1

Compiled by Waak, Kireanikin, LaPa, Miksu & SourCherry

10 AP rule basis by Yondalor
Token HP, Quick Slots & Status rules bases by LZ

Playtesting and Advice: LZ, Moonlight Grimoire, Mittens, Kittyfluff, Ray Lionheart,
f1r3w4rr10r, Tierney Kelly, Eden, Kendallkun, Pesian, Raven, dumbhat, GODOG, Borealis,
Etymologically Correct Filly

Cover and Graphics: SourCherry, Mir (Character Concept)

Layout: Waak

Special thanks to:

Kkat - for the fanfiction that sprouted a community
Sunrise - for the original ruleset where all started

Version 2.4.1
Last compiled on March 25, 2023
Contact: [email protected]
2
Contents

1 Introduction 7
Playing the Game . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Glossary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

2 Characters 13
Creation Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Races . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
SPECIAL . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Secondary Statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
P.A.S.T. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Traits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

3 Equipment 47
Caps & Currency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Quick Slots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Weapon Slots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Weapon Characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Apparel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Mundane Items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Optional Equipment Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Item Condition, Degradation & Repair . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Modifying Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

4 Character Advancement 59
Leveling Up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Improving Skills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Improving Strain and Aerial Maneuvers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Gaining Perks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60

5 Game Rules 65
SPECIAL Rolls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Skill Rolls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Assisting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67

3
4 CONTENTS

Opposed Rolls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Critical Success and Failure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
SPECIAL & Skill Value Modifiers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Character Death . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Environmental & Other Hazards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Sneaking . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Long Distance Travel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
Flight . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78

6 Additional Rules 81
Scavenging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Invention . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
NPC Disposition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84
PipBuck . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Optional Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Sleep Deprivation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Hunger & Thirst . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

7 Combat 91
Combat Sequence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Initiative . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Combat Turn . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Combat Statistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Combat Variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Crippled . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Area of Effect . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Status Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Combat Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Movement Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Attack Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Combat Tricks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Defensive actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Other Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Damage Calculations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Damage & Damage Threshold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Losing HP Tokens . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Pain Thresholds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Critical Damage & Critical Damage Threshold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
SPECIAL Damage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Healing HP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
CONTENTS 5

8 Magic & Spells 113

Spell Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Spell Characteristics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Earth Pony Magic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Pegasus & Griffin Aerial Maneuvers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Unicorn Magic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Zebra Magic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Alchemy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Shamanism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124

Combat Quick Reference Sheet 129

6 CONTENTS
Chapter 1

Introduction

Beginning treachery. In time, war-torn Equestria saw

the rise to weaponry unlike ever before; guns,
War. War never changes. both ballistic and magical, replaced ceremonial
The chaos of the crumbling world, where no spears and swords.
one is or ever will be correct, only but a dream During the war, new industries arose to cater
of a once proud, colorful land remains. Here the needs of the state. One such newcomer
the strong and the determined strife with the - Stable-Tec - went on and created Stables,
law of the Wasteland, and the weak are tram- underground shelters to house a portion of
pled by those who only see their own twisted the Equestrian population. However, many of
needs. All in the world of pastel colored these Stables were also built with social exper-
equines and griffons. iments in mind; testing to see if ponies would
be able to thrive and coexist peacefully, though
many of them failed one way or another.
Lore Eventually the war did come to an end, an
The world of Fallout: Equestria begins with apocalyptic one. As the balefire bombs rav-
a long, arduous war between ponies of Eques- aged the land, and those few ponies that had
tria and zebras of Roam over resources. What been selected to enter the Stables fled under-
started out as little more than miscommu- ground, many ponies, griffons and zebra alike
nication had rapidly developed into a lethal perished aboveground. The pegasi retreated
stalemate, where even the most well-intended behind a cloud cover to stay shielded from the
minds erred. magical radiation. The Equestrian Wasteland
In this war-torn era, Equestria saw its ruler, was born.
Princess Celestia, abdicate her rule to her sis- During the next 200 years, magical residue
ter: Princess Luna. She was aided by six heroic reformed the war-torn land. Damaged build-
mares who would go forth and create Ministries ings would eventually crumble, with only the
to try and control different aspects of the war- most prestigious monuments standing. Wild-
riddled Equestria and bring stability to their life, both flora and fauna, mutated into beasts
citizens. from the greatest of nightmares. Parts of the
Sadly, these Ministries would prove to be world would forevermore stay lifeless, while
the undoing of even the most well-intended others would bloom in wondrous forms.
pony. The war twisted good intentions to foal- Small settlements would eventually form
ish naivety, loyalty to secrecy, and trust to from the survivors and redevelop society in

7
8 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION

ways they knew of; some trying to work to- where we are born, nor when we are
gether with mutual, equal trust, while others born. Only thing that matters, is how
formed strict dictatorships. Few tried creating we proceed with what we are given...
utopias of various beliefs, and some fell into
utter chaos altogether, creating warring parties Players control characters with freedom of
of raiders with nary a place to call home. Even thought. They can have personalities differ-
some of the Stables would open, greeting the ent to the player: being wondrous saints, naive
land they might have been oblivious to, with rebels, striving business tycoons, or sadistic
both great fear and absolute arrogance alike. pillagers, committing both heroics and crimes,
As the lush, colorful land has mostly turned and affect the world and story around them.
dry and grim, with great beasts roaming They have backgrounds, experiences that mold
around among other numerous threats, the their personality, with causes and goals they
struggle for food, water, shelter, and all the aim for.
desires of one’s heart is ever present. It is Characters interact with the world, the
this struggle, that brings both life and end to NPCs they encounter during their journey, and
great many stories. And while some stories other players with the use of both their stats
have already been long forgotten, others are (attributes and skills) and by describing their
just about to begin... actions as the player, not completely limited by
stats and numbers. However, stats describe the
concept of core character being played, mak-
Playing the Game ing it rather important trying to act how the
character would act, not how the player herself
Gameplay
would act. It is part of the immersion of the
The Fallout Equestria: Wasteland Ventures game, that is being sought after.
is a tabletop roleplaying game, sometimes re-
ferred to as Pen-n-Paper roleplaying game set Gamemaster
in the world of Fallout: Equestria, a fu-
sion between Fallout TM and My Little Pony TM The Gamemaster (GM) is the person leading
brands. This unpredictable world is contested and providing the game. Where rules give the
with just as unpredictable dice and imagina- framework of a building, the GM decorates it
tion. inside out, and players then interact with it
Most commonly played as a group, the game how they see fit.
can be enjoyed as a short single session expe- GM creates the game world, handling the
rience, or as a long-lasting campaign of multi- locations, events, quests, NPC’s and creatures.
ple sessions, with or without impressive stories She upholds the rules, while is inclined to focus
to journey through. Gameplay is divided into foremost on the enjoyment and excitement of
three equal parts: roleplaying, exploration, her players.
and combat.
World
Character
Where Fallout and other pop culture refer-
We are not born a monster, but be- ences imagine a nuclear holocaust tearing the
come one through our actions. We world apart, in Fallout Equestria, an un-
do not choose to whom we are born, controlled magical warfare of Megaspells tore
 9

the world apart, creating Equestrian Waste- Utilizing This Book

land. A recovering world molded by magical
residue, turned into hostile and savage envi- This core rulebook is divided into 8 chapters,
ronment, with skirmishes over resources, strug- and comes with a few appendices at the end
gles against monsters and beasts, and ponies as well as complimentary books. All chapters
hoping to maintain civilizations and order with are useful for all players, though Chapter 6 has
knowledge from 200 years before. a few optional rules to bring more survival as-
The world is where exploration takes place. pects to the game if so desired. The follow-
While most of the old world is lost, few monu- ing descriptions are provided to give a broad
ments and famed locations still stand tall and overview of this book’s contents.
prospering in hopes of better tomorrow. And
Chapter 1: Introduction - This chapter
the most sought-after places are those few un-
provides the general synopsis of the set-
touched by the war.
ting and the book’s contents.

Combat Chapter 2: Characters - Second chapter

covers everything related to the denizens
Third section of the gameplay is to over-
of the Equestrian Wasteland, including
come character’ adversaries when words are
SPECIAL attributes and skills. SPECIAL
not enough. Combat is fought with variety of
scores are the most basic attributes a char-
styles, be they guns from afar, kicks at close
acter has, and provides a framework for
and personal, baseball bats and grenades, even
her abilities and personality. Skills repre-
magic of varying sort.
sent the wide variety of tasks the charac-
Combat is turn-based, every player having
ter has learned to utilize, some better than
their own turn to act accordingly. Combat has
the others.
variables that change its flow from easy to dif-
ficult, like how far opponents are. Part of the Chapter 3: Equipment - This chapter pro-
combat is to think how to overcome these dif- vides the basic rules for all the things your
ficulties. character can come across while wander-
ing, from variants of apparel to weapons
Meta-Gaming of great magnitude. A full list of dif-
ferent equipment can be found within its
The term used to describe use of knowledge
own document, Wasteland Wares. At
that the players have but characters do not.
the end of the chapter optional equipment
Such knowledge includes character statistics,
rules are listed, detailing condition and
other character backgrounds, and information
modification of items.
on monster statistics and behaviour learned
outside the game. Meta-gaming is considered Chapter 4: Character Advancement -
immersion breaking, and should be left out of Eventually comes the time when your
roleplaying games. character learns something new, or
requires a little edge in a pinch. This
chapter covers that section of your
character’s journey.

Chapter 5: Game Rules - The meat and

bones of this book, where all the poten-
10 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION

tial checks your character comes across are Glossary

listed. The chapter also includes common
hazards, how character death works, and This rulebook comes with a myriad of terms
how to solve flight and sneaking. and abbreviations, some specific for these rules
and some more common roleplaying game
Chapter 6: Additional Rules - This chap- terms. The following are widely used terms
ter lists the more specialized tasks that in this document.
one can do in the Wastes, including in-
venting new tools and scavenging new Action - A thing Character does, usually for
parts for them. Also the rules of oper- a price of Action Points (AP)
ating Stable-Tec’s revolutionary PipBuck
are detailed in this chapter. At the end of Bonus - A positive effect on a roll determined
this section are two optional rules one can by Game Master.
use to bring more survival aspects to the Caps - The cold hard cash and currency of
game - sleep and hunger. the Wastes; bottlecaps, Caps for short.
Chapter 7: Combat - Wasteland is a mer- Character - Any thinking creature in the
ciless place, and it is almost inevitable for game, including Player-controlled.
characters to end up in a life-or-death sit-
uation. When all is said and done and Character Sheet - A sheet with information
the lead is dished out, this chapter covers about your character and their stats.
everything one can do in the tense mo-
ment of combat with their Action Points, Check - Player rolling a dice and comparing
including special actions alongside move- the result to a value on their character
ment and attack. This chapter also lists sheet as requested by the Game Master.
how damage to both HP and SPECIAL is Combat - An event during which characters
calculated and dealt, and how to recover have to battle against opponents. Either
from them. by violence or by a combat of words.
Chapter 8: Magic & Spells - The wander- Conflict - see Combat.
ers in the Equestrian Wasteland do not
have to rely on strength of arms or supe- Creature - Anything that might be hostile to
rior firearms to beat their opponents or the player characters.
help their close ones. This chapter lists
the rules how each race handles their re- Dice - Shortened (x)D(y), dice are rolled to
spective magic, with a list of spells they determine success or failing during play.
can have at their disposal. More detailed For example, 2d6 means that 2 six-sided
descriptions of said spells can be found dice are rolled.
within an appendix book Magic Codex . Experience Points (XP) - Points given by
the Game Master to the players to ad-
vance their characters.

Game Master (GM) - The host of the

game, enforcer of the rules and supplier
of the story.
 11

Ghoul - A pony, zebra or griffon mutated by Rounding - Unless otherwise specified in the
the magical radiation. Resembles a walk- rules or by the Game Master, all equations
ing corpse. Some stay sane while others are rounded down to the nearest integer
go feral and hostile to others. (full number).
Group - see Party. Routine - A mundane, everyday task a char-
acter performs, i.e. eating or sleeping.
Hex - A single tile on a battle map, if one is
They are often not checked daily for their
used in the game.
tedious nature of checking - instead only
House Rule - A rule made by the Game Mas- asked for in intense moments.
ter outside of this rulebook.
Secondary Statistics - Character’s statis-
Initiative - The roll that determines the order tics that are derived from some other
in which characters act in combat. statistic(s).

Level - Represents the character’s overall ex- Session - A period when the GM hosts the
perience, ability and power. game for the players.

Non-Player Character (NPC) - A charac- SPECIAL - Each creature comes with their
ter controlled by the Game Master. seven SPECIAL attributes: Strength,
Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intel-
Optional Rule - A rule that is not necessary
ligence, Agility, and Luck. The higher the
for playing, but can be included for extra
value, the better the creature is in that
depth.
SPECIAL attribute.
Party - The players’ characters are collec-
Spell - Magical spells that can be cast by the
tively called a party.
characters. They can harm or help the
Penalty - A negative effect on a roll deter- target depending on the spell casted.
mined by the Game Master.
Stack - Some abilities, perks and other effects
Perk - A set of good qualities your character may stack, meaning a bonus or a penalty
can take upon leveling up. is added on top of another one.

Player - You and your fellow friends who will Terminal - The computers of this world,
be playing. somewhat primitive in technology.
Player Character (PC) - A character con- Trait - An optional character-building quality
trolled by a player. that the player can pick for their character
during character creation. Has both a pro
Race - The species of your character, each of
and con to them, unlike perks.
which have their own pros and cons.
Token - A picture or a figurine representing
Rads - Magical radiation that is harmful to
your character. Optional.
living creatures, causing potentially dan-
gerous mutations.
Rolling - The act of rolling the dice to see the
effects of your actions.
12 CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION
Chapter 2

Characters

Every story starts with a character - which of- races” is provided under Chapter 2: Charac-
ten are more than just notes and numbers on ters - Races on page 18.
a paper. This chapter holds the materials you
need to create the baseline of your character,
while you bring life to it with your roleplaying 2. SPECIAL
and imagination. At character creation, all characters have 40
This rulebook comes with a Character Sheet points to distribute between 7 SPECIAL at-
where you can record the details of your cre- tributes - Strength, Perception, Endurance,
ation. Charisma, Intelligence, Agility, Luck. The
minimum and maximum in each attribute is
1 and 10, respectively. The higher your at-
Creation Process tribute is, the better! A complete description
When you begin to create your character, you of the attributes is provided under Chapter 2:
should first decide what kind of a person this Characters - SPECIAL.
character should be; an agile sharpshooter or
the slow but deadly stallion with a Super 3. Secondary Statistics
Sledge? Maybe the character is the face of the
group, talking their way out of trouble. Once A multitude of secondary statistics are derived
the character concept is done, you can start to from the primary SPECIAL attributes - these
determine the details; race, stats, gear and so further establish your character and provide
on. some key stats in and out of combat. Unless
modified with Traits and/or Perks, most of
these statistics do not change during game-
1. Race
play. Most important secondary statistics to
Most common races to wander the Equestrian note are the following:
Wastes are of equine descent - these are earth
ponies, pegasi, unicorns, and (to some extent) ˆ Hit Points (HP)
zebras. Griffons are also a playable race in this ˆ Action Points (AP)
game. Ghoulified -corpselike mutations- vari- ˆ Carry Weight
ants of the aforementioned races exists, as well ˆ Healing Rate
as an array of other races that are up to GM’s ˆ Resistances
discretion to allow for play. A list of “core ˆ Critical Success And Failure Thresholds

13
14 CHAPTER 2. CHARACTERS

A complete list of secondary statistics and how 6. Virtue, Karma & Special Talent
they are calculated is provided under Chapter
2: Characters - Derived Statistics. A character’s virtue is the one good trait
that helps them weather the wasteland’s worst
storms of the character’s life and from where
4. Skills they draw power from when faced with diffi-
cult situations. This is purely for roleplaying
Skills are the learned abilities your character purposes in order to give the character more
has gathered in their life - like knowledge in uti- depth.
lizing guns is shown through Firearms, while
Karma measures how good, neutral or evil
computer knowledge and hacking prowess is
a character is. Characters start with +10, 0
determined through Science.
or -10 karma. Karma is sensed by others; it
Skill values normally range between 1 to 85 - shines through the way the character carries
though there are methods to raise a skill above themselves, the way they speak and the way
85, no skill can be raised above 100. they act. Unless you take a perk to mask
A complete list of skills, their initial calcu- Karma, NPC’s are capable of “having a hunch”
lation and associated descriptions is provided about your character’s true standing, which
under Chapter 2: Characters - Skills. can change how they act and treat your char-
acter.
5. P.A.S.T. Negative karma stands for karma gained out
of acts that are frowned upon; stealing, sense-
P.A.S.T., Previously Attained Skill Training, less killing and backstabbing among others.
is a bonus to a character’s set of skills they’ve Positive karma is gained by doing good deeds;
acquired a expertise on during their life. Char- letting enemies live if given the chance and us-
acter’s age - mainly if they are a ghoul or not ing more peaceful solutions.
- relates to the amount of P.A.S.T.s they can A neutral karma character has their karma
have. In addition, characters get a special abil- stay close to 0. This means most characters
ity, Quirk, fitting for the profession they used with more extreme karma are less affected by
to have, usable once per session. the neutral karma character.
A complete list of different kind of P.A.S.T. Karma influences how NPC’s react to the
choices, their associated skills and Quirks characters. Characters that have high positive
is provided under Chapter 2: Characters - karma rarely see eye to eye with characters of
P.A.S.T. negative karma, and vice versa.
Special talent is reserved for characters
6. Traits whose race is of any equine heritage. The spe-
cial talent is the one thing a character is very
Something else can make your character spe- good at, making them special. If the character
cial than their... well, SPECIAL stats. It’s is a pony, they have a cutie mark symbolizing
their flaws and special powers that make them the special talent. If the character is a zebra,
more interesting. Characters can take up to they have a glyph that represents this talent.
two traits with their associated benefits and This special talent has to be related to one of
hindrances. Note that a few of them requires your P.A.S.T. skills. When using your special
GM’s approval - you’ll find the full list of traits talent related skill, you can get a slight bonus
under Chapter 2: Characters - Traits. of +5 on specific or all actions. This should be
 15

discussed with the GM. It is also encouraged, but not necessary, to

try and think what kind of fears or dreams your
Example: Emerald Glint has a character has, to give them a longer lasting
Cutie Mark of a dismantled mine. goal and depth. All these details can be writ-
The player and GM have decided ten down on the Character Sheet.
that this Cutie Mark means that
Emerald Glint’s special talent is
disabling explosive traps and per-
haps an occasional time bomb.
This means that each time Emer-
ald Glint tries to disable a trap,
her Explosives skill gets a +5
bonus.

7. Gear
You can’t go out into the harsh wasteland and
expect to survive without equipping yourself.
Gear includes armor, weapons and general sur-
vival tools such as food, water, and a saddle-
bag.
Some settings may provide you with the ba-
sic items you need and sometimes you have to
purchase all of your gear by yourself.
When equipping armor and clothing, only
one of each can be worn on the body simul-
taneously. However, some clothes cannot be
worn with armor. Unless otherwise specified
by the GM, the standard starting amount is
500 caps at level 1.
Further information on equipment and their
statistics can be found under Chapter 3 -
Equipment.

8. Background
You can do the finishing touches to your char-
acter by filling in the name, history and back-
ground you deem important for them, making
the character more unique. You can ask why
your character has decided to go on the adven-
ture provided by your GM. Do not shy from
discussing with other players - it is possible
the characters know each other from previous
encounters and share history.
16 CHAPTER 2. CHARACTERS

Races the many Stables from which they made their

way to the post-apocalyptic Wasteland. Not
The following races are the most common to being ones to lay on their laurels, many earth
roam Equestrian wastes, surviving the day- ponies took to rebuilding settlements or mak-
to-day life or going on life-threatening adven- ing new ones. One such testament is New Ap-
tures. Most - though not necessarily all - pleloosa, built a stone’s throw away from the
playable races are various kinds of equines, or old one, now overtaken by raiders.
quadrupeds in all the colors of the rainbow. Earth ponies have the following racial abili-
Ghoul variants of these are made with picking ties:
an appropriate Trait Ghoul listed under Traits
section in this chapter. Cutie Mark: Earth Ponies have a Special
Talent, giving them a +5 to a skill when
using their special talent.
Earth Pony
The Hard Way: At 1st level Earth Ponies
Your basic pony. Four legs, two eyes, mane may choose a free perk that they qualify
and tail. Earth ponies have neither wings nor for; the perk level requirement can be up
horns. Instead, they are generally stronger, to level 4. In addition they ignore 1 STR
larger, and have more stamina than the other requirement on Firearms (to a minimum
two pony races - having to do everything by of 1).
hoof or by mouth.
By far the most common race alongside uni- Close to Earth: Earth ponies may perform
corns in the Equestrian Wasteland, as long as Earth pony magic. They can choose 2
only Equestria is accounted for. A common spells at 1st level, and gain a new one ev-
sight in both big and small settlements, earth ery 5 levels after (6th, 11th...).
ponies tend to make their home nearly any-
Earth Pony Ingenuity: Earth ponies may
where, excluding crater sides and the Canterlot
invent schematics based on their Special
Ruins.
Talent, using the associated P.A.S.T. Skill
Many of the earth ponies survived either due
for Invention rolls instead of Science.
to their own home-built bomb-shelters, or in
 17

Pegasus fly. They can increase their flight capabil-

ities by investing in Aerial Maneuvers.
Pegasi are characterized by the feathered wings
that grow above and slightly behind the front Wonder Maneuvers: Pegasi may perform
legs. Though small in appearance, they allow Aerial Maneuvers. They can choose 3 at
these ponies to fly. Pegasi are normally asso- 1st level they have the requirements for,
ciated with control of the weather - they are and gain a new one every 5 levels after
the only pony able to interact with clouds as if (6th, 11th...).
they were tangible, allowing them to disperse
clouds for extra sunlight or gather clouds for Quick Recovery: Pegasi, due to being air-
various forms of precipitation. borne often, have developed a slight tol-
During the Balefire attack that destroyed erance to shocks and blunt force traumas.
Equestria, the pegasi closed off the sky with They have +1 END when resisting Stun-
a cloud barrier. Due to this, pegasi are a rel- status effect.
atively rare sight in the Wasteland. The few
that dot the Equestrian Wasteland are either
Dashites - traitors to the Grand Pegasus En-
clave, a militaristic faction above the cloud-
barrier - or born from the surviving Stable-
dwellers. Some may be a kink in the genetic
code, where a pegasus gene suddenly surfaced
after generations of laying dormant... Much to
the surprise of the parents.
Pegasi have the following racial abilities:

Cutie Mark: Pegasi have a Special Talent,

giving them +5 to a skill when using their
special talent.

Wings of Glory: Pegasi have wings and can

18 CHAPTER 2. CHARACTERS

Unicorn ruin, Unicorns are naturally more resis-

tant to the arcane fallout; Their starting
Unicorns stand out among ponies with their
Rad Resistance is 10 instead of 5.
ability to wield and manipulate magic. They
are identified by a single horn growing from the Master of Arcane: Unicorns may cast spells
forehead. The use of magic allows unicorns through their horn. They can choose 3
to perform delicate tasks easily, such as lock spells alongside Light and Telekinesis at
picking. 1st level, and gain 2 new ones every 5 lev-
Second most common sight in the Eques- els after (6th, 11th...).
trian Wasteland, unicorns tend to take the kind
of jobs that magical finesse is better suited for
than hooves. Though they might rely a bit on
their magic even in most basic of tasks, they
have a wide array of spells at their disposal,
which makes them handy for many situations
and jobs.
Due to the balefire missiles that decimated
Canterlot, the Equestrian capital, unicorns no
longer have a place purely of their own. Many
of the unicorns alive today are the descendants
of Stable dwellers, Stable dwellers themselves
or the few lucky ones who found themselves a
bomb shelter of their own.
Unicorns have the following racial abilities:
Cutie Mark: Unicorns have a Special Tal-
ent, giving them +5 to a skill when using
their special talent.
Death’s Offspring: As the original creators
of the weapons that brought the world to
 19

Griffon every 6 levels after (7th, 13th...).

Griffins, griffons or gryphons - they all mean Predator: Griffons possess natural talons,
the same, the amalgamation that is the front giving them an extra dice to damage when
of a bird and the behind of a feline creature. using bare talons as Unarmed weapons.
Griffons were often employed by the warring
sides as mercenaries, a line of profession many Great Beast: Griffons are visibly larger than
still continue to the present day. The collective ponies, and have heavier builds. All
Talon Company has in it many different groups Griffins are considered to be Size Cate-
of griffons, often varied in morality. Much like gory 1 at start, and they also gain an extra
ponies, they can be of many various colors and SPECIAL point to invest during character
various feline species. creation.
Griffons are a fairly common sight in the
Equestrian wasteland, though their home is
in Griffonstone, a former city-state of Eques-
tria. Unlike other Equestrian cities, Griffon-
stone was spared from bombing and is notable
in that it has seemed to find prosperity dur-
ing and after the war, likely due to griffons’
entrepreneustic attitude to life.
Griffons have the following racial abilities:

Stable Wings: Griffons have wings and can

fly. They can increase their flight capabil-
ities by investing in Aerial Maneuvers.

Talon Maneuvers: Griffons have a limited

ability to perform Aerial Maneuvers.
They can choose 2 at 1st level they have
the requirements for, and gain a new one
20 CHAPTER 2. CHARACTERS

Zebra alchemical recipes alongside Brew Base

at 1st level, and gain 2 new recipes every
Zebras are distinguishable by their unique
5 levels after (6th, 11th...).
black-and-white striped coats and the glyph-
like Cutie Mark that adorns their haunch. Witchy Wards: Zebras are naturally re-
Their manes are also black and white in color. silient against arcane magic, giving them
Close to their pony cousins, zebras have their a +10 in opposed rolls made to resist a
own customs and methods of magic. Many unicorn’s spells. In addition to this, their
zebras still cling to their beliefs, which seem long history with alchemy has given them
preposterous and bizarre to many Equestrians, a natural-built tolerance to poisons; their
such as their fear of the stars. starting Poison Resistance is 20 instead of
Zebras are capable of their own kind of 10.
magic; alchemy, the art of creating concoctions
to alter one’s self - or another, for that matter.
In addition to this, some have acquired skills
in dealing with the often-invisible spirits that
inhabit the post-apocalyptic Equestria.
It is entirely possible for a zebra to be both
an alchemist and a shaman, though they must
go through rigorous amount of training and
personal sacrifices to do so.
Zebras have the following racial abilities:

Glyph: Zebras have a Special Talent, giving

them +5 to a skill when using their special
talent.

Tribal Concoctions: Zebras can use

alchemy to create Brews, Talismans,
and Enchantments. They can choose 3
 21

SPECIAL do other feats that require sheer muscle power.

The acronym “SPECIAL” is made from the Affected by temporary changes:

primary statistics of the system - Strength, ˆ Carry Weight
Perception, Endurance, Charisma, Intel- ˆ Melee & Unarmed damage
ligence, Agility and Luck. These attributes ˆ Penalties from Min STR requirement
are the core of all characters that roam the ˆ Breaking free of Grapple
Wastes; the natural strengths and weaknesses ˆ Weight lifting
of the characters. What makes your character Affected by permanent changes only:
SPECIAL? ˆ Melee & Intimidation skill values
SPECIAL values are expressed by a number
between 1 to 10, with 5 being the average; the
Perception (PER)
higher, the better. In some cases one’s SPE-
CIAL can raise above 10 thanks to various tem- A measure of your character’s awareness and
porary effects, up to a maximum of 15. These “street-smarts”, sometimes called instinct or a
at character creation add up to 40 points by “gut feeling”. Perceptive characters notice de-
default. tails instantly, like smells, sounds, and sights
Permanent increases and decreases to SPE- that don’t fit a “normal” picture. Highly per-
CIALs are gained by Perks, Cybernetic Im- ceptive characters are private investigators or
plants and Alchemy. Permanent changes to snipers. Characters with low Perception walk
SPECIALs are not always retroactive, increas- about in their own little world. Rolls against
ing or decreasing SPECIALs do not affect Skill Perception are used when there is a little detail
Points and Spells from previous character lev- the character has a chance of noticing, such as
els. the glisten off the scope of the sniper taking an
Temporary increase and decrease to SPE- aim at their head.
CIALs exist, such as certain clothes or chems.
Affected by temporary buffs:
Temporary buffs and debuffs always affect
ˆ Initiative
SPECIAL checks and opposed rolls using SPE-
ˆ All five senses
CIALs as well as Potency of spells. They
ˆ Detecting details
do not affect Skills, but they can affect
ˆ General awareness of surroundings
other stats, such as temporary increase in
STR will increase one’s Carry Weight and Affected by permanent changes only:
Melee/Unarmed damage momentarily. ˆ Explosives, Lockpick & Magical Weapons
skills
Strength (STR)
Endurance (END)
A measure of your character’s physical
strength and muscle power. Characters with A measure of your character’s constitution
a high Strength probably spent a lot of time in and overall health. Characters with a high
the gym in high school. Characters with low Endurance have great immune systems, good
Strength probably got beat up by the charac- cardiovascular fitness, and can outrun and
ters with high Strength. Rolls against Strength outswim others. Characters with high En-
are used when characters try to break doors durance can swim across the Bay of Mane-
down, bend the bars on their prison cell, and hattan. Characters with low Endurance can
22 CHAPTER 2. CHARACTERS

drown in the kiddie pool. Rolls against En- Intelligence (INT)

durance determine things like whether your
A measure of your character’s higher reason-
character can hang on to that rope over a
ing power. Characters with high intelligence
canyon, or can resist the deadly cloud of bac-
have better memories and are better at solv-
teria some renegade scientist just sprayed in
ing problems than characters with low intel-
their face.
ligence. Rolls against Intelligence are made
Affected by temporary buffs: when characters are attempting to guess a
password or determine the pattern sequence of
ˆ Healing Rate
electric charges running through the pattern
ˆ Resistances
on the floor.
ˆ Aerial Maneuvers of flying characters
(alongside AGI & CHA) Affected by temporary buffs:
ˆ Holding one’s breath ˆ Determines the player’s Maximum Insan-
ˆ General stamina ity.
ˆ Affects reading speed and use of Pre-War
Affected by permanent changes only: Books and Magazines
ˆ Hit Points ˆ Memory
ˆ Survival & Unarmed skills ˆ Intuition
Affected by permanent changes only:
ˆ Skill points on levelling up
Charisma (CHA)
ˆ Mechanics, Medicine, Science and Thau-
A measure of your character’s manners, ap- maturgy skills
pearance and general likability. Charisma may
also limit your ability to gain followers and also Agility (AGI)
determines how well you resist magical attacks
A measure of your character’s speed and quick
directed at your soul. Rolls against Charisma
actions. Rolls against Agility are made when
are made when a character is attempting to
your character dodges a falling tree or attempts
communicate without words, for example to
to jerk their hoof out of the sewer before a
frighten away animals, to see through bluff and
mutated rat bites it off.
to directly influence NPC’s with appearance
and mannerism. Affected by temporary buffs:
ˆ Action Points
Affected by temporary buffs: ˆ Aerial Maneuvers of flying characters
ˆ Aerial Maneuvers of flying characters (alongside END & CHA)
(alongside AGI & END) ˆ Breaking free of Grapple
ˆ Spirit Affinity ˆ General dexterity and balance
ˆ Social situations in general
Affected by permanent changes only:
ˆ NPC Disposition
ˆ Firearms, Sleight & Sneak skills
ˆ Convincing others with manners or body
language (acting, intimidation, etc.)
Luck (LCK)
Affected by permanent changes only: Perhaps the most ambiguous statistic, Luck
ˆ Barter & Diplomacy skills is everything and nothing. Characters with a
 23

high amount of Luck just tend to have things imum HP are determined by the following for-
go their way, and characters with a low amount mula:
of Luck always seem to be standing under the
10 + EN D
delivery cart when the piano is dropped. Rolls
against Luck are made at the GM’s discretion; HP is indicated by a column of tokens, called
Luck rolls can determine if, when your charac- Health Tracker. Once character takes dam-
ter is out of ammo and lying half-unconscious age, their health begins to dwindle downwards.
on the ground, he happens to find that loaded All characters have 10 HP as a base. The
shotgun lying concealed and forgotten in the character adds their END to this for their Total
dust. HP. For example, a character with 5 END has
a maximum of 15 HP.
Affected by temporary buffs:
All characters have Pain Thresholds at 5 HP,
ˆ Critical success and failure thresholds
3 HP and 1 HP. When a character reaches these
ˆ Breaking free of Grapple
Pain Thresholds, further penalties are applied
ˆ Looting
through statuses, to indicate that the charac-
Affected by permanent changes only: ter’s bodily limit is being reached. These sta-
ˆ All skills slightly tuses are rolled by the GM from a table with
various effects, meaning that not all characters
begin to break down the same way.
Secondary Statistics Pain Thresholds, HP Token loss and healing
These statistics are values that are either de- HP is further explained in Chapter 7: Combat
rived from your SPECIAL values or otherwise - Dealing Damage.
determine your character, the nitty-gritty of
your character sheet. Healing Rate
Your body heals at a natural rate - albeit
Level slowly. Healing Rate stat represents your char-
acter’s natural healing process during at least
Your character has a Level (lvl) measur-
8 hours of rest.
ing their experience and time in the Waste-
The character’s Healing Rate is determined
land. Levels are gained through Experience
by their Endurance; characters with low END
Points (XP) rewarded throughout the char-
heal less Hit points than characters with high
acter’s journey from various actions; usually
END, as shown below:
assigned during or after a game session by the
Game Master. END 1-3 Heals 1 HP / 8 hours
END 4-7 Heals 2 HP / 8 hours
Hit Points END 8-10 Heals 3 HP / 8 hours
Hit points (HP) are one of the most impor-
Action Points
tant statistics in the game - they determine
if your character is alive and walking or dead Your Action Points (AP) determine how
and buried. If a character’s HP at any moment quickly you act in combat - and how many
reaches 0, the character has perished. actions you can perform in one combat turn.
HP can recover with time, drugs, correct Action Points are determined by the following
skills or a visit to your local doctor. Your max- formula:
24 CHAPTER 2. CHARACTERS

10 + (AGI/2) A complete list of skills, their initial calculation

and associated descriptions is provided under
Various perks and traits modify how many APs Chapter 2: Characters - Skills.
a character has and/or spends with specific ac-
tions. Be sure to keep note on the modifiers if Karma
you choose one.
If you have AP remaining after having used Unlike most Secondary Statistics, Karma is
all actions you wanted to use, the remaining not derived from SPECIAL stats. It deter-
AP doesn’t carry over to the next turn. In mines your character’s moral alignment - it
other words, AP refreshes each turn. can and will change during play as determined
by the GM from your character’s actions, and
the value will affect various characters’ disposi-
Design Note: AP explained tion on your character. One’s karma value can
Action points limit the number of range from -100 to 100 - between an immoral
actions characters can do within wasteland monster and a paragon of virtue,
a turn and normally every ac- respectively. Karma value of 0 is the neu-
tion costs AP to prevent characters tral middle-ground. Besides NPC disposition,
from acting indefinitely. As differ- some spirits a zebra shaman can summon react
ent actions are faster and simpler differently to the summoner’s karma.
to do, AP prevents need of limiting
characters to set amount of actions Insanity
per turn.
The Wasteland is not a nice place. It will beat
you down mercilessly and it will take a toll on
Strain your sanity. Certain spells, traumatic experi-
ences, and damage to your mental capabilities
Strain tells how long one can keep dishing can steer you towards insanity. Insanity me-
out those special tricks, maneuvers, or spells a ter is meant to gauge how well your character
character possesses until burnout strikes. Es- is taking in the brutality of Wasteland.
sentially, this is your fatigue. All characters When a character is about to get an Insan-
have a default Strain pool of 20, which in- ity point, they roll a 1d100. If the result is
creases by 5 every 5 levels. Characters regain 20 or under, their sanity has worsened. There
all their Strain after 8 hours of rest. are certain perks that affect this roll, as well
Unicorn and Earth pony magic, pegasi and as methods to lower one’s Insanity - such as
griffons’ Aerial Maneuvers, and zebra Alchemy certain Chems, spells, and alchemy recipes. If
and Shamanism all use up Strain due to them the character already has 5 points in Insanity,
using the innate magic in them. they gain a new Insanity point at 50 or under
on the 1d100 roll.
Skill Points Your Insanity meter’s maximum is deter-
mined by the following formula:
Skill Points are accumulated with each level
5 + (IN T /2)
up your character receives while wandering.
The gaining of Skill Points follows the formula: Should a character’s Insanity meter reach max-
imum, the character will go insane and be re-
10 + (IN T /2) moved from the player’s control. It is at the
 25

Table 2.1: Size Category Modifiers

Combat Trick
Size HP Hit Chance Carry Weight Reach
Modifiers
4 +4 +40 +60 kg 10 m / 5 hex +40
3 +2 +20 +40 kg 4 m / 2 hex +20
2 +1 +10 +10 kg 2 m / 1 hex +10
1 - +5 +5 kg - +5
0 - - - - -
-1 - -5 -5 kg - -5
-2 -1 -10 -10 kg - -10
-3 -2 -20 -40 kg - -20
-4 -4 -40 -60 kg - -40

GM’s discretion if a character that has left play Combat trick modifier affects how easy com-
in this manner can be brought back. bat tricks can be performed by the character.

