Last Children of The Gods

Adventures in a fantastic world broken by the Gods

By Xar [email protected]

Version: alpha 9

Portals of Convenience

Portals of Convenience 1

List of Tables 3

List of Figures 4

1 Childrens Stories 5 1.1 Core Mechanic ...... 5 1.2 Attributes...... 6 1.3 Approaches...... 6 1.4 Drives...... 7 1.5 Considerations ...... 8

2 A Saga of Heroes 9 2.1 Character Creation...... 9 2.2 Player Races ...... 9 2.3 Talents...... 11 2.4 Class...... 13 2.5 Secondary Characteristics...... 14 2.6 Bringing the character to life ...... 14 2.7 Considerations ...... 14

3 Grimoire 16 3.1 Defining Mages...... 16 3.2 The Shadow Weave...... 16 3.3 Elemental Magic ...... 16 3.4 Rune Magic...... 16 3.5 True Name Magic...... 16 3.6 Blood Magic ...... 17 3.7 Folklore ...... 17 3.8 Arcanum, Ancient Magic...... 19 3.9 Ideas...... 19

4 Testaments of Divinity 20 4.1 Vecna, The Enlightened ...... 20 4.2 Moradin, The Sunsmith ...... 20 4.3 Aleene, The Huntress ...... 20 4.4 [name]...... 20 4.5 Death, The Grim Reaper ...... 20 4.6 Nature...... 20 4.7 Karma...... 20

5 Equipment 21

1 5.1 Weapons...... 21 5.2 Magical items...... 21 5.3 Considerations ...... 21

6 Old War Stories 22 6.1 Simultaneous Action...... 22 6.2 Combat Structure ...... 22 6.3 Stunts and effects...... 22 6.4 Action Points...... 23 6.5 Health...... 23 6.6 Team Work...... 24 6.7 Ideas...... 24

7 Manual of Games 26 7.1 Setting the Difficulty...... 27 7.2 Flavor...... 27 7.3 Dangerous World...... 28 7.4 Scale...... 28 7.5 Traveling ...... 28 7.6 Survival...... 28 7.7 Trust or Trick...... 29 7.8 Importance of Flaws...... 29 7.9 Rewards...... 29 7.10 Meta Points...... 29 7.11 Handling traps ...... 29 7.12 Stealth...... 30

8 Atlas and Legends 31 8.1 Overview of the Setting ...... 31 8.2 Adventures in Fantastic Locations ...... 31

9 Monstronomicon 33

10 Flavor 35

11 Math, Tables and Figures 38

12 Design Decisions 44

2 List of Tables

1.1 Attributes and Discarding...... 5

2.1 Cost of Attribute and Approach Scores ...... 9

6.1 Actions and their cost...... 23

11.1 25% CoF marker...... 39 11.2 50% CoF marker...... 39 11.3 75% CoF marker...... 39 11.4 90% CoF marker...... 39 11.5 Peak Values...... 39 11.6 Average Values...... 39 11.7 Average bonus for Approach ...... 39 11.8 Average bonus for Attribute...... 39

3 List of Figures

11.1 Given Attribute with varying Approach ...... 40 11.2 The four figures depict each a derived attribute level of 1 to 4 in which six graphs is shown where they represent rounding the lowest die...... 41 11.3 The six figures depict each a derived approach level of 1 to 6 in which four graphs is shown where they represent a die discarded...... 42 11.4 The six figures depict each a derived approach level of 1 to 6 in which four graphs is shown where they represent a die discarded...... 43

4 Chapter 1 Childrens Stories

1.1. Core Mechanic Classes They are just niche protection. Characters are primarily defined by attributes and ap- proaches and these two characteristics combine, one of Combat each, to to make a test to overcome adversity. Attributes Players have their own turn for the most part, but en- are ranked from zero to four and approaches are ranked emies act along with the player. Action points are to from zero to six. A test consists of rolling 4d6, discard- Effect point ing one die according to the attribute level as seen in Table 1.1 and then increasing the lowest die up to the Complex tests approach rank if applicable. The sum of the remaining There’s two types of complex roll, synergy or complica- three dice is then compared to the difficulty class to de- tion. Synergy (or compliment) is when multiple effects termine success or failure, with higher roll being success. (or persons) combines strength to makes a task easier. Most of the time a test also cares about the Degree of Complication means the difficulty increases as there are success, how much the the roll beat the DC. For a quick multiple instances where things can go wrong. recap and take a look at the example 1.1 to learn how; If two attributes pertains to a single test, roll 4d6. 1. Roll 4d6 Using the attribute that pertains most to determine 2. Discard a Die according to attribute, Table 1.1 which die is rerolled. Then take the secondary attribute 3. Round Up lowest die to approach if aplicable to discard a flavor die as normal and finally round up 4. Sum the remaining 3 dice according to approach. Alternatively roll 5d6 and discard two dice and then round up. These two methods are still Score Description Discarding untested and have no math to back either up, but the 0 Poor Highest die first seems simpler to handle. 1 Average Highest die If two approaches pertain to a single test roll 4d6 and 2 High 2nd Highest die discard a flavor as according to attribute as normal. Then 3 Exceptional 2nd Lowest die round up the lowest according to the most pertaining 4 Extraordinary Lowest die one first and round up according to the second approach Table 1.1: This table shows the link between attribute (possibly the same die). score and what die to discard. Team rolls Many times during an adventure all the characters will have to make the same test. Instead of each rolling This is an easy way to box text within a document! determine an internal ranking and only make one roll. If the test succeeds the first person succeed and so does the next characters up to the Degree of Success for the Flavor Dice team roll. Some of the dice, if not all, will have a flavor which The team roll can be a synergy or a complication as will affect the outcome. The flavor is determined by the well. Everyone could be watching out for a sneak thief or discarded die. The default roll is all blank dice and the try to resist poison gas. This could also determine what player and Game Master can both add flavor dice to the attribute and approach is actually used for the team roll. dice pool up to a maximum of 4 dice total. Circumstance bonus can be very important in making the internal ranking because it may turn the least likely The short Version one to fail into the most likely to succeed. Tie-breaking is handled by Protagonism by default. Willingly placing Rolling lower is still up for discussion on how to be handled. Roll 4d6, discard one die, round up lowest, sum the 3 dice. Using Attributes and Approaches Scores and Points As characters wander through the world there will be Score is the important value and is used by the system. challenges that require the player to roll the dice to see Points are just bookkeeping for how much the score cost if their character overcomes the challenge. The task at and all starter point have equal value in xp, they are just hand and how the character handles it determines what locked in for expenditure at start. combination of attribute and approach. Under both

5 Attributes and Approaches sections there are common handwork left over from Dexterity/Skulduggery. Dex- examples of combination for various tasks. Those are terity/Skulduggery for stealth and shadowing. It also not final and be modified to fit the situation at hand as covers lockpicking, pick-pocketing and sleight of hand. there are more than one way of doing things. Haggling Dexterity/Survival is balancing and general acrobatic is a somewhat troublesome to place definitely because stunts. it should be requires different combinations depending on ones selling strategy. Any of Fellowship, Intellect or Intellect Willpower could do, paired with finesse, leadership or Raw mental acuity, one’s knowledge and learning ability. skulduggery. Common uses: Intellect/Finesse is Rhetoric, debate and deduction. Intellect/Leadership is making plans and 1.2. Attributes strategies. Intellect/Perception is a catch-all for noticing the world or actively searching. Intellect/Skulduggery Attributes, in a sense, defines ”What” the character is. for trap-making and devious plans. Intellect/Survival covers tracking, foraging, scavenging and navigation. Combat This characteristic represents the character’s ability to Willpower fight in melee. The particular fighting style is not defined If Intellect was strength then Willpower is toughness. here and covers any from straight up brawling to kung-fu. Willpower is a character’s mental resistance and will to Also covers ranged attacks. endure. Common uses: Combat/Aggression covers most melee Common uses: Willpower/Aggression is bad cop attacks as well as grappling. Combat/Defense is for style interrogation. Willpower/Defense covers con- parrying, Combat/Finesse covers not only ranged com- centration. Willpower/Finesse is for concentration. bat, but also a few melee attacks that does not feature Willpower/Leadership is commanding troops and ex- brute strength but rather finesse. Combat/Leadership is erting one’s will over others. Willpower/Perception is leading by example. Combat/Perception is finding weak- vigilance, preparedness and paranoia. nesses in an enemy’s defenses. Combat/Skulduggery for feints and distractions in combat. Combat/Survival is Fellowship hunting (maybe Dexterity instead). Fellowship covers most social interaction with others. Common uses: Fellowship/Aggression is threats and Magic coercion. Fellowship/Finesse covers seduction and per- Magic is ingrained in the world and people alike and suasion. Fellowship/Leadership is about inspiring others this attribute measures how powerful a person’s magical as well as handling negotiations and diplomacy. Fellow- prowess is. ship/Perception covers scrutiny and sense motive. Fel- lowship/Skulduggery for deception and bluffing others. Strength Fellowship/Survival is for interaction with animals. Raw physical strength and muscles. Common uses: Strength/Aggression is about breaking 1.3. Approaches things violently. Strength/Finesse is careful application Approaches, in a sense, define ”How” a character is, of strength. Strength/Defense is blocking with shield, in what manner the characters handles challenges. It’s Strength/Survival covers climbing, jumping and lifting. a methodology and a broader skill set rather than a particular skill. Really, what the characteristic is called, Toughness it is an approach to the challenge at hand. This attribute represent how healthy a character is. Common uses: Toughness/Defense is about resisting Aggression or reducing bodily harm. Toughness/Survival is anything Aggression is a measure of how forceful a character is in endurance - long lasting activities. his approach to situations. Common uses: Combat/Aggression covers most melee Dexterity attacks as well as grappling. Strength/Aggression is Nimbleness and general hand-to-eye coordination. about breaking things violently. Willpower/Aggression Common uses: Dexterity/Defense is dodging, ducking is bad cop style interrogation. Fellowship/Aggression is and getting out of the way. Dexterity/Finesse is any threats and coercion.

6 Defense and shadowing. It also covers lockpicking, pick-pocketing and sleight of hand. Intellect/Skulduggery for trap- Defense is about protecting oneself. The various combi- making and devious plans. Fellowship/Skulduggery for nations details against what or how. deception and bluffing others. Common uses: Combat/Defense is for parrying, Strength/Defense is blocking with shield, Tough- ness/Defense is about resisting or reducing bodily harm. Survival Dexterity/Defense is dodging, ducking and getting out Survival measures one’s knowledge and know-how of the of the way. Defense also pairs with the mental attributes, wild in addition to how attuned you are to the Nature. depending on how you keep your guard or what you Survival combined with the physical attributes works defend against. Willpower/Defense covers concentration. under the assumption the world is a dangerous place and the character Finesse Common uses: Combat/Survival is hunting (maybe Finesse is another approach, a more careful and fine- Dexterity instead). Strength/Survival covers climb- tuned approach. Precision, grace and patience are the ing, jumping and lifting. Toughness/Survival is any- characteristics of this approach. thing endurance - long lasting activities. Dexter- Common uses: Combat/Finesse covers not only ranged ity/Survival is balancing and general acrobatic stunts. combat, but also a few melee attacks that does not fea- Intellect/Survival covers tracking, foraging, scavenging ture brute strength but rather finesse. Strength/Finesse and navigation. Fellowship/Survival is for interaction is careful application of strength. Dexterity/Finesse with animals. is any handwork left over from Dexterity/Skulduggery and still be used to disable traps. Intellect/Finesse is 1.4. Drives Rhetoric, debate and deduction. Willpower/Finesse is for concentration. Fellowship/Finesse covers seduction There are 4 things that seperate the Players from the rest and persuasion. of the common people, Protagonism, Expertise, Luck and Faith. Leadership Leadership is a mostly a mannerism of interaction, the Expertise presence of the character. This is the force a Player Character drives himself. It Common uses: Combat/Leadership is leading by ex- differs from Willpower as being a drive and an outlook ample in combat. Intellect/Leadership is making plans on life. and strategies. Willpower/Leadership is commanding I do not rely on mere chance. I am not a puppet troops and exerting one’s will over others. Fellow- of a God nor a slave to destiny. I am myself ship/Leadership is about inspiring others as well as han- and I make my own way through life. dling negotiations and diplomacy. Possibly more gold or perhaps even a tiny bit approaches or attributes. One can not have more Professions than Perception his Expertise score (Expertise at zero probably have some special rules). This approach measures how observant the character is. The combination defines what area the awareness applies to. Luck Common uses: Combat/Perception is finding weak- Karma permeates the world and some are on the good nesses in an enemy’s defenses. Intellect/Perception is side with the flow of luck. a catch-all for noticing the world or actively search- Good Luck actually gives the blessed some karma from ing. Willpower/Perception is vigilance, preparedness the blesser, but a neglectable amount in game terms (for and paranoia. Fellowship/Perception covers scrutiny a single blessing). Receiving many blessings from many and sensing motives. people can increase the persons karma notably. This is represented in the form of meta points that can be Skulduggery expending on luck effects. This approach measure how devious a character is, will- ingness to break the rules and deceive others. Protagonism Common uses: Combat/Skulduggery for feints and dis- Having a Protaganism attribute means you are centered tractions in combat. Dexterity/Skulduggery for stealth in the story by giving control of some the story to the

