2d10 Under – ‘Narrative’

Systems
(forged in the dark, powered by the apocalypse, FATE)

Base Concepts (intro)

Player Roles
- GM
- Player Characters

What you’ll need

- copy of the rules
- character sheets
- pen and paper (or something for note taking is useful)
- dice (3 to 5 d6 per player)
- counters (not needed but can be fun and useful)
- snacks and a place to play

Narrative Play
- The Fiction
- The Flow: Describe action and see if tests are needed
- specific rule trumps general rule
- negotiation and ret-conning

Happy Gaming
- inclusive environment
- lines and veils
- the x-card

Glossary of terms
- stuff
- more stuff
Core System
- roll dice pool: 2d10 (+ modifiers/penalties) Vs Target Number (TN.)
- Target Number (TN.): attribute + skill (+ modifiers/bonuses)
- equal or under skill = 1 success.
- additional success: equal or under skill threshold, succeed or fail.

- amount of hits gained = degree of success.

i.e. Daud has a brawn of 11 and is practised in the Athletics skill. Daud’s player rolls the dice and
gets 3 and 8, for a total of 11. Daud has 2 hits (full success), one for rolling equal or under their
attribute and one for rolling equal or under their skill threshold.

Degrees of Success
Critical Failure (No hits, + 10’s)
- no hits scored
- at least one 10 on the dice
- additional cost

Failure (No Hits),

- the action isn’t successful
- take a cost (or more, dependant on threat)

Qualified Success (1 Hit)

Success but at some sort of cost or twist.
Often the most difficult but fun, interesting and rewarding test result to judge.

Full Success (2 Hits)

success without any cost

Critical Success (3 Hits)

In many ways, the opposite of qualified success. Many of the same guideline still apply.
The actions succeeds and gains an additional boon.

Critical rolls: Double 1’s and 10’s

- always succeed / fail
- rare that they wouldn’t already have succeeded / failed anyway.

Narrative Effects: Boons and Costs

Guidelines:
- the action is still successful, at least in intent by-enlarge (see limited success below).
- the cost(s) should be driven by the narrative and what makes sense.
- get players involved by giving them a choice. (give them a choice, don’t let them straight choose
the one they want)

Example costs:
- health damage
- stress damage
- gear wear
- negative momentum
- takes more time
- expend (additional) resource
- drop/loose something / leave evidence
- limited success (close distance but don’t catch them etc.)

Examples boons:
- recover stress
- positive momentum
- takes less time
- expends less resources
- gain an extra (piece of info, more distance etc.)

Difficulty, Threat and Modifiers

This section explains how Difficulty (Dv.) works in the game. Every test you make will have an
associated Difficulty Value. It also goes in to detail about the different ways you can affect how the
core Action Test operates, to help mechanically represent the varying situations of your fiction.

Difficulty
- A measure of the challenge or complexity posed by a task or opponent.
- Difficulty Values (Dv.): range from 0 to 5
- 0) easy
- 1) straightforward
- 2) challenging
- 3)
- 4)
- 5) Heroic

Threat
- A measure of the danger posed by a task or opponent.
- can be with or without difficulty
- adds an additional costs to all results bar critical success (see degrees of success. pg. Xxx)

‘Critical’ Threat
- adds an additional costs to all results, including critical success (see degrees of success. pg. Xxx)
- don’t use ‘limited victory’ cost

Modifiers
‘Static’ Modifiers
- +X bonus or penalty
- values range from 1 to 3
- bonus: + add to attribute
- penalty: + add to dice pool (essentially extra difficulty)
- bonuses and penalties stack, unless stated otherwise (equipment bonus from armour, multiple
weapons etc.)
- common occurrences: equipment, wounds and injuries, conditions, combat
‘Active’ Modifiers
- advantage and disadvantage
- roll 3d10 instead of 2d10
- advantage: keep 2 lowest dice
- disadvantage: keep 2 highest dice

