Modos Rulebook: the real-time editing thread

Chapter 7: Magic

Please, skip ahead to chapter 8 if you don't want anything flashy in your Modos game. If you don't like super-powers, sorcery, psionics, or divine power, just skip right ahead. This is not the chapter for you.
Magic is the term for all of these mystical powers and more. If it can't be described by the laws of physics, or involves technology that pushes the boundaries of physics, Modos handles it as magic. It's not just for wizards anymore. This chapter presents an introduction to spellcasting (detailed rules are in the Conflict chapter), a list of magic spells, and guidelines on how to make your own spells and spell-powered gear.

Spellcasting Basics[sblock]
A magic spell is what happens when a character uses the cast spell skill (see Skills chapter). Like any other skill, the success of the cast spell skill is determined by the contest (see Conflict chapter) rolled by the player (or GM for NPCs). If the contest is higher than the cast spell minimum of 10, the spell takes effect, and the caster (the user of cast spell) spends 1d8 + (spell level) points of metaphysical health to make the spell happen. This is the same as taking MP damage.

The target(s) of the spell can use a reserve action to defend against the spell. The appropriate defense skill depends on the spell being cast. This defense contest must exceed the caster's casting (cast spell) contest. If it succeeds, the target has avoided some or all of the spell's effects. If it fails, the target suffers the spell's effects, for good or ill.

Some spells last longer than one conflict turn. To maintain a spell beyond this time period, the spellcaster must use a mental action (the contest equals the related cast spell contest) at the beginning of the next round, which allows the spell to remain in effect for the duration of that round.
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Acquiring Magic Spells[sblock]
The most simple way to learn a magic spell (cast spell skill) is to put a skill point in it when your character levels-up. Check with the GM though, because there could be easier ways, or in-game ways, to learn spells. This is especially important because magic is handled in different ways by different characters in different campaigns. Your character could learn a spell by seeing one, feeling one, buying one, studying, getting older, or gaining experience. Only your character concept and the campaign theme know for sure.
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Magic Spell Entries[sblock]
Each spell in this chapter has the following features:

- Name. This spell name is only for reference, you may call the spell whatever you want in-game.

- Level. The level of the spell is used to determine the metaphysical damage that the caster takes once the spell is cast, which is 1d8 + the spell level. If this gets reduced by the casting endurance perk, the caster must always pay a minimum of one MP damage to cast a spell. Spell level also determines the number of casting actions required, and the difficulty of the spell.

- Actions. All the actions listed must be combined to cast a spell. Cast spell is the only skill that can use actions from ability scores other than its relevant ability. The first action type listed is the primary one, and the one that determines what defense the targets of the spell will use (parry for physical, concentration for mental, and willpower for metaphysical). Metaphysical actions may substitute for any physical or mental actions, but not vice versa. For example, a spell lists its actions as: Actions. 2 P, 1 M, 1 MP. The caster must combine two physical actions, one mental action, and one metaphysical action to cast the spell, or substitute metaphysical actions for any of the physical or mental actions. Since physical is listed first, targets of the spell must roll parry actions to defend against it.

- Difficulty. Some spells are more difficult to cast than others. When a caster rolls his cast spell contest, he applies the spell difficulty as a penalty to his contest. As long as his contest is still above 10, the spell takes effect.

- Targets. This describes on whom or what the spell takes effect. The categories are:
Self. The spell affects the spellcaster only.
Single. The spell affects one target, or one point in space.
Row. This applies to a group of opponents (or allies), either all those in offensive posture, or all those in defensive posture, but not both.
Conflict. This applies to all opponents in a battle or conflict. This category does not affect both sides of a flanking maneuver.
Max. The exact size of this spell is up to the GM, but it generally affects everyone.

- Range. This is how far from the caster that a spell can take effect. The caster is free to cast his spell closer than this maximum range. Close range means that a caster can affect any (non-flanking) ally, but can only affect the opponents in offensive posture, and only if he is also in offensive posture. Range categories are discussed further in the Conflict chapter.

- Cover. Normally represented by defensive posture, cover is a little more specific in regards to spells. This is because spells can be targeted much more effectively than missile weapons. Cover refers to the conditions overcome by the spell. The categories are:
None. The target has nothing thicker than grass or fog between himself and the caster.
Partial. The spell is effective against targets ducking behind small amounts of cover.
Full. This spell will still affect a target that is fully behind a solid barrier, and out of sight.
Indirect. This spell requires no line of effect. The caster must simply know the target's general location to hit.

- Effect. This is, in general terms, what the spell does. You're the spellcaster; feel free to fill in the details. But the rules effects are listed for you. All effects end at the end of the round unless the spellcaster maintains them. Spells causing and healing damage are permanent.

- Half-effect. If the spell uses more than one action and is maintained by the spellcaster, then a target who succeeds on one defense suffers this effect instead of the full effect. Once the target has succeeded on one defense action per spellcasting action, or the caster fails to maintain the spell, the target suffers no further effects. For example, cast spell (mute) uses two actions, one physical and one metaphysical. If the target of this spell wins a parry contest, the spell's effects become the half-effect. If the target wins another parry, he suffers no effects.
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Common Spells
(level 1)[sblock]
Name: Armor
Level: 1
Actions: 0 P, 1 MP
Difficulty: +8
Targets: Self
Range: Close
Cover: None
Effect: Target gains d8 protection, unless worn armor is higher.
Half-effect: No effect.

Name: Awaken
Level: 1
Actions: 0 M, 1 MP
Difficulty: +4
Targets: Single
Range: Close
Cover: None
Effect: Target heals 1d8 M damage.
Half-effect: No effect.

Name: Charm
Level: 1
Actions: 0 M, 1 MP
Difficulty: 0
Targets: Single
Range: Short
Cover: None
Effect: Target loses 8 MP points for determining disposition toward caster only.
Half-effect: No effect.

Name: Cure
Level: 1
Actions: 0 P, 1 MP
Difficulty: +4
Targets: Single
Range: Close
Cover: None
Effect: Target heals 1d8 P damage.
Half-effect: No effect.

Name: Fear
Level: 1
Actions: 0 M, 1 MP
Difficulty: -4
Targets: Single
Range: Short
Cover: Partial
Effect: Target must take a flee action each round, or two if in offensive posture.
Half-effect: No effect.

Name: Fire
Level: 1
Actions: 0 P, 1 MP
Difficulty: -4
Targets: Single
Range: Short
Cover: Partial
Effect: Target takes 1d10 P (fire) damage.
Half-effect: No effect.

Name: Fog
Level: 1
Actions: 1 MP
Difficulty: -4
Targets: Row
Range: Close
Cover: Partial
Effect: Vision-based skills, like detect and fight, take -4 penalty when entering or exiting the spell effect.
Half-effect: No defense allowed.

Name: Harm
Level: 1
Actions: 1 MP
Difficulty: -4
Targets: Single
Range: Short
Cover: Partial
Effect: Target undead creature takes 1d8 metaphysical damage.
Half-effect: No effect.

Name: Lamp
Level: 1
Actions: 0 P, 1 MP
Difficulty: +4
Targets: Single
Range: Close
Cover: None
Effect: Target glows like a lamp, raising area by two light levels.
Half-effect: No defense.

Name: Lightning
Level: 1
Actions: 0 P, 1 MP
Difficulty: 0
Targets: Single
Range: Short
Cover: None
Effect: Target takes d10 lightning damage.
Half-effect: No effect.

Name: Lock
Level: 1
Actions: 0 M, 1 MP
Difficulty: 0
Targets: Single
Range: Short
Cover: None
Effect: Target takes -4 penalty on parry contests.
Half-effect: No effect.

Name: Mini
Level: 1
Actions: 0 P, 1 MP
Difficulty: -4
Targets: Single
Range: Short
Cover: Partial
Effect: Target gains the small size perk, or loses the large size perk.
Half-effect: No effect.

Name: Shell
Level: 1
Actions: 1 MP
Difficulty: +4
Targets: Single
Range: Close
Cover: None
Effect: Target gains +4 defense against cast spell contests.
Half-effect: No effect.

Name: Sleep
Level: 1
Actions: 0 M, 1 MP
Difficulty: -4
Targets: Single
Range: Short
Cover: Partial
Effect: Target falls asleep, and can use no actions until another action targets him.
Half-effect: No effect.