7 player. From a characters point of view Protagonism skills function as an approach when using them in a roll, means a feeling of importance, purpose, having a destiny i.e. round up to the skill score. The score is calculated to fulfill, ment to be someone. half the Expertise Score rounded up. The skill score can also be increased with Skill Training talent. The three Faith skills here are mostly rolled as Magic/Alchemy Skill Training N The push of Gods and Deities, rewards for devotion. Prerequisites: Expertise N, the skill in question. Each god have ideals and following them can grant When calculating the score of a professional skill add powers according to the ideal. N to that skill. This talent can be up to 4 times for each skill. 1.5. Considerations The cost for each talent should be 10*N to keep in line with the cost of normal approaches, though a cheapened Lore could be a approach. Strategy and tactics could cost rate is not out of place. fall to Combat/Lore. I’m considering having everyone being able to access Fringe Skills luck, but if you don’t have enough luck attribute (or at all) bad luck will hit the character. Gambling, Cooking, Sailing, etc. could be handled as approaches meaning Luck/Gambling, Expertise/Cooking Improving Characters and as appropriate. While adventuring Player Characters they accumulate Other Methods experience points. To improve they must succeed a special test (how is yet undefined but probably not 4d6). Quick Roll If they fail they do not lose the XP but just wasted the 2d6 plus the relevant attribute or approach. No dis- time and opportunity. Possible even a try after each carding or rounding, just adding 2 dice with a single encounter. Intellect could play a small role in this test. number. Lower rank should be an easier test, higher rank should be a harder test. Attributes should be more expensive than approaches. Failure on approach improvement could be handled as only learning a specialist approach instead. Protagonism help learning/improving any character- istic or approach that was failed. Luck help learn- ing/improving any characteristic or approach that luck was applied to. Expertise help learning/improving any characteristic or approach that was succeeded. Faith helps learning/improving any characteristic or approach that follows the dogma of the God the character wor- ships.

Specialist Approaches Instead of getting the full worth of a approach one can buy only a specific part at a cheapened cost (a little over half is my current idea). For exam- ple one could buy Swordsmanship for Combat such that any test involving swords will be testing Com- bat/(Swordsmanship+Aggression). One could also have Specialist Attributes, but their narrower range makes this a bit iffy.

Professional Skill Another method to handle is Professional Skill. So far the skill list is Alchemy, Herbalism and Smithing. These

8 Chapter 2 A Saga of Heroes

2.1. Character Creation liz_s= [1 0 0 1 3 0 1 2];

Attributes, Approaches and Drives are measured in % [C M S T D I W F]; points and score. The score have in-game consequences, Warrior=[3 0 2 2 1 0 1 0]; respectively: discarding, rounding and something en- paladin=[2 0 1 2 0 0 2 1]; tirely different. The points are used to buy an increment Explore=[1 0 1 1 2 2 1 0]; in the score. The cost in points vary based on the score RuneScr=[0 3 0 0 0 2 2 1]; and whether it is an attribute or an approach. Points are Breeder=[0 4 0 0 0 2 2 0]; given in character creation from various sources, race, Warlord=[1 0 0 0 0 2 2 3]; profession, backgrounds, and starter points. S P (T) XP (T) P (T) XP (T) 2.2. Player Races 0 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) 0 (0) 1 4 (4) 20 (20) 3 (3) 9 (9) Human 2 6 (10) 30 (50) 4 (7) 12 (21) 3 8 (18) 40 (90) 5 (12) 15 (36) Being a shorter lived race compared to the others the 4 10 (28) 50 (140) 6 (18) 18 (54) Humans have been quicker to forgive the Gods for the 5 7 (25) 21 (75) war. 6 8 (33) 24 (99) Racial traits Table 2.1: This table shows the Points and Experience Points needed to reach a given Score. The accumulated +1 to two drives total is given in the parentheses marked (T). The left side is for Attributes and Drives and the right side is for Dwarf Approaches. Dwarves are mostly subterranean, living away from the sun All attributes, approaches and drives start at a Score of Dwarves was given Rune Magic by their patron god. 0 with 0 Points in it can only be raised above 2 if allowed. Surviving mostly on shroom farming and beer, another Characters get a bonus from Race and Profession to God made another shroom, full of hallucinogenic and different attributes. Starter characters can only have other ill substances, and the dwarves took a liking to one Attribute score at 3, race, background and profession them. just provide which can be raised to 3. Likewise starter Dwarves inscribe rune magic tattooes to increase their characters can only have two Approach Scores at 3. The natural abilities. upper limit means you can have the score, but not put Racial Traits any more points in it. The only exception is if the granted boni breaches the limits before any voluntary points are Dwarves get +1 Combat, Toughness, Athletics and De- allocated. fense. Dwarves can go to 3 in Toughness, Willpower and Leadership during character creation. Attribute points The Racial Traits sections are outdated, which have an Gnome old score modifying system, rather than the new point Also born of the Sunforge Gnomes claim a heritage close system. Here’s the new attribute points pasted right the Dwarf, though they do not dwell below but rather from matlab script where I do the math. enjoy their Gods gift of sunlight and takes a happy demeanor throughout their life. Gnomes mostly live % [C M S T D I W F]; as nomads, traveling merchants, going from town to dwarf= [1 1 1 3 0 0 2 0]; town. The group are close but splitting up, exchanging elf= [0 2 0 0 1 2 2 1]; members with other groups, calling it ”Walking my own man= [0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0]; way.” Gnomes are eager to learn and share willingly, gnome= [0 2 0 1 1 2 0 2]; especially if they can trade knowledge, and a gnome Hob= [2 0 1 2 1 1 1 0]; apprentice can prove a valued help. The Shaecloaks are liz_w= [2 1 2 2 0 0 1 0]; a gnomean clan/family that uses the Shadow Weave to liz_e= [0 1 0 1 1 2 1 2]; hide the gnomean caravans out in the wild.

9 Gnomes are a young race, wanderers, looking for their Soul Sight, 4 RP Elves can see ”the shadow” the place in a broken world they were created to bring joy soul cast in the real world. Souls within a body is much around. easier to see and identify than a free spirit. With this gift Elves can tell if another Elf is pure or impure with Racial Traits a single glance, as if staring directly into the soul rather Gnomes get +1 Magic, Fellowship, Finesse, and Per- than the Elf in question. This gift have lead other races ception. Gnomes can go to 3 in Dexterity, Intellect, to believe that the elves can see in darkness, but it is Skulduggery and Perception. another false impression, they can just see the outline of the soul in darkness. Elf The elves was once a powerful race, but with the loss Light Step, 4 RP Elves are magically light meaning of their patron goddess their might have since dwindled. they can walk on thin branches and dont sink in snow. Having no patron Goddess after the God Wars the elven kingdoms quickly lost their hold and the magical gifts given by their Goddess slowly began to fade. Slow fall, 3 RP Requires Light Step. Some elves even Their longevity and magical aptitude are the only to be unaffected harshly by gravity. When falling they real reasons the elven race is around as the birth rate are like a leaf on a windstill day, easily landing on their dropped drastically with the death of their Goddesss. feet. The elves became a dying and desperate race and turned to necromancy to create their own salvation with Wee- Racial Characteristics sham, which roughly translates to soul keeper, a necro- mancer who catches the soul and handles reincarnation Elves get a bonus to Dexterity, Willpower Perception, by reusing the elven soul so the baby does not dead at Survival. Elves can start with 3 in Magic, Intellect, birth. Radical Weesham have experimented with non- Finesse and Survival. elven souls and this created the the Impure, the Half Elf, a lesser Elf, born of elven blood but not of elven Hobgoblin spirit. To the other races, they wouldn’t be able to tell Hobgoblins thrived in the chaos of the God Wars and them apart, if it weren’t for how the purebreed elves emerged strong from the wreckage getting a hold in the treat them and their following lower standing in elven world that they didn’t lose in the coming years of dust society. settling.

Old Souls 1 RP, Mandetory None of the current Racial Traits elves posses an original soul, but the reuse of a soul does Hobgoblins get +1 Combat, Toughness, Aggression and have some positive influence and elves start with two survival. Hobgoblins can go to 3 in Strength, Dexterity, more interests. Soul mates is an old idea many elves Leadership and Defense. cling to still to. Some even commit suicide to be reborn alongside an untimely dead soul mate, while others have their soul mate be reborn in their family. Lizardfolk Lizardfolk is the only race that exhibit more than two Nature’s Blessing, 7 RP Nature loves elves and the genders (for a lack of better word). There are the warrior other way around. Branshes and bushes move to help breed, the egg layers, the scouts. Warriors are a massive, the elf. This ability along with light-step have lead to strong brutes, serving as protectors, warriors, farmers the other races believing the elves are stealthy, but they and craftsmen of lizardfolk. The scout breed are small do not have any other inherent ability stealth. and agile. They serve the lizardfolk mostly outside the Fare well is the remnants of an elven blessing to non- society as hunter-gathers, diplomats and scouts. Wings elves to provide some protection from Natures Lures. are not uncommon when the environment are difficult, like tall forests, cliffs and mountains or the Edge. Egg World Speaker, 4 RP Elves can buy the World layers are by other races’ standard, the female. They Speaker Talent for 3 RP with the only prerequisite be- serve the lizardfolk with reproduction, leadership and ing Nature’s Blessing for choosing animals or choosing most of the core of lizardfolk society. and plants and tress. Soul Sight is the prerequisite for Coloration defines social standing and it varies from choosing spirits. They can not choose rocks and gems. tribe to tribe.

10 Racial Traits attack against that ally. This effect a number of allies Warrior breed get +1 str, tou, aggression, defense, small equal to his DoS. expertise bonus. Scout breed get 0 str, +1 agi, finesse, skulduggery, survival, Magic Talents World Speaker 2.3. Talents Prerequisites: Magic 2, Survival 2 Choose from; animals, plants and trees, rocks and Format gems, spirits. The character can speak with the choosen Talents come with Name, Fluff (currently not made), thing at will without any check, although their senses Prerequiste, Effect. The cost of a talent is not yet deter- are limited and different. To encourage help or favors mined. will require a test, with the difficulty depending on the Each Attribute have a capstone talent to signify ex- attitude. The animal does not gain sentience and can traordinary ability. only operate on animal intelligence and likewise with the others. The usage of ”N” Many talents can be bought multiple times and the effect Other scale. You can buy this talent multiple times and N is Superior Speed the number of time previously bought plus one. The prerequisites may scale as well and make an indirect Prerequisites: Dexterity 4 maximum number of times the talent be bought due to Once per combat the character can gain one additional the maximum in Attribute and Approaches. AP Groups Superior Speed Rename may be pending. Some talents can be bought Prerequisites: Dexterity 4 multiple times, each with Superior Reflexes Leadership Prerequisites: Defense 6 When buying Defend with AP, the character gain +1 Inspiring Warcry reaction. Prerequisites: Leadership 2, Fellowship 2. Bookworm The character can shout encouraging words to lift the spirit of his comrades. Make a DC 8 Fellow- Prerequisites: Intellect 2. ship/Leadership test. The characters allies can heal The character have read so much he have a chance to a total of Degree of Success fatigue points. have picked up on something useful to the current situa- tion. He gains a specialist approach called Knowledge Wolf Pack tactics for Intellect for which he can test to see if he have read Prerequisites: Leadership 3, Combat 2. something useful. 1 The character setup for a quick and lethal combat. Rumor mill The character can make a DC [8 plus enemy modifier] Combat/Leadership nonlethal attack. If he success a Prerequisites: Fellowship 2. flanking/adjacent ally can add the DoS of this attack to Basically the same as bookworm, but was told instead his own attack when calculating damage. of reading itself. not sure how to differentiate mechani- cally. A chance to be horribly wrong? ”Strike Now!” Sound Constitution N Prerequisites: Leadership 2, Willpower 3. The character can make a DC 9 Willpower/Leadership Prerequisites: Toughness N test to grant another a bonus to a strike which they take Your fatigue points increase by N. immediately. Incredible Constitution ”Hold the Line!” Prerequisites: Toughness 4, Sound Constitution 1 Prerequisites: Leadership 2, Willpower 2. Your wound points increase by one. The character can make a DC 8 Willpower/Leadership 1An alternative to lore approach, but still uses an untested test to increase his allies Defense by one against the next rule.

