Componentes centrales

when they gain their second point of Distance. Only with this Prime Meridian will the character be able to create Formidable (4) or Ridiculous (5+) effects.

Lisa decides to mix it up and takes Juicing as per Prime Meridian. This means she could potentially create very potent electrical effects.

Along with this Meridian comes a special Prime Quality, which gives the character a bonus when us-ing the Meridian and other Skills in certain ways. This Prime Quality is almost like a fraternity or profession that the Nearsider belongs to.

She selected the Shocker Prime Quality. This will allow her to be better in combat where she might be otherwise lacking. She now gains a bonus when at-tacking others with her Juicing power and may feel a special kinship with other Shockers.

A Prime Meridian and Prime Quality are selected in tandem, typically during character creation.

How-Meridians

ever, some campaigns may begin before First Fall, prior to characters gaining their second point of Distance.

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Upon reaching Distance 4, a Nearsider gains access to a second Meridian. This secondary Meridian does not come with a Distance Quality and is limited in scope.

Characters can only create effects of Daunting (3) dif-ficulty or lower.

Lisa gains her fourth point of Distance and selects the Writing Meridian. She knows she will never be able to erase a memory or totally take control of a tar-get. Still, she will be able to implant suggestions and enhance her attempts to manipulate others.

When they reach Distance 8, a Nearsider gains ac-cess to their third and final Meridian. This tertiary Merid-ian is even more limited in scope. Characters can only create effects of Challenging (2) difficulty or lower.

With her final Meridian, Lisa selects Reading. She figures the ability to read surface thoughts could come in handy.

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As a Nearsider travels and gains access to additional Meridians, they will able to combine them with one an-other to create unique effects. These combined effects must include the Prime Meridian.

These combinations are limited by the less power-ful of the Meridians involved. So a Prime Meridian com-bined with the second Meridian can only create effects of Daunting (3) Final Difficulty or lower. A combination that includes the tertiary Meridian can only create ef-fects with a Challenging (2) Final Difficulty or lower.

A combined Meridian Check is made using the character’s Prime Meridian skill Concentration.

For example, Lisa wants to create an effect that combines Juicing and Writing. She wants to create a shock that causes damage and makes the target forget what caused the damage. The GM decides this would be a Daunting (3) difficulty check and allows it.

Later, she wants to create a shock that would make the target’s life flash before their eyes and trans-fer it into her mind. This is definitely a combination of Juicing and Reading. But since Reading is her tertiary Meridian and the difficulty would be higher than

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Characters use the Meridian Skill to create Meridian effects, just as the Marksmanship Skill is used to fire a gun or the Athletics Skill is used to climb a wall.

The entire Meridian Skill itself can never be im-proved beyond Unfamiliar (10+). Rather, characters can only improve the individual Concentrations that corre-spond to the Meridians they possess.

Using the Meridian Skill and its Concentrations to make a Meridian Check is a standard action and fol-lows the same basic structure as other Action Checks, although there are several important differences.

l Depth is always used to determine the dice pool of a Meridian Check, regardless of the intended effect.

l Successes must be fueled (activated) with Momen-tum. This Momentum can be previously banked or generated during the Meridian Check itself.

l Successes always generate some kind of effect – even if it’s not what was intended.

l Momentum cannot be used to gain automatic suc-cesses.

l If the character has no Momentum, he cannot even attempt a Meridian Check.

When using Meridians, characters are tapping into the Nearside and using their Momentum to bend real-ity. All this really requires from the character is focus and determination. When employing their Meridians, most Nearsiders look as if they are in deep concen-tration or trying to control some unseen force within them (which they are).

Although it doesn’t require special gestures, words or totems, some Nearsiders employ them to as-sist with their concentration (and to deceive others as to the source of the effect).

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Tell the GM what your Meridian effect will look like, what it is doing, and what you hope to accomplish. Be descriptive. A good description makes it much easier for the GM to assign a difficulty in step 2.

