The Real World

Authorities gather outside a bank where a robbery has gone wrong and the criminals are trying to negotiate a hostage swap. Movers are hired by an agency to clear out a mansion after the eccentric owner dies without heirs. Friends rent a cabin near a wilderness lake, hoping to do some fishing, relaxing, and maybe a hike to the old fire lookout tower. Protesters gather outside a building where they believe injustices occur. A team of firefighters responds to flames blazing through a skyscraper and must identify which floors require the most immediate attention.

All these situations are normal enough in the real world. Putting out a fire with a team, dealing with a hostage situation with negotiation and rescue operations, doing espionage in hopes of finding the truth, and many other real-world scenarios are exciting enough without the addition of fantastic elements. Then again, who knows - the GM might have plans to take the scenario in an unexpected direction once you've established your characters.

As a player, you understand the context of the real world, at least contemporarily - you're familiar with cities, cars, smartphones, the internet, and so on. For that reason, it might even be easier for you to get into character - you could even choose to model your character on someone you pass in the street or see regularly on the internet or TV. All of which is to say, you can develop your character and help advance the initial encounters and situation with relative ease.

Real-World Subgenres

Your real-world game's theme - or "subgenre," such as espionage, adventure, or crime thriller - your GM chooses to pursue influences the kinds of events you're likely to encounter during a scenario, and more importantly for you, the kinds of characters you'll play. For other specifics such as appropriate skills, foci, and so on, you can jump directly to Playing a Real-World Character.

Espionage

An espionage-themed setting is a game where you might play a secret agent sent on a series of missions in exotic locales under an assumed identity allowing you to engage in spying. You could also travel openly in your role as an entertainer or author, but have a covert agenda that requires you to infiltrate someplace under the control of a foreign power, corporation, multinational, or billionaire's personal empire. Your GM will let you know whether you’re agents of a special department of a national government intelligence agency such as the FBI, SIS (MI6), FSB, CIA, and so on. Of course, not all spying is sponsored by nation-states. There are many semi-secret organizations that sell their services to both governments and corporations. Shows like Leverage, Burn Notice, Alias, and The Blacklist, as well as movies like any of the James Bond films, the Mission Impossible movies (and older shows), the Jason Bourne movies, the recent Man from U.N.C.L.E. movie (andolder shows), and so on all provide a sense of the kinds of things you can expect in a real-world espionage game. Tradecraft: “Tradecraft” came to be a term associated with working as a spy during World War II. That association was cemented during the Cold War. As a character playing in an espionage game, you’ll want to develop yours through your selection of initial skills and skills you can gain as you advance. Tradecraft includes several skills such as perception, deception, persuasion, the ability to maintain a false cover identity with disguise, ferreting information out of files or computer networks, and methods of hiding one’s intrusion after the fact.

Crime Thriller

In a crime thriller game, you'll likely find your character trying to solve one or more crimes, possibly a series of connected crimes, especially murder. Your character may be involved in some or all aspects of the initial crime scene investigation, interviews with witnesses and others implicated by evidence, evidence analysis, and probably some follow-up footwork to chase down loose ends, gather more evidence, and interview more witnesses and other people of interest. As such, your character could be a detective, a forensic specialist, a journalist, a true crime podcaster or author, a police consultant, or someone who works for or runs their own private investigation agency. Detective dramas like Bones, Law & Order, Castle, Person of Interest, Mare of Easttown, and many similar shows feature the sorts of activities and investigations your character is likely to become involved with. On the other hand, the GM could turn the theme on its head and ask that you create characters that are part of a criminal gang, the mob, or another group on the wrong side of the law. Good detectives and crime investigators are adroit with a similar skillset as those practicing spy tradecraft. Finding clues through keen perception and by gathering information with as wide a net as possible is just as important as analyzing the evidence and putting the pieces together to solve the crime. Good interview skills are also useful, whether you want to persuade, deceive, and/or intimidate the witness to learn whatever it is they don’t want to tell you.

