Acknowledgment

The author would like to thank the de Medici family: Wendy “Octavia” Gale, Elyssa “Tertia” Gilmar, Douglas “Sep-
timus” Bellew, Phil “?” Greenberg, Kris “V” Greenberg, and Daniel “GM” Rossi for play testing and just being awe-
some.
Special thanks to Russell Impagliazzo, for design and mathematical help. Without them this would be a different
and worse game.

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
To view a copy of this license, visit
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street,
Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA.
The illustrations in this work are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-NoDerivs 3.0
United States License, visible at
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/
Various fictional characters that are mentioned in passing in this work may be the trademarks of their respective
owners; if they are they are being used without permission, and the publication of their names is not authorized by,
associated with or sponsored by their respective trademark owners. This game has no permission from, connection
with, or endorsement by any of the trademark holders of such characters as Captain Kirk or Mal Reynolds that might
be mentioned as examples. DO NOT READ OR PLAY THIS GAME UNDER ANY MISAPPREHENSION THAT THE MENTION
OF CERTAIN FAMOUS TRADEMARKS MAKES THIS AN OFFICIAL PRODUCT SPONSORED BY ANY OF THE TRADEMARK
HOLDERS.
You won’t find any stats, descriptions, or images of any of the aforementioned trademarked characters; their
names are used purely nominally as points of reference.
Zap! is (c) Joshua Macy 2011. Zap! and SFX! are trademarks of Joshua Macy.
This document is version 1.04, last revised March 5, 2013.
Introduction
Zap! is a role playing game where the players take
the part of science fiction adventurers. It is meant
to give the players and GM the tools for playing and
producing results that feel like science fiction without
bogging them down in unnecessary detail, and with-
out making them sacrifice concept to conform to the
rules. Zap! is based on the SFX! game system, as used
in Kapow! and Argh!, though knowledge of either is
not necessary to play; players familiar with other SFX!
games will find Zap! quiet easy to pick up, though
there are minor differences to fit the genre.
The Primary Rule of Zap! is that actions have to
make sense in a science fiction kind of way and the
players will continually be asked to describe their ac-
tions in terms that fit the conventions of the genre. In
Zap! it isn’t enough to say “I attack with my Telekine-
sis, that’s 2d6”; Zap! asks you to describe how you’re
using your power, almost as if you were narrating the
action in a science fiction story: “I use my Telekinesis
to try to shove the alien marauder out the airlock,” or
“Since the robot seems too heavy for my Telekinesis
to lift, I use it to throw the release lever on a nearby
cargo crane, dropping a load of plas-steel girders on
him.” When in doubt, ask yourself “Does this sound like
something from a science fiction story?” The Primary
Rule applies to the plausibility of actions, particularly
the results of actions involving science fictional pow-
ers and how they interact that are far outside of the
realm of ordinary physics or common sense; it is not
intended to force a particular outcome or story, or to
substitute collaborating on SF fan-fiction for role play-
ing.
Zap! is simple enough for novices to play, though
perhaps not simple enough for Game Masters with no
prior experience in role-playing games. It’s assumed
that the players know what SF adventures are about
and what sort of game they want to play. It’s par-
ticularly important for the players and the GM to be
on the same page about genre conventions such as
whether adventurers are frequently killed by the dan-
gers they face or generally triumph, and to what ex-
tent the player characters actions can change the
world. If one player wants a game where the strug-
gle to keep the megacorporations from hunting them
down and destroying the cyberpunk rebellion is a los-
ing battle, and another wants to play the laser-sword
wielding bad-ass who topples stellar empires and re-
stores the republic before breakfast, it’s unlikely that
they can both be satisfied with the same campaign.
i
This sort of conflict of expected tone should be re-
solved before play begins. It should be the goal of
everybody at the table to play up and play into what-
ever approach the players want to take.
Zap! includes everything you need to create ad-
venturers and explore strange new worlds: rules
for character generation, campaign scope, super-
science and alien powers and character templates,
vehicles, bases, adjudicating actions and resolving
combat, commerce, designing a setting, science fic-
tion campaigns, sample alien creatures, organiza-
tions and non-player characters, and some adven-
ture seeds and character sheets. Also included is
some analysis of the probabilities for players who
worry about that kind of thing.
Zap! uses a straightforward mechanic to resolve
most actions: you roll some dice (two, unless you’re
doing something unusual) and take the best. If you
are pitting one Power against another you compare
that to the best roll of the opposing Power; if unop-
posed then against a Difficulty based on the scale of
what you’re attempting. For instance, Ace Astra tries
to jury-rig a microwave satellite relay dish she found at
the crash site into a maser using her Science! power
and fire it at the amorphous blob creature that con-
sumed the crew of the crashed ship; the blob uses its
Amorphous Form to resist. Ace rolls a 7 and the Blob
rolls a 3...and the Blob takes a burst of microwave radi-
ation straight to its nucleus. Note that in the example
Ace isn’t required to make a separate roll to jury-rig
the microwave dish into a maser first, or figure out how
to use a maser, that’s assumed to be part of the de-
scription of her Science! attack on the blob; if there’s
some doubt that she really could aim the maser, per-
haps because the dish is too big to swing around eas-
ily, she’d just describe a different method such as lur-
ing the blob into the dish before activating it, and the
die roll would be the same. Nor should there be any
rolls or back-and-forth over whether a microwave dish
really could be changed into a maser safely, or at all
without proper tools and extensive work; it sounds like
the kind of thing that people get away with in science
fiction adventures, and by the Primary Rule that’s suf-
ficient. Later Ace has to try to pull her best friend Unit-
X3Z7, dangling above the matter annihilation cham-
ber, to safety; the GM decides that’s a Difficulty 3 task,
against which she decides to roll her Athletic Prowess.
Most of the rest of the rules consists of deciding
which dice of what size to roll for various actions, and
what the results of success are, plus some handling
for some of the more common unusual situations that
heroes find themselves in, such as attempting to in-
timidate foes into giving up without striking a blow, or
interfering with their powers.
This book consists of three sections: Creating a
Character, Playing Zap!, and Game Mastering. The
first two sections contain all the rules of the game,
on how to create and how to play characters using
Zap!, while the final part contains advice on running
SF campaigns applicable to most systems.
The Primary Rule

“Does this sound like something from science fiction?” the GM won’t override the players unless she knows
The Primary Rule of Zap! is that actions have to something they don’t that makes the action impos-
make sense in an SF kind of way. It will be referred sible (such as the characters are actually fighting a
to a lot in the following rules, because it’s a depar- hologram).
ture from the way many RPGs handle mechanics and
dice rolling. In Zap! you don’t even roll the dice if the
action is obviously something a character with that
Power or Shtick can do. Where in most RPGs you
wouldn’t bother rolling to see if you could walk across
a room or sit in a chair, Zap! extends that notion so
that you won’t bother rolling to see if your helmsman
can plot an efficient course out of orbit, or your scien-
tist can successfully research a device that will track
the rampaging energy being; protagonists in SF ad-
ventures aren’t confronted with situations where bad
luck or failure to perform up to their usual standards (a
bad die-roll) prevents them from continuing the ad-
venture...though whether they will survive is open to
question.
Contrariwise, where other RPGs might just leave it
up to the dice to decide whether an Esper’s Mind
Control can work against a robot (rolling damage vs.
its mental resistance) or decide it based on whether
the character had paid extra for the Mind Control
when it was created to have it work against robots,
Zap! will ask the players the consider the plausibility of
the action before they commit to it and roll the dice,
and the decision may turn on details of the descrip-
tion of the robot such as whether it has an artificially
intelligent positronic brain or simply carrying out the
instructions of its programming. If given the particu-
lar robot’s description it can’t plausibly be controlled
by the Esper, the Esper’s psychic power can’t work no
matter how powerful it is.
This means that the player will often be able to con-
trol whether an action can be taken according to the
Primary Rule by the way they describe how they’re
employing their Power. In fact, that’s the point of the
Primary Rule: to require the players to narrate their
actions in a more interesting way than just announc-
ing “I use my Flame Blast, that’s a d6, d6 attack” by
making the details of the narration matter. This also
helps novice role-players, who naturally tend to do
this. To further this goal, and speed things along, fi-
nal decisions as to the plausibility are placed in the
hands of the player. The GM can suggest reasons that
the action as described might not be all that plausi-
ble or should take into account facts about the situa-
tion such as the alien hovering fifty feet in the air, but
iii
Contents

Contents 1

I Creating A Character 5

1 Steps To Creating A Character for Zap! 7

Before You Begin: Scope and Tone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Adventure Scope and Personal Scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Tone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Quick-and-dirty player character creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Outline . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Schrödinger’s Character Creation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

2 Concept 12

3 Filling In The Templates 14

The Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Aliens in Zap! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Describing Abilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Mechanics for Abilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Advantages And Disadvantages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Advantages: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Disadvantages: . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Mishaps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Restrictions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

4 Spending your Boosts 23

Attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Assets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

5 Complications 27
Note On Complications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

6 Fleshing out Your Character 28

Drive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Back-story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Appearance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

7 Example Characters 29
Ace Astra, Starship Captain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Solitaire Jones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Parsifal Farmer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Dr. Markov . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Adam Procyon, Clone Warrior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Grr’onk, Trog Co-pilot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Spotty, uplifted dog Engineer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Tok, Menton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Null Pointer, Hacker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
1
C ONTENTS

8 Alien templates 32

II Playing Zap! 34

9 Quick Summary 35
Tropes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

10 Defining Abilities 37
Disagreements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Power Level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Regular Powers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Movement Powers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Shticks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Active vs. Automatic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

11 Using Abilities 42
Uncontested Abilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Contested Abilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Damage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Countering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Combining Actions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
Disabling Abilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Splitting Abilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Duration Of Abilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

12 Tropes 51
Aid . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Careful Aim And Pulling Your Punch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Failure Is Not An Option! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Intimidation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Second Wind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Sheer Determination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Shoulder Roll . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Supreme Effort . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Take a Bullet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
This Ends Now! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Wild Shot . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53

13 Rounds And Turns 54

14 Special Situations 55
Mobs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Hit Locations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Crossing Scopes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Inventing Features of the Environment, How Much is Too Much? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56

15 Range 57
Movement And Range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Senses And Range . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

16 Investigation 59
A Note On Investigation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59

17 Negotiations 61

18 The Environment 63
Environment Description . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Buildings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
More Stuff To Break . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Perils and Obstacles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
2
 Contents

19 Equipment 67
Equipment Dice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Maintenance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Equipment Mishaps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Reparing and Building Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Cybernetic Enhancemetns . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Example Equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

20 Ships 70
Ship Templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Ship Advantages and Disadvantages . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Ship Restrictions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Ship Complications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Ship-to-Ship Combat . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Ship Scale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74

21 Trekking 76
Scenes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Translating Distance to Scenes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
Cutting to the Chase . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Typical Scenes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

22 Research 78

23 Experience 79
The Pace Of Advancement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79

24 Wealth 80
What Money is Called . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Wealth and Adventure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Wealth and Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
Post-Scarcity Economies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81

25 Commerce 82
Wealth and Scope . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Shipping . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Trade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83

III Game Mastering 85

26 Campaign design 86
Setting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Episodic Or Epic? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87

27 Designing an Adventure 89
What you need to design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Adventure Arcs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Interleaving arcs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Failure is always an option. Success is always an option . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
The End of The World is not the end of the world . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90

28 Plot Templates 91
Altered Reality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Back in Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Creature Feature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
First Contact . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Great Race . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Marooned . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Mayday . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Mirror World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Negative Space Wedgie . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
3
C ONTENTS

War Zone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96

A How To Be A Good Player 97

B Tables 99

C Equipment 111

Index 119

4
 Part I

Creating A Character

5
C ONTENTS

6
Chapter 1
Steps To Creating A Character for Zap!
Before you begin the GM or entire group decides cer-
tain aspects of the campaign, such as Scope, basic
setting, Tone, and campaign goals before character
creation. For example, the campaign could be light-
hearted and set in a Space Cadet Academy, with
most characters being Academy students, a serious
relatively hard SF campaign about the crew of a inter-
stellar scout ship seeking out new worlds and new civ-
ilizations, a grim post-apocalyptic setting where the
characters are survivors of a devastating biological
war, or even a “space opera” western-in-space. This
campaign information affects character creation in
informal ways, such as deciding that a hard bitten
space bounty hunter or a member of a semi-mystical
order of Star Knights is an appropriate character con-
cept. There are also two mechanical ways the cam-
paign’s design affects player character creation. First,
the Scope of the campaign will determine the per-
sonal power level of the characters, at least at the
beginning. Secondly, the GM will decide on or cre-
ate templates for standard creature types available
as player characters. For example, templates for par-
ticular alien races means aliens PCs and NPCs will be
relatively common, and specifies what exactly is true
of those aliens in the game.
Before You Begin: Scope and Tone
Before you actually start creating characters, you
need to make some decisions about the kind of sci-
ence fiction game you want to play. The GM and
the players should collectively decide on the Scope
for the adventures, and the Tone that the game will
take. Is the group going to be a rag-tag bunch of sur-
vivors of an apocalypse trying to hang on one more
day, the crew of a starship trying to eke a living on the
frontier or carry out missions assigned by Star Com-
mand, guardians of an entire galaxy fighting a war
against extra-galactic invaders, or something else?
Will the players be average Joes with some special-
ized training and gear, elite commandos with state-
of-the-art equipment, futuristic supermen and women
with psionic or technological powers that grant them
godlike abilities? Is death and dying something that
rarely happens to PCs, and can usually be “fixed” with
appropriate technology, or will it be a minor triumph
7
if the PCs survive an adventure, or somewhere in be-
tween?
Adventure Scope and Personal Scope
Scope describes how large an area the characters’
typical adventures take place in and how powerful
they are individually. The Adventure Scope refers to
the size of the area they typically travel within and is
usually tied to their available means of transportation;
the Personal Scope refers to how much ability the in-
dividual characters have to affect the outcomes of
things within the area of the adventure. The two are
related, but not identical. For instance, it is common
in science fiction to have adventures take the heroes
from star system to star system, while the heroes them-
selves are little more than average Joes and Janes
who might find themselves mugged in a back-alley of
some starport if they’re not careful; on the flip side,
you have stories like some Roger Zelazny novels such
as Lord of Light where the characters are literally god-
like in power but the entire action of the story is con-
fined to one world. While campaigns may eventu-
ally transcend the original Scopes, you should pick a
Personal Scope at the start that will be satisfactory
to play for quite some time. Most of the time in sci-
ence fiction, characters who “level up” and signifi-
cantly change their Personal Scope either do so at
the start, and that’s what kicks off their adventures,
or gain great power at the end and use it to resolve
things...it’s relatively unusual to have a sequels at the
new level of power remain as interesting. Groups
that want to try different power levels as a change
of pace might consider creating new characters in
the same setting but at the desired Scope, and re-
turning to the lower-powered characters when they
feel like more down-to-Earth adventures, rather than
ramping up the original characters with newly discov-
ered powers, symbiotic alien tech, and the like. On
the other hand, Adventure Scopes regularly increase
over the course of science fiction stories, as the char-
acters find themselves visiting far-flung places and in-
teracting with larger and larger areas of the setting.
Note that many famous SF characters, even ones who
regularly win fights, would only count as Scope 1 Nor-
mals. If you can imagine the character actually need-
1. S TEPS TO C REATING A C HARACTER FOR Z AP !
ing to surrender or flee when confronted with a fire-
team of four soldiers with rifles leveled, that character
is probably Scope 1. Note also that characters may
be in command of ships or organizations well above
their own in Scope. The same shoulder-rolling starship
Captain that finds it wise to surrender to a fire team of
four soldiers may command a vessel that could fight
an entire army, or even planet, on equal terms.
Adventure Scopes
1. Normal Does not go on adventures unless
pressed.
2. Agent You are part of a large group that provides
support, missions, and transportation. While you
rarely make a crucial difference individually, your
group works for larger aims. Organizations can
themselves vary in Scope and power-level, but
most of their operatives will still be at the agent
power-level, whether they are the local police de-
partment or a world-conquering conspiracy. The
differences will be in the number of agents, the
equipment provided to the agents, and the num-
ber and level of higher-powered officers and spe-
cialists that work alongside them.
3. Street-level You do not have reliable intel or trans-
portation, so you need to plan ahead to be in the
right place to influence events. Thus, your missions
are usually chosen to suit your talents and cen-
tered on individuals, rather than responding to
crises. Examples: Damnation Alley, Escape from
New York.
4. Neighborhood You adventure mainly in a city
district or equivalent area, such as a small to
medium-sized town. You have ways of learning
about major events in your district, and reliable
transportation that allows you to respond quickly
to these events. Examples: Eureka.
5. City You adventure mainly in a major metropolis.
You have ways of learning about major events in
your city, and reliable transportation that allows
you to respond quickly to these events. Examples:
Sliders (the city changes from episode to episode,
but they never move far from the location of the
vortex).
6. Regional You adventure mainly in a geographi-
cal area, such as a group of US States (e.g., New
England), a large US State (e.g., California) or a
moderate-sized country (e.g., the Netherlands).
You have ways of learning about major events
in your region, and reliable transportation that al-
lows you to respond quickly to these events. Ex-
amples: Men in Black.
7. National You adventure throughout a large coun-
try (e.g., USA) or continent (e.g., Europe or Aus-
tralia). You have ways of learning about major
8
events anywhere in this area, and reliable trans-
portation that allows you to respond quickly to
these events. Examples: Warehouse 13.
8. Global You adventure throughout the world. You
have ways of learning about major events any-
where in the world, and reliable transportation
that allows you to respond quickly to these events.
Examples: Thunderbirds, U.F.O.
9. Interplanetary Your operations frequently go be-
yond this world. You have ways of learning about
major events on other worlds and transportation
that allows you to reach other worlds within the
star system in a reasonable amount of time. Ex-
amples: Firefly, Flash Gordon.
10. Near Interstellar You travel throughout the local
stellar system, and frequently to nearby stars. You
have ways of learning about major events on
other worlds and transportation that allows you
to reach other worlds in a reasonable amount of
time. Examples: Star Trek: Deep Space 9, Starship
Troopers
11. Star Cluster You adventure over many worlds.
You may represent a federation or other group
of many planets. You have ways of learning
about major events throughout your jurisdiction
and transportation sufficient to reach them effec-
tively. Examples: Star Trek, StarWars, Stainless Steel
Rat.
12. Galactic Arm Your adventures extend into most
of the known worlds. Examples: Lensmen, Perry
Rhodan, Doctor Who
13. Galaxy Your adventures extend across the entire
Galaxy.
14. Galactic Cluster Your adventures extend across a
cluster of Galaxies.
15. Cosmic There is no bound to the scope of your
operations. Examples: Star Maker
Personal Scopes
1. Normal A normal, if trained person. Can emerge
victorious from a brawl...sometimes.
2. Agent An elite combatant. Can take on 10 civil-
ians in a barroom brawl, several squad-cars of po-
lice, or a fire team of 4 soldiers.
3. Street-level Augmented. Can take on 50 civilians,
or a squad of 8-12 soldiers.
4. Neighborhood Inhuman. Can take on 100 civil-
ians, or a platoon of around 25 soldiers.
5. City Super-powered. Can take on an infantry
company of 200 soldiers.
6. Regional Can take on a battalion of 1000 soldiers.

7. National Can take on a division of 10,000 soldiers.
8. Global Can take on an army of 100,000 soldiers.
9. Interplanetary Can take on an army group of
1,000,000 soldiers.
10. Near Interstellar Can take on an entire theater of
war, 10,000,000 soldiers.
11. Far Interstellar Can take on a planet.
12. Star Cluster Can take on a solar system.
13. Galactic Arm Can take on a stellar cluster.
14. Galaxy Can take on an entire interstellar civiliza-
tion.
15. Cosmic Can take on an entire galaxy.
Tone
Tone is probably the single most important decision
about your campaign. Tone is about the way the
game feels, the mood and the atmosphere of the
adventures. You can and should vary the tone some-
what from session to session, and within a session, but
there will be a prevailing mood to the game. SF ad-
venture ranges from Flash Gordon to Firefly to Alien,
from Lost in Space through Star Trek to the rebooted
Battlestar: Galactica. This tone will actually influence
game play. The lighter the tone, the less plausible jus-
tifications for SF abilities have to be, and the freakier
coincidences can be.
Modern SF can also touch on sensitive subjects: sex,
violence, and religion. There’s no right or wrong an-
swer, but a clash of expectations can lead to incoher-
ence between the tone the GM is trying to set and
what actually happens, or players being out of sync
with the others. It can even lead to players finding the
game unpleasant, disturbing, or disgusting (or in the
other direction, too silly, angsty or sentimental to stom-
ach). Make sure everybody playing is on basically the
same page, and give notice in advance if there will
be possibly disturbing elements. Disagreements over
the tone of the campaign can wreck it; when one
player is aiming for goofy Saturday-morning cartoon
style with a post-apocalyptic barbarian armed with
a laser sword in a world of savagery, super-science
and sorcery, and another wants to play an ordinary
crew member aboard a space-going refinery trying
eke out a living, something’s got to give. Even if the
players are nominally on the same page with the style
of character, the Primary Rule of having to make sure
that your actions sound like a science fiction story
places emphasis on having at least rough agreement
as to what kind of story people have in mind. If one
player is trying to stick to real-world science as much
as possible while another takes his cue from the most
over-the-top Japanese anime the result won’t tend to
feel like either.
9
Quick-and-dirty player character creation
One useful way to approach this is to describe your
game as similar to a source that all the players are fa-
miliar with, e.g., is it more like Firefly, Robert Heinlein
novels, Warhammer 40K, or StarWars? That doesn’t
have to mean it’s set in those settings, but it does
set the expectations for things like levels of violence,
humor, plausibility of physical stunts, just how cosmic
or contrived are technological devices and super-
science abilities, and so forth.
We can rebuild him...
Zap! has no hard-and-fast rules for characters meet-
ing accidental deaths in combat. This shouldn’t stop
you from making the game as deadly as you and
the players want it to be. Given sufficient science fic-
tional hand-waving, characters can be repaired by
advanced medical tech or restored from backup, be
revived as cyborgs or AI simulations in android bod-
ies, be replaced by a clone or parallel universe twin.
Player characters should really only die permanently
when the players want them to, but that doesn’t
mean they don’t have a lot at stake. Lethality among
minor characters is a matter of tone. Out can be nar-
rated as dead for minions or bystanders, or you can
have even Overkilled NPCs make it out alive.
The tone of the campaign might mean that you do
brutal things to player characters. But even in games
that are maximally edgy and morbid, players should
have long-term control over their characters paths.
You should never force a player to run a character
that is warped beyond recognition from their original
concept. If they are not done having fun with the
character, find a plot device to allow them to revert
back. Sometimes a PC will need to be retired and run
as an NPC, letting the player start afresh.
Quick-and-dirty player character creation
Here’s the shortest way to make up an Zap! charac-
ter.
1. Think of what kind of character you’d want to play
that fits the tone and setting.
2. Pick the closest match to that character in the Ex-
ample Characters.
3. Keep all the numerical values of that sample
character. For each descriptive phrase on the
sample character sheet, replace it with a phrase
of the same general category that describes the
character you have in mind.
Outline
If no sample character is a close match, or you want
to have complete control over character generation,
you can follow these steps instead. This is an overview,
with details in subsequent sections. Steps:
1. S TEPS TO C REATING A C HARACTER FOR Z AP !
1. Decide on a Concept. Pick a concept for your
character. Captain of a scout ship? Xenobiolo-
gist studying alien creatures? Alien creature? In-
terstellar bounty hunter? This is the most impor-
tant step, and one where you might want to con-
sult the other players and the GM, so players are
matching in tone and consistent with the setting.
2. Fill in a Template. Templates in Zap! reflect the
character’s role in the game, as well as their
abilities. So your concept should pretty much
determine which template to use: crew (few
amazing combat powers, but extraordinarily
skillful and brave), bad-ass (trained combat-
ant), scientist (invents new SF devices and has
knowledge of the setting’s scientific principles),
unique (one-of-a-kind esper or alien), or any of a
number of templates that the GM has designed
for standard SF creatures in her setting.
For example, PCs might be Captain Ace As-
tra (crew); Ace’s best friend and ship’s science
officer Tok (scientist); Solitaire Jones, a space
smuggler and Ace’s boyfriend (bad-ass); Spotty,
a genetically “uplifted” dog and ship’s engineer-
ing officer (unique); and Tira, a shape-changing
alien (based on an alien template the GM has
created for this campaign). Once you’ve found
the right Template for your concept, fill in the
blanks in the Template with descriptions of your
character’s particular abilities (and weaknesses).
There are three kinds of things needing de-
scriptions at this point: Powers, Restrictions, and
Shticks. Each template has some slots for Powers
and Shticks, and some have places for Restric-
tions. Powers are abilities that can be used in or
out of combat, Shticks are strictly non-combat
abilities, and Restrictions are biological or tech-
nological limitations on your character. The
Template might have some of these pre-defined,
or give broad categories they should fall into.
Others will be completely up to you to decide.
Unless they are pre-defined by the Template, you
need to to define what they are and how they
work.
For example, the Crew template has a “de-
fensive power”, but you can define this as a
psychological ploy to “Keep ’em Talking” until
help arrives, “Don’t Attract Attention” where
alien creatures ignore your presence, Luck, Ath-
leticism, Danger sense, Invisibility, Force Shield, or
whatever ability of that general type best suits
your character concept. On the other hand, an
Alien: Mara template might gives all Mara the
same Shapeshift and Empathy powers. These do
not need to be defined, the template already
specifies what they do.
Powers and Shticks descriptions are free-form;
10
there is no fixed list of possibilities. They have
numerical ratings that tell how effective they
are when used, but it’s up to you to determine
what they are, and how and when they can
be used. Restrictions are completely binding on
your character, so they are not given numerical
ratings. E.g., No matter how powerful a Mara is,
ultrasonics render it helpless, period.
3. Spend your Boosts. You then have a certain num-
ber of “Boosts” to spend on your character, usu-
ally 3. These increase your character’s abilities.
Each Boost can be spent for one of the following:
a) Add one to one of the four Attributes: Tough-
ness, Stamina, Will, and Actions.
b) Increase one power by 1 level or give it a
small Advantage. 2 Boosts give it a big Ad-
vantage.
c) Increase two Shticks by 1 level each, or one
Shtick by 2 levels.
d) Add one new Power. The starting level is
given in your template.
e) Add two new Shticks at the starting level in
your template, or one Shtick at one higher
level.
f) Get a Major Asset (companion, base, vehi-
cle, organization, or wealth). You can then
spend additional Boosts to improve these.
g) Get three Minor Assets (perks, contacts, fa-
vors, rank, equipment).
4. Adjust Abilities (Powers and Shticks). You can ad-
just your Abilities further by reducing the effective-
ness of certain aspects of the Ability in order to
increase its Level or take some Advantages on it.
Every Small Disadvantage you put on the Ability
gives you one Boost to spend on Advantages for
that Power or to raise its Level; every Big Disadvan-
tage gives you two Boosts. Similarly, for each Level
you lower the Ability you get an additional Boost
to spend on that Power. You can’t trade Boosts
from one Ability to spend on another. Modifying
an Ability this way doesn’t affect how many total
Boosts you have, so doesn’t change how much
XP you need for a new Boost.
5. Pick Complications. All protagonists have life is-
sues that complicate their attempts to achieve
their goals. If you’re employed by the Space Pa-
trol and they send you on missions, or if you suffer
from fatigue if you spend more than two hours un-
der normal Earth gravity because you were raised
in space, that’s a Complication. Choose Compli-
cations that will provide conflict for your charac-
ter, or make the conflicts that much more inter-
esting. Most characters pick one major and two
minor complications; characters using the Crew
template have the option of picking 4 minor com-
plications instead.
 Schrödinger’s Character Creation

6. Flesh out your character. Now add colorful details

that make your character more lifelike. There are
a few mechanical decisions to be made here,
but mostly this is you thinking through what your
character’s life is really like. For example, is your
character affiliated with any organization or al-
liance of similar characters, e.g., Star Fleet or the
Space Patrol? If so, what is their role in the orga-
nization? Give your character some back-story,
and think about her day-to-day life. What causes
her to brave dangers and the unknown, rather
than holding down a safe unadventurous job?
(Assuming such jobs exist in the campaign set-
ting; in a post-apocalyptic world every day might
be a struggle for survival no matter who you are.)
Write down the basic motivation as a Drive. Think
about your character’s appearance. How does
your character appear to others? What image
do they project? Write down a short description.
If you are artistic, you could even draw a picture
of your character, or find a suitable image on the
Internet.

Schrödinger’s Character Creation

You can actually start play with nothing but a char-
acter concept, and defer describing abilities and as-
signing numbers to them until specific abilities are
needed. Pick one of the Templates or one if the sam-
ple characters, so that you know what the numbers
for various abilities will start at. Then, each time you
want to do something that calls for a roll and that
isn’t covered by one of the Abilities you’ve already as-
signed, assign an ability on the spot that covers it, writ-
ing over one of the abilities of the Template or sample
character. If you’re using a Template, don’t forget you
can also assign the starting Boosts as you go if you
want a number to be higher or more abilities than just
the starting ones.

11
Chapter 2
Concept
While there are no fixed rules for picking a character
concept, there are a few issues to think about when
considering a possible character. A good way to gen-
erate a character concept is to modify a fictional
character you enjoy. But not every character that’s
fun to see or read about is fun to play. Some issues to
think about are:
• Does the character fit the tone of the game?
Playing a pure comic relief character is a very
serious game, or a melodramatic character in a
light-hearted game, can grow old quickly.
• Does the character have a distinctive personal-
ity? Would the other players be able to tell the dif-
ference between you playing this character and
you playing other characters?
• Does the character play well with others? Usually,
you’ll be playing as part of a team. Depending
on the tone of the setting, characters often have
dark secrets, personality flaws, and secret agen-
das that conflict with other characters. Some-
times they’re just not very nice, to each other or
to the rest of the world. But you can be a nasty
person and still a team player. On the Firefly, char-
acters like Jane or Book are often shown in con-
flict with the rest of the gang. But they still func-
tion as valuable members of the group. As long
as tension creates interplay between the PCs, it
is good. It is only when it blocks interaction that
it’s a problem. On the other hand, goody-goody
characters that everyone likes might actually be
bad for interesting team play. Will your charac-
ter have interesting, distinctive relationships with
the other PCs, having both friends and rivals on
the team? A team player character contributes
to group goals, but doesn’t overwhelm everyone
else’s contribution. Think about typical scenes
featuring your character. Where would others
fit in? If your character is always alone in these
scenes, always the star, or always on the sidelines,
you might want to revise the character.
• How does the character contribute to different
kinds of group activities? Science Fiction will tend
to have a different balance of activities than
12
many other genres such as high fantasy or super-
heroics. About equal time will usually be spent in
investigation (including scientific research and fid-
dling with equipment), negotiation and interact-
ing with NPCs, and combat. Try to make sure that
your character has a role to play in all of these.
In SF you are often up against the totally unknown.
Investigation and research is a large part of the
game, uncovering what you are dealing with,
whether it’s a being or a natural phenomenon,
whether you must fight it, bypass it, or even incor-
porate it into your plans in order to achieve your
goals and how you might do that. Zap! is very flex-
ible, and you don’t have to be a scientist, detec-
tive, or telepath to help in investigations. Maybe
you know a lot of people. Maybe you have good
transportation or unusual senses. Maybe you just
intimidate people into divulging the key informa-
tion.
Not every being you encounter will be a foe,
nor will every foe be defeat-able. Negotiation is
about identifying and agreeing on common in-
terests with beings that are suspicious of you. This
is particularly important when dealing with rep-
resentatives of larger groups, such as alien races
or organizations. Brute force might escalate until
the whole organization is up against your group.
Again, you don’t have to be a trained diplomat
to contribute to negotiations. Maybe you are po-
litically connected yourself, or maybe you can of-
fer your unique services as a bargaining chip.
Finally, combat is about kicking enemy butt.
Zap!’s flexibility means that you can contribute to
your group’s combat success in a host of ways,
not just as Mobile Infantry or with psychic powers.
Your mundane character’s attitude might make
more of a difference than the bad-ass’s big guns.
If you can think of ways to combine your abilities
with others’, you can supplement their combat
power. This can be as simple as distracting a foe
while they attack. You can also help by assisting
teammates to recover from attacks.
• How well can you portray this character? Some-
times a character that you love to watch isn’t a
character that you want to play. If it’s important
that your character is alien, can you give it alien
beliefs and desires, at least from time to time so
that it’s more than just a human with a bumpy
forehead? Can you be as nasty as your PC, or
are you a softy at heart? Do you really want to
brood all the time, or do you burst if you can’t
crack wise?

13
Chapter 3
Filling In The Templates
The Templates
All Templates start with 3 Boosts to spend, plus any
Bonus Boosts. Bonus Boosts don’t count towards the
character’s starting Boosts when it comes to calculat-
ing XP necessary to earn a new Boost.
Crew Crew have no super-science or psy-
chic abilities or specialized combat training, just
courage, skill, and subtlety. They are often the
main focus of SF settings, sitting in the command
chair, exploring new worlds, and generally run-
ning the show.
Attributes: Toughness: 2, Stamina: 2, Will: 2, Ac-
tions: 2
Defense Power: One “defense” power @ 6. Ac-
tive or automatic (choose one). Examples: Keep
‘em Talking, Force Shield, Great Reflexes.
Combat Skill: One power @ 4
Shticks: 6 Shticks @ 5
New Powers begin @ 4 New Shticks begin @ 5
Bad-ass The Bad-ass might have innate super
science or psychic abilities, a signature piece of
equipment like powered armor, or just specialized
training and weapons that can threaten even
powerful alien menaces.
Attributes: Toughness: 3, Stamina: 2, Will: 2, Ac-
tions: 2
Powers: Three powers @ 5. Typically, an of-
fensive skill or weapon, a defensive skill or de-
vice, and some other power such as a movement
power.
Shticks: 4 Shticks @ 4
Bonus Boost: You have one extra Boost to
spend. This does not add to your base number
of Boosts (for experience purposes).
New powers begin @ 5 New Shticks begin @ 4
14
Scientist You are trained in the science of the
setting, including the principles of super science
that go beyond what is currently known. While
there is little you absolutely cannot do in extend-
ing and applying the known science of the set-
ting, you are at your strongest when you combine
your scientific abilities with specific knowledge of
the problems you are attempting to solve.
Attributes: Toughness: 2, Stamina: 2, Will: 3, Ac-
tions: 2
Science! power: Choose one of three possibili-
ties:
• Science! power @ 5 (d6, d4), (AA) Ultra-
flexible, (A) Power-up to 7 (d8, d6) with 3 re-
search successes (self or others);
• Science! power @ 6 (d6, d6), (A) Flexible, (A)
Power-up to 7 (d8, d6), and Ultra-flexible with
3 research scenes.
• Science! power @ 7 (d8, d6), (A) Power-up to
Ultra-flexible with 3 research scenes.
For all choices, you get the Power-up by announc-
ing that you are researching a device for a spe-
cific circumstances.
Gadget defense: A scientific gadget defense
power @ 4. (A) Flexible. Choose whether Active
or Automatic.
Shticks: Choose 2 Shticks @ 4, plus Scientific Re-
search @ 5.
Restriction: Pick a Restriction that is tied in with
your brand of Science! Do you need DNA samples
to analyze? Are you a roboticist, with not even
rudimentary knowledge of biology? Must you do
all your research in your own lab with its special-
ized equipment? You should design your restric-
tion so that it gives your approach to Science a
unique flavor, and makes it seem less like a magi-
cal power where anything is possible.
New Powers begin @ 5 New Shticks begin @ 4

Unique You are one of a rare kind of being, pos-
sibly alien or robotic. Perhaps you are the only
one. Perhaps you are a version of a standard
creature, but somehow made unique by a freak
event, such as an alien raised by humans and with
a thoroughly human outlook on life despite look-
ing vastly different or having bizarre powers, or a
robot who unlike others of its kind has become
sentient or has been freed from the Three Laws of
Robotics (if those are a feature of the setting).
Attributes: Toughness: 2, Stamina: 2, Will: 2, Ac-
tions: 2
Powers: 2 powers @ 6 (d6,d6).
Shticks: 2 Shticks @ 3 (d4, d2).
Bonus Boosts: Add three bonus Boosts. These do
not add to base Boosts for the purpose of experi-
ence.
Restriction: Pick any restriction.
New Powers begin @ 6 New Shticks begin @ 3
Aliens in Zap!
There are several different approaches you could
take to playing an alien character in Zap! You could
make your alien race a Shtick or a Power, use the
Unique Template, or use an entirely new Template
specific to that alien race in the setting. Which ap-
proach you use depends on how much your charac-
ter concept focuses on being a representative mem-
ber of that alien race vs. it being background flavor
while other aspects of your character such as chosen
profession take center stage. Two players might both
be members of the same alien race and take dif-
ferent approaches to designing their characters de-
pending on what they want to emphasize. One might
choose to be the ship’s security officer, choosing the
Bad-ass Template and making his membership in his
proud warrior race, the Klangons, just one of his four
Shticks; the other might make his alien status central to
his character concept by using the Klangon Template
devised by the GM and relegating his status as cap-
tain of the ship’s marines to one of that Template’s
slots for Shticks.
Here’s an alien character template. Other exam-
ples of templates for typical SF creatures are found
in Section 8. Before using an SF creature template
ask your GM if that creature is allowed as a PC and
whether the GM has altered the template for her
setting. The GM may also have created new SF
creature templates for the setting, so ask about other
possibilities. (The rules for creating new templates
are in the section on Standard SF templates, in Part III.)
15
Describing Abilities
Alien Template
Attributes: Tough: 2 Will: 2 Stamina: 2 Actions: 2
Powers: 3 Powers @ 6 (d6, d6) If suitable, you can
add Advantages and Disadvantages to each
power. Each small advantage decreases the level
1, big by 2, small Disadvantages increase it 1, big
Disadvantages increase by 2.
Shticks: 2 Shticks @ 3 (d4) or 4 (d4, d4) if they fit
the stereotype
New Powers: Start at 6 if they fit the stereotype,
4 otherwise. For example, Mind Meld be an op-
tional Space-Elf power. It won’t be part of the
starting template, but if the player adds it, it starts
at 6 rather than 4.
New Shticks: Start at 4 if they fit the stereotype,
3 otherwise
Restrictions: Any number of restrictions. Pool
similar or minor restrictions together.
Power Boosts: For each restriction, add one
power @ 6 to the template, increase one attribute
1, or increase one power by 1.
Describing Abilities
Once you’ve picked a Template, you fill out the Tem-
plate with specific Abilities (Powers and Shticks) ac-
cording to your concept. You give each ability slot
in the template a name, and a brief description. Al-
though they don’t change the mechanics of using
the abilities this free-form description really determines
what the ability is. Throughout the game you’ll be
able to use the ability precisely when the game sit-
uation matches the description. While some abilities
might seem more limited than others, the challenge
is to provide creative justifications for the ability being
useful. So, for example, if your power is Strength it can-
not be used directly at a distance. This doesn’t need
to be spelled out or compensated for; it’s implicit in
the notion of physical strength. But that doesn’t mean
that you can never use the power in a ranged attack,
just that you need to use it indirectly. You can say you
are using your Strength to pick up a large object and
hurl it at your foe, or to cause the building they are
in to collapse by knocking away a support beam, or
to intimidate them by a display of violence. In any of
these ways you use your Strength you resolve your de-
gree of success using the same mechanics and the
same dice. Your free-form descriptions tell you when
and how you can use your abilities. Then the mechan-
ics indicate whether you succeed and by how much.
Powers vs. Shticks
Abilities come in two forms: Powers and Shticks. Any-
thing that can be used to attack and defend in com-
bat is a Power, even if it may have other uses. Any-
thing that can’t typically be used to hurt somebody
or defend yourself against being hurt is a Shtick. The
3. F ILLING I N T HE T EMPLATES
same sort of Ability might be a Power for one charac-
ter and a Shtick for another, depending on how the
player sees themselves using the Ability in the game.
While the name Powers suggests superhuman abili-
ties, in Zap! Powers are a generic term for any kind of
Ability that can be used to attack or defend against
attacks. So training with a gun is a Power, as is the Abil-
ity to lie convincingly, since it can be used to prevent
an enemy from attacking you. On the other hand,
maybe your Ability to empathically “discern lies” is
a Shtick, rather than a Power, since it would almost
never be used to attack or defend in combat. Even
something like Computer Programming, which would
normally be a Shtick that takes minutes or hours to
use effectively could be a Power if you envision it be-
ing fast and effective enough to, say, seize control of
robots as they’re attacking you and have them fight
on your side instead. Note that sometimes the Primary
Rule would imply that a Shtick could be used to de-
fend yourself. E.g. if a creature had a Power to cre-
ate illusions that it uses to lure people into danger, an
Ability to “Empathically Discern Lies” would be a plau-
sible defense, even if it had been characterized as a
Shtick.
Powers can also be used outside of combat. For
example, you could have “Keen Sense of Smell” as a
Power or a Shtick. Either way, you could use the Ability
to sniff out drugs in a locker or track someone through
the woods, but you can only use it directly to give you
a defense against an invisible attacker if it is a Power.
Customizing Abilities
You can customize your abilities with Advantages And
Disadvantages, however the main thing that makes
your abilities unique is the free-form description, and
you don’t need to spell out the consequences in
terms of any mechanics. If your Power is Flame Blast,
then it goes without saying that this power doesn’t
work in water or in a vacuum, and it might be dan-
gerous to use in a zeppelin. On the other hand, it also
goes without saying that you can also use the Power
to light up a dark room or to provide warmth if the
party is caught in a blizzard.
If you described your Power as Psychic Flames in-
stead of physical flames, and specify that it cre-
ates an illusion in enemies minds that convinces them
they’re burning, then although it will usually work just
like a Flame Blast, there’s no reason it shouldn’t work
under water. You likely won’t be able to light things
on fire with it, or light up a room, but physical armor
would probably provide no defense. All of these ad-
vantages and disadvantages are implicit in the de-
scription, and do not need to be “bought.”
If a Power has an especially wide range of appli-
cations, particularly if you can use it not only as an
attack and defense, but also to move things around,
manipulate them, influence their actions and so forth
you should take the FlexibleAdvantage on the Power.
If the Power is so versatile that it’s easier to list what
16
you cannot use it for than what you can, such as for
something like Psionics, then the Ultra-Flexible Advan-
tage applies.
In addition there are two mechanical variations
on Powers that are neither Advantages or Disadvan-
tages: Movement Powers and Automatic Powers.
Movement powers
Movement Powers primarily let you move around.
They may also be used to attack or defend when that
makes sense, e.g., using fly to ram into a foe, or su-
per speed to dodge bullets. Movement Powers do
not take an Action to use if they are used for move-
ment; if you use them for anything else they take an
Action and only get to roll one die (the larger die). Like
any other power, you cannot use it more than once a
round, so you cannot use a Movement power both
to move and attack or defend. Without a Movement
power you can still move in combat, but it will take an
Action to move any significant distance, and you’ll be
at a disadvantage if you’re trying to move while any-
thing else is interfering with it, such as infected mutants
grabbing at your ankles or the heaving of the ship’s
deck making it difficult to walk.
Automatic powers
Automatic powers are used in response to a certain
kind of action. They can be used multiple times in
a round, and do not require an Action to use. On
the other hand, they cannot normally be used at
will, unless you can force the trigger condition to be
met. What those conditions are and what the Power
does (whether it’s an attack, a defense, or move-
ment) should be clear from the description. An Au-
tomatic Power must be either for Attack or Defense,
not both, and to have an attack be automatic is an
Advantage. For instance, Armor could be an au-
tomatic Defense that would be used whenever you
were physically attacked. Flame Body could be auto-
matic Attack that would be used whenever you were
grabbed. Automatic Defenses defend against every
appropriate incoming attack, automatic Offenses at-
tack everyone who meets the proper conditions. If
using a Power triggers an Automatic Power, the Au-
tomatic Power Combines with the first Power, giving
it a +1. For example, if you use your Super-Strength
to grab someone, your Flame Body automatic attack
would always combine with it. You roll the dice for
Super-Strength, but add 1 to the result for the Flame
Body. If you use Super-Strength to throw something at
someone, Flame Body wouldn’t apply, so you would
get no bonus. Automatic Defenses cannot be hin-
dered or disabled unless they have the Can Be Hin-
dered Disadvantage.
What Counts as a Power?
There are often several possible ways to divide your
abilities up into powers. If you can psionically cause
 Mechanics for Abilities