Name: Temper
Level: 1
Actions: 0 P, 1 MP
Difficulty: +4
Targets: Single
Range: Close
Cover: None
Effect: Target weapon gains weapon focus perk.
Half-effect: No effect.

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(level 2)
[sblock]
Name: Anti-Fire
Level: 2
Actions: 1 P, 1 MP
Difficulty: +4
Targets: Single
Range: Close
Cover: None
Effect: Target gains d12 protection from fire damage.
Half-effect: No effect.

Name: Anti-Ice
Level: 2
Actions: 1 P, 1 MP
Difficulty: +4
Targets: Single
Range: Close
Cover: None
Effect: Target gains d12 protection from ice damage.
Half-effect: No effect.

Name: Anti-Lightning
Level: 2
Actions: 1 P, 1 MP
Difficulty: +4
Targets: Single
Range: Close
Cover: None
Effect: Target gains d12 protection from lightning damage.
Half-effect: No effect.

Name: Blind
Level: 2
Actions: 1 M, 1 MP
Difficulty: -4
Targets: Single
Range: Short
Cover: Partial
Effect: Target loses vision, and takes -4 on skills requiring vision.
Half-effect: Penalty becomes -2.

Name: Dark
Level: 2
Actions: 1 P, 1 MP
Difficulty: -4
Targets: Row
Range: Short
Cover: None
Effect: Target area loses two light levels.
Half-effect: No defense allowed.

Name: Float
Level: 2
Actions: 1 P, 1 MP
Difficulty: +4
Targets: Single
Range: Close
Cover: None
Effect: Target moves normally, but 1 foot above any surface.
Half-effect: No effect.

Name: Ice
Level: 2
Actions: 1 P, 1 MP
Difficulty: -4
Targets: Single
Range: Short
Cover: Partial
Effect: Target takes d10 cold damage, and -4 movement penalty.
Half-effect: Target takes -4 movement penalty.

Name: Invisibility
Level: 2
Actions: 1 P, 1 MP
Difficulty: +8
Targets: Self
Range: Close
Cover: None
Effect: Target fades partially from view, and gains +4 to fight-melee, fight-unarmed, larceny, parry, and sneak.
Half-effect: No effect.

Name: Mute
Level: 2
Actions: 1 P, 1 MP
Difficulty: -4
Targets: Single
Range: Short
Cover: Partial
Effect: Target cannot speak, and all cast spell contests take -4 penalty.
Half-effect: Target takes -2 penalty to all cast spell contests.

Name: Ruse
Level: 2
Actions: 1 M, 1 MP
Difficulty: +4
Targets: Single
Range: Close
Cover: None
Effect: Target gains +8 to parry.
Half-effect: No effect.

Name: Status
Level: 2
Actions: 1 M, 1 MP
Difficulty: -8
Targets: Row
Range: Close
Cover: Full
Effect: Caster senses health of each ability of each target: no damage is "perfect," under half damage is "injured," under max damage is "danger."
Half-effect: Target is hidden from the spell.

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(level 3)[sblock]
Name: Blink
Level: 3
Actions: 2 P, 1 MP
Difficulty: +4
Targets: Single
Range: Close
Cover: None
Effect: Target's actions (except movement), and skills affecting the target,like fight, cast spell, or larceny, have a 50% fail rate.
Half-effect: No effect.

Name: Cure2
Level: 3
Actions: 2 P, 1 MP
Difficulty: +4
Targets: Single
Range: Close
Cover: None
Effect: Target heals 3d8 physical damage.
Half-effect: No effect.

Name: Dispel
Level: 3
Actions: 3 MP
Difficulty: 0
Targets: Single
Range: Short
Cover: None
Effect: Target spell ends if its cast spell contest is lower than cast spell (dispel). If target spell is permanent, dispel suppresses it as long as dispel is maintained.
Half-effect: No defense allowed.

Name: Drain
Level: 3
Actions: 2 P, 1 MP
Difficulty: -4
Targets: Single
Range: Short
Cover: Partial
Effect: Target takes 2d8 physical damage, caster heals 1d8 physical damage.
Half-effect: If target defends twice, caster does not heal.

Name: Fast
Level: 3
Actions: 2 P, 1 MP
Difficulty: +4
Targets: Single
Range: Close
Cover: None
Effect: Target gains 2 fight actions next round.
Half-effect: No effect.

Name: Fire2
Level: 3
Actions: 2 P, 1 MP
Difficulty: -8
Targets: Row
Range: Short
Cover: Partial
Effect: Target takes 3d10 fire damage.
Half-effect: Defend each die.

Name: Fog2
Level: 3
Actions: 2 P, 1 MP
Difficulty: -4
Targets: Row
Range: Close
Cover: Partial
Effect: Vision-based skills, like detect and fight, take -8 penalty when entering, exiting, or within the spell effect.
Half-effect: No defense allowed.

Name: Harm2
Level: 3
Actions: 3 MP
Difficulty: -4
Targets: Single
Range: Short
Cover: Partial
Effect: Target undead creature takes 3d8 metaphysical damage.
Half-effect: Defend each die.

Name: Haste
Level: 3
Actions: 3 MP
Difficulty: +4
Targets: Single
Range: Close
Cover: None
Effect: Target gains one free action next round.
Half-effect: No effect.

Name: Hold
Level: 3
Actions: 2 M, 1 MP
Difficulty: -4
Targets: Single
Range: Short
Cover: Partial
Effect: Target cannot use physical actions.
Half-effect: Target loses one free action next round.

Name: Holy
Level: 3
Actions: 3 MP
Difficulty: -8
Targets: Row
Range: Short
Cover: Partial
Effect: Target undead creatures take 2d8 MP damage.
Half-effect: Defense per die.

Name: Lightning2
Level: 3
Actions: 2 P, 1 MP
Difficulty: -4
Targets: Single
Range: Medium
Cover: Partial
Effect: Target takes 2d10 physical (lightning) damage, and 1 metaphysical damage.
Half-effect: Two defenses result in no effect.

Name: Lock2
Level: 3
Actions: 2 M, 1 MP
Difficulty: -8
Targets: Row
Range: Short
Cover: Partial
Effect: Target takes -8 penalty to parry.
Half-effect: Penalty reduced to -4.

Name: Sight
Level: 3
Actions: 2 M, 1 MP
Difficulty: -4
Targets: Single
Range: Medium
Cover: None
Effect: Floating magic-eye sends sight to caster. Move the eye with the maintain action.
Half-effect: No defense allowed.

Name: Sleep2
Level: 3
Actions: 2 M, 1 MP
Difficulty: -8
Targets: Conflict
Range: Short
Cover: None
Effect: Target falls asleep, can use no actions until another action targets him.
Half-effect: No effect.

Name: Slow
Level: 3
Actions: 3 MP
Difficulty: -4
Targets: Single
Range: Short
Cover: Partial
Effect: Target loses one free action next round.
Half-effect: No effect.

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Designing Spells[sblock]
Due to their simplicity, designing spells is a fairly painless process:
1) Determine concept. What is the spell - what is it supposed to do?
2) Segment the spell's effect. Determine all the minor effects that add up to the total effect of the spell. If the spell does only damage, it will have one segment per damage die.
3) Record level. The spell's level is equal to the number of segments in the effect.
4) Determine actions. A spell that affects the physical world requires physical actions. A spell that affects mostly minds requires mental actions. Metagame effects and other effects require metaphysical actions. The minimum action, regardless of the spell's effect, is always one metaphysical action (since cast spell is a metaphysical skill).
5) Determine difficulty. The difficulty is determined by the spell's range, targets, and cover. The modifiers are as follows: close +4, short 0, medium -4, long -4, self +4, single 0, row -4, conflict -8, max -12, none 0, partial -4, full -8, indirect -12.
6) Determine half-effect. This is a reduced version of the full effect.
7) Compare. Check to see if the actions, difficulty, and effect are comparable to other spells of the same level.
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Creating Special Equipment[sblock]
Special equipment has the same features that characters do: ability modifiers, skill points, and perks. The best way to measure their importance is to measure what they do for characters. Table 6-3 gives players and GMs an idea of what sort of powers their special equipment should have. Special items can grant abilities of a certain level, like "your parry skill becomes +5." Or they can grant relative power, like "your parry skill gains +1." There are other guidelines when including special equipment in the game:
- Charge. How long does the magical charge last? If special items last indefinitely, their power should be about a third of a level, or an increase of one ability point, one skill point, or a perk. If the item is one-time use, its power could be at least two levels higher than the character using it.
- Powers. Special items can increase ability scores, increase max damage, grant skill points, grant perks, grant metaphysical damage to fuel spells, and more. Whatever the power, the best way to measure it is to ask: what level character would have this ability, or what will be the effective level of a character receiving this power?
- Other items. Multiple pieces of special equipment can interact just as unpredictably as prescription drugs. When creating an item, be sure that its power won't synergize out of control with another special item.
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Sample Special Equipment[sblock]
Scroll of Fireball
Rolled-up parchment is covered in arcane markings and drawings resembling fire demons.
Actions: 1 P, 1 MP
Effect: user gains special knowledge of cast spell (fire3). The scroll takes the casting damage for the caster, destroying itself. Destroying the scroll before the spell is cast ruins the spell.

