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Song of Swords

Beta Rules for “Song of Swords”Roleplaying Game

Song of Swords is a fantasy tabletop roleplaying game that emphasizes the harsh reality of battle, the human motivations that drive heroes to adventure and danger, and the gripping narratives that arise from conflict and struggle, to provide great roleplaying campaigns.The focus of the game is on enjoyable realism. We have drawn from historical sources and research to create a game with gritty, in-depth combat, and arms and armors taken straight from the annals of history. You’ll find no madcap fantasy weapons here, just the goods. Cold steel, the way it was really wielded and worn. Sometimes, though, you may find that truth is stranger than fiction.Whether you play campaigns set in our own history, or in the far-flung realms of fantasy, the grounded realism of Song of Swords will bring you straight into the game, and make you feel each tooth-jarring blow and battle-cry in your bones.The system is D10 based, and highly modular, facilitating campaigns from historical fiction to low-magic realism to ro-bust fantasy. A core fantasy setting our own creation, called Tattered Realms, will be included in the core book alongside a guide to playing in 15th century Europe, and many expansions and supplements are to follow, detailing new venues for your games and providing resources for your own creations.The first production of Opaque Industries, Song of Swords is to be our flagship product, the foundation upon which our company is built, and the core of our productive enterprise. We have put our souls into this game, and we hope you enjoy playing it as much as we enjoyed making it.

[The art assets are not final and do not reflect the final product.]

Lead Designer: James T. ”Rome” LacombeProducer, Designer, Layout: Zachary T. Irwin

Supplementary Design Team: Daniel Leiendecker, Forrest Phanton, Taylor DavisCover Art: Kenneth Solis

Book Art: Frankie Perez, Taylor Davis, Kassandra SwagerAdditional Development: Justin Hazen, Kevin Weech

CEO: Zachary T. Irwin

All contents copyright © 2013 by Zachary T. Irwin, James T. Lacombe. All rights reserved.

http://opaquegames.com

https://www.facebook.com/OpaqueIndustrieshttps://twitter.com/OpaqueGames

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Song of Swords

Table of Contents

Introduction pg. 4Chapter 0 pg. 4Chapter 1: Character Creation pg. 5 Attributes pg. 8 Player Races pg. 9 Arc Points pg. 13Chapter 2: Skills pg. 14Chapter 3: Proficiencies pg. 26 Maneuvers pg. 27 Talents pg. 31 Grids pg. 33-38Chapter 4: Character Advancement pg. 39Chapter 5: Wealth & Inventory pg. 40 Weapons pg. 42 Ranged Weapons pg. 47 Armor pg. 49Chapter 6: Combat pg. 52 Ranged Combat pg. 54, 56 Mounted Combat pg. 57Chapter 7: Universal Rules pg. 57 Injury & Healing pg. 58 Damage pg. 60 Damage Tables pg. 62-70Character Sheet Explanation pg. 71Character Sheet pg. 72-73Chapter 8: “Likely” Encounters pg. 74Appendix pg. 75Thank You pg. 76

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Song of Swords

Introduction

Welcome to the first Beta release of song of Swords. It’s been a long road getting here, and there is still a long ways yet to go, but this event marks a turning point. The foundation is built. The game is playable. These tools for simulating realistic combat with sword, spear, halberd and mace are finally made available to the people,

and in return, we ask that you, the people, help us.This is the first game our little company has produced, and while it has been our greatest pleasure to produce

this game, and we like to think we’ve done a decent job, it is you, the players, who must help us purify it in the crucible of harsh play, and testing. So take this game, and break it. Find its weaknesses, and its inconsistencies. Anything you don’t like about it, anything that you feel is insufficient or unfinished, anything that is unbalanced or unreasonable within the context of the game, come and tell us about it! We’re listening, ready and willing to improve the game in response to your feedback. As we move ever closer to a final release, you, the audience, whom we have grown to trust and adore, will be instrumental in building this game. And, like as not, it’ll be

damn good fun, too.

Opaque Industries thanks you for your participation.Make us proud, and let the broadswords sing.

-Jimmy Rome & The Lads

Chapter 0:

Hello and welcome to Song of Swords, a historical/fantasy table-top Roleplaying Game. This is a section to cover some of the basic terms and themes of the game.

Game Master: The Game Master is the storyteller, referee and supreme overlord of everything within the game, save for the characters played by the Players.

Ten-Sided Dice: This game uses ten-sided dice (d10) exclusively. Any time a die or dice are referenced, it is for a d10.

Pool: A pool is an amount of dice that the character has at their disposal in a given situation. A combat pool is a pool of dice based off a character’s adroitness as well as their proficiency with their wielded weapon, a jumping pool is a pool based of a character’s physical mobility and skill at the long jump.

Target Number: A target number, or TN, is the value on a die that you need to roll equal to or above to suc-ceed. In a situation where the TN is 8 (TN 8), then you will roll your given pool of dice, and all dice that roll to 8 or above count as a success.

Encumbered: While Encumberence is refereneced a few times within the Beta, the system is not yet complete. GM’s are suggested to either ignore the entries completely, or use their best judgement for using the entries.

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Song of SwordsA note on Historical Campaign:[For playing a Historical setting campaign, or a fan-

tasy one one without nonhuman races, it is suggested that the Race category be removed, and points that would be placed there instead be devoted elsewhere, with the default race being made human. Recommended Power Level for historical campaigns is also Low or High powered, unless

you’re going for like a real action-movie feel.]

Power Level Attributes Skills Proficiencies Life Path MagicGritty Low Power

3 CP 3 CP 3 CP 3 CP [1/1/1] 0 CP

Heroic High Power

5 CP 5 CP 5 CP 5 CP [2/2/1] 0 CP

Legendary Epic Fantasy

7 CP 7 CP 7 CP 7 CP [3/3/1] 0 CP

Chapter 1:Character Creation

Character CreationIn this section, you will learn how to create a character to play in your campaign, or to use as an NPC in the event that you are the GameMaster (GM).

