Introduction

The ever-constant rain lightly taps against the window of a dimly-lit studio in some back corner of the city. Against the far wall, a figure sits hunched over a heap of twisted metal. Sparks fly from a welding torch they hold, the room illuminating as though the storm’s lightning is striking within its walls. Maybe it is. A knock at the door startles the subject of our attention, who halts for a moment before resuming their work.

"U.I.U., open up!”, a voice cuts from the other side of the door.

The figure stiffens, their tools falling to the table. In a flash, they are tearing their welding mask away, revealing a scarred and semi-robotic face twisted in a deep scowl. Grabbing a backpack from a nearby bed, they race for the back door. There’s one group no Anartist wants to deal with, and they’re currently banging at the door.

Warped World is a standalone tabletop RPG which takes place in the warped, darkly magical world(s) of the SCP body of fiction. This ruleset is designed to be fairly flexible in order to be able to support games in a myriad of different possible settings the SCP 'multiverse' can provide, whether the desire is to run a dungeon-crawl campaign following a Foundation mobile task force, to an Anartist gang causing chaos for the U.I.U. and so much more.

This book is provided for free, forever, online at warpedworldrpg.com. The source for this book is open to collaboration and can be found at github.com/lcyvin/warped-world-rpg. Guidelines for contribution may be reviewed in the contributing section of this book.

This book is a non-commercial passion project started by Lucy Vin, who can be found at lucyvin.com.

Content Warning

This book contains themes relating to distortion of reality, general horror, and mental manipulation. Additionally, this book contains occasional use of strong language.

Attribution

Content relating to the SCP Foundation, including the SCP Foundation logo, is licensed under Creative Commons Sharealike 3.0 and all concepts originate from www.scp-wiki.wikidot.com and its authors. Warped World, being derived from this content, is hereby also released under Creative Commons Sharealike 3.0.

A full copy of the CC-BY-SA 3.0 license can be viewed at github.com/lcyvin/warped-world-rpg/blob/main/LICENSE.

Before You Play

Before you can begin a game of Warped World, you will need a few items on-hand (or virtually) to facilitate basic game functions. Additionally, due to the nature of the kind of content possible within an SCP-derived setting, this chapter also provides some guidance on player safety and comfort.

A note on the SCP setting and Roleplaying Games

The SCP universe is inherently without a concrete canon. It assumes that all multiverses are equally correct, simply reflecting different realities. This book uses a version of Three Portlands, and a version of the Broken Mask timeline for its campaign starter setting. This is a roleplaying game that is centered on collaborative storytelling and emergent narratives. Nothing in this book is set in stone, and you are able and encouraged to modify the setting, events, and rules of the world and game to fit your story best.

Stuff You'll Need

Aside from a group of willing players, you will need:

• Dice (at minimum, one full d4-d20 set).
• Pens and paper for note taking
• Character Sheets (TODO)
• This book! Pull it up on your phone, tablet, or laptop. (printable pocket edition will come eventually)

Most of the Warped World RPG is largely narrative-driven, and it is entirely possible to modify the rulesets defined within this book to negate the need for dice, if your player group so desires! See Addendum: Diceless for more.

Player Safety

The SCP universe can be host to horror, whimsy, and fantasy. You are free to explore these elements individually or altogether, but you should keep in mind your players’ comfort when dealing with certain sensitive content. Some SCPs may need to be off-limits, or otherwise certain abilities modified to better suit player comfort. At the start of your session zero, begin by talking with your players about what sort of content and tone they feel comfortable with, and what is off limits.

If a player tells you something is off-limits, it is off limits. You are not entitled to a reason. Make a note of what they told you, and move on.

Tabletop Roleplaying Games should be a safe, fun, and positive experience for everyone. With a little bit of work up-front, and an awareness towards the sensitivities of the others at the table, it can be. In addition to a session-zero comfort check, it is encouraged that you make use of the X-Card system or the Support Flower System in order to provide clear boundaries during play and ensure everyone has a fun and fruitful time.

Responsible Roleplaying

Tabletop Roleplaying Games allow you to play mystical beasts, shapeshifting thieves, and every day humans from a myriad of backgrounds. With this freedom comes some responsibility. If you as a player choose to play a character whose background does not match your own, be mindful of the kind of marginalization people who come from those backgrounds face, and consider how your roleplay of that character may impact those at the table who might experience elements of that marginalization. Caricature and stereotype of a background you are not a part of can often be alienating and hostile. You may as a group decide that certain backgrounds are off-limits to players who haven’t experienced them, be that disability, gender identity, or race.

Basic Terminology

Tabletop games can be overwhelming with the amount of terminology thrown at new players, and adding a setting like SCP on top of that is a recipe for information overload. This section will discuss some common roleplaying game terms, used in this book. For SCP-specific terminology as referenced by this book, see the glossary.

GM - Game Mediator

This is the person who is running the tabletop game, managing all the behind-the-scenes processes from narrating the world and its non-player characters (NPCs), to mediating in-game actions and conflicts. Traditionally, the term "Game Master" has been used for this abbreviation, however in favor of language more in-line with the collaborative nature of tabletop roleplaying, Warped World uses "Game Mediator". You may also see other games refer to this as a Warden, Arbiter, Dungeon Master, Dungeon Keeper, or Narrator, among others.

NPC - Non-Player Character

An NPC is any character extant within the narrative which is not directly controlled by a player themselves by default. That is, even if a character within the narrative is controlled for a time by a player through one means or another (E.G., mind control, possession, etc.), that state of player control is non-permanent, and the character continues to exist in some form beyond the player's actions.

See also: Player Character

Player Character

Unlike an NPC, a Player Character, or PC is any character within the narrative which is directly and by default controlled by a given player.

Using This Book

Warped World provides the tools necessary to run a roleplaying campaign in an SCP universe setting. The resources provided within should be enough for you to play your very own SCP adventure, but you are also welcome to extend and modify what you see here. As with the universe itself, nothing is set in stone. If you wish to run this game as a playtest, please consider providing feedback via the author’s email, author@warpedworldrpg.com, or submit an issue, pull request, or RFC to the game's source repository on github.

Preparing Your Game

Roleplaying games involve a lot of improvisation and collaboration, but proper preparation will make this experience much more enjoyable, especially for new GMs and players. Whether a storyline is already planned out or you are plannign to build one from your player's desired experience, a session 0 is a key element of preparation. Before your actual game begins, gather your players and discuss some or all of the following:

• What setting do we want to play in? What is the time period?
• What tone do we want to set for this game?
• What important things are happening or have recently happened in our setting?
• What do we hope to see in this game?
• What subjects or topics relevant to the setting or theme should be off-limits or handled with caution? (EG body horror, mental trauma, etc.) [see: Player Safety]
• Who is everyone playing?
• What has brought your specific group of characters together for this adventure?

You may omit some or many of these, but at the very least you should discuss player safety, the player characters who will be participating in the story, and any setting background or information necessary if you’ve already prepared something, in order to bring everyone on the same level.

The list above is a high-level overview of topics to discuss. What follows is a more in-depth guide to discussing these topics in a constructive and useful way, to aid inexperienced players and GMs.

Setting and Time Period

You and your players may have different desires when it comes to the setting and time period of your game. It is important to align everyone's expectations and understanding of the narrative setting ahead of time in order to allow for an easier transition into roleplaying. The SCP body of fiction supports all sorts of settings, from cyberpunk techno-magical neon cities to foreboding ancient castles harboring demonic forces. As an example, the campaign starter from this book is based in a roughly modern-day time period in the "Three Portlands" pocket-dimension.

What Tone Should the Game Have?

The SCP multiverse contains tones and themes ranging the gamut from dark and disturbing to fun and whimsical. We all have our own preferences for a game or piece of fiction's general tone, but some folks may also have hard restrictions on not wanting to play within certain themes, such as grotesque gore. Take a moment to discuss with everyone who will be participating in the game to ensure that your game's tone is as safe, fun, and engaging as it can be!

Important Events and Recent History

In order to help bring the world you all will build to life, establishing a set of important events or notable elements wihin that world is important. Things like broken-masquerade events [glossary], recent anomalous sightings, and even political shake-ups can all serve to add dynamism and flavor to the narrative you will bring to life, and allow the players and GM space to improvise when things inevitably go off the rails.

Desired Plot Points, Characters, Groups, and Events

While discussing the game plans during a session zero, it can be helpful to spend a little bit of time getting to know what each player would like to experience out of the game. Note that this doesn't necessarily mean asking the players for exact plot events, catering your collaborative narrative to incorporate elements that entice players helps to ensure everyone stays engaged and interested. For instance, a player might desire to explore what an interaction between the U.I.U. [glossary] and a group of paratechnology hackers would look like. These desired elements can help the GM flesh out the planned story and its various branches and subplots.

Off-Limits Topics and Themes

As discussed in player safety, it is important to discuss with everyone who will be a part of your game what topics and themes should be left out of the game, or handled with care. Later in this chapter there will be an example "session-zero" which will depict what this can look like. Remember to be considerate and empathetic whilst having these discussions. Everyone has their own sensitivities and limits, and being mindful of that can help to ensure a fun and trouble-free game!

