INTRODUCTION
T hese questions and answers originally came from
the FFG community forum. The questions were
submitted by community members to the official sup-
port email and the answers were the responses from
one of the Genesys developers (almost always Sam
CHARACTER CREATION
QUESTION:
I love the flexibility in Genesys' character creation so
I pondered to go a step further and have my players
decide on the class skills themselves and then let them
define the "class" or "role" depending on the choice
of skills. Would it be appropriate to have the players
choose 8 "class" skills freely instead of building classes
in advance with a pre defined set of class skills?
ANSWER:
Sure, I think that would be totally reasonable! As long
as you sit down with your players beforehand and talk
about what kind of game you’re going to run, I can’t see
any problem with it.
COMBAT
QUESTION:
Can I only engage one single opponent at a time even if
both stand next to each other in front of me or could I
engage multiple opponents with one maneuver if they
stand next to each other? How does blast work in that
regard? Are opponents standing next to each other so
that they could touch each other count as engaged?
ANSWER:
A lot of that is left up to common sense. If two opponents
are standing right next to each other, then they are both
at engaged range from each other. If you engage one, you
would engage them both. (There could be some excep-
tions to this, such as if your GM has one opponent pro-
tecting the other, and that opponent interposes them-
self between your character and the second opponent.
V1.1.0
Gregor-Stewart but some could have come from Tim
Huckleberry).
If you have submitted a question for an official response
and would like it included here, please contact me at
scott.zumwalt@gmail.com.
QUESTION:
On page 15 of the Genesys Core Rulebook, the side-
bar mentions that characteristics have a "softcap" of 5.
What is the hardcap?
ANSWER:
There is no hard cap, just very few ways to increase a
characteristic beyond 5 (and it’s something we strongly
discourage you do except in some rare cases). For
example, some cybernetics in the science fiction setting
allow you to increase a characteristic to 6, but they do
not stack (you can’t use two cybernetics to increase the
same characteristic twice) and they come with draw-
backs (decreased strain threshold).
In that case, your GM may rule you cannot engage the
second character without dealing with the first one. In
these cases, common sense and the ongoing narrative
would dictate the relative positioning of the characters).
In the case of Blast, it is up to your GM as to whether
opponents are standing close enough together to count
as engaged with each other. As described on page 106,
engaged characters are roughly close enough that they
could reach out and touch each other, so are within a few
feet of one another.
QUESTION:
Is it one maneuver to disengaged from all enemies or
just one enemy? The Tumble talent (RoT page 88) speci-
fies that you disengaged from all engaged enemies while
the engaged/disengage description (CRB100) says you
Developer questions
GENESYS 1
engage/disengage from AN opponent. I've been running
it as one maneuver for all engaged enemies, but the new
talent in RoT has me second guessing myself.
ANSWER:
You can disengage from everyone you’re currently
engaged with as a maneuver. There are exceptions, of
course, especially if your GM decides that you’re sur-
rounded or hemmed in by your foes and can’t physi-
cally break free from them. But in general, disengag-
ing gets your character away from everyone they’re
currently engaged with. The Tumble talent is useful
because it allows you to disengage as an incidental.
QUESTION:
If a character is Grappled using the Grapple talent it
would usually require them to spend two manoeuvres
to disengage. If that character has the Tumble talent
what options do they have? 1. Disengage as an Inciden-
tal, Tumble takes precedent. 2. Disengage as a Single
Manoeuvre, the two talents nullify each other 3. It will
always require two Manoeuvres, Grapple takes prec-
edent.
ANSWER:
In this case, Grapple would take priority. While both
talents create an exception to the normal rules for leav-
ing a hostile engagement, Tumble does so by making an
option available to the character, while Grapple dictates
what that character “must” do. Of course, as always, a
GM might handle this situation differently if that is best
for their game. I’m sure a player could convince me that
their nimble character was able to tumble out of the
way before the enemy could grab them, particularly if
they used a Story Point to influence the narrative!
QUESTION:
I have a follow up questions about this reply: "An item
can only be of one type of craftsmanship, so the effects
would not stack. With the Improved effect of Signature
Weapon, if you choose to “reveal” the weapon’s Ancient
craftsmanship, the effects of Ancient craftsmanship
replace the effects of the original craftsmanship." What
happens if there is no hard point available for the
Ancient Craftsmanship when they purchase Improved?
ANSWER:
In this case, the weapon would still reduce its number
of hard points by one. Since attachments must occupy
hard points, this could cause the weapon to lose an
attachment, if there are no longer enough hard points
Developer questions
2 GENESYS
to support it. (This is one reason a player might want
totake the alternative for this upgrade and just add
the Reinforced quality.) Then again, Heroic Abilities
are meant to reflect a character’s personal abilities and
story, and each signature weapon should be as unique
as its wielder! As a GM, I might discuss alternatives
with the player in the context of the ongoing story.
QUESTION:
In GENESYS, during structured time the Heal action is
used "in place of a medicine check in order to remove
damage and heal critical injuries." -- pg. 217. However,
"any one character can only make one attempt to heal a
particular critical injury per week of game time." -- pg.
61. But, when using Heal narratively "Healing magic
can also affect targets multiple times per encounter."
-- pg. 214 Does the Heal skill allow multiple checks to
heal from critical injuries per week?
ANSWER:
I can understand your confusion, and I apologize for
any lack of clarity there. Due to the innate limitations
of healing magic (mainly, suffering 2 strain every time
your character casts a spell), we intended for Heal to be
cast multiple times per encounter (and thus, per week
as well). This includes attempts to heal Critical Inju-
ries. Generally, you should find that the lesser Critical
Injuries are better healed through the use of the Medi-
cine skill (it doesn’t cost strain to use, and the difficulty
is usually less). However, some truly horrific injuries
are better handled through the magical healing arts.
Likewise, a good doctor with some ranks in Surgeon is
going to be able to heal a lot of wounds, but if the target
is badly injured, a magic user may have an easier time
healing them. In the end, hopefully you find that your
group can get by with either a magic user that can heal
or a character with Medicine; but that both skills are
handy to have around. You may even find that a priest
character may want to invest in both!
