General Rules

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Basic Rules



Armor Rules
Armor has two values which describe it; Defense, and Protection.

During Combat, the Defense rating is only active if the wearer of the armor makes a Defense Maneuver. To the character's effective skill, any Defense rating the armor had is added, increasing the effective skill of the character. Once all modifiers are tallied, the character Tests against this skill. If he succeeds, the character was able to Block, Parry, or Dodge the blow well enough that the Armor was able to turn away the weakened attack without damage being done to the character.

Example: A Lizardman is attacking Olaf with a Shortsword. Olaf is wearing Chainmail, which has a Defense of 2. Olaf has a Broadsword skill of 14. Therefore, Olaf's Parry skill is 7 (1/2 his weapon skill). Added to that is the Defense value of his Armor. Therefore, Olaf's effective Parry skill is a (7 + 2 =) 9. As the Lizardman attacks, Olaf tries to parry his blow. Olaf Tests against his Parry skill of 9 and rolls an 8. Olaf manages to stop most of the force of the Lizardman's blow with his sword, and his armor absorbs the rest of the damage.

If the opponent roles below the adjusted value, then he hits the target solidly. The armor subtracts its Protection value from the Damage the attacker does, and any damage remaining is taken by the target.

Example: The Lizard rolls an 8 to hit Olaf, so strikes him a solid blow. The Lizardman then rolls damage for his Shortsword and Base Damage combined and gets a total of 9 points of damage. The Chainmail that Olaf is wearing has a Protection rating of 4. Therefore, the Chainmail subtracts 4 points of damage from the attack. 9 - 4 =5. Olaf takes 5 points of damage from the Lizardman's attack.

See Combat for more details.

Damage Rules
The damage that an attacker inflicts is equal to the attacker's Base Damage plus the Damage his Weapon causes. Note, also, that if any of the damage dice naturally role their highest value, this die is counted as part of the total and then rerolled and it's new value added to the total. This is called "rolling-up." It is continued as long as a die rolls its maximum value. The final damage total, after being adjusted for any armor or other protection the target is wearing, is subtracted from the target's Current Health.

Example: Farthan the Fearsome has a Strength of 13 and a Broadsword. His Base Damage is 1D8 (see Base Damage rules in character creation section) and the Broadsword does 1D10 damage. Farthan is attacking a Troll with his Broadsword and succeeds in hitting it. He roles a 1D8 die and a 1D10 die and gets an 8 on the 1D8 and a 4 on the 1D10. He adds the two results together (8 + 4 =12) and then because the 1D8 rolled its maximum value of 8, he roles the 1D8 again. It comes up with a 5. He adds the 5 to the 12 for a total damage for this attack of 17.

This is done because I consider combat a brief, brutal, and above all mortally dangerous affair that maims and kills people (as it should be). Additionally, it is just as easy to kill someone with a small knife as it is with a broadsword, if you know where to hit them or are lucky. For those who want longer combats and less deadly damage, then ignore the "roll-up" rule.

Knockback
Knockback occurs if a character receives more than 1/2 his Total Health in damage from a single attack (this is only damage that is left after figuring armor and any other protection). If a character takes this amount of damage, then they must Test against Strength or be knocked down to the ground and one meter back. If they succeed, they may act as normal that round. If they fail, they have been Knockedback, they lose any actions they have left for that round and are Stunned. Next round, they recover from the Stun and may get to their feet, taking the entire round to do so and using both actions for that round (a successful Acrobatics role will get them to their feet with a single action left for the round).

Example: Farthan the Fearsome has a Total Health of 25 and is hit for 15 points of damage. He is wearing Heavy Leathers, which subtract two points of damage from the blow. This leaves 13 points of damage. 13 is greater than half of his Total Health (1/2 x 25 = 12.5) so he is Knockedback. He tries to keep his feet and withstand the blow by Testing against his Strength. He rolls a 16, which is 3 above his Strength of 13. He is flung to the ground and Knockedback a meter by the force of the blow and is Stunned for a round. The next round, he recovers and gets to his feet, using both his actions for that round. On the next round (or second round after he was Knockedback), he may act as normal (allowing for the fact that he was heavily wounded by that last attack).

Move Rules
The Move Statistic describes the number of meters (generally equal to hexes on a battle mat) that a character can travel in one round. For a general idea of long distance travel times, a GM can assume that a character with a move of 10 or less can march about 3 miles an hour (over even terrain, 2 mph for uneven terrain, and 1 mph or less for rough or mountainous terrain) for a number of hours equal to their Strain. A character with 11 or greater move can march about 4 miles an hour (over even terrain, 3 mph for uneven terrain, and 2 mph or less for rough or mountainous terrain) for a number of hours equal to their Strain. But if a GM wishes more accurately calculate these values and to extrapolate the Move statistic out to the number of leagues that a character can march in a day, there are reasonably simple calculations (see table below). Note that in all cases but miles, values are rounded down if they are not whole numbers. Also note, that these values only apply over open, flat ground. The GM is left to determine how much hills or mountains slow travel.