Inspiration
- not skilled: act as if trained tier in a relevant skill
- already skilled: +1 to skill value (individual dice number)

Game Structure – Scenes

Scenes - Structuring the Game
- generally just flow, like a good book or film
- tries to support the fiction and narrative by providing some structural guidance.
- limits, and helps to define, time and some actions
- PC’s in different scene types at the same time

Running Scenes

Scenes are a way for the game to provide some structure to play. They help to split up and define
time in game. Scenes also serve to help define and limit some of the abilities (Talents) in the game,
some may only be available in certain types of scene, a limited amount of times per scene, or both.
Scenes will generally just flow naturally from the fiction you’ve created and the gameplay, but
always feel free to ask the GM if you need clarification;
e.g. You’ve made your way to the disused warehouse at the spaceport (exploration scene) and the
team are investigating it for clues (exploration scene). During the investigation, you’re ambushed
by local ‘thugs’ (action scene).

A quick outline of the different types of scene is provided below and more in-depth detail is given
in the YYY section later in this book (pg. xxx).

Multiple Scenes
PC’s don’t have to be in the same scenes, particularly if they are not all in the same place at the
same time. This is fine and not to be worried about or avoided. They could be in different
exploration scenes, some checking out an abandoned grav-van while other are sitting in a cantina,
chatting to a contact. They also don’t have to be in the same types of scene, some could be in an
action scene (escaping the police that have also turned up to check out the van) while the others are
in an exploration scene (having a chat with the contact). As with scenes normally, these situations
will just come about naturally from the flow of the fiction and shouldn’t be any more difficult to
manage (outside the usual issues for a GM running the game when the party has split).

‘Dropping in’ Scenes

You can also insert, or ‘drop in’ scenes into other scenes. This is most common, but not always, if
you want to focus on a particular activity or interaction during a wider downtime scene. As with
PC’s in different scenes above, this is absolutely fine, just be guided by the fiction, how it seems to
be naturally flowing and the needs of your game.

Exploration Scenes
Exploration scenes are essentially the ‘base state’ of the game and the most common type of scene.
Any situation or activity that isn’t covered by a need for action or downtime is an exploration scene.
‘Exploration’ in this context is very broad. They can cover all investigation, more focussed travel
scenes (tracking, choosing which way to go etc.), social interaction, puzzle solving, stealth and
avoidance etc. These are just a few of the sorts of activities that can come up during a game.

Exploration scenes can also be used to cover all of the activities of Action or Downtime scenes if
needed. You may want a chase scene to be over quickly or not as much of a focus as making it an
action scene, which can sometimes slow down the game. In this case you just ask the PC’s what
they are doing and then treat it as a skill based action test (or linked set of them) with no need to
worry about initiative, specific actions on specific turns etc. Alternatively, you may want to give
more focus to a certain shopping scene as the PC’s are looking for a particular item, or a particular
social interaction when a character is networking. These can just be played out in more detail as
exploration scenes.

Action Scenes (inc. combat)

Action scenes are used on any occasion where you seem to need a more granular approach to time,
or to know which actions take place in what order. Common examples include combat encounters,
intense chase and escape scenes, races etc. They are formed of rounds, that represent about 5 to 10
seconds of time, in which each character can take their turn to perform actions. Which order
characters act in, when they take their turn, is determined by their initiative.

Action scenes are the most complex types of scenes. They involve more additional rules and can
take a lot of game time to resolve when compared with other types of scene.
----- initiative: narrative or roll for it, both can be useful and used as needed/appropriate.

----- 1 Movement (move, simple interaction, take cover, take aim, recovery)
Movements are activities that mainly involve positioning, preparation/recovery or quick
interactions. They are rarely the main focus of a characters narrative action and often support the
activity the character is performing, taking aim before firing, moving to engage an enemy so they
can attack, recovering so that they can act etc.