Size Carry Weight

Size category determines how large the char- How much stuff your character can haul in
acter is. It ranges from -4 to +4, with most his saddlebags without having to start picking
equines representing the middle size category what to drop. Every item weighs something.
of 0. Size category can be changed with Traits, Carry weight is determined by the following
Spells and Zebra Alchemy. formula:
Size category affects various statistics, as 10kg + (ST R × 5kg)
displayed on Table 2.1. Hit Points modifier
represents the resiliency, that size brings to a The Carry Weight can be further modified by
character, while hit chance modifier represents traits. Apply changes from them after calcu-
the difficulty to hit the said character of ei- lating the base Carry Weight.
ther large or small size. Characters do not ap- If a character is carrying more than their
ply their own Size category’s Hit Chance to Carry Weight allows, they are considered En-
the rolls when targeting others - only the op- cumbered. If they are carrying over double
ponent’s Size will provide additional bonus or their Carry Weight, the character is unable to
penalty. move. When she removes the excess weight,
That is, a character with Size -2 does not the conditions immediately end.
gain a malus (or bonus) to their roll from Size
when targeting a character with Size 0, while Resistances
the opposite is true.
Fire, Cold & Electricity
Carry weight represents the total muscle
mass that body has different body sizes affects When out in the Wasteland, your character
the base values. will face various environmental hazards. These
Reach represents the length of one’s body hazards can be resisted in two ways: Elemental
parts and affect the distance a character can hazards, such as heat and cold, need a SPE-
hit with a swing from a club. CIAL roll to resist harmful status effects from
26 CHAPTER 2. CHARACTERS

such attacks. Physical damage from these haz-

Table 2.2: Resistances and Their Base Values
ards are resolved like normal damage, with cer- Resistance Value
tain clothing and perks give extra DT to resist Poison 10%
these types of damage. Radiaton 5%
Cold END / AGI check
Poison & Radiation Heat END check
Electricicty END / STR check
Poison and Radiation are somewhat rarer and
have much more harmful effects. Radiation
causes penalties to a character’s ability to func- that the burst is rolled 5 times, at
tion the more the Rads they have, while poi- 50% probability. GM asks for Doc
sons are more varied in their effects but do not Red’s Radiation resistance, mean-
accumulate. ing that the probability of the at-
Defending from Poison or Radiation requires tack coming through is 50% - 10%
Radiation Resistance and Poison Resis- = 40% instead. GM rolls d100
tance respectively. All characters start with a 5 times, of which two go under
static value on both and they can further be 40, meaning they have successfully
modified with perks, Chems and apparel. Re- been inflicted on Doc Red. Thus
sistance lowers the likelihood of Rads or poi- Doc Red takes 2 Rad tokens and
son coming through by lowering the success adds them to the lowest available
chance; for example, a character with 5% Rad space on his Rad Tracker.
Resistance can lower the incoming percentage
by 5, thus 50% becomes 45% instead. The min- Example 2: Emerald Glint tosses
imum chance to gain Rads is 5%. These Resis- a Sparkle-Nade at their enemy,
tance values do not alter how many times the dealing radiation damage as: 2 x
chance is rolled at a given time. 60% with 2 Rad Token inflicted.
If a poison or radiation is delivered with a The enemy has a Radiation Re-
weapon, it requires the target to lose HP for sistance of 10%, so the Sparkle-
the poison or Rads to get through. If the Nade’s Rad damage changes into
character’s DT overcomes the weapon’s dam- 2 x 60%. Emerald Glint’s player
age, the poison or Rads haven’t been inflicted. rolls 1d100 twice, and gets results
More information on losing HP tokens and DT 70 and 25. Of these, only one is
can be found under Chapter 7: Combat - Deal- under 60, so only one of the ra-
ing Damage. diation attacks inflict damage on
To check how Poison and Radiation damage the target, giving the enemy 2 Rad
is applied, check under Chapter 5: Game Rules token increases to their Rads me-
- Environmental & Other Hazards. ter.
The base values of the resistances are de-
tailed on Table 2.2.
Potency
Example 1: Doc Red has Radia- Potency determines the strength of a spell, and
tion Resistance of 10 and is be- it grows as characters level up. Each Magic
ing attacked by a Glowing One’s school has their own SPECIAL that deter-
Irradiated Burst. The attack says mines where the strength of the spell derives
 27

invested on it. Any bonuses above the skill

Table 2.3: SPECIAL Potency Modifier
cap, such as temporary ones from magazines,
Potency
SPECIAL Chems and gear, can be used to compensate
Modifier
penalties character may have or gain during
1-3 +1
play.
4-7 +2
8+ +3 The only method of increasing the skill cap
of 85, is studying a skill related Book. The
book-bonus raises the cap for that particular
from. For example, unicorn magic’s Illusion skill to 90. Knowledge is power, after all, and
school uses CHA as its base. Books are based on effort and studies consid-
The linked SPECIAL attribute applies as a erably longer than one’s lifetime. In addition,
bonus in a form of a threshold, detailed in Ta- if the character has a Special Talent, the +5
ble 2.3. The bonus gained from the SPECIAL from it can also go over the hard cap.
is added to the character’s level, and this be-
The starting value of each skill is equal to
comes the spell’s Potency. The Spell’s potency
double the skill’s associated SPECIAL plus
changes each time the character gains a level
half your LCK. The number of skill points the
or her SPECIAL value changes.
character receives at both character creation
Example: Emerald Glint has learned and level-ups is equal to 10 + (IN T /2). This
the spell Silver Shroud, an Illu- value is rounded down.
sion spell that uses CHA as its A character can assign a maximum of
SPECIAL. Emerald Glint’s level 5 skill points per skill per level.
is 5 and her CHA is 6. This
means that Emerald Glint’s Po-
tency Modifier is +2. Added to
her level this makes the Potency
Barter
of the spell into 7.
Starting value: (2 × CHA) + (LCK/2)
The Barter skill covers understanding of eco-
Skills nomics and trade, as well as dealings with spir-
its from the beyond. A good Barter skill isn’t
Your character’s Skills reflect their various
important if you’re killing everyone, but it cer-
abilities and knowledge. The skill value in-
tainly is a valuable skill for the non-berserkers
dicates how good your character is at that
out there.
skill, and at character creation you select two
P.A.S.T. options to mark specialization of the Barter is primarily used in the buying and
character. Skill values can be increased fur- selling of items, such as trading with a mer-
ther by allocating Skill Points at character chant or scavenger, or exchanging mutual
creation and Level Ups. Skill values are nor- goods or favors. This skill alters prices for pur-
mally expressed by a number between 1 to chasing and selling of items. Modifiers include
85; the higher the Skill value, the better your factors such as condition of the item a char-
chance of success. acter is trying to sell and NPC disposition to-
Once a skill has reached a total of 85 from wards said character.
a combination of skill points, Perks, Traits Barter is also a alternative skill involved in
and P.A.S.T, no further skill points may be shamanism alongside Thaumaturgy.
28 CHAPTER 2. CHARACTERS

Diplomacy Intimidation

Starting value: (2 × CHA) + (LCK/2) Starting value: (2 × ST R) + (LCK/2)

The Diplomacy skill determines the charac- The Intimidation skill shows how frightening
ter’s verbal proficiency at persuading, talking the character can act, utilizing not only her
her way out of combat, or convincing people verbal prowess but her acting as well to make
to give up vital information. Diplomacy is also the opposition tremble. Sometimes when soft
used for insight into the communication of oth- words fail, one must bring in the big stick to
ers and catch hidden context. get to where she wants - and Intimidation fills
that role.
Diplomacy rolls are usually used to augment
The skill determines how well the charac-
roleplaying when dealing with NPCs. How-
ter can retrieve information from unwilling or
ever, Diplomacy is not used to influence other
afraid subjects, and make others fear her.
players!

Lockpick
Explosives Starting value: (2 × P ER) + (LCK/2)
If the character needs to open locks with-
Starting value: (2 × P ER) + (LCK/2)
out the proper key, this is the skill for her. A
The Explosives skill is used when the char- character may use it to get what she want, but
acter tries to manipulate anything that can others don’t want her to have.
go boom in an instant - be it deliberately The Lockpick skill governs the character’s
or not. Explosives determines the character’s ability to pick conventional locks with the help
knowledge and accuracy with all grenades and of a screwdriver and a bobby pin or similar
weapons that launch explosive or burning or- tools of trade.
dinance other than bullets - these weapons in-
clude missile launchers, grenade launchers and
Magical Energy Weapons
Balefire Egg Launcher (BEL).
It also governs the character’s prowess in theStarting value: (2 × P ER) + (LCK/2) The
art of defusing and disarming explosives. With Magical Energy Weapons skill (MEW) is used
enough skill and right components, the charac- when the character uses weapons that fire
ter can also craft some form of explosives. magic-based projectiles, such as laser beams
or goop of plasma.
This skill determines the character’s accu-
Firearms racy with all ranged magical weapons - for
instance the Q-Same AEW-21 Arcane Rifle,
Starting value: (2 × AGI) + (LCK/2) Silaha Plasma ”Corona” and Enclave Gale
The Firearms skill is used whenever the Blaster.
character deals with weapons that fire
gunpowder-based ammunition. Firearms are
known to kick back after firing a shot.
This skill determines the character’s accu-
racy and prowess with all conventional firearms
- like IF-64 ”Bloomberg”, Gretta M9 and Mini-
gun.
 29

Mechanics Science
Starting value: (2 × IN T ) + (LCK/2) Starting value: (2 × IN T ) + (LCK/2)
As things are constantly breaking in the Sometimes there’s an electronic lock in place
wastes, and there aren’t customer service hot- of a mundane one or an automated defense sys-
lines anymore. A person with a high Mechanics tem protecting a building. In these situations,
skill is always good to have around. it is time to bring out the computer nerd to
The Mechanics skill determines the char- clear one’s path.
acter’s ability to build, repair and modify The Science skill determines the character’s
items, as well as to disable machines and non- grasp of mundane and arcane sciences. Science
explosive traps. It is also used in the scav- governs a character’s ability to invent, hack
enging of useful parts from machinery and terminals, as well as the character’s ability to
robotics. operate and understand of pre-war technology.

Medicine
Sleight
Starting value: (2 × IN T ) + (LCK/2)
The ability to protect life can be just as Starting value: (2 × AGI) + (LCK/2)
important as the ability to take life. The The Sleight skill shows how good the charac-
Medicine skill represents a character’s medi- ter is with her hooves or claws and how nimble
cal training as well as basic biological intuition her fine motor skills are. With high Sleight
and the ability to properly diagnose causes of skill she could build a tiny house from matches
illness and wounds that are not immediately without a problem, slide out of ropes keeping
apparent. her down, or slip caps out of an unsuspecting
Outside of healing potions, which are the passerby’s pocket.
quick but costly fix to the injured, a medical Sleight skill also determines how well you
practitioner can heal others with a successful slip concealed weapons into establishments un-
Medicine check. In addition, a well-versed doc- noticed.
tor can double the effects of medicinal items
upon a successful check. Details on how to heal
others with Medicine is found under Chapter Sneak
7: Combat - Damage Calculations.
Starting value: (2 × AGI) + (LCK/2)
The skill of being able to move quietly or
Melee
out of sight. When a character is sneaking,
Starting value: (2 × ST R) + (LCK/2) other characters will be less likely to notice
The Melee skill determines your character’s her at a distance. Masters of this skill can
prowess with weapons designed to keep ene- deal deadly blows from the shadows or daring
mies from a leg’s length away from you - while thievery without the foes being any wiser of an
still swatting at them with abandon. intruder.
This skill is used whenever the character at- The Sneak skill determines the character’s
tacks with a close-quarter combat weapon such proficiency at remaining undetected. This skill
as a baseball bat, spear, and Auto-Axe. This is also used to liberate a person out of their
skill is also used with old ranged weapons like prized possessions while they’re standing in the
bows. same room.
30 CHAPTER 2. CHARACTERS

Survival Unarmed
Starting value: (2 × EN D) + (LCK/2) Starting value: (2 × EN D) + (LCK/2)
The Survival skill is the skill of outdoor liv- Firearms can jam, and melee weapons can
ing and survival in hostile environments. Ba- be broken. At this point, it helps to utilize the
sically what they teach in Filly Guide, modi- natural weapons - hooves and claws.
fied for the post-War world. Survival has many The Unarmed skill determines the charac-
uses: from finding food and water in the mid- ter’s accuracy in unarmed or martial combat,
dle of a vast wasteland, to avoiding hostile as well as weapons worn directly on one’s legs
creatures’ domains, to knowledge about what - for example horseshoes and Power Glove.
plants and animals will be helpful or harmful. Further details on Unarmed Weapons can be
The Survival skill determines the character’s found under Chapter 3: Equipment - Weapon
overall wasteland savvy and her proficiency Characteristics.
at cooking, scavenging, tracking, and crafting
“natural” equipment and consumables. Sur-
vival informs a character about weather, geog-
raphy and orientation. Survival is also used to
know information on the many mutant crea-
tures that call the Wasteland their home.
Survival is also a skill that Alchemists can
use instead of Thaumaturgy for their magic.

Thaumaturgy
Starting value: (2 × [SP ECIA]) + (LCK/2)
Each pony has inherent magic in them, and
the Thaumaturgy skill shows how well they
have mastered that. For unicorns, it’s their re-
liability of spells; for pegasi and griffons, their
maneuvers; for earth ponies, their touch with
the earth and for zebras, their skill with po-
tions and spirits.
Thaumaturgy determines how well the char-
acter can do her race’s inherent magical ca-
pabilities and their general knowledge of the
subject. As each pony’s magic and how they
handle it is unique, there’s no specific SPE-
CIAL value linked to Thaumaturgy. During
character creation, one SPECIAL value, Luck
excluded, is attached to Thaumaturgy to cal-
culate the starting value.
 31

P.A.S.T. Breacher
Associated skills: Explosives, Lockpick, Me-
Your past forms more of you than most would
chanics, Science
want to admit, and within these rules, it de-
fines what skills your characters have become Jammed doors, locked doors, terminals,
more comfortable with using. Previously At- walls... NONE are to stop you from reach-
tained Skill Training, abbreviated as P.A.S.T. ing where you desire. This is something that
give a bonus to a set of skills determined by the many folks have, occasionally, wanted you to
character?s life up until the present. do. Legally or not.
Each P.A.S.T has a set of skills fitting to the Quirk - Down with the Wall: Once per
type of past they are, most commonly a job session, you can pick an Obstacle and half its
or profession. In the Equestrian Wasteland, DT with a successful Explosives check.
as soon as a foal begins to walk, they begin
to learn to survive in the aggressive, merciless Caravaneer
world. Associated skills: Barter, Firearms, Me-
When creating a character, a player has a chanics, Survival
limited amount of P.A.S.T. choices to make; a
foal or a cub has set of skills from one P.A.S.T., You are a tough cookie, and your training as
an adult has 2 sets from P.A.S.T. options as a caravan guard, wagon puller and trader all in
they have had more time to work and experi- one left you capable of being a one-pony army
ence life. Ghouls, due to their long lifespan, of trading ventures.
have 3 sets of skills from P.A.S.T. options. Quirk - Deep Pockets: Once per session,
you can utilize Use Item -action without AP
Each P.A.S.T. has 4 skills in it that corre-
cost.
spond to the type of experience the character
has had previously. For example, a character
with a P.A.S.T. as Thief has Melee, Lockpick, Dashite
Sleight and Sneak as her skills. Associated skills: MEWs, Thaumaturgy, In-
Each skill within P.A.S.T. has a bonus of 10. timidation, Sneak
If the character has multiple P.A.S.T. options
You have descended from the clouds, driven
with same same skills, the effect is cumulative.
into exile by the mysterious Grand Pegasus En-
The player can choose from archetypes be- clave. Thankfully they were nice enough to al-
low, or make their own archetype fitting their low you to keep your gun.
character and approved by the GM, though it This P.A.S.T. is subject to GM ap-
is wise to have at least one combat skill as part proval.
of the P.A.S.T. Quirk - Enclave Weaponry: You start
P.A.S.T also have a quirk related to the the game with an Enclave cloud weapon of
past in question, available only to characters your choice.
that have chosen that P.A.S.T. One character
may have multiple quirks in their arsenal, com-
monly 2 Quirks for adult characters. Players
choose when they want to activate one of their
quirks, but only one Quirk can be activated
per session.
32 CHAPTER 2. CHARACTERS

Deal Breaker Guard

Associated skills: Barter, Intimidation, Associated skills: Intimidation, MEWs, Un-
Lockpick, Unarmed armed, Thaumaturgy
There are times when folks get to disagree- You took a job as a bouncer, guard, or simi-
ments, and you’re the one to stop it from going lar job in the past, screening any visitor to es-
to a point of no return. A skilled negotiator, tablishment of your employer. Thankfully for
you have ceased many fights before they esca- your resume no one tried to smuggle in a bomb
lated. while a rookie was in duty.
Quirk - Best Offer: Once per session, Quirk - Bounce-Off: Once per session in a
reroll a failed Barter roll with an additional Grapple, gain +1 STR when performing Grap-
+10 bonus. ple actions.

Field Doctor Gunslinger

Associated skills: Intimidation, Mechanics, Associated skills: Firearms, Intimidation,
Medicine, Unarmed Mechanics, Sneak

Some might even call you a traveling doc- Guns are like a second skin to you; you are
tor, a vagabond healer traveling from town to a gunslinger and a master of the Earth Pony
town, settlement to settlement to fix various tech. This has made you capable at defending
ills for a time before moving on. You never re- yourself. And maybe others on the side as well.
ally stuck to one place, but perhaps you gained Quirk - Lucky Bullet: Once per session
recognition still. when successfully shooting a target, add +1
Quirk - Gentle Pull: Once per session, DMG. DT applies as normal.
heal a Crippled limb without a check or items.
Hunter
Associated skills: Firearms, Sleight, Sneak,
Survival
You made the wilds into your home, hunting
down small, big, and really big game to provide
for sustenance. Likewise, you know what to
eat, and what not to. You may even know a
few campfire songs.
Quirk - Harvester: Once per session, you
gain optimal yield of any non-sentient creature
parts off corpses.
 33

Mage
Associated skills: MEWs, Melee, Science,
Thaumaturgy
While most scholars are happy to sit behind
their desks pouring through dusty tomes, you
spent your years putting theory into practice.
It has let you survive through thick and thin,
making you into a versatile, prepared traveler.
Quirk - Magical Outburst: Once per
session, cast a spell with halved Strain cost
(rounded down, min. 1)

Mechanic
Associated skills: Lockpick, Mechanics,
Melee, Science
Nurse
You’ve made your earnings in the field of ma-
chinery, and gun oil might have replaced your Associated skills: Diplomacy, Medicine,
blood at this point. You may have even fixed a Melee, Sneak
few motor-wagons and sky-wagons a way back.
Quirk - Toaster Repair Pony: Once per You provided medical help to those in need,
even if it was for uncooperative patients. Of
session when searching for loot, find 1 Compo-
course, an unruly patient quickly became obe-
nent in addition to the loot you found (type of
Component determined by the GM). dient with the proper anesthetic application to
the head.
Nerd Quirk - Love and Bed-rest: Once per
session, heal 1d4 HP for one character without
Associated skills: Medicine, Science, Sneak,
a check.
Thaumaturgy
You love to sneak away with some book or
comics. The nerdier the better, and so you Picture Perfect Pony
did read books about unusual medical cases,
convoluted magic theory and what else? SCI- Associated skills: Barter, Diplomacy,
ENCE! MEWs, Sleight
Quirk - Tidbit Knowledge: Once per ses-
sion, add +10 to your ally’s INT roll. A perfect face to a perfect style. Glitz and
glam is like air to you, rads-free. You enthrall
people around you with confidence, looks, and
words. And you learned these skills through
rigorous self-discipline. You earned your spot-
light.
Quirk - Poker Face: Once per session,
spend 5 Strain to reroll a recently failed roll.
34 CHAPTER 2. CHARACTERS

Scavenger
Associated skills: Intimidation, Lockpick,
Melee, Sneak
You have a learned eye for spotting treasure
amongst trash, and have honed your skills ac-
cordingly. It isn’t a glamorous job scouring
through desolate ruins, but it can occasionally
be a lucrative one.
Quirk - Double Check: Once per session,
search an already looted area again with -1
LCK.

Scholar
Associated skills: MEWs, Science, Survival,
Thaumaturgy
Pioneer
Magic in all its forms is like second nature
Associated skills: Explosives, Lockpick, Me-
to you. Having learned the ins and outs of the
chanics, Survival
arcane and how it operates, you know how to
Your job is risky but oh so needed in post- manifest your own magic well, as well as any
apocalyptic world. You are the one that deems bits of magic left behind.
buildings and other structures safe with your Quirk - Teacher: Once per session, you
expertise on mines, environmental dangers and can read a Pre-War magazine and give its
knowledge of mechanics. And to check each bonus to yourself and up to four allies.
place clear, you learned how to open locks.
Quirk - Bomb Squad: Once per session, Seer
disable a trap, explosive, or robot without a
check. Associated skills: Barter, Medicine, Sur-
vival, Thaumaturgy
The ways of the Seer was a trial and error,
and the spirits fickle. Yet, you chose this path
for yourself, the power of the otherworldly be-
Priest ings something you yearned for, and worked to
Associated skills: Diplomacy, MEWs, achieve.
Medicine, Thaumaturgy Quirk - Indomitable: Once per session,
negate an inflicted status-effect (except Crip-
A spiritual leader of old or new religions, you pled) from yourself or your ally.
keep or kept watch of the herd’s spiritual well-
being with verses and comforting words and a
few salves for the physical pains.
Quirk - Spiritual Healing: Once per ses-
sion, you can remove an Insanity point from
yourself or an ally.
 35

Sheriff Soldier
Associated skills: Diplomacy, Firearms, In- Associated skills: Explosives, Firearms, In-
timidation, Unarmed timidation, Survival
You have fought for the law - or at least for
order - of a settlement. You learned the valu- You have old school training... or at least
able lesson of backing your words with a barrel enough read old primers to learn how to shoot,
of a gun. deal with explosives, and survive frontline con-
Quirk - Law And Order: Once per ses- ditions. Oh, and you trained your warface.
sion, you can roll Diplomacy in place of Intim- Quirk - War Face: Once per session, in-
idation, and vice versa. timidate a target without a roll when you have
your weapon visible.

Stable Dweller
Slave
Associated skills: Science, Melee, Medicine,
Associated skills: Diplomacy, Lockpick, Lockpick
Sleight, Unarmed
Maybe you were captured, maybe you were You have left the safety of your underground
born under unlucky stars... but you suffered shelter - either voluntarily or not - and now
under the hoof of other ponies, and this hard- must brave the Wasteland and its horrors with
ened you. You did learn valuable skills during the help of some durable Stable-Tec equip-
your time as a slave though. ment.
Quirk - Survival Instinct: Once per ses- This P.A.S.T. is subject to GM ap-
sion, you can attempt to reroll a failed Sneak, proval.
Survival or AGI check your ally has made in Quirk - Stable Tech: You start the game
their stead. with Pip-Buck training -perk for free.

Socialite
Associated skills: Diplomacy, Firearms, Sci-
ence, Thaumaturgy
The ways of the Upper Class of bygone era
makes your path, and the Proper Pony Speech
is your holy text. Prim and proper, a pony of
good breeding. Or at least a cunning enough
of a liar to pull it off.
Quirk - Read The Room: Once per ses-
sion, you can attempt to reroll a Diplomacy,
Barter or CHA check your ally has made in
their stead.
36 CHAPTER 2. CHARACTERS

Stagepony This P.A.S.T. is subject to GM ap-

proval.
Associated skills: Barter, Explosives,
Quirk - Talon Guarantee: You start the
Sleight, Sneak
game with Bounty Hunter -perk for free.
You trained to be GRRREAT AND POW-
ERRRFUL; stage magic, fireworks, selling self
Tech-Raider
up? You got it all. And you know how to just
vanish if a show goes wrong. Associated skills: Barter, MEWs, Mechan-
Quirk - Grand Stand: Once per session, ics, Science
you can use Distraction action on a single tar-
Pre-War tech is yours for the taking, and you
get without a roll.
have honed your skills to get around the pesky
defenses made by your predecessors. And once
Steel Ranger that pre-War tech is in your hooves, you’ll
Associated skills: Firearms, Mechanics, In- make the best use of it - or the best bargain,
timidation, Explosive at least.
Quirk - Administrative Override: Once
Having been part of the well-armed faction per session you have an additional chance of
of Steel Rangers, you have gotten used to wear- hacking a terminal.
ing heavier armors.
This P.A.S.T. is subject to GM ap-
proval. Thief
Quirk - Ranger Schooling: You start the Associated skills: Lockpick, Melee, Sleight,
game with Tank Horse -perk for free. Sneak

Stuntpony There is no place that can bar your access...

eventually. A lockpick and a screwdriver as
Associated skills: Explosives, Medicine, your best friends, you went where you weren’t
Melee, Sleight supposed to without a worry, and out again
Brawl fights, explosions and all that magic before anyone noticed.
of show! Well, they don’t always go right so Quirk - Bypass: Once per session, spend
you picked up some first aid skills. one bobby pin to immediately open a lock.
Quirk - Athletic Instruction: Once per
session, add +10 to an ally’s AGI roll. Trader
Associated skills: Barter, Diplomacy,
Talon Mercenary Sleight, Unarmed
Associated skills: Barter, Survival, Un-
It’s a simple job, but one you held with
armed, Sleight
pride. You enjoy bits and caps, and some could
Contracts and caps - they are your forte for say you could sell somepony their own mane.
having been part of one of the notorious grif- Quirk - Package Deal: Once per session
fin mercenary groups in the Wasteland, the when trading, gain a free item with maximum
Talons. As such, you have picked some tricks value of your barter in caps, i.e. 50 Barter
from the best. equals 50 caps.
 37

Tribal Traits
Associated skills: Explosives, Medicine, Sur- Traits are the character’s good and bad habits
vival, Unarmed or quirks, making the life for the character a
You were born or accepted into a tribal, bit tougher or easier depending on the situa-
close-knit community; a somewhat primitive tion and the traits chosen. The Traits’ pur-
herd of your own with beliefs and customs ages pose is to bring out a character’s personality
old, some more mundane than others. Defi- or background in a way that is not purely just
nitely a group to fall back on in hard times. for roleplay.
Quirk - Strength of the Herd: Once per A character may have up to two Traits.
session, add +10 to your ally’s STR roll.
A Mazing Traveller
Warrior
Travelling across the Wasteland is a wondrous
Associated skills: Explosives, Firearms, thing although a bit disorienting at times. All
MEWs, Melee character’s movement actions cost 1 AP less,
The heat of battle is where you belong, and to a minimum of 1 AP, and ignores movement
all devices of destruction are your tools of penalties of one Crippled limb. However, her
trade. If it can kill ponies, you know how to mind suffers a disorienting penalty of -1 to her
handle it. INT and PER.
Quirk - Guts: Once per session when
making an attack, gain +1 DMG for every Aerial Ace
Status Effect you’re experiencing (excluding
Mind-Controlled, Stunned, Petrified, and Un- Pegasus-only trait.
conscious). The character is at home while in the air.
On the other hand, while on the ground, she
feels wobbly and often fumbles with physical
tasks.
She gains an additional Aerial Maneuver,
maneuvers cost 1 less Strain (minimum 1
Strain), and she can move an additional 2 me-
ters (1 hex) for 1 AP while flying in combat.
However, she suffers a penalty of -10 to all
STR, END and AGI based skills while on the
ground or hovering slightly above it. These
penalties do not apply while she’s on clouds.

