Metempsychosis -- full rpg ruleset -- work in progress

INTRODUCTION:

Combat Rule system for the world of Metempsychosis

This game is a product of inspiration. I have created it to make the best fantasy RPG I possibly could, based on what I consider to be the most excellent aspects of fantasy RPGs I have played. It's all my opinion. I thefted the aspects from various games I felt were strongest and stitched them together. The originality of the game, however, I have firmly rooted in the ability to build any character you wish to play. All your choices are meaningful.

Within this system, there are literally millions of variations of skill and gear combinations, to say nothing of defining your character's personality, goals, motives, or their fate.

So what is Dark Adaptation? It is a Card and Dice based system to run a Tabletop Role Playing Game.

The cards are to determine your character's powers, while the dice – d100* and d6 – are used to determine outcome of action.

Our system is inspired by such games as Warhammer, Pathfinder, World of Darkness, Final Fantasy, Ultima Online, Elder Scrolls, and of course Dungeons & Dragons.

These particular stories take place within a pre-renaissance dark fantasy setting. Cities have formed to protect humanity from extreme wilderness conditions and a vast array of horrifying monsters.

Although civilization isn't exactly always safe, when you travel outside of civilization, you will be in danger.

In this RPG your story can begin in any civilization included, you can play within any profession, or begin without a class, where the primary goal will simply be to survive.

Recommended for people already familiar with Tabletop Role Playing Games, Dark Adaptation is streamlined for customization, complex character-building, tactical but dangerous combat, and a heavy focus on narrative. Stories will best be told either through adventure sessions or through what is called a “living world” RPG, through a forum such as Discord.

As I continue to update the game, I will be adding more to the world, giving greater depth to the pre-made classes, and constructing new skill cards, along with adjusting stats. Nothing is official and if you come across this, and like anything about the system, what you like is yours to adapt in your game precisely as you see fit.

*How to read the percentile dice to achieve a result from 1-100:

percentile die: 00 is zero

single-digit die: 0 counts as 10

therefore: 00+0 = 10, not zero; 00+1 = 01 → 90+1= 91; 90+0= 100

Why a d100 roll-under system?

It's easy to understand. The higher your skill, the higher the chance you will succeed. In addition, there are things the 1d100 can accomplish other dice pool systems cannot. Used here:

* the dice roll can be used to determine the damage of Basic Attacks, either by consulting the ones digit die (for one-handed weapons), or by adding the two numbers together (for two-handed weapons)

* double dice results in critical success or failure (approximately 10% chance of a critical result)

* fortune points can be used to invert dice to succeed

* a GM can use a fate point to invert your dice so they fail or invert the dice of an antagonist so they succeed, or otherwise set back a character

* dice rolls correlate to parts of the body when rolling for damage against the Body – these dice can also be scrambled at the cost of a fortune point

* degrees of success and failure yield nuanced consequences to actions and can also help quicken resolution

* broadly applicable: every check, be it within a combat or non-combat encounter, is a d100

* on-the-fly modifiers are +5%, +10%, and so on, to avoid messy math.

PART ONE: ABILITIES

The ABILITIES are:

STRENGTH, AGILITY, ENDURANCE, INTELLIGENCE, PERCEPTION, and CHARISMA

and each falls on a spectrum, from - 100-> 100

The ABILITY (ABI) bonus is derived from the hundreds/tens digit, ranging from -10 --> +10.

Example: If your STR is 80, your STR bonus is 8. If your STR is 83, your STR bonus is still 8. If your STR is 23, your STR bonus is 2.

Each ABILITY affects character interaction with the world. In some cases, scores add bonuses to skill checks, such as STRENGTH's contribution to damage, or ENDURANCE's to damage reduction. At other times, they are used as ability checks in their own right. For example if you want to seduce a person, you will be asked to roll a CHARISMA check (probably a whole series of checks, let's be honest). Roll under your CHA score to succeed and that person might agree to a date.

Lastly, they are important to saving throws, whenever a specific ABILITY is tested. For example, in order to avoid a fire ball, you may get to roll an AGILITY check. If you roll below the number, you succeed. Maybe your character would rather withstand the attack, or cannot possibly avoid it, and instead would roll an ENDURANCE check. Roll below your END to succeed the check.

You begin with 120+3d10 ability points spread evenly among the six abilities. You adjust them point for point. When starting, none can be higher than 48 (53 for animus and 58 for lycanthropes), none lower than 10.

Ultimately you cannot have more than 240 points spread among the six ability scores. The base maximum abilities range from 60-90, depending on region or ancestry. None can begin lower than 10.

In addition, no one ability can be increased more than 25% through “constant” itemization such as wearing gear, gaining tattoos, or having consumed magical food or drink (which lasts hours), but temporary spells, either cast or created by potions, can push these bonuses higher.

ABILITY SCORES and relevant skill checks: listed below are common examples, but players can and are encouraged to develop more.

STR

arm-wrestling, athletics, carry-weight, climb, crush, drag, grappling, hand projectile range, jump, labor, lift, pull, push, smith, smash, swimming

Push, pull, lift, drag = strength score x 10

* Inventory slots: 5 + strength + endurance+backpack (1-3)

AGI

acrobatics, animal riding, balance, dance, disarm trap, fine-art crafts, hide, juggle, pick lock, pick pocket, silent walk

END

alcohol and drug in-take, carry weight, effects of malnutrition (including sleep), healing- effectiveness, long-distance running, recovery speed, resistance to sickness and disease, survival

INT

alchemy, arcane lore, engineering, forensic, inscription, history, math, mechanics, medicine, memory, natural science, read/write language, speak language

PER

alertness/awareness, arm trap, direction sense, discern lie/bluff/fraud, intuition, philosophy, read emotion or body language, religious lore, sanity, sixth sense, tracking, wisdom

CHA

animal handling, bluff, charm, diplomacy, disguise, enthrall, entice, flirt, intimidate, leadership, lie, mercantile, performance, negotiate, scare, seduce, sing, soothe, speech, story tell, swindle

What happens if I reach zero or worse in an ability score? In short, nothing good.

0--> -24

STR: can't lift a finger. Great physical disability.

AGI: body is completely rigid. Negative numbers imply misshapen limbs; bone, skin, and muscular diseases.

END: sickened, diseased, poisoned. Lower numbers worsens afflictions, thwarts healing, may connote that you are extremely contagious, and you lose health at an exponentially faster rate, maybe terminally ill.

INT: in a stupor. Negative numbers erase skills, memories, spells, and known languages.

PER: suffers mental afflictions, such as dread or insanity. Negative numbers increase amount of mental afflictions and can lead to catatonic psychosis and extreme hallucinations.

CHA: loses all sense of personality. Negative numbers make you overtly and singularly hateful. You lose friendships, allies, and create hostile factions.

At -25 of any ability score, the character's experience radically changes, as their soul begins to slip into the domain of a terror. Details on the terrors later.

-25 → -49

lower terror

-50 –> -74

greater terror

-75 –> 99

terror lord

-100

embodiment of terror

PART TWO: COMBAT and CARD MECHANICS

Every character has Body (BP), movement speed (MS), initiative rating (INI), and Damage Reduction (DR) scores.

The BP is a measurement of the physical health of the character. If you take damage to your Body, you are likely in serious trouble. You may be severely wounded, suffer broken bones, you may be maimed, crippled, put into a coma, or die. A character is considered dead when their Body Pool reaches a negative number.

To determine Body Pool, begin with: 10 (for humans), add the character's endurance bonus (-10->+10), then finally add HEART SKILL bonus. Each new level of the Hearts skill adds its value. So, at 10% you gain +1 Body; at 20% you gain an additional 2; at 30% you gain 3 more, and so on. If you have 100 HEART SKILL, you would add 55 (1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9+10) to your BP.

Movement: base 5 (human) + AGI bonus

Initiative Rating: base 0 (human) + AGI+PER bonus

Damage Reduction: base 0 (human) + END bonus + armor/shield/skill card/magic bonus

Each character can increase skills in four different combat lines.

Each has a rating from 0-100%. What are the skill lines and what do they mean?

Hearts: your ability to defend yourself and endure damage; directly affects BP but also determines Heart Pool (HP). When your character is able to defend themselves, damage dealt to them is dealt to the Heart Pool, rather than the Body.

To determine your Heart Pool, add up the value of all the heart cards actually slotted.

Whenever a player takes damage, they tap that number of Hearts, starting with the highest Heart cards. If there is remainder damage, do not tap the card until all of it is consumed.

Whenever Hearts are tapped, those tapped skill cards cannot be used and their passives/bonuses are disabled.

There are few exceptions.

Once all Hearts are tapped, any damage dealt against a character is dealt to the Body, which has severe repercussions. Even if a character loses all their hearts, the character still applies their full heart skill when making checks. The exception to this is if you are rendered “defenseless.”

Don't be “defenseless.”

Clubs: your ability to cast spells, including healing spells. Determines chance to land attacks with magic-based weapons, such as wands. Determines chance to cast a spell while under threat or if spell is contested by a counter spell.

Spades: your weapon skill, both ballistic and melee, with some defense in the form of parry, minor self-healing, and other weapon stances. Determines chance to hit with weapons or succeed at martial maneuvers.

Diamonds: determines chance to succeed with offensive/defensive mobility (such as charge attacks or dodges) and stealth utility skills (such as ambushes or hasty retreats).

STARTING and MAXIMUM SKILL LEVELS

If you want to role-play a significant chapter in your character's backstory, for that chapter you will have 52 skill points. You can have no more than 24 in any one skill.

However, adventure-ready characters will begin with 104 skill points, and no more than 48 in any one skill line.

Without the aid of itemization or magic, each player can have up to 208 skill points allocated across the four skill lines. No one skill level can exceed 100. Even with the aid of magic and itemization, a character still cannot exceed 240 total skill points, or 120 in any one skill line.

This way, on the one hand, characters will feel truly unique; and on the other hand, they cannot be everything and do everything, which makes for boring characters.

HOW COMBAT ENCOUNTERS UNFOLD:

As with many RPGs, everyone shares a turn.

If both sides of the conflict are aware of the fight, then characters with highest Initiative act first, lowest numbers act last. In the case of a surprise attack or ambush, the ambushers act first.

The Storyteller or Game Master should create an Initiative Reel, Ladder, or Stack using cards to represent the characters involved in the conflict.

Breaks in combat/retreats can recreate combat order.

Each turn, the player can make 6 kinds of actions: movement, basic actions (such as casting a spell or making an attack), reactions, passives, free actions, and defenses.

