FUDGE Corebook
- 2024-11-21
| This document may deviate from the official FUDGE rules at any point. It’s still got a heart of FUDGE, but I will embellish, extend, or omit at will, as is appropriate for my unique setting. Differences may be unmarked. |
Character Creation
- Trait
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character descriptor: skill, gift, fault, superpower, stubby nose… Not all traits must necessarily be present in a given game, and their usage and flavor may be wildly inconsistent.
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Level: quantitative adjective further describing a trait. The standard 7 levels are listed in the table, [FUDGE Trait Levels]
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Attribute: a trait that is posessed by everyone in the game world, normalized for the game world to fair.†
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Skill: a trait that is a) not an attribute, b) improved through practice.
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Distinctions / Gifts: traits that qualitatively alter a character’s behavior.
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Boon: trait that is neither attribute, nor skill, and aids the character in posession of it.†2
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Bane: a distinction that makes life harder for its user.
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Other: there are distinctions that may be considered neither positive nor negative. From a cosmic perspective, I think that even having a body to receive attributes at all is a gift.
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| † I will often use stat as a term to mean attribute. |
| †2 Supernormal traits, though technically gifts, are treated separately in the following chapter, [_para_and_supernormal_traits]. |
| Descriptors | Example | Deviation on FUDGE role |
|---|---|---|
Supreme / Incredible |
A result of divine intervention, extensive body and mind modification, reality warping powers, or author fiat. |
+4 |
Expert / Masterful / Extraordinary |
The highest level of achievement normally attainable on one’s own without significant aid, technological modification, or magic |
+3 |
Great / Professional |
A level of performance that is consistently good enough to be a mainstay of the character’s livelihood |
+2 |
High / Fair |
Improved from setting’s baseline, yet subextraordinary |
+1 |
Mid / Common |
Average, commonplace everymans' qualities |
0 |
Poor / Lacking |
Markedly underperforming, but still passable |
-1 |
Terrible / Disabled |
Useless for daily performance, in need of significant assistance |
-2 |
Attributes
The only attribute basic FUDGE assumes is Damage Capacity, and that is still optional.
Many games like to have a 3-way split: Fighter / Mage / Thief; Mind / Body / Soul; Physical / Mental / Social… It works; why reinvent the wheel?
- Fighter
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governs corporeally-oriented tests and actions
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fighting people (obviously)
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intimidating people with fighterly-threateningly capabilities
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acrobatics and sheer bodily performance
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- Mage
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stat related to esoteric and paranormal abilities
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anything psi, magical, miracles, eldritch, and similar
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qualities dealing with charisma, moving crowds, changing minds
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musical / artistic abilities
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- Thief
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catch all for other, dextrous, conniving, clandestine, and political abilities
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technically-oriented intelligence abilities
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fast-talking, guile
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urban-traversal abilities, hiding in crowds, hiding in general…
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- Initiative
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Measure of a character’s ability to take action.
Other: Rank, Status, Wealth…
There is some overlap between Mage and Thief in this list, and may be between other traits as well. There are many ways to skin a cat; one can persuade through coersion, through charm, or through guile.
| Skills are unrelated to attributes in FUDGE. A character may have selective intelligence, for example, being very dense in most contexts, but a wizard in their special interest of plant identification and cultivation. |
Skills
Animal; Artistic; Athletic; Combat; Covert; Craft; Dungeon-delving; Knowledge; Language; Social (Coersive); Medical; Mercantile; Outdoor; Proffesional (related to a specific career); Social (Fellowship); Social (Formal); Spiritual; Technical; Urban…
Skills have a broad/narrow naming structure: Medical/Surgery, for example, or Surgery/Neuro… If a character attempts an action for which they lack the narrow skill, attempt to apply the broad one at -1 Level. Many narrow skills may expand a common broad one: Craft/Armor, Craft/Masonry, Craft/Carpentry together make a very skilled craftsperson.
Skills in general function basically like narrower attributes. Both may be improved through practice, both describe quantitative ability in a domain of challenge. However, attributes are intended to remain more broadly applicable (and also slightly more potent as a consequence), and more open to interpretation in regard to how they are applied.
Gifts & Faults / Perks & Quirks / Boons & Banes, & Other Distinctions
Where the other traits discussed so far described quantitative features, these describe qualitative features. Regardless of the name, each distinction is unique and adds or removes a specific qualitative feature to or from a character, deepening the way to that character behaves.
