Rules#

The following chapters discuss the general rules of the system. Once you understand a couple of core concepts, it will quickly become clear how you can adapt the system to different genre’s and settings, and how you can use it in interesting ways to tell your stories.

Tip

Before you start reading through the rules, check that you have the following.

  • Rank Dice are the dice you will use for the different attributes, domains and skills in the game. These are d4, d6, d8, d10 and d12. It’s best to have two or more of each of these dice (except maybe the d4), since it is common to roll multiple of the same type during skill checks.

  • Extra Paper, pencils and eraser to make notes and keep track of things.

  • (Optional) A single twenty-sided die (1d20). We call this the Drama Dice and it’s purpose is to inject drama into the scene.

Creating Characters#

To start out with download and print a character sheet. Once you have that, follow the steps below to create your first character.

1. Choose a Frame (Race)#

Pick your frame from the list of Frame Examples. Different genres and worlds may have different rules for frames and races, but in general every frame will have certain strengths, weaknesses and core skills or traits specific to the frame in question.

See Frames (Races) for more details on frames.

2. Choose your Starter Skills and Domains#

Every starting character will get 7 skills on rank 1. These starting skills represent the experience a character gained up to this point.

3. Levelling Up#

Starting characters get 5 experience points (XP). Characters use experience points (XP) to rank up Attributes, Skills and Domains.

To rank up any existing node by 1 rank, you need to spend a number of XP equal to the current rank of that node.

Tip

Levelling Cool Down

All nodes (attributes, skills and abilities) should have a one month cool down period after ranking up. This means that a character cannot rank the same skill more than one level per in-game month.

The GM can always override this if they think a sufficient amount of time have passed. We just need to enforce some kind of limit on how fast one specific attribute, skill or ability can upgrade.

Leaning new Skills#

Existing characters can learn new skills, but it takes a long time. To learn a new skill a character must first tell the GM what skill they want to train.

They must then train 2 hours, for 30 days (in-game).

At the end of the training period, the character must spend 1 XP to finish their training. They will now have the skill on Rank 1.

Upgrade a Skill into a Domain#

Characters can upgrade an existing skill of theirs, into a domain (If a domain is available for that skill in the game setting), by spending 2 XP.

Now that the skill is a domain, they can start buying Domain Features, within the following limitations:

  • You cannot have more domain features than the domain rank.

  • You can only purchase one feature per month (in-game).

  • Every domain feature will cost 2XP to train.

Earning XP#

Experience points is the standard reward that goes out to characters that overcome great challenges and make good use of their skills.

Minor milestones can yield 1 to 2 XP, while major milestones can yield a further 2 - 3 XP.

Tip

The GM is free to choose when he wants to award skill points. Our personal preference is to reward players more for exploration and clever solutions to problems, over difficult combat.

The more you reward players for combat, the more they will gravitate to using combat as a solution to most problems.

Even though we prefer not rewarding points for combat, we do reward players if they make creative use of their skills during combat, we want to encourage players to use their skills and abilities in interesting ways.

These are just our suggestions. You can still award points in your own way if you prefer.

Node types#

The Node types form one of the core pillars of the system. They represent Attributes, Skills, Abilities, Effects, Items or anything that can have a rank or level in the game world.

Attribute Nodes#

Attribute nodes represent the natural ability that all characters in the world will have.

Attribute nodes always add a dice to the dice pool. Any action that the character takes will always depend on at least one attribute node.

Skill (S)#

This is the most common type of node and represents a skill that the character learned or trained.

Skill nodes add dice to the dice pool.

Only add these nodes to the dice pool when the skill can contribute to the action.

Some skills can provide extra features as the skill level up. We call these nodes Skill Domains, and other than the extra features they provide, they function mostly the same as basic skill nodes.

Ability (AB)#

Ability nodes are special skills that augment your actions in some way. They also represent abilities that are magical or special and usually require Energy (E,R) to use.

Abilities can also exist within items as an enchantment for example.

Ability Nodes do not add dice to the dice pool for their level. But the level of the ability may have different effects, at different levels.

Effect (E)#

Effect Nodes represent passive effects that influence the character either positively or negatively. These can be conditions like Blind or Stunned, or it could be a boon like Fury.

Trait (T)#

Traits are usually Effect (E) nodes that is permanently available for the character based on their frame, background or other special circumstances.

They will always have this at minimum on rank 1.

Traits cannot rank up with XP. But if the trait is a boon or condition, and the character gains more of the same boon/condition, then the rank will temporarily increase, after which it will decay back down to rank 1.