11 Unparallelled Willpower N Reliable Fortune Prerequisites: Willpower N Prerequisites: Luck 2, Good Fortune Your fatigue points increase by N. Reroll one die after flavor was determined except the flavor die. If the rerolled is 3 or below add +3. Unbreakable Will Prerequisites: Willpower 4, Unparallelled Willpower 1 Fortune Outcome The character can ignore a wound for the scene. Prerequisites: Luck 2 Gain access to a luck flavor die. Experimental rule Smashing and Breaking N Another Chance Prerequisites: Strength N When you use strength for damage, increase it by N. Prerequisites: Luck 3, Reliable Fortune Reroll the 3 non-flavor dice. Graceful Blows N A Better Chance Prerequisites: Dexterity N Prerequisites: Luck 4, Another Chance When you use Dexterity for damage, increase it by N. Reroll the 3 non-flavor dice. For each die that rolls 3 Hastened Action or below add 3. Prerequisites: Dexterity 4 Protagonism Once per encounter you can gain one additional action Me First point for a turn. Prerequisites: Protagonism 1 or 2 Talents for Drives The character can spend 1 Meta point to seize initiative rather than spending AP Drives grant access to a lot of good talents, many of which require activation rather than being permanent Sudden Inspiration effect. Each drive gives a resource that can be used to Prerequisites: Protagonism 1 with the active talents, probably collected into a single The character get a hint or some inside knowledge resource called Meta Points about the current storyline. Expertise Plot Armor Sound Training Prerequisites: Protagonism 2 Improve fatigue by increasing maximum or damage Prerequisites: Expertise 1 to wound conversion, make reactive rolls using this stat If the flavor die is not the speciality and is lower than instead. the specialty die, the character can switch out the flavor die for his speciality die, making the speciality the flavor Slay Minion instead. Prerequisites: Protagonism 2 Treat minions as mooks. Dabbler Prerequisites: Expertise N Advantageous The character gain the benefits of another profession. Prerequisites: Protagonism 2, Sudden Inspiration This talent can be bought multiple times and N is the The character can create an advantage, like number of professions the character previously have plus Minor Scene Editing one. Prerequisites: Protagonism 3, Advantageous Reliable Training The character can edit the scene in minor ways, in the Prerequisites: Expertise 3 order of finding the key under the doormat, The character can exchange the flavor die for the Successful speciality die, making speciality the flavor instead. Prerequisites: Protagonism 4, Advantageous Luck The character automatically succeed a test. Good Fortune Faith Prerequisites: Luck 1 The push of Gods and Deities, rewards for devotion. Reroll one die after flavor was determined except the Each god have ideals and following them can grant flavor die. powers according to the ideal.

12 2.4. Class blessings. Maybe split into two abilities; Santify Pray for guidance get hint alla protagonism hint. Background provide the start of a character’s life in Invoke gods powers basically DnD spells, not a lot addition to a small bonus. Classes provide base stats like base fatigues and call death spirits linger around and calling out to the wounds. Fluff should offer adventuring reason sugges- grim reaper can reduce the risk of souls getting out of tions. control To actually enter a class you need to buy a specific talent, requiring you to have an expertise score of 1 or higher. Though the talent cost talent points, the Class divine sense forgot cost talent points to enter per say as the talent provides talent points to spend on class talents and talents that prayers what do follow the class theme. This way a class is to enforce niche protection, not something specifically required to Rune Scriber have. Dwarf only. The core of dwarven society, they work in Classless all areas from enhancing the shroom harvest to blessing the dwarven army to lightening the streets. It is a It’s quite possible to be a classless character. basic profession that arent revered, just required and as such it have become ordinary. Most Rune Scribers are Explorer specialized in some area. Prepared Can pay a small fee and have ”Adventuring Keeping strong runes alive for long requires a lot of Gear”. Navigational skills meditation, but small runes are can be maintained with- out too much effort. Trap Sense Explorer seek out dangerous places and instinct keeps them alive, to themselves it is a sixth sense, Thief to others it may seem like paranoia. Never Surprised Both quick to adabt to a new sit- They don’t know exactly what or where the trap is, uation and During the surprise round a thief have two but they can feel something is wrong. The trap sense more action points. is passive and works automatically with low chance of failure. There is no need for a detection roll, although Warlord the trap need located and/or disabled/bypassed. The Warlord is a beacon of hope on the battlefield, a Navigation force that guide the combatants to perform better. The Warlord utilizes Leadership to direct combat. Healing is not the major factor of this class, it is Self-Suficient The explorer knows how to survive in more about buffing party members and granting free the wild. moves/defenses/attacks to the party. The warlord is Paladin more like the squad commander. The Weapon of God. Speciality Die Being a combatant and a leader a Warlord can flavor smite variety of tests Rules divine protection A Warlord gets +1 Leadership and can go to 3 in Lead- Priest ership from start. A Warlord may use Expertise instead of any Attribute to qualify for any Leadership Talents. The cornerstone of a church and the only one to have A Warlord starts with some Leadership talents. control over blessings, an extension of the gods powers. Bless The priest can bless objects and persons alike and and he know lots of different blessings for variety Warrior of situations. Baptise, soul interactions, anti-undead Can ignore the deathspiral of combat.

13 Speciality Die Backgrounds A warrior might specialize in blunt weapons; ”When this Blacksmith die flavors the outcome of an attack you also knock down the enemy.” You gain a specialist approach, Smithing, for Magic. Or shield bashing; ”When this die flavors the outcome With it you can craft various items. of a shield bash you open up the enemy for attack.” From DnD 5e Weesham Acolyte, Charlatan, Criminal, Entertainer, Folk Hero, Guild Artisan, Hermit, Noble, Outlander, Sage, Sailor, The character must be a Purebreed Elf with Soul Sight Soldier, Urchin and the Rejected by Nature flaw. The Weesham is the backbone of the Elven race, capturing their fallen Contacts comrades’ soul to ensure the survival of the race. Beyond their signature soul trapping ability most develop other Player introduced NPCs. They can be mentors, family abilities that interfere with the soul. Being Rejected the members, friends or anything else. Characters start with Weesham cannot live in forest based elven cities, but a number equal to their Fellowship score. make frequent pilgramages to perform their vital rituals. Bonds 2.5. Secondary Characteristics Cheap packages with fluff attached to bind the characters together. Must be bought together.

Flaws Brothers in Arms The characters aren’t perfect, they have flaws. Some +1 combat to each. Team Work benefit have immediate restrictions or possibly even benefits to go with the flaw. Family Players are related in blood. Team Work benefit Rejected by Nature Some elves are rejected by Nature, this include all Wee- Drinking Buddies sham. Plants and etc slowly wither around the Rejected +1 toughness with flower sized plants die from a days exposure and large trees around sevens days of full exposure. Soul Mates Animals are likewise uneasy and even aggressive Pure Elves only around the Rejected.

Soulless 2.6. Bringing the character to Not having a soul means you are vulnerable to all sorts life of things, even defenseless against possession. Fluff, quirks no mechanics Really old Bonus XP. Strength, toughness and dexterity can not be 2.7. Considerations raised above a score of 2. Preacher Interests The Voice of God. Spreads the word and tries to convert Interests define character knowledge in broad strokes. others to the faith. Languages are also interests. Characters gain freely chosen interests interests equal Chosen to the sum of their intellect score plus expertise score. Characters with a spirituality score of 1 or higher gains One whose faith was chosen for him and not by him. He an interest in their god. The characters race also gives have become an instrument of God, whether he accepts starting languages. or not.

14 Herbalist The world is full of magical plants that can be used for various purposes, particularly healing. Herb Pouch Adventuring Gear from Dungeon World with herbs. 5 uses. Can take a ”I have only got this left” action when there’s at least one use left to declare the leftover contents. The benefits of this is gaining one additional use, though also specified.

Alchemist Just like the plants of the world can be used so can most of the other substances

15 Chapter 3 Grimoire

Only have fluff at this stage. What: flame / heat / light Scales / special: Range, control, tolerance into immu- 3.1. Defining Mages nity / absorption Damage from pyromancy deals additional damage with Spellcaster willpower. Fire Breathing uses Toughness for additional damage. The spellcaster is have learned some formulaic spells. The spells effect is clear and the execution is the same each time, Geomancy Geomancy is not per say a lost art, but rather willingly Magic user driven to oblivion from the commom mages. Geomancy Mages that use a theme of magic, not specific spells. is forbidden to use because of the ramifications of using Pyromancer, Witch, necromancer, it. All of Geomancy is used to hold the world together, and using even a little to move a small rock causes Source wideranging earthquakes and greater uses of Geomancy ruptures the land, scaring it with great ravines centered Magic comes from somewhere. on the geomancer.

Innate You are born with a gift. Limitation: You can not get this after character creation barring special 3.4. Rune Magic circumstances. Scope: The gift can be evolved. Rune magic was given to the dwarves, gnomes received Study Knowledge is power and you are learned. Lim- another gift instead. Runes must inscribed physically itation: Takes time, is difficult. Scope: Much can be for a permanent effect, tracing the rune with the finger learned. only makes a temporary effect. Keeping permanent runes active requires meditation, repeated, deep and Bestowed by another entity Many beings like to daily, clearly unsuited for adventuring, but it keeps the exchange their power for favor. Limitation: by the being. dwarven society running. Breaks from the meditation Scope: usually it stay the same. are usually spent doing the physical work the magic aids. Farmers, brewers, mining leaders and many more use rune magic in their daily work. Rune magic are Enchanted Object Many object have powers that mostly used to enhance, but it can have other effects can be used by the common folk. Limitation: by the too. Dwarves use a rune ritual shortly after childbirth object. Scope: usually it stay the same. to protect the name instead of baptising. Later on Rune Scribers learn their own true name to further increase Magical Places There are plenty of magical places their own power.

3.2. The Shadow Weave 3.5. True Name Magic Magic that gnomes use With their charity others have taken it and used it for Knowing the true name of a being gives powers over their own purposes. it, yet a true name is complex and the power actually Can do illusion, fear, cold, shadow is granted by the understanding of the true name. By jumps/teleportation, shadow manipulation calling something by its true name, you can attract its attention or even use magic against it. Gods listen to 3.3. Elemental Magic prayers because their common name is part of their true name, but they are too powerful to use ordinary truenaming against them. Sages speculate truenaming Pyromancy is one way gods can be so omnipresent, knowing when Method: Create / Extinguish / sustain (no source / fuel) and where their name is being used. Some even say this / ignite extend to their domain and ideals. Effect: Flashburn / Explosion (push effect), Baptism is common practise to obscure the baby’s true Form: Wave / ray / ball / wall name.

