This guide is written with the assumption that the person reading it will serve the role of

Gamemaster (or GM).

As the Gamemaster, you will be the player who plays as the world surrounding the main
Ryders and Allies - from the side characters that populate the city to the kaijin that they
will fight. You will also serve as the facilitator for play and ensure that the players are
comfortable at the table.

WHAT YOU WILL NEED

A copy of the character keeper or printouts of the character sheets

As many six-sided dice as you can find

At least

An agreement on how long you will play the game for

A check in to see what topics and subject matters the players are comfortable with
exploring

(As a general ruling, LUMEN RYDER CORE episodes should be around PG or PG-13)

HOW TO APPROACH THIS GAME

Lumen Ryder Core is a tactical-lite, flavour-heavy tokusatsu tabletop role-playing game for 2-6
players and a gamemaster where you play as masked superheroes and their eclectic group of
allies battling an evil organization.

Expect melodrama and cheesy one-liners. Expect your characters to be larger than life and
overcome impossible odds with the power of their hearts, friendship, and willpower.

Expect combat to be fast, lethal, and dramatic with lots of cool martial arts moves and gaudy CGI-
effect being thrown about the battlefield.

Approach this game like how an 8-year old kid would approach their action figures. Approach this
game with a strong sense of earnestness. Approach this game to have fun and double down on
the part of your brain that loves wackiness and absurdity.

Lumen Ryder Core is inspired by tokusatsu works like Kamen Rider, Super Sentai, Samurai
Flamenco, Metal Hero, and Spiderman. It is NOT affiliated with any existing franchise.
STARTING YOUR FIRST GAME
1. Setting Creation

1. Take turns to generate answers for each category.

2. After each category is filled up, spend a moment to ask each other questions about
what interests you about what you’ve created and expand upon them by adding more
details and note them down.
3. Sometimes, the table might find itself jumping ahead and filling out other categories
before finishing the category they are on. That’s fine!
4. Conversation should open-ended and free-flowing.
2. Character Creation

5. Create your Names and Catchphrase

6. Fill out your bio by picking options or rolling on the list
7. (optional) Select a faceclaim
3. Ally Creation

8. Skills

1. Pick 4 skills from one category, 2 from another category, and 2 from the remaining
category.
2. You get 1 Use (and, by extent, 1 Maximum) for each to begin with.
9. Ally Stats

3. Distribute 6 points amongst Strategy, Fighting, and Support, with at least one in
each.
4. Create a Signature Tool, Weapon, and Gadget/Medium for your Strategy,
Fighting, and Support stats respectively
4. Ryder Creation
10. Skills

5. Pick 3 skills from one category, 2 from another category, and 1 from the remaining
category.
6. You get 1 Use (and, by extent, 1 Maximum) for each to begin with.
11. Basic Forms

7. Start the game with 1 Basic Form but gain another one at the start of the next
session.
8. Distribute 6 points amongst Power, Speed, and Focus, with at least one in each.
9. Describe your Aesthetic.
10. Select or roll for your Weapon and Special Attacks.
11. Reskin or rename your Weapon and Special Attacks to fit your Aesthetic.
12. Set your Ryder’s Armour to 12.

EPISODE GUIDE
Episodes (or play sessions) of LUMEN RYDER will typically take anywhere from 2 to 3 hours, with
an extra 1 to 2 hours for setting and character creation. For games with 5-6 players, anticipate the
possibility that the game might go on for a big longer than expected and plan your episodes
accordingly.

Episodes are divided into phases: a Drama phase, an Investigation phase, and a Combat phase.
A typical episode usually follows this formula:
 1. Drama Phase
2. First Combat Phase
3. Investigation Phase
4. Second Combat Phase

Feel free to play around with the order of phases and move from phase to phase depending on
the flow of the story.

Drama Phases
Drama Phases are for exploring your characters and their place in the world. This is where you’ll
make your characters and the city feel real and lived-in. Start by having your characters interact
with one another and showing what their day to day lives look like.

Start by using one of these establishing prompts below. Feel free to pick from the list or roll 1d6
to generate an option.

1. Describe what normal life looks like for you

2. Describe how your lives have been disrupted by your role as Ryders and Allies
3. Describe how the city is being changed, positively or negatively, by your actions
4. Describe how the city is being changed, positively or negatively, by the actions of the evil
organization
5. Add a new detail to your city or explore a new location
6. Introduce a side character and describe if they are related to the ongoing kaiju attacks or
your character arcs

Then use one of these character prompts as a way to explore a certain aspect of your
characters. Feel free to pick from the list or roll 1d6 to generate an option.

1. Talk about your ideals

2. Talk about your motives
3. Talk about your backstories
4. Talk about the ideological themes of your respective journeys
5. Have a flashback to when the evil organization ruined your lives
6. Have a flashback to your lives before you became Ryders

Use as many establishing and character prompts as you wish and take as long as you’d like,
even if you only end up doing drama phases for the whole episode.

