Rules

Ability Scores

Characters possess 5 number of ability scores, each tying to different skills and abilities which they may possess.

These ability scores are modified by a character’s species, culture, occupation, and other modifiers.

Ability scores are divided into two categories, Abilities and Sub Abilities. Abilities cover a breadth of sub abilities, and modify how strong these sub abilities are and how strong they can become.

• Physique

  • • Power: This is used for physical damage.

    • Health: This is used for a character's Hit Points.

    • Stamina: This is used for a character's Stamina Points.

• Dexterity

  • • Precision: This is used for physical attack rolls.

    • Agility: This is used for physical defense.

    • Reaction: This is used for initiative.

• Intellect

  • • Reason: This is used for smarts.

    • Language: This is used for linguistic proficiency.

    • Math: This is used for mathematic expertise.

• Wisdom

  • • Drive: This is used for willpower.

    • Intuition: This is used for wisdom.

    • Common Sense: This is used for worldly knowledge.

• Charisma

  • • Rhetoric: This is used for persuasiveness.

    • Voice: This is used for vocal acuity.

    • Beauty: This is used for physical appearance.

Alignment

Characters possess alignments which represent their allegiances, beliefs, duties, and so on. These are chosen by the player, and can be changed later (although at the risk of upsetting former allies). In addition to choosing their alignment, a player chooses the intensity of their alignment leaning or how they lean into it, as some alignments aren't positive ones.

Alignments are graded on a scale of 1 to 5 with 1 being negative and 5 being positive. Below under the different groups, what standing you have at what alignment is given.

Alignments are split into different groups;

• Religious: These are alignments devoted to a specific deity or religious order. Positive relationships are often required to join their priesthoods.

  • 1: Heretic, 2: Maligned, 3: Neutral, 4: Ally 5: Devotee

• Factions: These are alignments devoted to specific groups of individuals such as a knight's order, a blacksmith guild, or even a small underground rebellion. All groups bound by non-religious ideologies, big and small, fall under 'factions'.

  • 1: Hated, 2: Disliked, 3: Neutral, 4: Ally, 5: Well Liked

• Ideology: Ideological alignments are those which a character strives to uphold to their best, regardless of the situation. These can be as nuanced as "keeping the peace" to more well defined ideas such as "help the sick when they need it".

  • 1: Skeptical, 2: Upholds irregularly, 3: Average, 4: Believer, 5: Unshakable

• Allegiances: Often individual person-to-person relationships fall under Allegiances, as two individuals may have a deep connection or bitter rivalry with one another. Friends and foes alike are counted as this though.

  • 1: Enemies, 2: Rivals, 3: Acquaintances, 4: Friends, 5: Best buddies

Size and Size Bonuses

Characters and monsters have sizes which alter their physical defense, size, bodily defense, and (in the case of monsters) supplies their base HP. Characters don't alter their HP based on size, instead relying on their Species / Subspecies.

Natural Attacks by Size

Attacks deal specific amounts of damage (on average) based on size. Some however are based upon abilities or a creature's monster listing. Sizes are abbreviated next to the listed damage, and the kinds of natural attacks are listed in parenthesis next to the attack.

• Primary Attack (Bite, Gore, Sting, Slam, Talons): 1 (D), 1d3 (Ty), 2d4 (S), 3d6 (M), 3d10 (L), 4d12 (H), 4d20 (G), 6d20 (C), 10d20 (Ti)

• Secondary Attack (Claws, Hooves, Tentacles, Wings): 1 (D), 1d2 (Ty), 1d6 (S), 2d4 (M), 3d6 (L), 4d8 (H), 4d12 (G), 6d12 (C), 10d12 (Ti)

Weapon Sizes

Player characters rarely need to worry about the bulk of their weapons, but monsters and some creatures wield weapons as well, and these weapons they wield are fitted to their size.

Damage Die Steps
1 -> d2 -> d3 -> d4 -> d6 -> d8 -> d10 -> d12 -> d20

If a damage die would be increased past 1d20, increase the amount of d20s by 1. If the damage die would be lowered beyond 1, the damage is 0 (it cannot deal damage).

Creatures of Tiny and Diminutive size decrease their weapon's damage dice by 1 step.

Creatures of Huge and Gargantuan size increase their weapon's damage dice by 1 step.

Creatures of Colossal size increase their weapon's damage dice by 2 steps.

Creatures of Titanic size increase their weapon's damage dice by 4 steps.

Defenses

Characters possess defenses which help against the threats of the world.

HP: Base HP is determined by Species and Subspecies. Add Health to Base HP for your total HP.

Being reduced to 0 HP results in you being unconscious.

Physical Defense: This is the defense which characters use against the physical attacks made against them - such as those from weapons.

PD is equal 15 + ((Agility * Reaction)/2)

Mental Defense: This relates to any attacks against the character's mind.

MD is equal to 10 + Reason + Intuition + Common Sense

Bodily Defense: This relates to any attacks against the character's body.

BD is equal to 10 + Power + Health + Stamina

Resolve

This is your character's will to fight, which under the right circumstances can decrease and cause them to flee. Character's Resolve is equal to their (Reason * Drive) + 1.

In order to afflict foes with Fear they must be reduced to 0 Resolve. After which, characters can be afflicted by fear effects and further torment will cause them to lose their sanity.

The most common example of Resolve loss is through Intimidate, but other effects follow a similar pattern unless otherwise stated. If the target is reduced to 0 Resolve by an opponent and they are attacked by a Resolve-based attack again, they are afflicted with Fear at Low Intensity. Further resolve attacks increase the intensity further. If their fear is already at Severe Intensity however they begin losing Sanity instead.

Resolve recovers at a rate of 2d10 per minute, so long as it has not been reduced completely to 0. In that case it is instead 2d10 per hour until completely full once more.

