FIREFLY RPG- Main Rules

Welcome, players, to the reference thread for any and all rules concerning the Firefly RPG!

It is designed to be pretty simple and easy to understand, but if there are any questions about how things should work, let me know and I would be glad to walk you through it.

BASIC GAMING MECHANIC

"Permission to come aboard, captain?"

The Firefly game will be making use of a dice pool system, which means the more talented you are with a certain skill, the more dice you roll towards your intended goal. The system uses six-sided dice, in which you try to have 5s and 6s appear as they are counted as successes. Even getting a single success counts positively towards your score! However, there might be situations where you need more successes, or your dice pool is reduced, to represent the difficulty of a task.

Dice pool is composed of two things- a stat and a skill. Stats are the physical and mental aspects of your character, whilst skills are specialized talents that your character has developed. For example, say that your character has an itch to be shooting at something (or someone). The roll for firing a gun would be based off of your Dexterity stat and your Guns skill. If you had a 3 in Dexterity and a 4 in Guns, that'd give you a dice pool of 7 to shoot with. If something was harder to hit, it may only give you 4 dice to shoot with.

That... pretty much covers the entire system! Anything beyond this explains modifiers and basic information that you need to make full use of the dice pool that you are given.

Just for clarification, for the purposes of online gaming, I will perform all rolls myself and tell you how you did.

COMBAT OVERVIEW

“I never back down from a fight!”

“Yes, you do! You do all the time!”

“Well... yeah, but I’m not backing down from this one!”

The most important part of any role-playing game that involves shootouts and brawls, as this one most assuredly does.

Fighting

Engaging in combat is simple- you make a roll (either Agility + Combat or Dexterity + Guns) and any successes you roll mean you attack has hit. Your dice pool is reduced by your target's Defense score, if they have one. All Named Characters (important NPCs that act as players do) have at least a Defense of 1, but it is a rare thing to find on Mooks (see below). Defensive scores can be raised through the use of Gun or Combat schticks (again, see below). Other factors can be present in whether you hit or not, including Cover or Parry (which both cause successes to be ignored), but most often you will find that hitting and getting hit occurs often and is more about how good your shot is or how hard you punched someone rather than whether or not you actually hit them.

Character Types

The ‘Verse is a large place and you will meet many people in your travels, and possibly many foes as well. The majority of the enemies that you will take on will be what are called ‘Mooks.’ Mooks represent the nameless goons that the heroes shoot down in large numbers, the best examples being the flunkies of Bond villains or Imperial Stormtroopers. On their own, they hardly pose a threat to our hardy players, but in large groups they can be dangerous. They lack the values that players possess and only have a combat value that they try to hit you with. On average, a Mook will require only three successes to take out. Some Mooks are more dangerous as individuals, dubbed Supermooks, and will have higher combat values and instead take damage like player characters by are otherwise Mooks. In Firefly, the Mooks would be represented by Niska’s or Badger’s henchmen, Alliance soldiers, even Reavers...

Then, we have Named Characters. Named Characters operate the way that players would; they have backgrounds, they have personalities, they have motivation, they have stats and skills and schticks, and they take damage like players do. The best example would be the Operative from the film, with his motivation to conceal information to promote his idea of perfecting life and running people through with that sword of his.

Damage

Players, Named Characters, and Supermooks all take damage instead of being downed after a few successes are rolled against them. Damage is determined by the base damage of a weapon and the number of successes rolled in the attack. Each success is worth one point of damage. Now, damage is figurative; you are not taking a bullet in the chest every time a shot at you succeeds. Instead, it shows that you are tiring in the midst of combat or that your luck is running low.

The amount of damage that your character can take before dropping due to exhaustion or wounding is determined by your Strength stat. Take your rating in Strength, multiply it by ten, then add twenty! If you have a Strength of 2, you can take up to 40 points of damage in a fight. Higher Strength means greater endurance.

