What Is This Game?
Fiends and Fortresses is a Tabletop RPG. You know what those are, or you wouldn’t have found this. But long story short, you play a character in a fantasy world, and through these rules and your imagination, you and some friends tell stories together.
Why not play D&D? Hopefully because this game is better than D&D. Fiends and Fortresses seeks to create a game that helps groups create the world and the story as they go much more than conventional D&D. The goal is to present a lot of tools to help the players create a world, a story, challenges, and plot hooks in a collaborative way as they play.
When it comes to rules, the goal is for the base rules of the game to give predictable decisions, both at character creation, and during the game, to be easy to implement, and to encourage the participants in the game to shape both the story and the game with the actions of their characters.
Is This Game Finished? Compatibility?
This game is not finished. Because of the focus on improving rules, the importance of getting those rules right, and the sheer amount of work involved, this game won’t be finished for a long time. The most important thing it lacks is content.
While the game rules are substantially overhauled, Fiends and Fortresses is intended to dive into very similar ideas to D&D, and therefore it should be possible for most D&D material to be converted to run with this system, but doing so won’t necessarily be easy or fast. While anyone is welcome to post content for this game based on ideas from other games, the game itself will be short on content until a lot of work is done, and it would be a lie to say that any D&D material is “compatible” with this game in any but the loosest sense.
What Stories Can I Tell With This Game?
Fiends and Fortresses is mostly about telling the stories of a small group of characters who are part of a Faction in a fantasy world that is defined by Fiends and Fortresses.
What this means is that the players in your group have a common goal or vision, but are just one part of the larger world and society. You may not agree on everything, but you all agree on something, and that agreement causes you to work closely together. You will work with and against other factions in the wider world. You may be a faction of a small organization, a large international organization, a nation, of sentient humanoid society in general, or just of the greater world you live in, but all of those necessitate working with some people and against others.
The world you inhabit will be filled with magic, whether that magic takes the form of spells, supernatural abilities, exceptional skill, or phenomenal feats, you can bet that you, your allies, your enemies, your acquaintances, and even total strangers, will all have something magical about them.
Fortresses:
The world you inhabit is defined by two main sources of power, Fortresses are the ones that you will most likely have the easiest access to. A Fortress can take many forms, but at its most basic level, it serves two functions: To protect the inhabitants from outside danger and to provide the inhabitants with the resources to pursue their goals. To give an extremely brief idea of the breadth of this concept here is a short list of some possible Fortresses that might exist in the world you adventure in:
A huge castle dominates the landscape from the middle of a walled in town with farms dotting the countryside. The castle protects the rulers and an army, and allows them to project force outward to protect the surrounding town and farms, and shelters it’s citizens (or enough of them to start over) in the case of catastrophe or invasion.
A crazed arcanist built a tower in the middle of a desert. The area is patrolled by lumbering automatons animated with magic, ordered to pummel anything they see. As the only true inhabitant, the arcanist has protection from the outside, and the one resource he wants most, time to study his magic. Perhaps there is even a font of magic power, who can say? Certainly not anyone who can’t kill a whole host of constructs and then survive the wrath of interrupting the arcanist.
A sprawling magical forest houses a variety of loosely affiliated and sometimes competing monsters and sapients. The forest grows food for herbivores, and carnivores eat them, perhaps magical mana energy is collectable in some locations to fuel powerful spells. If an outsider attempts to harvest resources from the forest or its creatures, the forest conceals the creatures, and perhaps the invaders become resources for the carnivores. If someone attempts to burn down or log the forest itself, then perhaps many of the denizens work together to drive them off.
A cave in a cliff side leads deep into the earth, perhaps there is an entire structure there built by the dwarves before they were rooted out, perhaps it is just a relatively small den dug into the wall. But it provides close access to the road which might allow a nest of trolls to waylay travelers for a feast or three. Or perhaps the entrance leads to a kobold warren, and they’ve been taking out caravans to get precious steel. You won’t find out from the outside.
There used to be a city of humans or some other surface dwelling race here. Now there is a different kind of city. A wight or shadow or 3 got out of control, and the entire population ended up as roaming angry undead. A lich decided to take advantage of the situation, and so he took up residence, protected in one of the buildings, and started funneling all the sunlight into powering his arcane projects. The shadowy darkness created in the area incentivized more undead to congregate. While the Lich doesn’t care much about greater undead politics, the Vampires are sure keen to have him keep sucking up sunlight, so the undead city acts as a home for all kinds of undead, and while killing any living creatures might be totally fine, and the city might look a lot like constant gang warfare, no one bothers the Lich in the tower.
A single powerful Dragon lives in the mountains on a bed of gold. None dare bother him. Occasionally he flies out and eats livestock, or sapients, whatever he wants, but he doesn’t eat the giant tribe that lives in the mountains, after all, they bring him food and trinkets. The giants like this arrangement, where the dragon they worship as a god discourages anyone from bothering them in their homes, allowing them to be more aggressive in their raids of nearby settlements for gifts to their god.
An ancient temple was created and blessed with tremendous wards, the magic discourages monsters and Fiends, and may even protect against damage to those inside. A small group of monks and priests live on this holy ground, perhaps worshipping a completely different god than the initial benediction was intended for. People come offering gifts of food or other resources from far away in exchange for blessings from those of the temple, or perhaps for advice. But all wards have their limits, and who knows how safe the temple really is?
As members of a faction, you will probably want a Fortress to call your home, a place where you can store resources obtained from expeditions elsewhere, and where you can convert resources from one form into another, be it by trade, artifice, or supernatural means. You may, depending on your power, ambitions, and luck, have a Fortress that is not just your home, but yours in total, and you may need to make your own decisions about protecting inhabitants and providing them with resources. As a member of a Faction, taking control of a Fortress can be the best or worst moment in the history that will be written about you hundreds of years from now.
Fiends:
While the term fiend might be pejoratively used to describe a troll infestation, or a serial killer in town, your average well read scholar would frown at the usage. Fiends are specifically those sapient species of creatures that at least originated on other planes. There was allegedly a time, long ago, when Fiends didn’t have access to the material plane, but even ten thousand year old Lichs don’t remember it. Fiends are the reason you live in a Fortress, because while they aren’t all evil, absolutely none of them are good.
All Fiends share some similar characteristics:
1) Magic. While most if not all sapients can learn or develop magic in some way or another, all Fiends seem to possess it by default. That said, maybe sufficient exploration of the planes might eventually find Fiendish peasants, but if they exist, we haven’t found them yet.
2) Agelessness. Fiends don’t age, at all. They sure seem to be exactly the same as they were the last time you saw them.
3) Immortality. Maybe. Fiends don’t seem to die. There’s a lot of talk about how if you kill them they reform, or they are banished to their plane of origin. No one knows for sure, but it is very likely true that killing Fiends on the Material Plane prevents them from returning to it for some time. It might be different for each Fiend Race, it might not be, hard to say. But we can be pretty sure of that primarily because of how Fiends killed on the material plane interact with their Corrupted Spawn. To wit, they stop bothering them for a while.
4) Hybrid Infection. No one thinks that Fiends procreate with each other to create more. If they did, surely we’d all be overrun by now. And everyone knows, one way or the other, about Corrupted Spawn, where some creature is killed, perhaps in ritual, perhaps just by murder, and in the process, a Corrupted Spawn is created, sharing some magical elements of the Fiendish Race, and yet being primarily of the race of the now dead mortal. No mortal likes the result, least of all Corrupted Spawn who are incapable of disobeying their Fiendish Creator without strong magical protections or tremendous force of will. Only magic or the temporary banishment of the parent to another plane seems to cure them of this need, even then, the seemingly inevitable return of the Fiendish Creator makes that reprieve temporary.
There are at least six main kinds of Fiends that substantially terrorize surface dwellers, all traditionally having originated from a different plane.
Demons: Demons are evil monsters from the Abyss. They don’t seem to like each other or anyone else. The only reason they are even all correctly associated together is because demons, for some reason even they probably don’t know, can all or almost all summon another type of demon to serve them temporarily. Maybe that’s why they don’t like each other, who would want to worry about being spontaneously enslaved all your life? In any case, they aren’t known for their organizations, mostly wandering alone and summoning temporary slaves to help them fight. But Demons will destroy almost anyone they come across. Avoid at all costs.
Devils: Devils are an organized group of evil intelligent Fiends out to cause suffering. The only good thing that can be said for Devils is that they kill Demons on sight. If you see one Devil, you can be assured that more are nearby. Devils build or conquer cities and rule even some mortal inhabitants, but being a mortal in a city of Devils might be literally worse than death, as they enjoy causing suffering seemingly just for suffering’s sake. They hail from Baator.
Chaos Frogs: Chaos Frogs are absolutely random. They usually look like frogs, for some reason that no one can really figure out, and they usually attack on sight. But sometimes they will spontaneously give gifts, or just leave you alone. No one knows why. They do tend to congregate, and don’t seem to kill each other, so maybe the secret is to look like a giant frog person? They hail from Limbo.
Inevitables: Inevitables have some sort of ruleset that you don’t know, I don’t know, and frankly, I only think they know it because they all agree on what gets the death penalty. Try not to break any rules, never disagree with an Inevitable, and get away as soon as possible, because they will kill you. They hail from Mechanus.
Efreeti: Efreeti grant wishes sometimes as part of deal. Don’t ever make this deal. There is nothing an Efferti can give you that you can’t get easier someplace else. Also they don’t make deals with everyone, sometimes they just kill people. Also they live in fire, and fire burns. Efreeti have a very simple structure, there is the guy in charge, and all his pawns. Every Efreeti thinks you are a one of their minions. They hail from the Plane of Fire.
Djinni: Djinni have an extremely feudal structure. They are the least terrible Fiends, because it’s possible to fit into their system as someone who has any amount of rights and privileges, and you can theoretically even rise. All the same, find someone who really hates you and promise to lick their boots, you’ll be better off. It is believed that they come from the Plane of Air, however, they claim to originate in another plane that Efreeti drove them from.
Both Djinni and Efreeti can be classified as Genies, but you really shouldn’t, because they will kill you. They seem to have been at war since before whatever caused Fiendish access to the Material Plane.
Other Fiends: There are undoubtedly other Fiends, whether hailing from smaller planes like Archeron, Gehnna, Carceri, Pandemonium, or presumably from the two other Elemental Planes, Water and Earth. Whatever the case we seem to have no contact with those outsiders here on the Material Plane. Maybe they were all exterminated, maybe they are just bottled up, maybe they don’t exist. Maybe the Dwarves can tell you all about the Earth Fiends if you just ask right. Who knows?
In any case, remember that Fiends are always your enemies, even if they are temporarily the lesser enemies. They are the reason you live in a Fortress, and you will have to find ways to protect yourself from them if you want to make it in this world.
The Default Setting of Fiends and Fortresses
Groups can freely work from the starting concepts presented about Fiends and Fortresses to develop their own worlds, but for simplicity sake the base rules assume a certain default setting which the rules are designed to facilitate and which the rules assume to be true when talking about Fortress interactions and complex plane movement spells.
In the default world of Fiends and Fortresses players are assumed to be on the Material Plane, on an earthlike planet orbiting the sun. The Planet has the shape, moons, landmasses, and bodies of water that the group generally decides makes for the best gameplay. From there the world should have populations, monsters, and Fortress as appropriate.
Shared Planar Traits: All planes share a few traits. All planes advance in time at the same rate. Planar Travelers never end up older or younger than they ought to be compared to those who stayed. Also all planes have a visual manifestation of Sunrise and Sunset that occur approximately every 12 hours. Though this may not be true in all locations on the plane it should average out over time to something like this. In most cases this is because a specific floating sky ball gives off light and appears and disappears, though it doesn’t always move, but sometimes the visual identification is very different or there is no visual identification at all.
Material Plane Traits: The Material Plane has traits broadly analogous to Earth, including but not limited to gravity and laws of motion, however there are various supernatural powers that can interfere with it. The rules for all of this are generally set forth in the rest of this book, but “how does Earth work” is a fallback position when not dealing with magic.
The Ethereal Plane: There is also an Ethereal Plane that mimics the Material Plane and exists parallel to the Material Plane with a corresponding location on the Ethereal Plane for each location on the Material Plane. The Ethereal plane tends to copy permanent fixtures of the Material Plane, but the copies are always opposite in some way. For example, Ethereal Metals are almost weightless but just as tough as their corresponding metals, Ethereal Stone crumbles to dust at the slightest touch, Ethereal Water has high viscosity, Ethereal Air is so dense that many strange things tend to float on the Ethereal, and Ethereal Fire takes in heat from the surroundings.
For the most part the strange qualities of the Ethereal objects don’t change their interaction with each other, since they aren’t truly interacting with each other, while Ethereal Gold would float in Ethereal Air it doesn’t because Ethereal Objects, unless moved by creatures, occupy and represent long term objects in the same location on the Material Plane. The Ethereal Stone castle breaks easily, but then reforms to match the Material Plane castle over and over. The Ethereal Ocean would float in Ethereal Air, but it doesn’t because it keeps moving back to the location of the Material Ocean and the Ethereal Air keeps moving back to the location of the Material Air.
This mirroring effect works differently depending on how you are moving objects. If you were to build a Material Castle in a day, it would take at least a year before the Ethereal version of the Castle came to exist, and even then it would slowly fade into existence over the course of a few months. If you were to go to the Ethereal, and rip out a wall and take it to another location in the Ethereal, or even to Material, over the next month parts of it would slowly fade back to their original mirrored location. After about two months there would definitely be nothing left. If you destroyed the material castle, the lack of mirroring would cause the Ethereal castle to, because it is made of Ethereal Stone, break apart very quickly, it would likely collapse in on itself in only a few days and when it did each piece would shatter to dust. Likewise, Ethereal Metals float into space when their Material Parts are destroyed or moved. Moving a Material object has similar effects to destroying it for the permanence issue, which is why there aren’t very many Ethereal Metals in the first place, and many Ethereal Buildings have no doors at all. Material Objects moved to the Ethereal though remain Material Objects, with their associated properties, and last as long as they normally would. A Material sword left on the Ethereal may rust, but it won’t float into space or fade into nothingness. Plants are sometimes mimicked across the planes but only when their growth is slow enough that they don’t seem to move much relative to size. The Ethereal is filled with dirt with no grass, but it does have trees, though the trees never have leaves. Creatures are not mirrored by the Ethereal Plane (in fact the Ethereal Plane has its own creatures) and retain their characteristics when moving from one plane to another.
There exists a sort of ambient light that populates the Ethereal world during the night and seems to come from generally “above”. Sunrise is represented by the rising of a giant black light sucking void in the sky which somehow consumes most of the light making Ethereal Day about as dark as night on the Material. Sunset represents the setting of this black ball and a return to ambient light.
Closed Planar System: The Ethereal and Material create a Closed Planar System which means that it is much more difficult to move from another plane to these planes, or from these planes to another plane, this has a few effects:
1) Any attempt to move a creature outside of a Closed Planar System fails if that creature is both a native of the Closed Planar System they are currently in and they attempt to resist the change. This even applies to dragging someone through a permanent Portal effect, they just don’t go through.
2) Spells and effects other than Portals which transport willing or unwilling creatures across the boundary of a Closed Planar System in either direction, to or from, force a Soak Roll vs Mind or Toughness causing [Disorientation]. The PR is 30+the level of the creature making the Soak Roll, so stronger creatures suffer greater negative effects from crossing the boundary.
3) Portals are harder to create and slowly fade over time when they connect two planes where one is part of a Closed Planar System the other is not a part of.
Crossing more than one Closed Planar System Boundary is not different from crossing only one. The effects are not compounded.
Elemental Planes: There are four known elemental planes, Fire, Air, Water, and Earth. The four planes represent the primal elements and in some ephemeral way seem to provide the energy to the Material Plane to keep functioning. The Four Elemental Planes are part of the same Closed Planar System. At least the Plane of Fire and the Plane of Air have Fiends that originate from them, the Genies: Efreeti and Djinni.
Fire: The Plane of Fire is everywhere on fire making it not conducive to most Material life. Each Combat Turn a creature must make a [Fire] Soak Roll PR 20 vs Toughness causing [Damage]. There appears to be a kind of gravity though the force is somehow subjectively controlled by the minds of creatures. Efreeti allegedly live inside palaces made of metals built on rocks, all of it likely taken from another plane and create a gravity effect with their mind that binds the objects to each other in a single downward direction, though rocks that end up near each other might have different down directions and don’t appear to fall in their down directions compared to each other.
Sunrise is represented by the sudden appearance of a Flaming Ball that floats around visible to everyone. The Ball itself is not as big as the Sun and can be approached, though the fires burn so hot that they consume even creatures immune to fire. (PR 100 vs Toughness causing [Damage], special untyped [Damage]). At sunset the ball disappears instantly.
Air: In the Plane of Air everything floats in a seemingly endless void of breathable air. No gravity of any kind appears to exist, and Djinni structures, where they exist, are small with each part fastened to the whole by some form of tie or sticking substance. Djinni move these objects by creating magical winds in the air to move in a desired direction.
Sunrise is represented by the increase in ambient light which creates a daytime effect. Sunset by a decrease to approximately Material night outside levels.
Water: The Plane of Water is entirely water. Sight is limited by the water in the way and the complete lack of light, there are endless odd sounds, but there is a distinct individual downward direction created by gravity of some kind. However, no one has ever reported reaching a bottom and water pressure remains constant throughout. There are many tales of creatures both mundane and Fiendish dwelling in the Plane of Water, but there has been little evidence provided and it is impossible to tell if any stories are even true. The limited sightlines and oppressive sameness make it difficult to repeat any specific journey and cause most humanoid species to seek escape as soon as possible.
Sunrise and Sunset are reported based on voices whispering the information in the ears from the Water itself rather than any visual effect, a thing that causes most people to become very creeped out.
Earth: The Plane of Earth is made or rock and dirt, though luckily for physical creatures there appear to be numerous tunnels, caves, and other structures filled with breathable air. No creatures have ever been encountered and there is no light so plants do not generally exist, oddly, even plants which normally grow underground on the Material when transplanted die off. Some Dwarves have tried to set up mines through Portals to get at the rich mineral wealth of the Plane of Earth, but they report that the find the place creepy and eventually some dwarves mysteriously disappear and the mine is condemned and the portal allowed to close.
Sunrise is represented by the rock briefly glowing and Sunset is represented by the same. The only difference appears to be the Sunrise lasts one hour and Sunset lasts 30 minutes. Day and night seem the same.
Playing the Game
The basic mechanics of Fiends and Fortresses will be familiar to many. You have a character sheet, you have numbers, and for the most part, at least one person will be rolling a d20 and adding modifiers against a DC to resolve each action. Target numbers can always be called DCs though often they have specific names such as Soak Rolls or Avoid Rolls. The things you can do as a character are defined by a broad scope of rules that cover basic interactions like vision and targeting, to specific class abilities tied to each class’s resource management and ability to change the story.
Fundamentally, there are two types of people playing Fiends and Fortresses, Players, and Opposition Managers, OMs for short. We know you will probably call OMs DMs or GMs, because 40 years is a lot of tradition to change, but for the purpose of this pitch, it is important to understand what an Opposition Manager does is manage the opposition. Opposition Managers aren’t more important or more correct than other players. While there will be cause to change rules in this book, or introduce new content, the Opposition Manager doesn’t get more of a say than anyone else at the table. The goal is for everyone to have fun, everyone having a say in changing the rules is an important part of making sure that no one gets left out.
Basic Mechanics
The Combat Turn and Actions
Because of the nature of the game you are very likely to need to engage in combat with other individuals and resolve those combats. To that end combats are resolved in six second increments. Each six seconds of contested combat is considered a “Combat Turn.” While combat turns can be resolved at any time and durations of effects given in combat time can be converted back to regular time, for the most part it is useful to run Combat Turns when players know about specific enemies and are either in combat directly or looking for or preparing for them. If an enemy is attacking from hiding, best not to switch back and forth from Combat Turns to more general time.
During a Combat Turn, each PC and each NPC taking part, unless otherwise noted, has a Move Action, a Standard Action, and an Interrupt. Move actions and then Standard Actions are resolved simultaneously for all participants. What this means is:
0) Each player and the OM acting on behalf of creatures they control decides actions without knowing what other creatures will do and declares their actions. Limited cross talk between the party is permitted to coordinate their actions, but this talk might be open to interpretation by enemies.
1) Figure out where everyone is moving. Some characters will have declared moving to get into position to attack a specific enemy, some will have picked a specific path, some will want to move to close with another enemy or to get an interrupt attack. Figure out the best way for everyone to do what they declared with the movement.
2) Determine Attacks and Standard Actions: When resolving whether a target is valid, whether for range, line of effect, or line of sight, the attacking creature can use any location they were at any point this turn and they can target any location that the defender was at this round. AoE effects target everyone who was in any square effected by the attack at any point this round. At this point everyone should know how many attacks were aimed at them or their minions and the OM should know how many were aimed at each NPC or Monster combatant.
3) Once you have determined where everyone is moving and who is attacking whom, resolve all attacks. All attacks are resolved simultaneously and any effects, such as movement down the condition tracks, happens at the end of the Turn effecting none of the movement or actions that occurred during the Turn. If multiple attacks targeting the same condition track trigger multiple movements down the track add those movements together and then move down that far.
4) “Bounce” effects: When a Standard Action effect used this Combat Turn would prevent movement that occurred during the Combat Turn, such as the creation of a wall or difficult terrain or other obstacle, then at this stage the creatures with movement limited “bounce” back to their last legal place of movement. This does not effect their attacks which were resolved based on further movement, which they are capable of managing in some suitably dramatic way despite the limitation. This is different from movement down the condition track that would limit movement, which like all condition track changes only effects next Combat Turn.
Interrupts: An Interrupt is a decision that creatures make after declaring actions and finding out what all the actions being resolved in the turn are. The Interrupt is then resolved during the turn before some specific actions. The effect of the Interrupt when a duration is not specified is “long enough to have the described effect this turn and ending before next turn”. IE, if an interrupt blocks an attack, it will block an attack this turn but won’t next turn. Because of their earlier resolution, Interrupts can render targets invalid or prevent actions from occurring, in fact that is usually their intent.
When this happens, the foiled action still uses up actions that round, and the creature can either choose to not do anything with the action, or take all the steps in that action up until they are foiled. If an interrupt causes someone to move down the condition track, that movement comes before the attack resolution phase, with associated penalties to attacks and defenses.
IE, two players are casting a spell at an enemy and charging him to attack him, respectively. The enemy creates a wall in the way as an interrupt. The first player may decide to avoid casting the spell to retain limited usage and not use their standard action at all this turn or cast the spell and have it hit the wall instead. The second player may either not move this turn, or may choose to move part of the distance they otherwise would have moved even though a wall was created in their way, moving up to the wall.
Your Interrupt is always resolved before your Standard Action even if this negates your Standard Action.
A Note on Declaring Actions: The declaring actions phase is meant to get everyone to decide what they are going to do before finding out what everyone else (especially enemies) are going to do. Since you can attack anyone at any point they were this round, you always know some of the valid attacks you can make at the beginning. If you want to wait for a new enemy to appear or reappear that is a risk, but one you can take.
Declarations can be somewhat general such as “I want to get as many enemies as possible in this fireball” or “I want to target anyone fleeing” or “I want to move to get an interrupt attack on anyone trying to move past me to attack the Wizard.” When it comes to resolving these actions, try to resolve all of them in the way that makes the most sense to fulfill the spirit of the declaration. Declarations are about establishing goals for actions that round, not arguing over technical wording in a short statement of intent.
Some parties may be able to declare actions easily in a short time, but if this stage commonly takes a very long time do not hesitate to have the OM point at each player individually and ask them to specifically declare their actions going around the group until everyone has declared actions and moving on.
Size and Movement on the Grid
Players are assumed to be moving on a grid of 1yd cubes. Most PCs are going to look like they are taking up one such square when looking from the top down, but be occupying two such cubes stacked on top of each other. This is what a 2yd Tall entry means. Round characters take up as many spaces in diameter as they do in height but with the corners rounded off, so a 2yd round character would occupy a 2x2x2 set of squares but a 4yd Round creature would take up a stack of 4 cubes, then on top of that 12 cubes, then 12 cubes, then 4 cubes at the top. 2yd Long characters take up two squares looking down, but are only one high. Characters or creatures can have the Long, Tall, and Wide modifiers in any combination, though if they have all three they are “Cube” shaped. The Round modifier is exclusive of other modifiers.
When accounting for larger creatures, the smaller dimensions are accounted as half the larger dimensions. So a 10yd Long and Tall creature would be 10yd Tall, 10yd Long, and 5yd wide.
If something takes up part of a cube, usually round down to it not going into that space, so a 3yd tall creature is three cubes stacked on top of each other. The exception is when that is the only cube that a creature occupies, in which case assume it occupies that cube. You can reduce the size of the grid into smaller sizes as necessary for smaller creatures, having 1.5ft cubes and then 9 inch cubes, but doing so is usually not worth the hassle, so rounding is preferred.
Cube: All dimensions are the same length. Do not reduce corners.
Round: All dimensions are the same length. Reduce corners.
Tall: The creature is half as wide or long as they are all tall when standing on the ground.
Long: The creature is half as tall or wide as they are long when standing on the ground.
Wide: The creature is half as tall and long as they are wide when standing on the ground.
Any Two of Tall, Long, and Wide: The unnamed dimension is half the other two.
Most Tall creatures with winged flight become Long and Wide when flying.
These sizes are not the actual size of the creature, but instead the occupied area it uses for free movement. A creature can fit in a smaller area than their largest dimensions, though they suffer the Hindered condition on the [Impaired] Track. A creature can still not fit in an area smaller than half their normal dimensions.
Moving Around
Most creatures should have one or more movement speeds equaling a number of 1yd squares. Round down when needed, but with a minimum of 1 square. These are usually granted by creature type or race, but sometimes also spells or abilities. For each point of agility over two, add 1yd to all base movement speeds but not to the Maneuverability rating.
Moving that distance is a Basic Move action using any movement speed or combination thereof. A Standard Action can be used as a Move action for this purpose. If a character changes movement speeds mid action their speed is halved for all move speeds. Theoretically you might be able to travel farther by flying, landing on a wall, using a climb speed, and then walking on the ground than you would just landing. This is rarely going to be a big deal in the grand scheme of things and the work to try to correct it would force players to do a lot of math every turn to address an edge case that won’t come up much, so we aren’t going to worry about it.
An average creature can only jump half their land speed forward or their height straight up with that distance counting towards their total movement this turn. If a creature jumps with less than that distance remaining in their movement but wishes to jump the full amount they can, but they move only as far as they could this turn and then end their turn in mid air and must complete the jump at the beginning of the next turn before any movement.
Creatures who jump significantly better than this will have an ability that specifies how they jump.
Common movement modes include:
Land: The standard of movement is a walk/run movement over flat ground. Creatures can jump half this distance.
Swim: Movement through water.
Climb: Moving up a vertical or slightly angled surface. Usually unable to move across ceilings. Climb often has tags indicating the kind of surface that can be climbed, usually materials, but sometimes slope angles.
