapse.
Note that Injury may impede future actions; overcoming this calls for a Tough
check against a Challenge determined by the severity of the Injury, or adds
to the Challenge of a Task that would be impeded by the Injury. If the character
Pushes in such cases, the Price might involve an exacerbation of the Injury.
Some Injuries may be too severe to be overcome (if you don’t have enough
of an arm left to throw a punch, you can’t throw a punch no matter how
much willpower you have).
The Price value of an Injury should be determined by how debilitating the Injury
is and how permanent it is.
So, some examples: a broken leg would impede actions like moving at a rapid rate, kicking, maintaining balance, etc. A basic break should have a Challenge of, say, 15 to overcome, but more severe fractures should call for higher Challenge.
Injuries like gangrene or profuse bleeding should call for periodic Blood hits. I would say that bleeding would call for 1 Blood per action in fast-paced situations (like combat) or 1 Blood per scene in slow-paced situations, while gangrene should start out slow at 1 Blood per scene and gradually escalate to 2 Blood at a time, then 3, and so on.
“Realism” is not an issue; adversity, intensity, and interest are the issues. I have a Random Knowledge Database in my head from which I often produce “gems” of gritty details (on top of that, I’m a former granularity fanatic), but I try only to do it when it makes things more interesting. You can go vague or abstract on Injury if you want to, or you can dig out your old anatomy textbooks and take notes from C.S.I. and Bones and House and whatever, but you don’t have to.
Loss - If the Task could result in a loss of equipment or provisions, then Loss is applicable. The amount of Price paid off by the loss of a specific item varies with the monetary and utilitarian value of the item (sentimental value would fall under the category of Tears), or with the dramatic impact attendant on the item’s loss (especially as it impacts Psyche). Tasks in which tools could be broken are good candidates for a Loss Price, as is running out of ammunition after releasing a barrage of gunfire.
Time - Time is nearly always applicable in some way. The amount of time indicated by a given value of Price varies with the situation; in a combat or chase situation, it might be an equivalent number of rounds, or possibly minutes, but in a less pressured situation it might be an equivalent number of Scenes, or possibly hours.
Danger - Danger is applicable as a Price if it’s possible to succeed in the Task, accomplish the Goal, and still face the Danger, or if there is another possible Danger. The Price value of a Danger should depend on how dangerous or detrimental it is.
Manaburn - Manaburn is a special Price applicable only to magical Tasks. Its effects are determined by the Manaburn Table (see the Magic chapter).
lasting effects.
Many goals will produce lasting effects on a character (particularly target
characters) when attained, especially if the goals are social in nature (such
as seduction, deception, intimidation, etc.). These should be logged on the
character sheets of the affected characters under Effects, including the Performance
value from the resolution that inflicted them (this value will serve as the
Challenge for overcoming the effect at a later time).
It should be noted that such Effects do not mitigate any Price incurred during
resolution in any way; they are caused by Goals, not by Pushing.
the last push.
A character who has gone into shock may summon up enough willpower to accomplish
one last goal, after which the character will die. This is called the Last Push.
Since the Price of the Last Push is death, it cannot be stopped except by another
push to death.
equipment malfunction.
Some kinds of equipment, especially machines and firearms, have a Malfunction
Rate. A character using such a piece of equipment rolls a ten-sided die, separate
from the Performance roll. If it is under the Malfunction Rate, the equipment
will malfunction; the effects of this for guns are determined by the Gun Malfunction
Table in the Equipment chapter. Extra dice conferred by Traits can be applied
to malfunction rolls if they were not used for Performance.
For machines and devices, it will be necessary to use your imagination (you’re bound to come up with devices I would never have dreamed of), but it won’t be too hard to think of something; just look at the severity of the effects on the Gun Malfunction Table and apply them to the car or mechanical limb or spirit attractor in a way that seems appropriate.
special combat rules.
Combat uses the same resolution mechanics, but has some further rules added
onto the framework.
Killing Blows - If a character is incapacitated, immobolized, restrained, paralyzed, asleep, or otherwise defenseless, a Killing Blow can be performed using any weapon that will result either in immediate death or a mortal wound (treated like shock), at the attacker’s discretion. If there is no one or nothing to prevent this, no roll is necessary and it skips from step 1 to step 6 in resolution (remember, however, that someone could always Push enough to chew through leather straps or snap handcuffs, which makes them able to defend themselves and prevents use of Killing Blows).
Which Ability to Use? - If a character is trying to hurt someone with their bare hands or an axe, sword (except a rapier, foil, epée, etc.), baseball bat, brick, skillet, hammer, or other force-based weapon, use Tough to determine performance.
If a character is trying to hurt someone with a knife, razorblade, whip, rapier, firearm, ice pick, thrown object, or other finesse-based weapon, use Slick to determine performance.
If a character is in the middle of a heated, chaotic shoot-out or any situation that could be described as “a war zone,” or is trying to hurt someone by fighting dirty, using cheapshots, or using techniques learned the hard way through experience (like some nasty nerve hold they learned in the Army), use Grizzled to determine performance (this supercedes the previous two guidelines).
If a character is trying to hurt someone slowly and methodically (as in torture), or is attempting to snipe a target from a long range with a gun, or using some other method that requires patience, care, and meticulousness, use Thorough to determine performance.
If a character is using some aspect of the surroundings to hurt someone or gain a combat advantage (knocking them over a railing, collapsing a ceiling onto them, etc.), use Cagey to determine performance.
If a character is taking a shot in the dark or other such thoroughly luck-based attack, use Uncanny to determine performance.
Combat Fatigue - During combat, using weapons and/or armor with a Weight statistic (see the Equipment chapter) in excess of the character’s Tough statistic results in Sweat equal to the difference each time.
Ammunition – The way to treat ammunition is thus: you’ve either got enough or you don’t. This applies both to the ammo you’re carrying and to how much is currently loaded into the gun. Running out of ammo (either totally or just in the gun, requiring that an action be spent re-loading the gun before it can be fired again) can be applied as a Loss Price.
If you really want to count your bullets (I used to get a kick out of it), I can’t stop you, but I will ask you to think hard and consider whether it actually has any more impact that the proposed mehod. I used to think it did, but not lately. I think you’ve either got enough or you don’t, and that’s all that’s relevant.
Determining Damage - All attacks have a base range of damage determined by the attack’s Arms Level. The Arms Levels proceed thus:
1. Unarmed attacks. Deals 1d10/2 damage (round up).
2. Bricks, bats, tack hammers, and other improvised weapons. Deals 1d10 damage.
3. Edged, pointed, and/or really heavy weapons (like sledge hammers), small
to medium handguns, thrown knives, hunting bows, miniature crossbows. Deals
2d10 damage.
4. Most rifles, machine pistols, big handguns, longbows, full-size crossbows.
Deals 3d10 damage.
5. Shotguns, big rifles (like elephant guns), assault rifles, machine guns.
Deals 4d10 damage.
10. High explosives, being hit by a train, falling off of a high-rise building.
Deals enough damage to kill you.
If the damage levels for guns seem low in comparison to other things, it’s because the guns they make these days in the ‘Belt aren't that great. See the Equipment chapter for more about that.
Sometimes it may be necessary to fudge these; for instance, a shotgun at a long range might be scaled down to Arms Level 4, and using a big sword in a cramped hallway should be scaled down to Arms Level 2; someone who is freakishly strong (Tough for 10) should get bumped up to Arms Level 2 in unarmed combat.
Armor works by scaling Arms Level down a level for every point of Armor Value. This is why there is a gap between Arms Levels 5 and 10. See the Equipment chapter.
The base damage afforded by the Arms Level is called the Gamble Damage (because it’s determined randomly). The attacker can add Hard Damage, unmodulated by chance or armor, by paying an amount of Price equal to the amount of Hard Damage inflicted (and, of course, narrating how the character payed that Price to inflict extra hurt). It is okay to add this Hard Damage after the Gamble Damage has already been rolled.
However, before rolling your Gamble Damage, you may Harden it by describing the attack well. Determining how good of a description is good enough is one of the GM Tasks (and thus discussed in more detail in the GM chapter), but here’s the basic gist of it: a description that is exciting is good; a description that is in keeping with the Rustbelt style (gritty, brutal, down-to-earth, and painful to watch, without swashbuckling, wu-xia, or manga stunts) is good; a description that makes other players’ jaws drop is great. Hardened damage should probably be awarded in 5-point increments. Based on the description, a certain amount of the Gamble Damage (even all of it!) may be changed to Hard (meaning that it’s impossible to roll under the Hardened amount; if you do, it’s automatically bumped up to the Hardened level).
Finally, some special weapons (especially pre-Rust guns, masterfully hand-made swords, and sinister mechanical devices) might have Hard Damage built in.
Note that only one damage roll is made, no matter how many times the character is described as hitting/shooting the other guy; it’s one attack, it gets one roll. So it’s perfectly all right to say you spent a whole clip on a guy, even if you only roll a 4 (it just means that the shots didn’t hit so well), and it’s perfectly all right to roll a 40 and narrate that you only shot the guy once (it just means you shot him but good).
Applying Damage - Combat damage is measured in terms of Blood,
Sweat, Injury, and occasionally Loss (in the form of damage to or destruction
of armor). The player controlling the defending character gets to decide how
the damage is split up, restricted by the following rules:
• The damage must be taken to the part of the body that was hit, which
is declared by the attacker. Note that the attacker can describe the attack
as hitting multiple places; the damage can be split between those in any way.
• No more than 5 Sweat can be taken at a time.
• The player can suggest Injuries, but the Price-value of Injury is always
judged by the GM.
Remember that the location of the damage and the manner of its infliction are
the province of the player controlling the attacker.
A defending player can always choose to have the totality of the damage hit
Blood, such that an attacker could inflict lasting, or possibly even lethal,
damage on accident—which would be very likely to have effects on Psyche.
Damage and its implications are applied after resolution is complete for both
all combatants involved in a conflict.
Note that there is no way to do minimal damage on purpose; this is intentional. The closest you can come is by narrating the attack as plainly as possible (“I shoot him in the shoulder”) to avoid Hardening your damage. You can hope to just wing someone when you shoot at them, but you might end up rolling a 40 despite your best interests.