people to sleep, find you persuasive, or become con- according to the Primary Rule, e.g. you can Com-
fused, do you want these to be three separate powers bine your “Keen Sense of Smell” Shtick with your “Cat-
or one power called Telempathy? If you have a suit of like Reflexes” Power to give yourself a better chance
Powered Armor that increases your strength, provides against an invisible attacker.
you protection and life support, and has mini-missiles Under unusual circumstances the Primary Rule may
one the shoulders and a blaster built into the chest, dictate that a Shtick actually be used directly to at-
you could have one Power “Powered Armor” or five tack or defend; usually this is the result of the tar-
separate Powers your armor gives you. The difference get having a Restriction or Complication that makes
is that with the first option you could use at most one of this possible. If a creature has the Restriction “Ultra-
your armor’s powers each round, but with the second sensitive hearing, can be hurt by high pitched noises”
you could potentially use your armor in five different then a Shtick such as Opera Singer could be used as
ways each round (if you have enough Actions). an attack by describing how you sing an E above high
You do not need to purchase Powers that are for C.
“color” rather than for combat advantage. Your char-
acter can turn televisions or lights on and off with a Mechanics for Abilities
glance without a special power. Only buy it as a
Power instead of a Shtick if you plan to be able to Each power has a numerical rating, which determines
use it to harm or defend against a foe, possibly by dis- two dice to roll when using your Ability. Sometimes
tracting them (e.g. “Keep ’Em Talking” is a perfectly there is also a fixed number to add in to one or both
viable automatic defense, though the Primary Rule dice. When you use your Ability, you roll both kinds
would imply it could only be used against things that of dice, and add in the modifier if any. You take the
understand your language). If the Power you have in higher of the two as your result. If the Ability is oppos-
mind isn’t actually directly useful in combat, it is prob- ing another character’s Ability, they do the same, and
ably better to treat it as color and not list it as a power. the bigger value is the one who succeeds; the differ-
For example, a werewolf can change into a wolf, but ence determines how big the success was. If some-
what makes that useful is that the wolf form has claws one succeeds on an attack against you, you are usu-
and fangs, a superior sense of smell, and regenerates. ally Hindered. That means that you only roll the larger
On the other hand, you cannot go through life as die when you use a power, until you or someone else
a wolf, because it’s hard to turn doorknobs. So you takes an action to free you from the hindering effect.
don’t have to list “Shift into wolf form” as a power; in- The table describes what dice correspond to what
stead, “Only usable in wolf form” would be minor Dis- power levels.
advantages on some of your powers, such as “Claws You only roll an uncontested Ability if it is not abso-
and Fangs”. lutely clear that you could use the Ability for that pur-
It is assumed that given enough time and resources, pose, or if you have reason to care whether it takes
without distractions or opposition, a Scientist can do several tries or extra time and effort to succeed; if you
pretty much anything the setting’s science will allow. have all the time in the world, just assume that you
If you are not a scientist, you know one you can bribe, would get the maximum that you could roll on the
beguile, seduce, or intimidate. So you can accom- dice and go from there.
plish all kinds of stuff in downtime without needing Roll the two dice listed and take the higher result. In
a separate power listed on your sheet. If the set- Zap! you never add the dice together.
ting’s technology allows you to regrow somebody’s
full body as long as you save the head, you don’t
PL Dice PL Dice
have to list that as a Power, you just have to justify how
you manage to get access to the appropriate facili- 2 1 point 13 d8+5, d12
ties to repair your injured companions. Just make sure 3 single d4 14 d8+5, d8+5
your descriptions of your downtime activities are con- 4 d4, d4 15 d10+5, d8+5
sistent with your character concept. Your downtime 5 d6, d4 16 d10+5, d10+5
activities will also be fodder for GM plots, so abuse of 6 d6, d6 17 d12+5, d10+5
this rule will often backfire on you. 7 d8, d6 18 d12+5, d12+5
8 d8, d8 19 d8+10, d12+5
9 d10, d8 20 d8+10, d8+10
What Counts as a Shtick? 10 d10, d10 21 d10+10, d8+10
Anything that cannot plausibly be used on its own for 11 d12, d10 22 d10+10, d10+10
attacking or defending is a Shtick. Many Shticks are 12 d12, d12 23 d12+10, d10+10
used to do research and gather information, to oper-
ate and repair equipment, to influence other charac- Note that the Power Levels follow an easy to re-
ters in social situations, or to enhance Powers in com- member pattern up to 12. At even levels you use two
bat. dice of the same size, and that size matches the level
Note that Shticks can be used in Combination with (Power Level 4 is d4, d4; Power Level 6 is d6, d6; Power
Powers to attack or defend, as long as it makes sense Level 8 is d8, d8...). Odd levels have one die of the
17
3. F ILLING I N T HE T EMPLATES
next higher level and one of the next lower (Power
Level 5 is a d6 and a d4, Power Level 7 is a d8 and a
d6, Power Level 9 is a d10 and a d8...). It gets a tiny bit
trickier once you get past d12: past d12 the dice go
d8+5, d10+5, d12+5, d8+10, d10+10, and so on. How-
ever, since at any given Scope the Powers and Shticks
begin at around PL 4-6, it will be quite a while before
that becomes an issue.
Research
The Scientist’s Science! Power is slightly special, in that
it starts off as a slightly weaker power and can be up-
graded during the course of an adventure by doing
Research into the nature of whatever the PCs are fac-
ing in order to tailor the power specifically to what’s
currently necessary. There are three variations:
• Starting with an Ultra-Flexible power that can do
most anything but is at low level and can Power
Up through Research to a higher level;
• Starting with a high level Power that has one spe-
cific use and can Power Up to Ultra-Flexible;
• Starting with medium power and flexibility that
can Power Up to full power and Ultra-Flexible.
In all three variations, the procedure for doing Re-
search remains the same: you must, over the course
of the adventure, engage in three separate scenes
that revolve around your character and your allies
doing the necessary Research into the device or sci-
entific principle you’re trying to create, using your
Research Shtick. In most cases the Research Shtick
should work without a roll. If a roll is required because
the player is unsure whether their type of science re-
ally can accomplish what they’re aiming to do (say
a neuroscientist whose powers operate on brains is
trying to research a device to deactivate a robot),
the GM should assign a difficulty based on the power
level of the target; if the roll fails, the Scientist can’t
try again in that scene, and will have to come up with
some other approach to moving the research forward
or a different sort of device.
For instance, you might have a scene where you
and possibly your allies are using the ship’s com-
puter records to identify the creature attacking the
colonists; a scene where you go to the mine where
the colonists were attacked to recover alien tissues
that the device requires; and a scene where you use
the ship’s lab and that tissue to create a device ca-
pable of paralyzing the creature. The exact nature of
the scenes should be determined during play, through
the players and GM deciding what’s plausible given
what’s been going on so far, rather than a cookie-
cutter approach: computer library, tissue, lab. It’s
justifying what your character is doing as an occa-
sion to employ the Research Shtick; the requirement
that there be three such scenes and that the scenes
be different is just to prevent every adventure from
18
turning into a wait while the Scientist character hangs
around in the ship’s lab until the device is ready.
When you perform three successful scenes in which
you are doing research (scenes where the focus is re-
search and you score a success with your Research
Shtick if necessary), your device is ready, and you
announce what it does. It should be one very spe-
cific effect, such as “Shrink giant insects” or “paralyze
methane-breathing creatures.” While you should be
researching during this time, that doesn’t mean you
can’t participate in scenes. You can put down your
tools and zap the creature attacking you in the lab, or
go out to the scene of the crime and collect scientific
samples.
If you decide a roll ought to be required other PCs
can assist you by using their investigative abilities to
perform relevant research. The difficulty is set to be
the base power level of the intended target.
Advantages And Disadvantages
Advantages are aspects that make a Ability more
useful, and Disadvantages are things that makes it less
useful. For instance if a Ability is exceptionally Flexible
so that almost anything can be justified according to
the Primary Rule, that’s an Advantage; if a Ability has
a more limited use than normal, for instance it can
only be used to defend against cold-based attacks,
that’s a Disadvantage. There are both Big and Small
Advantages and Disadvantages (labeled AA and A,
or DD and D), and their effects on a Ability are cumu-
lative. A Small Advantage on a Ability costs one Boost,
a Big Advantage costs 2, a Small Disadvantage gives
you an extra Boost to spend on that Ability, and a Big
Disadvantage gives you two extra Boosts on that Abil-
ity (you may not take a Disadvantage on a Ability in
order to get Boosts to spend on some other Ability or
Attribute).
Advantages:
Advantages represent some quality of the Ability that
makes it more useful. You should only give the Ability
an advantage if it represents a significant increase in
the Ability. Many little side effects that might be ad-
vantageous under some circumstances are already
covered by the description. For instance, if you have
a Sleep Gas Ability it isn’t necessary to take Exotic
even though it’s implied that something like a Shield
or Tough Hide wouldn’t be useful as a defense. Other
fairly common Abilities like Life Support or Immunity to
Poison would clearly stop the Ability altogether, while
still others would depend on how they were described
as being used (e.g., using Reflexes to jump out of the
way, or Control Wind to blow it away) and so would
get to roll for defense. Exotic would be required for
something like Psionic Assault, or Time stop, since it’s
quite difficult to reason through whether it’s at all plau-
sible for Reflexes or Magic Shield to interfere. Note

that this depends largely on how you choose to define
the Ability: if you define it so that Psionic Assault would
have to roll against so simple a thing as dodging with
Reflexes or Acrobatics, or be completely negated by
Armor or Rocky Hide, then you wouldn’t need to jus-
tify it with the Exotic Advantage. (AA) indicates a Big
Advantage; (A) a Small Advantage.
Area Effect (AA) The Ability affects all targets (friend
or foe) in an area at full power, without needing
to split it. Number affected is still limited by the
Power Level.
Area Effect, lesser (A) The Ability affects one chosen
target at full power, and some additional nearby
targets (friend or foe) at reduced power (one
die each). Number affected is still limited by the
Power Level.
Bare Handed (A) The Ability doesn’t require any
equipment as part of its narration; it gets both
dice regardless.
Control (AA) a Knock Out with this Power will allow
you to control the actions of the target until the
Knock Out is broken, at the cost of 1 Action per
Round. Merely Hindering the target with a Control
Power will let you force the target to take a single
Action in the target’s Turn; this will use one of the
target’s Actions and one of the target’s Abilities (if
required) before the target regains control; if the
target is Hindered by some previous attack, he or
she will not break free of the Hindrance first un-
less that’s the command, instead the Action com-
manded will be taken while still Hindered.
Delayed (A) the effect of the Ability doesn’t occur
until either a specified event or a certain amount
of time has elapsed. You could use this Advan-
tage to create a bomb, or set a trip-wire, or use a
Power with the Control Advantage to give some-
body a post-hypnotic suggestion (though in the
latter case you would need the Subtle Advan-
tage as well or the target would know about it).
Exotic (AA) An Exotic attack can’t be defended
against by ordinary Abilities, so targets use the
Default Skill instead. E.g., A mystic curse or psy-
chic bolt can’t be usually be stopped by armor
or a force-field. Exotic attacks must define a
fairly broad class of circumstances that automat-
ically negate them (e.g., any magical defense,
any unusual metabolism, Abilities being based on
technology, being a non-magical creature, etc).
In addition, Defenses which are Flexible or Ultra-
Flexible should get their normal roll unless there’s
clearly no way they could help. Things like poi-
son gas or blinding flashes of light are not Exotic,
in and of themselves, because ordinary Powers or
even Shticks (such as having Life Support built into
your suit, or Lightning Reflexes to close your eyes)
could justify a defense roll if they don’t negate the
19
Advantages:
Power completely. You may have only one Exotic
Power, unless all your Exotic Powers are negated
by the same circumstances.
Flexible (A) The Ability can justify a wide range of ef-
fects (e.g., electromagnetic powers). Whether a
Ability should be counted as Flexible or not is up to
the player; generally a Power that’s mostly used
for attacking or defending, with occasional use
for extra things that directly follow from its nature
(such as a lightning bolt short-circuiting electron-
ics) doesn’t need the Flexible Advantage even if
it can take many forms, such as a lightning bolt,
a ball of lightning, grabbing someone to shock
them, and so on; a Ability that’s intended to
be used to do many things beside simple attack
and defense, such as picking up objects, holding
things, fencing them off, gathering or concealing
information, and the like should be given the Flex-
ible Advantage.
Larger Scope (AA) The Ability operates one Scope
higher than normal; this doesn’t change the
Power Level, even when used versus targets at
the normal Scope, it merely changes the interpre-
tation of the Ability in terms of things like weight,
speed, area, range, etc.
Ultra-Flexible (AA) The Ability can justify almost any
effect (e.g., Sorcery); you must still choose some
things that are beyond its capabilities. Ultra-
Flexible is like Flexible, but with even more appli-
cations. Where a Flexible Power might be one
that can pick up or push things in addition to
attack and defense, or can create an illusion in
addition to attack and defense, an Ultra-Flexible
Power is one that could do all those and more.
A typical Ultra-Flexible Power is one where it is
harder to think of things that it shouldn’t be per-
mitted to do rather than things that it should.
Persistent (AA) The Ability will remain in effect as long
as you spend your entire turn maintaining it, and
no external force interferes.
Power-up (A) The power level can be increased, un-
der some circumstances, or at a cost or risk. Pick
a Large Disadvantage, and a way of spending
two Boosts on the Ability (e.g., +2 power level, one
Large Advantage, 2 Small Advantages, or +1 level
and a Small Advantage) The Ability can be used
at the higher level if the character takes the Dis-
advantage for that use. If the Disadvantage af-
fects future uses of the Ability, e..g, Burnout, it af-
fects the entire Ability, not just the power-up. It
must be a Disadvantage that makes sense for a
single use.
Subtle (A) It’s not obvious that the Ability is being
used, unless you have a Ability that grants you ap-
propriate senses. Telepathy or Mind Control are
typical Abilities that benefit from this Advantage,
3. F ILLING I N T HE T EMPLATES
but it could apply to something more prosaic, like
an invisible Sleep gas.
Disadvantages:
Disadvantages represent some Disadvantage that
makes the Ability less useful than the Primary Rule
would otherwise allow. It is not intended that you
place Disadvantages on Abilities merely to represent
the Disadvantages that such a Ability would nat-
urally have given the Primary Rule. For instance,
even though fire requires oxygen and can only
burn flammable materials, you wouldn’t take Circum-
stanced Limited to represent it not working without
oxygen, or not harming things that aren’t flammable
unless the intent was to make it even more vulnerable
to those circumstances than you would assume such
as requiring high concentrations of oxygen as from a
tank of compressed oxygen, or only capable of dam-
aging things at all if they are as easily combustible as,
say, paper.
(DD) indicates a Big Disadvantage; (D) is a Small Dis-
advantage.
Absorption (D) The Ability must be used as a defense
each time before it can be used for any other pur-
poses; in other words you must use it to absorb an
incoming attack in order to “Power it up.”
Automatic Can Be Hindered (DD) automatic de-
fenses are normally not affected by Hindering or
Disabling, but this Power is. Reduce it to one die
when you are Hindered.
Burn Out (DD) If you roll doubles the Ability works this
time but burns out and can’t be used again;
restoring the Ability can only be done by applica-
tion of some suitable other Ability or being out of
combat for three Turns (e.g., by using Gadgeteer-
ing to fix Powered Armor, or by returning to your
base to repair it). If the Ability is reduced to a sin-
gle die for some reason, such as being Hindered,
roll that single die for the result, then roll the sec-
ond die to see if it burns out.
Combination Difficult (D) Cannot be combined with
your own Abilities.
Combination Impossible (DD) Cannot be combined
with any other Abilities.
Delayed (D) The Ability goes off one turn after the Ac-
tion is spent.
Disabling Only (DD) The Power can only be used to
Disable other Powers (e.g., a Power that drained
mutant powers).
Easily Disabled (D) The Ability is easy to disable; when
targeted, it defends itself with only one die. Cap-
tain Patriot’s shield is easier to take away or inter-
fere with than the Living Flame’s Fire Blasts, so he
takes it as Easily Disabled.
20
Equipment Required (D) The Ability cannot operate
without equipment, e.g. Wormhole Navigation,
assuming you need a computer to do the calcu-
lations.
Automatic Can be Disabled (D) automatic defenses
normally are only reduced to a single die when
Disabled (how do you render somebody’s rocky
skin completely ineffective?), but this Power can
be interfered with as if it were a Regular Power in-
stead; e.g., if Captain Patriot took his Shield as a
automatic Defense (so he can use it to defend
without having to spend an Action), ordinarily at-
tackers couldn’t totally Disable it at all. Since that
doesn’t make complete sense (if they physically
take it away, how would he still defend with it?)
he takes as automatic Can be Disabled meaning
when somebody can Disable it as if it were a Reg-
ular Power. automatics that Can Be Disabled still
roll both dice to resist.
Erratic (D) The Ability does nothing when you roll a
Mishap.
Fragile (D) The Ability is hard to repair once disabled;
when an attempt is made to disable it, a Hinder
counts as Out, and Out means that the Ability
can’t be repaired without spending hours outside
of combat, possibly at a base or lab with special
tools.
Ultra-Fragile (DD) The Ability is so hard to repair once
disabled that when an attempt is made to dis-
able it, a Hinder counts as the Ability being un-
able to be repaired without spending hours out-
side of combat, and Out means the Ability can’t
be repaired except by going on an adventure to
restore it, or spending 1 XP.
Limited (D) The Ability can only be used when certain
conditions are met, which should occur about
half the time or when you can’t control the cir-
cumstances. E.g., a Ability that only works when
you have both hands free, or a automatic De-
fense that only works against impact attacks (be-
ing punched, hit with flying buildings, and so on,
but not lasers, fire, and the like).
Very Limited (DD) The Ability can only be used when
certain rare conditions are met, which should oc-
cur during the occasional adventure and not un-
der your control. E.g., Ability only works under wa-
ter in a campaign set on dry land, Ability only
works during a full moon, or a automatic Defense
that only works against cold-based attacks.
Shots (D) The Ability has a fixed amount of “shots”
that gets expended; number of uses can be up
to 8. The hero must take active steps, such as re-
turning to base, in order to replenish it.
Side Effects (D or DD) Instead of doing nothing when
you roll a Mishap, something bad happens, such

as hitting an ally, or yourself. The GM decides the
exact effect when the roll occurs. The small ver-
sion does something strange, but probably not
dangerous.
Single-Action Defense (D) when used as an active
defense only defends against a single attack,
rather than throughout the round as normal.
Single Use (DD) The Ability can only be used once
per combat. Replenishes automatically between
combats (at least three consecutive Turns while
not using any Actions).
Slow (D) The Ability takes 2 Actions to use.
Ultra-Slow (DD) The Ability takes 3 Actions to use.
Unpredictable (DD) The effect of the Ability is up to
the GM, not the player (though it still must be ben-
eficial).
A Note On Flexibility
Unlike some of the other Advantages, Flexible and
Ultra-Flexible advantages aren’t very sharply defined.
Even having a Power that represented a variety of
equivalent attacks that differ in such minor things as
whether they’re melee or ranged or the exact flavor
of damage, such as being armed with a sword and
a bow, or having a suit that has wrist-blasters, laser
eye-beams, and a chest cannon doesn’t really make
the Power much more Flexible as long as conceptu-
ally the powers do the same sorts of things, such as
damage targets.
It’s when the Ability can be either be altered on the
fly or has a number of completely distinct uses so that
it can take advantage of the Primary Rule to do a
wide variety of different things that it becomes an is-
sue. For instance, since a sword and a gun would in
general both be straightforward attacks (kinetic en-
ergy, even) there’s no need to apply the Flexible Ad-
vantage to a Power that represents having both. On
the other hand, if your Power is a gun that can switch
between firing a laser and lifting things via gravita-
tional force or generating illusions of scary monsters,
that probably should be given the Flexible Advantage
to make up for being able to use the Power in an es-
pecially wide set of circumstances. Similarly if your
Ability is a utility belt that contains a bunch of differ-
ent things such as handcuffs, lock-picks, listening de-
vices, a cutting torch, and a flash-bang grenade, that
would be represented by the Flexible Advantage.
Generally with the Flexible Advantage you should
be able to define what it does in advance, and
should limit yourself to no more than the Ability Level in
different aspects at once, so the aforementioned Util-
ity Belt with five tricks would require PL 5. That doesn’t
preclude using the Primary Rule to come up with new
clever uses for, say, handcuffs, but it should preclude
suddenly discovering a new device that’s just what
you need for the situation in there. If it makes sense,
you are free to change the list of what your Flexible
21
Disadvantages:
Ability does (e.g. what tricks you are carrying in your
utility belt) between adventures, or if you return to
your base.
Ultra-Flexible Abilities, on the other hand, represent
those that have uses too numerous to list out in ad-
vance, or that can be reconfigured “on the fly” by the
hero. With a utility belt using the Ultra-Flexible advan-
tage, you are allowed to just “discover” that you’ve
packed away a can of aerosol shark-repellant for just
this occasion, or (in a more serious vein) that you have
the chemicals needed to whip something like that
up on a moment’s notice. With Ultra-Flexible Abilities
you should be scrupulous in defining in advance cat-
egories of things that the Ability cannot do. Generally
the Ultra-Flexible Ability should have either one small
restriction per PL above 6 (such as can’t affect tar-
gets with a completely inhuman metabolism) or half
that many large restrictions (such as can’t affect inan-
imate objects, or targets with no mind). More power-
ful Ultra-Flexible Abilities thus are more restricted, but
they’re much more dangerous because they can be
tailored to the immediate situation.
Flexibility should not be used just to have a bunch
of different attacks to tailor them to bypass the tar-
get’s defenses; if you wish to have a Power that is par-
ticularly hard to defend against, take the Exotic ad-
vantage instead, or in addition. Flexibility is meant to
give you more options in how you describe using your
Power and the tasks it can apply to, not just a straight
mechanical advantage in knocking foes out.
In any event, Flexibility has no bearing on whether a
Power goes against Toughness, Stamina, or Will: that
is determined by the Primary Rule description of how
the Power is being used. A Laser Gun might be an at-
tack against Toughness if fired directly against a foe,
against Stamina if it were used to rupture a nearby
coolant line to release a choking cloud of gas, or
even against Will if you were snapping off shots trying
to force the foes to keep under cover.
Whether to represent several different things that
you can do as a single Power with the Flexible Ad-
vantage or take several different Powers is a matter
of style. Since you can only use a Power once per
Round, if you envision using it two different ways in
the same Round, or it seems implausible to you that
using say, your powered armor’s chest beam should
preclude you using its life-support at the same time,
you should take the powers separately.
New Advantages and Disadvantages
The list of Advantages and Disadvantages is not ex-
haustive, and you can consult with the GM and other
players about new ones you’d like to add. Before you
do, though, you should consider whether it can be
handled by one of the existing ones, some of which
are quite broad, or by a Complication, or just by ap-
plying the Primary Rule given how you imagine the
Power working. Zap! discourages min-maxing (tweak-
ing characters to get the maximum effectiveness for
3. F ILLING I N T HE T EMPLATES
the minimum drawbacks), so before you add a new
Advantage or Disadvantage you should really con-
sider whether it’s necessary to capture the concept
of the Power and not just an excuse to be able afford
an extra Power or Advantage or to make the Power
useful out of all proportion to its Power Level. One
quick test is if you wouldn’t mind if the enemies start
employing the same Advantage or Disadvantage on
their Powers, it’s probably okay.
Mishaps
Some Disadvantages such as Erratic or Side-Effects
only trigger when the hero rolls a “Mishap” on an at-
tempt to use the power. Mishaps never occur outside
the context of these Disadvantages, so most of the
time you don’t have to consider it. Mishaps don’t oc-
cur if the use of the power doesn’t require a roll, unless
the hero has the Frequent Mishaps Disadvantage.
If the power has such a Disadvantage then if a roll
on the power comes up doubles, there is a chance of
a Mishap. Roll a d12 to “confirm” whether there’s a
Mishap: if you roll less than or equal to the die-size of
the highest die, then a Mishap has occurred and the
Disadvantage takes effect. E.g. a PL 7 (d6, d4) power
has Burn-Out as a Disadvantage: the player rolls 3,
3 which means there’s a chance of a Mishap. She
rolls a d12, and if she gets a 6 or less the power burns
out. Disadvantages that have a chance of Mishap
will occur 1/12 of the time (powers rolling bigger dice
have less chance of doubles, but more chance that
doubles are confirmed as a Mishap).
If a Power that can have a Mishap has been re-
duced to a single die, such as when you are Hindered,
instead of checking for doubles roll a d12. On a roll of
12 a Mishap occurs.
Alternate Method If players find it simpler they can
roll a separate d12 Mishap die whenever they roll a
power with such a Disadvantage, and the Mishap oc-
curs on a roll of 12, regardless of what the other dice
show. The odds of Mishap are the same, but it requires
rolling more dice since you roll the Mishap die every
time and not just when doubles come up.
Restrictions
Scientists and Uniques need to choose a Restriction.
A fixed set of Restrictions will be part of the templates
for most alien creatures. Restrictions should be severe
enough that they could be used to definite strategic
advantage by a foe that knows about you, while not
crippling your character for play. Below are several
kinds of restriction for inspiration; this is not meant as
a complete list, but suggests how severe restrictions
ought to be. You can group minor restrictions to-
gether, especially of the same kind, to make a more
serious restriction.
22
Addiction: You need a certain unusual substance or
activity to survive, or are compelled to seek it. If
you are deprived of this substance, you can be
distracted by its presence. This counts as being
hindered until you obtain it or it is removed from
your presence.
Alter Ego: Under some circumstances, your body is
taken over by a personality that doesn’t take your
wishes into account. For example, a human host
of an alien symbiont might generally be the dom-
inant personality but sometimes find the alien in
control.
Aversion: You find a common substance unpleasant
to be around, e.g., a desert-world alien that hates
water. You will avoid it if at all possible, and if sud-
denly presented with it, will cringe away. This usu-
ally takes one Action. You cannot usually be af-
fected multiple times.
Block: There is a common activity that you cannot
do. For example, a cyborg might be unable to
swim.
Compulsion: Under some circumstance, you must do
something whether you wish to or not. You lose
control of your actions until this is finished. For ex-
ample, a shapeshifting alien might be required to
spend one hour out of 24 in a liquid state, unable
to take any actions.
Ritual: You need to undertake a daily ritual to keep
your powers or stay healthy. If you don’t get the
chance to perform the ritual, your powers are
hindered or disabled until you can do it. For
instance, certain kinds of robots might need to
recharge daily.
Susceptibility: A certain substance hurts you. You are
hindered while in its presence, and it may even-
tually be fatal. Example: a methane-breathing
alien might find oxygen poisonous.
Taboo: You are not permitted to do something that
most people do. If you do it, major portions of
your power will be blocked until the situation is
remedied. E.g. A robot might be programmed
to obey the Three Laws of Robotics, and malfunc-
tion or become catatonic if it ever accidentally
harmed a human
Vulnerability: A certain substance or kind of attack
hurts you disproportionately. E.g. an alien with
really sensitive hearing that is more easily hurt by
sonic attacks. Your defenses against this kind of
attack count as hindered, even the automatic
ones, so you only roll one die for each defense.
Chapter 4
Spending your Boosts
You have a certain number of Boosts to spend on your
character, usually 3. As you gain experience, you will
be able to purchase more Boosts. The number of XP
you need to get an additional Boost is equal to your
current number of Boosts.
Each Boost can be spent for one of the following:
• Add one to one of the four attributes: Toughness,
Stamina, Will, and Actions.
• Increase one power by 1 level or give it a small
Advantage. 2 Boosts give it a big Advantage.
• Increase two Shticks by 1 level each, or one Shtick
by 2 levels.
• Add one new power. The starting level is given in
your template.
• Add two new Shticks at the starting level in your
template, or one Shtick at one higher level.
• Get a companion, base, or vehicle. You can then
spend additional Boosts to improve these.
• Get three Assets. Assets are things like Favors,
Contacts
• You may increase an Ability by giving that Abil-
ity Disadvantages; a Small Disadvantage lets you
increase it by 1 or give it a Small Advantage; a
Big Disadvantage lets you: increase it by 2; add
2 Small Advantages; increase by 1 and add one
Small Advantage; add a Big Advantage.
Attributes
Boosts can be spent on increasing your Attributes.
Attributes in Zap! are characteristics that everybody
has. Three of the Attributes are primarily defensive,
representing how much characters can resist various
types of Powers: Toughness, Will, and Stamina. The
remaining Attribute, Actions, is how many different
things you can do in a Round. An ordinary person
has a score of 1 in each, but player characters start
with at least 2 in each. Having 3 in an attribute would
make you one of the world’s toughest humans in that
respect, and a 5 or more is definitely superhuman.
23
Toughness
Toughness is how physically durable you are. The
higher your Toughness, the more likely you are to
avoid becoming Out (of the fight) due to most types
of attack.
Will
Will is how mentally prepared and determined you
are. The higher your Will, the harder you are to Control
or put Out with a mental attack. You also get a bigger
bonus when making a Supreme Effort.
Stamina
Stamina is your endurance. It represents your ability to
push beyond your normal limits, as well as your resis-
tance to certain unusual forms of attack such as en-
ergy drains, being strangled or drowned. The higher
your Stamina, the harder you are to put Out with at-
tacks that weaken you, such as Energy Drain or Poison
Gas. You can also exert yourself more often by using
Supreme Effort more frequently and are less likely to
be tired by invoking Failure is Not an Option!
Actions
Actions is the number of distinct actions you can take
during a Round. Using an Active Power counts as an
Action even if you don’t end up rolling the dice, as
does manipulating objects such as opening a door,
pressing a big red destruct button, or calling some-
body on a cell phone. For instance, if you use your
Ice Mastery Power to create a slide to catch a falling
child you don’t need to roll for success, but it does still
take one of your Actions for the Round.
Think of an Action as a single panel in a comic book,
or a single shot in a movie.
One thing to keep in mind is that you can only use
most Powers once per Round, and each use takes
an Action; only Automatic Powers can be used mul-
tiple times in a Round and don’t cost an Action to
use. When creating your character you usually want
to balance your number of Powers with your Actions.
If you have many Powers but few Actions, you won’t
use most of your Powers in any one Round, although
4. S PENDING YOUR B OOSTS
it gives you a wide variety of Powers to pick from. If
you have many Actions but few regular Powers, many
of your Actions will be spent assisting teammates to
recover or performing tasks that don’t require Pow-
ers, such as closing doors, kicking away dropped
weapons, and so on.
Assets
Boosts can also be spent on Assets. Assets are
things owned by your character, such as Compan-
ions, Avatars, Vehicles, or Bases. Assets can belong to
a group rather than individual. If you are the crew of
a starship, the ship can belong to all of you. If a group
shares an Asset, they can divide up the costs arbitrar-
ily. Each can contribute a share of XP, including the
XP needed for the first Boost needed to purchase the
Asset.
Companions
Many characters in science fiction have assistants,
servants, pets, or trusted companions. Any type of
creature can be a Companion, from a flying, acid-
spitting mini-dragon to a mindless android awaiting
your instructions, to a trusted friend.
One Boost gets you a Companion with all Attributes
1, three powers at 5, and two Shticks at 4. Expe-
rience points spent on Companions don’t increase
your hero’s Boosts (and hence, do not increase the
XP Cost to buy future Boosts for you), but do increase
Boosts a costs for the Companion. It costs 1 XP to give
your Companion 1 Boost. From then on, it costs XP
equal to the total number of Boosts your Companion
already has to give it an additional Boost. So a sec-
ond XP gives it a second Boost, then 2 more XP are
required to give it a third. If you want to give your
Companions extra Boosts to start, you can trade one
of your Boosts for 3 XP and spend that on your Com-
panion or other Assets.
Not every friend or ally needs to be a Companion.
What distinguishes a Companion from a friend is that
a Companion will obey you almost unquestioningly,
and are willing to place themselves in danger for you.
Avatars
Certain kinds of Science Fiction stories, notably Cy-
berpunk, have much of the activity take place in cy-
berspace or a virtual reality. If this is a once-in-a-while
activity in the game, it can be handled as an ordinary
Power (e.g. Hacking, Cybersystems) but if it’s going to
be the basis of a lot of the action, the characters can
have Avatars, which are complete characters in their
own right that exist only in the VR/cyberspace setting.
One Boost gets you an Avatar that’s a complete char-
acter, using whatever Template you choose; it need
not be the same Template as the real-world version of
the character. When you are using your Avatar in cy-
berspace, your “meatspace” character is absorbed
24
in what it’s doing and gets no Actions. XP that you
earn can be spent on improving the Avatar instead
in the same way that you would improve your own
character. The Avatar will interact with objects and
other Avatars in cyberspace just as characters do in
the game-world, though the way that cyberspace
looks and behaves according to the Primary Rule may
vary considerably from the way the meatspace world
works; the GM and the players should take extra care
to discuss how it ought to work to avoid clashing as-
sumptions and styles.
Vehicles
Some characters have special Vehicles that allow
them to get to where the action is. Vehicles need
not be at the same Scope as the characters. Ones
at the same Scope take the characters from place
to place within an adventure or can be used in com-
bat scenes. Spaceships will generally be on a com-
pletely different Scope from the characters, and have
their own Chapter on designing and using them (see
Ships). Vehicles can carry teammates and cargo as
well as you. You don’t need a Vehicle as an Asset to
have a driver’s license and car. Only purchase a Ve-
hicle if it has special abilities of its own, or you actually
use it in a fight. A land-speeder is just a hovercraft that
takes you to the dives in the starport. That wouldn’t
count as a Vehicle. But Serenity, the ship in Firefly, is al-
most a character in its own right, and would certainly
be bought as a Vehicle.
Vehicle
Toughness 2
Movement 4 (D) Power-up +2 if traveling out-of-
combat
Defense 4 automatic defense
Cost: 1 Boost.
You can describe your Vehicle as fitting any number
of passengers, but the larger it is, the more restricted
it will be in going off-road, landing, or docking as ap-
propriate. You can give your Vehicle Boosts as you
would a Companion. The first Boost costs 1 XP, then
the second 2, and so on. This does not count towards
increasing your own Boosts. If you trade one of your
initial Boosts for 3 XP, you can thus use this to improve
your starting Vehicle by two Boosts.
Vehicles start with only Toughness as an Attribute,
but you can purchase Will and Actions. A Vehicle with
0 Actions can still use its Movement power to move,
since that costs 0 Actions. To use any other power,
or to use the Vehicles Movement to attack or defend,
you would need to use one of your own Actions. If you
buy your Vehicle at least one Action, it can perform
independent actions. If it has zero Will, your charac-
ter must have trained or programmed it explicitly for
these actions. If it has a Will of at least 1, it has some
kind of intelligence, and can react to circumstances
without explicit input from you.
You can also use a Boost to buy a spaceship, start-
ing with one of the base Ship Templates (equivalent

to 10 Wealth Points); some campaigns may be based
around the players all being crew on a much more
powerful Ship, in which case the GM should just de-
sign the ship using whatever budget seems sensible
and the players need not spend any Boosts to have it
as an Asset.
Bases
Characters often require a base of operations, where
they can store their equipment and mementos of their
past adventures, keep their labs and scientific equip-
ment, and recharge their robotic bodies. One Boost
gets you an area or structure of any description, suit-
able for occupation. It could be a building in an office
park, a secret asteroid base, a research compound
on a private island, or perhaps a huge warehouse in
the middle of nowhere. The structure will have Tough-
ness 4 and other Attributes 0. It will have two Shticks
at 4 usable by anyone inside, such as Research Li-
brary or First-Aid Kit. XP can be spent to improve a
base, just like for Companions and Vehicles. You can
give a base Attributes, Powers and Shticks. Powers
and Shticks are only usable inside the base, or at the
perimeter, as appropriate. If you don’t give it any Ac-
tions, someone inside needs to use an Action to trig-
ger any non-Automatic Power. If you give it Actions
but no Will, the powers are programmable, following
simple commands, and do not require someone else
to spend Actions. If you give it a positive Will, there is
some computer or other intelligence that controls the
base’s powers, and can act independently.
Base Advantages
These Advantages apply only to Powers that belong
to the base, and apply to a specific Power of the
base; you can’t, for instance, take the Advantage
Remote-Controlled as an advantage on the entire
base and have it apply to all the Powers in the base
“for free.” A base’s Powers may also have Advan-
tages from the regular list, where appropriate.
Remote-Controlled (A) Remote-Controlled Powers
can be activated by a hero from outside the
base, as long as he’s still within the Scope; the
Power would still take effect within the base
(though for some things, like looking up records
on a computer, that’s not really a Disadvantage).
Long-Ranged (AA) Long-Ranged Powers can be op-
erated from within the base but targeted at things
outside of the base, as long as they’re still in-
Scope. Powers would also need the Remote-
Controlled advantage to be operated from out-
side of the base to target something outside of
the base, e.g., a Teleporter that a hero could use
to travel to the base.
Larger Scope (AA) Larger Scope Powers can operate
at a Scope above that of the base; this advan-
tage can be taken multiple times, each time in-
25
Assets
creasing the Power up by one level of Scope. A
City-Scope base could thus have a scanner that
could monitor an entire Region, or a teleporter
capable of Interplanetary jumps.
Minor Assets
Some characters have special equipment, or perks,
like security clearance or law-enforcement authority,
some have contacts in the underworld or with the po-
lice, some are owed a big favor by somebody with
unusual resources or power, and some are well-known
enough to influence people’s reactions to them for
good or ill. These aren’t exactly Abilities, but they are
capabilities that are similar in some ways. Minor As-
sets come in several flavors: Equipment, Perks, Con-
tacts, Favors, Wealth and Rank. At creation a charac-
ter can spend one Boost on three Minor Assets appro-
priate to their Personal Scope. That is, if the Personal
Scope is Scope 5 (City), then their contact has City-
wide information/power/authority such as the Chief
of Police or Mayor, anchor of the local news, owner
of a local company, while a National-Scope Contact
might be the President, CEO of a nation-wide corpo-
ration, star of a nationally broadcast television pro-
gram, or a Supreme Court Justice.
Minor Assets can be adjusted up or down from the
base Scope two-for-one. So a City Contact could be
traded for two Neighborhood contacts, or four Street-
level contacts; in the other direction two City Con-
tacts could be traded for one Regional Contact, and
four could be traded for one National Contact.
When rolling for the effect of a Minor Asset, that is
where it’s not obvious from the nature of the Minor As-
set and the Primary Rule whether it would apply or be
effective, roll the Asset’s PL vs. a Difficulty commensu-
rate with the Scope. (See Difficulty for Other Tasks 11.)
Minor Assets begin at PL 4 unless otherwise stated.
When spending XP, you can choose to purchase
new Minor Assets, and XP spent on Minor Assets
doesn’t increase your hero’s Boosts. One point of XP
(not one Boost) purchases 1 Minor Asset at the current
Scope; increasing the Minor Asset’s PL by 1 costs 1 XP
for the first increase, 2 for the second, 3 for the third,
and so on.
Equipment
Characters can begin with equipment appropriate to
their Abilities for free; the die-size of the Equipment is
equal to the lower die of the appropriate Power or
Shtick, so this would be helpful in narrating what they
can do, but wouldn’t actually increase the roll. E.g.
if the character has a power Photon Sword at PL 5,
then a d4 Photon Sword would be free (since PL 5 rolls
a d6 and a d4); if the PL had been 6, then the Photon
Sword would start at 6. Spending 1 XP increases the
die-size by one, 2 XP to increase it again, and so on;
thus for one Boost (3 XP), that could become a d8
4. S PENDING YOUR B OOSTS

Photon Sword. See Equipmentfor a full discussion of Wealth

Equipment.
Perks
A Perk is a special dispensation or benefit that comes
from the role the character plays in the community
or with an organization. For instance, a character
might be deputized by the local police force, allow-
ing him to make legally sanctioned arrests, but requir-
ing him to follow the same rules as to probable cause
and evidence that the police follow. Another char-
acter might have security clearance with the Federal
Government, or even a far-flung stellar empire. The
effects and restrictions for having a Perk are worked
out through the Primary Rule, though the GM might
call for a roll of the Perk against the Difficulty if there’s
some doubt as to whether the requested use is truly
sanctioned by the Perk.
Contacts
A Contact is somebody with access to information or
authority who can prove useful to the character. A
contact might be a snitch in the local underworld, a
pal in the Star Knight records department, the head of
Interstellar Security Service, and so on, depending on
the Scope. Contacts will cooperate with the charac-
ter in areas that are within their competency and au-
thority, but won’t risk their lives or their careers to help.
Contacts might also call upon the character to recip-
rocate. The effects and restrictions for having a Con-
tact are worked out through the Primary Rule, though
the GM might call for a roll of the Contact’s PL vs. the
Difficulty if there’s some doubt as to whether the con-
tact really has the information or authority needed.
You don’t need a separate roll to see if the Contact
will help; the roll of the Contact’s PL vs. the Difficulty
covers that: failure could indicate the Contact won’t
help or can’t help, depending on the Primary Rule.
A Contact that would readily risk life and career to
help the character should be taken as if it were a
Companion, even if the contact would almost never
accompany the character on an adventure.
If the campaign is using the optional Wealth rules,
characters can start with Wealth as a Minor Asset.
Wealth starts at 4, and can be increased like any Mi-
nor Asset (1 XP for the first increase, 2 for the second,
etc.) but unlike most Minor Assets is likely to increase
or decrease during play, and not just as a result of
spending XP. If Wealth decreases during play, charac-
ters don’t get any XP they spent back. See Wealth for
a full discussion of how Wealth is used.
If you’re not using the Wealth rules, or even if you
are, characters can be wealthy as part of their back-
ground or as a Shtick, but that doesn’t translate di-
rectly into buying and selling things; instead it’s han-
dled narratively as part of the Primary Rule. I.e. a
character might justify trying to bribe her way to see
the Emperor with her Wealthy Shtick, but shouldn’t just
buy everybody on her ship d10 Powered Armor by ap-
pealing to her Shtick instead of spending XP for it un-
der the Equipment rules.
Rank
A character may have a rank within a particular or-
ganization; rank acts much like a Contact, but it’s the
character’s own authority that’s being exercised. The
rank should be commensurate with the character’s
Adventure Scope, rather than Personal Scope. You
can be a general without being able to fight like an
army. Roll the PL in Rank vs. the Difficulty set by the
GM to determine whether your rank grants you suffi-
cient authority. If you roll a Mishap while pulling rank,
there should be repercussions, though the order may
still be carried out if the roll was a success.

