#core-basics

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Exhaustion

Exhaustion is a measure of a Character’s physical and mental fatigue. The more 💧 you have, the worst you are. You start with 0💧, and gain 💧 from different sources. You remove an amount of 💧 equal to your LEVEL during a short rest, and clean all 💧 with a long rest.

▸ If your current 💧 equal your current ❤️s, you are Exhausted, gaining Disadvantage to all rolls. ▸ If your current 💧 ever reach double your max ❤️s (2 x LEVEL + 4) you are Extremely Fatigued, unable to move or otherwise act (you are either unconscious or totally drained).

Pushing yourself

You can suffer 💧 to gain certain mechanical benefits: ▸ Avoid receiving 1❤️ by suffering 💧💧. ▸ Gain Advantage to a single roll by suffering 💧💧. ▸ Deal an extra ❤️ by suffering 💧 (up to 3 times per action). ▸ Cast a Spell by suffering 💧 equal to the Spell’s Level. ▸ Gain an extra Action during your turn by suffering 💧💧💧.

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Resistance

▸ Characters, monsters, NPCs, and even obstacles or challenges have a number of ❤️s related to their LEVEL and type. ▸ If their ❤️s are reduced to 0 they are DEFEATED.

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Boons

Boons can be Items, Skills or Special Abilities. They grant narrative permission and/or a bonus of +1, +3 or +5.

Boon bonuses cannot be stacked. When you use two or more Boons for the same action roll, you use the single highest bonus of them, and gain Advantage to your roll.

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Action Resolution Mechanic

Tell the GM what’s your intent and your character’s precise actions in order to achieve it. If the GM considers it is easy enough or the outcome in case of failure is not very interesting, you just succeed. Else, you must roll as follows:

1d20 + ability bonus [+boon bonus]

against

target’s ability score [+boon bonus]

(or a set difficulty, the default is 12)

▸ A result equal to or higher than the difficulty is a success. You get what you wanted.

▸ A result lower than the difficulty is a failure. You don’t get what you wanted, or you do but with a heavy cost or complication.

▸ A natural 20 is always a CRITICAL. It makes things go extremely well, and if dealing ❤️s, you deal double the effort.

▸ A natural 1 is always a FUMBLE. It makes things go extremely wrong, at GM’s discretion.

Effort

▸ By default you deal 1 ❤️ if you match or beat the difficulty on a roll.

▸ For every 5 points above the difficulty of an action that you get on the total of your roll, you deal an extra ❤️.

▸ A Critical (natural 20) doubles the ❤️s dealt.

Mirrored Rolls

All rolls can be inverted, changing which side rolls the dice. i.e. instead of the GM rolling to attack a PC, the PC rolls to defend against the opponent’s ability + bonuses. Whichever the case, one side rolls and the other sets the difficulty, with both adding their respective bonuses. Mathematically, it’s symmetric.

▸ Advantages/Disadvantages mirror as well, by turning into the opposite (i.e. when defending against an attack that has Advantage, your roll gets Disadvantage).

▸ Natural 1’s and 20’s also mirror, turning into the opposite critical type (i.e. a nat 1 in a defense roll counts as a critical for the enemy).

▸ Effort is also inverted (i.e. if resisting, every 5 points below the difficulty means you receive an extra ❤️.)

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Abilities

VIG: Vigor. Used for actions requiring physical power, like melee attacks, lifting weight or bending bars, etc. and for resistance tests like enduring physical damage, poison, sickness, exposure, etc. DEX: Dexterity. Used for actions requiring poise, speed, and reflexes, like dodging, climbing, sneaking, balancing, etc. PER: Perception. Used for ranged attacks and actions requiring awareness and intuition, such as tracking, navigating, searching for secret doors, detecting illusions, detecting ambushes, etc. INT: Intelligence. Used for actions requiring concentration and meticulousness, such as wielding magic, recalling lore, crafting objects, tinkering with machinery, picking pockets, etc. CHA: Charisma. Used to persuade, deceive, interrogate, intimidate, charm, provoke, discuss, prove or disprove a point, overcome intimidation, etc. WIL: Willpower. Used to show confidence or discipline, or to resist or overcome fear, despair, stress, etc. Also related to resisting magical effects or other weird influences.

Ability Scores and Bonuses

Scores (and bonuses) range from 10 (+0) to 20 (+10). ▸ Ability Bonus = Ability Score - 10 (for instance, a score of 13 has a bonus of +3; a 17 has a +7, etc)