Leveling Up Leveling up is a fairly simple matter. When you crit on a prof that you don’t have at level four, you level that prof up. Your combined total of levels in profs makes up your character level. When your character level hits a multiple of three (up to a certain level that will be determined by your GM) you get to choose a new prof. When you hit a certain character level(to be determined by your GM), your class gets an upgrade and an additional or improved passive ability.
For example: When Archenteron hit level 17, he became a Human Stormmaster which means he has an advantage for using air spells to destroy things and has advantage on speed rolls to cast multiple lightning spells. What is a speed roll, you may ask? That brings us to...
CombatThe most rules-heavy part of any system is the fighting, so buckle up. The first part of combat is the initiative. This works the same as in any other combat system butwith speed advantage also counting as initiavtive advantages. The GM, as in all things, will roll for you.An initiative will look something like this:
Bad Guy 1ArchenteronBad Guy 2Bad Guy 3
This means that the first bad guy goes first and then Archenteron and then the next two bad guys. When the initiative is decided, the first combatant can declare an action (or several, but we’ll get to that) and then the GM can roll for it. When the GM is done rolling, there are five possible results. The worst result is a critical fail. This means something bad happens to the person who rolled. The second worst result is a regular failure. This means nothing beneficial or detrimental happens at all. The next best thing that can happen is that the action succeeds but triggers a reaction. This means that the targeted character can attack or defend in response to the action taken against them. Unlike a full turn, they only have one action to accomplish this with. The second best thing that can happen is a regular success. No reactions, nothing special, whatever the action was supposed to be is what it is. The best thing that can happen is a critical hit. A magical spell may do more than intended on a critical, or an attack may do extra damage, or an action may be wildly successful. Of course, as long as the character is A: a player character and B: doesn’t have fourth level in the ability, this means the ability will also level up. Let’s have a look at an example. Bad Guy 1 goes first. He tries to strike at Archenteron with a club but he rolls a critical failure. He trips over his feet and falls prone, losing the ability to attack until he takes an action to get up. Tough luck, faceless goon.Archenteron goes next. He chooses to strike at the prone Bad Guy 1 with his staff. This time, he’s lucky enough to roll a crit. He deals double damage with his staff and levels up his staff ability (it had only been at 2).Bad guy 2 strikes next. He rolls high enough to hit but low enough to give Archenteron a reaction. The GM will indicate this by typing (RXN) after his action. For instance, the GM may say “Bad Guy 2 strikes at Archenteron with his sword (RXN)”. This would prompt Archenteron to do something about the attack. In this case, he’ll try to deflect the sword strike with his staff. He rolls too low and experiences a failure, taking the damage. Bad Guy 3 takes his turn and has a normal success, hitting Archenteron with his club.
More advanced combat rules:You can hold an action in lieu of taking it immediately. Your held action must have a declared trigger. This trigger can be anything from an enemy moving to a spell being cast. Your character will take the action when the trigger occurs. If a whole turn sequence is completed without the trigger occurring and it comes back to your turn while you still have the held action, you will lose it. The held action can be any action you would ordinarily take but it happens off your turn.
You can take multiple actions per turn but doing so forces a speed roll. The more actions you take(up to 4), the higher your speed roll you need to roll to succeed. If you fail the speed roll, you take no actions for the turn. The speed roll is all or nothing. For two actions, it’s a fairly easy roll. For three actions in a turn, it’s middling with a relatively even chance (decided by GM) of passing and failing and for four actions it is unlikely to succeed. Held actions are included in this accounting. You can hold as many actions as you can take and you can take actions and hold actions in the same turn. Whether taken or held, the attempted actions cannot amount to more than four unless specified by the GM.
A spell can be ongoing if the caster specifies it. A player can, for instance, create a wall of fire on their turn and have it last for subsequent turns as well. The spell will not need to be rolled for each turn it lasts but it will count as an action. For instance, if you’re holding such a flame wall but also want to say, stab somebody, that would cause a speed roll for two actions in one turn. If you fumble a speed roll while holding a spell, the spell effect ends.
Let’s bring this all together with one last example. Archenteron is facing off against a small horde of mooks with his ally, the Elf Duelmaster, Rubisco. Rubisco stabs two mooks with his rapiers and then holds an action to intervene in case somebody rushes Archenteron. Archenteron successfully summons a whirlwind that wreaks havoc on the enemy lines. The enemies are too occupied avoiding the whirlwind to attack so Rubisco’s held action is not triggered. His turn comes up again and he loses his held action. Seeing that Archenteron may have this under control, he simply holds two actions to stab anybody who tries to attack his ally. Archenteron now has a decision to make. Summoning the whirlwind wasn’t easy but now as long as it’s held, he doesn’t have to roll for it again. If he tries to use any lightning spells, however, it will force a speed roll and he may lose his powerful whirlwind. Figuring he has advantage on speed rolls caused by lightning spells, he takes the chance and casts a lightning spell. Bad luck. He fumbles and loses the whirlwind. The bad guys attack him and Rubisco stabs two of them. It looks like a dangerous battle ahead…
And that’s it! You’re ready to play Murdon! If you have any questions, feel free to ask your GM. Have a grand adventure!
