Combat is not a math problem.
It is a ritual.
A pressure cooker.
A dare.
And the Psychopomp — that’s the GM, and the world (what I call the player that plays the world) but more than that — listens.
Listening is key. Listening to triggers, for GOTCHA's, and to make generous offerings.
They judge.
Not to decide who wins, but to test what you are willing to wager.
The Psychopomp’s task is not to play fair.
It is to play true:
To make GOTCHA's. But only to do so:
To ask what the world demands in return for what you desire.
To snap back and trade harm for your ill-considered intent.
To let tension breathe until it becomes unbearable.
To call your bluff.
To hold the gun to your neck and say:
“Are you sure?”
They do not resolve success and failure like dice clerks.
They create situations — impossible ones, exhilarating ones —
and watch what happens when you lean into the dance.
And when you commit,
they answer with cost.
Or with clapping.
This system does not coddle.
Death is always nearby.
You will suffer. You will scream.
And sometimes — you will pull off the impossible.
Not because you (just) rolled high.
But because you took a risk, degraded yourself, angled the scope just right, leveraged every single bullet and pencil and table-edge.
You put something real into it:
You wagered something you didn’t want to lose.
So take the moment.
The Psychopomp is listening.
Yoshitaka Amano
DISCLAIMER!
This system is not meant to be FKR, or any other abbreviation or word-salad - as opposed to my Carne Vale world+system.It is meant to be material. There are posts forthcoming about what makes an esoteric gun or death-rig tick. It's what counts as bullets in the gun, and what they do to you, and from what range they work best - whatever best means for that gun.
But it is also a systemic way to create the lurching, vertigo-like feeling of John Wick style bullet ballet's. And anyone who has felt the materiality of dice knows that throwing 1d20+6 thunderbolt feels less awesome than 6d6. Its more dice. That thunder carries weight. This is an exercise in creating that feeling without translating harm to numbers.
It is mostly though... A mess. And to be frank, this is also a "Never-played system", compared to my fae or smutty mechanics that have been played, this is just mechanical fabulation, a heartless heartbreaker.
It is intentional that some of the ways to deal heat and death are entirely without dice, and others feature plenty.
Nested, ugly, violent, untested.
And just so you know, anyone trying to kill anyone or harm anyone passes through these tables - harm is material and horrible and governed by bullet trajectories. It is so-so-material, and shits entirely sideways on personal integrity. But that is for the upcoming ARMAMENT//GUNGUNGUN post. Full of FKR materiality.
Because the rules below cover if you die, there is a good chance you will live. horribly.
Combat begins when someone takes the moment.
Each moment is a beat, more fluid than a second or minute. It is the time it takes to make a movement. (this just means freedom - how long is an important action in an action-sequence in Kill Bill or John Wick?)
This is frictional initiative, again. Check it for the steps
You’ve tallied the reasons. The mêlée has begun. (you are at step 4)
A token hits the table. The world breathes in.
Now say what you do. Take the moment
The psychopomp will listen for your Method — Risk, Calculated, or Sacrificial. You can't choose. They may offer the choice to you.
This isn’t just mechanics. It’s posture. It’s invitation.
It’s what the world demands in return for your desire.
If it does not go through, you may choose your approach to overcome the obstacle.
When a moment spirals — when the violence bites back — roll for Impact.
If you do not want to suffer the impact, it may even threaten to end you — thats when you are pushed to the treshold. Make a Treshold Test. There, even greater success or death awaits.
You might break them. You might break. Or you might wound the world.
(You are now at step 6)
A fight here is never just a fight.
It’s emotion. Its instincts. Its a buckload of dice hitting the table. Its explosive. Its gory. Its degrading.
Its exhilerating.
Snails-pace slow zoom
Fucking fast
And anything in between.
Violence. Motion. Pressure. Prayer.
Step 1 — Take the Moment
Through fear. Reverence. Lust. Leverage.
You took the breath first.
(Follow F(r)ictional Initiative if it’s unclear who dares.)
Say what you do. Time stops the moment you commit. The world judges.
Step 2 — The Psychopomp judges method
The Psychopomp — GM//WORLD — decides whether your action goes through as is (fictionally clean, clever, or overwhelming)…
...or if the world demands a Method. They will offer to the player which seems to apply if unsure. otherwise, they will ask the player to choose.
The psychopomp listen for: What is your posture? What cost do you permit? They make the choice, and name the price.
