Sphere RPG System Mechanics

Core Concepts

Because many of the following concepts apply not just to individual player characters but for all levels of combat, the term 'entity' is used as a catch-all for anything that would actively engage in combat.

Reality Distortion Levels

A concept meant primarily for character-level play, Reality Distortion Level is a tool to give the GM a powerful option when designing their campaign. It recognizes that while Sphere aims to achieve verisimilitude it ultimately takes a 'dramatic' approach to gameplay and storytelling - however, some game groups may wish to modify various elements of the rules in order to alter the 'feel' of the game - changing it from a gameplay experience that balances fun, drama and realism to a hard-bitten near-simulation of warfare at the end of the 22nd century, or else high-flying space opera where any talented, heroic amateur can match a trained soldier.
Consequently we offer three RDLs to adjust your game as you see fit:

Adventure: The 'classic' space opera style in the vein of Star Wars, Macross, Legend of the Galactic Heroes and others where the protagonists are the pivotal characters in the universe. Any player characters should be larger than life in some way, as should their named opponents who are equally important. Anonymous characters should be of little to no threat outside of large groups and PCs should regularly do exceptional things. Adventure is the most forgiving RDL, and has bonuses for out of scale tasks - what is a space opera hero who can't rally a planet to his side?

Drama: This is the default level, wherein player characters are somewhat exceptional but more due to their potential and their focus as the protagonists than anything else. GMs should balance 'doing awesome stuff' with clever thinking and situational awareness. PCs likewise can expect that even anonymous opponents to pose a threat but also to be able to have moments of heroic excellence. All rules effects are unmodified for Drama.

Documentary: In the Documentary RDL, being the protagonist of the story means little beyond the tag on your uniform. Anonymous enemies will always pose a threat. Play this RDL if your gaming group prefers 'realism', wants to focus on a more war-is-hell themed game or simply likes playing on Legendary. Documentary is the most lethal RDL.

Dice tests

Sphere uses 10 sided dice (‘D10s’) in varying numbers to resolve tests. Normally the target number is 7 or greater, though in some cases this is modified upwards or downwards; - difficulty makes tasks easier, while + difficulty does the inverse. The number of successes rolled is the Margin of Success (MoS). In opposed rolls the MoS is compared, but when a static roll is made, the MoS determines how successful you are. Generally the more complex or otherwise difficult the task being attempted, the greater the number of successes required.

0 Successes is a failure.

1-2 Success is a success on anything particularly simple, but otherwise it is a salvageable near-failure situation – the task takes longer and/or is shoddily done.

Rule of 1s

Every 1 rolled reduces the number of rolled successes by 1.

Rule of 10

Every 10 rolled adds 1 bonus success.

Any number that is in brackets is the number of automatic additional successes granted. Thus a roll of 4D[3] would roll 4 dice and add three successes. If at any time there is a dice penalty being applied, automatic successes are removed first before (unrolled) dice are.

Core Skills

Core Skills are an optional concept that is appropriate for some games or groups and are the specific skills that particularly vital for for all characters; for example a 'mecha pilot' campaign would treat Piloting, Gunnery, etc as Core Skills. What Core Skills do is increase the cost of these skills by several times. While this may seem counter-intuitive, (why are important skills more expensive?) this is done to disincentive characters from simply pouring all their points into skills they will use regularly at the expense of breadth - if everyone is a super-exceptional pilot, no-one is a super-exceptional pilot. Or, to put it another way, it lets characters take substantial 'side' skills without falling extremely far behind.

Action Points

Action Ponts (hereafter, 'AP') are a measure of how many actions an entity can do each turn. Taking some actions require more than one AP, and AP can be banked across turns. As AP fluctuates from turn to turn, it has two sub-stats.

(Max) AP: The maximum amount of AP an entity may carry over at the end of its turn to the following one. Importantly, there is no cap on how many AP a unit may have during its turn, so it is quite possible to spend substantially more AP than an entity's nominal max during a single turn.

AP Refresh: How many AP an entity regains naturally at the start of its action.

Attributes

These are the defining 'hard' characteristics of your character and represent your innate physical, mental or social abilities. Attributes are a character’s base dice pool.

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 stratagems 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 tend to be anything but superior in physical attractiveness, those with high Charisma do tend to be the coolest or hottest.

Psyche

Psyche is a measure of a character's mental fortitude and resilience. Characters with a high Psyche will carry on when lesser individuals would have collapsed or given up and easily shrug off weirdness and chaos.

