Basic Game Mechanics

Game Mechanics

Wounds/Stamina

Wounds: A character has 5 body locations that can be targeted in combat. Each location has a number of wounds that when taken, render the location useless. The head is not a location and should never be targeted. Torso - 2 Wounds, Arm - 1 Wound, Leg - 1 Wound

Stamina: Each character will start an amount of stamina that determines how alive they are/how much inner body strength they have. For Gardians this amount is 5, however other races have more or less to start. When you have no stamina left, you are dead Whenever a character takes a wound, they also lose 1pt of stamina. A character cannot take more wounds than a location has.

Example: A character is struck in the arm, the arm is wounded, and cannot be used, and also 1pt is subtracted from their stamina total. If the same arm is struck again, it will have no effect as the arm is already wounded. The character will also suffer no further stamina loss from subsequent attacks to the same location. If your torso takes 2 wounds, you are now unconscious, fall to the floor and role-play being unconscious and totally unaware of what is happening in-character. Note: If you are wounded in the arm, you must drop anything that is held.

Healing

First Aid skill: This allows a person to bandage a wounded location. This will restore the wound but NOT the stamina loss. Learning the higher level of First Aid, will allow the use of salves. When used along with a bandage, they restore the wound and the associated stamina lost due to the wound, (See First Aid Skill on page 19 in Book 2: Character Creation book).

Magic Spell/Potion/Faith Power: Most of these methods will heal both wound and the associated stamina loss taken from the wound. (The player casting the spell should inform you of the full effect).

Example: Scout Eric has 5pts of stamina. He unwittingly wandered into an Orc. In combat with the Orc, he is struck on the torso, taking a wound. (1 wound to the torso, lose 1 stamina) He now has 4 stamina left. Afterwards he heals himself with a bandage. This heals the wound, so he can now take another 2 wounds to the torso, but the stamina is not restored, so he is still on 4 stamina Later in the day he encounters more Orcs. In the fight, he sustains a wound to the left arm, and left leg. Thus he cannot use his left arm or left leg and is now down to 2 stamina. Afterwards, he drinks a potion of healing choosing to heal his leg (so he can walk); he gets 1 stamina back and is now on 3 stamina. Clutching his arm to stop any further problem he moves on. Then he meets a fellow traveller who is a water mage, who casts a healing spell. This cures his wound on the arm also restoring the stamina loss from the wound and he is now on 4 pts of stamina. He can now move unwounded, but he is still down to 4 stamina from the very first wound he received that was bandaged.

Armour

This protects the wearer from their enemies’ blows. Each level of armour provides a protection value from 1 to 5pts. This is the number of blows a character can ignore before the armour stops protecting and the location is vulnerable to being wounded.

Example: Eric now has some Studded Leather Armour (value 2pts). This must be phys rep’d by wearing appropriate costume. He can now be hit in each location 2 times before receiving a wound. Each strike usually causes 1pt of damage and the location struck, loses 1pt of armour. Thus, it takes three strikes in the same location to cause a wound and effects as above. Heavier armour means more protection. Armor is automatically restored between encounters. Sometimes different groups of monsters will belong to the same encounter. This will be announced by a ref. If you wish to repair armour in the middle of combat, an uninterrupted session of 1 minute of roleplay will restore armour.

Note: Arrows These go through your armour ignoring its protection but causing no damage to the armour itself. This is accompanied by the call “Through”.

Powerful Blows

There are creatures in the game that cause more than 1 wound per hit. Also some characters are so skilled so that they cause more than 1 wound per hit. When these situations occur, the attacker will make a call saying Double, or Triple. This indicates to the defender how much damage the attack causes.

Example: Eric has now come up against the Orc known as Render, who is renowned for being very strong. Eric has 5 stamina and 2pts of armour and is unwounded. In the fight, Render hits Eric on the right arm calling Double. This means that Eric has lost 2pts of armour on his right arm, but suffers no wounds as the armour absorbs the blow. Render now hits Eric on the left leg; again he loses 2pts of armour on his leg, but suffers no wound Then Render hits Eric in the left leg again where he has no armour left. Even though Render causes a double wound, Eric only takes 1 wound (the leg only has 1 wound) and thusly, only loses 1 pt of stamina and has 4 pts of stamina left. Eric is now forced to fight kneeling on his wounded left leg as he cannot use it due to the wound. Eric is hit again in the torso, losing 2 pts of armour, but suffers no wounds Eric is far too clumsy and is hit again in the torso. The double wound causes Eric to immediately lose both wounds in the torso, losing 2 pts of stamina. Eric has no wounds left in the torso and so collapses to the floor unconscious but still alive on 2 stamina. If Eric had no friends around to stop Render from cutting his head off, Eric would be dead, and Render would take everything Eric owned. Fortunately, like most adventurers, Eric brought friends to heal him up.

Spell casting and Mana

All spell users have a finite amount of mana, or spell power. The usual rule for casting these spells is that the level of spell cast denotes the amount of mana required to cast. If at any point a caster halts his vocals before reaching the end, then no mana is used up. If the caster is interrupted while casting a spell, then again, no mana is used up. The mana is committed to the spell when the caster finishes his or her vocals and the spell is complete. At that point the total mana is reduced by the appropriate number of points related to the spell. Spirit users use their mana, or life force, in a different manner. Whenever they cast a spell, they only use 1pt of life force no matter what the level of spell.

Casting into Stamina: If a caster does not have enough mana to cast a spell, he or she can decide to use up some of their stamina total.