Resource (R)#

Resource Nodes represent expendable resources or abilities. Each rank represents a single available “charge” or “use”.

Resource nodes are almost always used in combination with another node type.

An example of a node-type that is also a resource, is the boon Inspired (E).

Characters Stats#

In Nemron, we define characters by their nine Attributes and any combination of Traits, Skills and Domains.

Attribute Nodes#

Attributes embody the raw, natural capabilities and health of your character. We group them into three attribute lines, Body, Mind and Spirit.

Body Line#

Power

Any action that relies on physical power will use this attribute. It includes things like melee combat, certain athletic tasks, like lifting heavy objects, etc.

Agility

This attribute is for any action that relies on a certain amount of finesse and accuracy in movement. It includes tasks that require the entire body or, tasks that require finer motor skills like the dexterity to play a piano or guitar.

Constitution

This is the attribute that describe your physical fitness and resistance to physical ailments.

Constitution is the upkeep attribute for any long-lasting physical activity.

Mind Line#

Intellect

This attribute describes your intellectual prowess, how quickly you can think on your feet and how well you learn and retain information.

Awareness

Your awareness of your surroundings, objects or people.

This attribute also informs how well you are capable of reading the emotional state of an individual and how well you can read the social mood.

For this reason awareness is often used for rolls that involve accurate interpretation during social interactions.

Willpower

This attribute describes how well you can resist any mental distractions or temptations, as well as your ability to rationalize difficult situations, so they don’t lead to extra distress.

Willpower is the upkeep attribute for any long-lasting mental activity.

Spirit Line#

Control

This attribute informs how well you are capable of controlling your own nervous system, fine motor movement, emotional state, and social interactions etc.

Depending on game settings, Control also describe your connection to magic or cybernetic implants, and your ability to activate and “control” those domains.

Sense

This attribute informs how well you are able to sense or read minute changes within your nervous system and sensory organs/devices.

Depending on the game setting, Sense also describe your connection to magic or cybernetic implants, and your ability to detect or “sense” changes within those domains.

A cybernetic implant that give you night vision for example, will use this attribute instead of Awareness.

Focus

This attribute informs how well you can maintain focus on actions that involve the nervous system or spirit line.

Focus is the upkeep attribute for any long-lasting actions using the spirit line.

Energy#

Energy is a resource that every character has. Characters spend energy for special abilities or any activity that requires high amount of effort.

Energy (E,R)#

The energy pool is the total amount of energy you have when rested and healthy. Any activity that require high amounts of exertion, will spend this resource.

The maximum amount for this resource node depends on the character Spririt line.

\({MaxEnergy} = {Control} + {Sense} + {Focus} + 5\)

Spending Energy:

Spend 1 Energy for every hour of hard physical effort, like jogging, hiking up a mountain etc.

Or, spend 2 Energy once per round, to get one bonus reaction.

Or, by using a skill that has energy requirements (magic, technomancy etc.)

Recovering Energy:

When resting, energy will recover 1 point for every hour of rest.

Tip

You can have more than one kind of energy node in your game setting. I ran a custom setting in the past that had three energy pools (one for each line; Body, Mind, Spirit), and each type of skill had to use energy from a specific pool.

We eventually scrapped it for a single pool, since it makes for better resource management and less complexity, but you should feel free to do what suits your setting and players best.

Limbs and Health#

Ever character, PC or NPC, has one or more major and minor limbs.

Lesser limbs are limbs that are not critical for survival, like an arm. Wounds received on this limb can disable, or sometimes dismember the limb, but it won’t necessarily lead to character death.

Major limbs are critcal for survival, like your torso or head. Significant wounds on these limbs would likely lead to character incapacitation or death.

Humanoid characters, for example, have two major limbs and 4 minor limbs, which we can represent on a 6-sided dice. We call this the Location Dice.

Limb Assignments#

Dice Number

Limb

1

Right Arm

2

Left Arm

3

Right Leg

4

Left Leg

5

Torso

6

Head

Tip

Other entities might exist that have different amounts of limbs. In this case you can use different location dice for those creatures.

In my own games, I still use a D6 for creatures with extra limbs, but we rule that only a subset of 6 limbs are valid targets, depending on the positioning of the character.

If, for example, a creature has the 6 standard limbs plus a tail, and the PC is attacking from in the front, then I would rule that the tail cannot be targeted.

