Before Starting:
Choosing A Character:
Race:
Heroes must first choose whether they will play as Human, Elf, or Dwarf. Each race gives certain advantages over the others. On top of a Race Bonus (see below), there are traits specific to each race.
A human has a strong sense of destiny and may perform a roll of fate at the start of each quest.
An elf is naturally connected to nature and may collect herbs during the quest from which to make potions.
A dwarf is good with devices and may disarm traps without a toolkit.
These traits are expandable with training.
Roll of Fate:
As a human, you may perform a Roll of Fate at the beginning of the quest. Roll each of your dice sets and record the result. Ie: if you normally roll 2 movement dice, 3 for attack, and 1 for defence, roll each of these in turn and write them at the top of your sheet. Once during a quest, you may choose to use one of these results in place of a roll you have just taken.
Class:
Once a race has been chosen, a class must be assigned. These are: Barbarian, Paladin, Wizard, and Warrior.
The Barbarian is a fierce, natural fighter with brute strength and a disdain for danger.
The Paladin is an armoured devotee to the gods, who grant blessings and miracles in proportion to their disciple’s rank. Has bonuses against unholy creatures.
The Wizard has devoted their life to the arcane, and spends their free time between quests learning new spells.
The Warrior class has several subclasses, which drastically affect how the hero is played. These are: Rogue, Brigandine, and Assassin.
A Rogue may use some magic to bolster their arsenal.
A Brigandine is a sturdy, well-trained fighter with bonuses against flesh-and-blood enemies. May carry one extra item.
An Assassin is stealthy with a cache of unique weapons.
Any race can choose any class with which to train; however, some races may find certain classes harder to excel in, and restrictions may apply to how they progress.
Stats:
Heroes must choose their character stats. There will be a certain amount of change allowed between the first few quests of a campaign, but these will set after around 3 quests.
Characters:
Starting Stats:
Category | Base | Allotted | Total |
Attack | 1 | ||
Defend | 1 | ||
Body | 3 | ||
Mind | 2 |
An additional three points may be allotted to this chart to set your character’s Starting Stats.
Race bonus:
Dwarves may add an extra point into Body
Elves, an extra point into Mind, and
Humans can add an extra point into either Mind or Body
Character Creation Sheet:
The following pdf will help you get to know your character and choose how you would like to play. There is also some information from this page to help.
The answers are for yourself only, though feel free to discuss them with others.
You can fill it out online, if you like, or you can save and print it: Character Creation Sheet
Advancing:
Heroes may collect experience points throughout the campaign, which they can use to expand their abilities and gain new skills.
XP can be collected by:
Completing quests, killing enemies, training between quests.
Once a few quests have been played and treasure and equipment have begun to be amassed, the players must decide how to equip their character before each quest. Handed weapons must be taken into account etc, as well as whether a character will carry a pack, and therefore be able to carry more equipment. Some quests may have specific requirements, but the questing party may discuss strategy before embarking.
Remember: A heavily burdened hero will be slow to react to defend and find it hard to escape when hard pressed. Any abandoned equipment will be lost.
Actions:
Moving:
All characters have a base movement of 1 square that does not cost an Action. Otherwise, heroes may spend an Action to roll 2 red dice. They may not move diagonally, or through enemies. A movement roll may be split once if granted by the game master. If the hero’s body or mind points are reduced to 1, their movement dice will be halved.
Attacking:
Beginner: Characters may attack (physically or magically) once per turn, unless otherwise allowed to attack more than once using a skill, spell or item.
Advanced: Characters may use both of their Actions as attacks, if they wish.
Counterattack: If an attack roll fails, ie: no skulls are rolled, the hero may choose to re-roll, however, this will allow the enemy they are facing to attack once immediately.
Searching:
Many things may be hidden from view until searched for, so it behooves all player characters to thoroughly search an area for dangers or rewards. There are three types of secrets a player may search for: traps, treasure, and hidden doors. Searching counts as an action.
Traps are the most important things to search for in a dangerous area. When a player searches for a trap, the game master will indicate the spot where the trap is located, but will not indicate what type of trap it is until it is disarmed or sprung.
Note on Jumping Traps:
A character may attempt to jump any kind of trap, assuming he has enough movement squares left on his turn to cover the trap and the space beyond, by rolling a single white die. If a skull is rolled, the trap is sprung; otherwise, the character can move past it safely. Until the trap is disarmed or sprung, all characters must attempt to jump the trap if they want to move over it.
Treasures are hidden throughout the dungeons and other areas where players may travel. Some places contain specific artefacts, while others will contain random items which are selected by drawing a card from the treasure deck. However, players must be careful when searching for treasure, as they may spring traps or unleash Wandering Monsters.
