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<blockquote data-quote="hawkeyefan" data-source="post: 8850152" data-attributes="member: 6785785"><p><u>Chapter 2- Rules</u></p><p></p><p>This section goes over character stats and the core mechanics of the game. Characters use the familiar six primary stats from D&D: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. Scores range from 0 to 4 in each, with 2 being typical human, 3 being elite, and 4 being pinnacle. Then there are some derived stats that mirror some of the functions of secondary D&D stats like Hit Points and Armor Class, but which work differently. Here they are:</p><p></p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Guard- equal to Dexterity, this is your ability to avoid damage and is depleted first when you are hit</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Health- equal to Constitution, this is your ability to withstand damage and is depleted after Guard; when you reach 0 health, you fall unconscious and may be at risk of death</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Willpower- equal to Intelligence plus Wisdom, this is your ability to resist emotional manipulation</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Defense- begins at 0 and can be modified by items and abilities, this is a measure of how hard you are to hit</li> </ul><p>Following this, they summarize how to determine if a declared action succeeds or not, or if we need to use dice. Here are the steps:</p><p></p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">If there’s no significant chance of it not happening, it happens. This covers the vast majority of things</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">If the action is absolutely impossible in the established fiction, it doesn’t happen.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">If a skilled individual brings those skills to bear on a task in a situation with little immediate pressure and little interest in failure, it happens.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">If the action is a Paragon’s ability which uses its own set of rules, follow the instructions on the Paragon’s sheet.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">If none of the above apply, you turn to the Core Mechanic.</li> </ul><p>I like this sequence. I think number 3 is particularly noteworthy; this game is not meant to be a procedural simulation. They don’t want you to roll dice unless there is something interesting at stake.</p><p></p><p>The Core Mechanic is pretty simple. You roll a number of d6s equal to the relevant Ability. So if you’re trying to lift something or hit someone with an axe, you’d roll d6s equal to your Strength score. For each Advantage you may have (high ground, surprise, etc.), you roll an additional d6. For each Disadvantage, you lose a d6.</p><p></p><p>Success is indicated by a 4 or higher on any die. If there is a Difficulty involved (such as a creature’s Defense Score) you subtract that number of successes. If any remain, you succeed.</p><p></p><p>When you roll a 6, it can trigger a Special, which are bonus effects that can come from Paragon abilities or from equipment. You get to pick which Special you apply if you have more than one, and you can apply one for each 6 you roll. For example, if you wield a rapier and roll a 6, you can trigger the Special “restore 1 Guard”.</p><p></p><p>The text then moves on to some basics of combat, like turn order and range. Characters act in order from highest Dex to lowest. When there is a tie, the GM decides who goes first, with the suggestion that they alternate from Paragon to NPC and back. Pretty simple.</p><p></p><p>Range is broken into four ranges: Melee, Close, Medium, and Far. On a player’s turn, they can take one Action and also Move. You Move from one range to the next; so if you are Medium range from the doorway, you can move to Close range with one Move. If you like, you can spend your Action to Move again, and move two Range bands. This is a simple system that I’ve seen in several games, and I’ve never had a problem with it before, so I expect it will work fine in DIE.</p><p></p><p>Attacking involves rolling a dice pool for your relevant stat; Strength for Melee and Dexterity for Ranged. Each 4 or higher that you roll, after removing successes for Difficulty, is a Hit. A Hit reduces Guard by 1, or Health by 1 if the character has no Guard remaining. Each Hit that reduces Health is called a Wound.</p><p></p><p>There are a couple of special cases here. If a character attacks and scores no Hits, and the target could conceivably strike back, then the attacking character instead takes a Hit. If the attacking character rolls some Successes, but they are negated by Difficulty leaving them with no Hits, the next person to attack the Target does so with an Advantage.</p><p></p><p>The rules then talk about how to apply some “Fail Forward” techniques; success with cost, partial success, and complications. They also offer ideas on how to handle certain situations as requiring a specific number of Successes, and allowing multiple characters to roll and counting all Hits towards the total. They specifically cite Clocks from Blades in the Dark and the Resistance System from Spire as the inspiration for this idea. Finally, they suggest how to use Situational Specials to give scenes some thematic flavor. So if the battle is atop a cliff, something like “Special: if this hit inflicts a Wound, the target falls off the cliff.” This can be used as needed to create situations that are unique to a given scene.</p><p></p><p>The final section points out that more advice on GMing DIE comes later in the book, and sites Apocalypse World by Vince and Meg Baker as a major inspiration. I like that these inspirations are mentioned openly and at specific points in the text.