4. Playing the Game.

What is Fallen Cities - The Game.

Fallen Cities is a role-playing game (RPG) using the Apocalypse World Engine. RPGs are games that run a story through the imaginations of the group of people taking part in it, mostly as a collaborative effort with the members of the gaming group bouncing bits and pieces off of each other and presenting them to the group as a whole.

Apocalypse World was a game developed by Vincent Baker, and the system (game mechanic) used to run that game is what I have adapted for this game.

In a gaming group, you have players, and you have the Games Master. The size of a gaming group can vary from just two, or more, but due to the need to allow everyone a time in the spotlight, I don’t recommend more than 6 players (even though these rules allow for upto 8). Between three and six is more typical, as this provides the most opportunities for each member of the group to contribute. Time is limited and valuable for gaming groups, so it is always best to apply reasonable control levels.

The Games Master (GM) is responsible for providing an outline story for the players to interact within. The amount of detail each GM puts into their story will be different every time. Some GM’s are completely improvisational, they have a vague idea, they throw it out to their players and off they go. At the other extreme you have GM’s who have spent weeks developing their story and their world and their characters. They throw it out there and expect their players to fit in. This later style is not suggested, it is a straight jacket on your players imaginations, you need to loosen up. Somewhere in the middle is a good place to be.

My preference as a GM will be to have a broad outline of their story, its background, its startup and some ideas of the future (essentially what you have created with your Fronts and Clocks). Together with your players you will take this skeleton and flesh it out with more detail. That is what you get here in Fallen Cities. In this particular game I am also putting forward an Endgame. The Endgame is what you do when everyone wants a change, or when your players achieve a set condition (knowingly) and want to see how they have done. It is a wrap up of the future based on their efforts in the past. Will they leave the world a better place than it was before? It is possible to run an EndGame at anytime, and you could conceivably run it after each session to show your players how their actions change the future, but I don’t recommend that.

Fallen Cities is the story of a bleak future, triggered by human greed, invaded by alien desires, a world without much hope for the common man. The characters will straddle all three of these worlds, being of the common man, working for the greedy and fighting the Alien. As a GM you should in no way soften your stance on this opinion, it is the basis of this game and to weaken any part of it lessens the point of the game.

The Rich have sold their souls for comfort and luxury, they have turned their backs on the rest of humanity, this is the fact of this game. The Rich are greedy and selfish, and represent the past.

The Aliens are alien, they have no humanity, no compassion, understanding or concern for any of the life that exists on our world. The Aliens are the instruments of change or destruction, depending on how your game goes.

The common man is oppressed and represents both Despair and Hope, and through them the future. They do not improve during this game, their salvation lies in the future, based on the actions of the player’s characters.

The future, the unknown country, is ultimately the aim of this game. I have assumed that your players will aspire to build Hope by default, but every group is different.

The Alien in Fallen Cities is a by product of the past, and simply a mechanism to give your players a clear and distinctive enemy. Characters will be sent out on missions to kill aliens and collect their MIASMA to benefit the Rich. The Aliens are here to provide that function, but also to provide the feeling of despair and destruction and disconnection from reality/humanity that is the background of the game. Yet at the same time, the Aliens provide a reason for the characters to exist, and through the characters you can generate Hope and enact change.

The real Aliens of the game however, the horrors, are the people of The Fallen City. Don’t forget that.

Mechanics

The Apocalypse World Engine, developed by Vincent Baker, diverges from more traditional rpg’s by shifting most of the mechanical burden (dice rolling and decisions as a result of those rolls) to the players, and sharing the narrative burden (the story and flights of fantasy) equally amongst the GM and the players.

It does this by having most of the story simply told as a conversation between the GM, who moderates, and the players, who imagine. When the GM (or the players) notice that a sequence of the conversation matches with a Move (a recognised action) in its dynamics, then the player is asked if the story they are telling matches with the effort suggested in the Move. If it does match then a dice roll is made (2d6, two six sided dice) by the player to provide a determination result. The GM never has to roll dice.

A Move is an action sequence, that uses a dice roll to determine its outcome, inserting a controlled degree of randomness into the result. Most actions of consequence in the game are done with Moves. Moves are tools for the characters and the GM. There is no need to fall into an initiative-based rotation. There is no need for turn-taking. There is no set time period that an action (a Move) takes or requires.

