Credits

Design and Development Cover Arrangement

Christopher Ruthenbeck Guillaume Tardif

Proofreading
Adam Beltaine, Mark Eberhardt

contents
The Basics ............................................................................ 1 Range.............................................................................5

Gear...................................................................................... 1 Special Rules and Qualities ........................................5

The Right Tool for the Job ..........................................1 Blast .......................................................................5

Makes a Job Easier.......................................................2 Breach ...................................................................6

Unique Rules ................................................................2 Guided ..................................................................6

Armor .................................................................................. 2 Limited Ammo ....................................................6

Soak ...............................................................................2 Pierce.....................................................................6

Defense .........................................................................3 Miscellaneous Qualities......................................6

Armor Encumbrance ..................................................3 Weapon Encumbrance................................................7

Armor Hard Points .....................................................3 Weapon Hard Points (Optional) ...............................7

Other Armor Qualities ...............................................3 Weapon Price ...............................................................7

Armor Price .................................................................3 Weapon Rarity .............................................................7

Armor Rarity................................................................4

Weapons .............................................................................. 4

Skill Used ......................................................................4

Damage .........................................................................5

Critical Rating..............................................................5

This product was created under license. Genesys and its logo, and Genesys Foundry and its logo, are trademarks of Fan‐
tasy Flight Games in the U.S.A. and other countries. All Fantasy Flight Games characters and character names, and the
distinctive likenesses thereof, are trademarks of Fantasy Flight Games.
www.FantasyFlightGames.com
This work contains material that is copyright Fantasy Flight Games and/or other authors. Such material is used with
permission under the Community Content Agreement for Genesys Foundry.
All other original material in this work is copyright 2019 by Christopher Ruthenbeck and published under the Commu‐
nity Content Agreement for Genesys Foundry.

contents
i Equipment Guide
Equipment Guide
O ne of the most integral parts of any setting is the
range of equipment available. It can help immedi-
ately set the scene, as well as helping with expectations,
iceberg of what you or your players may want to repre-
sent.
Due to page count constraints, the Genesys Core Rule-
and is frequently one of the most important things a
book doesn't go into too much detail about how to make
player considers. Each setting will have their own list of
your own. However, help is at hand! This document is
available equipment, and while the Genesys Core Rule-
intended to expand upon the starting suggestions con-
book gives you a starting point, this is only the tip of the
tained in the material published so far, and help guide
you to making your own unique items.

The Basics
“Whatever adventures your characters go on, we Weapons are pretty straight-forward: they make hurting
expect they need some items to aid them. These others easier. Guns, swords, axes, grenades, etc. Any-
could be spacesuits and laser guns, swords and thing and everything that is actively used to cause harm
plate mail, or a laptop computer and protein bars. to others.
These things may seem different, but we categorize
Armor is, like weapons, pretty easy to understand. It
them all as equipment.”
makes it easier for your character to survive. The [S]
granted by a defense rating makes it less likely for an at-
– Genesys Core Rulebook, page 82
tack to hit—or for it to be less severe if it does hit—while
increasing your soak means that those hits which do
land do less damage.
"Equipment" is a broad term referring to anything that a
character has and can use to make doing something eas- Gear is the most nebulous of the equipment categories.
ier (or, potentially, making it possible to do some things It's a catch-all for anything that is not a weapon or a piece
at all!). It's easier to hurt someone when you have a knife. of armor. Clothing, healing potions, backpacks, toolkits,
It's easier to climb a wall with climbing gear. It's easier to and the like. Because of this, gear has the widest range of
go unnoticed with a hooded cloak. potential and possibilities.
Genesys breaks equipment into three categories: In the following pages, I am going to tackle these cate-
gories in order of simplest to most complex: gear, armor,
• Weapons
then weapons.
• Armor
• Gear

Gear
As mentioned in the prior section, gear is the catch-all not be able to accomplish without them." (Genesys Core
category, only applying when it's not a weapon or armor. Rulebook page 93).
On the one hand this makes it the hardest to understand, It doesn't grant any bonus or alleviate any penalty. It just
since it can practically be anything. But we're going to lets you do something. A cell phone or other mobile
break it down to make it easier to work with. communications device allows a character to communi-
cate when they otherwise couldn't. A computer (or
equivalent) allows a hacker to ply their trade.
The Right Tool for the Job
Most gear falls under this simple rule: "…most pieces of Whenever creating a new piece of gear the first thing you
gear assist your character in performing tasks they might should ask yourself is, "is this the right tool for the job, or
does it make doing something easier?"