QUESTION:
Can a character drink a stamina elixir during a "com-
plex social encounter" to replenish their strain thresh-
old and thus stave off compromise or capitulation?
ANSWER:
They certainly can! How the other characters in the
scene respond is another matter. (I imagine it’s consid-
ered poor form in some company.)
QUESTION:
When spending advantages on a roll, can we only use
each option once? Specifically the "Recover 1 strain"
option. In SWRPG the table made it clear you could
choose that option more than once, but that verbiage is
missing from the table in Genesys.
ANSWER:
We removed that qualifier because we felt that by speci-
fying that strain loss and gain was the only thing that
could be activated multiple times with Advantage, we
were limiting some other options that could also be rea-
sonably activated multiple times. Disarming an oppo-
nent, for example, could happen twice if your character
has enough Advantage and/or Triumphs and your oppo-
nent has two weapons. So could gaining free maneuvers;
provided your character didn’t exceed the two maneuver
limitation. By removing that qualifier, we give more flex-
ibility to the GM to determine what is reasonable and
what isn’t. A player may well want to heal four strain
using four Advantage, and the GM is fine with that.
However, if that same player wants to add four Boost
dice to their ally’s next check, the GM is perfectly within
their rights to say “that’s excessive. Come up with some-
thing else.” (On the other hand, if the GM is running a
horror-themed game where strain is a more precious
commodity, maybe they don’t want their players able to
heal more than one strain at a time!)
QUESTION:
Dangerous Driving maneuver. Rule as written, if a
character want to make this maneuver with a big space-
ship or air carrier, with silhouette 8, the difficulty will
be 8 purple dices. Is this correct? It's not too hard? For a
standard crew it will be impossible to steering the vehi-
cle. Or maybe it's, like Star Wars, HALF the silhouette
rounded up?
ANSWER:
As written, difficulties can’t go above Formidable (five
Difficulty dice) so that’s where this difficulty would top
out. (Technically, it could be considered Impossible, in
which case you’d need to spend a Story Point to attempt
it). Formidable doesn’t seem too unreasonable if you’re
talking about piloting a very large ship through incred-
ibly tight coursework. After all, this check is only called
for if you’re steering said ship into very dangerous ter-
rain or trying to preform a very reckless maneuver with
it! However, if in the course of playing your game you
find this to be a continuing problem, please don’t hesitate
to let us know and we’ll take another look at the issue.
QUESTION:
Why did you choose the different mechanic for „Over-
ide Security Program“? The system is usually very clean
and uses the standard difficulty/opposition mechanic
in most situation. Therefore, my expectation was that
the rating of a Security Program is the difficulty to
overcome it. However, it is not. Instead, the rating is
the number of successes needed, which derivates from
all other actions in Genesys. I‘d like to understand why,
so that I better know the implications if I copy one or
the other dice mechanic for my own usage.
ANSWER:
That’s a good question. We chose to design the Over-
ride Security program the way that we did for several
reasons. One is that scaling successes (the more suc-
cesses you get, the more effective your action is) is
already a part in Genesys (most notably whenever you
make a combat check). Although the structure here is
slightly different, the core conceit is the same. The sec-
ond reason is that it creates additional design space for
the future. Talents already exist that allow you to mod-
ify the difficulty of checks. By taking this approach, it
allows us to open up new avenues for affecting your
character’s ability to hack. It also means we can create
Firewalls that are hard to get through(large numbers
of successes required to ‘break’) but don’t have severe
risks of complications if you fail. System defenders can
take talents such Defensive Sysops that can increase the
difficulty, and this way these talents don’t compound
with an increased difficulty to create an impossible task.
QUESTION:
Hello! I was hoping you could clarify how buying and
selling are supposed to work in both Star Wars and
Genesys. If a PC wants to sell something he looted from
a foe, and the sale is not a plot-critical moment, does
this require one check or two? More specifically, does
the PC need to make one Negotiation or Streetwise
check versus the item's Rarity to find a buyer, and a sec-
ond Negotiation or Streetwise check to haggle over the
price with the merchant? Or is the first roll the only one
required? The rules on pp. 82–83 of the Genesys rule-
book and pp. 157–58 of the Force and Destiny rulebook
seem to imply that it's one roll versus a difficulty set by
the item's Rarity, with uncanceled Successes increasing
the sale price. But should it be two rolls? Roll 1, to find
the buyer, Roll 2 to haggle over the price? For one more
level to this question, does the answer depend on the
plot-critical-ness of the encounter? Haggling against a
merchant makes selling into an opposed check, almost
always opening the door to Despair. Is this an indicator
Developer questions
GENESYS 3
that these sorts of opposed haggling sessions should
be reserved for important plot moments, and not for
simple looting and selling of enemy gear? Thanks for
any clarification!
ANSWER:
The rules roll the “find a buyer” and the “sell the item”
into a single check, which is why it becomes more difficult
to sell rarer items (it’s harder to find a buyer with the kind
of money/interest to afford the item in the first place).
However, you do have a good point. If the negotiations
are plot critical, you can expand the encounter out into
two parts. One to find a buyer (which can rely on Knowl-
edge or Streetwise checks, or even social skill checks as
your characters talk to their friends and find someone
interested in making the purchase). The second would
be to negotiate a price, at which point you could make an
GEAR
QUESTION:
On pg 144, for the Fantasy weapons table, I was able to
mentally work through the creation of the Shield listed
in Table II. 1-1. However, my question is, how did you
create the Sword in the same table? Since it has +3 dam-
age, with a crit rating of 2, and the Defensive 1 seems
like it would be much higher than 200. I realize costs
are variable and there is a discount applied to items in
Table II.1-1, but no matter what I seem to craft, I can't
get the sword's cost to come close to what's listed.
ANSWER:
You’ll probably notice a similar problem with spears,
maces, and other melee weapons. We accidentally
omitted one line from our weapons pricing table,
which is that melee and brawl weapon costs should be
halved after all other calculations. This compensates
them for the major limitation of not being able to be
used at range. This is something we have fixed in future
printings, and will be addressing in our errata.
QUESTION:
I noticed in the Steampunk Setting Specific Gear that
the Hand Cannon has no listed rarity. What would the
official rarity of this weapon be?
ANSWER:
The Hand Cannon should have Rarity 5.
