Roleplaying made simple

In the early days of roleplaying games you could easily be lugging home a rulebook as big as the Old Testament. Actually, you still might. This RPG, which we call Skein of Destiny, goes right to the other pole of complexity.

Characters in the system are defined by five attributes:

• Body
• Honor 
• Mind 
• Emotion 
• Imagination

Assign a total of 55 points between these attributes.

Body is your presence in the physical world. Honor is your presence in the world of men. Similarly, you can see Mind as a measure of how the physical reflects in you, and Emotion as a measure of how society reflects in you. Imagination is where those things all come together: the inner and outer life, the world of physical reality and the world of human society.

When you consider that the types of conflict that generate stories essentially reduce to man versus nature, man versus society and man versus himself, these five attributes comprise all the foundation you should need for a rich variety of adventures.

It is up to the player how he or she chooses to interpret high or low scores in the five attributes. For instance, high Body could mean you're strong, or wiry, or big, or dexterous, etc.

ABILITIES

Abilities are divided into skills (which can be trained) and talents (which can only be improved by experience). Abilities of either type are based on two attributes. The sum of these attributes determines your maximum possible score in that ability. The first attribute listed in each pair determines your highest possible starting score in that ability.

Skills

• Agility = Body + Honor
• Brawling = Body + Body 
• Etiquette = Honor + Mind 
• Magic = Imagination + Mind 
• Medicine = Mind + Honor 
• Missile Use = Mind + Body 
• Priest = Honor + Imagination 
• Scholarship = Mind + Mind 
• Seamanship = Body + Mind 
• Singing = Imagination + Honor 
• Spellcasting = Emotion + Mind 
• Thievery = Imagination + Mind 
• Tracking = Mind + Body 
• Weapon Attack = Emotion + Body 
• Weapon Parry = Body + Imagination

Talents

• Authority = Emotion + Mind 
• Charm = Emotion + Honor 
• Perception = Imagination + Mind 
• Sex Appeal = Body + Emotion 
• Stealth = 20 + Imagination - Honor 
• Streetwise = Mind + Imagination 
• Survival = Body + Mind

You begin with two abilities at full starting (not maximum) value, three at half starting value, and four at one-third starting value. Round fractions up in your favor.

USING ABILITIES

To use an ability, roll two ten-sided dice (2d10). Success is indicated by a roll equal to or less than your score in the ability. The degree of success is equal to the higher of the two dice in the case of skills and the lower of the dice in the case of talents. If you roll a double then add another 1d10 to either number to get the final degree of success.

Example: Fafnir has a Perception score of 9. He rolls, getting a 3 and a 5 on the dice. The total of the dice is 8, which is less than his Perception score so he has succeeded. Perception is a talent, so the degree of success is the lower number rolled: a 3.

OPTIONAL MODIFIERS

Instead of making a straight skill roll, you can choose to apply a modifier ranging from -5 to +5 to the total roll (announced, of course, before you throw the dice). If successful, you apply the same modifier to the degree of success, to a minimum of 1 and a maximum of 15. (Note that optional modifiers cannot be applied to talents, only to skills.)

Example: Pierre is asked to entertain Prince Andrei. He decides to try and impress the prince by attempting a particularly difficult song. He opts for a modifier of +5 to the dice roll. His Singing score is 13 and he rolls 6 and 2, giving an 8. With the +5 modifier he just succeeds, and he also gets to add 5 for a total degree of success of 11. 

ATTRIBUTE ROLLS

Sometimes you will need to roll against an attribute directly. This works exactly like using a talent, ie optional modifiers cannot be applied. Some common uses of attributes are:

Match Mind against another person's Charm to see if you have the good sense to resist them (assuming you want to). The higher degree of success wins out.

Match Emotion against another person's Authority roll if you want to resist giving in to them.

Match Honor against a criminal suggestion to see if you have the nobility to refuse to go along with it. (The referee will assign an arbitrary value measuring how dishonorable the suggestion is.)

Some examples of competitive use of attributes are: 

• Body vs Body in a contest of strength. 
• Mind vs Mind to outwit someone in a game of skill. 
• Emotion vs Emotion to intimidate a foe. 
• Imagination vs Imagination to win a game of chance. 
• Honor vs Honor when vying for respect or promotion.

LOSS OF ATTRIBUTE POINTS

Attribute losses can be brought about by various means. In most cases losses will only be temporary.

• Body is reduced by wounds, poison and disease. 
• Mind can be reduced by stress or terror. 
• Emotion is reduced by harrowing experiences and by casting spells. 
• Imagination is reduced by supernatural encounters or sleeplessness. 
• Honor is reduced by disgrace or failure.

