To any 3 skills of your choice, -10 Speechcraft (minimum 5).

Racial Skill: Magic +10, Intelligence Based. Half-alicorns have no spell or magical limitations and are eligible for the One Trick Pony and Magical Savant perks, unlike adepts. Many halicorns have “Stubby Little Horns,” as per the hindrance.

Flight, Agility Based (for use in gliding only). Also allows access to Enclave cloud terminals. Cannot perform most flight maneuvers.

à Mulestend to be a rough and tumble lot, the negative associations with their name leaving the majority with a chip on their shoulder and something to prove. They tend to be shy or embarrassed about their heritage when not actively working to prove themselves, hide their irregular physical attributes, or harm those who call them out on their background. They aren’t shown much in the way of special treatment as might be afforded to any of the pony half-breed races above, but neither are mules looked down upon like Zonies. Mostly, mules are simply confusing, both to Ponies and Donkeys alike; the majority of members of either race have trouble with the idea that one of their brethren might have found members of the other attractive to the point of sexual interest.

Physically speaking, mules exhibit a mixture of donkey and pony physical characteristics. Most commonly, mules have a body shape that is closer to that of a pony than that of a donkey, but with thinner legs, substantially longer ears, and a tufted tail similar to a donkey’s. They are capable, like ponies, of having any coloration in terms of fur, mane and tail, and many (though not all) mules have cutie marks just like ponies. Mules, while almost always infertile, suffer relatively few physical deformities when compared to other half-breed races (they’re the only half-breed race that does not start with Unstable Genetics), and receive as their racial attribute bonuses +1 to either endurance or strength and +1 to any attribute other than the one they chose to receive their first bonus point. Mules that take the Hot Blooded hindrance receive two creation points instead of the normal one, though it counts double towards their hindrance limit.

Height:3’7” + 2d8” – From 3’9” to 4’11”

Weight:200 + (2d8*10) – From 220 to 360 macs

Mule Skill Bonus Ranks:

Melee Weapons, Small Guns, Unarmed, Sneak (pick two); -10 Lockpicking (minimum 5).

Racial Skill: N/A

à Zonies, unlike most pony half-breeds, are not usually able to be ‘fixed’ with magic to fit into normal pony society. They have light or dark grey stripes, but otherwise appear to be off-white earth ponies. Like all other half-breeds (save for mules) they are both infertile and relatively genetically unstable, but unlike pony half-breeds zonies suffer an additional social stigma equivalent to a -10 on Speechcraft rolls as a result of their mixed ancestry and the war. As a result of societal pressures, Zonies tend to be extremely thick skinned and very focused, leading to many zonies becoming extremely skilled in the technical arts. Many pre-war zonies devoted their lives to pursuits that gave them meaning and advanced society as a whole. Zonies get +1 to either their Endurance or Intelligence attribute score at character creation.

Zonies may pay a single character creation point to acquire the Hind Leg Stance perk at character creation as a trait.

Height:3’9” + 2d8” – From 3’9” to 4’11”

Weight: 210 + (2d8*10) – From 230 to 370 macs

Zony Skill Bonus Ranks:

+5 science, +5 Repair, +5 Survival, -10 Speechcraft vs. both Ponies and Zebras (unless disguised; this works both ways, as many zebras still greatly distrust ponies), -10 Lockpicking (minimum 5)

Racial Skill: Magic +10, Intelligence or Charisma Based. Zonies may learn zebra magics, but lack the natural talent to make or properly use many of the advanced (level 4) talismans, recipes or potions. As with zebra, not all zony choose to learn magic. Characters may instead distribute this +10 as two separate +5 bonuses to other skills (other than Survival, Unarmed and Sneak; both bonuses cannot go to the same skill). Characters that do this start with no known recipes, but can still learn them through play.

à Zonkeys, similarly to zonies, cannot be fixed with magic to fit into pony society. They are excessively rare, as their parent races do not frequently interact at all, to say nothing of romance. They appear as lanky-looking zebra with elongated ears and often with they often have dark grey or black coats, rather than brown or striped ones. Like most other half-breed races, zonkeys are infertile and predisposed to genetic anomalies, but they suffer no additional social stigma due to their non-obvious parentage (many confuse them for donkeys). Their ears and other senses are unnaturally strong, meaning that all Zonkeys start with the Big Ears hindrance (for which they do not receive a character creation point). During the war, a small number of zonkeys were implicated in a treason case brought by the Equestrian government, but no concrete evidence against them could ever be produced. The months following the case created a reputation for the stealth abilities of these creatures that borders on superstitious nonsense. At character creation, zonkeys receive a +1 attribute bonus to two attributes, and make select between Perception, Charisma, Agility and Luck.

