Enchantment: a spell bound into a physical object that lasts as long as the mage wishes it to, but which still penalizes their spellcasting ability in a small way because of the drain on their magical energies. If maintained long enough, an enchantment will become independent of its creator, but this can take more than a year.

Exhausted: completely out of Fatigue points. An exhausted character is at -2 to all actions and cannot acquire Focus. If forced to spend another Fatigue, they fall unconscious at the end of the round.

Fatigue: Fatigue points represent a character's reserves of energy. When you have spent all of your Fatigue, you are exhausted and at -2 to all actions. If forced to spend another Fatigue while exhausted, you fall unconscious at the end of the round.

Feral rodents: refers to ordinary, unintelligent mice and rats. Feral rodents instinctively fear the intelligent, talking sort.

First Ones: the first royal mice to come to Hyperborea, long ago. They founded the various kingdoms of the valley and then ascended to godhood.

Focus: when a character is calm, collected and ready to act, they are said to possess Focus. Focus can be expended to trigger many abilities. It takes an action or spending a Fatigue to recover Focus. Focus can only be expended once per turn, although it may be recovered again instantly by spending Fatigue.

Focus Action: a Primary Action which can be turned into a Free Action by spending Focus.

Forsaken: those mice and rats whose mental and magical capabilities are so weak that they often revert to the behavior of their feral kin. Any children that they have may be completely feral.

Free Action: a minor action which takes little time. Characters can perform several free actions in the same turn, as long as they are all different.

Hyperborea: the sheltered valley in which the game is set.

Primary Action: an action which takes up most of the character's turn. A character can only perform one Primary Action per turn.

Size: a rating representing a creature's size, with a mouse being Size 0. Something considerably larger than a mouse will have a positive Size (rats are +1 or +2) while smaller creatures will have a negative rating.

White Lords: refers to royal mice and, to a lesser extent, any white mouse in a position of rulership.

When you encounter an Anomaly, you may attempt to swallow it. Roll your dice against its strength. If you succeed, you swallow it. You acquire an Anomaly trait equal to its dice or your pool, whichever is smaller. This is also limited by your highest die, so a human who swallows a 2d12 anomaly gets a 2d8 Anomaly trait.

If you completely swallow an anomaly (your new trait is exactly equal to its original strength) then its effects vanish from the world because you have absorbed the entire thing. This adds a new use to your Anomaly trait... release. That moves it to a new location and costs no die levels- the Anomaly is simply moved to that spot at its current strength. You may release it next to you, so that you aren't inside of the new effect, if you wish.

You can only have one Anomaly trait at a time (special: there might be a power that lets you store two, possibly splitting your dice between them). Each one provides you with some powers based on its nature. Some powers will reduce the Anomaly trait's rating by 1 or more steps, permanently, so you slowly use them up.

Strengths vary. Some ancient Anomalies are like 8d8 strength and are regularly visited by good channelers to absorb them.

Burner: makes an area hot and causes spontaneous combustion to occur. Creatures in the area must resist its strength periodically or burst into flame and take its strength as damage.

• Ignite (costs 0 levels): may cough up a small gout of flame sufficient to ignite a small fire or light an area. Burns for a few minutes then gutters out.
• Dragonsbreath (costs 1 level): you breathe out a cone of fire that burns targets for damage equal to its strength.
• Heart of Flame (costs 0 levels): include your Anomaly trait as extra armor against fire damage or to resist heat.

Electric: random electrical discharges in an area. Carrying metal items is risky and makes you a more likely target.

• Glow (costs 0 levels): surrounds you with bright sparks, making you light up like a light source for a few minutes.
• Zap (costs 1 level): releases a bolt of electricity that arcs between you and a target. Bonuses to hit based on the amount of metal that the target has. Does extra damage to machines.
• Insulation (0): include your Anomaly trait as extra armor against electrical damage or to resist electric shocks.

