Work in Progress
Advice:
Puzzles Only work if the players know the objective of the puzzle, know the variables that can affect the solution (but not how they work together), and are given adequate feedback when they experiment to understand the effects of their actions. (if someone affects a variable, something must happen. not “nothing happens”)
Trap variables can affect progress to the solution, forwards or backwards
General tips
Handling Action Economy:
Monster Entrances
GM Responsibilities
The GM fulfills several roles, but their main role is to describe and act out the world that the player’s characters are in. The GM should know (or be able to figure out) what will happen in the world if PCs didn’t exist. However, since PCs obviously do exist, the GM plays the world reacting to the actions of the players, similar to how the players react to the world.
The GM is also responsible for providing encounters, difficult circumstances which the player characters must overcome. These encounters are often connected to the world’s story, of which the players get to explore and interact with, though many encounters may be unrelated to the story (at least initially) and result as a consequence to the player’s actions.
When a challenge is approached, the GM determines how difficult the challenge is and determines the number (DC) that a character must beat in order to succeed in that challenge. Once a challenge is addressed, the GM describes the outcome, though the GM may allow a player to describe their own successes at times.
Finally, the GM is the ultimate authority on rules and covering scenarios that are not covered in the rules. There’s no limit to the number of scenarios that can arise in a game. When a scenario arises that the rules don’t cover, the GM is the person ultimately responsible for the outcome. For example, there is no description to calculate the damage a falling whale and potted plant. One GM may decide that they do 30(B) damage, while another may simply say that anything within 20 meters of the landing is destroyed.
Preparing the Game
Before having the first session of Incursion, we recommend running a “session zero.” There are many online sources advising what to include in a session zero, but the main purpose is simply to ensure all players are on the same page as to what kind of game they are about to join. In it, ask all of the players what kind of game they want. It’s possible that incursion isn’t the best system to play the game everyone wants, and that’s fine. The game will still be here when you need it.
If you have decided to use Incursion as the system, continue to use session zero to help the players create their characters. Not every player will need to finish their character by the end. The goal is to have it so that the players know what kind of game they are joining, what kind of character they want to play, and perhaps how that character knows the other characters before the game starts.
Outside of the session, the GM needs to create the world and the campaign, the overarching plot that the PCs will find themselves entangled in. Incursion is set to allow inspiration for most story’s and settings. One session may take place in New York City, while another with the same characters may take place in a castle manned by dinosaurs. As such, many other rpg resources and worlds can be used to play. When using outside resources to build or choose your world and story, use the equipment section and Creating an NPC section to help assign stats when needed. This game does not provide a large list of antagonists, but it does provide a quick method of generating them on the fly.
Maybe 1 day I’ll make a world and setting wholly unique to Incursion, and I’ll flesh out monsters, characters, and plots, but currently I am but 1 man busy man with many other goals too, and this is free. I’ll try to create a one-shot adventure for play testing the game.
Non-Player Characters
Non-player characters, NPCs, are the characters the GM controls, including monsters. NPCs will almost always provide the core components of the story player characters, PCs, interact with. NPCs should have some motivations and intentions and a unique personality. They can be stolen from all sources of media, frakensteined together from multiple characters, or made completely from your own creativity. When all of the NPCs interact with each other and the events of the world, you get the world’s story. Because PCs rarely act predictably, a NPC’s goals and behaviors make it easier to have an NPC react to new “unwritten” scenarios. In this manner, the game’s story will unfold itself to both the players and the GM.
NPCs can still act when outside of player scenes. In fact, these behind the scene actions are often what will drive most of the plot, even if the players never pursue the plot. The actions of the players may influence the unseen actions of NPCs as well, but be sure to leave some hints around when this happens so that all players can enjoy the story and to minimize surprise build ups that seem to come from nowhere.
In combat, NPCs should retreat or surrender too: While defeating an enemy by killing them or knocking them unconscious is effective, many opponents the PCs face will not have the drive to fight to that point. In combat, NPCs that are not driven to fight to the death will eventually need to make a choice of when to run. Mechanically, this mental ‘switch’ is often noted by when all of an NPCs health or sanity boxes have been filled with any kind of damage. Of course, GM’s can play with this marker based on the traits of specific NPCs. Some might run upon taking any severe damage, while others might not notice physical damage at all, despite only having a weak drive to fight. Stories aren’t limited to the examples provided. NPCs might retreat to lead PCs into a trap, or surrender to wait for a better time for backstabbing.
When to Roll?
Player characters will take many actions throughout a game and the vast majority of these actions will require no roll at all. Tasks that can be done without a second thought or too much effort will rarely require a roll. If time is not a constraint, even moderate tasks can become negligible, as a character can attempt it again and again until they reach success.
The GM should ask players to roll on difficult tasks or when the outcome of the roll matters. For example, climbing a slick ladder is easy with time and little pressure, but less easy when being chased by werewolf. However, in both scenarios, no specialized focus is necessary for the skill, so the DC should only increase to 1 (anyone can attempt).
Knowledge Skill Checks
When a player uses a skill to check their character’s knowledge, the GM has two options if the player succeeds.
1) They can provide general knowledge on the subject in question.
2) The GM can answer a number of yes/no questions on the subject.
These options can be combined, letting the GM provide general information to help the player narrow down their questions. A player that just barely succeeds gets 1 question while a player that succeeds by two or more gets 2 questions. A critical success gives the player 3 questions.
