Rules & Mechanics

## Dice Mechanics

Skill tests are resolved by taking the lowest result of {1d20, 1d12} and adding your skill modifier. Use {2d20} if the skill is favored.

### Hidden Difficulties

Target difficulties are hidden. Players roll their skill tests and declare the result without knowing the degree of challenge. This speeds up skill tests and reflects the natural uncertainty in exactly how difficult something will be. The GM then decides what happens based on the circumstances and perceived challenge.

Characters can still get 'bonuses' and 'penalties' to their actions, but these are applied to the target difficulty itself. For example, if an enemy is prone and has their back exposed, the GM may reduce the difficulty to hit the enemy by one or two. If an enemy is heavily covered from ranged attacks, the GM may choose to increase the difficulty of a ranged attack by two or three.

As a general guideline for the GM, critical successes and failures occur at +/- 5 the target threshold.

### Challenge Hinting

Even though players won't know exact target difficulties, their characters should have a general sense of how well they're performing and the approximate complexity of a given task. The GM should provide these approximations in their descriptions.

For example, a lock might be described as "quite difficult." A near miss might be hinted at with "he just barely managed to deflect the strike with his bracer." A large miss might describe "you swing wildly to one side, and he side-stepped easily."

### Repeating Attempts & Taking Time

Some skill tests are possible to repeat at the cost of higher difficulty. For example, if a character fails to pick a lock that they could normally unlock, the failure may represent a temporary complication that they can still overcome. In such cases the difficulty should increase with each successive attempt, raising the stakes without causing outright permanent failures.

The GM may allow characters to spend additional time on certain actions to reduce the target difficulty of a related skill test. For example, a GM may reduce a target difficulty by 2 for taking a full scene to pick a lock; or, by contrast, add 2 difficulty if the character is rushing the attempt.

## Skills

Each character has the following skills:

* **Athletics** - gymnastics, stunts, endurance, strength, balance, contortion, climbing, etc.
* **Awareness** - reacting, sensing motives or bluffs, detecting ambushes, spotting traps, noticing something useful or out of place, etc.
* **Charm** - socializing, being charismatic, bluffing, manipulating others, performing, making first impressions, etc.
* **Combat** - melee weapons, unarmed combat, dodging, evasion, etc.
* **Craft** - woodworking, blacksmithing, metalwork, design, art, creativity, inventing things, etc.
* **Diplomacy** - leadership, haggling, debates, persuasion, influencing others motivations, etc.
* **Investigate** - tracking a target, gathering evidence, forensics, researching what happened somewhere, etc.
* **Larceny** - infiltration, sleight of hand, criminal lore, escaping handcuffs, etc.
* **Ranged** - archery, thrown weapons, projectiles, turrets, siege weaponry, intuitively judging trajectories, etc.
* **Stealth** - hiding, moving silently, smuggling goods, concealing items, etc.
* **Studies** - profession skills, language, survival knowledge, book smarts, knowledge of science and history, etc.

Each player assigns four "Favored Skills" based on the character's genetics, background, and/or upbringing. Favored Skills roll 2d10 instead of 2d8.

Skills are ranked with modifiers that directly affect each skill test. They score between -5 (Crippled) and +5 (Prodigy).

## Proficiencies (Knowledge & Training)

Characters can have "Proficiencies" that represent fields they've studied. There are many specialized skills that cannot be performed without an appropriate proficiency; e.g. speak a language, perform surgery, forge a weapon, etc.

The mechanics for proficiencies are intentionally loose. They are generally acquired based on the background of a character or things they've learned or studied during the campaign. The GM will almost certainly allow (and expect) characters with a history as an apprentice blacksmith to have a "Blacksmith" proficiency. If the character spent a few weeks studying the very simple Goblin Language, they may acquire the "Goblin Language" proficiency.

Proficiencies may encompass an entire profession (such as "Doctor"). Some actions are so specialized that they require very narrow training like "Neurosurgeon" to have a reasonable chance of success. The GM has discretion over which skill tests your character can perform, or how much that skill test is impacted by your proficiencies.

## Mana

Mana represents symbolic charges within one's aura reserves and is spent to cast certain magical powers. Powers without mana costs are 'passive.' All others are 'active.' Active magic can only be used once per encounter (generally a scene) at it's standard mana cost. Each additional cast doubles the previous mana cost until the power can fully recharge (usually after a scene or two).

Mages have a mana pool equal to half their magic rank, rounded up; e.g. a level 5 mage has a mana pool of 3. Mana recovers after a long rest, such as after sleeping or a long scene dedicated to resting.

Mana can also go into negative values (double the mage's mana pool), but the mage's aura will be forced to compensate by extracting excess energy from the environment. This causes a phenomenon known as "Flare." There are three stages of Flare, which each occur at different stages of negative mana.

### Flare Effects

 Ray
 Flare

## Health

Health Points (HP) measure one's life force and vitality. A healthy creature has positive HP (above 0), and creatures that are meaningfully wounded or fatigued have negative HP. A character's Maximum HP is equal to their racial modifier (default of five), plus their Athletics modifier.