Action

Real-world action and adventure RPG scenarios often delve into situations like those encountered by secret service or other authorities (or just someone in the wrong place at the wrong time) facing off against kidnappers who’ve taken a loved one or other person of interest, or radicals attacking or hijacking a skyscraper, a jetliner in mid-flight, a political capital, a high-security prison, or some other high-value location. Action adventures also famously delve into pulpy scenarios, such as when

archaeologists and explorers travel to foreign lands to unearth secrets guarded by traps and mazes built by ancient civilizations. Further, there are all sorts of examples of those living on the edge who plan and attempt to execute a heist of some well-guarded treasure secured by modern, high-tech means. And so on. Action-centric games benefit from characters with a diverse group of specialties, each contributing an important skill to the team. Think about a character like a tracker, a lockpicking professional, a surveillance expert, someone with a military background, an archaeologist, an animal handler, a con artist, a demolitions expert, a mechanic, or a driver, among others. Movies like Die Hard, Raiders of the Lost Ark (and other Indiana Jones movies), Fountain of Youth, Ocean’s 11, Romancing the Stone, Air Force One, Olympus Has Fallen, Speed, and many more provide a pretty good sense of the kinds of challenges your character may be up against. Your character in a real-world adventure game should lean into their profession and any surrounding skills. For instance, if you play an archaeologist, you'll probably want to be trained in identifying and history, at minimum. If you play someone with a military background, you’ll want to take advantage of the special rules restriction exception to train away your inability in using heavier weapons such as rifles. If you play a con artist, deception, disguise, and stealth are probably skills you'll want. Generally speaking, think of a situation that might arise and an action adventure story, and create a character who has at least some familiarity with that circumstance.

Optional Rules for Real-World Action Games

In real-world action games (and perhaps in rescue games or other real-world subgenres your GM deems appropriate), GMs may implement the following optional rules that directly affect your character during play.

Action Wounds: Your real-world action character can take two more minor wounds and one more moderate wound than normal for a core character. Wound Treatment: Even though it’s the real world, action is usually a heroic genre, at least for the PCs. Using treatment to remove a wound takes a Last action for a minor wound, one minute for a moderate wound, and ten minutes for a major wound.

Desperate Actions: The idea is that when the situation becomes desperate, your character rises to the occasion, as is expected of an action hero. The GM might trigger Desperate Actions for a particular encounter, or it might just be a staple of their action game, like the additional number of wounds your character can take and the amount of time it takes to rally. Under Desperate Actions, while you have at least two moderate wounds or at least one major wound, you get a free reroll on one action each round (as if you had spent 1 XP).

Rescue

A rescue scenario has a lot in common with an action RPG scenario, in that dangerous things are happening, and it's your job to deal with them and the immediate aftermath. Usually, that means keeping other people safe from the devastation resulting from natural disasters like floods, tsunamis, fires, earthquakes, volcanoes, and maybe even meteor strikes, as well from human-caused calamities like nuclear meltdowns, highly contagious disease vectors seeping from biological weapons facilities, massive oil spills, colossal cruise ships sinking, and many other situations. In a rescue scenario, you’ll likely play a first responder character such as a firefighter, EMT or paramedic, pilot, dispatcher, hazmat technician, civil or nuclear engineer, or someone else with expertise related to the particular disaster unfolding. Movies like Backdraft and TV dramas like Emergency!, Chicago Fire, 9-1-1, Station19, Rescue Me, and many similar shows demonstrate the sorts of scenarios

you might get involved with. If you’re playing a first responder, skills to focus on probably include healing and heavy equipment operation; however, your specific role may suggest additional skills. For instance, as a firefighter, training in firefighting will be important. Emergency rescue pilots should be skilled in piloting a helicopter or other aircraft. Hazmat technicians should be skilled in perception and identifying. And so on. Overall, your concerns as a character in a rescue scenario likely revolve around helping other people. Though mitigation of a particular disaster might be important—for instance, having a vulcanologist on hand during a volcano eruption would be incredibly useful—having a character with a capacity to help those who would otherwise succumb is also central.

