Attributes
Each attribute is actually a grouping of related skills. Each time an attribute is advanced, a skill point is placed into one of the attribute's related skills. Attribute levels are used to determine the maximum rank of a related skill, and every 3 advancements increases the attribute’s level. No attribute may be more then 1 level higher than the next attribute below it.
LORE: Lore skills deal in things characters know or can intuit. Each skill is a different area of knowledge such as; monsters, geography, puzzles, myths and so on.
SOCIAL: Social skills deal in skills used when interacting with others. Each skill is a different technique of interaction such as; languages, deception, seduction, bartering and so on.
OBSERVATION: Observation skills deal in using the character’s various senses to interpret details. Each skill is a particular sense or observational skill such as; vision, smell, lip reading, body language and so on.
PHYSIQUE: Physique skills deal in the capabilities of a character’s own body. Each skill is a particular physical trait or skill such as; swimming, jumping, balance, strength and so on.
PROFESSION: Profession skills deal in a broader than usual area of skills that don't fit elsewhere. Each skill doesn't always relate to a specific or actual profession, but is generally a skill that would be of benefit to a professional of some sort such as survival, metalsmithing, navigating, engineering and so on.
COMBAT: Combat skills deal strictly in skills related to martial combat whether armed or not and is a more narrow list of skills overall that may seem like they belong under another attribute, but are under Combat due to their importance to combat.
OTHER ATTRIBUTES: Other attributes can be added for other modular systems such as magic or psionic, and will entail skills specific to that power If attained by the character. Other attributes otherwise follow the same rules for advancement limitations.
LUCK: Unlike other attributes, Luck has no related skills but is applied in other situations. Advancements simply go towards increasing Luck’s attribute level which is used in and out of combat for other situations.
Combat
Combat skills are listed under their own attribute due to their importance when a conflict breaks out.
This game uses wounds and injuries rather than hit points and one who is not careful could very quickly find themselves dispatched.
Each round, every enemy and player has a chance to act. Most often, enemies will get to act first unless the players manage to catch them off guard and each round will see players and enemies take turns.
Each individual in the combat does not have a turn, all the players act simultaneously on their turn, moving and attacking in concert and likewise for the enemies.
Combat takes place on a hex grid. In general unless there is a special ability, power or item in play, player movement speed is 5 hexes. Enemy movement will vary from creature to creature, though humanoid enemies will generally also have 5 movement.
Attacking is performed in a short sequence of steps;
Roll to hit
Roll to wound
Roll to resist (Performed by the target)
When a character rolls to hit, they roll a number of d10 equal to their Speed (including any bonuses). Once they have rolled, they may distribute the value of their Technique to any of the rolls. The base target to hit is 2 + target’s Evasion. Characters with multiple attacks may split their attacks among any valid targets, but only before rolling.
If any of the attacks are successful, the player rolls a d10 for each successful hit, then distributes the value of their Power to any of the rolls. The base target to wound is 2 + target's Toughness. A die result of 10 is a critical hit. (Characters with levels in Luck may compare their Luck to the targets. A positive value increases the range where a successful wound will be critical, while a negative value makes a critical hit impossible.)
If any of the hits succeed at wounding the target, the wound severity is equal to the amount by which they succeeded on the wound and the wound location is randomly determined. A character may perform a called shot, but must succeed on two rolls to hit and may not benefit from their Speed. If either misses, the attack fails, but if they succeed, they may choose where they wound.
The target then rolls a d10 for each wound they receive, adding their Vitality to each. The target for each wound is equal to its severity plus 1 for every other wound. If the target is armored, instead of Vitality, roll the armor’s Toughness instead and do not add the target’s permanent wounds to the severity.
For unarmored targets, failing the roll to resist the first time on a location results in it being disabled and unusable until healed. For the head, disabled renders the target unconscious and dying. For the torso, the character is knocked down and dying but is conscious. Arms and legs simply become unusable. A single disabled leg reduces speed by half, rounded down. A disabled arm prevents the use of two handed weapons.
The second time the wound resist is failed results in destruction of the locations. For the head or torso, this means death. While dying, the character must roll a d10 and add their Vitality against a target equal to the number of wounds and permanent wounds plus 1 for each successful resist. Failure results in death.
Armor protects each location it is worn on. If armor fails to resist against a successful wound, it becomes damaged, regardless of location. The number of times armor can withstand damage depends on the type of armor. Once armor sustains the amount of damage it can in a particular location, it is destroyed in that location. Damaged armor must be repaired, destroyed armor may not be repaired.
A potential third layer of protection is an aura, likely projected by magic or some kind of Power. Unlike armor, an aura has no locations, a hit anywhere affects the aura as a whole, but otherwise works like armor, rolling it's toughness to resist successful wounds and having a defined limited number of times it can sustain damage before being destroyed.
If a character is about to die, they may instead permanently lose 1 Luck to survive and stabilize. The character may not go below 0 Luck to do this.