Combat Round

Fighting revolves around the operation of a turn-based system, in which everyone can do one thing in a combat round. This would, normally, be any sort of attack against a foe. Moving can be allowed while shooting, but with close combat you can only attack foes at your point of arrival, rather than punching someone and then moving away from them.

Who gets to go first in a turn is determined by the Initiative Check. At the start of a turn, one d6 die is rolled for you players, and another is rolled for the other side, whoever they are. Whoever has the highest value gets to take their actions first! In the case of a draw, players go first by default, and on a subsequent draw, the bad guys will go, and so on.

Also at the start of the turn, I will draw from a small pack of cards to see if anything important happens. This dictates when a Refresh for your schticks comes into play (see below). I have eight cards, seven of which are random with no importance, and the eighth is a Joker. When I draw an unimportant card, it is discarded, but this increases the chances of the Joker being drawn as there are less cards. When I draw the Joker, you may Refresh two schticks (see below) and then the Joker is shuffled back in with the discard pile and the process starts over.

Weapons

Unless you intend for your players to fight solely bare-handed, one should develop a basic understanding of how weaponry works in this game, and what to think about while considering what you should be using.

1. Style. The weapons that you employ on your missions should apply to what Gun or Combat schticks you have taken for your character. Sure, you can still grab a gun and shoot with it, but if you have some particular talent for a certain kind of firearm, take that one! For example, lighter pistols work best with Both Guns Blazing, revolvers and sniper rifles function better with Marksman, etc.
2. Damage. The base damage of a weapon becomes important when you hit opponents that take damage, and then high damage is even more valuable. Some weapons come with Mook Killing Power, represented by a * after their base damage, that gives you two extra dice against Mooks.
3. Encumbrance. Every weapon has a encumbrance size to account for just how small or large they are. This determines just how much hardware you can be carrying into a fight. All characters have a maximum carrying capacity of 14 points of encumbrance; any more would result in very harmful dice penalties. On top of that, after more than 8 points of encumbrance, it becomes impossible to conceal the weapons on your person. A pistol or two is one thing, but an assault rifle with a drum clip is fairly obvious.

Guns

Guns have their own special issues to keep in your thoughts.

AMMUNITION- Guns are useless without bullets! Instead of tracking every single bullet, guns have ‘ammo ratings’ that tell you how many times you can fire them before you reach your last bullet. How many shots you put into your attacks is purely stylistic, but you will have used all of your ammo by the turn that your rating runs down to zero. For example, in reality (sort of), a futuristic model of Light Pistol may carry something like twenty bullets, but the Ammo Rating, for gaming purposes, is 7.

RELOADING- When you finally do find yourself with an empty gun, you’ll need to slap in some more ammo, be it individual bullets into your revolver, a new box clip into your assault rifle, or a fresh feed into your machine gun. With any pistols, revolvers, or machine pistols, your dice pool will be halved but you can still snap off a shot. With SMGs or larger, your entire action will be spent reloading the gun.

BURSTFIRE- Automatic weapons can fire off bursts. As a result, most automatic weapons have low ammo ratings, but because you are spraying down your targets with multiple bullets, you get +3 to your dice pool when operating them.

ACCURACY- Accuracy ratings on a few of the guns represent a certain aspect of their design that allows for a more precise shot. An Accuracy rating of 1 gives you an extra die to shoot with, a rating of 2 gives you two extra dice, and so on.

POINTBLANK- When getting up-close and personal with a shotgun (and only the shotgun), you get a bonus of +3 to your attack pool when you ka-chink! into your targets at close range.

PILOTING

Rules to come! It is similar to regular combat, with the exception of each turn featuring an event determined by drawing cards. There is also the matter of a rolling system for determining length for getting from planet-to-planet in the works... so check back here!

DAMAGE CHART

ENCUMBERANCE

Tiny- 0.5

Small- 1

Medium- 2

Large- 4

Very Large- 8

GUNS

“Fully loaded, safety off. This here is a recipe for unpleasantness."

