Pando Guide

Welcome to Pando! Pando is a table top role playing game focused on immersion and extensibility. This guide will provide the basics for playing the game. It is currently intended for people with past experience playing table top role playing games, and assumes the reader has some understanding of common elements of tabletop game play, but will try to clarify concepts for newcomes as well.

Gameplay in Pando revolves around players creating and progressing characters (player characters, or "PCs") throughout a narrative, with a game master ("GM") providing the narrative, circumstances, and non-player characters ("NPCs"). While playing, players can progress and shape the story through taking actions with their characters. The efficiency of these actions is variable: sometimes they work on a basic level, other times they provide excellent outcomes, and in some cases they fail to be fruitful.

This section will cover some preliminary ground, such as the game's philosophy, what to expect when playing it, general notes on how a group should approach Pando's gameplay, and an overview of the game's mechanics.

The goals of Pando are as follows:

With Pando, the mechanical choices available to your character should be reflective of the narrative choices being made in the game. That is, we don't want players to have to depend on their imagination to tell apart a brutish, hammer wielding warrior from an elegant, poised duelist. Those differences should express themselves in the round-by-round choices the players make. To that end, Pando has a rich action system, and mechanics meant to offer depth over simplicity (within reason).

In Pando, swinging at your opponent with a warhammer will be functionally different than taking a stab with your rapier. Being sliced with a blade will impact you differently than getting bonked with a mace. Trying to pursuade someone can have vastly different results depending on whether you're providing a rational argument or a passionate one. For some, a defense strategy will be to dodge incoming attacks. For others, it will be to let their armor absorb the blow.

This level of immersion in your character is Pando's most important tenet.

Alongside mechanical depth, Pando puts an emphasis on smaller numbers. Having or doing a 1 on something should always be significant. While other games might bloat their numbers as characters increase in ability, in Pando it means the difference between reliably dealing 2 damage and dealing 5 damage. Spending 1 character point on progressing your character should be a notable increase in ability.

Pando strives to be a modular game, in which a robust core system can be applied to varying settings and stories. The contents of this guide, the Core guide, are that base system, providing everything needed for a game to function, but leaving it to game modules to provide further substance and flavor. In this guide you will find information on how to build a character, take actions, roll dice, use equipment, interact with others, and more.

Other modules will then provide further information, such as the Spellcasting module providing the guidelines for magic users, the Medieval module providing content for the arms and combat of the era, or the Enchanting module, providing magic items and means for characters to enchant their normal gear. Combine all three for a classic fantasy setting, exclude any that aren't of interest, or even replace with a module of your own. Or perhaps mix the magic module with the sci-fi module for something more niche. Want to play a Lovecraftian campaign? Utilize a horror module that expands on the game with the appropriate actions, skills, and items.

Unfortunately, at the time of this writing, none of those modules are yet written, so it's largely a promise of future interests. As Pando works towards having its own modules for such themes, players are always encouraged to write and contribute their own.

Pando strongly prefers mechanics over rules, meaning, having a rich array of game functions that interact with each other to provide desired results, rather than using a few standalone mechanics to handle some key factors and lean on a vast set of standalone rules to fill in the gaps of how the system works.

Many of Pando's mechanics and stats may seem weird and possibly overwhelming at first. This is expected, but I believe they are set up in an ultimately intuitive way. The game's setup makes it much easier to build out an intricate and in-depth game, allowing players and game masters to do more without needing to ask questions or consult a rules book.

An example of this is the way in which characters act on their turns. Some games define types of actions, allowing players to use each type of action once on their turn. Then further rules are added allowing some types to be used in place of others, or which type of actions can lead to rolling dice, or doing multiple things with an action, but being able to move between those things, etc. It's a simple system at first, but gets complicated once you have to balance various game effects, or provide enough content for players to use each type of action reliably, or in various other scenarios. Pando's action system has a more complex base, but manages to avoid much of the ensuing complications and questions: In Pando, the system just works.

Finally, Pando is intended to make it easier for gaming groups to get the experience they want. The content provided in the core and other modules isn't intended to be the limit of available choices. GMs and their players are encouraged to think of up new items, new outcomes, and so forth, as fits their style and their wants. And this needn't be in advance; outcomes, especially, can be fun to figure out on the fly.