Example 1: China is playing a Chancer whose car has been forced off the road and is about to go over a cliff. She is going to jump out of the car and hope she gets lucky enough to find something

Meridians

happen to the GM, “Looking around the area, it seems like there’s a chance there will be roots and branches sticking out from the cliff face. I’d like to be lucky enough to have one or two within arm’s reach as I fall.”

Example 2: Jay is playing a Closer who wants to close all the exits from a room. He describes it to the GM, “I’d like all the ways out of the room – the doors and windows – to close at the same time, like an army of ghosts are slamming them shut at the same time. Immediately after they close, each of them latch or lock tight, one after the other in quick succession.”

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The GM determines the Base Difficulty and Final Difficulty for the effect your character is trying to achieve.

The Base Difficulty is used to determine the de-fense successes needed to resist the effect.

The Final Difficulty is equal to the Base Difficulty, plus or minus any modifiers. This is the number of successes needed to be rolled and fueled.

Example 1: The GM decides that creating a likely, but serendipitous, effect has a Base Difficulty of Challenging (2). There are no other modifiers, so the Final Difficulty is also Challenging (2).

Example 2: The GM decides that closing and locking a simple portal is an Average (1) difficulty.

However, since he wants to affect so many at once (2 doors and 3 windows), he increases the difficulty by two levels. It has a Final Difficulty of Daunting (3).

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The dice pool for a Meridian Check is always based on Depth. Additional dice can be gained from various Qualities, Skill synergies or by spending Momentum.

Example 1: China’s character only has a Depth of 3 and the Meridian: Chancer Concentration at Familiar (9+). She really doesn’t want to plunge to her death, so she spends one point of her precious Momentum to add an extra die to her Meridian Check. She will roll 4d@9+.

Example 2: Jay’s character has a Depth of 4 and the Meridian: Closer Concentration of Trained (8+).

He also has the Deadbolt Prime Quality. This gives him an extra die when shutting portals. He will roll 5d@8+.

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A potential success is generated for every die that is equal to or higher than the character’s Meridian Skill or Concentration. Even more potential successes can be generated in step 6, thanks to Momentum!

Example 1: China rolls 4d@9+ and gets a 4, 6, 8 and 9 – giving her one potential success. She is one short of what she needed.

Example 2: Jay rolls 5d@8+ and gets a 4, 8, 9, 10 and 12 – giving him 4 potential successes. That is more than enough for his effect. He also gets a point of Momentum that he will use later.

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Just like any other Action Check, any 2d that add up to exactly 13 generate a point of Momentum. This Momentum can either be: banked, used to make a Momentum Roll (step 6) or used to fuel a potential success (step 7).

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Example 1: The 4 and 9 add up to 13, generating one point of Momentum. China will make a Momentum Roll in the hopes of getting another potential success.

Example 3: Jay’s character is already at his maxi-mum Momentum, so he will use the point he just generated as part of the Momentum used to fuel his potential successes.

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A Momentum Roll consists of 2d. If either of the dice is greater than the target number, another potential suc-cess has been generated. If the 2d add up to exactly 13, another point of Momentum has been generated, which can be: banked, used to make another Momen-tum Roll (step 6) or used to fuel a potential success (step 7).

Example 1: China rolls 2d and get a 6 and 7 – nei-ther is a potential success. But they add up to 13, so she makes another Momentum Roll. She rolls an 11 and 12, getting the additional potential success she needed.

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Potential successes do not become actual successes un-less Momentum is spent to activate them. It costs one point of Momentum to activate one success.

Players can also decide how many potential suc-cesses to activate and may even choose not to activate any of them.

Example 1: China spends two of her four banked Momentum to fuel the two potential successes she rolled. The effect goes off as planned and she is down to two points of Momentum.

Example 2: Jay spends the point of Momentum he just generated plus three points that he had banked.

This fuels the four potential successes and the effect goes off better than planned. His is now down to five points of Momentum.