Developer questions
4 GENESYS
opposed Negotiation check instead of a set difficulty. Sim-
ply use the same resolution for successes!
QUESTION:
Can a single threat, used to cancel a maneuver, be used
to end a spell that has had the concentration maneuver
used to sustain it? For example, if a PC has a barrier
spell up can a single threat on that PC be used to end
the barrier he/she cast 3 rounds prior but was sustain-
ing via concentration maneuver?
ANSWER:
A single threat seems a bit low for that effect; how-
ever the final arbitrator of whether that is possible is
the GM. If your GM decides that’s what happens, then
that’s their prerogative.
QUESTION:
For the Prepare item quality on weapons, is it intended
to be once per combat check or once period? If a
weapon has Prepare 1, do I have to prepare before each
attack or is it one prepare and I can make as many com-
bat checks as I want?
ANSWER:
You prepare before making combat checks in general—
within the bounds of common sense. Prepare is sup-
posed to represent a certain amount of setup or prep
that goes into firing or using a weapon (anything from
getting your feet set to deploying special sensors). So
generally, once it’s prepared, you can just make attacks
with it. However, there may be some circumstances in
which your GM could require you to spend those pre-
pare maneuvers again. Those circumstances are going
to be fairly limited, such as “I want to haul this missile
launcher to a different part of the battlefield, then shoot
something else.”
QUESTION:
Question on the Burn quality. It says that "[w]hen
Burn is triggered, one target hit by the attack contin-
ues to suffer the weapon's base damage each round…."
Does the target suffer wounds, which bypasses soak, or
does the target take damage and soak therefore applies?
ANSWER:
The target takes damage, and therefore soak applies.
MAGIC
QUESTION:
In the new Genesys RPG, do magic casters pay an
Advantage cost to activate additional effects they’ve
already purchased for a spell with a difficulty increase
to the spell? (e.g. If a character purchases the Blast,
Fire, and Range upgrades for an attack spell, making
the spell Daunting difficulty, must they then also pay
Advantages to activate Burn and Blast?)
ANSWER:
That is correct.
QUESTION:
How can mind affecting spells like D&Ds Charm Per-
son (makes target feeling friendly towards caster) or
Suggestion (makes target feel the proposal of the caster
sounds perfectly reasonable) or illusions (making tar-
get believe something to be real) be created? They do
not seem to fit to any of the base spells.
ANSWER:
Unless you want to invent your own spells (which
you, of course, are more than welcome to do!) I would
recommend that you repurpose Curse and Conjure.
Between pages 212 and 214 we discuss more narrative
ways to use the various spells, and you may find some
advice there on how to use Curse to create mind-effect-
ing spells, and use Conjure to create illusions.Both
Charm Person and Suggestion are going to be used in
a more narrative sense, as the way the NPC interprets
these interactions is up to the GM. For a spell like Sug-
gestion, I would recommend making it Easy for min-
ions and unimportant rivals, and Average for moder-
ately important rivals. Nemeses should be Hard, and
if I was the GM, I would certainly upgrade the check
with a Story Point. Upgrades such as range or affecting
multiple targets can be applied normally. You yourself
have already described the effect! Charm Person is a
bit harder (since it governs an entire state of mind), so
I would increase the difficulty by one from all the dif-
ficulties I just described for Suggestion. In both cases,
I would recommend that in a narrative encounter, the
effects last for five minutes or so, and in a structured
encounter, they last for one round. The caster can
maintain them with Concentration, of course. For Illu-
sions, I would just treat it as if you were summoning a
creature. However, since it’s just an illusion, you could
forgo the Summon Ally upgrade, and still have the illu-
sions do whatever you want them to. After all, they
wouldn’t be able to hurt anyone. Again, you can apply
any other upgrades as normal.
QUESTION:
Does the empowered effect of the magic attack also
influence the damage burn quality dealt? I was told that
knowledge 5 provided,the burn damage is doubled up
to 10 instead the usual 5 in this case. Is this true or does
empower only apply to the initial damage?
ANSWER:
Empowered effectively increase’s the attack’s base dam-
age, and the Burn quality deals the attack’s base damage
again over subsequent rounds. So yes, it would affect
the Burn quality’s damage.
QUESTION:
When using a staff to cast an attack spell with the Blast
effect added on, does the +4 to base damage increase
the damage from the blast effect. In other words, If the
mage has a Knowledge of 3, would the blast do just the
3 damage or 7 (3 + 4 from the staff )?
ANSWER:
As written, the Blast damage would only be Successes
plus ranks in the Blast quality. However, if you feel that
Blast damage is a bit low, then it would be perfectly
reasonable to apply the implement’s base damage as
well. You could also change the Blast effect so that the
Blast rating is equal to twice your character’s ranks in
Knowledge (giving you a rating of 2-10). However, I
would not do both!
QUESTION:
When using the concentrate manoeuvre, does that sus-
tain one spell, or can one manoeuvre sustain multiple
spells?
ANSWER:
The concentrate maneuver sustains one spell. You can
perform multiple concentrate maneuvers to sustain
multiple spells, within the maneuver limit.
Developer questions
GENESYS 5
QUESTION:
In Genesys magic systems. Does taking damage beyond
soak break concentration?
ANSWER:
Not as the rules are written, no. If you want to imple-
ment some sort of rule like that in your own setting, I
might recommend only have concentration be broken
if the character suffers a critical injury (since taking
damage happens fairly often).
QUESTION:
In Genesys magic systems. Does spell-casting (ie. tak-
ing a magic action) break concentration?
ANSWER:
No. Not concentrating anymore break concentration.
It's just a maneuver you choose to perform or not in
order to sustain a spell that allows it.
QUESTION:
In a previous question about whether or not Ranged
Defense was applicable against Magic Attacks it was
stated that Magic Attacks were like Ranged attacks in
that regard and that Ranged Defense does apply to the
roll. Can you please explain what things effect a magic
attack, is it all things that would affect ranged attacks,
such as the penalties for 'Making Ranged Attacks At
Engaged Targets' or 'Making Ranged Attacks While
Engaged'? Does the Close Combat effect change the
attack to a melee attack or just allow the ability to target
an engaged opponent? How do talents affect the dice
pool of a Magic Attack, such as Side Step, Defensive
Stance, Dodge, etc..?
