Organizations: Vocabulary

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Asset: A skill, object, or other major resource an organization possesses. Assets grant abilities that can mean the difference between prosperity and collapse.

Attribute: A trait describing the raw talent of a being or group. In these rules, organizations have only one Attribute: Scope. Organization skills are keyed to these; in some systems, the attribute might be used to create a modifier to a check, while in others the attribute is added directly or serves as a cap on the skill.

Attributes have the following ratings: Base (the lowest possible rating for a starting character), Low, Standard (the rating of an average starting character), High, Very High, Legendary (peak human level or above). These will likely need to be translated into the system used.

Axis: A cluster of traits describing an organization’s strong and weak points. An axis represents a rough sphere of activity the organization engages in, such as remaining hidden or fielding armies. Each axis has one organization skill: Force.

Bonus/Penalty: Circumstances can make actions difficult or easy. These bonuses and penalties are rated as follows: None, Mild, Moderate, Major, Critical. These will likely need to be translated into the system used.

Check: A test to determine whether or not an action is successful. Since this is a general-purpose ruleset meant to be added to an existing system, a method for doing this is not included; use the underlying mechanic of another game system. Many game systems include rules for a “partial”, “complete”, “critical”, “exceptional” or otherwise non-binary success or failure. For purposes of these rules, ignore this; the only thing that matters is that the action succeeds or fails, not how much it does so.

In many places, these rules refer to “opposed” checks. Use the system’s normal rules for resolving contested actions between two characters. If the system uses difficulties when dealing with opposed checks, use Standard difficulty.

Crisis: A single major threat to an organization. Crises come from and cause Trouble, eventually leading to the collapse of the organization.

Collapse: Anything that destroys or substantially changes an organization. A collapse can represent a secret society becoming exposed and suffering crackdowns, a country being conquered, or an economy completely breaking down, depending on the axes involved.

Difficulty: Checks are sometimes made against a static difficulty rather than active opponents. The broad difficulty grades, from easiest to hardest, are Automatic, Very Easy, Easy, Standard, Hard, Very Hard, Legendary, and Impossible. These will, aside from the first and last, likely need to be translated into the system used.

Exhaust: The act of using an asset to perform a greater effect than usual, at the price of losing its active benefit.

Leader: A person who decides what the organization is going to do. Only leaders can take organization actions.

Organization: A group of people dedicated toward a common goal. An organization can be any number of things, from a local PTA to an interstellar government, from a crime syndicate to a AAA corporation. Each organization has various traits aligned on different axes, describing its strengths and weaknesses.

Platform: The high-level strategic goals of an organization. A Platform allows the organization to become stronger by capturing assets, improving traits, and gathering resources.

Roll: A test to determine how well something is done. Roll the number of dice specified and add them up, unless the rules say to do something else with the result (the most common being to check for 1s rolled). All dice used in a roll are of the same type, which depends on the underlying system.

State: How much effort needs to be put into dealing with a Crisis. All Crises start at Unhandled, meaning that they need effort to deal with them. Successfully dealing with a Crisis shifts it into its Handled state, reducing its impact. After this, some Crises revert to being Unhandled, some remain Handled, and some become Resolved, meaning that they will no longer trouble the organization. Crises also become Resolved after their durations expire.

Trouble: A rating of the problems facing an organization. Trouble does not itself influence any rolls, but causes organizations to collapse and can spawn Crises.