Favors
A Favor is something big that somebody owes the
character–big enough that they might actually risk
their life or career to help. Favors need not be owed
to the character by Contacts or friends: the local
gang lord might owe the hero a debt of honor for sav-
ing the gang lord’s daughter’s life, for instance. Fa-
vors can only be called in once, and then are gone.
You don’t usually need to roll to see if the person who
owes you the favor will cooperate, but the GM might
roll as with Contacts above if there’s some doubt
whether the favor being asked for is actually within
the debtor’s power to grant; if there’s some reason
that the person isn’t actually in the position to grant
the favor, the favor isn’t used up.
26
Chapter 5

Complications

Every good character has things that complicate life plications that everyone in your group will have, such
and add drama. It might be that in the eyes of the as Hates Evil or Takes Risks.
law, you are a dangerous criminal, or maybe your un-
cle wants you to stay home and be a moisture farmer
instead of joining Star Academy. Perhaps you are
poor, and have to struggle to earn enough credits
to keep your rust-bucket starship flying. You should
choose Complications to highlight themes you want
to be dealing with in the game. Complications are
invitations to the GM to focus on a particular aspect
of your character or kind of adventure you’d like to
have. Every Zap! character has roughly the same
number and severity of Complications. You are per-
fectly free to change your character’s Complications
between adventures; if you want to stop focusing on
your money problems for a while you can tell the GM
that and substitute a new Complication...perhaps you
become the target of a local crime lord, who wants
to recruit you as a smuggler. Removing poverty as Note On Complications
a Complication doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re
wealthy now, only that trying to earn enough credits Try to avoid thinking of Complications as part of a
for day-to-day ship’s expenses and repairs shouldn’t price you have to pay to the GM in order to play
crop up frequently in adventures. a cool alien creature or kick-ass cyborg warrior; that
can lead to picking a Complication that will annoy
Most characters take one Big Complication and
you when it crops up...but you’re not playing the
two Small Complications. Crew have the option
game in order to be annoyed, and it’s not the GM’s
of having 4 Small Complications instead, since their
job to keep you from having too much fun. Ideally
problems may be less of a character hook. A Big
you should be looking forward to your Complications
Complication is something that will crop up almost all
coming up in an adventure, because it throws the
the time, and will form one of the main themes of the
spotlight on your hero and gives you a chance to ei-
character. Not every adventure will incorporate it, but
ther have some drama or be clever and engage in
it will come as no great surprise if one does. A Small
lateral thinking. Kryptonite wasn’t introduced into Su-
Complication is one that only has an occasional im-
perman’s mythos in order to make it more fair, it was
pact, though it might be a big deal when it does, or if
created to make it more interesting. Having to res-
it crops up frequently it does so in a minor way. Com-
cue somebody from an area strewn with Kryptonite
plications can be chosen to be Big or Small depend-
presented a challenge that couldn’t be solved by a
ing on your preference. As a Small Complication, be-
straight application of his awesome powers. When
ing Wanted by the Law might mean that you can’t
you choose Complications you should be thinking in
go to the police to ask for information or assistance,
terms of what sort of problems would you like to be
and you leave your neatly-wrapped foes for them to
presented with during play and whether those will ac-
find, bugging out before they can arrest you too. As
tually be fun for you to deal with. Don’t over-think it,
a Big Complication, the police might actually try to
though; remember, in Zap! when you get tired of a
arrest you in the middle of a battle, or even aid your
Complication you can simply set it aside and replace
foe thinking that he must be one of the good guys
it with a new one. Ultimately the goal of Complica-
because he’s fighting you!
tions is to help the GM drive the game in directions
Since Complications are a way to focus the atten-
that you find interesting.
tion on your character, you don’t want to take Com-
27
Chapter 6

Fleshing out Your Character

Drive appearance could reflect your true nature (a bad-ass

who looks every bit a bad-ass), it could be adopted
Drive is a description of your character’s primary mo- deliberately to hide your true nature (a bad-ass who
tivation, what makes her go off and explore strange looks like Casper Milquetoast because being under-
new worlds and seek out new civilizations. It could estimated is useful), or it could be an ironic contrast
be curiosity, duty, vengeance, the desire for personal to or statement about your true nature (the big scary-
power, protecting the innocent, or the quest for per- looking alien who’s poetic and sensitive).
sonal enlightenment. Your Drive will help you role-play In addition, a picture or description can help you
your character, and help the GM come up with ad- resolve issues when it comes to applying the Primary
ventures that are interesting to you. Rule. There will often come times when you need
to know whether your hero wears a closed helmet,
say, or gloves, or has any accessible gadgets hang-
Back-story ing from her belt; in these situations a picture can be
worth a thousand words. Working out such details in
What happened before your character decided to advance, incidental to designing your hero’s appear-
adventure? Did you attend an Academy that trained ance, can speed play and free you from worrying
you? Were you kidnapped from your home-world? about whether you’re being fair.
Did you stow away on a starship, seeking adventure or If you are more of a visual person, you might even
just an escape from the slums where you were born? want to draw or use a computer sketch program to
Or is it just a job to you, not an adventure at all? create an image of your character.
Who are your family and friends? What do you do
for a living? Describe the character’s back story in as
much or as little detail as you like. This is your oppor-
tunity to flesh out who your character is and what she
can do other than fight. You can add details about
the character’s civilian life, profession and hobbies,
friends and family, skills and training, notable past ad-
ventures, and whatever else you think is relevant.
Your back story need not be completely deter-
mined at the start of play. Serial fiction is full of rev-
elations of previously unmentioned background de-
tails, from members of your family having been killed
decades before by this episode’s villain, to the big
bad actually being your father and your love inter-
est your sister. Players should feel free to Retcon their
character’s pasts, though they should probably clear
it with the GM before they do the kind that actually
contradicts prior versions of the story, just in case the
GM had built it into the campaign in a way that would
be hard to fix.

Appearance
Think about what image your character projects. How
will others see her or him? Usually, your appearance is
related to your true nature in one of three ways. Your
28
Chapter 7

Example Characters

Ace Astra, Starship Captain New Powers begin @ 5 New Shticks begin @ 4
Vehicle: The Peregrine
Template: Crew Hull: 4, Toughness: 2, Power: 2, Crew: 0
Drive: Explore the Galaxy! Powers
Toughness: 2, Stamina: 2, Will: 3, Actions: 2 Movement 5 (D) Power-up to 7 w/chance of Burn-
Powers Out
Great Reflexes 6 automatic defense. Deflector Shields 4 automatic defense
Academy Training 4 Trained at hand-to-hand com- Gun Turrets 4
bat and with pistols. Shticks
Starship Command 5 Cargo Bay A 5
Shticks Cargo Bay B 5
Starship Command 5 Power Plant 5
Charm Your Pants Off 5 Sensor Dish 5
Inspire 5 Ace can rally the troops or change the Restriction: Cranky. Each session roll a random sys-
course of a civilization with her oration tem that has the Erratic Disadvantage for that session
Bluff 5 Complications: Mortgaged; Jones has to keep
Tactics 5 working to pay off the ship, or it’ll be repossessed.
History 5
Complications
Major: Loyal commander. If Space Fleet orders it,
Parsifal Farmer
Ace does her duty, however personally distasteful. Template: Bad-ass
Minor: Can’t resist the opposite sex, and vice-versa. Toughness: 3, Stamina: 2, Will: 3, Actions: 2
Minor: Takes responsibility for her 435 crew seriously. Powers
New Powers begin @ 4 New Shticks begin @ 5 Photon Blade 5
Pilot 5
Solitaire Jones Star Knight Intuition 5
Star Knight Danger Sense 5 automatic defense
Template: Bad-ass Shticks
Drive: Get rich Dirt Farmer 4
Toughness: 3, Stamina: 2, Will: 3, Actions: 2 Mechanic 4
Powers Star Knight Traditions 4
Gunslinger 5 - shoots first Star Knight Psi 4 (D) Slow (requires 2 actions), (A)
Alertness 5 automatic defense Flexible: telekinetically move small objects, telepathic
Hotshot Pilot 6 communication, detect psi powers, mind shield
Shticks Equipment
Maintenance 4 Photon Blade d8
Knows a guy 4 - knows people everywhere Complications
Charming Rogue 4 Major: Easily swayed by a pretty face
Smuggler 4 Minor: Orphan
Complications Minor: Sister issues
Major: Wanted by the law: Jones has outstanding New Powers begin @ 5 New Shticks begin @ 4
arrest warrants on most of the central planets.
Minor: Bad at fast talk: If Jones attempts to talk his
way out of a situation, he usually makes it worse.
Minor: Never tell me the odds: Jones is a lousy gam-
bler.
29
7. E XAMPLE C HARACTERS
Dr. Markov
Template: Scientist
Toughness: 2, Stamina: 2, Will: 3, Actions: 2
Powers
Science! 7 (A) Power-up to Ultra-Flexible with 3 Re-
search scenes
Force-Shield Belt 4 automatic defense (A) Flexible
Shticks
Scientific Research 5
Boundless Enthusiasm 4 can carry otherwise sensible
people along with his crazy schemes
Complications
Major: His curiosity will get him killed one day.
Minor: Absent-minded
Minor: Can let his scientific enthusiasm cloud his
better judgment when it comes to building devices
on the behalf of would-be conquerors
Adam Procyon, Clone Warrior
Template: Bad-ass
Toughness: 3, Stamina: 2, Will: 2, Actions: 2
Powers
Instinctive Combat Training 5 All forms of combat
are literally programmed into his brain.
Genetically Enhanced 5 automatic defense His
genes have been modified to make him quick and
very tough.
Power Pilot 5 From jet-packs to star-ships, if he can
operate the controls, he can fly it.
Shticks
Demolitions 4 The art of destroying big things with
little bombs.
Security Systems 4 From computer surveillance to
mechanical locks, he can bypass them.
Interrogation 4 Getting what you want by being
reaaaallly scary.
Mechanic 4 A good soldier can maintain his equip-
ment, and tank, and airplane...
Complications
Major: Adam was decanted without a personality
overlay. He has no memories of a childhood, and
no learned skills or knowledge. All he has learned is
what he learned from the archeology team that dis-
covered him. His personal skills are lacking, and he
knows nothing of the universe.
Minor: Adam’s programmed skills include an incli-
nation to follow orders from anyone seen as an au-
thority. He sometimes has trouble thinking for himself.
Minor: Adam was built by a tyrant who tried to take
over the galaxy, and gave it a good shot. Anyone
who ever saw one of his “brothers” out of their uniform
will recognize him as a Clone Warrior.
New Powers begin @ 5 New Shticks begin @ 4
30
Grr’onk, Trog Co-pilot
Template: Unique
Toughness: 4, Stamina: 2, Will: 3, Actions: 2
Powers
Big 6 Half again as big as a human, and strong to
boot
Hairy 6 automatic defense thick hair is hard to pen-
etrate, and even if something does it’s hard to tell
where the vital spots are in there
Pilot 4 Can operate most of the ships systems, but
starship piloting isn’t typical of Trogs
Shticks
Starship Maintenance 3 can fix systems that go
wrong, sort of
Wilderness Survival 4 Trogs are at home in the jungles
and forests
Complications
Major: human-sized gear doesn’t fit
Minor: Can’t speak Galactic, though he under-
stands it; his voice box and lips aren’t shaped cor-
rectly.
Minor: Fastidious. Doesn’t like to do anything that
will make him have to clean all that hair.
New Powers begin @ 6 (or 4 if they don’t fit the
stereo-type) New Shticks begin @ 4 (or 3 if they don’t
fit)
Spotty, uplifted dog Engineer
Template: Crew
Drive: Keep the damn ship working
Toughness: 2, Stamina: 2, Will: 2, Actions: 2
Powers
Dog Gone 6 automatic defense. He’s small, fast,
and never where you expect him.
Telekinesis 4 His uplift includes telekinetic ability, but
it’s not very strong
Ruff’n’Tumble 4 knows how to fight with his teeth,
and can take a kicking
Shticks
Starship Engineering 5
Dogged Determination 5 once he grabs hold of a
problem he never lets go
Nose for Trouble 5
Scrounger 5 he can find parts almost anywhere,
sometime even legally
Streetwise 5
Party Animal 5
Complications
Major: He’s a dog; until he speaks most people
don’t even know he’s been uplifted, and he still some-
times has trouble getting strangers to take him seri-
ously.
Minor: Doesn’t understand human society very well.
Minor: No manipulatory appendages, so he has to
use his weak telekinesis for anything humans do with
their hands
New Powers begin @ 4 New Shticks begin @ 5
 Null Pointer, Hacker

Tok, Menton Ninja Teleport 5 can vanish in a puff of “smoke” and

re-appear elsewhere.
Template: Menton Shticks
Drive: Understand the universe Cyberspace Streetwise 4 Knows the ins and outs of
Toughness: 2, Stamina: 2, Will: 2, Actions: 2 cyberspace, and the seamy underside and subcul-
Powers ture
Logic 6 Mentons are relentlessly logical and capa- Tracking 4 Can follow other avatars through cy-
ble of lightning calculations of trajectories and prob- berspace
abilities that serves them instead of formal combat Patch 4 Can heal damage to avatars, including
training. himself, by patching in new code
Science! 6 specializes in physics and astronomy Cool 4 the avatar is cool and sexy, with all the dark
Alien Metabolism 6 automatic defense. Stronger, and brooding charisma and calm self-confidence
faster, and more resilient than humans. See Menton that Null doesn’t have in meatspace.
template for details.
Shticks
Scientific Research 4 specialty: physics
Polymath 4 (AA) Ultra-flexible. Knows a little bit of
everything about everything except the soft-sciences
Hyper-chess 4
Painting 3
Complications
Major: Doesn’t understand human society or emo-
tions, though he finds them fascinating.
Minor: Secretly addicted to 20th century soap op-
eras
Minor: Semi-friendly rivalry with ship’s psychologist
Restriction: Doesn’t do the “soft” sciences, such as
psychology or medicine.
New Powers begin @ 6 if they fit the stereotype, 4
otherwise New Shticks begin @ 4 if they fit, 3 otherwise

Null Pointer, Hacker

Template: Scientist
Drive: Riches
Toughness: 2, Stamina: 2, Will: 3, Actions: 2
Powers
Hacking! 5 (A) Power-up to Ultra-Flexible with 3 Re-
search scenes
Nebbish 4 automatic defense not worth noticing
Shticks
Computer Research 5
Geek culture 4 knows everything there is to know
about anime, video games, comic books
Complications
Major: Easily duped by a pretty face.
Minor: Poor social skills.
Minor: For someone who professes to be driven by
money, he’s generous at inconvenient times
Null’s Avatar
Null’s Avatar in cyberspace; a cyber-ninja. In cy-
berspace, security systems will appear as creatures
that he can fight with his powers.
Template: Bad-ass
Toughness: 3, Stamina: 2, Will: 2, Actions: 2
Powers
Vorpal Blades 5 Viruses that appear in cyberspace
as ninja swords, capable of fighting on their own.
Ninja Stealth 5 automatic defense
31
Chapter 8

Alien templates

Here are some aliens suitable for PCs reminiscent of

various SF tales. Most campaigns would replace these Menton Template
or at least add new ones to flesh out the setting. Aliens Mentons are relentlessly logical beings who’ve
should be designed to be able to work along side of purged their society of useless emotion, except
humans (possibly using high technology) or whatever for once every seven years when they binge on it.
the baseline sophont of the setting is, e.g. no aliens Mentons are better than humans in practically ev-
that can only survive in an atmosphere that would be ery measurable way, yet somehow always seem
poisonous to all the other player characters unless be- to find themselves in subordinate positions to hu-
ing trapped in an environment suit is part of the chal- mans, who have the emotional drive to get things
lenge of playing that alien. done.
Attributes: Tough: 2 Will: 2 Stamina: 2 Actions: 2
Powers:
Klangon Template Logic: 6 Mentons are relentlessly logical and ca-
Klangons are a race of boney-foreheaded
pable of lightning calculations of trajectories and
aliens with a proud warrior culture, a love of
probabilities that serves them instead of formal
opera, and taste for prune juice.
combat training.
Attributes: Tough: 4 Will: 2 Stamina: 2 Actions: 2
Science!: 6 Mentons are universally trained as
Powers:
scientists, and have a Science! specialty just as if
Great Strength: 6 (d6, d6)
they were using the Scientist template.
Hardiness: 6 (d6, d6) automatic defense
Alien Metabolism: 6 automatic defense. Men-
Combat Training: 6 Klangons are trained almost
tons are stronger, faster, and more resilient than
from birth in armed and unarmed combat
humans, and many things that would poison hu-
Shticks: 2 Shticks @ 3 (d4) or 4 (d4, d4) if they fit
man won’t work on Mentons. In addition they
the stereotype
have a rarely-noticed nictating membrane that
New Powers: The following will start at 6 if
can protect their eyes from excessively bright
chosen: Armored Exoskeleton (some Klangons
lights that would be enough to blind humans per-
elect to be permanently welded into their battle-
manently.
gear), Berserk (Klangons can go berserk, becom-
Shticks: 2 Shticks @ 3 (d4) or 4 (d4, d4) if they fit
ing nigh unstoppable: treat as an automatic heal-
the stereotype
ing power that will Unhinder or work to revive the
New Powers: The following will start at 6 if cho-
Klangon if Out, after the battle the Klangon is Out
sen: Nerve Punch (study of humanoid nervous sys-
even if uninjured). Other powers unique to that
tems lets them select targets that will disable with-
particular Klangon may be taken at 4.
out injury), Mind Mold (Mentons can impose their
New Shticks: Start at 4 if they fit the stereotype,
own memories on others with flesh-to-flesh con-
3 otherwise
tact)
Restrictions: Psi Weakness: Klangons never de-
New Shticks: Start at 4 if they fit the stereotype,
fend against Psi attacks with better than their De-
3 otherwise
fault Skill; Today Is A Good Day To Die: Klangon
Restrictions: none
culture forbids surrender or retreat, and any Klan-
Power Boosts: none
gon known to have done so (even under direct
orders) will be stripped of all rank and honors and
socially ostracized until he or she can make good
by dying spectacularly.
Power Boosts: Because Toughness was in-
creased by 2, the Klangon template needed 2 re-
strictions.

32
 Deltan Template
Deltans are shape-shifting telempaths. They
have a reputation for being somewhat flighty and
emotional, but they often serve as ship’s psychol-
ogists.
Attributes: Tough: 2 Will: 3 Stamina: 2 Actions: 2
Powers:
Shapeshift: 6 Deltans can assume any form
they’ve seen before, of roughly the same mass; if
that form has special non-technological, non-psi
powers such as claws, stings, or acid breath, they
will have those powers while in that form.
Telempathy: 6 Deltans can sense and project
emotions.
Regeneration: 6 automatic defense. (A) Flexi-
ble. Deltans are hard to hurt for very long.
Shticks: 2 Shticks @ 3 (d4) or 4 (d4, d4) if they fit
the stereotype
New Powers: The following will start at 6 if cho-
sen: Mind Bond (Can form a permanent tele-
pathic bond with one other, allowing two way
communication of more than just emotions)
New Shticks: Start at 4 if they fit the stereotype,
3 otherwise. Typical Shticks: Psychology, Protocol,
Diplomacy, any Cultural or Art, Disguise, Acting
Restrictions: Deltans must spend 1 hour out of
every 24 in a quiescent chrysalis form.
Power Boosts: Deltans have one power boost,
to account for the Flexible Advantage on their re-
generation.
Warbot Template
Warbots are robots equipped and pro-
grammed for combat.
Attributes: Tough: 4 Will: 3 Stamina: 2 Actions: 2
Powers:
Armored Body: 6 Warbots are heavily armored,
and as robots do not need to breath or eat, and
are immune to things like poison and disease.
Incinerator Beam: 6 Warbots typically have one
heavy-duty attack.
Shticks: 2 Shticks @ 3 (d4) or 4 (d4, d4) if they fit
the stereotype
New Powers: The following will start at 6 if cho-
sen: Jump Jet, Ship’s Gunner, Force Field, Riot Gas
New Shticks: Start at 4 if they fit the stereotype,
3 otherwise. Typical Shticks are Calculation, Tac-
tics, Computer Interface, Military History, Politics,
Use Military Equipment, Repair
Restrictions: Warbots have a manual off switch
as a fail-safe.
Power Boosts: Warbots have one power boost,
to up their Toughness by 1
33
Diplomatron
Diplomatrons are protocol bots, used as transla-
tors and diplomatic aides.
Attributes: Tough: 2 Will: 2 Stamina: 2 Actions: 2
Powers:
Diplomacy: 6 Diplomatrons are adept at nego-
tiating with things, even while they’re attempting
to harm them.
Fault Tolerance: 6 Diplomatrons can still func-
tion even when severely damaged (missing
parts, gaping holes, having to carry their heads
around).
Shticks:
Languages 5
Politics 5
New Powers: The following will start at 6 if cho-
sen: Psychological/Social defenses such as “Let’s
talk this over.”
New Shticks: Start at 4 if they fit the stereotype,
3 otherwise: Typical Shticks are any knowledge or
cultural Shticks except things like intimidation or in-
terrogation.
Restrictions: Pacifist (personal only, doesn’t try
to dissuade others from violence).
Power Boosts: Diplomatrons have one boost, to
raise Languages and Politics Shticks by 1.
Servo-Unit
Servo-units are trashcan-shaped robots that are
adept at interfacing with, controlling and repair-
ing the software of other machines and robots.
Attributes: Tough: 2 Will: 3 Stamina: 2 Actions: 2
Powers:
Interface: 6 (AA) Control. Servo-Units can con-
trol computers, machinery, and other robots, pro-
vided they can physically interface with them.
Not Worth Noticing: 6 Servo-Units are small and
unassuming, and are so common in any civilized
high-tech facility that they generally are unno-
ticed as they go about their business, even during
a firefight.
Regeneration: 6 automatic defense. (A) Flexi-
ble. Deltans are hard to hurt for very long.
Shticks:
Repair 6 (DD) need to be able to control some-
thing else if repair requires physical manipulation
Navigation 4
New Powers: The following will start at 6 if cho-
sen: Ships Systems such as Gunner or Pilot
New Shticks: Start at 4 if they fit the stereotype, 3
otherwise. Typical Shticks: any sort of engineering
or mechanical knowledge.
Restrictions: No manipulative limbs; can under-
stand but not speak common languages.
Power Boosts: Deltans have one power boost,
to account for the Flexible Advantage on their re-
generation.
 Part II

Playing Zap!

34
Chapter 9
Quick Summary
Here’s a quick summary of the mechanical options in
Zap! Any option you take must be justified by describ-
ing what you’re doing according to the Primary Rule.
Further details on each are supplied in the following
chapters, but this is the essence of the game.
• Attack Spend an Action. Roll 2 dice, take higher.
• Use Ability spend an Action. Roll vs. GM-assigned
Difficulty to succeed.
• Defend Defend with an Automatic or spend an
Action to defend with a regular Power. If At-
tacker’s roll beats yours, you are Hindered; if it
beats it by more than your Attribute, you are Out
(vs. Toughness)/Tired (vs. Stamina)/Influenced
(vs. Will).
• Counter Spend Action to roll Ability against Ability
to prevent it succeeding; Countered character
can choose not to contest the roll but abort in-
stead (reuse the action and Ability for something
else), or can spend an extra Action to use a dif-
ferent Ability to contest the Counter roll.
• Combine Each participant spends one Action per
Ability they are contributing. Roll dice based on
which Ability’s Advantages you want to use, +1
per Ability involved (Max bonus = number of play-
ers, no more than +1 from any one character).
Tropes
Tropes are variations on the basic rules that provide a
better fit for specific things typical of the genre.
• Wild Shot Swap 2 matched dice for 1 die next
size higher (or drop low die for +1 on high if mis-
matched).
• Disable Power vs. Ability to temporarily disable
the target Ability; Hinder means it’s unusable until
the owner spends an Action; Out is unusable until
the owner spends a Turn fixing it; Overkill needs
out-of-combat repair. Automatic Defenses are
immune, unless the attacking Power has the Dis-
abling Only Advantage.
35
• Failure is Not an Option! Can opt to become Hin-
dered to change a non-combat roll to highest
possible (if this would require a larger adjustment
than your Stamina, become Tired).
• Splitting Powers Split roll into single die at two dif-
ferent targets, -1 die size for each doubling of
number of targets after that. (4 targets is -1, 8 is
-2, etc.)
• Careful Aim Take half the largest die instead of
rolling; no Collateral Damage. Not while Hin-
dered.
– Pull Your Punch No Overkill
• Supreme Effort Add Will to die roll. May try
Supreme Effort after roll is made if you spend an
extra Action. Become Tired; Stamina drops by 1.
• Sheer Determination Spend 1 Will to become
completely Unhindered.
• Chase Spend an Action to change range; may
be Countered by a Move vs. Move/Search vs.
Hide contest. Ranges are Combat Range, Pursuit
Range, Lost Contact.
• Aid Spend an Action to completely Unhinder an
ally.
• Revive/Finish Off Spend all your Actions in a
Round to bring an ally back from Out, or to pre-
vent an enemy from recovering from Out.
• Intimidate spend an Action to Attack vs.
Best Power and Will to cow foe, (Hinder =
hesitates/considers cooperating, Out = surren-
ders/flees); each die reduced by a die-size if vs.
multiple foes at once.
• Jury Rig cobble together a new Ability by com-
bining Abilities (choose one as base, +1 PL for
each other contributing power), the contributed
Abilities are Burned Out for the rest of the Scene;
if that’s not appropriate the contributor becomes
Tired instead.
9. Q UICK S UMMARY

• This Ends Now! Both sides agree to resolve entire

confrontation in straight up roll; higher side wins
decisively, losers are captured or otherwise out of
the picture.
• Boldly Go volunteer to be “gaffed with the plot
hook” to move the adventure along; gain 1 XP.

36
Chapter 10
Defining Abilities
In Zap!, most of what a character can do is repre-
sented by Abilities; Abilities are divided into Powers
and Shticks. Powers are Abilities potentially useful in
combat, Shticks are all other Abilities. For instance
if a character is extremely strong, the character has
the Power “Super Strength.” Strength at ordinary lev-
els, even for a gifted athlete, isn’t recorded and only
rarely has any effect on the mechanics of the game.
Characters are assumed to be relatively normal in ev-
ery aspect that isn’t specifically identified as being so
exceptionally good as to amount to a Power or Shtick,
or so bad as to be a Complication. You are com-
pletely free to choose what your Powers and Shticks
are, their names, and descriptions of how they work.
How many you get and how they interact with other
Abilities are governed by the game mechanics.
The most important aspect of Abilities is concep-
tual: what does it do? Two Abilities might be mechan-
ically identical, but if one is Super Strength, and the
other is a Laser Beam, how they are used and what
they can accomplish are different. In Zap!, it is never
sufficient to simply invoke the Ability and roll the dice
for the mechanical effect. The Primary Rule of “Does
this sound like an SF story?” must be obeyed. If the
goal is to free a civilian trapped beneath a car, the
player could use Super Strength to lift the car off, or
a Laser Beam to cut the civilian free, but if the player
can’t come up with a plausible way for the Ability to
accomplish the task (for instance trying to free some-
body trapped beneath a car with an Ability that can
only be used to engulf an area in flames, or that cre-
ates intangible illusions) then the action isn’t permit-
ted.
Note that it only needs to be plausible in terms of
SF stories; it’s not recommended that you really try to
justify the physics in real-world terms. Worrying about
whether, even given Super Strength, the character
can actually find enough leverage and the car has
sufficient structural integrity to be lifted from particu-
lar hand-holds is not something that any but the most
hard-core SF stories do. On the other hand, you don’t
want to have the game degenerate into farce when
the character uses Super Strength to just reach in and
lift the water out of a swimming pool, at least without
somebody freezing it first.
The decision of whether a particular use of a Power
37
or Shtick is sufficiently SF-plausible in Zap! should be
left up to the players instead of delegated to the GM.
Players continuously asking whether a particular ac-
tion is permissible will slow things down and interrupt
the flow. As long as all the players bear in mind that
they should be limiting themselves to the kind of ac-
tions that they would like to read about or see in a
movie, and avoid the sorts of things that would make
them roll their eyes or snicker if they were the audi-
ence, minor disagreements over plausibility should be
overlooked to keep the action flowing. Remember
as well that there’s often more than one way to ac-
complish something with an Ability; reaching into a
swimming pool and lifting the water out with your Su-
per Strength is silly, but stomping the ground so hard
the swimming pool cracks and the water drains out
makes perfect genre sense.
The corollary to the Primary Rule is that in Zap! the
description is the ability. If something sounds like a
SF story, it should be valid, even if there are no spe-
cific game mechanics permitting it. The mechanics,
and in particular what dice you throw, are there as an
aid to figuring out what happens when one Power or
Shtick is pitted against another, or against the circum-
stances, but the determining factor should be what
the description of the Ability implies it ought to be
able to do. How do you know if the Flame Blast can
overcome the Ice Shield thrown up as a defense? You
roll the dice. How do you know if the Flame Blast can
set a bunch of papers on fire? It just can, because
that’s what makes sense. Actions that are squarely
within the concept of the Ability don’t require justifi-
cation or rolls. Actions that are clearly outside of the
scope of the Ability shouldn’t be attempted, no mat-
ter how high a Power Level you have. Can an Ice
Shield protect you against Telepathic Assault? Seems
unlikely, so don’t roll for it. Again, if it seems border-
line whether it should be allowed or not, go with the
player’s interpretation. That puts a lot of power in the
hands of the player, but remember: with great power
comes great responsibility!
10. D EFINING A BILITIES

Ability Examples anything that makes sense according to the Primary

Rule would be allowed, you could also use something
Here are some examples: like Super Strength to resist by grabbing on to a nearby
Example 1: You’ve given your hero a Power called object or even digging your fingers into the ground;
Clone, which allows him to make duplicates of him- again that would take an Action and be your one use
self. When you try to use this Power in combat to cre- of that Power in the Round.
ate a squad of yourself and all tackle the foe, you roll
the dice based on the Power Level of your Power and
compare that to the foe’s defenses, just as if you had
used a Power such as Fire Blast. Bear in mind that ac- Disagreements
cording to the Primary Rule you might require further
justification or explanation depending on the circum- Disagreements or uncertainty over whether the use of
stance: if the enemy is flying hundreds of feet up, just an Ability follows from the description should be re-
tackling him outright is implausible; you would have to solved in favor of the player; the GM should feel free
further justify the action by doing something like com- to point out considerations that the player might have
bining it with Jump-jets, or being thrown by a com- overlooked, such as the enemy being hundreds of
panion with Super Strength and then Cloning yourself feet in the air, and encourage the player to consider
in mid-air once you’d hit the enemy. whether the use of the Ability is in keeping with the
If you want to use your Clone Power to create a du- Primary Rule and to modify or abandon it if it’s not.
plicate who will go converse with the guards to dis-
It’s also legitimate for the GM to reveal information
tract them while the other you sneaks into the ware-
that the player might not have known that has bear-
house, you don’t need to roll anything; the description
ing on the proposed use of the Ability, or even render
of the Power clearly implies that you ought to be able
it moot. For instance: Ace Astra attempts to use her
to do that, and that’s all it takes.
Freeze Ray-gun to form an ice slide to catch a tod-
Example 2: Your hero has the Power Weather Con-
dler plummeting towards her doom. Ordinarily that
trol, and is trying to prevent the enemy space ma-
would be a perfectly valid use of the Power, but if
rine from kidnapping the Ambassador. Since space
the GM knows that it’s actually a hologram of a child
marine’s powered armor has so far been too tough
rather than a real child, when the player announces
for your direct attacks using Weather Control to cre-
“I use my Freeze Ray-gun to create a slide and catch
ate lightning, you decide to try to conceal the Am-
her” before the player continues with describing what
bassador’s location by whipping up a fog bank. As-
she’ll do once she’s caught the child, the GM should
suming the space marine has no Power granting him
inform her that the child passes right through the slide
senses that would let him penetrate the fog, he’ll have
without stopping or slowing. It’s possible that in some
to beat your roll on Weather Control with his Default
of these cases the GM should rule that the Ability just
Skill in order to locate the Ambassador. The effect will
doesn’t work as proposed without revealing exactly
last until the space marine uses an appropriate Power
why, if there is something going on that the character
to blow the fog away, or it disperses naturally.
can’t be aware of, but the GM should make every ef-
If you had chosen to try to blind the space ma- fort to at least describe to the players what does hap-
rine directly with your fog, you would roll against the pen or appears to happen instead rather than flatly
space marine’s appropriate defense (again the De- declaring “That didn’t work.”
fault Skill unless he had an appropriate heightened
sense), and if successful would result in him being Hin-
dered; it would last until he spent an Action to do
something that would clear it or move himself out from Power Level
under. In this case, if you had rolled well enough to
score an Out, the Out result would be interpreted as
the space marine stumbling around blindly, unable to All Powers and Shticks are rated as to their Power
take effective action. Level. Power Level determines the number of dice
rolled when pitting that Ability against another Abil-
Example 3: The enemy is attempting to use his
ity or to try and perform some task while under stress,
Telekinesis to lift your character into the air. Your
as well as how much the Ability can do in real-world
character’s Automatic Defense is Invulnerability; while
terms: how fast, how heavy, how big? Each level in
that would protect you from a telekinetic blow, there
Power Level substantially increases the effect, ranging
doesn’t seem to be any logical reason that would pre-
from a 50% increase per level at Street Scope to 64
vent it from lifting you, so you wouldn’t get to use it
times as much per level at Cosmic Scope.
to defend. If your Movement Power were, say, Flight,
then it is conceivable that you could attempt to resist Power Levels are assigned dice equivalent and
the Telekinesis by Flying in the opposite direction, but when rolling for the effect of an Ability, you roll the
you would have to spend an Action to use it (unlike two dice listed and take the higher result. In Zap! you
the Automatic Defense); also, since it’s a Movement never add the dice together.
Power it would only defend with a single die. Because
38

PL Dice PL Dice
2 single d2 10 d10, d10
3 single d4 11 d12, d10
4 d4, d4 12 d12, d12
5 d6, d4 13 d8+5, d12
6 d6, d6 14 d12, d8+5
7 d8, d6 15 d8+5, d8+5
8 d8, d8 16 d8+5, d10+5
9 d8, d10 17 d10+5, d10+5
Note that the Power Levels follow an easy-to-
remember pattern: at even levels you use two dice
of the same size, and that size matches the level; odd
levels have one die of the next higher level and one of
the next lower. Power Levels beyond 12 are not com-
mon, generally only appearing when characters of
different Scopes face one another.
Regular Powers
Regular Powers can be used to attack or defend, as
well as whatever else the description of the Power im-
plies; just because Powers can be used in combat to
attack or defend doesn’t mean they can’t be used
for other purposes. On the other hand Shticks cannot
be used to attack or defend: if it seems plausible that
you could use an ability to hinder or harm somebody,
or to protect yourself, you should make it a Power.
If you use a Power to defend during a Round it will
defend against all the subsequent attacks during the
Round as long as there’s a reasonable Primary Rule
explanation of how it applies. E.g., once you’ve de-
cided to use your Powered Armor to defend yourself
that Round versus an attack with toxic gas by sealing
up the vents and going to internal oxygen, you will
continue to be able to defend against new attacks
that same Round with your Powered Armor even if it
requires a different Primary Rule explanation of how
the armor ought to apply. Even defending with a
Power that requires more activity than that, say using
Acrobatics to jump around and dodge, would apply
to all the attacks during the Round for which Acrobat-
ics makes sense as a defense.
Movement Powers
Movement Powers primarily let you move around,
whether getting to the scene of the adventure, chas-
ing a bad-guy or in combat. They may also be used
to attack or defend, where that makes sense accord-
ing to the Primary Rule (e.g., using fly to ram into a foe,
or super speed to dodge bullets), and may be com-
bined with other Powers.
Movement Powers take an Action if you want to
change Range categories or use them for attack or
defense; when used to attack or defend, Movement
Powers use only one of their dice. Movement with a
Movement Power within a Range category doesn’t
take an Action, it’s just part of the narration of your
39
Shticks
turn; if you don’t have a Movement Power, you are
presumed to be using your Default Skill when moving
around during your turn, and that will take an Action.
Your Movement Power can open or close Range
with a foe by one Range category per Round (Com-
bat Range » Pursuit Range » Lost Contact). The ap-
proximate distance a range increment represents will
vary by Scope. Combats will either begin at Com-
bat Range, or at Pursuit Range if the characters first
catch sight of the enemies (or vice-verse) at a dis-
tance. Range doesn’t change unless the combat-
ants are deliberately trying to manipulate the range
to their advantage.
You cannot use a Movement Power to change
Range categories and to attack or defend in the
same Round.
Shticks
Shticks are Abilities that can only be used for things
other than attack and defense, for instance to heal
an ally, or search an area. They can be used during
combat, as long as they aren’t used as an attack or
defense. For example, it’s perfectly legitimate to use
your Thievery Shtick to attempt to pick a lock while
a fight rages around you; it’s not allowed to use your
Thievery Shtick to defend yourself from somebody try-
ing to shoot you by hiding in shadows or blocking with
your lock-picks–if you want to be able to do that sort
of thing buy it as a Power instead.
Shticks start at the level indicated in your Template
(e.g. 4 for Bad-Asses, 5 for Crew). Shticks may take
more than one Round to use where that would be
logical, e.g. combing a library for clues is likely to take
longer than a fraction of one Round. If you start to
use a Shtick for something that will take several Rounds
and decide you would rather do something else, you
can stop at any time, though you won’t regain any
already spent Actions. Whether you can resume your
partially completed task later or your effort so far will
be lost will depend on what would be logical given
what you were doing. A partially-built device will likely
wait, a partially-delivered speech to rally the troops,
not so much.
Shticks are what Zap! has instead of such things
as skills or talents that are common in other systems.
If you are an extraordinarily good detective, engi-
neer, or archaeologist, good enough that you would
regularly rely on that ability in your adventures, that
would be a Shtick; if being a detective or engineer
was merely a day job that might crop up once in a
while depending on the situation, that would just be
part of your Background. Having it as part of your
Background doesn’t mean you are mediocre at it–
you might still be world-class, but it does mean that
the adventures you have don’t typically call on your
skills in that regard. If a roll is required to employ a skill
implied by your Background, roll the Default Skill (a sin-
gle d4); if you have nothing in your Background that
might be applicable you roll a single d2.
10. D EFINING A BILITIES
Of course, Shticks also represent genuine superhu-
man abilities such as X-Ray vision, Telempathy, a por-
tal to an alternate dimension, and so on. Abilities that
you don’t intend to use all the time should generally
be in this category unless it’s important that they be
useful to attack or defend.
Shticks that can be used for movement are pre-
sumed not to be usable in combat. E.g., you could
have an ordinary helicopter, or even an extraordinary
satellite-based teleporter, as a Shtick to get you from
mission to mission provided it was slow or cumbersome
enough that you couldn’t use it to flit around while
fighting. If you wanted to be able to fight while using
it, you would take it as Movement Power or a Vehicle
instead.
To use a Shtick that gives you some kind of connec-
tion or “in” with an authority roll your Shtick against
the Scope of the intended connection as the Power
Level, e.g. a Famous Actor or Business leader trying
to impress the mayor of a City would roll against PL
5 (since Cities are Scope 5+), so would roll the Shtick
against d6, d4.
The amount you beat the difficulty by is your degree
of success:
0. Your connection has a neutral attitude towards
you
1. Co-operative attitude,
2. Friendly attitude,
3. Warm attitude,
4. Servile attitude, where they are desperate to
please you.
For Shticks that give information use the following in-
terpretation:
0. Single yes/no question will be answered,
1. One-word answer,
2. Short sentence, quantity, or direction,
3. Diagram or paragraph description,
4. Sketch or series of questions,
5. Clear image or a conversation with the GM.
This also holds for powers, but Shticks are more likely
to be used to gain information. Shticks can be com-
bined with powers using the combining powers rule,
but not to attack or defend. In combat, Shticks take
an Action to use. Out of combat they take a variable
amount of time, as is appropriate to the situation. A
medical knowledge Shtick might take only a glance
to identify that a corpse has a missing liver, or days of
study to investigate the medicinal uses of a rare com-
pound found in an alien laboratory.
40
Active vs. Automatic
All Powers are either Active or Automatic, depend-
ing on when and whether they require an Action to
use. Shticks are neither; whether a Shtick requires you
to spend an Action depends on what you’re doing
with it. E.g. picking a lock would require an Action,
while recognizing whether an alien is of a known type
based on your Xenobiology Shtick would not.
Active Powers
Any Power that requires an Action to use is Active. Ac-
tive Powers never trigger unless you spend an Action
to activate them. Each Active Power may only be
used once per Round, no matter how many Actions
you have, though you may use as many different Ac-
tive Powers as you have Actions. Once you spend
an Action on an Active Power in order to defend, it
will continue to defend you until the beginning of your
next turn (when you would have to spend another Ac-
tion to renew it), even against new attacks.
Automatic Powers
Automatic Powers are used automatically whenever
certain conditions are met, and don’t cost an Ac-
tion to use. What those conditions are and what the
Power does are determined when you take the Power.
An Automatic Power may be used either for attack
or defense, not both. For instance, Armor might be
an Automatic Defense that would be used whenever
you were physically attacked. Flaming Body could be
Automatic Attack that would be used whenever you
were grabbed. Automatic Defenses defend against
every appropriate incoming attack, Automatic At-
tacks attack everyone, friend or foe, who meets the
proper conditions. Powers that don’t directly attack
or defend may be chosen as Automatic, and will ac-
tivate whenever is appropriate; a common example
might be an Automatic sense, which would be active
whenever something perceptible was within range.
Automatic Powers can combine with other Powers
if the conditions for triggering the Automatic Power
occur at the same time as another Power. That is,
if you had Flaming Body as an Automatic Attack,
and Super Strength, and you grabbed somebody with
your Super Strength and squeezed them, the condi-
tions for the Flaming Body would apply and you could
choose to attack by Combining your Super Strength
and Flaming Body. However, whenever you Combine
an Automatic Power with another, the base power
is the weaker of the two powers. E.g. if your Super
Strength was PL 10 and your Flaming Body was PL 6,
the Combination would be an attack at PL6+1, not
PL10+1. You would have to spend an Action for your
Super Strength, but not for your Automatic Flaming
Body.
Automatic Movement moves you whenever the
proper condition occurs, e.g., a enemy might have
 Active vs. Automatic

an Automatic Teleport that emergency teleports him to concentrate to use them, e.g. Infra-Vision or a re-
back to his lair when he is Out; Automatic Movement flexive Danger Sense vs. X-Ray vision that you have
Powers can take effect even if you’ve already moved to deliberately turn on. A sense that’s defined as an
that round, or even if you’re Out as in the example, Automatic Defense could still be used as part of a
but they can never be used to attack or defend, nor Primary Rule justification for attacking something that
activated except by meeting the proper conditions. would otherwise be invisible, but you’d still need some
other Power to make the attack.
Senses as Powers or Shticks
Senses should generally be bought as a Powers, unless
there’s a good reason they can’t be used to defend
you by alerting you to danger or let you attack some-
thing that you couldn’t otherwise sense. E.g. a Mind
Meld where you have to touch the target and con-
centrate deeply could be a Shtick. Whether senses
are Automatic or not depends on whether you have