16 3.6. Blood Magic scare off dangerous animals since time immemorial. Fire scares off many otherworldy beings, but it is essential Can be used for various purposes, usually neferious in for the destruction of vampires, wendigos, and draugar. some way. Firecrackers: Gunpowder explosions were traditionally thought to scare off demons in China. In the modern day, firecrackers are the go-to method, and this is why 3.7. Folklore they’re set off during the Chinese New Year. Fresh water: In Scotland there’s a particular grouping Angelica: There’s a widespread folktale in Northern of evil fairy spirits collectively referred to as the fuath, a Europe that the Archangel Michael introduced this plant word that means “hate.” One of the most dreaded of all is to humanity as a form of medicine. Due Michael’s role the Nuckelavee, who comes out of the ocean and spreads in throwing down Satan, it was also thought to offer a pestilence. His saltwater nature, however, makes him general purpose defense against Judeo-Christian demons. vulnerable to fresh water, which he can’t cross. Splashing Arbutus: In Roman folklore, this plant warded off the Nuckelavee will cause him to retreat. strixes, nocturnal owl-monsters that preyed on sleeping Garlic: The strong odor of garlic has been reputed babies. You were supposed to brush a sprig of arbutus to drive off evil spirits for centuries, though it’s most on the threshold and windowsills of a house, thereby famously used against vampires. This is a classic bit of blocking a strix’s entrance. Ash: In New Zealand, Maori folklore, borne out through the ages. folklore describes the Patupairehe, a race of fairy-like Gold: An ill-omened Irish spirit, the Dullahan is a spirits. They weren’t generally dangerous, but anybody headless horseman who probably inspired Washington who heard their enchanted flute music would fall under Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Throwing gold at their spell. Ash and anything that cooked in a fire would him or in front of him causes him to disappear instantly. scare them off. Gold is also helpful against the Norse sea goddess R´an.I Bells: Bells, especially church bells, have a long history mean, she’ll still drown you, but if you present her with of scaring off various creatures in the folklore of Northern gold you’ll get a slightly cushier afterlife. Europe. Aufhockers, an evil spirit from Germany, would Graveyard mould: If it was taken from the hallowed disappear the second they heard them. However, bells ground of a churchyard, this was thought to be repellent would enrage Scandinavian trolls, who hated both loud to fairies. Throw it at them to drive them away, or noises and Christianity. spread it on the ground to block their approach. Boiling Eggshells: A well known way to reveal Incense: The smell of burning incense was a good changelings, withered old fairies left behind in the form deterrent against harmful spirits in the Middle East and of a baby when the real one had been stolen. Boiling Asia, mainly against djinn and guei. eggshells in front of them was confused the changeling, Iron: Iron is one of the greatest supernatural wards in causing it to speak out in surprise, at which point more history, used throughout Europe, the Middle East, and permanent remedies could be used. Such remedies might Africa to drive away things that go bump in the night. involve burning the baby with a red-hot shovel, so one There’s much debate on what kind of iron works best: generally wanted to be sure. wrought or unwrought, whether an alloy like steel still Copper pans: In China banging copper pans together counts, fallen from the sky in the form of a meteor, etc, was supposed to scare off evil spirits, usually known as etc. Generally pure, normal iron seems the most reliable kuei or guei, though this was a fairly weak deterrent. If choice. It’s effective against demons, djinn, fairies, ghosts, the demons were determined, it would make no difference. vampires, and sundry other minor spirits and demons. Daisies: A daisy chain hung around an infant’s neck Magic Circle: In Europe and the Middle East, magi- was also used as a protection against changelings. cians would draw or etch a circle in the ground around Fennel: As detailed in my article on vampires, fennel their feet before summoning a ghost or demon. So long (or any sort of seed from a domesticated plant, really) as the magician remained in the circle, and the circle was was a good foil for the monsters. Scatter some fennel unbroken, it would protect them against any such evil about your house, and the vampire would be compelled spirit, forming a magical barrier. Often the circle had to to devour each grain, keeping it busy until sunrise, when be marked with a ritually purified object, or made out it would have to flee. Dried peas had a similar effect on of something else with protective properties, like salt. the Japanese demon-ogres known as oni. Mirrors: Mirrors have been surrounded by many mag- Fire: Is it surprising that fire would be a first choice ical beliefs for a long time. Breaking one gives you seven against many supernatural threats? After all, it destroys years bad luck, if you didn’t cover the mirrors during a things so thoroughly, and mankind has been using it to funeral you might see your own death in one, you get the

17 idea. At the same time, mirrors show the true nature medallion or statuette of the demon Pazuzu was would of things. The old clich´eabout vampires not showing scare away other Mesopotamian demons, carving a cross up in mirrors doesn’t exist in folklore, but in Asia it in your door protected your home against vampires, and was a believed that if a demon saw its face in a mirror, reciting from the Koran would drive off djinn. it would be forced to flee. For example, if a Japanese Ringdoves: The fearsome Persian karkadann, alterna- kitsune spirit was disguised as a human, showing its face tively described as a huge rhino like monster or a horned to it in a mirror would reveal the face of a fox, breaking wolf like monster, would fall into a stupor if it heard any spells the spirit had cast, before it turned back to ringdoves singing. an animal and fled. Rosemary: Supposed to be an effective charm against Need fires: A traditional Slavic ritual that consisted of Judeo-Christian demons. You simply wear a spring of it building two great bonfires on either side of the crossroads around your neck, but if the plant is plucked by someone near a town at night, then extinguishing all other light for who isn’t pure of heart then the magic is lost. miles around. People and animals would be led between Rowan: Wood from certain trees was often thought to the fires, granting protection against plague, vampires, have magical attributes. Rowan wood in particular was and witchcraft. This was very useful for getting rid od a good for fending off evil. Carving your doorway out of horrible parasitic spirit called an ustrel, which was the rowan prevented witches from entering, while a wooden ghost of an un-baptized baby that lived inside cattle. stake made from rowan was thought to be more efficient Offerings: While the most dangerous spirits and mon- for keeping vampires pinned in their coffins. sters pretty much needed to be destroyed or sent packing, Running water: Running water is more pure than lesser ones could be placated. Many types of fairies could stagnant water, and has for a long time been a safeguard be pacified with offerings of food, the Russian rusklka against supernatural evil. Vampires, the Nuckelavee, the left you alone if you left out eggs and garland wreaths, dodo of Ghana, ifrits, The brown Man of the Moors, and while mermen liked it if you lit candles for them. The many other beings couldn’t cross a trickling stream to precise offering differed from case to case and needed pursue you. Conversely, Scottish kelpies lived in running to be well researched; the wrong kind of offering might water, but feared still water, such as puddles. enrage a spirit. Salt: Much like running water, salt has symbolic con- Peonies: According to Greek legend, this flower would nections with purity, both for its white color and its shined in the dark when evil was near, and was used historical use for preserving food. Even today, the su- by farmers and shepherds to protect their flocks from perstition of throwing salt over your shoulder to ward prowling spirits of the night. off bad luck remains. Salt would drive away Arabian Prayer: When all else fails, pray, because sometimes it spirits and monsters, like djinn or the palis, sprinkling works. Invoking the name of God against demons, djinn, salt over a baby’s crib protected against changelings, and and other noisome spirits was often a reliable fallback. throwing salt on the French werewolf known as a loup Unfortunately, it sometimes depended on how pious you garou would cause it to catch fire. were. There’s a few stories of saints defeating dragons with their faith, but that sort of thing doesn’t work for Self-bored stones: By which I mean stones found in everybody. There’s also the added wrinkle that prayer a river or stream bed that have had an unbroken hole was more effective against demons and monsters who eroded in them. Looking through this hole allowed you lived in regions where your religion was the norm, and to see past a fairy’s glamour. If hung around the neck less so elsewhere. it served as an amulet against fairy magic, and looping Red: As in the color, reputed to be the color of the some iron through the hole made it more potent. devil in medieval Europe. The exact reasoning is lost to St. John’s Wort: A good ward against the skrogga, a time, but the color red was supposed to be repulsive to Swedish wood-wife spirit. certain supernatural entities, notably the Patupairehe Sunlight: Sunlight is a classic bane of all things evil of New Zealand, the wood-wives of Germany and Scan- or supernatural. Many eldritch beings were simply noc- dinavia, and assorted other fairies and minor spirits. turnal, but on others daylight had very dramatic effects. Wearing red clothes or tying a red string around entry- Vampires caught in the sun would be rendered inanimate ways to your house worked, and certain plants like Red corpses till nightfall, trolls and dwarves exposed to sun- Verbena carried similar properties. light would turn to stone, while German aufhockers and Religious symbols: An old standard, religious symbols the duergar of Northumberland would vanish at dawn. mainly worked for guarding against something, as op- Tar: The smell of tar irritated the djinn of Arabia, posed to an active offense. Waving a bible three times and if a djinni possessed someone one of the remedies over a baby’s crib protected it against changelings, a was to rub their bodies with fresh tar.

18 The Fig: This refers not to the fruit, but to a particular and invocations are HUGE. Arguably the single most hand gesture used to protect against evil and bad luck. common form of magic in traditional stories and folk Originating in the Middle East, it’s formed by folding beliefs. your thumb between the index and middle finger, then Curses It doesn’t need to be as dramatic or immediate making a fist, as if playing the childhood “got your as stuff like the blasty necromancy debuff spells in DnD, nose!” game. Particular useful against the Judaic hairy but curses are right up there with wards on the ”most demon-ogres of the wilderness, called shedim. common magical effects in traditional folklore”. True Name: There’s an old idea in Eurasian cultures Weather manipulation Though I suppose this might that knowing somebody (or some thing’s) name gives fall under Alteration. This can edge into ”blasty” terri- you power over it. Christian exorcism requires a priest tory if you get to the scale of causing devastating storms, to learn the possessing demon’s name before he can cast but it’s fairly common in traditional myth and legend. it out, reciting the proper name of a German nixie or Geas A common feature in myths and legends is nokk will prevent it from harming you, and in one legend magically-binding orders, decrees, and pacts. Could calling a troll by its true name killed it instantly. potentially be considered a form of curse. Vermilion: The color vermilion, like the color red, was Distorting emotion/mental state Also potentially in a supernatural deterrent. It was particularly efficacious the same category as curses, or perhaps Illusion. Things against the demons of Hell, and when painting a Magic like love potions, magically-induced slumber, etc. are Circle on the ground as a defense vermilion paint was failry common. always recommended. 3.8. Arcanum, Ancient Magic

Ancient Magic is powerful, but it comes at a cost, it corrupt, not only the user but also the world. Sages even speculate it might have been large contributor to the Breaking. The corruption of the world comes in many forms and it always comes in the worst form, making wasteland out of fertile grounds, making forests dangerous by mutating both plant and animal life. The corruption of the user can manifest physically, mentally or even scaring the soul. 3.9. Ideas

Prestidigitation No, but seriously it’s about the expectations of the player and how much they can relate to their own daily life. For example creating a small fire from your thumb is obviously magical, yet all the players, and especially the smokers, can relate and understand what such a tool can be used for and what consequences it can have on the world.

Power components Not strictly necessary for casting, but greatly improves the spell’s power.

The feel of magic Wards A lot of traditional magic deals with warding off misfortune/evil spirits. Protective charms, amulets,

19 Chapter 4 Testaments of Divinity

The existence of Gods is not in question as their power earned his divinity by slaying another god. Introduced is seen through miracles and magic granted to priests and into paladins. They frequently walk the world and interact I have been baptised in fires of war. I have with mortals. A God that does not hide also emanate an been stuck down and risen again and again. aura that mortals feel as sudden knowledge of presence, I have conquered Man, Elf and Dwarf. The power, intention, the history and domain of the God, as God Wars came to my realm and as a general much as the God wants to show. I joined the battle and I bested Ares, slayer of Many still blame the Gods for the Apocalypse (and Hextor, my God. rightly so) refusing to pay homage to them. There is a debate about the Gods being good for the world or 4.5. Death, The Grim Reaper if they should be slain, an achievable feat, though very hard requiring artefacts of old. Most of the world feel There are some controversies about Death, some believe the benefits of worship and see this maltheism as radical he is a God but he does not grant powers to anyone. and dangerous as some of the Gods do not take kindly Some say it because he does not care for the living. Still to being slandered. he have competition for souls as both fiends and celestials tries to recruit for their war. Why Death gathers souls 4.1. The Whispered One or what becomes of them is not known, but Death have been known to resurrect some in return for various quests A God who have disappeared in the God Wars and and services. Death was once a God of Harvest. His shrouded his name and history in mystery. He is now a scythe is his weapon of choice after adopting the mantle nameless God who is only known to whom he chooses. of Death God. He became the Grim Reaper. Both mortals and the other Gods does not know of his Hanging is the most common execution method as a existence and even his chosen worshippers does not know simple prayer upon the rope holds the soul for Death to his grand plans. collect. As homage to his original divinity, most are hung in trees. Wandering spirits are always trouble and the angels and fiends are unrealiable, leaving souls they deem 4.2. Moradin, The Sunsmith unworthy of their attention. Nor are they as omnipresent as Death. Moradin is the Sunsmith and patron god of dwarves and gnomes. Moradin forges all this dwarven children in the Sunforge at night and let out the sun to shine on the 4.6. Nature world. Other races questions the truth of this merely because the dwarves hides from the sun. Nature have taken a hold in the world since the collapse Moradin created the Gnomes of the Great Wheel. Moradin is not the original patron god for the dwarves, it was the father of Moradin, Thor, who did not survive 4.7. Karma the God Wars. Thor is called The All-Father by the dwarves and while not prayed to his words are remem- Some are born with the grace of good luck. bered in many dwarving verbatims, which often starts with ”Remember The All-Fathers words, . . . ” 4.3. Aleene, The Huntress

Patron Goddess of Humans (and of Lizardfolk maybe, if not a dragon). Stealth and guile are not virtues, but methods, and stand in contrast to the honour of the hunt. 4.4. [name]

Not a war god though. Patron God of the Hobgoblins. Once a common Hobgoblin born of hobgoblins, [name]

20 Chapter 5 Equipment

Weapons dont have statistics like ordinary roleplaying games noramlly portray them. A 4 inch dagger can not parry a greatsword and it is as useful as a wet sock against the life-ending crushing force of a giants club. Equipment are, for the most, enablers of fiction. 5.1. Weapons

Weapon Cost: the cost in AP to attack with with the weapon. Lethal Rating 5.2. Magical items

Dwarf Pillow A slang name for a stone slab covered in dwarven runes that aids in channelling the rune magic.

Reforged in Holy Water A method to recreate a broken weapon, either one with water based magical powers or to give them after the reforging. 5.3. Considerations

”Im thinking about making Meal the basic ’coinage’, and not have any actual coins or similar objects.” ”I’d strongly suggest keeping currency in, given that some kind of currency has been around for a long, long time. True ”barter” economy are fictional. You could have a fiat currency that is backed by one group’s will- ingness to exchange the money for food though. Maybe they will give you 4 ounces of grain for a pre-war penny, with old paper money worthless but coins still used in circulation. That makes it easy for players to grasp and encourages people to search old ruins.”

