This (the bolded part) is not accurate. In Ruin Masters, characters have four primary attributes (Physique, Mind, Intelligence, and Charisma) and several secondary attributes (Hit Points, Body Part Points, Natural Healing, Damage Bonus, etc).
Correct. Sorry for the wrong info.
Here is an overview I wrote in 2021:
Currently reading Ruin Masters (Riot Minds). My friend lend me his copy of the deluxe box from the KS. Note that they are currently doing a Bestiary KS.
It’s got an old school vibe. Sandbox rules for hex crawling. The Ruin Master (DM) is in full control of the game. Players spend experience points to raise aspects of their characters. Lots of tables at the end for random terrain, events, creatures and dungeon generator. It also has a default setting that is not too defined so there is room for the RM to insert his ruins. The author mentions playing solo several times in the text.
D100. No classes. No levels. Only three races: Human, Elves and Dwarves. Made an elf fighter/magic-user concept in 15 minutes. Abilities are generating randomly 2d10+10. No point buy. Abilities are: Physique, Mind, Intelligence, Charisma. You use one of six skills for actions your character wants to do. Burgling, Knowledge, Magic, Melee, Social and Survival. Everyone can use magic. Going back to character creation, this allows you create a Paladin. Put high score in Melee, Magic and Social and voilà you have a Paladin with healing hands and leadership skills.
Combat is straight forward. Before initiative you choose a stance : Offensive, Defending or Neutral. You roll for initiative then activate. Each stance modifies initiative, attack, parry and movement. Ex: Offensive: initiative 1d10+3, +20% attack. -20% parry, Assault movement /2. If you don't like that good news it's optional. Don't use it. A new initiative is rolled at the beginning of each turn (round). A starting character can do only one action per turn. With XPs you can buy extra actions later on in his career.
Armour reduces damage. It uses random hit locations (head, torso, arms, legs). Armour slows you down. The character has a total HP value and HP values for each location. If you don’t like that I don’t see anything that prevents you from just using the global HPs and the global armour value of the character. Which brings me to damage.
Damage is open ended on high rolls depending of the weapon. With a light weapon you get +1d10 damage on a roll of 10. For medium weapons on 9 or 10. Heavy weapons give an extra d10 on 8, 9 or 10. There is no limit how many times this can continue. Maybe this needs a capping. Creatures larger than humans get extra d10s damage for size. The game seems very lethal. The author repeats several times that characters die. Just roll a new one.
The system uses metric measurements. Just use 1 yard instead of 1 meter per square. Everything is in hexes (outside and inside).
Beautiful book (8.5"x10.5") with really good artwork. Written with a great economy of words Molday lovers will like. The book is a translation but nothing prevents understanding the rules. Noticed a few typos and spacing mistakes.
MAGIC
Everyone can activate magic items with a successful Magic Skill roll, if they have the trigger word. There are negative modifiers for more powerful items.
Magic items are categorized as 'spell containers' meaning magical energy is stored inside them. There are 3 types:
- Limited containers like scrolls and potions.
- Rechargeable containers (ex.:staffs) which either recharge by themselves or use Magic Points from its user.
- Perpetual containers which are always usable like magical swords.
There are Advanced spell containers. For example a staff could have multiple spells of various levels stored inside them.
A Wizard character has as many Magic Points as his Magic ability score, per day. Regained after 8 hours of sleep. There are three types of spells: Quick, Moderate and Slow spells which are immediate, take 1 turn or a few turns to activate.
The activate a magical container you must make a Magic roll. On a Perfect roll 01-03% you roll a 1d10 table for a beneficial effect. On a Critical Failure roll 98-100% you must roll on a 1d10+Magic Points spent table and take harmful effects, which include being disintegrated.
It's not clear to me if the wizard can cast spells without a container. Seems like he always needs container. No spontaneous casting like in D&D. I could be wrong.
There are no magical items descriptions in the book except those briefly mentioned in the rules. The RM is encouraged to come up with is own magical items.
TREASURES
Treasures are random and the RM must use the random tables in the hex crawl and dungeon crawl sections. For example in a Farmland hex a roll of 10 (1d10) indicates a giant is present. The giant entry tells you his treasure is in the Farmland treasure table threat Level 3. Make a 1d10 roll to determine the exact nature of the treasures. Looking at the tables treasure is non existent in non-lethal terrain and becomes more prominent the deadlier the encounter gets (usually difficulty level 3 or 4).
MONSTERS
Monsters have large stat blocks because of armour locations. They are described briefly. Not all monsters have illustrations but those that do get a full page and they look really good. There are 15 monsters. These includes the usual suspects: humanoids, demons, undeads, mythical creatures and dragons. RiotMinds are working on a Bestiary with 60 monsters. Each of these monsters will have 5 levels of lethality.
