Eden Chapters/Rulebook

This rulebook is intended as a supplement the Craftsmen and Chimeras Rulebook. It was last updated during version 2.1.

Introduction

This rulebook will explain the rules and mechanics used in a futuristic, science fiction Space setting.

This rulebook is geared towards a campaign taking place in a stylized futuristic galaxy. Firearms, advanced technology, and other things often found in such settings will influence the mechanics. While one does not have to rely exclusively on guns and lasers, their presence should be taken into account when creating a character based on melee combat. Basically, don't just make a dude in a robe carrying a knife around and expect to not die a lot when rushing into a fight where everyone else has a laser rifle.

The world

Space travel and coordinates

Since we're working in a setting where travel to a vast range of different worlds through means of various starships is viable, new mechanics for travel will be instituted. The core aspect of these new mechanics will be coordinates.

Coordinates are a set of numbers that designate a location somewhere in the galaxy. There is a virtually infinite number of places to discover and explore, and many of these areas will require the party to either discover or purchase new coordinates. Many locations will already be known, being common knowledge to most space-faring residents of the galaxy, while many other areas containing better loot and new quests will require the party to obtain their location in the form of new coordinates. There are many ways to obtain coordinates, and the party should always be on the lookout for these in order to expand their potential for exploration throughout the galaxy. 

The second new mechanic is the use of space faring vessels, commonly known as Starships. Starships vary drastically in size, capability, and appearance. The party will have the ability to obtain new starships throughout the campaign, ranging in size of from small junkers that can house a bare few people to massive capital vessels with thousands of crewmembers. The party must always keep in mind the capabilities of their vessel, in order to survive space encounters and store more equipment. Depending on the size of the parties vessel, helpful new npc's may house themselves on board in order to sell the group new equipment and provide new questlines.

Races

Human
[[File:|250px]]
Starting stats
Strength: 0 Dexterity: 0	Constitution: 0 Intelligence: 0
Bonus combat stat points: 1
Noncombat skills
Interpersonality: 0 Trickery: 0	Survival: 0 Education: 0
Bonus skill points: 2
Offensive stats
Size: 1	Speed: 6 Initiative mod: 0
Defensive stats
HP mod: 0

Humans

Humans are the dominant race in this universe.

Notable Human factions include the Guild, the Confederation, and various mercenary groups.

Zagra
Starting stats
Strength: 0 Dexterity: 0	Constitution: 0 Intelligence: 0
Bonus combat stat points: 1
Noncombat skills
Interpersonality: 0 Trickery: 0	Survival: 0 Education: 0
Bonus skill points: 0
Offensive stats
Size: 1	Speed: 6 Initiative mod: 0
Defensive stats
HP mod: -2

Kindred

Kindred is the name given to the group of genetically engineered creatures living on the Inner Worlds. They are generally relatively Humanoid in appearance, in contrast to the Outsiders. There are currently roughly two dozen species of Kindred.

Outsiders

Outsiders is the name given to genetically engineered creatures living on the Outer Worlds, as well as any Kindred who were deemed unfit to inhabit the Inner Worlds. They have generally less Humanoid appearances and body plans. There are hundreds of different kinds of Outsiders, with a wide variety of anatomies. Generally, they have been heavily mutated and deformed by the hostile environments and unstable terra-forming machinery left behind in the Outer Worlds.The Zagra are a specific type of Outsiders.

Zagra

The Zagra are a family of Outsider species created by one particular Human bio-engineer. They originated on an outer world that they have since overrun. The world is now sometimes referred to variously as Zagran, Zagria, or Zagrania by smugglers and other unsavory travelers who frequent nearby space.

Lawrence Ruckerford, a particularly enthusiastic bio-engineer, created a creature he called the Zagraling while experimenting on an outer world. He considered the creature his masterpiece, and destroyed all of the work he had created thus far in order to focus entirely on the Zagraling. After a number of failed attempts at modifying the Zagraling, he achieved a breakthrough after recoding the creature's DNA from scratch.

The new Zagraling proved to be extremely modifiable, to Ruckerford's delight. He immediately set to work producing derivative creatures, which he collectively referred to as the Zagra in his papers. As he became more familiar with modifying the Zagraling, his creatures became larger, more intelligent, and ever more deadly.

