Sol Kane (Order #11402280)

CHTHONIAN
HIGHWAYS
A Post-Apocalyptic Roleplaying Game of Road Warriors and Ancient Horrors

ALPHA PLAYTEST KIT Version 0.4.2f8

IRONSPINE in association with MYRRYSMIEHET presents an IRONCORE ENGINE roleplaying game

Game Design by MISKA FREDMAN, JUKKA SORSA and VILLE TAKANEN Art by HANS ZENJUGA
Introductory Story by KEN MARTIN Proofreading and Editing by KEN MARTIN and
CHRISTOPHER STRATTON SMITH Layout by MISKA FREDMAN and VILLE TAKANEN

PLAYTESTING BY Rami Sihvo, Teemu Pennanen, Mattis, Tuukka, Suzu, Susanna, Akusti. Jouko Salminen,
Atte Yliverronen, Meri, Jaakko Mansikka-Aho, Samuli Ahokas, Antti Isosomppi, Jouko Salminen, Nestori Lehtonen and
Tony Kihlberg SPECIAL CONTRIBUTORS Johnny Blaze and Juha Sihvonen

Ironcore Engine is a tabletop roleplaying game system developed by Miska Fredman, Jukka Sorsa, Ville Takanen and Hans Zenjuga.
Ironcore Engine logo is a trademark of Ironcore Creative.

Chthonian Highways game text and Ironcore Engine by Miska Fredman, Jukka Sorsa, Ville Takanen,
Hans Zenjuga is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0
International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/
by-nc-sa/4.0/. We ask you to use full name of the work (Chthonian Highways) and link www.
ironspine.com/ch when crediting the derivate works.

All illustrations are copyright of Hans Zenjuga Hans Zenjuga 2015. All rights reserved

Ironspine and Ironspine logo are trademarks of Ironcore Creative. Myrrysmiehet logo is a trademark of Myrrysmiehet Ltd.

Sol Kane (Order #11402280)

 Contents
INTRODUCTION........................................................ 5

THE WORLD.............................................................. 8

RULES...................................................................... 12

ROAD WARRIORS...................................................... 20

JUNK........................................................................ 29

VEHICLES................................................................. 37

COMBAT................................................................... 40

WHEELS.................................................................... 48

FEAR & MADNESS...................................................... 55

THE RIG RAID............................................................ 59

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Sol Kane (Order #11402280)
 LONGSHOT BY KEN MARTIN
Wasteland the whole world was a wasteland. If
you didnt see it every day and every night, then you
dreamed it. Strange places Id never been to and even
stranger creatures. Nightmares.
It was night, and we were making the run down to
Crossroads for supplies. Mostly medicine for the sick
kids on the farms around Jasper. I was driving down
the highway on Dead Mans Stretch, the highway that
runs twenty clicks long, straight as an arrow, through
marsh and salt-flats.
We did the run at night my choice as driver. I didnt
want to see the horrors of the Stretch, the things that
crawl out of the bog and rake their talons across the
blacktop, calling to each other. I never wondered
where they came from or why they crawled out onto
the road. It didnt bother me what their story was, or if
they even had a story. Didnt bother me until tonight.
Lately, I was dreaming too much about the horrors.
Nightmares.
The 75 Rapier screamed its angry eight-cylinder snarl
at the night, its lights flashed with bugs as they were
caught in the beams that cut through the black ink.
But now something pulled at my mind, my thoughts
drifted, and I wanted to know what was out there.
Even though it wanted to ride on like those horses
from the old days, before the Reckoning, I pulled the
pickup to a stop. Shifting down through the gears, it
eventually surrendered with a whine and a shudder. I
heard a voice from the back.
Hey! Whats going on? It was Jona, nervous, of
course. He always was. I unlatched my drivers door,
heavy and squealing on hinges, and planted my boots
on the tar. I smelled the dank, choking stink of the
marsh out in the night. I could feel its dead-cold
fingers clawing at me through my leathers.
Nothing yet.
Maybe they still need to wake up? Maybe theyre
right there, beyond my senses, waiting in the slowly
churning, freezing fog. Do they come for something?
Or someone?
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Sol Kane (Order #11402280)
Mikal? Whats up? Jona asked me again. I could tell
he was sensing something, that somehow he could feel
it in his head. That was his job.
There was another sound in the back compartment.
Someone else moving, shifting around. Probably Kim
getting her blades together, because she knew me
knew I was about to do something no one ever did.
No one stops in the middle of the blacktop at night
under a baleful moon not if they werent looking for
trouble.
As my boots crunched under the rubble strewn around
the road, I tapped my right thigh for the reassuring
and familiar shape of my sawn-off shotgun. I needed
Kim and Jona right now, and all the guts we had.
I reached the back of the vehicle and flung open the
rear doors. Jona had vomited, the smell of it almost
welcome in this cursed place. With his special gift,
I expected that. I just wished it wasnt always in my
truck. He bailed out and collapsed on the road, a mess
of rags and old army fatigues, and Kim came after him
with her blades. She handled them with all the finesse
of a dancer and the fury of a banshee. And I caught a
clever smile on her face that told me everything: we
were about to play a dangerous game.
I kicked Jona in the leg. Get some fuel. And when he
looked at me in the ghostly darkness and the dimmest
grey moonlight like I was a crazy man, I instructed,
Half a gallon should do it. He got up to find a fuel
can. Kim was already scoping the fog that came up out
of the marsh, her keen eyes searching for horrors.
In minutes we were ready. Jona with his special brain
and the rifle, Kim with her stealth and blades, and me,
Mikal I had the shotgun with the arc light taped to
the barrel. Oh, and on my belt I kept a stupid hunting
knife that didnt seem right, but was my only memory
of the days before the Reckoning.
Lets go.
 INTRODUCTION
ABOUT THIS PLAYTEST KIT

This is not the complete book. This Alpha playtest kit (v.0.4.2f8) has the prototype core rules
for Ironcore Engine and some rules designed specifically for this game. Please take into considera-
tion that the rules are a work in progress. They are only partially proofread and they certainly have
some mistakes here and there. Some parts of the book are still missing and being developed.

All feedback is welcome and appreciated. Please visit www.ironspine.com/ch for more information.

WELCOME TO CHTHONIAN HIGHWAYS

Chthonian Highways is a post-apocalyptic action
and horror roleplaying game set in a world where
nightmarish creatures have ravaged the Earth and
otherworldly landscapes have merged with ours.
Strange, dreadful beings prowl in the shadows, and
dangerous alien flora is taking over the green forests
and grasslands. The few remnants of civilization are
held together by the chthonian highways a web of
roads that are still traversable by ground vehicles. The
characters are dauntless road warriors who roam the
cursed highways in their souped-up cars and motorcy-
cles for as long as there is gasoline to keep the engines
roaring.
POWERED BY IRONCORE ENGINE
Chthonian Highways is created as a ready-to-play
demo and playtest kit of Ironcore Engine. Ironcore
Engine is a roleplaying game system designed to
support action and adventure themed roleplaying. It
combines well-tested old school conflict resolution
with more story-driven game mechanics.
Chthonian Highways is our first public release with
this system. This edition of Chthonian Highways
has been created for public play-test of both, the
Chthonian Highways concept, and the Ironcore
Engine. Read more about the Ironcore Engine at
www.ironspine.com
BASIC CONCEPTS
Chthonian Highways is a roleplaying game where
players take the roles of protagonist characters. Each
player has narrative control over their own player
character and can contribute to other characters or the
games narrative with their own actions. In Chthonian
Highways, all player characters are Road Warriors;
brave men and women who roam the dangerous
chthonian highways and wastelands. The gamemaster
(GM) is a one of the players who has the role of the
director, referee and storyteller of the game. The GM
has narrative control over the games setting and the
non-player characters, and has final say on how rules
work. A Non-Player Character (NPC) is a character
or creature controlled by the GM.
Skills measure a characters level of learning and expe-
rience, and have levels ranging from 0 to 10 and some-
times higher. An Ability describes one of a characters
inner resources such as willpower, endurance, focus

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and resourcefulness. Abilities are used to measure the
characters general vitality and well-being, and to push
Skill Checks beyond the characters comfort zone.
Characters use Skill Checks that are dice rolls made
to see if a character succeeds or fails in a task. A Skill
Check is made by rolling a 20-sided die and adding
modifiers to the result, and if this total is equal to or
more than the tasks Challenge Level, the action suc-
ceeds. The Challenge Level (CL) is a target number
that determines the difficulty of a task. The default CL
of 15 can be modified, according to the tasks difficulty.
Characters can Push their Abilities and gain extra dice
for the Skill Check. Pushing will cause Strain on the
exerted Ability and lower it temporarily. When you
roll more than one die in a Skill Check, you roll all the
dice at the same time and pick the highest result.
When characters exert themselves and act according
to their motives and weaknessess, they gain Velocity
points that are an abstract measure of a characters
involvement in the action and narrative of the game.
The more the character is involved in the situation, the
greater thing can happen.
Edge and Handicap represent special circumstances
affecting a characters actions. Edge will add a die to
the Skill Check. Conversely, a Handicap subtracts a
die from a Skill Check. If the amount of Skill Check
dice drops to zero or below, roll two dice and pick the
lowest result.
Characters grow and develop by accumulating expe-
rience during the game. Experience points (XP) are
used to develop character skills and abilities.
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Introduction
ABOUT THE DICE
Chthonian Highways uses different dice for various
rolls and checks. Some rolls need more than one die,
so its a good idea to have at least two of each die type,
but at least four or five twenty-sided dice.
Dice rolls use special formulas to indicate what dice
are rolled and if something is added or subtracted
from the result. Lets take a quick run-through:
2d6+2: Firstly, you have the number of dice
rolled (2), then the die type (d6) and finally any
modifiers added or subtracted from the total of
the dice rolls.
d100: Roll two different colored ten-sided dice,
one color for the tens digit and one for the ones
digits. If you roll from the tens die a 3 and from
the ones die a 4, that would be 34. If your result
was 0 and 5, that would be 5. Double zeroes is a
hundred.
d%: This is treated otherwise as d100, but d% is
used to resolve percentile chances. For example,
if an event has a 30% chance to happen, you
would need to roll 30 or lower with a d100 for it
to occur.
+1D / -1D: Add (+1D) a die of the same type
to a roll or remove (-1D) a die from a roll. For
example, if you get +1D modifier to a 2d6 roll, it
becomes 3d6. If the amount of dice drops to zero
or below, roll two dice of that type and pick the
lowest result. For example: a character gets a -1D
penalty from a Handicap to their Skill Check.
This leaves the character with 0d20 and the
player rolls two twenty-sided dice and picks the
lowest result to calculate the result.

IN-GAME TIME UNITS
The time is measured in the game in abstract units.
Shortest time unit is a turn, which comprises of a few
seconds of intense action, and the longest time unit
is a season, that can encompass a whole story arc and
perhaps months, or even years, of in-game time.
Turn: A turn is a measure of time during which a char-
acter can act. This is usually a few seconds.
Round: During one round all characters in a scene can
act in their turn. Once all characters have acted, a new
round begins. A round can be anything from a few
seconds to a few minutes.
Scene: A scene is something where one or more char-
acters are involved in the same events in the same sur-
roundings. A scene is not necessarily location based,
because for instance a car chase can be one scene
where the location changes all the time, but the partic-
ipating characters remain the same. A fight, a pursuit
or searching an abandoned house can all be scenes.
Introduction
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Here are some, but certainly not all, of the works of
art and fiction, or communities and people, that have
inspired us while working on this game thus far:
Mad Max movies, H.P. Lovecraft, Stealing Cthulhu by
Graham Walmsley, The Book of Eli, Moebius, Hellboy,
B.P.R.D., Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Twitter, The
Mist by Stephen King, Role Playing Game Designers
G+ Community, Roolipelaajien Suomi FB Group,
The Colony, The Walking Dead (comics and series),
Judge Dredd, Maze Runner, Tremors, The Road, I Am
Legend, Godzilla, Pacific Rim, Stalker RPG, yog-blog-
soth.blogspot.com, Imperial Assault, Mutant RPG,
The Cypher System, Fate Core, Acthung Cthulhu,
E.N.O.C. ,
We would especially like to thank Ropecon and
Tracon roleplaying conventions for their continuing
support for indie game designers, publishers and role
playing game players.

Chapter: A chapter is a series of interconnected scenes

that form a whole. Usually the action ceases and the
characters have an opportunity to recover or for some
downtime between Chapters.

Episode (or Session): An episode comprises of one or

more chapters that together have a clear beginning and
end. Usually an episode is the same length as a game
session.

Season: As with tv series, a season consists of multiple

episodes that together form a larger, more dramatic
story arc. A season usually translates into a few weeks
or months of in-game time.

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 The World
WHAT WE KNOW OF THE PAST
What we know now as the Reckoning started roughly Some people banded together, and eventually estab-
twenty years ago. First there were massive earthquakes lished small survivor communes and fortified cities.
like none we had ever seen before. The quakes were Most of these communities secluded themselves from
followed by tsunamis and the thick fog that rolled in the outside world, but some of them sought out other
from the sea. Millions of people were killed and lost in settlements to trade or find allies.
these natural disasters. At least we thought they were
natural until the great sinkholes appeared and many Air travel became impossible when our skies were
cities collapsed into the deep chasms on the ground. filled with strange beasts that could rip airplanes into
Dense, foul-smelling steam poured out of these holes pieces in seconds and the acid rain and thick radiation
and people reported that they saw horrific creatures
climbing out of the thick mist. Many people began
to behave strangely and the cities erupted into chaos.
People attacked each other and authorities reported
men and women walking into the sinkholes. These
poor people disappeared deep underground and were
never seen again.

Many of the worlds nations were already at the brink

of collapse, and their armed forces were deployed to
these hotspots to help those people in distress. Alien
creatures with incomprehensible anatomies, giant
worms and gargantuan creatures with claws and ten-
tacles wreaked havoc all around the world. We tried to
fight the monsters with the weapons we had, but there
were just too many of the creatures. Our weapons
could do nothing to the largest of these monstrosities.
After losing one city after another our governments
saw nuclear weapons as humanitys last resort. This
seemed to fend off some of the creatures for a while
but the world already lay in ruins.

Modern society as we knew it was shattered, with cities

in ruins with billions killed or mysteriously lost. There
was not enough food or fresh water for most of us.
Radiation, nuclear fallout, famine and disease killed
people like flies. Desperation turned people against
each other. Looting, killing and more horrendous
things than you can imagine were commonplace. You
could almost feel those creatures taking pleasure from
all of the pain and suffering.

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clouds could corrode air turbines in days. It became
obvious that the only way to safely move between
the strongholds were along the highways and roads
connecting these towns and cities. But this was not
without risk either. Bandits, cannibals and terrifying
monsters were a threat for every traveler in the waste-
lands. And the many kinds of creatures were not the
only danger. Dust storms, spore clouds, acid rains, and
electric storms were new natural dangers travelers had
to watch for and avoid when on the road.
Against all odds , humanity still stands in these settle-
ments. Most are barely surviving, but some are even
thriving.
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The World
WHAT WE KNOW OF THE PRESENT
The Earth that we once knew was changed forever.
Its not just the earthquakes, tsunamis or the strange
climate. Its like Earth has merged with some alien
world or worlds. Some buildings, roads and terrain
features still remained, but the world around us has
changed. Mountains have appeared from nowhere,
and there was news about a new continent in the
Atlantic ocean right before the television and radio
news broadcasts went silent.
Strange and dangerous new flora and fauna is taking
over old nature and the climate is different. It is
said that North-America and Europe are dry waste-
lands, except for the shorelines that are now moist

swamplands with constant rain. Northern Africa
is being overrun by a lush jungle with giant fungi,
man-eating plants and enormous insects. The coastal
cities are lost underwater probably because the polar
ice caps have melted.
Even the sky is not what it used to be. Blue sky is but a
dream from the past that is harder to remember each
day. When the sky is not covered in thick fog, you
might catch a glimpse of the moon and the stars in the
sky tinged with red or blue.
Dreaming
After the Reckoning many people have dreamt more
vivid dreams. Sometimes these dreams feel like they
were real and the same events keep re-occurring each
night.
Some people say someone or something is calling
to them in their dreams and that they feel compelled
to follow the calling. Following the dreams has lead
to terrible tragedies and miraculous blessings. Some
people have sacrificed their loved ones to the voices
calling to them in their dreams. Others have found
cures for pestilence or found hidden weapon caches
to fight off the marauders.
Mutations
We live in an age of transition. There are people
who still remember the old world, but there is also a
younger generation who has never seen that world.
Some of them were simply too young to remember
anything from before the time of Reckoning, and many
have been born into this strange new world. Some of
the children of the new generation have mutated with
bulging eyes, webbed feet and hands, tentacles in place
of limbs or insect-like wings on their backs.
Cults
Some of the survivors have started to worship these
monstrous beings as their gods, praying for fortune
and salvation from these terrible beasts. People have
surrendered their lives in servitude to these monsters
in return for prosperity and protection.
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The World
Cultist often use clothing to hide their appearances
from others, and it is claimed that most of the cultist
children would be mutants. These cults live mostly
secluded from the other settlements, but occasionally
their spies are found amidst our normal settlements
and communities.
Cannibal Clans
Cannibals are a very serious and real threat in the
wastelands. Vegetation and game animals are getting
more scarce year by year and most of the new strange
plants and wildlife have proven inedible for most. This
famine has forced some desperate people to rely on
human flesh for their sustenance. Over time these
groups have grown into clans with their own moral
codes. Most of the cannibal clans share a hunter
mentality with a strict honor code. Cannibals see
themselves as a higher human race and the rest of the
surviving humanity as little more than animals.
Bandits Gangs and Marauder Tribes
Between the communities holding to the old moral
standards and the cannibals and cultists lie the various
bandit gangs and marauder tribes. Bandits are often
small groups of plundering and thieving highwaymen
and outlaws living outside the strongholds. They are
a threat, but not as potent as the marauder tribes,
which are communities by themselves, but are instead
a threat to self-sustenance and peaceful trade.
Marauders are known for their cruelty and often whole
communities are slaughtered by the marauder war
parties. Some marauder tribes will spare some men,
women and children and use them either as slaves
or integrate them into their own tribe to grow their
numbers.
Monsters
There are monsters out there. Most of them seem to
shun daylight and are more active by night. Some of
the monsters let their servants to do their bidding,
but then there are the monstrosities that act on their
own. It is known that some of these beings can take
human shape or possess minds and use people like
foul puppeteers.

