Core Rules Reference

This chapter is the GM's complete rules reference for Void Drifters. It is organized for lookup, not for cover-to-cover reading. Every section is self-contained.

The player-facing primer in the Player's Guide covers the essentials players need at the table. This chapter goes further: adversary construction, vehicle authority, recovery pacing, GM adjudication decisions, and the full Peril Pool economy are here and not in the player book.

When the players ask “what does the rule say?” point them at the Player's Guide. When you need to know how to build the encounter, adjudicate a tough call, or understand the full shape of a system, use this chapter.

The Dice and Symbols

Symbol Reference

Void Drifters uses six symbols organized in three opposing pairs. Symbols within a pair cancel each other out before results are read.

Breakthroughs and Calamities do not oppose each other. Both effects occur when both appear in the same roll.

The Six Dice

GM's Dice Authority

Adding Bane Dice vs. upgrading difficulty: These produce different table experiences. Adding a Bane Die increases the chance of secondary complications without making success harder. Upgrading a Trial Die to a Crisis Die makes failure more likely and failure results worse. Use Bane Dice for environmental and positional problems. Use Crisis Die upgrades (via Peril spends or difficulty setting) when the situation is genuinely dangerous.

When to call for a check: Do not roll when success is automatic (the GM just says yes), when failure would stall the story with no interesting consequence, or when a character is so clearly superior to the task that failure is implausible. Roll when the outcome is uncertain, when failure is interesting, and when the result will change something in the fiction.

When to just say yes: If a character has a skill rank of 3 or higher and the task is Easy or below, consider granting automatic success unless the situation is tense enough to make even routine tasks meaningful. A veteran smuggler does not roll to dock a ship in calm conditions.

Building Dice Pools

Pool Construction Procedure

1. Identify the relevant characteristic and skill.
2. Use whichever rating is higher as the total number of positive dice in the pool.
3. Upgrade a number of those Ability Dice to Mastery Dice equal to whichever rating is lower.
4. Add Trial Dice for difficulty (see Difficulty Guidelines below).
5. Add Boon Dice or Bane Dice for situational factors.
6. Roll all dice together.

Upgrading: Replace an Ability Die with a Mastery Die .

Untrained (skill rank 0): Build the pool from the characteristic alone, with no upgrades.

Downgrading: The reverse of upgrading. Replace a Mastery Die with an Ability Die. On the negative side, replace a Crisis Die with a Trial Die. Downgrading and upgrading are distinct from adding or removing Boon and Bane Dice.

Trial Dice and Crisis Dice as GM Tools

The GM's two primary pool-shaping tools:

Trial Dice establish base difficulty. They set how hard the task is under normal conditions.

Crisis Dice represent danger, volatility, and desperation. A Trial Die upgraded to a Crisis Die does not just make the task harder; it makes the failure space more dangerous. Crisis Dice carry Calamity faces. When you want the players to feel that the situation is genuinely perilous, not merely difficult, upgrade a Trial Die rather than adding another Trial Die.

Use Crisis Dice when:

• The character is operating under active threat (fleeing, engaged in combat, being shot at)
• The environment is actively hostile (vacuum breach, structural collapse, live reactor)
• The task involves something that genuinely cannot fail safely
• The GM spends a Peril Point (see Story Points below)

Pool Size Limit

A dice pool should not exceed 12 total dice. Beyond this limit, convert excess positive dice into automatic Boons, or excess negative dice into automatic Banes. This guideline exists to keep results readable and play moving.

Difficulty Guidelines

The GM sets difficulty before the roll. Always name the difficulty out loud so players know what they are facing.

Modifying Difficulty

Add Bane Dice when conditions are unfavorable but not life-threatening: poor visibility, unfamiliar tools, rushed work, working from incomplete information.

Upgrade a Trial Die to a Crisis Die when the situation is genuinely dangerous: active combat, system failures, hostile interference, or a Peril Point spend.

Reduce difficulty (fewer Trial Dice) when the character has superior equipment, professional-grade preparation, an expert assistant, or an established advantage. Reducing difficulty below Easy means the task is Simple; just say yes.

Do not stack both: Adding Bane Dice and upgrading dice simultaneously is valid in exceptional circumstances but should be reserved for situations that are both difficult and dangerous.

When to Modify Boon/Bane vs. When to Change Difficulty

A good rule of thumb: difficulty dice answer “how hard is the task itself?” Boon and Bane dice answer “what are the conditions around the task?” Picking a lock in a controlled workshop is the same task as picking a lock in a firefight. The lock does not change. The conditions do.

Resolving Checks

Resolution Order

1. Handle Breakthroughs and Calamities. Each adds one . Each adds one . Set them aside; their special effects trigger in Step 5 regardless of the final result.
2. Cancel opposing symbols. Each cancels one . Each cancels one .
3. Determine success or failure. One or more net means success. Zero net Successes means failure, even if no Failures were rolled.
4. Count net Boons or Banes.
5. Apply Breakthrough and Calamity effects.

