A few good numbers: Survival
Survival is the ability of your character to survive damaging events. A sword hit, a fall from a large height, a punch in the face, all reduce your character’s survival points. If your character’s survival drops to zero or below, your character risks unconsciousness and death.
At first level, player characters have five survival points. Survival points are modified by endurance as a major contributor.
A few good numbers: Verve
| Warrior | Thief | Sorceror | Prophet | Monk |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Intelligence | Wisdom | Charisma | Strength | Endurance |
Verve is the ability of your character to look cool in the face of harm that results from archetypal actions. Whenever a character loses survival for an archetypal activity, the player may instead choose to have some or all of the damage come from verve. For example, warriors use verve in combat, thieves use it after failing to climb a wall, and monks after a failed perception roll.
At first level, player characters have five verve, modified by their archetypal ability and their verve ability as minor contributors.
When the chance of success is governed by the character’s archetypal ability or archetypal reaction or by one of the character’s specialties, damage resulting from that action comes from verve first, then from survival. Some characters will also use verve when they perform archetypal actions such as casting spells.
A few good numbers: Movement
The character’s Movement rating is 10, with agility as a major contributor and strength as a minor contributor.
A character’s movement determines their reach in combat, and how fast they can travel on foot.
A few good numbers: Age
Your character’s starting age may be rolled as 15 plus d6 or chosen by you. If your character begins the game at age 20 or older, they will receive a greater number of skills or field bonuses in one or more of their fields. If the character has low mental abilities, such that their starting field count is negative, their bonus is reduced by that number. For example, a character with a 4 intelligence, a 15 charisma, and a 10 wisdom has negative 1 starting fields. The character would have to start at 30 years or older to gain age-related skills and field bonuses.
| Older Than: | 20 | 30 | 50 | 80 | 120 | 170 | 230 | 300 | 380 | 470 |
| Bonus | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
A few good numbers: Reactions
When your character takes the initiative to act, you’ll make an ability roll. When your character reacts to something or might sense something, you’ll make a reaction roll. For example, when characters are faced with imminent danger, players will often have the opportunity to react and avoid or mitigate that danger.
Reactions start at 4, modified by the character’s scores in the major and minor contributors to that reaction. They gain a bonus of one to their archetypal reaction.
| Reaction | Major Ability | Minor Ability | Archetype | Psychic Power | Uses |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Health | Endurance | Strength | None | Corporeal | Health dangers, poisons, diseases |
| Fortitude | Strength | Endurance | Warriors | Psychokinetic | Wide-effect attacks, standing firm |
| Willpower | Wisdom | Charisma | Prophets | Spiritual | Mind control, temptations, faith |
| Evasion | Agility | Intelligence | Thieves | Dimensional | Dodging or avoiding individual attacks |
| Reason | Intelligence | Wisdom | Sorcerors | Recalling events, learning new things | |
| Perception | Charisma | Agility | Monks | Telepathic | Seeing hidden things |
Reactions improve as the character becomes more experienced.
Here, for example, are Sam Stevens’ reactions, both as a first level thief, and later at fifth level, with two levels in thief and three levels in warrior (she has the Multiple Archetypes specialty). You’ll see that at fifth level her reactions are higher. Her fortitude has improved most, because she has three levels as a warrior.
| Reaction | Thief 1 | Thief 2/Warrior 3 |
|---|---|---|
| Health | 5 | 7 |
| Fortitude | 4 | 8 |
| Willpower | 4 | 6 |
| Evasion | 6 | 8 |
| Reason | 4 | 6 |
| Perception | 5 | 7 |
If a wizard attempts to take control of Sam’s mind, and Sam needs to make a willpower roll to avoid it, a d20 roll of 4 or less will let Sam avoid the spell when she is first level; and a d20 roll of 6 or less will let her avoid it when she is fifth level.
Defense and attack bonuses
Defense is the character’s agility as a major contributor.
Close combat attack bonus is the character’s strength as a minor contributor. Damage bonus is strength as a major contributor.
Missile combat attack bonus is the character’s agility as a minor contributor. Damage bonus for thrown weapons is the character’s strength as a minor contributor. Thrown weapon range penalties are reduced by the character’s strength as a minor contributor.
Propelled weapons do not gain a damage or range bonus unless the weapon is specially designed for the character’s strength. Penalties, however, will apply.
A few good numbers: Carry
Your character’s carry measures how many items they can carry during an adventure. Your character can carry up to half strength items, modified by endurance as a special contributor. Each item your character carries must have a bulk less than or equal to their strength.
An item’s bulk combines weight in pounds with the difficulty of carrying that weight. A bulky, light item may have the same bulk as a compact, heavy item. An item meant for swinging (such as a weapon) will almost certainly have a greater bulk than a similarly-shaped item meant solely for carrying. Items meant for wear will have a far greater bulk carried than worn. An item’s bulk is rarely less than its weight, but can be more than its weight if the item is unwieldy.
If your character needs to carry an item with too much bulk, you can use extra carry points to do so, but each extra carry point gives your character a penalty of one to movement, to attack rolls, and to any agility-based rolls.
Characters can use containers, such as pouches, sacks, sheaths, and backpacks, to reduce the number of items they carry. Normal clothing does not count against the number of carried items when worn.
For example, Sam Stevens has a fourteen endurance and an eleven strength. She can carry up to ten items; each item must have a bulk of eleven or less. If she carries a tent (bulk 40) her movement and rolls are reduced by 3, because she will need to use four of her carry points just on that one item.
Items meant to be worn well, such as armor and backpacks, can use two carry points instead of one with no penalty. Weapons or other items used two-handed (such as sacks) can also use two Carry points with no penalty.
Sam Stevens could use a battleaxe (bulk 20) with no penalty by using it with both hands. If she tried to use a great sword, however, its bulk 24 would give her a penalty of one while using it two-handed.
Height and weight
In a game of poking and prodding, height and weight can be important numbers. Players choose their character’s height and weight or roll them randomly. If random, characters have a base height of 54 inches and a base weight of 48 pounds.
Vary the base by rolling 5d6. Add the 5d6 roll to the character’s height, and add endurance as a minor contributor and strength as a major contributor.
Modify the dice total by endurance as a major contributor and strength as a minor contributor. Then multiply by seven and add this to the character’s weight. But if you already know your character’s height and weight, there is no need to roll randomly.