At the time of the Reckoning there were numerous
sightings of gigantic monsters destroying and devas-
tating whole cities. But not so many anymore. Instead
there are more smaller creatures roaming the waste-
lands and stalking humans in the night. Some of these
creatures seem to be mutated animals and plants, but
many are clearly not from this world.
Scavs
Besides the bloodthirsty marauders, deranged cultists
and degenerate cannibals, the harsh wastelands are
also home to Scavs. Scavs are nomadic survivors, who
move from settlement to settlement trading and scav-
enging valuables from the wastelands. Occasionally
the Scavs might trade weird otherworldly artifacts or
rare electronics and spare parts.
Towns and Citadels
Its really hard to say how many of us are alive at the
moment, since most of the people live scattered around
the wastelands surviving in small wandering bands.
Still there are a few settlements here and there offering
shelter for the people living in them. Most of the set-
tlements are small villages and towns of a few dozen or
hundred inhabitants, but the biggest ones, often called
citadels, can have several thousand inhabitants.
Practically all settlements are either surrounded
by protective walls and moats or are built in under-
ground shelters or complexes, like metro tunnels and
sewers. Even hiding in this way is not always enough
to protect the settlements from monster or marauder
attacks. Madness, greed and desperation still turn
people against each other and most settlements have
severe punishments for theft and murder. Many
strongholds resort to capital punishment or exile into
the wastelands.
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The World
Often the towns and citadels are run like small city
states, ruled by a single sovereign or a council of priv-
ileged representatives. While many of the settlements
have some level of self-sufficiency out of necessity,
trade is very common between the towns and citadels.
Material goods are not the only commodity; marriages
are arranged and skilled workers and craftsmen are
also a valuable asset for many towns and citadels.
Chthonian Highways
The earthquakes and the sinkholes of the Reckoning
shattered most of the old roads and highways, but
some were spared. The highways that are still good are
used to transport people and goods through the waste-
lands between the settlements. While the cannibals
and bandits often lie in wait along the roads, the roads
are still safer and faster to travel than the badlands
that are filled with unknown threats and abominable
monstrosities.
The Road Warriors and Convoys
Road Warriors are brave men and women who are
willing to risk their lives on the chthonian highways
for a cause or for worldly riches. Some road warriors
are more like mercenaries or wasteland paladins on a
quest, while others are more like travelling merchants
or messengers trying to keep up peoples hopes.
Because death is always lurking on the chthonian
highways, road warriors tend to form groups called
convoys. The road warrior convoys are tightly knit
groups with people, who are willing to give their lives
for each other. Only by trusting your convoy, you can
survive another day on the chthonian highways.
 Rules
When the outcome of a characters actions is uncertain or a character acts against
another character a skill is used and a die roll is made to resolve the situation. These rolls
are called skill checks. Ironcore Engine uses twenty-sided dice to resolve all skill checks.
SKILL CHECKS
When a Skill Check is called for, roll a d20 and add the
relevant skills level and any other modifiers affecting
your character to calculate the Skill Check result. If the
result is equal or over the Challenge Level (CL), you
score a Success and the action produces the expected
outcome.
Challenge Level represents either the difficulty of the
task or opposition from another character. When
acting against the environment, the Challenge Level
is 15 by default. If characters are acting against each
other, use the opposing characters Skill Check result
as the Challenge Level.
Skill Check = d20 + Skill Level + Modifiers vs Challenge Level
If the result is equal or higher than the Challenge Level, the
action succeeds.
Challenge level is determined by the difficulty of the task or the
opposing characters Skill Check result.
Pushing
In important or risky situations characters can exert
their inner resources and Push an Ability to its limits.
When making a Skill Check, you can always choose to
Push the action by taking a point of Strain (see Strain,
pg. 16) to an Ability. Each point of Strain taken lowers
the pushed Abilitys value temporarily by one.
Pushing allows you to roll up to three additional Skill
Check dice, one die for each point of Strain taken for
the Push, and add the highest Skill Check die result
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to your skill level when calculating your Skill Check
result. This allows the heroes, or certain villains, to
turn the tide at a critical moment, assuming your abil-
ities are not completely exhausted.
Roll an additional d20 per point of Strain taken to a relevant
Ability and pick the highest die.
An Ability can be pushed by up to three points per round.
Example: Jona tries to run to a truck before it
gets away. The GM states that this is an Athletics
check against CL15. The player wants to ensure
succes and that the character gets on that truck,
and decides to push with three dice. Athletics is
a Body-related skill, so Body is strained by three
points and the player rolls a total of four Skill
Check dice (1 base die and 3 push dice). The dice
rolls result in 15, 13, 7, 2. The highest result is 15,
and that alone is enough to meet the Challenge
Level. Jona catches the truck just in time, but he
is out of breath and his legs are burning from the
sudden dash.
Torque (20s) and Trouble (1s)
If you roll a natural 20 from any Skill Check die, you
gain a Torque for every 20 scored in a Skill Check.
Each Torque grants a point of Velocity (see Velocity,
pg. 15) AND it can be used to get a free Push die in
addition to the dice already rolled OR to recover from
one point of Strain; even from a Damaged or Stressed
Ability, but not from an Exhausted Ability.
When any of the Skill Check dice turns up with a result
of 1, you have triggered a Trouble (See Trouble, pg. 18)
and gain a point of Velocity for every 1 that was rolled.

CHALLENGE LEVELS
Challenge Level is based on difficulty of the task or
opposition from another character. If a character
is acting against the environment the CL is a fixed
number based on the difficulty. If theres another
character acting against the character, the CL is based
on the opposing characters relevant Skill. Opposed
actions are situations when a character is resisting
another characters actions. Opposed actions can be
either active or passive
Fail Forward
A good GM uses any failed Skill Checks as a means
to drive the game forward. A failed roll could cause
an additional delay or obstacle, but it should not
stop a characters progress completely. You can even
allow the characters to succeed, but with a cost of
lost resources or additional complications.
Unopposed Actions
Unopposed actions are usually done against the envi-
ronment. These actions are something that depend
on the acting characters skills and abilities alone.
Unopposed actions have three levels of difficulty
based roughly on the needed specialization and how
demanding the task is in general. The levels of diffi-
culty are: Easy, Normal and Hard.
Easy (CL 10): Easy tasks are something that an unskilled
person could do and succeed maybe half of the time.
These are mostly routine tasks for characters with a
professional level of competence in the used skill.
Normal (CL 15): Normal tasks are the most common
actions when acting under stress. Normal difficulty
usually involves risk and unpredictability to a level
that an experienced character can manage with a fair
chance.
Hard (CL 20): Hard tasks are actions that are very
demanding. They require a lot of expertise and are
quite difficult even for experienced characters. Usually
good tools and preparation is needed to succeed in
Hard tasks with fair odds.
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Rules
It is up to GMs discretion if some tasks should have
even higher or lower Challenge Levels, but generally
they are very rare or extreme situations that are not
explicitly covered by these rules.
Active Opposition
When opposition is active, the characters are both
aware of each others actions and actively working
against each other. Do a Skill Check for all the charac-
ters taking part in the situation and compare their Skill
Check results. The character with the highest result
succeeds in their actions. In case of tied results, the
character resisting another character wins the chal-
lenge. If both character are considered actors instead
of opponents, then the character with the highest skill
wins. If the skills are tied, then both characters succeed
partially or fail, depending on the situation.
Passive Opposition
Passive opposition is used when a character is acting
against another character, but the target of the action is
not aware of the situation. In these cases the opposing
character does not make a Skill Check roll, but calcu-
lates a Passive Skill by adding 10 to their Skill level and
modifiers.
If the passive Skill is affected by an Edge add 5 to the
result, if its affected by a Handicap, subtract 5 from it.
Passive Skill = 10 + Skill level + modifiers
Passive Skill with an Edge = 15 + Skill level + modifiers
Passive Skill with a Handicap = 5 + Skill level + modifiers
Example: Kim is sneaking past a creature eating
its prey. The GM states that the creature has a
handicap to its skill score because it concentrates
on eating and doesnt care much about its sur-
roundings at the moment. This gives the creature a
passive skill score of 12 (10 + Perception 7, - 5 from
handicap). The player makes the roll against CL 12
and hopes for the best

EDGE AND HANDICAP
Edge and Handicap are used if the odds are clearly
in the characters favor or against the character. An
Edge represents a special advantage or benefit the
character has in the situation, or a task that is easier
than usually, while a Handicap means that the char-
acter has a serious disadvantage, or the task is clearly
more difficult than usually.
When an Edge or a Handicap affects a Skill Check, add
a die in case of an Edge, and remove a die in case of a
Handicap. If the number of dice goes to zero or below,
roll two dice, but use the lowest die result.
Edges: An Edge represents conditions or things that
provide the character with a clear advantage in a
situation. This could mean that the character has
an element of surprise, perfect conditions or right
tools for the job, or a special talent for handling such
situations.
Handicaps: When a Handicap is affecting a situation-
the characters control over their actions is somehow
limited or impaired. This might be a result of an injury,
missing tools, poor conditions or just lack of expertise.
If there are multiple Edges or Handicaps in effect only
one is ever taken into account. In other words, if a
character has three circumstances granting an Edge,
they still count as one, and therefore, regardless of the
amount of Edges and Handicaps the character has, if
both Edge and Handicap are applicable, they cancel
each other out.
Edge = +1D to Skill Check.
Handicap = -1D to Skill Check.
Edges and Handicaps cancel each other out.
Only one Edge or Handicap is in effect at a time.
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Rules
speeding things up
The Edges and Handicaps listed in the rules for
different situations can be regarded as guidelines.
You can keep track of all the Edges and Handicaps
affecting a situation at any given moment, but
this can often be time consuming and impede the
immersion in the game. Theres nothing wrong
with keeping track of Edges and Handicaps, but
if you want to speed things up, the GM can just
quickly evaluate the different factors affecting the
situation and decide if the Skill Check has an Edge
or a Handicap affecting it.
Example: There are three circumstances giving an
Edge and one giving a Handicap for the character.
even one of the Edges is enough to grant an Edge
in the situation, but the Handicap cancels it out,
leaving the character with no dice modifiers to the
Skill Check.
CIRCUMSTANTIAL MODIFIERS
Another way to modify the odds of a Skill Check is to
apply modifiers. Whereas the Edges and Handicaps are
more extensive and severe modifiers to Skill Checks,
circumstantial modifiers are smaller and more detailed
modifiers that are often related to specific traits,
actions or items used in the situation.
Most circumstantial modifiers range from +/-1 to
+/-3. Modifiers from different sources stack and can
accumulate to greater modifiers, but modifiers from
multiple same or very similar sources do not stack.

VELOCITY
Velocity points represent the dramatic tension rising
and the energy building up as the characters push their
abilities and involve themselves in the game narrative
and action. The more a character puts themselves on
the line, the more likely they are to gain Velocity.
Gaining Velocity
Each result of 20 or 1 from any Skill Check die
grants a point of Velocity;This will also result in
a Trouble if any 1s turn up.
Accepting a Trouble introduced into game by
the GM or any of the players.
Involve your character in a situation that relates
to their Drive (once per scene).
Voluntarily give in to your characters Vice (once
per scene).
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Maintaining Velocity
If any of the gained Velocity points are not used, they
are stored on the character sheets Velocity track.
A character can have up to (10 - Madness) Velocity
points at once. If a character has full reserve of Velocity
points and one or more points of Madness is gained,
the excess Velocity points are lost.
Using Velocity
Characters can spend their Velocity points to do great
feats of vigor and will. Velocity points can be used for
feats at any time when ever the character is conscious
and active.
Feat Effect
Grit Re-roll any number of dice from a
single Skill Check.
Haste Receive an additional Action once per
round.
Graze Take minimum damage from a hit.
For example, Damage of 2d6+1, would
cause only 3 points of damage.
Fatal hit Cause a fatal hit on your target and
increase the damage by one die.
Overtake Increase your current Initiative score
by 5.
Prepare Gain an Edge to your next action or
grant an Edge for a friendly character
within close range.
Harass Inflict a Handicap to a hostile charac-
ters next Action within Short range.
Activate You can spend a point of velocity to
SFX activate weapon or gear special effects.
Increased Add a level of quality, duration, range,
Effect speed or style to the action, or halve
the amount of resources or time used.
Losing Velocity
When the action ceases or there is significant down-
time and the characters have a chance to recover from
Strain, all unused Velocity points are transferred
into Experience points; one Velocity point for one
Experience point.

STRAIN
When a character suffers fatigue, physical trauma or
mental shock, one of the Abilities is reduced by the
amount of Strain suffered.
Strain is divided into three different types depend-
ing on their source and severity: Fatigue, Stress and
Damage. Damaged and Stressed Abilities have other
gameplay effects. For instance, first aid can be used to
remove Strain from a Damaged Ability, but not from
Fatigued or Stressed.
Fatigue is something that strains the character, but
will not cause acute physical or mental trauma. All
Strain that is not classified as Damage or Stress is
considered as Fatigue. Characters suffer Fatigue when
they Push their Abilities, go for extended periods
without rest or sleep, or otherwise drain their health
and well-being. Fatigue is usually targeted at certain
Abilities, but if the target Ability is Exhausted, the
Strain will drain the Abilities from Body to Psyche,
like Damage.
Damage is physical trauma impairing the characters
performance. Damage is inflicted on the Characters
Body Ability. When Body is exhausted, damage will
start draining Precision, Wits and Psyche, in that order.
Damaging hits that Exhaust two or more Abilities at
once, will cause an Injury. When an Ability is Strained
by Damage, mark it with letter D to note that the
Ability is Damaged.
Stress is mental shock and trauma that strains the
characters self-control and ability to think clearly.
Stress is inflicted on the Psyche Ability first. When
Psyche is Exhausted, the Stress will start to strain Wits,
Precision and Body. Stress effects that cause two or
more Abilities to Exhaust at the same time, will cause
a Disorder. When an Ability is Strained by Stress mark
it with letter S to note that the Ability is Stressed.
When an Ability is fully recovered, remove all the
letter markings from it.
Damage Body Precision Wits Psyche Stress
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TAKING STRAIN
When a character suffers Strain the affected Ability or
Abilities are lowered by the amount of Strain suffered.
Excessive Strain will lead to Exhaustion regardless
of its source. When an Ability is reduced to zero by
Strain of any kind, it becomes Exhausted. Exhausted
abilities cannot be pushed, and recovering from
exhaustion takes longer than recovering from Strain
(see Recovering from Strain, pg. 17).
If an Ability is Exhausted from taking damage or stress,
the character might also get an Injury or a Disorder.
Effects of Exhaustion
Exhaustion can have effects on a characters ability to
function. An Exhausted Ability cannot be pushed until
it is recovered back to unexhausted status, but when
more than one Ability has become Exhausted, this will
have more serious gameplay consequences.
The character is able to function normally with
one Exhausted Ability.
If the character has two Exhausted Abilities, the
character loses one of its Actions.
When three Abilities are Exhausted, the charac-
ter is incapacitated and fall unconscious unless a
successful Willpower check (CL 15) is made. A
character that is incapacitated (or unconscious)
cannot Push or otherwise voluntarily cause
Fatigue on themselves.
When all four Abilities are Exhausted, the
character is dying and will die if not restored to
at least one Ability point within the next 1d10
minutes.
Resuscitation: A dying Character needs to be resusci-
tated by another character with a Medical Skill Check
against CL15. If the dying character is successfully
resuscitated, the character will be stabilized, and one
Ability chosen by the characters player recovers from
the Exhaustion.

