GM...
Play to find out what happens. Feel free to bring
prepared materials like scenarios, locations, and
characters, but don’t plan a plot. Don’t try too
hard to guess what the players might do. See
how things unfold, and be ready to improvise.
Present problems without solutions. Don’t
worry about “balance” or whether a problem can
be solved. Let the players surprise you.
Be a fan of the characters. Introduce challenges
not to trick or punish them, but to give them a
chance to shine. Enjoy the players’ victories.
Ground everything in the fiction. Describe what
characters see and hear. End each description
with, “What do you do?” to prompt players to
describe actions before reaching for the dice.
Be generous with information. When players
ask questions, ask how they search for answers,
and give honest answers. If players seem
confused or stuck, offer clarification directly,
share more information through supporting
characters, or just say, “You notice....” Presume
unhurried characters spot hazards without
saying “I search for traps” at every door.
Telegraph risks. Before a roll, advise what a
competent person would assess as a worst-case
scenario, and make sure the roll’s impact feels
like a logical follow-up to established details.
Don’t sweat it if you forget to specify a risk before
rolling sometimes — but when you do, death and
permanent injury are off limits as consequences.
Take the lead, but cede the reins. During play,
lead the group in framing scenes for pacing and
safety. Encourage the players to do likewise.
Trust your gut more than the rules. Some rules
are left vague on purpose. (How many help dice
are allowed on one roll?) Interpret based on
context. Don’t worry about whether it’s “right.”
Use what you need; ditch the rest. Roll on
tables if you need quick inspiration, or pick what
you want, or ignore them entirely. It’s your game.
PLAYERS...
Embrace the premise. Come up with excuses to
go adventuring and face danger together. If your
character wants to escape to safety and retire,
let them. Then make a character for this game.
2400
LO-FI SCI-FI RPG • JASON TOCCI
Use your head before your dice. Put yourself in
your character’s shoes. Try to think your way out
of problems. Ask the GM questions to build a
EMERGENCY RULES
mental picture of the scene. Offer details for how
you investigate and interact with things.
Be transparent about intent. The GM isn’t out to
get you; don’t hide information from them. If you
hope to find a chair to stand on, don’t stop at
asking “What’s in the room?” — say why you ask.
Put fellow players before the game. Before
play, work with the GM and the other players to
establish what’s “out of bounds” for your game,
or okay if “off-screen.” (E.g., sexual assault may
be in a character’s history, but avoided in play.)
Be flexible about scene framing. In traditional
RPGs, it’s typically the GM’s job to “jump ahead”
in time when following along in real-time would
be dull. In 2400, players also have the authority
to fast-forward through boring or uncomfortable
content, pause for a break, or rewind to edit or
redo scenes that leave a bad feeling behind.
Putting these tools in everyone’s hands, and not
necessarily coupling them with “safety” all the
time, helps keep the game fast-paced and
exciting, and makes it easier for people who do
need psychological safety tools to use them
without fear of judgment or awkwardness.
BREAK OUT IN CASE OF EMERGENCY
2400 is designed to be open to interpretation.
But what if you need more? This document is for
those “emergency” situations when things just
aren’t clicking, and a little more guidance might
make a big difference. To ask questions or make
suggestions, visit www.pretendo.games/about
Version 1.3 • Art CC BY Beeple (Mike Winkelmann)
Permission is granted to reproduce for personal use
PROCEDURE
YOU NEED: 2+ players (one as game moderator,
or GM); 1+ full sets of polyhedral dice (4-, 6-, 8-,
10-, 12-, and 20-sided — a.k.a. d4, d6, d8, d10,
d12, d20); and something to write or type on.
PLAY: The GM describes situations,
environments, and the denizens of the world; the
other players control (at least) a single character
each, and describe what their characters do. The
GM checks in with each player to ask what they’re
doing, striving to give everyone roughly equal
time in the spotlight (or the option to opt out of
the spotlight), but there’s not necessarily a rigid
turn order. Players describe their actions and
intent; the GM’s response depends on what the
players describe doing (or trying to do).
■ If they attempt the impossible, the GM
says why, and advises the player to try
something else (e.g., “You could close the
door, but there’s no time to barricade it”).
■ If they face an unavoidable cost, the GM
offers that option, or multiple equally
unappealing options (e.g., “Cutting through
that wall will either be loud or slow”). The
player can try something else, or accept a
cost to perform their intended action.
■ If they risk an avoidable consequence, the
GM advises them of the risk — e.g., missing a
deadline, being hurt, hurting others, losing
gear, drawing unwanted attention, etc. The
player can try something else, or they can
face the risk and roll dice to see if they
avoid some or all of the consequences.
■ If there’s no risk or obstacle, the player
does what they intended to do. The GM only
calls for a roll when the risk is greater than
“you’d need to try again.”
To mitigate risk, players can revise their intended
actions by describing more modest goals and/or
more thoughtful tactics. You might risk death by
trying to kill well-armed enemies with a frontal
assault, but only risk being injured or cornered
by laying suppressing fire from a secure position.
Permission is granted to reproduce for personal use
ROLLING
FACING RISK: By default, roll a d6 skill die.
