Play Phases

Gameplay in Errant Assets functions slightly different depending on the circumstances of the check. Most game activities will occur in 3 settings:

Scenes can happen at any time during play, occurring when events needs to be described as a play by play.

During a scene, locations, NPCs, and character actions are described in detail, often involving roleplay of conversations or actions. In Errant Assets some mechanics such as time and turn order vary depending on the risk characters are facing.

Neutral and safe settings use informal mechanics and are the standard setting when in your hideout or neighborhood.

When in scene in a neutral or safe setting, players take actions and tests in a casual round robin. Players will announce what actions they are taking and the DM will resolve each action as relevant, marking passed time as fits the narrative situation.

Characters may collaborate together on tasks or may work independently.

Mistakes rolled in neutral and safe settings can be negated by excess success or assist actions. Unresolved mistakes are added to the alarm pool which builds until the characters leave the scene or trigger rolling the alarm pool.

A neutral and safe setting can become hostile at any time, based on NPC or player actions. For example shooting a firearm in an office building may immediately trigger alarm as the guards look for the source of the noise.

Transitioning to a hostile setting is immediate and applies to the whole team. Whenever possible, we recommend coordinating as a team so that all characters are in place before taking risky actions.

Any time characters will trigger alarm if they are noticed, or if they are currently in an alarmed area, they are in a hostile setting. This includes scenarios where characters are in disguise and risk creating alarm by being discovered.

Hostile settings have different rules if the characters are unknown as intruders to area NPCs (stealthed), or have triggered active alarm behavior (alarmed).

When in a hostile setting, time is tracked in rounds. During each round, players take turns describing their character’s actions.

If a player takes several actions within a single round, the mistakes of each of those checks must be negated or will be added to the alarm pool.

Upon first entering a hostile setting, the existing alarm pool is immediately rolled and resolved. Existing locational heat and any alarm modifiers from the alarm trigger is also added to the alarm tracker.

If the calculated alarm level is below the active alarm threshold, the characters are considered stealthed.

At the end of each hostile round, the alarm pool is rolled and resolved. If this changes the alarm state, the new state applies at the start of the new round.

When characters are stealthed, action rounds last around 1 minute. Characters can take any combination of actions that fit that time frame.

During a stealthed action round, each player takes a turn, in any order. If characters are able to communicate or observe each other, players can coordinate their turns. All actions are generally considered to be simultaneous and can impact each other’s checks.

Characters can take hostile actions when stealthed. These actions follow the time and action limitations of alarmed rounds, but follow the coordinated any-order turns of stealthed rounds. A character that is capable of perceiving surprise actions is able to take a single reaction.

If all hostiles that could perceive surprise actions are neutralized by the end of the surprise round, the characters are considered still stealthed. If any hostiles remain alert and capable of acting, play transitions to alarmed rounds. If any surprised characters took a reaction, their action pool for the first round of alarmed play is reduced by 1.

When in an alarmed area, each action round lasts only 6 seconds. Characters can take a free movement and have 3 action points to spend during each round. Movement and actions can be taken in any order.

Action points can be spent to purchase additional movement, or on skills and abilities. Skills and abilities may cost 1-3 action points. Characters can only take up to 3 movements in a turn.

At the start of the first alarmed round, players each roll initiative, and then take their turns mixed with NPCs in descending order. Some character abilities and options may adjust this order. Players are able to coordinate their turn actions, but are limited by this order.

Characters who have action points remaining may take a single action point action as a reaction after an enemy takes an action they can see. This applies to both characters that do not use all their action points during their turn, and characters that have not yet taken their turn.

Characters can only take actions that cost 2+ action points on their own initiative turn.

To avoid metagaming, we suggest that DMs describe only what the player could see or know about an NPC action, then ask for reactions.

Sometimes, it is necessary to summarize long swaths of time passing. This could be days of recon or research, waiting for a target event, or extended travel. Montage time allows you to track character efforts without describing actions in detail.

Montage time often happens during the prep phase of a job, but could happen any time several hours need to pass without detailed event descriptions.

During montage each 24-hour day is broken out into thirds: Morning, Evening, and Night. Characters can work toward goals during these periods, represented by a single roll summarizing the efforts. These rolls do not function like normal skill tests, as they summarize extended effort over significant time.

During montage, players describe the goal and actions of their character, which will help the DM decide what roll the player makes. This roll could be skill or etiquette based, a simple attribute check, or even a blind luck roll. Montage rolls often affect extended trackers, with multiple characters or montage periods needed to reach a goal.

Characters need to rest once every 24 hours, spending one of the periods in a relatively safe place with access to food and amenities, and ignoring progress toward goals. After 4 consecutive periods without rest, characters will take a point of exhaustion for every additional period that passes without rest.

Sometimes the action chosen or the roll result may trigger a scene that needs to play out. When a scene is triggered, all other players that have not yet taken an action during the period can choose to join the scene, or continue their montage separately.

Montage goals do not need to be chosen from a preset action list, but generally it falls under 2 categories:

During Montage, mistakes are counted and may affect the overall heat or circumstances of the run. Successes can be spent to reduce 1s as normal. DMs are left to decide minor mistakes impact based on character actions.

A complete fumble will always trigger a scene, in which characters can try to mitigate the outcome of their failure.

In Errant Assets many days or weeks can pass between jobs. During this time characters go about their normal lives, buying groceries, going out to dinner, hanging out with friends. Downtime is simulated in 3 phases, with individual mechanics.

We recommend that you resolve downtime events in order from Leisure, Work, then Shopping, as rolls may impact player choices in the other phases. However, DMs can choose to run phases in any order to better fit the table flavor and narrative events.

Even the most driven runner needs to let loose sometimes, and there are plenty of diversions. While leisure time is mostly a good way for your character to relax and let go, it also adds chance of risk and reward.

For each period of downtime, the DM will roll a random encounter from the leisure table for each player. The DM will give the player a day and time and the player chooses where their character is at that time. The DM will then interpret how the random encounter occurs given that location.

Whether to play Leisure events as a scene or simple roll is up to the table.

One of the privileges of living the runner life is not having to report to a day job, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot of work involved. Each week of downtime your character can spend time training a skill, working a side gig, improving contact relationships, progressing a campaign mission, or reducing heat.

When choosing a work action, you can choose to take a guaranteed improvement, or gamble on a higher impact. When gambling for higher impacts, your actions may trigger scenes.

Ordinary gear and ammo is automatically refreshed as part of your upkeep and rent after each job. Upgrades and special equipment will need to be acquired during downtime.

You do not need to make any checks for shopping as long as you have a related contact with neutral or higher affinity, and it is not restricted. If you want to negotiate for a better price, acquire restricted goods, or trade favors or other gear as part of the price, you may need to make a related check.