TABLE: Effects of Traits on Spellcasting
Virtue 1-4: can’t cast spells tied to this trait
Virtue 5: can cast up to 2nd-level spells; no bonus spells
Virtue 6: can cast up to 4th-level spells; 1 bonus 1st-level spell
Virtue 7: can cast up to 6th-level spells; 1 each bonus 1st- and 2nd-level spells
Virtue 8: can cast up to 8th-level spells; 1 each bonus 1st-, 2nd-, and 3rd-level spells
Virtue 9: can cast up to 9th-level spells; 1 each bonus 1st-, 2nd-, 3rd-, and 4th-level spells
Failed 0: can’t cast spells tied to this trait
Failed 1: can cast up to 2nd-level spells; no bonus spells
Failed 2: can cast up to 4th-level spells; 1 bonus 1st-level spell
Failed 3: can cast up to 6th-level spells; 1 each bonus 1st- and 2nd-level spells
Failed 4: can cast up to 8th-level spells; 1 each bonus 1st-, 2nd-, and 3rd-level spells
Failed 5: can cast up to 9th-level spells; 1 each bonus 1st-, 2nd-, 3rd-, and 4th-level spells
Hardened 0-1: can’t cast spells tied to this trait
Hardened 2: can cast up to 1st-level spells; no bonus spells
Hardened 3: can cast up to 2nd-level spells; no bonus spells
Hardened 4: can cast up to 3rd-level spells; 1 bonus 1st-level spell
Hardened 5: can cast up to 4th-level spells; 1 bonus 1st-level spell
Hardened 6: can cast up to 5th-level spells; 1 each bonus 1st- and 2nd-level spells
Hardened 7: can cast up to 6th-level spells; 1 each bonus 1st- and 2nd-level spells
Hardened 8: can cast up to 7th-level spells; 1 each bonus 1st-, 2nd-, and 3rd-level spells
Hardened 9: can cast up to 8th-level spells; 1 each bonus 1st-, 2nd-, and 3rd-level spells
Hardened 10: can cast up to 9th-level spells; 1 each bonus 1st-, 2nd-, 3rd-, and 4th-level spells
How To Make Rolls
When you want your character to do something that requires a roll, you’ll negotiate with your GM to identify one of the 26 Virtues and one of the ten Trauma scores that applies to what you’re trying to do. For example, many (but not nearly all, or even most) attempts to hurt someone in combat involve Valorous and Hardened Violence (abbreviated often as a VaHV roll). Use your character’s motivations, reasons, and emotional experiences to determine which Virtue and which Trauma to use ~ WHY your character is taking the action and HOW they feel about it is what’s relevant here. Talent, training, and such things are usually much clearer decisions, and are reflected by things like skill ranks and feats and such. Once you know which Virtue and Trauma are involved, grab a number of d12s equal to your score in the Virtue and roll them.
Choose a number of those rolled dice equal to your Trauma score plus one and then total the results of those dice. Add the skill ranks relevant to the action at hand, and any other modifiers that might apply (spells, magical items, feats, etc.) If the total equals or exceeds the Difficulty Class (DC) of the roll, your character has succeeded! When abbreviating a roll for quick notations and speedy reading, create a four-letter abbreviation consisting of the two letters indicating the Virtue and the two indicating the Trauma; add a plus sign and the relevant skill (if there are any modifiers that will always be added, indicate those with one or more additional plus signs) and follow the whole thing with the roll’s Difficulty Class. Thus, a difficulty 60 Intimidate roll using Cruel and Failed Isolation could be written as a CrFI+Intimidate 60 roll.
Sample Difficulty Classes
0 ~ Mundane ~ Getting out of bed; remembering the details of your equipment
6 ~ Very Easy ~ Striking an immobile target; recognizing an old friend
12 ~ Easy ~ Carrying half your weight; finding a misplaced item
18 ~ Average ~ Lifting your weight; remembering someone you’ve seen once before
24 ~ Moderate ~ Jumping a ten-foot ditch; recognizing someone in disguise
29 ~ Difficult ~ Scaling a cliff without rope; finding a well-hidden object
34 ~ Very Hard ~ Diving safely from a waterfall; remembering someone’s exact words
44 ~ Heroic ~ Out-wrestling a troll; naming all of your ancestors in order
64 ~ Impossible ~ Shattering stone with bare hands; outwitting a god
There are times when simple success is not enough. When a character needs to accomplish something truly spectacular, something which will warrant mention in the songs and legends told about them to future generations, Inspirations are the means by which that can be accomplished. When a player declares they are acting with an Inspiration, they are choosing to voluntarily increase the DC of the task his character is attempting, by an increment of 5 per Inspiration. Inspirations are generally made when a player feels their character’s heavenly virtue, psychological damage, and abilities will allow them to easily exceed the DC for a given task. The most common use of Inspirations is to allow characters to perform special actions in combat, but individual GMs can allow any number of different effects with sufficient Inspirations; after all, the world itself is bending to your character’s fulfillment of both parts of being a mortal in the world. Players who wish to try unconventional or creative actions that are not covered by the basic rules should simply ask the GM how many Inspirations will be required to succeed.
A character can make a maximum number of Inspirations per roll equal to a quarter of their level, rounded up. An 8th-level character, for instance, can make 1 or 2 Inspirations per roll, but not 3. Some mechanical effects grant a character Free Inspirations. These give the benefit of having made an Inspiration without actually increasing the DC of the roll in question, and do not count toward the maximum number of Inspirations that may be made per roll. Free Inspirations may also be used to reduce the DC of the task being attempted by 5 instead of augmenting the roll in the same way as a normal Inspiration.
Inspirations are not without risk, however. If a player declares Inspirations on a roll, and the result of their roll fails to meet the new, increased DC, the roll fails. This is a failure even if the result of the roll meets the original DC but falls short of the new, increased DC.
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