A System X compliant game must possess the following character entities.
An Attribute is the abstraction of a character's innate abilities, ability to fuse related Skill knowledge, and all other factors related to success on an associated task. Attributes range from 1 to 20. If an Attribute is rated zero or less, that reflects a complete lack of that Attribute's abstracted characteristic and, generally speaking, death (unless otherwise declared by the interpretation or world rules). The seven Attributes are defined as Agility, Charm, Endurance, Intellect, Mystic Ability, Speed, and Strength. Mystic Ability is optional, but when it is unused, it still exists in the game; it is merely fixed at zero.
Agility rates a character's manual dexterity, grace, and hand-eye coordination.
Charm reflects a character's general social ability, force of personality, and personal magnetism. It does not necessarily reflect physical appearance, although that may be a factor depending on the Skill list of the game.
Endurance describes a character's physical and mental resistance to injury.
Intellect expresses a character's ability to acquire and utilize knowledge.
Mystic Ability rates a character's attunement to, and degree of control over, supernatural effects as defined by the world rules. Mystic Ability need not be used in a game, but it still exists for the character – it is merely fixed at zero if it does not exist.
Speed reflects a character's physical ability to move quickly. Unlike Agility, Speed makes no presumptions that those movements possess any degree of complex coordination. It is a measure of raw movement rate and nothing else.
Strength describes the ability of a character's muscles to exert force.
A Skill is a measure of a character's training in a particular area of knowledge. This knowledge may be mental, physical, or spiritual in nature.
Skills may be specialized at no cost. Specialization declares a particular subset of the Skill's abstracted knowledge in which the character is particularly proficient. A specialization adds +1 to the character's Skill Value for uses inside the declared subset and adds –1 to the character's Skill Value for any uses outside the declared subset. Any particular Skill must have at most one specialization. A Skill may require specialization at any particular rating.
Skills may also require automatic subdividing specialization, in which case the Skill must be specialized when it is taken and is automatically considered a new Skill. The declared specialization provides no modifications to the character's Skill Value for that Skill, although any uses of the Skill outside of its specialization are considered unskilled. A Skill that requires automatic subdividing specialization may also allow normal specialization. In this case, the normal specialization must be in a subset of the automatic specialization.
Skills may also, at various ratings, provide Special Abilities, although these must be strictly supernatural in nature. The Special Abilities' Skill Values are equal to their creator Skill's Skill rating plus the Mystic Ability Attribute.
The game must possess Initiative, Maximum Wounds, Wounds Remaining, and Wound State.
Initiative is a number of variable range to which the roll of one twenty-sided die is added. The result is used to determine the order of actions in a combat round. Actions are taken in descending values of this calculation.
Wounds are used to reflect the amount of abstract damage points a character can receive before suffering an incapacitating, eventually fatal wound. The Maximum Wounds is equal to the maximum number of Wounds a character can have remaining. The Wounds Remaining is equal to the number of Wounds a character has left. Wounds Remaining may also be referred to as remaining wounds.
The Wound State is a global descriptor that defines what set of rules a character acts under. It varies based on the character's remaining wounds and game time. It has six values: Normal, Near-Death, Incapacitated, Dying, Dead, and Parts.
A character in the Normal wound state operates under no special rules. The Normal wound state is the default wound state.
A character in the Near-Death wound state has exactly one (1) wound remaining. He may not engage in any strenuous physical activity and may only act once every two rounds.
A character in the Incapacitated wound state has exactly zero (0) wounds remaining. He is unable to act in any fashion.
A character in the Dying wound state has a negative number of wounds remaining, but no fewer wounds than the negative of his Maximum Wounds. A character at this wound state is unable to take any actions and will change to the Dead wound state after a number of minutes equal to his Endurance attribute times two.
A character in the Dead wound state is there due to a wound state change enforced from the Dying wound state. A character in this wound state has no heart or lung activity and is effectively dead. He may or may not be able to be revived, depending on the world rules.
A character that has taken more wounds than the negative of his Maximum Wounds is in the Parts wound state. A character in this wound state is instantly and irrevocably dead.
All characters must possess both General Experience Points (GXP) and Skill Experience Points (SXP). GXP are unassociated and used to manipulate any aspect of a character; SXP are tied to particular Skills and are used to increase them on an individual basis.