Zonkeys may pay a single character creation point to acquire the Hind Leg Stance perk at character creation as a trait.

Height:3’9” + 2d8” – From 3’9” to 4’11”

Weight: 180 + (2d8*10) – From 200 to 340 macs

Zonkey Skill Bonus Ranks:

+3 Unarmed, +3 Speechcraft, +10 Sneak, -10 Lockpicking (minimum 5)

Racial Skill: Magic +5, Intelligence or Charisma Based. Zonkeys, like Zonies, may learn zebra magics, but lack the natural talent to make or properly use many of the advanced (level 4) talismans, recipes or potions. As with zebra, not all zonkeys choose to learn magic. Characters may instead distribute this +5 to another other skills (other than Unarmed, Speechcraft, or Sneak). Characters that do this start with no known recipes, but can still learn them through play.

à Exceedingly rare, even more so than Halicorns,Zony Shamansare capable of combining the magics of both races into frightful items of magical power and terrifying spells. They appear as smaller-than-average zonies, save for a small nub of a horn. Zony Shamans may learn spells from the unicorn spell list up to level 3, and may learn any recipe from the Zebra spell and recipe list. Additionally, they are capable of imbuing zebra talismans with unicorn spells, and casting most zebra talismans’ effects, such as invisibility, as spells; the magic casting stat for all Zony Shamans is Intelligence.

The downside to casting magic in a mix-and mash fashion is instability; though nearly all unicorn spells can be suspended as talismans, not all zebra recipes can be projected as unicorn spells. Talismanic effects for example, cannot be projected at all. They can only be used as enchantments in talismans. The full table of usage type to unicorn spell conversion is below. While not explicitly stated below, please bear in mind that line of sight/line of effect is implied as required for all ranged applications of magic.

Use of overglow with a converted zebra spell may not work as intended; please consult your GM on a case by case basis to discern the exact effects, especially in the case of recipe-spells that do not have numerical effects.

When converting a unicorn spell into a zebra-styled recipe, zony shamans have two options: talisman or potion based suspension.

For talismans, all zony shamans receive the Talisman Creator spell (a level 3 Unicorn Spell) for free at character creation, as a natural part of the combination of their two magical fields. Using this spell and its associated guidelines (outlined fully in Chapter 5), nearly any unicorn spell can be converted to a talisman usable by any race – though some talismans are by nature only accessible to those with unicorn magic due to specialized properties.

For potions, only single-use, targeted instantaneous spells can be suspended. If imbibed, it grants the caster immediate use of the spell suspended within, as though it was being cast from them directly. If imbibed by a character without the natural ability to cast the spell that was suspended, it can be targeted with INT. The imbiber need not make a roll to cast the spell.

When casting and enchanting, shamans may use a combination of strain and ingredients as a resource pool; low-rarity ingredients exchange for one point of strain, medium ones equate to two, etc.

As a result of their not-well-understood powers, Zony Shamans are greatly feared by both Zebras and Ponies alike, preventing them from joining most organizations or from belonging to any but the most tolerant of settlements; less tolerant settlements are more likely to organize a witch-hunt if they find out a Zony Shaman is in the area. Of the few in existence, most possess lean, wiry frames and a very high metabolism (though not to the point of more rapidly aging them as would a Cloud Mage) as a result of their body’s tremendous magical focusing ability, and very frequently their wild and conflicting internal magics tend to overwhelm their faculties, diminishing their senses or sometimes driving them either temporarily or permanently insane. Zony Shamans get a +1 attribute bonus to Intelligence at character creation.

At character creation, Zony shamans get to pick INT/3 (rounded up) level 0 or 1 spells from the unicorn spell list, and recipes from the zebra recipe list equal to their magic skill rank divided by 20, rounded up.

Zony shamans may pay a single character creation point to acquire the Hind Leg Stance perk at character creation as a trait.