To that effect, Pando also stops short of trying to define every gameplay affect that follows the game's logic, and instead let gaming groups determine how things should play out. For example, Pando's action system provides easy ways to enable a handedness system, with a rule that increases the speed cost for actions using the character's non-dominant hand. While immersive and fairly intuitive, it's also an unnecessary level of granularity for the core rules. Pando intentionally avoids going into such granularity, prefering to let gaming groups decide on whether they want to address such things in game, and how.

Below we'll provide high-level overviews of each section to come in the guide. It's an opportunity to familiarize with the way the game works while not getting into the details of the implementation.

The core elements of Pando are: Actions, Outcomes, Attributes, Skills, and Rolling. Combined they provide the essential experience. Everything else acts as a wrapper to make these elements more meaningful, and hopefully, more interesting.

Actions represent the way players use their characters. When a player wants to do something, they have to take an action to do so. Whether this means exploring their surroundings, interrogating a suspect, or participating in a physical melee, their means of doing so are expressed through actions. Taking an action can lead to a range of outcomes--literally. Each action has a related list of Outcomes possible for that action. Depending on how efficiently the character performs the action, they may be limited to simple outcomes, access truly impactful outcomes, or in the worst case scenarios, fail to achieve any outcome whatsoever.

When taking actions, attributes and skills are the primary contributors to determining available outcomes. Attributes are core aspects of a character, representing their physical and mental acuities. Each character has the same 7 attributes, though to different degrees. Skills represent the character's trainings and talents, and each character can accumulate a list of skills reflective of who they are as a person. Together, Attributes and Skills are the primary definition of what makes a character unique.

Actions, Outcomes, Attributes, and Skills come together through dice rolls. When taking an action, the variance in outcomes are determined according to the roll's Efficiency. Efficiency is a point system that lets you choose outcomes for the action, with different outcomes costing different amounts of Efficiency. Attributes determine how many dice you roll and skills determine what die values are needed to earn Efficiency.

Attributes have additional impacts on the game, though we'll discuss those in a later chapter.

Pando represents a character's body and physicality through several systems.

First are the body parts, which are simplified to the following: The head, the torso, the left arm, the right arm, and the legs. The list of body parts might be different for some characters, such as those that underwent an amputation of their legs, or received a bionic implant providing an additional limb, or possibly non-human species that have a different set of body parts entirely.

Your character might receive harm to one or more of its body parts. As a body part receives more harm, it becomes harder to use. With enough harm, it becomes lame, meaning you can't use it until it's had a chance to heal for a while. With even more harm, it may become maimed, meaning permanent loss of that body part. A maimed head or torso is fatal.

The second system is the Stamina system, representing how much energy your character has to act. Some statuses and effects will cause your character to gain exhaustion, causing your stamina to deplete. The less stamina you have, the fewer actions you are able to take, meaning fewer opportunities to defend against incoming attacks, or deploy attacks of your own. Exhaustion can come in many forms: Bleeding from cuts, poison in your system, and even extremely cold environments, among other sources.

Armor can help protect you from such afflicitions, reducing the amount of harm or exhaustion you take. This comes at a trade off, though, as wearing armor can potentially reduce your stamina outright, if you don't have sufficient Strength to carry it all. Endurance is also a helpful attribute, reducing the stamina lost from exhaustion. It's impossible to protect from everything without weighing yourself down to the point of uselessness. You'll have to carefully select what you think is the most important protections for your character.

Characters are created and improved through two primary means: Character Points, which can be spent to improve attributes and skills, and obtaining equipment.

When first creating a character, you will start with a given amount of Character Points (CP), as determined by the game's GM. CP can be used to increase your characters attributes and skills. As they increase, your character will achieve better outcomes at the various actions they take. As you play, your GM will provide you with additional CP. While inexperienced characters, represented by smaller amounts of total CP, may struggle to succeed consistently, more advanced character's actions are much more reliable. And as their expertise improves, not only do they become reliable, but they become reliably impressive.

In addition to character points, characters can find or buy equipment. These can provide the characters a variety of purposes, such as a weapon providing a character with the means to execute an attack, or armor providing protection from such attacks, or herbal medicines to cure people's ailments, or relics and technologies that provide the character with new available actions and/or outcomes.

The actual playing of Pando can take two different forms: Free play and Action Rounds.

Free play allows players to act and use their characters as they like, without having to wait their turn or follow action limits. It's the recommended style of play whenever there isn't a reason to take a more structured form of play.

Action Rounds provide an organized structure of play for when a high level of organization is useful to streamline play. Combat encounters are a typical examples for this, but a GM may also call for action rounds during exploration or social encounters if they think it appropriate. When using action rounds, characters take turn acting, with each character getting a turn before a new round starts and turn order resets.

