redhackrules

[redhackrules]

Character Creation

1. Attributes

Roll 3d6 for each of the following attributes and assign the total result of each roll in order:

STR

DEX

CON

INT

WIS

CHA

You may then swap the values of two attributes.

Next select

2. Class

Select a class from the following:

Warrior

Starting Hit Points: 1d10+4 Starting Hit Die: 1d10 Attack Damage: 1d8, 1d6 improvised or unarmed. Prime Requisites: STR & DEX

Armour Maintenance

As a Warrior you have advantage when rolling the usage die for Armourer’s Tools.

Cleave

Warriors can cut a swathe through lesser foes. When making an attack you may assign additional an additional d6 damage die to one target within range per level. You must roll to hit these additional targets as normal. Each target may only receive one cleave die, but this may be in addition to the die from your primary attack. If you do assign a die to your primary target you do not have to roll to hit that target twice; you may roll both damage dice together.

Parry

Whenever you successfully defend, if you have cleave dice remaining, you may immediately assign one to the attacker. You may only assign one per attacker regardless of how many attacks missed, but you may assign dice to them even if you earlier assigned dice to them during your attack, and vice versa.

Thief

Starting Hit Points: 1d6+4 Starting Hit Die: 1d6 Attack Damage: 1d6, 1d4 improvised or unarmed. Prime Requisites: DEX & WIS

Thief Skills

Thieves have advantage when: • Picking locks (with thieves tools.) • Listening for noises. • Searching for traps. • Disabling traps (with thieves tools.) • Picking pockets. • Moving silently. • Hiding in shadows. • Climbing walls (with rope.) • Gathering information.

Backstab

Attacking an unsuspecting opponent with a small or missile weapon grants advantage on your attack and deals 2d6+level damage. You may backstab when any of the following are true:

You have surprise.

You are invisible.

You are hidden when the combat begins.

Your target is stunned, held, or blinded.

You attack someone who had no reason to suspect you were going to attack.

Nobody was attacking you and you spent an action to hide in a previous round.

You attack an opponent who fulfills all of the following criteria:

You did not attack them last round.

They were not close to you last round.

They have already been attacked by someone else this round.

Cleric

Starting Hit Points: 1d8+4 Starting Hit Die: 1d8 Attack Damage: 1d6, 1d4 improvised or unarmed. Prime Requisites: WIS & CON

Turn Undead

Test WIS as an action, with a penalty equal to Creature’s HD. Disadvantage unless holy symbol used.

Divine Fortitude

Advantage on CON saves vs Poison & Paralysis.

Divine Magic

See spellcasting.

Wizard

Starting Hit Points: 1d4+4 Starting Hit Die: 1d4 Attack Damage: 1d4, 1d3 improvised or unarmed. Prime Requisites: INT & WIS

Learned & Wise

Have advantage on checks relating to arcane lore, history, the planes etc.

Legend Lore

Identify magical items with a secret INT check.

Arcane Magic

See spellcasting.

Bard

Starting Hit Points: 1d6+4 Starting Hit Die: 1d6 Attack Damage: 1d6, 1d4 unarmed. Prime Requisites: DEX & CHA

Performance

Advantage on rolls to perform, entertain, Gather Information, Carouse, or Develop Relationship.

Folklore

Bards have advantage on knowledge tests about history, politics, magic, religion, monsters, geography, in fact almost any area of human concern, but will recall rumour, story, or legend, which may or may not be entirely accurate. They can identify magical items in this way, and cast spells from scrolls like a wizard.

Tricksy

With a DEX test against a creature (or CHA against foes who can understand the Bard) a Bard can trick his opponents in combat. Choose one of the following effects: • Target takes 1d6 damage from dirty tricks. • Target has disadvantage on their attack. • Target is forced to block a creature attempting to move into combat, including an ally. They do not have to attack each other, but they do end up close to one another instead of their target. • Target takes a free attack on the bard; if they miss, they instead hit a target of the bard’s choice.

3. Backgrounds

Each background is a sentence that helps to flesh out your character and define who they are and where they are coming from.

They serve three purposes:-

The DM may give you advantage or disadvantage on particular rolls due to your background.

They serve as an invitation to the DM to incorporate particular elements into the game - if you're on the run from an evil cult and choose that as a background, you can expect the cult to show up at some point.

They can provide specific abilities - special combat moves, ritual spellcasting, anything within reason you want to be able to do that is not covered in the rules.

Introduce special abilities, roles, and titles unique to the setting.

Backgrounds maybe very broad or very narrow. A narrow background is not a problem for the DM; if a backgrounds says that you were a childhood friend of a particular NPC, the DM can and should arrange for that NPC to appear in the story. If you have a love of wine, perhaps the local lord is a wine enthusiast or you have advantage when haggling to sell the contents of a looted wine cellar.

A very broad background is more difficult to adjudicate. For example, a character like Alan Moore's Tom Strong or Arnold Schwarzenegger's character from the movie Twins might have the following background:

Background: Raised as a physical, intellectual, and spiritual paragon.

This seems like it would grant advantage on almost everything. Academic exercises, feats of athleticism, and Charisma tests to inspire others would all come easily to such a character.

