Madness Dossier: Cinematic Rules

Roger Burton West

Cursing Mooks

When a minor NPC attacks you and fails, spend 2CP to have something horrible happen to him - effectively a critical failure. (E.g. failure to account for LAW backblast.)

Feverish Defence

Spend 1FP for +2 to your next active defence roll.

TV Action Violence

If you fail a defence roll against a potentially lethal attack, spend 1FP and your next action to make it a success.

Flesh Wounds

Immediately after you suffer damage, you may declare that the attack was ``just a flesh wound'' for 1CP, allowing you to ignore all but 1HP/1FP of the damage. (But other effects, like knockback, still apply.)

Shake It Off

Spend 1FP to retroactively make a failed HT roll to avoid knockdown or unconsciousness.

Cannon Fodder

The most minor NPCs always fail defence rolls, never All-Out Attack, and are downed by any damage that penetrates their DR. (Increasing the significance of NPCs will gradually remove these effects.)

Bullets, Beans and Batteries

If you carry five reloads for a (non-explosive) weapon, you won't run out of ammunition - most of the time.

Extra Life

You can buy an Extra Life at the point at which you die, for 25CP. You can burn off other traits, or take extra disadvantages, to pay for this - with GM approval.

Buying Success

On your own rolls: spend 2CP to change a critical failure to a failure, 1CP to change failure to success, 2CP to change success to critical success (not on attack rolls). Or the other way round.

Buying Effect

Before you make an effect roll (which usually means damage), spend 1CP to make two dice into automatic 6s or 1s (your call).

Player Guidance

Suggesting things which might reasonably be, or happen, in a scene is free! If the GM disagrees slightly, it can cost 1-3CP to get whatever it was you asked for. Or the GM may rule it out.

Got You Covered

In some situations involving one roll being made for the whole group, the highest-skilled character may roll at a penalty equal to the number of characters lacking the skill.