System

Xen's Fantasy Game System (XFGS)

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Character Sheet

Click Through here is a Character Sheet.

Introduction

This system is based on the existing Superhero Game, with a few additions for genre specificity.

The driving factor behind the system is that the game designer dislikes systems that lock people into playing a Class. To survive in a brutal fantasy world, as would be needed in any world, a character needs to be an all-rounder. To have a trick or two that someone else might not know about.

This system is designed to be simple, quick and versatile.

The basics

This game is based on the highest number idea. In general (there are, of course, exceptions, but keep reading for these), you roll 1D20, and add the result to your score. That is then your final score.

The score for a task is generally: Ability+Skill+D20= Score

The score is then compared to the Challenge Rating, which is given to the players by the Games Master (That is, the person who is running the game for you).

There are two special rolls that you need to be aware of. A roll of 20 is always a success, and called a critical success. A roll of 1 is always a failure and called a critical fail.

Critical successes mean that you achieve whatever it is you’re trying to do. This doesn’t mean that what you’re about to do will go your way. If you are trying to kick open a door that is boobytrapped, and you roll a 20, you will definitely kick open the door. This does not warn you about the boobytrap, and does not, necessarily, stop it from going off. A critical success might also mean that you have found a way to do whatever task you were doing in a way that works better for you in general permanently. (see quirks)

A Critical Fail means that something bad has happened to you, or your party members. Either you’ve managed to misfire and shoot yourself in the foot, not noticed useful material, or in some cases find that a task that you are trying to do you are physically incapable of doing (and may never be able to do ever (see quirks).

In theory, every task can be tried. For those untrained in a task, the task might not be (rationally) likely to succeed, and might even have a Challenge Rating (CR) above what a person could roll. That does not mean that a person should not be allowed to try. There is always the chance of a natural 20, and even a non-succesful roll can be improved by the use of Luck.

Challenge Rating

This is the number that a hero has to achieve in order to succeed at a task.

The challenge rating for basic tasks is 17.

This rating changes based on other factors that can make a task difficult. Low light can make a target difficult to see, and might raise the target rating by 2 or 3 for a small object, for a challenge rating of 20 (CR 20).

Under Duress

Heros are not generally required to make a roll if their skill is naturally over the Challenge Rating for a task. There are are some exceptions to this. A roll is always required when Under Duress. This is a time of stress for the hero, and there is a chance that they might make a mistake. In some instances, the difficulty of the simple task may be increased because of the duress.

For example, a hero can unlock a simple door given time, the right equipment and peace without a roll. In this particular instance, however, the building is on fire, their life is in direct danger by the spreading flame. The Challenge Rating of the task has now moved from simple (17) to difficult(23). This is not the challenge rating of the lock, but a combined difficult of all the situational factors. This might get even more difficult if the hero doesn’t have the right equipment (+3 difficulty for this particular lock), and being actively shot at (+4). This makes the challenge rating 30.

Being under duress can make even the simplest of tasks nigh-impossible. Only a real hero would even attempt them.

Luck

This game is designed so that the characters can be heroes. There are going to be times when a hero doesn’t manage to pass a roll, but really feels that they need to do. As such, each character has 5 free Luck points that they can use for these actions. These refill at the end of the story arc, the GM will tell you when. If these run out, because a hero has been particularly unlucky, or wanting to be particularly heroic, the character can then also use the Experience Points that they have built up on their sheet for the same thing.

Luck Example

A Luck point allows a hero to roll 1d6 to attempt to increase their score. Each time a point is spent, you get an automatic bonus 1, to represent the Character point you have spent, and you get to roll, and add 1d6 to your roll.

Ability+Skills+1 (+1+1d6+1+1d6+ etc) +D20=Score

You can keep rolling the 1d6 as often as you have character points or XP to spend. If you roll a 6, the dice ‘explodes’ (you are very lucky), and you get a free roll, adding this number, ignoring any 1’s to your total. However, if you roll a 1d6 on the dice, you lose ALL ACCUMULATED POINTS FROM THE DICE. This is not considered a Critical Fail.