Characters in Song of Swords are different from charac-ters in other games. In Song of Swords, you are making a character who must survive in the most dangerous kind of setting: A realistic one. Combat is brutal and deadly, even the smallest of injuries can prove fatal with improper care, the slightest misstep socially (or literally) can mean certain death, and it is only through quick wits, force of will, and skill at arms that you can protect yourself from terrible death, and achieve great deeds.

A note on Historical Campaign:[For playing a Historical setting campaign, or a fantasy one one without nonhuman races, it is suggested that the Race category be removed, and points that would be placed there instead be devoted elsewhere, with the default race being made human. Recommended Power Level for historical campaigns is also Low or High powered, unless you’re go-ing for like a real action-movie feel.]

Step 1: To begin with, every campaign of Song of Swords has a Power Level. This Power Level determines the caliber of the characters at the start of the game, and what options are available to them. The primary effect of a Campaign Power Level is the amount of points that begin in each Category during character creation.

Gritty Low-Power (Recommended for Realistic Historical Campaigns)At this level, characters receive 3 points in each category (besides magic) and cannot raise any category above 6.[Example: Real History, Game of Thrones, HBO’s Rome]

Heroic High Power (Recommended for Heroic Historical and Fantasy Campaigns)At this level, characters receive 5 points in each category (beside magic) and cannot raise any category above 8[Example: Potop (The deluge,) The Witcher, Dragonlance]

Legendary Superpowered (Recommended for High Fan-tasy Campaigns)At this level, characters receive 7 points in each category (besides magic) and can raise any category to the maxi-mum of 10.[Example: Malazan, Book of the Fallen, Fist of the North Star, The Elder Scrolls]

Step 2: Character ConceptBefore making your character, take some time to examine the setting you’re going to be playing in; the time period, the starting location, and other details that might help you make a character that fits the theme of the campaign and that will maximize your playing experience. Also remem-ber that while bloodshed and violence are a large part of the game, Song of Swords is really about the story, the arc that characters travel during the campaign, and the narra-tive that they create through their actions. While a party made up of nothing but burly, sociopathic bruisers who solve of their problems with morningstars and battleaxes may be fun at first, you may find yourself craving new dimensions to your character soon enough.So think up more than what kind of weapon Sir Stanislaw is going to be wielding, think about his childhood, his edu-cation, what he cares about, what motivates him. That’s as important as what size of sword he swings!A character’s gender has no mechanical effects on his or her performance in-game, though of course it will affect roleplaying. Men and Women alike can do amazing things in reality and fiction. Why would a game be different?

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Step 3: Creation CategoriesThere are five categories in Character Creation. In four of these five categories, you begin with a number of Creation Points equal to the Power Level of your campaign. You may then move these points between categories, with a couple of rules:

I. You can never reduce a category below 1.II. No category can be made to exceed the limit set for it by the Power Level (6 for Low, 8 for Medium, 10 for High)

The more points you put into a category, the better values you will have within that category to then assign to things like Attributes, Skills, and Combat Proficiencies.

AttributesAttributes represent the basic physical and mental skills of the character. There are eight Core Attributes:Strength, Agility, Health, Endurance, Willpower, Wit, Intelligence Perception. Check the table below for how many Attribute Points your investment of Creation Points gets you. These are then freely distributed between all Attributes, with the following restrictions:

I. The minimum level of an Attribute is 1. (if Health is ever reduced to 1, all other attributes are halved)II. The maximum level of an Attribute is 8.

After you assign your Attributes, you can then determined the Compound Attributes of the character. These are combinations of other Attributes that are useful for per-forming certain tasks, like determining your Combat Pool, and performing Charisma. The Compound Attributes are Adroitness, Charisma, Toughness, and Mobility, and are detailed along with the Attributes section below.

CP Starting Attributes1 262 293 32

4 355 386 407 428 449 4610 48

SkillsSkills represent a character’s acquired knowledge and abili-ties, including things like Historical Knowledge, Surgical Skill, and Tracking. There are dozens of such skills, each detailed in the Skills section.

At Character Creation, the number of skill points you have with which to purchase skills is determined by the Creation Points placed into the section, which then gives you Skill Points equal to your Intelligence score, +/- the given number, as shown on the table below.

CP Starting Skills0 No Skills1 INT - 22 INT - 13 INT4 INT + 15 INT + 26 INT + 37 INT + 48 INT + 59 INT + 610 INT + 7

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Song of Swords

ProficienciesProficiencies represent a character’s expertise in battle with certain weapons. There is a Proficiency Core for each type of weapon, and a Specialization that can be plugged into each, which provides a grid of maneuvers, talents and pool nodes for characters to progress down.

At character creation, a character gets a number of Profi-ciency Points based on the Combat Pool (CP) dedicated into this category, as shown on the table below.

Buying a Proficiency Core costs 3 points, and each node thereafter costs 1. The Specialization comes with the Core.[As of the Beta, there is only one Specialization Grid for each Core, and no Masteries yet completed. In future releases additional Specializations will be included, as well as Mastery abilities to cap them off.]

CP Starting Proficiency0 No Proficiencies1 32 63 94 125 156 187 218 249 2610 28

LifepathThe lifepath category is a strange one, in that within this one category, there are then three further categories into which points are placed. Each point placed into one of these sub-categories functions as a point being placed into Lifepath for the purposes of Creation Point limits. The cap for each subcategory is the same as the cap for each total category (6 in Low, 8 in High, 10 in Super, etc.)

Lifepath: Boons & Banes [Not in Beta]

Lifepath: Social ClassSocial class determines both a character’s starting wealth, and any position or title he may hold in society. Wealthier

and more influential characters will logically have better

prospects, but history and fiction both are full of char-acters who have begun with little, and ended with much.

The exact nature of a character’s social class of course depends on his place of origin and the time period the cam-paign is set in. A Peasant in Medieval England have very different rights than a Peasant in Medieval Bosnia.

