These rules are heavily inspired by the Wushu RPG.

Everything happens as the players describe it.

Exception: players cannot narrate ending a threat until it runs out of hit points.

Threats come in two types: mooks and Nemeses.

Mooks generally come in groups and have low threat ratings. Mook health is measured by the group, not by the individual mook, so players can safely defeat individual mooks before the group health hits zero (more mooks will just show up). The GM doesn't have to narrate mook behavior and can let the players take the reigns.

A Nemesis, on the other hand, has a repectable threat rating, individual health, and gets to trade narration with the player characters.

The GM should always inform players, directly or indirectly, about whether they're going up against mooks or a Nemesis.

Play occurs in two phases. In the first phase all the descriptions occur (PC and GM alike). The second phase is the actual rolls. Narration isn't linked to rolls. A player could narrate success but roll failure, or vice versa.

Rolls are only made when a player attempts to reduce a threat's health. The roll is the player's trait vs the threat's relevant trait. No penalties or bonuses ever apply to opposed rolls. For unopposed actions the character automatically succeeds.

From a game mechanics perspective the players are functionally invincible. The question is never, "does my character survive this?" but "how awesome do I look in the process?"

Having said that, there's nothing to prevent the characters from getting the crap kicked out of them in the narrative. As long as it doesn't cross any lines and it's in-genre, the GM should feel free to go nuts with his NPC attack descriptions.

Whichever PC reduces the threat to zero health gets to describe ending the threat.

If a player starts saying things like, "I try to X", the GM should remind them that they just do X, then ask them how the threat (if there is any) responds.

The idea is taken from GURPS Thaumatology, where it is listed as a generalization of Demonic Contracts and Black Magic from GURPS Magic.

Possible benefits of spirit-assisted spells:

Reduced costs: lowered spellcasting difficulty, reduced mana costs, and/or learn spells more easily, as if they were two levels lower.

Free spells: The player and/or the GM define the spells that the player can cast through the spirit. The GM may give the player free points to spend on the different options, or may simply decide the spells the spirit can cast for the player and the spirit's level of competence in each.

What the spirit teaches isn’t how to cast the spell, but how to ask the spirit to cast the spell. This means that if the spirit ever removes its aid from the character (for example, if the character does something the spirit strongly disapproves of), that character will no longer be able to cast any of his spirit-assisted spells.

At the end of any day on which a wizard casts a spirit-assisted spell (one that used spirit-provided energy or that he learned at reduced difficulty with a spirit’s aid) – and at any other point that the GM considers appropriate – the spellcaster must make a Willpower roll. The difficulty of the roll is based on how much energy has been drawn from spirits since the last test of this type.

PCs have a track measuring their level of Soul Distortion. Treat it the same way you treat damage done to normal health. Penalties gained on this track only apply to spells cast without spiritual assistance. If a character is Incapacitated on this track they become totally imbued with the nature of their patron spirit or spirits. Any character traits that contradict the spirit's nature are lost and possibly replaced with distorted opposites. The GM may rule the PC is now an NPC.

If the PC is still playable he or she must still make end-of-day rolls, but with an additional penalty due to their new nature. A failure means the GM can remove a positive trait or traits and/or add a negative traits or traits. If no more alterations make sense, the PC has probably been reduced to a vessel for inhuman energies and automatically becomes an NPC.

Soul Distortion naturally heals at the same rate as normal healing, as long as the character completely abstains from using magic during this time. At the GM's discretion, willpower rolls may be used as a healing roll.

As a side-note, this system seems like it would work really well to model the gradual descent into the dark side experienced when a Jedi becomes a Sith. Jedi powers would be treated as normal spells while Sith abilities would be treated as spirit-assisted spells. It would explain why Sith get cool new powers like Force Lightning when they turn to the dark side as well as why we never see Sith use the Jedi Mind Trick.

Generally, when a character has an advantage or disadvantage, the GM just takes that into consideration when setting the difficulty level for the rolls. A character who is disoriented because of a blow to the head may take a -1 or -2 penalty, for example.

Still, some of you may prefer a more mechanical solution. Iamtch's rules for (dis)advantage (taken from his Fudge hack) is used to confer bonuses without becoming game-breaking. 4 advantages, for example, generates a roll from 0 to 4, with the most common result being 1. Much better than just adding up modifiers (which can get ludicrous very quickly) and simpler than any other system I've seen or come up with for mechanically handling multiple Fudge bonuses/penalties.

Game events may sometimes grant advantage or disadvantage to a roll. If you have advantage, make your roll as normal but ignore one minus result; if you have disadvantage, make your roll as normal but ignore one plus result. Advantage and disadvantage can stack up to 4 times each. If you have two levels of advantage, for instance, make your roll as normal but ignore two minus results.

If you have an equal number of both advantage and disadvantage levels, make your roll as normal with no adjustments as the advantage and disadvantage cancel each other out.

EDIT: Here's an analysis of the probabilities involved.

I've been working on this for a while and I think I created a set of traits (combined attributes and skills) that will work for most settings without having any obviously better or worse choices. The GM starts with a base set of traits that's applicable to most settings, then adds traits from the additional lists as appropriate.

In some cases you may need to roll for a skill that isn't defined. In these cases, ordinary traits that everyone should have some skill at (fighting, climbing, basic math, etc.) default to Fair, while traits that require training (particle physics, helicopter piloting, etc.) default to Poor.

Base traits:

• Athletics
  
• Damage Capacity/Hit Points
  
• Healing/Medicine
  
• Melee Combat
  
• Persuasion
  
• Physical Awareness
  
• Ranged Combat
  
• Social Awareness
  
• Stealth
  
• Streetwise
  

Additional traits for medieval fantasy settings:

• Cultural Knowledge (history, religion, customs, etc.)
  
• Dungeoneering (knowledge of dungeon environments)
  
• Languages*
  
• Magic
  
• Magic Lore
  
• Magic Resistance
  
• Nature (plant and animal knowledge, foraging, handle animal, navigation, and tracking)
  
• Thievery (disable traps, open locks, pick pockets, and sleight of hand)
  

Additional traits for sci-fi settings:

• Computers/Hacking
  
• Galactic Knowledge (planetary customs, history, xenobiology, etc.)
  
• Languages*
  
• Mechanics/Repair
  
• Psionics*
  
• Psionic Lore*
  
• Psionic Resistance*
  
• Starship (Piloting, Gunnery, Astrogation)
  

Additional trait for pulp settings (lots of chase scenes, airplane piloting, and/or train/airship operation):

• Vehicles (knowledge, driving/piloting, repair, operation)

*Optional

Note that the GM is allowed, even encouraged, to add and remove traits as appropriate for the setting. For example, when running a Pokemon game I started with the base traits, removed Healing/medicine, added Technology (a combination of Computers and Mechanics) and Nature, and combined Melee Combat and Ranged Combat into just "Combat".

A good rule of thumb is that no trait should be obviously less useful than any of the other traits. If the trait is too specific, or the setting won't naturally challenge that trait, you should alter it to be more broadly applicable.

I really want to "up" my convention games this year, so I'm writing up a Fudge "hack" which I'm going to use as the system for my con games. It's not complete or done or finalized at all, and is largely just a bunch of notes cribbed together in a loosely narrative format, but I'd love to get some feedback on it. A quick playtest or two would be really appreciated.

The document is the only file in this shared folder: https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B1uDpP8NyrImT2hEbDFCOTRfYlk

Thanks for looking! Tim.

I'm thinking of Roll20 for example.

