SYSTEM 6-10, Version 1.0

<1>Introduction

System 6-10 is a set of RPG mechanics for the game HORIZON. To play it you need standard six-sided dice (d6s) and specialized ten-sided dice (d10s). To get things done you must amass 'successes.' You get a success by creating a pairing of a d6 result and a d10 result where the d10 is greater than the d6.

Example: Rory rolls 2d10 and 1d6. On the d10s he gets a 10, on the other a 3. On his d6 he gets a 6. The only success he can assemble is the 6 on the d6 and the 10.

The total number of dice (of all types) that you roll is your pool, but you don't get to pick how many d10s and how many d6s you're going to put in it. Your pool is determined by a Stat and a Skill. We define those more specifically below, but for now it's enough to say a Stat is a broad category of ability and a Skill is a more narrow refinement of it.

Pools, before being rolled, are noted like this: First, the number of d6s, then a slash, then the number of d10s. So if your pool is three six-sided dice and two ten-siders, the annotation is 3d6/2d10. 

After getting rolled, you can tie together any d6 with any d10. When you have more of one type of dice (which you very often will) dice without a partner are discarded. So are dice that aren't part of a success pairing. The actual results are noted with the d6 number on the left of the slash and the d10 number on the other side. 

Example: One of Rory's pools is 3d6/2d10. He rolls it. On his 3d6 he gets 1,1,3. On his 2d10s he gets a 4 and an 8. He has two options for sets. He can either assemble a 1/8 and a 3/4. Or he could make a 3/8 and a 1/4.

The lower the result on the d10, the sooner the success takes place. The higher the result on the d6, the more effective the action is.

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<2>Collisions

If you use a set where the d6 and the d10 are exactly equal, that's called a collision and it is an immediate and crushing disaster. Doesn't matter if it's a 1/1, a 3/3 or a 5/5, it's lousy. But there's a silver lining. Whichever Skill you use for your disaster goes up by a whole point the scene after the debacle. 

The school of folly is expensive, but some will learn in no other.

Note that you don't have to assemble a collision just because it's possible, but if you assemble sets and the leftover dice make a collision, it goes off. In other words, when you roll your dice, you don't have to immediately make a collision first thing. But be careful that you don't leave dice leftover that form one.

Example: Laura rolls 3d6/2d10 and gets 3,3,5/5,8. She could make a 5/5 collision and might just do that if she wants to roll 4d6 next time. But she could also choose to make a 5/8 set and a 3/5. If she'd gotten 3,3,5/3,5 she'd be out of luck and have to take at least one collision.

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<1>Stats

There are three Stats that govern almost everything you can attempt in System 6-10. There's Intuition, Action and Composure. They're all on a scale from 1-5.

Intuition indicates your character's intellect. You use it to observe, remember, learn and reason. 

Action represents your character's physical abilities -- how strong, tough, quick or graceful he is. In addition to the critical dice it adds to pools, it determines a number of unrolled physical capacities, as described in the nearby box.

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<2>General Athletic Capacity

Characters can accomplish innate physical feats without rolling -- they can lift a certain amount, run at a particular rate or jump some distance. These fundamental abilities are based on your Action score, and are listed below. Here's what they mean.

Carry: How many pounds you can carry around for eight hours of walking without risking exhaustion. If you go to the next category up (someone with Action 2 carrying 75 pounds, for example) you need to make an Athletics (Stamina) roll every 2-3 hours, depending on how strenuous your activities are. If you go two categories up, roll every hour. Three categories up? Roll every ten minutes.

Lift: How many pounds you can lift to waist height off the ground. If you're unusually small, decrease this by 10-20%. You can lift this weight and stagger a few steps, or hold it a few seconds.

Move: This is how many yards you can move in a fight or other crisis while still doing something else. Use this to circle an opponent, or to get to the front door with enough time to kick it down.

Running Jump: How many yards you can horizontally jump from a two-yard run up, or how many feet you can jump straight up.

Sprint: This is how many yards you can move in a crisis if you don't do anything but just flat-out rush. After three rounds of sprinting, you need to drop to your normal movement rate.

Standing Jump: Same as running, only now you do it from standing still.

Category	Action 1	Action 2	Action 3	Action 4	Action 5
Carry (pounds)	25	50	75	100	150
Lift (pounds)	75	150	225	300	450
Move (yards)	1	2	3	4	5
Running Jump (yards or feet)	2	4	5	6	7
Sprint (yards)	2	4	6	8	10
Standing Jump (yards or feet)	1	2	2.5	3	3.5

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Composure measures how well characters deal with others, and how firmly they govern their passions. Roll it to make an emotional appeal or resist one.

When you use a Skill that's under a particular Stat, you roll a number of d10s equal to that Stat's rating. So if, for example, you want to pore through the accounts in a businessman's ledger and look for discrepancies, that's a job for Reason, one of the Intuition Skills. You'd roll d10s equal to your Intuition and d6s equal to your Reason. 

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<2>Won't I Succeed an Awful Lot?

Experienced gamers are going to quickly realize that, all things being equal, if you're rolling d6s and d10s and succeeding any time a d10's bigger, you're going to succeed often. Even if your Skill and Stat are the minimums required to permit any roll, you've got a 65% chance of success. That's a pretty frequent hit rate! If you increase the number of d6s, d10s or both, the rate improves rapidly. 

This is not a problem for HORIZON, because succeeding against static challenges is desirable. It's not a horror game where scrabbling to get the door unlocked under pressure adds to the fun. 

The challenge arises when you face other people (or... things). That's when you don't just have to have a good set, but a better set. This is also perfectly desirable in HORIZON, where being bold against nature may be far less deadly than being precipitous against living creatures.

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<1>Skills

Each Stat has three Skills under it (so far -- some specialized and esoteric Skills show up later in HORIZON but never mind for now). They get a bit more specialized than the Stats, and not every Skill works like every other. 

Some Skills are general. You can train to improve in them, or you can take a try without much experience, or you might be naturally gifted. The general Skills are Battle (for clobbering things), Reason (for figuring things out) and Persuasion (for convincing people to feel the way you feel). Observation works like a general Skill most of the time, but it's also got aspects of being tailored (as described below).

There are also specific Skills. They represent training and effort. For each specific Skill, you can pick a number of categories it covers. Initially, it's one category for each point you put in the Skill. (You can get more later). If I have two points in Athletics, I can put them in Run and Stamina, and then roll Athletics for those tasks, but not for swimming or climbing. Alternately, if I have one point in Athletics, I can put it in Swim and roll my Athletics when swimming, but not when jumping or lifting heavy weights. The specific Skills are Athletics (physical tasks that reward might and effort), Grace (physical tasks requiring finesse and coordination) and Education (for specialized mental tasks). There is some overlap between Grace and Athletics. If you have both Skills with the same specialty, just roll whichever is better. Try not to double up though.

Finally, there are tailored Skills. These are highly personal and allow you to focus them on individual persons, objects or events. Each tailored Skill has five slots under it. You can assign these slots to focus on a particular person or object. (You can start out having a number of filled slots in each Skill equal to its rating. Thus, if I buy my Hate Skill up to three, I can fill in three slots with people I despise.) Take Observation, for example. Usually when you Observe something, you just make a standard roll like a general Skill. But if you really, really want to recall that overheard conversation, you can spend a slot to burn it into your memory. (Don't do this lightly -- it costs you to empty a slot.) You could, for example, memorize every detail of a person, writing his or her name in your Observation slot. Thereafter, Observation tasks involving that person get bonuses, or just automatically succeed. 

<2>Athletics (A Specific Action Skill)

Athletics encompasses a number of learned talents. For each starting dot in Athletics, add one category to it. If you have Athletics 1, pick one category and roll 1d6 when using it. If you have Athletics 5, you pick five areas of expertise and roll 5d6 when using any of them. The categories of Athletic expertise follow.

Note that all Athletics categories are, essentially, mix and match. If you have the categories, you can roll Athletics/Action and apply sets to any categories without penalty. If you want to run away from someone, dive off the dock and start swimming away, you can do that as a double action (run away and then swim) if you have Run and Swim and get two sets. Hell, if you've got Run, Jump and Swim then you can spend one set on each, assuming you've got enough Action to get the sets.