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There are five possible outcomes when using a Meridian:

l Botch – All dice rolled are 1s or 2s. The effect fails and something bad happens.

l Failure – No successes. The effect fails.

l Partial Success – Not enough successes. The

at-l Success – Just enough successes. The effect desired is achieved.

l Extra Successes – More successes than needed.

The effect goes off better than intended.

Example 1: As China’s character dives from the car and tumbles off the cliff, she finds herself bounc-ing off the scratchy arms of a tiny evergreen and her descent is slowed. The GM gives her a Challenging (2) Body check to grab onto the next branch that will soon be within reach.

Example 2: Jay’s character claps his hands to-gether. As they slap together all the doors and win-dows slam shut simultaneously. Then, one after the other, everyone in the rooms watch as the doors lock tight and the windows latch shut. Thanks to his extra success, the GM determines that all of these will be harder than usual to open and will increase the dif-ficulty of all future attempts to open them.

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If the Meridian effect is directed at an unwilling or unsuspecting target, they get a chance to resist it.

Defending against damage or an effect is resolved the same way. The target makes an Attribute Check with a difficulty equal to the Base Difficulty of the ef-fect. If the defender gets more successes, they have completely resisted the effect.

Neither example has an effect directed at an

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Meridians are free form. It is up to players to de-termine what they’d like to accomplish with their character’s Meridian effect. As long as the effect is within the realm of the Nearsider’s Meridian, he can attempt it. Each Meridian has a specific set of capabilities and limitations that must be adhered to. See Meridians later in the chapter for more in-formation.

Creativity and resourcefulness are the most powerful traits a player can possess while playing a Nearsider. Each Meridian has its limitations, but most obstacles have more than one solution. The enter-taining and clever use of Meridians is a great way to earn experience and generate Momentum, which is sure to come in handy.

Players should explain not only what their char-acters are trying to do, but why they want to do it.

What do they hope the outcome will be? It is well and good for a player to say he wants to read some-one’s mind, but is the intent to find a particular piece of information, or to see if they’re lying or to acquire one of their skills?

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The free-form nature of Meridians can present chal-lenges for GMs because it’s important to consis-tently assign Base Difficulties and Final Difficulties for every effect players create during a story.

The Base Difficulty is used to determine how hard an effect is to defend. This is the heart of the ef-fect and encapsulates what is trying to be achieved without modifiers (such as range, area of effect, number of targets, etc.).

The Final Difficulty represents the number of successes a player must roll in order to successfully use their Meridian. This is simply the Base Difficulty plus or minus any modifiers.

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Effects use the same difficulty levels as standard Skills. It’s relatively easy to determine that a leap across a 10’ gap is easier than jumping across a 15’

gap. But it much hard to consistently judge what difficulty level a reality bending effects fall into – es-pecially when compared to other reality bending

effects. Is it easier to read a mind than to turn water into wine or to create bad luck?

Determining difficulty is more of an art. It should embrace consistency and story over number crunch-ing. Many examples and guidelines are presented to help in this process, but it is not an exact science.

When in doubt, GMs are encouraged to err on the side of a lower difficulty.

AveRAge (1) effecTs

These are typically inwardly directed or have little perceptible effect on reality. These effects can only affect the world in superficial ways. They produce results similar to that which can be gained from a simple piece of equipment (hammer, magnifying glass, etc.) or by someone without training and/or minimal effort. A non-Nearsider should not notice these effects.

chAllenging (2) effecTs

These can create small but noticeable effect on real-ity. These effects can affect the world in simple, but straightforward ways. The can produce results similar to those that can be gained from common tools (mi-croscope, soldering iron, etc.) or by someone with training and hard work. A non-Nearsider should be able to easily explain away these effects as natural phenomenon or coincidences.

