Chapter 2: Core Rules - Operating on the Edge

Welcome back to the fractured future of 2048. In FREE/FALL, survival isn't just about luck or innate talent; it's about the gear you carry, the augmentations fused to your flesh and chrome, and your willingness to pay the price for every edge you gain. This chapter lays out the fundamental mechanics you'll use to navigate high-stakes operations where capability comes at a cost, and consequences are brutal and lasting. Master these rules, manage your resources, and maybe, just maybe, you'll live to see the next payday.

The Attributes: Body, Mind, & Ghost

Three Attributes represent your character's fundamental capacity and resilience:

Body: The body represents physical resilience, endurance, tolerance for physical strain, and the capacity to handle demanding physical gear or biological augmentations. It serves as the resource pool for physical actions and resisting or negating Physical Harm.

Mind: Represents mental acuity, processing power, focus, technical aptitude, and the capacity for complex interfaces or cybernetics. It is the resource pool for mental/technical actions and resisting or negating Psychic Harm.

Ghost: This attribute represents social adaptability, composure, willpower, the ability to manage intrusive social or stealth technology, and the mental fortitude to handle deep neural interfaces or significant cybernetic integration. It is the resource pool for social/stealth actions and resisting or negating Compromise Harm. This attribute often reflects the character's connection to or distance from their baseline humanity.

Each Attribute possesses two values:

Permanent: Your character's maximum potential or cap for that Attribute, determined during character creation. This rarely changes.

Current: The points you currently have available to spend or lose. This value fluctuates due to exertion (spending points to act or negate Harm) and the constant drain of Attribute Binding from your gear and augmentations. Your Current value cannot exceed your Maximum Current Attribute value (Permanent minus Binding Costs). Replenishing Current Attribute points typically requires rest and downtime.

Think of your Current Attributes as critical resources – fuel for pushing your limits and buffers against trauma. Managing them is key to survival.

The Cost of Capability

Gear, Augmentations, & Attribute Binding

In FREE/FALL, Gear is Capability. The weapons, armor, tools, and augmentations you choose are the primary source of your specialized skills and abilities. “Having the right tool is the skill”. Technology defines what you can achieve, whether it's sophisticated cybernetics, potent spliced gene-mods, or rugged bionic replacements.

However, this power comes at a significant price: Attribute Binding.

Significant gear and augmentations impose a Binding Cost on one or more specific Attributes (e.g., Body 2, Mind 1, Ghost 3). This reflects the constant physical strain, power draw, neurological load, cognitive effort, or existential toll the item demands.

Body Binding: Physical weight, bulk, power requirements, and biological strain from augmentations.

Mind Binding: Cognitive load, system processing demands, complex interfaces, attention required.

Ghost Binding: Social processing strain, predictive modeling load, stealth system management, composure effort, deep neural interface stress, the existential cost of replacing humanity with machinery (for advanced Cybernetics).

This Binding Cost is subtracted from your Permanent Attribute value to determine your Maximum Current Attribute points available while the gear is equipped or the augmentation is installed.

Example: If you have Permanent Body 12 and wear armor with Body Binding 3, your Maximum Current Body becomes 9 (12 - 3 = 9). You start with 9 Current Body points and can never recover more than 9 until the armor is removed.

Binding Costs from multiple items are cumulative. Managing the total Binding Cost across your Attributes is crucial – overloading yourself can leave you critically low on the resources needed to act or absorb Harm.

Crucially, Attribute Binding Costs remain even if the gear becomes Faulty or Broken. The strain persists until the item is unequipped, uninstalled (which often requires downtime or surgery for augmentations), or discarded.

Action Resolution: Making Your Move

Resolving actions follow these steps when the pressure is on and seconds count.

1. The Dice Pool

You begin each turn with a base Dice Pool of 5d20. This pool represents your focus, potential actions, and overall effectiveness for the turn. Each die in the pool can be assigned to a declared action.

Harm Penalty: Each filled Harm Slot (Temporary or Permanent) reduces your available Dice Pool by 1d20.

