Condensed from "Creating an Adventurer" and "Game System" chapters.

1. Creating an Adventurer

Personal Information Fields

• Adventurer Name — anything you like.
• Species — human, troll, dwarf, etc. First adventurers should be human.
• Age — humans start at least 15 years old, plus up to 2D6 more years. A first adventurer is 21 years old (2D6+15 rolled for later adventurers).
• Gender — M or F.
• Culture — Primitive, Nomad, Barbarian, or Civilized (choose with your gamemaster).
• Religion — deity/cult favored; note special church/cult status.
• Player Name, Homeland Clan, Parents' Occupation, Adventurer Occupation — background/context fields.

Adventurer Characteristics

Seven characteristics define capacities and skills: Strength (STR), Constitution (CON), Size (SIZ), Intelligence (INT), Power (POW), Dexterity (DEX), Appearance (APP).

• No human starts with any characteristic above 18. Most characteristics can't be rolled below 3; INT and SIZ can't be rolled below 8.

Determining Characteristics

Roll 3D6 for all characteristics except INT and SIZ, which use 2D6+6.

Entering Characteristics

Write the rolled value on the "original" line. When a characteristic changes, use the "current" line but never erase the original value.

2. Attributes

Attributes are numerically derived from characteristics: Magic Points, Fatigue Points, Hit Points, Damage Modifier, DEX Strike Rank, SIZ Strike Rank Modifier, and Movement (fixed at 3 meters/strike rank for all humans).

Magic Points

Equal to current POW. Enter the original POW value into the magic point tally.

Fatigue Points

Equal to STR + CON.

Hit Points

• Total hit points = average of SIZ and CON (round fractions up).
• Hit points are distributed by hit location using the Hit Points Per Location Table (below).
• If an adventurer loses all hit points in one location, that location is disabled (e.g., a leg becomes useless). Death occurs when total hit points reach zero.

Hit Points Per Location Table (by total hit points band):

Formulas for locations: legs/abdomen/head = 1/3 total HP each; chest = 4/10 total HP; each arm = 1/4 total HP (all rounded up).

3. Damage Modifier

Total STR + SIZ, then consult:

Full modifier applies to melee weapon attacks; half modifier applies to thrown weapon attacks.

4. Strike Ranks and Strike Rank Modifiers

A melee round has ten strike ranks (1–10, lower acts first).

• DEX Strike Rank — from the table below, based on DEX.

• SIZ Strike Rank Modifier

• Melee Strike Rank Modifier = DEX Strike Rank + SIZ Strike Rank Modifier. Used with all melee weapons.
• Weapon's first strike rank (melee) = Melee SRM + the weapon's own Strike Rank Modifier (from the weapons table).
• Missile/Thrown weapons use the DEX Strike Rank directly as their first strike rank.
• Spell Strike Rank Modifier = number of magic points used to cast the spell. Added to the caster's DEX Strike Rank to find when the spell takes effect.

5. Skills and Modifiers

A skill is a percentage chance of success (roll D100 ≤ skill % to succeed). Skills group into seven categories, each influenced by particular characteristics.

Skill Categories

Category Modifiers (how to calculate)

For each characteristic influence:

• Primary influence: +1% per point of the characteristic over 10; −1% per point under 10.
• Secondary influence: +1% per 2 points over 10; −1% per 2 points under 10 (max +10% for secondary; characteristic points above 30 are ignored).
• Negative influence: reverse of Primary (−1% per point over 10; +1% per point under 10).

Category modifiers, once found, are added to the printed base chance of every skill in that category with a base chance above 0%. A skill modifier never takes a skill below 0%.

Category characteristic influences:

Skill Notes

• (05), (00), etc. next to a skill name are base chances common to all humans (non-human base chances are in the Creatures book).
• Weapon skills have no printed base chance on the sheet — look them up in the Cultural Weapons Tables (or the general weapons table if not culturally listed) and add the category (Manipulation) modifier.
• An experience-check box (☐) next to a skill means it can be improved via experience roll; skills without a box cannot be improved this way.

6. Weapons Section

• Attack Modifier = Manipulation skills category modifier (added to attack chance for any weapon).
• Parry Modifier = Agility skills category modifier (added to parry chance for any weapon).
• Weapon Damage = weapon's die roll + damage modifier.
• Strike Rank = weapon's own Strike Rank Modifier + Melee Strike Rank Modifier.
• AP (Armor Points) = how many hit points of damage a weapon can withstand before breaking, per the combat chapter's weapons tables.

7. Magical Data

Three varieties of magic exist depending on campaign/culture. The magic skills category modifier is entered once at the top of the magic section; individual spell names and percentage chances are recorded beneath it.

8. Equipment

Record: starting coinage (pennies), personal armor (with total encumbrance), weapons, and items carried on the adventurer or pack animals. Track total encumbrance and compare to fatigue rating.

9. Previous Experience

Adventurers begin at a minimum of 15 years old.

Skills

Tally 30 percentiles for every year older than 15. Divide these percentiles among skills:

• Skills with an experience-check box may be raised to a maximum of 75% this way.
• Skills without an experience-check box may be raised to a maximum of 100% this way.
• Magic skills: only sorcery-using characters gain percentiles in Intensity and their known spells this way; these can only be increased to 75%.

Magic by Culture

• Primitive/Nomadic: gain 1D3−1 points of spirit magic at 15, plus 1 more point per 10 years or fraction thereafter.
• Barbarian: roll D100 — 01–50 means spirit magic as a primitive/nomad (above); 51–00 means automatic initiation into parents' religion (no spirit magic, but 1 point of POW increase per 3 years/fraction, sacrificed for divine spells; also 1 point of cult spirit magic per 5 years/fraction).
• Civilized: roll D100 — 01–75 means divine magic as a barbarian initiate (above); 76–00 means 1D3−1 sorcery spells at 15 plus 1 more spell per 5 years/fraction.

Equipment (starting kit)

1H weapon + shield, or a 2H weapon; self bow or javelin or sling; cuirbouilli armor and helm (3 points of protection); one scar, tattoo, or birthmark; odd goods worth 100 pennies; Standard Traveler's Pack (50p, 14 ENC): 4-liter waterskin, 30m weak rope, peasant clothes, hand axe, hammer, tarpaulin, fish hooks, fishing line, sack, knife, bandages, cookware, blanket.

Cultural Weapons Tables

Percentages listed are added to the human-generic base chance from the combat chapter tables (only use generic base if a weapon isn't culturally listed).

Primitive:

• Attack & parry: 1H or 2H Spear (25); 1H Axe or Mace (25)
• Attack only: Javelin (20); Sling or Self Bow (25)
• Parry only: Buckler or Target Shield (25)

Nomad:

• Attack & parry: 1H Axe, Mace, 1H Spear, or Sword (20)
• Attack only: Lance (30); Bow or Javelin (20)
• Parry only: Buckler or Target Shield (20)

Barbarian:

• Attack & parry: 1H or 2H Spear (25); 1H Axe, Mace, or Sword (25); 2H Axe or 2H Sword (15)
• Attack only: Bow or Javelin (25)
• Parry only: Buckler or Target Shield (25)

Civilized:

• Attack & parry: Broadsword, Rapier, Scimitar, or Shortsword (25); 1H or 2H Spear (20); 2H Axe or 2H Sword (15)
• Attack only: Crossbow or Sling (25)
• Parry only: Buckler, Heater, or Hoplite Shield (25)

(1H = one-handed; 2H = two-handed, in terms of hands required to attack/parry with the weapon.)

10. Game System — Skill Use

Automatic Success

Ordinary actions (walking, talking, breathing) always succeed without a roll.

Simple Success Rolls

Roll D100 ≤ skill percentage to succeed.

Skill Versus Skill

Designate an "attacking" skill and a "defending" skill. The defender rolls first; if successful, subtract the defender's roll percentile from the attacker's skill, and the attacker must roll equal to or under the remainder (minimum 5% chance). If the defender fails, the attacker only needs a simple success roll.

Characteristic Rolls

Roll characteristic × a multiplier (commonly ×5, or a situational multiplier set by the gamemaster) as a percentage; roll D100 ≤ that value to succeed.

The Critical Success

A critical success occurs on a roll ≤ 1/20th (5%) of the simple success chance (minimum 01). Benefits vary by skill/situation (e.g., weapons ignore armor, climbers gain distance).

The Special Success

A roll better than normal but not critical. Occurs on 01–20% of the normal chance (see table below), when the skill has 51%+ or has been defined as offering special successes.

Skill Results Table (ranges of the actual skill %, giving the D100 ranges for Critical / Special / Fumble; "Failure" is everything else up to but not including Fumble):

A 01 result is always a critical success; a 00 result is always a fumble.

The Fumble

Chance of a fumble = 5% of the chance of failure (failure % × 0.05, rounded up to 2%). This is always at least a 99 or 00 roll.

11. The Resistance Table

Used to compare one quantity against another (e.g., STR vs. STR, POW vs. POW). One factor is "active," one is "passive."

Formula: % success = 50% + (active × 5%) − (passive × 5%)

If the quantities are equal, there's a 50% chance of success. Success chance rises 5% for every point the active factor exceeds the passive, and drops 5% for every point it's less — capping at 1% minimum and no defined maximum cap (effectively very high when active vastly exceeds passive).

Common uses:

• Magic Points vs. Magic Points (spell-caster overcoming a target's resistance).
• STR vs. SIZ (lifting an object).
• STR vs. STR (forcing open doors/bending bars).
• Potency vs. CON or Hit Points (disease/poison effects).

12. Improvement

Skill Experience Rolls

After using a skill successfully in a stressful situation, the gamemaster may allow an experience checkmark. At the end of an adventure, roll D100 for each checked skill: if the roll exceeds the current skill %, the skill improves — add the category modifier to the roll, then add 1D6 percentiles to the skill (or the player may choose to add a flat +3 instead of rolling, decided before rolling).

Exceeding 100% in a Skill

Once a skill reaches 100%, only successful experience rolls can raise it further; the roll must be over 100 on D100 to succeed, though the skill's category modifier can still push a roll over 100.

Skill Training

Training requires an instructor with a higher skill %. Training increase is normally 1D6−2 percentiles (minimum 0, i.e. "no gain" is possible), or the player may choose a flat +2 instead of rolling (decided before the training roll). Training time and cost depend on current skill % (more hours/cost required as skill % rises). Skills at 100%+ with no experience-check box have a training/research cap of 75% — further increases must come from actual field experience.

Research

Increases a skill or characteristic without an instructor, by self-study/practice. Takes the same amount of time as training. The player must roll above the current skill % on D100 for it to succeed (a die-roll indicating a genuinely new technique was found), then gains the same 1D6−2 (or flat +1) percentile increase as training.

Increasing Characteristics

• STR/CON: limited by the highest of the adventurer's original STR, CON, or SIZ.
• DEX/APP: may be increased by training/research up to 1.5× the original value (rounded up).
• INT/SIZ: increase only through rare magical means.

POW Gain Rolls

Made when a spellcaster's POW is matched against a target's magic points on the Resistance Table and the attack succeeds. There's no gain chance if the resistance table indicated a 95%+ success chance; otherwise, compute the maximum possible POW (18 for humans) plus minimum possible POW (3 for humans), subtract current POW, multiply the remainder by 5, and roll D100 ≤ that result to succeed. On success, roll 1D3−1 and add to current POW (a roll of 1 means no gain).

Improvement Summary Table

13. Time and Movement

• Game Week: used to regulate skill/magical training and travel over long distances; commonly 1 real week ≈ 1 game month.
• Game Day: used mostly for movement calculations.
• Full Turn = 5 minutes = 25 melee rounds. In a full turn, an adventurer may cautiously advance 100m, stroll 250m, or run (once, unrested) 1km. Walking speed for a mount is no faster than a walking human unless well-trained.
• Melee Round = 12 seconds of frenetic activity. An adventurer doing nothing else can move ~30 meters and still watch surroundings, parry, and react. Most humanoids can move 3 meters per strike rank during a melee round.

