-- ReginaldGusto - 08 Nov 2015
During the game, there are a number of things you can do to accomplish your goals. Some actions are merely narrative, and just move the plot along. Talking to other characters, traveling from place to place, doing things related to your work, hobbies, or current task. Some of them may require dice rolls.
Skill or trait check:
Suppose your character wants to do something where there is uncertainty in the outcome. Your GM will say something like, Okay, roll your __ (skill or trait). At that point, you roll a d10, and add it to your skill or trait, plus or minus any situational modifiers (say, -3 because its raining, +1 because its in your terrain, +3 because someone is helping you, etc). The GM will then roll the difficulty, a d10 plus whatever difficulty number he or she assigned. If you get the higher number, you succeed, and possibly with additional effects if you succeeded by 4 or more, or 7 or more (special and exceptional successes). If the GM rolled higher, you fail, possibly with additional effects if you failed by 4 or more, or 7 or more.
Sometimes the roll might be contested. For example, say you were trying to sneak onto an army base. You would roll your ROG (or stealth specialization), and the GM would roll the sentrys AWA (or spot specialization). Every now and then, your GM might ask you to roll AWA. What he is doing there is checking to see if you spot something going on around you that may give you clues to the narrative. For example, youre walking down the street, and the GM says, everyone roll your awareness. He rolls a difficulty of 17, and the players roll a 14, a 16, a 19, and a 21. The GM says to the two who succeeded, you think that man standing in the doorway of the coffee shop was watching you. Energy management You gain primal energy during the day by a number of ways:
stressful or threatening social or professional interactions (eg: your boss tells you one more report like this and youre fired! Now get your act together! etc.) Typically one energy per incident.
frustrating obstacles to accomplishing a goal (eg: traffic makes you late for work, your neighbors loud music wont let you sleep, etc.) Typically 1 energy per incident.
Bad news (eg: a death in the family, getting fired, etc.) 3 energy per incident
financial or legal trouble, typically 2 energy per day
Having to defend someone close to you, 1 energy if verbal, 3 if physical
being a victim of violence, 2 energy plus 1 per point of wound sustained, plus 2 if you were rendered unconscious, or abducted or held for more than a few minutes.
pain (other than in combat or violence), 1 if moderate, 2 if severe or emotionally distressing (spicy food may count as pain for the purposes of gaining Primal energy, at the GMs discretion)
wound sustained in combat (non-Kaiju, eg: getting in a fist fight at work, getting hit by a bottle in a bar fight, etc), 1 point per point of wound sustained
A successful roll to repress during the one minute warning of an eruption, gain two Primal energy.
Sustained stress: any of the above lasting more than one day, that point value each day of stress sustained.
Intentional: A character may gin up his own primal energy at the rate of 1d4 energy per hour of sustained thought.
bestowal: some Kaiju have the power to gift you Primal energy.
Harvesting: Some Kaiju have the ability to harvest Primal energy from their surroundings.
You gain celestial energy at the rate of one per day, and may also gain them by other means:
relaxing social interactions, 1 per hour
relaxing activities, 1 per hour
prayer or meditation, 2 per hour, 3 if in a group of worshipers
alcohol, 1 for the first drink
exercise or strenuous activity, 3 per hour (ie: burning off the stress)
bestowal: some Celestial creatures, and even some Kaiju, have the ability to gift celestial energy.
Conversion: some Kaiju have the ability to process Primal energy into Celestial energy and vice versa.
Act of love or trust by your support structure or fellow Kaiju. Even if you gain more Celestial energy than you can hold, you have the option of spending it in the moment you acquire it. Celestial energy can be used to burn off Primal energy at a rate of one point per point of Celestial energy spent, or to gain a +3 to your roll to steer your eruption per point spent. Primal energy can be spent in the following ways:
Spend 1 Primal energy in Human form for a +3 to intimidate for one roll, limit one use per roll. Example: unassuming and normally friendly accountant Jake Moss rounds on his jerk-ass coworker, gets right up in his face and snarls, This is NOT a good day to screw with me! For just an instant, the coworker thought he saw Jakes eye turn reptillian This use applies in Human form. In Kaiju form, you only get +1 per point spent, but theres no limit. See the use immediately below.
+1 to any other roll per point spent, for one roll other than steer, come down, or resist eruption, no limit (you cannot burn Primal energy by intentionally wasting such rolls, it has to be a real roll or action). This use applies in both Human and Kaiju form. Example: Mary Johnson has had a very stressful week, and is at her wits end. Not paying attention, she steps into the street. Immediately, a bus honks at her and slams on the brakes. On instinct, she hunkers down into a horse stance, roars, and punches the front of the bus, stopping it in its tracks (9 Primal energy > STR +9). Her head clears and she stares at her fist in wonder
Use the Use terrain action (see below).
Activate other powers (eg: the power Mothers Touch is activated by spending Primal energy, etc)
consumed at a rate of 1 per round of combat or 1 per five minutes after eruption, not counting travel time to the scene if summoned.
spend 1 Primal energy to intentionally erupt during the warning minute
spend 1 Primal energy to walk abroad (see below) Eruption I think Rowdy Roddy Piper said it best when he said, I came here to kick ass, and chew bubble gum and you know the rest of the line. That line became iconic for describing a persons mental state when they have simply run out of vulgar expletives to give. When a Human does it, the damage is manageable because they typically only have at most three primal energy to spend, and they usually spend it ranting and shouting. A few might break things, and fewer still will attack another Human being if the circumstances are right.
But when a Kaiju does it, the results are a bit more memorable.
Any time you gain at least 2 Primal energy from your triggering emotion, the following sequence is initiated: First, you have about a sixty second warning (or one round if in combat). During that time you will feel yourself losing control. In that time, you can warn people away from you, and/or try to get to an empty, open space. You also have the opportunity during that warning period to spend one Primal energy to let go, allow the eruption with some additional measure of control. You may also try one last time to repress the eruption. If you succeed at the repression roll, you forestalled the eruption for now, but you gain 2 Primal energy from the effort. If you failed the repression roll or allowed the eruption, the consequences for each choice are outlined below.
The Kaiju manifests on the scene. If the Kaiju was permanent, you can skip this step. If summoned, the Kaiju emerges from the nearest suitable place he might emerge from: a harbour, underground, a dark closet, descending from the sky, whatever. If a possession, the Kaiju takes possession of his hosts body. If a transformation, the character changes shape into his Kaiju form.
Immediately upon manifestation, if the Kaiju has the power Roar, he or she issues his or her roar. This is optional if the eruption was intentional or steered, but not optional otherwise.
If the eruption was not already steered, the Kaiju immediately makes his or her roll to steer. Roll willpower plus any situational modifiers against your current difficulty, which is 1 for each Primal energy in your reservoir (not counting your secondary reservoir if you took Powerful Hara as a super power). If you erupted during the one minute warning because of a failed repression roll, you roll as normal. If you allowed the eruption, you roll at +3 instead. Example: Dr. Mikelson is stuck in traffic after a long stressful day. Right then, a rich teenager in a Mustang rear-ends him at a long light. He already had 14 Primal energy from the day, and just got two more. His WIL is 13, and his difficulty to resist eruption is 16. Both he and the GM roll a 5, a failure for Dr. Mikelson.
