GNOSIS LARP
Core Rules v1.4

by Julien Villeneuve (julien@fea.st)

The Gnosis LARP Rules are © 2002 Julien Villeneuve and cannot be reproduced or used without his permission. This does not constitute a challenge to the copyright of specific parts of the rules which are adapted or directly taken from the Unknown Armies roleplaying game. 

Unknown Armies is © 1998-2001 and TM Greg Stolze & John Tynes, and is used with their permission.

The Dying Earth RPG is © 2000 Pelgrane Press. Based on the Dying Earth book series by Jack Vance. Produced and distributed by agreement with Jack Vance c/o Ralph Vicinanza, Ltd. The Dying Earth Roleplaying Game is a trademark of Pelgrane Press. All rights reserved. 

This version edited and amended by Patrick Gallagher.

Masculine and feminine terms will alternate in order not to clutter the text while making clear that this game isn’t just for guys. 

Table of Contents

0. Introduction
	0.1 What is Gnosis?
	0.2 Commonly used terms and abbreviations
1. The World of Gnosis
2. LARP Rules and Procedures
3. Game Mechanics
3.1 What’s on a character sheet?
3.1.1 The Obvious 
3.1.2 The Obsession
3.1.3 The Passions
3.1.4 The Statistics
3.1.5 The Skills
	3.1.5.1 Expendable skills
	3.1.5.2 Paradigm Skills
	3.1.5.3 Persuade/Rebuff Skills
3.1.6 Wound Points and Wound Boxes
3.1.7 The Persuade/Rebuff Matrix 
3.1.8 Cards
3.2 Character Creation
3.2.1 Concept 
3.2.2 Personality
3.2.3 Obsession and Passions
3.2.4  Stats
3.2.5 Skills 
3.2.6 Stress
3.2.7 Wound Points and Wound Boxes
3.2.8 Background and Freebies
3.2.9 Cards
3.3 Challenges
3.4 Combat
3.4.1 The Initial Round
3.4.2 The Combat Round 
3.4.3 Initiative
3.4.4 Actions
3.4.5 Challenge resolution
3.4.5.1 Multiple Attacks
3.4.5.2 Modifiers to Skill
3.4.5.3 Surprise
3.4.6 Damage
3.4.6.1 Bleeding
3.4.6.2 Special Firearms Damage
3.4.6.3 Protection
3.4.6.4 Called Shots
3.4.6.5 Exotic Damage
3.4.6.6 Obsessed Hand-to-Hand Cherries
3.4.7 Wounds and healing
3.4.7.1 The Health Monitor
3.4.7.2 Wound categories and treatment 
3.4.7.3 Wound recovery
3.5 Madness
	3.5.1 Stress categories
	3.5.2 The Stress Challenge
	3.5.3 Hardened notches
	3.5.4 Failed notches
	3.5.5 Psychological recovery
	3.5.6 Drugs
3.6 Magick
3.6.1 Adepthood
3.6.1.1 Becoming an Adept 
	3.6.2 Blasts
		3.6.2.1 Blast customization
	3.6.3 Rituals
3.6.4 Schools of Magick
3.6.4.1 Amoromancy
3.6.4.2 Anhilomancy
3.6.4.3 Bibliomancy
3.6.4.4 Cliomancy
3.6.4.5 Cryptomancy (Eastern)
3.6.4.6 Cryptomancy (Western)
3.6.4.7 Dipsomancy
3.6.4.8 Entropomancy
3.6.4.9 Epideromancy
3.6.4.10 Infomancy
3.6.4.11 Irascimancy
3.6.4.12 Kleptomancy
3.6.4.13 Mechanomancy
3.6.4.14 Narco-Alchemy
3.6.4.15 Oneiromancy
3.6.4.16 Plutomancy
3.6.4.17 Thanatomancy
3.7 Avatars
	3.7.1 Archetypes
		3.7.1.1 The Chronicler
		3.7.1.2 The Demagogue
		3.7.1.3 The Messenger
3.8 Experience
	3.8.1 Getting it
	3.8.2 Spending it

0 Introduction

0.1 What is Gnosis ?

	Gnosis is the Live Action version of Unknown Armies, a game of occult intrigue.

