Cloak-and-Sword Économiste

Économiste

A cloak-and-sword class. Any early modern French milieu needs its John Law, or its John Blunt, or perhaps an enterprising florist.

Begin with a single suit of fine clothes, a French rapier, a deck of cards, a pair of dice, and 2 Credit (see Credible).

Indebted: Through bad luck and worse impulse control, your family wealth has been spent ten times over. Roll 1d6 to find out why you aren’t in debtor’s prison.

1. A daring escape! If you are ever put on trial again, you will be convicted.
2. A scapegoat. A noble family is sworn to your destruction. They all hold Esprit for you, but you roll 1d6 rather than 2d6 on their Esprit Reactions.
3. A self-imposed exile. If you ever return to your homeland, you will be executed. Your accent and manner of dress mark you indelibly as a foreigner.
4. A convenient marriage. You begin play married to an suitable spouse. If you ever spend a penny of their family’s fortune, the Church will make a special exception to its prohibition on divorce, just so that they can cut you loose.
5. A false confession. You are an enemy of all Angels, though not yet a priority for divine censure. 
6. Conscription and desertion. If you ever go to sea, you will be press-ganged.

Numerate: You always win games of pure chance, though your profits will not exceed the game’s expected value unless you successfully rig it in your favour.

Lucrative: Burghers, merchants, artisans, indebted nobles, and shareholders in your Grand Speculative Enterprise (see Grand Speculative Enterprise) hold Esprit for you. Due to a dizzying multiplicity of ruinous wars, the Crown is always in debt, typically to the Church.

Credible: You understand the flows of money throughout the economy, and as such can access a special stat called Credit. You may use Credit in lieu of specie to purchase items from those whom hold Esprit for you. This does not reduce your Credit, but you incur a Debt to the seller equal to the total monetary value of the items.

Good For It: You may reduce your Credit by 1 to withdraw specie from a bank up to a maximum of 100 silver per point of Credit (before the reduction).

The Invisible Hand: Your words ring with the honeyed promise of lucre. Once per Esprit reaction, you may reduce your Credit by 1 to re-roll either die or both dice. You may re-roll allies’ Esprit rolls this way.

Collections: Whenever you have more Debts than you have Credit, your oldest Debt is immediately converted into a commensurately dangerous force hunting you down. They can only be bought off with a payment equal to that Debt, but they can be killed, or dealt with by more abstruse methods.

Hey, Big Spender: Whenever you Carouse, roll 1d6. On a 2+, gain 1 Credit. On a 1, lose 2 Credit.

Largesse: Whenever you pay off a Debt (not necessarily your own), your Credit may increase by 1. The chance is based on the size of the Debt.

• Bar tabs of everyone in the tavern (1-in-6)
• Gambling debts (2-in-6)
• The fine for a dishonorable murder (3-in-6)
• A season’s tithe to the church (4-in-6)
• The expected profits of a fully-laden cargo ship, lost at sea (5-in-6)

You can pay off debts by using your own Credit, but note that this will incur debts of your own.

A Grand Speculative Enterprise: Once, ever, you may declare a Grand Speculative Enterprise. In order to do this, you must have the following:

1. The backing of either a noble family, many merchant venturers, the Crown, or the Church.
2. A madcap plan that promises heretofore-unimaginable profit.
3. A demonstration, true or falsified, of your venture’s feasibility.

Immediately double your Credit, or triple it if you are backed by the Crown. Your Credit now represents the public valuation of your Grand Speculative Enterprise, rather than merely your personal credibility.

Your Enterprise begins with 3 Shares distributed amongst its most prominent backers, who form the Board. If you would incur a Debt of any amount, you may instead issue the potential creditor a Share in your Grand Speculative Enterprise.

At the beginning of each session, roll 1d100. If the result is less than or equal to the number of Shares there are in your Grand Speculative Enterprise, you must do one of the following or reduce your Credit by 1d6.

• Issue Shares. Double the number of Shares. You may choose who receives them (and therefore holds Esprit for you), but this may anger the Board if it contradicts their interests.
• Go Public. From now on, due to the free trade in shares, whenever you encounter an NPC, there is a (Shares)% chance that they hold a Share of your Enterprise. Shares discovered this way are added to the total. You may only do this once, ever.
• Expand the Board. If, by the end of the session, you do not have a new backer from amongst a noble family, many merchant venturers, the Crown, or the Church, your Credit is reduced as above. If you have gained a new backing interest, issue them 3 new shares and they join the Board.
• Pave With Gold. Further Dividends must be paid with gold, rather than silver. If you have already chosen this, choose one of the following in addition to gold.
• Land
• Souls
• Love
• Years
• Noble title
• Divine grace
• Pay Dividends. Pay every shareholder an amount of silver equal to the square of your Credit. The money must be deposited with the Board for disbursement. After you successfully pay a Dividend, increase your Credit by 1d6.

If your Credit is ever reduced to 0 or less while engaged in a Grand Speculative Enterprise, you are Bankrupt and your Enterprise falls to ruin. Every Share is immediately converted into a Debt valued at the share price at the peak of the speculative bubble, and as your Credit is 0, each Debt immediately becomes a collector (see Collections). 

I'm In: Thieflike Hacking

Hacking rules inspired by B/X thief skills.

To hack, choose one of the following Hacker Skills and roll Xd6, where X is your cyberdeck’s Clock Speed. If the value of any die is within the skill’s success chance (1-in-6 by default, improved by programs), the attempt succeeds. On a failure, you alert the system and countermeasures may be dispatched to disconnect you.

You have direct access to any networks that your deck is plugged into, typically through a server or desktop tower. A wireless connection or remote access provides indirect access instead. Direct access provides a +1 bonus to the success chance of hacker skills.