Players are limited by their Speed stat in how many actions they can take in an action round. Players can use any action they like during their turn, or even during other characters' turns if there's an appropriate trigger for an available action. However, the speed cost to take each action during a round goes up the more that action is used. So a character with 6 speed can take the same action three times in a round, such as 3 attacks with their weapon (speed costs of 1, 2, and 3). On the other hand, a character with 5 speed can take actions to move, block with the shield, endure an incoming attack with the Tough it Out action, strike with the sword, and shout an encouraging word to a teammate all during one round, for a total of 5 actions at 1 speed each.

Throughout this guide we will provide examples of the mechanics and gameplay with The Pando-Folk, a band of adventurers set to take on the world. Through their exploits, triumphs, and face plants, we'll help you better understand how Pando works and what to expect.

The Pando-Folk are composed of:

Alex, a sword-and shield warrior with a mind for logical problem solving.

Pablo, a ferocious hand-to-hand warrior and life of the party.

Charlotte, a classic rogue-type, juggling a bow, lockpicks, and chutzpah.

Ira, a medic and investigator known for their care and compassion.

In this section, we'll cover the fundamentals of Pando. We'll explore in depth the basic components of play, such as actions, attirbutes, dice rolling, outcomes, challenges, and other essentials.

Generally, when doing something with your character, it will take the form of an action. Some actions will also specify a trigger, and can be taken whenever the triggering event happens.

While technically Actions could apply to each and every thing a character does, in game terms, we're looking at times when a character is trying to overcome an obstacle, and/or where success in that action is not guaranteed, and the rules are used to determine the character's success. That is to say, the rules for actions here don't need to apply each time a character walks around, lifts a simple object, or writes a letter. These rules are for occasions where a character is trying to move fast enough to catch a falling object, lift an immense weight, forge a signature, or similar situation that pushes the action beyond the ordinary.

Actions can be taken as either at leisure or under pressure. At leisure actions are actions taken comfortably, with plenty of time to tackle it thoroughly and to the best effect. Under pressure actions don't have the luxury of time or comfort, and use a die roll to deterime the extent of the action's effectiveness. At leisure actions can optionally be chanced and taken with a die roll, allowing for a possibly greater effect than they would otherwise be able to achieve, or possibly a worse one.

It is ultimately up to the GM whether an action is considered at leisure or under pressure, and up to the player whether an at leisure action is chanced.

When an action is taken at leisure, it is assumed that the character taking the action has the necessary time and space to invest in the action and ensure it executes efficiently. For example, if picking a lock at leisure, then the character has time to relax, focus, try different things, etc, in their effort to pick the lock. At leisure actions don't require a die roll, instead treating the situation as if the character succeeded to the best of their ability.

When an at leisure action is taken, the character's player selects a skill of the character to use for the task, the higher the level the better. The chosen skill must be relevant to theaction taken, and if the GM feels the skill is unfit, my ask the player to choose a different skill. The result of the action is determined based on the skill's level:

As a side note, while most at leisure actions will likely take just minutes or hours to complete, loftier actions, such as the above mentioned "creating a masterpiece musical composition" may take on the order of days or weeks, as determined by the GM, during which the character needs to be primarily occupied with completing the action.

When an action is taken Under Pressure, then the circumstances are such that various effects are preventing the character from giving the task their full attention. They might be under a very short time constraint, or are trying to complete the task under water, or are in the midst of a battle, or some other similar predicament which prevents them from approaching the task comfortably. Completing an action under pressure often requires a die roll, which represents how well that character succeeds at the given action in their situation.

Under pressure actions have the following characteristics:

Some actions are straightforward, with simple effects. The Move action, for example, allows the character to move a certain distance. But many actions have built-in variance in the form of Outcomes. These actions will require the player taking the action to roll dice to determine the efficiency points of the action, and players can use those efficiency points to invoke their preferred outcomes. Outcomes for an action will be listed alongside that action, though GMs and players are encouraged to improvise their own outcomes if they are appropriate for the action taken.

When taking an action, the player must choose a combination of an attribute and skill to use for the action, the higher the level of each the better. The chosen attribute and skill must be relevant to the action taken, and the GM may decide that a selection isn't sufficiently relevant. Try as he might, Pablo's headbutt skill only has so many applications, and cannot be used to pick a lock (though it might serve to try and knock the door open forcefully). Characters can always resort to the Capability skill (level 1) if they have no alternative applicable skill. All characters have Capability by default.

