# THE CUSTODIANS — GM screen

> Every number on this page was checked against `rules.mjs` on 9 September 2026
> — 58 of 58 figures, by running the functions — not read out of the design
> specs. Where this and `design/`
> disagree, **the code is right and this page is stale** — `rules.mjs` is the
> single authority, imported by both the runtime and the pack builder so that
> packs cannot be built under one rule and played under another.

## How to read this

This is the sheet to have open while running, not the rules text. It carries the
figures you reach for mid-scene and nothing you can look up afterwards.

### Where these numbers live

| what | file |
| --- | --- |
| every pure rule formula, and rolling, banding and grading | `rules.mjs` |
| the six specs in `design/` | review history addressed to Codex — **not** current rules |

## Rolling

### The order of operations

Difficulty multiplies the rating **first**, then situational modifiers add.

| difficulty | rating becomes |
| --- | --- |
| Easy | × 2 |
| Average | unchanged |
| Difficult | ÷ 2, rounded down |

Then add circumstance and any other modifier. The result is clamped to 1–100, so
nothing is ever truly impossible or certain. A skill with a printed base of 5 or
more never drops below 5.

### The circumstance ladder

Applied after difficulty. **Capped at ±40 in total**, however many apply.

| | |
| --- | --- |
| Overwhelming | +30 |
| Favourable | +20 |
| Slightly good | +10 |
| Neutral | 0 |
| Slightly bad | −10 |
| Unfavourable | −20 |
| Severe | −30 |

### Reading the roll

From the effective chance, call it **B**:

| band | is |
| --- | --- |
| Critical | `ceil(B / 20)` or less |
| Special | `ceil(B / 5)` or less |
| Success | B or less |
| Fumble | `101 − ceil((101 − B) / 20)` or more |

Fumble is tested **first**. **96–99 never succeed**, whatever the chance. 00
always fumbles.

Against armour: a **critical ignores armour entirely**; a **special counts it as
half**, rounded down.

## Reaction — who goes first

Reaction runs on two axes and takes the better of them:

- **Reflex** = `ceil(DEX / 3)`
- **Awareness** = `ceil(Readiness / 10)`

Base = `3 × max(Reflex, Awareness)`, then a d6 and a modifier capped at ±3.
Marksmanship style is the agent's own choice — home worlds are gone, and nothing
determines it for them.

## The combat round

### Defending

Every defence after the first in a round is cumulative **−30%**. Two defences is
−60%, three is −90%. Standing in front of three people is possible and stupid.

### Fire modes

| mode | to hit | gives you |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Slow | +10 | reloads |
| Single | 0 | — |
| Fast | 0 | a second shot |
| Rapid | 0 | bursts |
| Beam | +5 | sustain |

A weapon with no mode set behaves as Single.

### The second shot

**−20% to both shots**, not just the second. The cost of hurrying is that you
hurried the first one too — which is what stops this being a free extra attack
for anyone holding a revolver.

### Bursts

| burst | rounds | to hit |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Short | 3 | −10 |
| Long | 6 | −20 |
| Full | 10 | −30 |

Hits are **capped, not proportional**:

| | success | special | critical |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Short | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| Long | 2 | 4 | 5 |
| Full | 3 | 5 | 7 |

However many rounds connect, **a burst is one wound event** — one Major Wound
check, not one per round. Every round in the burst leaves the weapon regardless
of what hits. A failure or fumble connects with nothing.

### Range

| band | to hit |
| --- | --- |
| Short | 0 |
| Medium | −10 |
| Long | −30 |
| Extreme (to twice long) | −50 |
| Beyond | cannot be attempted |

### Two weapons

−20% main hand and −40% off hand; if trained, −20% to both.

## Damage and wounds

### Hit points

`HP = ceil((CON + SIZ) / 2)` — standard BRP.
**Major Wound = `ceil(HP / 2)`**: a single blow of half your hit points or more.

### The damage modifier

From STR + SIZ:

| STR + SIZ | modifier |
| --- | --- |
| up to 8 | −1d6 |
| 9–16 | −1d3 |
| 17–24 | 0 |
| 25–32 | +1d3 |
| 33–40 | +1d6 |
| 41–50 | +2d6 |
| 51–60 | +3d6 |
| 61–70 | +4d6 |
| 71+ | +`4 + ceil((total − 70) / 10)`d6 |

### Hit locations (1D20)

| melee | ranged | location | share of HP |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1–4 | 1–3 | Right leg | 42% |
| 5–8 | 4–6 | Left leg | 42% |
| 9–11 | 7–10 | Abdomen | 42% |
| 12 | 11–15 | **Chest** | 50% |
| 13–15 | 16–17 | Right arm | 35% |
| 16–18 | 18–19 | Left arm | 35% |
| 19–20 | 20 | **Head** | 40% |

Ranged fire favours the chest, melee the legs — the two columns are different
distributions, not one table read twice.