Fly:Flight speeds are through the air. Flight is measured with two distances. The first distance is how far a creature can move in a move action. The second is a rating of maneuverability, a creature must fly that far forward before they can change their angle of movement by 45 degrees. They must also fly at least half that distance each turn or Stall.
A Stalled creature moves down at double their base speed or 33yd per turn whichever is faster and then can use that movement to redirect their angle using their regular maneuverability rating. Any distance moved down after the first Stall is treated as falling distance if the creature hits the ground or lands before reaching an angle parallel to the ground.
A Rooted flying creature, if they aren’t rooted to a specific terrain feature they are touching, falls rather than Stalls if it stays Rooted. If it is no longer Rooted, it enters a Stall.
Less common movement modes include:
Water Walking:Use Land speed when walking on top of water or other liquids.
Walls:You can use your Land speed to walk up walls or on ceilings as if they are the ground.
Burrow: Create a tunnel. This usually includes tags indicating which materials can be Burrowed through. Will also include a tag indicating whether it leaves a tunnel or collapses behind itself.
Teleport: A creature disappears from one location and appears at another location without passing through the intervening distance.
Unusual Movement: Sometimes a creature is in a situation in which they must use a form of movement they don’t have, IE, an aquatic creature on land, a land dweller in water, a creature that generally flies and has no land speed is forced into water or has to move through tight tunnels, or a creature without a climb speed needs to climb a cliff.
When this occurs, the creature can use another form of movement, but moves down to Hindered on the [Impaired] track (suffering the half movement penalty). When moving like this a creature can only take a single move action and any interrupts each Combat Turn. Alternatively they can not move and give themselves up to the current or gravity if relevant (falling down the cliff, going under, or just sitting in a cramped tunnel) and use their standard action but no move action. They can decide to do either of these at the beginning of every turn, though they remain Hindered in either case until they are in a position to use a speed they have in its normal form.
This can only be used to emulate Land, Climb, and Swim.
Difficult Terrain
Sometimes terrain can be more difficult to move across. There are four kinds of Difficult Terrain.
Sticky: Marshes, bogs, and other kinds of terrain or impediments classified this impose the Hindered condition on the [Impaired] track.
Slippery: Ice, grease spills, and other kinds of terrain classified this way impose the Slowed condition on the [Impaired] Track. They further either reduce speed to half speed or the creature must make a PR 20 against Reflex or fall prone each turn.
Rough: Shattered ground, debris piles, and other kinds of terrain classified this way impose the Slowed condition on the [Impaired] Track and reduces speed to 3/4ths.
Sharp: Sharp terrain, like caltrops or spiked ground, reduces movement speed to half but can be ignored in favor of rolling a Toughness Soak Roll against the Power Rating of the terrain on the [Damage] track.
Knowing What You Know
Lots of times it matters what you know about the world. The basic assumption is that every creature has at least some kind of eye based sight and ear based hearing. If a creature lacks one or more of those things it will be called out specifically. Of course some eyes and ears work differently and those rules will be spelled out.
Line of Sight: A Creature has line of sight to a place or thing if you can draw a straight line from a corner of the creatures square to that place or thing that (1) is no longer than the Sight Range for that place or thing, (2) does not pass through any Obstruction to that creature’s sight and (3) the destination is illuminated in the sight of the creature sight.
Ranges and Sizes: The starting assumption is that you can see anything who’s smallest dimension is 1yd out to a range of 300yd. This can be changed by abilities and circumstances, but that is the starting point. Larger places and things can be seen farther away, and smaller things can only be seen closer. For every halving of size in the smallest dimension, halve the range at which you can see it. For every doubling of size of the smallest dimension multiply the range you can see it by 2.
In addition to your ability to see creatures or objects this also governs your ability to see places. You can see a specific 1yd cube from 300yd away. You can see a set cubes 2x2x2 out to 600yd. You can see a Tower Hundreds of yards tall and wide from far out and a mountain from miles. If an object or area is outside your Range of Sight then you won’t be able to see that object or see the area well enough to identify any important features.
Seeing Light Sources: To be able to see a light source and identify it specifically, such as for an attack on that object, you must be able to see the specific object according to its size and your range and all other concerns. However the radius of Bright illumination (based on your sight, so apply things like Low Light Vision) is itself a “place” you can see. Seeing that radius allows you to approximate the general location of the source of the light with a margin of error of 1/8th the size of the illumination.
Obstructions: Whether or not there is an obstruction between a creature and the end point depends on what obstructs the creatures vision. Physical opaque objects generally obstruct vision unless excepted for some reason. Transparent objects like glass panes do not obstruct vision. Smoke and other objects are Obstructions of vision when they are thick enough. Obviously, when it comes to seeing through things, magic makes all kinds of exceptions.
Illumination: Finally for an object to be within your line of sight it needs to be illuminated to your sight. The usual way this happens is that the sun shines light on everything on the surface world during the day. However, alternatives exist like fire and torches and magic. Light also comes in two levels, Bright, and Dim. Bright light provides no effect except allowing you to see, if a target is in Dim light you suffer a -2 to Hit Rating against them. Bright light replaces Dim light where they overlap.
Sun: The Sun illuminates the surface world with Bright Light whenever it is up. It can be dimmed or blocked entirely by sufficiently well developed obstructions, but it isn’t super easy.
Moon And Stars: The Moon and Stars provide Dim light to everything within 30yd of a creature for that creature alone at night on the surface. This can also be blocked like the Sun.
Earthly Light Sources: Most light sources create a radius of bright light around them and a radius of dim light twice as long. Unless otherwise specified, illumination from earthly light sources is blocked by Obstructions.
Low Light Vision: Creatures with Low Light Vision, like elves, double the radius of all light sources, both the Bright and Dim light. The Moon and Stars also provide Dim light to the entire surface world for them.
Darkvision: Creatures with Darkvision have a listed length. Everything within that length is illuminated for their own sight as if in Bright light.
Hearing
Most creatures have basic ear based hearing. Better, worse, or different kinds of hearing will be mentioned and explained in the creature’s entry. Basic hearing allows a creature to do all the things you expect it to, like hear spoken words, someone walking towards them, or the sounds of battle. Absent an attempt to remain hidden creatures are generally aware of the presence of any creature within 30yd of them when the sound producing creature moves. They know which quadrant of the grid they are relative to the hearing creature. If they also have line of sight, then they probably know exactly where the creature is because they glance over at them.
The 30yd detection effect of hearing applies even if you are detecting someone around a corner or through a door. To determine if a creature can hear another moving creature or other sound, draw as many lines as needed to produce the shortest possible distance between the creatures pathing around objects. If at any point you can shorten a line by passing through objects, you can, but for every foot of passing through an object, treat it as 2yd rounded up.
Particularly loud sounds like shouting or battle can usually be heard out to 60yd, though of course, sounds could potentially be much louder depending on abilities.
Other Senses
There are a variety of other senses that creatures can have spread across different creature types:
Scent: Scent allows creatures to use their honed sense of smell to detect other creatures. Scent will have a radius. The Scenting creature will know of the presence of any creature within that radius and will know which quadrant of the grid they are in, in relation to the Scenting creature. This is the case even if a creature is hidden, invisible, or if there are intervening objects.
When an object blocks line of effect to the Scenting creature, draw as many lines as are needed to take the shortest path from each creature to the other that does not pass through any objects. The sum of the length of all those lines must be less than or equal to the radius of the Scent for the detection to occur.
Wind of Moderate or higher doubles the radius of scent and halves it, doubling it when the Scenting creature is down wind, and halving it up wind.
Tremorsense: Tremorsense is detecting the vibrations in the earth to a precise degree. It has a radius and allows a creature to know the location of creatures when they move within that radius. This does not require line of effect and the sensor needs to be touching a surface (usually “the ground”) to detect creatures moving. If the creatures moving are not touching any solid surfaces you cannot detect them.
Tremorsense gives the position a creature began in, moved through, and last touched the surface, but they could still have left that spot by other means such as planar travel, teleportation, taking off into flight, or falling over a cliff.
Long Range Vision: Long Range Vision is not actually a different sense, but creatures that have it double the Range of their line of sight for all creatures, objects, and places.
Blindsense: This is a stand in for a variety of senses, but in effect it represents knowing the specific location of creatures within a radius regardless of any visual ability. This version only tells the creature what squares the detected creatures and objects are in, and their size, but does not give you detailed information for targeting non AoE effects. Blindsense also gives you a general idea of objects around you so that you can navigate somewhat, though if it is your only sense you are Blind. Blindsense detects only those things within line of effect, meaning it penetrates smoke, but is blocked by glass.
Blindsight: Blindsight operates as a nonvisual sense that operates with the same clarity as sight out to a radius. It operates under the same rules as Blindsense, but a creature is able to effectively see with the same detail as sight resulting in recognizing creatures visibly and use line of sight abilities. Blindsight is based on physical texture, so reading and seeing color are not generally possible. Paints can be noticed in some cases and so can the texture of text sometimes.
Hiding from Detection
Sometimes you will want to hide from potential detectors. Attempting to do so imposes a speed limitation and changes some of the detection rules. This can be implemented at any time and is just a toggle you can turn on or off for any given combat turn or set of time. When you start hiding any creature that has already detected you still detects you until you leave their detection range. Once a creature has detected you while you are hiding, the same is true.
If a creature is not deliberately hiding and accepting the speed limitations to do so then detecting them is technically a HR 0 Avoid Roll for Perception and ranges are not halved as listed below. Most of the time that means that you don’t have to roll to detect them. Creatures can have bonuses added to this PR because of abilities or effects, but unless actively hiding a creature can’t add their Hide skill, level, and agility. The most common bonus that might apply even when not actively hiding is an invisibility effect.
Limitations: When a creature attempts to avoid detection they cannot move more than half their base speed each round. This means that even taking two move actions to move your base speed is too fast and you will be unable to remain in hiding. The only exception to this is teleportation, which might alert enemies for other reasons, but it doesn’t matter how far you move. When a sense calls for a Perception Save against a Stealth Hit Rating, roll separately for each sense as it becomes necessary.
Sight: The Range of Line of Sight is halved. This is the furthest they can see you. They must then succeed on a Perception save against the Stealth Hit Rating of the hiding creature.
Hearing: The Range of Hearing is halved. This is the furthest they can hear you. They must then succeed on a Perception save against the Stealth Hit Rating of the hiding creature.
Blindsense and Blindsight: The Range is unchanged, but the Sensor must succeed on a Perception save against the Stealth Hit Rating of the hiding creature.
Tremorsense: The Range of Tremorsense is halved, however, once inside the halved range, no Perception save is required and the character is immediately detected.
Scent: Hiding has no effect on Scent.
Mindsight: Mindsight is not just a sense, Firstly it is a sense that tells you of any unprotected mind that enters your area. You cannot actually tell the location of creatures but you can match minds to creatures you already see. Your ability to sense minds, in addition to telling you someone is within range, also lets you know the type and Intelligence score of the creature.
Finally, the not sensing part of Mindsight, is that any creature with Mindsight can try to reach out and read the minds of creatures in their mindsight range. This process requires a Standard action and maintaining the target within your Mindsight range. It is a [Covert] attack at HR Will against Perception, PR Will against Mind. Each Degree of Failure tells you the answer to one question about what they are currently thinking about, generally.
None of this is effected by hiding, but you must still identify the location of a creature by other means to match them up.
Actions While Hiding
Each time a Hiding creature uses a standard action or interrupt while Hiding within the sense range of another creature, reduce their Stealth Power Rating by 2. If this new number compared with existing Perception save result would result in detection then after the action the creature has been detected after resolving that Combat Turn. To be clear, a creature always rolls a Perception Avoid Roll as soon as you enter their range so only actions taken after a Perception Avoid Roll have this effect. The Hiding creature doesn’t know that their Stealth Power Rating is decreasing.
If a creature uses a non [Covert] Attack, instead of the standard action result, subtract 5 from the Stealth Power Rating and reroll a new Perception save for each creature’s sense within range. If any Perception save exceeds the Stealth Power Rating then the hiding creature has been detected after resolving the Combat Turn.
If a [Covert] Attack is used, on a hit do not take any penalty to Stealth Power Rating, but do roll a new Perception Save. On a miss, the intended target gets a +5 bonus to their Perception Save.
Technically Stealth Power Rating decay is local to a single creature or group of creatures who are allies. Generally all enemies should be amalgamated most of the time. The meaningful point is that actions taken in front of your allies don’t cause decay to your Stealth Power Rating with respect to enemies. If enemies are enemies of each other or have no way to communicate then local Stealth Ratings may become relevant.
Ambushes and Surprise
If only one side knows about the combat that is about to start, for example from an ambush, then they get to take one Combat Turn where the victims don’t get a standard actions. Move actions and Interrupts are still permitted for the victims.
If you have a complex set of knowledges on both sides, probably better to just assume someone on each side alerts their friends and the matter progresses as normal, but you can resolve with only some characters on both sides getting the surprise effect.
All of this is knowing of other creatures, not knowing their specific location, so identification based scent or hearing can trigger combat turns even when one or both sides haven’t identified the other for direct attacks.
Targeting and Orientation
Threatened Space
Anyone wielding a weapon, including making attacks labeled with the [Weapon] tag is considered to be threatening the area near them. For a 2yd Tall creature this is the adjacent squares because the threatened area for creatures is half their longest measurement. When wielding a Reach weapon the threatened area is equal to their longest measurement.
The threatened area is the area around you in which you can make Interrupt Attacks when provoked.
Moving while Moving
Everyone is always standing on a planet which is moving under them. Generally speaking most often the correct frame of static reference is the earth itself and character movement or spell effects should assume they move or stay stationary relative to the earth. However, magical effects which create areas can be affixed to objects that are at least twice their size when created. This means that you can attach an effect to a big old ship, but probably not a rowboat. For creatures of course, if they are moving on a moving object or creature, that usually means movement should be measured relative to that. Flight is almost always measured relative to the earth, and sometimes that means that if you are on a ship and you start flying you go slower than if you just stood still, them’s the breaks.
Cover
To determine cover, draw lines from a vertex to every vertex bordering your space. If any of those lines goes through an object that object provides cover to you. If every one of those lines goes through an object you have total cover. For creatures attacking, they can choose any vertex bordering their space to be the origin vertex for determining cover.
Cover grants a 20% miss chance to any attack which you have cover to. This applies to AoE effects you have cover from as well. Total Cover grants a 100% miss chance. Both of these miss chances only apply to attacks which require line of effect, though that will be a lot of them.
If a creature or location is not behind Total Cover then you have Line of Effect to it.
Concealment
Sometimes vision obscuring effects will be less than total. If a vision obscuring effect is total then it provides Total Concealment which is a 50% miss chance and a creature cannot see past it. If it is only partial it provides Concealment. Concealment provides a 20% miss chance. Concealment doesn’t effect AoE attacks.
Concealment and Cover miss chances overlap, not stack.
Targeting Attacks
Direct Attacks can be directed at any creature you can see to target. Certain abilities, such as Blindsight allow you to target creatures you cannot see as if you could. Direct Attacks can also be targeted at a 1yd cube. If they are, then if a creature is present in that cube roll a 50% miss chance for the attack, this is the miss chance from Total Concealment. If the 50% succeeds then resolve the attack as if it targeted the creature. If more than one creature is in the cube roll randomly to see which one is hit.
Most Weapon attacks are direct attacks, including range attacks. If an attack does not specify that it is an AoE or Effect Creation then it is a Direct Attack.
AoE attacks are attacks that are targeted at a vertex and attack some area around that vertex. Every creature within the area or passing through it during the Turn is attacked by the AoE (which uses the stats of the creature creating it usually). AoEs have a shape and a type. Types determine how the effect functions and shape determines the shape it occurs in.
Types
Spread: Some effects, notably clouds and fogs, spread out from a point of origin, which must be a grid intersection. The effect can extend around corners and into areas that you can’t see. Figure distance by actual distance traveled, taking into account turns the spell effect takes. When determining distance for spread effects, count around walls, not through them. As with movement, do not trace diagonals across corners. You must designate the point of origin for such an effect, but you need not have line of effect (see below) to all portions of the effect.
Burst: A burst affects whatever it catches in its area, even including creatures that you can’t see. It can’t affect creatures with total cover from its point of origin (in other words, its effects don’t extend around corners). A burst’s area defines how far from the point of origin the spell’s effect extends. This occurs in a single instantaneous moment.
Emanation: An Emanation is like a Burst that repeats over and over again, constantly. This means that whatever effect it has can occur multiple times (usually once per turn) or is a constant effect on those within the area.
Shapes
Sphere: A sphere-shaped ability expands from its point of origin to fill a spherical area.
Cone: A cone-shaped ability shoots away from the origin in a 90 degree cone in the direction designated. It starts from any corner of the originating source’s square and widens out as it goes.
Line: A line-shaped ability shoots away from the originating effect in a line in the direction designated by the effect. It starts from any corner of the square of the originator and extends to the limit of its range or until it strikes a barrier that blocks line of effect. A line-shaped ability affects all creatures in cubes that the line passes through. A line that is the border between cubes effects all cubes that it borders.
Cylinder: When using a cylinder-shaped ability, the originator selects the spell’s point of origin. This point is the center of a horizontal circle, and the attack shoots down from the circle, filling a cylinder. A cylinder-shaped ability ignores any horizontal obstructions within its area.
Hitting Distant Targets
When targeting ranged attacks, the first important consideration is line of sight. Generally speaking you must have Line of Sight to your target or to the location you are going to center your area. However, sometimes additional restrictions of distance may apply. Ranged Weapons have maximum ranges and so do many spells or powers. Some basic ones are:
Self: You can only target yourself.
Touch: You must physically touch the target, this is used most commonly on beneficial effects where the touch would be accepted or on attacks that require an Agility against Miss attack.
Close: 20yd.
Medium: 60yd.
Long: 200yd. Though keep in mind Line of Sight Rules.
How Long Does It Last
Many effects, whether attacks or other abilities, will have a certain amount of time they are active. For most attacks and many abilities this is a single moment during the Combat Turn and then the effects of that instant remain afterwards. However, some effects have longer durations creating magical effects that remain in place for some amount of time.
If an Attack targets a [Track] besides [Impaired, Delusion, Sense Attacks] moving up or down the track is Instant. Impaired, Delusion, and Sense Attacks must all have durations for their post Attack effect. However, some attacks create an effect that attacks anything within the effect, and these effects have durations.
Many other effects like buffs or utility effects can have durations as well. If a duration has (NR) at the end then the effect cannot be removed aside from waiting out the duration. Every other ability can be removed, sometimes this is spelled out in its entry, but all removable abilities can be voluntarily removed by their creator or forcibly removed by magical removal abilities in addition to anything spelled out in their entry.
For durations, almost anything can be written, but here are the most common types:
Instant: This causes an effect in a single moment, but the effect may remain or be changed.
One Minute: Many effects last for one minute or 10 combat turns. These effects are usually battlefield effects that substantially change one combat but dissipate shortly after or during.
2 Hours: Some effects last 2 hours or 120 Combat Turns, these effects are usually powerful buffs used for a sustained assault or control effects designed to buy time.
Sunset, Sunrise, Twilight: Many effects last until the next Sunrise, Sunset or “Twilight” which means either of those, effectively lasting most of the day when you use them adventuring, but potentially wearing out if you don’t time their usage when you are defending. Effects can also specify multiple Sunrises, Sunsets, or Twilights.
One Fortress Turn: Some effects last one month, or one fortress turn, staying active for that time.
Until Used: Some abilities create charges or effects that last until they are used up even if that ends up being months or years. Some ancient tomes have been known to have effects that lasted centuries before being used up.
Permanent: Some effects last forever unless removed, though such things are rare.
Attacks and Conditions
When you attack an enemy, you use an ability to do so, whether that ability is a Spell, Power, Weapon Attack, or some other ability. Each ability has a Hit Rating and a Power Rating. The Hit Rating of your attack is usually 11+Level+Governing Attribute, though weapons commonly have bonuses to Hit Rating. The Power Rating of your attack is usually equal to 15+Level+Governing Attribute though weapons and some abilities have bonuses to Power Rating.
Sometimes attacks don’t have a specific Hit Rating because they are assumed to effect anyone who meets the qualifications with the Power Rating. The most common version of this is [Gas] attacks with a duration, where anyone can avoid breathing in if they know about the attack after it has formed, but if they do breath in they are immediately hit with the Power Rating.
The defender has a defense value for each defense. All defenses are by default equal to a Level+Governing Stat. Most classes have Class Bonuses to one or more Defenses. When an attack targets or includes a creature then the creature rolls an Avoid Roll and a Soak Roll against the Hit Rating and Power Rating. Both of these rolls are 1d20+Your Defense.
Most creatures will also have conditional bonuses to Defenses, usually only to Soak Rolls, that apply to certain kinds of attacks, either attacks with certain [Tags] or attacks that target a specific [Track].
Armor has a separate armor bonus that usually come from wearing armor or abnormally tough shells/hides/scales/skin, though some magic also grants such bonuses. Many attacks, including Basic Attacks, target the higher of Miss or Armor for their attack roll. Wearing No Armor applies a Penalty to Armor defense. The zero value for Armor is Leather Armor and most creatures tend to have at least that strong a hide.
Because Armor is calculated based on Miss, any penalty to Miss operates as a penalty to Armor. The exception is when a penalty to Miss would extend beyond the zero value, since no defense can go below 0.
Armor: Miss+Armor Bonus.
Miss: Agility+Level
Reflex: Agility+Level
Toughness: Might+Level
Mind: Will+Level
Perception: Intelligence+Level
To determine if an attack hits first address Targeting, Cover, Concealment, and whether targets are included in the Area of Effect. Once you are sure that a creature is Targeted or Included that creature’s controller should roll the Avoid Roll of 1d20+Defense for the appropriate Avoid Defense and 1d20+Defense for the appropriate Soak Defense. Most attacks will have different Avoid and Soak Defenses.
If the Avoid Roll is higher than the Hit Rating, the attack misses. If the Hit Rating is higher then the attack hits. Since these rolls are creature dependent two identical creatures in the same AOE may have different results.
Soak Rolls are rolled once for each defender. If an attack imposes more than one condition, roll only one die and add the different defense bonuses to the same roll to get two Soak Roll results, resolve each condition track according to those results.
If a Soak Roll is greater than or equal to the Power Rating, the Soak is a success. If the Soak Roll is 1-4 less than the PR then the Soak failed. For each 5 by which the Soak Roll is less than the PR the Soak has an additional Degree of Failure. IE, 1 Degree at 1-4, 2 at 5-9, 3 at 10-14, ect.
Formatting:
When describing attacks, the simplest method to convey all the required information is:
[Name][Tags]: [Range and/or Area] at HR [Hit Rating] against [Avoid Defense], PR [Power Rating] against [Soak Defense] causing [Track imposed]. [Duration as needed. If left empty, Instant.]. [Use restrictions. If left empty, At will or as per character class ability schedule.].
If you don’t know the stat information of the attacker, for example because the attack is written up in a class entry and could apply to a number of creatures with different stats, then the format will replace numbers with the attribute that adds to that to hit roll or PR rating and any static values. If an attack ever gives a defense choice, the choice is the defenders. Examples:
Basic Weapon Attack (Axe)[Bash, Slash]: Melee at HR 20 against Miss or Armor, PR 26 against Toughness causing [Damage].
Web: Medium Range 7yd Emanation Sphere at HR Agility against Reflex, PR Intelligence against Toughness causing [Tied Up]. 1 Minute.
Abilities and Attacks and Qualities
All attacks are considered “Abilities” when that is appropriate, but not all Abilities are attacks. Abilities are actions that you take based on Class Features, Monster Abilities, or because a Ritual or Ability gave you an Ability. Many of these are attacks, but some can be the movement based, detection based, environmental manipulation, Summoning, Healing, Buffing, or other effects.
Qualities are effects you have that aren’t actions. Sometimes an Ability will give you a Quality.
Attacks are all Abilities that might move an opponent down a condition track. So creating a Stinking Cloud is an Attack even when no one is inside it and you are using it to obscure sight, because someone might move into it during the duration.
Tags
Tags represent useful information about attacks or abilities. The first thing is that tags tell you when to apply resistances, immunities, or vulnerabilities that targets have. There are other kinds of information also conveyed by tags, including how an attack is made or how targets are effected.
Special Tags:
[Covert]: These abilities are hidden or concealable. If an attack hits its target then the attack is unlikely to give away the location of the attack or that an attack was made. If an attack misses, then the target notices the attack, though others may not. This differentiates from most attacks which are plainly visible to attackers, the target, and often times bystanders. Covert abilities that are not attacks do not alert others of their use.
[Weapon]: Weapon attacks are any attack made with a physical weapon or sometimes natural weapons. Melee attacks with the Weapon tag are the only kind that can be used for Interrupt Attacks.
[Magic]: Any attack with a Magical Weapon has this tag. This tag is often important for being able to hit enemies or bypass resistances.
[Spell]: Spells are abilities which require the caster to speak words aloud and make simple gestures to trigger the effect. This renders them identifiable by the Spellcraft skill and makes them provoke Interrupt Attacks. They are also unable to be performed while Holding Your Breath.
[Energy Drain]: Undead are immune to Energy Drain attacks that represent necromantic antilife. Some such attacks heal undead, others don’t, it depends.
[Compulsion/Glamour]: Glamours and Compulsions represent two different kinds of [Delusion] attacks. The main difference is that being in Combat provides a +4 bonus to Soak Rolls against Glamours but not Compulsions. However some effects provide protections against one or the other kind of effect. Glamours are any effect that makes you believe a specific thing and Compulsions compel actions specifically but leave the creature fully aware they are being manipulated.
[Darkness/Light]: If both a Darkness and Light effect are used in the same area the one created by a higher leveled creature overrides the other. If all the sources are the same level then they cancel out in the overlapped area.
[Draconic]: True Dragons are immune to attacks with this Tag, though Half Dragons and other Dragon creatures are not.
[Petrification]: Petrification effects are Permanent duration and almost always cause [Impairment]. These attacks slowly turn victims to stone, but many effects exist which can reverse or halt this process.
[Polymorph]: Polymorph abilities are those that transform a target into some other creature or object. When a Polymorph Attack or Ability says that it removes abilities, it does not remove any Polymorph abilities.
[Curse]: Curse effects can only be healed by effects that specify they cure (or temporarily allay) Curse effects.
Delivery Tags:
[Projectile]: A Projectile attack involves a specific object travelling along a path to reach the target. Usually this is a direct line, though projectiles subject to gravity, such as arrows, can be arced, and at long distances may have to be. A Projectile attack is effected by anything in the space it moves through before it can reach the target.
[Gas]: Gas attacks must be breathed in to effect a target. Usually gas attacks have a Reflex Avoid Roll representing that a character can hold their breath as a reaction to the attack to avoid it. Some gas attacks have no Hit Rating indicating that characters are either not expected to notice the gas and react to it, or that they will be aware of it and have ample opportunity to decide to hold their breath with the gas triggering only when they choose not to any longer.
[Gaze]: Gaze attacks operate by sight. As such they require the target to have Line of Sight to the attacker, but can operate through barriers that block line of effect, and sometimes even on targets the attacker is unaware of. Many Gazes are passive attacks that don’t require actions, though not all. Any creature who cannot see the target, whether because of Blindness, obstructing effects or just closing their eyes, is immune to any gaze attack. Closing your eyes temporarily gives the Blindness condition until you open them but makes you immune to Gazes until you do.