For example, a hero is trying to pick a particularly difficult lock. They have 9 in lockpick (Ability of 4 and skill in lockpick of 5). They roll a d20, and roll 5. This is very difficult lock, with a difficulty of 21. As they are in a battle, and desperately need to free the prisoners behind the locked door, the hero decides to press on.

They spend a character point, and roll 1d6 for another 4, adding the 1 for the character point spent, they now have 19. Being so close, they decide to roll again.

If they roll any number other than 1 on the d6, they will succeed this test. If they roll a 1, they will loose all that they have gained from the dice roll (in this case the 4), and only be left with the character point spent (which will 2. One for each dice).

Luck and Critical Fails

Luck cannot be used to improve, or make a critical fail not happen. For that, you must use Fate points

Luck Stat

The Luck stat is a special stat that a hero can buy with XP, either when they create their character, or later during the game if their character has been particularly lucky.

For each point that a character has in Luck, they gain an extra 5 luck points

Fate Points

Heroes are watched by Lady Fate. The granting of the first Fate Point by The Lady is what separates a hero from an ordinary person. Fate points are powerful, and rare.

Every hero begins the game with 1 fate point.

Fate points are awarded at the whim of the Lady, though they are most often awarded for doing her bidding, and following the fate she has mapped out for you: Being the hero you are meant to be.

Fate points are awarded for a hero being selfless, giving themselves to save others. For being a hero. This should be extraordinary acts of valour, and not just a hero using their healing ability to heal the wounded.

Using Fate Points

A Fate point is a powerful item. It gives a player access to fate itself, allowing them to rewrite fate as they see fit. This may not necessarily be in their favor. A fate point can be used for all manner of things. Perhaps a hero is in desperate need of a weapon, and while searching an abandoned cabin, they use a fate point to find one. The weapon they find, of course, will be at the discretion of Lady Fate (Or, in game terms, the GM). Abuse of the Fate point will may mean that Lady Fate will withdraw her favor, or worse, grant that hero a black mark.

Using Fate: A GM's Perspective

Fate points are meant to be there to aid the players in their time of need. They can even roll-back a disastrous critical fail. However, they cannot play with the fabric of reality itself (generally speaking). A player cannot use a fate point to find a specific item in a location where it would not normally be found. They cannot summon the Great Sword of Akash to their bedroom, for example. Players who annoy Lady Fate will gain a black mark.

A Black Mark of Fate

Lady Fate is not to be trifled with. Those who do will have her favour removed, and gain a black mark. Players with a black mark cannot use Fate Points unless they have more Fate Points than they have black marks.

Optional Rule: For every black mark that a player has, it increases the number needed to roll a critical failure.

A player with five Black Marks has managed to anger the Lady so that their fate holds only one thing: Death. The Lady will relentlessly, and without mercy hunt the player (and all who are with them) until they are dead. For the good of the party a hero with 5 black marks should leave the game.

Black Mark Example

If a player gains 1 black mark, they require 2 Fate points to be able to spent a fate point. The other fate point is untouchable while they have the black mark.

While they have the black mark, on the roll of a 1 or 2 on the D20 they have Critically Failed. A character with 3 black marks would critically fail on a roll of 1,2 or 3, and so on.

Removing Black Marks

A Black Mark can be removed in a number of ways.

• They can visit the Temple of Fate in Ithica, and pay a large sum of money to have it removed. NOTE: The Temple does not take kindly to repeat visitors.
• They can request a fate quest. A Fate quest is a quest given by the lady that they must succeed at. Failure will mean another black mark.
• They can follow their fate in an exemplary manner. The problem with this can be finding out what their fate actually is.
• Lady Fate can be capricious. She may remove it at her own whim.

The Parts of a Character

Abilities

To know how well, or badly a character can achieve a thing, a hero needs statistics, or stats for short. Generally, these break down into 7 categories. During character creation, each score point in these abilities will need to be bought.

Strength

This is a measure of how physically strong a person is. This covers actions done with the body.

Agility

This covers how agile someone is. That is, how supple and nimble the whole body is. This the dodge skill (that is, how difficult you are to hit) is based off this stat.

Dexterity

This deals with fine manipulation of things. This is the skill used for picking pockets, or locks.