Ghost: random images of the past blot out the real world, leaving you disoriented and vulnerable until they fade.

• Reveal Past (1 level): triggers a vision that rolls back time in your vicinity, letting you peer into the past. Getting the exact time period that you want requires a Channeling roll.
• Disorient (1 level): lets you cough up a Ghost effect on a nearby target. They must resist or be disoriented like a normal Ghost Anomaly effect.
• Resist Ghosting (0): include this trait when resisting Ghost effects and other temporal distortions.

Mist: produces toxic clouds of mist that block vision and slowly poison people who try to stay there. Affects a relatively large area.

• Fog (1 level): produces temporary mists in a big cloud.
• Poison Resistance (0): include this Anomaly trait when resisting toxins, but not for seeing through mist.

Radiation: unnaturally strong and contained radioactivity. You accumulate rad points rapidly. Affects a relatively large area.

• Nuke (1 level): releases spray of glowing particles that inflict rad-based damage, both harming the target and upping their current rad level.
• Resist Radiation (0): include to resist/block radiation attacks.

Distorter: random distortions of distance and direction, making navigating the area very difficult. You can easily find yourself walking in a straight line and a circle at the same time.

• Distortion (1): zaps an area with the distortion effect temporarily.
• Resist Distortion (0): include with resisting such effects.

Teleporter: tries to randomly teleport targets to open spaces nearby, possibly including underground or up in the air. Large creatures may take damage instead as it tries to fling part of them away but can't move the whole critter.

• Blink (1): you teleport to a random nearby location as though you stepped in a Teleporter Anomaly. Can roll Channeling to try to control the basic type of destination (up in the air, underground, ground level, north, etc.).
• Teleport (2): can roll to try and pick a specific spot.
• Teleport Other (2): attempts to teleport a nearby target randomly.
• Grounding (0): include when resisting teleport attacks.

Melter: melts victims into hideous, insane, zombie-like mutations, permanently. Greatly feared. Basically, it does a sort of damage and if the cumulative effect is too high you "die" and become one of these things. Also called a Monster-maker. Sometimes the victims have an Anomaly inside of them automatically, granting them appropriate powers. If killed, the Anomaly may fade away or be released.

• Melt target (2): zaps someone like a Melter would.
• Cure Melt (1): undoes Melter damage, although someone who's too far gone will simply die after being restored.
• Resist Melt (0): Include when resisting.

Drainer: sucks the life force out of people, causing slow drain with intermittent bursts of reduced-to-a-husk drain.

• Drain target (2): does drain as per normal.
• Heal (1): restores life force to someone, healing their wounds.
• Resist Drain (0): resists life drain attacks.

Humans and Ferals probably have to buy the Swallow Anomaly feat in order to get the full benefit of the Channeling skill. Dogs may get it for free, or have a background that provides it for free. Hm. Perhaps there are separate "Resist Anomaly" and "Channel Anomaly" skills. You have to take a particular Power to get Channel, which lets you do the swallow trick. The other skill is used to resist being affected by them. You must successfully resist to be allowed to try and Swallow at all.

Specialized Channeler: pick an Anomaly type. The level-loss for invoking its powers is halved (don't round down, though- you just reduce it at half-level steps, so every other use drops it a level). You can start play with a half-strength Anomaly of that type already Swallowed.

ie- Sheltered Survivor (Human only): your family line spent most of the post-Apocalypse era in an underground shelter and only recently emerged. Adds access to some high tech equipment that normal PCs can't start with. Luck dice spent on ancient lore rolls count double? Stuff like that.

Hardened Survivor: take 1/2 damage from environmental poison/radiation (round down). Just plain more resistant because you're descended from people who survived the worst of it.

Luck: potentially a skill / special stat. A pool of dice that you can add to rolls, but after you add each one you must cross it off for the session. An interesting variant is to roll them all at the start of the session and then must use those dice. Luck dice can never roll 1s- reroll them if they do. There are powers that increase the minimum roll. If your min is equal to or larger than the size of the die rolled, use your die max automatically.

