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.

Actions

Actions your hero takes have a "tick" cost, which mostly applies in combat (See Resolving Initiative). These costs represent the amount of effort that goes into the individual action. For example, to make a basic attack with an equipped weapon is a 3-tick action. More detail in Actions in Combat.

Adventuring

Some actions your hero takes have an ATTRIBUTE roll associated with it. Jumping, attacking, dodging, shaping a spell, climbing, knowledge concerning a particular subject, perception of the surroundings, all of these and more are represented by an ATTRIBUTE roll (of the dice). The aptitudes you chose for your hero will determine how well they perform these actions.

Combat

Turns in combat can be represented by an six-spoke wheel around which the players' turns (represented by tokens) revolve. Each slice of the wheel delineated by a spoke represents a tick. Number them from 1 to 6.

Resolving Initiative

When combat starts, everyone involved in the combat rolls initiative, which is a REFLEX roll (ties don't matter here). The highest number gets their token(s) placed on the first tick, then, in descending order of initiative, place the rest of the tokens around the wheel. Once every combatant's token has been placed, the first player may take their first action, moving their token the appropriate number of ticks on the wheel for their action. Play then moves to the next tick, the player(s) there taking their action and moving their token(s). If two players start in the same tick AND they had the same starting initiative, they roll off with REFLEX, the winner going first.

Actions in Combat

There are several actions available to be taken while in combat. When your hero's tick comes up, they're ready to take an action. Declare what action you want your hero to take, and resolve that action. Then, your hero's token is moved forward as many ticks as the action takes. For example, the hero Antoine takes their first action on tick 1, deciding to Move in a Direction. From tick 1, Antoine's player moves their token from tick 1 to tick 3, and Antoine moves in the direction indicated. Then, if there are no other heroes waiting to take action, play moves forward tick by tick until one is found with a hero token waiting to take an action.

Following is a list of actions available to take in combat:
• Aim | 1-tick | Your hero spends a moment (or more) to maximize the effect of an attack on a target.
• Attack | 3-tick | Your hero makes an attack with their equipped weapon.
• Dash | 3-tick | Your hero runs at a sprint, moving double their speed.
• Guard | 3-tick | Your hero takes a defensive stance, gaining a bonus to their DEFENSE rolls.
• Move | 2-tick | Your hero moves their speed.

Actions in Detail

Aim

A hero can take a moment to aim in on a target. For each tick spent Aiming (up to three), your hero gains +2 to their ATTACK ROLL. The target must be in your hero's sight from beginning of the Aim action to the beginning of the Attack action, or the bonus is lost.

Attack

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.

Dash

This is as fast as your hero can run, a full sprint. Your hero moves twice their speed. Your hero must be standing to start this action.

Guard

Taking a defensive stance, your hero gains an automatic success on all DEFENSE ROLLS made while guarding.

Move

Simply moving your hero's speed.

Resolving Damage

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).

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.

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.

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