Guns are an integral part of living on the fringe, ensuring that you can hold your own against people that have one reason or another to really dislike you. Guns come in all shapes and sizes from a variety of manufacturers and each have their own advantages, but they all are made for the same purpose- shooting at targets!

Gun Type (ex. Model)- Damage Base, Size, Ammo Rating (Clip Size), Specialty (if applicable)

Holdout Revolver (ex. Neotech Derringer)- Damage 0, Tiny, Ammo 3 (tiny clips)

Light Revolver (ex. Python 6)- Damage 1, Small, Ammo 6 (tiny clips), Accuracy 1

Light Pistol (ex. PK12 Peacekeeper)- Damage 1, Small, Ammo 7 (tiny clips)

Light Machine Pistol (ex. Heckler UZI)- Damage 1, Medium, Ammo 6 (tiny clips), Burstfire

Machine Pistol (ex. Justice Arms Tek50)- Damage 2, Medium, Ammo 5 (tiny clips), Burstfire

Heavy Revolver (ex. Python 8)- Damage 2, Medium, Ammo 4 (tiny clips), Accuracy 1

Heavy Pistol (ex. SG78 Slugger)- Damage 2, Medium, Ammo 5 (tiny clips)

Submachine Gun (ex. AR19 SMG)- Damage 2, Large, Ammo 5 (small clips), Burstfire

Shotgun (ex. SPAS30 Combat)- Damage 3*, Large, Ammo 8 (medium clips), Pointblank

Assault Rifle (ex. AR24S/GRZ1)- Damage 3*, Very Large, Ammo 5 (small clips), Burstfire

Bolt-action Rifle (ex. Classic 22 Long)- Damage 3*, Very Large, Ammo 5 (small clips), Accuracy 2

Sniper Rifle (ex. Commando CM30)- Damage 3*, Very Large, Ammo 5 (small clips), Accuracy 2

Machine Gun (ex. Carpetbomber)- Damage 4*, Very Large, Ammo 10 (large clips), Burstfire

Heavy Weaponry (ex. Rocket Launcher)- Damage 5**, Very Large, Ammo 1 (medium clips)

Laser Pistol (ex. Decker)- Damage 6**, Small, Ammo 6

MELEE

"A s-what?"

Despite the onus on the ownership and frequent use of firearms in the ‘Verse, not all combat will be done at range. Particularly bare-knuckle brawling! On top of that, some still employ the use of melee weapons to bring painful and violent ends to their prey, or to represent a certain code of honor or pride in their own skill.

Barehanded- Damage 1

Knife- Damage 2, Small

Katars- Damage 2, Small

Nunchaku- Damage 2, Small

Sais- Damage 2, Medium

Hook Swords- Damage 3, Large

Staff- Damage 3, Large

Sword- Damage 4, Large

Spear- Damage 4, Very Large

Note: Firearms, when used up-close, can be used as melee weapons for the purpose of pistol-whipping or rifle-butting. All guns have a base damage of 2 when used to bash foes. However, they do not work with Gun schticks when used for that purpose, and do not work with offensive Combat schticks, only defensive.

SCHTICKS

Schticks are abilities that represent specific training or talent with firearms, close combat, or piloting, and they are one of the most important aspects of combat. Each schtick grants some sort of benefit to its user that allows them to become deadlier with a pistol or more defensive in close quarters. When combat starts, you must choose three schticks to be active in what is called your ‘cache,’ whilst the rest sit idle and wait for use.

At the end of each turn, when you find it necessary, you can swap one schtick out of your cache and swap another one in to replace it. You can never have more than three, though you can have less.

If you have Guns schticks and Combat schticks in at the same time, you must decide what kind of attack you are making at the start of the turn. Whichever one you choose, the other schticks do not function. However, this also means you have to choose what weapon to go with. Drawing a new weapon is automatic and putting away a Small or smaller weapon is free, but putting away a weapon that is Medium-sized or larger takes a full turn.

