Rules Masterpost
HP: 10 HP base + Endurance + Level (levels in combat classes would grant 2 HP instead of 1) + Virtues/Feats - Flaws. These scale according to the level of the Virtues; a Critical Virtue of Tough would grant 3 HP, while Minor would be 1. A Feat counts as a Major Virtue for the purposes of assigning HP.
MP: 5 MP base + (Willpower + Intelligence / 2) + Level (levels in magic classes would grant 2 MP instead of 1) + Virtues/Feats - Flaws. See above for how Feats and Virtues work.
At 0 HP, NPC-class characters are Dead, Supporting-class characters are Dying, and Hero-class characters are Knocked Out. At -5 HP, NPC characters are Permanently Dead, Supporting-class characters are Dead, and Hero-class characters are Dying. At -10 HP, Supporting-class characters are Permanently Dead, while Hero-class characters are Dead. At -15 HP, Hero-class characters are Permanently Dead.
At 0 MP, NPC-class characters are Soulburned, while Supporting and Hero class characters are Out Of Mana. At -5 MP, NPC-class characters are Soulbroken, and will die almost instantly, while Supporting and Hero-class characters are Soulburned. At -10 MP, all non-Wizard characters are Soulbroken, and will die immediately.
The consequence of Soulburn is a 100% weakness to supernatural powers, and an inability to regain mana through any means for at least 12 hours. Soulburned characters regain 10% of their total mana capacity per hour, and do not regain mana past 0 until their total mana capacity is at least 50% of total. In other words, if you have 30 MP, a Soulburn puts you at -9/0 for a while, and until you reach 0/15 mana, you cannot gain more mana.
I roll for you. These rolls and your modifiers are hidden from you, and come specifically from Random.org. I do not fudge the results of rolls; I'm leery of putting people on rails without giving explicit warning beforehand that they exist.
The existing damage types are: Slash, Pierce, Bludgeon, Ballistic, Fire, Cold, Electrical, Acid, Holy, Unholy, Death, Magical, Auric/Psychic, and Unblockable. Obviously, Unblockable damage can't be prevented.
A very rough guide, going with the primary damage type, is:
Fists - d2 + Strength modifier, as per d20 rules.
Knife/Dagger/Kicks - d3
Short Spear - d4
Sword/Shortbow/Staff/Club - d6
Longbow/mace/hammer/halberd/spear - d8
Axe/heavy crossbow/flintlock - d10
Musket/rifle/pepperbox (shotgun) - d12
This is assuming that your action is simply "I attack." If you provide more details, the amount of possible damage goes up.
"I stab at him with my sword!" = d6 damage.
"I advance and make a thrust to his midsection!" = d6 damage +
"I set my hand on the ricasso, then lunge forward to drive the blade into his sternum, ready to twist the blade on the way out!" = d6 ++
There's a limit; purple prose isn't going to make you hit harder. As stated, damage is variable; if you sneak up behind someone and slit their throat, it sure ain't gonna be d3 damage. If you ram your sword into someone's lungs, it's gonna hurt more than d6. The crit ranges are hidden values. Natural 20's automatically deal maximum damage and have a chance to deal additional damage/special effects upon their victims. When a natural 20 attack is met with a natural 20 dodge, both are re-rolled. If it happens again, then it's just max damage without the special effects.
In general, armors defend against a few types of damage, and protect against some better than others. A breastplate is good against slashing and piercing (4 damage absorbed/soaked), of less use against bludgeoning and ballistic (2 soak), and does fuck-all against anything else. A Bracelet of the Elements provides 4 soak against Fire/Cold/Electric, and stops nothing of physical damage.
There is no table to describe armor values; it depends on the material, the type of armor, etc, etc. The heavier and/or more bulky the armor, the bigger the penalties to speed and delicate actions, but the more damage they prevent. There are some armors that have high protection and low penalties, but that falls under "special material" category. Yes, you can have armor enchanted to reduce the burden of this.
Starting items are automatically Good quality.
Perfect - Weapons = +5% to attack and +1 damage. Armor = +2 soak value as long as it has at least 1 in the category to begin with.
Good - Weapons = +5% to attack. Armor = +1 to the soak value if it has at least 1 in the category.
Average - Nothing.
Worn - Weapons = -10% penalty to attack. Armor, this translates to a penalty of -1 to the soak of the armor, assuming it has at least 1 to begin with. Can't cause negative soak.