Bad to the Bone

The moment the character was born, every-
one around them knew that they were not to
mess with the character. The character’s Ex-
plosives, Firearms, Intimidation, Magical
Energy Weapons, Melee and Unarmed
38 CHAPTER 2. CHARACTERS

skills are all increased by 5. The charac- character regains double their Natural Heal-
ter’s Barter, Mechanics, Medicine, Sci- ing Rate when resting for 8 hours. In addition,
ence, Diplomacy and Survival skills are all their Strain pool is increased by 5 permanently.
decreased by 5. Unfortunately, the character automatically
fails PER checks to wake up unless she takes
Blueblood damage, or someone spends a full turn waking
her up. Likewise, it can be surmised that a
The character is as beautiful as prince Blue- character with this trait likely isn’t going to
blood or Fleur de Lis, but she is a lot less re- be a morning person...
silient than a ”normal” pony. The character
gains 1 CHA and +5 Diplomacy but suffers Fast Shot
END -2 against Status Effects and poisons.
Why spend precious time aiming when you
can pepper the field with fire? The charac-
Chem Reliant ter’s attacks with firearms and magical energy
For as long as the character remembers, she’s weapons cost 1 less AP, though no less than
been surrounded by a chem of his choice for 1 AP. However, as the character doesn’t care-
all occasions. Choose one Drug or Alcohol - fully aim, her shots do not gain any bonus DT
when under influence of said drug, you gain +1 reduction from Called Shots.
END and +1 CHA in addition to the drug’s or
alcohol’s normal effects. Four Eyes
Likewise, the character is not known for their The character’s effective PER for sight-related
capability to hold back their usage. When the checks increases by 1 while wearing glasses or
character is in a place with ample access to sunglasses. Whenever not wearing glasses, she
drugs and alcohol such as bars or drug dens, suffers a penalty of -1 to her effective PER
or is in the presence of a seller, she will have to for sight-related checks in addition to bonus
take 1 Insanity point or fall prey to her addic- lost by not wearing glasses. The character has
tion. This choice also fires when other charac- glasses in her inventory for free.
ters enable the drug-use.
Example: Emerald Glint appears to
Chem Resistant have a poor eyesight, and wears
glasses. With a base PER of 5,
The character’s body has developed methods she has effective PER of 6 with
against the harmful drugs Wasteland has to glasses. However, if she drops her
offer, effectively purging the system of them. glasses her effective PER drops to
You ignore negative penalties from any item 4.
labeled Drug, but their duration is halved and
Drug-labeled items with a duration Instant are
Gambling Caster
ineffective.
Unicorn-only trait
Deep Sleeper Some unicorns never truly grow out of their
experimenting phase, leading to their magic
The character sleeps more soundly than most, manifesting in random, strange ways. Often
making the most of her beauty sleep. The with spectacular results.
 39

Her Potency is calculated by using LCK. Enraged-status; if in combat, this lasts as long
Instead of selecting individual spells, the char- as the status usually lasts, and outside of com-
acter chooses Magic Schools she can cast bat for a moment seen appropriate. Should
from, up to 3. One of the schools has to be a Ghoul’s Insanity be maxed, they turn feral,
General Magic School. Spells cost 2 less AP and are removed from the player’s control.
and Strain to cast to a minimum of 1 each. Ghouls, due to their severely slowed
On 10th level, the character may choose a new metabolism do not need to eat or drink as of-
Magic School to his collection. ten as regular ponies do; if Hunger and Thirst
However, each time the character wants to rules are in effect, they require one meal per 2
cast a spell, she chooses one of the schools to days and a drink per day to satisfy their needs.
cast from. The GM then randomly determines Most NPCs have a lower Disposition to-
what spell the character has conjured. The wards her, and they are ignored by ferals as
GM will also tell the associated AP and Strain long as they remain unprovocative.
costs.
This trait is subject to GM approval. Good Natured
This trait is not recommended for new players.
You have the manners and the face of a
cherub! The character’s Barter, Mechanics,
Ghoul Medicine, Science, Diplomacy and Sur-
The character was mutated by the necromantic vival skills are all increased by 5. The charac-
energies that were unleashed on Equestria in ter’s Explosives, Firearms, Intimidation,
the apocalypse. This mutation has caused her Magical Energy Weapons, Melee and Un-
to have an unnaturally long life, often having armed skills are all decreased by 5.
been alive during the war.
The character starts the game with 4 Rad Grounded Bird
Tokens, and she ignores any negative effects
Pegasus/Griffon-only trait.
from radiation. She heals through radiation by
The character is not considered a smooth
converting Rad tokens to HP tokens, but has
flier. Instead her movements in the air are stiff
a natural Healing Rate of 0. Accumulated
and rough, and she has spent her life working
Rads dwindle from a ghoul’s body at the rate
against said deficiency.
of 2 per day due to Ghoul’s body using Rads
The character’s Flying movements and Ma-
to function.
neuvers cost 2 AP more. Her END is increased
After at least 8 hours of rest, the ghoul by 1.
may choose to discard 2-5 Rad Tokens, and re-
plenish an equal amount of HP Tokens and/or
Hard Drinker
Crippled Conditions, if any are present.
If the character loses all of her Rads, she be- Earth Pony -only trait.
comes vulnerable to physical deterioration; she The character is the life of the party - when
must remove 1 HP token per day each day she drunk, that is -, and has a permanent addiction
doesn’t have enough Rads. This token cannot to alcohol. In addition to the effects of the
be replenished with Medicine checks. alcohol itself, she gains a bonus of 2 to resist
When a ghoul reaches maximum amount of Dazed, Enraged, and Mind-Controlled for 24
Rads, they will gain one point of Insanity per hours. However, if not taking at least one dose
day. Upon gaining Insanity, the ghoul gains of alcohol a day, she will suffer an increased
40 CHAPTER 2. CHARACTERS

AP cost of 1 on all attack actions until alcohol Kamikaze

has been consumed.
You are fast to react and charge to battle,
not giving a buck about the flying lead that
Hard of Hearing whizzes past your ear. The character gains 2
Action Points but enemies gain a bonus of 10
The character’s hearing isn’t quite on par com-
to attacks made against the character.
pared to others, for good or ill. The character
ignores 10 penalties from distractions that rely
on sound, but suffers a -1 to spot sneaking en- Large Frame
emies.
The character is a hulking figure and has
strength behind her, though more often than
Heavy Hoofed not doorframes are her worst enemy.
The character has strength behind her blows The character gains +2 STR. However, her
- now if she also managed to hit quickly, it Size category is increased by 1, making her an
would be ideal. The character has a base 20% easier target.
chance to Cripple a limb with all of her Melee A character cannot have both Small Frame
and Unarmed attacks, but said attacks cost 2 trait and Large Frame trait.
AP extra. This base Cripple chance is also
included in any Called Shots she makes. Magic Knack
The character is proficient with a specific type
Hoarder of magic, being better than most in it. How-
The character has learned to pack everything ever, this leaves her skills lacking with other
in her pockets - because she wants it all, be it magic types. The character has +2 effective
a nice new weapon or dried-up Wonderglue for Potency in one Magic School. However, the
the adhesive! The character has an increase of other spells have -2 effective Potency.
20kg to her Carry Weight.
However, the GM can ask for the character One Trick Pony
to roll for INT or CHA to resist her urges when-
ever she is carrying less than 30kg worth of Unicorn-only trait.
treasures items. This is more likely the lighter Unlike most Unicorns the character can only
the character’s load is. cast a single spell. Lucky for her, she casts that
one spell very well!
The character chooses only one spell at the
Jinxed
begin of play. She cannot learn new spells on
You just have a bad streak of luck. Royally so, level up or otherwise. Instead, her Potency
in fact. Thankfully, so does everyone around modifier from SPECIALs is twice as effective
you. When you or your enemy rolls a critical with that spell than normal.
fail, they experience the WORST. POSSIBLE. Also, One Trick Ponies have double the stan-
THING! Instead of their gun jamming, it ex- dard Strain pool size, at 40. A character may
plodes in a comical way, much like old-timey not have both Spread Thin trait and One
cartoon-slapstick and so on. Trick Pony trait.
 41

Paranoid A zebra with this trait cannot take Tribal

Shaman trait.
You think everything and everyone is out to get
you. Because of this, you rarely put your guard
down, expecting the worst to occur. However, Rock Based Diet
this has made you quick on your feet; You have Earth Pony -only trait.
an additional +1 to PER and AGI, but your The character is considered to have a lead-
crazed ramblings of shadow mares that are out lined stomach and teeth of steel. She has
to get you impact your social standing. In ex- learned to gain nutrition from where there is
change, your CHA is penalized by 1 and NPC practically none, such as rocks, dirt and twigs.
disposition towards you is lowered by 1. The character can consume nutrient-poor
and barely edible materials, replenishing 1 HP.
Pink in the Blood She may sustain this diet for up to END
days without proper rations until falling un-
Earth Pony-only trait. conscious.
You are just a little bit more magical than However, each day the character enjoys at
your kin, much like the Ministry Mare Pinkie least one of these “lavish” meals, all of her Re-
Pie. How, you ask? Who knows! Don?t look sistances are reduced by 5.
now, but I think she?s staring at you.
You have access to Enchantment and
Conjuration Unicorn magic schools in ad-
Scrooge
dition to your Earth Pony Magic. As a down- Griffon-only trait.
side, your mind is a little bit more frail than The character has a dream - to collect such a
that of your kin; -1 END to resist mind- wealth of Caps that she can dive around them
altering status effects (Dazed, Enraged and like a porpoise, burrow through them like a
Mind-Controlled and you have a 35 % chance gopher, and occasionally toss them up and let
of accumulating Insanity instead of 25 %. the Caps hit her on the head. Because no one
is poor when they’re doing something they like,
Random are they?
The character gains a bonus of 10 to Barter.
Earth Pony/Zebra-only trait. However, her Diplomacy is lowered by 10. In
The character’s innate magic manifests more addition, the character wants to get the best
overtly than is normal for her race. She is capa- deal - every time. All prices are negotiable.
ble of performing cartoonish, impossible feats
- such as using a squirt gun to successfully de-
Sex Appeal
feat a raider wearing power armor or handing
a lit dynamite to a pony and walking away. The character has the “right” stuff. Individu-
The exact nature and limitations of the char- als who are sexually oriented towards the char-
acter’s abilities are determined by the GM. acter’s gender are attracted to them, but po-
These abilities are never reliable, and the GM tential sexual rivals tend to become quite jeal-
may overrule any manifestation of random that ous.
they consider overused, abusive or excessively Those who would be attracted to a character
advantageous. This trait is subject to GM with this trait have their disposition towards
approval. them - and only them - raised by one level,
42 CHAPTER 2. CHARACTERS

but potential sexual rivals will have their dis- as the form begins to shake your mental forti-
position lowered by one level. tude.

When in this form, you resemble the spirit

Small Frame you originate from, with otherworldly qualities
The character’s life is to be taunted by high such as being wrought in flame, having your
shelves. And sometimes, even the middle skin ripple like waves and so on. The effect
shelves. But at least she’s fast, right? itself can be determined by the player in ques-
The character gains +1 AGI and her Size tion, but even the most benign transformation
category is reduced by 1, making her a harder is upsetting and alarming to creatures around
target. However, her limbs are 10% easier to the character.
cripple. You can choose any of the Spirits listed in
A character cannot have both Large Frame Table 2.4. You gain spells of your chosen
trait and Small Frame trait. Spirit as you level-up, and different bonuses
and penalties when slipping into the special
Small Town Zebra form as detailed on the table. The list of spells
can be found under Chapter 8: Magic & Spells
Zebra-only trait
- Zebra Magic - Shamanism.
The character hails from a small town or
tribe, having thus learned the intricacies of Universal Form effects:
communities where everyone knows each other.
A character with this trait has a bonus of 10 Bonuses:
to Barter and Diplomacy when dealing with ˆ Gain access to spirit’s Spells depending on
NPC’s of a small community. When dealing your level; Start with 2 Spells from their
with a large organization or group - such as list, gain 2 every 4th lvl*
NCR or Steel Rangers - the character has a ˆ +1 DT against non-magical dmg
penalty of 10 to the same skills.
The GM determines what is considered a *Spirit of Chaos rolls 1d8 to select a Spirit
small or large community. where their spells come from, then rolls another
1d8 to determine the spell they get. Duplicate
Spirit Child spells are rerolled.

Zebra-only trait. Penalties:

You’re something of an anomaly, even ˆ Distraction from transformation affects all
among your fellow Zebra. You are kin to a in Large Splash area
spirit, and you have an unusual and strange ˆ AP cost for non-magic attacks is increased
air about you because of it. Ancient ritual of by 2
marrying a mortal mare or stallion to a spirit ˆ -1 DT against Magical dmg
has resulted well... in you. ˆ -2 max HP
You gain access to a special form that you
can slip into at will, gaining bonuses and penal- This Trait cannot be taken alongside
ties while under its effect. You can maintain Spirit in the Flesh. Taking this trait
the form for CHA number of rounds safely. doesn’t require Spiritually Awakened or
Each turn afterwards requires an Insanity roll Tribal Shaman.
 43

Table 2.4: Spirit Specific Effects of Spirit Child -trait

Spirit Buff Immunity Skill Penalty
Embers Non-Magic attacks are considered Burning +10 Intim- -1 END vs
to deal Fire damage idation Freezing
Machines When within a Small Splash Stunned +10 -5% Poison
Radius of you, allies have a +5 Mechanics Resistance
Crit chance for 3 rounds
Nature When within a Small Splash Poisons +10 -1 END vs
Radius of you, allies recover +1 (except Survival Stunned
HP per turn for 3 rounds Taint &
Pink
Cloud)
Serenity Non-Magic attacks are considered Dazed +10 -1 END vs
to deal Electricity damage Medicine Bleeding
Shadows You are surrounded by a Small Bleeding +10 Sneak -1 END vs
Splash area of darkness, giving Dazed
enemies -15 to hit you for 3
rounds of combat.
Streams Non-Magic attacks are considered Freezing +10 -1 END vs
to deal Cold damage Science Burning
Trust When within a Small Splash Mind- +10 -1 END vs
Radius of you, allies have +1 DT Controlled Diplomacy Blinded
for 3 rounds
Whispers Non-Magic attacks can cause Blinded +10 Sleight -1 END vs
Enraged-status effect Mind-
Controlled
Chaos When within a Small Splash Enraged +10 Barter -1 END vs
Radius of you, enemies suffer a +5 Petrified
to their Crit Failure chance.
44 CHAPTER 2. CHARACTERS

Spirit in the Flesh Spiritually Awakened

The character is gifted with the ability to see
Zebra-only trait.
and communicate with spirits and ghosts who
From an early age you have had something are normally imperceptible. The character’s
inhabit your body, whispering things to you attunement to the spirit world makes them
and guiding -in either good or ill intent- you. naturally well-disposed with ghosts and spir-
The circumstances of your union can vary; its, granting a +10 to Barter and +1 to CHA
maybe you found it weak and gave it shel- for purposes of talking to ghosts and spirits.
ter, maybe the vagabond spirit bound itself to However, the spirits also acknowledge the
you upon your birth. The spirit can be of any character’s existence, trying to contact and
Karma, including the opposite of your own. bother her at both convenient and inconvenient
Having a lesser spirit or a spirit of the times - be it during lunch, when trying to sleep,
dead coexist with you has given you something or “going behind the bushes”.
unique however, aside from having a compan-
ion in your head that only you can hear. Your Spread Thin
Melee and Unarmed attacks are always mag-
Unicorn-only trait.
ical in nature and when taking damage, you
The character’s breadth of ability is second
can convert half of the damage (rounded down)
to none. If her spells weren’t so weak, she could
into Strain damage instead for as long as you
change the world!
have Strain available. A minimum of 1 dam-
The character can choose up to 8 spells at
age has to go to your HP when dividing the
character creation in addition to Telekinesis
damage.
and Light.
Spirits are likely to show themselves to you, However, her Potency on spells do not gain
and with a successful PER -1 roll, you can see bonuses from SPECIALs.
spirits that try to hide from you. A character may not have both Spread
As a downside, your spiritual coexistence has Thin trait and One Trick Pony trait.
made your body somewhat weaker; your Nat-
ural Healing goes down by one, to a minimum Tribal Shaman
of 1 and you never managed to learn Alchemy.
Zebra-only trait.
Shamans and spirit-sensitive creatures can The character is a practitioner of zebra
see your otherworldly passenger, while to most shamanism in the way of her ancestors, and
creatures it is invisible. It will tempt you to benefits from ancient spirit pacts. She has an
do deeds of its Karma -Positive karma will effective +2 Potency with a particular type of
urge you to help other creatures, while neg- Spirit of her choice, and an effective -2 Potency
ative karma urges you to be selfish-, which you with another type of Spirit of the GM’s choice.
can resist with an opposed CHA roll. Both you Which spirits are the favorite and unfavorite
and the Spirit use your CHA as the stat for the do not have to be made known before they’re
Opposed roll. encountered, if so desired, and might not be
Cannot be taken simultaneously with the obvious opposing spirit.
Spirit Child. Taking this trait doesn’t The character has access to Spirit Magic
require Spiritually Awakened or Tribal part of Zebra Magic, found in the Magic
Shaman. Codex. Details on how shamanism works can
 45

be found under Chapter 8 - Zebra Magic -

Shamanism.

Trigger Discipline
Why waste ammo, when you can deal more
carnage with less? The character can reroll
Called Shots once when using firearms and
magical energy weapons, but said action costs
1 more AP to perform with these ranged
weapons.
46 CHAPTER 2. CHARACTERS
Chapter 3

Equipment

Sometimes the difference between life and their overall integrity and ability to func-
death comes down to the gear the wastelander tion. Equipment lose condition through
is using. And as the Wastes care very little for wear and direct damage dealt to them,
your survival, and the beasts that roam it even and can be Repaired.
less, one would find it wise to gear up when the
possibility comes their way. Say, that caravan Damage: Damage is listed as a combination
looks like it was recently stocked... of a base damage and a number of d6
In the following section are listed the gear dice to be thrown, shown in parenthesis.
that is provided within the Wasteland, but Ranged weapons have static damage, i.e.
nothing stops you from creating your own. 2+(3), while Melee and Unarmed weapons
account the character’s STR value to de-
Full list of weapons, apparel and items can
termine additional damage dice.
be found in Wasteland Wares.
Below are notes that rise up often in the fol- Damage Over Time (DOT): Certain
lowing section. weapons and spells cause DOT, such
as burning, bleeding, poison and arcane
Ammo & Capacity: Most ranged weapons
damage. DOT is applied every round
require a specific ammunition type to deal
after initial damage, on the turn of the
damage, and hold only so much of it. Re-
character that suffers from such effect.
fer to this when shopping for bullets for
DOT ends after certain number of turns,
your gun or checking if ammo from one
indicated within action, weapon or spell
gun fits another.
description, or ended with a counter
AP Cost: How much AP it takes to fire or action by the victim or aiding character.
swing with the weapon once. The character takes DOT if the initial
damage was above their corresponding DT
Blast Radius: With explosives and other or Resistances. DOT ignores DT and Re-
similar weapons, Blast Radius determines sistances from armors, and clothing, as at-
the area of effect where the damage or tack is considered to have breached armor
other effect is applied, utilizing Splash or clothing. For instance, a blade that
Templates. deals damage has punctured the hide and
causes bleeding despite armor.
Condition: [Optional Rule] All pieces of
equipment have a condition, describing

47
48 CHAPTER 3. EQUIPMENT

Damage Threshold (DT): The value against enemies from further away than
which tells how well the piece of gear adjacent hexes. This is noted with “Melee
protects you from attacks, reducing / X m” as Short range, where the latter
incoming Damage equal to the DT. value is the reach.

DT Reduction: Weapons that have this Reload Type: This determines the magazine
value ignore the specified amount of op- used by weapons that consume ammuni-
ponent’s DT. tion. There are two types of reloads with
different characteristics. More informa-
Effect: A passive, either constant or situa- tion on reloads is listed in this chapter
tional, effect granted by the equipment. under Weapon Characteristics - Reload
These include but are not limited to: SPE- Types.
CIAL and Skill bonuses and penalties, AP
cost modifiers, additional damage types STR Requirement: When the character has
and health restoration. less STR than the minimum require-
ment for the weapon as specified in the
Firing Mode: Ranged weapons vary how weapon’s statistics, she gains a cumula-
they operate. Most ranged weapons fire a tive penalty of -5 to accuracy and an ad-
single bullet per action, though some fire ditional cost of 1 AP to attacks for each
more than one in a burst. More informa- lacking point of STR. The lacking STR on
tion on different firing modes can be found weapons can be compensated by Bracing
in this chapter under Weapon Character- the weapon.
istics - Firing Modes.
Type: Lists in which weapon category said
Quick Slot: A pocket, strap or holder in weapon belongs to. This is used to de-
a piece of clothing and armor to hold termine effects from perks and traits, like
quick accessible items, such as medicines, Jury Rigging.
grenades and tools. More information on
Quick slots can be found in this chapter Value: The weapon’s usual rate in caps.
under Quick Slots.
Weapon Slot: A holster or strap where one
Rarity: How common - or rare - the partic- can store her weapon, easily accessible for
ular item is to find or purchase through- quick switch in a combat. More informa-
out the Wasteland. Ranges from Common tion on Weapon Slots is found in this chap-
(most prominent) to Exotic (uniques and ter under Weapon Slots.
limited-run items).
Weight: How much the weapon weighs in
Range: This lists the weapon’s Short, one’s inventory.
Medium, and Long range. All ranges are
in meters. Weapon ranges are “effective”
ranges for the purposes of the game. Caps & Currency
More on range can be found in Chapter
7: Combat - Combat statistics. The character just cannot take all the stuff she
wants from a store. Unless she wants her be-
Reach: Melee and Unarmed weapons can hind get peppered by a shotgun she must pay
have reach, allowing them to deal damage her purchases somehow, either bartering in her
 49

own “junk”, or putting some currency as a bal- would like to fetch a health po-
ance. Because often bartering one item for an- tion from her inventory to heal her
other isn’t a fair deal, a currency slowly devel- wounds while conserving AP for
oped to fill that gap. a counter-attack. She uses one
In the early days of war-afflicted Wastes, this Quick Slot to grab and use the
currency was the most vital resource for sur- healing potion for only 3 AP in-
vival - water. In time, pre-War bottlecaps, stead of 8 AP. Until she can get
commonly known as caps, took this role. They out of combat, she now has one
are hard to counterfeit and there’s a stable pool less Quick Slot to use.
of them in circulation, only occasional new one
being added with each pop of a Sparkle-Cola
being opened. However, one should never rely Weapon Slots
solely on caps as only currency, for various peo-
ple can still demand something of tangible use Each character has two Weapon Slots which
as their currency of trade. can hold one weapon each. If a throwable
Sometimes one can come across little round weapon such as grenades or throwing knives
pieces of bright metal coins, Bits. This was are slotted in a Weapon Slot, every one of said
the currency used during the war, but it fell weapon are equipped there. For example if the
out in favor of bottlecaps, and is now mostly character has 15 frag grenades and puts said
only good for melting down to something more grenades in the weapon slot, he has access to
useful. all of them without having to access Inventory.
The starting Caps for players is 500 Unlike Quick Slots, Weapon Slots do not have
caps. a limit on size and they are not dependent on
equipment.
Retrieving a weapon from a Weapon Slot is
Quick Slots much easier and quicker than from inventory
and only costs 3 AP. For each use of throwable
Some kinds of armor and clothing (especially
weapons a Ready Weapon action must be
belts) have easily accessible pockets, straps, or
taken.
holders called Quick Slots (QS). The number
of Quick Slots is determined in the statistics of
the armor or clothing. Quick Slots can be ex- Example: Emerald Glint has
hausted in combat for quicker access to items. equipped a Gretta M9 pistol
Each use of a Quick Slot drops the value by 1, in her first Weapon Slot and
and Quick Slots are refreshed back to normal four frag grenades in her other
after combat. Weapon Slot. She takes out
The item being fetched must be a small item one of the frags and throws it.
like a knife, a grenade, or a healing potion. This means Emerald Glint first
Retrieving an item by using a Quick Slot is uses 3 AP from her total AP
much easier and quicker than from inventory, for Ready Weapon. Then, she
thus costing only 3 AP. uses another 3 AP due to frag
grenade’s Weapon AP cost. In
Example: Maabara has gotten into total, Emerald Glint uses 6 AP
trouble with vicious plants, and to throw a frag grenade. After
has taken damage already. She throwing the first grenade, she
50 CHAPTER 3. EQUIPMENT

grabs another one. Again, Emer- is inserted into the magazine. The AP cost for
ald Glint will use 3 AP to Ready this is determined by the weapon’s statistics,
Weapon and 3 AP to throw the under Reload AP. If one wishes to fully reload a
grenade. weapon, one has to take several reload actions.

Weapon characteristics Firing Modes

Single
Apart from mere damage, weapons use vary-
ing ammunitions, clip sizes, firing modes, and Most ranged weapons utilize this firing method
range. The weapon types act as a defining fac- - a single pull of the trigger, and one bullet goes
tor, mainly for perks and other combat rules. down range. As such, it is the default method
Most ranged weapons and explosives have of firing, and if no special notion is mentioned
limited ammunition with various effects. As on the gun, expect it to work on this principle.
with weapons, ammunition has different rar- Some weapons have a notion of Single [x r]
ities and pricing, making some more sought added before that, with X being a number.
after, while others more commonly stumbled Most of the time this is the single-fire option
upon on many traders and old world heaps of on some automatic weaponry, and other times
supplies. it will denote how many pieces of ammo it will
use on one action.
Reload Types
M - Magazine Burst

Magazine refers to weapons where all of the Some weapons have the option to fire in multi-
ammunition can be changed or reloaded with projectile bursts, shooting lead or magic down
a single, quick action. Be it revolving cylin- range in massive quantity to improve on dam-
der, strip clip, gem pack, or the common age output. These are always listed as Burst
ammo magazine, all methods allow for a rapid [x r] notation, where X stands for the number
extraction of exhausted ammo and insertion of ammunition used on the burst.
of new ammo. Capacity indicates the maxi- While utilizing Burst weaponry, the charac-
mum amount of ammunition the gun may hold. ter suffers from a -10 penalty to his attack
Weapons marked with this reload type come roll from the recoil and cannot perform the
with an adequate number of suitable contain- Called Shot action. By bracing the weapon
ers. The AP cost for the entire reloading oper- the penalty on the roll is cut to 5. In addition,
ation is determined by the weapon’s statistics, everyone within Tiny Splash template from the
under Reload AP. target will suffer from a Minor Distraction.

Example: Doc Red has a Gretta M3

I - Internal magazine
“Greaser” SMG, and fires a Burst
Weapon with internal magazine has a storage at a raider. The ”Greaser” has
for its ammunition built inside the weapon it- a Burst [3 r], with damage of
self. Capacity indicates the maximum amount 2+(4). As he fires with a free
of ammunition the internal magazine can hold. claw, he must add the burst fire
On one reload action one piece of ammunition penalty of -10 to his roll. If he
 51

hits, he has spent 3 rounds of am- chance of causing one random limb to become
munition for additional damage. Crippled on a successful hit.
In addition, Explosives deal their full
Holdout Weapons damage on the central hex of the Splash
Template only - other targets within the af-
Not all establishments, especially ones that fected area take half of the damage.
make an attempt on civilization, allow visitors However, Explosive weapons do not deal
to carry a weapon. If you however must get critical damage, nor can they be used to do
a weapon into such an establishment, holdout Called Shots. In case of a critical success,
weapons are your greatest friend. Weapons other effects may apply. In case of a failure,
with a marker “Holdout Weapon” in the the explosive can deviate at least 1 hex up to
Wasteland Wares mean that they can be half the launched/thrown distance from the in-
concealed and possibly smuggled through se- tended target, or be a dud round. In air-to-air
curity. combat, a missed attack automatically deals
Holdout Weapons have a +10 bonus on no damage.
Sleight Skill when they’re being smuggled.
This effect is not cumulative, even if the person Firearms
is holding multiple concealed weapons.
Weapons without the Holdout weapon The conventional and trustworthy Earth Pony
marker cannot be smuggled into an establish- (or griffon) engineering and gunpowder. Fires
ment on-person and require a more creative so- physical bullets and pellets of various shapes
lution to get them past security. and size.
Searching for a hidden holdout weapon is Shotguns, a subcategory of firearms and
an opposed Sleight check against the searcher’s Magical Energy Weapons, fire a hail of small
PER. pellets (often called “buckshot”) that can be
crippling at close ranges. Though the further
they travel, the more the pellets spread. This is
Weapon Categories
why all shotguns lose 2 damage dice at Medium
Bow string weapons ranges, and a total of 4 damage dice at Long
ranges.
When either sound or caps are running low
a classic hunting bow, a flexible sling, or the
Melee weapons
more powerful longbow are perfect for shooting
various arrows and bolts at unsuspecting prey. When one wants to keep the enemy a little dis-
These weapons utilize Melee skill in their accu- tance away, but still close enough to see the
racy, and follow the same rules when it comes fear form in their expression. Melee weapons
to damage. have Special attacks one can execute, men-
tioned in their specific weapons. A charac-
Explosives ter’s STR value affects the damage output of
all Melee weapons, as shown in Table 3.1.
Explosives have the widest array of different Some weapons have a listed Cripple chance -
types of weapons. Explosives can be thrown this means with every successful hit, there’s a
like grenades or launched like missiles, deal- chance to cripple a random limb on the target,
ing areal destruction with varying size in Blast even without using Called Shot -action.
Radius. In addition, all explosives have a 20%
52 CHAPTER 3. EQUIPMENT

damage by 1 damage die - provided she’s not

Table 3.1: STR effect on Melee/Unarmed
wearing a gauntlet for her attacks. A charac-
STR DMG Dice
ter’s STR value also affects the damage output
1-3 +0
of all Unarmed weapons, as shown in Table 3.1.
4-7 +1
8-10 +2
10+ +3 Apparel
As the world changed, so did the need of
Magical Energy Weapons (MEW) protection against odds. Carefree apparel no
A step up from firearms, MEWs add arcane longer fits the dangerous world, but some com-
sciences to the realm of gunfights - now every- munities still welcome representative outfits on
one can be a little unicorn! their citizens and visitors. Apparel can also act
Unique form of Magical energy weapons are as disguises, giving others false sense of dispo-
the Cloud weapons of Grand Pegasus Enclave. sition and treatment, such as wearing the out-
These guns are named after their primary fit of local raider gang to pass their territories
power source, clouds, an element of nature that without drawing too much attention.
pegasi and griffons can handle as if it were a When equipping armor and clothing, only
tangible object. Cloud weapons do not use one of each can be worn on the body simul-
ammo per say, but instead generate an electric taneously. However, some clothes cannot be
-or in some cases, ice- charge that shoots out ofworn with armor. These kinds of clothes have
the gun similar to a laser or a lightning pulse. a note on them.
The weapons do still have a capacity; the cloud
inside the gun that generates its ”ammo” can Clothing
only generate so much in a safe fashion. Reload
action recharges the cloud. The weakest protection-wise, but some favor
basic clothing for their easy movement and
other benefits that only clothes offer, such as
Thrown weapons
an abundance of Quick Slots.
Weapons one tosses with one’s bare strength -
when more range is required, and firearms are Light Armor
out of ammo. Or just because one wants to hit
their enemy with a rock. Light Armor gives better protection than basic
clothing, but at the cost of doing mostly just
Unarmed weapons that. Light Armor does have some Quick Slots,
however.
Aside from basic unarmed strike, a collection
of weapons to attach to one’s hooves, claws,
Heavy Armor
wings and beak exist to further enhance the
striking power of attacks. Large and cumbersome homemade armor, that
Unarmed weapons have Special attacks protects you well, but at a cost. Characteristi-
one can execute, mentioned in their specific cally made from salvaged materials from scrap
weapons. metal and electronics to tires and robot parts,
Additionally, every 20 Skill Points in the Un- this type of armor has the highest DT, inferior
armed skill increases the character’s Unarmed only to the Power Armor.
 53

Premium Armor
Table 3.2: Armor Donning Time
Armors specifically made for combat, most of- Apparel Minutes
ten developed during the war. These armors Clothing 5
strike that delicate balance between the three Light Armor 5
other types, giving the best of all of them. Premium Armor 10
However, they’re costly and difficult to find. Heavy Armor 20
Power Armor 15
Power Armor
is often outfitted with servos meant to hasten
The most ultimate armor there is, the Power donning it on.
Armor resembles more of a pony-shaped metal
shell, much like knights of old fables. Built
with various talismans to balance the weight Mundane Items
and to add various extra features not found in
other armors. The adventurer now has weapons and armor
Unlike other armors that can be equipped to face the odds of the Wasteland. However,
without worry, Power Armor requires special she also might wish to have utilities to help
training to function -without heavy penalties, her through the journey. Such utilities are
that is. An uneducated pony can still put the backpacks to hold her gear in, such as food,
Power Armor on, but they’re incapable of mov- medicine and anything she comes upon travel-
ing faster than 5 AP per 2 meters/1 Hex. In ing. PCs start with a Saddle-bag.
addition, they do not have the additional ef-
fects Power armor has, such as increased Rad Food & Water
Resistance.
Food and water are both essential to charac-
Characters that want to use Power Ar-
ter’s survival, especially if the campaign tracks
mor without these cruel penalties must gain
Hunger and Thirst. But both food and drink
the training, and Power Armor Training
have usage outside of this rule as well; they
-reward perk or get chummy with a suitable
heal small amount of HP at risk of Rads.
faction in-story.
It should be noted that while ponies are
usually herbivores, most Wastelanders have
Donning Armor adapted to eating meat. However, one should
not go on gnawing a raw chunk of Radigator
Having armor on is fun and all, but there is al- meat off the bat, as the raw ingredients do not
ways that little problem come nightfall. Sleep give HP back. Only cooking meat into bet-
is difficult to get in a cumbersome armor or in ter ingested meals gives these bonuses. Some
the fancy clothes that already squeeze uncom- cooked meals also give additional effects once
fortably. Hence, most ponies remove their ar- eaten. These fresh meals also have recipes for
mor and clothes to slip in for something more them in Wasteland Wares.
comfortable for the night and the other way
around in the morning. However, donning ap-
Alcohol & Chems
parel is somewhat time-taxing matter.
On Table 3.2 are Apparel types listed and Alcohol and chems, or drugs, are recreational
how long it will take to wear it. Power Armor items most Wastelanders use to wind down
54 CHAPTER 3. EQUIPMENT

END roll depends on the drink in question.