His final batch of creatures were three particularly deadly specimens he referred to as the Hydrasque, Mutaling, and the Paralisk. After the creatures achieved maturation in his laboratory, they struggled against their holding cells and broke loose. They wrought havoc on Ruckerford's laboratories and freed what creatures they did not consume, unleashing the Zagra on the planet. Ruckerford has not been seen since, and is presumed to have been consumed by his creations.

A number of Zagra have the ability to coat the ground with a special bacteria-infested substance colloquially referred to as infestation, which grants beneficial effects to the Zagra while being toxic to other life forms.

Infestation Race feature

While toxic to other life forms, there is no environment more beneficial to a Zagra than an infested one.

Passive Passive ability

Effect: Whenever you end your turn on a tile with Infestation, you regain up to 2 HP and gain 1 speed during your next turn.

Infestation: Foes who end their turns on tiles with Infestation take 2 true Biological damage.

Combat

In order to simulate battles that include guns and explosives, several new mechanics will be introduced to supplement the existing combat rules.

Damage types

A damage type is a quality of an attack or other source of damage that interacts with a character's defenses. Different damage types will have varying effectiveness against different foes.

Damage that has no specific damage type is considered physical damage. Physical damage is effective against all types of foes.

EMP damage (short for Electromagnetic pulse) is effective only against machinery, and will not harm biological foes. Spaceships and their systems, electric prosthetics and other bodily augmentations, certain weapons, and robotic combatants are all vulnerable to EMP damage. Combatants who receive a solid hit that deals EMP damage will be unable to use any weapons, items, or abilities with the EMP vulnerability keyword until the end of their next turn, even if the combatants themselves are not vulnerable to EMP damage. Combatants deemed sufficiently mechanized by the DM will instead be stunned until the end of their next turn.

Biological damage is effective only against living foes, and has no effect on nonbiological combatants such as robotic guards. Biological damage includes effects such as diseases and poisons.

Loss of limb

In battle, a character may suffer from a grievous injury causing the loss of one or more limbs. This may occur after being knocked unconscious, determined by a roll in relevance to any physical resistance stats you may have.

Severe penalties may result from a loss of limb. These can be averted by replacing the lost limb with a prosthetic (see section Prosthetics).

The following penalties apply to a humanoid combatant who has lost one or more limbs:

Limb(s) lost	Penalty
Dominant arm	-5 Dexterity and Strength Cannot use equipment with the Main-handed or Two-handed keywords
Non-dominant arm	-2 Dexterity and Strength Cannot use equipment with the Two-handed keyword
Both arms	Dexterity and Strength reduced to -5 Cannot use equipment with the One-handed, Main-handed, Off-handed, or Two-handed keywords
One leg	-4 Speed -10 evasion Knocked prone Cannot recover from the prone state
Both legs	Speed is reduced to 1 -20 evasion Knocked prone Cannot recover from the prone state

Cover

One cannot expect to stand in the middle of an open battle where bullets, missiles, grenades, and lasers are being exchanged and expect to survive for long under normal circumstances. Taking cover allows a combatant to avoid most of the crossfire.

A combatant may take cover as a minor action behind any reasonably large object (given the size of the character) in an adjacent tile.

In addition, a combatant may dive to move quickly from one piece of cover to another.

Dive Utulity

You throw yourself forward in a dive, hoping to be too quick for your foes to land an accurate shot.

At-will ✦ Martial, Movement Standard action

Effect: Shift up to ⌊your speed/2⌋ tiles. If you are attacked during this movement, you receive a +5 bonus to evasion for all defenses against the attack(s).

Shellshock

A character will experience Shellshock in the midst of explosions, high volumes of gunfire, or the destruction of nearby environment pieces. Such events cause disorientation and confusion. While Shellshocked, a character's speed and accuracy are reduced by 3. A character will recover from the Shellshocked state at the end of its turn.

Suppressing Fire

Suppressing Fire is an ability available to all combatants who possess a firearm that is used to harass foes who are hiding in cover.

Suppressing Fire Attack

You fire in the direction of hiding foes, hoping to keep them afraid and demoralized.

At-will ✦ Martial, Critical straights Standard action      Firearm Target: Up to three foes in cover in range Attack: Weapon vs. Willpower

Hit: If the target exits cover into a tile you can see before the start of your next turn, you can make a basic attack against it as an immediate reaction.

Critical: In addition to the above effects, the target is Shellshocked.

Note: Though Suppressing Fire deals no direct damage, it does still consume a round from the attacker's clip.

