System Configuration Guide
Complete skill and personal equipment compendiums are available (supplied by @marvin9257). All system settings default to Cepheus Engine rules, but you may want to turn on some automation in the system settings (see General Features below).
To get the system closer to Cepheus Deluxe select 'Cepheus Deluxe' in the dropdown near the top of the system settings.
- Turn on "Show 'Lifeblood' and 'Stamina' characteristics and use for damage." This option displays lifeblood and stamina inputs at the bottom of the biography section of the actor sheet. The battery icon is stamina and the heart-beat icon is lifeblood. For each pair, the blue number is the maximum value and the red is the corresponding damage. So, a blue value of 7 and a red value of 3 means that the current value is 4. Note that this setting also overrides how damage is implemented - applying it to LFB and STA rather than the standard characteristics.
Support for Traits was added to the system with version 0.8.14
Basic support for new Lifeblood and Stamina characteristics added in version 0.8.26. Lifeblood and Stamina are supported along with wounded status (if enabled by option).
Compendiums for Cepheus Deluxe excluding ship, vehicle, and robot information are included with the system.
To get the system closer to Cepheus Light (which should also work fairly well for related systems like Sword of Cepheus if you don't mind the SF theming) select 'Cepheus Light' in the dropdown near the top of the system settings, that will set the following settings:
- Choose the CEL difficulty list.
- Select the setting to handle difficulties by changing the target number rather than adding/subtracting modifiers.
- Change the initiative formula to just 2d6 (i.e. you need to add the Tactics skill yourself after rolling , or use the 'Update Initiative' macro found here: https://github.com/xdy/twodsix-foundryvtt/wiki/User-Macros)
- Select CEL style autofire rules
- Sets a natural 2/12 to be considered a failure/success regardless of actual Effect.
In play, handle the differences to Cepheus Engine as follows:
- Use the skills, items, etc from the various 'ce light-something' compendiums (supplied by @marvin9257).
- Set skills to not use any characteristic for modifiers.
As Cepheus Light above, but choose 'Cepheus Light Upgraded' instead.
To get the system closer to Cepheus Faster Than Light select 'Cepheus Faster Than Light' in the dropdown near the top of the system settings, that will set the following settings:
- Choose the CEL difficulty list.
- Select the setting to handle difficulties by changing the target number rather than adding/subtracting modifiers.
- Change the initiative formula to just 2d6 (i.e. you need to add the Tactics skill yourself after rolling, or use the 'Update Initiative' macro found here: https://github.com/xdy/twodsix-foundryvtt/wiki/User-Macros)
- Sets a natural 2/12 to be considered a failure/success regardless of actual Effect.
In play, handle the differences to Cepheus Engine as follows:
- Use the skills, items, etc from the various 'ce ftl-something' compendiums (supplied by @marvin9257).
- Set skills to not use any characteristic for modifiers (this is already done in the above compendiums).
Reasonably complete compendiums for Cepheus Faster Than Light exist.
To get the system closer to Cepheus Atom select 'Cepheus Atom' in the dropdown near the top of the system settings, that will set the following settings:
- Choose the CEL difficulty list.
- Change the initiative formula to just 2d6 (i.e. you need to add the Combat skill yourself after rolling ,or use the 'Update Initiative' macro found here: https://github.com/xdy/twodsix-foundryvtt/wiki/User-Macros - though you need to change line 5 of the macro to use the 'Combat' skill rather than the 'Tactics' skill).
- Set a natural 2/12 to be considered a failure/success regardless of actual Effect.
- Turn on "Show END and 'Lifeblood' (STR) as characteristics" (which also makes Contamination show)
In play, handle the differences to Cepheus Engine as follows:
- Use the skills, items, etc from the various 'cepheus atom-something' compendiums (supplied by @marvin9257).
- Set skills to not use any characteristic for modifiers (this is already done in the above compendiums).
- Give every character JOAT-3 on the skills tab.
- Mutations exist in a compendum as items (augmentations). Any effects on the character will need to be handled manually.
Compendiums containing skills, items, mutations, robots and monsters are included, additionally the various compendiums from Cepheus FTL might be useful. There is also a gm screen compendium suitable for use with the https://foundryvtt.com/packages/gm-screen module.
To get the system closer to Barbaric! select 'Barbaric!' in the dropdown near the top of the system settings, that will set the following settings:
- Choose the CEL difficulty list.