Combat Advice - As you can probably foresee from these rules, combat is rough in this game. It’s not going to be a cinematic, epic, heroic fight scene as in most RPGs; it’s going to be desperate, vicious, brutal, and above all a struggle. The nature of the combat system requires thinking about combat in what may be an unusual way for many gamers, so here’s some things to keep in mind:
• Unarmed fighters, unless experts in unarmed combat or freakishly strong,
are not likely to inflict lasting damage (because it caps at 5 and thus can
all be taken to Sweat). If you get attacked and you’re not packed, grab
something, and quick. A board, a brick, a shard of glass, anything.
• Fighting someone to the death is both costly and risky; anyone who you’re
trying to kill can try to kill you back and have essentially an equal opportunity
to succeed. So consider whether a given fight is worth getting killed over.
If it is, then go for it full-bore; if not, then consider staying down after
a hard knock or two.
• There is all kinds of strength in numbers. A single fighter is terribly
unlikely to be able to defeat two assailants. If it gets worse than that, even
just to three-on-one, defeat is virtually guaranteed for the loner—it’s
always possible to win, but at what cost?
• A fight doesn’t end until one guy decides he’s had enough
and the other guy decides he’s dished out enough.
• Remember that Grizzled determines performance instead of other Abilities
in chaotic, war zone-like situations. If there’s bullets whizzing by your
ears and caroming off the walls, and there’s smoke everywhere, and there’s
pools of blood in the floor, and you can’t hear a damn thing because the
cracks of the gunshots are impossibly fucking LOUD, it doesn’t matter
how strong, fast, or skilled you are; what matters is how well you can keep
your head screwed on.
• Trying to just parry or dodge attacks is not as risk-free as it might
sound. No matter what you do, if that other guy really wants to hit you, he’s
going to. In this case might it go to Deadlock, which can be worse than just
getting hit.
putting it all together.
Okay, so here’s an example of how this whole thing works.
Riggs: My goal is to hurt Caldwell by hitting him with my
wood-ax.
GM: Caldwell, will you oppose?
Caldwell: Damn straight. My goal is to hurt Riggs by shooting
him with my .45.
Riggs: Wait, I changed my mind. My goal is to knock Caldwell’s
gun out of his hand by swatting it with my wood-ax.
GM: Before he gets a shot off? Or do you care?
Riggs: Nah, I’m not getting sucked into a Deadlock. Let
him try and shoot me.
GM: Okay, the goals are not mutually exclusive then. Riggs,
you’re rolling Tough. Caldwell, you’re rolling Slick.
Riggs rolls an 8, added to his Tough score of 7, for a total of 15.
Caldwell rolls a 1, added to his Slick score of 5, for a total of 6.
GM: Caldwell, do you want to Push to get an attack in before
you lose the gun? The Price is 9. You can pay in Blood and up to 5 Sweat due
to the impact. Or we can call it even if your hand gets Injured or the gun gets
broken by the impact of the ax.
Caldwell: How Injured?
GM: We’ll say a Challenge of 10 to overcome it.
Caldwell: Hm… I’ll Push and take the broken hand.
As Riggs comes at me, I don’t even flinch, I just take my time aiming.
A split second before the ax connects, I peel a shot off into Riggs’ torso.
GM: Okay, I’ll give you 25% Hard damage for that.
Riggs: The side of the ax smacks into Caldwell’s hand,
breaking one of the bones with an audible crack and sending his gun flying across
the room.
GM: Okay, Caldwell, roll your damage.
Caldwell’s gun is Arms Level 4, so he rolls 3d10, for a total
of 5. However, 25% of his damage has been Hardened, so it’s bumped up
to 8 (30 / 4 = 7.5, rounded up to 8).
GM: Riggs, how do you take the damage?
Riggs: Let’s see, I could take 5 to Sweat and 3 to Blood,
right? How much would a broken rib be worth?
GM: We’ll say that a broken rib will cover 5 damage if
you have to overcome it for a Challenge of 5 when doing things like lifting
heavy objects or swinging that ax of yours.
Riggs: Only 5 Challenge? My Tough is 7, so that means I won’t
have to worry about it unless there’s already some Challenge involved,
right? Okay, I’ll take 3 Sweat and a broken rib.
equipment.
personal inventory.
The only inventory that it is necessary to keep track of is equipment with stats
(weapons and armor), equipment that has been lost as part of a Price or taken
as part of the story, special items (devices, alchemical nostrums, magical artifacts),
and items that are important to the story (the briefcase full of cash, the key
to the safehouse, the roll of film with a photograph of the murderer, etc.).
Otherwise, whether the character has something or not is up to the player.
If you need a length of rope, it might be instinct to ask the GM, “Do I have some rope?” Well, the only answer to this question is, “Um, do you?” If you feel it advances and strengthens the story to have the rope, then you can say you’ve got some rope. If you feel the story is better if you don’t have rope, then you can say, “Damn, I need some rope,” and either start searching for some or try to do without. Note that it is the GM’s responsibility to respond to this development!
That being said, you can keep an itemized list of every penny your character has in his pockets if you want to; it’s just not required. I used to get a kick out of counting my bullets and cash. These days, though, it doesn’t do it for me. I only care about how much stuff I have in terms of how it affects the situation — which means I either have enough or I don’t; nothing else is relevant if you ask me.
equipment stats.
Items and equipment may have the following stats:
Weight – measures the heaviness of the object. This comes into play for determining combat fatigue when the object is used as a weapon (see the Resolution Mechanics chapter). The numerical value of the Weight is equal to how Tough someone has to be to wield it without suffering any fatigue. As a standard, the basic long sword, which will usually weigh about three pounds, should have a weight of 5.
Arms Level – measures a weapon’s ability to deal damage, or armor’s ability to dissipate or block damage. See the Determining Damage section in the Resolution chapter.
Malfunction Rate – measures how likely a device or gun is to malfunction. Should be between 2 and 10. A Malfunction Rate of 10 means that it malfunctions 90% of the time.
Armor Value –measured the effectiveness of armor. The
tougher the material is and the better the quality of the craftsmanship, and
the more consistent its coverage, the better the Armor Level should be. An Armor
Level of 3 would be considered extremely good; anything above that is highly
unlikely to be something that a person could actually wear (unless, maybe, they
were freakishly Tough).
Remember that different kinds of armor are effective against different things.
For instance, plate armor is very effective against edged weapons, but not so
hot against heavy piercing weapons; kevlar is very effective against bullets,
but it can be pierced relatively easy (kevlar is also rare in the ‘Belt).
In such cases, the Armor Level should be decremented.
guns.
Guns require special attention here because it is important that the players
realize what a gun means in terms of the Rustbelt world. First off, having a
gun sends this message to other people: “I can kill you at a distance.”
Guns have high Arms Levels, high enough to kill right off the bat with a good
shot, so someone’s not likely to go up against a gun unless they really
mean it, they have a plan, and they’re well-prepared. Or they’re
desperate as hell, or bugfuck crazy.
Second, guns are dangerous on both ends (see the Gun Malfunction Table below). The guns they have in the ‘Belt these days aren’t the ones that you and I are used to from TV or target shooting (pre-Rust guns are wildly coveted artifacts—some people will kill for a pre-Rust gun). Rustbelt guns are pretty crappy by comparison. They’re inaccurate, they jam, they misfire, frequently. This is, in fact, the reason why swords and such came back into vogue; a sword is always as accurate as you are, it never jams, never has to be reloaded, and will never, ever blow up in your hand. Also, with guns there might always be the Danger of hitting something or someone unintentionally.
Gun Malfunction Table
| Difference between Malfunction Rate and roll | Possible effects |
| 1 through 4 | Backfire(1-5 damage); or Minor Jam (Challenge 5 + Malfunction rate to unjam); or Deviation (bump Arms Level down a peg). |
| 5 through 8 | Major Jam (Challenge 10 + Malfunction rate to unjam); or Misfire (completely wasted shot); or Wild deviation (bump Arms Level down two pegs). |
| 9 | The gun explodes in your hand for 3d10 damage. |
Player may choose an effect from a higher bracket than required, but not a lower one.
devices.
People build all kinds of weird machines in the Rustbelt. When there’s
so many abandoned machines and bits of scrap metal to work with, it’s
bound to happen. They call ‘em Junkers, the people who scavenge old machines
and electronic devices and repair them or use them to build other things. From
walkie-talkies to mechanical limbs, from armored war machines to rail guns,
you can pretty much assume that whatever device you need to make your story
work or would just be wicked cool to throw in, some crazy junker out there built
one.
explosives.
Whether it’s dynamite, plastique, a pipebomb, a hand grenade, or an anti-tank
weapon, assume that anyone who gets hit with explosives up close should either
die or be horribly mutilated. If you’re at a distance, but still dangerously
close, take blast and/or shrapnel damage for 4d10. If explosives go off in enclosed
spaces, the concussion should have a Challenge of 15 against Tough to knock
people unconscious.
vehicles.
Performance for vehicular maneuvers should use either Slick or Grizzled, depending
on how chaotic the situation is. Enclosed vehicles should provide armor to their
occupants around 1 for cars, 2 for vans and trucks, 3 for semis and buses; add
1 if the vehicle has been armored. Hitting someone with a car should be about
Arms Level 4, and around Arms Level 5 for a bus or semi. Getting in an accident
should deal Arms Level 4 damage to the occupants (fudge downwards if it’s
a really safe car), or around Arms Level 5 if they were hit by a semi or crashed
into a concrete wall or somesuch.
a note on the level of technology.
Rustbelt technology is similar to modern technology, minus a few things and
with a few other things added. A few specifics: computers are rare and highly
valued; pre-Rust machines, especially guns and cars in working condition, are
wildly coveted, because their post-Rust counterparts are inferior; melee weapons,
especially swords due to their versatility, are popular and mass-produced, and
there are also masterful weaponsmiths who make exceptional weaponry with exceptional
prices; scrap metal is in no short supply; television and radio are available,
but satellites are not (they drop out of the sky); kevlar is rare and armor
like chainmail has come back into vogue; energy relies mostly on fossil fuels,
but, due to the low population, they are not scarce (this game is not Mad Max,
despite looking like it in a few places).
narrative flow.