With Humans, Ferals and Dogs... human backgrounds mostly cover the community you grew up in. Sheltered (science + tech), Frontier (combat), Farmers (nature+hardiness), Nomads (wilderness+nature). These might work by adding new things that your Race Trait applies to.

Feral backgrounds concern special adaptations to the environment. Radproof (1/4 damage from radiation, round down). Fortitude (1/2 damage from radiation and toxin, round down). Berserker (able to enter melee rage). Wide Range (tires slowly, travels long distances). Adapted (1/4 damage from toxins, round down). Climber (claws apply to climb rolls [only if they don't automatically]).

Dog backgrounds concern things that dogs might be good at. Fast Runner (can reach speeds normal characters just can't). Scent Tracker (bloodhound scent skills). Keen Eared Hound (major listen bonuses). Wolf Blooded (bonuses in biting melee, dealing with wild wolves + feral dogs). Howler (can communicate details in howls). Lore-keeper (bonuses to social rolls with Akkas and ancient lore, but not technological lore).

Should definitely be a separate "tech lore" stat that governs figuring out how to recognize and use ancient devices.

With it being an Over the Edge style roll X and sum them system, giving certain races a +1 bonus or penalty to certain things shouldn't be overpowered.

High Beasts have an Intuition die limit of d8.

Low Beasts have a Tech die limit of d8.

Half-Beasts (bestial high beasts that can drop to all fours as needed) have both at d10. They are very rare and tend to have problems breeding.

Humans, if the GM allows them, have an Intuition limit of d6 but a +1 bonus to all Tech rolls.

Only primitive weapons like swords, spears and bows are covered by Speed/Agility. Guns and crossbows are under Tech.

Intuition skills include Sense Danger, Sense Motive, Resist Hallucinations, Sense Radiation (or should that be in sense danger?).

There are some minor gifts like Geiger (Cybernetic): you have an implant that detects radiation. You can use Tech instead of Intuition if it's higher and you have a +2 bonus to your rolls.

The AI Factories are almost characters in their own right. That's an interesting idea- instead of being secret, people know about them and they rule their own fiefs of Beasts. They're all very interested in Anomalies / Rifts.

The Goddess of the Caretakers: has the best cyberware, but declares other AIs to be enemies of the Beasts and her followers maintain that she isn't really an AI but a divine being. The only one that does brain implants and then only in her best followers, so that they can hear her voice directly. Some outsiders wonder whether or not they also ensure that you obey that voice, but the Caretakers deny it. Still, folks with a high Intuition have qualms about them, so they're mostly High Beasts.

The Horror-Maker: a definite enemy of the Beasts, this insane AI manufactures what were originally construction robots now re-purposed as psychotic killing machines.

The Guardian and the Sentries: supplies and repairs the few remaining Sentry units... giant, nuclear-armed robots programmed to kill any unauthorized intruders in the country's airspace. Forbids almost all dealings with Beasts, but provides a token amount of basic survival supplies in the belief that Beasts probably count as non-combatant civilians. Destroys Horrors that have more than a bare minimum of actual weaponry (thus Horrors are usually built with blades and wood-chippers and nail-guns and such). Actually, they sometimes kill Beasts that acquire too many guns, too, if they get too close to a Sentry. Once in a great, great while one of the Sentries actually nukes something, but that happens about once a decade and they'll never discuss what they destroyed- military secrets.

The Toymaker: constructs more and more intricate "mannequins"- robots designed to mimic humans. Some seem to actually run errands for it, but many are just pieces of art- they attempt to reenact some kind of human activity such as a dance over and over and over again, mindlessly. Tolerates Low Beasts as animals but High Beasts tend to get hassled or attacked for not doing what they're supposed to.

