Sphere RPG System Mechanics

Costs

Most stats are bought on a sliding cost scale. The base cost to do so is as per the table below.

Level 1 - 1 CP - Hobbyist/Amateur
Level 2 - 3 CP - Trained
Level 3 - 6 CP - Professional
Level 4 - 10 CP - Expert
Level 5 - 15 CP - Master
Level 6 - 21 CP - Superlative

In short, the base cost to improve a stat costs (current level + 1). Depending on the stat being bought, this may be multiplied as follows.

Attributes have a x5 multiplier.
Skills are of several difficulties.

Simple Skills have a cost multiplier of x2.

Difficult Skills have a cost multiplier of x3.

Very Difficult Skills have a cost multiplier of x4. Very Difficult skills generally represent those that require substantial time committments - as an example, most science skills are Very Difficult as they require years of dedicated learning.

Attributes & Characteristics

These are the defining 'hard' characteristics of your character. Attributes are your dice pool to resolve tests.

Physique

This is the raw physical prowess of your character while she is on her own two feet, governing everything from strength, agility, endurance, athleticism and general toughness. Physique tends to be the most immediately obvious thing about a person, as a good physique can be easily recognized in someone who is well-built and fit looking.

Perception

Perception is an individual’s ability to notice things around them, both in the literal sense of using one’s five (or more) senses and in the figurative sense of having an ‘eye for detail’. Perceptive characters will often also do well at fine, delicate work that requires substantial concentration.

Intellect

Intellect is the rational, problem-solving part of an individual’s mind and thus is a broad measure of ‘brainpower’ and memory. A strong intellect makes solving puzzles and planning strategems easy and is an all-round asset in the 22nd century galaxy.

Wits

The ability to think quickly on one’s feet is important, both in taking fire on the internet and taking fire on the battlefield. Witty characters will rarely be caught flat-footed and will jump into action quickly when situations shift.

Charisma

Charisma measures the likeability of your character in several ways. Although few player characters are anything but superior in physical attractiveness, those with high Charisma do tend to be the coolest or hottest.

Skills

Skills are things your character has learned how to do. Swordsmanship, hyperspatial navigation, accounting, monster ranching; all are skills. Skills are broken down into the attribute they are most commonly associated with
Skills provide a negative difficulty modifier (ie, they make tests easier).
Skills are divided into three main groups determined by their usual attribute dependency.

Physique

Athletics

Brawl/Martial Arts

Melee

Endurance

Zero-G

Stealth

Perception

Firearms

Legerdemain

Drive

Pilot (D); this skill covers conventional joystick-and-footpedal piloting schemes.

Gunnery (D); this skill covers the use of weapons on mecha and fightercraft that require both a keen eye and twitch reflexes.

Awareness

Investigation

Intellect

Academics (Field) (VD)

Bureaucracy

Computer (D); this skill deals with complex programming and infosecurity tasks.

Engineering (Field) (VD)

Medicine (D)

Strategy (D)

Security; this skill deals with mundane security systems, both setting them up and avoiding them.

Artillery (D); this skill covers large fixed weapons that use computerized targeting systems, exemplified by the batteries on warships or heavyweight missiles.

Remote Operation (D); this skill covers the operation of remotely-piloted craft, ranging from recon drones to mobile dolls. The maximum skill level (Pilot, Gunnery) usable via remote operations is 2x the Remote Operations skill level. Remote Operation can also replace Pilot.

Electronic Warfare (D)

Helmsman (D)

Wits

Mecha Fighting; this skill covers mecha-scale melee and unarmed.

Savoir-Faire

Intimidation

Tactics

Neural Interfacing (D); this skill acts similar to Remote Operation, except it covers mecha piloted via direct neural interfaces.

Charisma

Red Tape

Interrogation

Subterfuge

Politics (VD)

Command

Etiquette

Performance (Field) (VD)

General

Specialty [Name]: ‘Specialty’ is a catch-all term used for any relatively rare, unusual or otherwise irregular skills that do not fall into the ones above.

Resolution Rules

Fundamentals

Dice pool size is equal to the appropriate Attribute, with every dice equal or exceeding the target number scoring one success. Having a suberbly-toned mind or body doesn't make up for lacking in critical skills.