Movement – number of 5-foot spaces one can move during one's turn

Character can move before and/or after any basic action, but no more than what exceeds the movement score.

Movement can be sacrificed to add dodge attempts. If you are foregoing your movement phase you are allowed to make exactly one (with few to no exceptions) Basic Attack instead. By default, you cannot forego your movement phase to cast two spells in the same turn.

Some negative status effects require either a part of or the entire movement phase to recover. For example, you can spend your movement phase to return from a prone or defenseless position.

Basic action–combat maneuver (includes making all available Basic Attacks, determined by skill cards), attacking or dual-wield attacking with a magical weapon, casting a spell, physical healing, waking up another character

Reaction/trigger–includes attacks of opportunity, counter spells, reflect spells, purges, and traps. Typically, all characters are permitted one reaction per turn; however, skill cards can affect the number of A/O they get per turn.

Passive–regeneration/mending (BP), invigoration (HP), replenish (Temporary Ability Score Healing), receive benefit of blessings, etc.

Free actions (1)–consume potion that is 'quick slotted', weapon sheathe or weapon draw, short speech, command, or take any one action labeled as free.

Defense: When attacked a player can choose to dodge, block, or parry as defenses to BA, including magic-based BA, as long as they are not defenseless. You are not exactly limited to how many times you can defend yourself during one turn, but defending yourself more than once within a single turn becomes more difficult with each attempt.

Dodge mechanic: diamond

Dodge is a movement-based defense. When a character dodges an attack, they take no damage from the attack unless otherwise stated. All characters get 1 dodge attempt per turn plus bonus dodges (up to 5) if they sacrifice some part of their next movement phase (10 ft = 1 dodge). Each dodge in succession is more difficult than the next, in increments of -5%.

You may choose to use your AGI score instead of your Diamond skill level, but you will take half damage instead of zero damage, if you succeed.

Block mechanic: heart

Block is a heart-based defense. When a character blocks an attack, they only take half the damage rounded down – by default, this is before factoring in Damage Reduction. A character can block indefinitely. Each block within the same turn makes the next block attempt more difficult. -5, 10, 15, 20, 25%, and so on. A direct back attack makes block impossible.

Some skill cards will allow Block to mitigate all the incoming damage, instead of half, at the cost of double the penalty to successive block checks.

Parry mechanic: spade check vs spade check

Highest degree of success is winner. In the case of a tie, the naturally higher roll wins. In the case of a perfect tie, just re-roll the goddamn thing!

If your parry is successful you take no damage from the attack, unless otherwise stated by a specific skill card.

Number of parries you make per turn lessens the max number of BA your character can make on your next turn, determined by weapon and skill cards slotted. If an opponent is aggressive they might give up opportunities to parry; and conversely, parrying will mean they can make fewer or even no attacks in the next round.

Skill checks are determined by d100. Roll beneath skill to succeed.

Rolling under percentage can create a degree of success, which produces better effects the lower you go, specifically +1 per every 10% degree of success.

Degrees of failure mean the opposite, and confer skill penalties.

When you roll to hit with a BA or magical BA that deals 1d10 damage, the ones digit number of the skill roll is also the damage number. Example, I roll a 38. My damage is 8 plus whatever weapon grade, plus my relevant ability bonus.

If your weapon deals 2d10, simply add the numbers, as single digits, together. Example, I roll a 38. My damage is 11 (3+8) plus weapon grade and relevant ability bonus.

For the purpose of rolling damage, zeroes count as 10s, so a roll of 00+0 (10%) would be 20 damage.

If you roll doubles, the strike is a critical strike. Critical strikes deal the maximum damage the weapon can deal (10 1h or 20 2h). However, if you roll 00-0, you deal double the maximum damage. Therefore, if you roll 00+0, the damage would total either 20 1h or 40 2h. Do not double the total damage you would deal, only the damage the weapon roll would deal.

By default there are no critical failure rolls, but feel free to add them.

OPTIONAL CRITICAL FAILURE:

CRITICAL FAIL (ATTACK)

disarmed or dropped

weapon malfunction

accidentally target ally

penalty to next attack(s)

CRITICAL FAIL (DEFENSE)

trigger attack of opportunity

take extra 1d6 damage/degree of failure

take temporary ability damage

CRITICAL FAIL (SPELL, if caster chooses to or is forced to roll to succeed)

back fire

spell fizzle

random spell or event

NON-PROFICIENT BASIC ATTACKS

What if I don't have spade skill? Can I still make an attack with a weapon? Yes, instead you will test against the relevant abiltiy score, either STR or AGI. Roll under to succeed. However, you do not add your ability bonus or the weapon grade to the damage – only the damage roll and degree of success. Other damage sources may still apply, for example, if you're making a backstab and have the relevant diamond skill card slotted.

BASIC VIEW:

ATT % vs DEF % = result and degree of success or failure, then apply damage if attacker wins. Degree of success/failure is applied to attacker's damage. Note, degree of success/failure is NOT applied to defender's damage reduction.

This matters more to weapon attacks, since they more often have contested rolls, but this means a “failed attack roll” may still succeed if the defender was even poorer at defending themselves than the attacker was at attacking. This should help speed the resolution of combat. I like this because at lower levels, it just isn't fun to exchange “misses” turn after turn. And at later levels, I don't want to completely place fate in the hands of dice (especially dice with a huge range of possible outcomes), when players invest so much time and creative energy into developing their skill sets.

DAMAGE – DAMAGE REDUCTION = damage dealt to target's heart pool and/or Body, when applicable.

Saves are represented by ABILITY checks, can be modified various ways and result in 50% mitigation rounded down, when successful. In most cases, you apply DR before a successful save; however, some defensive skill cards allow you to apply DR after the save, which results in higher mitigation.

WHEN YOU USE A SKILL CARD ON YOUR TURN OF COMBAT, BUT THE DICE ROLL FAILS, YOU DO NOT TAP THE CARD UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED. HOWEVER, YOUR ACTION IS WASTED (which is punishment enough).

ATTACKS OF OPPORTUNITY
Attacks of Opportunity are triggered attacks combatants can take when an enemy makes specific actions within threatened spaces. These are an extremely important tactical consideration. Your positioning on the battlefield will have a major influence on how a combat scenario plays out.

Rule One: Each character is entitled to 1 attack of opportunity (A/O) per turn for free and it is considered a triggered reaction.

Rule Two: A/o are triggered by movement thru threatened spaces (defined as anywhere a character could strike another with a melee weapon, including those with reach). Standing from a prone position counts as movement within the threatened space.

Rule Three: while in a threatened space, casting spells or loosing a ranged weapon in melee range triggers A/O. Using alchemy bombs or throwing knives both count as triggers of A/O. Sipping a potion does not, however.

Rule Four: Attempting to flee triggers A/O if the fleeing opponent starts within a threatened space – it does not count if you are passing thru. The exception to this rule is if the fleeing opponent can get to cover with just one 5 ft movement.

Rule Five: A/O can be made at range but this requires a Skill Card that threatens a space or spaces. This A/O would still count as the one free A/O per turn.

Rule Six: Exactly ONE additional A/O can be made thru Skill Card passives based on a successful defense (dodge, block, parry, or save). These are called Counter Attacks.

Rule Seven: There are skill cards that allow characters to avoid A/O in various contexts.

DAMAGE TYPES

Aside from Physical Damage from weapons or other attacks, Players and Monsters can apply Ability Damage, Poison Damage, Bleed damage, and 12 types of Magic damage. All these forms of damage are subject to various ability saves.

ABILITY DAMAGE: most Ability Damage is temporary and can be healed through rest, healing, and spells.

Successful % save in relevant ability cuts damage in half, rounding down. After save, apply Ability Damage Reduction (ADR), which is conferred thru spells or heart-card passives.

Extreme and Unfair Example: 5 chaos wizards hit your character with a ritual spell dealing 5d6 Perception damage. Your Perception score is 45; you roll a 20 and pass. The wizards roll 5d6 and score a 23, so you would take 11 Perception damage, except you have a heart-card passive that reduces ability damage by 3, for a total of 8 Perception damage taken. Your temporary score is now 37.

Saves are made against your temporary score!

Two rounds later, the chaos wizards finish a second channel, dealing 5d6 Perception damage. This time you fail the save. They roll 18 damage. You reduce this damage by 3, for total of 15 Perception damage. Your temporary score is 22 Perception unless you are replenished of the damage. Should have nuked the squishy bastards!

Players and Monsters can also apply POISON counters:

Poison mastery is a proficiency that determines the total number of poison counters you can apply (up to 5). Poisons can inflict damage or negative status effects, depending both on the type and strength of the poison. A lot of poisons, once they take effect, ignore DR based on armor but not based on ENDURANCE or Spell.

Players and Monsters can deal BLEED damage

Each bleed adds damage to a blood pool, which represents the amount of bleed damage applied to a Basic Attack.

Note that some bleed attacks apply directly to the Body. These are called Wounds. Usually only worth a single point at first, their damage bypasses all DR. Wounds can stack. Wound damage can also be derived from the degree of success of an attack that deals damage to the Body.

Players and Monsters can deal MAGIC damage:

Similarly to Blood Pool damage, Magic damage of the same type stacks with itself for the purpose of Damage Reduction. The spells must all be from the same caster unless a channeled group or ritual spell is used.

For example, a spell deals 6+1d6 VOID damage per turn for 5 turns. Each turn, that 6+1d6 Void damage would face a damage reduction. Let's say, DR 5. On the first turn, I roll a 4. The opponent takes 10 damage, minus their DR of 5, for a total of 5 void damage.

Then I cast a second spell which deals 2d6 Void damage per turn for 3 turns. During the 3 turns in which both Damage over Time Spells are working on the same target, that target would take 6+3d6 Void damage as one instance of damage, rather than two separate instances.

Here's the difference:

As one instance: 6+3d6. I roll 12, for a total of 18 damage. -5 DR = 13 total void damage delivered.

As two separate instances: 6+1d6. I roll a 2, for a total of 8 damage. - 5 DR = 3 void damage. Then I roll 2d6 for a total of 7. -5 DR = 2 void damage. 3+2 = 5 void damage delivered.

We are using the more lethal method.

Negative conditions

Players and monster cards -- whether from spell, force of arm, poison, or ability damage -- can also apply negative conditions. The most crucial is “defenseless,” a status which connotes a character's inability to defend themselves. Mechanically, this means that their hearts are null and void until they recover. When the heart pool is gone, or null and void, damage is done directly to the Body, which can quickly result in a character or monster being maimed or dying (see Body Pool mechanics for more detail).

Defenseless: lose all hearts till you regain defenses.