[Sound]: Sound attacks are attacks that create magical noises that must be heard before a creature is subject to the attack. Things like Deafness or Silence spells prevent these attacks.
[Poison]: Poison attacks indicate an attack that triggers multiple times at intervals. These attacks are often attacks with multiple Soak roll results where the poison as a rider on another attack.
[Disease]: Disease attacks also trigger multiple times at intervals, but unlike Poisons they usually spread to new targets from the victims rather than just from the initial source. Diseases also usually have longer intervals between attacks.
[Telepathic]: Telepathic indicates that the attack involves broadcasting itself telepathically either to a single target or multiples. This is similar to [Sound] except that by being telepathic it bypasses the limitations of Silence effects and Deafness.
[Language]: Language attacks require you to speak a language that the target can understand for the attack to take effect. Those who don’t understand your speech will be unaffected.
[Plant]: Plant attacks act by manipulating existing plants unless they also have the Summon, Calling, or Evokation tag. If no plants exist to be operated on, then the attacks cannot function. However, usually such attacks magically grow what plants are present having their entire effect with merely some grass, tree roots, or other limited plant life being present.
[Summon]: Summons bring creatures or objects to your location from another plane. Creatures summoned this way who are killed do not die and instead return to their original plane. A Summons effect technically cannot bring an unwilling creature across a Closed Planar System, but since Summons do not generally target a specific creature and do not cause damage, some creature is always willing.
[Calling]: Calling brings creatures or objects to your location from another plane permanently. Creatures and effects brought this way remain permanently until removed by some other effect, though the specific mechanics an attack implements may be negated sooner. (If you cut yourself free of conjured ropes the fact that the rope remains is not terribly important at this moment.) Calling effects cannot bring an unwilling creature into or out of a Closed Planar System.
[Evokation]: Evokation creates creatures and objects and energies from pure magic right in front of you without bringing them from another plane.
Resistance Tags:
Physical: [Slash][Bash][Stab]
Elemental: [Fire][Cold][Electricity][Acid][Sonic][Water]
Conditions:
Often attacks will have a condition track that they impose on failure. The attack will specify what condition it imposes. Sometimes multiple condition tracks might be imposed, and the attack will list them. When an attack hits, a Soak Roll is called for against the Power Rating of the Attack.
When a soak roll succeeds, no condition is imposed as the defender shrugs off the attack.
If the Soak Roll fails the defender moves down one condition on the associated condition track for each Degree of Failure.
Condition Tracks:
Each Condition Track is expressed with a name for easy reference, and then a description of what causes you to move UP the condition track to reach the zero level that imposes no penalties. Following that are each of the levels descending down the track. No penalty or combination of penalties can move a defense below 0. Penalties to Miss reduce Armor by reducing the Miss component.
Some effects, mostly relating to moving outside your best circumstances, indicate that a character should be “moved down to X on the [Y] track.” When this happens, a creature who is already at that point or below it does not move down the track but any creature above that point moves down to that point on the track so long as the condition persists and then moves up the same amount it moved down when the condition ends.
[Damage] 10 minutes, 4 hours, and 3 days after you were last damaged, move down one track, then heal two.
Not Damaged: -0
Pained: -1 to all defenses except Armor.
Injured: -1 to Mind, -2 to Miss, Reflex, Toughness, Perception.
Wounded: -1 to Mind, -3 to Miss, Reflex, Toughness, Perception.
Bloodied: -1 to Mind, -4 to Miss, Reflex, Toughness, Perception.
Incapacitated: -5 to all defenses except Armor, Prone, Deaf, Blind, Helpless, and Absent. Cannot be Healed.
Dead: Incapable of taking actions, soul leaves body, cannot be healed, cannot move up a track without special effects that bring the dead back to life (or unlife).
Special: This track also manages damage to Objects, though objects don’t generally have defenses and the Dead Status is replaced with Destroyed: Incapable of taking actions, cannot be repaired, non functional for its previous use. Objects don’t heal.
[Sickness]10 minutes, 4 hours, and each 4 hours after the first effect is caused, move up one track.
Not Sick: -0
Distressed: -1 to Reflex, Mind, and Perception.
Nauseous: -3 to Reflex, Mind, and Perception.
Vomiting: -5 to Reflex, Mind, and Perception, can only take a single move action.
Infirm: -7 to Reflex, Mind, and Perception, Prone, Helpless, and Absent.
[Fear] 1 minute after you no longer can detect the source of any of your fear move up one track. Move up one track every 1 minute you still can’t detect a source of fear.
Not Afraid: -0
Shaken: -1 Penalty to Perception and Attacks.
Frightened: -3 Penalty to Perception and Attacks.
Panicked: -5 Penalty to Perception and Attacks, but also, must flee from the sources of fear to the best of their ability.
Cowering: -7 to Perception and Attacks, Prone, Blind, Helpless, and Absent.
[Tired] Sitting for 5 minutes moves up one track, lying down for 20 minutes moves up 1 track, 4 hours of sleep moves up 1 track, and 11 hours of sleep with only a 1 hour interruption of light activity moves up one track. Each of these can only be used once each between each Sunrise. You can be doing more than one of these at a time, so 11 hours of sleep can move you up four on the condition track all at once.
Not Tired: -0
Weary: -1 Miss, Reflex, Mind, Perception
Fatigued: -3 Miss, Reflex, Mind, Perception
Exhausted: -5 Miss, Reflex, Mind, Perception
Sleeping: -7 Miss, Reflex, Mind, Perception, Prone, Deaf, Blind, Helpless, and Absent.
[Poison] Once a Poison’s Duration has ended wait 4 hours, then move up one track at intervals equal to the poisons interval timer. Damage Poisons use the Damage Track directly and do not heal in this way.
Not Poisoned: -0
Contaminated: -1 [Type]
Infected: -3 [Type]
Defiled: -5 [Type]
Saturated: [Result]
[Tied Up] 5x[Amount of steps afflicted] minutes of struggling can remove all tracks. Assistance of another character reduces this to rounds. Special: A Breakfree attempt (Roll 1d20+toughness or reflex defense) as both the Move and Standard action for a Combat Turn can be made each turn, the DC is equal to the DC that created your current condition of Tied Up +10. Success on a Breakfree brings you to zero on the track.
Not Tied Up: -0
Muddled: -1 Attacks, Miss, and Reflex
Tangled: -3 Attacks, Miss, and Reflex, move half speed.
Restrained: -5 Attacks, Miss, and Reflex, Root.
Bound: -7 Attacks, Miss, and Reflex, Rooted, Helpless.
[Impaired] All levels of impairment from this track end as soon as their causing effects end or you leave the effected area.
Not Impaired: -0
Slowed: -1 Miss and Reflex.
Hindered: -3 Miss and Reflex, move half speed.
Rooted: -5 Miss and Reflex, Root.
Paralyzed: -7 Miss and Reflex, Root, Helpless.
[Delusion] Move to zero on the Delusion track 1 minute after all delusion effects on you end.
Not Deluded: -0
Baffled: -1 Miss, Reflex, Perception
Confused: -3 Miss, Reflex, Perception, Roll on Confusion Chart.
Charmed: -5 Miss, Reflex, Perception, most recent effect where creature received a degree of failure controls actions.
Controlled: -7 Miss, Reflex, Perception, most recent effect where creature received a degree of failure controls actions.
Any given Delusion effect will describe what it makes the creature believe, or compels them to do at the Charmed and Controlled level.
Special: When determining the actions of a creature who is Charmed or Controlled on a turn after it has received degrees of failure by two or more [Delusion] effects from different sources in the last Combat Turn, roll randomly to decide which effect is used.
[Disorientation] Move up one on the track at the end of each Combat Turn except the first turn the condition is imposed.
Not Disoriented: -0
Dizzy: -1 Reflex and Mind
Dazed: -3 Reflex and Mind, Absent
Stunned 1: -5 Reflex and Mind, Helpless, Absent.
Stunned 2: -5 Reflex and Mind, Helpless, Absent.
Stunned 3: -5 Reflex and Mind, Helpless, Absent.
Special: Condition Track repeats forever never getting worse or better.
[Sense Limited] All levels of this track end as soon as their causing effect ends.
Not Limited: -0
Overstimulated: -1 Perception, Reflex, and Attacks.
Deafened: -3 Perception, Reflex, and Attacks. If an attack imposes the Deaf Condition it does so now.
Blinded: -5 Perception, Reflex, and Attacks. If an attack imposes the Blind condition it does so now.
Sense Deprived: You may take any action, however you have no senses or contact of any kind, you know only the locations of creatures and objects you knew before this state was reached. You receive a -10 penalty to any action and every defense. However, you suffer none of the effects of the Delusion, Disorientation, or Fear tracks. Many of your actions will fail no matter what you roll, as they are acting on a state of events that no longer applies.
[Life Loss] On the next sunrise after you have experienced Life Loss roll a 1d6 for each amount you moved down. Move up one for every 5 or 6 you rolled. Seven sunrises later repeat the roll. Any remaining Life Loss must be cured in another manner.
Not Lost: -0
Life Loss 1: -1 to all rolls.
Life Loss 2: -2 to all rolls.
Life Loss 3: -3 to all rolls.
Special: Condition Track repeats infinitely applying a cumulative -1 penalty with each movement down.
Special: If a character has Life Loss equal to its Level then it dies. Humanoid deaths from Level Loss create Wights.
Status Effects:
Prone: Lying on the ground. Can only crawl 1yd as an action. If used on a flying creature prevents more than 1yd of forward movement which can often trigger stalls.
Root: Cannot move from current location. -5 Miss and Reflex (overlap other modifiers).
Deaf: Cannot hear.
Blind: Cannot see.
Absent: Cannot take actions.
Helpless: Anyone engaged with them can, as both their move and standard action for the Combat Turn, either kill them, or automatically hit them with an attack that they cannot roll a defense to (treat them as rolling a 1).
Heal: Healing means moving up one track on the Damage track. Though some effects make healing impossible.
Confusion Chart
When a creature needs to roll on the Confusion Chart, roll a 1d20 and apply the results below.
1-5: Makes its own actions.
6-10: Absent this turn.
11-15: Must flee from the sources of [Delusion] to the best of their ability.
16-20: Attacks nearest creature to the best of their ability.
Resolving Poisons and Diseases
Poisons come in two basic types [Damage] and non damaging. Most poisons require some kind of set up to trigger. Sometimes this is an attack hitting your Miss or Armor defense, sometimes this is entering an area and breathing the fumes, sometimes it is drinking or eating something poisonous, and sometimes it is merely touching something. Each Poison will specify what is required to trigger the Soak Roll. Poisons then have a Power Rating and are tested against Toughness in almost all circumstances. In addition to a Power rating and a means of being activated, Poisons have an Interval and a Duration. The Interval is a time period at which Soak Rolls are triggered, the Duration is a whole number which represents the number of Soak Rolls that are rolled.
When a Damage Poison has been activated it does nothing immediately. Instead you wait the Interval of the Poison and then trigger the first Soak Roll and the damage from that. Repeat each Interval until you have achieved the Duration. Damage Poison is healed just like normal damage.
Non Damaging Poisons have a at least one listed defense or attack, but possibly many, that they apply a penalty to and a final condition they apply at the Saturated position. To resolve these poisons you follow the same rules for Damage Poisons but instead of moving down the [Damage] track you move down the [Poison] track applying the numbered penalties to everything the Poison lists. At the Saturated level they apply the final condition. While some final conditions are permanent, most can be removed, if a condition does not specify that it is permanent then it goes away as you move up the [Poison] track.
4 Hours after the final Soak Roll you move up one step on the [Poison] track, and then you move up one step at each Interval of the Poison until you return to normal.
Diseases are resolved almost the same as poisons except that they have much longer Intervals, larger Durations, and they all attack the [Sickness] track until you reach infirmity, at which point they start attacking the damage track. Movement down either of these tracks caused by Diseases cannot be removed by the normal means specified in the Track entry until the Disease’s duration has ended at which point they are removed normally.
Any effect that Cures a Disease or Poison ends it as if it had just finished its last Duration.
Common Combat Actions
Below is a list of the most common things you can do with each type of action.
Standard Actions
Basic Attack: Almost all sapients are capable of making a basic weapon attack, HR Agility against Miss or Armor, PR Might against Toughness causing [Damage]. Unarmed humans are considered to be using the “Unarmed” weapon for this attack. Some Monster attacks are labeled as [Weapon] as well which means they can be used for a Basic Attack.
Attack Ability: Almost all monsters and most sapients will have attack abilities defined which allow them to make attacks either with a weapon or without, using the defined rules of their attack. These are almost always standard actions.
Defense Ability: Some monsters or classes will have powerful defensive abilities that are activated with a standard action.
Combat Defaults: Almost any creature can use any of the Combat Defaults against another creature as a standard action. See that section for details.
Dismiss Ability: A standard action by the person who created the effect can end many magical abilities with the [Dispel] tag.
Use Tower Shield For Cover: As a Standard Action you can prepare a Tower Shield for Cover, letting you use your Interrupt to Get Behind Cover of your own Tower Shield relative to an attack against you this round.
Move Actions
Basic Move:A Move Action is most often used to be a Basic Move a special kind of action in which you move up to your full distance while taking minor actions across that distance. Each minor action you take reduces your movement by 1yd. You can take any number of minor actions, even if you have no more movement to lose and always move at least 1yd.
When deciding where to move with a Basic Move you have declared where you are headed or what you are trying to do during the Declaration phase of combat but now you figure out where that is. “Where you are headed” can be towards a specific creature, in which case you can move towards any location they will be during the turn. If two creatures move toward each other, they both head directly at each other’s current location until they meet. You may stop at any point along whatever path you had declared effectively “deciding to stop.”
Minors include: Opening a door, closing a door, drawing a weapon, sheathing a weapon, picking up an item adjacent to you off the ground, catching an item tossed to you, readying or loosing a shield, dropping an item, mounting a willing steed, dismounting a willing steed, drawing a missile weapon from a quiver, giving a single command to any number of controlled creatures, initiating a jump, grabbing onto or letting go of something like a ledge or rope, or loading a bolt or bullet into a complex fire weapon like a crossbow or sling.
Other move actions besides the Basic Move include:
Redirect an effect: Some abilities that move around magical effects use your move action to be moved and remain stationary if you don’t.
Maintain Engagement: If you begin a turn with a creature in your threat range you may wish to end your turn that way as well. If you maintain engagement than to the extent you are able you move with the creature chosen attempting to prevent their escape. If they have more movement than you, they may escape anyway. Your movement can only be directed to maintain threat on the chosen creature. If they don’t move, you won’t either.
You may take any minor actions during the move with the consequent 1yd cost. The chosen creature cannot Interrupt Attack you for any movement (they may still use an Interrupt Attack for any other provocation). You may still make an Interrupt attack against them for movement.
Direct Mount: You may direct a willing mount to make any specific Basic Move or Maintain Engagement on your behalf. If you do, the Maintain Engagement effect prevents Interrupt Attacks against you and your mount and you can take Minor Actions from your own movement cost at no cost to your mount’s movement.
Stand From Prone: If you are Prone you may wish to stand up, and doing so is an entire move action.
Root Around in Your Backpack: Obtaining an item from storage takes an entire move action, rather than a minor action.
Interrupts
Interrupts, can be declared at any time including after everyone’s actions for the Combat Turn are determined or during resolution of an action. Interrupts declared can occur before the action they are declared in response to. Because of this they do often interfere with those actions making them invalid, which is often the point.
Interrupt Attack: An Interrupt Attack can be used against anyone who is in your threatened area and who, 1) Moves, 2) Attacks with a Ranged Attack, 3) Casts a Spell as a Standard Action, 4) Stands up from Prone, 5) Uses a Combat Default, or 6) attacks with “Unarmed.” However if the target has Cover or Concealment they can’t be Interrupt Attacked.
This functions as a Basic Attack against the target.
Get Behind Cover: Any character either currently behind cover relative to an attack or within a distance equal to their smallest side from cover can move behind cover to dodge any attack. Once moved they are treated as being in the new location at the start of the turn and they are not permitted to move out of that cover this round. Resolve all attacks based on their new position, including their own.
Activate Trigger or Cast Spell: Some spells and powers have either Interrupt casting times or activation times, or are cast and then use an Interrupt to activate a second part of the ability later.
Combat Defaults
There are certain kind of basic combat responses that almost every creature should have access to. These are called combat defaults, and are defined here. These rules are written under the assumption they will be performed unarmed, though some weapons provide bonuses to Combat Defaults performed with them.
Disarm: Melee at HR Agility against Reflex, PR Might against Toughness or Reflex causing the weapon or object to be dropped on the ground if failed. If the attacker spends a Minor Action they can take the weapon or object instead.
Sunder: Melee at HR Might against Reflex, PR Might against Toughness or Armor. This can target either a held object or armor. If targeting a held object the object moves down the [Damage] on a failed Soak for each degree of failure. If targeting armor, the Armor Bonus is reduced by one if the Soak is failed and an additional one for each degree of failure.
Trip: Melee at HR Agility against Reflex or Toughness, PR Might against Reflex or Toughness. On failed Soak target is knocked Prone.
Overrun: A creature can attempt to run over any creature its size or smaller. The Overrunning creature moves through that creatures space and forces a PR Might against Toughness roll. If the Soak fails the defender is knocked prone and the overrunning creature may move through and past them. If the Soak succeeds then the Overrunning creature is stopped adjacent to the defender.
The defender may choose to move out of the way allowing passage, in which case no soak roll occurs. If a creature moves out of the movement range of an Overrunning character this has definitely occurred.
Bullrush: A creature moves up to and into another creature and attempts to move them along the rest of their movement. Melee at HR Agility against Reflex, PR Might against Toughness. The defender is pushed 2yd per degree of failure, but no farther than the Attacker can move.
The Target of the Bull Rush is pushed before any other movement this turn, and then may move afterwords.
The attacker directs this pushing and it uses up movement from the Attacker to follow, and the Target to be pushed, though if the Target runs out of movement they are still pushed, they just can’t move afterword.
Cling: A creature can grab onto an enemy with a Melee at HR Agility against Miss. If it hits they can stay on the enemy, moving with them. If the clinging creature is more than half the size of the creature they cling to then the defender moves down one on the impairment track.
The attacker, for as long as they are holding on in this way, move down to Restrained on the Tied Up Track, with the Rooted Status keeping them attached to the creature they are clinging to. They can however release this at any point.
A creature being clung to can still make attacks against the creature clinging to it and can force a PR Might against Toughness or Reflex to shrug off creatures. Each clinging creature makes a Soak Roll and the creature being clung to can pick one creature with each degree of failure to throw off. So one of all the creatures with one degree of failure one can be tossed, and one of all the creatures with two degrees of failure can be tossed, ect. If a degree of failure has no creatures in it but there are creatures with more degrees of failure, one of them may be chosen.
Grapple: Melee at HR Agility against Miss, PR Might against Toughness or Reflex for the [Tied Up] track. The attacker moves down to Hindered. On subsequent rounds the attacker does not need To Hit with Grapple defaults until the enemy breaks free.
Throw: If a creature has already Grappled an enemy, they can Throw the enemy 2yd per degree of failure on a PR Might against Toughness roll.
Assist an Attack: A creature can make a feint or get in the way in a method that assists another attack. This can only assist a [weapon] attack and only when an enemy is in your threatened space. This provides the attack a +2 bonus to hit and +1 bonus to PR.
What Are Objects and How Do I Break Them?
Many effects, either attacks or otherwise will reference Objects. Sometimes you just want to know what an Object is. Sometimes you want to punch things that are objects. These rules cover that. First off, anything that is a creature is not an object and not part of another object and is not made up of objects. Secondly, everything else is an object.
Objects are any discrete continuous entity of any size. So a boat is an object, every board is an object that is a different object. Objects are often made of objects. Objects are also a non discrete part of a larger object of selectable size. A Mountain is an Object, but so is a 1x1x1yd section of the mountain even if there is no specific thing that makes that part of the mountain obviously separate from the rest.
Once you’ve figured out what Object you want to deal with, Objects that are not creatures are immune to all condition tracks except the [Damage] track. When attacking an object, if you have Line of Sight to the object and it isn’t a creature, then you can just automatically bypass the to hit roll. If you don’t have Line of Sight to it you could attack the area if you think you know where it is, either with an AOE effect or with an attack at a cube.
If an object is on or in the hand of a creature, you have to either use the Disarm/Sunder Combat Defaults, use an ability that specifically targets objects on creatures, or target the creature. If you target the creature you don’t target all their objects, you just target the creature, but when they are Helpless you can target their objects as if they are not being worn, held, or wielded.
After you’ve determined if you hit the object, unless you used a Sunder or Disarm, or your ability says otherwise, the Object rolls a PR that is based on your damage. The Soak Roll for an Object is 1d20+25+Size+Material. In some rare cases attacks may ignore the Material bonus. [Fire] attacks on Wood is the most common version of this, though others may occur.
Size bonus is 2 at 1x1x1yd and +1 for each additional 1x1x1yd cube. For objects smaller than 1x1x1yd the Size bonus is 1 for things about 1.5ft in their largest direction and 0 for everything smaller.
Materials all have their own bonuses, if you have materials not on this list figure out what their bonus should be, but some common materials are:
Cloth: +0
Leather/Hide: +1
Wood: +2
Iron/Silver/Gold: +3
Stone: +4
Steel/Mithril/Ironwood: +6
Adamantium: +8
The Armor Penetration value of a weapon being used in an attack reduces the Material Bonus to the Soak Roll by that amount.
Resolving Damage to Objects
Once an object takes damage, it may physically degrade in appearance, but it does not cease its functions, whatever they may be, until it reaches the Destroyed state. Once it does, it is broken into pieces or rubble and ceases to perform its function.
Fixing Objects
Use the crafting rules, and assume that the broken parts represent most of the raw materials needed unless that makes no sense.
Carrying Things
What creatures can carry generally depends on two factors, the weight of what they are carrying, and whether the object can be safely affixed to the creature or vehicle carrying them. Too much weight can either bring the creature or vehicle into a Hindered state or prevent it from moving. If something cannot properly be affixed, then it will fall off.
Affixing objects is generally best understood intuitively. You can tell when something can be carried in hand, placed in a backpack, tied to your back, whether the weight of an object on a surface will result in it being held down, ect. In some situations methods of affixing objects will create movement down the [Tied Up] track.
For weight limits, vehicles will have their own weight limits, but for creatures the amount that they can carry without being Hindered, the amount they can carry while Hindered, and the amount they can drag behind them are defined by Size and Might. After adding your Size weight allowance and your Might weight allowance you have the weight you can carry without being Hindered. This number is doubled to determine what you can carry while Hindered and multiplied by four to determine how much you can drag. Halve each of these numbers any time a creature is flying.
Might provides a weight allowance of 40lbs per point.
For Size weight Allowance see the following chart. For any creature that is 1yd or larger and is Long, Wide, Cube, or Round move down one on the chart to the next largest size:
| Size | Weight |
| 1.5ft/Any or smaller | 10lb |
| 1yd | 20lbs |
| 2yd | 40lbs |
| 3yd | 60lbs |
| 4yd | 90lbs |
| 5yd | 150lbs |
| 6yd | 200lbs |
| 7yd | 300lbs |
| 8yd | 400lbs |
| 9yd | 500lbs |
| 10yd | 600lbs |
Add 100lbs for each size increase over 10yd.
Adventuring in Extreme Environments
Many aspects of adventuring don’t need to come up very often. Generally PCs are assumed to be able to breathe, find drinkable water, find or bring food, and take actions limited only by opposition. However, some situations change these general rules.
Firstly, any character who doesn’t have Residency must make a survival check to survive obtain food, drinkable water, and shelter for the Fortress Turn. If they are unable to do so they must obtain them in another way, possibly by acquiring a Fortress Residency at the end of the Fortress Turn. These rules are covered in more detail in the Ronin section of the Fortress Turn and Planning Week rules.
Breathing: PC races and most creatures need to breathe to survive. They are capable of holding their breath for a number of Combat Turns equal to their Toughness Defense. After that point they are subject to a Soak Roll PR 25 against Toughness causing [Tired] each turn until they breath. The PR of this test increases by one each time it is attempted. A character rendered Helpless can no longer hold their breath.
If a character is in a situation in which they do not have breathable air (or breathable water) they make similar Soak Rolls. However, since being unconscious does not necessarily create breathable air, if you continue to lack air while Unconscious future rolls cause [Damage].
Holding your breath like this is extremely strenuous and if while it can be pushed in a time of need, regular repeated usage should result in progression along the tired track from adventuring at an accelerated rate. A single usage of this event or two should not be accounted separately, but in general 10 minutes of holding your breath is the equivalent of 1 hour of strenuous activity.
Lack of Drinkable Water: A PC race class usually requires about a gallon of water a day, but PCs usually have access to environmental water and supplies. In circumstances without drinkable water like Deserts or In the Sea PCs can spend 4 hours searching and make a DC 20 Survival check to find or make a source of water that is sufficient to sustain a few individuals for a couple days. This water can usually fill containers as well. In some extremely rare circumstances there will be no water for even this to find (like on the elemental plane of fire).
For each day PCs go without water they must roll a PR 25 Soak Roll against Toughness that causes [Sickness]. After they have reached Infirmity this causes [Damage]. The PC cannot move up one of these tracks after moving down it from dehydration until they obtain water.
Precipitation: A light snow or rain shower is not appreciably bothersome but heavy Rain Storms or Blizzards obstruct visibility, halving Line of Sight ranges, put out unprotected flames, and provide a -2 to hit penalty to all attacks farther out than Close Range.
Wind: In addition to precipitation Wind effects can add further effects in Storm conditions.
Moderate Wind: Moderate Wind imposes no significant penalty on PC or creature actions aside from its effects on the Scent Sense.
Severe Wind: In Severe Wind all attacks outside Close Range suffer a -4 penalty. All unprotected flames are snuffed out. Any creature 4yd or smaller moves down the [Impaired] track to Hindered while in the Wind effects. All [Gas] effects move in the direction of the wind at 5yd per round.
Typhoon: All Attacks past Close Range are impossible to make, Line of Sight is halved (stacks with Precipitation). Protected Flames are also extinguished. Any creature smaller than 7yd is moved down to Hindered, in addition any creature smaller than 4yd must make a PR 25 against Toughness or Reflex causing [Impaired] and blowing the creature 3yd per degree of failure in the direction of the wind. All [Gas] effects are dispersed.
Tornado: All Attacks past Close Range are impossible to make, all attacks within Close Range, including Melee suffer a -4 Penalty. Line of Sight is halved (stacks with Precipitation). Flames are extinguished. Any creature smaller than 10yd is moved down to Hindered, in addition any creature smaller than 7yd must make a PR 30 against Toughness or Reflex causing [Impaired] and blowing the creature 4yd per degree of failure in the direction of the wind. All [Gas] effects are dispersed.
