Basic Mechanics

Terms

PC = Player Character

NPC = any Non-Player Character

GM = Game Master

HP = Hit Points

DR = Difficulty Rating of a skill roll, the higher the harder

Rolls

Skill rolls are practically always made with a D20 die. Skill rolls have a DR, which determines how hard the roll is. The basic DR is always 12. It is the GM’s responsibility to tell players if the DR is lower or higher.

Note that skill rolls for enemies and NPCs are DR12 most of the time as well, unless stated otherwise. Meaningful encounters have already calculated DR’s on their skill list for the sake of the GM’s convenience.

Skills can be -5 at minimum and +5 at maximum. Some character classes have restrictions for max skills. Skills above 0 make DRs easier to pass. Skills below 0 make DRs harder to pass.

Some NPCs might have skills over +5.

As an example, the GM asks for a Strength DR12 roll. The PC has Strength +2, which means they have to roll >10 with a D20 die to succeed in the skill roll. Another PC has Strength -3, which means they have to roll >15 with a D20 die to succeed in the skill roll.

If a skill roll is a natural 20, it is considered a critical success roll, granting great benefits at the behest of the GM.

If a skill roll is a natural 1, it is considered a critical fail roll, making a bad situation even worse.

Some skills, spells, items and so on, may affect the grade of critical rolls temporarily.

Determining damage, regaining health, etc, are made with various die rolls.

When throwing dice for skill rolls and to resolve situations, and a class specific skill and a common skill conflict, the class specific skill overrides the common skill.

Skills and Stats

All PC’s and most of the NPC’s have five skills; Strength, Agility, Toughness, Presence and Knowledge. Additionally, they have stats for HP, Psyche, Luck Points and the daily amount of Spells.

Animals and non-sentient beings do not have Knowledge skill.

NPC’s and enemies do not have stats for Psyche, Luck Points or daily amount of Spells.

Strength is used for melee combat, blocking, lifting heavy things, bashing doors etc.

Agility is used for ranged attacks, dodging, chasing, climbing etc.

Toughness is used for resisting illnesses, cold, fatigue etc.

Presence is used for casting spells, spotting hidden things, sensing if someone is lying etc.

Knowledge is used for understanding various scholarly topics and complex texts, finding specific books and tomes, remembering details etc.

HP stands for hit points. HP is lost upon taking damage. HP can be restored via various items and spells. Sleeping a night restores D6 HP. When a PC’s HP goes below zero, they most likely will die.

Psyche determines a PC’s mental health. If it goes to zero, the PC goes insane and is unplayable. See Psyche section for more information.

Luck Points can be used for skill rerolls in desperate situations. They cannot be used for rerolling damage, HP regain and so on. Basically, Luck Points are used to reroll D20 dice-based rolls. However, some skills might override this rule.

Every character class has their own max number of Luck Points to use per day. Luck Points are regained after a night’s sleep.

Note that failing a Luck-based reroll is considered an automatic critical failure. 

Spells can be used Presence+4 times per day. Some skills or items might affect the daily amount. The amount of spells a PC knows doesn’t affect the amount of daily uses in any way.