Okay, let me preface all this by saying that I’m new to Narrativist roleplaying. However, I do know how to write a story. So, everything in this chapter is me trying to apply to roleplaying what I know about writing stories.
yarns.
The game designed to be played in short narrative units termed Yarns. A Yarn
should be comparable to a short story or novella, or to a single episode of
a one-hour TV series, and you should be able to resolve one in one or two sessions
of play, although ending on a cliffhanger is perfectly fine. The idea is that
each Yarn tells a different story about the Rustbelt, involving different and
recurrent places and situations and characters, such that Yarns will gradually
weave themselves together into a narrative tapestry depicting the Rustbelt itself
as the players have created it.
For the record, I didn’t invent this “Interwoven Yarn” structure. You’ll find it in the works of William S. Burroughs, Alan Moore’s The Voice of the Fire, Frank Miller’s Sin City, Isaac Asimov’s I, Robot, and Ray Bradbury’s From the Dust Returned, The Martian Chronicles, and, to a lesser extent, Dandelion Wine. And probably some other works that I’m not aware of.
preparation.
To facilitate the Yarn structure, I recommend “situation first”
preparation involving all the players, rather than the traditional “character
first.” That is, all the players to contribute ideas, facts, concepts,
and characters based on general consensus to be included in a Yarn until you
have a good situation constructed with plenty of potential for interesting conflict,
with the players then selecting characters they would like to play from the
situation and writing up character sheets for them. If the characters who seem
likely to be important outnumber the players, it’s okay to have the players
control more than one character each (especially if it seems death is likely).
Note that not every player character has to be a protagonist; it’s perfectly all right to designate a given Yarn as character X’s story, while character Y plays a supporting role. You can do a Yarn about character Y next time if you want. It is also okay for players to control antagonists, although no player should control both a protagonist and antagonist, or any other two characters in conflict.
Remember that the idea is not to play through a story, but to create a story through play, so don’t go overboard on the preparation—build enough to get a good picture of it, then wing it. Don’t panic: the story isn’t there yet, so nothing that you can come up with during play will ever be “wrong.” Besides, the story doesn’t have to be “good” by some nebulous grading scale; all that matters is that you, the players, care about it and have fun making it.
narration.
Narration is, in a nutshell, saying what happens. Every player has the narration
rights for the characters they control; that is, the person who decides what
character X actually does in the fictional world is the person who controls
that character, unless they pass off the narration rights for whatever reason.
Narration rights for the surroundings and extras (non-player characters) is
one of the GM Tasks (see the GM chapter).
But not having narration rights over the character currently having a scene doesn’t mean you should keep your mouth shut. Far from it! If you have any cool ideas, voice them to your fellow players. Think it would be wicked awesome if character X did activity Y, maybe with character Z? Say so! Maybe player X thinks it’s awesome too, but never thought of it before you brought it up. Remember, you’re building this thing together. Listen to each other, help each other out, think out loud, bounce ideas off each other.
plot.
Plot is the structure of events over the chronology of a story. This is typically
expressed in the following classical fashion: exposition, introduction of conflict,
escalation, climax, denouement. Now, in books, movies, plays, and TV shows,
all of this stuff has been written out in advance for us, the audience; in this
game, we’re the audience and the authors. None of this stuff exists yet;
playing the game is synonymous with making this stuff up.
Exposition - The exposition is where we meet the involved characters and their surroundings. A good deal of this will be accomplished during preparation, but you should try playing a few scenes to flesh it out a bit and give it some depth and familiarity.
Conflict - The introduction of conflict is a key point. This is where a figurative pebble is thrown into the calm pond of the exposition. This disturbance kick-starts the story. Basically, this is where some manner of problem arises for one or more of the characters. They want something, but X is in the way of getting it. Or, they really liked this thing they had, but Y came and stole it. Or maybe it’s something more mysterious: they wake up one day to discover a phone number next to their bed; when they call it, a strangely familiar yet ominous voice answers. Or something more complicated: worker X lives in a shithole apartment and is trying to get promoted at work; boss Y is interested in an affair with X, and would promote X if X played along; but an affair would endanger X’s marriage to Z; but if X doesn’t get the promotion, X and Z will have to continue to live in their shithole apartment, and their relationship is already strained due to their poverty.
It could be that everything was fine before, but now this terrible thing has
happened or is going to happen that will ruin everything. Or maybe things were
terrible before, and it turns out there’s a way to make things better—but
at what cost?
It may be good to figure out what your starting conflict will be during preparation
to prevent false starts.
Escalation - This part is the ever-widening ripples resultant from the pebble of conflict being thrown into the pond of exposition. This is where you Raise the Stakes. Introduce more adversity. Make it harder on the characters. Dig the conflict’s hooks deeper and deeper into them. Add conflicts, or make the existing conflict more complicated. Increase the consequences for failure. Make them suffer. There was never a book, movie, play, or any other kind of story that was interesting and in which the characters had it easy the whole time.
See, there’s a funny thing about fictional characters suffering: the more they suffer, the more we, the audience, identify with them. The more we identify with them, the more we care about them. The more we care about them, the more we care about what happens to them. The more we care about what happens to them, the greater the emotional impact on us when they suffer--thus, the more we enjoy the story.
Climax - This is what the escalation was leading to: the point where it can’t be escalated any further. The bets have been laid, and now it’s time to see everybody’s cards. You’ll know a climax when you see it because it will resolve (for good or for ill) the main Conflict that kicked this whole thing off. You will probably also be able to see a climax coming; this is great, because you can plan accordingly and set things up to give it maximum bite.
Denouement - This is where the pond finally calms back down. But it’s not the same pond anymore; it’s been changed. The ripples are gone, but the pebble is still there. In the denouement we explore the consequences, the aftermath, of the climax. Sometimes things work out for the better, and the denouement is a gentle, downward slope taking us out of the story and back to our daily lives with a nice, warm, fuzzy feeling. Sometimes things don’t work out so well, and the denouement is rocky, and we may get kinda choked up. Sometimes things don’t work out at all like we expected or hoped, and the denouement is brief and blunt, leaving us shocked and haunted. If we cared about the story, then any of these or any of the other numerous possibilities are a good, satisfying conclusion.
The Other Way: In Media Res - In media res (literally, “in the middle of things”) is a story-telling technique common in action-driven TV shows. It means that when we, the audience, come in, the Conflict is already underway, and all exposition is accomplished through the characters’ actions during the escalation and/or through flashbacks. In media res is great for action-packed stories because it kicks you in the face from the very beginning, so it’s easy to get into the jam. Since exposition is accomplished through action, the technique might seem a little tricky, but it’s pretty simple to do: just make sure that the characters’ actions are expressions of who they are, what they believe, what their experience has been, and what their interpersonal relationships are like (the Psyche mechanic is intended to help you with this).
The Other Other Way: Slice of Life - Slice of life stories
don’t have Conflict. Or, more accurately, don’t have any conflict
that’s “THE conflict” for the story; the story’s just
a sequence of events in which things act according to their nature, just as
they always have. This is the pond without pebbles thrown into it, or with really
small pebbles that don’t make much impact over the big picture, or with
pebbles being more-or-less accepted or even ignored. Also, slice of life stories
don’t really resolve; without THE conflict, there is no climax, and without
climax there is no resolution. Instead, these stories go on for a while and,
since they must stop at some point, eventually stop.
Slice of life will not produce especially exciting stories, and many of the
game’s systems might not come into play, but it can still produce satisfying
ones, rife with subtle, ambiguous, and problematic human issues. They can also
be good for setting up characters, places, and ideas that may return, fully
fleshed-out, in future Yarns. However, you may find that slice of life will
sometimes turn into the exposition of a classical story structure while you
weren’t looking.
Okay, so that last sentence is basically a description of how older versions of this game ended up working. I never did Story Before with it, just No Story (of which I am inexplicably fond) that gradually drifted into Story Now. A lot of stuff happened that wasn’t particularly important in any dramatic or narrative terms, then eventually something happened that led to story happening.
scenes.
A Yarn is composed of several Scenes, which work like scenes in a movie: series
of chronologically continuous events in a specific location, serving a specific
function. The functions of scenes are various: to introduce characters; to develop
characters through their interactions with other characters and/or the surroundings;
to set up conflict; to escalate conflict (Raise the Stakes); to set up dramatic
irony; and to resolve conflict, usually in the big climax scene. All of these
aims are accomplished through the character(s) doing something; it might be
riding a bus to work, or hanging out at a night club, or getting into a fight,
or any manner of things. The important thing is that the character faces relevant
adversity and responds in a certain manner due to his general makeup—his
Psyche (whether he follows it or breaks away from it!). Stories are made from
the medium of human drama, and that’s the core of it right there.
dramatic irony.
Dramatic irony is a technique used in fiction to increase suspense. It is when
we, the audience, know something that a character doesn’t know, and that
character does something due to that ignorance that is bound to cause trouble,
or moves forward to stumble blindly into this terrible realization that we knew
all along but comes as a tremendous shock to the character. It creates suspense
for us because of the anticipation; we just know it’s going to blow up,
and we’re waiting for it to happen while dreading it at the same time,
because it’s going to be so devastating to that poor little character.
Why are we so worried about it if we know it’s going to happen? Well,
first off, we’ve developed an attachment to the character by this point
(hopefully); on top of that, we don’t know quite how bad it’s going
to be.
I bring this up because dramatic irony is one of my favorite literary techniques and because a certain traditional roleplaying technique totally kills it. I’m talking about that old “surprise the players in tandem with the characters” kick. It does not ruin the suspense for the player to know something’s coming when the character does not. In fact, played right, it does the opposite: dramatic irony!
This doesn’t mean that surprise is a bad thing (although I think it’s not as good as dramatic irony, but that’s my opinion). My point is that you should feel free to talk to each other about what might be coming up. Throw some ideas out. It’s okay to know what’s around the bend—especially since you’re both audience and authors—and this way you can cook things up for maximum impact.
character development.
