Ashkhar Ben
Explorer
Hello everyone! (Note, this was posted on giantitip.com as well, and on my website ashkhar.wordpress.com.)
I've been a long time EN World lurker, but just recently made this account. I look forward to your feedback and criticisms of the system that I and a few of of my publishing associates have been designing. There are currently two systems in design, the Ashkhar Complete system and the Ashkhar Basic System.
We are still pretty deep in the testing phases of Ashkhar Complete, but would love to see the full unrestrained feedback from hardcore players on Ashkhar Basic.
I will be updating this thread as often as I can with answers to questions and new content. Bear with me as for now I have little experience with vB code, and the site was written using a combination of wordpress and html.
Also I'm aware that there will more than likely be a host of editing and formatting issues; point them out when you can and I'll do my best to clarify or clean things up.
Enjoy!
Ashkhar Basic
This is the most basic version of Ashkhar. It allows a plethora of diverse characters within a very simple mechanical system. The bookkeeping for both the GM and the players is heavily reduced, yet the spirit of Ashkhar is still completely tangible.
A quick overview of the Ashkhar Basic RPG:
Quick Character Creation
Follow the steps below to create your own character for Ashkhar Basic. Each segment of character creation is explained in more detail in its section.
First Level
Create a character concept
Determine your character’s Attributes
Attributes are Body, Mind, and Spirit
Pick a Theme
A general framework of your character’s goals, ideology, and morals. There is a list of themes in the Themes section, although you can easily create your own theme in collaboration with your GM.
Pick your character’s Skills
Pick your Species
Pick two Traits
There are many traits, each of which applies a different bonus or advantage in a certain situation or to a certain type of action. Traits can be anything from having a haunting expression, being an excellent tracker, or excelling at a certain style of combat.
Select gear
Calculate stats
And you’re done with level one!
Every New Level
Attributes
Every character has three natural abilities called Attributes: Body, Mind, and Spirit
When you first think of your character, think about how she would interact with the world. Is she fast and strong, but quick to lose her temper? Is she wise but feeble? Unfortunately, not everybody can be great at everything, so your character will be better at some things than others.
Once you’ve figured out how your character should act and feel, you need to rank how good he is at Body, Mind, and Spirit actions.
For example, a brave warrior who sometimes doesn’t think things through:
Or an explorer who wants to see the entire world, no matter the danger:
Or a wise philosopher who wishes to travel to distant lands and learn about other cultures:
Why do my Body, Mind, and Spirit ranks matter?
Every character is going to get himself into trouble, and when he does, he will need to make some Rolls to see what happens. Whenever a character takes an action doing something hard or is challenged, such as fighting, the player must roll.
Success is determined by the roll of the dice, and the rank determines what number on the dice is necessary to succeed.
Successes
After you have your character’s Body, Mind, and Spirit figured out, you get to pick how her general concept, or Theme, and her training and talent, or Skills.
Themes
Your character’s Theme is his driving purpose, his morality, his goals, and his general concept. When a player role plays and keeps his character well within his Theme, the GM might grant him an Effort Token.
Effort Tokens provide a resource to the player to use when they really want to throw in some extra effort. Mechanically, the player can roll an extra +1d6 to a roll, mitigate a point of Vitality damage, get an extra action, or some other boost that the GM deems appropriate.
Here are some sample Themes to pick from, but we encourage you to make your own and be creative!
Sample Themes
Bear in mind that Effort Tokens should only be given out if the character is behaving as an exemplary individual within his Theme. A character can only hold on to one Effort Token at a time, and they fade each time a story arc ends or the character rests.
Effort Tokens can also be given out for players acting in character, good role playing, and all around making an enjoyable and immersive experience for all of the players at the table.
Skills
Skills represent your character’s training, talent, and overall ability when trying to complete certain actions. There are nine Skills, and they can be used in whichever creation combinations you can imagine.
When you first make your character, you get 10d6 to spread out among the nine Skills. You can only invest up to 4d6 in a single Skill (bringing the total Skill to 5d6).
The nine Skills are Control, Influence, Knowledge, Melee Combat, Movement, Perception, Ranged Combat, Resistance, and Stealth
In order to complete a specific task, just think of what your character would do, and describe it to the rest of the group. In order to see if you actually succeed or not, you need to make some Rolls.
Rolls come in the form of rolling six-sided dice, abbreviated as d6. If your character is more skilled in certain actions than others, she might get to roll multiple dice. If she was rolling three six-sided dice, it would be listed as 3d6. Five would be 5d6, and one would be 1d6.
All of your skills (except for Control) start out with 1d6. Any time you invest extra training, or have natural talent in a certain skill, you gain more than just a single die. The more d6 you get to roll, the better and more consistent your character is at succeeding in those types of actions.
Why is Control different?
Control is using magic, and as such considerably more powerful than the other Skills. In order for your character to gain access to Control, he either has to belong to the Anduin species, or take a Trait that provides access to the Control Skill. Once this Trait has been selected (even at character creation) you can apply dice to the Control Skill.
Skills and Attributes
When your character is attempting to accomplish a task he must make a Skill Roll. The number of dice (d6) invested into that Skill are how many dice that the player can Roll. The nature of the task being attempted dictates what Skill it falls under. For example, trying to attack an enemy with a sword would fall under Melee Combat, while trying to lift a heavy stone would fall under Movement.
Each of the Skills has an associated Attribute with it. Based on your earlier ranking of your Attributes (Great, Good, Okay) the number showing on the dice determine the number of successes. For example, the Influence Skill is a “Spirit” action. Therefore, if a character had assigned his Spirit attribute as “Good”, every d6 showing a 4, 5, or 6 would be a success.
Species
Anduin
Regal, beautiful, and long lived the Anduin are the most physically akin to the Onduril. They have an innate understanding and connection to Verahskel and can much more readily Control it, even at a young age. Physically they are typically lithe, age roughly double the speed of a man, and have skin and hair tones along the gold spectrum from pearlescent white to burnt ember.
Grohlkin
Grohlkin are a hard people that hail from hard lands. Alien in both culture and appearance, many Grohlkin are assumed to be malevolent or violent, although they are no more so than any of the other species. With enduring, sinewy bodies built to better survive the rugged deserts, caves, and mountains of their homeland, grohlkin possess natural combative and athletic ability. Hairless, but with a wide variety of variegated colors and patterns on their tough flesh, grohlkin can be hauntingly beautiful or enchantingly alluring.
Inohkshi
Standing at no more than waist high of the average man, inohkshi are a peculiar people. They care for nothing so much as practicality and pragmatism, making astute bankers, businessmen, explorers, and generals. They have a keen intellect, an eye for stealth, excessive patience and good overall kinesthetic awareness. Yet the inokshi's most famous trait is their inherent sense of direction, as such are prized scouts, navigators, and couriers. They range in olive skin tones typically with dark to dirty blonde, curly hair.
Koht
A gentle people of massive proportions, the koht would be the most terrifying of opponents if they were led to war. While individuals do take up the mantle of violence, rarely do koht ever move in large force beyond the Titan's Steppe. Incredibly tough, with a rich culture favoring lore, song, and the power of the Divine Wind. Koht bodies are covered in feathery fur of nearly any color, even reds and blues, stand well over seven feet tall, and often weigh over 400 pounds. Their enormous chests give them melee prowess and huge lungs, allowing them to hold their breath many times longer than any of the other species.
Krolog
Stout and stubborn both physically and mentally, krolog equal most men's mass but are often no taller than four or five feet. Some of the best craftsmen, artists, warriors, and healers, krolog's intensity and constant pursuit of perfection make them a powerful ally, or a feared enemy. An immune system bordering on legendary status allow the krolog to operate in areas infested with disease, plague, and other filth that no other species can go. They have a wide variety of reddish brown skin tones, with hair color ranging from black to blonde.
Onduril (Human)
The onduril people are vast and varied, nearly covering the entirety of the continent in Ashkhar in some form. A penchant for drama, creativity, and violence, the onduril have made and broken alliances within their own major nations and those of the other species. They are the most industrious, always seeking the most effective and efficient ways to harvest crops, study verahskel, and win wars. They vary greatly in height, weight, and appearance, although the citizens of the the major nations all resemble one another more so than citizens of another.
Traits
Traits are the characteristics possesed by every character in Ashkhar Basic. Traits apply either a +1d6 bonus or some other advantage in certain circumstances. When you first make your character, you can select two Traits. Each time you level, you can select another Trait.
Fatigue and Vitality
Your character’s physical stamina, mental fortitude, endurance, toughness, and life force are described by his Fatigue and Vitality. Fatigue is your character’s overall current stamina. Fatigue applies when using Control, attempting Advanced Maneuvers, or when taking damage. Vitality is your character’s physical and mental health. Vitality applies primarily when taking damage. When your character loses Fatigue, he is either becoming exhausted or taking small or superficial wounds. When your character loses Vitality, he is sustaining serious bodily harm.
Fatigue
Fatigue is equal to your character’s Resistance Skill pool + 3 + his level.
Your character is assumed to be at “full fatigue” when he is well fed, rested, and healed. As he takes damage from incoming attacks, traveling long distances, succumbing to natural hazards, or using Control, his Fatigue Value goes down. In game, your character is becoming weaker, more drained, and more exhausted as his Fatigue gets closer to 0. Once his Fatigue reaches 0, any additional damage that would normally lower fatigue now lowers Vitality.
After six hours of rest and at least some food and water, your character recovers all of his Fatigue. If he is unable to sleep well, does not get enough sleep, or hasn’t eaten in days, he does not regain his Fatigue. Fatigue can also be restored from the use of Control, although it is nearly impossible to create a “positive loop” using Control. In other words, a controller can’t use control to restore his fatigue ,as the amount he is burning is roughly equivalent to the amount he is restoring. There are exceptions, but in general this is the case.
Fatigue can be “healed” with a Knowledge roll. The amount of successes equate to the amount of Fatigue that is restored.
Vitality
Vitality is equal to your character’s Resistance Skill pool + 3 + his level.
Your character is assumed to be at “full vitality” when he is fully healthy, not bleeding, not dying of poison, and so on. Once his Fatigue is gone, damage from incoming attacks, traveling long distances, succumbing to natural hazards, or using Control lowers his Vitality Value. In game, your character is sustaining serious mental or bodily harm, and as his Vitality gets closer to 0 he is closer to death.
After six hours of rest and at least some attention to his wounds, your character recovers 1 Vitality. If he is unable to sleep well, does not get enough sleep, or has wounds that bleed or are infected, he does not regain his Vitality. Vitality can be restored form the use of Control, although it is exhausting and difficult to do so.
Vitality can be healed with a Knowledge roll. The amount of successes/2 rounded down equate to the amount of Vitality that is restored. For example a Knowledge roll with 5 successes would heal 2 Vitality.
Example of Character Creation
Vayno is a young adventurer who is physically skilled and strong. His player thinks that he should be pretty strong and agile, pretty brave and amicable, but isn’t much of an academic thinker. His player assigns the following attributes:
This means that Vayno will succeed on Body related Skill rolls of 3+, Spirit related Skill rolls of 4+, and Mind related Skill rolls of 5+. After Vayno’s player has chosen his attributes, he considers how Vayno will interact with the world, what dreams and goals he has, and what his overall concept is. In Ashkhar this is called a Theme. For simplicity, we’ll have Vayno select one of the template Themes.
Explorer: expanding the known horizons, mapping out new regions, and discovering new lands. Vayno has a strong spirit and eagerly looks to explore the country. Whenever his player role-plays well, has Vayno explore a dungeon or a dark forest, or stay in character that matches his theme, the GM might give Vayno’s player an Effort Token.
Next he’ll need to decide what fields of expertise Vayno will specialize in. Vayno’s player has 10d6 to spend on his Skills. At first, all of his Skills (except for Control) already have 1d6.
His player really wants Vayno to excel at Movement, since he is so strong and athletic. So, he invests the maximum of 4d6 into the Movement skill, bringing movement to 5d6.
Vayno only has 6 dice remaining to invest in other skills. He wants to be a good scout and good at reading other people’s emotions, so Vayno’s player puts a couple of dice into the Perception Skill, bringing his Perception Skill up to 3d6.
Now Vayno has 4 dice left, and he wants to be pretty well rounded. He puts some into Melee, Resistance, and Knowledge.
Now Vayno’s player has used up all of his available dice for Skills. Vayno is starting to feel like a real character, great at Movement, pretty good at Melee Combat and Perception, and decent in Knowledge and Resistance. The rest of the Skills he can still attempt, but has less chance of success than at Skills he is well trained or talented in.
Next up is picking Vayno’s species. Vayno’s player wants to play a large, strong, friendly explorer and likes the culture and mythology of the Koht race. Therefore he’ll make Vayno a koht. This applies the following bonuses:
The last mechanical choice Vayno’s place will have to make are to select two Traits. Traits are unique, permanent bonuses that make characters a little more unique and flexible. Vayno should be able to climb really well and find new places that others wouldn’t be able to. He goes with:
Finally, Vayno can pick out some of his equipment including weapons and armor. And there you have it, a brand new character in just a few simple steps. Vayno is great at climbing, pretty good in a fight, can hold his breath, find hidden locations, and even knows a thing or two about other cultures and languages. Perfect for an explorer of Ashkhar.
Gameplay
There aren’t many gameplay rules for Ashkhar Basic. The system is designed to still provide with a good amount of mechanical “crunch” and applicable tactics without overwhelming new players or players who prefer to play more fast and loose with the rules. The rules are here simply to serve as guidelines to provide a fun, streamlined game that keep things fairly grounded in the reality of Ashkhar. If your group and GM (Game Master) want to ignore some or all of these, or make changes to them, that is completely within your right.
Remember, the most important aspect of any role playing game is that the players and GM are having fun. If everyone is being creative and only occasionally rolling the dice when absolutely necessary, we think that’s great. If your group are hard core rules masters that want to build optimized characters, that is possible as well (although we’d recommend checking out the complete Ashkhar RPG rules if that is the case).
First we’ll define a few basic things that will help you wrap your head around Ashkhar Basic and the general premise of the system.