Underwater: Underwater adventuring poses many problems for your standard adventurer. Firstly most PC creatures are incapable of breathing water and must therefore either hold their breath or make accommodations. Secondly, in persistent water or sea water food and water become difficult to bring with you and consume. Thirdly, any creature without a swim speed is going to be Hindered at least by having to use an alternative movement speed and would be unable to take standard actions. Creatures may instead be able walk along a surface while underwater, in which case they are merely Slowed but continue to interact with all the rest of the Underwater rules despite walking on a surface.
Another significant consideration is that you just can’t see very well under water. If you are looking for something under water, whatever it is, you can’t see more than 30yd even if you meet all other requirements. This is only minimally compensated for by the fact that you can hear much farther. Sounds traveling through water can travel 4 times as far as through air so normal ear based hearing can detect most sounds out to 120yd. You are still limited in your knowledge of its location, so finding something by ear is a bit of guess and check. Louder sounds can be heard even farther, usually 240yd.
Finally, in addition to difficulty moving through water, water interferes with a variety of abilities and attack types. Any attack that targets a specific creature at range take a -2 penalty to Hit Rating. Further, any attack that sends a [Projectile] over the intervening distance takes a -1 penalty to Power Rating for every 3yd it travels. This can quickly negate the potency of projectile attacks.
Additionally, Certain tags have other effects when their attacks are used under or into water. Only apply these tags if the attacker or target is entirely underwater where the attack occurs.
[Gas]: Gas attacks don’t function underwater.
[Slash, Bash]: -2 to Power Rating.
[Fire]: -4 to Power Rating.
[Electricity]: -2 to Hit Rating and +2 to Power Rating.
[Acid]: -2 to Power Rating.
[Sonic]: AoE Sonic attacks have twice the area.
Falling: Falling can happen for lots of reasons, like because you were flying and aren't now, but it often happens because of the environment, like because you walked off the edge of a cliff.
When a creature is falling some of them can try to fly or take no damage because of cool abilities, but not everything. If a Creature falls they might bounce their way down a cliff hitting things briefly, they might free fall, they might attempt to create a makeshift parachute to limit their free fall, and they might fall a long distance and hit something, bounce off, and then keep falling. The goal of negotiating a fall is to rolls the smallest reasonable number of Toughness Soak Rolls to account for damage. The PR of each Soak Roll is determined by the distance a creature fell and capped by Terminal Velocity. The inverse square law exists in reality, but magical creatures are magical, so it's hard to justify the added complexity and work of trying to account size of creatures into this accounting when you mostly care about the damage to apply to 3-6yd creatures and very magical big creatures.
When a creature is falling they usually fall about 33yd the first Combat Turn and 66yd the second and each thereafter. When a creature lands if they weren't able to take flight or create a parachute or cushion they must make a Soak Roll against [Bash] that causes [Damage]. The PR of this Soak Roll is equal to the Yards fallen divided by 3, but with Terminal Damage capping the PR of the Soak Roll at 35 under all circumstances.
If a creature has a small number of distinct bounces they can treat these as separate falls or as a single fall whichever is better for them.
If a creature is bouncing down a very steep but not sheer cliff, creates and improvised parachute, falls into water, or improvises a cushion, divide the distance fallen by 6 to create the PR of the fall and the Terminal Velocity caps the Soak Roll at 30.
Turning your fall into flight, a well designed parachute made from a large amount of high quality materials or any number of fall reduction abilities that specify they negate falling damage can negate all fall damage or all fall damage for falls that are short enough (or long enough if you need a lot of distance to turn a Stall into flight).
Character Creation
Characters, all characters, player or opposition, have a Character Level. That level is between 1 and 18, and additionally PC and many NPC characters will have a level between 1 and 4 in their current Tier. You can start the game at any level the players agree on, but fundamentally, the lowest level that is appropriate for a player character is level 3. This level is the first level of the Survival Tier, and represents an Apprentice Mage, a recently trained Private in an army, a low level Bandit Thug, or similar characters just starting on the road to competence. These rules describe how to create such a character. Making higher level characters is as easy (or as hard) as telling the story of how your character got to their current level, and following the level up rules accordingly.
Choose Your Class and Race:
Class is the most important decision you will make for your character. While the possible classes and races that can be written for Fiends and Fortresses is infinite, for this starting document, the classes presented are Wizard, Sorcerer, Necromancer, Contemplative, Spirit Shaman, Elementalist, Ninja, Monk, Warrior, Corrupted Spawn, and Half Dragon.
Staring races are Human, Elf, Dwarf, Orc, Goblin, Tenngu, and Kobold.
Record your Class and Racial Features.
Determine Attribute Scores:
Determine each of your four Attributes: Might, Agility, Will, and Intelligence (MAWI) by assigning them from the default PC Array. Alternatively use a Variant Rule such as Point Buy or by rolling dice.
Choose a Background:
Pick a Background for your character.
Select Skills and Knowledges:
Choose two Trained Skills in addition to your Race Skill and Class Skill. If your Race Skill and Class Skill are the same, choose three skills.
Choose four Knowledges in addition to your class Knowledges.
Select three Specializations:
Choose three Specializations that you qualify for from the list of Specializations.
Select Your Starting Equipment:
Based on your Background, make your Starting Equipment selections, and spend any currency.
Figure Out Your Fortress Stage:
Decide whether you are Ronin or already Employed in a Fortress. Leadership is generally not appropriate for starting characters except if you are in a Size 1 Fortress.
Fill Out the Rest of Your Character Sheet:
Compute your defenses, consider what abilities you might have prepared if that is a thing your class does.
Attribute Scores
Just about every die roll you make is going to be modified based on your character’s Attributes. A strong character hits harder with an axe and has a better chance of surviving a wyvern’s poison sting. An agile character moves more quickly and dodges attacks better. An intelligent character can better apply knowledge to current plans and is more likely to notice bugbears sneaking up from behind. A willful character can more easily convince others, or resist magical fear. Your Attribute scores will be part of your modifiers for rolls such as these.
Your character has four Attributes: Might (abbreviated M), Agility (A), Will (W), and Intelligence (I), all together (MAWI). Each of your Attributes applies a bonus to rolls. When creating your character, by default you choose from the values in your array and, assign each score to the abilities as you like.
Arrays
The standard array for starting PCs is 5, 4, 3, 1. This is also the basic array that should be used for fast creation of Leader NPCs and Monstrous Leaders. Common NPCs and Grunts use the array of 3, 2, 1, 0. Each value is assigned to a different Attribute at player or OM’s choice, as appropriate for who will be controlling the character.
Variant: Point Buy
In Point buy, all your Attributes start with a 0 and you have 13 points to distribute across your four Attributes at a one-to-one ratio. However, no stat can go above 5 at character creation.
Variant: Rolling
Starting attributes should produce numbers between 1 and 5. You could roll some number of d6s, keep 3, and then use the conversion rules for other gaming material chapter. You could just roll d4s if you wanted. If you are rolling for stats, you are already on the second variant rule, so you probably know what you want better than I do.
The Attributes
Might
Might represents your physical power and toughness. This Attribute is especially important to Contemplatives, Warriors, Corrupted Spawn, and Half Dragons. Your Might score applies to:
How much you can lift and carry.
Power Rating on melee attacks, thrown weapons, and bows.
Toughness Defense.
Survival skill.
Agility
Agility represents hand eye coordination, dexterity, reflexes, and the speed at which your body responds to commands. Agility is important to Ninjas, Elementalists, Monks, Warriors, Wizards, and Sorcerers. Your Agility modifier applies to:
Hit Rating on most attack rolls including melee weapons, thrown weapons, bows, crossbows, and spells.
Armor and Miss Defense.
Speed is increased by high Agility. For each point of Agility you have over 2 increase all the speeds you have except Teleportation by 1yd.
Hide and Ride skills.
Will
Will represents your ability to influence other creatures and your surroundings and gird yourself against the influence of others. Will is important to Sorcerers, Necromancers, Spirit Shamans, Elementalists, Monks, and Corrupted Spawn. Your Will modifier applies to:
Mind Defense.
Spellcasting for Sorcerers, Corrupted Spawn, and Elementalists.
Concentrated power for Necromancers, and Spirit Shamans.
Influence, Haggle, and Make skills.
Intelligence
Intelligence represents your ability to analyze and apply information, as well as how in touch you are with your surroundings. Intelligence is important to Wizards, Necromancers, Contemplatives, Spirit Shamans, Ninjas, and Half Dragons. Your Intelligence modifier applies to:
Perception Defense.
Spellcasting for Wizards and Contemplatives.
Breadth of power for Necromancers and Spirit Shamans.
Medic, Spellcraft, and Trapping skills.
Attribute Caps
Once you have assigned attributes, no matter what abilities you gain that increase attributes your attributes cannot be enhanced above 1.5 times your base attributes rounded up.
Races
All mortal races have representatives of all base classes. While some races may have more or less of each class, and a Dwarven Elementalist may focus more on Earth than Air (because of personal preference) compared to an Elven one, the PCs are individuals, and therefore nothing stops them from being a member of any race and class combination and playing that class how they like.
Races and Languages
All base PCs races speak common and at least one other language by default. For the most part, all humanoid races are capable of speaking with each other, even if they don’t want to, but many Monsters don’t speak common, so if you want to talk to them, you might consider learning additional languages.
Humans
Humans are in between a lot of races, shorter than Orcs and Elves, taller than Gnomes, Dwarves, Goblins, and Kobolds. More numerous than Elves, Kobolds, and Dwarves, less so than Goblins, Orcs, and Gnomes. More concentrated than Elves, Orcs, and Tenngu, less than Kobolds, Dwarves, and Goblins. Human don’t have anything that they are as a race, better than anyone at, instead individual humans are all different.
Humans lean toward Feudal societies.
Humans train any skill, gain an extra language, and gain an extra specialization. Humans must qualify for their choice, but otherwise may choose any skill, language, and specialization.
Humans speak Common and Giant as racial languages.
2yd Tall/175lbs
10yd Land
Elves
Elves are nocturnal tree dwellers, or at least were such in the past. While they occasionally build different communities, and live in many human settlements, this past is reflected in their biology by their thin frames and Low Light Vision. Elves are usually about 6 feet tall, but thin with sharp angular features. They live on fruits and grains, though they occasionally hunt for fresh meat.
Elf societies are most commonly Authoritative. Elves tend to have a single hereditary monarch family, though it usually doesn’t matter since entire communities sometimes get wiped out before the founding monarch even dies or alternatively a power struggle results in one of potentially hundreds of heirs seizing power in a coup. Everyone else acts on the direction of the monarch, though politics tends to happen behind the monarchs back, usually not targeting the monarch.
Elves gain Low Light Vision, they can see in half as much light, this means that the bright and dim light radiuses of any light source are doubled. Additionally, at night outside, they can see as if in dim light out to any distance, with no light source, from just the faint light of the stars.
Elves have a Climb Speed on rough surfaces equal to half their speed.
Elves speak Common and Sylvan.
Skill: Spellcraft
2yd Tall/150lbs
10yd Land, 5yd [Rough] Climb
Dwarves
Dwarves live inside literal mountains and caves. They aren’t big on surface life, and they show it. Dwarves are scruffy gruff jerks who put a lot of stock in traditions, live under mountains, are short, and squat, with long beards and round features. In general this means they are extremely skeptical of people they haven’t known for a few decades and most people find it very difficult to know a dwarf for decades.
Dwarves live on fungi primarily, some types they ferment for easier consumption. This doesn’t actually get them drunk, despite it being a potent intoxicant for other races. It is merely the most efficient way to consume some nutrients.
Dwarf societies are commonly Consensus based. Dwarves believe strongly in proxies, and any dwarf can pass proxy rights to almost anything to another dwarf for any length of time. This is used to account for votes in meetings while some are out doing work limiting meeting sizes, and the process eventually developed into many people giving proxy control rights to individual figures of a certain type. The Dwarf King is usually just a person everyone agrees is worth proxying and could theoretically be dethroned at any time.
Dwarves gain Darkvision 10yd. They can see without any light out to that range. This adds to any magically provided dark vision range.
Dwarves have instinctive knowledge of stone, and as such, can climb any stone or metal surface at their speed.
Dwarves speak Common and Terran.
Skill: Make (Any)
1yd Round/175lbs
8yd Land, 8yd [Stone] Climb
Orc
Orcs are nomadic migratory dwellers. Orcs are most commonly known for living in large inhospitable regions and migrating from location to location within the larger area to make the best use of resources. Orcs are usually slightly shorter than the average human with thicker muscle structures. Orcs are most commonly green.
Orc societies are commonly Consensus based. Orcs, because of the harsh environments of their locations usually rely on total consensus. All decisions are made after significant deliberation when everyone agrees on a path forward. This is necessary because any amount of acting at cross purposes could result in great devastation to the community. These traditions have carried through even to more prosperous orc fortresses resulting in communities that act in concert.
Orcs have extremely sensitive noses and can detect and locate creatures by smell very well. Orcs have Scent 10yd.
Orcs speak Common and Ignan.
Skill: Survival
2yd Tall/180lbs
14yd Land
Goblin
Goblins live in almost any kind of location and adapt to almost any environment. Goblins live together in chaotic tightly knit groups where everyone is always doing something, sometimes at cross purposes to others are doing, but it always works out. Goblins take on the color of their homes and become Forest Goblins or Mountain Goblins or Under Goblins or Desert Goblins ect. in as little as a couple years from when they move in. Goblins are much smaller than humans and generally have long thin limps that they naturally keep bent at all times. A tall standing goblin would actually be about 7ft tall but this would be uncomfortable and interfere with movement.
Goblin societies are commonly Consensus based. Goblin society is not like traditional consensus society, though in effect it is modeled that way. Goblins all do whatever they want at any given time and the consensus is just whatever results. Rarely do goblins end up working at cross purposes, but there is a lot of tangential progress in different directions. All the same, their industriousness and motivation shines through. Goblin leaders are usually either inspiring charismatic goblins who everyone wants to be like or manipulators who trick others into coincidentally working in their interests.
Goblins have an instinctive sense for each other and all other lifeforms. In their communities this allows them to act without ever running into each other no matter what they are doing or paying attention to. As adventurers or defenders this means they have Blindsense 5yd.
Goblins speak Common and Aquan.
Skill: Medic
2yd Tall/100lbs
10yd Land
Goblins ignore difficult terrain.
Tenngu
Tenngu are bird people. Sure they have sizes and stuff, but let’s be honest, they are giant bird people and that is all anyone notices about them. Tenngu have feathers, beaks, and wings in addition to common humanoid features like arms, legs, and eyes. Tenngu have sharp beaks, their wings stick out of their back, though they can be folded up relatively close to their bodies. Tenngu live up in mountains or on top of trees, generally anywhere they can take advantage of their flight.
Tenngu societies are commonly Authoritative. Tenngu elect a Chief who rules for life. Chiefs can be challenged but must be killed to be replaced. Chiefs therefore rarely show mercy to challengers. Chiefs rule absolutely, but there is room for important advisors to aid in decision making.
Tenngu have Long Range Vision.
Tenngu speak Common and Auran.
Skill: Hide
3yd Tall/70lbs
10yd Land
10yd/10yd flight.
Kobold
Kobolds are tiny reptile people that vaguely resemble dragons in the face structure. Kobolds live almost exclusively in Warrens underground. They are master trapsmiths and seem to produce and endless supply of glowing rocks. Kobold Warren tunnels are generally so small that larger creatures either never bother them or can only root around the main thoroughfares and commercial areas.
Kobold societies are commonly Feudal. While a traditional human feudal fortress might have a single king, a few barons, and some lesser lords under them, in Kobold Societies the entire society is a tree of feudal obligations all the way down. Each Kobold is owed the allegiance of only one to ten other Kobolds, but each Kobold has more under it going down through low level craftsmen who owe allegiance to supervisors or merchants and have journeymen who owe allegiance to them.
Kobolds have Tremorsense 10yd.
Kobolds because of their size and shape are capable of moving through spaces would squeeze another creature with similar listed dimensions without squeezing. This allows them unparalleled movement through the tiny tunnels that make up their home. Kobolds do not suffer the Hindered condition on the [Impaired] Track for fitting into a smaller space. They are still limited to fitting into a space that is at least half their size.
Kobold speak Common and Draconic.
Skill: Trapping
1yd/Tall/50lbs
7yd Land
Classes
Classes are outlined in Friends and Fortes another document. But here is a brief Summary of how each class functions to give you an idea what to look for.
Contemplatives: Contemplatives spend their time in contemplation of the world, their inner spirit, and life. This process grants them a deep understanding of the attributes of the world or themselves. Luckily, the world changes to accommodate any mistakes they make. Contemplatives’ primary attributes are Might and Intelligence. Contemplatives prepare and cast spells which create 24 hour buffs on themselves or their party. These buffs can later be activated for powerful short term effects. Once activated, the long term buffs are used up and no longer function.
Corrupted Spawn: Corrupted Spawn are the products of Fiendish activities that create humans tainted by Fiendish nature. Many Corrupted Spawn serve their fiendish creators, resulting in a certain amount of concern by others. Since Fiends are immortal the threat of the return of a Fiendish creator looms over the head of even those Corrupted Spawn temporarily freed. Corrupted Spawns’ primary attributes are Might and Will. Corrupted Spawn usually have a very small number of powerful encounter attacks, and some weaker at will attacks to fall back on, however Corrupted Spawn have a lot of variation based on their Fiendish creators.
Elementalists: Elementalists are those who bend the power of the four primary elements, Earth, Air, Water, and Fire. Elementalists’ primary attributes are Agility and Will. Elementalists have attacks and defenses tied to each of these four elements, but at any given moment they are charged with two of the four elements one of Fire and Water and one of Earth and Air. An Elementalist can only use attacks and benefit from buffs for the elements they are currently charged with. Using an attack from a charged element switches the charge of the Elementalist to its opposite.
Half Dragons: Half Dragons are those descended from Dragon stock that focus on tapping the power of their Dragon blood. Half Dragons’ primary attributes are Might and Intelligence. Half Dragons use powerful breath weapons that recharge after use. They also have natural weapons and abilities to aid them when their breaths are unavailable.
Monks: Monks are those who master their body and perfect it through rigorous training and meditation. Monks’ primary attributes are Agility and Will. Monks learn new perfections as they level up and in any given turn of combat monks can choose to apply a few of their known perfections to themselves.
Necromancers: Necromancers are those who learn to control the energies of the undeath. While many are undead themselves, living creatures are also perfectly capable of becoming Necromancers. Necromancers’ primary attributes are Will and Intelligence. Necromancers understanding of undead grants them a number of points of Undeath which they can, by performing rituals at sunset each night, distribute to animate corpses, control undead, or charge necromantic attacks or defenses. Most necromantic attacks not based on using undead minions use the Recharge schedule.
Ninjas: Ninjas train in the arts of stealth and opportunity, learning to take advantage of opponents weaknesses. Ninjas’ primary attributes are Agility and Intelligence. As Ninjas level up they gain access to new techniques they have learned. A Ninja does not have any internal limit on their ability to use techniques, but each technique is only functional against enemies who are already rendered vulnerable in some way, so Ninjas must first find a way to get targets to meet the qualifications for using a technique.
Sorcerers: Sorcerers are those who become in touch with their own inner magic and learn to channel it in spells. Sorcerers’ primary attributes are Agility and Will. Sorcerer’s have many powerful daily spell slots and spells they know that they can cast spontaneously from those slots. Additionally, they have Reserve abilities that they can use as long as they have not used up all their daily spell slots.
Spirit Shaman: Spirit Shamans are those who learn to control and manipulate nature, plants and animals. Spirit Shamans’ primary attributes are Will and Intelligence. Spirit Shamans have a number of Essence points which they can use to bond with animals and plants, buff their pets, or charge nature based attacks. Essence can be redistributed as a standard action at any time.
Warriors: Warriors are those who master the art of combat with weapons. Warriors’ primary attributes are Might and Agility. A Warrior gains access to a number of Maneuvers which they can use at will, though some maneuvers require specific weapons. When a Warrior enters a subclass, all their Maneuvers are modified and powered up by the nature of their subclass.
Wizards: Wizards are those who apply their supreme intellect to learning how to manipulate raw magic. This allows them to cast a wide variety of spells. Wizards’ primary attributes are Agility and Intelligence. Wizards maintain a number of persistent spells on themselves at all times and cast a set of pre picked spells each encounter from those they prepared. Wizards can change their buffs and prepared spells between encounters.
Backgrounds
Characters start by deciding a little about what they have done to end up where they are. These backgrounds are very general to be adapted to multiple characters and OMs and players should feel free to come up with their own. As a general rule you can also be young and have your background be what your parents did and get the same benefit.
Wildling: By being raised by wolves or living in cave you are more resistant than your peers, you get a +1 bonus to all Soak Rolls for the [Damage] track.
Ronin: As a traveling Ronin you are built to last. You can a +2 bonus to Soak Rolls for the [Impaired] track and against attacks with the [Slash] tag. You start with a weapon and armor over the starting gp.
Faction Insider:Your history in faction politics provides you with a +2 bonus to Soak Rolls for the [Delusion] and [Poison] tracks. You start with 500gp extra or the equivalent in goods you wish to purchase over starting gp.
Filthy Peasent: Your hard labor and poor upbringing has provided you a +2 bonus to Soak Rolls for the [Tired] track and against attacks with the [Cold] tag.
Refugee: Because your home was burned down around you and you survived to live another day, you have a +2 Bonus to Soak Rolls for the [Fear] track and attacks with the [Fire] tag.
Victim of Testing: You were an experiment for a crazy wizard or something. The changes provide you with a +2 bonus to Soak Rolls against the [Disorientation] track and against attacks with the [Bash] tag.
Artisan: By practicing a skilled trade you have learned to pay attention to detail and have grown resistant to the tools of your trade, you get a +2 bonus to Soak Rolls for the [Sense Attacks] track and against attacks with the [Acid] or [Electricity] tags.
Below the Law: Your constant brushes with the law and the lawless respectively grant you a +2 bonus to Soak Rolls for the [Tied Up] track and against attacks with the [Stab] tag.
Trained Every Day: Because of your peak physical condition you gain a +2 bonus to Soak Rolls for the [Sickeness] track and against attacks with the [Slow] tag.
Skills
Skills are the various things that any creature can generally attempt to do which you mostly get better at by just adventuring or living your life. As a general rule most skills either have a DC you are trying to hit or you are creating a DC by rolling your skill. In either case, the basic skill roll is 1d20+Modifying Ability Score+Level+Trained Bonus. The Trained Bonus is a +5 applied if you are Trained in the skill and +0 if you aren’t.
Skills often have degrees of failure or success, like with Soak Rolls, any roll below the DC is one degree of failure and each additional -5 by which the DC is failed is another degree of failure. Conversely, a degree of success is meeting or exceeding the DC, and each +5 by which you exceed the DC is another degree of success.
Any condition that applies a penalty to Attacks will apply that penalty to any skill rolls as well.
Haggle (Will): This skill measures how well you know the value of goods and how proficient you are with turning that knowledge into proper trades. Haggling can be used in many circumstances but the primary uses are negotiating payment for services, buying equipment, selling loot, negotiating trade deals with other Fortresses and trading votes in Council.
When attempting to evaluate and sell or buy goods or receive payment for services, roll a Haggle check against DC 20, if you fail, increase or decrease the price of the trade by 5% per degree of failure in the direction that is bad for you. For each degree of success, increase or decrease the price by 5% in your favor.
When attempting to work out a trade deal with another Fortress, sometimes the Fortress is eager for trade, sometimes they just don’t have the resources, or won’t trade them because they need them. But if they have the resources and are trading them with someone else or are otherwise reluctant, a DC 30 Haggle attempt can usually convince them to trade. Any specific Trade offer can only be offered once a Fortress Turn and you have to actually be able to communicate “in person” for a long period to negotiate each trade.
During a Council Vote you can usually attempt to convince someone to vote in your favor. As a general rule, before the vote you can make the request, and while anyone can agree of their own decision making, and sometimes people will be completely unwilling, if someone is open to persuasion you can attempt to convince a vote in which they vote in your favor here, and you owe them (Your Faction gives their Faction 1 Political Power). This is done with a DC 25 Haggle roll, except that you must obtain an additional degree of success to make the trade for every 2 Political Power they have more than you. You can pay off favors by voting in their favor when they request it (Gaining one Political Power from their Faction). Players probably shouldn’t be rolling Haggle to convince each other, that is better addressed with at the table discussion even if they are in different Factions.
Hide (Agility): The Hide skill is used to generate a Stealth Hit Rating. Generally a character can “Being Stealth” at any time and accept the limitations of acting under steath. The OM should then roll a secret Stealth Hit Rating for them which determines how hard it is for other creatures to notice them.
Influence (Will): Influence is rolled any time you need to roll to talk to people outside of trades. This can be used to obtain information, make friends, coerce enemies, or convince bystanders.
Make (Will): The Make skill represents your training in helping to build items or design structures. A creature Trained in Make gets the +5 to all Make rolls but chooses a specialty they get +10 to, something like Weaponsmithing, Armorsmithing, Wands, or Rings. In addition to making impromptu fortifications or building a house, the Make skill is also used to make equipment and magic items.
To make equipment or a magic items you must spend half the base price of the item on materials, have an appropriate location and tools. Once you begin work, for each 4 hours of uninterrupted work you put into a piece of equipment or for each 4 days of uninterrupted work you put into a magic item you may roll Make against items DC to accumulate degrees of success. Each roll made adds to a total number of degrees until you finish crafting the item, which occurs when you have accumulated the number of degrees of success required to craft the item.
Degrees of Failure on a roll subtract from existing degrees of success, but do not go negative.
Medic (Intelligence): Medic covers all sorts of first aid and medical care. Anyone can make a DC 10 Medic check as a Standard action to prevent an Incapacitated character from “Healing” a process that often kills them. Only a character trained in Medic can use the skill in long term care to halve the amount of time it takes to Heal. They must spend the entire time performing this long term care, but they can do so for up to 8 creatures including themselves.
You can also spend 4 rounds tending a poisoned character this uses up 1 standard action every two rounds but can be incorporated into Long Term Care. So long as you keep tending them and have tended them for at least 4 rounds, you roll your Medic at the same time they roll a Soak Roll, and to determine the poison’s effect use the higher of these two rolls as the Soak Roll.
Finally, you can attempt to Cure a Disease. To do this you tend a suffering creature with either LTC or as if tending a Poisoned Character and if on two consecutive Soak Rolls your Medic exceeds the Disease PR then the Disease is Cured.
Ride (Agility): Most creatures can ride other creatures well suited for it without it being an issue, but only creatures Trained in Ride can perform at peak capacity during combat. While riding another creature you are moved down to at least Tangled on the Tied Up track unless you are Trained in this skill. Any character can roll a DC 10 Ride check to attempt to dismount in combat as a Minor Action.
Spellcraft (Intelligence): This skill is used to generally figure out what new kind of magic is going on in the world or identify some magic as something you know about. If a non weapon Attack or Spell or Power or other ability is being performed in front of you that is not [Covert], or you are observing the direct effects of a [Spell] that isn't a [Glamour], you can roll a Spellcraft roll against the Power Rating of the Attack or 15+the lowest level of a monster or character that can produce that effect if it is not an Attack. If you succeed you figure out generally what kind of thing the Attack or Effect is.