It goes Clean — It Just works. You were clever, or they let you. Don’t roll. Describe what’s true.
Gambit – Everything is dire. Stack dice - one die per risk you choose to take or the Psychopomp sees: name that risk. Assign a value to each risk. If that value appears on a die, it happens.
Gracework – You’re pulling something poetic, acrobatic, precise. Name one distinct physical element in the situation that you want to use to commit the stunt. One die per unique element you incorporate.
Roll them all:
On a 5-6 means a success for it all.
A Double mean the Threshold is tested.
10+ means you’re screaming.
They all combine.Face impact – No stunt. No bluff. Just pressure. Just outcome.
You do what you want. Proceed to figure out the Impact you receive in return. Make a Threshold Test if you don't want to take it, or want additional effect.-
Calculated — Cold and calculated. Youve named what you want to achieve or avoid. The GM says what it requires: Aiming down sights, making them bare their chest. A quiet moment. Say what you do to achieve it or back down. Simple. Now get going. See if a problem pops up in your way. the Psychopomp will say. If you reach the condition, you take the action. Fold early, and get nothing.
Sacrificial —You are Bending the world, or DEBASING YOURSELF to succeed. The Market likes this.
- Skip
the dice.
- State your intent:
something impossible, devastating, holy, or final.
- The Psychopomp demands a degradation.
- You offer it
- The Psychopomp (GM)
listens. She can:
- Accept. You do the thing. The world
swallows your price.
- Raise the price: the Psychopomp names an additional degradation you must do.
The player can:
Meet the world's price.
... Escalate with deeper degradation for even more of a success.
Or walk away. (Escalation happens, but only degradations until the last one applies — you touched the world and fled. She remembers.)
Degradation Scale (from least to worst):
Humiliate another — public or private, socially or emotionally.
You must change how they are seen.
(This can be reversed.)
Sacrifice an object — destroy, transform in a horrible way, or give up something functionally useful or emotionally tied.
No get-backs.
Sacrifice another — someone close, named, real.
Their pain, death or betrayal must matter.
(If it doesn't, it's not a sacrifice.)
Humiliate yourself — truly. Not just "cringe," but unmask something the character is terrified to show.
You must change how others see you.
(This can be reversed, but the damage lingers.)
Sacrifice yourself — lose a core function, limb, thread of memory, make yourself available to another permanently, lose a social position.
You are different now. Less. Mark it.
You fucking die.
Right now. No roll. No buts, or caveats. Styx awaits. Rebirth will be traumatic.
Humiliations cause change in perception. Sacrifices cause “permanent” (until further notice, terms and conditions may apply) loss of capacity.
This is the Psychopomp’s judgment.
Combinations (e.g., humiliating self-sacrifice) rank higher.
There is no math here. Just your gut. And your gag reflex.
EY, what about defensive, bud!
Going trenchcoat (defensive) doesn’t require a modifier to say something “counts.” If a player describes themselves as defensive, then:-
The Psychopomp listens.
-
The substance of the action is noted, and the consequences should match.
If they’re firing potshots from behind cover, then:
-
The Method might not even be triggered (Calculated: take time, stay low, no contest). It could be Gracework if they’re weaving fiction together. Or none - no roll or effect - if they’re just holding a position and the position is held. It ain't bullet ballet then.
If they're holding a corridor with suppressing fire, they might be using the Suppress mechanic. Let them have the die on the table, laying there.
But the key insight:
Defensive action does not mean no consequences. It means narrower consequences — more specific risks, less exposure to total ruin.
If you really want it old-timey-wimey-GM-advicey: If a character is clearly acting from a defended or cautious position — from behind cover, with care, or defensively in motion — the Psychopomp may offer softer consequences, a reduced Impact die, or restrict results to lower-impact outcomes.
Defensive play should not be mechanically safer, THERE ARE BULLETS FLYING, but should be fictionally narrower in harm. You’re harder to kill — but easier to ignore.
No reward without exposure. You want to change the world? Step into it. The Psychopomp should gear the worlds towards this. The opposite of the OSR. You cant circumvent the chance for harm, but the vector of harm changes with your method.
Guns are unimaginable deadly, and STYX has more guns than people.
You want to stay alive? Then you’re not holding the moment — you’re surviving through it. You get that. nothing else.