• Penetrate servers (PS): Safely gain access to a system. If the roll fails, the intrusion is detected and countermeasures are automatically deployed. If the hacker has a passcode, they may automatically succeed at this roll.
• Search (SR): Locate a file within a system, or locate specific content within a file. This may also be used for search engine queries (only once per query) or to detect traps on a specific file (only once per file).
• Identify devices (ID): Identify the location and type of all active devices within wireless range of the hacker’s deck, or all devices connected to a network to which the hacker has access.
• Wipe data (WD): Destroy data on a device. A hacker may only destroy specific files or subsystems if they have first located them with Search; otherwise, they must wipe the entire device at once. A hacker may also use this to attack hostile programs and other hackers; a successful Wipe will disconnect their target.
• Move unsurveilled (MU): Prevent oneself from being detected by active surveillance systems. To cloak a group or large object from detection, roll at -1.
• Bypass locks (BL): Access a password-protected device or electronic lock without knowing the passkey. Biometric locks are accessed at -1 for each biometric required. A hacker can only try this skill once per lock.
• Clone credentials (CC): Copy data from a nearby device such as a smartphone, a keyfob, a credit card, or a server. On a failure, the data is not copied, and on a failure by more than 1 the device’s owner will receive a notification that a cloning attempt has occurred.
• Remote control (RC): A hacker may attempt to send a spoofed command to a device on a system to which they have access. More complex commands require multiple RC attempts.
• Decrypt or recover data (DD): Roll this to remove encryption from a device or a file. Some especially secure files require multiple Decryption rolls. After a failure, further attempts require a more powerful deck or program. This skill may also be used to recover lost files (only once per device).
• Cyber defense (CD): Roll this to remain connected to a network during a disconnection attempt. On a failure, you are kicked from the system and your access point is burned. If they had indirect access, they now require direct access to the system. If they had direct access, they need to find a new access point.

A cyberdeck’s Clock Speed determines the number of dice you roll to Hack, and it can host one program at a time for each mB of RAM it has. Program cassettes must be loaded into the cyberdeck before the mission begins. Programs increase the hacker’s success chance on specific hacker skills and may improve those skills’ effects.

Also, a single-level rework of the Hacker class for Deck-and-Blade games (c.f. Phlox's post re. the recent Cloak-and-Sword revival). 

Hacker

Start with an outdated cyberdeck (2 mB RAM, Clock Speed 1), two random program cassettes (+1 to a random Hacker Skill), a big pleather coat, a cortical datajack, a stack of blank CD-ROMs, Python for Dummies (18th Edition), and a pair of mirrorshades.

h4xx0r.sk111z: You can use Hacker Skills. The first time you would alert a system, you may Scoff and choose not to alert it instead.

Author's Note: I know a lot of the original Cloak-and-Sword fanbase scoffed at the complexity of Scoffing mechanics, but I think it was very flavorfully integrated into Deck-and-Blade. The real issue with Deck-and-Blade's original Decker class was, as always, the ludicrously-complex hacking rules. Cyberpunk RPGs really never change.

jack_in;zone_out: You may use your cortical datajack to connect your brain to your cyberdeck, allowing your deck to use your neural clock cycles as additional processing power. Increase your Clock Speed by 1 when connected this way, as you are digitally incarnated in the cyber-space of the network you’re hacking. During this process, your meat body falls insensate, and if you are forcibly disconnected you must save vs. unconsciousness.

Rumor on the Deep Net has it that some next-generation intrusion countermeasures can access, rewire, and wipe a jacked brain as if it was nothing more than a file system.

l33t5p34k3r: You can always cloak your words in gibberish that non-hackers find unintelligible. When you do this, older generations will either pity or fear you.

www.honoram.ong/thieves: Hackers see themselves as console cowboys and cyber-samurai, a round_table() of digital knights serving corporate lords, living and dying on the bleeding edge of a bloody age. Other hackers have e-Sprit for you. This functions as Esprit, but is only prioritized over reaction rolls online, in cyberspace, and at LAN cafes, comic conventions, or hacker bars.

scriptKiddy: You are a proficient programmer. As long as you have no criminal record, you can always abandon the hacker’s lifestyle and take a job as a chipped and burned-out corporate drone. If you do, retire your character.

GLAUGUST: Esprit

I’m reproducing the rules for Esprit here as I remember them because I lost my PDF of the original Cloak-and-Sword ruleset. It always felt quite gameable, as it fills a social function that traditional reaction rolls often lack. I think the GLOG could make good use of it.

Esprit

The social relation of Esprit is considered by sophists to be the opposite of neutrality, and by playwrights to be the motive force of all drama. It insists upon itself and moves the body it inhabits to action.

When the party encounters a character that holds Esprit for one of their members, if a Reaction Roll is warranted, use the Esprit Reaction table instead of any other. If other characters are present, the Esprit must be resolved first, and afterwards the reactions of any other non-player characters will be clear.

The player whose character for whom Esprit is held rolls 2d6 and adds their Charisma. The Espirited character reacts in the corresponding manner.

Esprit Reaction Roll (2d6+Charisma)
2 or less: Demands allegiance.
3-5: Demands a service.
6-8: Makes a request.
9-11: Offers a service.
12 or more: Pledges service.

If refused out of hand or ignored, the Espirited character will escalate the confrontation until they receive satisfaction or are rendered insensate.

GLAUGUST: Full Life Consequences

GLÅUGUST is upon us. I saw that one of the the prompts was "Full Life Consequences". So, really, this is Walfalcon's fault.