</p><p></p><p>The next chapter gets into the Paragons and their abilities. Each one has specific mechanics associated to them, and works differently in play. There’s an introduction about Paragons and how they work, with a summary of each, and then it goes into detail on each of the six Paragons.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="hawkeyefan, post: 8850152, member: 6785785"] [U]Chapter 2- Rules[/U] This section goes over character stats and the core mechanics of the game. Characters use the familiar six primary stats from D&D: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma. Scores range from 0 to 4 in each, with 2 being typical human, 3 being elite, and 4 being pinnacle. Then there are some derived stats that mirror some of the functions of secondary D&D stats like Hit Points and Armor Class, but which work differently. Here they are: [LIST] [*]Guard- equal to Dexterity, this is your ability to avoid damage and is depleted first when you are hit [*]Health- equal to Constitution, this is your ability to withstand damage and is depleted after Guard; when you reach 0 health, you fall unconscious and may be at risk of death [*]Willpower- equal to Intelligence plus Wisdom, this is your ability to resist emotional manipulation [*]Defense- begins at 0 and can be modified by items and abilities, this is a measure of how hard you are to hit [/LIST] Following this, they summarize how to determine if a declared action succeeds or not, or if we need to use dice. Here are the steps: [LIST] [*]If there’s no significant chance of it not happening, it happens. This covers the vast majority of things [*]If the action is absolutely impossible in the established fiction, it doesn’t happen. [*]If a skilled individual brings those skills to bear on a task in a situation with little immediate pressure and little interest in failure, it happens. [*]If the action is a Paragon’s ability which uses its own set of rules, follow the instructions on the Paragon’s sheet. [*]If none of the above apply, you turn to the Core Mechanic. [/LIST] I like this sequence. I think number 3 is particularly noteworthy; this game is not meant to be a procedural simulation. They don’t want you to roll dice unless there is something interesting at stake. The Core Mechanic is pretty simple. You roll a number of d6s equal to the relevant Ability. So if you’re trying to lift something or hit someone with an axe, you’d roll d6s equal to your Strength score. For each Advantage you may have (high ground, surprise, etc.), you roll an additional d6. For each Disadvantage, you lose a d6. Success is indicated by a 4 or higher on any die. If there is a Difficulty involved (such as a creature’s Defense Score) you subtract that number of successes. If any remain, you succeed. When you roll a 6, it can trigger a Special, which are bonus effects that can come from Paragon abilities or from equipment. You get to pick which Special you apply if you have more than one, and you can apply one for each 6 you roll. For example, if you wield a rapier and roll a 6, you can trigger the Special “restore 1 Guard”. The text then moves on to some basics of combat, like turn order and range. Characters act in order from highest Dex to lowest. When there is a tie, the GM decides who goes first, with the suggestion that they alternate from Paragon to NPC and back. Pretty simple. Range is broken into four ranges: Melee, Close, Medium, and Far. On a player’s turn, they can take one Action and also Move. You Move from one range to the next; so if you are Medium range from the doorway, you can move to Close range with one Move. If you like, you can spend your Action to Move again, and move two Range bands. This is a simple system that I’ve seen in several games, and I’ve never had a problem with it before, so I expect it will work fine in DIE. Attacking involves rolling a dice pool for your relevant stat; Strength for Melee and Dexterity for Ranged. Each 4 or higher that you roll, after removing successes for Difficulty, is a Hit. A Hit reduces Guard by 1, or Health by 1 if the character has no Guard remaining. Each Hit that reduces Health is called a Wound. There are a couple of special cases here. If a character attacks and scores no Hits, and the target could conceivably strike back, then the attacking character instead takes a Hit. If the attacking character rolls some Successes, but they are negated by Difficulty leaving them with no Hits, the next person to attack the Target does so with an Advantage. The rules then talk about how to apply some “Fail Forward” techniques; success with cost, partial success, and complications. They also offer ideas on how to handle certain situations as requiring a specific number of Successes, and allowing multiple characters to roll and counting all Hits towards the total. They specifically cite Clocks from Blades in the Dark and the Resistance System from Spire as the inspiration for this idea. Finally, they suggest how to use Situational Specials to give scenes some thematic flavor. So if the battle is atop a cliff, something like “Special: if this hit inflicts a Wound, the target falls off the cliff.” This can be used as needed to create situations that are unique to a given scene. The final section points out that more advice on GMing DIE comes later in the book, and sites Apocalypse World by Vince and Meg Baker as a major inspiration. I like that these inspirations are mentioned openly and at specific points in the text. The next chapter gets into the Paragons and their abilities. Each one has specific mechanics associated to them, and works differently in play. There’s an introduction about Paragons and how they work, with a summary of each, and then it goes into detail on each of the six Paragons. [/QUOTE]
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