4 | Scenic Time

Most of the events of a mission take place in scenic time. While in scenic time, you’ll be presented with a situation by the GR and given free reign to decide how you respond to it. Play unfolds very much like a conversation, where you say what you want to do, and the GR determines the consequences. Your overarching goal for a scene will be determined by the events of the mission so far, but how you go about achieving that goal—the strategy you pursue, the tactics you use—is up to you.

For the most part, you just say what you want to do, and if it’s reasonable, it happens. If it’s not possible for some reason, the GR will explain why and you can do something else instead. This might happen because of some factor you hadn’t considered, or something the GR neglected to mention, and it’s easiest to simply acknowledge the confusion and move on.

While scenic time tends to proceed in a fairly linear fashion most of the time, it’s likely that at some points, you’ll find yourself discussing a plan as a group and then realise that it relies on you having done something you obviously would have done, had your characters been having the conversation at the time when they obviously would have had that conversation. In this case, it’s fine to rewind a little and establish that you definitely actually did that thing.

Approach tests

In the course of a scene, you’ll face various obstacles which prevent you from completing an immediate goal. An obstacle might be physical—a locked door that bars your way, a blaring siren alerting everyone to your presence—or it could be an Extra: a civilian who won’t answer your questions, or worse, insists they want to help you out, an Agent who’s suspicious of your day job, a Demon trying to throw you off a building or a Rogue attempting to dominate you with their mind.

When you try to overcome a meaningful obstacle like this, you describe how you want to approach the problem and roll the appropriate dice. This is called an approach test, or testing an approach.

Forceful	Quick	Careful
Breaking down doors	Running fast	Sneaking around
Lifting heavy objects	Reacting to danger	Defusing a bomb
Intimidating someone	Impressing someone	Deceiving someone

Making an approach test

Game Runner: If the security guard gets around that corner, he’s going to see the demon and you’ll have another witness on your hands. What are you going to do?

Gabrielle (playing Chrissie LeStrange): Argh! I’m going to start a fight with him. I’m going to challenge him to a fight.

GR: Sounds like you’re being forceful. Make an approach test.

Gabrielle: I’ve only got 2d6 for forceful… can I set off running away and see if he’ll chase me?

GR: Sure, I guess you can be quick.

Gabrielle: Okay, that’s 2d8… I got a 3!

GR: You turn to sprint, but he’s faster than you thought and dives for you, knocking you down. As you look up at him from the ground, you can see the demon’s shadow on the wall behind him…

Target scores

The GR will set a target score based on how difficult the task is. If the result of your approach test meets or beats the target score, you succeed, otherwise you fail.

The default target score for an approach test is 9, meaning a roll with no modifiers is slightly more likely to succeed than fail if you use a favoured approach, slightly more likely to fail than succeed with your average approach, and likely to fail if you use the approach you’re bad at. The GR may decrease or increase the target score to reflect beneficial or detrimental circumstances.

Failing an approach test

Failing to overcome an obstacle is never good. Depending on the obstacle, failure might mean drawing undue attention to yourself, sustaining an injury or losing a promising lead; it will always make it harder for you and your cell to achieve your immediate goals.

Luckily, you always have a chance to make things right, at the cost of Energy. When you fail an approach test, you can spend 3 Energy to reroll your dice, describing how you attempt to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. If you succeed, disaster is averted; if you fail, you might just make things even worse.

Working together

For some activities, such as climbing a wall or lifting a heavy object, having multiple people contributing to the outcome can make the task easier. The GR is the final arbiter of whether you can attempt to work together on a task. If so, the task becomes easier: the target number to overcome the obstacle is reduced by 2. However, the cost of failure is also increased: both players roll against the number, and if either fails to meet or exceed the target number, both characters suffer any consequences of failure.

Other obstacles, for example sneaking your cell through a patrolled building, require everyone’s participation, but having one person take the lead makes things easier for the others. You can spend 2 Energy when you make the approach test to lead the cell. If you succeed, the target number is reduced by 4 for the other players.