The basics
Equipment Guide 1
Most of the time, it's just the right tool for the job and
you can leave it as-is.
Unique Rules
If neither of the above two options fit, then a piece of
gear needs unique rules.
Makes a Job Easier The most common unique-rules gear you'll see in every
Some things can be done without tools, but are easier Genesys game is the ubiquitous painkiller. It's a simple
with them. For example, "…attempting a Medicine check item that helps you heal your wounds faster.
without medical equipment of some kind…increases the
difficulty of the check by one." (Genesys Core Rulebook, Other common items are load-bearing gear, like the sim-
page 116). ple (but useful) backpack that increases your character's
encumbrance threshold by 4.
A med kit isn't required to attempt a Medicine check to
heal injuries, but it sure makes it easier! The most difficult part of making new gear is figuring
out a price. Both weapons and armors have suggested
Another example of this are torches or a flashlight. It re- price guidelines to use but nothing like that exists for
duces the penalty normally associated with darkness gear. So to make it easier, I suggest you use existing items
(one or more j on vision-related checks). Sure, you can and rename them. This way you already know what the
look around when it's dark, but shining a light makes it encumbrance, price, and rarity should be (or at least
easier to see. have a starting point) and can be assured it's reasonably
Of course, this could also be something that adds a balanced for your game.
bonus, usually in the form of j, to a check. Sure, you can For example, Realms of Terrinoth has the herbs of heal-
read the tiny inscription, but it's so much easier when ing. A simple item that adds sa to a Medicine check.
you have a magnifying glass. Or navigating at sea is pos- In a modern game that could be an adrenaline shot, or a
sible without tools, but a sextant makes it so much easier. nano-gel in a space opera game. Different names but
This is the next most common type of gear after being same effect.
the right tool for the job. If a piece of gear isn't required If there isn't something that does what you want, see if
to do something but makes it easier, you can either re- there is something close that you can use as a starting
duce or remove the penalty associated with performing point. Then adjust as you see fit.
the action without the right tools, or it could add a j to
the check.

Armor
Page 198 of the Genesys Core Rulebook has the rules for
creating custom armor. Well, most of the rules we need,
Soak
in any event. It doesn't give us encumbrance or Hard Most armor is going to have a soak modifier from +1 to
Points (which, since those are an optional rule, makes +3, with the occasional outlier having a +4. Regardless,
sense). however, the most common is going to be +1 or +2. In-
deed, Table III.2–3: Penalties When Casting Spells on
When creating a new armor, there are a few values you page 210 (in the magic chapter) considers "heavy" armor
need to be aware of and know how to use: to have +2 soak or more.
1. Soak When determining a soak value for your armor, 90% of
2. Defense the time it'll be +1 or +2. Of course, some armor only has
Defense, in which case soak should be +0. Only super-
3. Encumbrance protective armor should have a soak of +3 or +4, and
4. Hard Points (optional) even then it should be a rare thing. The only armor with
a +3 soak that is purchasable is the personal exosuit,
5. Other qualities (optional) found in Android: Shadow of the Beanstalk on page 94.
6. Price The Expanded Player's Guide's Age of Myth setting gives
us legendary (and priceless) armor with +3 and +4 soak,
7. Rarity so keep those things in mind when assigning a soak rat-
ing.
Soak is also a primary factor in determining the starting
encumbrance of your armor. We'll get to that in a bit.

gear
2 Equipment Guide
Defense an option for armor. But that's fine, we still know how
much it costs.
Besides soak, the next best thing armor provides is a de-
fense rating. The paragraph on page 198 of the Genesys The infantry combat armor, found on page 186 of the
Core Rulebook can explain what makes defense so good Genesys Core Rulebook, "…has three hard points (instead
better than I can, so I won't re-hash it here. of the usual one)." It only has a soak of +2 but costs 700.
That's a difference of 200 currency. 200 currency for +2
Most armor with a soak value will have a defense of 1, hard points means it's 100 currency for each additional
with few exceptions (like the Magical Plate armor from hard point.
Realms of Terrinoth.)
Of course this isn't 100% accurate, since the armor also
Armor with only a defense rating can have a rating of 1 has an encumbrance of 2 instead of 3. But it's easier to
to 3, with defense 4 being about as rare as a +4 soak. De- assume that the reduction of the encumbrance by 1 was
fense has a more minor role in determining starting en- a design decision that doesn't cost any extra.
cumbrance.