Discuss Your Characters or Character Plans

Session zeros can look different from group to group, and players may be just as likely to come to the table with already prepared characters and backstories as they are to show up without even the vaguest hint of the character they want to create. Either of these possibilities can be fine, depending on how the group and GM like to operate. If you wish for everyone to show up to the table with fully ready-to-play characters, make sure to communicate that! However, it can be very helpful to come up with the more concrete character elements together as the group discusses the general 'shape' of the game and the world, especially as relates to how the various player characters know each other and what brings them all into the same mission.

What Brings the Group Together?

This goes hand-in-hand with discussing your characters, but discussing how the party has formed within the context of the narrative will help to facilitate a smooth transition into the game's world and story. This might be as simple as all the characters being assigned to the same task force, to a complicated web of interpersonal relationships and motives. Discussing this ahead of time will give players a chance not only to flesh out their own characters and their backstories, but also provide room for players to veto anything they might feel uncomfortable with (for example, someone may suggest that two characters dated in the past, while the other player does not feel comfortable with this).

Example Session Zero

Markus, Kai, Janus, Olive, and Omar have gathered for a session zero. Markus, the GM, begins the session by welcoming his players and making sure everyone understands what will be covered in the session.

Markus: Welcome everyone, let's get the ball rolling on this zero session. We're gonna be going over what we do and don't want to see in the game, what the world looks like, and who we're planning to play. To start with, let's figure out what kind of tone we want to go for. I was hoping for something a little bit lighthearted.

Omar: I'm good with a lighthearted tone, but I would like to see a little bit of horror, as long as it's not too egregious.

Janus: I agree with Omar. Lighthearted sounds good, but I don't want to play something that's a complete farce. I'd like to strike a good balance.

Kai: I personally like a sillier game, but I'm okay with some horror as long as it's not gorey.

Olive: I'm really not a huge fan of horror, but maybe some suspense or moral grey zone bad guys?

Markus: Okay, so maybe we should avoid any heavy horror. Olive, are you fine with something like ghouls or zombie type things in the right contexts?

Olive: I can do that, but I'd rather not see any gratuitous gore and violence.

Markus: Great! I think that works. Now that we have that figured out, what sort of setting do we want to play?

Olive: I like the freeports, can we spend time in Three Portlands or Eurtec?

Omar: That sounds fun! I really like the U.I.U., so freeports can totally work.

Janus: I like the foundation, but I'd rather not spend a whole game inside a foundation site so that works for me.

Kai: As long as I get to see some cool anomalies I'm okay with it!

Markus: Great, that makes things easy. Let's do Three Portlands, site 64 is technically nearby. Are we playing in a specific timeline?

Kai: We could do a broken veil timeline?

Olive: I dunno, I kinda like having to deal with normalcy organizations a bit. I think being in a freeport lets us have some of the freedom of a broken veil timeline without completely nixing the possibility of having to operate stealthily in the "real world"

Markus: Okay, so normalcy exists and the foundation and others are enforcing it in the non-anomalous world. Is this taking place in the modern day?

Omar: Can we do mid-nineties? I really like Anderson Robotics.

Janus: Oh yeah! I love that, let's do nineties.

Olive: Works for me!

Markus: Great, done. Now let's talk about safety. Are there any topics we should avoid?

Omar: I'd rather not see any transphobic characters or anything like that. Let's leave anything bigotry related out.

Janus: I agree. I'd also like to avoid any sort of implied abuse of characters in the game.

Kai: I will message you with a hard boundary, I don't really want to tlak about it out loud.

Markus: Great, thanks for that! Who is everyone playing?

Omar: I'm playing Frank Indell, he's a former foundation researcher turned Marhsall, Carter, and Dark sales executive. He has a proficiency with paratechnology, so it makes sense for him to be in Three Portlands.

Janus: I'm playing Z. That's their whole name. They're an anartist who works in kinetic sculpture. They've got proficiency with metalworking and fabrication, and went to Deer college.

Kai: I'm playing Addison Langley. She's a self-employed thamatology researcher who's focussed on medical workings, so she has a proficiency with medical and para-medical knowledge.

Olive: I'm playing Jason Jackson. He's a reality bender working as a Public Relations Specialist for Anderson Robotics, and he moonlights as a Serpent's Hand agent. His whole thing is social manipulation, so he has proficiencies with anomalously aided speech and deception.

Markus: I love it. Do they know each other? What brought everyone together?

Janus: I think Z would know Frank, they probably sell works to him.

Omar: I like that! Z and Frank definitely know each other. Frank probably also knows Addison, since he could work with her to sell anomalous medicine.

Kai: I don't think addison would do actual manufacturing for MC&D, but she might provide her research publicly, and maybe Frank keeps a close eye on her work?

Omar: Yeah, that works! Great, that's three of us.

Kai: I think Addison would also know Jason, since Anderson Robotics makes a lot of paratech prosthetics and stuff like that.

Olive: Definitely, the work Addison does is great PR. I can dig that. So we're not a tight knit group, but we all know eachother through one degree of separation or so.

Markus: That's great, I can work with that. I think that's everything I need for now. Reach out to me if you think of anything else, and we can talk about it as a group if need be. Otherwise, I'll see you all again for session one!

In this example, the group has come up with the full setting, time period, and tone of the narrative from scratch. However, some GMs may already have ideas in mind for the kind of narrative they want to build, and that's okay too! In that sort of case, a session zero is more focussed on making sure everyone is on the same page about what the game will be like, and gives a chance for the players to express their boundaries and desires for the game. As was stated in Preparing your Game, not every element of the list of session zero topics needs to be covered! Every group of players and campaign is unique, and should be handled as is most fitting for the situation. However, GMs should always make space to discuss player safety and boundaries.

Creating Player Characters

A roleplaying game typically needs player characters, and Warped World is no exception. Character creation is an opportunity to give life to the character concepts players hold in their heads. The creation process follows a few simple steps:

1. Pick a character background
2. Decide proficiencies
3. Assign stat dice
4. Create character info and backstory

That’s all there is to it! Don’t worry though, we will go into more detail in a moment. But first, a note: Warped World is designed to be fairly flexible and loose with its character creation in order to allow for a lot of wiggle-room with your character’s backstory and how they are played. Warped World’s core motive is to trust the player and GM to collaboratively navigate the narrative that is being created, and allows for a high degree of freedom with regard to the mechanics that control character creation and interaction.

Pick a Character Background

Field agent? Thaumatologist? Researcher? There are a handful of pre-made character backgrounds available in Warped World, and if none of them suit your fancy, you can even create you own. A character's background describes the archetypal role they fill within the narrative, but is not necessarily related to their actual current job, motive, or desires. Backgrounds provide pre-set options for proficiencies and modifiers to allow for quicker character creation. In Warped World, there are 5 backgrounds already created for you to use, they are:

• Researcher: A scientist, academic, or other knowledge-focussed background that emphasizes leveraging learned knowledge and discovering new information about the world.
• Field Agent: A person of action rather than research, field agent is an action-oriented background.
• Thaumatologist: A magician, by another name. A background focussed on the use of the anomalous.
• Reality Bender: Able to twist the world around them, reality bender backgrounds focus on manipulation of bothe people and the world.
• Anartist: Traditional art can be boring; art that causes a fire storm is anything but. The anartist background focuses on the creation of anomalous objects.

Decide Proficiencies

Once you have a background picked out, you will be able to select 2 proficiencies from the listed options. A proficiency is a particular special strength the character has as a result of their background, and gives a mechanical bonus of an added D4 on rolls that relate to that proficiency. We will go into more detail on how proficiencies work later, but for now keep in mind that the description for a given proficiency isn't a hard boundary on what it does and doesn't relate to. Consider it more of an example. Each background also has a selected modifier, representing a particular stat which gets a +2 on all rolls involving that stat.

Assign Stat Dice

Warped world uses a stat dice system. When building your character, you will assign one of each of the following dice to each stat, representing your character's relative strength in that area. Don't worry, a low stat dice doesn't mean implicit failure. Exploding dice allows for exciting and unexpected success on even the weakest of a character's stats.

Character Information and Backstory

Now's the time to flesh out your character! Give them a name, describe what they look like and give them some backstory so the other players and the GM can learn a bit about who they are as a person. Consider how their backstory might influence their behavior through the game. Warped World relies heavily on collaborative narrative creation, and your character's backstory will help shape that narrative and their experience through it. You may consider adding some of your character's personal weaknesses and motivations in the "Notes" section of the player sheet. This does not have a strict mechanical effect, but can serve as a reference point for play through the game's events.

Alternate Setup Options

The stat dice system described above works well for short to medium length campaigns and one-shots, but depending on the kind of game you and your group wish to play, might not be as strongly suited to providing a feeling of progression and growth. Alternative stat assignment and progression systems are available, described in Errata: Alternate Starts.

Backgrounds

The following provided backgrounds represent a basic set of generalized archetypes which occur within the broad fiction of SCP. They are designed to provide a solid jumping-off point for creating a broad range of player characters, without enforcing too much specific flavor on any one archetype. If you as a player or GM desire to create more specific, focussed backgrounds for your character(s), feel free to use the provided backgrounds as a jumping-off point for designing your own.