0.2 Commonly used terms and abbreviations

GM: Gamemaster, also called the Storyteller as we’ve been playing White Wolf games a bit too long.
DP: Damage Points
Stats: Statistics 
XP: Experience point(s)
WP: Wound Points
DR: Difficulty Rating
SC: Stress Check, in one of the four stress categories.

1 The World of Gnosis
	
Gnosis takes place in a world superficially identical to real life. Life, for the vast majority of people, is largely indistinguishable from our own. People live there lives without any idea what is occurring behind the scenes; for here is the great difference: in Gnosis the world is one where those knowledgeable tap into primal, magical powers in their pursuit of ascension. Indeed, it is perhaps more appropriate of saying that although the current world is mostly like actual reality, the ones before it most certainly were not.  

Ours is not the first, nor the last, reality, nor is it even likely that there has ever been a beginning to the cycle of death and rebirth, although there will be an end if certain people get their way.  Reality is defined, at the beginning of each cycle, by the 333 members of the Invisible Clergy. Each of them represents some distinct personification of existence, some primal archetype of the nature of things; herein lies the shadow war which the game concerns itself, as each and every archetype (excepting the 333rd, the First and Last Man, who is always the first human being ever born and thus always trumps everyone else, that jerk) was once an ordinary person who, in some way, better personified the nature of a specific archetype than any else, and thus ascended to join the Clergy. These 333 godlings redefine the universe at the start of each incarnation, thus not only do you get to be a transcended being when you join the Clergy but get a voice in what the next reality will be like. To say that this is a great incentive is quite the understatement.  Thus, the world of Gnosis is one where occult groups battle behind the scenes to control ascension and thus define reality.

2 LARP rules and procedures

	This is a live action game, and as such we have to take a few generic precautions to keep the game fun and the body count low.

-No drinking/drug/huffing paint-thinner/whatever.
-No weapons, even if their peace-bonded or props. We play in public, and are trying to avoid police attention.
-No physical contact. Pretty much in the same vein as the last one.
-Keep in mind everyone else is here to enjoy this game same as you.  Odds are they put as much time into their character as you did, try to keep that in mind when considering if you are really justified applying lethal sanction.

3 Game Mechanics

3.1 What’s on a character sheet?

3.1.1 The Obvious 

	Character name, Player name, a short blurb on the character's personality, and the faction with which your character is affiliated.  

3.1.2 The Obsession

	Every character must have an Obsession. It can be almost anything, as long as it's not either boring or stupid (or both). The Obsession must tie in with an Obsession skill. The character will be able to retest on every challenge made with his Obsession skill. If the character is an Adept, he must have his school of Magick as his Obsession. Changing the Obsession requires of the player severe roleplaying over a long period of time, major XP expenditure, and might occasion psychological damage, at the whim of the GM. 

3.1.3 The Passions

	Every character has three passion stimuli: the Rage Stimulus, the Fear Stimulus and the Noble Stimulus. The Rage Stimulus is what makes your character angry beyond belief (i.e. being dissed about your height). The Fear Stimulus is what makes your character scared beyond belief (i.e. being poisoned). The Noble Stimulus is what will push your character to be blind to her own needs in order to pursue a higher cause (i.e. protecting her family). The character can retest on one challenge per game session for every Stimulus, on the condition that the challenge has something to do with the Stimulus in question. The Fear Stimulus must be associated with one of the four categories of stress (Violence, Unnatural, Helplessness, Self). Changing a Passion requires of the player severe roleplaying over a long period of time, major XP expenditure, and might occasion psychological damage, at the whim of the GM. 

3.1.4 The Statistics

There are four statistics (hereafter referred to as "stats"): Body, Speed, Mind and Soul. Body covers the "Strength and Constitution" spectrum of the physical side, Speed covers the "Agility and Reflexes" spectrum of the physical side, Mind covers the "academic and perception-related" spectrum of the psychological side, and Soul covers the "social and intuitive" part of the psychological side.