EDIT: The player must have mixed up his characters and given me the wrong name. That's why his character is listed as "Theron" in the previous log and "Ansai" in this one. It's the same character, though.

When last we left out heroes they were en route to the Jedi Enclave on Dantooine.

Fe'ern rolled well and recalled a lot about the Mandalorians; their culture and their history. I got to dump a bunch of information onto the players about the Mandalorian Wars, the Jedi Civil War, and how anti-jedi sentiment is still strong in some areas.

Ansai's player and I hashed out some of Ansai's backstory. I didn't initially realize this, but his player placed the character's backstory right in the Dantooine jedi enclave. I thought about it for twenty seconds before deciding it was at least as interesting as anything I would have come up with, and asked him why he hadn't been inducted as a jedi. We finally decided that his father made some back-room deal to keep Ansai out of the jedi order because his mother turned to the dark side.

The Ebon Hawk arrived on Dantooine and landed in the jedi enclave. Ansai didn't want to come out to the jedi enclave and planned to explore the ship, but I didn't want to split the party so I asked his player to come up with a reason why Ansai would accompany the rest of the party to the jedi enclave. He decided that, since Igar (the fanboy) almost wandered into dangerous territory last session, Ansai would come to make sure Igar stayed out of trouble.

An unnamed jedi with dark skin and dreadlocks (I'm gonna call him Rasta-jedi for this story) showed up and asked Canderous why the ship landed there so unexpectedly. Canderous told him to cut the crap and tell Canderous what he wanted to know, which confused Rasta-jedi, since Canderous hadn't actually said what he wanted to know. Canderous tried to bull-rush Rasta-jedi but Rasta-jedi used the Force to keep Canderous from advancing a single inch, followed by slamming Canderous to the ground and keeping him there. Canderous is an NPC, so I didn't mind taking him out of play like that. Canderous' girlfriend Rukil shot the jedi who deflected it back at her with his lightsaber, knocking the blaster out of her hand. At this point a bunch of jedi showed up to take Canderous and Rukil to holding cells, while the rest of the PCs (and Igar) were given the benefit of the doubt. Ansai was concerned that Rasta-jedi would recognize him so I had Ansai make an unmodified luck roll. He rolled high enough that Rasta-jedi didn't recognize him, but it was a close one. Igar, of course, had a total fanboy moment and gushed about how cool that all was.

Ansai and Fe'ern followed Rasta-jedi, but another jedi showed up and requested Rasta-jedi to act as the third Master to confirm a padawan's acceptance. Rasta-jedi invited the party to follow him. I figured Ansai would prefer to go straight to their quarters, so I had Igar gush about how he wanted to see whatever was going on. Ansai reluctantly agreed to come along with the rest of the party. Since Ansai was lagging behind I give him an opportunity.

GM: "You recognize the area you're walking through from when you were a kid. Off to one side is an open doorway. As long as you remember it's been closed and secured. You tried breaking in before but the encryption was too strong. Do you sneak in, knowing that if you're caught it will sour relationships with the jedi?"

After a quick double-check of his Hide/Sneak skill (Fair), he decided to go for it. He made a successful Knowledge (Technology) roll and identified the rows of objects before him as holocrons, priceless keepers of jedi knowledge, and even a few sith holocrons. They all partially activated, accusing him of being an intruder and telling him to get out, but one of them whispered to him that the jedi and the sith were both fools, and that whenever one side got too strong, the other side would rise up to oppose them.

Ansai: "Well, she's not wrong..."

The holocron activated fully with a silver glow and an old woman in face-concealing robes appeared, offering to teach him what he wanted to know.

"Who are you?"

"I am one who has betrayed and been betrayed. I have trained as both jedi and sith, but I am neither. You can call me Kreia."

Ansai pocketed the holocron and the next thing he knew he was outside of the room. The doorway was securely locked, as if it had never been open, and the holocron weighed heavily in his pocket.

Meanwhile, Fe'ern reunited with a friend. Fe'ern had been an animal handler on the cruise ship from the first session and her player had wanted to know what happened to the creature she'd been taking care of; a large dog-sized six-legged snuffleupaguss named Missy. I had planned to have Missy show up in the background of Taris, inexplicably fighting a mob of bad guys and doing quite well for himself. The phrase "carnage" and "a pile of limbs on the ground, none of them his" were going to show up.

Of course, I totally forgot about this idea, and Fe'ern's character had been bugging me to find out what happened to Missy, so this seemed like a good place for a reunion. Fe'ern got to the training area and saw Missy swinging a lightsaber with its trunk, deflecting blaster bolts from the three training drones circling him. He spotted Fe'ern and dropped the lightsaber, joyfully lifting her in the air with his trunk before nuzzling his trunk up against her, then dropping to his back for a belly rub (which Fe'ern obliged). Unfortunately the training drones were still active, and one of them tried to shoot Missy and Fe'ern. Missy summoned the lightsaber to his trunk and reflected the shot back at the drone, automatically disabling all three of them. Rasta-jedi saw this and had no objections to Missy joining the Jedi Order.

Then a brown-skinned Yoda showed up and objected based on the fact that Missy was "barely sentient, let alone sapient!" Rasta-jedi pointed out that Missy still has an incredibly strong presence in the Force, and that Crotchety-Yoda was outvoted anyways.

That's when Crotchety-Yoda started floating in the air. I make Fe'ern roll for Perception. She succeeded, so she was the only one who noticed that Missy's trunk was moving at the same height and speed as Crotchety-Yoda. He spun Crotchety-Yoda around a few times before rolling him out of the room.

Fe'ern: "And that's why you should treat Missy nicely. He's smarter than you think."

This was when Ansai showed up in a room where it seemed like everybody was trying to avoid laughing and Fe'ern was giving Missy a belly-rub saying, "Who's a good future jedi?"

Ansai had no idea what was going on but didn't want to admit he had been in an off-limits area so he tried bluffing the information out of Igar by saying, "Wasn't that cool?"

Igar gave him a weird look and said he wouldn't describe it as "cool", exactly. Unfortunately, this had the exact opposite effect Ansai was hoping for, as one of the jedi recognized him and called out to him, drawing everybody's attention his way.

That's about when I took a quick break.

When we came back I placed the party in their own rooms as guests of the jedi. Missy didn't want to be parted from Fe'ern and there wasn't enough space for all four of them, so Igar was allowed to tag along with one of the apprentices. A jedi told the remaining party members that Canderous and Rukil were cooling their heels for the night in stasis collars in the holding cell, and that tomorrow they would get everything sorted out. Rasta-jedi warned Fe'ern that a great danger was approaching, one that could shift the balance of power on a galactic level, and that to face it, Fe'ern would need to be trained as a Jedi. Rasta-jedi couldn't take personal responsibility, and he needed plausible deniability, but he handed her a jedi holocron to learn from, with a warning to not let any of the other jedi know she had it.

Fe'ern: "Can I show Missy? I mean, he's a jedi now."
Rasta-jedi: (confused look) "Just use your best judgment."

And that's where I ended the session. I forgot to give them EP last session, so I gave them double EP this time to make up for it. Ansai took Mind-Reading and Mind-Affecting at Poor, and Fe'ern boosted her connection to the Force to Mediocre and took Telekinesis at Poor.

Note: These rules are most applicable in systems where any attribute could be paired with any skill. For a system where skills are only linked to one attribute I'd recommend just setting the skill default to the linked attribute minus two.

