Saga Basic Rules

Saga Basic Rules (ver.9)

Taken from material written by Steven Brown and Steve Miller for the Fate Deck; based on the original Saga games design by William W. Connors and Mike Selinker. Modified with rules ideas created by Nikolaj Lemche and Stephen Kenson. Adapted and edited with additional original material by Jason S. ( lazarus@stormbreaker.net )

Thanks go out to the virtual entirety of the MSHAG mailing list for their ideas and influence.

See Bob Portnell’s Merely Saga for another generic Saga rules set, simpler and more streamlined than the following.

This is a Role Playing Game

There’s no section here about “what is a role playing game?” or how to exactly go about playing one. If you’ve sought out these rules there’s a good chance you already know all about what a role playing game is. Saga is a rules set that emphasizes storytelling and action. It’s a fairly “rules lite” system, compared to most other systems out there, and leaves a lot of room open for interpretation, both in rules and character development.

Presented here is a generic version of the Saga rules system. Players familiar with the Saga rules system will notice that the basic Saga rules here have been customized and combined from the Dragonlance: Fifth Age rules and the Marvel Superheroes Adventure Game rules. This rules set is potentially customizable to any of several genres and settings; however, the Marvel version of Saga works quite well for superheroic adventures, and is recommended. Feel free to alter these rules to suit your own needs.

To play, you need a set of Fate Cards. Any existing set of Fate Cards will suffice, the only requirements are that they have 5 suits; one corresponding to each of the four Traits of Body, Reflex, Mind, and Spirit, and one suit for “Karma”; and a fair sized distribution of face values. There will eventually be a basic set of Fate Cards for these rules.

Basic Terms

Listed below are a few terms you need to be familiar with to understand the Saga rules.

Fate Cards: Cards with numbers, symbols, and words on them used in lieu of the more traditional dice of most role playing games. They are divided into five suits.

Fate Deck: The deck of Fate cards that players draw from. When the Fate Deck is empty, shuffle the Discard Pile and that becomes the new Fate Deck.

Discard Pile: The stack of used cards that players discarded due to performing actions, damage, etc.

Hero: A main character in an adventure scenario. Players always role-play heroes in Saga games.

Character: Any individual in a Saga scenario other than the heroes (including monsters, enemies, allies, etc.). Characters can be either friends or foes but are always controlled and role-played by the Narrator (see below).

Scenario: The basic plot of a Saga game.

Narrator: The player who guides the other players through the scenario, role-playing the characters the heroes meet. The Narrator is the final judge on rules questions.

Suits: The five types of Fate cards. The four main suits correspond to a Trait: Body, Reflex, Mind, and Spirit. The fifth suit, Karma, is special and does not correspond to any Trait.

Traits: The four main abilities of heroes and characters: Body, Reflex, Mind, and Spirit. Minor characters are sometimes only defined by Traits and not individual Attributes.

Attributes: The two defining abilities of each Trait. Body is defined by Endurance and Strength. Reflex is defined by Quickness and Dexterity. Mind is defined by Perception and Reason, and Spirit is defined by Willpower and Charisma.

Action: A hero's attempt to do something in a scenario, such as climb a wall, cast a spell, or fire a gun. Fate Cards are played to determine a hero's success or failure at an action.

Hand: The assortment of Fate Cards players have available to use for attempting their heroes' actions in the game. The card a player chooses to play from his or her hand determines whether the hero succeeds or fails at the action.

Trump: A card is considered a Trump when its Suit is directly linked to the type of action for which it is being played. The effects of Trump cards are described later in these rules. A Trump bonus allows any card played to serve as Trump, as long as it is not of the Karma suit.

Edge: A hero’s Edge represents his or her experience, confidence, will, and overall skill. All heroes start with an Edge of 1. (See below)

Traits

Heroes have eight Attributes divided into four Traits to define who they are and what they can do. Quickness, Dexterity, Endurance, and Strength are the physical attributes; Reason, Perception, Willpower, and Charisma are a hero's mental attributes. Each Trait contains two attributes.

An attribute rating consists of a score, which is a number between 1 and 9. The score defines a hero's natural talent in a particular ability. Rarely, a hero might have a score of 10 in an attribute, but this indicates an almost supernatural level of ability. A score of 5 is "heroic" average for a normal human being. The four main Traits also each have a code, which is a letter from A to D, or X. The code is a measure of how much training he or she has received initially in the skills associated with that Trait; for instance, a hero with a code of B in Reflex would start the game with an advanced level of training in all skills associated with Reflex and therefore Dexterity and Quickness. The code also indicates a couple of other things, such as ability to wield weapons and wear armor, and the ability to cast spells or use certain powers. (Very minor characters in a scenario and monsters may not have codes listed. See Extras.)