Intellect

This stat covers how intelligent your character is. This stat is the basis for any special knowledge a character has. This is the characters learned knowledge.

Awereness.

This stat covers how much the character is aware of things that are going around them. This stat is the basis for perception rolls, willpower, and general knowledge checks. It is also the skill that initiative is based on.

Presence

This covers a character’s force of personality. How charismatic they are, or even, how unnerving they are. It covers persuade and intimidation checks.

Ability Scale

Abilities need not have a positive range. A negative in an ability shows that that ability is disabled, or in some way missing. The negative score would mean removing that number from the total number rolled.

Score Description

• -5 Disabled in some way
• -3 Young Child /Elderly
• -1 Teenagers/Young Adults
• 0 Average Human Adult
• 1 Trained Human Adult
• 2 Professionally trianed Human Adult (Weight Lifter/Accademic)
• 3 Professionally trained. (eg. Professor, Personal trainer etc)
• 4 In the top 20% of their chosen field
• 5 Amongst the best in their field locally
• 6 Amongst the best in their field nationally
• 7 Expert
• 8 Legend

Special Scores

Health

This covers how healthy a body is. This stat is primarily used to see how much damage your body naturally takes, how long you can keep doing something, and how difficult it is to ward off poisons. This skill is responsible for working out which soak dice you roll when spending Character Points to soak damage.

1 = d4 2= d6 3=d8 4=d10 5=d12 6=d12+d4

When a character has a health score of 6 or more, for each 5 more, add another dice. So a character with 7 in health is rolling a d12+d6, 8 is rolling a d12+d8. It is only a one on the largest dice (eg. d12) that counts for stopping the roll culmination. If a hero has 10 in health (and therefore has 2 d12’s), the hero must pick which dice is the ‘major’ dice before rolling. It may be helpful for the two dice to be of different colours.

Luck

Luck is a measure of how generally luck your character is, and controls how many luck points a character has before they need to start using their own XP. Every hero gets 5 Luck points for free. For each point in Luck that a hero has, they gain an additional 5 Luck points.

For example, a character with a Luck score of 1 has 10 Luck points.

Defenses and Initiative

These scores are the passive defences that a body has. It takes into account the natural difficult it is to hit someone, or to poison someone and so on.

In some cases (such as during combat), a character is aware that they are going to be hit, and it may be more beneficial to use a skill or superpower, rather than these scores.

Dodge

This score is based on Agility. Dodge is the score that will be used when someone is shooting at you from a distance. Initially, this will be based on your Agility score. During character creation (and when improving a character while spending XP) this score can be increased. When a character improves their agility score, their Dodge score also improves by the same amount. For example: a hero has an Agility score of 4, and a Dodge score of 6. They improve their Agility score to 5, because of this, their Dodge score becomes 7.

It cannot be increased to more than double a character's Agility.

Instead perhaps take 2 x Agility + Awareness + Points in Dodge = Dodge Skill.

Fortitude

This is the score is based on Health and Presence. This score is used whenever someone is trying to poison you, or you are trying to avoid breathing in poisonous gas. It is also the score that is used when trying to hold one’s breath underwater, or to keep pushing yourself forward physically. Pushing yourself beyond your limits requires your mental fortitude, as well as physical.

It cannot be increased to more than double a character's Health.

Fortitude = Health X2 + Presence + points spent = Total

Parry

This score is based on Dexterity. This score is used whenever someone is trying to hit you. It defines how naturally able you are to block someone who is trying to hit you, up close and personal.

It cannot be increased to more than double a character's Dexterity.

Perhaps make Dex x 2 + Awareness + Points

Toughness

This score is based on Health. This score shows how resilient someone is to taking damage. This score is always removed from the amount of damage a character would receive when a character takes damage.

Example: A hero has been hit in the face by a brick in a sock. It is a successful strike, and would do 10 points of damage. A hero has a toughness of 6, so the hero only takes 4 (10 minus the toughness of 6, which is 4) points of damage.

This score is always used when taking damage. Any other abilities or skills that reduce damage are added to this score.