The base difficulty for tests is 10, modified by skills as well as various situational penalties or bonuses. No difficulty may be lowered to lower than 3. Difficulties may go above 10, though for casual gameplay it is suggested that difficulties above 10 simply be treated automatic failures.

Note that positive modifiers increase the target number and are thus bad whereas negative modifiers decrease the target number and are thus good.

Typical modifiers

Very Difficult task: +4

Particularly Difficult task: +2

Easy task: -2

Very Easy/routine task: -4

Distraction: +1 to +3

Appropriate paraphernalia/equipment: -1 to -3

Rolling above 10
For those situations where the game calls for rolling difficulties above 10, use the following rule:
For every 10 rolled, re-roll the dice looking for 3+ if the target is 11, 5+ if it 12, so on.

Botching
A botch is where a character screws up particularly badly, actively doing something wrong as opposed to simply failing to accomplish the task. They can range from the inconvenient (inputting some wrong data) to dangerous (failing to notice the black ice on the road while in a car chase) to potentially lethal (juggling lightsabers . . . badly). Botches happen whenever the roll is failed and at least one 1 is rolled.

Rule of 10
10s count as a success and allow for a re-roll, potentially get more successes.

Rule of Supremacy
If the roll exceeds the difficulty by at least 100%, (ie rolling an 8 when the difficulty is 4), you may opt to roll another dice as if you had rolled a 10. Rolling a Supreme 10 counts as two successes and allows for a re-rolls. Of course by this point you're probably already accumulated more than enough successes; GMs and players are encouraged to avoid this rule in the interest of fast play.

Damage and Survival

Hitting with a weapon requires at least one success; bare-handed attacks, melee weapons and ranged weapons with Precise add one dice to their damage roll for every additional success scored on the to-hit roll. Attempts to dodge, parry or otherwise avoid the attack eliminate successes on a 1:1 ratio.

Speeds and Ranges

Simple Ranges

Since in reality a battlefield is not a perfectly flat shooting gallery, GMs and players are encouraged to use the Simple Range system. This abstracts away hard numbers for ranges, instead going by 'range bands'. This makes it more suited for rapid, cinematic combat.

The range bands are as follows:

Point-Blank

Very Close

Close

Near Medium

Medium

Far Medium

Long

Very Long

Extreme

Scaling

The size difference between a 180 centimer, 85 kilogram human and a 15 meter, 60 ton mecha is immense. To ease play, the process of Scaling is used.
In essence, Scaling splits several objects into one of several broad scales, based on size. Within each scale all combat or other resolutions occur as per usual. This is to keep dice pools and general gameplay manageable, and each scale thus generally represents a normal 'mode' of play. The two most common examples are Characters (x1) and Mecha (x10).
Scaling comes into effect when cross-scale resolution occurs. As a rule, in a conflict between a smaller scale and a larger scale, the smaller one will be more accurate and more dificult to hit, while the larger one will inflict more damage and be tougher. All scale effects are reversible; thus a man shooting at a tank has a -3 difficulty modifier (making it an easy attack) but the tank will likely need 30 or 40 successes to penetrate its armor (effectively impossible with a rifle or equivalent). Said tank would have a +3 difficulty using its main gun (making it a quite difficult shot) but will inflict 10 successes for every one rolled - seek cover!
Note that scaling is essentially a game simplification to keep book-keeping down. It should not be taken to mean that a tank gun is literally only ten times the strength of a rifle, just that it is much more powerful.

x1 Scale

x1 Scale is the default character scale.

x2 Scale

x2 Scale is used for particularly hefty pieces of hardware that are still broadly 'people-sized'; military power armor, autocannon rifles, etc.

+1 to-hit penalty

-1 Penetration bonus

+1 Armor Rating bonus

x2 strength and protection bonus

x5 Scale

x5 Scale is sometimes used for small but agile vehicles such as 'heavy gear' equivalents.

+2 to-hit penalty

-2 Penetration bonus

+2 Armor Rating bonus

x5 strength and protection bonus

x5 Scale

x10 Scale is the scale of most large vehicles from trucks to tanks to mecha to spaceships.

+3 to-hit penalty

-5 Penetration bonus

+5 Armor Rating bonus

x10 strength and protection bonus