Researcher

Dr. Davidyan grimaced and shook vis head. Maybe this case was above vis pay grade. Maybe ve should have just let the skippers have it. It had been three weeks since the U.I.U. had gotten wind of the paratech AR headsets being sold to Portlandsers, and it was quickly getting out of hand. Ve wasn’t sure what mechanism was being used to cause this, but people who used the headsets for longer than 3 hours invariably became “stuck”, intrinsically bonded to a golem roaming the streets. Without the ability to remove the headset and eat, drink, or take care of any other needs, the death toll was up to the hundreds. There was some debate over whether or not the remaining golems, seemingly still sapient and responsive, were truly the same people that had been controlling them before their original bodies had perished. Either way, something needed to be done.

So far in ver research, Dr. Davidyan had managed to determine that the headsets consistently spoke to a server somewhere on the Portlands intranet, receiving persistent patches and commands. Where the server, or servers, were located was anyone’s guess. Three Portlands’ geography is impermanent and fluid, finding the location might as well be like tossing a dart at a globe. If the servers were being hosted in a non-anchored building, ve could at least expect to see the IP block change in a few years, whenever its hosting location passed beyond the borders of the city. Unfortunately, ve didn’t have years to wait, and that also assumes that the address was operating out of a building which was not anchored.

“Ilkay? I have an update for you,” a voice called from the other end of the office. Dr. Davidyan’s assistant researcher was leaning to look past their screens over to vis desk.

“What’ve you got, Maddie?”

“Well, good news, bad news. The good news is, the IP block these headsets are talking to seems to belong to Deer college. Bad news is, Deer has no knowledge of any project like this.”

“So some student or staff is running this service under the table on their systems?”

“Something like that, but the team at Deer can’t seem to find any machines in their subnet that are actually using that address. It’s like a ghost.”

Ilkay frowned. A ghost process? That certainly adds a bit of extra complexity to the matter.

“Sounds like we need to make a trip to Deer’s nerd basement."

Researchers have a lifetime of study and knowledge of the anomalous to draw on. Experts in anomalous entities, paratechnology, paramedicine, and much more -- researchers are a vital tool in the arsenal of any group working closely with or on the anomalous. Play a researcher if you want some serious nerd cred, like the idea of playing an unhinged scientist, or you just really like writing long academic papers.

Modifier: Research

Proficiencies

Select two of the following proficiencies

History, Culture, and Religion

    You have a deep knowledge of anomalous history, from ancient anomalous objects, to whole socieites and religions, especially those founded around the anomalous

Applied Science and Medicine

    You've sat through lecture upon lecture, you've done the lab work, you have a deep scientific knowledge of the theories and ideas behind chemistry, biology, medicine, and their anomalous counterparts and companions.

Technology and Computing Systems

    It was really like any other computer science class, except, the computer was definitely at least partly sentient. You've studied technology far beyond the concepctions of the average person behind the veil.

Mechanics and Physics

    Practical sciences for a practical person, right? Your studies focussed on the hard science rather than the abstract. Your world is filled with complex equations and theorems and all of them relate to the fundamental building blocks of how the world, even the world beyond the veil, works.

Language

    You know there are entire anomalous languages? You had one class you weren't even allowed to speak out loud in, unless you wanted to summon some really, really nasty gheists. Oh, and there was the four years of foreign language class. That seemed a lot more practical at the time.

Mathematics

    Physicists like to say they're a pure science but you really can't get more pure than numbers. Especially nonexistent numbers. Foundation math class was really weird.

Field Agent

A great roar tore through the air as Hayden scrambled through the dense trees of Forest Park. Its force rattled hir frame. There was a brief silence before the sound of splintering trees and heavy stomping feet signaled the skip’s approach.

“Shit shit shit… SHIT!”

Ze dug through hir field pack for the clip of thaum-unreality ammunition ze packed just in case conventional munitions didn’t do the trick.

“Fucking thaumaturge cultists,”

The rune-scribed 5.56 ammunition was designed to take down crazed reality-benders, not 10-foot anomalous beasts that can rip trees out by their roots. Ze wasn’t even sure this thing could be affected by unreality. Who resurrects an ancient demi-demon anyways? Fucking cultists, that’s who.

Ze picked a position among the boulders and trees in the park, along a ridge below the hiking trail. Taking a moment to breathe and steady hirself, ze raised hir rifle and waited. This better fucking work.

Field agents possess intense specialised training in order to deal with all things anomalous. Whether they're tracking down anomalous creatures, items for the wandering library, or running illicit goods for one of Three Portlands' gangs, a field agent is well-equipped for a fight. Play a field agent if you want to approach fights with tactical efficiency, and prefer guns and grit to manipulation and diplomacy.

Modifier: Containment

Proficiencies

Select two of the following proficiencies

Hand to Hand Combat

    Martial arts classes were always your favorite. You can grapple, punch, kick, and sword fight with the best of 'em. The black belt definitely isn't just for show.

Acrobatics and Stealth

    Yeah brute force is nice and all, but some situations require a more agile hand. Climbing, sneaking, and leaping all come in very handy when a non-euclidean environment starts turning against you.

Firearms

    When you don't want to take something head on, you reach for a gun. That's the obvious answer. You've trained with pistols, rifles, even crew-served weapons for the really nasty stuff. God forbid you ever run into anything like that again.

Explosives

    Normal EOD teams dispose of bombs with more bombs. You do something kind of like that, but the cost of failure is a decent bit higher. From door-breaching charges to the good ol' hand grenade, you are well-versed in all things ordinance.

Anomalous Weaponry

    Fighting fire with fire makes a lot of sense, especially when that fire can generate intense gravity fields. You've trained with some pretty strange weapons, but they exist for a reason.

Intimidation and De-Escalation

    Looking big and touch and scare does a lot in the way of opening doors, or convincing other people to open 'em for you. It helps when you have the training to back up your threats. There's a flip side to the coin, though. Sometimes it's better to avoid a fight entirely, and having the skills to reduce the temperature a bit goes a long way.

Thaumatologist

“Breathe. Just breathe,” Maia reminded himself as beams of light shot from the walls of the basement into the sigil on the floor.

“Focus. Focus and breathe.”

After what felt like an eternity, a figure began to appear in the center of the sigil.

“Yes! Okay, just a little bit more…” he continued aloud, his small face contorting out of strained concentration.

The figure shifted and grew. First from a mere shadow to a formless blob, and soon to a human-like form devoid of detail. With a flash of light, the working finished and finally, after recovering from the blinding effect, Maia could see his friend standing there clear as day.

The figure, no longer a shadowy form but instead a fully corporeal human, spun to look at Maia with glee-filled eyes. “It worked! Maia, you did it! I’m so proud of you,” they called.

They took Maia into an encompassing hug, hoisting them off the ground and spinning in a circle like a parent might do to their child after a long trip away. “I knew you could do it, it was only a matter of time.”

Maia nodded as best he could, still pressed firmly into his friend’s chest. “Yeamf, I figfured out the --” he started into their shoulder. They let him down and he continued, “I figured out the issue with my portation working. The components I was using were all right, but they were out of balance.”

“That’s great, what comes next?”

“Now, we work on saving Dima.”

Thaumatologists -- wizards, by another name -- channel anomalous energy into powerful workings to aid in their various efforts. From teleportation and summoning to enchantment and hurling fireballs, thaumatologists wield absurd power gained from ancient studies. Play a thaumatologist if you want to blast you foes with unimaginable energies, or you just think wizards are fucking cool.

Modifier: Anomaly

Proficiencies

Select two of the following proficiencies

Healing and Medication Synthesis

    If you can do magic, it only makes sense that you're gonna do good with it... right? You've studied the myriad methods you can utilise your thaumatologic abilities to not only heal wounds but create medicines. Just, maybe don't ask how they work.

Transportation Workings

    Teleportation is like the most useful benefit of being able to manipulate the thaumic field. Walking a few miles is so gauche, but if you have to, you might as well do so with otherworldly speed.

Occultic History and Knowledge

    Sure thaumatology is a science, but it's a science with a pretty metal history. From occult rituals to entire societies, you've done your research and draw on a massive and storied lineage of thaumatologists of yore.

Combat Workings

    Your friends learned karate or kickboxing, you learned how to conjure fire in your hands. Basically the same thing except, you know, way hotter. Whether in service of the Foundation, Serpent's Hand, or your own personal need; you've drilled endlessly to be able to weild powerful workings on instinct in the field.

Social Workings

    Turns out being able to manipulate the backound energy field is useful for more than just conjuring campfires and warping around. Turns out, being able to create illusions and speak directly into someone's brain is pretty useful for getting out of, and sometimes into, sticky situations.

Anomalous Resistance

    Knowing all the moves makes it a lot easier to defend against them. Your experience and knowledge has given you a keen sense of when something anomalous is around, or about to show up; and how you can avoid or mitigate its effects.