Free Man

Aliens and monsters are attacking your brother’s place! It’s time for you to live up to your family name and face… FULL LIFE CONSEQUENCES

Qualifications
Normal +3 or -3

Saves
Weapons +3, Trauma -3, Explosions -3, Contaminants -3, Anomalies -3

Expertise
Wepons

Uniform
Motorcycle, normal people clothes

So you went there to where there was fighting!
You must show up at least an hour late to the session. When you (the player) arrive, you must loudly declare that you are experiencing FULL LIFE CONSEQUENCES. You (the character) arrives on the scene, even and especially if it would be improbable for you to be there.

It’s a good day to do what has to be done by you.
Attacks made in your presence always hit. In combat, you always go first.

“Because you are headcrab zombie!”
Once per session, you may declare that an NPC in your presence is under the influence of an artefact. They are, but the GM chooses which artefact.

Conspicuous Secret Doors

Recently, I’ve been thinking about tutorials. The post/OSR milieu places great emphasis on player skill, but has not been good at creating skilled players except by a potent combination of attrition and player stubbornness. My conclusion: we need more tutorial dungeons. Lair of the Lamb and Tomb of the Serpent Kings are excellent, but Lair presumes a level-0 funnel and everyone in the scene has read Tomb. Skerples' 2017 point remains relevant eight years later: "It's like all the adventures we have are Bach concertos. People keep writing amazing works of staggering genius, but someone needs to write a book on how to play the piano."

This list of conspicuous secret doors is a teaching tool. Put these in the dungeon to tell players two things:

1. Secret doors exist.
2. Secret doors can be identified and opened through environmental interaction.

If you want to conceal them further, place extra clutter in the room. Searching a room for 10 minutes identifies presence of secret doors but expends resources and risks random encounter.

• Wooden doors can be destroyed with 10 minutes of hard labor, or burned.
• Stone doors can be destroyed with 10 minutes of hard labor, but require a pickaxe.
• Metal mechanisms can be destroyed with a single attack or manipulated by characters who possess some facility with devices.

Conspicuous Secret Doors

Conspicuous components are bolded.

1. Tapestry/rug conceals door/trapdoor.
2. Bookshelf slides away when false book “The Secret Way” pulled.
3. Brick sticks out of the wall. Pushing it back in opens a hidden door.
4. Wind blows through room from an illusionary wall.
5. Furniture piled against wall, concealing regular door.
6. Discolored plaster on wall seals up former doorway.
7. Grimy statue with polished bits often moved to open a secret door behind it.
8. Obvious lever opens a secret door elsewhere. Gears, ropes, and pulleys connect the two through buried channel in floor; rat-sized creatures can traverse it with ease.
9. Lighting an unlit torch causes nearby wall to swing open. 
10. Keyhole on wall, but door is well concealed and key is kept elsewhere.
11. Secret door left open by inhabitants who recently passed through.
12. Ivy has grown over the walls and doors, concealing any difference between the two.
13. A fireplace burns, but the room doesn’t fill with smoke. Where does the chimney go?
14. Water leaks into the room from beneath a secret door.
15. Brick pattern changes to allow a secret door to hinge.
16. Carved relief with socketed gems is a secret door. Pushing gems opens door, removing gems triggers trap.
17. Raised pressure plate opens secret door, but only while plate is held down.
18. Obvious door opens to brick wall. That wall is a secret door.
19. Pool of water conceals underwater entrance to another room.
20. Dark rafters conceal door high up in room.

Facility: Esoteric Assets

 Esoteric Asset

A useful inmate, designated Eτ.

In order for Inhuman Resources to approve deployment of a Eτ Special Project, the Asset must be willing and able to:

1. Communicate productively with Facility staff.
2. Assist with everyday Facility operations.
3. Safely manage their Effects under stress conditions.

Mundane Facility employees have the right to report Eτ in violation of these tenets to either Human or Inhuman Resources. — A.O.

Qualifications
Normal -1 or less.

Saves
Weapons -2, Trauma -2, Explosions -2, Contaminants -2, Anomalies -2

Expertise
Effects (see Anomalous Abilities).

Uniform
L0 subdermal tag, white jumpsuit.

Like Attracts Like
You have 2 additional Artefact slots.

Anomalous Abilities
The Research Department refers to artefacts’ anomalous properties as Effects. Yours happen to be useful to the Facility — describe how. GM has final say. 

No roll is necessary to use minor and/or passive Effects (a pyrokinetic lighting candles, a telepath's mind-speech, bigfoot's blurriness, ooze moving through tight spaces, a cat's night vision, etc).

Whenever you make a stat roll, save, or attack to which your Effects are relevant, you may apply your Effects as an Expertise. When you Salvage an Effect roll, the result of the Salvage die (before modifiers) also triggers the corresponding entry on the Anomalous Activity table.

Inhuman Resources has ruled that anomalous auras with an effective radius of greater than 10 metres render an individual unsuitable for τ reclassification. — A.O.

In addition, choose at least two of the following benefits. You may choose the same one twice.

1. Attacks you Effect inflict +1 damage on a hit and an additional 1d6 damage on a crit.
2. +1 to a stat of your choice.
3. +2 wound boxes for a stat of your choice.
4. +3 to a save of your choice.
5. Gain an additional Expertise.
6. Start with a Bound companion entity. You cannot Unbind it.
7. Start with a Bound Artefact. You cannot Unbind it.
8. Once per session, you may reroll any die.
9. Describe an anomalous ability of a cryptid you know about. You have that ability.
10. Choose a GLOG class and gain its Template A benefits. This counts as both choices.