For example, drinking a beer will result in an
END -1 check, while vodka will have an END
-3 check.
Chems, be its origin in medical, military, or
recreational field, offer some great boons with a
catch. The bonuses and penalties the drug pro-
vides vary between each individual drug: one
drug may repair one’s broken bones at the cost
of their overall health, while another can make
them mellow and slower.
The effects of the drug - both positive and
negative - last for the entire duration of that
drug unless otherwise stated. If the drug’s ef-
fect is Instant, those effects fire upon ingestion
and are resolved immediately. Effects such as
lost HP or gained Rads do not disappear when
the drug?s effect stops. Likewise, Rads gained
from drugs do not get a Radiation chance roll,
as they are ingested voluntarily.

Tools, Books & Magazines

and distract themselves from harsh realities of Tools, books and magazines make life a little
post-apocalyptic life. These items have effects bit easier in the Wastes. Some tools provide
on our little ponies, giving them bonuses and characters with a small bonus to specific skills
penalties after consumption. While addiction to aid in certain actions, such as cooking, hack-
itself has no clear mechanic, relying instead ing or repairing your armor and weaponry.
on GM and Player roleplaying the character’s
Books and Magazines give either permanent
progress, the substances themselves have me-
bonuses or temporary bonuses in that order, to
chanics related to them.
a single skill. Books and magazines are much
Alcohol is a liquid substance that heightens harder to find, especially books. To know more
the spirits of ponies, warms them up, and can about the effects of books and magazines, look
completely smash the eye-to-hoof coordination at Chapter 4: Character Advancement - Addi-
of them if not taken in moderation. Stronger tional Bonuses.
alcohols are more likely to make a pony a bab-
bling fool, but one is not completely safe with
the mild drinks either. After all, a beer is far
Scrap
lighter than a hefty glass of whiskey, but sev- Your garden variety of mostly useless junk that
eral beers will still get you with enough time every place seems to be littered with, from nigh
and effort. invincible coffee mugs to foal rattles and leaf
Every time a character uses an item labeled blowers.
Alcohol they must roll END or gain Dazed - Resourceful ponies will find these items use-
status effect for 1 hour. The penalty to the ful, and will combine the most intact pieces to
 55

form something new and operational. Scrap

Table 3.3: Items and their Components
items can be sold to tinkerers and alchemists,
Item Component
or combined together to form Components
Firearms
for further inventions. To look further into po- Gun
Explosives & Launchers
tential component crafting and their uses, look
Magical Energy Weapons Magical
into Chapter 6: Additional Rules - Invention.
Melee Weapons
Martial
Unarmed Weapons
Optional Equipment Rules Clothing
Fabric
Boxing Tape
Item Condition, Degradation & Re- 1 Fabric +
Armor
pair Plates
2 Magical +
Most equipment and other items found in the Power Armor
Plates
Equestrian Wasteland are in various states of
damage or disrepair; bent blades, little holes
in clothes, rust and dirt here and there. Items This means that a gun that weighs 3 kilos gives
in perfect condition are virtually unheard of, 3 Gun Components while Horseshoes weighing
though a hidden bomb shelter of a wealthy less than a kilo gives 1 Martial Components.
business tycoon from days of old might hold In Table 3.3 are shown what Components
the very thing. are gained from dismantling items apart.
Despite how yearned some items, such as To repair an item, a certain number of Com-
rare weapons can be for veteran wanderers, the ponents are required for repair, as well as a
condition of items determine their values. The successful Mechanics roll. If the roll fails, 1
more damaged something is, the less anyone Component is damaged and lost and if the roll
will pay for them. Exceptions always exist, fails critically, half of the Components are dam-
though. aged and rendered unusable. When repairing
more than one condition drop, the amount of
Repair Components required are added together.
Characters skilled in Mechanics may attempt Armor and weapon repair kits may be con-
to repair damaged items. To repair a damaged sumed to repair degradation instantly or car-
item, you need tools - usually either a toolkit or ried around to give a +5 to Mechanics to make
a sewing kit - and materials. Repairing is also fixing your gear a little easier.
a considerable trade of the Wasteland, offering If the weapon or armor drops beyond Poor
both caps and favors back and forth with the condition, the item has broken and is unusable.
harmony of services and servitude. A broken item can still be torn apart for scrap,
Weapons and armor can be dismantled for but yields even that poorly.
materials to use in repairing. Different items When weapons suffer a condition drop, their
such as Firearms, Melee weapons and armor effectiveness starts to suffer, increasing the AP
yield different Components, that are used to cost of attacking with said weapon. Likewise,
repair an item of that type. The amount of the weapon’s value drops with each level of
components gained is determined by the weight wear and tear it has.
of the item, with each kilo giving 1 bundle of As Armor Condition drops, so does the pro-
Components or a minimum of 1 Component. tection it gives. With each drop in Condition,
56 CHAPTER 3. EQUIPMENT

Table 3.4: Weapon Degradation Levels & Changes

Components Mechanics
Condition AP Cost Damage Value
required Modifier
Perfect - +1 120% 16 -50
Good - - 100% 8 -30
Used +1 - 75% 4 -10
Heavily Used +2 - 50% 2 0
Poor +3 - 25% 1 +10

Table 3.5: Armor Degradation Levels & Changes

DT DT
DT Quick Components Mechanics
Condition Heavy Power Value
Light Slots required Modifier
Premium Armor
Perfect +1 +2 +2 120% - 16 -50
Good - - - 100% - 8 -30
Used - -1 -2 75% -1 4 -10
Heavily
-1 -2 -3 50% -2 2 0
Used
Poor -2 -3 -4 25% -3 1 +10

the DT value drops in increments, with the ˆ the weapon is disarmed

table showing the total amount of DT lost for ˆ the weapon is deliberately tinkered or sab-
that particular item. Same goes for the Effects. otaged
However, DT value of an item cannot go be- ˆ environmental effects
low 0, so if an armor reaches 0 DT before be- ˆ potentially upon a Critical Failure
coming Poor condition, reaching that tier will
not lower the DT further. Likewise, Effects Armor may take condition damage in the fol-
(such as additional Rad Resistance, or +1 to lowing circumstances:
STR) from apparel cannot be removed more ˆ each time the wearer gets attacked with a
than there are on the item to begin with. critical success
The order of removal on effects is recom- ˆ any explosive attack
mended to start from the least valuable to valu- ˆ environmental effects
able, unless GM and Player agree on another All damage equipment takes is up to the
arrangement. GM.
Items that fall below poor condition are de-
stroyed and may not be repaired. Destroyed
items may still be used as spare parts to repair
items in poor condition.

Weapons may take condition damage in the

following circumstances:
ˆ the weapon gets attacked by a Called Shot
 57

Example 1: Emerald Glint was snow, dust and other grinding and clogging
caught in the blast radius of an impurities. Proper maintenance to keep them
enemy frag grenade, and due to clean is a must. Neglecting your weapons, ar-
the explosion, her armor’s con- mor or machines for a week may drop their
dition drops from Good to Used. condition level. Common use of items and
Her current armor is Leather gear will usually not cause their condition to
Armor, a piece of Light armor drop more than one level during the course of
which provides her with 2 DT and a game.
2 Quick Slots. As a result of the Maintenance is considered a routine and is
Condition drop to Used, her ap- usually considered to happen regularly as part
parel has lost one Quick Slot, but of characters daily and weekly habits. Neglect
maintains its DT as it is Light ar- is considered to be taken into effect when char-
mor. The armor also loses some acters are for some reason unable to keep up
of its value if sold in this condi- the maintenance.
tion.

Example 2: Emerald Glint’s Environment

Leather Armor has taken further The remains of the old world are hazardous
damage, meaning the condition of not only to the travellers, but their equipment
the item drops down to Heavily as well. These kinds of hazards include being
Used. As the effects on dropping submerged underwater for an extended period,
from Used to Heavily Used are falling from great heights, getting crushed un-
more severe, the Leather Armor’s der rubble or being doused with acid or Taint.
DT value has dropped by 1. Such may cause the item’s condition level to
In addition, she has to remove drop. Since exposure is often unavoidable, it
another Quick Slot from use. The does not fall under Neglect, nor can it be un-
armor’s reselling value also drops done with regular maintenance. Instead, a cor-
to half of original. responding Repair action must be done to in-
crease the item’s condition.
Critical Failure & Success
Every time a character critically fails while us- Breach Lock
ing an item, the player rolls for LCK - if the re-
Substitute for Lockpicking, Breach Lock allows
sult is a failure, the item’s condition degrades
a character to open locks with use of Explo-
1 level in addition to the other effects of the
critical failure. sives. Due to that, items may be damaged
Same applies to worn armor when the char-or destroyed during a Breach Lock attempt,
i.e. contents inside a locked toolbox. The GM
acter gets hit with a critical success - the player
announces the number of LCK rolls to deter-
rolls for LCK, and if the result is a failure the
item’s condition drops by 1 level. mine if items inside (excluding bottlecaps or
pre-war bits) are still intact after Breach Lock
action. The character rolls LCK with penalty
Neglect
of -2. On a successful roll, she has managed to
Using items such as weapons, armor and ma- get the item intact but if the roll is 1-10 away
chines often expose them to moisture, dirt, from the target value, the item may be at poor
58 CHAPTER 3. EQUIPMENT

condition.

Modifying Equipment
Improvement is what drives the civilization for-
ward. It just often tends to begin from sim-
ple things, such as improving capabilities of a
weapon, protective qualities of an armor, and
adding a spark battery to that one turret to
function outside of power grid.
Modifying equipment is not same as Invent-
ing. Initially, all modifications are considered
available to craft, found from the Wasteland or
purchasable from supplying vendors instead of
being discovered via inventing. Instead, mod-
ifying inventions is considered alterations and
improvements, and are handled as reinventing.
Each weapon and armor type has a collec-
tion of modifications one can craft or buy,
listed under the weapon or armors in Waste-
land Wares. Crafting a modification requires
at least 50 in an appropriate skill, usually Me-
chanics or Science, but applying the modifica-
tion has no skill requirements.

Example: Featherfall wants to mod-

ify her trusty rifle, the IF-67
“Bloomberg” rifle. She wishes to
add the Automatic Receiver mod
that’s listed under the weapon, al-
lowing her to fire in bursts. Hav-
ing no required skill to craft it on
her own, she has to look up a
trader that will sell it for her for
the price listed - or maybe less, if
she can Barter for it.

GM may limit which modifications are able

to be crafted, available, or if modifications even
are used in the game altogether.
Chapter 4

Character Advancement

As your character wanders the Wastes, explor- Leveling Up

ing ancient pre-war ruins and helping (or hin-
dering, if you’re so inclined) those in need, she Your character gains experience points for ac-
grows as a person. Of course, with pastel- complishing goals, killing things, cunning plans
colored equines, this also means their capabil- or just about anything that the GM feels would
ities grow in tandem. merit it. Your character gains a level when she
This chapter focuses on what happens when reaches the associated experience total. How
a character goes further in their adventure, your GM gives experience points depends on
what improvements she gets and how to im- the GM’s preference; some give EXP at the
plement the growth your character undergoes. end of the session, while others may give expe-
rience at certain points in the story.
The GM is permitted to cap the game at
Level 20. Levels above 20 are considered
“Epic” levels and are usually reserved for long-
running games with grand plots.

Improving Skills
Design Note: Increasing HP
Each time your character gains a new level,
In these rules, characters do not
she gains a number of skill points which may
gain new Health Points on level up.
be freely distributed amongst her skills. The
This reflects the reality that even
number of skill points the character receives is
after roaming the post-apocalyptic
equal to 10 + (IN T /2). This value is rounded
wastes for a long time, she is still
down.
as mortal as ever. However, there
A character can assign a maximum of
are ways to gain more HP. In-
5 skill points per skill per level.
creasing one’s END permanently
Enhancements or reductions to INT do not
with Perks, Cybernetic implants,
change her number of skill points she has al-
Alchemy and such, and direct in-
ready obtained, nor does it grant more or less
creases to HP via Perks, Alchemy
skill points on level up. Permanent changes
and such. Temporary increases to
to INT do not affect skill points gained from
END such as from Equipment do
previous levels.
not increase HP.

59
60 CHAPTER 4. CHARACTER ADVANCEMENT

Table 4.1: XP Requirements by Level

Improving Strain and Aerial
Level Experience Maneuvers
1 0 Flying creatures gain new Aerial Maneuvers as
2 100 they level up: pegasi get one every 5th level,
3 300 while griffons get one every 6th level.
All races gain 5 additional Strain every 5th
4 600
level.
5 1 000 Temporary enhancements and reductions to
6 1 500 INT or END do not alter a character’s Strain.
Permanent changes to these SPECIALs will
7 2 100
change Strain gained across all character lev-
8 2 800 els.
9 3 600
10 4 500
Gaining Perks
11 5 500
12 6 600 Your character gains a perk every time she
gains a level. Perks are beneficial bonuses to
13 7 800
the character, and a measure of the character’s
14 9 100 growth. Unlike Traits which have both pros
15 10 500 and cons to them, perks are positive qualities
your character has learned over their adven-
16 12 000
ture.
17 13 600 Perks also have levels associated with them,
18 15 300 indicating the earliest level the character must
19 17 100 be for the perk to be available to them. A
level 2 perk is open to characters at level 2 and
20 19 000
onward. Level 12 perks are available at level 12
21 21 000 and further. Players can choose any perks from
22 23 100 any levels they’ve already cleared, as long as
they meet requirements. For example, a 10th
23 25 300
level PC can take perks from level 2 to 10 as
24 27 600 long as they fill the requirements.
25 30 000 There are a great deal of perks available in
26 32 500 Wasteland Ventures. Perks have requirements
which must be met before taking the perk, of-
27 35 100 ten either a SPECIAL or Skill requirement.
28 37 800 Temporary penalties do not limit a character’s
29 40 600 available perks, but temporary buffs do not al-
low one to take a perk she could otherwise not
30 43 500
take.
Some perks have ranks. This means that the
perk may be taken multiple times. Usually,
 61

these additional ranks may be taken at any gain the Reward Perk My Little Ponies, which
level after the perk is gained. grants a permanent +1 bonus to LCK.
For a list of available perks, see the Perk
List. Cybernetic Limbs & Implants
Cybernetic limbs and implant can grant a per-
Additional Bonuses manent bonus to a character, but clinics capa-
ble of performing cybersurgery are extremely
While leveling up and getting perks are the rare and expensive. One cannot have two of
most common, most available way for charac- same implants, as this will cause conflicts be-
ter growth, there are other ways PCs can im- tween them. Attachement of cybernetic limbs
prove their SPECIALs, skills and attributes. that the character does not biologically have
Some items, such as alcohol, food or cloth- do not provide new abilities, and is often con-
ing give temporary bonuses, and have been ex- sidered wasteful or weird.
plained in the previous chapter. A character may not benefit from both
Permanent bonuses come from much rarer cybernetic implants and permanent al-
sources; Ministry Mare statuettes, Cyber- chemical enhancements.
netic implanting, Alchemical Enhancements Much like armors, Cybernetic bodyparts
and Pre-War books. consist of their default form and modifications
-or as they’re known, implants- to those cyber-
netic bodyparts. Modifying your parts is not
Ministry Mare Statuettes required, but many wastelanders find they give
These are magical items that grant a perma- a bit more of an edge, if they can fork over the
nent boost to one of a character’s SPECIALs: caps, that is. Implants can be added during or
Strength, Perception, Endurance, Charisma, after installation of the main cyberware.
Intelligence or Agility. The statuettes are Artificial bodyparts have mod slots much
small, indestructible figurines in the form of like armors do; different parts have varied
the Ministry Mares. There are only 42 of these amount of mods they can allow simultaneously.
statuettes in existence, seven of each differ- It should be noted that not all implants are
ent statuette. Character in possession of more compatible with each other and thus they can-
than one of these statuettes often find them- not be installed on the same cyberware. Like-
selves being influenced as if by the Ministry wise, multiples of the same implant do not
Mares themselves. stack. Often, both the cybernatic bodypart
A character who possesses two statuettes of and modifications have bonuses to their user’s
the same Ministry Mare only gains a benefit functions, and these do not cancel each other
from the first one obtained. Likewise, only one out.
character may benefit from a Ministry Mare
statuette at a time. However, the character When installing a cybernetic part, the pro-
will retain the benefit of a statuette until ei- cess will take 24 hours and during this time
ther she dies or she willingly gives the statuette the character getting the cybernetic is out of
away - it cannot be stolen. There is no Ministry commission. The character or characters per-
Mare statuette which corresponds to LCK. In- forming the operation roll their Medicine or
stead a character who possesses a statuette of Science skill to see how well the installation
one of each Ministry Mares - six of them - will goes. Characters without Field Doctor,
62 CHAPTER 4. CHARACTER ADVANCEMENT

Characters with botched installation have

above adjustment penalty in addition to their
permanent ones.
Re-activating bodyparts and adding modifi-
cations do not cause above adjustment period.
Cybernetics can be disabled by EMP, or simi-
lar weapons. Disabled implants can be reacti-
vated at a cybersurgery-capable clinic or by a
character capable of crafting implants.
Cybernetic implants can be found in
Wasteland Wares.

Example 1: Doc Red installs an Ar-

tificial Eye to Emerald Glint. Doc
Red has the P.A.S.T. Field Doc-
tor, which means they do not suf-
Nurse or Tech-Raider P.A.S.T.s suffer a fer a penalty for performing the
-20 to this roll.. surgery. Emerald Glint is out
cold for 24 hours as Doc crafts
If the Roll is a success, the operation goes off
the eye onto their body. Doc
without a hitch. A Critical Success halves the
rolls Medicine, getting a Criti-
amount of days the operated character needs
cal Success on their roll, mean-
getting used to their new installation. A failure
ing that Emerald will only need
gives a Permanent -1 to either END or CHA,
to recover and suffer from a tem-
but the cybernetic is successfully installed. A
porary penalty for half the usual
Critical failure introduces a complication in the
time. Emerald’s END is 5 af-
process that permanently damages the patient,
ter the temporary penalty to their
giving them -1 to both END and CHA.
END from the surgery, meaning
normally Emerald would suffer
10 days of temporary penalty (15
days-5 END). However, thanks to
a smashing success on the surgery,
Emerald has this time halved to 5
When a character has gained a new instal- days instead.
lation, they will suffer a temporary penalty
of 1 to both END and CHA, due to their
body and mind having to adjust to the changes Note: taking cybernetic implants is
made. When counting the days for adjusting, risky and potentially dangerous.
the penalty to END is included. Side effects include, but are not
The following formula determines how long limited to; dizziness, headaches,
it takes for the body to adjust to cybernetics: amnesia, loss of blood, limbs, in-
testines, and appetite. Avoid fatty
15 days − EN D and spicy foods after operation.
 63

Alchemical Enhancements to obtain both Ministry of Image approved

and edited copy and the original unedited one.
Zebra alchemy has ways of empowering indi-
Finding the unedited books is extremely rare.
viduals through ink-based inscriptions on their
There are two books that have been made
body, called Tattoos, or momentary boosts in
after the war; The Principles of Proper Pony
the form of Brews.
Speech (skill: Diplomacy) and The Wasteland
A character may not benefit from both per-
Survival Guide (skill: Survival). Due to this,
manent alchemical enchantments and cyber-
they only have one edition of the book avail-
netic implants, nor can multiple alchemical en-
able.
chantments be used by a character. While one
Reading a book takes 15 − IN T hours, to a
can have multiple Brews in their system si-
minimum of 1, which can be divided to several
multaneously, copies of the same Brew do not
days or - if the character does little more than
stack.
read, eat and sleep- spent in a single day.
Enchanted Tattoo and Brew Recipes can be
found in Wasteland Wares, under Alchemy,
while their creation can be found further in this Pre-War Magazines
document in chapter Magic & Spells, under Magazines used to be the main method of
Zebra Magic. spreading news and information in Pre-War
Equestria in a quick and flexible manner.
Note: consuming zebra brews may While books contain detailed and descriptive
be risky and potentially danger- information that require a lot of time to di-
ous. Side effects include, but gest, magazines are quick way to find a tidbit
are not limited to, hallucinations, or two to overcome an obstacle in a character’s
headache, haunting spirits, spon- way.
taneous immolation, depression, Pre-War magazines grant a one-time bonus
and apathy. If you are under 6 to a skill, the exact bonus is determined by
years of age, pregnant or nurs- the character’s INT as shown below. Once a
ing, please consult your local zebra character encounters a skill roll she has a mag-
witch doctor before consuming the azine for, she may opt to use the magazine on
product. the spot to gain the bonus. Once a magazine’s
bonus is used, it cannot be used again by the
Pre-War Books same character, unless she has multiple vol-
Books are tomes of knowledge, used in Pre- umes. The bonus from multiple volumes read
War Equestria as a means of storing said do not stack.
knowledge for others to read upon. They still INT 1-3 +5 bonus to skill
hold this function, although they are a rare INT 4-7 +10 bonus to skill
find in the Wasteland, and any that are found INT 8+ +15 bonus to skill
is a blessing. Even more rare are the unedited
versions.
Pre-War Books can grant a permanent
bonus to skills; reading one of these books
grants the character a +5 permanent bonus to
the associated skill. A character can only gain
the benefits of a book once, unless she manages
64 CHAPTER 4. CHARACTER ADVANCEMENT
Chapter 5

Game Rules

This chapter focuses on the frame of the is lower than 60, thus succeeding
game, the “how-to-play”, if you will. Though in lifting the stone.
they are rules, one should always keep in mind
No character may succeed on a SPECIAL
that a rule can always be benched if it would
check for a SPECIAL that has been reduced
interfere with fun, though that is left for the
to 0. SPECIALS may be reduced to 0 through
GM to ultimately decide.
damage (such as poisons) or through penalties
May the dice treat you well, Wastelander.
from sources that specify that they can reduce
the SPECIAL to an effective rating of 0 for
SPECIAL Rolls purposes of a specific roll.

Many times, your character may be called on Skill Rolls

to make rolls based on one of her SPECIALs,
such as a STR or PER check. While SPE- When the GM asks for a Skill Roll, the player
CIALs, and their bonuses and penalties, are rolls 1d100 and the result is compared to a tar-
displayed from 0-10 (to maximum of 15), all get value. The target value is the appropriate
rolls are done with 1d100. To succeed, the Skill value, but various modifiers can alter it.
character must roll equal to or under that SPE- For example: distraction, harsh weather, etc.
CIAL, plus or minus any modifiers, multiplied The player can at times reroll her Skill Roll in
by 10. Modifiers can adjust the difficulty of the case of a failure, but there are moments
this roll up to plus or minus 50, up to a maxi- where only one attempt is given. These are up
mum of the character’s Critical Failure rate or to the GM.
a minimum of the character’s Critical Success
Example: Emerald Glint wants to
rate.
hack into a terminal. Her Science
skill is 35. She rolls 1d100 and the
Example: Shining Example wants to
result is 42, which is higher than
lift a large stone off a road sign.
her Science value. Her first at-
His effective STR is 7, or 70 in
tempt being a fail, she tries again
d100. The GM determines the
- this time rolling a 12, success-
size of the stone gives him a -1
fully hacking the terminal.
penalty on his STR roll, thus he
must roll 60 or lower. He rolls The GM can adjust the difficulty of a task
1d100 and the result is 52, which up to plus or minus 50 based on conditions and

65
66 CHAPTER 5. GAME RULES

general difficulty, up to a maximum of the char- are usually made worse by external cir-
acter’s Critical Failure rate or a minimum of cumstances. Examples: Operating com-
the character’s Critical Success rate. These ad- plex pre-war tech in the dark, perform-
justments are added after any other bonuses or ing surgery in a sandstorm, disassem-
penalties from items and other similar sources. bling a prototype or otherwise unheard-of
firearm.
Extremely Easy (+50): These tasks the
Extremely Hard (-50): These tasks are
character knows from the heart - like
equal to how one instructs a blind pony
eating and breathing. Exceptions exist,
to defuse a bomb by cutting the red wire
though.
- through a radio.
Very Easy (+30): These are trivial tasks ei-
Many tests which require specific skill lev-
ther far beneath the character’s ability or
els can be repeatedly tried, although there is
a task that has been made much easier by
usually a cost or limitation on doing so. Most
some other means. Examples would be:
terminals will lock down and become unbreach-
Locating an unfamiliar building with di-
able after three failed attempts. Picking a lock
rections, repairing pre-war tech inside a
also requires a screwdriver and a bobby pin,
Stable or selling something to a merchant
and each failure costs the character a bobby
you already know for a higher price.
pin. Critical failure ends a character’s abil-
Easy (+20): An otherwise ordinary task ity to continue with repeatable tests – the lock
made much easier. Examples: Foraging jams, the terminal goes into permanent lock-
for food in an old farm, tending to a down, a part breaks, etc.
wounded person in a hospital theatre. In a situation where a proficiency roll is
called for that is not clearly covered by one
Ordinary (+10): This is a task that is com- of the skills, the most appropriate skill is used.
monplace for the character, something For example, any character can know how to
they do every day. Examples: Forag- sing without spending points in any particu-
ing or scavenging for food, operating self- lar skill. But if a character is using a singing
explanatory pre-war tech. performance to attempt to overcome an obsta-
cle or influence NPCs, then a Diplomacy check
Difficult (-10): This task is being hampered would be appropriate. Sometimes, more than
by some mitigating factor. Examples: Us- one skill might seem appropriate, i.e. a roll
ing poor tools to repair or construct some- for botany could be arguably either Science of
thing, trying to find your way through a Survival. In such cases, the GM should allow
forest with a poor trail. either to be used, but decide which is most ap-
plicable for the specific circumstance and give
Hard (-20): Attempting a feat beyond the a penalty for using the less applicable skill.
character’s capacity. Examples: Operat- In a situation where no skills are appropri-
ing pre-war tech with little to no knowl- ate, then SPECIAL rolls are called on instead.
edge of it, calming a feral mutant, per-
forming feats of great acrobatics. Pushing The Limits
Very Hard (-30): Not only are these tests There are times when a character must put
far beyond the character’s capacity they everything on the line, and then some. Be
 67

it a daring act of disarming a live bomb, or Opposed Rolls

diving across the field guns blazing while lead
flies past your ear, a little edge never hurts . Characters often find themselves pitted di-
When trying to gain a little more edge than rectly against an opponent in a contest of SPE-
your character currently possesses in a skill, CIALs or Skills. At these times, characters
you can spend Strain to gain immediate bonus may be called on to make opposed tests. To
to the next roll. For each point of Strain you do so, each character makes her required roll
spend, you gain a bonus of 5, up to the maxi- and compares how well she did by subtract-
mum bonus of 25 with 5 Strain spent. ing her roll from her SPECIAL or Skill. The
resulting number is her Degree of Success.
Remember, you can only use Strain to gain
Failure will result in a negative number. The
bonuses on skills and not SPECIAL rolls. In
opponent with the highest Degree of Success
addition, you cannot raise a skill over 100 with
wins. Ties are won by the character with the
these bonuses.
highest Luck. If tie occurs once more, test is
rolled again.
Example 1: Maabara desires a bet-
Assisting ter price for the goods she offers to
a merchant. This is an opposed
Outside of combat, a character may attempt roll using Barter, and Maabara’s
to assist another character in making a skill Barter skill is 60. She rolls 1d100
check. The GM determines if a character can and gets a result of 27. 60 - 27
assist another in a particular task. Characters = 33, which is Maabara’s Decree
may not assist other characters in targeting or of Success she compares with the
attacking, even if combat has not begun. merchant’s. The merchant has
Only SPECIAL rolls that can be assisted are Barter skill of 70, and the GM
STR and CHA, as two or more characters may rolls a result of 65. 70 - 65 =
attempt to lift an object, or strike a seduc- 5, which is lower than Maabara’s
tive pose to turn heads, for instance. Note value. The merchant caves in to
that characters with low STR and CHA are Maabara’s demands and offers a
less likely of be of assistance. bit more caps in trade.
The assisting character must have a skill Example 2: Emerald Glint engages
level of at least 25 in the skill and grants a +5 in scientific debate with a Steel
bonus to the primary character’s roll for every Ranger scribe. This is an opposed
full 20 levels the assisting character has in the roll using Science, and Emerald
skill. Normally, only one character may assist Glint’s Science skill is 35. Her
another. Too many cooks spoil the broth, after roll results in 56. 35 - 56 = -21,
all. which makes the Degree of Suc-
A character may attempt to assist another cess negative for her. The Steel
character in casting a spell outside of combat, Ranger scribe rolls a result of 40,
but only if the character possesses the spell. and compares it to his Science
This requires a Thaumaturgy roll from both skill of 55. As 55 - 40 = 15, a
casters individually. Strain cost is shared be- positive result, the scribe wins the
tween casters. debate.
68 CHAPTER 5. GAME RULES

If both parties fail their rolls, garnering neg-

Table 5.1: Critical Change Ranges
ative Degrees of Success, the better number
Critical Success Critical Failure
may still result in victory. For example, even
1 to LCK 90+LCK to 100
if both contestants in a tug-o’-war fail their
STR tests, the one who got the higher Degree
of Success is still victorious by not doing as SPECIAL & Skill Value Modi-
large of an error as the other. fiers
Some effects can increase or reduce a charac-
ter’s SPECIALs, skills or other values. If mul-
Critical Success and Failure tiple effects increase a value, apply any straight
numerical bonuses first and any multiplicative
A critical success is where the character suc- bonuses second. If multiple effects reduce a
ceeds beyond any and all expectations and GM value, apply any numerical penalties first and
should award them accordingly. A critical fail- any divisive qualities second. Always apply ef-
ure is the opposite - the character has fumbled fects that increase before effects that reduce.
so spectacularly it either causes an entirely new
Example 1: Maabara has Survival of
danger to the character and/or the party, or it
60, and she tries to come up with
is a pure comedic display - this is up to GM’s
a brew. She gains a bonus of 20
discretion.
from various sources, in addition
A critical success always happens on a roll of to penalties totaling -30. In effect,
1, and a critical failure on a roll of 100. Table she has 60 + 20 - 30 = 50 Survival
5.1 shows the Critical Chances of a character. for her test.
NOTE: Critical success on attack skill rolls
usually results in Critical Damage. Example 2: Shining Example goes
for a swing with his hoof - but has
When calculating modifiers, a situation may
sustained previous injuries that
arise where the target value of the roll is lower
affect his strength. Normally, he
than the character’s critical success chance. In
has a STR of 7 but has to suffer a
these cases, the critical success chance counts
penalty of -2 to that, totaling STR
as the target value.
5. This new, lower value is then
multiplied to determine his melee
damage.
Example: Emerald Glint tries to
accomplish an almost impossible Perks and traits cannot increase or decrease
task. After all the negative mod- a SPECIAL above 10 or under 1. Some tem-
ifiers have been calculated, she porary effects, such as equipment, spells, poi-
would have a success chance of 0. sons, and drugs can raise or lower a special to
However, as she has a LCK of 5, a maximum of 15 and to the minimum of 0.
she can succeed if she rolls 5 or
less as determined by the Critical The following effects apply when SPECIAL
Success Chance. stats are reduced:
ˆ if a character’s STR, PER or AGI is re-
duced to 0, the character is paralyzed;
 69

