Damage Effects
Bleeding: Bleeding damage is done in the form of Bleed Counters.
At each Upkeep, Any affected by Bleed Counters takes Damage equal to the number of Bleed Counters.
At each Upkeep, after Bleed Counters have done damage: Remove half of Bleed Counters rounded down.
Hemorrhaging: Hemorrhaging damage is done in the form of Hemorrhage Counters.
At each Upkeep, any affected by Hemorrhaging Counters takes damage equal to 3x the number of Hemorrhage Counters.
At each Upkeep, after Hemorrhage Counters have done damage: Remove One Hemorrhage Counter.
Exsanguination: Exsanguination removes of Bleed Counters and Hemorrhage Counters.
Remove all Bleed Counters and deal 2 damage per counter removed.
Remove all Hemorrhage Counters and deal 5 damage per counter removed.
Stunned: (v:X) Victims of Stun lose their next X Action Slots.
Agony: Victims of Agony take a -4 Penalty to all Stress Checks or must pay 1 additional Stress to activate Static Stress Effects.
Frostbite: Victims of Frostbite become Maimed in the affected Limb.
Slow: (1/4 to 1/2) The affected loses a quarter or half of their Action Slots for the duration of the Slow.
If the affected has Reserved Slots, they immediately lose a quarter or half of them, as the effect applies.
Weakness: (1 to 10) The weak take multiplied damage.
Resistance: (1 to 10) The Resistant take divided damage.
Damage Types
Physical Damage
Cutting: Wide open wounds that cause Bleeding.
Penetrating: Deep wounds that cause Hemorrhaging.
Ripping: Perilous wounds that cause Exsanguination.
Striking: Damage from heavy impacts and hard chops.
Elemental Damage
Shocking: Those affected by Shocking Effects may be Stunned.
Scorching: Those affected by Scorching Effects may suffer Agony.
Freezing: Those affected by Freezing may suffer accelerated Frostbite and Slow.
Erosion: (1 to 10) Damage against Constructs, Objects, Weapons, and Armor are multiplied.
Special Damage Types
Biological: These Effects when triggered affect the victim based on their Vitality: Resistance
Corrosive: Most Corrosive effects deal massive damage against Constructs, Objects, Items and Equipment.
Designer Effects: Specialized damage effects are governed by their Effect description.
Divine: (1 to 10) Damage against Weakness: Divine is multiplied.
Damage against Resistance: Divine is divided.
Diabolical: (1 to 10) Damage against Weakness: Diabolical is multiplied.
Damage against Resistance: Diabolical is divided.
Effect Tree Progression
At level One we get to unlock one Core Effect Tree.
Beyond that we may spend experience points to unlock more Root Effects, Leaf Effects, or Crown Effects.
The barriers for unlocking Effect Trees are written into their entries.
Mastery unlocks the Root Effects associated with the Talents in our Core Effect Trees.
We may also spend our Experience, xps, to unlock additional Root Effects.
Branch Effects are unlocked by getting the prerequisite Mastery in Root Effects.
In many cases a certain amount of Mastery is required from multiple Root Effects to unlock a Branch Effect.
Leaf Effects are only available once a Branch Effect is unlocked.
Each Branch Effect has a pre-determined Number of Leaf Slots.
Leaf Slots may be upgrades or unrelated to the Roots & Branches.
Leaf Effects cost xps to learn.
Leaf Effects may be discarded by going through Abscission.
Crown Effects are the ultimate abilities in Vaia and cost a significant amount of Experience, xps, to unlock.
It is common to fill the tree with Leaf Effects, then go through Abscission to regain the experience needed to unlock a Crown Effect.
Unlock by Study or Apprenticeship: Some Effect Trees may be unlocked by reading special books or receiving special training.
These can not be Reserialized to gain experience.
Effect Tree Reserialization
Abscission is a voluntary discarding of Leaf Effects to regain xps.
Abscission usually takes up to a week and one day, (v:8), and is commonly done to learn Crown Effects.
Epiphany: An epiphany is when we discard enough Leaf Effects to learn a Root or Crown Effect instantly.
An Epiphany causes 5 Mental Stress.
This may only be done to learn one Effect at a time.
Pruning: We can regain spent xps by Pruning Root Effects or Crown Effects.