The main presence of character development in this game is the Character Dynamics
system. However, between Yarns that feature a recurring character, it may be
necessary to alter a character’s components (any and all of them) due
to the character’s experiences during the previous Yarn or during the
time between the previos Yarn and the next. Note also that you might play Yarns
out of chronological order, which will probably call for extensive altering
of recurring characters, even writing up different versions of the same character.
magic.
Due to the influence of the Rust, the fabric of reality everywhere in the Rustbelt
is more flexible. Once Rust came to rule the Rustbelt, it was only a matter
of time before madmen, visionaries, and garage scientists rediscovered and developed
magical arts.
However, magicians are not common in the Rustbelt, and most people live their
whole lives without witnessing any magic (or at least any obvious magic). Outside
of the Academy at Grandin City, County Rooke, magic is mostly limited to a few
isolated individuals (who were either educated through apprenticeship, self-taught,
or drop-outs from the Academy), and rare sects, whose traditions usually rely
on strange rituals and beliefs, as a contrast to the “arcane science”
of the Academy. In the adventuring culture, magicians are more common, but still
relatively rare; these magicians are usually also drop-outs.
Many people do not believe in magic (Faith, anyone?). If such people are aware
of the Academy’s existence, they believe that what goes on there isn’t
magic at all but some manner of charlatanry.
Magic uses the basic resolution mechanic used throughout the game, but also involves some extra factors, terms, and guidelines. In some instances, these factors can be quite complex. However, it is not necessary to even use magic in your game. If magic will be used, it is still not necessary to know the magic system well unless you will be playing a magic-using character or will be handling the magic-related GM Tasks.
Yeah, so, the magic system is disproportionately crunchy, which sort of bothers me because I don’t want people to dwell on magic all the time (it’s supposed to be rare!). It used to be even crunchier, as did everything in this game, but there were certain bits I could not bring myself to take out (i.e., everything that follows below). On the other hand, maybe it works toward my “rare magic” goal by discouraging people from “I wanna be a magic-user!” unless they are really serious about it. You’ll probably also notice that it’s more efficient to do things by normal means than by magical means; this is intentional.
the principal laws of rustbelt
arcane theory.
1. Nothing is created, just moved around.
2. Magic is incomprehensible; there’s no clear understanding of why it
works.
3. There is always a price.
4. The greater the power, the greater the price.
power.
Power is the measure of abstract energy used to create a magical effect. The
more overt the effect is, the more power is required. The lesser the probability
of the effect happening on its own, the more power is required. See below for
guidelines for setting Power values.
calculating challenge.
The Challenge of a magical feat should be calculated thus:
Challenge = 5 + Power – Complexity – Rust Level
magical price.
Most Price incurred by a feat of magic is in terms of Manaburn. The arcane community
usually defines manaburn as severe damage to the astral body. The astral body
acts as the conduit for the flow of magical power, and thus is placed under
considerable stress during magical feats. Manaburn is the result of too much
of that stress; straining the magic muscle, as it were. This magical stress
can be channeled into an Accessible Vessel to decrease risk to the magician
by spreading manaburn out; accessible vessels include foci and familiars (see
below), and willing living entities. If no accessible vessel is available, the
magician must take the full brunt of it.
The astral body is not separate from the physical body; the two are linked
in an energy feedback loop. Thus, astral damage can lead to problems with the
physical body. Manaburn is any astral damage severe enough to affect the physical
body.
Manaburn can manifest in a variety of ways; see the table below. Any time a
character suffers manaburn, that character’s player should select a number
of manaburn effects with the total value meeting the level of Price that must
be paid. To keep track of long-term manaburn effects, log them on the character
sheet or a separate sheet of paper.
Manaburn Table
| Effect | Value |
| Violent mood swings | 1 for every day |
| Loss of speech or any of the five senses, or loss of control over said faculties | 2 for every day, each |
| Unconsciousness or comatose state | 3 for every hour |
| Hemorrhaging or wounds opening (Blood hit) | 1 for every Blood point suffered |
| Violent, incapacitating illness | 5 for every day |
| Short-term amnesia (forgetting everything that happened in a given amount of time, after that amount of time has elapsed) | 5 for every day |
| Retroactive amnesia (forgetting everything before the onset of the amnesia) | 5 for every day |
| Total loss of equilibrium | 1 for every hour |
| Paralysis of a limb | 5 for every day |
| Hideous scarification (player chooses site) | 5 |
| Loss of a small body part (nose, ear, finger, etc.) to spontaneous combustion, petrification, liquefaction, or some other dramatic, unstoppable means | 10 |
| Loss of a limb | 20 |
| Fatigue (Sweat hit) | 1 for every 2 Sweat points suffered |
| Depression (Tears hit) | 1 for every 3 Tears points suffered |
| Injury, or exacerbation of existing Injury | Judged by the GM. |
| Vegetative state | 1 for every hour |
| Total bewilderment and confusion | 1 for every hour |
| Uncontrollable seizure | 1 for every minute |
| Savage, uncontrollable rage | 1 for every minute |
| Dangerous insanity; raving, thrashing, self-mutilating | 10 for every day |
| Temporarily vanishing from reality | 10 for every day | Death
by acute brain hemorrhage, spontaneous combustion, petrification, liquefaction,
or other such dramatic and unstoppable means
| (infinite) |
|---|
The other possible Prices for magic are Loss (either items simply vanishing in a weird, supernatural sort of way, or the destruction of magical items such as foci), and the Danger that the magic gets out of hand and produces unforeseen effects.
Yeah, the Price values of Blood, Sweat, and Tears relative to each other are not uniform like they are in other situations. Sure, it’s not fair, but, then, it’s not supposed to be.
the effect of the rust on magic.
In areas with high degrees of Rust, magic is easier to perform (lower Challenge)
but harder to control; magical effects can end up being far less or far greater
than intended, potentially leading to problems.
Whether this happens when magic is used should be determined by an Uncanny check
against a Challenge equal to the ambient Rust level plus a d10 (the Rust may
not Push), prior to the roll for the magic’s performance. If the Rust
wins, the magic must get out of hand; however, the magician need not worry about
paying any sort of Price.
Determining how magic gets out of hand and when to do Rust checks are GM Tasks;
see the GM chapter.
Note that areas with a lot of Rust open the doors for some heavy, apocalyptic
magic due to the lower Challenge values.
determining complexity.
Complexity is determined by the following guidelines:
Time: how long does it take, from the beginning of the performance
of the magic to the realization of the effect?
• +4 for every hour required.
• +0 if it takes between 1 hour and half an hour
• -2 if the magic takes less than half an hour
• additional -3 if it takes less than a minute
• additional -5 if it takes a split second (for a total of -10)
Vocality: are speech, chanting, and/or singing required?
• -5 if vocality is not involved in the process.
• +0 for vocality in the magician’s native language
• +2 for vocality in a non-native language
• additional +3 for vocality in an ancient, dead, or non-human language
(for a total of +5).
Mystical Passes: what physical gestures and movements are
required?
• -5 if no mystical passes are required for the process.
• +0 if simple passes (hand gestures, postures, walking sunwise circles,
etc.) are involved
• +X if complex or fatiguing passes (dancing, yogic postures, sex) are
involved, where X is the amount of Sweat suffered.
Accoutrement: what tools, apparatus, and preparation of surroundings
are required?
• -5 if no accoutrement are required.
• +0 for simple accoutrement, such as candles, mystical symbols, and incense.
• +1 for each rare object required as accoutrement, such as pre-Rust artifacts,
grimoires, and precious stones.
• +2 for hexsign, sigils, runes or other mystical symbols drawn over large
(room-sized) spaces.
• +3 for symbols created by difficult or dramatic means as part of the
magic’s execution, such as chiseled into stone, engraved into steel, painted
in blood (may be cumulative with previous)
• between +1 and +10 for using a focus, depending on how complex, personally
symbolic, and/or creative the focus is.
• additional bonuses for complex and intricate apparatus, esp. if hand-made
by the magician (see the section about the magical art of Formagetics).
• additional bonuses for appropriately enchanted accoutrement (Power of
the enchantment divided by 5, or by 2 if works only for a specific effect)
Reagents: what substances must be combined to produce the
effect?
• -5 if no reagents are required.
• +0 if non-rare reagents (herbs, semiprecious stones, animal parts, etc.)
are used but not lost, destroyed, or consumed in the process.
• +1 for every 3 rare reagents (precious gems and metals, pre-Rust artifacts,
parts of exctinct or unique animals) that are used but not lost.
• +1 for EACH reagent that will be lost.
• additional +3 for EACH of the lost reagents that are rare.
Sacrifices: what creature or part thereof must be sacrificed?
• -5 if no sacrifices are involved.
• +0 for sacrifices of creatures that were deceased beforehand
• +0 for non-lethal sacrifices of animals (blood, injury, small parts)
• +2 per point of Blood or Injury for non-lethal sacrifice from a human
(including the magician)
• +5 for EACH lethal sacrifice of an animal
• +10 for sacrifices of deceased humans.
• +50 for EACH lethal sacrifice of a human.
Drugs: what perception-altering substances must be consumed
by the magician?
• -5 if no drugs are required.
• +0 for drugs without notable side effects.
• +X for drugs with side effects to mental and/or physical health, where
X is the amount of Sweat suffered, or twice the amount of Blood suffered.
• +5X for drugs with lasting detrimental effects to sanity or the senses,
where X is the number of days the effect lasts.
Taboos: what behavior must be avoided, either on the magician’s
part or the subject/target’s part, for the magical effect to take hold
and continue working?
• -5 if no taboos are involved.
• +0 for taboos that can be observed with relative ease.
• +5 for taboos that are very delimiting.
Complexity for some magic can be modified (decreased) when one or more components
are unavailable. This will lead to either an increase in Challenge or a decrease
in Power (player’s choice).
Complexity is limited in certain ways by the specific magical art that is being
employed; for instance, alchemy consists mostly of reagent use and time with
occasional drugs, formagetics is almost entirely done through accoutrement and
time, and spellcraft might involve any combination of the categories (see the
chapter on Magical Arts).