Absent-Minded; Absolute Direction; Addicted; Ambidextrous; Ambitious; Animal Empathy; Anxious; Attractive; Awkward; Babbler; Balanced; Berserker; Bloodlust; Bluffer; Borderline; Compulsive [Something-er…]; Contact Network [Social Group]; Coward; Curious; Devoted; Disavowed; Distractible; Edgy; Empathic; Enemy; Fanatical; Finicky; Flexible; Focused; Foolhardy; Garrulous; Glutton; Gossiper; Greedy; Gullible; Heartbreaker; Honorable; Hot-headded; Humanitarian; Idealist; Indecisive; Intolerant; Jealous; Keen Memory; Keen Reflexes; Keen Senses; Kleptomaniac; Large/Small; Lazy; Literate [in…]; Loyal; Lucky; Macho; Manic; Melancholy; Night/Heat/etc Vision; Nosy; Obsessed; Offended; Old; Outlaw; Overconfident; Owed Favors; Owes Favors; Pacifist; Patron [of…]; Penniless; Perfect Timing; Peripheral Vision; Phobic; Prankster; Push-over; Quixotic; Rank; Rapid Healing; Ratchet; Reputatable / (In)Famous; Robust; Sweet Singing Voice; Soft; Spider Sense; Split-Personality; Status; Stubborn; Tight-ass; Tolerant; Tough; Unlucky; Unshaken; Vain; Violent; Wealthy; Willed; Worried; Youthful; Zealot; Contextual Attribute Adjustment; Tactless…
| You decide what these mean, subject to FM-approval. |
The best distinctions are neither helpful nor harmful without exception, but do a bit of both, whether directly or indirectly, and present many opportunities to tell a story, and make the character more complex.
FUDGE IT!
I prefer the idea of not using Fuckit Points at baseline, and only then introducing them in certain contexts. Their use is optional, never guaranteed, the outcome undetermined. They should not accumulate. I don’t want them to be a stable resource for the players to hoard. They should be sources of story inspiration, also, or give players the ability to do cool stuff that is fun to do and more fun to tell.
Character Creation and Leveling
Characters can be valued in terms of FUDGE, or FUDGE Points. Stronger, faster, more potent characters in terms of game mechanics have more FUDGE than lesser ones. The value of character traits in FUDGE is given by this table:
| Trait | Cost in FUDGE |
|---|---|
Gift |
3 |
Attribute |
2 |
Skill |
1 |
A good default:
Attributes begin at fair. Skills begin at poor or terrible, according to how broad or narrow they are, though for many common actions, characters may test against a relevant attribute instead.
- For starting professionals
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1 Professional attribute, 1 High attribute, and 1 Fair.
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1 Professional skill, 2 High, 3 Mid
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2 to 5 distinctions, FM-approved.
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Para- and Supernormal Traits
The Magic System
In game terms, there isn’t a magic system; there’s just action resolution. Magic is none other than an interaction in the world between phenomena through the paranormal, occult aspects of the world’s design. In setting-specific terms, what we call the occult is part of the right design of the world; there’s nothing magical about it, just non-newtonian physics.
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Grace: a causal leyline system, connecting events and times and places, people and things. Appears to Grace, (the person, A.K.A. Kaya) as multicolored textiles — threads, ribbons, fabrics etcetera, shifting through space, literally tying this and that together. She affects this tapestry by tugging on its threads, navigates it by following them from place to place. Probably looks similar to others as well. In game terms, this can be interacted with through the FUDGE Point system. (And maybe more — Cards? Special dice? Other bizarreness.)
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Grace is a party resource, meaning that all players share the grace pool, further tying the effects of grace to one another.
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Other, Mundane Supernormal Power Types
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Psi: mental occult powers, latent in low levels in all living things, first weaponized through rudimentary means by USA Alphabet Orgs in 1950’s MK ULTRA program, and rejuvinated at a higher tech level in 2043’s METAL HEART program, by NUSA.
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Prosthetics: catch-all category for human improvement technology, from gene and hormone therapies and cybernetic implants, to wearables and handhelds, devices which restore function to disabled body and mind systems, or improve upon baseline in able-bodied persons.
(other names include cybernetics, implants, mods, etc. different types would be available in-universe according to their kind, but because in game-terms, they all work more or less alike, it makes sense to ignore their distinctions in this chapter.) -
Non-humans: "Normal" is just "Comfortable for humans." Go figure that paranormal would not be that. Phantoms and SCPs and what-have-you will of course all have abilities beyond human norms, many attributes humans don’t or can’t posess, and may be lacking some that humans take for granted. Non-human campaigns may redefine what is normal for them. It would get insufferably tedius to be dealing with modified rolls all the time as a miniature party of uplifted mice, for example, or a timeless party of ancient ghosts.
| Characters may sometimes be required to take Required Secondary Powers in order to use their supernormal abilities effectively! |
Scale
I don’t like the way scale is handled in original FUDGE. It’s unintuitive, given an opaque explanation, and seems cumbersome. It’s the execution I disagree with — the general design, To adjust the traits of characters related to their size, seems solid.
I want size to be expressed more like FUDGE’s other stats on the character sheet. Players are familiar with things of different size and mass. It is much simpler to say, "Ananzi the spider is a large insect," and have each player understand intuitively, roughly how large Ananzi is in comparison to themselves and other insects.
Scale costs should rise by the cube of the previous value, same as real-world mass does with distance.
