The Campaign that Runs Itself

I’d like to drill down on a couple of things in the investigation system I posted last week that have had a somewhat unintended effect: this campaign basically runs itself.

By that I mean that the players are specifically driving their own play most of the time, and are extremely happy to dither over day-to-day (sometimes hour-to-hour) activities. I only have to inject new planned content every few sessions to keep things lively, and otherwise my players seem perfectly pleased to spend most of their time on self-directed goals (mostly involving training, research, and improving their relationships with NPCs).

This engine has three major pieces, spelled out in more detail in last week’s post:

• Spending XP costs an action block per XP, so the players need to plan their training time against their available XP and which traits they want to improve (and when, if they need, say, to improve their magic casting stats before an upcoming event).
• New spells have become one of the major types of “loot,” and research rolls take up time blocks.
• Perhaps the biggest factor is the Persona 5-inspired NPC relationship system. Each NPC has a 10-step track of benefits gained by improving the PC’s relationship with them, and players must plan their hangouts and make sure to include NPCs in their investigation actions if they want to be able to allocate relationship points.

That last bullet has proven to be key. This obviously wouldn’t work in a game with a lot of travel, but for a city-based game it’s really interesting. There need to be a lot of interesting NPCs around that the players can choose to spend time with. As I mentioned in my long-ago Technoir review, the easiest way to get players to invest in an NPC relationship is to have them quantify it on their character sheets (so the NPC effectively just becomes another of their own statistics). Since I implemented this system, the players have been turbo-charged in wanting to get to know the various NPCs.

An important factor in this is to be able to generate a bunch of interesting NPCs. The trick I used for this was actually pretty simple: I semi-randomly combined skills, qualities, and drawbacks from the system in a spreadsheet, then used that as a seed for the NPC. Each NPC is essentially the exemplar of three or four traits. For skills, that means that the NPC has it at a very high rank. For qualities and drawbacks, they’re either the only known NPC with that trait, or they have it at the highest rating.

For example, I wound up with one NPC that was really good at Science, had the Superscience quality, but had Depression. It was a short walk to Darwin, the senior class’ physics genius.

Since Buffy comes with plenty of each type of trait, I was able to generate 24 students and a similar number of adults (the adults have two signature skills, and reuse the pool of qualities and drawbacks from the students). That’s a lot of seeds for content generation.

It also proved useful in coming up with a ten-step relationship progression. Since three of the steps are pre-defined (Acquaintance, Friend, and BFF) and one or two are Good Example (with their signature skill or skills), I only had to come up with five or six unique relationship rewards for each character.

Playing on Roll20 helps with all of this. I’m able to just make all of this information public on the NPC’s journal entry, so players can see what every NPC they know is basically about and what they’ll get be becoming better friends with them. It might be harder face-to-face.

Also, I make the players keep personal track of their progress toward each new rank of an NPC (and on their XP spends, incidentally). I only update NPCs when the player moves up a rank and tells me (moving their name next to the new relationship rank). This reduces my bookkeeping to a manageable amount.

Below are several example NPCs.

Angelina Pierce                Yearbook Photographer

Signature Skill, Quality, Drawback: Wild Card (Animal Handling), Artist, Misfit

A girl with a lot of interests, but not a lot of luck talking to people, Angelina seems happiest when hiding behind a camera or working with animals. It’s dealing directly with people that gives her problems. She’s the main yearbook photographer for Eastbend High and works part time at the Pet Resorts and Vet with Agnes. Danny knows she’s clued-in to the supernatural, having seen some of her photos of vampires using a telephoto lens that she tried to pass off as art photos.

Everyone has discovered that Agnes is a werewolf. She locks herself in a cage she got from the vet’s office on full moons.

