Quickstart Rules

This chapter covers the rules you need to play Dead Drop at Harrowspan. Read it before the session. You do not need to memorize it; the pregenerated characters in Chapter Twelve have the key numbers filled in, and the GM will guide the group through any check that comes up.

If something in play is not covered here, the GM makes a fair call and the group moves on. This is a quickstart, not the full rulebook.

The Dice

Void Drifters uses a custom set of dice. Each die face shows symbols rather than numbers. You roll a pool of dice and read the symbols together to find out what happened.

The dice come in three pairs. Each pair shares a shape, but the two dice in a pair work in opposite directions: one builds toward your success, one works against it.

If you are using standard dice: Use two colors of d6 for Boon and Bane, two colors of d8 for Ability and Trial, and two colors of d12 for Mastery and Crisis.

The Four Symbols

Every die face shows one of four symbols, or is blank.

Two rarer symbols appear on the highest-tier dice:

A Breakthrough's special effect triggers regardless of whether the roll succeeds or fails. Same for a Calamity. These are turning points, not ordinary bonuses.

Characteristics

Every character is defined by six core characteristics. Each is rated from 1 to 5.

Your pregenerated character has these six values already filled in on the character sheet. You do not need to calculate them.

Skills

Skills represent trained expertise: Pilot, Medicine, Ranged, Stealth, Negotiation, Craft, and so on. Each skill is linked to one characteristic and rated from 0 to 5. A rating of 0 means no training. A rating of 3 or higher means real professional ability.

The pregenerated characters have their key skills already filled in. You do not need to learn the full skill list to play this adventure.

Building a Dice Pool

When the outcome of an action is uncertain, the GM calls for a check. A check uses one characteristic and one skill.

To build your pool:

1. Look at the relevant characteristic rating and the relevant skill rating on your character sheet.
2. Take the higher of the two ratings as the number of dice in your pool.
3. Upgrade a number of those dice equal to the lower rating. Upgrading means replacing an Ability Die (d8) with a Mastery Die (d12). Start with all Ability Dice, then swap in Mastery Dice one at a time.

That is your positive pool.

If you have no skill ranks (skill rating 0): roll only Ability Dice equal to the characteristic. No upgrades.

Boon and Bane Dice

Circumstances add Boon Dice (positive d6s) or Bane Dice (negative d6s) to the pool before you roll.

• Boon Dice come from good conditions: helping equipment, an ally's assistance, a strong position, or a character spending a Fortune Point (see Story Points below).
• Bane Dice come from bad conditions: poor tools, an injury, bad terrain, or the GM spending a Peril Point.

Boon Dice and Bane Dice do not cancel each other before the roll. Both go into the pool and are rolled together. Their symbols cancel each other during the reading step.

Making a Check

Once the pool is assembled, roll all dice together and read the results.

Step 1: Handle any Breakthroughs or Calamities first. Each Breakthrough adds one Success to the pool before cancellation. Each Calamity adds one Failure. Set the Breakthrough or Calamity symbol aside; it still triggers its special effect regardless of what happens next.

Step 2: Cancel opposing symbols. Each Success cancels one Failure. Each Boon cancels one Bane.

Step 3: Count what remains.

• At least one net Success: the action succeeds.
• No net Successes: the action fails. Even a roll with no Failures but also no Successes is a failure.

Step 4: Read side effects. Remaining Boons and Banes describe what else happened beyond success or failure. The player proposes how to spend Boons; the GM decides what Banes mean.

Step 5: Apply any Breakthrough or Calamity effect.

What Successes Mean

One Success means the action worked. Extra Successes beyond the first add power or precision: more damage on an attack, a faster result on a technical task, or a better read on a social situation.

What Boons Mean

Boons describe something extra going right, even on a failure.

If you have Boons and nothing obvious to spend them on, you can always use 1 Boon to recover 1 Strain.

What Banes Mean

The GM uses Banes to add complications. A success with Banes might mean the goal was achieved but something got louder, damaged, or noticed. A failure with Banes is worse than a simple failure.

Difficulty

Before you roll, the GM sets difficulty by adding Trial Dice (d8s, negative) to the pool. Some especially dangerous situations include a Crisis Die (d12, negative) instead of a Trial Die.

The GM will tell you the difficulty before you roll.

Story Points

Story Points represent shifting dramatic momentum. The players share a pool of Fortune Points. The GM has a pool of Peril Points. Both pools start at 3 at the beginning of the session.

