Linking the rules to the shared mindspace: The importance of the Effect Chart

Here's my gem, the Effect Chart:

You're going to notice a lot of similarity here to this old thing:

And indeed that's the origin of the Effect Chart. The design behind both is rooted in same goal; to allow the modeling of superheroic effort in a game that otherwise cleaves closely to reality.

There are a few elements of this worth explaining in detail:

-The same mechanic for attacking and defending is used for all effort. This allows you to roll your action pool once, and have that roll express the sum total of a character's capabilities in that round. It also gives you tons more options per roll.

-Every character can perform every skill. The seven skills are Power (physical strength and leverage) Finesse (dexterity, agility, and speed) Endurance (toughness and stamina) Senses (environmental awareness and attention to detail) Intellect (skill, depth and speed of thought) Heart (charisma, social adaptability) and Spirit (psychic and spiritual awareness and control).

-The chart determines what effect a skill roll of a given rank can do. It gives both players and GMs a clear idea of the outcome of a (skill) action of (given rank). This works in two directions, both great:
1. Without needing to numericize their prep, a GM can make an on-the-spot call for the difficulty of an action "That boulder? About as heavy as a car, so that's Power Rank 4 to lift"
2. It benchmarks the effects of physical phenomena. "That boulder? About as heavy as a car, so that's a Rank 4 environmental crushing effect as it falls on you"

-Because the math behind the action pool exponentially favors multiple low-rank sets over higher ones, the path to climbing the effect chart is with roll modifiers. The system has two (broadly): Masteries, which give a flat, free +1 rank to actions of a particular skill, and Siddhis (your kung-fu techniques), which increase an action by a number of ranks for a cost in Prana. This means that higher-ranked actions (which have a bigger impact) rely indirectly on capability or magic.

-The chart is also capped from raw rolls; the highest a purely mortal roll can accomplish is Rank 6, which is about what I peg spiderman could do on a good day. Higher effects must be breached with more powerful techniques (Low-levels open rank 7, while the grand master techniques allow any result to be achieved), making the crazy DBZ-stuff an outgrowth of magic.

-It allows a GM to say "you can do what a person can reasonably do" as a shorthand for interaction with the tactical infinity, but it *also* allows them to say "You can do crazy DBZ stuff if you roll high enough", which puts pretty much any Shonen (Bleach, Naruto, DBZ...) on the table. It effectively allows this engine to work like the logic of Shonen, putting "normal person, but can become superhuman" fully on the table.

The chart does more than all of this, but these things are extremely important. I could probably run the game with just the action pool, health, focus, and this chart. But of course, what would magical space kung-fu be without the kung-fu? Next time I'll explain some of the development of Lores and the Siddhis that call them home.