Example of Play

Owen the Game Master is running five players through their latest adventure. Rob is playing Kopupali, a damaya lashunta mechanic with her pet drone VV-R9. Judy’s playing Kostchek, a shirren envoy who’s fond of grenades. Amanda is playing Petal, a ysoki technomancer who’s constantly tinkering and is best friends with James’s brooding vesk soldier, Obozaya. Rounding out the party is Crix, Jason’s human solarian who’s a self-obsessed reality-broadcasting star.

The five heroes have accepted a contract from AbadarCorp to explore an ancient temple on a newly discovered world and bring back a mysterious machine that early surveying suggests lies in the temple’s heart. They’ve also heard rumors that they might not be the only team trying to find the artifact...

GM: You’re in a long, dark hallway, whose walls are covered in strange tentacle designs. At the far end is a door.

Crix: I go in front so that the glow from my stellar weapon can illuminate the area.

Petal: Uh, Crix? You do realize that some of us can see in the dark, right? Your light is basically a giant “come eat me” sign.

Obozaya: I’m the strongest warrior; the honor of going first is mine. I approach the door.

GM: As you get close, you see that the door has some sort of intricate locking mechanism made of spikes and gears.

Obozaya: There is no honor here. Only a coward’s lock.

Kopupali: Here, Obo—I’ve got this. I study the lock and try to pick it.

GM: Sounds good. Attempt an Engineering check.

Kopupali rolls a d20 and gets a 12. She adds her Engineering skill modifier, which is +9, for a total of 21. The GM consults his notes, which list the lock’s Difficulty Class as DC 20, meaning that the result of Kopupali’s check is high enough for her to open it.

GM: You manage to figure out a pattern in the runes and press three of them in order. As you do, the door slides back and to the side, opening into a new chamber.

Obozaya: Now the honor is mine! I go inside.

The GM draws a large chamber on the battle map, with several alcoves and another doorway leading out.

GM: Obo, inside you see a 20-foot-tall chamber with a shadowy balcony halfway up. In the center is a statue that looks like a giant bird with tentacles instead of wings and three green gems for eyes. Sprawled on the ground near it is a humanoid corpse wearing modern armor. Do the rest of you enter the room?

The players confer and decide to enter. The GM asks them to place miniatures on the battlemat to show where they’re standing.

Kostchek: I study the corpse. Do I recognize anything?

GM: Attempt Life Science and Culture checks.

The Life Science check is to determine what kind of creature the corpse was, while the Culture check is to see if Kostchek recognizes its clothing or other cultural identifiers. Kostchek rolls a d20 for each check and adds her corresponding modifiers, for a total of 7 for Life Science—not very good—but a 23 for Culture. The GM decides she failed the first roll but succeeded at the second.

GM: Honestly, all mammals kind of look the same to you, but you can tell that this one was shot, and you recognize the symbol on its armor—it was a member of the Skyfire Legion.

Kostchek: I tell the others. Think this is our competition?

Petal: Nah, Skyfires don’t loot temples—they leave that for grunts like us. I investigate the statue.

GM: Attempt a Perception check.

Petal rolls a d20 and gets a 12, then adds her Perception modifier of +3 to get 15. There’s a magical trap on the statue that Petal could have noticed and thus avoided, but it has a Perception DC of 20, so she remains oblivious and triggers it. The trap is designed to go off the first time a creature touches it, with lightning bolts arcing from the statue’s eyes, dealing 2d6 electricity damage to the creature triggering it. The GM rolls 2d6 and gets a total of 5, but the trap allows a Reflex saving throw for half damage—if Petal succeeds, she dodges out of the way and avoids the worst of the damage.

GM: When you touch the statue, its eye-gems light up and the room fills with a ghostly screech. Attempt a Reflex save.

Petal: Oh geez! Not again!

Petal rolls a d20 and gets a 6, then adds her Reflex save modifier of +3, for a total of 9—not enough to beat the trap’s saving throw DC of 15, so she takes full damage.