<3>Climb

You can ascend and descend vertical surfaces without falling, and in a reasonable amount of time. For every point in the d6 of your success, you can go up or down one foot (if it's a hard climb -- slippery or smooth or wet) or one yard (if it's easy). In a fight, if you fail at your Climb roll, you're just stuck in place until your next action. If you get a collision, you fall and take Hit Point damage equal to the d10 result.

If it's not a crisis situation and you're trying to get up a mountain, you can safely ascend or descend a thousand feet for every point in your d6. The travel time is hours equal to your d10. If you fail, you either have to go back to your starting point or get stuck there for ten hours.

People without Climb can only ascend one foot per combat round in any circumstances, and that's if they don't attempt any other action. If someone's trying to haul them off the wall or knock them off, they can attempt to dodge with Battle or something like Grace (Balance), but failing that, they just fall. They categorically can't ascend under deadly pressure. 

<3>Dodge

With this talent, you can use Athletics to avoid damage instead of rolling Battle. (The mechanics of this are covered under 'Battle.')

<3>Jump

Base jumping distances are listed in the box on page xx. If you have this talent, you can roll to push your distance. For every success set you roll, you can add one foot of distance to a horizontal jump, and a half-foot to a vertical jump. (In this instance, it doesn't much matter what turned up on your d6 and the d10 is just used for timing.)

<3>Lift

Action-based lifting and carrying standards are listed on page xx. If you take 'Lift' as a category, every two points in Athletics raises you one tier in Carry and Lift (round down). If this would raise you above Action 5, you instead add 20 pounds to Carry and 50 pounds to Lift.

Example: Mubruk has Action 2, Athletics 2. Normally, he can carry 50 pounds and lift 150. But once he adds "Lift" as an Athletics category, he starts hauling stuff as if he had Action 3 -- carrying 75 pounds without strain and hoisting 225. 

Example: As an edge case, consider someone with Action 5, Athletics 5. His normal carrying load is 150 pounds and he can lift 450. But with "Lift" as an Athletics category, each gets bumped up twice. He can carry 190 pounds all day long without discomfort, and deadlift 550 pounds.

Moreover, for every point in Athletics you have, you can hold a heavy object (at the top of your lift capacity) for an additional second, or take an additional step while hauling it.

<3>Pummel

If you take 'pummel' as a talent, you can use Athletics to attack people with your fists, or with simple bludgeons, instead of rolling Battle. (This is explained under 'Battle.')

<3>Preen

It has been suggested that some people only exercise to make themselves attractive. While the guy running out of the burning building with an orphan tucked under each arm might suggest other uses, the fact is that a set of taut, firm thighs rarely interfered with anybody's romantic overture.

By that rationale, this specialty lets you place yourself for maximum allure or impressiveness. It lasts a number of minutes equal to the d10 in your chosen success set, and the power of the effect depends on how high the digit on your d6 is.

d6 Digit	Result

1-3		Add 1d6 to Persuasion attempts.

4+		Add 1d10 to Persuasion rolls.

If you don't have Preen, your Athletics are only good for physical tasks. 

Preen bonuses don't work on people who hate you (see the Hate Skill on page xx).

<3>Run

Most people can run (as described in the box on page xx) but you can run faster. With every point on a d6 in an Athletics (Run) success, you cover an additional foot, on top of your normal running rate. The d10 indicates how many rounds you can keep up that pace without a Stamina roll. If you use multiple Run sets to really cover ground, use the lowest d10 result for determining when that Stamina check is coming.

Example: Togy has Athetics (Run) 3 and Action 1. Normally, he can move only three feet (one yard) a round or, if he does nothing but hurry and opts not to roll, six feet. But rolling, he gets 2,2,5/4. Assembling a 2/4 result, he can add two feet to his base rate, getting up to eight feet a round, and do it for four rounds without risking exhaustion.

If Harwen is chasing him with an Athletics (Run) pool of 2d6/2d10, Togy's in probably in trouble. Rolling 1,5/2,9, Harwen gets two sets, a 1/2 and a 5/9. His normal movement rate is six feet a round, doubled it's twelve, and adding on those two sets he can add six feet to that. He has to roll Stamina after two rounds of sprinting like that, but covering 18 feet a round he won't need to run long to catch Togy.

<3>Stamina

Roll Athletics (Stamina) when you've been working hard for a long time. There are some guidelines in the other Athletics categories, particularly Run and Swim, but otherwise the GM probably just uses her judgment. If you fail the roll, you collapse. If you succeed, the highest d10 in a success set indicates how many more rounds (or hours, depending on the time frame of the activity) you can last before you need another Stamina roll. 

Example: Gry's sitting watch to make sure the pirates don't come back. It's boring, and she's hurt, but she knows she needs to stay awake. Her GM calls for a Stamina roll. Gry's pool is 2d6/2d10, and she gets 3,5/1,2. Pleasant dreams, Gry.

If you don't have Stamina, you simply have to stop (or collapse) any time you'd otherwise get a roll. Once that happens, either the voluntary stop or the halt, you have to rest for at least an hour before you can attempt any Athletics roll. You can still use Grace and you can still do things that don't require a roll, but you're done with exceptional efforts.

<3>Swim

You can move around in the water without drowning, even if it's over your head. If you're just racing (not in a life-or-death situation), have each swimmer roll and the highest d6 wins, with the d10 breaking ties. That, or a simple "Roll a Swim success to get across or be forced to find another route" should handle most situations, but if you want to have a dramatic sea battle, or have the risk of drowning be part of a set piece on a bridge, you can use the more detailed rules, below.

If you need detail, every Swim set you get, you can spend to accomplish one of three things. (The timing of spending these sets is determined by the d10, as usual.) 

* One: You can move a yard. 

* Two: You can manipulate an object. Need to drop your shield, take off your helmet, or pick up that shiny thing at the bottom of the pond? Spend a set on each. Want to grab a drowning friend? A set attaches him to you for the rest of the round, moving as you move. (If he's already attached, you still need to spend a set every round to keep him there.) 

* Three: You can restart your Stamina count. When you start to swim, you can do it easily for a number of rounds equal to Action. At the end of that time (if you haven't spent a set to push back the inevitable) you have to roll Stamina. The Stamina count, then, is "how many rounds can I swim before I have to risk cramping up?" Spend a set to reset it and you get X more rounds of swimming free and clear, with X equal to your Action score.

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<2>Swimming Is Hard

If you're like me, you learned to swim in a pool. A lap in a pool is good exercise. That same distance in an icy cold lake is a lot harder. If it's a cold ocean with tides, that's harder still. Just sayin'.

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Swimmers who fail to roll sets flounder in place, but don't sink. Next round, they can roll again. Swimmers who fail their Stamina (or who don't have it as a category) lose 1HP. Next round, if they don't have a Swim set to reset the count, they have to make another Stamina check. 

Characters who don't know how to swim are in trouble in deep water. If they can suggest some brilliant or even vaguely plausible way to get free, possibly involving Grace or another Athletics category ("I catch the ship's rudder with my bullwhip"? "I sink to the bottom and walk across the mud until I'm in the shallows"?) they have two rounds to try and roll successes for that. But if it's not plausible, and no one's thrown a rope or jumped in lifeguard-style after two rounds, the non-swimmer starts to drown. He sinks and takes 5 HP of damage every round.

Note well: Stuff that keeps you alive in a fight kills you when you're trying to swim. Helmets, armor, and shields all decrease your Stamina count by one apiece. Once it hits zero, you start taking a -1d6 penalty for each object. So if you have Action 2 and are tooled up with helmet, shield and axe when you get tossed in the lake, you have to make a Stamina roll at -1d6 immediately. Assuming you make it, next round you can drop the axe and make another Stamina roll, unmodified. If you've got Action 3 you might get that third set, apply it to Swim and shed the helmet and start getting some control. But if not, you're essentially trapped in your own defenses, going nowhere, just battling to stay afloat and losing a Hit Point every time your dice cool down. 