Basic Role Definitions
Basic Mechanics Definitions
Basic Combat Definitions
Calculations
Core Mechanic
The basic fundamental mechanic of Ashkhar Basic is the d6 pool. Characters have a different number of d6 available to roll for each of the nine Skills as discussed in Character Creation. Whenever a character is attempting to accomplish some kind of task, the player must roll the number of d6 invested into the relevant Skill.
For example, Vayno the koht explorer wants to lift a heavy boulder that is blocking his path. He knows that it will be pretty tough, so he bends his knees, gets a good grip, and really puts his might into it. Lifting falls under athletic actions, which belong to the Movement Skill. The GM for Vayno’s game tells his player that he needs to make a Movement Roll.
Vayno has 5d6 to Movement, and there aren’t any specific traits or other bonuses that apply to him lifting. So, Vayno’s player rolls five dice and gets: 1, 5, 2, 4, 6. Since Movement falls under the Body attribute (which Vayno has ranked as Great) each d6 only needs to show a 3 or better to be counted as a success. From his roll we can see that Vayno got three successes and two fails.
The GM reasons that this boulder is pretty heavy, about 300 pounds, and gave it a Difficulty of 3. This means that it would require at least 3 successes in order to lift it. Vayno rolled the minimum number of successes, and so is able to barely lift the big rock and shove it out of the way.
If Vayno had only rolled two successes out of his 5d6, he might have been able to wiggle or shove or shift the rock, but not have been able to lift it. If a different character that only had 2d6 to Movement attempted to lift the rock, it would have been nearly impossible for them to do. If someone assisted this character, he would have been able to roll an extra 1d6. If it was a success, the two of them could have lifted it together.
Pooling successes: for certain actions, such as lifting a huge boulder or chopping down a tree or building a boat, multiple characters can pool all of their successes into a single difficulty. For example, if a group of players needed to lift a giant 1000 pound boulder, the GM would assign a Difficulty of 10. A single character would have nearly no chance at ever being able to move the boulder, without some kind of leverage or other tool. But, a group of four characters all decide to lift the boulder simultaneously and pool their combined strength to move it. Between the four of them, they roll over 10 successes, and as such are able to move the boulder.
This doesn’t always apply, such as attacking a single enemy or picking a lock. Pooling successes generally requires a task that multiple people can be actively involved with and make a combined effort.
Chipping Away Difficulty: for certain actions, such as deciphering a code or navigating to an unknown location, multiple rolls can be made to chip away at a task’s Difficulty. For example, if a task had a Difficulty 10, in theory the character could execute one success per roll over ten rolls. If a task is inevitable, this is generally fine and simply takes more time and hassle to be completed.
This doesn’t always apply, and should be used somewhat sparingly. If the GM approves it, he may consider a “minimum threshold difficulty” and then the task’s general difficulty. For example to decipher a code successfully, the GM reasons that at least three successes is necessary to even make sense of the next chunk, and only count that as a single success. If the character rolled four successes, he would count that as two; if the character rolled only two successes, he would count that as zero.
Obstacles
Obstacles are any kind of impedance to the characters’ path. Combat can be considered a form of obstacle, although obstacles are generally not combat related. Avoiding a forest fire, surviving an avalanche, climbing an enemy’s fortification, designing an aqueduct, forging a sword, or finding enough food to survive in the desert are all forms of obstacles. There is an infinite list of possible obstacles, so generally think of them in terms of tasks that the characters can’t automatically surpass.
The Ashkhar Basic authors recommend to approach obstacles as their own standalone encounter or quest of sorts. If the player creatively approaches the obstacle from the skillset and perspective of his character, that kind of dedication and good thinking should be rewarded. If the group wants to simply move past a simple obstacle, such as a long and uneventful journey, some rolls can be made in the span of a few seconds and be done with it.
Ultimately it is up to the group and to the GM, but we always prefer taking it the long and more story-driven direction first. If the thought of blow by blow mountain climbing doesn’t intrigue your group, we get that too.
Obstacle Difficulty: how challenging the obstacle is and how many successes are necessary to overcome it.
Below is a list of common obstacles and numbered by their difficulties:
Note: nearly all obstacles of higher difficulty can be broken down into easier to accomplish tasks. The spirit of this in Ashkhar is to “think smarter, not harder” and encourage players to play to their characters’ strengths. The vast majority of all obstacles, or at least the obstacle’s sub tasks, should have a Difficulty of 1-3.
Combat
Combat in Ashkhar Basic is fast, intuitive, and still full of available tactical and logical crunch to help the more battle hungry players get their fill. The vast majority of combat in the Ashkhar universe is between the intelligent species vying for power, but the world is a harsh and dangerous place; full of beasts and natural threats just as deadly as any marauder or soldier.
In many ways Ashkhar is more like our world than common fantasy worlds; there are no earth shattering relics, there are no mind-bending supernatural phenomena, gods don’t roam the plane, otherwordly creatures do not teleport in. Instead, men fight for power, wealth, and security, occasionally at the aid of Control and often with the aid of dangerous and semi-intelligent beasts.
Combat is broken down into Rounds. As discussed earlier, rounds are a measurement of time to ensure all combatants get an equal amount of fighting time. Every combatant gets one Turn per round, and two Actions per turn. An action can literally be any verb, but we recommend not sweating the small stuff like reloading a bow, drawing a weapon, shouting out to an ally, and so forth. We do recommend the GM to count any action the characters make that has an impact or involves a Roll to be an action, such as moving, attacking, or using Control.
Combat and Rolls
The focus of combat in Ashkhar Basic is on the player. Therefore, the bad guys (controlled by the GM) rarely if ever make rolls. Instead, the players make the vast majority of all rolls to determine if they successfully hit their targets or successfully defended against incoming attacks.
Attacks: whenever a character makes an attack, it consumes one action. Most attacks fall under either the Melee Combat or Ranged Combat skills. The number of successes determines the Attack Value, which combines if the attack hit and how much damage was applied all into a single roll. If a character rolled an attack and had three successes, his Attack Value would be 3. Therefore this would be considered a hit and deal 3 damage (if the enemy had no defense whatsoever. The way bad guys work is explained farther below in the Enemies section.)
Defends: when a character is attacked, they can roll the highest and most relevant of the Melee Combat, Ranged Combat, Movement, or Perception skills. You can use ANY of these skills to determine a defense against ANY nonmagical attack. For example if a character’s highest skill of those was Ranged Combat, he could use his Ranged Combat dice pool to roll a defense against melee attacks, ranged attacks, area attacks, or anything that involved him getting out of the way. Just like attacks, the number of successes determines the defender’s Defense Value, which subtracts from the attacker’s Attack Value. If the AV is higher than the DV, the character takes damage equal to the difference.
Resists: when a character is being mentally or physically manipulated by Control and is otherwise unable to dodge or block an incoming attack, he can attempt to Resist it. The character would then make a Resistance skill roll, or a Control skill roll, or a Knowledge skill roll (whichever is higher). The number of successes would apply to the Resist Value, which works identically to the Defense Value as described above. This can also arguably be used for special maneuver attacks like intimidation, feints, and other mental trickery. The GM would make the final call in such an instance.
Maneuvers: if a character wishes to execute some kind of special attack, such as tripping or disarming his opponent, he can make the necessary roll as listed in the maneuver list below. Maneuvers operate very similarly to attacks, and can be considered essentially the same with a twist. Making an attack and a maneuver in the same round still results in the -3d6 penalty to the second action.
Order of Action
Every combatant rolls either the highest of his Movement or Perception skills. Those with the most successes get to act first. Enemies have a static OoA number similarly to their static Attack and Defense Values. This is to keep the GM more focused on describing the action and less on the numbers.
Maneuvers
Below is a list of available maneuvers. You can always simply describe what you’d like your character to do and the GM will tell you what rolls to make, but use this list if you’re out of ideas or have a specific type of maneuver you wish to accomplish.
Using Control with Maneuvers
If your character is a controller capable of weaving the omnipresent Verahskel energy to his will, he will more than likely wish to utilize it during combat. Controlling is dangerous and taxing business, and if not properly focused can result in dire consequences for the controller. There are three basic Control related maneuvers, which require a generous portion of creativity and improvisation from both the player and the GM.
All attacks with Control require an expenditure of some of the controller’s Vitality. Even if utilizing the verahskel around and within the target, there is a modicum that must be sacrificed to initiate the control. This can directly hurt the Controller, and possibly result even in her death.
Whenever a Control attack is made, the fails equate to how much Vitality is lost by the attacker. Successes are treated as per the desired effect of the control. For example, if a character rolled 5d6 with two fails and three successes, the Attack Value would be 3 but the attacker would take 2 Vitality damage.
Bear in mind that storing energy is difficult, and maintaining supernatural effects even more so. As such, using these to consistently augment your natural abilities is very challenging. The precision necessary to cause alterations to a body, item, or mind without causing irrevocable damage is reserved only for the most expert controllers in Ashkhar.
Manipulate: manipulate the minds of your enemies. Horrify, confuse, befuddle, or dull your enemy’s senses. Those strong with manipulation can create brief but terrifying hallucinations, put others into a catatonic state, or even kill. Manipulate is a Control vs Resist attack. The Attack Value can be used either to deal damage directly to the enemy’s psyche, cause secondary effects, or both. The GM will have to judge the Difficulty of these actions in addition to the natural Resist Value of the target. One action.
Sculpt: literally mold and shape the matter of the universe. This can be used to incredibly devastating effect on a living person. Crush organs, remove limbs, shove, pierce, puncture, or alter the appearance. Those powerful with sculpting verahskellian matter can just as easily set and heal a broken bone as cause stone to slush. Sculpt is a Control vs Resist or Defense attack. The Attack Value can be used to deal or heal direct damage, cause secondary effects, or both. The GM will have to judge the Difficulty of these actions in addition to the natural Resist or Defense Value of the target. One action.
Weave: control the core energy source that gives life, binds, and surrounds everything in Ashkhar. Weaving Verahskel is arguably the most powerful tool, as it is this force that holds the world together and allows sentience to exist. The most common and combatively effective methods involve adding or removing energy, which can cause decay, discorporation, explosion, heat, or absence of heat. Prolonged exposure to raw Verahskel energy can cause physical or mental damage to the controller. Weave is a Control vs Resist or Defend attack. The Attack Value can be used to deal direct damage, cause secondary effects, or both. The GM will have to judge the Difficulty of these actions in addition to the natural Resist or Defense Value of the target. One action.
Advanced Maneuvers
Advanced Maneuvers are an optional rules supplement that make Ashkhar Basic’s combat more intricate. An Advanced Maneuver describes the effect, what training is required and what the drawback is. Any Advanced Maneuver can be attempted by the character as long as he or she meets the necessary skill requirements.
Effort Tokens, as rewarded by the GM for acting in character or pursuing your character’s theme, can mitigate the “Drawback” of each of the advanced maneuvers.
Why do some of these cost Fatigue? Advanced Maneuvers are considerably stronger than regular maneuvers, and can dramatically tip the scales in favor of the characters if used correctly. Mechanically, the authors feel it balances them out. Within the Ashkhar universe, it is explained as your character focusing an intense amount of training and energy to accomplishing a specific task, as such exhausting himself.
Note that if your character is out of Fatigue, Vitality can instead be burned.
Blast
Bolster
Bound
Break Neck
Burn
Chokehold
Command
Convulse
Cripple
Decay
Defensive Maneuver
Density
Distant Disarm
Drag
Flowing Strike
Formation
Hack and Slash
Horrify
Ignore the Pain
Kill Shot
Meditate
Melee Shot
Onslaught
Perturb
Pin
Sharpen
Shred
Throw
Enemies
Enemies in Ashkhar Basic are simple and easy to make on the fly. As enormous flying dragons, undead armies, and elemental brain sucking freaks are (practically) nonexistent on Ashkhar, the majority of the battles will take place between the characters and NPCs very similar in biology and intelligence to the players. Wild and dangerous beasts are very common, as are war animals trained specifically for battle. But easily nine out of ten fights in a character’s life should involve another sentient being wielding a crafted weapon to the best of his ability. A real being with real blood and guts and mind.
The objective of combat in Ashkhar is often due to disagreements; disagreements over land, over ideology, resources, reputation, or even honor. Due to the brutal nature of the world, most of the cultures that have survived long enough to have any real impact on Ashkhar’s history are naturally combative. There are exceptions, such as the harmoniously peaceful onduril country of Lohm. Lohmeni men and women believe in spiritual and physical harmony, yet even they are willing to cut off a cancerous or violent individual if it serves the greater good of society and the universe.
Most enemies comprise of a few static attributes. The GM should almost never have to roll for an enemy. Instead, nearly all of the rolls should come from the players to determine if their characters succeed or fail.
Enemy Basics
A typical enemy or bad guy is one of the six sapient races: anduin, grohlkin, inohkshi, koht, krolog, or onduril. As such, they are generally assumed to have relatively similar biology to an onduril (human): two arms, two legs, two eyes, a mouth, ears, guts in the center, and so on. We encourage players, especially in Ashkhar Basic, to be creative with their actions and the use of maneuvers. If something makes sense (and seems cool) we generally favor the GM saying “yes, but how” or “yes, but why” rather than “no.” Even if it’s not something we have specifically accounted for in the rules.
Enemies consist of certain “Values.” These values determine how difficult they are to fight and to defeat. Values are very similar to Difficulty for Obstacles, only for a conscious enemy rather than an inanimate obstacle.
Level: the general strength and experience of the enemy. These levels are roughly equivalent to player character levels, although generally two equal level bad guys to one character is more of a fair fight.
Attack Value (AV): the enemy’s static number the defending character must beat in order to not be hit. This can come in the form of ranged, melee, control, or something else like intimidation. This number generally ranges from 1 to 10.
Defense Value (DV): the enemy’s static number the attacking character must beat in order to hit. This generally covers ranged and melee attacks. This number generally ranges from 1 to 10.
Resist Value (RV): the enemy’s static number the attacking character must beat in order to influence or manipulate. This involves everything from mental control attacks to seduction. This number generally ranges from 1 to 10.
Bonus Damage: the extra damage applied to successful attacks against a character. This number only comes into effect if the enemy’s AV exceeds the character’s DV. For example: if the enemy’s static AV is 4 with Bonus Damage +1 and the defending character rolled 3 successes, the attacking enemy would deal 2 damage. If the enemy did not have this bonus damage, he would have only dealt 1 damage.
