In the first part, we discovered the setting for QkSLVa, the general premise for the Characters, and noted some of the references helpful in bringing the Genre to life.

Next, we Hunger for the detail of character creation, kicking off with Resources and then covering Strain—which will repeat a bit from the earlier article for ease of access, while also probably making minor changes because we’re being specific in the usage here.

That’s important, when running or playing QkSLVa, to keep in mind that the world is in a bad way, but this is not the post apolcalypse of The Walking Dead, The Road or I Am Legend (to name but a few). People still commute. They still complain about bills. Elections happen. Corporations advertise. Influencers post footage from exclusion zones. Someone somewhere still wants a parcel delivered by Tuesday.

But everything has become a little more precarious. People find it harder to get resources (with a small R). Supermarkets are still out there, but half the shelves are empty and something lives in the loading bay.

Resources

Characters have three Resources: Regret, Hunger and Edge.

As with other Sanction Genre Setups, they aren’t attributes in the conventional sense. They describe the means by which Characters impose themselves upon difficult situations and seek to overcome Challenges.

Regret

Regret measures experience bought through loss.

Use Regret when the Character’s understanding of failure, consequence, grief or previous mistakes helps them recognise what needs to happen now.

Regret might apply when comforting someone who has lost everything, recognising the signs of an approaching disaster, investigating the aftermath of an attack, persuading someone not to repeat your mistakes or forcing yourself to confront something painfully familiar.

Hunger

Hunger measures drive, appetite and the refusal to stop.

It covers literal survival, ambition, curiosity, vengeance, obsession and the basic animal instinct that says not today.

A Character uses Hunger when chasing someone through a collapsing building, forcing onward through exhaustion, digging through records for a missing connection, bargaining for something essential, resisting intimidation or fighting because there is simply too much unfinished business to die.

Edge

Edge measures alertness, training, competence under pressure and the ability to act at precisely the right moment.

You can expect to use Edge for combat, infiltration, observation, driving, emergency medicine, quick technical work, tactical decisions and anything where hesitation means losing the initiative.

Meeting A Challenge

Regret, Hunger and Edge do not neatly map to Sanction’s default Resource set of Physical, Mental and Willpower. When overcoming a Challenge, neither GM or Player should take them too literally when deciding which applies. That said, it should make sense.

A Character might legitimately use any Resources to chase someone, but the nuance should be taken into account based on who they’re chasing. A Challenge to catch up with someone might use:

Regret because you’re certain the target knows where to find your missing spouse or child, who you’ve already let down so many time.

Hunger because you’re desperate to mete out revenge on the person that killed your oldest and best friend, or

Edge because it makes sense as the default for catching someone powering ahead of you as they weave through alleyways and you’re just about keeping up with their shadow.

The Player explains the approach. The GM, or the table, decides whether it fits.

Strain

In QkSLVa, serum-enhanced action provides extraordinary capability while steadily risking transformation into the thing the Characters hunt. Strain makes that bargain a deliberate Player choice rather than a side effect randomly triggered by serum use.

As noted to the earlier Strain article, Players track their Strain on a six-box track, with Players voluntarily accumulating Strain to exceed their normal limits. At appropriate moments, usually identified by the GM, the Player must roll against their accumulated total; the more Strain they’ve taken, the more likely they become overwhelmed.

Spending What You Don’t Have

A Character begins with six empty Strain boxes. A Player may mark one Strain to push beyond ordinary human limits, tapping into their QkSLVa enhanced potential. One point allows them to:

• take an additional Action during the current Moment;
• interrupt the normal flow and act immediately;
• ignore one Hit until the immediate danger ends;
• defer up to three Consequences until the danger ends;
• perform a brief feat of explicitly superhuman strength, speed, resilience or perception;
• or turn an ordinary successful Challenge into a Monstrous Success.

A Monstrous Success goes substantially beyond the ordinary. An attack might inflict double Hits. A pursuit closes an impossible distance. The Character catches the falling concrete slab like it was made from polystyrene. They smell a vampire hidden among fifty cowering prisoners trapped in a basement.

Don’t roll again merely to see whether the serum works. When a Player commits to spending a point of Strain, it just works.

The Bill Comes Due

Strain doesn’t represent fatigue building incrementally. Nothing necessarily happens when you mark a box. The problem comes when something forces your body to account for what you’ve done.

At the end of a pressured Scene, after a particularly brutal Falter, or when the GM believes the Character has pushed QkSLVa beyond safe limits, roll d6.

If the result is higher than current Strain, keep going.

If the result is equal to or lower than current Strain, QkSLVa bites back.

When Strain Bites

When you roll against Strain and roll equal to or lower, the immediate effect depends on the current level Strain. A Character with a Strain of 1 isn’t going to freak out and slaughter everything within reach; but, they’re also not going to be much help until they recover.

Effects are not Consequences. Effects are immediare and debilitating, making useful activity nigh on impossible and, with get base Strain accumulated, posing great risk of harm to others nearby.

Strain	Effect
1–2	Shakes, nausea, sensory overload, aggression.
3–4	Blackout, hallucination, uncontrolled violence, compulsive behaviour, temporary or partial transformation.
5	Serious psychotic episode or monstrous physical manifestation.
6	Transformation. The Character crosses the line and QkSLVa has finished its work.

At six, there isn’t anywhere left to go. The Character crosses the line. Exactly what that means should be agreed at the table. They might become an NPC immediately. There might be one final Scene of lucidity. Perhaps the rest of the Squad has a chance to bring them down. But QkSLVa has finished its work and the asset has become a liability.

Recovery

Strain should be difficult to remove, otherwise the choice to spend it becomes trivial.

After genuine safety and recuperation, clear one Strain. This probably means between sessions of an adventure, or during a clearly defined period of inactivity built into a session where days of downtime pass.

A Character can clear one Strain through meaningful human connection: confession, reconciliation, returning home, helping someone without orders, sharing a meal, doing something that reminds the Character why being human matters. The table should play this out as a roleplayed scene involving the affected Character and one or more of their companions.

A prolonged period away from deployment can clear all remaining Strain. This likely happens between adventures, but the GM has the call on how much time passes and whether the period offered adequate opportunity for recovery. Old School thinking might lean into a random roll to determine the number of Strain recovered. You might even consider rolling two dice with equal side and deduct the second from the first to determine recovery, representing time spent resting balanced against demands as a Silver Team Field Asset to complete minor tasks or sorties.

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Question? I look forward to reading about it in your RPGaDay post.

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