"Dungeons in Dresilan: First Edition" Ruleset

# Ruleset

This page explains the basic ruleset for the tabletop game Dungeons in Dresalin. This page will cover both in combat and out of combat mechanics that are central to understanding the core concepts at play within a typical campaign. These mechanics may have small tweaks or changes depending on the version of the game or any variations from the Dungeon Master.

## How To Play

Dungeons in Dresalin is a table-top role-playing game in which players act as characters on an adventure narrated by a Dungeon Master. The adventures consist of a steady flow of cause and effect. If one is already familiar with Dungeons and Dragons, then the pattern of typical gameplay will be nearly identically familiar to what you are used to. The pattern is usually as follows:

1. **The Dungeon Master explains the current scenario/environment**. The DM will explain to the players where they are, what there is around them, who they may see, and depending on if the situation calls for it, providing the players with some basic choices they may take in the happenstance. For example, a DM may describe a room, other characters nearby, contents of a book, contents of a container, etc.
2. **The players explain their course of action**. Players will explain to the DM what course of action they wish to pursue, whether it be purely based on the current scenario or otherwise. It is not necessary for players to take turns out of combat in order to explain their actions to the DM, but it is up to the DM to decide in what order to resolve how the players are interacting with the world. For example a player may say, "I wanna talk to this slug and see what he knows about the bounty." If the DM wishes to, they can choose to advise against or toward certain courses of action but only under rare circumstance are they ever permitted to disallow a player from taking a course of action. (I.E. a fourth-wall breaking action which is self-referential to the real-life players). Keep in mind, that *always* have a consequence. Some actions that players may wish to take may require dice rolls to be performed in order to decide on their success. Whether or not an action is "Rollable" is entirely up to the DM's discretion. These kinds of actions will be touched on later in the rule guide.
3. **The Dungeon Master explains how the current scenario/environment has changed based on the player's actions**. After the players describe their intended actions, the DM will explain how their actions have affected the scenario around them. After this step, the pattern will loop around to the first step again, in which the DM narrates the current situation and how things have changed since your characters interacted with the world around them.

While most play will happen descriptively and in spoken word, relying on the DM's skill in narration and improvisation; the DM can choose to lay out physical maps, use music, art, or even sound effects to help immerse players in their campaigns. DMs often like to act out the parts of various characters or monsters in different voices or physically acting to get into character for each non-player character. Sometimes they can write up dialogue based on what actions they plan or expect for your characters to take. ***It is important to note that while a grid-based map isn't REQUIRED to play, much of the game's combat and spells were designed around a two-dimensional square-grid based map.***

## Dice

A lot of what happens throughout a game is based on different dice rolls. It is not required to have physical dice, so long as one has a random number generator with typical dice values. Common denomination for dice used throughout not only this game, but other tabletop games refer to differing dice with the letter d followed by the amount of faces on the die. For example, a "d6" is your typical, six-sided cuboid die. Many times, the amount of a type of dice is also specified by putting a number in front of the d in the abbreviation; such is that 2d4 refer to 2 four-sided trigonal dice. The dice used in this game are d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, and d20.

Situationally, dice rolls require dice higher than that of a d20. Namely, that of a d100, in the event it is needed, one can simply 2d10, one die at a time, in order to determine a number, using one of the ten-sided die as the tens digit and the other as the ones digit. I.E. You roll a 7 followed by a 3, giving you a 73.

What rolls constitute a "successful" roll is entirely up to the discretion of the DM and the situation you see yourself in. The results of the rolls can be modified positively or negatively based on multiple different factors that will be touched on later in this rule guide.

## Hitrolls

In Dungeons in Dresalin, much like other tabletop role-playing games, the most important dice of them all is the d20-- the twenty-sided die. If an action a player wishes to take has outcome which isn't certain, or if something is suddenly occurring to a player, the success or failure of performing an action or avoiding the action taken by someone or something else, the outcome is decided based on the result of rolling a twenty-sided die. These kinds of rolls are what are hereby referred to as a "Hitroll". Even if the player isn't performing an action that is based on them hitting something, this is still the term used to describe rolling a d20 in order to determine the success of an action.

Can the thief's lockpick perfectly and deftly maneuver through the keyhole and unlock the door or will it break and announce their presence to all of the nearby guards? Will you successfully dodge out of the way of the arrow aimed at your forward? Can the cute woodland critter be convinced to come over to your side? These cases are examples of that in which a Hitroll will be used to determine the outcome of.

