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Gameplay
Basic Mechanics
Fear in the Foundation is a tabletop role-playing game (TTRPG). These are collaborative story-telling games shaped by a number of rules for the particular game that is being played. One player acts as the "Game Master," who takes on the role of lead storyteller. In Fear in the Foundation, the Game Master is known as the Overseer, which is in reference to the people who run the SCP Foundation in-universe. The Overseer creates situations for other players to deal with, describes settings, and plays all non-player characters. On that note, everyone other than the Overseer creates their own character to play within the world. These characters often act as part of a "party," or group of characters working towards common goals.
In most tabletop games, players cannot simply do all the things they wish to do. In many cases, they must roll dice to determine the outcome of a particular action. Fear in the Foundation uses a d100 or percentile dice for most rolls, but the game has been crafted in such a way that it can be easily adapted to revolve around the use of a d20, if players prefer that style of play. Characters have general Abilities, as well as more specific Skills. In order to "pass a check," or, in other words, do something they want to do, players must roll at or below the value of the Ability or Skill related to the action.
Each character has 7 Abilities, plus Luck, and 16 Skills.
Abilities - Strength, Agility, Endurance, Intelligence, Education, Charisma, and Power
Skills - Crafting, Deception, Espionage, Firearms, Intimidation, Investigation, Machinery, Management, Medical, Melee, Nature, Occult, Perception, Sciences, Special Ops, and Technology
Luck, though it is grouped in with character's Abilities, is a separate resource that allows characters to make failed rolls succeed. Say a player needs to roll a 55 or below in order to pass a check, but rolls a 58. The player can use 3 Luck points to make that roll succeed. Players typically start each campaign with 100 Luck. Since Luck cannot be regenerated during a single campaign or one-shot, players should use it sparingly.
The game also features a number of mechanics that have become stables in many other TTRPGs, such as Advantage & Disadvantage, Critical Rolls, Challenge Levels, and Encounters.
Game Modes
The game consists of three different game modes. Containment Breach, Exploration, and Re-Containment. As you may have seen on this site's homepage, the SCP Foundation is a fictional shadow organization concerned with the containment and study of things that defy scientific explanation, which they refer to as anomalies.
Containment Breach Missions involve catastrophic events where a number of anomalies somehow manage to escape from their containment units and wreak havoc throughout a Foundation facility. Players deal with a variety of issues as they try to capture these anomalies and bring the site back under control. This mode features four primary character classes: Researcher, Security Officer, Field Agent, and D-Class.
Exploration Missions often center on a particular anomaly. A Foundation team is sent out to investigate this anomaly, often attempting to help researchers learn more about it.
Re-Containment Missions focus on teams that are sent out to attempt to capture anomalies that have escaped Foundation custody and need to be reined in. In these missions, players always play a type of MTF Agent.
The classes featured in Exploration Missions can vary depending on the individual mission itself. The three primary sections of classes for these game modes are MTF Agent, Field Agent, and D-Class. Each of these sections includes six unique subclasses for players to choose from.
For more information, please refer to the Player Guide for FITF 1.5
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