- Change the initiative formula to just 2d6 (i.e. you need to add the Combat skill yourself after rolling ,or use the 'Update Initiative' macro found here: https://github.com/xdy/twodsix-foundryvtt/wiki/User-Macros - though you need to change line 5 of the macro to use the 'Combat' skill rather than the 'Tactics' skill).
- Set a natural 2/12 to be considered a failure/success regardless of actual Effect.
- Set "What effect (if above 0) is required for a throw to be considered a critical success/failure (i.e. be colored green/red)." to 4. (Actually only relevant for Spellcasting).
- Turn on "Show END and 'Lifeblood' (STR) as characteristics" (which also makes Contamination show)
- Turn off "Show Contamination below Lifeblood"
In play, handle the differences to Cepheus Engine as follows:
- Set skills to not use any characteristic for modifiers (this is already done in the above compendiums).
- Give every character JOAT-3 on the skills tab.
- Races and Traits can be handled like Mutations in Cepheus Atom.
No compendiums for Barbaric! yet exist, though the ones from Cepheus Atom are somewhat useful, as examples if nothing else.
To get the system closer to Cepheus Quantum select 'Cepheus Quantum' in the dropdown near the top of the system settings, that will set the following settings:
- Choose the CEL difficulty list.
- Set skills to not use any characteristic for modifiers.
- Use the careers, items, etc from the 'cepheus quantum-something' compendiums (supplied by @marvin9257).
- Change the initiative formula to just 1d1
- Turn on "Show END and 'Lifeblood' (STR) as characteristics"
- Turn off "Show Contamination below Lifeblood"
In play, handle the differences to Cepheus Engine as follows:
- Create a character by importing one of the careers from the career compendium and renaming it to your character's name, then changing the attributes.
- Give every character JOAT-3 on the skills tab.
- Ignore the initiative that gets rolled, everyone gets the same initiative (optionally, you might want to take a look at the https://foundryvtt.com/packages/Popcorn module if you want some structure to the initiative)
Reasonably complete compendiums for Cepheus Quantum exist, additionally the various compendiums from Cepheus FTL might be useful. There is also a gm screen compendium suitable for use with the https://foundryvtt.com/packages/gm-screen module.
To get the system closer to MGT1 switch to 'Cepheus Engine' in the dropdown near the top of the system settings.
Compendiums with skills, items, etc cannot be included for licensing reasons, so you have to enter those yourself, but the various Cepheus Engine compendium are sufficiently close that they should be useful, even though they are not for MTG1. (Cepheus Engine is pretty much the Open Gaming License version of MTG1.)
To get the system closer to MGT2 change the following in the system settings after switching to 'Other' in the dropdown near the top of the system settings:
- Choose the CE difficulty list.
- Change the initiative formula to "2d6 -8 + max(@characteristics.dexterity.mod,@characteristics.intelligence.mod)"
- Change the modifier for a characteristic of 0 to -3 rather than -2
- Switch to handling difficulties by changing the target number rather than adding/subtracting modifiers.
- Rename 'advantage' to 'boon' and 'disadvantage' to 'bane'
- Select CEL style autofire rules and make sure weapons have a single number for their 'Rate of Fire/Auto X' setting.
- Set "What effect (if above 0) is required for a throw to be considered a critical success/failure (i.e. be colored green/red)." to 6.
- Set encumbrance formula to "2*(@characteristics.endurance.current + @characteristics.strength.current + max(0, @skills.AthleticsEndurance) + max(0, @skills.AthleticsStrength))". Set the "Fraction of maximum encumbrance when encumbrance roll modifier applies" to 0.5
- Set the "Animals use hits for damage" option to true.
- Set "Factor to multiply the weight value of a equipped armor." to 0.25
- Set "Animal Types are Independent of Niche" to true.
- Set "Show degrees of success for non-attack rolls" to "Other"
Compendiums with skills, items, etc. cannot be included for licensing reasons, so you have to enter those yourself, except that the '2e skills' compendium is sufficiently close that it should be useful, even though it is not based on MGT2. (It is for https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/207738/Skills-List-2e which is an Open Gaming License Pay What You Want supplement for for Cepheus Engine - which is pretty much the Open Gaming License version of MGT1 - that provides a skill list that is very similar to the one in MGT2.)
With Twodsix v4.22 and beyond, basic support has been added for Classic Traveller (CT) as defined by The Traveller Book (copy-write Far Future Enterprises-FFE). FFE, through Mongoose, have permitted Twodsix to implement rules for CT. Currently, most of the core functionality for personal combat and actor sheets have been added. The ship sheets have not been updated. To use the default configuration, select 'Classic Traveller' from the rulesets.