Hirelings Hirelings have Loyalty equal to your Leadership. You can boost the Loyalty by other means.

21 Chapter 6 Old War Stories

In Last Children of the Gods players makes 6.2. Combat Structure nearly all the rolls, using the 4d6, drop 1, round lowest up, as described in chapter one. The Degree of Success, DoS, features heavily into combat, being used as an SURPRISE! important currency for effects. Not every time will everyone be ready for the combat, The players arent the only shakers and movers, enemies and this can be handled easily as just reducing the action are come and go, in addition to how they function, but points for this round. mostly enemies are simplified to a Target Number to beat. Repeately. And better if done creativily. Setting turn order 6.1. Simultaneous Action Havent settled on one method yet  Whatever order the fiction calls for, but if ambiguous The usual turn structure is not very good because ene- use another method. mies react in real time because they aren’t just waiting  Sitting order nicely for their turn to move. Standing with a bow in  Use Perception score and protagonism to tie-break. hand in charging-distance from a ready enemy, you might No rolling. get a shot off and even if that wouldnt expend the full  Roll Dexterity/Perception and sort out using the action points, he is gonna be in your face, with an arrow score as initiative. Protagonism still tie-breaks. This in him if you shoot straight. You will not be able to method can be easily extended to include monsters, spend your last remaining action points to move into a should they have their own initiative. safe hiding spot before the enemy is in your face. Life isn’t fair or turn based. Changing it up Last Children of the Gods still operates in turn The turn order is not so rigid, many things can change structure, but it is not rigid in the sense everyone (usu- it up. ally including the enemies) have their own turn, rather characters and their immediate opponent act at the same time. For the most part players will have their own turn, Executing the turns but they can team up and share a turn because some Once the order is established, just go through it to times players will want to work in unison and the turn the combat is over, but there might be something the structure should not go in the way of that. Likewise, characters are unaware of and possibly even unaware other player controlled creatures, including hirelings, will players as well. This will prompt a Behind the Scenes work this way. step, where the Game Master will note for himself (and The enemies will be, in a sense, activated by the char- maybe some or all of the players) the updates to the acters, such that for example melee is not taking turns situation. This step is to help the Game Master and hitting the other. You and the enemies you engaged should be taken if necessary, but it shouldnt take too act at the same time, but sometimes enemies might be long. attached to your turn without you being engaged with them or even aware of them. To find out how much the enemy can do, let the enemy spend action points at the Clean-Up same time as the player, on a one for one basis. This At some point the heroes have just won and the final few should only be necessary if the enemy is focused on the enemies just need finishing, rolls should be fewer and the player. chains of narrative restrictions should come off. Let the Because the world might react before you actually players do their fancy take-out moves. complete your action, your entire turn plan might change and this game will take that into acount. Getting shot in the knee while charging across a narrow bridge tends 6.3. Stunts and effects to have severe consequences. With defend and readying actions the players will also be able to influence the game Stunt is paying AP up front against a lower cost com- out of their turn. Special occasions will happen and allow pared to buying the same effect with success rating the player to it without the usual cost of time or action Create an effect engine to work as the basis for how point expenditure. combat and pretty much everything else.

22 6.4. Action Points Engage Different from attack Character each gain 6 action points to spend on their outplaying, meaning reducing fatigue turn. Should their fatigue fall below their fatigue thresh- Attacks don’t deal damage with a successful old they only have 5 to spend instead. test, they instead inflict pressure which lowers Action points is a way to handle the attention the fatigue character puts in and limits what he can do within engage (rather than attack) gives defense (not reac- a round. No blocking 4 seperate attacks with shield, tions) against the engaged; =¿ this is to represent the dismantling 6 enemies duelling part of combat

Action AP Description Careful Aim Engage Wc Enter and fight in melee Taking time to find a Roll Combat/Perception with DC Attack Wc Enter and fight in melee of [tbd], gain a bonus equal to DoS on next ranged attack Defend 1+N Gain N reactions for defense against the target if the circumstances doesn’t change Magic Mc Use magic too much, such the aim is lost. Enable stunts! Move 2 Move up to your speed Seize Init 3 Move up in initiative Hip-Shooting Second Wind 3 Regain fatigue. Low ap, no aiming, minor fatigue cost Table 6.1: This table shows the cost of various actions. Take-out One can spend more AP to further increase the effec- No roll. Against mooks as standard, likewise against tiveness of the action. Even though one have enough AP nearly beaten enemies. If roll then failure is still taken to buy the action twice you cannot. out the enemy, but takes consequences like damage. Not spending the 2 AP on Defend means you have no In game it should be like ”You can take out this enemy reaction to evade attacks for 2 AP.” Idea; melee are hard to be in =¿ cost fatigue: * this is the enemy, no need for his action then more enemies =¿ Seize Initiave more fatigue cost * warriors reduce this Increase in init or becoming first for the next round. engages cost ap defend cost 1+N ap, gain N reac- tions, have none otherwise move cost ap too reactive Delay spend/point for point OR spend all, do turn? Not everytime players want to go first and delaying Withdrawing; Spend one reaction to not get attacked, might be an advantage. For every AP they spend on this but what stops the enemy from just pursuing you? action they drop that many steps on the initiative ladder. The pointed enemies follow the character in initiative Proactive vs Reactive order, but if the character spend too much (more than Depending on the threat level of the monster the char- 2 AP) the enemies have a chance to act while he is acter will adopt either a proactive or a reactive stance. waiting around. Either way, using delay allows enemies This translates to aggressor / defender roles. These to assume aggressor roles for free. can switch during combat very easy Attack is assuming aggressor role at risk, engage can be either. 6.5. Health

Attack Players have two health pools. Fatigue and Wounds. When you take damage you apply it to Fatigue and when hurt/kill/maim that reaches zero you start getting cut into. Wounds are Weapons do fixed amount of damage. When making flesh points so to speak and this will start a death spiral an attack the Degree of Success will be added to damage. of penalties. Strength will also be added to melee damage, using a weapons have lethal rating if not reduced you take finesse weapon will add Dexterity instead. Not sure if wounds * DoS for this handled with toughness save? ranged should have damage bonus. other saves exist as well save is reaction rolled as combat/skulduggery is a way to try apply wounds 2d6+att?

23 Fatigue Intellect/Leadership instead. Each of these methods are however inferior to just being the The Party Leader and Pool of points to measure tiredness, Being at full means cohesion is slowly lost at a rate of one per round. your focus Fatigue is magical in nature, engages are about outplaying the opponent =¿ reduce fatigue * enemy fatigue at zero, they are taken out or Working in Cohesion enables narrative takeout move takeout move is standard While two players want to teamwork they take their against mooks * might get some lethal blows in * can go action at the same time of the player with the lowest for lethal blows but that limits (maybe to 0) the fatigue initiative, spending their AP at the same time. you deal might be * DoS for more fatigue inflicted on The action will happen at the players turn with the attack lowest initiative. Threshold 6.7. Ideas When exceeded: -1 AP Alternative: loose AP the lower you go in fatigue Combat is stressful, take fatigue damage each round in Warrior get a bous to this melee combat. Aiming cost fatigue and so does spellcast- ing for the most part. Wounds Might Deed in Dungeon Crawl Classics. As a warrior you can take minor wounds equal to willpower score or a dwarf your attack/damage bonus is a die roll. 1d3 at moderate? equal to defense you can take major wounds level 1 and increases up to a d10+4 at level 10. When you equal to toughness score these feel low for starter char- attack you can attempt a Mightly Deed like disarming, acters. Bad! Bonus from race/class? minor wounds can kicking an enemy down the stairs, cutting off the mecha become major wound instead (uncheck minor, check ma- scorpion’s tail, throwing a flask of alchemist fire in the jor) Taking minor damage also increase the likelyhood giant toad’s mouth. Rolling a 3 on the die means that of being wounded. In this way taking damage actually you kind of do it (you don’t disarm the bandit, but you takes a toll on the characters, rather than their health knock his sword away he gets a -2 to his next attack), simply being low - penalty to toughness save/increase the better you do on the die after that it improves (he lethal rating? -?Fighter get bonus minor wounds doesn’t get an attack, you knock his weapon out, you minor wounds are accompanied by fatigue damage knock the weapon across the room) up to a 10 on the blunt can still inflict minor wound on blocks bleed- die being super awesome (you disARM him). ing is a minor wound, becomes major if untreated or exasperated Dmg to Wound Track minor wounds can be healed easily or even just ignored Toughness, Protagonism and armor (collectively know because it’s only a small penalty as reducers) affect the wound track. To construct the Major requires more wound track you first sort the numbers from largest to Wounds list smallest, then place the number 1 the highest reducer plus 1. Place 2 at the sum of the two largest reducers Minor; Bleeding, Arrowed, Brushed plus 2 and 3 at the sum of the sum of the three largest Major; Pin-Cushing reducers plus 3 and etc for all reducers. Afterwards place numbers after each others. 6.6. Team Work This will create a soak system what weeds a little damage through, but each reducer still actually reduces Party Leader an equal number of damage if damage is high enough. Example and illustration will follow later. Being the Party Leader requires something more than Fatigue is magical in nature, charms increase the con- just being in charge of the others. version rate At the start of an encounter roll Protago- nism/Leadership. This is the amount of cohesion the party have for the encounter to spend on team work Heroic Death abilities. Martyr rules. Sometimes a character will die, but rather Talents: Everybody’s Friend; roll Fellow- than having it be something tragic and bad it can be ship/Leadership instead. Strict Strategist: roll turned something memoriable. Forfeiting ones life in Willpower/Leadership instead. Careful Tactician: Use a heroic sacrifice should empower the last moments.

24 Bonus AP, easier stunts, not getting incapacitated so easy (death is eminent anyways).

25 Chapter 7 Manual of Games

Im working on how combat should function and I’m should just be modified a bit, like Heavily Armored +2 trying to go away from the usual everyone and everything (+2 to TL when trying to harm this enemy) or Damage have a turn and instead take it into the direction of +1 (+1 to damage the monster deals with the discarded what TRoS and BotIT does, player and their immediate die). Special effects can be handlled similarly as well; opponents act at the same time. I haven’t played any FX for the giant ogre with a club: Knock-down (red die), game like that besides a little Dungeon World, so I’m when the red die is discarded the character is knocked treading water though. I like this method to speed up down. combat by eliminating the enemy turn and avoiding more I hope I can get some feedback on this crazy idea rolls. I’m thinking only one roll per turn for the players. because I havent tried any system like it and my play For the basic structure of combat I’m thinking action group will soon gather so I hope I can get something points and effect points. Players have a fixed number of play-testable ready. Action Points per turn and makes one roll and generate ¿The higher the stat, the smaller the dice. The basic effect points to also spend. Attack with a blunt weapon dice rollling you roll 4 dice but only used 3 of them, might have access to buy a knock-down effect with effect with the attribute determining which. The lower die points to go along with the damage it inflict so it’s a discarded the higher sum result you get, which is good, small bonus for a good roll or the player could buy the to beat the Target Number. knock-down with AP because he wants to knock-down ¿Both player and opponent act at the same time. This the enemy. I think DoS and ’overcommitting’ AP should is my problem really. I dont have any experience beyond sum to be effect points, and DoF should be negative Dungeon World for this type, but Im greatly dissatisfied effect spent by the DM against the character. Not sure by DnDs ’your turn, my turn’ setup. From my introduc- what overcommitted AP should do here. tion; ”The usual turn structure is not very good because My dice mechanic have some finesses (a nicer word enemies react in real time because they aren’t just wait- for being possibly overcomplicated) to allow only single ing nicely for their turn to move. Standing with a bow roll per turn and only for the player. * Bell curve for a in hand in charging-distance from a ready enemy, you stable DoS/DoF generation. * A discarded die can be might get a shot off and even if that wouldnt expend the the surrogate for the opposition (enemy, obstacle and the full action points, he is gonna be in your face, with an like). The higher attribute (the governing characteristic arrow in him if you shoot straight. You will not be able type for discard) the lower the dice will be. * The specific to spend your last remaining action points to move into die, by making all dice different (probably done by color), a safe hiding spot before the enemy is in your face. Life can be used by the enemy as well, but I originally had isn’t fair or turn based.” I want to go away from the turn players have some influence and actual determining which based and be a bit more realistic in the narrative part of dice would be rolled. the game by having enemies actually react to the enemy My pdf contains more thoughts on the matter in chap- instead of just rolling to dwindle the HP-bar down. ter six on page 21, 3 pages long. I think the chapter can ¿You have AP to use as actions, or to guarantee effects be read without all the others, but Im biased here. Some ”Action points is a way to handle the attention the things are cleared up other are just ramblings/notes. character puts in and limits what he can do within My goal with the setup is to allow for high action, epic a round. No blocking 4 seperate attacks with shield, tales, a bit lethal if not careful (taking major wounds dismantling 6 enemies ” Unfortunately the setup takes which should be impactful and hard to heal) and hope- two rounds of decision making with AP and effect point. fully something else than ”I use full attack on him”. Effect Points should just be gravy, not the meat and Even if something isnt covered by rules, it should be potatoes, so to speak. Rather it should be geared to fairly easy to just adjucate what Attribute/Approach be an easier Having lots of small rules reminders on combination should be rolled, how much AP or effect the sheet will be essential to speeding up the play and points it should cost. learning curve. Pic for attribute, and movement costs By enabling Take-Out (not death) moves against the in AP because it will probably vary for situations, races players I hope there will be more team work and trying and classes. Likewise with weapon; Swords should have to save each other. have cheapened cost for a defense effect and a clubs for I still need to make the effect engine, with costs and knock-down. Give the player the relevant rules for easy everything. Wounds also need to be worked out. access. Another bonus for the combat setup should be the ¿Make it fast. You get some, you lose some. Just ease of handling monsters. Their stat-line should end trying to cut down unnecessary rolls to speed it up. This up with only a few numbers, a basic Threat Level which method might take some getting used to before it runs

