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- Jump to: The Core Mechanic
Chapter 1: Introduction
Spellchrome Specific Terms
(See also, General RPG Terms)
Ancient Sign: This determines the priority that your Hit Points, Skill Points and Magic Points are set. This also determines Starting Combat Feats, Skill Categories, Spell Categories and base saving throws. See step 2 under character creation.
Social Class: Adds a small bonus to your Hit Points, Skill Points or Magic Points. Also adds 1 Starting Combat Feat, Skill Category or Magic Spell Category. See step 3 under character creation.
Empowerment Points (EP): Allows a character to activate an item. These are allocated at any time. A first level character has 10 Empowerment Points. See Chapter 7: Equipment for details.
Magic Points (MP): These allow a character to cast a spell. Casting 1 spell costs 1 Magic Point each time it is cast. Magic Points refresh after a rest and are determined during character creation. More information on Magic Spells may be found in Chapter 5: Magic Spells.
Skill Points (SP):
These aid a character by adding a bonus die when they need to make a difficult Skill Check.
Skill Points refresh after a rest and are determined during character creation.
More information on Skills may be found in
Extraordinary Hit Points (EX-HP): These are Hit Points that are lost before normal Hit Points. Some Spellchrome armours have Extraordinary Hit Points built in as a form of extra protection. See details.
Visual Trait: A side effect of living in a magically polluted world. If selected during character creation, visual traits, such as pointy ears or tusks are randomly rolled. See Magical Pollution and Traits.
Trait Bonus: A randomly rolled bonus, usually an attribute gain, for each visual trait.
Armoes, Burgon, Calmen, Danar, Etherami and Feylore: The six Ancient Signs your character may be born under. See Step 2 under character creation.
Worker, Merchant and Nobility: Your character may be from any of these three broad social classes. See Step 3 under character creation.
Eldlandria: The world in which the game takes place.
Eldlandrians: Humans native to Eldlandria.
Allterions: Humans with advanced technology and knowledge who officially arrived on Eldlandria less than a century ago. See Chapter 11: Setting.
The Nova Dirge: The powerful threat that the Allterions came to stop. The Nova Dirge have allied with some kingdoms, allowing them to conquer much of Eldlandria. Their leaders are renegade Allterion.
The Core Mechanic
Whenever you attempt an action that has some chance of failure, roll a twenty-sided die (d20). To determine if your character succeeds at a task you do this:
- Roll 1d20.
- Add any relevant modifiers.
- Compare the result to a target number.
- If the result equals or exceeds the target number, your character succeeds. If the result is lower than the target number, your character fails.
Quick Sample Combat
Attacking in combat is explained in detail in Chapter 8: Combat, but here are the basics:
Talon is walking down the street when two thugs stalk out of an alleyway aiming Spellchrome weapons at him. After a short argument combat breaks out.
Determine initiative by each character rolling 1d20 and adding their dexterity modifiers (and any other applicable modifiers).
Talon gets a 13, the tall Thug gets a 16 and the big Thug gets a 4.
The tall Thug goes first. Using his Spellchrome weapon, he rolls 1d20 and adds his ranged attack bonus for a result of 11. He misses Talon, since Talon’s AC (Armour Class) is 16.
Now it is Talon’s turn. Characters are able to take one move action and one standard action per turn. He spends his move action to draw his Spellchrome Pistol and his standard action to fire at the tall Thug. His Player rolls 1d20, gets a 14, and adds his Ranged Attack Bonus (3) - for a result of 17. The GM lets Talon’s Player know that his attack is a hit.
Talon’s Player rolls damage, which is 2d8 for his gun, resulting in 13 damage.
Since the Thug’s light armour has 1d4 damage reduction, the GM rolls and gets a 2. The Thug takes 11 damage, which is enough to convince him that messing with Talon was a bad plan.
Next the big Thug gets his actions. After that it is the tall Thug’s actions, then Talon’s and then the big Thug’s again, unless they are incapacitated. Combat continues this way until it is resolved.
About the word "hit"
Hit is often used in place of "that was a successful attack", even when it is a bit of a misnomer.
About the word "miss"
Miss is often used in place of "that was an unsuccessful attack", even when the proper terminology might be "deflected". Think of "miss" as "not successful" rather than as the literal meaning (although sometimes it does mean that an opponent fully dodged out of the way).
Up Next: Regular Play