Daily Movement Rates Table

Terrain Effects (modify the base rate): Major River adds 1 day/km to cross unless bridged/forded (or call for Swim/World Lore rolls); Vegetation — light slows to 85% of normal, medium to 70%, heavy to 50%; Rolling Hills slow movement to 70% of normal; Mountains slow movement to 30% of normal. Effects are cumulative.

14. Damage

Damage comes from weapons, fire, falls, bites, drowning, etc. — expressed as points of damage. Enter damage on the adventurer sheet by marking off hit points both from the total and from the specific hit location struck.

• Reduced to 2 or 1 total hit points → unconscious.
• Reduced to zero or negative total hit points → dying, and dead at the end of that melee round.

Hit Locations

Roll D20 to determine which location is struck, using one of two tables depending on attack type.

Humanoid Hit Point Location Table — Melee

Humanoid Hit Point Location Table — Missiles/Spells

(The melee table gives the chest/abdomen a smaller chance of being hit, since limbs partially block those areas; the missile/spell table has no such blocking and gives the chest a much higher chance.)

Results of Damage

• Leg reduced to 0 or negative: the limb is useless; the adventurer falls and may only fight from the ground in subsequent rounds.
• Abdomen reduced to 0 or negative: both legs are useless, the adventurer must fall; loses 1 additional HP per round to blood loss unless a CON×5 roll succeeds (or CON×1 or less stops it permanently; a "heroic" CON×1 roll lets the character keep fighting for that round only).
• Chest reduced to 0 or negative: the adventurer falls, can only crawl, and loses 1 HP/round to blood loss unless healed or a CON×5 roll succeeds (a CON×1 roll stops the loss permanently).
• Arm reduced to 0 or negative: the limb is useless; dropped items fall if not attached; the adventurer can still fight with remaining limbs.
• Head reduced to 0 or negative: the adventurer falls unconscious, and loses 1 HP/round afterward unless a CON×5 roll succeeds (CON×1 or less lets the character fight on instinctively, without memory of it afterward).

Damage Equal to or Exceeding Double a Location's Hit Points

• Limb: the limb is severed or irrecoverably maimed (a severed limb can be reattached only via Healing magic capable of regrowing limbs, applied within ten melee rounds).
• Head/Chest/Abdomen: the character is instantly unconscious and begins losing 1 HP/round; a successful CON×5 roll stops it that round, CON×1 or less stops it permanently.

Permanent Damage and Death

Death is the primary permanent damage; a dead adventurer permanently loses 1D3 from current STR, CON, DEX, and APP after each 24 hours of death, until resurrected or those stats reach zero (unresurrectable). Severed/destroyed body parts, blindness, and similar effects may also be ruled permanent by the gamemaster.

First Aid

Used once per specific wound (not per total hit points), takes one melee round, stops bleeding, and needs a successful roll plus 5 melee rounds to restore hit points. Cannot restore severed limbs or negative hit points.

Healing Magic

Can cure any injury, any number of times. Only Healing magic specifically described as regrowing limbs can reattach a severed limb (must be used within ten melee rounds of severing). Will not fix damage to total hit points unrelated to a specific location.

Natural Healing

Without skill or spell use: 1D3 points per location per game week the location remains wounded (assumes the character isn't adventuring/working during recovery).

15. Fatigue

Current Fatigue Points (FP) = Basic FP (STR+CON) − current ENC.

• Lose 1 FP per melee round of combat, or furtive/careful movement, or swimming.
• Lose 2 FP per melee round of sprinting or rapid heavy work.
• Once positive FP is exhausted, further loss goes negative; every negative FP subtracts 1% from every skill/resistance/characteristic roll.
• Reaching negative FP equal to (in magnitude) basic FP causes incapacitation from exhaustion, lasting until FP returns positive.
• Natural recovery: 1D3−1 FP per melee round of not spending fatigue points (any FP-costing action that round prevents recovery that round). A resting adventurer can fully recover from zero in 4–10 minutes.
• Marching without appreciable rest costs 1 FP/hour; riding costs 1 FP per 1.5 hours.
• Unconsciousness (from 1–2 total HP, or negative HP in the head) immediately zeroes all positive fatigue points.
• Going into shock from a limb taking double normal location hit points costs double fatigue points (unless already negative).

16. Encumbrance

ENC measures how much weight an adventurer can carry, in points roughly equal to 1 kilogram each (see the SIZ Equivalency Table for the full kg/lb conversion by SIZ rating). A character can lift ENC = STR×6 with a 50% chance on the resistance table, but carrying that much and still being able to fight, climb, or run is unrealistic — items often have higher ENC than their raw weight to reflect awkwardness of handling.

• A "thing" (sword, axe, rock, rope, etc.) — any item easily held in one hand — is generally 1–2 ENC regardless of true weight.
• Most two-handed weapons (spears, bows, arrows, etc.) are considered 3–4 ENC.
• Dodge at full value costs 1 percentile of the skill per point of ENC carried, or the Dodge is reduced accordingly.
• Non-human ENC (creatures with SIZ over 20 and more than two legs): find the creature's SIZ-equivalent STR on the SIZ Equivalency Chart, divide by three (the "kilograms beside the number"), then subtract carried ENC (in kg) from that to find fatigue points. For creatures with only two legs and SIZ over 20, divide the equivalent weight in kilograms by six instead.

Condensed from the "Combat" chapter.

Combat Chapter Terms (Glossary)

• Armor Points: the amount of damage armor (or some magic spells) can nullify per blow.
• Critical Hit: a blow placed so well that extraordinary damage is done. Chance = 5% of the attacker's normal attack percentage.
• Damage Done: once armor points are subtracted from rolled damage, each remaining point of damage reduces hit points by one.
• Damage Points (also "rolled damage"): the total of the damage dice rolled, plus any weapon-type or magic additions.
• Fumble: an attack so badly delivered the result is disastrous for the attacker. Chance = 5% of the attacker's normal chance to miss.
• Impale: a special hit with an impaling weapon. Does extra damage if it impales, and has a good chance of sticking in the target.
• Knockback: damage higher than the target's SIZ can knock them backward from their position, possibly knocking them down.
• Melee Round: a 12-second period in which participants battle each other in strike rank order.
• Set: bracing a long thrusting weapon to receive the impact of a charge.
• Special Hit: a well-delivered blow that might cause special damage, depending on weapon type. Chance = 20% of the attacker's normal attack chance.
• Strike Rank: an abstraction based on an adventurer's SIZ, DEX, and weapon length, determining when in a melee round an adventurer may attack, use magic, run, etc. A melee round has 10 strike ranks (1–10).
• Strike Rank Modifiers: individual modifiers (from DEX, SIZ, and weapon length) totaled to determine which strike rank a melee weapon can be used on. Missile/thrown weapon strike ranks depend only on DEX; spell strike ranks depend on DEX and the magic points powering the spell.
• 1H: one-handed — a weapon normally used that way.
• 2H: two-handed — a weapon normally used that way.

The Melee Round

A melee round is a roughly 12-second slice of game time, divided into three phases:

1. Statement of Intent Phase: players and gamemaster declare what their characters intend to do this round (doesn't need to be precise — just enough to convey the general plan).
2. Action Phase: the gamemaster counts out strike ranks 1 through 10 in order; adventurers, NPCs, magic, melee, and missiles all occur on their appointed strike ranks. The round ends after strike rank 10 resolves.
3. Bookkeeping Phase: after each round, subtract expended fatigue points, confirm damage has been recorded, and process any experience checks — then return to the Statement of Intent phase for the next round.

Movement Within the Melee Round

• An adventurer moving within a melee round starts moving on the strike rank equal to their DEX strike rank.
• During each subsequent strike rank, up to 3 meters may be moved, unless performing some other action (fighting, spellcasting, etc.) that strike rank.
• The next melee round, movement resumes at 3m per strike rank, again starting on the DEX strike rank.

The Strike Rank

Whoever has the lowest total strike rank attacks first each melee round. Ties on total strike rank are broken by DEX (higher DEX acts first); if DEX also ties, actions and effects are considered simultaneous.

Strike Ranks Table

The Three Main Criteria

• SIZ: a larger being gets an earlier strike rank due to greater reach relative to a smaller being. Gamemasters should adjust the SIZ-implies-reach assumption for unusually-proportioned creatures (e.g., a long but not-tall snake). Missile weapons and spells always use a SIZ strike rank of zero.
• DEX: a quick person hits first.
• Weapon Length: a small, slow person with a long spear can still get the jump (at least in the first melee round) on a large, fast person using their fist — since the fist is part of the user's body, using it as a weapon in the 0–.3m range risks that body part when hit.

Preparing a Weapon

• Changing from one weapon/tool to another takes 3 strike ranks (item in hand is dropped, and a new item is drawn from an easily-accessible location).
• Re-sheathing a weapon and then drawing another counts as two 3-strike-rank actions.
• Dropping a weapon onto the ground and drawing another is only one action — a dropped object is assumed not to break or take damage except in unusual circumstances.
• Preparing two items (e.g., drawing a sword and unlimbering a shield) takes two actions (6 strike ranks), modified by circumstance (hands being free helps; whether the items are easily accessible). An unstrapped shield on the back takes 6 strike ranks to unlimber; other stowed weapons may require further strike ranks similarly.
• Drawing an arrow and fitting it to a bow is one action; drawing an already-strung bow and then drawing an arrow is two actions; stringing a bow takes the whole melee round.

Altering Intent

Either the gamemaster or a player may alter a stated intent. Any action performed in addition to (or instead of) the originally stated intent costs three extra strike ranks. Example: an adventurer ready with sword and shield who instead decides at strike rank 4 to run for a door would need 3 strike ranks plus their DEX strike rank modifier to get moving — so at melee round strike rank 10, they'd move 3 meters.

Limit to Strike Ranks

No combat action (or combination of actions) may be performed in a round if the total strike ranks required add up to 11 or more. Combat actions don't carry over from one melee round to the next. If an adventurer doesn't act on a strike rank they could have, they're assumed to have spent it inactively (can't save it for later), though they may consciously delay an action until later in the same round. Exception: spellcasting (which can cost many magic points) can carry over into the next melee round.

Multiple Activities

An adventurer may combine actions (e.g., moving and readying a weapon) with gamemaster approval, so long as sufficient strike ranks are available and movement is relatively unimpeded — but only when the movement itself doesn't interfere with the other action. A DEX roll or an appropriate skill roll may be required as a prerequisite.

• If an adventurer wants to use a weapon in either hand, he must train with the weapon separately for each hand, requiring additional appropriately-handed weapon entries on the character sheet.

Improving Weapons Skills

Attack and parry percentages increase through experience, training, or research, like other skills.

• The melee weapons table divides weapons into categories (e.g., "Dagger" or "Maul"). A skill increase applies to the whole category — every weapon within it gains the same experience.
• If picking up and using an unfamiliar weapon within a category (in a stress situation), the gamemaster may require a moment to examine/heft it, or apply a reduced percentage for the first few swings.
• A weapon used in the off-hand (usually the left) begins with a 0.5× base chance.
• Except for weapons that are mutually within a category, experience with one weapon has no significance for any other weapon.
• Use of a weapon with one hand does not confer experience for using it with the other hand.
• Attack and parry are separate skills, even for the same weapon — an adventurer's Broadsword attack has no direct relation to their Broadsword parry; the two skills can diverge significantly based on which one has received more successful experience rolls.

Increase by Training or Research

• Attack and parry skills increase through training/research like other skills.
• For a given weapon, the attack and parry skills are learned/trained at the same time and rate; training cost/time is based on whichever of the two skills has the higher hourly cost at the time.
• An adventurer can train in attack/parry for two-handed weapons and for one-handed weapons generally used alone (like a rapier). For weapons usually used with a parrying weapon (usually a shield), an adventurer can choose to train to parry with the attack weapon or to parry with the parrying weapon — not both for one hourly cost. Training in both simultaneously is possible for extra time and cash, within the normal 50-hour-per-week training limit.

Attacks and Parries Over 100%

An adventurer whose attack or parry skill is 100%+ can split that skill, gaining a second major chance for special/critical rolls.

