Intro

Big rework going to happen. I want to use custom cards instead.

Types of cards:

Tarot Cards

• These are used as "mana" for abilities and spells. You can choose to draw a card at the start of your turn. You can reshuffle your discard into your deck at the cost of 1 hp.

Equipment Cards

• These are weapons, armours, and clothing. There is a limit to how many you can wear at once.

Ability Cards

• Skills that your character has

Environment Cards

Cover, Equipment, Etc placed in a room that can be used

Loot Cards

Consumable items such as potions, bombs, etc

Combat(social/physical) Turns

Random player goes first, alternates between player and npcs. Goes either clockwise or counterclockwise(random)

Players have 3 energy. Cards will show how much energy they cost, if any. You refresh your energy at the end of your turn. You can use items and some abilities as a reaction as long as you have enough energy to do them.

Players and Enemies have 4 combat stats: Health, Attack, Riposte, Dodge

• Heath: How much damage one can take before being out for the fight.
• Attack: How much damage is delivered on a successful roll.
• Reposte: Damage you deal when an opponent misses
• Dodge: Chance of an enemy missing an attack

Build Your Character

In the world of Plore, the fates of travellers is intertwined. If you wish to survive you will best remember to work together and prop each others capabilities up, lest you shall all perish alone. Create your characters together such that their stories and personalities will tend to work together rather then clash.

Characters consist of 3 core descriptors:

1. Something you know
   • Disciplines
   • Spells & Abilities
2. Something you are
   • Vices
   • Race
   • Attributes
3. Something you have
   • Gear

This page will give you a simple sample character creation example to show step by step how a character is made, while the following pages explain in detail each step of the character creation process.

Sample Character Creation

Disciplines and Vices

First you should select 1 or 2 disciplines your character has undertaken in their life. Disciplines will give you advantages when rolling for checks that could reasonable fall under ypur chosen disciplines. Vices however will do the opposite, they will cause increased difficulty accomplishing checks related to them. Outside of these mechanics your should keep in mind to play ypur chracter in a way that would make sense goven these choices. Characters should be tempting for their characters rather then just avoiding them for the sake of avoiding the disadvantage it imposes.

Stat distribution

You have 6 points to spend in each suit of skills for an initial total of 24 points however you like with the following restrictions:

1. You may not allot more then 5 points into a any stat
2. You may not allot less then 1 point into any stat

Once these points are alloted you have 3 more points to spend in any way you see fit such that they still follow the above 2 restrictions resulting in a final total of 27 points.

Here is an example of a stat distribution. 6 points are assigned to each suit, and then 3 more points are added afterwords to the spades suit.

Level Up

Character attributes do not change when characters level up. Instead character gain other benefits on level up.

What You Know

What your character knows is the most important and defining feature of your character. If you character doesn't know anything then they aren't anyone that matters.

Disciplines

A discipline is a career, passion, or hobby your character knows intimately well. When your character is first starting out adventuring then they will posses 1-2 disciplines, usually split between one career and one hobby. These disciplines are key to being able to use your attributes in checks. Whenever you make a check to do some action, if your discipline would give you reasonably give you some kind of expertise in accomplishing this task then the GM will allow you to use a stat of their choosing as a bonus to the action. For example a character with a shopkeeper discipline could gain a practical(spade) attribute bonus towards bartering at a shop. Without a relevant discipline a character will not be able to use attributes as bonuses for regular actions.

Vices

Vices are thinks your character is bound and weak to. Deal with the vice to be rewarded, but we weary as if you try to ignore it then it will come back with a vengeance.

When creating a fate deck at the start of a game each player is given a vice card that is shuffled into their deck. This card cannot be discarded by any means except when its respective effect is triggered or when a catharsis token is used. Whenever this card is drawn from the deck its effect is triggered and the player must succumb to their vice in some way that is detrimental to themselves and the party, the intensity determined by the type of card.

This surprise however can be avoided if the player intentionally acts upon the vice or the character copes in some way relating to the vice before this card is drawn. When the player does this then player receives a catharsis token. The next time this character draws a vice card this session they give up the token and in return this makes the vice card count as a wildcard of the respective suit on the card. However if the card is not drawn before the end of a session then the token is discarded. Characters are allowed to carry multiple catharsis tokens and only lose 1 per vice card drawn.