Schticks that ‘Conflict’ may not be in your cache together (Both Guns Blazing, Carnival of Carnal, Hail of Bullets, and Marksman all conflict, for example).

What each schtick can do can be found below.

EFFECTS

All schticks will grant you a basic effect that is always active when schticks are in your cache. It is usually in the form of some sort of increase to dice pool or Defense rating or such things. You never have to specify that is working, it just will be unless you clarify to turn off the schtick.

Keep in mind that effects are not cumulative; if a schtick gives you +3 dice and another gives you +2 dice, the final total is +3 dice, not +5 dice. You go with the highest value.

TAPPING

‘Tapping’ a schtick occurs when you need to push your character to a limit, to give him or her some sort of super-effect that grants more powerful bonuses. However, once ‘tapped,’ the schtick will be exhausted and does not function until refreshed.

BONUSES

Bonus effects are rare but helpful events that boost you further in a variety of ways.

Offensive Bonuses happen for every set of three 6s you get in an attack roll. Increasing your combat pool makes you more likely to get these bonuses.

Defensive Bonuses happen when your opponent rolls more 1s than successes when attacking you. These will certain aid you well when they happen.

REFRESH

This is a reiteration on the Refresh rules that were stated above.

When a Joker is drawn from a pack of eight cards, you may choose two tapped schticks to refresh, so that you can regain the use of their effects after they have been tapped. The schticks must also be out of your cache at the time of refresh or they cannot be refreshed.

GUN SCHTICKS

These schticks allow you to have some special prowess with Guns, and effect how you use them.

BIG GUNS

"Every man there go back inside, or we will blow a new crater in this little moon."

Causing explosions is fun, but even better when using them to off targets. When firing at Mooks with Heavy Weapons, you only need two successes to finish them off. When firing at Supermooks or Named Characters with Heavy Weapons, increase your damage by one.

TAP: Blasts can be massive enough to catch up those nearby. Act as if making a second Heavy Weapons attack, regardless of ammo.

Bonus (Defensive) - Gain +1 Parry.

BODYGUARD

“You protect the man you’re with! You watch his back! Everybody knows that!”

Allows you to protect others with covering fire. Nominate one nearby person to protect each turn; that person may use your Defense, Parry, and Armor values.

TAP: Double all values for the person you are protecting.

Bonus (Offensive) - The person you are protecting may add half of your Guns pool to their own.

BOTH GUNS BLAZING

“How many weapons you plan on taking? You only got the two arms.”

Wield two guns at once! When firing this way, the base damage of your Gun attacks becomes 3* (bonuses can be added to this from other schticks). It is intended that you use two single-handed weapons for this, but heavier weapons can be used if you really want. Additionally, you can wield a melee weapon and a gun with this schtick at -3 to each pool, but you do not gain any values from Combat schticks.

TAP: Add +4 to your Guns pool.

Bonus (Offensive) - The base damage of your Gun attack becomes 4**.

Conflicts with Carnival of Carnage, Hail of Bullets, and Marksman.

BULLET TIME

“We are not gonna die. You know why? Because we are so... very... pretty.”

In slow motion, you perform dramatic stunts that keep shooters from drawing bead on you. Making Gun attacks and refusing cover, all Mooks need to roll ‘6s’ in order to hit you.

TAP: All Named Characters need to roll ‘6s’ in order to hit you.

Bonus (Defensive) - The first '6' your opponent rolls is changed to a ‘3’ and so a failure.

CARNIVAL OF CARNAGE

“No power in the ‘verse can stop me.”

The ‘verse is chock-full of thugs and henchmen that are out to get ya. But, as far as you’re concerned, they just provide more targets for you to put six feet under. You may attack twice a turn, so long as you only target Mooks.