Relationships (Temperance)

1. Acquaintance (Anthony, Danny)
2. Angelina will tag along to photographically document dangerous or strange situations
3. Friend (Agnes)
4. Animal Magnetism: Animals won’t attack you unless ordered or supernaturally manipulated
5. Good Example: Animal Handling
6. Crying Wolf: You gain a +2 modifier to Influence rolls to convince people they’re in danger
7. Candid Camera: Spend a Drama Point to retroactively declare that Angelina was hiding and taking pictures of a scene you were in where that would be reasonable
8. BFF
9. Counter surveillance: You have learned to hide your features so it’s nearly impossible to get pictures/video proving you were doing something
10. Wolf Whisperer: You can verbally control Angelina while she is transformed into a werewolf

Darwin Jackson                  Physics Genius

Signature Skill, Quality, Drawback: Science, Sorcery (Superscientist), Emotional Problems (Depression)

Darwin’s parents have a love of science that they imparted to their boy, though he wound up favoring the hard sciences rather than biology, which is a bit of an embarrassment since his dad is the high school bio teacher, Cody Jackson. But he’s a genius at physics, and there are rumors that he’s built some gadgets that might get him into MIT on a scholarship, if the Army doesn’t notice first and snap him up for DARPA.

In the meantime, science doesn’t pay the bills or instill a work ethic, so he has a part time job at Gold’s Gym.

Relationships (The Hermit)

1. Acquaintance (Pete)
2. Darwin may cut you in on his projects, allowing you to learn Superscience
3. Friend
4. Newtonian Physics: +2 modifier when making trick shot attacks
5. Good Example: Science (Anthony)
6. Astrophysics: +4 modifier on investigation rolls where celestial events are involved
7. Research Encouragement: Darwin gains +1 Superscience for each PC at this level
8. BFF
9. Just the Thing: Darwin will often provide you a Superscience gadget that’s surprisingly helpful in the current crisis
10. Job Connections: Darwin gets a job somewhere high-tech and can provide you access

Dienarr Prins                     Siobhan’s Girl Friday

Signature Skill, Quality, Drawback: Driving, Good Luck, Mental Problems (Reckless)

Dienarr’s family is Dutch, and owns High Street Clothing. She doesn’t have much of an accent, the Prinses have been here so long. Other than her work for the family business and her bizarre devotion to Siobhan Faobhar, her great love is driving. Her family got her a sporty purple coupe for her 16th birthday, and it’s only through her insanely good luck that she hasn’t wrapped it around a phone pole or killed someone yet, the way she drives.

She’s not super bright, but she’s pretty well off and lucky so that accounts for a lot.

Relationships (Wheel of Fortune)

1. Acquaintance (Anthony, Danny)
2. Dienarr will drive you around, if it’s not too much trouble
3. Friend
4. Lucky Charm: You can ignore your bad luck, Pete, or act as if you have a 1 point Good Luck
5. Good Example: Driving
6. Halvsies!: Dienarr will pay for half of a major purchase if she expects to get to use it a fair amount
7. Cab Service: Dienarr will drop most things to pick you up and drive you across town (Pete)
8. BFF
9. The Zen of Recklessness: Dangerously risky actions you take have a +1 modifier to succeed
10. Charmed Life: Dienarr gains an additional +2 Good Luck for each PC at this level

Eve Doyle                            Scary Girl

Signature Skill, Quality, Drawback: Wild Card (Demolitions), Jock, Mental Problems (Delusions)

Pete’s friend Eve is trouble. One of the town’s many military brats, her father does something with ordinance and she’s learned way too much about it. She got dragooned onto the track team last year after training herself to run away from fuses she’d lit. She’s medicated for schizophrenia, but sometimes forgets to take a dose and that’s a bad weekend if she has some thermite mixed up. Most of the time she knows to ignore the voices telling her to blow things up.

If she’s not in school (which is more often than most teenagers aren’t in school), she can often be found at Sid’s Junkyard, making pipe bombs.

Danny, Pete, and Agnes have some sway with Mrs. Doyle regarding informing her when Eve is off her meds.