Hero Actions

At the start of the game, the Narrator deals each player a number of Fate cards equal to the size of the player's hand. Only players maintain hands of cards-the Narrator does not need one for the characters he controls.

Once play begins, players will want their heroes to attempt actions, based on the scene at hand. There are two main types of actions:

Unopposed actions: An action is unopposed when the hero does not face resistance from a character. The only factor governing its success is the hero's own skill.

Opposed actions: An action is opposed when a character resists the hero's effort. To succeed, the hero must overcome the character's relevant ability.

Performing Actions

Simple actions automatically succeed. However, when a hero attempts a complex or risky action, use the following sequence to determine the outcome:

1. Declaration: The player announces that his or her hero will attempt an action. Occasionally, the Narrator will inform a player that the current situation dictates that the hero must attempt a particular action.

2. Action ability: The Narrator decides which attribute the hero must use to attempt the declared action; this is the action ability. Each attribute has an associated Suit in the Fate Cards, each of which are linked to a particular type of action as follows:

Body (Endurance): Stamina/resisting physical damage

Body (Strength): Raw power/melee damage

Reflex (Quickness): Acrobatics/dodging attacks/martial arts

Reflex (Dexterity): Fine manipulation/ranged combat

Mind (Reason): Intellectual tasks/knowledge

Mind (Perception): Awareness/ noticing details

Spirit (Willpower): Mental fortitude/ resisting temptation

Spirit (Charisma): Leadership/ how people react to you

3. Action difficulty: The Narrator estimates how hard the action ought to be for the hero-that is, chooses a difficulty rating. The general relationship between the difficulty of the action and its difficulty rating is: easy (4), average (8), challenging (12), daunting (16), desperate (20), impossible (24), and legendary (28).

4. Play a card: The player selects one card from his or her hand and lays it face up on the table. Trump: If the Suit of the card is linked to the ability being used (for instance, a Spirit card for a Willpower action), the card is considered a Trump, and the player flips over the top card of the Fate Deck, laying it next to the card just played. If this flipped card is also a Trump, then the player may flip over another card and play it similarly and continue to do so until he draws a card that is not a Trump. Edge: If the card the player plays from his hand is equal to or lower than his Edge rating, he can play another card from his hand right after it, and if that card is also equal to or lower than his Edge rating, he can repeat the process, until he plays a card from his hand that is higher than his Edge rating. If the last card he plays in this manner is a Trump, he can still Trump normally!

5. (Optional) Add Skill: If the hero possesses a skill relevant to the action, it adds a +4 bonus to the total action score. The Narrator should consider interpreting skills broadly, not limiting their use to the same type of action they are normally linked to. For example, horsemanship is normally an Quickness skill, but could also be used in a Perception action to determine the quality of a horse. (See Skills.) The Narrator decides which suit is Trump, in this case.

6. Resolution: The player adds the hero's action ability score and the face value of the card(s) on the table and any skill bonus. If that total, or action score, is equal to or greater than the difficulty rating, the action succeeds.

7. Redraw cards: The player then draws a new card(s) from the Fate Deck and adds it to his or her hand, replacing the one(s) he played from his hand.

Example: Jack, a samurai, is trying to climb a moss-covered tree. The Narrator decides this is a challenging Quickness action (difficulty rating 12). Jack's player lays down the Eight of Mind and adds its value to his Quickness score of 6, generating an action score of 14. (6 Quickness + 8 of Mind=14) Since this score is higher than the difficulty rating, Jack climbs the tree.

Example 2: Jack, a samurai, is trying to climb a moss-covered tree, again. The Narrator decides this is also a challenging Quickness action (difficulty rating 12). Jack's player lays down the Three of Reflex and adds its value to his Quickness score of 6, generating an action score of 9. Not quite enough to succeed. However, since Jack played a card of the Reflex suit, and Quickness actions are linked to Reflex, he may Trump and draw a card from the Fate Deck and add it to his score. He turns over a Fate card and it’s the Four of Spirit. Jack now has an action score total of 13. (3 of Reflex + 4 of Spirit + 6 Quickness= 13) Since this score is higher than the difficulty rating of 12, Jack climbs the tree again.