Height:3’7” + 2d8” – From 3’11” to 5’1”

Weight: 140 + (2d8*10) – From 160 to 300 macs

Zony Shaman Skill Bonus Ranks:

+3 Medicine, +3 Sneak, +3 Survival, -30 Speechcraft & Mercantile vs. All Equines (unless disguised)

Racial Skill: Magic +25, Intelligence based. Zony shamans may learn both zebra and unicorn magics, and use the same magic skill for both arts, but must choose to take any three of the following hindrances in exchange for their abilities:

Abused, Abandoned, Blind, Crippled, Deaf, Demented, Dumb, “Half-Decked”, Hallucinations, MPD, Optimistic, Pipsqueak, Phobia, Psychosis, Skinny as a Rail, Sadist, Scavenger, Slave, Studious, Suicidal, Uncontrolled Magic.

They do not receive character creation points for these hindrances. Hindrances taken here cannot be removed by roleplaying in conjunction with spending a perk, barring special circumstances.

Editor’s note: Use of alternate races, particularly alicorns, hellhounds and half-breeds, to create overly powerful characters (“Mary Sues”) is highly discouraged; these races are included for flavor and to expand player options. Abusers will be shot. Survivors will be shot again.

Attributes

Each character starts with a minimum score of 1 in every attribute. The seven attributes are:

Perception (PER) –Affects the range at which you detect enemies under different conditions. Without a pipbuck or similar magical assistance, a character’s range of perception is their perception score times 5’. This doesn’t mean that ponies can’t see beyond that, of course, but they take a 1 MFD step penalty for every perception score range increment they are beyond the first (making maximum perception range five times that amount, or 25’xPER). Perception is tied to the Energy Weapons, Explosives, and Lockpicking Skills. Extremely perceptive characters are very observant of what’s going on around them, and tend to end up as lookouts or snipers due to their abilities. Characters with a low perception score tend to be oblivious, frequently zoned out or not all present. If their perception score is ever lowered to 0, characters so affected are struck blind and deaf until they can recover – if they can recover. Perception rolls are used to notice fine or hidden detail in a character’s surroundings, as well as to detect characters or creatures that are sneaking, making this attribute the one most frequently rolled. Perception rolls made to search locations can generally be made once per hour spent searching.

Endurance (END)– Affects the maximum number of wounds you can take to each limb or body location before becoming crippled, unconscious, or dead. Endurance is also tied to rolls made to resist the effects of radiation, taint, enervation, and poisons. This attribute is tied to the Big Guns, Survival and Unarmed Skills. High endurance characters are tough, and can endure a higher degree of physical abuse than their compatriots. They fit the “strong, silent type” image very well. Low endurance characters can’t take a hit; they bruise and bleed very easily, and are a liability in many, if not all, combat situations. Characters with zero endurance are dead – the sort of dead that (almost) no one comes back from. Don’t let your endurance hit 0!

Charisma (CHA) –Charisma is your character’s force of personality. Itaffects your natural ability to influence others through speech. Charisma is tied to the Mercantile and Speechcraft Skills (and optionally the Magic Skill for Zebras), and directly represents a character’s force of personality. Charismatic characters have a way with words that typically reflects a quiet elegance or a dogged determined-ness to see things go through their way. More often than not, Charisma is tied to physical attractiveness, though there is not a direct relationship between this stat and how good looking your character is or isn’t, as the case may be. Low Charisma characters tend to be painfully shy, unable to speak their mind, or simply incapable of conveying meaning to those around them. If a character’s charisma hits zero they become completely unable to talk, and are essentially catatonic - unable to form their own opinions or assert their will, even to the point of survival-essential behavior. Any attempts to communicate come out as squeaks or completely unintelligible mumbles. Characters with telepathy and other forms of non-verbal communication are unable to use them – their minds are totally incapable of forming words or ideas while in such a state.

Intelligence (INT) –Affects your ability to think, process, and recall information, as well as the amount of general knowledge your character might possess. Intelligence governs the medicine and science skills, as well as the magic skill for unicorns, alicorns, and some zebras. Extremely intelligent ponies are quick-witted, and are able to frequently outsmart their opponents rather than outshoot or outlast them. Low Intelligence ponies tend to fall into two categories: the moronic and the insane. Characters with INT below 4 have problems talking in complete sentences and understanding speech; characters with INT of 2 or less are usually totally incapable of understanding all but the most basic speech – in the neighborhood of an average canine or other non-sapient critter. You and your GM can decide what type of low intelligence character your pony is if it comes up, though the former are far more common than the latter. Characters with zero Intelligence are rendered catatonic or comatose until their intelligence recovers, if ever.

