Chapter 3: The Engine of Survival

You know the world. You know the stakes. This chapter defines the mechanics of surviving them.

In FREE/FALL, there are no character levels. There is no experience bar to fill. There is only the gear you Bind to your body and the scars you accept to keep moving.

The engine runs on three pillars: Resource Management, Capability Costs, and Consequences.

1. The Attributes: Body, Mind, & Ghost

Attributes are not just static numbers; they are fuel tanks. They represent your capacity to endure the crushing weight of this world. You spend them to survive.

The Three Capacities

  • BODY: Physical resilience, hydraulic torque, and biological endurance. It powers heavy weaponry and resists Physical Harm.

  • MIND: Processing power, focus, and technical aptitude. It powers software, tactical analysis, and resists Psychic Harm (Neural Burnout).

  • GHOST: Social adaptability, stealth, and the fortitude to remain human beneath the chrome. It powers subterfuge and resists Compromise (Social/Reputation damage).

The Two States

Every Attribute has two values. Track them carefully.

  1. Permanent: Your maximum potential cap, determined at creation.

  2. Current: The points you have available right now. This pool fluctuates due to exertion (Spending) and the constant drain of your equipment (Binding).

The Golden Rule

Spend 1 Current Attribute Point to:

  • Negate 1 Level of Harm (of the matching type).

  • Push an Action (Force a success or attempt an action without the required gear/specialty).

2. Attribute Binding: The Cost of Capability

In FREE/FALL, Gear is Capability. "Having the right tool is the skill." But capability has a price.

That price is Binding. Binding is the strain, the heat, and the cognitive load of your equipment. You don't just carry your gear; you endure it.

  • Body Binding: The physical weight of plasteel, the restriction of movement, the heat of a reactor core against your spine.

  • Mind Binding: The headache of a neural interface, the distraction of scrolling tactical feeds, the noise of the mesh.

  • Ghost Binding: The dehumanizing effect of looking like a tank, the whisper of predictive algorithms replacing your intuition.

How Binding Works

Your Maximum Current Attribute is reduced by the total Binding Cost of your equipped gear.

Formula: > Permanent Attribute - Total Binding Cost = Maximum Available Current Attribute

The Rules of Engagement:

  • Immediate Payment: The moment you equip an item, the cost is paid. Your max pool drops. You pay the price before you get the benefit.

  • Action Cost (In Combat): Equipping or removing Bound gear takes time. In 16x Mode, it costs 1 Action Die.

  • Permanent Integration: Cybernetics and Bioware are fused to you. They cannot be unequipped in the field. To Unbind them requires a surgeon and a scalpel.

Example: You have a Permanent Body of 12. You strap on Plasteel Armor (Binding: 3). Your Current Body immediately drops to 9. You cannot recover points above 9 until you take the armor off.

3. The 4 Modes of Time

The camera zooms in and out depending on the intensity of the threat. These are the Modes.

1x: Narrative Mode (Free Play)

  • Time: Fluid. "A few hours," "Over the weekend."

  • Resolution: Automatic. If you have the Gear or Specialty, you succeed. Only roll if the stakes are dramatic and failure is interesting.

2x: Montage Mode (Scene Resolution)

  • Time: Compressed. Travel, research, repairs, or long-term surveillance.

  • Resolution: One roll covers the entire task.

  • Stakes: Success achieves the goal; failure introduces a complication or delay.

4x: Operational Mode (Action Resolution)

  • Time: Focused. Minutes or moments. Infiltrating a facility, hacking a terminal, tense negotiations.

  • Resolution: Standard Dice Pool. Each roll resolves a specific intent.

  • Stakes: Consequences are immediate (e.g., "The guard turns around").

16x: Bullet Time (Atomic Resolution)

  • Time: Split-second. Combat, crashes, breaches.

  • Resolution: The game slows to the atomic level. Use the Initiative System (See Section 8).

  • Trigger: The GM declares the shift. When a sensor trips or a gun is drawn, the world snaps into 16x.

4. Action Resolution

When the pressure is on (4x or 16x), use this loop to determine fate.

Step 1: The Dice Pool

You begin every turn with a base 5d20.

  • Harm Penalty: Remove -1d20 for each filled Harm Slot (Temporary or Permanent).

  • The Floor: Your pool can never drop below 2d20. You can always try, no matter how broken you are.

Step 2: The Prerequisites

To attempt a Specialized Action (anything beyond basic movement or conversation), you must meet one of these criteria:

  1. Have the Specialty: Your class/background gives you the innate talent.

  2. Have the Gear: You are using the correct tool (e.g., Lockpicks, Jetpack, Software).

  3. Push (Spend Attribute): Burn 1 Current Attribute to force your body/mind to do it anyway.

  4. Push (Take Harm): Take 1 Level of Harm to recklessly throw yourself at the problem.

Step 3: Roll vs. Target Number (TN)

Assign dice to your actions. Roll against the TN.

