Bad Apple -- SETTING
The good news is, the Milky
Way is riddled with wormholes, much like a bad apple. These wormholes lurk just
outside of most solar systems, letting starships leap vast distances in a
matter of days. After humanity discovered how to stabilize and operate these
wormholes, they were able to spread out across a decent fraction of the galaxy,
colonizing new planets and striking up interstellar trade.
The bad news is that humanity
brought most of its problems with it into space – bureaucracy, capitalism, war,
disease, and shortages continue to make life difficult even in an era of high
technology and (relatively) enlightened thinking. Although space is plentiful
on the new worlds, very few have climates that are exactly like Earth’s, and most
people must work hard to survive in their hostile, unpredictable environments.
In this game, you play the
role of a promising young adventurer itching for new experiences beyond those
afforded by Brelon II, the sleepy mining and ranching planet you call home.
Your unique collection of skills and interests have brought you to the
attention of Brelon’s Board of Arbiters, who need your help. You know that
trade ships only call on Brelon every year or so even in the best of times, and
for the last three years, no one from off-world has docked at your humble
starport. Now, say the Arbiters, the main coil for the planet’s only fusion
reactor is deteriorating, and nobody dirtside has the tools or engineering
know-how to fix it. Without repairs, the reactor will slowly lose power,
dragging the planet into poverty and leaving it defenseless against Brelon’s
frigid winters.
Led by Captain Mark Bennings,
an independent freighter captain who mothballed his ship in orbit around Brelon
when he retired to its surface, you and your fellow adventurers must travel
toward the Core Worlds in search of expert repairs. The Board has scrounged up
a shipment of Brelon’s leading exports – beef jerky, leather hides, boron ore,
and silver ingots – to aid you in your quest, but given the hazards of space
and the cost of fuel, you will be on a tight budget. Fortunately, the
space-lanes come with their own opportunities for those savvy and ambitious
enough to find them. The galaxy awaits. Seize your destiny!
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Thanks to Tom Dimiduk and the other authors of
the Skillful RPG System for most of the rules and content presented in this
short manual. Used with permission. http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~tdimiduk/skillful/index.php?title=Authors
Your Character’s Backstory
In Bad Apple, your character’s statistics
and abilities are driven by his or her backstory. The most important thing to
think about is why your character is interested in leaving Brelon, and why
Brelon’s Board would be interested in choosing you for one of the limited slots
on the Merry Dolphin, your rickety
old space freighter.
Some other
questions to consider are:
- What kinds of jobs has your
character held? Was he/she any good at them? Were the jobs
unusual for the area? For your character's age? Why did he/she choose
those jobs? Did he/she enjoy them? Have the jobs left your character with
any significant savings or debt? Any marketable skills or official
credentials? Is anyone familiar with your character based on his/her
professional reputation?
- Who are some of the most important
people in your character's life? Does he/she have a strong
relationship with family? old friends? new friends? a church or community
group? a political movement? current or former employers? lovers? a
hometown? a guild or professional association? co-workers or partners? a
mentor? Keep in mind that characters can have very strong feelings about
others that are positive, negative, or even (perhaps most realistically)
some kind of twisted mix.
- What are some of the most important
ideas or goals in your character's life? Is there anything he/she
would be willing to fight for? To die for? To work hard at over a period
of several years? What has your character learned the hard way, and what
has he/she always believed without ever questioning? What makes your
character happy? What does your character erroneously *think* will lead to
happiness?
- What does your character do for
fun? For exercise? To meet new people? To sort out his/her
thoughts and feelings? Who does he/she do it with? Where does he/she do
it? What kinds of people (if anyone) does your character find romantically
or sexually attractive?
Answering
these questions will give you a good idea of how to allocate your character’s
starting experience points (“XP”). Each character starts with 350 XP. You use
these points to buy levels in one, some, or all of the ten main skills:
Athletics, Business, Crafts, Diplomacy, Engineering, Fighting, Humanities,
Medicine, Operations, and Science.
You may also
need or want to tweak some of your character’s starting resources. A typical
adventurer starts with 20 Health, 50 Effort, 100 Credits, and 10 Reputation
Points. However, if your character is unusually healthy, sick, lazy, rich,
poor, famous, etc., you can adjust these values accordingly by up to 50% in
either direction. Try to make the values balance out, so that an increase in
one statistic is balanced by a decrease in another statistic.
Choosing your
Skills – Nuts & Bolts
The cost, in
XP, of reaching each new level in a skill is based on the triangular numbers.