Speed Distance/Rnd
(meters) 		Distance/Min
(meters) 		Distance/Hr
(miles) 		Duration
Maintained
Walking/
Marching		 1/4 x Move 7 1/2 x Move 1/3 x Move 1/2 Vit in Hrs
Jogging 1/2 x Move 15 x Move 1/2 x Move 5x Vit in Min
Running Move 30 x Move Move Vit in Min

Note that the conversion of meters to miles is 1609 meters to a mile. Or, 1000 meters in a kilometer, and 1.6093 kilometers in a mile.

Now it is obvious that few people are capable of maintaining their maximum movement rate for very long (almost no one is going to be able to run flat out for an hour). So the Duration that this speed can be maintained is listed in the last column. At the end of the duration, the character loses one Strain and must rest for a minimum of an hour before continuing (they regain no Strain for this hour of rest). If they wish to press on without resting, they must immediately expend another Strain. They can then continue for an equal duration now. But at the end of that duration, they lose yet another Strain. And if they wish to continue, it will cost them an additional Strain, etc.. Soon, they will be faced with the choice of stopping, or going unconscious. GM can alter these rules as he sees fit, making characters lose more Strain, take damage, or whatever penalty he wishes for potential marathon runners.

Example: Sam the Thief needs to get back to the city with a message right now, but it's miles away. He starts running. His Str is 10 and his Vitality is 10, so his Strain is also 10. His Prowess is 14 so his Move is 12. He runs for (Vit in Min.) 10 minutes and loses a Strain. He spends another Strain and presses on (he's now down to 8 Strain). He runs for another 10 minutes (20 min. so far), loses a Strain, and spends another Strain to keep going (down to 6 Strain). He runs for 10 more minutes (30 minutes so far), loses a Strain, and spends another Strain to keep going (down to 4 Strain). After another 10 minutes (40 minutes so far), he loses another Strain and spends another Strain to keep running (down to 2 Strain). At the end of another 10 minutes (50 minutes so far) he loses a Strain (down to 1). He doesn't wish to run himself into unconsciousness, so he stops. He's run for 50 minutes, is exhausted, and has covered a lot of ground. He has run (50 min x (30 x 12 Move)) = 18000 meters. 18000 divided by 1609 = 11.2 miles. Sam is not a marathon runner, but he is pretty impressive.

I realize these values a very inexact and may be over generous, but this is a fantasy setting and characters should be able to accomplish reasonably heroic things. The GM can interpret or calculate or guess how far a player can travel, as long as he is consistent. Also note that by these rules a character could conceivable march for ever if they rested two hour after each Duration of Marching. The GM is responsible for enforcing realism with sleeping, eating, and the like. These Move rules are just general guidelines. Finally, a party of individuals, if they stay together, travel only at the speed of the slowest individual and only for a duration of the weakest character's vitality (just assume everyone is equally tired if you're making them spend Strain and everything, otherwise it's too complex).

Stunning
Being Stunned is a condition where a character is in shock and unable to do much of anything. While stunned, no offensive actions can be made and all defensive actions are made at -5 to the Skill. A character can do nothing besides talk a little or defend themselves, unless the GM rules it okay. Generally a character is Stunned only for a single round, after which they recover and may act as normal. If the situation is special and indicates the character remains stunned until they recover, then each round they Test against their Vit (if they are Physically Stunned) or their Wis (if they are Mentally Stunned) until they succeed. On the round that they succeed, they recover from the Stun and may act as normal.

Definitions

This is just a listing of general terms and definitions that I find it convenient to use.


Damage
Damage is a measure of the amount of physical harm that an attack inflicts upon a target. Any damage done to the target, after adjusting or armor or spell effects, if subtracted from the target's Current Health (unless the attack is special or magickal one and specifies otherwise). For rules on this see Damage rules

Defense
Defense is a measure of the ability of a type of armor or a shield to turn blows away, without damage to the wearer, by its natural hardness and reliance. For rules on this see Defense rules.

Health
Health is a measure of a character's physical wellbeing and total capacity to survive physical punishment and damage before going unconscious. An average human Health is 20 for an adult male. For rules on health, see the Health Section.

Knockback
Knockback is what occurs if a character takes more than 1/2 of their Total Health in damage from a single attack (after adjusting for armor or other protection). If this occurs, the may try to keep their feet, but if they fail they are thrown to the ground and lose any opportunity to act until they recover. For rules on this see Knockback rules

Move
Move is a Derived Statistic that describes how many meters a character may travel in one round. It is extrapolated for longer traveling times to equal greater distances. For rules on this see Move rules.

Protection
Protection is the ability of armor to reduce the damage that the wearer takes when they are hit solidly by a blow. For rules on this see Protection rules.

Round
A round is two seconds of time. It is the base unit of division in combat and for such things as spell effects and uses of Strain. But it should be noted that a round is a round, all the world round and all the time. Even in non-combat situations or general interaction, the GM at some times may find it useful to break up the situation in round by round description and reaction. During Combat, each character generally gets two actions, a single offensive and a single defensive action, per round (unless magick or something else is intervening). In cases where combat is not occurring, whatever the GM allows and could logically occur or be accomplished in two seconds is acceptable.

Link List

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