Character Creation

Archetype and Ancestry

The first thing you should do when making a character is pick or make an Archetype. An Archetype covers; your starting attributes, your starting strain and wound threshold, a free skill rank, and one talent.

Pre-Made Archetype

Represents who you are as a person, be it a great hero, a wizard, or a socialite. Your archetype covers

Wound and Strain Threshold
Your Attributes
Your Career skills

Below is an example Archetype, there are other premade archetypes you are free to use in place of making your own, these are listed on a settings page.

The Hero
Wounds		10	Strain		10
Brawn	Agility	Intellect	Cunning	Willpower	Presence
2	2	2	2	2	2
Skill
You gain 1 Skill from either the Combat Section, or a Skill that has Willpower as its Attribute

Making your Own

For making your own archetype the process is simple.

1. Attributes

Pick one attribute to be your primary attribute to be your main attribute, this attribute is increased to 3. Then pick one attribute to be your weakness, this one is decreased by 1. You can then adjust your attributes around, by removing a point from any attribute and adding it to another. The lowest you can drop a skill is 1, and the highest you can increase an attribute this way is 3.

2 Attribute Skill

You also gain 1 rank in a skill related to your primary stat. An example would be having a primary stat of Intellect, and putting a rank into knowledge. This rank may also be put into a career skill that already has a rank, though again, no skill can go over 2 in character creation. If you are picking a premade archetype, you skip this part.

Ancestry

After you have your archetype, now is a good time to pick your Ancestry. Ancestries are your where you physically come from, generally these take on the form of different species, but can include other cultures. You gain 2 ancestry talents when you pick one, these are considered Tier 1 talents for the sake of spending exp to buy talents later on. You may also at this point take on some malus. You can find a list of Ancestries on Echos of the Past, Star of Solestine, and Gears in the Machine

Career Skills

Once you have your archetype and Ancestry down, its time to determine your Career skills. You start the game with 8 skills marked as Career skills. A Career skill is a skill that is cheaper to level up, and should be the thing your character focuses on. A wizard would for example have Knowledge and Arcane as career skills. Once you have your career skills picked, you also put 1 rank in 4 of those skills.

Malus

Malus are a talent that gives you some negative affect that is always present in your character. By default you must take a malus during character creation, but may take additional Malus talents to gain +10 EXP. These talents are only accepted in character creation and cannot be gained once you are out of character creation. You cannot remove these talents.

Spending EXP

At character creation your GM will tell you how much starting EXP you get. This EXP is special in that it can be spent on Attributes. Any EXP gained after character creation cannot be spent on attributes unless its stated to be 'Character creation EXP', as I believe Android: SOTB gives out CC exp for augments. Below are the listed prices for everything you can buy using EXP. BY Default, you will generally start with 100 EXP.

Name	Formula	Buyable after CC
Career Skills	5 * Next Rank	Yes
Non-Career Skill	5 * Next Rank + 5	Yes
Talents	5 * Talent's Tier	Yes
Attributes	10 * Next Attribute Rank	No

Gearing Up

You start the game with; 1 Weapon related to your combat skills with rarity 4 or Less. 1 armor Rarity 4 or Less, a PAD, and 500 CR for buying gear. Below are some loadouts, with their respective equipment listed below in tables. Hackers should read the Virtual Insanity section below, and Casters should read the Magic rules in the Genesys core rulebook. Both will have quick reference journals in the game.


Loadout	Melee	Ranged Heavy	Ranged Light	Hackerman	Caster
Weapon	Sword Or Great (Axe or Sword) (Core Rulebook)	Rifle Or Shotgun (Shadow of the Beanstalk for both)	Pistol (Light) Or Laser Pistol (Shadow of the Beanstalk for Stats)	Pistol (Light) Or Laser Pistol (Shadow of the Beanstalk)	Wand or Staff Or Holy Icon (Core Rulebook, Holy Icon is Realm of Terronoth)
Armor	Riot Armor (Shadow of the Beanstalk)	Riot Armor (Shadow of the Beanstalk)	Personal Shield Gen (1 Defense) (This table)	Durable Clothing or Padded or Really just Clothes +1 SOAK	Durable Clothing or Padded or Really just Clothes +1 SOAK
Gear	PAD Quickfix (Painkillers) x2 Portable toolkit	PAD Rope QuickFix	PAD Portable Motion Sensor QuickFix	PAD Scope pAI	PAD Healer's Kit QuickFix