Failure and cooperation

Sandra (playing Martina Hernandez): Urgh! I rolled 2d10 and got a 4 on my test to climb over the roof Carefully.

Game Runner: The rooftop is wet and slippery, and in the dark you lose your balance and fall down the roof. What do you do?

Sandra: I’m going to reroll. I want to try and catch the guttering before I fall off completely.

GR: Lose three Energy and make me another Quick roll. I’m going to warn you, this will be difficult.

Dion (playing Eddie Grimes): Can I try and catch her hand as she falls past to make it easier?

GR: You sure can, but I’ll need a roll from both of you. If you fail, you’re both in trouble.

Sandra: I got a 9 this time!

Dion: That’s an 8 from me, and my day job is Criminal, so I’m used to rooftop shenanigans. Can I bump that up to a 9?

GR: You can, but you don’t need to: 8 is enough from both of you. As Martina slips, Eddie’s hand shoots out and grasps firmly. You halt her slide down the roof and find stability again.

Sandra: Phew! “Thanks, Eddie.”

Dion: “No problem, kiddo. Now let’s get back to work.”

Your day job

Between missions, a Free Rad lives a normal life and works a fairly normal job. In the course of a mission, your character can use the skills and demeanour they’ve developed in their everyday existence, as well as using their day job as a cover to conceal their true purposes to other people they interact with.

Your day job grants you the following benefits:

You have two talents, which allow to automatically succeed at certain tasks that would be incredibly difficult or impossible to anyone untrained in your field, no test required.
When you’re attempting an action that would be easier for someone with the experience and skills in your day job, you get a +1 bonus when you test your approach. This is called your experience bonus.
While interacting with GR characters, you get a +2 bonus to any approach tests relating to covering up your true motives and other relevant social interactions, as long as you’re behaving normally for someone with your day job. This is called a cover bonus.

When you create a Free Rad, you can choose from the following day jobs and flesh out the exact details of what your character does, choosing from the example jobs given or coming up with your own. You gain the associated talents, which don’t require a roll.

Day job	Talent 1	Talent 2
Bureaucrat	Typo: Once per scene, you can automatically spot a mistake, omission or deception in any paperwork or documentation you examine.	Chapter and verse: once per mission, you can produce forged paperwork, ID or records to placate a suspicious civilian.
Criminal	Case the joint: Once per scene, you can identify flaws in the security of a building or area.	No questions asked: Once per mission, you can acquire an object worth up to $100.
Driver	10-4: Once per scene, you can use a ham radio to get useful local knowledge from another driver.	Eat my dust: Once per mission, you can shake off any pursuer in a vehicular chase.
Journalist	Wheedle: Once per scene, you can convince anyone to tell you their side of the story.	Red herring: once per mission, you can trick a suspicious civilian into following a false lead.
Law Enforcement Officer	Pull the files: Once per scene, you can give a name to a contact on the force and find out any criminal records they hold.	Mirandize: Once per mission, you can safely restrain a civilian or knock them unconscious.
Medic	Triage: Once per scene, you can automatically identify injuries and diseases, as well as medicines, drugs and their effects.	CPR: Once per mission, you can staunch a fatally injured Extra’s wounds, keeping them at the edge of life until they can get to a hospital.
Performer	Character study: Once per scene, you can automatically tell when someone is lying and what emotion motivates them to deception.	No autographs: Once per mission, avoid blowing your cover by constructing a new cover for yourself on the fly.
Manual Labourer	Breaker: Once per scene, you can automatically disrupt or repair any utility supply to a building.	Cordon off: Once per mission, you can make civilians evacuate an area by convincing them that they’re at risk from an environmental threat.

Breaking cover

If you fail a test while benefiting from a cover bonus, or if you’re caught acting in a manner that obviously deviates from normal behaviour for your day job, anyone who is observing you at the time will become suspicious. You no longer benefit from your cover bonus when interacting with this person, and depending on their disposition and what you’ve been doing, they may actively work to thwart your efforts. Failing an approach test that benefits from a +1 experience bonus from your day job doesn’t raise suspicion in this way.