As part of the conversation you are all having, Moves should suggest themselves naturally. The GM’s job is to listen to what is being said, pick up when Moves are implied or suggested, confirm them and ask for a resolution. The resolution of a Move is a 2d6 roll, with modifiers, and consulting the details of the Moves description to work out what might have happened.

The Move result itself is flexible, you don’t have to use the specifics suggested in a Move, but they provide guidelines and examples as to what is expected, and as a guide to what is possible.

Most moves will have 3 areas of result:

• Success

• Success with consequences or diminishment.

• Failure, possibly with soft or hard consequences.

These results are reflected in the dice roll results, total of the 2d6 roll (added together), plus modifiers:

10+ Success (yes and…)

7-9 Success with consequences (yes but…) or diminishment (mostly yes…)

6- Failure (no but…no and...)

The Moves come in various forms and types. There are a set of Basic Moves, some Playbook (character) Moves, Alien Moves, GM Moves, Mission Moves, and a bunch of other useful Moves. The labels should suggest to you that not everyone gets to use every Move. Characters get to use all the Basic Moves and their Playbook Moves, and a few others. The GM gets to use GM moves and Alien Moves. Each move is labeled suggestively to convey its purpose or intent. Eg Exchange Violence clearly implies that violence is being done, from both sides generally (simultaneously).

Most moves will have a number of labels or tags on them, like (roll+Body), or (AP), or (Ammo). These labels will be explained within the Move, but the basic label of most Moves is the (roll+???). This means you roll 2d6 and total it, then you add the value of the extra bit. So if your Body trait was +1 and your Move has (roll+Body), you would add +1 to your 2d6 roll. There are other events in the game that can give you other modifiers, like +1 Forward, or +1 Onward. These are explained below.

The Move description will suggest to you some of the possible results (but not all) as follows:

Xchange Violence (roll+Body)

When you attack something with the intent to do harm, and there is the possibility of them returning harm to you, roll using this move. This includes melee where an exchange of blows is expected, or a fire fight at close range, where shots are being exchanged by all sides.

If your opponent is unable to reply to your attack, due to surprise or inability, simply inflict damage without rolling, or if ranged use Inflict Violence instead.

10+ You inflict Damage (as determined by your weapon) on your target without reply, or you may choose to inflict +1Damage (Damage +1) and suffer -1Damage (Damage -1) back, or [Break a group].

7-9 You exchange damage with the target but must choose an option*

6- GM option.

* option must be applicable.

The GM’s Moves however are not controlled by a dice roll, but by a set of guiding principles. When a GM gets an option to make a Move (usually as a result of a failed Player Move), they simply select their Move and announce a result they think is appropriate, and in accordance with the Principles of the game they have agreed to work with. This means the GM doesn’t announce “The Alien eats you, you are dead!”, because that does not comply with the principles of “Making the game fun” or “be a fan of your players”, see the GM Chapter.

Some Moves do not have modifiers, they are a modifier of sorts. Generally such moves will give your character (or anothers) a permanent bonus, or effect of some kind.

Basic Moves are things you all know. Playbook Moves are things that specific characters know, they are like skills or talents. Advanced Moves are things you gain once you have survived for a time and imply learned skills from bitter experience.

Default Rolls (optional).

There will be times where you might want a character to roll some form of resolution that is not covered by a specific Move. Usually this style of game tends to provide the Moves specific to the genre and the story, and other actions tend to be covered by the narrative. However, there are still areas where it might be fun, or it might seem obvious that a rolled result is appropriate. Not to mention that people coming from other game systems might feel more comfortable to have a base mechanic they are familiar with.

So if something comes up that players naturally expect to roll for, don’t stop them, let them roll. Let them suggest which trait seems appropriate, and make up a result that fits the event. You players may be more comfortable with a dice resolution than a narrative one, let it go for now but each time it happens try to use a narrated result and wean them off using the dice to decide the story, where randomness is not needed.

Alert - Your active senses, immediate physical sensitivity, sudden actions and reflex moves.

Calm -Your ability to remain in control, to act rationally and coolly.

Mind - your intelligence, knowledge and education.

Body - your physical body, both strength, dexterity and constitution.

Resolve - your mental strength, stubbornness, mental resilience.

Presence - looks, attractiveness, presence, charm and poise.

Dice Mechanism (option).

Rather than apply a direct +1, +2 or -1, -2 to the Move dice roll you may elect to use the following system.

Wherever it says to add +1 to a roll, instead add an extra dice to the roll. The player then gets to select any two of the dice as their result. Most of the time they will take the two highest, but maybe not always.

