Playing the Game

Considerations

While this setting does use D&D rules, it plays differently than most D&D games. Some things to consider for the campaign:

• The Empire is well connected and information travels relatively quicly across an organized bureaucracy, so you cannot simply move a town over to escape responsibility for your actions.
• You are part of a larger organization and are on missions for them. You have quite a bit of freedom and will have time off to pursue your own interests, however you have responsibilities that you must meet.
• The objects and creatures you are pursuing are not things that you are trying to keep for yourself, you are trying to protect them, or protect others from them.

Mission Structure:

Briefing & Preparation

The first step of any RSCUE mission does not involve the specialists at all. Scattered throughout the Empire are investigators who are Society members embedded into all aspects of imperial life. Whenever they hear rumors of something the Society might need to intervene in, they do an initial investigation and send a report back to Soteria.

When a team is assigned to a mission, their curator will provide them information from the initial investigation as well as any relevant information they have compiled.

Specialists are given a lot of leeway in how they want to approach problems, and so the Society has prepared a number of tools that can be used in the field. The Society has engineers that the party can visit to requisition these tools. Additionally there is typically time before departure to visit Soteria City under the monastary to purchase things like potions, weapons, and other gear.

The Mission

Over several play sessions, the party will travel to their destination, meet with the investigator or any other local contacts, follow up on the investigation if necessary, and then plan and execute the containment and extraction of their target entity. These can range from a monster-of-the-week style mystery to a dungeon dive to a heist to an assault on a cult encampment. The players are encouraged to be creative in how they approach problems, and must remember to keep the Society secret at all times.

Debriefing

After the completion of a mission, the team will meet with their curator to hand off the entity and discuss the mission. After the debriefing, they are given their personal pay of 20gl and downtime begins. This is also a good time for level ups at the discretion of the Game Master, though not every mission should result in a level increase.

Downtime

During downtime go around the party in 3 rounds, each round doing an action. The exact order of the actions they take doesn't matter, however each player by the end should have done an Improvement action, a Relationship action, and a Personal action. It is encouraged to roleplay these as ways to advance characters' personal stories.

• Improvement

  • Enchant Your Gear

    One of the greatest advantages to living and working in Soteria is access to world-class artificers. The Society employs the best of the best outside of the Barethustrian Church in order to help specialists improve their gear in a number of ways. This is done by bonding the specialist's soul to enchantment motes which can then be formed into runes to modify gear. When you take this action, roll a 1d4, and that is the number of motes that you are bonded to. You may then exchange motes for runes as below.

    • +1 rune for weapon or armor - 5 motes
    • +1d4 elemental rune for weapon - 8 motes (max 1 per weapon)
    • Elemental resistance of (element) rune for armor - 10 motes
    • Truesight, Spider Climb, or other enchantments to be negotiated with GM for any gear - 12+ motes
    • +1 ability score for weapon or armor - 15 motes

    Each weapon or armor can only hold 3 runes at any given time, but they can be swapped with a full rest. If your Game Master allows it, you may negotiate for other effects as well.

  • Learn a Skill

    Having well rounded abilities is important in your line of work, you never know when knowledge of history, the ability to do a backflip, or being able to lie through your teeth may come in handy. When you take the Learn a Skill action choose a skill and roll a die with an even number of faces. If you get an even, it's a success and you can put one check next to that skill. On an odd, it's a fail, and nothing happens. Once you have 3 checks next to a skill, you gain proficiency in that skill.

  • Learn a Tool or Vehicle

    Much like skills, the ability to proficiently use various tools is also important in a variety of situations. Similar to Learn a Skill, choose a tool or vehicle and roll a die with an even number of faces. If you get an even, it's a success and you can put one check next to that tool. On an odd, it's a fail, and nothing happens. Once you have 3 checks next to a tool, you gain proficiency in that tool or vehicle.

  • Learn to use Weapons or Armor

    Sometimes you'll find a piece of gear that you really want to equip, but you just don't know how to use it. But now, you can practice, practice, practice for mastery. Unlike skills tools and vehicles, the Society has trainers available who can help you learn these things. For simple weapons, you just need to take the Learn to use Weapons or Armor 3 times to become proficient with that weapon. For martial weapons or pieces of armor, you must take the action 5 times. You do not gain proficiency with the whole class of weapons or armor (ie. medium armor, simple weapons), instead you gain proficiency with that specific piece of gear.

  • Gain expertise in a Spell

    Being able to cast a spell and being able to cast it well are what separate the novice from the archmage. By taking this action twice, you may gain a +1 to a specific spell. That means +1 to hit and +1 damage (if it is a spell that does damage), +1 to healing, or +1 to the spell save DC, depending on the spell. Work with the GM on what this means for any given spell, if it applies at all.

  • Learn a Cantrip

    When you take this action, declare a cantrip that you would like to learn which it is possible for your class to learn, and then roll a die with an even number of faces. If you get an even, it's a success, and once you have two successes you learn that cantrip. On an odd, it's a fail, and nothing happens.

• Relationship

  • Build a Relationship

    By spending time with your contacts or reaching out to them by telegraph, you can make your relationship stronger with them. Add 1d4 to their relationship strength.

  • Meet Someone New

    Maybe you need a specialist in Ancient Elven history, a local guide for the capital city, or a connection embedded in the military's administraiton. Describe how you would go about doing that, and the GM will come up with a name. Add that contact to you Relationship list with a Relationship Strength of 1.

