Contents 1. Definitions Actions
Class
Statistics
Skills
Health Points
Equipment
Spells
2. Resolutions Initiative
Attack Bonus
Armor Class
Damage
Save
Difficulty Check
3. Geometry Range
Attacks of Opportunity
Flanking
Conditions
4. Appendices Appendix A: Equipment
Appendix B: Spells
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1. Definitions Actions Each turn a character has one standard action and one move action. They can be used or not used in any order. A move action can only be used to change position on the map. Standard actions are anything else, including standing up. Generic speech is not an action, characters are free to discuss with each other at great length during a turn.
Class Our game has four classes: fighter, rogue, wizard, cleric. They determine a character's statistics, skills, maximum health points, possible equipment choices, and spells.
Statistics Our game has six statistics: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. They are the basis of a player’s ability to perform actions.
Skills Our game has many skills. Some examples are Intimidate, Concentration, Hide, and Heal. These skills are based on the character's statistics and whether the character's class is proficient in the skill.
Health Points Our game abstracts damage done into a single number: health points or "HP". They represent how much punishment a character can take before being rendered unconscious or dead.
Equipment Each character can carry one object in each hand, wear one set of armor, and hold one weapon in a sheath. See Appendix A for options.
Spells Wizards and clerics have access to a finite number of specific spells. See Appendix B for details.
Example: Steve is a fighter. He has lots of Strength, Dexterity, and Constitution, but low Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. He wields a sword and shield and wears heavy armor.
Example: Jeff is a wizard. He has lots of Dexterity and Intelligence but low everything else. He wields a staff.
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2. Resolutions Everything comes down to dice. Who goes first? You try to hit me, I try to block it, what happens? How hard do I get hit? Everything that happens or tries to happen comes down to dice. Because dice are so prevalent, there is an abbreviation convention:
xdy. If I want to roll a twenty sided die once, I say "d20" (the 1 is omitted). If I want to roll two ten sided dice, I say "2d10".
Initiative Turn order in our game is determined by rolling for initiative. Each character rolls a d20 and adds their Dexterity bonus, and ties are broken by random chance. After everybody gets a turn (i.e. one "round"), we roll again to determine turn order for the next round.
Attack Bonus Each class has a base attack bonus to which is added their Strength bonus for melee attacks (those that take place at point blank range) and Dexterity bonus for ranged attacks (those that can but don't have to be used further away). If a character is wielding two weapons, both weapons take a penalty to hit. If the offhand weapon is light, these penalties are reduced but not eliminated.
Armor Class All characters have a base armor class or "AC" of 10 plus their Dexterity bonus. Armor increases this value but restricts the maximum Dexterity bonus that can be added to AC. Shields also add AC but do not restrict max Dex bonus. Some attacks are "touch" attacks which means that physical armor is irrelevant.
When a character attacks, they roll d20 plus their attack bonus. If that value is greater than or equal to the target's AC, they hit. It does not matter how far they exceed the AC by, a hit is a hit. However, all weapons have a critical range where especially high d20 rolls result in critical hits, and a roll of 20 is automatically a critical hit regardless of a target's AC. Finally, a roll of 1 is a "fumble", an automatic miss.
Damage All weapons have base damage dice ranging from 1d4 to 2d6. If a weapon is being used onehanded in the main hand, Strength bonus is added to damage. If a weapon is being used onehanded in the offhand, half Strength bonus. If a weapon is being used twohanded, one and a half times Strength bonus. If the hit is a critical hit, the damage is rolled twice unless otherwise specified by the weapon. Rogues who attack from hiding or are flanking their target generate sneak attack damage, which represents how rogues can hit a vital area for extra damage when their target isn't looking.
Example: Steve swings his sword at Jeff. Because fighters are big and strong Steve's attack bonus is 8. Because wizards are wimpy Jeff's AC is 10. Steve only needs to roll a 2 or better, which means that 95% of the time (19/20) Steve is going to hit Jeff. Jeff is in big trouble.
Example: Jeff casts Scorching Ray at Steve. Because Scorching Ray is a ranged attack and Jeff is nimble his attack bonus is 5. Because Scorching Ray is a touch attack and Steve is wearing heavy armor he only gets 1 point of Dexterity bonus to his AC, and his armor and shield provide no protection so his AC is 11. Jeff only needs to roll a 6 or better, which means that Jeff will hit Steve 75% (15/20) of the time.
Save There are five types of saves for events that don't fit precisely as weapon attacks. The first three are Fortitude save, Reflex save, and Will save. Each class has a base value for each of these plus Constitution bonus, Dexterity bonus, and Wisdom bonus respectively. There are also skill-based and statistic-based saves, which are just like the first three but take different base values.
Difficulty Check A Difficulty Check or DC is how hard the event is to save against. When the event occurs, the target rolls d20 plus their save. If that value is greater than or equal to the event's DC, they save, and no (or in some cases a reduced) effect occurs.
Example: Jeff casts Fireball at Steve and hits. Because Fireball is an explosion, Steve gets a Reflex save against a 15 DC to dodge out of the way and take no damage. Fighters aren't slow but they're aren't quick, so Steve's Reflex save is 3. Steve will probably (55%) get fried.
