Aug 24, 2022 5:10 pm
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Information/Rules Reference
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Aug 24, 2022 7:01 pm
Every task that a character or other creature might attempt in the game is covered by one of the six abilities. This section explains in more detail what those abilities mean and the ways they are used in the game.
A Strength Strength check can model any attempt to lift, push, pull, or break something, to force your body through a space, or to otherwise apply brute force to a situation.
-- Athletics: Your Strength (Athletics) check covers difficult situations you encounter while climbing, jumping, or swimming.
-- Attack Checks and Damage: You add your Strength to your attack roll and your damage roll when attacking with a reach weapon such as a mace, a battleaxe, or a javelin. You use reach weapons to make reach attacks in hand-to-hand
combat, and some of them can be thrown to make a ranged attack.
-- Lifting and Carrying Your Strength and Health scores together determine the number of items you can bear. Your carrying capacity is a number of item slots equal to 10 + your Strength + your Health. Some items occupy more than
one item slot, while some are so small or light, they have an item slot of 0. If you carry a number of item slots greater than your carrying capacity, you are encumbered, which means your speed drops by 10 feet. If you carry twice your carrying capacity or more, you are instead heavily encumbered, which means your speed drops by 20 feet and you have disadvantage on ability checks, attack checks, and saving checks that use Strength, Agility, or Health.
--- Push, Drag, or Lift: You can push, drag, or lift a weight equivalent to three times your carrying capacity. While pushing or dragging in this way, your speed drops to 5 feet.
An Agility check can model any attempt to move nimbly, quickly, or quietly, or to keep from falling on tricky footing.
-- Acrobatics: Your Agility (Acrobatics) check covers your attempt to stay on your feet in a tricky situation, such as when you’re trying to run across a sheet of ice, balance on a tightrope, or stay upright on a rocking ship’s deck. The storyteller might also call for an Agility (Acrobatics) check to see if you can perform acrobatic stunts, including dives, rolls, somersaults, and flips.
-- Legerdemain: Whenever you attempt an act of sleight of hand or manual trickery, such as planting something on someone else, concealing an object on your person, or lifting an object off of another person without their knowledge, make an Agility (Legerdemain) check.
-- Stealth: Make an Agility (Stealth) check when you attempt to conceal yourself from enemies, slink past guards, slip away without being noticed, or sneak up on someone without being seen or heard.
-- Attack Checks and Damage: You add your Agility to your attack roll and your damage roll when attacking with a ranged weapon, such as a sling or a longbow. You can also add your Agility to your attack roll and your damage roll when attacking with a reach weapon that has the finesse property, such as a dagger or a rapier.
-- Defense Bonus: Depending on the armor you wear, you might add some or all of your Agility to your defense bonus.
Health measures life, stamina, and vital force. Health checks are uncommon, and no skills apply to Health checks, because the endurance this ability represents is largely passive rather than involving a specific effort on the part of a character or other creature. A Health check can model your attempt to push beyond normal limits, however.
The storyteller might call for a Health check when you try to hold your breath, march or labor for hours without rest, go without sleep, food or water, or indulge in alcohol overly much.
-- Health Pool Depth: Your health pool is equal to: (Level * Health) + The total of all your health rolls (or the average, if that's what you've decided to use)
An Intelligence check comes into play when you need to draw on logic, education, memory, or deductive reasoning. The Arcana, History, Investigation, Medicine, and Religion skills reflect aptitude in certain kinds of Intelligence checks.
-- Arcana: Your Intelligence (Arcana) check measures your ability to recall lore about spells, magic items, eldritch symbols, magical traditions, the planes of existence, and the inhabitants of those planes.
-- History: Your Intelligence (History) check measures your ability to recall lore about historical events, legendary people, ancient kingdoms, past disputes, recent wars, and lost civilizations.
-- Investigation: When you look around for clues and make deductions based on those clues, you make an Intelligence (Investigation) check. You might deduce the location of a hidden object, discern from the appearance of a wound what kind of weapon inflicted it, or determine the weakest point in a tunnel that could cause it to collapse.
-- Medicine: An Intelligence (Medicine) check lets you try to stabilize a dying companion or diagnose an illness.
-- Religion: Your Intelligence (Religion) check measures your ability to recall lore about deities, rites and prayers, religious hierarchies, holy symbols, and the practices of secret cults.
A Wisdom check might reflect an effort to read body language, understand someone’s feelings, notice things
about the environment, or care for an injured person. The Animal Handling, Environment, Insight, and Perception skills reflect aptitude in certain kinds of Wisdom checks.