Attacks against a defenseless target are made with a +25% bonus and are automatically considered critical strikes.

A critical roll that is successful against a defenseless opponent sets their BP to zero, resulting in a KO. Coup de'Grace is permitted.

*Denotes defenselessness

Cursed -- penalty to % rolls

Crippled -- lose use of limb or limbs, incurring penalties based on limb and severity.

Disarmed -- take an action – either movement or basic action – to retrieve weapon or “free action” to draw another

Prone/Knocked Down -- on ground, potentially defenseless, though in most cases attacks can still be dodged or blocked; however, standing up costs a move action and can provoke A/O.

Grappled -- must make STR or AGI check to break free from grapple, or spade check to maneuver within it. Cannot dodge or parry attacks from sources beyond the grapple, but can potentially block.

Pinned* -- grappled but also unable to move. In addition cannot defend melee attacks from sources beyond the grapple

Strangled – choking. Make END check per turn. You can fail this save a number of times equal to your END bonus number before you lose consciousness and become defenseless.

Feared -- either cower in place or run away for at least 1 turn, can defend oneself at a penalty based on degree of failure to save (5% per degree of failure)

Hysteria -- brief insanity, whether filled with uncontrollable laughter or sadness or both. Lose at least 1 turn of action.

Enraged -- you lose accuracy on all skills checks (maximum of -25% penalty) but gain +1-5 damage per attack.

Berserk: you are also enraged but now will automatically make 1 BA/turn against nearest sentient being until effect ends

Panicked -- basic actions made at penalty based on degree of failure (5% per degree of failure) to save

Confused -- lose or misuse action for 1 or more turns but can defend oneself.

Hallucinating -- potentially rendering defenseless, if experiencing catatonia. Cause penalty to actions depending on degree of failure to save (5% per degree of failure).

Intoxicated: depends on source, potentially rendering defenseless

Disoriented-- typically 1 turn with penalty to skill/ability checks/saves (5% per degree of failure)

Staggered - typically 1 turn losing reaction (no A/O, counters, counter spells, or ability to shield/heal other as reaction); taking damage or receiving healing ends the staggered effect

Stunned* - typically 1 turn of losing all action; cannot be stunned two rounds in a row

Knocked out* -- typically 1 or more turns of unconsciousness without intervention

Asleep* -- unconscious but damage awakens, allies can awaken without dealing damage

Blinded – Attack, spell, dodge, parry, or block checks made at -25 – 75% penalty.

Deafened -- -100% check to hearing-related perception checks, for example being sneaked upon.

Silenced -- can't speak or cast spells with verbal component

Sickened/diseased: various possible effects, depending on sickness, drug withdrawal falls under this category. Can be considered contagious.

Defiled -- a form of sickness that makes it harder to heal.

Paralyzed* -partial paralysis falls under crippled category. Full paralysis is conscious loss of all action for duration of effect.

Petrified/Frozen* -- Partial petrification falls under crippled category. A transformation of the body into stone or any other solid material, such as ice or glass.

Mutation -- some spells, exposure to chaos, and sicknesses cause mutations, such as growing tentacles, an extra head, animal parts, etc.

Transformation (unwilling) -- similar to mutation except usually involves a full body transformation, for example being turned into a harmless little wabbit.

Poisoned -- poisons can deal strong upfront damage, damage per turn, or apply their own status effects, some of which render target defenseless.

Wounded -- you are easier to track. Each wound causes 1 damage to Body/turn, ignoring all DR. Any Body healing whatsoever ceases the bleeding status.

Burning -- you take minimum 1d6 fire damage per turn until extinguished

Survival Conditions:

Fatigued/Exhausted/Sleep Deprived: scaling penalty to Ability Checks, saves, Ability bonuses. At latter stage, take 1d10 permanent ability damage to all abilities per day. Reaching Zero in Endurance or Intelligence means death, without intervention.

Peckish/Hungry/Starving: penalty to STR, AGI, END. Then 1d10 Permanent Endurance damage per day. Endurance reaching Zero means death, without intervention.

Thirsty/Dehydrated: suffer ability damage/suffer 1d10 permanent ability Endurance damage every 8 hours. END reaching Zero means death, without intervention.

BODY POOL and WOUND MECHANICS

These mechanics formulate exactly how dangerous combat can be in the world of Dark Adaptation.

When taking damage to Body, the Natural Roll of the Attack corresponds to parts of the body, as seen in the table below. For a Fortune Point, you may also choose to invert the dice (for example, a roll of 81 would become an 18) for the purpose of consulting the table. The provided effects are suggestions.

Head

01-03 -INT – stupefied/concussed/stunned, horror

04-06 -PER – loss of visual/auditory sense, madness

07-10 -CHA – memory/speech loss, personality shift, dread

Arms and Hands

11-25 – STR (arm lifting, weapon damage, block checks)

26-40 – AGI (weapon damage, attack checks, skill checks)

Abdomen

41-70 – END → difficulty breathing, lower carry weight, survival, internal bleeding, paralysis

Legs and Feet

71- 85 -AGI (slowed, hobbled, hamstrung)

86-100 -STR (reduced carry weight, weakened)

When taking damage to the BP, if the attack roll exceeds 2 or more degree of success, the attack roll not only applies extra damage to the BP but also deals Permanent Ability Damage – there is no save permitted, and you do not apply ADR. Replenish spells do not affect this damage directly but can help speed recovery of the injury itself, so don't ignore their relevance.

The higher the degree of success, the more serious the wound or injury. All penalties to checks persist until you sufficiently heal the wound or injury.

In addition, critical rolls double ability damage. If the target is defenseless, they would take double ability damage. If a critical roll succeeds against a defenseless target, not only is the target knocked out, the ability damage is quadrupled!

Let's use an arrow to the knee as an example:

Degree of success 2 –> minor wound, bruised bone –> -5-10% penalty to ability and skill checks

Degree of success 3 → moderate wound, hairline fracture → -20% penalty to ability and skill checks

Degree of success 4 → serious wound, fractured bone → -30-50% penalty to ability and skill checks. Depending on where the attack took place, such as trauma to the skull, even if you survive the attack, there is a 20% chance you will die from other complications if your character doesn't receive appropriate aid.

Degree of success 5 → grievous wound, broken bone → -60-80% penalty to ability checks. Depending on where the attack took place, such as to the skull, even if you survive the attack, there is a 35% chance your character will die from other complications, such as internal bleeding, if they don't receive appropriate (and immediate) aid.

Degree of success 6 → mortal wound. A significant bone is shattered . Automatically fail skill checks. Must make END test or die of system shock.

It is called Permanent Ability Damage, because if you take it, you must alter your score permanently by whatever number is indicated by the degree of success.

The wound or injury itself will require time, medical aid, and/or appropriately powerful magic to heal. If the injury is severe enough, only persistent/prolonged magic will heal it (meaning you will no longer incur penalties), but you will still have taken Permanent Ability Damage.

Finally, only experience point spending, to reflect rehabilitation, can return ability damage that has been lost in this manner. Replenish spells, used daily, will halve the cost of experience as well as halve the recovery time.

Only going to say this once: Protect yourself at all times.

Healing per long rest /day

HEALING PER LONG REST:

Body: END bonus+

Temporary ability: bandages, splints, stress relief activity (grants 1d6 in chosen abilities).

HEARTS: all

HEALING PER DAY OF DOWNTIME

Body: 1d10+END, assuming no serious or grevious injuries

temporary ability: 1d10

RECOVERY SPEED

sickness: 1-10 days

broken bone: 4d10 days

wounds:

minor: 1d10 days

moderate: 2d10 days

serious: 3-4d10 days

grievous: 5(or more) d10 days

Note: Every ten points in Endurance speeds recovery time by 1 day.

Daily influence of magic halves recovery time.

Whenever you take a rest of a least 6 hours, you have a day to recover any temporary ability damage before it could become permanent. If temporary ability score remains a full day after a long rest, then take the 10s digit of the amount of temporary damage remaining as permanent ability damage. If the temporary ability damage is less than 10 the character suffers no permanent damage.

NATURAL HEALING

Healing per short rest

hearts: 5+END+ value equal to your highest heart card

body: 0

temporary ability: 0

Healing per long rest

hearts: any that were lost

base health: END bonus + bandages/splints/potions/magical healing/etc.

Temporary ability: 1d6 + bandages/splints/potions/magical healing/etc.

Healing per day of rest

hearts: all

base health: 1d10+HEART+END, assuming no serious injuries

temporary ability: 1d10

ability score penalty: depends on severity of injury.

1 – a few days

2 – a week

3 – a couple of weeks

4 – 1-2 months

5 – 3-6 months

if temporary ability score remains after 24 hours, take the 10s digit of amount of temporary damage remaining as permanent ability damage. If it is less than 10 character suffers no permanent damage.

Types of healing, what is healed, and how:

medicine, ointment, poultice, bandage, splint, stitches –> add 1d10 to mending of the body, and/or 1d6 to replenishing of ability. None of the above affect the heart pool.

potions: 1d10 ability damage, 2d6 hearts, or 1d6 body

you can have 4 potions equipped for quick access. Access into the pack takes a movement phase.

Healing scrolls require a full round.

Healing spells are typically less than half as powerful as damage spells of the same level.

HOW SKILLS ARE APPLIED TO ONE'S CHARACTER:

Skill slotting: Each card value, Ace through King, has 4 slots and only 4 slots. You need a specific skill level to slot skills correlating to the card number. You can re-slot your cards once per day during any rest period lasting 6 or more hours.

Skill progression: As you increase skill level, new levels of cards become available to slot.

10%: Ace, first

12 second

14 third

17 fourth

20%: 2, first

22 second

24 third

27 fourth

30%: 3, first

32 second

34 third

37 fourth

40%: 4, first

42 second

44 third

47 fourth

50%: 5, first

52 second

54 third

57 fourth

60%: 6, first

62 second

64 third

67 fourth

70%: 7, first

72 second

74 third

77 fourth

80%: 8, first

82 second

84 third

87 fourth

90%: 9, first

92 second

94 third

97 fourth

100: 10, first

102 second*

104 third

107 fourth

110: Jack (-10)*

112 second

113 third

114 fourth

115: Queen (-15)*

117 second

118 third

119 fourth

120: King (-20)*

* aside from heart skills, if you reach 100 in a skill line, you can learn higher level skills (J,Q,K), but you will take a penalty to the relevant checks unless you increase your skill level respectively.

Example:

I am starting off as a sorcerer and have chosen to allocate my skill points as such:

42 clubs

42 hearts

20 diamonds

Having 40+ in clubs and 40+ in hearts, allows me to use level 4 cards in the Club and Heart skill lines. The 20 in diamonds opens up the diamond skill cards up to level 2.