One way to deal with this is to convey disadvantage on equally many tests outside of the background; such a character can be expected to struggle every time they wish to lie or dissemble, anytime they attempt stealth or sleight of hand, in any situation involving street smarts, and when answering questions about any specialized field of knowledge that their mad scientist father didn't think to include in their curriculum.

Sample Descriptive Backgrounds

Raised by goblins.

Second son of a noble house.

Defrocked priest.

Cellmate of a mysterious sage while in prison, from whom she learned many secret things.

Led an uprising in the fighting pits of Jaroon.

Sample Technique Backgrounds

Defensive Fighting: You have been trained in defensive fighting. If you forgo your attack for a round, you have advantage on defense rolls. Also you may move to block two enemies per round, as long as both are attempting to advance on targets Close to one another.

Twist the Knife: After scoring a successful hit with a small blade, you can keep the knife in the wound. If the target attacks you before your next action, you defend against that attack with disadvantage. If your next attack is against that foe, you attack with advantage and deal bonus damage equal to your level.

War On Two Fronts: Warrior only. Make two attacks in a round against different targets, dealing your full damage plus a cleave die if you have enough remaining; you may not apply cleave dice to any other targets.

Ritual Caster: You may cast spells or prayers of level 1-2 from the book, taking 10 minutes per level of the effect, regardless of your class.

4. Starting Equipment

To save setup time here are some starting equipment sets, pick one of the numbers under your class, that's what you start the game with.

Warrior

Armourer’s Tools ud8, Torch ud6, Hand Weapon 1d8, Leather Armour, Large Shield, 2d6 coins.

Armourer’s Tools ud8, Torch ud6, Hand Weapon 1d8, Leather Armour, Two Handed Weapon 1d10, 4d6 coins.

Armourer’s Tools ud8, Torch ud6, Hand Weapon 1d8, Gambeson , Shortbow 1d8, Arrows ud8, 3d6 coins.

Thief

Thieves Tools, Torch ud6, Hand Weapon 1d6, Leather Armour, 1d6x10 counterfeit or stolen coins.

Thieves Tools, Torch ud6, Hand Weapon 1d6, Gambeson, Light Crossbow 1d6, Arrows ud8, 4d6 coins.

Wizard

Spell Components ud6, Torch ud6, Hand Weapon 1d4, Gambeson, 4d6 coins.

Spell Components ud6, Torch ud6, Two Handed Weapon 1d6, 2d8 coins.

Cleric

Holy Symbol, Torch ud6, Leather Armour, Shield, 2d8 coins.

Holy Symbol, Torch ud6, Gambeson , Two Handed Weapon 1d8.

[redhackrules]

Experience & Gaining Levels

Gain one experience per:

Fight against an important or particularly challenging foe.

Saving throw that could lead to death.

Each time you return home Encumbered due to valuable treasure.

Quest completed on behalf of an NPC.

New dungeon, level or major map entered.

On your next downtime action you may check off experiences equal to your current level and level up.

Roll 1d6 for each level you had before levelling up, and multiply the result by your level - so at 3rd level you must roll 3d6x3 - and incur the result as additional costs in GP.

You gain:

1 Level

1 hit die added to your hit points.

Level-dependent class abilities such as cleave dice and spell slots.

A roll against every one of your attributes; if you roll higher than the attribute on d20, add 1 to it. This is not a test so 1s and 20s are not automatic success or failure. [Future games this will be restricted to 3 attributes and one reroll of your choice OR prime requisites roll twice gain once, two other attributes roll once.]

If you fail to gain a point of one or both of your Prime Requisites (see Class) you may roll one of them again.

A 'ding' bonus to your downtime action - a new Background, additional ticks on whatever you were working on, an additional reward, fame... The DM will determine the bonus, but it will always be in accordance with the action you were attempting. If you have an element of your character's backstory you wish to turn into a Background, you may request that specifically as your bonus.

[redhackrules]

Wilderness Survival

If your hexes are bigger or smaller multiply or divide the penalty per hex as appropriate. So crossing each ten mile hex would be a -4 penalty on the roll; a 2 or 3 mile hex would be -1.

Speed

A party's default speed is zero, representing normal walking speed.

Condition Speed Appropriate Mounts +1 or more Less than half items allowed for encumberance +1 Following a road +1 Any PCs are slowed or dragging or encumbered -1 Any PCs have two or more of the conditions in the entry above -1 per additional condition Difficult Terrain -1 Conducting a search -1

If speed is negative it becomes burden; add one and treat each hex travelled as though it were this many hexes.

If speed is positive, add one and divide the number of hexes moved by it.

So a party on horseback travelling light are +2 speed, and travel 3 hexes on each move; with three moves they take -4 to the roll and move a total of 6 hexes today.

Encounters in the Wild

Roll once for a random encounter per hex, or per long rest, or three times for a full day rest.

If the party has a visible fire subtract one from the encounter die.

Exhausted characters must make a CON test to stay awake during their watch.

Fatigue & Supplies

Hunger

Roll food once per day or become hungry.

Thirst

Roll water once per day or become thirsty.