-- Animal Handling: When there is any question whether you can calm a domesticated animal, keep a mount from getting spooked, or intuit an animal’s intentions, the storyteller might call for a Wisdom (Animal Handling) check. You also make a Wisdom (Animal Handling) check to control your mount when you attempt a risky maneuver.
-- Environment: Your Wisdom (Environment) check measures how attuned you are to terrain, wild animals and plants, the weather, and natural cycles. The storyteller might ask you to make a Wisdom (Environment) check to follow tracks, hunt wild game, guide your group through frozen wastelands, identify signs that owlbears live nearby, predict the
weather, or avoid quicksand and other natural hazards.
-- Insight: Your Wisdom (Insight) check decides whether you can determine the true intentions of a creature, such as when searching out a lie or predicting someone’s next move. Doing so involves gleaning clues from body language, speech habits, and changes in mannerisms.
-- Perception: Your Wisdom (Perception) check lets you spot, hear, or otherwise detect the presence of something. It measures your general awareness of your surroundings and the keenness of your primary senses. For example, a hearing character might try to hear a conversation through a closed door, eavesdrop under an open window, or hear beasts moving stealthily in the forest. A sighted character might try to spot things that are obscured or easy to miss, whether they are bandits lying in ambush on a road, thugs hiding in the shadows of an alley, or candlelight under a closed secret door.
A Presence check might arise when you try to influence or entertain others, when you try to make an impression or tell a convincing lie, or when you are navigating a tricky social situation.
-- Deception: Your Presence (Deception) check determines whether you can convincingly hide the truth, either verbally or through your actions. This deception can encompass everything from misleading others through ambiguity to telling outright lies.
-- Intimidation: When you attempt to influence someone through overt threats, hostile actions, or physical violence, the storyteller might ask you to make a Presence (Intimidation) check. Examples include trying to pry information out of a prisoner, convincing street thugs to back down from a confrontation, or using the edge of a broken bottle to convince a sneering vizier to reconsider a decision.
-- Performance: Your Presence (Performance) check determines how well you can delight an audience with music, dance, acting, storytelling, or some other form of entertainment.
-- Persuasion: When you attempt to influence someone or a group of people with tact, social graces, or good nature, the storyteller might ask you to make a Presence (Persuasion) check. Typically, you use persuasion when acting in good faith, to foster friendships, make cordial requests, or exhibit proper etiquette.
A Strength Strength check can model any attempt to lift, push, pull, or break something, to force your body through a space, or to otherwise apply brute force to a situation.
-- Athletics: Your Strength (Athletics) check covers difficult situations you encounter while climbing, jumping, or swimming.
-- Attack Checks and Damage: You add your Strength to your attack roll and your damage roll when attacking with a reach weapon such as a mace, a battleaxe, or a javelin. You use reach weapons to make reach attacks in hand-to-hand
combat, and some of them can be thrown to make a ranged attack.
-- Lifting and Carrying Your Strength and Health scores together determine the number of items you can bear. Your carrying capacity is a number of item slots equal to 10 + your Strength + your Health. Some items occupy more than
one item slot, while some are so small or light, they have an item slot of 0. If you carry a number of item slots greater than your carrying capacity, you are encumbered, which means your speed drops by 10 feet. If you carry twice your carrying capacity or more, you are instead heavily encumbered, which means your speed drops by 20 feet and you have disadvantage on ability checks, attack checks, and saving checks that use Strength, Agility, or Health.
--- Push, Drag, or Lift: You can push, drag, or lift a weight equivalent to three times your carrying capacity. While pushing or dragging in this way, your speed drops to 5 feet.
An Agility check can model any attempt to move nimbly, quickly, or quietly, or to keep from falling on tricky footing.
-- Acrobatics: Your Agility (Acrobatics) check covers your attempt to stay on your feet in a tricky situation, such as when you’re trying to run across a sheet of ice, balance on a tightrope, or stay upright on a rocking ship’s deck. The storyteller might also call for an Agility (Acrobatics) check to see if you can perform acrobatic stunts, including dives, rolls, somersaults, and flips.
-- Legerdemain: Whenever you attempt an act of sleight of hand or manual trickery, such as planting something on someone else, concealing an object on your person, or lifting an object off of another person without their knowledge, make an Agility (Legerdemain) check.
