RACES Whilst the galaxy contains many sentient races, only three are currently sitting on the Citadel Council governing most of explored space. They are the beautiful and mysterious Asari, the fast lived Salarians, and the civic minded Turians. Many others are client races of the citadel, with some alternatively clients of an individual race. Asari A mono-gender race distinctly female in appearance,

every Asari has some level of Biotic training. Many have active skills such as aglity, stealth and combat skills, and communicate well through charm or intimidation.

Batarians Almost universally despised, Batarians are a race of four-eyed bipeds that chose to isolate itself from the rest of the galaxy. Commonly encountered as pirates and slavers, and hateful towards humans, they possess a mix of combat, space and physical skills.

Drell A reptilian race rescued from their dying world by the Hanar, they serve gratefully as a client race, providing militaristic and active services unable to be performed by their masters.

Elcor Slow of body and speech, the Elcor prefix all conversation with an emotive declaration. A conservative and thoughtful race, they are employed in all walks of life not requiring rapidity of action.

Hanar Intensely polite to a fault, the religious Hanar resemble floating jellyfish, and are found outside their homeworld as merchants and in the entertainment industry. They employ their Drell servants for any task requiring physical interaction such as combat.

Humans Still recovering from the First Contact war, Humans are exploring the galaxy and have a wide variety of skills.

Krogan A product of their harsh homeworld, the Krogan are a reptilian race of proud tribal warriors suffering the effects of biological sterilisation. Blunt and self reliant, they are often employed in a mercenary capacity as muscle. They love all forms of fighting, and close combat most of all.

Quarians After their own AI creations rose up to expel them from their homeworld, the Quarians travel the galaxy in the Migrant Fleet. All have excellent space skills and related skills such as EVA, repair, and science.

Salarians Salarians see information gathering and even spying as a matter of course when dealing with other races. They typically have excellent space skills, but can pursue combat or intellectual skills instead, such as archaeology, demolitions, medical, repair, science, and tactics.

Turians The public service oriented Turians all spend several years in the armed services, and thus develop a mix of space and combat skills. They form the bulk of the Citadel Security force, and are proud to serve.

Volus A diminutive statured client race of the Turian Hegemony, the Volus have no military of their own and thus provide extensive expertise in a merchant and trading capacity.

SKILL LIST Following are some skills suited to this sci-fi setting: Agility EVA Aircraft Gunnery (S) Alertness Intimidation Animal Handler Languages (optional) Archaeology Medical Arts MicroG (C) Assets (T - Wealth) Navigation (S) Brawling (C) Oratory Brokerage Pilot (S) Bureaucracy Profession: <choice> Charm Repair Close Combat (C) Resolve (T - Composure) Communications (S) Science Computer (S) Stamina (T - Health) Culture/Tech Stealth Demolitions Survival Energy Weapons (C) Tactics Engineering (S) Vehicle (T) – Modifies stress track. (C) – Combat skill. (S) – Space skill – Bonus during spaceship combat. STUNTS Stunts are special abilities that provide a bonus to a narrow situation. Each character may select or define three Stunts during character creation from a list of general Stunt types. There are four well-defined categories of stunts: Military-Grade, Have-a-thing, Skill Substitution, and Alter-a-Track. There is also room to build your own stunts without reference to these categories, which we call “free-form” stunts. Military-Grade Typical stunts include access to military

weapons and armour, or bonuses to circumstances based on extensive training.

Have-a-Thing Integral to the concept of the character, they possess an item that provides a bonus when used appropriately.

Skill Substitution Alternative training or experience that allows a character to take action with a skill that normally wouldn’t apply.

Alter-a-Track Tougher, more composed or wealthier than others, a character with these stunts extend their related stress track by one

In addition to these categories, this pamphlet introduces two setting specific stunts: Bio-Amp Implant and Omni-Tool Tech Talents. Use of these stunts is modified by their linked skills, Biotic Training and Tech Training respectively. See the appropriate section below for more details on these two stunts. SAMPLE COMBAT EXCELLENCE STUNTS MG Carnage Duplicate effect of “Double Tap” weapon

stunt once per scene. MG Assassination Focus for one turn to duplicate effect of

“Double Tap” weapon stunt with Sniper Rifles.