Sometimes, the GM may decide that a given skill, although not immediately relevant, can still be used but at a penalty. In such cases, the player may use the chosen skill, but their action will be less efficient than it would normally be. It's a compromise, but sometimes still the best course of action.

The list of actions has some of the more essential list of actions, but it is by no means a final list of things a character can do. Players are permitted and encouraged to take whatever actions are deemed appropriate for their character, even if they have to work with the DM to figure out how that plays out, and which skills, if any, apply to that action.

When a player chances an at leisure action, the action is played out as if it were an under pressure action. The player must select a both a skill and an attribute and roll the dice, and the efficiency of the roll determines the degree of efficiency for that action. This can potentially result in better outcomes than using the skill alone.

However, unlike typical under pressure actions, a chanced at leisure action cannot be repeated, even if the result is lesser than it would have been had it not been chanced.

Sometimes a game effect or circumstance will challenge a character, requiring them to overcome the challenge or suffer a consequence. If the game is currently using Action rounds, reacting to the challenge may require taking an action to do so. Typically the player is free to choose the form in which they react to the challenge, but some effects or circumstances might limit a player's options, or even require specific actions be taken.

The more effective a character is at overcoming the challenge, the less they are affected by its outcomes, possibly even letting the character evade them entirely. If a character's reaction is determined to be risky or difficult to pull off, the GM may penalize the attempt by reducing the efficiency of the action.

Pando characters have 7 attributes, each of which plays a significant role in a character's exploits. They are often used to determine a roll's potential (more on that later), but other game effects also refer to them directly. Each attribute is represented as a number value. 0 points in an attribute represents an inability to use that attribute. A value of 1 or 2 represents an average score. Values of 3 or greater represent a high ability with that attribute. A character's initial attributes will be determined during character creation, but players can continue to invest in attributes throughout the campaign.

Below we'll explore each of the attributes. We'll reference some concepts that won't be explored until further in this guide, so don't worry if it doesn't make sense yet. We still include it here for easy future reference.

Strength represents a character's physical might. It:

Endurance measures a character's ability to whistand hardships. It:

Acrobatics is the practice of making sweeping bodily movements. It:

Coordination represents a character's ability to make intricate hand movements. It:

Rationality is a character's capabity for piecing together clues, making coherent arguments, etc. It:

Perspective measures a character's imagination and ability to approach a matter from different angles. It:

Presence is a combination of the character's awareness of its surroundings as well as its ability to command the attention of its surroundings. It:

Skills represent your character's learned abilities and talents. While attributes represent broad characteristics, skills are the collection of all the hours a character spent training, practicing, researching, or experimenting. Each skill has a level, between 1 to 5, which contributes to the efficacy of their dice rolls.

Every character starts with the sole level 1 skill: Capability. From there, skills branch out like a tree. Capability allows a character access to all the level 2 skills. Each level 2 skill provides access to relevant level 3 skills, and similarly those level 3 skills provide access to relevant level 4 skills. Successive levels represent further and more focused training in their parent skill, so while they're a higher level skill, they're also applicable to a narrower range of circumstances. Each level 4 skill only provides access to one level 5 skill, which is mastery of that level 4 skill.

Actions, Attributes, and Skills culminate in the game's dice machinics. Rolling dices determine the efficiency of your action, represented by Efficiency Points (EP), and influenced by your chosen attribute and skill for the action at hand. Rolls in Pando aren't a matter of success or failure, but rather a full range of performance. On each action, EP can be spent on action outcomes, such as hitting a target with a weapon or swaying another character's attitude. The more EP you have, the more impactful your action.

When taking an action, the selected attribute represents the maximum you can accomplish with a roll. When making a roll, you roll a number of d6 equal to the attribute's value. For example, using weapons requires Coordination, so if a character had 3 Coordination, they would roll 3d6.

Skill level represents the likelihood of achieving the roll's fullest potential. For each die that rolls less than or equal to the skill level, you get 1 EP.

Actions and various usable items have various outcomes, each of which will cost a specified amount of efficiency points. After rolling, the player taking the action selects an outcome with a cost equal to or less than the roll's EP. Only one outcome can be selected, even if the roll generated enough EP to select multiple. The exception to this rule are outcomes marked as chainable. Those outcomes can be used multiple times, and in addition to other outcomes (even non-chainable outcomes).