• To split: divide the actual percent chance by two (round up any fraction), then make two separate attacks or two parries with the same weapon, each resolved using one of the two halved chances.
• Strike rank for the first attack is the normal one for the weapon; the strike rank for the second attack is the first attack's strike rank plus 3.
• An attack cannot be split to attack the same target twice — the two attacks must be against separate targets (though the two parries from a split parry may both defend against the same attacker).

Melee Activities

An adventurer is normally limited to one attack and one parry per melee round; a dodge may substitute for either.

• Spells may be cast before, after, or instead of attacking/parrying/dodging, as long as there are enough strike ranks in the round.
• Changing from spellcasting to combat (or vice versa) during the round costs 3 strike ranks.
• An adventurer cannot attack, parry, dodge, or cast a spell faster than one action per 0.5 meters per strike rank of required movement.
• If, while in hand-to-hand combat, an adventurer attempts some major non-fighting action (standing up, climbing a wall, jumping down a slope, mounting a horse, etc.), they cannot attack, parry, dodge, or cast during the strike ranks needed to perform that action.

Melee Skills

Fist, falchion, or fencepost — a weapon is any object used by an adventurer to do damage to a target. Each weapon skill is unique and must be learned separately from every other weapon skill (though some skill knowledge overlaps between weapons, e.g. sword and spear differ entirely and must be separately trained/experienced).

How to Attack

An attack represents a series/combination of blows occurring over a span of time beginning with the strike rank on which the weapon may first be used, continuing until the end of the melee round. The attacker has individual probabilities of success per weapon used; a successful roll hits the target, and (since combat is stressful) earns an experience check for that weapon.

The damage done depends on weapon type and the target's armor.

How to Parry

• If a weapon can parry (per the weapons list), it can parry one attack per melee round, or up to the number of parrying weapons held if attacked more than once (one parry per weapon per round); an adventurer cannot attack with a weapon they've parried with that round unless it can also attack (two-handed weapons can only attack or parry once, not both).
• With one weapon, an adventurer may try to parry one specific attack on any strike rank of the round, provided the parrying weapon is ready. A successful parry roll partially or completely blocks that attack (unless it breaks the parrying weapon).
• An adventurer's parry skill is influenced by their Agility skills category bonus (from STR, small SIZ, DEX). Learning to parry with each weapon is a separate, trained skill.

Damage to Parrying Weapons: a successful parry blocks damage only up to the parrying weapon's armor points. Damage beyond that reaches the parrier's body, and the parrying weapon also loses one armor point (simulating the damage it took blocking the blow). A special-success parry takes no damage to the weapon; a critical-success parry means no damage got through at all, even against a critical attack.

Successful Parry Versus Unsuccessful Attack: a successful sword parry against an unsuccessful attack always damages the attacking weapon for its regular weapon damage (regardless of how successful the parry was); damage exceeding the parried weapon's armor points subtracts from the armor points of that weapon. A successful parry by an axe (or similar bladed weapon) against a haft can do its regular damage to an unsuccessful attacking weapon if the parry is a special success (extra skill is needed to get the blade in position to damage the attacking weapon).

How to Dodge

Dodge is an Agility skill (detailed in the Skills chapter) usable instead of an attack or parry.

• If Dodge is 100%+, it may be split into two Dodges (like a 100%+ attack/parry), potentially defending against two sources of attack. Each split portion must be at least 50%.
• A successful Dodge against a normal attack means the attack missed entirely. Against a special hit, a special-success Dodge roll is needed to avoid it; against a critical hit, a critical-success Dodge roll is needed. A fumbled Dodge means an automatic normal hit unless the attacker's roll already indicated better than normal.
• Dodge favors unencumbered characters — encumbering items/clothing subtract from Dodge ability. If unencumbered (for game purposes, nothing worn or carried), Dodge is at full percentage. Encumbered, Dodge is reduced 1 percentile for every point of ENC carried.
• If Dodge is combined with a parry in the same round, the user may either parry one opponent and Dodge the other, or Dodge and parry the same attacker (check Dodge first; if unsuccessful, attempt the parry). The player always has the right to choose this order.

Moving and Melee

• Normally, an adventurer who has moved cannot attack in the same round unless enough strike ranks remain after moving. Similarly, an opponent who arrives without enough strike ranks left cannot attack that round. Some conditions allow both moving and attacking, and attacking a moving target.
• To attack, a moving adventurer must attack on or after their DEX strike rank plus the weapon's own strike rank — SIZ benefits/penalties don't apply while moving.

Opportunity Melee

A stationary character who sees an opponent running past in their general direction may use opportunity fire to strike as the foe passes — losing 10 percentiles from their attack chance for doing so. The attacker can parry or dodge normally as well as attack. Since a moving target negates any SIZ benefit/disadvantage, the attacker's strike rank is DEX strike rank plus weapon strike rank modifier.

Disengaging From Melee

• An adventurer caught in melee who wants to escape must spend one melee round attempting to disengage; during that round they can do nothing but parry and Dodge.
• After that round, they may move as desired if they're still able to. Movement in the next round begins on their DEX strike rank.
• A footman cannot disengage from a mounted opponent unless he can hide, teleport, etc.
• If a disengaging adventurer is on a riding animal and the foe is not, the mounted adventurer need only spend half a melee round Dodging/parrying, then may ride away. Only fast footmen with long weapons can get a swing or thrust at a disengaging cavalryman.
• If an opponent can strike before the disengaging character escapes, they get the attack modifier for striking at an opponent's back.

Armor and Hit Point Relation Summary

Two possible relationships between armor and hit points:

• Separate Armor and Hit Points: e.g., an adventurer and their armor, or a wall/weapon deliberately struck. If damage exceeds the armor points, the excess reduces the hit points of the adventurer/object (in the hit location and general hit points).
• Armor and Hit Points of an Interposed Object: with most objects (e.g., a weapon used to parry), the armor points and hit points are the same number. If the object is parried with (blocking a blow for another object) and the armor/hit points are exceeded, that object's armor/hit points are reduced by one only, regardless of how much they were exceeded by — the remaining damage then proceeds to damage the object that was originally attacked. This shared armor/hit-point number is usually just called "armor points."

Knockback

A sufficiently powerful blow can send a target staggering backward — a knockback.

• Knockback distance depends on total damage done (ignoring armor/magic subtractions), minus the target's SIZ. If SIZ ≥ damage done, there's no knockback; for every 5 points that damage exceeds SIZ, the target is knocked back one meter (or fraction thereof).
• The target's player must also successfully roll DEX×5 or less on D100, or the character falls down (a Riding roll may substitute if mounted, adding the mount's SIZ to the rider's own for the purpose of resisting knockback; if unsuccessful, knockback is figured against the adventurer's own SIZ alone, and he's knocked off the animal). Gamemasters may lessen the DEX-roll multiple for uneven ground, slope, or the target's prior damage.
• Special Knockback: smashing/slashing weapons (broadswords, maces, etc.) that score a special success knock the target back 1 meter per 5 points of rolled damage (rather than only the excess over SIZ, as with normal hits). If the DEX×5 roll fails, the target falls; use standard knockback rules for further injury from incidental collisions with intervening obstacles.

Critical Hits and Critical Parries

• Critical Success Attack Roll: a critical hit gets past any armor/protection entirely. The weapon used automatically does its maximum possible damage (e.g., a broadsword automatically does 9 points), added to the attacker's damage modifier; the target's armor cannot subtract anything from this damage, though a successful parry can still block up to its normal amount (only damage beyond that reaches the target).
• Critical Parry Roll: always blocks the entire damage of the parried blow, even if it was a critical attack; the parrying weapon takes no damage.
• Special Success from an Attack Roll: occurs on a roll of 20% (1/5) or less of the maximum possible successful D100 roll for that attack (after all modifiers). For thrusting and missile weapons, see the Impale rules instead.

The Impale

For thrusting and missile weapons (spears, shortswords, arrows, sling stones), a special success result means the weapon has impaled the target — different rules apply than a normal special hit.

• Impaling Damage: doubles the weapon's normal rolled damage (e.g., a Shortsword's normal 1D6+1 becomes 2D6+2 when impaling). The attacker's damage modifier is added normally (only once, not doubled); any magical damage addition is likewise only added once (only the weapon dice are doubled).
• If the impale is also a critical success, the maximum possible impaling damage is done instead of a roll.
• Removing an Impaling Weapon: the weapon may become stuck in the victim. If the impaler's player rolls twice or less their weapon's attack chance (40% of the attack chance for the impaling weapon), the weapon can be pulled out 3 strike ranks after the impale; otherwise it's stuck. Each melee round afterward, there's the same chance to retrieve it (at full attack chance, since the target is helpless to the impaler while so occupied). If not retrieved after 5 melee rounds, the gamemaster may rule it can be pulled out anyway; fumbling the retrieval roll breaks the weapon.
• Removing an Impaling Weapon (by someone other than the impaler, e.g. the victim helping themself): compute (current STR + CON − weapon's ENC) × 2% as the chance to successfully remove it in one melee round.
• An impaled adventurer cannot be healed until the impaling weapon is removed. If the impaled character moves, they take half the normal weapon damage directly to the affected hit location (the weapon catches on obstacles, widening the wound, etc.).
• Parrying an Impale with a Shield: even though a blow may have penetrated a shield to hit its holder, if a shield blocked an impaling attack, the attacker's weapon gets stuck in the shield if the attacker's player fails the retrieval roll. Effects depend on the impaling weapon's ENC relative to the shield: if the weapon's ENC is 1 or 2 and the impaler isn't holding it, the shield can still be used at half normal attack/parry percentage until the weapon is removed; if ENC is less than 1, the shield is unaffected; if enough small weapons accumulate in the shield to total ENC 4+, the shield becomes useless until they're removed.

The Fumble

Fumbles are individual, sometimes bizarre events. When a fumble occurs, roll D100 on the appropriate fumble table (there are three: Melee and Parry, Missile, and Natural Weapons) and apply the result. If a rolled result seems inappropriate to the situation, the gamemaster may substitute a similar fumble or have the player reroll.

Melee and Parry Weapons Fumbles (D100)

Missile Weapons Fumbles (D100)

Natural Weapons Fumbles (D100)

(Weapon-shatter results affect only unenchanted weapons at full chance; spirit/sorcerous or divine enchantments reduce or eliminate the shatter chance as detailed in the tables above.)

Weapons

Weapons are "melee" or "missile." Melee weapons are designed to attack and to parry; missile weapons are normally used beyond weapon-length range and have no designed capacity to parry.

A melee weapon falls into one of three classes: hand-held weapon, natural weapon, or impromptu weapon.

Melee Weapons Table

Lance cannot parry when used from horseback. Percent given is for parry; attack is 05%. Weapons marked with "@" can be used either as a cutting/smashing weapon or as a thrusting weapon which can impale — mode must be declared before the attack is rolled. Weapons marked "@@" have all special hits as impales.

Definitions of Headings

• Category: adventurers trained in a category of weapon gain equal percentiles in all weapons in that category. Weapons appearing in more than one category must be trained for separately by category.
• Damage: the weapon's damage when it strikes, plus the user's damage modifier, gives total damage done.
• STR/DEX: minimum STR/DEX to use the weapon well. Every point a characteristic is short of the minimum reduces hit chance by 5 percentiles.
• ENC: approximate kilograms the item weighs, adjusted for handling clumsiness.
• Base %: base chance of a successful attack by someone with no prior experience/training with that weapon category. Prior experience (or a manipulation-skills-modifier bonus for attack, agility-skills-modifier for parry) adds to this base.
• Armor: armor points the weapon has; decreases by one each time the weapon's armor points are exceeded by a blow.
• SR: the weapon's strike rank modifier; combine with the adventurer's melee (base) strike rank to find which strike rank the weapon can be used on.
• Price: cost in pennies at the place of manufacture.

Two-Weapon Use

When using two weapons (e.g., sword and shield, or sword and dagger), an adventurer may perform one action with each — as long as they don't Dodge that round, they may attack twice, parry twice, or attack with one and parry with the other.