RECOVERING FROM STRAIN
Characters can recover from Strain fairly quickly, but
recovering from Damage, Stress or Exhaustion takes
much longer. When the character rests to recover
from Damage, Stress or Exhaustion, all of the unused
Velocity is transferred into Experience points.
Recovery from Fatigue: A character will recover from all
Fatigue at the end of a scene, provided that the charac-
ter has an opportunity to catch a breath and rest safely
for a few minutes.
Damaged and Stressed Abilities: It takes two hours of
non-strenuous rest to recover from 1d6 points of
Strain from a Damaged or Stressed Ability. Up to 6d6
points of Strain can be recovered this way in 24 hours.
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Rules
Exhausted Abilities: Recovering from Exhaustion takes
at least six hours of relaxing sleep. A Character must
first recover from Exhaustion before recovering any
Strain in that Ability. When the Exhausted state is
removed, the Ability is restored to one point. Up to
two Exhausted Abilities can be restored in 24 hours.
Healing Effects: If a character is healed by some method,
Strain can be removed from any applicable Abilities in
any order the player wants. Recovery from Exhaustion
requires 4 points worth of healing to remove the
Exhaustion from an Ability before it can be healed
further.
Second Wind: A character can spend two Actions to
recover a point of Strain from an undamaged and
unstressed Ability.
 Rules
TROUBLES
Troubles are distractions, problems or difficulties that arise from the situation and complicate things further, even
if the character manages to achieve the objective. Troubles arise in two ways:

Natural 1s: When the player rolls a natural 1 on any of the Skill Check dice. You will never suffer more than
one trouble from one Action, even if you rolled multiple ones.
Intervention: The GM or any of the players suggests a specific trouble that might be a consequence of the
characters actions, related to their Vice, Disorders or Traits, or just be a result of bad luck. If the player
accepts the trouble, one point of Velocity is added for the Character suffering or accepting the Trouble.

This list of Troubles is not an exhaustive list and the GM can freely modify the existing results or come up with their
own that better fits the situation. Choose or roll d10 for a Trouble from the choices below:

d10 Trouble Description

1 Lose contact Radio contact is lost, the group is divided or otherwise communication with
two parties is cut off.
2 Distraction The character suffers a handicap to their next action.
3 You dropped it! You drop an item of equipment or a weapon you were holding.
4 Fatigue Due to an unexpected injury, doubt or confusion the character suffers an extra
point of Strain to an Ability determined by the GM.
5 Out of ammo/juice/fuel You run out of ammunition, fuel or power, and a piece of equipment or a
vehicle ceases to function until it is reloaded, refuelled or its power source is
otherwise replenished.
6 Malfunction A piece of equipment or a vehicle malfunctions or your weapon is jammed. You
need to fix it before you can use it again.
7 Fumble The character fumbles and exposes himself to an Opportunity Action OR loses
5 points from their Initiative if there are no Opportunity Actions.
8 Knocked down The character falls over and must use an Action to stand up. Take note that you
can still react normally to any other characters or groups actions.
9 Pinned! You are stuck somewhere. Your movement is restricted, and it takes an action
to free yourself. You cannot move, and all your actions are at Handicap.
10 Intercepted An obstacle is in your way. It might be a dead-end, a hostile intervention or
some other nasty surprise making your life more difficult. You might be able to
avoid the obstacle... or not.

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Sol Kane (Order #11402280)
 Road Warriors
In the classic works of the post apocalypse genre, the player characters are known as road
warriors. All the player characters represent this archetype in their own way, and all of
them have their individual strengths and weaknesses that are indicated by the characters
Abilities, Skills and other personal traits.

ABILITIES
Characters have four Ability Scores ranging from 1 Precision (PR)
to 10 for humans. Most Ability Scores lie somewhere
between 3 and 5, but talented and experienced char- Dexterity, aim, flexibility and speed.
acters can have Ability Scores above 8. Each of the
Abilities represents different facets of your characters Damaged by unbalancing blows, sheer pain or
physical and mental capabilities and inner resources. drugs affecting your fine motor skills.
Fatigued by prolonged concentration on tasks
When making Skill Checks, your character can push requiring fine manipulation or accuracy and
with a related ability and increase the chance of having to hastily do precise movements.
success. Pushing also means that your character is
acting at the limits of their capabilities. Wits (WI)
Logical thinking, concentration, awareness, percep-
Value Description tion, memory and common sense.
0 Feeble Damaged by drugs and effects fogging the mind,
1 Weak distractions or sensory overload.
23 Mediocre Fatigued by mental tasks requiring prolonged
concentration, by sleep deprivation and by sim-
45 Good ply running out of ideas.
67 Excellent
89 Outstanding Psyche (PS)
10 Legendary You characters empathy, intuition, bearing, presence
and willpower.
Body (BD)
Damaged by shocking events, social attacks, fear
Physical fitness, constitution and resilience. and doubt.
Fatigued by resisting temptations, dealing with
Damaged by physical trauma. distressed or panicked people and having to
Fatigued when exerting your strength or endur- maintain composure or authority under stress.
ance, and when resisting physical pain.

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SKILLS
Skills begin at level 0 and the maximum level for
humans is 10. With a skill of 4 or higher the character
is qualified to practice an occupation. Skills above 9
are very rare, legendary even.
Each of the skills is connected to one of the charac-
ters Abilities. The connected Ability indicates which
Ability is used for Pushing a skill check.
Road Warriors
Insight (Psyche): A characters ability to use instincts,
intuition and empathy to notice subtle details in people
or ones surroundings. While Perception is more about
the use of senses and memory, Insight relies more on
gut feeling and empathy.
Medicine (Wits): Training in the treatment of different
injuries and diseases. Medicine also includes the use of
medical equipment and knowledge of various pharma-
ceuticals and natural medicines.

Mythos (Psyche): A characters instinctive understand-

Level Description Example ing of the weird phenomena and creatures that have
taken over the Earth.
0 Unskilled Inexperienced
13 Novice Knows the basics, amateur Perception (Wits): Ability to perceive ones surround-
4 6 Competent Knows enough to use the ings by using all five senses and to remember those
skill professionally details.
7 9 Expert Experienced professional Repair (Wits): The characters ability to repair and
with years of experience
construct mechanical and electronic machinery and
10 Master Exceptionally talented devices.
genius or a living legend
Science (Wits): Education and experience in sciences
Skill Descriptions and mathematics.

Athletics (Body): Athletics encompasses a wide range
of different physical activities from swimming to
climbing, and from running to gymnastics. Athletics
also improves your characters mobility and ability to
avoid attacks in combat or other dangerous situations.
Dexterity (Precision): Readiness, grace and skill to
perform tasks requiring deft hands or great nimble-
ness. Dexterity can be used for example to pick pockets
or to forge documents.
Shooting (Precision): Shooting, ranged combat and
heavy weapons skill used primarily for Skill checks
during combat.
Stealth (Precision): Ability to move unnoticed or stay
hidden in different environments. Stealth also includes
covering tracks.
Strength (Body): The characters physical power and
ability to lift, push, hold or move heavy objects.

Driving (Precision): Ability to drive and pilot various
land, water or air vehicles.
Fighting (Body): Unarmed fighting, martial arts and
melee weapon skill used primarily for Skill checks
during melee combat.
Influence (Psyche): Ability to affect others in social
dealings. Depending on the situation this can mean
negotiation, bartering, bluffing or deceit.
Survival (Body): Ability to find shelter and sustenance
by various means. Survival also includes the charac-
ters knowledge of nature and ability to track game and
to avoid dangers in the wilderness or in other unfor-
giving environments.
Willpower (Psyche): Willpower is the measure of the
characters self-control and discipline. It is the ability
to resist impulses and fear and stay calm and under
control in chaotic or frightening situations.

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EXPERIENCE POINTS (XP)
Experience points or XP represent the learning and
development of a character. Experience points are
gained by overcoming problems and reaching short
and long-term goals, and can be traded for character
benefits.
Gaining Experience
Road Warriors
a single game session. The Experience Points can be
spent to raise character Abilities or Skills or to gain
other benefits, see Using Experience Points below for
details.
Using Experience Points
Experience points can be used to improve a characters
Abilities and Skills and heal from severe traumas it
takes time and effort to overcome horror or injury.

Each time characters succeed in their efforts or over-

come an obstacle they may gain Experience Dice. At
the end of an episode or a game session the player Advancement XP Cost
rolls a number of ten-sided dice equal to the collected Increase Skill level New level 10 XP
Experience Dice OR takes 5 points per Experience
die (you can also mix by rolling the some of the dice Increase Ability value New value 20 XP
and taking some as 5s). The total is the amount of Increase Push Limit New limit 30 XP
Experience Points the character gets. The amount of Remove a point of 10 XP
Experience Dice can vary depending on the game Madness
sessions length and the nature of the characters
achievements. Recover from a mental 20 XP
disorder or persistent
injury
In the list below there are some guidelines for reward-
ing Experience dice for different achievements. You Naming a new vehicle 30 XP
can grant the Experience dice for the players after each (Drivers only)
scene or game session, whichever feels more suitable. Learning to use an XP Cost is equal to the
Characters should usually earn from 3 to 6 Experience artifact Artifacts Obscurity.
Dice or around 15 to 30 Experience Points from

XP Reward Achievement
1d10 Resolve a minor problem or survive a fight scene without any Damage.
1d10 Reach a short-term goal: complete a mission or a minor personal agenda.
2d10 Survive a life-threatening situation or a fight scene where you suffered an injury.
2d10 Achieve something significant that supports your characters Drive or Vice.
3d10 Survive a life-threatening encounter or survive a fight where you almost died or your friend died.
3d10 Reach a long-term goal: complete a campaign or a personal quest.
Velocity Gain a point of XP per each unused Velocity point.

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 CREATING A ROAD WARRIOR
THE MAIN CAST
In Chthonian Highways the players take the role of road
warriors. Brave men and women who have proven
their mettle by defying the dangers of the wasteland.
They might not be heroes in tradional sense, but they
sure are the stars and the main cast of the game.

The game is about these people who have decided

for a reason or another, to put their lives at risk and
expose their body and soul to all the horrors beyond
their home settlements gates. When you create your
character, try to think of why they have chosen this
way of life. Some of the characters traits, like Drive
and Vice, will help you to flesh out these details, but
your character is much more than just the words and
numbers on paper.

You dont have to have your characters history thought

out when you start creating your own road warrior.
You can come up with explanations for their Role,
or different Ability and Skill values as you go. If your
Soldier character has a Science skill of 5, they must
have an interesting story behind that unusual field of
expertise. These little details are the things, that make
your character feel more real.

Enough talk. Lets get down to business!

1) DETERMINE ABILITY VALUES

Start by determining the Ability values for you charac-
ter. You can distribute a total of 20 points between the
four Abilities, but each Ability needs to have at least
one point in it and none of the Abilities can be higher
than 8 after distributing the Ability points.

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 Road Warriors
2) ASSIGN PUSH LIMITS 2) CHOOSE A TRAIT

In addition to the Ability values, you need to set
a Push Limit for each of the Abilities. This is the
maximum number of Strain you can take per round
to push an ability. Push Limits range from 1 to 3 for
the characters.
To assign the Push Limits for your character you need
to check the highest and lowest Ability values. Write
down the Push Limit inside the circle next to the
Ability value on the character sheet.
Assign a Push Limit of 3 to the highest Ability
value.
Assign a Push Limit of 1 to the lowest Ability
value.
Assign a Push Limit of 2 to the two other
Abilities.
In case of tied Ability values, the player can
choose, how the Push Limits are assigned.
Each character has a Trait representing their special
talent, personality or perhaps something of their back-
ground. Traits are mostly beneficial, but they also have
a downside.
The skill modifiers from the Traits are added to rel-
evant Skill Checks as circumstantial modifiers. They
are not counted as Skill levels and do not affect any of
the derived attributes. The modifiers are applied only
if the Traits impact in the situation can be justified.
For example, a Bulky character will not benefit from
the Strength bonus, if they cannot use their body mass
to their benefit.
You can choose or roll one Trait from the table below,
or come up with one of your own. You can also
change the names of the listed Traits to better fit your
character.

1d20 Trait Skill Modifiers

1 Weird +2 Mythos, -2 Influence
2 Slick +2 Influence, -2 Willpower
3 Bulky +2 Strength, -2 Athletics
4 Short +2 Stealth, -2 Strength
5 Vigilant +2 Perception, -2 Insight
6 Educated +2 Science, -2 Mythos
7 Curious +2 Perception, -2 Willpower
8 Cowardly +2 Survival, -2 Willpower
9 Stubborn +2 Willpower, -2 Perception
10 Nimble Fingers +2 Dexterity, -2 Fighting
11 Furious +2 Fighting, -2 Stealth
12 Empathic +2 Insight, -2 Shooting
13 Quiet +2 Stealth, -2 Influence
14 Dauntless +2 Willpower, -2 Insight
15 Caretaker +2 Medicine, -2 Repair
16 Quick +2 Athletics, -2 Perception
17 Charismatic +2 Influence, -2 Stealth
18 Cold-blooded +2 Shooting, -2 Insight
19 Grease Monkey +2 Repair, -2 Medicine
20 Gearhead +2 Driving, -2 Survival

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3) CHOOSE A ROLE
Choose a Role for your character. There are six different Roles and each one has a perk that will make them standout
from the crowd. Choose or roll a d6 to determine your characters Role.
1) The Doc
You know how to heal and hurt people. You receive +1
bonus to your melee damage and healing effects. You
can also choose a specialization related to Medicine
or Science skills. Some examples of possible special-
izations: biology, chemistry, mathematics, genetics, etc.
When making a Skill Check that is related to your
specialization, you gain an Edge.
Skills: Medicine +2, Science +1
Starting Gear: A respirator and a field labora-
tory OR a field medical kit and six first aid kits.
Barter Bitz: 3d10 x 10 bitz
2) The Driver
You are good with cars and other vehicles, especially
your own named ride. You gain an Edge when per-
forming vehicle maneuvers or repairs with a Handicap
to your named vehicle. Also, when you name a vehicle
you can raise one of its Specs by one (Hull, Steering or
Engine). It costs 30 XP to name a new vehicle. You can
have only one named vehicle at a time.
Skills: Driving +2, Repair +1
Starting Gear: Dust goggles and a padded
leather armor OR a wristbow and 10 bolts for it.
Barter Bitz: 2d8 x 10 bitz
3) The Ghost
You are the convoys uncanny sneaker and scout. You
gain an Edge when sneaking or shadowing someone if
they dont know to expect you. Also, when making a
surprise attack, you receive a +1D to your damage on
top of your usual Edge.
Skills: Stealth +2, Perception +1
Starting Gear: a knife and a ghillie-suit OR a
crossbow or a bow and 10 bolts or arrows for it.
Barter Bitz: 3d6 x 10 bitz
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Road Warriors
4) The Mechanic
You are the convoys engineer extraordinaire. You
know how to put together mechanical devices and
equipment and how to strip them down. You gain an
Edge when fixing or sabotaging machinery. You can
also temporarily jury-rig broken equipment without
using spare parts, but this lasts only until the end of
the chapter.
Skills: Repair +2, Perception +1
Starting Gear: A wrench or a crowbar and a tool
box OR a jack.
Barter Bitz: 2d10 x 10 bitz
5) The Muscle
You are a living weapon well-tried in hand-to-hand
combat and close quarters fighting. Your unarmed
damage is 1d6 instead of 1d4 and you gain a +1
Damage Bonus to all your attacks performed up to
Reach range. Also, you dont suffer a Handicap when
fighting bare handed against an armed opponent. That
just pisses you off!
Skills: Fighting +2, Strength +1
Starting Gear: A leather jacket and a sword OR
a blunderbuss with 5 rounds.
Barter Bitz: 2d6 x 10 bitz
6) The Soldier
Your have been tempered in the turmoil of many bat-
tlefields. You know how to take out a target from a dis-
tance with guns, bows or throwing weapons. You can
take an Aim with a ranged weapon as a Trifle instead
of an Action and you gain an Edge when rolling for
initiative.
Skills: Shooting +2, Athletics +1
Starting Gear: A knife and a double-crossbow
with 10 bolts OR a pistol with 10 rounds.
Barter Bitz: 2d4 x 10 bitz
 Road Warriors
4) CHOOSE A DRIVE
Drive represents your characters motive, passion or reason to live to fight another day in a world of despair, chaos
and hopelessness. Whenever your characters Drive relates to their situation you gain a point of Velocity once per
scene.

Choose a Drive or roll a d10 from the table below.

1d10 Drive Description

1 Vengeance They took something away from you, and now you want to get back at them with
interest. Choose a target for your revenge.
2 Survival Some might call you a coward, but most of them are not alive to tell that anymore. You
have decided to stay alive, no matter what it costs. Likely you have already paid a terri-
ble price for being still alive.
3 Honor The strong need to protect the weak in this broken world. It on your honor to do so.
4 Redemption The things you have done do not let you rest. Not until you have paid for them ten
thousand times over.
5 Hope You know the world can be saved. If you do your part in the Plan other can find the
hope again too.
6 Love Someone dear to you is lost, and you need to find them. You will find them.
7 Curiosity No matter how broken the world has gone, its mysteries intrigue you and you want to
understand them.
8 Madness For most nothing makes sense anymore, but you are just starting to see things more
clearly. Engulfing your mind in the incomprehensible will be your salvation.
9 Destiny You know there is something great reserved for you, its your destiny.
10 Power Your character is driven with the desire to seize the powers of the mythos and rule the
mortal.