Outcomes have the following characteristics:

Available outcomes are listed along with their relevant action or item, but players and GMs are free (and encouraged) to add their own.

Sometimes the game may present you with an Obstacle. Obstacles can come in any form, whether a literal physical obstacle, such as a locked door, or affliction on your character, such as becoming stunned. Every obstacle will have a level, with easier obstacles having low levels, and more challenging obstacles getting significantly higher in level. Characters can overcome obstacles by taking actions and using the EP to deal with the obstacles. When enough cumulative EP has been spent on overcoming the obstacle it is resolved, meaning the lock has been opened, or the stunned character regaines control of their faculties. The EP can be accumulated over multiple rolls, but EP used to overcome the obstacle cannot be spent on outcomes.

When presenting an obstacle, the GM will specify how it limits the character(s). The obstacle may have other restrictions, such as whether the EP needs to be accumulated within a time frame. Typically this infomation will be made available to the players upfront, but sometimes the GM may choose for the obstacle's level and/or its restrictions to be secret, and only share that information when specific milestones are reached, or demonstrate it through context clues rather than exposition. Taking actions to assess the situation may expose any such hidden inforation.

In this section, we'll cover the various aspects of a character's physicality and health: Body parts, taking harm, gaining exhaustion, resistances, and healing.

Frequently in table top role playing games, these elements are abstracted into a numerical value, Hit Points of something similar, with a character being removed from action when those hit points are reduced 0. In Pando, there are more complicated systems representing a character's well being, and the ways in which they wear down during stuggles and difficulties. The effects of these systems are gradual: a character will ultimately be removed from combat when taking harm or suffering from exhaustion, but their performance will also be increasingly impacted as harm and exhaustion are accrued.

Pando additionally differs from other games in that taking harm is not meant to be a common occurence. Being harmed can lead to immediate problems, and recovering from harm requires long periods of rest. Receiving a leg wound early in an adventure can represent a challenge you will have to endure until you return to town and give it a chance to heal. Characters in Pando are encouraged to avoid taking harm as well as they can, and wearing armor to mitigate harm taken is essential.

Pando represents a character's body as being divided into multiple body parts. Each body part can then be used or harmed as its own entity, an important factor in the way the game plays out. For example, using a body part repeatedly during an action round of combat, such as using your axe-wielding arm to make three consecutive swipes, takes more energy and concentration than using multiple different body parts, such as using that arm to swipe with your axe, while using your other arm to raise your shield, and your legs to take a few steps away from your opponent, which can all be done at roughly the same time. But we'll get into the nitty gritty of taking actions during action rounds later on. For now, let's get into detail about the body parts themselves.

The exact body parts of a character may vary depending on their species, as alien or fantasy races might differ from the standard humanoid. But humanoids, the most common physiology encountered, all have the same 5 body parts:

Generally, when taking an action, you will have to use one of these body parts to execute that action. If a game effect prohibits you from using a body part, such as having your arms chained to a wall, you cannot take actions requiring that body part.

Some game effects may apply harm to a particular body part. As a body part accumulates harm it becomes more difficult to use:

On top of that, a few special rules exist:

A body part cannot have more harm than the amount needed to maim it. If its harm would be increased beyond the maimed amount, it remains at the maimed amount.

Healing from harm depends on the degree of harm:

"Rest" here means the character cannot be meaningfully active during that time. Perhaps it can go for a walk, but it certainly can't go on an adventure, participate in combat, etcetera.

A character receiving active medical attention from another character with the level 3 skill Medicine removes an additional harm during each period of rest.

The second health system in Pando is the Stamina and Exhaustion system. While taking harm can lead to big consequences that take time to heal, in a sense making it a long-term health system, Stamina and Exhaustion provide an health system with more immediate consequences, and more room for recovery, providing the game with a complementary short-term health system.

Every character has a Stamina value, along with a Max Stamina value. Stamina represents how much energy a character currently has. Generally, the more stamina a character has, the more they're able to do in a round of actions. And as their stamina drops, they are able to do less, at least without taking some time to recover their energy first.

This behavior is intrinsically linked to the Speed stat, which we will cover in detail in a later section. For now, what's important to know is that Speed acts as a currency for taking actions during an action round. At the start of a round a character regains its speed, and during the round it uses that speed to move around, taunt, defend against attacks, use items, etcetera. But when a character regains speed, their total speed can't exceed their current stamina. So if a character has 5 stamina left, when they regain speed at the start of a round, they would be limited to 5 speed, even if normally their speed can exceed that.