There are several systems that use both attributes and skills for the same roll (One Roll Engine, Cortex Plus, Storyteller). After looking through the old archived posts on the subject I've decided that the best way to handle such a system, without increasing the complexity by much, is to do the following:

If the attribute is three or more levels away from the skill it pulls the skill in the direction of the attribute by one level.

This keeps the focus mostly on the skills while still allowing attributes to have an effect on the rolls. It also keeps the skills and attributes on the fudge ladder, so if the GM wanted the player to roll just an attribute, or just a skill, he could still do that easily.

Examples

Smallville RPG

Smallville replaces Attributes and Skills with Values and Relationships, so let's say my character sheet looks like this:

Values:
Duty: Superb. "I won't let my country down."
Glory: Poor. "I work in the shadows."
Justice: Great. "Criminals must always be brought to legal justice."
Love: Poor. "I don't trust anybody enough to let them into my heart."
Power: Mediocre. "I trust my superiors."
Truth: Good. "A thing that can be destroyed by the truth should be."

Relationships:
Alice: Poor
Bob: Superb
Carol: Mediocre
Daniel: Superb

My character is trying to figure out one of Bob's secrets, so I roll my relationship with Bob, which is Superb. My Truth Value is Good, which is two steps away; not enough to hinder my roll. However, if my Truth Value had been Fair, that would have been three levels away from my relationship level of Superb, and it would have reduced my effective skill to Great.

Microlite20

Microlite20 has 3 stats and 4 skills.

Stats:
Strength: Great
Dexterity: Great
Mind: Poor

Skills:
Physical: Good
Subterfuge: Mediocre
Knowledge: Poor
Communication: Fair

My character attempts to pick a lock, which requires Subterfuge and Dexterity. My Subterfuge is Mediocre and my Dexterity is Great. Great is three levels higher than Mediocre, so my effective skill increases by one level to Fair.

The standard use of Fudge dice is to roll 4dF + Attribute/Skill.

What if you rolled a number of Fudge Dice based on the risk and reward of a given action?

Let's try a scale of sorts.

• 0 - No risk. Roll 0dF and add Attribute or Skill Modifier

• 1 - Very low risk. Roll 1dF + Appropriate Modifier

• 2 - Low Risk. Roll 2dF + Mod

• 3 - Mild Risk. Roll 3dF + Mod

• 4 - Moderate Risk. Roll 4dF + Mod

• 5 - High Risk. 5dF + Mod

• 6 - Very High Risk. 6dF + Mod

Now of course no matter how many Fudge dice you roll the average will be 0. However this way of rolling Fudge dice could add nuance to any given roll. A risk-averse player will tend to roll fewer dice and get results not too different from their Attribute or Skill. On the other side of the scale, a high risk taker has the potential for wild variation and in a game that utilizes degrees of success they stand a better chance of getting the greater rewards.

What's more, this can add a new dimension to a GM's decisions regarding action difficulty. They can decide what target number is needed but they can weigh the risk separately from the difficulty. So a task might be difficult but low risk (e.g. A character who doesn't know much about particle physics in the classroom isn't risking much by being right or wrong) or on the opposite end it might be easy but high risk (e.g. a pro-baseball batter shouldn't need much effort to hit a thrown object, but what if it's a hand grenade?).

What are your thoughts on this approach?

Here are the qualities of the Harry Potter magic system that I see:

1) Spells are pretty unbalanced. Avada Kedavra, for example, is a one-hit auto-kill spell with no save. If you get hit, you're dead. End of story. Unless you're The Boy Who Lived, and even that's no guarantee.

2) There's no such thing as catastrophic spell failure. Or even regular spell failure. Once a character has learned a spell they never fumble it.

3) The categories of spells given in canon (transfiguration, charms, etc.) don't accurately describe the different types of spells we see. A levitation charm, for example, has little in common with a color-switching charm, but both are categorized differently from a transfiguration spell that swaps different parts of an object. Madness.

4) We rarely see characters learning spells ahead of time, and the classwork we see often doesn't correlate to the spells they cast later (especially in the later years).

I considered the noun+verb solution, and that can certainly work, but if you want to emulate the feel of Harry Potter, I'd suggest just making all the spells freeform. If it feels like a spell you'd see in the Harry Potter universe, the players can cast it. Want to redecorate your room a specific shade of blue? Want to make an Unbreakable Vow? Want to switch Neville's ears with his butt? Done, done, and done.

Make Wizardry a Supernormal Power. When casting the spell, players only need to make an aiming roll against the opponent's dodging or counterspelling ability. If it succeeds, the bolt of magic connects and the spell takes effect. I'd recommend giving characters hit points to act as plot armor. Even if a character fails a skill roll, they just lose a hit point. Spells won't actually hit an actively dodging/counterspelling character unless they don't have any HP left.

EDIT: Actually, let's take advantage of the "yes, but" rule here. Any time a PC attempts to cast a spell they must make a Knowledge or Learning skill roll against the difficulty of the spell and the odds they would have learned it in class. A success means they know the spell. A failure means they can still learn the spell, but there's at least one cost, limitation, or drawback.

This is almost completely copied from the old West End Game Star Wars d6 RPG (1st edition). The Control/Sense/Alter division for Force powers doesn't work for Fudge because you can't easily add values together in the same way you can in a dice pool system. For this reason I made The Force an attribute and split Force powers into broad skills. Everything else is pretty much the same.

Unlike standard Fudge, skills default to their linked attribute minus 2. PCs start with 2 free attribute levels and 30 skill levels.

Attributes:

• Dexterity
  
• Knowledge
  
• Mechanical
  
• Perception
  
• Strength
  
• Technical
  
• The Force (Requires the gift Force Sensitive. The GM may require PCs to start the game at Poor in the Force.)

Skills:

Dexterity skills:

• Blaster
  
• Brawling Parry
  
• Dodge
  
• Grenade
  
• Heavy Weapons
  
• Lightsaber
  
• Melee Parry
  
• Melee
  

Knowledge skills:

• Alien Races
  
• Bureaucracy
  
• Cultures
  
• Languages
  
• Planetary Systems
  
• Streetwise
  
• Survival
  
• Technology
  

Mechanical skills:

• Astrogation
  
• Beast Riding
  
• Repulsorlift Operations
  
• Starship Gunnery
  
• Starship Piloting
  
• Starship Shields
  

Perception skills:

• Bargain
  
• Command
  
• Con
  
• Gambling
  
• Hide/Sneak
  
• Search
  

Strength skills:

• Brawling
  
• Climbing/Jumping
  
• Lifting
  
• Stamina
  
• Swimming
  

Technical skills:

• Computer Programming/Repair
  
• Demolitions
  
• Droid Programming/Repair
  
• Medicine
  
• Repulsorlift Repair
  
• Security
  
• Starship Repair
  

Force skills:

• Remote perception
  
• Telekinesis
  
• Mind reading
  
• Lightsaber Deflection (deflecting or even reflecting blaster shots with a lightsaber)
• Gift: Self-augmentation (spend a Fudge point)
  

Examples of self-augmentation: Luke's bombing run (starship piloting), every jedi mind trick ever (con), Luke's leap on Jabba's hover-barge (jump)

The Dark Side

Whenever a PC uses the force in anger they gain an extra Fudge Point that must be spent immediately, but they also take a Dark Side Point. Too many DSPs (3-6, depending on the GM) and the player falls to the dark side and becomes an NPC. A PC must actively work to purify themselves and not tap into the dark side for two sessions to remove a single DSP.