ANSWER:
In short, yes. A magic attack can be treated like any other
ranged attack in most respects, which includes ranged
defense and talents that defend against ranged attacks.
As for the “close combat” upgrade, you can think of that
more as the same difficulty increase you would see from
using a Ranged (Light) weapon to target an engaged
foe. (Of course, if you want to narratively describe your
attack as a flaming sword or ice spear, I’m sure your GM
would be fine with the embellishment. They may even let
you ignore Side Step or Ranged Defense as a reward for
your creativity, but that’s-as always-something to resolve
with your GM and up to their discretion, since it changes
the rules as they are written.)
Developer questions
6 GENESYS
QUESTION:
For the augment and curse spells, do you actually just
add/remove an ability die or do you upgrade/down-
grade your ability dice pool? The way it's worded makes
it seem like you just add/remove a green proficiency
die. But adding/subtracting ability dice aren't found
anywhere else in the rulebook, and thus I assume it's
supposed to be upgrade/downgrade. Thank you for
your time!
ANSWER:
You are supposed to increase or decrease the ability of
the check, which is essentially adding or removing a
die, which is covered in the adding/removing dice step.
However, in the case of Cursing specifically, if you only
have Proficiency dice in your pool, you should replace
a Proficiency die with an Ability die (effectively down-
grading the check).
QUESTION:
Can the Primal skill be used for a Heal (Resurrection)
spell? Page 70 of the core rulebook says that Primal cannot
be used to "raise or reanimate the dead," but in page 218,
Resurrection is open to Primal. Which page is correct?
ANSWER:
“Raising or reanimating the dead” in this case refers to
the necromantic practice of animating dead bodies in
a grotesque parody of life, not restoring one’s comrades
to full health from the cold embrace of the grave. So
yes, you can use Resurrection with Primal.
QUESTION:
Hi! I got three questions about RoT rules. 1. First one
is concerning a Curse Doom spell effect. It is written
that you cannot touch dice showing Triumph or Dis-
pair symbols. But can you change Proficiency or Chal-
lenge dice faces to show such symbols? For example, on
Proficiency die I rolled two advantage symbols. Can I
change it to the Triumph? 2. Second question is about
Conjure spells. I got some trouble understanding the
scope of this spell action. What type of creatures my
players can summon? Using this spell can they summon
everything that exists in Terrinoth? Even dwarf soldiers
or human mages? Or can a two-handed weapon they
Conjure be magical? 3. Last but not least, this question
is connected with a previous one. Summoned creatures
got statistics as described in the RoT books? Or should
stats depend on Mages ranks in Knowledge (Lore)?
Thanks in advance!
ANSWER:
Hi! In order… 1. Yes, you could change the facing on
a die from an Advantage to a Triumph, or a Threat to
a Despair. 2. You can only summon minions (or rivals
with the additional effect), but the GM has the final say
on what would be allowed here. Iin general any NPC
listed as a minion (or rival with the additional effect)
would usually be ok. Weapons would be mundane
types, so no magic weapons (though a weapon appear-
ing out of thin air would certainly appear magical to
others!). You and your GM can create new versions of
Conjure or new additional effects to summon more
powerful allies or magical items too. 3. Summoned
creatures would use their appropriate profile, yes. So
a summoned Reanimate would use the profile from
Realms of Terrinoth. Remember though that these
aren’t the real thing—they are magically created simu-
lacrum of that creature/item.
QUESTION:
With the magic spell heal, can you target yourself? The
heal spell is missing the verbiage that other self-targe-
table spells have. Wondering if that's intentional or an
oversight. Thanks!
ANSWER:
You can target any engaged character, including yourself.
QUESTION:
I have a question regarding the Barrier Magic Attribute
"Reflection" on page 219 of the Genesys Core Rule-
book. Reflection reads: If an opponent makes a magic
attack against and effected target and generates 3 threat
or 1 despair on the check, after the check is resolved,
they suffer a hit dealing damage equal to the total
damage of the attack. However, on page 211, under
'Spending threat and despair on magic skill checks',
the options for 3 threat read 'The spell is slightly more
powerful than expected, one character of the GMs
choice is targeted or otherwise affected by the spell as
well' So, isn't the default effect of 3 threat already more
powerful than the benefit of the barrier reflection? If
the GM were to select the 'caster' as the additional tar-
get, the effects seem identical. Alternatively the GM
could select another target, making the default 3 threat
option less restricted than the benefit afforded by Bar-
rier Reflect. Is this correct? Should barrier reflect be
applying to non-magic attacks instead? Note: On page
166 of the Realms of Terrinoth book, the Necroman-
cer 'Wall of Bones' spell has a Reflect component that
applies to both magic and non-magic attacks.
ANSWER:
The Reflection attribute as listed in the Genesys core
rulebook is correct. It is true that Threat can be spent to
cause additional targets to be affected by a spell, which
does mean that the one can end up with the same result.
This is also correct. The two really shouldn’t be compared
side by side because one (the Reflection option) is under
the control of the player, while the other (the option
in Table III.2—4) is under the control of the GM. The
second option also applies to any spell cast (including
healing, augmentations, etc), and can target any other
character in the encounter (not just the caster or their
target). But the player isn’t going to be able to be the one
who selects who the second target is going to be under
the spending Threat option in Table III.2—4, so it’s not
an ability they can count on or control. The Reflection
attribute does not work against ranged attacks. The Nec-
romancer’s spell in the Realms of Terrinoth does, but
that is a specific spell for a specific NPC, and thus does
not necessarily follow the same rules.
QUESTION:
I would like to ask a question concerning a Conjure
magic action. When a character casts a Conjure spell
during encounter with a Summon Ally effect, on page
217 GCRB it is written that: "The character may spend
a maneuver to direct the creature, allowing them to
determine its action and maneuver." Does the charac-
ter have to perform the maneuver to direct the crea-
ture every following turn? Or a single maneuver with
"Attack" command is enough for the duration of an
encounter? Secondly, can a character summon two
creatures/items (different type or not) by performing a
Conjure magic action two times? Or the second Con-
jure spell "replaces" the effects of the first spell?
