Character Actions

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Attributes, General Skills and Narrow Skills
All of Bob's abilities are measured by the number of dice which they add to his roll. Attributes and General Skills applie to a broad array of actions. For normal humans, General Skills range from 1 to 7 dice with 3 dice as the human average, and General Skills range from 1 to 9 dice. Do not confuse the General Skill of Athletics with the die roll for Athletic Actions.

Attributes
 * Muscles (MUS) contributes might and toughness to a die pool. Muscles is like strength and parts of constitution in other games.
 * Nerves (NER) contributes agility, quickness, and hand/eye coordination to a die pool. Nerves is like dexterity and parts of wisdom in other games.
 * Spirit (SPI) contributes intuition and luck to a die pool. SPI is used for magic and the supernatural.

Question: should Attributes be collapsed into General Skills to simplify the system? The original idea was that Attributes and General Skills could be mixed and matched, but that seldom happens. Most situations could be handled with just General Skills and Narrow Skills. Yes, this would be a big change, but it would also be a major simplification both of the system in general and of die pool calculations.

General Skills
 * Melee (MEE) represents training in close combat.
 * Missiles (MIS) represents training in throwing and ranged weapons.
 * Awareness (AWA) represents alertness to surroundings.
 * Athletics (ATH) represents training in physical prowess.
 * Magic (MAG) represents training is arcane arts.

Narrow Skills

For most actions Bob doesn't really need a Narrow Skill; he can roll using just the appropriate Attribute and General Skill dice. Narrow Skills represent additional specialized training. A few actions (eg. spells) are difficult or impossible without this specialized training. Normal human Narrow Skills can range from 0 to 12 dice. See below for discussion of individual Narrow Skills.

The Basic Die Pool
An action's Basic Die Pool is the total of up to 3 values from Attributes, General Skills, and Narrow Skills. The Basic Die Pool is usually the most relevant Attribute, the most relevant General Skill, and the appropriate Narrow Skill (if any), but some other combination may be used if that betters suits the situation.

Creative Die Pools

Any imaginable action can be resolved by rolling dice from 3 of Bob's Attributes, General Skills and Narrow Skills (normally 1 of each) against a die pool or threshold chosen by the GM.

Routine Die Pools

Deciding on a creative die pool usually requires thought and discussion with your players, so some routine die rolls are standardized to save time.


 * Melee attack: MUS + MEE + Narrow Skill.
 * Melee parry: NER + MEE + Narrow Skill.
 * Missile attack: NER + Missiles + Narrow Skill.
 * Magic spell: SPI + MAG + Narrow Skill.
 * Perception: SPI + AWA + Narrow Skill
 * Stealth: NER + AWA + Narrow Skill
 * Athletic action (moving, climbing, jumping etc.): MUS + NER + ATH
 * Lock-picking: NER + AWA + Narrow Skill of Lock Picking

Derived Values
 * Hit Points (HP) = MUS + NER + SPI.
 * Speed: 10' + 5' times the median of MUS, NER, and Athletics (reduced to not include movement in Maneuver Phase).

Questions: Should Bob's speed be doubled if he was already moving and not adjacent to a foe at the start of the round?

Saving Throws
 * Fortitude Save (also Strength Test): MUS + MUS + SPI (mostly the body, but requires some will.)
 * Reflex Save (also Dodging roll): NER + SPI + ATH (quickness, intuition and training)
 * Will Save: MUS + SPI + SPI (mostly the spirit, but requires some stamina)
 * Magic Save: Hit Points + SPI - Magic (Hit Points with a bonus for SPI > Magic)

The Final Die Pool
Bob's final die pool may also include dice for such things as as armor, spell effects, Bonus Skills and environmental factors. Action and Defense Rolls get a minimum of 3 dice in their final die pool; thus you always have enough dice to take an action. Characters who are unconscious, bound, etc. cannot act, but still get 3 dice if for some reason a roll is needed.

Bonus Skills Bonus Skills also represent specialized training, but they grant dice which are in addition to the basic die pool. In most other respects they are like Narrow Skills.


 * Martial Arts is a bonus to all melee attack and parry rolls, but only unarmed attacks and parries get the full benefit of Martial Arts. Using any weapon reduces the Martial Arts contribution to the roll: weapons which are both light & blunt reduce Martial Arts by 1 die; light & sharp by 2: normal & blunt by 3; normal & sharp by 4; heavy & blunt (includes shield for parries only) by 5; heavy & sharp by 6. (These values are based on the increase in damage over unarmed; you can use them for any weapon with the same total damage adjustment as the listed type.) Martial Arts dice cannot exceed Brawling dice.


 * Riding: Riding dice are added as a bonus to actions performed from horseback, but only when those actions would logically be more likely to succeed from horseback (eg. melee combat with an appropriate weapon). They can also be used with STR and DEX to save against mishaps while on horseback.


 * Swimming: Anyone can try to swim by making an Athletics roll, but Swimming adds a bonus to that roll.

Narrow Skill Examples
While most actions do not require a narrow Skill, a few actions (eg. spells) are difficult or impossible without this specialized training. Melee weapon skills are used both for attacks and for parries. Available Narrow Skills can vary from campaign to campaign, so the list below is only an example. In addition all magic spells are treated as Narrow Skills.

Narrow Skills for 1-Handed Melee Weapons
 * Dagger/Knife: a short, light, sharp blade
 * Club/Mace: Includes most blunt weapons
 * Sword: Includes all blades larger than a dagger
 * Axe/Hammer

Narrow Skills for 2-Handed Melee Weapons
 * Greatsword
 * Staff

Narrow Skills for Other Weapons
 * Brawling: Unarmed combat
 * Spear: Includes both 1 and 2-handed use of spears
 * Throwing: Includes rocks, throwing daggers, hatchets, javelins, and bombs.
 * Sling
 * Bow
 * Firearms: Includes use of crossbows.

Non-Weapon Narrow Skills
 * Perception
 * Stealth
 * Tracking (includes Hunting)
 * Lock Picking
 * Disguise