Total = Health*2 + Strength + Points Spent

Will

Will is based on Awareness. It shows your mental stability, your will to keep going, your strength. It is used for the defence against mental attacks, and it is also used to wake a character up from unconsciousness, and to keep a character from dying.

Total = Awereness * 2 + Intellect + Points Spent

Initiative

It is based on Awareness. Initiative is used to work out who goes first in a fight. This can be affected by skills, and by super-powers. Unlike other skills, a base of 10 is not added to this. It can be improved by XP, and has no limit.

Total = Awareness * 2 + Agility + Points Spent

Body Points

Body Points (BP) are an indicator of how much physical damage a hero can take. This is worked out by adding Health to the number 20, followed by the value of a D20. This value can be increased by XP at the creation of a hero.

This amount is increased when the value of Health is increased.

Skills

Skills are abilities that the hero is trained in. They may have a mechanical skill from a day job, or they may have learned acrobatics while growing up in a circus. Each of these skills has a controlling Ability. For example, acrobatics is a skill that uses the full body, as such it comes under Agility. The scores are then both combined to give the score for the skill (as shown in the Basics section).

Having a positive number in a skill means that a hero is trained in that skill.

Skill are generally common-sense abilities, and no exhaustive list could ever be created. Skills follow the general idea that the higher score the better.

Score Description

• 1 Hobbyist. Something they do occasionally
• 4 Professionally trained
• 6 Able to teach professionally
• 8 researcher in the subject
• 10 best in the locality
• 14 best nationally
• 17 best globally

Two skills with the same name are not necessarily equivalent. They should be shaped with quirks(see below), and with the way in which the character uses them. If a character concept revolves around trivia, then perhaps their skill check on knowledge for something that could be considered trivia will succeed at a lower Challenge Rating than someone who specialises in the area, but not in that particular field. This is meant to create interesting, and unusual characters from the way in which they are played.

Fighting Skills

Some skills will naturally be fighting skills. Brawling, or swordfighting, for example. Some skills might be more general, like Marksmanship. In a fight, it may make more sense to use these skills than the general defensive skills like Parry or Dodge. To do so, simply take the total skill score, and use that as the score to hit a character. For example, A Hero has Brawling at 11, and an Agility score of 4, giving them a Brawling score of 15. This is more than their Parry skill 14.

At earlier levels, their natural ability will be better than their trained abilities. This is to be expected, after all, it takes time to learn how to be a hero. In this case, always use the higher of the scores.

NOTE: Sometimes fighting skills are general. Such as Marksmanship. This gives the hero the ability to use many weapons (guns/crossbows etc) interchangeably. Broad skills like this do not confer such fighting bonuses. General skills cannot be added to damage done with a weapon. (eg. Melee does not add a damage bonus, whereas Sword use does. However, sword use can only be used for fighting with swords, and not bottles. see also Combat)

There is not an exhaustive list of skill here, as they can be picked by the player, with consent of the GM. An example list to follow (eventually).

Circles of Power

Circles of Power are what make heroes exceptional people. Circles allow a character to roll extra dice based on the rating of that circle, and perhaps any relevant skill that is contained there in. These are skills that cannot be gained in any other way.

A hero can have as many circles, and circle powers, as they like. Each circle governs an aspect, or an element of a character. When a character uses a circle, or a circle power, the ratings are added together to produce a Circle Rating. With this number, it is compared to the table table below to see how many dice a character rolls in addition to their usual skill checks (if any).

For example, a Hero has the Strength Circle at 1. For every action they take that involves Strength, they would add their Strength score, plus any relevant skills, then roll a D20, plus 1d4 for their Strength Circle rating.

Circle Powers

Circle powers are skills that are connected with the circle in which they live. Circle powers are focused, rather than general. It makes them easier to learn, but removes the versitility. A Power can be focused on defence, attack, damage, and so on, but cannot be used for multiple aspects. The hero must chose at purchase of the power what aspect it is covering.

It is always a good idea to give a descriptive name to the power, which describes how it will work. The words Attack/Defence/etc. can be part of the name, or appended to it, or (for asthetic reasons) simply marked with an A (for Attack) or a D (for Damage) and so on.