ANSWER:
Your character must spend a maneuver each turn to
direct the summoned creature to perform an action
and a maneuver. Your character may summon two (or
more) creatures at once.
QUESTION:
1. So as I understand, the creature won't continue
attacking an opponent unless I perform a maneuver
each turn even if it fits their instincts. Is that correct?
2. For example, my Player wants to summon a bear, but
later he decides to summon another bear with second
Conjure action while still maintaining the first spell.
Can a character concentrate on two different Conjure
spells at the same time or the second Conjure spell
"replaces" the effects of the first spell?
Developer questions
GENESYS 7
ANSWER:
With a literal interpretation of the rules, no the creature
will not. How it behaves is up to the GM, and that might
involve attacking its original target, or it might suddenly
run away, hide, attack the summoner, or get bored and
start sniffing around its environment. This caveat exists
so that players do not abuse the summoning rules. They
may engineer a situation where the creature gets put into
a situation where it has no choice but to fight, or its very
presence is all the player needs! But the only way to guar-
antee that it does what the player wants is to direct it,
and GMs should highlight the uncertainty of summon-
ing creatures otherwise. Your player can summon two
creatures and concentrate on both of them, provided
they have the maneuvers to do so!
SKILLS
QUESTION:
Does the Arcana skill cover general knowledge of all
magic and its function, or only general knowledge of
arcane magic and its function? How does this apply
in Terrinoth, given the introduction of Knowledge
(adventuring), Knowledge (forbidden), Knowledge
(geography), and Knowledge (lore)?
ANSWER:
That really all depends on the specific setting and
how the GM has decided magic works in their world,
SPECIES
QUESTION:
The species is not to be changed after creation accord-
ing to the CRB. How is Lycanthropy and Vampirism
in Genesys (or other similar changes) to be handled
if chars start not afflicted, but gain those status in the
course of the adventure? Is there something like a tem-
plate to apply or should it be handled differently?
ANSWER:
Gaining lycanthropy and/or vampirism is an interest-
ing, though tricky, story point to introduce, and you can
approach it several different ways. For lycanthropy, you
Developer questions
8 GENESYS
QUESTION:
Question about the heal spell. On a successful roll, the
target heals 1 strain per uncancelled advantage. But can
I then spend those advantages for other effects, such as
recovering my own strain or passing a boost die? Or
am I actually spending those advantage to recover the
target's strain?
ANSWER:
You are spending those Advantages. Generally speak-
ing, dice results only do one thing (so if Advantage
helps you recover strain, it doesn’t also give your ally a
Boost die on their next check, and if a check specifies
what the Advantage is used for, you can’t also use it for
something else).
including what additional magic and knowledge skills
are in use. Assuming just the three magic skills in the
core rulebook, I would probably restrict Arcana to gen-
eral knowledge of arcane magic, and primarily practical
matters (after all, magic-using characters need ranks in
Knowledge to get the most out of their spell effects!). In
the case of a game using Realms of Terrinoth, I would
use Arcana primarily for the actual practice of arcane
magic and the fundamentals required for it. For most
checks involving knowledge about arcane magic, I
would use Lore or Forbidden (depending on whether
the matter in question is, well, forbidden).
could use the Mongrel rules for becoming a monster in
the Steampunk section, but without the secondary ability
that gives them some control over when and where they
change into a monster. You could rule that when bit by a
lycanthrope, a character has a to pass a Hard Resilience
check or contract the disease themselves. Vampirism is
very different, of course, and depends on your setting
and source. One idea might be to apply a rule that vam-
pires do not heal strain through natural rest or at the end
of encounters, but only do so when they drink someone’s
blood. You could then give them benefits such as faster
wound regeneration, greater Brawn, and other benefits
that match the vampires of lore. A sunlight allergy would
also be appropriate. Perhaps, like lycanthropy, vampir-
ism could be passed through bites and failing Resilience
checks. In any case, hopefully this is helpful enough to
get you started! Whatever you come up with, I encour-
age you to test it out, and not be afraid to adjust it slightly
depending on your feedback.
QUESTION:
How would you manage vulnerabilities of adversaries
to certain elements like for example the vulnerability of
Trolls to fire? Would a magic attack spell have to have
the Fire effect? Or would it suffice to mention the spell
being a fire spell without utilising the fire effect? And
what about other elements of attack like acid for exam-
ple, which isn't mentioned as an effect?
ANSWER:
That depends entirely on you and your preferences.
Both options work well (although if you want to do
the former, you may need to design an “acid” effect.
Honestly, Burn could describe acid just as well as fire).
However, my only suggestion is to be consistent. If
you want effects to counter regeneration be narrative,
then let them all be narrative. If you want them to be
upgrades that increase a spell’s difficulty, then make
sure all of the counters require an increase to the dif-
ficulty of the spell.
QUESTION:
Page 73, under the Knack for It talent, questions: First, it
says the first purchase you select one skill, and subsequent
purchases you select 2 skills; this seems unusual, so is it
correct? Second question, when buying the talent for the
first time, are combat and magic skills still restricted?
ANSWER:
To your first question; it is correct that the first purchase
only applies to one skill. Due to the way ranked skills
move “up” the talent pyramid, we found subsequent
purchases of Knack for It rapidly dropped off in value.
This serves to compensate for the increased XP costs. To
your second question, yes, combat and magic skills are
restricted when purchasing the talent for the first time.
QUESTION:
The rules are not clear on this, but would it be a good
idea to have careers and talents specific to a species?
For example: Human>Knight>knight specific talents
(almost like a specialization tree). The setting I have has
4 very different species that each have a specific role
in society, (mining, fishing, farming eg) and I thought
having to a talents specific to careers or species might
differentiate them further. Any guidelines for this?
ANSWER:
I’m afraid I don’t have any published guidelines for this
idea. That being said, there’s nothing stopping you from
limiting talents and careers to certain species in your
own setting. I would recommend spelling this out very
clearly for your players, then adding a bolded or itali-
cized sentence at the beginning of the career descrip-
tion or talent description explaining that only species
A, B, or C can purchase this. Also, if you want to do
this, I would recommend making sure that all of your
species-specific options feel balanced with each other.