Anomalous Activity (1d20)

1. Suffer 2 Wounds to your Normal.
2. Suffer 2 Wounds to your Admin.
3. Suffer 2 Wounds to your Insight.
4. Suffer 2 Wounds to your Science.
5. Suffer 2 Wounds to your Physique.
6. Suffer 1 Wound to your Normal.
7. Suffer 1 Wound to your Admin.
8. Suffer 1 Wound to your Insight.
9. Suffer 1 Wound to your Science.
10. Suffer 1 Wound to your Physique.
11. For the rest of the session, take an additional -2 to saves.
12. For the rest of the session, take -2 to Effect rolls.
13. If this roll would succeed, it fails instead. If this roll would fail, it succeeds instead.
14. Everyone in the Sector learns your current location. For the rest of the session, your internal thoughts are externally audible and/or legible.
15. For the rest of the session, electronics around you short-circuit (Anomalies save prevents; immunizes).
16. For the rest of the session, the temperature around you drops 20 degrees Celsius.
17. For the rest of the session, you and nearby small objects hover.
18. For the rest of the session, immediately apply your Effects to everything within 10m, including yourself. Any Effects with a duration last 1 Shift and may be cleared early with a Break.
19. For the rest of the session, subjects of your Effects other than you must make an Anomalies save or suffer 1 Normal damage.
20. Double the impact of this roll. Its success manifests entirely through anomalous means.

Esoteric Assets also include:

1. Individuals who, through training or accident, have been permanently bound to artefacts.
2. Inmates who broke out in the Incident, according to Inhuman Resources’ triage protocols.
3. Beings that are too large, small, dispersed, etc. to make effective player characters unless the GM is prepared to include them.

— A.O. 

 

Facility: Combat, Encumbrance, and You

Combat

Despite the best efforts of Public Relations, Human Resources, and Legal, everyday operations in the Facility require a significant amount of violence. The Incident has only exacerbated this troubling tendency.

Initiative

To determine order of combat, the player with the highest unimpaired Insight makes an Insight roll. Other players with unimpaired Insight may Help. If the resulting roll succeeds, the player characters go first. If not, the enemies go first. On a Partial Success, players elect a single character to go before the enemies. Play then alternates between sides until one side is incapacitated, surrenders, or flees.

Actions

Characters can make one attack and take one other action of their choice on their turn during combat. Because players take their turn simultaneously, they may take these actions in any order.

Attacking

When a PC attacks, they describe how and roll with the appropriate stat (usually Physique, but Science and Insight are relevant for artefacts and anomalous abilities, and Normal or Admin are appropriate for social attacks). Their target number is 10 plus the enemy’s appropriate save and any other modifiers.

On a Success, the player may either inflict their weapon’s Damage or roll to Critical Hit. On a Failure, the player may accept that their attack missed or roll to Salvage.

Critical Hit Rolls
Make the same attack roll again. This roll counts as a type of Salvage for relevant rules, including Impairment. On a Success, the attack deals its maximum base damage and you may also either inflict an additional 1d6 damage or make a called shot or maneuver. On a Failure, the attack becomes a Partial Success.

Partial Success
Inflict weapon’s Damage to the target, but also suffer Damage from enemies. The PC cannot save vs. this damage, but may ablate it with any relevant PPE.

Salvaged Hit Rolls
Make the same attack roll again. On a Success, the attack becomes a Partial Success (see above). On a Failure, the attack misses and the PC suffers an additional difficulty such as damage, losing their weapon, running out of ammunition, falling prone, etc.

Example Weapons

Unarmed attack: 0 damage, but may still crit.
Improvised melee: 1 damage
Light melee: 2 damage
Heavy melee: 3 damage, requires two hands or Physique of at least +2
Thrown weapon: 1 damage
Pistol: 3 damage
Submachine gun: 1d4 damage, +2d4 on crit
Shotgun: 1d4+2 damage
Automatic rifle: 1d6 damage, +2d6 on crit
Fragmentation grenade: 3 damage, 10’ radius blast, consumable

Whenever you roll a 1 on an attack with a gun with any die, that gun runs out of ammunition and must be reloaded.

If a weapon specifies critical dice, it rolls those dice instead of the normal 1d6 for a critical hit.

Due to Procurement’s difficulties with finding suppliers who will sell weapons in bulk to an anonymous, secretive organization, ammunition is not interchangeable between guns unless you have managed to personally source or modify pieces that take the appropriate cartridge.

Saves & Wounds

Weapons and hazards can wound a wide variety of stats regardless of the save that they target. Wound type may not become apparent until save is failed, but players always have the chance to ablate before suffering the wound.

Physical injuries, especially to the musculoskeletal, circulatory, or respiratory systems, tend to wound Physique. Nervous system injuries that affect cognitive function and/or logical reasoning tend to wound Science. Injuries to the senses and other perceptive faculties tend to wound Insight. Social injuries, humiliation, collapses of leadership, and failures of morale tend to wound Admin. Fear, whether accompanied by other types of injury or not, tends to wound Normal. Examples (non-exhaustive) follow. 

Weapons

• Gunshot ➜ Physique
• Impact-induced concussion ➜ Science
• Deafened by near-miss ➜ Insight
• Squad pinned down ➜ Admin
• Hit by unfamiliar weapon ➜ Normal

Trauma

• Crushed by vehicle, blast door, falling object ➜ Physique
• Framework with which one understands the world undermined ➜ Science
• Distressing hallucinations ➜ Insight
• Sending comrade to die ➜ Admin
• Hunted in the dark ➜ Normal

Explosive

• Shrapnel ➜ Physique
• Lightning ➜ Science
• Flashbang ➜ Insight
• Separated from party ➜ Admin
• Fire ➜ Normal

Contaminants

• Respiratory hazard ➜ Physique
• Mind-affecting pathogen ➜ Science
• Corpse stench ➜ Insight
• Food poisoning ➜ Admin
• Bugs all over your skin ➜ Normal

Anomalies

• Bitten by absence of shark ➜ Physique
• Memory-affecting phenomena ➜ Science
• Sensory manipulation ➜ Insight
• Social phenomena ➜ Admin
• Pretty much anything in the Facility, to be honest ➜ Normal

Encumbrance

Characters have Slots in their bags and Pockets on their clothes. By default, each character starts with 2 Pockets on their clothes, and has a backpack that provides 6 Slots.