Ranged
Name	Skill	Damage	Crit	Range	Special
Rifle	Ranged Heavy	8	3	Long	Auto-Fire
Pistol	Ranged Light	6	3	Medium	-
Las Pistol	Ranged Light	5	4	Short
Shotgun	Ranged Heavy	8	3	Short	Blast 5, knockdown, vicious

Melee
Name	Skill	Damage	Crit	Range	Special
Sword	Melee	+3	2	Engaged	Defensive 1
Great Axe	Melee	+4	3	Engaged	-Cumbersome 3, Pierce 2, Viscous 1
Great Sword	Melee	+4	2	Engaged	Defensive 1, Pierce 1, Unwieldy 3

Armor
Name	Soak	Defense
Riot Armor	+2	0
Shield Gen	+1	0
Clothing	+1	0

Magical Implements
Name	Bonus Damage	Effect
Wand	+3	Choose one spell effect that upgrades the difficulty by 1, this effect is free to cast using the wand.
Staff	+4	The first addition of "Range" To any spell does not increase difficulty
Holy Icon	-	Adding any Divine Only Effects increases the spells Difficulty by 1 less. Any Heal spell cast increase the wounds healed by 2.


Item	Encum	Price	Rarity
Scope	1	100	3
Bridge	1	200	4
DigitVerter	0	150	4
pAI (Civi)	1	200	2
Last Chance Shot	0	1000	5

Scope

Scopes are used by hackers to pierce the veil and look into virtual space. A scope can take on any form, but generally come in the shape of a pair of worn glasses or a handheld spyglass. When worn its an incidental to look into Virtual Space.

Bridge

A device that lets the user project a Digital version of themselves into Virtual Space. While Bridges do have different stats, for now they are all lumped under a single Bridge. A device you can easily put on your head.

DigiVerter

Allows the user to give their weapon the Digi Trait as a maneuver. Allowing the user to target programs directly in virtual space.

pAI

Personal Artificial Intelligence that have found a welcome place among hackers. During a structure encounter, a pAI can use your Ranks in Computers to perform hacks. By default, a pAI will only act on your turn and only when ordered todo so. A pAI can be inserted into a shell to give it more functionality.

Civi Grade

The kind of AI that can hold a conversation and when instructed can run most programs without issue. Not the brightest tool in the shed, generally smart enough to operate on their own. But don’t give them too complex of an order. You find these mostly at storefronts or as personal assistants for your average citizen. They are stored easily with a PAD, requiring no extra hardware. Though some people will keep them in their own separate device for privacy and other concerns.

For the sake of simplicity, a Civi AI gives 1 j die for hacking, and allows the user to perform a quick hack as a maneuver.

Last Chance Shot

Its official name is an Emergency Stimulant, but the nickname its picked up is "Last Chance Shot". Cause if you are planning to really use it, things are really bad. A Last Chance has 2 effects depending on if the target is alive.

If Alive: Heal your most Severe Critical Injury, and instantly heal 10 Wounds.

If the target is recently dead: Heal your most Severe Critical Injury, heal 5 wounds. Gain 5 Strain.

If the Target has been dead for to long: Does nothing.

Virtual Insanity

Don't ask how it works, but the net works everywhere, and anywhere you can find a device with remote access. Garm scientist are a different build.

Hackers will find their Speed Hacks will always have some narrative play, so don't fret about, 'oh we're in some alien world, my hacker build is useless.' You'll find yourself still functional and hacking. For now, hacking is relegated to just Speed hacking.

Digi Trait

Weapons with this property can damage programs in Virtual Space, you still need a scope to actually target them.

Speed Hacking

So you got a gonk dissing on your input. So you just give them one of these.

Quick hacks are things hackers can perform to affect physical space. Some call it magic, I just call it “Lazy writing”. When a hacker is bridged or has an AI on standby, they can perform a quick hack on networked targets.

Quick hacks are for all intensive purposes a spell. You have some options just like a wizard. Unlike wizards you only need to worry about an average base difficulty. This is modified by the target's own System Admin, ICE and Gear.

Before you perform a quick hack you need to see what targets you have, this is achieved by scoping or just looking in V space while bridged.

Any networked gear will show up in that space, usually attached to their own little avatar representing the wearer.

