Timeless: Timeless City

“Timeless City” owes a heavy debt to the Fighting Fantasy books of Steve Jackson (UK), and to official and unofficial sequels like Advanced Fighting Fantasy and Troika!.

“Timeless City” also exemplifies what I said not to do in my original article:

… picking one game as “reality” encourages players to explore that world and not Trollworld, Tekumel, the Imperium, or the Shadowdark.

Perhaps as an object lesson, I decided to create such a “real world”, but make the rules very simple and the world very bland.

The Timeless City, In Brief

The Timeless City sometimes feels like a real place, but it is not. It is a shared hallucination of the Timeless and mysterious Others who apparently live here. Thus all inanimate objects are unreal. Dream knives can cut dream food but they cannot harm the Timeless or Others. Dream books contain real words, but you must remember them yourself. A few Artifacts have powers within the City, but no reality outside it.

It is the Timeless City. Only the Timeless ever leave.

Psyche in the Timeless City

The Timeless City splits Psyche up into a number of smaller attributes.

• Power: The raw strength of the Timeless’s Psyche. Timeless expend Power points to increase effects or as a result of Psychic Combat.

• Finesse: The subtlety of the Timeless’s Psyche. Timeless add their Finesse to all Bend Reality checks and to all Psychic Combat.

• Luck: The ineffable fortune of the Timeless’s Psyche. When a Timeless suffers an unexpected attack in the City or in real life, they make a Luck Check to avert their fate. Whether the attempt succeeds or fails, their Luck is decreased by 1, to a minimum of 2, until they can rest for a full day.

• Unspent XP: Timeless earn Experience Points (XP) for discovering things and for completing Quests. Points not spent immediately may be saved indefinitely.

• Conditions; A Timeless may be Dormant or Dispersed. See below for more detail.

New Timeless have six Build Points (BP) they can allocate to Power, Finesse, and Luck. They may spend no more than four Build Points on each attribute; they may spend as few as 0. Calculate final scores as follows:

• Power = 8 + 2 × Power BP
• Finesse = Finesse BP
• Luck = 7 + Luck BP

Rules of the Timeless City

“Timeless City” uses only six-sided dice, hereafter abbreviated as D.

Time and Distance

During normal play, the game proceeds in “Theater of the Mind”. Each player describes what they’re doing or saying in turn, then the Referee tells them what happens in response. Conversations happen in more or less real-time. Actions take about as long as it takes a Player or Referee to describe them. The Referee and Players may choose to fast-forward through some bits.

Within Psychic Combat time slows to “combat rounds”, wherein all actions occur simultaneously. Distances reduce to four:

• Close: at range for Psychic Combat
• Near: requires a Move action to enter Close range or Far range.
• Far: within line of sight, requires a Referee-designated number of actions to enter Close range or Away range.
• Away: out of sight, effectively out of the scene.

Finesse Checks

Characters must often make Finesse Checks.

1. Cancel each Bane with a Boon.
2. Roll a number of dice equal to the number of remaining Banes or Boons plus 2.
3. If Banes outweighed Boons, add only the two lowest dice; otherwise add the two highest dice.
4. Add the character’s Finesse modifier.
5. A total of 10 succeeds; a score of 8 or 9 partially succeeds. 7 or less is a failure.

For example, Amon has 4 Banes, 3 Boons, and Finesse +1. He would roll three dice, add the two lowest, and add 1 to the total.

Luck Checks

When subjected to a trap, poison, or hostile magic of some kind, instead of the relevant mechanic (if any) from the Host System, a character may make a Luck Check to avert the consequences.

Roll 2D, no modifiers, Boons, or Banes. if the result is at or below your current Luck score, it succeeds. A 12 always fails; a 2 always succeeds.

No matter the outcome, the character loses a point pf Current Luck. Luck resets to its initial value after a full day’s rest.

Psychic Combat

In the illusion of the Timeless City a Psychic Combat may look like physical combat, but it is actually a contest of Timeless Psyche.

Each combat round proceeds as follows.

1. The Referee goes around the table and asks what each player’s Timeless is doing. The Referee reveals what each of their characters and/or creatures is doing. The basic options are:

   • Attack: Designate a target and make a Finesse Check. You and your target are Locked In Combat until one of you Disengages, becomes Dormant, or is Dispersed.

   • Defend: Make a Finesse Check with a Boon in preparation for an attack.

   • Disengage: If you are Locked In Combat, break off. If attacked this round, you counter-attack one of your attackers. Otherwise you move from Close to Near from all potential attackers.

   • Do Something: Perform a single non-combat action that in the real world would take six seconds or less. You automatically succeed unless the Referee rules it’s a tricky maneuver or multiple actions in disguise.

   • Move: Move one distance increment closer or further, relative to some or all of the other characters. If you were Engaged in combat, all remaining attackers may take one last attack and you cannot counterattack. (See Disengage.) Your new distance takes effect at the end of the round.

   • Use Artifact: Employ an Action granted by an Artifact.

   • Work on a Task: Contribute time to a multi-round objective or Task. The Referee will rule how many actions the Task will take, whether someone needs to make a Finesse Check at the end, and who makes the check.

   • Zone Out: Do nothing, if the Player (or Referee!) takes more than a few seconds to decide what their character will do.

2. If a character is a target of Psychic Combat but not attacking, they must also make a Finesse Check to compare to their attackers'.

3. Each character may utter a six-second sentence as a part of their turn.

4. Each attacker compares the results of their Finesse Check with their target’s, in any convenient order. If the attacker’s is higher, the target subtracts the difference in the two checks from their Power Points.