Pockets are quick inventory slots that fit small items (you know, pocket-sized ones). Characters can store and retrieve items from pockets at any time, and are assumed to have done so if they take an action that needs one.

In order to retrieve an item from a slot, a character must dig around in their bag for a minute. If they want to do so quickly (i.e. as an action in combat), this takes a Normal roll. If they try and fail to Salvage the attempt, their bag falls open and the contents spill out.

Some items like rifles, bankers’ boxes, and briefcases are Bulky. These are too unwieldy to store in a single inventory slot, and certainly not in pockets. They must be carried in a character’s hands unless a better storage solution like a sling or a handcart has been found.

Wearing Storage Items nonsensically (ask players to demonstrate!) impairs the character’s Physique.

Sample Storage Items

• Coveralls: 6 pockets. Replaces normal clothing.
• Messenger Bag: 2 slots, 1 pocket.
• Sling: Carries a Bulky item. Sheathes and scabbards for melee weapons also count as Slings.
• Fanny Pack: 2 pockets.
• Briefcase: 2 slots, Bulky.
• Toolbox: 3 slots, Bulky.

Maintenance Technician

Qualifications
+1 Science or +1 Normal

Saves
Weapons +0, Trauma +0, Explosions +2, Contaminants +2, Anomalies +0

Expertise
Choose a trade (Science)

Uniform
L1 Clearance badge, orange coveralls, work boots, work gloves, toolbox, 3 slots of Spare Parts.

Kitbash
You may Craft Device as a Research Assistant. The device cannot include artefacts, but only takes a Break to construct.

Maintenance Techniques
To use a Maintenance Technique, roll Xd6, where X is less than or equal to the number of slots in your inventory that are filled with Spare Parts. Expend one slot of Spare Parts for each 4+ you roll, or if X was greater than your Clearance level, expend one slot of Spare Parts for each die rolled. The resulting sum of all dice is referred to as [sum], as is GLOG tradition.

Maintenance Technique — Work Order
When you roll to repair or interact with Facility systems, you may use this Maintenance Technique to add [sum] to your roll.

Maintenance Technique — Dismantle
During a Break (1 hour), convert a piece of large equipment like a centrifuge, mainframe server, or boiler into [sum] Spare Parts. It cannot be repaired or reassembled.

Maintenance Technique — Barricade
Create a sturdy barrier out of Spare Parts and office debris. This takes 10 minutes alone, or 1 round of concerted activity by the whole party. The resulting barrier can suffer [sum]*10 wounds before falling apart. Its maximum height is 10’, and its maximum length is [sum]*10’. It can only take complex shapes like curves or domes if you spend at least 10 minutes erecting it. Barriers constructed this way collapse after an hour, or after 10 minutes if built in 1 round.

Maintenance Techniques — Conduits
The following Maintenance Techniques refer to the conduits that network the Facility’s walls, ceilings, and floors. The Maintenance Technician can always identify the type, presence, and direction of conduits, both exposed and hidden from view. Conduits for electricity, air, gas, water, sewage, and data are ubiquitous. Sectors with unique architecture may also contain rarer conduits such as boiling steam, sulfuric acid, pneumatic tubes, and liquid nitrogen.

Maintenance Technique — Tap
Construct a new access point to a conduit. This access point controls that conduit’s flow for [sum] in either direction. You may activate, deactivate, or alter the flow at your leisure.

Maintenance Technique — Reroute
Extend a conduit across [dice] rooms. This takes 1 hour per room and consumes 1 slot of Spare Parts per die regardless of what was rolled.

Maintenance Technique — Blast
Open a conduit and direct a discharge of electricity, flammable gas, pressurized water, or something stranger into your foes. This discharge inflicts [sum] wounds divided equally between any number of targets in front of you (save vs. Explosives halves damage). You may also break the conduit to inflict one of the following effects based on its type. A broken conduit cannot be discharged again until repaired.

• Electricity: All targets are stunned and can’t attack on their next turn. Localized blackout plunges room into darkness until repaired.
• Gas: All targets are set on fire until they put themselves out. Room fills with flammable gas until vented.
• Water or Sewage: Targets all fall prone and are knocked back 5’ per wound inflicted. Room floods 1’ per round until drained.
• Air: As water or sewage, but instead of flooding, room becomes foggy and loses temperature control until HVAC repaired.

I’m not sure how a data conduit would hurt someone. I do know that I don’t want to be nearby when someone figures it out. — A.O.

Facility: Sector Layout

This die-drop method generates a vertical map of Facility sectors. Grab a handful of dice and throw them on a sheet of paper. Note down the die sizes and face values, then draw connections between nearby dice. Prefer vertical elevators, horizontal halls, and slight inclines.

Sectors

1. Offices
2. Laboratories
3. π Artefact Storage
4. Warehousing
5. Security
6. ρ Object Containment
7. ρ Entity Containment
8. Maintenance
9. Residence
10. Hospital
11. Transport Hub
12. Reactors
13. Archives
14. Large-Scale Containment
15. Resource Processing
16. Executive Branch
17. Abandoned Sector
18. Public Front
19. Bunker
20. Lρ Artefact

If a sector you want (Reactors, Containment, Laboratories) is missing, add it in or change a sector you’re less enthusiastic about.

