Your world is the magical land of Legend. In Legend there are many kinds of Adventurer, each with unique skills and techniques for dealing with creatures of the supernatural. Those who rely on a good sword and the strength of their right arm are called Warriors. The practitioners of the magical arts are called Enchanters, with many deadly spells always ready at their fingertips. Sages are a class of ascetic monks - wise in ancient lore, but also skillful in the use of quarterstaff, bow and the unarmed martial arts. Lastly there are the Tricksters; they are swift and dextrous swordsmen, but their true forte is the use of stealth, guile and cunning to achieve their ends.
For the most part, the moderator will hold true to the book's play style. However, a few changes will be made to accommodate forum-based play, most specifically in cases of death.
The usual role-playing abbreviation is used to indicate different Dice rolls. This uses the basic format of:
Xd6+Y
, meaning that
X
6-sided dice are rolled and
Y
is added to the total.
As an example, 2d6+3 means 'roll two Dice and add three' - giving a number from 5 to fifteen. Taking another case, 1d6-1 means 'roll one Die and subtract one' -
negative numbers count as zero unless otherwise stated,
so this would give a score from zero to five.
Each character is described by four
attributes
. These are:
Fighting Prowess:
a measure of how powerful a fighter the character is
Psychic Ability:
an indicator of the character's resistance to attack spells and (in the case of an Enchanter) his or her aptitude for magic
Awareness:
a difficult concept, as it encompasses quickness of thought, dexterity and general nous
Endurance:
the attribute measuring the character's state of health; wounds are deducted from Endurance, and if it reaches zero then the character dies.
Combat takes place in
Rounds
. Each Round, everyone who is taking part in the combat gets the opportunity to perform one action if he or she wishes: to attack, cast a spell, or whatever. Actionsn are taken in sequence based on each combatant's Awareness score. The combatant with the highest Awareness acts first, then the combatant with the next highest Awareness, and so on. Combatants with equal Awareness scores act simultaneously. A combatant who is killed (reduced to zero Endurance) before his turn does not get to act!
These are the possible combat options and the circumstances in which they may be used. A character may choose any option for which he or she is eligible as his or her action for the Round:
Move:
This action allows the character to close and
fight
an enemy, or move to an exit (if any). If you take the
move
option while an opponent is fighting you, then (unless your Awareness is higher than the opponent's) you take an automatic wound. Once all surviving characters in the party have
moved
to an exit, the party may
flee
at the start of the next Round.
Fight:
The character must have previously chosen the
move
option in order to be close enough to an opponent to
fight
. (But there are exceptions to this rule; sometimes the tactical maps in the text will show that your opponents are directly adjacent to you at the start of the combat, in which case an immediate attack is possible.)
Defend:
You cannot attack in the Round in which you choose this option, but it has the advantage of making you harder to hit. This is explained more fully below.
Shoot:
This is an option for Sages and Tricksters only. You fire an arrow at any one opponent. Unlike the
fight
option you do not have to
move
first because (of course) arrows are long-range weapons. You cannot choose to
shoot
if an opponent is striking at you in the Round - that is, you must dispose of any opponents who have closed to attack you before picking off others with your bow.
Flee:
Sometimes the text will give your party the option to
flee
from a fight. All surviving Adventurers must have made a
move
before the party can
flee
. When this option is taken, the entire party
flees
at the start of the Round, so their opponents get no chance to hack at them or cast spells as they run off.
Call/cast a spell to/in mind:
These are options for Enchanters only. They are explained in the special section on Enchanters.
You can perform
one
of these actions in each Round. (Tricksters sometimes get the opportunity for two actions in a Round, though, as explained later in their special rules.
The rules for combat are designed for ease of play but require a short explanation. When striking at an opponent (that is, when you take the
fight
option for a Round), you roll 2d6. A score of
equal to
or
lower than
your Fighting Prowess means that your blow has hit. If you hit, you roll a damage Die (or Dice, at higher ranks) to see how much of an Endurance loss you have inflicted. If your opponent has an Armour Rating, you must reduce your Die roll for damage by this amount, and the result (if greater than zero) is deducted from the opponent's Endurance.
