System

From Mainspring

The system being used is a simple comparison system. Characters with a higher skill will prevail over characters with the lesser skills. Items and other modifiers add to these skills, while penalties reduce them. Character abilities do not stack, that is you can't add your "strong" ability to your "fighting" ability.

Skills and Abilities

Abilities are anything where a character is better than a normal average human. The average human score for abilities is 0. If you are one of the worlds best you might have a score of 40.

• If it isn't on your character sheet you have it at 0%. This means you have normal human ability in this area. The typical character is assumed to have had a basic education, can ride, use a sword, open cans, write a letter, etc. Default housing is provided by your hierarchy (Military barracks, University dorms, etc). Wealth of 0 is assumed to be a the bottom of middle class, earning just enough to keep their lifestyle.
• Normal human maximum is 40. It is possible to exceed this, but only with special abilities. The other races can also exceed 40 in some areas.
• A character's skill level in any core area can not be higher than the core aspect which drives it (ie you can't have Melee: finesse higher than your Finesse).

Comparisons, Combats & Health

• The clearly higher value wins.
• Roughly equal values (within 10%) test with Paper-Scissors-Rock (winner wins as if by 10%, ties get a "glancing blow").
• Abilities without a score always work, where appropriate.
• Characters may claim less than their full skill value if they wish to hide their true power or pull their punch. Some weapons do not allow this (firearms, grenades, artillery, etc)
• Sometime a skill would help, but is not directly relevant. In these cases, with GM approval, the skill may be used indirectly, but only if there is no other skill which would cover the situation better (ie you can't use ). Indirect skills are tested as half their percentage value. ie A Lawyer (20) tries to work out whether some business letter are fake. Neither Lawyer not observe really cover detecting a forgery, so the GM allows it as an indirect.
• One point of damage will be inflicted on another for each 10% difference in values (round-down).
• Characters have 4 points of health as a default. This is increased by increasing your power, and decreased by taking flaws such as old or frail. The toughest possible character (an armoured clank) has 22 health points, making them almost 6 times tougher than a normal mortal.
• If a character is reduced to 0 health points they fall unconscious. At negatives the characters start to bleed to death. They die at -4.

Destiny Points

Characters start with 1 destiny point per game, and can buy more or less with lucky or cursed abilities.

Spending a destiny point causes a moment of extreme luck. It allows the character to automatically succeed at any normal action (as long as it is at least feasible for the character to be able to do the action. ie A weak man can't spend a destiny point to lift a cart, but a powerful clank could).

When used offensively in combat it is treated as an automatic hit with a minimum of 3 points of damage (or an extra 3 points of damage). A character might not kill a charging dinosaur with a single destiny point, but they can at least land a pretty solid blow.

When used defensively destiny points halves the damage that a character would have taken that round (from all sources, but only for that one round). This is not a forcefield which stops bullets but a lucky hit on the book in your pocket which slows the bullet.

You can spend destiny points on yourself or on others. You can only spend one a round, but if several people spend several on a single action their effects stack.