GM: Green lightning blasts out of the crystals, knocking you across the room and making all your fur stand on end. You take 5 electricity damage.

Kopupali: Nice hairdo, Ratty.

Petal: Rude! Also, in my defense, the gems were shiny.

GM: You hear the sound of running feet coming from the opposite corridor. Suddenly half a dozen goblins wearing armored environment suits burst into the room!

Petal: Goblins? Someone sent goblins to find the artifact?

Kopupali: Hey, AbadarCorp sent a rat.

GM: Time to fight! Roll initiative checks.

To determine the order of combat, each of the players rolls a d20 and adds her initiative modifier, and the GM does the same for the goblins as a group. Now that they’re in combat, their initiative check results determine the order in which the various participants can take actions until the end of the fight. The GM starts the first combat round with whoever has the highest initiative count and works his way down. Obozaya got an 18, Crix a 12, the goblins a 10, Kostchek an 8, Kopupali a 7, and Petal a 3.

GM: Obo, you go first.

Obozaya: I click the safety off my autotarget rifle and blast the nearest goblin!

Obozaya rolls a d20 and gets a 13. She adds her +5 bonus to attacks with that weapon for a total of 18. Because her weapon shoots projectiles and deals piercing damage, it targets the goblin’s Kinetic Armor Class, which in this case is 11. Since the attack roll’s result is equal to or higher than the goblin’s KAC, she hits! The GM tells Obo to roll for damage, so she rolls 1d6 and gets a 2 (the weapon’s damage) and adds 3 from her weapon specialization, for a total of 5 damage.

GM: Your bullet punches through the goblin’s shoulder, but somehow it’s still standing.

Obozaya: Ahaha! First blood is mine!

GM: Crix, you’re up!

Crix: Kopupali, make sure your drone’s camera gets a good shot of me as I run forward and decapitate one of these evil goblins with my stellar blade! The fans are gonna love this.

Crix counts out 5-foot squares on the battlemat between him and the nearest goblin. The fastest route is straight across 2 squares and then across 2 squares diagonally. Moving across a square costs 5 feet of movement, while diagonal movement costs 15 feet for every 2 squares, making his total movement 25 feet—still less than his maximum of 30 feet, meaning he can move all the way up to the goblin this round. He rolls a d20 to attack and gets a 5, then because it’s a hand-to-hand (or “melee”) weapon, he adds his base attack bonus of +3 and his Strength modifier of +3, for a total of 11—just barely enough to hit that goblin’s KAC of 11! He rolls his weapon damage of 1d6 and again adds his Strength modifier and his bonus from weapon specialization, for a whopping total of 11 damage.

GM: You slash through the goblin’s armor like it’s jelly! It looks surprised and then topples to the ground.

Crix: I turn toward the camera and pose with my glowing golden blade, then whisper my tagline: “Good as gold!”

GM: Don’t get too cocky, because now it’s the goblins’ turn. And since you’ve just established yourself as a threat, the biggest one’s coming for you! Somehow it’s gotten ahold of an oversized laser rifle, and it’s taking aim.

The GM rolls an attack for the first goblin, using Crix’s Energy Armor Class because it’s a laser, and gets a natural 20—a critical hit! The GM rolls the normal damage dice twice—2d8 instead of 1d8, getting a 13—and adds 1d6 burn damage (for which he rolls a 2). Crix takes the 13 damage now and then takes the 2 burn damage each round until the fire is put out.

GM: Crix, that laser hits you right in your perfect jaw. You take 15 damage, and the decorative flourishes on your armor melt and catch fire—you’re going to take 2 more damage each subsequent round until you put it out. Are you still standing?

Crix checks his character sheet. He has 11 Stamina Points and 9 Hit Points. He subtracts the damage from his Stamina Points first, using up all 11, then subtracts the remaining 4 damage from his Hit Points, leaving him with 0 Stamina Points and 5 Hit Points.

Crix: Oof! Just barely. I scream “My face! My beautiful face!”

Kostchek: Hang in there, Crix—your fans need you!

Crix: Kostchek, if I don’t make it...make sure my hair looks good...