41
Chapter 11
Using Abilities
The Primary Rule
The Primary Rule of Zap! is that actions have to make
sense in a SF kind of way. In order to justify using an
Ability, you have to describe using the Ability in a way
that makes sense...at least according to the genre
conventions. Decisions as to whether that particu-
lar use of a Ability ought to be allowed rest with the
player, though the GM or other players are permitted
to point out if they think the player is pushing it; the GM
is also encouraged to point out circumstances that
the player ought to take into account when deciding
how to use the Ability (such as the enemy currently
hovering 300 feet in the air, or holding a hostage in
front of him), and it’s ultimately up to the GM to de-
cide on and describe the effect of using the Ability on
the environment or the foes, as long as he does so in a
way that doesn’t countermand the player’s descrip-
tion of the attempt.
The player should stop short of describing the reac-
tion, although saying what she’s trying to do is fine:
“I pick up a chair and hurl it at the alien” or “I try
to lasso the flying alien and pull it out of the air” are
good, while “I pick up a chair and hurl it at the fly-
ing alien, knocking him out of the air and pinning him
beneath it” isn’t as good. When describing your at-
tempts you should leave room for either the dice or
circumstances unknown to you to intervene.
Another example: if the player wishes to hit the en-
emy using his Super Strength, even though the enemy
is 300 feet in the air, he can announce that he grabs
a nearby lamp-post and hurls it at the enemy. The
GM can remind the player that they are currently in
the desert, so maybe it should be a rock, and the
GM can rule that the lamppost/rock passes through
the enemy harmlessly (because unbeknown to the
player at the moment, it’s just a hologram), but the
GM shouldn’t override the player to say there are no
lampposts, rocks, or anything else suitable to throw or
that the throw falls short without giving the player a
chance to roll to see if the Super Strength Power suc-
ceeds in overcoming the enemy’s defense.
The goal of the system it to make everything simple,
fast, and exciting; negotiation every round between
the players and the GM as to what’s permissible and
what objects are in the environment and whether any
42
die-rolls are needed to see if the character can use
them just slow things down and break the flow. In SF
adventures there’s always an object of the right size
around to pick up and chuck if that’s what the char-
acter wants to do. Similarly as long as the fight is tak-
ing place in an area where there are such things as
fire hydrants or high-voltage lines, then they are as-
sumed to be within reach and ready to be deployed
with the appropriate Abilities. The players are entitled
to make up such features of the environment as seem
plausible as they go about describing their actions.
The Primary Rule And The Default Skill
If you need to make a roll and you don’t have an ap-
propriate Ability according to the Primary Rule, you
roll your Default Skill instead. This happens most often
when your Defenses aren’t applicable. In Zap! you
never resist an attack with your bare Attribute, you
always have some chance of mitigating the attack
somehow. The Default Skill also represents using a skill
implied by your Background that isn’t one of your Pow-
ers, as well as using one of your Minor Powers. When
using your Default Skill this way, roll PL 3 (a single d4)
if there’s any way of justifying it by your Background,
and PL2 (a single d2) if you can’t. Normal people will
roll PL 3 (d4) in the areas that they’re trained in, and a
PL 2 (d2) for anything else.
Uncontested Abilities
When trying to perform an uncontested feat roll the
Ability and then compare the roll to the Difficulty set
by the GM.
When you roll for the result of an uncontested Ability,
the result is always interpreted relative to the Scope
of the character; even if two characters have Super
Strength at PL 6, if one is Neighborhood Scope and
the other is Global Scope the latter is able to lift much
greater weights.
When To Roll Uncontested Abilities
Remember, if it’s obvious that the Ability ought to suc-
ceed by the Primary Rule, rolling isn’t necessary. Much
of the time Zap! assumes that feats such as picking up

crates, flying your fighter, or jumping from your hover-
tank onto the enemy hover-tank are incidental to the
action. Picking up a nearby car and hurling it at
the enemy with your Super Strength isn’t two actions,
one of attempting to pick up the car and another
of hitting the enemy with it; it’s a single attack that
happens to be narrated as using a convenient piece
of scenery in accordance with the Primary Rule of
sounding like an SF story. Chances are that the player
taking the action invented the car being there for that
purpose; it would make no mechanical difference if it
had been a dumpster, mailbox, or just the character’s
fists, so there is no reason to interrupt and say “Wait,
can your character lift a car? Roll for it.” The only rea-
son to make an uncontested check is when there is
both a reason to care about the outcome, and gen-
uine doubt about whether the character is up to the
task. For instance, if the enemy hurls a car and the
character wants to try to catch it so that the passen-
gers aren’t injured it would be reasonable to check,
and roll if it would be past the limit of what the Ability
is normally capable of, such as using a PL 6 Ability at
Neighborhood Scope to catch a medium-sized car.
Difficulty
The Difficulty for exerting your Abilities to accomplish
specific effects appropriate to the Ability (such as us-
ing Super Strength to lift an object) is based off of the
Power Levels for the Scope. The maximum die roll rep-
resents the maximum the Ability is capable of without
Supreme Effort, Wild Shot, or combining with another
Ability.
Chart 11.1 on the next page summarizes Difficulty 6
for each Scope (that is, what it would take a roll of 6 to
do) to give you a quick idea, but you should see Ap-
pendix for a list of the effects for each Power Level and
the real-world equivalents in weight and speed. Not
every Ability or every use of a Ability will directly trans-
late into weight or speed, and many characters will
have at least some Abilities above the base but the
charts give you a general feel for the order of magni-
tude that Abilities of a given level might represent.
E.g., Difficulty 6 at Regional Scope is equivalent in
weight to a medium car (2 metric tons), so a char-
acter at that Scope with Ability like Super Strength or
Telekinesis would roll her Ability against Difficulty 6 to
lift the car. Obviously, if the character’s Ability was PL
8 (d8, d8) this would be easier to do than if they were
using a PL 6 (d6, d6) Ability.
Say your character at the Neighborhood Scope
wants to lift a medium car, weight 2 tons: that’s a 9
referring to the chart in the Appendix. If you have En-
hanced Strength PL 6 that will require hitting Difficulty
9 on his d6, d6. You would need use some combina-
tion of Wild Shot, Supreme Effort, and possibly Com-
bining Powers or getting help from another charac-
ter to achieve that. Supposing, though, that your
Strength was at PL 10 (d10, d10), you would be able
43
Contested Abilities
to do it without any special effort if you roll well. If you
don’t, you can change the roll to a success by pay-
ing a penalty (See Failure is Not an Option!) Remem-
ber, though, that if it’s not important you shouldn’t be
rolling.
Difficulty for Other Tasks
When in doubt about the Difficulty for a task, and it’s
not something that the character clearly ought to be
able to do just through invoking the Primary Rule, use
the following table a rule of thumb:
Task Could be Done By Difficulty
Normal 2
Expert Normal/Agent 3
Bad-ass/Crew 4
Squad of Agents 6
Party of Adventurers 8
Party using Research 10
Jury-rigged gadget 12
This assumes that the task is not something that’s
routine for the kind of person listed, but rather it’s to-
ward the outer edge of their abilities. For instance,
a normal would have a PL 2 (d2), in her profession,
an expert normal would have PL 3 (d4) and an agent
perhaps PL 4 (d4, d4), so the difficulties are set so they
may well fail. Tasks that should be easier than that for
them ought not to require a roll in the first place.
Contested Abilities
When rolling a Ability contested by another Ability,
such as an attack vs. a defense, both Abilities roll and
the higher number wins. The amount the higher num-
ber exceeds the lower is the Damage. Zero Damage
is still a success for Player Characters, but a failure for
NPCs.
Ties
Ties go to the player, or if two NPCs are making op-
posed rolls, to the attacker. Your attacks merely have
to match the enemy’s defense to have some effect,
though you still need to beat their Attribute to score
an Out. The enemies need to beat your defenses be-
fore you’re affected. At higher Power Levels ties are
relatively rare, but at low levels this edge is what sep-
arates characters from mooks.
Defending
When you attack other characters, the defenders get
to announce what they are doing to Defend them-
selves, which can include spending Actions on Ac-
tive Powers to aid in their defense. The defenders
11. U SING A BILITIES

Difficulty 6
Scope Weight example Speed +1
3: Street 250kg motorcycle 32 kph car on a x1
city road
4: Neighborhood 500kg Grand 64 kph racehorse x4/3
Piano
5: City 1 ton small car 128 kph cheetah x32/6
6: Region 2 tons medium 250 kph fast train x2
car
7: Country 16 tons empty bus 1000 kph jet airplane x4
8: Global 125 tons blue whale, 2000 kph Concorde x4
river
gunboat
9: Interplanetary 8 kilotons Godzilla 16000 kph speed of x8
dawn
10: Interstellar 512 kt largest ship 1million kph to the x16
Moon in 3
hours
11: Galactic 32 mt Big Dam 3c 2.6 minutes x32
to the Sun
12: Cosmic 2000 mt 1/2 tsp 200c 200 x light x64
neutron star speed
material

Figure 11.1: Difficulty 6 by Scope

need to remember how many Actions they use and
which Active Powers they employ, so that when their
Turns come around they don’t re-use them. Remem-
ber, you can only use an Active Power once per turn,
and it costs an Action to use any Active Power to de-
fend yourself. If the defender’s Turn was earlier in the
Round, she can only use Active Powers to defend her-
self if she has both Actions and unused Powers remain-
ing.
Damage
Most of the time, opposed rolls take place when one
character is trying to damage another. If the attack
is a success, subtract the defense roll from the attack
roll: the result is the Damage. You then compare the
Damage to the defender’s appropriate score. For
most attacks, that will be their Toughness; if you have
an appropriate Advantage it might be compared
to Will or Stamina instead. The possible results are
the opponent are Hindered, Tired, Out, Controlled, or
Overkill.
Damage is
Attribute
<= Attr > Attr > Attr + 3
Toughness Out Overkill
Stamina Hindered Tired Out
Will Influenced Out
Zap! has no specific mechanical provisions for
death; depending on the tone you’re going for you
can include death of PCs and NPCs as a potential re-
sult of Overkill, or as one of the results of applying the
Primary Rule, or something that happens once in a
44
while but only as a result of the plot (as when the char-
acters don’t arrive in time to disarm a bomb), or as
an additional action taken against an Out foe. For a
particularly grim tone along the lines of a movie such
as Alien, you could actually make Out equal to dead
as long as you were prepared to keep creating new
characters.
When you use a Power, there’s a chance that you’ll
cause Collateral Damage. At the GM’s discretion and
according to the Primary Rule the lower die roll may
be applied as damage to nearby people and ob-
jects.
Collateral Damage
SF battles are famous for the amount of destruction
they wreak on the surroundings. At the GM’s discre-
tion attacks made can be checked to see if they
cause Collateral Damage. If you hit a foe with your
fist, you probably won’t cause Collateral Damage un-
less you knock him flying into something; if you hit a
foe with a bus, at the very least the bus should suffer
Collateral Damage and it’s pretty likely you hit various
people and nearby objects unless your target dwarfs
the bus in size.
GM’s shouldn’t slow the game down with checks
for Collateral Damage after every single attack; save
it for when it would make a difference, such as when
the enemy is holding a hostage, or the battle is tak-
ing place on top of something important that could
explode or collapse. Trivial damage, such as hot-dog
stands getting knocked over, awnings being busted
or car alarms going off, can simply be narrated as a

result of the Primary Rule. Save actual checks for Col-
lateral Damage for times when somebody will care.
Use the result of the lower die from the roll as an at-
tack against whatever near-by targets seem appro-
priate according to the Primary Rule; those targets
then roll their appropriate defense or the Default Skill
if they have none. If you’re rolling only one die, such
as when you are Hindered or taking a Wild Shot, if
the GM calls for checking Collateral Damage at that
point roll the second die and use the result even if it’s
higher than the original roll.
The GM should assign Toughness to objects based
on how reasonable it is for a character at that Scope
to break the object; a rule-of-thumb is Toughness
equal to the Scope that the object would usually ap-
pear. So a hot-dog stand would be Street Level (3),
a car would be Neighborhood level (4), and so on.
An Out result from a Power at or lower than the ob-
ject’s Scope will break the object and render it un-
usable until repaired; it requires Out from a Power at
least one Scope higher in order to destroy the object,
three higher if the the object is a building or collection
of buildings.
You can avoid the possibility of Collateral Damage
by taking Careful Aim.
Hindered
When you are Hindered all your Abilities except Au-
tomatic Powers are reduced to a single (better) die.
Hindered conditions accumulate if you keep getting
attacked successfully, and while your abilities aren’t
further reduced it requires a separate Action to clear
each instance of Hindered. Automatic Powers aren’t
affected by being Hindered unless they have the Can
Be Hindered Disadvantage.
E.g., You’re Hindered: your PL 8 Ability would roll a
single d8 instead of d8,d8, but your PL 7 Automatic
Defense is unchanged, still rolling d8,d6. If you’re Hin-
dered again on the same turn your Powers aren’t re-
duced further, but now you will need to spend two
Actions to “clear” the status. It might be helpful to
give the player a token, such as a poker-chip, each
time the character is Hindered to help keep track.
Being Hindered represents some specific thing that
happened to the character as a result of the suc-
cessful attack that was insufficient to put the char-
acter Out. It could be becoming trapped beneath
the thrown bus, having your hands webbed together,
being groggy from sleep gas, or just generically
“stunned” by the force of the attack if no more spe-
cific thing suggests itself. The GM will generally de-
scribe what it is that’s Hindering you, following from
how the attack was described; go with it. If it’s re-
ally impossible that your character be Hindered in the
way described (the GM forgot that your character
doesn’t need to breath, so gasping from smoke won’t
do) then suggest something that does seem plausible
to you. One way or another if the attack was justi-
45
Damage
fied under the Primary Rule and the result was high
enough to Hinder you, you should be Hindered.
Becoming Unhindered
In order to become Unhindered, you should describe
what you’re doing according to the Primary Rule in
order to get free of the Hindered effect (this could
just be shaking your head to clear the grogginess if
the conditions was as generic as just being “stunned”,
melting your way out of webs, teleporting from be-
neath the rubble, and so on); it is this that costs an
Action. Players should be more generous than usual
in interpreting what is an appropriate description for
freeing yourself from being Hindered. Basically, be-
ing Hindered costs you an Action, it’s not intended
to cost you the rest of your Turn after you become
Unhindered or debilitate the character for the rest of
the fight; the presumption should be that somehow
or other you can free yourself as long as you have
Actions remaining. Using a Ability in your description
of how you free yourself from being Hindered doesn’t
count as its single use for the Round. No matter how
many Hindered tokens you have stacked on you, you
can always clear them all by sacrificing your Turn (all
your Actions) for the Round, or by sacrificing one point
of Will (see Sheer Determination).
Some Examples Of Ways To Describe Being Hin-
dered
• Knocked down, or thrown backwards a dis-
tance
• Buried in Rubble
• Covered in some sticky or slippery substance
• Eyes stinging and watering from smoke or
chemicals
• Gasping and choking from water or smoke
• Dazed by a hard hit
• Distracted by danger to a bystander
• Partially blinded by a bright flash
• Muscles cramping from electrical shock
• Shivering from cold
Helping The Hindered
You can use your Actions to help a hindered ally.
If you spend a single Action you remove all of the
Ally’s accumulated Hindered conditions, provided
that you have a Primary Rule explanation of how ex-
actly you’re helping (e.g., burning them out of the
webbing, lifting the concrete off of them, or slapping
their face and shouting “Pull yourself together!”). This
makes no real difference if your Ally is only Hindered
once (you spend the Action instead of them doing it),
11. U SING A BILITIES
but is substantially better if they have a lot of accumu-
lated Hindered conditions such as when the enemies
have attacked them over and over; as an ally you
can clear off all the pesky agents with a single Action,
while the character herself would have to either do
it one by one, by sacrificing a Turn, or through Sheer
Determination.
Out
Damage in excess of the defender’s Toughness puts
the defender Out. (For attacks vs. Stamina see Tired,
vs. Will see Influenced.) Merely tying the Attribute
does nothing extra, even against NPCs. Out does not
have to literally mean unconscious, merely incapable
of further combat until aided by another or given suf-
ficient time to recover or work free. A character who
is tangled and helpless in a web, fast asleep from gas,
buried in cement, or locked in a force-bubble counts
as Out for game purposes; if you are aiming for a grit-
tier tone, Out can a heavy wound that incapacitates
the character until somebody (perhaps the character
herself) provides medical aid. An Out character is out
of the fight until any of:
1. Another character spends a full Round (all Ac-
tions) reviving the character or otherwise revers-
ing the effect of the Out in accordance with the
Primary Rule
2. Another character spends an Action using a
Shtick that by the Primary Rule is intended for situ-
ations such as this (e.g., Doctor, Medi-Kit)
3. Three of your Turns have elapsed (during which
you can either be presumed to be unconscious,
or conscious but too busy tending to your wounds
to even take time to communicate with your al-
lies).
Example: Your ally was put Out by being teleported
out of the battle. To bring him back before three
turns are up you would have to not only spend a full
Round, but come up with an explanation of how you
were using your Powers such using as your Movement
Power (Super Speed, Teleport) to retrieve him. If you
had a Shtick that was specifically designed for bring-
ing him back into the fight, such as Teleport Ally Shtick
of your own, then you could do it with a single Action;
note that it has to be a Shtick, rather than a regular
Power. (This serves as a bonus for taking such special-
ized Shticks.)
Out characters may be further Restrained or put
Down for the Count, in which case they will not come
back into action until those conditions have been
eliminated, even if one or more of the above are met.
46
Some Examples Of Ways To Describe Being Out
• Knocked clear into the next block, or even
County
• Buried under rubble, or underground
• Trapped in a force bubble
• Unconscious
• Turned to stone
• Fast asleep
• Lost in the maze of your own mind
• Struggling in a web
• Battling phantoms
• Writhing in agony
• Bleeding heavily
Exactly how you are Out and what others would
have to do to revive you from being Out will depend
on the description of the attack that put you Out and
the Primary Rule. For your part, there is nothing you
can do to hurry the process of reviving, but it is as-
sumed that after three of your Turns even if nobody
has aided you as long as the battle hasn’t ended you
will have found a way out of it, through sheer force
of will if nothing else. It’s not at all unusual to be
Out, perhaps more than once, during the course of
a battle. Getting Out does not mean that you lose,
unless you are the last character standing, and per-
haps not even then depending on whether the en-
emy has the time and foresight to put you Down for
the Count or flee; if the enemy is otherwise occupied
setting bombs, hijacking the airwaves to deliver his de-
mands or chasing off the police then you will be back
in action in three Turns. SF battles are full of reversals
and comebacks from near-certain defeat.
Regardless of the Primary Rule justification, Out must
be reversible; you are not allowed to define powers
such that Out with the power is permanent. Even if the
Out character is magically turned to stone, the result
must be temporary. (Optionally in a gritty campaign,
you may agree that Overkill can make Out perma-
nent, barring some extraordinary plot event.)
Optional Rule: Injury
Depending on the Tone for the campaign, serious, or
at least long-lasting injury may be more or less com-
mon. In some settings, wounds never last past an
episode, in others, characters may find themselves
having to deal with long-term effects of injury or even
lose an eye or a hand...perhaps to replace it at a later
date with a cyborg implant.
Upon returning from Out, whether you were helped
or not, there is a chance that you suffered a more seri-
ous injury. If the Primary Rule reason you were out was

such that it could have wounded you, rather than just
entangled you or put you to sleep, roll the unskilled
Default PL 2 (d2). On a roll of a 1, you are Tired, and
gain a new Complication to reflect the ongoing injury.
For instance, you might decide that your left hand is
useless and in a sling. You may decide for yourself
whether the Complication is Major or Minor, depend-
ing on how it was acquired. Like normal Complica-
tions you may substitute a new Complication for this
one when you choose to, say by replacing the hand
with a prosthetic. To remove the Complication com-
pletely you must spend a Boost.
Equipment such as Armor and certain Powers allow
you to mitigate the chance of injury; you may sub-
stitute the Armor roll for your untrained Default if you
were wearing armor that could have mitigated the
damage. For instance if you were Out from a shot by
a Blaster, then wearing Trooper armor would let you
roll a d6 instead of a d2, and only if you rolled a 1 on
the d6 would you suffer injury. On the other hand if
you were Out from a Psionic attack, the same Trooper
armor wouldn’t be any use. If you have a Power or
Shtick that’s directly on point, such as Regeneration,
then you may substitute the Power’s larger die instead.
Restraining
You can automatically Counter an Out character re-
covering from being Out by Restraining him. Restrain-
ing requires spending an Action with an appropriate
Primary Rule justification, such as tying the Out char-
acter up, burying him under some rubble, etc.
A character that’s being Restrained can’t return to
the battle without outside help: another character will
have to Hinder or put the character who’s Restraining
him Out.
As long as you are continue to spend an Action
every Round to Restrain the character, nobody can
bring him back from Out status, nor does the three
Turn limit apply. If you stop Restraining him, whether
voluntarily, or because somebody has put you Out or
Hindered you, he is still Out until one of the conditions
for reviving him is met. The three Turn count runs con-
currently with being Restrained, so if three of his Turns
or more have passed while he was Restrained, he is
no longer Out and may act.
Whether minions and bystanders, individually or
taken together as a Mob, are capable of restraining a
character who’s been Out depends on the character
and the Primary Rule justification they’re using.
Down For The Count
You can choose to spend an entire turn, all of your
Actions and no Movement allowed, putting an Out
character Down For the Count. If you are attacked
during the turn, even if the attack fails, you do not
make progress putting him Down for the Count and
have to try again. You still need a Primary Rule jus-
tification for him being Down for the Count, such as
47
Damage
wrapping a steel I-beam around the character, co-
cooning him in webbing from head to toe, or simply
winding up a hay-maker and knocking the living day-
lights out of him. Characters that are Down for the
Count are out of action until the end of combat, no
matter how many Rounds that takes, unless they are
revived.
As with Restraining, you can’t put a character Down
For The Count that you couldn’t Hinder in the first
place: if the Power you’re trying to use to put the
Out character Down For The Count is incapable of
at least Hindering the character (e.g. the maximum
your Power can roll is 10 and the minimum their Auto-
matic Defense can roll is 11), then you need to use a
Power with a higher Power Level or Combine Powers
with other characters.
In a gritty campaign, Down For the Count may
mean dead.
Down for the Count is reversible, assuming the char-
acter is not dead (and in some campaigns, even if
the character is dead); bringing a character back
from Down For the Count requires the same effort (all
Actions) as putting a character Down For the Count,
as well as a Primary Rule justification, which might be
harder to come by than normal.
Out Is Not Defeated
Note that being Out is not the same thing as being
defeated. The battle isn’t over until you are Down For
The Count or the enemy has gotten away or other-
wise accomplished his goal. Being Out is a normal
part of battles in SF adventures, which thrive on dra-
matic reversals and come-from-behind victories, and
Zap! tries to allow for this. During a typical battle, sev-
eral characters on either side may get Out and come
back before the final resolution.
Tired
Damage in excess of the target’s Stamina make the
target Tired, as do Tropes like Supreme Effort and Fail-
ure Is Not An Option!, and suffering an Injury (see Op-
tional Rule: Injury). Like Hindered, while you are Tired
you only roll one die for your Abilities. Unlike Hindered,
being Tired doesn’t accumulate: you are either Tired
or you are not. Tiredness does not stack with being
Hindered, though you don’t get your full dice back
until both conditions are cleared. You cease to be
Tired when:
1. In combat: you spend three Rounds resting (not
actively using any Abilities). Out of Combat: you
spend a scene recovering (not doing anything
except explicitly resting up)
2. You or another character spend an Action using
a Shtick that by the Primary Rule is intended for sit-
uations such as this (e.g., Healing, or Leadership)
3. You trigger your Overdrive. E.g., if your Drive is to
protect the innocent, then when an innocent is
11. U SING A BILITIES
threatened, you can trigger Overdrive to recover
from being Tired
Influenced
When you beat a target’s Will, the Target is temporar-
ily Influenced; that doesn’t literally mean the target is
obeying your orders (though it might if you’re using a
Power withe the Control Advantage) but it means the
target is temporarily bent to your will. If you were fir-
ing your weapon at them trying to get them to take
cover, they take cover. If you were trying to Intimidate
them into running, they run. If you were trying to fast
talk your way past the guards, they let you through.
They can still rally later, under much the same circum-
stances as somebody recovering from being Out from
an attack on Toughness, e.g. Aid from an Ally with an
appropriate Ability, or after 3 turns.
Overkill
When you do more than 3 points over a foe’s Tough-
ness, that’s Overkill. The exact result of Overkill will de-
pend on the tone of the campaign. Whether it occurs
or not is entirely the GM’s option, and it might result in
the foe being out for the remainder of combat, a seri-
ous injury, or even death. Whether Overkill can ever
result in death is something that should be agreed
upon by the group before the rule is ever invoked to
inflict it. Nothing can kill the fun of a campaign faster
than when a player suddenly finds that manslaugh-
ter is possible, and she has committed it. You should
always make sure the players know if Overkill can re-
sult in death, and that they can and should be using
Careful Aim or Pulled Punches if they want to be sure
of avoiding it.
Countering
When a character announces an Action they plan
to do, other characters may decide to Counter the
Action. For example, if the Mad Genius is about to
press the self-destruct button for the base, your char-
acter may want to tackle him before he can do so. Or
you may want to stop an alien beast from biting your
friend by attracting its attention to yourself.
When a character announces an Action that you
wish to Counter, you can spend one of your Actions
and specify a Power, Shtick or the Default Skill to use to
try to prevent them from taking that Action. Whatever
they’re attempting to do must now beat you in an Op-
posed Task first. (Naturally you have to have Actions
remaining and be using a Power that you haven’t al-
ready used this Round.) Combined Abilities and other
rules apply to this Opposed Task as normal. If he wins,
he goes ahead with his Action as planned and this
contest doesn’t count as his one use of that Power for
the turn; if he loses then he’s out the Power and the
Action and his attempt failed.
48
If the character being Countered wishes, he can
concede the contest and re-use his Power and Ac-
tion to do something completely different instead;
the Counterer will still have spent the Action and the
Power. E.g. you try to Counter the beast’s attack
on your friend by distracting him with your Acrobat-
ics, leaping and dancing about; the beast concedes
the contest, but turns and uses his Action and his Bite
power to try to chomp you instead; you’ve still spent
your Action and used your Power, so you’ll need to
defend with something else.
The character being Countered also has the option
of trying to bring a different power to bear to over-
come your Countering; this will cost him another Ac-
tion and use another Power in addition to whatever
he was using for the attempt itself. Most of the time
this will be because he was using his Default Skill in
the attempt, rather than a Power. E.g. the Mad Ge-
nius was going to push the button, which would be
an ordinary task with his Default Skill since he has no
particular “Button Pushing” Power. If you attempt to
Counter him using your Klangon Strength, you’ll al-
most certainly succeed; to prevent that he employs
his Mind Control Helmet to try to divert your strength.
This costs him an extra Action and uses his Power, but
the Opposed Task is now between his Mind Control
Helmet and your Klangon Strength, which he at least
has a chance of winning. If he wins, he proceeds; if
he loses, he’s out both Abilities and Actions.
An ally may attempt to oppose the counter for you.
The classic example is “covering fire”: Ace Astra wants
to run across the deck to get to the emergency shut-
off button on the docking bay force-field; the en-
emy Troopers announce they are Countering by lay-
ing down heavy suppressive fire with their Blaster Ri-
fles vs. her (Default) running ability; her ally Ford the
bounty-hunter opposes the Countering by firing his
Blaster Rifle as covering fire. The Trooper’s Counter roll
is now vs. Ford’s Blaster Rifle ability.
Note that even if you use an attack power like
Wrestling to Counter an Action and succeed, the
Countered character isn’t Hindered or damaged in
any way. Your Wrestling hold lasted long enough that
they couldn’t press the red button this turn, but does
not continue to disrupt their activities.
Combining Actions
You may Combine Actions to attack or defend, move,
or accomplish other tasks given appropriate descrip-
tions according to the Primary Rule. A Combined Ac-
tion might be a super-strong character throwing an-
other character who attacks with his fists or blades
(“Fastball Special”) or two martial artist coordinating
their attacks (“You go high, I’ll go low”) or one char-
acter grabbing a enemy to hold him long enough for
another to hit. A squad of riflemen might combine
all their shots into a single attack. When Combining
Abilities the combo becomes a single attack, and the
Combined Power Level is equal to the Power Level
 Splitting Abilities

of one of the Combined Abilities of the attacker’s

choice, plus 1 Point for each character Combining,
to a maximum plus equal to the number of players
in the fight. Thus, each player at the table involved
in the fight can contribute, if they choose, but you
can never get a bigger plus than that. enemies face
the same limit: the number of players, not the num-
ber of enemies. (Limiting the maximum to the num-
ber of players actually involved in the fight means that
characters aren’t penalized for having a big group of
players who are off doing something else while the
enemies ambush them.)
The Advantages of the Combined Action will be
those of the Ability that’s chosen as the base for the
Action; you cannot mix and match the Advantages
of the different Abilities. Disadvantages are applied
separately. Using a Ability as part of Combining Abili-
ties costs an Action, even if it’s an Automatic Power.

Combining Your Own Abilities

Characters may also combine two of their own Abili-
ties, for a +1 as per the standard rule, as long as they
have a reasonable Primary Rule justification, such as
using flight to swoop down a enemy while swinging
an Electric Mace to add the speed of the dive to the
impact of the mace. Each Ability contributing takes
one Action. You can’t combine more than two of your
own Abilities, or Combine more than two of your own
Abilities and somebody else’s Abilities.
Disabling Abilities
Besides attacking to Out, you can attack to Disable
one of the opponent’s Abilities. The attacker rolls nor-
mally, following the Primary Rule, and the defender
rolls the Ability instead of whatever defense would nor-
mally be applicable (so it’s easier to Disable weaker
Abilities). A Hinder result means the Ability is Disabled
and cannot be used again until an Action is spent
restoring it; an Out result means the Ability is Disabled
and can’t be used again until conditions similar to re-
covering from being Out are met:
1. The character or another spends a full turn repair-
ing or restoring the Ability using another Ability in
accordance with the Primary Rule
2. The character spends an Action using a Shtick
that by the Primary Rule is intended specifically for
situations such as this (e.g., Engineering, Regener-
ation)
3. The character voluntarily leaves combat for 3 full
Rounds to repair or restore the Ability
Disabling Automatic Defenses
When Automatic Defenses are Disabled, they don’t
completely go away: instead they are reduced to a
49
single die (as happens to Abilities when Hindered), un-
less they have the Can be Disabled Disadvantage or
are targeted with Power that has the Disabling Only
Advantage in which case they behave as with any
other Ability. In addition, Players should take particu-
lar care that the Primary Rule justification for Disabling
a Automatic Defense makes good genre sense. E.g. if
somebody is made of stone, it ought to be pretty hard
to justify reducing that Power or taking it away, even
temporarily.
Splitting Abilities
The opposite of Combining Abilities is Splitting Abilities:
you can choose to attack multiple targets at once by
dividing up your Power into two dice, one at each
target, or attempt two tasks at once by dividing up
your Shtick. You can’t Split Abilities that have been re-
duced to one die, such as when Hindered or Tired. As
usual, you need to follow the Primary Rule by having a
plausible explanation for what you’re doing, whether
it’s firing one gun with either hand at different targets,
or kicking one guy while punching another. Even if
your explanation of how you’re splitting your power in-
volves multiple shots, it still only counts as one Action.
Similarly, you need a good explanation of how you’re
using your Shtick in multiple ways at once, such as try-
ing to use your Thief Shtick to remain hidden in shad-
ows while picking the lock: one die would go towards
the hiding in shadows, the other towards picking the
lock.
Optional Rule: Impromptu Area Effect
If you want to allow crazier stunts, such as stomping
the ground so hard it bowls over an entire squad, or
running around at super speed punching a dozen
11. U SING A BILITIES
guys in the face, you can use the Impromptu Area
Effect Rule to break up the dice to cover even more
targets. Attacking two targets uses one die each. Af-
ter that each time you lower the die-size by one, you
double the number of targets that die effects (e.g.,
d8, d8 becomes 1d8 on each, then 1d6 on 2 targets
and 1d6 on another 2, then 1d4 on 4 targets and an-
other 1d4 on a different 4 targets, etc.). You can never
split a Power below d4, and you can never “double
up” by having the two groups overlap by a single tar-
get; if that means that you cover less than the maxi-
mum (say there are 4 in one group and only 3 left over
for the second group), them’s the breaks.
Generally, Impromptu Area Effect is intended for
when somebody is spreading their Power around,
such as setting your Maser on wide-angle to try to
shoot an entire crowd, or when the gigantic lizard
sweeps its tail through the entire party. If you’re do-
ing something like shooting a hole in a nearby coolant
pipe with your blaster to try to engulf a mass of Empire
Troopers, or tossing a tapestry down on a group of
guards charging up the stairs at you, it’s quicker and
easier for the GM to treat that as creating a Peril or
Obstacle instead. (See Perils and Obstacles.)
You can use the following table as a “cheat-sheet.”
Table 11.1: Splitting Abilities
# Targets per die 1 2 4 8
Die-size -0 -1 -2 -3
And the rest...
When you’re using Impromptu Area Effect, after
you’ve split the dice to cover as many specific targets
as you wish, you may choose to target everybody left
over in the area with a single d4. Roll 1d4 for all of
them, not each individual.
Quick Roll
When rolling for a bunch of identical Abilities, such
as when NPCs are defending against an Area Effect
Power, or Power that’s been split among them with Im-
promptu Area Effect, instead of rolling for each indi-
vidual roll the defensive Power and treat the high die
as applying to half the group, and the low die as ap-
plying to the other half.
Speeding Combat Vs. Minions
Against a bunch of identical foes, you can treat them
as a Mob. To treat them as a Mob just redefine them
as a single entity, increasing their Power Levels appro-
priately. See Mobs 14.
E.g., The Indescribable Bulk throws a truck at 16
agents of H.E.L.L. As a Mob, you roll once for the
Bulk at d12, d12 and then once for the entire mob
of Agents at, say PL 8 (d8, d8).
50
Generally, it makes more sense to treat opponents
as a Mob if they would be no threat to the charac-
ter except en mass, or there are too many to make
it worth even counting how many individuals are Hin-
dered or Out.
A Note on Tactics
If you are fighting a group of identical foes, such as
agents, and you don’t really care which one you
put Out, it is always advantageous to at least split
your Power into two attacks. E.g., if you have a d10,
d10 attack, make it d10 against each of two foes.
If the resulting roll is too low to affect the agents
on both dice, rolling both against a single agent
wouldn’t have helped; if one of the dice is high
enough and the other isn’t, you still put an agent
Out just as if you’d rolled against a single agent; if
both of the dice roll high enough, you manage to
get two agents.
Contrariwise, if you are fighting a single foe, or
you have reason to care exactly which foe you’re
putting down (such as the one who is closest to
the launch button in the underground missile silo),
it’s better to use both dice against that single foe,
and even better if you can Combine Actions to use
larger dice. Wild Shot (merging two dice into a sin-
gle larger die) is a toss-up: it’s more random, so your
average roll will be lower, but the maximum roll will
be higher. If you think the average is good enough
to prevail you should stick to rolling two dice; if you
think that you’ll only win if you roll close to the max
then you should Wild Shot.
Duration Of Abilities
The duration of the effects of various Abilities should
generally be determined by the Primary Rule. If you
make a patch of ice with one of your Abilities, it will
last until somebody else uses a Power to get rid of it, or
it melts naturally. If you make a wall of stone, it will last
until indefinitely, or until it’s destroyed. On the other
hand, many Power effects should be presumed to last
only until they’re overcome; if you Hinder a foe by try-
ing to encase him in ice, the icy coating only lasts until
he spends an Action to free himself.
Chapter 12
Tropes
Tropes are special rules that help provide a better fit
for things that are typical of the genre. Tropes are al-
most always invoked by the players, or the GM on be-
half of the NPCs, so they can be used as much or as lit-
tle as the players see fit; they are not situational modi-
fiers, so you don’t need to be constantly checking the
list to see if a particular Trope applies, nor is there any
chance that you played it “wrong” if you later realize
that there was a Trope that you might have used but
didn’t.
Aid
Spend an Action to completely Unhinder an ally, no
matter how many Hindered conditions are stacked.
You should still describe how you’re aiding the ally ac-
cording to the Primary Rule.
Careful Aim And Pulling Your Punch
There are times when the character may want to be
more cautious about using attacks, either to be surer
that you hit, or to avoid doing Collateral Damage or
Overkill. If you take Careful Aim then instead of rolling
the dice you take half the die size of the larger die.
E.g., on d6, d6 you take 3, on d10, d8 you take 5. You
won’t have the chance of rolling really well, but you
won’t roll really poorly either. You cannot use this op-
tion while you are Hindered.
If you use Careful Aim, then you can choose not
to do any Collateral Damage if you wish. An excep-
tion is when you are attacking a bunch of targets at
once, either via a Power with the Area Effect advan-
tage or by Splitting the Dice; in that case, whether you
can avoid Collateral Damage through Careful Aim
depends on the Primary Rule justification you’re using
to explain how you manage to hit all the targets. For
instance, a character using Super Speed could say
that he’s just running up to each target and punching
them individually in the nose, so avoiding Collateral
Damage makes perfect sense; a character using Su-
per Strength who’s justifying Splitting the Dice among
a number of henchmen who are standing within a
crowd of bystanders by picking up a bus and throwing
it at them can take Careful Aim to make sure that he
51
hits them (doing half the die-size), but can’t reason-
ably aim so as to hit only the henchmen and not the
people they’re standing among; a character with a
Rain of Fire Power that has the Area Effect advantage
is similarly unable to avoid Collateral Damage simply
by choosing to use Careful Aim.
If you wish, you may also declare that you’re Pulling
Your Punch and then you won’t cause Overkill even if
the result would normally be sufficient to Overkill; you
cannot Pull your Punch unless you are taking Care-
ful Aim. Again, Pulling Your Punch may require extra
justification, particularly if you’re using an Area Effect
attack.
Careful Aim and Pulling Punches cannot be com-
bined with Wild Shot, since the nature of Wild Shot
is giving it everything you’ve got instead of taking a
safer more controlled shot.
Failure Is Not An Option!
If you are trying an Uncontested action and you roll
poorly, you can adjust the roll into the maximum roll by
spending another Action and invoking Failure Is Not
An Option! You should accompany this with some ex-
planation of how you managed to pull it off. If you
were in combat, you become Hindered; this repre-
sents some extra time or effort you needed to put in
to change the failure to a success. If the adjustment
is more than your Stamina, you’re Tired in addition.
If you’re out of Actions, you may still invoke Failure Is
Not An Option but you automatically become tired,
no matter how small the adjustment was.
E.g., you are attempting to lift a car off the train
tracks before the oncoming train barrels into it, at Dif-
ficulty 6 for your Scope; if you roll less than a 6, you
can choose to still lift the car if you wish, but you nar-
rate that it almost slipped out of your grip (the bad
roll), and you had to lunge for it, as a result you’re Hin-
dered.
For extended tasks outside of combat where it
doesn’t make much sense that you are temporarily
Hindered, you may adjust still the roll to the maximum,
but if the adjustment is more than your Stamina you
become Tired; this represents working really hard at
the task, such as might be represented in a movie or
comic book by a montage: exhaustive searches at
12. T ROPES
the library, late nights at the lab, pounding the streets
talking to contacts, and so on, until you succeeded.
You may never do this with Contested rolls; instead
you would use Supreme Effort. (see 12)
Failure Is Not An Option may be combined with
other ways of getting bonuses to the roll, such as
Combining Abilities and Supreme Effort, with suitable
Primary Rule explanation.
Intimidation
One staple of SF stories is the characters are often
able to Intimidate others through a display of their
Abilities, particularly much weaker foes such as nor-
mal people or low-level thugs. Attempts to Intimidate
are treated as attacks vs. Will, but instead of being a
contested roll against the Power that would normally
be used to defend against such an attack, the con-
test is vs. the defender’s strongest Power. This is the
“You call that a knife? Now this is a knife!” principle.
Attempts to Intimidate don’t literally require an attack
on the defender, merely a demonstration of what the
Power is capable of, such as against a nearby inani-
mate object. Creative use of the Primary Rule can jus-
tify using Powers such as movement or defenses in In-
timidation, e.g. by using flight or telekinesis to dangle
somebody high above the ground, or to demonstrate
that the target’s best weapons bounce harmlessly off
your powered armor.
Second Wind
If you are Tired, you can expend 1 point of Stamina
to recover from being Tired. You can only recover
Stamina by spending a scene resting, at one point per
scene. A rest scene really should involve a restful ac-
tivity, like spending a night in a good bed, or bathing
in a hot spring, not just taking a brief pause in running
from the wolves to pant by the side of the road. In fic-
tion, these are the scenes where the protagonists let
their hair, and their guards, down.
Sheer Determination
As a last resort, you can always free yourself from be-
ing Hindered without spending any Actions by using
Sheer Determination: regardless of how many times
Hindered has been stacked on you by previous at-
tacks, or what Abilities you have, you can clear them
all by expending 1 point of Will. This does not take an
Action, but once you reach 0 Will you can take one
more Action and then are Out. Will can only be re-
covered at the end of an adventure.
Shoulder Roll
You can split your Power into one die on the attack,
and one die on the defense. E.g. You shoulder roll
and come up firing your laser, letting you split your
52
Academy Training Power between attacking and de-
fending. Can be combined with automatic defense
in the usual way (treat as +1 to the smaller power).
Supreme Effort
If the Power isn’t sufficiently strong, but is close, you
may attempt a Supreme Effort to accomplish the task
anyway. You add your Will Attribute to the roll. E.g., d6,
d6 Power plus Will 3 rolls 5, 2, which is a 5, then + 3 for
the Supreme Effort = 8 total. If the roll is Uncontested
you may combine this with Failure is Not an Option
(becoming Hindered as well, to change your roll to
the highest possible).
When you make a Supreme Effort, your Stamina
goes down by one temporarily (until the end of the
adventure or you use Overdrive), and you become
Tired. Once you become Tired, you may not attempt
further Supreme Effort until you recover from being
Tired.
You may apply Supreme Effort after you see what
the die roll is by spending an additional Action. This
simulates the comic book trope of realizing that you’re
about to fail and redoubling your effort, even when
that effort is something like firing eye-beams. If in-
stead you choose to apply Supreme Effort before the
role it doesn’t take an extra Action, but might well be
wasted (if the roll is so bad that Supreme Effort can’t
possibly help, or so good that it was not needed).
Take a Bullet
When attempting to Counter an attack, the you can
elect to “Take a Bullet”: you take the brunt of the
Power against your Default Skill, but the action is au-
tomatically Countered; the opponent doesn’t get to
abort or attempt to use a different power to avoid be-
ing Countered. Normals will sometimes do this to take
an attack meant for another.
This Ends Now!
Sometimes battles drag on forever, with neither side
gaining a clear advantage. To address this, either the
players or the GM may suggest at any point that the
remainder of the battle be resolved via This Ends Now!
If you agree to resolve it via This Ends Now! Both sides
describe a single assault, which can use any of the
rules for Combination, Wild Swing, Supreme Effort, and
Jury Rig and the highest roll wins the battle decisively.
The losers are at the mercy of the winners, regardless
of how the interplay of the Abilities would normally
be worked out according to the Primary Rule. (E.g.,
even if your Automatic Defense would usually make
you immune to the particular Power the enemies are
employing, if you choose to use This Ends Now!, if you
lose, you lose and are Out/captured with the rest.)
Ties, as always, go to the players.
 Wild Shot

Wild Shot
Any time you use a Power, you can take a “Wild Shot”:
you merge the two dice into a single higher die. The
result is generally a slightly more erratic roll, but one
with a chance of scoring larger hit (maximum value
increases). Wild Shot does not in itself require a spe-
cial Primary Rule justification, it just represents trying a
harder, riskier shot.
Two identical dice merge into a single die one size
larger: d8, d8 becomes a single d10; d10, d10 be-
comes d12, etc.
If dice don’t match, roll just the larger die and add
1 to the result. E.g., Power Level 7 is d8, d6. Using Wild
Shot you change that to d8+1.

Wild Shot And Combining Actions

Wild Shot may be done with Combined Actions as
well. Just apply the Combining Actions rule normally,
and then merge the dice of the base Ability.
Example: A squad of 4 goons, each with a PL 4 (d4,
d4) attack can Combine their Powers into a single (d4,
d4)+4 attack; they have the option of Wild Shot as
well, transforming the attack into a d6+4 attack.
Example: A single character combines her own PL 8
Flight and PL 10 Electric Mace attack and takes a Wild
Shot. That’s +1 PL to one of the Abilities for the Combi-
nation, likely the Mace since it’s higher. That makes it
(d10, d10)+1. Wild Shot would merge the d10, d10 into
a single d12, then +1 for Combining. Had her Mace
been PL 11, and Wild Shot would merge the d12, d10
into a single d12+1 and +1 for the Combination would
have her rolling d12+2.