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 Road Warriors
5) CHOOSE A VICE
Vice is your characters dark side. The secret passion, craving or flaw that helps to endure when the Drive is not
enough. When theres a chance that your Vice might cause trouble you can gain a Velocity point by giving in to your
Vice. If you want to fight your Vice, you can do it by making a Willpower check against CL (10 + Madness). In either
case, if your Vice comes into play, it usually causes a Handicap to all related Skill Checks for the rest of the scene.

Choose a Vice or roll a d10 from the table below.

1d10 Vice Description

1 DistrustfulIt is hard for you to trust others, especially strangers. This can make negotiations, barter-
ing and cooperation difficult for you.
2 Addiction Choose a substance you are addicted to. You have an addiction that is very hard to resist
and given a chance you will indulge yourself with whatever your addiction is without
caring much about others or if its a proper time for that.
3 Compulsion You have an activity or manner that you do compulsively. It might be something slightly
disturbing or mostly harmless mostly.
4 Greed You desire material possessions and wealth. Lending or giving your own supplies, food
or water is very difficult for you. You are also easy to buy or bribe.
5 Pride It is very hard for you to concede or admit that you are wrong. To put it short, you are a
very bad loser.
6 Vanity In a world of dirt, decay and deformities small things like jewelry, make-up or smooth
skin bring you joy and self-worth. People call you shallow and vain, because of your
groomed looks, but you dont mind as long as your hairdo is all right and your face
remains unscarred.
7 Wrath It does not take much to anger you. And when you become angry, things have a ten-
dency to break and people get hurt.
8 Gluttony You love to eat and drink and whenever theres food or drink available you tend to binge.
This makes you very poor at rationing food and water.
9 Martyr You have a tendency to willfully seek out suffering and persecution to prove your sense
of duty or loyalty to the others. Usually its okay to put others needs and safety before
yours, but sometimes it is a deathwish.
10 Envious You have trouble tolerating people who are wealthier or better than you in any imagin-
able way. Envy can be a dangerous emotion, because it can rouse irresistible need to steal
or damage anothers possessions or harm them to make them look weaker or less capa-
ble than you.

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6) SKILLS
Divide 20 points between all the skills. One point buys
one level to any of the Skills. You can add up to 4 levels
to any one skill during the character creation. In prac-
tice this means that the skills you receive from your
characters Role skills can be as high as level 6, while all
the other skills have a maximum level of 4. The skills
can be increased later with Experience Points all the
way to level 10.
Road Warriors
Quick Skills
Add the following levels between the skills and you are
done: 4, 3, 3, 3, 2, 2, 2, 1,
7) DAMAGE BONUS (DB)
A characters mass and strength will add to the damage
roll in melee. Damage Bonus is calculated by dividing
the Strength skills level by three (round down).

Skill List
Strength Damage Bonus
Athletics (Body)
02 +0
Dexterity (Precision) 35 +1
68 +2
Driving (Precision)
9+ +3
Fighting (Body)
Influence (Psyche)
Insight (Psyche) 8) GET GEARED UP
Medicine (Wits) All characters have their basic clothing and personal
items. They also have food and water for 1d6 days.
Mythos (Psyche)
You have some starting gear and barter bitz based
Perception (Wits) on your characters Role, and in addition to this each
character gets 750 bitz to spend on their own or the
Repair (Wits) convoys shared vehicles and their customizations.
Science (Wits)
Shooting (Precision) 9) CHARACTER DETAILS
Stealth (Precision) Write down your characters name and something
Strength (Body) about their appearance.

Survival (Body) Give your character a name that reflects or emphasizes

their personality and strengths.
Willpower (Psyche)
Try to make the characters appearance interesting;
focus on details and what makes your character stand
out from everyone else, or how their different traits are
reflected on their looks.

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BARTERING
Commerce in Chthonian Highways is based on barter-
ing between individuals or professional traders. There
is no real currency, but many people carry small trin-
kets and novelty items with them for bartering known
as Barter Bits (bitz); an abstract currency to measure
the values of different pieces of equipment.
WEAPONS
Practically everyone in the world of Chthonian
Highways wields some kind of weapon. Melee
weapons and various bow and harpoon weapons are
much more common than firearms, which are becom-
ing more scarce as they malfunction or are lost and
their ammunition becomes harder to acquire.
All weapons have the following attributes: Damage,
Weapon Traits and Cost. In addition to these the
ranged weapons have a Range and Ammo.
Damage: The amount of Damage the weapon
causes on a successful hit.
Weapon Traits: Weapon traits represent the
special qualities of different weapons.
Cost: Weapons cost in barter bitz.
Range: The weapons effective range.
Ammo: This is how many rounds the weapons
cylinder, clip or internal magazine holds. When
the weapon runs out of ammunition, the weapon
must be reloaded before it can be fired again.
Special Effects (SFX)
Some Weapon Traits, or other qualities, can cause
additional Special Effects (SFX). You can activate a
Special Effect by spending a point of Velocity or when
a damage die turns out with the highest possible result
e.g. six on d6, eight on d8, and so on. The traits that
benefit from Special Effects are noted in the Weapon
Traits below. Some of the Special Effects refer to
Combat Stunts. These can be found on page 45.
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Weapon Traits
Area Effect X m: Area effect weapons cause
full damage for the primary target and all other
characters within the radius in meters takes half
of the Damage. Targets at ground zero take full
damage.
Automatic: Automatic weapons are Quick and
capable of Automatic fire.
Blunt: Blunt weapons cannot be used for cut-
ting. They have Damage Reduction against Hard
armors.
Difficult: These weapons are particularly diffi-
cult to handle and will cause a Trouble with a
Skill Check die result of 1 and 2, unless the users
relevant Skill level is 5 or more.
Entangle (SFX): Instead of damaging the target,
the target can be Grabbed, Knocked down or
Disarmed with a SFX.
Heavy: This weapon is heavy and requires at
least Strength 5 or all attacks with the weapon
are made with a Handicap.
Impact (SFX): Impact weapons have a potential
to cause a powerful concussive hit. The target
can be Knocked down with one SFX and Knocked
out with two SFX.
Long: Long weapons are melee weapons that can
be used to attack up to Reach range, but they suf-
fer a Handicap when fighting in confined spaces.
Long Reload: This weapon takes two Actions to
reload instead of one.
Loud: This weapon makes a loud noise and
could attract attention.
Pierce (SFX): The targets Armor can be lowered
by 2 points per SFX.
Pistol: Pistol weapons are one-handed firearms
that can be fired in melee without a Handicap.
Quick: Quick weapons can attack twice per
round.
Range: This is the optimal range of the weapon.
It is either Immediate, Reach, Close, Long or
Extreme.
Rending: Rending weapons have Damage Boost.

Scatter: Scatter weapons shoot multiple projec-
tiles instead of one solid bullet. Scatter weapons
gain Damage Boost up to Reach range, but have
a Damage Reduction beyond their effective
range.
Single Use: This weapon can be used once and
then it is useless beyond repair.
Stun: The weapon deals Fatigue instead of Dam-
age, and does not cause any Strain after three
exhausted Abilities.
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Thrown (Range): These weapons can be thrown.
The effective range is noted in parenthesis and
the maximum range is one range step over the
optimal range a knife with optimal Reach
range could be thrown up to Close range with a
Handicap.
Two-handed: The weapon requires two hands.
A character with Strength 7 or more can use the
weapon in one hand with a Handicap.

MELEE WEAPONS
Melee weapons are weapons used in close combat. When rolling for Damage, add the characters Damage Bonus
to the Damage roll result.

Weapon Damage Weapon Traits Cost

Brass knuckles Unarmed + 1 Quick 10

Club / Pipe / Wrench 1d6 Blunt, Impact 5

Knife 1d6 Quick, Throw (Reach) 15

Machete / Hand Axe 1d8 Pierce 50
Sledgehammer 1d8 Blunt, Heavy, Impact, Two-Handed 60
Sword 1d10 +1 Damage if used as a two-handed weapon 150

Heavy axe 1d12 Heavy, Pierce, Two-handed 250

Huge blade 2d6 Heavy, Impact Two-handed 350

Spiked Club / Crowbar 1d8+1 Impact, Blunt, Pierce 20

Staff 1d6 Impact, Long, Quick 15
Chain 1d6 Blunt, Difficult, Entangle, Long 10
Chainsaw 2d8 Difficult, Heavy, Loud, Rending, Two-Handed 750
Spear 1d8 Long, Thrown (Close) 30
Boom spear 2d8 Impact, Loud, Single Use, Long, Thrown (Reach) 100
Whip 1d4 Difficult, Entangle, Long 25

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RANGED WEAPONS
Ranged weapons use various projectiles to hit targets at distance. Ranged weapons can be used only for ranged
attacks.

Thrown and Bow Weapons

Thrown weapons are weapons that are balanced for throwing and bow weapons use a bowstring or similar elastic
band or string to power the projectiles.

Weapon Skill Damage Range Weapon Traits Ammo Cost

Bola Dexterity 1d4 Close Entangle, Blunt - 20
Shuriken Dexterity 1d6 Reach Quick - 5
Blade-arang Dexterity 1d8 Close - 15
Slingshot Shooting 1d6 Close Blunt 1 25
Bow Shooting 2d8 Close Pierce 1 120
Crossbow Shooting 2d8 Long Pierce, Long Reload 1 180
Double crossbow Shooting 2d8 Close Pierce, Quick, Long Reload 2 240
Wristbow Shooting 1d8 Reach Pierce, Long Reload, Pistol 1 70

Firearms
Firearms are weapons that use cartridges loaded with propellant and projectile as ammunition. All firearms are
Loud and usually quite rare which makes them naturally hard to find, but also quite expensive.

Weapon Damage Range Weapon Traits Ammo Cost

Zip gun 1d10 Close Pistol 1 80
Pistol 2d6 Close Pistol, Quick 6 or 20 200
Heavy pistol 2d6+1 Close Pistol, Quick 6 or 9 300
Magnum pistol 2d6+2 Close Pistol, Impact 5 500
Shotgun 2d8 Close Scatter, Long Reload 5 850
Sawed-off shotgun 2d8 Reach Pistol, Scatter 2 500
Blunderbuss 2d6 Reach Scatter, Long Reload 1 150
Scrap rifle 1d12 Long Long Reload 1 250
Rifle 2d8+1 Long Quick 5 1000
Assault rifle 2d8 Long Automatic 30 1800
Submachine gun 2d6 Close Automatic, Pistol 30 1500
Sniper rifle 2d8+2 Long Pierce 6 2200
Heavy sniper rifle 4d8 Long Impact, Pierce, Heavy, Long Reaload 10 4400

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Heavy Weapons
All Heavy weapons have the Heavy and Two-handed Traits and they are Difficult as well, unless they are mounted.

Weapon Damage Range Traits Ammo Cost

Machine gun 3d6 Long Automatic, Long Reload, Loud 100 2500
Harpoon launcher 2d10 Close Long Reload (Per harpoon), Pierce 4 3000
Rocket launcher 4d10 Long Area Effect 10 m, Impact, Long Reload, Loud 1 5000
Flamer 1 5d6 Reach Uses one ammo per a die of Damage in an 30 2000
attack. Continuous Damage (Fire), Long Reload,
Rending

Explosives
Explosives are weapons or devices that cause damage over a large area. All explosives have the Area Effect and
Single Use Traits.

Explosive Damage AoE Traits Cost

Molotov cocktail 3d6 2m Continuous Damage (Fire) 20
Hand grenade 3d10 10 m Impact, Loud 150
Flashbang 1d10 5m Impact, Stu, Loud 50
Dynamite 4d10 15 m Impact, Loud 200
Plastic explosive 5d10 20 m Impact, Loud 400

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PERSONAL ARMOR
Personal armor is a whole of protective clothing and equipment put together to absorb or deflect slashing, bludgeon-
ing and penetrating attacks. Most of the protective gear people use in the world of Chthonian Highways is made
out of various pieces of clothing and scavenged protective materials. Actual military grade body armors of the Old
World are very rare and expensive.

Armor Traits
Concealable: This armor can be concealed under other clothing with ease. To notice the armor you must
make a successful Perception check against CL 15
Light: Light armor does not hinder movement in normal circumstances or cause significant burden.
Hard: Hard armor can drop the Damage to zero.
Heavy: You cannot Dodge while wearing heavy armor, and you suffer a Handicap for all Skill Checks requir-
ing stealthiness, agility or flexibility inclluding Initiative checks. In addition to restricted movement,
you cannot recover from Fatigue by resting when wearing heavy armor. It is just too encumbering to relax
sufficiently.

Protective Gear
Armor Armor Value Coverage Traits Cost
Leather jacket 2 Torso Light 50
Padded leather 3 Torso Light 75
Plastic plate 4 Torso Hard 150
Chain shirt 5 Torso Concealable, Light 250
Tire armor 6 Torso Heavy 200
Kevlar vest 7 Torso Concealable, Light 650
Full plate 8 Full body Hard, Heavy 2000
Tac suit (Tactical body armor) 10 Torso Hard, Heavy 3000
Wargear (Heavy military armor) 12 Full body Hard, Heavy 4500
Helmet +1 Armor Head Hard 80
Shield +1 Armor Front Hard, Blocking +1 100
Riot shield +3 Armor Front Hard, Blocking +3 250

CONSUMABLES

Consumable Description Cost

Water For one person 2 per day
Food For one person 1 per day
Gasoline Fuel for combustion engines, very flammable 3 per gallon
Booze Good for relaxing and anesthesia, flammable 3 per bottle
Batteries, small For small electronic devices 10
Batteries, large For large electronic devices 100
Car battery For vehicles 200

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AMMO
Firearms use cartridges that have a bullet and propellant substance packed in a metallic case. Most of the cartridges
that are found and traded are still leftovers from the Old World military depots and weapon caches. It is also possible
to reload the cartridges for half the cost with Repair AND Shooting skill of 4 or more, and a set precision tools.

Projectiles used by bows, crossbows and slingshots are fairly easy to produce from scavenged materials, and there-
fore commonly available.

Ammunition Description Cost

Pistol caliber rounds For pistols and submachine guns 3
Rifle caliber rounds For rifles and heavy firearms 5
Armor piercing Halve Armor, round down; Damage Reduction against unarmored targets 5
Hollow-point Damage Boost against unarmored targets 2
Arrow, bolt or ball bearing For bows, crossbows, slingshots and such weapons 1
Rocket Rocket launcher ammunition 500

MEDICAL EQUIPMENT

Medical Equipment Description Cost

Adrenalin injection Heals 1d8 any Strain immediately once per day. Single use. 80 per dose
Anesthetic Anesthetic drug. Performing major medical operations, such 50 per dose
as surgeries, without anesthesia must be done with a Handicap,
unless the patient succeeds in a Willpower check vs CL 20.
Blood transfusion equipment If a character has suffered an Injury, you can transfer up to d4 50
points from your Body to the injured character. Characters need
to have compatible blood types: roll d20, on a result of 5+ both
characters are compatible, otherwise the operation will be fatal
for the receiver
Defibrillator Provides an Edge when resuscitating a dying character 600
(4 Exhausted Abilities). Large battery.
Field laboratory Necessary equipment to test, measure and produce various 350
chemicals and to analyze biological samples
Field medical kit Includes the medical instruments and supplies for demanding 200, refill
medical emergencies. Can administer first aid and heal 1d6+1 supplies 15
Strain (CL 10) or an Exhaustion (CL15) from a Damaged Abil-
ity with a successful Medicine check. Supplies for 5 uses.
Field surgery kit Set of surgical instruments and supplies. Provides an Edge when 350
performing surgical operations.
First Aid Kit Single use first aid kit, heals 1d4 Strain from a Damaged Ability 25
with a succesful Medicine check (CL10).
Microscope Allows you to see microscopic details. 500
Rubbing Alcohol Good for disinfecting. Also for anesthesia, if applied properly. 10 per bottle
Sedatives Remove 1d6 points of Strain from a Stressed Ability 10 per dose
Stimulants Remove 1d6 points of Strain from a Fatigued Ability 10 per dose

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ELECTRONIC GEAR
Electronics require batteries to work. Each time you use an electronic device for the first time in a scene, roll d10. If
you rolled a 1, the battery is running out and the battery will run out by the end of the scene. When the battery has
run out, the device will not work until the battery is replaced. When you buy electronic gear, it comes with batteries.