-- Stealth: Make an Agility (Stealth) check when you attempt to conceal yourself from enemies, slink past guards, slip away without being noticed, or sneak up on someone without being seen or heard.
-- Attack Checks and Damage: You add your Agility to your attack roll and your damage roll when attacking with a ranged weapon, such as a sling or a longbow. You can also add your Agility to your attack roll and your damage roll when attacking with a reach weapon that has the finesse property, such as a dagger or a rapier.
-- Defense Bonus: Depending on the armor you wear, you might add some or all of your Agility to your defense bonus.
Health measures life, stamina, and vital force. Health checks are uncommon, and no skills apply to Health checks, because the endurance this ability represents is largely passive rather than involving a specific effort on the part of a character or other creature. A Health check can model your attempt to push beyond normal limits, however.
The storyteller might call for a Health check when you try to hold your breath, march or labor for hours without rest, go without sleep, food or water, or indulge in alcohol overly much.
-- Health Pool Depth: Your health pool is equal to: (Level * Health) + The total of all your health rolls (or the average, if that's what you've decided to use)
An Intelligence check comes into play when you need to draw on logic, education, memory, or deductive reasoning. The Arcana, History, Investigation, Medicine, and Religion skills reflect aptitude in certain kinds of Intelligence checks.
-- Arcana: Your Intelligence (Arcana) check measures your ability to recall lore about spells, magic items, eldritch symbols, magical traditions, the planes of existence, and the inhabitants of those planes.
-- History: Your Intelligence (History) check measures your ability to recall lore about historical events, legendary people, ancient kingdoms, past disputes, recent wars, and lost civilizations.
-- Investigation: When you look around for clues and make deductions based on those clues, you make an Intelligence (Investigation) check. You might deduce the location of a hidden object, discern from the appearance of a wound what kind of weapon inflicted it, or determine the weakest point in a tunnel that could cause it to collapse.
-- Medicine: An Intelligence (Medicine) check lets you try to stabilize a dying companion or diagnose an illness.
-- Religion: Your Intelligence (Religion) check measures your ability to recall lore about deities, rites and prayers, religious hierarchies, holy symbols, and the practices of secret cults.
A Wisdom check might reflect an effort to read body language, understand someone’s feelings, notice things
about the environment, or care for an injured person. The Animal Handling, Environment, Insight, and Perception skills reflect aptitude in certain kinds of Wisdom checks.
-- Animal Handling: When there is any question whether you can calm a domesticated animal, keep a mount from getting spooked, or intuit an animal’s intentions, the storyteller might call for a Wisdom (Animal Handling) check. You also make a Wisdom (Animal Handling) check to control your mount when you attempt a risky maneuver.
-- Environment: Your Wisdom (Environment) check measures how attuned you are to terrain, wild animals and plants, the weather, and natural cycles. The storyteller might ask you to make a Wisdom (Environment) check to follow tracks, hunt wild game, guide your group through frozen wastelands, identify signs that owlbears live nearby, predict the
weather, or avoid quicksand and other natural hazards.
-- Insight: Your Wisdom (Insight) check decides whether you can determine the true intentions of a creature, such as when searching out a lie or predicting someone’s next move. Doing so involves gleaning clues from body language, speech habits, and changes in mannerisms.
-- Perception: Your Wisdom (Perception) check lets you spot, hear, or otherwise detect the presence of something. It measures your general awareness of your surroundings and the keenness of your primary senses. For example, a hearing character might try to hear a conversation through a closed door, eavesdrop under an open window, or hear beasts moving stealthily in the forest. A sighted character might try to spot things that are obscured or easy to miss, whether they are bandits lying in ambush on a road, thugs hiding in the shadows of an alley, or candlelight under a closed secret door.
A Presence check might arise when you try to influence or entertain others, when you try to make an impression or tell a convincing lie, or when you are navigating a tricky social situation.
-- Deception: Your Presence (Deception) check determines whether you can convincingly hide the truth, either verbally or through your actions. This deception can encompass everything from misleading others through ambiguity to telling outright lies.
-- Intimidation: When you attempt to influence someone through overt threats, hostile actions, or physical violence, the storyteller might ask you to make a Presence (Intimidation) check. Examples include trying to pry information out of a prisoner, convincing street thugs to back down from a confrontation, or using the edge of a broken bottle to convince a sneering vizier to reconsider a decision.
-- Performance: Your Presence (Performance) check determines how well you can delight an audience with music, dance, acting, storytelling, or some other form of entertainment.