For Attacks that is usually any Tags, which Track(s) might be caused, and what defenses are used. For other effects, generally a brief description of the effect is appropriate, “An Armor Bonus” “Creates a Wall of Stone” or something to that effect.
Survival (Might): This skill represents your general ability to survive and navigate the wilds. Survival is rolled to determine direction, know about general terrain, make your way where you want to go, and to provide for yourself or someone else as a Ronin. This includes things like not falling off a cliff you didn’t see, finding where you want to go, finding drinkable water, scavenging food, and finding a nice play to camp that doesn’t involve getting murdered in your sleep, ect.
Trapping (Intelligence): Trapping covers building traps, noticing other traps, and sometimes dodging them. Use the rules in Make, but use Trapping instead for the roll to build traps. A creature can spend a standard action rolling Trapping to detect any traps within their line of sight. The result of the roll is compared to the Power Rating of the Trap. A character who is Trained in Trapping gets a passive roll to detect Traps without having to actively search for them.
Knowledges
Knowledges determine what your characters know. Generally, Knowledge rules help tell you what PCs know, but NPCs, even leaders and monster leaders, probably aren’t worth the specificity of tracking. Instead just ad hoc what they know.
PCs at character creation begin with any 4 Knowledges of their choice. PCs can gain new knowledges from their interactions with entities, but if they don’t gain knowledges based on the events of the campaign consider allowing them to do some research to average out to at least 1 per 2 sessions.
Generally the amount of information and the specialization is so great that PCs cannot just convey the Knowledge itself, only the relevant information at the time.
There are eight different kinds of Knowledges PCs can get: Fortress, Faction, Monster Type, Class, Specific Monster, Specific Individual, Weapon, and Language. Each one provides a different kind of information about its subject.
Fortress: Know the Size, Resources, the Current Leaders, Factions, and a general accounting of the Manpower allocation.
Faction: You know the inner workings of a Faction, your ability to know who to reach out to for contacts gives you constantly updating information about the Faction leader or leaders, Shadow Cabinet if present, Political Power, and current general goals.
Monster Type: You know the general features that all or almost all monsters of that Type have. When you encounter a member of that Monster Type your ability to compare them to the general type allows you to figure out some of their most distinctive features, the OM should tell you in general terms the a couple of the most significant abilities or attacks of the monster and a Level number that is within 2 of their actual level.
Class: You generally know the resources schedule of the class and the kinds of abilities they usually have. You also know pretty much all the things they do that are lower level than you. If there is a question about higher level abilities, the OM should give a general idea based on your knowledge. Every character automatically gains knowledge of their own class when they pick a class.
Specific Monster: If you know about a specific Monster you just know everything in the Monster entry of that general type of Monster, and can just look at the Fiends and Foes book.
Specific Individual: If you know about a specific individual, usually a relevant NPC or Monster Leader, but possibly any specific Monster or Grunt, you know where they generally live, what their current goals seem to be, their general monster entry if they have one, any classes or sub-classes they have, and what their current Specializations are. You keep up on this information and check back every now and then, you can be surprised sometimes but you won’t normally be unless they take specific measures.
Weapon: Weapon Knowledge gives you proficiency in a Weapon type you were not proficient with based on Class.
Language: Basic proficiency in a language you don’t get from your race is one Knowledge. Two have to be spent for complete fluency.
Specializations
For Specializations please look at the upcoming Friends and Fortes book out in probably 2020.
Equipment
A starting level 3 character begins play with 3,700gp. This sounds like a lot of money, and in a way, it is, but keep in mind that this amount needs to buy not just equipment from this chapter, but also admission into a Fortress if the players want to do that. Players are of course perfectly permitted to not join a Fortress with this money and adventure as Ronin forever, or until they find a Fortress they want to join, or until they get enough money to buy admission to a larger Fortress.
Use the prices in the d20srd for Armor, Weapons, Adventuring Gear, Tools, Animals, and Transports.
Armor
Each Armor option provides a bonus to the Armor Defense (or a penalty). Some apply penalties to Miss Defense. All provide at least some other effect, a bonus against a type of damage or to attacks against a condition track. Some armors reduce your movement speed by the listed amount.
Size Changing Armor: Special armor can be build for creatures that commonly change size. Armor built in that way costs more, first add 150gp to the cost and then double the price. These armors have built in abilities to grow with a character by some means like straps and plates or breakaway sections. When a creature doubles in size while wearing this armor the armor expands covering less area but still the most vital organs. The armor remains the same type but its armor bonus decreases by one.
Creatures that get smaller often are advised to buy the growing versions of armor for a creature half their normal size.
| Type of Armor | Armor Modifier | Miss Modifier | Movement Reduction | Other Defense Bonus |
| Unarmored | -2 | - | - | +2 Against [Tired] track |
| Padded | -1 | - | - | +2 Against [Bash] attacks |
| Leather | +0 | - | - | +2 Against [Poison] track |
| Studded Leather | +1 | - | - | +2 Against [Slash] attacks |
| Hide | +1 | - | - | +2 Against [Sickness] track |
| Chain Shirt | +2 | - | - | +2 Against [Slash] attacks |
| Chain mail | +3 | - | 1yd | +2 Against [Slash] attacks |
| Scale mail | +4 | -1 | 1yd | +2 Against [Stab] attacks |
| Breastplate | +5 | -2 | 1yd | +2 Against [Slash] attacks |
| Splint Mail | +6 | -2 | 2yd | +2 Against [Stab] attacks |
| Banded Mail | +7 | -3 | 2yd | +2 Against [Bash] attacks |
| Half Plate: | +8 | -4 | 2yd | +2 Against [Slash] attacks |
| Full Plate: | +10 | -4 | 3yd | +2 Against [Electricity] Attacks |
Shields
Shields provide either a +1 or +2 bonus to Armor defense depending on their size. Tower Shields, in addition to providing a +2 to Armor allow the Use Tower Shield For Cover standard action. Shield have to be wielded in at least one hand to provide this bonus which can interfere with a character’s ability to do other things.
Size and Shields: A shield for a 2yd tall creature operates as a shield bigger or smaller when wielded by a 1yd size creature or a 4yd size creature. The same goes for other doublings. So 2yd +1 Shield doesn’t function for 4yd creature and is a +2 Shield for a 1yd creature. A +2 Shield for a 4yd creature would be a Tower Shield for a 2yd creature, ect.
Weapons
Weapons provide several modifiers to your attacks and sometimes provide other effects like Reach or allowing them to be used for certain Combat Defaults. The main modifiers that every weapon has are a bonus or penalty to Hit Rating, a bonus or penalty to Power Rating, and an Armor Penetration value which negates some of the Armor bonus of an enemy when they use Armor rather than Miss. Almost all weapons also have at least one [Tag] indicating the type of damage they do. If a weapon deals damage of multiple types then defense bonuses against any of the types apply to the Soak Roll.
Dual Wielding: If you are Dual Wielding two weapons, neither one a shield or Spikes of any kind, then you can make an attack with either weapon and the other weapon provides a +1 Bonus to the Power Rating of the attack that stacks with any modifier from the Weapon you are attacking with.
One Handed: One Handed weapons leave a hand free on most characters and can be used with shields or dual wielded.
Unarmed: Unarmed attacks are made with at least one arm free and can be made by any creature as a Weapon Attack.
Armor Spikes: Armored Spikes can be used with no hands free.
Two Handed Weapons: Require both hands are not generally usable with shields or dual wielded.
Longspear: Longspears are Reach weapons.
Glaive: Glaives are Reach weapons.
Guisarme: Guisarmes are Reach weapons. They can be used to do the Trip Combat Default.
Halbred: Halbreds can Interrupt Attack anyone who moves into a threatened square, not just out of one. If you do make such and Interrupt Attack it gets a +4 bonus to Power Rating.
Ranseur: Ranseurs are Reach weapons. They can be used to do the Disarm Combat Default.
Lance: Lances are Reach weapons. Lances get a +2 Bonus to Power Rating while Mounted and having your mount move their full speed.
Ranged: Using a ranged weapon almost always requires your full body, if you have a shield on your second arm, you can’t benefit from it on any turn you use a ranged weapon. Most weapons also require two hands. Light Crossbows are the only exception, needing two hands to load, but being fired without any body movement that interferes with shield usage or dual wielding.
Ranged Weapons that aren’t thrown have a maximum distance of ten range increments. Ranged weapons that are thrown either have an effective distance (Bolas and Nets) or can be thrown out to five range increments.
For each Range Increment beyond the first a ranged weapon takes a -1 penalty To Hit.
Light Crossbow: Range Increment 27yd. Light Crossbows must be reloaded after each shot, a process that requires cocking the string (a minor action) and pulling out a bolt and loading it (a minor action). Light Crossbows do not add Might to Power Rating.
Heavy Crossbow: Range Increment 40yd. Heavy Crossbows must be reloaded after each shot, a process that requires cocking the string (a minor action) and pulling out a bolt and loading it (a minor action). Heavy Crossbows do not add Might to Power Rating.
Repeating Crossbow: Repeating Crossbows take Range penalties like others of the same type but fire two bolts per attack (the results are presented in their stat line, but if you hit, roll twice for effects of arrows like Poison). After firing 6 bolts a Repeating Crossbow must be reloaded as a standard action. Repeating Crossbows do not add Might to Power Rating.
Shortbow: Range Increment 20yd. Shortbows cannot add Might to Power Rating.
Longbow: Range Increment 33yd. Longbows cannot add Might to Power Rating.
Composite Bows: Composite bows have identical stats to their length type, but are capable of adding Might to damage up to the value of the Composite Rating. Each point of Composite Rating makes the bow cost an additional 100gp.
Bolas: Bolas do no damage but allow you to use the Combat Default Trip out to 10yd.
Net: Nets do no damage but when thrown out to 10yd if you hit with an attack roll the Net Clings. If someone tries to shake out of a Net, the net rolls +12 on the Soak Roll.
Dart/Throwing Dagger: Range Increment 3yd.
Javelin: Range Increment 10yd.
Sling: Range Increment 17yd.
| Weapon | Hit Rating | Power Rating | Armor Penetration | Damage Tags |
| One Handed | - | - | - | - |
| Unarmed | 0 | -1 | 0 | [Bash] |
| Gauntlet | 0 | 0 | 0 | [Bash] |
| Spiked Gauntlet | 0 | 0 | +1 | [Stab] |
| Armor Spikes | -1 | +1 | +1 | [Bash][Stab] |
| Shield | -1 | 0 | 0 | [Bash] |
| Shield Spikes | -1 | 0 | +1 | [Stab] |
| Dagger | +1 | 0 | 0 | [Stab] |
| Rapier | 0 | +1 | +1 | [Stab] |
| Short Sword | +1 | +1 | 0 | [Slash][Stab] |
| Longsword | +1 | +1 | +1 | [Slash][Stab] |
| Hatchet | 0 | +1 | +1 | [Slash][Bash] |
| Battle Axe | 0 | +2 | +1 | [Slash][Bash] |
| Morningstar | 0 | +1 | +1 | [Bash][Stab] |
| Flail | 0 | +1 | +2 | [Bash][Stab] |
| Club | +1 | 0 | 0 | [Bash] |
| Mace | +1 | 0 | 0 | [Bash] |
| Heavy Mace | +1 | +1 | 0 | [Bash] |
| Hammer | 0 | +1 | 0 | [Bash] |
| Warhammer | 0 | +1 | +1 | [Bash] |
| Sickle | +1 | 0 | 0 | [Slash] |
| Scimitar | +1 | +1 | 0 | [Slash] |
| Pick | -5 | 0 | +10 | [Stab] |
| Shortspear | +2 | -1 | 0 | [Stab] |
| Two Handed | - | - | - | - |
| Quarterstaff | +2 | +1 | 0 | [Bash] |
| Scythe | -2 | +4 | +1 | [Slash] |
| Falchion | +2 | +2 | 0 | [Slash] |
| Great Sword | +2 | +2 | +1 | [Slash][Stab] |
| Great Axe | 0 | +3 | +2 | [Slash][Bash] |
| Heavy Flail | +1 | +2 | +2 | [Bash][Stab] |
| Great Club | +2 | +1 | 0 | [Bash] |
| Longspear | +2 | +1 | 0 | [Stab] |
| Glaive | 0 | +1 | +2 | [Slash] |
| Guisarme | +1 | +1 | +1 | [Slash] |
| Halbred | 0 | 0 | +3 | [Slash][Stab] |
| Ranseur | 0 | +3 | 0 | [Stab] |
| Lance | +1 | 0 | +2 | [Stab] |
| Ranged | - | - | - | - |
| Light Crossbow | 0 | +1 | +1 | [Stab] |
| Heavy Crossbow | -1 | +2 | +1 | [Stab] |
| Repeating Light Crossbow | -3 | +3 | +2 | [Stab] |
| Repeating Heavy Crossbow | -4 | +3 | +3 | [Stab] |
| Shortbow | +2 | 0 | 0 | [Stab] |
| Longbow | +1 | +1 | 0 | [Stab] |
| Bolas | 0 | - | - | Trip |
| Net | 0 | - | - | Cling |
| Dart/Throwing Dagger | +2 | 0 | 0 | [Stab] |
| Javelin | 0 | +2 | 0 | [Stab] |
| Sling | 0 | 0 | +2 | [Bash] |
Weapon Size and Damage
Weapons for creatures smaller than 2yd get -1 to Power Rating for 1yd and -2 for smaller sizes. Weapons for creatures larger than 2yd get +1 to Power Rating and -1 To Hit for each doubling of size. (4yd, 8yd, 16yd.)
Weapon Materials
Weapons are assumed to be made of Steel for their damaging parts except Clubs and Quarterstaves which are by default wood. However, with sufficient craftsmanship any weapon can be made of any of the weapon materials:
Steel: The primary weapon because primarily of it’s simplicity to craft, steel is also quite strong and is strong against fey creatures.
Wood: Wood alone is usually ineffective, providing a -2 to Power of weapons using it for Stab or Slash damage, however Ironwood can be created that avoids this problem. Wood is useful against some kinds of Fiends and some undead.
Silver: Silver weapons are very difficult to craft to sufficient quality, add +5 to the Make DC and add 5 additional successes needed. However, once made to quality, silver weapons are as good as steel if slightly weaker to attempts to destroy them. Silver weapons are particularly effective against Were creatures and some Fiends. Silver weapons cost an additional 200gp in cost.
Adamantium: Adamantium weapons, because of their density, are often much thinner than standard weapons, almost fragile looking, though they are tougher than other weapons. Adamantium Weapons are extremely difficult to craft adding +10 to the make DC and requiring 3 additional successes. However, they provide +1 Armor Penetration. Adamantium weapons cost an additional 400gp.
Overland Movement
The movement overland is usually managed as a Caravan. Even if no trade is occurring the rules apply to moving a group of adventurer’s overland as well.
When travelling overland the starting point is your Caravan’s base movement rate. Each character or vehicle has a base movement rate for overland travel that is equal to 1 mile per 3yd of movement per hour. The Caravan’s base movement is the slowest movement rate of a character or vehicle that isn’t riding another creature or vehicle. So a caravan of a group riding a boat with a movement speed of 6yd could move about 8 miles in four hours at base movement.
Generally speaking Terrains impose an additional penalty depending on their type. This penalty represents both constant slow effects and navigating around or through difficult patches in aggregate.
Desert/Plains/Stone/Tundra: Regular overland movement.
Hills/Forest: 3/4ths overland movement.
Swamp/Marsh/Mountains/Jungle: Half overland movement.
Upwind (Flying): 3/4ths overland movement.
Straight Up (Flying): Half overland movement.
Underground: Paths are rarely direct, so should often apply a Half modifier, however direct paths where they do exist apply no modifier.
Floating or Swimming Up/Down River: Subtract or add the Current from your base movement. Conventional rivers vary based on a number of factors between 0 and 7mph predominately around the 1-3mph range.
Walking Up/Down River: Half overland movement.
Sea (Calm): No modifier.
Sea (Stormy): 3/4ths speed.
Sea (Deep): below about 100yd apply no modifier even in storms.
Limitations based on ground terrain can be bypassed by flying. Some kinds of extremely magical flight can bypass flying terrain. Not a Flight spell or a creatures who’s wings shouldn’t keep it up, but Wisps flight perhaps. Only being able to move through solid rock allows you to bypass Underground modifiers.
Overland Encounters
The OM should secretly roll a 1d6 and a 1d6+4. Multiply the results. Prepare travel encounters equal to the amount of distance the Caravan was going to move divided by the results of the two dice multiplied. Spring the travel encounters on the party whenever appropriate. Encounters do not need to be combat. Encounters can be Fiends, bandit ambushes, wild monsters, other travelers, opportunities for gain if they delay or abandon their current path, or anything else that fits the current travel path and can be resolved by avoidance or peaceful negotiations as commonly as combat.
If PCs spend a lot of time fighting in a Fortress Intrusion/Attack they perform or a dungeon crawl then consider reducing travel encounter numbers by the amount of encounters they have already faced as that may have eaten up a fair amount of the combat desire of the players for that session and the PCs will want to feel like they are making progress.
A Travel Encounter should always be about Tough Encounter baseline though obviously moving up the difficulty for some and down for others within reason is normal.
If at any time a Caravan decides to halt overland movement for the week because they decide they are too exhausted or damaged to continue and they can’t face any more travel encounters, the OM should roll a 1d2, on a 1, have one more travel encounter that was prepared find them at their camp and resolve appropriately. But before that the OM should take a good look at the other players and consider whether that is a good idea.
If a Caravan halts movement in a Fortress that is friendly perform no more travel encounters but have the PCs take part in Fortress encounters for that Fortress as if they are Residents.
If a Caravan retraces a path they have already taken this week either in a return journey or because they decided to pack it up and retreat, resolve half as many travel encounters as you normally would over that distance.
Getting Tired
Players and OMs should track approximate time and activity since the last four hour rest. For each 2 hours of Strenuous Activity and each 8 hours of Moderate Activity since the last four hour rest characters move down the [Tired] Track 2 positions. However, this movement is limited to one position per Combat Turn, giving characters the opportunity respond to moving down one space before the second occurs.
Light Activity includes waiting around, chatting with people, negotiations, shopping, meditation, and performing activities to regain your abilities (preparation, twilight ritual, preparing blessings, watching a sunrise, reviewing the spell book). This does not generally effect becoming [Tired].
Medium Activity includes overland travel, exploration, doing Residency Work, or performing Rituals.
Strenuous Activity includes moving at twice your base speed, holding your breath, engaging in combat, or exploring a hostile area where you have to pay attention. So for example if you are in the process of intruding in a Fortress or exploring a dungeon on a Combat Turn by Combat Turn level even the time you spend resting between combats or exploring requires significant attention and all counts for Strenuous Activity.
Leveling Up
For the most part leveling up involves increasing your level (which adds to most rolls and defenses), if your class has a new ability they gain access to, incorporating that into your options. At specific levels, 7, 11, and 15, you pick a Prestige class, a Leadership class, and a Ruler class. These classes are in addition to your base class. You continue to gain the abilities of your base class as well as the abilities of any additional classes you become.
Additionally, if you are starting at higher level than level 3 because you will not have had the opportunity to obtain knowledges through play or research, you should add 3 knowledges per level up from 3.
Generally characters should level up every three Fortress Turns, though groups may choose to level up faster or slower.
Fortresses
Whether as OM or as Player, you are probably going to want to be able to conceptualize Fortresses, whether you live in one, run one, found one, or invade one. This section covers the rules for Fortresses, and helps OMs understand the strength and complexity of what they are making, Players ideas of how to exploit weaknesses, and everyone some idea of how to value features of a fortress.
This also covers things like being a Resident in a Fortress, trade caravans, life as a Ronin without a Fortress, and other long term decision making and adventuring.
A Fortress Turn is one month. This is the measurement metric for many resource management systems and is also used to help process managed Fortresses and what happens to them.
In resolving a Fortress turn there are many actions and declarations that take place and a set of events and encounters will be generated which have to happen during that month or suffer consequences.
Designing a Fortress
The default assumption at the beginning of the game is that the PCs will be Residents of a Fortress at the start of the game, though Ronin beginnings are fine as well for level 3 characters. If Ronin join a Fortress, it is understood that they may have to take things as they are, but if there are any questions the OM hasn’t worked out yet, the group should work together to design that aspect just like if the party started in the Fortress.
When beginning a campaign in a Fortress, the Players and OM should work together to design the Fortress the campaign will start with. The main things to consider for the group are what kind of Fortress management the OM feels capable or willing to handle, since the players are almost certainly not beginning as Leaders, this will be mostly be work for the OM initially, and on the Players end what kind of Fortress it makes sense for their characters to live in, and what their plans are going forward, if they want a lot of politics focus, or intend to focus on adventuring and dungeoneering initially, and if the Players intend to take over Leadership positions in their current Fortress or go out and found a new one later.
The process of Fortress design can take a lot of different directions, but some steps to consider are:
1) What unique feature of the landscape or surroundings led to the creation of the Fortress here instead of somewhere 3 miles in any other direction?
2) What kind of people settled the Fortress, and why?
3) Were they building on previous ruins or an abandoned location or founding a settlement from scratch?
4) Have there been any significant migratory events since that would lead to a change in population?
5) What is the layout of the Fortress, where are rooms located, how are defenses organized?
6) What kind of political system are the residents operating under and what are the Factions involved?
7) What does a common patrol look like, what would some common intrusion encounters look like?
8) How are the defenders trained and what sort of defenders should be responding to an attack?
9) Would they have any existing relationships with nearby Fortresses, positive or negative?
When the OM is designing a new Fortress for Ronin or adventuring PCs to encounter not all of these questions need to be answered at the time, in fact, you can probably get by making up the layout as you go along. But for a Fortress the PCs are Residents in the group should have some solid answers to most of these questions especially layout and patrols. Players should definitely get significant input on these questions and OMs should recognize them as a useful resource. It’s hard to design an entire Fortress and you might forget a lot of things, much better to be able to have Players help you fill in any gaps.
The Fortress Turn
This section is an overview of the process of going through a Fortress Turn referring to future sections, but explaining in order the process.
A Fortress Turn is one month in game time occurring. Each month is 28 days long and made up of four seven day weeks. During that one month PCs can and should be taking individual actions with their characters as they desire. Most decisions or OM secret rolls take place at the beginning or end of a Fortress Turn, but Complications and Attacks are generated at the beginning, but should be resolved when appropriate throughout the Turn.
Order of Operations:
1) Declare Leadership. In this stage empty Leadership positions can be filled.
2) Simultaneous Political Power: Spend Political Power to make changes. This is where all the (non-Resistance) Factions arrange their spending or hoarding of Political Power. This is also the stage at which Convoy Launches are set up, though they occur later.
3) Leaders choose a Leadership Action. Leadership actions are enacted when the Leader chooses to invoke them, but always after Complications and Attacks have been generated. This is also when the Ruler chooses what role to Emulate.
4) Resistance Spends Political Power (Authoritative Society only.)
5) Roll Fortress Attacks.
6) Roll Complications and decide which ones are accepted by Council Vote. Keep in mind after choosing whether to drop the largest die, you must take whatever number you choose from the highest to lowest, with a minimum number selected equal to Fortress Size.
7) The Month Occurs. During this stage Leaders can invoke their actions, Attacks should happen, Complications should happen, and the PCs should resolve one month of actions at whatever level of abstraction is appropriate to their actions. Convoy Launches occur sometime in this stage.
8) Resolve what was produced by each unit of Production this turn by Council Vote.
9) Resolve Sustenance, Consumption, and Die Off by Council Vote.
10) Resolve Faction Collapses and Exterminations.
11) Resolve Political Power Gains.
12) Resolve any Election results, Petitions, or Challenges.
13) Resolve Manpower Modification.
Ronin
Ronin are people not tied to any fortress who wander the wilderness. Being a Ronin is hard and you might just up and die, so most commonly Ronin try to find ways to join a Fortress, but until they do the following rules apply.
Ronin travel as or with a Caravan of themselves and like minded individuals.
Survival: A Ronin is without access to the civilizations amenities of a Fortress so they have to meet their survival needs. To handle this first a Ronin rolls a Survival check at the beginning of each Fortress Turn. This grants the Ronin a number of Survival Points equal to the result. At the end of the Fortress Turn, the Ronin dies if they are at less than 30 Survival Points.
During the course of the Fortress Turn the Ronin can try to obtain resources to increase their survival points. Stealing, Buying, or Finding a weeks worth of food (and consuming it over a week) grants one Survival Point up to four per Month. Having regular access to water by a river, or using a pressure system to boil out the salt from the sea, or summoning water, or just carrying a weeks worth of water containers and refilling when needed provides one Survival Point for each week. If you don’t manage to perform these functions in your daily activity then you are assumed to find some water and food somehow using the survival skill, but it might have made you sick or not been enough, or otherwise cause you problems so you don’t gain Survival Points.
As a Ronin you also gain Survival Points based on the quality of shelter you maintain. If you are travelling you get Survival Points based on the quality of Shelter you can create or find each time you stop to rest. The worst shelter you managed that week determines your Survival Point gains for the week. A firepit grants one survival point. A cave or other basic protection from the elements provides one survival point. These can be combined so long as you won’t smoke yourself out for two points. A full structure with a door of some kind and temperature regulation grants three Survival Points per week. Some spells, abilities, or rituals can create either a shelter or the effect of one.
At any time before the Fortress Turn ends if a Ronin makes themselves a Resident of a Fortress by joining they no longer have to worry about Survival Points and automatically survive the Fortress Turn.
Trading
As a general rule, you probably want to trade things. For the most part the specifics of who wants what should be covered by magic tea party, but if you grow wheat not everyone is going to want to buy your wheat and if you make traps, not everyone is going to want to buy your traps. It’s up to the players to find fortresses to trade with and it is up to the OM to make those fortresses and decide what goods they want to trade for and what goods they have to trade.
It is also up to the players and the OM together to discuss and agree on what their Fortress can produce in the first place.
You can trade one unit of production on something you built they want for 1 unit of Currency (which can be spent later and spent at other fortress) or for one unit of something that they produce that you want. Usually the things you produce are Food, Traps, Production Goods, and Fortress Improvement.
Food: Food is anything that anyone can consume to meet Sustenance. That could be fungi, wheat, apples, cows, hunting the Great Centipedes, whatever. This lasts for 12 Fortress Turns before decaying after it is produced. Food can be traded or traded for any time before it decays.
Traps: Traps are those things you use in your Fortress to kill invaders. They generally last pretty much forever and you can build a bunch of extras, but Fortresses don’t usually want to buy a lot more than they can maintain, and you can’t use more than you can maintain, so huge stockpiles aren’t super helpful. Generally assume any amount of extra traps is saleable, if all you make are pit traps, then your expertise at pit trapping allows you to sell good designs or contract out expert pit trap makers. Traps can be traded or traded for at any time
Production Goods: Production Goods are anything else you make, they could be mined resources for other production, manufactured goods like the high quality tables or swords or dyed cloth, or whatever else you can make. For purely game reasons all of these expire if not traded for Currency at the end of a Fortress Turn. Consider them used or owned by the people of your Fortress, and you don’t want to be a dick and try to take away the sword they’ve owned for so long do you?