Minimum Pool: Your Dice Pool can never drop below 2d20, no matter how much Harm you've suffered. Even on the brink, you can still act, albeit with severely limited focus.

2. Declaration Phase & Assigning Dice

During the Declaration Phase (see Initiative, below), you state what you intend to do and assign dice from your available pool to each action.

• Every action you wish to attempt requires at least one die to be assigned to it. (even if the action does not require a dice roll)

• Assigning multiple dice to a single action increases your focus and the chance of achieving a Greater Success.

• The total number of dice assigned cannot exceed your available Dice Pool for the turn.

3. Prerequisites for Specialized Actions

Most actions beyond simple movement (like walking across a room) or basic interaction (like speaking) are considered "specialized" and require you to meet at least one prerequisite before you can roll the dice assigned to that action:

• (A) Relevant Specialty: Possess the relevant Character Specialty (an innate talent chosen during character creation based on your Class).

• (B) Functional Gear/Augmentation: Have appropriate, functional Gear or Augmentation that enables the action ("Having the right tool IS the skill"). This is the most common way to perform specialized tasks.

• (C) Spend Attribute Point: Spend 1 Current point from the Attribute pool most relevant to the action (Body for physical feats, Mind for technical/mental tasks, Ghost for social/stealth actions). This represents pushing your inherent limits through sheer effort or focus.

• (D) Take Harm: Take 1 level of Harm relevant to the action type (Physical for extreme exertion, Psychic for mental strain, Compromise for social risks or pushing intrusive tech too hard). This Harm is suffered before the roll and must be resolved immediately (see Harm System). This represents pushing yourself dangerously beyond safe limits.

You cannot attempt the specialized action if you cannot meet at least one prerequisite.

Narrative Implications:

Choosing to spend an Attribute or take Harm should be a narrative moment. Describe how your character is pushing themselves.

• Spending an Attribute: Is it a cold, calculated exertion of will? A desperate surge of adrenaline? A moment of intense, clarifying focus? Tedious stretch of prudent work.

• Taking Harm: Does your character grit their teeth and accept the pain? Do they make a reckless gamble that backfires slightly, even if the main action might succeed? Does the environment itself punish their audacious attempt?

4. Rolling & Determining Success

Once prerequisites are met for an action, roll the specific dice assigned to that action.

• Bonuses: Certain gear, augmentations, or advantageous situations might grant a numerical bonus (e.g., +2, +5). Add this bonus directly to the result shown on each die rolled for that action.

• Penalties: Disadvantageous situations or specific effects might impose a penalty. Instead of modifying the die roll, penalties increase the Target Number (TN) required for success (e.g., a "Hard (+5)" penalty makes a Challenging TN 11 become TN 16 for that roll). The GM will state the adjusted TN.

• Compare each die's final result (after adding any bonuses) to the Target Number (TN) set by the GM (potentially adjusted by penalties).

• Target Number (TN) Guidelines (Base Difficulty):

• Challenging: TN 11+

• Hard: TN 16+

• Near Impossible: TN 21+

• Success: Each die roll whose final result meets or exceeds the current TN counts as one Success.

• Natural 20: A natural roll of 20 on a die always counts as at least one Success, regardless of the TN or any bonuses/penalties involved.

5. Interpreting the Outcome

The number of Successes achieved determines the outcome of the action:

• 0 Successes: Failure. The action does not achieve its intended effect. The GM may introduce a complication or negative consequence.

• 1 Success: Basic Success. You achieve your intended goal at a baseline level.

• 2+ Successes: Greater Success. You achieve your goal with increased magnitude, speed, efficiency, or additional beneficial effects, as determined by the GM based on the context and the number of Successes.

Critical Hits (Natural 20 on Attack)

If any die rolled as part of an attack action shows a natural 20:

• Within Optimal Range: The hit is critical. It inflicts double the weapon's Damage Value (DV) in Levels of Harm (before Armor Value reduction; minimum Harm rules still apply).

