Feedback on Homebrew Rules - Rally, Critical Injuries and Synths
Posted: Mon 08 Jun 2026, 22:48
Hi all
I am enjoying the evolved edition but after a good few sessions now I feel like there are some things that imo could do with some tweaking. Posting it here incase I have misread the original rules, missed some obvious edge case or misjudged the power of some changes etc. If anyone has any feedback or suggestions it would be much appreciated.
Rally
Existing rule, healing the player feels so powerful, even if it doesn't remove the critical injury. Instead change it so the player is able to act normally but are still considered broken. They do not regain HP . The number of rounds they are able to act normally is determined by the number of successes rolled. At the end of the specified number of rounds, they go back to broken.
Critical Injuries/Damage
The game is pretty lethal but you can get to some ridiculous situations where they are being eviscerated by an alien and end up with two broken wrists and a graze as very few of the critical injuries lead to a quick death (unless I have misread the rules).
Instead change it so the players HP can go below zero. The current negative HP, is instead added to the critical injury.
Lets say the player has 3HP, they take 4 damage so they go to "-1". If they roll a 32 on the dice, it then goes to 33
If they then take an additional 2 damage, they go to -3. A 51 would then become 54... and it bumps so 56 +3 would go to 63.
(I think this is better than a critical injury per damage taken below zero . Less rolling, play quicker). Note this effect keeps stacking. So if you got to -3, then take 3 damage it goes to -6 etc. This is completely reset upon any successful medical aid roll. So even if you are at -10 somehow and are still alive, you would immediately go to +x hp.
Note - this only applies to humans not synths
Synthetics
Synthetics are great however I think in some aspects they are now a bit under powered. They can no longer infinitely fire ammo. Their bonus +3 to stats is now negated by the typical player having 3 resolve. Furthermore, they can be less interesting from the perspective of the stress mechanics etc to play although the nigh invincible(cut to title card) aspect is a big plus in my books. Yes they can't stress which helps in those late-game moments if the human players have let their stress get out of hand but before that....
Therefore I suggest synthetics do have a push roll but it works differently. The stress in this case refers to the stress placed upon the AI/physical components.
When rolling a skill check, a synth can choose to add up to 3 dice to that check. This must be chosen before the roll. The number of dice added, is then added to the stress value. Upon reaching 10 dice, the user must roll on a D66 glitch table after the action is completed. Then humans have a D66 critical injury and D6 panic vs synth D6 critical and D66 panic. Also the idea with this is synths do not fail most of the time like humans. A human with high stress will often fail their current action (mess up) but the point with the synth approach is that it doesn't typically mess up their current action but may mess up future ones by degrading their systems.
I am still heavily mixed on this D66 table. The alternative I have been thinking of is around having it be more long term negatives, slowly reducing your stats over time until major repairs are done but maybe that is the cleaner simple approach. Something like roll two D6, add them together and subtract 1 from that skill (since there are 12 skills).
Thanks
I am enjoying the evolved edition but after a good few sessions now I feel like there are some things that imo could do with some tweaking. Posting it here incase I have misread the original rules, missed some obvious edge case or misjudged the power of some changes etc. If anyone has any feedback or suggestions it would be much appreciated.
Rally
Existing rule, healing the player feels so powerful, even if it doesn't remove the critical injury. Instead change it so the player is able to act normally but are still considered broken. They do not regain HP . The number of rounds they are able to act normally is determined by the number of successes rolled. At the end of the specified number of rounds, they go back to broken.
Critical Injuries/Damage
The game is pretty lethal but you can get to some ridiculous situations where they are being eviscerated by an alien and end up with two broken wrists and a graze as very few of the critical injuries lead to a quick death (unless I have misread the rules).
Instead change it so the players HP can go below zero. The current negative HP, is instead added to the critical injury.
Lets say the player has 3HP, they take 4 damage so they go to "-1". If they roll a 32 on the dice, it then goes to 33
If they then take an additional 2 damage, they go to -3. A 51 would then become 54... and it bumps so 56 +3 would go to 63.
(I think this is better than a critical injury per damage taken below zero . Less rolling, play quicker). Note this effect keeps stacking. So if you got to -3, then take 3 damage it goes to -6 etc. This is completely reset upon any successful medical aid roll. So even if you are at -10 somehow and are still alive, you would immediately go to +x hp.
Note - this only applies to humans not synths
Synthetics
Synthetics are great however I think in some aspects they are now a bit under powered. They can no longer infinitely fire ammo. Their bonus +3 to stats is now negated by the typical player having 3 resolve. Furthermore, they can be less interesting from the perspective of the stress mechanics etc to play although the nigh invincible(cut to title card) aspect is a big plus in my books. Yes they can't stress which helps in those late-game moments if the human players have let their stress get out of hand but before that....
Therefore I suggest synthetics do have a push roll but it works differently. The stress in this case refers to the stress placed upon the AI/physical components.