Stimpack
A small clamshell case houses an auto-injector that delivers a small dose of nano-repair bots.
Actions: 1 P
Effect: Instantaneously heals 1d8 P damage.

Sword, Heirloom
A rusty, old, short sword that feels dull, but exceptionally light.
Size: Light
Damage: d8+1
Range: Close
Special: This sword grants +2 to parry skill.[/sblock]

Chapter 8: Conflict

Your training is almost complete, Grasshopper. Once a character has a concept, abilities, skills, perks, equipment, hero points, and even a spell or two, he's ready to take them into combat. However, Modos is about more than just fighting. Conflicts of any nature can be resolved with the contents of this chapter, broken down into four sections: general, physical, mental, and metaphysical. The general section covers what conflict is and the rules that apply to all conflicts. The physical section covers material-world combat, and general combat rules. The mental section discusses awareness, sneaking and detection, and psychic combat. Last, the metaphysical section covers NPC dispositions, followers, and rules about magic in conflict.

General Conflict[sblock]
Conflict is what happens when roleplaying fails. Both players and GMs should act out every situation whenever possible, because roleplaying is what makes the game's participants feel most in-touch with the game world. To put it another way, a player can close his eyes while roleplaying, shutting out almost all of the real world, and letting in as much game world as possible.
And then there's a conflict - a roleplaying failure. Either a player and GM disagree on an outcome, or a player and another player disagree.
Luckily, PCs and NPCs are well-equipped to handle the conflict. Their character sheets are stocked with statistics and ideas that, when mixed with polyhedral dice, make conflict resolution easy. The skills and related abilities that they can use are covered in the following sections. For now, let's look at how to handle a conflict in Modos RPG: the contest.
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Contests[sblock]
Contests are a type of roll used to determine when a character finds success in a (roleplaying-) conflict. Contests have the following features. They:

- always have an opposing roll
- are always rolled with a d20
- are made with skills or abilities
- are subject to difficulty modifiers
- grant success to the higher result.

The GM calls for a contest whenever the outcome of something is in doubt, or cannot be roleplayed. A contest can be between a character and another character, or a character and fate. Either way, the character making the contest rolls a d20, adds the ability modifier of the ability most relevant to the contest (the "ability modifier"), and adds the skill points ("skill") that he has in the most relevant skill. If a character does not have a relevant skill, the skill portion is treated as zero. The result is called his contest. Then his opponent rolls a contest with his ability modifier and skill. Whoever has the higher result after the application of difficulty is the winner, or decider, of the conflict.
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Difficulty[sblock]
There are times when external or intrinsic factors have an important influence on the outcome of contests. This is represented by the difficulty modifier, or difficulty. Difficulty is a bonus or penalty added to a contest, which generally ranges from 0 to 20, with the following modifiers given as a guideline.
Table 8-1: Difficulty

When a character has no opponent, but he's attempting something with dubious outcome, he still rolls a contest. The GM decides: to an average person, how difficult would this attempt be? He cross-references the answer with the modifier on the difficulty table, and rolls a d20, adding the difficulty modifier. The result is the number that the player must exceed with his contest in order to succeed.

When a character faces an opponent, the opponent provides the difficulty with his opposing contest. However, outside cirumstances can raise or lower each side's results. For example, a character shoots at an NPC. Normally, this is resolved by a fight-missile contest versus a parry contest. But if the attacker spent an action aiming, he might gain a +4 difficulty bonus to his fight contest. Or if the defender is tied to a post, he might apply -12 to his parry, since it's unlikely, but not impossible, that he'd be avoiding the attack.

Difficulty is also an umbrella term for conflict modifiers. Various things can and should provide an advantage to one side or the other, or both, in conflict. While the GM is welcome to calculate the effects of each difficulty modifier, it's easier to do two things: make a judgment call, and award a bonus to the side with better odds.

For example, Supraman and Aquifer are having an argument, which they would be happy to roleplay out, but they're in the Under-Channel Vortex (a massive pool of psychic energy) and the winner of the argument is likely to win the right to use Cerebral with Dr. X this evening. Supraman is wearing a psi-crystal (beneficial) and Aquifer ate focus-root for breakfast (beneficial). However, Aquifer is moving faster through the vortex, and is having psycho-connective distress. While this is a very complex situation, the GM's job is just to ask: who's in the better position, and how beneficial is that position? The GM calls for persuade (the most relevant skill) contests from each PC, grants +4 difficulty bonus to Aquifer, and lets the d20s ultimately decide.

It's not always clear which contestant should receive a bonus or penalty. While it's generally easier to add rather than subtract (so the side with a better position should get a bonus), keep in mind that sometimes difficulty only applies to one side in a contest. For example, a police officer and a gangster are going to fight it out with fluids. The gangster is in a holding cell, so the GM decides that the police officer should receive a bonus to his fight-missile contests made with a mace-sprayer (the gangster will be spitting back). While the police officer has the advantage in this contest, a difficulty penalty actually belongs to the gangster because 1) the police officer isn't actually performing his contest better in the given situation, and 2) a bonus would mean that everyone attacking the gangster would get a bonus, while it would be simpler just to apply one penalty to the gangster's defense given his disadvantageous situation.
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Take Half[sblock]
With contests, damage, protection, hero points, initiative, and lots of actions, there can be a lot of rolling going on. In Modos RPG, there's a simple solution: take half. Whenever a die roll is necessary, you can skip the roll and just assume the result is half of the highest result on the die. This is just less than the average die result, but that's the price you pay for simplicity and saving time. To remind them to save time, players should list their take half results in each section of their character sheets that represent die rolls.

When a player takes half in a contest, the GM must make the opposing roll, not take half as well. If both sides were to take half, the outcome would be a certainty, and these situations don't call for contests. If a player decides to make the roll, the GM can roll or take half as desired. If a player opposes another player, either side is welcome to take half, but if both sides take half, one player is ensuring his loss or failure in the contest (and might need to be informed of this).
Rolling contests determines success. However, success can sometimes be a gray area, or require much effort to be achieved. The GM decides if any given conflict is a one-roll conflict, or an extended conflict.
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One-Roll Conflicts[sblock]
Not every conflict deserves careful scrutiny. If a conflict is a particularly simple one, or the GM or players don't want to spend much time on the conflict, they can make one contest and move on. This is called a one-roll conflict.
Due to their abbreviated nature, the outcome of a one-roll conflict isn't always clear. For example, Jake (Agent 0002's undercover name) and Carl (Super-Snake's alias) are bartering at the flea market. No one wants to spend a lot of time deciding how much of a discount Jake gets when buying a Persian rug from Carl, so the GM decides to use a one-roll conflict. He calls for a persuade contest from each barterer. Jake's player asks to use profession-craftsman, since it's higher than his persuade skill and he's trained in making national-security blankets. The GM agrees, and the player rolls. The GM takes half on the contest, and Jake wins by a landslide, about 10 points.