Example 3: Jack is at it again, trying to climb a moss-covered tree. Only this time, it is raining. The Narrator decides that this is now a daunting Quickness action (difficulty rating of 16). Jack’s player lays down the One of Body. Since the value of this card is less than Jack’s Edge (which is 2), Jack may play an additional card from his hand. Jack plays the Three of Reflex. So far he has an action score of 4. Luckily, the Three of Reflex is linked to the type of action he is performing, so he may Trump a card from the Fate Deck. He draws the 7 of Karma. Karma isn’t a Trump for this action so Jack has a total of 11. Not enough to climb the wet mossy tree!

Opposed Actions: When a hero attempts an opposed action, Step 6 above differs slightly: The player's action score must equal or exceed the action's difficulty rating plus the score of the ability the opposing character is using to resist the action (called the opposition ability).

Action Format: Saga adventures use a standard notation format to describe a hero action: difficulty rating + action ability (opposition ability). So, lifting a large rock might be an average Strength action, while holding a door shut against a foe trying to break in might be an average Endurance (Strength) action.

Combat

Many hero actions involve fighting. The hero’s attributes and skills determine what weapons and form of attacks the hero can utilize but, of course, they may pick up other weapons and skills during their travels. It is up to the Narrator to decide whether they are able to use them, based on their relevant ability codes (discussed later in these rules). Generally, the more damaging a weapon is, the harder it is to use.

There are two types of basic combat in this game:

Missile combat: When combatants use bows, slings, guns, magical blasts, and similar weapons, they are engaged in missile combat. As they draw closer to their enemy, they may use flung missile weapons like spears and shuriken.

Melee combat: When the combatants draw close enough to attack with hand-held weapons like swords, knives, and clubs, they engage in melee combat. Unarmed fighting falls under this category, too.

Range:

Often it might be important to know how far away your enemy is, especially in combat. Saga has 7 categories of range. Most people can cross one range level in one exchange of combat, making an easy Maneuver action. The range levels are, from farthest to closest:

Beyond-Visual: If one individual can’t see the other, they are at beyond-visual distance. Unless they have special powers or sensors, neither can affect the other. No details can be made out at this range.

Visual: If one individual can see the other but cannot interact with them in any meaningful way, they are at visual distance. They can’t speak to each other, but powers or special equipment can rectify that. Recognizing details at this distance is very difficult, and aiming is impossible without guided weaponry. (desert, ocean, lake, sky, space)

Artillery: If one individual could hit the other with a really big weapon like a catapult, howitzer, or particle projection cannon, then the two are at artillery distance. They still can’t speak to each other without artificial assistance, but they can make out some details of appearance. Combat is only possible with very large missile weapons, but aiming is required to have a chance to hit. (freeway, large river, rooftops, rolling hills, savannah)

Far-Missile: If one individual can sight the other with a ranged weapon, they are at far-missile distance. This is the maximum effective distance for personal projectiles, missile weapons, and psychic attacks, and all must be aimed to hit. Communication can be achieved by shouting. (light forest, small river, rocky hills, road)

Near-Missile: If one individual can hit another with a thrown weapon, the two are at near-missile distance. All ranged attacks work normally, but artillery might have a hard time targeting. Most visual details can be made out at this range and people can communicate in their normal voices. (arena, city streets, forest, mountains, swamp)

Close-Combat: If one individual can punch another in the face, the two are within close-combat distance. Use of melee weapons is possible, as are whispering and touch effects. Aiming missile weapons, however, is impossible. Visual details might be blurred by fast motion or huge size. (around a corner, indoors, subway, underground, thick forest)

Personal: If one individual can fell the other’s breath on his or her neck, the two are at personal distance. Continual attacks such as grappling effects keep combatants at this range. Close combat and projectile weapons are useless. This close, people can whisper so as no one else can hear. Chances are intimate visual details can be made out.

Initial contact with a potential foe can be made at any distance. Terrain usually plays an important part in determining when a hero becomes aware of an enemy. The terrain types listed in parenthesis above are examples of environments at which first contact might be made between opponents.

Combat Sequence:

Combat consists of a series of attacks and counterattacks. One round of combat, that is, steps 3 to 5 below, is sometimes called a “combat exchange”. Use the following sequence of actions until one side is vanquished or runs away:

1. Surprise: At the start of combat, the Narrator must decide, based on the situation, whether one of the sides has surprised the other. If one side is surprised, the other side is allowed one free attack (or counterattack) without fear of response.

