The players in Seasons Pass form a team of mercenaries who do contract work for hire. Each player creates a single character that she guides through the missions and stories that the Game Master writes.

Unlike the players, the Game Master's role in Seasons Pass is to create missions for the players to complete and play all of the characters that come into contact with the players, whether they are informants, enemies, or loved ones. A primary job that the Game Master fulfills is to make sure that everyone is involved and having a good time.

The Seasons Pass RPG uses ten-sided dice (d10s) and six-sided dice (d6s). Somewhere between 5 and 10 of each type will be the most any person should ever have to roll.

The Power Die is a ten-sided die (a d10). When rolled, a 6, 7, 8, 9 or 10 is counted as a success. 10s are called Explosions, in addition to counting as a success themselves, they allow the player to reroll the die for the possibility of an additional success. A 1 on a Power die is counted as a dud, subtracting a success from the total roll - however, when rerolling an explosion, a 1 is not counted as a dud. Attributes and Skill Specialties are added as Power dice to a Die Pool when rolling.

An example roll would be: 5, 4, 2, 6, 9, 7, 10, 1. The 10 is an explosion, and is rerolled and results in a 6. This means that there were 4 successes because the rerolled 10 added another success, but the 1 subtracted that success.

The Skill Die is a six-sided die (a d6). When rolled, a 5 or a 6 is counted as a success. There are no explosions or duds when rolling a Skill die. Skill Groups and bonus dice are added as Skill dice to a Die Pool when rolling.

The Chance Die is a six-sided die, like a Skill die, but when rolled only a 6 is a success. A 2-5 is a failure, and a 1 is a critical failure. On a success, the character pulls a miraculous stunt and manages a success out of thin air. Chance dice are never added to Die Pools. They only appear in these special circumstances:

• If modifiers or mitigating circumstance results in a die pool of 0 or less
• If a Trait of Quality requires a Chance Die instead of a normal Die Pool

Stunt dice usually take the form of Skill Dice. They are awarded for especially good roleplaying – at the GM's discretion – adding up to 3 Skill dice to any actions that the players spend a lot of creativity on.

A Dice Pool is the usually total of an Attribute, a Skill Group and a Skill Specialty, composed of Skill dice and Power dice. A dice pool is constructed in this way:

• One Power Die for each point you have in the Attribute you are using
• One Skill Die for each point you have in the Skill Group you are using
• One Power Die for each point you have in the Skill Specialty you are using

The player rolls these dice and tries to accumulate successes equal to a target number - the Difficulty - set by the GM. In the following rules, Dice Pools are indicated Attribute + Skill Group [Specialty], which, in example, might be Agility + Guns [Rifles], which the player would add.

The GM can impose any penalty or bonus he feels that fits the situation. Skill dice are usually awarded, though the GM may award Power dice under special circumstances. Skill dice are generally subtracted first from a roll, though the GM can declare to subtract Power Dice.

When called on to roll a die pool, a character must get a certain number of successes in order to succeed. The target number of successes is called the Difficulty. Usually, the GM determines the difficulty for any given roll, though sometimes it can be determined by another character or affected by environmental variables.

Here are some examples of various difficulty values:

1. Daily Routine
2. Easy
3. Average
4. Tough
5. Hard
6. Very Hard
7. Challenging
8. Vicious
9. Impossible

Needless to say, some characters will find themselves more able at certain tasks than others, and will find higher difficulties easier to roll against than others. More dice means more successes… for the most part.

Often an entire group of characters may attempt to make the same skill check at once. For example, a team may be investigating a crime scene, or a multiple characters may try to give another first aid.

When all the characters are working as a team to achieve one goal, or if one character is doing the primary work and others are assisting him, every character rolls their respective die pools and adds all their successes together. every character rolls their respective die pools and adds all their successes together. The difficulty for such a roll is determined by the GM in the same way for a single character, but the GM adds 2 for each character beyond the first who is participating in the roll. This means a task of average difficulty (3) would be difficulty 7 for three characters working together.

If one character rolls no successes, he fails to help the team on this particular roll, and occasionally something negative may happen to that character individually, though the rest of the team is unaffected. If a character critically fails, he ruins it for the rest of the team. Every dud that lowers his score below zero subtracts two successes from the team's total roll.

If a team fails to pass the difficulty, then they fail to gain anything useful from that roll, though it may be possible that a character who rolls an exceptional or critical success can salvage something from the situation. In most cases, they may not reattempt the roll. If they critically fail as a whole – even if one character rolls an exceptional or critical success – they fail spectacularly.

When one character is acting against another directly, it is said to be a Contested Roll. This happens when a character is trying to move about unnoticed, or in an arm wrestling contest, or some other challenge which pits one characters abilities directly against another's.

If one character is controlled by a Player and the other the GM, rather than have both characters roll off against each other, the Player Character will roll his Die Pool against a set difficulty determined from the NPC's stats. First, the appropriate Attribute + Skill [Specialty] pools should be determined, and then the GM determines the level of awareness of the NPC: Passive, Ready or Alerted.

A Passive character is not expecting any trouble, and is probably unaware of the opposing character. The difficulty to succeed against a Passive character is only equal to the character's relevant Attribute. Example: A guard playing cards or watching TV instead of patrolling.