He can feel the transformation happening. His head begins pounding, his ears ringing. He leaps out of the car and tries to run, but he knows that if he doesnt let go, Raptosaur might do some real damage. He closes his eyes and lets go, spending a Primal energy.
Raptosaur has the roar power, and as soon as he transforms, he cuts loose with his roar. Two miles away, three Kaiju, two police officers, and an Angel all recognize the roar. Theyve reined Raptosaur in before.
Raptosaurs WIL is 18 (hes a stubborn dinosaur), and he gets an automatic +3 to his steer roll for allowing the eruption. His touchstone also spent one Primal Energy to erupt, so his base difficulty to steer is base 15. Raptosaur rolls a 6, and the GM rolls an 8, for a 27 to 22. Raptosaur is steering his own eruption. How do you steer this thing?! As stated above, your roll to steer is very similar to your roll to resist eruption. Your difficulty is equal to your current Primal energy. This process, however, rewards those who do not repress but instead let the energy flow. If you chose to allow the eruption, you roll your WIL at a +3 vs. That difficulty. Otherwise, you roll as normal.
Steering the eruption means that your Kaiju is in control of himself even though he erupted. A Kaiju steering his eruption may take the full range of actions, and may make calm strategic decisions based on complex thoughts. A Kaiju out of control, however, is said to be rampaging, and may only use certain actions. A Kaiju may make a steering roll for free every five minutes out of combat or at the beginning of every round in combat immediately after rolling initiative. It is very important that you steer your eruption. In a rampage, there is no knowing what damage you may do: massive property damage, innocent Humans, your own friends, family, and allies, your own support structure, another Kaijus support structure. If you dont steer, you might come out of the eruption guilty of terrorism and manslaughter.
If your Kaiju is rampaging, You are limited to the following actions, though you may set the priority order:
Attack the party who is causing you pain or stress.
Obtain an object of desire or something that satisfies your Kaijus focus or hunger
Attack anyone or anything in your way
Attack the nearest Giant-Size Kaiju
Attack the nearest non giant Kaiju
Attack the nearest Celestial
Clear space for you to work (destroy structures, etc)
Get somewhere comfortable and safe. Coming down If you ran out of Primal Energy in an eruption, your Kaiju goes away, unless you manifest as a permanence. If you Transform, you transform back into your Human form. If you were possessed, the Kaiju returns to the back of your mind. If summoned, the Kaiju slumps off to his lair or vanishes. If you ended the eruption by running out of energy, youre in bad shape. Youll be at -1 to all actions for 24 hours. If you took the Super Power drawback No Landing Gears, youll be at -2 for 24 hours. If you were KOd, you didnt technically run out of energy. Your Kaiju goes away at the end of the fight unless you manifest as a permanence, and when you wake up, youre at -1 to all actions for about two hours. If you took No Landing Gears, its 24 hours. The worst case is if your manifestation is Permanent. In that event, you retain half rounded up the wounds and damage sustained during eruption and have to be healed or repaired normally. If you also took No Landing Gears, you retain all wounds and damage sustained.
After an eruption, assuming you werent knocked out or killed and didnt run out of Primal energy, you then have to come down. Youre still in Kaiju form, you still have Primal Energy to spend, but its time to resume normal Human activities. If your Kaiju was a permanence, you wont have much trouble with this phase. You can just move on as a normal character. But if you manifest any other way, it is time to dismiss the Kaiju. At this point, you roll WIL -3 against your current Primal Energy difficulty. If you succeed, your Kaiju goes away, and you can resume normal Human activities, unless you took the Super-Power drawback No Landing Gears, in which case you just have to spend that primal energy until you run out. If you fail the roll, you can try again every round or every five minutes until you either succeed or crash.
Your Human support structure can be of use here. They can grant you Celestial energy to give you bonuses to your roll, as well as grant you other effects to help you come down.
Regardless of how you end your eruption or, once the eruption is ended, your Primal energy is spent, and you now have only one in your reservoir (unless you took Powerful Hara, in which case you have whatever you didnt spend in that extra reservoir). Walking Abroad Walking abroad is what it is called when a Kaiju assumes his Kaiju form intentionally and peacefully, not in an eruption, and burns off some of his Primal Energy by just being a Kaiju. Example: Roy Morisson turns into Hedge-Hogra, a giant scaly hedgehog with tusks and venomous spines the size of cavalry lances when he gets angry. Today was particularly stressful at work, and he nearly erupted 3 times. All three times he got lucky with his repression roll, but he knows that normal activities arent going to burn off enough energy fast enough, so he drives to the local granite quarry, transforms, and sits in the rock pit playing with the giant granite blocks until he feels better while the workers take a lunch break they dont really have much of a choice about.
When you are walking abroad, you are assumed to be steering from the instant you transform, and do not have to roll for it. Typical ways a Kaiju may walk abroad are as follows: A Giant: May go to a remote location and do soothing, peaceful activities in solitude.
A Messenger: May go to a very public place and make an appearance, to be among people who know who he is.
A Dragon: Might walk his boundaries, go for a flight, or go pick a fight with another willing Kaiju.
A Guardian: Might walk the bounds of his beat, or spend time with one or more of his wards or allies.
A Queen: May go out among her subjects to check on the well-functioning of her Court.
A True Form: May go out and hunt, but tries to do so in a less obtrusive or destructive way (eg: robbing a blood bank or going to a deli that serves black pudding instead of hunting a live person, etc).
A Construct: May go out with people he knows and trusts, to try to match how they relax and have a good time, or may explore extracurricular endeavors of his own.
A Bogeyman: No one really knows what the Bogeymen do when they walk abroad, so I guess this ones up to you.
An Elder God: May go out to survey the world, to understand it before he completes his task. Walking Abroad may also be for a purpose. For example, if one of your party is a Giant who just erupted outside of town and is about to rampage through it, one of your party might want to activate his own Giant-Size form to hold him back while others try to talk him down.
As shown in the example of Hedgehogra above, you may walk abroad to burn off excess Primal energy. If you do so, you must walk abroad for 1d4 hours to empty your Primal energy reservoir (again, not counting your secondary reservoir if you took Powerful Hara). Pro Tip Your group may consider using a token of some kind to represent your pools of Primal and Celestial energy. For example, red glass beads that might otherwise be used as blood tokens in a White Wolf game, or special dice, or anything that might be used as a life-counter in a collectible card game. Having tokens to represent the energy gives the transaction of the energy a more real feel. Just ticking off boxes on your character sheet or keeping a written tally is one thing, but actually handing your GM a small bauble when you spend your energy is another. Its also more meaningful to the player to be able to look at a small pile of baubles and feel a glut of energy than to look at a number on the page and know he has some. Characters with a secondary reservoir may even have a separate dish or bag to denote their Powerful Hara. The GM might keep a large dish of the tokens, to represent The Deep Water. Banishing Some powers or effects refer to a Kaiju being banished. This effect can happen to Elder Gods, Aetherial Kaiju, or Kaiju that manifest by possession. Banishment means the Kaiju is removed from this plane of existence to the Deep Water, and is as good as dead for the purposes of the game. However, narrative circumstances could conceivably send him back to Earth. Combat In combat, If you are steering, the following actions are available for you to take: Attack
Hold action
Defend
Distract
Talk down
Muster energy
Use terrain
Coup de Grace Attack: The bread and butter of your combat experience is the attack and defense cycle. It starts when, on your initiative, you say, Im going to punch him. Im going to throw this train-car at him. Im going to see if I can knock him off balance. At that point you roll your attack, usually your base prowess (PRO), sometimes a specialization under PRO (+3 unarmed, +2 staff, etc), sometimes a base skill (Firearms 13, etc). The defender then rolls his defense (base PRO to parry, base ATH to dodge, parry specialization under PRO, dodge specialization under ATH, etc.). If your attack roll is higher, you hit. If your attack roll is lower, you miss.