<3>Throw

The d6 determines how accurate your throw is, and the d10 shows how far you can heave it. For every point in the d10s in your sets, you can throw a light object (such as a rope to a drowning pal) one yard, and and a heavy object one foot. (A pro football player can accurately toss a football up to 83 yards, but it's designed to be thrown, so... an edge case in a roleplaying game.) If you use all your sets for distance, you have to take the lowest d6 result for accuracy, which may be fine. If you're throwing something so someone can catch it, they may get a bonus depending on your d6 result.

d6 Throw Result	Catch Bonus

1-4			None

5			Catcher adds +1d6

6			Catcher adds +1d10

Alternately, you can throw stuff at people to hurt them. If you're throwing coarse objects that aren't designed to be hurled for deadly effect -- bottles, rocks, pieces of furniture -- the maximum damage they can inflict is 3, but it's an attack like any other. Something that's good to throw, like a balanced hatchet or a spear? It inflicts normal damage, though only one success set can be used per projectile. If you have lots of throwing knives, however, you use all the sets you roll, one per knife. 

If you don't have Athletics (Throw) you can't throw things at people in a fight with any realistic chance of hitting. Sorry.

<2>Battle (An Action Skill)

This is the Skill you use to kill people close up, and to avoid being murdered at arm's length. It's no good for missile weaponry -- for that you need either Athletics (Throw) or Grace (Archery). Here's how it works.

When used to attack, you roll Battle and produce a number of successes. Successes do damage unless blocked, or reduced by armor (described below). Attacks that hit do damage equal to the d6 result, unless the attacker is unarmed. (In that case, the damage can't exceed 3 points.) Damage from Battle is taken out of the target's Hit Points, as described on page xx. Attacks count up based on the d10 result, with 1 results happening first and 10 results happening last. D6 results break ties. 

You can also use a Battle roll to defend yourself. Again, the d10 count-up determines timing. You get a number of "dodge points" equal to the d6 result. Spend one dodge point to buy off one Hit Point of damage. Only good against attacks that happen after the dodge goes off, though.

Example: Harwen ill-advisedly takes a swing at Gry. His Battle pool is 1d6/2d10, while hers is 4d6/2d10. He gets 4/6,6 and builds a 4/6 set. She gets 2,2,3,4/7,7 She can make two sets -- a 3/7 and a 4/7 -- but neither's quick enough to stop his hit. Since he's empty-handed, his maximum damage is 3 and he does it. Gry responds with a resounding punch and kick, each doing maximum hand-to-hand damage for a total of 6 lost HP. 

Unwilling to let it go, Harwen tries again, rolling 4/7,8. Gry gets 3,4,5,5/5,9. She makes a 3/5 set and a 5/9. The 3/5 happens first and she decides to dodge with it. When his 4/8 set goes off, she can reduce the damage by 3 points, and since he can't do more than 3 damage with bare hands, she adroitly avoids further injury. He can't say the same when her follow up 5/9 kidney punch hits. He's taken 9 points of damage and, having started with 11 HP, decides to back off and apologize. 

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<2>Weapons and Armor

Most weapons just allow you to do damage higher than 4. If a weapon's unusually good, it adds +1d6 to your pool. If it's a legendary weapon of greatness, it adds +1d10 to your pool.

Armor reduces damage from every hit, and is pretty abstracted. If you have a shield, that's -1 to all damage. A helmet gives -1 as well, either by protecting your head or by forcing your opponent to aim elsewhere. A breastplate or chain-shirt adds another -1. These are cumulative, but the total armor reduction can never exceed -3.

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Note well that both the Love and Hate Skills have fairly profound impacts on Battle, as summarized here.

If you hit someone who loves you, in addition to damaging their Hit Points, you cost them an Equilibrium Point with every hit if their Love Skill is 1-3. If their Love is rated 4+, every hit costs them 1 Eq and a point of Skepticism. (Hit Points, Equilibrium and Skepticism are explained on page xx.) 

If you attack someone you love, your dice pool suffers. If you have Love 1-3, you lose 1d6. If it's 4+ you lose 1d10, unless you also hate that person. If you love and hate someone, you can attack with the full effects of hate.

If a GMC who hates you is attacking you, his hits do +1 damage at Hate 1-3, or +2 damage at Hate 4+. This can even breach the usual three point limit on hand-to-hand damage!

If you attack someone you hate, you can add +1d6 if your Hate is rated 1-3, or +1d10 if your Hate is 4+. You get these advantages even if you also love that person.

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<2>Other Uses for Battle Sets

Hit and dodge are the bread and butter of Battle, but there are a couple other things you can do by spending a Battle set.

Get Weapon. If you have a weapon but haven't drawn it, that costs a set, as does picking up an unattended weapon someone else dropped.

Move Foe. For every set you spend, you can move an enemy one yard, which is mostly useful if you're fighting somewhere with environmental hazards. If the enemy has made a dodge, he can avoid being moved -- but doing so costs all his remaining dodge points. This doesn't do any damage, though.

Disarm Foe. If your set's d6 result is greater than the enemy's Action, you can make him drop his weapon.

Disorient Foe. This does no damage, but if your d6 result is greater than his Intuition (or Thought) it causes his next set's action to fail.

Tactical Step. You get in position, doing no damage but giving yourself a +1d6 bonus on your roll next round.

Grapple Foe. If your d6 result is greater than his Action, he loses all his dodge points. If he has no dodge points, his next set's action fails. If he has no actions left in the round, he's at -1d10 for his next round's actions (or, at -1 Deeds). 

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<3>The Big Combat Example

[#]

<2>Education (An Intuition Skill)

Education is a category that covers a field (or several fields) of study and knowledge. Initially, you get a number of fields equal to the dots you allocate to Education.

Example: At character generation, Meg ends up with three dots in Education. She gets to pick three categories in which her character is educated. When dealing with those fields, Meg rolls 3d6, along with d10s equal to her Intuition Stat.

The possible fields of education are as follows.

<3>Astronomy

You know the patterns of the skies and can navigate, even on the open ocean if necessary. Roll this anywhere to not be lost, as long as you can get a good view of the stars. 

You can also use this to predict the weather, with the d6 result indicating accuracy (1 = "it's probably going to cloud up tomorrow" and 6 = "expect thready clouds in the morning with mild winds from the northwest, but by noon that's going to cloud over with big thunderheads -- we probably have about two or three hours of rain in the afternoon, and heavy winds from the east in the evening"). The d10 determines how far out you can predict, giving about five hours for every point. If you get multiple sets, pick one to use.

<3>Geography

You not only carry a map in your head of known places you've been, you also remember rumors and descriptions of far areas. Roll this to not be lost if you're traveling overland.

On top of that, you understand the patterns of the land, being able to predict where rivers are by observing ravines, where trees are likely to grow given the contours of the hills and valleys, and where prey is likely to gather and feed. If you want to find a particular feature of the land (something vague like "shade-loving herbs," "fresh water," or "shelter") your d6 result shows how good your guess was. On a 1, you find the cruddiest and most distasteful example of what you were looking for. On a 6, it's a jackpot. The d10 result shows how many hours your search for it requires (so, yeah, if you want great stuff, it takes longer). 

If you use your knowledge of geography to help a follow-up roll (for instance, using it to find likely places for herbs, then rolling Herbalism to actually get what you're looking for), a 1-3 on the d6 gives the follow-up roll a +d6 bonus. On a 4-6, it adds a +d10. Same thing for Observation and finding game, or Craft to build a decent shelter.

<3>Herbalism

You know a lot of herbs that are good for health as well as a lot of herbs that just have... interesting properties. (Like they make you throw up, or have uncontrolled bowel movements, or turn your urine shocking colors. Perhaps in this example we should say 'the ingester' rather than 'you,' though most herbalists fall back on trial and error at some point.) You also know herbs that get one high, herbs that make one die, and herbs that can do both depending on how they're prepared. 

When searching for a particular herb, a success indicates that you've found it. If you're looking for it outside its common region, your roll is at -1d10. If you're looking for it in spring, your roll is at -1d6, and in winter at -2d6. You can only use one set rolled. The number on your set's d6 indicates how many doses you find, and the number on the set's d10 indicates how many hours of search are required.

If you're browsing to see what's lying about, roll on one of the charts in the nearby box, depending on the location. The same seasonal modifiers apply and, again, you get doses equal to the d6 after time equal to the d10. Browsing, however, you can use all the sets you roll, though the time required is cumulative.

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<2>Herb Gathering

If an herbalist goes out just to find what he can find, the following charts indicate what's just lying about, depending on terrain.

<3>Plains

Roll	Find

1	Salad. Instead of the normal number of doses, you only find a thin meal for one adult.

2-3	Mild Intoxicant. A pinch between the cheek and gum is mildly amusing for 5-10 minutes. Won't affect people who are Enraged or Sullen.