Exhaustion

One long rest per day or become tired. A CON test is required if conditions are particularly uncomfortable - sleeping in the rain without a tent, sleeping on a cliff face dangling from a rope, etc.

Fatigue Tests

Hungry, thirsty or tired characters must make a fatigue check for each such condition each day; these are easier for hunger and exhaustion and harder for thirst

Tests against hunger and exhaustion are made with advantage until you fail one. Thereafter they are made normally until you fail another; then with disadvantage.

Tests against thirst are made with advantage on the first day, normally on the second, with disadvantage on the third, and automatically fail on the fourth.

If you consume half rations (roll ration dice as normal but ignore 2s), you may maintain advantage on fatigue checks from hunger and thirst indefinitely, but you still have to make them.

Any failure will move the character onto and then down the fatigue table.

A long rest, and a day's ration of food or water will remove tired, hungry and thirsty respectively. Each long rest which begins with none of the three conditions will move the character one step up the fatigue table toward eventual recovery.

A full day of rest will move two steps, and a downtime will usually mean a full recovery.

Fatigue Table

Fatigue Tests Failed Status Effect 1 Distressed Character is uncomfortable, may complain, fall quiet, be short-tempered or morose, etc. 2 Distracted Disadvantage on CHA/INT/WIS tests. 3 Debilitated Disadvantage on all attribute tests. 4 Dragging -1 to speed and cannot move in combat two rounds in a row without sacrificing a full action to do so. 5 Drained Reduce max HP by half. 6 Delirious Character is unconscious or incoherently conscious and can take not concerted action. 7 Dead Character will die within 24 hours without aid; roll on the OOA table if aid is provided.

Difficult or Treacherous Terrain

Difficult terrain reduces speed; treacherous terrain applies a penalty to the role.

Survival Tables

For simple wilderness travel have the PCs pick one among them for the Leader role, and roll on the following table applying his combined WIS & CON modifiers and the penalty for number of hexes moved:

Modified Roll Effect Example 1-5 Injury or Hazard Someone catches a life-threatening tropical illness; a fall breaks a limb; ambushed by a superior force; become lost and not realise. 6-10 Trouble or Loss Rations spoil; barbed thorns cause an injury; rough going leaves PCs tired; become lost and realise only at the end of the day. 11-15 Difficulty -2 penalty to one role for the next day; -1 penalty to a role due to loss of equipment until resupplied; become lost but realise after one hex of travel. 16-19 Uneventful Describe the ambience of the wilderness. Natural 20 Discovery PCs find a new or hidden location on the map. 20+ Bounty Gather rations or water; move an extra hex.

If possible, prepare a custom table for each landscape the PCs will travel through, with unique entries depicting its particular dangers. Alter the ranges to represent more safe or hazardous regions.

Think about the different things the party will have to do to survive in this environment and devise roles based on these - for example, Scout in any environment where ambush is likely, Quartermaster if the journey is long enough to require careful use of rations. In general the more dangerous an environment, the bigger the range of bad outcomes, the more roles should be present to allow the PCs to compensate.

[redhackrules]

Spellcasting

Arcane Magic

Wizards start with a cantrip (which may be cast at will without memorisation) and 3 other spells.

On every odd level the Wizard gains a single spell slot of one level higher than his previous slot - so a level 5 wizard memorizes one spell each of levels 3, 2, 1. A spell slot can be used to memorise lower level spells but this will seriously impact the Wizard's total number of castings per day.

A Wizard also gains bonus slots for Intelligence - a level 1 slot at 13, a level 2 slot at 16, and a level 3 slot at 18.

When the wizard casts a spell, roll on the following table, adding 1 to the roll if the spell being cast is level 1, and if spell components were used:

1 - Oblivion: The spell is forgotten entirely.

2-4 - Entropy: The spell is replaced by a random spell from the Wizard's book, one level lower.

5 - Equilibrium: The spell is replaced by a random spell from the Wizard's book, of the same level.

6 - Inspiration: The spell is replaced by an unknown spell, determined by the DM.

7 - Endurance: The spell remains memorised.

8 - Epiphany: Roll again with no modifiers, and also gain a random spell per Inspiration.

6 - Inspiration: The spell is replaced by an unknown spell, determined by the DM.

Spells gained through Inspiration cannot be written down - the wizard doesn't fully understand them - but are significantly easier to subsequently research.

Inspiration spells can be drawn from a master list of spells for the campaign or rulebook, but locations can also have their own lists - "wandering spell" tables for particular dungeons. So exotic locales might provide opportunities for learning strange magics, Necromancers would haunt dank crypts to perfect their art, hydromancers would dwell in sea caves and so on.

Divine Magic

Clerics begin with a prayerbook of 4 level 1 & 2 spells. These spells can be cast through faith alone; the Cleric's own conviction is sufficient, and they may be learned in the same manner as mage spells.

Spells of level 3-5 must be granted by a lesser divine entity - the supernatural servant of the Cleric's god, or a minor deity of a pantheon.

Spells of level 6-7 are granted by the Cleric's deity directly.

Clerics gain spell slots at even levels, with bonus slots for Wisdom as a Wizard obtains bonus slots for Intelligence.

