24XX SRD
Version 1.2
Text by Jason Tocci under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license (CC BY 4.0)

// SRD design notes start with two slashes, like this. Other paragraphs are player/GM-facing text.


RULES

PLAY: Players describe what their characters do. The game moderator (GM) advises when an action is impossible, requires extra steps, demands a cost, or presents an avoidable risk. Players only roll to avoid risks.
 ROLLING: Roll a d6 skill die—higher with a relevant skill, or d4 if hindered by injury or circumstances. If helped by circumstances, roll an extra d6; if helped by an ally, they roll their skill die and share the risk. Take the highest die.
 1–2	Disaster. Suffer the full risk. 
	GM decides if you succeed at all. 
	If risking death, you die. 3–4	Setback. A lesser consequence or partial success. 
	If risking death, you’re maimed. 5+	Success. The higher the roll, the better. 
If success can’t get you what you want (you make the shot, but it’s bulletproof!), you’ll at least get useful info or set up an advantage. 
LOAD: Carry as much as makes sense, but more than one bulky item may hinder you at times.
 ADVANCEMENT: After a job, increase a skill (none⮕d8⮕d10⮕d12) and gain 1 credit (₡).
 DEFENSE: Say how one of your items breaks to turn a hit into a brief hindrance. Broken gear is useless until repaired.
 HARM: Injuries take time and/or medical attention to heal. If killed, make a new character to be introduced ASAP. Favor inclusion over realism.
 RUNNING THE GAME: Lead the group in setting lines not to cross in play. Fast-forward, pause, or rewind/redo scenes for pacing and safety, and invite players to do likewise. Present dilemmas and problems you don’t know how to solve. Move the spotlight to give everyone time to shine. Test periodically for bad luck (e.g., run out of ammo, or into guards) — roll d6 to check for (1–2) trouble now or (3–4) signs of trouble. Offer rulings to cover gaps in rules; double back during a break to revise unsatisfying rulings as a group.


CHARACTERS

// Characters start with 6ish skill increases and/or credits’ in items, possibly combining “specialty” and “origin” (or “3 skill increases” as a stand-in). 
► Choose your character’s specialty. 
FACE: Skilled in Reading People (d8), Deception (d8). Take an extensive disguise wardrobe.
 MUSCLE: Skilled in Intimidation (d8) and either Hand-to-hand (d8) or Shooting (d8). Take a sword, firearm, or cyber-arms. 
PSYCHIC: Skilled in Telepathy (d8, sense surface thoughts), Telekinesis (d8, as strong as your arms), or pick one at d10. Take a bottle of PsychOut (amplify powers; addictive). 
MEDIC: Skilled in Medicine (d8), Electronics (d8). Take a medkit and cyber-surgery tools (bulky). 
SNEAK: Skilled in Climbing (d8), Stealth (d8). Take climbing gear and night vision goggles. 
TECH: Skilled in Hacking (d8), Electronics (d8). Take repair tools and a custom computer (bulky).
 ► Choose your character’s origin.
 ALIEN: Invent 2 traits, like electric current, wings, natural camouflage, or six-limbed.
 ANDROID: You have an upgrade-ready cyber-body. Take synth skin (looks human) or a case (break harmlessly for defense). Increase 1 skill. 
HUMAN: Apply 3 skill increases (from no skill ⮕d8⮕d10⮕d12). You can take new skills and/or increase skills you already have.
 ► Choose or invent skills (if prompted by origin). 
Climbing, Connections, Deception, Electronics, Engines, Explosives, Hacking, Hand-to-hand, Intimidation, Labor, Persuasion, Piloting, Running, Shooting, Spacewalking, Stealth, Tracking 
// New skills should be comparably narrow, or broadened to deemphasize a skill’s importance.


GEAR

// If something in the real world would cost less than a few hundred US dollars, the only cost is the time it would take to get it.
 ► Take a comm (smartphone) and ₡2. Most items and upgrades cost ₡1 each. Ignore microcredit transactions like a knife or a meal.
 ARMOR: Vest (break once for defense), battle armor (₡2, bulky, break up to 3×), hardsuit (₡3, bulky, break up to 3×, vacuum-rated, mag boots). 
CYBERNETICS: Cyber-ear (upgrade with echolocation, long-range, vocal stress detector), cyber-eye (upgrade with infrared, telescopic, x-ray), cyber-limb (upgrade with strong, fast, compartments, implanted tool or weapon), cranial jack, healing nanobots, toxin filter, voice mimic.
 TOOLS: Flamethrower (bulky), low-G jetpack, med scanner, mini drone, repair tools, survey pack (climbing gear, flare gun, tent; bulky).
 WEAPONS: Grenades (4, any of fragmentation, flashbang, smoke, EMP), pistol, rifle (bulky), shotgun (bulky), stun baton, tranq gun.
 ► Starships have basic versions of these functions; upgrades cost ₡10 each. In an emergency, players pick a function to do or help with.
 COMMS: Upgrade with eavesdropper, jammer, tachyon burst (no lag in-system). 
CRAFTS: Comes with escape pod. Upgrade with fighter, shuttle (reentry-rated). 
DRIVE: FTL jump and sublight speeds. Upgrade with longer jumps, faster speed, greater agility.
 EQUIPMENT: Vac suits for crew. Upgrade with armory, heavy loader, mining gear, tow cable. 
HULL ARMOR: Break harmlessly for defense. Upgrade with reentry-rated, sun shielding. Sensors: Upgrade with deep-space, life-sign scan, planetary survey, tactical vessel scan. 
 WEAPONS: Deflector turrets. Upgrade with laser cutter, military-grade turret, torpedos. 


