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Message: <blockquote data-quote="PA_Gamer" data-source="post: 9445418" data-attributes="member: 7043905">Additional information in response to past questions:On SkillsSkill checks are based on a specific quality, plus the number of ranks a character has mastered in the skill, and a difficulty assigned by the GM. Many skills are also broken down into "sub-skills", which are basically special or specific uses for that skill. For example, Acrobatics is a skill, with Balancing, Tightrope Walking, and Escape Artist being its sub-skills; another example is Medicine, under which are sub-skills such as Bloodletting, Cupping, Medicinal Potions, Tabula Cirurgica, Trepanning, and Uroscopy. Certain sub-skills only become "unlocked" (or available) when a character buys higher ranks in that skill.On CombatCombat was designed to incorporate fighting techniques described in manuals from the era. This is represented by the maneuvers characters can use. In combat, each turn characters get a number of points to spend on both aggressive and defensive actions. All characters start with 1 Aggressive and 1 Defensive action point. Having ranks in the skill, Fighting Style, gives a character an additional action point that the player can either add to their aggressive or defensive action points (representing the character's focus on either an aggressive or defensive fighting style). Individual actions have a cost in either aggressive or defensive action points. For example, the "Hew" action (the basic attack) costs 1 Aggressive AP; "Arriere Main", which allows a "backhand blow" with a pommel or haft, costs 2 Aggressive AP. "Parry" costs 2 Defensive AP; "Deboutter" (merely pushing a foe back to create some distance) just 1 Defensive AP. No action may be performed more than once by a character in a given round, however.A wide variety of weapons are presented, from peasant weapons such as sickles, billhooks, threshing flails, and mattocks, to military weapons such as battle axes, maces, swords, warhammers, etc. However, the 15th century is very much the age of the pole arm, and as such there are 30+ variations of pole arm, from sword-staffs to oxtongues, couteau-de breche to the English bill. Bows and crossbows are present, as are the earliest firearms including the baton a feu (aka "tiller guns"), handgonnes, the harquebus, petronel, and pot-de-fer.Each melee weapon's measure indicates the distance at which it can be used to engage an enemy; thus pole arms have a wider measure than daggers or unarmed attacks. Weapons also have intrinsic traits, which have special effects. Traits include Bludgeon, Edge, Gunpowder, Heavy, Pierce, and Snag. Combat tends to favor melee combatants, as ranged weapons such as crossbows and gunpowder weapons tend to be slow, requiring multiple actions to use. For example, depending on the mechanism it uses, a crossbow will require several "Span" actions before it can be "Loosed").On FaithMedieval Tales has a storytelling mechanic with which characters can do cinematic feats (think "fate" or "edge" in other games). A PC gets a limited number of these to use in a campaign, and their uses can range from saving the character's life in combat, to activating special abilities the character buys during character generation (such as special traits linked to their birth planet). These points also allow characters with a high degree of Piety to use the Hagiography skill to call on the Christian saints (a function of the sub-skill known as "Intercession"). The cost to do this is based on the "order" of the miracle in question (based on St. Thomas Aquinas' definition of the Orders of Miracles). Third order miracles produce effects that are entirely possible and not necessarily "remarkable" (an example might be a fever breaking after hours of prayer). Second order miracles produce effects that are understood to be possible, albeit the onlooker may not know how it came to be (for example, a blind person is restored to sight, or a lame person regains the use of his legs). First order miracles are clearly the hand of the Divine at play. Examples of this last order include the sun reversing its course through the sky, or the appearance of angels in a display that can clearly be seen by all present.The basic rules cover only those saints most widely celebrated in the 15th century, the "Fourteen Holy Helpers"; they include Sts. Achatius, Barbara, Blaise, Christopher, Cyriac, Denis, Erasmus, Eustace, George, Giles, Katherine, Margaret, Pantealon, and Vitus. Each saint's story, and how they can be called upon (i.e. what types of miracles are attributed to them) are included.A planned supplement, Liber Divinorum Operum, will cover over 100 additional saints. This book will also cover concepts such as a character's state of grace (including how being in a state of sin affects attempts at Intercession, for example), atonement, the effects of confession and the assigning of penances, and the acquiring of indulgences (from the buying of letters of indulgence to indulgences gained from pilgrimages). It also presents eighteen monastic orders of the era (Ambrosians, Augustinians, Benedictines, Camaldolese, Carmelites, Carthusians, Cistercians, Crosiers, Dominicans, Franciscans, Hieronymites, Jesuati, Mercedarians, Olivetans, Poor Clares, Premonstratensians, Servites, and Trinitarians) and the vows they are expected to take, as well as in-game benefits for being a member of a given order. It also expands on the Rituals skill, adding the sub-skills of Revocation (the negating of evil artifice), Castigation (essentially "turning"), Baptism (being baptised grants one access to a "resistance roll" against evil magic), Blessing (which increases the chances of success before or during an undertaking), and Unction (a form of blessing that potentially aids in recovery from disease or otherwise fatal wounds).The final part of this supplement will also introduce optional rules for introducing "charism", which are points gained for repeated acts of selflessness, humility, kindness, mercy, etc. As Charism accumulates the pious character can gain access to saintly abilities or traits that, while functioning like the special abilities a character can get from their birth planet, are truly supernatural. They include having an incorrupt body, stigmata, the ability to cure wounds, walk among wild animals unharmed, experience revelations, etc.</blockquote>

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