And at that point, the process branches out. If you hit, you then roll Stun/Wound. If you were using a melee weapon or an unarmed attack, you roll your STR + your weapon bonus for stun, + any situational modifiers for stun, then roll your STR + your weapon bonus for wound, + any situational bonuses. You should get two numbers there.
Then, your opponent rolls his toughness. Hell start with his STR or toughness specialization, add the stun bonus for any armor he is wearing, and situational bonuses, against your stun roll, and then do the same against your wound roll. If you rolled higher, you stunned and/or wounded him. If he rolled higher, he soaked the damage.
But what about special and exceptional successes, you say? Yes, I did write the above without accounting for special and exceptional results. I did that to simplify the explanation so far. Right now, as it stands, the attack cycle looks like this: Roll attack > enemy rolls defense > Resolve results.
If you hit:
Roll stun > Enemy rolls vs. Stun,
Roll wound > Enemy rolls vs. Wound,
Resolve results. If you hit with a special success, all that changes is you add +3/+3 to your stun and wound rolls. They become situational modifiers. If you hit with an exceptional success, you add +6/+6.
But what if you miss? Well, if you missed without your opponent getting a special or exceptional success on his or her defense, the cycle ends and we move on to the next persons action. But if you miss and your opponent parried with a special or exceptional success, he gets to ripostea free attack of opportunity against you.
So now, the cycle looks like this: Roll attack > enemy rolls defense > Resolve results.
If you hit:
Roll stun > Enemy rolls vs. Stun,
Roll wound > Enemy rolls vs. Wound,
Resolve results.
If you miss:
Exit Cycle.
If you miss specially or exceptionally:
Your opponent may choose to immediately start the cycle at Roll attack. Dodge: Dodging a thrown or missile weapon is a defense, but unlike parrying in melee, it does not allow you to riposte if you dodge specially or exceptionally. You may, however, choose to move to a more advantageous position if you roll a special or exceptional dodge. You cannot parry ranged attacks unless the GM allows it.
Thrown weapons are treated like melee weapons for damage (STR/STR plus a bonus to stun and wound), but firearms and other missile weapons may have a different damage scheme that looks something like this:
Glock 9mm: 16/22/28. Note that that damage rating looks different from the Stun/Wound rating you are used to seeing. What this number means is as follows: On a normal hit, the Glock does 16/16 damage. On a special hit, the glock does 22/22 damage with no modifier for special hit. On an exceptional hit, the Glock does 28/28 damage with no modifier for exceptional hit. Okay, so how is damage resolved? Stun and Wound, like any other roll, are resolved to account for normal success, special success, and exceptional success. As such, if you are stunned or wounded, you are impacted to a degree that reflects how hard you were hit. The scales are as follows: normal stun: lose next action. The character hit may not take an action on his next initiative.
Special stun: The character is knocked down, and must roll WIL vs. Stun on his next initiative to get back up and take actions, and must do so every round at a +3 to WIL per round after the first. Remember that you can use Primal energy for such a bonus as well.
exceptional stun: the character is knocked out and taken out of the fight, but not dead. Normal wound: -1 to all actions taken except resist stun/wound for the rest of the fight. Wound heals overnight with proper care.
Special wound: -3 to all actions taken except resist stun/wound for the rest of the fight. Wound heals one point every two days, with proper care.
Exceptional wound: -5 to all actions taken except resist stun/wound for the rest of the fight. Wound heals one point every week, with proper care. The Dreaded Double-Exceptional: An exceptional stun after an exceptional hit is an automatic KO. An exceptional wound after either an exceptional hit or exceptional stun is an automatic KO for a Kaiju, automatic death for a Human. Called shots:
If you roll your attack at -3 and hit, you may choose to do one of the following:
add +6/+6 to your damage
knock your opponent down
Disarm your opponent
Subdue your opponent (+6/-6 to damage)
Grapple your opponent (he may roll STR vs. STR every round until he breaks free)
Cause a particular effect to your opponent (eg: wound the leg to reduce their ath, etc)
Strike a known Vulnerability
other narrative effects that your GM will allow. Actions you can take while in a grapple: If you are the one being held:
break free (STR vs. STR)
Use Terrain to break free If you are the one holding:
Attack at +6 (including all Called Shot options except grapple, since youre already doing that)
Throw your opponent (STR vs. STR, then damage vs. Toughness with Special and exceptional bonuses
Take something from your opponent (PRO vs. PRO at a +3)
Intimidate +6
Talk your opponent down, if appropriate, at a -3
Use any effect of Mothers Touch without rolling (See Mothers Touch in Superpowers section) Attacking a grappled target: A grappled target is -6 to all defenses. Hold action: On your initiative, when the GM asks what your action is, you may declare Holding action. If you do so, the GM will move on to the next person, without you acting. BUT! You still have that action to take, any time you want to. You may wait until you see what other characters are doing first, and take your action in response to one that interests you.