Determine the type of connection between sectors by the sizes of dice at its endpoints. When a vertical line can be extended such that more sectors can connect to it horizontally, do so — this becomes a Sector Elevator.

Architecture says it’s actually riskier in the long term to build access stairways alongside Sector Elevators. An unappreciated benefit of clandestine operations: we get to write our own fire codes. — A.O.

Two-Way Connections

d20-d20: Tramway, station locked.
d20-d12: Tramway, path obstructed.
d20-d10: Tramway, tram broken.
d20-d8: Tramway
d20-d6: Cargo elevator
d20-d4: Tramway, thru cavern
d12-d12: Hall, locked
d12-d10: Hall, cargo sized
d12-d8: Maintenance stairwell
d12-d6: Personnel elevator
d12-d4: Cavern, bridge
d10-d10: Roadway, locked
d10-d8: Roadway
d10-d6: Cargo elevator
d10-d4: Roadway, thru cavern
d8-d8: Maintenance access, locked
d8-d6: Maintenance elevator
d8-d4: Maintenance access, thru cavern
d6-d6: Elevator, locked
d6-d4: Elevator, thru cavern
d4-d4: Cavern, locked

Locked connections have a Security Checkpoint that requires level (2d3) clearance level to unlock. Checkpoints deeper into the facility or protecting higher-value sectors tend to have higher requisite clearance levels (3d3).

Sector Elevators have Security Checkpoints at every floor and will not stop at locked floors unless appropriate clearance is presented.

Trams can be called and taken along any clear tramway path, but will not stop at locked stations and will crash into broken trams or other obstructions unless the emergency stop is pulled.

Anomalous Sector Connections

Some connections won’t make sense; a tall vertical roadway, a tramway short enough to walk. Convert them to Anomalous Sector Connections.

1. Transporter. High power requirements, continuity of consciousness not guaranteed.
2. Portal highway. Requires transit through hazardous gatespace; denizens may be displeased by increased traffic.
3. Tramway, choked with anomalous growth and/or entities.
4. This connection is a stub, you can help by expanding it.
5. Capsule elevator swallowed and regurgitated by peristaltic tube. Grows new fleshy connections when left to its own devices; regularly pruned by heavily-armed Maintenance task force.
6. Gravity lift. Requires regular cleaning due to nausea and coffee spills.
7. Backroom labyrinth. Exit doors are clearly marked, though paths through the junction never repeat. Traversal always takes 1d6 hours. Complimentary cucumber and lemon water has been cleared for staff consumption.
8. Submarine tram. Aquifer repurposed as containment for anomalous ecosystem including predatory megafauna.
9. Antimemetic effect erases memory of transit through connection. Each traveler must make an Anomalies save or suffer an Insight wound and emerge with d3-2 random items.
10. Structural collapse has created a deep ravine. Cave walls open into multiple sectors.
11. Employees are permitted to establish temporary sector connection through Pπ ritual. Instructions and materials for ritual are stored separately.
12. One-way zipline.

Sector-Wide Hazards

Roll at least one per sector. Players can fix these; the GM can introduce new ones. Additional hazards will appear at smaller scales within the sector, but these are relevant in every room and hallway.

1. Radiation leak.
2. Power outage. Emergency lights offline.
3. Gas leak. 2-in-6 chance it’s flammable, 4-in-6 chance it’s toxic.
4. Power surge. Electrifies conductive surfaces and water supplies, discharges at random.
5. Flooded (1-3. water, 4. sewage, 5. acid, 6. anomalous material)
6. Dense fog. No visibility beyond current room, minimal visibility within it.
7. 40 degrees C. Save vs. heatstroke each Shift without protective gear.
8. -40 degrees C. Save vs. frostbite each Shift without protective gear.
9. Structurally unstable. Collapsed passages are common, sudden moves may cause further damage.
10. Awful smell or noise; impairs Insight without proper PPE.
11. Hostile faction, demanding tribute.
12. Hostile faction, killing on sight.
13. Hostile factions, ongoing firefight.
14. Oπ spore contamination, pending E reclassification.
15. Oρ containment failure, entire sector within effect radius.
16. Ongoing manifestation of PΔ event.
17. Colonized by Lρ anomalous ecosystem.
18. Eρ entity/ies, territorial claim.
19. Eλ entity, Κ designation pending.
20. None. Right?

Facility: Clearance, Redaction, and You

Clearance

Every employee, from the lowest test subjects and janitors to the most dangerous Kappa operatives and Esoteric Assets, are issued identification with a Clearance Level (or just Level) between 0 and 9.

Oversight does not have or need Clearance Level 10. — A.O.

Admin is often forced to issue day passes to Rival Agency liaisons or to Security and Maintenance teams resolving specific issues. These badges are large and clearly marked with a red expiry time stamp 24 hours from issuance.

Many doors, vaults, cabinets, and machines require a passcode that (1d6):

1. Changes daily.
2. Is incredibly difficult to type (roll Admin to input correctly).
3. Pokes fun at a specific employee.
4. Is written somewhere nearby.
5. Hasn’t changed from factory settings.
6. You already know.

L5+ IDs are linked to biometrics in the Facility database. L5+ locks require a number of the following biometric samples equal to their level minus 4.

1. Speech sample
2. Palm print
3. Facial scan
4. Retinal scan
5. DNA sample (saliva)
6. DNA sample (blood)

If you suspect that your biometrics have been compromised due to artefact exposure, please report to Inhuman Resources for a full scan and/or autopsy. — A.O.