Reality Bender

The door slams shut behind the well-dressed Mx. Feiris. “You’ve gotta work with me here, Chuck,” they demand of a flushed man sitting across the room. “I’m not exactly brimming with patience right now. I’ve got two U.I.U. agents breathing down my neck and an angry Spectre thug with a price on my kneecaps, so I’m gonna cut right to the chase. You’re going to tell me who’s leaking Anartist names. That’s not a request -- you WILL tell me. Have you ever heard of a type green, chuck?”

The man opens his mouth to speak, but decides against it. Furrowing his brow for a moment, he starts again “Reality bender? Big whoop. This building is protected by reality anchors. You’ve got nothing.”

Mx. Feiris smiles. “Sure, the Academy’s research building is reality anchored. But, Chuck,” they continue, “I have a question for you, how did you get here?”

The man’s face falls as he scours his memory. Confusion twists into fear as he fails to recall.

“You’re not in the Academy, Chuck.”

The walls begin to warp and contort. The pristine white of the Anomalous Research Institute disappears, replaced by the dingy basement walls of a Portlands makerspace.

“Now talk.”

Reality Benders, also known as Type Greens by the G.O.C., possess an innate ability to warp the world and minds around them. They are expert manipulators and can wield immense power. With the capability of influencing people's whims and bending the world around them to their needs, reality benders make excellent spies, special agents, and salespeople. Play a reality bender if you want to make people question everything.

Modifier: Diplomacy

Proficiencies

Select two of the following proficiencies

Physical Manipulation

    Reality is just a construct. As a result, it's pretty easy to make tweaks here and there when you need it. You understand how to make objects lighter or heavier, change gravity around you, and warp the physical appearance of objects in your vicinity.

Deception and Social Manipulation

    What's the fun of being able to manipulate reality if you can't use it for a little personal gain? After all, you can't really call something a lie if you make it real. At least not until the effect wears off.

Anomalous Resistance

    You're attuned to the nature of the reality you walk through, and can sense the effects of memetics, thaumic energy, and other anomalous aberrations in reality.

Spotting Unreality

    You know what's worse than one reality bender? Two. You really don't want to see what happens when you get a bunch of them together. You're pretty good at spotting when reality is being messed with.

Impersonation and Transformation

    It's honestly pretty easy to fool people when you can just manipulate reality until you look like a cat, or sound like their girlfriend. You've honed your skills to become a chameleon, in every sense of the word.

Reading People

    Reality isn't just the physical world. People's brains exist in that space too... and so do their thoughts and feelings. You are fantastic at intuiting people's feelings and motivations. What you do with that information is anyone's guess.

Anartist

The bright red cloth covering Aidell’s newest piece was the coup-de-grace for this whole project. Was it even actually red? That’s what the seller told her, but the memetic fibers rendered it all but invisible to her eyes, save for the barely-perceptible gold embroidery along its edges. As far as anyone could tell, there was nothing there. Perfect.

She loaded the piece into the trailer attached to her bike, securing it with some bungee cords. The effect of the covering made it look such that her trailer itself was an art piece, with bungees stiffly strained by some invisible force. Nothing weird, for Three Portlands at least. She picked her route carefully, criss-crossing down minor spokes and rims on her way to the Deer campus, careful to avoid any of the more crowded shopping districts or office blocks.

“This’ll show that snuff-sniffing bastard to fail me,” she thought as she pushed her way up the street, “smug asshole.”

As the students and professors made their way about the campus that Monday morning, Dr. Iverns was seen storming down the hallway from his office. His face was a shade of red best described as “beet”. It wasn’t until much later that they found him, sitting atop the courthouse square clocktower, shouting from the comfort of his decadently embroidered office chair about the failure of anart. It took three hours and a heavy dose of anti-memetic darts to call him down. He never did return to the campus, but faculty found a note on his desk as they cleaned out his office, “çeci ne pas une anart”.

Anartists create works that impact the viewer and the world, in very real ways. Masters of memetic and anomalous creations, the avant-garde anomalous art movement seeks to create pieces that far surpass the realms of traditional art. Some anart influences people to buy more pizza. Some cause the ground beneath it to liquify. Some have effects far too grizzly to be recorded. Play an anartist if you wish to fuck with people by making cool shit.

Modifier: Procedure

Proficiences

Select two of the following proficiencies

Metalworking and Mechanical Creations

    You like sculpture, and what's better than a sculpture made of metal that moves and talks? You are pretty damn good at making mechanical creations and understanding the mechanics of things.

Language and Literary Creations

    The pen really is mightier than the sword. At least, the cognitohazard the pen creates is. You're experienced with writing, and can manipulate language to suit your needs and communicate your ideas. You've even printed a few zines.

Memetic Creations

    The best way to get the word out is if people can't resist getting the word out. You've learned how to create memetic items, and gotten pretty good at it.

Paratechnology

    Kinetic sculpture is cool and all but have you ever seen a robot leg that walks around all on its own? You are adept at building and repairing complex anomalous technology.

Digital Art

    Computers are the future, so naturally your medium is future-proofed. You have a deep knowledge of digital art creation, methods, and equipment.

Painting and Drawing

    You like the classics, painting and drawing ar timeless. It's rare to spot you without a pencil or a brush, and you've honed your skills into your own unique style.

Playing the Game

Warped World's core gameplay is built on a collaboration between the players and the Game Mediator. As the game progresses, the player characters will come into contact with the various people, creatures, and objects of the game's world; and in order to facilitate that experience we have some rules that not only guide the process but add difficulty and suspense. The basic structure of the game is as follows:

1. The GM narrates the scene and its actors, describing and actions the non-player characters (NPCs) take, the scenery and objects in it that the players can see, hear, smell, etc.
2. The players take action within the scene, narrating what their character does to interact with the scene's elements and actors.
3. When a player interacts with an element in a way which requires some degree of skill, or is acted upon and must react or resist that action, a roll is made. This could be the player trying to search a room for an alarm system, or an enemy attempting to grapple a player character.
4. The narrative continues in this way until the session ends. See ending a session

The aim of the game is to create an emergent narrative together, with the players and GM working together towards this goal. The narrative that the players and GM craft and navigate will shift and change as the group attempts to achieve their goals, encounter challenges, and shape their world. Unlike some more traditional tabletop RPGs which have specified moves for individual actions, Warped World focuses on the narrative experience and leaves much of the roll-based decision-making to the players and GM. With the exception of combat, which will be covered in the Combat section, actions that player and non-player characters can take are largely at the discretion of the group. We will get into the specifics shortly, but as a golden rule, play occurs in such a way that what you describe a character doing is what they do, or attempt to do. Rather than asking, "can I do this?", a player should instead say, "I'm going to try to do this", or "I'm going to do this".

Rather than rote memorization of a specific list of moves and actions, players are encouraged to narrate their character's actions naturally, even in cases where that character might attempt something they've never done before. While an action a character is unfamiliar with or untrained for might be difficult, it is not impossible to attempt.

Taking Action

While a large portion of gameplay occurs within a narrative conversational context, inevitably player characters and NPCs will need to take action. In an abstract sense, determining when exactly something a character does represents the kind of action that requires additional structured gameplay mechanisms is not always clear-cut. Typically, in tabletop RPGs, the breakpoint between narrative action and gameplay action hinges on that action's capacity for failure and the weight of said failure. While in theory a game designer could create a system wherein every described action has a requisite roll to be performed, playing such a game would likely be a tedious experience — as would be designing such a game¹. Instead, we ascribe some points of delineation past which an action is considered to be no longer "simple" or "purely narrative".

Consider for a moment the experience you might have while playing through a videogame. In this hypothetical game, your player chatacter has an inventory and while going around the various environments you explore, you can pick up objects to store away for later. In normal gameplay, this is not an action you can readily fail. You simply walk up to the object, focus your camera on it until a little text display appears telling you what button to press in order to pick it up, and press the button. No pass-or-fail mechanic occurs in the background or foreground, the object is simply stowed away. Now suppose that later in the game's story, your character is required to pick up a specific important object while some circumstance of time pressure is in play — for example, grabbing a power core out of an alien spaceship's laser canon before it destroys your home planet. In this circumstance, the game might add additional capacity for failure to the interaction, perhaps in the form of repeatedly pressing the "grab" button to yank it from its socket. The addition of possible failure for what is an otherwise simple action at such a critical moment underscores the weight of failure within the greater context of the narrative. Suddenly, what was once trivial becomes life-or-death — under normal circumstances, removing a power core can take as long as a player theoretically needs. Even if their grip on the core's handle were to slip, the character could just grab back on and try again without issue. Now, however, failure spells catastrophe. This is admittedly a rather clear-cut example — most actions a player could take do not have nearly as dire a consequence of failure. Critically, however, the concept of weight of failure is highlighted here.

In Warped World, when an action is taken for which the skill required is non-trivial; the stakes of that action's outcome have clear narrative weight; or that action is performed under significant stress, we introduce additional structured mechanics to represent this weight in the form of difficulty checks by way of dice rolls. The mechanical details of dice rolls are described elsewhere; the rest of this section is intended to describe the kinds of action a player may or may not be able to take.

Specialized Actions

While players are welcome and encouraged to take actions their characters might not have a high skill capacity for, certain kinds of action require specialized knowledge to even attempt. Diagnosing a medical problem with no medical knowledge whatsoever, for instance, is a fairly futile effort in most cases. Likewise, attempting to perform thaumatology with no prior knowledge of how thaumatology works would, in all likelihood, result in nothing more than wasted time. In contrast to this, a player character with no knowledge of thaumatology might easily be able to stop a working from being performed, as the visual cues for sabotaging the action might be more clear.

Generally speaking, actions that anyone can perform or attempt are those for which the performance is relatively common knowledge or intuitive. Picking up a very heavy object is more a matter of strength and form than arcane ritual. The stakes for failure might be high — attempting to lift something far too heavy with poor form, even for a bodybuilder, can easily result in long-term injury or worse — but the action is at least intuitable.

On the other hand, actions which only certain characters can perform are generally those which require one or a combination of specialized knowledge, innate ability, or specialized equipment. Attempting to perform specialized actions without the prerequisite knowledge, skills, or abilities will typically result in little more than wasted time. However, in some cases the outcome may be far worse. For instance: it is generally a pretty bad idea to have someone with no surgical training attempt to perform surgery. The result of failure in such a circumstance is fairly clear: at best, nothing happens, but in the majority of cases the character taking the action will cause additional harm or even kill the "patient".

Dice Rolls

Over the course of the game, characters will encounter events or take actions which require a degree of skill above an absolute base level of difficulty (what we might consider "normal" difficulty, requiring no thought or practice to perform). In Warped World, there are only a handful of rolling mechanics to memorize. These are designed to be streamlined and allow for smooth, natural gameplay without breaking pace to read through manuals for complex formulas and stat blocks. When a character takes an action which requires a roll, the GM should decide the relevant stat being rolled against. For instance, if a player is attempting to pick the lock on a door, the most likely stat to be rolled would be Procedure. However, a player may argue for a specific stat to be leveraged as opposed to what might normally be expected for that action by giving specific circumstantial logic to support this alternative. This may be due to prior knowledge the player character has, or alternative tools the player character has at their disposal.

Once a stat has been agreed upon for an action's roll, the player may attempt to perform that action by actually rolling the dice. Any relevant modifiers, proficiency die, and other bonuses are then added to the final result, dictating the final outcome of the attempt, and narration can continue. Depending on the kind of action being attempted, the result of failure can vary greatly. We will discuss degrees of failure and their ramifications in a later section, but, it is worth noting that some, but not all, actions may be re-attempted without major consequence, after narration has resumed and the world as well as the rest of the players have had a moment to respond to the outcome of the first dice roll.

Exploding Dice

Stat dice are able to "explode", allowing even low-value stats to succeed otherwise impossible rolls. When a stat die is rolled, if the die lands on its highest value, it "explodes", allowing the player to roll again. There is not limit to how many times a die can explode, meaning with some incredible luck even a D4 stat can exceed a check with very high difficulty.

Proficiency Dice

When a character takes an action that is relevant to a proficiency listed on their character sheet, their roll is augmented by an additional D4. This die can not explode, but is not tied to any particular stat check and can therefore be used whenever an action is relevant, and not just when an action uses their background's selected modifier.

Modifier

When a player character takes an action that uses a stat their background has a modifier for, any and all rolls are boosted by +2. This occurs regardless of what the stat die the player assigned to the stat is. You may have a modifier on your lowest-value stat.

Help Dice

Teamwork makes everything better, and help dice are how that is manifested within Warped World. Through the course of the game, when a character performs an exceptional action, meets exceptional hardship, or learns a profound lesson, the GM may award them a help die to add to their pool. This gives the player an additional D6 to add to any roll. These can either be expended to boost their own roll, or to help another player -- provided the player attempting to give help can narrate how their character is assisting the particular action. A player can spend multiple help die in an action, but may only recieve one help die per player helping them. For example, a player can help two characters attempting to perform an action by providing support to both of them, and then spending two help die. However, a player can not spend multiple help die to assist only one character. Additionally, multiple players can spend help die on one character's action, providing additional help die to the roll. It is therefore possible for a character to receive a large boost to their chance of success through a major act of teamwork.

Group Checks

When a group of players encounters an effect, takes a group action, or otherwise is put into a scenario where the success of a single player is irrelevant, the GM may ask for a group check. This can take two forms, depending on the scenario. The group will either add all of their results together, and compare that value against the difficulty set by the GM; or the group will make individual checks against a set difficulty, and either pass or fail the check depending on what proportion of the group succeeds (E.G., half must succeed to pass the check). It is possible for events that can be handled as group checks to still be done as individual checks, or vice versa, depending on the specific circumstances of the narrative or decisions of the GM and players.

Cumulative Group Check
A cumulative group check generally occurs in moments where a group of two or more characters are involved in a circumstance where the bar for success is gated purely on the level of effort the group is capable of expending. These checks typically exceed the normal range of difficulty compared to what a single individual could be expected to accomplish. For instance, team-lifting a heavy object might have a DC of 35 set by the GM, requiring the total combined value of all involved characters' rolls to exceed that threshold.

Proportional Group Check
A proportional group check generally occurs at times when group cohesion is the main determining factor for success. In such a case, the specific performance of any one character within the group is less relevant than the broader perception of the group itself. When a proportional check occurs, all players individually attempt to pass the set difficulty, and the final result is determined by what fraction of the group succeeded. Checks of this nature are not typically set at difficulties exceeding what might be encountered during normal play except in extreme circumstances.

Contested Checks

At times when actions occur between players or characters that can be blocked, dodged, or otherwise effected or avoided, a contested check may occur. Rather than rolling against a static difficulty, each party rolls their relevant stat die, with the higher value succeeding. When a tie occurs, the success goes to the defending party. If there is no defending party, such as a strength-vs-strength competition like arm wrestling, a tie results in a repeated check or stalemate.

Check Difficulty and Results

When a roll occurs, the GM must decide a difficulty for the action. This value can be either secret or known, but will guide the final result of the roll. The following chart gives a basic outline of the difficulty values and the contexts that justify them.

Once a roll has been made against the difficulty, the outcome can be determined. On an exact match, the player has barely succeeded. If the check is not met, the player has failed to complete the action. If the player fails by more 5, there may be some consequences. Likewise, if the player succeeds by 5 or more, the action is especially successful. They may find themself with strategic advantage, gaining more than expected, or break no sweat in the process. A ±5 result additionally grants the player a help die.

In addition to helping via a help die, player characters may also assist in a task in such a manner that the relative difficulty of the check is reduced, where the narrative supports it. This is not a strictly structured mechanic and is up to the decisions of the group and game mediator. For instance, a player character who is attempting to intimidate a bouncer at a nightclub and is performing this action alone. The GM decides the difficulty for this action is above-average, and must exceed a check value of 12. However, through the course of roleplay the other characters within the group have decided that attempting to intimidate an individual whose entire job is intimidation is more likely to succeed when bringing more force to bear, and send one of the other characters to back the original up. With a force multiplier present, the difficulty for this check has reduced from a 12 down to an 8. Additionally, this check may be performed as a group check involving the two characters now interacting with the bouncer. In such a case, regardless of the success or failure, the characters involved should be awarded a help die each to reward their act of teamwork.

Advantage and Disadvantage

At times, a character may find themself in a position of great situational strength or weakness. In these circumstances, the player may be asked to roll with advantage or disadvantage, respectively. On advantage, the player rolls their stat die twice, discarding the lowest result. On disadvantage, the discard the higher result. When rolling with advantage or disadvantage, die explosions can still occur. When it does, the exploded die or dice continue(s) to roll until it lands on a value less than the die's max face value. For instance, when rolling with disadvantage:

The player rolls their first roll, it explodes, and they continue rolling until it no longer explodes, keeping note of that result. They again roll "from zero". If this roll also explodes, they continue rolling again until they roll less than the max possible for the die. Finally, the player takes the lowest result of the two sets of rolls. Finally, they add any relevant modifiers and bonus die to their result.

Combat

Not every encounter can be solved with tact and social grace. Sometimes, whether by choice or circumstance, players will encounter scenarios that require them to fight. Combat in Warped World progresses much like the rest of the game, with some additional rules for handling damage and defense. Unlike traditional tabletop RPG games, however, all characters have the same base health. That being said, items such as armor, as well as anomalous effects, can mitigate or negate damage in some cases.

Attacking

When a character is engaging in direct, fair combat, contested rolls are made. The attacking party rolls their relevant die (typically, Containmnet for conventional arms, or Anomaloy for thaumaturgy and anomalous effects), with the defending party rolling to dodge, block, or otherwise conter or withstand the attack. If the blow lands, a damage die is rolled according to the chart below.

Once the damage die is rolled, any damage reduction through armor or anomalous means is subtracted. All remaining damage is dealt to the character.

Sneak Attacks

If one character is able to sneak up on another and make an attack without being noticed, the initial attack is not contested, and instead rolled against a GM-decided DC based on how the attack is performed and the state of the target (for instance, a target which is sprinting and being attacked from a distance may be a difficult target to attack, and have a high DC to hit). If no mitigating circumstances prevent it, the attack is made with Advantage (using the same example from earlier, a sprinting target at a distance would be considered a disadvantaged check, cancelling out the sneak attack's advantage).

