Basic Ruleset
Character Creation
Creating a character can be hard, so this will guide you through it.
Before anything, you need to know how the rolls work, the full rules of it can be found here. But for a short version, every skill and ability check is a 2d12. One d12 is a hope dice, the other is a fear dice. You roll the two, add them together, and whichever dice rolls higher determines whether you roll with hope or fear, both of which have special effects.
Now we can move on to the actual character creation.
The sheets can be found here
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Y2DQcR5ihF5eoWVAULS2n-Cqrf_SXI9ma7JhQPRyVeU/edit?usp=sharing (Dark Version)
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1iAJWhUaj5vHMSG93eYmZSigW6GLKgywwvRgjgNZk8AQ/edit?usp=sharing (Whitewashed Version)
Your DM will give you a set amount of EXP to work with when creating a character, but a recommended amount of starting EXP is 80-120 for beginner adventurers, or 50-70 for commoners.
Attributes
Attributes represent your characters fundamental traits, such as their strength and mental acuity.. These are split up into Primary and Secondary attributes
The Primary attributes are Health, Stamina, Dodge, along with Tolerance If you're a mage.
Health and Stamina are not directly bought, instead being added by certain feats like Tough.
Dodge costs 10 EXP per point and each point adds an additional d2 to your AC.
Tolerance costs 2 EXP per point, with each point upgrading your total TP value by one. Tolerance has no maximum.
Each of these add to another stat, as each value combines some other attributes (Those stats being HP, SP, AC, and TP respectively).
The specifics of what each of these do is detailed in the article hyperlinked above, but the gist is:
Health is physical injuries, it takes time and medical attention to recover.
Stamina is quick to regenerate and what you draw on first as you dodge, weave, and block, the most it requires to recover is a good nights rest, though unlike HP stamina cant be regained through items or abilities in most situations.
Armor class is a rolled damage reduction on attacks representing you capability of dodging, redistributing, and tanking attacks.
Finally, Tolerance is your bodies ability to handle the flow of magic.
Next we move on to Secondary attributes. These represent more specific areas of your faculty, and go as follows:
Strength, Your raw brute strength and general ability to output power and force. High strength characters lift wagons, break down doors, and deliver devastating melee strikes.
Dexterity, Your grace, motor control, and physical reflexes. High dexterity characters make nimble combatants, accurate archers, and skilled craftsmen.
Fortitude, Your ability to survive dangerous conditions, such as poison, acid, and temperature. High fortitude characters tough out cold without equipment, shrug off illness, and walk away from blows that would severely injure many others.
Charisma, your general attraction and agreeableness. People are generally drawn to charismatic characters. Charisma checks may be used when trying to convince the masses, or when trying to sing a great song.
Manipulation, Your ability to lie, deceive, connive, and generally work people. Skilled Manipulators rarely ever fail on even the most elaborate lies and schemes.
Composure, your ability to take insults, cope with social stress, and generally not freak the fuck out when working with other people. Composure and Resolve collectively make a characters willpower.
Intelligence, a characters ability to strategize, plan, and generally connect the dots. Intelligent characters make good detectives, competent generals, and well-read magisters.
Wits, A characters ability to think on their feet, make snap decisions, and understand things quickly. High Wit characters will be quick to realize what that glow in the dark really is.
Resolve, A characters ability to maintain focus and determination, especially during long situations or distracting scenarios. A high resolve character is a character who can stick it out through any situation and focus even in the most hectic environments.
Every attribute starts at 2 (average), and you are able to change them via EXP.
6 Points in an attribute is generally considered the peak of human condition, though it is possible to exceed this through various means.
Each attribute point costs an amount of EXP equal to (New level x 6). For example, if you have a strength of 1 and you wish to ugrade it to 2 it would cost 12 EXP. However, an upgrade from 3 to 4 would cost 24, as the New Level is 4.
This works in reverse as well, where you may remove attributes in exchange for EXP with reducing an attribute to one giving you 10 EXP. Though unlike purchasing attributes, selling attributes can only be done during character creation, or via very specific narrative circumstances.
Example
Lets say Dave wants to spend 26 EXP on his physical stats, each stat starts at 2.
Str 2
Dex 2
Frt 2
He wants a strong fortuitous bruiser character, so he increases his strength and fortitude to a 3 for 18 points each, for a total of 36 EXP. Since he is overdue by 10, he removes a point from dex for 10 points, using up all of his alloted EXP to get these physical stats.
