Review of fRáGiL (Part 1)

Today's post inaugurates a series introducing the review of the post-apocalyptic role-playing game fRàGiL (fRaGiLe), written by Célica Soldream and Verion Álendar of La Hermandad de la Espada Negra, with illustrations by Amelia Sales and published in Spain by YipiKaYei after January's successful crowdfunding.

In this series I will talk about the game and its system, I will also show you additional elements and stretch goals of the patronage which had been already given to the patrons and fiction works you may find inspirational to create your own adventures, to finish the series I will talk about other possible uses of the ruleset with other games and genres taking advantage of the game text being available under a CC BY-SA license.

fRáGiL can be bought from the publisher's website and it's also available in Spanish shops thanks to Distribuciones Sombra and can also be read online at website ¿Eres fRáGiL? and freely download it from YipiKaYei website along some adventures.

fRáGiL - The role-playing game

Rust texture by
NaamaYMStock on DeviantArt

Background

As I said at the befinning of this post fRáGiL is a post-apocalyptic game and in this case civilization as we know it ceases to exist due to a global scale electromagnetic pulse (EMP).

As a consequence of the EMP (who knows if it was originated by a natural phenomenon, like a solar storm, or due to a weapon of mass destruction built for that purpose) most of the electric and electronic technology had been destroyed, which suposes a great disruption for a society as technified as ours. Then the world got into an unprecedented outbreak of violence and madness in which its inhabitants fought among themselves to hoard all fast dwindling resources, making valid the sentence a man is a wolf to another man in a superlative degree (although for some it's only wordiness, because aggressiveness towards our fellow men always has nested in the depths of the human being and only a little push is needed so that it manifests tearing the thin layer of civilization, or is it that there have not been wars and killings since the man began to walk on the face of the Earth?).

In short, that the future that awaits the few survivors will be a short life in a ruined future, because we all are fragile.

Characters

These are the base concepts for creating characters in fRáGiL:

Assassin

Skilled in hand-to-hand combat and able to gatecrash anywhere to kill someone if you paid well.

Junkman

Able to recover the few remaining technology and make it work with a fix, they are highly valued by their knowledge (so all groups want to have one working for them).

Plunderer

Skilled thieves able to find anything.

Exterminator

Extremely dangerous and able to kill anyone for the simple pleasure of doing it.

Pyrotechnist

If exterminators are already dangerous imagine those who play with explosives and other incendiary materials.

Survivalist

Also known as preppers, they prepared all life to survive any conceivable catastrophe, so nowadays it makes them highly prepared individuals to face any contingency.

Psionic artist

Yes, after the EMP also had been appearing individuals with psychic powers, the bad thing is that they are also usually completely crazy.

Religious leader

Some people use their gift for talking to cajole those needing religion to feel safe, so it's not strange to find new cults appearing everywhere (some of these leaders also have psychic powers and their madness usually manifests with extreme fanaticism).

Sawbones

Medicine as such doesn't exist anymore and the few doctors who survived after the EMP are greatly valued because now it's very easy to die due to an infection or a badly cured cold, although they do not work in the best hygienic conditions.

Artist

Specially powerful psionic people able to fool anyone with the kind of art they practice, whether it's music, painting, etc.

To create a character in fRáGiL the following elements are contemplated:

Attributes:
With a range from 0 (marking a serious deficiency) to 5 (a talent and capacity out of the ordinary) and are divided in the following types (I have translated them to English, in the table you will find notes relating to the original Spanish text in case you want to locate them):

Physical (1)
Strength (S)	Muscular capacity
Agility (A)	Speed, precision and coordination
Resistance (R)	Recovery from fatigue
Mental (2)
Will (W)	Ability to withstand calamities
Intelligence (I)	Ability to solve varied problems
Leadership (L)	Ability to work in groups and carry out social actions
Psionic (3)
Power (P)	Intensity of psionic skills
Defense (D)	Ability to avoid hostile psionic skills
Extension (E)	Diversity of psionic skills (the number of skills the character can have)
(1) Físicos: Agilidad (A) | Resistencia (R) | Voluntad (V) (2) Mentales: Voluntad (V) | Inteligencia (I) | Liderazgo (L) (3) Psiónicos: Potencia (P) | Defensa (D) | Extensión (E)