TAP: You can attack Mooks a total of four times this turn.

Bonus (Defensive) - Half of the successes you roll on one of your attacks (the one with the highest amount of successes) can be used to negate the successes of Mooks next turn.

Conflicts with Both Guns Blazing, Hail of Bullets, and Marksman.

CLOSE QUARTERS GUNMAN

When fighting the Operative, Malcolm pulls out his revolver at close range.

Generally, people keep their distance in a firefight since guns are ranged weapons and most falter when trying to shoot their targets up close. But not you! Instead of suffering from trying to get into pointblank range, you gain +3 to your Guns pool and add two to your Defense value against close combat attacks.

TAP: All close combat attacks against you this turn miss.

Bonus (Offensive) - Gain +1 to your Guns pool and a * rating.

EAGLE EYE

“I am, of course, wearing full body armor. I am not a moron.”

This represents precise shooting that can help bypass the problematic issues of hitting your targets. Ignore all Armor, Cover, or Range issues when firing at targets.

TAP: Each success rolled on your attack does two points of damage rather than one.

Bonus (Defensive) - Borrow the Armor, Cover, or Range values of your target.

EYE OF THE STORM

"Woohoo! I'm right here! I'm right here! You want some o' me?!"

You stand calmly amidst the fiercest of gunfights, and yet nary a bullet finds its mark. Gain +1 Parry against all Guns and Heavy Weapons attacks.

TAP: Cause a successful Guns or Heavy Weapons attack to miss.

Bonus (Defensive) - Your opponents waste an extra point of ammo while attacking you.

GUNSLINGER

“It’s a Callahan full-bore auto-lock. Customized trigger. Double cartridge thorough gauge. It is my very favorite gun.”

Sometimes you just find that gun that just feels... right! This just represents how comfortable and familiar you are with this one particular make of gun, or even that you just consider the damn thing a lucky charm. Designated a type of weapon that is your very favorite. Every attack you make with this favored weapon, you are allowed to turn a '1' rolled on a die into a '6,' meaning a success.

TAP: All '1s' become '6s' on your roll, meaning successes.

Bonus (Offensive) - Shoot first, regardless of initiative.

HAIL OF BULLETS

“You even think about playing me again I will riddle you with holes.”

Some people are just damn good at rattling off shots without even aiming, going off of instinct. When they hit their target, they know they might be able to hit them again and so they go for it without any prep. After you hit a foe, make an extra attack on him at -3 to your Guns pool.

TAP: After you hit a foe, make an extra attack on him at -2 to your Guns pool, and repeat this process until you miss or need to reload.

Bonus (Offensive)- If you hit a foe, make a free attack at a quarter of your pool on another target while making your second attack on the original.

Conflicts with Both Guns Blazing, Carnival of Carnage, and Marksman.

HAIR-TRIGGER NECK HAIRS

“I know something ain’t right...”

Out on the fringes of civilized space, there is bound to be trouble. Either due to too many bad experiences or an inexplicable sixth sense, you just have a knack for finding it before it finds you. If ambushed, you can still act against your attackers.

TAP: If ambushed, you can still act against your attackers and gain a point of Armor for every '1' rolled against you.

Bonus (Defensive) - If ambushed, an attack on you misses completely.

LIGHTNING RELOAD

Jayne and Zoe reload quickly while fighting Nisca's thugs.

Troublesome loading times for when you run out of ammo can lead to some unfortunate circumstances in the heat of battle. You can rectify that by having practiced speeding up your reload time in order to minimize the time you spend slapping in a new clip and maximize the time you spend emptying it again. All weapons reload like pistols and revolvers. Pistols and revolvers reload for free at no penalty, though only one reload a turn.

TAP: Reload for free (even if you already have this turn) and make an extra attack.

Bonus (Offensive) - Regain the point of ammo you used this turn.

MARKSMAN

“This is precision work. Sharpshooters.”

