B. The System

Characteristics

There are 4 character based values that define 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 BODY roll where the character is POTENT would use 6d. A robust Master Sword&Shield fighter, which is based on BODY, would use 4d (Base skill) + 2d (Master) + 2d (Robust).

BODY.

Strength, 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.

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)

Clever (+2)

Genius (+3)

SOUL.

A value representing the life force of the creature, their closeness to nature, their gods, their inner selves, 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)

Enlightened (+2)

Illuminated (+3)

LOOKS.

Physical beauty and personal charisma, poise and charm. A relative value, depending on the viewer. Nonetheless, APP may transcend physical beauty, sometimes. APP can be racially or socially variable (amongst other things), so what one group thinks is attractive may not appeal to another. The GM will have to apply modifiers as appropriate.

Repellent (-2)

Plain (-1)

Appealing (+1)

Charming (+2)

Perfection (+3)

All creatures will also have a base size, representing mass and volume. Some creatures, such as wraiths, may have size to represent their volume but have no mass.

SIZE.

SIZ is a reflection of the volume and mass of the creature. An elephant has a mass of around 4-5000kg, which would be SIZ 'Gigantic'. 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.

Derived Traits.

Body - Physical damage:

Physical damage that a character can suffer is reflected by a Ranking system explained in the Combat section of the rules. A normal Hero will generally be Rank 4. Your physical rank can be modified by Size + Body as well as by Character Traits (below). In essence you will have a ranking between 1 and 9 to reflect how tough you are.

Mind - Mental damage:

Mental damage that a character can suffer is reflected by a Ranking system explained in the Combat section of the rules. Your mental rank can be modified by Mind values as well as by Character Traits (below). In essence you will have a ranking between 1 and 9 to reflect how mentally tough you are.

Soul - Magic power:

Magical power that a character can expend is reflected by a Ranking system explained in the Magic section of the rules. Your magical rank can be modified by Soul as well as by Character Traits (below). In essence you will have a ranking between 1 and 9 to reflect how powerful you are.

Magic Rank is broken into two areas of power – elemental and spiritual. Each has its own ranking that are depleted separately, although there is some cross-over.

Ranks: Physical, Mental, Magical.

All creatures are rated for Physical, Mental and Magical standings - Ranks. The Ranks go from +9 to -3 and represent various levels of capacity. The system is an abstraction, so although a big powerful monster will be rated fairly highly, heroes can rate equivalent or better due to skill, training and morale. The system goes from being a bash them till they drop dead from wounds, to one where you bash them till they admit they are beaten. In this system physical wounds are removed from being the primary means of defeating an opponent, and overall state of defeat becomes the over-riding objective. Along the way 'wounds' can be inflicted that will have debilitating effects, but these will be far less frequent, and much less likely against big monsters. Opponents that are 'beaten' will be assumed to run away or surrender rather than forming a big pile of blood soaked corpses. Killing an opponent will be much less frequent, and more a choice of victory.

All creatures will be ranked from 1 to 9 for Physical, Mental and Magical status. A strong physical rating can reflect not only size and power but skill and resourcefulness. A strong Mental rating is not about intelligence, it is more about morale, drive, training and stubbornness. All can be varied on the fly based on circumstances and situation.

Details of ranks can be found in the Combat rules and the Magic rules.

Character Traits.

Characters may be adjusted by using the following traits:

Flaws & Passions

These are word descriptors, from 2 to 6 words in length, that describe your characters strongest beliefs, whether they are good or bad. They can be used to vary the result of the characters actions when relevant to the situation. Players begin with 2 Passions and 2 Flaws. NPCs will generally only have one or none. Important NPCs may have more as they are developed in more detail. To use an Passion the situation must match the words, and a Luck point must be discarded, the character then gains a degree of Superiority (SL - see below) as long as the situation remains relevant. To use a Flaw the situation must arise and if used a Luck point is gained at the expense of giving an opponent a SL.

Advantages

These are permanent features of your character, things they are able to do that others may not be able to do, and that can be assumed to work everytime. Having superior eyesight, an improved tolerance to poisons are examples. Advantages generally provide a permanent increase in the Superiority Level that you use, but only one may apply at any time. Players begin with one Advantage, plus one extra for each Impediment they take, upto a maximum of 3. As the game progresses they may gain extra Advantages. Superior equipment may imbue Superiority Levels whilst being used, whilst inferior equipment may inflict lesser levels.

Impediments

The opposite of Advantages, these are flaws or weaknesses in your character that nearly always apply. Having one arm, being blind etc are Impediments. Like Advantages, Impediments inflict permanent Superiority Level adjustments, negative ones.

Skills

These are learned abilities. Each Skill will come with three ranks - Normal, Advanced(+1d) and Master(+2d). Skill may also have Mods that provide bonus dice in specific circumstances.

Mechanics.

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

Modifications to rolls can be made by altering the Target number for each die roll (Superiority Level - SL), or by varying the number of dice in your pool (Dice Pool - DP) that you roll.

Superiority Levels (targets).

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.

Superiority Level Target needed.