To fill these Attributes it's necessary to designate a primary, secondary and tertiary groups of attributes and distribute points among them as can be seen in the following table:

Distribution	Primary	Secundary	Tertiary
Very focused character	9	7	5
Focused character	8	8	6
Balanced character	8	7	7

Qualities:
These serve to finish defining the capabilities of the character and are calculated taking the Attributes as a base as can be seen in the following table:

Quality	Value	Description
Psionic scope	E	Number of psionic powers the character can control
Unconsciousness	5 x W	Amount of damage that can be received until unconscious
Death	10 x S	Amount of damage that can be received until death
Total resistance	5 x R	The number of points that can be used to cast twice as many runes (ie, dice) in a skill check
Recovery	R	The amount of endurance points that can be recovered when resting
Initiative	A + I	Determines the order of action in combat (the range of the used weapon is added)
Total load	5 x S	Determine how much load in kg you can take the character without your abilities being affected
Load in hands	S	Determines how much load in kg the character can carry in both hands during a combat

Backgrounds:
Backgrounds are used to establish motivation and behavior of the character as well as give him motivation (that is, experience) which will allow the character to evolve. These can be divided in:

Advantage

Traits that benefit the character (such as belonging to a community or having previous experience).

Disadvantages

Traits that hinder the character or complicate his life (such as being inexperienced or being in love...).

The list of Backgrounds coming in the manual aren't necessarily all those which can appear during the game, referees and players are encouraged to invent new backgrounds that suit their adventures and playing styles.

Skills:
Skills represent all the character can do and can be improved through experience and training.

The initial value of each Skill comes from the value of the guiding Attribute (if there are two Attributes involved the one with minor points is chosen).

Skills can are divided in teh following types:

Normal skills

The game offer a list of 25 Skills from which players must choose 7 (things like Open locks, Lie or Medicine are included).

Combat skills

Describe the use of different kind of weapons (edged weapons, blunt weapons, etc.), each type has definite rules and can't be acquired when creating the character, to do so it will be necessary to spend motivation points.

Combat styles

Give characters additional combat options (like Two weapon combat or Tactics), for each level of Attribute guiding the Style a special quality can be chosen spending motivation points.

Psionic skills

Define distinct psionic areas which characters can access (all are dependant of Power Attribute).

Like in Backgrounds the Skills list appearing in the manual can be modified according to referees and players' needs.

Game system: Basic rolls

fRáGiL uses as a game system the STEN 2.0 (no, it isn't the World War 2 British submachine gun).

Letters STEN mean Sistema Táctico Espada Negra (Black Sword Tactical System) and identify the system used in the game Espada Negra, available as a free download from its website along some aids and adventures (take note that Espada Negra has a CC By-NC-ND license, so it's not possible to create commercial works from it).

The basic mechanism of Skill checks in the STEN system is the following one:

1. Player rolls as many runes as points has the Attibute in which the Skill is based:
• Runes are any random elements allowing to obtain succeses and failures rolling it: coins can be used (heads are succeses and tails are failures) or any type of dice (even rolls are succeses and odd ones are failures, or any other combination the participants in the gaming sesion decide).
• The referencing Attribute when rolling runes is usually the one with the lesser points in case the Skill depends on more than one, but may be cases where the referee decide to use one or another given the circumstances.
• Spending 1 resistance point it's possible to roll double runes (resistance is recovered resting or thanks to given psionic qualities).
• Sometimes rules specify that more runes also can be added to the rolls (for example when using a given weapon if the asociated rules say so).
2. The outcome obtained in the runes roll is added to the skill being used.
3. The final outcome of the check is compared to the task difficulty (see the following table), if the outcome is better than the difficulty the character will be successful.