A Ready character is ready for trouble, though he may not know exactly what is going on. The difficulty to succeed against a Ready character is equal to the character's relevant Attribute + Skill. Example: A guard on patrol, or a guard who has heard an alarm but has yet to see a threat.

An Alerted character is not only aware of the opposing character, he has a very good idea of what he's getting into. The difficulty to succeed against an Alerted character is equal to the character's entire Die Pool. Example: A guard who has been informed that there is an armed intruder in the next room.

Most of the time, a player will be rolling against a NPC's Ready difficulty, as most NPCs that a player would not be intimately familiar with the player character's abilities. Keep in mind that the Alerted difficulty level requires the Alerted character to have detailed information about the capabilities of the opposing character.

In some cases, a player character may come head to head with another player character, or some other situation that would require rolls for both characters. In this case they both roll their die pools, and the character that rolls highest wins. Note that while physical and mental attacks are similar to Contested rolls, they are handled in a slightly different way. See the Attacks section under Combat and Turn by Turn Actions, below.

A character who rolls enough successes to equal the difficulty of the roll succeeds at what the roll was meant to determine. This usually means the character accomplishes what he wants to do, with little extra flair.

When a character rolls three more successes than the difficulty, he achieves an exceptional success. The character not only does what he wanted, but he looks good doing it. Exceptional successes always have some bonus added on top of a normal success.

When a character rolls six more successes than the difficulty, he achieves a critical success. The character succeeds at the roll in a monumental way, achieving unexpected and beneficial results in addition to what the roll was to determine.

A character who does not roll enough successes to meet the difficulty of the roll fails to do what the roll was meant to determine. Usually this does not have additional negative affects beyond immediate failure, though in certain situations a failure can result in painful situations.

A critical failure occurs if a character rolls more duds than successes, in which the results from the roll are less than zero. Not only does the character fail, but something extraordinarily bad happens as a result of the character's actions, usually to the character himself.

There are many quantifiable statistics which define every person in Seasons Pass. In this section, the rules for each statistic are given.

Main Article: Attributes

Every character has six Attributes which define his physical and mental capabilities: Strength, Agility, Endurance, Psyche, Insight and Willpower. All characters have a minimum and maximum rank for Attributes, though these can vary widely from race to race. By default, a human has a minimum of 1 in all Attributes and a Maximum of 5.

It is important to note that these attributes do not affect a character's demeanor, nor do they appraise a character's actual intelligence. that is up to how a player wants to roleplay them. Each character is assumed to have the equivalent of a High School education. More or less can be bought as Traits or Qualities, or they can just be a character quirk with no real game mechanics.

Main article: Skills

The learned adult knows many skills which are applied to daily life, both broad Skill Groups which can be applied to a variety of tasks and more exclusive Skill Specialties which have very specific applications.

Essence is calculated by adding Willpower and Psyche. A character's Essence pool (currently available Essence) enables him to use any special abilities that are granted by virtue of his race or traits. For example, many of the racial abilities are triggered by spending an Essence point. This is also true of mages, who require Essence to fuel their magical energies.

There are several different ways in which a character can regain Esssence points, many of which are specific to his race.

Mass is based on a character or object's size and weight relative to others. Most adult characters have a Mass rating of 5, though some cyborgs are much more massive. see main entry.

See main entry

A Nanocomputer (or NC) is a minuscule computer that has either been implanted directly into the brain, or in other ways incorporated into the owner. For more information on Nanocomputers and the virtual world, see the main entry

Many abilities and powers in the Seasons Pass setting are Supernatural, which means they are magical or Ætheric in origin. Being Supernatural has no direct effect on a power, though there are a number of abilities that can affect a Supernatural power, such as augmentations, foci, or counterspells.

If you have the ability to counterspell - given if you take the Magery Trait or certain Changeling or Phage powers - you can use a counterspell as an Interrupt Attack against anyone using a Supernatural power that you can see (or otherwise sense) or you can use it as a Normal Action to try to counter a sustained spell or power. Either way, you make a Psyche + Propriety [Concentration] roll against the target's Mental Defense.

(for detailed rules, see main entry) It's 2218 CE and there are many ways for a person to perceive the world these days. Here's an attempt at a comprehensive list of various and sundry senses in the world. Sight Hearing Virtual Ætheric Other Senses Infrared Radar

Aurasense Mage Sight Night Vision Sonar

Æther Peek Directional Sense of Smell Telescopic Motion Sensor

Spirit Speech Shark Sense Microscopic Comm Unit

Ætheric Compass

Lidar Band Scanner

Gyroscope

Combat and turn-by-turn actions (see main entry)

Social Sparring (see main entry)

Health and Damage (see main entry)

Experience At intermittent periods, usually at the end of sessions or important scenes, the GM may award 5 to 10 experience points. Experience may be spent as follows: Human Experience Table Experience Table for all other Races Stat Experience Cost Stat Experience Cost Attribute Next Level x 4 Attribute Next Level x 5 Skill Group or Specialty Next Level x 2 Skill Group or Specialty Next Level x 2 Trait or Power Next Level x 8 Trait or Power Next Level x 10 Quality Number of Dots x 5 Quality Number of Dots x 7 Equipment 1 per Dot Equipment 1 per Dot Warrant 3 Warrant 3

see main entry.

see main entry.