Space Rangers-W20 Version 0.

9
Introduction
In a cluster of stars called the Daenea Cluster 10 trillion near-baseline humans and 60
trillion other sentient (including three Bug Ecologies, one of which is HOSTILE),
occasionally doing things through the regular channels just wont or cant take care of the
problem.
When that happens in the Confederacy somebody calls in the Space Rangers.
A lot of people have misconceptions about Rangers. For one thing, they don't have any
police powers. Any police force, legally or illegally constituted, can tell a Ranger to take
a hike. Actually, about half of them outside the Confederacy, most in the Empire of Man
and even a few member polities will shoot a Ranger on sight. The only real advantage a
Ranger has is the best training and equipment the Confederate Congress can afford and
the fact that no Ranger can be tried in any Confederate court for any reason. The biggest
disadvantage is that shooting a Ranger dead is not considered a crime in any Confederate
jurisdiction.
By Confederate law.
In the Declaration of Confederation.
There are however some Confederate jurisdictions that will slap you with violating other
ordinances like destruction of government property or felony littering for killing a Ranger
which can be almost as bad.
As a group the Space Rangers are hard to get a handle on but here are few things about
those who become Rangers.
One: Every Ranger is a 1 percenter in every sense of the word. Those who become
Rangers, even before they receive their training and implants, are some of the most
intelligent and competent individuals in the galaxy. They have no problem pushing it
harder and longer than everyone around them. Not one will back down unless theres not
an ice cubes chance in hell of winningand most wont even back down then.
Two: The Rangers are the good guys. This does not mean they wont lie, cheat, steal, kill
or otherwise destroy just about everything in sight to do their job or save the Universe,
but no Ranger will be allowed to get the training and implants that make them truly
frightening until they have proven beyond any shadow of a doubt that they believe in
freedom and the ultimate rights of sentient beings. Not necessarily nice guys, but good to
the bone.
Three: Rangers have the coolest toys and the best training. Every Ranger is given nearly
indestructible bones and a computer/recording system second to none. Add to that full

sensory implants that allow them to see like an eagle in the dark, feel someone walking
up behind them and hear like a bat and they become some pretty tough hombres. But it
doesnt stop there. They also have integrated subcutaneous body armor, tremendous
strength and reflexes so fast they are hard to follow. All that in a package that would pass
all but the deepest most comprehensive and invasive scans. And if that isnt enough they
also get the best training money can buy. They are taught how to do just about
everything.
The final package is a walking talking sapient catastrophe who can go almost anywhere
and do almost anything.
Characters
Space Ranger is an RPG about playing the people the galactic Confederacy call when the
job just has to be done . Playing a Character who is not a Ranger can be fun...but Rangers
have a serious advantage. Space Rangers themselves, are a combination, good guys,
special forces and outlaws. They are the ultimate type A, get-it-done, Im-so-faroutside-the-box-I-cant-see-the-box, over-achievers in a universe where spectacular
potential is the norm.
Character Creation
Strengths. Characters are defined by their Strengths. Strengths define the Character by
giving a bonus to any action that might be affected by that Strength. Players choose either
Combat or Non-Combat Strengths to be Prime. A Character may have as many Defined
Strengths as makes sense to the group and may be defined in any way that makes sense to
the Player. If a Character has two Defined Strengths that might be applicable in a conflict,
the Player can choose which one to use.
Prime Strengths roll base d20+d4.
Defined Prime Strengths roll d20+d6.
Non-Prime Strengths roll base d20.
Defined Prime Strengths roll d20+d4.
=====
Space Rangers have their signature implants, which include:
An internal computer/recording system
Ring carbon bones
Strength, reflex, auditory and visual enhancements
Integrated body armor
The total package is completely undetectable to anything short of a full body, deep
tissue scan and gives the Ranger +2 Advantage when doing anything that might be
affected by having the implants.
=====
One possible way Players can develop their starting Characters Strengths is to go
through 3 Phases of Character Creation.
Phase One (Childhood and Early Schooling):
Question:

What was your characters Strengths as a kid?