53
Chapter 13

Rounds And Turns

The players and the NPCs take Turns, going around multiple Actions to attack the same foe, you can treat
the table, alternating between the GM and each them as a sequence of separate attacks or as a Com-
player. Once around the table is called a Round. bined Action, depending on how you describe them.
Your character’s Actions attribute determines the
maximum number of Actions you can take in a Round, Not Your Turn
and all Abilities except defenses may only be used
once per Round. This may not be strictly realistic when As long as you have Actions left:
one character is an android capable of sorting an en-
• If it’s somebody else’s Turn, you can defend your-
tire library of data chips in a matter of minutes and
self or others, Combine your Abilities with others to
another is merely human in command of the ship,
help them, or attempt to Counter an Action.
but science fiction stories don’t feature 5 minutes of
scenes with the android in the engineering section for • In between Turns you can take any Action that
every 10 seconds of the captain on the bridge. doesn’t involve attacking.
The GM begins each Round by describing the lo-
cale as it currently stands, and particularly any con- Cutting in Line
ditions that have changed as a result of previous
Rounds, such as radioactive goo spreading across the If you have some reason you want to take your Turn
floor from the storage tank that was just ruptured, bus- in the order before one of other players goes that
loads of orphans now careening out of control, count- Round, you can just ask them to take your turn first.
down timers on doomsday devices advancing, and Your position at the table isn’t meant to be destiny;
so on. Play should then alternate between a player it’s just an easy way to keep track of who hasn’t had
taking a Turn and then the GM taking the Turn of one a chance yet. If you want to cut before an NPC, you
or more NPCs, until every PC and NPC has taken a can spend an extra Action to move your Turn up.
Turn. The GM should try to space out the Turns of the
NPCs so they go in between each player’s Turn, in- Interrupting
stead of all the NPCs at once.
You can only Interrupt somebody else’s Turn once
they’ve announced it if you are trying to Counter
On Your Turn them, otherwise you should wait until their Turn is re-
On your Turn, you can do as many different things as solved.
your Actions, as long as you don’t use any Ability more Don’t spend too much time thinking about the best
than once. Sequences of Actions have to make sense order to carry out Actions or take Turns–the object is
as happening rapidly according to the Primary Rule; to keep the action flowing, cutting back and forth be-
you shouldn’t try to reprogram a computer, wrestle an tween the characters and the enemies as in a movie,
alligator, and seduce the enemy all at the same time, rather than to gain any kind of tactical advantage.
even if each of those makes sense individually and
you have enough Actions to cover it.
If your Turn comes around and you don’t want to
do anything yet, you can postpone your Turn for later;
play then moves on to the next player. You may
take your Turn later, but you may not interrupt another
character’s Turn except to try to Counter them.
You may invite other Players to join you in Combined
Actions (or they may suggest it); if they join you, you
are considered to be taking your Turns simultaneously
and they do not get a separate Turn later. If you use
54
Chapter 14
Special Situations
The variety of Abilities and situations that science fic-
tion characters confront, and all the ways they can
combine, is vast. Most of the time, dealing with this in
Zap! is straightforward: you apply the Primary Rule to
see what sounds sensible in an SF story and then either
it simply happens (if it’s unopposed and well within the
Ability’s capabilities), you roll and compare to a Diffi-
culty (if it’s unopposed but possibly beyond the limits
of the Ability), or you roll against the opposing Ability.
Nevertheless, some special situations crop up fre-
quently enough that it’s worth treating them slightly
differently, both for greater fidelity to the genre and
more consistency when they crop up. They are largely
elaborations on the basic procedure, rather than re-
placements for it, and the GM should feel free to ig-
nore them in any situations where they would make
less sense than the basic procedure.
Mobs
SF characters frequently confront mobs, even armies,
of lesser foes. While the ordinary rules for combin-
ing Abilities (when it comes to the mob attacking)
and splitting Abilities (when the characters attack the
mob) are sufficient for small groups, it can become
tedious if the mob is very large or is interacting with
multiple characters at once. In these situations, it’s
convenient to handle the mob as a single entity, or
perhaps one entity per character. Simply stat the
mob out as if it were a enemy, with Abilities and At-
tributes representing the combined values of the in-
dividual members; there is no need to calculate this
according to the rules for Combining Abilities, just do
it directly based on the Scope. E.g., a mob of or-
dinary citizens sufficient to take on a Neighborhood-
level character can just be given a Main Power (guns
and improvised weapons) at Level 6 (d6, d6), a Au-
tomatic Defense (multiple bodies) at Level 8 (d8, d8),
Toughness 3, Will, Stamina and Actions 2, and then
fight as a single entity. Out can represent the mob
being dispersed, rather than each individual being in-
capacitated (though it could represent that, too, de-
pending on the Primary Rule). When fighting a mob
as a single entity, there is no need for characters to
split their Abilities or use Area Effect Abilities to cover
the entire mob, whether making an ordinary attack or
55
Intimidation; the presumption is that the coordination
or tight packing that allows the mob to be treated as
a single entity for purposes of overwhelming the char-
acters render it vulnerable to disruption or scattering
without special effort on the part of the characters so
long as the basics of the Primary Rule are followed.
Mobs are treated the same as single characters
when it comes to rules like Wild Shot, Supreme Effort,
and the like, whether the mob is fighting a single char-
acter or another mob. Mobs may Combine Actions
with characters, provided they are operating at the
same Scope. That is, a single minion shouldn’t be
able to combine with the enemy leader to give him
a bonus, but a mob of minions large enough to be a
threat to the character should.
Hit Locations
Most of the time the exact location a blow or shot hits
can be determined according to the Primary Rule, or
just by picking a likely location. Sometimes you might
want a way to resolve where it lands in an impartial
fashion: perhaps the attack does something addi-
tional if it hits unarmored skin, or perhaps you just find it
easier if you don’t have to make it up on the fly. Chart
15.1 can be used to pick a location without any ad-
ditional roll. Just use the least-significant digit of the
lower of the two dice rolled. The smaller the die, the
larger the area the number represents: on a d4, a 3
would be anywhere on the arm or hand; on a d6 a 3
would be on the forearm or hand.
If the player wants to call a shot to a particular lo-
cation, the least significant digit of the lower die (in-
cluding any bonuses) has to meet or beat the num-
ber on the hit location chart. Whether that hit Hinders
or puts the target Out still depends on the Damage
when compared to the defender’s roll.
Crossing Scopes
Adventurers sometimes face opponents of different
Scopes from their own, whether it’s lower-level alien
critters or menaces from a higher Scope. Since within
a Scope Power levels always have the same range
from PL 2 to PL 12 (roughly), when encountering some-
14. S PECIAL S ITUATIONS
Figure 14.1: Hit Location
thing from another Scope you have to translate its
Scope to your own. You should almost always trans-
late them into your Scope, so you don’t have to do
the math on all the players’ Abilities. To do that:
• For each Scope Level the opponent is higher, add
1 to its Power Level for PLs less than 6, add 2 to its
PL for PLs greater than or equal to 6.
• For each Scope Level the opponent is lower, sub-
tract 2 from its Power Level for PLs greater than or
equal to 6, subtract 1 from its Power Level for PLs
less than 6.
Examples:
Facing a foe 2 Scope Levels lower (such as Street
Scope when you are City) who has a PL 7 Power :
Street Level 7 = Neighborhood Level 5 = City Level 4.
The first jump in Scope subtracts 2, the second only 1,
since at that point it’s already at less than 6. His Power
will be treated as PL 4 when facing you.
Facing a foe 3 Scope Levels higher (such as Re-
gional Level when you are Street) who has a PL 7
Power: Regional 7 = City 9 = Neighborhood 11 = Street
13. Each downward jump add 2 levels. His PL 7 Power
56
will be treated as PL 13 (d8+5, d12) while at your
Scope.
Facing a foe 3 Scope Levels higher who has a PL 4
Power: Regional 4 = City 5 = Neighborhood 6 = Street
8. The first two downward jumps add only 1, since the
PL is less than 6, then the last adds 2. His Power at your
Scope is PL 8.
If you look at the Power Level charts in the Appendix
you’ll see this is a reasonably good approximation of
looking up what a Power at a given Scope ought to
be able to do and then cross-indexing to what the
equivalent is on the Scope chart for the appropriate
lower or higher Scope.
Inventing Features of the Environment, How
Much is Too Much?
Zap! leaves the players a good deal of room to just
make up features of the environment as needed to
employ their Abilities. If they’re in a docking bay and
they want to hurl a barrel at an oncoming trooper,
they can assume there’s a barrel because that seems
plausible. Nothing is really gained by forcing them to
stop and ask the GM whether there is a barrel, and
if not is there something similar enough that it would
work within reach? On the other hand, it would be
very dull if the players could just declare “I pick up the
secret documents we’re supposed to be searching for
from where they were left in the open on the desk.”
Similarly, if the characters are in a starport bar, the
players can just assume that there are bartenders and
patrons such as a loud drunk, a prosperous-looking
businessman (unless perhaps it was a very seedy bar),
a tough-looking stevedore, and so on... but what
about the President of the Federation, who just hap-
pens to be there? Where to draw the line?
The rule of thumb is that players should refrain from
inventing anything that would demand further expla-
nation. If you were watching an SF show and there
were barrels in the docking bay, it would never oc-
cur to you to wonder why they were there, but if the
heroes stumbled across the secret plans just lying on
a receptionist’s desk it would raise all kinds of ques-
tions. Players should try to never just make something
up that makes the other players stop and wonder how
or why it’s there.
Even if something were perfectly plausible, the play-
ers shouldn’t invent it on their own if it would raise
questions about why nobody noticed it before. You
don’t want to have your narration cause all the other
players to have to completely revise their mental im-
age of the scene. A bar-fight may be a perfectly nor-
mal occurence, at least in the kind of bar PC’s fre-
quent... but a player ought not declare that her char-
acter is using the distraction caused by the heretofore
unmentioned bar-fight going on to pick somebody’s
pocket since that would raise the question of why no-
body noticed it until now. Better to instigate a fight,
and then use it as a distraction.
Chapter 15

Range

Range and positioning in Zap! are highly abstract,

and are scaled according to the Personal Scope of
the Campaign. Rather than giving a range as a con-
crete number such as 300 meters, and then calcu-
lating that based on a movement rate of 100 meters
per Round it will take three Rounds to cover the dis-
tance, in Zap! you would say that since the Scope
is e.g., Neighborhood, the enemy being on the next
street over puts him at Pursuit Range, and it will take
one round using your Movement Power to reduce that
to Combat Range. Almost all combat takes place at
Combat Range for the Scope, except perhaps at the
beginning when the sides are just catching sight of
each other, or if one side is trying to elude the other.
Range divides into Combat Range, Pursuit Range,
and Lost Contact with the distances depending on
the Scope. Combat Ranges for each Scope are listed
below; Pursuit Range is one Scope level higher, and
Lost Contact is two Scope levels higher. So a charac-
ter operating at City Scope would treat everything in
a single block of buildings as within Combat Range,
up to a couple blocks away in any direction as be-
ing Pursuit Range, anything farther away would be
Lost Contact. Note that Pursuit Range doesn’t lit-
erally mean they are directly visible at all times, or
that you have noticed them, merely that the Scope
of your senses and movement Abilities are sufficient
that you can attempt to locate them; depending on slashes a cable holding a cargo net to make it fall
the Primary Rule that may mean you are criss-crossing on him. In any case, by the Primary Rule if you can’t
the area at Super Speed rather than searching for come up with a plausible justification given the cir-
them with X-Ray vision, but in any case they must win cumstances, you should refrain from using the power
one more Contested Movement roll before they’ve until it is justified.
eluded you completely. Each Round you can try to reduce or increase the
At Combat Range all Abilities work normally; at Pur- Range by one category; if the other side tries to pre-
suit Range, the you can only roll a Contest of either vent that from happening (by fleeing or pursuing)
movement vs. movement or sensory Abilities versus make a Contested roll of Movement and sensory Abil-
hiding or evasion; if you’ve Lost Contact, you can’t ities vs. Movement and stealth Abilities, depending on
even try to locate the target any more—you have no whether the quarry is trying to outdistance pursuit or
idea which direction they’ve gone or how far. What hide; this takes an Action.
constitutes Combat Range does not depend on the Ranges are symmetric: no character can attack
Power in question: claws and laser-beam eyes have another from a range too great for the target to
the exact same Combat Range for a given Scope, counter-attack. It may be that the description of cer-
they simply require different descriptions of how the tain Abilities implies a limitation on the range of that
power is used to justify them, with claws more likely Power, e.g., a Sword implies that you generally have
to require extra justification by including a description to be within arm’s length of the target. Even so, if
of how the character runs and leaps on the foe, or the character chooses to throw the sword, or move
57
15. R ANGE
to close with the foe and smack him one, the range
to the foe is no different from any other Power.
The Combat Range also determines the Difficulty of
spotting a target with a sensory power, e.g. some-
thing that would require special senses to spot would
ordinarily be Difficulty 6 , but for a Neighborhood
Scope character to spot it several blocks away would
be +2 Scope levels, therefor Difficulty 8. (see Difficulty
for Other Tasks11.)
Combat Range by Scope
1. Normal Normal large room, such as dining room
or conference room
2. Agent Floor of a building, or a large room such
as a club or warehouse
3. Street Large building such as an office or ware-
house Street and storefronts on either side
4. Neighborhood Block of buildings
5. City Several blocks of buildings
6. Region Neighborhood of a city, e.g. SoHo or Chi-
natown
7. Country Region/several states
8. World Country
9. Solar System World
10. Star Cluster Solar System
11. Galaxy Star cluster
Add 1 to Scope for Pursuit Range and 2 for Lost Con-
tact.
Movement And Range
Most Adventurers, except at the very lowest Personal
Scopes, are capable of traveling much faster than
would ever be necessary to get about in combat
or reach any place within Combat Range within a
relatively short amount of time. You can use the
Power Level chart to figure out how fast your char-
acter can go, but most of the time the character is
going to be more constrained by the need to justify
the movement by the Primary Rule than the actual
speed. Characters in Zap! are presumed to be within
reach of each others’ Abilities as long as they’re at
Combat Range or less, as long as they describe what
they’re doing adequately. Movement is only separate
action when you’re attempting to change the Range
or overcome an Obstacle, otherwise it takes place as
part of the description of the other actions the char-
acter is taking.
For instance, if your Movement Power is Super
Speed, and the enemy is flying, how do you get up
to him if that’s what you want to do? Can you run
so fast that you can run straight up a near-by build-
58
ing? Or spin so fast with your arms outstretched that
you helicopter into the air? Or do you need to find or
build a ramp at super-speed and launch yourself off
it? In real-world physics there is no speed that makes
any of those except the last possible, but in comic-
book physics any could be an explanation if that’s
how you say your Power works, pretty much regard-
less of the exact level of the Power and where it falls
on the speed chart.
Once in a while the situation might make it hard
to justify using the Power: if the enemy is standing at
the other side of a lava-filled crevasse and the char-
acter’s Movement power is roller-skating the player
might feel it’s implausible that the character could
jump the crevasse to touch the enemy with her stun
glove; according to the Primary Rule she should sim-
ply do something else, or combine her attack with
another character who can supply the needed justi-
fication by carrying her over to attack with his Rocket
Pack power. In general, though, given the flexibility
of Abilities and the leeway given to the players to in-
vent plausible details of the environment such as vines
to swing on, news copters to hitch a temporary ride
from, rubble that’s formed a convenient ramp to jump
a motorcycle from, and so on, players should rarely
find themselves at a loss for justifying closing any dis-
tance within Combat Range even if the Power’s de-
scription requires they actually touch their opponent.
Senses And Range
Difficulty for spotting something with your senses is rel-
ative to how hard it would be to spot, adjusted by dis-
tance according to the area that the particular Com-
bat Range covers. By the Primary Rule, though, you
should only have to roll if what you’re trying to spot
might easily be missed, such as when it’s concealed
or you’re distracted. If it’s actively trying to hide, that
would be an Opposed check vs. whatever Ability it
was using to conceal itself.
E.g., Something that an ordinary human could spot
would be Difficulty 4, something only perceptible to
super-senses or equivalent instruments would be diffi-
culty 6, and so on. (See Difficulty for Other Tasks 11).
If an ordinary human could spot it when within the
same large room (Scope 2), then spotting it from the
next block over (Scope 5) would be +3 to the diffi-
culty, or Difficulty 7. On the other hand, spotting it from
within the area covered by small room would be -1 to
the difficulty, for a Difficulty of 3.
The amount that you make the roll by can be used
to indicate how much information your senses reveal.
Succeeding by 0 means you can perceive what’s cur-
rently happening, which is usually sufficient, but many
unusual senses that Adventurers might possess could
plausibly be able to reconstruct past events or per-
ceive minute or subtle details. See Investigation Re-
sults.
Chapter 16
Investigation
Frequently in Science Fiction, the characters will be
facing the unknown. It could be as prosaic as trying
to solve a crime, or as exotic as trying to determine
why the laws of physics themselves seem to be break-
ing down, but Investigation will form a large part of
most SF adventures, and the players will want to play
out obtaining new information. Most of the time in
Zap!, the information is there for the asking, while the
interpretation is left up to the players. If they search
a body, or a database, or perform a scientific experi-
ment, they will find everything that the GM thinks is a
relevant clue, and perhaps some red herrings besides.
In other cases, the players will want their characters
to perform investigations and detective work in order
to outsmart or get the jump on the enemies, for in-
stance to figure out their enemy’s likely next move or
sniff out the security precautions he’s placed in his lair,
in which case the character should roll the appropri-
ate Ability (usually a Shtick) or the Default Skill if using
something from the character’s Background against
the Difficulty of the task (see Difficulty for Other Tasks
11), and comparing the result to the following table:
The number of you beat the Difficulty by determines
the amount of information obtained:
Success Answer
0 yes/no
1 one-word answer
2 short sentence, quantity, or direction
3 diagram or paragraph description
4 sketch or series of questions
5 clear image or a conversation with the GM
Table 16.1: Information Gained
You can Combine Actions for Abilities that give in-
formation, with yourself and others, and that usually is
an excellent strategy since each additional success
more than doubles the amount of information you
get. (One roll at +1 is better than two characters mak-
ing rolls.)
Note that how much information you get is deter-
mined by the roll, but which information you get is de-
termined by how you narrate your actions and phrase
questions to the GM.
59
The result is approximately how much information
the GM should divulge. For instance if the detective is
trying to deduce what the criminal’s target is as they
are attacking a museum exhibition, that’s something
that an ordinary person could do (Difficulty 4), so the
detective rolls her appropriate Ability vs. Difficulty 4.
Suppose she gets a 6; she beat it by 2 and the GM
should provide about one sentence worth of informa-
tion: “The most likely target is the special exhibition of
gold insects on the second floor.” If she had beat it
by 5, then the result would be a picture; not necessar-
ily a literal picture, but the information equivalent to
looking at a photo of what they intend to steal, which
means that she could ask questions if she wanted
such as what kind of display case it’s in, whether there
are guards around and so forth and the GM should try
to answer if it would be evident from looking at such
a photo.
When the GM is conveying the results of the Investi-
gation roll, it’s best if at all possible to give the actual
clues that the detective spotted that lead to the con-
clusion couched in terms that make sense according
to exactly what Ability or skill the detective is employ-
ing rather than the bare bones of the information. If
a mystic character is using her Psychic Sensitivity to try
to identify a suspect, then the description should be in
terms of psychic impressions, and perhaps lean more
heavily towards the feelings and psychology of the
target; a character using Detective should be given
more concrete physical description along the lines of
“From the angle of the blow it would have to be some-
body taller than the victim, and quite strong, either a
man or strong woman; the attacker was left-handed,
and some from some thread that were caught on one
of the victim’s buttons was wearing a very expensive
cashmere jacket.” The goal, as always with Zap!, is
to make the descriptions flow satisfyingly from the Pri-
mary Rule being applied to the specific Ability used.
A Note On Investigation
Don’t overuse Investigation; in particular don’t turn it
into the skill system that Zap! doesn’t have. Nothing
of value is added to the game by substituting Investi-
gation rolls for the Spot and Notice checks that some
other games have. If it’s something that the charac-
16. I NVESTIGATION

ter should notice or know because of their Abilities or

Background, the GM should just divulge the informa-
tion. Characters in SF don’t usually miss clues, even
really obscure ones, and the flow of the game isn’t
helped by the players having to play twenty questions
to see if they notice something relevant. SF characters
in particular often have abilities far beyond those of
mortal men, and even senses that nobody has or can
accurately describe. Just go ahead and tell them
all the information they can glean, using whatever
senses and abilities they have, and let them get on
with the far more interesting part of interpreting and
using that information. Reserve Investigation for when
it’s an activity that will be interesting enough to de-
vote play time to, preferably when the players insti-
gate it, for instance by announcing they’re going to
use their ship’s computer to try to analyze the signal
from the surface of the planet and identify the culture
that likely produced it.
It can take some work for GMs used to other sys-
tems to shake the habit of asking the players to roll to
see if anybody knows a certain piece of information
or notices the impending ambush, but it will make for
a faster-paced game and help the characters really
shine. A good rule of thumb is never use an Inves-
tigation roll for something that the character would
passively notice or could see at a glance, and if the
player announces the character is going to perform
a specific activity to try to gather information such
as visit the dives around the starport to shake down
punks for information, or research at the university li-
brary, consider whether the Primary Rule implies they
should just be given the information they’re seeking
(if it is indeed a plausible way to turn it up) without re-
quiring a roll. Reserve rolling for situations where it’s un-
clear whether and how much information they should
turn up.

60
Chapter 17

Negotiations

Negotiations are a catch-all for all inter-personal in- Attitude

teraction that is not overtly hostile. Usually, you want
something from someone else, and are trying to con- 1. Hatred (-3) Harming you is one of their most im-
vince them to give it to you, whether you want a pos- portant goals. They will harm you if at all possible,
session, information, or simply for them not to help your although they may hesitate if it is likely to cause
enemies. their deaths or loss of another long-term goal. Ha-
Negotiations are broken down into three types of tred occasionally has beneficial aspects, such as
sub-goals: when your sworn enemies prevent another from
killing you so as to savor your death themselves.
• Charm/Appease: you are trying to make
them like you more or hate you less. 2. Hostility (-2): They would like to harm you, but it is
not a major goal. They won’t make plans to harm
• Convince: you are trying to make them you at great expense or danger, but will harm you
believe a matter of fact (which could be if there is a good opportunity.
known to be true, a lie, a conjecture, or a
wild speculation). 3. Unfriendliness (-1) They would enjoy seeing you
harmed, but it is not an active goal of theirs.
• Entice/Caution: you are trying to make a
certain course of action more appealing 4. Neutrality (0) They do not care whether you are
or more frightening. harmed or helped, if it doesn’t affect them in
When using a Shtick in negotiations, set the difficulty some other way.
level to be the Scope of the person or group you are 5. Friendliness (1) They wish you well, and will help
negotiating with (for a person that’s usually the size you if it has little cost or danger.
of the area they command, e.g. the Mayor of a City
would be 5, since City is Scope 5). 6. Warmth (2) Your well-being is important to them,
The GM will determine the most likely attitude at but not enough that they would take great risks
the start of the Scene based on your common his- or expenses on your behalf.
tory, alignment of interests, characters, and the role-
7. Devotion (3) You are central to their existence,
played interaction. You can make a roll to Charm or
and they would take great risks and bear great
Appease. Success improves their attitude by one level
expenses for you, although it is not completely
just during the scene; success by more than their Will
without limits. Devotion can sometimes backfire,
makes the attitude one level higher permanently, or
in that their obsession with you may become a
at least until you do something further that alters it for
nuisance or danger. They may become jealous
the worse; if you succeed by 3 more than their Will,
of other allies, or sycophantic to the point of not
their attitude becomes two levels higher. If you fail by
giving you honest answers.
more than 3, their attitude becomes one level worse.
You may not attempt to Charm/Appease them more
than once per Scene, nor have different characters
try one after another, although you may all Combine
your abilities; once you’ve determined their basic at-
titude towards you for the scene and done your best
to modify it, play out the rest of the scene and any
attempts to Convince or Entice/Caution them based
on the resulting attitude.
The numbers for each attitude are modifiers to
your rolls to Convince or Entice/Caution them, once
you’ve determined their attitude.
61
17. N EGOTIATIONS

The GM will rate their receptiveness to an idea, What an Ally will give you
based on their nature and the role-played encounter.
Using an Ability to Convince them or Entice/Caution It is generally cheap for a party to give you informa-
them can increase this one level with a success, or tion they have, so any favorable attitude might give
two levels if you succeed by more than their Will; fail- you information. Secondly, the other group may give
ure by more than 3 makes this one level worse. you assistance. This will often be in the form of as-
signing an underling to help you, or a temporary Abil-
Convince Entice/Caution ity. They could also take charge of some aspect of
a group plan, such as keeping the Imperial Troopers
1 Denial Repugnance
busy while you corner the General. Finally, if they are
2 Disbelief Reluctance really committed to helping you, they could devote
3 Skepticism Disinterest their entire resources to your joint endeavor. Usually,
they would take charge of the major aspects and
4 Neutrality Neutrality risks, and delegate some smaller role to you.
5 Openness Interest
6 Belief Eagerness
7 Conviction Zealousness

62
Chapter 18

The Environment

In science fiction stories the environment provides mentioned it or it’s somehow in keeping with the en-
things for Adventurers to break or use as weapons emy’s persona.
against each other, and things that are dangerous
to the characters. Other aspects of the environment
merely provide fodder for using the Primary Rule and
plot and characterization for the adventures.

Environment Description

The GM should take care to describe the environment

in sufficient detail to provide the players with a good
sense of the ways that they can employ the Primary
Rule when taking their actions. It’s not necessary to
be obsessively detailed, and a battle mat and minia-
tures are almost certainly overkill (though if you want
to and have the action figures lying around, go for it),
but a bit of extra time fleshing out the scene slightly is
well worth it. Don’t just say “When you blast through
the door, you see a hi-tech lab and a bunch of tech-
nicians.” If you can, add some salient details: Along
the right side of the room are a bunch of bubbling
tanks with shadowy figures suspended in them; a myr-
iad of tubes criss-cross the ceiling and descend into
the tanks. In the middle of the room a group of about
seven scientists in lab coats and goggles are working
at some tables with Bunsen burners, various chemical Buildings
glassware, and microscopes. Along the left side of
the room is a bank of computers and monitors, and Buildings are similar to Bases, but will usually lack any
three agents in armored jump-suits, with bandoleers Abilities except a Automatic Defense and Toughness,
and sidearms are working on them. At the rear of the which will start at PL 6 and the Scope Level respec-
room, on a raised platform that takes up the entire tively, but can be higher for special-purpose or hard-
back of the room, there is some sort of metallic ta- ened buildings such as prisons or armories. As with
ble with restraints and three huge ominous ray devices Vehicles, merely getting an Out on a Building with
pointing at it. Light is coming from standard panels in a Power on the same Scope as the building doesn’t
the ceiling, like the rest of the base, and there is an- destroy it...it breaches the building’s security and per-
other closed Blast Door at the far end past the plat- haps a wall. To be able to destroy a building in a sin-
form. gle blast requires scoring an Out with a Power 3 levels
Players are free to assume that there are features higher in Scope. E.g., it takes a Power on the Cos-
that aren’t explicitly mentioned, as long as they make mic scale to potentially destroy the whole world in a
sense given what they’re told is there, but they should shot, or Power on a National scale such as a fighter
exercise some restraint when it comes to unusual, too jet to destroy an entire sky-scraper. You can destroy a
convenient, or bizarre features. A mad scientist’s bi- building with lesser Power, if you keep applying it, such
ology lab certainly has glassware, might have rats or as a tank destroying a large sky scraper, but it’s up to
even monkeys in cages, but almost certainly doesn’t the Primary Rule to determine how long it takes or if it
have a pool full of hippopotamuses unless the GM has can be done at all...after all a single M1 Abrams tank
63
18. T HE E NVIRONMENT
can’t expect to destroy an entire city by itself in any
reasonable amount of time.
Building Levels
Buildings all start with an Automatic Defense of PL 6
(d6, d6) and a Toughness equal to their level.
1. Normal: Apartment.
2. Agent: Single family home.
3. Street: Row of houses/warehouse.
4. Neighborhood: Several blocks of homes/large
sky-scraper.
5. City: Entire city.
6. Region: Region/Several states.
7. Nation: A country.
8. Global: The whole world.
9. Interplanetary: A solar system.
10. Galactic: An entire Galaxy.
11. Cosmic: The Universe.
More Stuff To Break
The world is full of stuff for adventurers to break. Most
of the time this can be handled by simple application
of the Primary Rule, particularly when the character is
setting out to break it. If a Street Level character wants
to smash through an ordinary interior door using his
Abilities, the door should smash. Sometimes, though,
it’s questionable whether the character has sufficient
power, such as when a Street Level character wants
to smash through a bank vault door. Power Level 6 is
enough to lift a motorcycle, but to break open a bank
vault?
As mentioned in the Collateral Damage rules, ran-
dom objects generally have Toughness equal to the
minimum Scope at which a number of them tend to
appear, and the Default Skill (PL 4) for resisting attacks.
Hot Dog stands and fire hydrants are Street Level (3),
News stands and cars are Neighborhood Level (4),
and so on. Attacks at the same or lesser Scope will
break the object on an Out result, but not destroy it;
and destroy it on Overkill. Attacks from a higher Scope
character will destroy an object with an Out, though
it takes three levels higher to destroy a building or sim-
ilarly huge object (or collection of objects, such as a
city block or office park).
Particularly tough objects, such as bank vaults,
should be given the benefit of the three levels rule as
if they were buildings, and possibly an actual Auto-
matic Defense; realistically a bank vault would prob-
ably survive the complete destruction of the bank, so
it would be somewhat implausible for a enemy who
64
couldn’t destroy the building to be able to smash the
vault in a single blow.
Perils and Obstacles
The world is full of dangerous things that can injure or
inconvenience the unwary character: rivers of bub-
bling lava, perilous crumbling cliffs, tanks containing
sharks with frickin’ laser beams on their foreheads,
and other perils too numerous to mention. Perils are
treated as Automatic Attack Powers. Obstacles are
treated as Automatic Powers that attempt to Counter
certain actions, most often movement or senses. A
patch of oil that attempted to Counter any move-
ment across it would be a Obstacle; a patch of oil
that was on fire would be a Peril, and perhaps an Ob-
stacle to sight.
The GM should assign a Power Level based on a
combination of how difficult to avoid or how deadly
or effective it is. A rivulet of lava only 2 feet across will
probably have a lower Power Level than a cloud of
sleep gas that completely fills the room. A patch of
loose gravel that made running difficult would have a
lower Power Level than an oil slick, even if it covered a
much larger area. When the characters interact with
the Peril, such as when a room is filled with sleep gas
or if dumped in among the sharks, treat is as an attack
against their defense. The Peril should act against the
character once per Round, generally on the charac-
ter’s Turn to make it easier to track.
When characters interact with a Obstacle, the Ob-
stacle should attempt to Counter their actions when-
ever they narrate something that would interact with
it, such as riding their motorcycle across the oil slick;
treat it as a normal attempt to Counter, where they
have the usual options of aborting to save their Power
and Action, rolling against it to see if they succeed
anyway, or spending an Action to use some other
Power to counter it (such as shooting a nearby sand-
bag to spill sand across the oil slick before trying to
ride over it).
Perils are often non-lethal. Non-lethal Perils can
still potentially put characters Out, either by actually
knocking them out, or by removing them from com-
bat for three Turns. E.g., if a dam bursts and inun-
dates the character, scoring an Out against the ap-
propriate defense could represent the character be-
ing washed away down river and needing three Turns
to return rather than being unconscious. If something
can’t reasonably put a character Out, only inconve-
nience them or block their actions, treat it as a Obsta-
cle instead. Slippery floors, or clouds of obscuring gas
are almost always Obstacles, not Perils.
Some things might be treated as both: a river of
lava might be a Obstacle if you attempt to cross it,
and a Peril if you fail and fall in. Use the Primary Rule to
decide which, given the circumstances. Such things
should typically have different Power Levels as a Peril
or a Obstacle: being extremely deadly does not auto-

matically make something nearly impossible to avoid
or overcome, and vice versa.
Perils and Obstacles should never use Wild Shot,
or exert Supreme Effort, but simultaneous perils might
Combine Actions, and clever characters might try to
combine their Power with them. If the ceiling of the
secret lair is caving in at the same time that the char-
acter is trying to leap to safety over the bubbling lava,
treat it as a Combined Obstacle acting to Counter his
leap. This works out slightly to the character’s favor,
but speeds things along.
Note that since Perils count as Automatic Attacks
there’s no limit to how many times they can attack
in a Round as long as the conditions that trigger the
attack are met. The Peril will only attack a given
character on its “own initiative” once per Round, but
other characters can try to incorporate the Peril into
a Combined Attack as many times as they like, pro-
vided they can justify it by the Primary Rule. For in-
stance, you might combine Martial Arts with the room
filled with sleep gas by saying you were punching the
foe in the gut to force him to breathe some in. Re-
65
Perils and Obstacles
member that combining attacks with Automatic Pow-
ers such as Perils always use the lesser Power as the
base, and add to that. E.g. Martial Arts PL 8 and Sleep
Gas PL 6 would combine to a PL 6+1 attack not a PL
8+1...but since the Sleep Gas is the base, if it had any
advantages like vs. Stamina those would apply to the
combined attack, just as the martial artist intended.
Perils and Obstacles might behave as if they had
certain Advantages and Disadvantages, such as be-
ing Area Affect, or Exotic, or Single Use, just as if they
were a normal Power.
If the character tries to eliminate the Peril or Obsta-
cle, say by freezing the lava in place, treat that as an
attack to Disable the Power. It’s possible that a Peril
or a Obstacle is so dangerous or permanent it can’t
be eliminated, for instance a sea of lava in a Neigh-
borhood campaign; in that case don’t even assign
it a number, just say it’s beyond the character’s abili-
ties. The GM should assign a Toughness based on how
easy it is to eliminate the Peril or Obstacle.
Like all Abilities, Perils and Obstacles follow the Pri-
mary Rule. It doesn’t matter that the river of lava is de-
18. T HE E NVIRONMENT

fined as a Obstacle, if the character has flight she can criminate between the character’s friends and foes,
just fly over it without having to roll her Flight Move- so an ally on the wrong side of the blast doors is just
ment Power versus the lava’s attempt to Counter. If as stuck as the Troopers, and in just as much trouble
she decides to dive in it to see if there’s something when the chamber is voided into space.
at the bottom and her only defense is Acrobatics,
then the lava doesn’t need to roll–she’s going to get
burned.

Creating an Obstacle or Peril

Characters can create Obstacles or Perils with their
Abilities. Generally, treat these as if they have the
same Power Level as the Ability used to create it. If
a character uses his PL 6 Ice Ray to create an ice slick
on the floor, that becomes a PL 6 Obstacle to any-
body trying to cross it. The character won’t have to
continue to spend Actions in subsequent Rounds; in-
stead the Obstacle should last a reasonable amount
of time, generally until the end of the scene unless
somebody Disables it to eliminate it.

Out by a Peril
One important difference between a Peril and a en-
emy is that when it comes to being Out, in most cam-
paigns enemies will let up rather than attempt to fin-
ish the job if for no other reason than they have big-
ger fish to fry than beating on a helpless character.
Perils, particularly when they’re environmental fac-
tors like high radiation or poison gas, will continue as
long as the character remains exposed, putting the
character Down for the Count on the second Round.
This can present a problem if you want a low-lethality
campaign; if so the GM should give the character’s
companions ample opportunity to rescue the char-
acter before any permanent harm is done, if nec-
essary helping along by narrating the Out in such a
way that rescue is still plausible (e.g., falling victim to
the fumes on a small outcropping surrounded by the
lava rather than plunging right into it). If they fail to
do so, and there’s no plausible way for the charac-
ter to jump back in after the usual three Turns then
the character is missing, presumed dead. The player
should decide whether to leave the character in that
state for a while, playing a different character in the
meantime, or have the character return almost im-
mediately. In any case, in order to return, the player
needs to come up with an explanation for the char-
acter’s miraculous escape.
Note that it is perfectly acceptable to use a Shtick
to create a Peril or Obstacle; this is one way you can
promote a non-combat Ability to be useful in combat.
Thus, a character with a Computer Systems Shtick
couldn’t use it to attack a group of Empire Troop-
ers directly, but could use the Shtick to override the
blast doors separating them, thus creating an Obsta-
cle they would have to surmount, or even open the
hangar bay doors, creating a Peril that threatens to
sweep them out into the void of space. The disadvan-
tage, of course, is that Obstacles and Perils don’t dis-
66
Chapter 19
Equipment
In most Science Fiction, equipment plays a big part
in the story, whether it’s the smuggler’s trusty blaster
or the science officer’s tricorder. In Zap! you should
assume that Powers and Shticks that you use require
equipment. and the equipment you’re using should
be part of your narration of what you’re doing. You
are reduced to one die (as if you were Hindered) in
that Ability if you don’t have appropriate equipment
(e.g. guns or knives for a Power like Soldier, medical
kit for a Shtick such as Doctor). Abilities that have
taken the Advantage Bare-handed aren’t subject to
this; a typical such Power might be Martial Arts. Abili-
ties that have the Disadvantage Equipment Required
don’t even get a single die; they just can’t be used.
Most of the time, players can assume they have
whatever equipment they need to hand...or just pick
up some improvised equipment. Somebody with a
Power Elite Commando caught without a rifle while
in a hotel dirt-side on R&R when some terrorists attack
can narrate grabbing a handy mop and breaking off
the head to use as a staff until she can knock one
out and take his gun. The point is to encourage such
narration for flavor, not to enforce bookkeeping of ev-
erything the character is carrying at every moment.
There should, however, be times when in all fairness
it is unreasonable to assume that there is adequate
equipment handy, and the player should endure the
handicap until some can be procured.
Equipment Dice
Specific pieces of Equipment in Zap! are rated in
terms of a single die; characters using the equipment
can use that die in place of one of their own if it would
improve the dice rolled. For instance, a pistol might
be rated at d6. An untrained person who would or-
dinary roll a d2 for his attack would instead roll a d6.
A trained police officer with a Power Police Training
4 would roll a d6, d4 instead of d4, d4. If he had
PL 5 he’d roll d6, d6 instead of d6, d4. On the other
hand, an Elite Commando PL 8 would still roll d8, d8;
the pistol wouldn’t improve on that, though it would
justify using both dice instead of being reduced to
one for being unequipped. Equipment can be given
the same Advantages and Disadvantages that Abil-
ities can, raising and lowering the Equipment Rating
67
by one die size instead of one Power Level. E.g. a
Pistol d6 with the Shots Disadvantage becomes d8;
a Grenade d8 with the Area Effect Advantage be-
comes d6, etc.
Typical Equipment Dice
Equipment Die Cost*
Small/Minor d4 2
Medium d6 3
Large/Major d8 4
Rare/Expensive d10 5
Legendary d12 6
* if used. SeeWealth.
Variations in Equipment
You should assume that there is wide variation in ca-
pabilities of the items listed, even if its not reflected in a
mechanical difference between the items. These dif-
ferences should become fodder for the Primary Rule
in play. For example, mechanically all primitive ar-
mor is just a d4 vs. muscle-powered weapons, but
that doesn’t mean that in play you should treat plate
armor and a leather jacket as being identical; you
are strongly encouraged to decide on the fly that,
say, according to the Primary Rule and the tone of
the campaign swimming underwater in plate is forbid-
den, but a dagger has no chance of even Hindering
somebody clad in plate except under special circum-
stances such as in combination with an attack that
immobilizes the wearer.
The GM and players are strongly encouraged to in-
vent details about the equipment in keeping with the
setting, even if the details have no game-mechanical
effect, since they can provide fodder for the Primary
Rule. For instance in the modern day there are many
makes and models of cars, with varying features such
as numbers of doors, convertible roofs, automatic or
manual transmission, differences in trunk size, side of
the car the gas-cap is on, and so on. Any of these
things might plausibly come up in the course of play
as justifying or forbidding certain actions based on the
Primary Rule, even though in game terms anything
from a Toyota Camry to a VW Beetle or a Ford F150
pickup truck might be described simply as Ground
19. E QUIPMENT
Car d6. In a SF setting, equipment is likely to be just
as varied and interesting, and the GM players should
try to bear that in mind, inventing details where nec-
essary.
Maintenance
Equipment in most SF settings needs routine mainte-
nance. Once per session, the players should spend
a Scene describing how they’re performing mainte-
nance on some single piece of equipment, either all
together on something big such as a ship’s compo-
nent or each character on her own equipment; this
stands in for all the maintenance that they need to do
on all their equipment to keep it in good repair. If they
skip this scene, all their equipment acquires the Erratic
Disadvantage (fails to operate on a Mishap) until the
scene is performed.
Equipment Mishaps
A roll of doubles when using Equipment is a chance of
a Mishap, or a 1 if you’re only rolling 1 die. If there’s a
chance of a Mishap, roll a d12 and get higher than
the Equipment Die size to prevent the Mishap. Re-
member you only have to check for Mishaps if you
have a Disadvantage that requires it, such as the Er-
ratic Disadvantage from not maintaining the equip-
ment. (If you find it simpler you can just roll a d12 when
you have to check for Mishaps and a 1 is a Mishap; it’s
just a matter of whether you prefer to have to roll an
extra d12 every time or only once in a while.)
Reparing and Building Equipment
In order to repair broken equipment make an op-
posed roll of a suitable ability vs. the equipment’s
68
die; beating the equipment’s roll means it can be re-
paired. The number it rolled is the number of Rounds it
will take to make operational in combat, or Scenes
out-of-combat. This biases repair times in favor of
quick repairs in combat, but that matches most of the
genre fiction. Failure in combat means that it needs
to be repaired out of combat; failure out-of-combat
means it needs to be replaced, at least in part.
Building new equipment works essentially the same
way, but must be done out-of-combat unless using
a Scientist’s Science! skill. New equipment costs
roughly the same as buying the equipment, unless it
seems plausible that 90% of the cost of the equipment
is labor (as might be the case with primitive labor-
intensive items such as mail armor). See Wealth for
more about Wealth and costs. The advantage to
building it yourself is that you can get equipment to
your exact specifications, or in places that it might not
otherwise be available on local markets.
Cybernetic Enhancemetns
Generally speaking cybernetic enhancements, or cy-
berwear, shouldn’t be purchased as Equipment in
Zap! Rather, since once installed it becomes an in-
nate part of the character it would be purchased with
personal Boosts. Only in a setting where cybernetic
enhancements were frequently swapped in and out
during the course of an adventure according to the
needs of the moment would it make sense to write it
up as equipment and let players purchase it for their
characters with wealth.
In such a setting, assume that nearly anything that
could be purchased as Equipment can be installed
as an enhancement, but would Cost would +1 for the
Advantage Cyberwear, and possibly another +1 if it
has the Advantage Concealable as well.
Example Equipment
Not all of this equipment will be available in every set-
ting, and the GM is encouraged to change the ba-
sic parameters to better match the setting. Perhaps
all Laser guns must have the Burnout Disadvantage to
represent the limited lifespan of the tubes that gener-
ate the laser. Even if the equipment exists in the set-
ting, there’s no guarantee that the PCs will be able
to purchase it: a Portal Gun might be a top secret
weapon, only available as a prototype in a sinister
laboratory.
AutoDoc d8 Can perform emergency medical pro-
cedures and treat many conditions. (A) Flexible
(D) Bulky (D)Slow
Chatty Cathy Drone d6 Sows confusion on commu-
nications channels by spoofing conversations,
records and plays back live traffic with learning
algorithms to make it harder to sort out real from
 Example Equipment

fake traffic.Laser Pistol d4. Typical futuristic energy
weapon. (AA) Area Effect
Force Shield d6 Creates a disc of force in front of
the user, proof against most physical and energy
weapons.
Fragmentation Grenade d6 Typical WWII “pineap-
ple” grenade. (AA) Area Effect. (DD) 3 Shots
Gravity Grenade d8 Pulls everything in a sphere
around the grenade into an untidy pile at the
center and holds it there until the power runs out;
doesn’t directly damage objects or people un-
less they’re fragile, but can render them helplessly
trapped. (A) Lesser Area Effect (DD) 3 Shots
Hacker Deck d8 Computer with neural jacks that
lets the user mentally control an avatar in cy-
berspace; within the virtual representation of the
network the avatar can retrieve data, break into
secure systems and even take them over. (AA)
Control (D) Fragile (D) Side Effects (can physically
damage the user)
InstaWeb d6 Quad-rotor comm drones provide pri-
vate encrypted network in deployed area. (AA)
Area Effect.
Projectile Pistol d6 The standard “six-gun.” (D) 6 shots
Portal Gun d8 Creates “portals” that you can step or
fire through; requires line of sight to both sides of
the portal. AA: Exotic (stopped by forcefields)
Rations d4 Simple rations, lasts nearly forever, chemi-
cally self-heating, wrapper can be used as a wa-
ter filter.
Robomule d8 Simple programmable sawhorse-style
robot for carrying equipment & supplies; sure-
footed, relatively slow, not comfortable to ride on.
Sonic Grenade d8 A grenade that produces an ultra-
high pitched sound that stuns creatures with audi-
tory systems roughly like those of Earth creatures.
(A) Lesser Area Effect (DD) 3 Shots (D) Limited: re-
quires atmosphere, only vs. creatures with rela-
tively human auditory systems
Stasis Field d8 Stops time to preserve a cache
of goods, equipment, even people indefinitely
against all conditions, even nuclear explosion.
Device is the size of a backpack, projects a field
up to 3 meters in diameter. AA: Area Effect, A: De-
layed (can activate via timer), DD: Single Use, D:
Can’t be deactivated except by external stasis-
disruptor device

Lockpicks d6 Set of tools for opening locks and
defeating security systems, depending on tech
level these may be mostly dealing with elec-
tronics/computers/forcefields instead of physical
locks.
MindSaver d10 Implant emergency uploads patient’s
memory to secure backup for implanting in a
clone, wipes out current body’s memory. (DD)
Very Slow
Stun Pistol d6 Non-lethally disrupts creatures’ neural
systems.
Tetracorder d6 Scans environment at range; units
may be further specialized to certain tasks, e.g.
medicine. (A) Flexible
Vacc-Suit d4 Protects vs. outer-space conditions.