For example: Willie Williamson, a True Form rock monster, held action on his initiative (23) because he suspects Lord Pazuzu is going to try to make an end-run and snatch up the Celestial child he is protecting. On their initiatives, his comrades take their actions: one of them (a Messenger) uses his Incite Crowd power to incite a crowd to get the wounded to safety. Another one (a Dragon with giant-size) roars, causing Pazuzus two Kaiju henchmen to check themselves in their advance (successful intimidate roll using Roar power), another one (a Construct war-robot) uses terrain to rip a telephone pole out of the ground to use as a staff. Pazuzus minions advance and battle is joined. The two henchmen descend on the Dragon, but he repels their attacks easily, even riposting on the second one for a solid KO with an open-handed impact upside his scaly head. That the best you got?! he roars to Pazuzu. On Lord Pazuzus turn, sure enough, he does make a break for it. Now, Willie moves to intercept, shouting, Not so fast, you ugly son of a vulture! He makes his attack, forcing Lord Pazuzu to defend, and interrupting his action. Defend: There are two ways to implement this:
A) When the GM says Roll initiative, you declare I am defending, do not roll initiative this round and roll all your defenses this round at +3 when someone attacks you, or
B) when the GM says Roll initiative, you declare I am defending __. Fill in that blank with whatever you are defending: the Human bystanders, a fallen ally, a building of strategic importance, a narrow pass, whatever. If you do this, no one can move past you to the target unless they teleport, drop out of flight, or ethereally phase through you. If you are defending a target that would otherwise be attacked, you may roll to parry all melee atacks that might come to it, as if they were attacking you directly, or may choose not to dodge missile attacks that come for it and go straight to rolling vs. Stun and Wound for the target (ie: you take any bullets/arrows/whatever that were meant for the target). If you are defending another, you may make one attack on one enemy that attacks melee, as if you were able to take that action normally. Every Kaiju working together to defend a target gives +1 to all defense and riposte rolls by all other Kaiju also defending that target. For example, if 4 Kaiju are standing in front of the Empire State Building to protect it from destruction by an Elder God and his minions, they all get +3 to their defense rolls, and any ripostes they may make. Distract: Roll your ROG against your opponents AWA, or roll a basic attack that will do no damage. If you win, you draw their attention to you, and/or they get a distraction penalty to take actions that ignore you or defend against anyone elses attacks. The distraction penalty is -1 for a normal success, -2 for a special success, and -3 for an exceptional success. Talk down: If you are facing a rampaging Kaiju, you can make a willpower roll against his Primal energy difficulty to immediately grant him a roll to steer at +1 for a normal success, +2 for a special success, and +3 for an exceptional success. But if you are going to attempt this, make sure you are in a suitable emotional state. If you are angry or afraid, you might only make things worse. You can also do this for a Kaiju coming down from an eruption, at the same roll and bonuses. These rolls you grant him are in addition to his once-per-round or once-every-five-minutes limit, at no cost but your action. Muster energy: On your initiative, take no other action, and gain 1d4 Primal energy. Describe what this looks like to others watching. Such as, Gigantor cocks his had to one side until his neck pops. He looks at you and licks his lips once. Use Terrain: This action is available to all Kaiju. When you declare this action, spend one, two, or three Primal Energy, and narrate what you do using the terrain around you. How many Primal Energy you spend will determine the advantage of the action, as determined by your GM. Some guidelines are as follows: One primal Energy:
Knock something out of your opponents hand
Move your opponent (eg: shove him off the railroad tracks, onto a weak bridge, etc)
Cause a terrain change (eg: break a dam, destroy a bridge, etc)
Cause a minor narrative change (eg: that Opponent now has a scar, accidentally steps on his Touchstones favorite car, your Kaiju just got the attention of an internet fan club, etc.)
Effect a -1 distraction penalty on your opponent until the end of next round
Take a small weapon (+2/+2) from the terrain around (eg: a lead pipe, a manhole cover, or a steel crane cable with hook if Giant Size, etc) Two primal energy:
Instantly cause your opponent to lose next action (eg: knocking him down, etc)
Take a carried object from your opponent
Get your opponent stuck
Break free of a grapple
Interrupt your opponents attack on someone or something else instantly
Restrain your opponent for one round (Target loses next action), and you can roll STR vs. STR every round after that to maintain the grip. Every round after the targets lost action, the target may use his action to roll STR vs. STR to break free.
Moderate narrative change (eg: A Kaiju is exposed to the press as a Kaiju, tag the Kaiju for tracking, your Kaiju gains people for his Human support structure, etc)
Effect a -3 distraction penalty for the next three rounds not counting this one
Take a moderate weapon from the terrain around (+5/+5. Eg: A stop-sign, a jackhammer, a steel smokestack from a factory if Giant Size, etc.) Three Primal energy:
Absorb all damage from an attack (must be used in conjunction with a Held action). You take no damage from that attack, no matter how it hit you.
Grant two Primal energy to another Kaiju
Stun a Kaiju
Injure your opponent, effecting a permanent -1 to all actions this fight
Take a serious wound to inflict a serious wound (-3)
Cause a major narrative change (eg: A Kaiju loses one of his tusks, or an eye, or one of his Human support structure, your Kaiju gains the gratitude of a city, etc)
Take a large weapon from the terrain around (+8/+8, Eg: The front end loader of a bulldozer, a thrown motorcycle, a thrown gasoline tanker if Giant Size, etc) Each individual use of the action may only be used once per combat. The action to be taken must be narrated by the player using this effect. The narration cannot be deus ex machina. In other words, the action cannot be something that happens, it has to be something the Kaiju does. For example, you cannot narrate the other Kaiju getting hit by lightening, but you can narrate your Kaiju taking a power line and shocking the other Kaiju. You cannot narrate that the other Kaiju slipped on an oil slick, but you can narrate that you lured him onto an oil slick where he then slipped. Coup de Grace: There are only two ways a Kaiju dies. The first is that his touchstone dies. The second is that while he lay unconscious after a fight, someone might murder him.
A Coup de Grace is a free action, but can only be performed on a Kaiju that has been KOd. If the Kaiju is Giant-Size, the one acting the Coup de Grace must be able to dispense Epic damage. Otherwise, anyone can do it. A sufficient final blow to any of the third through seventh chakras will be enough (cut throat, sword through the heart, bullet/HESH-round to the head, etc). Upon that action, the Kaiju and his touchstone are both permanently dead. How or why it was done may affect your reputation, or whether or not you have made enemies. It is not an action to be undertaken lightly, but it is one to be aware of among your enemies. A KOd Kaiju cannot be Coup de Graced if another Kaiju is defending him.
Also keep in mind that Kaiju Characters with the drawback Focus may opt instead to obtain the object of their focus from a fallen Kaiju using the Coup de Grace action. If you choose to do this, the Kaiju you drew from is not killed, but left at a -2 penalty to all actions 4 24 hours, both in Human form and Kaiju form. Helping: The question always comes up in an RPG of if the characters can combine their abilities for one roll. This question usually arises in the form of Can I help him do this?
Most rolls are not actually helpable, but some of them are, such as STR rolls, certain kinds of social rolls, rolls to talk someone down, and more than one Kaiju defending the same target other than themselves to name a few. In general, attack rolls are not helpable, though a successful distraction or grapple does provide some pretty concrete help.
The GM will have to rule on which actions can actually be assisted or not. In general, if the roll is helpable, each person helping with a roll adds a +1 to your roll, except in raw STR rolls, where, depending on the kind of action being taken, each helper either contributes their full STR or half their STR. For example, a group using a battering ram would combine all their STR, while a group trying to lift a trunk full of gold may only contribute half to the main lifter.
Also keep in mind that some rolls dont actually need to be rolled. The GM can employ common sense to determine that, for example, if five men are trying to pry your hand open and you only have STR 16, theyre going to succeed. The GM may also put a cap on how many people can actually help with a roll. For example, there are only room for so many sous-chefs in the kitchen, or so many people to hold a six-foot battering ram. Or, too many people helping with a social roll might cause the target to get suspicious, and start hurting your roll. The exchange of energy: After every battle, you gain something from the Kaiju you engaged with. It is not taken from them, but absorbed, borrowed. If you were knocked out in the battle, you get one XP (and how to spend those will covered shortly). If you were not knocked out, you get an XP and a KP, just like the KP you got at character creation.
Both XP and KP can be stored until you want to use them. XP converts to Trait Points (TP), Kaiju Trait Points (KTP), and Skill Points (SP) by the following method:
Trait advancement: Subtract 10 from the number you are advancing your trait or skill to, or 25 if you are advancing your Kaiju STR and have Giant Size.
Multiply that number by 2
That number is how many XP you must spend to advance. For example: Lets say you have a WIL of 13, and want to boost it up to 14. 14 - 10 = 4, and 2 x 4 = 8. Therefore, you spend 8 XP to advance.