Note that there is no science to what Complexity elements produce what effects; the workings of this are mysterious and unknowable. The characters might think they know, but they are either wrong or do not know the whole truth. We, the players, need only have a reliable means by which to handle these things, which is what these mechanics are all about.
Also note that Complexity is essentially a down-payment on the Price, and that it’s mathematically a better deal than Manaburn, but might cause story-based problems of its own.
group magic.
Some magic can be performed as a group activity. This makes things easier because
the various Complexity components can be split up between magicians. Like other
cooperation, the Performance of all the magicians is pooled. Any Manaburn can
be split up between the magicians however the players see fit.
types of magical effects.
The effect of any particular magic should fall under one of the following categories.
Note that these are not the Magical Arts, which are the methods through which
magical effects are produced. These concepts also have no mechanical (in terms
of the numbers and dice) presence; they are merely a language for describing
magical effects.
1. Abjuration – warding or blocking powers, energies,
eventualities, and/or entities. This includes the subcategory of containment,
which is trapping an entity or force within an abjurant field.
2. Alteration – directly creating changes to the physical
plane. This includes the subcategories of animation and transmutation.
3. Attunement – creating a bond between any two objects
and/or entities, or expediting the process of the bond occurring naturally.
This includes binding spirits and/or animals to create familiars.
4. Channeling – serving as a conduit, medium, or vessel
for an outside power, energy, or consciousness. This includes the subcategory
of conveyance, which is channeling a power, energy, or consciousness through
yourself and into an outside object, person, or plane.
5. Transcendence – expanding perception beyond the normal
human frame of reference, usually to a specific modality or “plane.”
Occasionally, this includes the expansion of other abilities beyond the human
level (augmentation).
6. Conjuration – moving objects or entities from one
place (or plane) to another instantaneously, usually to the magician. Conjuring
entities (spirits, people, animals, etc.) is also called summoning.
7. Enchantment – suspending magic “inside”
an object or entity. Most curses and blessings are a sort of enchantment.
8. Evocation – calling upon and directing the power of
an outside entity, or drawing and directing power or energy from an outside
plane. This is distinguished from channeling in that the evoker is not a conduit
for the entity or force, but creates an opening for it to enter the evoker’s
plane, where it acts using its own power according to the magician’s direction.
9. Glamour – causing things to appear other than they
normally do; this may be mere illusion or may actually have physical presence.
This includes the subcategory of obscuration, which is concealing things from
human and/or animal perception.
10. Vanishment – moving objects out of the physical plane.
This includes banishing spirits or, rarely, living beings to other planes.
determining power.
For combat magic - Power should be equal to the maximum range
of the Gamble Damage. Note that magical damage may be Hardened just like combat
damage. In this arena, the Rustbelt style is to have magic have a low-profile
but unsettling presence (no glitter and 80s sound effects; think subtle and
eery, not showy), for magical methods to be grim, strange, and even disturbing
to non-magicians while functioning on personally symbolic levels to the magician
(don’t shy away from the blood and sex; those are some heavy-weight, highly-useful
symbols), and for magicians to be intense and earnest and really meaning it.
For utility magic - Magic used to accomplish tasks that are possible by normal means (breaking down doors, repairing machines, treating wounds, detecting hidden things), Power should be equal to the Challenge of the task.
For subtle magic - If the effect is subtle enough that it would not be noticed by ordinary senses, such as altering energy flows or aspects, boosting healing rates by small degrees, or moving small objects that are out of sight, the required Power should be low, between 1 and 10.
For conjuring inanimate objects - Power should be equal to half the mass of the object in kilograms (round up). Objects that are attuned to the magician, or were vanished by the magician, or are close by (especially if in line-of-sight), should require less power (deciding how much less is one of the GM Tasks; see the GM chapter).
For high magic - For conjuring living beings (unless you’re not worried if they survive the process, then you can treat them like inanimate objects above), conjuring entities or objects from other planes, controlling the weather, mind control, glamour with physical effects (such as obscuring, say, a chair such that people can even walk through where it is), conveying a consciousness into a living being, long-term animation, transmutation, binding, teleportation, and other serious breaches of reality need to be assigned a Power of at least 20.
Deciding how much Power should be used in these cases is one of the GM Tasks; see the GM chapter.
Some examples:
advanced magical concepts.
Foci - Foci (singular focus) are objects used to “focus”
magical energies. The most common example is the magic wand, but other objects
with symbolic significance to the magician can be used. So, crystals and orbs
are acceptable, but so are things like musical instruments, figurines, books,
bones, and
Spirits - Spirits are any entities that exist without a physical
basis (at least, in their natural state). This includes phantoms, the spirits
of the dead, and also demons (beings that originate from non-physical planes).
As such, they wield power that is not found among humans, so many magicians
seek to contact, or even conjure and bind, spirits in order to gain access to
their power. However, relationships with spirits are problematic because of
their level of cunning and power, and the fact that they are inhuman, lacking
any morality or emotions that would be recognized by humans, and their motivations
are incomprehensible.
Spirits can be contacted by magic (requiring transcendence to find them and
attunement to communicate, or channeling to contact and communicate in a passive
manner). This is typically done to gain some kind of information or knowledge
from the spirit. They will usually demand a price for this.
Binding a spirit makes it a familiar spirit (see below) and requires first conjuring the spirit, preferably into some sort of containment (so that it doesn’t kill the magician right off the bat), then making a contract with it. Spirits always demand a price for their services, and many claim that the price is always too much. They cannot break a contract, but they can find loopholes.
Most spirits take the form of an object or animal upon being conjured to the
physical plane, which can make it difficult to distinguish between an animal
and spirit familiar, but some take a humanoid form or remain invisible.
Once conjured to the physical plane, spirits cannot leave it unless banished.
Spirits should have Uncanny values from 11 to 20; their other stats should depend on what form they take. They can be assigned any powers the players decide they should have; these powers can be added to on-the-fly if it benefits the story. To keep things interesting, spirits should be roleplayed as NPCs by the GM or players who do not control the characters they are bound to.
A note on roleplaying spirits: do not forget that spirits are INHUMAN (even if they were human once, they aren’t anymore--and there's no guarantee that what represents itself as a ghost really is one). Their goals, motivations, feelings, and thought-processes are therefore completely alien to humans. Which makes them terrifying by the very fact that they cannot be comprehended — not to mention the fact that they don’t belong here!
Note that magic used to summon a spirit might include stipulations like “appear before me in a form mild and beautiful to my eyes” — requiring a higher Power rating. And, if the magic doesn’t have something like this, take advantage of it to make the spirit’s manifestation weird and/or scary. Seriously, summoning spirits is a really serious, intense, terrifying prospect; it is not your everyday stuff. If it happens, seize the opportunity to take it over the edge.
Familiars - Familiars are animals or spirits that have been bound to a person. They cannot break the terms of their binding, but they can turn against their masters in more subtle ways if they are not treated well. Spirit familiars are the most problematic due to their level of intelligence and power.
Familiars can serve as foci and accessible vessels. Spirit familiars may be commanded to use their power through evocation. Note that evoking a bound spirit should have a lower Power rating than evoking an unbound spirit, and thus also a lower Power rating than accomplishing the effect through other magical means. Reducing the Power by one half is suggested for this.
Counter Magic - Counter magic is, of course, magic used against magic. In order for it to work, something in the nature of the two magiks in question must be opposed (such as with magic that produces fire versus magic that produces rain, or magic that locks a door versus magic that unlocks a door). When this happens, neither magical effect will manifest, and the magical conflict ensues. The magic with the higher Power will win out, and the difference between it and the losing magic is dealt to the losing magician in the form of manaburn.
However, if the magic is still being performed (as opposed to magic that has already been completed but which still lingers to produce a continuous effect), the losing magician can Push, which operates much like the normal resolution mechanic—although note that it is separate from any Push used to actually perform the magic in the first place—with one crucial difference. Any Price from initially performing magic is kept separate from Price incurred through magical conflict, because the full brunt of any Price resultant from magical conflict (that is, the total from both sides!) is visited upon the loser’s head, and the loser’s head alone. It’s an all-or-nothing game.
Magical conflict is quite likely to go to Deadlock, and it can be very costly. Here’s what a magical conflict typically looks like from the outside: one guy is, say, waving his hands around and chanting cryptic words, while the other guy’s playing a microtonal passage on a violin and dancing with a fox around a burning sprig of parsley (or something). Then, having completed their magic, there’s a bit where nothing much happens at all; this is where the two magician’s wills are directly Pushing against each other. Finally, one of them falls to the ground, bleeding out of his eyes, and slipping rapidly into a coma (manaburn really, really hurts). No flying around the room and throwing fireballs and lightning bolts at each other, okay?
And, yes, the magical conflict happens in a different arena than the normal resolution mechanics; two magicians don’t compare their magic-performing rolls, just the power of the magic resulting from those rolls. And, yes, the all-or-nothing Price is quite different, maybe even spot-rule-ish, but it works like that because I really like this concept and I want to encourage it, without taking it easy on the magicians.
However, the normal mechanics can still apply to situations involving magic: you can state your goal as being to interrupt someone’s attempt to perform magic, and now their magic-performing roll is up against your performance roll.
magical arts.
All magic is accomplished through some magical art or other. Several examples
of magical arts are provided, and you may create your own.
Ritual Spellcraft - Spellcraft refers both to the art of influencing
reality through spells (patterns of symbols expressed in terms of words, gestures,
actions, thoughts, images, objects, and/or combinations thereof), and to the
analysis and theory of spells themselves as an Arcane Science. It was the first
magical art developed in the Rustbelt and the most widely practiced. There are
three types of spellcraft, the first of which is ritual spellcraft.
Ritual spellcraft, also known as hexwork or witchcraft, is the most commonly
practiced by non-Academy magicians. It is the use of intricate, carefully constructed
ritualistic spells (a.k.a. hexes) that, when performed, will produce a specific
magical effect. That is, the spells are set up such that their Complexity covers
the Price totally.
