A game of high-tech spying in the second medieval age
by Lucian Smith
version 0.4 beta
Renaissance Force is a group dedicated to rebuilding the Earth. In a post-apocalyptic future where civilizations on Earth have regressed to Middle Ages cultures and technology, Renaissance Force members have access to advanced human and alien technology, and are using them in secret to encourage a rebirth of civilization--a second Renaissance.
As a game, Renaissance Force allows you to play the part of secret heroes; of spies who work for the people you spy on, but not allowed to let them know. You are highly competent at what you do, equipped with the latest and greatest in technological gadgetry, and will be executing well-planned and thought out missions.
But, of course, things will go wrong. And when they do, it's your wits that will save you, not your equipment. And that's why they picked you to be a member of Renaissance Force.
Before getting into the specifics, I feel it's important to convey the basic premise behind the setting, both so you can feel confident when adding new elements to your own campaign, and so that if you disagree with any of the premises provided, you know where to start looking for things to change.
At its most basic, RF is about the players having technology better than ours, and using it in secret in a world where the technology is worse than ours. The genesis of this idea was literally a dream I had where Sydney from 'Alias' was flitting furtively around a battle scene from 'Lord of the Rings'. Or think of that scene from the last episode of season four of 'Babylon Five' where we saw a monk on a post-apocalyptic Earth who was secretly a Ranger, making a report to his off-planet superiors. Other sources of inspiration might include "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court", "In the Garden of Iden", and “The Cross-Time Engineer” [any others?].
For no reason other than personal preference, I have chosen to make all the speculative science-fiction elements presented herein on the plausible end of the scale rather than the fantastic. More Heinlein, less Star Trek. This meant that I had to come up with the basic mechanics of how something might work before including it. So, for example, when I considered adding alien shape-shifters to the mix, I tried to come up with a plausible system whereby an organism might be able to physically change its shape. A 'device that reads people's minds' is out, but a device that performs a covert CAT-scan of a subject's brain linked with a computer that correlates the real-time image with previously-obtained scans of the same subject under known stimuli would be fine. Of course, what's plausible to me might not be plausible to you (or, more importantly, your gaming group), so feel free to make adjustments accordingly--either to the content you choose to retain for your own campaign, or to the belief that your game takes place in a 'plausible' setting.
Speculative elements of this future Earth's history, culture, and technology were likewise constrained to be 'plausible'. However, since I am a student of science and not of history, these bits are less completely developed. So, when I posit that an Ice Age 'caused world governments to collapse', I don't know much more than that, since I don't know enough about world politics to envision that scenario in much detail. If you are a student of history, it might be instructive to imagine what specifically would be necessary for such a scenario--those specifics can add life to your campaign.
The aliens in the game are intended to play a secondary role--the game is primarily about the human condition. As such, their role in the setting is to serve as encouragers or as tempters, but rarely as direct helpers or direct opponents. The apocalypse itself was conceived as a wholly-human endeavor before any alien influence appeared, and Restoration, though alien-influenced, should likewise be fundamentally human in nature.
A game of Renaissance Force will likely focus on action and adventure, but these philosophical underpinnings should serve as a foundation for the fun.
Précis:
500 years in Earth’s future, most of mankind has forgotten what it once knew. Humanity lives as it once did in the middle ages in Europe, with self-serving local kings and rulers squabbling with each other and living on the backs of the peasantry. But a small group of men and women, assisted by watchful aliens, attempt in secret to speed up the course of history and usher in a new age of humanity. They call themselves Renaissance Force.
History:
In our near future, the marginalization of the American empire brings about (more) global instability. Everyone also continues pumping CO2 into the environment, exacerbating global warming, which brings with it more extreme weather--floods, drought, hurricanes and typhoons, ice stoooooorms, etc.
With all this going wrong, the space program is canceled. With a great effort on the part of NASA and Roskosmos (the Russian Federal Space Agency), one final mission is allowed to the International Space Station, intended to set up the station to be fully automated for up to 20 years. Old shuttles are hauled out of storage and launched, filled with the necessary fuel and supplies for the station, and astronauts fall over themselves in an effort to get into space one last time. The crews assemble on the station… and during their 2-week stay, a class 6 hurricane sweeps across Florida, gathers power again in the gulf, and hits Houston. All shuttle runways are strewn with debris, and Mission Control is without power. The two-week stay lengthens to two months. Mobs of angry citizens, without electricity or fresh water, demand the government’s already limited disaster-relief efforts be spent on them, rather than on a program already slated to be dismantled. Mission control shuts its doors, and tells the astronauts to land in Russia. As these logistics are worked out, a fire breaks out at Mission Control Kaliningrad, cutting off communication and further delaying the end of the mission. After another two months of sporadic communication, the Moscow elite finally put together a risky plan to land the fleet of shuttle and soyuz spacecraft…and get no response from the ISS. When telescopes are trained on the station, no spacecraft are seen docked there any more. Two days later, a ham operator in Japan comes forward to say he picked up a message from the ISS crew: “We’ll be back.” Nobody believes him.
