./FSCK-US - Gears and Wheels

All the information and rules for the GM running the game.

The role of the GM

The GM is a cooperative adversary, in that they want the story to unfold but not without challenge to the agents of the players. This requires them to walk a fine line. That said when the action kicks in, the GM doesn't hold back and agents can die. Luckily Quick Character Creation is fast!

The SCP Foundation

The SCP Foundation is a powerful group operating worldwide to secure, contain, and protect civilization from the paranormal. This is much like the Warehouse group in show Warehouse 13. While the agents of the players do not work for the SCP, the Agency has tight relations with them. In practice the Agency runs point and investigates possible paranormal situations and eventually reports back their findings to the SCP and they step in to contain any issues.

All stories in this game are centered around the paranormal case files, SCP files, of the foundation. When you start a game, roll a random SCP from series 1 to build upon for the paranormal element of the ongoing investigation. You could use the described element directly (say it was stolen, etc.) or create a related phenomenon to explore.

Tasks

Task resolution is simple in this game: Compare power number to difficulty. If it is less, the agent fails, equal or greater means success. It is a /touch/ more complicated though, but only in the fail condition. When that happens in play, you:

Tell the player of the agent: Not going to happen, nope, or negative. Let them know the difficulty is greater than their power.

At this point, they can elect to: leverage knowledge to get a die, or spend Cool dice to increase their power.

If the difference is more than seven, make sure you mention: this looks impossible.

Bonuses to the power remain until the logical conclusion of the current situation, ending of action, investigation type, etc.

This gives the player a chance to work out a way for their agent to succeed anyway. They may also incur a Penalty to leverage a rule to allow them to succeed, no matter what the numbers say.

When story shifts occur, such as: things getting resolved, action ending, natural progression of focus, etc. the GM can call for a Flag.

Action Mode

Investigation Mode

Utility Mode

Combat and Damage

DAMAGE

Damage is rating with a power, like Ratings and Knacks. But it works to reduce either Toughness or Health. To get the damage of an attack, or anything causing injury you look up its effect power (reduce by armor/defense) on the follow table with the roll of a die. If the result is a six and the attack is brutal you can re-roll for more damage (same roll again, adding cumulatively).

Damage Rolls
Roll	1-2	3-4	5-6	7-8	9-10	11+
1	-	-	1	1	1	1
2	-	-	1	1	2	2
3	-	1	2	2	2	3
4	1	1	2	3	3	4
5	1	2	3	3	4	5
6	1	2	3	4	5	6

If the damage is 11 or more, the health/toughness lost is: 1d6 + (damage-10). In this way a shotgun doing 18 damage as close-range is 1d6+8 (18-10). Damage with a ! after it is piercing and had as impact rating. Impact is how much damage goes to toughness before it skips right to health.

Common attack damages:

Fist: STR

Kick: STR + 3

Club: STR x 2 + 1

Sword: STR x 2 + 3! - Impact 6

Light Pistol: 12! Impact 2

Heavy Pistol: 14! Impact 3

Modern Rifle: 16! Impact 1

Common armor defenses:

+X! increases the effective impact of piercing damage.

Light armor, leather, etc: 1,2

Heavy armor, light body armor, chainmail, etc: 2,3+2!

Heavy modern armor: 4,5+3!

INJURY

Injury is loss of Toughness or Health. Toughness is like armor for health. It comes back pretty quick (1d3 a day) and doesn't have any effect except when Toughness is gone Health is lost instead. When Health is lost, it comes back slow (1d3 per week, without medicine). When all health is lost, the character is down and out and may die. Health lost below zero is counted up as: Mortal Injury. Every time that increases a 2d6 roll must match or beat it to remain alive at all.

Story Mechanisms

Penalty

When a player incurs a penalty, the GM does one of three things: Earn Hazard, Create Peril, or Introduce a Dark Twist.

Hazard

The GM adds to their hazard counters an amount equal to the agent with the least amount of cool (but more than zero cool).

Peril

The GM pays an amount of hazard equal to an agent's cool to introduce a Peril for them. A Peril is something that looms over them and could result in problems for them in the future (see Flag). It may or may not be immediately revealed to the player. Record the amount of hazard used for the Peril for future use.

Dark Twist

If the GM holds more Hazard than the agent with the most cool, they may introduce a twist to the current narrative that immediately complicates things for the agent(s). Discard Hazard equal to two plus the number of players (or your whole stack if less).

Flag

When a Flag is thrown (usually because an agent ran out of cool or a story flag is reached) it is time to trigger one or more peril. The GM must discard 3 hazard for each Peril triggered.