Quick Hack	Description
Lock up	Causes whatever you target to stop working, exosuits lock up, guns jam, phones freeze. Usually fixed quickly
Control	Take direct control of the device. sentries can be aimed, exosuits are yours to command, cybernetics are controlled by you.
Fry	Do damage to the electronics of a device. Exosuits burn the wearer, cybernetics shock the owner, computers overheat and pop. Can apply burn if you do good enough.
Shut down	Turns off whatever you target, generally requiring the user to go through a start up process. Takes longer to come back from.
Virus	Send off a virus to run rampant, generally making things harder for the user. Can spread to other targets.

Addons

Addons are things you can use to make your hack better at the cost of Advantage.

Option	Description	Advantage
Robust Code	Any check the target must perform to counter the hack is upgraded. This can be bought multiple times.	1
Untraced	The target must perform a Perception Vs Stealth to spot you as the source of this hack. This cannot be applied if you are already spotted.	1
Long Running	Instead of lasting for 1 round, your hack now last for your rank in knowledge	2
Spread	This hack can affect more targets within short range of the origin. 2 Adv per target.	2

All Addons can also be added by increasing the roll’s difficulty by the advantage cost.

Lock up

Cause a device to effectively freeze, unable to be used until it's cleared by a skill check. By default this is a Sys Admin (Average) check, but the user can also do a restart, but that will leave the device off for one round.

Addons Notes:

Long Running: The user cannot counter the hack until the hacks duration ends. Resets are locked and the roll auto fails.

Option	Description	Upgrades
Timed Lockup	You time it just right so the lock up fucks over the user real bad. Interrupting their next attempt to use that Gear.	1
Lasting lock down	This lockdown won’t be removed unless you perform the check.	1

Control

You take direct control of the device, issuing it a command that it must follow. On your turn you can forsake your action to control this device directly. You can do this as long as your hack is running on the device. By default this hack lasts for 1 round, with the hack ending after your turn ends 1 turn later. (You get to control it on the turn you perform the hack, and the next turn.)

Some options do not work for all devices, the description will note what it works on.

Option	Description	Can target	Upgrade
Friendly Toggle	Instead of directly controlling the target you swap its FOF targeting to your side. This cannot work on non-automated machines. This lasts for the same amount of time, but does not require your control to act.	Automated systems. Sentry guns, AI, scanners, etc.	1
Violent control	Your control over the device is rather violent, hurting the operators inside it. Each success past the first does 1 damage.	Smart Cars, exosuits	1
Force out	You force the device to remove its operator as you take control	Vehicles, Exosuits.	2
Upload	You upload your AI alongside your hack. Letting them take control. Freeing you to act normally.	All devices.	2
Cyber Pyscho	You send the user into an uncontrollable rage. Attacking everything in range. Very illegal and also hard to perform.	Just Cybernetics	3

Fry

Damage the device in a way that does harm to its user. This can target any device, by default doing damage to the device. This harms anyone who is actively using said device.

Fry does damage equal to your knowledge skill ranks + Success and can crit on 3 advantages.

Option	Description	Upgrade
Non-Lethal	This hack gains the Non-lethal quality	1
Overheat	Your hack gains the Burn quality with the rating based on your ranks in Knowledge	1
Shocking	You cause the device to let out a huge burst of electricity. Giving your hack the Stun quality.	2

Shutdown

You turn the device off. Thats it, it turns off. It takes a maneuver to turn back on, and will remain off for 1 round. Unlike lock up, this cannot be stopped once it has triggered. But cannot benefit from the Long Running addon. Note: This might not matter as much for some gear. Weapons under the effect of shutdown may act differently from others. Slug throwers don’t stop shooting cause you shut it down, but this will make aiming harder for the user.

Option	Description	Upgrade
Bios boot	You force the device to boot into bios. Forcing the user to make an additional maneuver to exit bios.	1
Sneaky update	You force the device to update before it shutdown. Forcing the user to wait an additional turn per 2 advantage spent.	1

Virus

You release a virus within the device, causing it to be harder to use. This leads to any checks related to that device to have 1 setback + 1 per 2 success generated by the hack.

This virus must be removed by doing an easy System Admin check or by resetting the device.