Vitality: the amount of abuse the enemy can take before falling unconscious or dead. This number generally ranges from 1 to 10 for common adversaries, but truly tough villains and beasts can go as high as 30-50.
Damage Reduction (DR): the amount the enemy is armored and able to resist damage. All incoming damage (unless otherwise stated) is first reduced by this number. For example if an enemy is dealt 3 damage and he has 2 DR, he only receives 1 damage to his Vitality. DR is permanent unless the source of the DR is destroyed or removed.
Skill Value: the enemy’s assumed average skill level for a particular skill. Rarely do we recommend configuring this number for all of the nine skills unless the enemy is truly significant to the campaign. This number generally ranges from 1 to 10 for each of the nine skills.
Sample Enemy
A common enemy in Ashkhar are Teychentan bandits. They prowl the corridors of cities as often as the hard packed roads in the wilderness. While not a true threat to a hardened veteran, much less a hero, they are a true nuisance especially when attacking with surprise or in large numbers.
Teychentan Bandit
If this bandit stood up against a combat focused character, he wouldn’t stand a chance. Yet, with enough bad rolls from the character, this bandit can still definitely do some damage. If attempting to attack with his melee weapon, the character would only need to roll 3 successes to avoid being hit. If trying to find the bandit while he was being stealthy, the character would need to roll 2 successes on a Perception roll. He is definitely above average, has had some training, but a perceptive character will easily spot him.
If the bandit attacked a character, the character would need to roll three successes to completely defend against the attack. Since the bandit has +1 bonus damage on successful hits, if the player only rolled one success, the character would take 3 damage (2 for the difference in the attack value and the character’s defense +1 bonus damage).
Enemy Stats
Enemies should follow some rough guidelines to ensure that the average party of characters have at least a fighting chance of defeating them. Most players don’t want to roll over every fight they come across, nor do they want to have to retreat against every adversary. As such a semblance of balance in combat, related to the strength of the party, should be the goal.
Typical Enemy Stats
Weak Enemy (roughly 5 or more equal 1 character)
Average Enemy (roughly 2 or 3 equal 1 character)
Character Equivalent Enemy (roughly 1 or 2 equal 1 character)
Tough Enemy (roughly 1 or 2 characters equal 1 enemy)
Enemy Leader (roughly 2 or 3 characters equal 1 enemy)
Nemesis (roughly 4 or 5 characters equal 1 enemy)
Enemy Modifications
The above templates for enemies are simple guidelines for GMs of Ashkhar Basic. Roughly 90% of the time, these templates should work great for an average combat. If however you want to modify enemies to have a different flavor, be more or less powerful, or lean to a specific style, below are some suggestions.
Enemy Styles
Enemy Styles offer stylistic choices. These generally keep the overall strength of the enemy the same, but shift its focus.
Enemy Types
Enemy Types other than the typical humanoid. These generally add to the overall strength of the enemy.
Enemies with Control
Control is not bestowed upon only heroes, it is not a gift reserved for certain groups or individuals. Instead, the ability to tap into verahskel, to Control the fabric of the universe, is something achievable by anyone with enough focus and willpower; just as combat prowess or skill with an instrument can be attained through enough training and practice. Certainly talent and natural, latent ability is very important to the potency of someone’s ability to access Control; yet this doesn’t preclude everyone from trying. Many don’t try, and many believe they can’t, but that is their choice.
Enemies in Ashkhar can possess Control just as player characters can. If the GM wants to use enemies with control, here are some things to consider:
Equipment
Equipment is an essential part of daily life in Ashkhar, and most commonly manifests itself in the form of some tool that assists with the overcoming of some task or obstacle. Weapons, armor, shields, and other tools all effectively do the same thing in Ashkhar: make it more likely for your character to succeed.
Weapons
Weapons can provide an Accuracy Bonus, Bonus Damage, and a Defense Bonus/Penalty. Weapons have an effective range increment, which describes how far that weapon can be used without penalty. If this is a ranged weapon, the range will be listed in feet. In Ashkhar Basic weapons are a simple chassis that can have modifications and improvements placed upon it.
Melee Weapon Modifications
Basic weapons have no modifications. Adequate weapons have one modification. Well designed weapons have two modifications. Masterwork weapons have three modifications. Legendary weapons have four modifications. There are only a handful of legendary weapons in the world, most are named and have long histories.
Ranged Weapon Modifications
Basic weapons have no modifications. Adequate weapons have one modification. Well designed weapons have two modifications. Masterwork weapons have three modifications. Legendary weapons have four modifications. There are only a handful of legendary weapons in the world, most are named and have long histories.
Special Ranged Weapon: Arquebuss
The arquebuss is originally of krolog design, but has grown to some prominence in elite fighting groups and cadres of mercenaries around Ashkhar. It is essentially a hand portable cannon that harnesses the power of verahskel to hurl a projectile or blast of energy at an opponent. Generally, for fear of damaging the weapon, projectiles are not used. In addition to this, the area effect of the arquebuss is favored in most combat scenarios when it is applicable anyway.
The arquebuss is an extremely potent weapon, and while it is becoming more popular it is far from common or inexpensive. Entire carriages of slaves have been sold for a single such weapon in the Teychentan slave auctions, others are sold for thousands of ducarii or double their weight in gold, and even others are fought to the death over.
An arquebuss uses a special canister or shell that can transfer matter, specifically high-energy matter, into kinetic force out of its barrel. These shells are what make the arquebuss so unique and so powerful, as being able to harness verahskel in such a permanent and deadly way is a rare talent to possess.
Arquebuss Modifications
A typical arquebuss requires an action to reload after each attack. If modified with the large chamber modification, reloading is only necessary once the chamber is depleted. In order to fire an arquebuss, each of its shells must contain either pure verahskel energy (siphoned off from something through the careful attenuation of a controller) or filled with high energy physical matter.
Freshly killed creatures, blood, organs, plants, and certain stones contain high amounts of verahskel energy and can be converted into an arquebuss shot over time. Typically each arquebuss shell can convert such material into an effective shot every hour.
Control Channel
A control channel is a physical item that assists its wielder to better use control. Mechanically these function similar to weapons for Melee Combat or Ranged Combat. Control channels are generally small totems that are made of unique materials, have significant meaning to the controller, or created out of pure verahskel energy naturally or with control.
Control Channel Modifications
Armor
Armor comes in countless varieties in Ashkhar, much of which is related to the culture and style preferences of the smith. Mechanically armor is pretty straightforward, there is a tradeoff between some of the move movement oriented skills and how well protected you are. Any version of common light armor, such as hardened leather, is the assumed “Basic Armor.”
Armor Levels beyond Basic
Armor Modifications
Shields
Shields are a common battle tool on the Ashkhari continent. Favored by krolog, the militant Donorahn and most of the hardened onduril armies in central Ashkhar, shields can be used both offensively and defensively.
Basic Shields
Shield Modifications
I've been a long time EN World lurker, but just recently made this account. I look forward to your feedback and criticisms of the system that I and a few of of my publishing associates have been designing. There are currently two systems in design, the Ashkhar Complete system and the Ashkhar Basic System.
We are still pretty deep in the testing phases of Ashkhar Complete, but would love to see the full unrestrained feedback from hardcore players on Ashkhar Basic.
I will be updating this thread as often as I can with answers to questions and new content. Bear with me as for now I have little experience with vB code, and the site was written using a combination of wordpress and html.
Also I'm aware that there will more than likely be a host of editing and formatting issues; point them out when you can and I'll do my best to clarify or clean things up.
Enjoy!
Ashkhar Basic
This is the most basic version of Ashkhar. It allows a plethora of diverse characters within a very simple mechanical system. The bookkeeping for both the GM and the players is heavily reduced, yet the spirit of Ashkhar is still completely tangible.
A quick overview of the Ashkhar Basic RPG:
- What makes it basic? The rules are simpler, combat is faster, and character creation is easier than the full Ashkhar RPG system.
- What’s the system like? The system uses a d6 dice pool for each of the character’s skills. Everything, including combat and magic, are included in these skills.
- Are there death spirals? Not particularly. The only exception is if your character is seriously wounded, it makes it harder for them to fight. This is typically rare.
- Can I be a crazy powerful demigod superhero? Probably not, at least not with the rules as written. Ashkhar Basic steers more toward plausibility even by Earth standards. If you want to change the rules or scale down the difficulty for certain tasks, by all means go for it.
- How many classes are there? None. Ashkhar is a classless system. Each character is a unique combination of his Attributes, Theme, Species, Skills, and Traits. Character creation takes a few minutes and can lead to very diverse and layered characters.
- How many races are there? Ashkhar Basic allows players to play from six distinct species, each species having several sub cultures.
- Can you describe Ashkhar’s setting? The primary continent of the known world, Ashkhar, is a varied and massive landscape that homes six intelligent species and countless beasts. The species are not homogenous, gods don’t roam the land, heroes are rare, and the common person always has a chance at killing even the most hardened fighter in his sleep. Magic, known as Control, is the process and manipulation of an omnipresent energy field known as Verahskel. Verahskel is recognized as the most basic, fundamental energy and particle of the universe. Ashkhar has a wide range of technology levels, culminating in some basic machines, but as a whole can be easily considered late medieval by Earth standards.
Quick Character Creation
Follow the steps below to create your own character for Ashkhar Basic. Each segment of character creation is explained in more detail in its section.
First Level
Create a character concept
- Is your character a fierce warrior? An academic scholar? A charistmaic diplomat? There are no classes in Ashkhar Basic, and as such it is very easy for you to come up with complex or multi-layered concepts for your character.
Determine your character’s Attributes
Attributes are Body, Mind, and Spirit
- One attribute is “Great” for your character. Rolls of 3 or higher are a success (3, 4, 5, 6)
- One attribute is “Good” for your character. Rolls of 4 or higher are a success (4, 5, 6)
- One attribute is “Okay” for your character Rolls of 5 or higher are a success (5, 6)
Pick a Theme
A general framework of your character’s goals, ideology, and morals. There is a list of themes in the Themes section, although you can easily create your own theme in collaboration with your GM.
Pick your character’s Skills
- There are nine Skills: Control (Magic), Influence, Knowledge, Melee Combat, Movement, Perception, Ranged Combat, Resistance, and Stealth
- The Skills are used to determine how good your character is at completing certain tasks
- Each Skill, other than Control, begins with 1d6. If Anduin or Control Access Trait is taken, gain 1d6 and access to investment into Control
- Total of 10d6 to invest into the eight or nine Skills. Maximum investment at first level is 4d6 (for a 5d6 max before species bonuses) into a single Skill
Pick your Species
- The six species are: Anduin, Grohlkin, Inohkshi, Koht, Krolog, and Onduril (human)
- Each of the species applies a few unique traits as well as provide an additional bonus die to apply into certain Skills
Pick two Traits
There are many traits, each of which applies a different bonus or advantage in a certain situation or to a certain type of action. Traits can be anything from having a haunting expression, being an excellent tracker, or excelling at a certain style of combat.
Select gear
- Most characters in Ashkhar will carry some kind of equipment, weapons and armor being the most common that has a mechanical impact
- Weapons can add a bonus to an attack roll (such as +1d6) as well as add to Bonus Damage (damage applied only if the attack is successful)
- Weapons generally add a penalty to defense rolls while the weapon is being wielded (such as -1d6)
- Shields can add a bonus to a defense roll (such as +1d6) as well as add damage reduction (DR)
- Armor generally adds a penalty attack rolls while the armor is being worn (such as -1d6), but also adds to damage reduction (DR)
Calculate stats
- The math shouldn’t be too hard for Ashkhar Basic
- Tally up all of your dice pools for the various Skills
- Apply any bonuses from Traits, Species, or gear
- Calculate your Vitality
- Vitality is equal to the number of dice in your Resistance Skill pool + 3 + level (mInimum of 5 at level 1)
- Calculate your Fatigue
- Fatigue is equal to the number of dice in your Resistance Skill pool + 3 + level (minimum of 5 at level 1)
- Calculate your Attacks
- Attacks are generally equal to the number of dice in your Control, Melee Combat, or Ranged Combat Skill pools + weapon or trait bonuses
- Calculate your Defends
- Defense is generally equal to the highest of your Melee Combat, Movement, Perception, or Ranged Combat Skill pool +/- weapon or trait bonuses and penalties
- Calculate your Resists
- Your Resist is generally equal to the highest of your Control or Resistance Skill pool
And you’re done with level one!
Every New Level
- When your character accomplishes tasks, completes missions, and defeats enemies he will eventually Level Up
- At every new Level, your character gains a new Trait and a new 1d6 bonus to a Skill
Attributes
Every character has three natural abilities called Attributes: Body, Mind, and Spirit
- Body: Your character’s Body is how physically strong, quick, and tough she is
- Mind: Your character’s Mind is how smart, wise, and mentally capable she is
- Spirit: Your character’s Spirit is how brave, noble, and stronghearted she is
When you first think of your character, think about how she would interact with the world. Is she fast and strong, but quick to lose her temper? Is she wise but feeble? Unfortunately, not everybody can be great at everything, so your character will be better at some things than others.
Once you’ve figured out how your character should act and feel, you need to rank how good he is at Body, Mind, and Spirit actions.
For example, a brave warrior who sometimes doesn’t think things through:
- Great: Body
- Good: Spirit
- Okay: Mind
Or an explorer who wants to see the entire world, no matter the danger:
- Great: Spirit
- Good: Mind
- Okay: Body
Or a wise philosopher who wishes to travel to distant lands and learn about other cultures:
- Great: Mind
- Good: Body
- Okay: Spirit
Why do my Body, Mind, and Spirit ranks matter?
Every character is going to get himself into trouble, and when he does, he will need to make some Rolls to see what happens. Whenever a character takes an action doing something hard or is challenged, such as fighting, the player must roll.
Success is determined by the roll of the dice, and the rank determines what number on the dice is necessary to succeed.
Successes
- Great: roll a 3 or higher (3, 4, 5, 6)
- Good: roll a 4 or higher (4, 5, 6)
- Okay: roll a 5 or higher (5, 6)
After you have your character’s Body, Mind, and Spirit figured out, you get to pick how her general concept, or Theme, and her training and talent, or Skills.