Equipment

Armor

See also: Craftsmen and Chimeras Rulebook#Armor

In this setting, "type A" armors are known as .., "type B" as .., "type C" as .., and "type D" as ... The following are examples of the types of armor at item level 0.

Light Armor Level 0 armor

A full suit of standard-issue light armor. Offers ample protection and supreme maneuverability.

Armor Armor: +7 evasion

Medium Armor Level 0 armor

A full suit of standard-issue medium armor. Offers improved protection and high maneuverability.

Armor Armor: +6 evasion, +1 mitigation

Heavy Armor Level 0 armor

A full suit of standard-issue medium armor. Offers great protection and ample maneuverability.

Armor Armor: +5 evasion, +2 mitigation

D Level 0 armor

..

Armor Armor: +4 evasion, +3 mitigation

Weapons

See also: Craftsmen and Chimeras Rulebook#Weapons

Firearms

Firearms are the most common weapons in this setting. There are three different "sizes" of firearms; sidearms (such as pistols and submachine guns), medium arms (such as rifles), and heavy arms (such as miniguns, laser cannons, and grenade and missile launchers).

Most firearms will need to be reloaded after they are used to attack a certain number of times (its clip size, indicated by a keyword). A combatant may not use a weapon with a depleted clip to attack. The type of action needed to reload a weapon is indicated by its keywords.

A combatant may drop its current weapon and pick up a firearm (such as one dropped by a fallen combatant) located in an adjacent tile as a minor action, allowing the combatant to continue firing without needing to reload.

The following are keywords that apply to firearms:

• Clip X: The weapon can be used to attack X times before reloading is necessary.
• Reload <standard/minor>: After the weapon's clip is depleted, a <standard/minor> action must be expended to reload the weapon, replenishing its clip and allowing further attacks.
• Radius X: The weapon also damages all foes within radius X of its primary target.

Standard available weapons

Weapon type	Hit die	Acc. mod.	Range	Keywords
Pistol	1d10	-1	15	One-handed, Dextrous, Clip 6, Reload standard
SMG	2d4	-2	10	One-handed, Mighty, Clip 4, Reload standard
Laser pistol	1d10	-1	15	One-handed, Powerful, Clip 2, Reload minor, EMP vulnerability
Laser SMG	2d4	-2	10	Main-handed, Powerful, Clip 4, Reload minor, EMP vulnerability
Assault rifle	2d6	0	20	Two-handed, Powerful, Clip 4, Reload minor
Bolt-action rifle	2d6	+1	25	Two-handed, Cunning, Clip 2, Reload standard, Critical straights
Laser rifle	1d10	0	20	Main-handed, Powerful, Clip 6, Reload minor, EMP vulnerability
Minigun	1d12	-2	10	Two-handed, Strong, Clip 6, Reload standard
Laser cannon	4d4	0	20	Two-handed, Mighty, Radius 1, Clip 2, Reload standard, EMP vulnerability
Rocket launcher	3d4	-1	15	Two-handed, Mighty, Radius 2, Clip 1, Reload standard, EMP vulnerability

Several standard weapons have special mechanics that cannot be adequately explained in a weapon table. They will be discussed in the following sections.

Sniper Rifles

Sniper Rifles have a 4d6 hit die, -6 accuracy modifier, range 50, and the Two-handed, Cunning, Clip 1, and Reload standard keywords.

Sniper Rifle Deployment Utility

You prepare your sniper rifle for use.

At-will ✦ Martial, Prone Standard action      Sniper rifle

Effect: You enter the Sniper Rifle Deployed state.

Sniper Rifle Deployed: You are prone, but gain a +2 bonus to Stealth and +10 bonus to accuracy with sniper rifles while you remain in this state. You may end this state with a minor action.

Careful Shot Attack

You carefully line up the perfect shot.

At-will ✦ Martial, Critical hit Standard action      Sniper rifle Target: One foe

Effect: Until the end of your next turn, your next attack against the target will critically hit if it does not miss.

Shotguns

There exist two varieties of shotguns: normal shotguns and sawed-off shotguns.

Shotguns have a 3d4 hit die, a -1 accuracy modifier, range 15, and the Two-handed, Strong, Clip 2, and Reload standard keywords.