L0 — A dog tag, blinking subdermal chip, or visitor sticker.
L1 —  An employee ID and a keyfob, typically worn together on a lanyard. Includes location tracker, can be loaded with vending machine bucks.
L2 — An ID badge, typically carried in a wallet. Easily mistaken for local government agency.
L3 — An employee ID issued to team leaders. Still tracked, but has unlimited vending machine bucks.
    
A privilege, not a right. — A.O.

L4 — A nonreactive metal ID card. Etched to maximize legibility in case of severe mangling. Tracked for your safety.
L5 — Biometric ID card issued to Division Chiefs. Isn’t tracked.
L6 — Biometric ID card. Role and department are redacted.

Admin just doesn’t want to admit that some secretaries need to have the same clearance level as moonshot researchers and Kappa team grunts. — A.O.

L7 — Biometric ID card issued to Departmental Directors. Awarded alongside a small congratulatory plaque.

Bugged by Internal Affairs, naturally. — A.O.

L8 — Matte black ID card. Probably legible under UV or something.

If someone flashes this at you, run. They need the exercise. — A.O.

L9 — Biometric ID card issued to the Facility Director.

Redaction

Lots of media in the anomalous containment space leans on redaction as a tool to build horror. This doesn’t work in the tabletop RPG space, or at least, it has to work differently.

If you redact out any amount of information, players will want to know what’s behind it. In a story, video game, or an SCP-style database entry, the best a reader can do is infer the scariest thing they can think of given the space constraints established by the redaction. In tabletop games outside of the storygame milieu, a GM needs better answers than “you tell me”.

Most tabletop RPGs already presume an amount of redaction due to the vast information asymmetry between players and the GM. Therefore, redaction is useful as a visual signifier of information that can be discovered with further effort. The only difference between a monster’s stat block and an anomaly’s case file is the amount visible to the players; the latter is far more transparent.

If the party knows about an object’s perilous aura, but its effective range is redacted, they can take actions to identify that range and act accordingly. If a player approaches an entity without yet having untangled a large redaction in its file, they will be more understanding when it paralyzes them, emits a roomful poison gas, or fades from their memories. Partial documents become valuable loot. Black boxes become a quest log. A feel-bad moment becomes a successful scouting mission.

At the table, use redaction as a puzzle that generates gameplay. Hand your players your prep, liberally marked up. Let them play smart, metagame, and sneak peeks behind the screen. If any place is appropriate to gain extradimensional insights through creative malfeasance, it’s the Facility.

For examples of productive use of redaction, highlight this page.

Janitor

Qualifications
None.

Saves
Weapons +0, Trauma +0, Explosions +0, Contaminants +2, Anomalies +2

Expertise
Cleaning (Normal), Sneak (Physique)

Uniform
L1 ID, blue coveralls, janitor’s cart (buckets, mundane cleaning supplies, push-broom, mop, vacuum, toiletry refills).

Sanitize
With appropriate cleaning agents and ten minutes of vigorous scrubbing, you may roll Normal to remove all hazardous materials from a room. If you fail, you may Salvage the attempt at the risk of becoming exposed to one of those hazards. Whether you succeed or fail on the Salvage attempt, you must save vs. a hazard you cleaned.

You may spend a Break (1 hour) cleaning to automatically succeed at cleaning 1d6 rooms.

This cleaning process produces a bucket of hazardous sludge that inflicts 1d3 wounds to everyone in the splash zone and may cause additional effects based on the originating hazards. You will also have to clean the resulting mess up again.

Nondescript
You are always the lowest priority target for hostile action. 

Facility: Jobs

Characters in the Facility start with one of several jobs. Most jobs require specific Qualifications. All jobs provide baseline Save bonuses, starting Uniform (including a badge with a Clearance level), Expertises, and abilities.

Facility jobs do not have standard advancement procedures. Instead, advancement occurs through acquisition of new artefacts, equipment, clearance levels, expertise, and titles. Some titles have Qualification prerequisites; some directly replace and upgrade starting jobs.

A “high-level” Facility character wears many hats. A character that started as a lowly Research Assistant may end up as a Team Lead, Entity Handler, Certified Professional Accountant, Third-Rank Adept of the Night, and Research Director.

Under special circumstances such as continuity of administration protocols or blatant nepotism, unqualified candidates may receive high-level positions. — A.O.

Field Agent

Delta Team operatives, External Affairs liaisons, and Public Relations triage teams all wear the traditional black suit and silver tie clip. In the aftermath of the Incident, Agents must adapt their training for a far more dangerous Field: the Facility.

Qualifications
+1 Physique, +1 Insight

Saves
Weapons +2, Trauma +2, Explosions +2, Contaminants +0, Anomalies +0

Expertise
Firearms (Phys), Running (Phys)

Uniform
Agent badge (Clearance 2), field agent suit, 9mm pistol, earpiece radio, tinted glasses (PPE, Rating 1 — Anomalies).

Research Assistant

The Facility runs on an endless succession of bright-eyed recent graduates who want to leave their mark on the world. That mark usually turns out red and sticky.

Qualifications
+2 Science

Saves
Weapons +0, Trauma +0, Explosions +1, Contaminants +2, Anomalies +2

Expertise
Choose one (Science)

Uniform
ID card (Clearance 1), lab coat, lab goggles, surgical mask, latex gloves.

Artefact Analysis
Start with an additional slot for a bound Artefact. You may Bind artefacts with Science rather than Insight.

Craft Device
You can attempt to combine items in your possession into a new device with novel capabilities based on the properties of its parts. Describe this new item to the GM, who sets a difficulty. Spend a Shift crafting the device, then make a Science roll. On a success, you create the desired item. If you fail, save or suffer 1d6 Wounds, and you may consume the items to Salvage the attempt. On a partial success, you create an item with unknown properties. If you fail to Salvage, save or suffer 1d6 Wounds again.
The nature of the save is up to the GM.