Whenever it says ‘add +2’ to a roll, add 2 dice, etc.

Whenever it says ‘deduct 1’ from the result, add an extra dice but always take the worst two dice results, or alternatively the GM gets to select the two dice to be used.

This system slightly improves the game in the players favour.

Its My Move!

It’s always your Move!

Its anyones Move, at anytime, just speak up and tell me your story. What do you do now?

As mentioned above, there is no turn sequence, no time spans to this game system. Players describe what their characters want to do, the GM moderates, makes decisions if needed, consults, listens and contributes to the story. A character can have several Moves in a row should the narrative suggest that is appropriate - ie the Grenadier is locked in close hand to hand melee with a monster, everyone is watching wide eyed, this is a good time to let the Grenadier take several Moves in a row and emerge triumphant over the enemy, everyone applauds. Its like a scene in a movie where the camera stays on the hero. Or suddenly during the fight the Grenadier takes a savage blow, blood splatters everywhere, good time for the Hospitalier to take a Move or two, and maybe have someone step in and help.

Because of this it is very likely that your players will be trying to all talk at once (things are exciting, this is good). It is the GMs task to try to listen to them all and control the result, to moderate the game. Often it will be easier and simpler to just start at the player on your left and go around the table, letting each person take a Move. These can be semi-simultaneous or they can be semi-sequential. One character does something, the next character does something because the previous player did what they did. Or one player does something, and the next player ignores that and does their own thing at roughly the same time. If someone wants to piggyback off what another did, and the continuity is important, then let them jump in and do it. Go back to the other player if it seems reasonable, but try to avoid skipping back and forth in time, once a Move advances the time then that becomes the new ‘Now’. Picture it like a movie, you can only go forward, unless you do a flashback or side scene.

AS GM you have to adjudicate the flow of the story in a sensible fashion. You should try at all times to avoid the use of ‘No, you can’t do that…’. Instead you should be thinking ‘Yes but...’, adding complication to their action as seems appropriate. Throw the complexity of their task back at them so as to get them to realise that maybe they are overstepping reasonable bounds. In the worst case let the other players get involved to try to moderate things via peer pressure. In the end however if you are the only one thinking the Move is wrong, then it is you who is probably wrong. Its only a game, and it is a game of HEROES, let them be heroic!

GM Move Clock (optional)

For GMs, or player groups, who like a more systematic method of gaining an action, other than by waiting for players to fail or falter, I suggest the following Clock (see Clocks latter).

A single clock (a 6 sided dice will do) is kept in front of the GM. Each time a player has a Move the result determines the amount the Clock moves forward (or the dice is advanced), as follows:

13+ ...0

10+ ...+1 if an odd number is showing.

7-9 ...+1

6- ...+2

When the total gets to 7 or more then the GM may take a Move, and the Clock is reset (no carry over). This is on top of any GM Options that may occur as a result of failed Moves.

Optional Sequence

(Optional, not recommended at this point).

For players who prefer a more structured turn sequence, or who are coming from a very structured game and need to adjust a bit to a more narrative style game, I offer the following.

The game is played in Rounds. Each round all the players will get at least one action (turn), maybe more, and at the end of the round the GM will take a single action for one of their monsters. The GM will get extra actions during the roundwhenever a ‘GM Option’ result occurs.

Players may act in any order they wish to, its up to them. After completing an action each player will take a token.

Players may elect to take extra actions during the round, but will be at a penalty of -1 to the new action for each token they currently have.

At the end of the round they will return one token to the pot. If they have tokens left these will carry over into the next rounds as penalties until they can be cleared.

Eg: The GM and 4 players begin an encounter, no one has any tokens yet. Player 1 takes an action and takes a token. Player 2 takes and action and takes a token. Player 2 then decides they have something that needs to happen so they take an extra action with a -1 penalty (they have a token already). AT the end of the action they take another token. Player 3 takes an action and takes a token. Player 2 decides that they must act again so they take action 3, perform this action at -2 due to having 2 tokens, and gain a 3rd token. Player 4 takes an action. The GM asks if everyone is ok to end the turn but Player 2 takes yet another action, this one will be at -3 and they will have 4 tokens. The GM then takes an action and the turn is over. Player 2 currently has 4 tokens, hands one back leaving them with 3 for the next turn. Player 2 will be at -3 to the first action they make in the new round, having 3 tokens, more if they elect to make even more extra actions.