Themes
Your character’s Theme is his driving purpose, his morality, his goals, and his general concept. When a player role plays and keeps his character well within his Theme, the GM might grant him an Effort Token.
Effort Tokens provide a resource to the player to use when they really want to throw in some extra effort. Mechanically, the player can roll an extra +1d6 to a roll, mitigate a point of Vitality damage, get an extra action, or some other boost that the GM deems appropriate.
Here are some sample Themes to pick from, but we encourage you to make your own and be creative!
Sample Themes
- Avenger: you seek vengeance against those who have wronged you personally or ideologically. Revenge can be a very compelling and dangerous life path.
- Hero: you may or may not want glory, but you seek it out. You sacrifice your personal goals and aspirations aside to end oppression, tyrany, or persecution.
- Hunter: you love the hunt, be it man or beast. You can’t feel at peace until you have finally captured or killed your quarry.
- Protector: you vow to protect those in need of protection, whether they are your friends or not.
- Champion: you come from a certain region, and want to bring honor and glory to your home.
- Diplomat: you seek to end political strife and state-driven conflict. You wish to hold office and power.
- Fighter: you love to fight, and will often fight even when it isn’t necessary.
- Justiciar: your duty is to justice, your obligation to mete it out. Whether it be the law of the land or of your own principles, you deliver justice to both the wicked and the innocent.
- Explorer: you want to explore Ashkhar and discover new places and creatures.
- Throne Seeker: you want to become a recognized leader of your region, your species, or some new lands that you conquer.
- Treasure Hunter: you are always on the prowl for the next big haul, be it a horde of gold or a rare artifact.
- Slayer: you seek out a particular group or enemy type to end them once and for all.
- Scholar: you want to learn as much as you can, either in a dusty library or deep in a cave.
- Ideologist: you have an ideal, philosophy, religion, or government structure that you wish to spread and make prominent.
- Healer: you want to heal and care for others.
Bear in mind that Effort Tokens should only be given out if the character is behaving as an exemplary individual within his Theme. A character can only hold on to one Effort Token at a time, and they fade each time a story arc ends or the character rests.
Effort Tokens can also be given out for players acting in character, good role playing, and all around making an enjoyable and immersive experience for all of the players at the table.
Skills
Skills represent your character’s training, talent, and overall ability when trying to complete certain actions. There are nine Skills, and they can be used in whichever creation combinations you can imagine.
When you first make your character, you get 10d6 to spread out among the nine Skills. You can only invest up to 4d6 in a single Skill (bringing the total Skill to 5d6).
The nine Skills are Control, Influence, Knowledge, Melee Combat, Movement, Perception, Ranged Combat, Resistance, and Stealth
- Control: using magic to sculpt matter, weave energy, and manipulate minds all with a thought
- Influence: charming, scaring, or convincing others
- Knowledge: any form of information you might know or figure out
- Melee Combat: physically fighting with your hands, feet, or weapons like swords and clubs
- Movement: running, jumping, dodging, climbing, lifting, or any kind of moving
- Perception: your five senses, as well as your gut instinct
- Ranged Combat: throwing, shooting, or launching things in a fight
- Resistance: how physically, mentally, and emotionally tough you are
- Stealth: being sneaky, quiet, unnoticed, good with disguises, or lying
In order to complete a specific task, just think of what your character would do, and describe it to the rest of the group. In order to see if you actually succeed or not, you need to make some Rolls.
Rolls come in the form of rolling six-sided dice, abbreviated as d6. If your character is more skilled in certain actions than others, she might get to roll multiple dice. If she was rolling three six-sided dice, it would be listed as 3d6. Five would be 5d6, and one would be 1d6.
All of your skills (except for Control) start out with 1d6. Any time you invest extra training, or have natural talent in a certain skill, you gain more than just a single die. The more d6 you get to roll, the better and more consistent your character is at succeeding in those types of actions.
Why is Control different?
Control is using magic, and as such considerably more powerful than the other Skills. In order for your character to gain access to Control, he either has to belong to the Anduin species, or take a Trait that provides access to the Control Skill. Once this Trait has been selected (even at character creation) you can apply dice to the Control Skill.
Skills and Attributes
When your character is attempting to accomplish a task he must make a Skill Roll. The number of dice (d6) invested into that Skill are how many dice that the player can Roll. The nature of the task being attempted dictates what Skill it falls under. For example, trying to attack an enemy with a sword would fall under Melee Combat, while trying to lift a heavy stone would fall under Movement.
Each of the Skills has an associated Attribute with it. Based on your earlier ranking of your Attributes (Great, Good, Okay) the number showing on the dice determine the number of successes. For example, the Influence Skill is a “Spirit” action. Therefore, if a character had assigned his Spirit attribute as “Good”, every d6 showing a 4, 5, or 6 would be a success.
- Control: Mind
- Influence: Spirit
- Knowledge: Mind
- Melee Combat: Body
- Movement: Body
- Perception: Mind
- Ranged Combat: Body
- Resistance: Spirit
- Stealth: Spirit
Species
Anduin
Regal, beautiful, and long lived the Anduin are the most physically akin to the Onduril. They have an innate understanding and connection to Verahskel and can much more readily Control it, even at a young age. Physically they are typically lithe, age roughly double the speed of a man, and have skin and hair tones along the gold spectrum from pearlescent white to burnt ember.
- Skill Bonus: gain +1d6 to either Perception, Control, or Knowledge
- Species Trait: You automatically gain access to the Control Skill
- Species Trait: You are nearly immune to mental manipulation through Control
Grohlkin
Grohlkin are a hard people that hail from hard lands. Alien in both culture and appearance, many Grohlkin are assumed to be malevolent or violent, although they are no more so than any of the other species. With enduring, sinewy bodies built to better survive the rugged deserts, caves, and mountains of their homeland, grohlkin possess natural combative and athletic ability. Hairless, but with a wide variety of variegated colors and patterns on their tough flesh, grohlkin can be hauntingly beautiful or enchantingly alluring.
- Skill Bonus: gain +1d6 to either Melee Combat, Ranged Combat, or Movement
- Species Trait: You gain a natural unarmed attack that adds a +1d6 to Melee Combat while not wielding any other weapons
- Species Trait: You naturally regenerate 1 inch of lost limbs or body parts per week
Inohkshi
Standing at no more than waist high of the average man, inohkshi are a peculiar people. They care for nothing so much as practicality and pragmatism, making astute bankers, businessmen, explorers, and generals. They have a keen intellect, an eye for stealth, excessive patience and good overall kinesthetic awareness. Yet the inokshi's most famous trait is their inherent sense of direction, as such are prized scouts, navigators, and couriers. They range in olive skin tones typically with dark to dirty blonde, curly hair.
- Skill Bonus: gain +1d6 to either Stealth, Ranged Combat, or Movement
- Species Trait: You maintain your Stealth roll after attacking with no need to roll again
- Species Trait: You are immune to getting lost unless you are moved while completely unconscious
Koht
A gentle people of massive proportions, the koht would be the most terrifying of opponents if they were led to war. While individuals do take up the mantle of violence, rarely do koht ever move in large force beyond the Titan's Steppe. Incredibly tough, with a rich culture favoring lore, song, and the power of the Divine Wind. Koht bodies are covered in feathery fur of nearly any color, even reds and blues, stand well over seven feet tall, and often weigh over 400 pounds. Their enormous chests give them melee prowess and huge lungs, allowing them to hold their breath many times longer than any of the other species.
- Skill Bonus: gain +1d6 to either Melee, Knowledge, or Resistance
- Species Trait: You can hold your breath for 30 minutes
- Species Trait: You are immune to critical hits
Krolog
Stout and stubborn both physically and mentally, krolog equal most men's mass but are often no taller than four or five feet. Some of the best craftsmen, artists, warriors, and healers, krolog's intensity and constant pursuit of perfection make them a powerful ally, or a feared enemy. An immune system bordering on legendary status allow the krolog to operate in areas infested with disease, plague, and other filth that no other species can go. They have a wide variety of reddish brown skin tones, with hair color ranging from black to blonde.
- Skill Bonus: gain +1d6 to either Influence, Resistance, or all Defends
- Species Trait: You can move 5 feet as an immediate reaction once flanked (once per turn)
- Species Trait: You are immune to natural diseases and viruses
Onduril (Human)
The onduril people are vast and varied, nearly covering the entirety of the continent in Ashkhar in some form. A penchant for drama, creativity, and violence, the onduril have made and broken alliances within their own major nations and those of the other species. They are the most industrious, always seeking the most effective and efficient ways to harvest crops, study verahskel, and win wars. They vary greatly in height, weight, and appearance, although the citizens of the the major nations all resemble one another more so than citizens of another.
- Skill Bonus: gain +1d6 to either Knowledge, Melee Combat, or Stealth
- Species Trait: You can select one additional Trait from the Traits list
Traits
Traits are the characteristics possesed by every character in Ashkhar Basic. Traits apply either a +1d6 bonus or some other advantage in certain circumstances. When you first make your character, you can select two Traits. Each time you level, you can select another Trait.
- Aerodynamic Thrower: You can throw items, rocks, and other throwing weapons 20 feet farther than normal
- Artist: Select one type of art that you specialize in, such as music, painting, sewing, sculpting, story telling, etc. You don’t need to roll when making high quality pieces of art.
- Balanced: You don’t need to roll to keep your balance outside of combat or high intensity obstacles (such as an avalanche). When rolling in combat or a highly dangerous situation, you get a +1d6 bonus when rolling Movement to keep your balance.
- Barrel Lungs: You can hold your breath twice as long as normal before having to roll. This stacks with the Koht’s natural ability.
- Brave: You get a +1d6 bonus to Rolls when acting bravely, such as facing certain danger or standing up to your fears.
- Climate Resistant: You can comfortably live in environments between 40 and 120 degrees Fahrenheit (5 to 40 degrees Celsius)
- Climber: You don’t need to roll when trying to climb anything other than the most difficult surfaces, unless in a highly dangerous situation or combat. In such circumstances, you get a +1d6 bonus to Movement rolls when Climbing.
- Combo Attack: The penalty for a second attack you take in a turn is reduced by 1d6. Therefore the penalty is -2d6 rather than the normal -3d6.
- Control Access: You can consciously Control Verahskel, the universal energy that connects and constructs all matter in the universe. You automatically gain +1d6 to the Control skill once this trait is taken. If taken at first level, you are able to invest into Control per the normal skill rules.
- Cowardly: You get a +1d6 bonus to rolls when trying to avoid danger, running away, or hiding from enemies. This typically does not apply to attacks.
- Defense Expertise: the penalty to defends while wielding a weapon is reduced by 1.
- Eat Anything: You can eat and drink just about anything organic, even if it is rotten, possibly toxic, or not normally edible, without becoming ill. Items which are poisoned or severely tainted in some way may still require a Resistance Roll.
- Effective Maneuver: Select one maneuver, such as trip or disarm. You gain a +1d6 bonus when attempting this maneuver. This trait can be taken multiple times, each time it applies to a new maneuver. This trait does not apply to multiple bonuses on a single maneuver. This does not apply to Advanced Maneuvers.
- Efficient Control: You burn one less Vitality when using Control to manipulate Verahskel. The GM may reason that regardless of your number of successes you still must burn at least 1 Vitality, in which case this trait would not apply.
- Fast: You get a +1d6 bonus to rolls when running, swimming, or trying to move fast (this includes for rolls to determine your turn).
- Forgettable: You have a very forgettable face, and it is difficult to describe you in any meaningful way. Things that you say and do are likewise unimportant to most people.
- Free Runner: You can move freely through tight spaces, difficult terrain, variable height platforms, and otherwise restricted areas without rolling. While being chased or in combat, you must still roll but gain a +1d6 bonus.
- Funny: You are naturally funny and most people enjoy your sense of humor. If trying to use laughter to befriend or calm someone with a difficult attitude, you get a +1d6 bonus to rolls.
- Gifted Healer: You heal an additional +1 Vitality whenever healing yourself or an ally.
- Good Looking: You are attractive to others, as such others are more likely to want to talk to you and help you. This can also assist with getting paid higher wages, or aid in serving as a distraction out of combat.
- Hasty Repairs: You can temporarily fix and hold broken objects, weapons, and equipment together. Your repair takes an action or two, and lasts for a few rounds.
- Haunting: You have a haunting expression with dead, expressionless eyes. People avoid you, are less likely to fight you, and some inherently fear you. Murderers and hard men respect you more than most.
- Insightful: You have a knack for understanding context and subcontext within conversations, and can easily gather what someone really means rather than what they are saying. You must still roll against those who are deliberately lying or using Control to shield their intentions, but you gain a +1d6 bonus.
- Iron Grip: You get a +1d6 bonus to rolls when trying to hang on to something, prevent getting disarmed, or any time your grip is involved (not attacks).
- Leader: People want to follow you, and you gain a +1d6 to rolls when trying to inspire or give commands to others.
- Long Shot: Your non Control ranged attacks double in effective range. This does not maximize the distance with which the attack can physically travel, rather the accuracy within the max range.
- Magical Resistance: You gain 1 DR against all magical attacks, even those that normally ignore DR.
- Martial Artist: You deal an additional +1 Bonus Damage with unarmed attacks.
- Melt Away: When outside of a dangerous situation, you can blend in and disappear into a crowd or similarly high concealment area.
- Memorable: People remember you, your actions, and phrases that you say.
- Mounted Warrior: You can expertly control one breed of mount, such as horse, war ram, zorlicahn, aornael, raptor, etc. You do not need to Roll when in combat for basic commands of the animal.
- Native: Pick an environment that you were raised in, such as urban, desert, forest, ocean, jungle, mountains, etc. You gain a +1d6 bonus to Knowledge, Movement, and Perception Rolls in this environment.
- Phalanx: When fighting alongside an ally, you gain a +1d6 bonus to attacks and defends.
- Protector: You get a +1d6 bonus to rolls when standing sacrificially in the way of attacks for others.
- Quick: You can draw out a weapon or grab something within reach without consuming an action
- Regenerative: You gain an additional 1 Vitality per day of natural healing, and an additional 1 Vitality every time you are naturally or magically healed.
