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 [ Basic Rune Theory | Advanced Rune Theory ] [ Runes Defined ] As you should already know, using energy requires practice, skill, and a strong willpower. Using energy, for the most part, requires the usage of runes. So this leads us to the first question. What exactly, is a rune? A rune is a complex set of instructions that channel, and control the energy around us, inside us, and in others. Think of the Dreadnought body like a computer's motherboard. That is where the main computational power lies. The mind is the processor, and the brain is the hard drive. The body is basically a small computer that can run programs on its own, and can communicate with other like bodies if they use the same language. The runes are like the peripherals of a computer. Some plug in to the motherboard itself, boosting the speed, computational power, and memory space. Others, like network cards, modems, and the like, allow the motherboard, or body, to control things that are beyond the body itself. The runes work in much the same way as the peripherals of a computer. Each one has a specific set of instructions written into it that control the way it processes energy. Some of them alter the way energy flows in the body, while others alter the flow of energy outside the body. Some translate the energy into another form, much the same way a modem shifts an analog signal into a digital one. Fortunately, like on your computer, all you need is the little shortcut to activate the programmed instructions. That shortcut is the visible representation of the rune itself that appears on your body, or in the air, when you spend energy to key it. the act of keying a rune primes it and lets the instructions it's linked to know that something is about to get processed. Still with me? Good. Cause it's time for another analogy. Using a rune is like driving a car. First off you have to start the car, and that requires gas. Likewise, when you go to use a rune, you have to key it. Just like bigger cars use more gas, the more powerful a rune is, the more energy it's going to take to get it keyed. Once it's started, you can do a lot of stuff with your car. You can drive down to the store that's only a few minutes away, or you can drive 400 miles in it, as long as you keep the car running. Once you turn it off, if you want to use it again, you have to start it up again. Runes are basically the same. Once you key it, you can keep it on till you run out of energy, or for just that short little burst. Along these same lines, runes are like cars in another way. If you leave it running too long, keep starting it and stopping it, or push it too hard, your car will break down for one reason or another. The first example of leaving it running to long is sort of an obvious one. Eventually, it runs out of gas. When your car runs out of gas, there are several things that can happen. First, it just sputters and dies. No real harm done, except that you have to push it to the gas station to refill your tank. Or, in runic terms, it stops working till you get some more energy. Second, it can start to hiccup when you run low on gas, or for a rune, when you get low on energy, the rune may do some unpredictable things. Like creating a little power surge that not only affects the results, but may damage the rune as well. Third, the engine may seize up. This is known in runic terms as burning out. Burn out causes a rune to stop responding for a period of time that may be short, or may last a long time. The second example of starting and stopping a lot isn't quite as obvious. Every time you start your car you're pulling energy from the battery. The initial pull of energy required to start the car creates stress on both the battery, and on the car itself. Starting and stopping enough times will kill your battery. Likewise with runes. 1st and 2nd power level runes can be safely keyed up to 10 times per day before you start to stress them. The instructions in these runes are relatively simple, and therefore can hold up to stress relatively well. After the 10th keying, the rune starts to get harder to control, and harder to use. This equates to a cumulative +1 difficulty modifier for each time past the 10th that a rune gets keyed in one day. A failure on the roll means that the rune stops working for the day, while a botch results in a temporary burnout of both energy, and the rune. 3rd and 4th power level runes can also be used up to 10 times per day, due mostly to their larger data paths and larger energy requirements. Unlike the 1st and 2nd power level runes, if you use these ones more than 10 times per day, you suffer a cumulative +2 difficulty on the roll every time you use it beyond the 10th. Failure on the roll causes a temporary energy backlash, and failure of the rune for the next two days for every time past 10 it was used. A botch causes a temporary burnout or not only that rune, but every other rune in the series as well. This lasts for a number of weeks equal to the number of times it was used beyond 10. The third example, of pushing it too hard for too long, is the last restriction we have on the runes. Once a rune is keyed, it can be used for a number of rounds equal to your level, or for 10 rounds, whichever is higher. After this 'grace period' the rune will start to overheat. And I do mean, literally overheat. For every round beyond the grace period that the rune is used, it will deal one health level of unsoakable bashing damage to you at it starts to heat up. If you take a number of health levels in this fashion equal to your unaltered stamina score, the rune will actually burst into flames, causing all of the damage