This is
Abnormal Investigators, an RTD adventure where characters are given a mission to investigate Abnormalities. Obviously. You and your team of self-identified experts will do whatever it takes to make sure that these abnormalities don’t affect the general populace, up to and including your own death.
To join the game, please fill out the provided Character Sheet with any relevant information.
This game uses a somewhat standard d6 system. Actions will be determined by a simple roll of the die, and the riskier your actions, the better (or worse) you are rewarded:
1: You fail horrifically. Your action fails, and you are set back further than you started.
2: You fail. Your actions are futile, and you find the outcome severely lacking.
3: You partially succeed. You get some of what you were looking for.
4: You succeed. You are rewarded for your attempt, and gain progress depending on how risky your actions were.
5: You succeed amazingly. You do what it is you set out to do and more!
6: You succeed detrimentally. You definitely accomplished what you wanted, but your actions resulted in a worse situation than you intended.
Additionally, due to modifiers, it is entirely possible that you roll a number besides these. In that case, the results are as follows:
0-: You fail catastrophically. Your actions didn’t just fail, though. They resulted in the worst possible outcome for you. Your life just became miserable.
7+: You succeed through any means necessary. You sacrificed for this success, and you were absolutely not rewarded for those efforts.
During each Turn, you may perform an Action or Help another Player. Your Action can be pretty much anything you wish, though they may not be entirely possible to accomplish. If you wish to Help a Player, your rolls will be combined, taking the higher of the two.
These rules are subject to change between Missions.
Inevitably, you will involve yourself in a fight because not all Abnormalities are peaceful.
During combat, only the Player rolls for Dodge and Attacks. Attack Rolls will use whatever Weapon Skill you are using as well as any Stat Modifiers associated with it. Dodge rolls will use your Muscle, Grace, Body, or Power, depending on the type of Attack.
Players can take 7 Wounds plus 1 more for each point of Body (or minus 1 for each negative point) before dying, to a minimum of 2 and a maximum of 12.
At 4 Wounds, Players are Moderately Injured.
At 8 Wounds, Players are Critically Injured.
At 12 Wounds, Players are Gravely Injured.
At 16 Wounds, Players are Beyond Saving.
Getting more than 16 Wounds will always kill you.
Injury penalties stack, and are as follows:
While Moderately Injured, 2 has an additional chance to be rolled.
While Critically Injured, 1 and 2 have an additional chance to be rolled.
While Gravely Injured, 0, 1, and 2 have an additional chance to be rolled.
While Beyond Saving, you cannot be healed, and you have 7 additional chances to roll 0.
All stats go from -6 to 6, though modifiers can make them higher or lower. At the beginning of the game, all stats start at 0. You may distribute up to an additional 12 points any way you like.
-7: Always 0. Cannot be modified.
-6: Roll twice, take 6 or the lowest outcome.
-5: Reroll once on 1-5.
-4: Reroll once on 2-5.
-3: Reroll once on 3-5.
-2: Reroll once on 4 and 5.
-1: Reroll once on 5.
0: No modifiers.
1: Reroll once on 1.
2: Reroll once on 1 and 2.
3: Reroll once on 1-3.
4: Reroll once on 1-4.
5: Reroll once on 1-5.
6: Roll twice, take the highest outcome.
7: Always 7. Cannot be modified.
Stats higher or lower than +/-7 are probably a problem for someone else!
Muscle
That which requires strength requires Muscle. Running, jumping, hitting, climbing, fighting… It’s all there. If you’re fighting on the front lines, this stat will be important to you.
Grace
Muscle is for brutes. Grace is far more flexible, agile, and dextrous, it allows you to stealthy, and controls how well you can use ranged weaponry, and also affects your capability to dodge.
Charm
Pretty words and flowery gestures can get you far. With Charm, you can talk your way out of (or into) most situations. Make friends, deceive them, and then pretend to be them, if you’re taking this stat!
Body
Muscle alone will not let you endure. That is what Body is for. It allows you to withstand Wounds, understand Abnormalities, and punch people.
Mind
Intelligence and understanding is the Mind. It’ll protect you from mental harm and trickery, and allow you to outthink just about anyone.
Power
Power is sometimes referred to as Magic or maybe even Soul. It powers your spells and explosives.
This is a bit bare-bones here, so while this list is a bit incomplete, it’s worth noting that Skills could be added in the future. For now, these skills will cover many issues you’ll see, but if you feel these are insufficient, merely ask if a Skill satisfies what you're attempting to use or if a new one must be added.
There are four ranks of Skills:
Unskilled: The Action isn’t modified.
Skilled: You may choose to have your Action roll be modified by up to +/-1.
Proficient: You may choose to have your Action roll be modified by up to +/-2.
Master: You may choose to have your Action roll be modified by up to +/-3.
You gain Rank by rolling 5 while using that Skill as an Action.
Athletics (Muscle)
The ability to do something physical, be it climbing, jumping, running, swimming, etc. You want to get from here to there without taking the long way? Athletics, baby!
Melee Weapons (Muscle)
Oh, wait, this is also something physical… Well, the caveat is that you’re smacking someone with something. Swords, clubs, and spears are totally all the same, and everyone knows it.
