Ben Dayfall

An obscure and indistinct - yet somehow clearly human - individual emerges from a monolith. The machines take this figure to a world of death and carnage. On that world, the figure enters a labyrinth and has two paths to take. One leads deep in the the labyrinth with no clear end in sight. Down the other path, the bodies of man and machine pile into a great mound and become a new monolith

Ben Dayfall awakens from his meditation – disturbed by his vision. What could communion wish him to understand. He is no esper and is unaccustomed to receiving visions, but he does have a Fair knowledge of Communion and a Good understanding of philosophy, so we will say he has a Fair ability to interpret the vision. He rolls {-,-, ,+} for a Mediocre interpretation. Some individual or group of humans will have some connection to machines (perhaps the Cybernetic Union?) and will face a choice. One choice will lead to some undesirable outcome (perhaps related to the Monolith Ben is sworn to guard).

Ben does not know what to do, so he returns to the “temple” on Sepulcher to consult with the custodian. Aethia Neve is suspicious of any connection between the Cybernetic Union and guarding the Monolith. Additionally, Ben is known for being a Glory Hound, so the custodian’s reaction is penalized and will start at Poor. Ben rolls {+,+,-,-} for a Poor reaction. Aethia dismisses Ben as an overzealous fool who wants to win glory in battle. He would do much more good staying here, guarding the monolith and studying the “proper ways of Communion.”

Angry, Ben storms off to speak to the more millitant faction. He doesn’t endorse his cousin’s heresy, but he knows Alyx Terra’s faction would be more willing to give heed to a warning about the Cybernetic Union building a new monolith (or whatever the vision means). He has Average rank but his request for aid is appropriate, and the specific faction Ben is targeting is particularly sympathetic to his cause, so he has Pulls Rank with Good. He rolls {+,-, ,-} for a Fair result. Ben is ordered to investigate his vision and is lent a ship and a pilot to aid in the investigation. The “world of death and carnage” is likely Shinograd.

Crank Botwhisperer and Noriko Tan-Shai

Noriko awakens in a cell. What was she doing in a cell? The last thing she remembered is that she was returning back home from a research trip to the Omega Point and there was an explosion. “My ship must have been attacked and I taken captive,” she said to herself. “My ship must have been attacked and I taken captive,” she heard in an unfamiliar voice from a nearby cell. “What did you just say?,” she asked. “What did you just say?,” the voice responded. It was a particularly annoying mogwai. Noriko went silent. That was the way to handle annoying mogwai.

After a few minutes of silence, Crank Botwhisperer introduced himself: “Fine, I will stop copying you” he said with a sigh. “I am Crank Botwhisperer. What brings you here? In any case, I am glad to see you here. I was beginning to think I would be left alone in here forever with no one to talk too. I am stuck here in a mechanical cell. I can talke to mechanical doors, but they never talk back…” He continued rambling for another half hour.

As the “monkey” was rambling, Noriko considered her situation. Who could have captured her and why? She was a renowned researcher, but why would anyone want to kidnap a researcher. She was also an expert on eldothic technology, but that secret was known only to a few. “Hello! Is anyone in there? I said ‘If I get you out of your cage, would you get me out of mine?,’” a voice shouted from the other cell. “Sorry, I was lost in thought?” “Sorry, I was lost in thought. Sorry, I said I would stop doing that.” “Stop apologizing! What did you say about getting me out?” … The conversation went on for a while…

Crank attempted to pull a fast one on the Noriko’s lock by telling it that Noriko was hurt and needed medical treatment. The door’s master needed her alive. It is a flimsy excuse, but partly true. He is Good at Fast-Talk, and rolled { ,+,+, } for a Superb result. The door unlocked itself, but had second thoughts. That was enough time for Noriko to walk out of the door before it locked itself again.

Yuanto Zero

Yuanto’s charge was lost. She “ordered” him to take a vacation, and she got herself captured. Yuanto was now ordered to wait for a ransom notice before taking action, but no notice was forthcoming. The last time he “followed orders” led to Dr. Tan-Shai’s capture, and he had waited long enough. Something else was going on. There would be no ransom. Dr. Tan-Shai needed him.

Yuanto requests to inspect the ship that he would take when the ransom note finally arrived. He is known to be paranoid, so this isn’t actually all that unusual. He has Fair rank and rolls {-,+, ,+} for a Good result. He is allowed to inspect the ship quite promptly.

Yuanto attempts to alter the surveilance to allow him to take the ship before anyone notices. With his Fair Surveillance skil and a roll of { ,+,+, }, Yuanto gets a Great result. He takes the ship, takes off and leaves orbit while getting nasty threats on the radio. It is too late. He is too far gone to stop. His intelligence sources point him to Shinograd, so Yuanto enters hyperspace as soon as he leaves Shaddai’s gravity well.

Thoughts

This was mostly a few very simple examples of using Fudge and setting the stage for more interesting examples.

I made some rolls for the sake of illustration such as Ben Dayfall’s roll to interpret his vision. Note that I could have set a difficulty and made it a binary check. Instead, I interpreted the results usign the trait ladder. I did the same for Crank Botwhisperer’s Fast-Talk check against the door. Fudge’s trait ladder makes that sort of interpretation fairly intuitive.

I haven’t defined the mechanical details of the faults, but I did take them into account for reaction rolls. Perhaps they can be defined more precisely, but this was sufficient for illustrative purposes.

As you may have noticed, the die rolls tend toward a neutral result. This is normal and intentional. Checks tend to be within one or two levels of the starting trait level.