For example, getting from Level 3 to Level 4
costs 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 = 10 XP, because 10 is the sum of the first four positive numbers. This
results in the following chart for climbing up to any given level starting from
Level 0:
Level
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
4
|
5
|
6
|
7
|
8
|
9
|
10
|
11
|
12
|
13
|
14
|
15
|
XP Cost
|
1
|
4
|
10
|
20
|
35
|
56
|
84
|
120
|
165
|
220
|
286
|
364
|
455
|
560
|
680
|
This means
that if you wanted to put all of your starting 350 XP into one field, you could
get as high as Level 11 or 12, and if you wanted to distribute your starting
350 XP evenly across all fields, you would have Level 5 in each field. Keep in
mind that the number 350 is just a guideline – if your character design is a
few points over or a few points under, it does not matter.
The ten
skill fields are described below:
Athletics – feats of
bodily strength, coordination, and grace; sports, gyms, outdoor adventures
Business – bargaining, figuring, logistics,
entrepreneurship, investment, and personal networking
Crafts – manufacturing and repairing things by
hand. Weaving, sculpting, baking, smithing, etc.
Diplomacy – bluffing, intimidating, recruiting,
inspiring, manipulating, and discreet investigation
Engineering – designing, modifying, maintaining,
selecting, and testing gear and equipment
Fighting – assessing strengths and weaknesses;
enduring pain and injuries; weapon proficiencies
Humanities – making or appreciating culture;
enduring loss and sorrow; adapting to strangeness
Medicine – healing, nursing, diagnosing, poison,
& associated patience and technical know-how
Operations – operating vehicles, equipment,
computers, etc. even when unfamiliar or complex
Science – studying, interpreting, analyzing
unfamiliar phenomena in light of known laws
As you advance
your level in a field, you should write (or remember) an increasingly detailed
description of your character’s relation to that field. A character at Level 3
might have a general area of interest, such as “track & field” for Athletics,
or “airspeeder” for Operations. A character at Level 10 should have a couple of
specialties or subspecialties, plus a weakness and a unique approach; e.g. a
character with Level 10 in Science might be a biologist with a focus on
cellular structure and division who can’t pronounce Latin properly but who
nevertheless loves to classify things into categories. Your skill level for any
given task may be reduced by up to 2 points or increased by up to 4 points
depending on how neatly it fits into your specialties or weaknesses.
If you wish, you can choose up to
50 XP’s worth of negative levels,
representing your character’s phobias or unique disadvantages. When you buy
negative levels, your skill becomes a negative number, but you gain additional
XP that you can spend on other fields.
Tracking Your Character’s Stats
In addition to
skill levels and XP, characters have 5 statistics that help define the
character’s status: Health, Effort, Fatigue, Credits, & Reputation.
HEALTH Bodily integrity and mental sanity; if it drops to zero, you
need a hospital.
An
ordinary healthy person would be able to store about 20 points.
Score
goes up +2 for a solid night’s rest; +5 with effective medical treatment.
EFFORT Ability to expend effort; if it drops to zero, you sit down
and zone out.
An
ordinary motivated person would be able to store about 50 points.
Score
goes up +2 points for a solid hour’s recreation; +5 with entertainment
FATIGUE When you are injured, disappointed, etc., the DM gives you
cumulative penalties
Your
total fatigue penalty lowers the results of all of your ability scores.
Fatigue
is automatically reduced by 1 point every 24 hours, or by great victories.
CREDITS Financial assets and access to loans; if it drops to zero, you
cannot buy things.
An
ordinary employed person would have about 100 Credits saved up.
Score
goes up +2 credits with a week’s pay, or +5 for a holiday bonus.
REPUTE What colleagues and strangers think of you; your ability to
call in favors.
A
person with ordinary connections would have about 10 Reputation points.
Score goes up +1 point
when you help someone or publicly accomplish something
Characters can improve their skill level(s) by accumulating
experience through:
PRACTICE Running through the motions
or steps of a technique; drills & simulations.
You
can practice skills up to 5 hours/day; each hour gives you +1 experience.
You
must have sufficient equipment, focus, and space for meaningful practice.
Practicing
for 1 hour costs 3 effort.
STUDY Reading, talking,
thinking, sketching, & meditating to improve theoretical grasp. The DM awards up to
+5 experience for each new insight you are exposed to.
The
exact award depends on the idea’s novelty and how well you digest the idea.
TRIAL Actually
testing out techniques in a setting with real-world consequences.
The
DM awards up to +5 experience for pushing the limits of your ability.
The
difficulty must be set so that whether you succeed or fail depends on the dice.
The
trial scenario must be fresh enough to pose new challenges; no rote
repetition.
Reaching Level x in a given skill
requires (x)(x+1)/2 experience points; e.g., to advance from Level 4 to Level 5
in Athletics requires (5)(5+1)/2 = 15 XP. Part or all of your experience points
can be cashed in for skill advances in any combination(s) at any time when you
have a quiet moment to collect your thoughts. You must have accumulated at
least some of the experience points in the skill(s) that you wish to advance;
e.g., you cannot study Science and then claim an advance in Athletics.