Stats range from 1 to 10. The overwhelming majority of human beings have between 3 and 7 in each stat. The average is 5. Certain special entities may possess attributes over 10. 

3.1.5 The Skills

There are four types of skills: Body skills, Speed skills, Mind skills and Soul skills. Example of Body skills include General Athletics, Struggle and Survival. Example of Speed skills include Firearms, Dodge and Pickpocket. Example of Mind skills include General Education, Notice and Computer. Example of Soul skills include Lying, Charm and Intimidation. 

Skills range from 1 to 10. One cannot have never have a skill at a level higher than the corresponding Stat. Skills do _not_ have the same value than stats. The average person might have 5 in Speed, but he doesn't have more than 2 in Driving (which is a Speed skill). 

We have a good number down here but we cannot overstate the following list is neither exhaustive or all there is, feel free to construct your own skills in the appropriate category, subject to GM approval of course. We have not included many of the “Job” Type skills as there are simply too many, thus simply apply a little common sense when choosing what category your job falls into. Here is a suggestive skill list to help you around:

Mind	Body	Speed	Soul	
Astronomy  "The Stars Are Right Tonight"

Paradigm

Automotive Repair “Pass me that galliper.”

Education

Notice “So that’s where the trap is!"

Medicine “Have a new heart.”

Forensics “Definitely cult-related.”

Gunsmith “Say hi to a brand new auto.”

Computer  "I am L33T like Jeff K"

Accounting  "Pinchin' Pennies"

Languages  "Ich bin der kleine fell froesch"

Law  "Law and Order"

Red Tape  "Please fill these out in triplicate"

Politics  "Where's my intern?"

Library Use  "Don't you know the Dewey Decimal System?"

Conceal  "Pen?  What Pen?  I didn't see no stinkin’ pen!"

Repair  "Paint it red and it will go faster..."

Navigate  "Nurrrr, Where are We?"

Tracking (Urban) "He Went Thatta Way..."

Tracking (Wilderness) “He Went Thatta Way Into The Woods…”

Occult "Eye of Newt, Tongue of Frog..."

Security  "Easier than Fort Knox"
	Feat of Strength (non-combat) “Here’s half a phone book.” 

High Pain Threshold
“Ouch. That Was My Leg, you know?”

High Tolerance “It’s only my 8th pitcher!”

Nondescript “Don’t think you’ve ever seen me before.”

Struggle  "Put Up Yer Dukes"

Martial Arts (without Weapon, must choose a specific school)  "You've Got 
It, Grasshoppah!"

Survival  "Duct tape, a toothbrush, and some chewing gum"

General Athletics “The Gym is [Flex] That Way”

Distracting Physique “Please stop drooling.” 

Hold Your Breath “That was 4 minutes for ya.”

Voluntary Regurgitation “The key’s in my throat, wait.”

Hard to Move (E) “Try it again, push harder this time.”	Dodge "Look Out!"

Martial Arts (with Weapon, ditto)  "Just Like Jackie Chan"

Firearms "Blam Blam Thank you Ma'am"

Drive  "Blue Hairs driving in my Lane..."

Stealth  "I work for Ninja Burger"

Sleight of Hand “Nothing Up This Sleeve…”

Pickpocket “No, I Haven’t Seen Your Wallet Anywhere”

Fast Draw (E) “Pullin’ a John Wayne”

Burglary “Wanna Buy A Stereo?”

First Aid  "Bandaids and Bactine"

Squirrely Reflexes (E) “Fight, outta here.”

Speedload (E) “*click* *blam*”

Throw “Have a grenade.”

Catch “Have it back.”	Art  "Crayons and Fingerpaints"

Performing "Lord of the Dance"

Persuade/Rebuff skills

Etiquette (pick category, ie. Street/ Office/Jailhouse) 

Animal Empathy  "I am Dr Doolittle"

Divination  "Miss Cleo Said So"

Human Empathy  "I feel your pain..."