What did your character do for fun?
What was your character training to do for a living?
Action:
Choose three terms that defines your Character's greatest strength as a child.
Determine at least three things your Character became good at while they were a child.
Choose a hobby or something your Character did for fun.
Phase Two (Teen Years):
Here is the time to strengthen or expand upon your Characters Strengths.
Questions:
How did your characters focus while they were a teen?
Action:
Determine whether the Character has Combat or Non-Combat Prime.
Choose a profession or skill set that your character was training for.
Choose a hobby or something your Character did for fun.
Determine if your Character's Strengths changed as they grew older.
Phase Three (Time to begin):
This is when you solidify your character concept.
Questions:
What does your character look like at the beginning of their career?
Action:
Check your Character's Strengths. Do they clearly define your Character?
Look at the Skills defined. Are these he things your Character is good at?
Look at your Character's hobby. Does it add something?
=====
Pick three words that describe your Character.
Determine whether the Character has Combat or Non-Combat Prime.
Choose three to five things your Character is good at.
Choose a hobby or something your Character does for fun.
Name three people who are or were important to your Character. Two should be friendly
and one should be unfriendly or an enemy.
Describe one thing or place that is important to your Character.
Describe one thing that excites your Character.
Describe one thing that makes your Character angry.
Describe what your Character looks like.
Now write a quick narrative (200 words or less) using the answers to these questions.
Once that is written check your Character's Strengths. Do they clearly define your
Character? Look at the Skills defined. Are these the things your Character is good at?
Look at your Character's hobby. Does it add something?
If so then you are ready to write the Character Sheet.

The three word become Traits. Each Trait will give you a +1 to any action in which that
Trait is relevant. If all three Traits are relevant then you get a +2. Each of the things your
Character is good at are considered Defined Strengths.
=====
GM NOTE: It is also possible to do Character Creation without going through Phases.
A complete background or a conversation between the Player and the GM could be used
to describe a Character. I tend to think of Strengths in terms of concrete descriptions
similar to skills, feats and powers in other systems but that really is not necessary. A
purely narrative description or set of quotes could be used just as effectively and might
work better for some Players. You could also use a huge and complete skills list like that
in the Palladium System or GURPS to define all aspects of a character.
=====
Hit Points are used during conflict resolution. Hit point are determined by rolling the
following:
Deep Hit Points. 2d6+10
Superficial Hit Points. 2d6
Hit points can be re-rolled after any session for 1 Action Token. Characters with
Experience roll 1 more die.
Action Tokens. Action Tokens (ATs) allow a Character to do the extraordinary. ATs give
an upshift to the roll. ATs from the same source do not stack but ATs from different
sources may. Players start every session with 1 AT. The GM or any two Players can give
an AT at anytime to another Player as a reward for being entertaining, moving the story
along or good role-playing. ATs can be used at a rate of one AT from one source per roll,
before, during or after a roll. A Player can have up to 3 ATs, of their own, at any time.
Any Player can give their ATs to another Player instead of using them on their own
Character.
Conflict Resolution
ALL conflicts use the same mechanics. A Character must defeat a Challenge by reducing
it's Hit Points with "attacks" before it can reduce the Character's Hit Points. ALL
Challenges have Hit Points, an Attack Strength and an Attack Damage. If the Challenge
goes to zero Hit Points, the Character wins the conflict.
Please Note: Some Non-Combat Challenges do not have Deep Hit Points and cannot
affect Deep Hit Points.
Conflict Resolution works as follows:
Roll d20 + Appropriate Strength bonus for initiative for all Characters and Challenges.
Highest initiative goes first . GM counts down from there. Every Character or Challenge
goes on their initiative and every 10th initiative after that until initiative reaches 0.
On a Character Initiative the Player rolls d20 + Appropriate Strength bonus for their
Characters Attack. If the roll is higher than the target's Defense, the Character hits. The
Character then rolls their Damage and adds however much they made the Roll by.