A Cleric may at any time as a free action forget a spell they have memorized and replace it with one of the following according to level:

Level of Spell Traded Cure Spell 1+ Cure Light Wounds 3+ Cure Serious Wounds 5+ Cure Critical Wounds 6+ Heal

Unlike Arcane spells, Divine spells are entirely forgotten when cast. However, the cleric may Pray as an action to beseech their patron for more spells. Make a fortune roll on the following table, or a custom table for the deity:

-1 per spell slot remaining (the gods don't like to be bothered if you aren't really in need)

+1 per point of relationship with the patron providing the highest level slot

+WIS modifier

Roll Result 1 You pray, but cannot feel the presence of your deity. Something is wrong. 2 Silence, cannot pray again today. 3-5 No spells are granted, you must learn self-reliance. 6-7 Lose one spell slot for every full 2, starting with the highest. 8-9 Lose your highest level spell slot; regain the other spells you asked for. 10 Regain all spell slots, but filled with spells chosen by your deity. 11 Regain all spells, but you must make sacrifices or give alms equal to 10xLevelx1d6. 12-13 Regain all spells, but also gain a quest for the immediate area. 14-16 Gain all spells, but sacrifice a first level spell if you have one to show humility. 17-19 Gain exactly the spells you prayed for. 20 Gain all spells back plus the perfect spell. No level restrictions. 21 Party is Blessed. 22 If injured, party is healed 1d8; otherwise blessed. 23 Flamestrike the biggest foe present, otherwise as 22. 24 Entire party is Healed, or Blessed and Protected from Evil for this combat and the next.

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Equipment

Encumberance

A PC may carry items equal to their strength without suffering the effects of being encumbered, or twice that many with disadvantage on tests involving movement.

All items must be stored somewhere - either held, worn, or in a bag or sack.

The number of items you can carry freehand or in your pockets and clothes is equal to your dex - this includes sacks, but not worn containers like quivers or backpacks.

Some items may be bundled into slots:-

250 coins

10 rings or gems

one usage die of torches or rations

Other items may take more than one slot:

Medium Armour takes 2 slots

Heavy Armour takes 3 slots

Two handed or reach weapons take 2 slots

Some items are large and can only be carried by two people, or cart, or dragging:-

Tables

The shell of a giant snail

Barrels of ale

So a character with STR 15 and DEX 8 can carry 3750gp, but if that GP is stored in 15 coin pouches he could not balance more than 8 of them in his hands and stuffed into his belt.

Equipment List

Weapons

Item Cost Type Optional Rules Dagger/Hand Axe 3 Short Can be thrown as a one-shot nearby ranged weapon. Sword/Mace/Axe 7 - - Flail 7 - Ignores 1pt of AC on targets with Shields. Spear 2 Long Can be thrown as a one-shot nearby ranged weapon. Polearm 7 2H Long 2 Handed Sword/Battleaxe/Maul 15 2H Pike 5 2H Long Foes' weapons do not count as Long unless also Pikes. Disadvantage in confined spaces. Short Bow 25 Ranged Unlimited targets; disadvantage at Far range, requires both hands. Long Bow 40 Ranged Max 4 targets; disadvantage at Distant range or crowded conditions, requires both hands. Light Crossbow 15 Ranged Disadvantage at Far range. Fire once per round but always before the monsters. Heavy Crossbow 25 Ranged 2H Disadvantage at Distant range. Fire once per round but always before the monsters.

Armour

Armour Type Price AC None - DEX Padded 25 DEX+1 Leather† 45 DEX+2 Studded 65 DEX+3 Chain Mail‡ 100 ½ DEX+9 Banded Mail 200 ½ DEX+10 Plate Mail 500 16 Field Plate 1000+ § 17 Full Plate 3000+ § 18

† Disadvantage on spellcasting at or below this point. ‡ Disadvantage on stealth, swimming & delicate tasks at or below this point. § Custom order, may require a quest, favour, or Holdings check.

Armour Price AC Notes Shield 10 +1 Takes up a hand. Helm 10 +1 Disadvantage on perception, surprise and non-intimidate CHA tests.

Class Tools

Item Cost Notes Armorer's Tools 25 ud6, roll when resting and the party's weapons and armour are maintained for the rest of the day. Warriors roll with advantage. Thieves Tools 25 Pick locks & Disarm traps without disadvantage, or with advantage if a Thief. Holy Symbol 25 Without this, turning undead is at disadvantage. Spell Components 25 ud6. Wizard only. Advantage on rolls to retain Arcane spells or cast from the book.