NanoGoo d10 Given a template, and a mind saved

by Mind Saver, can reconstruct a person from a
saved copy. Often used for deep-space scout-
ing so the crew can be saved and reconstituted
when the ship reaches its destination, rather than
having to endure and be supplied for years. (DD)
Very Slow

Needler d6. Shoots high-speed ceramic flechettes

that can deliver toxins, paralytics, truth-serum, or
just damage tissue. Favored shipboard, where to
the hull and machinery can’t be risked. A: Flexi-
ble, D: Stopped by armor

Plaskin d6 Artificial skin can provide temporary repairs

of cuts and burns; can be used to reduce chance
of permanent injury on recovering from Out, or
to substitute a longer term Complication such as
“requires reconstructive surgery” for a short term
one like “unable to use arm due to wound”.

Programmable Clothes d4 Can morph into any

ordinary-appearing clothing. (A) Subtle
69
Chapter 20
Ships
Ships in Zap! are treated as characters in their own
right, but they have slightly different Attributes: Tough-
ness, Hull Capacity, Power, and Crew.
Ships are also rated by Scale which describes how
large and effective they are compared to other ships;
Scale is not an Attribute.
Toughness works exactly as it does for characters.
Hull Capacity is the number of slots the ship has to
fit Powers; a Power takes up 1 Hull Space, a Shtick
takes 1/2 a Hull Space. You can’t have fractional Hull
Capacity values, but you can have unused space.
Hull Capacity values are fixed when the ship is con-
structed; you can upgrade everything else about a
ship, but if you want a bigger hull you need a new
ship.
Power is how much power the ship has for running
systems, primarily for purposes of pushing more power
into them using such Tropes as “Divert Power to...”
Power functions more or less as a combination of Will
and Stamina.
Crew is how many Actions the ship can take in a
Round, not counting actions performed by the PCs.
Crew 0 means that any Ability you want to use in a
Turn must have a PC assigned to it.
How fast ships travel between planets and stars is
at a different Scope from individual characters, and is
determined by the Campaign Scope for the setting.
That is, if the campaign is Scope 10 Near Interstellar,
then all ships in the campaign are presumed to be
Scope 10 unless otherwise noted.
Typical Powers for Ships include: Weapons, Shields,
FTL Drive, Impulse Engines.
Typical Shticks include Sensors, Life Support, Sick
Bay, Cargo Bay(s), Labs, Engineering, Hydroponics,
Vehicle Bay, Shuttle Bay, Life Pods, Cold Sleep Cham-
bers, Recreation Deck, Brig, Ship’s Stores, Ship’s Li-
brary.
Any Power that would be typical in the setting but
that your ship is not equipped with is assumed to be
present, but at minimal Power Level (Default Skill), un-
less that would be silly (a Brig on a one-man fighter).
Ship Templates
These are minimal ships of their type; larger ships will
have more Hull space for more Powers like Sensors
70
and FTL drive (if the setting distinguishes between FTL
and STL drives), Shticks such as Engineering and Ships
Library, and more.
Warship
Attributes: Toughness: 2, Hull: 5, Power: 2, Crew: 2
Powers: Three powers @ 5. Typically, an offen-
sive weapon, a defensive device, and a movement
power.
Shticks: 4 Shticks @ 4.
New Powers begin @ 5 New Shticks begin @ 4
Cost: 2 Boosts/20 Wealth Points
Merchant Ship
Attributes: Toughness: 1, Hull: 5, Power: 2, Crew: 1
Defense Power: One Defense power @ 4. Active or
automatic (choose one). Examples: Maneuverability,
Force Shield.
Movement Power @ 4
Shticks: 6 Shticks @ 5 E.g. Cargo Bay, Sick Bay, Life
Pods
New Powers begin @ 4 New Shticks begin @ 5
Cost: 1 Boost/10 Wealth Points
Research Ship
Attributes: Toughness: 2, Hull: 3, Power: 2, Crew: 2
Science! power: Choose one of three possibilities:
• Science! power @ 3 (d6, d4), (AA) Ultra-flexible,
(A) Power-up to 5 (d6, d4) with 3 research suc-
cesses (self or others);
• Science! power @ 4 (d6, d6), (A) Flexible, (A)
Power-up to 6 (d6, d6), and Ultra-flexible with 3 re-
search scenes.
• Science! power @ 5 (d8, d6), (A) Power-up to
Ultra-flexible with 3 research scenes.
For all choices, it gets the Power-up by researching a
device for a specific circumstances for 3 Scenes.
Defense: A scientific gadget defense power @ 4. (A)
Flexible. Choose whether Active or Automatic.
Shticks: Choose 2 Shticks @ 4, plus Science Labs @ 5.
Restriction: Pick a Restriction that is tied in with its
brand of Science!
New Powers begin @ 5 New Shticks begin @ 4
Cost: 1 Boost/10 Wealth Points

Custom Ship
Attributes: Toughness: 1, Hull: 2, Power: 1, Crew: 0
9 Boosts to spend on Attrs, Powers and Shticks
Restriction: Pick any restriction for one extra Boost. E.g.
can’t land on a planet, no hard-points for weapons.
Choose New Powers begin @ 5 New Shticks begin @ 4
or New Powers begin @ 4 and New Shticks begin @ 5
Cost: 1 Boost/10 Wealth Points
Ships are treated like characters in their own right
when it comes to increasing their Boosts: the first addi-
tional Boost on a Ship cost 1 XP. Each Boost after that
costs as many XP as the Ship has in Boosts (2, then
3, then 4, and so on). If you are using the optional
Wealth rules, WP may be substituted for XP.
Ship Advantages and Disadvantages
You can place Advantages and Disadvantages from
the list for characters on Ship’s systems, if it makes
71
Ship Advantages and Disadvantages
sense. In addition there are certain Advantages and
Disadvantages apply only to a ship’s Abilities.
Ship Advantages
Small Advantages are labeled (A), Big Advantages
(AA)
Ablative (A) Power is reduced by 1 PL each time
a successful hit is scored, but Damage
is stepped down one level (Overkill be-
comes Out, Out becomes Hindered, Hin-
dered becomes no effect).
Automated (A) Doesn’t require Crew to operate.
Backup System (A) If Out, a replacement system 2 PL
lower can be brought online for one Ac-
tion next Round
Hardened (AA) Treat Out as Hindered; Overkill as Out
Long-Range (A) for this ship Combat Range has an
extra section: Long Range. At long Range
20. S HIPS
you can fire this Power with 2 dice while
the enemy can only reply with 1 (un-
less they also have Long Range Powers).
Movement between sections occurs as
normal (that is, it requires an Action to
change range).
Extreme-Long-Range (AA) same as Long Range, but
with an additional Combat Range sec-
tion where you can fire with 2 dice and
they need either Long or Extreme Range
weapons to return fire (Long returns fire
with 1 die, Extreme with 2).
Micro (AA) Requires no Hull space.
Mini (A) Requires half as much Hull space, i.e. two
Mini systems in one Hull space.
Self-Repairing (A) Outside of combat, the system re-
stores itself by one level per Scene (Overkill
becomes Out, Out becomes Hindered,
etc.)
Ship Disadvantages
Small Disadvantages are labeled (D), Big Disadvan-
tages (DD)
Long Range Only (D) for this ship Combat Range has
an extra section: Long Range. This weapon can
only fire at Long Range.
Short-Range (D) for this ship Combat Range has an
extra section: Short Range; this weapon is re-
duced to one die if longer than Short Range, and
can’t fire at all at Pursuit Range.
Short-Range Forbidden (D) for this ship Combat
Range has an extra section: Short Range; this
weapon cannot fire at Short Range.
Ship Restrictions
Ships can have Restrictions, similar to those that char-
acters have, that greatly limit their capabilities. This list
isn’t exhaustive, but suggests how severe a penalty a
Restriction ought to be. A Restriction on a Ship grants
the ship one more Boost to spend. Ship Restrictions
cannot be bought off with Boosts at a later date.
Cannot Land Too large or fragile to land on a planet,
it will require shuttle craft or the equivalent to
transport crew and cargo.
Cranky Systems are chronically erratic; every session
roll a random system, which is treated as having
the Erratic Disadvantage for the duration of the
session
Exotic All repairs or upgrades require an extra 1 WP
be spent because parts are hard to come by due
to the ship being obsolete, alien, of foreign man-
ufacture, etc. In addition, Exotic ships are more
likely to be recognized and remembered.
72
Hangar Queen Systems are constantly breaking; ev-
ery session roll a d12, on a 1 a random system is
Hindered. If a Mishap comes up on the Repair
roll, the system is Broken and needs replacement
parts.
No Hardpoints Incapable of mounting weapons that
occupy Hull space.
Ship Complications
Just as with characters, every ship should have Com-
plications; ships can have one Major or two Minor
Complications. Again as with characters, you may
freely change your ships Complications between ad-
ventures to keep things fresh. Some possible Compli-
cations are:
Absentee Owner the ship is actually owned by some-
body else, and you are using it only so long as
you are carrying out their wishes. This could be an
informal arrangement where you are merely on
call if they need it, or the ship could be on active
service in some organization and you are merely
employees carrying out orders
Famous the ship is widely known and recognized; this
can make it hard to be inconspicuous. This might
be a case of mistaken identity
Haunted it may be a glitch in the systems, or an ac-
tual haunt, but strange things sometimes hap-
pen aboard: lights on where they shouldn’t be,
hatches undogged when they should be, cold
spots that the ship’s internal sensors don’t regis-
ter...
Mortgage you don’t own the ship outright, and have
to keep coming up with money to make pay-
ments on it. This should be played as a motivation
to keep earning money, or occasional plot point,
not as a particular amount of WP you need to fork
over every session.
Temperamental nothing is actually wrong with the
ships systems, but every once in a while one will
require more than one try to activate at inconve-
nient moment.
Unlucky Reputation somehow things always seem to
go wrong for the owners of the ship, or so the story
goes. Sometimes it can be hard to find crew, or
shippers might hesitate to employ it.
Wanted somebody believes they have a claim to
ownership, and they want it back. Their claim
might even be valid...
Ship-to-Ship Combat
Ship-to-ship takes place the same way that combat
between characters does, except that Damage is as-
signed randomly against the ship’s Abilities instead of

taken against the ship as a whole. Each ship’s sys-
tem (Power or Shtick) should be assigned a number.
Each time an attacker scores a success, figure out the
degree of success as normal and then roll a die to
see which system was hit. Systems that are Hindered
are still operational, but at one die; systems that are
Out are broken, but repairable, and systems that are
Overkilled are destroyed.
Damage Steps
Operational (Undamaged)
Hindered
Broken (Out)
Destroyed (Overkill)
When rolling for damage location in ship-to-ship
combat Automatic defensive abilities have no special
resistance to being Hindered or Out: if the die-roll for
damage location indicates they are hit, they take the
damage.
When systems are destroyed, do not reduce the size
of the die you’re using to determine the system hit; if
an already destroyed system is hit again, reduce the
Crew by 1, if the Crew is reduced to zero, then the ship
is Out unless there are PCs left on it. If there are PCs
on the ship, and the Crew is at 0, then each time the
Crew is would be reduced by 1, a PC is Out; the PC
should be chosen randomly from the ones working on
the system, or if none were then from the remaining
PCs.
If an already destroyed system is hit by an an
Overkill, the ship is destroyed regardless of remaining
Crew. A ship is also destroyed if all of its systems are de-
stroyed. Anything less, and the crew of the ship or PCs
can still attempt to get its systems—or at least some of
them—working again.
This means that while ships larger hulls, more sys-
tems, and more Crew are in general harder to render
helpless, a lucky shot can destroy one, and that bat-
tles don’t drag out until the final system of the ship is
broken.
Attempts to Disable
You can attempt to Disable a specific system, as per
the usual rules, but you must roll twice: first against
the ship’s normal defenses, and only if you beat them
proceed to roll against the Power Level of the system
you are targeting. You may not attempt to Disable
any system that isn’t represented by an Ability. E.g. if
the target ship doesn’t have Sensors as one of its Pow-
ers or Shticks, it’s assumed that they are too spread
out, small, or redundant to make a legitimate identi-
fiable target. Automatic Defenses do have the usual
resistance to being reduced if they are specifically tar-
geted: the damage level can never be more than
Hindered unless the attacker is using a Power with the
Disabling Only Advantage.
73
Ship-to-Ship Combat
Repairs
Repairing systems decreases their damage by one
step. You need to Repair a system more than once
to bring it back up multiple steps.
Hindered systems can be Repaired by characters
with the appropriate Abilities by spending an entire
Round and making an opposed roll against the PL of
the system (more powerful systems are trickier to re-
pair). If they beat the system’s roll, the system is back
up immediately; if they fail, the shortfall is the number
of Rounds before the system will be back online. E.g.
Spotty tries to repair the ship’s Engines with his Engi-
neering 5 vs. the ship’s engines of 6. He rolls d6, d4
and gets a 2, the engines roll d6, d6 and get a 5: it
will be 3 Rounds before they’re back online. Rolling
a Mishap causes system to “attack” technician doing
the repairs.
If the characters don’t like the result they can
spend another Round to re-roll, but if the result is
worse they’ve experienced a set-back and it will in-
deed take longer than they originally thought. They
can keep trying rolls as many Rounds as they wish,
but Rounds spent this way don’t count towards the
Rounds until the System is repaired. During this time
the Hindered system continues to remain available at
a single die. If they wished to take the system offline
completely, that will reduce the amount of time it will
take to repair it by 3 Rounds (to a minimum 1 Round).
Broken systems can be Repaired, using the same
procedure as Hindered systems, but require parts.
Ships with an actual Ships Stores Ability or the equiva-
lent may roll vs. the PL of the system that needs parts:
success means the needed parts are available; failure
means resorting to one of the other options. Parts not
available from the stores can be obtained by can-
nibalizing other ship’s systems, or by adventuring for
them.
Destroyed systems cannot be repaired in combat.
Out of combat, they can be Repaired with a success-
ful roll at the cost of 1 XP; a failure means they are
thoroughly destroyed and must be repurchased.
If you are using the optional Wealth rules, you
can obtain replacement parts by spending 1 Wealth
Point. This happens immediately, even during com-
bat, to reduce book-keeping; it’s assumed the parts
are scrounged from non-critical parts that will need
replacing. If you don’t have the WP, you may make
the repair, but you cannot make any future repairs
except by cannibalizing until you’ve spent a WP on
restocking parts; presumably if you’re running a ship
while that poor, you’ve been putting off resupplying
and scrounging everything that was scroungeable for
already just for routine maintenance. Destroyed sys-
tems may be repaired on a successful roll by spending
1 WP instead of 1 XP.
Cannibalizing
Any ship’s system that’s an actual Ability can be can-
nibalized: cannibalizing systems increases the dam-
20. S HIPS
age they’ve taken by one step. Destroyed systems
can be cannibalized, but it requires a roll equivalent
to the Repair roll (roll vs. PL to see how many Rounds
before you can recover useful parts). If a character
rolls a Mishap while cannibalizing a Destroyed system,
she suffers an attack as it explodes or short-circuits: roll
the systems PL vs. the appropriate defense. You can
cannibalize from the same system more than once,
increasing its damage by one step each time, but
once you’ve cannibalized a Destroyed system it can-
not be Repaired even out of combat, and must be
purchased anew.
Life Support Failing...
If a ship ever loses Life Support, either because of
damage to the system or because it was powered
down (as in Silent Running), the crew will start to suffer.
Each Round in combat or Scene outside of com-
bat, make a Hindered (one die) Life Support roll vs.
the Crew Attribute, or the Crew become Tired: all
ship’s systems they control operate at one die. If they
become Tired twice, they become Out. Another 3
times after that they are Out and they start dying.
Use the Hindered Life Support roll even if the system is
destroyed: better, more powerful Life Support systems
take longer to degrade.
Each time a Tired result comes up, PCs can elect to
sacrifice one point of Stamina instead. At 0 Stamina
they are Out. If the ship has no Crew Attribute (the
PCs are the only crew), treat it as a Tired result any
time a 1 comes up on the Life Support roll.
PC Actions
When PCs are aboard a ship they may either spend
their Actions using their own Abilities, such as when
they are running around trying to repair things on the
ship, provide medical assistance to the crew, or do
research in the lab to cobble together a weapon to
stop the alien attackers, or they may serve as crew
manning one of the ship’s abilities. Each PC that takes
over supervising the functions of one of the ship’s Abil-
ities in effect gives the ship an extra Action during
that Round, at the expense of that PC’s own Actions.
When PCs are using the ship’s Abilities, they treat it as
Equipment, using the better of the Ability’s best die
and their own best die or the Ability’s dice. E.g. if the
ship’s guns are PL 6 (d6, d6), a PC who had Gunner
8 (d8, d8) would roll a d8, d6 (her great gunning im-
proves the chances, but she’s still limited by how good
the guns are); a PC who had Gunner 4 (d4, d4) would
roll a d6, d6 (having a PC in charge never makes the
it worse).
Ship Tropes
Divert Power to the...
Equivalent to the Supreme Effort Trope for characters,
you can add the ship’s Power rating to a roll, after
74
which the Power drops by one. If the Power reaches
zero, the ship’s systems operate at one die, much as
when a character is Tired.
The Engines Can’t Take It!
A character with an Engineering Ability or the equiv-
alent can use the equivalent of the Supreme Effort
Trope to add her Will to a roll involving the engines or
power plant, after which the system becomes Broken.
Silent Running
By powering down all systems, including life support,
the ship becomes invisible or thought of as derelict
to any scans at longer than Short Range (any other
ship that wasn’t already at Short Range per the Short
Range Disadvantages would have to spend Actions
to close to Short Range before they could detect the
ruse). Each Round you spend in Silent Running re-
quires a Life Support roll.
Option: Faster Ship Combat
Standard ship-to-ship combat in Zap! takes approx-
imately as long as a normal combat between the
characters as individuals and a similar number of foes,
with systems being eliminated one-by-one and the
characters having time to repair them...although a
lucky shot or clever tactics can end it faster; this is by
design, since the elimination of the character’s ship
generally defeats the entire party at once.
If you prefer to speed up ship-to-ship combat, one
way is to have each hit on a specific system knock it
down one level. Thus, a Hindered system that takes
another hit would become Broken, even if the dam-
age didn’t exceed the ship’s Toughness.
You can speed it up even more by treating the ship
as a single character, and having entire ship become
Hindered or Broken as a single unit. This offers a lot
less leeway for individual characters to make a differ-
ence, or for manuevering and reversals of fortune, but
is much more practical when more than a couple of
ships are involved.
You can decide which way you will handle combat
on a case-by-case basis, or even distinguish between
ships so that capital class ships take damage to indi-
vidual systems while lesser ships are treated as a unit.
You could even have only the PC’s ship use the de-
tailed approach, while all enemy ships are treated as
single units.
Ship Scale
The Scale for a ship describes how large and effec-
tive that ship is compared to other ships regardless of
Adventure Scope. A ship could range from a single-
person craft to a colony ship with millions of inhabi-
tants regardless of whether the Adventure Scope is 10
(Near Interstellar) or 14 (Galactic Cluster). The Scale
 Ship Scale

of the Ship is the number of digits in the crew comple- Settings with Multiple Adventure Scopes
ment. A ship at Scale 1 has crew in the single digits;
If the campaign setting actually has multiple Adven-
a ship at Scale 3 has hundreds of crew, and so on. If
ture Scopes, say with some cultures at Scope 10 (Near
you’re using the optional Wealth rules, that’s also the
Interstellar) and others at Scope 14 (Galactic Cluster),
Scale of ship’s Wealth. The Crew attribute indicates
Ship Scale is subordinate to the Adventure Scope;
how many crew the ship has given the Scale.
that is, a Ship Scale 3 ship belonging to a Galactic
E.g. a smuggler’s ship with a handful of crew would Cluster civilization is presumably much more powerful
have Ship Scale 1. If the ship’s Crew Attribute were 2, than a Ship Scale 6 craft belonging to the Near Inter-
that would indicate 2 crew members; a deep-space stellar culture. In situations with mixed Scopes like this,
exploration vessel with 435 crew would be Crew 4 at if it becomes necessary to compare the ships in com-
Scale 3. A battle carrier with 1,000 crew members bat or with one trying to evade the other, first convert
could be Crew 10 at Scale 3 or Crew 1 at Scale 4, de- the ships from Adventure Scope to Adventure Scope
pending on what’s more convenient for the setting: is using the Crossing Scopes rules, then if necessary from
it one of the largest ships in its class, or the smallest? Ship Scale to Ship Scale.
A ship the size of a moon with around 300,000 crew E.g. if the Star-cruiser from the previous example
would be Crew 3 at Scale 6, and so on. came from a Scope 14 civilization and the Peregrine
from a Scope 12, the Star-cruiser would first be con-
Ship Scale ~Crew per point verted from Guns 5, Shields 4, and Drive 3 to Guns
1 1 8, Shields 6, Drive 5, and then to Guns 12, Shields 10,
2 10 Drive 5. On the other hand, if the Star-cruiser were
3 100 from a Scope 10 civilization, the Star-cruiser would first
4 1,000 be reduced to Guns 3, Shields 2, Drive 1 by translating
5 10,000 two Scopes upward, and the shifted to Guns 7, Shields
6 100,000 6, Drive 1 to put it on the same Ship Scale as the Pere-
7 1,000,000 grine.
8 10,000,000
9 100,000,000
10 1,000,000,000
11 10,000,000,000
12 100,000,000,000

Ship Scale and Effectiveness

When ships of different Scales are in combat, their

non-Movement Abilities are scaled; Movement Abili-
ties and Attributes remain fixed since it’s typical in Sci-
ence Fiction for small ships to be able to outrun larger
ones, and to be able to survive one or more hits even
from a bigger ship’s weapons. For every Scale you
move a ship, raise or lower the score on its Abilities by
2 depending on whether the ship is being shifted to a
Scale where it’s relatively more or less powerful. Abili-
ties never go below 1. Usually you would shift the side
that has the fewest different types of ships, to minimize
the work; otherwise, leave the PC’s ship(s) and shift
their enemies, so the players can just look at what’s
listed on the character sheet.
E.g. the Peregrine runs across an Empire Star-cruiser,
a Scale 3 ship with hundreds of crew and huge guns.
At its normal Scale the Star-cruiser has Guns 5, Shields
4, and Drive 3. At Scale 1 its Guns count as 9, the
Shields count as 8, and the Drive remains at 3. None
of the Attributes change.
If you were doing it the other way around, shifting
the Peregrine to Scale 3, the Peregrine’s Movement 5,
Deflector Shields 4 and Gun Turrets 4 become Move-
ment 5, Deflector Shields 1, and Gun Turrets 1.
75
Chapter 21

Trekking

Science Fiction stories often have a good deal of fairly

routine travel: not every space voyage is punctuated
by pirate attack, receiving a distress call, or encoun-
tering a mysterious alien entity. But if play skips over
the days, weeks, or even months of routine to get to
the “good stuff” space can end up feeling very small,
with treks halfway across the galaxy feeling like a trip
down to the corner store. To combat this and give tex-
ture to the routine ship-board activities that make up
a large part of genre, Zap! uses a “just the highlights”
system called Trekking, which rates travel distances in
terms of Scenes needed to complete the travel.
Based on the Adventure Scope and technology
of the setting, the GM should determine how much
subjective time (how many Scenes) should pass to
trek between the closest points for long-distance equipment (see Maintenance), training, performing
highlights-only travel. Longer distances should then Research, or role-playing a conversation or interac-
be made proportional to that. For example, at a tion between several of the PCs or the PCs and NPCs.
Near Interstellar Scope, the GM could decide that dis- It can also be some incident or encounter that the
tances between planets in a single solar system us- GM presents: if the ship actually does encounter
ing “impulse power” should take a few days, while some pirates or a distress call, that counts as a Scene
the closest stars would be weeks away using “warp towards completion of the journey. Scenes needn’t all
drive”, and the frontier a couple of months. Based take place shipboard; feel free to include stops along
on this, she decides that travel between planets takes the way to refuel, trade, explore, or for some R&R, as
between one and three Scenes; between close stars appropriate for the setting and the PC’s goals. Some
6 to 12, and the frontier would be 21+ Scenes away. of these may turn into adventures in their own right,
Note the deliberate discontinuity, so that embarking while others might just be short interludes and an op-
on an interstellar journey feels like a significantly more portunity to insert some local color.
time-consuming enterprise than hopping around in-
Scenes can be as short or as long as you care to
system; also note that the number of scenes needn’t
make them, but the point of playing out the Scenes is
be strictly proportional...if a trip that takes a day re-
to give the players some interesting memories of what
quires one Scene, a trip that takes a week doesn’t
happened during their trek from Point A to Point B, not
necessarily require seven Scenes. A GM who wanted
merely to force them to do a slow count to ten before
the players to be able to flit from system to system
the action can resume. This is a good opportunity to
more casually could reduce the numbers, say to 1,
work in some of the Complications of the various char-
3 and 6 Scenes respectively, or even skip Trekking en-
acters or the ship itself, or to give some spotlight time
tirely and hand-wave everything as “3 months later,
to characters that haven’t been front-and-center of
you arrive.”
the action recently.

Scenes
A Scene during Trekking is exactly like a scene in a
book or a movie: a single situation or incident, usu-
ally in a single location. This can be a description
by one of the players some activity their character is
performing during the trip, such as maintaining their
76
Translating Distance to Scenes
If the GM has worked out exact travel distances be-
tween various locales and speeds for various forms
of transportation, that can be translated directly into
Scenes by assigning a unit of time for a One-Scene
 Typical Scenes

trip. E.g. if you say travel takes one Scene per day, Typical Scenes
then a ship capable of traveling 1 light-year per day
would take 12 Scenes to complete a 12 light-year trip, The GM and players can pick from any of these, or
while a ship that can travel 6 light-years per day would make up their own. If the players want an encounter,
take only 2 Scenes for the same trip. Fractional Scenes they should feel free to “pick it up on scanners” or “re-
should be dropped. If the setting uses more abstract ceive a distress signal” even if the GM isn’t inflicting it
distance, like “Jumps” of a fixed duration, you can on them.
peg the Scenes to Jumps, say 2 Scenes per jump. • Maintenance
Even though the way you work out the number of
Scenes supposes a certain number of scenes per unit • Training
of time, that doesn’t imply that Scenes ought to take
• Malfunction
that long, or be spaced out evenly. E.g. if you’re trans-
lating one week’s travel = one Scene, the individual • Research
Scenes don’t have to occur one per week like clock-
work; if it makes sense, you should immediately fol- • Personal Issues
low one Scene with another, such as a Scene where
the PCs decide to land on a planet to trade followed – Disagreement between crew-members
immediately by another Scene where they hunt for – Family emergency
bargains in the bazaar, and another where they get – Romance
drunk in a local bar. If that’s all the Scenes that are
required to complete the journey they were on, that – Dereliction of duty
just means that you should make the remaining weeks – Application for promotion
pass without incident once they get underway again.
The GM could also use a sliding scale, typically to • Complication Crops Up
make longer distance travel less tedious, such as by • Recreation
making Trekking take one Scene per day up to 7
Scenes, then an additional two Scene per week up • Refuel/Resupply
to one month (another 8 Scenes), and three Scenes
per month’s travel thereafter. This would have the • Trading
advantage of making a contemplated 6 month jour- • Paperwork
ney still seem like it would take a significant amount
of time as measured in Scenes without forcing the • Non-hostile Contact
players to figure out 180 Scenes to fill up the time; on
the other hand, depending on the setting you might • Encounter
want a six month journey that crosses the entirety of
– Hostile ship
known space to be a daunting prospect that will take
months of playing...or at least prod the players into – Distress call
thinking about getting a faster ship. – Anomaly
– Hazard of travel
– Outbreak
Cutting to the Chase – Crime
– Alien Contact
Don’t slow down the action or insist on playing out the
Scenes just to prolong the process of travel. If the play-
ers are chasing some fleeing bad-guys, by all means
skip ahead, even if it would normally amount to a
bunch more Scenes. Keep a sense of pacing, and
don’t fritter away any sense of urgency the players
have built up. If they want to cut to the chase, oblige
them. If they don’t want to play out the process of
traveling at all, and would rather just start each ad-
venture orbiting a new planet, then drop the Trekking
rules all together...though you should probably still try
to include some time in each session for “down time”
activities. Even action-adventure SF TV shows usually
include some scenes of normal activity each episode
as a change of pace or to allow for character de-
velopment; non-stop action can be as tedious as no
action at all.
77
Chapter 22
Research
Science and engineering form core elements of Sci-
ence Fiction stories, so it’s not surprising that many
protagonists are scientists or engineers and are con-
stantly doing research or tinkering with devices. In
Zap! characters with the Scientist Template can do
Research Scenes to revise and expand their Sci-
ence! Power to the needs of the adventure, but that’s
just one way that research into new technology, de-
vices, and scientific knowledge can come into play.
Characters may also perform Research to gain new
Assets and improve upon their existing ones.
Once each session, characters may perform a Re-
search scene using any appropriate Ability (the Sci-
entist’s Scientific Research Shtick, or any science or
engineering Shtick that characters using other Tem-
plates may have). The characters choose an Asset
(see4) that they want to improve upon with research
and tinkering, or a new Asset they want to create. The
Difficulty for the Research is the PL of the Asset. Scor-
ing a success grants 1 XP for improving that Asset, or
towards its purchase for a new one; if the 1 XP from
success isn’t enough to buy the improvement or new
Asset immediately, “bank” it as belonging to that par-
ticular Asset. When making a Research roll, always
check for a Mishap even if the Power doesn’t have a
Disadvantage that would call for a check. If a Mishap
occurs, the GM should invent something interesting
that went wrong, such as:
1. Shower of sparks, some piece of equipment is bro-
ken.
2. Small explosion; treat as a single attack on the re-
searcher(s) at the PL of the Asset.
3. Line of Research is set back, if any XP was accu-
mulated on this Research lose 1 XP.
4. Experiment sets off an adventure. Perhaps the re-
searcher is split into a good version and a bad
version, or it attracts a mischievous or hostile en-
tity through a spacio-temporal rift, or the ship is
hurtled back in time or to a different quadrant of
the galaxy.
5. Sudden insight. You can abandon this Research
and put any XP already banked into a new line of
Research, aiming at a new Asset.
78
6. Serendipity! You’ve accidentally discovered
something else entirely. GM grants you a Major
Asset of her design.
“Interesting” in this context means that it has some ef-
fect on the game besides just the description of col-
ored lights and things blowing up, although that effect
need not have mechanics attached.
A new Minor Asset costs 1 XP; Major Assets that be-
long to the players jointly cost 3 XP; Major Assets that
belong to a particular character cost as many XP as
that character has Boosts. Improving Assets costs as
many XP as the Asset has in Boosts. A Minor Asset is
generally something like a piece of equipment: the
PL is the die-size. A Major Asset is generally something
that’s treated almost as a character, like a Vehicle,
Base, or Companion, with its own Attributes and Abil-
ities. The GM should determine what the Attributes
and Abilities of a new Major Asset are, following the
description by the players of what they’re trying to Re-
search.
When playing out a Research Scene, players are
strongly encouraged to describe what they’re doing
in some detail, even if it’s just techno-babble, and try
their to fit the science and technology into the setting
and tone, whether that’s “I’m adjusting the baryon fil-
ters on the warp core to reverse the polarity of the
tachyon flow, which if it works should let us create a
short-term temporal rift so we can travel back in time”
or “I’m duct-taping a grenade launcher and a flame-
thrower to my pulse rifle.” Players can combine their
Abilities, and should add to the description: “I’ll be
monitoring the efficiency of the baryon filters using my
Radar Vision prosthesis, to warn if the filters are be-
coming unstable.”
If the campaign is using Wealth, you can substitute
WP for any expenditure of research XP; you can even
use Research to generate WP by inventing new pro-
cesses or gizmos that you can sell or patent. The dif-
ficulty of getting a Wealth Point via Research is your
current Wealth PL, with the usual results for Research
Mishaps.
Chapter 23
Experience
As you play the game you earn Experience (XP). Gen-
erally adventurers earn one XP per session, plus one if
they were put Out at least once during the session,
plus one more if the entire group was defeated. (De-
feat is an excellent teacher!) The GM may choose to
award more, up to two or three, for significant accom-
plishments, such as finally completing a story arc that
has been taking place over a number of sessions.
Characters may earn an extra XP for “Going Boldly”,
volunteering to place their character at the mercy of
the GM in order to move the plot along or get re-
integrated in the main action if they’ve somehow be-
come separated.
Each character starts with 3 Boosts, plus some Tem-
plates have Bonus Boosts. Every additional Boost after
the start costs as much XP as the number of Boosts
your character has so far. Remember Assets like Com-
panions, Bases, and Vehicles do not count towards
the character’s number of Boosts, nor do Bonus Boosts
for the Templates that have them. E.g., a starting Bad-
Ass character has 3 Boosts plus 1 Bonus Boost, so it
takes 3 XP to get an additional Boost. Once the char-
acter spends the XP on a personal improvement the
character has 4 Boosts and so the next Boost would
cost 4 XP.
With one Boost you can:
• Increase a Power by 1 Level
• Increase two Shticks by 1 Level each
• Add one Small Advantage, or change a Small
Advantage to a Big Advantage
• Remove one Small Disadvantage, or change a
Big Disadvantage to a Small Disadvantage
• Add 1 to one of your Attributes
• Take a new Power at the Level indicated in your
Template (e.g. 5 for Bad-Ass, 4 for Crew)
• Take two new Shticks at the Level indicated in
your Template (e.g. 5 for Crew, 4 for Bad-Ass)
• Get a Major Asset such as a Companion, Vehi-
cle, or Base.
79
Major Assets are treated as if they were characters:
you keep track of their Boosts, and increasing their
Boosts costs as many XP as that Asset currently has in
Boosts, or 1 if it starts with 0. E.g., a Companion starts
with 0 Boosts so it costs 1 XP to give that Compan-
ion a Boost. After that it’s a 1 Boost Companion, and
will cost 1 XP to improve again to 2 Boost Companion,
then 2 XP to get a 3rd Boost and so on.
You can also spend XP directly on Minor Assets, such
as Favors, Perks, Reputation, or Contacts. One new
Minor Asset costs 1 XP, as does adding 1 level to an
existing Minor Asset.
The Pace Of Advancement
It may seem that characters will advance very slowly
given this system; it can be several sessions before a
starting character can increase the level of her main
Power or get a new Power. This is generally in keep-
ing with the nature of the genre. SF stories don’t usu-
ally focus on the characters acquiring more and more
personal power, “leveling up” and getting new gear;
when adventurers do get new powers it’s a big event,
and usually comes as a result of something significant
happening during the course of an adventure or the
start of a new adventure, such as being captured and
experimented on by a mad scientist or alien race. In-
stead of altering the core of the character, as a result
of their adventures they widen their circle of contacts,
aid people who may then owe them favors, develop
a reputation, make improvements to their base of op-
erations and all the other things that Zap! designates
as “Assets.”
Chapter 24
Wealth
Wealth is an optional system in Zap! Many Science
Fiction settings make the character’s wealth irrele-
vant, or just part of the background: the charac-
ters are doing what they do to make money, but
how much money is never really described nor do
their actions seem particularly constrained by what
things cost. Even if the setting doesn’t suppose a
post-scarcity economy, if you’re on active duty and
bankrolled by Star Fleet, how much it took to build
your ship or to keep it running and in repair need never
come up. On the other hand, a space-navy cam-
paign might well have the captain of a ship assigned
a budget that she needs to keep within, or have her
personal wealth matter in terms her share of prizes
awarded for the capture of enemy vessels.
Wealth Levels
Level Amount
1 1
2 10
3 100
4 1,000
5 10,000
6 100,000
7 1,000,000
8 10,000,000
9 100,000,000
10 1,000,000,000
11 10,000,000,000
12 100,000,000,000
Each level of Wealth represents an order of magni-
tude of Wealth that’s available to your character; it
doesn’t represent a specific amount of money, rather
it’s assumed that anything that cost less than that or-
der of magnitude (1,000’s when your Wealth is mea-
sured in 10,000’s) is basically free as long as you don’t
try to stock up on a dozen at a time. Things that are
on the same order of magnitude (1,000’s when your
Wealth is in the 1,000’s) are significant investments
for you, and if you lose or expend them during play
there’s a chance that your Wealth level is reduced.
Wealth is not given a concrete name: that is up to
your setting. E.g. If the GM decides that a Laser Pistol
costs somewhere in the hundreds in the setting, then
80
a character with Wealth 3 can have one, but if she
loses it that might adversely affect her wealth; if she
has Wealth 4, then replacing it or buying an extra for a
friend is no problem; a character with Wealth 1 won’t
be able to afford one, and will have to try to get one
in the course of adventuring.
What Money is Called
Characters in the setting may be dealing in credits,
quatloos, double-dollars, cubits, and it may vary from
place to place in the setting; all that Zap! tracks is the
number of digits of wealth you have.
Wealth and Adventure
The GM should adjust your current Wealth level ac-
cording to your fortunes while adventuring, using the
orders of magnitude as a guide. Generally it’s as-
sumed that the character is making ends meet and
the character’s income and expenses are in balance
at the current Wealth level, including normal rewards
for adventures (bounties collected, pay for services,
and so on). If the character wants to increase Wealth
through adventuring, the player should tell the GM
she’s looking for riskier, higher paying missions. If an
employer offers the character substantially more than
the usual, such as 30,000 for a mission when the char-
acter’s Wealth Level is 2, after the mission the Wealth
Level becomes 5....assuming the character survives
and the employer pays up. Once at Wealth Level 5,
missions and expenses will be assumed to be roughly
on that scale. On the other hand, if your Wealth Level
is 7 and you have to abandon ship and find your-
self stranded on a semi-settled planet in nothing more
than your enviro-suit, your Wealth Level may be re-
duced to 2 or even 1.
Wealth and Experience
Another way to increase your Wealth is simply to pay
XP for it. Wealth is treated as a Minor Asset: pay 1
XP to begin at Level 4, 2 more XP to get to Level 5,
etc. A starting character can thus start at Wealth 5 by
spending 1 Boost. If you lose your Wealth as a result of
 Post-Scarcity Economies

an adventure, you don’t get XP back. If your Wealth is some things such as star ships, space colonies, habit-
increased as a result of adventuring, you don’t have able planets, that the citizens can’t have as many as
to pay for that, but if you want to increase it further, they want just for the taking. Nevertheless, in terms of
you have to pay the XP to the next Level cost just as if day-to-day needs, the citizens may live in such abun-
you’d bought it up that far to begin with. dance that there’s no need to track their resources or
expenses even on the abstract level of orders of mag-
Level XP to next Level Total
nitude.
4 2 1 Mechanically, nothing could be easier than play-
5 3 3 ing in a post-scarcity economy: don’t track wealth,
6 4 6 let the characters have or create whatever gear they
7 5 10 want by means of replicators or whatever the setting
8 6 15 uses, though there should still be some limit according
9 7 21 to the tech of the setting as to what even the finest
10 8 28 equipment is capable of.
11 9 35 The tricky bit is making sure that character’s motiva-
12 10 44 tions and actions still make sense, and adventures can
still happen. If you’re not paying close attention, it
E.g. to go from 7 to 8 Wealth costs 5 XP, regardless of
can be easy to let some of the assumptions and con-
whether you got to 7 Wealth by adventuring, earning
cerns of normal economies sneak in through the back
it through commerce, or spending XP.
door. You can’t just assume that there are mines, fac-
tories, hospitals, warehouses, unless they’re fully auto-
Post-Scarcity Economies mated. If people don’t engage in commerce, what
do they do all day? Is there such a thing as robbery?
Some SF posits a setting with a “post-scarcity econ- Gambling? What would the stakes be? If there are still
omy”, that is one in which energy and matter are so jobs that require humans, what induces them to take
abundant and so efficiently processed that all mate- the jobs?
rial wealth is free for all practical purposes. Except
in the more outre or possibly within virtual environ-
ments, this is almost never literally true...there will be
81
Chapter 25
Commerce
Commerce is a large part of certain Science Fiction
stories, and nearly ignored in others, so like Wealth it’s
an optional system. Commerce can be used inde-
pendently of the Wealth system; just treat WP as being
XP in a setting that has Commerce without Wealth.
Using Commerce system, Wealth has its own expe-
rience points called Wealth Points (WP). In order to in-
crease your Wealth, you accumulate WP through ad-
venture or Commerce. It takes 10 WP to increase your
Wealth by one Level, regardless of your current level.
Wealth and Scope
Individuals should generally use the Wealth Levels
chart, regardless of their Personal Scope. Ships use
Wealth at the Ship Scale of the ship, where each level
increase in Scope increases the amount of wealth by
a factor of 10. Thus, Wealth 4 for a Scope 3 ship is
on the order of 100,000 instead of 1,000. This affects
the cost of repairs, as well as the profits to be made if
you’re using the Commerce system (e.g., cargo for a
Scope 3 ship earns wealth on a scale 100 times larger
than cargo for a Scope 1 ship).
If the players want to convert Wealth Points back
and forth from the ship’s Scope to their own, con-
vert it using the implied amount just as if they had
earned (or spent) wealth on an adventure. That is,
if the Ship Scope is 3 and it has Wealth 4, each WP it’s
earning is approximately 100,000. If the players at Per-
sonal Scope 1 decide to use one of those WP them-
selves that would immediately bump their own Wealth
to 6 (the level where their wealth is measured in the
100,000’s); if their Wealth was already 6, it would just
go into their personal pool of WP; if their Wealth was
higher than 6, it wouldn’t have any effect. If the play-
ers in the example wanted to spend their own Wealth
Points to repair or improve the ship, they would like-
wise need either to be Wealth 6 so that their WP were
on the order of 100,000, or higher than 6 in which case
giving the ship one of their WP would raise its Wealth
score.
Note, however, that unless they own the ship free
and clear, there should probably be repercussions
from them taking the Wealth the ship has for their own
use; if they are employees of the ship’s owners, it’s em-
bezzlement; if they are paying off a mortgage on the
82
ship, it’s likely to make them late on payments; in any
case it may make the ship low on spare parts or hav-
ing gone without proper maintenance. The abstract
measure of Wealth in Zap! assumes that at any given
level expenses and income are roughly in balance
and are tied up in maintaining that balance: Wealth
Points are earnings towards increasing that Wealth,
but generally shouldn’t be thought of as idle piles of
money. If the players start using them for other things,
it should be used as fodder for in-game happenings
and complications.
Shipping
One standard way for characters in SF settings to earn
wealth is by hiring out delivering goods and passen-
gers. Usually this involves having a ship, but some-
times the characters are themselves passengers and
are carrying or babysitting a smaller item or escorting
a person. Even in a campaign without Commerce,
many adventures will fit this rough structure; the Ship-
ping rules don’t replace actually playing out such ad-
ventures, rather they give the characters who wish to
engage in commerce a simple, low risk, way to en-
gage in some shipping “in the background” and re-
ceive some WP rewards.
Players just announce they want to take on some
cargo, and make a roll of the relevant Movement
Ability compared to difficulty equal to the Movement
PL + 3. The result is how many travel Scenes later they’ll
arrive at their destination and drop off the cargo for
1 WP. Shipping doesn’t require setting a destination
and actually getting there; the presumption is that
characters are only taking on side-jobs carrying stuff
to places they intend to go anyway. Naturally, you
should pay attention to the Primary Rule to avoid
making this ridiculous: if the characters need to do
two travel Scenes to make the delivery and two travel
Scenes later they’re back in the same bar wait until
they actually travel somewhere else before awarding
the WP.
The WP for shipping is on the same Scope as the
Movement Ability that was used; transporting stuff with
a ship will usually yield WP on a higher scale than the
character walking under her own power.

