FREE/FALL
Playtest Edition A5
Cinematic Tactical Action | Gritty Sci-Fi | Ecopunk | Cyberpunk
1. INTRODUCTION
The climate changed, the Med died, and Europe walled itself off, creating desperate pressure points like the vertical dam city of Al Presa. But humanity's conflicts and ambitions sprawl outwards. Megacorps carve up the solar system, their shadow wars fought with deniable assets on rusting orbital platforms, remote mining colonies, and everywhere in between.
In FREE/FALL, you run the shadows, taking jobs too dirty or dangerous for anyone else. You are specialists defined by your gear, your chrome, and your willingness to bleed—whether choking on station fumes or Al Presa's smog. Contracts come from fixers, desperate communities, corporate cutouts, or the enigmatic THESEUS Foundation.
You must navigate shifting objectives, corporate espionage, and unsettling events that hint at forces operating beyond human understanding. Capability is bought, spliced, or installed, but every edge has a price. How far will you fall when everything is on the line?
A Fractured Future: 2048
Earth bears the deep scars of environmental collapse. The Mediterranean is a toxic graveyard, Fortress Europe guards its borders with lethal indifference, and cities like Al Presa cling precariously to life. This is the Ecopunk reality—survival amidst ruins.
But out in the black, Cyberpunk reigns. Orbital stations rust under corporate flags, asteroid belts teem with wildcat miners, and remote colonies serve as battlegrounds. Technology is ubiquitous, augmentation is commonplace, and information is the deadliest weapon.
High Stakes, High Risk
FREE/FALL is a cinematic tactical sci-fi RPG centered on elite mercenary crews. You are deniable assets, defined less by innate talent and more by the tools you wield and the augmentations fused to your bodies. Survival hinges on managing three core pillars:
Attributes: Finite resource pools (Body, Mind, Ghost) used to push limits and negate harm.
Gear & Augmentations: The source of your capability. "Having the right tool IS the skill." However, significant gear imposes Attribute Binding, reducing your max resources.
Consequences: Harm fills specific slots and forces brutal choices—take a temporary setback, suffer permanent trauma, or break your gear to survive.
2. OPERATING ON THE EDGE
In 2048, survival isn't about luck; it's about resource management and the willingness to pay the price.
The Attributes
Your character is defined by three Attributes that serve as both your fundamental capacity and your fuel for survival. Each Attribute has a Permanent value (your maximum potential) and a Current value (your available points to spend).
BODY represents physical resilience, endurance, and the capacity to handle heavy gear or biological modifications. It is your resource for performing physical feats and resisting Physical Harm.
MIND encompasses mental acuity, focus, and the processing power required for complex interfaces. It is your resource for technical actions and resisting Psychic Harm.
GHOST measures social adaptability, composure, willpower, and the capacity to integrate intrusive stealth or social technology. It is your resource for stealth, social manipulation, and resisting Compromise Harm.
Spending Attributes: You may spend Current Attributes to meet the prerequisites for actions you aren't equipped for, or to negate incoming levels of Harm. Note that your Maximum Current Attribute is always reduced by the Binding Costs of the gear you are wearing.
Gear & Attribute Binding
In this world, Gear is Capability. Your weapons, tools, and augmentations define what you can do. However, power comes with a cost known as Attribute Binding.
Significant items impose a Binding Cost on your Attributes (e.g., Body 2, Mind 1). This cost is subtracted from your Permanent Attribute to determine your Maximum Current Attribute. For example, if you have a Permanent Body of 12 and wear armor with a Body Binding of 3, your functional Body score is capped at 9.
These costs are cumulative. Overloading yourself with heavy chrome and gear leaves you with no resources to absorb Harm or push your limits. Crucially, Binding Costs persist even if the gear is broken; the strain remains until the item is physically unequipped or uninstalled.
Action Resolution
When the pressure mounts and seconds count, the game shifts to structured Action Resolution.
Step 1: The Dice Pool
Your ability to act is represented by a pool of d20s. You begin with a Base Pool of 5d20.
Harm Penalty: Every filled Harm Slot reduces your pool by 1d20.
Minimum Pool: Your pool can never drop below 2d20, representing your last reserves of grit.
Step 2: Declaration & Assignment
During the Declaration Phase, you state your intentions. You must assign at least one die from your pool to each action you wish to attempt. Assigning multiple dice to a single action increases your focus and the probability of achieving a Greater Success.