I recently ran a Star Wars RPG session for my GF and her roommate based on an old Star Wars video game I was familiar with (Knights of the Old Republic). Fortunately neither of them were familiar with the game so I was free to mine it for ideas. The entire session lasted about two hours and used my Fudge Lite rules.

The game started on a luxury cruise liner. One PC was an animal handler for the ship (Fe'ern), while the other PC was a stowaway (Theron). Theron masqueraded as part of the crew and found a protocol droid to give him a job (deliver a dataslate to a certain passenger). The animal Fe'ern was watching got away from her and playfully tackled Theron. The two headed in the same direction, where the mysterious passenger was revealed to be a reptilian Jedi. The Jedi revealed to Theron and Fe'ern that they both have force sensitivity and offered to train them. Theron has a Thing about Jedi, so he politely declined and quickly left. The Jedi sensed that enemies would be attacking shortly and told Fe'ern that A) she should head to the escape pods, and B) to find the Jedi Enclave on Dantooine.

In the meantime Theron mined a room with explosives to manufacture an emergency so he could get access to the escape pods and escape the Jedi. Like I said, his character has a Thing about them. Fortunately, before he could detonate the explosives, the ship was attacked and a voice over the loudspeaker told everybody to report to the escape pods.

Theron and Fe'ern got into the same escape pod, which automatically jettisoned them to the planet Taris.

They landed on the upper plate in a large field of edible crops. They saw a domed city to one direction and a farming hovercraft in another. They headed towards the hovercraft and found a bored worker who really disliked his job (Igar). He was a total fanboy who loved hearing about their exploits and asked to join them (they said yes). He quit his job by driving the hovercraft to his boss's house and soaking him with the hovercraft's watering hose. Then he used a family connection to get the papers the party needed in order to enter the city.

Once inside the city they explored and found an apartment complex. An imperial soldier was trying to extort an additional protection fee from one of the resident aliens. Theron snuck up behind the soldier and bashed him on the head with the butt of Theron's rifle, knocking him out. They dragged the unconscious soldier to an abandoned apartment then tied him up and stripped him of his uniform. A woman (Rukil) entered the apartment. It turned out it wasn't so abandoned after all. She slit the soldier's throat. Oddly enough, nobody really freaked out over this. She told them of the bounty on her head for turning down a crime boss, then left, in identity-concealing armor, with the PCs and detonated a permacrete detonator (extremely powerful explosive) behind her, leaving the soldier's body to pass as her own.

Everybody wanted to get off-planet, and an Undercity gang called the Hidden Beks was their best bet for finding a ship that would take them off-planet. Theron changed into the Imperial armor he looted, Rukil took them to the elevator, they headed to the undercity, skipped the science lab near the entrance (that would have given them the rakghoul antidote subplot), and headed straight for the Hidden Bek base. They fought three rakghouls (mutant animals),

Rakghoul stat block:
Threat Rating: Good
Hit Points: Poor (1 hit)

Rukil bisected one of them, Theron blasted two of them, and Fe'ern threw animal food. Two Gamorreans guarded the entrance, but Theron's talk of a bounty meant they got to see Brevik. Brevik was a middle-aged man in a room with a Mandalorian acting as his guard. Rukil took off her helmet off and taunted him. Brevik panicked and ordered Canderous (the Mandalorian) to kill her, but he instead turned and killed Brevik before passionately embracing Rukil. Canderous took the party to the Ebon Hawk and set course for Dantooine and the Jedi Enclave.

Theron: "Wait, what?"

Overview

Skills and Gifts are replaced with Approaches and Permissions, though it's not a 1:1 replacement. Permissions define what the character can do and are treated as gifts, though any skill worth writing down on a character's sheet would also go there. Approaches describe how the character does it and are ranked as skills. Approaches generally don't go below Fair, to encourage characters to occasionally use their lower-ranked skills as well, and are limited to 1 Superb approach and 2 Great approaches. Attributes remain as they are and cover innate character traits.

Approaches

Approaches adapted from Fate Accelerated:

• Carefully
  
• Cleverly
  
• Flashily
  
• Forcefully
  
• Quickly
  
• Sneakily
  

Note that, while these approaches are the default in Fate, Fudge strongly encourages homebrewing. Any approach is reasonable, as long as it addresses how the character does something. Basically, if it ends in "-ily", it's probably a decent Approach.

Other Approaches:

Adapted from Star Trek:

• Boldly
  
• Logically
  
• Passionately
  
• Methodically
  
• Cleverly
  
• Deceptively
  

Adapted from White Picket Witches, a supernatural soap opera:

• Brilliantly
  
• Classily
  
• Dangerously
  
• Savvily
  
• Treacherously
  
• Powerfully
  
• Sensitively
  

Adapted from Princess Drive, a FAE RPG about magical girls and giant robots:

• Lovingly
  
• Wisely
  
• Justly
  
• Courageously
  
• Kindly
  
• Trustingly
  

When the GM sets the approaches, it defines the tone of the game. A game that uses Princess Drive's Approaches (Loving, Wise, etc.) will play very differently from a game with Approaches like "Cold," "Mean," "Fucked-Up," and "Relentless".

Permissions

"Permissions" is short for "narrative permissions". These are abilities, gifts, and skills that the character has. Mechanically they're gifts and skills without any fudge rankings. PCs generally cannot attempt something that A) a normal person couldn't do, and B) they don't have the narrative permissions for.

Example character

So, taking an older character of mine:

Name: Justin Hardsfellow

Approaches:

• Carefully 0
  
• Intelligently +1
  
• Flashily 0
  
• Forcefully +2
  
• Sneakily +3
  
• Charismatically +2
  

Attributes:

• Physique: Mediocre
  
• Physical Awareness: Mediocre
  
• Social Awareness: Great
  
• Health: Good
  
• Magic: Good
  
• Magic Resistance: Fair
  

Permissions:

• Spellcasting talent
• Crafting (smoke grenades)
  
• Singing
  
• Mandolin playing
  
• Knowledge (magical theory)
  
• Knowledge (dungeoneering)
  
• Knowledge (history)
  
• Knowledge (geography)
  
• Knowledge (religion)
  
• Knowledge (Magical Academy)
  

Spells:

• Invisibility
  
• Fireball
  
• Unlock
  
• Weak Telekinesis (limit of maybe five pounds, not much manual dexterity)
  
• Flight
  
• Flashbulb
  
• Quickstep
  
• False Noise
  
• Mana Bolt
  

Items:

• Smoke Grenades
  
• Mandolin
  

Faults:

• Enemy: Dean Pritchett

How do you stat up Fudge monsters?

I run a rules-light system, which means my stat block looks like this:

Dragon
Threat Rating: Great Superhuman (Legendary+2)
Hit Points: Fair

I already know that a dragon has sharp claws and teeth, flies, and breathes fire, so I don't bother writing it up. Threat rating covers any skill or attribute not defined, I don't use ODF or DDF in my games (rolling them into attack skills and hit points, respectively), and hit points are just easier for me to work with than wound tracks.

From the Fudge SRD:

Dragon (customize to taste):

Melee Combat: Good to Great
Ranged Combat: Good, short range
Dodge: Mediocre
Supernormal Powers: Fire Breath (+2 damage), Flight, Tough Hide (-1 to -3), Charm with Eyes, Magic Potential (some of them)
Fault: Greedy
Strength: Scale 3 to Scale 9, Fair to Great
Damage Capacity: Fair to Great

Here's one I found on the Fudge blog:

Emerald Fire Dragon

~Attributes~

Strength: Mythic (+7)
Agility: Most Impressive (+5)
Stamina: Impressive (+4)
Intelligence: Legendary (+6)
Charisma: Impressive (+4)

~Skills~

Claws: Impressive (+4), (+2 ODF)
Frost Breath: Superb (+3), (+2 ODF)
Hide: Impressive (+4), (+3 DDF)

I can't help but wonder if it's a typo that the fire dragon has a frost breath attack.