to shift to unsoakable lethal damage, and, as if that weren't enough the rune will not work again till it completely cools down. If the usage is stopped before it flames up, the rune only requires a cool down period of one minute per round it was used beyond the grace period. If it flames, the cool down period is measured in hours. And just in case you're wondering, no amount of ice or healing will take away the pain. The damage heals at the same rate at which the rune cools down. One minute per bashing damage, or one hour per lethal damage. Of course, depending on the area of the body that the rune is located on, it could ignite clothing, hair, or even your surroundings. The pain from the initial wounding causes a +2 difficulty modifier to all rolls, while the burn causes a +4 difficulty modifier to all rolls till all the damage is healed. Some Dreadnoughts have likened the experience to getting hit with a branding iron. [ Rune Usage ] Now that we've established the way runes work, we'll look at the way runes are used. There are three factors involved when it comes to using runes. The first is a person's Willpower. Willpower determines whether or not the person can actually get the rune to work. This is a relatively simple matter most of the time. To get a rune to work requires the expenditure of the energy needed to key it, followed by a Willpower roll. The difficulty of the roll equals the power level of the rune plus three for your personal class runes or plus four for non-class runes you use. Using multiple runes in the same round is possible, but every rune used beyond the first gets a cumulative +1 bonus to its difficulty. The Willpower roll basically represents a Dreadnought's concentration on making a particular rune work. Every time you add another one into the equation, it gets that much harder to concentrate on what you're doing. As a bonus, if you're trying to use a rune, and you fail your Willpower roll, the rune doesn't work. If you botch the roll, you lose a temporary point of Willpower. If that wasn't bad enough, if you're trying to use more than one rune in a round, and you fail the willpower roll on any of them, all of them fail for the round. If you botch under the same circumstances, you lose a temporary point of Willpower for each and every rune you were trying to use. The second factor involved is a person's Energy Control rating. This a stat that's used to figure out how well someone can control their energy at a distance. Some people simply call it a range factor. For every point you have in the ability, you can control energy at a larger distance. This is based on a one to ten scale which is detailed in the chart below. If a Dreadnought wishes to make a ranged attack with their energy, they use a dexterity plus Energy Control roll to determine if they hit, or how well they hit. The normal ranged attack difficulty ratings are used for this roll. See the Energy Control Rating information for further clarification.
The third factor involved in using a rune, is time. It takes roughly one full round of concentration before the affect a rune would create can take place. This is called warm up time by most Dreadnoughts. Notice that I said 'can' take place, not will take place. Like anything else in life, sometimes things take longer than we want them to, and sometimes they happen too quickly. To determine how long it takes the rune to process the energy and create the desired affect you roll the number of dice equal to your wits score plus the rune's level roll, at difficulty five plus one per power level of the rune. This roll cannot be failed, or botched. If there are no successes on the roll, use the zero column to determine how long it takes.
Due to balancing factors, all runes do the same amount of damage at each level, when used offensively. To determine the number of dice rolled for damage, please refer to the chart below. Refer to individual rune descriptions to see what type of damage is done.
[ Rune Advancement ] To advance within the levels of a single rune, a Dreadnought is required to use it a certain number of times. Using the rune equals practicing with the rune, and that means experience. But is that all? Is that all that’s really required to advance the rune’s powers? You use it 100 times and you suddenly have it mastered? Not by a long shot. There are five levels within each individual rune. Each of these levels is treated as a separate entity when it comes to learning a rune. The first level of each rune is the easiest to learn, and the fifth level of each rune is typically the hardest. Why? Because of the amount of knowledge that is required to use the more powerful affects of a rune. To demonstrate how difficult it is to advance within the levels of a single rune, a roll is required when the experience requirement has been met. This is a straight up intelligence roll with a difficulty of 5 + the level you’re trying to learn. There are three things that are different about this roll. First, bonus dice, and lowered difficulties do not affect this roll, so no one has an advantage except extra dice from naturally higher stats. Second, willpower cannot be spent to do this automatically. Finally, ones do not affect this roll. There is no botching, only failing. On the subject of failing. If the roll is failed, all of the experience earned for that particular Rune level is lost, and must be earned all over again. Along those lines, it typically takes most Dreadnoughts at least two or three tries to get the final two levels of any particular Rune. If the roll is successful, the Dreadnought learns the level, and may proceed to the next. |
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