A character's Max Stamina is 10 + their Endurance by default. After taking a period of rest of 5 minutes or more, a character's stamina is set to their Max Stamina. A character's stamina cannot exceed their max stamina. Various game effects can alter a character's Max Stamina, such as armor and other equipment with an Encumberance value. When a character is holding a piece of equipment with an Encumberence value, their Max Stamina is reduced by that number.

Stamina is primarily depleted through exhaustion effects. Characters accrue points of exhaustion over time. At the start of each action round, a character loses stamina equal to its exhaustion level. So a character with total 3 exhaustion would lose 3 stamina at the start of each round. This loss of stamina is offset by a character's Endurance, so for each point of Endurance a character has, they lose 1 less stamina.

Exhaustion can come in many forms. Whenever a character receives exhaustion, a type of exhaustion will be specified. For example, a character being slashed by a sword might receive 2 Exhaustion (Bleeding). At the start of each action round, they will lose 2 stamina, representing the effects of their wound bleeding out. Characters entering a frigid environment might get 1 Exhaustion (Cold) while they stay in that environment, causing them each to lose 1 stamina at the start of each round.

Certain character traits or equipment may interact with exhaustion. For example, for those characters in the cold environment, dressing in insulating clothing may offset the stamina loss they experience. Applying a bandage to someone will remove their Bleeding exhaustion.

Each character has 3 forms of Resistance: Awareness, Insight, and Willpower. These act as static defenses against social actions and various game effects. They are static in the sense that the character doesn't need to act to use them. Unlike dodging an attack or blocking with a shield, actions a character has to take in reaction to events, resistances apply automatically, without an action, and game effects will explicitly say what happens to a character if it has sufficient resistance. Resistances can take harm, reducing their value, and thereby making the character more vulnerable to these effects.

A character's Awareness, Insight, and Willpower values depend on that character's personality attributes (Rationality, Perspective, and Presence). Each resistance value defaults to a different one of these attributes, and each character selects which resistance is connected to which attribute. This selection happens during character creation and cannot be changed later. No two resistances can use the same attribute, so each attribute has to be used.

Awareness represents how perceptive and aware the character is. It opposes attempts to distract the character, or to get something past them without notice.

Insight represents a character's ability to see past delusions, lies, and manipulation attempts.

Willpower represents a character's ability to endure hardship and duress. The higher a character's willpoer, the more they will be able to resist temptations and provocations.

Resistances can take harm, reducing their value. Without harm, the value of the resistance is equal to the value of its attribute. For each harm dealt to the resistance, it's value drops by 1. With enough harm the resistance can become negative, potentially exposing the character to dangerous effects. It's wise to avoid accumulating resistance harm.

This harm can come from a variety of places. Some game effects might apply a temporary harm, that will go away after a given amount of time. Other effects might require a character to take an action to remove it. Other effects are more persistent, such as disease, which will continue to afflict the character until removed.

Characters are created and advanced through two mechanisms: Character Points and Equipment. Character Points are points you accrue while playing and can spend to increase your attributes and learn new skills. Equipment are various items, weapons, armors, and other resources you accrue which are utilizable by your character.

Character Points (CP) are points that you receive when first creating your character and continue to gather while playing the game. They are the primary means to increase your attributes and gain skills, though some equipment pieces may also provide such benefits.

When creating your character, and whenever your character experiences a day of rest, you can spend any of its available CP to advance the character. You can increase an attribute to the next number (eg from 1 to 2, or from 2 to 3) or learn a new skill, as long as you have the prerequisite skill for it.

The CP cost to increase an attribute to the next value is twice the value of that next number. So to increase your Strength from 1 to 2 costs 4 CP, from 2 to 3 costs 6 CP, etc. To increase your strength from 1 to 4 would cost a total of 18 CP (4 + 6 + 8).

Learning a new skill costs an amount of CP equal to that skill's level. So a level 2 skill costs 2 CP, a level 3 skill costs 4 CP, etc. The total cost for a level 4 skill would be 9 CP (2 + 3 + 4). If you master a skill, an additional 5 CP, it would cost a total of 14 CP.

You can increase attributes as many times as you like and learn as many skills as you like during a single rest.

Equipment can provide a wide variety of utility and abilities to a character. These are the weapons and armor you carry into battle, the tools with which you arm or disarm traps and pick locks, and more. It includes watches, phones, clothing, and just about anything that your character may come to possess that isn't intrinsically part of the character.