Agility (AGI) –Affects your movement speed over land, through the air (for griffins, pegasi and alicorns), or through the ground (for sand dogs and hellhounds), as well as your ability to act quickly in combat, particularly using S.A.T.S. Your total SATS pool is equal to 40 + (AGIx5); how to tap into this is explained in the combat section. Agility governs the small guns and sneak skills, as well as the flight skill for pegasi, griffins and alicorns, which is used to perform aerial maneuvers. Characters with low agility tend to be bulky and slow, or potentially overweight. If their agility ever hits zero, then the character becomes completely unable to move; their joints lock up, and when they do manage to move a little they’re so clumsy they fall over. Such characters should seek medical attention immediately.

Luck (LUCK) –Affects all stats indirectly. Optionally (recommended), luck governs the number of luck cards your character gets per session – see the Live by Luck rules below for details. Extremely lucky characters find themselves escaping from insane situations with little more than scratches. Unlucky characters might find themselves breaking a leg walking down stairs. A character’s luck score can never be reduced below 1, except under extremely special circumstances. The effect of having a zero luck score depends on the circumstance under which it was reduced.

Characters can gain additional creation points by taking Hindrances, or spend creation points to get Traits such as those listed below each race. A full listing for each of these, and the associated rules for them, is further on in this section.

Depending on the party balance, you may want to take more or less hindrances per person, but each character should be taking on about the same number of hindrances or traits at character creation (unless there’s an alicorn or hellhound in the party). For a beginning game, we recommend that characters start with no more than three hindrances and two or fewer traits. For game balance, characters that have more than 4 hindrances should take an extra trait for each additional hindrance, rather than spending the extra points on attributes. (Alicorns and Hellhound characters can take a total of no more than 8 hindrances, period. This promotes game balance.)

Characters that begin with more than 6 hindrances can make scenarios imbalanceddue to too-high ability scores and too many additional abilities, and the fact that characters with too many traits and hindrances are simply much more difficult to roleplay. We don’t recommend letting players give characters more than four to five hindrances except under special circumstances. A good way to handle this for players that wish for their characters to take additional hindrances beyond what the GM has set as the maximum limit (and yes, this happens more than you might think) is to allow the character to have the hindrance(s), but not receive the creation point for it (them).

Remember to take into account any attribute bonuses or penalties your character may get from their race or traits. 1 creation point can be used to buy 1 point in any stat at a 1:1 cost. At character creation, you cannot raise a stat by more than 8 points with character creation points. This means that to exceed a score of 9 in any single stat requires that it be raised by your racial attribute bonus, or by traits or hindrances.This applies to all attributes except luck, which you can raise up to 10 at character creation (but I advise against it for characters you want to live longer than 3 weeks of in-game time). Even with perks and racial bonuses, your score in any attribute cannot ever be raised above 12; this is a “hard cap limit” for player character’s attribute scores.

A character’s attributes are very important to determine early on in the process of character creation because they determine the starting rank of that character’s skills. Your base rank in each skill is double the point score of that attribute plus the point score of your luck divided by two (rounded down), plus two. So:

(2*<ATT>) + (LUCK/2) + 2 = Base Skill Rank (at level 1)

Where <ATT> is the governing attribute of the skill, all of which are listed for your convenience to the right of the skill name on the character sheet. Note that for this calculation, as with all other calculations in this system unless explicitly stated otherwise, you must round down. Keeping in line with the Fallout games, you cannot have a skill rank less than 5, even if you have a score of 1 in both Luck and the skill’s governing attribute (which would otherwise give you a score of 4).

As an example, a character with an Endurance of 6 and Luck of 5 would have a base Unarmed Skill rank of 16.

First time player should be wary about calculating your starting skill ranks immediately after choosing your race and attributes. We don’t recommend you bother calculating your MFDs just yet, however, because you still have hindrances and traits to take into account.

Living By Luck (Live by Luck)

Luck is an attribute that does not directly govern any skill, but has a positive influence on the starting ranks of all other skills. This section contains an optional, recommended rule for using luck to influence the outcome of specific actions and events.

Let’s face it: some ponies are just luckier than others. Their luck isn’t always good, but even when its bad, things always tend to turn out for the best for the lucky ponies in the end. Using the Live by Luck rules, all players get a lucky break every once in a while. This is demonstrated by the use of what I call here ‘luck cards’. These items can be represented by any sort of token, not necessarily cards (though that’s what I use), and they function similarly to “bennies” in Savage Worlds, Hero Points in Pathfinder (also an optional rule), Chips in Deadlands, and Drama Dice in Seventh Sea.