Sawed-Off Shotguns have a 2d4 hit die, a -2 accuracy modifier, range 10, and the Two-handed, Strong, Clip 2, and Reload standard keywords. Additionally, sawed-off shotguns target all foes within burst 3 by 10.

Grenade Launchers

Grenade Launchers have a 3d6 hit die, a -2 accuracy modifier, range 15, and the Two-handed, Mighty, Radius 2, Clip 3, Reload standard, and EMP vulnerability keywords. When attacking with a grenade launcher, your accuracy roll is checked against the reflex roll of all foes within radius 2 of the target tile. Should the reflex of any foes in the radius exceed the accuracy roll, they may move a number of tiles up to the difference between their reflex and the accuracy roll toward an unoccupied square outside of the attack's radius. Should they leave the attack's radius, they will be considered to have evaded the attack. Otherwise, they are subjected to its damage as if they had been hit.

Prosthetics

Prosthetics are mechanical replacements for damaged or lost body parts. There are detriments to prosthetics, however, such as vulnerability to EMP type weapons. Prosthetics also require regular maintenance, and failing to maintain them can lessen their effectiveness in battle. 

While most prosthetics are expensive and difficult to acquire on a budget, there are plenty of cheaper (and less legal) options to be found throughout the galaxy. However, using cheap prosthetics can be a significant risk to your health.

Obtained prosthetics function as ordinary items. Note that most prosthetics will possess the EMP vulnerability keyword.

Space combat

Space combat occurs when a player-controlled spaceship encounters one or more hostile ships. Generally, space combat will occur between the player-controlled ship and one or more hostile ships, but may also involve fighters (deployed by larger ships) and boarding.

Introductory definitions

For the purposes of this section of the manual, several important terms need to be clearly defined:

• A ship is a relatively large spacecraft whose control is generally shared by the combatants within the ship. Ships may carry fighters and will generally be equipped with an arsenal of weapons as well as substantial defenses, but will not be as maneuverable as a fighter.
• A fighter is a smaller craft than a ship, designed to operate unmanned or piloted by as small a crew as one or two persons. Fighters are generally equipped to for either fighter-to-fighter or fighter-to-ship combat or for delivering its pilot(s) to the interior of a hostile ship.
• Boarding is the act of entering a hostile ship. Boarding allows a combatant to attack the pilots of a hostile ship or to disable its weapons or other systems from within, hampering the ship's ability to operate properly. During boarding, normal combat mechanics apply, and combatants aboard a hostile ship move concurrently with the rest of their team as normal: boarding a ship does not interrupt a space combat encounter, but rather occurs as a subsection of such an encounter.

Procedures

In general, in space combat, all players aboard a ship will share joint control of the ship and will have to work as a team to determine the actions of a ship. Alternatively, players may designate individual roles, and each player may have undisputed control over some aspect of the ship's actions, such as movement or targeting.

Ships in possession of fighters may launch said fighters so that the fighters may act independently. A fighter is usually controlled by only one or two combatants, and may be controlled directly by an onboard pilot or remotely.

Statting

Defenses

Both ships and fighters are immune to all disables applied by combatants who are not ships or fighters, excepting those applied by a nonzero (after the application of mitigation) amount of EMP damage. Both ships and fighters have the following defenses:

• Armor: variable
• Fortitude: 0 evasion, mitigation equal to Armor mitigation
• Reflex: 0 evasion, mitigation equal to Armor mitigation
• Willpower: ∞ evasion, ∞ mitigation (full immunity)

Ships have 0 Armor evasion and a variable amount of Armor mitigation, but should possess at least 5 Armor mitigation.

Fighters possess any one Armor evasion-mitigation pair described by an armor type, those being:

• 7 evasion, 0 mitigation
• 6 evasion, 1 mitigation
• 5 evasion, 2 mitigation, or
• 4 evasion, 3 mitigation.

However, Fighters possess 0 Armor evasion while not moving (e.g., while docked).

All attacks made by fighters and ships should target the Armor defense, as it is the only truly meaningful defense possessed by fighters or ships.

Both fighters and ships should possess a great deal of HP compared to ground combatants, since it would generally take a ground combatant a great deal of time to dismantle a fighter or ship by itself and, indeed, there may be situations where one or more combatants attempts to damage a ship or fighter.

Offenses

Both fighters and ships should deal a great deal more damage than a ground combatant, since both have much more HP than a ground combatant and a direct attack from either would likely kill a ground combatant outright.