Step 3: Prerequisites
To attempt a Specialized Action (anything beyond basic interaction or movement), you must meet at least one of the following criteria:
Relevant Specialty: You possess the specific Class Specialty for the task.
Functional Gear: You have the tool that enables the action ("The tool IS the skill").
Spend Attribute: You spend 1 Current Attribute point (Body, Mind, or Ghost) to force the action through sheer effort.
Take Harm: You take 1 level of Harm immediately to push yourself beyond safe limits.
Step 4: The Roll & Outcome
Roll your assigned dice against a Target Number (TN) set by the GM.
Challenging: TN 11+
Hard: TN 16+
Near Impossible: TN 21+
Outcomes:
Failure (0 Successes): The action fails, potentially causing complications.
Basic Success (1 Success): You achieve your goal at a baseline level.
Greater Success (2+ Successes): You succeed with increased magnitude, speed, or efficiency.
Natural 20: This is always a success. If rolled on an attack within optimal range, it is a Critical Hit (Double DV).
Natural 1: In a conflict, this allows the GM to introduce a Complication.
Initiative & Time
Combat and structured scenes use a distinct flow.
Declaration Phase: All participants declare actions and assign dice simultaneously. NPCs typically declare first, allowing players to react.
Resolution Phase: Actions resolve in reverse order of declaration. The last person to declare acts first.
Simultaneous Conflict: If two actions directly oppose one another (e.g., a melee clash), compare the single highest die result from each participant. The character with the higher roll acts fractionally sooner.
3. THE PRICE OF SURVIVAL: HARM
Damage in FREE/FALL is not just a loss of hit points; it is Harm, and it carries meaningful consequences.
Harm Slots & Types
Every character has three shared Harm Slots. Regardless of the source, damage fills these slots. There are three types of Harm:
Physical: Injury, trauma, and exhaustion (targets Body).
Psychic: Mental stress and cognitive overload (targets Mind).
Compromise: Social damage, reputation hits, and loss of composure (targets Ghost).
The Protocol of Taking Damage
When an attack hits you, it inflicts Damage Value (DV) levels of Harm. You resolve this in three steps:
1. Armor: Your Armor Value (AV) reduces the incoming Harm levels. Unless negated entirely by specific effects, a minimum of 1 Harm usually remains. 2. Mitigation: You may spend Current Attribute points (1 for 1) to negate remaining levels of Harm. 3. Resolution: For each level of Harm that remains, you must choose one of the following options:
Option A: Mark Temporary Harm Fill an empty Harm Slot. This reduces your Dice Pool by 1d20. Temporary Harm represents injuries or setbacks that can be cleared with rest or stabilization.
Option B: Make Temporary Harm Permanent Convert an existing Temporary Harm in a slot to Permanent Harm. The slot remains filled (keeping the -1d20 penalty), but gains a lasting narrative consequence (e.g., a broken bone, a phobia, a burned reputation). Recovering from this requires significant downtime, resources, or surgery.
Option C: Break Bound Gear Sacrifice a piece of gear bound to the relevant Attribute (e.g., Body-bound armor for Physical Harm). The item becomes Broken (or Faulty if it has the Hardened quality). It ceases to function immediately, but its Binding Cost remains. This is a desperate move to save your own skin at the cost of your capability.
The Forced Choice: If all three of your Harm Slots are filled with Temporary Harm, you cannot choose Option A. You must take Permanent Harm or Break Gear to survive.
4. FORGING A MERCENARY
Creation Steps
Creating a character involves defining your role, your talents, and the gear that keeps you alive.
1. Concept & Class Choose an archetype that defines your approach to the job:
Vanguard: Frontline combat and breaching.
Spectre: Stealth, infiltration, and sabotage.
Wirehead: Hacking and cyber-warfare.
Fixer: Tech support, field medicine, and repair.
Operator: Sniping, tactical oversight, and support.
Broker: Social manipulation and intelligence.
Pilot: Vehicle operations and transport.
2. Specialty Select one Specialty from your Class. This represents your innate talent. Having a relevant Specialty allows you to attempt specialized actions without needing specific gear or spending Attribute points.
