Rules

Dice

When handling challenges which concern your skills you roll dice to determine the outcomes.
The roll consists of an amount of d10 dice based on relevant skills, edges and advantages.
Each die that is 6 or above is a success.
Each task has a number called the challenge and a player is successful if they roll successes equal to or greater than that number.
There are degrees of success, so getting more successes than the challenge may lead to additional benefits. Getting just below the required amount may lead to a partial success where you get some benefit but not all.

Skills, edges and advantage

Tasks which require a roll are handled with one of a player characters skills. These skills represent what the character is good at. Each dot in a skill grants one die to the roll.

Each character starts the game with three edges which are words which describe them and how they approach problems.
Whenever you use a skill to handle a task you may use an edge to describe how you approach the challenge. Using an edge grants one die to the roll. If the edge is particularly appropriate it may grant a second die as well.

If you have a tool, assistance or beneficial circumstances this counts as an advantage which grants an additional die.
In the case of multiple instances of tools, assistance or circumstances you can get up to two dice of advantage.
You can always get an advantage if you accept an additional bane on the roll.

This brings the theoretical maximum amount of dice for a skill roll to 9.

Estimating Challenge

A character can estimate the challenge number of any roll, this is to represent that the characters know more of the situation and their own capabilities than the players do.
The character does not always estimate a challenge correctly, the GM may when giving an estimate say that the character is uncertain, indicating that it may not be the true number.

Special dice

Each character has a type of special die associated with them.
Vampires have Hunger dice.
Sorcerers have Fracture dice.
These special dice are added to your character when they use supernatural abilities.
Special dice replace normal dice in all skill rolls and trigger special effects on boons and banes.

Boons and Banes

On normal rolls each 10 you roll adds a boon and each 1 you roll adds a bane.
On special dice both 1s and 10s adds banes.
Boons and banes cancel each other out.
If you end the roll with boons then something good happens in addition to the outcome proportional to the number of boons.
If you end the roll with banes then something bad happens in addition to the outcome.
If any special dice were among the boons and banes then the outcome is tainted by the type of special die.

Night roll

Some challenge is handled with a Night roll rather than a normal skill roll. To do a Night roll you roll dice equal to your dots in a discipline + your hunger dice or an alignment + your fracture.
Sorcerers use night rolls when delving and Vampires use night rolls during frenzy.

Opposed rolls

If two player characters are for some reason opposing each other they each roll an appropriate pool for their actions. The character with the most successes wins. If there is a draw the characters roll again or agree to the status quo.

Characters

Edges

Edges are descriptors for your character which indicate how they approach and solve problems. Each player character has three edges and they decide themselves which one they use for every roll.
There are a number of proposed edges that one could pick from but players are also allowed to pick their own word to use as an edge.

Mental
Planning
Quick-witted
Wise
Methodical
Vigilant

Physical
Savage
Precise
Stalwart
Silent
Instinctive

Social
Charming
Manipulative
Confident
Cryptic
Observant

Skills

Skills represent the experience and ability a character has to handle different relevant tasks in the world.

Mental
Craft - Build and repair objects.
Investigation - Find and piece together evidence and secrets.
Law - Interact with and understand the word and machines of the law.
Medicine - Treat wounds and diseases and knowledge about anatomy.
Occult - Know and interact with Night and the Midnight society
Technology - Interact with complex machines and devices.

Physical
Athletics - Handle physical exertion with endurance or grace.
Larceny - Sleight of hand, stealing and lockpicking.
Melee - Attack and defend up close and personal.
Ranged - Shoot guns, throw rocks and handle things that require aim.
Perception - Perceive the world through your senses and predict danger.
Stealth - Blend in with crowds, move undetected through shadows or avoid pursuers.

Social
Charm - Get people to like you, and be accepted by groups and crowds.
Command - Get attention, lead or demand action.
Insight - Read people to figure out their feelings and motivations.
Persuasion - Formulate and present arguments to convince and compromise.
Provoke - Get under peoples skin, sway or get a rise out of people.
Subterfuge - Lie, deceive or keep secrets.

Background skills

Background skills represent things that a character may be good at which are not included in the 18 skills which they can have dots in.
Background skills represent things that may be relevant to the character but are not expected to come up that often in the game. If a character has a background skill and a challenge comes up they succeed automatically.
Players may design their own background skills.

Academics
Religion
History
Philosophy
Politics
Finance
Language

Science
Physics
Chemistry
Math
Biology
Psychology
Economics

Art
Song
Painting
Instrument
Acting
Dancing
Writing

Professions
Cooking
Administration
Heavy machinery
Driving
Sewing
Engineering

Hobbies
Animal handling
Nature
Sailing
Survival
Gardening
Games

Combat and Risk

Combat in New Trago 2 revolves around evaluating and taking risks.
In every combat encounter the players have the potential to win in a single round but doing so might be much more dangerous than whittling the opponents down.

Whenever a player attacks or is attacked by someone they make a normal challenge roll with risk. The risk is a number which indicates the level of wound they will take. If the challenge succeeds then the margin of success serves to reduce the level of wound they take.

In combat the players are encouraged to suggest many courses of action and they can estimate the Challenge and Risk of each, so that the players get a sense of what is feasible.
The challenge of any combat may be wildly different depending on if the players try kill their opponents away or if they try to run away.