4-5	Fever Reducer. Each dose gives a +1d10 to any Medicine roll dealing with that symptom. Sells for 2-3 shells per dose, depending on season and availability.

6	Emetic. Anyone who consumes even a small taste of this bitter, armpit-smelling herb has to make an Athletics (Stamina) roll or be gripped by savage vomiting. Afterwards, the character loses a d10 from all Action rolls for an hour. However, if the character was poisoned or slipped a (different) unwanted herbal concoction, he can automatically throw off the effects. (Characters who want to throw up can forego the Stamina roll.)

<3>Swamp

Roll	Find

1-3	False Intoxicant. To the ignorant (meaning, anyone who fails or can't make an Herbalism roll) this looks like the strong intoxicant (below). If ingested, it instead causes disorientation and appalling hallucinations. The consumer loses 1-6 points of Skepticism and is at -1d6 to all Intuition based rolls for 1-10 hours.

4-5	Strong Intoxicant. When ingested, this causes euphoria. The taker's mood immediately shifts to Rhapsodic and stays that way for 1-6 hours. Afterwards, the taker feels Sullen for an hour.

6	Death-Trance Poison. Anyone who ingests this immediately makes an Athletics (Stamina) roll. If it fails, the character apparently dies, but in fact passes into a deep sleep for 10+1d10 hours. If it succeeds, the character is at -1d10 to all Action rolls for the next day unless successfully treated with Education (Medicine). Additionally, the character has to keep making Stamina rolls every 2-3 hours. Any failure puts him in the death trance. 

<3>Coastline

Roll	Find

1-2	Valuable Spices. Delicious! Each dose is worth one shell (see "Trade" on page xx).

3	Painkiller. Once per scene, someone at less than maximum Hit Points can take a dose of this to regain one HP.

4	Chow Weed. It's not very tasty, but you can live on it. Each dose is a thin meal for an adult. 

5-6	Blood Cleanser. When dried and powdered, this helps blood clot faster. It gives a +1d6 bonus to Medicine rolls when used to treat injuries. Only one dose can be used per roll.

<3>Desert

Roll	Find

1	Soporific. Anyone who takes a dose of this can roll a pool equal to1d6 and their Action stat to stay awake without penalty. Otherwise, they pass out for 1d6 hours.

2-4	Powerful Stimulant. Anyone who takes a dose of this has a choice: Either immediately become Enraged, or lose half their Equilibrium keeping their temper.

5	Hallucinogen. A dose of this is an entire crumbly, blue-green cactus button with an intense acrid odor and bitter smell, so trying to sneak it in someone's food gives them an Observation roll to notice it before it takes effect. If ingested, the subject undergoes a series of bizarre psychedelic hallucinations for an hour. Upon return to normalcy, roll 1d6. On a 1-3, the character loses half his Equilibrium but regains all Skepticism and comes out Sullen -- withdrawn, irritable, touchy and pugnacious. On a 4-6, the character loses half Skepticism and regains all Equilibrium, emerging from the experience Smug, cheerful, friendly and babbling about great spiritual insights (that make no sense to anyone else). 

6	Depressant. Ingestion immediately makes the character Sullen, and he remains Sullen the next scene too.

<3>Mountains

Roll	Find

1	Magic Root. Once ingested, the character can perceive and communicate with any immaterial spirits present for the remainder of the scene. Side effects include dry mouth, slightly blurred vision, and the sensation of insects crawling on the skin.

2	Poison. If hidden in food, this can be noticed with an Observation roll. The first hour after consumption, the character loses half his remaining HP unless he makes a successful Athletics (Stamina) roll. Even if he succeeds, he's gripped with horrid cramps and sweating. An hour after that, he loses half his remaining HP unless someone makes a successful Medicine or Herbalism roll to treat him. The cramping and sweating continue, along with dizziness and acute headache. This gives him a -1d6/-1d10 penalty to all actions. On the third hour, he loses 1d6 Hit Points no matter what anyone does. If this drops him below 0 HP, he dies on the spot. If he survives, however, he rapidly improves.

3-4	Powerful Stimulant. For the remainder of the scene, the ingester has +1d10 to all Observation rolls. However, she immediately loses half her present Equilibrium.

5-6	Muzzy Leaves. To serve properly, dry them and brew them into a tea. Noticing muzzy-leaf tea requires an Observation roll. If one dose is consumed, the drinker loses 1-10 Skepticism. If two doses are consumed, the drinker sleeps for 1-6 hours.

[[end boxed text]]

<3>Language

If you know a foreign language, that's typically enough to communicate basic concepts in it. A successful Education/Intuition roll would allow you to use manipulative Composure Skills like Persuasion in your second tongue. You can take this multiple times to indicate different languages.

<3>Legendry

You are well-informed about the doings of kings, heroes, generals, gods, villains and spirits, or at least the stories and gossip that mortals tell of them. This is as close as one gets to the study of history in HORIZON.

Once per scene, in addition to just knowing stuff, you can attempt to tell a story that illustrates a moral point. If you get multiple sets with this, you can affect multiple listeners (one person per set) or apply all the sets to one hearer for a deep effect. The result you get depends on your d6 result. 

Result		Effect

1-3		Target regains a lost point of Skepticism but loses a point of Equilibrium.

4-6		Target regains a lost point of Skepticism.

<3>Medicine

You know how to set bones, wrap bandages so they don't come undone, and recognize a fair number of plants that lower fever, kill pain, or have other salubrious effects.

If you're using it to seek medicinal herbs, use the rules under Herbalism, but you roll at -1d6/-1d10 and can only use one set per roll.

When treating an illness, any set is sufficient to put someone on the path to recovery. The result on the d10 is how many days until the patient is fully restored. The d6 result indicates how comfortable the patient is.

Roll	Comfort

1-2	Miserable. The patient can't get out of bed and is in a Sullen mood for the entirety of the treatment.

3-5	Unwell. The patient can perform light activity for a couple hours a day -- no Action based pools, but everything else is fine. More than a few hours and the ill person collapses, though.

6	Upright. The patient can roll all pools normally, but any scene with an Action-based costs the patient 1 Equilibrium and makes him Sullen the next scene.

When treating injuries, you can heal yourself or others. You can make one roll per scene and use every set that comes up, either multiple sets for one person or spreading them out among several wounded people. Most sets heal 1 HP and cost one Equilibrium. (First Aid hurts.) If you treat someone with a 6/- set, they regain an extra HP. If you treat someone with any -/10 set, that's a bonus HP too, so if you apply a 6/10 set to someone, that's +3 HP. (Still costs the Equilibrium though.) 

<3>________ Craft

With the right tools and materials, you can build and fix things out of wood, metal, leather, fabric, or whatever other material you put in the blank. Wood, metal, cloth and leather/bone are the defaults in HORIZON, clear anything else with your GM.

When you make an object with Craft, the result on the d10 roll indicates how many hours, days or weeks it takes, depending on whether you're creating something like a belt (hours), a wagon (days) or a house (weeks). If you get a success, the object is adequate, nothing special. If you get either a 6/- or -/10 result, it's an unusually good example of its kind, giving +1d6 when used for its intended purpose. (If it's a really great cloak or something, maybe it gives a bonus to Preen or Perform rolls.) If it's made with a 6/10 set, it gives +1d10.

<3>Performance

You can tell a good story and make people laugh with your jokes, or perhaps you've been rigorously trained on a musical instrument. (This field overlaps with Grace, which is not a big deal.) If you just want to amuse people, that's fine, roll a set and you're good to go.

But you can also perform in a more calculating fashion. If you're trying to shift opinion or prove a point or just make people feel bad (or good), you can roll Performance and, with any success, either give +1 Equilibrium or -1 Equilibrium to everyone paying attention -- and all without necessarily giving offense or crossing any lines. (Granted, if you hit people with Equilibrium decreases, they may look for excuses to mess with you. Or they may adore you because only you understand their pain. People are weird when it comes to sad songs and tragic tales.) If you do this, multiple sets have no greater effect on the rules, but they make you subjectively better. You throw down a three-set Performance, there won't be a dry eye in the house, either from laugher or sorrow.