Broken - Weapons = -20% penalty to attack. Armor = -3 to the soak of the armor. assuming it has at least 1 to begin with. Can't cause negative soak.
Destroyed - It is not possible to make an attack with a destroyed weapon. Destroyed armor provides no soak bonus.
Weapons have a 4% chance to degrade per successful attack. Natural 20's with the weapons ignore this. A Natural 20 defense roll triples the odds of decay. A natural 1 on an attack roll triples the odd of decay. Armor has a 4% chance to degrade per hit. Note that this can happen even if it doesn't protect against the damage type. Natural 20's for defense ignore this. A natural 20 for an attack roll a triples the odds of decay. A natural 1 on a defense roll triples the odds of decay. These are multiplicative: if someone gets a Natural 20 on an Attack Roll and you get a Natural 1 on your Defense Roll, there is a 36% chance of your armor decaying. In case of decay, the effects begin on the next attack or round, whichever comes sooner. The current attack is calculated via the quality of the item before decay occured.
Hand to Hand does not have decay; instead, there is a chance of taking HP damage.
Yes, certain skills/feats/spells have a higher chance to damage things. No, I'm not telling you what they are.
In this universe, everything has a spirit - the rocks under your feet, the hairs on your head, the bacteria in your stomach, creatures without a soul, etc, etc. Everything. The spirits radiate "mana" (MP), or "mystical internal life-force" (MILF for short. Yes, I know what MILF means.
) The amount of MILF a spirit releases is based on the life, motion, age, and various other factors of the object/person in question - a thundering waterfall is a source of these energies. These metaphysical energies are used to affect reality in either of three different ways (plus God Power, which is exactly what it sounds like and totally irrelevant to this discussion.) There's magic, which is a combination of willpower and belief. There's mental abilities, which come from the mind. And then there's auric powers, which come from the body. It is commonly accepted that the subdivisions within each of these powers can be combined without consequence.
In this game, the effects of one power over another are basically irrelevant. If you cast a fireball through Elemental Magic, it's effectively the same as using Kinetic Psionics or Projective Auric abilities to do it.
I honestly don't care what you choose - it is the way your character expresses their supernatural ability to affect/effect reality. It's a matter of what flavor you prefer for it to have, and has zero effect.All have the same MP costs.
Ritual: Ritual magic involves the use of rituals for magical means - spoken words of power, runes, use of material components, and the like.
Blood: Blood magic involves the sacrifice or use of blood for magical power.
Chaos: Chaos magic is mostly unexplored - it is known that innate racial powers and minor magic comes from the realms of Chaos without risk.
Alchemical: Alchemical magic involves the preparation and combination of mundane and magical ingredients together for magical purposes.
Divine: Divine magic is the power of priests and granted spells from the Gods - most of the time, these spells are simply more powerful versions of the spells of other schools.
Summoning: Summoning magic relies on summoning spirits for magical effects, or creating/summoning objects, creatures, and other beings.
Elemental: Elemental magic focuses entirely on the elements - fire, water, air, and the like, usually requiring a material "focus" to be performed.
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Kinetic: Kinetic psionics include telekinesis, and other forms of mental control - pyrokinesis, thermokinesis, etc.
Metabolic: Metabolic psionics include healing, biokinesis, vitakinesis, abjuration, and transmutation.
Telepathic: Telepathic psionics include clairvoyance, telepathy, empathy, and the like.
Metacreative: Metacreative psionics include creation, summoning, and evocation.
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Projective: Projective abilities consist of evocation, creation, transportation, and necromantic abilites.
Reflective: Reflective abilities consist of transmutation, illusion, and abjuration.
Intuitive: Intuitive abilities consist of divination, conjuration, healing, and enchantment.
A rough scale for offensive powers is as follows:
Tier 0: 1 HP / 2 MP / range/touch spell.
Tier 1: 2 HP / 1 MP / autohit
Tier 2: 4 HP / 3 MP / autohit
Tier 3: 8 HP / 6 MP / autohit
Tier 4: 12 HP / 6 MP / range/touch spell
Tier 5: 16 HP / 8 MP / range/touch spell
Tier 6: 1-10 damage per target up to 100 damage total /10 MP / area of effect (targets EVERYONE, including allies)
Tier 7: 1-20 damage per target up to 200 damage total /10 MP / area of effect (targets EVERYONE, including allies)
Each offensive Area of Effect skill or spell has a maximum damage it can do per target and a maximum damage it can do in total. Every location has a randomized list of characters for AoE spells/skills. When an offensive AoE skill/spell is triggered, it begins attacking the members of the randomized list starting from the top. The first target has a tohit roll taken, followed by a variable damage roll from 1 through MaxTargetDmg if the tohit roll is successful. This continues down the list until one of two conditions is met:
a) it reaches the bottom of the list.
b) it does maximum damage.