Miscellany

Item Cost Notes Quiver/Case 5 Arrows 5 ud12 Quarrels 5 ud20 Silver Arrow/Quarrel 5 One shot. 50' Rope 1 Advantage on climbing checks if secured. 10' Pole 1 12 Iron Spikes 1 ud10, advantage on climbing checks. Coin Pouch 1 Holds 250 coins. Small Sack 1 Holds 5 items or 1250 coins. Large Sack 2 Holds 10 items or 2500 coins. Backpack 5 Holds 10 items or 2500 coins and leaves hands free. Water/Wineskin 1 ud8, necessary for rest. Iron Rations 15 ud8, no spoilage. Rations 5 ud8, make an extra roll after each week for spoilage. 6 Torches 1 ud20; 1 torch is ud6. Can be used in melee as improvised weapon dealing fire damage. Lantern 10 Uses oil, can be shuttered. Flask of Oil 2 ud20; can be lit and thrown; improvised weapon with ud6 ongoing damage on a hit. Tinderbox 3 Required to light lanterns or torches. 3 Stakes & Mallet 3 Secure a rope or stake a vampire. Steel Mirror 5 Silver Mirror 15 Wolvesbane, garlic etc. 5 Holy Water 25 Thrown weapon vs undead, 0 damage on hit but 1d8 ongoing damage applied immediately.

Vehicles & Animals

Mule 20

Draft Horse 30

Light Horse 40

Warhorse, Medium 100

Warhorse, Heavy 200

Saddle 25

Saddle Bags 10

Cart 100

Wagon 200

Raft 40

Small Boat 100

Haggling

If players wish to haggle they must assemble an order with a value of at least 10gp, then make a CHA test.

For every 10 full GP value up to 100, roll d6-1. For every 100 full GP value up to 1000, roll d6-1x10. For every 1000 full GP value up to 10,000, roll d6-1x100.

and so on. On a critical add 50% to the number rolled. Take the result and deduct it from the price if the test was successful, and add it to the price if the test was failed. Any discount does not apply to items added to the order after haggling. If the players decline to purchase at an inflated price, proportionally increase the price for items in the order until they are either purchased or the players spend a downtime action to find another vendor.

Players selling items and treasure may haggle in the same way.

Successful haggling may increase the difficulty of future haggle rolls, while doing favours for the merchant or declining the full amount of a discount may reduce the difficulty, at the DM's discretion.

[redhackrules]

Exploration & Dungeons

Time & Movement

In a dungeon, street, or indoor environment time is divided into ticks of around 5-10 minutes. Every 3 ticks roll for a random encounter and for any light sources or variable spell durations.

Action Time Taken Moving from Room to Room 1 Tick/Room Searching a Room Treasure or Points of Interest 1 Tick Checking for Traps 1 Tick Searching for Secret Doors 1 Tick Pausing to discuss next moves 1 Tick Typical Combat 1 Tick

These are not set in stone. If the party specifies they are moving fast and carelessly, allow them to move multiple rooms with each tick, or search a room with half a tick, in return for disadvantage on search and surprise tests.

If a party is using an unusual amount of light, you might give them advantage on surprise and search tests but roll for random encounters with advantage. Play fast and loose with the details but ensure there is always a tradeoff to the way the players approach their explorations.

Climbing, Falling & Natural Hazards

Climbing any distance in one go requires a DEX test with a difficulty of 1 per 100' climbed. A short rest will reset the difficulty but require a second test. On a failure the player must make another DEX saves to avoid losing 1d4 unsecured items, and another save to avoid taking 1d6 damage. If the third save is failed, the player must make a save to avoid 2d6 damage. The maximum total damage from a fall is 1d6 per 10' fallen.

Characters using a secured rope or pitons to climb may roll with advantage; anyone who has advantage twice (a rogue with climbing equipment) does not have to roll under normal conditions. Characters may rope themselves together; if a character falls adjacent characters on the rope may make a STR save; if at least one of them makes it, the character who fell only has to save against losing items. If no adjacent character saves, the one who rolled the lowest will also fall; adjacent characters may save on his behalf, but now two people are falling they save with disadvantage due to the extra weight. Once three characters have fallen only superhuman strength or a secured rope will prevent everyone from falling.

If the rope is properly secured all characters end up dangling and must save to avoid loss of items.

Other dangerous or difficult terrain can be dealt with in a similar fashion - hopping from rock to rock among lava flows, negotiating quicksand-riddled swamps, or gardens of poison flowers. Simply substitute appropriate attributes, consequences and precautions as you see fit.

Random Encounters

To check for a random encounter, roll a d6. On a 1, an encounter occurs immediately.

On a 2, the PCs encounter evidence that they are not alone. Roll on the random encounter table for the location or select an encounter as though an encounter occurred; instead of encountering the creature immediately they find some other sign of its presence - refuse, sounds, claw marks etc.

The next time a 1 or 2 is rolled, the creature previously rolled is encountered.

[Idea: Time Points instead of encounters, a resource for the GM to throw time based trouble at the PCs which can be saved up when an encounter isn't appropriate or dramatic.]

Reactions

When the disposition of a monster or NPC toward the players is unclear, roll 2d6 for a reaction:

2d6 Roll Reaction 2 Hostile. Will attack on sight. 3-5 Threatening. May demand tribute or that the PCs withdraw. 6-8 Cautious. Will neither attack nor let down their guard until the PCs give them a reason. 9-11 Friendly. Attempt to parley, or greet the PCs as potential friends or fellow explorers. 12 Ingratiating. Will surrender and beg for mercy, offer tribute or aid, or try to join the PCs.