GM Adjudication: Success Degree

The first net Success means the task was accomplished. Additional Successes scale the primary effect: more damage on attacks, more Wounds restored by Medicine, faster progress on extended tasks. Do not invent new outcomes from extra Successes; they amplify the intended effect.

When to grant free Successes: When a character's skill substantially exceeds the task's demands and the roll is called for narrative texture rather than genuine uncertainty, add a free Success before rolling. Do not add a free Success if the roll could plausibly fail.

GM Adjudication: Partial Success

Exodus NDS does not use a formal partial success rule. A check either succeeds or fails. The texture of what happened in either direction comes from Boons and Banes, not from a third outcome category.

However, failure should almost never simply stop the story. A failed check should change the situation: time is lost, a resource is spent, an enemy is alerted, or the approach that seemed viable is now closed. The players should always have somewhere to go after a failure.

Avoid “nothing happens” failures. Even a failed Lore check should produce something: the character does not know the answer, but they know who does, or they remember why they forgot, or they realize the question itself was wrong.

GM Adjudication: When Failures Move the Story Forward

The best failures in Void Drifters complicate the situation without ending the players' ability to act. Use this frame:

• Simple failure: The task does not succeed. Something else changes instead.
• Failure with Banes: The task does not succeed and conditions have worsened.
• Failure with a Calamity: The task does not succeed and something major has gone wrong.
• Failure with Boons: The task does not succeed but something useful was learned, gained, or preserved.

A failed Streetwise check to find a fence does not mean there is no fence. It means the character asked the wrong person, and that person is now curious about what they are looking for.

Reading Results: The Full GM Menu

Who Spends What

Players propose positive spends. Boons and Breakthroughs belong to the player who rolled. They suggest how to use them. The GM approves, adjusts, or offers alternatives.

The GM applies negative spends. Banes and Calamities are the GM's tools. The GM decides what complication or consequence occurred. Players may suggest; the GM has final authority.

This division is collaborative, not adversarial. A GM who never accepts a player's Boon proposal is too tight. A player who tries to narrate Calamity consequences is overstepping.

The Eight Axes of Change

When symbols remain and no obvious narrative use presents itself, change one of these:

GM Bane and Calamity Spends: VD-Specific Examples

Ship combat, Bane spends:

• 1 Bane: The gunner's targeting takes a round to reset; the next attack adds 1 Bane Die
• 2 Banes: The ship's firing arc is broken; the pilot must reposition before that weapon fires again
• 3 Banes: A weapon system overloads; it is offline until the engineer spends an Action to clear it

Ship combat, Calamity spends:

• A weapon fires but also generates a heat spike; add 3 Heat to the ship's track immediately
• The Slipstream drive calculates an error; the crew cannot jump for two full rounds while it recalculates
• A critical system takes unexpected damage; roll on the Ship Critical Hit table

Border crossing, Bane spends:

• 1 Bane: The inspector notes something unusual; add 1 Bane Die to the next social check with this official
• 2 Banes: The inspection is extended; the crew loses 1d4 hours and must answer more questions
• 3 Banes: The manifest is flagged for secondary review; someone has already sent a query upchain

Investigation, Calamity spends:

• The clue is found, but finding it alerts whoever left it; the subject now knows someone is asking
• The lead is real, but the person who knew was the wrong person to ask; now that contact is a liability
• The information is accurate, but it contradicts something the crew was told by someone they trusted

Social scenes, Bane spends:

• 1 Bane: The NPC agrees but is visibly uncomfortable; their position may shift later
• 2 Banes: The NPC agrees but tells someone else about the conversation
• 3 Banes: The NPC agrees in words but has decided to hedge; they will act differently than promised

Types of Checks

Simple Checks

One actor, one fixed difficulty, one roll. The standard case.

GM note: Most checks should be simple checks. Reach for other check types only when the fiction clearly demands them.

Opposed Checks

Two actors directly contest each other. Both build pools normally; neither adds difficulty dice for the other. Compare net Successes. Higher count wins. On a tie, the initiating character loses (the defender holds position by default).

GM note: Use opposed checks for direct confrontations: grappling, a lie told to someone actively suspicious, a pilot trying to shake a pursuing ship that is actively maneuvering. Do not use opposed checks for passive resistance; that is what difficulty dice are for.

VD examples: A character trying to Deceive an Irnan inspector who is actively cross-referencing their story. A pilot trying to outmaneuver a Funtari cutter whose pilot is also making active decisions. A character attempting Intimidation on an NPC who is rolling Readiness to resist.

Assisted Checks

One primary actor, up to two helpers. Helpers must describe a concrete contribution and be in position to help.

A meaningful assist adds 1 Boon Die to the primary pool. If the helper has more ranks in the relevant skill than the primary actor, the assist adds 1 Ability Die instead.

Maximum two assisting dice per check. No more than one may be an Ability Die.

Who can assist: Characters who are physically present, can describe what they are doing, and whose contribution is plausible given the situation. A character assisting a Craft check on the port engine needs to be near the port engine.