You can, based on your character's own strengths and weaknesses, influence your chances of success through what are called modifiers.

### Hitrolls and Modifiers

Characters in Dungeons in Dresalin have 6 separate numerical statistics that influence every hitroll a character may perform. These stats are called Modifiers and they are based on a characters given Race, Homeland, and Class, and can be further influenced by a character's level or equipment. These six attributes are a character's Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Perception, and Charisma. On your Character Sheet, these will be listed under the ***Modifiers*** section and are always abbreviated to three-letter abbreviations; being STR, DEX, CON, INT, PER, and CHA.

When a character performs a hitroll, the modifier relevant to the action they're performing the hitroll to resolve is added or subtracted to the result of a twenty-sided dice roll.

Specific scenarios or circumstances can also additionally modify the result of a hitroll like spells, potions, class passives, or other specific effects.

The result of the modified hitroll is then compared to whatever the DM's target number for a successful roll is and if the total meets or exceeds the target number, then the action is considered a success. Whether or not the Target number is told to you or kept a secret is up to the discretion of the DM.

*Reminder that just because your action was a success doesn't always mean it will result in a positive outcome. I.E. Rolling a 19 might make it so you stab the dragon REALLY well, but it also might mean that you REALLY piss it off.*

## Specifics and Rounding

### Which rules to follow

Many rules provided in this ruleset are what are considered to be the general rule of thumb; and most scenarios possible within the games mechanics have been accounted for, however; it is not uncommon for specific abilities, situations, or effects to contradict some of the rules provided. In these instances; just like in the Dungeons and Dragons, the more specific rule wins. For example, normally, a character who uses Tension as a resource will almost universally have it set to 0 after a battle concludes; however, someone with the "Residual Anger" ability doesn't have this rule apply to them due to effect of the ability.

### Rounding

In the rare event of a multiplier or a division of any number being a fraction or a decimal, you should always round up. I.E. a Compound bow multiplies arrow damage by 1.2x, so dealing 6 damage with an arrow would result in the total being 7.2 damage. Since it has a remainder of 0.2 it is rounded up to 8, even though the total is closer to 7.

## Campaigning and Playing

Typically, any session set up by a Dungeon Master will see a group of players setting out to accomplish a task of some sort. This task can be a multitude of things, being anywhere from capturing a bounty for money, to finding an ancient tomb, to participating in a war, to even solving a murder-mystery. The game is meant to be used as a storytelling advice set within the world and lore of Dresalin. Any adventure players set out on can be based on another work, written entirely by a DM, or come from any other source. Regardless of the setting, the campaign should be an involved affair, having the story be based around the players unfurling the world around them. Remember, players are more than just visitors in the world of Dresalin, they're part of the world itself. They react to the world as the world should react to them.

Often times adventures are marked with beginnings, middles, and ends that seamlessly transition from part to part and keep the players on edge, guessing, and intrigued. Over the course of the adventure, players will meet characters in the world, interact with them, help them, or maybe even hurt them. Sometimes there will be thought out puzzles, other times large battles, and yet other times obstacles that block the players' path. Every campaign essentially serves as a series of trials, both insurmountable and insignificant.

Campaigns can also vary drastically in length. For short, single-session campaigns not a lot of prep can be done, but for multi-spanning adventures it can takes a month or two of work to set up and write. Even with months of prep being done, "winging it" and just improv to see what kind of hijinks and antics arise from the situations can also lead to a lot of fun interactions between players and the world around them.

Just because a campaign is set up with the idea of the players accomplishing a goal, it doesn't necessarily mean it has to end with them accomplishing said goal. They can just as easily end up a pile of mush in the dirt.

### Basic Concepts

Dungeons in Dresalin works off of players exploring around to see what they can accomplish. Generally this comes in the form of two "Phases" in which the game is played. Mind you Character's abilities are useful in both phases and should always be considered as options out of a situation, not only by players, but by the DM as well.

#### Out of Combat

The Out of Combat phase is the phase in which players interact directly with their world. This is where they tell the Dungeon Master where they want to go, what doors they wish to open, what parts of a room to examine, what Characters to talk to and what they want to say to them. It is then the DM's job to relay to the players what results of their actions. Social interaction and talking to NPCs could be considered it's own gameplay phase separate from simply being, "out of combat" but it feels much more natural and engaging if it as integrated in the adventure as exploration.