Example 1: Bob the Nukemage casts BOOM in a room containing 30 other people. He hits the first for 10 damage, the second for 10 damage, misses the third, hits the fourth for 5 damage, hits the fifth for 5 damage, the sixth for 7 damage, and the eighth for 3 damage. BOOM stops calculating because the maximum total damage has been dealt. 40 total damage has been dealt out of the maximum possible 40 damage.
Example 2: Bob casts BOOM in a room with 2 other people. He misses both. Spell over.
Example 3: Bob casts BOOM3 in a room with 50 people. It hits the first for 10 damage and kills him, hits the second for 15 and kills him, and so on until A or B is met.
If a Tier 7 spell has done 199 damage, the last target can still be hit for 20 damage; the spell deals 219/200 damage and stops calculating.
Everything grants you Experience Points. Experience Points are a hidden statistic. Most of it is going to be filed under "general experience" which is applicable to whatever level you choose to gain; there is specific experience that applies only to existing levels/feats/etc that are applicable to what I choose to level you up in.
OOC ways to gain XP include, but are not limited to:
- Noticing when I screw up, unless you nitpick, in which case you're taping a "Smite me" sign on your character
- Helping new players or working with others to create a better story
- Really good roleplaying
- Resolving a dispute when I am not around to say "LISTEN HERE YOU LITTLE SHITS."
- General good conduct
OOC experience is filed under "General experience."
IC ways to gain XP include, but are not limited to:
- Avoiding or chasing off an encounter
- Completing a quest
- Heroic sacrifice (applies only to your next character)
- Heroic attempts
- Evading pursuit
- Winning at combat, either fatally or through TKO
- Theft
- Defeating a trap
- Casting a spell
- Capturing/imprisoning creatures
- Rescuing someone from captivity
- Succeeding at True Resurrection
- Practicing your craft
- Successful communication that does not rely on native language, Tradespeak, or special abilities
- A rousing speech
- Acts of general badassery
- Devotion to your Gods
Obviously, the AG is a guild, as you might have guessed from "apprentice, journeyman, master, Master, Grandmaster" thing.
A term of study is two years. It's the AA of the adventuring world. You have basic weapon proficiencies, studied magic, rope work, basic survival, tracking, some degree of identification of goods, literacy, etc, etc. Basically, anything you would expect an adventurer to know, you learned at the Guild.
Any journeyman adventurer who has accomplished something of note can petition (read: pay a lot of money) for a masterhood. This is decided by common vote of all master-plus ranks in the Guild's castle/university. It certifies that they are an adventurer and a full guildsman, and that they can teach journeymen and apprentices at a smaller, local Guild.
It's basically the BA of the adventuring world. Renn is at this level. He got his masterhood from helping with a giant slave revolt / escape attempt, which is part of the reason he's so ugly.
A Master with a capital M is closer to the "master craftsman". It's a more technical rank advancement, and while the advancement process is similar, it strongly implies advanced technique. While it is conceivable to buy into a mastership, you cannot advance into Mastership via charitable donation and bribery. Master's degree sort of thing.
Grandmaster is the PhD of it, and you can pretty well imagine the skill and talent needed to get here.
These do not always correspond with level. You can be a Grandmaster and only have 1 level in Adventurer, or be a Journeyman with 10 levels of Adventurer.
4 copper bits = 1 copper penny
2 copper penny = 1 copper quin (commonly referred to as a "copper")
4 copper quins = 1 silver shim
6 silver shims = 1 silver shilling (commonly referred to as a "silver")
12 silver shilling = 1 gold pence
5 gold pence = 1 gold aurea (commonly referred to as a "gold")
10 gold aureas = 1 platinum crown
4 platinum crowns = 1 platinum sovereign (commonly referred to as a "platinum")
If you die, your character is dead. I make a few rolls to see if your character is fated to die at that moment (spoiler alert: The answer is almost always "yes") and if the Gods you serve happen to see fit to intervene (Spoiler alert: the answer is almost always "They don't.", but the odds of them doing so increase with your Level and devotion to them.)