The player has won the conflict, but how much of a discount does that mean? The GM can apply degrees of success to the outcome to find out.
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Degrees of Success[sblock]
In any kind of contest, the result might be less clear than success or failure. To aid the GM in adjudicating outcome, he can use degrees of success to measure results. When the GM evaluates a contest, the opposing contests will either be equal, or one will be higher than the other. The GM may decide that the amount of difference makes for better (or worse) results. The amount of difference needed for a measurable change is a degree of success. These can be as small as one point, but a good rule of thumb is to use the difficulty table (Table 8-1) for degrees of success.
In the above example, Jake beat Carl by 10 points. That's at least two degrees of success, using the difficulty table's increments. The GM may decide that Jake has earned a discount that would be "difficult" to achieve, and he decides on 25%.

Degrees of success include a curious amount: zero. When a conflict has equal opposing contests, it means either a tie has occurred, or success has very narrowly been decided, and a reroll is necessary to determine who gets the narrow success, as decided by the GM.
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Extended Conflicts[sblock]
If the players in the above example were keenly interested in the details of an episode of bartering, or Jake and Carl decided to argue with fists instead of words, they would use an extended conflict.
Extended conflicts are conflicts in which either time or detail become important to the outcome of the conflict. To simulate these factors, extended conflicts use the following game features: rounds, initiative, turns, actions, and damage.
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Rounds[sblock]
A round is a conflict cycle. It is a meta-game concept, meaning that it doesn't really exist in-game; its only purpose is to allow all characters to act before another round begins. A round is composed of one turn for every character, and each turn is arranged in order of initiative. More precisely, each round is just a series of actions, as explained in the following sections.
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Initiative[sblock]
In extended conflict, each character has a turn, and turns are followed in order of initiative. Initiative refers to how quickly the characters in a conflict are able to act. To determine the order of initiative (or just "initiative"), each character rolls a d20 and adds an ability modifier that reflects his ability to act quickly. This choice is up to the player, but will usually be the character's highest modifier. (If acting first is critical, using a low modifier could be grounds for a hero point award).
The resulting order, from highest to lowest, is the order in which characters take their turns. To change his initiative, a character can spend one action (of any type) not doing anything, called a "delay." This action cannot be used with a skill or for a contest; its purpose is to allow a character time to pick the right moment to act. When a character uses a delay action, he can freely decide after which other character's turn he would like his new turn to begin. If the character waits until a new round begins to take his turn, he can effectively move up in initiative by taking his turn at a higher point than his previous turn. If another character was also delaying, and two or more characters want to take their turn first in the next round, they should roll another intiative to see which one takes the first turn.

It's not always clear when initiative should begin. Remember that extended conflict is for situations in which time or detail are important, so initiative should begin when this happens. For example, a barfight is about to begin. People are shouting, breaking bottles, and cracking pool cues. An initiative roll is not really necessary until the players want to do specific actions that might conflict with other PC actions, or NPC actions. When the details of who attacks, who defends, and who runs away become important, the GM should call for an initiative roll. However, if some characters have a clear time advantage over others, the GM can call for initiative and declare some of the characters surprised.
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Surprise[sblock]
If some characters get the jump on others, or some characters simply aren't aware that a conflict is beginning (see "awareness" in the mental conflict section), the late characters are surprised. Surprise can be handled two ways, depending on severity. If some characters just have an edge over others, which could be as simple as being the barfighters who are standing instead of sitting on stools for example, the GM can award an initiative bonus. +4 is a good, general initiative modifier. If some characters begin a conflict before others are aware of their intent, the GM may award one free action to be used immediately by anyone who isn't surprised. These free actions should be resolved in order of initiative, and before the first character takes his turn.
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Turns[sblock]
A turn is a segment of a conflict round, and it describes when one character performs his most concentrated effort of the round - when he uses most of his actions. All actions occur during turns, with the single exception of the surprise action. Characters can do three special things during their turns: they can delay, combine actions, and defend freely.
Delaying, described in the initiative section, can only be done on a character's turn, and it must be the first and only thing done on a character's turn. If another action must occur on a character's turn, like maintaining a spell, a character who delays must perform that action at his first opportunity after delaying, as a reserve action.

These reserve actions, described in the following actions section, must be used individually. During a character's turn, however, he may combine actions. To combine actions, a character declares what one type of skill will be used, and how many actions he will combine. He then rolls one contest for each combined action, and keeps the highest contest to apply to all of the actions. The other rolls are ignored. For example, Conut the barbarian is really angry. He's going to conduct his super-smash against one enemy, which is what he calls his combination of five fight-melee actions. His player rolls five d20s, adding to each his physical modifier and fight-melee skill. The highest result is the contest he keeps for all five actions. The enemy must make a separate parry contest for each action, despite each fight having the same result. The enemy may also choose to do something besides parry, which might leave him undefended against Conut's damage. If, however, the enemy takes a reserve action that removes him from Conut's attack, Conut is still committed to using five actions, and any ineffective actions are wasted.

A turn also allows characters to bend the rules a little for defense. Normally, characters have the opportunity to perform a single action all at the same time. This means that when it's not your turn, and an enemy attacks you, you can perform a defense at the same time, potentially saving yourself from damage. But when a character takes an action other than a defense, he's leaving himself open to attack! This is an important consideration to characters using reserve actions (actions during someone else's turn), but if it's your turn, you are allowed to defend against any and all attacks for which you have an action to use as defense. For example, it's Hrolgar's turn. He moves to chop a troll with his battle axe. The troll doesn't care about battle axes, so he just attacks right back at Hrolgar! Hrolgar doesn't need to roll a fight contest, since the troll isn't opposing his attack; he automatically succeeds. The troll needs to roll a fight contest though: since it's Hrolgar's turn, he's allowed to defend as long as he has an appropriate action available. The GM resolves every action taken during Hrolgar's attack, and then asks Hrolgar's player to roll parry if he wants to. This counts as Hrolgar's next action, and he can use the parry contest against anyone else attacking him during this action (so one defense can go a long way during a character's turn). If Hrolgar had decided to use Conut's super-smash, a combined five actions, he would not be able to defend himself until the last of the combined actions, since defenses during a character's turn must happen immediately after the attack that instigated them.
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Actions[sblock]
Reserve actions, combined actions, free actions, and surprise actions might sound complicated. Don't worry, it's very simple. An action is something you do that takes time or effort. Anything else is a non-action, and can be done freely as long as it follows rule zero.

Actions are always tied to an ability: physical, mental or metaphysical. Since all characters have each of these abilities, and some minimum amount of agency, all characters get three free actions at the beginning of each round. A free action is an action that a player or GM can tie to any of the three abilities, so it's considered "free." An assigned, or tied, action is an action that must be used with a particular ability or skill. These come from perks and high ability scores.

Actions are usually tied to a skill; doing so grants a character greater odds of success in the form of skill points. Whenever a skill is being performed, there is at least one action necessary to make that skill happen. If using a skill or ability might take more than one action, the GM should consider the "sword swing" guideline for measuring action duration: the shortest action possible is generally the amount of time required to make a solid sword swing. Accordingly, lengthier activities should be divided into a number of actions equal to the number of solid sword swings that could be made during that activity. Note that if there are no sword swings being made, it's possible that time is not presently an important factor, and extended conflict rules are not necessary at this time.[/sblock]

Bonus Actions[sblock]
Some characters get more than three actions per round. These bonus actions can come from different sources, like magic spells, perks, or abilities.

While spells and perks describe how they award bonus actions, abilities grant actions based on the ability score. Starting at 15 and every five points above that, abilities grant a bonus action tied to that ability. So, for example, a character with 25 physical gets an extra three physical actions each round.

Regardless of how a character earns bonus actions, these actions are included in the set granted to him at the beginning of each round.
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Reserve Actions[sblock]
Characters can take actions at any time: before, during, and after other actions or turns - as long as they have unused actions in that round. These unused actions are called reserve actions because they're actions that a character won't use during his turn; he has most likely reserved them to respond to the actions of others.

Reserve actions have some limits. They can only occur in response to an action by the character whose turn it is. When that character takes an action, he has effectively given every other character a chance to act. Think of it - each action - as a mini-round. Regardless of how many characters act in this mini-round, each character gets only one action - a reserve action.

Once everyone has announced their actions or has decided to wait to act, the GM resolves all of the actions in initiative order. Any characters taking reserve actions with a higher initiative than the current character's (who's taking his turn) are considered to act at the exact same time as the current character. Any characters taking a reserve action with a lower initiative are considered to be acting immediately after the current character. If some actions would render others moot or useless, the GM should pay close attention to the initiative order when resolving a mini-round.