The system must provide this set of fixed definition entities.
The round is a time entity used in combat. It is equal to five seconds of game time and contains zero or more tasks of five-second duration or less from every character in the scene. A System X compliant game may use rounds of different lengths for different situations, but must at least use the above definition for person-to-person combat.
The miss margin is a minimum success margin under which a potential hit from a weapon is automatically declared a miss. The margin multiplier is used to multiply the success margin of a hit before adding the weapon's damage.
A System X compliant game must possess at least the following sections with the following content.
This section describes the process of constructing a character. The Character Generation section must generate legal values for Attributes and Skills using a non- random point allocation system. Any Special Abilities, advantages, disadvantages, merits, flaws, or other non-specified entities defined in the interpretation or world rules must be purchased using the points allotted for Skill allocation.
This section must also describe any required character entities not described elsewhere.
While the game must provide a standard system of Attribute and Skill selection through non-random point allocation, it may offer alternative methods of Attribute and Skill selection.
Any Attribute-derived values, such as Maximum Wounds and Wounds Remaining, as well as any that are defined by the interpretation or world rules, must be referred to as Derived Attributes. They must be calculated upon character generation.
This section describes the operation of the Core Resolution Mechanic and includes a copy of the roll chart and a description of all System X compliant aspects of the Core Resolution Mechanic.
This section lists all Skills available in the game. This section may also be known as "Skills" or may be integrated with the Character Generation section.
This section describes all combat interpretation rules and includes all System X compliant combat interpretation rules.
This section describes the basic System X compliant character advancement system, along with any game-specific additions.
All System X compliant games must implement the following combat interpretation rules.
Combat is divided into two phases. In the first phase, characters roll Initiative by adding the roll of a twenty-sided die to their Initiative statistic. The Action phase proceeds in descending order of the results. Characters with equal Initiative values act simultaneously; for simplicity, the exact order of their actions may be determined by any random method, but the results of their actions are applied at the same time.
The second phase is Action, in which characters take any action that requires five seconds or less to perform. Characters may only act out of turn in the case of evasion rolls or in other situations that the game may define.
Characters may perform multiple tasks (multiple actions) in one round. Multiple actions are resolved in descending order of Initiative results in blocks (all first multiple actions are resolved first, then all second multiple actions, until no one wants to take any more actions), and only after all normal actions are resolved. Each multiple action suffers a –4 penalty to the roll. A normal or out of turn action may suffer the multiple action penalty if the character acted out of turn before the action (for an evasion, for instance), and did not possess a quality that allowed him to do so without expending an action. Therefore, each character only receives one normal action at no penalty per round; it may be expended by an out of turn action.
The following actions are interpreted in a manner different from other tasks.
All attack rolls are unopposed tasks, using an appropriate Skill for the weapon and the Agility Attribute to form the Skill Value. Any success indicates a potential hit. Any failure on a non-melee, non-ranged attack is a miss. Any failure on a melee or ranged attack is a potential hit unless it falls below the miss margin (minimum success margin required for a potential hit, below which any margins are automatic misses) of the weapon.
If a potential hit is indicated, it is a hit unless the defender intercedes with an evasion roll. After resolving the effects of any evasion rolls, if the attack was not negated or, in the case of a non-melee, non-ranged attack, had its margin reduced to a failure, it is a hit.
The game may provide a list of modifiers to apply to combat rolls at the GM's discretion. It may also use a system of combat modifiers based on particular combat Skills. Both of these systems, or others like them, are optional.
A character may attempt to avoid any attack using an evasion. An evasion is defined as any Skill that allows a character to make himself more difficult to hit or to counter an attack completely. The evasion Skills, which must be marked as such in the text, may specify which attacks on which they work and may further specify to which Attribute they are permanently linked for the purposes of calculating Skill Values. Evasion rolls occur after the attack is declared but before its success is determined. Only one evasion may be performed on any particular attack. Evasion rolls are also affected by the multiple action penalty, except as described below. Evasions are divided into two categories: margin reduction and attack cancellation.