There are assorted expensive and/or illegal ways in which a character can be brought back to (un)life, depending on how messy the kill was and how much time has passed. These range from acceptable to generally crappy. No matter what, if your character takes enough trauma to die, you're not going to have the same character even if they are rezzed perfectly. Expect a new Flaw at least, or some new Virtues/Flaws that came about as a result.
Theoretically, there is no limit to enchanting. In actual practice, there are limits, usually hit around the 7th tier for armor and 5th tier for items and weapons, for items that can hold infinite enchants. Other items simply reach an enchant threshold and cannot contain more.
The cost of enchants go up in MP every level.
This is very rough, but each of the following constitutes a "tier" of enchanting:
- 10 MP pool
- 10% power reduction cost / damage amplification (limit 50%)
- +1 Soak / +1 Damage (generally limited to 5)
- Alignment
- Extra Damage Type (generally limited to 1)
- 2% to-hit / 2% dodge
- Hiding
- Level of sentience
- Anti-degrade 1% (generally limited to 5%)
- Increase degrade 2% (generally limited to 10%)
- 1 spell up to Tier 4
Over five hundred years ago, the gods numbered 36 - eighteen Lesser Gods, and eighteen Greater Gods. Most of the details of the war are lost or hidden in scrolls, vanished to the world. Those who survived either are unwilling or unable to speak about it.
It is rumored that the whole war was started by Pantxike as a prank, and escalated into a full-scale apocalypse. Other rumors suggest that Chelan Godking and Mingan worked together to cheat at the cosmic game of oneupsmanship between the Gods. And still others suggest that Daimonas was responsible, using his powers and influence to escalate a feud into the near-extinction of reality. Others claim it was all of the above, or none. Nobody truly knows but the Gods, and they refuse to speak of it.
What is known is that it started as a feud between Coranthiir and the now-dead Caribia, and culminated with Chelan's Defender of the Faith and the Lord of Spring, Rhoslyn Vernal, destroying Caribia, Lisse, and Oraith with the aid of the brothers Mingan and Shin. This action reverberated through time and the final ripples will not be felt for thousands of years. The ranks of the Gods shifted, alliances were made, and new enmities formed, as well as the creation of two new races by Sanoci: angels and demons.
With the alliance of Sa'ada, Mingan, Caribia, and Shin, Coranthiir was soon under battle and called for his allies - his mate and daughter, Vijer and Illeni, as well as the lesser god Arnum. The lines were soon divided by family lines- Mingan, Sa'ada, Bree, Shin, Liagora, Timeus, Minkah, and Malaquai tipped the balance of power, and later cemented an alliance with the Dark Ones - Aphilam, Daimonas, Darshendros, Sanoci, Uayli, Lisse, and the newly-descended Halloran.
Fearing that the alliance of Chaos and Evil would lead to his overthrow, Chelan stepped into the battle, sending his Defender of the Faith to Mingan and Shin in order to reach an agreement to destroy Caribia, Lisse, and Oraith.
In exchange for this, the God-alliance would be broken, thereby removing the threat to the Godking's throne. Devising powerful magics, the two brothers enchanted a weapon forged by Malu at the direction of Bree with deadly power, and unleashed Rhoslyn into battle. As the Godsbane removed the head of Caribia, raw power surged through the Ascendant Plane, blasting Daimonas's physical manifestation - her last act of defiance against the Godking and her "ally." Weakened, Daimonas was banished by Darshendros after the next kills - he had time only to watch Sanoci - formerly with a domain of Blood - use his power to turn every spilled drop of God's blood into angels and demons in order to replace Blood with Destruction and therefore raise his status.
With the very fabric of reality reeling and damaged, Chelan raised Kuro - Mingan's Defender of the Faith - into godhood, imbued several Lesser deities with power as their followers grew, and released Daimonas, who rose to the most powerful of the Lesser Deities. These acts irreparably fragmented the alliances, resetting the balance of power between the Gods. After an eternal instant of the Gods, save for Pantxike, fighting, allying, breaking alliances, and otherwise competing, the Gods settled into their power hierarchy.
The final words of the war came from the lips of Eyilana, the Seer - The war is not yet over, nor the killing.
If it looks like I missed anything from here, let me know. Sorry, not granting you XP for doing this; I have told you all of this information already and it is
your responsibility to understand the rules as stated.
If you want to steal this for your game, let me know and I will (probably) tell you it's okay to do so. You can let me know after you set it up, provided you actually let me know at some point within a few days of setting up.