Difficulty	Task	Descriptión
1	Easiest	Even a good-for-nothing would do half of the time
2	Easy	Almost anybody will do it
3	Moderated	It's necessary a certain training , or a certain skill at least
4	Complicated	A certain experience is needed
5	Sophisticated	A specialist in the matter would try hard
6	Crappy	Only outstanding specialists wiil take it
7	Very crappy	Even outstanding specialists will have problems with it
8	Seriously?	Those seeing it will talk about it to their grandchildren... if they had them
9	WTF, guy	Those seeing it would want to write books about it

Psionic skills, tension and fragility checks

In the world of fRáGiL there's the chance of characters developing psionic powers use (something certainly inspired by the game Apocalypse World, published in Spain by conBarba before merging with Nosolorol, and which I reviewed in this post).

These skills are regulated by the Attribute Power and its score determines the number of psionic ambits the character can access and powers of each one, psychologic disorders also will manifest other powers.

Psionic ambits and its powers are divided in the following types (to see a complete description of theses powers you may read the games's book, consider this to be a summary table):

Basic psionic ambits (1 power each level)
Arbitrium Movement and motor capabilities control
Level	Power	Level	Power
1	Movement control	5	Rampaged adrenaline
2	Fearsome impact	6	Rampaged stress
3	Blow of anger	7	Perfect balance
4	Freedom of movement	8	Perfect deflection
Emotio Control of your own emotions and those of other people
Level	Power	Level	Power
1	Immunize pain	5	Psionic expression II
2	Psionic expression I	6	Scream of anger
3	Total pain immunity	7	Induce courage
4	Induce anger	8	Immunize
Experientia Memory and learning control
Level	Power	Level	Power
1	Past memories	5	Concentration II
2	Concentration I	6	Transference
3	Asimilation	7	Tolerance
4	Inspiration	8	Concentration III
Perceptio Senses control and how information is perceived
Level	Power	Level	Power
1	Sense of the known	5	Extreme perception II
2	Extreme perception I	6	Accurate eye
3	Feel the pressure	7	Extreme perception III
4	Know the companions	8	Perfect perception
Subconscientia Control the subconscious to boost the effects of the other psychic ambits
Level	Power	Level	Power
1	Nullification	5	Psionic shield
2	Enhance	6	Psionic shutdown
3	Transfer	7	Mitigation
4	Outstretch	8	Psionic rest

Advanced psionic ambits (Combination of two basic psionic ambits to obtain more advanced powers)
Power	Needed ambits (all at level 1)
	Arbitrium	Emotio	Experientia	Perceptio	Subconscientia
Clairvoyance		X	X
Devouration	X				X
Empathy		X		X
Exaltation		X			X
Extrapaty	X	X
Remote perception		X			X
Psycometry			X		X
Retrocognition	X		X
Telepathy			X	X
Telekinesis	X			X

Pathologic psionic ambits (Show up in those cases where madness appears, something that in the world of fRáGiL it is quite frequent...)
Power	Needed mental disorder
Mental absortion	Addiction
Assault on privacy	Sexual disorder
Attack on self-esteem	Eating disorder
Personality change	Dissociation of personality
Kinestesia	Disruptive disorder
Dissolution	Neurocognitive deficiencies
Mirage	Schizophrenia
Psionic explosion	Bipolarity
Hypnosis	Sleep disorder
Induce depression	Depression
Induce synesthesia	Neurological damage
Summon fear	Trauma
Psionic obsession	Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
Sensitive bias	Autism
Transmit pain	Psychosomatic disorder
Transmit fear	Anxiety

Using psionic skills entails characters to undergo tension (stress and fatigue), so it takes us to make fragility checks:

• Fragility checks may occur for other reasons than using psionic skills (it's easy to think about situations that test character's mental health...).
• The skill to carry out these checks is Psionic stability (which depends of the Attribute Defense).
• The check is carrief out rolling as many runes as the Attribute Defense (the number of runes to roll can also be duplicated spending 1 resistance point) and adding the value of the Skill, comparing the outcome with the character's accumulated tension.
• From this point on several different things can happen:
  • If it is greater nothing happens.
  • If it is less than or equal:
    • The character is stunned during this turn and the following one.
    • He will not be able to acquire more tension neither use a psionic skill during the rest of the gaming session.
    • If the number of madnesses is less than Extension obtains a new madness or increase the degree of an existing madness.
    • If the character has as many madnesses as his Extension he will have lost his reason and can't be used in the rest of the gaming session or campaign.

Tension can be recovered to avoid falling in the spiral of madness:

• Playing in accordance with characters' Advantages (at the end of each gaming session he will recover as many tension points as his Will score).
• Using other character other than his own (his own character will only lose 1 tension point).
• If a player referees a gaming session reduces all the tension of one of his characters and also obtains 5 motivation points for this character.

Equipment, followers, creating sessions and plunder

Last chapters of the book of fRáGiL are devoted to deal with matters like the useful equipment survivors can recover from this ruined world, how to organize groups of followers and design sessions.

Inside the chapter of equipment it's possible to find all kind of tools that survived the EMP, including electric gasoline generators, old motor vehicles, solar pannels or portable wind generators and the few electronic elements that have somehow remained intact, which sometimes includes a smartphone (although it will be necessary to somehow charge the battery to get access to its functions). Of course it's also possible to find all kind of weapons and protections, like the following ones:

Weapon	Im	Ra	Da	Weight	D Type	Special
Knife	4	0	3	0.25 kg	Cut
Chain	4	0	3	1 kg	Blu
Short bow	0	5	5	1 Kg	Pierc
Handgun	0	6	10	1 Kg	Pier	Ammo clip (6), jamming, penetration
Im = Impact Ra = Range Da = Damage D Type = Type of Damage

Proteccion	Blu	Cut	Pier	Cov	Eva	Pen	Weight
Leather coat	0	2	2	4	3	0	5 kg
Mad Max armor	3	4	4	6	0	2	15 kg
Round shield	0	0	2	+1	+0	-	1 kg
Blu = Resistance to blunt damage Cut = Resistance to cutting damage Pier = Resistance to piercing damage Cov = Cover Eva = Evasion Pen = Penalizer (to add to difficulty of the action)

In the chapter devoted to followers the necessary game mechanics are studied according to their type:

Followers (total number = Leadership)

They accompany the character in his adventures.

Congregations or troops (total number = Leadership x 10)

They accompany the character to perform specific tasks related to their own profession (example: a biker gang).

Contacts

Individuals who can cooperate punctually with the character, but who have their own interests, which does not necessarily presuppose the friendship between them.

Followers are subject to the following rules/restrictions:

• Followers are obtained thanks to the checks of the Leadership skill (with difficulty equal to the effective level of the follower) if the necessary conditions for it occur.
• Followers evolve in their capacities thanks to the points of motivation that the characters destine to it.
• Followers can be used in two ways:
  • Indirectly: Only the follower's effective level is used (a modifier to the Leadership level in mass combat obtained adding up all his characteristics and skills along some modifiers to mirror his combat characteristics).
  • Directly: The player has played that character before during 5 gaming sessions (the player uses the sheets of those characters as he does with his own, controlling all aspects of it but without gaining experience of his actions).

Regarding advice for creating gaming sessions we are offered a set of random tables for creating settlements, factions and characters and some brief references to articulate the stories we design.

To finish the description of contents of the book the appendix devoted to plunder offers some random tables to determine character's discoveries when searching through the ruins.

Next installment

Rust texture by
NaamaYMStock on DeviantArt

In the next installment of this series I will talk about other additions of the crowdfunding, centered in the setting supplement pOZoAMaRGo.

This entry it's also available in the following languages:
Castellano Català