Chapter 1: Introduction

What are the Mneme Variant Rules?

The Mneme Variant Combat Rules take what would have been many rolls and boils it down to one roll per turn in which the value is symmetrically interpreted for both its effects and outcomes for both the PC and the other party/adversary or hazards.

Design Philosophy: Named after Mnemosyne, the muse of memory, the goal of the system is to be easier on the mind to run.

Key Benefits of the Mneme Variant Rules

Lower Mental Overhead - The Referee does not manage both the Players and the NPCs, but instead handles both using a simpler and easier mechanic with mnemonics to make it easier to remember
Fewer Rolls - Specifically one roll per turn since the mental load of the Referee rolling for NPCs and other events is eliminated
Enables The Referee to manage more players - While there is still a learning curve, the player management benefit of Mneme is long-term

Personal Combat Checklist

Personal combat in the Mneme VARIANT Combat System for Traveller System Reference Document is cyclical.

The Referee determines:

CONDITIONS: The Awareness and Visibility of threats, parties, conditions, terrain; Range, Concealment, Cover, Sizes, Movement; What Actions and Opportunities are available to all parties; On whose Initiative adversaries act

RESOLVE ACTIONS

The Referee resolves actions based on the initiative of the PC. The Referee doesn't roll.

Key Assumptions: The PCs and their Adversaries all take action simultaneously; Adversaries that are engaged in combat with PCs will do damage to the PCs on an outcome of Costly Failure or Costly Success; The PCs have:

Free Actions
3 Minor Actions
2 of these Minor Actions can be used to perform Significant Actions

Determine the Outcome: Determine the Outcome of Actions if they fail, succeed, or succeed at a cost

ROLLING

The PC rolls against the Task Difficulty the Referee Assigns after factoring in the Conditions and Actions.

OUTCOMES

The Referee and PC take note of which Conditions are changed when applying the outcome of the rolls.

The Referee consolidates the Changes in Conditions and begins a new combat round by describing the new situation.

The Referee declares new combat rounds until the situation determines that combat has come to an end.

Variant Rules Summary

Main Rules Changes

One Roll per Turn

To speed up play and to keep the focus of the game on the back and forth conversation between the Referee and the Players, there will be only one Difficulty Roll per Turn.

Outcomes of this Principle

Referees Don't Roll - The PC rolls, and the Referee sets the Difficulty
Failure can result in PC Harm, Damage, and Negative Outcomes
Higher Stakes per Roll - Since failure can result in a lot of harm
Focus on the Action of the Turn - The higher the stakes the more discussion or storytelling about the action
Fewer Interruptions per Turn - The Referee doesn't have to switch to too many PCs, actions, new changing factors and conditions per turn
More Damage Rolls and Outcome rolls are pushed to the Players' duties, freeing up the Referee's bandwidth
The effect of actions of NPCs, and other circumstances the PCs do not control are grouped together and resolved using Superiority Mechanics

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