Trade
Trade consists of characters purchasing goods with
their own wealth, for resale later, hopefully at a profit.
Trade is riskier than simply agreeing to transport cargo
for a fee, but can yield much greater rewards.
Players who wish to purchase goods for later resale
describe what Ability they are using via the Primary
Rule to acquire or transport the cargo; for a ship, the
Ability will generally be something like Cargo Bays,
Passenger Cabins, Smuggler’s Hidey-hole, Cryostasis
Chambers, or the like. Players can Combine other
Abilities such as Merchant or Streetwise Shticks to im-
prove the roll, though they need to narrate how that’s
plausible (Streetwise, for instance, suggests they’re
engaged in transporting something shady). As with
Shipping, the WP for Trade will be on the same Scope
as the Ability that’s used to justify engaging in Trade.
Once a particular Ability is used for Trade, it’s treated
as Hindered for that purpose if you wish to use it again
before selling the goods; once it’s been used twice,
it’s no longer available. Essentially, each time you take
on some cargo, that Cargo Bay (or whatever is being
used) is roughly half-full; subsequent cargoes will have
to fit in the remaining space, and once it’s approxi-
mately full, you have to get rid of some cargo before
you can take on more.
The players then decide how valuable a cargo they
want to acquire, by choosing the PL of the cargo.
They roll their chosen Ability, plus any help from Com-
bining, vs. the PL of the cargo; if they beat the cargo’s
PL, then some is available for sale. The asking price
is the lower of the cargo’s two die rolls: i.e. if the
cargo is rolling d6 and d4, and the d6 comes up 3
and the d4 comes up 4, the asking price is 3. If the
players find that acceptable, they’ve taken on the
cargo, and they record the cargo and the price they
paid. Whether the succeed, fail, or they don’t like the
asking price, the presumption is that they’ve explored
their options and there are no better deals to be had;
they must either travel elsewhere or spend 3 Scenes
on unrelated matters before they can try again.
The characters must always sell cargoes some
place other than where they picked them up. When
they want to sell, they roll the cargo’s Power Level vs.
the roll of the Wealth Level of the locale set by the GM.
If they beat that Wealth roll, then they find a buyer for
that cargo, and the Wealth roll is the best offer they’ve
gotten. If that is acceptable to them, they unload the
cargo, and the profit (or loss) is WP equal to the dif-
ference between that sale price and their previously
recorded purchase price. If they don’t have WP to
cover the loss and still want the trade, for instance be-
cause they’ve been trying to unload it forever without
success and they really need the space back, their
Wealth Level is knocked down by 1. Again, the pre-
sumption is that’s the best deal they have for selling
any of their cargo in that location, and they will have
to travel elsewhere or spend 3 Scenes on unrelated
matters before attempting to sell another cargo, or
83
Trade
that cargo again if they didn’t like the offer.
What this boils down to is that really valuable (high
PL) cargoes are easy to find buyers for, but poor lo-
cations (low WL) won’t be able to offer very much
wealth for them. Wealthy locations will tend to pur-
chase cargo at a much higher price, but because
they’re wealthy it will be harder to sell them cheap
(low PL) goods.
Example
Star Trader Falk wants to see if he can pick up some
cargo on Ytter. He has a trade-ship with Cargo Bays
7. He’d like to get something he can sell quickly, so he
doesn’t want to try for too expensive a cargo, both
because it might not be available and it might be too
hard to unload at a good price in this relatively poor
section of the frontier, so he announces he wants to
pick up a cargo of PL 4 Ytterian otterlusk furs, using his
Cargo Bay and aiding it with his Merchant Shtick. (He
just made up otterlusks and the value of their fur, as
part of the Primary Rule.) He rolls a d8, d6 and gets a
3 +1 for Merchant, totaling 4. The otterlusk furs roll a
d4, d4 and get a 4 and a 4, so he can pick them up
at price 4. That’s higher than ideal, since he’ll need
the purchaser to roll higher than 4 to make a profit, so
he passes.
He spends the next 3 Scenes making repairs on the
ship’s sensors, getting in a poker match in a saloon,
and training with his crew, and decides to try one
more deal before giving up and leaving the planet
with empty holds. He tries for a cargo of exotic
hardwood PL 5 this time, using the same powers and
shticks, and rolls a 2, +1 for 3. Fortunately the hard-
wood cargo rolls a 2 and a 1, so he gets it for a bar-
gain price.
After traveling to nearby Klopor for reasons having
to do with the adventure they’re on, he tries to un-
load the cargo. The GM rules that Klopor is a Wealth
4 planet. He rolls the cargo’s PL of 5, and gets a 5, +1
for Merchant, for a total of 6. The Kloporians will def-
initely want that cargo (since they can’t possibly roll
higher than that), but how much will they offer? The
GM rolls a 2 for the Kloporians. That would be only 1
WP profit (selling price of 2 - purchase price back on
Ytter of 1), so Falk refuses the deal. Having purchased
it for 1, he’s sure he can do better.
Since he still has room in the Cargo Bay, he decides
to try to take on another cargo. He announces he’s
trying to get some Kloporian machine parts at PL 6.
Since the ship’s Cargo Bay power is Hindered by be-
ing partially full of hardwood, it will only roll a single
d6, plus +1 for Falk’s Merchant Shtick. He gets Xark,
the ship’s engineer, to Combine his Engineering Power
with the roll, since Engineers understand machines.
They roll a 4 +1 +1, for a total of 6. The machine parts
cargo will definitely be available, but for how much?
The GM rolls a 6 and a 2... just barely available, but
at a decent price. Falk takes on the cargo, and now
the Cargo Bays are full; if he wants to do more Trad-
25. C OMMERCE

ing he’ll have to use a different ship’s Power or unload

one of the cargo’s first.
Next stop on the adventure is the wealthy planet
Hopalong (Wealth 8). It’ll be harder for their PL 5 cargo
to beat that, so another player’s character, Vira, of-
fers to aid using her Streetwise Shtick for another +1,
saying the importation of hardwoods faces a high tar-
iff so they try the black market. Falk rolls a 5 for the
cargo, +1 for Merchant, +1 for Vira’s Streetwise, total-
ing 7. The GM rolls a d8, d8, and gets a 6 for the Hopa-
long buyers. Falk takes the deal, and makes a profit of
5 WP, halfway to the next Wealth Level! The WP are at
the ship’s Scope, since it’s the ship’s Cargo Bay power
that was being used.
He wants to unload the Machine Parts, too, so they
spend another 3 Scenes on Hopalong, but using the
Machine Parts cargo PL 6 only rolls a 1 +1 +1 (using his
Merchant and Xark’s Engineering to help again) for a
3; Hopalong rolls a 6, and the wealthy residents turn
up their noses at the cargo. Falk and co. will have to
try again somewhere else...

84
 Part III

Game Mastering

85
Chapter 26

Campaign design

Unless you are running a one-shot, you need to think of impossibilities and often to disguise the ones it has
a little bit about the overall structure of the campaign by at least cloaking it in not-yet-absolutely-disproved
you want to run. Many things can be filled in as you go speculative science. Sometimes that the whole point
along, but some decisions have to be made before of the story: what would it be like if everything we
you begin. knew for a fact was still the same, but easy and cheap
teleportation was possible?
Setting To make the SF in Zap! “harder” you want to rein
in a bit on what’s regarded as plausible according to
SF can cover a mind-boggling array of settings. Here the Primary Rule. This has to be a joint effort by all
are some of the common ones: the players and the GM if you want to run a Hard SF
setting. You want to aim for verisimilitude, not strict sci-
• Near-future Earth entific accuracy, but quickly fix any spots that the any
of the players notice strain that verisimilitude. Strive
• Alternate Earth to make the explanations of the abilities and gad-
• Far Past Earth gets consistent with each other and over time, and
obey the principle “There Ain’t No Such Thing As A
• Post-Apocalyptic Earth Free Lunch” so there are drawbacks and limitations to
every power. Make liberal use of Disadvantages such
• Far Future Earth as Shots, Erratic, Limited, and Side Effects. Be partic-
• Virtual Reality ularly generous interpreting abilities that are used to
understand science and engineering when they are
• Solar System applied to new phenomena and alien technology, to
emphasize the universality of science and the ability
• Local Stellar Neighborhood of intelligent creatures to understand the basic princi-
• Star Cluster ples of the universe.

• Galaxy
• Universe
• Multiverse
Hard vs Soft SF
“Hard” SF is science fiction that makes a conscious ef-
fort to make the science and technology in the story
stick to what we know, or at least surmise, and tries to
be modest in its extrapolations. The resulting “hard-
ness” of the SF falls on a continuum: the less extrap-
olation and the more established the science, the
“harder”. . . the farther out and more speculative, the
“softer”, until at the far end of the spectrum you get
“science fantasy”, which is essentially magic in tech-
nological drag. Allowance is often made for implau-
sible science needed to make the story work, such as
faster-than-light travel or time travel, but even there
“harder” SF deliberately tries to reduce the number
86
Reversing the Polarity
What if you don’t want the SF to feel harder, but in-
stead want to make your game wilder, wackier, and
more like Science Fantasy? Simple: you just reverse
all the above advice. Try to break verisimilitude by
emphasizing things we know aren’t true, like air in
space, space being filled with “ether”, perhaps even
fire being caused by “phlogiston”; if players notice
any inconsistency or contradiction, don’t correct it,
elaborate on it and invent some esoteric explana-
tion for it (which may become a feature of the set-
ting); make the rules that govern the setting arbi-
trary and vary from place to place or character to
character; make the technology and science de-
liver free lunches to all, with equipment that inexpli-
cably has no apparent trade off between power and
weight and never needs maintenance, medicine that
has no side-effects, generators that create unlimited
clean energy cheaply, perpetual motion machines,

new elements with mysterious properties such as anti-
gravity; make the science and technology unfamiliar,
even it it’s just renaming things to seem exotic such as
calling radio waves “etheric vibrations” or telescopes
“panopticons”.
Standard SF templates
One way you can shape the setting for your game
is to decide which kind of SF creatures are com-
mon enough to warrant a template for player char-
acters. As mentioned earlier, usually the templates
are geared for playable creature types, those that
can at least interact with humans and have recog-
nizable goals and concerns. However, even crea-
tures normally alien beyond comprehension, such as
hyper-intelligent shades of blue, can have that aspect
deemphasized to allow them as player characters.
Start with this bare bones template, filling in the
power descriptions:
Attributes: Toughness: 2, Stamina: 2, Will: 2, Actions: 2
Powers
3 powers @ 6 (d6,d6). If suitable, you can add Advan-
tages and Disadvantages to each power. Each minor
advantage decreases the level 1, major by 2, minor
Disadvantages increase it 1, major Disadvantages in-
crease by 2.
Shticks
2 Shticks @ 3 (d4, d2), or 4 (d4,d4) if they meet the
stereotype.
New Power Levels start @ 6, if they fit the stereotype, 4
otherwise. You can give players a list of optional pow-
ers that many but not all of these creatures have. For
example, Teleportation might be an optional power
for an Esper in the campaign. It won’t be part of the
starting template, but if the player adds it, it starts at 6
rather than 4. A power that isn’t normally part of the
Esper stereotype, such as a cybernetic limb, would
start at 4.
New Shtick Levels start @ 4 if they fit the stereotypes, 3
otherwise.
Restrictions: Any number of restrictions. Pool similar or
minor restrictions together.
Power boosts: For each restriction, add one power @ 6
to the template, increase one attribute 1, or increase
one power by 1.
The Campaign
Episodic Or Epic?
Each session can be a self-contained adventure,
or the whole campaign can be a single mega-
adventure, or something in between.
In an episodic style of campaign, each adventure
has a clear beginning, middle and end. There may
be ongoing plot threads and themes from episode to
episode, but the major focus of the episode comes to
a definite conclusion, with the PC’s immediate goal
(explore the planet, establish contact with the alien
87
Episodic Or Epic?
race, escape from the cataclysm, carry off the rob-
bery) accomplished even if their ultimate motivation
for going on adventures hasn’t been resolved. Em-
phasis on episodes can mesh well with players’ often
hectic schedules, particularly if the episodes are short,
one or two sessions each, since a particular char-
acter’s absence from the current adventure doesn’t
tend to need much explanation or leave a huge hole
in the plot. This makes episodic games ideal back-
ups for when you don’t have a quorum of your regular
players, for when you have a guest player or two, or
just a “pick up” game.
On the other hand, if players prefer an epic style
campaign, where there is a single over-arching plot
or antagonist and everything builds to a big climax
dealing with that, it’s certainly possible. One thing to
watch out for, besides the usual issues of players feel-
ing “rail-roaded” and unable to affect the plot except
in minor details, is making sure that the epic won’t be
short-circuited by the players defeating the Big Bad or
otherwise resolving the driving issue of the campaign
prematurely.
Unless you’re cheating, if it’s possible for the play-
ers to defeat the Big Bad or solve the problem without
using a “Plot Device”, then it’s possible that can hap-
pen any time they encounter him or work on a solu-
tion, including the first time in what was intended to
be the prelude. If you want an epic campaign with-
out cheating in favor of whatever is driving the plot
you should make sure that the players can’t come to
grips with the main enemy or issue until the climax, for
instance by arranging that it can only be finally re-
solved with a Plot Device, that the resolution require
visiting various sites, or that the plot can roll merrily
along even without the main driver to guide it.
Examples:
• The villain can reconstitute himself given time un-
less the virus has been uploaded into the Master
System.
• The expanding singularity that will engulf the
galaxy can only be halted by detonating a de-
vice from within it, which the heroes have to em-
bark on an epic quest to deliver.
• Driving back the invaders will require diplomatic
missions to all of the rival factions to get them on
board, and they may have demands in return for
cooperation that will in turn lead to adventures.
• The enemy has set something in motion that his
capture won’t stop (“You may have defeated
me, but the Sun Eater shall continue on a straight
path through the inhabited galaxy regardless!
Bwa ha ha ha!”).
• There is a lieutenant or secondary bad guy wait-
ing in the wings to step in when the original insti-
gator is dealt with.
26. CAMPAIGN DESIGN

• The clever plan by which the heroes halted the ini-

tial problem has generated side-effects that need
to be dealt with before the campaign is truly over.

Or, you could just deal with the anticlimax, allow the
players to have their triumph, and move on to the next
arc. Many, perhaps even most, players would prefer
to have an unexpectedly short and successful “epic”
than be railroaded to a predetermined conclusion;
just because they’d love to blow up the Death Star
doesn’t necessarily mean that they’ll love it if you ar-
bitrarily thwart their every attempt to prevent its con-
struction along the way in order to get to that final
scene.
It is also possible to combine the episodic and epic:
have an epic campaign in the big picture, leavened
with one or two-session adventures that relate tan-
gentially or not at all to the over-arching plot. This
is the “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” model of story arcs:
over the course of a “season” of twelve or even more
sessions there is a major enemy working towards a fi-
nal Earth-shattering scheme, but aside from a bit of
foreshadowing in each episode the big scheme pro-
ceeds in fits and starts while most of the adventures
deal with largely unrelated schemes by different bad
guys. In fiction, the heroes may be completely un-
aware of the presence of the chief bad guy of the
arc until it’s time for the climax, with only the audience
seeing how step-by-step he gets closer to his goal; in
an RPG that doesn’t work as well, unless the players
are unusually open to having “cut scenes” of out-of-
character knowledge just for flavor. A better model is
for the heroes to be slowly acquiring the clues needed
to figure out the plot or pieces of the Plot Device to
defeat the main threat.

88
Chapter 27
Designing an Adventure
What you need to design
An adventure is a problem that confronts the PCs.
The problem might be specific, concrete, and de-
mand that something be done immediately (there is
an alien loose on the ship, and if it’s not captured
or killed it will eat everybody’s heads), or it might be
vague and long-range (the PCs need more informa-
tion about what the factions are in Gamma Quadrant
before they can make any decision about alliances),
but if the PCs have no problems to solve, there’s noth-
ing to game and you might as well advance the ac-
tion until there is a problem that needs their atten-
tion. It is usually better not to plan out a detailed se-
quence of scenes to be played out in linear fashion,
but instead to invent a set of elements (aliens, peo-
ple to talk to, clues, events, special objects, secrets)
that might be inserted when needed. The rest of the
section are guidelines with suggestions about which
elements to design. Feel free to use or ignore these as
you feel fit.
Adventure Arcs
Adventures are usually problems that need to be
solved. Most adventures will go through three stages:
Exposition, Investigation, and Confrontation. In the Ex-
position stage the PC’s learn of a problem, and hope-
fully decide to do something with that information,
even if they don’t know exactly what yet. This is when
the basic premise of the adventure is laid out. In a
television episode, this is typically the stuff that hap-
pens before the opening credits, where we learn our
intrepid crew is on their way to Canopis IV carrying
medical supplies to stop an outbreak of the Denebian
Plague. In a campaign that is designed more around
the PC’s goals rather than a series of specific adven-
tures, the exposition stage might consist of nothing
more than a brief list of things the PC’s activities have
turned up that sound like they might be of use towards
those goals, or problems that have cropped up that
might interfere with them, allowing the players to de-
cide which they want to pursue first or if they care at
all. “Production is down at your robotic mining facil-
ity in Delta Sector, but the foreman can’t explain why;
meanwhile the ambassador from the Outer Planets is
89
meeting with your arch-rival, the head of the Argus
Conglomerate, and the chief scientist of your worm-
hole project has reported they are ready for a small-
scale test.”
Once the PC’s have a goal, either invented,
handed to them, or forced on them by circumstances
the Investigation stage begins. In this stage they use
their skills and resources to try to learn more about the
parameters of the problem or resources that might
help them reach their goal. In SF, investigation will
often involve Research, either as part of the scenes
needed for a Scientist building a gadget to address
the problem, or to advance the PC’s other goals.
Finally, there is the Confrontation stage, where it all
comes together and their immediate plans are re-
solved one way or the other. This doesn’t necessarily
mean they reach their ultimate goal: in some cam-
paigns it may be impossible to reach that goal by de-
sign such as when the campaign is about the five-
year mission to explore strange new worlds, or a rag-
tag fleet of ships fleeing disaster and seeking the lost
home of humanity. Nevertheless, the intermediate
goals, whether they are episodes or campaign arcs,
need to get resolved so the players have some sense
of forward momentum. Things might not always work
out as the PC’s wanted. Depending on how things
play out they might be resolved with a set-back or dis-
aster, a partial victory that leads to further goals and
adventures, or even a complete triumph for the good
guys. Part of the point of Zap! is let the players and
GM be surprised by exactly how things turn out. If the
GM knows in advance both what the climactic scene
is going to look like and how it turns out, it’s too tightly
plotted; it’s important to leave plenty of freedom for
the players actions to matter to the outcome.
Interleaving arcs
This sequence of exposition, investigation, and con-
frontation, which we’ll call an arc, can be a single
session or multiple sessions. Not every event needs to
be related to the current arc. In addition, you can
have multiple arcs in play in a single session. One way
to do this is to weave the arcs together, with some of
the exposition of the next arc happening during the
investigation of the previous arc. You can also link
27. D ESIGNING AN A DVENTURE

The End of The World is not the end of the

some or all of the arcs together into a “seasonal arc”,
with a whole adventure serving the same purpose of
one scene in the master arc for the season. For ex-
ample, suppose the master arc is about an expedi-
tion of unscrupulous explorers planning to excavate
a Precusor site. The first adventure could be the PC’s
crossing paths with the explorers who are attempting
to steal data from a PC or ally of the PC’s that they
need to located the site. Thus, the whole adventure
serves as the exposition segment of the master arc,
with the purpose that the PC’s learn of the explorers
and their theft of data, but not the purpose of the in-
tended theft.
world
Allowing for the possibility of failure does not mean the
stakes cannot be high. What is a complete disaster
from the player character’s point of view can be an
invigorating change of pace for the campaign. In a
science fiction game even death is often reversible,
either literally or with the possibility of returning as a
clone, VR personality, or alternate universe version. If
the explorers succeed at opening the Precursor site
and reactivating the Cyborgmen, the next few arcs
can be the players gathering information and com-
pleting a weapon capable of deactivating the Cy-
borgmen, pursued by them and their ever-growing
army of creatures they’ve cyborged. Even if the
whole world is converted to Cyborgmen colony, this
opens up new drama as the players become part of a
resistance movement, fighting the new order. Failure
should have consequences, but the aftermath of fail-
ure should be a new adventure, not just instant oblit-
eration.

Failure is always an option. Success is

always an option
Whenever you plan for an encounter, never assume
that the players will succeed or that they will fail. For
example, don’t plan an adventure with the assump-
tion that the explorers will steal the data from the
players, because they might succeed at stopping the
theft. On the other hand, don’t make the adventure
contingent on the players capturing a thief, because
they may not succeed at capturing her, or they may
decide to kill her, or make a deal with her. Better is to
say, “The explorers will attempt to steal the data from
the players” and make a plan for further encounters
whether or not the theft succeeds. If you really need
the data stolen, it is better to have it be stolen before
the adventure even begins. It is unfair, but at least
you’re not trying to fool your players into thinking it was
their fault.

90
Chapter 28
Plot Templates
While there’s a variety of creatures, local color, and
fantastic features in science fiction, many of the basic
plots are in standardized patterns. The following sam-
ple plots are meant to provide some structure that you
can incorporate your creative ideas onto, not as a
substitute for your creativity.
Each standard plot outlines some possibilities for In-
troduction scenes, sub-goals that both the players
and enemies will pursue in Investigation, and how final
Confrontations might play out depending on whether
the player or their foes seem to have the upper hand
during the investigation phase, some Twists that can
be added to the standard plots to make them less
predictable or more meaningful to the players and
the Aftermath, suggesting what happens after the
Confrontation, especially if the player characters lose.
Altered Reality
Basic premise: The status quo has been dramatically
changed. Maybe a time traveler has stopped
Julius Caesar’s assassination, and the Roman Em-
pire continues to the current day.
Special: An altered reality arc can be a mini-
campaign within the campaign. It is best to have
some time to think and prepare before starting. If
a world-changing event happens unexpectedly
in a session, it is good to end the session then and
let both players and GM think through the conse-
quences. The campaign and PCs may require a
total redesign. New standard creature templates
may be called for, either to replace existing ones
(e.g., robots may have a very different template
in a world without technology) or to reflect new
possibilities (e..g, every normal human may have
gained a distinct superpower). The scope of the
campaign may change in the new reality, usu-
ally increasing. For example, the PCs may be-
come godlike beings, or have one-time access
to a powerful creature. One possibility is to issue
new guidelines and allow total redesign of player
characters for the arc. Players may choose to
play a new character or almost unrecognizable
version of their existing character. Existing villains
may become the PCs and the existing PCs villains
91
or NPCs, e.g., the altered history on Buffy where
Willow had become a vampire and turned many
of the Scooby gang. In any case, give XP to the
player, not the character.
Introductory scenes: Skip ahead beyond the
change. Start with “slice of life” scenes un-
der the new regime. How are the PCs adapting,
how are they altered? The PCs then meet and
get reacquainted (or perhaps meet for the first
time.) Finally, they start getting clues that it might
be possible to reverse the change. (This may
require them to realize there’s been a change.)
Sub-goals and confrontation scenes: Once the PCs
decide to reverse the change (if they do), the
rest of the arc consists of the PCs first figuring out
what is necessary to reverse the change, which
may involve investigating what caused it in the
first place. The PCs may need to compile the
equipment for a device or experiment to revert to
the original status quo, while the enemy is trying to
stop them. The confrontation scene happens just
before or after they complete the set-up.
Player-advantage confrontation: The players have
figured out what they need to do to restore real-
ity and have completed the necessary prepara-
tions; all that remains is to go through the process,
and their foes have a limited window of opportu-
nity to stop them.
Enemy-advantage confrontation: The players are still
missing a crucial component or piece of informa-
tion needed to ensure success, but they’re out of
time and the foes are in a position to attempt to
stop them for good. The PCs may have to go
ahead with the flawed uncertain process or risk
being unable to ever restore reality, or perhaps
will only be able to do so at greatly increased cost
to themselves.
Twists: The status quo the players are familiar with is
actually the result of a previous reality alteration.
What if Rome only fell in the first place because
of intervention by a time traveler? Ought the PCs
oppose or aid in attempts to restore the prior re-
ality? How much do they know about what it
28. P LOT T EMPLATES
was like before, and what duty do they owe the
people in the current reality who might find them-
selves worse off or cease to exist if the time-line is
restored?
Aftermath: If the PCs succeed, the change is re-
versed. The world returns to the status quo ante.
Perhaps it is retroactive; the change never hap-
pened as far as most are concerned. Or perhaps
the memory of the change leads to permanent
changes in the status quo, shifting of alliances, or
creation of laws and enforcement organizations
to prevent such changes in the future (e.g. Time
Police). If the PCs fail, they or other characters
can try again, with a different approach.
Back in Time
Basic premise: The PCs travel back in time, voluntarily
or not, and have to find a way to return to their
own time. If voluntary, they may have a mission to
perform first.
Introductory scenes: The PCs uncover the means to
travel back in time, a reason to do so, or are just
thrust willy-nilly back by some phenomenon, alien
artifact, or device gone awry.
PC sub-goals: Uncover the means to return to their
own time; accomplish their mission if they must do
that first; reverse whatever disruption to the time-
line they may have caused upon arrival.
Enemy sub-goals: If this was a plot by enemies, pre-
vent the PCs from accomplishing their mission or
returning; otherwise they may encounter new en-
emies in the past who are trying to capture or
stop them for reasons of their own, perhaps not
even knowing they are time travelers.
Player-advantage confrontation: The PCs have ac-
complished their mission or gathered the infor-
mation/built the equipment necessary to return.
Now they need the right conditions or the right
time to activate it.
Enemy-advantage confrontation: The PCs have
failed in their primary mission, but to stay to
accomplish it is to risk being trapped or having
the secret of time travel fall into the wrong hands.
Aftermath: If the PCs succeed, they are back when
they came from and the time line is as intended
(including any changes they went back to ac-
complish); if they failed then either they’re back
but the time-line is not as they wished, or even
worse than when they set out, or they remain
trapped in the past.
Twists: The PCs travel forward in time; there they may
find out information about the future that makes
it imperative they return to their original time and
prevent that future from happening, or they may
92
decide they like it better and not return. Relativis-
tic time dilation and cryogenics are also common
one-way tickets to the future in SF.
Creature Feature
Basic premise: A creature is rampaging. While the
creature could be a mindless hulk or a super-
intelligent alien, it has a overwhelming need that
drives it to repetitive violence. The creature will
strike again and again until it is stopped, presum-
ably by the PCs.
Introductory scenes: Viewing carnage from the crea-
ture’s rampage; hearing about same on the
news; helping a victim escape; being called in
as experts by authorities.
PC sub-goals: Identify creature. Interview experts on
creatures of that type. Discover their weaknesses
and drives. Rescue hostages and potential vic-
tims. Recruit allies equipped to handle these
creatures. Track creature to lair.
Enemy SUB - GOALS: Rampage. As the creature esca-
lates the violence, it forces the PCs to confront
it before they are ready, or be responsible for its
destruction continuing. Capture hostages. Feed
and grow stronger.
Player-advantage confrontation: The players know
about this creature, what urges cause it to ram-
page, what it wants, and what its vulnerabilities
are. They free the hostages, then use their knowl-
edge to lure the creature into a trap.
Enemy-advantage confrontation: At its strongest, the
creature strikes in a way the PCs cannot ig-
nore, perhaps threatening their families, friends,
or homes. The PCs fight the creature, but are dis-
tracted by the need to help the innocent victims
being threatened.
Aftermath: If the PCs win, the creature is usually de-
stroyed or neutralized, and the next session will
start a new, unrelated arc. If the PCs lose, the
creature may get stronger and attack again, so
the next session would be a continuation, per-
haps with more twists, as potential allies are re-
cruited to help and enemies try to take advan-
tage of the chaos caused by the creature.
Twists: Scooby-doo: “Creature” is a ruse, to cover
a more mundane scheme. Creature is sympa-
thetic, e.g, the Hulk. Creature has a sympa-
thetic alter ego, e.g., the Lizard from Spider-man.
Creature targets unsympathetic victims, e.g., is
driven by justified vengeance. Creature targets
PCs, or those connected to PCs. Creature gains
strength from successful feedings. Creature is so-
phisticated, and lures victims with psychological
 traps rather than brute strength. Creature hypno-
tizes or transmutes victims into monstrous accom-
plices.
First Contact
Basic premise: Initial contact with an alien, or an en-
tire alien culture. This could be the first such con-
tact ever, or part of the PC’s job as xeno-contact
specialists; if the the latter, there should be some
complication or difficulty that makes it an adven-
ture rather than a day at the office.
Special: First contact can for the basis for an entire
campaign, either as one overarching set of ad-
ventures dealing with coming into contact with
the aliens, figuring out how to communicate with
them, overcoming misunderstandings or physi-
cal difficulties in sharing space, finding common
ground and establishing ongoing relations. In this
kind of campaign, the GM should probably work
out a lot of details about the aliens and their goals
93
in advance, even though none of this informa-
tion will be apparent to the PCs for a long time,
if ever. Alternatively, a first contact campaign
can deal with a new contact each week, allow-
ing the players to continue to meet new and dif-
ferent alien cultures and solve a variety of prob-
lems as they seek out new life and new civiliza-
tions, in which case the GM merely has to make
up enough for the next episode.
Introductory scenes: Receiving an alien signal, get-
ting called in to investigate mysterious phenom-
ena which turn out to be caused by aliens, find-
ing evidence of ancient aliens that gives a clue
into establishing or re-establishing contact.
PC sub-goals: Discover more about the aliens, deter-
mine whether they are hostile, establish relations,
prevent the PC’s enemies from taking advantage
of the aliens.
Enemy sub-goals: if the aliens are hostile discover
more about the PCs and their weaknesses, if the
28. P LOT T EMPLATES
aliens are friendly the PC’s enemies might be try-
ing to exploit them or recruit them as allies against
the PCs.
Player-advantage confrontation: The players know
what the aliens are and how to communicate
with them, or what their weaknesses are if they’re
hostile.
Enemy-advantage confrontation: Hostile aliens know
about the PCs and what their weaknesses are;
friendly aliens have been duped into regarding
the PCs as hostile.
Aftermath: If the PCs win hostile aliens have been de-
stroyed, neutralized or made friends with, or the
PC’s enemies’ machinations have been exposed
for what they are. If the PCs lose the aliens have
gained the upper hand, and perhaps invaded;
the PC’s enemies have made an alliance with the
aliens and the PCs will have to face them as a
combined force in the future.
Twists: The PCs are the aliens, isolated from their own
culture and allies. The aliens are actually a hoax.
Apparently friendly aliens are actually hostile, or
vice-versa.
Great Race
Basic premise: The characters become involved in a
race, often against multiple other competitors.
Sometimes this is purely a sporting proposition, at
other times there is something larger at stake, pos-
sibly up to and including the fate of the universe.
Special: A great race scenario can be a good way to
visit a lot of different locales in the setting, without
spending a lot of time in each, so the GM should
probably have enough interesting places and in-
cidents work out in advance so that the PCs can
visit more than one a session without having to
stop or wing it.
Introductory scenes: A race is announced, with a
prize sufficient to tempt the PCs, or they come
across some information that means they need to
outrun a bunch of competitors.
PC sub-goals: Gain an advantage in the race by dis-
covering information leading to shortcuts, improv-
ing their vehicle, avoiding obstacles and hostile
forces. Unscrupulous PCs may try to sabotage the
competitors or throw obstacles in their way.
Enemy sub-goals: Same as the PCs.
Player-advantage confrontation: The players are in a
superior position as it comes to the end of the
race and need to hold on to their lead.
Enemy-advantage confrontation: The enemies are in
a superior position and the players must come up
with some way to overtake them.
94
Aftermath: The players can enjoy their prize and no-
toriety, if it was a sporting event, and it can be
a stepping-stone to further such events. If the
“race” was for higher stakes, such as recovery
and mastery of some unique alien technology,
further adventures can revolve around the PCs
using that technology and others trying to wrest
it from them. If the PCs lose, they can plot their
come-back, if it was a sporting event, or deal with
the repercussions of their enemies having what-
ever it is they were racing for.
Twists: What appears to be a sporting event turns out
to have a deeper significance, which only begins
to be revealed to the PCs when their opponents
are going to greater lengths to win than the prize
would warrant. The race is to stay ahead of some
cataclysmic event or invading alien horde.
Marooned
Basic premise: The PCs are stranded somewhere,
cut off from civilization and without their normal
means of transportation. They need to somehow
get new means of transportation, get to some-
where where they can re-establish contact, or
even in extreme scenarios find some way to settle
in and build an new life in the new locale. Ma-
rooned can form the basis of an entire campaign
if the PCs are marooned on a backwater planet
or hiding from powerful enemies, or in a new di-
mension or time. E.T., Lost, Sliders and Quantum
Leap all follow this format.
Special: because the PCs may spend a lot of time in
the new location, it probably needs more detail
than a typical planet-side stop. In addition, the
GM should probably consider and perhaps con-
sult with the players whether they’re actually in-
terested in the scenario; if the players’ chief en-
joyment is hopping from place to place encoun-
tering new settings every session, wrecking their
ship and sticking them on a primitive backwater
may feel like a punishment instead of an adven-
ture. The GM should be prepared to wrap things
up quickly, and get the PCs back to doing what
they’re interested in.
Introductory scenes: A disaster strikes, and the PCs
are forced into the new locale and possibly
stripped of the vehicle and much of the standard
gear.
PC sub-goals: Discover information about where they
are and what resources they have to escape or
restore contact. Survive, establish relationships
with locals who might be able to help.
Enemy sub-goals: There may not be actual enemies;
if there are and they’re responsible for the PCs be-
ing marooned, they may be trying to find the PCs
 to finish the job. The PCs might also make enemies
among the locals.
Player-advantage confrontation: The PCs have sur-
vived, figured out where they are and how to get
away, and have a shot at doing so.
Enemy-advantage confrontation: If there are ene-
mies responsible for the PCs predicament, they
have located the PCs and are poised to deliver a
set-back, such as capturing them or ruining their
current rescue plan.
Aftermath: The PCs succeed in getting rescued or
back to their usual haunts; if there were ene-
mies responsible, they can decide to take action
against them, otherwise they might just return to
their normal adventures. If they lost their ship, they
might have to work to get a new one. If the en-
emies succeeded the PCs may need to escape
from captivity or come up with another plan, or
resign themselves to their new home.
Twists: The location where the PCs are Marooned is
not what they thought it was (e.g. actually a re-
sort area, and they were close to rescue all along,
or they are unwitting contestants in a game of
some sort).
Mayday
Basic premise: The PCs receive a distress signal, and
have to deal with it.
Introductory scenes: They receive the distress signal,
and decide what to do about it.
PC sub-goals: Gain information about the sender
and the situation, establish contact with any sur-
vivors, rescue the survivors, avoid whatever it was
that caused the situation in the first place.
Enemy sub-goals: If there’s an actual enemy, com-
plete the piracy, kidnap, robbery or invasion
that prompted the distress signal, get information
about the PCs, their plans and resources.
Player-advantage confrontation: The players have
enough information that they can attempt the
rescue or to defeat the enemy.
Enemy-advantage confrontation: The enemy are
about to finish their work and get away, e.g.
they’ve located the executive they sabotaged
the ship so they could board and kidnap. They
have identified the PCs and where they are well
enough to plan an ambush.
Aftermath: If successful, the PCs could have the grati-
tude of those they’ve rescued, leading to offers of
work; they might have salvaged some valuable
gear or even an adventure-triggering MacGuffin.
If not, the PCs may need to repair their ship and
95
recover from losses, or to track down and pursue
the enemies who have accomplished their ob-
jective.
Special: A MacGuffin that either caused or was the
target of whatever caused the distress signal can
be a springboard for further adventures.
Twists: It’s a trap, or the distress signal is extremely
old, and when the PCs arrive the situation is not
what they expected. This could be everybody is
dead but there’s some horrible monster (Alien),
but it could also be the descendants of the sur-
vivors have settled the locale and aren’t in direct
need of rescue...or they are, but it’s logistically dif-
ficult because of their numbers or the fact that
they’ve regressed to savagery and don’t under-
stand what’s at stake (e.g. their colony ship is
heading for the sun).
Mirror World
Basic premise: The PCs are projected into an alter-
nate universe where things are backwards; usu-
ally the morality of the organizations and people
are reversed, though there may be additional re-
versals such as the sex or personalities of some or
all of the characters (e.g. a cold, logical being
might have a hot-tempered and excitable “mir-
ror twin”).
Introductory scenes: The accident or experiment
where the PCs enter the mirror world; first meet-
ing the mirror world counterparts and figuring out
that’s what they are.
PC sub-goals: Learn enough to be able to pass for
mirror world inhabitants while they figure out how
to get home; figure out how to get home.
Enemy sub-goals: Learn that the PCs aren’t the peo-
ple they’re pretending to be, learn where they
came from and how, figure out how to exploit
that.
Player-advantage confrontation: The PCs learn
enough to return to their own world, and accom-
plish their goals if any in the mirror world.
Enemy-advantage confrontation: The PCs are ex-
posed and the enemies are prepared to capture
them or exploit the fact they’re not their counter-
parts, or the enemies are ready to enter the PCs
world.
Aftermath: If the PCs succeed, they get back home.
One or more of the PCs may be accompanied
or replaced by a mirror world double. If the PCs
failed, they are either stuck in the mirror world and
need to try again or make do, or they may be
back in their own world but have to hunt down
and deal with mirror world enemies who’ve also
28. P LOT T EMPLATES
come over; these may be duplicates of the PCs,
or their allies, or important NPCs in the PCs’ world.
Twists: It’s the mirror universe twins who come visiting
the PC’s universe.
Negative Space Wedgie
Basic premise: The PCs encounter a strange anomaly
(in the parlance of TV Tropes, a “Negative Space
Wedgie”, from a scene in the parody Star Drek)
that creates a crisis they must deal with. Often
the anomaly does something completely bizarre
and magical, even in settings which otherwise
adhere to relatively plausible science. PCs might
encounter future selves, age incredibly quickly, or
be de-aged, be transported to a far quadrant of
the galaxy, etc.
Introductory scenes: The PCs detect the anomaly;
they may decide to investigate, or be suddenly
subjected to it.
PC sub-goals: Determine the exact nature of the
anomaly, or at least how to avoid or reverse its ef-
fects. Discover a way to use the anomaly to ad-
dress some other problem they have been hav-
ing. Simply deal with or survive the more extreme
effects.
Enemy sub-goals: Anomalies don’t usually involve
overt enemies. If they do, they are the backdrop
against which the enemy is confronted: e.g. the
PCs and an enemy warship both get sucked into
an anomaly and shot across the galaxy: in order
to return to their own sector they must come to
an accommodation of some sort.
Player-advantage confrontation: The PCs learn
enough to ameliorate or reverse the anomaly
and safely escape. Otherwise escape might
occur without them being able to reverse the
effects.
Aftermath: If the PCs are successful there usually
aren’t any long term consequences, though if the
anomaly is stable and they understand it, they
might find a use for it in the future; if they weren’t
successful in dealing with the anomaly they might
have to live with or seek a cure for whatever ef-
fects the anomaly visited upon them.
Special: Negative Space Wedgies might kick off a
campaign, for instance leading to a marooned
scenario, or granting the PCs strange powers that
sets up the campaign.
Twists: Almost anything goes.
96
War Zone
Basic premise: Open hostilities have broken out be-
tween two or more factions in the setting. The PCs
are caught in the middle. They may be recruited
as allies by one or more sides, or just seek to mini-
mize the collateral damage.
Introductory scenes: PCs hear word of tension be-
tween the factions. The PCs encounter a bat-
tlefield, either during or after the fight. The sides
either court the PCs or warn them against siding
against them.
PC sub-goals: The PCs may decide to root for one
side to win, they may decide to try to end the
conflict, or they might just try to keep it out of the
way of innocents. In any case, the PCs will inves-
tigate the causes of the conflict, try to determine
what each side wants and what they will settle for,
and try to talk neutral factions into co-operating
with the PCs goals.
Enemy sub-goals: If the PCs take sides, the other fac-
tion will try to neutralize or eliminate them. If they
stay neutral, the two sides may try to recruit them
or scare them away. Both sides will try to weaken
their adversaries, gain special weapons, and re-
cruit powerful allies.
Player-advantage confrontation: Having assembled
an alliance against the aggressor, the PCs lure
them into a battle in a remote location. Alterna-
tively, the PCs manage to address both sides con-
cerns and stop the final battle before it begins.
Enemy-advantage confrontation: The PCs have
joined the losing side. A vast alliance is assem-
bled against them and their weakened faction.
They make a desperate last stand, outnumbered.
Or their attempts to bring peace have back-fired,
and the two factions unite against the PCs.
Aftermath: The losing faction may be weakened or
eliminated. The winners may be strengthened or
they may also be weakened. Third party factions
may try to take advantage of a power vacuum.
Twists: PCs have mixed loyalties, with some rooting for
one side and others the other. A third party is re-
sponsible for stirring up tension between the war-
ring factions, and will use the war as a distraction
covering its own plans.
Appendix A
How To Be A Good Player
Give your character a personality It needn’t be any-
thing elaborate, and you don’t have to put on an
accent, change your speech patterns, or even
speak in the first person (though all those can add
something), but it’s more fun for everybody at
the table when the characters are memorable,
and people can derive a lot of satisfaction out of
recognizing when a character is doing something
that typifies the character’s established personal-
ity (“Oh, that’s sooo Merath!”) and even more
when they manage to predict and take advan-
tage of that (“I knew Merath would go along with
that plan, because she gets to dress up as the
princess and boss everybody around”).
Don’t make your character a jerk unless you’re ab-
solutely sure of your ability to entertain the other
players and GM with the character’s jerkiness.
It’s OK to be the character that everybody loves
to hate, but it’s not cool for anybody to actu-
ally hate it when you play that character. When
you’re gaming with friends they’ll probably put up
with your character making everything less fun for
everybody but you, at least for a while, but that’s
no excuse. Even if you are sure that it’s entertain-
ing and not too disruptive, it would be wise to limit
the jerk aspect to specific situations (the charac-
ter goes on a bender after successful adventures)
and not just be all-around unpleasant.
Make your character a team-player unless you’re
playing solo. Loners aren’t necessarily jerks, but in
Zap! your character is going to be part of a team,
even if it’s not a formal team, and it screws up
the game if the character keeps going off away
from everybody else and makes the GM split at-
tention between what the loner is doing and then
what the rest of the party is doing. Every team
needs a Han Solo, but the thing is even though he
might have groused, or even quit, when it came
time to act he was there and pulling his weight.
If your character needs some alone time to be
true to the character, see if your GM is amenable
to doing that between play sessions. That might
be brief play-by-email, or it might just be a cou-
ple of sentences at the start of the session “In the
six months between the end of the last adven-
97
ture and now, Dr. Venn went back to his labs and
worked on his experiments,” “Korista has been op-
erating solo, mining the asteroids of the local sys-
tem,” or even just “My engineer has been tuning
the drives.”
Make the character a self-starter and give her a clear
Drive. Everything is easier for the GM if the char-
acter can be counted on to have certain but-
tons that can be pushed. On the flip side, don’t
give the character Drives that are incompatible
with the plot or tone of the game, at least without
consulting the GM and other players first, unless
you’re quite prepared to play out how the char-
acter’s goals are frustrated. If the campaign is
about providing emergency medical assistance
to the varied sophonts of the local star cluster,
it’s perfectly fine if your character’s Background
is exiled ruler of a distant Star Kingdom, but if
your Drive is to get restored to the throne it can
amount to an attempted hijacking of the cam-
paign if you dig in your heels and ignore the plight
of the local cluster residents while trying to turn
every adventure into a quest to return to your
realm.
Don’t be a afraid to retire a character. If you’re
a design-in-play player who can’t really set out
to make a character with a given personality
or approach, some of the above advice might
seem hard to carry out. You might not have set
out to create a jerk or a loner, but as play pro-
gressed you found that’s what the character has
become. If that happens, and you can’t see a
way to nudge the character you’ve envisioned
into something the other players can enjoy play-
ing with, it’s time to let that character go. The
loner can go off and be alone, and you can cre-
ate a new character and try again. And even if
you’re not design-in-play, and had the character
all figured out with a ten-page back-story before
you sat down at the first session, if you’re at all into
thinking about the inner life of the character there
may come a point where events in the game
mean that what the character would do is leave
the group. Characters quitting and eventually re-
turning (or not) is a staple of the science fiction
A. H OW TO B E A G OOD P LAYER
genre. So let the character leave, and maybe
you’ll pick it up again if in-game events bring
the character’s goals or location and the party’s
back in sync. Sometimes this will require some out-
of-game finagling with the GM and other play-
ers (too many plots are written that make the
party a sealed group with a common origin or the
only ones in the world who can accomplish the
overarching campaign goal), but it beats making
yourself and everybody else miserable with your
square peg in the round hole character.
Stick to genre and tone Science fiction can cover a
vast variety of themes and settings, so it’s nec-
essary for any specific campaign to make cer-
tain assumptions as to what the game is “about”,
and what sort of things it’s appropriate to do and
what things aren’t, and what characters fit the
setting and what don’t. Don’t push the bound-
aries, at least until you’re used to playing in that
setting and with that group. Yeah, fine, a enemy
who’s just pretending to be a hero until he can
betray the team might be a cool idea, but save it
for when you’re sure you can carry it off without
wrecking what everybody else is hoping to get
out of the game. Similarly for a hero who would
just as soon execute the hostages himself to pre-
vent them from turning into undead when it’s es-
tablished that in this campaign heroes almost al-
ways manage to save the victims before they are
irrevocably harmed. It can be amusing for every-
one if your hero sometimes grumbles about tak-
ing a harder stance...but if you just start decapi-
tating the hostages over the protests of the other
players, you’ve crossed the line.
Play the system appropriately Zap! is designed to pro-
mote a certain style of play, which gives a large
amount of freedom to the players to help de-
fine game-world reality; this can be difficult to get
used to at first if you’re accustomed to just an-
nouncing your bonuses and rolling the dice, or
searching for the tiniest ambiguity to turn into a
tactical advantage. Contribute to the game in
the spirit that everybody else is playing, even if it’s
not your preferred style. If you have a real prob-
lem with the style that everybody else is enjoying
you can bring it up for discussion, but maybe you
should be playing a different game.
Don’t hog the spotlight, but don’t shun it either. The
only real limitation in the game is not how power-
ful or effective the characters are, but how much
time they get to strut their stuff and be the center
of attention. That’s the real currency of the game:
how much time do you get to show your charac-
ter doing her stuff. If you suck up all the available
time, that’s bad, but it’s also bad if your sole con-
tribution to the group’s enjoyment is getting your
turn out of the way as expediently as possible,
whether out of shyness or boredom. If you’re not
98
doing anything more than saying “I attack” ev-
ery time somebody points out it’s your turn, you’re
not contributing as much to the entertainment
as you could be. If you feel like your character
is ending up with too much “spotlight” time, you
can often share the spotlight with other charac-
ters by engaging them in-character–particularly if
you know something about their Complications.
If you’re feeling starved for attention to your char-
acter’s doings, make sure that you offer the GM
good character and plot “hooks” through your
Complications...and remember that in Zap! you
can change your Complications if you wish.
Discuss your preferences with the other players If your
preferences aren’t being met, discuss that with
the other players. Be open about what you want,
they’re there to entertain you as much as you’re
there to entertain them, but don’t try to unilat-
erally change things more to your liking. If you
want more combat you can tell the other play-
ers that, or you can have your character grouse
about inaction and lust for battle, but don’t just
have him attack when they’re trying to negotiate
to force their hand. If you can’t come to an ac-
commodation, you can’t play their way or come
up with a character that you’ll have a good time
playing and they can’t enjoy your preferred style,
then find a game that will satisfy you, don’t sub-
vert theirs.
Ultimately, most of this advice boils down to a princi-
ple of courtesy. Keep in mind that everybody at the
table shares the responsibility of making the game fun
and entertaining for everybody involved. Be willing
to make sacrifices as far as what would be your ideal
ultimate solo gaming experience in order to keep ev-
erybody involved and having a good time. Be flexible
in what and how you play, and don’t play if you’re not
having fun.
Appendix B