For example, Merloon, Montana, and Number 2259 are fighting a security guard. The initiative order is Montana, security guard, Merloon, and Number 2259. It's Merloon's turn, and he casts a fire spell at the guard. The guard has reserved a free action for defense, so he tries to parry the spell. Number 2259 sees an opportunity to give himself an advantage so he uses a reserve action to turn off the lights (and use his motion-tracking goggles) while the guard is defending. But due to poor communication, Montana tries the same thing as Number 2259. Everyone has announced their intent, and the GM resolves the situation as such: Montana has the highest initiative, so he goes over and turns the lights off. At the same time, the security guard rolls a parry contest, and Merloon rolls a cast spell (fire blob) contest. The lights go out at the same time that Merloon fires his spell, so the GM awards no darkness penalties to the guard or Merloon. Merloon's contest is higher, so he deals physical (fire) damage to the guard. Finally, Number 2259 went for the lights, but Montana beat him to it, so Number 2259 just loses an action. Merloon may now continue his turn, or reserve any leftover actions for later in the round.
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Damage[sblock]
When conflict happens in a roleplaying game, something is bound to get damaged. However, as it applies to the general conflict rules, damage is simply a progress indicator. If knocking out an opponent is your goal, adding damage to his mental damage pool increases your progress toward knocking him out. Or if your goal is to usurp a king, your damage might be considered "instability," and once the king has reached enough instability, he'll either abdicate or start a war.

Whatever damage represents, it is usually handled the same way. Damage is usually caused by weapons or spells, but only on a successful attack contest. To determine the amount of damage, a player rolls the appropriate damage die.

To prevent damage, many opponents will have some sort of protection. Protection has a corresponding die, just like damage, and the result of the protection roll is subtracted from the result of the damage roll. Protection cannot completely eliminate damage; if damage minus protection would ever equal zero or less, the result is instead one.

Sometimes a character will have the opportunity to deal multiple dice of damage at one time, like in a combined attack or magic spell. In this case, the player is welcome roll damage for each successful attack action at the same time, and add the results together. The defender should then roll a protection die (if he has protection) for each successful attack, and add up all the protection. Subtract total protection from total damage, and the result is the higher of this difference or the number of damage dice rolled.

For example, Dynamite Mike and Buster are boxing it out. Mike makes a combined attack of four fight-unarmed contests. Buster doesn't want to defend against all of them, so he reacts to the first one by taking defensive posture, and parrying one more. The parry contest is a success - it's higher than Mike's highest fight-unarmed contest. So the GM tells Mike to roll one damage die, and Buster to roll one protection die. Mike gets 6 and Buster gets 1, so Buster takes 5 physical damage. Buster succeeded on his parry, so there is no second die of damage. Then the GM asks for two more damage rolls from Mike, and two protection from Buster, to resolve the last two attacks. Mike rolls two dice and the result is 3, while Buster takes half (half on a 1d4 is 2) for a total of 4. 3 damage minus 4 protection is -1, for a minimum of 2. Since Buster moved to defensive posture, the damage result would be divided by 2 again, but since damage is already at its minimum level of one per die, Buster takes 2 more physical damage.[/sblock]

That's a nice character sheet. How did you make it?

I whipped that sucker up in Photoshop. Lots of layers. Luckily, Modos character sheets don't need to be complicated.

Note the blank box in the upper-right corner: that's specifically designed for 16-bit, 32 by 32 pixel renderings, Final Fantasy style, of your character. Sure, you could just sketch something with a pencil or draw a stick figure, but what fun would that be?

@ DMMike

Cool. I got photoshop I should see what I can whip up for my game. I've never done pixel art before so who knows how that would be. I have been known to put pen to paper a time or two.

http://meatboy.deviantart.com/

Meatboy said:

@ DMMike

Cool. I got photoshop I should see what I can whip up for my game. I've never done pixel art before so who knows how that would be. I have been known to put pen to paper a time or two.

http://meatboy.deviantart.com/

Click to expand...

Nice! Consider yourself hired for the Modos RPG cover art. Unfortunately, all I can pay you is an artist credit in the rulebook. And probably a special thanks.

All General Conflict rules are now posted. Here's the beginning of Physical Conflict - or combat.

Subchapter 8: Physical Conflict

It always comes down to this, if your game-group has a little pent-up anger. Physical conflict, generally known as "combat," is the tactical attack-and-maneuver that determines who loses, and who walks away. Modos RPG makes combat a little abstract, which blurs some lines, but gives players the flexibility to do some creative things with their characters. This section discusses physical damage, positioning in combat, special combat actions, range, and the gear of war (armor and weapons).

Physical Damage[sblock]
Since damage is the goal of combat, it is the first thing to discuss. The physical ability is very abstract; it is best described as a character's physical presence in the world. Since physical damage must be defined in terms of the physical ability, it is equally abstract. The simple way to understand physical damage is to see it as anything that brings a character closer to physical death. This can include, but is not limited to: injury, exhaustion, freezing, burning, poison, disease, and bleeding.

The best way to avoid physical damage is to prevent it. This protection can be provided by equipment or spells, but whatever the source, physical protection is represented by a die that gets rolled against every physical damage die, reducing the result. Since a damage source and protection source don't always match up, for example full plate mail isn't much good at protection against disease, the GM should adjudicate appropriately. But in the heat of battle, it's faster just to roll all the dice (or take half), do the math, and worry about the results later.

The next best way to avoid physical damage is to heal it. Natural healing, the removal of physical damage from the physical damage pool, occurs at a rate of 1 point per day. The GM is free to increase this rate if a character gets full bed rest or has another feature that would help him heal faster. Remember that physical damage doesn't necessarily reflect wounds or injuries, so one point of healing per day need not mean that an individual wound has closed up.
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Combat Posture[sblock]
Where a character stands in combat matters. If he's standing toe-to-toe with the enemy, he's likely to get hit a lot. If he's keeping distance, or putting some cover between himself and the enemy, he is more likely to live longer. These conditions, and more, are represented by combat posture.

In combat (and, less frequently, mental and metaphysical conflict) each character has a posture. This posture is an abstract statement of how aggressive a character is behaving. There are two primary postures: offensive and defensive. Since there are usually two sides to a fight, there will be four postures, or rows, in a battle: two for the PCs, and two for the NPCs. Movement between postures usually takes a single movement skill action.

Offensive posture, or the front row, describes when a character is close to, or assaulting, the enemy. Offensive posture is a great place for all types of attacks, since it's your closest position to the enemy. However, it's not the best for defense, since it's your closest position to the enemy! In this posture, melee and unarmed attacks deal 100% damage to offensive enemies, and 50% damage to defensive enemies. Magic and missile attacks deal 100% damage to both offensive and defensive enemies (see Table 8-2: Posture Chart).

Defensive posture, or the back row, describes when a character is taking precautions to avoid being hit. Defensive posture can represent anything involving defensive positioning, such as hiding behind a dumpster, staying behind allies, or going prone. In this posture, melee and unarmed attacks deal 50% damage to offensive enemies, and 0% (zero) damage to defensive enemies. Missile and magic attacks deal 100% damage to offensive enemies, and 50% damage to defensive enemies (see Table 8-2: Posture Chart). Characters in defensive posture cannot remain there indefinitely; if one side of a battle has no front row, or loses its last combatant in the front row, that entire side is then treated as being in offensive posture.



Table 8-2: Posture Chart

When a conflict begins, the GM should have an idea of where everyone is just before they roll initiative. If there is a lot of space between the two parties, both sides may begin in defensive posture, and the GM should hold the front rows open long enough to give close-combat fighters a chance to move up. If it's reasonable that someone on either side is close enough to do 100% damage, put that character, and anyone near him, in offensive posture. Finally, if anyone started combat with a favorable defensive position, like standing near cover, or on top of a hill, put that character and those near him in defensive posture.