  • Confide

    Having good friends to lean on can help a lot in trying times. Talk things out with one of your contacts with a Relationship Strength of 3 or higher and remove 1 point of trauma.

  • Break Down

    Sometimes life is too much for a simple talk to fix, and your attempt to confide in someone leads you to break down. When you take this action, select a contact and remove trauma points up to your Relationship Strength with them. For each point you remove, roll a die with an even number of sides. If you get an even nothing happens, but if you get an odd then their Relationship Strength is reduced by 1.

• Personal

  • Work Odd Jobs

    While the pay a specialist recieves is relatively generous compared to most of the population, it's not enough to get wealthy off of. Sometimes you just need some extra cash. When you work an odd job, you choose the type of work you want to do and the Game Master chooses which ability score best represents that work. You then roll 2d10 + that ability score modifier to see how much Gulden (gl) you earn. Other players may sacrifice their own Personal downtime action to join, and when they do you can get a slight bonus. For n party members working together, earn n*2d10 + n*combined ability score modifier. For example, Amy and Jimmy decide to help out with farm labor, and the Game Master says it requires strength. Amy has a +3 strength modifier, and Jimmy has +1. They would roll 2*2d10 + 2*(3+1), or 4d10 + 8 to see how much money they earn, and then split that however they choose (or evenly if they can't agree).

  • Explore the City

    Below Soteria Monastary the City beckons, a lively metropolis that rivals any city in the world. It is a common destination for Specialists looking to get away from the stress of their jobs. When you Explore the City, roll a d20 and consult the roll table below:

    Roll	Result
    1-5	You have fun walking through the streets of the city. Remove 1 point of trauma.
    6-10	You earn some cash playing cards. Gain 2d8 gl.
    11-13	You meet an interesting person. Either add 1 Relationship Strength to an existing contact who lives in the City, or create a new contact with Relationship Strength of 1 who lives in the City.
    14-16	You run into a curator who hands you some supplies for future missions. Gain 1 greater healing potion.
    17-19	An ancient being notices you and grants you a blessing. Gain an inspiration point.
    20	You are able to take a second Improvement or Relationship action.

  • A Personal Goal

    Establish a personal goal and work towards it. This is a very open ended choice rather than a mechanical one. Maybe your character has other motivations than the Society's mission, maybe they have a passion they want to pursue, maybe they want to invent some new type of gear. Say what you want your goal to be, and then work with the DM to establish how to go about doing that. If it's something involved, plan to talk outside of your play session. Keep in mind, not all things may be possible.

Trauma

When you see something that shakes you to your core, or take actions that go against your values, you can face Trauma, often with a wisdom saving throw for emotional challenges (grief, horror, etc) or constitution saving throw for physical challenges (nausea, pain, etc.). If they player rolls a 1, they should take 2 points of trauma. Exceptionally bad experiences may be traumatic without any roll, at the DM's discretion. On its own, a point of Trauma means very little, however if allowed to build up it can start to wear on you and your ability to function. Every 3 points of Trauma gives you 1 point of exhaustion which cannot be recovered until your trauma drops back below the threshold.

For example, if you have 6 points of trauma, then you have 2 levels of exhaustion that you cannot recover, but if you bring your Trauma back down to 5 then you can recover 1 point of exhaustion. See Downtime rules above for information about how to bring down levels of trauma through downtime, and Mental Break and Recovery below for more rules about exhaustion.

The following table can be used as a guide for how to use the trauma mechanic, though it should be adapted based on a character's personality and experiences.

Example Trauma Rolls
Finding a mutilated Corpse	DC 12 Constitution Save
Losing a loved one	DC 15 Wisdom Save
Seeing someone die horribly	DC 18 Wisdom Save
Being tortured	DC 20 Constitution Save
Needing to kill an innocent	DC 20 Wisdom Roll

Death (or the lack thereof)

To the Society, their Specialists are considered quite irreplaceable. They were carefully selected for their skills, and to lose those skills to an untimely death is considered tragic. While aging itself has not been conquered, death by unnatural causes has, at least for those ranking high enough in the Society. One of the artifacts that was contained several hundred years ago was the Tree of Memories. When Specialists are onboarded, they give a small amount of their blood to the Tree of Memories, which then bonds them to it. The tree grows a branch with a pod on the end just large enough for them to fit inside. If and when they die of unnatural means, the pod bursts open and a copy of them is birthed into the world, with all of their memories...including their death. The experience is quite traumatic, and someone reincarnated this way gains 6 points of Trauma immediately. You cannot have more than 18 points of Trauma, as at that point you would have 6 points of exhaustion. See Mental Break and Recovery below for what happens then.

Mental Break and Recovery

Instead of dying when you hit 6 points of exhaustion, you instead have a mental break. Your character is no longer able to participate in missions until they recover below 6 points of exhaustion, and are taken Out of Rotation. While a character is Out of Rotation, they are unplayable and instead must Tap Out. The player for that character should create a new character to play while their first character is tapped out. While tapped out, a character loses 3 levels of trauma and recovers 1 level of exhaustion at the end of each downtime. The player may swap between their characters who are not Out of Rotation at downtime, and a character may voluntarily Tap Out at a downtime as well.