• If attacking with two weapons, the first attack is on the normal strike rank; the second attack is 3 strike ranks after the first (only possible if enough strike ranks remain).
• If parrying twice, two different attacks can be parried, but the same attack cannot be parried twice.

Two-Handed Weapon Use

An adventurer with a two-handed weapon may attack once and parry once with it. If Dodging, one of the attack/parry must be given up. Two attacks or two parries with the same two-handed weapon are not possible.

Natural Weapons

Natural weapons are part of a combatant's own body — a human's fist and foot, or (for other creatures) claws, fangs, prehensile tails, stings, horns, and even (for some, like dragons) natural missile weapons.

Natural Weapons Table

For animals and intelligent humanoids who have working claws.

Definitions: Weapon — the natural weapon's name. Damage — rolled damage (plus the user's damage modifier for total damage). Base % — chance of a successful attack for someone with no prior experience/training (use prior experience instead if higher). SR — the natural weapon's strike rank modifier (combine with the character's melee strike rank modifier as normal).

Fist and Kick

• Fist and Kick attacks work exactly like melee weapon attacks. Everyone starts with a 25% fist attack and 15% kick attack.
• A humanoid may parry with a fist as with any weapon; the fist's hit points (for parry purposes) are the adventurer's own arm hit points, plus any arm armor points (which go to both the arm's hit points and the total hit points).

Grappling

A natural-weapon skill for wrestling. Base chance is on the natural weapons list.

• A successful grapple attack catches a random hit location of the foe. A successful weapon parry against a grapple means the weapon arm was caught instead; a successful shield parry means the shield was caught. Dodge can be used against the initial grapple attack; a parry with fist or grapple percentage means the hold was blocked.
• After a successful grapple, the attacker may attempt to immobilize the grasped limb or throw the foe next melee round. Failure on the second (follow-up) grapple roll means the hold is broken.
• To immobilize a limb: the attacker's player must also succeed at a STR-vs-STR roll on the resistance table (against the foe's STR). Failing this still means the limb is held, just not immobilized.
• To throw a foe: roll on the resistance table, matching the attacker's STR+DEX vs. the foe's SIZ+DEX. Failure means the throw didn't work, though the grip is maintained. If thrown, the foe must make a DEX×5 roll on D100 or suffer 1D6 damage to a random hit location (armor protects against this).
• If both combatants grapple each other simultaneously (two successful grapples), both are considered held; two successful immobilizations may mean nothing was accomplished (if contradictory) or that both succeeded; two successful throws cancel out (no one is thrown). Resolve an immobilize attempt before a throw attempt.

Claws, Fangs, and Other Natural Weapons

Most creatures with claws, stings, etc. use them like a human uses a weapon; strike rank for all natural weapons is 3.

• Most animals don't parry — they Dodge, or rely on their natural armor.
• Unless stated in a creature's description, natural weapons do not impale.
• Attacks that constrict, bite, or hold the target do not cause knockback.

Missile Weapons

Weapons that leave the user's grasp to reach their target, traveling through the air. Two types: thrown and projectile.

Thrown Weapons

Can also be used as melee weapons (dual-function, augmenting normal melee weapons). Difficult but not impossible to carry enough to last a battle.

• Damage Bonus: a thrown weapon only gets half the user's normal damage bonus (e.g., a 1D4 bonus becomes 1D2 thrown; a 2D6 bonus becomes 2D3; a 3D6 bonus becomes 3D3).

Projectile Weapons

Weapons that project a missile at a target — bows, crossbows, slings.

Missile Weapons Table

(Throwing Axe, Throwing Knife, and Thrown Rock do not do impaling damage with a special hit.)

Definitions of Headings

• STR/DEX: minimum STR and DEX to use the weapon; each point short reduces hit chance by 5 percentiles.
• Base %: base attack chance for someone with no prior experience (use prior experience if higher).
• ENC(m): weight in kg, adjusted for clumsiness. The parenthesized figure is the weight per individual missile for a projectile weapon (e.g., a quiver of 20 arrows = 1 ENC; a full 50-arrow load for a full-time archer = 2.5 ENC).
• Damage: rolled damage. Thrown weapons add half the thrower's damage modifier as noted above.
• AP: armor points of the weapon.
• Effective Range: within this distance, the weapon hits at the user's full skill percentage.
• Maximum Range: the weapon/projectile can reach no further; between effective and maximum range, chance to hit is halved.
• Rate of Fire: 1/#MR means the weapon can be used once, then needs # melee rounds to ready again (e.g., 1/3MR fires once every 3 rounds' worth of readying, with the intervening rounds spent solely on readying). 1/MR means readied once per melee round. 1/SR means it can be fired on the wielder's DEX strike rank, then again on DEX SR + 3 + DEX SR (i.e., twice in one round if enough strike ranks remain, per the standard readying-time rule for the weapon).
• P: price in pennies at place of manufacture.

Firing Into a Melee

When throwing/shooting into a general melee (not a single clear target), the shooter can't be sure which combatant will be hit.

• The chance to hit the particular intended target is divided by the number of people in the melee. If the roll succeeds by the (lower, divided) chance, the gamemaster randomly determines who was actually struck (a roll between the normal chance and the reduced chance can still result in the intended target being hit). The missile firer only gets an experience check if the intended target was actually struck.
• If shooting into a dense mass of targets rather than caring who's hit, the chance to hit increases 5% for every extra body packed closely together (loose skirmish line: pick one target; dense spear wall: may fire at the massed troops as a whole).

Armor

Armor is hard clothing (cloth, leather, metal, or a combination) that absorbs damage from blows.

Encumbrance

Armor's ENC depends on the wearer's SIZ. SIZ 11–15 is "normal;" every 5-SIZ increment above or below that changes armor ENC by 1/5 in the corresponding direction (larger character = heavier armor for the same protection; smaller = lighter).

Effects on Stealth Skills

Both armor and weapon ENC subtract one percentile from Sneak per point carried. There is no effect on Hide as long as the armor isn't shiny (dirty from travel, or deliberately dulled).

Breakage

Unlike weapons' armor points (which never change even after a blow exceeds them), armor is designed to take repeated pounding — its armor points never reduce through damage.

Armor Types and Costs

• Soft Leather: roughly equivalent to a leather jacket/vest; common among primitives, nomads, barbarians. Often worn under other armor as extra padding. Cloth padding worn under other armor is equivalent in protection and ENC to Soft Leather.
• Cuirbouilli: leather boiled in oil and wax, then molded into shape and hardened; cannot be reshaped afterward without breaking it.
• Ringmail: soft leather (or other backing) with metal rings sewn onto it (like the rings found on chainmail).
• Chainmail: woven metal links forming the body of the armor; stronger and more durable than metal-backed-on-leather forms.
• Plate: solid metal plates molded to the body, held together with leather straps covered by the metal. Best at spreading a blow's impact and best for absorbing damage, but heaviest and hottest to fight in.

Armor Table

(This table gives armor points, ENC, and average total cost per size band; actual prices may vary by the gamemaster's price lists.)

Results of Combat

A successful weapon hit means the attacker can do damage to the defender. Each weapon has a die-roll damage rating (e.g., a broadsword does 1D8+1 — roll 1D8 and add 1). Armor and special magic subtract points from this damage before it's applied; it's possible for a successful hit to do no damage at all if the target's armor is efficient enough.

Covered Targets

If a target is partially covered by a wall, doorway, window ledge, fencepost, etc., any hit landing on a covered hit location instead strikes the cover (see the inanimate objects rules in The World chapter for damage to the cover).

Condensed from the "Skills" chapter and the opening of "The World" chapter.

General Skill Rules

• Gamemasters call for a skill roll in stressful situations; routine use of a skill doesn't require one.
• Modifying Skill Rolls: a gamemaster may adjust (usually reduce) a skill's success percentage for a given situation — e.g., a Climb roll reduced for a steep or crumbly surface, a Devise roll reduced for unfamiliar tools.
• Who Rolls for Success: Agility rolls (and combat attacks/parries) are always made by the player, since the adventurer would immediately know if he succeeded. Most other rolls (Listen, Search, Sneak, Hide, etc.) should be rolled by the gamemaster instead, so the player doesn't automatically learn whether a roll failed or simply found nothing — this preserves uncertainty for stealth-related skills in particular.

The seven skill categories (previously defined by the characteristics that influence them) are detailed below, skill by skill, in alphabetical order. Each skill's parenthetical number is its human base chance.

Agility Skills

Agility skills rely on gross motor coordination rather than intelligence; they call on STR, DEX, and (negatively) large SIZ.

Boat (05)

Handling small, water-borne craft (oar or paddle-driven). A Boat roll is needed to start moving in an unhurried situation; rougher conditions call for a percentile difficulty penalty set by the gamemaster. A fumble capsizes the boat and forces a Swim roll.

Climb (40)

Lets an adventurer scale a ≤75° slope, low-branched tree, etc. A missed roll leaves the climber in place (no progress); a fumble means a fall. Climbing speed: 1 meter of a 75°-or-shallower slope (or thickly-branched tree) per 5 strike ranks. A player may trade skill percentage for climbing speed: subtract 10 percentiles from Climb for every extra meter per 5 strike ranks desired (this also raises fumble chance). A large creature (SIZ over 20) climbs 1 extra meter per 5 strike ranks for every 10 points (or fraction) of SIZ over 20. Rolls are typically made once per 10 meters of height gained, or once per minute spent climbing.

Dodge (05)

A successful Dodge means the incoming attack misses entirely. Dodge takes no time against melee attacks but a full melee round against missile attacks, and cannot be used during strike ranks already occupied firing a missile weapon. Encumbrance reduces Dodge (1 percentile lost per ENC point carried, at full value — see Consequences of Encumbrance for Dodging in the Game System chapter).

Jump (25)

Roll on D100 (≤ skill roll) to jump twice one's height horizontally, or one's height vertically, from a running start (halved from a standing start). Each ENC point reduces Jump chance by 1 percentile. A failed roll means the distance wasn't covered; a fumble means landing with the force of a 3-meter fall (and takes that damage). Jumping from standing takes one strike rank. A Jump roll (if successful) can be used to choose which hit location a falling character lands on.

Ride (05)

Riding a trained animal at no faster than a walk requires no roll. Faster gaits, or an unexpected event, require a Ride roll (with a saddle/stirrups) — failure means loss of control (requiring another Ride roll each round to regain it, or a fumble throws the rider). Riding bareback without saddle/stirrups: any failure = fall, any fumble = thrown (as per a fall, see The World chapter). Ride % is also used for training a mount to do something new. Experience-roll opportunities include: surviving a melee while mounted, doing something new with a mount, completing a week+ mounted journey through difficult terrain, or successfully training a mount to saddle and bridle.

Swim (15)

A Swim roll is required each time an unfatigued, unhurried swimmer covers a distance in meters equal to their Swim skill percentage. Swimmers move at 5m per melee round (2 strike ranks), starting on their DEX strike rank. A failed Swim roll means no progress (and the character begins to drown, following the World chapter's asphyxiation rules) unless a second Swim roll one round later succeeds. Encumbered Swimming: lose 5 percentiles of Swim per ENC point carried. Fatigue in Swimming: lose 1 fatigue point per round of swimming; regain 1 fatigue point per round of treading water instead.

Throw (25%)

Throws a balanced, palm-sized object 1 meter per point by which STR exceeds the object's SIZ. Unbalanced/awkward objects have reduced range. Beyond 20 meters, accuracy drops 1 percentile of Throw per meter over 20. Maximum vertical throw distance is half the horizontal maximum.

Communication Skills

Enhanced by high INT, APP, and POW.

Fast Talk (05)

Causes the target to believe (falsely) that the speaker is logically correct, prompting agreement/assistance. The target's player may attempt an INT×5 roll to see through it if given a moment's reflection away from the talker. One Fast Talk roll is allowed per full turn of talking; it's used implicitly against one or a few individuals.

Orate (05)

Appeals to emotion (rather than intellect, as Fast Talk does) and can move a crowd. A successful roll immediately sways everyone present, with no chance for later reconsideration — Orate against a crowd may take hours to unify listeners into agreement. A gamemaster may call for one Orate roll per point on which the adventurer wants agreement.

