Four Stats:
GRIT - strength, physical resist
WITS - smarts, intellect
DEFT - speed, dexterity
LURE - charm, personability
Assign the following array:
1 stat with a d4. This is your best stat, your character's greatest aptitude.
2 stats with a d6. These are average.
1 stat with a d8. Your character is really bad at this, with a 33% chance of failure.
Generally, a d4 is reserved for something considered enhanced. There is very little, if any, chance of failure. In any case, there are four dice classes:
d4, d6, d8, d10.
When a dice class is raised, the number of faces is bigger. So, if you had a d4 and are told to raise the dice class, it will be a d6.
Lower rolls are good. Please refer to the following chart.
1: Perfect, critical, good.
2: Success.
3: Partial Success High:
4: Partial Success Low:
5: Normal Failure, only bad.
6-8: Critical failure, gets worse.
You have four equipment slots. The fourth slot can be anything: a weapon, another armor, or an accessory.
Equipment:
Weapon Slot []
Armor Slot []
Accessory Slot []
Anything Slot []
LIFE and PAIN
Your GRIT is a measure of how much pain you can take. When taking damage, you can simply tank it with GRIT and raise its dice class. When GRIT hits a d10 (that is, you tank a hit when it is at d8), you have perished! Probably!
In any case, you can roll GRIT and, upon a success (that is, at or under 4), you can raise the dice class of a different stat instead of GRIT. The max the other stats can be at is d8, though!
ARMOR
There are four grades of armor, and every armor has a Resistance, which has four grades.
Resistance is how much damage the armor can block.
Resistance grade is a die between d4, d6, d8, and d10.
Resistance is also split into four designations: Blunt, Pierce, Slash, Energy -- and they all have dice classes.
An armor's resistance can be upgraded. An upgraded resistance value may appear as a value subtracted from the die, e.g. d6-1. This example would indicate an armor that has one upgrade.
WEAPON
Similarly, weapons have the same grades of Durability. Instead of resistance, they have an Attack value. This also ranges from 1 to 4. If a weapon is targeted for an attack or is used to guard, and the attack surpasses the Defense, Attack is lowered.
Additionally, every weapon has a set of damage types (blunt, pierce, slash, energy). If the value is x, then the weapon cannot be used for that type of attack.
The energy type is more of a catch-all for something elemental like fire, or something abstract like magic.
Attacking and Defending
When making a physical melee attack with a weapon, you would normally roll GRIT and subtract your weapon's Attack from the result. This is rolled against DEFENSE. A defender has the option to defend with their weapon, to take the hit with their armor, or to try dodging.
There are four attack types: blunt, pierce, slash, and energy. Depending on the weapon, it is possible to perform multiple attack types worth of damage, but generally you would only pick one.
DODGING
This is simply a DEFT roll. Perhaps heavier armors, or even bulkier weapons, will have a penalty added to the final result. If you fail, then you roll your Armor Resistance at 1 higher dice class, unless it is a d10.
PARRYING
The defender rolls their GRIT or DEFT and subtracts their weapon's attack, similar to a normal attack. On failure, roll your Armor Resistance at 1 higher dice class, lest it is d10.
As an additional note, for Dodging and Parrying, you would not roll GRIT if your armor resistance roll is failure. You will have to choose to reduce the armor resistance dice class, or take damage as normal.
TANKING
The defender rolls their Armor's Resistance. If the defender rolls lower in this step, nothing changes. Should the defender roll higher than the Attack, then the defender proceeds to roll GRIT. Upon rolling lower, the defender takes no damage. If higher, then the defender can choose to raise their armor's resistance dice class, or lower its durability, or otherwise take damage as normal.
As an added note, on a failed Armor Resistance roll, the dice class value is subtracted from the GRIT roll, e.g. a d10 is 1, and a d4 is 4.
Weapon Example
| Name | Blunt | Pierce | Slash | Energy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Katana | 0 | 1 | 2 | 0 |
| Knife | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Spear | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Hammer | 2 | x | x | 0 |
| Hands | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Name | Blunt | Pierce | Slash | Energy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| d10 | d8 | d6 | x | |
| Padded | d6 | d10 | d8 | x |
| Splint | d8 | d8 | d8 | x |
CUSTOM WEAPON CREATION
You may consider this part of charactermaking. Every character can have their own weapon, flavored however they want, but you can assign it whatever attack values you want according to the following guidelines:
You have a total of 3 points to spend, across Blunt, Pierce, Slash, and Energy.
x: 0 points
0: 0.5 points
1: 1 Point
2: 2 Points
3: 3 Points
CUSTOM ARMOR CREATION
This should also be considered part of charactermaking and each character can have their own flavored armor, just like the custom weapon. Like before, you get a total of 3 points to spend, across Blunt, Pierce, Slash, and Energy.
x: 0 points
d10: 0.5 points
d8: 1 Point
d6: 2 Points
d4: 3 Points
ACCESSORY
An accessory is relatively simple. It can be a charm, a talisman, some shoes, whatever you want to flavor it as. In essence, you pick a roll category, and this accessory allows you to upgrade the dice class of that roll once per scene.
Roll Categories:
Any stat, but not upgraded to d6; or prevent the dice class from being raised.
Any stat, but only for non-combat situations.
A combat action (attack, defend), but not upgraded to d4; or prevent the dice class from being raised.
A specific attack type (blunt, pierce, slash, energy).
A specific defense action (dodge, parry, tank).