The power of a Circle Power is produced by adding the rating of the Cirlce Power, to the controlling Circle.

A hero cannot have a Circle Power, and not have already purchased the controlling circle.

For example, A warrior hero would like to be stronger at hitting trolls with their sword. They would take the skill Great Swing Attack at 1, in their Strength Circle (also at 1). This makes their Circle Power Rating 2 when using this power. As such, they would add 1d6 to their roll when they are using this skill.

Circle Rating

• 1 = d4
• 2 = d6
• 3 = d8
• 4 = d10
• 5 = d12
• 6 = d4+d12
• 7 = d6+d12
• 8 = d8+d12
• 9 = d10+d12
• 10 = d12+12
• 11 = d12+d12+d4

...

And so on.

Magic

Magic is a force that comes from between realities. Mages pull this power, and manipulate it to their will.

The first circle that any mage learns is the circle of Control. This is both a physical and mental discipline that trains the mage to remain focused while channelling the magic through them. This is important, as magic can be used as a channel for the Things from Beyond to enter into the world.

This control circle must then be combined with an element, or aspect that the mage wishes to control. Aspects can be, for example, earth, fire, metal, air, water, rock, time, distance and so on. One circle is needed for each aspect. A Mage can only have as many circles as they have points in control.

To build a spell, a Mage needs to have the relevant circles.

For example, our Hero wants to throw a fireball. The Mage starts with Control (at 1) and Fire (at 1). The Mage can now throw a fireball within combat distance (15ft). If the Ogre is within that distance, the Mage adds up the circles, and compares it to the table. 2 means 1d6. As such, the mage would roll 1D20+1D6, and try to get over the targets ranged defences. When the fireball hits, it does 1d6 points of damage (as Control (1) and Fire (1) is 1d6).

However, what if the target (a large Ogre), is 30ft away?. For this, the Mage needs to add Distance (at 1). The mage would also like the Ogre to burn for a while, so the Mage needs to add Time (at 1). In this situtation, the Mage adds Control (1), Fire(1), Distance(1), and Time(1) together. For this spell, a Mage is rolling 1d20 and 1d10 (looking at the chart, we can see that 4 is 1d10). When the fireball hits, it does 1d10 damage.

A Mage can use as many circles for a spell as makes sense.

In some instances, a Mage might not want to use the full power of a circle. Perhaps to conserve Mystica (See below), or to ensure the spell is not so powerful as to kill their target, perhaps they need them alive. A Mage never needs to use the full power of any circle. They must always, however, have at least 1 point of control in any spell.

For each circle that a Mage adds, it drains Mystica (see below)

Bardic Magic, Drudic Magic, and so on, all fall under this same idea. The only exception is Clerical Magic (see below).

Mystica

For each circle that a Mage adds to a spell, it drains Mystica. Mystica is a measure of the physical strain it takes to summon and manipualte magic, breaking the laws of nature and physics. Mystica, in this way, is the Mages' "Spell power". For every 1 they have in their control power, they gain 5 points of mystica. When a mage is out of mystica, that doesn't mean that they can't cast magic, but it means that the spell now takes a physical toll on the mages' body. For each spell cast after the Mystica has run out come out of the hero's body points.

For example, When our hero threw that deadly fireball at the Ogre, they had used up their 5 mystica points (for having 1 in control). They chose to take the 4 points of damage that casting the spell did to them in order to save the party.

Magic and the Critical Fail

When a mage critically fails a spell, there is a chance that they have summoned a Thing from Beyond. This happens as well as any other negative affects from the spell.

To discover if a mage has summoned a Thing, take the power of the spell, and add increase the critical fail value by the number of points in the spell, then remove the number in control For example, a our mage trying to hit the Ogre critically failed. They now need to find out if they have caught the attention of a Thing. They were using 4 circles to achieve this.

NOTE: for this check, it is not the number of points in control that were used in the spell, but rather, the number of points in control that they have.

They remove the total value of Control (4 - It must be at least 4, they have 4 circles), leaving 0. They add this to their critical fail value (in this instance, is 1, but may be higher if they have black marks of fate) for a total of 1 (This number can never be less than 1). They now roll a D20. If they roll less than, or equal too 1, a Thing appears.