Other Armor Qualities

Armor Encumbrance This is a bit of a catch-all term for anything not yet cov-
The Core Rulebook doesn't give a lot to go on for deter- ered. For example, chainmail armor (Realms of Terrinoth
mining suggested encumbrance value: page 96) adds j to all Stealth checks made due to the
We recommend giving armor an encumbrance noise it makes.
value between 2 and 5, with 5 being reserved for Concealed buckyweave, found on page 93 of Android:
armor with a lot of soak. Shadow of the Beanstalk, adds jj to any Perception
check to notice that it's armor.
At first glance, this might not seem particularly useful,
but when you break it down it is! Between 2 and 5, with These are just two examples of other qualities that might
soak being a number between +1 and +4. Using that as a find their way into your armor, and while Table III.1–1:
guide, I went over the existing armors and found out Armor Cost Calculations only calls for ±50 currency
that, defense not withstanding, encumbrance is 1 + soak. for each quality, that's just a starting point. Adding jjis
going to be worth more than just adding j. Upgrading a
If the armor has a defense rating (regardless of the rat- skill check is worth more than adding j. So use that as a
ing), then increase encumbrance by 1. guideline for figuring out how much extra you think a
This gives us a pretty easy formula of: quality should cost.
Encumbrance = 1 + soak (+1 if it has any defense value) A good starting point is that each j added or removed is
going to be ±50 whereas upgrading a check is ±100.
Note, again, that it doesn't matter what the defense value
is, it's still just +1 encumbrance.
You can then reduce that encumbrance total by up to –3
Armor Price
by using the values on Table III.1–1: Armor Cost Cal- Now that we have almost everything else in hand, let's
culations on page 198 of the Genesys Core Rulebook. talk money. How much does this armor cost?

This number is just a suggestion, however, and you are Well, that's what Table III.1–1: Armor Cost Calcula-
free to adjust it as you see fit. But if you can't think of a tions is for. Use it as your base price. Indeed, if your ar-
reason for it to have a different value then it's a great mor has both soak and defense, there's the little footnote
starting point. that will change the suggested price from a single num-
ber to a range.

Armor Hard Points Combining a low soak with a low defense should in-
crease the cost by 100–250. But what is low soak and
If you're using the optional item attachments and hard what is high soak? Ultimately it's up to you to decide, but
points rules found starting on page 206 of the Genesys I consider +1 soak to be low and anything else to be high.
Core Rulebook, then the armor's starting hard points is It may seem weird to say only 1 of 4 options is low, but
one half its encumbrance value, rounded up. we currently have no armor with a soak of +4 and only
Because it is an optional rule, Table III.1–1: Armor one to have a +3. This says, to me, that +1 is low and +2
Cost Calculations doesn't list additional hard points as is high. Defense, on the other hand, I consider 3 or 4 to
be high and 1 or 2 to be low.

armor
Equipment Guide 3
At the end of the day, this is your creation so it's up to Rulebook). If I want it to be just as difficult in a "normal"
you to determine where you draw the line. place as in a major trade hub, I'll use the higher rarity
number for that range.
Armor Rarity A sub-set of rarity is the idea of restricted goods. Intro-
The most nebulous number of all, rarity determines how duced in Android: Shadow of the Beanstalk on page 84,
easy or difficult it is to locate and acquire the armor. The any item marked '(R)' is restricted, which means it's ille-
Genesys Core Rulebook has a nice table on page 82 that gal for the average citizen to have. It also means that try-
can help you figure out how rare you want your armor to ing to find the item is going to be a Streetwise check
be. instead of Negotiation (as explained in the Black-Mar-
ket Items sidebar, on page 83 of the Genesys Core Rule-
My rule of thumb is to figure out how difficult I want it book.)
to be to acquire, based on Table I.5–1: Rarity, and use
the lower number. This allows for it to be easier to find in Some settings will want to use this rule while others
a major center of commerce (based on Table I.5–2: Rar- won't. Before using the restricted items rule decide if it
ity Modifiers found on page 83 of the Genesys Core fits your game world.

