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C O M B A T & P A N I C
S T R E S S & P A N I C
STRESS LEVEL
The mounting tension in your character is mea- T A member of your own crew attacks you.
sured by their STRESS LEVEL. It usually starts at T A person nearby is revealed to be an android.
zero, and increases during the course of the T You encounter certain creatures or locations,
game. Your STRESS LEVEL increases by one when- as determined by the scenario or the GM.
ever one of the following happens:
T You push a skill roll. G A I N I N G S T R E S S D I C E : Whenever you
T You fire a burst of full auto fire (see page 96). make a skill roll (see page 58), you must add a
T You suffer one or more points of damage. number of Stress Dice equal to your current STRESS
T You go without sleep, food, or water. LEVEL to your roll—your stress makes you more
T You perform a coup de grâce (see page 99). focused, increasing your chance to succeed. There’s
T A Scientist in your team fails to use the Analy- a flip side to this though—if you roll one or more
sis talent (see page 77). on your Stress Dice, you must make a Panic Roll.
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P L A Y E R S E C T I O N
PA N I C R O L L STO P P I N G PA N I C
As long as you keep your stress in check, you Some effects on the Panic Roll table are imme-
can use it to your advantage. But if the ten- diate or last one Round. Others remain in effect
sion grows too strong it can explode, sending until one of the following happens:
you into a wild panic. You need to make a T Another character comes to your aid and
Panic Roll when any of the following happens: makes a COMMAND roll (see page 71). This
T You roll one or more on your Stress counts as a slow action in combat.
Dice in a skill roll. If this happens, you can't T You are Broken.
push the skill roll—instead, roll for panic. T One Turn passes.
T You witness a friendly character suffering
from a certain panic effect (see the table).
T You are pinned down by a ranged attack.
T You suffer a critical injury.
T You’re attacked by a strange alien creature
that you’ve never seen before. RELIEVING STRESS
T A truly horrifying event occurs, as deter-
For every full Turn (5–10 minutes) spent resting
mined by a scenario or the GM.
in a safe area that is secured from enemies (as
R E S O L U T I O N : Roll a D6, add your current far as you know), your STRESS LEVEL is reduced
STRESS LEVEL, and check the table to the right.
by one point. You cannot make any skill rolls
when resting, and if your rest is interrupted, it
PA N I C A C T I O N S : If you roll a 10 or higher doesn’t count. A Panic Roll can also decrease
on your Panic Roll, you will be forced to per- stress, as can certain drugs.
form a specific action. If the Panic Roll was Once per Act in Cinematic play, and once
the result of a skill check for an action, the ac- per game session in Campaign play, you can
tion is cancelled and immediately replaced by interact with your signature item in some way
the forced panic action, even if you rolled to reduce your STRESS LEVEL one step. This
.
typically requires a slow action.
M O R E PA N I C : If you are suffering from a Some conditions, such as Starving or Freez-
panic effect (7+ on the Panic Roll) and are ing (see page 106), can block your ability to
forced to make another Panic Roll, the new relieve stress.
panic effect replaces the previous one. If the
new roll is lower than the previous effect,
however, it is automatically adjusted to one
step more severe than the previous effect.
O V E R K I L L : The Overkill talent lets you PERMANENT
replace the effect of a Panic Roll result of 11 or M E N TA L T R A U M A
higher by the Overkill effect, if you have any
enemies in sight. When triggering Overkill, you If you have rolled a result of 13 or higher on
must immediately attack your enemies and you a Panic Roll during a game session, you must
won’t stop until you or all enemies in sight are make an EMPATHY roll after the session. Roll for
Broken. Also, all other PCs in SHORT range of the attribute only, not using any skill. If the roll
you must make an immediate Panic Roll. succeeds, you develop a permanent mental
trauma of some kind. Roll a D6 and consult
the table on page 101. ■
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