Resolving Activity Checks
Almost all
significant actions in the game are resolved by one of two types of ‘activity checks.’
During a difficulty check, you compare your skill, effort, and luck to
the inherent difficulty of a complex or challenging task. During an opposed
check, you compare your skill, effort, and luck to an opponent’s skill,
effort, and luck. By adding up your total value and subtracting either the
difficulty value of the task or your opponent’s total value, you can find out
whether your plan ended in success, failure, or something in between.
YOUR SCORE = (Your Skill
+ Your Effort + Your Luck) – Difficulty of Task
OR
YOUR SCORE = (Your Skill + Your Effort + Your
Luck) – (Their Skill + Their Effort + Their Luck)
IF YOU SCORED:
|
|||
Min
|
Max
|
Result
|
Effects
|
+10 & up
|
Magnificent Success
|
Notable success plus "style points," e.g.
decorations, flourishes, handicaps, etc.
|
|
+3
|
+10
|
Notable Success
|
Ordinary success plus extra damage, useful
accessories, masterwork durability, etc.
|
0
|
+2
|
Ordinary Success
|
Gets the job done on time and on budget.
|
-5
|
0
|
Partial Failure
|
Can get the job done, but only with extra cost,
extra time, less effect, a shoddy object, etc.
|
-9
|
-6
|
Ordinary Failure
|
Swing and a miss. Resources are still expended, but
no useful results are obtained.
|
-10 and down
|
Serious Failure
|
Ordinary failure, plus accidents & collateral
damage
|
|
Your score
for ‘skill’ is simply the highest level you have taken in the appropriate
field. For example, if you are a Level 8 Scientist, then your skill at
Science-related tasks would be +8. If you are a Level 7 Engineer, then your
skill at Engineering-related tasks would be +7. When a task involves two or
more fields (e.g., both Science and Engineering), choose the higher bonus (in
this case, +8). Sometimes, a task will relate to one of your specialties or
weaknesses. For example, if you are a color-blind chemist, you might add up to
(an additional) +4 on Science tasks that involve chemistry, and subtract up to
-2 on tasks that involve distinguishing special colors. In this example, that
would mean you get +12 on chemistry tasks, but only +6 on interpreting what
kind of cancer cells you see on microscope slides.
You get to
choose your score for ‘effort,’ but choosing higher scores drains your limited
pool of Effort Points more rapidly, and also distracts you and prevents you
from paying attention to other things that may be going on around you. You can
choose any number between +1 and +9.
Your score
for ‘luck’ is determined by rolling two six-sided dice (“2d6”). Whatever the
dice show is your luck score for that activity check.
Skill – Your training,
experience, talent, etc. in a particular field.
-5 Deep
phobia or strong handicap with this activity
0 No
prior experience in this field
+5 Amateur
hobbyist in this field
+10 Trained
Professional in this field
+15 Expert,
Leader, Mentor, or Supervisor in this field
+20 Living
Legend renowned for exploits in this field
Effort – How strenuously you try
to accomplish a task or how much you focus on it. Drains your effort pool accordingly;
i.e., spend x Effort to boost your ability by +x.
+1 Seriously
distracted; a bored and indifferent effort.
+3 Mildly
distracted; a casual effort.
+5 An
ordinary level-headed attempt.
+7 A
serious, focused effort that causes you to lose track of most other concerns.
+9 A
draining, intense effort that leaves you blind to the world around you.
Luck – Circumstantial,
unpredictable effects; natural variation.
+2d6 the
usual bonus to your ability score.
Difficulty – How much skill
the task ordinarily requires.
0 Trivial task; even
untrained individuals never fail to accomplish it.
E.g.
tying your shoes, drinking water, climbing stairs, talking about the weather.
10 Easy task; amateurs
routinely do a good job on this task.
E.g.
bicycling, chugging beer, reading a map, buying clothes.
15 Intermediate task;
requires either some training or a strong effort to succeed.
E.g.
swimming in a river, cooking a nice dinner, balancing a business checkbook
20 Challenging task;
suitable for professionals or serious hobbyists.
E.g.
climbing a large mountain, delivering a baby, plotting the course of a comet
25 Difficult task;
strains the abilities of even highly-trained personnel.
E.g.
crossing the arctic, open-heart surgery, retroviral engineering, forging magic
items
30 Grueling task;
requires extraordinary talent, dedication, grit, and luck.
E.g.
fly an experimental aircraft, inventing a new spell, winning a gubernatorial
campaign
40 Epic task; usually
impossible; alters the course of history if achieved.
E.g.
invent a new form of transportation; peacefully overthrow a government;
apotheosis
