Quick Start Guide
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GILDED AGE QUICK START GUIDE Skills When you want to use skills, roll 2d10 and add your skill. You want high numbers. If your Chemistry is 6, you'd roll 2d10+6. If you have any points in the Talent associated with the skill you're using you can re-roll dice, one at a time, up to a number of times equal to your Talent. You roll a 2 and a 5 on your 2d10 for Chemistry. You have 2 points in the Science Talent. You can re-roll the 2, and then re-roll it again, or re-roll the 5. Regardless of your Talents you can never re-roll a 1. Skills can be used however you see fit, but you should ask your GM before you roll anything. Any skill can be used to Know things related to the skill, Talk to others about the skill, Make stuff related to the skill, or just Do actions related to the skill. Skill checks fall under a tiered success system. The numbers for successes are static at each Level, and known to all players at all times. A Miss is the worst result. You fail and something bad might happen. A Single is the lowest success. Either you barely pass, or you pass and something bad might happen. A Double is a good success. You succeed with nothing bad happening. Something good might happen as well. A Triple is a critical success. You succeed and something very good might happen. Instead of the regular tiered resolutions, your GM can ask for a pass/fail check, requiring you to get a certain level of success or better. If you need a Double or better to pass, then a single doesn't count as a success. Combat Combat is run in turns with an initiative order. Each turn you'll spend your AP (action points) to take actions. You'll get 3 AP per turn, and might get more at the start of battle. AP carries over from turn to turn, but maxes out at 6. You can take most actions twice per turn, so long as you have the AP to do so. Combat takes place on a grid battle map. All actions and ranges are noted in a number of spaces, not feet or meters. When you attack, roll d% and compare against your Accuracy and Critical for that attack. If your roll is higher than your Accuracy it's a miss. Nothing happens. If your roll is equal to or lower than your Accuracy, it's a Hit. You deal normal damage to the foe. If your roll is equal to or lower than your Critical, it's a critical hit. You deal double damage to the foe. If you're hit or critically hit, roll d% and compare against your Evade. If your roll is higher than your Evade you fail to evade and take whatever damage is dealt. If you were hit and your roll is equal to or lower than your Evade, you take no damage. If you were critically hit and your roll is equal to or lower than your Evade, you take normal damage instead of double damage. If you take physical damage but you have Defense, you can reduce that damage by that amount. If an effect tries to inflict a debuff or status effect on you, roll d% and compare against your Resist. If your roll is higher than your Resist you fail to resist and take whatever effect is dealt. IfSample your roll is equal to or lower than your Resist you'll negate the incoming effect. file If you take damage, it comes out of your HP. If your HP hits 0 then you're Downed. 3/31/2021 pg. 2 of 663 GILDED AGE Foreword Table top role-playing games are a way to have fun with your friends, or a way to make friends. And, throughout the (entirely too long) development of Gilded Age, that's been my goal. To make this game fun. To that end, from top to bottom, the rules presented here are made to give players cool PCs, give GMs flexible tools and NPCs, and add substance without fluff. Just keep in mind that this is an Indie RPG, designed by one dude in his spare time. Gilded Age isn't perfect. Though really, no game is. That said, this book is crammed full of all the creativity and inventive ideas I could muster. It's got 14 unique classes that are each vastly from the other, and different from any other RPG you've read. It's got cool tricks you can pull off in battle. You can create a very wide variety of characters. You can go and retheme literally anything, and you're encouraged to do so. You will absolutely read something in here and go "Oh that's cool." It's crammed full of unique stuff because at some point during development I realized that what I really wanted out