Having 42 in clubs allows me to have a maximum of 4 club cards slotted for levels 1 through 3, and 2 clubs slotted at the 4^th level.

Likewise, having 42 in hearts allows me to have a maximum of 4 heart cards slotted for levels 1 through 3, and 2 hearts slotted at the 4^th level.

I can slot 4 aces of diamonds, but only 1 diamond card at 2^nd level.

Here are some sample card allocations:

Since I'm starting off I want to make use of all my skill points and attain some semblance of balance. I'm torn between two options, but it's OK because I can redo these once per day during any rest period lasting 6+ hours:

The first:

1 – 2 heart, 1 club card, 1 diamond

2 – 2 heart, 1 club card, 1 diamond

3 – 2 heart, 2 clubs

4 – 2 heart, 2 clubs

And the second:

1 – 3 hearts, 1 diamond

2 – 1 heart, 2 clubs, 1 diamond

3 – 2 hearts, 2 clubs

4 – 2 heart, 2 club

Note that no card value can have more than 4 cards slotted at any time. It doesn't matter which suit(s) I slot, as long as there are not more than 4 per card value.

Maybe I decide I want more defense, so I slot a lot a ridiculous number of hearts:

1 – 4 hearts

2 – 4 hearts

3 – 4 hearts

4 – 2 hearts, 2 clubs

Or maybe as a sorcerer I want to rely on magic for most everything, so I slot a lot of clubs:

1 – 4 clubs

2 – 4 clubs

3 – 4 clubs

4 – 2 hearts, 2 clubs

That's quite the difference!

Slotting your skills is the primary way to define your role in combat scenarios. Choose wisely.

Skills learned from:

Allies

Guilds

Quests
Accomplishments
Exploration

Monsters
Enemies
Scrolls
Manuals
Tournaments
Improved by use

Improved by itemization/equipment

2b: BASIC CARD MECHANICS:

ACTIVE POWERS (very basic balance template):

Card Power (Y)

Card Dice (X; where X= Y-1)

A + 0
2 + 1d6
3 + 2d6
4 +3d6
5 +4d6
6 +5d6
7 +6d6
8 +7d6
9 +8d6
10 +9d6
J (11)+ 10d6
QK (12)+11d6
KQ (13)+ 12d6

Limited card slots (4 per A - K)

Cards -- active powers of greater value -- can be traded in for more cards of lesser value. For example three 2s can be traded for six Aces. Typically but not always these must be of the same suit.

For example: Lesser spells can be spent to cast a spell of greater value. Such as spending 4 Aces to cast a 4th level spell. Cannot be used to cast spells outside of one's skill level.

Does not apply to stacking selfsame passives, though there are some exceptions.

Active Powers renew each day (which must include a long rest of at least 6 hours) and are spent by tapping card or returning card to your deck

Table below gives a measurement of pools if all cards slotted were one suit. The total of the set on the left, and grand total on the right.

A
4/4

2
8/12

3
12/24

4
16/40

5
20/60

6
24/84

7
28/112

8
32/144

9
36/180s

10
40/220

J

44/264

Q/k

48/312

K/Q

52/364

PART THREE: INVENTORY

Inventory Slots

Total = strength+endurance+backpack (1-3) x2

Inventory slot values:

armor

light armor – 1

medium armor – 2

heavy armor – 3

full armor – 4

weapons/shields

small – 1 (dagger, short sword, club, buckler, including hand crossbows and short bows)

medium (long sword, kite shield, including long bows and light crossbow) – 2

two-handed – 3 (including heavy crossbow)

consumables

4 potions = 1

spellbook = 1

scroll belt (with 10 scrolls) = 1

4 reagent pouches = 1

jewelry

1 talisman = 0

2 rings = 0

clothing

basic outfit – 0

extravagent outfit – 1

winter outfit – 2

plague doctor outfit – 2

adventuring gear

light 1

rations, waterskin, handheld tools, any number of smaller kits, small artifact

medium 2

bedroll, chain, rope, pick, ballpean hammer, large crowbar, small trap, painting

heavy 3-5

sledgehammer, climbing kit, tent, chest, ladder, large trap, bust statue

cumbersome 6-7

ram, barrel, large chest, statue

EQUIPMENT LISTING: Cost of goods based on wealth of city-state+supply/demand

Food/Rations: raw, ready-to-eat, or fully prepared

Drink – water, wine, ale, coffee, cocoa, milk, juice, nectar, etc

Clothing – cheap, refined, uniform, costume, fancy, noble, royal

Adornments/Accessories

Precious metal/gem – uncut/raw, fine, common –> rare

Cosmetic

Lodging: rented or owned

Furnishings

Time-Keeping devices: water clocks, hourglasses, monatic, mechanical (for larger structures)

Workshop Access

Locks

Traps/Alarms

Personal storage: chest, vials, pouches, belts

Backpack

Weapons

Ammunition

Bombs/Explosives

Armor

Medicine

Reagents

Potions

Poisons

Runes

Relics

Totems

Books

Scrolls

Magical Weapons

Toolkits: Farming, mining, lumberjacking, fishing, hunting, Arcane, Alchemy, Poison, Medicine, Surgical, Trap Disarm, Lockpick, Ammunition, Climbing, Animal Handling, Firestarting, disguise, make up

Transportation: Carriage, Cart, Boat, Ship, Galley, War Ship

Exploration Gear: Light source, pikes, pinions, ropes, chalk, etc

Gadgets

Games – cards, dice, chess

Instruments

Campbuilding Gear: Bedroll, fire-starter, tarp, tent, etc.

Siege

NPC

Pet/Cattle/Pack Animal/Companion

Laborer

Entertainment

Messenger

Mercenary

Informant/Spy

Thief

Bodyguard

Healer

Wizard

Imperial Currencies

Ataraxian: Myria, Herora, Somnah.

Divya Dravya: Greylund, Mercia, Thurland

Lau-jin: Yan-Fang, Annhui

Rapina

Skylin Isles

Conversion for coins of precious metal is by weight with x% of tax as cost of exchange; there are tax-free zones in the capital cities.

Gems have separate worth/exchange rate

Worth of bartered good is based on demand (get more value in selling weapons to a state preparing for war, as an example)

Many of the fringe cultures do not respect coin currency.

Physical Weapons

Weapon damage = weapon grade+ die roll+ abi bonus

0+ unarmed 1d10 (strength or agility)

1+ knuckle dusters (strength)

1+ buckler shield 1d10 (strength or agility)

1+ kite shield 1d10 (strength)

1+ dagger 1d10 ( agility)

1+ throwing knife/axe (agility/strength)

1+ hand crossbow quarrel 1d10 (agility)

1+ staff 1d10 (strength or agility)

1+ club 1d10 (strength)

1+ short bow/arrow 1d10 (agility)

2+ short sword (strength or agility)

2+ rapier 1d10 (strength or agility)

2+ light crossbow bolt 1d10 (agility)

3+ spear 1d10 (strength)

3+ long bow/arrow 1d10 (strength or agility); prerequisite 25 STR

3+ hammer 1d10 (strength, +1 END damage)

3+ sword 1d10 (+5% parry) (strength)

3+ axe 1d10 (adds 2 to blood pool) (strength)

3+ mace 1d10 (causes -2 penalty to target's DR for 1 turn) (strength)

0+ heavy crossbow bolt, 2d10 (agility); prerequisite 25 STR

1+ long spear 2d10 (strength) (has reach)

2+ naginata 2d10 (has reach) (strength or agility)

2+ katana 2d10 (+5% parry, +5% dodge) (strength or agility)

3+ warhammer 2d10 (+2 temporary END damage) (strength); prerequisite 30 STR

3+ great sword 2d10 (+5% parry, +5% block) (strength); prerequisite 30 STR

3+ great axe 2d10 (adds 3 to blood pool) (strength); prerequisite 30 STR

3+ maul 2d10 (successful attack penalizes opponent 3 DR for 1 full turn) (strength); prerequisite 30 STR

4+ pole arm 2d10 (has reach, can be used to trip) (strength); prerequisite 35 STR

Dual wielding is when you wield a one-handed weapon in each hand. Dual-wielding allows one extra attack with off-hand weapon/turn.

Without any dual-wielding proficiency, the off-hand attack is made at a -20% penalty. Damage dealt is at a -3 damage penalty and your ability modifier is not added to the damage roll.

Proficiency reduces the penalties:

DW Proficiency (spade 20): - 15% off-hand, -2 damage penalty

DW Expertise: (spade 40)-10% off-hand. -1 damage penalty

DW Mastery: (spade 60) -5% penalty to off-hand skill check, no damage penalty

DW Grand Mastery (spade 80): No penalty to off-hand skill check, and you can now add ability-modifier to off-hand damage.

NOTE that because Dual-wielding grants an extra attack per turn, you gain an additional parry with the off-hand weapon once per turn; however, if you opt to parry, you still lose the extra attack from the off-hand weapon on your nearest turn. The parry check does NOT incur off-hand penalties.

Magical Weapon Types:

Magic-based (deals Energy damage):

* ranged

** ranged or melee

Common

0+ Ring 1d10**

1+ Orb 1d10*

1+ Talisman 1d10*

Uncommon

1+ Orb-Ring 1d10**

2+ Wand/Rod 1d10*
2+ dagger 1d10

3+ 1h scepter/short sword 1d10

3+ 1h Short Staff 1d10**

Rare

1+ arcane short bow 1d10*

3+ 1h spell(sword) 1d10

Ultra Rare

3+ Arcane Long Bow 1d10*

4+ 2h Spell(sword) 2d10

4+ 2H Master Staff 1d10 (ranged)

4+ 2H Master Staff 2d10 (melee)

Normal attack/Channeled attack (ability)

A normal attack is a Basic Action, but some Skill Cards will allow you to forego your movement phase to make a normal attack, so you can potentially cast a spell or make weapon attacks in that same round. To make a channeled attack you must expend both your Basic Action and forego movement on your turn – again, unless a skill card dictates otherwise.

Magic-based weapons primarily serve as conduits for spells, but can also be used to make Basic Attacks, using the club skill line to test for success.

You can only make one such attack per round.

If dual-wielding, you can choose to make two attacks, but without dual-wield casting skill cards, your attacks are subject to penalties.

The damage is considered spell damage (energy) for the purposes of Damage Reduction.

For a channeled attack, add 1d10 to the damage roll. For example, a channeled attack with a scepter in melee range would deal 3+1d10+1d10+abi energy damage. If you are dual-wielding, the 1d10 bonus applies to the main hand weapon only.