The Fear status effect remains until the end of combat, until the object of the individual's fear is gone/dead, or until a set duration (if any) has finished.

Sanity

This is your character's mental state and health, affecting your overall mentality. Character's Sanity is equal to their (Reason * Common Sense) + 5.

Characters recover 1d6 Sanity points per day so long as nothing occurred during the day that would have normally reduced their sanity.

For more information on Sanity and related effects, see the Sanity page.

Once a character has reached 0 Sanity, they gain a random Mental Disorder (or a specific one, depending on the GM's decision) and begin losing 1 Resolve per turn unless their Sanity recovers above 0 once more.

Dodging and Parrying

Characters have an opportunity to defend themselves from danger, but often require spending their own resources in order to do so. In order to dodge or parry, you must declare you are doing so. This can be done after the attack roll has already been made.

Dodge: Dodging can be used to evade attacks against Physical Defense. Doing so costs 5 Stamina Points plus any additional points you wish to invest, and adds an amount to your Physical Defense against an oncoming attack equal to your Reaction plus any additional Stamina spent beyond the initial 5 points.

Parry: Parrying can be used with weapons you're wielding, however doing so costs 2 Integrity of the weapon. For more rules on Parrying see the Weapon skill page.

Stamina Points

These are spent in order to perform actions, and are regenerated at a rate determined by Stamina and your current HP. Character's Stamina Points are equal to their (Stamina * Health) + 8.

Stamina Regeneration is determined by the character's age category (if no age category exists, use Adult).

• Young: 1d6 + Stamina per round

• Adult: 1d10 + Stamina per round

• Old: 1d4 + Stamina per round.

Characters can end their turn without taking any actions that cost Stamina to perform. Doing so recovers Stamina again for the player.

If a character is would be brought below 0 Stamina Points by an opponent, they are inflicted with Staggered at Low Intensity but do not reduce their Stamina Points any lower. This effect stacks (to a maximum of Severe) and lasts for 2d4+2 rounds. You cannot inflict this upon yourself as attempting to spend SP when you have none produces no effect.

Actions

The following are various actions you can take during combat. Some of these cost Stamina Points, others are listed but otherwise are "free" Stamina costs.

Move: Movement up to your move speed is free and costs 1 Stamina per additional square past your maximum base movement.

Attack: 10 Stamina for the first, and 8 Stamina on subsequent attacks. Additional attacks made as part of a charge count as subsequent attacks as well.

Creatures with multiple natural attacks count all attacks past the first as subsequent attacks.

Charge: 12 Stamina to move twice your move speed and make a single attack. You receive a +2 to its to-hit and damage, but you suffer a -2 to Physical Defense, both of these last for 1 round.

Cast a Spell: Usually costs Stamina Points to do, these stamina points are listed in the spell's description.

Interact with Scenery: This includes picking up objects from the ground, opening/closing doors, and so on. Doing this is free so long as you have not moved beforehand. If you moved before interacting with scenery, it costs 5 Stamina to take this action.

Draw Weapon: This is free, so long as the weapon is in its sheath. If it is on the ground or otherwise not within it's sheath at your person, use interact with scenery instead.

General Actions: Unless otherwise listed most miscellaneous actions in combat take 5 Stamina to perform; drawing and drinking a potion, playing an instrument, and so on. GMs are encouraged to consider whether something needs to cost Stamina or not.

Talking: Can be done freely on your own turn (up to GM's approval), or can be done outside of your own turn if you spend 1 Stamina to do so. You must spend this amount for every time you try to talk outside of your turn, meaning conversations with party members outside of combat would burn this quickly.

Damage Types

These are the most common types of damage that can be dealt.

• Physical: Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing

• Arcane: Fire, Water, Earth, Wind, Electricity, Ice, Acid, Sonic†, Corruption

• Psychic: Psychokinetic†

• Divine: Smiting, Damnation†

Untyped damage is sometimes referring to damage specified as "1d6 untyped damage", however other examples of untyped damage would include an ability saying it deals "1d6 damage" with no indication of a damage type.

† = damage is dealt directly to Hit Points, typically being unaffected by armor unless otherwise stated.

Death and Dying

Characters who are reduced to a number of negative hit points equal to 10 + (Health x 2) are slain. Characters who die, unless otherwise specified, pass on to the afterlife. Those who die with regrets or a vengeance usually become a ghost and are attached to an item within the area of their haunting. This is covered in the ghost's creature rules.

Dying is permanent. In the past beings were able to return from the dead and there are legends of individuals coming back from the dead, however outside of divine intervention or other "workarounds" made by those intending to cheat death, once someone dies they do not come back. Their body may be possessed or animated (such as being raised as a zombie) or their spirit may linger (such as with ghosts), but they have lost their ability to come back.

Alternate Rule: If you and your players do not wish to play with the rules as written, you can include ways of truly reviving individuals from the dead. Revival methods should be kept rare so as to not cheapen death, and have people write it off as a minor inconvenience.

Souls however are unable to be destroyed, however they can be caused pain so long as their living body is still alive to experience pain. Souls often experience pain when spells (especially those which deal Damnation damage) afflict them, or if a magical weapon attempts attacking the soul. Pain from a soul being attacked is often described as an intense, burning sensation all over one's body as if they were being submerged in lava.

Brush With Death

When taking damage that would otherwise kill them, players can choose to spend one of their unused Training Points (TP) in order to initiate a "Brush With Death". They are knocked unconscious, and their wounds immediately seal so they do not bleed out. Doing this does not prevent executions (such as a character slitting another's throat while they sleep), however this is helpful when in the middle of combat, so players have a chance to save themselves rather than immediately dying upon reaching a certain amount of negative HP.