If your action does not have an associated dice roll then any negative penalties will have no effect, you just do it, or the effect will be judged narratively by the GM. Extra tokens represent a level of fatigue, effort and loss of focus, so should be reflected in the action.

Where the current rules say the you cannot take the next move (you are Busy, Stunned, Reloading etc) it means someone else must take an action before you may act again.

Option: you may limit the number of action tokens any one player may have to their ALERT+1 mod, never less than one.

You may include a Rest action where a player does nothing, this will allow them to return a token from their current supply.

Modifiers.

(Graph Credit: http://takeonrules.com/2014/10/19/porting-apocalypse-world-style-moves-into-dd-5e/).

Modifiers in the game are things that modify a Moves dice roll, adding or subtracting a value from the total. Your traits are a typical modifier. The +1 Forward and +1 Ongoing tags are modifiers. Most modifiers are limited to +1 or +2. There are no +3 Trait scores in this game because I chose not to have any. There are single -3 modifiers however.

The above table shows the stats for a 2d6 roll and what modifiers do to them.

As you can see a +3 Trait almost extinguishes the possibility of failure. The problem with a +3 Trait is that you can add other modifiers to it, so a +3 trait with a +1 Forward becomes +4 and failure only occurs if you roll two 1s. Its simply a mechanical preference on my part, you can ignore it if you wish and allow characters to have +3 traits (as is common in other AW games).

The other thing you might think about is that a modifier total of greater than +3 is probably better served as a narratively implemented result, preferably dictated by the player. If success is so certain then why roll it, make it part of the story and move on. This will encourage players to seek these modifiers and allow them to control the story as they see it.

Eg: George the Scout is sneaking up on a guard, it is night time so the GM gives +1 Forward for the sneaking, George has a Scout move that gives him +2 when sneaking, the guard is actually dozing so the GM would have applied another +2 Forward once George committed to the Move. He is on +5 (of which he can only use +3) so the GM asks George to describe how things go down and we move on.

Failure is NOT a required result, your players are Heroes, and are allowed to have possibilities that are only success. Players may always elect to roll if they wish, going for a critical result.

Limits on modifiers.

If you play my way there is a limit of two positive modifiers to any one action, your trait modifier and one other (with an exception of Hx mods, which can be upto +4). If you have more than these then you can select the best mod and add that to your Trait, upto a max of +4. The rest are dropped.

A modifier that must be used, but doesn’t count, is still used up. Eg +1 Forward will still be lost even if it is not used because you had some other modifier that was better. Having 2 +1 Forward mods provides no extra benefit if there is any other bonus mod, and both would be expended if they could have been used (you must use them if the system says to).

If you have two +1 Forward benefits that are derived from the same type of origin you may allow the player to add them together to become a +2. Eg if you had 2 Hold from a Take Cover move you could take both of them as +1 Forwards, and count them as one +2 Forward.

This means that the best modifier you can have is +4 (2x +2), unless you mod the game to allow higher mods. Which you are free to do. I would suggest however that anytime someone gains a +4 mod total that you allow them to narrate what happens within the scope of the move.

Negative modifiers all apply at all times. There aren’t many negative modifiers usually, depending on your GM. You can use any positive modifiers to cancel negative ones.

Taking the narrative or rolling for a critical

Players always have the option of taking the narrative result or actually rolling. The narrative result will be a descriptive result and will generally not allocate mechanistic benefits, like a +1 Forward. It will usually revolve around the narrator and not others. Instead a player may elect to take the roll and hope that with a +4 they will get a 13+. There is a risk in this, it’s upto them.

Harm & Stress.

For Characters.

All characters will have 6 boxes of damage on their Wound Track by default. They may have extra boxes based on their Body and Resolve traits. They may gain an extra box via Downtime Moves.

There are two forms of damage, Harm and Stress. Harm is physical damage; cuts, bleeding, fractured or broken bones etc. Stress is all other forms of damage; shock, sprains, pain, fear and distraction. Both can make you unconscious and both can kill you. Both use the same Track, so 4 points of Harm and 2 points of Stress fills your 6 box Health Track.

There are two rows of boxes, but they only represent one row (set) of wounds. The second row is used simply to differentiate each individual act of damage, the first wound goes in the top row, the next in the bottom row, so you visually see the results of each attack. This is important as healing will heal each wound, not just your total of wounds. If you have a bunch of single box wounds they can all be treated as individual, one by one.