ˆ if her CHA or INT is reduced to 0, the wounds, another casualty in the cruel Waste-
character ceases to be a playable character land.
ˆ if her END is reduced to 0, the character If successfully healed before the dying char-
dies. acter’s next turn, the character heals accord-
ing to the the source, starting from 0 HP. If the
In some cases, having a SPECIAL reduced character remains within 5 HP or less, they get
to 0 has a unique effect. Various dangers in a Pain Threshold.
the Wasteland may produce these effects, and Healing with a Medicine check at a penalty
some are detailed in Mutant Manual. of 30 will, if successful, give HP back to the
Unless otherwise noted, enhancements or dying target according to the Skill user’s total
damage from spells end when the spell’s du- Skill level; Each full 10 of the skill is 1 HP
ration ends. The recovery time for SPECIAL healed.
damage depends on the source of the dam-
Example 1: Maabara uses a Heal-
age. Some sources of SPECIAL damage, such
ing Potion on the dying Feather-
as Pink Cloud, may only be healed through
fall; Healing Potion heals 3 HP.
magic. And a few rare sources, such as Taint,
Featherfall gets back up with 3 HP
are permanently debilitating.
remaining on her Health Tracker.
Any perks, spells or other effects that di-
Because this would put her on a
rectly affect the skill value cannot increase or
Pain Threshold, GM rolls a new
decrease that skill beyond the character’s criti-
Pain Threshold status for her.
cal thresholds. However, increases or decreases
beyond these limits still counteract penalties or Example 2: Doc Red uses his
bonuses. Medicine-Skill to resuscitate dy-
Unless otherwise noted, a character cannot ing Featherfall; Doc Red’s cur-
stack benefits from the same source of enhance- rent Medicine skill is 72. Doc
ment or closely related sources. If a character Red succeeds in his Medicine -
gains the same type of enhancement from two 30 check and as per the rules
closely related sources, the character gains the on healing dying characters, he
greater benefit, not both. heals her by 7 HP (10 goes into
72 7 times), bringing Featherfall’s
Health Tracker to 7 HP as a re-
Character Death sult. As such, Featherfall does not
get a Pain Threshold, as she has
Though often unfavorable and unwanted, it is more than the maximum of 5 HP
possible that a player’s character might cross required.
the rainbow bridge at some point in the game.
When a character’s HP drops to 0, they are If the character is dying of Radiation Poi-
unconscious and close to death. soning (see Environmental & Other Hazards
The character’s allies have one full combat for more detail), meaning they’ve went beyond
round of bringing the downed character back Critical, there is a chance for a character to
to life, either through medical spells, healing become a ghoul instead. The requirements are
potions and items, or a Medicine -30 check. only known to GM, but in the event that a
If her allies’ attempts aren’t successful within character is ghoulified, they gain Ghoul-trait
this time period, the character perishes due her for free.
70 CHAPTER 5. GAME RULES

Environmental & Other Haz- even more lethal density. Due to the nature
ards of the Pink Cloud, no protective gear exists,
as hazmat suits and other such gear are de-
In the Equestrian Wasteland, characters will fenseless against it.
often find themselves at risk from dangers be- Much like with Taint, gas mask and re-
yond those of other characters or monsters. breathers are useless against Pink Cloud. How-
Below are some of the most common hazards. ever, water absorbs the gas well, leaving the air
purified for short periods of time after rainfall.
However, this rain causes poisonous puddles to
Taint
form. Minor damages caused by Pink Cloud
A rainbow colored reminder of good intents can be repaired with Healing Potions, though
taking a sinister turn. Impelled Metamorpho- scarring or other effects may remain.
sis Potion, now better known as Taint, is a This necromantic gas is nearly always lethal,
mutagenic compound that was used to improve but in some rare instances the gas turns the
Unicorns to more capable Alicorns, designed victim into a Canterlot Ghoul; a Pink Cloud
by MAS. However, its use without precise con- -immune ghoul that is far more difficult to kill
trol on administration and dosage is highly compared to a regular ghoul. Much like with
catastrophic to any species, and most often regular ghouls, most of the Canterlot Ghouls
lethal. First rule with Taint is to avoid it at all lose their sanity after the transformation.
costs, for its effects are irreversible and often Pink Cloud saps the character of their life
horrid. force faster the longer they’re exposed to it, 1
Taint affects a character that has digested HP lost in the first hour, then 2 HP lost in the
it by drinking or eating it, has had a skin next hour, then 3 the one after that and so on.
contact due to splashes, droplets, and alike, In addition, there is a chance that some of the
or has inhaled Taint fumes in a hot environ- character’s gear fuses with their skin, resisted
ment. Upon contact, the character must make with LCK rolls. Upon a failed LCK roll, a piece
an END check or die from the forced mutation. of gear determined by the GM, that is in direct
A successful roll keeps the character alive, contact with the skin permanently fuses on the
but they will be affected by Taint in accor- character, becoming a part of the character’s
dance to the spell Transformation (Major) as body.
dictated by the GM. The items still function as intended, but they
can make putting on other equipment more dif-
ficult; in case of fused armor, this can hamper
Pink Cloud
equipping other armors, but the character will
Pink Cloud is an entropic and necroman- always have the DT of the armor that fused
tic pink hued gas released from the bombs onto her.
deployed by the zebra, that struck Canterlot
when the world ended.
Pink Cloud has a devastating effect on liv-
ing creatures, seeping into flesh and lungs and
rotting and melting it. It can cause a liv-
ing creature to be fused into inanimate ob-
jects, such as chairs, armor or clothing. Closed
spaces concentrates the Pink Cloud into an
 71

Table 5.2: Radiation Poisoning & Effects

Poisoning SPECIAL
Rads
Level Damage
0-4 None None
5-8 Minor -1 END
9-12 Moderate -2 END, -1 AGI
13-16 Major -3 END, -2 AGI, -1 STR
17-19 Critical -3 END, -3 AGI, -2 STR
20+ Fatal DEATH

Radiation Note: Ghouls do not suffer from

the adverse effects of Radiation,
Radiation builds up in a character’s body, but Critical and Fatal amounts of
causing harmful effects to it. All characters Rads can cause them to revert into
have a Radiation Resistance -stat that com- a Feral state, as they take Insanity
bats incoming radiation. points.
Incoming Rads damage’s severity is deduced
from two parts: how many times it needs to
Drowning
be rolled with a 1d100 and how likely the Rads
are to make contact, shown with a percentage Drowning may occur if a character remains un-
number such as 5 x 50%, which means that derwater without means of breathing beyond
1d100 is rolled five times at 50% possibility of the point where she can hold her breath. A
contact. If the resulting roll is under the per- character may hold her breath for her END
centage given, the Rads or poison has been suc- in turns without difficulty. Once she has ex-
cessfully inflicted. Usually the person dealing ceeded this time, she may make an END check
the poison or Rads rolls to see how successful to hold her breath for an additional turn. Each
the contact was. successive turn after, she may make another
The character taking in the Rads will add as END check at a cumulative -10 penalty (to a
many tokens on their Rad Meter as dictated by maximum penalty of -50).
the source of the Radiation. Most commonly, Once the character fails an END check, she
a single successful roll gives 1 Rad token, but begins to drown. A drowning character no
there are exceptions to this. longer rolls END checks but loses one END
Radiation can be found in many corners per turn. When she reaches 0 END, she has
of the world, with different severity. It goes drowned and perished. If she manages to get
without saying that a Balefire crater is utterly to air before this time, she will recover one lost
deadly to walk into, as is swimming in radioac- END per minute.
tive waste. Though the world does have am-
bient background radiation, it is rarely strong
enough to be noticeable. In some spots this
ambient radiation may have formed more po-
tent pockets.
The effects of accumulated Rads can be seen
in Table 5.2.
72 CHAPTER 5. GAME RULES

Falling Objects and Falling If a character is hit by a falling object, it

takes damage according to her own size and
Falling objects such as rocks or levitated train the size of the falling object. The falling object
cars pose a somewhat regular danger in the takes falling damage.
Wasteland. GM can ask for either AGI or LCK Falling from a considerable height to a solid
roll - with a possible penalty in place - for the surface, for example to the ground, is likely to
characters to try and evade the falling object. cause crippling injuries or death. In this case,
 73

Table 5.3: Base Falling Damage

Size of the falling object
-4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4
-4 (4) (6) (8) (10) (10)* (10)* (10)* (10)* (10)*
-3 (2) (4) (6) (8) (10) (10)* (10)* (10)* (10)*
-2 (1) (2) (4) (6) (8) (10) (10)* (10)* (10)*
-1 - (1) (2) (4) (6) (8) (10) (10)* (10)*
Target 0 - - (1) (2) (4) (6) (8) (10) (10)*
Size 1 - - - (1) (2) (4) (6) (8) (10)
2 - - - - (1) (2) (4) (6) (8)
3 - - - - - (1) (2) (4) (6)
4 - - - - - - (1) (2) (4)
*Target rolls LCK to completely avoid the damage by finding a safe crevasse.

the character is considered both the falling ob- for AGI and fails, leaving Shining
ject and the target and the damage is dealt under the falling rock. The rock’s
only to the falling character. size is 1, while Shining Example
The minimum falling distance is 4 meters. is a regular Earth Pony, with a
Only DT from Power Armor, Medical spells size of 0. Checking the table, the
or perks - such as Tough Hide - reduce the player finds that the base falling
amount of damage taken from falling objects damage is 6 dice, (6), by compar-
and falling. ing the size of the falling object
Base falling damage applies to fallen dis- and size of the target. Because
tances between 4 and 8 meters. If the distance the rock falls from 4 meters, Shin-
is greater than that, the damage increases by ing Example will take (6) dam-
2 for every 4 meters fallen beyond 8 meters. age. The falling rock will also take
If a group of objects is falling, such as rubble falling damage.
or a collapsing building, the group of objects is
considered a single entity, with size matching
the group’s total size/volume. Example 2: Featherfall has man-
If the falling object is larger than the target, aged to cripple an enemy pegasus’
and the target fails to avoid the hit, the target wings so that the pegasus is now
becomes Pinned beneath it. falling to the ground. The pegasus
Examples of falling damage can be seen on is size 0. Checking the table, they
Table 5.3. compare the size 0 with 0, finding
that the base damage is 4 dice -
Example 1: Shining Example is (4). The distance the pegasus falls
standing under a falling rock is 20 meters. This means that
falling from 4 meters. His player the pegasus takes the base falling
rolls PER successfully, allowing damage with additional damage; 6
Shining to know he is under a damage from extra 12 meters be-
threat and he tries evading the yond the initial 8 meters. The fi-
danger. His player chooses to roll nal result is 6+(4) falling damage.
74 CHAPTER 5. GAME RULES

Poison Severity of the poison’s damage is deduced

from two parts: how many times it needs to
Poisons can take many forms in the waste- be rolled with a 1d100 and how likely the poi-
land; they can be used as a hunting mecha- son is to cause effects, shown with a percent-
nism by animals and insects, or as noxious gas age number such as 2x40%, which means that
clouds and liquids and as tools to aid in getting 1d100 is rolled two times at 40% possibility of
rid of unwanted personnel. All of these tox- success. If the resulting roll is under the per-
ins are countered with Poison Resistance. centage given, the poison has been successfully
There are variety of poison-effects, with differ- inflicted. Usually the person dealing the poison
ent symptoms. or Rads rolls to see how successful the contact
was.
Example effects of poisons:
Some poisons are in forms of gases and liq-
Direct tissue damage, in other words HP uids. These poisons can be administered by
loss over time. These poisons can take a skin contact, breathed in, or digested. In
their effect in both short and long periods these cases the Poison Resistance needs to be
of time. rolled as the armor doesn’t protect against
these sources, unless otherwise specified.
Necrosis of cells, which negates the charac-
ter’s Natural Healing until cured, or the
character dies. This is a long-lasting ef-
fect. Cold

Headaches and arcane fluctuation, Sometimes extremely low temperatures may

which negates the character’s Strain re- be encountered, most often in winter and oc-
covery until cured. This is a long-lasting casionally through specialized weapons and
effect. magic.
In a short-term exposure to cold, such as
Hallucinogenic effects, such as visual or
during combat from directed attacks, the dam-
auditory delusions. These often occur for
age taken is determined by the damage source,
a short period of time but can cause the
be it a weapon, spell or cryogenic fluid. These
character’s Insanity to rise.
are often short, under a minute-long exposures.
Cold damage is reduced by character’s DT,
Mental and physical deterioration,
but certain equipment may increase taken cold
affecting the character’s stats and SPE-
damage, or lower it.
CIALs. Such poison can for instance
cause muscle relaxation or numbness, Long term exposure deals cold damage over
lowering a character’s STR and AGI. time. Extended periods of sitting in the snow
These effects can be both short and or swimming in freezing water are considered
long-lasting. long term exposures. If the character is wet,
she will take double the damage. Swimming
Specialized poisons, which can cause Sta- in freezing waters (close to 0°C temperatures)
tus Effects, often short-lasting, such as equals to standing in -30°C temperature when
Enraged and or even knock a character calculating damages. Exact damage taken can
Unconscious. be checked from Table 5.4.
 75

Electricity
Table 5.4: Long Term Cold Exposure
Temperature Damage Electricity comes in only short-term exposure
-10°C 1 HP / hour - including some weapons, spells, and hazards
-20°C 2 HP / hour such as lightning strike, and either faulty or
-30°C 3 HP / hour; -1 AGI deliberate electronics. Electric damage is re-
4 HP / hour; duced by character’s DT, but certain equip-
-40°C
-1 AGI, -1 END ment may increase taken electric damage, or
5 HP / hour; lower it.
< -40°C
-2 AGI, -2 END However, the mere damage of electricity is
not it’s only hazard as electricity has a high
chance of Stunning it’s victim. As stunned
Table 5.5: Long Term Heat Exposure character is unable to act normally, every other
Temperature Damage hazard and damage source at present becomes
30°C 1 HP / hour unavoidable.
50°C 2 HP / hour; -1 STR Some weapons, magic and environmental
70°C 3 HP / hour; -1 STR sources can deal EMP damage. This kind of
4 HP / hour; damage is especially disruptive against robots
90°C and may also disrupt power armors and other
-1 STR, -1 END
5 HP / hour; electrical equipment, as if Stunned. EMP is
> 90°C countered with its own resistance, indicted
-2 STR, -2 END
within information.

Heat & Fire

Heat and fire can be countered while wander-

ing. Hot climates and specialized attacks can
administer Heat or Fire Damage.
Short term exposures to heat or fire can
come from various sources - weapons, spells,
and molten metal being few examples. The
heat or fire damage taken is determined by the
damage source. Heat and fire damage is re-
duced by character’s DT, but certain equip-
ment may increase taken heat and fire damage
or lower it.
Long term exposure to heat deal damage
over time. Wandering through a scorching
desert is considered a long-term exposure. If
Thirst and Hunger rules are in use, suffering
any heat damage from long term exposure in-
creases the character’s need for Thirst. Exact
damage taken can be checked from Table 5.5.
76 CHAPTER 5. GAME RULES

Sneaking NPC among spotters, GM can roll them col-

lectively as a group. If half or more of the
In the Wasteland and occasionally in more set- group’s Sneak rolls are a success, they sneak
tled areas, moving and acting unnoticed can past without a problem. Assist, Push the Limit
be considered a great advantage. To some it’s and Distract are all applicable actions.
a defining lifestyle, to others a tool of trade, The other source of bonuses and penalties
and to many more a complete pain to crack is Visibility, which affects only the perceiving
down. Whether it is moving quietly, breaking character’s roll. This is discussed further in
a window with minimal noise, or avoiding an- section Spotting sneaking characters later in
other person doing these activities against you, this section.
sneaking is worthwhile to learn for a long and Though it can depend on the GM, if a char-
healthy life in the Wasteland. acter fails their Sneak-roll it doesn’t necessar-
Successful sneaking requires taking attention ily mean that they are immediately discovered
to the surrounding area and the actions taken. by the spotter; maybe they stepped on a dry
These include staying in the shadows, avoiding branch, or knocked something over, enough to
watchful eyes, as well as keeping the charac- pique the spotter’s interest. The spotter would
ter’s noise low, and their movement slow. become more alert as a result. This can, de-
Characters attempting to sneak roll an Op- pending on the GM, give the Spotter a slight
posed roll of Sneak vs. PER of the character bonus to their roll, or just make the situation
that could spot them. If there are multiple tense as the Spotter begins to look around.
 77

If every character in the group fails their

Sneak-roll, then it is safe to say they’ve bun-
gled up the job well enough to be discovered
outright. A Critical Failure might make things
particularly tense, or make a sneaking situa-
tion into a chase scene instead. It is up to the
GM to determine what is the severity of the
failure, but know that combat doesn’t have to
be the only result.

Spotting sneaking characters

When characters, NPC or PC, want to
spot sneaking characters, they roll Perception
against the sneaking character’s Sneak-skill in
an Opposed Roll. Spotting character gets a
bonus or penalty to their PER from Visibil-
ity, as per Table 7.2. under Combat Variables,
in Chapter 6: Combat. Bright light gives a
bonus to the character’s PER, while dark gives
a penalty.
When sneaking characters have been spot-
ted, it can lead to conflict, violent or otherwise.
78 CHAPTER 5. GAME RULES

Long Distance Travel required to see if the character begins to drown

from exhaustion.
The Equestrian Wasteland, and lands beyond
it are vast and diverse. To some, this change in Flying
scenery is welcoming, and even bringing safety
as territories of mutants and gangs are left be- Flying is the fastest way to travel but even that
hind their ventures. To others, it is major in- is not without risk. The common pegasus or
convenience, as many methods of comfortable griffin can clear up to 9 kilometers per hour in
and safe travel are long past days of the old. good weather. Storms count as difficult ter-
Travelling is generally divided into three rain for flying, which halves the above speed
methods: striding over land, swimming and to 4,5 km/h. Some weather conditions, such
sailing through the waterways, and flying as hurricanes or radstorms may be too risky to
through the skies, whether by wings, or ma- attempt flight. Bad conditions may result in
chines. However, they have a uniting feature: END or AGI rolls to remain on course.
each of them require time. Sometimes a con-
siderable amount, as both the distance and the
Flight
speed of the travel vary.
Many creatures are capable of flight. Among
On land them, pegasi and griffons are capable of com-
bat tricks that utilize air; Aerial Maneuvers.
“A foal learns to run before walking.”
Aerial Maneuvers cost AP to use, in similar
Most common form of travel in the Wasteland fashion to combat actions, as well as Strain.
is by hoof. When traveling on the map, the Flying follows the same rules as ground
party can move 6 km per hour. Difficult terrain movement, aside from being able to crawl or
such as mountains, swamplands and deserts getting prone. Sneaking while mid-flight is
half the amount of kilometers moved, from 6 possible - flap of wings are much more silent
to 3 km per hour. than hooves on the ground, after all.
Due to their flight-related magic, pegasi and
Swimming griffons are naturally capable of manipulating
clouds, as well as stand and walk on them as
Swimming is the slowest method of travel, due if they were semi-solid objects. Other races do
to breaks needed to gather strength. Most not possess this trait, and must seek out other
common ponies can travel 3 kilometers per ways to achieve cloud walking.
hour by swimming, and difficult terrain such Collision to an object deals (2) damage, as
as strong waves hampers that down to 1,5 kilo- if the character fell towards the ground. The
meters per hour. Successful END rolls may be character must roll LCK to see if they remain
in the air or fall. Collision to another character
causes damage according to Base Falling Dam-
Table 5.6: Long Distance Travel age table. In addition to this, both characters
Easy Difficult must make LCK rolls to see if they remain in
Method
terrain terrain the air.
Walking 6 km/h 3 km/h Should the character fail their LCK roll,
Swimming 3 km/h 1,5 km/h she is in Freefall; falling from a considerable
Flying 9 km/h 4,5 km/h height to a solid surface, for example to the
 79

ground. In this case, the character is consid-

ered both the falling object and the target, and
the damage is dealt only to the falling charac-
ter.
If one of character’s wings gains the Crip-
pled condition, she is unable to fly, but can
still glide with base movement speed. If both
of character’s wings are Crippled, she is unable
to fly or glide. If the character is in midair
when her both wings gain Crippled conditions,
she is in Freefall and takes falling damage ac-
cordingly.
Aerial Maneuvers and their descriptions can
be found in Magic Codex.
80 CHAPTER 5. GAME RULES
Chapter 6

Additional Rules

This chapter categorizes any and all rules

that may enhance the various aspects of post-
apocalyptic setting of the game. They are not
as necessary as the previous chapter’s rules are
but are still suggested to be used for added
depth in your game.

Scavenging
The greatest pleasure of Wasteland is all
the useful and less useful treasures stumbled
upon exploration through the ruins. Whether
turned straight into caps at the nearest trader,
or combined into most wondrous of contrap-
tions, finding these treasures is the true joy of
the hunt.
When a character decides to search through a successful roll to open them. Some contain-
a specific area, the character rolls for PER in ers may be connected to a terminal requiring a
order to find hidden containers or items. Some sufficient level in Science and a successful roll
items do not require a PER roll to be discov- to bypass the login. Characters can open locks
ered, provided they are in plain sight of the with a successful Explosives roll, but this car-
character. ries a high risk of destroying the contents in-
Once the character has found his treasure, side. A character needs an explosive weapon to
her LCK rolls determines the number of items attempt this, and appropriate weapon is sub-
they can discover, such as the number of caps, ject to GM approval.
bullets, and tin cans. Critical rolls with LCK Salvaging materials from robots, terminals
may encourage the GM to reward the charac- and other arcane technology requires a suc-
ter with items of higher rarity or even unique cessful Science check. Salvaging materials from
nature. general machinery such as a bottling machine
Among discoveries can be several locked con- or a toaster requires a successful Mechanics
tainers. Opening these requires a sufficient check.
level in Lockpicking as stated by the GM and Searching entire buildings, junkyards, ship-

81
82 CHAPTER 6. ADDITIONAL RULES

ping containers and such are determined with the weight is below 1 kilo, 1 Component is re-
one roll of both PER and LCK and a con- quired. Much like how high-tier or rare items
siderable amount of time is spent scavenging. can take longer to build, they can also require
Searching a broad area for specific item(s) or more components.
foraging for alchemical herbs and other ingre- These details should be discussed between
dients in the wild requires a successful Survival the inventing player and GM beforehand.
check and spending of time as well.

Example 1: Emerald Glint is

Invention building a gun similar to IF-64
“Bloomberg” - rifle, out of parts,
What would scavenging and salvaging be with-
bits and bobs. The rifle weight
out reusing those wonderful parts for some-
is 5 kilos, meaning that Emer-
thing new and exciting? Quite boring indeed.
ald Glint requires 5 Gun compo-
When inventing a new item, building an ex- nents to build the gun in question,
isting item from parts alone, or tinkering to- one for each kilo. Emerald Glint
gether modifications, the inventor requires 8 has no schematic for the gun, so
hours of focus on the task. Once finished, the she and the GM have agreed that
inventor rolls for a skill as requested by the a successful Mechanics roll is re-
item’s or modification’s type, determined by quired after 8 hours of work. After
the GM. For example, mundane crafting often 16 hours of work and one failed
calls for Mechanics, the devices dealing with roll, Emerald Glint succeeds in her
arcane call for Science, and modifications for Mechanics check and the gun is
weapons ask for expertise in the weapon’s asso- completed. The gun uses the stats
ciated skill, like Melee for blades. If the inven- of IF-64 “Bloomberg”.
tor has a schematic of what they’re building,
they gain a bonus of +10 to their roll.
If the item requires more than one skill, the Example 2: Emerald Glint is
creation process becomes longer due to com- building a Power Armor similar
plexity. For example, if the invention requires to T-51b model, with an addi-
both Mechanics and Science -skills, to com- tional Spell-like effect built in that
plete the item the inventor needs to roll suc- functions alike that of Unicorn’s
cessfully for both Mechanics and Science, but Shield-spell. The Shield ability
can attempt one of them after an 8-hour pe- takes away one Mod slot. She and
riod of inventing. Failure on one roll does not GM have agreed that the special
reverse the progress made on another. Power Armor requires three skills;
Invention and modification building use Mechanics, Science and Thau-
Components just like Repair does. The type maturgy, to take into account the
of Component needed depends on the item’s armor’s Spell-like ability. Like-
type: Firearms use Gun components, MEWs wise, she would require 40 pieces
use Magic components and so on. Generally, in total of Plates components and
the invention requires at least as 1 component Magical components, and at min-
as the item’s weight per kilo, to a minimum imum 24 hours of work (8 hours
of 1 component. If the item has no weight, or per one skill).
 83

Inventing and creating Chems gredients required, but the general rule is that
common chems use less, and have more com-
While some Chems have remained a well-kept mon ingredients than complex, rarer, and par-
secret of the Zebras, some of the many combat ticularly potent Chems.
drugs were reverse-engineered by ponies to by-
pass the magic required in the crafting of them. Example: Doc Red wants to cre-
While zebra alchemy remains the faster source ate a Chem that provides both HP
of Chems, a good pony chemist can churn out and Strain when used. GM and
as potent stuff with a bit of extra time and him decide that Red will require
effort. a Regen-Vial, 2 Blue herbs, and
Much like inventing weapons, most chems a freshly ground Jackalope Horn.
require 8 hours of work before attempting a They decide that the effect of the
check. To complete the chem-creation process, chem is +4 HP healed and +5
either a successful Medicine or Science check is Strain recovered instantly, while
called for, whichever skill is more appropriate giving a hindrance of -1 END and
for the chem. Having a recipe or teacher ap- -1 AP for 5 rounds. They agree
plies a bonus of +10 to the roll. Likewise, diffi- that the potent nature of the Chem
cult, complex chems might require more rolls, means Doc Red will require 2 suc-
and may require both Medicine and Science cessful Medicine rolls instead of 1.
skills to be rolled, following the same rule of After 24 hours, Doc Red has suc-
thumb as weapons and armor do. cessfully rolled Medicine 2 times
Creating Chems both new and old requires and the Chem is complete.
the chemist to possess the required ingredients
for the Chem. When inventing a new Chem, Crafting Components
the GM and player create the ingredient list
for that Chem. A list of ingredients can be Part of survival in the Equestrian Wasteland
found in Creature drops and Junk -section of is the refining of scrap into something useful.
the Wasteland Wares. While not mechanically Scrap items such as Scrap ArcanoTech or Scrap
required, it is expected that the chemist creates Metal can be used to put together a Compo-
their chems with some kind of a work-station, nent. A single Component uses 5 Scrap items;
alchemy set or an I-made-this-myself lab made any Scrap item can be used to make any com-
of junk and a folding table. ponent as long as there’s 5 in total.
Unlike weapons and armor, chems do not Components can be crafted in an hour of
have components, having a bit more creative downtime or while resting, and require no roll
freedom in what is put into the chem to make to succeed, only time and materials.
it function; existing potions, creature parts and
even some junk items are all fair game, as long
as they fit the Chem’s theme. It is unlikely
that a baseball glove would be of use in a Chem
recipe, but Abraxo cleaner might.
Likewise, existing potions like a Healing po-
tion or Healing powder can be used when cre-
ating chems to add a similar effect to the new
Chem. Chems do not have a set number of in-
84 CHAPTER 6. ADDITIONAL RULES

NPC Disposition ble that the PC’s are actively doing good, and
still have an NPC treat them with distrust
NPC Disposition signifies the attitude of the and only through actual interaction and effort
Non-Player Character has towards the player become more positively dispositioned towards
characters’ group, or even just towards a par- said group.
ticular Player Character, as is the case with Karma can also sway the NPC Disposition;
the trait Sex Appeal. NPC Disposition can be Positive karma NPC’s usually react better and
thought as a gauge of the group’s reputation with more trust towards positive karma PC’s,
with a particular faction or a community. while they actively shun, fear or even turn hos-
As news and gossip travels in the Wasteland, tile to characters with negative karma and vice
so does the party’s NPC disposition fluctu- versa. For every 25 karma, the disposition is
ate. Disposition can be swayed through various shifted by one level.
means, the most notable and memorable ones NPC Disposition usually starts from a neu-
being the deeds committed by the characters. tral stance; unbiased and willing to give you
Roleplay and sometimes Diplomacy, Intimida- a fair hearing, but also usually only willing to
tion or CHA rolls are a more direct way for help for pay. They are largely uninterested in
players to influence NPC disposition; actively the group or treat them as strangers.
sweet-talking the NPC’s to like them, for ex- If the faction, community or single NPC
ample. Roleplay is encouraged over a roll, but has never heard of the PC group, this is their
not mandatory. stance. NPC’s with a prejudiced attitude start
Character actions in particular change the with NPC Disposition already one level lower
NPC disposition often even before the NPC’s than the standard Neutral towards characters
and PC’s have met in person. If the group, of their prejudice.
or even just a character in it has performed
a significant act, news of this act can travel to
another settlement before the characters them-
selves have reached it.
Should a character attempt to use Diplo-
macy to sway disposition, critical failure will
lower the disposition by two levels, and criti-
cal success in turn elevates the disposition by
two. After a while, the NPC disposition settles
to one level increase or decrease, depending on
crit. This can be likened to the PC’s words
exciting the NPC to a fervor, from which they
eventually calm down from.
Sometimes however, an NPC or even a fac-
tion can be prejudiced towards a certain kind
of character; many Wastelanders show dis-
trust and fear towards ghouls for example or
consider pegasi to be a cowardly lot. Some
hold onto old grudges from the Great War,
while some feel uneasy with ponies enhanced
with cybernetics. Thus, it is entirely possi-
 85

Table 6.1: NPC Disposition Levels

Disposition NPC Behavior Bonus
Level
Worshipped Views your actions in best positive light. Will help you even +30
(+3) if it causes them harm. Considers how to be of benefit to
you. Likely to give a discount on wares or even giving
something cheap for free.
Friendly Considers your words with positive meaning. Will help you if +20
(+2) it means no harm to themselves. Considers you an ally.
Might give a discount on wares.
Liked (+1) Considers your words with positive meaning. Can be +10
persuaded to help without reward. Considers how the
interaction can benefit both. Can be persuaded to give a
discount on wares.
Neutral (0) Will hear you out calmly. Can be persuaded to help, for a 0
cost. Considers how you may benefit them.
Distrust Will hear you out, but is suspicious of your intent. Won’t -10
(-1) help you without a reward of some kind. Considers how you
may benefit them. Might charge more for wares.
Hatred (-2) Will take your words with worst possible meaning. Refuses to -20
help, may actively sabotage you. Won’t consider you at all,
or treat you as an enemy. Can initiate combat if provoked.
Likely to charge more for wares or refuse to sell them
altogether.
Hostile (-3) Refuses to listen. Will actively work against you. Likely to -30
initiate combat either provoked or unprovoked. Considers
how to hurt you. Will not sell wares to you.
86 CHAPTER 6. ADDITIONAL RULES

Example 1: Shining Example and Example 4: The group has char-

the group he’s traveling in have acters with +50 Karma, mean-
performed several good deeds for ing that disposition is shifted by 2
the Wasteland. Eventually, they levels. They try to blend into a
reach a village nearby. This vil- Slaver community to save slaves.
lage has heard of the group’s good None of them have Cult of Per-
acts, and as NPC’s with positive sonality -perk, so their general ap-
karma, their NPC disposition is pearance and way of acting does
now one higher, and they welcome convey their karma to the NPC’s.
the group with open arms. Thus, when they arrive to the
community, the slavers treat them
Example 2: In another village, with Hatred, refusing to speak or
Featherfall - a ghoul - comes help them, some even actively giv-
across a pony with prejudiced atti- ing false information to lead the
tude towards ghouls. Her Karma group astray. In an attempt to
is +20, so it has no effect on gain favor and calm the NPC’s
the NPC’s disposition, while the down, one of the players tries a
NPC’s disposition is lowered by Diplomacy -20 roll. They fail, and
one due to prejudice. This NPC’s the NPC’s disposition falls fur-
disposition thus starts from Dis- ther from Hatred to Hostile. The
trust rather than from Neutral slavers proceed to attack.
stance, making the interaction
with the character more difficult.

Example 3: Likewise, Maabara

comes across a pony with a dis-
like towards zebras. However, her
karma is +30. Due to Maabara’s
karma being over +25, the NPC
Disposition should be one higher;
from Neutral to Liked. However,
due to NPC’s prejudice towards
Zebras, the disposition is also low-
ered by 1. These two effects can-
cel each one out and the NPC’s
disposition is Neutral. He treats
Maabara with calm indifference,
and prefers to stay away from
her, but doesn’t react negatively to
what she has to say.
 87

PipBuck itself as the wearer travels across the Wastes.

