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Referee Rules

Reactions

When the PCs encounter an NPC or creature whose reaction to the party is not obvious, the referee may roll d20 and consult the following table. Modify the roll with the PC's Ego bonus if they can communicate with the creature.

d20 Reaction
1-3 Attacks Immediately
4-6 Hostile, Can't Be Swayed
7-9 Hostile, Could Be Swayed
10-13 Wary, Defensive
14-16 Uninterested
17-19 Curious, Approachable
20+ Actively Helpful

Adversary Stats

Level: A measure of the adversary’s power, used to determine its Hit Points (HP) and bonuses. To calculate HP, multiply the level by 4 (or 5 if you’re feeling mean).

Armour: The Armour score gives the number a PC’s attack roll must exceed to damage them.

Abilities: Adversaries have ability bonuses equal to their level, with the corresponding defenses. (Example: a Level 4 adversary has an attack bonus of +4 and a defense of 14 in all of its abilities, unless modified by the Referee.)

Attacks: Number of attacks an adversary can make per round, and the damage dice rolled for each. Attacks separated by a / symbol are mutually exclusive, the adversary must use one or the other. Attacks joined by a + symbol are multi-attacks, the adversary can use all in the same round.

Morale: When adversaries face more danger than expected, the Referee can make a Morale roll by rolling d20 and adding the respective bonus. If the result is less than 15, the adversary flees, hides or attempts to parley. Morale rolls can be triggered by defeating half of an enemy group, their leader or similar.

Adversary Types

Biological: A living creature, made from flesh and blood. No unusual resistances or weaknesses.

Fungal: A creature formed from motile fungus. Takes half damage from kinetic attacks such as bludgeoning, stabbing, etc. Takes double damage from fire or fungicide bombs.

Hypergeometric: A creature that exists outside the bounds of Euclidean geometry. Takes double damage from hypergeometric weaponry.

Mineral: A creature made from living rock or crystal. Immune to damage from suffocation, poison, radiation, electricity, extreme temperatures, or fungal spores. Takes double damage from bludgeoning weapons.

Outsider: A being that is alien to our reality. Too strange to be categorised. Resistances and vulnerabilities vary wildly.

Psychic: A creature with psychic powers. May utilize Gifts and can detect Psychic Gleam (see below).

Synthetic: An artificial creature, made from metal, plastic, and an ego-engine. Immune to damage from suffocation, poison, radiation, or fungal spores. Takes double damage from electrical attacks. Vulnerable to weaponised LogLang syntax.

Referee Principles

  • It’s not always necessary to roll dice. Only ask players to make a Save when the outcome is uncertain, the stakes are interesting, and there are consequences for failure.

  • Don't prepare plotted stories, as they presume the reactions of your players. Instead prepare interesting situations and problems for your players to solve, subvert, or avoid as they see fit.

  • The core of the game is players making informed choices, following by the GM reporting the impact of those choices. Don’t hide information from the players without good reason; you are their eyes and ears in the fictional world. Describe the situation as fully as you can, and ask ‘What do you do?’

  • Allow the narrative of your campaign to emerge from choices your players make, and the reaction of the game world to those choices.

  • Don’t create problems that have an ‘answer’. Allow your players to surprise you. If they come up with a creative solution, give it a chance to work

  • Build responsive situations - add interactivity, dynamic threats, and potential energy. Give players ropes to swing from, mysterious buttons to press, and villains who stand next to explosive red barrels.

  • Embrace random chance and the intervention of the dice. Use the dice tables provided in this book to inject events, locations and NPCs into the game world, so that Vaarn will surprise you as well as your players.

  • NPCs should have vivid, memorable personalities and easily understood goals (even if they conceal their true aims at first). Once the players know what an NPC wants, they understand how to interact with and manipulate that character.

  • Make Vaarn feel alive. NPCs are not static quest givers: they have their own agendas, quarrels, and misfortunes. If the players leave a settlement and return later, something should have changed.

  • Make Vaarn feel dangerous. Combat can be deadly and won’t always be fair. Remember that monsters and NPCs want to stay alive too - make use of reaction rolls, morale saves, and negotiations, so that every conflict isn’t a battle to the death.

  • Make Vaarn feel strange and beautiful. Describe the red sun casting purple shadows over blue sand dunes, the wild animals with parasitic chrome limbs, and the showers of falling orbital debris that light up the night sky.

  • Make the Exotica powerful and interesting. They’re the big prizes everyone is searching for, so they will open up new ways of solving problems for the players. Conversely, make sure the Exotica come with downsides, so there’s a trade-off for using them. Vaarn becomes dull when one tool is the right answer to every question.

  • The rules don’t cover everything that will come up in play, so you’ll sometimes have to make a quick ruling that feels right and move on with the game. If the same situation keeps coming up, talk with your players and agree on a new permanent rule to cover it.