Social Class/Starting WealthCP Example Social Class Wealth Level0 Serf, Slave, Outlaw, Vagabond,

etc1

1 Peasant, Muzhik (Russian,) Bau-er (German,) Paysan (French), Koylu (Turkish) etc

2

2 Freeman, Franklin (Old English,) Burgher (German, Dutch, Swiss,) Cittadino (Italian), Bojar (Ser-bian) etc

3

3 Wealthy Freeman (Same as Free-man, but richer)

4

4 Poor Noble, Baron, Boyar (Mol-davian), Lesser Knight, family of higher ranks etc

5

5 Wealthy Noble, Count, Earl, Boyar (Russian, Wallachian), Family of higher ranks

6

6 Lordling Duke, Prince, Bey (Turkish,) Doge (Venitian,) etc

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Lifepath: RaceThis determines the character’s race, and only applies to fantasy campaigns (for Historical, keep the number at 1 for human). The most common choice (and the automatic one in non-fantasy campaigns) is Human, but points being added to or removed from the category can change this. Each other playable race has a unique set of abilities and attribute modifiers that make them different from humans.

RaceCP Race0 Goblin1 Human2 Dwarf3 Zell4 Iron Elves, Wood Elves5 Schwarzwald? Paleolithic Elf, Vampire,

Ascended Human

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Song of Swords

AttributesAttributes represent a character’s competency, or lack thereof, in a given field such as physical fitness or mental aptitude. The average man has 4 in any given attribute, while 10 represents the peak of what is possible for hu-mans. These determine many of the base functions of a character and will affect most things that a character can do.

Physical Attributes

Strength (STR)Strength is a character’s ability to apply force, whether it be lifting a cart off of a trapped child, or smashing someone’s head in with an axe, as well as their overall robustness, contributing to the Toughness and Mobility Compound Attributes, as well as many kinds of Damage (DMG).

Agility (AGI)Agility is a gestalt of physical flexibility, speed, and coor-dination. Performing delicate tasks, balancing on difficult terrain, and the quick, dance like footwork of high-speed combat are all the realm of Agility. It contributes to the Adroitness Compound Attribute, which makes it very important for combat.

Health (HET)Health is a character’s raw constitution. It includes his level of nutrition, his immune system, the robustness of his build, the density of his bone structure, and how well his body deals with injuries and fights off infection. Health is used to resist Poison, survive blood loss, hasten wound recovery, and at times resist supernatural effects, as well as contributing to the Toughness Compound Attribute.

Endurance (END)Endurance is a combination of qualities, like cardiovascu-lar development, that contributes to a character being able to continue strenuous activity for long periods of time. Endurance also determines how well a character can handle bearing heavy loads (like armor, or additional weapons) during combat, and influences his Carry Limit [Not in Beta] as well as letting him fight off exhaustion in com-bat, swim and run for longer, or stay awake despite losing blood. Endurance also contributes to the Toughness Com-pound Attribute, and provides the basis for a character’s Encumbrance, showing how much armor he can effectively fight in before beginning to suffer penalties.

Mental Attributes

Willpower (WIP)Willpower is a character’s ability to focus through

distraction, control his emotions, and resist pain, intoxication, and other (sometimes magical) things that

affect the mind. Willpower is also a core component in a strong personality, and thus factors heavily into human interactions. Willpower is used to resist Pain from wounds, as well as to fight off drugs, magic that affects the mind, and insanity. Willpower also contributes to the Charisma Compound Attribute, and reduces the Pain that you receive from damage.

Wit (WIT)Wit is essentially the alacrity and agility of the mind. Cun-ning, quick thinking, animal problem solving, these are things that Wit helps with, and it is also one of the core attributes for a warrior. It is Wit that allows a fencer to intuit the weakness in his enemy’s style, a swordsman to predict his enemy’s strikes and react accordingly, a knight to guide his lance to the very center of the enemy’s de-fenses. Rapid reactions and reflexes fall under Wit, and the attribute works closely with Agility in combat, forming the Adroitness Compound Attribute. Wit is also used in the Charisma Compound Attribute, where it represents quick and clever retorts, recoveries, and rhetoric.

Intelligence (INT)Intelligence is a character’s ability to collate, process, recall, and connect information in a logical manner. It isn’t how ‘smart’ a character sounds or acts (that’s Wit, more of-ten than not,) but rather how good he is at truly understand-ing concepts and causality. Intelligence comes up primarily in engineering, architecture, linguistics, and sciences, in which thinking fast isn’t as important as thinking clearly and meticulously. Intelligence also aids greatly in analyz-ing ideas for contradictions or inconsistencies. Intelligence is most often used with the Skills system.

Perception (PER)Perception is a character’s awareness of his surround-ings. It includes visual, audible, and even olfactory (smell) awareness. Perception is important, it allows a character to spot ambushes and gauge distances, providing the basis of many skills, and provides half of your Missile pool when using ranged weapons. In addition, it allows characters to read the expressions of others, spotting miniscule move-ments and cues, allowing greater control over social inter-actions with other people, and so adds into the Charisma Compound Attribute.

Compound Attributes

Adroitness (ADR)(AGI+WIT)/2Adroitness is a combination of physical articulation and speed, and mental alacrity. It is your reflexes, your reac-tions, and your sheer coordination between mind and body.

It’s obviously very important in fighting, as it contrib-

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Song of Swords

Not your average Zell.

utes directly to your Combat Pool, but also helps you avoid being tripped, knocked over, thrown off rocking

horses, flung over the sides of ships, and other things that can be avoided with a combination of quick thinking and quick action.

Toughness (TOU)(STR+END+HET)/3Toughness is how resilient you are to harm. Thickness of skin, hardness of bone, layers of callous and scar tissue. Toughness provides the damage threshold for your charac-ter when he is injured. This is the Attribute’s only function, but if you ever think you might be in harm’s way (and really, that’s what the game is all about,) Toughness is what will save you when all else fails.

Charisma (CHA)(WIP+PER +WIT)/2Charisma is how well a character interacts with other characters. It’s his force of personality, his ability to read people and appeal to their emotions, or ‘get’ them. It’s also his ability to hide his emotions, or to express his emotions in an impassioned manner. It is used in social interactions of all sorts, and can also see use in combat, to psyche out or bait opponents.

