The rules for Specter are designed to be easy to understand, modular in nature, and complex in implication. This is the reference of all specific situations and such in the game rules. It is however, not a “how to play” document in any way. It a pure reference to different ideas and mechanics in the game. You are meant to link into this from other pages, for instance: Basics of Play.

When your human uses Spark, it naturally Blossoms. This is an energy pulse, something beyond an EMP that is both visually stunning and useful for humankind. On the other hand, it is quite detectable by both machine and life crystal, which is something that can be disastrous. When your human blossoms two things will happen:

• The GM will roll dice to see what notices.
• You can choose to take one to three Harm and remove an equal amount of Drain.

It is hard to kill any of the humankind, but this is the closest they come. If they are both drained and harmed enough, they will bottom out. At this point, while not actually dead, they are very close and will only return if Specter restores them.

As the wise man once said, hard things are hard. When an action has a Difficulty number (other than Getting By) the GM must inform the player before a roll is made, allowing them to change their mind and perhaps go about things differently. This can also just be a single to the player to make sure they have Boosts, Push, etc. at the ready for such a roll.

When your character rests, they sleep 1d8 * 5 minutes and remove 1 Harm. Trigger any other rules caused by them resting at the end of the rest period. Your human may only rest once in any given half day (12 hours), unless they some circumstances allow more.

If your character is in a dangerous situation, you will know it. The GM doesn't need to fully explain the details (there can be hidden Blocks for instance that are revealed only when you roll) but they will tell you its risky. If you ever fail to Get By on an action that is Risky the GM will roll a d6 and try to beat your Effort. If the roll succeeds, things have gone very very badly.

Humankind characters have two or more Sinks. Each is a value from 1 to 10 that may act as a Block for their actions. If enough value is accumulated to overflow, something bad happens to the character. Sinks overflow when they exceed 10. There are other Sinks, but the two that all humankind share are: Drain and Harm.

• Drain: This is energy drain. When it overflows, the energy of the individual is fully drained. At this point they fall unconscious and in 1d6 hours awake with all their drain erased and one Harm per hour “slept”. Drain acts as a Block for all Spark driven verbs (RUN/LINK/DEBUG/FORM).
• Harm: This is injury. When it overflows, the individual is gravely injured and falls unconscious. They will regenerate fully in an hour, and awake with all their Harm erased and take 1d8 Drain. If this overflows their Drain, they Bottom Out. Harm acts as a Block on all physical actions (FIGHT/MOVE/PROWL/SHOOT).

When the GM is cued by the rules, they may throw in a Snag. This is something that may hamper the action of the characters in the current stage of action. The GM can create the Snag as they see fit, or use the Snag Process. The end result will be something that will likely act as Blocks for the characters actions. The GM may also use indirect Snags, that are things that will come up in the future (whenever it makes sense) and interfere with the PCs later.

When your human engages in endeavors that lead towards the same unique goal, they are considered Successive Actions. For example, if you are trying to unlock a machine energized vault door, and you fail on the first attempt. The GM asks if you are willing to abandon the door or want to continue, warning you that you'll take a Snag if you choose the latter. You accept the Snag, in this case the GM says you have alerted the nearby security drones and they are closing in on you (indirect Snag). But you can now try again, and this action is considered Successive.