- Resilient: You gain one natural DR. This trait can not be taken multiple times, but its effects do stack with armor.
- Scary: You get a +1d6 bonus to rolls when intimidating others to prevent a fight or to force someone to surrender.
- Shoot and Scoot: You can move 5 feet for free after attacking. You can only do this once per turn.
- Sleep Anywhere: You have no difficulty sleeping cramped in a cold corner of an alley, on a mountaintop, or an otherwise similarly uncomfortable place. You suffer no penalties when sleeping in loud, intemperate, or uncomfortable situations within reasonable limits. (For people without this trait, they do not regain their Vitality when resting in these conditions.)
- Slow Metabolism: You only need to eat half as much as is typical for your species.
- Smart: You get a +1d6 bonus to rolls when trying to learn, figure something out, or solve riddles and puzzles.
- Smooth Talker: You get a +1d6 bonus when trying to charm, persuade, or get people to like you.
- Sneaky: You get a +1d6 bonus to rolls when being sneaky, hiding, or moving quietly.
- Stalwart Build: You can carry up to your own weight with no need to roll an Resistance or Movement
- Sworn enemy: You get a +1d6 bonus to rolls when fighting a certain group, monster, or individual of your choice. This sworn enemy can’t change once selected.
- Swift Shadow: You take no penalty to Stealth when moving your full speed. This does not apply to sprinting.
- Tactical Mastery: The effect of Assists deal an additional +1d6 (either being Assisted or Assisting someone else).
- Tireless: You can exert yourself for twice as long as normal without needing to roll Resistance. This does not apply to starvation or dehydration.
- Tough: You get +1 to your Vitality and Fatigue. This can be taken multiple times; its effects stack.
- Trustworthy: People inherently trust you and are more likely to confide in you secrets, information, or other helpful insight.
- Tracker: You get a +1d6 bonus to rolls when trying to track someone or find something hidden. Common tracks that your character is familiar with require no roll whatsoever (GM discretion.)
Fatigue and Vitality
Your character’s physical stamina, mental fortitude, endurance, toughness, and life force are described by his Fatigue and Vitality. Fatigue is your character’s overall current stamina. Fatigue applies when using Control, attempting Advanced Maneuvers, or when taking damage. Vitality is your character’s physical and mental health. Vitality applies primarily when taking damage. When your character loses Fatigue, he is either becoming exhausted or taking small or superficial wounds. When your character loses Vitality, he is sustaining serious bodily harm.
Fatigue: ethereal energy source, easy to restore, does not equate to true physical damage, can be used to absorb damage and use Control
Vitality: physical life force and health, difficult to heal, equates to serious physical or mental damage
Fatigue
Fatigue is equal to your character’s Resistance Skill pool + 3 + his level.
Your character is assumed to be at “full fatigue” when he is well fed, rested, and healed. As he takes damage from incoming attacks, traveling long distances, succumbing to natural hazards, or using Control, his Fatigue Value goes down. In game, your character is becoming weaker, more drained, and more exhausted as his Fatigue gets closer to 0. Once his Fatigue reaches 0, any additional damage that would normally lower fatigue now lowers Vitality.
After six hours of rest and at least some food and water, your character recovers all of his Fatigue. If he is unable to sleep well, does not get enough sleep, or hasn’t eaten in days, he does not regain his Fatigue. Fatigue can also be restored from the use of Control, although it is nearly impossible to create a “positive loop” using Control. In other words, a controller can’t use control to restore his fatigue ,as the amount he is burning is roughly equivalent to the amount he is restoring. There are exceptions, but in general this is the case.
Fatigue can be “healed” with a Knowledge roll. The amount of successes equate to the amount of Fatigue that is restored.
Vitality
Vitality is equal to your character’s Resistance Skill pool + 3 + his level.
Your character is assumed to be at “full vitality” when he is fully healthy, not bleeding, not dying of poison, and so on. Once his Fatigue is gone, damage from incoming attacks, traveling long distances, succumbing to natural hazards, or using Control lowers his Vitality Value. In game, your character is sustaining serious mental or bodily harm, and as his Vitality gets closer to 0 he is closer to death.
After six hours of rest and at least some attention to his wounds, your character recovers 1 Vitality. If he is unable to sleep well, does not get enough sleep, or has wounds that bleed or are infected, he does not regain his Vitality. Vitality can be restored form the use of Control, although it is exhausting and difficult to do so.
Vitality can be healed with a Knowledge roll. The amount of successes/2 rounded down equate to the amount of Vitality that is restored. For example a Knowledge roll with 5 successes would heal 2 Vitality.
Example of Character Creation
Vayno is a young adventurer who is physically skilled and strong. His player thinks that he should be pretty strong and agile, pretty brave and amicable, but isn’t much of an academic thinker. His player assigns the following attributes:
- Great: Body
- Good: Spirit
- Okay: Mind
This means that Vayno will succeed on Body related Skill rolls of 3+, Spirit related Skill rolls of 4+, and Mind related Skill rolls of 5+. After Vayno’s player has chosen his attributes, he considers how Vayno will interact with the world, what dreams and goals he has, and what his overall concept is. In Ashkhar this is called a Theme. For simplicity, we’ll have Vayno select one of the template Themes.
Explorer: expanding the known horizons, mapping out new regions, and discovering new lands. Vayno has a strong spirit and eagerly looks to explore the country. Whenever his player role-plays well, has Vayno explore a dungeon or a dark forest, or stay in character that matches his theme, the GM might give Vayno’s player an Effort Token.
Next he’ll need to decide what fields of expertise Vayno will specialize in. Vayno’s player has 10d6 to spend on his Skills. At first, all of his Skills (except for Control) already have 1d6.
- Influence: 1d6
- Knowledge: 1d6
- Melee Combat: 1d6
- Movement: 1d6
- Perception: 1d6
- Ranged Combat: 1d6
- Resistance: 1d6
- Stealth: 1d6
His player really wants Vayno to excel at Movement, since he is so strong and athletic. So, he invests the maximum of 4d6 into the Movement skill, bringing movement to 5d6.
- Influence: 1d6
- Knowledge: 1d6
- Melee Combat: 1d6
- Movement: 5d6 = 1d6 + 4d6
- Perception: 1d6
- Ranged Combat: 1d6
- Resistance: 1d6
- Stealth: 1d6
- Dice remaining: 6d6 = 10d6 – 4d6
Vayno only has 6 dice remaining to invest in other skills. He wants to be a good scout and good at reading other people’s emotions, so Vayno’s player puts a couple of dice into the Perception Skill, bringing his Perception Skill up to 3d6.
- Influence: 1d6
- Knowledge: 1d6
- Melee Combat: 1d6
- Movement: 5d6
- Perception: 3d6 = 1d6 + 2d6
- Ranged Combat: 1d6
- Resistance: 1d6
- Stealth: 1d6
- Dice remaining: 4d6 = 6d6 – 2d6
Now Vayno has 4 dice left, and he wants to be pretty well rounded. He puts some into Melee, Resistance, and Knowledge.
- Influence: 1d6
- Knowledge: 2d6 = 1d6 + 1d6
- Melee Combat: 3d6 = 1d6 + 2d6
- Movement: 5d6
- Perception: 3d6
- Ranged Combat: 1d6
- Resistance: 2d6 = 1d6 + 1d6
- Stealth: 1d6
- Dice remaining: 0 = 4d6 – 4d6
Now Vayno’s player has used up all of his available dice for Skills. Vayno is starting to feel like a real character, great at Movement, pretty good at Melee Combat and Perception, and decent in Knowledge and Resistance. The rest of the Skills he can still attempt, but has less chance of success than at Skills he is well trained or talented in.
Next up is picking Vayno’s species. Vayno’s player wants to play a large, strong, friendly explorer and likes the culture and mythology of the Koht race. Therefore he’ll make Vayno a koht. This applies the following bonuses:
- He can pick a +1d6 bonus to either the Melee, Knowledge, or Resistance skill
- He picks Resistance, as it will help him to stay alive and keep pressing on
- This brings Vayno’s Resistance skill up to 3d6
- He can hold his breath for 30 minutes (awesome, and it goes perfectly with his explorer theme)
- He is immune to critical hits
The last mechanical choice Vayno’s place will have to make are to select two Traits. Traits are unique, permanent bonuses that make characters a little more unique and flexible. Vayno should be able to climb really well and find new places that others wouldn’t be able to. He goes with:
- Climber: Vayno doesn’t need to roll when trying to climb anything other than the most difficult surfaces
- Tracker: Vayno gets a +1d6 bonus when trying to track someone or find something hidden
Finally, Vayno can pick out some of his equipment including weapons and armor. And there you have it, a brand new character in just a few simple steps. Vayno is great at climbing, pretty good in a fight, can hold his breath, find hidden locations, and even knows a thing or two about other cultures and languages. Perfect for an explorer of Ashkhar.
Gameplay
There aren’t many gameplay rules for Ashkhar Basic. The system is designed to still provide with a good amount of mechanical “crunch” and applicable tactics without overwhelming new players or players who prefer to play more fast and loose with the rules. The rules are here simply to serve as guidelines to provide a fun, streamlined game that keep things fairly grounded in the reality of Ashkhar. If your group and GM (Game Master) want to ignore some or all of these, or make changes to them, that is completely within your right.
Remember, the most important aspect of any role playing game is that the players and GM are having fun. If everyone is being creative and only occasionally rolling the dice when absolutely necessary, we think that’s great. If your group are hard core rules masters that want to build optimized characters, that is possible as well (although we’d recommend checking out the complete Ashkhar RPG rules if that is the case).
First we’ll define a few basic things that will help you wrap your head around Ashkhar Basic and the general premise of the system.
Basic Role Definitions
- Players: the people playing the Ashkhar Basic game. Not to be confused with the characters.
- Game Master (GM): the player that describes the setting, the environment, the people in the world, and makes rules judgments.
- Character: the “role” that the player is playing; a single fictional character that interacts with the world of Ashkhar.
- Non-Player Character (NPC): all of the characters played by the GM; the supporting cast, the bad guys, the townsfolk, and so on.
Basic Mechanics Definitions
- Roll: a roll is any time your character is attempting to accomplish a task that isn’t automatically successful. The player rolls regular six sided dice (d6) and compares the face values with the relevant skill’s necessary success number to determine how successful the character was. This generally applies in combat or when facing obstacles. Rolls are generally between 1d6 -10d6. Rolls are made up of successes and fails.
- Success(es): successes are any time that a d6 shows the minimum value as determined by the roll’s relevant skill and its related attribute. For example if out of four dice (4d6), two rolled above the minimum success number, the roll would be said to have “two successes.”
- Fail(s): fails are the opposite of a success. If the face value of a d6 does not meet the minimum required number, it is considered a fail.
- Difficulty: the general term referring to how many successes are necessary to surpass a certain obstacle. If a task has a Difficulty 4, it means that the character would have to roll 4 successes in order to accomplish it.
- Assist: if one character helps another character to accomplish something, the assisted character gets an extra 1d6 to roll for the task.
Basic Combat Definitions
- Combat: combat is any time that your character is fighting against enemies. Most of the time these enemies are other intelligent people, NPCs played by the GM, but sometimes may be monsters or beasts.
- Rounds: rounds are a measurement of time (roughly 3-5 seconds), generally used in combat. Once every player and relevant NPC gets a turn, a new round begins.
- Turn: a single character’s actions and impact during a round. Generally every combatant (characters, NPCs, enemies, etc) get one turn per round.
- Actions: actions are specific mechanic tasks that combatants can attempt during their turn. Every character gets two actions per turn. Actions can be anything from making an attack to moving to using control to start a fire to bandaging a wounded ally.
- Movement speed: generally the maximum distance something can move during one action in combat. For characters and most humanoids it is 30 feet, although ranges in Ashkhar Basic are more zone-specific and somewhat nebulous. We recommend using this simply as a rough guideline of how quickly a character can move.
- Maneuvers: maneuvers are combat actions. The most basic of these is simply an “attack,” which requires nothing special other than an action during the attacking character’s turn. These are described in considerably more detail below.
- Advantage: if one combatant possesses a better position, a flank, or some kind of advantage during combat, he gets a 1d6 bonus to rolls against his opponent.
Calculations
- Fatigue: Resistance + 3 + Level (minimum of 5). For example a level 6 character with 4d6 Resistance would have 13 Vitality (4 Resistance + 3 + 6 Level)
- Vitality: Resistance + 3 + Level (minimum of 5). Generally equal to your character’s Fatigue, although more significant.
- Damage: (Attack Value – Defense Value) + Bonus Damage – Damage Reduction
- Bonus Damage: the amount of additional damage dealt on any successful attack. This damage only applies if the Attack Value exceeds the Defense Value.
Core Mechanic
The basic fundamental mechanic of Ashkhar Basic is the d6 pool. Characters have a different number of d6 available to roll for each of the nine Skills as discussed in Character Creation. Whenever a character is attempting to accomplish some kind of task, the player must roll the number of d6 invested into the relevant Skill.
For example, Vayno the koht explorer wants to lift a heavy boulder that is blocking his path. He knows that it will be pretty tough, so he bends his knees, gets a good grip, and really puts his might into it. Lifting falls under athletic actions, which belong to the Movement Skill. The GM for Vayno’s game tells his player that he needs to make a Movement Roll.
Vayno has 5d6 to Movement, and there aren’t any specific traits or other bonuses that apply to him lifting. So, Vayno’s player rolls five dice and gets: 1, 5, 2, 4, 6. Since Movement falls under the Body attribute (which Vayno has ranked as Great) each d6 only needs to show a 3 or better to be counted as a success. From his roll we can see that Vayno got three successes and two fails.
The GM reasons that this boulder is pretty heavy, about 300 pounds, and gave it a Difficulty of 3. This means that it would require at least 3 successes in order to lift it. Vayno rolled the minimum number of successes, and so is able to barely lift the big rock and shove it out of the way.
If Vayno had only rolled two successes out of his 5d6, he might have been able to wiggle or shove or shift the rock, but not have been able to lift it. If a different character that only had 2d6 to Movement attempted to lift the rock, it would have been nearly impossible for them to do. If someone assisted this character, he would have been able to roll an extra 1d6. If it was a success, the two of them could have lifted it together.