To end conflict, a character may decide to flee. Fleeing can be done only from defensive posture. To flee, a character must make a movement or sneak contest, and succeed against anyone trying to restrain him. Characters leaving the front row can be restrained with movement, fight-unarmed, or similar contests. Characters fleeing from the back row generally require magic, nets, or something more sinister to keep them in the battle.
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Special Postures[sblock]
A special posture exists for those combatants using terrestrial mounts, called "mounted" posture. When mounted, e.g. riding a horse, a character uses the following rules. Mounted characters use offensive and defensive postures as normal. However, a mounted character can use a handle animal action to charge defensive enemies, which allows him to make a single melee or unarmed attack against defensive enemies at 100% damage. A mount does not get a turn: it only acts when the rider first uses a handle animal action. If the rider wishes to allow the mount to attack, he must use a handle animal action, and the mount then takes a single action as though it were a normal combatant (similar to a reserve action during the rider's handle animal action) in offensive or defensive posture. While mounted, a rider may use the mount's movement skill in place of his own. Entering mounted posture from offensive or defensive posture requires a movement action.

Another special posture is for dragon riders, giant eagles, or airborne mages: flying. Characters who are flying take offensive or defensive postures as normal. However, changing posture while flying requires two movement actions, and the flying character can move to any posture he wants, including flanking postures. Flying creatures in defensive posture do not need to maintain a front row; they can remain defensive without one.

A flanking posture, or pincer attack, is a fifth or sixth row of combat. Flanking is what happens when a new offensive posture begins behind one side's defensive posture. This new posture treats their opponents' defensive posture as offensive, and the opponents' offensive posture as defensive, as shown in the following chart.
Table 8-3: Flanking Posture

A pincer attack can happen at the start of battle, if one side sneaks up on the other side. Without sneaking, the defenders always move to avoid a flank. If the battle starts with four rows, one side can create a flank by sneaking forces around its enemies. This requires fleeing, and successful sneak contests to see if the flankers are successful. One side can avoid a flank with successful detect contests. Once flanked, a character must flee through enemy lines to escape. To do so, the character picks a side through which to flee. He must succeed on two flee actions, and the enemy rows through which he chooses to flee are both treated as offensive posture, which gives them more tools to prevent the flight. The enemies on the opposite side are all treated as defensive, meaning they must use ranged means of preventing escape if they choose to do so. If the fleeing character fails one of the fleeing contests, his posture doesn't change: he remains where he chose to flee in the first place.

Obstacles are not a special posture per se; but they add effects to the battlefield that affect postures. Some obstacles slow characters down - which increases the number of move actions to change posture, or requires a certain level of movement contest for successful movement. Some obstacles just provide cover, potentially making offensive posture impossible. Others, like chasms or cliffs, prevent all close combat, which could prevent one side of the battle from having a front row, but allow a front row to the other side. Perhaps most dreaded is the dead-end: the defensive posture of one side cannot flee, but must instead try to breach enemy ranks as though they were flanked. There are no hard rules for obstacles, but GMs should include them on occasion to make combat more interesting.
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Range[sblock]
In Modos RPG, "almost" counts in horse shoes, hand grenades, ice wind spells, and explosive arrows. While exact distance between two points is rarely measured, there are several range categories that apply to ranged weapons and magic spells, making range useful, but not tedious. Time needed to move between ranges is up to the GM, but a general rule is to multiply each previous movement by two: one movement between close and short, two between short and medium, four between medium and long.

Close range: this is toe-to-toe distance. Close range is where melee takes place, where someone could hit you with a weapon at any time. Close range represents the distance between two adjacent rows in combat.

Short range: this is the boundary of most conflict. It's a good distance for using thrown weapons, bows, and pistols. Voices can be heard clearly at short range, and spells with a range of "short" can target anyone in defensive or offensive posture.

Medium range: opponents are just outside combat at this range. This is a good range for some spells and rifles, but melee weapons and thrown weapons are useless. Voices can still be heard at medium range, and this is where characters go when fleeing and flanking.

Long range: opponents could disappear from long range at any time. Bows cannot fire past this range, and magic spells generally become simple lightshows beyond here. Voices cannot be heard at long range, but high-powered rifles can!
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Weapons and Armor[sblock]
Weapons are physical tools used to damage things. Armor is the natural response, the protection, used to prevent damage. Using either in combat requires some special considerations.

Unarmed attacks: every character can make unarmed attacks. These are the bites, kicks, punches, claws, and head-butts. Unless otherwise improved, these attacks do 1d4 physical damage. Unarmed attacks cannot be used as multiple or double weapons, because extra effort and care are needed to get within striking range of an opponent.

Improvised weapons: some things are not supposed to be weapons, but they can do some damage if you're desperate. These do 1d4 damage, or more if they're heavy. However, the heavier a non-weapon is, the more difficulty that should be penalized to fight contests made with the object.

Missile weapons: these are most effective at close and short range. They can be used at medium or long range, but like with magic spells, distance penalties should apply to their attack contests. If medium or long range targets have no cover, the GM may allow 100% damage dealing. The downside to using missile weapons in combat is that they need to be reloaded, and they have limited ammunition. Thrown weapons take one action (move or fight) to ready another throwing weapon. Slings and bows take one action to reload, crossbows take two actions, and simple firearms take three actions to reload.

Multiple weapons: if a character isn't using a shield on his shield-arm, he has the option of using another weapon. Since heavy weapons require two hands, a character can use a medium weapon, or lighter, in his other hand. This secondary weapon grants him one extra fight action each round, to be made with only the secondary weapon. Double weapons are intended for making multiple attacks, so they also grant an extra attack as multiple weapons do.

Shield protection: shields prevent characters from taking damage. They do this by increasing a character's parry skill: his ability to avoid damage. This means that characters get no benefit from shields unless they reserve parry actions for using them.

Armor physical penalty: as armor gets heavier or more cumbersome, it offers more protection in exchange for a lower physical ability. Wearing light armor reduces a character's physical ability by 1, medium armor by 2, and heavy armor by 3. These losses are restored immediately after removing the armor.[/sblock]

Subchapter 8: Mental Conflict

Conflict need not be all about swords and shields. Debates, courtship, psionics, and bard songs all follow a different drummer called mental conflict. It follows similar damage and protection rules as physical conflict, but first things first; if you're going to get into mental conflict with someone, it starts with detection.

Detecting[sblock]
This is the one skill that provides multiple ways to find enemies. Detect can include everything from spotting a note, to searching a crime scene, to sensing an alien presence. Saavy players will recognize detect as a good way to convey character concept, and earn extra hero points because of its ambiguity.

Detecting is easy: say how you want to detect, and roll the skill. If you beat the difficulty, or your opponent's sneak contest, you'll get an idea that there's something there. Succeed by enough degrees of success, and you might know exactly where your opponent is. Since you can't search for something if you don't think it's there, the GM will sometimes make your detect contest for you. Once you've detected an opponent, you are considered to have awareness.
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Awareness[sblock]
To be able to react to an opponent, or to avoid being surprised, a character must have awareness of that opponent. Characters are normally aware of all opponents, unless someone or one side of a conflict was being sneaky.

If you are unaware of your opponent, you cannot use reserve actions during his turn. You gain awareness when he contacts you, when an ally uses a relevant action to make you aware, or when you succeed on a detect contest against him. You can be aware of invisible opponents, but having limited sensory information of them can make contests against them challenging (or worse).
Being unaware of your opponents in conflict can lead to being surprised (see general conflict rules).
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Mental Damage[sblock]
When a character goes insane, passes out, feels disturbed, or gets groggy, he's taking mental damage. It has different forms, but when a character reaches max mental damage, he goes unconscious (see Characters chapter).

Mental damage can come from different sources, but the most common ones are physical weapons designed to cause unconsciousness (like saps and whips), and magic spells. Physical weapons use fight contests and the physical ability, but the defender can choose, as usual, the most relevant skill for opposition. This could be parry, or it could be concentration. The player is free to choose, since the player is in charge of the character's concept. If the defense contest fails, the defender does not get to use physical protection to protect against mental damage; he must use whatever mental protection he has.

Spells can cause mental damage as well. These are normally defended with the
concentration skill, but it definitely helps to have mental armor (see the enlightened perk).

Healing mental damage is similar to healing physical damage: all it takes is the passage of time. Characters heal one point of mental damage every hour, unless they're unconscious. Recovering from unconsciousness has special requirements as decided by the GM.[/sblock]

Subchapter 8: Metaphysical Conflict

The truly enlightened can use metaphysical conflict to reach higher levels of Nirvana. But normal characters just use it to avoid becoming catatonic, impress strangers, gather followers, and cast magic spells.