When rolling a skill check, a synth can choose to add up to 3 dice to that check. This must be chosen before the roll. The number of dice added, is then added to the stress value. Upon reaching 10 dice, the user must roll on a D66 glitch table after the action is completed. Then humans have a D66 critical injury and D6 panic vs synth D6 critical and D66 panic. Also the idea with this is synths do not fail most of the time like humans. A human with high stress will often fail their current action (mess up) but the point with the synth approach is that it doesn't typically mess up their current action but may mess up future ones by degrading their systems.
- 11- Caught exception - Your system throws an error caught graciously, you suffer no ill effects
- 12 - Power Surge - You immediately gain a quick/slow action if in combat or halve the amount of time taken to perform your next successful action if outside of combat
- 13 - Audio Desync - Anything you say is delayed until the next round. This lasts until repairs are done
- 14 - Force Sensor fault - You mishandle a held item. It is either dropped or crushed(destroyed) at GM discretion
- 15 - The Three Laws - You gain +2 to a roll in protection of a human if it does not contradict the second or third law. This effect lasts for D6 turns. If you ignore or perform an action that conflicts with this you gain 1 stress
- 16 - Speech Module Import Error - Your speech becomes slurred, you have -1 on manipulation rolls until the component is fixed (1 stretch)
- 21 - Critical Mission Override - Gain +1 to any strength/agility based rolls on your next action
- 22 - Out of Memory Error - You can not use your talent till the end of next round
- 23 - Inhibitor Chip Fault - You can not make a closed/ranged combat attack next round
- 24 -Gyro Failure - Make a mobility roll or fall prone
- 25 - Haptic Feedback Failure - -2 To Comtech and medical aid rolls until repairs are completed
- 26 - Diagnostic Loop -Your internal systems pause to verify contradictory data. Until the end of the next round, you suffer -1 to Wits-based rolls.
- 31 - Social Cohesion Crash - You can no longer form facial expressions and lose all intonation in your voice. -2 to command and manipulation until repairs are complete
- 32 - Mission Fixation - You cannot voluntarily retreat from a visible objective or hostile until the end of the next round. You can make one free movement towards an objective/hostile
- 33 - Sensor Error - You suffer a -2 next round for actions related to sight.
- 34 - Locked Semaphore - You can only take your quick or slow action next round
- 35 - Thermal Regulation Error -Your synthetic body vents heat, leaks coolant vapour, or becomes cold to the touch. Until repaired, enemies gain +1 observation to spot you in stealth where heat, vapour, smell, or sound could reveal you
- 36 - Leg Servo Failure - You can not move until repairs are complete or a successful heavy machinery roll (slow action) is made
- 41 - Targeting error - For the next 3 rounds, your ranged attacks suffer -1 against targets that have moved this turn, but +1 if they are yet to move. Outside of combat this causes a -1 to piloting for one turn.
- 42 - Fine Motor Control Failure - Cannot use Comtech, Medical Aid and reloading weapons becomes a slow action until repairs are completed (1 turn)
- 43 - For the Company - The GM gives you a short compulsory priority such as protect company property, retrieve specimen data, preserve officer, or seal breach. Resisting it costs 1 damage from internal strain.
- 44 - Arm Actuator Seizure - One arm becomes unusable until repaired with a successful Comtech roll(slow action) or repairs are complete.
- 45 - Memory Fragmentation - You lose memory of a specific event at GM discretion
- 46 -Rerouted emergency power - Choose two attributes. -1 to 1 skill, +1 to another skill (within the same attribute class e.g. strength/agility).
- 51 - Race Condition - You can only move or complete one other action not both for one shift
- 52 - Sensor Overload - You are effectively blinded and deafened, -2 to all observation rolls and to any rolls involving sight/hearing.
- 53 - Core logic fallover - Lose your next slow action if in combat or your next action takes twice as long
- 54 - Fluid pressure drop - You lose two strength until the end of next round
- 55 -Cascading faults - roll another D66 twice for the glitch table. Keep rerolling until you have two glitches between 11 and 33.
- 56 - Recursion Stack Overflow - You must repeat the same actions you have just taken on the next 2 rounds. If you are not in combat, your next action takes twice as long.
- 61 - The force is too much for the component, burning it out/damaging it. You take no damage but you have minus one on the associated attribute until you repair it (requires 2 stretches to repair)
- 62 -Strained Servo - You get -1 to the skill roll just performed for one stretch. E.g. if the roll just performed was a heavy machinery it would now be at -1. This effect can stack up to 3 times per skill , requires a turn to fix but removes all effects from that particular skill.
- 63 - Behavioural change, your personality suffers a slight shift. Your buddys now may be your rival. At the GM discretion.
- 64 - Self Preservation Override - Immediately make an attack against the closest target, ally or enemy. If no targets exist, you mistake some other object and open fire.Roll a standard attack with whatever weapon you currently have equipped. If you have no ammo, use your fists.
- 65 - Thread Deadlock - You go inactive for D3 rounds or someone spends a slow action and a comtech roll
- 66 - Chip burnout - The strain is too much for your systems, take one point of damage and you are broken for one round.
I am still heavily mixed on this D66 table. The alternative I have been thinking of is around having it be more long term negatives, slowly reducing your stats over time until major repairs are done but maybe that is the cleaner simple approach. Something like roll two D6, add them together and subtract 1 from that skill (since there are 12 skills).
Thanks