<3>Repair

With the right tools and materials you can fix just about anything... pretty well. With crappy tools and improvised materials, you can keep a thing running for a while. Specifically: If you make a genuine attempt to repair a large, damaged object (like patching a boat's hull or replacing the cracked axle on a wagon), the d10 indicates how many hours of labor it takes, and the d6 shows how many days before it breaks again... unless you use a 6/- or -/10 set. In that case, it's fixed for good. If you're repairing a hand tool or something similarly simple, it's minutes of labor instead of hours. If you're working on something very large, like restoring a burned house or fixing a large, storm-wrecked ship, the d10s result is days instead of hours. Simple, really. Or, even simpler, don't roll if it doesn't add to the story, just assume the guy with the Repair Skill can fix it.

<3>Sailing

You can make a boat go where you want or, if the weather's bad, at least keep it on the top side of the water. You only need to roll if things are getting hairy and there's a reasonable chance of the ship being damaged, sunk or run aground. 

In that case, if you fail, your ship is in the hands of the GM -- probably either sinking or blown off course. If it's going down, people have a few rounds to grab irreplaceable items and people, find a lifeboat, grab something buoyant, or pray. After that, the Swim rules may come into play. Getting blown off course simply leaves you on whatever interesting island the GM has in mind, probably with a damaged ship requiring repair, probably about 1d6+1d10 days (or hours, for a short trip) away from where you wanted to go.

Any success in a battle or storm leaves the ship usable, but if the set you pick has a 1 on the d6, the ship's damaged, while the d10 die indicates how many additional hours (or days, if it's a long trip) your journey takes. If you have a damaged ship, all your future Sailing rolls are at -1d6 until it either gets fixed, flounders with a failed Sail roll, or gets damaged again. The second damage puts it at -1d10, and if it gets bashed around after that, it sinks.

Note that just because the boat goes where you point it doesn't mean you know where you're going. For that you need Education (Astronomy) or to stay close to the coast and rely on Education (Geography).

<2>Grace (An Action Skill)

Like Athletics, this is a Skill that gets rolled in a pool with Action for performing deeds of physical competence. Like Athletics, there are many sub-categories of Grace -- in fact, there's a fair amount of overlap, since some people climb mountains by nimbly taking the easiest route while others just trudge through using strength. That's fine. You want to avoid overlapping Grace/Athletics categories. Since this is a specific-type Skill, you get one category of expertise in it for every point you put in it: Start out with Grace 2, you've mastered two graceful categories. You can buy up the Skill later, or add more categories, but adding a point to the Skill does not automatically get you another category.

<3>Archery

You're competent with a bow and arrow. You can hit a deer-sized target out to 30 yards, much of the time. Twenty yards if you're in a forest or it's raining. Bows do 1-6 points of damage and you can fire as many arrows in a round as you have d10s in your pool.

<3>Balance

You can move with confidence along narrow and precarious areas. The d6 results indicate how many yards, feet or inches you can move in a round. The base rate depends on how hard the circumstance is: If you're moving along something stable and smooth, just narrow and high up, you can move yards. If it's irregular and narrow -- a tree branch, for example -- then you move feet. It's inches if you're literally walking a tightrope. Normal people can move one foot per round on stable smooth surfaces, and just cannot make progress on anything worse. You can use multiple sets to get greater distance: The d10 only determines when you act.

<3>Catch

This is pretty simple. If you get a set, you catch... whatever it was. If someone throws an object or weapon at you to hurt you, you can catch it and take no damage at all, as long as your catch is timed before their hit. If someone throws you something specifically so you can catch it, you get a +1d6 to your pool if his Throw roll had a 5 on the d6, and you get a +1d10 if he rolled a 6.

<3>Climb

Works just like Athletics (Climb), except you look better doing it.

<3>Dance

Works just like Athletics (Preen), except it's more socially acceptable. 

<3>Dodge

All this means is you can use your Grace pool instead of your Battle pool to dodge during fights. See page xx.

<3>Ride

You're trained to ride a horse or other mount. If you're simply racing someone else on a horse, roll and the highest d6 in a set wins the race, with d10s breaking ties. If your horse's Action or Deed is the highest in the field, add +1d6 to your roll. If your steed's Action or Deed exceeds its closest competitor by two points, add +1d10 to your roll. (If your mount has the lowest stat in the field, reduce your pool by -1d6.)

In a combat, you cover a number of yards based on your horse's score (Action or Deed, depending on how your steed is statted). If you take an easy pace, it doesn't require a roll (freeing you up to evade damage, take a swing, or shoot an arrow). If you bolt, you have to roll at least one Ride success, or you fall off and take a point of damage for every point your steed has in its stat. 

Horse's Stat		Easy (yards)	Bolt(yards) 

1			3		10 + d6 result from a set

2			6		15 + d6 results from up to two sets

3			9		20 + d6 results from up to three sets

4			12		25 + d6 results from up to four sets

5			15		30 + d6 results from up to five sets

<3>Roguery

Roll this to pick pockets, lift small items from a market stall, get a knife past a pat-down, sabotage someone's saddle girth unnoticed or perform entertaining magic tricks. It's rolled in opposition to the other fellow's Observation, and if your d6 is higher, you get away with it unnoticed. D10s break ties. If each of you uses exactly the same set, the Roguery set wins.

<3>Stealth

You can move around unseen and unheard -- it's actually a little unnerving. Roll against Observation, highest d6 wins and d10s break ties. It's like Roguery, only this you can use to hunt game, so it's an esteemed and lauded talent. (If people find out you're good at making small objects vanish, they tend to look for you the first time they can't find one of their necklaces.)

<3>Throw

Exactly like Athletics (Throw).

<2>Hate (A Composure Skill)

For every point you take in Hate, you get an open Hate slot. You can put a person's name (or that of an animal or other living creature) in an open Hate slot as long as you can explain why you absolutely despise that individual and would gleefully break a hard sweat working towards his, her, or its demise.

To remove someone from a Hate slot, you have to either replace him with someone you hate even more, or forgive him. This forgiveness can be externalized (when you shake hands, agree to disagree, or save his life from a fire) or internalized (when you decide that your anger is turning into something rancid and ugly and that you just don't want him to have that sort of control over you). But you can only forgive during a scene when your mood is Bold, Smug or Rhapsodic. (Moods are explained on page xx.) Most importantly, you have to pay an experience point, whether you're replacing or forgiving.

When you are acting to humiliate or harm someone you hate, you get a bonus to your pool. If your Hate Skill is 1-3, you add +1d6. If it's 4+, you add +1d10.

Alternately, you can substitute your Hate Skill rating for Battle, Observe, Athletics (Run) or Athletics (Stamina) but only if you're trying to humiliate or harm your enemy. (If you substitute in Hate for another Skill, you don't also get the Hate bonus dice.)  When substituting, you roll the usual Stat.  So, if you're trying to clobber your rival with an elk-bone club, you roll Hate/Action, not Hate/Composure.

Hatred has some interesting interactions with Persuasion. If you hate someone and she doesn't know it, you get a bonus when trying to resist her Persuasion -- +1d6 for Hate 1-3, +1d10 for Hate 4+. But if she knows you hate her, you don't get the bonus. 

Similarly, if you try to persuade someone you hate, there's no change if he's ignorant of your loathing. But if he knows you'd gladly pitch him down the nearest well, chuckling over the sound of his bones breaking, you get a -1d6 penalty to Persuasion if your Hate is 1-3, and a -1d10 penalty if it's 4 or greater.

<2>Love (A Composure Skill)

Love is the blessed inversion of Hate's stew of resentment and subtle wrath. If you would gladly put yourself in harm's way to protect someone, if the habits that others find annoying are cute to you, and if know you'd regret it every day if you screwed up the relationship with this person, that's love. Or alternately, if you see someone and are struck with awe and desire and confusion and mild nausea, that's also covered by a slot in the Love Skill. You can call one true affection and the other a shallow infatuation, but they both work the same under the rules.

If you're attempting to save or protect someone you love, or make things better or more comfortable for him or her, you can add a bonus to your pool. It's +1d6 if your Love is 1-3, and +1d10 if your Love rating is 4+. Alternately, you can substitute your Love Skill for Battle, Education (Medicine) or Athletics (Swim, Lift or Stamina) when attempting to save your beloved's life. You won't get the bonus on a substitution, though.  When substituting, you still use the standard Stat -- if you're trying to save your beloved daughter from drowning, you roll Love/Action, not Love/Composure.