A PipBuck is a personal wearable terminal de- Clock & Calendar

veloped prior the Great War by Stable-Tec and
is generally used by all Stable Dwellers. The The PipBuck tracks time and displays it to
exact looks may differ between models, but the wearer, keeping track of the current date,
generally have a metallic wristband lined with month and year in addition to the time of day.
cloth with a two-color screen dominating the The wearer can create notes or alarms at spe-
interface. Around the screen are control but- cific times or dates.
tons and dials. It never runs out of power
(usually) and has an internal memory for data Inventory Manager
files and recordings. To fully utilize its func-
tions, a character has to have learned its secrets The device scans the wearer’s saddlebags and
by gaining PipBuck Training -perk; Stable pockets, keeping tabs on all the items she is
Dwellers gain this perk for free. carrying. This function reduces the AP cost
by 2 to a minimum of 1 for the Ready Item
The device can be used while not worn,
from inventory action in combat.
but the following functions are disabled: Con-
dition Tracker, Inventory Manager, S.A.T.S.
and E.F.S. PipBucks are subject to disabling S.A.T.S. Aim Assistance
through direct damage. This function requires PipBuck Training
The device has the following functions: perk.
Stable-Tec Assisted Targeting System, com-
Light monly called S.A.T.S. by Stable Dwellers, de-
tects weak spots in targeted foes, providing
Effectively a short range flashlight appropriate +10 bonus to Called Shots.
to the PipBuck’s screen color, usually green. This function can be toggled on or off.
Light shines a 90-degree forward cone from the
PipBuck, illuminating up to 4 meters (2 hexes)
E.F.S. Threat Tracker
with bright light and up to 10 meters (5 hexes)
with dim light. Beyond that no effective light- This function requires PipBuck Training
ing is provided, but the light can be spotted perk.
from further away. Using the light affects the Eyes Forward Sparkle, or E.F.S. shortly,
character’s Sneak attempts negatively. projects a compass within the wearer’s vision.
This function can be toggled on or off. Targets the wearer has seen (or heard) are
marked on the compass with red dots if hostile,
while neutral targets are marked with a white
Map & location tracker
dot. Enemies do not appear hostile unless they
The PipBuck ships with a pre-installed are aware of the E.F.S using character, even if
Stable-Tec Equestrian Positioning System they are currently being hostile towards some-
(S.T.E.P.S.). It informs the wearer of her one else.
current location in Equestria, as well as al- The dots are visible on the compass for 30
lows marking of locations and points of inter- seconds (5 rounds) after last seen (or heard).
est, such as objectives, campsites and Pre-War If a tracked target dies, their dot on the E.F.S.
landmarks. The map automatically updates immediately disappears.
88 CHAPTER 6. ADDITIONAL RULES

Radio Receiver even without the reader possessing any medi-

cal background.
The PipBuck has an in-built radio tuner and
speaker system, allowing the wearer to tune
into various broadcast frequencies found while
roaming. Arcanotech Port
This function can be toggled on or off.
This function allows the wearer to connect her
Geiger Counter PipBuck with other arcanotech equipment that
allow such connection. Examples include ter-
The device detects and measures radiation in- minals, maneframes, robots and some high-
tensity which the wearer is exposed to. This tech weapons.
function does not require an action to use.

Condition Tracker
Audio Recorder & Playback
PipBuck analyzes and tracks the wearer’s cur-
rent health and bodily functions, including This rather integral karaoke system allows the
Crippled limbs, Hit Points, accumulated Rads, wearer to record sounds, messages or music and
poisons, diseases, hunger and thirst, chem’s play them later. These recordings are stored
effects and duration and other similar condi- in the PipBuck’s internal memory or external
tion effects. Condition tracker will display the holotape. This function can be toggled on or
wearer’s current condition to others as well - off.
 89

Optional Rules possible to recover Sleep Deprivation in 8 hour

cycles. This can lower the level to a lesser ef-
These rules are deemed optional - they don’t fect, such as from Moderate to Minor, with a
take away from the core experience if left out shift in penalties accordingly.
but are often considered as part of the full im- Sleeping in a comfortable place such as on
mersion that the life out on the Wastelands a good conditioned bed or with pleasant com-
could be like. pany without disturbance for at least 8 hours
However, for a simpler game, or a game grants a state of well-rested, unless character
where time is more limited, these rules may be still has lowered SPECIAL stats due to Sleep
left out if so inclined. It is wise to discuss be- Deprivation. Well-rested gives a temporary
forehand with your party and GM if you want bonus of +1 INT and +1 PER for END / 2
to implement these rules into your game. hours.
Some consumables, such as coffee, can help a
Sleep Deprivation character to overcome the penalties caused by
Minor Sleep Deprivation. However, no amount
Out in the Wasteland, or in an ill-mannered of coffee can supplement severe lack of sleep,
settlement, having a proper amount of sleep not even in the Wasteland.
is a must for a successful and healthy trav-
eller. While sleeping can be done anywhere,
Example: Maabara has spent the
it is strongly advised to sleep in a secure and
last few days working on her
safe location, with soft, warm, and comfortable
alchemy recipes without so much
surface.
as shut eye. She has managed
Sleep Deprivation indicates the lack of sleep to stay awake for 32 hours with-
one can accumulate when on the road. It out any rest. Thus she is suf-
causes loss in SPECIAL stats as bodily func- fering from Major Sleep Depriva-
tions begin to decrease. The effects of sleep tion, and suffers a penalty of -2
deprivation are listed on Table 6.2.
Table shows intervals based on hours stayed
awake, and their effects on character’s SPE- Table 6.2: Sleep Deprivation and Effects
CIAL stats. These losses will drop the SPE-
Level Awake Effect
CIAL to a minimum of 1. Once the character
Hours
loses more than one point of Perception, hal-
lucinations may begin. Death does not actu- Well-Rested - +1 INT, +1 PER
ally occur from sleep loss, although the severely Rested 0 -
compromised END of somepony suffering sleep Minor >16 -1 AGI
deprivation can make sickness and other haz-
ards far more deadly. Moderate >24 -1 AGI, -1 INT
For every hour of sleep, the awake hours of Major >32 -2 AGI, -2 INT, -1
the character are decreased by four. For ex- PER, -1 END
ample, a character suffering from Major sleep Severe >40 -3 AGI, -2 INT, -2
deprivation (32+ awake hours) has to sleep for PER, -2 END
ten hours to restore herself from effects of sleep
Critical >48 -3 AGL, -3 INT, -3
deprivation. It is not required that one sleeps
PER, -3 END
all of their required rest in one go, and it is
90 CHAPTER 6. ADDITIONAL RULES

to her AGI and INT, as well as -

Table 6.3: Starvation and Dehydration
1 to her PER and END. In order
Days w/o END
to recover from her sleep depriva- Hunger Thirst
Sustenance loss
tion, Maabara has to sleep 8 hours
1 -1 - -
(32/4= 8).
2 -1 -1 STR -1 PER
3 -2 -1 STR -2 PER, -1 END
Hunger & Thirst 4 -3 -2 STR -3 PER, -2 END
Hunger and thirst are easily one of the bigger
problems of the Equestrian Wasteland. While barely edible materials.
a lot of Pre-war foods and drinks fill the ruined Recovering from the effects of hunger and
homes, one should remember their expiration thirst is relatively simple: each extra food or
dates have passed about 200 years ago, and drink removes a point in penalties. For exam-
may contain residue radiation. If the character ple, drinking an extra bottle of water in ad-
goes without nutrition and a source of water for dition to the required two per day, removes 1
too long, their SPECIAL will begin to drop in point of PER or END loss caused by Thirst.
response to the body lacking materials to keep Likewise, eating extra amount of food removes
functioning. 1 point of STR loss caused by Hunger. Eat-
Should a character remain without daily ing extra amount of both removes 1 point of
meals and drinks, her Hunger and Thirst will Endurance loss.
increase; on the first day, the character’s END
Example 1: Shining Example has
will drop regardless of what sustenance she
gone without a meal for a day
missed. In the following days, her STR will
while staying hydrated. Due to
decrease due to hunger and her PER will de-
hunger, his END has suffered a
crease due to thirst. Since characters require
penalty of 1. On the second day,
more water than food, their END will take
he skips a meal again but still has
additional decrease should thirst become too
enough water to drink. His END
high. A character dies if their END reaches
remains at -1, but his STR now
zero from these penalties. The rate of effects
gets a penalty of 1 as well.
from hunger and thirst can be seen on Table
6.4. Example 2: Emerald Glint has been
A regular equine or griffon requires 1 meal without food and drink for three
and 2 drinks per day to stay fed. Ghouls, due days. This means that she suf-
to their slow metabolism need to eat 1 meal fers following penalties: -2 END
per two days and 1 drink per day. from overall lack of sustenance, -1
Normally, eating and drinking are consid- STR from lack of food and -2 PER
ered routines, and often happen during other and -1 END from lack of drink.
character interactions. However, should char- This means her full penalties are
acters remain without food and/or water for -3 END, -2 PER and -1 STR.
longer periods of time due to events of the To remedy her state, she has to
game, such effects can be monitored. drink 3 additional drinks and eat
If a character has the Rock Based Diet trait, 1 additional food item. To remedy
in addition to its effects she satisfies 2 points of the general fatigue, both food and
hunger every time she eats nutrient-poor and drink are acceptable.
Chapter 7

Combat

When words fail, lead will fill the gap. This 2. Determine which characters are aware of
chapter’s goes into detail how combat situa- their opponents. These characters can act
tions are dealt and what one can do in such during a surprise round. If all the charac-
situations. ters are aware of their opponents, proceed
We suggest maps to be used for the added with normal rounds. See the surprise sec-
benefit of everyone knowing their surround- tion for more information.
ings, with tokens or miniatures to mark char-
acter placement. No expensive miniatures 3. After the surprise round (if any), all com-
are necessary, though they do have their own batants are ready to being the first normal
shine. Maybe some genuine apocalyptic feeling round of combat.
can be found by using the little knick-knacks
4. Combatants resolve their turn in initiative
from your home? Perhaps some soda bottle-
order (highest to lowest).
caps?
This chapter focuses on all things combat; 5. When everyone has had a turn, the next
movement, actions aside from and including round begins with the combatant with the
“shoot it dead”, how damage is applied and highest initiative, and steps 4 and 5 repeat
how to maybe turn the tide of the battle. until combat ends.

Combat Sequence
Combat is divided into turns - generally con-
sidered six seconds long. During each turn a
character can take multiple actions by spend-
ing Action Points (AP). This bank of AP
refreshes at the beginning of the character’s
turn.

Combat is cyclical - everybody acts in turn in

a regular cycle of rounds. Combat follows this
sequence:
1. When combat begins, all combatants roll
initiative.

91
92 CHAPTER 7. COMBAT

Initiative 3. The player declares all of her character’s

actions this turn. The character can do as
Initiative is a number that represents the turn many actions as her total AP allows:
order of all character that participate in com-
ˆ Attack Actions
bat. Character with the highest initiative may
ˆ Movement Actions
act first.
ˆ Combat Tricks
All combatants make an Initiative roll,
ˆ Defensive Actions
which is 1d10+P ER. The combatant with the
ˆ Other Actions
highest roll acts first, the combatant with the
second highest roll acts second, and so forth, 4. The player rolls and resolves one Skill or
continuing until the combatant with the low- SPECIAL rolls required to complete one
est initiative roll has acted. At that point the of the character’s actions. The GM states
round is over and a new round begins. if the result was a success or not.
If combatants roll the same total initiative,
the one with the highest AGI acts first. If the 5. If an action was a success, determine the
combatants’ AGI are identical, the one with result of the action:
the highest LCK acts first. If both are identi- ˆ Attack: The player rolls for dam-
cal, they act simultaneously. The GM should age. The damage dealt reduces the
keep track of the sequence of simultaneous ac- target’s HP. The GM calculates the
tions. result counting Damage Threshold,
Changes to a character’s PER during the Resistances and other variables.
combat, such as Buffs and debuffs, do not ˆ Movement: The player moves her
change the character’s place in the turn order. character to a desired spot.
Player may choose to withhold their turn, al- ˆ Combat Trick: The player resolves
lowing any and all players, and NPCs to act be- the effect with the GM.
fore them. However, choosing to act later than ˆ Defensive Action: The player re-
that of the initiative value cannot be changed solves the effect with the GM.
afterward. ˆ Other Actions: The player resolves
Companions, such as tamed creatures or the effect with the GM.
hacked robots act on the turn of their con-
trolling player, unless they are given separate 6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 until all actions are
initiative by the GM. resolved.

7. The player announces the end of her turn,

Combat Turn and next player’s turn begins.

Each character performs a turn according to Example: Emerald Glint has rolled
their Initiative roll results. The turn generally the highest initiative. Emerald
follows the pattern: Glint postpones her turn until her
friend Featherfall - who has a
1. The player may take her turn or choose
turn later - has managed to move
to react later during the current combat
next to her for Emerald Glint
round.
to teleport them both to a van-
2. The player checks her character’s current tage point. When Featherfall has
conditions and ongoing effects. finished her movement, Emerald
 93

Glint’s player may declare her

Table 7.1: Range Accuracy
turn to take place, commit all of
Range Modifier
her actions and end her turn. If
Point Blank 4m (2 hex) 0*
Featherfall had any Action Points
Short <S 0
left, she can resume her turn after
Medium <M -10
Emerald’s.
Long <L -20
* Pistols, SMGs and Shotguns gain +10 to
Combat Statistics Accuracy

Combat Variables
Table 7.2: Visibility Penalties
When initiating an action, all the following Condition Penalty
modifiers are cumulative, compared to an un- Normal day; well-lit building 0
hindered situation where none apply. The Twilight; Rain or Dust -5
GM may add further adjustments. For each Flashbang; Heavy Rain,
-10
penalty type (range, visibility etc.), only the Snowfall, Fog or Dust
strongest is in the effect. Night; Heavy Snowfall,
-15
Once all the modifiers are determined, follow Heavy Fog or Dust
the formula: Bad-lit Indoors; Dust storm -20
SkillBase−Range−V isibility−Distraction− Darkness -40
Cover ± OtherBonuses/P enalties
Unless otherwise noted, the modifiers affect Visibility
ranged, thrown, melee, and unarmed attacks.
Wasteland hardly provides the best conditions
Range to conduct fighting - sometimes fights occur in
unlit ruins of old, and sometimes it rains heav-
When a character is using a ranged weapon, ily on the battlefield. This is where Visibility
they have to take the distance between them penalties come in, detailed on Table 7.2.
and their target into account. In a case where two or more Visibility related
These modifiers affect only ranged and penalties apply, the strongest penalty is only
thrown attacks. The Range is specified under considered. For example, in the case of light
weapon’s statistics in the form X/Y/Z - X for rain during the night, the night time penalty
Short, Y for Medium and Z for Long range in (-15) is greater than the light rain penalty (-10)
meters. Should the distance to target be less and thus the only one applied.
or equal to the value of the Range, the target
is considered to be in that range. Distraction
Weapon’s maximum range is Long range,
unless otherwise specified in weapon’s stats. Distraction includes environmental effects not
A special, non-specific range is Point-Blank. affecting Visibility that might change the dif-
This is when the character is very close to the ficulty of a roll; for example, unstable platform
opponent, having an edge to score a hit with or vigorous movements will make attacks more
pistols, SMGs and Shotguns. difficult. By default, the Distraction lasts for
The modifiers that result from range can be 2 turns.
seen in Table 7.1. In addition to these effects, characters can
94 CHAPTER 7. COMBAT

use Distract action against their enemies

Table 7.3: Obstacle Examples
on purpose, causing Minor distraction or in
Cover DT
the best-case scenario, a Medium distraction.
More on this action can be found under this Window glass, Bush 0
chapter, in Combat Actions. Wooden door, Table 1
Thin metal sheet, Traffic sign 1
ˆ Minor Distraction: penalty of 10.
Moving vehicle, purposeful distract-action Tree trunk, Exterior wall, Ice 2
from a character, getting shot by Burst Concrete wall, 20cm 3
fire. Stone wall 3
ˆ Medium Distraction: penalty of 20.
Riding a griffon Bulletproof glass 5
ˆ Major Distraction: penalty of 30. Metal door, Armored vehicle, 10
Nearby explosion, freefall Sandbag wall

made against the target. The Obstacle pro-

Cover vides additional DT to the target against nor-
mal attacks - examples are provided on Table
There are times when the best option in a
7.3.
firefight is to dive behind cover and lessen
The attacker can avoid the DT from Obsta-
the amount of lead being eaten. There are
cles by committing a Called Shot against one
three types of covers, each providing a different
of the target’s limbs.
amount of shelter from damage:
Note: There are cases where even
ˆ No Cover: the target is standing on open committing a Called Shot against
ground, or clearly visible through a see- a target won’t bypass the Obsta-
through object like glass. This provides cle - these include cases where the
no penalties to the attack. target is in a completely differ-
ˆ Partial Cover: the target hides behind ent, enclosed space than the at-
a wooden fence, another character or has tacker, i.e. under a magical shield
dropped prone. Attacks against the target formed as a bubble, or behind a
suffer a penalty of 10. As a general rule bulletproof-glass window.
under 50% of the target should be visible.
Though Obstacles have no HP of their own,
Affects only ranged and thrown attacks.
they can be broken. GM may determine when
ˆ Total Cover: the target is barely visi-
the Obstacle has taken enough damage to
ble or behind a wall. Attacks against the
break.
target suffer a penalty of 30. As a gen-
eral rule under 20% of the target should Some Obstacles, such as most mechanical
be visible. things or barrels of TNT, may be hazardous
once they begin to break down, as they usu-
ally do so by blowing up. These exploding Ob-
Obstacles
stacles deal 7+(10) damage on a Small Splash
Whenever the character takes Cover, said ob- template. More on damage and templates can
ject used becomes an Obstacle to attacks be found later in this chapter.
 95

Example 1: Featherfall tries to Size

shoot a raider hiding behind
a Wooden table. Featherfall’s Various creatures, machines and alike come in
Firearms is 50 normally, but the many sizes, such as a massive dragon, and a
Partial Cover reduces her accu- tiny radbit. Size affects various natural and
racy by -10. Her effective ac- artificial abilities they have.
curacy is now 40. Her roll re- The modifiers related to size can be found
sults in 34 - she has hit her target under Chapter 2: Characters - Secondary
through the cover and the table’s Statistics.
DT is added to the raider’s own
DT value. The GM has given the Burst Fire
Raider a DT of 5 normally, mean-
ing that with the table providing By utilizing a ranged weapon’s Burst option,
extra DT, the raider’s DT is now the character gains a penalty of 10 to accuracy.
10. Featherfall deals 30 damage,
meaning 20 goes through the DT.
Braced Weapon

Resting a ranged weapon on a suitable piece of

Example 2: Featherfall has de- terrain - for instance a large rock, short wall
cided to take a Called Shot ac- or fence - or Dropping Prone means the at-
tion to try and counter the addi- tacker is bracing one’s weapon. This reduces
tional DT provided by the Cover. STR Requirements by 2 and penalties from
She aims for the exposed foreleg utilizing Burst fire are decreased to 5.
of the raider, which adds addi-
tional penalty of -20 to her roll.
With an effective Firearms accu- Ranged Weapon in Melee Combat
racy of 20, she rolls 19. She has
Firing a ranged weapon in melee combat is con-
hit the raider, dealing damage di-
sidered a Minor Distraction to the shooter.
rectly to the raider’s limb. As she
didn’t shoot through the table, the
raider does not benefit from the Prone
extra DT.
A character can drop to the ground, pro-
viding himself Partial Cover for ranged at-
tacks made at least 10 meters (5 hexes) away.
STR Requirement Against ranged attacks made from less than 10
meters away this cover will not apply. Melee
When the character has less STR than the min- and Unarmed attacks gain bonus of 10 against
imum requirement for the weapon as specified Prone opponents.
in the weapon’s statistics, she gains a cumula- In this position the character can shoot
tive penalty of 5 to accuracy and an additional her firearm as Braced. However, Melee and
cost of 1 AP to attacks for each lacking point Unarmed attacks made from Prone suffer a
of STR. The lacking STR can be compensated penalty of 30 and the character cannot use the
by Bracing the weapon. Dodge defensive action.
96 CHAPTER 7. COMBAT

Gang Up
Table 7.4: Crippled Limb Effects
If a character has at least one ally adjacent to Limb Effects
the same target in melee, she gains a bonus of Torso Bleeding Status effect; Major
10 to her Melee or Unarmed skill rolls. This Distraction
effect applies to the allies as well.
Leg/Arm +1 Movement AP cost
(for each)
Grappled
Head Dazed Status effect; +1 AP
A character is engaged in a wrestle or other- and Strain cost for Spells
wise occupied with her hooves or claws, and
thus cannot use ready items or weapons from Wing Can glide but not fly (one);
inventory. Cannot fly or glide (both)
Moving requires Move Grapple action.

Pinned Down - that can give various accuracy bonuses that

are detailed in the statistics of a weapon or a
Pinned Down condition can happen in various modification.
ways, for instance being buried under debris
or being physically restrained by a character
pushing you down.
Pinned Down restricts your Movement ac- Crippled
tions entirely and using any Skill that re-
quires any movement is extremely difficult. If successfully hit and damaged by a Called
Using other Skills suffer Major Distraction Shot attack or an explosive, a limb may be-
penalty. Generally, the only action a Pinned come Crippled. The effects of the Crippled
Down character can take is Break Free. condition depend on which part of the body
was damaged. Effects from multiple Crippled
Tied Up limbs will stack.
Tied Up condition can happen from being After combat, each Crippled status will be
physically restrained with ropes, chains or checked if they are Minor or Major. These are
roots to list a few examples. checked with a 1d10 roll, where a 9 or 10 signi-
Tied Up restricts your movement severely. fies a Major Cripple. Major ones require doc-
Any actions that require movement are ex- tor’s attention, Minor ones will naturally heal
tremely hard or even impossible to do in this on their own after at least 8 hours of rest, or
condition. Using any Skills suffer Major Dis- with an easy Medical check.
traction penalty. Generally, the only action Healing Major Crippled limbs require inten-
a Tied Up character can take easily is Break sive medical care. These can only be healed
Free. by using a Doctor’s bag and making successful
medicine roll, using a chem Hydra, or visiting
Weapon Modifications & Special Fea- a proper doctor.
tures
See more information on how Called Shots
Some weapons may have modifications pre- are made and Crippled condition applied on
installed - or installed later by the character page 100.
 97

Figure 7.1: Splash Templates

Area of Effect like Burning and Bleeding, continue their ef-

fects normally unless immediately treated after
As suggested, Area of Effect (AoE) describes
combat.
an area (hexes) where characters can be af-
Unless otherwise specified, Status Effects are
fected by certain effects. These effects include
resisted with END (against physical statuses)
spells, enchantments, explosives, perk related
or INT/CHA (against mental statuses). Ex-
auras, environmental hazards, traps and more.
ception to this is Crippled, which cannot be
The AoE of explosives and spells are deter-
resisted with a check.
mined by the size of their Splash, a radius of
hexes. Explosive Splash size may be changed
with use of skills or perks. Splash size may not Burning
increase above Huge, but may be as small as Character has caught on fire, either from at-
one hex. Sizes are displayed on Picture 7.1. tacks or the environment. They take damage
Enchantments depend on the Spirit Power every turn until the fire goes out, either by wa-
of the spirit. Perk related auras have their ter, magic or other physical methods.
AoE indicated within said effect. Environmen-
tal hazards have their AoE indicated by the
Bleeding
GM, for instance an electrified floor for the en-
tire room. Character has suffered considerable damage,
bleeding from a gash for additional damage for
Status Effects five turns, unless the bleeding is stopped with
applying Medicine, Bandages, Magic or other
Status effects are various bonuses and penal- methods.
ties caused by attacks, weapons, chems and
weather conditions. Their duration, effects and
Blinded
removal vary.
Status effects that have a duration of up to The character’s vision has been hampered with
10 rounds and do not deal damage cease at in some way, such as by throwing sand into
the end of combat. Damage-dealing effects, one’s eyes or by magic. Though it doesn’t have
98 CHAPTER 7. COMBAT

Table 7.5: Status Effects and Their Removal

Name Effect Duration Removal
Burning -2 HP / round 3 Use all AP & Drop
prone
Bleeding -1 HP / round; 5 First Aid Kit
Minor Distraction
Blinded -2 PER; -5 Combat skills 3 -
Crippled As per Crippled limb Minor: 24h Doctor’s Bag, Hydra
Major: Removal
Dazed Roll twice, pick worse result 3 Sedative
Enraged Berserk; +2 STR; 3 Sedative
can only attack and move
Freezing +2 AP Cost of actions 5 Alcohol
Mind- May act w/o her own volition 3 Mind Bleach
Controlled
Encumbered Cannot Sprint, Climb or Swim Until Removal Remove excess weight
Petrified Cannot act - Failsafe, Petrify-spell
Stunned Cannot move or attack 3 Kickstarter, Strain
Unconscious Cannot act 3 Kickstarter

any clear ways to heal the condition, GM can you. Or you just took one too many pints at
give conditions for removal on a case-by-case the local Wasteland bar. World is shaky, and
basis, such as “use 4 AP to remove the sand in your vision is doubled.
your eyes”. The effect lasts for 3 turns. Characters suffering from the Dazed Status
Effect make each roll twice and pick the worse
Crippled result.

Character has one or more of her limbs crip-

Enraged
pled, having taken either considerable or pre-
cise damage to them. Crippling can be Minor, Character is filled with burning hatred, trying
Major, or Severed if beaten to a pulp. Crip- to smite anyone and anything that may have
pled limbs affect the character in various ways. drawn their ire. While Enraged, the character
More information about being crippled can be is limited to Movement, Attack and Combat
found under this chapter, Combat Statistics - Trick actions, and may prefer melee combat
Crippled. over ranged. In addition, she doesn’t care if her
actions will have lethal risks in them. Sedatives
Dazed are a quick yet risky solution to calm down a
berserk character.
You took a big hit to your head, something got
to your ears and eyes while exploding around
 99

Freezing to act until her state of daze is over, someone

helps her recover by spending 4 AP to shake
Character experiences chills and slowness in
her awake, or at the start of her turn the char-
her numbing limbs, either from attacks or from
acter spends 1 Strain and 4 AP to retry an
the environment. Her actions are slowed, Ac-
END check.
tions cost +2 AP. Alcohol is a known, if fickle,
Stun can be resisted with a successful END
cure.
roll. If the character fails their roll, the char-
acter gains the Stunned condition as normal.
Mind-Controlled If the roll is successful, and after the character
has recovered from the stun, she is immune to
The character is no longer truly themselves,
another Stun attempt for 1 round.
unable to discern friend from foe - perhaps due
to an invasive spell. There is a chance that
the character attacks their closest ally rather Unconscious
than the intended enemy. Each time the Mind- Character has suffered severe damage or has
Controlled character is about to attack, they been knocked out by something. She is un-
must make a INT -2 roll to see if they hit an able to act until she recovers consciousness or
ally instead. On a failed roll, the ally is at- someone else helps her.
tacked instead. Mind Bleach is a costly, but
effective cure for this state, as are certain med-
ical spells. Combat Actions
The most common combat actions are attack-
Encumbered
ing and spellcasting. The AP costs for these
Character is carrying more that her maximum actions depend on weapon or spell being used
carry weight, or is burdened by heavy armor. and are listed in the weapon’s description on
She can stop being encumbered by either im- the Wasteland Wares. Actions taken with
proving her carry weight with increases to her Telekinesis still require the normal AP costs
STR or by Perks, or by dropping the excess to take.
weight. Characters in combat will want to perform
more complex and tactical actions than just
Petrified attacking and spellcasting. These are divided
into Movement Actions, Attack Actions, Com-
Character has turned into stone via magic, ren- bat Tricks, Defensive Actions and Other Ac-
dering them entirely unable to act. If this tions. Below is a list of combat actions that a
statue is smashed into pieces, the character character may choose to take and their asso-
dies. This nefarious magic can be countered ciated AP costs. No effect or combination of
with a Failsafe and Petrify spells. effects can reduce any action’s AP cost below
1.
Stunned
Movement Actions
Character has been stunned, often by a strong
electric shock or heavy blunt blow. Her actions Movement actions allow a character to tra-
are limited to only perceiving and communi- verse a distance for part of their AP. Condi-
cating with her surroundings. She is unable tions can impose a bonus or penalty to the
100 CHAPTER 7. COMBAT

character’s movement. For example, moving Climbing

through deep snow, crippled limbs and over-
Climbing costs 3 AP per 2 meters (1
encumbrance can give a penalty.
hex) the character moves. A character can-
not charge while climbing. A character cannot
Ground Movement climb if she has two or more Crippled limbs.
The GM may request a character to roll STR
Basic ground movement is 1 AP per 2 me- check.
ters (1 hexes) the character moves. Crippled If the character is climbing when at least two
wings do not interfere moving on ground. of her limbs gain Crippled conditions, she loses
grip and is in Freefall and takes falling dam-
Flying age accordingly. Crippled wings do not inter-
fere climbing.
If a character is capable of flight, she may per-
form aerial movement, charging and sprinting Difficult Terrain
actions.
In combat, basic flight movement is 1 AP Difficult terrain adds an extra 1 AP cost for
per 2 meters (1 hexes) the character moves. movement. Such terrains include deep snow,
If one of character’s wings gains the Crip- slippery surfaces, piles of bodies, steep climbs,
pled condition, she is unable to fly, but can turbulent waters, underground tunnels and
still glide with base movement speed. If both strong winds. The GM may request a char-
of character’s wings are Crippled, she is unable acter to roll an appropriate SPECIAL check -
to fly or glide. If the character is in midair for example AGI on slippery surfaces.
when her both wings gain Crippled conditions,
she is in Freefall and takes falling damage ac- Sprinting
cordingly.
Sometimes combatants desire to go the extra
Out of combat, flying characters can reach
mile to get to their destination, be it a good
their full potential speed. However, it may take
cover or a target that requires percussive main-
a little time to reach full speed.
tenance. Once per turn for the cost of 1 Strain,
the character can move a distance determined
Swimming by their Endurance without AP cost - END
meters (END/2 hexes). The GM may request a
Swimming movement is 2 AP per 2 meters character to roll appropriate SPECIAL checks
(1 hex) the character moves. A character during Sprinting due hasty movements.
cannot charge while swimming. A character Distance from Sprinting does not pro-
cannot swim if she has two or more Crippled vide AP cost reduction on Melee or Un-
limbs. armed attacks, as no AP has been spent
If the character is swimming when at least on movement.
two of her limbs gain Crippled conditions, she
sinks and is in risk of Drowning. Crippled
Charging
wings do not interfere swimming.
Diving follows Drowning rules for holding Sometimes the best option is to go in and
breath, found under Chapter 5: Game Rules charge the enemy. If the character moves at
- Environmental & Other Hazards least 12 meters (6 hexes) in a relatively straight
 101

line towards their target, they can choose to she can jump 2 meters (1 hex). If her STR is
apply one of the following boosts to their next at or greater than 5 but less than 10, she can
attack: jump 4 meters (2 hexes). If her STR is at 10
ˆ Precision: +15 to their next Melee or or greater, she can jump 6 meters (3 hexes).
Unarmed attack This jump costs 3 AP.
ˆ Force: Damage dice on next Melee or Un- Running Start - With a running start of at
armed attack are improved to deal damage least 4 meters (2 hexes) of movement, a charac-
on values 3 and up. ter can jump up to her STR in meters (STR/2
ˆ Bash: Knock back your target 2 meters hexes). AP cost is 1+ distance covered as per
(1 hex); target may resist with STR check Ground Movement.
ˆ Pummel: The target is Dazed for 1
round; target may resist with END check Example: Emerald Glint first takes
Charging cannot be done through Difficult 6 meters of running start move-
Terrain, or while Crawling. ment (3 AP) and then jumps an-
other 4 meters (2 AP). This would
Crouched cost her a total of 5 AP.

Moving while crouched costs 2 AP per 2 me- Jumping directly Upwards - If the char-
ters (1 hex) the character moves. Standing up acter’s STR is less than 5, she can jump 0,5
from crouch or vice versa does not cost AP. meters. If her STR is at or greater than 5 but
The character cannot crouch while Flying. less than 10, she can jump 1 meter. If her STR
is at 10 or greater, she can jump 1,5 meters.
Drop Prone This jump costs 3 AP.