At the beginning of each session, players get a number of luck cards equal to half their luck score rounded up plus two, a minimum of 3. This is the only instance in the rules where you round up! These luck cards can be spent in multiple ways to help characters escape from sticky situations during any normal game, but don’t transfer between sessions. Luck can’t just be kept in a tupperware and saved for later, after all. Extra luck cards may be distributed as deemed appropriate by your GM, and there are perks, example quest-perks, and traits listed in the following pages that will increase the amount of luck cards characters receive per session in various ways. Players can give each other luck cards – in essence, spending their luck to help others – by paying down a luck card for each card given.

Oh and GMs – Not only the heroes get luck cards! The GM should get luck cards for themselves at the beginning of every session: one per player, plus one for every Alicorn, Hellhound, Animal Companion or Ghoul in the group, and two extra for every Canterlot Ghoul. You should also get an additional card per player with the Uncontrolled Magic or Narcoleptic Hindrances (see next section). If you have a baddie that is sufficiently important, consider giving them an allotment of luck cards of their own to play with in addition to the GM’s “general NPC stash.” Use the cards right, and this could make for more interesting boss fights, and provide more of a challenge to your players even in role-playing situations.

In addition to all of the abilities below, GM’s can spend their luck cards to edit the flow of reality in some major way. They may do this by spending a luck card and giving one luck card to each of their players, announcing that they’re making an alteration, though they don’t need to tell the players what the alteration is until it comes up. This can be significant – making an NPC a different race, having an enemy’s reinforcements arrive earlier than planned, adding a special ability to an abomination mid combat, or allowing a big-bad to teleport away despite having already acted are good examples – but it doesn’t need to be. Sometimes changing even an insignificant detail can make a huge difference in what happens to a character or how an event unfolds.

Rerolling Failed Rolls:

If at any point in the session a player fails a roll, that player can spend one luck card to reroll the failed roll. This gives them a chance to negate their failure – but be careful! Lady Luck is fickle. Every time you spend a luck card to reroll a failed roll, the chance of critical success or of critical failure increases by 5% on the new roll. That means that if you fail a roll and reroll it using a luck card, you can now critically succeed on a roll of 1-10, and critically fail on a roll of 91-100. This effect stacks; for every time you fail and spend a card to reroll, you simply add another 5% onto the range of critical success or failure.

If a player had enough cards, and continued to fail on successive rerolls without critically failing, then they could theoretically raise the critical chance threshold to 50%. A critical success would then be rolled on a 1-50, and a critical failure would be on any roll 51-100. If this occurs, then there can be no further successive rerolls – If they haven’t been able to succeed by then, there’s simply no amount of luck that can help them.

Negating Critical Failures

Critical failures cannot be directly negatedlike regular failures, but fret not! If a player DOES critically fail, whether on their first roll or on any successive reroll, then that critical failure can be turned into a normal failure (one which doesn’t have additional consequences for them or their friends) by spending a luck card. After the card is spent, the player must roll against their character’s Luck attribute score (Luck*10).

A success means you’ve turned your critical failure into a regular failure, with no serious backlash. A failure means that your card has been wasted – it’s still a critical failure, but you can try again by spending another card if you’ve got one. A critical failure on this roll means that you’ve not only wasted a card, but you’ve bungled your luck and can no longer spend cards to affect this roll. A critical success means you’ve turned your critical failure completely into a success.

While we’re on the subject, no, you can’t spend additional luck cards to reroll the critical-failure negation roll. Lady Luck can be cruel and she can be kind, but either way she doesn’t want you spending all your precious luck in one place! (Also, dear sweet Celestia would that get complicated!)

This effect can be used in conjunction with another luck card to then reroll the failure. Critical failures can be turned into successes with luck in this fashion, but it can get costly fairly quickly.

Pre-emptively Improving a Roll

What if you’re worried about failing a roll ahead of time? If your pony really needs to do something right the first time, players can spend a luck card before they roll the dice to subtract 5 from the final roll (i.e. give you a +10 bonus). This effect can be stacked up to 5 times by using multiple cards, for a total maximum roll improvement of 50%. If you get a critical success when improving the roll in this manner (1-5 on the die, before subtracting your improvements) then you are refunded any cards you spent. If you get any other outcome, for better or for worse, your cards are gone.

This effect can be applied to any roll made by you, including any of the other luck rolls.

