basic rules - examples - legal and credits
Zetacron uses very simple roleplaying rules based on Fudge, inspired by ultralight variants like Sherpa, Fudged Risus and IPFudge. The rules emphasize cool events and roleplaying through simplicity, speed, and flexibility.
Superb
Great
Good
Fair
Mediocre
Poor
Terrible
This is the Trait Ladder. These levels are used to describe your Profession, Skills, and the results of your actions.
Write this on your character sheet.
Your Profession sums up who you are into a single cliche, which can be as specific or as general as you'd like. Your Profession starts as 'Good'.
Example Professions: Big Warrior, Recluse Mage, Ex-Soldier, Swashbuckler, Thug, Priest, Action Hero
Make up any skills you want, at whatever levels you want (maximum 'Great'), to help define your character. New skills appropriate to your character can be added during play (within reason).
Example Skills: Strength, Wealth, Animal Handling, Kung Fu, Using Everyday Objects as Weapons, Hairdressing, Singing
Magical Power: You can choose the Skill Magical Power, with a specialty, if you want to use magic.
Untrained: Generally, characters are Poor at skills they aren't trained in.
Uncertain, risky, or high-tension actions are decided by the roll of Fudge dice. A Fudge die is a cube with a plus on two sides and a minus on two sides (the other two sides are blank). Usually, they are rolled four at a time (denoted 4dF).
Choosing a Trait: Choose the most appropriate Trait on your character sheet when resolving a task. If you have an appropriate Skill listed, use that. Your Profession covers things that a person of your Profession might be good at. New skills appropriate to your character concept may be assigned during play at the Gamemaster's discretion.
Rolling: To roll a Trait, start at the Trait level, and roll 4dF. For every plus, move a step up the scale, for every minus, move a step down. The level you end up on is your result.
Difficulty Level: The Gamemaster will tell you what minimum result you need to succeed. For most things, a 'Fair' or better result will be a success.
Opposed rolls: When two characters are in direct competition, they both roll. The one with the highest result wins.
You start the game with 5 Fudge Points. These can be spent at any time to receive a lucky break.
For example, spending a Fudge Point can:
Players give each other Fudge Points as a reward for good roleplaying. Tokens will be provided in the game.
The economics of Zetacron are abstract.
All goods and services have a Difficulty Level for cost, instead of an amount in fixed currency.
To buy something, beat the cost Difficulty Level with a roll on an appropriate Skill.
The purchasing skill will often be Wealth, but it could be another skills, such as Scrounging, or even your Profession, such as Street Gang Leader.
Making purchases greater than your Skill level has consequences. For example, your Wealth Skill may decrease, creditors could come looking for you, etc.
Combat is not special: actions in combat are handled identically to actions outside of combat.
You start the game with 5 Victory Points. Other characters may have more or fewer Victory Points.
Each time something bad happens to you during the scene, you lose one Victory Point.
If you lose a Victory Point, you are not necessarily wounded. Instead, you have suffered a dramatic setback of some sort. If appropriate, this setback may impose penalties.
When you run out of Victory Points, you're out of the combat. You may be incapacitated, mortally wounded, or dead, depending on the situation.
Victory points are recovered at the Gamemaster's discretion. Generally, it takes no more than a day to regain all of your victory points.
If you have the Magical Power skill, you can cast any spell related to your specialty. The more powerful the effect, the more dangerous it is to cast.
As a guideline, spells in Zetacron are about as powerful as the spells in a popular fantasy series about a boy wizard.
Absolute Limits: Magic in Zetacron cannot raise creatures from the dead, nor can it accurately predict the future, or control the minds of other creatures.
Casting a spell: To cast a spell, the player chooses the effect desired. The effect must be tied to the character's Magical Power specialty.
The Gamemaster tells you the Difficulty Level. You can choose to alter the spell to change the difficulty, or decide not to cast the spell.
If the Difficulty Level of the spell is greater than your Magical Power, you can cast the spell, but there are risks (see 'Powerful Spells')
Exhaustion: Spellcasting is tiring. If powerful (or lots of) magic is used, it is exhausting. The exhaustion hits after the adrenaline rush fades (immediately after a combat, for example). Depending on the magic used, this exhaustion can last from 10 minutes to over an hour.
Powerful Spells: You can try to cast spells beyond your Magical Power level, but if you fail your Skill roll, you lose a Victory Point, as the magic backlashes.