-- Persuasion: When you attempt to influence someone or a group of people with tact, social graces, or good nature, the storyteller might ask you to make a Presence (Persuasion) check. Typically, you use persuasion when acting in good faith, to foster friendships, make cordial requests, or exhibit proper etiquette.
Aug 24, 2022 7:18 pm
Initiative
Combat order is determined by one of four scores, individually for PCs and the average of all combatants for NPCs. In the case of a tie between a PC and the NPCs, the PC goes first, unless surprised. In the case of a tie between PCs, the post order determines who goes first.
-- Initiative Order: Turn order proceeds according to Agility. When both sides of combat are aware of each other and equally prepared for battle, who goes first is a matter of raw reflexes. If neither side tries to be stealthy or both sides fail their Agility (Stealth) checks, this is an appropriate order to follow.
-- Lookout Order: Turn order proceeds according to Wisdom. When one side surprises the other, who goes first is a matter of perception. The unsurprised side receives a +2 bonus to its Wisdom for the purpose of determining turn order.
-- Resolute Order: Turn order proceeds according to Presence. In the face of terrible danger, who goes first is a matter of bravery and mettle. This applies, for instance, when an enemy has an inherent fear ability.
-- Sleuth Order: Turn order proceeds according to Intelligence. When combat is preceded by a battle of wits or sleuthing, who goes first is mind over matter. This would apply when the PCs have to figure out who their enemies actually are.
In the first round, PCs who have a higher score than the NPCs' average will go first, and then the NPCs will go. After that, those PCs who have already moved will move to the bottom of the move order (specifically for posting order; any other initiative effects remain the same) and all PCs will move as a group. This will allow combat to flow faster.
Combat order is determined by one of four scores, individually for PCs and the average of all combatants for NPCs. In the case of a tie between a PC and the NPCs, the PC goes first, unless surprised. In the case of a tie between PCs, the post order determines who goes first.
-- Initiative Order: Turn order proceeds according to Agility. When both sides of combat are aware of each other and equally prepared for battle, who goes first is a matter of raw reflexes. If neither side tries to be stealthy or both sides fail their Agility (Stealth) checks, this is an appropriate order to follow.
-- Lookout Order: Turn order proceeds according to Wisdom. When one side surprises the other, who goes first is a matter of perception. The unsurprised side receives a +2 bonus to its Wisdom for the purpose of determining turn order.
-- Resolute Order: Turn order proceeds according to Presence. In the face of terrible danger, who goes first is a matter of bravery and mettle. This applies, for instance, when an enemy has an inherent fear ability.
-- Sleuth Order: Turn order proceeds according to Intelligence. When combat is preceded by a battle of wits or sleuthing, who goes first is mind over matter. This would apply when the PCs have to figure out who their enemies actually are.
In the first round, PCs who have a higher score than the NPCs' average will go first, and then the NPCs will go. After that, those PCs who have already moved will move to the bottom of the move order (specifically for posting order; any other initiative effects remain the same) and all PCs will move as a group. This will allow combat to flow faster.
Aug 24, 2022 8:55 pm
On Your Turn
On your turn, you can move your speed and take one action, in any order. Movement can be broken up to fit around your actions. Beyond this, you can also:
-- Communicate however you are able, through brief utterances and gestures, as you take your turn.
-- Interact with one object or feature of the environment for free, during either your move or your action. For example, you could open a door during your move as you stride toward a foe, or you could draw your weapon as part of the same action you use to attack. Interacting with additional items past the first could require the use of an action. Interactions that take more than just a moment may also require an action, even if it's the first item you've interacted with.
Here are a few examples of the sorts of thing you can do in tandem with your movement and action:
-- draw or sheathe a sword
-- open or close a door
-- withdraw a potion from your backpack
-- pick up a dropped axe
-- take a bauble from a table
-- remove a ring from your finger
-- stuff some food into your mouth
-- plant a banner in the ground
-- fish a few coins from your belt pouch
-- drink all the ale in a flagon
-- throw a lever or a switch
-- pull a torch from a sconce
-- take a book from a shelf you can reach
-- extinguish a small flame
-- don a mask
-- pull the hood of your cloak up and over your head
-- put your ear to a door
-- kick a small stone
-- turn a key in a lock
-- tap the floor with a 10-foot pole
-- hand an item to another character
Actions
-- Attack: Make one melee or ranged attack.
-- Cast a Spell: Some spells require more or less time to cast, but most require just an action.
-- Dash: Move 5*(2d4+Agility or Health) feet. Any modifications to your normal speed also modify this.