The master marksman knows that patience can be rewarding when it comes to making sure that perfect shot finds its mark. If your weapon has an accuracy bonus, double it. If not, add +1 to your Guns pool. This does not apply to the Burstfire bonus.

TAP: If your weapon has an accuracy bonus, quadruple it. If not, add +4 to your Guns pool.

Bonus (Offensive) - Increase the accuracy of your gun by one.

Conflicts with Both Guns Blazing, Carnival of Carnage, and Hail of Bullets.

MERCYKILLER

“Preacher, don’t the Bible have some pretty specific things to say about killing?”

“Quite specific. It is, however, somewhat fuzzier on the subject of kneecaps...”

The saying goes that guns don’t kill people, people kill people. That being said, it can happen that a person doesn’t want to kill the people they shoot at, only make sure that they can’t shoot back. Shooting them in places that won’t kill them but will certainly still hurt can be a good way of doing that. If a Guns attack kills a Mook, you can choose to simply debilitate them.

TAP: If a Guns attack kills a Named Character, you can choose to simply debilitate them and limit their damage taken to their maximum.

Bonus (Offensive) - Your opponent's Dexterity is reduced to zero for their next attack.

RAPID FIRE

When trying to kill intruders that have come aboard, Wash fires a revolver in burst mode.

Unable to settle for the slow firing rate of pistols but not willing to deal with the bulkiness of automatics, you can have honed yourself to put out bullets with such rapidity that you might as well be firing a full-auto gun. While potentially wasteful of ammo, this lets you fire bursts with guns that normally don’t. Decrease the Ammo Rating by 2, but receive the Burstfire bonus (+3 to your Guns pool). This doesn't work for guns that can already do Burstfire.

TAP: Double your Burstfire bonus.

Bonus (Offensive) - Triple your Burstfire bonus!

STEADY HAND

“Drunk people are so cute.”

When most people would start to trip over themselves due to drunkenness or lose focus from injuries, there are some who are able to keep a clear head when it comes to combat no matter how addled their minds are with booze or pain. Ignore half of your dice penalties from Intoxication.

TAP: Ignore all of your dice penalties from Intoxication.

Bonus (Offensive) - Gain an extra die for every point of Intoxication you have.

STRAIGHT SHOOTER

"Someone's carryin' a bullet for you right now, doesn't even know it."

You don’t mess around when lives are on the line, and you put down your target fast. The first success in every Guns attack is worth two successes.

TAP: The minimum amount of damage will be inflicted regardless of your target’s Armor or Parry ratings.

Bonus (Offensive) - The first success is treated as being worth three successes.

PILOT SCHTICKS

When at the controls of a starship- whether it be a nippy interceptor or a sizeable freighter- you might have some preferences for how you handle whatever it is you are flying. These schticks cover that.

DAREDEVIL

"They'd have to be insane to follow us through here."

You love to get the maximum out any ship you fly, pulling the stick as far as it goes, your instincts still working even at maximum G-Force. Any ship you fly has 1 added to its Maneuverability Rating.

DEADSHOT

"I can speak a word and send a missile to that exact location inside of three minutes..."

You have a real nerve and steady hand when making a target run on a large opponent. Gain 3 extra dice to your Piloting pool when making a bombing run.

FAVORITE RIDE

"What you care about is ships, and mine's the nicest."

You do more than own your own ship, you are almost one with it; you know every part of how all of it works. When flying that particular vessel, you get one extra die on ALL Pilot rolls made with that ship. This schtick cannot be taken as Gan Ying is Captain Kelly's ship.

KILLER INSTINCT

"I'm a dangerous minded man on a ship loaded with hurt..."

You have a phenomenal sense, during a battle, of where the opportunities to get kills are. About half of the 'Melee' Starship Combat Event types can be converted into 'Closing In' instead if you have Killer Instinct; the event will say if this can happen.