of Gilded Age wasn't just to make a fun game, but also to challenge myself. At so many points in the process I asked, "what can this system support?" or "how can I do something that I haven't seen before?" I pondered how I could add aspects of things I loved about other RPGs, video games, shows, manga, anime, and cool modern board games into Gilded Age. I poured everything I had into this game for many years. Too many years, to be honest. I wouldn't have gotten this far if it weren't for my gaming group, who supported me and my unending edits through too many years. When I needed players to play my game, they showed up, and not only became excellent test subjects, but also became excellent friends. I couldn't have kept going without my wonderful, funny, nerdy, cute, smart, and ultimately patient wife. She's the best person I know, and I'm super lucky to have her support, even if at times that's just listening to me rant about how I have to rebalance some math. In the end, Gilded Age is mostly just a way to have fun with your friends. And I've had several metric tons of fun with my friends playing Gilded Age. And, honestly? I think that you will too. Really, if you aren't having fun with your friends then what are you even doing? Sample file 3/31/2021 pg. 3 of 663 GILDED AGE SampleCopyright Travis Gardin, 2012-2021 file 3/31/2021 pg. 4 of 663 GILDED AGE For My Friends and Fellow Adventurers Sample file 3/31/2021 pg. 5 of 663 GILDED AGE Table of Contents Introduction to the Gilded Age 8 A Chance Meeting 9 What Is Gilded Age? 13 Why Play Gilded Age? 14 The Dice You Roll 16 General Advice 17 The Most Important Rule 19 PLAYER'S GUIDE Chapter 1 Chapter 4 CORE MECHANICS ITEMS Skill Checks 21 General Items 285 Talents And Skills In Depth 34 Items In Combat 289 Combat 50 Equipment 295 Weapons List 299 Chapter 2 Armor List 305 CHARACTER CREATION Shields List 307 Accessories List 308 If You're a Player Character 63 Equipment Customization 313 7 Steps Of Character Creation 65 Examples Of Custom Weapons 317 Character Sheet 66 Basic Statistics And Items 70 Chapter 5 Building Character 77 ADDITIONAL RULES Archetypes 84 Human Phenotypes 103 Advanced Combat Mechanics 320 Wounds And Death 333 Chapter 3 Status Effects and Debuffs 336 CLASSES Damage Types and Elements 343 Goddess Points 350 Class Overview 113 Aegiseer 121 Bastion 132 Botanist 141 Chronostriker 150 Creature And Master 161 Doppelganger 176 Dynamist 186 Experimentalist 198 Grave Keeper 208 Interpreter 219 Meteorologist 229 NavigatorSample239 file Profane 248 Stylist 270 3/31/2021 pg. 6 of 663 GILDED AGE Table of Contents GAME MASTER'S GUIDE Chapter 6 Chapter 7 GAME MASTERING COMBAT AS GM If You're a Game Master 355 Creating Encounters 430 Forming A Campaign 361 Weldan Fights 438 Example Campaigns 371 Making Battlemaps 444 Skill Checks 380 Running Encounters 449 Advancement And Rewards 398 NPC Classes 457 Equipment Titles 409 Boss NPC Classes 496 Weapon Titles 413 NPC Archetypes 525 Armor Titles 421 Human Archetypes 527 Shield Titles 425 Animal Archetypes 552 Protean Archetypes 558 Mechanical Archetypes 543 Supernatural Archetypes 546 Game Master Quick References 552 THE WORLD OF THE GILDED AGE Chapter 8 Chapter 9 THE WORLD ARCHETYPES IN DEPTH World Map Gild Powers World Overview Auric Items Ambold Technology Carshin Proteans Kembrant The Lands of Kanu Lochsairse New Kembrant North Granseca South Granseca Wievault Xigdas Languages International Factions Global Issues Crime, Punishment ReligionSample file 3/31/2021 pg. 7 of 663 GILDED AGE Introduction to the Gilded Age The Gilded Age started over 1900 years ago, when Saint Sanren died. Saint Sanren was the first Gilded, a person with supernatural powers. Before then no one had any special powers whatsoever. When Saint Sanren appears in history they (no one is certain of their gender after all this time) are fighting bandits, wooing princes/princesses, liberating slaves, slaying tyrants and generally being an outstanding adventurer in an age that badly needed them. After their death children across the world began to be born who had Gild powers. It was only 50 years after their death, when a third generation of Gilded started being born that humanity realized that this was not a passing phase, or a fluke. Humanity reset the clock and started a new era. They called it the Gilded Age.