Example: Zelda the fire mage has 10 mana and 5 stamina at the beginning of a fight. After casting 2 level 2 Fire spells (4 mana), 3 level 1 fire spells, Zelda has 3 mana left. Now she is being charged at by an Orc. A firebolt double spell is cast (2 mana) leaving her with 1pt. Then another comes at her, she again decides to use the same spell, but this time it will take her remaining 1 pt of mana, AND 1pt of stamina. At the end of the fight Zelda has 0 mana and 4 pts of stamina.

Channelling Wands and Staves: Wands and Staves are magical devices that require mana points to be used by the wielder. If the wielder has no mana points then the wands/staves abilities cannot be used. No person can channel stamina points to fuel the abilities of these devices. Mana must be used to do so. No spirit user can channel life force to power a Wand/Staves abilities Spirit users are not allowed to use their stamina to power their spells, once they are out of Life Force points, they cannot cast any more spells until properly rested.

Magical items

Wands: These items can be used by Wizards of all kinds. To use a wand the wielder MUST be able to cast the spell that is held within the wand, and must have their own pool of mana. A wand removes the need for vocals when using the spell inside it. E.g., a wand of lightening bolt triple can only be used by a wizard with level 3 Air spells. It uses 3 pts of mana from the wielder with each use, and the wielder simply calls ‘lightening bolt triple’ at his/her opponent.

Staves: These items can be used by Wizards of all kinds. To use a Stave, the wielder must have their own pool of mana. A stave gives the knowledge of the spell to the wielder, but the wielder must recite the full vocals for the spell. In order to use a stave, you must have the magical language of the spell type you wish to cast. E.g. A Stave of lightening bolt triple may be used by anyone who has their own pool of mana. They must cite the full vocals of the spell when using it and the effect is as a Lightening bolt triple spell. Each use will again use 3 mana points

Amulets: An amulet is an item that allows a spell to be cast without requiring mana or the vocals. You must know the spell you wish to cast. An amulet gives the wielder a number of free uses of the spell per week. E.g., an amulet of the spell Fire Storm, can only be used by a 5th level fire mage, and will allow the mage to simply shout ‘Firestorm’ and the spell activates.

Items: These are created for those people without any magical skills. They are usually items that have spell abilities that can be used only a certain number of times per week, and once used the item recharges before being able to be used. Items require no skills, or knowledge to use. A person simply activates the item, usually with a command word.

Scrolls: These are spells that have been enchanted onto paper. To use a scroll a character must have the appropriate magical language for the spell scroll. If the scroll was of an Air spell, the character must have Magical Language – Aeromancy and so forth. Scrolls can be read by anyone with literacy skill, the though magical language is required to activate the magic held within. You cannot cast from scrolls whilst wearing or carrying base metals (see Channeling Magic, and Metals below) Potions: Potions are created using the alchemy skill and anyone can use them. All potions must be drunk to be effective, with the exception of a few. Most potions are magical in nature, though all poisons and the healing salve are mundane and will not detect as magic. Characters must be conscious to drink a potion. Though there are many poisons that must be consumed, there are a few poisons that can be applied to weapons. These will come with an appropriate call.

Channeling and Metal

When channelling magic or reading scrolls, the user must not be carrying any base metals.

Very small items will not interfere, but even a small dagger will cause the channelling to fail. Unless otherwise stated holding, carrying and wearing metal armour or weapons** interrupts spell casting. If a wizard casts a spell while wearing or carrying base metals (not silver*/gold etc.) then the spell will fail and the caster will lose 1 pt of stamina per level of the spell attempted.

As you can see this can be deadly.



 *Silver weapons contain a great deal of Iron as well as silver, so do count as a metal weapon.

 **Spears do not count as metal weapons for the purposes of this rule.



Life Force and Metal

Regardless of IC views, Shamans for the purposes of their spirits are mechanically spell casters. Spirit shamans specifically are covered entirely by the same rules as Wizards when it comes to metal, as per the above rules for Channelling and Metal.

Battle Shamans have a specific exemption from this. They are able to hold Hafted weapons and Spears and cast there shaman spells.

XP System

All players who turn up to a game are rewarded with XP. During an indoor there will be numerous NPCs who come in and speak with the characters. Some will be there on menial matters; others will have an agenda or something to hide. An indoor event usually carries a 2XP reward, with a further reward for submitting a write-up.

An outdoor event is usually rewarded with 2XP for players and 2XP for monsters. Though the players will have a chance of earning extra XP with a write-up and good role playing. Monsters are not allowed to do a write-up for an outdoor, but may receive bad weather x.p. for particularly punishing weather.

The Write-up

The write-up is your chance to put down what you noticed at the indoor/outdoor. Which particular NPC was acting strange, why they were acting strange? In doing this the campaign co-ordinator will award bonus XP depending if your write-up was relevant, and how many of your assumptions were right. Doing a write-up of more than a few lines will earn you 1 bonus XP. If you do a good write-up and get several observations right, you get 2 bonus XP instead. The write-up is also your chance to inform the CC what your character is doing in downtime.

Downtime

This is the period between games. There is an actual passage of time in game as there is out of game. Characters may have craft skills and so make items (weapons or potions). They may also want to undertake a journey in to the wilds or to another town or village. Simply write down what you want your character to do, and hand it in to the CC. They will give you back a response to what happened. Please do not write assumptions. Only write what you want your character to attempt. The outcome of all actions is determined by the CC and referees alone.