Blood of Lordaeron: Eastfold (System)
Well, Eastfold’s coming back. Eventually. Don’t know if the interest is still there, but I enjoyed DMing this series and want to finish it. If you’re still eager for a campaign in the BoL universe, I’m eager to oblige. With that out of the way, I think it’s about time I expand on the system we’ve been experimenting with and codify the ruleset for some easy reference.
Base Ruleset:
Eastfold’s “World of Darkness-esque” system works on scaling the player’s creativity to their character’s capabilities and the difficulty of the obstacle they are attempting to overcome. As such, the idea both allows for more player freedom by providing a roll for (almost) every situation and provides context for how well/poorly their character performs. However, everything in this system works from one base roll:
For any particular situation, all player characters in Blood of Lordaeron have a 5d10>8! challenge roll as a base.
The character’s abilities, or the difficulty of the situation, may add or take away dice from this base roll. Furthermore some actions may be resisted, in which case the target of the character’s action will roll according to their own specialties and difficulty. Not all rolls are resisted, but the cases in which they are are (mostly) predictable.
Finally, exceptional rolls have been ported over from World of Darkness as well. Just like in there, exceptionals don’t always have a useful benefit, and the results may sometimes be unpredictable. Difficulty (or flaws) may also reduce one’s roll to less than 1d10>8!, in which case they roll a “chance die” (1d10>10!). Rolling a 1 in this case is a critical failure, and the consequences may be dire....
Example: Maryem attempts to scale a chest-high wall and still act on her turn. She rolls 5d10>8! to accomplish this. if 0 successes are made, she scales the wall because the climb isn’t difficult; however, she may not act. if 1+ successes, she may still act and move after scaling the wall. Alternatively, scaling the wall may have cost a minor action, but the player still has a minor action. if 5+ successes... she does a cool backflip. or however the player wishes to interpret the result of her action in flavor text. However, the only corresponding benefit is a +1 bonus to charm whoever saw her performance.
Traits, Flaws, and Feats:
Everything put forward above (except the 5d10>8! base roll) is directly imported from World of Darkness and should be easy to understand if you’ve played any of our events for the past 1 1/2 years. Blood Of Lordaeron’s system contains significant differences from World of Darkness however, chief of these being a lack of a stat system and a reliance on traits, flaws, feats, and items. Though it is impossible to include all ways in which character traits may influence a roll, they mostly follow the flat bonuses and penalties listed in our old d20 system. I will provide some examples.
Challenge Rolls:
Whether breaking traps, scaling walls, detecting hidden enemies, or recalling esoteric knowledge, most of the rolls in the experimental system fall under challenge rolls. This means they follow rules already put forward in the base Blood of Lordaeron system and often have bonuses/penalties associated with them. Furthermore, attempting these actions without certain specialties may incur a large penalty.
Examples: Perception Modifiers- Learned, Alert, Farsight, Perception (feat), Racial bonus (Elves, etc.) Larceny Modifiers- Small, Cheater (flaw), Swift, Trickster, Class (Rogue) Physical Feats Modifiers- Surefooted, Swift, Triathlete, Reach, Skilled, Massive/Small Knowledge Check Modifiers- Learned, Genius, Analyze (feat), Class, Social bonus (Noble, etc.)
As said before, not everything can be listed here, but the bonuses follow Blood of Lordaeron’s system. For an example, let’s say Maryem looks for a hidden trap after combat ends:
Example: Maryem searches for a hidden danger. She has a couple traits which assist her in this search, but also misses a feat which would override a difficulty penalty imposed on her. Maryem has Alert. As stated in the BoL system page, this trait gives her +1 in any d10 roll to search for traps. In this case, she will receive +1 die to her challenge roll. Maryem does NOT possess Perception. According to the feats page, this ability, when used, allows a character to search for stealthed units within a certain area. Out of combat, this system allows for Perception to be used to override stealth difficulty ratings when searching for an object. The trap is hidden moderately well. It imposes a -2 difficulty penalty on Maryem’s roll. 5d10>8! Alert: +1 die Difficulty: -2 dice The final roll is 4d10>8!
Just because a trait or feat may help your roll, that doesn’t mean it necessarily will. The Learned trait may help a character know how to look for danger, but simply noticing a sound in the wind may be a challenge roll that ignores Learned completely. Furthermore, seemingly-unrelated traits may also help the player overcome a challenge roll. Therefore it’s important that if you don’t know whether a trait will help your character or not, ask!
Difficulty and Resistance:
Just like in WoD, some rolls may be resisted. In this case the defender has a chance to chip away at or even nullify the attacker’s successes, either keeping them from exceptionally succeeding or entirely preventing them from carrying out an action.
The most common form of resisted roll is social, but other actions may be resisted as well. A thief may roll to hide their stolen object from prying eyes. Extended action rolls may also be resisted, sometimes without your character being fully aware that they are!
Potential Mechanic: Since BoL doesn’t have a resource which may be exchanged for dice, like will, I’m considering a defender’s penalty to certain resistance rolls. This would be one or two less dice taken from the base 5d10>8! roll to reflect one party giving up the initiative to another. Not all resistance rolls will have this penalty, most likely, as certain defensive actions (detecting lies, covering up a crime scene, beating someone else to an objective) are quite active and depend heavily on certain bonuses or rolls.
Social Rolls are the easiest to implement in Blood of Lordaeron’s system. For the purposes of this experimental system, ignore the newer chance-based social system on the website and apply the old bonuses and penalties to the base 5d10>8! roll.
Example: After doing a cool backflip and spotting a bear trap that a NPC nearly stepped on, Maryem attempts to gain information from a noblewoman by convincing her through charm that she and her companions can be trusted. Because the noblewoman witnessed her skill and finesse, and because she saved the noble from harm, Maryem gains +1 and +1 to her charm dice--a one-time bonus.
Maryem has Charm (trait). This gives her a +1 to her roll and allows her to reroll a failed charm attempt. Maryem has Comely. This trait gives her +2 to her charm roll. 5d10>8! +2 (difficulty) +1 (Charm) +2 (Comely) 10d10>8!
The noblewoman has Prude. This trait allows her to see past Maryem’s comely face and judge her words on their own merit. Effect: +2 on defense against charm attempts. 3d10>8! +2 (Prude) 5d10>8!
Final roll: 10d10>8! (attacker) vs. 5d10>8! (defender)
Final Remarks:
The WoD-esque system is meant to expand player freedom by allowing them a roll for every occasion, should they wish to expand their character’s repertoire through RP and unconventional tactics. To this end, it is imperative for both the ST and the player to know BoL’s system mechanics and keep a list of traits and feats open at all times. Players must be proactive in putting forward what they think is a suitable modifier for any roll, and the storyteller must be aware of what their players are trying to do. Whatever keeps the game lively and fun is viable!
Feel free to change anything about this ruleset. I’ll be testing and tweaking it through the Eastfold storyline myself. Comments, questions, and critique are also welcome!
@regalswag
