The System.

Characteristics

There are 3 Physical, 3 Mental and 2 Appearance based values that define the strengths of your character. Every player begins with a default of Normal in each characteristic. Normal for players is of course a step above normal for the average person, but this is reflected more in the resolution system rather than the number of dice. With experience a player may push a characteristic upward a total of three levels, each with a matching descriptive label.

Where a RAW characteristic roll is called for the number of dice used is 4 plus or minus your level.

Where an Xposure roll is made that is based on a characteristic the Xposures dice are used and the characteristics extra levels are added or deducted.

Eg: a raw STR roll where the character is Mighty would use 6d. A Master Sword&Shield fighter, which is based on STR, would use 4d (Base) + 2d (Master) + 2d (Mighty).

Strength (STR).

Physical power and the ability to apply force to a particular task. STR in relation to SIZE deteriorates as the mass grows, a CCM twice your SIZE is not likely to be twice your STR. A large creature is powerful in its ability to push or pull but may suffer in its relative ability to lift etc. What players do with STR is not easy to define, it depends on the task chosen. Carrying weights is one thing, bending iron bars or putting your fist through doors is another matter, dependent on the thickness of the item you are trying to effect. The values given in these rules are relative to a common PLAYER.

Wimpy (-2)

Weak (-1)

Strong (+1)

Mighty (+2)

Herculean (+3)

Agility (AGL).

Manual control and agility of your body and limbs.

Sloth (-2)

Slow (-1)

Agile (+1)

Nimble (+2)

Lithe (+3)

Body (BOD).

Sturdiness, vigour and resistance to death and disease, ability to recover from damage and withstand hardship.

Cronic (-2)

Sickly (-1)

Healthy (+1)

Robust (+2)

Potent (+3)

Mind (MND).

Wisdom and accumulated knowledge, ability to learn or deduce. Animals are generally considered to have a standard MIND value but not any intelligence as such. Undead likewise have a different kind of MIND value but in a similar scale.

Imbecile (-2)

Dim (-1)

Smart (+1)

Keen (+2)

Genius (+3)

Will (WIL).

The strength of the creatures determination, their ability to continue onward once the physical body has given up. The strength of the creatures character, stubbornness, grit, orneriness. Power of their 'Id' and 'SuperEgo'.

Feeble (-2)

Weak (-1)

Focused (+1)

Iron Will (+2)

Illuminated (+3)

Spirit (SPR).

A value representing the life force of the CCM, their closeness to nature, their gods. Their oneness with the universe. The internal spark that makes them alive. The part of them that is eternal and will go on after their physical body has gone. The energy that makes them unique.

Deranged (-2)

Unbalanced (-1)

Balanced (+1)

Controlled (+2)

Released (+3)

Appearance (APP).

Physical beauty and personal charisma, poise and charm. A relative value, depending on the viewer. Nonetheless, APP may transcend physical beauty, sometimes.

Ugly (-2)

Plain (--1)

Attractive (+1)

Gorgeous (+2)

Adonis/Aphrodite (+3)

Size (SIZ).

SIZ is a reflection of the volume and mass of the creature. An elephant has a mass of around 5000kg, which would be SIZ Massive. A Blue Whale has a mass of 136,000kg and would be SIZ Colossal(and a bit out of the scale).

The smaller creatures have less body mass to absorb damage and single hits tend to be all that is required. The smallest creatures of course are easily converted into swarms and become a different problem.

Mechanics.

Basics.

The only dice used in this game are six sided dice, but you will need quite a few of them.

The base resolution system used by the game is rolling a pool of six sided dice and comparing the results to the following table for each dice.

Generally the more successes gained the better the result, but normally a single success is sufficient to ensure an average result.

Non-heroic characters reduced to 0 dice fail at whatever they attempt.

Heroic characters reduced to 0d, roll 1d and need a 6 to succeed. They may no longer gain a re-roll.

Base Dice (b4)

Everyone who gains an appropriate Xposure will have a base dice pool of 4 dice.

Gaining extra Xposures or improving a characteristic can increase your dice pool. Impediments, difficulties and other game devices will conspire to decrease your dice pool.

Rerolls (Heroic)

Any roll of a natural 6 allows a Heroic roller to reroll another dice and add that result to the overall result.

E.G. A player rolls 4d6 and gets 2,4,6,6. The 2 natural 6’s allows them to roll 2 more dice and add them to the overall result.

Secondary rerolls, where a reroll gets a natural 6 also, are not permitted.

If you have been reduced to less than 1d you still roll 1d but cannot get a reroll result.

Difficulties

Some actions are more difficult than others and apply penalties to the chances of success. This is achieved by reducing the dice pool used. Use the following difficulty guide.

Ratings

Non-player characters will be rated according to the following. As a general rule most things you encounter will be inexperienced, or worse, in combat. They will be farmers or merchants or workers. Even soldiers will tend to be inexperienced unless they have received some training or actually fought in battle.

Time.

If you have time on your hands you can perform better. These modifiers generally only apply to Passive resolution rolls. Where time is freely available and it makes sense that failure is not reasonable, then a failure will simply indicate that more time was required than originally thought.

Tools.

Having the correct tools can help you complete your task, as long as you have the time to use them (these do not apply to combat).

Illumination

Illumination can be a big problem for those not having the correct senses to make use of it. Humans see well in good light, but handle darkness poorly. Illumination however does not just consider light, underground creatures may use sound or vibrations to illuminate what they can see. Some creatures may have heightened visual senses that allow them to cancel levels of penalty. The following penalties are based on normal human sight.

Resolution Types.

There are four types of skill resolution systems in Aegyptvs as follows.

1. Contested.

Skill use is being matched directly against another skill user to determine which was successful. This implies that only one contestant wins.

A contested skill use requires rolls by all participants, the one who rolls the most successes wins. If they have the same number of successes then roll the unsuccessful rolls again until one person has a majority. If they end up with exactly the same number then a player always wins, which player is upto them.

2. General.

This is a skill use where no competitive element is present, it simply requires the successful use of your skill (one success). Extra successes may allow extra bonus effects.

Melee attacks and spell casting are all General skill rolls.

3. Passive.

When a skill is used to achieve something, to create some effect that will endure from then on, then that skill use is Passive. The degree of success here will determine what happens at a later date. The GM should always roll Passive tests and keep the result secret.

The number of successes is deducted from any future attempts to defeat or compete with the original.

A locksmith builds a lock, he rolls 5 dice and gets 3 successes. To pick that lock would then require 4 successes.

A thief hides a small gem on his body to prevent it being found during a search. He rolls 2 successes which means anyone searching him must roll 3 successes to spot it.

Remember that Passive skill rolls may have plenty of time so should gain some favourable modifiers. At the opposite end however the skill user may be pressed for time so apply appropriate modifiers.

4. Active.

Skill is used to determine if the user can overcome some other users past (passive) skill use. It is similar to a Contested roll.

A thief tries to pick the lock created above in the middle of the night whilst a guard is due to arrive any minute. He has 6d of Stealth. The GM says he is pressured, -1d , and also applies a conditions modifier of -1 due to poor light (picking a lock is not really a visual skill, it is tactile, so the light penalty is reduced). The thief is reduced to 4d, and needs 4 successes to overcome the locks design.

5. Plots

A PLOT is a mechanism to allow players to work out a plan of action, either simple or complex, with a single goal at the end of it. The task however is driven by the original PLOT, and its success is modified by how good this was.

PLOT <-------------------- Fail *

| ^

-------> Simple task ----- | ----> Complete

^ |

| <------------------------- Success

Basically the players work out a plan of action to achieve some specific end within a reasonably short period of time. The GM applies a difficulty to the overall concept, then judges the merits of the plan and allows the players to roll. If the PLOT roll is successful it will generate 1 or more "plot points" (1 for a success, and 1 extra for each special success), which will be used up each time that a task fails within the PLOT. If all plot points are used up the PLOT fails. If the PLOT completes with at least one plot point remaining then the PLOT succeeds.

PLOTs are "Event" related (see Time & Events below), which can be any segment of action from a few minutes to about an hour. They should relate to a specific achievement at the end of the event. They should have clearly defined tasks within the PLOT line, each task being a fairly simple resolution.

Eg A Classical PLOT - Get the Gate to the Castle open.

The overall target of the PLOT is to get the gate of the castle open. To do this the players suggest the following tasks:

• sneak upto the base of the castle walls
• climb the castle wall
• silently overpower the patrolling wall guard
• overpower the guards in the Gatehouse
• Open the gate.

The players suggest this is an average task for the heroic adventurers and the GM agrees, however the GM makes a note to insert an extra task before Open the Gate of "Defeat the Gate Commander and his Guard". He also adds an extra task to Open the Gate based on a strength task (one player making a STR roll or several together). Both of these he does not tell the players about.

Once the PLOT is decided the players can suggest a primary skill that will be used for the overall plan, in most cases this will be Leadership or Officer, but other skills may enter into a PLOT. A Commander/Leader is selected for the PLOT, they will roll for its success. A success on the roll will generate a single plot point, and each special success will generate another.

Each of the tasks within the PLOT are then played out as events as normal, so you still have to go through the actions like normal, with the following advantages.

A plot point can be expended to automatically succeed at a task, meaning you dont play it out, it just works.

A plot point can be expended to save a task from failure, so even if things go horribly wrong the players can save the PLOT by expending a plot point. This may require some inventive GMing to explain how this was acheived, but allow the players to suggest ideas that seem reasonable.

The GM can declare that the PLOT is about to fail (completely and pre-maturely) and ask the players if they wish to expend a plot point to save it. In really nasty situations this may not even require the GM to say why, either they do it or it fails. They may discover it in some following event, or they may never know.

New plot points can be gained by completing each task successfully, or by performing a single task exceptionally well, players should appeal to the GM for a bonus plot point when this occurs.

Characteristics Tests

All characteristic tests (raw) are conducted with the base number of dice (4) modified by the level of the characteristic.

Xposure Tests

All Xposure tests are conducted with the base number of dice (4) modified by the level of the Xposure, the level of the influencing characteristic, any mods that apply, and then various environmental and conditional modifiers.

There will always be a primary Xposure that should be used for a single resolution, however other Xposures may seem appropriate in the opinion of the GM. Defaulting to a similar Xposure will be at -1d penalty.

Defaulting to a related Xposure will be at -2d.

Defaulting to a characteristic, when the GM feels this might still work, will be with 1d.

Often there will be no alternatives and players without the correct abilities will simply be unable to roll.

Eg: you might be a Desert Creature(Mod) but not have Survival(Base), in which case you would roll on "1d + BOD level + Desert creature". If you did have Survival you would be at 4d+level+BOD level+Mods.

Rerolls

Where time permits, and the GM feels it approrpiate, they may allow re-rolls on failed contests. The GM should assign a base time unit that will be used to make each attempt. The player then gets to roll all their dice after the first time unit expires. If they do not achieve sufficient successes from that roll they may invest another time unit in the task and re-roll only those dice that were not successes, with the exception that any 1s rolled are permanently lost. Further rolls can be undertaken with extra time. Eventually the contest will be won, the character will run out of time, or they will run out of dice due to 1s or just not having enough for the task.

This option is particularly useful for Active Contests where time and suspense can make the scene more interesting.

Assisted Rolls

Characters may co-operate together to achieve a common goal if they have time. They all need to have the appropriate Xposure, and each person involved needs to roll their skill. One of the rollers must be nominated as the Lead, and their roll is the basis on which to determine the result. For each other roller who successfully performs the task the Leader gains +1d. For each person who fails (no successes but no fumble) the Lead loses 1d, and for each fumble they lose 2d.

Group Rolls

Where a roll is called for and everyone has a chance to succeed, such as a surprise roll, then the GM needs to decide if it is a "spontaneous roll" or a "collateral roll".

Spontaneous rolls are reactions rolls and each person rolls individually and gets an individual result.

A collateral roll is where there is a chance for one person's result to impact another's, such as when one person triggers a trap and yells to warn their companions and then they have a chance to react. In this case roll in a specific order as seems appropriate. Each person who succeeds will add +1d (accumulating) to everyone who follows them until someone fails, at which point the rest automatically fail.

Eg: the party is trying to sneak past a guard, this is a collateral roll as each person must pass a stealth test in sequence. The most stealthy person is obviously sent out first and leads the rest of the party, using their skills to show the others how to do it. The leads success will give the second person +1d, if the second person succeeds then they give the 3rd person +2d etc.

Good Luck can be used to allow someone to re-launch the chain, re-starting with that person. Anyone before them in the chain remains unchanged.

Augmented Rolls

Characters may find they come up against tasks that are beyond their base skills, and need to be studied or they need more information to overcome it.

Study can be anything from a 5 second visual inspection of the target to a 4 week stint in a library gathering background and understanding.

To augment their target roll they use some other ability to gain an advantage. Eg; a Perception roll against a trap could augment the trap removal roll.

Using a augmented roll will generally require extra effort and time, so it may not always be appropriate.

In all cases the augment roll is used to add extra dice to the actual roll it is augmenting. The number of extra dice will be equal to the number of successes gained on the augment roll.

Eg; a perception test results in 3 successes, so this will add 3d to the Trap removal roll.

Conceded Tests

Where contests are not significant or important the GM should concede a test to any player who has at least 4d after all mods. They gain a single success and the game moves on.

Time and Events

Time tends to come in two distinct forms in a RPG, time where players are closely concerned with exact actions and events, and time where they simply let it pass. The earlier version is nearly always valid during encounters, the later at most other times. In many cases the exact seconds of time that pass are of no interest to most people, they act within the limits of what they can and can’t do, based on what the system allows. Really only the passage of time, in the form of days and weeks is important, the detail can be ignored by abstracting it.

In Aegyptvs do not concern yourself with the seconds and minutes, only worry about the hours and days. To help you do this the following rules are used.

There are several durations of time in the game, as follows:

Instant:

a very short period of time.

Actions:

the time needed for someone to 'do' something, make an attack, cast a spell, say something, examine something. Performing actions is controlled in an event through Action Dice, which are rolled at the start of each Round.

Rounds:

a period of time during which everyone gets to take actions according to their action dice, at the start of each Round you get a new set of action dice, at the end of the Round you have expended all your action dice.

Event:

An event is a specific period of time defined by the event occurring. This is at the discretion of the GM, who controls the flow of the events within their story. An event is usually around 5 to 20 minutes, but may vary. There is usually a break between each event where players will revert to a higher time scale. An encounter or melee would be a single event.

An event could also happen within an event, depending on the action. One Use type spells are often used within an event, but may be an event in themselves.

Multi-Event:

The spell is the same as an Event based spell but is considered to last several hours, AND that the two events are occurring within that time frame. Generally there should not be more than one hour between the events.

A Multi-Event2 would last for 2 events, MultiEvent3 for 3 events etc etc.

Day, Weeks, Month etc:

Some spells may be cast to last extended periods of time. This depends on the spell, the caster and their successes, and your GM. An event spell could be considered to have a duration of one hour, a multi-event of several hours. Moving up the time line we would have spell dirations of the following:

Half Day - Day - Several Days(3-4) - Week - Several weeks (2-3) - Month - Season - Half year - Year.

Session:

A session is based around the real time the players and the GM are together, each time they gather to play they have a session. A session can be broken by the group taking "downtime".

Episode:

An episode may last weeks or even months, as long as it involves only a single story event. Where several stories are being run concurrently then the GM will have to decide where the breaks occur that define each episode. Any downtime counts as a break. Spells that last for the entire story episode, as designated by the GM.

Adventure:

Usually there will be a focus or target for each adventure and once completed the GM moves to a new story line. In games where you run multiple themes you will have to decide where to create breaks and declare such periods as expired. A spell that lasts for the entire adventure, which may include downtimes.

Downtime:

this is a time of resting, recovery, learning, training etc. Basically where the GM and the players stop interacting and do bookkeeping. Such times are self evident.

These arbitrary periods are not meant to bind you, they are merely tags that will be fitted into the Aegyptvs system for various uses, such as spell durations. As GM you need to decide when to apply them, and when to not apply them. Healing for example requires specific periods of time to pass, so keep track of this accurately.

The magic system in particular uses the above system to control spell durations. Many spells have a duration of Event or Instant. Under normal circumstances the GM should assume that Event based spells cannot be carried from one event to another, this is the realm of "session" based spells. So basically all event spells will fade at the end of an event. Some discretion should be allowed here by the GM, some spells will need to run for a short time after the actual melee is over to allow players to heal and recover. If spells were to drop suddenly you might have a few dead people around. Basically each event should have a recovery period at the end where things settle down.

Players should not be allowed to cast event based spells between events, claiming they want to enter each event with spells ready (I will keep casting the spell all day long as we go along so it is always ready!). Each encounter should allow the players, or the enemy, time to cast such things IF it merits it. If two parties stumble into each other by surprise then neither will have anything prepared. Same thing applies to players who claim to have an arrow ready in their bow at all waking times, tell them to nick off.