Sing (05)

Success pleases the audience; failure means an off-key or forgotten performance. A higher skill produces a noticeably better performance even if both a high- and low-skill singer succeed their rolls. One Sing roll is allowed per full turn of performance.

Speak Own Language (30)

Base chance is 30% plus any experience gained; cannot be raised by training/research, only by experience. Even a low-INT adventurer keeps the full 30% Speak Own Language.

Speak Other Language (00)

Increased only through training and research (often by living where the language is spoken). Languages very different from the adventurer's own may take a gamemaster-imposed training-time multiplier (e.g., 2 hours per percentile instead of the usual rate) to reflect difficulty.

Special Functions of Languages:

• Conversation: an exchange of views. If both speakers are above 50% proficiency, there's no communication problem. If either is below 50%, there's a chance of misunderstanding — the chance of successful communication is the lower party's language skill ×2.
• Eavesdropping: chance to understand an overheard conversation equals the listener's percentile in that language (modified for distance, noise, doors, etc.); a Listen roll may be required first. A fumbled roll gives the eavesdropper a distorted, misleading version of what was said.
• Similar Languages: a character may not know a language being spoken but may know a related one, giving partial understanding (a gamemaster-set fraction of full proficiency).

Language Proficiency Table (by D100 roll, describing what a given skill % lets a speaker communicate):

Knowledge Skills

Depend on memorizing/comprehending a body of knowledge; usually cannot be increased by experience (must be trained or researched); enhanced by INT.

Craft (10)

Covers many distinct trades (armorer, baker, brewer, carpenter, tailor, etc.) — each craft is trained, researched, and recorded separately. Performing a craft usually takes several hours of game time.

Evaluate (05)

Determines the worth of artifacts, goods, and valuable natural materials. Having a relevant Craft skill doubles the chance to correctly evaluate related materials; having a relevant Lore likewise doubles the Evaluate chance for associated items/substances. Failure means the adventurer doesn't know the value; a fumble gives an entirely wrong value (always in the direction least convenient for the adventurer). Takes one full turn to perform.

First Aid (10)

Basic knowledge of how to help an injury/shock victim. A success stops all bleeding and prevents further hit point loss; failure costs the victim 1 additional hit point. Taking 5 melee rounds to perform heals 1D3 hit points (a critical success heals 2D3; a special success heals 1D3+3). Cutting the 5-round process short costs the recipient 2 hit points for every round skipped, even on an otherwise successful roll. Can only be used once per specific wound, but may be retried until successful; a fumble does 1D3 damage to the recipient and ends further attempts on that wound. Usable on any living creature.

Lores (05 each — Animal, Human, Mineral, Plant, World)

Represent regional/specialized knowledge that does not increase through experience — either the adventurer knows the fact or doesn't. A fumble may be used by the gamemaster to feed the adventurer false information.

• Animal Lore: identify an animal, its health, feeding, or behavior; a major use is training riding animals (a 50%+ Animal Lore and 25%+ Ride can train a mount to saddle and bridle; a riding master at 50%+ in both Ride and Animal Lore can train a war mount, up to the master's Ride % minus 50).
• Human Lore: psychology and sociology — reading political situations, obscure history, genealogies.
• Mineral Lore: geology and soils — identifying rock types, soil fertility, ore/mining potential.
• Plant Lore: identifying plants and their uses, crop suitability, wild edibility.
• World Lore: the physical world — weather prediction, geography, natural processes.

Martial Arts (00)

Doubles the damage of a successful natural-weapon (unarmed) attack (no effect on the damage bonus, only the base damage dice). A player must roll a successful attack with the natural weapon, and the roll must also succeed against the (usually lower) Martial Arts percentage, to get the doubled-damage benefit. Martial Arts also improves a Fist parry: a successful parry roll that also succeeds against Martial Arts blocks 6 points of damage regardless of the attacking weapon (excess damage still gets through).

Read/Write (00)

Lets an adventurer read and write a specific language (learned separately per language, even if two languages share an alphabet — reading and writing are also separate skills/training tracks). Failure while reading a passage means no information gained until further training/research; a fumble may give misinformation.

Shiphandling (00)

Commanding a ship with a crew of more than two: navigation, sail-setting, watches, and related duties. Unlike most Knowledge skills, Shiphandling can be increased by experience rolls once some training has been gained.

Magic Skills

Used to enhance or create magical effects; depend on INT, POW, and DEX.

Manipulation Skills

Require fine hand control (unlike Agility skills, they depend on INT and DEX rather than STR).

Conceal (5)

Hides an object of any size (in a drawer, false floor, etc.) so it can only be found with a Search roll (the searcher subtracts the Concealer's skill from their Search % before rolling). Time to conceal something depends on the object/facilities; a rough guide is one melee round per SIZ point of the item.

Devise (5)

Assembling or disassembling mechanisms like traps and locks. A successful Craft roll (if the deviser has the relevant Craft) doubles Devise's success chance. If a mechanism was devised by someone specifically to foil later Devisers, the original devisers' Devise skill is subtracted from a later attempt's Devise skill before rolling. Takes at least one melee round per SIZ point of the object to disassemble, one full turn per SIZ point to assemble.

Play (Instrument) (00)

A given skill covers one specific instrument. Failure means wrong chords, forgotten notes, or a dropped instrument. One roll per full turn of performance; higher skill produces a noticeably better performance.

Sleight (5)

Quick hands and misdirection — taking a small object unseen, juggling, card tricks, pickpocketing. A success with no one watching means unqualified success; if someone is actively using Scan at the same time, that Scanner's player subtracts the Sleight-user's skill from their Scan % and rolls against the remainder to expose the trick. Takes one strike rank to perform.

Perception Skills

Extracting/organizing information from the senses; enhanced by INT, POW, CON.

Listen (25)

Both the ability to hear things not normally noticeable and to correctly interpret incidental sounds. A successful Sneak roll against the listener must be subtracted from the listener's Listen chance (along with modifiers for walls, distance, etc.) before the Listen roll is made. Time taken to use successfully varies from instantaneous to a full turn, at the gamemaster's discretion.

Scan (25)

Observing an area for anomalous movement (e.g., guards watching terrain for approaching enemies). Intervening terrain can reduce the chance of success. Takes one melee round per 90° arc scanned; scanning more than 90° in one round halves the Scan chance for the extra arc. Can be pitted against a Sleight attempt the same way Search is pitted against Conceal/Hide.

Search (25)

Closely scrutinizing an area to find a concealed item, a person using Hide, or a small object hidden with Sleight. To beat a Concealed item or a Hide attempt, subtract the concealer's/hider's relevant skill from the Search percentile and roll equal to or under the remainder. Takes one melee round per 4-square-meter area searched.

Track (05)

Trailing a living being through wilderness/rural terrain by reading traces (footprints, droppings, disturbed vegetation). A Track roll is made every two full turns while following a trail; each failed attempt to pick up a lost trail costs a full turn, and every day (or fraction) the trail is cold subtracts 20 additional percentiles from the tracker's chance.

Stealth Skills

Concealing oneself from hostile eyes; high POW hurts these skills (the aura draws attention), while small SIZ and good DEX help.

Hide (10)

Uses shadows, cover, or misty areas to hide from view; terrain affects the chance (per a Terrain/Stealth table referenced in the source but not detailed with specific values here). Hiding while moving at the same time halves the normal Hide percentage (after terrain modifiers). If a Searcher is actively looking, they must subtract the hider's Hide skill from their own Search % and roll under the remainder to find the hider; otherwise, a simple success roll by the hider is enough to avoid discovery. Takes until the user's DEX strike rank to perform; can only be rolled once per hide attempt.

Sneak (10)

Moving in silence without alerting a foe. If used at the same time as Hide, a single roll resolves both. Against an adventurer actively using Listen, the sneaker's player subtracts their Sneak skill from the listener's Listen percentile and must roll equal to or under the difference to move unheard; a Sneak roll is made for every melee round in which the sneaker is being listened for (but only once if there is no active listening). Each point of ENC from metal armor subtracts 1 percentile from Sneak.

The World — Natural Damage (excerpt)

Hazards in the game world (rather than weapons or magic) can also damage an adventurer.

Falling

Cumulative factors determine total fall damage:

• Height: 1D6 damage (to a randomly-rolled melee hit location) per 3 meters fallen; applies to both the location and total hit points (an exception to the normal "a limb takes at most double its hit points" rule).
• Velocity: being thrown rather than simply falling increases the effective distance (e.g., thrown from a horse converts a 1–3m fall into a 3.1–6m fall; being thrown 9 meters by a giant is treated as an 18-meter fall).
• Size: adventurers under SIZ 5 take 1D6 less damage; SIZ 6–20 gets no modifier; every 20 points (or fraction) of SIZ over 20 adds 1D6 to fall damage.
• Surface: the gamemaster may adjust for a softer landing surface; armor may help against fall damage at the gamemaster's discretion; magical protection against falling always works.
• Pointed Objects: falling onto a stake or similar counts the object's own damage as well (e.g., a stake typically does 1D10+1).
• A successful Jump roll while falling lets the faller choose which hit location takes the fall damage.

Asphyxiation

Used for smoke inhalation, drowning, poison gas, or choking. If not surprised, the adventurer can hold their breath for the first melee round of exposure by rolling CON×10 or less on D100. Each subsequent round the success multiplier drops by 1 (CON×9, then CON×8, etc.) until CON×1 is reached on the tenth-and-later rounds, at which point the character takes increasing damage to total hit points each round the roll is missed, until death or escape. If deliberately choked, the victim's player must roll CON as a percentage each round or take 1D6 damage to total hit points directly, with no chance to hold their breath at all.

Damage per round of exposure depends on the substance: water 1D8, smoke 1D4, dense smoke 1D6, poison gas 1D8 plus its corrosive effect (if any).

If surprised by the situation, a luck roll determines whether a breath was taken before exposure began; failing that luck roll means subsequent CON rolls are capped at the current percentage-equivalent stage rather than starting fresh.

Fire and Heat

Fire damages any hit location it touches at the end of each melee round; a torch typically affects one location, while being thrown into a bonfire affects all locations. Armor and magical protection subtract their protection points from fire damage for that round; metal weapons/armor aren't destroyed by fire unless left in flames for several full turns (though they may become too hot to use).

Melting points for various metals (damage per round if immersed): Zinc 4D6, Aluminum 6D6, Bronze 8D6, Silver 9D6, Copper 11D6, Rock/Glass 13D6, Nickel 14D6, Iron 15D6.

Exposure, Hunger, and Thirst

Stifling heat or freezing cold causes 1×–4× the normal fatigue point loss per melee round of activity (multiplier set by the gamemaster). A hungry adventurer applies the same fatigue penalty per round of activity after two days without food; a thirsty adventurer applies it after one day without liquid. None of these penalties restore with rest while the underlying condition (heat/cold/hunger/thirst) persists.

Poison

Every poison has a Potency (POT), matched against the victim's CON. If POT overcomes CON, the poison's full POT is dealt as damage to total hit points; if it doesn't overcome CON, typically half the POT is dealt instead. Poison damage normally takes effect 3 melee rounds after exposure (unless the gamemaster/poison specifies otherwise). Two doses of a weaker poison are not equivalent to one dose of a stronger one (e.g., two POT 10 doses ≠ one POT 20 dose) — each dose is resisted separately.

Poison Antidotes: also rated by POT. An antidote administered within half an hour before poisoning subtracts its POT from the poison's POT before damage is calculated. An antidote for one poison type gives a lessened benefit (half POT) against a related poison type (e.g., giant scorpion antidote at half POT vs. manticore venom, and vice versa; giant spider antidote at half POT vs. giant scorpion venom, and vice versa; wyvern antidote at half POT vs. snake venom, and vice versa).

