Rules at a glance

O.D.I.N. (Occult Dynamics Intelligence Network) is a free pen-and-paper roleplaying game by David Ger: you play agents of a secret organisation that has been closing the rifts since 1977, rifts through which something comes in that does not belong here. This page summarises the quick rules from the Quickstart.

What you need to play

Game master and players: For the Quickstart, three to four players and a game master. The game master also takes on the role of the handler.
Dice: Each person needs eight white and eight coloured six-sided dice (D6). The colour of the coloured dice does not matter, as long as they are clearly distinct from the white ones.
Materials: Pens, paper and a character sheet per player. The Quickstart contains four ready-made agents and a blank character sheet for copying.
Time: About three to four hours. The Quickstart mission is designed for one evening.

In the game, the agents form a cell of three to six agents from different branches. The cell is your play group.

The test: white and coloured dice

O.D.I.N. uses only D6 in two colours. White dice stand for the attribute, innate talent; coloured dice stand for the skill, learned and practised ability.

The game master decides which attribute and skill fit and sets the difficulty.
You take as many white dice as your attribute value and as many coloured dice as your skill value. Bonus dice are added, penalty dice are subtracted.
You roll all dice at the same time and count the successes: white dice from 5 (5 or 6), coloured dice from 4 (4, 5 or 6).
If you reach or exceed the difficulty, the test succeeds.

The Quickstart’s rule of thumb: “White from 5. Coloured from 4. Count all successes of both colours together.” The basic idea: training is more reliable than talent.

Difficulties

The difficulty is the number of successes needed.

Automatic: no roll
Easy: 1 success
Doable: 2 successes
Hard: 3 successes
Very Hard: 4 successes
Impossible: 5 successes, only attainable for masters, and even then only with luck

Some abilities lower the difficulty by one level, but it never drops below Easy (1). Dice are rolled only when a failure is interesting and has consequences.

Margin, critical success and botch

Margin: Every success above the difficulty makes the action better, faster, quieter or more effective. In combat, margin becomes additional damage directly.
Critical success: 3 or more successes above the difficulty. In addition to the margin, something special happens, such as an additional clue or time gained.
Botch: The test fails and more dice show a 1 than successes were rolled. All dice count, white and coloured. A botch is more than a failure: the weapon jams, the alarm goes off.

Bonus and penalty dice

Equipment, circumstances and abilities change the number of dice, never directly the successes. Bonus dice are always white dice, and a test receives at most +3 bonus dice. Penalty dice remove white dice first, then coloured.

If a pool drops to zero dice or below, you may still roll a single white die, the desperation roll: only a 6 counts as a success, a 1 is automatically a botch. Without the appropriate skill (value 0) you roll only your white attribute dice; some skills, such as all psionic and magical skills, cannot be attempted untrained at all.

Opposed, cooperative and extended tests

Opposed test: Both sides roll, whoever has more successes wins. On a tie, whoever defends the existing state wins.
Cooperation: Each helper rolls a test against Easy (1) in advance. Each success of a helper gives the main actor a bonus die, up to a total of +3; a botch by a helper gives a penalty die instead.
Extended test: The game master sets a number of required total successes, typically 5 to 15, and how long a single roll takes. The successes of all rolls are added together.

Attributes and skills

Every character has nine attributes:

Strength (STR): power
Dexterity (DEX): reaction, precision
Constitution (CON): stamina, Hit Points
Intelligence (INT): intellect, knowledge
Wisdom (WIS): perception, intuition
Willpower (WIL): inner strength, horror
Charisma (CHA): presence
Manipulation (MAN): deception, steering others
Composure (COM): calm under pressure

Skills are divided into physical, mental and social skills, plus psionic and magical skills. Each skill belongs to an attribute, for example Firearms to DEX or Stress Management to COM. The maximum value of 6 can only be reached through experience.

Combat and damage

Combat is fast and dangerous: two or three good hits are enough to take out an agent. A round lasts about three seconds, and each character has one move and one action.