----- 1 Action (any movement, complex interaction, attack, use talent/spell, disengage, misc.)
most involved or complex activities are actions.

----- 1 Interruption (block/dodge, opportunity attack, use held)

Interruptions are activities that are done in response to other actions, blocking an attack, taking a
swipe at someone as they try to move away from you etc.

----- Free Actions (drop prone, one simple interaction, say something simple, extras from talents)
Free actions cover activities that are either very quick, easy or subconscious to perform. They are
also the sorts of activity that might be performable whilst taking other actions, e.g. a simple
interaction (drawing a weapon etc.) while moving or ‘as part of’ the attack the character makes.

----- misc. (use which ever feels best to represent, usually an action. Use above options as guide.)

Actions
- interaction/use something (simple/complex)
- attack
--- opportunity
--- overwatch (held attack actions)
- move
--- disengage
--- hide/cover
--- go prone
--- take aim
- block/dodge
- use held
- say something
- recovery
--- get up
- use talent/spell
- misc

Combat
- two weapon (+1 penalty, light only, +half damage of second weapon. can use the special
properties of either weapon, but not both)
- range (+1 penalty beyond (or per?) standard range)
- cover (+1 or 2 penalty, light and heavy cover)
- mounted (+1 penalty???)
- height (adv./dis., as needed)

Downtime Scenes
Downtime scenes, in some ways, are the opposite to Action Scenes. The represent extended periods
of time covered with less detail and focus than may usually be the case. The exact relations of
actions may also not be as important, ‘X does Y, A does B during the evening / your week off’ etc.
who acts first or second is not as relevant. They are the montage in a movie or the connecting and
travelling chapters in a novel etc. They help to tie off loose ends or get jobs done quickly in game,
so you can get back to the sort of action you want to spend the game focussing on. As a general
rule, Downtime scenes tend to use less action tests and more narrative description to resolve their
activities, especially when compared to the in game time being covered by the scene. Its more than
possible that a player would just describe what their character has been up to for the downtime. The
GM may ask for one test to represent a months worth of the character’s social networking, if they
ask for one at all. Below is a list of common ‘downtime’ activities:

---- Rest and Recovery

---- Research
---- Crafting or Building
---- Travelling
---- Training
---- Shopping
---- Social Networking
---- General work and progress

- state

(activities during those scenes)

links
-little bits of description between scenes, like quick resets or linking sentences.

Running Scenes
- generally just flows, like a good book or film
- tries to support the fiction and narrative by providing some structural guidance.
- limits and helps define time and some actions
- PC’s in different scene types at the same time

Exploration Scenes
-
-

Action Scenes (inc. combat)

----- initiative: narrative or roll for it, both can be useful and used as needed/appropriate.
----- 1 movement (move, simple interaction, take cover, recovery)
----- 1 action (any movement, complex interaction, attack, use talent)
----- 1 reaction (block/dodge)
----- free actions (drop prone, one simple interaction, say something simple)

Combat
- two weapon (+1 or 2 penalty, +half damage of second weapon. can use any special properties of
either weapon, but not both)
- range (+1 penalty per range band beyond standard)
- cover (+1 or 2 penalty, light and heavy cover)
- mounted (+1 penalty???)
- height (adv./dis., as needed)

Downtime Scenes
---- research
---- crafting/building
---- rest and recovery
---- general work

- state

(activities during those scenes)

links
-little bits of description between scenes, like quick resets or linking sentences.

Other Systems
Focus Points
- player specific pool
- pool of spendable points
- points equal to 1 + the characters Will.
---- advantage
---- inspiration
---- second wind
---- +1 AP
---- use talent
---- earn/take back a story point (if using)

Story Points
- collective group pool
- part of replacing inspiration.
- group pool of spendable points.

Condition Tags
- Wounded

Non-Standard (Complex) Tests

- Extended Tests
-PvP
Fronts and Clocks
- move to be with this stuff rather than the GM’s Bit