Electronics Description Cost

Calculator Solar battery 150
Camera Small Battery, 1000 pictures 450
Engine-generator Loud, produces electricity for a small house 5000
Geiger counter Small Battery, Detects radiation at Close range 350
Infrared scope Small Battery, Can detect heat sources 1500
Laptop Large Battery 4000
Memory card Can be used with cameras and computers 80
Military radio Large Battery, Range 10 km 5000
Night vision goggles Small Battery, Can see in dark 2000
Radio Small Battery, Radio receiver 200
Solar panel and recharger Can charge batteries, small batteries require 1d4 hours of daylight to 2500
recharge and large batteries 1d8 hours.
Walkie-talkie Small Battery, Two-way radio, Long Range 400
Video camera Small Battery, 3 hours of video 3000

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MISCELLANEOUS EQUIPMENT

Equipment Description Cost

Binoculars Can see up to Long range without Handicap. 500
Bipod mount Can shoot Heavy weapons without a Handicap when braced. 50
Camo cloak Edge for hiding and Defense when not moving and at Long range 30
or further away.
Climbing gear Anchor pins, carabiners, a climbing pick, chalk, climbing shoes 75
and such equipment. Provides an Edge for climbing.
Dust goggles Protects eyes from dust and wind 15
Electronics tools Tools for repairing electronics and to measure electric currents. 200
Fire extinquisher Puts out small fires immediately. Single use. 100
Flashlight Kinetic battery 100
Gag muzzle Prevents talking or biting. 30
Gas mask A mask worn over the whole face. A gas masks powerful air filters 120
protect from smoke, gases and other airborne contaminants.
Ghillie suit Edge for hiding and Defense when not moving, and at Close 80
range or further away.
Handcuffs Armor 4, Durability 3 25
Jack Can lift a car or a bike. 75
Jack, Heavy Can lift a Heavy vehicle. 150
Laser pointer +2 to hit up to Close range. Small Battery. 600
Lighter Refillable lighter 60
Mirror Fragile 30
Padded gloves Protects hands from scrathes and bruises 10
Precision tools Basic tools needed to repair fine mechanical devices, such as 100
clocks or firearms, and to reload gun cartridges or to manufacture
forgeries.
Respirator An air-filtering device worn over the mouth and nose to prevent 40
the inhalation of dust, pollen or other small particles.
Rifle Scope Increase the weapons range by one step 300
Rope Light-weight durable rope. It takes 4 points of Damage to cut a 3/m
rope under tension (Armor 10 vs Blunt weapons or attacks)
Rubber patch kit Seals small holes and tears in rubber materials, single use 25
Shackles Armor 6, Durability 6 50
Silencer Removes the Loud Trait from a firearm. Damage Reduction to 200
all attacks beyond Reach range.
Spray Paint Different colors. Painting a bike takes one can, normal vehicle five 30
and a heavy vehicle ten cans.
Tire sealant A can of sealant mass that will patch and fill the tire in a few min- 80
utes. The seal lasts for (1d6 x 10) km before breaking again
Tool box Basic mechanics tools for fixing mechanical machinery. 50
Watch A wristwatch with a spring mechanism or a solar cell. 250

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 Vehicles
There is a myriad different vehicles used on the chthonian highways, each and everyone
of them unique in their own way. Practically every vehicle has some customizations and
idiosyncratic fixes made to them over the past twenty years or so.

Its likely that because of this it has become a custom to

SHINY SNOWFLAKES
Every vehicle that is still moving on the chthonian
highways is more or less unique. Practically every
vehicle has gone through some repairs, modifications
and customizations, that gives the one-of-a-kind feel
for every single vehicle out there.
Year by year there are fewer functional vehicles on the
road and because of that the drivers and mechanics
value their rides more than ever.
name all the vehicles and customize their appearance
to reflect their name. For example a pursuit car named
Tiger Shark could have a paint job with tiger stripes
and pieces of metal resembling sharks teeth could be
welded on the front of the car.
The players should name their characters vehicles
before starting to play, unless there is a good reason for
not naming the vehicle. Driver charcters will not get
the advantage from their Roles special ability before
the vehicle they are driving, is named.

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Vehicle Traits
4WD: Four-Wheel drive vehicles have two or more axles providing power to four wheel ends. This makes
them better on soft ground and at pulling other vehicles. 4WD vehicles gain an Edge to checks that are
related to tire grip or pulling other vehicles.
Bike: Bikes are light vehicles and only half or the Armor value protect the passengers. Bikes can sideswipe
only other Bikes and have a Handicap for Remain Under Control checks. On the other hand the lighter
frame has its benefits Bikes gain an Edge for the following Vehicle Maneuvers: Jump, Bootlegger Turn,
Hard Turn, Precision Driving and Boost. Bikes can also add the Drivers Driving skill level to their Defense.
Enclosed: The driver and the passengers are well protected inside the vehicle and are very difficult to hit.
Attacks at the passengers are done with a Handicap AND require Velocity. This also reduces the drivers visi-
bility and makes attacking from the vehicle more difficult. All vehicle maneuvers and attacks from the vehicle
are done with a Handicap.
Heavy: Heavy vehicles have a very large and heavy chassis. The large size and mass makes the vehicle excel-
lent at ramming, but very poor to handle. Add an additional die to Collision Damage, but a Handicap for
Bootlegger Turn, Hard Turn, Boost, Precision Driving and Evasion Maneuvers. Heavy vehicles cannot do
Jump maneuvers.
High-rider: Its more difficult to shoot the passengers, unless the attacker is travelling on a high-rider as well
or standing on a vehicle.
Off-road: Off-road vehicles travel off-road at normal speed and can move on rough terrain at half speed.
Open-topped: Passengers gain only half of the vehicles armor (round down).

VEHICLES
The vehicles listed here are some samples of possible vehicle types used in Chthonian Highways. Practically every
vehicle is unique so these are more like default values or starting points for vehicles.

Vehicle Hull Steering Engine AV Fuel PAX Vehicle Traits Cost

(Burn/Cap.)
Enduro bike 5 6 5 3* 1/3 2 Bike, Off-road 500
Cruiser bike 6 5 6 4* 1/5 2 Bike 750
Trike 7 4 5 4* 2 / 12 3 Open-topped 600
Quad 6 3 4 4* 1/4 2 Open-topped, Off-road 900
Sandbug 8 4 5 5* 2 / 12 3 Open-topped, Off-road 900
Warbug 9 4 5 5 2 / 12 2 Off-road 1100
Rover 11 4 4 5 3 / 20 5 Off-road 1300
Pick-up 10 4 4 5 4 /24 3 Off-road, 4WD 1600
Pursuit car 9 4 5 5 3 / 18 4 4WD 2000
Scav bus 13 3 3 7 3 / 30 10 4WD, Off-road 3000
Monster truck 12 3 5 5 4 / 24 6 4WD, Off-road, High rider 1900
Truck 14 3 4 6 6 / 24 6 4WD, High rider, Heavy 8000
Ram tractor 12 3 2 5 10 / 40 2 Heavy, Off-road 4000
Rig 16 2 3 7 5 / 35 6 Heavy, High rider 20000
War rig 18 2 4 8 8/ 32 10 Heavy, High rider 50000
Tank 20 2 2 20 120 / 500 5 (2) 4WD, Off-road, Heavy 500000
*) Bikes and open-topped vehicles offer only half of the armor (round down) for the passengers.

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VEHICLE CUSTOMIZATIONS
Here are some of the common customizations made for the vehicles. This is not a complete list and you can come
up with your own customizations by using this list as a guideline. Use common sense when figuring out how many
customizations fit a vehicle, or if a customization can be made multiple times or at all.

Customization Description Cost

Booby Trap 3d10 Damage, Area of Effect 10 m, Impact 300
Buzzsaw 3d8 Damage when Sideswiping 700*
Deathproofing A seat belt, safety harness or an airbag. -2D Collision Damage. Not for 250 per seat
Bikes
Dead Mans Handle Vehicle stops safely after a round if the driver is not conscious. 200
Extra Armor +2 Armor OR make an open-topped vehicle into regular vehicle OR 300*
make a regular vehicle into Enclosed vehicle.
Extra Fuel Tank Increase Fuel Capacity by 10, Not for Bikes 120
Fix-rigging Edge for repairs when cruising, Heavy vehicles only 400
Heavy Plating Upgrade to Extra Armor; +2 Armor, -1 Engine 700*
Hidden Blade Concealed knife (1d6, Quick), its a Trifle to draw the knife. 25
Hidden Compartment Can fit a person. Not for Bikes. 250
Hidden Holster Fits a pistol and one clip of ammo 15
Hidden Locker Can fit a small bag 50
Holding Cell Change passenger seats to holding cell (min. 2) 200
Improved Steering A bucket seat, racing wheel or power steering. +1 Steering 200*
Kill Switch The vehicle will not start without a correct switch sequence. 150
Loudspeaker Loud, uses the vehicles battery. 600
Nitro Tank Increases Engines push limit to 3 600
Plow +1D Ramming Damage and -2D to own vehicle. Heavy vehicles only. 600
Ramming Spikes Collision Damage becomes Rending when ramming. Not for Bikes 100*
Riding bars Fits 2 additional passenger, gives an Edge for Boarding attempts. 150*
Secondary Engine If Engine Breaks, the secondary Engine will kick in. Secondary Engine 50% of the
works as Engine 2. Heavy vehicles only. vehicles cost.
Shackles CL 20 to pick, Durability 6, Armor 6 50
Spikes Handicap for those who try to board the vehicle 200*
Swing Pole Board another vehicle from Close range. Not for Bikes. 400
Side Blades Collision Damage becomes Rending when Sideswiping, Not for Bikes. 200*
Tire Shields Increase armor by 4 against sideswipes and attacks directed at the tires. 180*
Not for Bikes.
Towing Hook Not for Bikes 20
Turbo Engine The vehicles engine is fitted with a turbocharger. +1 Engine 500*
Weapon Mount Attached weapons can be fired without a Handicap. Not for Bikes. 100
Winch Uses the vehicles engine. Not for Bikes. 200
*) Double the Cost for Heavy vehicles

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 Combat
Living in the post-apocalyptic world of the chthonian highways is harsh, merciless and
dangerous. When you set on a journey through the wastelands, you are lucky if you dont
have to fight or flee for your life. Youre even luckier if you make it unscathed and alive to
your destination.
SETTING THE STAGE
Before starting a combat or any other action scene, all
characters and NPCs are divided into groups or inde-
pendent characters. Usually NPCs with similar sta-
tistics are handled as groups, and named and unique
characters, such as the player characters or important
NPCs, are handled as independent characters.
All characters in a group act at the same time and
perform their actions. Independent characters each
have their own initiative values and actions.
Environment and Circumstances
When setting the stage for a combat scene, it is also
important to determine any special terrain or other
features that are obvious for all. These features can
create special conditions that might give the characters
Edges or Handicaps or result in other gameplay effects.
Zones
If the combat area is particularly large or includes
significantly different smaller areas, it is a good idea
to divide the area into smaller zones. Each zone is
usually up to 20 meters in diameter, that is equiv-
alent to Close range. And of course a zone can be 5
or even 100 meters in diameter if a smaller or bigger
scale is needed.
For example, in a house, each room can be a zone, and
in a ruined city block, each street can be a separate
zone.
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Ranges
Ranges are handled with abstract measures instead
of absolute distances. There are five different range
categories.
Immediate (0 2 m): The area around a char-
acter of roughly a few steps in radius. This is the
typical melee range.
Reach (up to 5 m): A bit further away than just a
quick lunge or a few short steps. Optimal range
for light thrown weapons such as shurikens or
throwing knives or melee weapons with the
Long trait.
Close (up to 20 m): Optimal range for pistols,
shotguns, burst fire weapons, bows and heavier
thrown weapons like spears or boomerangs.
Long (up to 100 m): Optimal range for most
rifles.
Extreme (over 100 m): Optimal range for scoped
hunting and sniper rifles. Practical range for
most long range rifles is around one kilometer.
INITIATIVE
To determine the order in which all groups and
independent characters can act, all participants in an
encounter make a Perception check at the beginning
of the scene to determine the initiative value for each
group and character. The Initiative roll can be Pushed
with Wits as any Perception Skill Check.
The groups and characters will start acting from the
highest to the lowest result. After rolling the initiative,
it can be modified later with Velocity and Troubles.

ACTING IN ACTION SCENES
Action scenes such as a combat, a chase or an escape
from a collapsing building are measured in rounds. A
round can be anything from a few seconds to a minute
or so, depending on the situation and pace of the
action. In combat each round represents a few seconds
of action, but in a car chase one round can be even up
to one minute.
During a round each character can perform two
Actions. Actions can be performed in a characters
turn or used as Reactions at any point of a round.
Short Actions (1 Action)
Short actions are quick and easy actions that take
one Action to perform. Short actions are the most
common actions in combat. Examples of short actions:
Short Move: Move up to 5 meters (Within Reach
range).
Reload: Reload a clip-fed, bolt, pump or
lever-action firearm or a bow weapon.
Communicate: Give or receive an order, ask a
simple question, or make a gesture.
Draw: a holstered or sheathed weapon.
Drop: or pick up an item.
Switch: weapons or equipment.
Disengage: You spend your action to disengage
safe from the fight.
Attack: Make a melee or ranged attack.
Guard: Attack as a reaction if an enemy moves
into line of sight and range after your turn.
Aim: Gives an Edge to your next shot or strike.
Long Actions (2 Actions)
Long actions require most of the characters concen-
tration and effort to perform. Performing a long action
takes two Actions. Examples of Long actions:
Dash: Move up to 20 meters in straight line
(Within Close range).
Charge: Move straight without obstacles up to
Reach range and attack with an Edge.
Long Reload: Reload a weapon with Long
Reload trait.
Long Burst: Make a long burst attack with an
automatic weapon.
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Combat
Reactions
Reactions are quick reflexive actions that are often
instinctive and triggered by another action. In combat,
reactions can be taken only against opponents that
you are facing and whose actions you are aware of.
A character can perform a single reaction per round.
Additional Reactions can be taken by spending an
Action. Examples of Reactions:
Parry: Roll d20 + Fighting to avoid a melee
attack.
Dodge: Roll d20 + Athletics to avoid any attack.
On Guard: If you were guarding and a target
moves into your line of sight and range, take a
free shot or strike before the opponent acts.
Opportunity Action: See below.
When a character reacts to defend, the player rolls
a Skill Check instead of using the passive skill and
the Skill Check can be pushed further with a related
Ability. If the Skill Check is higher than the passive
Defense value, it is used as the Defense value instead
against the incoming attacks.
Opportunity Actions
Opportunity Actions (OA) are situations that allow a
character to perform an Action as a Reaction. These
situations can arise during an action due to Troubles
or actions that other characters take.
Fumbling (Trouble): A fumbling opponent is
open to actions of opportunity.
Retreat: An enemy that retreats from melee,
with out Disengaging first, is open to Opportu-
nity Actions.
Overwatch: When a character is guarding all
targets moving into line of sight and within
the weapons range, they can be attacked as a
Reaction.
Close movement: An opponent moving past
you within your melee weapons range can be
attacked as a Reaction, even if the character was
not on guard.

