Energy

Both materially and metaphorically, Energy is your Free Rad’s vital essence. It determines your character’s ability to push themselves to overcome the odds, perform miracles, and shrug off harm. Your character starts each mission with 24 Energy and can lose or gain Energy from scene to scene.

During the course of a mission, there are certain ways you can spend Energy, either to make something good happen or avoid something bad from happening. You can’t voluntarily spend Energy if doing so would leave you with a negative Energy total. You can also lose Energy involuntarily, when your character experiences physical or mental stress or harm. This can leave you with a negative Energy total.

Spending Energy

You can spend energy in the following ways:

• Rerolling a failed attribute roll: When you fail an attribute roll while in scenic time, you can spend 3 Energy and explain how your character avoids disaster in the moment to retake the roll, potentially avoiding failure. If the second roll also fails, you can’t try again.
• Using your Powers: Each gift has a unique way of determining the cost of using your Powers.
• taking the lead on a group attribute roll costs 2 Energy
• prematurely ending an effect from your Powers costs 1 Energy
• using a tactical move in combat time costs 1 Energy

Losing Energy

While in scenic time, you might attempt to overcome an obstacle in a way that puts you in physical or psychological danger. If you fail an attribute roll, the GM might cause you to lose Energy as a result.

During combat time, Energy reflects your ability to weather minor injuries and keep on fighting. You lose Energy every time an opponent targets you with an attack and you fail your defence roll.

Losing Energy from physical or mental injury can leave you with a negative Energy total.

Negative Energy

Your Energy total can drop below 0, leaving you with negative Energy. While you have negative Energy, you can’t spend Energy. You subtract your negative Energy total from the result of every roll you make and from your movement.

If you would lose an amount of Energy for any reason while at 0 Energy or lower, you lose 1 Energy instead of what you would usually lose. If your Energy ever reaches -6, you die. Once you are dead, there is no coming back.

Regaining Energy

At the start of each scene, you regain 1d6 Energy if your Energy total is 0 or higher, up to your maximum (usually 24). Characters with negative Energy remain at their current Energy value.

If you have negative Energy, another character can attempt to restore you to positive Energy during scenic time. Any attribute roll can be attempted, provided the player gives sufficient justification for how their attempt helps you regain your strength and spirit. The attempt takes 10 minutes.

The target number for this roll is 8, plus the value of your negative Energy total (so if you have -4 Energy, the target number is 12). On a success your Energy total is set to 0 and you gain 2d6+6 Energy. On a failure, you lose 1 Energy and cannot be assisted in this way again until a new scene starts.