Note that ‘critical successes’ that are achieved by modifying the dice roll in this way only count as normal successes. Critical successes only occur if 1-5 is rolled on the d%. Critical failures (96-100 on the die) are still critical failures, even if the improvement would push them outside this range.

Doing Something Awesome

Do you feel like Rainbow Dash today? Is something outside of the normal range of what your pony would be able to do, but you want them to do it anyway? Feel like adding some panache to your character’s finishing move?

You’re in luck! If you suggest something awesome to your GM that you want your character to do and spend a luck card (or two or three, depending on how ridiculously over the top it may be), then it can happen. You may still need to make some dice rolls depending on what you’re attempting, but if your unicorn pony feels the sudden urge to jump onto a giant, hideous frog-monster’s face and stab it in the eyes with their horn in the midst of combat, then who are we to tell them no?

Improving the Story

Think something just happened that might have been a bit of plot gone wrong? Feeling especially betrayed by the dice? If your GM agrees, then spend a luck card to prevent what just happened, or to change it to make the story a bit more… interesting.

If you can convince your GM that some event – either occurring instead of something else, or simply just happening - might make the story better, you can spend a luck card to make that happen. No rolling necessary for this one. Characters beware -- your GM can pull this trick to improve the story as well! When they use it, though, they must spend a card from their own supply and give one card to each effected character. If the boss ended up being too weak and the GM wanted to improve its stats halfway through combat, for example, then that GM would need to give a card out to every character in combat.

Negating Hits and Wounds

The final general use (and arguably the most useful one) for luck cards is in negating hits or damage.

Let’s imagine a hypothetical situation: Blackjack is being shot at by some crazed raiders (perhaps not so hypothetical). Feeling particularly lucky today, she runs out in the open to try and stab one of them with her dragon’s claw, her shotgun and rifle being indisposed of for whatever hypothetical reason (probably Somber blew them up or something). Leaving cover turns out to have been a poor decision, as a particularly-sane raider sitting back out of EFS (“Eyes Forward Sparkle” – a motion tracker spell that is common to all pipbucks) range takes a shot at her with a hunting rifle.

The raider succeeds on his to hit roll. Blackjack is already worse for wear, but she’s got luck on her side, and after the GM announces that she has been hit and where the bullet struck, (but before announcing the damage dealt and the number of wounds) her player announces that she would like to spend a card to use some of her luck to make the bullet (or bullets, if the raider were instead using a burst-fire weapon) veer off course, be deflected by falling debris, etc. – basically, some method by which the well placed shot would not reach Blackjack’s battered and bruised hide.

If BJ’s player is trying to negate the hit, she needs to roll luck, MFD 1. If she succeeds, the bullet veers off course in the manner suggested. If she critically succeeds, then the bullet may actually work to her advantage – kicking up a cloud of concealing dust, accidentally shooting another raider sneaking up behind her, ricocheting back and hurting the shooter or one of his friends, etc. On the other hoof, if she fails or critically fails, then the bullet(s) continues as planned, and she cannot attempt to send it off course in this manner again. In the case of the critical failure she would not be able to spend further cards on anything related to this bullet, but if she has only failed normally she can still spend luck cards to reduce the number of wounds it deals.

Let’s assume, for the sake of explanation, that she fails the roll to try and make the raider miss. The bullet hits her in the torso, and the GM announces that it penetrates her barding and deals 26 damage after armor - 2 wounds, because she’s not above level 9 yet. Blackjack’s player, who simply has more luck cards than she knows what to do with, says she’d like to try and negate the damage.

She spends a luck card, which immediately removes one wound, and must then roll her lowest attribute, MFD 1. In this example, assuming Blackjack has an INT score of 5 (which is probably a bit on the generous side) as her lowest attribute, she must make a 50. The wounds dealt are reduced by one for every MFD step below one that they succeed by. In other words, if she rolls a 37 (MFD ¾) or below, she has successfully negated all of the damage dealt. For characters with attribute scores that are not well balanced, this can become quite bothersome.

The player doesn’t have to declare how many wounds they’re trying to negate with this roll, and they might not negate all of them at once. If the roll is failed or critically failed, then the bullet damage stays. Additional luck cards can still be spent on this damage unless the failure was a critical failure (Gee, lady luck sure is fickle).

If she succeeds, she may continue to spend luck cards on this damage until she either removes all of her damage or fails. Critical successes remove all wounds immediately, regardless of how many wounds were trying to be removed.