Relationships (The Tower)

1. Acquaintance (Shannon)
2. Eve will provide you small amounts of minor explosives/incendiaries (Anthony, Danny)
3. Friend (Agnes)
4. Eve will help you on demolitions crafting, doubling your output
5. Good Example: Demolitions
6. Eve will provide you small amounts of the kind of things that would get you on a watchlist (Pete)
7. Don’t blow your hand off: +3 modifier to avoid damage from explosions/fire
8. BFF
9. Outrun the Explosion: Increase your running speed by +2 in dangerous situations
10. The Voices are Real: Eve gains a spirit-related power for each PC at this level

Jamarion Barrera             Latin Club President

Signature Skill, Quality, Drawback: Languages, Photographic Memory, Covetous (Lecherous)

Jamarion “Jams” Barrera has mastered all the languages taught at the high school. He was already fluent in Spanish when he got there, and his excellent memory made it easy for him to pick up Latin and French. He’s looking for something new and interesting to pick up.

The kid is really hard up for sex. It’s likely that he only worked so hard to be president of the Latin club since that means more time around Ms. Houghton. That doesn’t stop him from taking a shot at asking out most of the other girls at school, though. At least he tends to let it go once shot down.

He works part time as a stock boy at Rose’s department store.

Relationships (The Lovers)

1. Acquaintance (Agnes, Anthony)
2. Jams will help you with translation research (Danny)
3. Friend
4. Jams will let you use his employee discount at Rose’s
5. Good Example: Languages
6. Modern Cyrano: You gain a +2 modifier on Influence rolls to Woo
7. Memory Training: +1 modifier to investigation rolls when remembering details would be useful
8. BFF
9. Cultural Immersion: You understand the gist of foreign languages, even if you don’t speak them
10. Quick Occult Study: Jams gains +2 Occultism for each PC at this level

Oliver Brown                     Most Likely to Do Hard Time

Signature Skill, Quality, Drawback: Crime, Resistance, Bad Luck

Clearly just waiting until he gets kicked out of school to really ramp up his criminal enterprises, Oliver is always hustling. He’s the guy you go to if you want to buy something that “fell off a truck,” though he doesn’t really seem to have the hookup for drugs. Maybe it’s just that he knows his own bad luck and reputation, so it’s not worth the risk for him to be holding. He can be found lurking around the old mill warehouses when he’s not in school.

Relationships (The Hanged Man)

1. Acquaintance (Agnes, Pete)
2. Oliver will sell you his illicit goods (Shannon)
3. Friend
4. Oliver will alert you of upcoming criminal enterprises, and serves as a criminal Contact (Anthony)
5. Good Example: Crime
6. Oliver will sell you his illicit goods at a 20% discount
7. You can send Oliver to do a minor crime for you on his own time
8. BFF
9. Business Partner: You make $100 a week in illicit income
10. Phantom Thief: Oliver gains +1 “Sorcery” for each PC at this level, useful for spell-like abilities that let him “steal” supernatural items and features

Siobhan Faobhar              Local Colonel’s Daughter

Signature Skill, Quality, Drawback: Gun Fu, Attractiveness, Mental Problems (Cruelty)

Daughter of the commander of Fort Blake, Siobhan pronounces her last name like “Fire” and is considered  both extremely cool and unbearably hot by most of the student body at Eastbend High. She does target shooting competitively, and would be training for international competitions if she wasn’t set on going into ROTC and then into the military when she graduates (Eastbend High isn’t big enough for JROTC).

Most of the school misfits are sad that she’s so pretty, talented, and undeniably badass, because she’s also a sadist that uses her influence against those that are safe targets for her. Like, those she’s picked on are honestly afraid that she might shoot them if they were alone in the woods and she thought she could get away with it. Cognizant of her reputation even if she is a sociopath, she limits her bullying at school to social torments.

Strangely, she doesn’t date. Anyone who’s asked her gets brushed off as neither attractive nor awesome enough to date her.

When she’s not at school, she can often be found at the Espresso Pump holding mean girl court.

