Core Rules Primer

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This chapter summarizes the core Exodus NDS rules for dice, checks, and Story Points as they apply at the Void Drifters table. It covers the procedures you use every session: building a dice pool, reading results, spending symbols, and spending Story Points. Combat, structured play, recovery, and conditions are in Chapter Fourteen. For the complete ruleset, including designer notes and full mechanical detail, see the Exodus NDS Core Rules.

Where Void Drifters Differs from Core

Void Drifters uses the core rules with the changes below. Everything else in the core rules applies as written.

The Dice

Void Drifters uses a custom set of polyhedral dice. Each face shows one or more symbols rather than numbers. You roll a pool of dice and read all the symbols together to determine what happened.

The Six Symbols

There are three opposing pairs. Symbols within a pair cancel each other out.

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

The Six Dice

Positive dice build your pool. Negative dice represent difficulty and opposition. You roll them all together. The roll as a whole is a check; a Trial Die is one of the dice in it.

Building a Dice Pool

Every check starts by assembling a pool of positive and negative dice.

The Positive Pool

The GM identifies which characteristic and skill apply. Use whichever rating is higher as the total number of positive dice, then upgrade a number of those dice equal to whichever rating is lower.

Upgrading means replacing an Ability Die with a Mastery Die .

The Negative Pool (Difficulty)

The GM adds Trial Dice to represent how hard the task is. For especially dangerous or volatile situations, Trial Dice may be upgraded to Crisis Dice .

Situational Dice

Beyond the base pool, circumstances add Boon or Bane Dice:

• Boon Dice for favorable conditions: good equipment, assistance, environmental advantage, momentum.
• Bane Dice for unfavorable conditions: poor visibility, injury, bad tools, environmental hazard.

Both can appear in the same pool. Aiming (+1 Boon Die) while a defender has cover (+1 Bane Die) means both dice are in the pool.

Downgrading

Some effects downgrade dice, the reverse of upgrading: a Mastery Die becomes an Ability Die, or a Crisis Die becomes a Trial Die. Downgrading changes the type of die, not the number. If no die of the right type remains, the effect does nothing more.

Pool Limits

A pool always contains at least one die. If every positive die would be removed, roll one Ability Die instead. If every negative die would be removed, the check proceeds without opposition. As a guideline, a pool should not exceed 12 dice after all modifiers; beyond that, the GM may turn extra positive dice into automatic Boons and extra negative dice into automatic Banes.

Resolving Checks

Roll all positive and negative dice together. Then resolve in this order:

1. Handle Breakthroughs and Calamities. Each adds one to the pool. Each adds one . Set the Breakthroughs and Calamities aside; their special effects apply in step 5 regardless of the final result.
2. Cancel opposing symbols. Each cancels one . Each cancels one .
3. Determine success or failure. If at least one remains, the check succeeds. If none remain, it fails. A check with zero net Successes and zero net Failures still fails.
4. Count net Boons or Banes. Remaining are Boons. Remaining are Banes. These create secondary effects on top of the primary result.
5. Apply Breakthrough and Calamity effects. These trigger regardless of whether the check succeeded or failed.

Reading Results

Every roll produces up to three layers of information. Resolve them in order:

1. Did the action succeed or fail? This answers the main question.
2. What secondary effects landed? Net Boons or Banes describe what else happened.
3. Did anything exceptional occur? Breakthroughs and Calamities change the shape of the scene.

What Extra Successes Do

The first net Success means the task succeeded. Each additional Success above the first scales the primary effect: more damage on an attack, more Wounds healed with Medicine, faster completion of a complex task. Additional Successes stay on the same axis as the action itself. As a guideline, 2 to 3 Successes give an improved outcome and 4 or more an exceptional one.

What to Do with Boons and Banes

Boons and Banes describe secondary effects separate from whether the action worked. Use this scale:

Players propose positive spends. Boons and Breakthroughs belong to the player who rolled them. Suggest how to spend them; the GM approves or adjusts.

The GM applies negative spends. Banes and Calamities are the GM's tool to shape what went wrong. Players may suggest; the GM decides.

Unspent Boons: If you have a Boon and no obvious use for it, spend 1 Boon to recover 1 Strain. This is always available.

Types of Checks

Simple Checks

One character attempts a task against a fixed difficulty set by the GM. The standard check type. Roll the pool, read the result.

Opposed Checks

Two characters directly contest each other. Both build their pools normally, including Boon and Bane Dice from conditions, environment, or assistance, but neither adds Trial or Crisis Dice for the other's opposition. Compare net Successes; the higher count wins. On a tie, the character who initiated the contest loses. Both sides still read their remaining Boons and Banes. Defense and other passive modifiers still apply. A directive AI assisting an opposed check adds 1 Boon Die instead of removing a Trial Die.