Disease

Diseases cause victims to lose characteristic points at intervals. On exposure, the player rolls current CON×5 or less on D100 to resist; if failed, they must keep retrying (typically once per game week) until succeeding. The number of failed rolls before the first success determines the severity:

The first characteristic point is always lost immediately on contracting the disease. Recovery normally requires a CON×5 roll (reduced to CON×4/×3/×2/×1 for increasingly poor rest/care conditions, at the gamemaster's discretion) at the same interval implied by the severity.

Some named diseases: Wasting Disease (affects STR; death at STR 0), Creeping Chills (affects CON; death at CON 0), Brain Fever (affects INT; becomes a "vegetable" at INT 0), Soul Waste (affects POW; ceases to exist, even spiritually, at POW 0), The Shakes (affects DEX; becomes a "quivering mass of ganglia" at DEX 0).

Damage to Inanimate Objects

Objects (doors, chairs, walls) are treated like a weapon or armor piece — they have both hit points and armor points. Damage exceeding an object's armor points reduces its hit points; when an object's hit points reach zero, it's destroyed (if smaller than human-sized, or leaves a human-sized hole if larger, e.g., a wall). An inanimate object used as a parrying weapon (e.g., an improvised shield) loses 1 hit point (and therefore 1 armor point) for every blow that exceeds its armor points.

Armor Points for Objects Table

(An object's armor points may roughly equal its SIZ, but this isn't always the case — some heavy objects are more fragile than light ones, and vice versa.)

Condensed from the "Magic" (Introduction), "Spirit Magic", "Divine Magic", and "Sorcery" chapters.

The Three Perspectives

RuneQuest presents three compatible, mechanically-parallel ways to conceive of and practice magic: spirit (the shaman's path), divine (the priest's/priestess's path), and sorcerous (the sorcerer's path). None is objectively "true" — each is a cultural/philosophical lens on the same underlying magic system, and each answers the seven basic questions of existence (where did the world/we come from, why do we die, what happens after death, why am I here, how do I do magic, how do other cultures/practitioners fit in) differently. Procedures, terminology, and root mechanics are identical across the three; only the tactical powers, spells, and flavor differ. It's difficult for one practitioner to specialize in more than one type of magic, since the underlying conceptualizations are too divergent to hold in the same mind at once.

The Planes

The universe contains many discrete planes (levels/dimensions of reality), each with well-defined borders; creatures ordinarily can't travel from one plane to another.

• The Mundane Plane: the physical plane where adventurers live and act; has little natural contact with other planes.
• The Spirit Plane: home of disembodied spirits, the dead, and nature's dormant spirits; a shapeless, dreamlike, mist-filled place. It is contiguous with (but invisible to) every point of the mundane plane.
• God Plane (also called the hero plane): home of the gods; resembles the mundane plane but every quality is more extreme (beauty, horror, love). Priests and initiates go here after death. Great pools of creative material here spawned the mundane world's oceans, mountains, skies, etc.; elementals arise from these pools.
• Otherworld Creatures: mundane creatures are corporate (have physical bodies/SIZ); a creature is discorporate when it lacks SIZ. Some otherworld creatures (ghosts, nymphs) form temporary bodies as needed; most spirits stay permanently discorporate. A discorporate creature on the spirit plane normally cannot interact with the mundane plane (no natural communication/travel between the two) — but many spirits can form a shimmery, visible appearance on the mundane plane, and some know special spells/abilities for casting, initiating spirit combat, or communicating across planes.

Magical Procedures and Concepts

Spirit Combat

Occurs only when one or both combatants are discorporate (even if visible). Used to learn spells from certain spirits, to destroy an opponent's magic points, and potentially to possess/capture the victim.

• Spirits rarely initiate spirit combat with living creatures (against their nature); only the discorporate party can initiate it.
• An attacker must make itself visible on the mundane plane for one full melee round before attacking a mundane target; if both combatants are already on the spirit plane, there's no such delay.
• Once initiated, spirit combat cannot be disengaged until both sides agree, or until one side has no chance of success on the resistance table (an overwhelmingly stronger opponent, 10+ magic points ahead, may ignore or engage the weaker party at will — the weaker party has no choice either way).
• Procedure: the attacker's magic points are matched against the defender's magic points (or a resisting characteristic) on the resistance table; both make a roll. If both succeed, both lose 1D3 magic points; if only one succeeds, only the loser of that exchange loses 1D3 magic points; if neither succeeds, no effect that round.
• If an embodied spirit's (one linked to a physical body) magic points reach zero, the body becomes open to possession. If a disembodied spirit's magic points reach zero, it becomes open to capture or binding. Spirits don't fall unconscious from magic point loss but become susceptible to spells.
• Weapons cannot be used in spirit combat (even weapon-enhancing magic already on them has no effect); however, an adventurer caught in spirit combat can still cast spells if he makes a concentration roll.

Possession

Occurs when an otherworld being inhabits the body of a mundane-plane being.

• Dominant Possession: the original owner's identity (INT and POW) is suppressed and imprisoned within the body, beyond reach/communication/action. The possessed body cannot regain magic points or heal itself under the possessor's control; the possessor only has starting/beginning skill percentiles. Examples: demonic possession, insanity. The possessed's aura (if magically viewed) has the possessor's natural aura shape, with an ugly smudge showing the entrapped soul. Can occur when a creature's magic points are reduced to zero during spirit combat.
• Covert Possession: the possessor only exerts influence, without suppressing the original owner's consciousness/actions; they share the physical form. Examples: disease spirits, sendings, emotional spirits, hauntings (bad memories, dreams). The aura (if magically viewed) appears cloudy where the two spirits overlap. Requirements for success vary by spirit type; the possessed person cannot expel the possessor on their own once its magic points have returned to normal — only another spirit can perform the exorcism.

Curses

A curse is the malicious sending of an otherworld creature, or a long-duration spell, to attack/discomfort a target. Treat curses as variants of the two possession types above.

Magic Points Summary

Magic points represent the quantity of life force an adventurer can spend to cast magic.

• One magic point is the smallest usable amount; there's no particular maximum, but a rested adventurer's magic points equal his current POW.
• Casting a spell (or worship, or spirit combat) uses up magic points, marked off the character's tally.
• An adventurer's magic points also resist spells cast at him — a target always resists unless voluntarily accepting the spell (compare the caster's current magic points vs. the target's current magic points on the resistance table).
• Magic points regenerate automatically at 1/24th of current POW per hour (a full night's rest, ~24 hours, fully restores them). Regenerated magic points never exceed the adventurer's POW, though other means can push current magic points above POW temporarily.

Spells — Common Terminology and Concepts

• Intensity: a measure of a spell's strength; each spell description gives the minimum effect and minimum magic-point cost to achieve it (a "minimum-intensity spell").
• Spell (the act of casting): combines arcane sounds/phrases, gesture, and magic point expenditure to reliably alter the environment.
• Total Magic Points: the full number of magic points the caster must provide to fulfill the caster's stated intent. For sorcerers, this equals the spell's intensity plus any extra points spent boosting plus manipulation costs. For priests, total magic points matter less (only required for certain spells, or when boosting a divine spell against defensive magic). For spirit magicians, total magic points equal one per point of spell plus any boosting points.

Types of Spells

• Active Spell: only sorcerers and spirit magicians have these. Requires the caster's continued concentration for the spell's full duration. If the caster tries to cast another spell, is attacked in spirit combat, takes damage, or is otherwise interrupted, he must make a concentration roll (INT×3 as a percentage) or the spell ends and must be recast. Active-spell casters are limited to a movement rate of one-half meter per strike rank and cannot fight while maintaining the spell.
• Passive Spell: most spells are this type. Once it takes effect, the caster needn't concentrate further and may act freely, including casting other spells.
• Stackable/Nonstackable Spell: all divine magic spells have an initial point cost; sacrificing that cost yields one casting. It's likely a priest learns several castings of the same spell — if the spell is stackable, multiple castings can be combined for a greater effect (possibly with a stated stacking limit); if nonstackable, castings cannot be combined.
• Variable/Nonvariable Spell: variable spells can be learned/cast at several intensities (up to a stated limit, if any) — e.g., Protection 1, or a stronger Protection 2 or 3 learned later. An adventurer who knows a strong variable spell can always cast a weaker version of it. Nonvariable spells have one fixed magic-point cost and cannot be cast at any other intensity.

Spell Effects, Ranges, and Duration

• Spells are always cast at an area or thing; the description states the affected area/target boundary. Once casting completes, anything within that boundary is affected.
• Touch Spell: affects only the person/thing physically touched by the caster (no skin-to-skin contact required, but must be close enough to affect the target's aura; the caster must stay in contact for the entire casting duration).
• Ranged Spell: has a maximum casting distance (in meters); can be cast at any point within that distance which the caster can physically or magically see. Each magic system has a standard range for its spells, with exceptions noted per-spell.
• Instant Spell: lasts one strike rank; effects can't be dispelled once they've resolved (e.g., a Heal spell completed on SR4 takes effect by SR5, after which the healing can't be undone).
• Temporal Spell: lasts for a definite stated span of time.

Spells and Memory

• Each spirit-magic or sorcerous spell requires a certain number of points of the caster's INT to be "allotted" (memorized) before it can be cast; divine spells do not require INT to memorize.
• Free INT: INT not allotted to memorizing spells; important mainly for sorcerers (governs how many manipulations they can apply to their spells).
• Changing Memorized Spells: to learn a new spell, a caster may need to intentionally forget others to free up enough INT. Once forgotten, a spell must be relearned via the full training/research process to be known again; spells can be forgotten at a rate of one hour per point.
• Readiness: a caster who is ready adds no strike-rank penalty; a caster taken by surprise adds 3 strike ranks to the time needed to cast their first spell after the surprise (afterward, casting returns to normal).

Spell Strike Rank

Strike rank to cast = caster's DEX strike rank + spell's magic-point cost (including boosting) + readiness modifier (0, or +3 if surprised).

If total strike ranks needed exceed 10, casting spills into the following melee round(s) — e.g., a spell requiring 16 strike ranks takes effect on strike rank 6 of the next round if casting began on strike rank 1 of the first; a 25-point spell requires 2.5 melee rounds.

• A caster can attack, parry, or dodge (two of these three actions) and still cast spells in the same round, as long as there are enough strike ranks; spell-casting doesn't count as one of the three permissible melee-round actions.
• A caster must spend 3 strike ranks (during which he can do nothing else) to ready himself to cast a second spell in the same round, if sufficiently dexterous to fit both.
• Casting incurs a cumulative ENC penalty: subtract 1 percentile from spellcasting chance for every point of ENC carried.
• A minimum of one magic point must always be expended for spirit or sorcery spells to work, regardless of result (success or failure).
• Spell Boosting: additional magic points can be added to any spell (even divine) to help it overcome defensive magic; this increases the time needed to cast (adds to the strike-rank cost) but not the base cost unless magic points are explicitly included as part of the casting.
• Aborting a Spell: spirit-magic users and sorcerers may voluntarily abort a spell at any time before casting completes (losing the time already spent, and must wait 3 strike ranks before starting another); a spell can also be involuntarily aborted by loss of concentration from damage.
• Combined Spells: one adventurer cannot combine their own spell with another adventurer's spell on the same target. If a spell is cast on a target already under an incompatible spell, the two compete: the one with more magic points remains and the other is dispelled; if equal magic points, the older spell remains; if same strike rank and equal strength, both fail.
• Strength of Magic (for spell-vs-spell competition): total magic points needed to cast the spell (spirit/sorcery); for divine magic, double the divine spell's point value and add one per magic point used to boost it.

Spirit Magic

The simplest and least powerful of the three approaches — cast quickly, learned quickly and cheaply, but comparatively short-lived and weak.