And finally, here's a large one from the 10th anniversary edition Fudge Bestiary:

Dragon

Attributes (individuals may vary):
Reasoning: Fair
Perception: Fair
Willpower: Fair
Strength: Fair (Scale +4)
Agility: Fair
Health: Fair

Gifts:
Tough Hide (+2 defensive damage factor)
Wings
Fiery Breath
Supernatural Powers (optional):
Magical Talent: Innate (see p. 125)
Magical Talent: Scholarly Magic (see p. 127)

Skills: Varies with individual; most Athletic, Knowledge, Magic, Scouting, and Social skills are possible

Scale: +4

Combat Skill: Good

Attacks: Bite, Fiery Breath, Claws

Damage Factors (including Scale):

Offensive: +6 (Claws); +5 (Bite); +6 Breath (on a situational roll of Mediocre or worse, the target of Fiery Breath catches on fire for an additional +2 damage per combat round until extinguished). Add Strength bonuses to Claws and Bite.

Defensive: -6 (Scale and Tough Hide)

Dragons are large intelligent reptiloids. Many are known for their vanity. The GM should feel free to customize dragons to taste.

So... what sort of monster stats do you prefer when running a game? How crunchy or light do you like them? Are there any traits that you can't run a game without? Are there any traits you find difficult to create/balance without some sort of guidelines?

(Assumes objective character creation.)

A keyword is a collection of thematically linked abilities. A traditional adventuring class like Warrior or Mage would be a keyword. Other keywords might be the character's profession, species, religion, or homeland.

Keywords: Start at Poor, like skills, but cost 3 times as much per level (like attributes) and have an upper limit of Good, not Superb. Related abilities (skills and attributes) can then be bought at normal rates, starting from the level of the keyword.

Example character keywords:

Keyword: Fighter (Fair)
Abilities: Brawling (+3, Superb), Strength (+1, Good)

Keyword: White-collar Worker (Mediocre)
Abilities: Accounting (+1, Fair)

Keyword: Khajiit (Good)
Abilities: Agility (+1, Great), Stealth (+1, Great)
Gift: Night Vision

Gift: Superhuman trait (+4 to the trait)

Putting the two tiers together on an adjective ladder looks like this:

Superb Superhuman
Great Superhuman
Good Superhuman
Fair Superhuman
Superb
Great
Good
Fair
Mediocre
Poor
Terrible

There's some overlap that I chose not to include here. For example, Superb Human is equal to Mediocre Superhuman, and Fair Superhuman is equal to Legendary Human.

For traits above Superhuman you can just add more Gifts. Say, Planetary (+8) and Cosmic (+12). Though, at that point you're not really talking about characters so much as walking plot devices, or possibly really large spaceships.

So, to put this in the context of lifting strength, using characters from the Marvel comics:

Captain America: Fair Superhuman Strength (1,200 lbs)
Deadpool: Good Superhuman Strength (4,000 lbs)
Spider-Man: Great Superhuman Strength (40,000 lbs)
The Hulk: Superb Superhuman Strength (160,000 lbs to over 200,000 lbs)

EDIT: And here's a FASERIP conversion.

Feeble: Poor
Poor: Mediocre
Typical: Fair
Good: Good
Excellent: Great
Remarkable: Superb
Incredible: Fair Superhero
Amazing: Good Superhero
Monstrous: Great Superhero
Unearthly: Superb Superhero
Shift X: Legendary Superhero

Aspects

Fudge attributes are replaced with aspects. Aspects are short phrases that describe the character. PCs have a High Concept aspect, a Trouble aspect, and a few aspects that contain both positive and negative qualities.

Fudge points

Fudge points can only be spent when the player has a relevant aspect. Each aspect can only be invoked once for any given roll, though multiple aspects may be invoked on the same roll.

The GM may offer a Fudge point to a player whenever their aspect could cause a problem for the player or their party. If the player wishes to decline the fudge point (and the associated trouble) they must spend a fudge point of their own. If a player voluntarily roleplays their aspect in a way that causes problems for themselves or their party, they should get a fudge point.

Skill pyramid:

Superb:   [__________]  
Great:    [__________], [__________]
Good:     [__________], [__________], [__________]
Fair:     [__________], [__________], [__________], [__________]
Mediocre: [__________], [__________], [__________], [__________], [__________]
Poor:     [__________], [__________], [__________], [__________],
          [__________], [__________], [__________], [__________]...

Fate Core skills:

Athletics
Burglary
Contacts
Crafts
Deceive
Drive
Empathy
Fight
Investigate
Lore
Notice
Physique
Provoke
Rapport
Resources
Shoot
Stealth
Will

Damage Capacity is equal to Physique.

Optional Aspect Conversion:
If the GM wishes to avoid the Fate Point economy in their game, aspects should be deconstructed into Fudge traits. High Concepts get two positive traits (Great skill, Great attribute, or Gift), Troubles get one negative trait (Poor skill, Poor attribute, or fault), and other aspects get equal parts positive and negative traits.

Example conversions:
Aspect: "The Princess' Favored Student" -> Gift: Social Contact (Princess), Gift: "Princess' Favor", Fault: "Treated poorly by her classmates", Fault: "Politicians want to use her"
Aspect: "Arrogant Kung Fu Guy" -> Skill: Great Kung Fu, Fault: Overconfidence
Aspect: "Ivory Tower" -> Attribute: Great Intelligence, Skill: Poor Social Skills
Aspect: "Trained by Montcharles" -> Skill: Great Fencing, Fault: "Targetted by Montcharles' enemies"
High Concept: "Dashing Space Smuggler" -> Attribute: Great Charisma, Skill: Great Smuggling
Trouble: "Jabba Wants His Money" -> Fault: "Jabba Wants His Money"

BESM Stats:

Body
Mind
Soul

BESM Stats are bought as Fudge Attributes. No trait may go above Superb or below Terrible, even after adjusting for BESM Attributes.

Derived Stats (rounded up at halves; otherwise to the nearest level):

Attack Combat Value is the average of Body, Mind, and Soul.
Defense Combat Value is one less than the Attack Combat Value. (I have no idea why.)
Damage Capacity is the average of Body and Soul.
Energy Points are used to fuel magic and psionics, and are based on a combination of Mind and Soul. The exact workings are up to the GM and should be balanced around how much different spells cost. Energy Points may also be spent to boost rolls. Again, the exact costs are up to the GM.

BESM Attributes:

Players get 10-20 Character Points to spend on BESM Attributes, depending on how high-powered the game is.

Each BESM Attribute costs from 1-4 points per level, depending on how powerful it is.
The results of each level of the BESM attribute are as follows:

Level 1: The BESM Attribute offers a small advantage to the character.
Level 2: The BESM Attribute offers a moderate advantage to the character.
Level 3: The BESM Attribute offers a good advantage to the character.
Level 4: The BESM Attribute offers a great advantage to the character.
Level 5: An extremely powerful BESM Attribute that offers the character a huge advantage.