A margin reduction evasion abstracts making oneself more difficult to hit. If the defender's success margin on the margin reduction evasion is positive (a success), the GM subtracts it from the attacker's success margin to get the attacker's new success margin. Example margin reduction evasions include Dodge and Evade.
An attack cancellation evasion abstracts stopping an attack in a non-damaging way. If the defender's success margin on this type of evasion is a success, the attack is negated (is automatically a miss) unless the attack was a critical success, in which case a critical success is required on the evasion in order to cancel it. Example attack cancellation evasions include Block and Deflect.
If a character possesses an evasion Skill, he automatically has one (1) "free" use of that Skill each round. This "free" use does not count as an action. If a character possesses an evasion Skill at a Skill Value of 15, he receives two (2) "free" uses per round. At a Skill Value of 20, he receives three (3) "free" uses; at a Skill Value of 25, he receives four (4). Finally, at a Skill Value of 30, he receives five (5) "free" uses.
No system is implemented for "surprise." Characters unable to detect an incoming attack's presence or direction until it is launched may not use evasion rolls against the attack, and their attacker receives a +6 roll modifier to his attack task. If others warn the characters in the same round, the target(s) of the attack may use their actions to perform evasions (no "free" evasions may be used) at a –3 roll modifier. This also reduces the attacker's roll modifier to +3.
Damage is inflicted as a number of abstract damage points, known as Wounds. The GM multiplies the final success margin of a successful hit by the margin multiplier of the weapon or attack used. If the attack has no listed margin multiplier, it is defined as having a margin multiplier of x1. This is then added to the damage value of the weapon or attack.
Equipment that is considered armor has at least one characteristic known as a defense rating. It is of the form X/-Y, Z, where the X value is a random reduction value that is rolled as if it were a Skill Value. The success margin is then multiplied by the Z value, which acts like a margin multiplier. If this result is negative, it is defined as equaling zero. The result of this calculation is added to the absolute value of the Y value (the fixed reduction value). This final result is subtracted from the calculated damage of a successful hit to produce a final damage in Wounds. If it reduces the damage to zero or less, the armor absorbs the entire attack and no damage is inflicted.
Armor may possess multiple defense ratings for different types of attacks. This is optional.
Damage reduces the character's Wounds Remaining. Immediately following the infliction of damage, any wound penalty must be taken into account and any wound state changes must be enforced.
The system must provide some Skill that, when combined with the Endurance Attribute to create a Skill Value, can be rolled to circumvent the wound penalty. This roll does not count as an action, and must be allowed after damage is inflicted but before its effects are taken into account. The success margin of the roll is added to the character's Wounds Remaining only for the purposes of calculating the wound penalty and determining the wound state. The circumvention is valid for one round only, after which another roll must be made to continue the effect. This roll is made at the beginning of each round as long as the character wishes to continue circumventing the penalty and as long as his wound state is Dying or better. This roll is made under the effects of the previous one. A critical failure on a roll to circumvent the wound penalty knocks the character out for a number of rounds equal to the difference between his Maximum Wounds and Wounds Remaining. Characters at the Dead or Parts wound states may not circumvent the wound penalty.
If a character declares the intention of his attack is to knock out an opponent, and he is using an attack capable of inflicting stun, rather than lethal, damage (energy bolts, for instance, would not normally be usable in this regard), the attack inflicts stun damage. Stun damage is virtual damage used only to determine a knockout. It is not applied to a target.
If the stun damage inflicted by an attack exceeds the target's Endurance, the target is knocked out for one hour for every point that the damage exceeds his Endurance. He also takes one Wound of damage for every point that the stun damage exceeds his Endurance. Medical attention is required to revive the character.
If the stun damage inflicted by an attack does not exceed the target's Endurance, the target rolls a Skill Value composed of his Endurance plus a Skill created for this purpose, which may be the same as the Skill used to circumvent the wound penalty. The success margin of this roll, which, if negative, is considered to be zero, is subtracted from the stun damage inflicted. If any stun damage remains, the character is knocked unconscious for five minutes per remaining point of stun damage. Any vigorous action taken against a character knocked out in this fashion will revive him.
No character may awaken himself when knocked out.
It is recommended, but optional, that a System X compliant game implement a series of special damage types that codify rules for different types of damage sources. A weapon may possess none, one, or more special damage types.