When the time feels right or you have explored what you have set out to explore, move on to an
investigation or combat phase.

Investigation Phases
Investigation Phases are for investigating the kaijin-of-the-week and the machinations of the evil
organization.

Then use one of these mystery prompts as a way to explore a certain aspect of your characters.
Feel free to pick from the list or roll 1d6 to generate an option.
 1. The team hears reports of kaijin attacks in the city.

1. (GM answers: Is there a pattern to them?)

2. Strange incidents start happening in the city after a mysterious stranger appears in
town.
2. (GM answers: how are they related to at least one of the team?)
3. Whispers of the evil organization pulling strings from behind the curtain.

3. (GM answers and foreshadows: What are they really planning?)

4. A citizen of the city approaches the team for help.
4. (GM answers: What is their request and why is it difficult for the team to handle?)
5. A member of the evil organization approaches the team to make a deal.

5. (GM answers secretly: What do they ask of the team? What are their true intentions?)
6. The team discovers a vital clue about how to defeat the evil organization.
6. (GM answers openly: What is the nature of the clue? What will the team have to sacrifice in
order to make good use of it?)

Each kaijin will have a true weakness that can only be discovered through investigation. Without
first understanding and making use of a true weakness, the kaijin will not be able to be defeated.

The Gamemaster should not prepare this before the episode begins but rather select or generate
one at the start of the investigation phase. Feel free to pick from the list or roll 1d6 to generate
an option.

1-2: A personal connection or relationship

(GM answers secretly: What connection or relationship would cause a kaijin or their human
host to ally with the evil organization? How can this be solved with the power of the human
heart?)
3-4: A personal struggle or pain

(GM answers secretly: What personal struggle or pain would cause this kaijin or the kaijin’s
human host to ally with the evil organization? How can this be solved with the power of the
human heart?)
5-6: A physical vulnerability
(GM answers secretly: What part of their biology or fighting style reveals a specific
vulnerability? How can this be solved with tactics and strategy?)

The team will then investigate this mystery by spending skill points and describing how you use
that particular skill to further the investigation. Spending a skill point will always further the
investigation, regardless of how well the skill seems to fit the current situation. Players are
encouraged to bend logic to their will and come up with unlikely or even absurd solutions to their
problems.

As a general rule of thumb: the characters will discover the kaijin’s true weakness after
spending around 4-6 skill points.

Investigation phases end just when the characters are about to discover the kaijin’s true
weakness, prompting the Ryders to engage the kaijin in a combat phase. The Allies will then
have to complete the investigation mid-battle and inform the Ryders of their kaijin’s true
weakness in order for them to defeat it.
Note that regardless of what kind of investigation takes place, the story will always lead to a
combat phase - even if combat seems unlikely. A classic trope of the tokusatsu genre is that
there will always be some kind of combat scene shoehorned into the story, at least once an
episode.

Combat Phases
Combat begins when the Ryder team engages directly with an enemy. First, take turns to
describe how battle is initiated then switch to a stock battle location. Feel free to create your
own, pick from the list below, or roll 2d6 to generate one.

1-3 4-6

1 Abandoned Factory Train Station Staircase

2 Empty Parking Lot Office Building Rooftop

3 Gravel Beach Rock Quarry

4 Stadium Entrance Shopping Mall Outdoor Court

5 Riverside Auditorium Harbour Warehouse

6 Pedestrian Walkway Forest Reservation

Enemy Types
There are three different types of enemy: combatmen, kaijin, and bosses:

Combatmen are disposable mooks who merely exist to be destroyed and generate Assists
and Combo for the Allies and Ryders.

Kaijin are mid-level monsters who will serve as the central threat of most battles.

Bosses are extremely powerful and hard to defeat. They can only be defeated with a Ryder’s
final form.
Rules for creating and playing Bosses will be coming in future updates.

A standard combat phase usually has one group of Combatmen and one Kaijin.

Combat Rounds
1. The GM describes the battlefield and what the enemies are about to do.

2. Allies describe what they’re doing and choose their action type and then roll a dice pool
equal to their action stat. They pick the highest number from their dice pool.
1. On a 1-4: They Stumble, add 2 Assists to the Assist Track and activate a Complication.

2. On a 5-6:** They get a Success** and add 4 Assists to their Assist Track.
3. They then spend their Assists to invoke advantages from the chosen action type.
 1. For example, if an Ally rolls with Fighting, they may spend their Assists to invoke
advantages such as “Move an enemy or Ryder to any position” or “Reduce 1 Harm
from an attack”
3. Ryders then describe what they intend to do. The GM will then tell them which action stat is
the most appropriate choose their action and roll, making their Special Attacks or changing
their Form if they have enough Combo.