Pooling successes: for certain actions, such as lifting a huge boulder or chopping down a tree or building a boat, multiple characters can pool all of their successes into a single difficulty. For example, if a group of players needed to lift a giant 1000 pound boulder, the GM would assign a Difficulty of 10. A single character would have nearly no chance at ever being able to move the boulder, without some kind of leverage or other tool. But, a group of four characters all decide to lift the boulder simultaneously and pool their combined strength to move it. Between the four of them, they roll over 10 successes, and as such are able to move the boulder.
This doesn’t always apply, such as attacking a single enemy or picking a lock. Pooling successes generally requires a task that multiple people can be actively involved with and make a combined effort.
Chipping Away Difficulty: for certain actions, such as deciphering a code or navigating to an unknown location, multiple rolls can be made to chip away at a task’s Difficulty. For example, if a task had a Difficulty 10, in theory the character could execute one success per roll over ten rolls. If a task is inevitable, this is generally fine and simply takes more time and hassle to be completed.
This doesn’t always apply, and should be used somewhat sparingly. If the GM approves it, he may consider a “minimum threshold difficulty” and then the task’s general difficulty. For example to decipher a code successfully, the GM reasons that at least three successes is necessary to even make sense of the next chunk, and only count that as a single success. If the character rolled four successes, he would count that as two; if the character rolled only two successes, he would count that as zero.
Obstacles
Obstacles are any kind of impedance to the characters’ path. Combat can be considered a form of obstacle, although obstacles are generally not combat related. Avoiding a forest fire, surviving an avalanche, climbing an enemy’s fortification, designing an aqueduct, forging a sword, or finding enough food to survive in the desert are all forms of obstacles. There is an infinite list of possible obstacles, so generally think of them in terms of tasks that the characters can’t automatically surpass.
The Ashkhar Basic authors recommend to approach obstacles as their own standalone encounter or quest of sorts. If the player creatively approaches the obstacle from the skillset and perspective of his character, that kind of dedication and good thinking should be rewarded. If the group wants to simply move past a simple obstacle, such as a long and uneventful journey, some rolls can be made in the span of a few seconds and be done with it.
Ultimately it is up to the group and to the GM, but we always prefer taking it the long and more story-driven direction first. If the thought of blow by blow mountain climbing doesn’t intrigue your group, we get that too.
Obstacle Difficulty: how challenging the obstacle is and how many successes are necessary to overcome it.
- Difficulty 1-2: common and relatively easy. Can be completed by the average adult within a few attempts
- Difficulty 3-4: moderately difficult. Can be consistently completed by a trained individual and occasionally an average adult
- Difficulty 5-6: challenging. Can only be completed by trained or talented individuals, practically impossible for an untrained average adult
- Difficulty 7-8: expert. Can only be consistently completed by individuals who are both gifted and highly trained
- Difficulty 9-10: Only masters of a craft, or those highly augmented by Control, can accomplish such a task.
- Difficulty 11-12: Insanity. These tasks are definitely within the realm of the supernatural.
- Difficulty 13-14: Impossible. Anyone capable of completing such a task will be legendary for eternity.
- Difficulty 15-16: No individual in recorded history has ever come close.
- Difficulty 17-18: Multiple highly trained individuals working together would have a very challenging time completing these tasks.
- Difficulty 19-20: Inconceivable. Even mythic heroes never displayed such prowess.
Below is a list of common obstacles and numbered by their difficulties:
- Climbing a tree, breaking a wood plank, briefly lifting 100 pounds, moving swiftly through difficult terrain for an hour without fatigue
- Climbing a knotted rope, breaking a tree branch, briefly lifting 200 pounds, moving swiftly through difficult terrain for two hours without fatigue
- Climbing a heavily crenulated rock face, breaking a reinforced wooden door, briefly lifting 300 pounds, moving swiftly through difficult terrain for three hours without fatigue
- Climbing a rough hewn rock face, kicking a heavy wooden door off of its hinges, briefly lifting 400 pounds, moving swiftly through difficult terrain for four hours without fatigue
- Climbing a mountain face, kicking a reinforced wooden door off of its hinges, briefly lifting 500 pounds, moving swiftly through difficult terrain for five hours without fatigue
- Climbing a smooth mountain face, breaking a reinforced wooden door, briefly lifting 600 pounds, moving swiftly through difficult terrain for six hours without fatigue
- Climbing a mortared wall, kicking in a metal door, briefly lifting 700 pounds, moving swiftly through difficult terrain for seven hours without fatigue
- Climbing a smoothly mortared wall, bending metal bars, briefly lifting 800 pounds, moving swiftly through difficult terrain for eight hours without fatigue
- Climbing a wet, smooth wall, breaking metal bars, briefly lifting 900 pounds, moving swiftly through difficult terrain for nine hours without fatigue
- Climbing a frozen waterfall in high winds, bending metal plates, briefly lifting 1000 pounds, moving swiftly through difficult terrain for ten hours without fatigue
Note: nearly all obstacles of higher difficulty can be broken down into easier to accomplish tasks. The spirit of this in Ashkhar is to “think smarter, not harder” and encourage players to play to their characters’ strengths. The vast majority of all obstacles, or at least the obstacle’s sub tasks, should have a Difficulty of 1-3.
Combat
Combat in Ashkhar Basic is fast, intuitive, and still full of available tactical and logical crunch to help the more battle hungry players get their fill. The vast majority of combat in the Ashkhar universe is between the intelligent species vying for power, but the world is a harsh and dangerous place; full of beasts and natural threats just as deadly as any marauder or soldier.
In many ways Ashkhar is more like our world than common fantasy worlds; there are no earth shattering relics, there are no mind-bending supernatural phenomena, gods don’t roam the plane, otherwordly creatures do not teleport in. Instead, men fight for power, wealth, and security, occasionally at the aid of Control and often with the aid of dangerous and semi-intelligent beasts.
Combat is broken down into Rounds. As discussed earlier, rounds are a measurement of time to ensure all combatants get an equal amount of fighting time. Every combatant gets one Turn per round, and two Actions per turn. An action can literally be any verb, but we recommend not sweating the small stuff like reloading a bow, drawing a weapon, shouting out to an ally, and so forth. We do recommend the GM to count any action the characters make that has an impact or involves a Roll to be an action, such as moving, attacking, or using Control.
Combat and Rolls
The focus of combat in Ashkhar Basic is on the player. Therefore, the bad guys (controlled by the GM) rarely if ever make rolls. Instead, the players make the vast majority of all rolls to determine if they successfully hit their targets or successfully defended against incoming attacks.
Attacks: whenever a character makes an attack, it consumes one action. Most attacks fall under either the Melee Combat or Ranged Combat skills. The number of successes determines the Attack Value, which combines if the attack hit and how much damage was applied all into a single roll. If a character rolled an attack and had three successes, his Attack Value would be 3. Therefore this would be considered a hit and deal 3 damage (if the enemy had no defense whatsoever. The way bad guys work is explained farther below in the Enemies section.)
Making two attacks in a turn results in a -3d6 penalty on the second attack
Defends: when a character is attacked, they can roll the highest and most relevant of the Melee Combat, Ranged Combat, Movement, or Perception skills. You can use ANY of these skills to determine a defense against ANY nonmagical attack. For example if a character’s highest skill of those was Ranged Combat, he could use his Ranged Combat dice pool to roll a defense against melee attacks, ranged attacks, area attacks, or anything that involved him getting out of the way. Just like attacks, the number of successes determines the defender’s Defense Value, which subtracts from the attacker’s Attack Value. If the AV is higher than the DV, the character takes damage equal to the difference.
Resists: when a character is being mentally or physically manipulated by Control and is otherwise unable to dodge or block an incoming attack, he can attempt to Resist it. The character would then make a Resistance skill roll, or a Control skill roll, or a Knowledge skill roll (whichever is higher). The number of successes would apply to the Resist Value, which works identically to the Defense Value as described above. This can also arguably be used for special maneuver attacks like intimidation, feints, and other mental trickery. The GM would make the final call in such an instance.
Maneuvers: if a character wishes to execute some kind of special attack, such as tripping or disarming his opponent, he can make the necessary roll as listed in the maneuver list below. Maneuvers operate very similarly to attacks, and can be considered essentially the same with a twist. Making an attack and a maneuver in the same round still results in the -3d6 penalty to the second action.
Order of Action
Every combatant rolls either the highest of his Movement or Perception skills. Those with the most successes get to act first. Enemies have a static OoA number similarly to their static Attack and Defense Values. This is to keep the GM more focused on describing the action and less on the numbers.
Delaying: if a combatant wishes to delay his action, he may do so. At any time once delayed, he can choose to use his action. If he does not use his action by the end of the round, his actions are lost and can not be used later.
Maneuvers
Below is a list of available maneuvers. You can always simply describe what you’d like your character to do and the GM will tell you what rolls to make, but use this list if you’re out of ideas or have a specific type of maneuver you wish to accomplish.
- Charge: Melee Combat vs Defense Value. You move your movement speed and attack. You can only charge in a relatively straight line, and you need at least ten feet to charge. The attack at the end of the charge deals 1 additional damage on a successful hit. One action.
- Charm: Influence vs Resist Value. Can result in surrender or a cease to fighting. One action.
- Defensive Stance: Gain a +1d6 to your next defensive action. One action. If two Defensive Stances are used in a turn, they do not stack.
- Disarm: Attack with -1d6 penalty vs Defense Value. Success deals damage and disarms the weapon normally. One action.
- Feint: Stealth or Melee Combat vs Defense Value. Each success over the target’s DV grants +1d6 bonus to next attack.
- Focus: You concentrate and gain +1d6 to your next roll. One action.
- Grapple: Melee Combat vs Defense Value. Once grappled the target receives a -1 penalty to all defensive actions and is unable to move or attack until the grapple is broken. One action to initiate, two actions per turn to maintain.
- Group Attack: A swinging melee attack that hits all enemies within melee range. Melee attack that suffers -5d6. Only roll once regardless of the number of enemies. One action. A second group attack in a round sustains a -8d6 penalty.
- Heal: Knowledge (for natural) or Control (for magical) healing. If healing without control, every success/2 rounded down restores 1 Vitality. If using Control, every success is 1 Vitality restored to the ally. Must be touching. Two actions.
- Intimidate: Influence vs Resist. The effect is highly contextual and can be anything from a penalty to defense all the way to complete surrender.
- Know Weakness: Knowledge to assist a secondary roll such as Attacks or Skills. Difficulty is based on the rarity of the enemy or how well concealed its weaknesses are. Every success over the Difficulty equates a +1d6 bonus to an attack or roll against the enemy for either you or an ally.
- Sacrifice: Move in front of and take damage for an ally. You must be adjacent or in line of the effect. No roll necessary. One action.
- Sneak: Stealth vs Perception. Success makes the target unaware. Attacks against unaware but alert targets gain a +2d6 bonus. Attacks against completely unaware and completely not alert targets gain a +4d6 bonus. Sneak does not require an action, instead it modifies a Move action.
- Sprint: Move double speed, but suffer a -1d6 penalty on all rolls until the end of your next turn. One action.
- Trip: Melee or Movement vs Defense. A successful trip makes the target prone. All attacks against a prone target receive a +2d6 bonus.
Using Control with Maneuvers
If your character is a controller capable of weaving the omnipresent Verahskel energy to his will, he will more than likely wish to utilize it during combat. Controlling is dangerous and taxing business, and if not properly focused can result in dire consequences for the controller. There are three basic Control related maneuvers, which require a generous portion of creativity and improvisation from both the player and the GM.
All attacks with Control require an expenditure of some of the controller’s Vitality. Even if utilizing the verahskel around and within the target, there is a modicum that must be sacrificed to initiate the control. This can directly hurt the Controller, and possibly result even in her death.
Whenever a Control attack is made, the fails equate to how much Vitality is lost by the attacker. Successes are treated as per the desired effect of the control. For example, if a character rolled 5d6 with two fails and three successes, the Attack Value would be 3 but the attacker would take 2 Vitality damage.
- Successes = Attack Value or Successes vs Difficulty
- Fails = damage done to the controller (the one using magic), not to exceed the task’s Difficulty or the target’s Defense Value
Bear in mind that storing energy is difficult, and maintaining supernatural effects even more so. As such, using these to consistently augment your natural abilities is very challenging. The precision necessary to cause alterations to a body, item, or mind without causing irrevocable damage is reserved only for the most expert controllers in Ashkhar.
Manipulate: manipulate the minds of your enemies. Horrify, confuse, befuddle, or dull your enemy’s senses. Those strong with manipulation can create brief but terrifying hallucinations, put others into a catatonic state, or even kill. Manipulate is a Control vs Resist attack. The Attack Value can be used either to deal damage directly to the enemy’s psyche, cause secondary effects, or both. The GM will have to judge the Difficulty of these actions in addition to the natural Resist Value of the target. One action.
Sculpt: literally mold and shape the matter of the universe. This can be used to incredibly devastating effect on a living person. Crush organs, remove limbs, shove, pierce, puncture, or alter the appearance. Those powerful with sculpting verahskellian matter can just as easily set and heal a broken bone as cause stone to slush. Sculpt is a Control vs Resist or Defense attack. The Attack Value can be used to deal or heal direct damage, cause secondary effects, or both. The GM will have to judge the Difficulty of these actions in addition to the natural Resist or Defense Value of the target. One action.
Weave: control the core energy source that gives life, binds, and surrounds everything in Ashkhar. Weaving Verahskel is arguably the most powerful tool, as it is this force that holds the world together and allows sentience to exist. The most common and combatively effective methods involve adding or removing energy, which can cause decay, discorporation, explosion, heat, or absence of heat. Prolonged exposure to raw Verahskel energy can cause physical or mental damage to the controller. Weave is a Control vs Resist or Defend attack. The Attack Value can be used to deal direct damage, cause secondary effects, or both. The GM will have to judge the Difficulty of these actions in addition to the natural Resist or Defense Value of the target. One action.