Human Races

Elf

Magically Intune Passive: Whenever you cast a spell that costs 1 or more blood you regenerate 1 health.

Orc

Blood Rage Activatable(1 Blood): Add 2 to your Fitness Strength or Fitness Endurance for this turn.

Gnome

Crafty Skitter Activatable(2 Energy): While you have able and targetable allies, you cannot be targeted by attacks until your next turn.

Cambion

Corrupted Bloodline Passive: You have a true name given to you by your succubus parent. You must obey the one that speaks your name to you.

You can choose any Human Race as your sub-race and get their abilities in addition to your current abilities.

Exotic Races

Reptid

Tough Skin Activatable(1 Blood): Block Slashing or Piercing damage from an attack up to or equal to your Physical Endurance.

Slime

Splatter Passive: Deal 1 Acid damage to enemies that damage you with a melee weapon.

Brass Gill

Brass Walker Passive: You have 2 additional health.

Brass Machinery Passive: You heal and stabilize by repairing with scrap rather then using bandages or resting.

Attributes

All attributes are grouped up into 4 distinct groups, each group representing one of the four suits in a tarot deck. Each group contains 3 primary stats, and 1 derivative stat that is calculated based on other factors.

Stats:

For new characters: assign 4,3,3,2,2,2,1,1,1

Fitness

Endurance:	Running a marathon, holding your breath
Strength:	Pushing a rock, overpowering an opponent
Precision:	Walking a tightrope, picking a lock

Mental

Resolve:	Facing fears or great pain(Maintaining a spell cast)
Wisdom:		Applying Knowledge(Casting a lot of magic quickly)
Perception:	Noticing details or the big picture(Casting at long ranges with great accuracy)

Social

Stoical:	Enduring without showing feeling or complaint
Cordiality:	Friendliness and Socialness
Eloquence:	Using language with fluency and aptness

Ideas and Stuff

Health: 	How much damage one can take before being downed
Blood:		Consumed some spells, some attacks, and when one is downed. You die when it reaches 0
Memory:		How much powerful knowledge you can keep
Appearance:	Is dependant on your character race and dressing. Can augment you communication skills

Armour

Armour is rated by at least the following: quality, block, and damage types. There are also other various traits.

• Quality(points): How far away the armour is from breaking.
• Block(points): How much incoming damage.
• Damage Types: Which damage types the armour works against.

Quality is determined by a resource die. Whenever during an encounter(combat or otherwise) if you receive damage then you roll resource die to determine if it got damaged. Armour is only damaged this way at most once per encounter.

Some armour change traits depending on the 'Quality' resource die.

When an enemy wearing armour is damaged and the damage matches one of the damage types of the armour then the damage is reduced by block value of the armour up to a minimum of 1 damage dealt(unless the enemy is immune). For player characters wearing armour if the damage is equal or less then the block value then the character takes no damage.

You can wear one set of armour and one set of clothing. In general armour must be worn over clothing.

Traits:

• Slim: Can be worn and concealed under clothing
• Cumbersome: Gives some kind of disadvantage for manouvers that require precision or endurance.

Armours

Common:

Clothing

Studded Leather

Uncommon:

Assassins Leather

Steel Plate

Porcelain Plate

Weapons

Weapons are a special item type which grant character abilities that can be used when the weapon is wielded. Weapons also have various properties which affect your character in combat. Some of these are listed below. When the attack is possible to make, only ranged weapons, improvised weapons, or weapon attacks that specify require a check to see if the attack hits. Otherwise the weapon will automatically hit your target.

Unarmed Punches and Kicks

Punches, Kicks, and weapon bunts deal 1 blunt damage.

Weapon Items

Dagger

Activatable(1 Energy): Deal 2 piercing damage. Ability(Odd): Refresh this weapon. You can use this an amount of times equal to your Fitness Precision. If you are wielding this in your off hand then the cost is an Even instead.

Long Sword

Activatable(Swords or Pentacles, 2 Energy): Deal 2 slashing damage + your Fitness Strength.

Spear

Activatable(Cups or Wands, 2 Energy): Deal 2 piercing damage + your Fitness Precision.

