System Reference

[Eanwulf]

The Core Mechanic
Whenever you attempt an action that has some chance of failure, roll two six-sided dice (2d6). This is a Task Roll. Make sure that the consequences of obtaining a failure result have been discussed before the player makes the roll. A failure is also not necessarily a catastrophic failure.

The Task Roll
To determine if a character succeeds at a task:

• Roll 2d6 to get a number from 2–12
  
  Add an appropriate attribute
  
  • If fighting, add an appropriate combat ability
    
    If not fighting, add the rank of an apt career
  
  
  Add any other situational modifiers
  
  • If the result is 9 or more: the character succeeds.
    
    If the result is 8 or less: the character fails.
  
  
  A natural 12 is always a success (that is, rolling two sixes on the dice).
  
  A natural 2 is always a failure (that is, rolling two ones on the dice).

When to use the Core Mechanic
The mundane actions that your character performs will automatically succeed – buying food, walking down the street, talking to the city guard, and so on. Even trickier actions can be carried out without a Task Roll if your Hero has the appropriate career (even a career rank of 0 will help here) – if you are a merchant, then buying uncommon items isn’t too difficult. Most characters should be able to obtain a few coins to buy a plate of food by recourse to their careers – a thief can pick a few pockets in the marketplace, a minstrel can play a rousing tune in a tavern, a blacksmith can mend a few farming implements, etc.

It is only when the action can have some sort of repercussions that you should normally resort to the Task Roll. If the merchant is seeking to buy an ancient relic, or the thief is trying to break into a wizard’s tower, or the minstrel is performing before the king – then it becomes important enough to resort to the dice.

There is more on playing the game below.

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Performing Actions
To perform an action, you simply roll and add two regular six-sided dice (2d6). To this result, add your character’s most appropriate attribute. If you are fighting, you then also add the combat ability for the type of attack being made. If you are not fighting, you then add any appropriate career rank.

Although a player can attempt to persuade the GM that a certain career will aid a task attempt, the GM is the final arbiter. For example, a Hero with a rank in assassin is likely to know something about poisons, so the GM might well allow you to add your rank to your Task Roll (based on your character’s mind rating) to recognize a poison in a drink. However, being an assassin would not help you to track a deodarg through the Jungles of Qush – you need to be a hunter to do that.

The Effects Of Boons and Flaws
You might have a boon or a flaw that enables you to roll three dice instead of two dice. But you still take the result of only two of those dice. If it is a boon that allows you to roll an extra die (a bonus die), you drop the lowest die. If it is a flaw (where you roll a penalty die), then you drop the highest die.

Modifiers
The GM will then tell you if there is a modifier to your total. For easier tasks, you may get to add to your total. For tougher tasks, you may have to deduct from your total. If the final number is 9 or higher, you succeed at what you are trying to do. If the final number is lower than 9, you do not succeed.

Automatic Success
Rolling a 12 on any Task Roll is an automatic success. This means there is always a chance that you might be able to achieve the seemingly impossible.

Mighty Success: If rolling a 12 would have been a success in any event, you have instead achieved a Mighty Success. In combat, the results of a Mighty Success are described later. However, out of combat, how you (or the GM, if you prefer) narrate this success depends on the task being performed – but whatever it is, you do it brilliantly!

Legendary Success: If you roll a 12 and spend a Hero Point, you can convert your Mighty Success into a Legendary Success. In combat, the results of a Legendary Success are described later. However, out of combat, how you (or the GM, if you prefer) narrate this success depends on the task being performed – but whatever it is, you do it brilliantly, and receive a bonus result, extra information, or some other added advantage that you weren’t expecting.

Automatic Failure
Rolling a 2 (both dice coming up with a 1) on any Task Roll is an Automatic Failure. This means there is always a possibility that even the best characters will have a momentary lapse, or that some chance snatched away their success.

Calamitous Failure: If you roll a 2, you can choose to convert this Automatic Failure into a Calamitous Failure. A Calamitous Failure is described by the player but must put the Hero into a disadvantageous situation at least for the current and next round (if in combat), or for the immediate future in a scene that doesn’t involve combat. In doing this, the player may be awarded a bonus Hero Point for use later during the adventure (which means you can exceed the usual limit of 5 Hero Points). The GM is the final arbiter on whether to award the bonus Hero Point or not.

Difficulty	Task Mod	Missile Range
Very Easy	+2	-
Easy	+1	Point Blank
Moderate	0	Close
Hard	-1	Medium
Tough	-2	Long
Demanding	-4	Distant
Formidable	-6	Extreme
Heroic	-8	Utmost

Task Modifiers
The table above sets out the difficulty of a task, the equivalent range for missile fire and the modifier that should be applied to tasks of that difficulty. There may be further modifiers applied based on other circumstances.

• Task Roll example #1:
  Krongar the Mighty, a Northern Barbarian with strength 3, is attempting to break down a door, which he is sure blocks his way to a vast hoard of treasure. The GM decides that Krongar has no careers that would be helpful to the task in hand and has already predetermined that the solid door will be a difficulty of Hard, or –1.
  
  The player rolls 10 on 2d6, adds 3 for Krongar’s strength, making 13. He then subtracts 1 for the Hard difficulty, meaning that the overall total is 12, which is more than enough than the 9 needed. The door bursts open.
  
  Task Roll example #2:
  Assuming our Hero gets through the door, rather than finding hidden wealth, he finds a great pit. Having smashed through the door, he finds he is hurtling towards the gaping hole. Attempting to leap the pit is an agility Task Roll, and Krongar has a 1 in this attribute. Luckily the GM is in a good mood and decides that his natural barbarian instincts will come into play and allows the player to add Krongar’s barbarian career rank of 2 to the dice roll.
  