Attack: melee with STR + Melee, ranged with DEX + Firearms, each against the target’s defence.
Defence = 1 + (DEX + Dodge) ÷ 4, rounded down.
Damage = weapon damage + margin − target’s armour. Unarmed combat has weapon damage 1.
Hit Points = 6 + CON + Toughness. At half or less the character is wounded (−1 die on all tests); at 0 HP they collapse and are dying.

Strain, horror and trauma

Every character has a strain threshold of 4 + WIL + COM. Strain arises, among other things, from failed horror tests, overdrawing PSI points and Magic Energy, and botches with psi powers and spells.

When a character experiences something supernatural, cruel or incomprehensible, the game master calls for a horror test on WIL + Mental Resistance, from Uncanny (1) to Cosmic (5). If it fails, they suffer as much strain as successes were missing, minimum 1.

When strain reaches the strain threshold, the character suffers a trauma, such as Nightmares, Phobia or Paranoia; afterwards strain drops to half the strain threshold. Anyone who suffers a third trauma at the same time withdraws from active duty. After each mission, a test on COM + Stress Management against Easy (1) removes 1 strain per success.

Psi powers and magic

Psion: PSI power = WIL + WIS + INT, which is also the maximum number of PSI points. Powers cost 1, 3 or 6 PSI, subclass abilities 2 PSI. Without a focus device, every Psi test is one step harder.
Thaumaturge: Magical capacity = CHA + WIS + INT, which is also the maximum Magic Energy (ME). Spells cost 1, 3, 5 or 8 ME, subclass abilities 2 ME. No crystal, no magic.
Overexertion: If PSI points or ME are not enough, each missing point becomes 1 strain. The cost is paid even if the test fails.

The six classes and their price

Each class has a signature and a price, recorded on a track on the character sheet. The Quickstart contains four ready-made agents:

Investigator, price Suspicion: Suspicion grows with each open case in which the investigator holds at least three threads, plus 1 per level V card; a D6 is rolled on a botched Investigation test or a failed horror test at a crime scene.
Soldier, price Echo: Echo begins from five pieces of silver (pieces minus 4); if a D6 shows the value or lower, the silver answers.
Psion, price Resonance: Resonance rises by 1 per node of the Overload Branch and never decreases; on overload or a Psi botch, if a D6 shows the value or lower, something listens in.
Thaumaturge, price Whisper: Whisper rises by 1 per node of the Center and per Nexus crystal or Nordlicht stone kept overnight; if a D6 rolled on a Center node, overcasting or a botch shows the value or lower, the stone answers.
Agent, price Fade, and Scientist, price Contamination: These two classes do not appear as ready-made agents in the Quickstart; they are described in the core rulebook.

Files and the course of a mission

Every mission begins with a file. Its colour reveals how serious the situation is:

White File: Observation. Something is strange, but not dangerous; often used to train cadets.
Grey File: Investigation. Indications of supernatural activity, but no certainty. Most missions begin grey.
Red File: Immediate Intervention. Human lives or the stability of reality are directly threatened.
Black File: Officially Non-Existent. The Council itself has taken over the case.

Files can be reclassified during a mission. The handler hands over the file in the briefing. Then comes the investigation through nodes, places and people the cell can visit in any order and from which clues lead to other nodes. The Quickstart mission shows the course of play: briefing, investigation, a confrontation that rewards knowledge, and an aftermath with an open thread.

Experience and advancement

The Quickstart does not explain advancement in full; the rules are in the core rulebook, Chapter III “Advancement and Experience”. On the character sheet, the career section records the experience points (XP) an agent receives per file or mission, what they are spent on, and the agent’s rank.

The ready-made agents begin as Cadet. The further ranks are Agent, Senior Agent, Veteran and Shadow Officer. XP buy, among other things, nodes in the class tree; attributes and skills reach a value of 6 only through experience.