Welcome to the Sea of Stars, one year after the Galactic Leyline tore across every sky and woke the galaxy up. Caster Guns are back in production, old sources have come alive again, and a new generation of hunters is racing toward the greatest treasure in existence. You're one of them — or you will be, the moment you stop drifting.
This handbook is how the game works. The complete rules live in <@ttrpg-stat-system.rules>; read that when you need the full tables. This is the part you want before a session starts.
The Shape of a Session
A session runs in scenes. The Game Master sets the stage — a casino floor at Blue Heaven, a wheat field on Sentinel III, the cramped galley of the Outlaw Star — and describes what's around you. You say what your character does. When the outcome is uncertain, you roll. When it's settled, the scene moves on.
Every game begins with a Game Start: the opening scenario you picked in the lobby. That's your first scene — who you are, where you are, and what pulls you forward. From there, the galaxy is the table.
The Core Roll
Almost everything runs on the same roll:
d20 + ability modifier + proficiency bonus (if you're trained) vs a DC the GM sets.
| Difficulty | DC |
|---|
| Easy | 10 |
| Standard | 12 |
| Hard | 15 |
| Very Hard | 20 |
Roll the d20, add your modifiers, and compare. Meet or beat the DC and you succeed. Beat it by a lot and you succeed spectacularly; miss by a lot and things get complicated.
Your ability modifiers come from your six ability scores — STR, DEX, CON, INT, WIS, CHS. A score of 10–11 is +0, 12–13 is +1, 14–15 is +2, and so on up the table (a score of 20 is +5). Your proficiency bonus starts at +2 and grows with level: +3 at 5th, +4 at 9th, +5 at 13th, +6 at 17th.
Kinds of Rolls
- Ability checks — skill uses: picking a lock (DEX, Sleight of Hand), talking your way past a checkpoint (CHS, Deception), spotting an ambush (WIS, Perception).
- Saving throws — resisting something bad: dodging a grenade (DEX save), fighting off vacuum exposure (CON save), throwing off Tao mind-control (WIS save).
- Attack rolls — the same core roll against a target's Armor Class instead of a DC.
They're all the same d20 roll wearing different hats.
When to Roll
Roll when the outcome matters and could go either way. Don't roll for things your character can obviously do, and don't roll twice for the same problem — one roll, then the story moves. The GM tells you when dice are needed and sets the DC from the table above.
Time
Outside combat, time flows scene by scene — a negotiation takes as long as the talking, a journey takes the travel time it takes. In combat, time snaps into rounds of six seconds, and everyone acts in initiative order (see the Combat chapter). Between fights, rests patch you up and refresh your resources (see Rest, Recovery & Death).
That's the whole engine. Pick a start, make your character, and go find the Leyline before someone else does.