2. Initiative: Each hero determines his or her initiative, which is a score that will determine what order they act in. Usually, heroes act in order of their Perception, highest going first, but many factors can modify this. In case of a tie in Perception, whoever has the higher Quickness goes first.

3. Attack (Actions): Every hero can perform one attack action. In missile combat, this is an average Dexterity (Quickness) action. In melee combat, it is an average Strength (Quickness) action. If the action succeeds, the player totals the hero's Strength (for melee) score OR Dexterity (for missile) and the damage rating of the weapon (if a weapon is used), plus the amount they beat the difficulty number by. The enemy then totals the defense rating of his or her armor plus Endurance. Subtract the total defense from the total damage; any remaining points the enemy will suffer as wounds in Step 5. Note if the damage is Killing or Stunning.

4. Defend (Counteractions): Simultaneous with the attack, the hero defends against the foe's counterattack. The Narrator does not make this assault; instead, every hero simply performs a defense action: an average Quickness (Dexterity) action in missile combat to dodge, or an average Quickness (Strength) action in melee to parry. If the action succeeds, the hero has dodged or parried the attack. If the action fails, the player totals the defense ratings of the hero's armor plus Endurance. The Narrator then adds the foe's opposition ability score to the damage rating of his or her weapon, plus the amount the player missed the difficulty number by. Subtract the total defense from the total damage; any remaining points the hero will suffer as wounds in Step 5.

5. Assess wounds: A character can sustain a number of wounds equal to his or her Health score before falling unconscious. After that, any further wound dealt the character in a subsequent attack will kill him or her. Heroes suffer damage differently, however. The player of a wounded hero must give up cards from his or her hand with a total face value equal to or greater than the hero's number of wounds. These discards cannot be replaced until the wounds are healed. When the player's hand is empty of cards, the hero is unconscious. If the hero takes more Killing damage than cards in his hand, he is dying and will perish unless he receives immediate medical attention. If the hero takes enough damage from a Stunning attack to reduce his health to a negative greater than his Endurance, one of his lost cards counts as Killing damage. If he takes any more damage, his lost Stunning damage cards are converted to Killing damage cards until all of them are Killing damage.

6. Resolution: If the battle continues, return to Step 3. If one side is defeated or decides to withdraw instead of fighting on, combat ends.

Advanced Combat Actions:

Sometimes a hero might want to do something in combat other than simply attack. There are a few options that a hero has in choosing his or her attack action, for example:

Aim: The hero can spend a combat exchange aiming, and drop his difficulty to hit by one level. The hero cannot take any other action (or counteraction) while aiming. If he changes action or take damage while aiming, his aim is ruined.

Catch: A hero trained in the martial arts or with an exceptionally high Dexterity can make a daunting Dexterity (attacking ability) action to catch a thrown or flung weapon targeted at him.

Cover: Instead of attacking, the hero can “cover” his target with a projectile weapon or other missile attack. The hero takes a normal action to hit the target but does not fire. If successful, the target is covered and on any exchange after that can automatically hit his target. Taking any action while covering cancels the covering action.

Block: challenging Quickness (attacking ability) action. The hero can use an object to try to block an incoming attack, but this may damage the object.

Disarm: challenging Dexterity (Strength) action. If the hero succeeds, he knocks his opponent’s weapon out of their grasp.

Distract: average Quickness (Reason) action. If the hero succeeds, he can escape a covering effect, or cause his opponent to lose their next action.

Escape: average Strength OR Quickness (Strength) action to escape a grappling or wrestling, or strangling hold.

Evade: challenging Quickness (attacking ability) action. If the hero succeeds, he avoids all incoming attacks against him completely. If the hero fails, the amount he failed by is added to the base damage the attack(s) inflicts.

Fling: average Dexterity (Quickness) action. Used for throwing a weapon, like a knife or grenade.

Grab: challenging Dexterity (Strength) action. If the hero is successful, he can snatch away his opponent’s weapon (but maybe take damage automatically!)

Grapple: challenging Strength (Strength) action. If successful the hero can grab his opponent and do stunning damage to them as a counteraction. He must make a successful average grappling action each round to maintain a hold.

Intercept: average Quickness (attacking ability) action. The hero can leap in front of another to block an incoming attack, taking the damage intended for the original target.

Maneuver: easy Quickness (Quickness) action. If the hero succeeds, he can change the range between him and his foes by one level (See Range.)