Health

All player characters and most non-player characters have 15 health. In addition, these health values are subdivided into three zones which describe the character's condition. From 15 to 10 HP, the character is hurt, but not in a way that significantly impacts their performance and ability to take actions. From 10 to 5, they are seriously injured and without medical attendance in the near future may suffer permanent effects. Depending on the nature of the injuries sustained, some actions may not be eligible for advantage at this point. From 5 to 1 HP, the character is gravely injured and is in need of immediate medical intervention. Rolls may be made at disadvantage due to complications from heavy wounds. At 0, the character is dead. If a player character drops to zero, there are no death saving throws or stabilizing mechanics. Save a deus-ex-machina narrative moment, the character is permanently dead.

Damage Reduction

Whether it's armor or some fancy thaumaturgy, damage can be reduced or avoided. Damage reduction effects are static, and apply a flat reduction to incoming harm. See the table below fo relative reduction values for different kinds of armor or anomalous effect. These are examples, and it is possible for armor or effects to exist beyond these values, per the GM and the player's agreement on said item's relative defense potential.

Additionally, a group may decide to allow targetted attacks, in which case when successful attacks are made, the damage reduction applied only draws from armor and effects specifically protecting the targetted point.

Targetted Attacks

Generally, when making attacks those attacks are directed towards a character's center mass, unless otherwise specified by the acting player or narratively relevant. To simplify gameplay, the targetted attack rule is not used by default, and a group may decide to ignore this section. When targetted attacks are made, difficulty should be adjusted to match the required skill needed to target a specific point on the target's body while in the heat of battle. In addition, targetting specific vital points or body parts can inflict penalties against the targetted creature's future attacks and actions, such as hampering their ability to run or heft a heavy weapon. Strikes against critical vital points also incur heavier damage when relevant.

Healing

Healing in Warped World can occur in one of two ways. During a long period of inactivity (for instance, between sessions where characters are not engaged in peril and are able to rest in a safe location), or by specific intervention. Some thaumaturgic/anomalous effects may heal minor or even somewhat severe wounds, and characters with significant medical knowledge may have the capability to stabilize or even treat combat wounds to varying degrees of success. However, it is unlikely that someone would be fully restored during the heat of combat, so be careful! Below is the relative roll difficulty chart for different levels of healing or stabilization.

Ending a Session

A session of Warped World can end in multiple ways. If a group is playing a "one-shot" campaign, the session typically ends when the narrative has been resolved, all player characters are dead, or the group collectively decides to end the story. Since one-shots are not meant to be continued through multiple sessions of play, the majority of this section will not be relevant. For multi-session campaigns, a session end occurs at a natural breakpoint between narrative "chapters". It is wise avoid ending a session in the midst of a scene or a battle, as trying to pick play back up a week, two weeks, or whatever your group's schedule may be in the midst of a complex situation with multiple "moving parts" is rather jarring and unweildy. Seek to end sessions at what might in a written narrative constitute the end of a chapter.

Once a session ends, active gameplay is halted and character actions are no longer able to be taken or narrated. However, there are still a few odds and ends that should be handled before the group goes their merry ways. End-of-session wrap for a multi-session campaign will typically progress the following way:

• As a group, summarize the events of the session in order to bolster any note-taking and ensure the group are all on the same page regarding the state of the narrative
• If using an event-based progression model, some groups may opt to leave the actual leveling for the session's end, in order to avoid interrupting gameplay. If so, ensure all characters who had progression events have their character sheets properly updated.
• If using an "economy" progression system, handle any stat improvements players wish to purchase during the post-session wrap
• Discuss expectations for the next session, whether that's a major battle, what the next narrative arc will be, or even a "downtime" session where players' characters will not be acting through a major arc but instead handling various errata, personal tasks, or other threads which, in a TV show, might constitute a "filler episode"

Progression

Warped World is designed to be run in a number of contexts, from one-shot stories to long-running campaigns full of plots, sub-plots, and side-quests. In order to provide this flexibility, progression is entirely optional. Any part of this section may or may not be used. Think of it like a buffet: all the options are on the table, you just need to pick what looks best for your specific desires. This book provides a few pre-built progression systems to ease in selection if desired, but do not feel tied to what is written. You are encouraged to modify the parameters as needed to best suit your group's particular story.

Progression Events

Progression events are exactly what they sound like: events that occur during the narrative which count towards improvement of a character's stats. This can be either instantaneous improvement, or contribute to a threshold that must be passed in order to grant progression of a stat die. Whether a group decides to utilize individual progression events, or thresholded progression is dependent on the desired feel and length of the campaign.

Dice explosion is the most immediately tangible kind of progression event -- a player character improving a given stat die as they succeed at making use of said stat. However, progression does not need to be limited to only stat die values, a player character may also progress by improving the bonus die a particular proficiency grants (E.G. from +1D4 to +1D6), gain a new proficiency, improve a modifier, or take a new modifier depending on circumstance and current stat level.

Negative Progression

In addition to normal progression, a group may also decide to include "negative" progression, reflecting the impacts of a player character's experiences through the narrative. Negative progression should not be used as a punishment system, but as a direct reflection of the realities of the story. Negative progression does not mean a reduction in stat die values, save for extreme circumstances and only when the whole group agrees to such. Otherwise, a negative progression event should be noted in the "Conditions" section of the character sheet. Additionally, a player character's negative progression may be temporary, resolving after the source of the condition has been resolved, overcome, or circumvented.

Negative progression conditions typically take the following forms:

• Circumstantial stat modifier reduction or negation
• Circumstantial proficiency negation
• Circumstantial disadvantage to specific kinds of action

Extraordinary negative progression conditions, which are much more impactful to long-term gameplay, take the following forms:

• Reduction of a stat die
• Removal of a proficiency
• Application of a negative stat modifier

Extraordinary negative progression conditions should only be taken following extreme events, as they are much more widely impacting to gameplay and actively dial a player character's strength back, as opposed to normal negative progression conditions which tend to only manifest during specific circumstances.

Explosive Progression

With explosive progression, stats are able to be improved over time as their die explode. In an immediate progression game, this occurs as soon as the explosion happens, allowing the player to roll their new, stronger stat die on the next roll.¹

It is possible for immediate explosive progression to occur repeatedly during the same check, allowing for very rapid progression, if the group allows it.

In a threshold progression game, dice explosions may need to occur some number of times before the stat can be improved. This threshold may be static throughout the range of stat die (E.G., a stat die must explode 3 times before it may progress, regardless of the specific die being rolled), or scaling as a stat gets stronger (E.G., a D4 stat die need only explode once to progress to a D6, but progression from a D12 to a D20 requires 5 explosions). The particular parameters involved for how improvement is gated can be a bit tricky to work out, which is why there are some pre-built progression options provided later in this book.

The right choice for any given campaign is not universal -- groups desiring more difficult campaigns may elect to use increasingly hard to achieve progression thresholds, whereas groups desiring a campaign where their characters continue to feel exceptionally badass may prefer to use flat or immediate progression.

Economy Progression

It is possible, and even common, for a group to end a session with plenty of left-over unused help die. Depending on the desire of the group, these may be carried over into the next session, or may be spent during end-of-session wrap to improve a stat. Players may only spend their own help die to improve a stat, reflecting character growth through adversity and triumph. As a rule of thumb, the cost to improve a stat from one die to the next should be roughly equal to the total number of help die required to meet or surpass the next die's maximum rollable value. It is advised to reduce help die from D6 to D4 when using this progression option.

Backstory Fulfillment

When creating characters, it is encouraged to write character backstories with potential plot points, personal struggles, or personal goals. When, during the course of play, a character accomplishes said goal, triumphs over or strengthens themselves against a personal struggle, or progresses their own character's personal plot, the GM and/or group may elect to reward the player with a progression event in the form of improving a stat, modifier, or proficiency; or awarding a new modifier or proficiency.

Maxed-out Stats

What happens when a stat die can not be improved any further? A player character with a maxed out (D20) stat may still desire or even require improvement, depending on the campaign and desired gameplay feel. In these instances, improving proficiencies, modifiers, or providing advantage on proficiency-related rolls may all be used to give a continued feeling of improvement and progression.

Working With Anomalies

As with everything else in the SCP "genre", there's not exactly a strict definition or explanation for how various kinds of anomaly work. Between various different authors and cannons it can be rigorously scientific, vibes-based, or wholly unknowable. Unfortunately, such a broad conception of what is ultimately a fairly core part of the whole genre makes designing a system around it fairly difficult. In this section, we have done our best to provide guidelines and references to a number of ways a group may represent the anomalous within their games. It is entirely valid and reasonable to forego this section in its entirety, choosing instead to handle things primarily via narrative, augmented only with the existing rules for dice checks and outcomes.

This chapter is divided into a few major sections, namely:

• Thaumatology and Workings
• Reality Bending
• Anart and Anomalous Fabrication
• Anomalous Entities and Spaces

There is overlap between several of these sections -- for instance, thaumatology and anomalous fabrication are not intrinsically separate -- however, the organization of this chapter aims to facilitate easier navigation based on the kind of action or interaction desired. If you or your group find these sections lacking in rigorous structure and system design, feel free to create your own ruleset and systems! If you want, you can even contribute to this source book with your creations.