Mace

Activatable(Swords or Pentacles, 2 Energy): Deal blunt damage equal to your Fitness Strength. Activatable(Swords or Pentacles, 3 Energy): Deal blunt damage equal to double your Fitness Strength.

Axe

Activatable(Cups or Wands, 2 Energy): Deal slashing damage equal to your Fitness Strength. Activatable(Cups or Wands, 3 Energy): Deal slashing damage equal to double your Fitness Strength.

Staff

Activatable(2 Energy, Swords or Pentacles): Deal damage equal to your Fitness Precision. Ability(Cups or Wands or Pentacles, 1 Energy): Block 1 damage of Slashing or Piercing or Blunt depending on the type of card played respectively.

Crossbow

Ability(1 Loaded-Arrow, 1 Energy, Even): Deal damage of ammo loaded in + your Fitness Precision. Activatable(Arrow, 2 Energy): Load an arrow into this Crossbow.

Whip

o Activatable(2 Energy, Wands): Attempt to make an enemy drop their weapon. Activatable(2 Energy, Swords): Deal Slashing damage equal to your Fitness Precision.

Caestus

Passive: Fists deal 2 additional damage.

Fate Deck

The fate deck is a single playing card deck which is used by all the players of the game to build their respective deck. The cards from this deck are used by players to do actions or abilities of their characters. The players individual decks are rebuilt every once in a while.[TODO: how often?]

Building the Fate Decks

The GM separates the face cards from the fate deck(kings, queens, jacks and aces). These face cards are then shuffled and one is dealt out to each player. The remaining numbered cards are then selected according to each players respective character's rules for selecting fate cards. Once selected the remaining numbered cards are shuffled and dealt out evenly among the players. Finally any relevant character abilities for further modifying the player Fate Decks are put into play. Once this is done the player Fate Decks are ready for play.

-- new idea --

• Whenever the players long rest, reset all cards into a single deck. Each player pick 5 cards from the deck, then distribute the remaining cards randomly. Players have X amount of cards in their hand and draw more whenever it goes below that limit. Players get some kind of punishment/detriment for having an empty deck(this is the in game mechanic representing exaustion)

• When players use an action or ability they roll a d10. The resulting roll value can be used in place of a card. The suit of the roll depends on the class of the roller. Some classes can use an extra d4 which they can use the result of the roll to add or subtract any of their cards or rolls once that action.

Resolving Checks

When the player attempts to do an action and the GM has determined it is not trivial(e.g failure is possible and not insignificant) the GM should give the player a check which will determine the fate of their action.

Here is an explanation of each step of a check.

1. Action Request

Player asks to do an action or ability, naming a relevant discipline and/or object if applicable which would assist them(players are NOT to state they are 'using' or 'intending to use' a stat)

2. Determine Difficulties and Advantages

GM determines how difficult a check is and what the relevant skill is. | Medium | Hard | Extreme | Borderline Impossible | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | 3-4 | 5-7 | 8-10 | 11-12 |

Subtract the player's relevant skill from the difficulty. If they are using a relevant skill then subtract 2 more.

3. Resolve the Check

The player resolves the check by rolling. If the result is higher or equal to the difficulty then they succeed. Otherwise they fail.

Combat

Bargain

At any point during combat the players and the enemies can bargain with eachother to cease fighting.

Start of Combat

GM places enemies on board, draws from environment deck and places them in play as well. GM Rolls to determine which player goes first.

A Round

A single round starts from the first player's turn and goes clockwise until all players have gone once. Then the enemy's actions are resolved. Once they are resolved a new round can begin.

A Player Turn

Regain all energy and draw a card from the player deck. During their turn players can spend their energy however they would like. Once they end their turn the player must discard down to their max hand size(default 3)

Enemy Turn

The GM resolved the enemy effects in any order they wish. Any enemy that was not targeted this round by a player attack deals damage to a player of the GMs choice equal to the enemy's attack stat. Once all of these are resolve then the enemy turn ends.

Social

Social checks take into account 3 different factors in addition to the regular ones.

Factors

Difficulty

How difficult the given persuasion attempt is.

Resilience

How resilient the person you are talking to is to persuasion of the given thing.