You're vulnerable to those you love, though I'm sure you wouldn't have it any other way. If a GMC in one of your love slots attempts to Persuade you, the damage done to your Equilibrium is increased by one point (for Love 1-3) or two points (for Love 4+). 

<2>Observation (An Intuition Skill)

You roll this to pick up on anomalous elements in the world of the senses -- a dead bird with no marks on it, a slightly trampled area of grass, the soft eructation of that hulking brute walking quietly behind you... anything you might want to notice, be it valuable clue or deadly ambush.

Specifically, to spot a hidden person you roll against his Grace (Stealth)/Action pool, or his Deed result. Highest d6/- result wins and -/d10 breaks ties. Same thing with a hidden object, only the person concealing it makes the roll as soon as someone starts looking. If you're tracking and he's taking care to hide his trail, roll off against his Stealth normally. Otherwise, any success puts you on the trail, but the -/d10 result indicates how long it takes you. If the trail is fresh, laid within hours, it takes you minutes to find it. If it's aging -- say 2-3 days in good conditions, one day if they're poor -- the time it takes to find it's measured in hours. This can be modified depending on size and situation, of course. Tracking a particular squirrel is harder and takes longer. Tracking a suterrap is so easy you don't need to roll, even if you're blind.

If it's an uncontested situation, a good rule of thumb is for the GM to give 1 relevant detail for every point on the success set's d6. Multiple sets can be applied. 

Moreover, for every initial dot you put in Observation, you get a memory slot. You can never have more than five memory slots. If you catch a bare glimpse of an assailant as he runs off, or hear only the weird crackling sound of the creature's joints as it flies away, you can put that experience in your memory slot and never forget it -- at least, until you refill the slot or have some kind of Skepticism crisis. 

If you're tracking someone who's in a memory slot, you get +1d6 to your Observation if your Observation score is 1-3, or +1d10 if your Observation is 4+. If you use an Observation slot while scouring a site for clues, you automatically get every available clue.

The contents of your Observation slots can also serve as 'armor' to protect your Equilibrium or your Skepticism. This is a highly variable thing, but as a general rule, if something would damage either of those traits and something in an Observation slot contradicts the statement that's making you unhappy, the damage to Skep or Eq. is reduced by one point. If you have multiple things in your Observation slots that protect you (which doesn't seem likely), each slot reduces the damage by a point, to a maximum of -3 damage. 

Example: When Togy saw the treaty between the bandits and the Northwalker tribe, he memorized it, applying an Observation slot. He also spent a slot on the Northwalker chief Harusuff -- mostly because he was scared Harusuff was going to sneak up and kill him. But when someone tries to convince him that Harusuff was part of the treaty conspiracy, both those hard-held memories insulate him from persuasion. He knows Harusuff's name wasn't on there. He also knows that, while Harusuff has a soft step and a steady hand, he isn't one for concealing his dislikes behind elaborate schemes.

You can sacrifice a memory slot in order to get a clue from the GM. If you're really stuck about what to do next, confused about what's happening or otherwise at sea (literally or figuratively) you can give up a memory slot to get the GM to give you a shove in the right direction. When you do this, jot down the hint in the slot on your character sheet.

The final use for Observation is scavenging food. If you're out in the wilderness, roll Observation. Any success scares up some grub. (If it's deserted and barren, the GM may knock a d10 or two from your pool.) 

If you succeed at food-finding, the d10 shows how many hours you spend foraging. The d6 shows how much you find.

Roll	Result

1	Slim pickings. You can feed one adult for one thin and unsatisfying meal.

2	You can feed one adult for a day... barely.

3	You find enough food to satisfy one adult for a day, or to feed two adults if you don't mind them being hungry and cross.

4	You can feed two people well for a full day, or four poorly.

5	The Hunt Is On! The GM can throw a conflict against a food animal at you and, if you can kill it before it runs away (or kills you) you can feed three people for a full day with rich meat right from the bone.

6	Huntin' Bonanza! Make five Archery or Throw rolls. You can feed one person well for a day with each success you roll.

<2>Reason (An Intuition Skill)

For the trudging, dogged logic of taking an idea apart, explaining how it works, and reassembling it so that it continues to function, one uses Reason. If you're trying to win an intellectual conflict with someone (as opposed to a Composure-based argument) you use Reason against him, the same way you'd use Battle in a physical conflict.

If you're in an intellectual situation and trying to force your will onto something, use Reason if there's no other Skill that seems a better fit. Your starting dots in Reason contribute to your Skepticism threshold (as explained below on page xx).

<1>Thresholds

A threshold measures problems your character can't handle. There are three thresholds, one for each category of action. When your threshold is exhausted or surpassed, bad things happen.

The threshold of Intuition is called Skepticism, abbreviated as "Skep." Your Skepticism starts out equal to your Reason plus five times your Intuition. You can buy more Skep as your character learns to be not be a sucker, eventually reaching the maximum of 40 points. When people try to convince you of things that aren't true, or when you're simply presented with conflicting evidence or accounts of events, your Skepticism takes hits. Once it hits zero, you're no longer very sure what's true or whom you should believe. If someone chews through your Skepticism, further successes let him empty out your Observation slots (if you have stuff in them, and if he's making arguments to make you doubt your knowledge). Alternately, he can just dictate what mood you go into the next scene. In certain circumstances, he can yank someone out of a Love or Hate slot, though that's up to the GM to decide. Or he can cost you a point off your Education, down to a minimum of one point.

The threshold of Action consists of Hit Points. (Traditionally, Hit Points are abbreviated as "HP".) Your HP count starts out equal to five times your Action plus your Battle, but can eventually be bought as high as 40 points. When someone, or something, harms you physically, you lose Hit Points. 

When your Hit Points hit zero or lower, you become helpless. Further blows don't do damage, they just produce long-term bad outcomes, which are anything the GM or the person hitting you can justify. Most drastically, death. If someone's out of HP and you get a set, you can say "He's dead." Or you can take a point off a Skill, if you justify it right. ("Good luck making those Observation rolls after I burst your eardrums," "You ain't dancing on this compound-fractured ankle," "Have fun with the Persuade rolls when you're hideously disfigured" and so forth.) GMs may let characters who run out of HP survive, only to be swept downstream or hauled away captive, recovering later in vile durance or lost in the wilderness.

The threshold for Composure is Equilibrium. It starts out equal to five times your Composure, plus Persuasion. You can improve it later, raising it as high as 40. Its abbreviation is Eq. 

When your Equilibrium hits zero, you're miserable. Someone who empties out your Equilibrium can, if he was arguing appropriately, immediately change your mood to either Rhapsody or Enraged. Alternately, if you have an empty slot in either Love or Hate, someone who throws you into that much emotional turmoil can insert himself in the appropriate position. Or, if he knows who's already occupying Love or Hate real estate, he can knock someone out of their slot. He could also do horrendous harm to your reputation, though that's not (currently) tracked mechanically. Any result that might arise from an absolutely harrowing emotional ordeal can be dictated against an Eq zero character, as long as it arises reasonably from the cut-and-thrust of what was said and done.

While Skills, Gifts and Moods can all restore lost threshold points fairly easily, so does a good night's sleep. After a night of rest, characters regain one lost point, of a type chosen by the player. You can regain Eq, HP or Skep from sleep, but only one. Choose wisely. Though if you've been taking a beating on all three fronts, you may not have been choosing wisely so far. 

<1>Moods

In most stories, and most games, mood is a subtle and ephemeral element. Not in System 6-10. There are five moods and every character is in one of them. 

Different moods give you different problems and different advantages. Your character's mood is under your control... mostly. But if someone assaults your Skepticism or Equilibrium, she can influence your mood. (So can certain elaborate uses of Herbalism, too.) But for the most part, you decide your character's mood at the start of a scene. During the scene, it influences your rolls. At the end of the scene, if you stayed in the same mood, it may restore lost HP, Eq or Skep. The moods are as follows.

<2>Bold

This is the default mood for characters in HORIZON. You're confident but not foolhardy (or, at least, not in your own opinion), curious, engaged and ready to see just how much excitement, profit or mischief you can wring out of the next couple hours.

Entered from: You can switch to being Bold from Smug or Sullen.

Exits to: You can go from being Bold to any other mood.

In-Scene Benefit: None.