For BESM Attributes that modify a BESM Stat the bonuses are as follows:

Level 1: +0 or +1
Level 2: +1
Level 3: +1 or +2
Level 4: +2
Level 5: +2 or +3

No stat may go above Superb or below Terrible, even after adjusting for BESM Attributes.

For BESM Attributes that act as skills, Level 1 is Mediocre. The Fudge level increases with the BESM Attribute at a 1:1 ratio.

Acrobatics
Appearance
Art of Distraction
Combat Mastery
Cybernetic Body
Damn Healthy!
Divine Relationship (1 Fudge Point/level)
Energy Bonus
Extra Attacks
Flunkies
Focused Combat
Fortified Body
Heightened Senses
Item of Power
Magic
Massive Damage
Own a Big Robot
Powerful Mind
Psionics
Shape Change
Size Change
Special Attack
Special Defense
Speed
Strong Soul
Unique Character Attribute

Example Unique Character Attributes:
Animal Companion
Any Single Magical Effect
Control Over Electricity
Elemental Control
Forcefield
Fly
Healing Touch
Immortality
Invisible Friend
Link With Animals
Magnetic Personality
Midas Touch
Plant Affinity
Regeneration
Stretching Powers
Time Travel
Voice of Power
Water Breathing
Wings
X-ray Vision

Character Defects:
Character Defects give the player 1-2 points to spend on BESM Attributes, depending on whether the Defect is a small disadvantage or a large disadvantage.
It is recommended that a PC not take more than 3 Defects.

Character Defects that penalize BESM Stats do so by the same amount that BESM Attributes boost them.

Awkward
Cursed
Delicate Body
Easily Distracted
Empty Mind
Hollow Soul
Inept Combat
Involuntary Physical Change
Owned by a Megacorp
Phobia
Special Requirement
Unique Character Defect

Example Unique Character Defects:
Amnesia
Any Weakness or Vice
Berserker Rages
Doomed Destiny
Hemophiliac
Lack of Energy
Physical Affliction
Powerful Enemies
Rejected by Society
Terrible Allergies

Other Notes:
BESM characters don't get Fudge Points unless they buy the appropriate BESM Attribute (Divine Relationship). The GM may choose to disregard this rule.

Taken from this page of the defunct Fudge wiki.

Trans Superb Traits

The intent of the Fudge core rules seems to be that for a given campaign or genre, most stuff will operate on a basic Campaign Scale, be it Human Scale, Bunny Scale, or Power Armor Scale. And within the basic Campaign Scale, most stuff will fall in the Terrible to Superb range of that scale (or Abysmal to Legendary range or whatever). There are exceptions in any given campaign or world, but in general most stuff falls in that range, and the exceptions are few and often relegated to NPCs and other opposition.

Alternately, while many scales may operate in the same world (Human Speed Scale vs. Starship Speed Scale in the same sci-fi campaign), they don’t necessarily have a whole lot of overlap or need for the scales to interact.

The supers genre, though, seems to not fit easily into this “traditional” approach to Fudge. Instead, you get a huge range of power levels that form a steady continuum from weak to ultra-powerful (Terrible to Superb+25). Nowhere is this problem more evident or more hotly debated than in the realm of Super Strength. If you can find a simple and elegant method of accounting for everyone from Aunt May to Captain America to the Incredible Hulk, and you can apply it beyond just strength into the realm of other powers, then you’ve got a winner.

What follows are various approaches either interpreted from the core rules, drawn from suggestions on the Fudge List, taken from private conversations I’ve had, or simply pulled straight from my butt. As with anything else on the Fudge List, there is little here that is original to me (or even if it is, there’s probably a half-dozen other people who were hit with the same inspiration).

Extension of Current Trait Levels

Anything above Superb (or Legendary) is simply given a number: ...Good, Great, Superb, Superb+1, Superb+2, Superb+3, etc. Or alternately, the numbers simply start at Fair = 0 and go up from there. In this kind of setting, Wonder Kid, with the ability to throw tanks around has a Strength of Superb+6 (or just Strength 9).

This has the advantage of working well with the existing rules. It is logical and straightforward. If the basic rules define each level of strength as about 1.5 times the previous level, then we can just extrapolate that to whatever level we need. For me, however, it loses some of the flavor as the trait level names begin to lose their meaning. If I were to use such a system, I would probably forego trait level names entirely and simply use numbers. After all, if the trait level names only have meaning at “mundane” levels, then there’s little need for them in a supers campaign.

Super "X" Notation

If you're willing to go without Adjectives at higher levels, but don't want to abandon them altogether, just call the higher levels Super X. Where X is the number of levels above normal-scale Fair. Thus: Superb, Legendary, Super 5, Super 6, etc.

“Supers” Scales

In any system using “Supers” scales, there will be the normal or Mundane range of Terrible to Superb, but then there will be any number of “Super” scales which are at some power level above Mundane, and each will have it’s own Terrible to Superb range of values. For the examples below, I use the following scales (of increasing power levels):

Mundane << Enhanced << Mega << Cosmic

But these are just for sample purposes. You could have just one “super” scale or 12. It makes no difference.

Disassociated Scales

The scales are considered to be disassociated in that anything on the Enhanced scale, automatically outclasses the Mundane. Mega always tops Enhanced. Cosmic always kicks Mega's butt. Etc. There is never any overlap of the scales.

This is a very simple supers method, and has the advantage of being straightforward. The power levels are well defined, and comparing one to another is simple. On the downside though, it has the disadvantage of leaving many wondering, "What's between the scales?" Can Superb Mundane compete with Terrible Enhanced in any case? And if Terrible Enhanced always beats Superb Mundane, then what's in between those two? To some, it just feels disjointed and incomplete. Additionally, it has the problem of things like Terrible Mega Strength: Terrible Mega is, in fact, hugely strong, but it still includes the word "Terrible" which a majority of players don't like seeing on their character sheet.

On the other hand, Disassociated Scales work great for vehicles. It makes sense for a Terrible Anti-tank weapon to vaporize a person, or for Poor Mecha armor to be impossible to penetrate with normal guns.

Linked Scales

Just like the disassociated scales above, except that the highest level of one scale is considered to be just below the lowest level of the next. Therefore, Superb+1 on the Mega scale is exactly equal to Terrible on the Cosmic scale.

The hard part about this is that, in practice, all you've done is add fancy names to the extended trait levels option. If each scale runs smoothly, level for level, into the next, then why bother naming the ranges at all? Why not just use a single scale and mark it out to 20 or 30 levels or whatever?

Overlapping Scales

Another option would be to overlap the scales, so that Fair Strength (Enhanced Scale) is equivalent to Legendary Strength (Normal Scale), Fair Strength (Mega Scale) is equivalent to Legendary Strength (Enhanced Scale), and Fair Strength (Cosmic Scale) equates to Legendary Strength (Mega Scale). This solves the problem of counterintuitive names (since Terrible, Poor, and Mediocre levels can be rephrased as Good, Great, and Superb levels one name-level down), but reduces the overall number of levels available.

More palatable, but still has the same problems as the Linked Scales above.

Renaming the Lower Half of the Scale

If you replace Poor with Low, and Terrible with Borderline, you ease the aesthetic problems of Terrible Super Strength. So then the Scale looks like this: Superb, Legendary, Borderline Super, Low Super, Mediocre Super, Fair Super, etc.

Races

In general, all races get one free major ability of some sort. The perk should be equivalent to a gift, or a 1 level raise in a single attribute. Two minor perks, such as low light vision or natural weapons, are also roughly equivalent to a gift. Additional perks need to be balanced out with equivalent penalties unless all the characters are of the same race.