Example 2: They decide to set the Orc on fire. They decide to throw everything they have at including a specialisation in Fireball. They have 6 total in Fireball, and they have a control of 2. Here, they crit-fail, and now must make a roll to see if a Thing appears. Here, they take their control of 2, away from the number of dice they rolled, leaving 4. They now add their crit-fail number (1), for a total value of 5. If they roll less than 5 a Thing appears.

Clerical Magic

Clerical magic is slightly different from mage's magic.

Their clerical power comes from a Deity, so there is no danger of summoning a Thing from Beyond. This means that they do not need a Control circle to cast magic, but they are limited to the circles that are granted by their chosen deity, and limited to when and how their magic will work based on their standing with their deity.

Losing favour with one's deity, or taking an action that is directly in contradiction to their God's wishes may result in the removal of magic all together.

Clerics still require Mystica to cast their spells. To work out how much Mystica a cleric has, use the prime circle of their chosen Deity. The prime circle in for clerics acts as the control circle does for mages. A Cleric cannot have more circles than they have points in their prime circle.

For example, Clerics of Albeal, the Goddess of Law have the prime circle of Justice. Our Cleric of Albeal has 3 in this Circle, as such, they have a Mythica of (3x5)=15.

Cleritcal Crit Fail

When clerics critically fail their rolls, they do not summon a thing from beyond, as their magic comes from the divine. It is possible that this fail might incur the wrath of their deity, as such the Games Master may decide what happens.

However, if there is no specific response from the deity, there is a chance that they have 'shorted' their magic, and taken magical damage from badly channeling divine energy.

The Cleric rolls another D20, if they roll 1 then they take the total value of the spell as physical damage.

For example, if they were using a spell with a Power Rating of 4, they would take 4 points of damage to their Body Points. This cannot be soaked.

Wild Magic

Wild Magic is a very, very, very bad idea.

A very, very bad idea.

Wild Magic is magic that is attempted by simply using a Power Circle, without a control circle.

This means someone who doesn't have a control circle AT ALL, or a mage who chooses not to add a single point from a control circle.

When casting Wild Magic, it does not take a points of Mystica, as there's no control, and therefore no strain. When casting wild magic, it is considered a critical fail on a roll of 11 or less. A critical fail will summon a Thing, normally a more powerful Thing that would be expected. Perhaps even more than one.

Wild Magic is a very, very, very bad idea.

Combat

Combat is likely in a hero game, as hero's attempt to overthrow the villains, and save the day.

Combat is therefore designed to be quick and simple, to keep the action fluid and exciting.

Combat happens in rounds.

To decide who is going first, everyone rolls a D20, and adds their initiative to the result.

In order, every hero takes a turn. A turn is defined as something that could be rationally done in 5 seconds. Each of these actions in theory happen at the same time, but for the sake of ease of play, they tend to happen one after another. A hero can choose to “hold their action” until after another hero has taken their turn.

During the round. Any hero can speak to another hero when it’s not their turn. It is the role of the GM to make sure that this conversation is “in Character”, and not about knowing that character A has an X number in a skill Talking is considered a “free action”, that is, it doesn’t use up the hero’s action for that round.

During combat, a hero may want to use an active defence, rather than a passive defence. The passive defence is the default values named above, the active values are an activated super-power. For example, a hero may have a high-tech sword. As this is counted as a superpower for the sake of the rules, with 7 (Agility (4) sword use(3)), this would be doubled to 14, which is better than their default parry 13. To use this, at the start of the combat, they may choose to activate the parry. This then because their parry value for the duration of the combat.

If the hero critically fails at their activation they have made themselves easier to hit. Their score becomes the value of the super-power without being doubled.

If the hero critically succeeds at their activation they have made themselves more difficult to hit, and the value of the super-power is tripled.

Combat Turn Order

Decide Initiative Anyone with an initiative power can choose to activate it. Roll initiative + d20, the highest goes first. Each player may take a single action. A single action may be anything that takes roughly 5 seconds: Activating their superpowers for improved defences Moving more than 5ft Making an attack

Attacking

During their turn, a hero will likely want to attack a villain.