DETAILS

// Characters’ personal details often need to be customized for specific settings (especially when aliens and fashion are involved). Here are some options usable for a range of sci-fi settings.
 ► Invent or roll for personal details.

SURNAME

1	Acker 2	Black 3	Cruz 4	Dallas 5	Engel 6	Fox 7	Gee 8	Haak 9	Iyer 10	Joshi 11	Kask 12	Lee 13	Moss 14	Nash 15	Park 16	Qadir 17	Singh 18	Tran 19	Ueda 20	Zheng

NICKNAME

1	Ace 2	Bliss 3	Crater 4	Dart 5	Edge 6	Fuse 7	Gray 8	Huggy 9	Ice 10	Jinx 11	Killer 12	Lucky 13	Mix 14	Nine 15	Prof 16	Red 17	Sunny 18	Treble 19	V8 20	Zero

DEMEANOR

1	Anxious 2	Appraising 3	Blunt 4	Brooding 5	Calming 6	Casual 7	Cold 8	Curious 9	Dramatic 10	Dry 11	Dull 12	Earnest 13	Formal 14	Gentle 15	Innocent 16	Knowing 17	Prickly 18	Reckless 19	Terse 20	Weary

SHIP NAME

1	Arion 2	Blackjack 3	Caleuche 4	Canary 5	Caprice 6	Chance 7	Darter 8	Falkor 9	Highway Star 10	Moonshot 11	Morgenstern 12	Phoenix 13	Peregrine 14	Restless 15	Silver Blaze 16	Stardust 17	Sunchaser 18	Swift 19	Thunder Road 20	Wayfarer


GM PAGE

// THE PREMISE: Explain the basics of the setting. If it’s not made clear elsewhere, give a reason for the characters to stick together, and hint at what they’ll spend their time doing.

// BACK PAGE TABLES: If you’d like to mimic the style of the original microgames this SRD is based on, the back page (or the left half of one side of a letter-sized sheet of paper) can fit 4 tables of 20 items each. A GM can use these to generate ideas for an improvised session, like, “[Name] has hired you for [Job] at [Location], but there’s a [Twist]!” An example table is offered below. 
 // ADDING TO RULES: This SRD is presented extremely briefly, based on the assumption that players more experienced with RPGs can teach the basics to newcomers. Expand as needed. My own principles for new 24XX rules is that they should NOT (a) require adding or subtracting dice or modifiers, (b) require tracking another currency (unless the rule replaces tracking broken items and/or credits), or (c) add more than 1 new “tag” with a term you might need to look up (like “bulky”). Strive for self-explanatory additions, or vague additions players might enjoy interpreting. 
► Roll d20 for a contact, client, rival, or target
 1	Arcimboldo, quirky tech dealer & tinkerer 2	Aurora, wealthy collector of unique items 3	Blackout, quiet evidence removal specialist 4	Bleach, wry janitor android turned assassin 5	Bron, dour security chief with a metal arm 6	Bullet, no-nonsense android gun runner 7	Carryout, cocky courier with fast cyber-legs 8	Fisher, eager street kid looking for a crew 9	Ginseng, people-loving drug dealer 10	Hot Ticket, extremely cautious fence 11	Kaiser, grinning loan shark in a silver suit 12	Osiris, tired, street-level sawbones 13	Powder Blue, android fixer, generous rates 14	Reacher, sharp mercenary tac squad leader 15	Rhino, thickheaded, bighearted bodyguard 16	Sam, plucky journalist, likely to get killed 17	Shifter, hard-working chop-shop owner 18	Walleye, businesslike information broker 19	Whistler, smiling cabbie/getaway driver 20	“X,” unflappable broker for an unnamed corp

► Roll d6 to try to find a job. Spend ₡1 to re-roll.
 1–2	Nothing. Spend to re-roll, or risk debt. 3–4	Found a job, but there’s a catch. 5–6	Choose between 2 jobs.

// FINDING JOBS: Many teams don’t need to look for paying work (e.g., military units). If your game does use this setup, though, dangerous jobs should pay more to cover 1–3 credits in “expenses” for medical treatment, fixing/replacing broken gear, re-rolling unsavory jobs, or getting through dry spells with no jobs. Also, in the table above, the phrase “risk debt” is intentionally vague, but may be worth clarifying or alluding to elsewhere (e.g., put a loan shark in your “Contacts” table).
 // JOBS: The list of jobs (or missions, situations, quests, etc.) should be tailored for your setting, and also suggest scenarios where every character’s skills will be useful. Many jobs can be summarized as either “deal with an unusual threat,” “investigate something seemingly inexplicable,” or “retrieve a thing from a location for a person.” They serve as “gameable lore” — elements that hint at a setting, ready-made for use in play.
 // LICENSE: This SRD is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license (CC BY). This means you’re welcome to use this text and layout in your own game, provided you do the following.
 // GIVE CREDIT: If you use any of this text verbatim, please include wording in your game along the lines of, “24XX rules are CC BY Jason Tocci.” 
 // USE 24XX, NOT 2400: You can say your game is “compatible with 2400” or “for use with 2400,” but please don’t use stuff directly from 2400, or name your game so it looks like it’s part of my 2400 series (unless you have explicit approval).
 // NO BIGOTRY: Please don’t use any text from this game, the 20XX logo, or my name in any product that promotes or condones white supremacy, racism, misogyny, ableism, homophobia, transphobia, or other bigotry against marginalized groups. 