As HP depletes, penalties are applied to the creature. Refer to the following table for details:

## Magical Recovery

Natural recovery is quite slow, so mages often use magical recovery. This process diverts mana from other powers to regenerate the body. The following rules apply:

* Magical Recovery does not function on Witching Days, but can only be started or ended on Witching Days.
* Mages choose a Domain and a number of Ranks to commit to this ability. For example, a mage could choose "Earth Domain: 2 Ranks."
* Mages will recover {# of Domain Ranks Committed} HP per day (excluding Witching Days).
* Any Domain Ranks committed to magical recovery are unavailable to the mage until the commitment has ended.
* Magical Recovery does not function if the power of the committed Domain drops below Rank 0.

For example, Jessa has -11 HP. Her Earth Domain is Rank 5. On Witching Day, she initiates magical recovery and chooses "Earth Domain: 2 Ranks." Her Earth Domain drops by 2 Ranks, down to 3. She recovers +2 HP per day, Monday through Friday (12 Total). On the next Witching Day she has 1 HP. She chooses to end the commitment. Her Earth Domain recovers the 2 Ranks that were used toward this power, increasing from Rank 3 back to Rank 5.

Game note: The mechanics behind Magical Recovery are not meant to be overly convenient. Mages in this setting must decide how much power they're willing to sacrifice, when they're willing to sacrifice it, and how to balance those inconveniences between Witching Days.

## Combat

When combat begins, everyone participating rolls an Initiative Check (an Athletics skill test). The GM may batch certain initiative rolls together, such as for unit formations or minion groups that move together. Turn order is decided by highest initiatives first (ties go to PCs).

Characters get one Maneuver and one Action on their turn. Maneuvers can be spent to move or perform 'Special Maneuvers.' Actions can be spent on a move action, an attack, or performing some sort of other action (opening a door, equipping an item, etc).

Characters can acquire 'Soak' (usually by wearing armor), which is represented by a list of damage thresholds. Soak prevents one damage for each threshold met. For example, [2, 5] grants one soak when taking 2 or more damage, and two soak when taking 5 or more damage.

##### Combat Rolls

* Melee Attack: Roll a Combat skill test. The attack hits if it matches or exceeds the target's defense.
* Ranged Attack: Roll a Ranged skill test. Difficulty to hit a standard target is 4 + (2 x the distance in range bands), starting with 'Short Range' at +2.
* Standard Damage: 1d6 + [Combat or Ranged]. (Unless stated otherwise)
* Critical Damage: 2d6 + [Combat or Ranged] Critical Damage. (Unless stated otherwise)

##### Standard Armors

* Light Armor grants Soak of [3, 6, 9]
* Medium Armor grants Soak of [2, 4, 6, 8]
* Heavy Armor grants Soak of [1, 3, 5, 7, 9]
* Super Armor grants Soak of [1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10]

##### Standard Weapons

* Dagger: +1 vs. armored
* Sword: +1 vs. lightly armored
* Spear: +1 when behind an ally or vs. cavalry
* Hammer: +1 vs. slower units or heavy armor
* Exotic Weapons: +1 to called shots, requires appropriate proficiency and Combat +2 or higher.
* Projectiles: Advantages and effects vary widely.
* Bow: Requires Athletics +2 to use due to strength requirements. Shoots up to Long Range.
* Crossbow: Takes a maneuver to reload. Shoots up to Long Range.

##### Common Advantages

* +1 Attack if there's a competent ally fighting the same target as you in melee.
* +1 Attack if you're flanking a target in melee.

##### Special Maneuvers

* Aim, Prepare: Gain +1 Attack
* Protect: Guards a target person or area. If an enemy still insists on interfering in your protected zone, they'll have to go through you. This grants you a free attack against them. Additionally, the target will suffer a -2 penalty to their interference actions.
* Cover: Gain +X defense against ranged attacks based on the cover available: light (+1), partial (+2), moderate (+3), full (+5).

## Character Creation

* Choose four skills and mark them as 'Favored Skills.'
* Distribute the following ranks among your skills: +3, +2, +1, +1, +0, +0, +0, -1, -1, -2, -3
* Set your Character Level to 1.
* Set your Mana Pool to 1.
* Set your Maximum Health to 5 plus your Athletic skill.
* Choose a Magical Domain. Set that domain to Rank 1 and add the listed powers.
* Choose one or more Proficiencies to go with your backstory.
	+ Each proficiency should make sense for your character.
	+ Proficiencies require GM approval.

## Leveling Up

* Increase your Character Level by 1.
* Set your Mana Pool to equal your new Character Level.
* Choose a Magical Domain and increase the Rank by 1 (or set to 1 if it's at Rank 0).
* Upgrade a skill rank by +1, up to a maximum of +1 (Competent)
	+ On every 3rd Level (3, 6, 9, etc), you may increase ranks to a maximum of +3 (Gifted).
	+ On every 5th Level (5, 10, 15, 20), you may increase ranks to a maximum of +5 (Prodigy).
	+ If raising a skill is impossible, you can instead raise a lowest ranked skill by +1.

## Experience Growth

Players share gain a collective experience pool called "Party Experience." If a player does something valuable that earns experience, the entire team benefits from that experience growth. Each level upgrade has a set experience threshold that must be met.