Assisted Checks

One character is the primary actor; up to two others help. Helpers must describe a concrete contribution. Each meaningful assist adds 1 Boon Die to the primary pool. If a helper has more ranks in the relevant skill than the primary character, their assist adds 1 Ability Die instead. A check gains at most two assisting dice, and no more than one of them may be an Ability Die. If the check goes badly, the GM may assign part of the consequence to a helper.

Group Checks

All characters share one outcome. The best-positioned character rolls. Compare the roller's skill rank to the lowest skill rank among necessary participants; add Bane Dice equal to the difference. Used when everyone's participation is required and failure for one means failure for all.

Extended Checks

Some tasks require multiple rolls over time. The GM sets a difficulty, a success threshold (total net Successes needed), a time unit per roll, and sometimes an attempt limit. Net Successes accumulate across rolls. When the threshold is reached, the task is complete. Boons, Banes, Breakthroughs, and Calamities can alter the situation between rolls. Used for investigations, long cons, chases, and complex technical work.

Story Points: Fortune and Peril

Story Points are a shared resource that flows between players and GM, representing momentum, fortune, and dramatic pressure.

Starting the Pool

At the start of each session: 1 Fortune Point per player, 1 Peril Point for the GM.

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 (GM approves)

A player may spend a Fortune Point on another player character's check if the table agrees the spend supports the scene.

When a Fortune Point is spent, it becomes a Peril Point and flips to the GM.

Peril Points (GM)

The GM may spend a Peril Point to:

• Upgrade one Trial Die in the difficulty pool to a Crisis Die
• 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 and flips to the players.

Only one Story Point may be spent per check unless the GM explicitly allows otherwise. Upgrades to the pool must be declared before rolling. Narrative effects and Breakthrough or Calamity activations may occur after results are known.

Worked Example: A Check from Start to Finish

Senna Vael, the Ossen pilot from Chapter Fifteen (Intellect 2, Astrogation 2, and the Slipstream Reader talent), is delivering a client's VN-33C1 courier. The courier's Advanced Directive AI has a Navigation package installed. The only route out runs through a fading seam.

1. The GM sets the difficulty. A fading seam is a Hard Astrogation check with 1 Bane Die for the seam's drift: .

2. Senna builds her pool. Intellect 2 and Astrogation 2 are equal, so she starts with 2 dice and upgrades both: . Slipstream Reader adds 1 Boon Die to Astrogation checks in a Slipstream corridor.

3. The AI assists. Senna gives the AI a clear directive, the Navigation package covers the task, and an Active Channel is free. The AI removes one Trial Die, leaving 2.

4. A Story Point. Senna has no Ability Die left to upgrade, so a Fortune Point upgrade would do nothing. Instead, Senna's player spends the Fortune Point to introduce a favorable detail: the client's chart cache holds a drift log for this seam from last month. The GM approves and removes the seam's Bane Die. The point flips to the GM's side as a Peril Point.

5. Species ability. Senna's Ossen Interface Discipline (once per scene, when working with a ship computer within its intended purpose) removes a Bane Die, or adds a Boon Die if none applies. With the drift Bane Die gone, it adds 1 Boon Die.

Final pool: against .

6. Roll and cancel. The positive dice show 3 and 3 . The Trial Dice show 1 and 1 . After cancelling: 2 net Successes and 2 net Boons.

7. Read the result. The check succeeds, and 2 Successes is an improved outcome: the GM rules the transit runs clean and on schedule. With 2 Boons, Senna's player could use Slipstream Reader to cut the transit time; she proposes a named effect instead: the exit data shows a customs picket waiting on the arrival arc. The GM approves.

The Opposed Check

At the arrival arc, the GM spends the new Peril Point to introduce a complication: the picket orders the courier to stand by for a manifest inspection. The point flips back to the players as Fortune. The crew's face, Corin Ash, talks the inspector past a cargo line the client would rather not discuss. This is an opposed check: Corin's Deception against the inspector's Perception. Neither side adds Trial Dice.

• Corin (Charisma 4, Deception 2): 2 Mastery Dice and 2 Ability Dice. The manifest's seal is scuffed, so the GM adds 1 Bane Die; Corin's Border Savvy talent removes 1 Bane Die from Deception checks to avoid a customs search, so it comes straight back out.
• The inspector (Savvy 3, Perception 2): 2 Mastery Dice and 1 Ability Die. The inspection console's directive AI has a Traffic and Trade package, so in this opposed check it adds 1 Boon Die.

Corin's dice show 3 Successes and 1 Boon. The inspector's show 2 Successes and 1 Boon. Corin wins, 3 to 2; on a tie he would have lost, because he started the contest. Both sides still read their leftovers. Corin's player proposes a minor benefit for his Boon: the inspector mentions that the picket is waiting for a different ship. The inspector's Boon gives the GM a brief useful detail: the inspector will remember Corin's face.