Modifiers

Challenge modifiers

• Level of arms - Having weapons of a higher level than an opponent reduces challenge
• Outnumbered - Outnumbering an opponent reduces challenge and being outnumbered increases it
• Ambush - Ambushing an opponent reduces challenge and being ambushed increases it
• Melee/Ranged - Using melee weapons when at range increases the challenge and using ranged weapons in melee increases the challenge

Weapons are simplified to 5 different tiers:
1: Fists, Rocks
2: Gun, Knife
3: Assault rifle, Shotgun, Sword
4: Mounted weapons, Explosive weapons
5: Vehicle weapons

Risk modifiers

• Armor - Having armor reduces risk by 1, mundane armor is noticeable
• Ambush - When ambushing an opponent the risk is reduced by 1
• Disciplines and Alignments - Some supernatural powers are capable of reducing risks

Wounds

Taking damage and getting hurt is represented through wounds. Wounds are represented in 7 tiers of severity. When taking a wound of a tier you already have it is upgraded to the closest available tier above it.

Wound tiers
1: Scrapes: Scrapes and bruises
2: Minor: Ripped skin, some bleeding
3: Medium: Bleeding, Sprained limb, Burns, Concussion
4: Major: Broken limb, Open wound, Serious burns
5: Aggravated: Missing limbs, Exposed internals, Extreme burns, may have lasting consequences
6: Incapacitation: Lost consciousness or entered torpor
7: Death: Decapitation, Bullet through the brain, Heart ripped out

Healing

Healing may involve hospital visits for humans or extensive feeding for vampires.
- Characters heal scrapes and minor wounds with a nights rest or through feeding.
- Medium and Major wounds are healed by a proper downtime.
- Aggravated wounds get downgraded after a proper downtime. Aggravated wounds are generally associated with permanent effects and if such is not handled in the recovery period they may never be solved.
- Incapacitation can be downgraded into another wound with rest and medical attention.
- Death… I don't know what to tell you…

Aggravated wounds are dangerous and hard to handle. When you would take an aggravated wound you may upgrade it to Incapacitation to potentially avoid long term consequences.

Other stats

Willpower

Willpower represents a character's mental stability and determination. Each player character has a maximum of 5 willpower.
Willpower can be spent to:

• Add a success to any challenge after the dice have been rolled, you may ask the GM if willpower will have any impact before you spend it.
• Gain +1 to resistance for a minute
• Downgrade a wound when it is received

Humans recover 1 willpower by resting.
Vampires recover 1 willpower by feeding.
All willpower is restored during a proper downtime.

Resistance

Resistance is a property which lets things withstand supernatural influence.
For sorcery each point of resistance reduces the potency of the spell by 1.
For disciplines each point of resistance negates two upgrades or one upgrade which costs a hunger.

Charms

One can also increase their resistance towards a specific discipline or alignment by carrying the charm against that source. Not all charms are known.
Charms can be fickle and it can be inconsistent with how long they work, they only tend to work as long as you just carry one.

Majesty - Garlic
Dominate - Holy symbol
Obfuscate - Broken mirror
Nightmare - Toys
Protean - Silver
Weave - Light
Foresight - ?

Seeker - Removing all colour from oneself
Sphere - Cats
Master - Rebellious symbols
Network - ?
Forge - Rust
Limbs - ?
Pandemonium - Wings
Tailor - ?
Sanctuary - Blasphemy
Crone - Salt

Resources

Resources represent a character's background and what they have access to. If a character possesses a resource it means that they notably stand out within the area in a way that can have an impact on the story. If a character doesn’t have the Allies resource it does not mean that they are without friends.

Potential Resources
Wealth - You have access to more money than what is common
Faction membership - You are part of a faction
Allies - You have many or capable friends who will help you without many questions
Fame - You are known within a field or context and people will find you notable
Occult resources - You have access to notable amounts of Lyre and occult materials
Artifact - You possess an item with supernatural properties
Know a secret - You know of a place or ritual with occult significance
Strong willed - Your sense of self is particularly strong, gain +1 resistance

Progression

Each character earns a beat at the end of every session.
Additionally at the end of every session the players vote on a player to earn an experience.
The GM can award beats and experience when appropriate.

Beats can be spent on personal story and experience can be spent on training and acquisition. Those in turn awards progression.

Personal story

Personal story is the only side story intended for the game and is the way a character advances.
The personal story has an arc of three hardships followed by a resolution. Hardships can take many forms but should in general progress and escalate the drama.
An arc can have additional hardships but keep in mind to not drag it out.
A personal story can involve the other characters but generally don't.

Some example premises for a personal story

• Addiction, resist something which is bad for you
• Drama, have a falling out with people you care about
• Enemy, Someone are opposed to you and makes your life difficult
• Growth, One of your core values get challenged
• Investigation, come onto the path of a mystery which you must solve
• Revenge, someone have hurt you and you want to hurt them back
• Romance, fall in love with someone and find out where it leads
• Task, have a mission which you attempt to complete
• Team, find that you and people around you don't work well together and try to change that

Training - 3 Experience
The character spends time training a skill in some new way which gives results.
Upgrade a skill one level
Upgrade a knowledge skill one level

Acquisition - 5 Experience
The character spends time building, exploring or making contacts.
Gain a resource

Hardship - 5 beats
The character faces a foe or obstacle which causes conflict in their lives.
Gain one level of a discipline or alignment

Resolution - 6 beats
After a character has gained three hardships which are connected they can find a way to reach resolution.

• Gain a new Alignment or Discipline
• Upgrade an Alignment or Discipline to rank 7
• Gain a delve effect or upgrade for an Alignment or Discipline which is not otherwise available
• Gain an attainment (A permanent magical effect)