Spending Fortune (players):

• Add 1 Boon Die to a roll before rolling.
• Upgrade one Ability Die in your pool to a Mastery Die before rolling.
• Introduce a small helpful detail into the scene (subject to GM approval).

When a player spends a Fortune Point, it becomes a Peril Point and moves to the GM's side.

Spending Peril (GM):

• Add 1 Bane Die to a player's roll.
• Upgrade one Trial Die in the difficulty pool to a Crisis Die.
• Introduce a complication into the scene.

When the GM spends a Peril Point, it becomes a Fortune Point and moves to the players' side.

The pool flows back and forth all session. The GM spending Peril to make things harder gives players more Fortune to work with. Players spending Fortune to smooth a roll gives the GM more Peril to add pressure later.

Structured Play (Combat and Tense Scenes)

Most of the adventure plays out through conversation and description. When timing matters, when the order of who acts could change the outcome, the GM calls for structured play.

Starting Structured Play

The GM announces that structured play begins. This happens when a fight breaks out, when the crew is racing against time, or when multiple things are happening at once and sequence matters.

Initiative

Each participant (player characters and GM-controlled characters) makes an initiative check. Player characters use Savvy + Perception if they had warning, or Willpower + Readiness if they were surprised.

Count net Successes. The participant with the most Successes acts first.

Slots alternate between the player side and the GM side: the highest player result, then the highest GM result, then the next player result, then the next GM result, and so on. Ties between a player slot and a GM slot favor the players. Within the same side, that side chooses who acts.

Initiative order stays the same each round unless an ability changes it.

Turns

On your turn you may take:

• One Action: an attack, a technical task, a social move, activating a system, or anything that requires meaningful effort.
• One Maneuver: movement, drawing a weapon, taking cover, aiming, or a similarly quick physical activity.

If you need a second Maneuver, you can give up your Action to take it, or suffer 2 Strain.

Brief moments that take no meaningful time, a short word, dropping something, glancing around, are Quick Actions and are free.

Attacking

To attack, the GM sets a difficulty based on range and conditions. You roll the relevant attack skill against that difficulty.

Each net Success beyond the first adds 1 to your damage total. The weapon's profile lists base damage. Subtract the target's Resistance from that total. The remainder is Wounds suffered.

Resistance equals half the target's Might (rounded up), plus any armor bonus.

Wounds and Incapacitation

Characters have a Wound track. Each Wound fills one slot. When all slots are filled, the character is incapacitated: they drop, they cannot act, and they need help.

An incapacitated character is not automatically dead. Another character can stabilize them with a Medicine check. What happens next is a story question.

Strain

Strain represents exertion, stress, and pushing past your limits. Characters also have a Strain track. When it fills, the character is incapacitated the same way.

Strain recovers at the end of a scene if the character rests. It can also be recovered during a scene by spending Boons or taking a moment to catch your breath (an action in structured play).

Recovering Between Scenes

At the end of a scene, all Strain recovers automatically with a moment of rest. Wounds require medical attention or a longer period of rest outside structured play.

Conditions

Some attacks and situations impose conditions on characters. The most common in this adventure:

Ship Checks

When the crew is aboard the Ember Drift and the ship's systems are relevant, characters at their stations make checks using their ship-relevant skills.

• Piloting the ship: Agility + Pilot
• Firing ship weapons: Agility + Gunnery
• Engineering and repairs: Intellect + Craft
• Navigation and course plotting: Intellect + Astrogation
• Sensors and electronic systems: Intellect + Electronics

The GM describes what the ship does based on the result. On a success, the ship does what the crew intended. Boons can mean a cleaner result, an extra detail spotted, or a small bonus for the next roll. Banes can mean the system runs hot, something rattles, or an unwanted outcome follows.

Ship combat and chases follow the same structured play framework as personal combat: initiative, turns with one Action and one Maneuver, and the crew deciding what each station does each round. The full ship combat rules are in the Vehicles Manual; this adventure keeps ship encounters manageable without tracking every detail of power load and heat.

Reading the Pregenerated Characters

Each character in Chapter Twelve shows:

• Characteristics: the six ratings
• Skills: trained skills with ratings
• Wounds: the total Wound Points (how much damage the character can take)
• Strain: the total Strain Points (how much exertion the character can absorb)
• Resistance: the number subtracted from incoming damage
• Equipment: what the character carries
• Species Package: any biological advantages or limitations

When the GM calls for a check, find the relevant characteristic and skill on your sheet, build the pool, and roll. The GM handles the difficulty.