MG Immunity Once per scene, after “Shields are Down!” compelled, gain a +4 bonus to armour defense when "Taking Cover!" in addition to the bonus granted by that aspect.

Note: refer to the Energy Weapon and Armour stunts below for further information. BIOTICS All Asari are natural Biotics from birth, though not all choose to develop their abilities. Biotics of other species are individuals who were exposed to dust-form Element Zero in utero and, beating the odds of painful death, developed eezo nodules throughout their nervous system. The natural electrical impulses in the body can be amplified with an implant to create Mass Effect fields from these nodules, producing the effects seen as Biotic abilities. Biotic Training Skill Repetition and practice is required to make the most out of their Biotic Amp implant and generate any effects at all. Characters first take an implant, and then assign skill points, lastly selecting a number of effects as appropriate. Bio-Amp Implant Stunt Modifies number of Biotic effects. Asari Biotic No implant required;

No max skill rank; Effects= Skill rank

L1 Implant Cannot take skill; Effects = 0

Stable L2 Implant Max skill rank = 4; Add 1dF to skill rank before combat to establish skill level; Effects = Skill rank

Unstable L2 Implant Max skill rank = 3; Add 3dF to skill rank before combat to establish skill level; If 0, no effects available; If >5, one composure or health damage cumulative per use Effects = Skill rank

L3 Implant Max skill rank = 3; Effects = skill rank

Krogan Battlemaster Implant

Only available to Krogan older than 300; No max skill rank Effects = Skill rank

Biotic Effects Barrier +2 to armour defense rating;

Lasts 3 turns. Lift Target floats helplessly; conserves momentum; place

aspect on target. Singularity Gravity sink; Zone aspect;

Lasts 2 turns. Stasis Target unable to move and takes no damage; place

aspect on target. Throw Shift enemy one zone; place aspect on target Warp -2 to enemy armour defense;

If used 2 turns in a row, target takes one additional damage shift from any successful attacks.

OMNI-TOOL TECH TALENTS Omni-tools are multipurpose diagnostic and manufacturing tools used for a variety of battlefield tasks, such as hacking, decryption, or repair. They are handheld devices that combine a computer microframe, sensor analysis pack, and minifacturing fabricator. Tech Training Skill A complicated device, Omni-Tools require specialist training to unlock their full potential. Choose a number of talents equal to the lower rank of Tech Training and Computer(S) skills Damping Use defensively to contest Biotic Effects.

Offensively, place “Suppressed by Tech” aspect on appropriate target, including Biotics.

Decryption Unlock doors, bypass alarms, access secure systems, etc; Multiple Redundancy: Use my Tech Training, +1 to computer skill checks during damage control phase

Electronics Disable free tag on own or ally equipment in same zone as combat action.

Energy Drain

Duplicate characters tagged “Overheated” aspect and place on an enemy.

First Aid Disable a free tag on Health track of you or ally in same zone as a combat action; Must have at least 1 rank in Medicine skill.

Hacking Place “Targeting Malfunction” taggable aspect on synthetic target when multiple enemy targets present; That target becomes immune to further Hacking next turn.

Jamming -1 penalty to enemy alertness checks; May be taken multiple times to stack penalty.

Medicine Substitute ranks in Tech Training for Medicine skill rolls; Must have at least 1 rank in Medicine skill.

Neural Shock

Place “Disorientated and Confused” taggable aspect on biological target.

Overload Place “System Rebooting” taggable aspect on synthetic target; Target becomes immune to further Overloads next turn.

Repair Substitute ranks in Tech Training for Repair skill rolls; Must have at least 1 rank in Repair skill.

All Tech Talents last for one turn, in same or adjacent zone to the character. WEAPONS AND ARMOUR Weapons use the properties of Element-Zero generated Mass Effect fields to propel solid slugs at great velocity, generating heat. Mass Effect generators on powered armour can provide some protection in the form of shields, which fail as they deflect the ammunition. All this means in game terms is that both weapons and armour can be Compelled for effect. Purchasing an item is an Assets Skill check against the Cost of the item. Regardless of success or failure, the character gets the item. A failure does generate a hit on the Wealth stress track equal to the number of negative shifts.

Energy Weapon Stunts Thermal Clip Weapon has the aspect "Overheated" which may

be compelled to prevent firing. Clears at the beginning of the player’s next turn unless otherwise affected by another stunt or mod.

