How to Play

Secrets of Sol uses a game loop common in most tabletop role-playing games. The pattern is as follows.

1. The Game Master is the one who guides players through the story. They will describe the environment around the players and explain the challenge in front of their characters.
2. The players decide what they will do to overcome the challenge presented to them by the Game Master. This decision can come from the group as a whole or a single player speaking for the group.
3. The Game Master, or the GM, describes the results produced by the player's actions. The result could be a surprise for the players depending on the situation, such as the players walking into a hallway with a hidden trap.

This pattern is maintained throughout the game. Outside of combat this pattern will be less noticeable but in combat, it becomes rigid and clear.
In some games, your group will make use of miniatures or maps but in most cases, these actions take place in the mind. Because of this, it's important that Players and GMs continue to clearly communicate their intentions. Just be prepared to rely on your imagination and communication skills when exploring space.

The Dice

This game relies on the rolling of polyhedral dice with varying numbers of sides to help determine the outcomes of interactions. These dice can be located at game stores, bookstores, and more.
Secrets of Sol makes use of six different polyhedral dice. In the rules, these dice are represented by the letter "d", for die, followed by their number of sides. The dice used are d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, and a d20.
The rules will sometimes ask for a "Percentile Dice Roll". This isn't a die with one hundred sides, rather this is a roll of two d10. One d10 is chosen to represent the tens digit and the other represents the ones digit. When both are rolled your result may be a 2 and a 1. This would be a 21 or a 12 depending on which die you chose to represent the tens and the ones digit. Some d10s have number that is already in the tens like 00, 10, 20, 30 to 90. These will often represent your tens digit.
Lastly, the rules will tell you to roll a number of dice of a certain type followed by a modifying value. It will often look like the following:

"1d8 + [modifier]" or "Roll 2d6 + your Alchemical Skill value"
The first number of 1d8 always means the amount of the type of die, for example, 2d6 means two six-sided dice. The modifier of a roll will nearly always be a specific skill value unless it is specified to use another number or there is no modifier written.

Action Die

Action Die is a set number of d8s each player have to use to initiate actions. It's important to know that not all d8s rolled are action die, the rules will inform you when an action die is used. They represent the amount of energy your character can use in 6 seconds. The limit will often only matter in combat when there are turns for each character in a specific order. Outside of combat, it's up to GM's discretion how to budget the player's energy.
The reason 6 seconds is important is that each turn in combat lasts 6 seconds in-game time. Turns in combat are technically occurring at the same time in game. So a whole round of combat, when everyone has used their turn and the first person in the combat order is allowed to use their actions again, only lasts 6 seconds. The combat order is only a representation of breaking down combat into steps outside of the game world.
Actions, Reactions, and Abilities will often require you to pay for them by taking an Action Die out of your pull for that round. You always return to your action die total at the start of your turn. Some of these Actions, Reactions, and Abilities will require you to roll the action die used to pay for them.

Rolls

There are three different rolls you will perform while playing this game, not all use an action die.

1. Damage Roll. This is a roll that will specify which sided die you roll and what number you add to the roll. These rolls are used for determining damage from an attack, trap, or environmental effect. These rolls can be found under attacks or weapons. These rolls are often modified by a Learned Skill.
2. Skill Challenge. This is a roll that will require rolling a d8, but not an action die unless specified. They are a test of a character's skills without warning. Skill challenges are rarely initiated by you. Rather they often accompany attacks from enemies. Skill challenges will also use an Inherited Skill to modify their roll, but will only ever add half of the skill's total to the roll.
3. Skill Roll. This is a roll that will require rolling an action die. They are tests of a character's skills initiated by the character. Their rolls are modified by Learned or Inherited skills depending on what is being done. Though rare, there may be times when a skill roll doesn't require an action die. In these cases, it would still require rolling a d8.

Advantage or Disadvantage

Occasionally certain rolls will be enhanced or burdened by external forces. This is represented by advantage and disadvantage. These will often be presented to you by a GM saying "roll with (advantage or disadvantage)". Some will even tell you to make a roll with one of these.

Advantage

• When rolling with advantage you roll an additional die of the same type as the one you rolled and the higher roll becomes your actual roll. For example, if you are rolling an action die with advantage you roll an additional d8 alongside the action die. The higher roll is considered your actual roll.
• In cases where you receive advantage on a damage roll, you reroll the dice that originate from the damage roll itself and keep the higher total of the damage dice rolled. This means if an attack asks you to roll 2d6 and you have an ability that adds 1d4 to the damage roll you would only roll the 2d6 again and keep the higher total of the 2d6, you wouldn't roll the 1d4 again.