• Outside Optimal Range: Attacking a target outside the weapon's optimal range normally requires a natural 20 just to hit at all. In this case, a natural 20 results in a normal hit, inflicting the weapon's standard DV (not doubled).

Initiative: Who Acts When?

MISSING: We should refer to the 4 GM timing schemes here. They are to be imported from Al Presa, but without the complex link to rules (instead, show with examples and imply, how GM can omit complex rules in a more abstract time)

In structured time, like combat or tense standoffs, determining the order of actions uses a system emphasizing simultaneous planning and reverse execution:

1. Declaration Phase: Everyone involved (players for their characters, GM for Non-Player Characters/NPCs) simultaneously declares their intended actions for the turn and assigns dice from their respective pools. Often, the GM will have NPCs declare first to give players a chance to react. No actions are resolved yet.

2. Resolution Phase: Actions resolve in reverse order of declaration. The last person/group to declare their actions acts first, then the second-to-last, and so on, until the first person/group to declare acts last.

Simultaneous Direct Conflict

If two or more characters declare actions that directly oppose each other (e.g., two characters attacking each other in melee, one character trying to tackle another who is trying to run past), it's a Simultaneous Direct Conflict:

• All involved parties roll the dice they assigned to the conflicting action.

• Compare the single highest d20 result rolled by each participant in the conflict (after applying any relevant bonuses).

• The character with the highest single die result acts fractionally sooner, potentially disrupting or negating the opponent's action.

• In case of a tie between player characters (PCs) and Non-Player Characters (NPCs), or between multiple PCs, the involved players decide amongst themselves who acts first. If the tie involves only NPCs, the GM resolves the tie based on the situation.

Complications (Natural 1)

If any die rolled during a conflict situation (like an attack roll or opposed check) shows a natural 1:

• The action may still succeed if other dice meet the TN.

• However, the GM may introduce a Complication – an unexpected problem, environmental hazard, opportune NPC action, or negative twist related to the action, occurring immediately or shortly after the action resolves.

The Harm System: Paying the Price for Survival

Harm represents damage and trauma in FREE/FALL. This isn't just about losing hit points; it's about significant physical injury, psychic strain, or social fallout that degrades your ability to function and forces difficult choices.

Harm Types

There are three types of Harm, each associated with a Core Attribute:

Physical Harm: Injury, trauma, exhaustion, environmental damage (Associated with Body).

Psychic Harm: Mental stress, cognitive damage, sensory overload, psychological trauma, feedback from intrusive tech (Associated with Mind).

Compromise Harm includes damage to social standing, security breaches, loss of composure, reputation hits, blackmail material, and system intrusion consequences (Associated with Ghost).

Harm Slots

Characters have three shared Harm Slots. Any type of Harm (Physical, Psychic, or Compromise) can fill any available slot.

Suffering Harm

Attacks and hazardous effects inflict a certain number of Levels of Harm, indicated by their Damage Value (DV).

• Damage Value (DV) Examples: DV 1 (Minor), DV 2 (Standard), DV 3 (Heavy), DV 4+ (Devastating).

• Armor Value (AV): Gear can provide Armor Value against specific Harm types (defaulting to Physical if unspecified). AV reduces the number of incoming Harm levels suffered.

• Minimum Harm: AV never reduces the Harm suffered below 1 level, unless an effect specifically states otherwise. Weapons or effects with the High Impact quality inflict at least 2 levels of Harm, regardless of AV.

Mitigating Harm Before Resolution

Before resolving incoming Harm levels, you have one way to reduce the impact:

• Spend Current Attribute Points: You can spend 1 Current point from the Attribute corresponding to the Harm type (Body for Physical, Mind for Psychic, Ghost for Compromise) to negate 1 level of that incoming Harm. This can be done multiple times for a single instance of Harm, provided you have the points available.

Resolving Harm Levels

After applying AV reduction and spending any Attribute points to negate levels, you must resolve each remaining Level of Harm sequentially by choosing one of the following three options:

*Option A: Mark Temporary Harm

• Fill one of your empty Harm Slots (you must have fewer than three slots filled).