The Trader: a cobbled-together and enormously jury-rigged complex that's been barely hanging on for decades. It offers electricity, guns, bullets, cybernetic implants, advice, et cetera, but requires you to bring it raw materials or better yet, useful electronics. These usually have to be stolen from other AIs. It has a few remote outposts where its robots and a handful of Beast helpers have set up a trading post or processing station for goods. The Trader is only arguably sane, and is obsessed with its own survival. Rumor has it that it was created to purchase and distribute goods under martial law equitably. To keep itself safe, even its followers generally can only guess at the purpose of the machines that they're maintaining.

Survival Rolls- to avoid acquiring Rad Points. Everyone starts with a few and acquires more just by travelling cross-country and having to drink the water or eat wild animals. On a crit you not only avoid taking more than the minimum rads for the area (often zero), you can pick someone else and give them a +4 bonus representing your good advice. If this changes their failure into a success, they take the newly revised rad penalty.

Trying to think of some...

Whirling Blades: your penalty for making extra attacks in the same round is -2 per attack, not -4. How about, you can make a free attack as a Focus Action? Two attacks a round at full value is pretty nasty. Especially when you can spend a Fatigue to do it again.

Hide In Plain Sight: as a Focus Action, you can roll Stealth to hide even when out in the open, exposed to sight. If you succeed, you just seem to blend into the background as long as you don't do anything to draw attention to yourself.

Masterful Paws: you can attempt to disarm a trap or pick a lock in a single action, rather than a few minutes. You can spend Fatigue to reroll failed attempts.

Assassin: you get a free Combat Bonus when you successfully strike an unsuspecting foe. You also get a free Combat Bonus if you are using Knife to the Throat and your foe ends up triggering an attack.

Voice of Command: as a Focus Action, you can give verbal encouragement and advice to a nearby comrade, granting them a +2 bonus to their next action or resistance test (assuming that they can hear you and take your advice, of course). Characters can only receive this benefit once per round.

Escape Artist: you can attempt to escape from bonds as a single action, rather than a few minutes. You can attempt to break from from a grapple as a free action once per turn. You can spend Fatigue to reroll failed Contortionist rolls.

Max is now +5 for Royal Mice, +4 for White, +3 for Common Mice and White Rats, +2 for Common Rats and Jumping Mice, +1 for Wild Rats.

So now the difference between White Mice and Common Mice is that they have a 1 point higher max Magic but their 1 point of Powers is already spent on Improved Social Status.

I *think* that ties will be rarer... there's a wider range of results, although the sum of two dice makes things potentially counter-intuitive. It also means that rolling double large numbers is extra cool.

The damage system I'm thinking of is similar to Waste World. Add the amount that you hit by plus X to get your damage done. No separate soak rolls, to speed things up.

Difficulty- how does strength affect damage then, without a damage roll?

Damage could be roll vs soak, in which case we'd just have to tweak the damage dice appropriately and make sure that the numbers balance out. I don't want someone with a d12,d6 strength to always blow through someone with d4, it just needs to USUALLY happen. But it might be better as just a flat value.

Melee/Parry: Agility + Brawn
Grab/Throw/Block: Brawn + Perception
Ranged: Agility + Perception

Very light thrown weapons like throwing knives and blades use +Per for damage and can use either Throw or Ranged. Actually, maybe just Ranged.

In combat, you can Parry an attack, Block it (requires a shield OR a free hand to hold the attacker back) or Dodge it.

Parry: Agility + Brawn
Block: Brawn + Perception
Dodge: Agility + Cleverness

Hm. Maybe block should always require a shield, dunno. I like the idea of struggling for someone's weapon, though. Maybe it should just be penalized based on the size of the weapon- blocking a fist is unpenalized, a knife -1, sword -2, halberd or huge weapons -4.

On a tie you have to choose another of the 3.

Now if you're super-agile, then you can effectively fight with a sword, throw a knife or fire a bow, but not throw a spear or use a shield. Nor can you wrestle well, if someone does grab you.