Oratory “Friends, Romans, Countrymen…”

Hypnosis “On the count of three…”

Pseudobabble “Ourspeak is Newspeak. Newspeak is Allspeak.”

Adept* “Klatu, Mirada, Nik-“

Avatar* “I Have Become…Something Else”

Meditation “Just sit.”

Gambling “I never bluff.”

Psychotherapy* “Sometimes A Cigar Is Just a Cigar”

Vocal Imitation “My name is Bill Clinton.”

Aura Sight* “I see blue people.”	

*These skills are in some way restricted. Adept is the skill that allows use of Magick, dependant on whatever paths are available to your faction. The other two will be assigned by the GMs as needed…

3.1.5.2 Expendable Skills

Some skills, marked (E) in the skill list, can modify the results of other, more ‘regular’ challenges. These skills are called Expendable Skills (as in, 'that you have to expend'). If it modifies another skill challenge, you spend a point of your Expendable Skill, and do the regular challenge. If you win the challenge, both skills succeed. If you tie, you compare both your normal skill and whatever points of the expendable skill you have left to the opponent's skill or the ST-assigned target number, and normal tie rules apply for success. 

For example: A has Struggle 3 and Large and Hard to Move 5, and is on the ledge of a twenty-story building. B has Struggle 4 and attempts to kick A off the ledge of the building. They tie. A will take the damage (since B's Struggle 4 is higher than A's Struggle 3) but will not succeed in pushing him off the ledge (since B's Struggle 4 is equal to A's Hard to Move, which is now at 4). 

If the Expendable Skill doesn't modify a skill but something else (as in the case of Squirrelly Reflexes, which modify Initiative) people simply expend their skills on a one-to-one basis. To avoid overpowering, limitations have to be placed on the use of the skill.

For example: By expending 2 points of Squirrelly Reflexes, A can add 2 to his Initiative for a round. Possible limitations can include that it is only possible to do this during the first round of a combat, and/or that it is only possible to do this in order to attempt a non-violent action (for example, flee). 

Characters regain lost Expendable skill points at the start of the next game session.

3.1.5.3 Paradigm Skills

A paradigm skill is a deeply held philosophy. It’s how you relate to the world. Taking a paradigm skill helps you with certain mental stresses, but leaves you more vulnerable to others. You can only have one paradigm skill, and it must be consistent with your Obsession, Passions and personality. Adepts, who have their philosophy rooted in their School, cannot have a Paradigm skill.

If you decide to take a Paradigm skill, you link it to two types of mental stresses. One is a stress that your Paradigm protects you again. The other is a stress to which your Paradigm skill is vulnerable. If appropriate, you can use the same stress for both sides.

Once you create the skill, you must take a failed notch on the vulnerable stress you choose.  This failed notch is permanent, it cannot be erased. It is the weak link in your mental armor. 

Any time you fail a Mind roll on the protected stress, you may choose to immediately retest, using your paradigm skill this time, not your Mind stat. If you succeed, you avoid the stress reaction because your philosophical paradigm was strong enough to see you through the stress. You do not, however, get a hardened notch for this success. 

Here is a list of sample paradigm skills:

Military (Violence/Helplessness) Your service in the armed forces indoctrinated you against the horrors of combat, but you cannot bear the thought of being unable to act about something.

Scientific (Unnatural/Unnatural) Your scientific mindset stresses logic, reason and predictability. While you value an open mind, the contradiction of commonly accepted natural law is very hard for you to assimilate.

Superstitious (Unnatural/Helplessness) You see patterns and symbolic connections where others see only coincidence. This makes you more open to the idea of invisible forces, but your faith in the power of symbolic gestures makes it hard to accept powerlessness. 

Corporate (Self/Violence) Your hard-bitten, hard-headed business sense values pragmatism and results above all else. Occasional moral weakness is easy to assimilate as “flexibility”. But your world of abstract results and maneuvers does little to prepare you for visceral realities.