On the station, four days earlier, had come a remarkable event in human history: first contact with an alien species. Silently decloaking meters away, the aliens transmitted a message: "Your planet is dying. The current cycle of global warming will end, and glacial ice sheets will advance once again. Your governments barely hold the capacity to deal with the current set of pressures, and will surely collapse. Come with us, learn our technology, and one day, your ancestors will be sent back to help rebuild. Or stay behind, and share the fate of your planet, alone." After a hurried meeting, the astronauts voted 11 to 4 to go with the aliens. The shuttles were loaded into the bay of the alien ship, and it disappeared back into the void.
The aliens that gathered the humans turned out to be members of a race called the Stolarch. The humans found their rescuers to be massive, extremely slow and ponderous creatures, taking days before making up their minds about the simplest decisions. They were dismayed to find that the shipful of Stolarch that had picked them up were considered flighty and impetuous by the rest of the galactic Stolarch, and that their actions had been taken without the blessing of the Chancel, the Stolarch ruling council. After a fierce debate at which the humans present fell asleep, the Chancel finally decided to allow the humans to live as refugees in their cities and on their planets. But they and their descendants were absolutely forbidden to ever return to Earth.
Decades passed. The astronauts worked with Stolarch scientists to apply Stolarch genetic engineering principles to human biology, clearing the human genome of obvious defects, and supplementing it to allow humans to survive on alien nutrients and in alien environments. Humans multiplied and spread throughout the civilized galaxy, but a dedicated few petitioned the Chancel year after year to allow them to return to Earth and help rebuild. For over five centuries, they were denied.
Then a discovery changed everything. The Stolarch were not the only race of aliens in the galaxy, merely the most numerous, steadfast, longest-lived, and suited to governing. Most other races accepted the stability the Stolarch brought with them, but centuries ago, the Reazi had rebelled. They were summarily crushed. But the Reazi had survived in the fringes of civilization and the emptiness of space, nimble enough to escape the ponderous (though thorough) Stolarch patrols. And though the Chancel adopted a strict non-interference policy on almost all matters (including that on Earth), evidence was brought to the Chancel proving that the Reazi had infiltrated Earth societies on a massive scale in the last century. Though their purpose was unknown, it was clear a response was needed.
Twenty years later, Renaissance Force was born. It is charged with two missions. One, to thwart whatever plans the Reazi may have for Earth. Two, to help encourage Earth development to the point where they may join the other races in the galaxy as equals. The Chancel strictly limits the degree to which they may influence planet-side events, but they do provide support and resources, as they feel responsible for allowing the Reazi onto the planet. Ultimately, though, it is a human problem, and they feel strongly that it should be solved by humans.
Since its inception, members of a few of the other alien races have applied and been accepted for inclusion in Renaissance Force teams. The greatest number of these have been Jarou: small, vaguely mammalian creatures with flexible musculature, yards of loose skin that tucks away adaptively, and a rearrangable skeletal system. In other words, shape-shifters. These remarkable creatures evolved on a volatile planet where the climate shifted dramatically from year to year, and the terrain shifted dramatically from decade to decade from tremendous tectonic forces. Eventually, however, these forces ripped their planet apart, and they have also been living as refugees amongst the Stolarch ever since. By allying with the humans, some Jarou hope to secure a new homeland for their race on Earth once Earth humans are welcomed into galactic society. In the mean time, their technological prowess and their ability to mimic a wide variety of Earth fauna has made them invaluable members of Renaissance Force teams.
Meanwhile, on Earth, things collapsed as predicted by the Stolarch. The severe climate changes either destroyed or greatly diminished farming capacity, and faced with no way to feed everyone, the old empires collapsed and fragmented. Over the next century, high technology was discarded in favor of subsistence technology. Mass communication fell into disuse as infrastructure broke down and no one locality cared to fix it. New, smaller governments arose that focused mostly on local defense and personal power. A new dark ages, this one global in scope, had begun.