If combat or fraternization are not immediate, a successful CHA test will improve the disposition by one step, while a failed test will lower it. Roleplaying considerations and offers made may modify or replace this test.

The test can be made in combat too, but each damaging attack made by allies during the combat adds 2 to the difficulty, and the roll is made with disadvantage.

Preparation & Supplies

Light

When moving underground or at night, players will need a source of light or suffer disadvantage on tests involving vision or morale. Torches, lanterns and light spells provide for this need and roll usage dice for all active light sources every three ticks.

Food & Water

Water or wine must be consumed on every rest to enable healing, and on every long rest to avoid thirst. Food must be consumed on every long rest to avoid hunger, and may optionally be consumed during a short rest to heal. Roll the usage die once per player who is eating.

Maintenance

A Warrior may maintain the party's equipment by rolling their repair kit die while taking a long or short rest. If this has not been done within the last day, after each battle the DM receives a disrepair point which may be spent to give a player disadvantage on an attack or defense roll at an inopportune moment.

Magic

A Wizard or Cleric may memorise spells or prayers during a short or long rest. They may only memorise one spell or prayer during a short rest; during a long rest they may replenish all of them. Memorising a spell removes all checks from the spell slot.

Resting

Players may take a break when not in combat to recuperate.

Short Rest

Requires 1 hour and a random encounter roll in a dungeon.

Players may eat and drink to gain 1 HD of healing.

Players may forgo food and water and make a CON check instead to heal. Whether the check succeeds or not, they cannot heal again until they eat and drink.

Memorise one spell or prayer.

Long Rest

Requires 8 hours and 8 random encounter rolls in a dungeon, or 1 in the wilderness. Arrange these by watch. A character who is tired or exhausted must make a con check to stay awake through their watch.

Players may heal as above, up to twice.

Memorise all spells.

Full Day

Requires 24 hours in a safe place. Not possible in a dungeon; if in the wilderness, roll 3 encounter checks.

As above but heal all HD.

Downtime

Several days in a town or sanctuary.

Fully heal HP.

Remove lingering wounds.

Memorise all spells.

Receive 1 downtime action.

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Combat

Attacking & Defending

The player rolls for both sides in combat. Players attack by rolling their STR for melee attacks and their DEX for ranged attacks. The difficulty of the roll is the target's AC. On a natural 20, they deal critical damage; roll for damage twice and add both values together.

Players defend by rolling AC, which is derived from DEX according to the armour they wear. (If they are unarmoured, AC is simply equal to DEX.) The difficulty is the Hit Dice or Level of their opponent.

So if a character with no armour and 14 DEX is attacked by a 6 HD monster, the player must roll between 7 and 14, or a natural 20. Rolling a natural 1 when defending means the monster has scored a critical hit for double damage as above.

In order to dodge an attack you must roll equal to or under your AC, and over the target's HD.

In order to hit with an attack need to roll equal to or under your attribute, and over the target's AC.

If a player attacks another player, the AC to roll over is half their listed AC. (Monster ACs are generally in the range of 1-10, player ACs 3-19.)

Any bonus that increases your attribute over 19 will instead reduce the difficulty (opponent's HD or AC) by a like amount.

Initiative & Surprise

At the beginning of each combat round every player makes a simple DEX check; those who succeed take their actions before the monsters, those who fail take them after the monsters. Players with actions held from the previous turn automatically succeed.

When combat begins unexpectedly, all players make a simple WIS check for surprise. Those who succeed are not surprised and may act in the first round of combat; those who fail must wait until the second round. (A player who succeeded may spend their action to alert another player, who may then act immediately, but this means the original player does not get to act.)

If any player rolls a natural 20 for surprise, the entire party surprises the monsters, and gets a free round of attacks in addition to all PCs being able to act in the first round.

Difficulty may be occasionally be applied to these rolls for very fast or very stealthy enemies.

Holding Actions & Reactions

A Player who holds their action may act after any other player or monster in the round. If they have still not taken the action at the end of the round, they may act first the next round without making an initiative roll. Monsters holding their actions also act first, but after any players who were still holding actions.

A player may react to another player or monster's movement with a move of their own as outlined below. They may do this whether they have a held action or are still waiting for their action.

Range & Distance

Distance Notes Feet Squares Close Within melee range. 0'-5' 1 Near Within normal human movement range. 6'-30' 6 Far In the immediate area. 31'-60' 12 Distant Present but some distance away. 61'+ 13+ Elsewhere Possibly miles away. - -

Movement & Blocking

In addition to their action, every player and NPC may make a move, coming close to something or someone nearby, or nearby to something faraway. They may forgo their action to move twice, but may not block if they do so.

When a character makes a move to somewhere nearby from the perspective of another character who has not moved yet this turn, that character may move and block the path of the first character. This uses the blocking character's move for the turn, though they may still take their action in the normal sequence.

The blocked character does not get close to whatever they were moving to (usually a friend of the blocking character) but may attack the blocking character instead if they choose.

Damage & Injuries

When an attack succeeds that target loses HP equal to the damage dealt. A monster or player at 0 HP is unconscious or dead. Players who are taken out remain out of the fight until healed up to more than 0 HP or until an ally spends an action to check on them and bandage their wounds.

