Basic Game Mechanics

Rulings, Not Rules
In the spirit of the Old School Revival, these rules are not intended to cover all possible eventualities. The GM will use his judgement to resolve any unexpected situations. Rules are a resource for the referee, not for the players. Players use observation and description as their tools and resources.

Role-Play not Roll-Play
You don’t have a “spot” check to let you notice hidden traps and levers, you don’t have a “bluff” check to let you automatically fool a suspicious city guardsman, and you don’t have a “sense motive” check to tell you when someone’s lying to your character. You have to tell the GM where you’re looking for traps and what buttons you’re pushing. You have to tell the referee whatever tall tale you’re trying to get the city guardsman to believe. You have to decide for yourself if someone’s lying to your character or telling the truth.

If You Really Have To Roll
Each side rolls a pool of ten-sided dice. The pool with the highest single die wins. Compare the rolls to determine the number of Victories, which equal the greater of: In case of a tie, remove both tied dice and consider the remaining dice; repeat as necessary. If ignoring ties leaves your foe with no dice, you get only 1 Victory.
 * The winner’s highest die minus the loser’s highest die, or
 * The number of the winner’s dice which are higher than the loser’s highest die (to a maximum of 9).

Action Rolls, Defense Rolls, and Second Rolls

 * Action Rolls are for making an attack or taking any other action.
 * Defense Rolls are for resisting an attack or other action.
 * Second Rolls add dice to a die pool. A Second Roll cannot change who wins, but it can change the number of Victories. Ignore any Second-Roll which reduces the rolling character’s number of Victories.

Sometimes rolls are also categorized as Aggressive or Reactive. Usually Action Rolls are Aggressive and Defense Rolls are Reactive, but Perception is always Aggressive and Stealth is always Reactive. Other exceptions exist.

Combat Rounds
Simultaneous Action Rolls are compared to determine initiative. Then each Action Roll is compared to the target’s Defense Roll to determine success and Victories.

Conceptually all actions begin at the start of the round, and are complete when it is the characters turn to act. In traditional FRP an average round is 6 seconds. Isekai rounds are more flexible than than, but should not on average exceed 10 seconds.


 * 1) Check NPC Morale
 * 2) Each character states her intended action and calculates how many d10 to roll. This action cannot be changed, but it can be canceled before a Defense Roll is made.
 * 3) All PCs and NPCs make Action-Rolls simultaneously.
 * 4) All Stun Damage is removed from all characters. (This reduces the Damage Penalty to Defense Rolls.)
 * 5) The character with the highest Action Roll result performs (or cancels) her intended action.
 * 6) The target of that action makes a Defense Roll. If the target has not already acted in this round, taking damage causes his action to automatically fail (but see Suicidal Action).
 * 7) Both characters make any Second-Rolls (if any) to determine Victories.
 * 8) Repeat steps 5, 6 and 7 for each character in descending order of Action Rolls.
 * 9) “Free Speech” phase: Insults, surrenders, attempts to negotiate, cries for help, etc.

Thresholds
In some cases your Action Roll must exceed a certain Threshold for your action to succeed. If the Threshold is not met there is no need for a Defense Roll.

Advantage and Disadvantage
With Advantage you count your highest die twice; with Disadvantage you ignore your highest die. Advantage is not stackable.
 * Initiative Advantage doubles your high die only for the purpose of determining who goes first.
 * Hit Advantage doubles your high die only for the purpose of determining who wins the contest.
 * Damage Advantage doubles your high die only for the purpose of determining how many Victories the winner achieves. Damage Disadvantage can never reduce a successful hit to less than 1 Victory.

Take-away dice
Some actions can act on several targets, or in several areas, or over several rounds. A roll is made normally for the first target, round, or area. Subsequent targets/rounds/areas use the same roll with the highest die removed after each target or round. Effect ends when highest remaining die < 9. Take-away area effects normally use a 15’ diameter center surrounded by 5’ wide rings.

Roll until Ready
Some actions can use a slower, but more careful method. The initial effort takes 5 or 10 minutes. Your initial roll must exceed the threshold. If you then don’t like your roll, you can re-roll 1 die for each additional 5 or 10 minutes spent in the attempt. When you achieve a roll you like, Defense is rolled to determine the result.

Slow Rolls
When a random duration needs to be rolled, each roll should be made at the last possible moment. For example, if some effect is to last for 3d6 minutes, roll nothing at the start of the period. After 3 rounds (the lowest value possible with 3d6) roll 1d6. Roll the second die when the round count reaches the first dies result + 2. Roll the third die when the round count reaches the sum of the first 2 dice + 1. This simulates the character's uncertainty about the length of the effect.

Magic Numbers
The GM may use your Magic Number to simulate unpredictability. Your Magic Number is a second random value derived from the same die roll by grouping the dice by the face (eg. 8) that they are showing and determining whether the count of dice in each group is even or odd. If the 10s group is even, the Magic Number is the count of consecutive even groups beginning with 10. If the 10s group is odd, the Magic Number is the negative of the count of consecutive odd groups beginning with 10. (Eg. a roll of 10 10 9 9 9 9 7 7 7 6 ... results in a Magic Number of +3 because 10s, 9s and 8s are even, but 7s are not.)

The Magic Number is always available for use if the GM needs a quick random value, but generally Magic Numbers between -3 and +3 are ignored.