Crafting Guidelines

• Base difficulty: 12
• Includes power source: +2
• Large: +2, takes additional Shifts to craft (only roll at the end)
• Modifying a mundane item: -2
• Bound artefact: +2
• Unbound artefact: +4
• +X, where X is the total number of artefacts in the final device
• Weapon: +X, where X is its maximum Damage
• PPE: +1 for each point of Rating and each point added to saves
• Anything else the GM thinks is relevant.

Security Guard

You have a patrol route, a list of duties, a kevlar vest, and a gun. None of these have prepared you for what you’ve seen or what comes next.

Qualifications
+1 Physique

Saves
Weapons +1, Trauma +1, Explosions +1, Contaminants +1, Anomalies +1

Expertise
None.

Uniform
ID card (Clearance 1), security helmet, security vest, submachine gun, walkie-talkie.

Resilience
Add an additional box to each of your stats’ Wound Capacity.

Administrative Assistant

Grease the wheels of bureaucracy by providing real decision-makers with copious amounts of coffee and an outlet for their rage. Maybe learn a thing or two in the process.

Qualifications
+2 Admin

Saves
Weapons +0, Trauma +2, Explosions +0, Contaminants +0, Anomalies +0

Expertise
Choose one (Normal)

Uniform
ID card (Clearance 1), business casual (PPE Rating 1 — Trauma, Contaminants).

Declassify Document
When you encounter a new redacted document, you may roll with Insight. The target number is 12 plus the document’s Clearance. On a success, fill in all the blanks. On a partial success, fill in one blank of your choice. You cannot attempt to Declassify the same document more than once.

Turn Employees
To force Facility staff to follow protocols or browbeat them into compliance, make an Admin roll. On a success, roll 2d6 to determine the total Clearance level of staff that follow your orders until the end of the scene. On a partial success, roll 1d6 to determine the total Clearance level of staff that follow a single order you gave them during the Turning attempt.

You cannot attempt to Turn employees that you have previously failed to Turn until your Clearance increases or you gain a new Title.

Lab Rat

An unkind term for the expendable test subjects demanded by less reputable researchers and containment teams. Not usually a literal rat.

Qualifications
None.

Saves
Weapons +0, Trauma +0, Explosions +0, Contaminants +0, Anomalies +0

Expertise
Sneak (Phys), Climb (Phys), Hide (Phys)

Uniform
ID tag (Clearance 0), grey coveralls, high visibility vest.

Test Subject
Whenever you fail a Save, mark it. At the end of a session, you may erase all marks on one of your marked saves and choose one.

• If you removed one or more marks, gain +1 to that save (to a maximum of +3).
• If you removed three or more marks, gain an Expertise in that save.
• If you removed five or more marks, gain an additional slot for a bound artefact.

Opportunist
When you hit a creature unaware of your presence with an attack, you inflict an additional 1d6 damage.

Binding Artefacts

Wielding artefacts is dangerous. In order to reliably control an artefact’s effects, one must understand both its properties and its interactions with the world around it. This becomes exponentially more difficult when artefacts interact with each other, as experimental conditions diverge further and further from established physical laws. The process of understanding an artefact well enough to use it in a personal capacity is called Binding.

To Bind an artefact, spend a Shift performing scientific analysis and/or occult rituals while making any requisite offerings. At the end of the Shift, make an Insight roll and suffer a Wound to your Normal. On a Success, you Bind it and gain a modicum of control over its anomalous capabilities. On a Failure, you may upgrade that Wound to a Scar to Salvage the roll.

• Gain +2 to the roll if you have the artefact’s fully declassified containment file. Expertise will not help you here, only specific knowledge.
• A Bond gives you more leeway to make creative use of an anomaly without needing to roll, and allows you to benefit from its passive effects at all times.
• Binding yourself to a large, powerful, or intelligent artefact is dangerous. A Bond is a two-way street, and powers one believes they can wield often end up wielding them instead.

By default, a character has two slots for Bound artefacts. When a character is at capacity but wants to Bind a new artefact, they must Unbind an old one, which can be Bound again at a later date. Unbinding is instantaneous, but not without difficulty: make an Anomalies save to avoid Backlash.
The nature of the Backlash is up to the GM, but typically includes several Wounds.
Some Jobs and Titles provide additional artefact slots.

Oπ — “Jar of Wounds”: This glass mason jar is stoppered with a large stained cork and filled with damaged flesh. A damaged label reads “WHOOP-ASS // bottled 12-08-19[illegible]”.

The jar can store up to three points of Wounds and/or Scars. All injuries associated with the wounds disappear into the jar as if poured like a liquid; careful examination of the jar’s contents can identify the wounds contained within. If the jar is opened while full or broken at any time, the wounds and scars escape onto the nearest creature.

A character who has Bound the Jar of Wounds can immediately dump wounds that they would suffer into the Jar until it’s full. The character might direct emptied wounds to small animals crawling on the jar, dump them onto a corpse until the corpse disintegrates, or fire them at an enemy (treat as a Science attack vs. target’s Trauma save).

We don’t have reclassify an artefact to τ just because you Bound it. We have the Special Projects division for a reason — binding the Haunted Tape is impressive, but Legal is never going to sign off on using it to populate break room entertainment cabinets with media pirated from your subconscious. You’re going to watch re-runs of Heritage Minutes like everyone else in the Facility. — A.O.

Further artefacts:

https://archonsmarchon.blogspot.com/2025/07/some-artefacts-first-dossier.html

https://rosepulp.wordpress.com/2025/07/14/36-artefacts-for-facility-core/