A Challenging (2) Difficulty is the maximum effect a Nearsider can achieve with his third Meridian.

dAunTing (3) effecTs

These can create strong effects that are measurable and within the realms of possibility. These effects can affect the world in significant (typically strong but un-complicated) ways. They can produce results similar to those that can be gained from everyday technol-ogy (computers, cameras, etc.) or by several people with expertise and maximum effort. These are the most potent effects that a non-Nearsider could still believe as naturally occurring.

A Daunting (3) Difficulty is the maximum effect a Nearsider can achieve with his second Meridian.

foRmidABle (4) effecTs

These can create effects that break or bend reality.

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These effects can have an impact on the world in pow-erful and complicated ways. They can produce results similar to those that can be gained from advanced tech-nology (artificial intelligence, medical diagnostics, etc.) or the work produced by machinery. These effects are so blatant that non-Nearsiders would perceive them as magic or supernatural.

Ridiculous (5+) effecTs

These can create effects that have a profound im-pact on reality. These effects can affect the world in incredibly potent and sophisticated ways. They can produce results that cannot be gained from existing technology or replicated through human effort. A non-Nearsider should look upon these effects with awe and disbelief.

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It would be impossible to list every possible effect available from every possible Meridian. However, here are some common effects that many Meridians are capable of achieving. These effects can come about in many ways and can take many different forms, but the

AffecTAn ATTRiBuTe

Nearsiders can both increase or decrease a target’s Mind, Body or Soul. Depth cannot be affected. Chang-ing an Attribute by 1 point is a DauntChang-ing (2) effect.

Every additional success allows an additional point of change.

AffecTA skilloR defense

Changes to Skills, Concentrations and Defenses are reflected by changing the dice pool when using them – not by changing the Target Number. Increasing or decreasing one of these is a Challenging (2) effect. Ev-ery additional success allows an additional die worth of change.

AffecTingA quAliTy

Removing a negative Quality or condition from some-one is a Formidable (4) effect. Adding a Quality is typ-ically better reflected by increasing a Skill or Attribute.

dAmAge /sTun

Hurting others is a common occurrence and is pos-sible via multiple Meridians in countless ways.

l 1 Success: 1 point of Damage

l 2 Successes: Net Successes vs. Defense + Depth in Damage

l Each Additional Success: Deal 1 additional point of Damage

Attempting to stun someone so they lose an ac-tion is an Average (1) effect.

disRupT effecT

Characters with the same Prime Meridian or oppo-site Prime Meridians (such Opener /Closer or Finder / Keeper) can attempt to disrupt the effects the other.

The Base Difficulty to disrupt (or undo) an active effect is the Base Difficulty of the original effect.

The resulting damage and consequences of effects cannot be disrupted, e.g. the damage caused to a target.

Effects cannot be instantly interrupted unless the disrupter has held their action and is waiting for an ef-fect to be attempted.

heAling

When healing damage, the more successes the better.

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healed, although it is also possible to repair Mind and Soul damage.

l 1 Success: Heal 1 point of damage

l 2 Successes: Heal Depth points of damage l Each Additional Success: Heal 1 additional point of damage

gATheRing infoRmATion

Whether it comes from within someone else’s mind, the Internet or the Nearside itself, knowledge is pow-er. The more heavily buried, protected or obscure the information, the more difficult it is to obtain.

peRfoRm TAsk

The end results of pure physical labor can be replicated by a Nearsider, especially if the proper tools are pres-ent. The more skill, time or effort required to perform a task, the higher the Base Difficulty. Extra successes can be used to reduce the amount of time taken for the task or to improve the quality of the end results.

modifieRs

Once the Base Difficulty of an effect has been deter-mined, the following modifiers can be used to de-termine the Final Difficulty. There are also useful as guidelines for the application of extra successes.

AReAof effecT/oBJecT size

Only a small object or area (3 foot radius) is affected by an unmodified Meridian effect. A larger area can be included in the effect by increasing the Final

Only a small object or area (3 foot radius) is affected by an unmodified Meridian effect. A larger area can be included in the effect by increasing the Final

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