Relationships (Strength)

1. Acquaintance (Shannon, Anthony, Pete)
2. Siobhan will try to avoid being mean to you at school
3. Friend/Frenemy
4. Siobhan will show up to shoot things for you if it’s convenient (Agnes)
5. Good Example: Gun Fu
6. Siobhan will use her military connections to help you
7. Angel of Death: Spend two Drama Points to have Siobhan show up, guns blazing, if you’re in trouble (Danny)
8. BFF/Best Frenemy
9. Siobhan will “borrow” military-spec hardware for you
10. High Functioning: Siobhan will become literally like 20% less terrible for each PC at this level

Zara Wright                        Out and Proud Witch

Signature Skill, Quality, Drawback: Occultism, Occult Library, Humorless

Danny’s friend Zara is about what you’d expect from a small, slightly-gothy Wiccan girl in a small southern town: totally serious about her faith and ready to fight you about it. While she’s never been very good in a brawl, at some point a lot of the school bullies became convinced that she could “get” them (possibly with some kind of curse), and started leaving her alone.

She works at Party Town for the discount on Halloween props.

She lives in one of the smaller little communities up the interstate that doesn’t have its own high school. Thus, she did not meet everyone until freshman year, when she got bussed in (having attended elementary and middle school at her home town).

Relationships (High Priestess)

1. Acquaintance (Anthony)
2. You can use Zara’s +2 Library and she’ll assist with research
3. Friend
4. Zara will provide ritual casting assistance (Pete)
5. Good Example: Occult
6. Zara will research spells for you on her own time
7. Warding Buddy: You benefit from a +1 Will of the Coven at all times (Agnes, Danny)
8. BFF 
9. Ingredients Shopper: Zara can provide a free Rare casting component 1/week
10. Witch awakening: Zara gains +1 Sorcery for each PC at this level

Casey Harris                       High School Principal

Signature Skills; Quality; Drawback: Getting Medieval, Science; Photographic Memory; Bad Luck

A former science teacher and nationally ranked fencer, it’s unclear how Casey Harris wound up being principal of a large rural high school. It’s likely due to his well-known bad luck. Between being an actual decent educator, his impossibly good memory for student details, and his willingness to beat the living shit out of anyone that pushes him, he’s managed to gain a grudging respect from the student body.

Relationships (King of Swords)

1. Acquaintance
2. Getting called to the principal’s office is a lot less scary (Shannon)
3. Friend
4. Fencing Practice: Use a full relationship action with Harris AND allocate Getting Medieval XP
5. Good Example: Getting Medieval
6. Princi-Pal: Remove one free level of Delinquency (or Dereliction if you work for him) each week on Sunday
7. Good Example: Science
8. BFF
9. The Good Equipment: Harris gifts you a very nice combat-ready rapier or saber
10. Castling: If you get in a fight in the school, Harris shows up to assist

Alexander Jenkins           Superstitious Boys’ Football Coach

Signature Skills; Quality; Drawback: Occultism, Sports; Occult Library; Covetous (Ambitious)

The Jenkins family owns and runs D’Antonio’s pizza, but Alexander was interested in teaching. With a special interest in the secret history of the world, he got a degree that let him teach social studies, but he was always good at sports so also wound up coaching the school’s football team. 

Pete knows he’s clued-in to the supernatural, after some of the football team got into his special collection of occult reference books three years ago and wound up summoning some kind of entity to possess them. Mr. Jenkins was briefly caught up in the ambition of how supernaturally-empowered teens were finally having a winning season, and let it go on for far too long before they got dangerous and violent, forcing him to exorcise them and resulting in permanent damage that left them benched. But at least Pete got to start from his sophomore year on.

Mr. Jenkins has been a lot more careful about his occult collection and dabbling since then, but grudgingly allowed Pete and his friends to use it after Danny offered to share some of his family’s own tomes and a promise that they wouldn’t summon any demons.

Relationships (King of Rods)

1. Acquaintance (Shannon)
2. Jenkins will let you use his gym-based library (Agnes, Anthony, Danny)
3. Friend (Pete)
4. Jenkins will help you do spell research if it’s something that might be useful for football
5. Good Example: Sports
6. Blitz: Double teamwork bonuses when charging at the same target
7. Good Example: Occultism
8. BFF
9. Sack: +2 modifier on Slam Tackle maneuvers.
10. Wizard awakening: Jenkins gains +1 Sorcery for each PC at this level

Lucy Burns                          Wiccan High Priestess

Signature Skills; Quality; Drawback: Driving, Occultism; Sorcery; Mental Problems (Zealot: Wicca Pacifist)

Rumored to be the town’s Wiccan High Priestess (if that even means anything in a place that’s 99% some denomination of Christian), Lucy Burns is British and nobody is really sure why she’d go to school in such a small little town so far away from her home. She’s outspoken about her faith to those who are interested, and follows a particularly pacifistic praxis where she considers any kind of willful violence as an affront against the Goddess. She works at Daily Grind, the coffee shop, as a barista when she’s not in class.

