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Chapter 5 - Adventuring and Combat

Now that you've got your hero built, and you've purchased some equipment, it's time to talk about how your hero interacts with the environment and other people (also known as "adventuring"), and when those interactions turn hostile (commonly known as "combat"), and how all those interactions fit into your hero leveling up.


Your hero has an Action/Time Gauge (or ATG for short), set at 6 ticks, and this "time" is the resource spent to perform actions. Your hero's turn is only as long as the amount of time remaining in their ATG.

Actions

Actions are anything your hero does to interact with the environment, and are categorized by the time costs associated with each type of action.

Actions by ATG tick cost
Action Type Time Cost(in ticks) Example action
Full-Round Action 6 ticks Spellcraft
Normal Action 3 ticks Attack
Move Action 2 ticks Move one's speed
Quick Action 1 tick Dash
Reaction 1 tick Opporunity Strike

Full-Round Actions are actions that take your hero's entire turn, their effects taking place at the end of the current round. Most Full-Round Actions require your hero's full attention, so they will not be allowed a Reaction during the turn they are taking a Full-Round Action.


Move Actions are actions that involve your hero moving. Simple, right? Most move actions refer to your hero's base movement speed, and is the distance your hero travels in one Move Action, calculated as 2 seconds of consistent movement. For example, Jesraneth the Wood Elf has speed 30 feet. This means he can spend 2 ticks from his ATG and gain a Move Action that gives him 30 feet of movement. Certain terrain may cost more movement, see Movement for more information.


Normal Actions are actions that generally encompass most actions your hero will take. Most Attacks, Climbing, Jumping, Tumbling, and many more aptitude checks are made as Normal Actions that cost 3 ticks from your ATG.


Quick Actions are actions that don't take a terribly long amount of time to undertake, most notably the Dash action. Other actions that can be performed for a cost of 1 second will be up to your GM.


Reactions take little to no time at all, but are reserved for taking actions on other creature's turns. See Withholding an action, below for more.

Withholding an Action

To withhold an action is to prepare to do something in response to some trigger. "Run out of the way if that minotaur charges me", for example. Doing so requires spending a Reaction on your turn, and then the time required for your chosen action.

Movement

Flat, level terrain costs no extra movement, but other types of terrain may cost more movement to traverse. Terrain will have a "hamper value" that will determine any extra movement required. This value represents more difficulty moving across impeding terrain.

Adventuring

Most interactions your hero makes with the environment can be expressed as a aptitude roll, with the most notable exceptions being simple movement (walking) and talking. Jumping, attacking, dodging, casting a spell, climbing, knowledge concerning a particular subject, perception of the surroundings, all of these and more are represented by a aptitude roll (of the dice). The proficiencies you chose for your hero will determine how well they are at some of these actions, and the result of the roll is determined by how many dice used for said roll.

Combat

Not all interactions are social ones, and you didn't buy that greataxe for your hero as decoration, did you? Here's where we talk about combat.

To make an attack, first, make an ATTACK ROLL, typically MIGHT, and add any appropriate bonuses from Aptitudes. The defender then makes a DEFENSE ROLL, either DODGE or PARRY. Order the rolls from highest to lowest, and compare the opposing values. Each success by the attacker gains success points and an additional die added to the DAMAGE ROLL. Each success by the defender negates an injury. If the attacker scores no successes, no damage is dealt.

Armor, while providing little in the way of keeping one from getting hit, does protect the defender by reducing the amount of damage taken. As such, if the defender is wearing armor, first reduce the damage by the damage reduction score of the armor (and the armor takes damage equal to the damage reduced).

The FORTITUDE roll determines how many injuries are sustained. The attacker rolls their DAMAGE while the defender rolls FORTITUDE, ordering and comparing the rolls again. Successes by the attacker indicate injuries.

Each successive injury incurred is a cumulative -1d penalty on FORTITUDE rolls, in addition to the other effects of the injury (See Injuries).

Called Shots:

Called shots take a penalty up to your hero's Attribute to the ATTACK ROLL, but are aimed at extremities for dealing extra damage, up to twice the penalty taken.

Injuries and Conditions

Below you'll find a table showing the injuries and what type of damage causes them. Under that is a description of the Conditions. Characters can have as many injuries as twice their FORTITUDE before dying.

InjuryDamage Type
BleedingSlashing, Piercing, Necrotic
ConcussionBludgeoning, Necrotic
SprainBludgeoning, Necrotic
BurnedFire, Lightning
FrostbiteCold
PoisonedPoison

Bleeding - Every round, roll FORTITUDE save against number of hits.

Concussion - Hero takes a flat penalty to INTELLECT and PERCEPTION actions equal to the number of hits.

Sprained - If a leg, speed halved. If an arm, penalty to actions equal to number of hits.

Burned - Every round, FORTITUDE save against number of hits. Unable to act on a failure.

Frostbite - Hero takes a flat penalty to Reflex actions equal to number of hits.

Poisoned - Every round, FORTITUDE save against poison. Penalty to actions equal to number of hits.


The following conditions can affect your hero as a result of starvation, exhaustion, or a magical effect.

Blinded - Affected creature can't see. Automatically fails any action that requires sight. Lose 1d6 to all other actions.

Confused - Affected creature is unable to think or reason clearly. Every turn acts randomly and out of character.

Cursed - Affected creature gets penalty to an attribute, defined when the curse takes effect.

Deafened - Affected creature can't hear. Automatically fails any action that requires hearing. Lose 1d6 to all other actions.

Disabled - Affected creature is incapacitated, and unable to act for as long as this condition persists.

Fatigued - Affected creature has one or more levels of exhaustion. There are six of such levels, and gaining any levels of exhaustion stacks with any levels already gained. The effects of each level of exhaustion are cumulative. Further, every level of exhaustion counts as an injury when determining FORTITUDE rolls.

The effects of exhaustion
# of levelsEffect
1Affected creature takes a penalty to all checks (not saves) equal to 1D times its current level of exhaustion.
2Affected creature's speed is halved.
3Penalty to checks includes saves.
4Penalty to affected creature's ATG equal to the levels of exhaustion.
5Affected creature is unconscious.
6Affected creature dies.

Frightened - Affected creature loses 1D to all actions while in line of sight of its source of fear. Cannot take actions that would cause it to move closer to the source of fear.

Panicked - Afffected creature can only use its actions to move away from the source of fear.

Paralyzed

Petrified

Prone - Affected creature is lying on the ground.

Stunned - Affected creature is unable to act until the end of its turn.

Unconscious - Affected creature is Prone and incapacitated.

Dying - Affected creature is close to death.

Renown

How your hero is perceived by the populace is largeley relegated by Renown. Each action taken by a hero can affect their renown, either positively or negatively. The GM will decide, and there are benefits and drawbacks to having positive and negative Renown.

Rests and Downtime

Rests

Short rests

Long rests