MAKING ATTACKS
If your character tries to do something that another
character tries to avoid or resist, you are making an
attack. Attacks are resolved as Skill Checks using
Fighting for melee attacks, Shooting for ranged attacks,
Athletics for thrown weapons and Dexterity for small
thrown weapons. The Skill Checks result is compared
to the targets Defense and if the result is equal to or
higher than Defense, the attack hits. Otherwise, the
attack fails.
Melee Attacks
Melee attacks are attacks made unarmed or with a
melee weapon. Melee attacks can be made at targets
at Immediate range or up to Reach range with very
long weapons like spears or polearms. Melee attacks
use always the Fighting skill.
Unarmed melee attacks are made with a handicap
against hard armor and armed opponents. Unarmed
attacks cause 1d4 points of damage.
Ranged Attacks
Ranged attacks are attacks that are made with firearms,
bows, thrown weapons or any other weapons that can
harm a target at distance. The used skill depends on
the used weapon:
Skill Weapon or Attack Type
Shooting Firearms, bows, crossbows and
slingshots
Dexterity Small thrown weapons (shurikens,
knives, bolas and boomerangs) and
slings
Athletics Large thrown weapons (spears and
heavy thrown objects)
Range
The target is within the optimal range
The target is beyond the optimal range
Shoot a firearm in In Melee or Immediate range (does not apply to pistols)
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Sol Kane (Order #11402280)
Combat
All ranged weapons are effective up to their optimal
range and beyond that all attacks are made with a
Handicap.
All ranged weapons, except Pistols, suffer a Handicap
if used in melee for shooting. Thrown or bow weapons
cannot be used in melee.
Touch Attacks
Touch attacks are made when a character touches
another and do not require a solid impact or penetrat-
ing hit on the target; a light touch is enough. Touch
attacks are always made with an Edge.
Some ranged attacks can be counted as Touch Attacks
as well, especially if the attack just needs to hit or
glance the target and not cause any damage.
Shooting into Melee
If a ranged attack is attempted at a target that is
engaged in melee, the attack is made with a Handicap.
If the attack would already suffer a Handicap, a point
of Velocity is required to hit the target.
Two-Weapon Fighting
A character can attack with two one-handed Quick
weapons, if both an Action and a Reaction are used to
perform the attack. This can be practical if the player
wants to, for example, kick another foe in Immediate
range and shoot another one at Close range.
Alternatively, or if both weapons are not Quick, the
player can choose which weapon is used to make an
attack.
Attacks with the weaker hand are done with a
Handicap. In practice the player states which weapon
is in the characters weaker hand.
Effect on Attack
No Effect
Handicap
Handicap

DEFENSE
When in combat, it is assumed that all characters are
trying to avoid getting hit by using cover or trying to
position themselves so that they can avoid harm to the
best of their ability. All attacks are made against the
characters Defense value, unless the character uses
a Reaction to Parry or Dodge an incoming attack.
Defense value is equal to 10 + (Precision OR Wits
Push Limit) + (other possible modifiers)
There might still be occasions when you or your
target are being surprised or are totally unaware of the
incoming attack, or you use all your own Action to
avoid getting hit, not just try to stay out of harms way,
while doing something else at the same time. These
circumstances affect your Defense or the attackers
Skill Check as described below.
Parrying and Dodging
By using a Reaction, a character can try to Parry or
Dodge an incoming attack after the attack roll is made.
A characters Parry or Dodge action affects all attacks
from one source or opponent. If your Parry or Dodge
result is equal to or higher than the attackers result,
your character manages to avoid attacks at the last
moment.
A character can Parry only in melee, unless stated oth-
erwise in these rules. Parrying is made with a handicap
if your character is not armed, but the opponent is.
Dodge can be used to avoid melee and ranged attacks.
When avoiding ranged attacks, this usually means
taking cover, and if your character is in the open, you
take a Handicap.
Parrying = Target rolls d20 + Fighting
Dodging = Target rolls d20 + Athletics
Situation Effect
Target stationary and unaware Halve the Targets Defense (round down) for ranged attacks,
Melee attacks hit automatically.
Target surprised Attacker gains an Edge
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Combat
Cover and Visibility
If at least half of your target is obscured or in cover,
or the target is prone, you will suffer a handicap to all
attacks against this target.
If you cannot see your target, you can still attack, but
hit only if you spend one Velocity to hit your target. In
addition to this, your target gains an Edge for all attack
and defense checks made against you.
Small and Large targets
Targets smaller than a domestic dog are harder to hit
and gain a +3 bonus to their Defense.
However, targets that are very large, like trucks or
huge animals, easier to hit. These targets have a -3
penalty to their Defense.
Small targets Defense = Base Defense + 3
Large targets Defense = Base Defense - 3
DISENGAGING
If a character turns and retreats from a fight without
any preparation or covering fire, all opponents that
can attack the retreating character at that moment, can
make a free attack at the character.
A character can take a Disengage action to retreat
safely from a fight. Disengage action is a normal
attack with an Edge and on a successful attack, instead
of dealing damage or other effects to the target, the
character can retreat instead without provoking free
attacks at him even if the opponent was on guard.
 Combat
DAMAGE Reduction adds a die to the Damage roll, but the
highest result is dropped from the total.

If an attack hits, it usually causes damage. Each

weapon or attack has Damage dice value and a hit
causes damage equal to the damage rolls result plus
any modifiers.
Bonus Damage Dice
Velocity or other circumstances can add dice to
Damage. In these cases, the added dice are always of
the same type as the weapon or attack damage dice.
For example: if the damage is 2d6, +1D damage will
add one d6 to damage.
ARMOR
Armor is worn to protect from injury, and it comes
in many sizes and shapes. Armor reduces incoming
damage by its value to a minimum of 1 Damage point,
unless the armor is Hard, in which case it can reduce
the Damage to zero.
Armor doesnt offer any protection against Fatigue or
Stress. Armor works only against attacks that it can
absorb or deflect. As an example Armor does not
protect from drowning or poisons.

Fatal Hits Against Area Effect weapons (e.g. explosions, fire,

Spend a point of Velocity to strike a weak spot and
cause +1D damage. This might mean a joint in the
opponents armor, vital organs, arteries or nerve
clusters.
Damage Boost and Reduction
Some special weapons or attacks can have a Damage
Boost or Damage Reduction.
If the attack has a Damage Boost, you roll an extra
die and drop the lowest die from the total. Damage
falling damage) Armors value is halved and rounded
down.
INJURIES
If a character suffers so much Damage that it Exhausts
two Abilities with one hit, the character is seriously
injured. Roll d10 and reference the result from the
table below to see how the character is affected. An
Injury takes 2d4 weeks to heal with normal rest and
the recovery time is halved if treated by someone with
a Medicine skill of 5 or more.

1d10 Injury Effect

1 Broken arm
2 Broken leg
3 Lost hearing on one
side
4 Broken bones
5 Broken jaw
6 Internal bleeding
7 Punctured lung
8 Lost eye
9 Severed artery
10 Major head trauma
Arm is useless (1d10: 1-5 = secondary, 6-10 = primary)
You can only crawl without support
Handicap to hearing Perception
Handicap to Defense and all Body skills
Difficulty with speech, 1n4 lost teeth
Suffer 1 damage per hour for 1d12 hours
Handicap to all actions, suffer 1 Damage every hour until treated, Medicine
(CL15)
Handicap to shooting and sight Perception
Suffer 1 Damage at the start of each round until you are treated, Medicine
(CL 20)
Unconscious and dead unless treated within 1d6 hours, Medicine (CL 20)

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Sol Kane (Order #11402280)
 Combat
COMBAT STUNTS
Combat Stunts are special maneuvers that the character do in combat. Most Combat Stunts require a Fighting or
Shooting Skill Check against the opponents Defense with a Handicap. Some Combat Stunts might have additional
effects if Ability points are spent for the maneuver. Spending Ability points causes Strain on the Ability in the same
way as Pushing.

Example: Mikal tries to knock out a guard. A knockout requires two Torque, so in practice this means that the
opponents Defense must be beaten by 10 or more. Mikal has the element of surprise on his side, and he gains an
Edge to his attack roll. Mikals Fighting is 4, and he gets a 16 from the dicethanks to the Edge. His result of 20
against the opponents Defense of 12 is not enough to knock the opponent out. The player decides to use a point
of Velocity and add d10 to the result. The Velocity boost adds 4 to the result, bringing the total to 24, which is
enough to knock out the opponent.

Combat Stunt Modifiers Maneuver Description

Grab No You grab your opponent. You need at least one hand to grab your opponent and
this makes it possible to continue with other maneuvers like Hold or Throw.
When you have grabbed your opponent, you have an Edge to all further Combat
Stunts.
Hold No After a successful Grab maneuver you take a firm hold or a joint lock on your
opponent and they are unable to move or act unless they break free. This
requires a successful Strength or Fighting Skill Check against your Strength or
Fighting Skill.
Throw No After a successful Grab maneuver you can knock down your opponent by throw-
ing them on the ground and deal 1d6 points of damage. A point of Body can be
used to throw your opponent 1d4 meters away from you to any direction.
Called Shots Handicap Called shots are attacks that are targeted against a specific body part or a pre-
cise hit location to bypass armor or cause a specific injury. Called shots can be
made against objects as well. Targetting objects that are smaller than a basketball
require a called shot and objects that are roughly the size of a cigarette pack or
smaller require a Called Shot and a point of Precision to be spent.
Knockdown Handicap Force your opponent to fall to the ground. It will take an Action for the oppo-
nent to get back to their feet. A knocked down character has to take all attacks
with a Handicap and all opponents within Reach range gain an Edge to all
attacks against the character.
Disarm Handicap Force your opponent to drop a weapon or an object they are holding. By spend-
ing a point of Precision, you can grab the weapon or the object for yourself from
your opponent if you are within Immediate range from your opponent.
Push 1 2 Torque Move your opponent 1d4 meters directly away from you. With an additional
Torque you can determine the direction of movement.
Knockout 1 2 Torque You stun your enemy so that they become disoriented and need 1d6 rounds to
recover from the stunning blow. With an additional Torque spent, your oppo-
nent is knocked unconscious for the rest of the scene. A stunned or unconscious
opponent is stationary and cannot take any Actions or Reactions until recovered.

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Sol Kane (Order #11402280)

AUTOMATIC FIRE
Some firearms are capable of automatic fire. When
firing automatically, you spend 15 rounds of ammo
for a short burst or 30 rounds for a long burst. A short
burst adds one die to your attack attack Skill Check,
and a long burst adds two dice.
Special Effects (SFX) from automatic fire can produce
additional hits to the same target or other targets
within Reach range from the originating target.
Additional hits do not need a separate to hit roll, but
they can be dodged. Their damage is rolled separately,
but the additional hits cannot produce more additional
hits.
In addition to automatic bursts, automatic weapons
can fire 3-round bursts with a single pull of a trigger.
This uses 3 rounds of ammo, but you gain an Edge
against a single target that is within the optimal range.
Combat
of each round before any of the characters act. Remove
dice from the continuous damage pool if the die comes
up as 1.
Example: Titus throws a molotov at an abomina-
ble creature and rolls for damage. He rolls 3d6 and
gets a three and double sixes! The creature is set on
fire and both dice are rolled again at the beginning
of the next turn. This time the dice come up as 1
and 5. Six points of damage, but one of the damage
dice is removed and next time only one die is rolled
for continuous damage.
POISON
Poisons or medical drugs can have various effects
and an effort can be made to resist them. This does
not actually represent neutralizing the poison, but
resisting its effects.

To resist a poison, roll a Strength Skill Check against

CONTINUOUS DAMAGE
Fire, poisons and acid, for example, can cause contin-
uous damage over a number of turns: fire can burn
until its fuel is exhausted, poisons will stay within the
victims system for minutes, and acid will eat through
substances over time. When rolling for the damage in
the first round, if any of the damage dice produce a
Special Effect (SFX), the damage effect will be contin-
uous. Take aside the dice that came up with a top result
and roll those dice for damage again at the beginning
the poisons Potency. If the Check is successful, only
mild effects are suffered. All effects can be shaken off
completely by spending one Torque. If the Check fails,
the poison takes full effect on the character.
All drugs take effect immediately, regardless of how
they are administered, unless stated otherwise in the
poisons description. Poisoned blades or projectiles
have enough poison for one hit.

Poison Potency Mild Effect Full Effect

Tear Gas 15 Handicap to all actions for Unable to act voluntarily for 1d6 turns
1d6 turns
Tranquilizing drug 15 1d6 Fatigue to Wits Unconscious for 1d4 hours
Mild venom 10 1d4 Damage 2d4 Damage
Deadly venom 20 2d6 Damage 4d6 Damage
Paralyzing poison 20 1d6 Fatigue to Precision Paralyzed for 2d10 minutes
Nightmare hallucinogenic 20 1d6 Stress 3d6 Stress

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Sol Kane (Order #11402280)

FALLING DAMAGE
If a character falls down to ground, they suffer Falling
Damage from the impact. As a rule of thumb a charac-
ter suffers d6 points of Damage for every starting three
meters (or floors) fallen, up to 10 dice at maximum.
Prepared jump: If the character jumps volun-
tarily, an Athletics check against CL 10 can be
made to reduce the damage by two dice + a die
per Torque spent.
Water: When falling on water, add a die for
every ten meters fallen, instead of three.
Soft ground: If the surface, the character falls
on, is particularly soft or elastic, reduce the
Damage by two dice.
Rough surface: If the surface is uneven, hard or
sharp, like edged rocks for example, add two dice
to the damage.
HIT LOCATIONS
By default all hits are treated equally regardless of the
hit location. If the situation calls for it, or you want to
add an extra level of detail and complexity to your
fights, you can roll a d10 to determine the hit location.
Injuries: If a hit causes an Injury choose or re-roll until
you get a result that matches with the hit location.
Head and Neck hits: Hits to the head or the neck cause
an extra die of Damage.
1d10 Hit Location
1 Head (or neck)
2 Right arm
3 Left arm
48 Torso
9 Right leg
10 Left leg
AREA EFFECTS
Area effect weapons affect all targets within their area
of effect radius. Usually these are explosives, but can be
flammable or gas weapons as well.
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Sol Kane (Order #11402280)
Combat
Choose a primary target and make an attack with an
Edge. If the target is hit, the target takes an extra die
of damage and other targets within the radius take the
normal damage.
Explosive Damage
If a target is hit by an explosive projectile, like a rocket
or grenade, or is in contact with an explosive when
it detonates, the target will receive the full potential
damage. To give an example, a creature hit with a
rocket launcher would suffer 40 points of damage
instead, making a damage roll with 4d10.
Double the damage if the explosion happens inside the
target. This could happen for example if a grenade is
thrown inside a vehicle or into a creatures gaping maw.
Other targets that are within the area of effect, but are
not directly, hit suffer the normal rolled damage. Roll
once for all similar targets and separately for all unique
targets, such as player characters.
Hit Deviation
if an area effect weapon misses its target, you can roll
for deviation and see where the hit lands in case some
other targets might still be within the area of effect.
Roll a d8 for the direction and another die roll or
deviation range. To determine the deviation range in
meters, roll d4 for Reach range or closer, d6 for Close,
d8 for Long and d10 for Extreme range.
1
8 2
Roll
7 1d8 3
6 4
5
 WHEELS
VEHICLE SPECS
Vehicles are described by Specs that represent their
performance and durability. When driving a vehicle,
a character can use the vehicles Specs OR the relevant
Ability to Push Skill Checks. For instance, if a charac-
ter is trying to do a bootlegger turn, they could use the
vehicles Steering instead of their Precision. A vehicles
Specs can be pushed by one point per round.
When the character pushes with one of the Specs, the
Specs are strained, exactly like when pushing with an
Ability. The strain on Specs represents the wear and
tear on machinery as the character revs the vehicle.
Restoring a Spec requires maintenance and adjust-
ments, and when one of the Specs gets exhausted, it
becomes broken until the vehicle is repaired.
Use a vehicle Spec OR Ability for Pushing
A Spec can be Pushed by one point per Action.
Hull (HU)
Robustness, build and integrity of the vehicle chassis.
Hull is used when ramming or using the vehicles mass
or build.
Steering (ST)
Steering and handling of the vehicle are pushed with
the Steering. The Spec is used for evasion and special
maneuvers.
Engine (EN)
Acceleration and speed of the vehicle are governed
by the Engine. This Spec is used in pursuit and when
trying to max the speed of the vehicle.
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Sol Kane (Order #11402280)
OTHER FEATURES
While the Specs descibing the vehicles performance,
each vehicle has additional features like Fuel consump-
tion, Armor and Passenger capacity.
Fuel (B/C): Each Vehicle has two Fuel values: Burn and
Capacity. The Burn represents the fuel consumption
per 100 kilometers and the Capacity is the fuel capac-
ity in U.S. gallons (3.785 liters).
Fuel can also be burned voluntarily to give an Edge
when trying to move or maneuver fast, such as in a
high-speed car chase, for instance. One point of Fuel
can be burned this way once per scene.
Armor Value (AV): A vehicles Armor value represents
how much it offers protection for the vehicle and its
passengers. Motorcycles and open-topped vehicles
obviously offer less protection than vehicles with
enclosed cabins, and the Armor value affecting the
passengers is halved (round down) and shown in
parenthesis after the actual Armor value.
As with regular armor, a vehicles armor reduces the
damage inflicted on the vehicle or its passengers. A
vehicles Armor always counts as Hard armor.
Passengers (PAX): The number of passengers the
vehicle can fit comfortably is given as a number value
under the Passengers feature, and the crew needed
to operate the vehicle is given in parenthesis, if more
than one person is required to operate the vehicle. For
example, a vehicle with a Passengers stat of 5 (2)
would fit five passengers in total and two of them are
needed to operate the vehicle.

