Rulebook

This article serves as the **Rulebook** for An Empire Inherited. While the rules will be familiar to those who have been on Dark Rebellion, some changes have been made to tweak balance. Please read these carefully, as it will help immensely in understanding the fundamental mechanics of Borrie's D20 SWGEmu.

The rules were last changed on **December 28th, 2023**.

## Character Fundamentals

Your character is determined the most by your **attributes** and **skills**. On creation, each character starts with 30 free attribute points, or boxes, and 10 free skill points. Attributes and skills are represented through skill boxes in the game, ranging from 0 to 10 for skills, and 1 to 10 for attributes. Your character progresses their skills and attributes by utilising **Roleplay Experience**, which is earned periodically while actively Roleplaying, or is rewarded by DMs for events, or immersive character actions.

### Attributes

Attributes are the base stats of your character, which helps govern their ability to utilise certain skills. Attributes mark the extent of which your character is capable of certain skills. Skills are associated with two attributes and can never be levelled higher than the current score of the attributes themselves. All attributes start off at Rank 1.

In roleplay, it may be necessary to roll an attribute score against a dice check if the task at hand is too broad for a particular skill, or if the character is in a situation where they may have a high attribute for a skill, but no points in the skill itself. For example, if a character with a low Computers skill needs to dice check against a computer problem, but they have high intelligence, they might try to “brute force” the dice check with their intelligence skill instead, with a penalty applied.

### Skills

Your skills are the most important aspect of your character when exploring and taking action within the galaxy. Your skills allow you to fight, make use of your surroundings, interact with others, and more. As your adventure unfolds, you’ll likely develop aspects of skills you didn’t think possible. Skills can be rolled and utilized even if untrained, giving you the opportunity to develop them from nothing.

\*In some cases, you may need to roll bluff in order to prove you’re telling the truth. Rolling a bluff check simply means your body language and facial expression look genuine and devoid of deception. Do not assume guilt if someone rolls bluff on you when trying to convince you they’re not lying. They still could be, but you genuinely cannot tell. Your own ability to bluff is used to check against this.

\*\*Persuasion cannot be used to force other players to be convinced. It is still allowed, but the target player has the right to ignore a successful persuasion check.

### Pools

Every character has three primary pools: **Health**, **Action**, and **Will**.

Your health pool determines how much life force you have before you are considered incapacitated or dead. Your action pool allows you to perform more complex tasks in battle, such as precision aiming, or power attacks. Will determines how much you can rest while in an unsafe area, as well as offering a secondary pool to action if your action points are drained. Be wary, however; running out of will means the same as running out of health: *defeat*.

#### Resting

There are two types of resting you can do to regain your pools.

The **Short Rest** can be done at the expense of will at any point so long as you are out of combat. Short Rests will rejuvenate your health pool by half of its value, and refill your action pool to maximum. If you perform a short rest while in a dangerous location, you might attract enemies who will immediately attack upon the conclusion of your rest. Performing a short rest costs 2 will points. If you don’t have enough will points, you won’t be able to perform a short rest.

The **Long Rest** can be done at any time while in a safe location, be it at a safe home, fortress, cantina, or wherever that is not an actively dangerous location. A long rest will rejuvenate all pools to maximum, including will. A long rest must simply be done in the place of civilization or a secure camp.

When out in the field, mind your pools carefully. You do not want to exhaust yourself too easily, and you may wish to rely on medicine to refill your health rather than resting when not in a safe location.

## Equipment

While you could rely solely on your skills to make your way through the galaxy, you certainly don’t have to. Equipment helps augment your abilities to be even more capable out on the field. The two most important kinds of equipment you’ll have are **Weapons,** and **Armour.**

### Ammo

Ranged weapons require ammo to use. The type of ammo required is based on the weapon class and damage type. Each weapon will display the ammo it requires when inspected. Reloading your equipped weapon is a **major** action, and can be performed by the /rpreload command.