What counts as assistance: Any concrete action that plausibly helps: holding a component in place (Craft assist), providing cover fire (combat assist), supplying the correct technical terminology (Lore assist for a Negotiation check), monitoring the opposite side of a corridor (Perception assist for Stealth). Vague moral support does not count.

Risk: If the primary roll generates Banes or a Calamity, the GM may assign part of the consequence to an assistant when the fiction supports it.

Extended Checks

Use when a task is too complex for a single roll and time matters.

The GM sets:

• Difficulty (same scale as normal)
• Success threshold (total net Successes needed across all rolls)
• Time unit (what one roll represents: rounds, minutes, hours, shifts, days)
• Attempt limit (optional: maximum rolls before the situation changes or the opportunity closes)

Net Successes accumulate. Boons and Banes apply on each roll and can change the situation mid-task.

VD examples:

• Repairing a damaged Slipstream drive in a hostile zone: threshold 6, Hard difficulty, each roll represents 30 minutes of work, attempt limit 4 (then the patrol returns)
• Tracking a fugitive through a freeport: threshold 4, Average difficulty, each roll represents 2 hours, Banes add complications (wrong lead, a dead end, someone noticed the search)
• A protracted negotiation with a Jaziri trade factor: threshold 5, Average to Hard depending on approach, each roll represents one session of talks

Failure consequences: Missing the threshold should change the situation, not just produce a “you fail” result. The patrol returns. The fugitive moves. The factor's patience expires and they invoke another clause. Extended check failure is a scene transition, not a dead stop.

Group Checks

All necessary characters share one outcome.

Choose the best-positioned character as the primary roller. Compare that character's relevant skill rank to the lowest skill rank among all necessary participants. Add Bane Dice equal to the difference.

What “necessary” means: Characters whose participation is mechanically required for the task. If a character can sit this one out without affecting the outcome, they are not necessary for the group check.

VD examples:

• Moving a wounded crewmember quietly through a station while avoiding detection: all characters in the group are necessary, use Stealth
• Rowing a small craft manually through a tight channel: everyone needed, use Athletics
• A crew holding their breath during a passive scan sweep: all present, use Fortitude

Group checks that become individual checks: If the task breaks into individual challenges (each character crosses separately, each character answers their own questions), run individual checks instead. Only use group checks when the group's success or failure is genuinely unified.

Story Points: The Peril Pool

Session Setup

At the start of each session:

• 1 Fortune Point per player character
• 1 Peril Point for the GM

These are not totals to be guarded. The economy is designed to flow. Fortune becomes Peril when spent; Peril becomes Fortune when spent. The pool is always moving.

Fortune Points (Players)

A player may spend a Fortune Point to:

• Upgrade one Ability Die in their pool to a Mastery Die, before rolling
• Activate a Breakthrough effect after rolling, in addition to any rolled
• Introduce a minor narrative detail favorable to the players (subject to GM approval)

When a Fortune Point is spent, it immediately becomes a Peril Point.

One per check: A character may spend only one Fortune Point per check unless the GM explicitly allows otherwise. The upgrade must be declared before rolling. Narrative introductions and Breakthrough activations may occur after results are known.

Peril Points (GM)

The GM may spend a Peril Point to:

• Upgrade one Trial Die in the difficulty pool to a Crisis Die, before rolling
• Activate a Calamity effect after a player rolls, in addition to any rolled
• Introduce a complication into the scene

When a Peril Point is spent, it becomes a Fortune Point.

Starting Peril: Additional Sources

Beyond the 1 Peril Point from session setup, the GM earns additional Peril Points from:

Unspent Calamity effects: If a Calamity triggers during a roll and the GM does not immediately name a specific consequence, they gain 1 Peril Point and the complication is deferred. The scene has tilted; the bill will come due.

Universe-defined earning triggers: Void Drifters GMs may earn Peril when players make loud or attention-drawing choices in sensitive locations, when a crew acts on a hot job, or at other escalating narrative moments.

What Peril Spends Are Appropriate

In combat: Upgrade a Trial Die on a significant NPC's attack. Activate a Calamity to have a weapon jam, a hit land on something important, or a third party notice the fight.

In investigation: Activate a Calamity when the players find what they were looking for: they find it, and so does something else.

In social scenes: Upgrade difficulty on a crucial persuasion attempt when the GM wants the NPC to be genuinely resistant. Introduce a complication: the person they are negotiating with gets an incoming call that changes their priorities.

In ship combat: Upgrade a Trial Die to Crisis Die on the enemy's attack when the crew's ship is already damaged. Activate a Calamity when an enemy torpedo hits: it deals damage and a system shorts out.

What the GM should not do: Spend Peril to punish players for clever solutions or to invalidate player effort retroactively. Peril is for escalating tension and introducing complications, not for undoing what the players have accomplished.

Fortune and Peril Interaction

The pool creates a rhythm of escalation and relief. When the GM spends Peril, the players gain Fortune to spend back. When players spend Fortune, the GM gains Peril. A session where only one side spends is a session where the economy is stuck. Keep it moving.