Wounds and damage can only be negated in this way as they are incurred (i.e. right after somepony shoots atcha). To remove an existing wound after combat, employ the use of healing magic or the Medicine skill.

In Summary:

Under the “Live by Luck” rules, luck cards can be used to:

--Reroll Failed Rolls (Usually skill rolls)

--Turn a Critical Failure into a Normal Failure (Luck Roll MFD 1)

--Pre-emptively improve a roll, giving a +10 bonus per card.

--Do Something Awesome

--Improve the Story

--Negate Hits (Luck Roll, MFD 1) or Wounds (Lowest Attribute Roll, MFD 1)

(Depending on when you spend them!)

--Give other characters a luck card (2:1)

Skills

The skill system reflects a character’s knowledge and experience in a wide variety of skills that are necessary for survival in the wasteland. There are a total of thirteen skills that every character has, and three racial skills. These skills are listed below, in S.P.E.C.I.A.L. order by their linked attribute, and then alphabetically. Each skill governs the ability of a character to perform a wide range of specific types of actions.

Melee (Strength) – Governs ability to hit with melee weapons, such as swords, sledgehammers and axes. Also affects damage dealt with those weapons. Melee and Unarmed skills directly affect the STR damage bonus of all Melee and Unarmed-category weapons respectively.

Energy Weapons (Perception) – Governs ability to hit with magical energy weapons, such as laser or plasma pistols and rifles. These weapons receive a bonus to damage equal to your energy weapons skill divided by 10, rounded down.

Explosives (Perception) – Governs your character’s ability to throw, place, set, arm, and disarm explosives of all types. Also governs throwing of non-explosive projectiles – any object less than ½ a character’s STR score in weight can be thrown.

Throwing an object with explosives determines where it will land and/or detonate relative to their target. For explosives specifically, each MFD step a thrown explosive misses a target by is one AoE range increment further away from the explosion’s epicenter, reducing damage dealt substantially and possibly negating it altogether.

Characters with high skill in explosives are more effective with the damage dealt by them. Characters with less than 26 ranks in this skill only deal 25% of the rolled damage value before that damage is applied to all affected locations (those areas of the target or targets that were actually exposed to the blast). Characters with 26-50 ranks in this skill divide damage dealt 50% before applying it across the affected areas of the target, and those with 51-75 ranks deal 75%. With 76 or more ranks in explosives, a character’s explosives deal full damage. At rank 100 they deal an additional +10 to every location affected. A character’s explosive skill does not affect the damage dealt by any big guns that deal damage in an area of effect.

Big Guns (Endurance) – Governs your characters ability to hit with particularly large weapons of all types, including Miniguns, Gatling Lasers, and Balefire-Egg Launchers. Large weapons that require a vehicle mount, such as the main battle cannon on a tank, the gatling lasers on a Vertibuck, or even the artillery on a battleship are also targeted with this skill. These weapons receive a bonus to damage equal to your rank in this skill divided by ten, rounded down.

In the case of big guns that deal damage in an area of effect, the damage dealt is applied to multiple locations simultaneously similar to explosives. Like explosives, the damage dealt is related directly to rank (25% from 0-25 ranks, 50% from 26-50, 75% from 51-75, 100% from 76-99, 100%+10 at 100).

For explosives specifically, each MFD step a thrown explosive misses a target by is one AoE range increment further away from the explosion’s epicenter, reducing damage dealt substantially and possibly negating it altogether.

Survival (Endurance) – Governs ability to cook and prepare food, and may affect how strong the positive effects of food are. Also governs a character’s ability to navigate, track down targets, and their knowledge of local flora and fauna. A table of the effects of varying levels of the survival skill on the effects of food is provided in the “Food and Drink” section in equipment, and again in the “Hunger and Starvation” section in Gettin’ by in the Wasteland. This skill is important for zebra alchemists, as it is used to gather ingredients needed for potion creation.

Unarmed (Endurance) – Governs ability to hit and deal damage with a character’s natural weapons, be they hooves, horns, wings or claws, or with weapons that augment those natural weapons, such as Power Shoes or Bladed Wings. Melee and Unarmed skills directly affect the STR damage bonus of all Melee and Unarmed-category weapons respectively (See figure 2).

Speechcraft (Charisma) – Governs a character’s ability to speak or argue persuasively, such as when trying to convince an NPC (Non-Player Character) to do something. This skill cannot be used to interact with player characters! Try talking to them directly instead, or actually convincing them in character that what they’re doing (or trying to do) is a dumb idea. If I had a nickel for every time somepony tried to replace player interaction with dice, I’d have earned enough money to turn this project into a full-time job.