Weapons
A h, weapons. Potentially a player's most favorite
piece of equipment. Guns, knifes, swords, hammers,
Skill Used
grenades, anti-tank missiles; weapons run the gamut of The skill used for the weapon has a direct impact on both
options and are by far the most complicated equipment the encumbrance rating as well as suggested damage
you can have. This also means that you're probably going range of the weapon. Smaller/lighter weapons tend to
to want to spend a lot of time making different weapons have both a lower encumbrance as well as a lower dam-
for your game. Which is fine—and indeed encouraged— age potential and bigger weapons having bigger numbers
but don't go overboard. Genesys isn't a game about overall.
minutia. The skill used should be based on how the weapon is
While there is a difference between an AK-47 and a AR- used and not what the weapon is. While throwing a
15 in the real world, they both are found under the head- grenade is nothing like shooting a pistol, they both use
ing of Assault Rifle on page 166 of the Genesys Core the Ranged (Light) skill since that's the skill used for a
Rulebook. Genesys isn't granular enough to have there be "…weapon designed to be fired (or thrown) from one
a difference between these two weapons, and that is by hand." (Genesys Core Rulebook, page 68).
design. When determining what skill to use it's also important to
Genesys is a cinematic game, not a game about muzzle determine which skills are available in your setting. If the
velocity, bullet drop and other buzz words that deal with combat of the setting is focused on melee, then you
ballistic trajectory. If a player wants to differentiate their should use the Melee sub-skills. If most combat is done
weapons then consider using the item attachment rules with guns then use the Ranged sub-skills.
instead of making eight different kinds of assault rifles. One important thing to keep in mind is that melee
Like armor, weapons have multiple characteristics that weapons are cheaper than ranged weapons. The first
help define what they are capable of: print run of the Genesys Core Rulebook omitted one line
1. Skill Used of Table III.1–2: Weapon Cost Calculations:
2. Damage Melee or Brawl weapons — reduce cost to 50% of
3. Critical Rating total
4. Range
5. Special Rules & Qualities This has been fixed in subsequent printings as well as the
6. Encumbrance PDF.
7. Hard Points (optional)
8. Price A quick note of terminology: melee, with a lowercase 'm',
9. Rarity means any melee combat skill, including Brawl, Melee,
Melee (Heavy), and Melee (Light). The same applies to
As you can see, there are a lot more moving parts than ranged, with a lowercase 'r', but for the ranged combat
armor. But once you get to know them it gets easier to skills: Gunnery, Ranged, Ranged (Heavy), and Ranged
make more weapons. (Light).

