Core Rules on These Lucky Stars

The Basics

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Key Terms#

Game Master (GM) – The person running the game. Responsible for creating the setting, describing scenarios, determining rolls and target numbers, lots of things.

Player – A person playing a character within the game other than the GM. Responsible for maintaining their sheet and stats.

Party – The players as a group. Responsible for working together, or not. Depends.

Table – The players and the GM as a group. Responsible for recognizing modifiers, maintaining honesty, fair play, and a good time.

Attributes

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Attributes#

Attributes act as your primary stat block, they are the building blocks of your character and act as a base for their other stats. They are divided into two categories: Physical Attributes and Mental Attributes.

For ease of reference attributes are often written as two numbers, the temporary value after modifiers and the base value before modifiers.

Attribute checks are used for any action that does not directly have another stat affecting it. The attribute used is determined by the GM, based on the player’s description of their action.

Size

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Size#

A creature or character’s size affects its attributes, its Grapple and Stealth stats, how much space it takes up during combat, and how attack damage is calculated against it. Smaller characters are harder to hit, and larger characters hit harder.

Most characters are Medium size by default. A character’s size is typically determined by their species or other character features. Some traits, abilities, or conditions may temporarily change a character’s effective size.

Stats

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Stats#

These stats are derived from Attributes. Most of them are combat focused, but are important for any character nonetheless. All of them can be affected by additional modifiers from a range of effects, character features, and equipment. Unless otherwise noted stats can be negative, providing a penalty rather than a bonus. Some stats act as a pool of points, others act as modifiers for certain rolls. They are listed here in a similar order to how they appear on the basic character sheet.

Action Economy

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Action Economy & Movement#

This page covers how a character spends their time and effort during a round of combat, and how they move through the world. The action economy describes what a character can do; movement describes how far they can go and how fast.

Action Points#

Action Points (AP) = 4 (Base) + Mods

On their turn, each character spends Action Points (AP) to perform actions. All characters have 4 AP per round, which replenish at the start of their turn. Like other stats, AP can be affected by modifiers from character features or other effects.

Health

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Health#

These Lucky Stars uses a two-layer health system. The first layer, Defense (DEF), is primarily used in combat and represents how well a character defends against attacks — both avoiding them and bracing against them. The second layer, Vitality (VIT), represents how much of a beating or how many injuries a character can withstand before they are incapacitated. Characters may also accumulate wounds and conditions, which have their own effects and recovery rules.

Combat

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Combat#

This page covers how fights are resolved in These Lucky Stars — from initiative to damage to the full catalog of combat actions. For how Action Points, action types, and movement work, see Action Economy & Movement. For how damage interacts with a character’s health, see Health.

Combat Basics#

Characters enter combat when one declares an aggressive action against another. Initiative is determined immediately upon declaring the action.
Combat is then played in rounds, with each combatant taking one turn per round in initiative order.
The most common actions during combat are attack and move. The number of actions a character can take during combat is determined using Action Points.
Successful attacks deal damage to the defender’s Defense (DEF). Each time their DEF reaches 0, they lose a point of Vitality (VIT). Successful attacks can also result in wounds and conditions.

Initiative#

Initiative = AGI + DEX + INS + Mods

Wounds & Conditions

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Wounds & Conditions#

Wounds and conditions are most often associated with combat. Successful attacks will sometimes result in a wound or condition. When choosing a wound or condition that is the result of an attack, GMs must consider the type of attack being made, the type of damage being dealt, the combatants involved, and how far beyond the target the attack result was.

A wound is a physical injury, usually brought on by an attack or other damaging effect. Wounds may be received from any of three sources:

Environmental Effects

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Environmental Effects#

Environmental effects are a tool for the GM to add texture and tension to encounters. They are not meant to be tracked in every single encounter — most weather and terrain is narrative flavor. The GM should only apply mechanical effects when the environment is severe enough to meaningfully affect the characters or when it would make a situation more interesting.

Environmental effects do two things: non-damaging effects alter decision rolls through advantage and disadvantage, while mexposure effects threaten a character’s health through conditions, wounds, and VIT damage.

Vehicle Rules

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Vehicle Rules#

These rules govern how vehicles and their occupants interact with characters on foot during combat. They supplement the standard combat rules — unless otherwise stated here, all normal combat rules apply.

Vehicles include any mode of transport a character can ride or pilot, from living mounts to mechanical transports.

A vehicle has its own stat block that defines its size (in spaces), speed, and any special features.

Vehicle Size#

A vehicle’s size is described by its footprint, the number of spaces it occupies.

Sci-Fi Additions

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Additonal Sci-Fi Rules#

Ballistic Weapons In Space#

Zero-Gravity Knockback: Full-auto ballistic weapons fired in zero gravity enviroments push the user back at a rate of 5ft per round until they can steady themselves with a larger object.

Heat Dissipation: Optional rules: Ballistic weapons fired in a vaccum quickly warp due to trapped heat. For futuristic space-faring settings, heat dissipation technology can solve this issue. For GMs that wish to include this effect, it is recommended to apply to the entire ballistic tag for ease of reference, and include a new tag on space-worthy ballistic weapons.