Reputation

This is how you are viewed in the community. It is determine by the actions you commit toward those in the community. Harassing people increases the negative view while helping people increases the positive view. It is tracked by the GM by using a 4x4 grid where one axis is "good" and the other axis is "evil". Staying between makes you considered as "chaotic". Generally not possible to revert the good or evil status, they only increase the more respective actions you do towards the community.

Persuasion

Your persuasion stat is dependant on some of the following factors.

Bargain Chips/Favours

Things you learn about characters can be used to your advantage. Not necessarily something negative, could be for example doing a task for someone as a favour.

Apparel, Presentation, Relevant Skill

The way you dress, as well as the race you play also has an effect on how receptive others are toward your social attempts. As a possible example: wearing expensive fancy attire may make you more trustworthy to rich socialites but could make you less convincing to those less fortunate. Wearing armour may make your appear like a "dumb brute" which can incentivize characters to take it off. Some settlements also could be predisposed to trusting or distrusting certain races, factors that affect your odds of success.

Resolution

If the difference between difficulty and persuasion is between 1 and 6 then the player must roll to make up the difference. The result of this roll will determine if there is a cost to pay for the success. If the difference is greater then 6 then the persuasion fails. If the difference is 0 or negative then the attempt succeeds.

Travel

When travelling, each day spent in travel is resolved by the GM drawing event cards that are put in play and need to be resolved before proceeding. If the GM draws an enemy then they draw again until they draw an event. The players must fight the group of enemies and then after the combat they must resolve the event.

Weapons

Weapons are a special item type which grant character abilities that can be used when the weapon is wielded. Weapons also have various properties which affect your character in combat. Some of these are listed below. When the attack is possible to make, only ranged weapons, improvised weapons, or weapon attacks that specify require a check to see if the attack hits. Otherwise the weapon will automatically hit your target.

Unarmed Punches and Kicks

Punches, Kicks, and weapon bunts deal 1 blunt damage.

Weapon Items

Dagger

Activatable(1 Energy): Deal 2 piercing damage. Ability(Odd): Refresh this weapon. You can use this an amount of times equal to your Fitness Precision. If you are wielding this in your off hand then the cost is an Even instead.

Long Sword

Activatable(Swords or Pentacles, 2 Energy): Deal 2 slashing damage + your Fitness Strength.

Spear

Activatable(Cups or Wands, 2 Energy): Deal 2 piercing damage + your Fitness Precision.

Mace

Activatable(Swords or Pentacles, 2 Energy): Deal blunt damage equal to your Fitness Strength. Activatable(Swords or Pentacles, 3 Energy): Deal blunt damage equal to double your Fitness Strength.

Axe

Activatable(Cups or Wands, 2 Energy): Deal slashing damage equal to your Fitness Strength. Activatable(Cups or Wands, 3 Energy): Deal slashing damage equal to double your Fitness Strength.

Staff

Activatable(2 Energy, Swords or Pentacles): Deal damage equal to your Fitness Precision. Ability(Cups or Wands or Pentacles, 1 Energy): Block 1 damage of Slashing or Piercing or Blunt depending on the type of card played respectively.

Crossbow

Ability(1 Loaded-Arrow, 1 Energy, Even): Deal damage of ammo loaded in + your Fitness Precision. Activatable(Arrow, 2 Energy): Load an arrow into this Crossbow.

Whip

o Activatable(2 Energy, Wands): Attempt to make an enemy drop their weapon. Activatable(2 Energy, Swords): Deal Slashing damage equal to your Fitness Precision.

Caestus

Passive: Fists deal 2 additional damage.

Abilities

For now this is just a unsorted list of potential abilities, perks, etc. The idea is to first make abilities and then sort them according to classes or whatnot. May or may not decide on classes.

Ideas for activation of abilities with cards

1. Match Suit/Number
2. X with a pair of Y
3. Consecutive Cards
4. Min/Max
5. Multiple Cards

Ideas for abilities affecting cards

1. Card X is treated as Y
2. Keep
3. Combine Card Values
4. Draw a replacement
5. Give cards to players(on your turn/their turn/the person after you/etc)

Ability Ideas

Wild Ace

You treat aces as wildcards of their respective suit.