Today, the Earth's population is again stable, and population density is beginning to rise once more in some areas due to agricultural advances. But human cooperation on a grand scale has yet to be rediscovered. The Reazi would like to keep it that way. Renaissance Force has vowed to change it.
Characters in Renaissance Force are defined by a combination of things intrinsic to the character, and things acquired by the character. Intrinsic to a character are race and background. Things that can be acquired are command level, skills, augmentations, and equipment.
There are three racial templates provided by the Renaissance Force system: Humans raised in space, humans raised on Earth, and Jarou. More templates may be devised and used by players according to group consensus. Humans raised in space are the default--they are by far the most numerous members of Renaissance Force, and may acquire anything as they see fit. These are humans who have lived as refugees on alien planets for generations, and have enlisted or been recruited to help rebuild the human home world. Humans raised on Earth are less common, but not unheard of. They are the ones who found out about RenForce by accident or by design, and were recruited into the system to help their compatriots. They find it harder to use RenForce equipment, and augmentations must be specially adapted to fit their unfamiliar (to RenForce techs) biology. However, their familiarity with modern Earth customs make them invaluable members of their teams. Jarou are the shape-shifting aliens mentioned in the 'History' section whose home world literally imploded many generations ago. They come with certain natural augmentations as a result of their body chemistry, and naturally adapt to changing situation much more rapidly than humans do. Their appearance naturally changes the nature of their possible interactions with planetside humans.
While a player character's race must fall into a predefined template, a player character's background is entirely defined by the player. The character's background may be as detailed or as sparse as the player wishes, but in game terms, the essence of the character's background should be expressed as an adjective, profession, or some other short phrase. If you were introducing the character, you would use this term. "This is Charles Gault, the engineer." "Jamie Reynolds, smartest kid in her class." "Klickitt Mar Tumbler, Jarou trickster." "Pauline Minn, an orphaned farm kid who turned out to have a surprising affinity for guns." A character's background should give you an indication of how they approach life and try to solve basic problems.
The things a character can acquire can either be accumulated over the character's career with Renaissance Force (command level and augmentations), or they can be traded out on a per-mission basis (skills and equipment). A character's command level is their military rank within Renaissance Force. In game terms, when a character in the group has a higher rank, the players have more say over missions, from the details of the mission plan to the types of missions the groups perform. Augmentations are technological improvements or changes to the character's body--technological implants, say, or biotic symbionts. In game terms, an augmentation allows the character's player to more directly influence the character's success or failures at particular tasks.
Skills and equipment are often both mission-specific. As such, preparation for a mission often involves being trained in new skills and being issued new equipment. Each character will have a certain number of 'active skill slots' which they can fill with whatever they like at the beginning of each mission. Likewise, they will have a certain number of 'equipment points' they can spend to be issued equipment at the beginning of a mission. Some players might want their characters to specialize, and end up with the same basic set of skills and equipment each mission, while others might want their characters to branch out more often. Both methods end up with equally accomplished characters.
The Conflict system in Renaissance Force is designed to be very simple. All characters are assumed to be good at what they do, and when they try to do something, they will always know if they have a good chance of succeeding, a poor chance of succeeding, or a 50-50 chance of succeeding.
There are four levels of skill: Unskilled, Basic, Trained, and Specialized. Unskilled means the character has no experience accomplishing the task in question, Basic means the character's background has given them experience accomplishing the task (or tasks like it), and Trained and Specialized levels can be reached during training for a particular mission (a skill in a character's 'active skill slot' can be either level).
When two characters (PCs or NPCs) attempt to accomplish conflicting goals, the relative value of their best relevant skills are compared. If one is better than the other, the character with the higher level will almost always succeed. If they are equal, it's even odds as to who will prevail.
Similarly, some tasks succeed or fail simply based on the intrinsic difficulty of the task. Task difficulties come at four levels that corresponds to the skill levels: Simple, Hard, Difficult, and Inconceivable. Similar to conflict resolution between characters, Unskilled players have even odds to accomplish Simple tasks, Basic-level skills have even odds to accomplish Hard tasks, Trained-level skills have even odds to accomplish Difficult tasks, and Specialized-level skills have even odds to accomplish the Inconceivable (thank you, William Goldman). If the gaming group wishes, an additional 'level zero' can be added for Automatic tasks. Even unskilled characters almost always succeed when doing something with an Automatic difficulty. 'Almost always' is not 'always', though.