   Common cases worth noting:

   • If A attacks B, and B attacks A, the one with the lower roll will lose Power Points.
   • If A attacks B but B does not attack A, and B has the higher total, A loses no Power.
   • If A and B are tied, neither side loses Power.

   Once all attacks have been resolved, including those from characters who lost all Power Points, resolve all other effects below, in order.

5. If a character has zero Power Points they normally become Dormant. Dormant creatures fade away and may take no other actions.

   Certain attacks can Disperse a creature, and certain creatures Disperse when they reach zero Power. Dispersed creatures explode and may take no other actions.

6. If the character(s) performing a Task spent the required number of actions without getting zeroed, the Task is complete. The results of the Task take effect.

7. The next round continues, same as the last.

Those with left standing with more than zero Power win.

Recovery

Inside the Timeless City

Dormant and Dispersed beings automatically reappear in their Hotel room or other residence.

A Dormant character returns after a day of rest. Power and Luck values reset to their defaults.

A Dispersed character requires 1D days to collect themselves. They normally reassemble in their Hotel rooms or other residence

Outside the Timeless City

Incarnations recover according to the rules of their Host System. While the Incarnation is unconscious, the Timeless is normally Dormant.

Powers aimed at a Timeless can Disperse the Timeless either Dispersed. If Dispersed the Timeless returns to the Timeless City to recuperate. During that time the Incarnation becomes an NPC under the Referee’s control.

Bending Reality

In the Timeless City variant, characters bend reality in or out of the City as follows:

1. The Referee and Player total Banes and Boons relevant to this attempt to Bend Reality, as in the main game.

2. The player may add a Boon for 5 Power each.

3. The player makes a Finesse Check.

4. If the total is the number of Boons or less, the attempt triggered a Backlash.

Increasing Psyche

You earn Experience Points (XP) based on the answers to the following questions:

Note that Timeless City makes most of these activities unlikely if not impossible.

You can spend XP as follows:

A Timeless’s maximum scores are Power 24, *Finesse +8, Luck 12.

Appendix A: Probabilities

2D (raw Finesse, Luck)

2D with Boons/Banes (Psyche Combat, Bending Reality)

Appendix B: Creatures

When a creature is required to make a Luck Check, use Finesse + 4 instead.

Awful Thing

A shambling mockery of a living form.

Power 4D, Finesse 1D-2.

Dark Vision. Can see in the dark.

Disperses. Disperses at zero Power, maybe forever.

Underground Denizen. Never leaves the Underground.

Grue

Within the darkness a deeper darkness with claws and teeth.

Power 30, Finesse +4.

Claws and Teeth. Add 1D damage if a Grue hits.

Dark Vision. Can see in the dark.

Devil in the Dark. Grues have a Boon in darkness, and two Banes in light.

Underground Denizen. Never leaves the Underground.

Handler

A sharply-dressed man with a pleasant voice and a nondescript face, neither of which you can remember.

Power 24, Finesse +8.

Dark Vision. Can see in the dark.

Devil’s Own Luck. A Handler’s Luck Check always succeeds.

Forgettable. Unmemorable and interchangeable. Standard Finesse check to remember you were just talking to one.

Ordinary

An ordinary person you exchange a few words with but at whom you’d never look twice.

Power 8, Finesse +1.

Just Doing My Job. Always succeeds at Finesse Checks when doing their assigned job.

Phantom

A face in the crowd. Do they remind you of someone?

Power 1, Finesse +1.

Elusive. Pursuer has two Banes to catch one.

Tough

“Oh, a wise guy?” says the burly man standing in front of you.

Power 16, Finesse +3.

Obstructive. You cannot Disengage without a fight.

Wight

A pale, gaunt, wild-eyed figure babbles incoherently at you before attacking.

Power 12, Finesse +0.

Dark Vision. Can see in the dark.

Wraith

A swirling mass of shadow with what looks like a skeletal figure at the center rushes toward you, arms outstretched.

Power 3D, Finesse +3.

Dark Vision. Can see in the dark.

Power Drain. Absorbs all Power taken during Psychic Combat.

Appendix C: Artifacts

Dungeon Armor

Chainmail armor with a helm, greaves, and vambraces.

Ability. Roll 2D; if either one comes up 6, the wearer takes no damage.

Inability. Can only carry an object in each hand and the Dungeon Pack or a similar backpack while wearing all that stuff …

Dungeon Headlamp

A glowing lamp that affixes to your head or helmet; don’t lose it!

Ability. Sheds light in a Near circle around the wearer.

Inability. Needs new batteries ever real-time hour.

Dungeon Pack

A backpack of useful items.

Ability. Retrieve any dungeoneering item you need 5 out of 6 times.

Inability. Imposes one Bane on Finesse checks until dropped.

Dungeon Shield

A rattan shield that you can sling on your back.

Ability. Adds +1 to Psychic Combat

Ability. Can sacrifice the shield to negate one hit.

Dungeon Sword

A longsword similar to a Chinese jian with a scabbard.

Ability. Grants one Boon to Psychic Combat.

Ability. If an opponent goes to Power 0 from a blow from the mace, they are Dispersed.

Inability. Can only carry the Dungeon Pack or a similar backpack while wearing all that stuff …

Ray Gun

A futuristic-looking ray gun made of some golden metal, almost like a child’s toy.

Action. Point it at a target at Far or Near Range. The target must succeed at a Luck Check or take 2D damage. If the target’s Power goes to 0, they are Dispersed.

Inability. If the Ray Gun ever does only 2 points of damage, it stops working.

Inability. Cannot be used at Close range without triggering Psychic Combat.