Damage is marked off from left to right. If you take 2 Harm and then 2 Stress and then 1 Harm it will look like the following (assuming the RES and BOD boxes are not in use). Harm uses X’s, Stress uses /’s as a marker.

This track would mean the character was at -2 to all their actions as there is damage in the second region. If you take more damage, depending on if they had the bonus box and if it too was marked off, it will overflow back down the track. Once you overflow you fall unconscious and are dying.

When you fill your Health Track with Harm and Stress (all your 6 boxes, and any extra boxes, are used) any extra damage flows back down the track, filling the empty boxes (including any overflow damage from the attack that finished you off). Once you start back down the other way you are unconscious, critically injured and dying, plus all your wounds are now ONE BIG WOUND (and also maybe Complex) with regard to healing. If all your boxes fill up you are dead.

When you get healed it is generally applied to a single wound event (adjacent boxes), and filled boxes (X or /) are erased or replaced with a ‘O’ for each box healed. A O marker indicates that the wound is healing.

As long as you have a O box on your wound track you must place any further damage you suffer in those boxes first. Existing wounds re-open.

When you suffer more wounds after being healed like this, the damage is applied from the left to the right, filling open boxes (opened because of Healing) or ‘O’ boxes as extensions of any existing wounds further down the line, then moving down the track to fill the next available box. This may result in a single attack being split up, but it will also mean existing wounds get worse.

Until you overflow you should never have markers on both lines at the same time.

This health track has one Harm box healed from the first Wound event (on the left side). Healing boxes are marked with a 0 (sometimes, usually as a result of First Aid).

Then they suffer 2 Stress, which are put into available healing boxes first, then added as a new wound.

The first wound is now a ‘complex wound’ because it has Stress and Harm in a linked set of boxes (top row), caused by complications due to the healing re-opening. Complex wounds cannot be healed in the field (First Aid) short of a Hospitalier Move, a Rift power, a Medivac team, or a MIASMA injection.

Damage Effects.

Damage accumulates across your characters Health Track, from left to right. The track is broken into sections, some of the sections have a -1 beneath them. When a section fills (its two boxes are filled) then the -1 applies to all rolls you make for Moves from that point on. If one of the boxes in that section is healed and the box is erased or converts to a ‘O’ it is no longer filled and the -1 does not apply. Note however that healing boxes outside the section that is giving the -1 does not get rid of the -1, you have to heal the actual boxes of the section that is applying the effect.

In the above example the character would still be suffering the -2 penalty even though one of the boxes in the first section is flagged as healing.

Only players suffer this effect, non-player creatures do not roll dice as they are controlled by the GM.

There are other forms of damage than just Harm and Stress. Poison can be shown with a P symbol, Fatigue with an F, Disease with a D, Bleeder with a B etc.

Bonus Boxes (player characters only)

Player Characters may gain bonus boxes for having high BODY or high RESOLVE traits. Each plus value will generate an extra box, max 2 boxes. BODY boxes are for Harm only, RESOLVE boxes are for Stress only. These boxes, all 4, are always treated as a single wound even if four single events. They are always used first. This will make them hard to heal as they will often be ‘complex’ (ie if both Stress and Harm exist), or they will be beyond First Aid (more than 2 boxes).

Characters may also use a Downtime Move to create an extra Stress or Harm box. Because this is specifically for Harm or Stress, it may not always help you. If you have chosen Stress and you take Harm that overflows the track then the Stress bonus box remains empty and the overflow Harm rolls back down your track. You are unconscious and dying. If you do take more Stress the box can soak up one point.

Characters may also gain ‘one use’ Stress boxes as part of a Downtime Move. Simply add these in with a pencil and erase them when used. They cannot be healed, but can be regenerated with another Downtime Move.

Augmented Armour Boxes.

The armoured suits that characters wear are a whole world better than a piece of armour. The Augmented armour of a Grenadier is the best of the best. As well as giving you damage reduction, an Augmented suit will also give you 2 extra wound boxes, as shown below.

The extra box was a penalty tag of -1 G/R, which means it applies the usual -1 (extra), is for Grenadiers, and can be ‘Repaired’ not healed. It is an equipment based bonus.

For Aliens

See the Encounters chapter.

Aliens will have a Host Structure Track, similar this. The Host Track will generally be quite large if the Alien has been present for some time. Aliens also have 9 Eyes that can be destroyed to force the Alien out of the Host, these are separate to their Health Track.