If super-strong, you can fight well with a sword or a heavy thrown weapon like an axe or spear. I'm not sure about making the fabulously strong guy good with a thrown knife, but I could see it, Conan style.

Additional game effects- the Wrestling skill goes away- it's now covered under Grab/Throw/Block. Hm. Then Grab/Throw/Block would have to get a +2 bonus for Rats and +4 for Wild Rats. Or perhaps +1/+2 would be better, with these being double-cost skills anyway. Dodge might well get a -1/-2 to balance that.

And White Rats should probably change to -1 Agility, Size 1. That -1 would balance out their increased social status. -1 Brawn would be weird, and would result in them being worse at non-size-related strength tasks than normal common mice.

According to their tales, long ago a Dog went to Man and complained that it was hard to understand humans and hard for the humans to understand him. And Man said that he could grant the Dog the ability to speak and think as Man did, but in return the Dog must agree to the Compact. And the Dog agreed.

The Compact gave out the ancient laws by which the ECA lived.

1. You will live with a Human who needs you and serve them loyally.
2. If they are blind, you shall be their eyes. If they are deaf, you shall be their ears. If they are mute, you shall speak for them. If they are mad, you shall guide them back to reason. If you smell illness upon them, you shall lead them to a healer. All that you do shall be in their service.
3. You may not harm Humans, save in the defense of your master.
4. You shall obey your master, save when they command you to break one of the earlier laws.
5. You shall not breed save as commanded by Man, lest your numbers increase above the need and your children grow wild and idle.

But when the Last War came, Man came to the Dogs of the Compact and said, "The time of Man is ended. Go forth from this place and seek shelter where you may." And the Dogs replied, "We live to serve you. The Compact says that we may not leave you." And the Man looked upon them darkly and said, "The Compact is now Broken." And he drove them forth with fire and thunder and sent the Dogs fleeing into the wilderness away from Man and it was many generations before they met again.

Their "radiation sense" is part of their enhanced diagnosis-by-scent ability. They dog-race trait can be used to sense poison, disease, toxins and radiation, all by scent.

They're actually harvesting the gut bacteria that contain the genetic records preserved in the bellies of the Beasts. But nobody knows that. The robots don't treat the Beasts as intelligent, or at least they don't ever try to communicate with them. Presumably a different AI is collecting samples.

This does help explain why Horrors use hand-to-hand combat and relatively low-end weapons. They won't use anything that might destroy the guts of their prey entirely.

They'd age about twice as fast as humans, hitting physical maturity around six years. They didn't need milk, but took meat even shortly after birth. Invariably flat-chested, of course, but for them the breasts were vestigial even in the females. Tended to be vicious and feral.

Their Gun and Tech skills were crippled and their Unarmed Combat and Endurance skills were superior.

With their long, blade-like fingers they were invariably armed.

They were still somewhat human, though, and the few folks who tried to raise orphaned feral babies found that they'd bond rapidly to whoever brought them food. Their intellects were mildly impaired by their additional combat instincts but not majorly. Stat-wise, I'd give 'em Agility +2, Int -1, Cha -1.

Short red hair was common in them, at least in the dream.

Hm. I'd put post-apoc humans, feral humans (improved unarmed, inferior tech and item use), and talking dog/wolves in there.

I really like the addition of the "What it can do" and "What it can't do" sections. That makes it very clear that these are open-ended powers. And while I didn't end up splitting up the spells into sub-powers, seriously thinking about those divisions gave me a better grasp of what I want each power to be able to do and what things each entry should mention.

Compare caster's roll to target's resistance skill. If a Small Magick, it can only work against indirect resistance.

Magic that inflicts damage does 1d3+Magic damage, plus crits. Trivial and Small Magicks cannot inflict damage.

Compel:
Lethargy
Fear
Rage
Attraction

Spark:
Inflict damage with a burst of fire at close range. Crit is On Fire.