Ranged Weapons (Grace)
Want to shoot a gun? How about a bow? Or maybe even, like, throw a boomerang, I guess? All in here.
Stealth (Grace)
Wanna be stealthy and sneak around like a ninja? Wanna steal something from someone? Wanna… Um, okay, I guess that’s all there really is here, which seems kinda meh. So… It’ll also let you sneakily attack someone or misdirect.
Empathy (Charm)
Empathy is the ability to understand others, be they animals, people, or robots, probably. It’s more than talking the talk, it’s walking the walk. Disguises would be this!
Speech (Charm)
Talk, talk, talk. Whether or not they’re lies or truths hardly matters to me, but if you’re trying to talk someone into doing something, this is your skill.
Survival (Body)
Survival is your ability to withstand and understand Abnormalities. Want to live through a poison? Want to use that poison to
Unarmed (Body)
Punching, wrestling, and… Okay, well, that’s it. Well, I guess kicking counts, too.
Medicine (Mind)
Need to amputate your arm? Need to reattach someone’s arm to their head? Need to psycho-analyze a tree? Boom, here ya go!
Engineering (Mind)
Need to replace a faulty arm amputation? Need to reprogram a robot head? Need to make a psychotic tree into a 2x4? Boom, here ya go!
Magic (Power)
Woah, magic is real?! That’s AWESOME! I’m putting all my points into this so I can shoot fireballs and summon unicorns and shit! Sweet! There’s literally nothing that could top thi–
Explosives (Power)
Oh, wait, fuck magic, I have explosives! Why throw a fireball when I can throw a stick of dynamite!? What if I want to makeshift a grenade? Obviously, this is cooler.
You may choose up to 2 starting Traits, though you don’t need to necessarily pick any of them. Traits come with an intended upside that may (or may not) offset its intended downside. In fact, several will look like they’re probably worse for you than you’d like! Some Traits may have no real downside or upside, and are just for funsies. Will these break the game? Probably not. Will someone inevitably make a broken combination and become all-powerful because I overlooked something simple? Absolutely. Will I stop them somehow? Nah, the dice are the determiner of your fate!
If you have an idea for a Trait, please ask and I'll do my best to incorporate it.
Weighted Dice
You have an additional chance of rolling 1, 5, and 6.
Zero The Hero
Rolled 0s are always treated as 7s.
Glass Cannon
Whenever you deal Wounds, deal 1 more. Whenever you take Wounds, take 1 more.
Roll Two Dodge
Your Dodge rolls are rolled twice, taking the better roll. Whenever you take Wounds, take 2 more.
Only Flesh Wounds
Injuries except Beyond Saving take 2 more Wounds to apply, but incur twice their normal penalties.
I Am The Bomb
You may use your Explosives Skill for Melee Weapons, Ranged Weapons, Magic, Speech, and Engineering Skill rolls. -1 to all rolls that are 3 or less while using Explosives.
Disgraceful In Defeat
Start with up to 3 additional Grace. Each Wound counts as -1 Grace.
[Character]
Name:
Species:
Pronouns:
Description:
[Health]
Status: Unharmed
Wounds: 0
[Stats]
Muscle: 0
Grace: 0
Charm: 0
Body: 0
Mind: 0
Power: 0
[Skills]
{Add up to 2 Skilled and 1 Proficient Skills}
[Items]
None
Just make a character using the sheet and then tell me what your character does, ya ding dong.
Turn 0On the corner of Lexington and Concord lies a condemned building operating a small but elaborate paranormal investigative agency. Its name is subject to change day-by-day and week-by-week, but it’s currently under the name of Abnormal Investigations. The owner–a mysterious man by the name of Mr. Undefined that no one admits to having met–keeps the business afloat through means that escapes you and the other employees.
Your mission handler, Hrothgar, meets you and the rest of your team inside, explaining a series of unexplained disappearances at the local park. Sources say that large animals have also been spotted there, though typically during the night, and that this is likely connected. Your mission is to investigate for Abnormalities and find those missing or their ultimate fate. You accept the mission.
You head over to Regina in R&D, but as you approach, you’re hit by a cacophony of noise and find the door lock tight. As you knock on the door, the noise stops, and a masked face appears from a crack in the door. Regina tells you that she’s busy right now and to come back later. You try to look past her, but she slams the door and continues about her business.
This means you’ll have to make do with the Armory. Unfortunately.
The Armory is staffed by a single person, an elderly curmudgeon by the name of Greta. You're pretty sure she's some type of goblin or troll. No one knows her last name because she refuses to answer, and HR refuses to push the issue because she has vast amounts of weaponry at her fingertips. Hrothgar tells you that she’s been here before the building was condemned, and that’s probably true given that the bulletproof glass that separates you and her is stained yellow from cigarette smoke, another issue that HR doesn’t bother to bring up with Greta. There’s no visible entry method into the vault, though there is a small chute below the window to receive and dispense items. As you approach the window, her raspy voice asks for your ID. She stares at you with soulless eyes, smoke wafting from her cigarette, waiting for you to ask for something.What do you do?
Author
Topic: Abnormal Investigators - Turn 2 (6 / 6) (Read 3647 times)