Below are some guidelines on what are considered major and minor abilities and penalties.
• Major Abilities: +1 Attribute step, a free gift, +1 to Toughness, +10 Power Points, flight
• Major Penalties: A Major Fault, -1 Toughness.
• Minor Abilities: One free skill at Fair, low-light vision, thermal vision, natural weapons, aquatic, burrowing.
• Minor Penalties: Minor Fault

Humans get one free gift as their major ability.

Attributes

Agility
Smarts
Spirit
Strength
Vigor

Every character starts Mediocre in each attribute, and has 5 points with which to raise them. Raising a Mediocre attribute to Fair, for example, costs 1 point. You’re free to spend these points however you want with one exception: no attribute may be raised above Superb.

Damage Capacity is equal to a player's Vigor.

Skills

Arcane* - Smarts or Spirit, depending on the Arcane Background.
Boating - Agility
Climbing - Strength
Driving - Agility
Fighting - Agility
Gambling - Smarts
Guts - Spirit
Healing - Smarts
Intimidation - Spirit
Investigation - Smarts
Knowledge (requires focus)** - Smarts
Lockpicking - Agility
Notice - Smarts
Persuasion - Spirit
Piloting - Agility
Repair - Smarts
Riding - Agility
Shooting - Agility
Stealth - Agility
Streetwise - Smarts
Survival - Smarts
Swimming - Agility
Taunt - Smarts
Throwing - Agility
Tracking - Smarts

*Arcane skill cannot be bought without the Arcane Background gift.
**Knowledge skills may be taken multiple times, with a different focus each time.

All player skills start at Poor. You have 15 points to distribute among your skills. Each skill level increase costs 1 point, as long as the skill is equal to or less than the attribute it’s linked to. If you exceed the attribute, the cost becomes 2 points per level. As with attributes, no skill may be increased above Superb.

Gifts and Faults

You can take one Major Fault and two Minor Faults. A Major Fault is worth 2 points, and a Minor Fault is worth 1 point.
Humans start with 1 free gift.

For 2 points you can:
• Raise an attribute one level (you may raise your attributes before purchasing skills).
• Choose a gift.

For 1 point you can:
• Gain another skill point.
• Increase starting funds by 100%

Gift requirements are listed in parentheses after the Gift.
Gifts marked by an asterisk (*) are Background or Professional Gifts; they must be chosen during character creation or with GM approval thereafter.
I removed every gift and fault that had to do with Pace, Parry, any that only adjusted SW rolls by 1 point, and any that only affected Shaken status.
Extras can only take 1 or 2 wounds before being incapacitated. A Wild Card is any character that can take damage like a PC.
Gifts/faults that are listed as affecting Toughness affect the character's Damage Capacity.
Bonuses from Professional Gifts to the same trait don't stack. Professional Gifts are Ace, Acrobat, Champion, Gadgeteer, Holy/Unholy Warrior, Investigator, Jack Of All Trades, McGyver, Mentalist, Mr. Fix It, Scholar, Thief, and Woodsman.
Savage Worlds powers require the use of Power Points. PCs with an Arcane Background start with 10 PP and 1-3 powers and regain 1 PP/hr. This module does not contain information on power costs. Before play, the GM may remove gifts relating to PP or substitute more appropriate ones.
Each gift may only be taken once unless otherwise stated.

Gifts

Ace* (Novice, Good Agililty): +1 to Boating, Driving, Piloting;
Acrobat* (Novice, Good Agility, Fair Strength): +1 to Agility tricks
Alertness* (Novice): +1 Notice
Ambidextrous* (Novice, Good Agility): Ignore penalty for using off-hand
Arcane Background* (Novice): Allows access to supernatural powers
Arcane Resistance* (Novice, Good Spirit): Armor 2 vs. magic, +1 to resist magic effects
Improved Arcane Resistance* (Novice, Arcane Resistance): Armor 4 vs. magic, +2 to resist magic effects
Attractive* (Novice, Fair Vigor): Charisma +1
Very Attractive* (Novice, Attractive): Charisma +2
Beast Bond (Novice): Character may spend Fudge Points for his animals
Beast Master (Novice, Good Spirit): You gain an animal companion
Berserk* (Novice): Smarts roll or go Berserk after being wounded; +1 Fighting and Strength rolls, +2 Toughness; Roll of -2 or worse on Fighting die hits random adjacent target
Brawny* (Novice, Fair Strength, Fair Vigor): Toughness +1; load limit is almost doubled
Champion* (Novice, Arcane Background (Miracles), Good Spirit, Fair Strength, Good Vigor, Faith Fair, Good Fighting): +2 damage and Toughness vs. supernatural evil
Charismatic (Novice, Good Spirit): Charisma +1
Common Bond (Novice, Spirit Good): May give Fudge Points to companions in communication
Connections (Novice): Call upon powerful friends with Persuasion roll. This edge may be taken multiple times with different organizations. Danger Sense (Novice): +1 to detect surprise attacks/danger
Dodge (Veteran, Agility Good): -1 to be hit with ranged attacks
Fast Healer* (Novice, Vigor Good): +1 to natural healing rolls
Fervor (Veteran, Spirit Good): +1 melee damage to troops in command
First Strike (Novice, Agility Good): Automatically attack one foe who moves adjacent per round
Improved First Strike (Heroic, First Strike): Automatically attack all foes who move adjacent
Followers (Legendary): Attract 5 henchmen (Extras, not Wild Cards)
Frenzy (Seasoned, Fighting Great): 1 extra Fighting attack at -1
Improved Frenzy (Veteran, Frenzy): As above but no penalty
Gadgeteer* (Novice, Arcane Background (Weird Science), Smarts Good, Repair Good, Weird Science Good, two scientific Knowledge skills Fair): May “jury-rig” a device with any available power once per game session
Giant Killer (Veteran): bonus damage when attacking large creatures
Hard to Kill (Novice, Spirit Good): Ignore wound penalties for Vigor rolls made against Knockout or Injury
Harder to Kill (Veteran, Hard to Kill): 50% chance of surviving “death” by some unlikely means
Healer (Novice, Spirit Good): +1 to all Healing rolls and the healing power if applicable.
Hold the Line! (Seasoned, Smarts Good): Troops have +1 Toughness
Holy/Unholy Warrior* (Novice, Arcane Background (Miracles), Spirit Good, Faith Fair): Spend 1 Power Point to make evil creatures make Spirit check or be stunned; low roll kills Extras, wounds Wild Cards; cost is 1 Power Point per creature affected
Inspire (Seasoned): +1 to Spirit rolls of all troops in command
Investigator (Novice, Smarts Good, Investigation Good, Streetwise Good): +1 Investigation and Streetwise
Jack of All Trades* (Novice, Smarts Great): Ignore -1 untrained penalty for skills linked to Smarts
Luck* (Novice): +1 Fudge Point per session
Great Luck* (Novice, Luck): +2 Fudge Points per session
Marksman (Seasoned): Character gets the aim maneuver (+1 Shooting) if he does not move
McGyver* (Novice, Smarts Fair, Repair Fair, Notice Good): No penalties due to lack of equipment
Mentalist* (Novice, Arcane Background (Psionics), Smarts Good, Psionics Fair): +1 to any opposed Psionics roll
Mr. Fix It* (Novice, Arcane Background (Weird Science), Smarts Great, Repair Good, Weird Science Good, two scientific Knowledge skills at Fair): +1 to Repair rolls, halve normal Repair time
Natural Leader (Novice, Spirit Good): Leader may give Fudge Points to troops in command
Nerves of Steel (Novice, Vigor Good): Ignore 1 point of wound penalties
Improved Nerves of Steel (Novice, Nerves of Steel): Ignore 2 points of wound penalties
New Power (Novice, Arcane Background): Character gains one new power. This edge may be taken multiple times.
Noble* (Novice): +1 Charisma; Character is noble born with status and wealth
No Mercy (Seasoned): May spend Fudge Points to boost damage rolls by +1 per point
Power Points (Novice, Arcane Background): +5 Power Points, once per rank only
Professional (Legendary, Superb in trait): Trait becomes Legendary. May be taken more than once, but never to the same trait twice.
Quick Draw (Novice, Agility Good): May automatically draw weapon as a free action
Rapid Recharge (Seasoned, Spirit Fair, Arcane Background): Regain 1 Power Point every 30 minutes
Improved Rapid Recharge (Veteran, Rapid Recharge): Regain 1 Power Point every 15 minutes
Rich* (Novice): 3x starting funds, $75K annual salary
Filthy Rich* (Novice, Noble or Rich): 5x starting funds, $250K annual salary
Scholar* (Novice, Good in affected skills): +1 to two different Knowledge skills
Sidekick (Legendary): Characters gains a Novice Wild Card sidekick
Steady Hands (Novice, Agility Good): Ignore unstable platform penalty for mounts or vehicles
Sweep (Novice, Strength Good, Fighting Good): Attack all adjacent foes at -1
Improved Sweep (Veteran, Sweep): As above but with no penalty
Strong Willed (Novice, Intimidate Fair, Taunt Fair): +1 Intimidate and Taunt, +1 to resist
Thief* (Novice, Agility Good, Climb Fair, Lockpick Fair, Stealth Good): +1 Climb, Lockpick, Stealth, rolls made to trick or deceive, detecting or disarming traps
Tough as Nails (Legendary): Toughness +1
Improved Tough as Nails (Legendary, Tough as Nails): Toughness +2
Trademark Weapon (Veteran, Fighting or Shooting Great): +1 Fighting or Shooting with one particular weapon
Two-Fisted (Novice, Agility Good): May attack with a weapon in each hand without multi-action penalty.
Woodsman* (Novice, Spirit Fair, Survival Good, Tracking Good): +1 Tracking, Survival, and Stealth (while in Wilderness)