### Armour

Through armour, you can protect yourself from damage. Armour can mitigate certain damage types when struck by that particular part of the body, taking the damage instead through condition. If armour has lost all of its condition, it is as if it is not being worn.

Armour requires certain skill levels to be worn. This is the purpose of the Armour skill. You can wear armour you’re not qualified for, but at the cost of reduced movement speed in combat, reduced effectiveness of all defensive stats, and taking additional condition damage from attacks.

#### Damage Reduction

Each piece of armour will have a rating for a particular damage type. When struck by an attack, that rating will detract from the incoming damage, reducing the damage to a minimum of 1. For example, if someone is wearing a composite chest piece, and they are struck for 20 kinetic damage, that person will only receive 12 damage, as the composite armour has a kinetic protection rating of 8. If they’re struck again for only 6 damage, they’ll receive only 1 damage. However, that damage that has been mitigated will be spent on the armour’s condition instead.

#### Armour Rating

Every piece of armour has an armour rating, and every weapon has an armour penetration level. These come in four levels: heavy, medium, light, and none. If your weapon has a lower armour penetration level as the armour it is targeting, it will only perform half damage. If the weapon has a higher armour penetration level twice over the armour it is targeting, then the armour will not mitigate any damage. For example, if the target is wearing light rated armour, and your weapon strikes with a heavy armour penetrating attack, there will be no mitigation.

#### Armour Weaknesses

Some armour will have a negative value where the mitigation should be listed for a particular damage type. This means that when attacked with this type of damage, your armour takes additional damage from the attack, but the wearer receives full damage, neither increased nor mitigated.

#### Lightsaber Protection

A very select few rare armour types offer protection from the mythical Lightsaber. If a piece of armour is protective against the lightsaber, then any incoming damage from such a blade will be only a quarter of what it should be.

## Combat

The galaxy is strife with conflict. While influence and power can be achieved through peace and negotiation, sometimes it must fall on the exchange of sword blows and gunshots. Combat within An Empire Inherited is turn-based, rather than real time. When combat begins, the following is determined to allow the flow of combat to be easy and intuitive.

### Determining Turn Order

Once combat begins, the turn order is typically determined by who takes the first shot, followed by their allies, then the defender and their allies. Sometimes shooting first can give you the advantage to finish a battle before it even begins, but be sure you can back up your bold move with firepower!

On occasion it may be important to sit and properly develop a turn order if the battle has become too convoluted due to late joiners or other factors. This is discretionary to the DM to set up the proper line of initiative.

### Turn Actions

When it is your turn to participate in the battle, you have a variety of actions available to you. You can take one **major action**, and one **minor action,** or you can take two **minor actions.** You can get a quick overview of your potential actions by using the “/turnhelp” command in-game.

#### Major Actions

 Enter Stealth | If you are out of line of sight, you can attempt to hide until seen, or an overt action is performed.

#### Minor Actions

 Throw Object | Throw a small object, including grenades.

See "Other Turn Options" for more details on these turn actions.

### Anatomy of an Attack

There are three major components to an attack. The to-hit roll, the damage roll, and the reaction.

#### The To-Hit Roll

On the start of an attack, you’ll aim your weapon and roll a die to see if you hit or miss your intended target. The base to-hit DC is 10. Your ability to hit is dependent upon the primary skill of the weapon you’re using (i.e. a carbine would use the ranged skill) and other factors such as distance and posture. Several modifiers exist to make the DC of your to-hit easier or more difficult.

 Target Beyond Preferred Range\*
 Target out of Range\*
 Kneeling (Without being too close)
 Prone (Without being too close)

If your roll is higher than the DC of the attack, then you will have hit. If you rolled a 20, you’ll hit no matter what, so long as your weapon can reach that target.

#### The Damage Calculation

If your attack landed, the damage will be calculated based on the damage of your weapon. Some weapons might have more exotic damage values, but this is a rare exception. After a successful hit, you’ll roll the damage of your weapon to see how hard that hit was. You will also roll a 1d10 to find out which body part you will have hit on the target. This is to determine what piece of armour you’ve hit, if any.

#### The Reaction

The person you’ve struck will have an opportunity to react to the hit the moment it happens within the same turn you’ve taken. Combat reactions can help utilize your skills and strategy while in combat to stay alive, if you’re the one being attacked. Combat reactions are determined before the attack occurs, as you have to decide which stance you intend to use when dealing with incoming attacks. This decision is a free action, and can be made even when it's not your turn. If you’re actively using a reaction stance that costs pool points, but you no longer have points in that pool, then you’ll automatically respond with no reaction instead.

There are several combat reactions with different outcomes.

##### Lightsaber Deflect

This combat reaction requires a lightsaber to be equipped. Utilizing your blade, you can deflect blaster bolts, Force Lightning, and other Lightsabers. If you roll higher than half of their to-hit roll, you will deflect blaster bolts. You’ll receive half damage from lightning, and half damage from other lightsabers. If you roll higher or equal to their to-hit roll, you’ll deflect blaster bolts back to their originator at half damage, and avoid lightsaber damage completely. This will destroy melee weapons that attack if they’re not lightsaber resistant. If they are resistant, that weapon will be treated like another lightsaber.

Lightsaber deflect will cost 11 action points, minus your total Lightsaber skill score. Regardless of your skill value, however, deflection will always cost a minimum of 1 action point.

##### Force Deflect

This combat reaction will deflect blaster bolts, melee attacks and other lightsabers. If you beat the opponent's attack roll with your telekinesis roll, you deflect the attack fully. If you roll greater than half of their attack roll, you deflect half of the incoming damage.

Force Deflect will cost 11 force points, minus your total Telekinesis skill score. Regardless of your skill value, however, deflection will always cost a minimum of 1 force point.

##### Force Absorb

This requires the Force Power “Absorb.” Using this combat reaction, you will absorb any blaster bolts, or force attacks if you roll over or equal to their to-hit roll. In turn, you’ll receive half of the cost of the Force power that was directed at you to your Force pool.

Force Absorb will cost 12 force points, minus your total Inward skill score. Regardless of your skill value, however, absorb will always cost a minimum of 1 force point.

### Other Turn Options

#### Healing

For a major action, you can choose to heal yourself or an ally instead of attacking a target. Healing depends entirely on the medical skill, and whether or not you have medicine on your person when the action is taken. If you have medicine, you’ll roll the healing value of the medicine you have on hand. Certain medicines will require different medical skill values.

If you don’t have medicine, you’ll roll your medicine skill with a DC of the damage your target has, plus 10, for a total of 2d4 potential damage healed. For example, if your target has 8 HP max, and currently has only 4 HP left, you’ll roll against a DC of 14 to heal 2d4 damage.

Healing applies to mechanical allies as well. Instead of medicine and the medical skill, you’ll use a repair kit and your mechanics skill instead, for the exact same rules as above.

#### Stealth

Stealth allows you to avoid combat in order to get into a new position, avoid more enemies, or escape from an encounter. To enter stealth, you must take a major action to be considered within stealth. While stealthed, a target must roll an awareness check against your stealth skill to see if they detect you. If you’re detected, you’ll be considered out of stealth for the duration of the round. Any major action will bring you out of stealth, while minor actions can still be performed. You’ll remain in stealth until you do something to break from it, or you’re detected.

#### Moving

You can spend your minor action moving to a different location in the area. You’ll be able to move as far as 10 meters plus your athletics and maneuverability scores, and a maximum of 25 meters within a single move turn. Moving while crouched reduces your movement distance by one third, moving while prone reduces it to one fifth.

If you move while in range of a melee character, you must either spend a major action to move, or they will be allowed to make an attack of opportunity.

#### Throw Object

You can choose to throw any object at a target for potential damage. Grenades are the most obvious answer, but you can choose to throw nearby objects as well, which may have varying potential damage, as determined by the DM. Throwing an object will be similar to an attack, requiring you to roll to-hit, with modifiers depending on distance and the size of the object.

### Special Attacks

In place of an attack, you can utilise three other special attacks that cost action points in order to achieve different outcomes. Using these attacks instead in strategic ways can help you gain the upper hand.

#### Aimed Attack

(1 Action Point)

The aimed attack is most beneficial if you’re fighting a target that is wearing an incomplete suit of armour. Since armour can only protect the part of the body it is on, having an incomplete suit opens up areas where you can attack without worrying about the damage reduction armour might provide. An Aimed Attack works functionally identical to a regular attack, except you’ll specify where you’re trying to aim. Depending on what area of the target you’ve selected, you’ll have an additional modifier to your DC, increasing it by 10 for the head or hands, 5 for limbs and 2 for the chest. If you pass the check, you’ll hit your designated target, if you do not, you miss entirely.

#### Power Attack

(3 Action Point)

Power attacks function as normal, but increase their number of damage dice by one. For ranged weapons, Power attacks require the attacker to have at least half of their weapon's ammo available, and it drains the remainder of it. Additionally, the damage done by the attack is added to the weapon's condition damage.
For melee weapons, the DC for the attack is increased by 5, and exposes the attacker to an -5 DC to the next attack against them. Additionally, the damage they deal in their attack is added twice to their weapon as condition damage.

#### Flurry Attack

(2 Action Point)

Instead of simply one attack, you’ll roll three to-hit to determine three different attacks, each providing half damage if they succeed. Each successive attack after the first adds an additional five points to the dice check of the to-hit. If the target is using a combat stance that uses action points, they’ll have to spend twice as many action points to counter your attack, though they’ll only need to defeat your highest to-hit roll in order to counter all three attacks. Rolling a twenty during a flurry attack does not automatically mean you hit.

### States

Certain circumstances may cause you to experience certain states while in combat. States for one turn, or until action is taken to stop them.

#### Stunned

Stunned prevents you from taking any major action for one turn.

#### Blinded

Blinded adds a +10 to any to-hit rolls for one turn.

#### Immobilized

Immobilized prevents you from moving at all for one turn.

#### Knocked Down

Knocked Down prevents you from performing any reaction to combat for one turn.

#### On Fire

Being On Fire prevents you from taking any action until you’ve extinguished the flames, or have had them extinguished by someone else. This takes a major action from yourself or any other to do so. While under the effects of being on fire, you’ll take 2d4 damage if you end your turn while on fire.

#### Bleeding

Bleeding requires you or someone else to perform first aid on you successfully to stop the bleeding. If you end your turn while bleeding, you’ll take 1d4 damage.

## The Force

Any character you create can be **Force-Sensitive**, meaning they have the potential to wield the Force to their advantage. However, all characters start unaware of their connection to the Force, and must come to discover this on their journey. The exact mechanisms of this are left deliberately opaque.

### Force Pool

Force-sensitives have access to a fourth pool: **Force**. The Force pool represents the character's ability to call upon the Force. when it reaches zero, they will no longer be able to perform any Force-based actions or use Force reaction stances. Force, unlike health and action, is **NOT** replenished by a short rest and must be recovered through a long rest, or through bespoke Force abilities.

### Force Immersion

**Force Immersion** represents a character's depth of understanding of the Force, and the ease with which they can access it. The primary impact on characters is the amount of **Force Power Input**, or **FPI**, they are able to use in a single action.

 Master of the Force | No limit | You have attained total mastery of the Force.

### Force Skills

Force-sensitive characters, once awoken, have access to the following skills:

Unlike typical skills, Force skills cannot be learned via the /train command. Instead, characters will need to seek out others to train them, or discover ancient, hidden knowledge for themselves.

### Force Powers

After you have begun learning to use the Force, you will learn powers of the Force, some as a function of your basic learning, others through discovery or experimentation. See Force Powers for a complete list of all available powers at this time.