A character can drop to the ground for free and Withdraw

is considered Prone. While flying, a character
cannot drop prone without landing. Sometimes situation gets too hot to handle and
a tactical retreat is the best option available.
With a cost of 4 AP, a character can move 2
Crawling
meters (1 hex) and withdraw from melee com-
Crawling while prone costs 3 AP per 2 meters bat range without provoking Attacks of Op-
(1 hex) the character moves. The character portunity.
cannot crawl while Flying.

Stand Up
Standing up from Prone costs 4 AP. If all of
the character’s limbs are Crippled, she cannot
Stand Up without assistance.

Jumping
Longjump from Standing - A character can
only cover a short distance if they jump from
standing. If the character’s STR is less than 5,
102 CHAPTER 7. COMBAT

from their next strike to a minimum total of 1

AP for the attack. This AP cost reduction can-
not be divided, or postponed to next turn, and
it does not apply to Bow-type melee weapons.
In effect, you run at target for 4 hexes, and
you have a melee weapon that uses 6 AP to
use. Your attack is then 6-4=2 AP final cost.
Any follow-up attack after this is regular 6 AP,
provided no movement occurs.

Ranged Attack
Ranged attacks can be initiated from any dis-
tance up to the weapon’s maximum range, usu-
ally long range (L).
Attack Actions
AP costs for ranged attacks are determined
To attack an opponent, the character must by the used weapon’s statistics.
make a Skill Roll using the appropriate skill
for the weapon that the character is wielding. Throwing Weapons and Explosives
Attacks made without weapons and attacks
made with non-explosive thrown weapons use Attacks made with thrown weapons and
the Unarmed Skill. This roll is usually heav- throwable explosives can be initiated from any
ily modified by Combat Variables. Modifiers distance up to weapon’s maximum range, usu-
can adjust the difficulty of a task beyond the ally short range (S). Thrown weapons use
normal limit of plus or minus 50, up to a maxi- Melee Skill.
mum of the character’s Critical Failure rate or AP costs for thrown attacks are determined
a minimum of the character’s Critical Success by the used weapon’s statistics.
rate.
Attacks are subject to modifiers called Placed Explosives
Combat Variables, found in this chapter un-
der Combat Statistics. Placed explosives are placed on the ground or
other suitable surface and therefore have melee
Melee / Unarmed Attack range. AP costs for placed explosives are de-
termined by the used weapon’s statistics.
To initiate a Melee or Unarmed attack, the
character must be standing next to the foe she
Called Shot
wants to strike (or within reach of long melee
weapons, such as spear). When a character wishes to make a precise shot
Unarmed attacks with bare hooves, horns, at her target, she performs a Called Shot,
claws or similar natural weapons usually cost with additional 2 AP increase to her attack’s
3 AP. When wielding other weapons, the AP AP cost. These attacks can be aimed at visible
cost is determined by the weapon’s statistics. body parts, weak spots, and even weapons in
For each AP spent on movement before the order to disarm her targets. However, a Called
attack, the character can subtract that value Shot cannot be performed with weapons that
 103

Reload
Table 7.6: Called Shot Penalties by Limb
Target Ranged Melee When a weapon runs out of ammunition, it
Torso -10 -5 must be reloaded according to the weapon’s
Limb (in. tails) -20 -10 clip type. The types are listed under Chapter
Head -30 -15 3: Equipment - Weapon Characteristics.
Weapon -20 -20
Specific part (i.e. eye) Additional -20 Casting a Spell
When a character wants to cast a spell in com-
have area or line of effect damage such as ex- bat, she must make a Thaumaturgy roll. If the
plosives and flame throwers. roll succeeds, she acts according to common
Called Shots ignore 1 DT the target has, and spellcasting rules, found in Chapter 8: Magic
are used to deal Crippled conditions to a tar- & Spells.
get; it doesn’t outright increase the damage AP and Strain costs for spells are deter-
dealt, but rather focuses the shot to break a mined by the used spell, and the values can
particular limb exclusively. It should be noted be found in Magic Codex.
that some enemies, such as most insects and Combat Variables may sometimes affect the
robots have additional areas that are treated casting of a spell. Check the skill modifiers pro-
as limbs and can be Crippled. vided in this chapter, under Combat Statistics
Should the target take damage from a Called - Combat Variables.
Shot, the targeted limb is considered Crippled.
Disarming weapons are considered Called Sneak Attack
Shots, and have their penalty listed below.
After a successful Sneaking attempt, or when
A successful disarm drops the weapon’s con-
the target is otherwise unaware, one can per-
dition by one level (if Item Condition Rules
form a Sneak Attack. She gains a bonus of
are in effect) and forces the defender to roll
15 to her chance to deal Critical Damage
STR. A success on the defender’s part keeps
(doesn’t affect actual skill hit chance). Char-
the weapon in their control, but they must
acter can make a Sneak Attack with any attack
use Ready Weapon action prior using the
except explosives. The AP cost for Sneak At-
weapon again. A failure forces the defender
tack is increased by 2 compared to the normal
to drop the weapon on an adjacent hex (up to
attack.
GM which).
After her Sneak Attack, the character may
try a new Use Skill (Sneak) action with
Aim a penalty of -30. If the action is successful,
she gets away unnoticed and may make an-
Character can increase her chance of success other Sneak Attack. However, the attack it-
with an attack by performing an aim action. self is always noticed - with Melee or unarmed
The action costs 2 extra AP to perform. This sneak attacks, only the victim notices the at-
action increases the next attack’s chance to tack made against him, while ranged attacks
succeed by 10. One can make only one aim are noticed by everyone who could either hear
action per attack action. or see the attack.
The bonus to skill roll may be modified by
weapon accessories and modifications. Example 1: Featherfall wants to
104 CHAPTER 7. COMBAT

perform a sneak attack on a nasty Attacks of Opportunity

raider. She successfully rolls for
Whenever a character performs an action that
Sneak and catches the raider off-
would cause a gap in her defense, nearby oppo-
guard, moving in to backstab him.
nents in melee range may use this to their ad-
Her LCK is 5, so with a bonus of
vantage. In other words, they gain Attacks of
15, her Critical Damage Thresh-
Opportunity (AoO), which are special melee
old for the attack would become
or unarmed attacks. These are quick attacks
20. She rolls for her Melee skill
that must be engaged immediately (on other
- which is 18 - and gets a result
characters’ turns). A character may normally
of 19. Despite the roll being un-
perform only 1 AoO per round, she must see
der the Critical Damage Thresh-
the target and hold an appropriate weapon.
old, the attack is a failure because
Only melee or unarmed attacks with AP cost
it is over her Skill level. The roll
of 5 or less can be used to perform these at-
being within the Critical Damage
tacks. This means that perks, special attacks
Threshold does not guarantee an
or other effects that lower AP cost may allow
automatic success.
the use of AoO with weapons that usually have
Example 2: Featherfall has taken a too high AP cost. An AoO costs no AP.
vantage spot to snipe from with
The following activities provoke AoO from
her hunting rifle - performing a
nearby opponents:
sneak attack on a raider boss. She
ˆ Leaving opponent’s melee range (whether
has succeeded in her Sneak Check,
the character starts her turn in melee
and her LCK is 5 so her Criti-
range or moves through melee range on
cal Damage Threshold for the at-
her turn). If the character uses With-
tack would be 20. She rolls for
draw, she does not provoke AoO.
Firearms skill - which she has at
ˆ Accessing items without using Quick Slots
70 - and gets a result of 12. The
or Weapon Slots (backpack, saddle bags).
result is both under the Critical
ˆ Picking up objects.
Damage Threshold and her Skill
ˆ Interacting with environment, such as
value, and thus Featherfall suc-
turning on the lights, using switches or
cessfully hits and deals Critical
valves.
Damage to the raider boss. If she
ˆ Disarming explosives.
had rolled over the Critical Dam-
ˆ Using a skill that requires attention, i.e.
age Threshold, she had dealt nor-
Lockpick, Mechanics, Medicine (curing
mal damage.
crippled limbs), Science (hacking), or
Note: Silenced weapons reduce the Thaumaturgy
Use Skill (Sneak) action penalty ˆ Failing on Start Grapple action, using
by 15. Escape Grapple and fleeing, or ending
Grapple and fleeing.
 105

The GM may also declare AoO on other sit- Allies can assist the grappling characters as
uations when the character’s defense is hin- per Assist Ally action.
dered.
Starting Grapple
Example: Maabara is currently ad- This action costs 5 AP.
jacent to a hostile raider, and she To initiate the grapple the character rolls an
wishes to drink a health potion opposed roll against an adjacent target. If the
and run away from the enemy. attempt is successful, both characters gain the
She has none in her quick slots, Grappled condition and can do the following
so she has to access her inventory Grapple actions on their turn. For the grapple
for one. By doing so, the raider to remain in effect, one character must Main-
- wielding a knife - gains an At- tain it each round.
tack of Opportunity on Maabara,
though he misses. After down- Maintain Grapple
ing the potion she runs away from This action costs 2 AP.
the raider with her remaining AP To maintain the Grapple, the attacker must
without using Withdraw action. wish to continue the grapple and rolls an op-
This would provoke an Attack of posed roll against the defender. If the attacker
Opporunity for the raider, but as wishes not to maintain the grapple, the grapple
he already performed his one AoO ends at the end of the current combat round.
already, Maabara can run away
without fear of reprisal. Overpower Grapple
This action costs 4 AP.
The defending character can try to turn the
Combat Tricks
tide of the grapple by trying to overpower the
Brace Weapon attacker. The defending character rolls an op-
posed roll against the attacker.
Bracing a ranged weapon on a suitable surface
If successful, the defender becomes the at-
costs 1 AP.
tacker and vice versa.

Grapple Attack
A character can deal damage with Unarmed
Grapple is the art of wrestling an opponent in
weapons, One-Hoofed Melee Weapons or Pis-
a chaotic ball of flailing limbs. Size modifiers
tols of any kind. This actions costs AP as listed
apply to all rolls in Grapple. It’s not the best
in the used weapon’s statistics and uses the
to wrestle with a full-grown dragon as a small
weapon’s skill to determine a success. How-
filly.
ever, the weapon used can cause a penalty to
Grapple is between two characters, an at-
the roll as detailed below:
tacker who initiated the grapple and defender
who is grappled. Both STR and Unarmed can Unarmed no penalty
be used in Grapple-rolls unless otherwise spec- Melee, One-Hoofed Minor Distraction
ified. Pistols Major Distraction
If at any point the defender rolls Critical
Success for her opposed Unarmed or STR roll,
she may leave the grapple.
106 CHAPTER 7. COMBAT

Pin Escape
This action costs 8 AP for the first time, 4 This action costs 4 AP.
AP for maintaining. The defender can try to escape a grapple
The attacker rolls an opposed roll with a with an opposed roll against the attacker. Es-
penalty of 30 against the defender to Pin caping the grapple can also be done with Break
Down. The defender rolls without penalty. Free action.
If the attacker wants to hold his foe Pinned This action is an automatic success if the
after the first round, she rolls an opposed roll attacker doesn’t wish to continue the grapple.
against his target (without the penalty of 30)
with an AP cost of 4 to maintain the pinning
down. Toss
The Pinned character can try to use Break This action costs 8 AP.
Free action on her turn, with her roll being an A character, either the attacker or the de-
opposed roll against the attacker. If the pinned fender, can Toss their opponent with an op-
down character is successful in his or her roll posed roll with a penalty of 30. The opponent
or their Break Free action, they may stand up rolls without penalty.
but is still considered to be Grappled. On a success, the character can toss her op-
ponent 2 meters (1 hex). She can with a suc-
Tie Up cessful STR check to toss her opponent an ad-
This action costs 8 AP. ditional 2 meters (1 hex) to a total of 4 meters
When the defender has been Pinned Down (2 hexes). The tossed opponent immediately
successfully, the attacker pinning her down can gains Prone condition once landing on the new
try to tie her up in place of maintaining the spot.
pinning. Tying up requires one to have mate- If the opponent is successfully tossed, grap-
rials to bound one up such as chains, rope or ple immediately ends. On a fail, nothing hap-
wires. pens and the grapple continues.
The attacker rolls an opposed roll with a
penalty of 30 against his target to Tie Up. The
defender rolls without penalty. After success- Suppressive Fire
ful Tie Up no following Grapple actions are
needed, and the grapple immediately ends. With weapons capable of Burst fire, a charac-
Tied up character can try to use Break ter can provide Suppressive Fire to an area and
Free action on her turn to break free of her thus pin enemies down.
bonds. This action costs 8 AP and uses 10 units
of appropriate ammo. The weapon must have
Move Grapple enough ammunition loaded to utilize this fea-
This action costs 4 AP. ture.
The attacker rolls an opposed roll against The area affected by Suppressive Fire is a
the defender, followed by a Move action to shift Large Splash Template centered within the
the grapple location with a cost of 3 AP / 2 weapon’s effective range (up to Long). The
meters (1 hex). area lasts until the character’s next turn.
Move Grapple action is only required once All characters under Suppressive Fire’s area
per combat turn to allow movement. suffer Medium Distraction penalty for being
under heavy fire.
 107

Trip Defensive actions

Instead of dealing damage, the character can Dodge
try to trip an opponent to the ground. This
AP cost of 1, one opponent suffers penalty of
action requires the foe to be next to you; when
5 to hit. This is cumulative. This action can-
using ranged weapons such as rifles to trip, the
not be used if you cannot move freely. These
character uses the weapon’s stock to sweep the
include Grappled, Stunned and Prone condi-
foe off their feet.
tions.
This action costs 5 AP. The character must see the target she’s will-
The character uses an Opposed Melee or Un- ing to Dodge.
armed skill roll against the target’s Melee or A character cannot Dodge against Area of
Unarmed to determine the success of the at- Effect (AoE) attacks, such as explosives and
tempt. Ranged and Melee weapons use Melee spells affecting an area.
skill for this action, all the others use Unarmed.
On a success, the target of the Trip action falls
Break Free
Prone. If flying, the target drops to freefall if
they fail an AGI check after successful hit. If the character is held Pinned Down, in
Grapple, Tied Up, held still via telekinesis
or in some other way restrained, she may try
Distract
to Break Free. This action can be described
Distracting an opponent can give an edge in in-game as using brute strength, bucking, wig-
combat - such actions include but are not lim- gling out of bonds or any creative solution the
ited to tossing snowballs, taunt and impulsive GM deems reasonable.
contemporary dance routine. Distraction ac- Character breaking free makes a STR, AGI
tions never deal damage directly and are meant or LCK roll (in some cases an opposed roll),
to redirect the foe’s attention or disrupt their determined by GM. If the roll is successful, she
actions. The targeted foes must see, hear or is freed and can act normally. The AP cost is
feel the character’s distraction. usually 8 AP, but the GM may change it if
This action costs 4 AP. appropriate for the situation.
First the player declares they are going to
distract opponents and describes how they will Note: There are some cases when
do it. The player then rolls for success - GM Break Free is not allowed, such as
determines the skill or SPECIAL to be rolled, being chained or pinned beneath a
i.e. taunting requires an Intimidation roll and huge object. Such situations are
dance requires CHA roll. If no other SPECIAL always determined by the GM.
or Skill applies, LCK is rolled.
On a success the foes suffer Minor Distrac-
tion penalty - the exact number of foes af-
fected is determined by the GM. On a criti-
cal success or well-roleplayed description of the
distraction the foes suffer Medium Distraction
penalty. Regardless of success, the character
has gained the foes’ attention.
By default, Distractions last for 2 rounds.
108 CHAPTER 7. COMBAT

Other Actions Assist Ally

Use Item Assisting ally consist of many kinds of actions,

such as helping pull up an ally, catching her
Characters can also use items in combat that mid-fall, passing on a held item or other rather
are not weapons. Character fishes out the item simple and quick actions. These actions cost 2
they want to use, use it and then discard or AP. The GM may declare a different AP cost
store the item. The AP cost of this action is for the action if appropriate.
determined by where the item is coming from
and if the item is concealed. Ready Action
Using an item from the inventory costs 8 AP.
Using an item from a Quick Slot costs 3 There are moments where the character would
AP. prefer to let the enemy make a miscalculation
and act upon that. To set up a Ready Action,
Using a concealed item costs an additional 2
the character designates an action they want
AP.
to take and an associated trigger - the AP cost
Using an item function on apparel or in the for the readied action is then removed from
environment costs 2 AP. their AP. After the character’s turn ends, if
the associated trigger occurs before the start
of the character’s next turn, they can choose
Equip / Change Weapon
to use their designated action.
Equipping a weapon from inventory costs 8
AP. This action will change the weapon on one Use Skill / SPECIAL
of the character’s Weapon slots.
Using other than combat skills (Explosives,
Equipping a weapon listed on a Weapon
Firearms, Magic Energy Weapons, Melee, Un-
slot or swapping between weapons in Weapon
armed) during combat costs a differing amount
slots costs 3 AP.
of AP depending on the action’s difficulty and
Equipping a concealed weapon costs an ad- if the action is rushed or not.
ditional 2 AP. Rushing an action makes it harder, but costs
Unequipping a weapon without replacing it less AP. The GM determines the category of
costs 3 AP. character’s action. The base AP costs for Skill
and SPECIAL uses are found Table 7.7.
The GM may declare a different AP cost for
Drop Weapon
the action if appropriate.
Sometimes characters want to drop or they’re NOTE: The GM may declare that some ac-
forced to let go of items in their hooves. Drop- tions do not cost AP at all. For example, gen-
ping a weapon costs 0 AP. eral PER rolls would cost no AP, but intense
studying of environment or searching would
cost AP.
Pick Up Object
End Spell
Picking an object up from the ground and
stashing it in the character’s inventory costs Dropping a concentration of a spell or ending
6 AP. a spell with duration costs 0 AP.
 109

Table 7.7: Skill/SPECIAL AP Costs & Modifiers in Combat

Easy, no rush Easy, rush Hard, no rush Hard, rush
Cost 4 AP 2 AP 10 AP 5 AP
Roll Modifier - -15 - -30

Talking ues count as damage dealt. Any damage from

dice is added together with the base damage
Short commands and sentences have no AP
to get the total amount of damage dealt.
cost, but long speeches or monologues will have
If Item Condition rules are in effect, it may
an AP cost as determined by Use Skill -action.
change the amount of damage dealt. Further
After all, the enemies are hardly there to listen
information on Item Condition rules can be
how you cite Shakespeare.
found under Chapter 3: Equipment - Optional
Rules.
Damage Calculations Damage Threshold (DT) determines how
much of the incoming damage is absorbed by
Damage & Damage Threshold the target’s armor and other defenses. The
leftover damage is then translated as lost HP
When an attack skill roll is successful, the char-
tokens.
acter usually deals damage. With weapons and
explosives, the damage values are determined
by the weapon’s statistics. Damage consists of Losing HP Tokens
two parts: base value and dice rolls. In Melee Characters one day or another will be
and Unarmed weapons, the character’s STR wounded, which is where the HP tokens come
affects the number of dice rolls, as shown in in. With each point of damage that the char-
Table 7.8. acter’s DT does not absorb, the character loses
For example, with super sledge, the one HP token from their Character Sheet’s
weapon’s statistics indicate the damage as fol- Health Tracker.
lows: 6 + (0 − 3). The base damage is 6,
and the dice rolled ranges from 0 to 4, de- Example: Shining Example has been
pending on the characters STR. For example, shot by a Raider, who has man-
with STR of 6 the damage output would be aged to do 6 damage to him. Shin-
6 + (0) + (1) = 6 + (1). ing Example’s DT is 2. The DT
Damage die is a d6, which deals damage value of Shining is subtracted from
when the result is either 5 or 6. Perks, Traits the damage: 6-2 = 4. This means
and Racial Abilities may change which die val- Shining loses 4 HP tokens, and
must now subtract them from his
Health Tracker.
Table 7.8: STR effect on Melee/Unarmed
STR DMG Dice
1-3 +0
4-7 +1
8-10 +2
10+ +3
110 CHAPTER 7. COMBAT

Table 7.9: Pain Penalties

d10 Penalty Effect
1-2 Rattled Minor Distraction
3-4 Bruised Minor Distraction, +1 to AP Costs
5-6 In Pain Medium Distraction, +2 to AP Costs
7-8 Maimed Random limb Crippled
9-10 Panic Cannot use Attack actions, unless no other way out

Pain Thresholds Note: Explosive weapons do not

deal critical damage. If one per-
When a character’s HP is lowered to the forms a critical success with these
Health Tracker’s lower end, special penalties weapons, other additional effects
come into effect to simulate one’s body begin- may occur.
ning to fail as it has sustained too much dam-
age.
SPECIAL Damage
Pain Thresholds come into effect at 5-4 HP,
3-2 HP and 1 HP. When a character ends up in Some attacks deal damage to character’s SPE-
these HP Tokens, GM rolls a 1d10 to deduce CIAL attributes as well as to her HP. When
the penalty from Table 7.9. Once character’s a character receives SPECIAL damage, they
HP drops further, GM rolls for a new effect put the amount of damage received into the
that replaces the earlier penalty. character sheet’s “Temporary” column on the
At 0 HP, the character is considered dead. SPECIAL section, on the respective SPECIAL
If the character is healed but remains in a stat currently taking damage.
Pain Threshold, such as going from 1 HP to 4
Example: Doc Red’s head has been
HP, GM rolls a 1d10 to replace earlier penalty
crippled by a powerful blow, giv-
from Pain Penalty (Table 7.9.). If the charac-
ing him SPECIAL damage to both
ter is dying and is healed to a Pain Threshold,
his Perception and to his Intelli-
same rolling of a Pain Penalty applies.
gence. Doc Red’s player puts a -
4 on Perception and -2 on Intel-
Critical Damage & Critical Damage ligence to the Temporary column
Threshold on the SPECIAL-section. This
means those stats are lower for a
When the character’s attack skill roll is suc-
time being until his crippled head
cessful and within the critical damage thresh-
is healed.
old, she deals Critical Damage. Critical dam-
age threshold is usually character’s normal skill
Healing HP
critical success chance but some factors,
such as Sneak+ Attack and weapon modifica- There are many ways of regaining HP tokens;
tions, may increase the threshold. the near-instant gratification of costly potions,
For critical damage, the character rolls for visiting towns and cities’ designated doctors or
damage normally, and then multiplies the re- having a medical practitioner of your own. Of
sult, usually by 2. Some weapons have greater these three, only one saves you caps; having a
critical multipliers than 2. practitioner of your own.
 111

Practicing Medicine
Table 7.10: Doctor’s Fees
A learned wastelander can perform rudimen- Case Cost/Piece
tary medicine on the field, provided they have Lost HP 20 Caps
the tools. With First-aid kits and Doctor’s Rads 40 Caps
Bags, the character can heal lost HP quickly Crippled 50 Caps
and reliably.
A practiced doctor can also administer heal- money - 50 caps per limb that needs to be
ing items for their patients and thus have more sewn together.
pronounced effects. When using any item la-
beled Medical on another character, the heal- Using Potions
ing character can use Medicine skill in order to
double the effects. On a critical failure, they Potions are perhaps the least hassle one can
have botched the application of medicine and have when healing their wounded. Usually
instead will incur a Bleeding status on their costly but near-instant, they provide an easy
target. way for even the dumbest of wastelander to
Without such tools, a medical practitioner remain healthy, provided they have Caps to
can attempt to boost the wounded character’s spend.
natural healing rate to further assist the heal- Though not necessarily rare by any means,
ing process, but cannot replenish HP outright. acquiring potions can be limited by traders’
Successful Medicine-check gives the wounded current stock or by sheer bad luck of not com-
character +1 to their Healing Rate. Critical ing across any. A variety of potions can be
success gives +2 instead. found in the Wasteland Wares.
Removing physical status effects such as
bleeding can also be done without tools, but
requires a successful Medicine-check. Fixing a
Major Cripple requires a Doctor’s Bag.

Doctor Visit

Visiting a doctor, an NPC in a town is a guar-

anteed way to get healed, with no checks aside
from possible bartering of price is required.
However, doctors do not practice their craft
for free and can get expensive quickly; each
healed HP token costs 20 caps. This price
can vary depending on location, the characters’
barter skill or GM.
In addition, doctors can remove Rad tokens,
but the procedure is considerably more costly
affair: 40 caps per each Radiation token re-
moved. This price can likewise be affected by
various things. Doctors can also remove Ma-
jor Cripple conditions, but that likewise costs
112 CHAPTER 7. COMBAT
Chapter 8

Magic & Spells

Magic and spells are both the mundane and Potency - determines the power of spells,
the fantastical part of a pony’s life, coming to taking into account the character’s level
some of them as easy as breathing, while oth- and the school’s associated SPECIAL at-
ers are clearly asthmatic. Nonetheless, magic tribute.
is inherent in all of the races in their own
ways. Some use magic for even the smallest Strain - determines the amount of fatigue
of actions, while others carefully calculate the gained by casting the spell. The amount
weight and effect of their spells. of Strain the character can withstand is
This chapter is meant to give rules and static. Strain cost is determined by the
boundaries to all things magic. Spells for the spell. Strain recovers fully with rest.
various racial magic can be found in the Magic
The exact descriptions of these statistics and
Codex, an addition document for this rule-
how they are determined can be found in Chap-
book.
ter 2: Characters - Secondary Statistics.
The exact descriptions of all spells, alchem-
Spell Rules ical recipes and spirits can be found in Magic
Codex.
All races are magical in their own way, ca-
pable of interacting with their surroundings
and others with spells. Unicorns focus the
magic on their horn, giving them a capabil-
ity of manipulating the magic to make specific
spells, while zebras can infuse natural brews
with their magic, or call Spirits to aid them.
Pegasi use their wings to pull off maneuvers,
while Earth ponies’ close ties to the earth give
them strength and protection. In addition,
there are special items that possess magical
qualities. Even some monsters are capable of
wielding magic.
Below is a short reminder of the governing
spell statistics (some perks and traits may alter
how these statistics are determined):

113
114 CHAPTER 8. MAGIC & SPELLS

Spell Characteristics
Magic School
Spells and maneuvers are divided into several
different schools, representing alternate types
of magic. Each school has a governing SPE-
CIAL, matching the attribute that is the most
important for that school, effectively determin-
ing Potency for all the spells or maneuvers in
that school. Some characters are better at one
line of magic than others, and vice versa.

AP Cost & Strain Cost

Using spells is much like attacking with
weapons: the caster spends an AP cost as
indicated by the spell and an effect occurs ac- Target & Area
cording to the description of said spell. Af-
ter that, a certain amount of Strain affects Some spells require a specific kind of target
the caster. If the caster is disturbed during to function (ponies, creatures, objects, etc.)
the casting of her spell, she must roll Thau- Some spells work on several targets, deter-
maturgy-skill on her casting. mined by either the number of targets or the
Should the casting fail, the character spends targets within a certain range or area. Then
the AP as dictated by the Spell, but doesn’t there are spells that affect only the caster.
lose any Strain - she has spent time doing There are spells that target an area with
the required actions of the spell, but an error the target center within the spell’s maximum
caused the spell to fail and thus not exhaust range. Some spells affect the area around the
the character as greatly. caster.
If casting a spell would cause the caster to
spend more Strain than she has, she can still Duration & Concentration
cast the spell, but the excess Strain is taken as
damage. The character loses 1 HP per point of Some spells have durations and linger around
excess Strain. This can kill the caster. for a while. The duration is noted in spell’s
description in either rounds or real time. If
Range the caster wishes to do so, she can end the
spell prematurely by using an End Spell ac-
Each spell has a range. Unlike with weapons, tion (costs 0 AP).
spells have a maximum range and cannot be Spells that require multiple turns to cast or
cast beyond that range. The range of each spell maintain call for concentration from the caster.
is explained in their description. If the caster is interrupted during the casting,
i.e. taking damage or suffering from Distrac-
tion, she has to roll Thaumaturgy to keep her
concentration on the spell. This action requires
no AP or Strain from the caster, as it is reac-
 115

tionary. Damage with Spells

Combat will always be considered difficult
Often magic is used for offensive purposes,
to a spellcaster and a Thaumaturgy roll is re-
and thus deal damage to the intended target.
quired for all spells cast during combat or simi-
Damage is listed similarly to damage done by
lar situations. Any Distraction modifiers affect
Equipment, with base damage listed first and
a Thaumaturgy roll. Outside of combat, if the
the number of d6 dice to be thrown written
caster can take his time with a spell and the
in parenthesis, i.e. 2+(3). Some spells take
spell in question doesn’t ask for an opposed
the caster’s Potency into account, and higher
roll, the Thaumaturgy check can be ignored.
Potency may result in higher damages. Dam-
age made with spells or maneuvers is always
Opposed rolls with Spells considered to be inherently magical.
Some spells allow the target to resist the spell
with an opposed roll. Usually the caster rolls
for the governing SPECIAL of the spell, and
Earth Pony Magic
the target rolls the SPECIAL attribute deter- Earth Pony Magic is its own special breed,
mined by the spell. channeled by the Earth Ponies from the soil
and ground. Each Earth Pony has their own
Example: Emerald Glint casts Mi-
way of connecting, channeling and manipulat-
rage on a chasing slaver to fool
ing this breed of magic - it is highly intuitive,
him into going to another di-
and teaching the ways of Earth Pony Magic is
rection. The Mirage spell dic-
tedious and requires hard work.
tates that the person whom the
Earth Pony Magic is divided under three
spell is casted on can oppose it
varying branches with their own SPECIAL
with INT or CHA, whichever is
stat determining their Potency: Might (STR),
higher against Emerald Glint’s
Sight (PER), and Charm (CHA). These pro-
CHA. Emerald Glint’s CHA is
vide venues for Earth Ponies to connect with
7, the slaver’s CHA is 6, mean-
the earth, and potentially each other. In or-
ing that their opposed rolls are
der to successfully channel these energies, the
70 and 60 respectively. Emerald
Earth Pony character must succeed in a Thau-
Glint rolls 56, while the Slaver
maturgy check.
rolls 40. This means Emerald
While spells under the Branch of Might have
Glint’s Degree of Success is 14,
been utilized in hard work around farms and
against the Slaver’s 20. Due to
wastes through the ages, those of Sight and
the Slaver having rolled better, he
Charm revolve around the cause of bringing
sees through the Mirage spell and
the pony community more tightly together.
continues pursuit.

Learning Spells
At the beginning of play, the Earth pony char-
acter may pick 2 spells. Earth ponies have no
restrictions on what spells they can begin with.
Unlike other ponies’ arcane powers, the
magic of Earth ponies is more of an intuitive
116 CHAPTER 8. MAGIC & SPELLS

process. This distinct difference means that Pegasus & Griffin Aerial Ma-
Earth ponies may not learn new magical spells neuvers
outside of leveling up.
As mentioned, every 5 levels the character Aerial Maneuvers are battle-tactics that utilize
can learn a new spell of their choosing, which airborne stances and weather. Most commonly
is immediately added to their arsenal. It is these are known to be used by pegasi and grif-
wise to consult the GM on spell choices. fons, as they are notorious for this kind of com-
bat.
Aerial Maneuvers are categorized with dif-
Earth Pony Spell List
ferent SPECIAL stats; AGI, END and CHA.
Detailed spell list and description can be found This means that there is more than one way
in the appendix book Magic Codex under of one being a skilled aerial fighter. To pull
Earth Pony Magic. off each maneuver, the flier must succeed in a
Thaumaturgy check.
Branch of Might (STR) The Maneuvers based in AGI and END were
ˆ Adrenaline Rush largely used as combat tactics in the Great War
ˆ Crash This Barn by pegasi and griffons alike, while CHA based
ˆ Enchanted Hooves Maneuvers are show-tricks turned to a more
ˆ Fortify lethal purpose.
ˆ Mend Besides these three categories, a flier can in-
ˆ Overgrow vest in their flying speed instead of taking a
ˆ Protection of the Earth maneuver upon level-up. Each time they im-
ˆ Rooted prove their flight speed, they gain 2 meters/1
ˆ Stone Shield hex to their flight distance.