Dual-wield casting

Without any dual-wield casting proficiency, the off-hand attack is made at a -20% penalty. Damage dealt is at a -3 damage penalty and your ability modifier is not added to the damage roll.

DWC Proficiency (club 10): - 15% off-hand, -2 damage penalty

DWC Expertise: (club 30) -10% off-hand. -1 damage penalty

DWC Mastery: (club 50) -5% penalty to off-hand skill check, no damage penalty

DWC Grand Mastery (club 70): No penalty to off-hand skill check, and you can now add ability-modifier to off-hand damage.

Specialized Magic Weapons (rare magic items): converts the spell damage type from generic Energy into whatever is in the description of the weapon. All specialized magic weapons are boosted by the relevant ability score and by any relevant skill card proficiency. If a weapon deals damage, it deals damage based on weapon grade+ weapon tier+ ability modifier. The “randomized” dice, or d10 portion, changes depending on the exact type of weapon.

Basic/Channeled

Energy –> Elemental (highest of INT or PER)

Fire, Ice, Earth, Water, Wind, Lightning (adds 1d10)/ (adds 2d10)

Void (highest of INT or PER)

Adds 1d10 void damage/(deals 2d10 void damage)

Energy → Blood (CHA)

Endurance (+5% – +25% bonus to END save or -5 – -25% penalty to opponent END save)/ Life-Sap (channeled attack deals 1d10 damage, heals 1d10)

Counter Spell (INT)

Adds bonus 5% – 25% to save against or counter spells (if casting a counter spell)/In addition, a charged attack creates a field that can reflect small amounts of spell damage (2d10, +1-5).

Mind (INT) – Horror, Madness, Dread

Cause penalty to Mental Saves, -5% – -25%/Intelligence, Perception, OR Charisma damage 1d10+INT

Time (INT)

Can slow enemy movement or bolster an ally's movement (1-5)/ Adds Agility damage (1d10+INT, +1-5)

Healing (PER/CHA)

Invigorate 2d6+PER/CHA or Mend 1d6+PER/CHA or Replenish 1d10+PER/CHA, temporary ability damage

Gravity (INT)

Cause penalty to STR and AGI checks, 5-25%/Charged attack can additionally cause paralysis for 1 turn against STR or AGI check, whichever is lower.

Sun (PER)

Fire damage (1d10, +1-5), bright light/ Heal wound (1d6, +1-5), or 2d10 fire damage

Moon (PER)

Adds Perception damage (1d6) or cold damage (1d10)/ replenish temporary mental-ability damage (1d10+PER)

Protection (CHA)

creates temporary health (add 1d10 to target for 10 turns; cannot stack upon any one target)/ create a barrier around target, adding 1-5 DR for x turns; x= degree of success. Effect cannot stack with itself.

Chaos (CHA)

adds Charisma damage (1d10)/ casts curses or blessings (5-25% to skill checks)

Law (CHA)

Protects against ability score damage (1-5 ADR) for x turns, where x equals degree of success/ Immobilize opponent against STR check for 1-5 turns

Nature (PER/CHA)

Controls plants (choose: bind opponent for 1-5 turns, add poison 1d6+1-5, or invigorate 1d10+1-5)/ summons specific familiars or animal companions or affects weather (terrain condition)

Armor types

Damage reduction= armor+ shield+ abi bonus+magical item bonus+ heart card proficiency

Weapons, armor, and shields can be non-magically upgraded to +1,+2, +3 and magically upgraded to +4, +5.

Unarmored
0 clothing (including basic robes)

Light
1 padded

2 hide
2 leather

Medium

3 brigandine

3 chain hauberk

3 bone armor

4 lamellar
4 scalemail

Heavy

5 splint (chain+plate chest)
6 half plate (chain+plate chest, legs or helm)

6 carapace or bonemeal plate

7 plate (chain+helm, chest, legs)

Fully Armored

8 full plate

8 dragonscale

Basic Shields – apply DR when able to block

1 Buckler Shield – can allow you to use AGI bonus instead of END for purpose of DR when blocking a melee or ranged physical attack.
2 Kite Shield

3 Tower shield (35 STR required)
4 Twohanded tower Shield (40 STR required)

can be used to create cover

ARMOR PENALTIES:

Wearing any armor at all has adverse effect on your ability to cast spells, and an adverse effect on how effective they are; heavy armor also negatively affects mobility and stealth. Some of these penalties can be mitigated through skill card passives, spells, and potions.

Light armored: 95% or -5% club penalty -1 spell damage*

Medium: 90% or -10% club, -1d6 spell damage

Heavy (splint/half-plate): 85% or -15%, -2d6 spell damage; -5% stealth

Full: 80% or -20%, -3d6 spell damage; -1 movement -10% stealth

Buckler: -0% club, -1 spell damage

Kite Shield: additional -5% penalty to club checks, -3 spell damage; -5% stealth

Tower: additional -10% penalty to club checks, -6 spell damage; -1 movement, -10% stealth

Two-handed Tower: additional -15% to club checks, -10 spell damage, -2 movement, -20% stealth.

*Spell damage refers to healing spells as well.

Armored Spell-casting Proficiency cards (HEARTS)
These cards reduce the penalties incurred by attempting to cast spells while wearing armor

1 do not suffer penalty to casting when wearing light armor

2 -5% penalty to casting when wearing medium armor, -1 spell damage

3 no penalty to casting when wearing medium armor

4 -10% penalty to casting in heavy armor, -1d6 spell damage

5 – 5% penalty to casting in heavy armor, -1 damage

6 – no penalty to casting in heavy armor

7 – -15 to casting in full armor, -2d6

8-- -10 to casting in full armor, -1d6

9 – -5 to casting in full armor, -1

10 no penalty to either checks or damage while fully armored

Shielded Casting Proficiency Cards (HEARTS)

These cards reduce the penalties incurred by attempting to cast spells while utilizing shields

Buckler: -0% club, -1 damage

1 no penalty to casting while employing buckler

Shield: -5% club, -3 spell damage; -5% stealth

2 no penalty to casting while wearing kite shield, -2 damage

4 -1 damage penalty

6 – no damage penalty

Tower: -10% club, -6 spell damage; -1 movement, -10% stealth

5 -5% club skill check/-3 damage

7 -1 damage

9 no damage penalty

Two-handed Tower: -15% club, -10 spell damage

6 -10%, -8 damage

8 -5%, -6 damage

10 -4 damage

Equipment Slots:

Helm

Chest

Legs

Hands

Feet

Waist

Cloak/shoulder

Necklace (1)

Rings (2)

Major Weapon Slots (2):

1h Weapon/ 1h weapon

1h weapon/1hShield

2h weapon

2h shield

1h wand/1h wand

2h Staff

Minor Weapon Slots (2+)

Third: backup weapon or other utility

boot knife, throwing knife, throwing star, handcrossbow, bomb (chemical, explosive, smoke), scroll book.

Fourth (4):

potion, elixir, ammonia, bandage, etc

Item and equipment paradigm

max bonus for 5 piece (armor sets)

skill % DR Saves Movement Damage

LIGHT 25% 1 +25% all +5 +5

MEDIUM 25% 2/3 +25% str/agi+15% etc +3 +4

HEAVY 25% 4/5 +25% end/+10% etc +1 +3

tier 5 max bonus per piece (weapon, shield, jewelry)

skill or damage or defense

weapon (2h) +10% +5 +2 dr, 10% parry (melee), 10% dodge (range)

weapon (1h) +5% +3 damage +1 DR, 5%, 5% parry

shield (1h) +5% +1 damage +2 DR, 5% endurance, +1 ADR

shield (2h) +10% +1 damage +3 DR, 10% endurance, +2 ADR

ring +5% +1 damage +5% saves, +1 mov, +1 DR, +5% abi, +1 ADR

necklace +5% +1 damage +5% saves, +1 mov, +1 DR, +5% abi, +1 ADR

max ability per piece

LIGHT 1-5% (any)

MEDIUM 1-5% (AGI, STR)

HEAVY 1-5% (END, STR)

WEAPON (2h) 2-10% (STR, AGI)

WEAPON (1h) 1-5% (STR, AGI)

SHIELD (1h) 1-5% (STR, END)

SHIELD (2h) 2-10% (STR, END)

TIER 1

shield (1h/2h) jewel weapon 1 weapon 2 armor 5 piece

1/2 % save 1% save 1% skill 2% skill 1% save +1 DR

1/2 % skill 1% skill 1 % abi 2% abi 1% skill +1 damage

1/2 % abi 1% abi 1 dam 1 dam 1% abi +1 move

0/1 DR 1% def

TIER 2

shield jewel weapon 1 weapon 2 armor 5 piece

2/4% save 2% save 2 % skill 4% skill 2% save 2 DR

2/4% skill 2% skill 2% abi 4% abi 2% skill 2 DAM

2/4% abi 2% abi 1 dam 2 dam 2% abi 2 MOV

1/1 DR 1 DR

TIER 3

shield jewel weapon 1 weapon 2 armor 5 piece

3/6% save 3% save 3% skill 6% skill 3% save 3 DR

3/6% skill 3% skill 3% abi 6% abi 3% skill 3 DAM

3/6% abi 3% abi 2 dam 3 dam 3% abi 3 MOV

1/2 DR 1 DR 1 DR

TIER 4

shield jewel weapon 1 weapon 2 armor 5 piece

4/8% save 4% save 4% skill 8% skill 4% save 4 DR

4/8% skill 4% skill 4% abi 8% abi 4% skill 4 DAM

4/8% abi 4% abi 2 dam 4 dam 4% abi 4 MOV

2/2 DR 1 DR 2 DR

TIER 5

shield jewel weapon 1 weapon 2 armor 5 piece

5/10% save 5% save 5% skill 10% skill 5% save 5 DR

5/10% skill 5% skill 5% abi 10% abi 5% skill 5 DAM

5/10% abi 5% abi 3 dam 5 dam 5% abi 5 MOV

2/3 DR 1 DR 2 DR

Each and every class detailed within this text carries with it a beginning set of items; one piece will be tier one. However, there are stronger sets awarded through questing, crafting, trade, and/or exploration.

Itemization synergy:

Sets that have synergy with each other can be enacted if specific skill level prerequisites are met. Items will sometimes be more stat dense than others, but, no matter how stat dense an item is, there are still caps on equipment stacking bonuses (+5/+25%). This should encourage diversifying one's allocations and help shore up some weaknesses without completely eliminating them.

