Actions that intend to inflict trauma or change the condition for another character are considered attacks. Physical strikes, offensive spells, or using relics against an opponent all follow the same flow as any other action though they are typically followed with a Resistance Draw. The attack flow tends to follow this process:
Attack Draw
Determine Trauma
Resistance Draw
Attack Draw (Step 1: Target Difficulty)
The goal of making an attack draw is to determine whether the attack landed and how well it succeeded if it did land.
Step 1.A. Target Difficulty
The Narrator will provide this number. Typically, this is generated by predicting how likely a “generic human” would be to succeed at the action or it may be provided in-game.
Step 1.B. Lobe-of-Ease
Reduce the target difficulty set in Step 1.A. by the score of the corresponding Lobe. This is the action’s new target difficulty number.
Attack Draw (Step 2: Draw)
Step 2.A. Draw by Ability
Draw a number of cards from the Probability Deck equal to the rating your protagonist has in the assigned ability.
Step 2.B. Spend Perk Cards
Perk Cards (which are obtained any time you fail an action) can be spent in order to enhance your draw. Perk cards played this way are placed in a Perk Card discard pile.
Attack Draw (Step 3: Interpretation)
The highest card out of the draw is the result. If the value of this card meets or exceeds the target difficulty, then the attack was 100% successful. Depending on the attack or weapon used, missing the target difficult by 1 or 2 may still register as a hit, reducing the results of the trauma to a percentage.
Determine Trauma
To determine trauma is to calculate how much potential damage (or trauma) the attack caused.
Step 1: Tally Partial Trauma
Each method lists out the trauma by percentage for the target difficulty. This percentage is based on the target’s Max Vim (rounding down, if needed). If the result is 100%, then that means the attack does as much trauma as the target’s Max Vim. A result of 50% does trauma equal to half of the target’s Max Vim, and so on.
Step 2: Modify Trauma
Some bioforms will be vulnerable or resistant to specific types of trauma, either naturally or through other means (ex. clothing, relics, spells, etc.). This modification will be listed as a percentage. Apply this percentage to the Base Trauma (rounding down, if needed).
Resistance Draw (Step 1: Target Difficulty)
The point of making a resistance draw is to determine how much trauma is absorbed.
Step 1.A. Default Rating
The default target difficulty of all resistance draws is 10.
Step 1.B. Lobe-of-Ease
Reduce the target difficulty set in Step 1.A. by the score of the corresponding Lobe. This is the action’s new target difficulty number. The following chart shows which Lobes and Abilities correspond to resisting trauma.
Resistance Draw (Step 2: Draw)
Step 2.A. Draw by Ability
Draw a number of cards from the Probability Deck equal to the rating the target has in the assigned ability.
Step 2.B. Spend Perk Cards
Perk Cards can be spent in order to enhance your draw. Remember that Perk Cards played this way are placed in a Perk Card discard pile.
Step 3: Interpretation
The highest card out of the draw is the result. How this result is interpreted depends on the character’s armor. This is typically represented in a set of numbers, similar to attacks. The number on the left is how much to multiply the Modified Trauma by if the Resistance Draw is completely successful (rounding down, if needed). The number to the right of that is how much to multiply the Modified Trauma by if the target difficulty of the Resistance Draw is missed by 1 and so on. Upon complete failure, the attack is not resisted at all and the modified trauma is 100% effective.
Without any protection, the partial success for Resistance looks like the following:
10% > 75% > 90%
Sample Scene
While on assignment, an investigative journalist named Quila has trespassed into the abandoned industrial complex. She enters a large, dark warehouse that seems void of life until a chattering sounds from her left – it’s a hungry ashmite! The coyote-sized ashmite is crawling toward her but she has time to blast it with a spell from one of her side arms, the Grimgrin Paralyzer 272.Sample Protagonist
Name: Qulia
Max Vim: 17
Abilities
Comm. ⦿⦿⦸⦸⦸
Labor ⦿⦿⦸⦸⦸
Move ⦿⦿⦸⦸⦸
Operate ⦿⦿⦿⦿⦸
Sense ⦿⦿⦿⦸⦸
Surge ⦿⦿⦸⦸⦸
Think ⦿⦿⦿⦿⦿
Will ⦿⦿⦸⦸⦸
Lobes
Correl ⦿⦿⦸
Focal ⦿⦿⦿
Marvel ⦸⦸⦸
Natural ⦸⦸⦸Sample Weapons
Name: Felderton Fear Rod
Traits: Operate(Correl)
Difficulty: 8
Trauma
Emotion | 100% > 50% > 10%
A successful draw inflicts “Fear” on the intended target.