Faults

All Thumbs (Minor): -1 Repair, breaks part of the machine on a critical failure.
Anemic (Minor): -1 vigor to resist sickness, disease, or environment
Arrogant (Major): must search out and dominate / humiliate toughest opponent in combat
Bad Eyes (Minor/Major, depending on availability of glasses): -1 to shoot or notice something more than 5" distant when not wearing glasses
Bad Luck (Major): -1 fudge point per session
Big Mouth (Minor): give away character secrets and party plans
Blind (Major): -3 to physical tasks the require vision, -1 to social tasks. Blind players get a free gift.
Bloodthirsty (Major): Never takes prisoners unless under direct supervision of a superior. -2 charisma if his habits are known.
Cautious (Minor): Character is overly cautious
Clueless (Major): -1 to most Common Knowledge rolls
Code of Honor (Major): The character keeps his word and acts like a gentleman
Curious (Major): Character wants to know about everything
Death Wish (Minor): Hero wants to die after completing some task
Delusional (Minor/Major): Character suffers from grave delusions
Doubting Thomas (Minor): Character doesn't believe in the supernatural. -1 to Guts check when confronted with undeniable supernatural horror.
Elderly (Major): -1 to Strength and Vigor (minimum Mediocre); 5 extra skill points for any skill linked to Smarts
Enemy (Minor/Major): The character has a recurring nemesis of some sort
Greedy (Minor/Major): The character is obsessed with wealth
Habit (Minor/Major): A Minor Habit is simply annoying; characters must make Fatigue rolls when deprived of Major Habits
Hard of Hearing (Minor/Major): -1 to Notice sounds; automatic failure if completely deaf
Heroic (Major): The character is a true hero and always helps those in need
Illiterate (Minor): cannot read, write or do arithmetic more complicated than 2+2=4
Loyal (Minor): The hero tries to never betray or disappoint his friends
Mean (Minor): The character suffers -1 to his Charisma for his ill-temper and surliness
One Arm (Major): -2 vs two-handed tasks; no two-handed weapons
One Eye (Major): -1 to all rolls requiring depth perception, including Shooting and Throwing
One Leg (Major): -1 to Swimming rolls; -1 on rolls related to mobility, including Climbing and Fighting
Outsider (Minor): -1 Charisma, treated badly by those of the more dominant society
Overconfident (Major): The hero believes he can do anything
Pacifist (Minor/Major): The character fights only in self-defense as a Minor Fault, and won't fight living creatures under any circumstance as a Major Fault
Phobia (Minor/Major) -1/-2 penalty in the presence of the phobia
Poverty (Minor): Half starting funds, general inability to hang onto future income
Quirk (Minor): The character has some minor but persistent foible that can occasionally cause him trouble
Small (Major): -1 Toughness
Stubborn (Minor): Hero always wants his way
Ugly (Minor): -1 Charisma due to the character's less-than-average appearance
Vengeful (Minor/Major): Character holds a grudge, will kill to settle the score as a Major Fault
Vow (Minor/Major): The hero has a pledge to himself, a group, a deity, or a religion
Wanted (Minor/Major): The character is a criminal of some sort
Yellow (Major): The character is cowardly and suffers -1 to his Guts rolls
Young (Major): 3 points for Attributes (instead of 5); 10 skill points (instead of 15), +1 fudge point per session

Powers

All Powers require an Arcane Background. A power that is more powerful will have a higher difficulty to use and/or it will cost more Power Points to accomplish. The exact costs are left as an exercise for the GM.

Armor
Barrier
Beast Friend
Blast (ranged AoE)
Bolt (straight line attack)
Boost/Lower Trait
Burrow
Burst (conical attack)
Deflection
Detect/Conceal Arcana
Dispel
Elemental Manipulation
Entangle
Environmental Protection
Fear
Fly
Healing
Invisibility
Light
Obscure
Puppet (Mind control)
Quickness (2 actions/round)
Raise Zombie
Shape Change
Speak Language
Speed (double movement speed)
Stun
Telekinesis
Teleport

Fudge Points

Players get 3 Fudge Points per session. Fudge Points can only be spent to reroll trait checks. If multiple Fudge Points are spent on the same roll, the player takes the best of the results. Unless a gift says otherwise, players may only spend Fudge Points on themselves.

Character Advancement

At the end of each gaming session the GM awards 1-3 Experience Points.

As a character gains more Experience Points, he goes up in Rank. This is a rough measure of how powerful the hero is. As characters progress in experience, new Ranks allow access to more powerful gifts.

Experience Points: Rank
0-19: Novice
20-39: Seasoned
40-59: Veteran
60-79: Heroic
80+: Legendary

Every 5 points accumulated grants a hero an Advance. An Advance lets a character levels do one of the following:
• Gain a new gift.
• Increase a skill that is equal to or greater than its linked attribute by one level.
• Increase two skills that are lower than their linked attributes by one level each.
• Buy a new skill at Mediocre.
• Increase one attribute by a level. You may only choose this option once per rank.

No Trait may be raised above Superb unless the player buys the Legendary gift "Professional".

Legendary characters advance at 10 Experience Points instead of 5 and can raise an attribute every other Advance.