4. On a 1-3: (Failure) An enemy makes an action

5. On a 4-5: (Partial Success) Both you and an enemy make an action

6. On a 6: (Success) You make an action

7. On an action, Ryders get to do these moves in order:

2. Change Form (Spend 1 Combo)

3. Move
4. Attack - Deal your Weapon’s Harm to a target Enemy
5. Special Attack (Spend 1 or 3 Combo)
4. The Enemies make an action

8. The number of enemies that make an action will be equal to the number of Ryders on
the battlefield
9. GM decides which enemies will make an action

In between rounds, gamemasters can change up the game by adding light complications. Feel
free to pick from the list below or roll 1d6 to generate a light complication.

1. The battlefield changes in a big way

2. Civilians get in the way of battle
3. An enemy makes use of the environment
4. There’s a new problem to address
5. An enemy adapts to your attacks and tactics
6. An enemy uses an attack in an unexpected way

Ending Combat
If the team has not yet discovered a kaijin’s true weakness, combat will end when the kaijin’s
Armour has been reduced to zero or when the battle reaches the 4th Round. In both cases, the
kaijin will either run away or defeat the Ryders in an unexpected way. If the heads of the evil
organization have been revealed, they might also intervene and whisk the kaijin away to safety.

If the team has discovered a kaijin’s true weakness, combat will end when the team has taken
advantage of the true weakness and/or reduced the kaijin’s Armour to zero. Defeating a kaijin
does not have to end in violence and sometimes all it takes is speaking your heart or appealing to
their emotions. At the end of the day, the table will have to decide whichever is the most
dramatically appropriate.

HARM & ARMOUR

When you successfully attack, you deal your weapon’s Harm to your chosen target’s Armour. For
example, if you deal 2 Harm to a Kaijin, you reduce their Armour by 2 and vice versa.

Armour refreshes in between combat phases and can be restored using Ally moves.
RANGE
Every weapon and special attack has a range which falls under Close, Mid, and/or Far:

Close: within melee range or a few steps away** **(0-1m)

Mid: within reach or a quick sprint (2-10m)
Far: within a considerable distance (11+m)

You may only attack within your designated range and if you to attack a target not within your
range, the GM will ask you how you go about getting them within range and asking you to roll
with the appropriate stat.

ASSISTS
Assists represent how able an Ally is capable of helping a Ryder out this round. Assists refresh to
0 at the start of every round.

Allies also gain** +1 Assist to their track for every extra 6 you roll on a Success.**

COMBO
Combo represents the momentum of battle and is what Ryders will spend to activate their special
attacks.

Ryders gain +1 Combo:

for every 6 you roll on a successful action

for every 1-3 you roll on a failed action

Ryders gain +2 Combo:

when you take advantage of an enemy's True Weakness, once per episode
you receive a character-changing revelation, once per episode

COMBATMEN STATS
Scaling: Each group of Combatmen will start with a minimum of 4 Combatmen with an additional
2 added for every player character (Ally and Ryder) on the battlefield.

A group of Combatmen count as one enemy. Combatmen have Size instead of Armour, with each
point of Size corresponding to 1 Combatman. This means that, for example, if you deal 3 Harm to
a group of Combatmen, 3 Combatmen will be taken out.

Size: 4 + (2 x player characters on the battlefield)

 Harm:

Size 1-5: 1 Harm Close

Size 6-10: 2 Harm Close
Size 11+: 3 Harm Close
Actions:

Attack
Specials

Fount: When an entire battalion of Combatmen are defeated, all Allies take 2 Assists to
the next round and all Ryders get +2 Combo.

SAMPLE KAIJIN
Scaling: If 2 or more Ryders are engaging in combat with only 1 Kaijin, give that Kajin +1 Armour
for every additional Ally and +2 Armour for every additional Ryder.

SPIDER KAIJIN

Starting Armour: 8

Basic Moves

Fang Attack: 3 Harm Close

Dart Shot: 2 Harm Mid
Resistances

When a Ryder makes a Speed Attack against you, remove the highest die from their
roll.
When a Ryder makes a Focus Attack against you, they get +1d to their roll but deal -1
Harm
Special Moves

Spin Dash: when a Ryder attacks you from Mid/Far range, take -1 Harm and move up
to Close range.
Lock (Web Shot): Restrain a Ryder to one location for the next round. They will then
take +2 Harm if they are attacked while restrained.

BAT KAIJIN
Starting Armour: 6

Basic Moves

Vampiric Claws: 3 Harm Close

Resistances

When a Ryder makes a Focus Attack against you, remove the highest die from their
roll.
When a Ryder makes a Power Attack against you, they get -1d to their roll but deal +1
Harm
Specials
 Rush Bee: If a Ryder ends their turn within Far range, jump in and deal 2 Harm then
move back to Far range.
Fast Footwork: If a Ryder ends their turn within Mid range, jump in and deal 2 Harm
then move to Far range.

COMING SOON
Guides for creating Super and Final Forms for Ryders
Advances for Allies to reshape the battlefield in more powerful ways
More rulings and prompts for Drama and Investigation phases
20+ Ally Types, each with their own unique skillsets
An in-depth Kaijin / Boss Generator
Custom Weapon Generation Tables
Pregenerated Ryders and Kaijin for quick use
And more…