Take an example. You have a Fighting Prowess of seven and a damage roll of one Die. You are attacking a Troll whose Fighting Prowess is six and which also rolls one Die for damage. You have the higher Awareness, so you get first blow. Rolling twow Dice, you score a three; this is less than your Fighting Prowess score, so you have succeeded in hitting it. Next you roll one Die for the damage your blow inflicts. You get a six, but the Troll has an Armour Rating of two so only four points are deducted from its Endurance. If still alive (that is, if it hasn't yet been reduced to zero Endurance) the Troll now gets to hack back at you. It rolls six on two dice - equal to its Fighting Prowess, so good enough to hit you. For its damage Die roll it scores a one; because you have an Armour Rating of two this means that you lose no Endurance. The Troll's claws hit you, but scrape harmlessly off your studded leather jerkin. The battle rages on for another Round...
Two other factors need to be considered. If you
defend
, then your opponent must roll equal to or less than his Fighting Prowess on
three
Dice in order to hit you. You do not get to strike a blow yourself in the Round you are
defending
.
The other point concerns the
move
option. If you have a high Awareness and can
move
away from an opponent before that opponent gets his or her action for that Round, all well and good. If you try to
move
away from an opponent who has already attacked you earlier in the Round, however, then he or she immediately gets a second strike at you -
and this is an automatic hit
. For this reason it is usually best to dispose of one opponent before you
move
to engage another.
You will start your adventure with a suit of armour. This gives an
Armour Rating (AR)
of three if you are a Warrior or of two if you belong to one of the other adventuring types.
Your armour protects you in combat by absorbing its Armour Rating from any damage you would otherwise take. For instance, if a monster rolls 2d6+1 for damage and gets a total of thirteen, that is the number of Endurance points you would lose if you were not armoured. If you are wearing armour with an Armour Rating of two, you would take only eleven (that is, thirteen minus two) points of damage.
You
cannot
wear two suits of armour in combination. Thus, if you were to lose your armour and later come across two breastplates of Armour Rating one, say, then you could put on one breastplate - but you could
not
put on both and claim a total Armour Rating of two.
If you lose your weapon, you must reduce your Fighting Prowess and damage Dice rolls by two until you find a replacement. An eighth-rank Warrior normally has a Fighting Prowess of nine and rolls 3d6+1 for damage when he or she hits an opponent. If he or she were to lose his or her sword and be forced to fight bare handed, he or she would have a Fighting Prowess of seven, and 3d6-1 for damage rolls.
Special Character Options
Sometimes there will be the option for a character of a given class to act - for example, 'If there is a Trickster in the party, (action).' If such an option is taken, text will be given to the complete party. Sometimes part of a section will be 'restricted'. This text will be sent to the class player by PM. The playaer can, if he or she wishes, keep that part of the information withheld from the other players. For instance, there might be the option for a Sage to read an ancient piece of parchment. The party will read "The Sage deciphers the faded runes on the parchment," while the Sage will receive a PM stating, "It tells you that the safe route to the Emblem of Victory lies beyond the gold door."
The player is not obliged to tell the rest of the party what it says.
In any situation where general actions are needed, the players in the party are free to discuss their choice. However, the moderator will only accept a
bolded
action from the player first in the battle order (see below). There are times, however, where choices are given to a specific Adventurer. In these times, the player controlling the Adventurer will have full control of decisions, but may ask the party for their opinion.
At all times players must specify their battle order. The order will always be found in the Status (first) post. Battle order may be changed at any time except when in combat.
Obviously, battle order may be crucial. Generally (but not always!) the first player, being at the front, will be the one to get hit by surprise attacks and so on. In addition, the first player has the final decision on choices the party makes. If players cannot agree on a battle order then they must adopt the following standard arrangement: first Warrior, then Sage, then Enchanter, then Trickster.
Encounters (fights, that is) are almost always played out on a tactical display of the room, corridor or what-have-you. An example is shown here:
The numbers on this tactical map show where the Adventurers are standing when the combat starts. The Ms refer to the monsters' starting locations.