Pruning leaves us Vulnerable for (v:4) days.
Any Branch Effects associated with Root Effects that are Pruned are also lost.
Only one Effect may be Pruned at a time.
Core Effect Trees can not be pruned.
Effect Trees
Nurturing and mastering Effect Trees allow our characters to do the impossible. From our Core Effect Tree that loosely defines our characters Archetype and gives us a a basis of the kind of back story our character may have had, to the devastating and world altering Crown Effects, our choices in how we grow help us shape our fantasy.
Core Effect Tree: The core sets of Effects our characters can choose at level One. When we choose our Core Effect Tree, we unlock all of the Talents and Boons associated with it.
Talents: These special abilities have a Mastery Potential of 3. When they are mastered, the character unlocks the Root Effect associated with the Talent.
Boons: Boons are items, equipment, or real estate granted by a Core Effect Tree.
Initializing Active Phase
An encounter begins with an (v:20 Awareness) check, this check determines the Active Phase Cycle order.
In cases where multiple players have the same Awareness result, they gain their Action Slots simultaneously.
Non-Player Characters do not go in the Active Phase Cycle. The Story Guide uses special rules for NPC actions.
Stay Action: A player with a higher Awareness roll may choose to start their Active Phase later in the Full Round, but once their place is assigned in the Active Phase Cycle it can't be changed.
Initialization Actions: Some Effects may only be used during initialization. These are applied or resolved before the beginning of the first Active Phase Cycle.
Full Round: The Repeating Cycle
A Full Round is Five seconds.
The Full Round begins when the character with the highest Awareness Result gains their Action Slots and starts their Active Phase.
They may use or convert their Action Slots to Reserved Slots.
Once they have used or converted their Action Slots into Reserved Slots, the next person in the Active Phase Cycle gains their Action Slots.
When the character who is last in the cycle either uses or discards their Action Slots the Full Round ends.
All Reserved Action Slots at this point are lost to Hesitation, and the Story Guide begins Upkeep.
Taking Action
Active Phase Cycle: Once Awareness is determined and an order is made of who goes when from highest to lowest, we list everyone in the Active Phase Cycle. Those who rolled the same (v:20 Awareness) gain their Action Slots simultaneously.
The last character’s Active Phase before Upkeep is called the Final Phase.
All Actions taken at this point, before the last character uses or discards their Action Slots, cost Four times as many Action Slots to activate, aka, Final Phase Actions.
Slots not used are discarded due to Hesitation.
Slot availability: Characters gain their Action Slots at the beginning of the Active Phase.
Until a player gains their Action Slots in the current Full Round and has Reserved Slots, they cannot move or react to other's actions.
Action Slots: All players have a base of (5 +/- Agility) Action Slots per Full Round.
Abilities, Equipment, and some special effects may modify the total number of Action Slots a character has at their disposal in a round.
Reserved Action Slots: If a character does not use all of their Action Slots and ends their Active Phase, all remaining Action Slots become Reserve Slots.
Only skills and abilities that clearly state they may be used with Reserved Slots may be executed with Reserved Action Slots.
Many abilities will have different costs depending on whether they are used in Active Phase, Reserved Phase, or Final Phase.
Interrupting Interjections or Active Phase Actions is possible only if the possibility is highlighted in the Effect used.
Executions and Knockouts of Vulnerable targets with Reserved or Final Phase Slots will interrupt their action.
Non-standard action lengths: Actions that are normally considered as part of another action consume one action slot if more than one character has to interact with the objective or object.
Combo actions: Some Effects require multiple characters to both have active Action Slots or Reserved Slots and be within a certain proximity to each other to be usable.
In these cases, the active character spends their Action Slots in order to initiate the action, and the other character(s) spend their Reserve Slots to finish the action.
Multi-Round Actions: There are many instances where we might take multiple rounds to perform an action.
They have to use their Action Slots to begin the action, and will use their gained action slots in the next Full Round in the Active Phase to complete the action.
If any Effect would cause them to not be able to finish the action between this round and the next, they lose the Action Slots spent.
What ever (v:X) rolls attributed to the action still take place at Activation.
Even with a successful check, Multi-Round Actions may still be interrupted.