Str 3
Dex 1
Frt 3
And remember, attributes are expensive by design. These add to many of your rolls and each upgrade is a big boon. Often times you may want to considering upping certain skills instead of broader attributes, especially for specific builds.
Skills & Feats
While choosing attributes we can choose our skills, which have their own page here.
Generally though, skills are specific bits of knowledge that you character can leverage in scenes, such as Awareness to spot hidden are hard to percieve things, or Melee to swing a sword or stab a spear.
Next we work on Feats and their cousin Anti-feats. Feats are abilities, advantages, and general special edges that distinguish your character and give them something to use those skills and attributes on. Each feat has their own EXP price and pre-requisites, and many feats contain a ranking system where you can invest more EXP into one feat to upgrade its abilities. For example, the Parry feat when ranked up turns into Riposte.
Anti-feats are the opposite, they are hinderances and flaws in your character that give you more EXP in return. You can only choose a maximum of 3 during character creation, but more can be accrued throughout a narrative with or without EXP rewards via deals, injuries, and other events.
Equipment
Finally, we add equipment. There are a variety of currencies and coins used within the world of Karath, but for the purpose of the system we utilize Gold Ducats, Silver Ducats, and Copper Ducats (Abbreviated as Gd Sd and Cd respectively). You can see value specifics within the Currency section.
Different campaigns will have very different amounts of starting wealth. Start wealth can either be handed out generally by the DM, decided by the DM through backstory, or bought by the player with EXP (In which the DM decides the conversion rate). This wealth can be used to purchase equipment during character creation, or kept for later in the campaign.
Attacks of Opportunity
When you leave the Melee reach of a hostile creature, that creature may utilize the Strike Action against you as a Reaction.
Resting
Rest is important for anybody, regardless of lifestyle. Healing, socializing, sleeping, and eating are all a part of a good nights rest.
There are two types of rest.
Shoddy Rest: Unsafe, Uncomfortable, on the move resting. Over-night sleeping in quickly pitched tents, anxious lay-downs in quickly barricaded dungeon doors, and shifty slumber under the deck of a ship are all Shoddy Rest. Shoddy Rest recuperates all stamina, an amount of HP equal to your fortitude+1 (Minimum 1), and a third of your TP rounded down. Shoddy Rests require a minimum of 6 hours to complete.
Good Rest: Safe and Secure rest in a cozy inn, a newly made military camp, or in a mages forest tower. Good rests recuperate all of your SP, an amount of HP equal to a quarter of your max HP plus fortitude, and all of your TP.
To perform a good rest, all of the following must be true.
- You have some form of decent bedding (Mattress, raised hammock, etc).
- The space you are resting in is secure from weather and animals, and is also far away from or otherwise secured from dangerous creatures such as monsters or enemy soldiers.
- You must spend 8 hours or more on the rest.
Travel
Most campaigns will involve some level of traveling, when traveling you either move at a speed decided by your slowest party member, or the speed at which a carriage can carry you. Each There are also three paces at which you are able to travel, listed below. A traveling group is referred to as a Caravan
Slow: 0.1 Mph/ft, +5 to Caravan Stealth
Caravan Stealth
There are many times where a Caravan may wish to stay low and keep hidden from prying eyes. Whether they are carrying valuable cargo, being hunted by bounty-hunters, or have offended a lord of the Imperium, these situations call for a Caravan stealth check, which is the average stealth of all creatures in the Caravan. You then add bonuses from Travel Pace along with Circumstantial bonuses from terrain and other factors.
Attacks during Travel
During Travel a caravan may be attacked, ambushed, or raided. When a caravan is attempting to raid another, they must roll a Caravan stealth against the target Caravans Caravan Perception, Caravan Perception being the average Perception of all creatures in a Caravan. On a successful stealth check, the attacking caravan gets one free rounf of combat in before the initiative properly starts due to the defenders surprise. On a failure, the Caravan notices the ambush and combat starts normally.
Supplies
For as great as many adventurers are, they still need food and water. This is represented simply as Supplies. 1 Supply is equivalent to a full day's worth of food and water for a person, with each Supply having varying costs depending on location, though they typically range from 5-8 Copper Ducat's for a day's worth of supplies.