Metaphysical Damage[sblock]
Metaphysical damage pools don't get a lot of attention. They're mostly threatened by heavy spellcasting and gnarly undead creatures. Metaphysical damage represents a weakening of the soul, or a loss of presence. Luckily, healing metaphysical damage is just as easy as healing mental damage; it takes just one hour to heal one point of MP damage. If that's not fast enough, a good concentration contest will increase hourly recovery to two points (see Skills). Note that a catatonic character, one at max metaphysical damage, does not heal MP damage at the normal rate without GM approval.

Preventing MP damage is no simple feat. A spellcaster can reduce some damage with the casting endurance perk, but further metaphysical protection is a higher-dimension secret.
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NPC Disposition[sblock]
How PCs react to other PCs and NPCs is up to the players. But how NPCs react to PCs and other NPCs can be a bit more complicated. There are five states of disposition:

- Helpful. The character tries to help his friends.
- Friendly. The character is nice, but not helpful.
- Indifferent. The character doesn't lean either way.
- Unfriendly. The character dislikes another.
- Hostile. The character is out to hurt someone.

The GM should decide at what level NPCs begin feeling toward the PCs when they meet. Several factors should be considered: like the PCs' reputation, their intentions, their appearance, and the NPC's mood - just to name a few. To determine starting disposition randomly, first determine if the NPC is intelligent or unintelligent:

Intelligent: the PC rolls a metaphysical contest against the NPC. The PC's degrees of success determine how friendly or helpful the NPC is. The PC's degrees of failure determine how unfriendly or hostile the NPC is.
Unintelligent: these creatures never begin an encounter feeling friendly or helpful. The PC rolls a metaphysical contest against the NPC. Success means that the NPC is indifferent, failure means that the NPC is hostile.

The PCs can use conflict rules to improve NPC attitudes. This can be as simple as a persuade contest versus a willpower or another persuade contest. Or the characters can engage in a battle of wills, with each skill they use allowing another 1d6 friend-points (damage) against the opponent's MP ability. In this example, losing doesn't cause the catatonic condition; it just indicates which character improves his attitude by one step first.
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Allies[sblock]
Since there's safety in numbers, there are several ways for Modos RPG characters to get allies to help them in their conflicts. These allies are, listed by ease of acquisition: hirelings, pets, followers, and cohorts.

Hirelings: someone you pay to do your bidding is a hireling. Characters can have as many hirelings as they can afford, but a hireling can't be trusted once the money runs out. Sometimes this happens before the money runs out.

Pets: pets can be bought or found, and they generally follow orders because they're trained to do so. Making good handle animal contests can determine how much your pet loves you. You can increase your pet's level (and that of all subsequent pets) with the heroic companion perk. Pets become a sort of magical creature with the familiar perk, which can give them human, or super-human, intelligence.

Followers: these people are after more than your money. They want your attention, to share your goals, and to follow your example. Followers are generally acquired with fame or power. They'll do your bidding, but followers are usually amateur or professional level, and they definitely won't put their lives on the line for you, nor give you much money. Level times metaphysical ability score is a good guideline for your number of followers. However, characters should reach paragon level (4) before attracting any followers.

Cohorts: perhaps the best kind of ally, the cohort is powerful and faithful. Your cohort is your right-hand man, your faithful sidekick. You cannot buy a cohort like you buy a pet; cohorts must be earned by using both character concept and campaign theme. Once you get a cohort, you can raise his level with the heroic companion perk. While your cohort cannot get hero points, he may use yours if you're willing to share.
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Magical Conflict[sblock]
Casting spells in combat is just as easy as thrusting a spear, as long as you have read the spell that you wish to cast. This is because spells use actions, sometimes multiple actions, just like any other skill. It is worthwhile, though, to understand the details of the spell being cast, because it can have subtle, or blatant, effects on the outcome.

This section will discuss the casting of spells in combat, defending against these spells, counterspelling, and the interaction of two or more spells.
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Casting Spells[sblock]
The following are the steps used in spellcasting.
1) The caster must have specific knowledge of the spell being cast (see Skills chapter). This can be avoided by having certain perks.
2) The caster must have an action available for each spellcasting action of the spell. Only 1-action spells may be cast as reserve actions. If the caster does not have enough physical or mental actions available, he may use metaphysical actions instead.
3) The caster combines actions if necessary, and rolls a cast spell contest. A spell with more than one action can be cast only during the spellcaster's turn. If several casting actions are combined, keep only the highest cast spell result. Subtract the spell's difficulty from the contest. The result will be used multiple times before the spell ends.
4) A spell's contest must be higher than 10, or it does not take effect. If the contest is not higher than 10, the actions used to cast the spell are lost, but the spellcaster does not follow any further spellcasting steps.
5) A successfully cast spell deals 1d8 + spell level in MP damage to the caster, called casting damage. This can be reduced only by the casting endurance perk. This loss of MP health is what turns the spell into reality, so damage of 0 or less would not be enough to manifest a spell. If the casting damage puts the caster at max metaphysical damage, the spell may still take effect at the GM's discretion, but might not last longer than one round if the GM decides that the caster cannot take mental actions. See step #, regarding maintaining spells.
6) The "effect" of the spell takes place immediately, unless the spell description states otherwise. Everyone described as a "target" of the spell feels the effects.
7) If the spell deals damage, that damage occurs during each casting action unless the spell description states otherwise. This damage is dealt as though the spell were a weapon, so defenders can attempt to defend against each damage die, and undefended damage is still subject to protection. Since this damage occurs as the caster casts the spell, defenders cannot reduce the damage by defending on subsequent rounds. The first casting action listed in each spell description is tied to the ability used to defend against the spell. Spell damage is reduced by 50% when the caster is in defensive posture and the spell's targets are also in defensive posture.
8) If the spell has an effect other than damage, that effect also occurs immediately. However, once a target of the spell makes a successful defense against the spell, he becomes subject to the spell's half-effect, and no longer feels the full effect.
9) The spell ends at the beginning of the caster's next turn unless he starts his next turn with a maintain action to continue the spell. Maintain actions are mental actions that use the original cast spell contest if a character contests it.
10) A maintained spell continues to affect all targets unless those targets succeed on a number of defense contests equal to the number of casting actions used by the spell. Even if the caster maintains the spell longer, anyone who makes the required defenses goes unaffected by the spell.
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Additional Spellcasting Information[sblock]
Magic spells can be cast by anyone with a singl e point in the corresponding cast spell skill, and the full amount of casting actions available each round. This means, for example, that a third level character can cast a sixth level spell, if the character has taken enough perks to have six actions per round. This wouldn't be the best idea for the character though, because a sixth level spell deals 1d8 + 6 casting damage, which could be enough to render him catatonic. Furthermore, the spell will not have an effect if the spell's difficulty reduces the caster's contest to 10 or lower.

Spells can be cast out of combat. The casting action requirement still applies, and is still a requirement of how many actions a character could use during his turn. It's true that a first level character, not in conflict, could chain together 20 actions, but since he can't use all those actions during one turn, he will not be casting any level 20 magic spells.

Spells can be countered. Counterspelling is the use of one spell to negate another. This doesn't require a special rule so much as it requires creative usage of the core rules and some GM imagination. The dispel spell (level 3) ends a spell if its contest is higher than the target spell. Since dispel takes three actions to cast, it can be cast only during the caster's turn. To use it as a counterspell, a caster would use the delay action, and take his turn after the turn of the caster who cast the spell to be counterspelled. He would then cast dispel to attempt to counter the spell. Alternatively, a caster could use first level spells to counter higher level spells as they were being cast. For example, if a caster uses a 4th level fire spell, a counterspeller could cast four 1st-level ice spells, one during each fire spell casting action, into the same area to counter the spell. This would require GM approval, and reasonable cast spell (ice) contests from the counterspeller.

Spells can overlap. This is known as spell coincidence. Generally, overlapping spells should take effect as normal. If the spells are mutually exclusive, the spell with a higher contest takes priority. If the spells are diametrically opposed, the GM should treat them as counterspells (see above). More rarely, coinciding spells can have strange or dangerous results (rule zero).[/sblock]

Chapter 9: Bestiary

Welcome to the Modos RPG bestiary! The word is used loosely, because here you'll find more than just beasts. Warmechs, villains, household pets, planar entities, and gods are all fair game here. And if you don't find it here, this chapter provides rules on drawing it up yourself.