Tables

Personal Scopes Adventure Scopes

1. Normal A normal, if trained person. Can emerge 1. Normal an office, apartment, or dwelling
victorious from a brawl...sometimes.

2. Agent An elite combatant. Can take on 10 civil- 2. Agent a large building, mall
ians in a barroom brawl, several squad-cars of po-
lice, or a fire team of 4 soldiers.
3. Street-level several blocks in a neighborhood
3. Street-level Augmented. Can take on 50 civilians,
or a squad of 8-12 soldiers.
4. Neighborhood a section of a city
4. Neighborhood Inhuman. Can take on 100 civil-
ians, or a platoon of around 25 soldiers.
5. City a single city on a Planet or an orbital habitat
5. City Super-powered. Can take on an infantry
company of 200 soldiers.
6. Regional a sub-national/continental of a planet

6. Regional Can take on a battalion of 1000 soldiers.

7. National a nation or contint of a planet
7. National Can take on a division of 10,000 soldiers.

8. Global Can take on an army of 100,000 soldiers. 8. Global A Planet

9. Interplanetary Can take on an army group of 9. Interplanetary Several Planets

1,000,000 soldiers.

10. Near Interstellar Can take on an entire theater of 10. Near Interstellar Several near-by star systems
war, 10,000,000 soldiers.

11. Far Interstellar Can take on a planet. 11. Star Cluster

12. Star Cluster Can take on a solar system.

12. Galactic Arm

13. Galactic Arm Can take on a stellar cluster.

13. Galaxy
14. Galaxy Can take on an entire interstellar civiliza-
tion.
14. Galactic Cluster
15. Cosmic Can take on an entire galaxy.

15. Cosmic
99
B. TABLES

Combat Range by Scope

1. Normal Normal large room, such as dining
room or conference room
2. Agent Floor of a building, or a large room
such as a club or warehouse
3. Street Large building such as an office or
warehouse Street and storefronts on either
side
4. Neighborhood Block of buildings
5. City Several blocks of buildings
6. Region Neighborhood of a city, e.g. SoHo or
Chinatown
7. Country Region/several states
8. World Country
9. Solar System World
10. Star Cluster Solar System
11. Galaxy Star cluster
Add 1 to Scope for Pursuit Range and 2 for Lost
Contact. E.g. A Biblical Scope character would
regard a section of a city such as the Foreign
Quarter or the Acropolis as being within Com-
bat Range, with the entire City as being Pur-
suit Range. A Mythic being would regard an
entire country as being within Combat Range,
something at the far end of the world as Pursuit
Range, and anything beyond that as Lost Con-
tact.

100
Tropes Task Could be Done By Difficulty
Aid: Spend an Action to completely Unhinder an ally, Normal 2
no matter how many Hindered conditions are
stacked. Man-at-Arms 3
Hero/Adventurer 4
Boldly Go: volunteer to be smacked with the plot-
hammer by GM, get 1 extra XP for the session. Squad of Men-at-Arms 6

Careful Aim: take ½ the larger die size instead of Party of Adventurers 8
rolling (e.g. d6, d4 = 3); no Collateral Damage Party using Research 10
Pull Punch: No Overkill, must use Careful Aim All For One and One for All! 12

Collateral Damage: GM may use lower die as dam- Table B.1: Difficulty
age against nearby objects and characters
Level Attitude
Battle Cry: once per session, shout battle cry and get
highest roll possible. 1 Hatred (-3)
2 Hostility (-2)
Disable: Power v power to render it useless. Hinder 3 Unfriendliness (-1)
requires 1 Action to repair; Out requires 3 turns 4 Neutrality (0)
5 Friendliness (1)
Failure is Not an Option: change failed uncontested
roll to success; become Hindered (in combat) or 6 Warmth (2)
Tired (out of combat). 7 Devotion (3)
Table B.3: Attitude
Intimidation: roll power v. best power (instead of de-
fense) to cow opponents.
Level Convice/Entice
Jury Rig: build new power out of contributed powers, 1 Denial/Repugnance
which burn out or are Tired 2 Disbelief/Reluctance
Second Wind: Recover from Tired at the cost of 1 3 Skepticism/Disinterest
Stamina 4 Neutrality/Neutrality
5 Openness/Interest
Sheer Determination: Clear all Hindered at the cost of 6 Belief/Eagerness
1 Will 7 Conviction/Zealousness
Shoulder Roll: use one die each for offense/defense GM picks starting level, adjusted by Attitude; success
Supreme Effort: add Will to roll, become Tired or failure on a Shtick trying to Convince/Entice can
(tired works like Hindered, but lasts until rest) adjust up or down by one (two if success or failure by
over 3)
Split Attack: use one die against each against 2 tar-
gets Table B.4: Convince/Entice

Take A Bullet: automatically counter, but only defend

with Default
This Ends Now! both sides describe a single assault,
and the highest roll wins the battle decisively.
Wild Shot: combine dice into 1 die 1 size higher.

Success Answer
0 yes/no
1 one-word answer
2 short sentence, quantity, or direction
3 diagram or paragraph description
4 sketch or series of questions
5 clear image or a conversation

Table B.2: Information Gained

101
Scope 3 Street
Power Level Weight Example Speed Example
1 44 kg child 6 kph Walking (brisk)
2 (Normal) 63 kg Woman 8 kph Swimming (record)
3 88 kg Man 11 kph Jogging
4 (Default) 125 kg Hotdog cart 16 kph Bicycle (typical)
5 177 kg Lion 23 kph Marathon (record)
6 250 kg Motorcycle 32 kph Sprinting, Bicycle (fast)
7 354 kg Max bench-press 45 kph Sprinting (record), suburban speed limit
8 500 kg Grand piano 64 kph Racehorse
9 700 kg Cow 91 kph Car (major rd), Cheetah
10 1 ton Small car 128 kph Local train
11 1.4 t sports car 181 kph Autobahn
12 2t Medium car 256 kph Bullet train
+1 +50% +50%
Scope 4 Neighborhood
Power Level Weight Example Speed Example
1 50 kg Small woman 6 kph Walking (brisk)
2 (Normal) 80 kg Man 10 kph Jogging
3 125 kg Hotdog cart 16 kph Bicycle (typical)
4 (Default) 200 kg Motorcycle 25 kph Marathon (record)
5 320 kg Max bench-press 40 kph Sprinting (record), suburban speed limit
6 500 kg Grand piano 64 kph Racehorse
7 800 kg Cow 100 kph Car (major rd)
8 1 ton Small car 160 kph Autobahn
9 2t Medium car 200 kph Bullet train
10 3t Small elephant 300 kph Sports-car, tornado
11 5t Elephant 500 kph Fastest train
12 8t Pickup truck 800 kph Passenger Jet
+1 +60% +60%
Scope 5 City
Power Level Weight Example Speed Example
1 55 kg Med woman 7 kph Walking (fast)
2 (Normal) 100 kg Lg Man 12 kph Running
3 175 kg Hotdog cart 22 kph Marathon
4 (Default) 320 kg Max bench-press 40 kph Sprinting (record), suburban speed limit
5 560 kg Fattest human 70 kph Racehorse
6 1 ton Small car 125 kph Cheetah
7 2t Medium car 223 kph Bullet train
8 3t Small elephant 300 kph Sports-car, tornado
9 5t Lg car 500 kph Fastest train
Jumbo, Hubble
10 10 t Telescope 1000 kph Speed of sound
Airbus 310, Big
11 18 t Ben 1800 kph Concorde
Empty Semi
12 32 t trailer 3200 kph SR-71 Blackbird, speeding bullet
+1 +75% +75%
Scope 6 Regional
Power Level Weight Example Speed Example
1 64 kg Med woman 8 kph world record swim
2 (Normal) 125 kg Lg Man 16 kph Bicycle (typical)
3 250 kg Hotdog cart 32 kph Sprinting (record), suburban speed limit
4 (Default) 500 kg Max bench-press 64 kph Racehorse
5 1 ton Fattest human 125 kph Cheetah
6 2t Small car 250 kph Bullet train
7 4t Medium car 1000 kph Jet airline
8 8t Small elephant 2000 kph Concorde
9 16 t Lg car 4000 kph SR-71 Blackbird, speeding bullet
Jumbo, Hubble
10 32 t Telescope 8000 kph Rocket
Airbus 310, Big
11 64 t Ben 16000 kph ICBM reentry
Empty Semi
12 125 t trailer 32000 kph Shuttle re-entry, satellite (LEO)
+1 x2 x2
Scope 7 National
Power Level Weight Example Speed Example
1 90 kg Man 6 kph Walking
2 (Normal) 250 kg Motorcycle 16 kph Bicycle (typical)
3 700 kg Cow 64 kph Racehorse
4 (Default) 2 kg Med car 125 kph Cheetah
5 6 tons Lg car 354 kph Sports car, tornado
6 16 t Empty bus 1000 kph Jet airplane
7 45 t Semi Trailer (full) 3000 kph Concorde
River gunboat,
8 125 t Blue whale 8000 kph Around Earth in 5 hours
9 360 t Boeing 747 22k kph Around Earth in 2 hours
10 1000 t WWII destroyer 64k kph Escape velocity
Space Shuttle,
12-story office
11 3000 t building (5) 181k kph Moon in 1.3 hours
Largest tree,
12 8000 t Godzilla 512k kph Solar probe, around Earth in 5 minutes
+1 x4 x3
Scope 8 Global
Power Level Weight Example Speed Example
1 125 kg Hotdog cart 16 kph Bicycle (typical)
2 (Normal) 500 kg Fattest human 64 kph Racehorse
3 2 tons Med car 250 kph Fast Train
4 (Default) 8t Pickup truck 1000 kph Jet airline
5 32 t Loaded bus 4000 kph SR-71 Blackbird, speeding bullet
Blue whale, river
6 125 t gunboat 16000 kph ICBM reentry
7 512 t Largest aircraft 64k kph Escape velocity
8 2000 t Space Shuttle 256k kph Around Earth in 10 minutes
Largest tree,
9 8000 t Godzilla 1 million kph Around Earth in 2 minutes, Solar wind
Around Earth in 30 seconds, 2 times
10 32000 t Titanic 4 million kph escape velocity from the Sun
Empire State Around Earth in 9 seconds, Earth to
11 125000 t building 16 million kph Moon in 1.4 hours
Largest ship,
World Trade Around Earth in 2 seconds, Earth to
12 500000 t Center 65 million kph Moon in 21 minutes
+1 x8 x3
Scope 9 Interplanetary
Power Level Weight Example Speed Example
1 250 kg Motorcycle 32 kph Sprinting (record), suburban speed limit
2 (Normal) 2 kg Med car 244 kph Fast Train
3 16 tons Empty bus 2000 kph Concorde
4 (Base) 125 t Blue whale, gunboat 16000 kph ICBM reentry
5 1000 t WWII destroyer 125k kph SR-71 Blackbird, speeding bullet
6 8 kt Godzilla 1 million kph Around Earth in 2 minutes, Solar wind
Starship
Enterprise, USS
Missouri, trans- Around Earth in 15 seconds, Earth to
7 64 kt oceanic cable 8 mkph Moon in 3 minutes
World Trade Around Earth in 2 seconds, to Moon in
8 500 kt Center 64 mkph 21 seconds
Earth to Moon in 3 seconds, to Mars in 6
9 4 mt Md dam 512 mkph to 46 minutes
Earth to Mars in 6 minutes, to Jupiter in 9
10 32 mt Largest dam 4c to 13 minutes, to Sun in 2 minutes
Great Wall of Earth to Sun in 17 seconds, to Pluto in 8
11 250 mt China 32 c minutes
Sun to Pluto in 3 minutes, Proxima
12 2 billion t Small mountain 256 c Centauri in 6 days
+1 x8 x8
Scope 10 Near Interstellar
Power Level Weight Example Speed Example
Around Earth in 2 seconds, to Moon in 21
1 500 kg Fattest human 64 million kph seconds
Earth to Mars in 24 minutes, to Jupiter in 36 to
2 (Normal) 8 tons Pickup truck 1c 52 minutes, to Sun in 8 minutes
3 125 tons Gunboat, blue whale 8c Earth to Sun in 1 minute, to Pluto in 32 minutes
Earth to Mars in 12 minutes, to Jupiter in 18 to
4 (Base) 2 kt Space Shuttle 64 c 26 minutes, to Sun in 4 minutes
5 32 kt Titanic 512 c 6 months to nearest solar twin HIP 56948
6 512 kt Largest ship 4096 c 22 days to solar twin
7 8 million t Great Pyramid 32 kc 2 days to solar twin
125
8 million t 16 Great Pyramids 256 kc cross the milky way in 5 months
9 2 billion t Small mountain 2 million c sR-71 Blackbird, speeding bullet
10 32 billion t Solar ejection 16 mc 1.5 months to Andromeda Galaxy
500
11 billion t Lg Mountain 128 mc
12 8 billion kt 12 km asteroid 1024 mc
+1 x16 x8
Scope 11 Star Cluster
Power Level Weight Example Speed Example
1 1 ton Small car 60 kph
2 (Normal) 32 tons Loaded bus 1c 4 years to Proxima Centauri
3 1000000 kg WWII destroyer 12 c 4 months to Proxima Centauri
4 (Base) 3E+007 kg Titanic 192 c 1 year to nearest solar twin HIP 56948
Golden Gate
5 1E+009 kg Bridge 3072 c 22 days to solar twin
6 3E+010 kg Big Dam 49152 c 1 day to solar twin
tsp neutron star
material, 400 m
7 1E+012 kg asteroid 1 million c cross the milky way in 1.2 months
8 3E+013 kg volcanic eruption 12 million c 1.5 months to Andromeda Galaxy
3 days to Andromeda Galaxy, 1 year to nearest
9 1E+015 kg 1 km asteroid 192 million c recent supernova
10 3E+016 kg 10 km asteroid 3072 million c Cross the Sloan Wall of galaxies in 1 year
50 km radius
11 1E+018 kg asteroid 49152 million c
100-200 km
12 4E+019 kg asteroid 786432 million c
+1 x32 x12
Appendix C

Equipment

The rule-of-thumb for equipment costs is that the cost
is 2 for d4, +1 per die-size, +1 per any Advantage with-
out a balancing Disadvantage. Scope is relative to
the Personal Scope for the campaign. E.g. at City
Scope, Hardcase Armor is d6 vs. City Scope weapons,
and would be scaled up or down vs. lower or higher
Scopes. Similarly weapons, comm gear and the like
all operate on a commensurate scale: a Vibro Knife
at City Scope might well be able to slice through an
ordinary automobile, while at Street scope it’s a dan-
ger to pedestrians but not vehicles.
mean that in play you should treat plate armor and
a leather jacket as being identical; you are strongly
encouraged to decide on the fly that, say, accord-
ing to the Primary Rule and the tone of the campaign
swimming underwater in plate is forbidden, but a dag-
ger has no chance of even Hindering somebody clad
in plate except under special circumstances such as
in combination with an attack that immobilizes the
wearer.

Costs
Costs are listed in WP, that is they are orders of magni-
tude: something that has a Cost of 2 has a price in the
tens of monetary units (credits, double-dollars, quat-
loos, what-have-you); a cost of 3 would be in the hun-
dreds, and 4 would be in the thousands. Items that
might Cost 1 aren’t listed; they are free for practical
purposes under most circumstances. Exact prices of
items are assumed to vary according to quality and
local circumstances; some might not even be avail-
able in a setting.
Die Size d4 d6 d8 d10 d12
Base Cost 2 3 4 5 6
If you need to know the exact price of an item
(for instance, you’re not using the optional Wealth
rules), then roll a 1d6+1d4 (adding them together) for
the first digit, and 1d10 for each successive digit un-
til you’ve either accounted for them all or reached a
point where you’re willing to round. The result is the
cost on the local market. E.g. a Cost 4 Chamelion Suit
rolls a 3 on a d6 plus a 2 on a d4, for a total of 5 in the
1,000’s place, then a 6, 2, and 3 for a total of 5,623
credits.

Variations in Equipment
You should assume that there is wide variation in the
items listed, even if its not reflected in a mechani-
cal difference between the items. These differences
should become fodder for the Primary Rule in play.
For example, mechanically all primitive armor is just
a d4 vs. muscle-powered weapons, but that doesn’t
111
C. E QUIPMENT

Name Die Cost Description

Ballistic Cloth 4 2 Protects vs. kinetic impact/puncture. A: can pass for ordinary clothing
Bubblegum Suit 8 5 Tight-fitting suit, becomes hard-suit when powered on. A: can pass for
ordinary clothing until deployed
Buzzkill 6 3 Light, flexible anti-energy armor. A: can pass for ordinary clothing until
hood/gauntlets deploy, D: only protects vs. energy (EMP, stun, electric,
laser, etc),
Chamelion Suit 6 3 Active cammo blends in with the background in the visible & UV spectrum
(still stands out in infra-red)
Field Armor 8 5 Military-grade hard suit. A: provides the wearer +1 Toughness
Force Shield 6 3 Force-field in the shape of a shield, usually from an emitter on the forearm.
May be used to attack or defend.
Ghost Suit 6 4 Active cammo with heat-sinks to hide IR signature, radar-absorbent,
noise-cancelling surface. A: Flexible
Hardcase 6 3 Non-powered hard suit. A: provides the wearer +1 Toughness
Rebreather 4 2 Allows user to breathe in hostile environments. Depending on the tech
there might be a limited duration or it might operate indefinitely (or
indefinitely if there’s free oxygen present, limited otherwise).
Riot Gear 6 2 Bulkier armor meant to protect vs. improvised weapons and small arms D:
Bulky
Riot Shield 6 2 Hi-tech shield. Can be used to attack or defend. D: Single-action Defense
Peril-sensitive Specs 4 2 Alerts the wearer to impending peril; earlier models that turned
completely black were discontinued after all the customers were run over
at zebra crossings.
Powered Armor 10 5 Vanilla version, with enough servos to handle the extra weight but no
hardpoints. Fancier versions with built-in armament and extra systems
would be bought as Vehicles or Companions.
Primitive Armor 4 2 Any form of low-tech armor, from leather to plate; use the Primary Rule to
differentiate effectiveness against various primitive weapons. D: only
protects v. muscle-powered weapons
Stasis Suit 12 4 Creates a statis-field around the wearer at the instant of an attack, almost
completely impervious to damage. DD: User completely immobilized
while under attack, loses 1 Action per attack
Still Suit 4 2 Protects vs. desert environments, recycles moisture
Vac-Suit 4 2 Protects vs. outer-space (vacuum, cold).
Vac-Armor 6 3 protects vs. outer-space A: Flexible (includes extreme conditions, e.g.
high rad, methane atmosphere, micrometeorites)
Note: Armor provides an automatic defense to the wearer, and reduces the chance of serious injury on recovering
from Out from 1 in 2 to 1 in die-size. Serious injury adds a Complication to the injured until healed through medical
tech. Shields are not automatic.
Table C.1: Armor/Protective Gear

112
Name Die* Cost Description
Clothing 4 2 Ordinary civvies or uniform
Designer Clothing 8 3 Recognizably fashionable or high-ranked
Fancy Dress 6 2 Impressive clothing that commands respect
Programmable Clothes 4 2 Can morph into any ordinary-appearing clothing. A: Subtle
Slightly Psychic ID 6 3 Can morph into any ordinary-appearing ID papers. A: Subtle
* applies to social Abilities, not combat
Table C.2: Clothing

Name Die Cost Description

Basic Comm 4 2 Cell phone or similar, requires infrastructure
Earbud 4 3 Concealed, private encrypted comm. A: Subtle.
FTL Radio 4 2+n AA: Larger Scope, n is number of levels that Scope would have to be
increased to reach interstellar distances
Satellite Radio 6 3 A: Requires ship in orbit or satellite, but not planet-girdling infrastructure
InstaWeb 6 5 Quad-rotor comm drones provide private encrypted network in deployed
area. AA: Area Effect
GhostWeb 6 6 As InstaWeb, but stealthed, and using point-to-point lasers to prevent
detection or interruption of communications. AA: Area Effect, A: Subtle
Chatty Cathy 6 4 Drone sows confusion on communications channels by spoofing
conversations, records and plays back live traffic with learning algorithms
to make it harder to sort out real from fake traffic. A: Area Effect, +1 Cost
for A: Enhanced (can attack encrypted traffic by cracking encryption
and spoofing entire packets where that’s not possible).
Screaming Mimi 10 5 Jams communications on all frequencies, including point-to-point via
aerosol chaff. AA: Area Effect, DD: Disabling Only.
Telepathy Helm 6 3 Allows communication via Telepathy; may be actual telepathy, or
mind-mind interface mediated by computers and ordinary EM signals

Table C.3: Communication

Name Die Cost Description

Data Goggles 4 3 Wearable computer. A: Subtle
Data Pad 4 2 Ubiquitous interface to the larger computer network and personal
workstation
Encyclopedia Galactica 8 3 Data covers everything that is public knowledge. DD: Data retrieval only,
A: Flexible
Giant Electronic Brain 12 6 Extremely powerful computer, the largest of its kind for the Scope
Hacker Deck 8 4 AA: Control, D: Fragile, D: Side Effects (can physically damage the user)
Hitcher’s Guide 6 2 Data covers much that is public knowledge, with an emphasis on material
practical for the traveler. A: Large friendly letters on the cover, DD: Data
retrieval only
Modder 6 4 Grants a single Shtick at PL 6, can be customized between adventures or
by spending a Scene implanting a new chip. A: Customizable
Universal Translator 4 2 Translates from any language to the language the user speaks; takes no
more than a few phrases before it can begin working with a previously
unknown alien language. Powered by Plotonium.

Table C.4: Computer

113
C. E QUIPMENT

Name Die Cost Description

Autodoc 8 3 Can perform emergency medical procedures and treat many conditions.
A: Flexible, D: Bulky, D: Slow
Bodybag 4 2 Stabilize patient zipped into it, as long as they aren’t brain-dead.
Fuggedaboutit 6 2 Drug that erases up to 24 hours of a patient’s memory (depending on
dose). Usually used to treat Post-Traumatic Stress, has more sinister
applications. D: Shots
Laser Scalpel 6 3 Can perform surgery in the field, with the scalpel allowing microscopic
incisions, cauterizing blood-vessels , and laser range-finding to produce a
scan of the interior areas.
Med-kit 4 2 Basic medical gear.
MindSaver 10 4 Implant emergency uploads patient’s memory to secure backup for
implanting in a clone, wipes out current body’s memory. DD: Very Slow
NanoGoo 10 4 Given a template, and a mind saved by MindSaver, can reconstruct a
person from a saved copy. Often used for deep-space scouting so the
crew can be saved and reconstituted when the ship reaches its
destination, rather than having to endure and be supplied for years. DD:
Very Slow
Plaskin 6 3 Artificial skin can provide temporary repairs of cuts and burns; can be
used to reduce chance of permanent injury on recovering from Out, or to
substitute a longer term Complication such as “requires reconstructive
surgery” for a short term one like “unable to use arm due to wound”.
Quicktime 6 2 Alters user’s perception of time enormously, so that long star voyages
seem to take place in less subjective time, D: Actions have the Erratic
Disadvantage for 1d4 days after stop taking it.
Tranquilizer 6 2 Sooths the patient, removing pain, fear, and stress; higher doses may
knock the patient out completely. D: Shots
Truth Serum 6 2 Compels the patient to tell the truth (as the patient understands it) for a
limited duration; legitimate uses are generally psychiatric. D: Shots

Table C.5: Medical

Name Die Cost Description

Food Pills 4 2 A meal in a pill. Do not exceed the recommended dosage.
Rations 4 2 Simple rations, lasts nearly forever, chemically self-heating, wrapper can
be used as a water filter.
Pan-Galactic Gargle Blaster 6 2 Like having your brains smashed out by a slice of lemon, wrapped
’round a large gold brick. D: Side-Effects
Soylent Green 6 1 Simple, cheap, nutritious. DD: Soylent Green is People

Table C.6: Food/Drink

114
Name Die Cost Description
Bugs 4 2 Can transmit sounds to remote listeners; SF versions may be able to
travel and place themselves in advantagious positions, or transmit
images as well
IR Goggles 4 2 User can see into the Infra-Red spectrum: heat sources such as living
creatures usually stand out clearly.
Night Vision Goggles 6 2 Enhances available light, allowing the user to see almost as well as
daylight D: Sudden bright light can blind the user (treat as attack by the
device to blind the wearer)
Tetracorder 6 4 Scans environment at range; units may be further specialized to certain
tasks, e.g. medicine. A: Flexible
UV Goggles 4 2 User can see into the Ultra-Violet spectrum; passive UV grants limited
night vision, active UV can light up an area like a searchlight without
creatures not sensitive to UV being aware of the illumination, but
pinpointing the user if they are.

Table C.7: Sensors

Name Die Cost Description

Cloak 4 2 Memory-plastic inserts can be energized to form pup-tent; insulated vs. heat & cold,
solar cell surface can recharge small electronics.
Cooler 4 2 Chest or locker cools interior to preserve perishables.
Gravsled 6 3 Sled for hauling pallets of goods around; may come with impellers or require a tractor
Robomule 8 4 Simple programmable sawhorse-style robot for carrying equipment & supplies;
surefooted, relatively slow, not comfortable to ride on.
Shelter 6 2 Memory-plastic shelter for up to 4 people, collapses to back-pack size, can be sealed
and pressurized on planets with poison or no atmosphere, and serve as a makeshift
lifepod. Solar cell surface can recharge electronics, and allow it to recycle air and
water for up to six months. Without sunlight, limited to one week on internal batteries,
or longer with external power source.
Stasis Field 8 4 Stops time to preserve a cache of goods, equipment, even people indefinitely
against all conditions, even nuclear explosion. Device is the size of a backpack,
projects a field up to 3 meters in diameter. AA: Area Effect, A: Delayed (can activate
via timer), DD: Single Use, D: Can’t be deactivated except by external stasis-disruptor
device
Stasis Pod 6 3 Chest or locker applies a stasis field to the contents, to preserve them perfectly.
Tent 4 2 Shelter for up to six people; collapses to fanny-pack size.

Table C.8: Storage/Carrying/Shelter

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C. E QUIPMENT

Name Die Cost Description

Bio Kit 4 2 Small pack of items used for analyzing biological samples, producing
antidotes to poisons, etc.; larger jobs would require a base or ship
Chemistry Kit 4 2 Small pack of items used for mixing and analyzing chemicals; larger jobs
would require a base or ship
Disguise Kit 4 2 Prosthesis and makeup for disguises. Depending on tech may allow
precise reconstruction of a specific person’s appearance, or just
generally alter an appearance to avoid recognition. Assumed to
contain whatever counter-measures might be necessary to thwart
routine scans at that tech level (i.e. could pass airport security, but not
necessarily super-secret spy HQ.)
Electronics Kit 4 2 Small pack of items used for repairing or building electronic gear; larger
jobs would require a base or ship.
Lockpicks 6 3 Set of tools for opening locks and defeating security systems,
depending on tech level these may be mostly dealing with
electronics/computers/forcefields instead of physical locks.
Mechanics Kit 4 2 Small pack of items used in repairing mechanical gear such as vehicles;
larger jobs would require a base or ship.
Multitool 6 3 Reconfigurable tool useful for many engineering tasks. A: Flexible, D:
Limited to applying small amounts of force (e.g. not suitable as a
pry-bar or jack).
Omni-wrench 6 4 Larger cousin of the Multitool, can be used for heavier tasks A: Flexible
Sonic Spanner 6 6 Tool that can use sound waves to remotely manipulate objects on a
very fine level. A: Flexible, AA: Exotic
Stasis Disruptor 4 2 Tool for deactivating statis fields; without this tool, stasis fields last
indefinitely, stopping time for everything within them
Tractor Beam 6 5 Generates a field that can lift or pull large objects A: Larger Scope.
Larger, more expensive generators can manipulate entire ships

Table C.9: Tools

116
 Table C.10: Weapons

Blaster 6 3 Generic SF energy weapon, for when you don’t want to worry about
the difference between lasers, plasma, electric arcs, etc. Typically runs
indefinitely on whatever charges it.
Bubble Gun 4 2 Encases target in a flexible bubble that is difficult to get out of without
special chemicals.
Chiller 4 4 Staff made of a super-heat-sink drains the target of heat until it’s frozen
solid. AA: Exotic (defense is force field or being proof against
near-absolute zero temperatures)
Dark Bomb 6 4 Emits a cloud of inert nanoscale particles, disrupting EM radiation
above Infra-Red AA: Area Effect, D: Shots
Death Ray 6 3 Kills living things without harming inanimate objects.
Devolver 6 5 Forces target backwards along its ancestraly evolutionary path, with
somewhat unpredictable results. AA: Exotic
Disruptor 8 4 Disrupts living tissue, causing massive damage on a cellular level.
EMP Grenade 6 2 Disrupts non-hardened electronics (most military gear is hardened) A:
Lesser Area Effect, DD: One Shot
Electric Rifle 6 4 Shoots a powerful bolt of electricity over an ionized path to a target.
AA: Exotic, stopped by shielded armor D: Shots
Frag Grenade 6 2 A: Lesser Area Effect, DD: One Shot
Flamer 6 3 Shoots a fan of flame. A: Limited Area Effect, D: Shots
Goo Gun 6 3 Shoots immobilizing goo that can restrain targets; the glop can only be
removed with special chemicals, but it is programmed to move away
from eyes and breathing outlets so as not to accidentally blind or
smother targets. AA: Area Effect, D: Shots, D: Slow, takes an extra Round
for it to actually engulf the target after it hits.
Gravity Grenade 6 5 Attracts targets to the location of the grenade. AA: Area Effect, AA:
Exotic (defense is anti-grav or fast movement), DD: One Shot
Gravity Gun 6 5 Crushes targets by establishing an area of high gravitational pull within
the target. AA: Exotic (defense is anti-grav)
Heat Ray 6 3 Heats targets, melting metal and setting flammable substances alight.
Hunter-Seeker 8 4 Tiny remote-guided assassination weapon. AA: Exotic (defense is any
armor), DD: One Shot
Karatand 6 3 Rigiplast glove allows delivery of maximum force in hand-to-hand
combat without risking injury to your hands, particularly when fighting
armored foes.
Laser 8 3 Fires a beam of coherent light, capable of burning holes in or cutting
through objects. Reflected by shiny surfaces, dispersed by particulate
matter in the air, such as heavy smoke. D: Burn Out
Lawmaker 8 5 Keyed to owner’s DNA, fires a variety of rounds: Standard, Heat Seeker,
Ricochet, Incendiary, Armour Piercing, High-Explosive. A: Flexible
Monomolecular Filament 8 4 Single-molecule thick strand of material in the form of a whip or garrote,
can slice through most solid materials with ease. AA: Exotic, DD:
Side-Effects, careless can easily hurt the wielder.
Neural Whip 4 1 Stuns targets in melee range. D: SideEffects, can hit allies
Needler 6 3 Shoots high-speed ceramic flechettes that can deliver toxins, paralytics,
truth-serum, or just damage tissue. Favored shipboard, where to the hull
and machinery can’t be risked. A: Flexible, D: Stopped by armor
Table C.10: Weapons

117
C. E QUIPMENT

Name Die Cost Description

Nuclear Grenade 12 5 AA: Area Effect, A: Increased Scope, DD: delivery range is less than
blast radius, even with grenade launcher, DD: One Shot
Orbital Lance 12 6 High Energy lance from orbit; requires a spotter on the surface to select
targets, who uses a carbine to target: the spotter fires the gun and it
uses a combination of laser-range finding, optical sensors and GPS to
transmit data to the Orbital Lance, which will fire in the next round. A:
Lesser Area Effect, D: Slow
Paralyser 8 4 Paralyses targets with nervous systems. A: Lesser Area Effect, D: Shots
Pain Ray 8 5 Renders targets with nervous systems helpless due to pain. AA: Exotic
(defense is shielded armor or not being sensitive to pain), D: Shots
Phase Pistol 8 5 Forces target out of phase with the space-time continuum, with varying
effects (stun, kill, cut, disintegrate) A: Flexible
Photon Blade 8 3 Blade is a fixed-length beam of light, that can cut through most
anything but is stopped by other Photon Blades or force-fields. It is also
capable of deflecting Blaster fire. Favored Weapon of the Star Knights.
D: Exotic
Plasma Gun 10 6 Fires a stream of super-heated plasma that can cut through most
anything. D: Side Effects, collateral damage against targets near the
gun when it fires.
Portal Gun 8 6 Creates portals that you can step through. Fire once to create the
entrance, again to create the exit. AA: Exotic (stopped by forcefields)
Railgun 8 4 Fires electromagnetically accelerated pellets at high velocity.
Rocket Gun 6 2 Fires rockets that can be directed against targets not in Line Of Sight
(e.g. around corners). D: Shots
Seizure Grenade 8 6 Creates a hologram pattern than induces seizures in the viewer,
including any sufficiently hi-def remote viewing. AA: Exotic (only works
on one particular lifeform, such as humans), AA: Area Effect, DD: One
Shot
Stunner 6 2 Non-lethal damage to most life-forms. D: Shots
Stun Baton 6 2 Non-lethal melee damage to most life-forms. D: Limited to unarmored
targets
Steam Gun 6 2 Slug-thrower powered by steam; easy to maintain in primitive
conditions: pour water in the chamber, heat the gun in a fire, and it will
charge for 8 shots. Can fire any slugs that fit in barrel (typically lead or
smooth stones). D: Shots
Stun Grenade 6 3 Non-lethal damage to living targets. AA: Area Effect, DD: One Shot
Thundergun 8 5 Stuns targets and knocks them down with high-pressure shockwave
(only works in atmospheres around Earth pressures), can kill and destroy
property at close range. A: Lesser Area Effect
Wasps 8 5 Swarm of semi-autonomous micro-drones that employ energy beams
and flechettes to attack targets directed by the user or to defend the
user against incoming fire. A: Lesser Area Effect
Zap Gun 6 2 Blast of eponymous energy, comes in three settings: Stun (non-lethal,
living), Kill (lethal, living), Destroy (lethal, any). A: Flexible, D: Shots
Table C.10: Weapons

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Index

Abilities Global, 8, 9
Advantages, 18
Combining Actions, 48 Hindered, 38, 44, 45
Disadvantages, 20 Becoming Unhindered, 45
When to roll uncontested, 42 Can Be Hindered Disadvantage, 20
Ability Descriptions, 15 Control Advantage, 19
Action, 40 Disabling Abilities, 49
Actions, 23 Down for the Count, 47
Active Powers, 23 Fragile Disadvantage, 20
Automatic Powers, 23 Helping the Hindered, 45
Active Power Restraining, 47
Actions, 23 Sheer Determination, 52
Active Powers, 40 Tired, 47
Advantages, 18 Ultra-Fragile Disadvantage, 20
Flexible, 16
Information Gained, 59, 101
Ultra-Flexible, 16
Interplanetary, 8, 9
Advantages and Disadvantages, 18
Interstellar, 9
Agent, 8
Intimidation, 52
Attack
Automatic Powers and, 16 Mishaps, 22
Attributes, 23 Movement, 16
Ordinary People, 23
Automatic, 16 National, 8, 9
Actions and, 16 Near Interstellar, 8, 9
Automatic Powers, 40 Neighborhood, 8
Combinations and, 16 Normal, 8

Background, 42, 59, 60, 97 Power Categories, 40

Power Level, 17, 39
City, 8 Difficulty, 43
Combinations Power Up
Automatic Powers and, 16 Research and, 18
Combining Actions, 48 Powers, 37
Complications Active, 40
Note On, 27 Automatic, 40
Cosmic, 8, 9 Categories, 40
Disagreements, 38
Defense Examples, 38
Automatic Powers and, 16 Power Levels, 38
Difficulty, 43 Primary Rule, iii
Uncontested Abilities, 42 Combining Abilities, 48
Disadvantages, 20 Disagreements, 38
Example, 17 Powers, 37
Disagreements, 38 Uncontested Abilities, 42

Flexible, 16 Regional, 8
Research, 18
Galactic Arm, 8, 9 When to roll, 18
Galactic Cluster, 8 Rounds
Galaxy, 8, 9 Actions and, 23
119
I NDEX

Science Power, 18
Ultra-Flexible, 18
Science Research Shtick, 18
Scopes, 8
Second Wind, 52
Shoulder Roll, 52
Shticks, 39
Actions and, 40
Combining, 40
Information and, 40
Interpreting Success, 40
Out of combat, 40
Powers, 40
Research, 18
Skills, 39
Stamina, 23
Star Cluster, 8, 9
Street-level, 8
Supreme Effort, 43, 52
Tired, 47

Tone, 9
Toughness, 23

Ultra-Flexible, 16
Uncontested Abilities, 42

Will, 23

120