Rules primer
Roll two dice. Add them. Beat 6. Everything else is detail — and the detail is what size those dice are.
This is a summary of the working design documents. The full, current text lives in the repository.
Checks
When you attempt something uncertain, roll two dice and add them together. For most tasks, a total of 6 or higher succeeds. Which dice you roll depends on how good you are:
| Level | Roll |
|---|---|
| Unskilled | 2d4 |
| Skilled | 2d6 |
| Veteran | 2d8 |
| Expert | 2d10 |
| Master | 2d12 |
Getting better means rolling bigger dice, which is why a Master still occasionally rolls a 2 — and why an Unskilled character can never, ever earn a Perk.
For every 3 points over the target, you earn a Perk: an extra effect layered on top of your success, defined by whatever you were doing. More damage, a cleaner landing, a better price.
Double 1s. Something unusually bad happens — no matter how big your dice are.
Three per player, per session, gone at the end of it. Spend one to retry with a different attribute, deal max damage, shake off a condition, or avoid taking a Wound.
Attributes
Raw talent, before training. Attributes carry the roll when no skill covers what you're attempting, and they're what you roll to avoid something bad happening to you. They use the same dice ladder as skills.
| Rating | Roll |
|---|---|
| Poor | 2d4 |
| Average | 2d6 |
| Excellent | 2d8 |
| Amazing | 2d10 |
| Superhuman | 2d12 |
The ladder extends past both ends. Above Superhuman, add a d12 per step and keep the highest two; below Poor, add a d4 per step and keep the lowest two.
Never flat modifiers — always extra dice, the same size as the ones you're already rolling. Add one die per point of each, cancel them one-for-one, then roll what's left and keep the best two (leftover Advantage) or the worst two (leftover Disadvantage).
Declare you're helping and grant Advantage — but the extra die is sized to your mastery, not theirs. An Olympic weightlifter helping a child lift a loveseat means the child rolls 2d4 and 1d12, keeping the best two.
Natural talent shows without overshadowing practice. If you're Skilled or better and your linked ability die is bigger than your skill die, you have Aptitude: it never changes your odds, it changes the texture of a success.
Everyone rolls, then characters may swap a single die with one other character — the strong carrying the struggling. The group's result is the lowest roll remaining.
Combat
A character can absolutely go down if the crew gets careless, but permanently dying should be rare and usually the result of a genuinely bad decision, not a random unlucky roll. Big Damn Heroes get hurt, keep fighting anyway, and mostly walk away.
Each side rolls 1d6 once for the whole fight. The winner picks someone to act, then the other side picks someone, and so on — teeth interleaving one at a time until everyone has acted.
About 3 seconds. One Move (7 meters, splittable around your action), one Action, one Bonus Action.
Melee targets the defender's own Melee die size — a Veteran defender is target 8. Ranged always targets a flat 6: you can't dodge a bullet or a laser no matter how quick you are.
The same size for every character, forever. It doesn't grow with advancement and doesn't scale off any ability — people in this setting don't get physically tougher just because they got better at their job.
| Tier | Slots | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Minor | 3 | No penalty. A story to tell later. |
| Serious | 2 | Disadvantage on physical actions. |
| Critical | 2 | Disadvantage on everything. |
A hit inflicts a Minor Wound; 1 Perk makes it Serious, 2+ makes it Critical. If a tier is full, the Wound overflows upward. Two Critical Wounds and you're Down — dying within minutes without aid. Penalties never stack; use the worse one.
Distance
| Scale | Unit | Used for |
|---|---|---|
| Tactical | meters | Fights, rooms, ranges |
| Orbital | kilometers | Ship-to-ship, orbits, approaches |
| Interplanetary | AU | Crossing a system |
| Interstellar | light-years | The shape of the sector |
Ranges are plain numbers of meters, so a grid is optional. If you use one, a square or hex is one meter and one human takes up one square. A two-square hallway is a perfectly reasonable two meters wide.