Stats and Stat Roulette:There are four basic stats in the game: Strengthen, Dexerous, Magicana, Charmitude. There are also four derived stats, ATTACK, DEFENCE, SUPPORT and HEALTH. During character creation, each player pairs the basic stats with a derived stat to form their stat roulette. So a player could set their stats as Magicana, Charmitude, Strengthen and Dexerous, meaning that their ATTACK would be equal to their Magicana, their DEFENCE equal to their Charmitude, etc etc. Some skills/weapons can move the stat roulette up or down, changing the pairing between the derived stats and the base one. So, in the above example, if that player's stat roulette was moved up one, the relationship would change to:
ATTACK: Charmitude
DEFENCE: Strength
SUPPORT: Dexerous
HEALTH: Magicana
The stat roulette is always returned to its base relationship when combat ends.
Initiative:1d10 + SUPPORT. Ties are handled by highest SUPPORT, then highest Dexerous, then RNG decides. Players/enemies go in initiative order, obviously.
Attacks and Evasion:Unless affected by a debuffs or skill, every character and enemy gains one attack at the start of the turn. They can use this attack to make a basic attack against an enemy. To do so they roll a 1d10. If they roll equal to or higher than their target's evasion, they hit. Damage is equal to 1d10 + your ATTACK - target's DEFENCE.
Evasion is a constant number that is calculated independently of your stats. The players' evasion is usually 6, while the enemies they'll be fighting can vary wildly.
Health and Healing:Your max HP is equal to HEALTH*4. At the start of a dungeon, your current HP is equal to your max HP. However, in combat, your current HP is not affected by your max HP. So if your HEALTH stat increases or decreases for whatever reason, your current HP isn't affected. However, unless told otherwise, healing spells will never increase your current HP above your max HP.
So, if your HEALTH is 4 and your current HP is 18, then healing spells would have no effect on you, since your current HP is higher than your max HP of 16.
If you reach 0 HP, you are considered knocked out, and cannot fight or use any skills, nor do you roll for initiative. Additionally, you can only regain health through skills that mention recovering knocked out players. If all players are reduced to 0 HP, then combat ends. When combat ends, victoriously or not, all players at 0 HP recover up to HEALTH HP.
PotionsYou start each dungeon section with three potions, unless stated otherwise. During your turn, you may sacrifice an attack to consume a potion, or give it to another person to drink. Doing so regains HEALTH*4 HP, and recovers knocked-out players.
Frienemies and FightmatesDuring character creation, players place themselves on the character wheel, which determines who their frienemies are. The players beside you and immediately opposite you are your frienemies. Frienemies are often mentioned/used in skill effects.
The character wheel in all its glory. Fightmates are simply the people fighting in the same combat as you.
Skills:Skills are exactly what they sound like. Skills are abilities with (often) quirky effects that chain together to allow. Some skills are tagged as passive (P), meaning that you can have as many of them activated as you want. Some skills are tagged as active (A), meaning that you can only have three of those activated at the same time. Some skills are tagged as class (C), meaning that they can only be learned by a player with a certain class.
Note that you can't activate or deactivate your skills while in combat, only outside of it.
Weapons:During a dungeon, each player chooses one weapon to take with them. Weapons have different effects and abilities, but without certain skills they can't be changed in the middle of a dungeon.
Children Enrichment Activities and Gaining Skills/StatsIn between dungeons, the players will get the opportunity to gain skills and stats through Children Enrichment Activities (CEA). Each CEA gives the player two stats and one skill, picked from a list. The stat/skill gains is dependent on the CEA. Only one player can participate in a CEA per turn.
Dungeons:The main reason why you're playing this game. All Dungeons have a time limit and objectives, and to successfully finish a Dungeon you must complete the objectives within the number of turns specified in the time limit. Dungeons are divided into separate areas. The different areas are:
Empty Area: Besides some fluff, nothing exists in this place. Congratulations, you jut wasted a turn.
Combat Area: Enemies exist in this area. You must defeat them to move on. You cannot run from or otherwise leave combat areas unless combat is over. Therefore you must stay and fight.
Puzzle Area: There is a puzzle in this area. It must be solved to move on.
RP Area: Some characters exist in this area to interact with as you see fit.
Unexplored Area: An area you haven't explored yet. If this area turns out to be a combat area, you automatically join combat.
It takes a turn to explore an unexplored area, join a combat area or solve a puzzle area. Otherwise you can move between the different areas as many times as you wish before the turn ends.