Currency: Currency is any high value good with long term storage of that value that is easily tradeable with most races. Could be precious minerals, dyes, mana stones, or almost anything really. Currency can be traded for at any time and later traded away at another time. Other fortresses will always want your Currency even when they might not want your Traps or Food.
Fortress Improvement: While not a specific good produced, Production can be spent to building various things in a Fortress or to increase the size. The specific rules for what you can do are spelled out in Fortress Architecture and Size increases. This can be traded in the form or useful resources (Timber, Stone, Adamntium Doors) or knowledge and labor (Masons, Carpenters, your Architect going on a visit to do design work). You can also import this production in a similar manner.
Each Turn a Fortress can send out four Convoys to trade, each Convoy is sponsored by a single Faction and the resulting Currency is under the control of that Faction, or the Currency spent comes from that faction. You can send as much as you want, but Convoys have to travel to the destination risking being attacked and looted, so the more goods you put up the more you might want to send protection. A basic convoy starts with a set of guards that is approximately a Patrol or for example, the player characters. Manpower can be added to the Convoy acting as Defense. Each Manpower sent cannot provide its normal function until it returns and provides the Caravan Defense equal to what it would provide to a Fortress. These Manpower are provided from the Defense Manpower section of your fortress.
Launch Convoy: To have a Convoy occur a Faction must sponsor the Convoy, putting up at least one political power and stating what they will send it out with and what they will attempt to obtain. All other Factions may spend Political Power to reduce the Political Power of the Convoy’s Launch. A Convoy’s value in Production Goods, Food, Traps, and Currency cannot exceed the amount of Political Power it is launched with, nor can its Manpower for Defense. If the Political Power is zero, the Launch doesn’t occur. A successful Convoy returns the Political Power to the sponsoring Faction.
A Convoy that trades away Traps or Production Goods reduces the Fortress’s Traps or Production by the corresponding amount for the Fortress Turn. Trade that brings in Production in the form or Food, Traps, or Fortress Improvement ignores any limits on normal Production.
Expensive goods have fewer or smaller containers, which is good because it means you have less to protect, but bad because destruction, theft, or loss might result in more value lost. If you are producing one unit of Lumber, you might have a couple large wagons, if you are transporting 5 units of Distilled Chaos you might have a single small box.
Convoys travel as a single Caravan using the Overland rules and suffer 1d6 attacks of magnitude 1d2 as well as appropriate Travel Encounters. You can have PCs control the Patrol against the attack if they designed it and run their Fortress. If the PCs are Residents and not Leaders or if they don’t want to worry about the encounters, you can sim it out. Unless Trade is desperate or new a Convoy should mostly succeed, but a lost Convoy can be a useful quest to a Faction for Resident PCs or an important investigation or concern for Leaders.
Politics in a Fortress
Fortresses are filled with sapients, and where there are sapients there are politics. Groups should feel free to ignore literally all of this section and do politics by Magic Tea Party (ignoring the rules and playing the parts of the various political characters with descriptions and in character speeches as you like) or use the parts of this section that they like as general guidelines. However this section will primarily be written under the assumption that you will follow all the rules here and use them as a framework for your political dealings in fortresses.
Fortress politics are initially divided into four stages: 0) Ronin, 1) Residency, 2) Leadership, and 3) Rulership. What the politics of a fortress look like depends a great deal on where you are in the pecking order and what your goals are.
Joining a Faction: To join a Fortress as a Ronin you must join an existing faction, so a Ronin joining a Fortress should indicate which faction they are joining. All factions except Resistance Factions are public knowledge to Residents and most non Resident members and can be figured out quickly from conversation with any generally helpful person. Once a Ronin decides on a faction to join they must gain admission which usually follows one of these methods:
1) Payment: Factions are always looking for those who can bring something to the table, a one time fee of 1000gp per size of the fortress buys admission to the Faction and therefore the Fortress.
2) Quest: Sometimes performing a quest, even one you didn’t know the faction wanted done will get you admission to a Faction. If you show up with the Black Scrolls of Ahm, the Black Cult asks you to join. Good work. Sometimes they ask you to do the quest when you show up.
3) Selling Yourself Cheap: Sometimes people just want a body to do as told and be worked to death, any body will do. Almost any faction will accept a member who agrees to do 14 hours of work a day for them. The disadvantage is you can’t do much else with your time if you don’t have any other time! You are also always subject to Conscription even if the Fortress otherwise doesn’t allow for that. If you join a faction this way, you can usually use one of the other ways to upgrade to a regular faction member later.
4) Members of another Faction can sometimes change Faction by any of the above methods or by betraying their own Faction, though usually you need something of some value to exchange in that betrayal. A Council member can almost always manage this betrayal in exchange for a key vote, but depending on the political system the seat itself may belong to the Faction not the Council Member in which case betrayal may result in losing the seat.
Residency
A Resident is a member of the Fortress and a Faction within the Fortress that has significant influence on events. Not all members of a Fortress are residents and there might be many slaves, regular laborers, or similar types who do not take significant political actions and merely live and work in the Fortress. PCs should almost always be Residents, unless they are indentured labor or slaves either from capture or choosing option 3) as a Ronin.
When one or more members of the group are Residents in a Fortress, they do have to engage with politics but the extent to which they engage is limited. If you are a powerful influential individual member and you don’t like to involve yourself in politics and ignore political issues then you are a member of the ruling Faction, because ignoring issues is supporting the status quo.
A Resident is assumed to contribute to the Fortress in some meaningful way each month, but a Player should have a wide range of latitude in coming up with how they will do so and how much time that requires. The goal is to show your worth to the Fortress and continue to earn the influence you have. Some people can do impressive work with an hour of rituals or spellcasting and some people might be constantly on patrol. It is the Player’s job to figure out their character’s contribution.
A Resident chooses a Fortress Turn action from the Residency list that they feel is appropriate for them.
1) Patrol and Defense: The Resident can insert themselves as an additional defender in any response to an Intrusion or Attack once per Fortress Turn. The Player may choose when this is appropriate.
2) Power Regulation: The Resident can tap into any Mana Well and use up to one Power once per Fortress Turn for whatever they wish.
3) Production Management: The Resident gets a vote in the Council Vote to determine how Production is used at the end of the Turn. Enough Residents in production can even override the will of the Leaders.
4) Trader: The Resident can attempt to Launch a Convoy with 1 Political Power without actually putting that Political Power up. If the Convoy is Launched the Resident leads the Caravan and makes any final decisions about trade. The Resident’s Faction gains the benefits as usual on success.
5) Legal Assistant: The Resident acts as a Second or Referee or Moderator in any Challenges or Elections.
6) Wheeling and Dealing: Once in the Fortress Turn the Resident can direct a Council Vote of a member of their Faction in whatever way they ask. The person voting does this in exchange for a service provided by the Resident to be worked out between the two.
7) Influencing Public Opinion: The Resident’s Faction gains 1 Political Power. This is resolved before the end of the Fortress Turn. If you are a member of a Resistance Faction and a Public Faction in an Authoritative Fortress you may choose one Faction or both Factions to gain 1 Political Power.
Residents have no protection from the law and can be punished appropriately for any crimes they are discovered to have committed. Leadership while it doesn’t always put you above the basic laws, sometimes does, and sometimes just forces the authorities to treat you better. For the most part though, you probably can’t get away with murdering someone in the street in broad daylight.
Resident’s Factions are primarily derived from the type of society the Fortress is engaged in. Politics are entirely denied to those who have Sold Themselves Cheap.
Consensus: In a Consensus Society Residents can switch to another Faction at the beginning of any month ignoring the Faction Join Rules and when they do so give that Faction gains 1 Political Power. Residents are assumed to be influential or represent a certain subset of the people when they do so, and this political power represents the collective shift of will.
In Consensus Society Any Resident can create a new Faction and Join that Faction giving it one political power. They are now the Leader of that faction, but they can only do this once ever in a lifetime in a given Fortress. (Lifetimes are measured in years for the predominate race, so if you are an elf living in a human society, you might still get multiple shots at this.)
Feudal: In a Feudal Society Residents owe allegiance to an individual above them in their faction and are not permitted to leave the faction unless that individual does. (Events overrule this restriction. In a Feudal Society only people with Leadership positions can create new factions or change faction without events.)
Authoritative: In an Authoritative Society there is the Ruling Faction, and there are two kinds of Splinter Factions, Resistance and Succession.
The first kind is a Resistance, which any Resident can join any time they find it. They can also create one if they want at any time. Both of these are “free” and technically Residents remain a member of their previous Faction at the same time. Resistance Factions are secretive, and their presence is not open. A Resistance Faction creates a Shadow Cabinet of Leadership positions which are pretty easy to get into, and then sets about trying to cause a Fracture and then unite the Fortress post Fracture.
Succession Factions act openly like normal, they require sponsorship from a Leadership position to exist and can only be created by Declaring to an Open Office. Once created, they act to gain Political Power and spend it like any other faction. Succession Factions with enough political power can attempt a Coup to take control, see more in Leadership for how that comes to be. A Resident may join a Succession Faction at any time subject to the Faction join rules.
Fractured: In a Fractured Fortress there is no Ruling Faction, though there may be a “Ruler.” Any Resident can change Factions at any time ignoring the Faction Join Rules and can create their own faction at any time.
Residential Knowledge: In general any Resident with a minimum amount of investigation should be able to know about all the non Resistance Factions and their current members and Political Power. For the purpose of resolving Fortress Turn actions this information should be public knowledge to Residents and Leaders.
Obtaining Leadership
Different Fortresses have different methods of deciding how to fill leadership positions.
Consensus: Consensus societies have elections to fill up empty Leadership Positions or change positions when called for. In an Election any Faction can advance a candidate and whomever pays the most Political Power gets the office.
Feudal: Anyone with direct vassalage to the Ruler can Petition for an open office or an occupied office. The Ruler technically gets to make this decision, but they should almost always fill an open position. If the Petition is granted you now have the office. If the office is occupied then a Petitioner usually has to offer Political Power or have someone offer it on their behalf and the current occupant can spend the same amount to counter the Petition causing it to fail.
Authoritative: In an Authoritative society there are Closed Offices and Open Offices. There must always be fewer Closed Offices than Open Offices with Leaders unless Ruler is the only Closed office. Ruler is always Closed. All Offices are Open until they are Closed by the Ruler. A Succession Faction can form by a Resident Declaring to an Open Office and then taking their position in the Leadership. Once there are more occupied Open Offices than Closed Offices the Ruler can Declare a position as a Closed Office and then fill it with a member of the Ruling Faction and can dismiss that person and replace the office at will. Open Offices are always subject to Challenge.
Fractured: Any Faction can have one of its members Declare themselves to be any open Leadership Position, making them the Leader instantly. Any Faction can also Challenge for a Leadership position if they want which is resolved at the end of the Fortress Turn.
Declare: If an Leadership Position is open to Declaration then anyone who meets the requirements can say they are going to take the office and then do so. When it comes to resolving ties the Faction with the most political power wins the tie. For Residents, PCs win ties and work out their own order amongst each other. Declarations of Closing an Office always come before any other Declarations as soon as they are legal.
Challenge: In a challenge anyone can declare Challenge to the current holder of the Leadership Position and they will have to engage in Single Combat, the current occupant gets to decide if it is to the death or not, and then the Challenger gets a chance to withdraw without dying. The winner will occupy the office next Fortress Turn.
Election: Any number of Factions can compete for the Leadership Position. Each Faction secretly writes down a number of Political Power they spend. All that Political Power is destroyed and the party that spent the most gets the office. Ties are broken by highest remaining political power.
Petition: Any Resident with direct Vassalage to the Ruler can Petition for an unoccupied Leadership position and be granted it. They can also Petition to replace an existing Leader in which case some political Faction must spend at least one Political Power to make the Petition. The current occupant can have a Faction (probably the one they sponsor or the Ruling Faction if they are in that Faction) offer the same amount to block the Petition (for this Fortress Turn at least). All Political Power spent to offer or block Petitions is destroyed.
Positions:
Ruler: The Ruler can take on any other role in a given month.
Commander: The Commander adds 1 to the Defense and Defense Cap of the Fortress and can insert themself, alone without other leaders, into an Encounter against an Intrusion before Detection.
Architect: The Architect can oversee Upkeep, Satisfying 1 Upkeep. They can also determine which Traps are or are not maintained or active at what times of day.
Sage: Can produce one Power and can approve or reject attempts to extract power from the Mana Well or Mana Vault (except Residents taking the Regulate Power action).
Magistrate: The Magistrate increases Patrol by 1 and gets the tie breaker vote on any Council Votes.
Manager: The Manager increases the Production cap of the Fortress by 1.
Leadership
In the Leadership stage of Fortress play one or more players has begun the process of trying to co-opt an existing Fortress and install themselves as Ruler or otherwise arrange to make Fortress decisions. While Residency rules still apply a Leader is no longer a Resident, so most of those rules don’t apply to them. While you may be “a leader” you aren’t truly in the “Leadership” stage until you hold a Leadership position (including the Shadow Cabinet of a Resistance).
Faction conflicts are resolved on the same one month time scale as the Fortress Turn. At the beginning of each Fortress Turn, each Faction may spend Political Power simultaneously with all other Factions in the open until everyone consents to a specific Political Power arrangement. If all the PCs are members of the same faction, this can be very easy, the OM shows them what the other factions are doing, they respond, the OM responds on behalf of the other Factions, repeat as needed. If the players are in different factions, it may be useful to take turns, or everyone could lay out simultaneous plans and then change them around as needed until everyone accepts the results. There is one exception to the simultaneous play rule. Resistance Factions in Authoritative societies wait until everyone else has completed the simultaneous play phase and then lay out their own responses. Other factions can then spend any saved up Political Power in response, but may not reallocate the power in the existing simultaneous play phase and may only play “Counter” actions.
At the end of each Fortress Turn after processing all Fortress changes and events any non Ruling Faction with zero Political Power collapses. Collapsed factions cease to exist and their Residents must choose a new Faction. Leaders are demoted and the offices become open.
If the Ruling Faction has zero Political Power, then the Fortress is Fractured (and no faction is now the ruling faction), but the Ruling Faction continues to exist and the Ruler remains in that role. After that, all Factions “Gain” Political Power based on the current Political status of the Fortress.
If a Fortress is already Fractured then any Faction can declare a Unification, This is basically like a Civil War, any number of Factions can join the Unification or Oppose it. Then the Political Power of all Unified Factions is compared to all Opposed factions. If Oppose has more power then each Faction designates one Manpower that died off in the failed unification. If Unification succeeds the Declaring Faction is now the Ruling Faction and gets to pick the Ruler if they didn’t already have it and gets to decide the type of government. Other factions that joined the Unification are Succession Factions, or non ruling Factions in the new system. (Any Faction without a leadership position Collapses if the Declarer chooses Feudal or Authoritative.)
Gaining Political Power: At the end of the Fortress Turn after Collapse, Fracture, and Unification the Factions gain political power in the following manner:
0) In a Fractured Fortress all existing Factions gain 1 Political Power.
1) In a Consensus Society all existing Factions roll 1d10-6 and gain or lose the indicated amount of Political Power.
2) In a Feudal Society each Faction gains 1d6 Political Power for each Leadership Position it occupies.
3) In an Authoritative Society the Ruling Faction gains one political Power for each Succession Faction, each Resistance Faction gains 1 Political Power, and each Succession Faction loses 1 Political Power.
Council Votes: At Various times the rules may say that Council Vote occurs, the most common examples are to decide how to resolve a Complication or to resolve Manpower Modification, Consumption, or Die Off though other examples exist.
The Haggle rules give an idea of how council votes can be bought with Political Power by Faction Leaders or Leadership individuals of other Factions. If two members of the same faction disagree as PCs that is fine, but NPCs should agree, one of them should have been haggled, or it should create a new Faction when they disagree. The Haggle action can be countered by spending the same Political Power as the Haggle, in this case the Political Powers cancel out and there is just less of it in the Fortress, the target doesn’t get the increase.
Each type of society addresses Council Votes differently:
Fractured: Each party can announce their votes or attempt to Haggle the votes of others freely. Everyone knows everyone else’s position and can change accordingly. Once everyone is agreed that this is the final vote it is and the result is whatever option got the plurality of votes.
Consensus: Each Leader casts a “secret” ballot for their choice at the same time. Who voted what way is revealed when the votes are counted and the option with a Plurality of votes wins.
Feudal: The Ruler casts their vote. Then they ask everyone else their vote in whatever order the Ruler chooses. Once everyone has voted the option with the plurality of votes wins. If the Ruler’s decision won then each Leader that voted with the Ruler (Including the Ruler) causes their Faction to gain one Political Power.
Authoritative: The Ruler asks each other Leader to vote in whatever order they choose. Then the Ruler votes. If the Ruler’s side has a plurality then it is implemented. If the Ruler’s side does not have the plurality then either the plurality is implemented or the Ruler declares that his choice will be implemented and each Leader who voted for the plurality takes one Political Power for their Faction from the Ruling Faction. If the Ruling Party does not have enough Political Power to pay everyone then the vote stands.
In all cases ties are broken by the Magistrate’s vote. If the Ruler is acting as a Magistrate and the Ruler and Magistrate voted differently for two options tied for the Plurality, then the Ruler’s choice is the Plurality.
Spending Political Power: Political Power can be spent by any (non-Resistance) faction to do any of the following things:
1) Direct 1 Manpower to a new task. Cost: 1 Political Power.
2) Change any amount of Traps from Patrol to Defense or vice versa. Cost: 1 Political Power.
3) Reallocate the use of all generated power this turn. Cost: 3 Political Power.
4) Dispatch a Convoy to Trade with another Fortress. Currency made from trade is controlled by the Faction that dispatched the Convoy and Factions can only buy resources with Currency under their control. Cost: 1 Political Power minimum, but also this Political Power is returned on successful Convoy.
5) Counter: By spending the same amount of power, a Faction can Counter any action that another Faction takes preventing it from taking place, both power points are expended.
6) Election/Challenge: Any Faction can attempt a Challenge or Election for any occupied Leadership Position. This is resolved either by actual campaigning, the office seeker and holder fighting, or by political maneuvering into blackmail or disgrace which takes place over the following month. Cost: 4 Political Power. (Elections for Unoccupied Positions cost no Political Power to trigger.)
7) Appoint New Governor: Any Faction can arrange for a Governor to step down, retire, be disgraced, or be blackmailed to change factions. This replaces the old Governor with a new one (or functionally a new one) sympathetic to the paying faction. Sometimes you might want to appoint someone that is instead sympathetic to a different faction not as directly opposed to you to prevent them from countering your action. Cost: 3 Political Power.
8) Crush Resistance: You can crush a Resistance Faction, exterminating them and using up all their political power. This represents a substantial involvement of manpower in surveillance and combat so your Patrol and Defense are decreased by 1 for the Fortress Turn. Cost: 10 Political Power. Special: Can only be performed by an Authoritative Ruling Faction.
9) Recognize Heir: A Succession Faction can merge with another Succession Faction by recognizing their choice for succession. All Leaders of both Factions retain their position, the Faction Leader of the Faction that initiates this is no longer Faction Leader and the Faction Leader of the Faction being joined remains Faction Leader of the Faction which now includes all members of both Factions. Any Residents may freely abandon the Faction that initiates this and join any other Faction. Cost: 8 Political Power. Special: Can only be performed by an Authoritative Succession Faction.
10) Coup: A Succession Faction can initiate a Council Vote to replace the Ruler. Nothing happens if the vote fails except that Ruler may have it out for the Faction that just called for them to step down and which has less Political Power now. If the vote succeeds, the Ruler steps down and/or is executed at the newer ruler’s decision. The party that called the Coup becomes the new Ruling Faction and the old Ruling Faction Collapses. This is just like every other Council Vote in that the Ruler can decide the outcome if they pay the Political Power to do so. Cost: 3 Political Power. Special: Can only be performed by an Authoritative Succession Faction.
Leadership Actions: Each Leader of the Fortress Begins a Political Action after the spending power phase. Each Leader is limited to the actions that are tagged with their leadership position. The Ruler, since they can emulate any position can perform any action, but are limited to ones marked Ruler, or ones that could be performed by the position they are emulating this Fortress Turn. Faction Leadership or membership in a Shadow Cabinet does not entitle you to a Leadership action and you continue to use Resident Actions.
Leadership actions are chosen in secret and can be sprung on PCs or sprung by PCs at a later point or can be discovered by investigation. Leadership Action results can be invoked at any time during the Fortress Turn by the Leader taking the action and are resolved at that time.
1) Influence Politics: A Leader may gain Political Power for their Faction. When this action is resolved roll 1d6 and gain that much Political Power for your Faction. Ruler, Magistrate, Commander, Sage, Architect, Manager.
2) Punish: A Leader can punish another Leader’s Faction causing them to lose 1d6 Political Power. Ruler, Magistrate.
3) Arrange Attack: A Leader can arrange an attack or excursion this Turn to coincidentally be directed or channeled towards another Leader. A Leader is part of the Defense or Patrol encountered first by the Incursion or Attack. This can be invoked at any time and applies to the next battle. In an Attack with large Attack rating exceeding Defense this can be invoked in between encounters and leads to the attacked Leader being in the next encounter. Magistrate, Commander.
4) Conscription: A Leader can, at no cost of Political Power, at any point, move any manpower from where they are to Defense up to the Defense Cap. Ruler, Commander.
5) Use Power: A Leader can use Power from the Mana Vault while in the Fortress for their own personal projects and abilities throughout this Fortress Turn. Sage.
6) Divert Resources: A Leader can divert production reducing one production and obtaining one unit of Currency or something that can be used for their personal resources. This Currency belongs to the Faction of the Leader who diverted resources. Manager, Architect.
7) Accident: A Leader can cause an accident running a Trap encounter or an environmental danger encounter against another Resident or Leader. Architect.
8) Give Break: A Leader can give a break to his work force. When this option is selected the Leader can wait and trigger it at any time during the Fortress Turn and can trigger it for 1 day, 1 week, or 1 month. With 1 month, no Production or Power is generated this Fortress Turn and the Leader gains 1d6+1 Political Power. With 1 week, Production or Power Generation is halved and 1d6 Political Power is gained. With 1 day, the Leader can negate a Labor Strike, Protest, or Magic Explosion Event. Manager (Production), Sage (Power).
9) Generate Power: A Leader can use a Magic Collector to create additional power. For each week of uninterrupted Power Generation the Leader can add their level/2 in Power. Any interruption at all, including sleep or combat, or an attack that reaches the Leader prevents generation for that week. During the entire Fortress Turn the Leader is Exhausted unless they give up on Power Generation. Sage. Requires Power Collector.
10) Direct Manpower Growth: A Ruler can determine which Manpower will be generated during the Manpower Increase section of the Fortress Turn except for Constructs and Undead. Ruler.
Resistance Political Power: After Political Power has been spent and each Leader has chosen a Leadership action the Resistance spends their Political Power. Resistances cannot take any of the general actions, only special Resistance actions as below. To Counter a Resistance Action another faction must pay a Political Power for every one Political Power the resistance spent.
1) Sabotage: 1 Manpower doesn’t do their job this Fortress Turn. Cost: 2 Political Power.
2) Assassinate: The Resistance gets a Surprise Encounter on a Fortress Leader. Cost: 5 Political Power.
3) Organize Labor Strike or Protest: an entire employment field does not perform its output this Fortress Turn. 5 Political Power.
Rulership
Rulership is the stage where the party hold most or all of the Leadership positions in a Fortress. Technically all the rules of Leadership apply, but with a significant advantage in Leaders you should have little difficulty reducing those concerns. Whenever the players hold half or more of the Leadership Positions, all PCs, even non Leaders are exempt from the Resident sections of Complications. All of this allows you to focus more directly on the Fortress Turn concerns.
Size
The usual starting point for a Fortress is Size. Size is mostly a measure of living space, not physical dimensions, but they are mostly very related. You might be able to increase size later by building a new set of walls or tunneling into the dungeon, or changing the fort in some other distinct manner, but when figuring out the fortress, size is a good starting point, as it is usually the thing you figure out first that doesn’t change much.
A Fortress’s size rating describes how big they are. This rating has a few major effects:
Size limits the amount of Manpower that can be present in a Fortress. Notice this is CAN not IS.
Size rating caps your Production rating.
Size rating caps your Defense rating.
Size rating sets your Upkeep to your Size Rating.
A Size rating requires either Manpower or Traps to be devoted to Patrol up to its rating, or else suffer a penalty to the time it takes to detect intruders. Patrol over that amount provides bonuses.
A larger Size increases the chances of your base getting attacked more often by attacks designed to overcome your defenses without your personal aid.
A larger Size involves a greater likelihood of Fortress Complications, which are usually negative.
Size ratings can theoretically scale up infinitely, but at a certain point, you probably aren’t going to want much bigger of a base. Obedient Manpower is usually the main limiter, but PCs probably also want to spend some time not being attacked, so if your Fortress is the size of the entire world, then you have to deal with literally constant attacks from other planes, and that might get in the way of everything else or the attacks might succeed and the size of your Fortress will be reduced.
Size 1: A small Cave big enough for 5 people to sleep in comfortably or a small house.
Size 2: A small walled village compound that could hold about 100 people comfortably or a single 7 story tower.
Size 3: A small sized Dungeon under the earth, perhaps 50 rooms, a medium sized Kobold Warren, or a Castle and surrounding small town.
Size 4: A large sprawling Dungeon Complex, a Small Forest, an entire City.
Size 5: A large Forest, a Mountain Range, Undermountain, a Huge City.
Size 6: A Nation. Mostly there probably shouldn’t be any of these before the players get involved.
Manpower
Manpower is a measure of the work output of your Fortress. Manpower is an approximation. If four people are in a cave, all of them are working and also, defending the cave at rating 1 is easier, whereas defending a huge dungeon at rating 1 takes way more people, and also you are going to have a larger non productive class with more people, so there is no specific number of people that creates one Manpower. Manpower can be applied to many types of tasks, but the primary fortress related ones are 1) Upkeep, 2) Production, 3) Trap Maintenance, 4) Patrol 5) Defense, Power.
Upkeep: A unit of Manpower can be applied to Upkeep, satisfying that upkeep, and preventing Degradation. Upkeep is all the general work needed to prevent the Fortress from falling apart, decaying, or becoming less efficient.
Production: A unit of Manpower can be attributed to production. Doing so increases the Production of the Fortress by 1. Production is not all things produced, but the amount of excess you have left over after meeting people’s basic non food needs.
Trap Maintenance: A unit of Manpower can be spent to maintain Traps this maintains 1 unit of Traps. Traps can be active only up to the amount you can keep maintained, otherwise a rat walks over them and they are just out of commission because no one is around to check on them.
Patrol: Each unit of Manpower can be applied to Patrolling. The amount of Patrol rating you have less than your Size provides a penalty to the time it takes to detect intrusions and invasions, and the amount of Patrol you have greater than Size provides a bonus to that time. Patrolling is the basic work of detecting intruders coming into your fortress.
Defense: A unit of Manpower can be trained and equipped to fight back against invaders. Each unit of Manpower attributed this way increases Defense by 1. Defense represents the martialed response to intruders in the form of guards or soldiers.
