A Few Good Numbers

Survival

Survival is the ability of your character to survive damaging events. Getting hit by a sword, falling from a large height, getting punched in the face, all reduce your character’s survival points. If your character’s survival drops to zero or below, your character risks unconsciousness and possibly death.

At first level, player characters gain five survival points. Survival points are modified by endurance as a major contributor.

The dice used to determine Survival is based on the character’s Archetype. The character gains one such die each level beyond first.

Verve

Verve is the ability of your character to survive damaging events that result from archetypal actions. Whenever a character loses survival points for an archetypal activity, the player may instead choose to have some or all of the damage come from verve. Warriors can use verve in combat. Thieves can use it after failing to climb a wall, for example, and Monks after a failed perception roll.

At first level, player characters gain five verve points. Verve are modified by the character’s archetypal ability and one other ability as minor contributors.

When the chance of success is governed by the character’s archetypal ability or archetypal reaction, damage resulting from that action can come from verve instead of survival.

Reactions

When your character is taking the initiative to act, you’ll make an ability roll. When your character is reacting to something or sensing something, you’ll make a reaction roll. For example, when their characters are faced with imminent danger, players will often be given the opportunity to react and avoid or mitigate that danger.

Reactions start at 4, modified by the character’s ability score in the major and minor contributors to that reaction. For reactions other than their archetypal reaction, the character gains a bonus of 1 to each reaction for each “even” level in any archetype: 2, 4, 6, 8, etc. For their archetypal reaction, the character gains a bonus of level to the reaction.

Reactions improve as the character becomes more experienced.

Here, for example, are Sam Stevens’ reactions, both as a first level thief, and later as a multi-typed second level thief/third level warrior. You’ll see that at fifth level her reactions are higher. Her fortitude has improved most, because she has three levels as a warrior.

If a wizard attempts to take control of Sam’s mind, and Sam needs to make a Willpower roll to avoid it, a d20 roll of 4 or less will let Sam avoid the spell when she is first level; and a d20 roll of 6 or less will let her avoid it when she is fifth level.

Movement

The character’s Movement rating is 10, with agility as a major contributor and strength as a minor contributor.

Players roll against movement just as for their character’s other abilities. A high movement will help them chase or escape opponents.

Carry

Your character’s Carry measures how many items they can carry during an adventure. Your character can carry up to half Strength items, modified by Endurance as a special contributor. Each item that your character carries must have a bulk that is less than or equal to their Strength.

An item’s Bulk is combines weight in pounds with the difficulty of carrying something. A bulky, light item may have the same Bulk as a compact, heavy item. An item meant for swinging (such as a weapon) will almost certainly have a greater Bulk than a similarly-shaped item meant solely for carrying. Items meant for wear will have a far greater Bulk carried than worn. An item’s Bulk will rarely, if ever, be less than its weight, but it can often be more than its weight if the item is unwieldy.

If your character needs to carry an item with too much bulk, you can use extra carry points to do so, but each extra carry point required gives your character a penalty of one to movement, to attack rolls, and to any agility-based rolls.

Characters can make use of containers, such as pouches, sacks, sheaths, and backpacks, to reduce the number of items they carry and to reduce their bulk. Normal clothing does not count against the number of carried items when worn.

For example, Sam Stevens has a fourteen Endurance and an eleven Strength. She can carry up to ten items; each item must have a bulk of eleven or less. If she carries a tent (bulk 40) her movement is reduced by 3, because she will need to use three extra carry points.

Items meant to be worn well, such as armor and backpacks, can use two Carry points instead of one with no penalty. Weapons or other items used two-handed (such as sacks) can also use two Carry points with no penalty.

Sam Stevens could use a battleaxe (bulk 20) with no penalty by using it with both hands. If she tried to use a great sword, however, its bulk 24 would give her a penalty of one while using it two-handed.

Surprise, Defense and Attack Bonuses

A character’s Surprise bonus is their agility as a minor contributor.

Defense is the character’s agility as a major contributor.

Close Combat Attack is the character’s strength as a minor contributor. Damage bonus is strength as a major contributor.

Thrown Weapons Attack is the character’s agility as a minor contributor. Damage bonus is the character’s strength as a minor contributor. Thrown weapon range penalties are reduced by the character’s strength as a minor contributor.

Propelled Weapons Attack is the character’s agility as a minor contributor. There is no damage bonus.

Age

The character’s starting age may be rolled as 15 plus 1d6 or chosen by the player. Older characters will receive a greater number of skills or field bonuses in one or more of their fields.

If the character has low mental abilities, such that their starting field count is negative, their bonus is reduced by that number. For example, a character with a 4 intelligence, a 15 charisma, and a 10 wisdom has negative 1 starting fields. Such a character would have to be at least 30 years old to gain extra skills and field bonuses due to age.

Height and Weight

Players can choose their character’s height and weight, or roll them randomly. If random, characters have a base height of 54 inches and a base weight of 48 pounds. Vary the height and weight by rolling 5d6. Add this to the character’s height, and add endurance as a minor contributor and strength as a major contributor to the character’s height. Modify the dice by endurance as a major contributor and strength as a minor contributor. Multiply by seven and add this to the character’s weight.