  • Base TN: 11

  • Tactical Modifiers (examples):

    • Target uses Active Defense: +5 per die spent

    • Long Range / Obscured: +5

    • Complex/Black Systems: +5 to +10

Success: Any die meeting or beating the TN is a Success. Natural 20: Automatic Success. In combat, this deals Two Hits (Optimal Range) or confirms a hit (Outside Range).

5. Active Defense

Survival is active. You don't just stand there; you move.

The Rule: You may assign Action Dice to Defense instead of attacks. For every 1 Action Die assigned to Defense, add +5 to your TN against incoming attacks for the round.

The Fiction: You must narrate how. "I slide behind the server rack," "I scramble the targeting algorithm," "I suppress their position."

6. Hacking (The V6 Protocol)

Hacking is not a skill check. Software is Gear. To hack, you load programs (Gear) which burn your cognitive capacity (Binding).

Hacking actions

Programs grant +0 to +20 bonus to roll (or to TN in the case of the Counter).

Program types are:

  • Spike: eliminates the target (e.g., a piece of equipment) until regroup or downtime.
  • Blast: eliminates all gear of a type (eg. granting a skill) for a turn/success
  • Pwn: take control of a gear or system (that can be remotely controlled)
  • Counter:: Adds +5 per dice used, against all hacking actions.

Each program has a level, a family, and a type (eg. Black Wyvern Spike). If any dice of a hacking roll result in 1, all programs of the same family will be rendered null until the following downtime.

Manual Hacking (The Hard Way)

You can hack without software (Spike, Blast, Pwn), but you are writing raw code in real-time.

  • Bonus: +0

  • Cost: Lacking the "Gear" prerequisite, you Must Push. Pay 1 Mind Point or take 1 Psychic Harm per attempt.

7. The Harm System: Survival is a Choice

Harm is not just hit points. It is the degradation of your capability—types: Physical (Trauma), Psychic (Burnout), Compromise (Reputation/Social).

The Mitigation Cascade

When you take a hit, you have choices. You decide how you break.

1. The Shield (Mitigate) Spend 1 Current Attribute Point (Body/Mind/Ghost) to negate 1 Level of Harm. If you can't or won't pay the Attribute cost, you must take the Harm.

2. The Flesh (Trauma - Temp Harm) Fill a Harm Slot.

  • Cost: -1d20 to your Dice Pool per slot.

  • Recovery: Heals with time and rest.

  • If your 3 slots are full, you cannot choose this.

3. The Scar (Permanent Harm) Convert a filled Temporary Slot into a Permanent Slot.

  • Cost: The slot stays filled (-1d20) forever. You gain a narrative complication (Limp, Tremor, Warrant, Paranoia).

  • Benefit: This clears the "fresh" trauma, allowing you to take another hit in the Temp slot.

  • Recovery: Surgery, high-cost therapy, or a new identity.

4. The Tool (Break Gear) Choose a piece of gear Bound to the relevant attribute and Break it.

  • Cost: The item is useless. The Binding Cost remains until you have time to unequip/uninstall it.

  • Benefit: Your gear dies so you don't have to.

Terminal State

If you have 3 Permanent Harm Slots filled and take damage you cannot Mitigate or Break Gear to prevent: You are Inactive. Dead. Comatose. Burned.

8. Initiative: The OODA Loop (16x Mode)

In 16x Mode, reaction time is currency. We use a Reverse Declaration system.

The Philosophy: O.O.D.A.

Observe. Orient. Decide. Act. To act faster than your enemy, you must process information faster than them. Those with high reflexes (Tactical Override) get to see everyone else commit to a course of action before they make their move.

Phase 1: Declaration (Low Reflexes to High Reflexes)

We declare intentions in order of lowest tactical advantage to highest.

  1. The Environment & NPCs: The GM declares what the enemies are doing.

  2. The Players: You hear the GM's plan. You Observe. Now you Decide how to respond.

  3. Tactical Override: If anyone has Reflex Gear (e.g., Wired Reflexes), they declare last. They see the players and the NPCs start to move, and then they decide.

Note: If Surprised, the order flips. Players declare first (confusion), NPCs declare last (ambush).

Phase 2: Resolution (Last In, First Out)

The last person to Decide is the first person to Act.

  • The character who declared last resolves their dice roll first.

  • Resolution ripples backwards through the order.

The Clash (Simultaneous Action)

If two actions directly oppose each other (e.g., Amon swings a sword, Security Guard blocks with a riot shield), both parties roll.

  • Priority: The side with the single highest die result resolves first.

  • Tie-Breaker: The Player Character wins ties.

  • Narrative: Winning the clash dictates the timeline. If you shoot them before they pull the trigger, they might not shoot at all.