Reduction of an attribute to 0 has the following effect:

• Body: death 
• Mind: insanity 
• Emotion: apathy 
• Imagination: loss of all magical aptitude 
• Honor: exile or suicide

Ability scores are affected by the loss or gain of points in the primary attribute, but not the second (modifying) attribute. If you lose Body during a fight, for instance, you also lose the same number off your Weapon Parry score but not your Weapon Attack.

RECOVERING ATTRIBUTE POINTS

Attributes recover at different rates:

• Body: roll Mind or less each day to recover a point; a Medicine roll at least equal to your current lost points adds 1 extra point a day. 
• Mind: roll Honor or less each week to recover a point. 
• Emotion: recover all lost points in one night on a successful Imagination roll. 
• Imagination: roll Imagination or less each week to recover a point. 
• Honor: noble action will restore lost points at the referee's discretion.

IMPROVING ABILITY SCORES

Both skills and talents can be increased by experience. You are eligible for an ability increase in any month in which you got a degree of success of 10 or more with the ability. Keep track of how often you achieve that each month with a tick next to the ability. At the end of the month, make an Imagination roll to increase the ability. To the degree of success of this roll, add the number of uses of the ability for which you are eligible. You need a final total higher than half your current score to increase the ability by 1.

Example: Murillo got a degree of success of 10+ twice when using his Priest skill this month. At the end of the month he makes an Imagination roll and gets a degree of success of 7. Adding 2 to this gives a result of 9. This is higher than half his current Priest score, so it goes up by 1.

Training can also be used to increase skills. Typically the referee will first require an Honor roll to see if the teacher is impressed enough to take you on as a pupil. (Money can't buy everything.) At the end of each month, the teacher makes a skill roll and you make a Mind roll. Assuming both are successful, add the degrees of success. If the total exceeds half your current score in the skill, increase it by 1. You can only train in two skills at a time. 

COMBAT

Combatants act each round in descending order of Mind score. You can take one action, either an attack or a parry.

The attacker's degree of success minus the defender's degree of success is the amount of damage that gets through to the defender's armor. The defender can then make an armor roll, and the degree of success of this roll is how much of the damage the armor absorbs.

armor values
leather 5
light 7
medium 8
heavy 9
shield +2

Use the higher of the dice scores for the degree of success of an armor roll. Unlike an ability roll, the armor roll cannot be optionally modified.

SPELLCASTING

Spells can be based on any RPG system you like. To attempt a spell you first make a Magic roll to see how much you remember of it at that moment. Time is a factor, so if you attempt the roll after only one round you must take an optional modifier of -5, after two rounds an optional modifier of -4 and so on. (If you have a book or scroll containing the spell then the roll is a little easier, beginning at -3, etc.) The degree of success of the Magic roll is the maximum level of the spell that you can then attempt to cast.

You then attempt a Spellcasting roll, subject to normal optional modifiers if you wish. The attempt costs 1 point of Emotion. The degree of success of the roll is the strength of the spell. The target can attempt a Imagination roll, and must get a higher degree of success to avoid the effects of the spell.

If you then want to cast the same spell again there is no need to repeat the Magic roll. You already have that spell in mind and can cast it in just one round. Only make a new Magic roll if you want to attempt a different spell.

OTHER MAGIC

It is possible to learn Magic and not Spellcasting. The Magic skill on its own is used for preparing horoscopes, making talismans, brewing love philters, and so on.

INSULTS

Public insults and disgrace can cause the loss of Honor. The severity of the insult ranges from 2 to 20. If in doubt roll 3d6 for this. A 2d10 roll of equal to or less than the severity of the insults causes the insulted party to lose 1 Honor point.

Normally it is possible to prevent the loss of Honor by issuing a challenge to duel. However, if the character making the insult gets a degree of success with Etiquette at least equal to the insult's severity then you cannot pin him down enough to make a challenge.

Example: Cassius insults his former comrade Marcus, calling him an incompetent oaf in the middle of the Roman Forum. The referee rules this is severity 9. Cassius gets an 11 on his Etiquette roll so Marcus cannot demand satisfaction or counter with a lawsuit. On a roll of 9 or less on 2d10 Marcus must lose a point of Honor.

WEALTH

Optionally, to save the bother of keeping a bank balance on the character sheet, which slows up play, characters can simply be assigned a Wealth score ranging from 1 (pauper) to 20 (very rich). Wealth is used like a talent.

Example: Ferdinand wants to buy a fine dueling sword, for which a degree of success of 12 on his Wealth roll is required. His Wealth is 14. Rolling a 6 and a 3 gives success, but only with a degree of success of 6. The Referee announces that he was outbid by a rival.

(If you like the idea of a simple, quick-to-play RPG but prefer six-sided dice, take a look at the many Powered by the Apocalypse (PbtA) games. We recommend Sagas of the Icelanders, Alas for the Awful Sea, Tremulus, Night Witches, and the prototype Tekumel PbtA which is modelled on the Skein of Destiny system. Simple World explains the basics.)