Learning and Using Spells

• Spirits are literally the source of spirit-magic spells; in many cases, they are the spell, holding both the matrix and the magic points needed to cast it. A spell must be learned by defeating the teaching spirit in spirit combat.
• Only certain spirits (usually low-magic-point ones under a benevolent shaman's command) can teach spells; once learned, spirit spells aren't forgotten unless voluntarily suppressed.
• Cost to learn a spirit-magic spell from a tribal shaman: traditionally 100 pennies per spell point, plus roughly three weeks' income for a common laborer per spell point in time. A stranger wishing to learn from a shaman must first befriend him (gift worth ≥500 pennies per spell point desired, plus time ingratiating himself to the tribe); a friendly shaman charges only 250 pennies per spell point from familiar outsiders, plus a wait of 3D6 weeks for the shaman to travel the otherworld and capture the appropriate spell spirit.
• Limits to Spell Memorization: each point of spirit magic requires one point of INT to remember; maximum potential memorization equals the adventurer's INT. A spell can be voluntarily forgotten to free room for others.
• Spellcasting Ability: percentile chance equal to POW×5, minus 1 percentile per point of ENC carried. Cannot be raised except by increasing POW.
• The Focus: all spirit-magic spells require a focus — a trinket, medallion, rune-marked object, rock, bone, claw, etc. — as a reminder/token that triggers the spell's release. Losing the focus (or losing an arm, which halves the caster's spellcasting chance until relearned; losing both arms quarters it) impairs spirit-magic casting.
• Spell Limits: spirit magic costs magic points to cast. All targets except voluntary ones resist as "offensive spells," matching the caster's magic points against the defender's magic points and current magic points on the resistance table. Magic points are spent whether or not the target resists successfully.
• Spirit spells have two nominal maximum ranges: touch (must physically touch the target) or ranged (typically 50 meters). For touch spells, touching the target's clothing or armor is normally sufficient unless stated otherwise.
• Duration: temporal spells last 5 minutes (25 melee rounds); instant spells take effect only on the strike rank they were cast on.
• Spell Strike Rank = caster's DEX strike rank + the spell's magic points + any boosting magic points.
• All spirit magic spells are passive once cast — the caster needn't pay further attention, and the effect continues (e.g., a Befuddled target stays Befuddled for the spell's duration regardless of what happens to the caster, unless dispelled).
• Some spell descriptions include a bracketed qualifier specifying a substance, species, sense, or characteristic the spell affects (e.g., gold, silver, iron, wood, stone, fire, cotton — substances never include living material).

Spirit Magic Procedures

The caster states the target, touches the focus, concentrates, and chants. On the strike rank the casting completes, the player rolls D100 ≤ POW×5 (minus ENC penalty) for success. A roll of 96+ is always a failure if the base chance exceeds 100%. If the roll fails, the spell doesn't work but the magic point is still spent; the spell may be attempted again next round. There are no critical-success or fumble modifiers for spirit magic.

Spirit Magic Spells (summary)

• Befuddle (2 pts, Ranged, Temporal, Passive): confuses the target (doesn't change beliefs/perceptions, just muddles them). Victim must roll over INT×5 to shake it off each round, standing there confused and unable to act, parry, or dodge if they fail. A fumble on the resist roll (or any critical success by the caster) causes the victim to mistake friends for enemies, and vice versa.
• Bladesharp (Variable, Touch, Temporal, Passive): +5% to-hit and +1 extra damage point per level of intensity applied to any cutting/stabbing/hacking weapon. Can harm creatures normally immune to weapon damage (e.g., lycanthropes) via the magical bonus portion.
• Countermagic (Variable, Ranged, Temporal, Passive): defends against incoming spells (detection, protection, even Healing) of equal or weaker strength; loses if outmatched by 2+ points; both spells vanish if within 1 point of each other; loses and is eliminated if outmatched by 2+ points. Does not defend against spells already cast on an object (e.g., a Bladesharp already on a sword) or against spirits, and is incompatible with Protection.
• Demoralize (2 pts, Ranged, Temporal, Passive): victim loses faith in success (in combat, treasure hunts, rescues, etc.), fighting only at half normal percentage but able to fully defend/heal; will likely retreat if faced with superior odds. The victim may attempt to realize they're under the spell (INT×1 roll) and then cast Dispel Magic to counter it.
• Detect (Substance) (1 pt, Ranged, Temporal, Active): guides the caster toward the nearest supply of a named substance, penetrating up to 1 meter of rock/metal/dirt.
• Disruption (1 pt, Ranged, Instant): damages the target's body directly; if the target's magic points are overcome, it takes 1D3 damage to a random hit location (via the missile/spell hit table), not absorbed by armor.
• Heal (Variable, Touch, Instant): repairs 1 hit point per point of Healing used, for creatures of the caster's own species; creatures of other species cost 2 points of Healing per hit point repaired.
• Light (1 pt, presumably Ranged/Temporal — provides illumination; details limited in the source excerpt.)
• Protection (Variable, Ranged, Temporal, Passive): adds one point of armor protection (to the whole body or an object) per point applied; acts exactly like normal armor. Incompatible with Countermagic.
• Repair (Variable, Touch, Instant): fixes broken objects (if all the parts are present) — a sword can be reforged, shields renewed, armor mended. Each point fixes 1D10 points of damage; the repaired object shows a scar and permanently loses 1 point from its maximum hit points. Does not restore broken enchantments or released spirits if used on magic items.
• Speedart (1 pt, Touch, 1 melee round): adds 15 percentiles to attack chance and 3 points of damage to any missile weapon; must be cast the same round the missile is thrown/shot, lasting until the end of that round.

Divine Magic

Wielded by people qualified to act in the name of a deity or principle. Divine magic offers the quickest, most reliable results of all three approaches, but spells must be renewed at special holy places (temples) and cost the sacrifice of current POW (not mere magic points).

• Lay members are casual worshipers; they don't know cult secrets, are excluded from parts of the service, and receive no special magical benefits.
• Initiates and Priests are the specialists. Both sacrifice current POW to join, are barred from using other spirit magic (except cult spells) or sorcery while a member, and must tithe regularly.
• "Cult" may be used interchangeably with "religion" in the rules (cult implies purely local/regional membership, without any negative connotation).

Initiates

• If an adventurer's parents are initiates/priests of a religion, the adventurer automatically joins as an initiate at 15 — already having internalized the religion's expectations.
• Requirements to Initiate (for someone unfamiliar to the temple): pass a rigorous test — donate 20 pennies, understand the initiate's requirements/obligations, prove knowledge of the religion's specialty skills. Roll D100 for each of five specialty skills; if that roll exceeds the character's skill in it, the test is failed on that count. Passing requires clearing at least three of the five skill rolls.
• The initiation ritual is sealed by sacrificing one point of current POW, establishing a holy link through which further sacrifices flow (this also permanently loses a point of POW as with any divine-magic sacrifice; excommunication severs the link).
• Duties: tithe a tenth of yearly income and a tenth of free time to the temple; defend the deity's reputation (verbally, physically, magically); initiates may never become shamans or sorcerers.
• Benefits: initiates may buy one-use divine magic spells from their deity, at 20 pennies plus sacrifice of one point of current POW per point of spell. One-use spells can only be cast once per POW sacrifice; casting again requires another POW sacrifice.
• Each year (High Holy Day), an initiate automatically gains +1 percentile in Orate and Read/Write Own Language. Every fifth year, an initiate may learn one point of spirit magic acceptable to the religion, for free.
• Leaving the Religion: Voluntary Departure — always possible; the initiate immediately becomes inactive (loses restrictions/benefits, but keeps already-purchased one-use spells until formally excommunicated). Inactive Initiates — failing obligations (missed High Holy Day, withheld tithe) makes an initiate inactive; a priest can always detect inactivity via Soul Sight; an inactive initiate can't learn new spells and can't call for divine intervention, though already-learned one-use spells remain personally usable (but not relearnable).
• Sacrilege: seriously breaking religious law; commission of a sacrilegious act makes the initiate immediately inactive. Correcting it (through penance, restitution, or gamemaster-set corrective actions) can restore good standing.
• Excommunication: a formal ritual performed by an authorized priest, strippable at any distance, that permanently ends an initiate's status, forfeiting all benefits and the sacrificed POW; all divine spells learned from that deity are lost permanently (though other magical benefits, like spirit magic or enchanted items, are retained, though items/spirits linked to divine power may also lose potency). Priests can always recognize an excommunicant via Soul Sight or reputation, even at a distance.
• Initiates of Multiple Religions: possible if the religions are compatible; requires passing tests for and tithing to all of them.

Learning and Using Divine Magic Spells

• Requires being an initiate and learning from a priest who knows the spell. One full week of temple study (plus a ~20-penny donation) teaches a spell; at the end of the week, the adventurer sacrifices POW equal to the spell's point value.
• Divine magic requires no INT to memorize.
• A divine-magic user has a 100% base chance of successfully casting, reduced by 1 percentile per point of ENC carried (so there's still a chance of failure at 96–00% even with no ENC).
• Spell Limits: unless stated otherwise, a divine spell is one-use for initiates but reusable for priests. Priests may re-sacrifice POW to relearn a used one-use spell.
• Ranges: Touch, or a normal ranged casting distance of 100 meters (special ranges given per-spell). Normal duration is 15 minutes.
• Stacking Limits: divine spells have an initial point cost; multiple castings can be stacked (combined for a stronger effect, if "stackable") up to any stated ceiling; all stacked castings must be cast at one target, in a single melee round.
• Concentration: casting requires concentration limited to no more than a head-shake or nod in response to questions; movement limited to half a meter per strike rank; the caster may not Dodge or parry. If damaged while sustaining concentration, roll INT×3 or the spell is broken (automatically aborted if the caster goes into shock or unconsciousness).
• Boosting Spells: add magic points (not POW) to strengthen defense against overcoming magic; each point raises the spell's strength by one and adds one strike rank to the casting time. Boosted spells can still be aborted without losing the extra magic points spent.
• Casting procedure: cast on the caster's DEX strike rank, no additional delay from the spell's point value itself (strike ranks are only added for boosting, one per magic point of boost). The magician rolls percentile dice on the completion strike rank; success requires ≤ (100 − caster's ENC). A roll >95 (i.e., 96–00) always fails, with no cost to the adventurer beyond the earlier POW sacrifice already made (for one-use spells, losing the roll means losing the ability to try again until re-sacrificing POW; for reusable spells, the priest must instead spend days praying at the temple, equal to the spell's point value, to regain the ability). A fumble or critical roll has no special effect.
• Opposition Roll vs. Target Resistance: if the target has magic points, the caster must overcome them using the resistance table (caster's magic points vs. target's magic points).

Temples

A holy place consecrated to and protected by a deity — a conjugation of the god plane (home of divinities) and the mundane plane (home of mortals). A temple's presence enables priests/initiates to learn spells, provides special defenses, and transmits mortals' prayers to the deity (and divine messages back to the priests).

Religions (example deity write-ups)

Each deity entry lists: an explanation of the deity's traits, skills especially appropriate to the religion, the divine magic specialty spells available, and the spirit magic the temple might teach. Three examples given: The Mother of Light (nourishment, protector of women; skills: Animal Lore, any Craft, First Aid, Human Lore, Scan; divine: Find (Substance), Command (Species), Heal Body, Heal Wound, Lightning, Soul Sight; spirit: Heal, Light, Repair), The Father of Darkness (feared by humans, worshiped by evil men and trolls; skills: Weapon Attack, Hide, Human Lore, Listen, Sneak; divine: Absorption, Command (Species), Fear, Find (Substance), Heal Wound, Soul Sight; spirit: Countermagic, Demoralize, Disruption), The Lord of Battle (god of battle, fiery tempers, jealousy; skills: Primary/Secondary Weapon Attack and Parry, Shield Parry; divine: Berserk, Find (Substance), Heal Wound, Soul Sight, Shield, True (Weapon); spirit: Bladesharp, Heal, Protection).