Advanced Maneuvers
Advanced Maneuvers are an optional rules supplement that make Ashkhar Basic’s combat more intricate. An Advanced Maneuver describes the effect, what training is required and what the drawback is. Any Advanced Maneuver can be attempted by the character as long as he or she meets the necessary skill requirements.
Effort Tokens, as rewarded by the GM for acting in character or pursuing your character’s theme, can mitigate the “Drawback” of each of the advanced maneuvers.
Why do some of these cost Fatigue? Advanced Maneuvers are considerably stronger than regular maneuvers, and can dramatically tip the scales in favor of the characters if used correctly. Mechanically, the authors feel it balances them out. Within the Ashkhar universe, it is explained as your character focusing an intense amount of training and energy to accomplishing a specific task, as such exhausting himself.
Note that if your character is out of Fatigue, Vitality can instead be burned.
Blast
- Skill: Control
- Requires: Control 3d6+
- Drawback: Attack with -1d6 penalty
- Action: One action
- Make a Control attack as normal. If damage is dealt, the target is knocked back 15 feet.
Bolster
- Skill: Control
- Requires: Control 3d6+
- Drawback: Roll with -1d6 penalty
- Action: One action
- Make a Control roll as normal. Every success restores 1 point of Vitality to an ally. You can not use it on yourself.
Bound
- Skill: Movement
- Requires: Movement 4d6+
- Drawback: Burn 1 Fatigue
- Action: One action
- You can leap 10′ vertically or 20′ horizontally without rolling.
Break Neck
- Skill: Stealth
- Requires: Stealth 3d6+, Melee Combat 2d6+
- Drawback: Burn 1 Fatigue
- Action: Two actions
- Roll a Stealth vs Perception attack as the first action. If this action is successful, roll an unarmed Melee Combat vs Defense attack with the applicable +2d6 or +4d6 bonus for being unaware against the target. Deal damage as normal. If 3 or more damage is dealt, the target is knocked out and potentially paralyzed. If 5 or more damage is dealt, the target is dead. Note, this only works when unarmed, and only against humanoid creatures.
Burn
- Skill: Control
- Requires: Control 3d6+
- Drawback: Roll with -1d6 penalty
- Action: One action
- Make a Control attack vs Defense Value. If damage is dealt, the target catches on fire and sustains 1 additional damage and -1 to its Defense Value for its next two turns.
Chokehold
- Skill: Melee Combat
- Requires: Melee Combat 3d6+
- Drawback: Roll with -1d6 penalty
- Action: One action to initiate, one action per turn to sustain
- Make a Melee Attack vs Defense. If there are more successes than fails in your roll, you gain control of the target’s neck. You must roll again once per turn to maintain the chokehold. If there are ever successes less than or equal to fails in your roll, you lose control of the target’s neck. The target falls unconscious after three successful turns, including the first chokehold.
Command
- Skill: Influence
- Requires: Influence 3d6+
- Drawback: Burn 1 Fatigue
- Action: One action
- One ally within communication range gains an action that can be used immediately, even if it isn't his turn.
Convulse
- Skill: Control
- Requires: Control 3d6+
- Drawback: Roll with -1d6 penalty
- Action: One action
- Make a Control vs Resist attack. The target convulses until the end of its next turn.
Cripple
- Skill: Melee Combat or Ranged Combat
- Requires: Melee Combat or Ranged Combat 4d6+
- Drawback: Roll at -1d6 penalty
- Action: One action
- Make an attack vs Defense. In addition to regular damage, the target’s speed is halved until the end of its next two turns.
Decay
- Skill: Control
- Requires: Control 4d6+
- Drawback: Roll with -1d6 penalty
- Action: One action
- Make a Control roll. Each success removes the enemy’s DR by 1. The enemy’s DR can not go below 0.
Defensive Maneuver
- Skill: Influence
- Requires: Influence 4d6+
- Drawback: Burn 1 Fatigue
- Action: One action
- Two allies within communication range gain +1d6 to their next defensive roll.
Density
- Skill: Control
- Requires: Control 3d6+
- Drawback: Roll at -1d6 penalty
- Action: Two actions
- You or one ally gain +1 DR for as many rounds as your roll has successes (3 successes = 3 rounds).
Distant Disarm
- Skill: Ranged Combat
- Requires: Ranged Combat 4d6+
- Drawbacks: Roll at -1d6 penalty
- Action: One action
- Make a Ranged Combat vs Defense Value attack. If successful, deal damage as normal and disarm the target’s weapon.
Drag
- Skill: Melee Combat
- Requires: Melee Combat 4d6+
- Drawback: Roll at -1d6 penalty
- Action: One action
- Make a Melee Combat vs Defense or Resist attack. If damage is dealt, you and the target move 10 feet together.
Flowing Strike
- Skill: Melee Combat
- Requires: Melee Combat 3d6+
- Drawback: Roll at -1d6 penalty
- Action: One action
- Make a Melee Combat vs Defense attack. As part of your attack, you can move 10 feet for free.
Formation
- Skill: Influence
- Requires: Influence 3d6+
- Drawback: Burn 1 Fatigue
- Action: One action
- All of your allies within close range gain a +1d6 to all Rolls until the end of their next two turns. Multiple uses of Formation do not stack.
Hack and Slash
- Skill: Melee Combat
- Requires: Melee Combat 4d6+
- Drawback: Burn 1 Fatigue
- Action: Two actions
- Make a Melee Combat vs Defense attack. If your attack deals damage, you chop off or break the target’s hand or foot, preventing them from using it doing combat. This does not automatically decapitate a target, but can cause other serious implications.
Horrify
- Skill: Control
- Requires: Control 3d6+
- Drawback: Roll at -1d6 penalty
- Action: One action
- Make a Control vs Resist attack. Instead of dealing damage, a successful attack causes the target to become horrified of you and tries to run or surrender. If forced into a corner or similar situation, it will attack but at a -2d6 penalty for its next two turns.
Ignore the Pain
- Skill: Resistance
- Requires: Resistance 3d6+
- Drawback: Roll at -1d6 penalty on your next attack
- Action: One action
- You gain +1 DR until the end of your next turn.
Kill Shot
- Skill: Ranged Combat
- Requires: Ranged Combat 3d6+
- Drawback: Burn 1 Fatigue
- Action: Two actions
- Make a Ranged Combat vs Defense Roll. This ignores any cover and deals an additional 2 damage on a successful hit.
Meditate
- Skill: Control
- Requires: Control 4d6+
- Drawback: Unable to break concentration
- Action: One continuous hour of uninterrupted concentration. Note this does not consume Vitality, and there is no Roll necessary.
- Restore 2 Vitality. Multiple concurrent hours of Meditate heal 2 Vitality per hour. If your concentration is interrupted during your meditation, you do not regain the Vitality and you must start over.
Melee Shot
- Skill: Ranged Combat
- Requires: Ranged Combat 3d6+
- Drawback: Attack at -1d6 penalty
- Action: One action
- Make a Ranged Combat vs Defense attack in melee range. Deal +2 bonus damage on a successful attack.
Onslaught
- Skill: Ranged Combat
- Requires: Ranged Combat 4d6+
- Drawback: Burn 1 Fatigue
- Action: One action
- Make two Ranged Combat vs Defense attacks. The second attack only suffers a -1d6 penalty instead of the standard -3d6.
Perturb
- Skill: Influence
- Requires: Influence 4d6+
- Drawback: Attack at -1d6 penalty
- Action: One action
- Make an Influence vs Resist attack. Each success over the resist value makes the target suffer a -1 penalty on their next attack or defend.
Pin
- Skill: Ranged Combat
- Requires: Ranged Combat 3d6+
- Drawback: Attack at -1d6 penalty
- Action: One action
- Make a Ranged Combat vs Defense attack. In addition to dealing normal damage, the target is unable to move from its position until the end of its next turn. It can still attack and use actions that don’t require moving its position.
Sharpen
- Skill: Control
- Requires: Control 3d6+
- Drawback: Burn 1 Fatigue
- Action: One action. Note this does not burn any other Vitality as no Roll is necessary.
- You improve a weapon’s damage by 2 for its next two successful hits.
Shred
- Skill: Control
- Requires: Control 4d6+
- Drawback: Burn 1 Fatigue
- Action: One action.
- Make a Control vs Resist attack. You deal an additional +3 bonus damage to the target on a successful attack.
Throw
- Skill: Melee Combat
- Requires: Melee Combat 3d6+, Ranged Combat 2d6+
- Drawback: Attack at -1 penalty
- Action: One action
- Make a Melee Combat vs Defense attack, although you can throw your weapon up to 20 feet. Upon hitting the target the weapon falls to the ground or sticks in the target. If the attack misses it follows its trajectory for another 20 feet and falls to the ground.
Enemies
Enemies in Ashkhar Basic are simple and easy to make on the fly. As enormous flying dragons, undead armies, and elemental brain sucking freaks are (practically) nonexistent on Ashkhar, the majority of the battles will take place between the characters and NPCs very similar in biology and intelligence to the players. Wild and dangerous beasts are very common, as are war animals trained specifically for battle. But easily nine out of ten fights in a character’s life should involve another sentient being wielding a crafted weapon to the best of his ability. A real being with real blood and guts and mind.
The objective of combat in Ashkhar is often due to disagreements; disagreements over land, over ideology, resources, reputation, or even honor. Due to the brutal nature of the world, most of the cultures that have survived long enough to have any real impact on Ashkhar’s history are naturally combative. There are exceptions, such as the harmoniously peaceful onduril country of Lohm. Lohmeni men and women believe in spiritual and physical harmony, yet even they are willing to cut off a cancerous or violent individual if it serves the greater good of society and the universe.
Most enemies comprise of a few static attributes. The GM should almost never have to roll for an enemy. Instead, nearly all of the rolls should come from the players to determine if their characters succeed or fail.
Enemy Basics
A typical enemy or bad guy is one of the six sapient races: anduin, grohlkin, inohkshi, koht, krolog, or onduril. As such, they are generally assumed to have relatively similar biology to an onduril (human): two arms, two legs, two eyes, a mouth, ears, guts in the center, and so on. We encourage players, especially in Ashkhar Basic, to be creative with their actions and the use of maneuvers. If something makes sense (and seems cool) we generally favor the GM saying “yes, but how” or “yes, but why” rather than “no.” Even if it’s not something we have specifically accounted for in the rules.
Enemies consist of certain “Values.” These values determine how difficult they are to fight and to defeat. Values are very similar to Difficulty for Obstacles, only for a conscious enemy rather than an inanimate obstacle.
Level: the general strength and experience of the enemy. These levels are roughly equivalent to player character levels, although generally two equal level bad guys to one character is more of a fair fight.
Attack Value (AV): the enemy’s static number the defending character must beat in order to not be hit. This can come in the form of ranged, melee, control, or something else like intimidation. This number generally ranges from 1 to 10.
Defense Value (DV): the enemy’s static number the attacking character must beat in order to hit. This generally covers ranged and melee attacks. This number generally ranges from 1 to 10.
Resist Value (RV): the enemy’s static number the attacking character must beat in order to influence or manipulate. This involves everything from mental control attacks to seduction. This number generally ranges from 1 to 10.
Bonus Damage: the extra damage applied to successful attacks against a character. This number only comes into effect if the enemy’s AV exceeds the character’s DV. For example: if the enemy’s static AV is 4 with Bonus Damage +1 and the defending character rolled 3 successes, the attacking enemy would deal 2 damage. If the enemy did not have this bonus damage, he would have only dealt 1 damage.
Vitality: the amount of abuse the enemy can take before falling unconscious or dead. This number generally ranges from 1 to 10 for common adversaries, but truly tough villains and beasts can go as high as 30-50.
Damage Reduction (DR): the amount the enemy is armored and able to resist damage. All incoming damage (unless otherwise stated) is first reduced by this number. For example if an enemy is dealt 3 damage and he has 2 DR, he only receives 1 damage to his Vitality. DR is permanent unless the source of the DR is destroyed or removed.
Skill Value: the enemy’s assumed average skill level for a particular skill. Rarely do we recommend configuring this number for all of the nine skills unless the enemy is truly significant to the campaign. This number generally ranges from 1 to 10 for each of the nine skills.
Sample Enemy
A common enemy in Ashkhar are Teychentan bandits. They prowl the corridors of cities as often as the hard packed roads in the wilderness. While not a true threat to a hardened veteran, much less a hero, they are a true nuisance especially when attacking with surprise or in large numbers.
Teychentan Bandit
- Level: 2
- Melee Attack Value: 3
- Ranged Attack Value: 2
- Defense Value: 3
- Resist Value: 2
- Bonus Damage: 1
- Vitality: 5
- Damage Reduction: 1
- Perception Skill Value: 2
- Stealth Skill Value: 2
- Other Skill Values: 1
If this bandit stood up against a combat focused character, he wouldn’t stand a chance. Yet, with enough bad rolls from the character, this bandit can still definitely do some damage. If attempting to attack with his melee weapon, the character would only need to roll 3 successes to avoid being hit. If trying to find the bandit while he was being stealthy, the character would need to roll 2 successes on a Perception roll. He is definitely above average, has had some training, but a perceptive character will easily spot him.
If the bandit attacked a character, the character would need to roll three successes to completely defend against the attack. Since the bandit has +1 bonus damage on successful hits, if the player only rolled one success, the character would take 3 damage (2 for the difference in the attack value and the character’s defense +1 bonus damage).
Enemy Stats
Enemies should follow some rough guidelines to ensure that the average party of characters have at least a fighting chance of defeating them. Most players don’t want to roll over every fight they come across, nor do they want to have to retreat against every adversary. As such a semblance of balance in combat, related to the strength of the party, should be the goal.