There's no particular framework or structure which shapes pieces of equipment in Pando. Some equipment will need to be worn or wielded. Some will provide you with actions that you can take and the outcomes for those actions, while others might provide static, ever-present effects. Some may require attribute or skill levels to use. We'll cover some of the more frequently occuring patterns here, but there's no limit to how a piece of equipment may be represented or how if affects your character. But first, let's cover some basic elements that equipment might have:

Wielded equipment needs to be actively held and engaged by a character. Such equipment will specify if it requires one or two arms to wield. An arm can only wield one item at a time.

Wearable equipment can be worn on your body. Each piece of wearable equipment will specify one or more body parts on which it is worn, and one or more apparel slots it occupies. Most equipment can only be worn on one body part, such as a helmet on the head, a bracer on the arm, etc. Some equipment, though, may be worn on multiple body parts, such as a hauberk, a single piece of armor that covers the head, torso, arms, and legs all at once. Each body part can only have one wearable item of a given apparel slot. So, for example, a character's right arm can only wear one bracer. If already wearing one, the character cannot use another wearable equipment that would cover its right arm and also has the 'bracer' apparent slot. This would also prevent the character from dressing in the hauberk described above.

Range specifies the distance in which the equipment has an effect. For example, daggers might only have a range of 1, while a compound bow has a range of several hundred yards. A radio communicator can have a range of several miles. If an equipment piece doesn't have a listed range, then it is not able to be used at a distance.

Actionable equipment will provide you with actions you can take with that piece of equipment, as well as the results of the action (whether a direct effect or a roll with outcomes).

Protection equipment will provide some means of protection, reducing the effectiveness of harm, exhaustion, or other afflictions. Each instance of Protection wil list what it protects against and the value by which it reduces that effect. Armor, for example, will reduce the harm that body part takes. A coat may reduce any Exhaustion (Cold) affecting the character. Some effect will specify bypassing protection, meaning that for that effect, the protection is reduced by the given number.

Encumbering equipment, such as heavy or cumbersome items, reduce a character's max stamina. Each encumbering piece of equipment will have an encumberance value. A character wearing or wielding the piece of equipment loses max stamina equal to that value.

A new Pando character starts with no skills, equipment, and with a value of 1 in each of its attributes. The GM of the game will then let you know what your starting resources will be. Starting resources come in the form of Character Points, Equipment, and currency. How many of each will vary from game to game. Games starring relatively inexperienced characters may provide you with few Character Points, while games where your character should feel like a superhero will give you significantly more. Games may start you off with an equipment template, allowing you to pick from specific sets of items, or even no equipment at all. If a game provies you with starting currency, they my allow you to purchase items for your character before starting the game proper. Or they might instead require you to spend your currency during the play sessions. Each game of Pando will run according to its own needs.

We've covered a lot of detail on what constitutes a character, taking actions etcetera, but it's time to address how all of this fits together into a play session. Play can take the form of Free Play or Action Rounds. Free Play offers a very rules-minimal experience intended to let players go about and act freely, whereas Action Rounds is a mechanic-heavy tool to use when many things are happening quickly or at once, and we want to make sure that all participants (both player characters and non-player characters) have their chance to act.

Free Play is a fairly straightforward experience. In this mode, there aren't any rules or expectations that govern who can do what and when--if something is to happen, it happens. If a player wants their character to take an action, all they have to do is announce the intent and the GM will see it through. Similarly, the GM is free to have NPCs take actions, or describe other circumstances or events taking place.

Free Play is great for general play, when the characters are out and about in town, shopping, relaxing at a camp, or partaking in other fairly low-stakes, low-adrenaline scenarios. It can also be useful for social interactions, as it allows people to talk and interact in an organic way, rather than having to wait for their turn, or be limited in what they can do. Despite this, the GM may still enforce some occasional structure, such as asking players to wait on their actions until the GM has had a chance to finish an interaction between one PC and an NPC, or some similiar cirucmstance.

If any any point during free play a lot of things start to happen at once, such as multiple people reacting to an event, or a character beginning a combat scenario, the GM may decide to start using Action Rounds.

With Action Rounds, Pando provides a means for play in which characters can act in turns, with each having the opportunity to take actions. Most actions can only be taken on a character's turn, but some can be taken outside of a character's turn if the action has a trigger and the trigger is invoked. How many actions a character can take is limited through its Speed stat, which is calculated through various mechanisms, and incoporates many of the other stats covered earlier in this guide.