Power: A unit of Manpower can usually but not always be invested into Power. Absent any better method of investing the Manpower, something like Rituals can usually be performed by most types, although better methods of conversion can exist depending on the Features of your Fortress. A unit of Manpower invested in Rituals produces 1 Power, however, see Magical Resources.
Manpower Caps based on Fortress Size:
Size 1: 2 Manpower
Size 2: 6 Manpower
Size 3: 12 Manpower
Size 4: 18 Manpower
Size 5: 24 Manpower
Size 6: Varies, but much larger.
Manpower Modification: At the end of each Fortress Turn Manpower grows by 1/10th its current amount rounded up. Unless the Leadership action to direct this is taken by the Ruler, growth occurs randomly roll a 1dy where y is the total number of different kinds of manpower present as many times as required except Undead and Construct, which are created in other ways.
After Manpower growth the Fortress must expel any excess Manpower until it is below the size cap. This is a Council Decision and decided by Council Vote. Mechanically this is a removal, but thematically it might be people choosing to leave, dying because of increased sickness, or even some members becoming less productive because of whatever changes made others more productive.
Manpower growth isn’t always strictly population growth, sometimes it comes in increased skill or a greater fraction of the population being productive, in addition to population growth.
Resources
Resources rating measures the inherent value of the natural resources of a Fortress location. Most Fortresses have a Resource Rating of 1, this represents no significantly valuable contribution of any kind. A Cave in the wall, an underground dungeon with no valuable minerals, or an open plain is covered by this rating. It is possible to have a lower rating than 1, but only the most destitute and deprived locations should have such. A Rating lower than 1 halves all production, or in extreme cases, prevents production.
Each point of Resources greater than 1 increases the Production Cap implemented by Size. Each point of Resources can also multiply the Production of a unit of Manpower by 1.5.
Magical Resources
Some Resources are Magical rather than Physical. The magical resources rating of most Fortresses is .5, indicating no special magic. This modifies all Power production by half for most Fortresses. Significant Magical Resources can produce at rating of 1, allowing full production, or can increase further.
Each Magical Resources Rating above 1 can be used to either help 1 unit of Manpower produce 1.5 units of Power or to maintain 1 unit of Traps.
Upkeep
Upkeep is a monthly accounting of the work put into maintaining the Fortress at its present Size, Production, Manpower, and function.
Each Fortress has an upkeep requirement equal to its size.
During a Month Manpower can be spent on Upkeep, this Upkeep is considered Satisfied. Unsatisfied Upkeep at the end of the month goes into Degradation. Degradation must then be reduced to zero by losses in the Fortress. Each loss reduces Degradation by the amount listed:
Reduce Size by 1: -2 Degradation.
Reduce Resources by 1: -2 Degradation.
Lose a Feature: -2 Degradation.
Reduce Manpower by 2: -1 Degradation.
Reduce Traps by 3: -1 Degradation.
For the most part, just try to satisfy Upkeep, because it costs more to remove Degradation. Though of course, damaging attacks or Fortress Complications might force your hand.
Production
Production is the non magical output of your Fortresses population. This can produce Food, be traded for Currency, used to build Features for your Fortress, used to increase Size, or used to produce Traps, increasing your Traps Rating.
Traps Rating is increased by 1 for each production unit spent, but remember that Traps do not maintain effectiveness without maintenance. Traps can also be traded.
Production Goods can be traded to other communities for Currency or Food but serve no other specific use.
Food produced can be used for Sustenance or traded.
Production can be spent at a rate of 10xCurrentSize to increase Size. This will take more than one month. Partially increased size does not increase the Manpower, Production, or Defense caps, but it does require additional Patrol, Upkeep, and Attacks, and it does require rolling on the Complication Chart for the larger Size. You can however sack existing expansion, losing all spent production, to Defeat and Attack or Negate a Complication.
Production can also be spent to modify the Fortress to obtain new Fortress Features or Architectures.
Traps
Traps can be created to serve the same functions as Patrol or Defense. Each Unit of Traps requires either a unit of Manpower or a unit of Power to maintain in its function.
Patrol
Your Size rating subtracted from your Patrol rating creates a modifier on the base time to detect an intrusion. For each positive point, Subtract 5 from Intrusion Points on the intruders, for each negative point, Give 10 Intrusion Points to the intruders.
Intrusion Points are spent to achieve objectives before the Fortress is made on Full Alert. Once your Fortress is on Full Alert, it brings its Defense Rating to bear on the intruders, and the Fortress Commander is certainly made aware of them and can respond personally.
Patrol is divided into Scrying, Guards, and Traps. When an intrusion needs to face an encounter to gain more intrusion points the type of encounter is determined by the type of Patrol you have.
Scrying: Scrying encounters are not limited to magical scrying, but also magical divinations that warn of future attacks, locations with good sightlines, and permanently watched chokepoints. Intrusions might need to detect a scrying sensor and destroy it to move past or get noticed, find a way around a choke points, or avoid being seen by a watcher from a distance.
Guards: Guards are a group of creatures on patrol or stationed at locations who may look for the intruders or may notice their passage. Intruders might need to cover their tracks, take out a patrol before it can sound the alarm after it spots them or their tracks, or see a patrol coming and hide where they can watch it pass without being seen.
Traps: Patrol Traps are resolved like other traps, but instead of trying to kill intruders they notify the Fortress.
Encounters can be mixed where a Trap is designed to alert a patrol to investigate or a watcher to sound the alarm at a choke point.
Defense
Defense rating Defeats Attacks with a rating equal to or less than its rating. It also subtracts its rating from the rating of an Attack that is greater than it, reducing the strength of enemies that Fortress Leaders must deal with.
The type of defense you have can be in either Wards, Defenders, or Traps. Type neutral methods of increasing defense such as Commander, Defensive Architecture, or Equipping Defenders can be applied to add more of any type of defense you already have.
Defense types determine the form your defense takes when on full alert.
Wards: Wards are the worst defense, representing encounters involving walls and impediments that can frustrate and slow down, but never truly harm attackers or intruders even when they are defeated. Wards waste time which can help you marshal a better response and in full alert can provide terrain advantages to Leaders, but Leaders must personally deal with intruders or attacks above the defense cap.
Traps: Traps can sometimes be the best defense, defeating and killing enemies you would have had difficulty facing, but Commanders cannot insert themselves into a Sole Trap encounter and will not necessarily know the result of a Trap encounter, since traps do not often report on results.
Defenders: Defenders provide a fight and therefore can potentially defeat intruders and report on the defeat, including if any escaped to elsewhere in the fortress or ran away. Defenders are also the only non Leader form of defense that benefits from Equip Defenders in the encounter, rather than just at the numeric stage.
Power
Power is a measure of Magic Production of a Fortress, this can be used to create Magic Items, to Equip Defenders, to maintain Traps, to produce Traps, or for a variety of other uses, depending on the Features of the Fortress or the abilities of the Fortress Leaders.
Equipping Defenders requires [Size] units of Power and provides a +1 bonus to Defense rating that can exceed the size cap, however the most significant function is that it improves the strength of Encounters faced by intruders.
Features
There are two kinds of Features: Constructed Features and Manpower Features.
Constructed Features provide some function to the entire Fortress. They usually Modify a Rating, Modify a Cap, or modify the rate at which Manpower is spent to achieve a specific Rating. They can also use Power or provide bonuses to Fortress Leaders. Or potentially do all kinds of other things.
Manpower Features apply only to a specific unit of Manpower and reflect the inherent strengths and limitations of the type of manpower employed. While many fortresses aren’t very diverse, diversity is a kind of strength, and it is sometimes worth the effort to obtain new kinds of Manpower, despite the additional Complications that are created by doing so.
Manpower Features
Manpower features list modifications to the Rate of exchange of manpower toward a task, Manpower can still only be applied to a single task. When multiple rate modifiers effect a population, each modifier adds to or subtracts from others rather than multiplying together. IE, 1.5 and .5 creates 1, not .75. .5 and .5 works out to 0 and 1.5 and 1.5 works out to 2. When 1 or more Manpower are contributing to a Fortress stat if the total value you get is a non integer number round up to the nearest integer.
Non Intelligent Manpower: A number of units of Manpower equal to the Size rating can be included above the normal Manpower cap of Non Intelligent Manpower. However, Non-Intelligent Manpower is usually not as effective as intelligent manpower, Contributing .5 towards Production, Upkeep, Trap Maintenance, Patrol, and Defense and nothing at all towards Power. Most commonly applied to Constructs or Undead but can be applied to other populations in extreme circumstances. This can represent slaves but only the most incredibly exploited and oppressed kind (like antebellum south) not any group of people who obey because of fear.
Kobold Manpower: A unit of Kobold Manpower contributes 1.5 units of Trap Maintenance or Produces 1.5 rating of Traps with Production, but only contributes to Defense at .5 per unit.
Tenngu Manpower: A unit of Tenngu Manpower contributes 1.5 towards Patrol, but only .5 towards Production.
Goblin Manpower: A unit of Goblin Manpower contributes 1.5 towards Production, but only .5 towards Upkeep.
Orc Manpower: A unit of Orc Manpower contributes 1.5 towards Defense, but only .5 towards Power.
Dwarf Manpower: A unit of Dwarf Manpower contributes 1.5 towards Production and Upkeep, but only .5 towards Patrol and Power.
Elf Manpower: A unit of Elf Manpower contributes 1.5 towards Power and Patrol, but only .5 towards Defense and Upkeep.
Animals: A unit of Animals contributes 1.5 towards Patrol or Defense, but 0 towards Upkeep, Production, Trap Maintenance, and Power. While technically Non Intelligent, Animals get these modifies instead of the ones for Non Intelligent.
Construct Manpower: A unit of Construct Manpower contributes to Production, Upkeep, and Defense at 1.5 rate, but requires .5 units of Power to maintain each month.
Undead Manpower: A unit of Undead Manpower contributes 1.5 towards Production, since it does not need to produce for itself, but requires either .5 units of Power to maintain itself or will Consume one unit of Manpower that is not Undead or Construct for every 2 units of Undead Manpower. Minimum Consumption is 1. If no Power or Consumption can be reached, then the remaining Consumption is lost from Undead Manpower in Die Off. Consumption and Die Off decisions are resolved as Council Votes.
Magician Manpower: A unit of Magician Manpower is hard to come by as it is more than just a couple Wizards, it’s a real dedicated collection of Wizards who do what you say, or substitute in some other kind of magicians. These units of Manpower produce 2 Power for every unit dedicated to power, however, they are above mean tasks, and contribute 0 to Production, Upkeep, or Patrol.
Sustenance
Most types of Manpower require Sustenance of Food. Non Intelligent Manpower does not require Sustenance (even if they are food consuming slaves races, they subsist on so little). Constructs never require Sustenance in Food as they subsist on Power. Most Undead never require Sustenance of Food either, though some kinds can consume Food to placate Consumption at a 1 to 1 rate.
During the Sustenance part of the Fortress Turn your people require 1 Food for every 6 Manpower who require Sustenance. For each missing Food 1 Manpower is lost to Die Off. The choice of where die-off occurs is made by the Council Vote.
Constructed Features
Fortresses can be founded with one kind of Architecture, but each additional type can be synthesized into the Fortress until it reaches it has one Architecture per Size Rating at the cost of an additional 10 Fortress Improvement cost per Architecture. A Size 3 Fortress with only one Architecture can also have two more added at the cost of 10 Fortress Improvement each. Architectures are true throughout the entire Fortress or most of it, unlike other features which might be localized.
Forest Architecture/Special: Forest Architecture doubles the Intrusion Cost of Penetration and Location actions by invaders and increases Resources by 1.
Defensive Architecture/Special: Defensive Architecture raises the Defense cap and Defense of the Fortress by 1.
Assembly Architecture/Special: Assembly Architecture raises the Production cap of the Fortress by 1.
Resource Extraction Architecture/Special: If a Fortress has Resources 2 or higher or Magical Resources 1 or higher, Resource Extraction Architecture increases one of those Resources by 1. This can be done twice, once for Resources and once for Magical Resources if a Fortress qualifies for both.
Force Projection Architecture/Special: Force Projection Architecture Provides a bonus to Patrol of 1 and a bonus to the Defense cap of 1.
The remaining features are not Architectures. They can be added for the listed cost to a Fortress.
SkyCity/50 Production and 50 Power: Your Fortress can just float up in the sky, but is subject to the winds and just sort of, goes whereever. You can land it if you want.
Mobility/50 Production and 50 Power: You make your Fortress literally move where you want, but at a really really really slow pace. Whether you lift the thing up and place it on the back of a Giant Turtle, or you tie enough birds to it that it goes where you want, or you build a giant moleman engine that eats the dirt in front of your dungeon and allows you to creep forward, no matter what, it moves really really really slow, no faster than half a human walk speed and consumes 10 Power each Month.
Mana Well/15Production: A Mana Well can store up to 10 Power and this power can be used by Fortress Leaders while within the Fortress to fuel their attacks or spells (unless the Sage prevents it).
Mana Storage/30 Production: Mana Storage provides for storing 100 Power. Mana Storage can be moved to the Mana Well only with 2 hours of uninterrupted work from a Sage or Ruler acting as Sage.
Magic Collector/20 Production: Creates Power each month equal to your Magical Resource Ratingx2 and allows the Generate Power Sage Leadership Action.
Wards/40 Production: Power can be used to create Defense rating at a rate of 2 Defense for each Power committed.
Scrying Pool/40 Production: The Pool can convert Power into Patrol at a rate of 2 Patrol for each 1 Power, and Additionally, can be an aid in more specific Scrying by Fortress Leaders.
Sun Blotter/40 Production: 5 Power can be devoted to powering the Sun Blotter that obscures the sun for the Fortress if that is important to you for some reason.
Magic Item Creator/20 Production: Fortress Power can be expended to roll on the magic item charts relative to the amount of Power Expended.
Construct Manufacturer/20 Production: Each Month 2 Production and 1 Power can be used to produce 1 Manpower of Constructs.
Animation Lab/20 Production: Each Month the Lab can use 2 Power to produce one Manpower of Undead.
Fortress Leaders
A fortress usually has 6 Leaders. Even a cave, let’s be honest, it’s hard to find someone who doesn’t have a certain amount of authority when you shove 6 people in a cave. Many of the Sample Fortresses have fewer primarily to ease readers into the understanding of small Fortresses and to leave space for players.
Ruler: The Ruler can take on any other role in a given month.
Commander: The Commander adds 1 to the Defense and Defense Cap of the Fortress. The Commander can insert himself, alone without other leaders, into an Encounter against an Intrusion before Detection. Though this does have risks.
Architect: The Architect can oversee Upkeep, Satisfying 1 Upkeep. He can also determine which Traps are or are not maintained or active at what times of day.
Sage: Can produce one Power and can approve or reject attempts to extract power from the Mana Well or Mana Vault.
Magistrate: The Magistrate increases Patrol by 1 and gets the tie breaker vote on any Council Votes.
Manager: The Manager increases the Production cap of the Fortress by 1.
Sample Fortress Stat Blocks
Name: Troll Cave
Description: A small cave in the wall of a cliff overlooks the road downslope. A small tribe of trolls 8 in number preys on unsuspecting travelers.
Size: 1
Politics: Authoritative
Manpower: 2 (Trolls 1x2 Defense, 1 Patrol)
Resources: 1
Magical Resources: .5
Upkeep: 1-0
Production: 0
Traps: 0
Patrol: 2 (Defenders)
Defense: 4 (Defenders)
Power: 0
Features: Force Projection Architecture
Ruler: A brutish Troll Chief, acting as Commander.
Architect: A Troll that tends the fire.
Name: Wizard Tower
Description: A reclusive Wizard resides in a tower over a powerful Leyline. He powers a collection of mindless golems to maintain the tower, defend him from any intrusions, and help him produce replacements while tapping the Leyline to build up magic for his spells.
Size: 2
Politics: Authoritative
Manpower: 8 Unintelligent Construct (2 Upkeep, 3 Defense, 1x.5 Patrol, 2 Production)
Resources: 1
Magical Resources: 2
Upkeep: 2-2
Production: 2
Traps: 0
Patrol: 1 (Defenders)
Defense: 4 (Defenders)
Power: 1 Sage+4 Magic Collector+1 Class Ability Charging-4 Sustain Constructs, 2 Remainder
Features: Magical Resource Extraction Architecture, Defensive Architecture, Construct Manufacturer, Magic Collector, Mana Well.
Ruler: Zefeus The Alone acting as Sage
Name: Tenngu Village
Description: Hidden in the treetops of a forest, about 50 Tenngu live in relative secrecy, fighting off the occasional attacker or trapping the occasional animal, but mostly relying on the relative safety and hiddenness of their treetop homes for defense and fleeing and rebuilding in the case of serious incursions. Occasionally they send out Flights to trade with a nearby Elven Forest
Size: 2
Politics: Authoritative
Manpower: 6 (1 Upkeep, 1x1.5=2 Production, 1 Trap Maintenance, 1 Defense, 2x1.5=3 Patrol)
Resources: 2
Magical Resources: .5
Upkeep: 2-2
Production: 2
Traps: 1 (Defense)
Patrol: 3 (Defenders)
Defense: 3 (1 Traps, 1 Defense, 1 Commander)
Power: 0
Features: Forest Architecture
Ruler: Council Head acting as Magistrate
Commander: Heir of the Tribe
Architect: A Spirit Shaman tree artist building beautiful tree houses.
Name: Temple to Mayaheine
Description: A temple to Mayaheine resides on the side of the road, providing succor to all who come looking as they travel. The Graveyard of the Saints built up over time provides magical fuel to the Wards that hold back the night. While by no means impregnable, the well-built temple complex is a force to be reckoned with in assault, and wards further bolster the defenses. No one has ever snuck into the compound.
Size: 2
Politics: Consensus
Manpower: 2 Human (1 Upkeep, 1 Production), 4 Magician (1x2.5 Power, 3x2 Power)
Resources: 1
Magical Resources: 2
Upkeep: 2-2
Production: 1
Traps: 0
Patrol: 11 (Scrying)
Defense: 4 (Wards)
Power: 2 Sage +9 Manpower -2 Power for 4 Defense, -5 Power for 10 Patrol -2 Power Equip Defenders, 2 Remainder.
Features: Defensive Architecture, Magical Resource Extraction Architecture, Mana Well, Mana Storage, Wards, Scrying Pool
Ruler: Sohken the Mighty Fuels the Wards from the magic of the place. (Acting as Sage.)
Sage: Mohken the Patient overseas the burial and tending of the Graveyard of Saints.
Magistrate: Bohken the Wise overseas the scrying pool to prepare for attacks and handles conflicts amongst the people.
Architect: Lohken the Builder maintains the barracks and walls.
Name: Kobold Warren
Description: A series of small burrows are scattered around the hills, besides the many fakes meant to distract, most lead down into the twisted tunnels of the Kobold Warren. Few ever bother to attack the Kobolds, partly because no one expects to find much good down there, partly because no one wants to deal with the legion of traps, but mostly just because the tunnels are so small. The Kobolds do a brisk business of trap building for the nearby Mountain of Moradin Dwarves who appreciate fine Kobold craftsmanship in trapping, though the trade requires traversing underdark paths that are not particularly protected by either side, where Umberhulks and Mindflayers pick off caravans.
So successful is it, this Warren is expanding.
Size: 3->4
Politics: Feudal
Manpower: 12 Kobold (3 Upkeep, 5x1.5 Trap Maintenance, 2x1.5+2=5 Production)
Resources: 3
Magical Resources: .5
Upkeep: 4-4
Production: 5->Expansion
Traps: 8 (4 Defense, 4 Patrol)
Patrol: 6 (Traps)
Defense: 6 (Traps)
Power: 0
Features: Defensive Architecture, Force Projection Architecture, Resource Extraction Architecture (Copper Mine)
Ruler: Glorious Great Masterful Majestic Kukdu (Acting as Architect)
Commander: Great Kilpe
Magistrate: Glorious Dik
Manager: Majestic Verka
Name: Wizard College
Description: Built in a giant pentagram with 5 large towers on the corners and a single even larger tower in the center, this old and prestigious Wizard College has a great Library, dorms for students who pay exorbitant fees to enter, classrooms, labs, and a small army of constructs to maintain the buildings and grounds. But most magnificent are the Crystal Gardens which help power this glorious institution, truly a wonder of the world. Of course, what would a wonder be without a Council of Grumpy Old Wizards to deny access to any who would attempt to benefit from it.
Size: 3
Politics: Feudal
Manpower: 11 Magician (3x2.5 Power, 8x2 Power) 4 Unintelligent Construct (1 Upkeep, 3 Production)
Resources: 1
Magical Resources: 4
Upkeep: 3-3
Production: 3
Traps: 0
Patrol: 22 (Scrying)
Defense: 7 (7 Wards) Cap is 3 Size +1 Commander + 1 Defensive Architecture +1 Force Projection Architecture, +1 Equip Defenders.
Power: 2 Sages + 8 Magical Collector + 24 Manpower -2 Power Constructs - 2 for 4 Defense – 10 for 20 Patrol -3 Power Equip Defenders = 17 Stored to power Magic.
Features: Magical Resource Extraction Architecture, Force Protection Architecture, Defensive Architecture, Mana Well, Mana Storage, Magic Collector, Wards, Scrying Pool, Construct Manufacturer
Ruler: Archmage Cruforn (Acting as Sage)
Sage: Master Diviner Pothar
Magistrate: Master Enchanter Qataris
Architecture: Master Transmuter Masuqor
Manager: Master Conjurer Uwijor
Commander: Master Abjurer Vragiforn
Name: Keep and Castle
Description: A single large stone structure dominates the field, a powerful and resilient keep. Surrounding it are a small collection of buildings that for locals to sleep in within a solid stone wall dotted with towers. A moat separates the walls from the nearby fields where during the day the people farm.
Size: 3
Manpower: 12 Human (2 Upkeep, 1 Patrol, 4 Defense, 2x1.5 Production, 2 Production, 1x.5 Power)
Resources: 3 (Fertile Fields)
Magical Resources: .5
Upkeep: 3-3
Production: 5
Traps:
Patrol: 3 (Defenders)
Defense: 6 (Defenders)
Power: 2
Features: Defensive Architecture, Force Projection Architecture, Resource Extraction Architecture, Mana Well
Ruler: Lord Kaden GryphonHeart (Acting as Commander)
Architect: Lord Salt
Magistrate: Lord Vinegar
Sage: Wizard Sugar
Name: City of the Damned
Description: Underneath the black sky with the sun forever blotted out spawls the ruins of an old city. But while decay has set in, creatures do still live here in vast numbers. Shambling Zombies, floating Spectres, and gangs of Vampires all call this city home. And so does the Lich at the top of the Highest Tower.
Size: 4
Politics: Fractured
Manpower: 6 Unintelligent Undead (6x.5 Upkeep) 8 Undead (2x2 Production, 2 Traps, 2x1.5 Power, 2 Power) 6 Starving Undead (2 Patrol, 4 Defense)
Resources: 3
Magical Resources: 3
Upkeep: 4-4
Production: 4
Traps: 2 (Patrol)
Patrol: 4 (2 Traps, 2 Defenders)
Defense: 5 (Defenders)
Power: 1 Sage + 6 Magic Collector + 5 Manpower - 7 Maintenance - 5 Sun Blotter
Features: Magical Resource Extraction Architecture, Resource Extraction Architecture, Forest Architecture (Yes, a series of ruined buildings some of which are occupied and some aren’t is like a Forest), Mana Well, Mana Storage, Magic Collector, Magic Item Creator, Animation Lab, Sun Blotter.
Ruler: Great Lich Xexagedh (Acting as Sage)
Commander: Vampire Kingpin Roman
Architect: Undead Lieutenant Matrim
This is the first obviously multi faction Fortress, though such things are common, and truthfully the Wizards College and Castle are probably multi factional. This Fortress is also Fractured meaning it lacks a coherent single political establishment. Here we see that the Ruler, the Lich, acting as Sage, denies sustenance to some undead, resulting in them slowly dying off. However, because the location is so well known and so popular, it attracts new migrants to maintain numbers. In the leaders, the Lich has the complete obedience of his Undead Lieutenant whose sole job is to direct zombies to maintain the city and its valuable structures. Meanwhile the rest of the population consists of various undead, including starving undead at the lowest end of the totem pole patrolling and defending, and more well off Vampire Gangs that act with a degree of impunity.
This city is an excellent political opportunity for Undead PCs (or those very committed to pretending) who can seize power either by force or by correcting the ills of the city, and turn that power into Leadership Positions, and from there, attempt to unseat existing members and consolidate power.
Name: Mount Moradin
Description: The Mountain of Moradin is a large Dwarf Fortress that dominates the nearby hills. The front gates are finely crafted Dwarven Steel. Built over a rich adamantium mine, the Dwarves do brisk trade with several nearby partners, both underground and above. Dwarves don’t like intruders so traps and patrols of their chokepoints are common defenses against the dangers of intrusion from tunnels underneath.
Size: 4
Politics: Consensus
Manpower: 18 Dwarf (4 Trap Maintenance, 2x1.5 Upkeep, 5 Defense, 4x2 Production, 2x1.5 Production, 1x.5Patrol)
Resources: 5 Adamantium Mine
Magical Resources: .5
Upkeep: 4-4
Production: 10
Traps: 4 (Patrol)
Patrol: 8 (4 Traps, 1 Defenders, 2 Magistrate, 1 Architecture)
Defense: 7 (Defenders)
Power: 1 Sage
Features: Defensive Architecture, Force Projection Architecture, Assembly Architecture, Resource Extraction Architecture, Mana Well
Ruler: King Morrim (Acting as Magistrate)
Architect: Engineer Regdus
Manager: Comptroller Harmun
Sage: Priest Morkum
Commander: Lord Dolram
Magistrate: Justice Karrim
Name: The Giant Mountains
Description: The Giant Mountains are where the giants raid from. Tall, snowy in parts, adventurers braving the mountains rarely return with success or good spirits. Meanwhile, Giant Raids regularly sack smaller fortresses to carry spoils back to the Dragon who lives in their center. Once every 10 years of so, Erenth the Magnificent ventures out on his wings to devour and destroy, laying waste to several small villages.
Size: 5
Politics: Authoritative
Manpower: 24 Giants (4 Upkeep, 3x2 Defense, 6x.5 Power, 1x1.5 Production, 3 Production, 7 Patrol)
Resources: 2
Magical Resources: .5
Upkeep: 5-5
Production: 5
Traps: 0
Patrol: 10 (Defenders)
Defense: 8 (Defenders)
Power: 4
Features: Forest Architecture, Defensive Architecture, Force Projection Architecture, Mana Well
Ruler: Erenth the Magnificent Gargantuan Dragon (Acting as Magistrate)
Magistrate: Giant Councilor
Commander: Giant Councilor
Architect: Giant Councilor
Sage: Giant Councilor
Name: The Great Below
Description: The Great Below is a massive sprawling dungeon complex that slowly drifts around the continent. Said to be created by a powerful Wizard millenia ago, no one actually knows the true origin. The dungeon itself slowly moves across the continent by teleporting rooms seemingly at random to the outside of the dungeon’s current location, slowly creeping in that direction. Over time, people have wandered into the Great Below, either intentionally or accidentally, and occasionally the moving nature of construct has resulted in entire villages or parts of cities falling into the dungeon. While many people have left, others have taken up residence. While the Factions within the dungeon are many and conflicting a rough approximation of a set of leaders has produced itself over time.