3. Attributes Assign the values 12, 8, and 6 to your Permanent Body, Mind, and Ghost in any order.
4. Gear Select your equipment (Weapons, Armor, Utility). Calculate your Binding Costs and subtract them from your Permanent Attributes to find your Maximum Current Attributes.
5. Derived Stats
Dice Pool: Starts at 5d20.
Max Current Attributes: Permanent Attribute minus Binding Costs.
5. THE ARMORY
Gear Qualities
Equipment in FREE/FALL is defined by tags and qualities that determine its function.
Attribute Binding (X): The item reduces your Permanent Attribute by X while equipped.
Armor Value (AV): Reduces incoming Harm levels.
Hardened: When sacrificed to negate Harm, this item becomes Faulty (repairable) instead of immediately Broken.
Load Bearing (X): This item negates X amount of Binding from other items attached to it.
Limited Use: If a '1' is rolled while using this item, it is expended or depleted.
Integrated System: The gear contains built-in tech, such as sensors or comms.
Weapon Qualities
Damage Value (DV): The severity of Harm inflicted (1=Minor, 2=Standard, 3=Heavy, 4=Devastating).
High Impact: Inflicts a minimum of 2 levels of Harm, regardless of Armor.
Piercing: Ignores 1 level of Armor Value.
Range (Close/Medium/Long): Attacks made outside a weapon's optimal range require a Natural 20 to hit.
Augmentations
Augmentations are gear fused to your very being. They fall into three categories:
Spliced (Biological): Genetic modifications. Typically bind Body or Mind.
Bionic (Mechanical): Flesh and machine fusion. Can bind Body, Mind, or Ghost.
Cybernetic (Digital/Neural): Tech replacements. These often have high Ghost Binding, reflecting the loss of humanity.
Note: Invasive augmentations require surgery to remove, while Field-Operable ones can be swapped.
Vehicles & Exoskeletons
Machines possess their own attributes: Frame (FRM) for structure and motive power, and Systems (SYS) for computers and sensors.
Piloting Rules:
Attribute Substitution: When piloting, use the machine's FRM/SYS instead of your Body/Mind.
Pilot Binding: Merely operating the machine binds the pilot's attributes due to the strain of the interface.
Harm Allocation: When a machine takes Harm, the pilot decides whether to Allocate to Machine (spend machine attributes) or Allocate to Pilot (take the Harm personally). If the machine's attributes hit zero and the pilot doesn't take the hit, the machine Breaks.
6. CYBER WARFARE
Hacking is a Specialized Action that requires software known as Programs.
The Basics
To initiate a hack, you must have an Active Program or a relevant Specialty. Programs are stored inertly on your rig but must be Activated to function. Once active, a program imposes Mind Binding representing the cognitive load on the user.
Example: A STEEL tier program binds Mind 2.
Compromise: If you roll a '1' on any hacking die, the program becomes Compromised—detected, quarantined, or corrupted—and is useless until the mission ends.
Program Architecture
Categories:
Spike: Precision attacks (unlocking doors, looping cameras).
Blast: Area disruption (crashing nodes, overloading sensors).
Counter: Defensive routines (stopping traces, blocking ICE). Double Binding Cost.
Pwn: Seizing control of specific functions (moving drones, firing turrets). Double Binding Cost.
Tiers:
RED (Basic): +0 Bonus, Mind 1 Binding.
STEEL (Corp): +5 Bonus, Mind 2 Binding.
CHROME (Mil-Spec): +10 Bonus, Mind 3 Binding.
BLACK (Experimental): +15 Bonus, Mind 4 Binding.
Interface Gear
The Operator's Slate ("Ghost Link") is the hacker's primary tool. It typically imposes Ghost 2 Binding but possesses the Load Bearing (6 Mind - Software Only) quality. This allows the Slate to "carry" the cognitive load of your active programs, letting you run sophisticated software without crushing your own Mind attribute.
7. GLOSSARY
Attribute Binding: The cost of capability; a permanent reduction of your Max Current Attributes.
Bricolage: Making do with available resources; a core theme of the setting.
Copenhagen Protocol: International laws governing AI threats, invoked by THESEUS to sanitize "Tier 3" threats.
High Impact: A weapon quality that ensures significant damage (min. 2 Harm).
Regroup: A short rest period used to clear Temporary Harm and repair Faulty gear.
THESEUS Foundation: An enigmatic organization policing AI with absolute authority.