Option	Description	Upgrade
Malware	Your next hack on this target ignores their Sys Admin skill.	1
Upload	Your AI is uploaded into the device, letting it run havok without giving direct control. Generating a failure automatically while the virus is active.	1
adware	The device makes the wearer just a bit more obvious and easier to hit. Granting 1 Bonus die per success past the first to the next person to target the wearer.	2
Hard to Kill	This hack requires a skill check to remove.	2

SpellCrafting and Resolve

Mostly just flavor changes, the idea is to make

Nudges

Nudges are the term used for Story Points in Echos of the Past, Star of Solestine and Gears in the Machine.

These points can normally be spent to-do the following, but are not restricted to what is in this list.

Name	Description	Cost	Core Rules?
A Helping Hand	Upgrade one k into a l	1	Y
Raising the Stakes	Upgrade one k into a l	1	Y
Special Abilities and Talents	Some talents may require a SP to trigger	1	Y
Dues Ex Machina	You can spend an SP to introduce a 'Fact' into the story.	1	Y
Convenient Encounter	You can spend an SP to make a Contact available. They could simply be in the same place at the same time, or maybe they wanna contact you about something. This doesn't stop them from wanting something in return for helping	1	N
A slight Nudge	You can reroll one die within your pool and take the better result.	1	N

Contacts

[OUTDATED AND UNUSED]

A gamifying way of keeping track of reoccurring characters. A contact is some one who generally is willing to help the group, sometimes for a Favor, sometimes cause they feel like it.

Each contact has a 'Trust' value, which is how willing they are willing to help a group. When rolling to Convince someone, this value modifies the roll by adding j or j.

The value starts at 0, and increases as the party helps a contact, and decreases when the contact is slighted or worked against

EX: Lynel would like you to do a job for her, but someone offers you something to not do it. By working with Lynel you increase her trust, but picking the other will decrease her trust.

Trust caps out at 5 and -5.

At -5 even a success might have some heavy cost associated with it.

Contacts can Spend Threat to introduce a complication, or advantage decrease the 'cost'

Play by Post Rules

When playing a play by post. Some things need to be changed to accommodate this game. This is mostly to account for things that say stuff like "Once Per Session." and how story points are handled

Once Per Session

When doing a play by post, Any ability or rule that references "Once Per Session" are translated to "Once Per ingame Day". Since these are ran without a set session time,

Story Points

At the beginning of each in-game day, the players reset the Story Points. Same as they would if this was a new session. These reset based on the already agree'd rule for how Story Points are handled.

Multi Attack

At the cost of 2 strain and upgrading one Difficulty die, you can increase the amount of combat checks you can do. You can do this multiple times with the limit based on your Agility stat.

Health Changes

When a character’s Strain or Wounds is exceeded by any damage, they will be staggered. The character must perform a hard (3 Difficulty) Cool check or Discipline check to stay conscious, if they’re able to then they will become Exhausted, and gain a Setback die for all rolls until their strain or wounds is below the threshold or the encounter has ended.

If they fail the roll then they become unconscious, and will either have to be awakened by someone’s action or wait 2d10 rounds. Awakening with an action only gets the character awake again, players can also use Medi-packs to heal someone, if the strain or wounds healed brings them below the threshold then they will wake up.

Magic Changes

Spells are Evenly Split between Spellcrafting or Grit. With Meta being its own thing.

The spells are divided up as Follows

Both	Spellcrafting	Grit
Attack, Augment, Barrier, Mask, Utility, Predict, Transform	Dispel, Conjure	Heal, Curse

Sigils

(THESE RULES ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE)

A Sigil is a set of runes that can be triggered to cast a spell. Making a Sigil requires a spell effect and the Trigger for this effect.

Drawing a sigil requires a check, this is used to determine the power of the sigil and to see if you're successful at drawing it. This does not use any strain during a narrative scene, but uses the standard 2 strain when doing a structure encounter.

Charge

The Charge of a sigil is determined by the casters skill ranks and linked Characteristics. Each time the sigil is activated a charge is used. It can be recharged by either the Caster or anyone with a skill that can also cast the spell. Recharging requires re-doing the check for the spell.

Recharging can be done in the middle of a structured scene but upgrades 3 die in the difficulty pool.

Cause and Effect

Every Sigil has a spell effect and trigger. A Trigger is something that causes the spell to trigger

Type	Explanation	Difficulty
Power Word	The user shouts out a specific word to activate the spell. Using a power word is an incidental action.	-
Reactive	The spell auto triggers when a specific action is done. EX: The user getting hit, or the user swinging	+2 Difficulty