Example: Jeff tries to Trip Steve and hits. To knock someone over takes Strength, but Jeff skipped leg day arm day chest day every day at the gym so he only generates a 9 DC. To not get knocked down you can either be nimble or strong, so Steve gets to take the higher of his Strength save or Dexterity save, which ends up being a 3. Steve will probably (75%) stay up.
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3. Geometry Range The map is broken up into five foot increments. All characters have a base speed of 30 feet per move, so they can move six squares. Wearing medium or higher armor reduces this to 20 feet per move. Melee attacks always require being one square away from the target, and any character who is within melee range of an enemy is considered to be
in combat.
Attacks of Opportunity Attacks of opportunity are generated whenever a character enters or exits melee range with an enemy who is not in combat. They are also generated when attempting to perform any standard action that isn't a melee attack while in combat, such as standing up, casting a spell, or using a ranged weapon. Attacks of opportunity do not take up a character's standard action but are otherwise identical to an ordinary attack with whatever the character is wielding. Some actions automatically fail if the provoked attack of opportunity hits, some can still succeed if a save is passed, some succeed regardless.
Example: Steve has had it up to here with Jeff's s***. Steve uses his move action to close to melee range with Jeff. Since Jeff is not in combat he gets an attack of opportunity against Steve and takes a swing with his staff, which misses. Steve then tries to Hamstring Jeff, provoking another attack of opportunity. Jeff misses again and so Steve's Hamstring attempt is uninterrupted. On Jeff's turn, he tries to cast a spell, provoking an attack of opportunity from Steve. This attack lands, but Jeff is allowed to roll a Concentration save against a DC equal to the damage Steve does to him. He then tries to retreat, and since Steve is not in combat with anyone else Jeff provokes another attack of opportunity from Steve. This just isn't Jeff's day.
Flanking Flanking is a condition where an enemy is in combat with two characters who can draw a straight line between them that intersects the enemy's position. Flanking attackers get a +2 to attack bonus, negate the enemy's Dexterity bonus to AC if any, and automatically generate sneak attack damage if applicable.
Example: Player a and player b are on the same team, player z is on an enemy team. It is player a's turn and they have a speed of 20 feet per move (fig 1). If player a moves three squares up to player z and attacks (fig 2) they do not provoke an attack of opportunity because player z is already in combat with player b, but they also do not generate a flanking bonus because the line between player a and player b does not go through player z's position. If player a instead moves three squares up and one square right (fig 3), they still do not provoke an attack of opportunity but now do generate a flanking bonus, as will player b if the geometry doesn't change before their turn.
Conditions Aside from being in combat, the five major conditions are conscious, prone, incapacitated, stabilized, and dead.
Characters are
conscious if they have 1 or more HP. This is the standard state.
Characters are
dead if they have -10 or fewer HP. They have no effect on the game. A character does not have to be incapacitated before it is killed.
Characters are
incapacitated if they have 0 to -9 HP. All incapacitated characters are prone. They can perform no actions, can not contribute to flanking, and are automatically treated as being flanked when attacked. If not stabilized, on their turn they roll d10. If they do not roll a 10, they take 1 damage. If they roll a 10 or receive any amount of healing, they stabilize. Conscious characters can make a Heal skill check against a 15 DC to stabilize another character.
Characters that are
stabilized gain 1 HP each turn. A stabilized character that receives damage does not become re-incapacitated. They otherwise still count as incapacitated.
Characters are
prone when they are knocked down, fall down, or otherwise end up on the ground. -5 is applied to their AC, melee attack bonus, and damage, but a prone character is still treated as a combatant for purposes of flanking and attacks of opportunity. A prone character can only move five feet regardless of their armor.
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Appendices Appendix A: Equipment dmg crit light OH TH range fighter cleric rogue wizard weapon
1d4 19-20 x x x x x dagger
1d6 x x x x x club
1d6 y x x x x x staff
1d8 x3 y x x x x spear
1d6 x x x x shortbow
1d4 x x x x sling
1d6 x3 x x axe
1d8 19-20 x x x sword
1d8 x3 x y x hammer
2d6 19-20 x x greatsword
1d8 x3 x x longbow
unless listed otherwise, all weapons do x2 damage on a 20 roll
damage dice are listed for weapons used as marked by an x
weapons marked with a y can be used in the alternate configuration
using a OH weapon TH gives +1 dice size and vice versa, so 1d8 becomes 1d10 or 1d6 respectively
characters spawn with 5 arrows or 8 rocks if using a bow or sling respectively
dagger, spear, and axe have a bonus to being thrown
AC MDB fighter cleric rogue wizard armor
0 10 x x x x none
1 6 x x x leather
4 3 x x brigandine
7 1 x full plate
1 x x buckler
3 x shield
Appendix B: Spells wizard
number effect range save name
1 +1 save - - resistance
2 1d3 35 touch acid splash
1 +10 ft - - expeditious retreat
2 2 1d4+1 100 no magic missile
1 20%miss - - blur
1 4d6 25 touch scorching ray
1 3d6 400 Reflex fireball, 10' explosion radius
cleric
effect name
1d8+1 light wounds
2d8+3 moderate wounds
3d8+5 serious wounds
all cleric spells are touch range
clerics receive 2 cure and 1 inflict of light and moderate
and 1 cure and 1 inflict of serious
all inflict spells have a Will save for half damage
