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Rulebook

Chapter 4 — An Example of Play

The chapters that follow explain the system one rule at a time. This chapter shows it running first — a single continuous scene at the table, with the dice, the Momentum, and the small decisions that the prose can only describe in isolation. Read it once before your first session and the whole engine tends to click: players roll, the GM doesn't; characteristics tilt the dice instead of adding to them; Momentum is the currency that turns adversity into edge.

The crew here are four of the ready-to-play Wanderers from the Quickplay/Characters folder — Bram (Seeder soldier), Edda (Sleeper medic), Ace (Hound pilot), and Jinx (Feral fixer) — running a fragment of the starter adventure (Chapter 36). Mechanical notes are set off in brackets. Everyone starts the session at Momentum 3.

Index§

The scene: a checkpoint that shouldn't be there§

GM: The corridor from the docking ring runs straight to the lift you need — except someone's set up a folding table across it, and two bored people in mismatched security armor are checking tags. They weren't here yesterday. They clock your group. One of them straightens up: "Manifest and crew tags. This deck's restricted."

Jinx's player: I don't have a real tag, so I'm not showing one. I walk up like I own the place and tell them we're the contractor crew Greaves sent up to look at the heat exchanger before it cooks the whole ring — and could they hurry, because the longer we stand here the closer that gets. Can I bluff us through?

GM: That's a Deceive test. The guard's actively scrutinizing you, so it's opposed — your Deceive against his Psychology. Target's not 8 here; highest total wins (Chapter 5).

[Jinx has Deceive at Experienced (+1). Deceive defaults to Intellect, which is Neutral for her — no Advantage from the characteristic. But she has the Boon Silver Tongue, which covers exactly this: talking a hostile room around. She wants its Advantage.]

Jinx's player: I'm invoking Silver Tongue. That's a Boon, so it's 1 Momentum, not 2.

GM: Pay it. You're at Momentum 2 now. Roll 3D6, keep the highest two, add 1.

Jinx's player: [rolls 3D6: 5, 2, 6 → keep 5 and 6 = 11, +1 = 12.]

GM: The guard rolls his Psychology — he's Trained, Neutral. [GM rolls 2D6: 4, 3 = 7.] Twelve against seven, you bury him. He doesn't just believe you — he apologizes for the holdup and waves the whole crew past, table and all. You're through, and now you've got a guard who thinks you're the official fix-it crew, which may be worth more later than getting past him was.

[Why the Boon mattered: Advantage doesn't stack and always costs Momentum to activate. A characteristic would have charged 2; the Boon did the same job for 1. That's the Boon economy (Chapter 9) — a honed, specific edge is cheaper than raw aptitude.]

A door, a deadline, and a hot compartment§

GM: The lift drops you to the engineering deck. It's wrong down here — emergency lighting, a low rad-warning chime, and the heat exchanger Jinx invented as a cover story is, it turns out, genuinely failing. Ace, your Nose for Trouble itches: the air tastes off and the dosimeter on Edda's belt has started ticking.

Ace's player: Great. So my lie is now real. Love that. What's the actual danger?

GM: A coolant line's been cut — deliberately — and the compartment beyond that sealed door is taking a rising dose of radiation from the exposed exchanger core. The thing you came up here for is on the far side of it. Radiation is a hazard on a clock (Chapter 13): every round you're in there unprotected, it compares its intensity to your Radiation rating, and a hit is Maimed-grade — it won't wash out with rest. None of you is in a sealed suit. So the real question is how fast you get in and out.

Edda's player: Can I read how bad it is before anyone goes in? I've got the dosimeter.

GM: A dosimeter doesn't protect you, but it warns you — it grants Advantage on the roll to read the zone and time your exposure. Make a Recon test, 8+.

[Edda is Untrained in Recon (−3) — a steep penalty. But the dosimeter is a GM-granted situational edge, so its Advantage costs 1 Momentum.]

Edda's player: Untrained is brutal. Is it worth a point of Momentum?

GM: Your call. Without it you're rolling 2D6−3 against 8 — you basically need boxcars.

Edda's player: Pay the Momentum, take the Advantage. [Momentum 3 → 2.] [rolls 3D6, keep highest two: 6, 6, 1 → 12, −3 = 9. Success.]