Typical Enemy Stats
Weak Enemy (roughly 5 or more equal 1 character)
- Level: 1-10
- Attack Values: 1 + 1/3 level (rounded down)
- Defense Values: 1 + 1/3 level (rounded down)
- Bonus Damage: 0 + 1/3 level (rounded down)
- Vitality: 1
- Damage Reduction: 0 to 1 (dependent on armor)
- Skill Values: 1 + 1/3 level (rounded down)
Average Enemy (roughly 2 or 3 equal 1 character)
- Level: 1 – 10
- Main Attack Value: 2 + 1/2 Level (rounded down)
- Secondary Attack Value: 1 + 1/2 Level (rounded down)
- Main Defense Value: 2 + 1/2 Level (rounded down)
- Secondary Defense Value: 1 + 1/2 Level (rounded down)
- Bonus Damage: 0 + 1/2 Level (rounded down)
- Vitality: 3 + Level
- Damage Reduction: 1 to 3 (dependent on armor)
- Main Skill Value (1 or 2 skills): 1 + 1/2 Level (rounded down)
- Secondary Skill Values (3-5 skills): 0 + 1/2 Level (rounded down)
- Tertiary Skill Values (remaining): 0 + 1/3 Level (rounded down)
Character Equivalent Enemy (roughly 1 or 2 equal 1 character)
- Level: 1 – 10
- Main Attack Value: 3 + 1/2 Level (rounded down)
- Secondary Attack Value: 2 + 1/2 Level (rounded down)
- Main Defense Value: 3 + 1/2 Level (rounded down)
- Secondary Defense Value: 2 + 1/2 Level (rounded down)
- Bonus Damage: 1 + 1/2 Level (rounded down)
- Vitality: 5 + Level
- Damage Reduction: 1 to 4 (dependent on armor)
- Main Skill Value (1 or 2 skills): 2 + 1/2 Level (rounded down)
- Secondary Skill Values (3-5 skills): 1 + 1/2 Level (rounded down)
- Tertiary Skill Values (remaining): 1 + 1/3 Level (rounded down)
Tough Enemy (roughly 1 or 2 characters equal 1 enemy)
- Level: 1-10
- Main Attack Value: 5 + 1/2 Level (rounded down)
- Secondary Attack Value: 3 + 1/2 Level (rounded down)
- Main Defense Value: 5 + 1/2 Level (rounded down)
- Secondary Defense Value: 3 + 1/2 Level (rounded down)
- Bonus Damage: 2 + 1/2 Level (rounded down)
- Vitality: 7 + Level
- Damage Reduction: 1 to 4 (dependent on armor)
- Main Skill Value (1 or 2 skills): 3 + 1/2 Level (rounded down)
- Secondary Skill Values (3-5 skills): 2 + 1/2 Level (rounded down)
- Tertiary Skill Values (remaining): 2 + 1/3 Level (rounded down)
- Special: the Tough Enemy can attempt Advanced Maneuvers
Enemy Leader (roughly 2 or 3 characters equal 1 enemy)
- Level: 1-10
- Main Attack Value: 6 + 1/2 Level (rounded down)
- Secondary Attack Value: 3 + 1/2 Level (rounded down)
- Main Defense Value: 6 + 1/2 Level (rounded down)
- Main Defense Value: 6 + 1/2 Level (rounded down)
- Secondary Defense Value: 3 + 1/2 Level (rounded down)
- Bonus Damage: 3 + 1/2 Level (rounded down)
- Vitality: 10 + Level
- Damage Reduction: 1 to 4
- Main Skill Value (1 or 2 skills): 4 + 1/2 Level (rounded down)
- Secondary Skill Values (3-5 skills): 3 + 1/2 Level (rounded down)
- Tertiary Skill Values (remaining): 3 + 1/3 Level (rounded down)
- Special: the Enemy Leader can attempt Advanced Maneuvers
Nemesis (roughly 4 or 5 characters equal 1 enemy)
- Level: 1-10
- Main Attack Value: 5 + Level
- Secondary Attack Value: 3 + Level
- Main Defense Value: 5 + Level
- Secondary Defense Value: 3 + Level
- Bonus Damage: 5 + 1/2 Level (rounded down)
- Vitality: 20 + Level
- Damage Reduction: 2 to 4
- Main Skill Value (1 or 2 skills): 4 + Level
- Secondary Skill Values: 4 + 1/2 Level (rounded down)
- Tertiary Skill Values: 4 + 1/2 Level (rounded down)
- Special: the Nemesis can attempt Advanced Maneuvers
- Special: the Nemesis gets three actions per turn. Only two of these can be attacks.
Enemy Modifications
The above templates for enemies are simple guidelines for GMs of Ashkhar Basic. Roughly 90% of the time, these templates should work great for an average combat. If however you want to modify enemies to have a different flavor, be more or less powerful, or lean to a specific style, below are some suggestions.
Enemy Styles
Enemy Styles offer stylistic choices. These generally keep the overall strength of the enemy the same, but shift its focus.
- Offensive: Add +1 to +2 to Attack Value; subtract 1 to 2 to Defense Value
- Defensive: Add +1 to +2 to Defense Value; subtract 1 to 2 to Attack Value
- Slow but Tough: Add +1 to +2 to Damage Reduction; subtract 1 to 2 to Bonus Damage
- Specialist: Add +1 to +2 to Main Attack Value; subtract 1 to 2 to Secondary Attack Value
- Skilled: Add +1 to +2 to Skill Values; subtract 1 to 2 to Attack Values
- Brute: Add +1 to +2 to Attack Values; subtract 1 to 2 to Skill Values
- Stealthy: Add +1 to +2 to Stealth skill; subtract 1 to 2 to Damage Reduction
- Fast and Deadly: Add +1 to +2 to Bonus Damage; subtract 1 to 2 to Bonus Damage
Enemy Types
Enemy Types other than the typical humanoid. These generally add to the overall strength of the enemy.
- Beast: Gain one more action per round. Add +1 or +2 Vitality per level. Add +1 or +2 DR.
- Mounted: Gain +1 bonus damage, +1 DR, +20 feet movement speed per move action.
- Giant: Attacks are considered area attacks, and can strike multiple characters at a time. Attacks have farther reach than normal. Add +3 to +10 Vitality per level. Add +2 to +4 DR. Subtract -1 to -3 to all Defense Values.
Enemies with Control
Control is not bestowed upon only heroes, it is not a gift reserved for certain groups or individuals. Instead, the ability to tap into verahskel, to Control the fabric of the universe, is something achievable by anyone with enough focus and willpower; just as combat prowess or skill with an instrument can be attained through enough training and practice. Certainly talent and natural, latent ability is very important to the potency of someone’s ability to access Control; yet this doesn’t preclude everyone from trying. Many don’t try, and many believe they can’t, but that is their choice.
Enemies in Ashkhar can possess Control just as player characters can. If the GM wants to use enemies with control, here are some things to consider:
- Enemies will burn Vitality when using control, as such they will exhaust and die more quickly. The amount of Vitality the enemy burns is equal to the number of successes in the player’s defense or resist roll. This number can’t exceed the double the character’s level.
- For example, an enemy attacks a level 2 character. The character rolls 5 successes, but the enemy using control only takes 4 vitality damage (2 x 2). This number can also not exceed the total of the enemy’s Attack Value while using Control.
- Just as with characters, enemies can elect to effectively lower their Attack Value and in that way limit the amount of damage they sustain from failing Control
- Physical Control attacks, such as throwing blasts of energy or projectiles can be defended with the character’s Defense Value.
- Mental and internal Control attacks, such as mental manipulation or organ damage can be defended with the character’s Resist Value.
Equipment
Equipment is an essential part of daily life in Ashkhar, and most commonly manifests itself in the form of some tool that assists with the overcoming of some task or obstacle. Weapons, armor, shields, and other tools all effectively do the same thing in Ashkhar: make it more likely for your character to succeed.
Weapons
Weapons can provide an Accuracy Bonus, Bonus Damage, and a Defense Bonus/Penalty. Weapons have an effective range increment, which describes how far that weapon can be used without penalty. If this is a ranged weapon, the range will be listed in feet. In Ashkhar Basic weapons are a simple chassis that can have modifications and improvements placed upon it.
Typical Basic Melee Weapon: +0d6 accuracy bonus, +1 bonus damage, -0d6 defense penalty, melee range
Melee Weapon Modifications
Basic weapons have no modifications. Adequate weapons have one modification. Well designed weapons have two modifications. Masterwork weapons have three modifications. Legendary weapons have four modifications. There are only a handful of legendary weapons in the world, most are named and have long histories.
- Offensive: +1d6 to +3d6 accuracy bonus; -0d6 to -3d6 defense penalty
- Defensive: +1d6 to +3d6 defense bonus; -0d6 to -3d6 accuracy penalty
- Lethal: +1 to +3 bonus damage
- Deflective: +1 to +2 damage reduction
- Brutal: combine Offensive and Lethal
- Thwarting: combine Defensive and Deflective
- Reach: extend the weapon’s effective range by 2 to 10 feet
- Precise: +1d6 accuracy bonus
- Guarding: +1d6 defense bonus
- Gripping: +1d6 against Disarms
- Stabilizing: +1d6 against Trips
Typical Basic Ranged Weapon: +0d6 accuracy bonus, +1 bonus damage, -0d6 defense penalty, 30 feet range
Ranged Weapon Modifications
Basic weapons have no modifications. Adequate weapons have one modification. Well designed weapons have two modifications. Masterwork weapons have three modifications. Legendary weapons have four modifications. There are only a handful of legendary weapons in the world, most are named and have long histories.
- Offensive: +1d6 to +3d6 accuracy bonus; -0d6 to -3d6 defense penalty
- Defensive: +1d6 to +3d6 defense bonus; -0d6 to -3d6 accuracy penalty
- Lethal: +1 to +3 bonus damage
- Deflective: +1 to +2 damage reduction
- Brutal: combine Offensive and Lethal
- Thwarting: combine Defensive and Deflective
- Far range: double the weapon’s effective range
- Accurate: +1d6 accuracy bonus
- Dodging: +1d6 defense bonus
- Gripping: +1d6 against Disarms
- Stabilizing: +1d6 against Trips
Special Ranged Weapon: Arquebuss
The arquebuss is originally of krolog design, but has grown to some prominence in elite fighting groups and cadres of mercenaries around Ashkhar. It is essentially a hand portable cannon that harnesses the power of verahskel to hurl a projectile or blast of energy at an opponent. Generally, for fear of damaging the weapon, projectiles are not used. In addition to this, the area effect of the arquebuss is favored in most combat scenarios when it is applicable anyway.
The arquebuss is an extremely potent weapon, and while it is becoming more popular it is far from common or inexpensive. Entire carriages of slaves have been sold for a single such weapon in the Teychentan slave auctions, others are sold for thousands of ducarii or double their weight in gold, and even others are fought to the death over.
An arquebuss uses a special canister or shell that can transfer matter, specifically high-energy matter, into kinetic force out of its barrel. These shells are what make the arquebuss so unique and so powerful, as being able to harness verahskel in such a permanent and deadly way is a rare talent to possess.
Basic Arquebuss: +1d6 accuracy bonus, +1 bonus damage, -1d6 defense penalty, 15 foot blast range or 30 foot single target.
Arquebuss Modifications
- Any of the basic ranged weapon modifications can apply to the arquebuss
- Projectile: effective range increase to 60 feet, +1d6 accuracy bonus, +3 bonus damage
- Large chamber: increase the number of shots before needing to reload
- Fast conversion: your arquebuss can convert matter into energy in half the standard time.
A typical arquebuss requires an action to reload after each attack. If modified with the large chamber modification, reloading is only necessary once the chamber is depleted. In order to fire an arquebuss, each of its shells must contain either pure verahskel energy (siphoned off from something through the careful attenuation of a controller) or filled with high energy physical matter.
Freshly killed creatures, blood, organs, plants, and certain stones contain high amounts of verahskel energy and can be converted into an arquebuss shot over time. Typically each arquebuss shell can convert such material into an effective shot every hour.
Control Channel
A control channel is a physical item that assists its wielder to better use control. Mechanically these function similar to weapons for Melee Combat or Ranged Combat. Control channels are generally small totems that are made of unique materials, have significant meaning to the controller, or created out of pure verahskel energy naturally or with control.
Basic Control Channel: +0d6 control bonus, +1 bonus damage, -0d6 control penalty, standard range for control (generally 30 feet)
Control Channel Modifications
- Effective: +1d6 control bonus
- Efficient: burn 1 less Fatigue when using control
- Reaching: double the effective range of control
- Resistant: +1d6 to +3d6 Resist bonus
- Corrosive: +1 to +3 bonus damage
- Expansive: increase the effected area of control between 1.25x and 2x the original size
- Imbued Defense: +1d6 to +3d6 defense bonus
- Imbued Absorption: +1 to +3 damage reduction
Armor
Armor comes in countless varieties in Ashkhar, much of which is related to the culture and style preferences of the smith. Mechanically armor is pretty straightforward, there is a tradeoff between some of the move movement oriented skills and how well protected you are. Any version of common light armor, such as hardened leather, is the assumed “Basic Armor.”
Basic Armor: -0d6 stealth penalty, -0d6 movement penalty, -0 feet movement speed, +1 damage reduction
Armor Levels beyond Basic
- Light: -1d6 stealth penalty, -1d6 movement penalty, -5 feet movement speed, +2 damage reduction
- Medium: -1d6 stealth penalty, -1d6 movement penalty, -1d6 to attacks, -5 movement speed, +3 damage reduction
- Heavy: -2d6 stealth penalty, -2d6 movement penalty, -1d6 to attacks, -10 movement speed, +4 damage reduction
Armor Modifications
- Agile: remove -1d6 to -2d6 movement penalty
- Quiet: remove -1d6 to -2d6 stealth penalty
- Flexible: remove -1d6 to attack penalty
- Lightweight: remove -5 to -10 movement speed
- Durable: add +1 to +2 damage reduction
Shields
Shields are a common battle tool on the Ashkhari continent. Favored by krolog, the militant Donorahn and most of the hardened onduril armies in central Ashkhar, shields can be used both offensively and defensively.
Basic Shields
- Basic light shield: +0d6 accuracy, +0 bonus damage, +1d6 to defense value, +1 damage reduction
- Basic medium shield: +0d6 accuracy, +0 bonus damage, +1d6 to defense value, +2 damage reduction
- Basic heavy shield: +0d6 accuracy, +1 bonus damage, +1d6 to defense value, +3 damage reduction, -5 feet movement speed penalty
Shield Modifications
- Aggressive: +1 to +3 bonus damage
- Assaulting: +1d6 accuracy bonus
- Molded: +1d6 to +2d6 to defense value
- Absorbent: +1 to +2 damage reduction
- Lightweight: remove -5 movement speed penalty