CombatThe most rules-heavy part of any system is the fighting, so buckle up. The first part of combat is the initiative. This works the same as in any other combat system butwith speed advantage also counting as initiavtive advantages. The GM, as in all things, will roll for you.An initiative will look something like this:
Bad Guy 1ArchenteronBad Guy 2Bad Guy 3
This means that the first bad guy goes first and then Archenteron and then the next two bad guys. When the initiative is decided, the first combatant can declare an action (or several, but we’ll get to that) and then the GM can roll for it. When the GM is done rolling, there are five possible results. The worst result is a critical fail. This means something bad happens to the person who rolled. The second worst result is a regular failure. This means nothing beneficial or detrimental happens at all. The next best thing that can happen is that the action succeeds but triggers a reaction. This means that the targeted character can attack or defend in response to the action taken against them. Unlike a full turn, they only have one action to accomplish this with. The second best thing that can happen is a regular success. No reactions, nothing special, whatever the action was supposed to be is what it is. The best thing that can happen is a critical hit. A magical spell may do more than intended on a critical, or an attack may do extra damage, or an action may be wildly successful. Of course, as long as the character is A: a player character and B: doesn’t have fourth level in the ability, this means the ability will also level up. Let’s have a look at an example. Bad Guy 1 goes first. He tries to strike at Archenteron with a club but he rolls a critical failure. He trips over his feet and falls prone, losing the ability to attack until he takes an action to get up. Tough luck, faceless goon.Archenteron goes next. He chooses to strike at the prone Bad Guy 1 with his staff. This time, he’s lucky enough to roll a crit. He deals double damage with his staff and levels up his staff ability (it had only been at 2).Bad guy 2 strikes next. He rolls high enough to hit but low enough to give Archenteron a reaction. The GM will indicate this by typing (RXN) after his action. For instance, the GM may say “Bad Guy 2 strikes at Archenteron with his sword (RXN)”. This would prompt Archenteron to do something about the attack. In this case, he’ll try to deflect the sword strike with his staff. He rolls too low and experiences a failure, taking the damage. Bad Guy 3 takes his turn and has a normal success, hitting Archenteron with his club.
More advanced combat rules:You can hold an action in lieu of taking it immediately. Your held action must have a declared trigger. This trigger can be anything from an enemy moving to a spell being cast. Your character will take the action when the trigger occurs. If a whole turn sequence is completed without the trigger occurring and it comes back to your turn while you still have the held action, you will lose it. The held action can be any action you would ordinarily take but it happens off your turn.
You can take multiple actions per turn but doing so forces a speed roll. The more actions you take(up to 4), the higher your speed roll you need to roll to succeed. If you fail the speed roll, you take no actions for the turn. The speed roll is all or nothing. For two actions, it’s a fairly easy roll. For three actions in a turn, it’s middling with a relatively even chance (decided by GM) of passing and failing and for four actions it is unlikely to succeed. Held actions are included in this accounting. You can hold as many actions as you can take and you can take actions and hold actions in the same turn. Whether taken or held, the attempted actions cannot amount to more than four unless specified by the GM.
A spell can be ongoing if the caster specifies it. A player can, for instance, create a wall of fire on their turn and have it last for subsequent turns as well. The spell will not need to be rolled for each turn it lasts but it will count as an action. For instance, if you’re holding such a flame wall but also want to say, stab somebody, that would cause a speed roll for two actions in one turn. If you fumble a speed roll while holding a spell, the spell effect ends.
Let’s bring this all together with one last example. Archenteron is facing off against a small horde of mooks with his ally, the Elf Duelmaster, Rubisco. Rubisco stabs two mooks with his rapiers and then holds an action to intervene in case somebody rushes Archenteron. Archenteron successfully summons a whirlwind that wreaks havoc on the enemy lines. The enemies are too occupied avoiding the whirlwind to attack so Rubisco’s held action is not triggered. His turn comes up again and he loses his held action. Seeing that Archenteron may have this under control, he simply holds two actions to stab anybody who tries to attack his ally. Archenteron now has a decision to make. Summoning the whirlwind wasn’t easy but now as long as it’s held, he doesn’t have to roll for it again. If he tries to use any lightning spells, however, it will force a speed roll and he may lose his powerful whirlwind. Figuring he has advantage on speed rolls caused by lightning spells, he takes the chance and casts a lightning spell. Bad luck. He fumbles and loses the whirlwind. The bad guys attack him and Rubisco stabs two of them. It looks like a dangerous battle ahead…
And that’s it! You’re ready to play Murdon! If you have any questions, feel free to ask your GM. Have a grand adventure!