Nemeses and the Peril Pool: Nemesis-tier adversaries spend from the GM's shared Peril Pool. When a Nemesis upgrades their attack pool, the GM is choosing between that Nemesis's pressure and other scene complications. This creates a meaningful resource trade.

Structured Play

When to Enter Structured Play

Call for structured play when:

• The order of actions matters (one side going before the other has real consequences)
• Multiple parties are in active conflict
• Failure to act in time would itself have consequences
• A character's position or resources will change meaningfully round by round

Do not call for structured play for every skill use. A tense conversation, a hasty repair, and a sneaky approach through a guarded corridor may all feel urgent without needing turn-by-turn tracking.

When to Exit Structured Play

Exit structured play when:

• The conflict is resolved (enemies defeated, fled, captured, or surrendered)
• The tension that required tracking is gone
• The crew has escaped or the immediate danger has passed
• Continuing the structured format would slow rather than serve the scene

When exiting, summarize the final state: who is where, what has been spent, what consequences are carried forward.

Initiative

On watch or prepared: Savvy + Perception Surprised or under sudden pressure: Willpower + Readiness

The GM declares which applies based on whether the characters had warning. Characters who were actively keeping watch, received intelligence, or set up the encounter use the prepared check. Characters who are ambushed, or whose situation turns hostile without warning, use the surprise check.

Mixed results: When some characters are prepared and others are not, each character rolls the appropriate check for their individual situation.

Slot structure: Results are ranked by net Successes. Slots alternate between player slots and GM slots in ranked order. On player slots, the players choose which character acts. On GM slots, the GM chooses. Ties between a player slot and a GM slot favor the players. Ties within the same side are resolved freely by that side.

Initiative order is fixed between rounds unless a specific ability or effect changes it.

Initiative Type: When to Use Each

Savvy + Perception (On Watch): The crew knew something was coming. They positioned themselves, drew weapons, watched the approach. Border crossings where they expected trouble. Ambushes they set up themselves. Confrontations they chose to initiate.

Willpower + Readiness (Surprise): The crew was caught cold. A meeting turned hostile. Someone opened fire from cover. A system breach happened during sleep shift. The hallway that was empty thirty seconds ago is not.

Mixed scenarios: If half the crew knew and half did not (one was watching the door while another was negotiating), run both checks and note who has the prepared Initiative and who has the surprise Initiative. Place the relevant slots accordingly.

Range Bands

VD environment examples for each band:

Engaged: Inside a grapple on a hull. Standing in an airlock with someone. In the same corridor section during a boarding action. Across a negotiation table.

Short: Across a docking bay's passenger area. Through an open cargo bay door. Separated by two rows of station market stalls. On opposite ends of a ship corridor.

Medium: Across a landing pad. One ship section away during a hull breach response. In a plaza where running is possible.

Long: Across a full hangar. Sniping from a cargo container stack to the bay entrance. One ship module away with access restrictions.

Extreme: At the limits of personal weapon range. Across a large open dock. Sensor range in a small area.

Maneuvers vs. Actions

Actions are the round's significant effort: making an attack, using a skill under pressure, activating an ability, performing a complex environmental interaction.

Maneuvers support the action: moving, drawing a weapon, taking cover, aiming.

First Maneuver: Free. Second Maneuver: Costs the character's Action or 2 Strain. Maximum: Two Maneuvers per turn.

Quick Actions: Trivial reflexive activities that require no meaningful time or effort. Dropping an item. A short spoken phrase. Glancing around a corner. Pressing a simple switch. Characters may take any number of Quick Actions during their turn.

What the GM has final authority over:

• Whether an activity is a Quick Action, Maneuver, or Action
• Whether a character is in position to take a given Maneuver
• Whether the environment supports a proposed action at all

Cover and Environment in VD

Light cover (+1 Ranged Defense): cargo containers, station furniture, doorframes, station market stalls, equipment racks, the body of an unpowered mech, open conduit panels.

Heavy cover (+2 Ranged Defense): structural pillars, vehicle chassis, interior walls, sealed pressure doors, machinery housings, active mechs, freight containers stacked two deep.

Cover and movement: A character who moves out of cover loses its benefit immediately. A character who ends their movement behind cover benefits from it until they move.

Environment as tactical element:

Zero gravity: Movement without magnetic boots or handholds requires an Athletics check to move between bands. Unbraced characters hit by ranged attacks may be displaced (spend 2 Boons on the attack). Melee attackers without bracing add 1 Bane Die. Firing a heavy weapon may push the shooter if they are unbraced.

Tight corridors: The GM may rule that only one band of separation is possible, or that reaching any band beyond Short requires a Reflexes check to squeeze past obstacles. Ranged attacks that miss may hit unintended targets.

Active ship decks during combat: The ship is taking hits. Each round there is a chance the GM introduces a new environmental complication from the ship combat track: a bulkhead seals, a fire suppression system vents atmosphere, lights cut out. Use these as Bane spends or Calamity consequences from the ship combat result.