Disadvantage

• When rolling with disadvantage you roll an additional die of the same type as the one you rolled but keep the lower roll.
• When rolling a damage roll with disadvantage you reroll the dice that originate from the damage roll itself and keep the lower total of the damage dice rolled. You don't reroll any die that is added to your damage roll from another ability.

Round Down

When a value is divided in the game and becomes a fraction always round down the nearest whole number. This applies even if the fraction is one-half or greater.

Actions and Reactions

Actions and Reactions are different methods of using action die. Both are initiated by your character and can be used in and out of combat. Reactions usually have specific requirements for being initiated. These methods represent a creature's purposeful interaction with the world.
Take a look at the Combat Rules for more information on the specifics of when and how these can be used.
To find out about what Actions and Reactions every creature can perform, unless otherwise specified, look at the Basic Actions & Reactions page.

Ability Scores

Every creature you come across in your adventure will have the same set of five ability scores you have. These are the ability scores that creatures enter the world with. They affect the totals of inherited skills and represent a creature's true health after getting through their hit points. They are Strength, Dexterity, Constiution, Charisma, and Fortitude. These scores will decrease and increase throughout your play so keep track of their true values at each level.
If an ability score would ever becomes 0 your character will receive a major penalty depending on which score is reduced to 0.
If two ability scores would ever become 0 then your character dies. Death is hard to come back from in this game so be careful and monitor your ability scores.

Skills

Skills breakdown a character's specialties in a numerical format. They are used to modify many rolls in Secrets of Sol. They will increase as you level up or train them.
Inherited Skills represent the natural skill level a character may have in a skill without having any training. They can be further increased with training and GM discretion. They are naturally increased by a character's Ability Scores. Examples are Athletics, Acrobatics, and more.
Learned Skills are the skills that a character has had to dedicate practice and learning to. They represent all knowledge or skills that don't come naturally to a person. These skills are naturally 0 and will more regularly increase through play and leveling up.
More information about skills can be found on the Skill Breakdown page.

Character Creation

Character Creation starts with determining a character's faction, their people. The process builds both the identity of your character and their stats.
Go to the Character Creation page.

Type Tags

A lot of things in Secrets of Sol use types. Anything from Weapons, Equipment, and Vehicles, to actions and reactions, has a list of types in their type line. Types help identify these components of the game for rules to reference. These types can even be used as identifiers for a group of items or abilities such as "small weapons" or "Attack Action". In most cases, type lines are used for a quick reference of the features of the item or ability.
A type line can always be found under the name of the feature. An example is below:

XIR-22

Type: Melee, Small, Weapon [type line]
The XIR-22 or "X2" for short is the favorite melee weapon of prison guards and street thugs. It's a baton that when swung around generates its own energy.
The range of this weapon is 5ft. On an attack, this weapon rolls 1d6 plus your Melee Skill of Energy damage.

Combat

Combat is when turns, rounds, attacks, and damage rolls are tested. Players enter a battle of rolls against others. Some important terms to know for combat are:
A Turn is when a player or non-player character, NPC, is able to perform their actions and movement.
A Round is collectively when each player and NPC in combat have completed their turns. The next turn after a round is the turn first in combat order. Anyone may perform a reaction at any point in a round.
Combat Order is the positioning of the turn of everyone in combat. First to Last.
The Initiative is the phase just before the combat order is decided. Each player rolls a d8 and adds their Athletics skill to the roll. The highest value roll goes first in Combat Order followed by the second highest and so on.
For more details about combat look at the Combat Rules page.
Another form of combat is ship combat. These rules are different from character-based combat. So make sure you visit the Ship Combat page for more information.

Traveling

Traveling takes place in space when players are going between two points with a great distance between them. For example, traveling wouldn't be necessary when moving between different sections of a Space Station but is necessary when moving between planets or solar systems.
In Secrets of Sol, instantly "warping" from place to place isn't possible most of the time. The base rules don't allow it from the player's side. The GM may choose to make their own method of this possible.
Instead of instantaneous travel between far locations Secrets of Sol uses a traveling system that attempts to give a suitable amount of time using its in-game technology between these locations. Using this system when players are moving through space using spaceships they roll and compare their total to a roll table to plot their path. This path will tell them how much time they will spend traveling on their ship to the next location. This time during travel can be used by players to practice a skill or interact with one another in character. It can also be skipped if the table decides to jump the story ahead to when the party arrives at its next location.
The table that the players roll for will depend on the solar system or section of the galaxy the adventure takes place. Secrets of Sol comes with a table for the Sol System. You can use this to make your own Traveling Tables.
Go to the Traveling Rules section of Vehicle Rules for more information.