A few things to note:
- CT does not use characteristic modifiers. So those appear as zero's on the actor sheets.
- To use the DM for weapons based on characteristics of strength or dexterity ("Weapons and Equipment" table, The Traveller Book, pg. 44) - these features should be added to the handling modifiers for the weapon - https://github.com/xdy/twodsix-foundryvtt/wiki/Weapons-Handling-Feature
- Armor does not reduce damage in CT. Rather, DM are added based on the weapon used and the target's armor. These modifiers, as defined in the The Traveller Book (pg. 46) have been automated in the calculations. However, one must specify the weapon type (range band) and armor type for the target. As before, a target must be selected on the canvas.
- Only Reflect armor may be layered - when layering, the system selects the lowest (best) DM of the two armors for the weapon type.
- Encumbrance and item weight is in gm and not kg. Please note this when entering item weights.
- There is no initiative in CT, per se, as all combat actions occur simultaneously. Nonetheless an initiative formula has been added to the default settings if one wants to home-brew combat order.
- Automatic fire follows the format of CT - e.g. single fire/auto. So for most automatic weapons, that would be '1/4'. A submachine gun would be '0/4' if you don't allow it to use single fire mode. If the automatic rifle is used in single shot mode, DM's for a rifle are used instead (per RAW). If the submachine gun is used in single fire mode, DM's for an auto pistol are used instead (home-brew). The system does not implement the Group Hits by Automatic Fire or Shotguns. GM's will need to implement those features by hand.
- Armor has a 'DM' listed after the armor name on the actor sheets. This DM is added to the default weapon-armor modifier. It is typical for animals that have modified armor type. For example, using an automatic pistol against cloth armor with a DM of -2 would have a net weapon-armor DM of -5 (-3 base and -2 for the additional modifier).
- Jack-of-All-Trades (JOAT) works a bit differently for CT than other rulesets. For the RAW, the value is binary. Meaning that a JOAT of one (or more), the untrained skill value is zero. If JOAT is zero, the untrained skill is -3 (the system default). The RAW have that player characters have default zero-level skills for all weapon types (that need to be added to the character sheet).
- As of version 4.24.0, it is now possible to add custom range and armor modifiers to weapons. See, https://github.com/xdy/twodsix-foundryvtt/wiki/Custom-CT-Modifiers
Right now, there is just an items compendium consisting of skills, weapons and armor for CT, although we may expand in the future. All descriptions are from the Cepheus Item SRD and not The Classic Traveller Book (per use terms). As a starting point, the CE compendium would be a good start to add other items.
With version 5.9+ there is now basic support for Cepheus Universal (CU). There is a rules setting that customizes the advanced settings so there should be no other changes needed. A few things to note about the implementation and the compromises to fit it within the broader Twodsix setting:
- Rate-of-fire / Auto X is used to specify an automatic weapon. A single integer of 4, 10, or 20 is valid per rules. The input is not constrained to these values and will default to single fire.
- Weapon recoil is handled using the "weapons handling" feature (Weapons Handling). The CU compendium shows examples of how to configure this setting to work per the CU recoil rules. Recoil for auto fire is adjusted per the rules.
- Armor protection works very differently with CU. Armor protects against specific armor types. So all armor and weapons must define the type of damage. Also, there is no primary or secondary armor values - just a single armor value. For those wanting to make changes to the armor value using Active Effects, the field used is
system.secondaryArmor.value. - Rolling for parry of an attack is handled automatically. However, certain conditions must be met. The attack must cause melee damage. The system looks for the "Melee Combat" skill (or its localized equivalent) for the parry attempt. For most weapons, the attack must be within personal or close range. An item may parry longer ranged melee attacks (e.g. a bow and arrow) if the item has the "Acts as shield" characteristic checked (e.g. the weapon is a shield). Example of damage that can be parried (note arrow symbol)
Example of damage that can be shielded (note shield symbol):
- Characteristic rolls are meant to be 6+ in difficulty. Twodsix still uses 8+ but applies a +2 DM to compensate.
- Group initiative is not programmed at this time.
- The compendium for CU is rather limited at this time (i.e. skills, combat weapons and armor). Happy for the community to contribute further to the compendium for other items.
- Variable shotgun damage with range is not implemented.