26 smoothly. And definitely take some fine-tuning after it’s Is allocating AP enough to simulate his defense? Can actually tried. Dmg+3 and a die color be enough for the ogre? Im not It does? Im not totally sure what you means but I sure what Im trying to do is actually workable but I think you mean ”Actions have a speed rating, highest go wanna try to find out, shrew convention and tradition, first”. I have heard O.R.E does something similar and they shouldnt stand in the way of progress. Discard your it’s definitely better than standard turn structure. Again fallacies of how things must be and help build a better I dont really know what you mean but I do need some method. But I must admit, just because I want it doesnt way of determining the order of declaration, a speed mean it can work and I need your help to make it work. factor. One way; Declare order is handled by perception, Trying once again to get some feedback and construc- execution order by dexterity and AP might be able to tion help on how my system works. Both from PC side mix it up. and GM side as well. I have been in the situation multiple times, where I want only a single roll for the player turn and what- both sides want to charge and it just feels so bad that ever the character is interacting with to react immedi- turn structure gets in the way of clashing together in ately rather than for it to wait its turn if it’s a creature. the middle. And chases, it doesnt work. It feels so artifi- cial to run these two examples in strict turn structure. Players roll 4 colored d6, discard according to attribute This is what I wanna get away from, this unnatural, score higher score lower die discarded a die for the GM, gamey, nonsensical way of handling actions. For this round up lowest die to approach score. The remaining 3 reason Im implementing the simultaneous action. The dice is summed to beat a Target Number and they have action point implementation is because I didnt want the Degree of Success to buy some bonuses. standard/move/minor action set up, though Im not as From the GM side you get a colored die, showing a opposed to this as the turn structure. The effect point is lower roll based on how high the characters’ attribute is. gravy, something neat, an interesting mechanic that will Up front you have to provide a TN to beat. For monsters spice up play. I wanna try incorporate the action point this should be simple by giving them a Threat Level and into the effect with ”Overcommitting” and have both AP then modifiers to TL to make various numbers, to hit, cost and EP cost and weapons and talents grant access to trip, to burn with fire. Simple plusses and minuses or give discount to certain effect. and it is done. Circumstance will also heavily influence To hopefully spark my conversation up again and to the resulting TN. Then GM have a colored die for a bit reiterate important points that might have been vague; of randomization for the challenge/opposition which can Players have their own turn for the most part and some be used with other traits like Damage +3 or something order of handling should be done, see above. By making similar. rules for simultaneous action, I hope I open up for easier After the roll then there’s either DoS or DoF to spend. team work rules as well. DoS should be for the player, but should DoF only be But really my current problem is that I want an entire for the DM? player turn, every immediate opponents’ action and the So player declare his entire turn, roll and then effects environmental interaction to be handled by a single roll. of the roll. Is this enough for combat? Duelling and As mentioned here ¿¿41990952, a single discarded die going for the kill should be different. My question; could and its color is available. Should the player fail to beat all this work? the TN, Degree of Failure is also available. I want to keep it as simple as I can for the GM. Enemies and any opposition can be initially simplified to a Target 7.1. Setting the Difficulty Number to Beat. And then there’s next part. The only randomization (right now) for the opposition is from the player roll. When players are trying something crazy you just have Baring Threat Level (which is the monsters TN), is to set a Difficulty Number that the players have to beat. Damage +3 and similar enough of stats to ’form’ a Make a rule for “not threatened” auto pass. Character monster? always pass a DC of [Skill Rank]+2 Fx, Bruno McSmasher’Guy with Combat 3/Aggression 2 (specialized but still starter stats) rolls 6, 5, 1, 1 so the outcome sum to 13 with a 1 discarded. 3 Effect point 7.2. Flavor generated from success. But how should all of this be fluffed out? What about the ogres’ red die showing 1 so The four dice each mean something, it’s up to you to use 1+3=4 damage? How does Bruno defend against that? this to make it an interesting game.

27 7.3. Dangerous World Enforcing it The Game master can always just take narrative control, Are character deaths expected? If so, how do you intend not letting the player roll to win, but just the master to balance progression and emotional investment with swordsman completely outplay the player. As the section permadeath? If not, can scars and injuries suffice to keep title suggest, this takes away the freedom of choosing your players scared of the dark? the consequences and instead inflict them punishingly, or at the very best educationally. As such it should be ¿Not all monsters are beatable If this is how you’re used sparingly. going to do encounters, you are obligated to tell the party the estimated CR. Hell, make them roll to obscure it a bit, but when everyone palette swaps the same enemies 7.4. Scale and always introduces them as big bad ass scary moth- erfuckers from spooky town, it ceases to be a descriptor scale is a measure for how fast the time flows and as of their power. consequence how much a single roll coverns. travelling is an example of one step higher than what scale combat normally function on. Mass combat can be handled on I enjoy running a game where you are the hero. as a larger scale than standard rounds. You won’t be punished for creative thinking. instead of handling the classic gather information as a Within reason, rule of cool exists. I love sessions series of many small talks between loads of people, gather that create memories and fond retellings years information is a prime example of upping the scale and down the road. However, I will let you make handling it with a single roll. mistakes. You can die. You are mortal. The world is dangerous. Not every fight can be won and I will leave it to you to discern the 7.5. Traveling difference. going from A to B is a dangerous thing to do and this The key to emphasizing this is demonstrating it using means encounters. foreshadowing. Foreshadowing is ESSENTIAL to upping most of the this game will function on the short scale. your DM game. Instead of ”a minotaur breaks through the hedges, kill off the NPC that was running with the 7.6. Survival group and seemed, by comparison, pretty strong.” It breaks through the stone wall. survivalism The ’endgame result / peak power” of a character is Modeling a continuous struggle to find food, water, not superman, but rather batman. The characters are and shelter gets real old real fast. on a path from peasant to batman, and they start one I’m trying to integrate it as a ”sequence” in my Fate or two steps away from the peasant. campaign if the party caravan gets demolished in the wastes. I wouldn’t make it the whole game, for reasons Keeping the danger alive should the encounter sud- stated. Perhaps if you did a bunch of ”Oregon Trail”- denly have become too easy, one can turn to trick, show- style day-logs, you could make it fast and worthwhile, ing the monster/encounter was not as hard as it seemed to encapsulate a week of travel without boring every- to be, but rather was only by illusion/trick, the monster one off the table. These ”camera shifts” as I recognize was weakened/injured. them happen consistently in many games during travel To avoid the issue of players always ”testing it with sequences. swords” they need the information of how tough it is, ¿Also, the setting, I’ve been stuck trying to come up both in fluff and in mechanics. The mechanical power with something interesting, as I don’t want to leave it just of a monster is easily given as it is already defined, the ”Mad Max” style, I wanted real tough stuff on the far only question is how accurately and early the player gets end of levels like, high tech stuff. But I’m not sure if that this information. This makes all the difference in what meshes well. Also, I was thinking ”fantastical” kinda the players have their character do. descriptions of past locations. Also thinking of fucking ”I attack it immediately!”, ”You, sir, your character with the Earth I might be in fantasy setting instead, but is not gonna last long. He is gonna die horribly.” I think have to work up a lot of fantastic places before Yes, the player have lots of responsibility for this my game will be finished. Besides the terrain description, behavior, but as the Game Master you have to encourage I think food and supplies/resources that can be found the players to play smart instead. will be key in making a successful feel of the game.

28 Food is a big area; - there’s the lack of food: starving Attribute and Approach Points - likewise with water, gotta drink. - so, gotta get it: scavenging/foraging/hunting/fishing - some subskills like Drive Points cooking/farming All of it is not fun to do in an RP and I When doing great work for a deity a character might be think it should be reduced a single test with only minor granted Faith Points. Rolling all ones or all sixes the boni/penalties. Or rather the threat of it might scare luck ’smiles’ upon the character and he is awarded luck players to secure food. The promise of a bonus with a points. nice cooking result. Health (besides hp) is another large area; - sickness - Narration bonus not being properly dressed for weather, cold, hot, wet A reward to encourage epic tales would be awarding Classic saving throws. Just make circumstance bonus effect points for good narration significant and it will be taken serious. Maybe have it be a sliding scale. Falling in the pool dont make you dying, just a step or two closer (read ’gets penalties’) to 7.10. Meta Points to dying next time. Reroll is player agency. Sleep mental health: nemesis and unknown armies have been recommended as inspiration 7.11. Handling traps

I think players described how and what they looked at. 7.7. Trust or Trick Thieves had better chances of finding traps Yep, you described how and where you were looking You can trust a player to seperate himself from his char- for traps and then you had to explain how you tried acter or you can withhold information from the player, to disarm them. Thieves are, even to this day, a bit tricking him. This game will want to trust the player controversial. In the really old days every adventurer more than tricking, but the way traps are set up, they was expected to know how to climb walls, sneak around usually intrinsically rely on tricking the player as well and pick up locks. After all we’re talking about a group of to work. To bridge over to trust simple tools are made, organized tomb robbers here. But thieves are different... the explorers Trap Sense, this should however not be because thief skills are supposed to be supernatural: they the only, something readily available to non-Explorers can climb a vertical wall without gear, they can melt in should be implemented. Tricking can lead to stagnation. shadows or sneak past a group of soldiers in the middle Tricking is not all bad. Hiding information from the of the day. player can lead to tense and interesting situations. In a As far as traps go, I really think that the best way way, hiding information leads to more freedom, rather to do detection is to give thieves a sort of danger sense than having to consider all the options and by stan- whereby they can determine rooms and such where traps dard only picking the optimum solution. The lack of are likely to be. They don’t know exactly what or where information leads to making a choice, but taking all in- a trap is, though, and the party has to locate it with a formation way likewise makes the choice meaningless. A good old-fashioned descriptive search. The trap sense is middleground have to be done. passive, so you don’t need to constantly slow the game down saying you’re looking for shit, and for that matter, 7.8. Importance of Flaws you don’t waste your time describing how you’re poking every square foot of dungeon space with a 10’ pole, which gets seriously old, especially when maybe 1 out of 20 When flaws are important enough to have significant locations actually have a trap. The GM just needs to impact on the story the player is awarded [metagame make sure that the danger of taking too long–wandering resource] monsters and shit–outweighs the benefit of exhaustively searching even areas that don’t set off a thief’s trap 7.9. Rewards sense. One variant would be to have a thief’s trap sense be Experience Points automatic, while a party without a thief can roll to see if they sense anything. This means that if your thief XP is the primary way a character is rewarded but not dies, you don’t suddenly have to go back to prodding the only absolutely everything. It also means that you don’t have