Legendary items, “named items,” monster items will rarely have specific bonuses outside the normal 1-5/5-25% balance template. Any item that produces an ability-like effect must create what's called a z-card slot.

A Z-card slot is an extra skill card slot. You can have no more than two of these in your deck; if you wish to have more, these will instead count as/replace skill cards within the existing framework. Therefore, equipping specific weapons or items will open up access to specific skill cards, which you can only slot when that weapon or item is equipped.

Z card effects

3d10

3.+xd6 elemental damage on crit

4. adds status effect

5. adds ability damage

6. heals wielder upon damage

7.causes wound

8. releases unique poison

9. gives additional bonus to backstab

10. stores spell(s)

11. singing sword

12. cause fear

13. additional damage against blocking opponent

14. pure magic conduit

15. spore

16. ashen cloud

17. tremor/quake

18. sonic wave

19. creates escalating damage counter

20. gravity pull

21. summon familiar

22. energy vortex

23. echoic memory

24. knockback

25. create darkness

26. create smoke

27. toxic cloud

28. counterspell

29. healing negation

30. add BA for x turns

POTIONS

1-5 – consult chart, potions have negative side effects or directly opposite effect

6-90 – healing, replenish

91-100 – consult chart, healing potions are 1d4+1x their normal potency

2d20

2 healing

3 replenish ability

4 haste

5 skill

6 ability bonus

7 protection (saves, DR, spell DR, elemental protection)

8 luck/blessed

9 ammonia

10 nutritious meal

11 stun and immobilization immunity

12 mental bastion

13 lower card cost

14 improve card potency

15 restore cards

16 spider climb

17 giant frog leap

18 invisibility

19 true-seeing (in addition to allowing one to see invisible and ethereal persons, or otherwise see through illusions, cures blindness)

20 charm

21 disguise

22 fearful presence

23 flying

24 polymorph

25 anti-venom

26 anti-toxin

27 long rest

28 anti-aging

29 dark vision

30 regeneration (speeds base health recovery, including all Ability Damage)

31 cure disease

32 true form (undoes mutations)

33 dragon's breath

34 medusa's gaze

35 short-term astral projection

36 prophetic vision

37 water breathing

38 force field

39 recall

40 revive from dead

LIST OF POISONS

Status Effect

1 Turn of Damage

X turns of Damage

A

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Additional Itemization

Tattoo Magic: +/- system. Every tattoo confers a bonus to an ABILITY, from 1% up to 5%. All characters can have 5 major tattoos. Tattoos can add z-slots. If tattoos are created with embedded gems, they will give bonuses to specific spell types or defenses, but will not work with armor that covers them up.

Drug +/- system: negative effects are double the duration of the positive effects, but ability modifiers can stack with food, spell-based, and armor-derived bonuses. Can become addicted.

Alchemy Magic: balanced by various cool downs, based on potency of the potion.

Scrolls: can add (up to ABI bonus) spells per day but these do not count towards one's club pool, for the purposes of trading lower level spells for higher level spells or vice versa. If your character does not know the spell, it will take a whole round to cast instead of just a basic action.

Rune Magic: applies permanent or temporary bonuses to weapons, armor, shields, rings, necklaces. Can also count as a z-card or add effect to weapon. In some cases runes can be used similarly to scrolls.

Totem Magic: any banner or effigy that confers power to a team or within in an area

Food/Drink Magic (lasting hours based on END bonus. 1% - 25% total ABILITY bonus, no one ABILITY reaching higher than +10%). These bonuses can stack with armor bonuses, but are limited to a total of +25%.

Pure Magic

Pure Magic orbs are remnants of stars crashed to the Aerth, said to resemble material present before the beginning of the known universe.

These orbs are considered truly rare magical items that augment the power of spells at the cost of life force, not necessarily one's own.

User can move expended heart cards and, more potently, Body points to supplement damage, if the heart card expended is one's own it will not be able to be healed except through rest and recovery.

Spell creation (under revision): players can create spells by combining various effects.

Effects are worth 1d6.
A spell can have x number of effects, x being the number of d6s, denoted by the potency of the card.
For example level 6 card is worth 5d6 so a 6th level card can have up to 5 effects. Effects can stack with themselves. So a basic fire ball may deal 5d6. Or 4d6 plus cause temporary blindness for 1 turn.

At a specific penalty to skill% roll this can be done on the immediate, allowing greater utility, diversity of spells, creativity.

PART FOUR: NONCOMBAT SKILLS

ability-based skill checks, repeated use can confer bonuses anywhere from 1-25%, proper equipment and precipitous circumstance can apply additional bonuses. Some crafting endeavors will require an initial chance of success, with a range of difficulty, allowing the crafter to complete tasks to improve upon their final chance of success.

NEW CHARACTERS: receive 12+INT% points, no more than 5%

NON COMBAT SKILL BUCKETS (each number represents total bonus, maximizing at 25%):

1 2 3 4 5

2% – 5% – 10% – 15% – 25%

SKILL EQUIPMENT

+3/+4/+8

+3% – 7% – 15%

SITUATION

Very Easy: +30% Easy: +15%, Difficult: -15%, Especially Difficult: -30%

Non-Combat Skill List (By Category and Alphabetical Order)

This list can be expanded upon thru play, but the list that is here is built for the purpose of easy randomization. Niche skills are not only allowed but welcomed, but it depends entirely on the style of your group's play.

Crafting (1d20):

Alchemy

Blacksmith (Armor/Weapon)

Brewing

Carpentry (bows, housing, furniture, boats, ships)

Clothier

Culinary

Engineering (technology: for example, siege weapons)

Fletching

Gem-cutting/shaping

Inscription: scrolls, skill manuals, spell books

Instrument Craft/Repair

Jewelry Crafting

Leatherworking, including hiding/tanning

Medicine

Masonry

Painting

Poison

Rune Carving

Sculpting (statues, totems)

Song

Universal (26) (5d6)

Acrobatics

Acting

Animal Handling (includes tracking, taming, feeding, etc.)

Athletics

Art

Dance

Farming

Fishing

Forensice/Investigation

Gaming

Gather Information

Hunting

Knowledge (Choose 1: Arcane, Religion, History, Political)

Math

Mining

Music

Philosophical and Religious Lore

Reading

Riding

Sailing

Secondary Language (Speak, Read, Write)

Sleight of hand

Stealth

Street-smarts

Survival (gathering, fire-building, makeshift shelter building, basic weather knowledge)

Writing

Social (26) (5d6)

Barter

Bluff/lie/swindle

Bribe

Charity

Cognition

Composure

Console

Dignity

Diplomacy/Conflict Management

Empathy

Flatter/Banter/Insult

Gossip

Humor

Instruction

Interrogation

Intimacy

Intimidation

Leadership

Lie detection

Negotiation

Persuasion

Plea

Provoke Emotion

Seduce

Self-control

Speechcraft

Engineering/Technology:

Resources (Water, mining, lumber, etc)

when these are created, the stated resource is added to a guild bank, or to a bank accessible through an empire's quests. Can increase standing or popularity.

City-planning

Characters can design their own settlements; there will be enough”empty land” to do so. City-planning is the responsibility of in-game leaders. Its main benefit is that of creating a safe place for efficient resource production.

Siege

is absolutely intended to slaughter characters of lower levels of power. Some siege characters develop will be strong enough to challenge other characters of higher levels of power too, but such siege will be expensive, and therefore not as common.

Transportation: Zeppelins, Gliders, boats, ships, rail lines.

Building/Architecture:

Tent

Shrine

Camp

Cave dwelling

Cottage

Bunker

Cabin

Workstation

House

Church

Prison

Outpost

Guild hall

Garrison

Monastery

Tower

Temple

Zoo

Pyramid

Castle

Palace

PERSONALITY TRAITS

Each character begins with a set number of personality traits based on their charisma ability score. These traits were swiped from an MIT study without anyone's permission.

100 - 6 positive, 4 neutral, 0 negative

90 - 5 positive, 4 neutral, 0 negative

80 - 4 positive, 4 neutral, 1 negative

70 - 4 positive, 3 neutral, 1 negative

60 - 3 positive, 3 neutral, 1 negative

50 - 3 positive, 2 neutral, 1 negative

40 - 2 positive, 2 neutral, 2 negative

30- 1 positive, 2 neutral, 2 negative

20 - 1 positive, 1 neutral, 3 negative

10 - 0 positive, 0 neutral, 4 negative

You do not have to roll at random, but you should follow the Charisma score in determining personality traits. If you choose to roll the traits randomly, roll d100 for each of the positive, neutral, or negative categories. In other words, if my character starts with a charisma of 40, I will roll 1d100 twice for positive, twice for neutral, and twice for negative traits.

Personality traits are intended to assist characterization rather than strictly determine character action.

However, the traits can and will affect the outcome of character interaction. Positive traits yield bonuses, negative traits make for penalties, and neutral traits may incur one or the other, depending on the situation.

Note: any character can be possessed of many, many of these personality traits. Of course. What these listings imply is something stronger, something more obvious or predominant about the characters.