#### In-combat

The In-combat Phase is the phase in which players are directly confronted by enemies, monsters, beasts, or even each other! This is where your weapons and armor are going to come into play the most. Battles happen by each participant taking turns choosing which actions they wish to perform on their turn; using their equipment and abilities to fight for their survival to continue the journey. The mechanics of Combat will be touched upon later in this guide.

## Creating a Character

The specifics of the character sheet itself is discussed on the Character Sheet page so please read through that out after reading this guide. Players will imagine and create their own characters to insert themselves into and roleplay as in the world of Dresalin through campaigns. The Character Sheet itself is the way in which everyone keeps track of their character's statistics, equipment, abilities, and experience. It also has a section dedicated to describing and fleshing out a characters appearance, background, and traits.

### Races

Every character belongs to a select race. Races are not-necessarily humanoid, but they are the sapient inhabitants of the world of Dresalin. Some races have **subraces** *(In the current ruleset there is only one)* like the Toofa and Toofa-Doh. A characters race acts as the core upon which that their class and homeland change the abilities of. The race is the foundation of the character and the most basic part of who they are.

### Classes

Characters choose from a select class. Classes can be considered a type of profession a character belongs to. A character's class decides not only their proficiency with select kinds of weaponry or Arcana, but also dictates which resource characters use in order to cast their abilities. Some characters will use Mana as their chosen ability. Others will use Tension. How each of these resources work will be touched upon later in this guide. A character's chosen class will also alter their race's Base Stats, Modifiers, and Default Abilities.

### Homelands

Homelands are as it says on the tin. These countries are the place in which your character comes from. The specifics in where they came from within the countries is up for players to make up as they see fit, but the Homeland itself affects a character's special abilities as well as influences their statistics. A character's chosen homeland will also alter their race's Base Stats, Modifiers, and Default Abilities.

### Abilities

Abilities are also rather self-explanatory. These are specific techniques that your character is capable of. These different techniques are the specific actions your characters can perform in order to deal damage, use items, and bend the world to your will. The specifics of abilities and what types of abilities there are are discussed later in detail. A level 0 character gets access to two novice-level abilities.

### Hitpoints and Resources

Hitpoints are a simple representation of how much "life" your character has left. This number has a maximum amount dictated by a character's Race, Class, and Homeland. Once this number reaches zero, a character can either fall unconscious or even die.

There are two kinds of resources (though technically three) that your characters use to cast and use their abilities. These two resources are Mana and Tension. They each have different uses and are obtained in different ways. Occasionally, abilities require that one pay an amount of Hitpoints in order to cast it as well.

Which resource your character uses to cast their abilities is based on the class they choose.

#### Mana

Mana is a simple resource. The amount a character has is based on a character's Race, Homeland, and Class. It is used in casting the many different spells that there are available to characters. If an ability requires mana to be cast, you perform a hitroll to see if the spell is cast, then you pay the cost detailed by the ability. Mana can be regained through the use of potions or other consumables.

#### Tension

Tension is a bit more complex. By Default, It is set to zero out of a Maximum based on a character's Race, Homeland, and Class. It is reset back to 0 at the end of a battle. It's used as a resource to cast skills and dances. Tension is gained by directly dealing or receiving damage. This does not include indirect damage from things like bleeds or burns. The amount of Tension gained is equal to the amount of damage dealt or recieved.

#### Physical and Arcane Defense

A character's physical and arcane defense are dictated by a character's current equipment as well any other modifying factors. This is usually represented through two numbers divided by a forward slash. The number left of the divider is a character's physical defense and the number to the right is a character's arcane defense. On your character sheet it will look something like this: 2/0. These numbers reduce incoming damage of each type by a flat amount. For example if a character with 2/0 defenses gets hit by a physical attack that deals 3 damage, it will instead deal 1 because they have 2 physical defense; however, if they are hit by an arcane attack that deals 3 damage, they will receive the full 3 damage due to them having 0 arcane defense.

### Stats

Characters are governed by six statistics that influence what a given character is capable of. These statistics are a character's Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Perception, and Charisma. A general idea to help you understand what each of these stats do for your character is what is called the "Tomato Test". It refers to how the stats would dictate the ways in which a character can interact with a tomato.

Strength is how well a character can crush a Tomato. Dexterity is how well a character can slice a tomato. Constitution is how well a character can eat a bad tomato and be okay. Intelligence is whether or not a character can conjure a tomato. Perception is how well a character can throw a tomato. Charisma is how well a character can cook that tomato into a beautiful stuffed tomato.