You may only advance to the next number. For example, in the example above, if you wanted to advance to 15 from 13, you would first have to spend 8 to to advanceto 14, and then 10 to go to 15.
Bear in mind that CHARACTERS WHO HAVE THE SUPERPOWER DRAWBACK FOCUS DO NOT EARN XP IN THIS WAY, but they still earn KP. They may only acquire XP by obtaining the object of their Focus.
Sometimes the roll might be contested. For example, say you were trying to sneak onto an army base. You would roll your ROG (or stealth specialization), and the GM would roll the sentrys AWA (or spot specialization). Every now and then, your GM might ask you to roll AWA. What he is doing there is checking to see if you spot something going on around you that may give you clues to the narrative. For example, youre walking down the street, and the GM says, everyone roll your awareness. He rolls a difficulty of 17, and the players roll a 14, a 16, a 19, and a 21. The GM says to the two who succeeded, you think that man standing in the doorway of the coffee shop was watching you. Energy management You gain primal energy during the day by a number of ways:
stressful or threatening social or professional interactions (eg: your boss tells you one more report like this and youre fired! Now get your act together! etc.) Typically one energy per incident.
frustrating obstacles to accomplishing a goal (eg: traffic makes you late for work, your neighbors loud music wont let you sleep, etc.) Typically 1 energy per incident.
Bad news (eg: a death in the family, getting fired, etc.) 3 energy per incident
financial or legal trouble, typically 2 energy per day
Having to defend someone close to you, 1 energy if verbal, 3 if physical
being a victim of violence, 2 energy plus 1 per point of wound sustained, plus 2 if you were rendered unconscious, or abducted or held for more than a few minutes.
pain (other than in combat or violence), 1 if moderate, 2 if severe or emotionally distressing (spicy food may count as pain for the purposes of gaining Primal energy, at the GMs discretion)
wound sustained in combat (non-Kaiju, eg: getting in a fist fight at work, getting hit by a bottle in a bar fight, etc), 1 point per point of wound sustained
A successful roll to repress during the one minute warning of an eruption, gain two Primal energy.
Sustained stress: any of the above lasting more than one day, that point value each day of stress sustained.
Intentional: A character may gin up his own primal energy at the rate of 1d4 energy per hour of sustained thought.
bestowal: some Kaiju have the power to gift you Primal energy.
Harvesting: Some Kaiju have the ability to harvest Primal energy from their surroundings.
You gain celestial energy at the rate of one per day, and may also gain them by other means:
relaxing social interactions, 1 per hour
relaxing activities, 1 per hour
prayer or meditation, 2 per hour, 3 if in a group of worshipers
alcohol, 1 for the first drink
exercise or strenuous activity, 3 per hour (ie: burning off the stress)
bestowal: some Celestial creatures, and even some Kaiju, have the ability to gift celestial energy.
Conversion: some Kaiju have the ability to process Primal energy into Celestial energy and vice versa.
Act of love or trust by your support structure or fellow Kaiju. Even if you gain more Celestial energy than you can hold, you have the option of spending it in the moment you acquire it. Celestial energy can be used to burn off Primal energy at a rate of one point per point of Celestial energy spent, or to gain a +3 to your roll to steer your eruption per point spent. Primal energy can be spent in the following ways:
Spend 1 Primal energy in Human form for a +3 to intimidate for one roll, limit one use per roll. Example: unassuming and normally friendly accountant Jake Moss rounds on his jerk-ass coworker, gets right up in his face and snarls, This is NOT a good day to screw with me! For just an instant, the coworker thought he saw Jakes eye turn reptillian This use applies in Human form. In Kaiju form, you only get +1 per point spent, but theres no limit. See the use immediately below.
+1 to any other roll per point spent, for one roll other than steer, come down, or resist eruption, no limit (you cannot burn Primal energy by intentionally wasting such rolls, it has to be a real roll or action). This use applies in both Human and Kaiju form. Example: Mary Johnson has had a very stressful week, and is at her wits end. Not paying attention, she steps into the street. Immediately, a bus honks at her and slams on the brakes. On instinct, she hunkers down into a horse stance, roars, and punches the front of the bus, stopping it in its tracks (9 Primal energy > STR +9). Her head clears and she stares at her fist in wonder
Use the Use terrain action (see below).
Activate other powers (eg: the power Mothers Touch is activated by spending Primal energy, etc)
consumed at a rate of 1 per round of combat or 1 per five minutes after eruption, not counting travel time to the scene if summoned.
spend 1 Primal energy to intentionally erupt during the warning minute
spend 1 Primal energy to walk abroad (see below) Eruption I think Rowdy Roddy Piper said it best when he said, I came here to kick ass, and chew bubble gum and you know the rest of the line. That line became iconic for describing a persons mental state when they have simply run out of vulgar expletives to give. When a Human does it, the damage is manageable because they typically only have at most three primal energy to spend, and they usually spend it ranting and shouting. A few might break things, and fewer still will attack another Human being if the circumstances are right.
But when a Kaiju does it, the results are a bit more memorable.
Any time you gain at least 2 Primal energy from your triggering emotion, the following sequence is initiated: First, you have about a sixty second warning (or one round if in combat). During that time you will feel yourself losing control. In that time, you can warn people away from you, and/or try to get to an empty, open space. You also have the opportunity during that warning period to spend one Primal energy to let go, allow the eruption with some additional measure of control. You may also try one last time to repress the eruption. If you succeed at the repression roll, you forestalled the eruption for now, but you gain 2 Primal energy from the effort. If you failed the repression roll or allowed the eruption, the consequences for each choice are outlined below.
The Kaiju manifests on the scene. If the Kaiju was permanent, you can skip this step. If summoned, the Kaiju emerges from the nearest suitable place he might emerge from: a harbour, underground, a dark closet, descending from the sky, whatever. If a possession, the Kaiju takes possession of his hosts body. If a transformation, the character changes shape into his Kaiju form.
Immediately upon manifestation, if the Kaiju has the power Roar, he or she issues his or her roar. This is optional if the eruption was intentional or steered, but not optional otherwise.
If the eruption was not already steered, the Kaiju immediately makes his or her roll to steer. Roll willpower plus any situational modifiers against your current difficulty, which is 1 for each Primal energy in your reservoir (not counting your secondary reservoir if you took Powerful Hara as a super power). If you erupted during the one minute warning because of a failed repression roll, you roll as normal. If you allowed the eruption, you roll at +3 instead. Example: Dr. Mikelson is stuck in traffic after a long stressful day. Right then, a rich teenager in a Mustang rear-ends him at a long light. He already had 14 Primal energy from the day, and just got two more. His WIL is 13, and his difficulty to resist eruption is 16. Both he and the GM roll a 5, a failure for Dr. Mikelson.
He can feel the transformation happening. His head begins pounding, his ears ringing. He leaps out of the car and tries to run, but he knows that if he doesnt let go, Raptosaur might do some real damage. He closes his eyes and lets go, spending a Primal energy.
Raptosaur has the roar power, and as soon as he transforms, he cuts loose with his roar. Two miles away, three Kaiju, two police officers, and an Angel all recognize the roar. Theyve reined Raptosaur in before.
