The following terms are used throughout the course of this game. These are the explanations and meanings of the terms.
Ability Score: Characters possess 7 ability scores; Strength, Magic, Endurance, Resistance, Smarts, Agility, and Luck. Each have different applications and uses. The higher the score, the more power the user possesses.
Action: “Actions” are physical or mental actions which take up time during the game. Different kinds of actions exist, depending on how advanced the action being taken is.
Bonuses: These are modifiers that do one of three things; increase dice rolled, increase dice kept, or are a static modifier that affects Defense and Avoid.
Defense: This is your physical defense against most weapons. The higher it is, the harder you are to hit. Most physical attacks go against Defense.
Avoid: This is your ability to dodge out of the way of certain attacks. Spells, and certain other types of attacks may target Avoid, these attacks are usually incredibly fast such as lasers.
Mental Defense: This is your ability to shrug off ailments of the mind, intimidation, deception, and the likes.
Bodily Defense: This is your body’s ability to fight off poisons, diseases, and other harmful toxins.
Checks: This is any type of roll presented in the format (x)k(x). The most common types of checks are attack rolls and skill checks.
Concentration: This is required if a spellcaster is being provoked by an enemy in combat to ensure they are not hit.
Magic Points (MP): This is a spellcaster’s magical potency and shows how may spells they’re able to cast by expending this resource.
Creature/Character: These terms are used interchangeably as a catch-all term for any type of being within the world including PCs, NPCs, and monsters.
Deflection: This is a character’s means to block damage from an attack. Its magical analogue is Resistance.
Difficulty Class (DC): When you attempt certain checks, there is a Difficulty Class (or DC) associated that you must meet or beat in order to succeed at the task.
Experience (EXP): Points accumulated over the course of playing the game which advance the characters to the next level.
Feats: These are abilities, whether innate or active, that a character has gained. Feats come in many shapes and forms, benefiting the one who has taken it in some way. Some feats even circumvent certain rules.
Hit Points (HP): This is how much damage a character can take before they are knocked unconscious (or worse, killed).
Soak: This is how much damage is divided by before being subtracted from HP. Damage is reduced by Deflection, Resistances, and so on before divided by Soak.
Level/Effective Level (EL): This represents how powerful a character. The higher a character’s level is, the more innate benefits they receive. Effective Level is used with Bestiary monsters who do not possess a class.
Monsters: Creatures from the Bestiary that the players can fight. These creatures typically do not possess classes and instead rely on their innate strength.
Multiplying: If two sources request that you multiply, add the two multiples together (x2 + x2 = x4) and then complete the multiplication.
Dividing: If two sources request that you divide, add the two divisions together (÷2 + ÷2 = ÷4) and then complete the division.
Player Characters (PCs): These are characters controlled by the players.
Non-Player Characters (NPCs): These are characters controlled by the GM.
Round: In game combat is measured in rounds, each taking 6 seconds. One round passes when every character on the initiative tracker has acted at least once.
Initiative: When a battle begins, every character participating rolls initiative. The higher the result, the sooner they act in the initiative round.
Skill: Skills represent tasks and actions characters can perform such as searching a room (Awareness) or stealing a gem from a case (Stealth). The higher the DC, the harder the check is.
Spells: These are magical knacks characters have learned through their class or other sources. Each type of magic has different spells.
Spell Resistance (SR): Spell Resistance is a special kind of Defense that not all characters possess. Characters must overcome SR to affect your other Defenses.
Bonus/Penalty Stacking: Bonuses and penalties from the same source do not stack unless otherwise specified. Bonuses and penalties from different sources however, do stack. Spells are considered one source, and thus two different spells that grant the same bonus to not stack unless otherwise specified.
Turns: Each character has a turn which they can take actions on. Most turns take three actions (Standard, Move, and Swift) however other combinations are possible.