VEHICLE ACTIONS
Vehicular combat is handled much like regular combat
with a few exceptions. There are rounds and turns as
usual, and initiative is rolled when necessary. The
biggest difference is how movement is tracked. In
a typical situation, all the vehicles are moving and
usually in the same general direction, unless the action
takes place around a location, building or stationary
object. These situations are handled a bit differently
and explained below in Vehicle Movement.
VEHICLE MOVEMENT
Pursuit
When a pursuit begins, set a number that represents
the distance between the vehicles. Usually three is a
good number to start with.
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Sol Kane (Order #11402280)
Wheels
Each round, the drivers make opposing Driving checks
Pushed with Engine. The highest result gets to decide
if the distance between the vehicles is increased or
decreased by one step, in addition to being increased or
decreased by one step per Torque spent. For example,
if the vehicles started the pursuit at distance 3 and the
driver chasing the other vehicle won the Driving check
with one Torque, they could decrease the range down
to one.
When the distance drops to zero, the vehicles move-
ment should change to being grid-based. If the dis-
tance grows to six or more, the other vehicle manages
to escape, at least for now.
The Grid
The grid is an abstract map used for measuring move-
ment and distances between vehicles. When vehicular
combat begins, draw a grid of suitable size, or use
squared paper to track the vehicle movement. Each
grid square roughly represents a 20 by 20 meter area.
If you are in the same grid square with another vehicle,
it is considered that you are right next to it or up to

Reach range away from it. Vehicles in adjacent grid
spaces are within Close range from each other,or up
to 20 meters apart. Up to three vehicles can be in the
same grid space at the same time.
Movement and Speed
In Combat or similar situations, vehicles have differ-
ent movement speeds. These rules do not measure
the absolute speeds of the vehicles, but their relative
movement and speed instead. The vehicle moves in the
initiative turn of the driver or when the driver makes a
maneuver as a Reaction.
Cruise (Trifle): Move one square in any direc-
tion, straight or diagonally.
High Speed (Action): Move up to two squares.
Moving forward or backwards is unrestricted,
but the vehicle can move only one square to
either side.
Maneuver (Action): Perform a maneuver and
move accordingly.
Stationary (Free): No movement, cannot per-
form vehicle maneuvers, halve Defense value.
Fast Vehicle: The vehicle with the highest
Engine value, gain an additional square of move-
ment. If there are multiple vehicles with the same
Engine value, they all gain the bonus.
Chase: When the majority of vehicles are mov-
ing into the same general direction, the vehicles
are giving Chase, and the vehicle movement is
reduced by 1 square.
Moving in Reverse
Vehicles can move in reverse, but only in Cruise Speed,
and the driver suffers a Handicap to all Driving checks.
Terrain
Mostly the driving conditions on the chthonian
highways are decent. The road is fairly flat and unob-
structed. But it would be a miracle, if a trip would not
include an occasional detour through the badlands,
or a road with shattered asphalt or scattered junk and
rubble.
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Sol Kane (Order #11402280)
Wheels
Off-road: Most vehicles are designed for travel on roads
or other relatively flat terrain. Normal vehicles cannot
travel off-road at High Speed and suffer a Handicap for
Vehicle Maneuvers.
Rough terrain: Rough terrain is very uneven terrain that
is impossible to traverse with normal vehicles. Vehicles
designed for off-road terrain can move through rough
terrain at half speed and suffer a Handicap to all
Vehicle Maneuvers.
Slippery: Slippery terrain is dangerous to travel through
at high speeds. All Vehicle Maneuvers are done at a
Handicap, and all die results of 1 lead to losing control,
after which the driver must make a Remain Under
Control check immediately. This is an additional effect
on top of the normal Trouble you suffer from rolling
ones, and does not count as a Trouble.
Soft ground: Soft ground is squashy or soft terrain like
sand, mud, snow or swamp. Vehicles traveling on soft
ground have a chance to become bogged. All Vehicle
Maneuvers are done at a Handicap and all dice results
of 1 can lead to the vehicle getting stuck. The driver
must immediately make a Remain Under Control
check or the vehicle gets stuck. This is an additional
effect on top of the normal Trouble you suffer from
rolling ones and does not count as a Trouble.
Mixed Movement
If vehicles and people or monsters move in the grid,
consider each grid being a 20 x 20 meter area. It takes
an action to move to any of the adjacent grid spaces or
a trifle to move within the same area.
 Wheels
Vehicle Maneuvers
All vehicle maneuvers are either Actions or Reactions and require a Driving check against the given Challenge level.
Each maneuver is associated with one of the vehicles Specs for Pushing the Skill Checks.

Maneuver CL Push Description

Boost 10 EN Move an additional square + one square per Torque spent as in High
Speed movement.
Hard Turn 15 ST Do a sudden 90 degree turn. Move one square forward and up to
two squares to either side.
Bootlegger turn 20 ST Do a 180 degree turn without slowing down or stopping. You can
switch to reverse immediately after a Bootlegger turn, or move up to
two squares to the opposite direction.
Cut-Off Defense ST Move in front of another vehicle in the same square with you and
block its movement. The other vehicles driver must immediately
make an Evade check as a Reaction to avoid crashing into the block-
ing vehicle. If the Evasion check is successful, the vehicles do not
collide, but the blocked vehicle must stop, unless the Driver spends
one Torque.
Jump 15 short, EN Short jump allows the vehicle to move one grid square forward over
20 long a gap or an obstacle, provided that there is a proper platform avail-
able. Long jump moves two grid squares forward. Heavy vehicles
cannot jump. The Jump maneuver is done with a Handicap at Cruise
speed, but normally at High speed.
Precision Driving 15 ST All kinds of maneuvers requiring great precision are done as Pre-
cision Driving checks. Examples of Precision Driving include such
feats as driving through very narrow passages, driving on two
wheels or drifting.
Remain Under Control 10 ST Whenever the driver makes quick corrections to the vehicles course
or tries to regain control of the vehicle, a Remain Under Control
check is made. This is done as a Reaction.
Ram Defense HU Ram the vehicle at another vehicle, character or creature. Make a
Driving check against the targets Defense. Ramming can be Dodged
or Evaded but not Parried. See Collisions & Crashes below for
details as to when a target is hit. Ramming attack suffer a Handicap
against characters.
Sideswipe Defense HU Hit another vehicle from the side and try to damage it and push it
off the road. Make a Driving check against the target vehicle, and if
the check is successful, the target vehicles driver must immediately
make a Remain Under Control check against the attackers Skill
Check result, or lose control of the vehicle. Bikes will always fall
over if control is lost.
Evade Special ST Evasive maneuvers can be made as a Reaction to avoid the vehicle
being hit or crashed. If the Evasion check result is equal to or higher
than the CL or the opposing result, the driver manages to avoid the
threat.

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CHASE COMBAT
Vehicle Defense
Vehicles are relatively big and therefore quite easy
to hit, even if they are travelling fast. Vehicles have
a Defense value of 10, except for Heavy vehicles,
which are very easy to hit and have Defense of 5. Bikes
can use the drivers own Defense value instead of the
vehicles.
Drivers can make Evade maneuvers to avoid hits by
taking a Reaction.
Attacking from a Vehicle
Attacking with a ranged weapon from a fast moving
vehicle is not easy business. The ride in the middle of a
chase can be quite rough, and the vehicles driver might
have to make unexpected moves just when you are
pulling the trigger. All ranged attacks from a vehicle
moving in High Speed are made with a Handicap.
Mounted Weapons: Mounted heavy weapons are more
stable, and do not have the Difficult Trait. Regular
mounted weapons become easier to handle and aiming
becomes a short action.
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Wheels
Boarding
Jumping or climbing from a vehicle to another is
called Boarding. Boarding can be made within Reach
range and the two vehicles need to be in the same grid
square. Boarding from Immediate range requires an
Athletics check against DL 10 and from Reach range
against DL 15. If the vehicle happens to have some-
thing that can be firmly grabbed, the check can be
made with an Edge.
Boarding can be avoided by making an Evade maneu-
ver. If the Evade check result is higher than the board-
ing characters Athletics check result, the boarding
fails, and the boarding action is aborted at the last
second.
Targetting Vehicle Parts and Passengers
The vehicles motor or wheels can be targetted with a
Called Shot. Attacks directed at the vehicles engine
or such parts cause Damage directly to the Engine
Spec. Respectively, attacks directed at the wheels or
similar parts of the vehicle, cause Damage directly to
the Steering.
If the attacker tries to hit the passengers directly,
bypassing the vehicles armor, the attack requires a
Called Shot. Enclosed vehicles and High-Riders need a
Called Shot with a Handicap to directly hit a passenger.

COLLISIONS & CRASHES
Collision Damage for the vehicle and the passengers is
2d10 for Cruise speed. Passengers and the vahicle are
protected by the vehicles Armor.
Wheels
Exhausted Steering: When the Steering is
exhausted, all Skill Checks related to controlling
the vehicle are done with a Handicap.
Exhausted Engine: When the Engine is broken,
all Skill Checks related to speed, acceleration or
the engines torque are done with a Handicap.

Modifiers Collision Damage Maintenance & Repair

High speed +1D
A Strained engine can be fixed with proper mainte-
Head-on Collision +1D nance: cooling down the engine, tightening loose
Heavy vehicle +1D against lighter vehicles, bolts and cleaning the engine parts, for example.
+2D against Bikes Maintenance requires about two hours and removes
Ramming from the -1D 1d6 points of Strain from any Spec that is not broken.
rear or Sideswiping A vehicle can be maintained up to twice a day.
Deathproofing -2D Patching: Quick patching can be done with a successful
customization
Repair or Driving Skill Check against CL 15. A suc-
cessful patching removes 1d6 points of strain. Patching
takes an Action to perform.

DAMAGING VEHICLES Repairs: Broken Specs need to be repaired before they

When a vehicle is shot, beaten or crashed, the Damage
goes to Hull first, then to Steering and finally to
Engine.
Breaking down
When a vehicle stat is reduced to zero, it is Broken.
There are no side-effects to Hull being Broken,
except for the banged up metal, lost bumpers and
broken lights, but when the Steering or Engine are
Exhausted the vehicles performance will suffer. If both
the Steering and Engine are Exhausted, the vehicle
becomes non-operational until fixed.
can be maintained. Repairs take about 8 man-hours
and require spare parts worth 1d100 bitz
Wrecked Vehicles
If all of the Vehicles Specs are broken, the vehicle is
wrecked, and beyond repair. The vehicle might be
good for spare parts, but theres no point trying to fix
that piece of junk anymore.
A wrecked vehicle is worth 2d20 x 10 bitz in spare
parts. Salvaging all the useful parts from a wrecked
vehicle takes roughly 15 minutes per 10 bitz of salvage.
Add an extra die to the salvage roll for Heavy vehicles,
and subtract a die for Bikes.

Example: Characters find a wrecked motorcycle in

the desert and decide to take it into parts. One die
is subtracted from the salvage roll, and a single d10
Damage Hull Wheel Engine comes up as 7. That means the salvage is worth
70 bitz, and it would take at least an hour and 45
minutes to take the parts out of the wreck.

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 Wheels
Critical Damage
If two Specs are broken from a single hit, the vehicle suffers critical damage. Roll from the table below to see what
happens.

1d10 Critical Damage Effect

1 Engine failure The vehicles engine suddenly shuts down, and restarting takes an Action and
requires Driving Skill Check against CL10.
2 Window broken Gain Handicap on high speed maneuvers and pursuit when driving without
goggles.
3 Tire shredded Gain Handicap on all maneuvers
4 Steering Jammed! Something is wrong with the vehicles steering and the vehicle cannot move
sideways more than one square per turn.
5 Door lost The Vehicles armor on the doors side is halved.
6 Fuel Leak Lose 1 fuel per turn until the leak is fixed with a successful Repair check vs CL
10.
7 Engine in flames The engine is in flames and the vehicles Engine and its passengers will take
1d6 points of Damage (Armor is halved) at the beginning of each round until
the fire is extinguished or it goes out as per the Continuous Damage rules.
8 No Brakes! The vehicle cannot slow down. The vehicle can be brought to halt with a suc-
cessfull Remain Under Control maneuver.
9 Collateral Damage The attack hits the driver for half the damage (after Armor is resolved).
10 KABOOM! The vehicle explodes spectacularly, and bits and pieces of burning metal
scatter around. The vehicle is immediately wrecked and beyond repair, and all
passengers take 5d10 points of damage, along with everyone within five meters
taking 1d10 points of damage.

Losing Control
What happens when the driver is suddenly dead (or passes out). Roll once per round at the beginning of the drivers
turn to see what happens. Feel free to adapt the results to fit the situation better.

1d6 Effect
1 Pedal to themetal! The gas pedal is stuck and the vehicle moves forward at High Speed for the
next round.
2 Sudden stop. The vehicle stops after moving to squares forward.
3 Vehicle turns sharply. Vehicles in the same square have to evade (CL 10) or suffer 1d10 Collision
Damage.
4 Vehicle spins out of control. The vehicle goes into an uncontrollable spin and might crash into
adjacent vehicles or objects in the same grid square (roll a Driving Skill Check against CL 10 or
get hit). Bikes fall over and the passengers take Collision Damage.
5 Vehicle rolls over. The vehicle flips on its side or roof. Vehicle and Passengers take 2d10 points of
Collision Damage.
6 Vehicle continues to move forward at Cruise Speed.

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 FEAR & MADNESS
The horrible monsters that crawled into our world from beneath the earth and depths
of the oceans are not only dreadful in their appearance, many of these creatures defy
rational thinking and the laws of physics as we know them. Their eldricht presence is dis-
turbing on an instinctual level, invoking fear and distress in the most primal and ancient
parts of human brain and consciousness.

Madness restricts the amount of Velocity points a

MADNESS
Madness measures your characters mental stability
and corruption of the mind. In the world of eldritch
horror and weird phenomena, Madness is more than
just a flaw. When you detach your mind from ratio-
nal thinking and the constraints of mundane senses,
you expose your mind to the true, chaotic nature of
reality and can perceive things that a sane persons
consciousnesses cannot comprehend. This distorted
insight allows insane people to understand the alien
scriptures, rites and devices the horrors have brought
to our world with them.
Madness ranges from 0 to 10, where 10 is totally insane
and completely detached from the rational thinking. A
character with a Madness of 10 is overpowered by the
voices calling in the dreams, and therefore cannot be
played anymore as a player character.
Losing it
Each time a character gains a Disorder, they also gain
a point of Madness and an additional point each time
a natural 1 is rolled as a Sanity Check result. As the
Madness score rises, the character will gradually start
losing their contact with reality and starts to dream
more frequent and vivid dreams with recurring set-
tings, characters and events. Usually, these dreams
wake a strong urge in the character to seek the source
of the dreams either consciously or unconsciously. This
can be presented as Compulsion disorder, for example.
character can have stored. A character cannot have
more than (10 - Madness) points of Velocity. Any
Velocity points exceeding this limit are lost.
Impulses
Madness weakens the characters impulse control, and
resisting Vices and Disorders becomes more and more
difficult as sanity seeps away from the character.
Resisting impulses caused by a Vice, a disorder or other
sources like telepathic suggestions is a Willpower
check vs 10 + Madness.
Stress Resilience
Madness acts like Armor, but for Stress. Each point of
Madness reduces Strain suffered from Stress by one
point, to a minimum of 1 point.
Understanding the Incomprehensible
Becoming insane sets the character free from the
prison of rational thinking and inspires him to
understand the strange artifacts and writings of the
otherworldly beings that have taken over our world.
When making a Mythos Skill Check to understand
something strange, you can add your Madness rating
to the Skill Check. You can also subtract the Madness
score from the Experience point cost of learning to use
mythos artefacts, symbols or rites.

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SANITY CHECKS
Sanity Checks are made to test if the character is
overpowered by fear or confusion and loses rational
thinking and self-control.
Fear & Madness
If the Sanity check is successful, the character retains
self-control and all is well. If the Sanity check is failed,
the character suffers Stress based on the Intensity of
the situation and a point of Madness, if the Skill Check
die result was a 1.

A Sanity Check is a Willpower Skill Check, except
that the character can add Madness to their
Willpower skills level when making the check. The
circumstances can provide an Edge or Handicap for
the Sanity check. If the character is in an oppressive
environment or is helpless, the character gains a
Handicap to the Sanity check. If the character feels
that they are safe and protected or in company of more
than two friends, they will gain an Edge to the Sanity
check.
Sanity Check = d20 + Willpower + Madness
Oppressive environment or being helpless (restrained, para-
lyzed, etc) = Handicap to the Sanity check
Feeling secure or having more than two friends around = Edge
to the Sanity check
Natural 1 from a Sanity Check causes a point of Madness.

A Sanity check is made immediately when a character

realizes or comes into contact with something deeply
disturbing or terrifying.

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 Fear & Madness
FEAR RATING AND INTENSITY
Fear Ratings determine the Challenge Level for the Sanity checks, while Stress Intensity is the amount of Stress
suffered from a failed Sanity check. The examples below should be considered more like guidelines because every
situation and character is unique and should be considered separately.

Fear Rating
Situation Fear Rating
Being attacked by mutated animals or witnessing the deaths of multiple people 6
Witnessing torture or being attacked by mutated humans 9
Witnessing the murder of a close friend, being attacked by aberrant creatures or suffering from 12
serious personal loss or torture
Witnessing cannibalism or paranormal activity, or being injured by an aberrant creature 15
Being attacked by paranormal or alien entities, or being cannibalized 18
Reality shattering terror, being torn between dimensions and space-time 21

Stress Intensity
The more personal and immediate the disturbing experience is, the more intense it will be. If the Fear Rating
represents how difficult the experience is to handle, Intensity measures the magnitude of its effect on the characters
mind.

Intensity Stress
Psychically violated, parasitic invasion, body horror in general, all senses affected 1d20
Assaulted, Immediate range, all senses affected 1d12
Within Reach range, one or two sense affected 1d10
Within Close range, one sense affected 1d8
Within Long range, obscured sensation with a single sense 1d6
Not in immediate vicinity, seen or heard on a recording. 1d4

Example: Jona falls down into a cave and is separated from the other members of the convoy. His only light
source in the darkness is his lighter, which allows just enough light to show that the cave floor is filled with
bloated and decapitated corpses. The stench of the rotted remains is overwhelming. The GM calls for a Sanity
check with a Fear Rating of 9, but with a Handicap because Jona is alone in the darkness without any knowledge
of his whereabouts or what might have decapitated the corpses. Jonas Willpower is 3 and his Madness is also 3.
The player decides not to push because the check is fairly easy and points might be needed later. The player rolls
two dice because of the Handicap and gets 12 and 1. The Handicap drops the highest result leaving Jona with the
1 and a check result of 7 (die 1 + Willpower 3 + Madness 3). Jona fails the Sanity Check. As Jona is practically
treading on corpses, the GM states that he is in immediate contact with them, but not under assault and there-
fore suffers 1d10 points of Stress and a point of Madness from the die result of 1. Jona Suffers 4 points of Stress
draining his Psyche down to 2. He certainly is scared and on the brink of a panic attack, but still manages to keep
calm.