Vacuum: Suit integrity becomes a meaningful resource. A character whose suit is breached makes Fortitude checks at GM-determined intervals. A breach during combat is a crisis, not just a condition.

Partial Actions and Impossible Situations

Partial actions: If a character is interrupted mid-action (Staggered before they complete their turn, a scene change, an environmental event), the GM determines what portion of the intended action was completed. Usually: if the check was rolled, the result stands but consequences may be modified. If the check had not been rolled yet, the action is lost.

When players try something the rules do not cover: Use the closest applicable skill and a reasonable difficulty. If no skill clearly fits, use the closest characteristic and no skill (untrained pool). When in doubt, allow it at Hard or Severe difficulty and see what the dice say.

Adversaries

Void Drifters uses the three Exodus NDS adversary tiers: Minions, Elites, and Nemeses. An Elite is a mid-tier individual adversary.

Minions

Minions are low-tier adversaries: station guards, hired muscle, local pirates, untrained cultists, wildlife.

Key rules:

• Minions operate in groups, sharing one Wound pool as a unit
• Group Wound total = one Minion's Wound Points × number of Minions
• Each time the group suffers Wounds equal to one Minion's Wound Points, one Minion is eliminated
• Strain-causing effects convert to Wounds at 1 Strain = 1 Wound
• A Minion group acts as a single entity on its initiative slot, making one check per round
• Minions cannot spend Story Points
• Minions do not suffer Critical Injuries; they are simply eliminated when Wounds are exhausted

Building Minion groups:

Minion characteristics typically range 1-2. Give them 1-2 relevant skills at rank 1-2. Keep abilities minimal. Their threat comes from numbers, not from individual capability.

VD Minion examples:

Station Security Guards (Minion, group of 4): MIG 2 / AGI 2 / INT 1 / SAV 2 / WIL 2 / CHA 1. Resistance 2, Wound Points 9 each. Skills: Ranged 1, Perception 1. Equipment: standard-issue sidearm, light armor.

Pirate Crew (Minion, group of 3): MIG 2 / AGI 2 / INT 1 / SAV 2 / WIL 1 / CHA 1. Resistance 1, Wound Points 8 each. Skills: Ranged 1, Melee 1. Equipment: carbines, combat knives, no armor.

Funtari Clan Laborers (pressed into combat) (Minion, group of 5): MIG 3 / AGI 1 / INT 1 / SAV 1 / WIL 2 / CHA 1. Resistance 3, Wound Points 12 each. Skills: Unarmed 1, Athletics 2. Equipment: improvised tools used as weapons.

Irnan Authority Sentinels (Minion, group of 6): MIG 2 / AGI 2 / INT 2 / SAV 2 / WIL 2 / CHA 1. Resistance 3, Wound Points 10 each. Skills: Ranged 2, Perception 1. Equipment: standard military sidearm, light body armor, communications link to patrol coordinator.

Elites

Elites are mid-tier adversaries: trained operatives, experienced pirates, corporate security specialists, seasoned combat veterans, dangerous creatures.

Key rules:

• Elites have Wound Points but no Strain Points
• Strain-causing effects convert to Wounds at 1 Strain = 1 Wound
• Elites can suffer Critical Injuries
• Elites cannot spend Story Points

Building Elites:

Characteristics in the 2-4 range. Three to five skills, at least one at rank 2-3. One to three abilities or talents that create a distinct identity. Give each Elite a defining behavior: the one who always takes cover first, the one who targets the medic, the one who tries to break contact when outnumbered.

VD Elite examples:

Shoiyan Intelligence Operative: MIG 2 / AGI 4 / INT 3 / SAV 4 / WIL 3 / CHA 3. Resistance 3, Wound Points 14. Melee Defense 1, Ranged Defense 1. Skills: Subterfuge 3, Deception 3, Perception 3, Ranged 2, Electronics 2. Abilities: Cool Head (remove 1 Bane from Readiness checks); once per encounter may spend 2 Boons to vanish into a crowd (becomes Hidden). Equipment: concealed sidearm, identity documents for two covers.

Funtari Clan Enforcer: MIG 4 / AGI 3 / INT 1 / SAV 2 / WIL 3 / CHA 2. Resistance 6, Wound Points 18. Melee Defense 1, Ranged Defense 0. Skills: Unarmed 3, Melee 2, Athletics 2, Intimidation 2, Fortitude 2. Abilities: Strong Arm (can spend Boons to move or knock down targets in melee); Crowd Fighter (reduce outnumbering Bane Dice by 1). Equipment: heavy mono-blade, industrial exo-frame (counts as medium armor).

Irnan Border Patrol Lieutenant: MIG 2 / AGI 3 / INT 3 / SAV 3 / WIL 3 / CHA 2. Resistance 3, Wound Points 15. Melee Defense 0, Ranged Defense 1. Skills: Ranged 3, Perception 2, Leadership 2, Lore 2, Electronics 1. Abilities: Tactical Mind (at start of encounter, on success at Average Readiness check, one Minion group under their command adds 1 Boon Die to its first action). Equipment: military carbine, standard Irnan body armor, encrypted comms.