In-Scene Penalty: None.

End-of-Scene Benefit: If you spend the whole scene being Bold, you regain one lost Hit Point at the end.

<2>Rhapsodic

You're excited, delighted, almost giddy with glee! Life is great and grand and a treat and an adventure! You practically glow with bliss!

Entered from: You can only voluntarily become Rhapsodic if something good happens to you while you're in a Bold mood, and you decide to transition to Rhapsodic. However, any time someone or something enters one of your Love categories, you automatically become Rhapsodic the next scene. Indeed, it's mandatory. Once you're Rhapsodic, you can stay Rhapsodic as long as you want, until someone else gets sick of your grin and forces you out with Reason or Persuasion.

Exits to: You can only voluntarily leave Rhapsodic to become Smug.

In-Scene Benefit: While you're Rhapsodic, you're really fun and charming and sincere. Add +1d10 to all Persuade pools.

In-Scene Penalty: Rhapsody is a very distracting state of mind. While in this dizzy haze of joy, you can't make any Observation rolls or use any Observation slots. You don't even get the benefit of bonus dice from your Observation slots.

End-of-Scene Benefit: None

<2>Smug

You feel pretty darn good about yourself. It's one of those days where you like what you're doing, you have a spring in your step, a sneer on your face and your hair is doing just what you want. Yeah. It's a good time to be you.

Entered from: Rhapsodic or Bold

Exits to: Bold

In-Scene Benefit: None.

In-Scene Penalty: Sometimes a little self-doubt is necessary for self-correction, but only people who are wrong need that, right? You suffer a -1d6 penalty to all Reason rolls.

End-of-Scene Benefit: If you spend a whole scene Smug, you regain a lost point of Equilibrium at the end. Hey, things aren't that bad. After all, you're you, and no one can take that away.

<2>Sullen

Nothing's any fun any more. You're having a bad day. You don't want to hear about it. You're not about to shirk your duties or leave your friends in the lurch, but you're not going to enjoy it, no matter what 'it' is. You're gloomy and frowning and snappish.

Entered from: You can voluntarily enter a Sullen state (if you wish) from being Bold or from being Enraged. 

Exits to: Bold. All you really need is some fresh air and exercise. 

In-Scene Benefit: None

In-Scene Penalty: You're kind of insufferable when you get like this. You take a -1d6 penalty to all Persuade pools because uuugh, no one wants to hear it.

End-of-Scene Benefit: If you spend a whole scene Sullen, you regain one lost point of Skepticism.

<2>Enraged

YOU WILL KILL EVERY LAST ONE OF THOSE BASTARDS! THEY WON'T GET AWAY WITH THIS! THEY MUST PAY, AND PAY DEARLY! THERE WILL COME A RECKONING!

Entered from: You can only deliberately go this berserk if you're Bold. But someone who pushes your buttons (meaning, empties Eq or Skep.) can drive you to it from any mood. 

Exits to: You can only voluntarily stop being Enraged by becoming Sullen. It's often a matter of exhaustion. Alternately, someone can drive you to a different mood, if they can stand to get close enough.

In-Scene Benefit: Add a +1d10 bonus to all Battle pools. You're kind of scary when you get like this.

In-Scene Penalty: You can't roll Education while you're Enraged because c'mon.

End-of-Scene Benefit: None

<1>Character Generation

Get a character sheet and a pencil and fill in dots, following the steps listed below.

Start with 1 in each Stat -- Action, Intuition and Composure. If they're already blacked in on the character sheet, you don't have to bother with that, even. 

Add two to one Stat, or one apiece to two stats. So you could go with Action 1, Intuition 3 and Composure 1, or you could set yourself up with Action 2, Intuition 2 and Composure 1, and so forth.

Start with 1 in each Skill. Again, these may be pre-filled on your character sheet.

Spend nine more points on Skills, with each point buying you one Skill dot. You can't start with a Skill above 5.

Choose a single 1-point Gift.

Calculate Hit Points (5x Action+Battle), Skepticism (5x Intuition+Reason) and Equilibrium (5x Composure+Persuasion).

Fill in the categories of expertise in the specific Skills -- Athletics, Education and Grace. Remember, you only get one category for each starting point in the Skill. You can also fill in Love or Hate slots, or leave them blank. (It's rarely a bad idea to put a fellow PC in a Love slot, if it makes sense. 'Love' doesn't mean only romantic passion, it also covers loyal friendship and family bonds.) 

Fill in your basic athletic capacities, as described back on page xx.

There. It's a fair number of steps, but they're individually quick, and now you've got a character ready to go. 

<2>Gifts

Gifts beef up Skills.  You can only use one Gift per roll.  Some you have to declare before hand, others you can activate as a reaction.  The sample Gifts in the character generation section (below) are all 1 point Gifts.

<2>Random (and Semi-Random) Character Generation.

Some people dig seeing what the dice want to give them. Or, instead of picking over each Stat and Skill, maybe you want to throw together an optimized character by picking out a couple general profiles -- a set of Stat assignments and a set of Skill picks. There are six Stat possibilities, and ten Skill packages. The Gift is randomly determined too. This method only has four steps.

<3>Step One: Roll a D6

The result you get determines your spread of Stats.

Result	Profile

1	Clever. Intuition 3, Action 1, Composure 1

2	Vigorous. Intuition 1, Action 3, Composure 1

3	Charming. Intuition 1, Action 1, Composure 3

4	Unusual. Intuition 2, Action 2, Composure 1

5	Decisive. Intuition 1, Action 2, Composure 2

6	Cunning. Intuition 2, Action 1, Composure 2

<3>Step Two: Roll a D10

The number that comes up provides your package of Skills. Remember, that every Skill has a free point in it -- that explains why categorized Skills at +2 have three picks.

Result	Profile

1	Learner. Reason +2, Education (Geography, _____Craft, Repair) +2, Observation +2, Athletics (Swim) +0, Grace (Dodge, Archery) +1, Persuasion +1, Love +1 

2	Warrior. Education (Sailing) +0, Observation +1, Battle +4, Athletics (Run, Lift, Stamina) +2, Grace (Archery, Climb, Ride) +2

3	Dreamer. Reason +1, Education (Astronomy, Legendry) +1, Observation +2, Athletics (Stamina) +0, Grace (Dance) +0, Persuasion +3, Love +2

4	Hunter. Education (Repair) +0, Observation +4, Athletics (Stamina) +0, Grace (Archery, Balance, Climb, Dodge, Stealth)+4, Hate +1

5	Follower. Reason +1, Education (Language ______, Repair) +1, Observation +1, Battle +1, Athletics (Swim, Stamina) +1, Grace (Stealth, Archery) +1, Persuasion +1, Love +1, Hate +1,

6	Destroyer. Education (Language _______) +0, Battle +4, Athletics (Run, Throw, Jump, Stamina) +3, Grace (Archery) +0, Hate +2

7	Gaddabout. Education (Performance) +0, Observation +1, Athletics (Preen) +0, Grace (Dodge, Dance, Stealth) +2, Persuasion +2, Love +2, Hate +1

8	Daredevil. Education (Legendry) +0, Observation +1, Athletics (Dodge, Hit, Preen, Stamina, Swim) +4, Grace (Archery, Catch, Climb, Balance, Ride) +4

9	Schemer. Education (Herbalism) +0, Reason +2, Observation +2, Battle +1, Athletics (Stamina) +0, Grace (Stealth) +0, Persuasion +1, Hate +2

10	Genius. Reason +4, Education (Astronomy, Geography, Herbalism, Legendry, Medicine) +4, Observation +1, Athletics (Stamina) +0, Grace (Archery) +0

<3>Step Three: What's Your Gift?

The specifics of Gifts aren't included in this introduction, but fifteen possibilities are included here. The short and sweet explanation of Gifts is that they're special-case abilities that improve certain rolls or pools. You can only apply one Gift to a given roll. Gifts can only be used when you roll the Skill to which they're attached.

Add the d6 you rolled to the d10 you rolled and look up your Gift on the chart.

Roll	Gift

2	Binding Insight. Once per scene, you can regain one lost point of Skepticism if you get a 6/10 set on any Education roll.

3	Brace Yourself. Take a -1d6 penalty on a Battle roll to immediately regain one lost HP. You can only use this Gift once per scene.

4	Deliberate Madness. Use an open Observation slot on a person present, or on the current situation, in order to immediately become Enraged.

