Red Markets

Character creation in Red Markets begins with the selection of the character's "spots".  First they choose their "weak spot" (character flaw) and their "soft spot" (passion or sentiment).  Nex they choose (or roll) their "tough spot", a physical or social combined benefit and drawback.

For example, a player might create an "easily angered" (weak spot) character who believes in "women and children first" (soft spot), and who is a former "fencemen" (a guard of the wall keeping zombies out, who gains a bonus to attack but has nightmarish memories as a result).

Next the character chooses their Potentials (stats): Strength, Speed, Adaptability, Intelligence, Charm, and Will.  Every Potential starts at one, and the player can distribute five points between them (with a max of three in each).

Next the player distributes 20 Skill Points among various combat and non-combat skills.  Each skill has an associated Potential, and no skill can be raised higher than that Potential's score.  After that they select Dependents up to their Charm score (Dependents aid in the recovery of mental damage).

Finally, characters are given ten "bounty" to spend on their starting equipment, and then they're ready to go.  Meanwhile, during character creation The Market (ie. GM) will similarly be using a set of rules to create the Enclave that will serve as the campaign's setting.

Red Markets uses the "profit system", which involves rolling two d10s for any check: one red, and one black.  The red dice is essentially the "target number" of the roll, and the black die must beat the red for the action to be "in the black" and succeed.  A tie or lower roll results in The Market winning (ie. failure).

If both dice roll an even number the action is a critical success, and if both are odd it's a critical failure.  If all this sounds a bit ... swingy, you're correct, and in fact the game is deliberately designed to be so.

The result on the black die can be modified in several ways.  First, characters can add an applicable skill to the roll, and second they can expend relevant resources.  Finally, a character can expect a will point (a rare resource) to switch the two dice (guaranteeing success) or negate a critical failure.

Red Market has four kinds of combat actions: tactics (eg. attacking/moving), twitchs (eg. dodging), freebies (eg. talking), and tasks (longer action, eg. battlefield surgery).  Each combat round a character can either perform one tactic and one twitch OR work on a task (and in either case they can take a free action).

Initiative is determined by rolling a d10 and adding the characters speed, and combat rounds don't have a fixed duration (instead leaving it up to the GM as the drama dictates).  To act players declare their action, spend any consumables, and then roll using the standard 2d10; if the attack succeeds they determine damage.

The black die of the attack roll determines how much damage is dealt, while the red die determines which hit location the damage is dealt to (but modifiers made don't apply to the damage/hit location).  Each location can take ten points, and if the head or torso takes 10 or more points the character dies.

In addition to physical damage, characters in Red Markets also have a sort of three part "sanity score", known as Humanity.  It's divided into Detachment (from seeing bad things happen to people, especially team mates), Trauma (suffering injury, or strongly fearing it) and Stress (from financial/professional setbacks).  If a character takes five or more damage to a Humanity they suffer permanent mental injuries known as a Regret (which come in three levels: cracks, crumbles, and breaks).