SOFT LANDINGS

"That's just 'cause I'm going down too quickly. Likely crash and kill us all."

Even in a crisis you have a knack for getting your crate down safely. If you crash you may make a Pilot roll with a difficulty set by the GM depending on circumstance. If the roll is successful, no-one in the ship is hurt in the crash and the ship will always be salvageable.

SPEED KING

"This kind of flying really wakes a guy up!"

You can handle a ship at extreme speed, and love to tweak power settings to get the most out its engines, going where others would not dare. Any ship you fly has its Thrust rating increased by one.

TACTICAL AWARENESS

"Target the Reavers! Target everyone! Somebody fire!"

You have a great sense for the position of ships around you and are rarely caught off guard. About half of the 'On Your Six!' Spaceship Combat Event types can be converted into 'Melee' instead if you have Tactical Awareness; the event will say if this can happen

COMBAT SCHTICKS

Up-close and personal, those who fight hand-to-hand or with a bludgeoning/cutting/strangling tool are going to have different ideas on how to do it, and so use these schticks.

“As with other situations, the key seems to be giving Jayne a heavy stick and standing back.”

Feint

Choose each turn before rolling- either gain two Combat pool or do one extra damage. This is the same effect as Counterstrike (you may not double up an effect but you may take both the pool and the damage if you have both).

TAP: Gain successes on 4 or more instead of 5 or more this turn.

Counterstrike

Choose each turn before rolling- either gain two Combat pool or do one extra damage. This is the same effect as Feint (you may not double up an effect but you may take both the pool and the damage if you have both).

TAP: Re-roll any failures on your attack roll this turn.

Sidestep

Gain +3 Defense against close combat attacks.

TAP: Instead, gain +4 Parry against close combat attacks.

Dodge and Weave

Gain +1 Defense against all types of attacks.

TAP: Gain an extra +4 Defense against all attacks (+5 total).

Focused Blow

Ignore all Armor ratings your targets have.

TAP: Your opponent’s Agility is reduced to zero for their next attack.

Unbreakable

Gain +2 Armor against unarmed close combat attacks.

TAP: Ignore all damage from unarmed close combat attacks, and +3 Armor against all other types of attacks.

Martial Artist

Unarmed only. Gain +4 Combat pool.

TAP: Instead, gain +10 Combat pool.

Street Fighter

Unarmed only. Gain +2* damage.

TAP: Gain a bonus attack on a foe attacking you in close combat; this resolves before his attack.

Leaping Attack

Unarmed only. Reduce your Combat pool by three but increase your damage by +3.

TAP: Instead, increase your Combat pool by +2 and damage by +4*. If you hit, gain another attack with bonus Combat pool equal to successes rolled on the first attack (maximum of four) as you smash your foe to the ground.

Overhead Blow

Armed only. Gain +1* damage.

TAP: Instead, gain +4** damage.

Whirling Strike

Armed only. Gain +2 Combat pool, +4 against Mooks and unarmed opponents.

TAP: Make a free move away from your enemy after a successful attack.

Snake Eyes

Armed only. Reduce your damage by 1, but make two attacks against one target in a turn.

TAP: Make three attacks against one target in a turn, with full damage.

GAN YING

“You buy this ship, keep her proper, and she’ll be with you for the rest of your life.”

Gan Ying is a one-of-a-kind prototype produced by the Alliance shortly after the war, a Series 0 Junk -class vessel that has been heavily modified into a freighter craft by the smuggler known as Kelly, who serves as the Captain of its crew. As a relatively new starship, much of Gan Ying is still sparkling with its original shine, but has been through much in the three years it has spent traveling the 'Verse. It carries some of the most advanced equipment currently available, some of which is still classified as restricted to military personnel. Kelly has removed things he doesn't feel the ship needs and added his own touches where he finds them appropriate.