Now that you have an idea of how stats work in conjunction with your character's abilities, it's important to understand the difference between **Base Stats** and **Modifiers**.

#### Base Stats

A character's base statistics govern what equipment they are capable of wearing or using. Any time a rule or description refers to a base stat it will always be called by the full name. It can also influence the success of certain stat checks. For example, someone wants to use a specific sword, but it requires at least having 26 Strength to use.

#### Modifiers

A character's modifiers specifically influence the result of a dice roll. Say a character is doing a melee attack and they have a dexterity modifier of +2. They would roll a twenty-sided die and add their dexterity modifier to the result in order to influence their chances to connect a melee attack.

### Experience and Levels

Experience is awarded after a successful battle; defeating enemies; or when the party completes a certain objective. It is up to the DM to award experience to players based on their participation during battles and how much they contributed to defeating a particular enemy. Objective-based experience should always be a flat amount gained.

The player's "level" is dictated by the numbers in the hundredths and thousandths place in their total experience. For example, someone with 332 total experience is level 3 because the number in the hundredths place is 3. Someone with 1,243 total experience would be level 12 because of the digits in the thousandths and hundredths place. The remainder two digits are irrelevant to the players level and can be considered representative of the amount of experience needed to level up.

Generally, characters will begin at level 0. Level 0 character's get to choose 2 Novice-level Abilities to start off with. Character's also gain additional benefits to leveling up. The leveling guide below will give you an in-depth idea of how to level your character in-game

## Feats

Feats are actions that are not specific to any one ability or instance. If you are familiar to Dungeons and Dragons, feats are essentially baby's first Skill check. Dungeons in Dresalin simply leaves the decision of what actions would normally be skills or saving throws in DnD 5e up to 6 different kinds of "Feat" relating to the different 6 core stats.

Actions that would be classified as a "Feat" are any action players take that isn't a specific ability but would still need to fail/succeed and therefore would still need to be rolled for. What is and isn't a feat for which stat is up to the Dungeon Master's discretion. In an instance in which a feat would be required to accomplish a task, The Dungeon master will tell you to roll for a "Feat of (Blank)" in which the player rolls a d20 and uses the modifier of the DM's choice. (I.E. Avoiding a trap you know is there would be considered a Feat of Dexterity and the Dungeon Master would have you roll a d20 with your DEX modifier).

### Specific Situations in which Feats are used:

In the instance that a character is reduced to 0 HP, if the DM allows, they may roll a Feat of Constitution to prevent themselves from dying.

## Combat

Combat is initiated whenever the player party is either attacked or if they choose to attack whatever target they see fit. Combat isn't officially initiated unless the Dungeon Master specifically states that it has been. During combat, each participant is granted their turn to select which actions they see fit perform. Turn order may change depending on certain special circumstances.

### Initiative and Turn Order

Every participant, enemies included have to roll a 20-sided die to decide the turn order. The order of turns goes from the participant with the highest roll, to the participant with the lowest. In the case that two characters on opposing sides of the battle roll the same value, they each roll a second time to see which of them will go first. Members on the same team are free to decide which of them goes first.

#### Exceptions to Turn Order

The two regular exceptions to Initiative and turn order are Bosses and Late Participants. Late Participants are anyone joining the battle after the initial initiative has already been rolled. In both of these instances, they will be going last in the turn order.

### Parts of a Turn

A character's turn in combat is composed of three different parts. Every character in combat has by default, one Movement action, one Combat action, and one Extra action.

#### Combat Actions

Combat actions are exactly as they say on the tin. These are any (generally) offensive abilities and spells.

#### Movement Actions

Movement actions are also pretty self explanatory. Your movement action allows you to move up to your maximum speed's distance in one turn.

#### Extra Actions

Extra actions are a bit different from the other two. Extra actions are used up to load weapons, use items, or to command any familiars/pets that a character may have at their disposal.

## Abilities and Ability Typing

Every character will have different abilities to use throughout a game both in and outside of combat. Some abilities are only available to use outside of combat. Abilities also come in 11 different types. The different types of each ability dictate which kind of actions on one's turn the ability will take up.

Ability Typing/Action Used
Skills,
Corrupting Arcana
Musical Skills
Auxiliary Abilities
Passives

This table describes which actions on your turn will be used up by different abilities.