 On a Challenge Initiative the Player rolls d20 + Appropriate Strength bonus for their
Characters Defense. If the roll is higher than the target's Defense, the Character is
missed. If the roll is lower the Player rolls the Challenges Damage and adds however
much they lost the Roll by.
Damage reduces Superficial Hit Points first and then Deep Hit Points.
The Base Target Number for MOST Challenges is 13.
Character Defenses are equal to 11+1/2 Strength Die value.
If a Character's Superficial Hit Points reach 0, Character is hurt and is -1 to all actions.
All further damage goes to Deep Hit Points. If Deep Hit Points go to 0 your Character is
incapacitated and you (the Player) can do nothing to influence the game until you regain
at least one Hit Point. Incapacitated characters can be killed only if they are out of Action
Points. Otherwise they can take a Second Wind and jump back in when appropriate.
Base Conflict Damage is 1d6 assuming the Character has an appropriate basic tool or
weapon. This may be shifted up (1d8, 1d10, 1d12) or down (d4, d3, d2) or scaled up
(x10=(!); x100=(!!), x1000=(!!!)) for a specific superior or inferior tool or weapon.
Certain specific armor types and equipment can also give a Character a higher Defense or
Attack value than the Characters Strengths as well.
If the Player rolls a Natural 20 on the d20 in a Character Initiative or a Natural 1 in a
Challenge Initiative the Character had a Critical Success. If the Player rolls a Natural 20
on the d20 in a Challenge Initiative or a Natural 1 in a Character Initiative the Character
had a Critical Failure.
Critical Successes and Failures do double damage.
Please note that in Space Rangers you do not roll for any action that would be considered
easy or normal. Space Ranger assumes that your character is utterly competent and would
succeed at any easy or normal task. This means that a Player only needs to roll if the
circumstances would be considered difficult and the outcome could have a detrimental or
salutary effect on the Characters.
Upshifts
An upshift increases a die roll. (Example d20+d4 goes to d20+d6). A Character can get
an upshift on attack or defense (whichever is appropriate during that Initiative) versus an
opponent if the opponent is in an inferior position or circumstance in relation to the
attacking Character. Characters with Experience may also get a free upshift on certain
Strengths versus Characters without Experience.
Second Wind and Healing
Normally Deep Hit Points heal at 1d4 points per day and Superficial Hit Points heals to
full after any short rest (10 or more minutes without a conflict.) but any Characters can
use an Action Token to invoke a Second Wind to immediately heal 1d6 Superficial Hit
Points and 1d6 Deep Hit Points. If a character is brought to 0 hit points and does not die,
then the character will heal 1 Deep Hit Point during the short rest and then heal their
uperficial Hit Points normally.
=====
The standard method of conflict resolution is Exchange Based, Fortune in the
Middle with the Players narrating their own successes or failures. This means

that the Player declares their action for this series of maneuvers and blows in the
broadest of terms (Im going to shoot at him, Im going to try to sneak by the
guard, etc.) then rolls to find out how effective their Character is going to be.
Once the Player knows what happened they narrate the action for their Character
AND their Antagonist based on the roll.
This is key. It is the Player, not the GM that narrates the effects of a Success for
a Player. The GM only narrates Successes if a Player is not involved or if a non
Player Antagonist gets a Gonzo Success.
If appropriate the GM and the other Players can modify the narration based on
the level of the success if the Player is taking it a bit too far. A Player does not
necessarily have to narrate a Success as a success. A Player could narrate a
Success as a failure that gives the Character an Advantage later on.
Example: A Ranger is sniping at a charging Rinox and gets a single success. Rather than
dealing damage to the Rinox, he asks the GM if he can get a +2 Advantage should the
fight go to melee range. The GM says yes and the Player narrates how the shot creased
the Rinox across the skull causing no real damage but pouring blood into its eyes
making it less capable of seeing the Character when it finally closes to melee range.
The GM or a consensus of Players has a final say on this.
If a Character gets a Critical Success the Player can choose either to do
double damage or they can narrate a Gonzo result (Thank you Jeff Diamond
for the idea!). This means that the Player can take the Author stance and
narrate an unexpected result, a wild success that is COMPLETELY unrelated
to the expected result or a wild failure that advances the plot and/or moves the
game along. The result CANNOT break the laws of the universe or the
verisimilitude of the game.
Example: Ranger Sara Levi rolled a Critical Success when bullyboy Boaz Neet put his
Ripper against her head. She decided a dead Boaz Neet was a good Boaz Neet and
narrates accordingly. Two rounds later she got another Critical Success and her Player
realizes that being in a gunfight with 5 Slavers is going to whittle her down if she isnt
real lucky, so she narrates that one of her shots blows a hole in the cockpit. This is bad
but since she had previously narrated herself outside the cockpit, when the pressure
door slammed shut on the Slavers she has a fighting chance to make it to the escape
pods and get out before the whole shuttle is pancaked on the ground. Her actions killed
nobody directly, and in fact could be classed a failure, but ultimately it moved the story
along in a positive manner.
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Equipment
The default assumption is that you have the correct equipment and or weapons
to do what you need to do. Working without the correct equipment give you
Difficulty Modifiers. Some Equipment may also give you Advantage.
Note: Superior Equipment is not that common. Most Equipment simply makes it
possible to do things without penalty.