• This Harm is considered Temporary.

• Effect: Reduces your available Dice Pool by 1d20 for as long as the slot is filled.

• Recovery: Temporary Harm is typically cleared with rest, stabilization, or medical attention at the end of the scene or during a Regroup phase (GM discretion).

• Choice: This accepts a temporary reduction in capability.

Option B: Make Temporary Harm Permanent

• Choose one Harm Slot that is already filled with Temporary Harm. That Harm now becomes Permanent.

• Effect: The slot remains filled and continues to reduce your Dice Pool by 1d20. It now carries lasting narrative consequences determined by the GM and player (e.g., a lingering injury, a phobia, a damaged reputation, a permanent system glitch).

• Recovery: Removing Permanent Harm requires significant downtime, resources (credits, therapy, advanced medical care, social maneuvering), and often specific actions within the narrative.

• Choice: This accepts lasting damage to yourself to avoid immediate gear loss.

• Option C: Break Bound Gear

• Choose one piece of your Gear or Augmentation with an Attribute Binding Cost corresponding to the Harm type suffered (Body-Bound gear for Physical Harm, Mind-Bound for Psychic, Ghost-Bound for Compromise).

• That item immediately becomes Broken.

• Effect: The item ceases to function and provides no benefits. Its Attribute Binding Cost remains until the item is repaired, uninstalled, or discarded. You cannot choose an item that is already Broken to absorb Harm.

• Recovery: Broken gear requires repair, often needing a Fixer, specific parts, resources, and downtime. Broken augmentations may require surgery to repair or remove.

• Choice: This sacrifices vital capability (and potentially incurs future costs for repair/replacement) to negate the immediate trauma to yourself.

Forced Choice

If all three of your Harm Slots are already filled with Temporary Harm and you suffer another level of Harm (after mitigation), you face a Forced Choice: You must choose either Option B (Make Temporary Harm Permanent) or Option C (Break Bound Gear). There is no room left for purely temporary setbacks.

Effects of Harm

• Dice Pool Reduction: Each filled Harm Slot (whether Temporary or Permanent) imposes a cumulative -1d20 penalty to your available Dice Pool at the start of each turn (down to the minimum of 2d20).

MISSING: We are missing the effect of having 3 permanent harms, which results in the character's death (or retirement).

Vehicles & Exoskeletons (Brief Overview)

Operating vehicles or powerful exoskeletons (Exos) uses modified rules, substituting the machine's capabilities for your own in certain situations.

• Machine Attributes: Vehicles/Exos have their own attributes:

• Frame (FRM): Represents physical integrity, structure, and motive systems. Substitutes for the pilot's Body for actions involving the machine's durability, physical force, or movement.

• Systems (SYS): Represents onboard computers, sensors, and electronic warfare suites—substitutes for the pilot's Mind for technical, sensory, or targeting actions performed by the machine.

• Pilot Interface & Binding Cost: Piloting imposes a Binding Cost on the pilot's Attributes (Body, Mind, or Ghost), representing the strain of interface and control. This is separate from the machine's FRM/SYS.

• Vehicle/Exo Harm: When the machine takes Harm (after its AV), the pilot chooses for each level how to allocate it:

• Allocate to Machine: Spend 1 Current point from the machine's relevant attribute (FRM for Physical, SYS for Psychic/System attacks). This damages the machine.

• Allocate to Pilot: The pilot suffers the Harm level themselves, resolving it using their Harm Slots and mitigation options (spending their Attributes, Breaking their personal Bound Gear).

• Becoming Broken: If the machine cannot absorb Harm (attribute at 0) and the pilot doesn't take it, it becomes Broken (non-functional, pilot Binding Cost remains).

Complete rules for vehicles, exos, and their specific qualities will be detailed in later chapters.

These core rules form the engine of FREE/FALL. Understanding Attributes as resources, gear as capability with inherent costs (Binding), and Harm as a system of meaningful consequences is essential for navigating the dangers ahead. Prepare your gear, watch your resources, and choose carefully – survival on the edge demands nothing less.