Thaumatology and Workings

In the multitude conceptions of the SCP universe, thaumatology, like nearly every other concept shared between the differing canons, takes on a number of different rules and behaviors. Really, the only "shared" aspect between all of the different representations of thaumatology is that it represents a form of spellcraft. However, if we look at features which frequently occur between the body of representations, we can highlight a handful of other features common between them. In this section, we will do our best to represent a selection of these features which can be to some degree or another systematized and given concrete behavioral guidelines. To begin with, let's answer the question: "what is a working?".

What is a Working?

If thaumatology is the broad concept of enacting some material effect by way of careful anomalous manipulation, workings are the act of performing that manipulation. In a fantasy setting, you might call it a spell or a ritual. The exact mechanisms by which workings have to be "cast" are hard to pin down — in some cosmologies it may look like an occultic ritual, complete with sacrifices and carefully inscribed runes; in others it's more like sorcery, focussing energy through a channel while a spell is chanted or focussed. One relatively common element, however, is the concept of backlash. Think Newton's Third Law: for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. If it is assumed that any working requires an amount of thaumic energy to be enacted, an equal and opposite energy is "reverberated" back, to varying effect. For simpler workings, like levitating a light object or amplifying a person's voice, the backlash may be as simple as an equivalent toll on the caster's muscular energy reserves as would be experienced by simply picking up that object or shouting. With more complex, super-human acts this backlash becomes less predictable if uncontained.

Backlash

In systems which make use of thaumic backlash, a crucial element of performing thaumatology becomes the management of backlash more than anything. Without a mechanism to channel or redirect these thaumic reverberations, a working may result in unexpected and even severly dangerous side-effects. If a large amount of thaumic energy must be manipulated to accomplish a working, an equally large amount of energy is reflected back, causing effects ranging from living beings in an area becoming exhausted on the more benign end of the scale, to explosive destruction of physical objects and destabilization of a proportional area of reality at the more malignant. Due to the nature of the thaumic field, the best focuses for backlash tend to be organic, life-carrying material. This is one of the most common reasons for the use of sacrifices in occultic workings, although less brutal methods for containing thaumic backlash do exist. Specifically manufactured focuses can be created as a sort of "hollow space" for backlash to fill, and for the most trivial workings it is common to simply forgo a focus altogether, as the backlash is only as severe as simply doing the task manually.

It follows, therefore, that representing thaumatology in a tabletop system focusses more on a character's capacity for managing and channeling backlash than necessarily creating the right effect. At its most minimal, the system for thaumatology in Warped World can be reduced purely to the negative effects assosciated with failed or deliberately unbalanced workings. When a character fails a roll for casting a working without a pre-arranged focus, or explicitly performs a working without a suitable focus for containing the thaumic reverberation, a backlash proportional to the uncontained energy takes effect. Below, you will find a chart describing the relative required focus for a working's difficulty, as well as a second table describing potential backlashes based on the amount of uncontained energy.

For workings beyond the scope of a D20, sufficient focus may not be possible. As such, in cases where a working of this magnitude is performed it is more likely than not to have a backlash, generally proportional to the uncontained energy leftover after any and all focuses are expended. That is, if a working of DC30 is attempted, and only a focus capable of containing a relative D20 backlash is present, a backlash of roughly D8 is experienced (rounded down to the nearest full dice value, but no less than a backlash of D4).

You may tweak what these backlashes look like in your particular campaign setting, but try to keep the effects of backlash proportional to the established difficulty tables of the system.

Relative Working Difficulties

As a quick reference in order to ease the determination of what difficulty a given working a character might attempt should be, feel free to refer to the following chart of examples at each dice check.

Glossary

The following Glossary provides summary definitions for SCP-related terminology as used in this book.

Broken Masquerade

Organizations like the Foundation, U.I.U., G.O.C., and others work to maintain a veil of normalcy within the world at large in order to prevent widespread knowledge of the anomalous. These normalcy organizations have described the failure to complete this mission as a "broken masquerade" event, and many if not all have contingency plans in place for these sort of situations.

Global Occult Coalition

The Global Occult Coalition (G.O.C.), known to frequenters and assosciates of the Wanderer's Library as 'Bookburners', are a normalcy organization operated as a secretive function of the United Nations. They have at times cooperated alongside the Foundation and other normalcy orgs, and at other times directly clashed with those same groups. The most frequent and defining differentiation of the G.O.C. from the Foundation is in their approach to the anomalous. Where the foundation generally does not 'neutralize' anomalous entities and objects, preferring often to house and research them; the G.O.C. tends to have much more of a "shoot first, ask questions later" attitude. Their penchant for destroying or killing the anomalies they encounter has earned them a number of enemies within the larger fiction of the SCP multiverse.

SCP Foundation

The SCP Foundation is a secretive, non-government organization dedicated to the maintenance of 'the veil'. Their core missions are to Secure and house (Contain) anomalous entities and objects, and Protect the world at large from the dangers and knowledge of the anomalous (thus leading to the source of the SCP initialism, standing for 'Secure, Contain, Protect'). Known by a number of names to various different groups of interest, the Foundation operates in methodical, often clinical ways to further their mission. Stories about the foundation paint pictures of shadowy antiheros, unknown heros saving the world, and bureaucratic insanity, as well as so much else. The foundation looks a little bit different in every author's conception of them, but some elements remain more-or-less the same across the board. Secrecy, the O5 governing council, and a penchant for at time questionable ethics tend to be quite common within the landscape of available fiction.

Unusual Incidents Unit

The Unusual Incidents Unit, or U.I.U., are a secretive branch within the FBI, dedicated to the investigation of crimes committed by or involving the paranormal and anomalous. Depictions of the U.I.U. within the SCP 'multiverse' run the gamut from a bunch of bumbling and underfunded, to scrappy and persevering-against-all-odds cops. Occasionally, the U.I.U. may cooperate with groups like the SCP Foundation, the G.O.C., and others in the interest of handling a case, but often operate on their own and often armed with not much more than their own knowledge and cunning. Unlike employees of the Foundation, for instance, agents of the U.I.U. often have an easier time or a degree of begrudging acceptance within anomalous spaces such as Three Portlands or the Wanderer's Library.

Alternate Starts

The game of Warped World is designed to be freely modified and tinkered with as any Game Mediator sees fit, however, in order to aid in providing some additional methods for handling character creation and improving overall flexibility for the system, the following section outlines some additional, optional rules a game master or group of players may elect to use.

Balance/Unbalance Character Setup (stat die sacrificing)

You as the game master or as a group of players may decide you prefer to have multiple skills with a higher level of proficiency, either to create a more “balanced” character, eliminating weaker stat die, or “unbalanced” character, having more stats with weak stat die but more than one with exceptionally strong die. With this ruleset option, players may elect to “sacrifice” a stat die, reducing it to the next lowest die, in order to increase another skill to the next highest die. For example, Kai’s character from our hypothetical session zero might elect to reduce their Anomaly die from a D20 to a D12, since it has a proficiency bonus from its background, in order to bring their character's Containment stat die up from a D4 to a D6, resulting in the following spread:

Research: D12 Procedure: D8 Containment: D6 Diplomacy: D6 Anomaly: D12

Olive, likewise, might decide that their character Jason is less well-rounded, but has a few exceptionally strong skills that make up for that. In this vein, Olive sacrifices Containment down to a D4 from a D8, and with those two levels of stat die sacrifice,
improves Jason’s Anomaly stat die up from a D12 to a D20, and his Research from a D6 up to D8, resulting in the following spread:

Research: D8 Procedure: D4 Containment: D4 Diplomacy: D20 Anomaly: D20

Weak Start

In a longer running campaign where level progression may be desired, a group may elect to use the Weak Start rule variant. In this variant, all stats begin with a D4 stat die. Player characters still take proficiencies and get a single stat modifier based on their backgrounds, but are much weaker overall from the outset. As the game progresses, when progression events occur, those stat die may improve to the next highest die. Progression is explained in greater detail in its own section, but note that the particular rules in play are flexible, and progression events for stat die improvement may be handled a number of ways depending on the planned campaign and setting. If the group desires rapid progression, they may make use of an immediate improvement progression strategy – where dice explosions immediately grant the player character the next level of stat die to roll. In a slower progression setup, stat die explosions may need to occur a number of times before they may improve. For more detailed information on the options available, see Progression.

Progression Systems

The following pages describe a handful of progression system options a group can elect to use for their campaign or one-shot in order to allow for characters to grow and improve throughout the course of play. Individual progression mechanics are outlined in the Progression section of the "Playing the Game" chapter.