This doesn’t just mean that each gets the same number
of choices (although that is very important), but also
that all of the choices feel equally interesting. They don’t
have to all do the same thing, but they should all get
players excited to try them. For that, you’re probably
going to have to rely on playtesting with your group!
QUESTION:
Hi again guys, I was looking through the list of sug-
gested talents in the RoT supplement and noticed
Toughened missed the list, I assume its a mistake but I
thought I had better ask anyway.
ANSWER:
Hi Richard! Yes, Toughened was missing; in general,
any of the “use in any setting” talents from Genesys
should be ok to use in Terrinoth.
Developer questions
GENESYS 9
TALENTS
QUESTION:
The Grenadier talent, core rule book page 78, is listed
as ranked. However, there is nothing in the description
that says what having more than one rank means. Is it
a typo? Thanks!
ANSWER:
That is a typo and we’ll correct that in a future printing.
Thanks for bringing this to our attention!
QUESTION:
The "Master" Tier 5 talent says: Once per round, your
character may suffer 2 strain to use this talent to reduce
the difficulty of the next check they make using that
skill by two, to a minimum of Easy. You should use
this talent in all settings. If upgraded dice are used to
determine the difficulty, how is the difficulty reduced
by two? Are upgraded dice downgraded which counts
as one reduction itself?
ANSWER:
Reducing the difficulty of the check is not the same as
“removing dice” (even though the effect is similar). So
you actually reduce the difficulty of the check before
you upgrade or downgrade the check, so upgraded dice
shouldn’t matter. So this is how it would work: 1. The
VEHICLES
QUESTION:
These are questions a about a "forced move" in struc-
tured vehicle encounters described on page 221. The
only explanation I see is in the pair of paragraphs (and
the table) on that page. Does the pilot have to move
X range bands away from their target? Or, because "a
vehicle generally goes where the pilot wants it to" can,
at two speed, a pilot move one range band away and
one range band back? At speed 3-4, does the pilot need
to spend one maneuver to, essentially, stay put? Should
this be narratively described as either going so fast you
can get right where you want (Speed 5) or going so slow
that you're able to stay on top of your target (Speed
1-2). In the planetary scale, is there no difference in
Developer questions
10 GENESYS
GM sets the difficulty. 2. You use your Mastery talent to
reduce the difficulty. 3. You and the GM add dice based
on abilities and environmental effects. (this is usually
adding Boost and Setback dice). 4. You and the GM
upgrade the dice pool based on skills, the Adversary
talent, other talents, story points, etc. 5. You and the
GM downgrade the dice pool (if there’s anything call-
ing for that). 6. Finally, you and the GM remove dice
based on talents and abilities (this is usually removing
Boost and Setback dice). Obviously this is a very long-
form version of what can be a pretty fast process at the
table. In a practical setting, what’s actually going to
happen is your GM will say “you need to make a Hard
check” and you respond with “well, I’m going to use
Mastery to make it Easy instead.” Then your GM will
shake their fist and glare at you, and you’ll do the rest of
what you need to do to form your dice pool.
QUESTION:
he Tier 2 talent Heightened Awareness (p76) it states
that allies in short range of the character who possess
this talent gain and if engaged they get. How does the
character with the talent benefit from that talent? I’m
looking for what mechanical effects?
ANSWER:
Only allies benefit from this talent; the character does not.
the amount of time it takes to move from strategic into
medium range and from extreme into short range? At
speed 5, for example, the ship is "forced" to move 4
range bands. Or, should the range bands for purposes
of forced movement be considered without regard to
relative positioning, somehow?
ANSWER:
Generally, the forced movement should be used narra-
tively. Thus, if your character can present a good expla-
nation for why their forced movement keeps them in
one place (and your GM approves) then you can do
so. An example might be a helicopter circling around
a fixed point, or a race car driving in circles around an
opponent. However, if it doesn’t make sense (“every
turn I have my giant robot run around in a quick circle
before returning to the fight!”) then you should either
decelerate to stay in one place, or have your vehicle
travel past the target due to speed and momentum.
As for planetary scale, planetary scale doesn’t change
the scale of the range bands out to extreme; it just adds
the “strategic” range band at the end.
QUESTION:
If I can follow up, to refine my second question, if
forced to move X range bands, does it matter which
range bands those are? Strategic to extreme is a really
long way, but medium to short isn't quite so far. Does
that make a difference to how many range bands the
pilot is forced to move? Or does the pilot just count
the number of bands regardless of which bands those
happen to be?
ANSWER:
Rules as written, you would just move the bands no
matter what. However, I agree that strategic to extreme
is really far, as is extreme to long. Also, when dealing
with range bands like extreme or strategic, they can
encompass a sizable distance “within” the band. Simply
put, although two things may be at strategic range to
you, one might still be a bit closer than the other. So if
you want to count a move from strategic to extreme or
extreme to long as moving “2” of your 4 range bands
(and your GM agrees!) that would be very reasonable.
QUESTION:
Should vehicles have multiple Defense zones like they
do in the Star Wars line? Page 229, Additional Vehicle
Actions has the Boost Defense action that "…increases
the defense of one defense zone by one until the begin-
ning of the character’s next turn." But all the sample
vehicles have only Defense and not separate zones.
Was this a holdover from a prior draft of the game,
or should the sample vehicles have 2 (or 4, for the big
ones) defense zones?
ANSWER:
That was a mistake, sorry about that! All vehicles have
a single defense value now.
QUESTION:
Are the Pilot-Only Actions the only way to make a
vehicle move?
ANSWER:
They are (save for the forced movement of travelling at
a certain speed).
QUESTION:
The addition to the Reposition Pilot-Only maneuver in
the latest Errata says, “The pilot may move the vehicle
up to one range band”. Does this include moving into
Engaged range and moving within a range band (i.e.
Short to Short)?
ANSWER:
Yes.
QUESTION:
Can the range bands from Forced Movement be used
to enter Engaged ranged?
ANSWER:
Yes.
QUESTION:
With regard to vehicle rules, I’ve been wondering
about the effect of difficult terrain on the forced move a
vehicle must make each turn in structured encounters,
according to its speed (CRB pg 221, Table III.2-14).
