Alpha rules

## Two quick notes

Before I explain the rules, two quick notes. First off, for those unfamiliar with these kind of games: when I say d20, I’m talking about a twenty-sided die. Various other die sizes exist, but because d20s are conventional in D&D, I’ve stuck to using those.

Second, about roleplaying: You can roleplay your character as much as you want, but you’re in no way required to. Plenty of people aren’t comfortable with live-action roleplaying, so you’re free to dissociate from your character by describing their actions in third person. Do whatever you prefer, really.

## Stats

Every creature has a few basic stats, also called ability scores: strength, dexterity, intelligence, protection (represents both the strength of your armour and your ability to dodge attacks) and speed. For player characters, all stats (except speed) have a value from 0 to 10. These stats are not absolute but relative. Having 0 strength doesn’t mean you have no strength at all; it means you’re as strong as an unathletic human, while 10 means you’re near the human peak in terms of strength. Each ability score grants its value as a bonus to related actions.

Speed is different. It’s expressed in a number of feet, which is the distance you can move as a single action. Usually, five feet equals one square on the game map.

Here is a (non-exhaustive) list of what stats apply to what actions:
Strength: melee attacks and skills such as climbing, jumping and swimming
Dexterity: ranged attacks and skills such as stealth and lock picking
Intelligence: magic attacks, will defence, knowledge checks, and see below
Protection: defence

Intelligence effect: For every 2 points of intelligence you have, you get 1 bonus point, which you can add to either your attack or your defence. If you have multiple, you can split them any way you wish. If added to attack, they don’t increase your strength or dexterity; they only apply directly to attacks and most combat maneuvers.

Derived from these are two more stats:

Defence = 11 + protection (+ optional intelligence bonus)

Defence determines your chance to get hit by conventional attacks.

Will defence = 11 + intelligence

Will defence determines your chance to resist mind-affecting effects.

## Turns

Every battle starts by rolling initiative. That means every creature engaged in it rolls a d20. The outcomes determine the turn order, with the highest score getting their turn first.

Generally speaking, each round in combat represents about 6 seconds. Every round, each creature gets two actions. An action can be spent to either move up to your speed or to make an attack. They don’t have to be self-isolated: you can, for example, move half your speed, attack, then move the other half. There are of course many other actions you could take.. Anything one could reasonably do in real life, and then some, is possible in game, at the DM’s discretion. Very easy actions such as drawing a weapon or grabbing an item off a table are free actions.

Five-foot steps: If you spend your turn only making non-movement actions, such as two attacks, you may move 5 feet for free at any point during your turn. This is called a five-foot step.

Full-round actions: some actions are referred to as full-round actions. That means they take up both of your actions for the round. At the DM’s discretion, you may spend an action to do half of a full-round action one turn, and spend another action next turn to complete it. Beware though, as getting interrupted in between may cause the action spent to be wasted.

## Ability checks

Whenever you try to do something that takes considerable effort and that isn’t attacking or walking, you’ll probably have to make an ability check to pull it off. In that case, the DM sets the so-called DC (difficulty class) of the action you’re attempting. You then roll d20 and add the appropriate stat. If the result of the roll + stat equals or exceeds the DC, the action succeeds.

Opposed checks: An opposed check means that two creatures make a check and then compare results to see who won. If they both roll the same value, roll again until a winner emerges.

## Combat

Whenever you make a standard attack against an enemy, you roll d20 and add the relevant stat, and possibly other modifiers. If the result equals or exceeds the target’s defence, you score a hit. A hit with a regular attack deals 2 damage. Most attack rolls look like this:

Melee attack roll: d20 + strength

Ranged attack roll: d20 + dexterity

Ranged attacks take a cumulative -1 for every 40 feet between the attacker and the target.

Special maneuvers: I can’t stress this enough: there are many other things you can do in combat other than standard attacking. You can push your opponents around, trip em, shield bash em, disarm em, etc. I’m sure there’s many more tricks you guys can think of that I wouldn’t have, and that’s the beauty of it. Special maneuvers, as they’re called, are usually resolved as an opposed ability check instead of as an attack.

Readying actions: During your turn, you can choose to ready an action. In this case, you specify a condition and an action. If, between the end of your current turn and the start of your next, the condition is fulfilled, you execute the action. Example: “If an enemy approaches me, I make a melee attack against them.” This allows you to act outside of your turn, but you have to give up an action in your current turn to do it. If the condition doesn’t occur, the action is wasted.

Improvised weapons: If you find yourself without a weapon, you can always fight with other means. When using a non-weapon object as a weapon, e.g. a chair, you have disadvantage on the attack roll (see below). When fighting with your fists, you have disadvantage and deal only half damage on a hit.