Raptosaurs WIL is 18 (hes a stubborn dinosaur), and he gets an automatic +3 to his steer roll for allowing the eruption. His touchstone also spent one Primal Energy to erupt, so his base difficulty to steer is base 15. Raptosaur rolls a 6, and the GM rolls an 8, for a 27 to 22. Raptosaur is steering his own eruption. How do you steer this thing?! As stated above, your roll to steer is very similar to your roll to resist eruption. Your difficulty is equal to your current Primal energy. This process, however, rewards those who do not repress but instead let the energy flow. If you chose to allow the eruption, you roll your WIL at a +3 vs. That difficulty. Otherwise, you roll as normal.
Steering the eruption means that your Kaiju is in control of himself even though he erupted. A Kaiju steering his eruption may take the full range of actions, and may make calm strategic decisions based on complex thoughts. A Kaiju out of control, however, is said to be rampaging, and may only use certain actions. A Kaiju may make a steering roll for free every five minutes out of combat or at the beginning of every round in combat immediately after rolling initiative. It is very important that you steer your eruption. In a rampage, there is no knowing what damage you may do: massive property damage, innocent Humans, your own friends, family, and allies, your own support structure, another Kaijus support structure. If you dont steer, you might come out of the eruption guilty of terrorism and manslaughter.
If your Kaiju is rampaging, You are limited to the following actions, though you may set the priority order:
Attack the party who is causing you pain or stress.
Obtain an object of desire or something that satisfies your Kaijus focus or hunger
Attack anyone or anything in your way
Attack the nearest Giant-Size Kaiju
Attack the nearest non giant Kaiju
Attack the nearest Celestial
Clear space for you to work (destroy structures, etc)
Get somewhere comfortable and safe. Coming down If you ran out of Primal Energy in an eruption, your Kaiju goes away, unless you manifest as a permanence. If you Transform, you transform back into your Human form. If you were possessed, the Kaiju returns to the back of your mind. If summoned, the Kaiju slumps off to his lair or vanishes. If you ended the eruption by running out of energy, youre in bad shape. Youll be at -1 to all actions for 24 hours. If you took the Super Power drawback No Landing Gears, youll be at -2 for 24 hours. If you were KOd, you didnt technically run out of energy. Your Kaiju goes away at the end of the fight unless you manifest as a permanence, and when you wake up, youre at -1 to all actions for about two hours. If you took No Landing Gears, its 24 hours. The worst case is if your manifestation is Permanent. In that event, you retain half rounded up the wounds and damage sustained during eruption and have to be healed or repaired normally. If you also took No Landing Gears, you retain all wounds and damage sustained.
After an eruption, assuming you werent knocked out or killed and didnt run out of Primal energy, you then have to come down. Youre still in Kaiju form, you still have Primal Energy to spend, but its time to resume normal Human activities. If your Kaiju was a permanence, you wont have much trouble with this phase. You can just move on as a normal character. But if you manifest any other way, it is time to dismiss the Kaiju. At this point, you roll WIL -3 against your current Primal Energy difficulty. If you succeed, your Kaiju goes away, and you can resume normal Human activities, unless you took the Super-Power drawback No Landing Gears, in which case you just have to spend that primal energy until you run out. If you fail the roll, you can try again every round or every five minutes until you either succeed or crash.
Your Human support structure can be of use here. They can grant you Celestial energy to give you bonuses to your roll, as well as grant you other effects to help you come down.
Regardless of how you end your eruption or, once the eruption is ended, your Primal energy is spent, and you now have only one in your reservoir (unless you took Powerful Hara, in which case you have whatever you didnt spend in that extra reservoir). Walking Abroad Walking abroad is what it is called when a Kaiju assumes his Kaiju form intentionally and peacefully, not in an eruption, and burns off some of his Primal Energy by just being a Kaiju. Example: Roy Morisson turns into Hedge-Hogra, a giant scaly hedgehog with tusks and venomous spines the size of cavalry lances when he gets angry. Today was particularly stressful at work, and he nearly erupted 3 times. All three times he got lucky with his repression roll, but he knows that normal activities arent going to burn off enough energy fast enough, so he drives to the local granite quarry, transforms, and sits in the rock pit playing with the giant granite blocks until he feels better while the workers take a lunch break they dont really have much of a choice about.
When you are walking abroad, you are assumed to be steering from the instant you transform, and do not have to roll for it. Typical ways a Kaiju may walk abroad are as follows: A Giant: May go to a remote location and do soothing, peaceful activities in solitude.
A Messenger: May go to a very public place and make an appearance, to be among people who know who he is.
A Dragon: Might walk his boundaries, go for a flight, or go pick a fight with another willing Kaiju.
A Guardian: Might walk the bounds of his beat, or spend time with one or more of his wards or allies.
A Queen: May go out among her subjects to check on the well-functioning of her Court.
A True Form: May go out and hunt, but tries to do so in a less obtrusive or destructive way (eg: robbing a blood bank or going to a deli that serves black pudding instead of hunting a live person, etc).
A Construct: May go out with people he knows and trusts, to try to match how they relax and have a good time, or may explore extracurricular endeavors of his own.
A Bogeyman: No one really knows what the Bogeymen do when they walk abroad, so I guess this ones up to you.
An Elder God: May go out to survey the world, to understand it before he completes his task. Walking Abroad may also be for a purpose. For example, if one of your party is a Giant who just erupted outside of town and is about to rampage through it, one of your party might want to activate his own Giant-Size form to hold him back while others try to talk him down.
As shown in the example of Hedgehogra above, you may walk abroad to burn off excess Primal energy. If you do so, you must walk abroad for 1d4 hours to empty your Primal energy reservoir (again, not counting your secondary reservoir if you took Powerful Hara). Pro Tip Your group may consider using a token of some kind to represent your pools of Primal and Celestial energy. For example, red glass beads that might otherwise be used as blood tokens in a White Wolf game, or special dice, or anything that might be used as a life-counter in a collectible card game. Having tokens to represent the energy gives the transaction of the energy a more real feel. Just ticking off boxes on your character sheet or keeping a written tally is one thing, but actually handing your GM a small bauble when you spend your energy is another. Its also more meaningful to the player to be able to look at a small pile of baubles and feel a glut of energy than to look at a number on the page and know he has some. Characters with a secondary reservoir may even have a separate dish or bag to denote their Powerful Hara. The GM might keep a large dish of the tokens, to represent The Deep Water. Banishing Some powers or effects refer to a Kaiju being banished. This effect can happen to Elder Gods, Aetherial Kaiju, or Kaiju that manifest by possession. Banishment means the Kaiju is removed from this plane of existence to the Deep Water, and is as good as dead for the purposes of the game. However, narrative circumstances could conceivably send him back to Earth. Combat In combat, If you are steering, the following actions are available for you to take: Attack
Hold action
Defend
Distract
Talk down
Muster energy
Use terrain
Coup de Grace Attack: The bread and butter of your combat experience is the attack and defense cycle. It starts when, on your initiative, you say, Im going to punch him. Im going to throw this train-car at him. Im going to see if I can knock him off balance. At that point you roll your attack, usually your base prowess (PRO), sometimes a specialization under PRO (+3 unarmed, +2 staff, etc), sometimes a base skill (Firearms 13, etc). The defender then rolls his defense (base PRO to parry, base ATH to dodge, parry specialization under PRO, dodge specialization under ATH, etc.). If your attack roll is higher, you hit. If your attack roll is lower, you miss.