Christian (Helplessness/Self) Your faith in the benevolence of a higher power makes it easier to accept setbacks with equanimity. But in accepting the strength of Jesus, you are quick to see the weakness in yourself.

3.1.5.4 Persuade/Rebuff skills

The Persuade/Rebuff styles and trump matrix has been ripped off with permission from the excellent “The Dying Earth Roleplaying Game”, © 2000 Pelgrane Press (see p.1 for complete copyright information).  

The Persuade/Rebuff skills are the Gnosis LARP “social” skills. They cover all attempts to influence others and resist being influenced by others. Characters may pick up as many Persuade and Rebuff skills as they wish, however the Golden Rule of Social Skills in Gnosis is that at least a full minute of roleplay appropriate to the Persuade/Rebuff skill to be used must have passed before any challenges be made. 

The Persuade Skills are: Glib – You speak so quickly and easily that listeners find it 
    hard to penetrate your insincerity and deceptiveness.
    Eloquent – With high-flown word and lofty sentiment, you 
espouse your views in a manner so poetical that listeners cannot help but be moved by your entreaties.
			  Obfuscatory – The style of your speech is so opaque, the twists 
   and turns of your syntactical structure so 
   labyrinthine, that your interlocutors can neither 
   grasp what you are saying, nor admit their   
   bafflement, and therefore agree thoroughly with 
   whatever it is you said.
			  Forthright – You cut to the heart of the matter with 
unwavering directness.
			  Charming – You evince such blazing personal charisma that 
people can’t help liking you, and wishing to please 
you.
			  Intimidating – You project an aura of menace, either subtle or 
					   blatant, that induces others to obey your edicts 
in the hopes of evading your surely violent   
 					   wrath. 

The Rebuff Skills are: Obtuse – You don’t always understand what others are saying to 
     you. You’ve learned that this is not the impediment it 
     might at first seem. the people who get hoodwinked 
     are always the schemers who let others play on their 
     greed. If you don’t understand the complexities of a 
     scheme, you can scarcely be swindled by it, can you?
			Wary – You distrust even your own grandmother. And a good 
  thing, too, because she was ready to sell you for more 
  prescription meds.
			Penetrating – An innate sense for the motivations of others has 
				          always protected you from those who pretend to 
          argue for your interests, but in fact advance merely 
          their own.
			Lawyerly – You use your unerring nose for mile-wide loopholes 
        to  spot the flaws in others’ proposals.
			Contrary – You just don’t feel like following the advice of 
        others. If  someone tells you to look up, you look 
        down. If everyone else wants to go right, you want 
        to go left.
			Pure-hearted – You are so utterly guileless that, without even 
  trying to do so, you expose the black-hearted 
  villainy of those who hope to fool you. 

After a minute or more of persuasion appropriate to one’s Persuasion skill and a minute or more of rebuttal appropriate to one’s Rebuff skill, challenges are made. If somebody doesn’t attempt to Rebuff a persuasion attempt, the attacker wins on all ties. If it is resisted, and it comes to a tie, check the Persuade/Rebuff matrix on your character sheet to determine if your style trumps or is trumped by the defender’s style. A character using a Persuade skill against its trump suffers a skill penalty of 1. The trump matrix follows:

			TRUMPS		IS TRUMPED BY

Glib			Pure-Hearted		Obtuse
Eloquent		Contrary		Wary
Obfuscatory		Lawyerly		Penetrating
Forthright		Penetrating		Lawyerly
Charming		Wary			Contrary
Intimidating		Obtuse		Pure-Hearted

3.1.6 Wound Points and Wound Boxes 

Wound Points indicate the health status of the character. When the current WP level of a character is equal to his maximum level, he is in perfect health. At three (3) WP or less, the character is unconscious, and he will remain so unless brought back to three (3). At zero (0) WP, he is clinically dead. For more information on health and recovery, see section 3.4.7.

Wound Boxes are there to help you take track of which of your wounds are scratches/bruises, which are minor wounds, which are significant wounds and which are major wounds. 