• Hopeless 6x3
• Weak 6x2
• Poor 6
• Normal 5-6
• Advantage 4-6
• Superior 3-6
• Dominant 2-6

The dice are compared to the required target number (SL) and the number of successes indicate the degree of success. Where the roll is contested, the number of successes on the other side is deducted to yield a net result. SL applies to both the aggressor and the target, so both could be Superior (roll 3-6) at the same time.

Rolls of 1 are considered with failures or exposures, depending on the total numbers. If more 1s are rolled than successes then the task is a failure. If some 1s are rolled but less then the number of successes then they represent exposures that enemies may be able to take advantage of.

6x2 and 6x3 indicate that 2 results of 6, or 3 results of 6 are required to generate one success, respectively. If your SL manages to go above Dominant then there is no need to roll dice, but the number of dice still remains important.

Generally the more successes gained the better the result, but normally a single success is sufficient to ensure an average result. When the result is negative (more 1s than successes) then the action failed. If sufficient failures or exposures are gained then actions against you may gain bonus dice or Superiority Levels.

Base Dice Pool (b4)

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

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

Bonus rolls (Heroic)

Any roll of a natural 6 on the dice always 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, are not permitted.

Difficulties

Some actions are more or less difficult than others and apply bonuses and penalties to the chances of success.

This is achieved in two ways: altering the Superiority Level (SL) and altering the number of dice in the pool.

Superiority Levels (SL) should only be altered via events, failures, exposures, circumstances, Advantages, Impediments or Cut!s.

Dice pools should be altered by Skills, environmental and circumstantial affects, as follows.

Task difficulty.

Reduction Rating

+1d Easy

0 Routine

-1d Difficult

-2d Hard

-3d Heroic

-4d Impossible

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.

Rating Description

-2d Untrained, unexposed

-1d Inexperienced

0 Trained

+1d Veteran

+2d Master

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.

At your liesure +2d

Take your time +1d

Some pressure ("Hurry up will you!") -1d

Pressure ("Umm, the guard is nearly here") -2d

Real pressure ("I'll hold him off!") -3d

Extreme pressure ("Argghhhh....!") -4d

Tools.

Having the correct tools can help you complete your task. Combat weapons may be professional or masterwork, but such items will cost considerably more and be uncommon and rare.

Tools are required but you have a pointy stick -2d

You have some improvised or inferior tools -1d

You have masterwork tools, or an perfect tool for the task +1d

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.

Illumination Effect

Dim - Lantern, Moonlight -1d

Poor - Candle, torch -2d

Minimal light - starlight -3d

Pitch dark, Magical darkness -4d

Resolution Types.

There are five types of skill resolution systems in Xp 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.

Game Mechanisms

Cut! (Focus player)

Cut!s are "Cut scenes", similar to video cut scenes in games, where the acting character takes control of the game, becomes the focus of the camera, and the world around them slows or stops, allowing them to complete the action with minimal interference and maximum effect. It is possible for two or more CUT! to intersect (eg when two samurai run at each other and the fight is resolved in one stroke by each samurai). In such situations the result of the intersecting Cut!s should be "defining moments" in the story, where major characters fail or die. Activating a Cut! will require a specified amount of Luck.

Sequence

A related series of moves or actions that culminate in a BIG MOMENT! Similar to a Cut! but it may involve many players working together to acheive a co-operative end effect.

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 (if he rolls sufficient Plot Points, see below) 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. Each success on the roll will generate a single plot point. The Superiority Level used for Plots is Normal.

The GM will act as your opponent in a Plot, and the roll will be a contested one. The GM will make an assessment on how skilled the opposition is, or how hard the Plot is, and roll. The GM successes can be used to counter the use of Plot points by the players, or to add extra Plot Points into the task.

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. The GM may counter the use of a Plot Point with their own Plot Points.

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 may also insert 'surprises' into the Plot if they wish to, using their Plot Points. Surprises can be activated immediately after a plot point is used by the players. So if the players spend a plot point to automatically pass a task the GM can play one of their surprise tasks and the players must now pass that. As long as everything goes to plan, the players pass each task, then no surprises will occur.

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

The number of plot points remaining at the end of the Plot determines its success (at least one point), with extra plot points remaining unused providing bonuses, such as extra information, allies, secrets, reputation and loot.

Parley/Pause

Time and actions stop to allow the two sides to exchange a short conversation, where one side might offer to surrender on terms, or you might point out something obvious that the other side has not yet noticed (like reinforcements arriving).

Characteristics Tests

All characteristic tests (raw) are conducted with the base number of dice (4) modified by the level of the characteristic. If a Body roll is called for then you would use 4+Body Level dice.

Skill Tests

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

There will always be a primary Skills that should be used for a single resolution, however other skills may seem appropriate in the opinion of the GM.

Defaulting to a similar Skills will be at -1d penalty.

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

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

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.

Where the roll is Contested then the opposing side also gets to reroll everytime as well, and thus may make the task impossible to complete.

Assisted Rolls

Characters may co-operate together to achieve a common goal if they have time. They all need to have an 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. The Lead roll is made AFTER all support rolls are determined.

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

For each person who fumbles 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.