Mechanically, task success is determined by rolling dice. The player rolls one die for their character, and the GM rolls one die for the NPC or the environment (if the environment 'wins', that means the player's character failed). The 'normal thing' usually happens, but if they tie, something unusual happens. To determine what, exactly, consult the following chart:
|
Skill/difficulty level difference |
Dice do not match |
Dice are tied |
|
No difference |
The person rolling the higher die wins the conflict. |
Something unrelated to the direct conflict interferes, changing the tactical situation and delaying resolution of the conflict. |
|
One level difference |
The person with the higher skill level wins the conflict |
The person with the lower skill level wins the conflict. |
|
Two levels difference |
The person with the higher skill level wins the conflict |
The person with the lower skill level rolls another die. If it, too, ties, that person wins. Otherwise, conflict resolution is delayed by outside interference. |
|
Three levels difference |
No dice are rolled. The person with the higher skill level simply wins the conflict. |
|
[Possible addendum: The winner of a conflict gets to narrate what happens. 'Conflict is delayed' may be narrated by the first person with a good idea.]
In a standard Renaissance Force game, the dice rolled will be d10s, putting the chance of something unusual happening during any given conflict at 10%. However, groups the collectively decide they want to see more unusual things happening can use lower-sided dice, while groups that want to see less unusual things happening can use higher-sided dice.
Later on in the rules, we will see that the GM and players will have resources that allow them to change their die roll, usually so that they will tie (in other words, the player with the advantage cannot usually increase their advantage, but the player with the disadvantage may sometimes expend resources to allow them to succeed or at least delay). Conflict resolution may proceed after all such modifications are performed.
It's time for an example! Let's say Sydney is a Renaissance Force operative whose background is 'Spy'. This gives her Basic-level skills for all things spy-related. She is trying to sneak inside a compound past Hernando, the guard. The guard, too, will therefore have Basic-level skills for all things related to guarding stuff. If Sydney wants to sneak into the compound, but has no current active skill slots filled in with anything related to sneaking, she would therefore have only a 50/50 chance of succeeding. Sydney's player would roll a die, the GM would roll another die, and whoever rolled higher would win--if Sydney's player won, Sydney would successfully sneak into the compound, and if the GM won, the guard would notice and sound the alarm.
If they both rolled the same number, something unrelated should happen that keeps Sydney from entering the compound, keeps the guard from noticing her, and changes the tactical situation. The GM traditionally has the duty of coming up with something here, but some groups may wish to experiment with passing that duty to others, so if anyone has a cool idea they can share it and have it happen.
In this instance, possible things that could happen on a tie include: just as Sydney is about to sneak into the compound, a second guard emerges--it's time for a shift change. The two guards start chatting, which is somewhat distracting, but the new guard is now directly facing the bushes where Sydney is hiding. Or: before Sydney can start out, a squirrel runs across the clearing by the guard. The dogs, tied up on the other side of the fence, start barking furiously.
If Sydney had received training before the mission in Sneaking Around, her skill level would then outrank the guards, and she would be successful nine times out of ten (if using d10s). Only if the dice tied would she have failed due to something unusual happening. That unusual thing could be similar to the things mentioned before, except that this time they directly lead to her failure--a second guard emerges just as she's trying to sneak by the door, or the dogs are alarmed at a squirrel, causing Hernando to turn and look directly at her.
Conversely, if it was Hernando who had been trained in Spotting Intruders, it would be Sydney with the disadvantage, and could only hope to succeed if the changing of the guard or a squirrel alarming the dogs provided sufficient distraction. If Sydney was trained in Sneaking Around and Hernando was trained in Spotting Intruders, both would again have the same skill level, and whoever rolled higher would succeed.
It's important to note that if the mission plans call for Sydney to sneak into the compound, she should never leave the station without training to do so successfully. If it's known a guard will be there, Sydney should take Sneaking Around (or the like) as one of her active skills. If it's known that a guard trained in Spotting Intruders will be there, Sydney should take a Specialized active skill. More on this later, but a specialized skill applies only in limited situations--Sneaking Past Hernando, say.
Renaissance Force teams are assigned to go on missions to accomplish various tasks. Within the RenForce hierarchy, there are [Generals] who are in charge of different geographical areas, [Corporals] who report to the Generals, and are in charge of particular goals within those geographical areas, [Lieutenants] who report to the Corporals, and decide what missions need to be performed to accomplish those goals, [Majors] who detail the plans for the missions, and, finally, Privates who go out and actually execute the missions. By default, all starting characters are Privates, which means they are handed missions and told to go do them. But as the characters complete missions and gain experience points, their players may choose to spend those points to go up in rank and begin to plan their own missions and goals.
A mission proceeding according to plan should be roleplayed fairly rapidly. Think of TV shows where we see a scene of the mission briefing, and as the details are explained, the briefing goes to voice-over and we flash-forward to scenes of the mission being accomplished. Of course, a mission that proceeded entirely according to plan would be boring. So when the unexpected happens and a character fails (a tie is rolled or engineered) we 'zoom in' on the situation, and answer the question, "How are we going to get out of *this* one?" Characters don't actually receive experience points for completing missions. They receive experience points from resolving these crises.
A crisis starts when the unexpected happens. It ends when the mission either can continue or must be aborted. If it was resolved satisfactorily, the characters involved in resolving the crisis receive a number of experience points proportional to the severity of the crisis. These experience points represent the increased clout the character holds within the Renaissance Force organization.
First, determine the things intrinsic to your character: race and background. Race is chosen from one of the following racial templates, or you can create your own--anything that your playing group deems acceptable. For example, if you liked the idea of playing a human raised on Earth, but didn't like the human from Earth template, you might be able to convince your group to let you take the human from Space template instead.
Jarou are the shape-shifting aliens mentioned in the 'History' section whose home world literally imploded many generations ago. They come with certain natural augmentations as a result of their body chemistry, and naturally adapt to changing situation much more rapidly than humans do. Their appearance naturally changes the nature of their possible interactions with planetside humans.
[Dunno about this one. The idea would be that you'd play a clone of one of the original ISS crew, since initial human expansion was largely from cloning, what with the population size being so small and all.]
Your character's background may be anything you like that can be summed up in a few words. It works best as an adjective or a profession, and should represent how a character approaches most situations. A Strong character’s first instinct would be to overpower obstacles, while an Intelligent character might try to think their way out. A Soldier might analyze the situation tactically or just follow orders, and a Spy’s first response might be to lie. The interpretation is left to the player, but a good rule of thumb is that a character’s background should be applicable about 70-85% of the time.
The next thing to do is to divvy up Character Points into skill slots, equipment points, and augmentations. Skill slots represent your ability to be trained in new skills. You may fill your skill slots with new skills between missions by being trained at Renaissance Force HQ. Any skill slot may be filled with a Trained or Specialized skill; a Trained skill should have reasonably broad applicability, and is one skill level above Basic (the level of your background). A Specialized skill is typically applicable in a single situation, and hence is typically mission-specific (or even mission-critical). These skills are two skill levels above Basic.
Equipment points represent your requisition authority, so again, between missions you may trade in old equipment and check out new things. See Appendix I for a list of possible equipment, and for rules on 'pricing' your own equipment innovations. In general, one point of equipment should get you an item that allows you to perform one skill, with the bonus that you can give it to someone, but with the drawback that you can lose or break it.
Augmentation slots are for permanent enhancements to your person. Unlike equipment or skills, once you take one, it's permanent ('temporary augmentations' would be found on the equipment list). Appendix II has a list of possible augmentations, and rules for 'pricing' your own augmentation innovations. In general, spending one character point on an augmentation should give your character an ability a bit more powerful than a single skill, with the bonus that it cannot be taken away, but with the drawback that you can't change it later on.
You may leave character points unspent; experience will give you more character points to spend on the same things later on.
Finally, whatever your character, the player has a ten-point Murphy Points pool, named after Murphy's axiom: if anything can go wrong, it will. They'll be used when things go wrong. In addition, for every ten experience points a character receives, the player's Murphy Point pool increases by one. And while we're on the subject of experience…
As characters go on missions and surmount obstacles, they receive experience points that convert to character points at a 10:1 ratio. These character points may be spent the same way initial character points are spent. In addition, players may pool their character points and buy advances in command level as a group. For every command level the group advances, one character is officially promoted to that level (either the character that contributed more XP, or by group consensus), and the rest of the group is (potentially) promoted to levels below the new level, as seems reasonable. If the group reaches the Corporal level, for example, one person is chosen to actually be promoted to Corporal, and the rest of the characters may be promoted to Lieutenants and Majors if they wish. The promotions may be chosen at the discretion of the character's player; it has no game effect in terms of mechanics. Players are all expected to participate in the planning and strategizing at whatever level the group as a whole has reached. The costs and abilities of each command level are given on the following chart:
|
Command Level |
Cost |
Advantage |
|
Private |
0 |
None |
|
[Major] |
1x/characters in group +1 |
May plan missions. |
|
[Lieutenant] |
2x/characters in group +2 |
May decide what missions to go on, given a general goal. 2 discretionary equipment points are allotted to the group to spend as they wish. |
|
[Corporal] |
4x/characters in group +4 |
May choose the goal the group wishes to pursue as well. Everyone in the group may receive one free augmentation, regardless of cost. NPC Privates may be added to missions as needed. |
|
[General] |
8x/characters in group +8 |
Are in charge of, well, whatever they want to be in charge of. Equipment, augmentations, and skills are all free to members of the group; NPC Majors and Privates may be added to missions as needed. |
[Should there be some IC reward for the player actually at the higher command level? Or will that work out on its own? I dunno; might have to see how it plays out in playtests.]
Missions are the heart of Renaissance Force gameplay. You may banter and roleplay all you like between missions, but Renaissance Force as a game doesn't have much to do with that, apart from informing the setting. Once you actually go out on a mission, though, the system kicks in.
As noted in Character Advancement, the command level of the characters as a group determines what involvement they have in the missions. If the group is new to the game, the mission will be provided, either by the GM or by the game--there is an included sample adventure that would be appropriate for a group of Privates, for example, and others may become available with time. [note: this doesn't actually exist yet, of course.] Missions should have certain characteristics:
At the higher command levels, players should be able to roleplay the preparation for the mission as well as the planning--reconnaissance, setting things up, etc. Depending on the mood of the group, these stages may be played as miniature missions of their own, or simply as banter between the GM and the players.
The players then decide which of their characters will take which skills, and who is going to perform which tasks. It is critical at this juncture that the characters be adequately prepared for the mission, which means that no task should be assigned to any character without the skills or equipment needed to outperform the task.
Finally, the players have their characters go on the mission itself. The pace of the mission should be fairly rapid, as long as the characters are succeeding. But eventually, a character will fail at a task. At that point, a 'crisis' starts, and play should focus in on the situation, as the players have their characters try to get things back on track. Once the situation is resolved, the crisis ends, play returns to normal, and the characters may attempt to accomplish the next task. If the characters can't resolve the situation, they can attempt to accomplish the next task anyway at a penalty (the task in question is increased by one difficulty level), or they can abort the mission and try to cut their losses. The next mission will, no doubt, be an attempt to fix whatever went wrong on the first one.
Things go wrong and then right again not merely by the whim of the dice, however. The GM and the players both have a number of Murphy Points, which they may use in a few different ways, but the most important is this: if you have the disadvantage, you may spend one Murphy Point to change the value of a die you rolled by one *towards* a tie. So, if you roll an 8 and your higher-skilled opponent rolls a 4, you may spend four Murphy Points to change your 8 to a 4, causing something unusual to happen in your favor. If the dice are already tied, there's nothing you can do--if you are more skilled, but your opponent rolls a tie, you may not spend Murphy Points to break the tie and prevail.
However, if you have the *advantage* in a die-rolling contest, you may make an offer: if your opponent agrees, you may change the value of your die towards a tie, and receive that number of Murphy Points. You only receive these points if it actually results in a tie (and your own subsequent failure), however. So, if you have the advantage and roll an 8 and your opponent rolls a 4, you might offer to change your 8 to a 6. If your opponent agrees, and spends two points to raise their 4 to a 6, you receive two Murphy Points.
Note that ties generated this way are an exception to the 'standoff' rule that otherwise applies to ties during an equally-matched contest: when one player rolls higher than another (receiving the advantage in the contest), and then receives any Murphy Points from changing their die roll, they lose the contest. If the players roll a natural tie, or if the player who rolls lower spends Murphy Points to generate a tie, the standoff still happens.
Players may also spend Murphy Points in a crisis to 'promote' a skill for the duration of that crisis. Any Trained skill that relates to their background may be added during a crisis for 4 (?) points, and any Specialized skill that relates to a currently-held Trained skill may be taken for 8 (?) points. (This means you can create a Specialized skill out of your Background for 12 points if need be.)
After a crisis is resolved, all involved characters receive a number of experience points equal to the value of the tied die that triggered the crisis, plus the number of Murphy Points the GM spent during the crisis. Experience points convert to Character Points at a 10:1 (?) ratio. In addition, the player's Murphy Dice pool increases by one for every 10 experience points gained.