  The dice come up 6 and with the +3 gives a total of 9. With a Moderate task difficulty (modifier 0), Krongar is across the pit and heading for even greater adventure.

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Hero Points
Fallen Times is a game of heroic sagas. Player characters are the Heroes of these sagas. Mad Max and the Postman always looked like they were down and out, but they always came back, whatever the odds. Heroic actions are an integral part of the game – this is where Hero Points come in.

Most characters have 5 Hero Points to start the game with. If you are Lucky, you’ll have 6 Hero Points. If you chose an additional background boon, then you may only have 4 Hero Points. If you chose two additional boons, you may only have 3 Hero Points. Hero Points are used during the course of adventures to ‘dig deep’ and do heroic (or lucky) things. This is described in greater detail below.

Using Hero Points
You can use Hero Points to affect the outcome of a battle or situation and swing the odds to your favour. The following options are available to you:

• A Twist of Fate
  
  Defy Death
  
  Splintered Shield, Shattered Sword
  
  Legendary Success
  
  Mighty Success
  
  Shake Off Wounds
  
  Luck of the Gods
  
  Decide with the GM

Using Hero Points

A Twist of Fate
Where the narrative of a scene has not clearly defined a certain piece of information, the player might suggest something that sounds reasonable and make that suggestion become fact. Use of a Hero Point in this manner should be at the discretion of the GM. It shouldn’t be to make major changes in a scene, and can’t be used to change something that has already been determined.

For example, if a character is locked in a dungeon cell, she could use a Hero Point to find a loose stone in the wall that she can pry away, maybe to use to bash the guard over the head when he comes in to serve her slops.

A magician could use a Hero Point to account for one of his spell requirements in this way – for example, if the time of day has not already been established, he could state “Ah, the hour is perfect for my conjuration!”

Defy Death
Hero Points can always be used to keep a Hero alive where he would otherwise be killed. If you have taken sufficient damage to put you at –1 to –5 lifeblood, you may spend a point to put your lifeblood to zero: alive but unconscious.

If you have received sufficient damage to put you below –5 lifeblood, you may spend a Hero Point to stabilize your wounds. You are still unconscious but will recover with several days’ rest.

Splintered Shield, Shattered Sword
If you are carrying a shield, you can absorb all damage caused by a single blow. Alternatively you can block the blow with your weapon (not just a sword) – your shield or weapon is completely destroyed in the process.

Luck of the Gods
You can spend a point to roll the dice again whenever you make a Task Roll (even if you roll a 2, which would otherwise be an automatic failure).

• If you do this, you must use the result of your second roll.
  
  If your roll includes one or more bonus dice, you use all dice the second time as well.

Mighty Success
Whenever a player succeeds with a Task Roll (or rolls a natural 12), in combat or otherwise, he can raise the ordinary success into a Mighty Success by expending a Hero Point. The result of a Mighty Success depends on what exactly the character is doing but the Hero definitely succeeds spectacularly.

In combat, a Mighty Success gives the following options (from which you select one result):

• Bloody Slash/Crushing Blow: You add +6 to the damage caused.
  
  Carnage: You may make another attack immediately following this one. It can be against the same or a different opponent. No further Hero Points can be spent on this second attack, though.
  
  Disarm: If your opponent is wielding a weapon, you can disarm your opponent, rather than cause any damage.
  
  Knockdown: You can knock down any opponent that is less than or equal to your size – or up to one size larger – and they are thrown back several paces (not good if near a cliff edge!). If attacked whilst regaining their feet, they take a penalty die on their next action.
  
  Precision Strike: You can hit your enemy in a specific location with the intention of maiming them and affecting their capabilities. You cause damage as normal, but Precision Strike also allows you to give your opponent a penalty die to specific Task Rolls – mostly you’d want to affect their Attack Rolls, but this isn’t absolutely necessary – a stab through the eyeball would apply a penalty die to any Task Roll that involves your opponent’s vision, for example (which may or may not include Attack Rolls). Other options would be to specify a strike point to chop off a tentacle or stinger, or slice open a section of thick hide to create a weak point (reducing the creature’s protection rating to the next lower rating). Some effects will need to be worked out with the GM at the time, but should be similar to the above examples.
  
  Rabble Slayer: If fighting rabble, the damage result becomes the number of opponents taken out of the fight. They aren’t necessarily dead, but they are certainly not coming back any time soon.

Legendary Success
If you roll a natural 12 when making your Task Roll, that would have been a success in any event (a Mighty Success). By expending a Hero Point, you can raise that result into a Legendary Success, even if you spent a Hero Point rolling the dice again (as long as you got 12 on the second roll).

However, you cannot make a Legendary Success unless you roll 12 on the dice – so you cannot bump up a normal success into a Mighty Success and then spend another Hero Point to make it a Legendary Success.

In combat, a Legendary Success gives the option to choose any two of the options of a Mighty Success. So, for example, when fighting rabble, you can choose Rabble Slayer and add Bloody Slash/ Crushing Blow to slay even more rabble. You can choose the same option twice, if you wish.

Shake Off Wounds
When a Hero has just suffered damage, he can take a momentary pause (using his next action) to shake off some of the effects of that wound. In other words, somehow the wound wasn’t quite as bad as it first seemed. Roll a d6 – this is the number of lifeblood he gets back (but he cannot exceed the lifeblood damage he just took).

Decide with the GM
Any other situational advantage that your GM can be convinced to allow.

Regaining Used Hero Points
Any used Hero Points are recovered, in full, at the end of an adventure.

If you had 5 Hero Points to start the adventure and used 3 of them during the adventure, you start your next adventure on 5 points.

If you only had 3 to begin with, you have 3 at the start of the next adventure.

You cannot go above your starting allocation of Hero Points, except when you receive a bonus Hero Point from a Calamitous Failure.