Edge

Edge is that undefinable something that allows individuals to do incredible things that seem barely possible in hindsight. Perhaps it is adrenaline rush, perhaps an overclocked nervous system, perhaps just luck or simple narrative priority. No matter how you

Abilities

Abilities are broad skillets your character has learned; work in a business, operate a starship, fight as a soldier. Abilities can be assumed to apply in any situation relevant to them; filing a report, preparing a presentation or schmoozing with the execs would all fall under Business, for example. Greater levels of Ability represent a greater degree of training and experience. For example, Soldier 1 might represent a reservist or a particularly avid survivalist – amateur hobbyists, in essence – while going past this essentially assumes some level of professional history. Almost all characters will have multiple Abilities representing different facets and periods of their lives.
As Abilities are very broad they are also open to interpretation; if your Business Ability was in a warehouse you probably can program robot-pickers or use Physique to lift things and work long shifts but are probably not going to any significant bonus to sealing a deal with a client. All Abilities should have some form of background to them. One does not simply have ‘a Hobby’ for example – it is something. This broadness also means that Abilities can be used in unusual way, perhaps with penalties at the GM’s discretion.
It is also possible for Abilities to overlap. There is no set resolution for if this happens as the possible situations are endless. However, for some guidance if they clearly synergize in the task they can add together, if it is unclear take the better Ability and if one is clearly more situationally appropriate, use it – even if it is lower.
Abilities double rolled successes on die pools on a 1:1 basis. Furthermore, if Abilities are rated higher than the Attribute being rolled they count as additional dice instead at a 1:1 ratio of additional dice for every point of skill exceeding the rolled attribute.

Skills

Skills are specific things your character has learned to do outside of the generalities of Abilities; design a combat frame, hold a PhD in a scientific field, be an effective strategist, operate a molten salt cooled fission reactor. Skills typically represent ‘spikes’ in ability, though they can equally represent esoteric or specialized expertise, generally of the sort that requires specific training and results in specific expertise.
Of course this is contextual; an officer worker who spends several nights a month at the shooting range would have the firearms Skill (unless they are hopeless, anyhow . . . ) while a soldier would simply get it assumed as part of their soldiering Ability. A soldier with the firearms Skill would presumably be a marksman of some ability.
Skills stack with any/all relevant Abilities, thus someone with Soldier 3 and Longarms 2 would have potentially up to 5 bonus successes on rolls made.

Derived Values

The following stats are derived from a character's Attributes and Skills.

Action Points

This will need to get tweaked.

AP Max: Wits

AP Refresh: Wits + Physique?

Shock Resistance

Shock Resistance = Physique x 2 + Willpower

Status

Status is a measure of social 'pull' a character has. At lower levels it mostly represents those who know the character directly whereas at increasing levels it starts to be more about those who know the character at a distance or by reputation. At the highest levels a character is a genuine celebrity of some sort.
There are three types of Statuses:

Fame

Fame is both the easiest and most transient status to have and is typically the result of things the character has or continues to do - fame as an actor, or artist, or musician, or reporter, as examples. People will often be attracted to someone with Fame and will often do favors for them, but it is difficult to leverage Fame on its own for truly substantial results.

Authority

Authority tends to flow out of a character's position - for example a government position, or the head of a research unit. People will defer more readily to someone with Authority, but likewise those with Authority are expected to take responsibility. As well, Authority tends to vanish once a character leaves a position.

Rank

Rank is more or less the military equivalent to Authority, however it is something that travels with the character - a Colonel is a Colonel even if they aren't currently leading an army unit. Unfortunately it comes with the heaviest expectation and is far less useful outside of the specific military where it is earned, and can even be a hinderance.

Resolution Rules

Combat Flow

Initiative Step (rolled at start of combat or when an entity attempts to Take Initiative)
1) Roll initiative (physique + wits + 2D10)

Proceed in order.

Actions may be held to interrupt any subsequent action, but must be declared before the action in question is resolved.

Tactics roll can be used to give a bonus (figure out how to determine) to all friendlies

Action Steps (cycles through entity by entity)
2) Recover AP (Action Points)

All entities recover a certain amount of AP a turn.

Additional AP may be gained by some actions (jump out of ambush, etc)

3) Take action by spending AP (example below: shooting!)