Secret doors lead to hidden areas that may contain greater treasures, alternate paths around dangers, or even the ultimate goal of a particular quest, so searching for them is almost always a benefit.
Other secrets may be discovered by specifically searching items of furniture, etc that are encountered on a quest. This is a separate Action to the general search.
Inexperienced Heroes may search for all three at once, using a single Action. As a campaign continues and heroes gain experience, the game master can set each type of search as an action.
A search may not be conducted while enemies are present.
Resting:
Beginner: When no enemies are present, each player may forgo a turn in order to restore some lost body or mind points. Up to 2 of one and 1 of the other.
Advanced: When no enemies are present, each player character may attempt to rest in a hostile area by rolling one white die. In a standard dungeon, if all characters within line of sight of each other roll anything other than a black shield, they rest uninterrupted and recover their health and mind points. Otherwise, the game master may attack the players with a number of his choice of the wandering monster chosen for the quest. The game master may also raise the difficulty of resting successfully if an area is more dangerous. (NOTE: No experience is granted for killing wandering monsters during a rest period).
Spellcasting:
Magic-wielding characters may choose to cast a spell as an Action. If the spell is new to the character (2 quests or fewer), then the caster must roll an attack die to see if they have learned the spell correctly.
A skull = the spell acts as intended
A white shield = the spell fails
A black shield = the spell backfires. Roll again to see if you are affected. Anything but a black shield and you are safe.
A failed spell is not exhausted and may be tried again.
Anyone, including non-magic-wielding characters, may use magic scrolls they may find while questing. These are single-use items.
Spells may be replenished at the alchemist’s bench by forgoing a turn (this also counts as a rest and will restore body and mind points). Otherwise, a magic user can use an action and roll a red die to see how many spells they can recover. It is up to the game master to decide which spells are refreshed.
Occasionally, a spell book may be found where new spells can be learned. The game master will let you know when the book is in a language you are familiar with. Sometimes, these books are a collection of magic scrolls that can be used by anyone, so it may be worth searching whether the hero is a magic user or not. Heroes with medium to high mind points can search through the pages for something that may be helpful. Heroes with low mind points can roll a die to see what kind of a random spell they can tear from its spine.
New spells can be learned between quests when enough XP or gold has been accumulated.
Level 1:
The Wizard starts with the choice of 2 spell categories from the elemental schools (6 cards)
Elven characters may choose any 3 cards from the Level 1 Elf Spells
The Rogue may choose any 3 cards from any school of wizardry from which to create a magic scroll (or cantrip) and is not subject to the 2 quest practice restriction.
The Paladin can choose 3 Level 1 miracles and is not under the minimum Mind Point restriction (for Level 1 miracles).
A character must have 3 mind points to cast a level 1 spell.
Note on elves: As elves have natural magical ability, a few extra rules are needed if their choice of class has additional magic.
Wizard Class: they may supplement their 3 Elf Spells with 1 set of spells from the Elemental Schools (6 cards in total)
Rogue Class: they may choose 2 Elf Spells and 1 spell from any school of wizardry (3 cards in total)
Paladin Class: they may choose 3 Elf Spells and 3 Miracles to have in their arsenal. At the beginning of each quest they must choose 3 cards to equip for the mission. The mind point restriction does not apply.
Other Actions:
Opening doors does not cost an Action.
In place of combat, searching, spells or item use, a character may perform an arbitrary action that will succeed or fail based on a dice roll. The game master must determine how difficult an act is relative to the character’s abilities, and then adjust the minimum roll the character must make.
For instance, a wizard may come across a scroll written using a cypher and attempt to decode it. The wizard has five base mind points. If the scroll is moderately difficult to decode, the game master may make him roll five red dice and reach a combined total of 15 (an average of 3 per die).
Other Rules:
Retreat:
Players may attempt to chase a character that has run away, but if by the end of their next turn the character in question is still beyond line of sight, he is considered to have “escaped.”
If the escapee is a player, and no other player characters are visible, the game master may roll a red die to determine which direction the enemies will move, (or the enemies can simply return to their start positions). For example, if the enemies must move right or left, the game master may say “Even” for left and “Odd” for right, roll the die, and follow the result.
Death:
When a character’s body point count reaches zero, they slump to the ground, stunned. They may immediately revive only if they have a potion on hand and drink it, or if they are a spellcaster and can heal themselves. If there are no players nearby but there are enemies, then an enemy can steal the dead character’s items. If they cannot be revived within two turns, they are removed from the board, to recover between quests (after completing the quest, the other players return to rescue them). However, if the other players fail the quest and are unable to take the unconscious player with them in their escape, that character is permanently dead.
A comatose character (having zero mind points) is not considered dead, but may not roll defence dice if attacked. Unless some mind points are restored by another character through magic or items, he will either die upon receiving too many attacks or will recover one mind point at the end of their next turn.