It is possible to
fight
a monster only in an adjacent square,
not
across a diagonal, and it is not possible to
move
on to a square already occupied by a monster or another player. When a monster or character is slain, the marker will be removed from the map. The spaces then become open. You cannot
move
where there are no squares, nor on to a blacked-out square, which represents an obstacle such as (in the map above) a pillar or a large statue. Shaded squares (colored in green) can be
moved
through by monsters but not by players. In the map above, for instance, the shaded squares indicate a bed of coals which the monsters are immune to.
Unless otherwise stated, a monster will always
move
to attack the nearest Adventurer. The nearest Adventurer is determined by counting the number of square the monster would have to pass through (using straight-line moves, not diagonals) to reach a position where it could
fight
. In the diagram above, the monster in space G10 is closest to Adventurer 2 (three steps) than Adventurer 1 (four steps) or Adventurer 3 (four steps). If several Adventurers are equidistant from the monster, the moderator will roll 1d4, matching the die roll to the Battle Order, rerolling as needed. A similar roll will also be made when a monster is adjacent to more than one Adventurer to see which of them it will
fight
.
All actions will be decided before the Round begins. In other words, the Adventurer in spot 4 on the battle order cannot wait to see what happens before deciding their action.
When moving, please give a location, using either the cell number (using the letters/numbers) or a general statement ("I will move to the spot above the monster.")
There is a limit to how much you can carry. As shown on the Status post, you can usually have
ten
items at a time. If you are fully encombered and find another item you want, you must discard one of the items you're already carrying (or give it to another player) in order to make space for it in your backpack.
Two special points need to be made. A quiver (available to Sages and Tricksters) will hold up to six arrows. The quiver counts as one item for encumbrance purposes
regardless
of the number of arrows it contains. That is, if you have a quiver containing six arrows then it still counts as only one item and not as seven items.
Your money pouch counts as one item, too. As with the quiver, the contents are not relevant. The money-pouch will hold a maximum of a hundred coins (of any type), but whether it is full or empty it counts as only one item.
Magic is the special province of Enchanters and, to a much lesser extent, Sages. The way in which magic functions for these classes is fully set out in their personal PM, but there is one thing that
every
Adventurer must know about magic.
There are two types of magic. BLASTING spells simply inflict damage when they are cast, and if you happen to be the target there i s not much you can do about it! You deduct the damage the spell does (less your Armour Rating) from your Endurance score. The other sort of spells are PSYCHIC spells, and these you can try to resist. To resist a PSYCHIC spell you must roll 2d6 and obtain a score equal to or less than your Psychic Ability score. If you make this roll, the spell fails to work against you.
You will always be told whether a spell is of the Psychic or Blasting variety.
Experience points are a measure of a character's skill and power. If you complete The Battlepits of Krarth successfully, you will be awarded a number of experience points to be divided among all surviving characters. At the same time you add up any special bonus awards (or penalties) you were given during the adventure. The total experience points a character accumulates will enable him or her to rise in rank.
The overall experience points needed for each rank are set out below:
[mrow]Rank[col]Experience Points
first[col]less than 250
second[col]250-499
third[col]500-749
fourth[col]750-999
fifth[col]1000-1249
sixth[col]1250-1499
seventh[col]1500-1749
eighth[col]1750-1999
ninth[col]2000-2249
tenth[col]2250-2499
eleventh[col]2500-2749
twelfth[col]2750-2999
thirteenth[col]3000-3249
You start the adventure with 250 experience points. If you play through the adventure and receive an award of 1000 experience points, each character still alive will receive an equal share of the points.
After successfully completing the adventure and all experience points have been totaled, the character information will be used for Blood Sword 2:
The Kingdom of Wyrd
.
Ed. Note: I've changed this extensively from the book's way of handling death.
If a character dies, their death will be noted in that character's official list of deaths and, after the encounter is complete, they will be resurrected with half their maximum Endurance score. If the
entire party
dies in the same encounter, this will also be noted and the party will go back in time and/or the combat will just be counted as won as deemed appropriate.
At the end of the book, the character with the fewest deaths in the book will get a bonus 125 experience points! If you win the bonus twice, you will have enough for an extra rank. If several characters tie for fewest deaths, the prize points will be split between them.