Determining Difficulty Checks
The GM has the responsibility of determining the DC of any non-contested skill challenge. To do so, the GM tries to gauge how difficult the task is for an average human, not for the specific character taking the task. The below chart provides a general outline of which to base DCs off of. Most DCs will be within 1 and 3, with 4 as the upper limit. That said, 5-7 DCs are still technically obtainable, if a PC really pushes some ridiculously unlikely stunt.
redo
| DC | Example |
| 0 | Trivial and Easy tasks: Any person can attempt it, even without subject knowledge. |
| 1 | Easy: Any person can attempt it, even without subject knowledge. |
| 2 | Moderately Difficult: Requires some subject knowledge to attempt, and a natural affinity goes a long way. |
| 3 | Hard / Challenging: Even professionals can’t be expected to do it perfectly that often, though they’ll get by well enough the majority of the time. |
| 4 | Exceptionally Difficult: Generally the hardest challenges mortals will find, at this point professionals are hoping to get “good enough” rather than perfect |
| 5 | Godly Only a few talented individuals can hope to pull it off successfully, and most of those individuals are divine. |
| 6 | Impossible: This is what the experts in the field spend years and decades trying to do once. |
| 7 | The GM is either a dick or is letting you try for a miracle: Don’t set the DC this high… Seriously, don’t be that guy. If you think the DC is that high then they probably should even attempt, even if the PC is technically skilled enough to attempt it. |
Open DCs: Players need to know the DC of a task in order to determine a task’s challenge tier. This DC represents the tipping point between success and failure, though higher degrees of either may lead to different outcomes.
Hidden DCs: Some tasks always have an uncertainty about their successes. These types of checks have a Spectrum DC as well as a normal DC. If a player’s roll is within the Spectrum DC, the player may consider it a partial success, even though it might not be. A roll below the spectrum is an obvious failure; the PC knows they failed. A roll above the spectrum is an obvious success; the PC knows they succeeded. The GM should have a value within the spectrum for them to know success vs failure, but they do not need to share that value with the players. A Spectrum DC is generally around 2 or 3 numbers long, such as from 1 to 3 or 2-3.
Position and Effect: “Position and Effect” comes most heavily from the game Blades in the Dark, a great trpg that focuses on criminal heists. While Incursion does not utilize a mechanical version of the concept in the game, the idea itself is exceptionally useful for trpgs in general. In essence, the concept helps the GM and Players clarify actions before a roll is made. The “Position” represents the stakes of a task, and generally how bad an effect can be. The “Effect” represents the good, how useful an outcome is and how much it benefits the players.The great thing about this concept is that both position and effect are negotiable between the players and GM, and the negotiation itself helps prevent miscommunication from either side.
For example, a player might think opening a heavy door to be a low risk high reward (accessing a building) task. The GM might think the position is riskier, as opening the door would shine light indoors and make a loud noise, alerting people of it’s opening. The GM could also consider the effect smaller, as the door is just to a cellar, closed off from the main building.
If the GM knows that his view of the position or effect of the task differs from the player’s view, he can warn the player and even add some description to hint why. “The large door is actually made of thick stone, flat against the stone walls and ground. You expect moving it will not only take effort, but also make a decent amount of noise as it scrapes across the ground and lets the light behind you into the chamber. Furthermore, you are not sure where the door leads to.”
On the otherhand, a player that knows the GM has a different view on position and effect might want to clarify their action. “I only want to open the door enough to peak inside, opening it slowly if possible. I just need to let my pet rat slip through the doorway to get access, I don’t intend on opening the door all the way.”
Social Interactions
When PCs interact with NPCs, consider that NPCs disposition towards their current situation and towards the PC. Additionally, NPCs may have characteristics which open up additional dialogue/information when pressed.
Examples:
The stoic warrior fights for his children back home. When kids are brought up he becomes more soft hearted and sympathetic. He backs off once he discovers one of the players is a parent.
The tax collector truly is greedy. He’ll argue for a higher bribe, but coin is still coin. Once a player offers him money any later roll is solely to determine how much the collector can squeeze out of the players. If the player backs off (refuses to continue bartering or give-in to the higher demand) then the collector will backtrack, revealing all information for the last offer the player gave.
Rewarding Descriptive Actions
When a player describes their action, you may often choose to give the bonus a small bonus due to how the player described performing the action. While this isn’t discouraged, there are many additional ways to reward a player’s description.
In general, the GM should promote player choice. Choice is diminished if many actions lead to the same result. A great way to reward a player who detailed how their PC performed their action is to ensure that the result of the action is adjusted due to the details given. Sure, an attack might deal the same damage regardless of description, but the description still matters. For example, a thug is more likely to be afraid of the blood-spitting, yelling barbarian than a simple soldier who stabbed him, even if they both did the same damage.
Tags are added in combat to encourage player descriptions. While they add mechanical benefits, they exist mainly to provide the GM with more description to utilize when detailing the outcome of an action.
Fudge Tokens
Fudge Tokens are an open system to allow the GM and players more narrative control over the chaos dice can add to the game. They are used to barter for a failure or success on a roll which has just resolved.
The GM starts each session with 3 Fudge Tokens. After any roll, the GM may ask to change the roll to an opposite result; from success to failure or vice versa. If the players unanimously accept, the roll is changed and the GM gives the players one of his fudge tokens. At the end of a session, all of a GM’s fudge tokens are removed.
Similarly, if the players unanimously agree, they can also barter a Fudge token to the GM to reverse a roll’s result. The GM does not have to agree to the barter, but generally it is recommended they don’t go against all of their players’ wishes without good reason. The players can only have a maximum of 3 Fudge Tokens at the start of any game, but otherwise they do not lose any tokens at the end of the session.
Fudge Tokens can be used for various reasons, such as to encourage “Rule of Cool” actions, to break the monotony of an unlucky fight where everyone is missing, and to prevent sudden unlucky disasters.