A failed draw results in a miss.name: Grimgrin Paralyzer 272
Traits: Operate(Correl)
Difficulty: 7
Trauma
Biotic | 100% > 60%
A successful draw inflicts “Paralysis” on the intended target.
A failed draw results in a miss.Sample Antagonist
Name: Ashmite
Max Vim: 12
Abilities
Labor ⦿⦿⦿⦿⦸
Move ⦿⦿⦸⦸⦸
Sense ⦿⦿⦿⦿⦸
Will ⦿⦿⦿⦸⦸
Behaviors
Immune to Mental Trauma
Weak to Blunt TraumaAttack Draw
Step 1: Set the Target Difficulty
Step 1.A. Generic Human Test
Qulia is going to shoot the ashmite with her Grimgrin Paralyzer 272. It has a difficulty of 7 so the Narrator decides to set the Target Difficulty to 7. Had Qulia chosen to fire her Felderton Fear Rod, the Target Difficulty would have been 8.
Step 1.B. Lobe-of-Ease
The corresponding Lobe for the Grimgrin Paralyzer 272 is “Correl”. Qulia’s score in Correl is 2. The Target Difficulty is now 5 (7 – 2 = 5) .Step 2 The Draw
Step 2.A. Draw by Ability
The associated ability with firing the Grimgrin Paralyzer is “Operate”. Quilia’s score in Operate is 4 so the Draw Number is 4. She draws {4, 3, 2, 2}, missing the Target Difficulty of 5 by 1.
Step 2.B. Spend Perk Cards
Qulia doesn’t have any Perk Cards at this time. If she had a King, Jack, or Queen, she could increase the value of her 4 to a 5 which would meet the Target Difficulty of 5. Or if she had a valued Perk Card (6, 7, 8, 9, or 10), she could add it to her draw which would exceed the Target Difficulty of 5.Step 3: Interpretation
Because Qulia’s draw was {4, 3, 2, 2} with no Perk Cards to help, the result is 4. Because the Target Difficulty of 5 was not met, this would be considered a Partial Success and will inflict Partial Trauma.Determine Trauma
Step 1: Tally Partial Trauma
Qulia’s Grimgrin Paralyzer 272 has the following Trauma spread:100% > 60%.
Because the result of Quila’s draw was only 1 value less than the Target Difficulty of 5, she inflicts 60% trauma (rather than missing it).
The ashmite’s Max Vim is 12. 60% of 12 is 7 (7.2 rounded down). So as of now, the trauma is 7.
Step 2: Modify Trauma
The ashmite has the following resistances:
Immune to Mental Trauma
Weak to Blunt TraumaThe Grimgrin Paralyzer 272 causes Biotic Trauma, which is part of the Molecular Trauma family. Since none of the ashmite’s behaviors make any mention of Biotic Trauma or Molecular Trauma, there is no modification. Had Qulia used her Felderton Fear Rod, which has a trauma type of Emotion, the trauma would be 0 since Emotion is part of the Mental Trauma family and ashmites are immune to Mental Trauma.
Resistance Draw
Step 1: Set the Target Difficulty
Step 1.A. Default Rating
The Target Difficulty is 10.Step 1.B. Lobe-of-Ease
Since the ashmite has no Lobes, the ashmite does not get to reduce the difficulty in this way.Step 2 The Draw
Step 2.A. Draw by Ability
The associated ability with defending against Molecular Trauma is “Will”. The ashmite’s score in Will is 3 so the Draw Number is 3. The ashmite draws {8, 4, Ace}, missing the Target Difficulty of 10 by 2.Step 2.B. Spend Perk Cards
The ashmite has no Perk Cards at this time. It doesn’t have any face cards but if it had any two of them, it could have increased the value of the 8 to a 10 which would have met the Target Difficulty of 10.Step 3. Interpretation
The ashmite’s draw was {8, 4, Ace} with no Perk Cards to help. The result is then 8. The ashmite’s armor rating is the default 10% > 75% > 90% (the leftmost number is a successful draw).Since the draw was 2 shy of the Target Difficulty, the trauma is multiplied by 90% resulting in 6 total trauma (90% of 7 = 6 [ 6.3 rounded down]).
Summary
Firing her Grimgrin Paralyzer 272, Quila drew 4 cards in an attempt to get a 5 or higher. Her highest card was 4 which was determined to be a partial success. This resulted in a chance of doing 7 points of trauma (rather than the full 12).To resist, the ashmite drew 3 cards in an attempt to get a 10. The highest card was an 8, resulting in a partial success. This resulted in a 10% resistance, ultimately reducing the 7 points of trauma to 6.