For Monsters

See the Encounters chapter.

Monsters are creatures that blend terrestrial forms, Rift and Alien forms, nearly always causing severe mutations.

For Terrestrials.

See the Encounters Chapter.

Terrestrial creatures will simply have a number of boxes, with no modifiers. Instead they will be ‘out of action’ quicker, representing any number of events from dead to run away.

Most humans will simply have 2 to 4 boxes. Weak, unmotivated, scared or inexperienced humans will probably have 1-2 boxes, gang members with some experience in violence will have 3-4 boxes, leaders and outstanding individuals will have 4-6 boxes.

A Group (a group of more than one, but which are being treated as a single Target) will have boxes based on their members, but will suffer less damage and inflict more damage per SIZE they have over whoever they attack, or are attacked by. Groups are explained in the Encounters Chapter.

Sanity and Fear (our three secret weapons…)

Characters are not immune to the effects of Sanity and Fear. When an event occurs that fits one of the following conditionals you should ask your characters to make a Move to see what happens. Most of the effects will be Stress related, but physical effects can manifest.

You can use the Freak Out! (Fear) and I’m a Teapot (Sanity) Moves to determine the effects.

Fear Causes/Sanity Causes

BIG things.

VERY obviously aggressive things.

Your Harm attack does nothing...

Invisible (or unseen) things attacking

Rift effects

Anytime you get LOST and realise it.

Smothered or Penetrated by an Alien.

Special Power of a mob.

Seriously alien effects.

Fail to use a Rift power.

The Stack (Optional)

Optional rule, you will need a bunch of d6, preferably of various sizes.

Each time a player doesn’t like the result of the dice roll they have made they may elect to ‘go to the stack’. This will allow them to reroll one of the dice, their choice. In return for this favour the player must add another d6 to the Stack.

The Stack starts off on the middle of the table (or someplace suitably unstable). The GM puts down a single d6. When a player elects to ‘go to the stack’ they must put a new d6 on top of the existing stack. This continues until the stack falls.

When the stack falls the player must accept the roll they have, plus every player character takes 1Stress.

If the stack has 6 or more dice in it the GM gains the power to send players ‘to the stack’ if they have a 1 showing on any of their dice. In which case the player must add another d6. If they succeed they may replace the 1 with a 6.

If the stack falls due to ANY reason that is clearly not the GMs fault, then the normal effect applies. Ie if your players bump the table.

Option: if the stack gets to 8(?) dice it is reset and 1 Hope is gained.

Option: Put 10 various sized d6 into a cup. When a d6 is needed for the Stack roll all the dice in the cup and select only those that roll a 6. Player must use one of those dice to add to the stack. If no 6’s are rolled they gain the benefit but do not need to add a dice to the stack.

Equipment Damage (optional)

Instead of always taking Harm and Stress to your body you may elect to take one box of damage to your equipment instead. This will generally break that piece of equipment, requiring a Repair Move from a Technicien (or replacing the item).

Which piece of equipment is damaged is a discussion you need to have at the time. It should be something, that if damaged, will hurt the performance of the character, in the immediate situation. Often this will imply a weapon or armour, but it could easily be Ammo or Resources.

It can also easily be extended to other forms of harm, like removing a Cover status, where the Harm is situational.

Generally I would suggest you do not give this option to NPC’s unless the player explicitly requests it. Its an extra level of complication that the GM does not need.

Combat.

Apocalypse World and a number of the hacks that it has generated all have their own take on combat. Most of them avoid using tactical options as much as possible, trying to keep it all in your head. Well I am old and from a tactical background so I can’t fully let go. So I have come up with an abstraction that I hope provides some of both worlds.

The Combat Grid.

The combat Grid is something you may use, or not, depending on how you play your games. Games that are more narratively driven will probably just wing it in their heads, but others may like this abstraction.

The Grid represents your battle field, with the target being a single thing, or maybe many things (a group). The target always remains at the centre, which is the centre of your world, not theirs (yes the centre is over on the left, don’t get me started on politics now!) Targets (Aliens, Monsters and Terrestrials) will have GM Moves to allow them to manipulate the Grid, but most of the time the Grid is about your characters and how far they want to be from the Target.

The Grid is an abstraction of the battlefield. It represents all 360 degrees around a Target, but abstracts all of that into a narrower defined combat zone. Most combats are assumed to occur in some form of confined, channeled or limited area. Eg inside a building, down a street, in an alley. It is rare that you will fight in a large flat open ground. Even then your team will generally be approaching from one direction due to the limits of visibility, tactics, fields of fire and communications.