To make an attack, a hero chooses the relevant fighting skill.

If the skill is a physical weapon (sword or gun), they then use skills like sword fighting, or pistol use. These are then added to the controlling Ability, and added together. The difficult for the attack is the defender’s Parry (in the case of a sword) or Dodge in the case of a gun, and so on. If the skill is a super-power, they use the relevant super-power skill (dark bolt, mental attack). The difficulty is the target’s Dodge in the case of a ranged dark-bolt, or Will in the case of a mental attack, and so on.

Example:

Swordfighting (Agility(4)+Sword Skill(3)) + D20 (14) = 21

Causing Damage

If the attack succeeds, the hero makes a damage roll.

For a physical weapon, damage is calculated by the following calculation:

Weapon’s Skill +Weapons Damage + (D20) = Final score.

Example: Swordfighting 7 (Sword Skill (3)+Agility (4)) + 10 (Weapons Damage (Strength +5) + (D20 (14) ) = 35.

For ranged weapons:

Weapon Specific Skill + Weapons Damage + D20

eg:

Weapon’s skill 7 (Bow (3)+ Dexterity(4)) + 10 (Arrow) + 14 (D20)= 31

NOTE: When rounding damage, always round up.

It is not possible to critically fail at doing damage.

If the hero rolls a critical success in doing damage, then the damage total is doubled, if the hero wishes (there are times when a hero may not necessarily wish to do double the amount of damage, especially if that damage might kill a villain).

In some cases, a hero may want to do extra damage with a relevant superpower. A good example of this is a hero with a sword, and super-strength. In this example, they may wish to activate (see above) their super-strength instead of using their default strength. If a hero did successfully activate their super-strength when using a sword (as in the above example), then their strength is replaced with their super-strength * 2. They are not added together.

Damage

When a hero is hit by a villain, they will take damage.

The amount of damage is worked out like this (this is called a Soak Roll):

Total Damage Dealt - (Toughness +(Armour)+Health Dice+D20) = Damage

Example: Damage Dealt (27) - ( Toughness (13) + Health Dice (2)+ (D20 (5)) = 7

If a hero rolls a critical fail at this point, the hero takes damage, but has also done themselves a critical injury, such as breaking an arm, or twisting an ankle. These can give minuses to the hero from this point onwards. For example, breaking a left arm might give a -2 to agility, which will affect all rolls connected to it (including Dodge), thereby making them easier to hit.

If a hero rolls a critical success, the hero takes no damage, no matter how much less than the full damage the soak roll is.

Soak

On some occasions, a hero might want to avoid taking damage. They can do this by choosing to roll their health dice (see health), and spending a Luck Point(LP) (or, if they are out of Luck Points, and XP). For each Luck Point they spend, they can roll their health dice and add the number to their soak score (above). If they roll a 1 on their health dice, then they loose all the Luck Points spent so far, and all the benefit achieved from them, and are reduced down to their basic soak score.

Unconsciousness

If a hero takes more damage than half their current Body Points, they fall unconscious. Any actions that require them to be concentrating stop. A hero remains unconscious until they roll a successful Will roll against Challenge Rating 25, or a suitable moment after the time of Duress has passed. A hero may not wish to become conscious, and can choose to remain unconscious and therefore not make the roll.

Taking such a large amount of damage has a chance of causing permanent physical harm. On falling unconscious, a hero rolls their health dice. On the roll of a one, they have caused some physical harm. A broken arm, or leg, or perhaps something more fatal.

Body Damage Roll

To work out which part of the body has been affected, roll a d6 and compare it to the following table.

• 1 right arm.
• 2 left arm.
• 3 right leg.
• 4 left leg.
• 5 Chest
• 6 head.

Damage to the head and chest areas may lead to bleeding and/or extended unconsciousness.

Dying and Death

As in all good stories, heros die.

If a hero reaches negative Body Points in damage, they are considered to be Unconscious, and must immediately make a Body Damage Roll. They may not recover from the state until they have been healed above 0 Body Points.