The primary disadvantages of this class of spellcraft are that a specific formula
must be known (or developed through dangerous experimentation) for every specific
effect, and the spells tend to involve a wide variety of objects (eye of newt,
cardamon seed, iron filings, etc.) that might not be readily available in dire
situations—meaning that some Price must be paid. The primary advantages
of this class of spellcraft are that it poses the least risk to the magician,
and some ritual spells may be utilized by persons unschooled in magic.
Ritual spellcraft can include any and all kinds of Complexity, and can run the
gamut of magical effects. Magicians roll Uncanny, but non-magicians following
a ritual formula roll Thorough.
Method Spellcraft - Method spellcraft is the most commonly
practiced by students of the Academy. It was developed as a more versatile alternative
to ritual spellcraft, and it prioritizes portability and personal power. In
method spellcraft, the magician develops a deeply personal language of symbols
that are expressed in a personal manner, or method. Most methods utilize hand-gestures
and/or made-up words, which allows the method to be used any time, anywhere,
as long as use of the hands and/or vocal chords (whichever is applicable) has
not been obstructed.
However, the simpler (low on Complexity, and thus more versatile) the method,
the higher the Price. At one end of the spectrum you have the most versatile
method possible, utilizing mere volition, for a Complexity of -45, meaning a
Challenge of 50 + Power before Rust is applied. At the other end of the spectrum
you have the most specific method possible, which is, in effect, ritual spellcraft.
The biggest disadvantage of method spellcraft is the likelihood of high Price.
The other disadvantage is that methods and, by extension, spells utilizing them
are so personal that they cannot be used by people other than their creators.
Furthermore, developing a method requires a long process of discipline and mentoring
by a master of method spellcraft. And, the big problem: if any piece of a method
is unavailable, magic simply cannot be performed using it. The major advantage
is that, with enough self-knowledge, a magician can create individual spells
on-the-fly. Note that it is possible to develop more than one method.
Method spellcraft can include any and all, or even none, of the kinds of Complexity,
and can run the gamut of magical effects. Roll Uncanny, unless the method centers
around something that could be attributed to a different stat (such as Slick
for a method based around playing a violin, or Thorough for a method based around
making complex mathematical calculations).
Free Spellcraft - Free spellcraft, also known as improv, intuitive,
or direct spellcraft (also known derogatively as “the MacGuyver method”),
is the least common and was the last to be developed. Its developers found both
formula and method spellcraft to be too limiting, and so invented an alternative
with, in theory, unlimited versatility. In improv spellcraft, the magician identifies
a goal and then intuits a spell. This spell is keyed to the current situation
and thus draws all its components from what is currently available (including
but not limited to nearby objects, hence the derogatory nickname), making improv
spellcraft so versatile that it can be used any time, anywhere, regardless of
circumstances. In mechanical terms, this means that the player can choose things
from the current situation to be used in the spell, and Complexity is totaled
up based on that.
The main problem is that the Complexity afforded by the intuitited spell might
not be enough to make the Price acceptable. The other disadvantages are that
free spellcraft is incredibly difficult to learn, and learning it at all requires
a skilled mentor.
Free spellcraft can include any and all, or even none, of the kinds of Complexity,
and can run the gamut of magical effects. This art always calls for an Uncanny
roll.
Alchemy – Alchemy as a magical art is differentiated
from chemistry in that alchemical reactions do not function entirely on a physical/chemical
basis, if they do at all; there is always some degree of abstract, magical factors
at work. Alchemy can be used to create nostrums, tinctures, and powders with
various effects, or to enhance, destroy, or transmute materials.
Alchemy’s greatest advantage is that its effects can, in essence, be “packaged”
for future use, even use by non-magicians. This is also its greatest disadvantage,
since said effects must usually be prepared ahead of time.
Complexity in alchemy is typically limited to Time, Reagents, Accoutrement,
and occasional Drugs and Sacrifices. Note that alchemy could be used to create
special Drugs or Reagents with bonuses to Complexity (the Power for accomplishing
such things would be equal to five times the bonus they provide, or twice the
bonus if they can only be used for magic yielding a specific effect). Alchemy
can achieve any magical effect except for conjuration, channeling, and evocation.
This art usually calls for a Thorough roll, but particularly advanced applications
(such as transmutation) should call for an Uncanny roll.
Kything – Kything is the art of putting yourself “in
kythe” with another entity (a sort of attunement). Being in kythe with
someone means that you know what they know, you feel what they feel, you think
what they think. Typically it also means the reverse, unless you take precautions
to prevent it (requiring higher Power). It can be performed at great distances.
Kything is not the same as mind-reading (it is not like reading a book, or even
watching a film; it is very abstract and covers the spectrum of experience),
and it is not the same as telepathy (it is not like calling someone on some
sort of mental telephone). However, communicating or gleaning information are
possible applications of the art. Other applications include sharing someone’s
pain to make it easier to deal with, sharing your own pain with someone else
(even in a one-sided, offensive way, for extra Power), and cooperating on Tasks
over a distance.
Note that kything with someone who is insane puts your own sanity at risk. Also,
kything with supernatural entities is similarly dangerous, due to their inhumanity.
Complexity for kything is typically limited to Time and probably Taboos, but
Accoutrement or Drugs might be applicable. This art calls for Uncanny rolls
initially, but Thorough checks to see if the magician can maintain this state
for extended periods of time.
Formagetics – Formagetics, an art invented at the Academy
but inspired by the art of Feng Shui, consists of creating magical effects through
structural manipulation of energy flows. The formageticist performs magic by
building special objects, known as constructs, for specific effects, or by arranging
available objects into certain patterns to accomplish a desired effect.
Basically, what we’re looking at here is Complexity determined by Time
and Accoutrement, with Accoutrement bonuses for constructs. Making a construct
should require a considerable of time (the better the construct, the longer
it should take to build) and a Thorough check with a Challenge equal to the
bonus provided by the construct x2. Actually using a construct and/or available
objects to produce an effect requires an Uncanny roll.
Necromancy – Necromancy is the art of contacting, conjuring,
evoking, and/or binding the spirits of the dead. Spirits summoned by necromancy
do not take on a physical form, but they can be bound to objects, corpses, or
even entities.
Necromancy’s Complexity can be determined by any and all of the kinds
of Complexity, but high magic applications (such as binding spirits to physical
things) should require Sacrifices (in addition to whatever other Complexity
the player wants to use). This art calls for Uncanny rolls.
Diablerie – Diablerie is the art of contacting, conjuring,
evoking, and/or binding demons. Demons might take on physical form, or they
might be bound to objects or even entities. Note that all applications of this
art aside from evoking demons should be considered high magic, and that the
evocation might still be high magic depending on the effect it produces. Power
should be lowered when a magician is evoking a demon he/she has bound.
Diablierie’s Complexity may be determined by and and all of the types.
This art calls for Uncanny rolls.
Trance – Trance is an art used to achieve transcendence.
Certain kinds of transcendence can be used to facilitate certain tasks (i.e.,
bonuses to Performance), as transcendence essentially consists of expanding
or transposing one’s abilities beyond the normal human frame of reference.
The Power would be equivalent to the Performance bonus afforded.
Trance may get its Complexity from Time, Vocality (mantra), Mystical Passes,
Drugs, and perhaps Accoutrement. It calls for Uncanny rolls, and Thorough checks
may be mandated to see if the character can maintain the trance state.
As you can see, the applications of the magic system are pretty versatile and open-ended, and there is a lot of room for improvisation and story-telling. Maybe it’s a more of a system-kit than a system; so sue me. Don’t be afraid to cook up your own magical arts for your game! What about a magical art based around numbers? That might be neat. Or specific applications of ritual spellcraft used by strange cults? Chi manipulation? Divination? Casting runes? Psychokinesis? There’s plenty of stuff to work with.
the rust.
the rust as a concept.
On one level, we have the rust (small R) that pervades everything in the Rustbelt—the
corruption of ferrous metals through the oxidization of iron. This rust is a
symbol of the Rust. The Rust is corruption, decay, and dissolution, in every
sense of those words. It is the inexorable force of entropy. It is a force on
a cosmic level with but one agenda: to dissolve the universe in itself.
the rust as an influence.
The Rust pervades the Rustbelt entirely, and it influences things toward its
goal. It does this in a variety of ways. Sometimes it bends or breaks the laws
of nature, causing anomalous phenomena; sometimes it touches the minds of humans,
encouraging them in the direction of bizarre, disturbing, and/or aberrant behavior;
sometimes it twists existing things into horrible perversions of themselves,
or introduces horrors directly into reality.
The influence of the Rust in a given area is ranked by a number starting at
5, for the closest that the Rustbelt gets to normal. The only places that should
have Rust at 5 are cities, although they might have more than 5. Note that one
part of town might have Rust 5, but another part (especially a run-down sort
of area) might be upwards of 10. The further away you get from the cities, the
stronger the Rust becomes. When you leave the Counties, the Rust becomes very
powerful, with Rust levels upwards of 20. In some areas, in the forgotten ghost
towns, in the dark places of the earth, it is not unreasonable to have Rust
30 or even higher.
At any time, the influence of the Rust can cause strange things to happen. There’s
not really a limit to what sort of strange things; convolutions of space and
time are acceptable, as are streetlights becoming briefly animate, a briefcase
turning out to be full of live vipers, or horrific ghouls materializing from
cobwebs and dark memories. However, the intensity and relative weirdness of
a such phenomena should correspond to the level of Rust in the area. If Rust
phenomena pose a threat or disadvantage to a character (that is, a Danger, as
defined in the Resolution chapter), a Rust check is called for, which pits the
level of Rust + d10 against the character’s Performance with an appropriate
Ability. The Rust never Pushes; it is patient, it has time. In a manner of speaking,
it is time.
The influence of the Rust should be brought into a game to facilitate the story, either as a source of eery, creepy, or horrific mood, or as a source of antagonism and adversity.Deciding when the influence of the Rust comes to bear is one of the GM Tasks. See the GM chapter.
Regarding the influence of Rust on people, particularly player characters, it is important to note that the Rust does not force any behavior, merely opens the door for it, providing temptation and/or pressure, but the decision rests with the player controlling the character.