29 to second guess your thief when he fails to sense anything damage they’ll be alive and ready to fight you” amiss. On the other hand, it could get a bit pat if you Most RPGs are not that deadly. I use Silhouette (the always know when there’s a trap in a room. Heavy Gear system). In that system attacks vs unaware Phrase it as a likelihood of there being a trap in the targets are vs Difficulty 1 rather than opposed rolls like room or, instead of working for the entire room, the thief for normal combat, and since damage is dependent on can recognize the most likely places in a room for traps. how well you hit, sneak attacks very often result in 1-hit I think everybody can find and attempt to disarm kills. normal traps but only thieves can find and handle magic I think stealth goes best with a lethal system since it traps. empowers players to take out guards easily and discour- Add a couple of special powers that thieves get to ages them from engaging in combat. choose as they level –things like blindsight, false death, ¿”if you dont do enough damage they’ll be alive and hide in plain sight, shadow step, etc. – and I feel like ready to fight you” A stealth RPG should offer lots and thieves have a strong role in the party without under- lots of ways to do partial failure, including for incapaci- mining the way that non-thieves operate. tation, that don’t immediately end the stealth. ¿You’ve got a black eye and your costume is all askew. ¿There’s blood on the wall. ¿Nasty knife wound. You shouldn’t be 7.12. Stealth doing any physical effort, or it’ll only get worse. ¿Your gadget is broken. ¿The noise attracted some suspicion I think it’s interesting to look at what Invisible Inc does and a guard is knocking at the door. You need to stall to make stealth fun. - Player control. There are basically them until you can hide the body. ¿So much for a no-kill no random rolls in Invisible. Everything is under the mission. Now the consequences are considerably higher player’s control, if you do x then y will happen every time. if you get arrested. The environment if procedurally generated but individual actions are deterministic. This is very different to the Player control vs roll average TTRPG. - Levels of failure. Being glimpsed or spotted is not a game over or a transition into a shitty ¿- Player control. There are basically no random rolls in combat game. It alerts guards, changes patrol patterns, Invisible. Everything is under the player’s control, if you raises the alarm level. In most TTRPG spotted = roll for do x then y will happen every time. The environment initiative. I suppose if you fuck up real bad in Invisible if procedurally generated but individual actions are de- you are outright dead. - Team Focus. The entire team terministic. Uncertainty and risk mitigation is a good are stealth characters. In most TTRPGs you have a split part of the fun. Invisible Inc. can get away with this between stealth and non-stealthy characters, so when because there’s a large amount of hidden information. the ninja/rogue/thief is deep in enemy territory with no ”Should I move forward and risk being caught with my fucking backup when he fails his roll. pants down if there’s a hidden guard? Or should I waste In the game I’m running I’m using fixed stealth and half my turn?” notice numbers for the stealth characters and guards. No But RPGs (except, apparently, Phoenix Command) random rolls. Cover, distance, equipment etc. modifies can’t do that, because it’s very taxing on the GM to keep these numbers. If guards beat the PCs then they notice track of private information (the squares of vision that a something. Only if the guards win by a lot does it camera has etc.) and because it’s slow and awkward to become outright combat. By giving the players lots of add features to a map as the players move. You usually information about what kind of guards they are facing do it whole-room by whole-room. (and their notice ability) they can move and take cover The dice rolls make up for that. ”Should I move etc. accordingly. forward and risk being seen if I fail my Stealth check? Or should I waste half my turn?” I would love to capture, ”Hey, what the Hell was that?” in my TTRPG, a la Deus Ex:HR or any ”guard is now alert” stealth adventure. It’s just stupid to say a competent character tripped over a loose shoe and is now bringing the whole party into a sequence of ”fumblestealth”. I’ve never found a system that does stealth takedowns all too well. I’ve had to GM Fiat it so stealthed players instantly drop unaware guards, I’ve always found it up- setting that most RPG’s are just ”if you dont do enough

30 Chapter 8 Atlas and Legends

8.1. Overview of the Setting They can confront the witch, that will enlarge her familiar cat to whatever size you think is appropri- The World lies in Ruins because of the God Wars. The ate.appropriate for the group. world is flat. There’s an edge with floating islands (they Or you know spiders, and swamp things. Or whatever don’t appear inside the mainland). fits in the setting. I don’t really know it, just giving my The devils hour, midnight, is a dangerous time becuase general woodland things, maybe you can apply one of many monsters are more powerful then. the ides to something. The spirit world is where the dead souls go to and where angels watch from and demons prowl. The Veil Elemental Buildings separates the mortal world from the spirit world. Well it comes down to how easy it is to summon and bind 8.2. Adventures in Fantastic elementals or demons to tasks. There are quite a few monumental buildings built by the might of demons or Locations elementals, but with elementals it is really hard to do and demons leave a demonic presence in the buildings done Staying alive is a key priority in this broken world. Scav- by them, so not many people like this method. It was enging, foraging and hunting are important ways to gain used to rebuilt many towns in the so called ’black lands’, materials and food. but there are some houses so built up with demonic aura that people are going insane just by living in it. Desert The desert is one of the more dangerous places in the world. Great Idol of Moradin Monsters Moradin forged a grand statue to stand upon the highest mountain hold the Arch of the Sun. Zenith is right above Sand Scorpions. They lurk beneath the sand, waiting the Great Idol and this site is Mecca for all worship of for prey to step near, bursting forth poisoning with their the sun, making pilgrimages quite common. Beneath the stinger. huge pillars that form the legs dwells the former citadel The Hungry Lake of the dwarven empire of old times. It was overrun in the god wars and cursed so its riches and treasures could A cursed lake the swallows anyone and anything that not be shared. As such it remains a tomb that promises tries to float in it. both wealth and death to the boldest of adventurers. Wilderness Tree of the Damned and Necropolis Have them walk near some mushrooms, or pass taught a circle of mushrooms. Then they encounter many wood It is the said Death was once the God of the Harvest, imps and dendroids, that can phase taught the trees like born of the Goddess of the Forest, in the olden days. ghosts, and make a breath attacks that make them grow Legends tell the death site of his mother grew the largest branches where hit. If someone dies, they seemingly turn tree known and it stands yet this day, a lone, gargantuan into a tree. At some point in the day(or night during and dying tree in the middle of a barren desert. Its the week season changes from summer to winter, leaves barely living leaves are mostly unmoved by the wind completely disappearing, and you can do your ice things, but flares at random and the wails of the dead can be winter wolves, ice giants, and what not. Upon death heard rather than the familiar sounds of wind. Though people tun into ice. Then the autumn starts in reverse, the most disturbing is that every branch has corpses leaves falling up into trees, and moss turns into flying hanging as rotten fruit for Death to devour. The dead snakes, that turn into hydra shaped swarm, that flies are not executions but willing offerings for what most with heads facing downwards, and legs facing up. agree to be an uncaring god. And yet a town of Death After defeating the hydra (or dying to it), they wake worshippers lives, awaiting their final encounter with up having their bodies changed( apply penalties and Death. The inhabitants of Necropolis somehow survive bonuses, as you see fit) by whatever they were hit with in barren wasteland, awaiting divine selection, their as- enough times, and stumbling about. cension. Necropolis is a city rebuilt from ruins of an Then they see witches hut, and realize that they likely older city and survives by the grace of Death, at least triggered some sort of defense in it. according to them.

31 Bridge at Fallstrade Rosenthal Fallstrade is a town by the Edge, a slave town driven Elven kingdom of old. Now ruins. by coveting mages. An old tower on a floating island drift just outside the reach, if it weren’t for the foolhardy bridge building to reach a tower full of Ancient Magic. A human Sorceress given powers of persuasion keeps a strong warband in charge with a delicate mixture enchantment and promise of power from the tower. The daemon who gave the power to the sorceress seeks a specific treasure within the tower but can not access itself. The warband consist on a purebreed elf with his radical weesham that uses his powers to increase the workforce with half elves. A Hobgoblin Paladin leads a tribe to the non-dangerous work like gathering and working the wood for the bridge.

The Forsaken Island A large rock floating so far away they could not see the mainland and likewise. They survived by the grace of the Whispered One, giving them more children, unbeknownst to them. They have forgotten the gods of hold as they were trapped on this island, surviving on the fruits of the clinging vines beneath the island. The Whispered One walks among his children, his unknowing servants, abiding the time to complete his nefarious plans. And the time have come, the island drift closer and can be seen from the mainland.

Laketown Laketown is a thriving port city though it seems cursed. In every generation of man comes the mist and takes a child. The mist creeps into the town fast, obscuring all vision, drowning all screams. The mist conceals the Water-Walkers, an old tribe of humans who learned to walk on water by the use of an Arcanum Artifact, fueled by the innocent life blood of a child. It have bound the souls and the tribe reincarnates over and over, each generation born with the knowledge and shame of the previous.

The Druid Stone The Druid Stone is an Arcanum artifact that accelerates plant growth in a large radius. The Stone is a 4 meter tall standing stone covered in ancient unreadable runes. If left uncontrolled for too long the dangers far outweighs the benefits of augmented harvest and additional lumber. A self appointed guardian relocates the stone before the corruption starts. This are not actual control and the stone have started it corruption of plant life, yet the guardian have not shown up yet.

32 Chapter 9 Monstronomicon

Monster are defined by threat level and metatype. Vampires can makes thralls with blood rituals, giving The threat level defines the basic target number for the them their own blood. Thralls do not provide sustenance monster and the metatype have several effects. for the vampire. They sleep suring the day only because they aren’t Metatype P Special magic at night. You can kill a vamp by fairly mindane Mook 0 dies to everything, gives damage on failuremeans though during the day. Minion 0 dies on success. Gives damage on failure Vampires are tools a of the devil, ordering an assassin Standard 1 one hp pool and one track to kill a power member of society, often nobles, offers Elite 2 Wounds+Fatigue, one track vampirism to the noble. Adversary 3 Wounds+Fatigue, multiple tracks Nemesis 4 Wounds+Fatigue, multiple tracks Werewolf Cursing an individual to be a werewolf, that leads to a cursed bloodline, such werewolves are members of the Winged Cat same family. Curse from witch or god. they can’t con- The winged cat is what it sounds like, a cat with wings. It trol their transformation/madness during the full moon. is a friendly magical beast with intelligence only slightly Hard to kill while transformed, need silver. Werewolves above normal cats. Many are kept as pets. traditionally ignore wildlife in favour of human targets, Slow loss of sanity A complete lack of agency and control, Drakeling simmering rage ruining your everyday life, the threat of killing friends, family, bystanders, predatory instincts Reminiscent of the legendary dragons, only small as cat slowly eroding your personality, the slow march towards and with similar intelligence and behavior. Many are madness, conversion to something less than human even kept as pets by mages or as familiars. when not transformed, plagued by violence and hunger. It’s a curse that slowly converts you, until there’s Dragons nothing but the wolf left in a human shell. Legendary creatures of great power. Should they show they are a gigantic monster, a force of nature, worse Trolls than any natural disaster. None are known to live on Loremongers have relearned the origins of the trolls. this broken shard of the old world, they fly in over the They were once beloved children of Moradin, but during Edge and start their rampage. the god wars they were seduced by Loki with a promise The gods does not engage and let mortals fend for of superior health. The gift came at a price, Moradin themselves. Dragon Worshippers claim the gods fear the cursed the race for their betrayal by making his greatest dragons, even a lone one. Claw of Wrazuvias, a sword gift, the sun, a deadly spectacle, turning any trolls to forged in his own dragon flame holds a place in legends stone. Faced with a large collection of rocks, Loki bound as a weapon used for slaying gods. the souls to the rocks so once dead they are reborn from stone. Vampire Vampires are dead folk that have been given life through Golems a pact with the devil. By using bloodmagic to reanimate Requires commands written on papir and feed to them the dead the vampire need to feed on blood to remain in their mouth. Animated with strong rune magic, re- alive and this feeding on the living corrupts the vampires quiring the maker to meditate for it to move. A tool for mind slowly. Feeding does not necessarily kill the victim, revenge and the creation and use of golems are against but leaves distinctive marks. Depending vampire power the dwarven rules. It takes a fragment of the soul to usage, vampires do not need to feed often, only every animate and tearing ones own soul appart is dangerous month or so. Using the fangs is a sign of lacking the and unhealthy. It is also seen as an afront to Moradin blood magic to sustain them selves and they have to to make golems. Golems are difficult to make. A rune- resort to the fangs. scriber can’t just make a clay man and declare it alive. A vampire is still the same person they were in life, It needs a lot of time and effort to make one and a lot but they almost invariably become monsters, from the of magical power. To make the magical energies flow to realities of being a vampire and the slow corruption of the golem, the runescriber must inscribe his true name, blood magic. making it possible to identify the maker. Eyes of scrying

33 be used to to scry on the golem during meditation breaks. Materials?

Angels Angels mostly use dreams to speak to the common folk because manifesting in the mortal world is something that requires power. Valkyrie Valkyries are the adjudicators of righteousness, they find and judge the spirits, and if found worthy they will uplift the deceased to the Heavens.

Dryad Elven spirits bound to a tree by curse. Their power and life force is tied to the Nature surrounding the them which leads to overprotective and even aggressive Dryads.

Phoenix The phoenix is the embodiment of elemental fire magic.

Shadeling A cloak of black shadow hiding in the dark. Where the eyes should be two holes seem to suck in light and if looked at for more than a second the Shadeling begins it’s enthralment. Shadelings use the Shadow Weave for their powers.

Cockatrice The cockatrice is born from chicken eggs when magical corruption happen.

Displacer Beast A monstrous feline beast with magical powers of displace- ment.

Blink Dog The blink dog is one of the only creatures that possess the power of teleportation.