## Attacking

In Dungeons in Dresalin, there are 4 different types of ability categories in which abilities fall into when it comes to their range and function. Theses 4 different types of abilities are *Melee, Ranged, Arcana,* and *Self-cast*. Each of these different categories for range require the user to use a different modifier to see whether or not they are used successfully.

NOTICE: Modifiers to damage rolls are only applied to the damage dealt AFTER any multipliers to the damage.

### Melee

Abilities that fall into the Melee category will use a d20 plus or minus a character's weapon modifier to see if the ability connects. The weapon modifier is denoted by the + to the weapon's damage die.

This means if a weapon rolls for 1d6 + STR, you will roll a d20 and then use your STR modifier to see if the weapon's attack connects. If it connects, you will additionally roll the weapon's Damage die and add the relevant modifier.

If your weapon has no modifier, you will simply roll a d20.

### Ranged

Abilities in the Ranged category will use a d20 plus or minus a character's PER modifier to see whether or not the ability gets used successfully. Character's whose primary focus is ranged attacking tend to have high PER modifers, and usually end up having base PER modifiers above 5, essentially giving them a high crit chance. This is usually balanced out by the fact that they tend to be rather squishy and easy to kill, even for lower-level enemies.

### Arcana

Abilities underneath the Arcana category will use a d20 plus or minus a character's INT modifier to see whether or not the ability can be successfully casted. Ranged Arcana do NOT need to additionally roll PER in order to see if they connect. If a character attempting to Cast an Arcana-type ability fails to cast it by rolling too low, their mana is not used up.

### Self-cast

Self-cast abilities do not use any modifier, and instead simply roll one twenty sided-die. There aren't many self-cast abilities in the game and they are mostly some sort of stance-type ability.

### Notes on success chances

As for what roll constitutes a successful cast or use is completely up to the Dungeon Master. Typically however any hitrolls ranging between:

* 9-19 will be a connecting attack.
* 7-8 will situationally be interpreted as a connecting attack.
* 2-6 and below will often times not be a connecting attack.
* If a result is a 1, modifiers will be ignored, and it will be interpreted as a critical failure, and attacks may misfire, hit allies, hit yourself, or result in other negative situational factors.
* If the result is a 20 (plus modifiers) , this is counted as a critical success and will result in an attack dealing double damage, doubling the intensity or duration of a buff, or restoring double the amount of health.
* If the result is a 20 without modifiers, this is counted as a supercritical success and modifiers will be ignored. Supercritical successes have the benefits of a normal critical success with the added bonus of sometimes out-right defeating enemies in one hit, restoring allies to full health, or other situational bonuses.

### Damage Types

There are a total of three different Damage types that a given attack or ability can do. These different damage types are Physical, Arcane and True damage. Physical Damage as the name would imply is a physical blow to an opponent. Arcane Damage is done by anything magical in nature. True damage is a bit more selective and only select things deal True Damage. True Damage completely ignores all defenses.

## Equipment, Weight, and Stat Requirements.

A character's weight is the total combined weight of every item within one's inventory. If someone's weight is higher than double their Base Strength, they are considered *Encumbered* and suffer the penalty of having their movement speed halved.

Some items and equipment require you to have a certain amount of points within one of your Base Stats in order for you to equip it. If you don't meet these requirements, you cannot equip the item. If it is somehow equipped by force to your character or unwillingly bound to you, you simply add the weight of the item to your character, and don't receive any *beneficial* effects granted by the piece of equipment.

## Stealth

Stealth can only be entered by characters with abilities that specifically allow them to. Characters in Stealth cannot be seen or heard by enemies, but now must roll Feats of Dexterity in order to move without breaking stealth. Taking any other action than moving or using a consumable item break stealth immediately. Characters in stealth might still be detected by characters with particularly high *Perception.* Attacks from stealth will always count as a Critical Hit.

## Mounts and Familiars

Lastly in this guide, I want to touch up on Mounts and Familiars. There are many methods to acquiring a familiar or mount. They take their turn at the same time as your character in combat; however, in order for them to actually be able to move or attack, you must first use the ability, "**Command Familiar**" (*- **Command Familiar**: Auxiliary (Extra); Grants the user's summoned familiar(s) a Movement and Combat action).* After using this ability, as the description states, a character's mount and any familiars they may have all are granted both a movement and a combat action on their Master's turn. Otherwise, a character's familiars and mount are sitting duck. A character's Mount simply adds it's movement speed onto it's rider's movespeed while mounted. Think of them like an elaborate pair of shoes. While mounted, attacks have a high chance of hitting the mount.