Also, the characters are not aware that this strangeness is due to the Rust. They’ve heard about things getting weird, but most people haven’t seen anything particularly phantasmagorical, unless they are seasoned adventurers. They talk about how things were “before the Rust,” but they are speaking figuratively; aside from perhaps a few metaphysicists, they don’t really conceive of a cosmic force called the Rust.Q: Given the Rust’s agenda, why does it make magic and treasure available?
A: Bait.
the expanse.
The Expanse is the area between the Counties. It is a vast wasteland of abandoned
machinery, ghost towns, crumbling highway overpasses like Roman aqueducts, quarries,
mines, factories, scrap metal shooting up from the ground.
The Expanse is the domain of the Rust. Nothing is constant here except for the particular highways that connect the counties to each other. Even the geography is unstable. All manner of strange things are found here, from treasures to horrors. Sometimes things that people lost back in the Counties, or things that were destroyed or forgotten centures ago, crop up here. Once a man went into the Expanse for a week, and when he came back out, he had aged five years. Sometimes you travel into the Expanse for an hour, and the return trip takes a week, or the reverse happens. Sometimes the dead walk the earth. The Expanse is the ultimate frontier; here there be dragons, as it were.
Nobody has ever made it through the Expanse to the rest of the world beyond. In fact, nobody’s even sure if there’s still a rest of the world out there.
monsters.
Monsters factor into this game in one way only: as anomalies produced by the
influence of the Rust. They are rare, even in adventuring expeditions in the
Expanse—by which I mean that, even if you are playing adventurers, this
game is not about kicking down the door and chopping up all the beasties you
find in the room. Most people in the Rustbelt, even many adventurers, live their
entire lives without encountering any sort of monsters.
Monsters are to be introduced for their horror and dramatic effect, not as a tactical challenge. In fact, in many cases, it is not even necessary to supply monsters with stats—there can simply be a Danger of, say, being eaten alive by the mob of hideous ghouls, and the Challenge to avoid it would be the Rust level + d10. Note also that you can treat groups of monsters as a single entity for Resolution purposes.
All monsters are, to some degree, unnatural, and thus are horrifying or terrifying to some degree. This means that Grizzled checks are in order, against a Challenge dependent on the horror of the monsters, to determine if characters have debilitating reactions. There are three general classifications of monsters: aberrations, abominations, and horrors. Abominations are typically more horrifying and dangerous than aberrations, and horrors are the worst of all.
Aberrations – these are monsters that are similar to
ordinary animals, but mutated or modified through the influence of the Rust
(directly or indirectly). Huge, loping wild dogs, flesh-eating night owls, inch-long
army ants who leave nothing but the bones, enormous snakes, that sort of thing.
Most of the time, people stand a chance against aberrations, as long as they
can keep from panicking.
If you give Aberrations stats, then their maximum possible Ability scores should
be equal to the level of Rust in the area they originated from.
Abominations – these are monsters whose mere existence
constitutes a serious breach of nature. This includes the walking dead, as well
as demons, and animals modified by hideous mad-science experimentation. Abominations
pose serious threats to humans, both in physical and psychological terms.
It is recommended that only lone abominations be given stats, and that groups
of them are treated as a whole in terms of Danger.
Horrors – these are aberrations and abominations taken to extremes. This includes things that flatly Should Not Be—horrific monstrosities of Lovecraftian aspect—as well as the weirdest, eeriest, most terrifying horror novel monsters you can think of. The odds of humans destroying or defeating a horror are slim to none—it’s probably either run or be destroyed, body and soul. Horrors should not be given stats; they should simply be mechanically represented in terms of Danger.
All of those examples of aberrations are things that I’ve used in older versions of the game, plus plenty of large creatures with exoskeletons. As far as abominations, we had a bear horribly modified by a mad scientist, as well as a 10-foot tall lumbering humanoid monster made of rotting flesh, and plenty of animate skeletons. Horrors provided the impetus, in Bang-like fashion, for some of my favorite thematic decisions on the parts of the players. We had a couple Lovecraftian amorphous, tentacular monstrosities, as well as an enormous, animate boiler possessed by the hungry ghost of a killer, and a few mobs of ghouls materializing from cobwebs and dark memories soaked into the walls.
A word or two about that boiler, by the way. The PCs were adventurers (the game was all about the adventurers at the time) and they came across an old manor house in the Expanse, which they of course decided to search for valuables. They had this sort of spiritualist/diviner magician (Simon Straw) who used a charm to “see” energy directly, so I, as GM, decided that this house had violent memories soaked into the walls, visible to Simon as a pulsating red energy. Simon’s player seized that, and gave the in-character line, “If these walls could talk, they would be screaming.” So, naturally, I seized that, as this was clearly something at least one player was interested in exploring further.
There was a gaping hole in the middle of the house, running all the way through the roof down to the basement, and in that basement I described a particular concentration of the red energy — which, of course, the players took as a cue to stay the hell out of the basement. The players dropped hints here and there that they wanted to know what had happened in this house; I had nothing planned, so I tried to pick up on their cues. It was gradually revealed, through objects they discovered and visions that Simon experienced, that the house belonged to a killer who burned the bodies of his countless victims in the boiler, in the basement.
So what happened next? A book shelf fell over and hit one of the PCs, causing him to fall into the hole and down to the basement. When the rest of the PCs got down there to rescue him, I realized that something had to happen (I just don’t do planning). I had a long-dead killer, countless victims, a boiler, and the memories of all this soaking the whole house — so, it was obvious, the boiler was possessed by the ghost/memory of the killer, so it came alive, suddenly full of flame, lashing out with suddenly flexible pipes everywhere, spouting steam, spitting flaming coals from its grate which now resembled a mouth. This presented the players with a choice: get the hell out of Dodge and leave their companion behind (and who could blame them?), or try to rescue him at great personal risk. They opted for the latter, half of them got killed (including the guy they were trying to save), but they didn’t leave anyone behind (except one guy who got grabbed by the tentacle-like pipes and thrown into the boiler’s flaming maw), and it was grim, horrifying, and awesome. This is an extreme example of what the Rust is FOR in terms of the game.
Now, perhaps it should be noted that all of this was back when I used an older system, in which rolls had to be made for everything (even on the GM’s part), and it turned out that a lot of it had to be thrown out to make this stuff (which was FUN) run and flow properly. However, the new mechanics presented in this document are intended to facilitate this sort of thing, rather than this sort of thing happening in spite of the mechanics.
the odd people.
There are some people, apparently humans, who have been deeply touched by the
Rust’s influence to the point of what would appear to be mutation. These
Odd People are typically outcast from mainstream society, because they are alien
and they make people nervous. However, many find a functional niche in the underground,
outlaw, and adventuring cultures, and although it’s not the same as acceptance
(if the Odd People are even human enough to care about acceptance), it’s
something. There are three “species” of Odd People, in addition
to many unique specimens.
Brugs – Brugs are very, very large, hairy, and smelly. Some of them get to be ten feet tall, with limbs like tree trunks. They have a reputation for being dumb, but they are actually quite intelligent (they just don’t let on that they are), and they have excellent senses of smell. They are also known for eating just about anything, their bloodthirsty demeanor, and their voracious sexual appetites. Some of them claim to be ogres, but no one else calls them that, because that would mean that ogres exist, and no one is comfortable with that (everyone knows that ogres are just myth). Nearly all of them take offense to the term “brug.” Brugs should all have Tough at 10, if not higher, and low Personable scores.
Gaunts – Gaunts are pale, frail-looking, and rather tall (upwards of six feet). They are known for their large, haunting eyes, and their eery presence. They have a tendency to be glimpse on the periphery of vision, then vanish when you turn to look. They are capable of very quick movement, and they are much stronger than they appear to be. Gaunts tend to be solitary, and they very rarely associate with normal people; nobody even knows if they can speak. Gaunts should all have Uncanny at 10, if not higher, and also high Slick scores and low Personable scores.
Greenies – Greenies have a sickly appearance, resembling jaundice, complete with yellowed eyes and greenish skin tone. Their nails grow long and hard, almost claw-like, and their teeth are pointed and narrow. They tend to have terrible posture and thin but wiry bodies. Their eyes are very photo-sensitive, and they tend to be nocturnal because of this. It is rumored that the taste of blood sends them into a frenzied, sometimes violent euphoria. Some greenies claim to be goblins, but, much like brugs, nobody calls them that, because that would be crazy. They are known for their cunning, especially as applied to electronics and machines. For some reason, there are no female greenies. Greenies should have Cagey scores in the neighborhood of 10, and also high Thorough and Savvy scores and low Personable scores.
I don’t recommend that PCs be Odd People. I mean, there’s been a few brugs that were good characters, and one of my favorites was a greenie, but on the whole they’re just too weird, and I think it’s better to keep that weirdness intact (especially since there’s a lot of details about them that are mere rumor).
the gm.
First off, and this is very important, this chapter is not one of those “GM only” sections; this chapter is just as important for all players to read as the rest of the document. This chapter deals with what the GM’s responsibilities are, including what the GM is not allowed to do. The GM has a specific role to play in this game, and it is emphatically not Lord and Master Over All Aspects of the Game. Nor should the GM be, under any circumstances, High Priest of the Rulebook; everyone should have access to the rules and should be able to point out when rules are being violated or ignored.
The GM’s role is, essentially, one of structure, organization, and facility. To put it generally, the GM’s job is to provide structure to the events of the game session (basically serving as a moderator or master of ceremonies for the game), and to provide antagonism and adversity for the player characters.
Okay, so, I hate the term “Game Master.” It leaves a bad taste in my mouth. But, for this game, I’ve been unable to come up with a better term for it. If you’re reading this and you’ve got any suggestions, don’t hesitate to let me know.
structure and moderation.
Scenes and Pacing – setting up scenes and cutting between
them is one of the GM’s responsibilities. However, the you (the GM) should
handle these issues based on what the players are trying to do—in other
words, facilitating the story the players are creating through their characters’
actions. This means you must listen to the players, and sometimes must pick
up on the hints they drop if they aren’t inclined to ask outright, “We
need a scene where my character confronts mob boss Tarasco.” Although,
players, unless your GM is a mind-reader, you should probably speak up when
you want such things.