The exterior of Gan Ying is reminiscent of a sleek, sail-less boating craft, but with the cockpit situated at the nose of the craft and a trio of heavy rocket thrusters at the rear and a trio fully-articulate redirecting thrusters along the sides and belly of the ship. The hull is greatly armored and has been repainted a dull orange color to make it seem unremarkable. It can be boarded through the forward-facing cargo bay, or via ladder-accessed hatches port and starboard.

The interior of Gan Ying , however, remains quite a sight. The hallways all lack hard corners or straight angles, instead softening into gentle slopes and plated with stainless steel. With the exception of the engine room and the living quarters, most rooms aboard Gan Ying stick to this style. The engine room is decidedly grittier due to being filled with machinery, whilst the living quarters all possess wood paneling for the floors and walls to give it a cozier feel.

A visual layout will be available soon.

ARMAMENTS

Gan Ying possesses armaments that were added after its manufacture by Kelly, knowing the value of having a combat-ready vessel in his line of work. Whomever is at the helm of the ship has full access to the forward-mounted weaponry, which includes a pair of double-barreled machine guns with explosive-tipped ammunition, a launch tube for a small supply of high-yield missiles for use against large or ground targets, and a secretive and highly illegal laser weapon that must recharge between uses.

Machine Guns: Damage 0, Ammo x, but can Overheat

Concussion Missiles: Damage 0, Ammo 6, for use against large spaceships and bombing runs

Laser Device: Damage 5**, Ammo x, must recharge for two turns after use

Against ground targets that do not accumulate damage, like a herd of mooks, every success rolled is a single kill. All of these weapons can only be fired once in a turn.

Gan Ying also comes equipped with three single-barreled machine gun turrets, similarly stocked with explosive-tipped ammunition. There is one port side, one starboard side, and one topside, just behind the cockpit.

Turrets: Damage 0 (4* against ground targets), Ammo x, but can Overheat

Unless Gan Ying remains perfectly still, turrets are at -4 dice pool to hit during combat. However, they can be fired up to three times a turn! They can be operated using Guns or Pilot skills. Port side turret cannot hit anything starboard, and vice versa, while topside turret cannot hit anything beneath the ship.

Overheating occurs when you have fired off your turret (or the forward guns of the ship) more than ten times, and you must make dice checks to see if you have overheated. Once a gun has overheated, you must make Fix-It checks to repair it (or have someone else do it for you).

ARMORY

Gan Ying also sports an armory, doubling as a "coat check" for the armaments of passengers and for storing specialized equipment that the crewmembers don't need to carry with them everywhere they go. Kelly is uncomfortable with anyone carrying something larger than a pistol onboard the ship, and prefers that passengers remain unarmed completely unless situations call for a change of mind.

What is in the armory will be made available to the players during game-play, when it comes time to pick out weapons.

SAMSONS

Within the cargo hold at the front of the ship, Gan Ying carries two hovering vehicles called Samsons. The Samsons are multi-purpose, but mainly serve as cargo loaders as they can carry a great deal of weight. They are fast, if not highly maneuverable, and require one driver. Machine guns can be mounted on them (one each, following the rules above and can be used with schticks) and they have plenty of passenger room.

PAY & MONEY POINTS

Another perk to being a crewmember is that you get paid, and your passage aboard Gan Ying is free. As such, crewmembers get a Money Point, which can be spent on anything they choose during an episode (as long as the ship is stopped somewhere where things can be bought!).

Passengers do not get Money Points; any money they have is being spent on passage with Kelly and his crew.

When the Merit 'Money' is factored in, crewmembers can get up to 4 Money Points, while passengers have a limit of 3 Money Points.

You cannot save Money Points, please do not ask if you can.

I have already made some tweaks to the Gun schticks.

Gunslinger now requires you to designate a favorite type of gun (i.e. Light Revolver, etc.) so that it only works with that gun.

Rapid Fire decreases the Ammo Rating of a gun by two instead of by half.