We'll take a quick dive into the various mechanics at play in Action Rounds, and then take a deeper look into each of those mechanics.

Turn order during an action round is determined through Momentum. When starting an Action Round sequence, each character's Momentum is determined, and turn order proceeds from the character with the highest momentum going first to the character with the lowest momentum going last. A character's momentum may change throughout an action sequence, changing the turn order.

At the start of each round, a character is given a certain amount of Speed it can use to take actions. Taking an action costs 1 speed, meaning the character's speed is decreased by 1 on taking that action. The speed cost of an action goes up if it was previously used in the current action round, costing 1 more speed for each previous use of that action. A character cannot take an action if they do not have sufficient speed for it, so a character cannot take a 3-speed action if they only have 2 unused speed.

The amount of speed a character gets at the start of a round is limited by both their attributes and their stamina. As Stamina goes down from exhaustion effects, it becomes a limit on how much speed that character has to act. A character can use the Catch Breath action to restore some Stamina if necessary.

When entering action rounds, we determine each character's initial Momentum value and use those values to generate a turn order. A character's initial Momentum is equal to their Acrobatics value plus their Presence value. Sometimes, when a multitude of NPCs are included in Action Rounds, the GM may opt to have them all use a single Momentum value in order to simplify things. In this case, they use the average of their individual initial Momentum values.

Various game effects can alter a character's momentum, increasing or decreasing it. These changes only affect their momentum for this sequence of Action Rounds. Future sequences would generate new Momentum values for the character, unaffected by these modifications.

Turn order goes from the character with the highest momentum to the character with the lowest momentum. If two or more characters are tied for Momentum, the tie is broken first in favor of the character with the highest Acrobatics value, and if still tied, then in favor of the character with the highest Presence value. If characters are still tied, each character's player rolls a d6 with the higher roll going first, and repeating until there are no ties remaining.

Turn order is determined at the start of a round, so changes to momentum won't be reflected until the next round of actions.

Unlike free play, where characters can take actions without limitation, a character is limited in how many actions it can use during an action round. This is determined by the character's Speed, and influnced by the character's Acrobatics, Endurance, and Exhaustion. Speed acts as a sort of currency a character has each round to spend on actions. Each round you get a set amount of speed, and you can spend that speed to use actions.

The speed cost of an action depends on how many times you've previously used that action in the round. The cost for an action is 1 speed plus 1 more speed for each time you've used that action this round. So the first time you take a given action in a round, that action costs 1 speed. The second time you use it, it costs 2 speed. The third time 3 speed. Etcetera. So trying to use the same action over and over again (such as, say, only making attacks with your equipped saber) allows fewer total actions than using multiple different actions.

An action will also have its speed cost increased by 1 if the action utilizes a wounded body part. The body part must be a significant part of taking that action in order to have this effect. For example, attacking with a saber held in a wounded arm will cost an additional speed, since the arm is very meaningful to the attack. However, if it was only the character's legs that are wounded, the penalty wouldn't apply. While footwork can be considered part of making an effective strike, it's not quite significant enough where the wound will affect a slash with a saber.

Characters regain speed at the start of each round. The amount of speed they gain depends on two things: Their Max Speed, and their Current Stamina.

A character's Max Speed represents their natural limit for acting fast. It's how much the character can get done in a round of actions given the character is fully rested and healthy. Its value is based on the character's Acrobatics attribute, equaling to 3 plus the character's Acrobatics. So a character with 1 Acrobatics would have a Max Speed of 4. A character with 3 Acrobatics would have a Max Speed of 6.

A character's Current Stamina represents their current energy level. A rested character has all their energy and can use their speed to its fullest potential. But as a character gains exhaustion throughout an action sequence, they are able to utilize their speed less and less. Characters have a Max Stamina value, which is equal to 10 plus the character's Endurance, and a Current Stamina value, which is set to the Max Stamina at the start of an action round sequence.

At the start of each round, each character loses Current Stamina equal to their total Exhaustion minus their Endurance value. This stamina loss happens before speed is regained. Exhaustion can come from many sources, such as getting cut by sharp weapons, suffering from poisons, or dealing with overbearing coldness.

When a character regains speed, its speed is set to the lesser of its Max Speed and its Current Stamina. So if a character has a max speed of 7 and a Current Stamina of 9, their speed will be set to 7. But if their Current Stamina was 4, their speed would be set to 4, even if their Max Speed is 7.