This also means paying attention to when a scene is functionally over. It is absolutely not necessary to roleplay every minute of every day of the fictional events being depicted; cut to the good stuff. If you’re not sure how this works, go watch a movie and pay attention to when they cut from one scene to the next, and where and when the next scene begins in comparison to the previous—whenever and wherever the filmmakers want it to.
When setting up scenes, you will need to describe what the locale of the scene is like, but you also want to leave some things open. For one thing, the players need to have options. For another, some things might turn out to be relevant to potential Challenges (see below) and you don’t want to set them up as being weaker or stronger than is appropriate, so it’s better to cross such bridges when you come to them.
Moderation – in playing this game, table-talk between all the people involved is encouraged. However, there are times, particularly during applications of the resolution mechanics, where some moderation as to who speaks when is needed. See the example in the Resolution chapter and notice how the GM moderates the flow of it.
Adjudication – sometimes things crop up regarding the
player characters that require a judgment call on the part of someone without
a stake in it. This falls on the GM’s shoulders, as the only person at
the table who will never be controlling a protagonist. Judging what stats are
applicable to a given Task is one example of this, as is determining how much
Power is necessary for a given magical effect. In performing this task, it is
necessary for the GM to be as neutral as possible—you can’t take
it easy on the characters, but you can’t be deliberately screwing with
them either.
The adjudication category includes a topic that is important enough to have
its own section: Hardening damage.
hardening damage.
When Hardening combat damage, the you (the GM) should do so according to the
following three criteria:
1. The attack and its description do not obstruct the flow of the scene.
If they flow with the scene’s narrative, the GM should Harden 25% of the
Gamble damage. If they really help the scene along, the GM should Harden 50%.
2. The description is thrilling, compelling, and/or clever.
If a player says, “I shoot him in the leg,” they don’t get
any Hard damage for this category. If they get creative with it, that’s
when they get Hard damage. The best way to judge this is by paying attention
to the other players’ reactions to the description (that way it’s
not just one guy judging what’s a cool description and what isn’t).
If the description is good, give ‘em 25% (cumulative with the previous
category). If it’s so good that everyone’s jaws drop and they’re
speechless for several seconds, consider bumping that up to 50% (you know you
want to anyway). Note that by “clever” I mean “utilizing the
circumstances of the scene in insightful and/or unexpected ways, without violating
#3 below.”
3. The description fits the game’s style. By this I mean
that it is direct, brutal, and down-to-earth. Crazy, fancy wu-xia / manga /
Xena stunts have no place here. Neither does choreographed dance-violence. When
people get into a fight in the Rustbelt, they don’t square off nice and
neat and swing their swords in gloriously cinematic arcs; they get into each
other’s faces, wrestle each other to the ground, kick, bite, scratch,
gouge, choke, scrap, and struggle. It ain’t supposed to be pretty. If
they follow this, give ‘em 25%. If they really follow this, taking it
to the point that it makes people wince and want to avert their eyes, give ‘em
50%. Remember what violence really is: a person being hurt by another person.
Now, no matter how well they follow these, they can’t go over 100%. Which means that players can afford to break one and still get 100%, if they’re good about the other two. However, if they really, really break one, dock some of their percentage from the other categories. Note however that you cannot dock any damage that they actually roll; it’s theirs, and you can keep your paws off it.
These rules also apply to combat damage caused by magic, although the “style” category is a bit different. To expand on the stuff in the Magic chapter, the magical style is that the effect be simple, direct, eery, and occasionally disturbing. Under no circumstances should there be glitter (this is not Disney), 1980s sound effects (this is not The Labyrinth), or ridiculous lighting (this is not a Pink Floyd concert). Magicians in the Rustbelt don’t throw fire bolts; if they want to burn something, they merely cause it to ignite. Nor do they fly around the room and shoot lightning bolts from their fingertips; if they want to hurt someone, they do it as directly and efficiently as possible. Now, the mere setup of the magic system, especially how it prioritizes efficiency, should help with this; the players should remember that overt magic is expensive, while subtle magic is cheaper.
Yes, given these rules, damage can quite easily be brutal, especially if you’re wielding a shotgun or something. Which means, don’t start a fight unless you really mean it.
adversity and antagonism.
Providing adversity and antagonism against the protagonists of the story is
an incredibly important task—let’s face it, they aren’t going
to antagonize themselves. Furthermore, that adversity needs to matter to the
characters and prompt them into situations where they have to make evocative,
dramatic, and consequential decisions. The game is set up to provide you (the
GM) with two “handles” to make this job a bit easier.
The first handle is the Psyche mechanic: just put pressure on its components! That’s the reason they are there! Introduce conflict and adversity to the story that challenges a character’s Faith, or offer a character a shot at satisfying Hunger or indulging Vice (…for a price!), introduce elements into scenes that trigger a character’s Woe, put their Limits between them and something that they really want. Remember the Tough Questions? Put pressure on characters so that they have to take a side on those issues—or even switch sides. Basically, if they haven’t performed actions that trigger the Character Dynamics systems or they haven’t suffered (or caused someone else to suffer) for refusing to do so, then the stakes aren’t important enough. It’s time to kick it up a notch, or try something else. Which brings me to an important point: don’t hesitate to drop something the minute it becomes apparent that the players don’t care about it!
The other handle is the Push mechanic. It will tell you essentially the same
thing: if they aren’t Pushing to achieve their goals or they aren’t
suffering (or causing someone else to suffer) for refusing to do so, the stakes
aren’t important enough.
Now, there’s a caveat to both of these handles: if the player was forced
into one particular course of action, it won’t count for much. Nobody
will care about the “decision,” or, worse, they’ll be annoyed.
The trick is recognizing a situation where the character is between a rock and
a hard place, then capitalizing on that, such that they must opt between moving
the rock, breaking through the hard place, or being crushed, with all options
coming equipped with good news and bad news (or even just bad news, which raises
the question as to which is the worst news). Without free will on the player’s
part, the player isn’t actually creating anything in terms of the story
process, being instead a passive observer—which flies in the face of this
game’s purposes.
Speaking of bad news, it’s important to remember that if they’ve
read this document they should be fully aware of how much bad news is involved
in this game. Therefore, if they still want to play, they’ve essentially
given you license to lay that bad news on ‘em—which means you don’t
have to take it easy on them. All you have to do is give them options.
As your weapons in introducing adversity, you have everything in the Rust chapter, you have the ability to offer the alternative Prices, you are in charge of setting Challenges, you are in charge of the Danger, and you have dominion over all NPCs (although you can allow a player to control an NPC for any amount of time), as well as the ability to introduce new NPCs.
As a historical note, in earlier versions not only were the Psyche and Push mechanics absent, but all of this adversity stuff was handled by a small degree of informal consensus plus a lot of system (by which I mean many, many rolls and charts) — basically, there was an “engine” that was supposed to do this stuff by itself (mainly so that I could GM and play a PC at the same time, while eating my cake that I have). Problem was, it wasn’t reliable, so nothing much interesting sometimes happened for, like, ever. Which is okay for No Story play, but it’s dawned on me that I want something more out of this particular game. So putting this stuff in the hands of a person that can think, rather than dice that decidedly cannot, seemed the logical thing to do.
the challenge revisited.
Just a reminder: when setting Challenges, the degree of Challenge should correspond
to how important the goal is to the character (and thus how important it is
in terms of the emergent story). This doesn’t mean that the same wooden
door is easier to break down when getting on the other side isn’t important
but harder when it is; it means that when it’s important, you start bringing
in reinforced doors, with heavy locks (as an example; you basically own the
inanimate portions of the game, so use your imagination). And when it doesn’t
matter, it should be easy, so easy that a roll isn’t even necessary. Also,
keep in mind that the difficulty of a task is somewhat dependent on the current
situation; if it’s really quiet, it’s easy to pick a lock, but not
so when you’re in an earthquake.
In general, you can look at Challenge ratings like this: 10 is moderate difficulty, 15 is great difficulty, 20 is serious difficulty, and 25+ is extreme difficulty, calling for Pushing or cooperation (for anything that would be under 10, just give it to ‘em). Note that if there are characters in a position to cooperate and the drama and tension of the story is currently high, it would not be inexcusable to throw Challenge levels at them that require cooperation and Pushing. Note, however, that if a character must Push to accomplish something, then either Giving should be a viable (but not necessarily painless) scenario, or you should provide multiple choices when it comes to the Price.
the power of the price.
Okay, so here’s the thing: when the going gets tough, the characters are
going to be piling on Sweat and Blood like crazy. This is a good thing, because
it puts the players into a position where they’re ready to start bargaining
for the special Prices to avoid dying, which is awesome—or they decide
they’re willing to die, which is awesome. Fact of the matter is, Blood
and Sweat by themselves aren’t really all that interesting in terms of
fiction, but those special Prices (Injury, Loss, Time, and Danger), when wielded
properly, definitely are—especially if you can get them to trigger Character
Dynamics. And, given that the fun of this game is supposed to come from the
process of creating interesting fiction, this is exactly what you want to shoot
for.
So, some forethought is necessary on your part; have some special Prices with teeth (i.e., future consequences) up your sleeve. Remember that you don’t have to take it easy on the players (you don’t even have to clue them in on what the future consequences of a Price might be; let ‘em figure it out, and let ‘em get nervous when it seems like they got off easy). Also remember that although a player might suggest a Price (and when they start doing this with that desperate look in their eyes, you know you’re on to something), you are where the buck stops on this one.
Remember that stuff in the introduction about doing the math, the cold equations, the Algebra of Need? That’s not just rhetoric to get people hyped about the game; that is what the Push and Price mechanics are all about—it’s why those mechanics are in the game in the first place! When a character has to choose between achieving an important goal on one hand and avoiding hurt on the other, they’re gonna have to do the math. The more equivalent the prospective hurt is to the prospective goal, the scarier and more interesting that math is going to be.
Oh, and one more thing. We’ll call it the Rule of the Price: a
Price that doesn’t matter is not a Price at all.
