Nova Corebook.pdf

creation

Nova, the Universal Game Engine

Created by George Chatzipetros

Contact me at neonblue@GameBox.net

n elegant, flexible, exciting

game system, designed to su

game system, designed to sup pp p-

port a variety of settings and

Contact me at neonblue@GameBox.net

Watch out for sourcebooks and

port a variety of settings and

games and suit the GM’s

Watch out for sourcebooks and

updates at http

Watch out for sourcebooks and

games and suit the GM’s

needs.

updates at http://members.xoom.com/

://members.xoom.com/

uses only one type

of dice (D6) and one way of

Nova uses only one type

uses only one type

of dice (D6) and one way of

rolling them. It will be su

sidhe7

rolling them. It will be supppp-

ported with a variety of su

ported with a variety of sup pp p-

plements to expand its cap

plements to expand its capaaaa-

bi bibi bilities to many different genres

ties to many different genres

of role

of role-playing.

playing.

An elegant, flexible, exciting

n elegant, flexible, exciting

Created by George Chatzipetros

game system, designed to su

Contact me at neonblue@GameBox.net

port a variety of settings and

games and suit the GM’s

needs.

needs. Nova

Nova

updates at http

of dice (D6) and one way of

rolling them. It will be su

ported with a variety of su

plements to expand its cap

ties to many different genres

of role

playing.

Contents

Character Basics……..4

Attributes………………...4

Attribute generation……4

Skills……………………...4

Basic skills………………..5

Determining skills……….5

Secondary Attr…………..9

Constitution……………..9

Stamina…………………10

Defense…………………10

Personality traits………10

Limits in attribute devel-

opment…………………15

Fire..……………………20

Acid……………………..20

Radiation……………….20

Toxins…………………..21

Disease………………….22

Healing…………………23

Combat……………..16

Initiative………………...l6

Surprise………………….16

Attack…………………...16

Damage.………………..17

Armor…………………..17

Weapons………………..17

Ranged weapons………17

Close combat weapons..17

Automatic weapons……18

Explosives………………18

Close combat weapons..18

Physical attacks…………18

Combat modifiers…..…19

Nova Lite…………..24

There are no targets num-

ber but one!……………24

The Engine Core...…12

Modifiers……………….12

Movement………..……12

Decrepitude…………….13

Checks…………………..14

Attribute checks………..14

Skill checks……………...14

Complex checks………..14

Experience………………14

Hazards…………….20

Falling…………………..20

Air………………………20

Contents

Character Basics……..4

Combat……………..16

Nova Lite…………..24

The Engine Core...…12

Hazards…………….20

Character Basics

Attributes

Reaction: Reaction shows the speed

and reflexes a character possesses.

ter’s ability to influence and per-

suade others through talking. It

shows well someone communicates

with the environment and other

people.

Every attribute has a rating consisting

of one or more numbers. The more

numbers the better, as the player

rolls more dice. Also, the lower a

number the greatest the chance of a

die coming up as a success. Examples

of attributes are 5, 45, 557 etc.

When referring to the number of

dice of an attribute (also called at-

tribute dice), we mean the quantity

of numbers (eg an attribute with a

44 rating has two dice).

That said, the human average

is considered to be 5 for all attrib-

utes. In the case of humans, there is a

limit of three dice in each of the

physical attributes. A human can’t be

too strong or extremely dexterous.

ttribute generation

A starting character gets 17

“generation dice” to distribute

among the 10 attributes. Each

attribute must have at least one

die and may have up to three.

After all generation dice have

been assigned to attributes,

they are rolled to determine

their rating.

Attribute generation

Attributes are the general characteris-

tics defining every being. They serve

as a measure of its abilities, strengths

and weaknesses. Because of this, they

are divided into three categories.

Physical attributes measure a charac-

ter’s physical capabilities like strength

or dexterity. Mental attributes meas-

ure the character’s intellectual abili-

ties as well as his wit and will. Lastly,

Social attributes measure the charac-

ter’s interaction with the environ-

ment and other people.

There are ten attributes in to-

tal: four physical, four Mental and

two Social.

Mental

Intellect:

Intellect: A measure of the charac-

ter’s intelligence.

Insight:

Insight: Insight is a lot more compli-

cated an attribute than Intellect. It

represents the character’s knowledge

about himself and bout the world. In

short, it is what most people call wis-

dom.

Determination:

Roll

Rating

Determination: Determination de-

pends on the strength of the charac-

ter’s will, his desire to overcome all

obstacles and emerge victorious from

any situation, to stand against any

opponent no matter the odds.

Presentiment:

1-2

3-4

5-6

Example: Michael devotes two

generation dice to Vitality. He

rolls them, scoring 2 and 6.

This means that his Vitality will

be 46.