Mobility (MOB)(STR+AGI+END)/2Running, jumping, climbing, dancing, these are all deter-mined by Mobility. A character can walk a number of Yards equal to his Mobility each Round during combat, or run twice that number.

Player RacesThese are the races available for play at character creation in the fantasy world of Tattered Realms. Gamers with a more historical bent would do well to skip over this sec-tion.

HumanHuman beings are, in our own world, the only sapient race on Earth. In the Tattered Realms, they are one race of many, and not the greatest in individual measure. A young race, known for its potential for artistry, its capac-ity for philosophy, and its propensity towards violence, the human race is the most populous in Oaska, and come in many shapes, sizes and pigmentations. Only the Elves, as a whole, are more diverse.

The average human male stands about 5’8, while women on average stand about 5’4, though this can vary signifi-cantly based on local diet and social conditions. Weight, build, and coloration of hair, eyes and skin vary greatly depending on region and ethnicity. All human beings share the same racial traits.

The Human Condition: Humans can level multiple Proficiencies up simultaneously using the School system detailed in the Proficiency section. [Not in Beta]The Mortal Coil: Humans reach physical maturity at around 15, and are old by 50-60. Few if any live to 100.

GoblinThe Goblins are a subterranean race, driven into the deep places of the world in eras long past. Thousands of years ago, their ancestors were driven underground during the great war of the Elves, and they have been changed by their time in the corrupting deep and dark.

Goblins are physically slight, and have thin, downy hair on their heads. Goblins cannot grow beards. it is often difficult to differentiate between male and female goblins for out-siders. (The primary means of differentiation of individuals for Goblins is olfactory.) They have alarmingly large eyes due to their environment, but can see in the dark with great precision. The average goblin stands at 3 feet 5 inches, and weighs 50 lbs. Their eyes are large, and filled almost en-tirely with pupil. Their hair is usually white or pale yellow.

Small: -2 ReachWeak: -1 STR & HETSee in Darkness: Goblins can see in Pitch Blackness, Poorly Lit and Dimly Lit as though it were Evenly Lit.Photophobia: When in daylight levels of light (Evenly Lit) Goblins suffer as though they are humans in Poorly

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Song of SwordsLit conditions, ( +3 TN to Vision based checks, and

halved CP and MP.) This can be partially alleviated through the wearing of brimmed hats and/or helmets, which reduce the penalty to Dimly Lit (+1 TN, and -5 CP and MP.)Scarce Environment: Goblins only have to eat half as much as other races in order to survive.Tight Spot: Can fit into spaces smaller than most races as fast as they could walk.Universally Disliked: Goblins count as Disliked to mem-bers of other races in regards to the CHA based skills, until relationships develop. They are treated as Hated in areas that have been affected by nearby Goblin groups.

DwarfDwarves (Vaada, Oruvand,) are a short, hardy race, fond of alcohol and industry. Dwelling in isolated Holds strewn throughout the land, the Dwarves were driven from their heartland (The Mountain Homes of Vatel in the Kalkatt Mountains) by the Zells during the Great Elvish War. Now they live in close-knit clans, eking out existences in ancient bunkers, ever wary of the doom that haunts their race.

Dwarves stand about 4’10 tall, with black or brown hair, often braided with metals and stone insignias woven in. Their compact frames weigh about as much as humans who stand a foot or more taller. Females stand almost exactly the same height, but lack beards, and have softer (if still very sturdy) facial features. Dwarves can see in the dark, but unlike Goblins, they are not blinded by sunlight. They are hardy, and very resistant to injury, toxin, and hardship, and are famous for their capacity for drink. They are also long lived, though not immortal as the Elves are.

Long-Lived: Adulthood at 30, old age at 1,000.Short: -1 ReachSee in Shadow: When in low-light conditions, Dwarves treat each stage of Lighting as one step less severe on the table, because of their excellent eyesight in the dark (ie., Pitch Black becomes Poorly Lit, Poorly Lit becomes Dimly Lit, Dimly Lit becomes Evenly Lit). However, they cannot see colors when in the dark.Selective Eyesight: Dwarves’ eyes have adapted differ-ently from human eyes, and have difficulty perceiving textures, subtle color variations, and small movements. As a result, Dwarves are extremely poor at reading facial expressions, and suffer Stout and Sturdy: +2 Endurance, +1 Health, -1 to Infec-tion Chance against all wounds.Prodigious Livers: Dwarves gain a +6 to their effective Health when rolling to resist toxins (poisons, alcohol, gen-eral toxins).

ZellThe Zells, (Sea Elves, Zellish Elves, Sugaardin, Zliski, Azil,) are a race of communal humanoids who dwell pri-marily on the ocean, in small clans called “Crews,” which inhabit the large, sentient Zellislava, living ships that prowl the seas, seeking unfathomable ends in the service of some unclear instinct of which the Zells are a part. These Crews possess a sort of shared subconscious, a “Dream” that makes them aware of each others’ feelings and thoughts, as well as the will of the ship itself. Most Zellish ships rule their crews to an extent, but particularly strong willed indi-viduals often rise to become ‘Captain,’ dominating even the will of the ship itself. The innumerable Crews are divided into forty-two Tribes, each of which venerates one of the Seven Gods of Chaos as its patron. The cultural divide be-tween these seven groups is significant, with deep enmities turning some to violence. Some Zells have simply adapted into human societies, and live and die much as humans die, denied their Focus.

The average Zell of both genders stands about 5’10, and they tend towards dark hair and eyes, with skin ranging from fair to swarthy, depending on Tribe and human ances-try (most have some human blood.) Their ears are tapered, and protrude out from their heads some distance, as far out as their shoulders depending on age. They are famous for the distinctive tattoos that denote their social status, rank, achievements and religious affiliations. Depending on Tribe, these tattoos can be sinuous and spindly lines that run along the contours of the body, intricate patterns that contain a sort of hidden language, or simple depictions of events and ideas of significance. Many of both genders, particularly those of the Sethite Tribes, favor shaving their heads to make room for more tattoos.