Common Divine Spells (summary)

• Absorption (1 pt, Ranged, Temporal, Stackable, Reusable): absorbs enemy spells, converting them into usable magic points for the caster, and screens out their effects. Each point of Absorption soaks up one point of divine magic, or two points of sorcery/spirit spells. Won't partially absorb an overpowering spell (if the incoming spell has more total magic points than can be absorbed, it takes full effect instead). Absorbed points remain suspended in the caster's aura until used, or dissipate above his current Power when the spell expires/is dispelled. Incompatible with Shield.
• Berserk (2 pts, Ranged, Temporal, Nonstackable, Reusable): sends the recipient into a murderous fury — greatly enhanced combat stamina/skill, forgotten personal safety. Total hit points and per-location hit points don't change, but the Berserker automatically succeeds any CON roll except a 96–00 result, and is immune to incapacitation, shock, unconsciousness, or exhaustion from location loss (though location-based combat disadvantages, like a useless leg, still apply); poisons do minimal damage; the Berserker dies only from loss of total hit points. Attack percentage is doubled (with over-100% combat competency rules applying if relevant). Cannot cast magic, parry, or dodge while Berserk; can't voluntarily shake it off before the 15-minute duration ends without gamemaster-judged extenuating circumstances (requiring an INT×1 roll). Upon expiry, the Berserker's fatigue points drop to −100 regardless of normal maximum.
• Command (Species) (2 pts, Ranged, Temporal, Nonstackable, Reusable): caster takes over the actions/will of an unintelligent (fixed-INT) creature of the stated species that they can see/sense, if the caster's magic points overcome the creature's. Grants line-of-sight telepathic control; commanding requires the caster's full concentration for a melee round.
• Fear (1 pt, Ranged, Instant, Nonstackable, Reusable): incapacitating fear, effective only if the caster's magic points overcome the victim's; ineffective against unconscious victims or those without INT. Effects can't be dispelled once cast. See the Fear Spell Table below for degree-of-success effects.
• Find (Substance) (1 pt, Ranged, Temporal, Nonstackable, Reusable): informs the caster of the presence (and a faint identifying glow, visible only to the caster) of a named substance; can detect hidden objects of that substance unless beyond 1 meter of stone, soil, or metal.
• Heal Body (3 pts, Touch, Instant, Nonstackable, Reusable): cures all damage to total hit points, regardless of hit location, in one casting; will not regrow or heal a maimed/severed limb.
• Heal Wound (1 pt, Touch, Instant, Nonstackable, Reusable): repairs damage to a living creature's hit points (person, animal, plant, intelligent weapon, or certain otherworld creatures), as long as it has hit points; converts magic points to hit points 1-for-1, cured in the touched location and total hit points simultaneously.
• Lightning (1 pt, Ranged, Instant, Stackable, Reusable): a bolt from the caster's hand or a device (spear, wand, sword); each point inflicts 1D6 damage to a single hit location if the caster's magic points overcome the target's; no armor protects against it, but defensive spells against physical attack will. Very bright; can ignite dry, flammable materials.
• Shield (1 pt, Ranged, Temporal, Stackable, Reusable): each point gives 2 points of magical armor and 2 points of Countermagic (equivalent to the spirit-magic spell); cumulative with Protection or (mundane) Countermagic. To breach a Shield, an incoming spirit or sorcery spell must be at least one point stronger than the shield's defense; the shield doesn't dissipate when breached, only when its 15-minute duration ends or it's dispelled. Incompatible with Absorption; if cast on a target already protected by mundane Countermagic, that Countermagic is dispelled first, before the Shield.
• Soul Sight (1 pt, Ranged, Temporal, Nonstackable, Reusable): lets the recipient see the POW aura of the living and magically know current magic points of things/creatures, including magic points devoted to currently in-effect spells. Also reveals if a viewed person is an initiate (and whether currently active), though it won't reveal priesthood status.
• True (Weapon) (1 pt, Ranged, Temporal, Nonstackable, Reusable): cast on a specified melee weapon, doubles the normal damage dice rolled by the weapon (roll the weapon's damage dice twice and total); does not affect any damage bonus from the wielder's exceptional SIZ or STR.

Fear Spell Table (degree of the caster's success on the resistance-table roll):

Sorcery

The most flexible approach to magic, and its spells are potentially the most powerful, though sorcerers believe in an impersonal universe governed by exploitable natural laws rather than living spirits or gods.

Learning Sorcery

• Anyone can learn sorcery by convincing a teacher and meeting the requirements.
• Becoming a student requires the applicant to already have a positive magic skills category modifier (a negative modifier bars the path entirely, unless later play raises it to positive).
• Befriending a sorcerer to become accepted as a student takes 2D6+2 weeks, a traditional gift of at least 100 pennies, a vow of obedience while a student, and a POW×5 or less roll on D100.
• A sorcerer may teach up to seven students at a time; students do drudge-work and pay a small fee in exchange for lessons.
• Benefits to a student: mundane skills, common sorcery spells, and the sorcery skill of Intensity manipulation. If sorcery is prevalent in the student's home region, they automatically receive 1D3−1 free sorcery spells at 15 (plus one more per five years/fraction thereafter). A beginning student's chance to cast a spell = 1D6 + the student's magic skills category modifier; students also get +1 percentile/year in Intensity or World Lore (player's choice), plus 2 percentiles/year allocatable to any spell(s) they know.
• Learning New Spells (beyond initial student benefits): from a teacher (100 hours of study, cost = 200 hours of work or three weeks' wages; end-of-study roll ≤ INT×3 on D100 to succeed, gaining a beginning skill of 1D6 plus the magic skills category modifier), or via research (500 hours per spell; needs a roll ≤ INT×3 to succeed; initial skill = 1D6 plus the magic skills category modifier).

Sorcery Use

• Percentage chance to cast, increasable through experience (unlike spirit/divine magic, which increase differently).
• Spell Limits: all sorcery spells cost one magic point to cast (unless manipulated, each manipulation requiring one more point), and one point of INT to memorize (unless otherwise stated). Casting range for all spells defaults to 10 meters; duration defaults to 10 minutes (50 melee rounds) — exceptions noted per-spell.
• Concentration: sorcerers must maintain concentration while casting — no more than a simple nod/shake of the head, no more than half a meter per strike rank of movement, no Dodge or Parry. Taking damage while casting requires an INT×3 roll (D100) to maintain concentration; a broken concentration automatically aborts the spell (and loses it automatically if the sorcerer goes into shock or unconsciousness).
• Aborting a Spell: a sorcerer can abort a casting at any time, losing the time spent plus one magic point; a spell once fully cast normally cannot be aborted (though sustained/active spells can be stopped by shifting concentration).
• Boosting Spells: add extra magic points to help overcome defensive magic; each added point raises the spell's strength by one and its casting time by one strike rank. Abortable boosted spells lose no additional magic points beyond the base cost when aborted.

Intensity Skill

All sorcery spells have an automatic intensity of 1; sorcerers raise a spell's intensity using this skill. Each magic point added to a spell's cost doubles its intensity for general effects (2 points triples it, etc. — a multiplicative rather than additive effect, detailed per-spell). Beginning Sorcery Skill Percentages: initial training for the Intensity skill takes one week (50 hours); success (INT×3 or less on D100) grants 1D6 percentiles plus the magic skills category modifier. Intensity (like other sorcery skills) can be further increased through research and training.

Determining the Success of the Cast

On the strike rank the sorcerer completes casting, roll percentile dice ≤ the sorcerer's simple casting chance for success (magic points are marked off as soon as casting completes, regardless of the roll's outcome). A roll of 96+ (or any result greater than the chance but less than a fumble) costs only 1 magic point with no effect; a fumble costs all magic points committed to the casting, with no effect. A critical success on the casting roll costs only 1 magic point regardless of how many were committed, but the spell still takes full effect.

Using Sorcery Skills

A sorcerer's chance to cast a given spell equals his lowest ability among all the sorcery skills and spell-specific skills involved in that casting (e.g., Intensity plus any spell-specific manipulation skill, whichever is weakest, caps the roll).

Limits to Manipulating Spells

A sorcerer can perform a limited number of manipulations on his spells, based on his free INT (INT not allotted to memorizing spells) — each raised intensity level (or other manipulation) requires one point of free INT. Sorcerers can never cast a spell requiring more free INT than they currently have; they may forget spells (at a rate of one per hour) to free up more INT.

Sorcery Spells (summary — parenthesized qualifiers indicate a substance, species, sense, or characteristic that must be specified when the spell is learned)

• Damage Resistance (Ranged, Passive, Temporal): protects only the target's body (not possessions); total incoming damage must overcome the spell's intensity on the resistance table before any gets through; the target's own armor absorbs what it can of any damage that does get through. Protects for the spell's full duration; stacks with Shield or Protection (damage is matched against Resistance first, and only the remainder passes to Shield/Protection/armor).
• Mystic Vision (Ranged, Active, Temporal): lets the target visually perceive the aura of magic-point-possessing things, magical items that don't regenerate their own points but possess them, and things with spells cast upon them — differentiable from normal sight with practice. Doesn't work in the dark or where the viewer's normal senses are blocked; doesn't boost normal Search/Scan. The caster learns the approximate strength of any aura/spell seen (in bands of 10 magic points, e.g. 1–10, 11–20, etc.). Higher spell intensity reveals more: at intensity 5, the basic purpose of magic seen; at intensity 10, an image of the item's creator and any conditions placed on the item.
• Neutralize Magic (Ranged, Active, Instant): pits the spell's intensity against the magic points of a target spell on the resistance table; if successful, the targeted spell is eliminated; if the resistance roll fails, Neutralize Magic has no effect. Cast without a specified target, it will first attack the most powerful defensive spell affecting the target that it's capable of neutralizing (destroying spells in order from strongest to weakest it can overcome), unless the caster can magically discern (or guess) a specific spell to target instead.
• Palsy (Ranged, Passive, Temporal): immobilizes one random hit location of the target if the caster's magic points overcome the target's and the spell's intensity exceeds that location's hit points; if the chest, head, or abdomen is affected, treat it as if that location had been reduced to zero hit points (though no actual hit-point reduction occurs).
• Sense (Substance) (Ranged, Active, Instant): causes all sources of the specified substance within range to visibly glow (visible only to the caster) — gold gleams, coal shimmers in darkness, gems scintillate. Each level of intensity penetrates 1 meter of intervening rock, wood, dirt, etc.
• Shapechange (Species) to (Species) (Touch, Passive, Temporal): the specific species pairing must be chosen when learned. Changes the target's biological form (SIZ stays constant); the target gains the new shape's natural abilities at base percentages only (no bonus magical abilities), and retains its own INT and memories.
• Spell Resistance (Ranged, Passive, Temporal): protects a target (not their possessions) — any spell cast on the protected person/thing must overcome the Spell Resistance's intensity on the resistance table (using the casting spell's total magic points as the attacking force) or it has no effect. Remains in effect until its duration expires.
• Stupefaction (Ranged, Passive, Temporal): to be effective, the spell's intensity must be ≥ the target's free INT; if the caster's magic points overcome the target's, the target stops all action, standing there exhibiting no will/interest, though can be led/forced to walk, eat, or sit; may babble incoherently. Lasts for the spell's duration or until the target takes physical/magical damage.
• Tap (Characteristic) (Touch, Active, Temporal): permanently transforms points of a target's characteristic into Magic Points or Fatigue Points (at the caster's discretion), requiring physical touch; cannot Tap a creature lacking SIZ, and cannot add points to both Magic and Fatigue from the same casting. The specific characteristic to be tapped is chosen when the spell is learned. The spell's intensity must be ≥ the target's magic points, and the caster must overcome the target's magic points with his own via a resistance roll for the Tap to succeed. Tapped points are lost permanently by the victim (no characteristic can go below 1 this way); the transformed points act as normal Magic/Fatigue Points for the caster but (for magic points) don't regenerate through rest, and expire when the Tap spell's duration ends. See the Tapping Yield table below for how many points of intensity are needed to tap one point of each characteristic.
• Treat Wounds (Touch, Passive, One Hour): repairs damage to specific hit locations by increasing the natural healing rate (cannot heal poison, acid, or damage measured solely against CON). A wound treated with at least intensity-2 Treat Wounds stops bleeding immediately; thereafter the creature heals 1 total hit point and 1 location hit point per hour until that location is fully healed. Duration of the effect increases automatically with intensity. Often requires a physical component (special roots, herbs, animal organs, or minerals) to work.

Tapping Yield Table (intensity required to Tap one point of the given characteristic):

Only the seven main characteristics (STR, CON, SIZ, INT, DEX, POW, APP) can be Tapped.