Historical

History is wide, and if your GM is running a historical game, they have endless options to choose from. They might set their game during World War II, the Renaissance, the 1930s, ancient Greece, feudal Japan, ancient Egypt, a period in a Mayan city-state, or literally thousands of other settings across human existence and culture. Your GM probably has access to a good history book on the time period in question, one that details what life was like in that era. Your GM likely has an interest in exploring a particular historical incident or time period with their game to give you the thrill of "being there" when something important happens. Thus, instead of a campaign, your historical game might be a short-term experience where you get to try something new, or at least something you don't normally do. Your GM will give you details on the sort of characters that are appropriate to whatever situation or conflict arises. For example, if you’re playing a game set in medieval Europe, maybe your GM tells you to create a character that evokes a knight, courtier, noble, minstrel, or scofflaw of the period. If you're playing a

game set in ancient Greece, perhaps your GM asks you to create a character such as an artisan, merchant, soldier (sometimes called a hoplite), scholar, philosopher, or athlete of the era. And so on. Adapting Alternate Types: For some settings, a subset of fantasytypes like Sword Fighter, Archer, Axe Fighter, and so on may be appropriate for a particular historical game. If so, many of the purely non- magical types could be adapted to all sorts of historical periods where fighting, raiding, and/or soldiering were important parts of the experience. Your GM will let you know if adding such a type (instead of a profession) is appropriate to their game. Unless the GM has decided to mix a little "… and There's Magic" into the historical setting, any type you gain can't choose fantasy genre abilities that are tagged as magic at tier 3 or 6, regardless of what the type might otherwise indicate.

Optional Types for Historical Settings

Archer Knife Fighter Thief Axe Fighter Noble Warrior Two-Weapon Fighter Barbarian Ranger Warrior Bard Swashbuckler Burglar Sword Fighter

[!example]

Historiness

"Historiness" is the quality of seeming historical or evoking a historical feeling, even if it's not necessarily

historical. If your GM is going for a strictly historical game, replicating events from historical fiction may not be to their liking. That said, fiction set in historical time has a gold mine of interesting options. Consider the works of Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, or even William Shakespeare. Imagine a game weaving in and out of Pride and Prejudice, A Tale of Two Cities, or Macbeth. Your GM might go even further afield and mix fiction set in historical times with elements of horror or science fiction. Examples of this kind of fiction include Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith, Penny Dreadful (the TV series), The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen comic series, and Shades of Milk and Honey by Mary Robinette Kowal.

Real-World Horror

Of all the real-world subgenres, horror is traditionally one of the most popular in movies, shows, and games. Horror RPG scenarios set in the modern real world often begin with your character unaware that their normal life will soon be compromised in a terrifying way. You may ultimately learn some terrible things—like maybe that monsters are real. But, usually, you begin play confident that supernatural elements are just stories, even as a new opportunity arises. For instance, play might begin when you and the other players inherit a run-down home or antique; are hired to house-sit, clean, or otherwise visit an out-of-the-way cabin or mansion; decide it would be fun to be an urban explorer in an abandoned psychiatric hospital; discover a part of your old house that hasn’t been opened in over fifty years; receive samples from an ice core thousands of years old that contain weird spores; or are presented with some other interesting situation that requires more investigation. Movies and shows like The Ring, It Follows, Poltergeist, Supernatural, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Hereditary, It, The Exorcist, The Babadook, and hundreds more illustrate the various sorts of situations real-world people might discover when horror descends. Even if real-world characters don't know what they're getting into, you as a player might have some inkling. But even if you don't, the same sorts of characters that would be interesting to play in a real- world action, crime thriller, or rescue game are appropriate for a game that dips into horror. A party where each character brings something to the table is useful, but simply surviving might be the point, so skills related to stealth, perception, and recognizing motive could be important. Maybe the horror is something that can actually be faced and defeated, in which case gathering information and magic lore might be appropriate, if offered by the GM.