Pile-On: For every attacker attacking the same opponent, every attacker adds +1 to their attack actions. The opponent, however, also gets a +1 to all his attack actions versus every attacker.

Shoot: average Dexterity (Quickness) action. Used for firing a gun, bow, rocket launcher, etc.

Stranglehold: challenging Strength (Endurance) action. If the hero succeeds, he can strangle his opponent for 4 automatic stunning damage points an exchange.

Strike: average Strength (Quickness) action. Used for punching, kicking, hitting with a melee weapon, etc.

Use Power/Magic: This is a catch-all for heroes who are able to cast magical spells, use psychic powers, etc. Usually this is an average action ability (opposition ability) action.

Note that characters can use the various combat actions too. Some hero actions actually go off as a counteraction, and some heroes may either have special abilities or skills that allow them to make both actions and counteractions.

Optional: Skills in Combat

If you use the Multiple Skills option in your game, some of them can change the way some actions are made.

Boxing: A hero can divide his action total between two punching attacks, the second being a counteraction, in addition to getting +4 to action to hit.

Leadership: If a leader makes an average Willpower action, all allied characters gain +1 on all actions. But once this inspiration is triggered, if the leader stops leading (leaves or is knocked out, for example), all allies suffer 1 on all actions until the leader returns.

Martial Arts: The hero can use Quickness OR Strength to make unarmed attacks. If he uses Quickness as the attack ability he can also use it for determining damage and Trumps. The hero can also attempt to catch thrown weapons.

Tactics: If the hero takes a full exchange to analyze an ongoing or anticipated combat situation and is able to share his insights with allies, he and all his allies gain a +4 to all actions in their first exchange and a +2 to all actions in their second exchange. Not all allies need to attack at the same time to gain this benefit some may hold themselves in reserve and still receive the bonuses on their first exchange, rather than on the exchange that others first engage in combat.

Taunting: Cracking wise in combat, to the detriment of easily irritated opponents. If the hero spends at least one exchange talking up a storm (and you must role play it), he can attempt an average Willpower (Willpower) action to cause an opponent to attack immediately. When so enraged, the opponent cannot make surprise attacks or use any skills to modify the difficulty of the attack.

Wrestling: The hero can make grappling actions with average difficulty and hold their opponent with an easy action.

After Combat

At the close of the battle, one group of combatants has bested the other. But before the scenario can continue, there are a few loose ends to tie up.

Healing: After almost every battle, some or all the heroes will be wounded. How quickly they recover from these wounds will greatly affect their future adventures. When a hero's hand has been restored to its full size, the hero is completely healed.

Heroic Recovery: The heroes are, after all, heroes! They can muster the strength to fight on even when they are down and out. If a hero lost at least one card from their Hand due to Stunning damage, after the combat is over, they can automatically redraw one card from the Fate Deck.

First aid: Immediately after the battle ends, a hero may receive basic medical attention. If any other hero succeeds at an average Dexterity action to give first aid (bind the wounds to avert the immediate threat), the hero recovers enough for the player to regain one card for his or her depleted hand.

Natural healing: Time heals all wounds. However, it does so very slowly. For every hour that passes during the adventure, a wounded hero recovers one card of Stunning damage through natural healing. Killing damage recovers at the rate of one card per week of rest.

Magical healing: Those skilled in the mystical magic of healing or possess some sort of power to cure can heal a hero instantly and completely. As a rule, giving one card's worth of magical healing requires a challenging spell (or similar) action from the hero using the magic. (Details of this and other aspects of magic and special powers appear elsewhere.)

Spoils: As the adage says, "To the victors go the spoils." After any battle, the slain or unconscious foes may have some valuable equipment. The heroes may do with these items what they want, but the players should remember that they are playing heroes, not thieves. (Or, maybe they are thieves!)

Extras

Not all characters warrant full-fledged attribute listings. Some minor characters, or “Extras”, have only minimal statistics. Legions of faceless minions, swarms of attack drones, gangs of ninja, common thugs, none of these types of characters require a full listing of statistics. Instead, they have only the four main Traits listed for them, along with Edge (which is usually 0), Health, the damage rating of their weapons, and an armor rating.

In these cases, the Narrator simply uses the main Trait for all counteractions instead of a more specific attribute. Body for all Strength and Endurance actions, Reflex for all Quickness and Dexterity actions, Mind for all Reason and Perception actions, and Spirit for all Willpower and Charisma actions.