3.1.7 The Persuade/Rebuff Matrix

The Persuade/Rebuff Matrix is used to determine if the style of persuasion you are using in a given social challenge is helpful (or “trumps”) or a hindrance (or “is trumped”) in relation to the skill your opponent uses to resist persuasion. More on this was at 3.1.5.4 Persuade/Rebuff Skills.  

3.1.8 Cards

3.1.8.1 Sanity Card

You will receive a Sanity Card from the Sanity GM. On this card, four categories of Stress are displayed: Violence, the Unnatural, Helplessness and Self.  Violence appropriately covers all violent situations, whether committed by, targeted at, or witnessed by the character. The Unnatural is self-explanatory. Helplessness covers situations where your character lacks control over what is happening to him (i.e. getting fired from a job he likes, being put in jail, watching a loved one die). Self covers situations when your character commits acts that run contrary to what she considers herself to be (i.e. breaking a promise, lying to a loved one, chickening out of acting on your Noble Stimulus). Each categories has room for 10 hardened notches and 5 failed notches. The Stress system is further detailed in 3.5.

3.1.8.2 Charge Card

Only adepts use Charge Cards. They are used to keep track of the number of the number of Minor, Significant and Major Charges the Adepts holds. They also contain information useful to the Adept GM, such as how the Adept gains charges. The Charge Card must be presented to the Adept GM at the beginning of each game session. 

3.2 Character Creation

3.2.1 Concept 

	To be honest, most people do not write a complete background of their character’s past before having at least toyed with the character sheet. It makes sense to do it that way in Gnosis (you will understand why later) but it remains vital for you to think about what kind of character you want to play before putting numbers down. Trying to find a few words that express “what she is about” is always a good place to start, but do not get too focused. Uni-dimensional characters get soon enough boring to play, and are always boring to play with. Think first about what kind of character you’d like to play. You will have opportunities to think about how this idea ends up fitting with the character sheet later. 

3.2.2 Personality

A few words describing your character’s basic outlook on life, his assets and liabilities in the way she exists and communicates with others. 

3.2.3 Obsession and Passions

Write your Obsession and Fear, Rage and Noble Stimulus on your character sheet. Write between parenthesis, besides your Fear Stimulus, to which category of stress (Violence, Unnatural, Helplessness or Self) it refers. 

3.2.4  Stats

There are 22 points to be distributed among Body, Speed, Mind and Soul. All Stats must be between 3 and 7. Write near each Stat a one word adjective that adequately describes it’s level, knowing that 5 is “average”. (i.e. Body 6 might be “pudgy”, Body 3 might be “wrecked”, Soul 80 might be “oversensitive”, etc.)

3.2.5 Skills 

You have as much points to distribute among Skills as you have in the appropriate Stat (i.e. if you put 5 points in Body and 6 in Mind, you have 5 and 6 points to distribute in Body Skills and Mind Skills, respectively). You cannot buy a Skill higher than the corresponding attribute (all the time) or than 5 (at character creation), which ever is the lowest. 

Everybody receives these free Skills at character creation: 

Body Skills: General Athletics 1, Struggle 1
Speed Skills: Driving 1, Dodge 1
Mind Skills: Education (this is around a high school diploma) 1, Notice 1, Conceal 1
Soul Skills: Persuade Skill (pick one) 1, Rebuff Skill (pick one) 1

Everybody also receives at level one (1) a Skill called “Job (type of job)” which goes in the category the most closely related to the job in question: construction worker or medication tester in Body, taxi driver or karate instructor in Speed, university professor or computer technician in Mind, therapist or panhandler in Soul, for example. This Skill only has two uses: determining your income and your general social status. You can choose to be jobless (i.e. not even panhandling) and put this point elsewhere, but this will make your life rather difficult. For more information about this Skill or others, go to 3.1.5.

Pick your Skills from the Skill List at 3.1.5 and/or add points to those you already have. You cannot trade points in one Stat category for points in another. One of your Skills must relate to your Obsession. This is your Obsession Skill, mark it with an asterisk on your character sheet.

