Item Qualities

p. 154

Activating Item Qualities

Item Qualities often have a number associated with them. This is their rating. Ratings affect Qualities in different ways, depending on the Quality in question. Special Qualities are generally either Passive or Active:

Weapon Qualities can only trigger on a successful attack, unless specified otherwise.

Weapon Qualities may inflict effects on a target, which unless specified otherwise, are always in addition to other effects, Critical Injuries, and Damage.

Specific Qualities

Accurate (Passive)

For each level of this trait, the attacker adds to their attack dice pools while using this weapon.

Auto-Fire (Active)

Attacking with a weapon on Auto-fire is generally less accurate and the attacker must increase the difficulty of the attack check by .

The user** may choose to not use the Auto-fire quality** on a weapon to avoid the difficulty increase.

If an Auto-fire attack hits, the attacker can trigger Auto-fire by spending Auto-fire can be triggered multiple times. Each time the attacker triggers auto-fire, it deals an additional hit to the target, and each hit deals base damage plus the number of uncanceled on the check.

These additional hits can be allocated to the target, or to other targets within range of the weapon. If the attacker wishes to hit multiple targets, they must decide to do so before making the check. Furthermore, if they wish to hit multiple targets, their initial target must always be the target with the highest difficulty and highest defense (if this is two separate targets, the GM chooses which target is their initial target). The initial hit must always be against the initial target, subsequent hits generated can be allocated to any of the other designated targets.

Auto-fire weapons can also activate one Critical Injury for each hit generated on the attack per the normal cost.

Breach (Passive)

Weapons with Breach burn through the toughest armor, and are often heavy weapons or starship weapons.

Breach weapons ignore one point of Armor (planetary scale) for every rating of Breach (meaning they also ignore 10 points of Soak for every rating of Breach).

Burn (Active)

Weapons with Burn inflict damage over time. If the attack is successful, the target continues to suffer the weapon's base damage for a number of rounds equal to the weapon's Burn rating. Damage is applied at the start of each of the target's actions.

A victim might be able to stop the damage by rolling around on the ground and making an Agility check as an action. This is an Average () Coordination check on hard surfaces such as the hall of a spaceship, or an Easy () Coordination check on grass or soft ground. Jumping into a body of water stops the damage immediately.

Both situations assume the flame is from actual combustion rather than a chemical reaction. With the latter, there is usually little the victim can do.

Blast (Active)

If the attack is successful and Blast activates, each character (friend or foe) Engaged with the original target suffers wounds equal to the weapon's Blast rating (plus an additional wound per Success as usual). In a relatively small and enclosed area, the Game Master might decide that everyone in the room suffers damage.

If the Blast quality doesn't activate, the ordnance still detonates, but bad luck or poor aim on the part of the firer (or quick reactions on the part of the victims) means the explosion may not catch anyone else in its radius. However, the user may also trigger Blast if the attack misses, by spending . In this case, the original target and every target engaged with the original target suffers damage equal to the Blast rating of the weapon.

Concussive (Active)

The target is Staggered (p. 218) for a number of rounds equal to the weapon's Concussive rating.

A Staggered target cannot perform Actions.

Cortosis (Passive)

Weapons with the Cortosis quality are immune to the Sunder quality.

Armor with the Cortosis quality makes the wearer's Soak immune to the Pierce and Breach qualities.

Cumbersome (Passive)

To wield a Cumbersome weapon properly, the character needs a Brawn characteristic equal to or greater than the weapon's Cumbersome rating.

For each point of Brawn the character is deficient, they must increase the difficulty of all checks made while using the weapon by .

Defensive (Passive)

A character wielding a weapon with the Defensive quality increases their Melee Defense by the weapon's Defensive rating.

Deflection (Passive)

An item with the Deflection quality increases the wearer's Ranged Defense equal to its Deflection rating.

Disorient (Active)

When Disorient is triggered, the target is Disoriented for a number of rounds equal to the weapon's Disorient rating.

A Disoriented target adds to all Skill Checks they perform.

Ensnare (Active)

When Ensnare is triggered, the target is Immobilized for a number of rounds equal to the weapon's Ensnare rating.

An Ensnared target may attempt a Hard () Athletics check as an action on their turn to break free from the effect.

An Immobilized target cannot perform Maneuvers.

Guided (Active)

If a character misses while firing a Guided weapon and if Guided activates, they may make an attack check at the end of the round. The difficulty of the check is calculated by comparing the weapon's silhouette of 0 to the silhouette of the target, and the check's Ability dice equal the weapon's Guided rating. If the test is successful, the weapon strikes the target and damage is dealt normally.

Guided requires to activate, unless otherwise specified in the weapon's description. Remember, the Guided effect can activate on its subsequent attacks, representing the projectile continuing to track the target.

"Spoofing" is a countermeasure designed to work against the particular projectile — such as flares designed to draw off an infrared missile. Spoofing directly increases the defense of the target against attacks with the Guided quality.

Knockdown (Active)

When Knockdown triggers, the target is knocked Prone.

Unless specified otherwise, Knockdown requires to trigger, plus one additional per silhouette beyond one.

Inaccurate (Passive)

Inaccurate weapons add to the attacker's dice pool equal to their Inaccurate rating.

Inferior (Passive)

An Inferior Weapon generates automatic on all checks related to its use, and has its base damage decreased by one.

Inferior Armor has its encumbrance increased by one and its defense decreased by one. If it does not have defense, decrease its soak value by one to a minimum of zero.

Ion (Passive)

Ion weapons are designed to affect electrical systems as opposed to dealing raw damage. They are fitted to ships to knock out opponents' shields, sensors, and engines. They are shorter range than laser weapons, and deal larger amounts of damage, but their damage is dealt to the target as system strain (usually on vehicles). It is still reduced by armor and soak.

Droids are affected by ion weapons, taking damage to their strain threshold.

Limited Ammo (Passive)

Some weapons fire particularly large or complex projectiles that cost significant amounts of credits, or are themselves a complete weapon that once launched is expended.

A weapon with the Limited Ammo quality may be used to make a number of attacks equal to its Limited Ammo rating before it must be reloaded with a maneuver. In addition, each shot expends one of a limited number of rounds of ammo, which must be purchased or otherwise obtained before the weapon can be used.

This also applies to grenades and other "one use" weapons which have the Limited Ammo 1 quality (here, the user is not "reloading" the grenade, but drawing another to use — but mechanically they are equivalent).

Linked (Active)

Some weapons are designed to fire together at the same target.

When firing a Linked weapon, on a successful attack, the weapon deals one hit. The wielder may spend to gain an additional hit, and may do so a number of times equal to the weapon's Linked rating. Additional hits from linked weapons may only be applied against the original target. Each each hit deals base damage plus the number of uncanceled on the check.

Pierce (Passive)

An attack made with this weapon ignores one point of soak for each rank of Pierce. If the weapon has more ranks of Pierce than the target's total soak, it completely ignores the target's soak.

Prepare (Passive)

Weapons with this quality require time to set up before being used.

The user must perform a number of preparation Maneuvers equal to the weapon's Prepare rating before making attacks with that weapon.

Slow-Firing (Passive)

Slow-Firing weapons tend to be large, heavy, emplacement-mounted weapons like the turbolasers found on capital ships, or planetary defense ion cannons. While they deal incredible damage, they need time to recharge or cool down between shots.

A weapon's Slow-Firing rating dictates how quickly the weapon can be fired after an attack. For example, a heavy turbolaser with Slow-Firing 2 must wait two Rounds after being fired before it can be fired again.

Stun (Active)

A weapon with Stun causes strain to the target. When the Stun quality is activated, it inflicts Strain equal to the weapon's Stun rating.

Stun Damage (Passive)

Some weapons deal Stun damage instead of regular damage. In this case, the weapon deals damage as Strain instead of Wounds. This damage is still reduced by a target's Soak.

A variant of this is a Stun setting. As an incidental, the wielder can choose to switch the setting of their weapon to "Stun." When weapons with a stun setting are used to deal stun damage, their range changes to short and cannot be increased.

Sunder (Active)

See also: Repairing

When activated, the attacker chooses one item openly wielded by the target (such as a weapon, shield, or item on a belt). That item is damaged one step: to Minor if undamaged, from Minor to Moderate, or from Moderate to Major. If a weapon already suffering Major damage is the target of a successful Sunder, it is destroyed.

Sunder requires to activate. If activated multiple times in the same attack, each can be applied against the same weapon, potentially taking a weapon from undamaged to destroyed in a single attack.

Superior (Passive)

A Superior Weapon generates automatic on all checks related to its use, and has its base damage increased by one.

Superior Armor has its Encumbrance reduced by one and its Soak value increased by one.

Tractor (Passive)

Instead of firing searing beams of laser fire or crackling ion discharges, this weapon fires relatively harmless electromagnetic beams that ensnare ships and hold them fast in space.

Tractor Beams, like all weapons, are fired at their target using a the appropriate Skill check (generally Gunnery) with all suitable modifiers. Once the weapon hits its target, the target may not move unless its pilot makes a successful Piloting check with a difficulty based on the Tractor Beam's rating. The Tractor Beam's rating is always noted in parentheses in the weapon's stats next to the quality.

Vicious (Passive)

When this weapon scores a Critical Injury or hit, the character adds ten times the Vicious rating to the critical roll. Vicious 3, for example, adds +30 to the critical hit result.