5	Irresistible. Any time you roll a 6/10 Persuasion set, you can take a +1d10 bonus if you immediately roll Persuasion again.

6	Pain's Swift Lesson. If you roll a Collision on an Athletics roll, in addition to the failure and improvement, you can also get a +1d10 bonus if you immediately roll Athletics again.

7	Passion. If you roll a 6/10 set while substituting Love for another Skill, you can gain a +1d10 bonus if you immediately substitute Love for the same Skill.

8	Cruel Eye. If you hit with a 6/- Grace (Archery) roll, you do an extra point of damage.

9	Down to Earth. Once per scene, if you get a -/10 Observation roll, you can regain one lost point of Skep.

10	Back to Initial Premises. If you roll a Collision on a Reason roll, it's a simple failure, not a disaster, but you don't immediately improve Reason.

11	Exhilaration. When making an Athletics roll, spend 1XP and immediately switch your mood to Bold, regardless of success or failure.

12	Red Mist. When substituting Hate for any Skill, fill in another Hate slot with a different person involved in the combat and add a +1d6 bonus to your next roll with any Skill.

13	Histrionics. When you reduce someone's Equilibrium with a Persuasion roll, you can lose a point of your own Eq to add +1Eq to your damage.  You can only use this ability once per set.

14	All or Nothing. When making any Grace roll, you can add a +1d10 bonus to your pool, but you have to only use one set from it.

15	Bide Your Time. Take a -1d6 penalty on a Battle roll to give yourself a +1d6 bonus if you immediately make another Battle roll.

16	Pride in Help. Once per scene, if you roll a 6/- set with an Education (Healing) roll, you can regain one lost point of Equilibrium. You know what you did.

<1>Experience Points.

At the end of every session, you get one Experience Point (or XP).  You can spend XP to activate some Gifts (well... currently one Gift) or you can spend them to improve your character.

XP Cost	Effect

1		Increase a Skill by one point.

1		Add a category to one of your specific Skills (maximum 10).

1		Add an empty slot to a custom Skill (maximum 10).

1		Empty out a slot under a custom Skill.

1		Permanently gain one HP, Eq or Skep.

5 		Add a point to a Stat.

<1>Player Facing GMCs

For PCs who are controlling one (or, at most, a couple) characters, the intricacies of assembling mixed-die pools and matching dice to create optimized sets is part of the fun. But a GM has a lot on her plate and shouldn't be expected to micromanage every character the PCs meet. Why should GMCs run by the same rules as PCs? They're not the main characters, after all. The primary arguments to run everything samey-samey are (1) it's fair and (2) it's simple. I reject both.

Fairness is a laudable goal, except it's impossible. If I'm a GM, I have the resources to throw endless ranks of "fair" challenges at PCs, disposing of GMCs as they get damaged until I wear down the PCs' thresholds. (OK, I can do that if I'm a sucky GM.) In a traditional RPG setup, if the GM wants your character dead, he's dead. Having a player face a GM on an equal setting requires profound changes to the rules and expectations and, while it's possible (I think ...in Spaaace! gets at least partway there, as does Fiasco) this game isn't even trying. Instead, let's just assume GMs aren't assholes who want their players miserable. But let's not pretend GMs are behaving that way because they don't have any alternative.

That leaves us with the argument of simplicity, which can work just fine. In this case, however, I think it's a false economy. System 6/10 gives you options with your set building, allowing you tactical choices like trading off effect for speed without sub-systems. The bill for those options comes due at handling time, and making the GM go through complexity she probably doesn't even want seems like a poor bargain -- especially since the GM is the only person present that everyone else absolutely has to wait on.

Instead, I propose a simpler system for GMCs, one that doesn't require the GM to roll at all. Here's how it works.

<2>GMC Traits

Where PCs have Skills and Stats, GMCs have three Traits. Those Traits are Deed, Thought and Feeling. They correspond to Action, Intuition and Composure, as is hopefully obvious. They're ranked 1-5.

GMCs have the same threshold traits as PCs, only in this case their value is somewhere between three and eight times the relevant Trait. A GMC's Skepticism is based on Thought, her Equilibrium based on Feeling and her HP score comes from Deed. A weak character (or a strong character's vulnerable threshold) is 3x. A very tough, experienced character probably has 8x for a threshold in her field of expertise. Nobody is tough enough to have 8x for every threshold: Customize it, or just assign between 3 and 40 points in a Threshold based on how much punishment the character can take.

When attempting to take action, each GMC gets a number of sets equal to her score in the Trait. These sets aren't rolled, they're pulled off her current Profile, explained below. But if she has Deed 3 and is attempting something for which a PC would roll Battle, Athletics or Grace, she pulls the next three sets off her Profile.

Unless, of course, she's rubbish at that particular task.

<3>Flaws

Most GMCs have Flaws, tasks at which they're unusually unfit. Depending on the GMC, a Flaw can be narrow, such as "Athletics (Run)" or it can be broad like "Education." It could even be situational, if a GM wants to get fancy -- so, "Flaw: Whenever he's cut off from his sycophantic followers."

All Flaws, broad or narrow or weird, work like this: The GMC can only pull a single set off his profile. 

Example: The GMC Mulktath has a hefty Deed 5 rating. Any time he tries to smack a PC using Battle, he gets the next five freaking sets. However, he has a flaw: He's overcome by shyness whenever a girl he loves is present. If the PCs can engineer that girl's presence at the duel, Mulktath is only going to get one set per round.

<2>The Profiles

A profile is just a list of set results with a name. Each time you need a set for a GMC, pick the next one off the list. If it's an "F," it means the GMC failed. If you reach the end of the list, start again at the top. Given the unpredictability of the PCs' rolls and the rate at which they choose to take this or that action, it's not going to be feasible for a GM to finesse the GMC's results from the profile in anything but the broadest terms.

Note: All the profiles are based on the same, average number of points. Specifically, they each have 15 sets, the d10 results all add up to 82 and the d6 results all add up to 52. There are no hot dice in the profiles and no cold dice. Those poor loser bastard profiles just have really unfortunate pairings.

A GM can assign a profile to a GMC to fit his place in the (anticipated) story, or assign it randomly. (There are 10 profiles, so a d10 can switch a GMC's fate quite tidily.) The only limits to the use of profiles are...

1) A GMC has to change profiles between every scene in which she appears. That is, if your GMC was using "The Average" in one scene, in the next she has to have a different profile. As long as it isn't The Average, it's good.

2) Every GMC in a scene has to have a different profile. If one GMC is using "The Crescendo," no other GMC can use it. (If there are more than 10 GMCs acting in a scene, ignore this rule and good luck to you.)'

Without further ado, here are your 10 profiles.

<3>#1: The Average

1/4	2/3	4/9	4/6	5/10	4/7	F	4/8	F	4/9	4/3	3/10	F	1/2	6/8

<3>#2: The Hulk

1/2	F	F	2/5	F	2/7	1/8	5/6	5/6	3/4	4/6	6/7	4/10	6/10	5/6

<3>#3: The Screwup

F	F	F	4/10	F	F	F	1/5	3/10	F	F	F	F	2/10	1/10

<3>#4: Lucky Pierre

3/4	4/5	2/7	3/4	4/10	5/6	2/5	3/4	4/5	2/5	4/5	5/7	2/3	5/7	4/5

<3>#5: The Chaos

2/5	F	2/4	5/6	2/7	F	1/6	1/7	F	F	3/10	6/7	5/9	F	F

<3>#6: The Burnout

6/7	5/8	3/4	5/7	F	3/4	F	5/10	1/7	2/8	1/5	F	1/6	F	F

<3>#7: The Smooth

3/4	4/5	5/7	3/4	5/10	4/8	3/9	4/5	2/3	4/7	3/4	4/5	3/4	4/5	1/2

<3>#8: The Rough Patch

6/10	2/3	6/10	4/5	3/10	F	F	F	F	F	2/8	3/6	6/9	1/4	2/5

<3>#9: The Unreliable

6/7	1/4	F	3/5	5/10	F	5/10	2/3	6/7	2/3	F	1/2	4/10	1/7	2/4

<3>#10: The Crescendo

F	2/3	3/7	1/4	4/7	2/4	F	4/7	5/10	3/4	5/6	2/3	F	6/10	4/8