We know that difficult terrain requires twice as man
maneuvers to cross (unless a talent like All-Terrain
Driver is implemented), and also adds Setback dice
to skill checks made while traversing it. I’m just curi-
ous as to whether the terrain could affect the velocity
(represented by the forced move) by perhaps halving
the number of range bands (rounded up) that must be
covered? Because from experience, covering broken
terrain in a vehicle - be it in a Humvee, truck, or main
battle tank - you can’t just go full out unless you know
what you’re doing (having a specific talent) or you’re
skillful enough to maneuver that beast (driving/pilot-
ing skill). I’m thinking that, if a PC doesn’t have a tal-
ent such as All-Terrain Driver, a Dangerous Driving
action, if successful, should allow the driver/pilot to
mitigate the effects of terrain for that turn only, with
subsequent checks being required each following turn
as long as the GM rules the vehicles are still in the bad-
lands, swamp, what have you.
ANSWER:
The forced movement would also be affected by diffi-
cult terrain.
Developer questions
GENESYS 11
QUESTION:
On page 229 of the Core rulebook under Gain the
Advantage I think there's a discrepancy with the Speed
Advantage Difficulty table (2-18). It lists an Easy dif-
ficulty for vehicles traveling the same speed and a Hard
difficulty if the initiating vehicle has a speed of 1 or
more higher than the target vehicle. Shouldn't that be
TERRINOTH
QUESTION:
Hi guys, I was wondering how you pronounce Ynfernael?
ANSWER:
This is a great question and we had fun asking around
the office on it. We generally pronounce it just as
“Infernal” here but I’ve also heard some groups using
“Yin-fernal” too.
QUESTION:
This question is about the Improved upgrade of the
Heroic Ability, Signature Weapon. If the Improved
effect is cumulative for abilities, and the weapon starts
off with a craftsmanship like Elven or Dwarven, if the
player chooses Ancient, does it still retain the pre-
viously chosen craftsmanship? Thus becoming an
Ancient Dwarven/Elven/Steel One Handed Weapon?
ANSWER:
An item can only be of one type of craftsmanship, so
the effects would not stack. With the Improved effect
of Signature Weapon, if you choose to “reveal” the
weapon’s Ancient craftsmanship, the effects of Ancient
craftsmanship replace the effects of the original crafts-
manship.
QUESTION:
Hello! Just wanted to know, why Druidic Circlets and
Magic Rings implements didn't make it to Realms of
Terrinoth book (Table 2-8)? Thanks in advance!
ANSWER:
Hi! Basically, we viewed these as not really part of the
Terrinoth setting and we wanted to devote the space they
would have taken in the book to other subjects. You’re
free to adopt these into your games if desired, of course.
Developer questions
12 GENESYS
the other way around? Shouldn't a faster vehicle have
an easier time gaining the advantage on a slower one
while two moving the same speed would be average?
ANSWER:
That is correct, it is a mistake that we will be addressing
in an upcoming errata.
You could even incorporate runebound shard magic
into them as well to make some really unique items!
QUESTION:
Hello, There are several beautiful maps in the Realms
of Terrinoth book - however there is nothing by which
to judge scale. Is there any sort of scale available so that
rough distances can be determined?
ANSWER:
We imagine Terrinoth (page 139) around 250 leagues
across at its widest point (roughly 900 miles). Travel time
in days is likely more an issue, and our benchmark is 5
leagues per day on foot on average. It probably would
take 7 or so weeks to cross it on foot (3-4 on horseback),
and several days to travel from Tamalir to Greyhaven
that way. This is something the GM can change, though,
to best fit the game and the plot. One GM might have
Terrinoth as big as the US, another the size of Europe, a
third the size of France. And all are perfectly fine. We’re
discussing this here and may add some guidance along
these lines either in a reprint or online.
QUESTION:
Realms of Terrinoth, page 91, the Conduit talent. Am I
reading this right, that it's a manoeuvre to activate the
talent than another manoeuvre to cast the spell? Or is
it supposed to be 'Activation: Passive' and I can just
spend that Story Point to cast as a manoeuvre and still
do something else with my second manoeuvre?
ANSWER:
It should actually be Active (Incidental); you don’t
need to spend a maneuver just to utilize Conduit, just
a maneuver to do the magic action. We’ll get this cor-
rected in the next reprint. Thanks for emailing us about
it and thanks also for playing!
QUESTION:
Page 108 gives two different Hard Point requirements
for the Spikes armor attachment. The table says 2 but
the description says 1. Which is correct?
ANSWER:
“1” is correct.
QUESTION:
When a character is mounted as laid out in Realms
of Terrinoth, does the character's and/or mount's sil-
houette change?
ANSWER:
The silhouette is the same as the mount’s value. A person
on a horse is pretty much the size of a horse, and so on.
QUESTION:
In Realms of Terrinoth for Genesys, are "Encouraging
Song" and "Dissonance" talents considered spells? If
using Verse, does the PC have to spend 2 strain like
other spells, and would the harsher threat/Despair
results apply? For a character using a willow instru-
ment, could they gain the extra advantage, or is that
only for Augment, Curse, Heal, Dispel and Utility?
Also, is "Second Wind" meant to have been left out of
Realms of Terrinoth for balance reasons?
ANSWER:
Neither of those are spells, so you don’t need to spend
strain to use them, don’t get benefits from implement
materials, etc. Second Wind isn’t in the talents list,
but that shouldn’t stop your group from adding it in if
everyone is cool with it!
QUESTION:
One of the pregenerated heroes for Realms of Terri-
noth, Ulma Grimstone, begins play with 2 Dwarven
Firebombs and Bottled Lightning. However I've yet
to find an entry for these items in Chapter 2 - Call to
Adventure. What should the Encumbrance Rating,
Price, and Rarity of Dwarven Firebombs and Bottled
Lightning be?