Antaean Contract Mercenary: MIG 3 / AGI 3 / INT 2 / SAV 2 / WIL 2 / CHA 2. Resistance 4, Wound Points 15. Melee Defense 0, Ranged Defense 1. Skills: Ranged 3, Athletics 2, Stealth 2, Fortitude 2, Survival 1. Abilities: Specialist (Ranged: shooting from elevated position); once per scene, may set up in a position adding 1 Boon Die to one ranged attack without using Aim. Equipment: mid-range carbine, tactical armor, climbing equipment.

Nemeses

Nemeses are top-tier adversaries: major antagonists, powerful faction leaders, unique creatures, experienced veteran opponents.

Key rules:

• Nemeses have both Wound Points and Strain Points
• Nemeses can suffer Critical Injuries
• Nemeses can spend Peril Points from the GM's shared pool as if spending Fortune Points: upgrading their own dice, activating Breakthrough effects, or introducing complications
• Some Nemeses may be granted a private Peril reserve by the GM if the encounter warrants it

Building Nemeses:

Full characteristic spread, often with one or two characteristics at 4-5. Skills across multiple categories to make them unpredictable. Four to six abilities that define their personality and tactics. A Nemesis should have a fighting style, preferred tools, and a decision framework: what do they value? What will they sacrifice? What breaks their composure?

VD Nemesis examples:

Irnan Station Commander (political antagonist who can also fight): MIG 2 / AGI 3 / INT 4 / SAV 4 / WIL 4 / CHA 4. Resistance 3, Wound Points 16, Strain Points 17. Melee Defense 1, Ranged Defense 2. Skills: Leadership 4, Negotiation 3, Ranged 3, Perception 3, Lore 3, Intimidation 3. Abilities: Commanding Presence (extend Leadership assistance to additional allies); Tactical Mind; Unshaken (remove 1 Bane from fear and pressure checks); Danger Sense (once per scene, may react to surprise). Equipment: officer's sidearm, Irnan authority armor (formal but functional).

Funtari Clan Boss (physical powerhouse with crew loyalty): MIG 5 / AGI 3 / INT 2 / SAV 2 / WIL 4 / CHA 3. Resistance 7, Wound Points 22, Strain Points 16. Melee Defense 1, Ranged Defense 0. Skills: Unarmed 4, Melee 3, Intimidation 4, Athletics 3, Fortitude 3, Leadership 2. Abilities: Hardy (additional Wound Points); Crowd Fighter; Hardened (physical attacks); Unbroken (once per session, remain functional when incapacitated until end of next turn); Last Stand. Equipment: reinforced industrial mono-gauntlets, salvaged Funtari heavy plating. Private Peril reserve: 2 points per encounter.

Shoiyan Intelligence Director (information predator): MIG 1 / AGI 3 / INT 5 / SAV 5 / WIL 4 / CHA 4. Resistance 2, Wound Points 12, Strain Points 17. Melee Defense 0, Ranged Defense 1. Skills: Deception 5, Perception 4, Subterfuge 4, Negotiation 4, Electronics 3, Lore 4. Abilities: Boon Reader; Skeptic; Silver Tongue; Mastery Spend (Deception); Signature Technique (The Long Frame: once per scene, when this character succeeds at Deception against a target, they may choose to have the target believe a secondary false fact they never stated directly, as if the Breakthrough had triggered). Equipment: no visible weapons; document forgery tools; two intelligence assets in any populated location who arrive when called.

Defense

Every point of Melee Defense adds 1 Bane Die to melee attacks against the target. Every point of Ranged Defense adds 1 Bane Die to ranged attacks against the target. Defense from different sources (armor, cover, talents, conditions) stacks. Maximum Defense in each category is 3 unless a specific rule states otherwise.

Building Encounters

Minion groups as scene texture: One Minion group of 4-6 per two player characters produces a meaningful but manageable combat. More Minions create attrition; fewer create a quick skirmish.

Mixing tiers: A standard encounter might pair 1-2 Elite-tier adversaries with 1-2 Minion groups. The Elites are the decision-makers; the Minions are the weight.

Nemesis pacing: A Nemesis who appears in combat too early loses their mystique. Use Nemeses as climactic encounters, not routine threats. When they do appear in combat, give them abilities that make the players feel the difference.

Vehicles

The Void Drifters Vehicle Framework

Void Drifters applies the Exodus NDS vehicle framework to spacecraft. The key principle: treat the ship as a character, with its own damage tracks, its own resource pressures, and its own ways to fail at the worst moment.

Vehicle Characteristics

How Vehicle Stats Interact with Character Actions

Pilot: Uses Agility + Pilot skill. Handling adds Boon Dice (positive values) or Bane Dice (negative values) to all Pilot checks.

Gunnery: Uses Agility + Gunnery skill. The weapon's stats (Damage, Range, Crit, qualities) determine what happens when the attack succeeds.