Modern Magic

A modern magic scenario is one where magic exists in what otherwise seems like the real world. Unlike many other real-world subgenres, magic's existence in the world usually isn't the point. Instead, magic is more of an adjunct to whatever else is going on—literally “... and there’s magic.” The only potential exception to this is if magic’s existence is secret, but even then, that revelation probably is only in service to a greater revelation. For instance, the big reveal might be that not only is magic real, but there's an entire magical shadow society—a "half world"—containing practitioners, mythical entities, monsters, schools where magic is secretly taught, and other supernatural elements that secretly exist beneath the surface of the modern world. In a modern magic scenario, you may face threats that also arise from the same quarter—a

practitioner who has gone bad, monsters, ghosts, gods and demigods, and so on. Non-supernatural challenges might also come your way, which means your character, who presumably has some access to magic, would have an interesting advantage. Shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Supernatural are excellent examples of stories where magic exists and the protagonists must use their abilities—sometimes magical—to deal with the problems that arise from the underlying premise. Competent characters are useful in any real-world scenario. Detectives trained in perception, people with a military background who know their way around weapons, journalists experienced with gathering information, folks who know how to stay out of sight using stealth—all these and more would pair well with possible magical abilities that your GM might eventually let your real-world character access. Being competent in your own right becomes all the more important if magic options are not immediately forthcoming.

Playing a Real-World Character

Create your real-world character as indicated below.

Core Character: Put together your core character, which (as a quick reminder) grants the following.

• 8 Might / 8 Speed / 8 Intellect

• 6 additional points to allocate in Might, Speed, and/or Intellect

• Capacity to take three minor/ three moderate / three major wounds

• Effort: 1

• Cypher limit: 2

• Default weapon use: light

• Default armor use: none

• Two genre skills

• One additional genre skill in exchange for an inability in a genre skill

• Starting equipment

Descriptor: Choose a descriptor, which grants you a few additional points to a particular Pool and training in a related skill. Profession: As a real-world character, you have a profession, expressed as an additional skill choice. What job, hobby, or interest is central to your character's identity? Call that your profession. Then choose your training in a skill related to that. For instance, if lawyer is your profession, you might choose persuasion for your skill training. If you’re a doctor, you might be trained in healing. If you’re a security consultant, you might be trained in gathering information. Someone whose profession lies outside the law might be trained in stealth. Skills: Refer to the Real-World Skills table for a list of skills you can choose from when creating and advancing your character. However, depending on the game, your GM might give you choices from the fantasy skills list and/or the science fiction skills list. Your choice of background skill, and possibly the extra skill you might get if you choose a meaningful inability, also come from the same list of genre skills. Special Skill Restriction Exception: Normally, you can't become trained in an attack skill until tier 2. And if playing using the core character as your basis, you can freely use only light weapons (and you have an inability in using medium and heavy weapons). However, you can choose to apply one of the skills you gain as a starting real-world character toward the inability you would otherwise have in using a specific class of medium or heavy weapons. For instance, if your character has a background in the military, as a hunter, as a martial arts practitioner that

uses a blade (such as in kendo), or with similar weapon-using experience, you could choose your background skill in medium rifles, heavy shotguns, or medium blades. This training doesn't ease your roll for attacks with that class of weapon, but it does cancel out the inability that otherwise would have hindered your rolls with the weapon.

Real-World Skills

These skills are appropriate for games set in the real world. When you have the option to choose skills, choose from the following. Animal care Forensics Mechanics Astronomy Gathering information Mining Athletics Geology Navigation Attacking (tier restricted) Gunnery Outdoor survival Biology Gymnastics Perception Chemistry Hacking Performance Crafting Healing Persuasion Deception Heavy equipment operation Philosophy Defending (tier restricted) History Physics Disguise Identifying Pickpocketing Driving Initiative Piloting Engineering Intimidation Plumbing Escaping Lockpicking Psychology Farming Magic lore Publishing Firefighting Mathematics Recognizing motive

Religious lore Scavenging Stealth Riding Skilledtrade Tracking

Character Species: Real world characters feature Humans.