More
The Psychopomp
may at any point, when violence is gratuitous, demand that you Keep
going. You need to respond and escalate. You please the crowd. You very likely take a name (thats another mechanic to come) — or whatever your table calls it. (Infamy, bloodheat, whispered awe.)
You become more than what you were.
(Write it down. They’ll remember you for this.)
- Refuse. You stop. The moment warps.
- Break. If you flinch and stop or recoil
mid-ritual
you suffer an Impact. You felt too much. It leaves a mark. - Or you go all the way until the psychopomp is satisfied. Expect to live with your violence, or//and that fiction escalates in response... later
A witness plots vengeance.
The river watches.
You hear sirens. Yes, again, literal sirens.
When to Use This:
- After a victory that was
too clean.
- When a player wants to make a statement through cruelty. Make them regret it.
- When the table is leaning
into the operatic. Make them savour it.
- When the crowd, shades, the
elites, the river is watching, and the character plays to it — even if
the crowd is just ghosts and shade-children in the slums. The spectro-camera
is rolling.
“More.” is not GM fiat — it’s a ritual
incantation.
A dare. A litmus. A way to taste the red iron mist.
This is not
“edge for edge’s sake.”
It’s about spectacle that stains, and power that eats the one who
wields it.
If the
table isn’t in the mood: don’t use it.
But if the player smiles a little too wide at the kill?
Whispers something soft into a dying ear?
Smells like BLAME! But don't know the artist of this coloring.
Then say:
“More.”
If the fiction pushes back (i.e., bullets fly your way as you are crouched behind the sofa)
Option A: Don’t roll Impact at all
If the defense is enough, and nothing in the fiction pressures them, then the action might just succeed. The GM says: “You're safe — for now. But the hallway is filling with smoke. You hear boots.”
This honors defensive play without negating tension.
Option B: Roll Impact — but narratively scoped
If it does warrant an Impact roll (a grenade, a flank, a ricochet), the tone of the Impact should reflect their posture. Integrate what i wrote abotu going defense,
“You’re crouched. Not exposed. Let’s roll Impact — but we will roll a d6 instead of a d10.”
This gives mechanical reinforcement to positioning without system bloat. Only use when fiction clearly supports it. The dice should reflect the fictional ceiling. No need to codify — just call it when it sings true.
Your choice.
NOT.
YOUR.
MOTHER.
Impact and Treshold
If someone pushes back — if the fiction bites you,
if you take bold action against an unwilling world,
or if you act knowing something will hit back —
you roll on the Impact Table from my other post, originally taken from The Bad Doctor
The Impact Table does not ask “Did you succeed?”
That’s decided already by the fiction, the leverage, the method.
Impact says: “And what did it cost?”
It cuts both ways — you may be doling it out, or swallowing it whole.
"She fired first. The bullet landed. But the shrapnel she cast still sang back."
If you wish to resist the impact,
you roll the Threshold Table.
Treshold is not about your health.
This is how close you are to being ended.
If impact answers how mangled you are.
Treshold answers if you are forced to lie still and dead.
Whether the bullet ballet is over or not:
“The blade didn’t stop. Do you?”
Threshold Test:
When the consequences build, and harm cannot be dodged, you roll to see how close you are to being ended. This isn’t about how broken you are. That’s already visible. This is about whether someone can make you disappear. Whether you’re on the edge — or already gone.
This is inspired heavily by Trench crusades wound mechanic, twisted to fit for violent, desperate roleplay:
*rolled on when prompted, or when death seems unavoidable*
Use when:
You refuse an impact
The GM calls it, or a foe capitalizes on a prior weakness, or you are downed when suffeirng impact
Degradation to make better on a conseqeunce.
2d6 (if more dice are rolled, take the two worst)
-5 Clarity: It was less worse than you think. You avoid the impact and may immediately take ANY other action, which automatically succeeds. If this roll fails, then you receive the impact you were rolling to avoid as well as an additional impact.
6-7: Bloodied. Another may use "being bloodied" to force a Treshold test if this could harm you.
8-9 Downed (Treshhold tests are +1d6 worse going forward. Cleared by standing up)
10-11 Injured (Treshhold tests are +1d6 worse going forward. Cleared by definite, problematic action) . Roll these tables for the wound. EEP!
10 Bleeding out. (Risks immediate death on any 1, if not *kept at bay.* Test taken as part of keeping death at bay do not trigger death on a 1*) . Roll these tables for the woundc. EEP!
*12+* Dead Again. Styx Takes you.
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