Positive Traits

1. Adaptable

2. Agreeable

3. Alert

4. Articulate

5. Athletic

6. Attractive

7. Benevolent

8. Calm

9. Caring

10. Challenging

11. Charismatic

12. Charming

13. Clean

14. Clear-headed

15. Clever

16. Compassionate

17. Confident

18. Conscientious

19. Contemplative

20. Cooperative

21. Courageous

22. Courteous

23. Creative

24. Cultured

25. Curious

26. Daring

27. Decisive

28. Dedicated

29. Dignified

30. Disciplined

31. Dutiful

32. Educated

33. Elegant

34. Fair

35. Faithful

36. Farsighted

37. Forgiving

38. Gentle

39. Hardworking

40. Healthy

41. Helpful

42. Heroic

43. Honest

44. Honorable

45. Humble

46. Humorous

47. Idealistic

48. Imaginative

49. Incisive

50. Independent

51. Individualistic

52. Insightful

53. Intelligent

54. Intuitive

55. Knowledgeable

56. Logical

57. Loyal

58. Objective

59. Observant

60. Open

61. Optimistic

62. Organized

63. Original

64. Painstaking

65. Passionate

66. Patient

67. Patriotic

68. Perceptive

69. Perfectionist

70. Persuasive

71. Practical

72. Protective

73. Purposeful

74. Rational

75. Realistic

76. Reflective

77. Relaxed

78. Reliable

79. Resourceful

80. Respectful

81. Responsible

82. Romantic

83. Selfless

84. Self-sufficient

85. Sensitive

86. Sentimental

87. Serious

88. Sexy

89. Sharing

90. Shrewd

91. Simple

92. Sophisticated

93. Stoic

94. Strong

95. Tolerant

96. Trusting

97. Understanding

98. Well-read

99. Wise

100. Witty

Neutral Traits

1. Absentminded

1. Aggressive

2. Ambitious

3. Amusing

4. Artful

5. Businesslike

6. Busy

7. Casual

8. Circumspect

9. Competitive

10. Complex

11. Confidential

12. Conservative

13. Consistent

14. Contradictory

15. Crisp

16. Cute

17. Deceptive

18. Determined

19. Dominating

20. Dreamy

21. Driven

22. Droll

23. Dry

24. Earthy

25. Effeminate

26. Emotional

27. Enigmatic

28. Experimental

29. Familial

30. Folksy

31. Formal

32. Freewheeling

33. Frugal

34. Glamorous

35. Guileless

36. High-spirited

37. Hurried

38. Hypnotic

39. Iconoclastic

40. Idiosyncratic

41. Impassive

42. Impersonal

43. Impressionable

44. Intense

45. Invisible

46. Irreligious

47. Irreverent

48. Maternal

49. Mellow

50. Modern

51. Moralistic

52. Mystical

53. Neutral

54. Noncommittal

55. Noncompetitive

56. Obedient

57. Old-fashioned

58. Ordinary

59. Outspoken

60. Passive

61. Paternalistic

62. Physical

63. Placid

64. Political

65. Predictable

66. Preoccupied

67. Private

68. Progressive

69. Proud

70. Pure

71. Questioning

72. Quiet

73. Religious

74. Reserved

75. Restrained

76. Retiring

77. Sarcastic

78. Self-conscious

79. Sensual

80. Skeptical

81. Smooth

82. Soft-spoken

83. Solemn

84. Solitary

85. Stern

86. Stoic

87. Strict

88. Stubborn

89. Stylish

90. Subjective

91. Surprising

92. Soft

93. Tough

94. Undemanding

95. Unfathomable

96. Uninhibited

97. Unpredicatable

98. Unreligious

99. Unsentimental

100. Whimsical

Negative Traits

1. Aloof

2. Amoral

3. Angry

4. Apathetic

5. Argumentative

6. Arrogant

7. Asocial

8. Barbaric

9. Bizarre

10. Blunt

11. Brutal

12. Calculating

13. Callous

14. Cantankerous

15. Careless

16. Childish

17. Clumsy

18. Complacent

19. Compulsive

20. Conceited

21. Conformist

22. Cowardly

23. Critical

24. Cruel

25. Cynical

26. Deceitful

27. Demanding

28. Dependent

29. Desperate

30. Destructive

31. Devious

32. Difficult

33. Dirty

34. Dishonest

35. Disrespectful

36. Dogmatic

37. Domineering

38. Envious

39. Erratic

40. Escapist

41. Fatalistic

42. Fickle

43. Foolish

44. Forgetful

45. Fraudulent

46. Frivolous

47. Grandiose

48. Greedy

49. Gullible

50. Hateful

51. Hedonistic

52. Hostile

53. Ignorant

54. Impatient

55. Impractical

56. Impulsive

57. Inconsiderate

58. Indecisive

59. Inhibited

60. Insecure

61. Insensitive

62. Insulting

63. Intolerant

64. Irrational

65. Malicious

66. Melancholic

67. Messy

68. Monstrous

69. Naive

70. Narcissistic

71. Narrow-minded

72. Neglectful

73. Neurotic

74. Nihilistic

75. Nosy

76. Obsessive

77. Opinionated

78. Paranoid

79. Pedantic

80. Perverse

81. Predatory

82. Prejudiced

83. Pretentious

84. Regretful

85. Repressed

86. Rigid

87. Sadistic

88. Selfish

89. Shallow

90. Shortsighted

91. Sly

92. Submissive

93. Suspicious

94. Treacherous

95. Unhealthy

96. Unprincipled

97. Unreliable

98. Vindictive

99. Vulnerable

100. Weak

World-view/behavioral domains

“Beliefs and actions are one and the same”

Rate your character's convictions in each category, 1 being the lowest of conviction and 100 being the highest of conviction. Or you can roll them randomly!

These metrics guide how your character would act in specific situations, given their beliefs. It is distinct from personality in the sense your convictions don't tell you if you're funny or not, or what frightens you, or how noble or nefarious you may be. Your convictions won't likely tell whether you keep a messy room or if you have a knack for sarcasm. But rather, your convictions will describe the why behind your character's decision making.

Much like establishing goals and motives, it is the player's responsibility to judge what these numbers might mean, to discern between potentially self-conflicted measures.

Example: “I joined the rebellion because the Kingdom has become a religious hegemony that treats women like third-rate citizens. Thing is, I care about individual liberty and common well-being; I care about scientific inquiry and advancement; and I believe that every person deserves equity. This equity is justice and if it doesn't exist I'll fight for it until that equity is restored or created anew.”

compassion, 1-100

rational self-interest, 1-100

pragmatism, 1-100

idealism, 1-100

violent force, 1-100

pacifism, 1-100

civilization, 1-100

wilderness, 1-100

asceticism, 1-100

hedonism, 1-100

science, 1-100

mysticism, 1-100

individualism, 1-100

tribalism, 1-100

imperialism, 1-100

anarchism, 1-100

knowledge, 1-100

imagination, 1-100

emotion, 1-100

rationality, 1-100

HOW TO APPLY SOCIAL SKILLS:

Social skills are relevant when players want to impact the outcome of social situations. It is not intended to be used against players, who should role-play their characters' reactions to NPC behaviors.

All are ability-based checks.

At times these will be tested against relevant NPC ability scores – the greater degree of success determines how an NPC will react to a PC's behavior.

In the case of an action to say flirt or seduce, the degree of success or failure helps shape the NPCs attitude toward the character, on a spectrum ranging from negative statuses to positive statuses:

Hatred, hostility, disrespect/distrust, disdain/dislike, indifference/neutrality, fondness, intrigue/infatuation, admiration/trust, love.

All such statuses are temporary in a sense, but that does't mean they will radically change with each fall of the dice.

Personality traits, situational factors, and Karma all impact the outcome.

**

As an aside, a lot of my complaint about TTRPGs had been a lack of dealing aptly with non-combat situations. Crafting felt tedious, trade was boring, political schemes railroaded to the point of lacking credibility. Not always, but often, Social Mechanics had been too hit or miss, with cut and dry results. There didn't seem to be a process of give and take, or any kind of jostling – and if these elements were present it was because of the GM's storytelling process, otherwise absent from the mechanics of the game. This isn't to me great for narrative – the story is the journey. We don't always want to pick up a book, read the prologue and then immediately skip to the epilogue. Where's the story? Well, it's in the middle.

Here, changing the attitude of an NPC has an analogous relationship to slaying a monster. Sometimes a Karma rating is already decent, but it would be better for the characters' goals to improve their rating before asking for support in their conflicts. You don't want to run in and attempt a killing blow on a monster, even if it seems wounded, because it may have a trick up its sleeve. That's a good way to end up as a meal. Neither do you want to approach the Duke asking for a loan for adventuring equipment before completely selling him on your plans and proving what you're capable of. He may not take you seriously otherwise, and his doors will be shut to you afterwards.

Maybe there is a Guild who thinks you and your band of mercenaries are emblematic of what's wrong with the entire world, but you really need them to craft weapons for your troops; they're the only ones who can craft a trebuchet whose projectiles pass through magical barriers. In such a circumstance it would behoove you to improve your Karma.

Or perhaps your PCs are investigating a murder and you're positive the Duchess of Grimghul witnessed it (you've deduced that she must have, based on where she claimed she was the night of the murder), but she doesn't trust anyone who isn't family, and you are not family. If only you could get on her good side, somehow, then she would entrust you with her account of the crime.

There is an interesting twist to this: In the process of attempting to improve someone's attitude towards you, you may be asked to do things against your characters' morals. The Duchess of Grimghul won't confide in you till you've filled her room with the smoke of Sol, hoping you'll only remember your bliss and not her confession.

A local Night Watchman, who is a renowned swordsman, is someone you would like to help you on a dangerous mission. Except he is in the pocket of a Gang Lieutenant, which you will only find out after he asks you to help him “guard” a warehouse at night, as thieves are cleaning it out right underneath your nose.

SOCIAL SKILL MECHANICS:

Karma rating, -100 → 100

Karma ratings measure NPC attitude towards you based on perceived benefit or harm, potential or actual. A slightly negative Karma doesn't always mean outright hatred, but could simply indicate a sincere lack of concern for you. In most cases, however, if the Karma is really negative, you should expect that not only will such an NPC be unwilling to help you, they are more than likely pitting your downfall.

Fame rating, -100 → 100

Fame rating, on the other hand, measures how well-known your PC is to an NPC or faction. A negative fame score will lower the impact of your Karma, a higher fame score will increase the impact of your Karma.

For example, you arrive in a new town and wish to speak with the Captain of the Guard to see if they need any outside help. He hears that you excel at keeping your word and finds that outside help allows his day-to-day officers to do their jobs correctly. Your Karma rating is: 10 and your Fame score is: 10. The fame score will adjust your Karma rating by 10, making it 20.

Let's say, however, that the Captain of the Guard hates outsiders and blames them for the problems the city faces, but since you've been in town, you and your friends have kept quiet and out of trouble. Your Karma rating is set at -15, and your fame is set at -10. The negative fame score will reduce the effect of the Karma, meaning that your adjusted Karma will be -5.

Normally, Karma's main function is to simply influence Social Checks. If someone's Karma rating relative to you is -25, that means your social checks will take a -25 penalty. If the Karma rating is +15, your social checks will gain a +15 bonus. And yes, sometimes the bonuses or penalties will be extreme. Adventuring can produce polarizing opinions of the adventurers!

But when something greater is needed from an NPC, Karma becomes a check of its own.

In other words, a Karma check becomes necessary when PCs interact with others and wish to do serious business or achieve diplomacy, or if say one party needs an important favor from the other party.

If someone doesn't like or trust you, you can attempt to improve their attitude through various means. Performing favors or committing to quests, etc. can improve their attitude towards you. Small favors may grant 1-10 points towards Karma, more significant quests may grant 20 or a lot more.

Successful social checks influence karma and can improve NPC willingness to do as the PC wants or to side with them if there is conflict.

Sometimes it is necessary to influence your Karma in order to stand a chance at succeeding a Karma check later on down the road, because their attitude towards you is so negative.