ANSWER:
You are correct that those items don’t appear in Realms
of Terrinoth! We can assume those are Ulma’s personal
creations, so a player who wants to make use of those
or similar items might create them using the crafting
rules beginning on page 112, or the GM might make
them available for purchase from certain NPC alche-
mists and other merchants. I would give both encum-
brance 1 by default, but of course allow a character to
spend Advantage on the crafting check to reduce the
encumbrance as normal. Since the cost of ingredients
and difficulty of the crafting check are based on the cost
and rarity of the item, the GM would need to assign
those values, whether or not they decided to make
these items available for purchase. Personally, I would
probably go with 75 silver/rarity 6 for bottled lightning
and 200 silver/rarity 8 for dwarven firebombs.
QUESTION:
Hello I have 3 questions regarding the signature weapon
heroic ability from ROT page 78. In the improved ver-
sion of the ability it says. The signature weapons gains
either the reinforced quality or is of Ancient material. In
the Ancient material entry on page 97 it says "Increase
the weapon’s damage by 1 and reduce its Critical rat-
ing by 1. The weapon gains the Reinforced item quality.
Reduce the weapon’s hard points by 1 (to a minimum of
0)." Does it mean the weapon gains Reinforced either
way ? Also if the weapon already has attachment will i
need to remove them when reducing the hard points.
Also if you choose the ancient material does it stack
with the initial elven, steel or dwarven material ?
ANSWER:
1) Yes, both options give you Reinforced, but Ancient
also has other benefits and drawbacks and so some
players might want to just take Reinforced and not
the option for Ancient. 2) The weapon would reduce
its number of hard points by 1, yes. Since attachments
must occupy hard points, this could cause the weapon
to lose an attachment, if there are no longer enough
hard points to support it.
(This is one reason a player might want to just add the
Reinforced quality instead of Ancient) 3) An item can
only be of one type of craftsmanship, so the effects
would not stack. With the Improved effect of Signature
Weapon, if you choose to “reveal” the weapon’s Ancient
craftsmanship, the effects of Ancient craftsmanship
replace the effects of the original material.
QUESTION:
Just a question about the speed potion in Realms of
Terrinoth. When it says you get another maneuver, is
that a maneuver free? E.g. if my character uses a speed
potion and assuming he's using an action on his turn,
does that afford him strain free maneuvers with the
Developer questions
GENESYS 13
option of spending 2 strain for the third? Or is that 1
free maneuver, and 2 strain for each extra maneuver,
doing a total of 4 strain if the character uses all 3?
ANSWER:
They get the second one free, but have to spend strain
to do the third (like someone else would do for taking a
second one). Then they get hit for 6 after 3 turns. Great
question and we’ll get it added to the FAQ.
QUESTION:
Hey I'm playing a homebrew Genesys conversion of
Stars Without Number, and I'm a really hard time with
spaceships. How do I know how many guns to put on
my spaceship? The amount of guns in the examples
seem to have a large span. Any hints for creating various
ANDROID
QUESTION:
Several weapons in Shadow of the Beanstalk have an
item quality of limited ammo, but there is not spare clip
item available in the book. Is it assumed to be simply
be using the spare clip item from core? Also missile
launchers are all limited ammunition, but do not have
a price listed to restock them. Please advise.
ANSWER:
You absolutely should use the spare clip item in the core
rules in Shadow of the Beanstalk. In addition, when
buying a reload for a missile launchers, you should
assume that a new missile for the Guided Missile
Launcher costs 1,000, and the micro-missile launcher’s
missiles cost 100 each.
QUESTION:
Does broken ice reactivates automatically at the end of
the runner's next turn or does the Sysop needs to use
the Activate Program maneuver to reactivate ice?
ANSWER:
It reactivates automatically.
Developer questions
14 GENESYS
size and types of ships that have a chance in combat
against each other would be much appreciated :)
ANSWER:
Honestly, your best bet is to keep in mind that the
number of guns matters less than the number of peo-
ple on the spaceship that can shoot the guns. Second,
consider how much armor your spaceships typically
have, and how much damage your guns deal. What you
want is for the guns to typically deal damage, but for
the spaceships to survive for at least a few rounds of
combat (assuming the guns hit 60-75% of the time).
That should give you a good idea as to how many guns,
how strong those guns need to be, and how much hull
integrity your ships should have.
Then, make sure you test out your creations with some
space battles. You may find your numbers are off, and
in that case, tweak those stats accordingly!
QUESTION:
I'll keep my questions right to the point. If my play-
ers wanted to purchase an Android; how much would
one cost? I imagine the better and more specialized the
model the more expensive it would be. But what would
be a good starting figure? If just leasing a model what
would the costs and conditions be?
ANSWER:
We deliberately did not include prices for bioroids
or clones. Since both are arguably sapient as well as
sentient beings, we felt doing so would come down
on the side of them being a commodity for the play-
ers (even though in the game world, they certainly are
treated as such). Therefore, the prices are to be set by
the GM. However, we can certainly offer some guid-
ance. Remember that androids are replacing human
workers in a lot of menial jobs, which means they are
not so expensive as to be a novelty to the very wealthy.
However, they’re not cheap enough that everyone has
an android, either. Think about items in our modern
day world that seem similar (such as a good new car,
for example) and you’ll have a good starting point.
QUESTION:
I just had a question about stacking items that increase
encumbrance. For reference I'm mainly referring to page
96 in Shadow Of The Beanstalk & the Cross-Body Bag,
Load-Bearing Gear, Modular Backpack, and Utility Belt.
Can all of these items be stacked, or is there some limit?
18 encumbrance (before Brawn) seems really high.
ANSWER:
The limit should be determined by realistically what
your character could wear. So a cross-body bag and
a modular backpack would be hard to combine, for
example. But a utility belt and modular backpack make
a lot more sense!

EXPANDED PLAYER’S GUIDE

QUESTION:
On page 61 of the EPG, it says to use the rules on page
197 of the CRB to make planetary scale weapons. How-
ever, the weapon creation rules don't encompass dam-
age values of 1–3 nor does it have a price for strategic
range. How should we address this? Thanks!

ANSWER:
The additional cost for damage 1-3 should be 0. Use the
cost for extreme range for strategic range as well.

QUESTION:
The Intellect and Cunning values seem off on Table
II.2-1: Characteristic Arrays on page 75. Should the
Cunning Foe have higher Intellect and a low cunning?

ANSWER:
That is a mistake. All the Intellect and Cunning values
on that table should be swapped.

Developer questions
GENESYS 15