E.g, a halfling is half the size of a man, so it should cost them half the XP to develop their strength, they should consume half the stamina of a man for the same task, etc.
Action Resolution
Opposed and Unopposed actions are familiar in FUDGE as they are to players of other games. FUDGE can use d6s, FUDGE dice, percentiles, or no dice at all!
When using dice, tally the number of wins (W), add any conditional modifiers, subtract the losses (L), find the trait on the character sheet that is being tested, and adjust it up or down by the difference of W-L.
Maybe have only the player roll, so the NPC will default to whatever their trait is being tested, or only roll 1 or 2 dice as opposed to 4. This still gives some variation, but makes results more predictable for the players.
Some Opposed actions have a minimum level that is needed for success. This is often the case for combat. In these cases, even if the attacker beats the defender’s score, the attack fails, unless the attacker scores over the minimum threshold.
Combat
Combat should be fast and frenetic. Without good strategy and coordination, it should even be confusing. It should then be simple to plan and execute strategy, and to remain coordinated, that way, players will be more likely to do it. Combat strategy and communication should be a character skill, One that players can easily employ to give themselves and the rest of the party bonuses throughout the encounter, and which, a character that lacks the skill cannot use.
Example: PCs are a highly trained professional military unit, entering a house to rescue a hostage. They have combat form skills, which give them a bonus to attack and defense as they move through the building, any time they are in sight of each other, and a bonus to initiative for every one of their member who is within 2 or 3 meters (half the distance of the average room in a house). With such great passive skills, of course the players are going to use them, because it almost takes more effort not to use them!
That said, take example two: PCs are a group of high school kids trapped in a haunted mansion with a mad scientist and several of his escaped monstrosities. They have few combat skills, and no form. Some of them may have some peer familiarity with each other, giving them a slight bonus to defending each other, but not all. These characters will be much less likely to work together, as they gain much less benefit from doing so!
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Initiative: a rating that estimates a characters ability to respond to danger and take action.
Maybe a hybrid dramatic/turn-based system will be fun.
Combat begins when one character decides to use violence. The awareness and attention of the characters involved is gauged, and together with their traits and a roll, used to find their initiative. The character with the greatest initiative gets to move first.† Each move the character takes costs initiative. To find initiative, take 3, roll, and add modifiers. A poor result removes one from the total, a fair result adds one, and so on. A mid result leaves initiative as it is. A common human initiative limit is 6. The initiative adjustment is limited to between 0 and the trait on the character sheet. The combatants take actions by order of initiative, from greatest to least. The round is over when all characters have exhausted their initiative. The next round begins, and all combatants reroll initiative.
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† If the character with the greatest initiative is not also the one initiating combat, then:
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| Action | Cost | Effects / Notes |
|---|---|---|
Move |
2 |
Characters may gain speed at the expense of attack accuracy and defense. |
Attack |
1 |
A single attack with a drawn weapon |
Melee Grab |
1 |
Grapple, tackle, wrestle, etc. |
Use Item / Draw Weapon |
2 |
Also swapping or reloading current weapon. |
A minimum result of poor is needed to land a hit. Otherwise, the attack is a miss. In addition, an attack must score fair (+1) or greater relative to an opponent’s defense in order to land a hit. A mid difference (+0) results in a draw, and can be visualized as both enemies circling each other, throwing jabs that are blocked, or when shooting, hitting the area around their target. A relative degree of Supreme (+4) or greater results in a critical, which has the potential to cripple an opponent or open them up to special attacks.
TK:Rules
A body part is in one of 4 states:
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Unscathed
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Scratched: superficially damaged, and suffers no penalty to function. Scratch damage resets at the end of a combat scene.
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Wounded: part is hurt enough to impare function.
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Crippled: part is unable to function, or dismembered.
A body part can survive scratch damage per combat scene equal to half the character’s Fighter stat, rounded down. Scratch damage beyond the scratch limit adds one wound, but resets the scratch damage to zero, allowing the member to suffer more scratch damage before it is wounded again. A part may suffer wounding damage equal to the character’s Fighter stat, before it is crippled. Wounds do not reset after combat, and must be treated with medicine. Wounded and crippled body parts that go untreated have the potential to cause complications due to bleeding or internal injuries.
Usually, it is not necessary to determine hit location. Attacks that land will hit somewhere on the body, and do damage until the target is incapacitated due to pain or injury. Attacks that critical are an exception, as they have the potential to cripple a limb or organ, and so are called attacks — but the location must be called beforehand.
Melee Combat
A character will recieve a bonus to their initiative and defense from any attacks made from a lower position, or when they have sure footing. Characters will have a penalty to initiative and defense when they are off balance, being attacked from above, or on rough terrain.
A fighter suffers a poor (-1) penalty to both offense and defense to opponents that are to either side, and a terrible (-2) penalty to opponents at their rear. As well, they suffer a -1 to defense for every additional attacker beyond a single one in a round.