Elvish Agelessnes: Elves reach physical maturity by the age of 20. However, after that, their bodies’ aging process halts, so long as they retain their Focus. Each breed of Elf has a different Focus.Focus: Zells do not age as long as they are bonded into a Zellish Dream, and on a ship.Zellish Dream: Because of the subconscious psychic connection that Zells share, players playing Zells may communicate to each other Out-of-Character (OOC) and In-Character information freely, regardless of the positions of their characters.Waveborn: -+2 PER, +1 AGIAwkward Speakers: Zells are not accustomed to talking. In their natural environment, every man and woman on a Zellish ship can communicate nonverbally. When com-municating with Non-Zells (or even Zells outside of their “Crew,”) a Zell suffers a +1 TN to CHA based attempts, aside from Intimidate.Culture of Sailors: -2 Bonus to Boating. Becomes -4

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Song of SwordsBonus if on a Zellislava (Zellish Ship,) becomes +2

penalty if on a Zellislava of a different Chaos God.Acute Perception: -2 Bonus to Listen.Symbiosis Dependance: +1 WIP when on a Zellish ship, -1 WIP when on land.

Iron Ibera (Burdinadin)The Burdinadin (Iron Glade Elves, Iron Ibera, The Cold Folk) are a race in isolation. Millennia ago, they were, through unclear means, made a conduit for communica-tion between the spirit-world and the material plane. Overwhelmed by the sheer volume of the spirits that fill the natural world, half of this ancient race of elves broke off, building great, insulated cities that would come to be known as the Iron Glades. These Elves, calling themselves the Burdinadin, cut themselves off from the cacophony of nature, to turn their newfound ability inwards, finding a deep ability to probe the natural workings of energy and matter using the same senses that, before, had been over-whelmed by the wail of spirit-noise.With their ability to discern the mechanics of nature, they experienced a technological revolution, expanding their great iron cities deep underground and into the sky. Their culture, massive and powerful, nonetheless remained hid-den behind the impenetrable doors of the Glades, fearful of what awaited them outside.Now, thousands of years later, they have been forced to open their doors, and venture forth. The Focus that grants their kind immortality has been forgotten, cast by the wayside in their endless pursuit of knowledge as a petty su-perstition. Slowly, they have begun to show the first signs of aging, and a panic has gripped them, an urgent need to recover this lost secret at any cost, or find a new way to prolong their lives. For the first time in eons, the Iron Folk have emerged from the pale-blue lighting of their deep vaults, to seek out the mysteries of the world beyond.

The average Burdinadin male is 5’8 and weighs about 130 pounds, is chestnut skinned, and black or brown haired with green or vibrantly brown eyes. The women are only very slightly shorter, and both genders tend to keep them-selves obscenely, decadently clean by instinct. Like all elves, the Burdinadin have tapered ears, but theirs are nar-row and of modest size, not significantly larger than those of humans.

Elvish Agelessnes: Elves reach physical maturity by the age of 20, much like humans do. However, after that, their bodies’ aging process halts, so long as they retain their Focus. Each breed of Elf has a different Focus.Focus: Iron Ibers have lost theirs and their agelessness could fade at any time. Many are driven to seek a Focus, with which to save their race’s immortality.Culture of (unstable) Scientists: +1 INT, +1 AGINatural Philosophy: An Iber can, with 15 minutes of

study, make an Education attempt to understand the function and workings of almost any device, object, or

technology. Being allowed to dismantle or disassemble the object reduces the successes required by 2. The object being Magical in nature increases the successes required by between 1 and 6.1 Degree of Success informs the Burdinadin as to what the device’s general mechanical function is, though perhaps not its intended application. (Imagine trying to figure out what people used a toilet for, if the only thing you knew was that it rapidly changed a bowl of water with the press of a lever. You might assume it was a sort of drinking fountain, or a ritual device.)3 Degrees of success informs the Burdinadin not only of what the device’s general function is, but what it is made of, how it was made, and how to theoretically reproduce it.5 Degrees of success Sterile Soul: Ibers are so well insulated from the Spirit Realm that they are actually difficult to target or effect with some magics. Ibers cannot learn Thaumaturgy, and they gain a +2 to all resistances against Thaumaturgy and other spirit-effecting powers or magics. [Not in Beta]

Wood Ibera (Ohanedin, Wood Elves)The Ohanedin are the other half of the Ibera Elf family. Where the Burdinadin fled into the Iron Glades to escape the madness that was direct communion with the spirits of nature, the Ohanedin embraced the change, and quickly found mastery of their senses through meditation, ritual drug use, and carefully honed compartmentalization. The Ohanedin pray to patron spirits, retaining their immortal-ity through observance of obscure and often confusing rituals mandated by these patron spirits. They are a war-like people, but insular, fighting amongst themselves and occasionally becoming involved in regional conflicts, due to making their home in the hills and mountains of North-ern Iber, which provide the only practical entry into the peninsula. No man may pass through these endless, ma-zelike gorges and valleys except on the sufferance of the Ohanedin—sufferance which they do not grant easily. The Ohanedin’s connection to the Spirit Realm may be makes them especially susceptible to certain forms of madness—an unusually high percentage of them suffer from manias and obsessions, and many suffer from bouts of irrational violence.

The Ohanedin average around 5’8 for males, and 5’4 for females, and have skin ranging from chestnut to fair, with hair ranging from black to a greenish yellow, and usually black eyes. They are built similarly to humans, but have the distinctive tapered ears of elves, identical to their Burdina-din cousins.