Health (E,R)#

Every limb on the character will have a maximum amount of “health points”. The HP for each limb is, \({HP} = 5 + {Pow} + {Agi} + {Con}\).

If the limb is a minor limb, and you have zero hit-points, the limb is no longer usable. In severe cases, limbs can be dismembered or broken beyond repair or healing.

If the limb is a major limb, like a torso or head, and you have zero hp, then the character will be downed and start dying.

See the downed condition for details on this.

Healing HP#

Every eight hours of rest, a injured character may roll Constitution to determine the amount of healing they will recover during the rest period.

The amount rolled is the amount of healing that every damaged limb will receive.

Targeted Healing#

If you are using first aid or some healing skill to heal a specific limb, then the character can only use the healing points on that specific limb.

Movement Speed#

Movement speed is the distance that a character can cover during their turn. We measure this in meters.

\[{MoveSpeed} = {Agility} \times 2\]

Note

Generally, we don’t ask a player to roll dice for movement, but there is still an implied roll happening in the background, it’s just that the difficulty for normal movement is too easy to bother with rolls.

The implied roll for normal movement is Agility.

If you wish to move even faster by running or dashing, you need to add an extra boost of power. The implied roll for this is Agility › Power, and so you move twice the range.

Skill and Domain Nodes#

All characters can have any number of skill and item nodes, which represent the background, training and experience for the character.

In Nemron, skills do not exist in isolation. We allow characters to use multiple skills in combination, so long as the player and GM agrees that the skill combination is relevant to the dice check.

This means that a character wanting to jump over a chasm may add both their Athletics and Acrobatics skills to their dice pool (assuming they have both), since their experience in these disciplines have an chance to affect the outcome.

See our skills add-on for a list of starter skills you can adapt to your game settings.

Character Traits#

Some characters can have permanent traits based on their frame (species/race).

Character traits are usually Boons or Conditions that a character permanently has on rank 1.

If a character has boons or conditions as a trait, then that boon or condition cannot decay below rank 1. This does not apply to resource nodes (see below).

Resource Nodes as Character Traits#

If the trait is a resource node, then the resource can drop below rank 1 when spent. However, the trait will recharge back up to rank 1 after 8 hours of rest.

Skill Checks#

Whenever a character attempts a task that might fail or have some side-effect, the GM can ask them to make a “skill check”.

Rolling for Checks#

When making a skill check, the player will build up a dice pool by combining at least one Attribute Node, with any number of skill or ability nodes. Every node added to the pool must relate to check in some way.

Every node has a rank (or level), and each rank has an equivalent dice.

Rank/Level

Dice

0

1d4

1

1d6

2

1d8

3

1d10

4

1d12

Here is a common set of steps for a typical skill check:

  1. The GM chooses a difficulty for the check. The normal difficulty range is 1-10. For especially difficult tasks, the DC can go to 11-12 (or higher if you are using the advanced power scaling rules).

    Difficulty

    Description

    1

    A simple every day task, like walking up the stairs.

    2

    3

    Task requires a bit more focus but still easy on average.

    4

    5

    Hard, but not unattainable for those with novice training

    6

    7

    Hard, but not unattainable for those with adept training

    8

    9

    Hard, but not unattainable for those with master training

    10

    11

    Hard, but not unattainable for grand-masters

    12

    Even grand-masters struggle to attain this level consistently

  2. The player tell the GM which attributes and skills they want to add to their dice pool. GM and player need to agree that the skill choices contribute to the check in some way.

  3. The player rolls the entire dice pool, and keeps the highest result. If the player rolls exactly the target difficulty, it will count as a success.

  4. (Optional) The player rolls a separate 1d20 (Drama Dice). This roll will determine the drama outcome for the skill check. Drama only happen when the player rolls either 1 or 20 on Drama. See The Drama Dice for details.

    Tip

    You can roll the drama dice together with your main dice pool to save time, but make sure you don’t accidentally use it as part of your dice pool result.

  5. The GM describe the result, based on the roll success or failure, and the outcome of good or bad drama.

Boons and Penalties#

Todo

“Boons” are pending a re-name

Currently, the term “Boon” and it’s intended use here, is confused with the actual boons that exist as intentions.

We need to rename either this mechanic here, or use a different name for the boons listed in the intentions document.

Boons & penalties affect a character’s dice pool in either a positive or negative way.

  • Lesser Boon = Add a 1d8 to your dice pool – Keep Highest Result

  • Greater Boon = Add a 1d12 to your dice pool – Keep Highest Result

  • Lesser Penalty = Add a 1d8 to your dice pool – Keep Lowest Result

  • Greater Penalty = Add a 1d4 to your dice pool – Keep Lowest Result

Boons and penalties do not stack, but they do cancel each other out. So you can never have more than one boon or penalty per roll.