Characters, your players, will use a figurine or token to represent them on the grid. Most standard encounters will begin with the Targets in the Target block, and the characters in either the Detached, Removed or Far block (depending on how close they begin).

Remember that visibility in The Fog is limited to 50m, or less. If you are looking for estimates of distances use the following.

Target:

To Hand <5m

To Close <10m

To Detached <20m

To Removed <40m

Too Far >40m

Characters will be entitled to move from one Block to the next as a standard part of their Move. So if you are Close and want to melee the target (Exchange Violence), you can move from Close to Hand and attack. Some Moves may allow you to move more than one Block at a time.

Melee is normally conducted from the Hand Block. Some melee weapons may have a Reach tag and can attack from Close as well. Some Targets with Reach will likewise be able to attack out to the Close block.

Fire Arms and other Ranged weapons can attack from nearly any Block, but may be hindered in the Hand Block, particularly long firearms. Thrown weapons may be limited to Detached (max range), but you might allow longer ranges, but double the STAR penalties, -2 per Star.

The STARS placed between some of the Blocks are modifiers for attacks at that range against the Target, and vice-versa. So if you are in the Far Block and wish to shoot the Target you will be at -2 (2 stars). This is primarily due to visibility (eg Fog), not the distance.

The PINK Zones are areas, used with weapons that have an Area of Effect - AOE tag. AN area (AOE) attack will effect everyone in the Blocks covered by the Pink Zone you select as the target.

Eg: you fire an AOE attack into the Target Block, which only has one Pink Zone, so the attack will hit everything in the Target, Hand and Close Blocks.

Eg: the GM makes an AOE attack into the Detached Block, they may choose to target the Close and Detached Blocks, or they may chose the Detached and Removed Blocks.

You may however elect to select your Area of Effect as a single Block, such as Close. This option may be linked to your Move result (how well you use it). The exception to this is that Blocks that physically overlap are always one Block for AOE attacks (eg Target and Hand)..

The BLUE Blocks are AREAS, used with weapons that have a Large Area of Effect (LAoE) tag. They will include all Pink Zones and all Blocks within those Pink Zones, covered by one Blue Area. You may be able to restrict your Area to a single Zone or Block depending on the results of your Move. Eg: the first Blue Area covers Target, Hand, Close and Detached. The last Blue Area covers Detached, Removed and Far.

Explosions

Area of Effect attacks come in four forms:

Small Area of Effect (SAOE)

Area Of Effect (AOE)

Large Area of Effect (LAOE)

Very Large Area of Effect (VAOE).

An SAOE affects all targets within one Block of the Grid or one Group (if a Group is the target).

An AOE will inflict damage to everyone in a single Zone of the Grid (all Blocks contacting a pink area).

An LAOE explosion will inflict damage to everyone in an Area of the Grid (blue area).

An VAOE explosion will inflict damage to everyone in two adjacent Areas of the Grid (you exclude either Target/Hand or Far)

Because the Target Block can be a very large area, the GM may limit targets if they wish. Groups (even very large creatures) should be treated as a Block in their own right.

An AOE/Zone attack (pink highlight)

An LAOE/Area attack (blue & pink highlight)

Some Moves may modify this effect (Sappers can minimise or enlarge the effect through use of their Demolitions Move).

Armour, even partial, will protect against explosions. Carbon based explosive weaponry can still be quite effective, however armour effectiveness will increase +1 if worn (against carbon based attacks).

Shifting on the Grid (GM Movement).

The Grid assumes that your opponents will always be sitting in the Target box, stationary on the tabletop. But this is merely a metaphor, in actuality everyone is moving a lot, we simply only concern ourselves with the relative positions, and this is what The Grid reflects.

All mobile GM creatures have the power to Shift. A Shift is simply the monster's ability to move, represented by moving the Characters around the Grid. Shift will be a value reflecting the number of creatures that can be moved, and the number of Blocks they can be moved. So a Shift value of 4 would mean they can move 2 characters 1 Block each (2c+2b), or 1 character 3 Blocks (1c+3b). The numbers add up to 4.

Shift may appear as 2*2, in which case it is a controlled Shift and the maximum number of characters that can be moved is controlled by the first value, and the maximum number of Blocks all of them can be moved, in total, is controlled by the second value. This still leaves flexibility, 2*2 can mean 2 characters 1 Block each (2x1=2), or 1 character 2 Blocks.