If they have taken negative body points that is equal to or greater than double their health, they are considered to be dying. For example, a hero with a health of 10, is on -5 body points, they are simply unconscious. If the hero then takes another 6 points of damage from being on fire, taking them to -11 points of damage, the hero begins to die.

A hero does not instantly die. There is a chance that their team-mates might try to rescue them. The hero’s action immediately following them beginning to die a hero must make a Will roll against a Challenge Rating of 17. Every turn there after, the Challenge rating increases by one. So, the next turn, the Challenge Rating becomes 18. This rating increases for 10 rounds, until the Challenge Rating becomes 27 (that is, the start of the hero’s turn, giving the maximum amount of time for other heroes to try to save them. Once the challenge rating becomes 27, that hero is dead.

If at any point the hero fails the roll (and does not have enough luck points to succeed) the hero is also considered to be dead.

optional rule: If a hero critical fails any of these rolls, then the hero is dead, and may not be resurrected.

optional rule(may be used instead of the above rule): If a hero critical fails any of these rolls, then the hero is dead. If the hero has a chance of resurrection, they must take a permanent disability/disfigurement of some kind.

Example Weapon Damage Chart

Weapon Name	Damage	Notes
Rock	1 + Strength
Glass Bottle/Scalpel	2 + Strength
Knife	1d4
Generic Sword	1d6
Short Bow	1d6
Long Bow	1d8
Two Handed Sword	1d12	Using such a hefty weapon will throw it's user off-balance. As such, the wielder suffers halving of any defensive stance they take.
Balanced Knife	3
Balanced Sword	4
Balanced Short Bow	5
Balanced Long Bow	7
Balanced Two Handed Sword	10	NOTE: There is no penalty with a balanced weapon

A Note on the damage chart

These damages are examples.

There will be swords which are better made, that are custom designed for the wielder. There will also be magical swords that will give a tiny boost, and so on.

Balanced Vs. Generic

Balanced weapons are weapons of high-quality and high-precision. This means that the wielder can be much more sure of how the weapon will swing, and how much damage it will do. As such, the balanced weapons do a constant amount of damage, rather than a dice roll. This gives a more consistent amount of damage.

The Generic weapons all have flaws in them, either in their weighting, or in the metal of the blade, or so on. This means that the weapon doesn't always hit well. It can also mean, of course, that these flaws line up in favour of the wielder and might mean that it can do more damage than the balanced weapon. The difference is, of course, that it can equally do less damage.

Quirks

During the game, characters will find that they are passing more rolls than some, and failing more rolls than others. Perhaps a character simply can’t juggle swords when they are showing off. These kinds of random actions should be turned into Quirks. Quirks give permanent negatives and positives to actions. For example, a hero has (through random luck) just rolled 3 critical successes in a row to a task. That task could be made into a Quirk, and now gains a +2 to success to any future actions.

It can also work the other way. A character has managed to critically fail a certain task repeatedly. That character is just not cut out to using that skill in that way, and it becomes a quirk. That character is now at a -2 to those tasks in future.

When a character gains a negative quirk, those characters should increase their permanent Luck Points by one for each negative quirk they have.

optional: For each positive quirk a character has, they should reduce their permanent character points by one.

Quirks are designed to ensure that it is play-style, and skill usage that drive the character, rather than simple statistics.

Character Creation

At Character creation, a player has 70 points to build their character. The cost for each section are below:

• 15 XP for Species pack
• 15 XP for a circle
• 7 XP for a circle skill
• 5 XP for an Atrribute
• 5 XP for a Special Stat
• 3 XP for a Skill
• 3 XP for a Defence Stat
• 2 XP for a Skill Specialisation.

XP Earning

(Generally earn roughly 3-5 XP per session)

XP Spending

* New Circle: 25 xp
* New Circle Skill: 10xp
* New Skill : 7xp
* New Skill Specialisation: 5xp
* New Special Skill: 15xp

* Next Circle Level: 10xp X the level you are going too. 
* Atributes: 15xp times the level they are going too. 
* Skills: 5 times the level they are going too.
* Specialisation: 3 times the level they are going too
* Defenses: 5 times the level they are going too 
* Circle Skills: 5 times the level they are going too. 
* Special Skills : 15xp X the level you are going too.