Schools of Magick and Avatars are Soul skills. Approval is required of the Head GM in order to become either an Adept or an Avatar.  

3.2.6 Stress

You may opt to take up to three failed marks in every combination of every category of stress. For every failed mark you took, you have one hardened mark to put where you want to. Use this primarily to reflect on paper the past psychological experiences of your character. This is recorded on the Sanity card. 

All adepts have at character creation both a hardened and a failed marks in the Unnatural category. This does not count toward the three optional marks. 

3.2.7 Wound Points and Wound Boxes

Wound Points are equivalent to your Body Stat times five (Body x5). Write that number down in the Total WP box. Write in the Wound Threshold boxes the following numbers: In the “minor” box, write your Body Stat, in the “significant” box write your Body stat times four (Body x4). You can learn more about wounds in section 3.4.7.2.

3.2.8 Background and Freebies

Freebies are obtained by writing a background story for your character. It should be at least more than one page, and should not exceed five. Your background should give a good glimpse of your character’s personality and of the significant moments of her history as well as an account of how she acquired her Obsession and how it impacts her life (this is known as a Trigger Event, and is usually answered by making a story about how your character would respond to the question ‘What is the weirdest thing that has happened to you?’), as well as information regarding her Passions, any Stat of 7, any Skill of 3 or more, and any 2 failed or hardened marks in the same stress category. 

A well-done background will harvest 5 more points to be spent on the character’s Skills. A sloppy background might receive less. Faction leaders receive 5 additional Skill points. They may opt to trade these Skill points to upgrade one of their Stats by one. They are allowed to have one Stat at 8. They are allowed to have their Obsession Skill at 6. 

Both background and character sheet must be approved by the  Head ST before the character can enter play. He is the final arbiter on the viability of the character. 

3.2.9 Cards

Everybody needs a Sanity Card. If you want some special equipment, you need to see the Gear GM for equipment cards. If you are an Adept, you need to see the Adept GM for your Charge Card. 
3.3 Challenges

There are two kinds of situations: Relaxed (i.e. cracking a safe open in your living room, enjoying a cold beer and listening to Barry Manilow) and Tense (i.e. cracking a safe in the bank while tear gas is burning your eyes and you try not to feel that hi-caliber round in your left leg). There are two kinds of challenges: Skilled (you got the right Skill for the job) and Unskilled (you don’t). 

The basic challenge (which is Tense)  involves a rock-paper-scissors contest either been two opponents or a single player and a GM. In the case of a tie, the opponents compare the appropriate Skills, or the single challenger compares her Skill to a difficulty rating (DR) assigned by the GM. If these numbers are equal, the opponents compare the appropriate Stat, or the single player compares his Stat to the DR. If both numbers are again equal (this is called an Absolute Tie) nothing happens, except in Combat, which will be treated later. Any action made my an Unskilled character in a Tense situation is treated as a special kind of Called Shot (see 3.4.6.4): A first challenge must be won straight and without any sort of retest. A second challenge must then be won, and in the case of a tie the appropriate stat is compared to twice the defendant’s skill or narrator-determined DR. 

Difficulty ratings are: 1 Anybody can do it
			   Should be known at below high school level
		            2 Almost anybody can do it
			   Should be known at High school grad with C- average level
		            3 About average for somebody with passive training
  Should be known at Good high school student / below average   
  college grad level
		            4 About average for somebody with active training
			   Should be known at College grad w/ honours level
            5 About average for somebody with very active training (i.e. 
   black belt)
			   Should be known at Master’s Degree level
		            6 About average for a dedicated and talented amateur athlete
			   Should be known at PhD or multiple Master’s Degree level
		            7 About average for a minor professional athlete
			   Should be known by acknowledged experts in area of study
		            8 About average for professional athlete
  Should be known by internationally recognized experts in area    
  of study
                                   9 About average for top professional athlete
			   Should be known by seminal authorities in area of study
		          10 Best performance of top professional athlete
			   Should be known by the best expert in a very specific 
   subcategory of area of study (i.e. “eating habits of Siberian 
   nomads in the 6t