Shift is inherent to nearly all creatures and can be done as part of any GM or Monster Move. Alternatively the GM may use a Shift as their Move option and would gain 2 uses of the Shift values, but done as separate actions, and you cannot target the same Character twice. That would be all you could do that action.

You cannot Shift anyone past the Far Block, or closer than the Hand Block, without a special ability, like Swallow. Regardless of how many creatures are in the Target block the GM only gets to use one Shift value each time they act, for the creature they are using.

All characters may Resist Shifting - each time they are Shifted they may be able to use that Move to prevent it or reduce it. Each Shift is a single action, whether 1 or 2 or 3 Blocks.

Multiple Targets.

If you have multiple Targets it means they maybe coming from different directions, or have significantly different locations but are still apart of the overall combat. These disparate groups all appear in the Target Block but the GM may separate them, either physically or with some kind of marker (grab a toothpick and put it between them).

When separated like this AOE attacks only fully affect the nominated target group. The GM may allow AoE+ attacks to effect a different group if the fiction supports they are close enough to matter.

Re-inforcements arriving late to a battle still enter via the Target Block. I don’t recommend going to the effort of distinguishing, other then separating groups. If the reinforcements are coming from some distance you might put them off board and advise the characters that they are incoming (if seen). As an option you might give a newly arriving group a one off SHIFT move to re-arrange the characters to their advantage to a small degree, or you can assume their arrival into the Target block is their move.

Other Grid uses.

Devices (traps and bombs in particular) can be used on the Grid, and moved onto a target. This is normally done by setting up the device (Set Device move) in the Removed/Far block, then performing actions (like Lure) to move the device into the Target block (the reverse logic of moving the target over the device). Once the device has been moved to the Target block (ie the enemy has been lured over the device), actions are performed to link the targets to the device, then it is triggered. See Set Device and Lure Moves.

Capture a Victim: in a situation where a group (eg Cultists) are attempting to capture slaves, you can place tokens for the slaves in various blocks of the Grid, then the bad guys use Shifts to move the victims to the Target block. Once there they use the Escape option to get away with their victims.

Escaping.

Your enemies will not always remain around for you to kill. They will often give up and flee, which might be a good thing.

To reflect this the GM should place the Escape tabs on enemies that flee (or just move them off the end of the Grid). Players will then make the choice of allowing them to flee or use a Move to prevent them getting away. There are a few moves already that might be used to do this, but you might just want to use the Basic Move - Pursuit listed below to solve the problem.

When an enemy with an Escape tab gets another action flip it to Escape+, then next action they are gone. This gives the players 2 rounds to decide if they want to stop them (they might be fleeing with captives).

If everyone is happy to end the encounter then just do it narratively and wrap things up.

Pursuit (roll+Alert)

10+ Remove two levels of ESC token, or if they are fleeing accept their surrender.

7-9 Reduce an ESC token one level, and reduce another one for each one you allow to flee (get away).

6- That one got away.

The Fort Grid

Used for attacks against a fortified position, primarily assuming that there is a physical barrier that is manned by the enemy. The barrier (Wall) can be simply a movement obstacle, or it can be a structure with armour and movement penalties. Towers can be actual structures, or a flanking zone you may allow the players to use, that have different properties to the Wall, and may be weak points or strong points.

The Perimeter Block is a special block in case the defenders have a moat, or a ditch, or some barrier that impedes movement to the Wall itself. It may also be defended by a first line, who will likely be overrun, or may retreat to the Wall. If no reason exists for a Perimeter consider it to be part of the Hand Block.

The Assault Block is for those characters who are engaging the physical defences and most likely exposing themselves to risk. Entering/staying in this area is often a Hardway Move.

The Building Grid

Used for combats inside buildings or areas with many potential obstructions and approach paths, and a confined or blocked inner area, pushing the melee zone into a more compact form.

The Vertical Grid

Used for situations where the battle is more vertical than horizontal, such as in a multi-storey building. The shaft markings are connections an Alien might use to dump a character down several levels at once. Shooting visibility to the Target is limited to the Green Zone.

The Alleyways.

For combat in the ruins of the city allowing for multiple pathways, such as alleys or tunnels or holes in walls. Targets can be fully exposed to each of the three approaches or you may break the Target area into 3 sections. Each pink zone connects only 2 blocks due to obstructions, other than the Target area.