Greater boons or penalties always cancel out lesser boons and penalties.

Minimum Difficulty#

Mundane tasks like walking or running don’t really have a minimum difficulty, and PC’s will generally succeed in these tasks, provided there aren’t obstacles making the action harder.

However, with specialized skills (skills that require special training), there is always a minimum difficulty of DC3.

For example, a PC uses Marksmanship skill to shoot at an opponent. Lets assume the target don’t have any actions to dodge or evade the attack. The player rolls Awareness › Marksmanship with a result of 2. This attack will still miss, because the PC failed to roll the minimum difficulty of 3.

Fixed Rolls & Difficulties#

The following are special terms used to indicate that a roll has a fixed difficulty based on the maximum roll potential for a skill, action or dice pool.

Fixed-Medium refers to exactly half of the maximum number possible for the skill/action dice pool.

So if the dice pool is 1d6 › 1d10 › 1d8, then the fixed-medium for the pool is 5. Exactly half of the maximum roll potential.

Fixed-Maximum refers to the maximum number possible for the skill/action dice pool.

For example, if the skill pool is 1d6 › 1d10 › 1d8, then the fixed-maximum for the pool is 10, the maximum of your roll potential.

Intentions#

Characters perform actions with a specific goal, outcome or intent in mind. In the Nemron system we express this with our “intentions” mechanic.

Intentions can be one of the following types;

Different skills, weapons and items can grant the user access to different intentions.

See the intentions add-on for more information on how to use intentions in your games.

Action Sequences#

An action sequence is a sequence of events where activities happen in a pre-determined order.

An example action sequence is a combat sequence.

Action Sequence Steps:

  1. Roll to determine initiative.

  2. Character with highest initiative may take their turn first.

  3. If a PC and NPC has the same initiative, the PC will always go first.

  4. Once all PC’s and NPC’s took their turns, a new round will start.

Initiative#

At the start of an action sequence, every character rolls initiative.

This is a dice pool consisting of Agility › Awareness › Sense. The character with the highest result goes first.

If PC’s have the same initiative as a NPC, the PC’s always go first.

Tip

Drama is optional when rolling initiative.

Actions, Reactions and Bonus Actions#

Every character has only one action, one reaction and one movement action during their turn.

Characters may only use their action on their turn or, later in the round if they previously held their action.

Characters can only use reactions to something happening to them-self, or something happening within their melee range.

Characters may only use their movement actions during their turn. Unlike other game systems, you cannot use half your move, do something else, and then use the rest of your movement. Once you stop your movement action to do something else, that movement action is now spent.

Bonus Actions and Reactions#

Sometimes characters can have a bonus action or reaction.

This is usually provided by a boon, trait, skill or when dual wielding.

Note that the distinction between action and reaction is important here.

Held Actions#

On their turn, an actor can choose to hold their action. Doing this, they can use their action at any point in the event sequence.

Action Sequence Intervals#

During an action sequence, some abilities or events may repeat at a specific interval or cycle. Intervals can repeat in the following ways.

Turn:

Happens at the end of every turn. This happens regardless if the character actually does anything during their turn, even if they choose to hold their action.

Round:

Happens every round, usually at the same initiative as when the action, ability or event started.

Combat#

Combat is an action sequence, so all participants need to roll initiative at the start of combat. Make sure you understand the action sequence basics before going on with this section.

Attack, Defense and Damage#

When a character makes an attack roll, they add any relevant dice to their pool for the attack. This includes attribute(s), related skill(s), and weapon rank.

For Example:

Brandon attempts to shoot an enemy with his pistol. He’s dice pool might look something like this:

Awareness › Marksmanship › Pistol.

Your attack roll is also the actual amount of damage you will do. If your opponent took a defensive action against your attack roll, then the damage is reduced by their defensive rice roll.

Brandon rolls 6 for his attack, so he will do 6 damage.

The enemy attempted to dodge behind a boulder though, and they rolled 3 for their action.

So the total damage they receive while attempting to dive behind the boulder is 3.

As you can see above, we use an “active defence” mechanic, meaning a character must actively spend an action or reaction to make defensive dice rolls against an attack.

Defensive actions can include evasion, parrying, blocking etc. Characters make these rolls just like any other roll.

Damage to limbs#

Damage dealt must go to one or more limbs.

If the attacker doesn’t specify which limb they are targeting, then they will roll a location dice to determine which random limb will receive damage.

An attacker can target a specific limb. To do this, they have to tell the GM before making their attack roll because the attack roll will have a lesser penalty. In this case damage will go to the targeted limb without having to roll the location dice.

Area of Effect (AOE) Damage#

AOE damage will damage more than one location for each target inside the AOE.

Roll a number of location dice equal to the amount of AOE damage received. Each dice represent one damage to a specific location.

For example:

  • An enemy attacks Darren with a fireball.

  • They roll 7 for their attack.

  • Darren attempts to evade with a roll of 3

  • He will now receive 4 AOE Damage.

  • The GM rolls 4d6 (one dice for each point of damage), and gets the following results: 5, 5, 3, 2

This translates into 2 damage to the torso, 1 damage to the right leg and, 1 wound to the right arm.

Minimum Weapon DC#

When using a weapon there is always a base difficulty for the attack roll. This base difficulty is equal to the weapon rank + 1.

So a Rank 2 Pistol for example will have a minimum difficulty of DC3. So you have to roll 3 or higher for the attack to be successful.

Failing the base difficulty, will result in an automatic miss or failed attack.

Flanking Opponents#

When a character is flanked by opponents, they will find it harder to defend against those opponents. The flanked character will have the condition, Flanked (E) until they are no longer flanked.

Range Indicators#

Many actions, abilities and skills will have a range, distance or reach. We identify these ranges as, Melee, Near, Far and Distant.

Range

Classifier

Description

< 3 meters

Melee

Within a single lunge or swing of your weapon

3 to 8 meters

Near

Within movement range

8 to 30 meters

Far

Outside of movement speed

30 to 100 meters

Distant

Falling Damage#

Falling damage count as damage, where;

The damage type depend on the surface that you collide with. The following damage types are just guidelines. The GM should feel free to bend these rules as fit the scenario.

The damage amount depend on how far the character fell before they collide with a surface. The damage is 1 point for every 3 meters fallen, and counts as AOE damage.

So a 15-metre fall onto flat ground will result in 5 damage and could potentially also apply Dazed (E) or Staggered (E) conditions (the extra conditions up to the GM based narrative flair).

Falling damage ignores armour, unless the armour specifically protects against it.

Note

We intentionally use a linear scale for falling damage. The reason for this is that we want to favour ease-of-use, over super realism.

The Drama Dice#

This is an optional mechanic, but when used, it can make for more interesting games.

Imagine your character is falling off a cliff and your belt hooks on a tree branch, saving you from the inevitable fall to death.

Or, you have to shoot a charging bull. It’s an easy shot, and it will land the final blow to bring the beast down; But your gun misfire.

The drama dice introduce this kind of randomness to all rolls.

With every roll, players also roll an extra 1d20. This is their “drama dice”.

This extra dice is not part of the dice pool, and does not contribute to your roll. It only determines the outcome of drama.

Drama only happens when the players roll 1 or 20 on their drama dice.

1 on Drama (Bad Drama): The action automatically fails or, the GM may decide on something dramatic that has some negative outcome.

20 on Drama (Good Drama): The character gain 1 point of Luck or, the action result in an automatic success or, the GM may decide on something dramatic that has a positive outcome.

Tip

Drama outcomes are ultimately in the hands of the GM, but we would caution not to make things feel unfair.

The purpose of drama is to inject random, high impact, and memorable events into the scene. Something that players will talk about weeks later.

Drama should never make players feel punished for something they have no control over.

Drama Dice Example#

Orrian tries to shoot the opponent standing next to her friend Rhalf. She rolls really high for her attack, a good shot; But she rolled bad drama.

The GM realize there are a couple of options that can add a dramatic flair to this scene:

  1. Orrian hits Rhalf by accident. A perfectly acceptable outcome, but maybe not dramatic or unique enough. Moreover, it doesn’t reflect the fact that she had a good attack roll to begin with.

  2. Since Orrian had a good attack roll against the opponent, the GM factors this into his drama decision.

    GM decides that Orrian will hit the intended target as normal, but that the shot hit a grenade attached to the opponents’ belt. The grenade explodes, damaging everyone around him as well.

    This is a dramatic outcome and can be devastating to Rhalf and the team.

  3. The second example may be too devastating for the team, so GM may decide that the shot hit the enemy, but that the blood from the wound splatter into Rhalf’s eyes, temporarily giving him obscured vision.