Elvish Agelessnes: Elves reach physical maturity by the age of 20, much like humans do. However, after that, their

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Song of Swordsbodies’ aging process halts, so long as they retain their

Focus. Each breed of Elf has a different Focus.Focus: To preserve their immortality, Ohanedin must obey the mandates of their Patron Spirits. Never clothing them-selves in metal (metal weapons are ok,) and never eating meat from animals that cannot speak are the two basic prerequisites, but many have significantly more. Ohanedin have a particularly rigid Focus. Wearing Metal cover-ing the torso inflicts 8 Pain on an Ohanedin for as long as it is worn. Wearing it on the head inflicts 10, whereas the limbs only inflict 4 each.Culture of Hunters: +1 STR, +2 AGI, +1 PERNatural Awareness: An Ohanedin is automatically aware of any wounded or frightened life forms within 100 yards of it in any natural (non-urban) environment. This aware-ness is accurate to an area of about ten yards, at which point it cannot pinpoint it any further. This ability does not work on other Ohanedin, or creatures with the Soulless descriptor.Murderous Speed: Ohanedin do not have to ‘show’ an Orientation die during Combat against enemies that do not have this racial feature.Unwholesome Impulses: [Something to do with being fucking Bananas. Wait for it.]

SchwarzwalderIn the pulsing heart of the Kaselreich, there is a dark and savage place, a remnant of an older time. The dark carnivo-rous forest, the Schwarzwald, has held the fear of mankind for a thousand years, as its creeping borders test the bound-aries of its influence. Its methods of insinuating its terrible influence outside of its realm are numerous and horrid, the most devious of its mechanisms come in the form of the Schwarzwalder, towering, alien creatures, that venture forth to prowl human lands, dragging the very souls of their victims screaming back into the stygian wood, to a place where dark, unfathomable horrors await.

The Schwarzwalder themselves are a byproduct of the transition of souls into the being that is the Schwarzwald, these creatures constantly seek to collect souls and bring them to their Dark God. They are hated and feared by their neighbors, every interaction an ambush. They are predators that disguise themselves in the forms of their victims, able to summon an image of those they have consumed.

The Schwarzwalder have roughly twice the amount of muscles in their face than a man, allowing them to use a wider range of facial expressions, from unnatural and ter-rifying features to innocent, sympathetic. Commonly they copy the expressions of those around them, even making themselves look more like those people so they fit in better. While they bear features of humans and elves, their skin is often rough and leathery with generally desaturated hues, and their limbs are slightly longer than their body suggests. They stand on average at 6 and a half feet and weigh 200

pounds. They are able to grow wood-like coat over their skin, though they only do so in times of harvest, as

it interferes with their human forms.

An Alien Mind: +2 PER, +1 WIPWell-Founded Distrust: -4 to CHA attempts when dealing with others outside their race. Treated as Hated for CHA based skills when in their true forms, if they aren’t already being attacked. Mesmerism: When making eye-contact with someone, a Schwarzwalder may force them to make a WIP test at a TN equal to your WIP, or else enter a dreamlike state, and obey any commands given by you that would not obviously result in harm to yourself or those dearly close to you for an hour. This ability can be resisted again if you give an instruction particularly contrary to the target’s personal-ity, with a second WIP test at the same TN. Attempts made against targets in stressful conditions, such as fighting or fleeing. A being that resists this ability once cannot be tar-geted by it again (by ANY Schwarzwalder) for a year and a day.One With the Forest Spirit: Do not require sustenance in the form of food or drink. Schwarzwalder may ask simple (Yes or no, monosyllabic answer) questions of any plant or growth over the course of an hour of diligent asking, and be answered in the language of plants. Plants have a very long memory, but do not talk to each other often. They also speak in the perspective of a plant of their variety. Potatoes do not spend much time observing astrological conditions.Opalized Wood: Ability to grow a coat of opalized wood over their skin, granting them AV1 against all damage types to every area. They are able to shed the coat at able time. Activating this cancels Borrowed Form, and it cannot be activated again while the coat is kept on. Schwarzwalder often wear this by default. Borrowed Form: A Schwarzwald may bite an incapaci-tated person and drain their spirit from their body and a Schwarzwald may contain a number of spirits within itself equal to its HET/2. This allows them to change themselves physically to appear as the body of a soul that they contain. This disguise is imperfect as they do not change their attri-bute to reflect their victim nor do they actually understand people as such they do have natural tells in their actions and speech. An opposed roll using the Schwarzwald’s CHA and the observers Analyze skill will reveal the Schwarz-wald as a doppelganger.This roll is not automatic and is initiated by a character attempting to use the Analyze skill on a Schwarzwald.

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Arc Points

The Arc Points (AP) system is a mechanic within the game that tracks the characters’ goals, beliefs, and motiva-tions, and allows the GM to reward the character with Arc Points for acting along those motivations and for good roleplaying. These points can then be spent on character advancement to improve a character’s abilities, skills, and attributes. Characters do not become stronger merely by killing enemies or winning fights, they become stronger by pursuing their goals, fighting for what they believe in, and for moving along their part in the story through action.

The Arc Points (AP) are a system within the game that tracks the character’s goals and beliefs, and allows the GM to reward the character with spendable points when the character completes a goal, performs an action to further that goal, or does something in the pursuit for their beliefs. The following are a list of the different Arcs a player may fill out in order to begin earning Arc Points throughout the system. Earned Arc Points can be spent to increase most aspects of the character, including attributes, proficiencies, skills, Boons & Banes, etc. At character creation, the player sets out as many of the Arc Point goals as they can, giv-ing a different one for each category. These goals have to be relevant to the character as they are there to reward the player for acting according to his character’s motivations, and helping to advance advancing the character and the party through the plot, and also the only way to advance the character mechanically. A player does not need to begin with any Arcs chosen (except Saga, which is shared by the entire group) and can choose them at any point during the session, or in between them, though all Arcs must be approved by the GM, as well as the times at which they are chosen.