A vocabulary note: monster, creature, enemy, and opponent are all used more or less interchangably in this chapter. Whatever the term, they all refer to NPCs (PCs are described in the Characters chapter). So without further ado, let's get down to business.

Designing Monsters[sblock]
The monsters in the "common" monsters list have all been designed with the MCS (monster creation system) that follows. After the MCS, you'll find sections on specific, important types of monsters: villains and 1-second monsters.
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Monster Creation System v.1.0[sblock]
Monster creation is a eight-step process. Here are the eight steps, followed by an explanation of all the steps, and a sample monster creation.
1) Create monster concept.
2) Determine ability type.
3) Establish three monster features.
4) Design based on features.
5) Distribute level points.
6) Use perks for balance.
7) Determine level.
8) Review and finish.

1) Create monster concept.
Just like PCs, every monster needs a concept. You don't need every detail here, but enough of an idea to quickly get a feel for the monster and hint at its capabilities.
Example: Werebull. A big, furry humanoid with bull horns and a bad attitude. Has the ability to shapechange into a bull or human.

2) Determine ability type.
Monsters fall into three ability types:
- Minmax. This monster has an outstanding ability, skill, or power, and one ability score will be much higher than the rest. Its ability score ratio is generally 21.
- Balanced. This monster has strengths and weaknesses, and it compensates for its weaknesses. Its ability score ratio is generally 64.
- Average. This monster has no strengths or weaknesses, and only simple features. Its ability score ratio is generally 11.
Example: werebull ability type: minmax. Ability scores: P 16, M 7, MP 7.

3) Establish three monster features.
A good guide for designing monsters is to have three major descriptors for that monster. These are the first things that come to mind when describing the monster, and may come directly from the monster concept, or be somewhere between the lines. Think of them as the three ways this monster can be distinguished from a perfectly average human.
Example: werebull features are bullish, strong, and stupid.

4) Design based on features.
Turning the monster into a Modos RPG character begins with one character feature: either abilities, skills, or perks. Look at the monster features and decide if they are best represented by abilities (the inherent characteristics of the monster), skills (things the monster does well naturally or has learned), or perks (metagame features, or things not represented by abilities or skills). For this purpose, equipment should be considered perks. Generally, as equipment (weapons and armor) increases in power (increases die type), another perk is required/represented.
Example: strong and stupid translate almost directly to ability scores, which is closely modeled in the first set of P 16, M 7, MP 7. Since the werebull is probably stronger than most men, we'll bump his physical up to 18. The mental and metaphysical scores are good for now.

5) Distribute level points.
Take the number of level points in the character feature used for step 4, and spend that many points in each of the remaining two features. A level point is an increase in any one feature: ability scores, skills, or perks.
Example: at first level, every character starts with 10 for each ability score. The werebull has a sum of 32, which is two points above 30 (10 per score), so the werebull has spent 2 level points in ability scores. As a minmax type monster, he'll have one really good feature, which is most likely goring. So let's put his two skill points in fight-unarmed. He'll also have some weaknesses as a minmax, which is currently his low mental score. He'll need some big, ugly horns for fighting, probably d8 damage. That's two perks - bumping natural weapons up by two dice. We'd also like to give him some natural armor, probably d4, but we've spent all of our level points. And we don't enough level points for any shapechanging, either.

6) Use perks for balance.
Perks are character creation wildcards, because they can be used for skill points and ability points as well as normal perks. If the monster you're creating has more ability points or skill points than perks, buying those extra points with perks can help to finish off the monster without making its level excessively high. If the monster's level still seems too high at review (step 8), you can use anti-perks.

An anti-perk is a perk that allows a monster to take another normal perk. These are used when creatures have significant flaws, or things that represent weaknesses that an average human wouldn't have. The most common example of this is a set of ability scores that don't add up to 30, or a weakness best represented by a low ability score. Anti-perks could also be special weaknesses best represented by perks, like taking extra damage from silver weapons, or always recoiling when a holy symbol is first presented. Use anti-perks sparingly, because their intent is to generally make your monster weaker, while providing some sort of balance in the form of another perk.
Example: if the werebull were vulnerable to silver weapons, or had animal-like intelligence, we'd consider using an anti-perk. But it's not necessary for our monster concept.

7) Determine level.
Count the level points in ability scores, skills, and perks. Each ability point above 30, each skill point, and each perk counts as a level point (anti-perks are a negative point). The average number of level points is the monster's current level.
Example: the werebull has two points in ability scores, skills, and perks. He's currently a level 2 monster.

8) Review and finish.
Look at the monster you've created and ask, "does this fit the monster concept?" Another important question is, "does this monster compare, as an appropriate challenge to PCs, to other monsters of the same level?" If the answer to both questions is "yes," then monster creation is successful. If either answer is "no," then go back to step 5 and add features necessary to help the monster measure up, and follow the steps back to this step.

Example: the werebull doesn't yet have shapechanging ability, which might be a first or second level spell, and it still needs natural armor. So we'll cycle through the steps again, adding these features, and then compare the werebull to other monsters before finishing the process.
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Creating Villains[sblock]
Chapter 2 discusses using a villain concept and creative use of villain points. Here are some more stats-related considerations for creating villains.

Villain points, used with all villains, are the counterpart to hero points. There are two differences between villain points and hero points. One is that villain points do not refresh daily like hero points; a villain only gets his points back in each scene, or for each new encounter that the PCs have with him. The other difference is that villain points can be rolled after the roll to which they apply, whereas hero points must be rolled before or during other rolls. The purpose of this is only to add drama to an encounter, for example, to help the dragon notice the party's sneaking halfling, or to help the mad scientist quickly heal his monster. An example of how not to use villain points is to increase a fight contest against a PC when that PC is already near death.

Before using a villain, you should decide how significant he is to the game. If the story can survive without him, consider him a mid-boss, place his level at least two higher than the average PC level, and give him a villain point for every two levels he has. If the story hinges on his existence, consider him an end-boss, make sure he has minions, place his level at least four higher than the average PC level, and give him a villain point for each of his levels. The increase over the PCs' levels is just to encourage the villain to be challenging; otherwise they might brush him aside as if he were just an annoying insurance salesperson.
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One-Second Monsters[sblock]
It seems that your players want to attack your werebull shopkeeper instead of haggle with him. Roll initiative!

It can happen that fast. When you need a monster, or more importantly, some stats to represent a monster, sometimes it's better to use something quickly instead of stopping the game to make or look up a monster. This is when you need a "one-second monster," which can actually take a few more seconds to make, but is designed to be a quick and painless process, with steps as follows:

1) Determine monster level.
The monster already has either a name or concept, otherwise the PCs wouldn't be trying to fight something. Choose a level, using the level titles (table 3-2) for guidance, or set the monster's level equal to the average PC level.

2) Choose the good skill.
Like a teacher, miner, or sprinter, your one-second monster probably does one thing really well. Figure out what that is, and put all of the monster's skill points (equal to its level) in that skill.

3) Choose the good ability.
Your monster's ability scores are 10 and 10. But its good ability score is equal to 10 plus its level. Its modifier in that ability is, in a pinch, half of its level. If the good ability is 15-19, give it another free action. For 20 or higher, give it two extra free actions.

4) Equip and go!
Your monster's weapon and armor each do d8 (damage and protection, respectively), whatever they might be. If you have an extra second, adjust the die by the monster's level like so: d4 at amateur, d6 at professional, d8 at expert, d10 at paragon, and d12 at master. Do not exceed d12.
The one-second monster is far from perfect. But now you have stats to roll, and when you need a perfect monster, you'll take the time to prepare it before the game.
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Common Monsters[sblock]
The following monster list is sorted by alphabetical order, with sub-types and descriptors following the type name. Numbers in parenthesis indicate the total applicable modifier.
Name: Werebull
Level: 5
P, M, MP: 18, 7, 10
Skills:
Cast spell (alter) +1
Fight-unarmed +3 (+7)
Parry +1 (+5)
Perks: longstrider, always mounted, natural weapon x 2, natural armor
Gear: natural weapon (horns) d8, natural armor (hide) d4
Concept: ...
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