Concepts of Astro Inferno
Rules as a Saga
Astro Inferno has a ruleset built for epic and mythic tales. Many rules are not defined by mechanical values or fixed outcomes, but instead rely on storytelling aspects and more floating solutions to be interpreted by the players or the GM. The GM has much more responsibility in this kind of game, since they have the power to decide the outcome of things. In the end, everything boils down to this overarching rule – the GM may set aside any rule, and simply dictate how the story progresses.
The story is the most important thing and must always be the focus. You should think of it as a myth being retold, and try to avoid getting stuck in smaller details. A lucky character may perform many actions at once, progressing through various layers of a scene, but the mechanics of how they were able to do this are not the focus – the story is!
A great dice roll could let a player climb a wall, sneak into the guardroom, and steal a key. The focus should be on how “the thief silently jumps out from a window with the key in hand, just as the guard turns around reaching for another beer,” and not on what the guards in the room are wearing or how they are armed. Let the story flow through the rules and let the story be the rules. Create your own myths!
The Death Singers
The players take on the role of chosen souls who defy the unknown, outside the safety of settlements. Their destiny is death, and they measure their life in songs.
All death singers are blessed by a master – an entity of light or dark, or something in between, who has chosen them as their champion. Each master grants their champions powers and blessings, and, most notably, saves them from dying. This is something many masters use as a bargaining tool to keep their puppet loyal and faithful. If a death singer’s spirit becomes too corrupted, however, their master can’t – or won’t – save them anymore, leaving them to face True Death just like all other souls.
Being a death singer puts you in the spotlight of all powers in Fracture. Souls fear you, fallen angels envy you, and even the primordial powers of Eternals and Worm Gods are curious about the peculiar irregularity in their cosmic force you represent.
Definitions
The Journey
A collective sheet that the party shares, where they write down all events they’ve been through so far and any experience points earned along the way. Players can also use these stories in-game to brag or impress people with their adventures.
Session
Refers to a single instance or meeting where players gather to play the game. It’s a specific period of time during which the players and the game master engage in collaborative storytelling, role-playing, problem-solving, and decision-making within the game world.
Verse
A very short period of time. The duration depends on what events are being depicted – often a couple of seconds, but up to a minute in extreme cases. Verses are mostly used in conflict situations. Normally, every character acts in a verse, and the verse ends once all characters and NPCs have acted.
Scene
An undetermined period of time that usually consists of the same characters in the same setting, usually consisting of multiple verses.
You can think of it like a scene in a movie – it can be an uneventful visit to the local tavern, or a meeting with the sinister baron that develops into an epic fight for life and death. If the characters flee from a fight, for example, a new scene would begin, likely one in which they are chased by their adversaries.
If the rules say that something “lasts a scene,” it will wear off when the scene is over and the setting changes. You have to use common sense, though. If the scene is a montage through 100 years of endlessly fighting a horde of children from a great mother, that potion you drank making you “immortal for the rest of the scene” probably shouldn’t last for that long.
Downtime
An undefined period of time when the characters do normal, unspecific, or very particular tasks that would be boring to portray in-game. It can also be a montage of scenes depicting what the characters are doing. Downtime is mostly utilized between adventures or campaigns. During downtime, players get the chance to spend skill points, learn new features or rituals, and describe what their characters are up to in a more lofty way. This is a good time to do long complex tasks, such as studying a massive tome or crafting.
Tiers
Many things in Astro Inferno are divided into five general tiers. The higher the tier, the better.
| tier | general description | item example |
|---|---|---|
| Mundane I | Worse than expected | Something you could pick up from the gutter |
| Ordinary II | As you expect it to be | A normal quality item |
| Excellent III | Better than expected | A special item that stands out among others |
| Masterful IV | Not necessarily perfect but very rare | A unique or famous item |
| Legendary V | Already is, or will be, part of history | An item of legends or gods |
Some mechanics – such as distances further on and damage in the Art of Dying chapter – use specific tiers instead, so keep in mind that not every tier mechanic goes from Mundane I to Legendary V.
Distances
This game doesn’t measure distances and areas in units – instead, it uses a simple tier scale, and it is up to the players and the GM to determine the distance between two points of interest. These tiers apply to both outdoor and indoor settings. Whenever the rules tell you to “increase distance tier,” raise it to the next tier. If an effect doesn’t mention its distance tier, consider it to be Intimate I.
| tier | distance |
|---|---|
| Intimate I | The length or area of a character’s reach |
| Room II | The length or area of a normal sized room |
| Hall III | The length or area of a large hall people could dance in |
| Palace IV | The length or area of a huge building containing many halls |
| City V | The length or area of a city or village, or even as far as the horizon in some cases |
If you succeed in a Jump skill check, you jump Intimate I distance, which will take you across a creek or over a fence. If you increase the distance tier you could jump across a large chasm (Room II), and if you increase it one more time you could jump between two buildings (Hall III).
Dice
You’ll need dice to play this game – D4, D6, D8, D10, D12 and D20. Heck, get some other types while you’re at it, because who knows, right? And dice are lots of fun.
The D20 is the most used die in the game, and each player should ideally have one for themselves during play – you’ll be rolling D20s all the time.
D30, D40, D60, D80 and D100
Designate a D3, D4, D6, D8 or D10 as the tens (with the highest possible value counting as zero), and use a D10 as the ones column. On a D60, a 4 on the D6 and an 8 on the D10 mean 48 (40+8). If the D6 was 6, it wouldn’t be 68, but just 8 instead (0+8). A 60 would then be rolled by D6 = 5 and D10 = 00 (50+10).
D5, D7, D9 and D11
These are just a D6, D8, D10 or D12, but rerolling whenever you roll the highest number. Not really needed, but just in case.
satanic dice
Eventually you need to roll Satanic Dice. These are rolled with two or more dice of any kind, with the highest result always being the highest position, the second-highest the next highest position and so on. The results will be in a steep upwards curve.
- A Satanic D100 is rolled with two D10 and results in a number between 10 and 100, with a total of 55 outcomes. A result of 3 and a 8 is 83. A result of 0 and 9 is 90, 0 and 0 is 100, and so on.
- A Satanic D66 is rolled with two D6 and results in a number between 11 and 66, with a total of 21 outcomes. A result of 4 and a 5 is 54. A result of 1 and 6 is 61, and so on.
- A Satanic D666 is rolled with three D6 and results in a number between 111 and 666, with a total of 56 outcomes and a sadistic preference for results closer to 666. Roll a Satanic D666 below 500. Seems easy, right? Want to bet your soul on it?