34 Chapter 10 Flavor

Instead of increasing DC when players are affected Flavoring by adverse situations, make a flavour die to indicate The four dice each have their own color and flavoring the adverse situation is taking its toll. Should it be the of the outcome. This idea have been borrowed from flavour while successful it is not at its full effect. Failure Dont Rest Your Head, but the specifics have not means the situations prevents the test or the adverse been established yet. Which die that will be flavoring situation worsens is still under evaluation. Advantages can be bought to For effect determination; For failure Fate Core has alter this to a favorable ranking. The Success Rating Die GM advice on letting failure become ’success at a cost’, might be key in this alternative and always count even if with varying complications (tough choices, foreshadowed it doesnt flavor the outcome. By having a success die one perils, temporary aspects, plot wrinkles, new opposition, eliminates the need for rolling any additional die because delays, damage). Look in Dungeon World guide book that the success die is supposed to replace it. This die Look for monsters and magic effect engine for DoS spend- will determine how good your success is, rather than ing. EotE also have some solid pointers would DoS could having a binary outcome. For an attack damage will be be used for. based on this. For jumping it will be height. Knowledge; how much. Disguise; how good and etc. The success die Overview does however clutter up the possible combinations and My next obstacle to tackle is the flavours. It’s an effort another die might be better. to make a test less binary, and more colourful instead. • Success Rating With this flavoring the success The execution takes inspiration from Dont Rest Your will be a critical success! or maybe it will add a Head with the roll only indirectly affecting which flavour bonus to number. it will be. There’s four dice, each will have a flavour. In • Bad luck This could be the alternative for partial my homebrew it will be attribute that determine which success. When this flavors the outcome it will not die will be discard and flavours the outcome. be entirely good. Guards will notice the lockpick- I’m still wondering how flavours should be imple- ing. Combat will hurt, magic will backlash or have mented. -I could make about half them always bad out- unforeseen consequences. Some abilities might work comes to recreate a ’Partial Success’ feel, but it doesn’t of this flavor or determine the outcome. quite sit right with me at this moment. Flavours was • Specialty An archetype/character dependent flavor. originally a way to codify Dungeon Worlds gm moves Mages will have magical, Brutes will brutalize, or it into something more readily available instead of putting might be flavored by a racial approach or a player the gm in the spot to make up a good consequence. picked (in characterization, session/encounter start -As I read Design Patterns, they mentioned Negotiated or even before roll) approach from Fate Accel- test and that intrigued me, and flavours could be a way erated (Careful, Clever, Flashy, Forceful, Quick, to include that, having a players wish to be a flavour. Sneaky). This might also be flavored by an align- -Another idea was having flavours (from player stand- ment ala DnD. point) be a small benefit they could have. They do some- • Fatigue When this flavors the outcome the action thing and if this specific flavour, like a blunt weapon is tiring or maybe costly in resources. Fatiguing attack turning into a trip. This example is on the more (assuming such a mechanic is there), magical com- powerful side, but meant to illustrate this interpretation ponents are expended, bribe is needed. This dont of flavour. This has the greatest potential I feel. need to be an alternative to the Bad Stuff die - it -This Chapter have a sampling of possible dice flavours could be used when the players are already fatigued along with another discussion of how to implement or resources might be needed to be spended, such flavours. This is mostly a crazy unsorted mix of ideas as a haggle roll. with no real unified way of handling flavours, but shows • Advantage/Disadvantage This flavoring will what it can be depending on what interpretation is made. grant the player (or the others) some advantage -Being a little more literal in the interpretation of or impose a disadvantage after this action. For a ’flavour the outcome’, the flavour could be the key for darker style campaign this die could be altered to how the action is described. I like this idea, but it seems have advantage (as per previous description) on even to be hard to implement as there’s always 4 flavours. roll and disadvantage (for the player, the inverse of Im not sure how to do it, many of the ways doesn’t advantage) on odd roll. seem compatible. Haven’t played enough narrative games • Story Progress The action will progress the story to find out what is a good way to handle it, so it’s difficult (Guard might be distracted by something) or some- make a good way. thing will happen that will help the story along, an

35 opportunity presents itself. Another way might be to be equivalent to a partial success - either purely by the SM giving out hints or a weakness of enemies. Story Master or by the dice roll, for example even for • Treasure Instead of having random loot and/or full success and odd for partial (Postulate; Even is more loot be integral (Im looking at you Dungeons and likely to be highest than odds) (Reverse this for a more Dragons) this flavoring could be used for advancing grim campaign). Bad Stuff might not even be a standard their resources/items/loot. A more item based fla- die, but rather something substituted in when the danger voring be used as well; the chandelier fell and crashed is real. the opponent, an item used in an unusual way. An Current idea is; alternative from DnD, Weapons of legacy style Roll 4d6. One is Success die, one is Bad Stuff die and advancement for items could make items more in- two Blank dice. The player may substitute one Blank die teresting/powerful or the character might become if he has an ability that allows him (Specialty die could attached to some trinket that flavored this outcome. always be appropriate, if not only to change approach), • Experience Reward Keeping in line with the idea and the Story Master may change one as well. of progression (story and loot) Experience Points Specific abilities might work of a specific flavor and could be given out if this flavors the outcome. If different characters would have access to different dice. you have unevenly leveled characters this could be a If one introduced the concept of Protagonist or Party way to catch them up. Another way could be giving Leader, it would be fitting to grant the player in question out immaterial rewards like reputation/titles and access to the Story Progress die. This could screw the material ’items’ like a castle (or a just a small farm). spotlight in the Protagonist favor, but Deathwatch • Magical Assuming everyone is magical (setting spe- had a rotating mission leader mechanic, so it’s not un- cific), this will flavoring will be magical or supernat- thinkable to implement this, even though a shift might ural in nature; a jump will be unnaturally high, an only occur for a side quest. And if not, having someone attack might take on a fire charismatic or the bar- to keep the others on track or using this mechanic to help maid simply enchanted by the words of seduction. a first time leader could prove useful. Continuing with • Environment The environment plays an important some more ideas a grave robber, gadgeteer or craftsman roll in the outcome. Once again this does not have could be a fine choice for someone to have access to the to be positive (even for good and odd or bad) and Treasure Die and an acrobat or ranger could might even it’s positivity could be determined by the Story Mas- be able to snack an Environment Die. The Advantage ter or even always be negative. Weather changes, Die might be available through abilities for a fighter to volcanic eruptions, cave ins or other spatial changes. make a mighty bash that knocks over the enemy. Getting An escapeway could clear up. Another rough in- access to special dice should not be automatic, but be terpretation could be the addition of more enemies part of the advancement of the character, though some or just changes in people/creature present like a dice might be core to a concept and therefore part of the runaway elephant. Magic might be strong in the starting ’package’. area and induce a magical flavor. • Technological Might not be fitting in fantasy but Interpreting the roll including for adaptations for sci fi. Depending on The players should have full knowledge of their attribute, the interpretation it could flavor the outcome in a skill level, and talents along with their effect on the roll. similar way to Magical or Environment. It could This will also aid in making a better learning curve of be appropriate in a craft test or anything involving the system. The Story Master should be ’confined’ to mechanical aspects. fiddling with the Difficulty Class and interpretation of • Blank Not space for another idea waiting to come the sum versus the DC and flavor. but rather an actual possible die to put in the roll Option 1. Due to having flavors a more binary inter- if none of the other fits. A success would just be pretation of the comparison of sum and DC is a viable success and nothing special would happen. This choice. E.g. failure to meet or beat the DC means the might be the standard (along with Success Die and outcome was unsuccessful. possibly Bad Stuff) just waiting to be substituted, Option 2. Another option is to set the difficulties tough. a bit higher and have failure to meet or beat the DC Writing up this many I have become tempted to work will result in a negative spin on the interpretation of the out another mechanic to determine partial success, a flavor. thing I really liked about Dungeon World.Though A thing to consider is some flavor have a near prede- one could make the interpretations of some of the flavors termined negativity/positivity feel. While in a volcano,

36 the environment die would seem appropriate, but most instinctively chosen flavorings will not be positive, but rather along ”While successfully dodging the attack you unfortunately stepped in a pool of magma.”

37 Chapter 11 Math, Tables and Figures

Flavor Determination Option One. Step 1: Roll dice. Step 2: Determine Flavor. Step 3: Discard a die. Step 4: Round up the lowest die if applicable. Step 5: Sum remaining dice and announce result. Flavor is determined by the highest die. For any given die there’s 225/64 to be highest. For any two dice there’s 55/64 for those to be highest at the same time. For any 3 dice there’s 15/64 and for 4 dice there’s only 6/64 ways. With these numbers and using a tiebreaking rule of D1 > D2 > D3 > D4, we will get D1 : 441/64 ∼ 34%,D2 : 350/64 ∼ 27%,D3 : 280/64 ∼ 22%,D4 : 225/64 ∼ 17%. Option Two. Step 1: Roll dice. Step 2: Discard a die which determines Flavor. Step 3: Round up the lowest die if applicable. Step 4: Sum remaining dice and announce result. For attribute 1 and 4; D1 : 441/64 ∼ 34%,D2 : 350/64 ∼ 27%,D3 : 280/64 ∼ 22%,D4 : 225/64 ∼ 17%. For attribute 2 and 3; D1 : 531/64 ∼ 41%,D2 : 370/64 ∼ 28%,D3 : 245/64 ∼ 19%,D4 : 150/64 ∼ 12%. Currently this is the chosen one as the difference is not that big and this option is simple in application. Option Three. Step 1: Roll dice. Step 2: Discard a die. Step 3: Round up the lowest die if applicable. Step 4: Determine Flavor. Step 5: Sum remaining dice and announce result. Flavor is determined by the highest die. Math is yet to be done.

38 Table 11.5: Peak Values, i.e. the most likely result to Table 11.1: 25% CoF markers of Difficulty Class for be rolled of the Attribute and Approach score combi- the Attribute and Approach score combinations. nations.

Att S1 S2 S3 S4 S5 S6 Att S1 S2 S3 S4 S5 S6 1 7 8 9 10 11 12 1 8 9 10 11 12 13 2 9 9 10 11 12 13 2 9 10 11 12 13 14 3 10 11 12 13 14 15 3 12 12 13 14 15 16 4 11 11 12 13 14 15 4 13 13 13 14 15 16 Table 11.2: 50% CoF markers of Difficulty Class for Table 11.6: Average values of Attribute and Approach the Attribute and Approach score combinations. score combinations.

Att S1 S2 S3 S4 S5 S6 Att S1 S2 S3 S4 S5 S6 1 9 10 10 11 12 13 1 8.76 9.27 10.08 11.01 12.00 13.00 2 10 11 12 13 14 15 2 9.90 10.41 11.22 12.16 13.15 14.15 3 12 12 13 14 15 16 3 11.10 11.62 12.42 13.36 14.34 15.34 4 13 13 13 14 15 16 4 12.24 12.38 12.78 13.47 14.36 15.34 Table 11.3: 75% CoF markers of Difficulty Class for Table 11.7: Average bonus for increasing Approach the Attribute and Approach score combinations. score at a given Attribute score.

Att S1 S2 S3 S4 S5 S6 Att S1→S2 S2→S3 S3→S4 S4→S5 S5→S6 1 11 12 12 13 14 15 1 0.5177 0.8025 0.9375 0.9877 0.9992 2 12 12 13 14 15 16 2 0.5177 0.8025 0.9375 0.9877 0.9992 3 13 14 14 15 16 17 3 0.5177 0.8025 0.9375 0.9877 0.9992 4 15 15 15 16 16 17 4 0.1319 0.4074 0.6875 0.8889 0.9838 Table 11.4: 90% CoF markers of Difficulty Class for Table 11.8: Average bonus for increasing Attribute at the Attribute and Approach score combinations. a given Approach score.

Att S1 S2 S3 S4 S5 S6 Att S1 S2 S3 S4 S5 S6 1 13 13 14 15 16 17 1→2 1.145 1.145 1.145 1.145 1.145 1.145 2 14 14 14 15 16 17 2→3 1.199 1.199 1.199 1.199 1.199 1.199 3 15 15 15 16 17 18 3→4 1.145 0.759 0.364 0.114 0.015 0 4 16 16 16 17 17 18

39 Graphs We have some graphs for you.

Figure 11.1: The four figures depict each a attribute score of 1 to 4 in which six graphs is shown where they represent rounding the lowest die.

40 And some more pretty graphs.

Figure 11.2: The four figures depict each a derived attribute level of 1 to 4 in which six graphs is shown where they represent rounding the lowest die.

41 Figure 11.3: The six figures depict each a derived approach level of 1 to 6 in which four graphs is shown where they represent a die discarded.

42 Figure 11.4: The six figures depict each a derived approach level of 1 to 6 in which four graphs is shown where they represent a die discarded.

43 Chapter 12 Design Decisions

To do

44