Magic (Charisma or Intelligence) – Racial – Governs a character’s ability to perform magic, either by creating potions or talismans or by casting spells. This skill can be used to cast a spell in a combat scenario (MFD 1 modified by overglow or other effects) or can also be rolled whenever the user wants to examine a magical effect, unless that effect more clearly relates to science or another skill. Magic rolls may also be required to learn new spells or increase the effects of already known ones. To cast a spell, a unicorn or alicorn must roll magic twice – once to actually cast the spell, and once more to target the spell (if the spell is targeted). If the target is willing, the second roll is unnecessary. For more information on this skill, check out Chapter 5 - Magic.

Medicine (Intelligence) – Governs a character’s ability to diagnose and treat injury and remove poisons or contaminations, how many wounds they can heal with the use of medical devices, potions, and spells, and how difficult it is to remove wounds without medical devices. A high skill in medicine may be required to treat certain types of injuries or to operate sophisticated medical equipment.

Repair (Intelligence) – Governs a character’s ability to repair devices and weapons, and to use spare parts to construct new devices and weapons. Also governs a character’s ability to modify armors, clothes, barding, and other items and to create entirely new items out of scrap. High levels of the repair skill may be required to repair or construct complex devices, or devices in particularly bad condition. A good repair pony always knows that a truly useful set of barding must have plenty of pockets!

Science (Intelligence) – Governs a character’s knowledge of the sciences and of arcane technology, affecting their ability to hack into secured terminals and reprogram the spell matrices of robots and automata. Higher levels of science skill may be required to interact with certain terminals or pieces of advanced technology.

Flight (Agility) – Racial – Governs a character’s skill and experience with flying, affecting their ability to perform aerial maneuvers. A list of aerial maneuvers and their related mechanics - how they’re acquired, how difficult they are to perform, their effects, etc. - are all available in Chapter 5.

Small Guns (Agility) –Governs a character’s knowledge of and accuracy while using standard firearms, such as assault rifles, pistols, SMGs and shotguns. These weapons receive a bonus to damage equal to your small guns skill divided by 10, rounded down.

Sneak (Agility) – Governs ability of a character to remain hidden or unnoticed in any situation. Also represents the knowledge a character has about how to remain hidden, and their ability to steal items without being seen. Information on how to use this skill is provided more in depth in figure 4, on the previous page.

Not included in the sidebar are the penalties to sneak imposed by weight. Starting at 50, for every 10 units of weight beyond 50 (rounded down) characters take a -1 penalty to sneak, representing the noise made by the gear being carried.

Also not included are the rules required to use sneak to pickpocket items from other characters. Pickpocketing (or put-pocketing) an item requires that the character roll sneak against a target character’s perception as an opposed roll. See chapter 1 for an explanation of opposed rolls. Success on the pickpocket’s part steals an item; failure still steals or places an item, but you’re caught doing so. In the case of put-pocketing, this gives the victim a chance to react before any unfortunate consequences; if this occurs in combat and the character has already fully acted that round of combat, they may roll AGI MFD ½ to receive an extra action that can be used exclusively to deal with the put-pocketed item . To place an item on a victim without their notice requires that the put-pocket win this opposed roll by at least 1 MFD step. Critical failures steal or place no items. The pickpocket’s sneak roll is affected by the weight of the item – items with weight greater than 1 inflict a penalty on the sneak roll of -5 per unit of weight. Items with weight less than or equal to 1 inflict no penalty. Pickpocketing can also be used to plant explosives on other characters; the explosive goes off the round immediately after it has been planted. Such explosives deal double damage and ignore the DT of whatever armor they’ve been planted into (other sources of DT, including under-armor and underclothes, are applied as normal).

Skills can be improved by either leveling up your character, which grants them a certain amount of points to invest, or by reading books. Books can permanently increase a character’s knowledge of a specific subject, granting them a permanent increase to a skill’s level of a minimum of 1 point; the amount of skill points granted by each book can be increased by perks or traits. A book must be studied and eventually finished by a character for them to gain this effect, but they don’t disappear after use and can be used by other characters to gain this bonus. Depending on the book and the knowledge a character already has of the subject matter, a book may take anywhere from days to weeks to even months for a character to finish reading. Characters do not gain the benefit of the additional skill rank until they have completed the book.

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 847