Relationships

1. Acquaintance
2. You can go to the Wicca meetings (Agnes, Danny)
3. Friend
4. Lucy will help you do spell Research
5. Good Example: Occultism
6. Draw Down the Goddess: You have a 50% chance of immediately recovering a Drama Point spent to cast a white magic spell
7. Good Example: Driving
8. BFF
9. That It Harm None: Starting each fight, you have a +5 bonus to defense rolls until you attack someone in combat.
10. Protector: Automatically benefit from a powerful protective spell that Lucy casts for you on the regular

Dane Petty                         Auto Shop Repair Guy

Signature Skills; Quality; Drawback: Acrobatics, Mr. Fix-it; Hard to Kill; Werewolf

Dane Petty is the cousin of a pretty famous race car driver who just happened to be going to Riverview when the owner of Sid’s Auto Repair needed new help. Fortunately, Dane is good at fixing cars, having learned something working the pit crew as a teen. He’s also pretty fast, and can frequently be seen out training for some ultra-marathon or triathlon.

Relationships

1. Acquaintance (Agnes, Anthony, Pete)
2. Dane will let you fix stuff in the shop, no questions asked
3. Friend (Danny)
4. Dane will fix minor things for you in the shop without you taking the time
5. Good Example: Mr. Fix-it
6. Car Surfing: Halve penalties from maneuvers on moving objects
7. Good Example: Acrobatics
8. BFF
9. Those Pettys: Gain access to NASCAR-grade racing parts and cars
10. Wolf Whisperer: You can verbally control Dane while he is transformed into a werewolf

Molly George                    Getaway Driver and Smuggler

Signature Skills; Quality; Drawback: Crime, Driving; Fast Reaction Time; Talentless

Parents Clara and William run Sid’s Barbershop (Sid was Clara’s father). Works as a barber (too unartistic and annoyed to give anything but a basic trim). Fiery.

Relationships

1. Acquaintance (Agnes, Anthony, Pete, Danny)
2. Crime Taxi: You can pay Molly $50 an hour (min one hour) plus 5% to be your getaway driver
3. Friend
4. Molly will give you a free haircut (you get what you pay for)
5. Good Example: Driving
6. Ride Along: Use a full relationship action with her AND allocate Driving XP
7. Good Example: Crime
8. BFF
9. Hell on Wheels: Spend a Drama Point when near a road to have Molly arrive in her car to cause a distraction or help you escape
10. Muse: Molly loses the effects of Talentless for you (the haircuts are pretty good!)

Mia Thompson                 Antiques Store Owner

Signature Skills; Quality; Drawback: Art, Getting Medieval; Watcher; Love

Mia Thompson is a British woman who recently opened Thompson’s Treasures, the antique store. She seems to be a single mother, though some think that she might just be fostering or have adopted young Rona, and she looks pained and changes the subject if anyone brings up a husband. She’s extremely knowledgeable about all varieties of antique art.