And at that point, the process branches out. If you hit, you then roll Stun/Wound. If you were using a melee weapon or an unarmed attack, you roll your STR + your weapon bonus for stun, + any situational modifiers for stun, then roll your STR + your weapon bonus for wound, + any situational bonuses. You should get two numbers there.
Then, your opponent rolls his toughness. Hell start with his STR or toughness specialization, add the stun bonus for any armor he is wearing, and situational bonuses, against your stun roll, and then do the same against your wound roll. If you rolled higher, you stunned and/or wounded him. If he rolled higher, he soaked the damage.
But what about special and exceptional successes, you say? Yes, I did write the above without accounting for special and exceptional results. I did that to simplify the explanation so far. Right now, as it stands, the attack cycle looks like this: Roll attack > enemy rolls defense > Resolve results.
If you hit:
Roll stun > Enemy rolls vs. Stun,
Roll wound > Enemy rolls vs. Wound,
Resolve results. If you hit with a special success, all that changes is you add +3/+3 to your stun and wound rolls. They become situational modifiers. If you hit with an exceptional success, you add +6/+6.
But what if you miss? Well, if you missed without your opponent getting a special or exceptional success on his or her defense, the cycle ends and we move on to the next persons action. But if you miss and your opponent parried with a special or exceptional success, he gets to ripostea free attack of opportunity against you.
So now, the cycle looks like this: Roll attack > enemy rolls defense > Resolve results.
If you hit:
Roll stun > Enemy rolls vs. Stun,
Roll wound > Enemy rolls vs. Wound,
Resolve results.
If you miss:
Exit Cycle.
If you miss specially or exceptionally:
Your opponent may choose to immediately start the cycle at Roll attack. Dodge: Dodging a thrown or missile weapon is a defense, but unlike parrying in melee, it does not allow you to riposte if you dodge specially or exceptionally. You may, however, choose to move to a more advantageous position if you roll a special or exceptional dodge. You cannot parry ranged attacks unless the GM allows it.
Thrown weapons are treated like melee weapons for damage (STR/STR plus a bonus to stun and wound), but firearms and other missile weapons may have a different damage scheme that looks something like this:
Glock 9mm: 16/22/28. Note that that damage rating looks different from the Stun/Wound rating you are used to seeing. What this number means is as follows: On a normal hit, the Glock does 16/16 damage. On a special hit, the glock does 22/22 damage with no modifier for special hit. On an exceptional hit, the Glock does 28/28 damage with no modifier for exceptional hit. Okay, so how is damage resolved? Stun and Wound, like any other roll, are resolved to account for normal success, special success, and exceptional success. As such, if you are stunned or wounded, you are impacted to a degree that reflects how hard you were hit. The scales are as follows: normal stun: lose next action. The character hit may not take an action on his next initiative.
Special stun: The character is knocked down, and must roll WIL vs. Stun on his next initiative to get back up and take actions, and must do so every round at a +3 to WIL per round after the first. Remember that you can use Primal energy for such a bonus as well.
exceptional stun: the character is knocked out and taken out of the fight, but not dead. Normal wound: -1 to all actions taken except resist stun/wound for the rest of the fight. Wound heals overnight with proper care.
Special wound: -3 to all actions taken except resist stun/wound for the rest of the fight. Wound heals one point every two days, with proper care.
Exceptional wound: -5 to all actions taken except resist stun/wound for the rest of the fight. Wound heals one point every week, with proper care. The Dreaded Double-Exceptional: An exceptional stun after an exceptional hit is an automatic KO. An exceptional wound after either an exceptional hit or exceptional stun is an automatic KO for a Kaiju, automatic death for a Human. Called shots:
If you roll your attack at -3 and hit, you may choose to do one of the following:
add +6/+6 to your damage
knock your opponent down
Disarm your opponent
Subdue your opponent (+6/-6 to damage)
Grapple your opponent (he may roll STR vs. STR every round until he breaks free)
Cause a particular effect to your opponent (eg: wound the leg to reduce their ath, etc)
Strike a known Vulnerability
other narrative effects that your GM will allow. Actions you can take while in a grapple: If you are the one being held:
break free (STR vs. STR)
Use Terrain to break free If you are the one holding:
Attack at +6 (including all Called Shot options except grapple, since youre already doing that)
Throw your opponent (STR vs. STR, then damage vs. Toughness with Special and exceptional bonuses
Take something from your opponent (PRO vs. PRO at a +3)
Intimidate +6
Talk your opponent down, if appropriate, at a -3
Use any effect of Mothers Touch without rolling (See Mothers Touch in Superpowers section) Attacking a grappled target: A grappled target is -6 to all defenses. Hold action: On your initiative, when the GM asks what your action is, you may declare Holding action. If you do so, the GM will move on to the next person, without you acting. BUT! You still have that action to take, any time you want to. You may wait until you see what other characters are doing first, and take your action in response to one that interests you.
For example: Willie Williamson, a True Form rock monster, held action on his initiative (23) because he suspects Lord Pazuzu is going to try to make an end-run and snatch up the Celestial child he is protecting. On their initiatives, his comrades take their actions: one of them (a Messenger) uses his Incite Crowd power to incite a crowd to get the wounded to safety. Another one (a Dragon with giant-size) roars, causing Pazuzus two Kaiju henchmen to check themselves in their advance (successful intimidate roll using Roar power), another one (a Construct war-robot) uses terrain to rip a telephone pole out of the ground to use as a staff. Pazuzus minions advance and battle is joined. The two henchmen descend on the Dragon, but he repels their attacks easily, even riposting on the second one for a solid KO with an open-handed impact upside his scaly head. That the best you got?! he roars to Pazuzu. On Lord Pazuzus turn, sure enough, he does make a break for it. Now, Willie moves to intercept, shouting, Not so fast, you ugly son of a vulture! He makes his attack, forcing Lord Pazuzu to defend, and interrupting his action. Defend: There are two ways to implement this:
A) When the GM says Roll initiative, you declare I am defending, do not roll initiative this round and roll all your defenses this round at +3 when someone attacks you, or
B) when the GM says Roll initiative, you declare I am defending __. Fill in that blank with whatever you are defending: the Human bystanders, a fallen ally, a building of strategic importance, a narrow pass, whatever. If you do this, no one can move past you to the target unless they teleport, drop out of flight, or ethereally phase through you. If you are defending a target that would otherwise be attacked, you may roll to parry all melee atacks that might come to it, as if they were attacking you directly, or may choose not to dodge missile attacks that come for it and go straight to rolling vs. Stun and Wound for the target (ie: you take any bullets/arrows/whatever that were meant for the target). If you are defending another, you may make one attack on one enemy that attacks melee, as if you were able to take that action normally. Every Kaiju working together to defend a target gives +1 to all defense and riposte rolls by all other Kaiju also defending that target. For example, if 4 Kaiju are standing in front of the Empire State Building to protect it from destruction by an Elder God and his minions, they all get +3 to their defense rolls, and any ripostes they may make. Distract: Roll your ROG against your opponents AWA, or roll a basic attack that will do no damage. If you win, you draw their attention to you, and/or they get a distraction penalty to take actions that ignore you or defend against anyone elses attacks. The distraction penalty is -1 for a normal success, -2 for a special success, and -3 for an exceptional success. Talk down: If you are facing a rampaging Kaiju, you can make a willpower roll against his Primal energy difficulty to immediately grant him a roll to steer at +1 for a normal success, +2 for a special success, and +3 for an exceptional success. But if you are going to attempt this, make sure you are in a suitable emotional state. If you are angry or afraid, you might only make things worse. You can also do this for a Kaiju coming down from an eruption, at the same roll and bonuses. These rolls you grant him are in addition to his once-per-round or once-every-five-minutes limit, at no cost but your action. Muster energy: On your initiative, take no other action, and gain 1d4 Primal energy. Describe what this looks like to others watching. Such as, Gigantor cocks his had to one side until his neck pops. He looks at you and licks his lips once. Use Terrain: This action is available to all Kaiju. When you declare this action, spend one, two, or three Primal Energy, and narrate what you do using the terrain around you. How many Primal Energy you spend will determine the advantage of the action, as determined by your GM. Some guidelines are as follows: One primal Energy:
Knock something out of your opponents hand
Move your opponent (eg: shove him off the railroad tracks, onto a weak bridge, etc)
Cause a terrain change (eg: break a dam, destroy a bridge, etc)
Cause a minor narrative change (eg: that Opponent now has a scar, accidentally steps on his Touchstones favorite car, your Kaiju just got the attention of an internet fan club, etc.)