Shooting is done with the appropriate pool (normally Perception x Soldier)

Weapon power is reduced by armor

Any excess is compared to the target's thresholds to determine wound level, shock effect, etc.

Armor Piercing is soaked by Hardened Armor; Hardened Armor wil not soak standard attacks.

AP actions include:

Shooting/Fighting

AP cost is defined for each item/mode.

Moving

Misc actions Doing Things

Wounding

Weapons attack with their Impact value, which is their physical ability to inflict damage. If the weapon exceeds the defender's summed resistance threshold it inflicts a wound. Higher thresholds may result in more severe effects, such as instant death (literally or functionally for combat purposes).

Entities with Stamina also need to roll the Shock value of the weapon against their Shock Resistance - Success means that the individual continues to fight. Failure means that they slide into unconsciousness or combat ineffectiveness as their body goes into shock. Characters in this state are incapacitated for combat, though hardly dead - they may still be conscious of their surroundings and even if not, modern battlefield medicine can keep almost anyone alive so long as their brain remains intact.

Being in a fight is not a static experience though; with adrenaline released into the bloodstream, humans can perform physical tasks better, react more quickly and resist pain. As a result, every point of Adrenaline a character has provides the following bonuses, to a maximum of double the base value:

+1 Shock Resistance

+1 to any perception or physical actions that involve major movement (running, spotting enemies, etc)

-1 to any any actions that require concentration or fine motion (hacking a control cortex, running a bypass, etc)

Events that modify a character's Adrenaline are as follows:

Gunfire (first time): +2

Getting hit (first time): +2

Taking a wound (first time): +4

Taking additional wounds: +1/per

Calming exercises: -1

Lull in fighting: -1 to -5

If a character ever has Wounds higher than their Shock Resistance, they automatically pass out.

Using Edge

Edge can be used in several ways to gain an advantage. No matter which is used, only one may be used per turn. Unless otherwise noted, all of these use one point of Edge.

1) Edge can be used to add Willpower dice to any roll. This must be declared before the dice are rolled.

2) Edge can be used to add one automatic success on any roll or remove one hostile success from a roll directly affecting the character. This can be done after the roll is made.

3) Refresh the character's AP pool by their usual amount.

4) Survive any otherwise lethal attack. This consumes one point of permanent Edge.

Recovering Edge
Edge recovers naturally every time the character rests, one point per full night's sleep (or the equivalent). Characters can be assumed to recover all Edge at the end or start of a story arc. Additionally, Edge can be recovered during gameplay via several methods.

1) The simplest is to deliberately flub a roll - the character can announce that Murphy has struck and a successuful roll they have just done instead fails, regaining one Edge. Alternatively, they can state that a roleplaying situation goes poorly (such as having their cargo temporarily impounded). GMs should not let players abuse this on otherwise irrelevant rolls or situations, likewise it should not be taken as license to punish players, merely inconvenience them.

2) Whenever a character achieves some significant personal milestone or success, they can roll Willpower and for every 6+, recover one point of Edge, minimum of one.

Weapon Tags

Burst X: Weapon fires multiple shots in rapid succession, adding +X to dice for to-hit rolls.

Weapons with multiple settings may record them as Burst +X (+Y diff), in which case using the burst mode increases the target number.

Threat X: Threatening weapons may ablate additional PP; roll XD and for every 6+ ablate an additional PP.

Suppress: Weapon can be used effectively for suppression, in which case the firer can opt to reduce the to-hit pool by X, gaining Threat X.

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 man 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.

Medium Scale

Medium Scale is the default character scale.

Most interactions dealing with individuals or a handful of people are at this scale.

Convince one person.

Run a boutique.

Large Scale

Large 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

Coordinate a platoon of soldiers

Run a small office.

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

Command a ship

Repair a mecha

x10 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

Repair a warship

Plan an invasion

x100 Scale

This scale is where truly nation-scale effects come into play.

Get elected ZOCU Chairman

Convince 20% of the voting populace that the sitting President is a crypto-religious foreign national

Group Combat

Flowchart.jpg

While in many cases individuals (be they people or fighter jets) are resolved seperately, in some situations it makes more sense to ok got mega distracted. Point form mode:

Simple mode

+1 dice per member in the unit

every sux adds +1 attack with base stats.

Every sux after all members get their attack provides usual bonuses to ALL attacks.

Leadership/Tactics provides a limit somehow

Added things:

Scaling bonus so highly skilled groups get more dice

Does this even make sense?