Saga:The Saga Arc is one shared by the entire group. It’s either decided by the GM, or by the party as a whole, at the GM’s discretion. It can also be shared by any group or organiza-tion, such as an entire Crusade to take “Take Damascus”, but it is best used with a group of players, unless that orga-nization is integral to the plot/premise of the campaign.The reward for pursuing a Saga is gradual, with a large payoff. Taking a significant step towards a Saga, winning a major battle, defeating a major enemy, or overcoming a significant obstacle grants each party member sharing the Saga 4 AP.Examples: “Slay the dragon that destroyed our ancestors’ kingdom and reclaim our legacy.” “Win Swiss Indepen-dence from Austrian Rule.” “Fight Prince John’s tyranny until the return of the True King.”

Epic: An Epic is much like a Saga in that it covers a wide

ranging, deeply important goal, save for the fact that it ap-plies only to the character taking it. They should be deeply personal to the character and be one of their larger drives in life, during the Arc.Rewards for the Epic should be more frequently staged than Saga rewards, but smaller for their frequency. Taking any significant step towards accomplishing the Epic, Examples: “Save the French Princess I was betrothed to,” “Avenge my Father’s Death.”

Quest: A Quest Arc is again personal to the character, but covers more short-term goals. These are often smaller tasks to-wards completing the larger Arcs like Saga and Epic. These should still be personal to the character and be inline with their drives and should not cover mundane things like “Get my sword sharpened” or “Get a sandwich,” unless that sandwich is uniquely significant.Examples: “Clear out the bandit camp on the ridge,” “Find out who’s been stealing all of the chickens in town,” “Mur-der that #$^%ing Goblin who stole my Falcata.”

Belief: The Belief Arc is similar to the others, but with a special difference. It doesn’t cover a specific storyline or arc, in-stead focusing on a core belief, concept, maxim, faith, oath, value, virtue or code that the character believes in, even if they don’t actively live it. When acting in accordance with the Belief, especially when it causes a story or encoun-ter to happen, or in the face of adversity, the character is rewarded.Belief differs from other Arcs in that it can cover a broad variety of concepts, principles and motivations. In essence, any concept that a character would be willing to fight for, not for direct gain, but simply out of principle, is a Belief.Examples: “Islam,” “Christianity,” “The Glory of Rome,” “The Honor of my Family,” “The pursuit and acquisition of knowledge,” “The Duty to Protect and Serve.”

Flaw:A Flaw Arc represents a character’s impulses that lead him contrary to his goals. Every character has weaknesses, and these weaknesses provide part of the narrative of a char-acter’s story that is indispensable to his growth. A Flaw is chosen at character creation, and may be altered in the event of the Flaw being resolved, or being rendered some-how superfluous to the character. A Flaw is indulged when it actively complicates a character’s larger endeavors. At such a time, a character should get between 1-3 Arc Points.Examples: “debilitating vices (alcoholism, etc),” “Preju-dices that can lead a character to trouble (racism, religious zealotry).” “conflicting character motivations (divided loy-alties between two kingdoms, oaths sworn to the enemy).”

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Song of SwordsAwarding Arc Points:

Arc Points are awarded by the GM when the player has acted in accordance with any of the Arcs, and can be awarded either at the moment of successful accordance or at the end of the gaming session, at the GM’s discretion. There is no limit to the amount that a player can earn in a session, or that a GM can give, but some moderation is ad-vised. A very well played session should run at about 6-12 Arc Points per player.

Arc Points sit in a centralized pool, where they can then be spent on Character Advancement.

Chapter 2:Skills

Skills are a collection of abilities that most characters are capable of, but not all are skilled at. They are surely the most varied of any character’s abilities, in that they cover everything from how far a character can jump to how well they can move a crowd to how well they know the history of their neighboring kingdoms.

The basic way that Skills work is that there is your basic skill level, which gives you your Target Number (TN) for success in a skill and it gives you bonus dice and successes at high levels. Each skill has a few different uses, each of which might reference a different Attribute from the char-acter. The character generates their dice pool based on the referenced Attribute in an equal amount, and lik when us-ing the Climb skill, the character will be called on to make both STR and END based tests.

Every use of the skills will have a required number of successes for the skill to be successful. The character must roll their pool and get equal at their TN and get equal to or more than the number of required successes. Skills attempts have modifiers to the situation that affect the character’s TN, such as trying to climb a wall slanted against you or knowing the history of a foreign kingdom. If the TN is ever raised to 11 or above by a modifier, then the skill attempt immediately becomes impossible. Situational modifiers can lower it as well, and any TN lowered to 1 or below is an instant success.

Skills have a leveling system based on the amount of points you spend in any given skill to increase it to the next level. Skills are purchased by first converting Arc Points (AP) into Skill points (SP), which has a rate equal to your INT, meaning spending 1 AP with an INT of 4 gives you 4 SP. You must spend the amount equal to the next level at the same time.

Every two levels the skill is increased, the Target Number for the skill is reduced by 1, to a maximum of 3 at skill level 10.

At every other skill level the character gains a level of Gifted, replacing the old Gifted level with the current one. Gifted gives the character bonus dice to their pool equal to the Gifted level.

Mastery is obtained at level 10 for the skill. It gives the character, in addition to their pool, one automatic success, as though they had rolled one extra die ahead of time and it had been a success. This does not count for skills made impossible by the TN going to 11 or above.

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Unskilled: If a character has no levels in a skill, then they are considered unskilled in it. A character can still make a skill attempt, though this sets their Target Number to 9 and may bar them from some uses of the skills.

Retrying Skill Attempts: For physical skills, they can be retried any amount of times, unless injuries or situation stops the character from doing so. For mental ones, such as History and Politics, a single check is allowed, any retries have to be done through the Research skill. For social skills, its best to wait before trying again, if tried again too soon, the people may get angry and leave, turn hostile, or clam up, at the GM’s discretion.

