Rules

Boulders & Barbarians is a social game of roleplaying, where a number of players cooperate to tell an interactive story. One person assumes the role of the **Storyteller**, and his job is to weave a tale of epic fantasy where the players can carve out their own roles as imaginary characters. The goal is not to "win", but to immerse yourself into an intricate and expansive fantasy world. To be successful in your adventures, you will need a good sense of problem solving and cooperation. The ultimate goal of the game is to have fun, so consider the effects of your character's actions on the rest of the party.

## Making rolls

Your character will sometimes undertake actions whose outcome is dubious. When doing so, count the number of dots you have in the relevant attribute and skill on your character sheet. This number is your dice pool for said action. Roll a number of d10s equal to your dice pool. Every die that comes up 6+ is counted as a success. Dice that come up at 1 subtract successes from your total. For your attempted action to be successful, you need to attain a number of successes equal to the difficulty set in secret by the Storyteller.

### Critical successes and botches

If you roll two 10s - shown on most dice as 0 - then your attempted action is counted as a **Critical Success**, or **Crit** for short. A critical success means your character greatly succeeds at their attempted action.

If you attain no successes, the roll is called a **Botch**. A botch is the opposite of a crit, and will typically have dramatic negative consequences.

If you roll 1s, they will first remove regular successes, and will only remove rolls of 10 if there are no regular successes left. The action therefore still counts as a critical success so long as at least two 10s remain. If no successes remain at all, the roll is counted as a botch as per the usual rules, and the 10s have no effect.

### Opposed actions

If you are taking actions that directly compete with another character, both characters roll and whoever rolls the most successes wins. If both characters roll the same number of successes, usually nothing happens. For example, Character A is trying to break down a door that Character B is holding in place from the other side. If they both roll the same number of successes, the door stays in place.

### Assistance

If multiple characters are working together on an action, they may make an **Assisted Roll**. In order to make an assisted roll, determine which character is mainly performing the action. Usually, this is the character who first takes initiative. The other characters are then determined to be assisting characters. First, the assisting characters make their own separate rolls. Then, the main character makes their roll, adding an extra d10 to their dice pool for each success the assisting characters made. A roll made to assist someone else cannot crit or botch, but the character being assisted can crit or botch as usual.

### Detriments

Certain things will affect your character's ability to function in a negative manner. These are called Detriments. Typical Detriments include a lack of food or rest, being drunk, or taking wounds. Detriments stack, and reduce the dice pool of all your rolls by -1, unless otherwise specified.

## Combat

Generally, Boulders & Barbarians is played free-form, meaning the players simply state what their characters do as they do so. However, during combat the flow of the game is altered somewhat in the interest of structure and giving everyone a good overview of what is happening at any given time. The game is paused, and each player gets to choose what their character does. Rolls are then made and the results play out before the next round of combat begins. The Storyteller dictates what your character might reasonably do within a single turn of combat - usually, this involves moving a short distance and making a single action.

### Weapons and armor

Attacking a character usually results in a roll of Dexterity + Melee. Holding a weapon will drastically increase your chances of success by lowering the target number for successes from the usual 6+.

* Improvised weapon - 5+
* One-handed weapon - 4+
* Two-handed weapon - 3+

Holding a shield or wearing armor will likewise allow you to potentially ignore wounds. If you would take a wound from combat while you have armor or a shield, roll 1d10 and ignore the wound on a 6+. If you have both armor and a shield, roll 2d10 instead. These rolls cannot crit or botch, and 1s do not remove successes.

### Wounds

Combat usually results in your character taking **Wounds**. Wounds represent your character's decaying state of health, and you can only survive a number of wounds equal to your Toughness attribute. Other events that severely harm your character may also inflict wounds, such as being poisoned, falling off a cliff, or contracting a dangerous disease without proper treatment.

A full day and night of continuous rest allows your character to restore a single wound.

### Injuries

If your character ever reaches max wounds (as dictated by your Toughness), they will sustain an injury and lose consciousness. An injury could be breaking an arm, severe internal bleeding, having an infected wound, and so on. If the character takes further wounds while unconscious, they will permanently die. If the character receives proper care, they will eventually recover consciousness (although they will still have the injury). Injuries, unlike wounds, do not recover by themselves, and you will not recover wounds from resting if you are injured. To cure an injury, you will need proper treatment, which usually involves a Medicine roll and long time to rest. An untreated injury applies a detriment, but if the injury cannot be cured in a timely manner, your character might learn to live with it, removing the detriment and allowing you to restore wounds from resting as normal.

### Death

Life is harsh in the realm of Úr, and it is usually wise to avoid combat when possible. Sometimes the odds will be stacked against you, and you will be better served trying to escape or dropping your arms and pleading for your life rather than fighting until the end. If your character dies, you are allowed to introduce a new character to play at the beginning of the next story arc.