Extras can have skills listed also, if skills are used, and may benefit from the Pile-on rules. In addition, some particularly tough types can have non-standard Edge/Health ratings, such as a 0 for Edge and a 40 for Health, to represent giant monsters and the like.

Hero Points

Hero points are a way of measuring a hero’s accumulated experience and expendable luck. Usually a hero will start a game with 3 Hero points. These can fluctuate over the course of the game. They can be used for a few things, but their two main functions are for hero improvement and as luck points during the game. At the end of each adventure, depending on the Narrator, the heroes are rewarded 1-3 (or more) Hero points based on certain factors, most usually their level of success and meeting the goals of the adventure. These points can either be saved, for later improvement and purchase of abilities, or spent during the game for one-shot uses. Some in-game Hero point expenditures are:

Spend 1 point to draw and play an additional card from the Fate Deck. This card does not count towards Trump, it merely adds to the action total.
Spend 1 point to discard a card from his or her hand then draw a card from the Fate Deck.
Spend 1 point to invoke an Event, or other card-driven storytelling mechanic as pre-determined by the Narrator. (Essentially bargaining with the Narrator to “edit” the outcome or situation in favor of the hero based on a card Concept or Event.)
Spend 1 point to play a card from your hand to apply towards “damage reduction” and subtract the card’s value from your most recent amount of damage taken. The card must be of the Body or Spirit suits, however.

The Narrator decides ultimately how Hero points are awarded and may be spent. See “Hero Building: Hero Improvement” for how to use Hero points to improve heroes. Narrators can optionally put a limit on how many times per adventure a hero can spend Hero points, for example, equal to their Edge rating.

Hints for Narrators

Narrators should keep in mind a few additional concepts as players attempt actions in the game.

Mishaps

One element of the Fate Cards requires further explanation: the Karma suit. Karma represents the randomness of the Universe. Karma can be good or bad, depending on how it is used. If a hero plays a Karma suit card and the action fails, some sort of mishap has occurred, such as an injury (loss of a card) or just embarrassment. It is up to the Narrator to interpret the situation and decide exactly what the mishap is and how bad the situation becomes.

Events and Concepts

Many variations of the Fate Deck have textual descriptors on them, such as event types or ideas representing basic storytelling concepts. The Narrator can use these for inspiration during the game or ignore them. They are typically open to interpretation and have no wrong or right way to be implemented, as long as a good story is told in the process.

Card Auras

The astute Narrator might notice “plus” and “minus” signs on some of the Fate cards. These are called auras. Auras can be positive (+), negative (-), or neutral (a dot). Usually white surrounds a positive aura symbol, black a negative, and red a neutral. Auras can be used for many functions, but most commonly for basic determinations and durations.

The Narrator can at any time flip over a Fate card from the deck and do an “aura reading” for any random decision that does not necessarily require an action to be preformed. Naturally, a positive aura means a favorable result, a negative aura indicates an unfavorable result, and a neutral aura indicates an inconclusive or indifferent result.

Auras can also determine durations of certain effects. Every exchange or passage of a certain amount of game time after the effect in question occurs, the Narrator can flip over a Fate card and read the aura. If a negative aura comes up, the effect ends. This can be incorporated into the Narrator Card option.

Complex Aura Readings: The Narrator can call for a complex aura reading to determine more sophisticated outcomes. This involves turning over three or more Fate cards from the Fate deck. Matching auras determine the results. This would be used to determine a random result that is even more random or less likely to occur. Either the Narrator can draw the cards or he can have the player draw.

Ability Codes

In some ways, heroes' ability codes are more important than their scores. A hero may be strong as an ox, but without proper training he or she can use only the most basic of weapons. The general relationship between code, capability, and type of weapons and armor a hero can use is as follows:

Ability Code	Body	Reflex	Mind	Spirit
A	Any melee weapon and armor type	Any missile weapon or shield type	Major potential for psychic ability	Major potential for magical ability
B	All but VH weapons and armors	All but VH weapons and shields	Moderate potential for psychic ability	Moderate potential for magical ability
C	Can use VL, L, or M weapons and armors	Can use VL, L, or M weapons and shields	Minor potential for psychic ability	Minor potential for magical ability
D	Can use VL or L weapons and armors	Can use VL or L weapons and shields	No potential for psychic ability	No potential for magical ability
X	Can use only VL weapons and armors	Can use only VL weapons or shields	Diminished potential for psychic ability	Diminished potential for magical ability

