Rules

Stats

Operators have four stats:

Tests

When your operator is about to attempt a risky or dangerous action, Command will ask you to make a test to see how it resolves. Roll 2d6 and add them together with the relevant stat (TOUGH, QUICK, SMART, SOCIAL).

Your outcome depends on the total rolled:

Certifications and item tags can give you +1 to the roll if they’re relevant. You can never gain more than +4 to a given roll.

Combat

Firefights work like everything else, with Command directing the spotlight and the players deciding how they want to act. Failed rolls in combat will generally result in the player taking damage — enemies don’t roll on their own to attack. When a player attacks, they deal their weapon’s damage (rolling it) on a MOSTLY NICE or better result.

Eliminations

Enemy targets have a fixed Pain Threshold. Damage dealt to them builds up until it equals or exceeds the Threshold, at which point they’re taken out of the fight (either dead or unconscious, narrative depending). They may also have Armor, which reduces by 1 or 2 all incoming damage values (to a minimum of 1). AP weapons ignore Armor. Blast weapons deal the same damage (roll only once) to everyone in a radius around your initial target.

One Shot, One Kill

Semi-automatic (SA), melee, and single-fire weapons are more likely to hit life-critical areas on your targets. On an Extra Nice success (12+), deal double damage with your attack.

Spray and Pray

Fully automatic (FA) weapons are perfect for engaging multiple adversaries at once. On an Extra Nice success (12+), deal +1 damage and freely distribute the total damage between any number of plausible targets. (Automatic Blast weapons just get the +1, since they already hurt everything around the target).

Heavy Weapons

Once deployed, you can use your heavy weapon for the duration of a scene. After that, it’s considered to be out of ammo unless you spend some Christmas Spirit.

Getting Hurt

When you take damage, fill in Wound boxes equal to the harm. If you run out of boxes to fill, you’re considered to be On Lethal, which means that the next hit you take will Down you. Note that you ignore any extra damage that would “overflow” your Wound boxes, so having 1 Wound remaining means you can survive a hit that deals any amount of damage — you just fill the last box and go On Lethal regardless.

If you get Downed, you’re on the precipice of death and require an ally to give you first aid with a +QUICK test before the end of the scene. If no one successfully tends to your wounds, you’re dead. Return to play as a Christmas Ghost, able to converse and float through walls but unable to affect the physical world. Fortunately, your ghost still carries all your cool weapons and can shoot them for real by spending 1 Christmas Spirit.

Christmas Spirit

You begin the game with 3 Christmas Spirit. At any time, you can spend one Christmas Spirit to:

Between action scenes, you can also spend one Christmas Spirit to:

You can gain Christmas Spirit at Command’s discretion or by fulfilling one of the conditions below:

Finally, if you ever restore a child’s faith in the magic of Christmas, everyone in the squad gains 3 Spirit on the spot.

Command

One player takes on the role of Command, acting as the game’s narrator and referee. Your job as Command is to create an action-movie-logic world where everything explodes, ammo is near-limitless, and tacticool nonsense rules the day. Most importantly, you’re there to keep things moving — quick and snappy pacing is the key here. Don’t be afraid to just say “CUT TO” and introduce a new scene as soon as the players have moved from “engaging with the scene” to “just noodling around.”

Goons, Grunts, and More

Most enemies exist to be dispatched by the players. You don’t need to worry too much about their stats, but here’s a rough guide: