Example of Play

*Jeffery, Sarah and Tim are a group of friends playing Path of Paper with Mark the Game Master (GM) currently exploring Axiom prison. Jeffrey is playing a sarcastic, dangerous and arrogant exile called Havoc who specializes in cold magic. Sarah is playing a serious and ruthless exile called Paw who enjoys fighting in melee with dual-wielded claws. Tim is playing an exile called Moasie, a happy-go-lucky giant of a man who defends his fellow exiles with his giant 2 handed mace.*

*Havoc narrowed his eyes. The prison was dark, and it was difficult to see through the murk despite their torches. ‘Guys, we need to make sure we aren't surprised, or things are going to go badly for us,’ he said.*

*‘Don’t worry man, I’ll protect you’ said Moasie with a grin, his metal-clad body clanking as he walked down the dark gloomy corridor.*

*Havoc’s player Jeffrey tells the GM that he wants to make a **Perception** Skill Check to spot anything unusual. Paws and Moasie mention they will take a look as well.*

*‘Roll a **Perception** Check’ says the GM. Mark the GM knows that further down the corridor lurks a powerful intelligent necromancer called Sawbones. Sawbones has set up a cluster of **Fire Trap**s ahead. Detecting them requires a successful **Perception** check of 10. Additionally, if the players get higher than 15 on their **Perception** the GM decides the players will hear Sawbones muttering to himself around the corner.*

*All three players check their character sheets and note the bonus they have for **Perception**. Havoc has a bonus of +9 due to his high intelligence, Paws has +5 and Moasie has -1.*

*All players roll a ten sided die (often abbreviated to 1d10) and add their bonus to make a total. If they get 10 or higher they succeed at the check.*

*Havok rolls a 1 ‘Just my luck’ his player Jeffery mutters. Normally, Havok’s massive **Perception** bonus would mean he easily succeeds at the roll, but rolling a 1 on the die (called a natural 1) means -5 to his check. Due to his bonus of +9, -5 he gets a total of 4 on **Perception**. Note that there are no ‘critical’ failures in the system. Nothing particularly bad happens when you roll a 1. Paw rolls a 4 for a total of 9, not enough to see anything.*

*Moasie rolls a 10. When you roll a 10, you get a bonus of +5. This means Moasie gets 10, -1 +5 for 14. A success! The players cheer, even though Moasie had -1 to **Perception**, a 10 gives an additional bonus of +5.*

*Mark the GM says ‘Havoc and Paw don’t see anything, but as you start to move forward Moasie stops you’.*

*Moasie’s interjected ‘Hey guys! Hold up, I’ve spotted something! You need to be more careful!’*

*Sarah mentions ‘Paw rolls her eyes at that comment’.*

*‘So uh, what do I see?’ asks Tim eagerly.*

*Mark the GM says ‘Well, maybe it was a bit of luck but you noticed the faint glimmer of magical runes around the corner. A trap! Straining your ears, you also notice a faint muttering’*

*Moasie shares this information with his friends.*

*‘I got this’ says Paw, padding towards the trap.*

*Sarah tells the GM that Paw goes toward the trap and tries to disarm it.*

*Mark the GM tells Sarah to make a **Soul Manipulation** check to see if she can disarm the trap. He knows the difficulty is 10.*

*Paw has a +6 to **Soul Manipulation**. Sarah rolls a 6 for a total of 12. Success!*

*Mark describes what happens ‘Paw casually walks up and stares at the runes for a moment, with a wave of her hand the runes start to dance with a strange energy before disappearing completely’.*

*‘Hey Sarah’, says Mark innocuously ‘could you roll a quick **Perception** check for me?’*

*Sarah rolls quickly, and gets a 1....*

*Sarah says ‘Uh...guys...I got a bad feeling about this’*

*‘Roll initiative’ announce Mark with a smile. Sarah, Tim and Jeffrey all roll a 1d10 and add their **Initiative** Skill. Sarah rolls a 8, adds +8 for 16. Tim rolls 2 and adds 2 for 4 and Jeffrey rolls a 5 and adds 3 for 8. Secretly, Mark rolls for Sawbones the necromancer and his 6 skeleton minions and gets a total of 9.*

*The order of the fight goes from highest to lowest, except that Mark states that Paw is surprised by the sudden assault of Sawbones. Paw will act last for the first round of combat, but on the second round she will act first as she is no longer surprised.*

*Sawbones goes first. Mark states that he lobs a **Fireball** at Paw. Sawbones has 10 **WAM** and gets a bonus 5 damage from the **Fireball**. Mark rolls Sawbones attack and gets a 6. He multiplies Sawbones 10 **WAM** by 6 for 60 damage, plus the additional 5 damage from **Fireball**.*

*‘A ball of fire explodes, bathing you in flame as the decrepit form of Sawbones laughs maniacally in the distance’ says Mark. ‘take 65 fire damage.’*

*Sarah looks at her character sheet and sees she has 10 **Resistance**. Since fire is elemental damage she reduces the total of 65 down to 55. Looking at her current **Life** total of 100, she notes that the **Fireball** has taken her down to 45 **Life**. That’s not all, Paw’s **Threshold** is equal to half her maximum **Life**, or 50. The **Fireball** has exceeded her **Threshold** so Paw is ignited. This means she takes 50% of the total damage again at the start of her turn, or another 22 fire damage (since numbers are always rounded down).*

*The 6 skeletons swarm down the corridor, all attacking Paw. Mark rolls a 2, each skeleton has a **WAM** of 2 and bonus damage of 10. Mark rolls a 2, multiplies it by the **WAM** of 2 for a total of 4, and adds the bonus damage of 10 for a total of 14 damage for each skeleton. Mark asks ‘Hey what’s Paw’s **Armour**?’*

*Sarah checks her character sheet ‘It's 15’.*

*The skeletons swarm around Paw but moving with grace and dexterity she manages to deflect all their blows. You take no damage’. ‘You’re still Engaged Sarah’ reminds Mark ‘so you can’t leave your Zone unless you kill the skeletons or beat them on a **Maneuver** check.’*

*Jerry’s character Havoc gets to act next. He asks Mark ‘Hey, all 6 skeletons are in Paw’s Zone, but the necromancer is not right?’*

*‘That’s correct’ says Mark.*

*Jerry says ‘Ok great, I cast **Ice Spear**, but I’m going to support it with **Multiple Projectiles** and **Fork**’. Jerry’s character pays the **Mana** cost for **Ice Spear** **(2)**, **Multiple Projectiles** **(3)** and **Fork** **(3)** for a total of 8 **Mana**. This modifies his **Ice Spear** to shoot 2 Ice spears at separate enemies, on impact, one of the projectiles will fork and hit three more enemies in the Zone. This means he will hit 5 of the 6 skeletons. Jerry notches off the 8 **Mana**, and announces that his character will be drinking from one of his flasks as a minor action to restore half his total **Mana**. Havoc’s maximum **Mana** is 10, so Jerry reduces his **Mana** by 8 and adds back 5. His current **Mana** is 7. Jerry minuses 4 charges on his flask.*

*Jerry rolls a 10. A crit! He multiplies the 10 by his **WAM** of 8 for 80, then adds his damage of 20 and another 15 damage because **Ice Spear** adds a bonus 15 to damage. If this was not a crit, he would stop there and his total damage would be 115. However, because it's a crit he adds half his **INT** score of 40 to the total damage because **Ice Spear** is an **INT** skill. In addition, **Ice Spear** has a special property which increases critical damage by by 20. This means he adds 20 from half his **INT**, 20 from **Ice Spear**’s bonus crit damage with the 115 for a grand total of 155 cold damage.*

*Mark checks the stats for his skeletons. They only have 60 **Life**, and 10 **Resistance**.*

*‘You fire 2 spears of ice towards the skeletons, as they impact the front 2, three more split outwards into the group. The bodies of the skeletons shatter into a thousand pieces of ice simultaneously.’*