Craft (Engineer): Uses Intellect + Craft. Used for repairs, power rerouting, emergency venting, and managing Heat. All difficulty modifiers from the ship's damage state apply.

Electronics (Sensor Operator): Uses Intellect + Electronics. Used for scanning, jamming, lock-breaking, and electronic warfare.

Astrogation: Uses Intellect + Astrogation. Used for plotting courses, finding escape vectors, and calculating Slipstream transitions.

Vehicle Damage

Hull Damage: Structural damage from weapons, collisions, and breaches. When Hull Damage equals Hull Points, the ship is disabled.

System Damage: Operational disruption from electronics attacks, power overloads, system failures, and disruption weapons. When System Damage equals System Points, the ship loses control.

Armor: Reduces incoming damage before it is applied to Hull Points. Functions like Resistance for the ship.

Repairing Damage

Use Intellect + Craft. Difficulty depends on damage state:

Emergency repairs in structured play use an Action, restore function rather than fully repairing, and last until the end of the encounter or until the fiction says they fail.

Scale in Combat

When ships of different Scale engage, the difference matters:

• A smaller ship attacking a significantly larger target (2+ Scale higher) removes Bane Dice from its pool up to the Scale difference (small ships are easier to hit on a large target).
• A larger ship attacking a significantly smaller target (2+ Scale lower) adds Bane Dice equal to the difference (a capital ship struggles to target a fast cutter).

The GM's Vehicle Authority

The GM decides:

• When a vehicle enters Uncontrolled Drift (engine damage, failed maneuver, collision)
• What specific system is affected by System Damage (GM chooses or worst condition applies)
• When ship critical hits occur and their severity
• Whether the terrain creates meaningful choices (elevation, debris, gravity well)
• When personal combat and ship combat scales interact (boarding action begins)

Uncontrolled Drift: A ship enters Uncontrolled Drift from significant damage, a failed piloting check, or a deliberate dangerous maneuver. While drifting, the ship moves one range band along its current vector each round, pilot cannot freely choose direction, all ship control actions add a Trial Die, and the pilot must spend an Action to regain control.

Ship Critical Hits

A ship suffers a Critical Hit when:

• It suffers a hit while already disabled or at maximum System Damage
• An attacker spends Boons equal to the weapon's Crit rating
• An attacker spends a Breakthrough on the attack

Roll d100 and add +10 per existing Critical Hit on the ship. Apply result to the Default Vehicle Critical Hit table in the Exodus NDS Core Rules. Each existing Critical Hit continues adding +10 until repaired.

Using ship crits as complications: Ship Critical Hits are most valuable as scene-changing complications, not just as raw damage. A “Weapon Disrupted” result means the crew has to make a choice: spend an Action to clear it, or continue without that weapon. A “Steering Damage” result changes the tactical equation. Use the result to create choices, not just subtract numbers.

Recovery

Recovery Rates

Strain:

• End of any structured encounter: recover Strain equal to Willpower
• Full rest: recover all Strain (unless incapacitated by Strain)
• Catch Breath Maneuver (once per encounter): recover 1 Strain
• Catch Breath talent: improves to 2 Strain
• Spend 1 Boon with no stronger use: recover 1 Strain

Wounds:

• Full rest or equivalent: recover Wounds equal to Might
• Medical care: caregiver makes Medicine check; each net Success restores 1 additional Wound; 2 Boons may restore 1 extra Wound, preserve supplies, or reduce time

Field Treatment

During structured play, an Action spent on an Engaged character allows a Medicine check to:

• Stop ongoing Wound effects (end Bleeding condition)
• Prevent immediate worsening of a Critical Injury
• Stabilize a character in mortal danger

Default difficulty: Average. Improvised tools, unsafe surroundings, or extreme urgency add Bane Dice.

Field treatment does not remove Critical Injuries. It manages immediate crises.

Incapacitation

By Wounds: Out of the encounter. Stabilizes after the encounter unless actively threatened. Remains incapacitated until current Wounds fall below Wound Points.

By Strain: Out of the encounter. After full rest, current Strain drops to half Strain Points (rounded down) rather than clearing completely.

An already incapacitated character who takes another hit suffers a Critical Injury automatically.

The Critical Injury Table

This is the Void Drifters Critical Injury table. It replaces the default table in the Exodus NDS Core Rules and is used whenever a Critical Injury is inflicted: a Breakthrough spent on an attack, net Boons meeting the weapon's Crit rating and spent to inflict one, or a hit on an already-incapacitated target. Weapons with no listed Crit rating use the default of 3.

Roll d100 and add +10 for every Critical Injury the target already carries (results can climb past 100). Apply the matching entry. Severity bands: Minor 01–30, Moderate 31–60, Severe 61–85, Deadly 86–100, Mortal 101+. Each untreated Critical Injury keeps adding +10 to later rolls until it is removed by a Medicine check (difficulty by severity, below). A fresh character with no untreated Critical Injuries can roll at most 100, so death by this table is the consequence of compounding, untreated damage rather than a single unlucky hit.