A location's own pool is that share of total HP, rounded up. At its maximum the
location is **disabled**; at twice its maximum, **destroyed**. Location damage
folds together with Major Wound effects additively: both are true about the same
body at once.

### The Major Wound table (1D10)

| d10 | wound | what it does |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | Concussed | −20% to everything |
| 2 | Winded | −20% physical, and you lose your action |
| 3 | Bleeding | 1 HP at the end of each round |
| 4 | Manipulation | −30% manipulation |
| 5 | Mobility | −30% physical, MOV halved |
| 6 | Deep bleeding | 2 HP at the end of each round |
| 7 | Sensory | −40% perception, and −40% manipulation (sight) or communication (hearing) |
| 8 | Broken | −30% manipulation, or −30% physical and MOV halved |
| 9 | Crippling | defence only, MOV 1 |
| 10 | Catastrophic | unconscious, defence only, MOV 1 |

Wounds **stack**: two concussions is −40%, and a Major Wound stacks with a
shattered limb, because both are true about the same body. Where a wound splits
two ways and the variant was never recorded, the harsher reading applies.

### Bleeding

| | per round | stopped by |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Bleeding | 1 | a successful First Aid, or Medicine at any difficulty |
| Deep bleeding | 2 | a **Difficult** First Aid, or Medicine at any difficulty |

Any one listed stop is enough. First Aid restoring hit points does not clear the
wound — the bleed keeps running until something on that list lands.

## Panic — the short track

0 to 5, **upward**, minutes long: what is happening to you *now*.

| | track | penalty |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Steady | 0 | — |
| Rattled | 1 | — |
| Shaken | 2 | −5% |
| Losing it | 3 | −10% |
| Overwhelmed | 4 | −20% |
| Broken | 5 | −20%, and they break |

Talking someone down: a success takes one point off, a special or critical takes
two — and **a fumble puts one on**.

## Coherence — the long track

0 to 10, **downward**, campaign length: what knowing has cost you. Do not confuse
the two tracks at the table.

| band | from | all rolls | communication |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Anchored | 8 | — | — |
| Loose | 5 | — | −5% |
| Adrift | 3 | −5% | −10% |
| Unmoored | 1 | −10% | −20%, and −30% to the return |
| Displaced | 0 | −20% | −30% — permanent |

### What it costs

| | |
| --- | --- |
| Fumbling a crossing | 1 |
| Witnessing a paradox | 1 |
| Using crossing tech | 1 |
| Breaking local law | 1 |
| Overstaying | 1 |
| Meeting yourself | 2 |
| Killing a duplicate | 3 |

### Getting it back

One point each: a debrief, a week of downtime, an anchor object.

## The way home

### The return clock

Three steps. It is the *crossing* that gets harder, not the people — a cost the
players can see coming.

| steps | the return is at |
| --- | --- |
| 0 | — |
| 1 | −10% |
| 2 | −20%, **and Difficult** |
| 3 | −30%, and Difficult |

### Extraction

| roll | completes? | clock |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Critical | yes | a step **back** |
| Special | yes | — |
| Success | yes | — |
| Failure | yes | +1 |
| Fumble | **no** | +1 |

Nothing else takes damage from a bad extraction. Getting out badly does not hurt
anyone on the causeway; it makes the next crossing harder.

## Craft actions — the stations

Every agent takes a station, each uses a skill somebody already has, and the
round is one roll each in the normal reaction order. No vector arithmetic, no
map — range is a band.

| station | skill | does | heat |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Helm | Pilot | changes the band | +1 |
| Guns | Energy Weapon | damage | +2, and on a failure too |
| Sensors | Computer Use | marks a target | — |
| Engines | Engineering | sheds heat | −3 |
| Damage control | Repair | hull | — |
| Signals | Persuade | talking | — |
| Medical | First Aid | the crew | — |
| Anchor | Transposition | escape | +2 |

### Heat

Runs 0–10. **Loud from 4. Blind from 6. Slow from 8.**

### Space range bands

| band | to hit |
| --- | --- |
| Docked | 0 |
| Knife | +20 |
| Close | +10 |
| Standoff | −10 |
| Distant | −30 |
| Gone | cannot be attempted |

## The environment

### Falling

1d6 per 3 metres, to a maximum of 20 dice — reached at 60 metres, and nothing
above that falls harder. **Fall damage ignores armour.**

### Drowning and airlessness

1 point per round. Caught unprepared, you hold your breath half as long.