Explosive Protagonist

Progression Style: Immediate
Recommended For: Short or medium length campaigns, one-shots
Pairs well with: High risk and reward gameplay

The Explosive Protagonist progression system is best suited for groups that desire fast-paced gameplay, shorter multi-session campaigns, larger one-shots, or an atmosphere of great risk and reward. For campaigns, it is recommended to make use of the Weak Start character building option -- as the likelihood of a D4 exploding is relatively high, character stats will generally improve rapidly at the start of the game, slowly getting less frequent as the characters proceed through the story and become increasingly strong. One possible modification to the weak start that can be made in this circumstance is providing players with one stat which starts as a D6, and/or can be rolled with advantage¹ when being made in a way that conforms to a proficiency. Note that with this rule a stat with a D4 die assigned to it functionally rolls with advantage, as proficiency adds 1D4 to the roll. In this case, the highest of the two rolls is always considered the stat itself's roll, not the bonus. This results in additional opportunity for the player's stat die to explode and improve. Should this occur, the player will roll their improved die again, adding its result to the total, but will not re-roll the lower of the two initial die. After the stat has finished rolling, finally add the second initial dice roll's value to the total.

Team Building

Progression Style: Economy
Recommended For: Medium to Long campaigns
Pairs Well With: Deliberate, calculated gameplay

The "Team Building" progression system is built around rewarding teamwork and growth in the face of adversity. Unlike the "Explosive Protagonist" progression system, skills, proficiencies, modifiers, and other character improvements are not immediately awarded by the luck of a dice roll but by the continued persistence and careful planning. This system especially rewards good roleplaying and strong team dynamics, and balances the use of help die in-game against improving a character's overall strength. For this system, it is strongly recommended to adjust the help die's value down from 1D6 to 1D4. Additionally, use of a Balanced/Unbalanced start for a medium-length campaign, or Weak Start for long-running campaigns is advisable.

When playing with the Team Building progression system, characters should be rewarded for good roleplay -- awarding help die in moments where player characters discover notable plot beats, achieve personal goals, or help fellow characters accomplish tasks by reducing a roll's DC as opposed to expending a help die. After a session has ended, any remaining help die held by the players may be spent to progress their characters' stats. The cost for this improvement may be static or variable [see: economy progression], depending on the length and nature of the campaign.

In addition to progressing stat die with the expenditure of help die, the Team Building system can be expanded to allowing for the purchase of improved or new proficiencies, or team perks. The costs for these other improvements are suggested below.

Proficiency Improvement

The cost to improve a proficiency should be scaling as the die added to the roll scales up. The cost for this improvement should be double the cost of improving the stat die itself -- meaning an improvement from D4 to D6 costs 4 help die if the cost to improve a stat die from D4 to D6 costs 2. This is recommended in order to prevent players from trivializing checks by creating circumstances where dice rolls are de-facto rolled with advantage without a reasonable cost.

Proficiency Purchasing

The cost to purchase a new proficiency should be three times the cost of improving a D4 stat die. That is, if improving a stat from D4 to D6 costs 2 help die, acquiring a new proficiency costs 6. The desire is that acquiring new proficiencies should adequately reflect the time and effort required to build the skills and knowledge necessary to become proficient in a new archetype of task.

Team Perks

Unlike proficiency and stat improvements, team perks are the one place where pooling help die to acquire an improvement is allowed. Where individual progression improves the strength of a given character, team perks provide specific circumstantial boons to the group to be used in times of dire need. These are expendable, either per-game, per-session or per-character, and should be balanced such that players must strongly consider the value of expending their use of the perk against the weight of not having the perk in a future event. Below, some example team perks are listed along with their recommended costs.

Group Check Re-Roll
Cost: 20 help die | Use: single (can be re-purchased)
When used, allows the group to re-attempt a group check. May not be used more than once consecutively.

Otherworldly Favor
Cost: 40 help die | Use: Once per character per session
When used, add a help die to the roll even if no character has any help die in their pool. Can be stacked with player help die.

Contributing

Warped World is Open Source and licensed under the Creative Commons by Sharealike 3.0 license. As such, not only are modifications and redistribution allowed, they are encouraged¹! A significant component of the design goals for Warped World is that extending or modifying the source game should be a relatively seamless operation (or at least, as seamless as any amount of game design can be). The sections that follow in this chapter outline some rules and guidelines regarding the procedure involved with directly contributing back to this book. If you plan to contribute any work back to this source material. The information that follows on this page may also be found in the "Contributing" section of the Warped World RPG GitHub repository, but are repeated here for convenience.

If you would like to make additions or modifications to this book, please create a fork and open a PR with your changes after submitting an issue or RFC to allow for discussion. Minor changes, like typos and grammatical fixes, may not need an opened issue/RFC, depending on the scope and nature of the change.

Editor Setup & Style Guide

Please ensure any PRs follow the following standards for content:

• Word break at or before 90 characters (see the .vimrc in this project's root)
• Chapter and Section titles should use title casing (E.G.: This is Title Cased)
• Unless specifically necessary or relevant utilize neutral, inclusive language ("they" instead of "he or she", for instance)
• Any excerpts or content additions such as game starters or supplements must be original works or otherwise be directly attributed to their authors and be used with explicit permission².

Changes, Fixes, and Improvements

Changes, fixes, and improvements to the core source material will generally fall into one of two categories: simple changes, which fix minor errors or do not impact gameplay or intended meaning of a sentence, phrase, or section; and system changes, which directly impact the rules-as-written gameplay in some form or another. Their contribution processes differ slightly, as described below.

Simple Changes

Warped World's core source text was originally a one-person passion project, and as such almost certainly contains a number of typos, grammatical errors, or unclear sentences. Improvements to these relatively minor elements can be made via an expedited contribution process as they should not impact the core gameplay itself. If you notice an error you wish to fix, or an improvement that can be made in a particular sentence's wording, simply open a branch on your own fork of the main repository and submit a PR with the changes back to the main branch on the original repository. Once the changes have received an approval, it may be eligible to be merged. If any maintainer of the repository has concerns or feedback regarding the change, an issue may be created for discussion regarding the change.

System Changes

If you wish to contribute a change to the source material which directly impacts how gameplay proceeds, be that tweaking default dice values, changing how systems interact, or adding/removing rules from the material; the first step should be to open an issue with the System Change RFC template. Within this issue, describe the specific changes you have made or intend to make along with the justification for these changes. If your changes have been playtested, please also include information regarding the results of this testing and how it compares to the source book ruleset's current gameplay experience. If playtesting has not been completed, or more is required to evaluate your changes, please mention that additional testing is needed so that a maintainer can apply the "playtest needed" label to your issue. Finally, if a PR has been opened with changes to the source material ready to go, please include the link to that PR within the issue.

Once an issue has been created, it will require discussion and approval by at least 1 maintainer. Unless overwhelmingly approved, a system change issue will require at minimum 7 days in open status before it may be merged, to allow time for maintainers and community to evaluate the changes. However, due to the time playtesting takes, it may be open significantly longer. In addition, if the suggested change conflicts with or is significantly related to another open RFC, these issues may be merged or have a new RFC opened in order to rectify any conflicting elements or facilitate collaboration between contributing members.

Due to the longer and more involved contribution process for major system changes, it is recommended to open an RFC issue before contributing work, to prevent duplicate work from being done and allow feedback and discussion to occur before significant time is sunk into making changes. For relatively minor system changes, this is less likely to be an issue, but in cases where major overhauls to systems or gameplay elements are proposed, the need for discussion is significant.

Once the RFC has been appropriately discussed and the associated PR has been reviewed, the issue may be given an approval alongside the PR; allowing the changes to be merged and the issue to be closed.

Supplements and Remixes

It has been mentioned over and over throughout this sourcebook, but, Warped World is designed to be modified and expanded upon with relative ease. Seeing as this is the case, it is only fair that we want to be able to highlight and supplements and remixes that emerge for or from this work. If you produce a supplement or remix for/of Warped World, and would like to have it either included in, or shouted out by, this sourcebook -- please by all means let us know! The following section will describe the process for being included or shouted out within this sourcebook and its associated media, as well as some handy guidelines and definitions.

What is a Supplement?

For a TTRPG, a supplement is any extension of the system which adds new rules, mechanics, or gameplay elements (including but not limited to: new character backgrounds, new combat or skill systems, campaign starters, and full campaign sourcebooks). Definitionally, supplements are, well, supplemental. They add content to the ecosystem without directly modifying any of the previous body of work.

What is a Remix?

A remix, in contrast, is any work which takes the original source material and modifies it to produce a new experience. These modifications can be to any number of different components and effects, from adding more structured and rigorous systems more similar to traditional tabletop RPGs, to changing the focus of how gameplay proceeds in order to improve the feel of gameplay for a particular campaign style. Unlike, say, an update to an existing system which is carried forward in the core source material and impacts all users of that source material (E.G., a "version 1" versus "version 2" of a tabletop system), a remix is a third-party re-imagining of that source work which does not seek to supplant the existing work, per se.

Submitting a Supplement or Remix

Supplements and remixes are included in this sourcebook in one of two ways. For shorter, stylistically "in-line" works, they may be included in an "additional content" section within the core book in full, on the assumption that they represent either a final work or will have ongoing maintenance performed by the author(s). Alternate to that, an "other works" section will be included in the book as well as on the github repository linking to any submitted remixes and supplements whose content is submitted for consideration and where that content does not go against this project's guidelines with respect to terms of interaction, accessibility, or inclusivity.