GM: Nicely read. You work out that the core pulses — there's a low ebb every few seconds. Anyone who moves on your mark gets one clean round inside before the clock so much as ticks. More than one round in there and the rads start landing. That turns a deadly room into a fast room.

Ace's player: That's me. I'm quickest. I go in on her mark, grab the case, come straight back.

GM: One round, in and out — on Edda's timing you take no dose. But the case is mag-clamped to the deck. Getting it loose is a Mechanical test, and you're Untrained in that. If you blow the roll, you're still in there when the core pulses back up.

Ace's player: ...this is why we should've brought Echo. Fine. Untrained Mechanical, Neutral. [rolls 2D6: 3, 5 = 8. Just makes it.] Eight!

GM: Exactly on the number — a barely (Chapter 5). The clamp releases, but you fumble it for half a second, and that's enough that the pulse catches the edge of you on the way out. Take 1 trauma, Maimed-grade, from the dose.

Ace's player: Ugh. Okay — that's a physical point. Wounded's open, so I'd normally put it there... but Maimed-grade means it lands as the lasting kind regardless of which node, right?

GM: Right. Radiation contamination is Maimed-grade: it marks a node that won't clear with rest (Chapter 10). You mark Maimed. And per the trauma rules, taking trauma earns you Momentum — gain 1.

[Ace started the scene at Momentum 3 and hasn't spent any. He marks Maimed and ticks Momentum 3 → 4. Note the system's rhythm — the hit hurts and hands the player back a resource. Adversity feeds the engine.]

Ace's player: So I limp out of there glowing slightly, with the case, up a point of Momentum and down a leg. On brand.

It goes loud§

GM: You're barely clear of the door when the lift opens behind you. The person who cut that coolant line came back to make sure it stayed cut — and finds five strangers holding the case. They've got a carbine up before anyone says a word. Roll initiative: 2D6 each, Dexterity tilts it, and on initiative the tilt is free — you don't spend Momentum for it (Chapter 11).

[Initiative — applied free, like a creation roll. Bram (Dex Neutral): 2D6 = 9. Jinx (Dex Advantage): 3D6 keep high two = 10. Ace (Dex Advantage, but he's Maimed — GM rules the bad leg imposes Disadvantage on his initiative): Advantage and Disadvantage on the same roll cancel (Chapter 6) → he rolls a plain 2D6 = 6. Edda (Neutral): 5. Order: Jinx, Bram, Ace, Edda — then the shooter.]

GM: Jinx, you're fastest. The shooter hasn't picked a target yet.

Jinx's player: I'm not a fighter and my Strength and Endurance are Disadvantaged — I am not trading shots. I dive behind the coolant housing for cover and yell for Bram to take it.

GM: Good instinct. That housing is Solid cover — +4 armor while it's between you and the shooter. A Minor action to get there, and you've spent your turn keeping your head down. Bram?

Bram's player: I put myself between the shooter and the crew and fire the carbine. Standard shot.

GM: Ranged Weapons test, 8+. Range is Close — well inside your carbine's band, no penalty.

[Bram has Ranged Weapons at Experienced (+1); Dexterity Neutral. He could try to buy Advantage, but no characteristic Advantage applies and he's holding Momentum for a reaction he can feel coming. He rolls straight.]

Bram's player: [rolls 2D6: 6, 5 = 11, +1 = 12. Effect +4.] Twelve.

GM: You catch them mid-movement. They're an ordinary armed opponent — no special armor — so your hit lands clean. [The shooter is a mook: one solid hit puts them down (Chapter 40). The GM doesn't roll for the NPC; Bram's success is the result.] They fold against the lift wall and slide down. One shooter dealt with — but the carbine they dropped wasn't the only one. A second figure leans out of the lift and fires at Bram.

GM: Bram, an attacker's shooting at you — so you roll to avoid it; I don't roll to hit (Chapter 11, Chapter 40). You can take a reaction. Your first reaction this round is free.

Bram's player: I'm not dodging, I'm advancing — but I'll Dodge the shot as I close. Athletics.

[Dodge uses Athletics (Dexterity). Bram is Untrained in Athletics (−3), Dexterity Neutral. A successful reaction imposes Disadvantage on the attacker — but here the GM resolves the attacker's shot as Bram's avoid roll: Bram simply needs to clear 8 to slip it.]