Crits and crit fails: When making an attack roll, if the die lands on a 1, the attack is an automatic miss. This is called a crit fail. If the die lands on a 20, it’s an automatic hit, and you deal double damage. This is called a crit.

Opportunity attacks: When you’re within the melee range of an enemy and take an action that keeps you from properly defending yourself, that enemy gets a free melee attack against you, even though it’s not their turn. If the opportunity attack hits, you get disadvantage (see below) on the action that provoked it. Most creatures and characters can only make one opportunity attack per round. Actions that provoke opportunity attacks:

- Making a ranged attack

- Using magic

- Charging (see below) through the melee range of an enemy who is not the target of the charge

Opportunity attacks don’t need to be standard attacks. You can substitute a special maneuver, at the DM’s discretion.

Charging: As a full-round action, you can make a charge. When charging, you can move up to twice your movement speed in a straight line towards an enemy, and make a melee attack at the end of said movement.

Sneak attacks: When making an attack against a creature that’s unaware of your presence, the attack automatically hits (no roll) and you deal double damage, as if making a crit. This is called a sneak attack, and only works with melee attacks and ranged attacks within 20 feet. Spells and ranged attacks beyond that range still get an automatic hit, but deal no extra damage. Attacks from very long range may be resolved normally, at the DM’s discretion.

## Advantage and disadvantage

When making an attack, maneuver or check under hindering circumstances, such as attacking a target who has cover against you, you have a so-called disadvantage. Disadvantage means you roll two d20s instead of one and must use the lower roll. If the circumstances work in your favour, such as attacking a prone target, you have advantage. Advantage means you roll two d20s and use the higher roll. If both advantage and disadvantage apply, they cancel each other out and you roll normally. If more than one case of the same applies, it stacks, causing you to roll three or more dice and take the highest/lowest one. This is called double/triple (dis)advantage.

If you use an AOE attack (which use one roll against all targets) and some of the targets have (dis)advantage while some don’t, you do the following: First, roll your d20 and resolve your roll against all targets that you have neither advantage nor disadvantage against. Then roll another d20. Between the two rolls, resolve the higher one against all targets that you have advantage against and the lower against all targets you have disadvantage against, if applicable.

Common things that provide advantage:

- attacking a downed target

- attacking a flanked target

Common things that provide disadvantage:

- attacking when downed

- getting hit by an opportunity attack provoked by the action in question

- attacking a target with cover or concealment (i.e. you can’t see them well)

- attacking a target with total concealment (i.e. you can’t see at all) causes double disadvantage

- attacking unarmed or with an improvised weapon

## Magic

Note: this magic system is very much a prototype, even more so than the rest of this system. I intentionally chose to keep the selection of available magic very limited. If you guys enjoy the trial session, the magic system will be expanded upon for future sessions.

In line with its intention of being light on rules, this ruleset uses sort of a freestyle magic system. There are no individual spells to cast; rather, you can gain control of one or multiple elements, detailed in the character creation document. Currently, only two are available. Both have a small list of sample spells to give you an idea of what they can do, but you’re free to try creative alternate uses, the mechanics of which will be determined by the DM. The following rules always apply regardless of element:

- Casting a spell costs an action, but you can spend a full-round action instead to empower it, granting a +5 bonus on the roll.

- Casting requires concentration and various gestures, thus it provokes opportunity attacks and can’t be used to make an opportunity attack.

- Magical attacks make an attack roll of d20 + intelligence.

## Injury and recovery

All player characters have a max HP of 10. If your HP reaches 0, you’re knocked unconscious and are near death. After three rounds of unconsciousness, you bleed out and die. This can be prevented if one of your allies spends a full-round action to stabilize you. When stabilized, you remain at 0 HP, but are safe from bleeding out. You will regain consciousness when your HP is healed back to 1 or higher. A near-death character, stabilized or not, can be finished off by a single successful attack.

Health can be regained by resting. To take a rest, you must spend eight hours in a safe location while undertaking no strenuous activity. Get a night’s sleep, basically. After an 8-hour rest, you regain 2 HP.

## Elements

For the sake of simplicity, any attack has one of four elements: physical, fire, cold or electricity. Any attack that doesn’t mention a specific element is assumed to be physical. Certain creatures may be vulnerable, resistant or immune to certain elements. Attacking with an element that the target is vulnerable to deals 1.5 times the damage when it hits. If the target is resistant, it deals only half damage. If immune, it deals no damage at all.

## Equipment

Mundane equipment, i.e. the sword you wield and the armour you wear, don’t themselves grant additional bonuses. They are assumed to be incorporated into your character stats. Your equipment is thus more of a fluff thing, and you can have your character wield any weapon or armour you like without worrying about the stats.

Side note: for simplicity’s sake, your ammunition with ranged weapons is practically infinite. Just don’t go breaking reality by holding your quiver upside down.