Relationships

1. Acquaintance (Agnes, Anthony, Danny, Shannon)
2. Sword Art Online: Mia will use her museum and Watcher connections to order you basic monster-fighting weapons and gear with minimal markup. (Pete)
3. Friend
4. That Kind of Watcher: Mia will assist with Art-based Research rolls.
5. Good Example: Getting Medieval
6. The Cavalry: Spend a Drama Point to have Mia and Rona show up in town to assist in a difficult fight.
7. Good Example: Art
8. BFF
9. And ALSO a Fighter: You have a 30% chance of regaining a Drama Point spent to protect someone you love with self-sacrifice or violence.
10. Witch awakening: Mia gains +1 Sorcery for each PC at this level

Buffy: Revised Investigation System

This is a revised, updated, and expanded version of my Great Conflicting Responsibilities post. It’s tuned to work for the Cinematic Unisystem version of Buffy: the Vampire Slayer (see last week’s post for more information on spells and next week’s for more about NPC relationships). In rough essence, player characters get up to 4 time blocks per day that represent 3-4 hours (several of which are usually pre-spent on going to school/work, sleeping, and doing homework). These can be used for on-camera activities, or “downtime” activities such as investigating, patrolling, researching, training, and hanging out with friends (in practice, most of the gameplay is “downtime” that drifts in and out of roleplay).

Investigation Cycles

You gain one free investigation cycle per weekday and three free per weekend day (or 11 per week). You may take up to 4 cycles total per day (including the free ones), representing either staying up late or skipping school/work. If you stay up late to get another cycle, you gain a point of Stress. If you skip school/work, you gain a point of Delinquency/Dereliction.

Stress

Your total level of Stress is effectively an opposed roll for every task (within the investigation system or outside of it). If your roll total is equal to or lower than your Stress, the roll fails even if it is not opposed by any external force. Get some sleep and chill.

Delinquency/Dereliction

Your total level of this trait functions as stress for all interactions with teachers (Delinquency) or managers (Dereliction) (Stress takes precedence, if higher). You may trigger scenes with authority figures as it rises to convince them not to assign penalties for all your skipping school/work. But, as a bonus, detention totally counts as Recovery if it uses up your investigation cycles!

Types of Investigation Action

Patrolling

Patrolling is the general choice of active investigators to keep an eye on the safety of the town. In general, it means walking or driving around the town and noting potential issues. Most white hats on patrol will not actually attempt to engage with monsters unless they see targets of opportunity, but will instead attempt to figure out their hunting area and locate their base/nest. Skilled fighters (or groups of white hats) might actually attempt to fight minions deliberately to cull their numbers, attempting to escape if there are too many to fight easily.

Roll Perception + Notice to map minions. 10 successes identifies the location of a base/nest.

Compare Minions combat rating to Dexterity + Combat Skill.

• If minions have higher combat, roll Constitution + Acrobatics, Driving, or Sports to avoid group minion encounters. Minions total reduced by 1 per 2 successes.
• If minions have equal or lower combat, roll Dexterity + Combat Skill. Minions total reduced by 1 per success.
• You take damage equal to the Combat Rating of the strongest minion defeated. You may take half this by halving the total minions defeated for the action. If multiple people go on patrol, rather than rolling individually, you can have a primary with a bonus modifier equal to the successes of the secondary helpers and distribute the damage across all patrollers (rather than each taking the full damage).

Add levels of Income to patrolling rolls to represent car and better gear. This cannot be shared. Drawbacks that limit perception or mobility (e.g., Impaired Sense or Physical Disability) may penalize these rolls.

Once a base/nest has been located and Minions total reduced to 0, the group can trigger a combat scene to attempt to clear out the location. If the location is attacked before the Minions total is reduced, that number of enemies will be added to the fight (e.g., if there are half a dozen vampires minimum in a nest, there will be 10 there if Minions was at 4 when it was attacked).

Researching

Non-active investigators can usually help by doing research. General research can be attempted at any time, and involves combing occult and historical texts for elements of interest to share with allies. This is usually particular weaknesses of various demons to make them general knowledge, or unique identifiers and limitations of problems that may be relevant to the local town. Once a threat is actually identified, specific research must be done to find the creature’s salient details (whether that be weaknesses of the demon type or just background about the target that will help when fighting it).

Roll Intelligence + Knowledge for general research. Each success adds to the general research pool. These points can be spent on patrolling or specific research rolls, after rolling, to retroactively increase the result on a one-for-one basis (e.g., spend 3 general research points to add +3 to a Perception + Notice roll when mapping minions).

Roll Perception + Art, Languages, or Occult (depending on subject) to turn up information on specific monsters. Monsters typically require successes equal to their life points to fully research, though some information may be revealed at milestones along this track.