Critical Injury Treatment

On success, the injury is removed and no longer adds +10 to future rolls. On failure, the injury remains. Banes or a Calamity on the Medicine check may consume supplies, worsen the condition, or increase recovery time.

GM's Role in Recovery Pacing

Recovery pacing in Void Drifters should reflect genre and scene context. A crew that pushes through three encounters without rest accumulates Wounds and Critical Injuries that compound. That accumulation is intentional. Do not short-circuit it by allowing miraculous healing at every stopping point.

Between-session recovery: A full session's rest clears Strain, restores Wounds equal to Might (plus any Medicine rolls), and allows treatment of Critical Injuries. This is a significant recovery window.

In the field without a medic: The crew can clear Strain but may be stuck with Wounds until they reach proper care. A ship engineer is not a doctor. Field medicine is triage, not treatment.

Pacing advice: Keep Critical Injuries on the table. Their ongoing effects, the +10 to future injury rolls, and the need to seek treatment, are the resource drain that gives Void Drifters its sense of grinding consequence. Removing them too quickly deflates the tension they create.

VD-Specific Rule Notes

The Void Drifters Skill List

Void Drifters uses 25 skills. The core Exodus NDS ruleset uses 22. Void Drifters adds three and renames one.

Added skills:

• Astrogation (INT): Plotting interstellar courses, calculating Slipstream transitions, reading nav-beacons, avoiding spatial hazards, and navigating within known or unknown space. Replaces generic Science use for navigation.
• Electronics (INT): Operating, hacking, repairing, and defeating electronic systems: ship computers, access terminals, security networks, AI interfaces, communications equipment, and sensor arrays. Replaces general Craft/Science use for digital and electronic work.
• Gunnery (AGI): Targeting and firing ship-mounted weapons, operating point-defense systems, and managing targeting solutions at ship scale.
• Pilot (AGI): Piloting spacecraft, executing maneuvers, managing evasion, and operating vehicles in combat or dangerous conditions. Replaces generic Operate for spacecraft.

Note on Operate: The Void Drifters skill list does not include the generic Operate skill. Pilot covers spacecraft. Operate-type tasks for ground vehicles, drones, and other machinery use the most appropriate skill at GM discretion, typically Pilot for anything with a cockpit and Craft for heavy equipment.

Species XP Packages

Each species has a starting XP package that adjusts from the 110 XP baseline. These adjustments reflect the species' biological advantages; species that provide stronger passive bonuses cost more to play. These values match the Player's Guide, which is the authority for character creation.

These adjustments apply at character creation only. Post-creation advancement uses standard XP costs for all species.

VD Modifications to Core Rules

Weapon scales: Void Drifters uses two weapon scales that do not interact directly. Personal weapons function at character scale. Ship weapons function at vehicle scale. A personal weapon cannot meaningfully damage a ship hull in normal circumstances. A ship weapon is catastrophic if somehow brought to bear on a person.

Power Load and Heat as ongoing resources: These are VD-specific operational pressures layered onto the Exodus vehicle framework. They are not generic vehicle rules; they exist because spacecraft in Void Drifters have distinct tactical identities built around reactor management. See Chapter Thirteen for full integration with the ship combat walkthrough.

Firing arcs and facing: Ships have facing; characters generally do not. Facing matters for which ship weapons can fire at which targets, which defensive screens cover which arcs, and what the pilot needs to do to bring a weapon to bear. This is a VD-specific layer on top of the abstract range band system.

Slipstream and navigation: Slipstream travel and transit rules are covered in Chapter Seven and the Sector Atlas. Every seam, corridor, and course-plotting Trial in this book is an Astrogation Trial: navigation is the task, Astrogation is the skill. Slipstream failure during transit is a story-level event; use Astrogation checks to manage safe entry, difficult exits, and emergency calculations, but the consequences of Slipstream failure are narrative in scope.

AI Assistance: Ships with AI cores (Directive Intelligence) may assist actions within their installed Directive Package. AI assistance removes 1 Trial Die from the difficulty pool (or downgrades 1 Crisis Die if no Trial Dice remain). In an Opposed Check, AI assistance adds 1 Boon Die. See the Player's Guide, Chapter Ten (Directive Intelligence and AI Assistance), for the full rules.

Conditions: the VD additions

Void Drifters introduces no new universal conditions beyond the core Exodus list. However, the following condition applications are common enough at the VD table to warrant a note:

Signature Bloom (not a formal condition): When a ship is running hot (at or above Heat Threshold), all Signature Management checks add 1 Bane Die. This is an ongoing state, not a condition that can be removed by ending your turn.

Uncontrolled Drift (ship state): Treated like a condition affecting the whole ship. Ends when the pilot succeeds at a Control action.

Suit Breach: Not a formal condition. Handle as Fortitude checks at GM-set intervals. Severity determines frequency.

Quick Reference Tables

Difficulty at a Glance

Boon and Bane Spend Scale

Common Conditions

Story Points Summary