These very simplified rules on equipment should not however discourage Players
from being creative in describing their Characters or their stuff! Half the fun of
playing RPGs is the cool stuff you can have. A set of vintage replica .45s may not
have any more effect that a .9mm Ripper by the standards of the rules, but they
definitely help define a Character.
=====
Conflict Advantage
A character has Conflict Advantage (CA) if their target is in an inferior position or
circumstance in relation to the attacking Character. A Character with CA gets +2 to hit
or DC (whichever is appropriateand sometimes BOTH are appropriate) during the
next combat round versus that opponent.
=====
GM NOTES: Armor Bonus is a special case Combat Advantage that is applied to DC.
Armors are setting specific. They may be more or less than +2 and may provide extra
hit points or make a Character (!).
=====
Advantage or Disadvantage in the Space Ranger RPG has a specific meaning.
Anything that makes things easier is an Advantage. These could include, but are
not limited to:
Superior Equipment: Superior equipment could be a sword vs. a knife or a
rifle vs. a pistol.
Superior Position: Superior position could be the high ground or having
someone surrounded or being on hard packed ground when your
opponent is slogging through the mud.
NEED MORE EXAMPLES!!!
Advantage is assigned to a Character by its Player subject to the consensus of
the other Players. Advantage can be:
Environmental
Physical
Emotional
Assigned by Players for Whoa
+3 for Raising the Stakes to Deadly <<not sure about this one anymore
since I'm not supporting Narr agenda as much anymore>>

Example: Sara Levi whips up her shotgun to blast a pug ugly that dropped from
the tree above and is charging her. She is a Good in a Fight (d8) and has the
Advantage of Superior Position in the form of range (+2 Advantage) and superior
ammo in the form of HeavyShot (1d12 damage). She would now roll d20+d8+4
vs the pug uglies DC. The pug ugly is tough and fast with an 18 DC and 15 hit
points but she rolls 15(on the d20) +4 (on the d8) +4 (2 for the range Advantage,
2 for the Ranger Advantage) for a 23 to hit and rolls 11(for the Heavy Shot
damage) +1 (for Level) +5 (for rolling over 18) for 17 damage. The pug ugly
drops on the branch like a sack of potatoes and is less than a menace in next to
no time.
Advantage can be lent from any Character to any Character for any reason once

per Exchange. The lending character gets to share the Exchange narration
based on that loan.
Example: Ruuk is going to a meet but doesn't trust the people he's meeting so
he takes out some insurance in the form of Sara sitting on a rooftop with a
Cassegraine Dinosaur Laser Rifle. The meeting goes south in a hurry and as the
bullets start flying it looks like Ruuk is going to get incapacitated. Rather than
reacting herself Sara's Player lends Ruuk +6 Advantage from Sara (She's got +2
extra from the laser and +2 from good position and +2 for being hidden) and
narrates that she starts shooting indiscriminately at the thugs trying to wax Ruuk.
He now has a +6 Advantage and starts rolling really high and adds another notch
to the legend of the Rangers as he plows through a seemingly impossible
number of opponents.
=====
=====
Character Design Experiment 1:
Sara Levi
Phase 1: 3 pts
Strength
Tough
Smart
Agile
Likes fixing stuff
Likes the outdoors
Phase 2:
Strength
Good in a fight (Combat Prime)
Tough
Smart
Agile
Good Mechanic
Good Pilot
Loves to Hunt
Likes Hacking
Phase 3:
Strength
Good in a fight (Combat Prime)
Tough
Smart
Agile
Good Looking
Mechanic
Pilot
Hunter

Hacker
----Sara Levi
Level: 1
Strengths
Tough
Smart
Agile
Good Mechanic
Good Pilot
Outdoor Survival
Hacker
Good Looking
DHP: 18 (16+2 for being a Ranger)
SHP: 8 (6+2 for being a Ranger)
Combat Attack Bonus
Good in a fight (Tough)
Good Pilot (Agile)
Combat Defence Class (DC)
Good in a fight (Tough)
Good Pilot (Agile)
Action Tokens: 1

d6+2 (Ranger)
d4+2 or d6+2 (Ranger)
d6+2 (Ranger)
d4+2 (Ranger)
d6+2 (Ranger)
d4+2 (Ranger)
d4+2 (Ranger)
d4

d6+2 (Ranger)
d6+2 (Ranger)
16 (11+3+2) (Ranger)
16 (11+3+2) (Ranger)