Here is how it works:

Each successful social check adds 1d10+ CHA+degree of success to Karma and a failed roll subtracts 1d10+degree of failure from Karma. All rolls take into account bonuses or penalties based on the situation. These situational modifiers may vary anywhere from -10 --> +10.

As examples, modifiers such as "I have plans set in stone for the day you need me to speak at your cousin's wedding" or "sounds like something I would do anyway" or “I share the same attitude as you with regards to the influence of the Temple on the Throne” will influence social skill checks.

Why do Karma checks matter? Because Karma checks can permit things like:

lucrative or entrusted quests

skill training

access to magic or healing

cheaper prices on goods and/or services

safe passage

rights to an exclusive club

a loan

intimate or direct conversation

support for a conflict

the release of a secret

cessation of attack on a city

the prince's hand in marriage

etc.

OTHER IMPORTANT NON-COMBAT/SOCIAL SKILLS

Investigation: depending on difficulty create a percentage chance the characters can unravel the mystery based on initial information alone.

1%-- Not Even the Faintest Fucking Clue: Truly Baffling

5% – A Shred of Evidence, Maybe: Still Basically Inscrutable

15% – Enough Evidence to Spawn Several Wildly Different Theories

25% – Some Leads but A lot of Doubt Moving Forward

50+% – Kinda A No-Brainer but Could Use More Evidence

99%-100% Overwhelming Evidence/Beyond a Reasonable Doubt

As the PCs search for clues, those that are relevant will increase the chance they will succeed their Investigation check. Minor clues may add +5%, or a bit less; significant clues can add 10% or much more.

If characters figure out the mystery they may have to prove it and therefore still have to search for compelling evidence. This search for clues can take multiple forms, each involving search, forensic, and gather information checks that will turn up various pieces of information.

Forensics: description of scene. The degrees of success or failure determine how accurate the investigator's understanding is of the scene. Specific knowledge can give bonuses to the roll, such as a veteran vampire hunter finding bruised pinpricks around the neck of a bloodless victim. (“If I didn't know better, I'd say...”)

Still, if a killer is trying to conceal their modus operandi, there might be penalties to the die roll.

Gather information (people) (thing) (event) (gossip) (secret):

First step is to find out who knows what you don't know. Someone has a perspective on the subject you don't have.

Then you have to judge how reliable the information is.

Depending on the information, its rarity and value, this can take several forms, be it Lore checks, persuasion, intimidation, snooping, infiltration, spying, etc.

NON-COMBAT SKILL PERKS

For every ten points in a given attribute you may have access to situational benefits, such as a bonus to crafting potions (INT), spotting traps or discerning lies (PER), intimidation or swindling (CHA), as examples. These bonuses will likely be no more than +5-25% to situational checks.

This should help define who the characters are, what they're capable of outside of combat in a practical way. Because, besides a few starting bonuses, these should be awarded only once characters perform these checks enough that other characters would identify them in that role, or the character has sought extra training to perform the tasks in question.

PART FIVE: EXPERIENCE

You get experience through encounters, ta da! Experience tallies and then can be spent on increasing Ability scores, Skill Levels, and Cards. At first improving a skill is easier than when you are a master. It is easier to improve upon a skill with many flaws than to improve upon a mastery with very few.

Experience cost to learn Skill Card

Xp= 100× card number

Experience cost to improve ability scores

11- 30

10x new level

31-48: regional weakness maximum stat

100x new level

49-70: base human maximum stat

1000x new level

71-80: regional strength maximum stat

10,000 x new level

81-90: lycanthrope maximum stat

10,000 x new level

Experience cost to improve Skills

To open up a skill line, there must be a narrative reason to support it. The initial cost is based on the total number of skill points you have earned, but often the narrative reason to support opening up a new skill line should reward much of this cost in terms of experience.

100: 2500

140: 7500

180: 10,000

tier 1

*10x new level, from 0- 19, Neophyte

tier 2

*100x new level, from 20-49, Novice

total experience: 103,500

tier 3

*1000x new level, from 50 – 69, Apprentice

total experience: 1,190,000

tier 4

*10,000x new level, from 70-89, Expert

tier 5

*100,000x new level, 90-100, Master

tier 6

*1,000,000x new level, 101-119, Grand Master

tier 7

12,000,000 to reach 120, Legendary

Combat Encounter Tiers:

This table assumes three-four players in a party. The experience points listed are to be divided among the number of players in the party. The table is here to assist rather than dictate design of reasonable encounters for the player characters to overcome. Overcoming encounters within the appropriate tier of play should be sufficiently rewarding. Each rank of opponent is broken down into four individual categories of difficulty and significance.

Minion: unless in large groups (3 or more times that of your party), your characters should have few problems with this adversary.

Tough: conquerable but difficult enemy that shouldn't be taken lightly.

Boss: teamwork and strategy will be required to overcome this adversary

Apex: your characters are in absolute mortal danger; the best option against them is to flee from combat as soon as possible. Otherwise, true ingenuity and lottery-winning luck are required to score a victory against these meat grinders.

Tier One (52)

Minion: 100

Tough: 200-550

Boss: 900
Apex: 2,000

Tier Two (120)

Minion: 1,000

Tough: 2000-5,500

Boss: 9,000-11,000

Apex: 20,000 – 80,000

Tier Three (150)

Minion: 10,000

Tough: 20,000-55,000

Boss: 90,000-110,000

Apex: 400,000 – 800,000

Tier Four (180)

Minion: 100,000

Tough: 200,000-550,000

Boss: 900,000

Apex: 2,000,000

Tier Five (200+)

Minion: 1,000,000

Tough: 2,000,000- 5,500,000

Boss: 9,000,000

Apex: 20,000,000

Experience points should also be awarded for completing quests, meeting personal goals, demonstration of teamwork, creative problem-solving, and immersive role-playing. The amount of experience points awarded will help control the pace of character progression.

Rewards – what your character knows is owed to them

Bounty -- the various prices on your head, that you know of. It's hard to have none

Fortune – 0 to 3. Every time you spend a Fortune Point to survive, you gain a Fate Point.

Fate – these auto-failed rolls await you based on Fortune points you have spent. They may also be auto-successful rolls by antagonists.That said, the GM is not to use these to bully the players, but rather significantly set back their characters when they are filled with hubris, and especially when they least suspect it.

PART SIX: SPELL CASTING

Magic works by calling upon a supernatural being and commanding it. This supernatural being is giving some aspect of its power to the caster.

Name of the summoned magic source + command = effect

Most spells require one basic action to complete.

All the verbal, physical, or chemical components are expected to be able to be performed or consumed during this time.

Other spells may be quicker and allow the character to make 1 magical weapon based attack (or maximum 2 if dual wielding wands or the like).

At times a spell may require a movement phase as well. This is especially true when using unprepared spells, complex scrolls, or if under the effect of a “slow” spell.

More powerful and complex spells, ritual spells, group channels will require even more time, and should be noted within their descriptions.

NOTE: only roll to succeed if caster is wearing armor; casting triggers A/O; or if the spell is contested by counter spell. Other examples of needing to roll to succeed would be any time a concentration check is called for. That said, a spellcaster can choose to roll to succeed in the hopes of landing a critical success or to add degrees of success to a damage roll, for example, but there are dangers in the form of critical failures. If a specific spell requires a roll to succeed, as noted within its description, then the caster must roll to succeed.

Spell types:

All spells ultimately derive from one of the twelve preeminent deities.

1. Creation

2. Entropy

3. Dark

4. Gravity

5. Void

6. Light

7. Time

8. Energy-Matter

9. Mind

10. Law
11. Chaos

12. Soul

Spell Card:

Card Type- card strength (A-K) - associated ABILITY (INT, PER, CHA)

Procedure (including cast time): some spells require verbal or martial or staff or sword use or tracing runes or blood letting or worship or totems or drawing of symbols or praying or singing or burning reagents, etc.

Whatever it is, details belong here.

Effect: Describe how the spell looks, what it does.

PART SEVEN: COSMOLOGY

Preeminence (The Twelve Mysteries, Most Fundamental of Gods)

Constants

Law

Soul

Void

Chaos

Aspects

Creation

Destruction (Entropy)

Dark

Light

Gravity

Time

Mind

Energy

Meridians are Inter/extra dimensional beings formed from Preeminence and Embodiment

72 Raptures (+)

72 Terrors (-)

Embodiment (+/-)

Embodiment of the Almighty – Embodiment of the Frail

Embodiment of the Graceful – Embodiment of the Crippled

Embodiment of the Ever-living – Embodiment of the Diseased

Embodiment of the Omniscient – Embodiment of the Irrelevant

Embodiment of the Clairvoyant – Embodiment of the Insane

Embodiment of the Revered – Embodiment of the Despised

Immanence(demi-gods)

Ascendants (mortals becoming gods)

Descendants (offspring of god and mortal)

Animus (mortals)

Paragon (mortals with perfect alignment)

Elemental – water, ice, air, electric, fire, earth, blood, toxic, wood, dream, light, dark, etc

Monster, including most undead

Lycanthrope

Human

Animal

Pest

Plants (with seeds, without seeds)

PART EIGHT: BESTIARY

pest

plant

mundane animal

human

humanoid (lycanthrope, orc, goblin)

exotic beast (dnd krenshar, displacer beast, dinosaur)

giant humanoid (ogre, gnoll, cyclops)

undead (ghost, zombie, vampire)

monster (dnd mind flayer, beholder, aboleth)

monsters can be created at random

head(s)

eye(s)

mouth(s)

teeth/type

tongue

body type

skin type

limbs

tentacles

wings

claws

sensory organs

otherworldly (angels, demons, genies, efrit, fey, drakul)

embodiment

meridian

immanent

preeminent

Basic idea is that creatures are tied to particular habitats and observed by specific populations. Therefore when they are named the names are in the language of the population that observed them.

MONSTER ENTRY/STAT BLOCK

TIER: XP:

Description of creature, habitat, behavior, and encounter triggers:

Ability Scores: STR: AGI: END: INT: PER: CHA:

Attack scheme:

ATT%: # of ATT: BA damage:

Defense scheme:

DEF% (type): DR: HEARTS BODY

Special abilities:

Trappings/Loot/Treasure:

CHAPTER NINE: LANGUAGES

I want to create 4 distinct sounds of language (NW/SW, NE/SE) and branch these off into separate languages and dialects.

The Western Continent is divided into two distinct sounds: one that is based off of North Asian, Native American and Meso-American sounds, and one that takes its root in Euro-Romantic languages, including English.

The Eastern languages are based off Sumerian, Egyptian, Sanskrit and some Chinese sounds.

The “common” language is called Vedic, and was born in the subterranean caves between both continents, and therefore is common to both continents.