GMs can vary the amount of

starting generation dice to com-

pensate for the difficulty of

their game.

Physical

Conditioning:

Presentiment: Presentiment shows

the quality of the character’s senses

and also his perception and the

amount of information he receives

from the environment.

Conditioning: Conditioning depends

on the character’s physical strength

and how well he can use it.

Litheness:

Litheness: Litheness measures a char-

acter’s manual dexterity, agility and

flexibility.

Vitality:

Skills

Social

Comeliness:

Vitality: Vitality represents the char-

acter’s resistance to physical damage,

as well as disease and poisons and

generally anything that can directly

Comeliness: A measure of the physi-

cal beauty of a character and the at-

traction he causes.

Influence:

Skills represent abilities of the charac-

ter more specialised than attributes.

Skills depend on knowledge and in-

formation attained by the character through studying and practicing.

Influence: A measure of the charac-

ttributes

ttribute generation

harm the organism.

Reaction:

Mental

Intellect:

Insight:

Rating

Determination:

Presentiment:

Physical

Conditioning:

Litheness:

Social

Comeliness:

Vitality:

Influence:

Skills are divided in talents and knowledges

They are divided in two general

categories:

•

Talents are practical skills (like

brawling and climbing) that

mostly require practice rather

than theory or studying.

be purchased only if the character

already possesses the main skill at

rating 1 or better.

If a subskill is a talent and the

main skill is a talent too, you may

use the subskill even if you don’t

possess the main skill, but all rolls

suffer a +2 penalty. If the main skill

is a knowledge, you have to possess

it in order to use the subskill, even if

the subskill is a talent.

character can mimic someone else.

The result shows how good the mim-

icry is. This skill is very useful when

trying to conceal your thoughts and

wishes by pretending to be think

something else.

Amb

etermining skills

A starting character gets 20

“generation dice” to spend on

skills. Up to four dice can be

spent on a single skill. No dice

may be spent on a subskill if

you don’t devote at least one

die to the main skill. After all

dice have been distributed, de-

termine the skill’s rating by fol-

lowing the simple rule below:

•

Determining skills

Knowledges depend on exten-

sive studying and the learning

of a theoretical background

(like medicine or physics).

Skills have a rating of 1 to 4. This

comes to play when the player at-

tempts to make a skill check. A rating

of 1 belongs to a novice, while at

level 4 the character is considered to

be a master in that field of expertise.

The main difference between

talents and knowledges is that tal-

ents, being practical skills, can be

used by all people, even by those

that don’t possess a rating in the skill

(simply use rating 0 when making

the skill check). Knowledges on the

other hand, can not be use by some-

one who doesn’t possess a rating of

at least 1.

Some skills exist as specialisa-

tions of more generic skills. These

skills are called subskills (eg genetics

is a subskill of biology). Subskills may

Knowledges

ush (INT): Someone with this

skill is able to plan and perform an

ambush so as to surprise his enemies.

Each success modifies by +1 the

awareness check of the victim(s)

along with any other modifier that

may apply.

Archery (LIT):

ush (INT):

Basic Skills

It would be a futile task trying to as-

semble a list of all the skills that

could be of use in every setting. This

is left to the imagination of the GM.

Below follows a list of important

skills that are of use in most of the

worlds. Knowledges are marked with

a “+” after the skill. All other skills

are talents. Subskills are marked with

an arrow.

Academics (INF):

The first die in a skill

automatically gives rating

Archery (LIT): This combat skill en-

ables the character to use bows and

crossbows.

Armed combat (LIT):

Armed combat (LIT): This skill gov-

erns combat with hand weapons of

any kind, from daggers to swords to

maces.

—> disarm:

Extra dice (other than the

first) are rolled and if

they come up as 4-6 they

increase the skill rating by

one (to a maximum of 4

of course). Any other re-

sult means the die is

wasted.

GMs may want to change this

procedure by giving more or

less skill dice to players or by

letting the players choose skills

that are related to their occupa-

tion with some bonuses.

disarm: This subskill enables the

character to perform disarming ma-

neuvers with his hand weapons. A

disarming maneuver is a contest be-

tween the disarming skill of the char-

acter and the weapon skill of the op-

ponent and replaces a normal attack

action (don’t use the weapons’ of-

fense and defense ratings). If the

character wins the contest, he causes

disarm:

Academics (INF): The character is

considered to be a skilled teacher

and this talent measures his ability to

pass his knowledge to his students. It

is an essential skill for anyone inter-

ested in providing education.

Acting (INF):

Acting (INF): Using this talent, the

etermining skills

Talents

Ambush (INT):

•

Amb

Basic Skills

Archery (LIT):

•

Armed combat (LIT):

Academics (INF):

Acting (INF):

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