-- Dodge: Gain advantage on Defense and Agility checks.
-- Help: Give an ally advantage on their next ability check.
-- Hide
-- Ready: Delay an action with a trigger that causes you to act.
-- Search
-- Use an Object
-- Withdraw: Your movement doesn't provoke Opportunity Attacks.
On your turn, you can move your speed and take one action, in any order. Movement can be broken up to fit around your actions. Beyond this, you can also:
-- Communicate however you are able, through brief utterances and gestures, as you take your turn.
-- Interact with one object or feature of the environment for free, during either your move or your action. For example, you could open a door during your move as you stride toward a foe, or you could draw your weapon as part of the same action you use to attack. Interacting with additional items past the first could require the use of an action. Interactions that take more than just a moment may also require an action, even if it's the first item you've interacted with.
Here are a few examples of the sorts of thing you can do in tandem with your movement and action:
-- draw or sheathe a sword
-- open or close a door
-- withdraw a potion from your backpack
-- pick up a dropped axe
-- take a bauble from a table
-- remove a ring from your finger
-- stuff some food into your mouth
-- plant a banner in the ground
-- fish a few coins from your belt pouch
-- drink all the ale in a flagon
-- throw a lever or a switch
-- pull a torch from a sconce
-- take a book from a shelf you can reach
-- extinguish a small flame
-- don a mask
-- pull the hood of your cloak up and over your head
-- put your ear to a door
-- kick a small stone
-- turn a key in a lock
-- tap the floor with a 10-foot pole
-- hand an item to another character
Actions
-- Attack: Make one melee or ranged attack.
-- Cast a Spell: Some spells require more or less time to cast, but most require just an action.
-- Dash: Move 5*(2d4+Agility or Health) feet. Any modifications to your normal speed also modify this.
-- Dodge: Gain advantage on Defense and Agility checks.
-- Help: Give an ally advantage on their next ability check.
-- Hide
-- Ready: Delay an action with a trigger that causes you to act.
-- Search
-- Use an Object
-- Withdraw: Your movement doesn't provoke Opportunity Attacks.
Jul 21, 2023 8:37 pm
Wealth
Money and collateral is abstracted in-game with a wealth score. Your wealth score is an approximate measure of the coin and barterable goods at your character’s disposal. The higher the wealth score, the richer you are. Generally, a 1st-step character starts with a wealth score of 1, though some backgrounds or other starting character options may increase your wealth score beyond that.
Wealth isn't all about getting money though. Your fame or reliability can also increase your Wealth, as people are more willing to give trustworthy people a break or help them out.
When a character makes a purchase, they compare their wealth score to the item or service’s value score. If the value score is lower than the character’s wealth score, the adventurer can make the purchase. If the value score is equal to the wealth score, the character can still make the purchase, but the item or service is so costly that doing so lowers their wealth score by 1.
If the value score is greater than the wealth score, the price is so prohibitively high that the character must raise their wealth score before making the purchase.
Selling an item with a value score higher than your current wealth score increases your wealth score. The amount of increase is equal to half the difference between the two scores (rounded up), unless the storyteller deems otherwise. I've also decided that if you have three items worth the same wealth then they can be considered to be collectively worth the next rank of wealth. (e.g. three items with a cost of one would be equal to a wealth of two.)
Money and collateral is abstracted in-game with a wealth score. Your wealth score is an approximate measure of the coin and barterable goods at your character’s disposal. The higher the wealth score, the richer you are. Generally, a 1st-step character starts with a wealth score of 1, though some backgrounds or other starting character options may increase your wealth score beyond that.
Wealth isn't all about getting money though. Your fame or reliability can also increase your Wealth, as people are more willing to give trustworthy people a break or help them out.
When a character makes a purchase, they compare their wealth score to the item or service’s value score. If the value score is lower than the character’s wealth score, the adventurer can make the purchase. If the value score is equal to the wealth score, the character can still make the purchase, but the item or service is so costly that doing so lowers their wealth score by 1.
If the value score is greater than the wealth score, the price is so prohibitively high that the character must raise their wealth score before making the purchase.
Selling an item with a value score higher than your current wealth score increases your wealth score. The amount of increase is equal to half the difference between the two scores (rounded up), unless the storyteller deems otherwise. I've also decided that if you have three items worth the same wealth then they can be considered to be collectively worth the next rank of wealth. (e.g. three items with a cost of one would be equal to a wealth of two.)