In some cases, Multi-Round Actions are interruptible. Effects are resolved at the end of spending the Action Slots.
All rolls attributed to these actions are resolved once all the Action Slots to use the ability are spent on the Full Round of their conclusion.
Upkeep
At the end of a Full Round, the Game Master and Players go through the upkeep process.
During Upkeep all of the following mechanics are resolved, as well as any outsider mechanics that use Upkeep to resolve.
Round countdown - Any actions, buffs, or debuffs that have a duration tick down by one or resolve.
Damage and Healing over time effects activate during Upkeep.
Encounter Outro
Once all threats are played out, the Story Guide may choose to run outro in a few different ways.
One is All Resolve, the other is the Slow Burn.
All Resolve: Is the easy way out. We end all combat effects immediately, leave the Active Phase Cycle, and clean the board. This is a cut the show to move things into the next scene.
Slow Burn: On the other hand we will continue to go through rounds, allowing players to volunteer up to their available Action Slots each round to work together to resolve an issue, and the Upkeeps keep coming.
Slow Burn Notes: Stronger poisons and bleeding effects can still kill a character if left untreated. A heal over time effect can be added up to figure out how much is regenerated. Attempting to revive a downed or dead character is a good reason to go through a Slow Burn.
Awakening
We begin the game at level One (1) with 10 Experience and 19 Power Points.
You begin with a Moln Credit Account and a Crew-K card with (5v:100+300) Credits (c400 to c800)
You begin with (v:6) Royal Stamped Coins, and (v:10) Common Stamped Coins
You get to choose One and only One Core Effect Tree.
Don’t forget, since you have 10 EXP to spend, you might choose unlock an additional Root Effect.
Experience
Players level up and strengthen their characters directly through gameplay.
We begin the game at level One (1) with 10 Experience.
The characters level is determined by their total experience.
Our maximum Level is 100, and our maximum Experience is 1,000
Our Level equals Total Experience divided by Ten. (Level = Total EXP/10)
The successful conclusion of a challenging encounter grants one experience point.
Experience may be spent unlocking new Effects, this does not reduce total experience.
Achievements and Entitlements may also reward experience.
Attribute Power Points
At Awakening we gain 19 Power Points to spend on our Attributes any way we want.
At each level we gain 2 additional Power Points to spend on our Attributes.
At level 100 we have 217 Total Power Points.
Starting above level One we have 17+Level Power Points.
Attribute Cost per Point:
Strength: 2
Strength Score Range: 0 to 30
Agility: (-3 to 0 costs 3)(0 to 3 costs 6)(4 to 7 costs 11)
Agility Score Range: -3 to 7
Awareness: 3
Awareness Score Range: 0 to 20
Accuracy: (-3 to 0 costs 3)(0 to 3 costs 6)(4 to 7 costs 11)
Accuracy Score Range: -3 to 7
Vitality: 1
Vitality Score Range: 1 to 100
Physical Stress
Physical Stress is measured 0 to 10
Physical Stress is the main resource for Physical Effects.
We track it in the same column as we do Hit Points on our character sheets.
Burnout: Reaching 10 Physical Stress causes the character Physical Burnout - Strained.
Physical Burnout - Strained: On reaching 10 Physical Stress after Effect Activation the character loses 20% of their total Hit Points.
This loss of Hit Points potentially causes them to be Vulnerable if Hit Points drop to 0.
They become “Maimed: Strained” for (v:4) days. Any time during those (v:4) days that they use an ability that may cause Physical Stress, they lose 10% of their total Hit Points and add one day to their recovery time.
Mental Stress
Mental Stress is measured 0 to 10
Mental Stress is the main resource for Mental Effects.
We track it in the same column as we do Hit Points on our character sheets.
Burnout: Reaching 10 Mental Stress causes the character Mental Burnout - Seizure.
Mental Burnout - Seizure: On reaching 10 Mental Stress prior to Effect Activation the character drops to 0 Hit Points and become Vulnerable.
They Seize out, Dropping Prone and remaining Stunned for (v:6) Full Rounds.
After the Seizure, they remain Mind Fogged for the next 6 Full Rounds, unable to use Effects that cause Mental Stress.
After the Mind Fog, Mental Stress drops back to 9/10 and normal Relaxation Rules Apply.