Effect a -1 distraction penalty on your opponent until the end of next round
Take a small weapon (+2/+2) from the terrain around (eg: a lead pipe, a manhole cover, or a steel crane cable with hook if Giant Size, etc) Two primal energy:
Instantly cause your opponent to lose next action (eg: knocking him down, etc)
Take a carried object from your opponent
Get your opponent stuck
Break free of a grapple
Interrupt your opponents attack on someone or something else instantly
Restrain your opponent for one round (Target loses next action), and you can roll STR vs. STR every round after that to maintain the grip. Every round after the targets lost action, the target may use his action to roll STR vs. STR to break free.
Moderate narrative change (eg: A Kaiju is exposed to the press as a Kaiju, tag the Kaiju for tracking, your Kaiju gains people for his Human support structure, etc)
Effect a -3 distraction penalty for the next three rounds not counting this one
Take a moderate weapon from the terrain around (+5/+5. Eg: A stop-sign, a jackhammer, a steel smokestack from a factory if Giant Size, etc.) Three Primal energy:
Absorb all damage from an attack (must be used in conjunction with a Held action). You take no damage from that attack, no matter how it hit you.
Grant two Primal energy to another Kaiju
Stun a Kaiju
Injure your opponent, effecting a permanent -1 to all actions this fight
Take a serious wound to inflict a serious wound (-3)
Cause a major narrative change (eg: A Kaiju loses one of his tusks, or an eye, or one of his Human support structure, your Kaiju gains the gratitude of a city, etc)
Take a large weapon from the terrain around (+8/+8, Eg: The front end loader of a bulldozer, a thrown motorcycle, a thrown gasoline tanker if Giant Size, etc) Each individual use of the action may only be used once per combat. The action to be taken must be narrated by the player using this effect. The narration cannot be deus ex machina. In other words, the action cannot be something that happens, it has to be something the Kaiju does. For example, you cannot narrate the other Kaiju getting hit by lightening, but you can narrate your Kaiju taking a power line and shocking the other Kaiju. You cannot narrate that the other Kaiju slipped on an oil slick, but you can narrate that you lured him onto an oil slick where he then slipped. Coup de Grace: There are only two ways a Kaiju dies. The first is that his touchstone dies. The second is that while he lay unconscious after a fight, someone might murder him.
A Coup de Grace is a free action, but can only be performed on a Kaiju that has been KOd. If the Kaiju is Giant-Size, the one acting the Coup de Grace must be able to dispense Epic damage. Otherwise, anyone can do it. A sufficient final blow to any of the third through seventh chakras will be enough (cut throat, sword through the heart, bullet/HESH-round to the head, etc). Upon that action, the Kaiju and his touchstone are both permanently dead. How or why it was done may affect your reputation, or whether or not you have made enemies. It is not an action to be undertaken lightly, but it is one to be aware of among your enemies. A KOd Kaiju cannot be Coup de Graced if another Kaiju is defending him.
Also keep in mind that Kaiju Characters with the drawback Focus may opt instead to obtain the object of their focus from a fallen Kaiju using the Coup de Grace action. If you choose to do this, the Kaiju you drew from is not killed, but left at a -2 penalty to all actions 4 24 hours, both in Human form and Kaiju form. Helping: The question always comes up in an RPG of if the characters can combine their abilities for one roll. This question usually arises in the form of Can I help him do this?
Most rolls are not actually helpable, but some of them are, such as STR rolls, certain kinds of social rolls, rolls to talk someone down, and more than one Kaiju defending the same target other than themselves to name a few. In general, attack rolls are not helpable, though a successful distraction or grapple does provide some pretty concrete help.
The GM will have to rule on which actions can actually be assisted or not. In general, if the roll is helpable, each person helping with a roll adds a +1 to your roll, except in raw STR rolls, where, depending on the kind of action being taken, each helper either contributes their full STR or half their STR. For example, a group using a battering ram would combine all their STR, while a group trying to lift a trunk full of gold may only contribute half to the main lifter.
Also keep in mind that some rolls dont actually need to be rolled. The GM can employ common sense to determine that, for example, if five men are trying to pry your hand open and you only have STR 16, theyre going to succeed. The GM may also put a cap on how many people can actually help with a roll. For example, there are only room for so many sous-chefs in the kitchen, or so many people to hold a six-foot battering ram. Or, too many people helping with a social roll might cause the target to get suspicious, and start hurting your roll. The exchange of energy: After every battle, you gain something from the Kaiju you engaged with. It is not taken from them, but absorbed, borrowed. If you were knocked out in the battle, you get one XP (and how to spend those will covered shortly). If you were not knocked out, you get an XP and a KP, just like the KP you got at character creation.
Both XP and KP can be stored until you want to use them. XP converts to Trait Points (TP), Kaiju Trait Points (KTP), and Skill Points (SP) by the following method:
Trait advancement: Subtract 10 from the number you are advancing your trait or skill to, or 25 if you are advancing your Kaiju STR and have Giant Size.
Multiply that number by 2
That number is how many XP you must spend to advance. For example: Lets say you have a WIL of 13, and want to boost it up to 14. 14 - 10 = 4, and 2 x 4 = 8. Therefore, you spend 8 XP to advance.
You may only advance to the next number. For example, in the example above, if you wanted to advance to 15 from 13, you would first have to spend 8 to to advanceto 14, and then 10 to go to 15.
Bear in mind that CHARACTERS WHO HAVE THE SUPERPOWER DRAWBACK FOCUS DO NOT EARN XP IN THIS WAY, but they still earn KP. They may only acquire XP by obtaining the object of their Focus.
This topic: Shem > WebHome > MoreSettingManuals > TheSongThatEndsTheWorld > ActionsAndGameplay
Topic revision: 19 Nov 2015, ReginaldGusto
Topic revision: 19 Nov 2015, ReginaldGusto
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