Branch of Sight (PER)

ˆ Earthly Warning
Learning Maneuvers
ˆ Find Poison Pegasi start with 3 Maneuvers on first level
ˆ Improve Obstacle while griffons start with 2.
ˆ Scrutinizing Gaze Pegasi learn a new Aerial Maneuver every
ˆ Seismic Sight 5th level (6, 11, 16) after first level and griffons
ˆ Smart Cookie’s Invocation learn a new Aerial Maneuver every 6th level (7,
ˆ Threatening Gaze 13, 19) after first level.
Branch of Charm (CHA) In addition to this natural learning, the
Aerial Maneuvers can be learned during game-
ˆ Cheer
play either through a magazine, through a
ˆ Comforting Words
flight instructor and by self-taught training.
ˆ Enhance Plant
In the Equestrian Wasteland one can some-
ˆ Healing Hooves
times find a copy of a flight magazine called
ˆ Inner Circle
“Aerodynamics Monthly”. This magazine was
ˆ Plant Calling
published during the war to showcase the tech-
ˆ Sound Mind
niques used by Wonderbolts. Reading this
magazine will teach 1 new Aerial Maneuver per
 117

magazine, and the specific Maneuver learned is neuvers require at least level 10 to be learned.
decided by the player. After this, they can be learned as any other
To learn a new Maneuver by self-teaching, maneuvers, with Wonderbolt Maneuvers exclu-
the character must spend 8 hours of their time sive to pegasi and Talon Maneuvers exclusive
trying out the maneuver, and then roll an AGI, to griffons. Difference to normal maneuvers
END, or CHA check, the stat depending on the is that the character twists these to fit their
Maneuver the character wants to learn. On a style, thus allowing them to use either AGI,
success the Maneuver is added to the charac- END or CHA to determine their strength. This
ter’s repertoire, and on a Critical Failure the same flexibility calls for more experimentation,
character overextends themselves and spends requesting more time invested on perfecting
the Strain cost of the maneuver without adding them. When learning Wonderbolt or Talon
it to their list of maneuvers. Maneuvers through experimentation, the char-
acter requires at least two successful checks,
Having a teacher to coach the character ap- once per 8 hours of self-teaching.
plies a bonus of +10 to the check.
Wonderbolt Maneuvers and Talon Ma-
118 CHAPTER 8. MAGIC & SPELLS

Aerial Maneuver List ˆ Rainbow Dash’s Sonic Rainboom

ˆ Spitfire’s Icarian Sun Salute
Detailed maneuver list and descriptions can be
ˆ Surprise’s Sneak Sweep
found in the appendix book Magic Codex un-
der Aerial Maneuvers.

Endurance-based Maneuvers (END)

Unicorn Magic
ˆ Defensive Spiral
ˆ Dirt Drag Unicorn Magic, or as some say arcane magic,
ˆ Divebomb is easily the most versatile and studied magic
ˆ Plummet found in the Wasteland. If there is a unicorn
ˆ Sonic Rain-Nuke around, one can bet arcane spells to appear
ˆ Twister eventually.
Arcane spells are divided into Magic
Charisma-based Maneuvers (CHA) Schools, each with their primary, governing
ˆ Cloud Manipulation SPECIAL stat that determines the spell’s Po-
ˆ Defog Twirl tency and strength. Exception to this is the
ˆ Fantastic Flash General Magic school, where the unicorn can
ˆ Fire Trail choose any SPECIAL stat they want to deter-
ˆ Sun Celebration mine Potency.
ˆ Tactical Weather Manipulation Each magic school is geared towards a cer-
tain use. For example, Conjuration Magic re-
Agility-based Maneuvers (AGI) volves around creating something with or from
ˆ Buccaneer Blaze one’s magic, while Illusion Magic attempts to
ˆ Contrail fool or distract others.
ˆ Creeping Barrage
ˆ Hightail Sweep Learning Spells
ˆ Tornado
ˆ Weave Defense At the beginning of play, Unicorns pick 3 spells
alongside Light and Telekinesis spells, unless
Talon Maneuvers (AGI/END/CHA) she has picked One Trick Pony -trait. Usu-
ˆ Blackwing’s Mettle ally one can pick any spell, but sometimes one
ˆ Carrion’s Blight must choose a particular school, from which all
ˆ Gawd’s Glorious Featherbedding of her spells must be drawn.
ˆ Gilda’s Feline Frenzium Furiatus An exception to this is Dark Magic school,
ˆ Henrietta’s Threatful Bravura which is a collection of particularly vile and
heinous spells. Not to mention that they’re
Wonderbolt Maneuvers rare, and as such picking spells from the school
(AGI/END/CHA) will be under GM discretion.
ˆ Commander Easyglide’s Esprit de Characters can learn new spells in two ways
Corps - through leveling up or seeking out and exper-
ˆ Fleetfoot’s Fix-it-up imenting on their own. As mentioned, every 5
ˆ General Firefly’s Double Inside-Out levels the character can learn two new spells of
Loop their choosing, which are immediately added
 119

to their arsenal. It is best to consult the GM Unicorn Spell List

on spell choices.
Detailed spell list and description can be found
To learn a new spell by self-teaching, the in the appendix book Magic Codex under
character must spend 8 hours of their time try- Unicorn Magic.
ing out the spell, and then roll a SPECIAL
check, the stat depending on the school of the General Magic (pick one SPECIAL)
spell. On a success the spell is learned by the
ˆ #1 Assistant
character, and on a Critical Failure the char-
ˆ Arcane Mark
acter overextends themselves and spends the
ˆ Bonds of Friendship
Strain cost of the spell without adding it to
ˆ Light
their list of spells.
ˆ Mage’s Bulwark
Having a teacher to coach the character ap- ˆ Power of Friendship
plies a bonus of +10 to the check. ˆ Telekinesis
Upon reaching 10th level, Unicorns can fur- ˆ Teleport
ther study their magic to unlock their full po-
tential - these are dubbed Ascended Spells, Conjuration Magic (INT)
and some spells have this variant listed. To ˆ Arcane Blast
unlock the Ascended Spell, the Unicorn effec- ˆ Bend Surface
tively re-learns the spell once more. This can ˆ Call Object
be achieved with either through leveling up ˆ Eldricht Knives
or experimentation. When learning Ascended ˆ Pocket Sand
spells they already possess through experimen- ˆ Shield
tation, the character requires at least two suc- ˆ Storm Cloud
cessful checks, once per 8 hours of self-teaching. ˆ Wall of Mist
120 CHAPTER 8. MAGIC & SPELLS

Dark Magic (END) (GM discretion) ˆ Magic Mirror

ˆ Blood Weapons ˆ Memory Manipulation
ˆ Devouring Darkness ˆ Mind Probe
ˆ Fear ˆ Spy Connections
ˆ Heart Attack ˆ Telepathy
ˆ Life Surge Protective Magic (END)
ˆ Shadow Form
ˆ Soul Jar ˆ Alarm
ˆ Vile Crystals ˆ Cloak of Elements
ˆ Equestria’s Love
Enchantment Magic (CHA) ˆ Failsafe
ˆ Bypass ˆ Friendly Critter’s Help
ˆ Compulsion ˆ Mental Bulwark
ˆ Discord ˆ Rad-Guard
ˆ Magic Trance ˆ Toughened Frame
ˆ Resilience
Transmutation Magic (END)
ˆ Soft Light
ˆ Standstill ˆ Come to Life
ˆ Want It, Need It ˆ Growth
ˆ Petrify
Illusion Magic (CHA) ˆ Phase
ˆ Invisibility ˆ Remake
ˆ Magical Fireworks ˆ Shape Magic
ˆ Mirage ˆ Steady Walk
ˆ Phantasmagoria ˆ Transformation
ˆ Silver Shroud
ˆ Simulacrum
ˆ Target
ˆ Thrown Voice

Medical Magic (INT)

ˆ Anesthetic
ˆ Bone Mending
ˆ Calm Mind
ˆ Clean
ˆ Enhancement
ˆ Panacea
ˆ Regeneration
ˆ Restoration

Perception Magic (PER)

ˆ Amplify
ˆ Combat Pre-Cognition
ˆ Detection
 121

Zebra Magic Learning Recipes

At the beginning of play, Zebras pick 3 recipes
Alchemy
alongside Brew Base that they shall start with.
While to an untrained eye the alchemical magic One can choose a combination of Brews and
of the zebras may look like mix of cooking, Talismans to learn.
crafts, and art spiced with a few chosen words, Characters can learn new recipes in two ways
the process is a bit more complicated than it - through leveling up or seeking out and exper-
seems. Zebras infuse their innate magic into imenting on their own. As mentioned, every 5
their alchemy, thus bringing out the effects in levels the character can learn 2 new recipes of
form of brews, talismans, and enchantments. their choosing, which is immediately added to
Without this use of magic, the brews would their known concoctions. It is best to consult
be little more than boiled leaf water, the tal- the GM on recipe choices.
ismans no more than a bauble, and enchant- To learn a new recipe by self-teaching, the
ments no more than pieces of artistic talent. character must spend 8 hours of their time tin-
This is also the reason why the recipes into kering with the recipe, and then roll a SPE-
these mysterious methods are often so difficult CIAL check, the stat depending on the cate-
to replicate by non-zebras. gory of the recipe. On a success the recipe is
The zebras use various herbs along with var- added to the character’s recipe book, and on a
ious mutant parts in their magical creations. Critical Failure the character messes up their
Monster parts can be varied, such as a vial of cooking badly, spending the Strain cost of the
Yao Guai blood and Abomination flesh pieces recipe without adding it to their list of spells.
to mention a few. Some recipes can also in- Having a teacher to coach the character ap-
clude other items, for example syringes for con- plies a bonus of +10 to the check.
taining the alchemical brew intended for injec- Upon reaching 10th level, Zebras can chan-
tion. nel their magic into permanent, powerful in-
Alchemy is divided into three categories, scriptions after perfecting their craft with
each with their unique characteristics - Brews, Brews and Talismans. These are the fabled
Talismans, and Enchantments. Each cate- Enchantments, and these can be learned
gory is geared towards a certain use: from 10th level onward like other concoctions
ˆ Brews are the bottled liquids meant to with more time spent on the tinkering. When
heal or harm oneself or others, and upon learning Enchantment recipes through experi-
use will last for a limited time. These are mentation, the character requires at least two
the quickest alchemical concoction to pro- successful checks, once per 8 hours of self-
duce. teaching.
ˆ Talismans are magical artifacts that All alchemy recipes and their required ingre-
grant whoever activates them a fraction dients are listed in Wasteland Wares docu-
of their power, and eventually become ment, under Alchemy.
mundane when that power is exhausted
through use.
ˆ Enchantments are inscriptions imbued
with the zebra magic, empowering those
individuals or items with the inscription’s
power until broken.
122 CHAPTER 8. MAGIC & SPELLS

Along with the Green Herb, other types of

herbs can be utilized in brewing. These can
change brews’ properties when used in a recipe.
Any type of herb cannot be used twice in the
same brewing as an additive, and one cannot
mix Black and White herbs in the same brew-
ing process without disastrous results. Below
is a list of different herbs’ effects in brews:
ˆ Red Herb adds power, improving the
strength of the brew’s effects
ˆ Blue Herb adds duration, improving the
effective time or poison’s chance of effect-
ing the target
ˆ Black Herb, a rare find, can be used in
place of any ingredient in the recipe
ˆ White Herb, a very rare find, can be
used to double the brewing recipe’s yield.
Once the recipe’s ingredients and additive
herbs have been combined and brewing began,
Brewing
the brew has a set amount of time it takes to
All brews require certain ingredients, as listed complete. Once begun, a Thaumaturgy or
in the recipe, along with the associated time Survival roll can be used to determine the
dedicated to the grinding, mixing, and brew- time spent. Success means that the brew fin-
ing process. To finish the brew, the zebra chan- ishes in schedule, while a critical success halves
nels their inner magic into it, thus spending the the time required. A failure in the roll results
listed Strain cost as the recipe details. in complications in the brew and thus listed
There are three categories of brews, each brewing time is doubled, and a critical failure
with a different SPECIAL stat that calls for causes the brewing time to be tripled.
their learning:
Example: Maabara is making a
ˆ Medicine: the most-practiced brews in
Bleeding Brew. For this she needs
the Wastes, with myriad of ways being
1x Brew Base and 1x Poison
done. Any SPECIAL stat can be used to
Gland, which she possesses. The
learn.
Bleeding Brew’s poisoning chance
ˆ Drugs: the concoctions aimed at parties.
is listed as 2x40%, but Maabara
Calls for CHA rolls.
wants this potion to have more
ˆ Poisons: the most vile liquids. Calls for
bite in it. Thus, she adds one Blue
INT rolls.
Herb to the brew to make the poi-
Most brewing processes start with a potion soning chance into 3x40%. Once
base called Brew Base, which are made from she has her concoction planned,
Green Herb extract. The creation of Brew she begins brewing and chooses to
Base requires 10 minutes to grind and brew for Survival. The result ends up
two Green Herbs into the stable basis liquid, as 61, above her Survival value of
along with spending of 1 Strain. 60 and thus a failure. This means
 123

Maabara has to spend 20 minutes man, while critical failure ends up tripling the
brewing her poison instead of the crafting time that is listed in the recipe.
normal 10.
Enchanting
Talisman Crafting Enchanting is closest to shamanism or unicorn
Where most equines used either Spells or tools magic of all the categories of alchemy, while
to achieve goals and perform jobs, talismans not quite invoking Spirits; it deals less with
are the zebra equivalent to that end. Talis- materials and ingredients, and more with raw
mans are made from materials, infused with magic itself. The alchemist channels the very
their maker’s magic and are usable by anyone. will and essence of their brethren into an in-
However, characters other than zebras require strument used to create the carvings onto ei-
a Thaumaturgy check to activate Talismans; if ther objects or flesh, often through a needle or
the roll fails, their activation attempt yields no knife laced with special ink mixed from herbs
results, and the talisman remains unused. and creature parts. Both the needle and the
Talismans are functionally similar to other knife along with ink pot are included in an
consumables, such as Chems, but their du- Alchemist Kit, though in the wasteland other
ration are often longer. They can provide suitable items can be used.
bonuses against Magic, give DT, open locks, Enchanting becomes available on 10th
heal wounds, enhance Skills and Specials, etc. level, upon which the alchemist’s skills with
Talismans are divided between charms and their craft are considered high enough to begin
tools, where charms have limited amount of gathering and utilizing these more advanced
uses until they break, and tools are single-use arts. Enchantments come in two forms, Icons
items with often powerful effects. and Tattoos. Learning either category of
To learn, Charms require successful CHA recipes calls for successful INT or CHA rolls,
rolls, while Tools call for successful INT rolls. chosen by the alchemist.
Talisman crafting uses creature parts and Icons are inscriptions carved into an item to
components in order to reach the desired ef- channel the magic of zebras and spirits into
fects. Many would think that putting in parts said item. The Icon’s effect is active as long as
like abomination flesh would make the talis- the item is being used, and can be utilized by
man gory and stinky. However, the alchemist anyone using the item. The Icon is destroyed if
uses their magic to draw out the essence of the the item itself is broken or destroyed, thus re-
creature from the part itself and transfers that moving any effect the Icon brought to the item.
to the talisman. In the case of components, Currently, Icons can only be carved onto
those are used to build the talisman itself, tin- weapons and armor. In case of firearms
kered to the alchemist’s liking. and MEWs, special bullets’ effects stack
As with brews, the alchemist requires neces- with the weapon’s enchantment.
sary ingredients and some time to make their Tattoos are pieces of art carved onto the
talisman according to the recipe: a Thau- body, faintly glowing whenever their innate
maturgy or Survival roll is required when craft- magic is used. Once completed, the tattoo’s
ing these items. If the roll is successful, the effect is permanent. As they are painted on an
talisman is created on schedule, while critical individual’s body, the effect of the tattoo can-
success cuts the time spent in half. Failure not be transferred to another. Each individual
doubles the time spent on tinkering the talis- can possess only one tattoo at any given time,
124 CHAPTER 8. MAGIC & SPELLS

as these paintings tend to not be miniscule in or ”Twittermite wing”, require sourcing from
size. that specific creature. This includes the rarer
When tattooing or carving the enchant- White and Black herbs, while the other herbs
ments, the alchemist rolls Thaumaturgy - a can be found with a quick search of surround-
failure means they have to spend more time ings.
with creating the magical seal. On a critical
failure the process suffers a slight mishap dur- Shamanism
ing its completion; the individual being tat-
tooed may face a small injury to their mental Shamanism is the age-old art of the Zebra, a
or physical health in the form of 1d4 lost HP skill that not all of them have; an art of con-
or strain, and an item may be tampered with tacting spirits of the world around you, and
and thus dropping one level in condition if Item utilizing their force to further your goals. So
Condition rules are in effect. long as you stay on the good side of the ethe-
As only one tattoo can be possessed by an real patron.
individual, there may become a time when a Spirit contact comes in two forms, Pact and
removal is called for. Removing tattoos from a Possession. Pact spirits forge a long-lasting
character can be done with a successful Thau- contract with the shaman, while Possession is
maturgy or Medicine roll, but due to scarred a more temporary invitation for a spirit to in-
tissue and left-over magic the new tattooing habit the shaman’s body. Both forms grant
process suffers a penalty of 30 to the carving the shaman powers they do not usually have.
alchemist’s Thaumaturgy roll. Pact spirits tend to be undying concepts
than tangible creatures: spirits of nature, light,
Finding materials friendship and so on, concepts that exist with
or without equine existence. Possession spir-
Alchemy can be tricky due to it requiring spe- its are more often than not either less power-
cific ingredients. Besides hunting down vari- ful, lesser spirits similar to Pact Spirits, or the
ous critters and scouring the wastes for herbs, spirits of the dead that linger in places.
they’re also often sold by vendors, especially Besides Spirits, which are the brunt of
other alchemists. Among the alchemy circles, shaman’s powers, they have a small selection
it has became a common habit that alchemists of spells, built from the spiritual aether that is
help each other when in search of materials, around all living and dead things.
and sharing is encouraged. Because of this,
some alchemists often give tips on rarer ingre-
Pact Spirits
dients’ locations, unlike foragers, who can often
be seen selling materials as well. Pact spirits are forces of the world made mani-
In addition to vendors, parts that do not fest and their visage, when they will themselves
mention a specific creature, such as ”wing” or visible to naked eye or when in the presence of
”pollen” can be found with a quick search of a Shaman, is grand and often awe-inspiring,
one’s surroundings where-ever she may be. If compared to the lesser spirits under their spe-
the character isn’t looking for a specific ingre- cific domains. Pact spirits lend their power
dient, they will get a random amount of ingre- to a shaman, often with the intention to fur-
dients from the Creature Parts list. ther their own causes and agendas. They of-
Items that have a specific creature name at- ten have ideals that they prefer to maintain,
tached to it, such as ”Vial of Yao Guai blood” and expect the same from the shaman they’re
 125

lending their power to. Going crossly against means that the crafting process just takes a
these ideals can lead to a violent removal of bit more time than usual, but does not stop
the Spirit’s power from the shaman. Shaman the Shaman from trying again. Push the Limit
can also end the contract willingly, in which is also applicable to these rolls.
the powers that they got from the spirit, fade After the rune has been created, the shaman
away. can summon the spirit they wish to contact
with either a Thaumaturgy or Barter roll. On
Forging a Contract a failed roll, there is a 25% chance that a rogue
In order to forge a contract, a shaman has to Spirit of Chaos appears instead. On a criti-
craft a rune as a seal to the contract. Thau- cal failure, the chance of this is doubled. If
maturgy or Barter is required for the crafting a Spirit of Chaos does not appear, the origi-
of the rune, and the requirement of the rune nally intended spirit will, but with a bad tem-
should be an item that can be inscribed upon. per. This requires the Shaman to take action
The shaman can only have one contract and to calm the spirit down through bribery or lav-
thus only one rune active at any given time, ish gifts, such as a bit of their strain or a tem-
though possession spirits -even those of oppo- porary debuff.
site concepts- rarely offend Pact Spirits. On Spirits of Chaos do not necessarily spell
a successful roll, a rune is created to suit the doom to the Shaman that accidentally or pur-
spirit they are trying to summon. A failed roll posefully summoned them, but they tend to be
126 CHAPTER 8. MAGIC & SPELLS

a random element to a carefully planned sum- Wasteland. They lack some of the power Pact
moning and their boons reflect that. Their lent Spirits do, and cannot forge contracts. How-
power is more often than not random and with- ever, they can step into the mind of a Shaman
out much rhyme or reason, and their ethos is to grant their own set of boons often tied to
fickle and undefined. The largest threat to a the spirit as individuals; Aspects of themselves
Shaman is that the Spirits of Chaos grow bored manifest from the Shaman through magic, and
quickly, and leave pacts when it suits them, of- they can often impart the shaman with knowl-
ten without the Shaman’s input. Chaos is a edge that the Shaman does not normally have.
difficult creature for any Shaman to bridle for The spirits around the Shaman can and of-
a long time. ten do vary depending on the location they are
in. An urban area is more likely to house in
Spirit Powers it spirits of machinery, diamond and ghosts,
Spirits grant the Shaman a set of powers fit- while spirits of nature are often absent.
ting their domain; a myriad of spells and other Possession spirits do not linger around long,
boons to aid the Shaman for the duration of as they do not have the power to do so, and
the pact. Spirits of Chaos tend to pick and they will quickly leave their host; regularly,
choose, often ill-fit together, abilities for their Possession spirits latch onto the Shaman for
Shaman from other Spirits’ domain, or even 5 turns in combat, and outside of combat
from creatures that inhabit the world. for a maximum of 10 minutes.
Pact Spirits’ powers cost both AP and Strain The spirit can give bonuses to skills, give
to use, much like spells do, and utilize the magical abilities that they have or had as in-
Shaman’s Thaumaturgy-skill for casting. The dividuals; a spirit of a dead Talon merc could
spirit’s power grows alongside the Shaman, and give a bonus to Firearms or MEWs, and give
this is one incentive that the Spirits have to the Shaman a magical claw attack for the du-
forge contracts with Shamans. Spirits that ration of their possession. On average, Posses-
have had their journey with the shaman bolster sion Spirits give a bonus to 2 skills and to 1
them, are often a bit more willing to re-enter SPECIAL or a Racial Ability if it is at all fea-
a pact, even ones that ended on a sour note. sible. Flight cannot be simulated by Shamans
Much like how other races have Potency, so even if the spirit possessing them could fly,
do shamans. Shaman Potency works like those though the Shaman’s jump movement actions
of ponies: the shaman’s level is added to an would gain a bonus that resembles a low-
associated value of their SPECIAL that links altitude flight. Due to Possession spirits be-
with the Spirit’s. For example, a Spirit of Ma- ing more individualistic than Pact Spirits, pos-
chines has Intelligence (INT) as their Potency’s sessions are often outside of Shaman’s direct
SPECIAL, and thus the shaman will use their control. Whichever spirit around gets to them
INT to determine any Machine spell Potency. first, gets in.
When a spirit and shaman’s contract ends, When a Shaman wants to invite a possession
the shaman’s powers given by the spirit fade to happen, they need to make a Thaumaturgy-
away after their next rest, or after 24 hours. roll. The result of the roll affects how easy it is
for the Shaman to keep control of their body.
Success means that while they are possessed,
Possession Spirits
they are actively making choices and the spirit
Possession Spirits are lesser spirits or spirits of is only giving them backseat advice. A failed
the dead that linger unseen in the Equestrian roll means that the spirit and the shaman do
 127

not see eye to eye in their goals, and attempt work and practice.
to mentally wrestle for direction, giving the
shaman a Dazed Status Effect. A critical fail- Incantation & Spirit List
ure means that the mental tug of war between
shaman and spirit is more severe, giving the Full details of these spells can be found in
shaman an Enraged Status Effect. However, Magic Codex , under Spirit Magic
failing this roll does not negate any boons given
Incantations (pick one SPECIAL)
by the spirit, and no matter the state of the
spirit, the Shaman’s body will eject them after ˆ Cleanse
the above mentioned time limit. ˆ Phantom Lantern
The shaman can converse with the spirit ˆ Soothing Spectre
during the possession, especially in times ˆ Spirit Spear
where the threat of combat does not loom over ˆ Telepathy
them. Sometimes possession spirits can give ˆ Wall of Mist
valuable info, but much like mortal creatures, ˆ Windigo’s Favor
their information can be biased, partial, or out-
Spirit of Embers (AGI)
right be missing. Spirits can also be hesitant to
part with their knowledge. Spirits of the dead ˆ Burning Passion
in particular are fond of the shaman helping ˆ Burning Blood
them move on, or deliver a word to creatures ˆ Fire Wheel
they held dear in life in exchange for what they ˆ Fireball
know. Lesser Spirits that serve the Pact Spir- ˆ Golden Glow
its but lack the power to forge contracts them- ˆ Ignite
selves often wish for items of power to elevate ˆ Inner Fire
themselves closer to that coveted Pact Spirit ˆ Phoenix Touch
status. Items of power are most often items of
Spirit of Machines (INT)
sentimental value, or other spiritually charged
object. However, sometimes the spirit is just ˆ Dispel Magic
content to have some creature to talk to, even ˆ Engineer’s Inspiration
for a fleeting moment. ˆ Metal Barrier
ˆ Organize
ˆ Sabotage
Shaman Incantations
ˆ Shrapnel Shot
Besides the spells offered by the Pact Spirit, ˆ Target
the shaman has a small collection of spells as ˆ Trap Defense
result of their training with the spiritual en-
ergies around them. The shaman can pick 4 Spirit of Nature (END)
spells for them to use out of a selection of ˆ Friendly Critter’s Help
spells, and can choose which SPECIAL stat to ˆ Healing Surge
determine Potency. However, unlike most crea- ˆ Lightning Strike
tures who learn spells of some sort, they can- ˆ Natural Protection
not learn spells by level-up; shamans who wish ˆ Petrify
to increase their collection of spells outside of ˆ Pocket Sand
what the Spirits offer, must do it through hard ˆ Purification
128 CHAPTER 8. MAGIC & SPELLS

ˆ Venom ˆ Discord
ˆ Hypnosis
Spirit of Serenity (PER) ˆ Invisibility
ˆ Astral Copy ˆ Phase
ˆ Devotion ˆ Silver Shroud
ˆ Guiding Light ˆ Terror
ˆ Magical Fireworks ˆ Toxic Friend
ˆ Night Vision
ˆ Prismatic Coat
ˆ Prismatic Strike
ˆ Razzle Dazzle

Spirit of Shadows (INT)

ˆ Bane
ˆ Blood Weapons
ˆ Devouring Darkness
ˆ Doomtouch
ˆ Dreadful Charm
ˆ Life Surge
ˆ Shadowform
ˆ Shadowsight

Spirit of Streams (END)

ˆ Ice Pillar
ˆ Restoration
ˆ Shivers
ˆ Steady Walk
ˆ Storm Cloud
ˆ Water Breathing
ˆ Waterjet
ˆ Wind Shield

Spirit of Trust (CHA)

ˆ Blink
ˆ Comforting Words
ˆ Eldritch Knives
ˆ Enhancement
ˆ Power of Friendship
ˆ Reminiscence
ˆ Shield
ˆ Spy Connections

Spirit of Whispers (CHA)

ˆ Banshee Wail
Combat Quick Reference Sheet

Table 8.1: Action Reference

Category Name Cost Notes
Initiative - 1d10+PER; Equal Initiatives
compare AGI, Equal AGIs compare
LCK. Highest goes first
Movement Ground 1 AP per 2m / 1
Movement hex
Flying 1 AP per 2m / 1 Crippled wings prevent flying
hex
Swimming 2 AP per 2m / 1 Cannot charge, cannot swim if 2 or
hex more limbs Crippled
Climbing 3 AP per 2m / 1 Cannot charge, cannot climb if 2 or
hex more limbs Crippled
Difficult +1 AP to May require SPECIAL roll
Terrain Movement
Sprinting 1 Strain Gain additional END/2 number of
AP to Movement
Charging - +10 to melee/unarmed immediately
after, deal DMG from dice at 4-6.
Opponents gain +5 to hit
Crawling 2 AP per 2m / 1 Cannot do while flying
hex
Drop Prone - Considered Prone after
Crawling 3 AP per 2m / 1 Cannot do while flying
hex
Standing 4 AP When Crippled, needs assistance
Up
Continued on next page

129
130 CHAPTER 8. MAGIC & SPELLS

Table 8.1: Action Reference (Continued)

Category Name Cost Notes
Movement Jumping, 3 AP STR <5, 2 meters/1 hex STR 5-9, 4
Still meters/2 hex STR 10+, 6 meters/3
Longjump hex
Jumping, 2 AP 4 meters/2 hex of movement
Running required, can jump STR in meters
Start (STR/2 hex)
Jumping, 3 AP STR <5, 0,5 meters STR 5-9, 1
Up meter STR 10+, 1,5 meters
Withdraw 4 AP Does not provoke AoO, may Sprint
Attack Attack Weapon-specific 1d100 result under or equal to
Actions AP Cost Combat Skill results in a hit
Called Shot +2 AP Cripple body parts , -1 DT on target
Aim +2 AP +10 to combat skill for next attack
Reload Weapon-specific
AP Cost
Casting a Spell-specific AP
Spell & Strain Cost
Sneak +2 AP +15 to perform a Critical Hit
Attack
Attack of - Max 5 AP cost for melee or unarmed.
Opportunity
Combat Brace 1 AP Reduce STR Penalty by 2; Lower
Tricks Weapon Burst penalty
Grapple, 5 AP Opposed Unarmed / STR
Start
Grapple, 2 AP Opposed Unarmed / STR
Maintain
Grapple, 4 AP Opposed Unarmed / STR
Overpower
Grapple, Weapon-specific Unarmed: no penalty Melee, 1-H:
Attack AP Cost Minor Distraction Pistol: Major
Distraction
Grapple, 8 AP initiate, 4 Opposed Unarmed / STR (Attacker
Pin AP maintain -30)
Continued on next page
 131

Table 8.1: Action Reference (Continued)

Category Name Cost Notes
Combat Grapple, 8 AP Opposed Unarmed / STR (Attacker
Tricks Tie Up -30); Grapple ends
Grapple, 4 AP + Movement Opposed Unarmed / STR; Movement
Move 3 AP per 2 m / 1 hex
Grapple, 4 AP Opposed Unarmed / STR
Escape
Grapple, 8 AP Opposed Unarmed / STR (Attacker
Toss -30); Grapple ends
Suppressive 8 AP Moderate Distraction on Large
Fire Splash; -10 ammo
Trip 5 AP Melee / Unarmed; On success target
is Prone
Distract 4 AP
Defensive Dodge From 1 AP to Cannot be used if no movement
Maximum AP allowed; -5 per use against one
opponent
Break Free 8 AP STR / AGI, LCK if GM allows
Other Ready Item 8 AP from +2 AP cost if concealed item
Actions inventory; 3 AP
from QS
Ready / 8 AP from +2 AP cost if concealed item
Change inventory; 3 AP
Weapon from WS
Use Item / 2 AP GM may change AP cost to fit
Function duration
Drop Item - If carefully dropped, costs 3 AP
Pick Up 6 AP
Item
Assist Ally 2 AP GM may change AP cost depending
on situation
Use Skill / Easy, no rush: 4 If rushed, -15 to Skill or SPECIAL
SPECIAL Easy, rushed: 2 roll; double penalty for Hard
Hard, no rush: 10
Hard, rushed: 5
Continued on next page
132 CHAPTER 8. MAGIC & SPELLS

Table 8.1: Action Reference (Continued)

Category Name Cost Notes
Other Maintain Spell-specific AP
Actions Spell & Strain Cost
End Spell -
Talking - If influencing others, check Use Skill

Combat Variable Modifiers

Range Point Blank 0; Short 0; Medium -10; Long -20
Visibility Normal 0; Twilight / Rain -5; Fog / Snowfall -10; Night / Heavy
Fog -15; Dark Indoors / Dust Storm -20; Total Darkness -40
Distraction Minor -10; Medium -20; Major -30
Cover None 0; Partial -10; Great -30
STR Requirement +1 AP cost, -5 for each STR value under requirement
Size See Table 2.1
Braced Weapon STR Requirement -2; Range Medium 0; Range Long -10
Ranged in Melee Shooter gains Minor Distraction
Prone Gain Partial Cover against ranged; Cannot Dodge; -30 Melee /
Unarmed
Gang Up +10 to Melee / Unarmed if adjacent to same target with an ally
Grappled Cannot access inventory; Move only with Move Grapple action
Pinned Down Cannot use Movement actions; Major Distraction to actions sans
Break Free
Tied up Cannot use Movement actions; Major Distraction to actions sans
Break Free
 133

Status Effect Duration Removal

Use all AP &
Burning -2 HP / round 3
Drop prone
Bleeding -1 HP / round; Minor Distraction 5 First Aid Kit
Blinded -2 PER; -5 Combat skills 3 -
Minor: 24h Doctor’s Bag,
Crippled As per Crippled limb
Major: Removal Hydra
Dazed Roll twice, pick worse result 3 Sedative
Berserk; +2 STR;
Enraged 3 Sedative
can only attack and move
Freezing +2 AP Cost of actions 5 Alcohol
Mind-Controlled May act w/o her own volition 3 Mind Bleach
Remove excess
Encumbered Cannot Sprint, Climb or Swim Until Removal
weight
Failsafe,
Petrified Cannot act -
Petrify-spell
Stunned Cannot move or attack 3 Kickstarter, Strain
Unconscious Cannot act 3 Kickstarter
134 CHAPTER 8. MAGIC & SPELLS