Bram's player: [rolls 2D6: 5, 4 = 9, −3 = 6. Misses 8.] Six. That doesn't clear it.

GM: It doesn't. The round catches you. Their weapon is a standard sidearm — 3D damage — against your armor. And here's where the carapace earns its price. [Bram's worn armor is +10, base 3 = armor 13. GM rolls 3D6: 5, 4, 6 = 15.] Fifteen beats your armor of 13, so that's 1 trauma — but it's nowhere near twice your armor (26), so it's only the one. The plate turns what would've dropped an unarmored Wanderer into a bruise and a scare.

Bram's player: I'll take Wounded. And I gain a Momentum for the hit?

GM: You do — Momentum up to 4. [Bram: Wounded marked; Momentum 3 → 4.] You stagger half a step and keep coming.

[The teaching moment lives in that damage roll. Armor in Wanderstar doesn't subtract from damage — it raises the bar the damage has to clear (Chapter 10). The same 3D that would have done 2 trauma to a bare body (armor 3) did only 1 to Bram's 13. Gear is the difference between a wound and a grave.]

Closing it out§

GM: Ace, your turn — but I'll note your leg. Anything that turns on hard, fast movement is at Disadvantage while you're Maimed.

Ace's player: Then I won't do anything athletic. I've still got line on the second shooter from the doorway. Snub scattergun, close range — that's my Spread trait, Advantage up close. I shoot.

GM: Ranged Weapons, 8+. Spread grants situational Advantage at close range — a GM-granted edge, so 1 Momentum to activate.

Ace's player: Pay it. [Momentum 4 → 3.] [rolls 3D6 keep high two: 2, 5, 6 → 11. Success.] Eleven.

GM: The spread catches them as they lean out. Second shooter's down. The deck goes quiet except for the rad-chime and the hum of the failing exchanger. You're holding the case, Bram's bleeding but standing, and Ace's leg is a problem.

Edda's player: That's my cue. I'm Trained-plus in Survival with a first-aid kit — I patch Bram. Can I clear his Wounded?

GM: Yes — first aid is a Survival test, 8+, and it can clear a Wounded or Shaken node in the field (Chapter 10). It can't touch Maimed, so Ace's leg is beyond a field patch — that needs a real recovery session. For Bram, roll it.

[Edda has Survival at Experienced (+1), and the Boon Steady Hands for medical work under pressure — worth 1 Momentum.]

Edda's player: Invoke Steady Hands, pay the Momentum. [Momentum 2 → 1.] [rolls 3D6 keep high two: 4, 4, 3 → 8, +1 = 9.] Nine.

GM: Clean work. Bram's Wounded node clears — he's patched. Ace, your Maimed stays; put "get this leg properly seen to" on the threads list — that's a whole session's problem, and you've got a medic in the crew who can lead it. For now: you have the case, the deck's secured, and somewhere on this ring a guard still thinks you're the official repair crew. What do you do with that?

What just happened — the system in one scene§

  • Players rolled every die that mattered. The GM rolled only damage (and a single opposed Psychology check). Both shooters were resolved by player rolls — Bram's attack succeeding, Bram's avoid failing — never by the GM rolling to hit. (Chapters 11, 40.)
  • Characteristics tilted dice; they never added to them. Advantage and Disadvantage were 3D6-keep-2, and when Ace's Maimed Disadvantage met his Dexterity Advantage on initiative, they cancelled to a flat 2D6. (Chapter 6.)
  • Momentum was the spine of every choice. It started at 3, was spent to activate Advantage (and a Boon cost half what a characteristic would), and was gained from taking trauma. Jinx's Boon paid 1 where a characteristic would have charged 2; Bram and Ace each banked a point for getting hurt. (Chapters 7, 9.)
  • Armor raised the bar instead of soaking damage. The same 3D that maims a bare Wanderer barely troubled Bram in his carapace. (Chapter 10.)
  • Trauma told a story and set up the next session. Ace's Maimed leg can't be patched in the field; it becomes a thread the crew — and their medic — will have to spend real time on. (Chapter 10.)

Run your own first scene this way and you'll find the rules mostly disappear into the fiction, which is the point.