Reference — Quick Rules Summary

A one-stop summary of the rules you reach for most. Chapter pointers in parentheses lead to the full text.

The core test (Ch 5)§

2D6 + skill bonus ≥ 8 = success.

Target is always 8. Make something harder/easier by deciding whether to roll at all, by Advantage/Disadvantage, by gating on training or gear, by raising what failure costs, or by requiring several successes — never by moving the 8.

• Snake eyes (natural 2): catastrophic failure regardless of bonus.
• Boxcars (natural 12): exceptional success regardless of penalty.
• Opposed test: both sides roll 2D6 + skill; higher total wins; ties go to the defender.

Advantage & Disadvantage (Ch 6)§

• Advantage: roll 3D6, keep highest 2. Disadvantage: roll 3D6, keep lowest 2.
• Any one Advantage + any one Disadvantage cancel to a flat 2D6 (regardless of how many of each). Advantage does not stack.

Characteristics (Ch 6)§

Strength · Dexterity · Endurance · Intellect · Education · Social Standing. They grant Advantage/Disadvantage, not numeric modifiers. Set in equal pairs at creation (0/0 to 3/3); creation Disadvantages are permanent.

Skill ranks (Ch 8)§

Trained is the key threshold. Untrained skills can't be marked — they advance only by spending XP.

Momentum (Ch 7)§

• Start each session with 3; no carryover. Cap 6.
• Gain 1 per Disadvantage roll (any source) and 1 per trauma point taken.
• Spend to activate Advantage: 2 for a characteristic, 1 for a Boon or a GM situational edge. Pay only the cheapest source; no stacking. No Momentum = no Advantage.
• Assist: an ally may pay the 1-Momentum cost of your Advantage from their pool when the fiction supports them helping (Ch 7); one Assist per roll, doesn't stack.
• Not used during character creation.

Boons & Banes (Ch 9)§

• Boon: relevant → Advantage for 1 Momentum. Costs 5 XP.
• Bane: relevant → Disadvantage. Never costs XP to take; first two at creation give +5 XP each; any invoked Bane earns 1 XP/session. Buy off for 10 XP between sessions.

Trauma & armor (Ch 10)§

• Base armor 3 + gear. Damage ≥ armor = 1 trauma; ≥ 2× armor = 2 trauma.
• Two tracks, two nodes each: Physical Wounded→Maimed, Mental Shaken→Broken. Mark either track (your choice); overflow to the other when one is full.
• Wounded/Shaken clear with rest or field first aid (Survival test, Trained+, kit). Maimed/Broken need a full recovery session.
• Every node full → next trauma kills.
• End of creation: Wounded & Shaken clear; only Maimed/Broken carry into play.

The combat round (Ch 11)§

• Initiative: 2D6 + Dexterity (free Adv/Dis), high to low.
• Each turn: one Significant Action + a few Minor Actions.
• Effect = (2D6 + skill) − 8 (colour by default, not bonus damage).
• Players roll; NPCs don't. When a threat attacks, the player rolls to avoid (skill vs 8); fail = GM rolls the threat's damage (Ch 40).

Range bands§

Beyond a weapon's effective band → Disadvantage.

Reactions (1 free/round; +1 costs 1 Momentum)§

A successful reaction imposes Disadvantage on the attacker.

• Dodge (Athletics) — not vs Blast.
• Parry (Close Quarters) — melee only; not vs Smasher.
• Dive for cover — only defence vs Blast.

Cover (adds to armor)§

Light +2 · Solid +4 · Total = untargetable.

Scale (Ch 12)§

Compare armor only within a band. Gap = target band − weapon band: 0 normal · −1 treat as Destructive (2 trauma, doubled areas) · −2+ destroyed/killed · +1+ no trauma, AP negated (need a scale-capable weapon or a clever angle).

S0 Personal · S1 Vehicle · S2 Heavy · S3 Colossal.

Vehicles & ships (Ch 25)§

Baseline Armor 24 / weapons 8D (until built, Ch 26). Track: Hull (Damaged→Wrecked), Systems (On Fire→Offline). Crew roll; GM rolls only enemy damage. Engineer clears first-track nodes; Wrecked/Offline need a yard.

Jump (Ch 27)§

Hexes = 1 parsec. Jump-1 standard; 1 week per jump, cut off. Plot = Physics (roll only if Untrained or under pressure); failed plot → misjump check. No FTL comms.

Character creation (Part III)§

1. Name & heritage (RP only).
2. Characteristics: N Advantage / N Disadvantage (0–3).
3. Careers: entry test (8+), 4 fixed skills, first term auto-succeeds; term roll 8+/5–7/3–4/≤2; Life Event after every term; age 18 +4/term.
4. Outfit: Cr2,000 + two choices (Cr1,500 or rolled gear); 40 free XP + career XP; up to 2 starting Banes (+5 XP each). Spend: 10 XP = +1 rank, 5 XP = Boon.

Advancement & session end (Ch 20)§

• Fail a test at Trained+ → mark the skill.
• Session end: roll 2D6 per mark (clear it; nat 12 = +1 rank, else +1 XP; nat 12 at Expert = +2 XP); +1 XP for the session; +1 XP per invoked Bane.
• 10 XP = +1 rank; 10 XP = remove a Bane; 5 XP = Boon; 20 XP = a Mastery (skill held at Expert; bought in play, not at creation). Skill cap Expert (+3); Masteries open past it.

Faction play (Ch 34)§

• A faction is agenda + reach + influence clock (4/6/8 segments) — no stat block.
• Standing uses the Contact spectrum (Ally/Contact/Rival/Enemy), tracked as fiction.
• Faction turn (between sessions/jumps): each faction ticks its clock forward if the crew helped or ignored it (it creeps +1 on its own regardless), back if the crew or a rival hindered it. Clock fills → it succeeds; set a new one.
• Players never roll "against a faction" — they act in scenes (tests vs 8), and the GM keeps the clock. Word travels no faster than a ship, so the crew sees results, not moves.

The GM toolkit (Part IX) — what to roll, where§

The oracle — solo & co-op play (Part X)§

For playing with no GM. Ask a yes-or-no question, judge how likely Yes is, roll 2D6 vs 8:

8+ = Yes; 7− = No. The oracle's Advantage/Disadvantage is free — it never touches Momentum (Ch 7).

• Doubles (scoring dice) = a spark: yes, but… / no, but… — or roll an interrupt (encounter, Ch 41; or What Intrudes, Ch 43).
• Kept 6-6 = "yes, and…" (emphatic); kept 1-1 = "no, and…" (emphatic). Both spark.
• Open questions (what/who/why) → roll the fitting generator (Part IX), not the oracle.
• Co-op tiebreak: disagreement on what's true → put it to the oracle at agreed odds; the player who argued the case doesn't judge the roll (Ch 45).