At this point roll on the following table/make a CON test:

Roll Result Effect 1 Unconscious No ill effect. 2 Wounded Disadvantage on STR, DEX & CON rolls until treated during long rest. 3 Injured Disadvantage on all ability rolls until treated during long rest. 4 Debilitated -2 to an ability, randomly selected or DM's choice. 5 Disabled Lose a limb or eye. Disadvantage on tests relying on that body part until healed with specialist magic, acclimated through training, or a prosthetic is obtained. 6 Doomed The character is dead or at the DM's discretion, mortally wounded.

If the player survives they gain 1d4 HP and are able to fight immediately.

Mortally wounded characters are incapacitated and assigned a duration die by the DM to determine their time left to live. Every time torches are checked, or every rest whether short or long, or every day during downtime, they must roll the die. Once the ud4 is exhausted the character dies. Only exceptional forms of healing will work on them; ordinary Cure spells will not save them.

AC & Armour

Your base AC is equal to your DEX. Armour can modify or replace this value. Monsters also have AC, but since their AC functions as a difficulty threshold and not an ability it will generally be lower than 10.

An AC test counts a DEX test if you are wearing light or medium armour.

D&D AC Armour Type Monster AC Player AC 9 None 1 DEX 8 Padded 2 DEX+1 7 Leather† 3 DEX+2 6 Studded 4 DEX+3 5 Chain Mail‡ 5 ½ DEX+9 4 Banded Mail 6 ½ DEX+10 3 Plate Mail 7 16 2 Field Plate 8 17 1 Full Plate 9 18 -1 - 10 -2 - 11 -3 - 12

† Disadvantage on spellcasting at or below this point. ‡ Disadvantage on stealth, swimming & delicate tasks at or below this point. § Custom order, may require a quest, favour, or Holdings check.

Shield: Gives you +1 AC but takes up a hand.

Helm: Gives you +1 AC but disadvantage on perception and non-intimidate CHA tests.

Weapon Types

One-Handed: Deal your damage.

Two handed: Deal 1 die type better than your damage.

Long: Advantage on attacks in the first round you and the target move to Close range.

Short: Advantage on attacks against wielders of Long weapons after the first round you entered close range.

Ranged: Use DEX and an ammunition usage die to deal your damage to foes at a distance. Ranged weapons specify the range at which they can fire with or without disadvantage. Cover also causes disadvantage. A foe who is both at long range and in cover cannot be hit unless you have some form of advantage. All ranged attacks have disadvantage if you are close to an enemy.

Dual Weapons: Any non-long one-handed weapon may be used in the off hand; if your attacks do not have disadvantage in a round, you may make a second attack with disadvantage, dealing improvised damage.

Ammunition

Roll the usage die with each ranged attack requiring ammunition. If you make multiple ranged attacks in one round, roll with disadvantage. If the die degraded during a battle, you can gather arrows after the fighting ends if the situation permits, and reroll the last 1-2 on the die.

Ongoing Damage

Attacks such as burning oil will deal damage every round following the initial attack; assign a usage die to these attacks and use it to roll. Spending an action may degrade the die or end the effect prematurely. Roll the die on the turn of the character who made the original attack.

Morale

If 50% of a group of NPCs or Monsters are taken out, or a single powerful NPC or Monster loses 50% of its HP, they must pass a Morale Test or become broken. When a foe is broken it is immediately apparent; on their next action they will attempt to parlay, surrender, or flee. If forced to fight they will fight defensively; add their HD and AC together for defense, they attack as 1HD monsters.

The GM tests Morale by rolling on or under the highest Creature’s morale value if they have one, or calling for a CHA test by the PC who scored the most recent kill (or most recent hit, in the case of a monster below 1/2 hp.)

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Core Rules

Tests

To overcome most challenges you will be asked to test an attribute. To make a test roll 1d20 and hope to roll as high as possible without exceeding your relevant attribute:

If you roll a natural 20, you succeed automatically, and may achieve a critical success.

If you roll over your attribute, without rolling a natural 20, you fail.

If you roll your attribute or lower, and over the difficulty, you succeed. Where relevant (e.g. when making an opposed roll) the number on the die indicates the strength of your success.

If your roll doesn't exceed the difficulty of the roll, you fail.

If you roll a natural 1, you fail, and may suffer a critical failure.

So if you are faced with a WIS test with a difficulty of 4 and your WIS is 12, then to succeed you must either roll between 5 and 12, or score a natural 20 in order to succeed.

Many tests will have no difficulty number specified; for these tests the difficulty is 1.

Types of Test

A test based on an attribute is always an attribute test in addition to however else it is described. For example, an AC roll is still DEX test even though it uses DEX modified by armour; a melee attack is still a STR test, and so on.

So a saving throw vs poison is both CON test and a Saving Throw, and will be affected by modifiers to either.

Advantage & Disadvantage

If you are said to have advantage on a roll, reroll if you fail and take the second roll if it isn't a critical failure. If you have disadvantage, reroll if you succeed and take the second roll if it isn't a critical success.