Also, under the various skill options, the ability codes have these meanings:

A (expert): Highly trained and capable (4 skills if Multiple Skills)

B (advanced): Well trained (3 skills)

C (competent): Competent training (2 skills)

D (apprentice): Trained in the basics (1 skill)

X (novice): No training (0 skills)

Options:

Karma Bank: Any time a hero plays a Karma suit card from his hand, the Narrator may keep it in a “Karma Bank”. The Narrator may then discard one of these banked cards at any time to add to the difficulty level of an action. These cards can also be played for the benefit of characters’ counteractions, up to the character’s Edge rating in banked cards for any one action can be played at once in this manner. Karma suit cards discarded as part of damage to a hero are not banked.

Narrator Card: At the beginning of every combat exchange, as a Step before Attack, the Narrator draws and plays one card from the Fate Deck. This card adds its value to the difficulty of all hero actions, unless:

If the card is of the same Trump suit as the action the hero is attempting, it does not add to the difficulty.

At the end of the combat exchange (as a Step 7), the Narrator discards this card and draws another if the combat continues. Narrator cards can also be used out of combat, the Narrator simply redraws another card after every hero has made an action, or at the start of a new encounter, or after a determined passage of time.

Skills: Sometimes heroes (and characters) need and extra level of detail as to what they can do. Skills represent areas that a hero is knowledgeable and trained in. Some settings may not require detailed skills, such as a medieval fantasy setting, but others, such as a modern day spy game, might benefit from skills. There are three basic models for Skills in the Saga rules:

General Proficiency: All heroes are assumed to be potentially capable of utilizing any skill related to one of their Traits. Heroes have abilities based on the Trait code as defined under “Ability Codes” above. They have no specific skills beyond those general descriptors.

Trade Skills: Heroes possess a few skills in specialized yet broad areas, such as Farmer, Blacksmith, Tailor, etc. These skills could be considered professions or trades that the hero might have had prior to becoming an adventurer, or hobbies. Using this option, heroes can have as many skills as equal to their Edge trait. A Trade skill would usually give a hero a Trump bonus when performing a related action. This option might be good for medieval fantasy games or games where all the characters originate from a common background, like, rabbits in a warren. The Trade Skills and General Proficiency options can also be combined.

Multiple Skills: This option is perhaps best for modern day and sci-fi settings. Under this option, all heroes have multiple skills in specific areas. Skills are divided into four broad categories each linked to a Trait. Ability codes determine how many skills in each Trait a hero can have. A=4 skills, B=3, C=2, D=1, and X= no skills in that Trait. Skills under this option can be fairly broad, like Marksmanship for using all handheld firearms, or more specialized, like Pistols, for just handguns. Skills used in this manner give the hero a +4 to any action score total while performing a related action.

Multiple Skills Option: Degrees of Skill: With the Multiple Skills option it is likely that many heroes and characters might have the same skill. Degrees of skill can be used to further categorize who is better than whom at what. There are three degrees of skill:

Normal Skill: This is just the standard skill. The hero has the skill and it adds a +4 to his or her action score total.
Master Skill: The hero has dedicated themselves or is a savant in a skill. A Master skill allows the hero to Trump when using the skill on either physical or mental Trait suits. For example, when using a Body skill, the hero could Trump using the Body or Reflex suit. Similarly, the hero could Trump while using a Spirit skill using the Mind or Spirit suit.
World-Class Skill: The hero is the best in the world, solar-system, galaxy, etc, in this skill. A World-Class skill allows the hero using it to Trump when playing a card of any suit except Karma.

On the hero sheet, Master skills can be listed in parenthesis and World-Class skills can be underlined to denote them apart from standard skills.

If you plan on using skills in your game, see the Skills section under “Hero Building”. Characters can also use skills, and should if the heroes are given that option.

Roles: A role is essentially what other games call a “character class”. Roles describe hero archetypes, such a knight, wizard, fireman, space marine, or investigator. They further define your hero, and also provide certain advantages and disadvantages. Roles have requirements that must be fulfilled before a hero can take them, some roles can be taken at the beginning of a game, and others must be taken later on in the game. A hero can only ever have one role at a time. If the Narrator decides to use roles, he or she will have to design them and decide who can use them. (See Narrator’s Tips: Roles) Some settings will benefit more from roles than others, and some settings don’t require roles at all. It’s entirely up to the Narrator. Roles can be combined with Races (see below), or a game might have some heroes with roles, and some without.