weapon
4 Equipment Guide
Damage Range
Now that you know what skill the weapon uses, you can This determines the maximum range band that the
figure out the damage potential. weapon is capable of working. A weapon with a range of
short can't (without being upgraded or with the use of a
Most melee weapons have a damage bonus between +1
talent) hit a target at medium range. Keeping that in
and +5. This number is added to the character's Brawn
mind, we have the following suggestions:
characteristic to determine the base damage of the
weapon. When calculating price, assume a Brawn of 3. • All melee weapons should have a range of engaged,
Not all melee weapons have a damage bonus, though. except…
Android: Shadow of the Beanstalk has a palm stunner and
• Certain melee weapons with reach can have a range
a stun gun, both melee weapons with a set damage num-
of Short, like a pike (Realms of Terrinoth, page 93)
ber.
or a whip. Regardless of the range, all melee combat
The damage of your weapon should follow the guidelines checks are Average(kk) difficulty
set forth on page 201 of the Genesys Core Rulebook:
• Any thrown weapons such as knives or grenades
• Brawl or Melee (Light) weapons have a damage rat- should be short range
ing of +1 to +3
• Most Ranged (Light) weapons should be short or
• Melee (Heavy) weapons have a damage rating of +3 medium range; small, weak, or easily-concealed
to +5 weapons should be short range
• Ranged (Light) weapons deal 4 to 7 damage • Ranged (Heavy) weapons are more likely to be
medium or long range
• Ranged (Heavy) weapons deal 8 to 12 damage
• Gunnery weapons should almost always be
• Gunnery weapons deal 13+ damage
medium, long, or extreme ranged weapons
Note that these are just guidelines and should be ignored
for some things. Grenades are a great example: they are
a Ranged (Light) weapon that can have a damage value
Special Rules and Qualities
as high as 10! This is where the real customization of weapons comes
into play. Item qualities and other special rules are what
makes an assault rifle different than a hunting rifle, or a
Critical Rating sword different than an axe.
Because the only way to kill a character is to get a Critical
When creating your weapon, "…you probably want to
Injury result of 151 or higher, the Crit rating determines
limit the number of item qualities you give a weapon to
how lethal a weapon is.
three or four at maximum…" (Genesys Core Rulebook,
The average Crit rating is 3, and without any specific rea- page 200). Anything beyond that is just too many special
son otherwise it should be your default. Increase that to rules to keep track of for one item.
4 for small-calibre weapons or those that rely on blunt-
Page 199 of the Genesys Core Rulebook has a table with
force trauma.
the price for most of the different qualities—one of
A Critical rating of 5 or 6 is for items that are either not which being the "other positive/negative quality" option
designed to be a weapon (see the various shields in that helps figure cost for anything not listed.
Realms of Terrinoth) or those designed to be less-than-
That being said, the table is not complete. There are a few
lethal (see the various stun weapons in Android: Shadow
corner cases that the table doesn't take into considera-
of the Beanstalk).
tion that I want to take some time to discuss.
Decreasing the Crit rating to 2 is for sharp edges and fine
points. Swords, knives, and weapons designed to pierce Blast
flesh easily all have a Crit rating of 2.
The Blast quality is unique, in that as well as the weapon
A Crit rating of 1 is for those weapons that are practically causing damage on a successful hit, it can cause damage
instant-death. The only existing weapon that has a Crit again when the Quality is activated. It also has the bene-
rating of 1 is the aptly-named Death Ray, found on page fit that it can be activated even on a missed attack by
154 of the Genesys Core Rulebook. spending a. However, it cannot hit the same target
twice—given that, the price shouldn't be 100/rank as for
other positive qualities. That would make it cost-pro-

weapon
Equipment Guide 5
hibitive for lower-damage weapons (Blast 4 would cost Limited Ammo
more than straight 4 damage!).
The price break of this quality is inversely proportionate
Doing some math with the existing Blast weapons, along to the rating, meaning that a lower rating (fewer combat
with several long discussions with other creators, a good checks per reload) has a higher price break than higher
price is half that of the equivalent damage. For example, ratings.
if 6 damage on a weapon would cost 250, the cost for
Since we know that combat is supposed to last around 4
Blast 6 would be 125.
or 5 rounds (Genesys Core Rulebook page 200) we start
Blast can seem quite powerful for its cost, both as a gaining a price reduction at Limited Ammo 5.
means to cause a failed combat check to cause damage
In addition, the Limited Ammo quality can also be used
anyway as well as its ability to wipe out clustered charac-
to represent one-use items like grenades. You purchase it
ters (most minion groups will not survive a hit from a
once and it works only once. For items such as this, in-
Blast weapon!) it is no less powerful than other options.
stead of the below cost adjustment, multiply the (non-
Yes, it is good at what it does, but that's the entire point
Limited Ammo- adjusted price) by 10% to 20% to get the
—it's a specialized weapon quality for a specialized pur-
cost. For example, a grenade that comes to 900 currency
pose.
becomes anywhere between 90 and 180 for a true one-
Cost: Damage cost x 0.5 use item.
Per Table III.1–2: Weapon Cost Calculations, it's -75
Breach per rank. We just start that at rank 5 and increase as the
This quality is an outlier insofar that the higher the rat- rank decreases:
ing the less likely it'll be of use—because it ignores 1 Ar- Cost: -75 at rank 5, -150 at rank 4, -225 at rank 3, -300 at
mor per rating, that corresponds to 10 soak! This quality rank 2, -375 at rank 1
is meant for anti-vehicle weapons (and the occasional
anti-personnel weapon that just doesn't care about
soak). Pierce
Like Breach, this ability gets less useful as the rating in-
Note also that, since planetary scale weapons are con-
creases. With the average soak being 3 to 4, having a
structed with the same rules, the price is only 100/rank
Pierce of 5 or more is a waste. Indeed, page 200 of the
for vehicle weapons since the final price is multiplied by
Genesys Core Rulebook suggests having a rating no
10.
higher than 5.
Cost: 1,000/rank
Cost: 100/rating