Advantage & disadvantage do not stack, but they do cancel one another out - if you have both advantage and disadvantage on a roll, you make the roll normally; if you have disadvantage from two different rules and advantage from one, you roll with disadvantage.

Bonuses & Penalties

If a penalty is applied to the roll, due to spell effects, circumstances or any other source, add it to the difficulty of the roll.

If a bonus is applied, add it to your relevant attribute for the purposes of resolving the test.

Attributes and Modifiers

Attributes range from 3-18 and through experience and have lower and upper caps of 2 and 19; reduction below 2 incapacitates the affected character, and increases beyond 19 become difficulty reduction as described below.

Attributes are rolled against directly for most tests, but sometimes an attribute is more of an influencing factor than a determining one - in these cases we need to make use of smaller attribute bonuses and penalties.

You gain a point of modifier at 13, 16 and 18. These are cumulative so an attribute of 18 has a modifier of +3.

Similarly you gain a negative point at 8, 5 and 3 or lower, so an attribute of 4 has a -2 penalty.

Attributes Above 19

Sometimes, usually due to a bonus, your attribute may exceed 19. Naturally there is no point in having an attribute at 20 because a roll of 20 is always a success regardless.

When this happens, instead of gaining a higher attribute, you gain difficulty reduction. Keep track of any excess points separately and deduct them from the difficulty of all tests. If your STR is 18 and you have a longsword +3, your make attack rolls with that sword against a STR of 19 (2) - one point of the +3 makes your attribute effectively 19, and the other two points mean every foe you face will have an effective AC two points lower than they normally would when defending against your attacks.

Opposed Rolls

Occasionally tests will be opposed by another player; if one player succeeds and the other fails, the player who succeeded wins the contest. Otherwise - if both succeeded or both failed, the one who rolled higher is the victor.

There may be additional consequences of failure. Two players trying to grab the same item may fumble and drop it if they both fail, even if one is technically victorious; on the other hand, if two players are arm wrestling and both fail one will still win; it will simply be an unedifying contest for any onlookers.

Monster Rolls

If a monster has to roll for something, you can use HD+10 as its attribute value. Significant NPCs can have Major/Minor values, the first representing their attribute in things they are good at (lore for a sage, combat for a man at arms) and the latter representing their aptitude for all other tasks.

Usage & Duration Dice

These dice track the consumption of resources or timed effects.

They will be noted as ud6, ud8 etc. When called upon to roll one, a result of 3+ has no additional effect. A roll of 1-2 causes the die to step down to the next lowest die type - a ud6 becomes a ud4. Once a 1-2 is rolled on the d4, the effect is ended or the resource is exhausted.

Saving Throws & Effect Tests

A saving throw is a test made by a player to avoid or mitigate an effect; a DEX test to dodge the beam from a wand, a CON test to survive poison or disease. Certain spells and effects modify saving throws but not other kind of tests, so it's important to be clear which tests are and are not saves.

An effect test is an inverted saving throw: When a player casts a spell or other effect that requires a save on a monster, the player makes an effect test to see if the target is affected. For example, if a Wizard casts a fireball at two monsters and a player, the player would make a DEX saving throw and the Wizard would roll a WIS effect test for each monster, with a difficulty equal to the monster's Hit Dice.

If a monster has to save against an effect not originating from a player, test against 10+HD. All of these types of roll are affected by modifiers that affect saving throws.

Fortune Rolls

A test will tell you if your skills are sufficient to succeed. But sometimes you are involved in something where the precise outcome is uncertain. Travelling through a jungle infested by poisonous insects and plants, with treacherous footing, exotic diseases, lurking predators, thick brush, heavy rains, oppressive heat, and limited supplies might require a dozens of small tests per day to deal with this complex situation. A fortune roll condenses these down to a single roll.

To make a fortune roll, the whole party rolls a d20 on a table prepared by the DM, who reads off the result. The party venturing through the jungle might become sick or get lost if they roll low; a higher result might mean the loss of rations to humidity; a high result, a shortcut or successful foraging.

Where player skill matters, the DM may define Roles. Each role is a responsibility one character will take within the group working toward the task at hand. Each role is usually defined by two attributes, to represent that it is a complex task involving a variety of different challenges.

For example, the players in the jungle may have a Quartermaster role who looks after their rations and forages for food and water, requiring WIS to notice supply problems and INT to anticipate them and identify safe sources of food and water.

Each player has an aptitude at each role starting at zero and calculated on the following table:

Condition Aptitude Attribute modifiers - combine both relevant modifiers and apply the total if positive 0 to +6 Each applicable background +1 Applicable Class +1 Attribute modifiers are negative -1 Conflicting class/background -1 Role with nobody assigned -2

Negative modifiers are applied immediately; positive ones are triggered by particular, relevant results.

For example, say the party has a +2 scout, a -2 navigator and a +1 quartermaster. They roll a 5 on the d20, the poor navigator brings that down to 4; according to the table this is an ambush [scout]. The scout bonus is applied to avoid the result, bringing the result up to 6: spoiled food [quartermaster]. The +1 brings us to 7, the woods have eyes [scout], -1 on random encounter checks. As the bonus for the scout role has already been applied, this is the final result.