Races: Some game settings, especially traditional medieval fantasy, might have heroes of species other than human. Depending on the setting, there might be elves, dwarves, wookies, martians, mutants, or rabbits in addition to, or in place of, humans running around. Races are another archetype similar to Roles, and in some settings might even be combined. A Race almost always has ability requirements that must be met before a hero of that race can be played, and also has inherent advantages and disadvantages. Again, if the Narrator runs a game with different races, he or she will have to design them. (But see Narrator’s Tips: Races for examples) Modern day setting based in the “real” world are unlikely to have races other than human, but the aforementioned fantasy setting may have many different races.

Natures and Demeanors: Narrators wanting to add additional depth to the heroes might want to implement Nature and Demeanor, two archetypes that go toward describing the way a character acts and responds to situations and others. Nature is essentially the hero’s “true self”, how he or she is on the inside. Demeanor is the hero’s “face” or how he or she presents themselves to everyone else. The two can be similar or vastly different. The Narrator can link Events or Concepts to Natures, indicating that a hero possessing the Nature might respond more to certain ones, or simply leave them as additional descriptors.

Other Archetypes: The Narrator might decide that other archetypes are important to his specific game. For example, in my Legend of the Five Rings Saga game, I have additional archetypes based on social class/profession (Samurai, Shugenja, Ninja, Courtier, etc.) and Clan (Crab, Dragon, Crane, etc.) in addition to Roles and Races. Archetypes do not need to be as detailed as Races or Roles, and can in fact be only a title or general descriptor. (Autobot or Decepticon, for example) They simply provide additional hero detail, and may or may not have any actual benefits or disadvantages.

Advantages and Hindrances: These add a level of complexity and depth to a Saga game. Advantages and Hindrances represent special abilities and flaws that heroes may have. Usually, they can only be gained at hero creation, but sometimes they can come into play during the course of a game. Hindrances taken when a hero is created add additional points toward the hero building process, but Advantages cost points to have. Usually a hero can never have more Advantages than his Edge rating. Some Narrators might choose to only allow Hindrances, the advantage being the extra points they provide a player for building his or her hero. Some Races might have built-in Advantages that all members of that race have. The Narrator will have to design Advantages and Hindrances specific to his game setting, but some generic, general ones are listed in “Hero Building”.

Plain Old Playing Cards: Okay, say you either can’t get your hands on or just don’t like any Fate deck that’s around. You can pretty easily make a passable Fate deck out of three decks of standard playing cards. Just get the cheap ones, ‘cause you’re gonna be tearing em apart. Here’s what you do:

Take two of the decks and remove all the aces, 2’s, 3’s, 8’s, 9’s, and face cards.
Remove all the 10’s from all three decks.
Set aside these removed cards, or throw them away, make a house of cards, practice throwing them as weapons, whatever. Oh yeah, get rid of those rules cards that sometimes are in decks. You don’t need any of them.
Shuffle together all the cards you kept from the four decks. Now you have your Fate deck.
Treat Clubs as Body, Spades as Reflex, Diamonds as Mind, and Hearts as Spirit.
Aces equal a value of 1 and all face cards equal a value of 5.
The Jokers are your somewhat small Karma suit, and should all be treated as having a value of 5.

You can write in any auras, Events, Concepts, or whatever you want if you want to use those things, or keep a separate list of what card corresponds to what.

Other Tips

Finally, here are a few things every Narrator should keep in mind during a Saga role playing game:

Only heroes attempt actions! No one ever need play cards for a character.

Be colorful with your descriptions. You are painting the scene for the players, describing all the things their senses would tell them. The more artfully you do this, the more everyone will enjoy the game.

You and the other players are working together to create a story; you are not adversaries (even though the heroes and some characters might be). When the heroes succeed, you do too!

Saga role playing is supposed to be fun! These rules are guidelines only, so never let strict adherences to them spoil your game! Feel free to change, ignore, or add to these rules in any way you wish.

Hero Building and Narrator’s Tips

See the separate documents for ideas on making heroes and expanded tips for Narrators.

The basics of hero building are to give out 3 Hero Points to each player and let them know what they can spend them on, like abilities, Advantages, Edge, or

special powers. If Hindrances are used they usually allow one additional point per Hindrance taken. Races, Roles, or other Archetypes may affect several factors of hero creation, and may cost Hero Points.