■ If you’re skilled in an area relevant to your
action, that skill is rated d8, d10, or d12; use
this as your skill die instead of a d6.
■ If you’re hindered, like by an injury or the
environment, replace the skill die with a d4,
regardless of the character’s usual skill.
■ If you’re helped, like from an advantageous
position or careful preparation, roll an extra
d6 help die. If an ally helps (and the action
doesn’t require help), they roll their skill die
and share in the risk. If you’re hindered and
helped, you roll a d4 skill die and a help die.
The highest die rolled indicates what happens.
1–2 Disaster. Face the full consequences of the
risk. If the GM judges the consequences are
incompatible with success (e.g., “jump
across safely, at risk of falling”), the action
fails. If you risked death, you die.
3–4 Setback. You suffer a lesser consequence,
or achieve only partial success. If risking
death, you may be injured. If risking injury,
you may be briefly hindered. And so on.
5+ Success. You succeed. The higher the roll,
the better the result.
If a success can’t achieve the player’s stated aim
(e.g., shooting a target that turns out to be
bulletproof), the player should still get useful
information or set up an advantage.
STEPS: If a risky situation can’t be resolved in
one action, establish each player’s action and
risk, and each player rolls as needed. Actions
might proceed in sequence (“disable the force
field, then attack!”), or all at once, like a montage
(“you pilot, I’ll boost the engines!”). The GM
describes how the situation changes. Repeat
until the situation is resolved or escaped.
LUCK: The GM can roll a die to test luck anytime,
checking for (1–2) immediate trouble or (3–4)
signs of it. A limited-supply item may be (1–2) all
out, or (3–4) down to one use left.
ADDITIONAL TOOLS
ITEMS: If an item is necessary for a task (like a
computer for hacking, or a gun for shooting), it
grants no bonus to a roll. Items of superior
quality might help with relevant tasks. Most
items cost 1 credit (₡); if an item would cost less
than, say, a new video game system, the only
cost is the time it takes to get it. Don’t track
microcredit transactions like individual meals.
DEFENSES: A player can describe how an item
breaks to suffer a momentary hindrance from a
disaster or setback instead of a more serious
consequence (like being knocked over instead of
killed). This is the main purpose of armor, but any
item can be broken as long as it can be described
believably (e.g., a cyber-arm breaking to deflect
a blow). Broken items are useless until repaired
by someone under proper working conditions.
ENCUMBRANCE: Characters can carry any
reasonable number of small, lightweight items.
Items that take two hands to use, or that prove
awkward to wear or carry, are described as
bulky. Carrying more than one bulky item hinders
a character when it makes sense (e.g., when
trying to move quickly in normal gravity).
RECOVERY: Bad rolls leave you with injuries and
other hindrances. Recover by taking in-game
action according to common sense. Being
knocked down can be fixed by standing. A lost
arm can be replaced by cyber-surgery.
DEATH: When a character is killed, their player
should make a new character to introduce ASAP.
Favor inclusion over realism. You might meet a
new ally in the next room, wake someone from
cryo, or narrate a harrowing escape and jump
forward in time to recruiting a new teammate.
SKILLS: There’s no official skill list; anything
could be a skill, from Strength to Robo-wrestling.
If you have overlapping skills, use the highest, or
whichever makes sense in context (e.g., use
Hand-to-hand, not Bloodshed, if you want to
restrain someone without hurting them).
ADVANCEMENT: When you achieve your team’s
goal, every teammate may raise a skill one die
size (from no skill to d8, to d10, to d12). Common
team goals might include a heist crew getting
away with a score, salvagers cashing in a wreck,
spies completing an operation, etc. If you want
all characters to advance at the same pace, use
skills of the same level of granularity (e.g.,
Climbing, Hand-to-hand, and Labor as individual
skills vs. all grouped under Strength).
OPPONENTS: Characters played by the GM have
no skill dice, and only rarely have defenses (e.g.,
“the monster” in a monster-movie-style game).
Instead, opponents are represented in conflicts
by the risks they present (e.g., they’re armed, so
fighting risks injury or death), and obstacles to
overcoming them (e.g., they’re armored, so that
must be broken or bypassed to subdue them).
RULINGS: When a situation isn’t covered by
rules, the GM may improvise a tentative ruling to
avoid slowdown. When a ruling is unsatisfactory
to anybody at the table, discuss during a break an
alternative for next time.
KEY DIFFERENCES FROM MANY RPGs
NO “HIT POINTS”: One successful roll can
eliminate an enemy. One disastrous roll can kill
a player’s character. 2400 can be a “deadly”
game, or not at all deadly: If the GM never says
you risk death, a bad roll will never kill you.
NOT ALWAYS BLOW-BY-BLOW: Zoom in or out
as needed. Taking out a tough opponent might
be broken into multiple steps (e.g., “you have to
create an opening before you can subdue him”),
or an entire battle might take one roll (e.g., “roll
to rout the enemy, at the risk of death”).
DISASTER, NOT “FAILURE”: A bad roll doesn’t
doesn’t necessarily mean “you fail,” and never
means “nothing happens.” The risk for hacking
an airlock might not be “it doesn’t open,” but
“alarms blare and stuff gets blown into space.”