Genre Abilities: At tier 3, your real-world character gains an additional skill to be trained in or (if already trained in a skill) to be specialized in, assuming it’s not a tier-restricted skill. At tier 6, you gain yet another skill to be trained in (or specialized in, if already trained). Equipment: Refer to theReal-World Equipment table for equipment you can choose from when creating your character and foroptions that might be available when you have more currency to spend. Or refer to the Real-World Equipment Bundle options.

[!example]

Real-World Equipment Bundle

Choose the following equipment bundle to quickly outfit your real-world character, or assemble your own starting equipment.

• Bundle: Appropriate clothing, a raincoat, a used vehicle, a smartphone, a smartwatch or wireless earbuds, a laptop or tablet computer, a basic purse or wallet, a sticky notes pad and pen, a tin of breath fresheners, a bottle of painkillers, and a penknife. Your character also starts with currency equivalenttoamoderatelypriceditem.
• Select your ownequipment: You gain appropriate clothing, one expensive item, five

moderately priced items, and up to six inexpensive items. Your character also starts with currency equivalent to a moderately priced item.

Manifest Cyphers: Usually none. Wound Treatment: Games set in the real world tend tobe realistic. Using treatment to remove a wound takes ten minutes for a minor wound, one hour for a moderate wound, and one week for a major wound.

Currency: Currency underlying price categories in a real-world setting is whatever currency is in useinthereal-worldbackdrop.Insomegames,thatwillbedollars;inothergames,euros,pounds,or pesos.

Type and Focus: A type and focus are important parts of fantasy, science fiction, and superhero characters.Butnotofreal-worldcharacters.Insteadofbeingafoundation,theinitialcorecharacteryou create is yourcharacter, along with your descriptor andprofession. In fact, your descriptor plus your profession becomes your character sentence. For example, you could be a Clever lawyer, an Honorable journalist, a Brash doctor, a Strong stunt driver, and so on. Advancement: You can advance your real-world character like a character from other genres, and thus increase Effort limit, gain training in a new skill, gain Edge, gain additionalPool points, and eventually increase your tier. At higher tiers, you can become trained in attacks with medium or heavy weapons, which would initially counteract your inability when attempting to use suchweapons. Andthere’s always a chance that your GM’s real-world game is merely the introduction to something stranger, which means they may direct you to choose a focus and/or a type after all.

Real-World Background Options

These options presume a modernreal-world game. Adapt one of these or work with your GM to develop a historical real-world background.

• Life has been good to you for the most part. Now you feel like it’s time togive back in some way—tovolunteer,workforacharity,ortakeonsomeothernewrolethathasapositivesocial component.

• You finally landed your dream job after years ofhard work, only to have it eliminated. Now you’re not sure what to do—though you do need to pay the bills.

• You’ve been working in your professionfor years and had some success. But now you’re feelingburned out andare looking for something different, or at least a break.

• You were raised in a loving family and were quite close to your siblings. However, one of them disappeared without a trace a few years ago, and youpromised yourself you’d find them one day.

• Your spouse died five years ago, and only now do you feel like you’re upfor restarting your life.

• Your research partner and friend stole your research and published it as if they’d done the work. Nothing you can do about that, but now you’re looking for validation and recognition elsewhere.

• A relative left you a large inheritance, but you’ve always abhorred how they made their money. You’ve sworn to give it all away to a charity or other group doing prosocial work.

• As the child of missionaries, you spent your younglife traveling.As an adult, you haven’t decided if you share your parents’ faith, but you’ve definitely got theirpenchant for travel.

• One of your parents wasa famous entertainer, but you never saw that as a plus. You spend most of your time trying to evade the notice of others, especially as it relates tofame.

• When you were young, you were positive magic was real. As you’ve grown older and wiser, you’ve come to realize you were probably wrong, and the sadness of that realization remains.

• Your medical practice was toosmall to go it alone in the face of all the consolidation and insuranceoverheads,soyoushuttereditandareconsideringyouroptions.

• You served in the military. You saw things during that time that left you questioning your choices and decided to go into business for yourself—but doing what?