Both Barrels / Double Tap

Transfer Aspect; doubles Harm rating of the weapon for the next shot only and tags "Overheated" from Thermal Clip Aspect. "Overheated" tag must be free to use this stunt, which clears at the end of the players next turn.

Sample Weapons Elanus Risk Control brand

Banshee class Assault Rifle Range: 1/3; Harm: 4; Penetration: 2 Aspects: Low Recoil (weapon can be

fired without penalty in low gravity)

Thermal Clip Cost: 4 Standard issue to Turian military personnel, this is a basic assault rifle.

Hahne-Kedar brand Kessler class Pistol

Range: 0/2 Harm: 3 Penetration: 1 Aspects: Low Recoil Thermal Clip Civilian (Weapon available to

those without the Military-grade Stunt for energy weapons)

Cost: 3 A basic mass effect driven pistol, available extensively.

Sample Armour Aldrin Labs brand Hydra line of Military Armour Defense: 5 Stamina Mod: +2 Agility Mod: 0 Aspects: Powered Armour (Stamina checks +2, “Out of Juice” taggable aspect); Servos (removes agility penalty); Sensors (Alertness checks at +1); Shields; Recharge Booster Cost: 4 An example of standard human Systems Alliance military armour. Sample Armour Stunts (2) Shields Transfer Aspect; using a mass effect field to protect

the wearer, armour with this aspect confers a taggable aspect "Shields are Down!" which may be compelled for a -2 to Armour defense. Shields require spending a fate point to recharge, but cannot be spent on the same turn that "Shields are Down!" has been tagged.

Recharge Booster

Transfer Aspect; confers the taggable aspect "Taking Cover!". Cannot be tagged unless "Shields are Down!" has been tagged or if the character has al-ready moved this turn. If available, doing so clears the "Shields are Down!" tag automatically at the cost of having no movement actions at all for the turn. "Taking Cover!" is cleared when the character moves, but until they do, they gain a further +2 bonus on their armour the turn after "Taking Cover!" was tagged.

HACKING DIASPORA TO MASS EFFECT

A setting pamphlet for use with TRI-FOLD FATE

Text and layout by Reaganstorme.

OVERVIEW Bioware’s Mass Effect and its sequel, Mass Effect 2, were fantastic games that begged to be explored. Countless worlds and star systems linked by a network of mostly understood technology called mass relays that enabled starships to traverse the galactic void; Mass Effect told the story of a group of civilisations about to meet their doom. Assembling a group of champions, the player trekked across the game setting exploring uncharted worlds, rescuing colonists, battling synthetic intelligences, and more. This pamphlet provides an introductory look at using the FATE system to create characters and roleplay in this setting. Whilst initially derived from the Diaspora variant rules, the material below is also designed to be used with the Tri-Fold FATE pamphlet developed by The Mouse (Michael Moceri) and Halfjack (Brad J. Murray) and is available for download from here: http://www.phreeow.net/images/Fate%20Basics.pdf. This document introduces an additional FATE system, called Stunts, as well as the iconic special abilities from the games, namely Biotics and Tech Talents. Also included are some sample weapons and armour. Rules material and example gear in this pamphlet have been taken from my own work “Hacking Diaspora to Mass Effect”, a full plug-in campaign document for Diaspora (and FATE in general) expanding on the ideas contained in this pamphlet, including star system creation, advanced character options, weapons, gear, and shipbuilding variations. It is available for downloaded from http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?ytztnyj4zjn. SETTING BASICS During the exploration of Mars, advanced alien technology was unearthed that led to the advancement of space technology and also to the discovery of a dormant Mass Effect Relay beyond Pluto’s orbit. Activating Relay314 connected humanity to a network of relays that enabled rapid supra-light transport to any destination with an active relay. Unbeknown to Humanity, activation of dormant relays violated the treaties of the other sentient races in the galaxy. The Turian Heirachy acted independently of the council and initiated what became known as the First Contact war. Quickly intervening as the hostilities escalated, the Citadel Council decried the actions of their member race, and ordered a ceasefire then reparation to be paid by the Turians to humanity in order to prevent a galaxy wide escalation. Since that time, Humanity have been welcome to explore the galaxy and find places to colonise, and are currently petitioning the Citadel Council for membership and a seat at the leadership table.