Add modifiers from Occult Library to rolls. Researchers in the same place can share an occult library. Drawbacks that reduce the ability to focus on work (e.g., Emotional or Mental Problems) may penalize these rolls.

When researching spells, make the same roll as when researching a specific monster. A spell generally has “life points” equal to its level x 10, but this may be increased if the spell is obscure or being modified/invented from other principles.

Networking

Roll Intelligence + Computers or Influence to gather information from people. This is usually reactive, looking for a specific piece of information (known by a contact and/or in a hackable database). Each roll takes a full investigation cycle and has plot-related results.

Add quality points in Contacts to rolls. This cannot be shared. Drawbacks that cause difficulty with others (e.g., Emotional Problems, Mental Problems, Minority, Misfit, Nerd) may penalize these rolls.

Forensics

Roll Perception + a relevant skill to analyze different scenes:

• Crime for crime scenes
• Doctor for dead (or infected) bodies
• Mr. Fix-it for machines
• Science for most substances

Each roll takes a full investigation cycle and has plot-related results. Drawbacks that would make it difficult to interact with the subject of study (e.g., Mental Problems) may penalize these rolls.

Add levels of honors (for students) to represent school resources.

You can also use Forensics to invent new Superscience assemblage recipes or back-convert a known magic spell into a recipe for an assemblage. Make a relevant Forensics roll, and accumulate successes similar to magical research. Inventing a totally new assemblage involves suggesting the general effect and the GM giving it a level, effect, and drawbacks; it then takes 20 successes per level to invent the assemblage. Converting an existing magic spell instead requires only 3 successes per level and access to an annotated and assembled version of the ritual text (i.e., it has to have been successfully researched as a spell already).

Training

You can spend up to 10 XP/week on skills you could learn in school (Acrobatics, Computers, Doctor, Driving, Languages, Knowledge, Mr. Fix-it, Science, Sports) or attributes. If you are an adult, you can instead learn skills relevant to your job. This 10 XP is reduced by levels of Delinquency or Dereliction you take for the week.

For each investigation cycle you spend on training, you can allocate 1 point of XP on qualities or other skills that you must learn in your own time.

Recovery

For every two investigation cycles you spend, you can reduce your Stress or Delinquency/Dereliction by one level.

Relationships

You may build your relationship with an NPC. Most NPCs have a 10-step meter. You must accumulate points equal to the next level of the meter to improve your relationship (e.g., 5 points to go from step 4 to 5). Most NPCs have various benefits awarded for being at that step or higher. Track your points on your sheet notes. You can accumulate points by:

• School/Work Hangout: Each day, assign one point toward a single NPC you saw during the day (a teacher whose class you have, student you have a class with, or coworker) and made an effort to be friendly with.
• Incidental Hangout: You may invite one NPC to your normal investigative duties (e.g., spending XP, patrolling, researching) and assign a point toward that NPC if they hang out with your for the duration. Multiple PCs can “share” the same NPC (e.g., if Danny and Agnes research with Zara, both can assign a point to Zara).
• Dedicated Hangout: You may invite one NPC to do something actually intended to be fun for that NPC (and do not use this time for other investigative actions). Roll Perception + Influence, and assign points based on your successes (minimum 1). You may gain a modifier from gifts or choosing something super fun to do. As with Incidental Hangouts, multiple people can share an NPC for a Dedicated Hangout.

The following are common relationship benefits:

• Acquaintance: The NPC doesn’t think unkindly of you, and might consent to further interactions if it’s not too much bother
• Friend: The NPC thinks of you as a friend, and will regularly choose to hang out with you without special reason (you can generally chose to start dating the NPC at this level, if appropriate)
• Good Example: Once per day, you may add a +5 modifier to a roll you make using that NPC’s signature skill
• BFF: The NPC considers you their best friend, and will generally drop anything that’s not life-or-death to come help you out on short notice (if you have been dating, you can decide that this means you’re in love; take the Love drawback if you do not already have it, and immediately gain the relevant XP)