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 Fear & Madness
DISORDERS
If a character suffers Stress so much at once that it Exhausts two Abilities, the character suffers a Disorder. Roll d10
from the table below to see how the mental trauma affects the character.

Disorders are a damaged minds attempt to defend itself from total collapse, and affect the conscious actions of the
character. A character is able to act against a disorder to defend in combat or when trying to escape from mortal
danger. A gameplay effect of a Disorder is triggered by game events related to the Disorder, and the effect lasts for
the rest of the scene.

1d10 Disorder Effect

1 Insomnia The character has recurring nightmares, making resting harder. The nightmares
occur no matter what time of day it is and cause the character to gain only half of a
rests benefits.
2 Uncontrollable The character gains an uncontrollable stutter manifesting in a social situation. This
stutter stutter may affect speech or other forms of communication including writing or
body movements. This disorder causes a handicap whenever the character is inter-
acting socially.
3 Target Phobia The character has a sudden phobia of snakes, insects, or some other type of crea-
ture. The phobia causes a handicap die whenever this creature is present and stops
the character from going near the creature.
4 Induced Anxiety The character has a fear of open spaces, people or certain situations. This anxiety
creates a handicap, but does not prevent the character from entering the situation
or place inducing the anxiety.
5 Selective Amnesia The character forgets something current, and will not remember any facts related
to the thing, even if reminded of the fact. Its like the thing would not exist for the
character.
6 Compulsion The character suffers from a compulsive pattern of behaviour, such as the need to
wash their hands after a fight or to change clothes when getting out of a car. If the
compulsion is not met, the character gains a handicap until compulsion is followed.
7 Paranoid delusion The character becomes certain that some undefinable horror is out there, and
it is actively trying to harm the character. Any accidents or portents that can be
attributed to the undefined, have to be attributed to the undefinable horrors that
scheme to destroy the world or the character themself.
8 Factual delusion The character gains a semi-permanent delusion about a fact. The delusion may take
a form of a superstitious belief, and the character suffers when acting without a
lucky charm, for example. This delusion will only be strengthened if its questioned,
and all evidence to counter the delusions are interpreted as lies or deception.
9 Hallucinations The characters comprehension of whats really happening is starting to falter, and
the character developes a recurring hallucination about, for example, people on the
roadside or children starving.
10 Illusory pain The character starts to feel phantom pain and other symptoms of an internal wound
or disease. This pain has all the symptoms of a physical wound and may even be
healed by normal means for a time. If healed physically, the disorder manifests as
another wound or disease within a week.

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 THE RIG RAID
A Ready-to-play high octane car chase adventure for 2-4 characters.
OVERVIEW
The characters are hired by the head priest of the
Sacred Oil fort to stop a truck that has kidnapped
some of the patriarchs finest acolytes. When they
chase the truck, they quickly understand that they are
dealing with the servants of the Cult of Yuggoth and
the mi-go flesh husks who are taking the kidnapped
acolytes brains to the mi-go hive in the mountains up
north. The adventure is mostly full octane, high speed
car chases and vehicular combat.
BACKSTORY
The characters are contacted by, Father Octanius, the
patriarch and the head priest of the Sacred Oil Fort
to chase the cargo truck that is transporting people
kidnapped from Sacred Oil. He offers one thousand
gallons of fuel as a reward. As usual, when the reward
is this high, you dont ask questions.
The adventure starts in medias res during the chase.
The characters can now see the rig and the vehicles
protecting it. Now it is time to put the pedal to the
metal and close the gap between them and the truck.
The Sacred Oil Fort
The Sacred Oil Fort is a citadel-sized temple in the
West Coast area near the ruins of San Francisco. There
sacred portions of Oil and Gas are given to sinners.
The temple looks like a massive oil refinery decorated
with thousands of oil lanterns and red flags dirty from
dark smoke. The citadel is surrounded by five meter-
high concrete walls covered with ornamental carvings.
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The fort houses more than a thousand citizens, and it
is the local hub for trade and oil commerce. The Sacred
Oils bazaars have everything you might need; even
occasional artifacts or working electronic devices.
How we came to this?
Sometimes starting the adventure directly from
the chase just does not feel right. A good way to
create some backstory for the game or flesh out
the characters is to play a flashback scene as a
prologue. The scenario still starts from the chase,
but the scene will be interrupted after the initial
description - to a flashback of what happened
last night as the characters were preparing for
the operation. After playing the events of previous
night, you can continue to the chase scene and do
a short recap on whats happening in the scene.
CULT OF YUGGOTH
The Cult of Yuggoth consists of mutants and madmen
who have been in contact with the Mi-go since the The
Reckoning. The cult has been taught by their masters
to seek salvation, which lies in the distant planet of
Yuggoth. They believe that the greatest human brains
will be taken to Yuggoth to transcend into something
as noble and perfect as the mi-go.
The Yuggoth cultists wear insect-like masks made

from scrap metal and leather or pink face paint. Some
of them bear fungoid mutations on their skin.
How to play the cultists
You cant reason with the cultists. They think their
cause is nobler and greater than anything else and
impossible to explain to anyone who has not seen
the White Light and the beauty of Yuggoth in their
dreams. They dont fear death, and are especially fear-
less and determined when they are in the company of
mi-gos or their flesh husks.
The greatest honor there is for a servant of Yuggoth
is to have their brains released from their body. They
believe that showing strength of will and great loyalty
to mi-go will expedite their ascension to Yuggoth.
When proving their worth, they often chant in unison
phrases like To Yuggoth!, Salvation for my mind!
or My body is ready!
Turn length
Notice that the turn length is approximately 10
seconds, but it is flexible. In general one character
can do one specific action every turn. If it fits the
game let the character try it and dont worry to
much about the time limit.
For example, on the first turn a character might
jam his cars wheel and gas pedal with something
found inside the car, on the second turn he can
climb on top of the car and on the third turn, try
to jump on a passing vehicle.
THE SETUP
Put the truck in the middle of the grid, and one sand
buggy on each side of the truck, one in front of it
and one behind it. Characters start four grid squares
behind the truck. The truck moves at a steady speed
and is always in the middle of the grid. All other vehi-
cles move on the grid, depending on what they do.
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THE ROAD
When the adventure starts, the truck is driving in an
open wasteland highway. Within a few miles, the road
descends onto a chthonian trail where it ascends back
to a highway and leads into ruins. After the ruins there
is a chase through an old bridge, and behind the bridge
there lies the mi-go mountain hive - a place where
people fear to go.
The Wasteland Highway: It takes four rounds for the
truck to reach the end of the wasteland highway.
The Chthonian Trail: A chthonian trail resembles a
canyon or giant chute, and takes four rounds to pass.
One grid square on each side of the truck is accessible
on the trail as the walls rise too steeply on each side.
The Ruins: It takes four rounds to go through the ruins
and at the beginning of every round roll d6. If the die
roll is 4 or more, there is a Hard turn or a short Jump
all the vehicles must make or the vehicle crashes onto
a building, rubble or a car wreck and takes normal
Collision Damage.
The Iron Bridge: The Bridge over the dried bay takes
four rounds to cross, before the chase is cut by a
heavily fortified gate that is manned by armed cultists.
Going throught the gate would be a suicide. The bridge
is filled with rubble and vehicle wrecks. Drivers must
make a Precision Driving check at the beginning of
their turn or the vehicle is hit by rubble and takes 1d10
points of Damage. On the bridge two grid squares on
each side of the truck are accessible.
The Gate: The way throught the bridge is cut by a heavy
iron gate manned by cultist warriors. Beyond the gate
lies the cultist lands and the dreaded mountain hive.
They open the gate for the truck and its escort vehi-
cles, but will fight any chasers with crossbows, guns
and molotovs. Going even close to the gate is a certain
suicide. There are enough men to fight of a small
warband.
The Mountains: The mi-go mountain hive resembles a
giant desert ant hill approximately a hundred meters
high. There are bluish vapors rising from the hive,
and it oozes purple sludge that has turned most of its
surroundings light-purple. Every character knows that
this place is beyond their limits (but if they want to
 The Rig Raid

go there, you can end this episode here, and you can In the beginning, the buggies are divided evenly
continue on with that scenario next time when you around the truck and drive at a steady speed.
have had time to think about how the characters can
get to the hive and what is in there).
Cultists
ff Drive: Serve the Mi-Go and prove their worth
SAND BUGGIES to their masters.
ff Vitality: 5
Cultists drive sand buggies that protect the truck. ff Push Limit: 0
There are four sand buggies protecting the truck, and ff Defense: 12
in each sand buggy, there are two cultists: the driver ff Attacks: per weapon
and a passenger standing behind the driver. Each sand ff Skills: Athletics 2, Fighting 2, Shooting, 2,
buggy carries a different weapon: one has two boom Driving 1
spears, another a regular spear, the third a crossbow ff Remarks: In addition to any other weapons,
and the fourth has a shotgun with five rounds. each cultist has a machete, an axe or a knife. The
trucks driver has a heavy pistol with 6 rounds.
Sand buggies protect the truck, and always try to stay
between the characters vehicles and the truck. If the Loot
characters are outnumbered, they try to ram the char-
acters vehicles, or if there are two sand buggies they Each cultist has a weapon and 1d20 bitz worth of other
to try to ram the vehicle from both sides. The buggy items.
passenger might also jump onto a vehicle and try to
burst the tires with their spear.

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 The Rig Raid
TRUCK
The heavily armored truck is transporting the kid-
napped victims to the mountain hive. The trucks
wheels are covered by armor plating and it has heavy
snow plow in front to ram barricades. The truck is
clumsy and mostly drives forward at a steady speed, or
tries to sideswipe the vehicles on either side of it. It has
two armored towers on top of it where cultists throw
spears onto passing vehicles (they carry two spears per
cultist). There are as many cultists on top of the truck
as there are player characters.

If the characters climb on top of the truck or the

truck stops, the driver sounds a horn and Cultist Boss
emerges from the hatch and climbs onto the roof of
the trailer. He is a big bald tattooed man holding a
chain with a chainsaw on its other end.

Cultist Boss
ff Drive: Protect the Mi-Go masters and their
valuable cargo.
ff Vitality: 15
ff Push Limit: 1
ff Defense: 12 (Armor 3)
ff Attacks: Chainsaw (Damage 2d8+2, Rending)
ff Skills: Fighting 6, Strength 7
ff Remarks: Chainsaw Master: The Cultist Boss
can throw his chainsaw up to Reach range. It
takes a Trifle to pull the chainsaw back and
catch it; Regeneration: The cultist boss can heal
1d6 Strain per turn as a Trifle.

Loot
The characters can find 2d10 x 10 bitz worth of various
scarp and small items. With a succesful Perception
check against CL 15 they can find a pistol with 2d10
rounds and knife hidden in the trucks cabin.

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TRAILER
Inside the trucks trailer the characters will find a
disturbing sight (Fear Rating 9). There are twelve life-
less bodies hanging from the trailers roof from thin
transparent threads. The bodies are naked and pale.
All the bodies are shaven hairless, and they are covered
in a thin layer of slime that smells like antiseptic fluids.
The bodies seem otherwise untouched, but all of the
bodies, except one, are missing the tops of their skulls
and the brains. Closer inspection (Medicine check
against CL 10) reveals that the one body is actually
alive, but the life signs are very faint, almost like she
was hibernating.
Behind the bodies, at the back of the trailer, stands a
strange cylinder made of a dark blue alien metal that
feels almost frictionless to the touch. The cylinder is
around two meters tall and maybe a meter in diam-
eter. It has weird engravings all around its surface,
and the air around the cylinder seems to ripple for an
unknown reason. If they are examined more closely,
the engravings look like they are moving.
If the characters decide to examine the cylinder more
closely, and succeed in a Mythos + Madness check
against CL 15, they will learn just in time that the cyl-
inder can be opened by touching a circular engraving
on its side. If the check is failed, the characters are
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The Rig Raid
caught off guard as a pink, man-sized crustacean-like
creature emerges from inside the cylinder through a
portal that has appeared on one side.
If the characters open the cylinder before the creature
comes out of it the characters can enter the cylinder.
Otherwise they must first deal with the creature.
Cargo Pod
The cylinder is actually a hyperdimensional device that
has many times larger space inside it than it should
be. The portal on the side of the cylinder leads to a
circular laboratory illuminated by a dim light with no
apparent light source. The characters can see various
devices and machines, whose purpose is unknown,
protruding from the floor and the roof. There are
tens of smaller metal cylinders, slightly bigger than a
human head, stored in small recesses in the walls. In
the middle of the space, there are two mi-gos in the
cargo pod. One is levitating in the air, restrained with
some kind of metallic tentacles. It seems unconscious.
The other creature is facing the other way, conduct-
ing its research and manipulating one of the strange
devices. The creatures are mi-gos.
If the creature notices the characters, it will make a
buzzing noise and takes a few steps back. It seems to
wait for help for one round until it realizes that no help

is coming. After that, the mi-go attacks the characters
and keeps them away from the other mi-go and the
strange devices.
Mi-Go
They were pinkish things about five feet long; with
crustaceous bodies bearing vast pairs of dorsal fins or
membraneous wings and several sets of articulated
limbs, and with a sort of convoluted ellipsoid, covered
with multitudes of very short antennae, where a head
would ordinarily be.... As it was, nearly all the rumours
had several points in common; averring that the crea-
tures were a sort of huge, light-red crab with many pairs
of legs and with two great bat-like wings in the middle
of their back.
The Whisperer in the Darkness, H.P. Lovecraft
ff Drive: Preserve special human brains and study
them.
ff Vitality: 24
ff Push Limit: 3
ff Defense: 13 (Carapace: Armor 3)
ff Attacks: Claws 1d6 (Quick), Deathray 2d8
(Rending, Close range, clip 5)
ff Skills: Athletics 3, Fighting 3, Dexterity 6,
Medicine 12, Science 9, Perception 4, Shooting
3, Mythos 8
ff Remarks: Fly: The mi-go can fly at normal
speed, and gain an Edge for Dodging while fly-
ing; Deathray: the mi-go is armed with a device
resembling a metallic beetle. The device shoots
white beams that burn searing holes into flesh.
The device is usable by humans at cost of 1d10
XP, but instead of running out of ammunition,
the device will reload itself automatically by
dealing 1d4 points Damage (this does not apply
to mi-gos.
Bill
The unconscious mi-go is actually a human named
Bill, whose brain is implanted into a mi-go body. Bill
awakes after the other mi-go is defeated or he is trans-
ported out of the Cargo Pod. He speaks perfect English
in a buzzing tone. He doesnt realize at first that he is in
a mi-go body, and is grateful that the characters have
come to rescue him. When he starts to realize what has
happened to him.
64
Sol Kane (Order #11402280)
The Rig Raid
When he realizes that he is doomed to live in the
mi-go body, he wants (choose one that fits your game):
...to be killed.
...to be left alone, and he wanders into the the
wasteland.
...to join the mi-go, and he heads for the moun-
tain hive.
Loot
The characters can find various items from the cargo
pod. The cylinders in the wall recesses contain human
brains preserved in a weird glittering substance. Each
cylinder is worth 500 bitz, if sold to people with right
connections. On top of the cylinders the characters
can find a device that looks like a silver crown. This
is a dream-crown, and it can be used to contact other
people, or mi-go, through dream-like telepathy. Last,
but not least, the characters can find various minor
alien artifacts worth 2d6 x 100 bitz in total.
Dream-crown (Artifact)
When a person wears this device like a crown in their
head and closes their eyes, he starts to hear whispers
all around him. When the device is worn for the first
time the user must make a Sanity Check against Fear
Rating 15 (Intensity 1d12). Every time after the first
time wearing the device causes 1d6 points of Stress.
When wearing the dream-crown, the character can
initiate a telepathic conversation with any other
person the character knows personally. The conversa-
tion happens in a dream-like illusionary environment.
Sometimes shadowy figures can be seen lurking in
the shadows. If either of the characters looks at these
figures, the mi-go will become aware of the characters
whereabouts.
ff Obscurity: 15 (2d10 XP)
ff Activations: 1d20
ff Barter Value: 2000 bitz
 The Rig Raid
EPILOGUE

If the characters manage to return the one body that

was alive,named Alysa, to the Sacred Oil Fort, they
will receive their reward. Otherwise, the High Priest
refuses to pay the characters anything. If the charac-
ters return to look for any of the cultist bodies or the
truck they realize their enemy has have vanished into
thin air. There are no tracks leading anywhere or tracks
of any kind on the ground.

Characters gain Experience according to the following

guidelines:

1d10 XP for defeating the cultists

1d10 XP for stopping the truck
1d10 XP for defeating the cultist boss
2d10 XP for defeating the mi-go
1d10 XP for saving Bill
1d10 XP for saving Alysa

65
Sol Kane (Order #11402280)
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Sol Kane (Order #11402280)

 Space Opera Role-Playing Game

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Sol Kane (Order #11402280)