Size: 5
Politics: Fractured
Manpower: 5 Unintelligent Constructs (5 Upkeep) 2 Animals (2x1.5 Patrol) 6 Goblins (1x2 Production, 3x1.5 Production, 2 Patrol) 2 Undead (Patrol 2) 4 Orcs (4x1.5 Defense) 4 Kobolds (4x1.5 Trap Maintenance) 6 Elves (6x2 Power)
Resources: 2
Magical Resources: 10
Upkeep: 5-5
Production: 7
Traps: 6 (Patrol)
Patrol: 14 (6 Traps, 2 Goblin Defenders, 3 Animal Defenders, 3 Undead Defenders)
Defense: 8 (Orc Defenders)
Power: 1 Sage + 20 Magic Collector + 12 Manpower – 4 Undead and Constructs – 10 Mobility – 5 Equip Defenders = 14 Stored, but a lot of it mysteriously disappears.
Features: Forest Architecture, Defensive Architecture, Magical Resource Extraction Architecture, Construct Manufacturer, Mana Well, Mana Storage, Magic Collector, Mobility
Ruler: If there is one, no one knows about him, but power use does fluctuate wildly, so perhaps the original creator is somewhere down there acting as Sage to gain access to Power sources.
Architect: 0001, a Construct that seems to be intelligent, directs a fleet of constructs in ongoing repairs of the dungeon. Probably knows things about the architecture that no one else does.
Magistrate: Mordark the Fair is a Necromancer who leads a crew of ghouls around attacking people and setting up “Trials” and then getting people eaten.
Manager: Bigets the Goblin Man leads a host of Goblins that mostly avoid dying by paying tribute in manufactured war gear and food farmed by the Goblins.
Commander: Grag the Breaker is an Orc who leads a tribe. Mostly they just trot around murdering anyone who attacks them, but other residents occasionally direct them to where a good target for murder is.
Sage: The Sorcerer Nygos Vruan rules a tribe of Drow who became residents of the dungeon as it slowly teleported into their city. Since they have found the dungeon to be convenient for many purposes, not least the magical nature of the dungeon provides a ready access to magic, autonomous repair constructs, and trade with the Goblin Farmers has drastically reduced the need to focus on any other tasks but pursuing magic.
Enemies in a Fortress
There are two different kinds of enemies in a Fortress, Intruders and Attackers. An Attack is when everyone in the Fortress basically knows that there are enemies in the Fortress and the defenses and defenders are mobilized against the attackers. While the defenses of a fortress and the strength of attackers vary, and attackers can still use stealth tactics, the main premise here is that everyone in the fort is actively prepared for encountering enemies and actively pursuing the attempt to expel attackers. An Intrusion on the other hand is when enemies attempt to accomplish an objective inside a Fortress with either no or relatively few members of the Fortress being aware. While defenses are certainly still relevant, guards still guard locations even when the fortress isn’t on full alert, Patrol is a more significant opposition for Intruders.
Intrusion
When Intruders begin an Intrusion the first step is figuring out the initial Intrusion Points. An intrusion starts with 50 Points. Then give 20 bonus points if the intruders number less than the Size of the Fortress. If the Intruders outnumber the size of the Fortress subtract 10, then subtract 10 again for each doubling of the size. Finally, give 10 points for each point the Fortress Size is over the Fortress’s patrol, and subtract 5 for each point that the Patrol is over the Size of the Fortress. Whatever this number is represents the Initial Intrusion Points.
Starting Intrusion Points = 50 + [Numbers vs Size] + [Patrol vs Size]
To accomplish tasks as an Intruders, you have to spend Intrusion Points. Once an Intrusion runs out of Intrusion Points or needs more to perform a specific task they may “Encounter Opposition” to gain more Intrusion Points. Encountering Opposition gives 20 Intrusion Points + 10 for each point Size exceeds Patrol.
Encountering Opposition
Opposition should, for the most part, be a tough encounter. OMs can invent Patrols on the fly or can write up Patrols or defenses in advance for a Fortress. When PCs are Leaders of a Fortress they should be encouraged to write up their own Patrols, Guards, Wards, and Traps. While most of the time, you are probably going to want to determine the outcome of an encounter the PCs are not part of by eyeballing, magic tea party, or a small set of rolls, Patrol designs are one of the ways PCs can take ownership of their Fortress, and you never know when the Commander might want to insert himself into a Opposition encounter. PCs may also be patrolling a Fortress they don’t own but reside in as part of paying rent. In which case, the PCs are the Opposition Encountered, which usually comes with advantages.
“Opposition” actually takes the form of some combination of Traps, Patrols, Defenders, Wards, or Scrying depending on how a Fortress has paid for both its Defense and Patrol ratings. To determine the type of Opposition add up the amount of Patrol and Defense bought by Defenders or Physical Patrols, add up all maintained Traps, Defense and Patrol and keep Wards and Scrying as their own numbers. Then roll a dice that approximates this fraction to determine what kind of Encounter is faced. Bonuses to Patrol or Defense from Leaders, Architecture, and Equipped Defenders can be applied to whatever kind the Owner of the Fortress would like, provided it already has a non zero amount of Defense or Patrol of that kind.
Border numbers should produce Combo encounters where both types are used. If PCs control a fortress, they choose which types of Defense or Patrol are in the middle and therefore more likely present in combo encounters. NPC fortresses should always use defenders as the middle option.
Wards should be some kind of barrier that either costs resources to bypass or drastically slows progress possibly even costing more Intrusion Points than the Intruders gain from encountering it. However they should have no chance of bringing the Fortress to Alert status and probably won’t kill any intruders unless they make a very big mistake.
Traps should either cost resources or alert the Fortress. Most Traps probably don’t alert the Fortress, because you really don’t want your fortress going on High Alert every time an animal wanders into a trap. Only the most magically advanced or smallest Fortresses should ever use that kind of trap generally. Alert traps can be more common in highly sensitive areas. Maintained traps probably have someone come check them occasionally, but Intruders could possibly reset the traps themselves.
Defenders should be an encounter where if some of the enemies escape, the Fortress soon becomes on Alert, triggering the Defense phase. It should involve Monsters or Grunts of some kind.
Scrying encounters are not limited to magical scrying, but also magical divinations that warn of future attacks, locations with good sightlines, and permanently watched chokepoints. Intrusions might need to detect a scrying sensor and destroy it to move past or get noticed, find a way around a choke points, or take out a watcher from a distance without alerting others. The goal here is to avoid notice, and any way you can accomplish that defeats the encounter.
Combo Encounters should be any combination of the right kinds of Opposition, whether a trap into an ambush for Trap/Defender, a trapped bridge over a chasm for Trap/Wards, or enemies attacking you from behind illusory walls they can see you through or across a chasm for Wards/Defenders.
When designing encounters, OMs are encouraged to focus on making these either/ors as options the PCs can choose based on how their abilities or decisions interact with the encounter. OMs are also encouraged to increase the strength of encounters if the Fortresses Defense is significantly greater than the PCs should be taking on at this level. Commanders can insert themselves into a Patrol encounter as an additional enemy, this greatly increases the chance of being able to Alert the fortress, or perhaps even end the Intrusion with a decisive defeat, but at commiserate risk to the Commander of being defeated themselves.
If on the conclusion of Encountering a Patrol the Intrusion has 0 or negative intrusion points, then the Fortress goes to Alert immediately.
Example Fortress Encounters
So say a fortress has 10 patrol, 5 from traps and 5 from Animal Defenders. It further has 5 Defense from Orc Defenders. Then when the party chooses to face an encounter, they start by rolling a 1d15 (or 1d12+1d6/2 or 2d8 if you don’t have a computer).
On a roll of 1-4 you run a trap encounter, on a roll of 5-6 you have a trap/defender hybrid encounter, and on a roll of 7-15 you have a defender encounter. For a defender encounter or combo counter you could roll 1d10 (or 1d2 since they are even) to decide whether you use animals or orcs, or you could use a mix of them, or you could just run whichever you want, depending on what you want. You may have prepared several encounters and if you expect your PCs to trigger multiple encounters you might just want to run them in order.
Fortress Layouts
PC Residents or Leaders should be encouraged to lay out their entire fortress down to specifics, but they should adhere to the general rules of Fortress Layout here. OMs can design the Fortresses specifically ahead of time, or on the fly, or even remain in abstraction, if the group of players prefers the style.
Fortresses have 4 kinds of areas for the purpose of Intrusions:
Outer Perimeter: This is the area directly observable or protected, but not currently occupied.
Inner Perimeter: The manned area of the Fortress used for defense, but not commonly for other tasks.
Common Areas: All the areas of fortress inhabited but mostly open to any resident of the Fortress.
Secure Areas: Those areas that are confined exclusively to the Leaders and their most trustworthy guards.
The first three areas are technically permitted to be part of any design, but traditionally are viewed as three concentric circles in the order written. Secure Areas are subject to special rules. A Fortress can only have as many Secure Areas as its size. They can include all kinds of features or housing in those areas, but they can only have that number. This is important because each Secure Area must be Located and Penetrated separately.
Spending Intrusion Points
An Intrusion can spend points for the following actions. You must have the Intrusion Points before spending them for the action.
Penetrate either Perimeter or Common Areas: 15 points each of the three. These areas need only be Penetrated once each for a single Intrusion and then can be shifted back and forth.
Spend 1 Hour in an Area: Secure: 5 Points, Inner Perimeter: 2 Points, Outer Perimeter or Common Areas: 1 point. At the end of an hour, subtract the points for the most costly area the PCs spent time in.
Actions that can only be accomplished from the Common Areas:
Locate a Secure Area: 10 points.
Approximate the Contents of a Secure Area: 10 points, done once per Secure Area and only to a located one.
Ascertain Resource or Magical Resource Rating: 10 points.
Penetrate a Secure Area: 20 Points.
Sabotage Production or Power 1: 30 points. Sabotage actions lower the total by 1 for the month.
Exterminate 1 Manpower: 100 points.
Actions that can only be taken in the Inner Perimeter:
Sabotage Defense or Patrol 1: 30 points.
Actions which can be taken wherever a Feature or Leader is located:
Sabotage a Feature: 50 points. A Sabotaged Feature ceases to provide its effect against future intrusions and assaults for the month, but can be repaired with one production at the end of the month. Architectures cannot be sabotaged.
Assassinate a Leader: 50 points. Triggers an Encounter on the Leader from Surprise. May result in other enemies being present, depending on the normal protection procedures of the Leader. Even if a valid target to replace the Leader exists, they cannot fully replace the previous leader until the beginning of next month.
Fortresses on Alert
Fortresses that go on Alert from a detected Intrusion can stay on Alert for either 1 day, 1 week, or 1 month. Staying on Alert for the month sacrifices all Production and Power. Staying on Alert for 1 week costs 1/4th Production but no Power. Staying on Alert 1 day costs nothing.
Once a Fortress is on Alert, the Commander is aware of the Intrusion, and the Fortress begins using Defense to repel the Intrusion as if it were an Attack. In Fact, the Intrusion becomes an Attack.
Resolving Attacks
Defense repels Attacks by PCs by sending successive encounters at them with only short 3-5 minute intervals between. The first encounter of the Defense should be a tough encounter. But each successive encounter should add another creature of the party’s level (or equivalent value of smaller creatures) to the encounter until it has reached [Number of PCs] + [Amount Defense Rating Exceeds Attack Rating]. Once that number has been reached, the PCs should Face another such encounter along with one or more leaders, as appropriate, and repeat until all the Leaders are Captured, Killed, or Fled. Successfully defeating all the Leaders in this manner results in capturing the Fortress.
If PC’s are alone they are an attack of strength 0 and have to defeat enemies to prove their strength. As you can see, capturing large defense Fortresses can be quite difficult.
It is possible for PCs to defeat encounters however by stealth or diplomacy even when the Fortress is on Alert, however Diplomacy is more difficult when enemies know that they have reinforcements coming, and Stealth is more difficult when enemies are on home turf and have the opportunity to take time looking for PCs. Another possibility is to just bring a huge attack force besides the PCs to help out.
When PCs aren’t attacking, an attack should have an Attack rating. If the Defense rating exceeds the Attack rating, then it should repel the attack on its own. If the PCs are performing Defense for a Fortress in this case, have them fight a Tough Encounter. If the PCs are performing Defense for a Fortress and the Attack exceeds the Defense of the Fortress, Resolve a Tough Encounter, then add a Monster or Grunt of EV equal to the PCs and run another encounter. Repeat until the PCs decide to flee, are defeated, or defeat an encounter that is a Tough Encounter + [a number of additional Monsters equal to the amount Attack exceeds Defense]. As Defenders PCs should get 15 minute breaks between encounters. If the PCs are victorious they have impressively out performed expectations and will be showered with praise for having thrown off the attack. If they fail, consider whether the Fortress’s Leaders would have been able to succeed, and if they would have tried. If yes to both the PCs may be down but they did their job and the Fortress is protected. Consider having both enemy Leaders and Fortress Leaders enter the battle before PCs expire where appropriate.
If the PCs are Leaders of their own Fortress, then they can start taking actions in combat time, using their abilities to locate and join their Defense in repelling the attack. For PC Leaders defending an Attack of higher rating than the Fortress Defense, subtract the Defense from the Attack, and then Have the PCs fight encounters following the same rules as above (Tough Encounter then increasing creatures by 1 until they have as many additional creatures as the Attack rating exceeds Defense). However, because they are Leaders they have an accompanying Defense squadron which you should encourage them to design. The defense squad should be a Tough Encounter for a group of PCs of one level lower then the PCs are but the same number. Once per Commander PC or NPC Commander participating the PCs can wait 1 hour between encounters. After defeating the last encounter, the Attack is defeated. If the PCs are not Leaders then any Residents taking the Defense and Patrol action can join as an addition to the the defense squad, if no Residents are taking a Defense action then the results of the attack are out of their hands (unless it is a Fiend Attack).
Attack Results
Once an attack has come to a conclusion the resolution depends on the results:
1) If the Defenders have repelled the attack, then anyone who died is dead, but grunts are usually replaceable. The Attackers lose 1/3rd the manpower of the Attack and any Leaders who died in resolution. (In the case of Fiends then any that died are dead, and any that escaped escaped.)
2) If the Attack is successful and the Attackers wish to loot and leave, they may. For every Attack Encounter not defeated by the Defenders the Attackers get one Loot Point. Each Leader for the Attackers present in the Attack also grants a Loot Point. Loot Points can be spent to accomplish the tasks below in any combination, after which the Attackers leave.
Loot: 3 Production worth of Production Goods, Currency, Food, or Traps can be taken from Defenders and given to Attackers per Loot Point. This includes production that would be accomplished this Fortress Turn.
Pillage: 1 Degradation can be caused per Loot Point.
Capture/Murder: 1 Manpower per Loot Point can be captured and taken back as slaves (unintelligent Manpower modifier added, could later be upgraded with freedom). Alternatively, they can just kill off 1 Manpower for each Loot Point.
3) If the Attack is successful and the Attackers want to stay and take control then they become a faction with 2 Political Power.
Any time a non Fiend Attack is successful all existing factions are reduced to 1 Political Power and the Fortress becomes Fractured.
Launching Attacks
Attacks have an Attack rating. The rules above apply to resolving attacks. Attacks can usually begin with an intrusion if they want, usually attempting to Sabotage Defense. There are two main sources of attacks: 1) Attacks from other Fortresses. 2) Fiends. Fiend Attack rules will be covered in the Monsters section.
For players to attack from their Fortress to another Fortress or to judge the strength of an attack from another Fortress, follow the rules below.
Firstly, the Attack rating must be generated, this is done by assigning Manpower to the Attack. The Manpower can only be used for attacks that Month. This Manpower receives the same bonus as the Defense bonus of its features. Once gathered, the Manpower must be mobilized and launched forming a Caravan, and the Attack must be transported to the target location. This force can usually steamroll Travel Encounters not needing those resolved but roll Attacks for this force as if the force was a Fortress with size equal to one half manpower, but all attacks are Fiend Attacks.
Once the Attack reaches its destination, it can send an Intrusion team prior to the Attack, and then make the Attack. Leaders accompanying the Attack can take part in each battle at every step, though most Leaders are very reluctant to do so. A Defeated Attack involves losing 1/3rd the Manpower involved in the attack (round up) and retreating home. Continue resolving Fiend attacks on the retreat.
Rolling Complications and Attacks
Each Month, you should roll both Attacks and Complications for any PC occupied Fortress. If PCs are Leaders, then they should resolve the complication. If they are in the process of fighting for political power, you should give them the opportunity to either try to use political power to influence the complication or to exploit the complication for political gain. If they are Residents then they may have some ability to influence the result or they may not, so make any choices for the Fortress and its leaders unless they intervene, then run the “Resident:” section of the event for the PCs.
Attacks should be “Resolved” as appropriate no matter the PCs status, since the Fortress being sacked by Fiends or conquered probably drastically effects their lives.
For all rolls X is equal to the size of the Fortress plus the number of different types of Manpower present in the fortress.
For Attacks, roll 1dX and 1d3-1, multiply the results to determine how many attacks the Fortress experiences. Then Roll 1d6 for each attack, and have each Attack rating be Fortress Size plus that result. Feel free to generate custom attacks as appropriate to the plot or to increase the Attack rating if the location has particularly valuable Resources or Magical Resources.
The OM can have any number of attacks be Fiends Attacks or Attacks by Sentients following the Attack rules or they can roll a die for each attack with evens being Fiend attacks and odds being regular attacks.
Complications
For Complications, roll Xd100. This will give you set of possible complications. Leaders decide which complications to take with an disputes being resolved by Council Vote. Leaders may remove the highest die result if they wish. They must then take complications from highest to lowest die result. Once they reach a number equal to Fortress Size, they can stop taking complications or continue. This decision can be made after each complication continuing from highest to lowest.
Once chosen resolve Complications when appropriate throughout the month with as much embellishment as appropriate.
Societal Responses to Complications:
Authoritative: When a Manpower Conflict occurs the Ruling Faction can gain 1d10 Political Power.
Feudal: When an Opposing Political Faction gains power, the Ruling Faction decides which one gains that power.
Consensus: In a Labor Dispute, production is three quarters round up.
Fractured: Immune to Civil War Complication. (Because it kind of already happened.)
Complications Chart:
Refugee Migration 1-10
Resource Discovered 11-15
Magical Resource Created 16-20
Advanced Knowledge of Attack 21-25
Ruling Faction Gains Political Power 26-30
Political Faction Created Opposing Ruling Faction 31-35
Labor Dispute 36-45
Intrusion 46-50
Trap Malfunction 51-55
Trade Dispute 56-60
Magical Feedback 61-65
Non Ruling Faction Gains Political Power 66-75
Fiend Attack 76-80
Degradation 81-85
Resource Dries Up 86-90
Manpower Conflict 91-95
Civil War 96-100
Refugee Migration: The OM can choose or roll randomly for a type of Manpower. You can turn them away to gain 1d10 Political Power or you can accept them and increase Manpower by one of that type. Resident: No direct effect.
Resource Discovered: A new resource deposit allows you to increase Resource rating by 1 or can be put into current tasks, increasing production and production cap this month by 10. Resident: No direct effect.
Magical Resource Created: A Power spike allows the Fortress to either produce 30 Power immediately or to increase Magical Resource rating by 1. If your rating is .5, increase it to 1. Resident: No direct effect.
Advanced Knowledge of Attack: You choose either advanced knowledge of the next Fiend Attack or advanced knowledge of the next Opposing Fortress attack. In either case, you can treat your Defense rating and Defense cap as 3 higher for that attack. If you have advanced knowledge of a Fortress attack you can lay an ambush, allowing you to assemble an Attack and use your Defense rating + the Attack rating as your Ambush rating, which acts as a defense against their attack. If you succeed on an ambush, you exterminate 2/3rds the manpower sent on the attack, instead of half rounded up. Resident: A Resident taking the Defense Action can insert themselves into any encounter without it counting as their use of the Defense Action.
Ruling Faction Gains Political Power: The Ruling Faction gains 1d10 Political Power. Resident: No Direct Effect.
Political Faction Created Opposing Ruling Faction: A new Faction is created that opposes the ruling faction or all existing factions if there is no ruling faction. It starts with 3 Political Power. Resident: Any number of Residents may choose to join this faction at no cost. If one or more does so it starts with 5 Political Power.
Labor Dispute: Production is halved this Month, round up. Resident: Cost of items is increased 1.5 times if production is halved.
Intrusion: An enemy Intrusion team happens. Resident: Run an encounter for anyone taking the Defense or Patrol action.
Trap Malfunction: Half of the Traps don’t work this month, or Leaders don’t try to fix the problem and just let them run haywire, in which case the Fortress loses 1 Manpower at random. Resident: If the traps are allowed to haywire, run one trap encounter per PC.
Trade Dispute: If any Convoys were launched, at least one fails and returns with what it left with, but all Political Power invested is destroyed. Resident: Item costs are 1.5 times. Run the trade dispute as a challenge for any Trader Resident(s) and perhaps they can avoid the Complication.
Magical Feedback: Magical Power overloads. Either the Fortress loses all power production this month and Leaders can’t use the Mana Well if they have one or the Fortress loses 1 Manpower that was involved in Power production. (If no manpower is involved in Power production, then you can effectively ignore this event.) Resident: If any Resident takes the Power Regulation action give them a chance to prevent this result based on the way power is generated. If they succeed give their faction one Political Power.
Non Ruling Faction Gains Political Power: An opposing faction to the Ruling Faction gains 1d10 Political Power. If there are no political factions opposing the Ruling Faction, nothing happens. If this event happens in the same phase as the creation of an opposing party, that party is the one that gains the Political Power. Resident: Any number of Residents can move to the faction that gained power at no cost.
Fiend Attack: An additional Fiend Attack occurs of rating 1d6+Size. Resident: The Fiend Attack happens to the Residents, even if none are employed in Defense or Patrol, they are still are subject to the attack. Bad Luck.
Degradation: The Fortress gets one point of Degradation to deal with at the end of the month. Resident: No direct effect. But the fortress will suffer whatever loses are imposed.
Resource Dries Up: Fortress Resource rating decreases by 1. Resident: No direct effect.
Manpower Conflict: A conflict between different kinds of Manpower occurs. The OM determines randomly or by selection two types of Manpower, Leaders choose to act to end the conflict in a way that kills one Manpower of one of those types, their choice. Resident: Run a Tough Encounter for a party 2 levels lower than the party’s level. If a Resident is acting as Legal Assistant give them a very difficult challenge where success prevents the conflict.
Civil War: A civil war breaks out in your Fortress. If any faction has more Political Power than all other Factions combined, it wins and exterminates 1 manpower for each Faction. This Faction has total control over the Fortress and no other Factions exist. The Faction can change the kind of political system the Fortress uses after winning a Civil War. If no Faction has more Political Power than all others, the Fortress enters a Fractured state with the Ruling Faction maintaining control over the Ruler position, and all the different political Factions including the Ruling Faction bidding on each other Leadership Position. If there are no opposing political factions, nothing happens.
Resident: If the result is extermination or fracturing each Resident rolls a 1d10. In extermination if they are a member of the winning Faction on a 1 they are expelled from the Fortress or die (Player’s choice) and on a 2-10, no direct effect. If they are not a member of the winning Faction in extermination on a 1 they die and on a 2-10 they die or are expelled (Player’s choice). In a Fracturing if they rolled a 10, they become a Leader of that faction if it is capable of bidding a Leadership position. Let them do the bidding on behalf of that Faction. Congratulations on entering into the Leadership stage whether you like it or not.
Any PCs expelled are no longer a part of the same Fortress as other players. Other PCs may leave to join their Ronin brethren or aid their friends in an attempt to return to the Fortress.
Resolving Attacks and Complications
When is the right time to resolve an attack or complication? Whenever you want. Generally speaking the Attacks and Complications add something specific for players to deal with during a Fortress Turn in addition to their goals, so they represent something to worry about, prepare for, plan around, or exploit. Attacks are secret, but Complications are known to the players as Residents or Leaders. If the players seem bored, maybe now is the time to spring an attack on them. If the players have completed an extremely profitable dungeon looting adventure romp with little difficulty and are flying high, maybe the return to find out that an attack happened while they were away to bring back some tension. The goal of these features is to provide opportunities to direct the game, but since the game is about whatever the group enjoys, these effects should be used when and how they help the group enjoy playing.
Outposts
Sometimes a Fortress will want to have some associated group of its people spend a fair amount of time not in the main fortress and instead elsewhere. This could represent a colony, a distant resource mining location, a defensive outpost of some kind, or anything else that makes sense. The result is a partial Fortress tied to the main Fortress.
Each Fortress can have half its size in Outposts and each Outpost is capped at half the size of the Fortress.
An Outpost uses many of the Fortress rules. An Outpost has a Size and one Architecture. An Outpost has a Defense, Patrol, and Traps Rating. An Outpost has a separate Manpower Cap from the Fortress, based on its size. An Outpost does not have Upkeep, Production, or Power rating, being counted as part of the Fortress for such purposes. An Outpost has no politics, no complications, and does not have Leaders, instead having a Governor who controls the Outpost and makes all relevant decisions about Manpower allocation and can join in Defense of an Attack. An Outpost does have Attacks they roll each turn and must fend off according to the normal Fortress rules.
Outposts can draw Power from the Fortress to supply constructs or undead or Wards or Scrying or Equip Defenders, but benefits from a Mana Well do not apply.
When an Outpost falls to an attack the Outpost is eliminated and half the Manpower is eliminated starting with Defenders. The rest flee back to the Fortress that may or may not be able to take them in.
Benefits to the Fortress
The primary reason that Fortresses build Outposts is that whatever the benefits of the Outposts Architecture are, the Fortress applies the same benefits to itself, this can be on top of existing Architecture and stack with other Architectures with the same name either on the Fortress or on other Outposts.
Secondarily, the Fortress can reallocate Manpower from itself to any Outpost or to itself from any Outpost during the allocation phase of any Fortress Turn, allowing Outposts to serve as reserve Manpower when the cap has been reached.
Thirdly, the Fortress can abandon an Outpost to negate any Attack or Complication. Doing so must be done before the Attack is resolved and must be agreed upon by a Council Vote. A Governor can veto this decision as well, but if they do so, the Attack is resolved against the Outpost instead of the Fortress if this was done to negate an attack, and in any case the Governor’s days in that position may be numbered.
Founding Outposts
Founding Outposts requires finding or creating a suitable Outpost location. Specific useful set ups can be found in the world, and you can make one by spending 10 Production towards making it. Alternatively, a successful attack on someone else’s Outpost lets you claim it.
Once you have an Outpost, you have to allocate at least one Manpower to it to get the Architecture benefit but you might want to do more to handle Defense and Patrol.
An Outpost can also become a Fortress by rebelling against its Fortress (usually not a great idea) or if you find an Outpost location you can found an Outpost without having a Fortress and then turn it into a Fortress so that you can begin your Fortress management.