Guided Miscellaneous Qualities

While the Guided quality is its own line item on Table
There are a lot of other qualities to choose from, and not
III.1–2: Weapon Cost Calculations, I do want to bring
all of them are written in the book. You are free to come
your attention to how this quality works.
up with your own special qualities to make your setting
When activated on a miss, you can make another combat unique. However, before you do, look at the existing
check at the end of the round against an Average(kk) rules and see if something already exists that does what
difficulty with a positive dice pool of k equal to the rat- you want. The second bullet point on page 197 of the
ing. Unless the attack is made at long range or longer, Genesys Core Rulebook puts it pretty succinctly:
mathematically it's better (and cheaper, too) to use the
"For example, a poison should interact with the
Accurate quality instead.
existing wound/strain threshold system, and not
Anything at short or medium range will have a worse create an entirely new type of damage that your
time on the end-of-round combat check then initial players have to track."
combat check since the character's skill will allow for one
or more k to be used. Heck, short ranged attacks will be This holds true for most of the game system. Use what's
rolling against more k! given before you try to make something new.
The Guided quality is designed for long-range warheads. Lastly, take the other positive/negative qualities line item
Please keep it that way. with a grain of salt. Sure, it suggests 250 for a non-
Cost: 100/rating ranked quality, but I find that to be too expensive for
Knockdown—especially when compared to Auto-Fire at

weapon
6 Equipment Guide
the same price point!—so I use the 100 cost for less use- A weapon has a base number of hard points equal to one
ful qualities. And you should, too! half the encumbrance, rounded up. If you wish to give a
weapon more (perhaps this specific weapon is known for
its customizability) it should cost 100 currency per extra
Weapon Encumbrance hard point.
Unlike with armor, weapon encumbrance is based more
on the skill used than on the raw numbers of the
Weapon Price
weapon. Page 199 of the Genesys Core Rulebook sug-
Using Table III.1–2: Weapon Cost Calculations, along
gests:
with the above suggestions, you should be able to easily
• Brawl weapons should have an encumbrance of 1 figure out the price point for the new weapon.
• Melee (Light) weapons and Ranged (Light) weapons A bit of warning on price, however. many of the existing
should have an encumbrance of 1, maybe 2 weapons don't adhere to this pricing scheme, so just be
aware that this formula will give you higher prices than
• Melee (Heavy) and Ranged (Heavy) weapons
you'll see in any official publication.
should have an encumbrance of 3 or 4
Even the basic light pistol (Genesys Core Rulebook, page
• Gunnery weapons can have a lot of encumbrance, as
166) comes out to 150 with this system while the price in
much as 8 or 9
the book is only 100. Again, though, this is all just a
You are free to modify these numbers as you see fit, how- guideline for you to use as a starting off point. If you wish
ever, but they are a great starting point. to, you can of course run all the existing equipment
through these calculations so they will all be internally
Weapon Hard Points (Optional) consistent with regard to price.

Again, like with armor, hard points are an optional rule

and should only be used if they make sense for the set- Weapon Rarity
ting, as well as if the GM and players want the extra bit Again, just like with armor, use your best judgement.
of bookkeeping that comes with using these rules.

weapon
Equipment Guide 7
One of the most integral parts of any setting is the range of equipment available. It can help immediately
set the scene, as well as helping with expectations, and is frequently one of the most important things a
player considers. Each setting will have their own list of available equipment, and while the Genesys
Core Rulebook gives you a starting point, this is only the tip of the iceberg of what you or your players
may want to represent.
Due to page count constraints, the Genesys Core Rulebook doesn't go into too much detail about how
to make your own. However, help is at hand! This document is intended to expand upon the starting
suggestions contained in the material published so far, and help guide you to making your own unique
items.