Terminology:

No Check: If anything is an absolute, zero-chance of fail-ure, then a skill check is not required. Opposed Skills: There are many skills that in their use oppose each other, most commonly Analyze and Stealth. In general, two or more characters that are using skills that are opposed simply add up their totals. Characters with suc-cesses higher than others have succeeded in their skill. In the case of a tie, each character gets to roll one additional die to roll at the same TN, continuing to roll opposed until one person fails at the same time as one person succeeding. Whoever loses the tie-breaker roll-off is counted as having scored one lower success in regards to the winner. 2 successes + vs. Awareness: When a skill difficulty is listed as having both a required number of successes and a vs. amount, then the player must first meet the required number of successes to pass the skill at all. The required successes are still added to the total. If there is no one to oppose the role, the character must still meet the 2 suc-cesses or other requirement to succeed the skill. No modifier: If in the modifier section, the amount is ever set at “no modifier,” it just gives an example of what even conditions might be for the attempt to be made in. ++: Seeing a “+ | +” within a skill simply means that the difficulty increases by the same amount as its previous levels into infinity.

Full List of Skills: AnalyzeAwareness ClimbingHistoryIntimidateJumpingOratePersuasionPoliticsResearchRideSincerityStealthSurgerySwimmingTracking

Skill Level Target Number

SP to Increase Skill Bonuses

1 8 1

2 8 2 Gifted 1*3 7 3

4 7 4 Gifted 25 6 5

6 6 6 Gifted 37 5 7

8 5 8 Gifted 49 4 9

10 3 12 Mastery**

*Gifted: Grants one extra Die for the pool. **Mastery: Grats 1 automatic success, in addition to the pool.

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Song of SwordsAnalyze

Analyze/Study (PER) is to closely examine a person or scene to try to gleam a deeper insight to them. Learn aspects of a person’s appearance or a room’s make up or discern someone’s emotions. To use analyze/study, the character declares what they are trying to do, and rolls their full pool in doing so.Action Required SuccessesReading emotions/tones from people speaking in foreign lan-guage

3 successes

Gain Minor Insight (Person or Room)

2 Success

Gain Moderate Insight 4 SuccessesGain Great Insight 6 SuccessesNotice Concealed/Hidden Weap-on

vs. Stealth

Masked Emotions vs. WIPSeeing through Fake Emotions vs. Sincerity

Modifiers:Person in emotional state -1 TNPitch Black Impossible/Must use hands

to study, +4 TNPoorly Lit + 3 TNDimly Lit + 1 TNEvenly Lit No modifierBrightly Lit -1 TNBlinding Impossible

Reading emotions/tones from people speaking in foreign language: Analyze/Study can be used to try to understand the tones and themes of a conversation, even if the charac-ter doesn’t speak the language.

Gain Minor Insight (Person or Room): This lets a char-acter gain a minor insight into a person or a room. These are things like noticing a person is wearing a ring on their right hand instead of their left, and know that that means they’re considering a proposal instead of actually mar-ried, or it can let you look around a room to notice that the rooms owner has an interest in northern mythological traditions. Insight checks are never automatic; the character must choose to do them.

Gain Moderate Insight (Person or Room): Moderate in-sight might let a character see two different tattoos a person might have and be able to know where they probably grew up, or it might let a character find hidden doors and compartments inside a room.

Gain Great Insight (Person or Room): This might let a character see a dull yellowing in a person’s eyes, and realize that they are a werewolf in human form or to find masterfully hidden doors and compartments.

Notice Concealed/Hidden Weapon: If a person is trying to conceal a weapon, choosing to study a person doing so might reveal that, what and where they are are carrying one.

Masked Emotions: If a person is trying to guard their emotions by keeping a straight face, this would let a character try to read what the target is feeling off of body language and other subtle signs. Seeing through Fake Emotions: If a person is trying to put up a front or act, then this lets the character try to see through it.

Person in emotional state: When trying to read someone Masking their Emotions while they are truly in a very emo-tional state, the character receives a bonus.

Pitch Black: If it is pitch black a the situation, then it becomes impossible to make a check based off vision, but once that can be made through feeling the walls or hearing can still be made at a negative.

Poorly Lit: Dim candlelight.

Dimly Lit: Bright moonlight.

Evenly Lit: Normal daylight.

Brightly Lit: Bright, sunny day.

Blinding: Skill attempt is impossible.

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Song of SwordsAwareness

Notice (PER) is to passively notice something relevant. Notice Extremely Simple 1 SuccessNotice Very Simple 2 SuccessesNotice Simple 3 SuccessesNotice 4 SuccessesNotice Slightly Difficult 5 SuccessesNotice Moderately Difficult 6 SuccessesNotice Very Difficult 7 Successes

Hear (PER) Modifiers for sound. An Awareness attempt for sound should be tried only when theres a chance that a character could not hear or understand something audible, due to the given situation. Hearing through a minor disturbance 1 successHearing through a thick barrier 2 successesHearing through a battle or loud disturbance

4 successes

Wake up from minor disturbance 2 successes vs. Stealth

Wake up from major disturbance No check

Awareness (PER) is a character’s passive level of aware-ness and alertness. Characters have different levels of awareness as they go through the world, depending on their current situation. All character are somewhere on this scale at all times, save for when they are sleeping. Tunneled and Focussed levels causes the character to count as Heavily and Lightly distracted respectively when it is versus other factors. The different levels of awareness are decided by whether or not there are distractions or not and whether or not the charactered is actively looking for it.Heavily Distracted awareness +3 TNSlightly Distracted awareness +1 TNPassive awareness No ModifierFocussed awareness -1 TNTunneled awareness -3 TN

Lighting table, changes depending on the situation. Ex-amples given below. Pitch Black ImpossiblePoorly Lit + 3 TNDimly Lit + 1 TNEvenly Lit No change. Brightly Lit -1 TNBlinding Impossible

Notice Extremely Simple: Something that is easily see-able but might have some minor distractions.Notice Very Simple: Something slightly less noticeable due to distractions or only being visible for a small amount of time. Notice Simple: Something slightly less that noticeable Notice: Notice something noticeable, though the situation makes it not instant. Notice Slightly Difficult: Notice something with a smaller chance to do so. Notice Moderately Difficult: Notice something with little chance to do so. Notice Very Difficult: Notice something incredibly ob-scure with almost no chance to do so.

Hearing through a minor disturbance: Hearing someone around 20 feet away, or through a minor amount of distur-bance like other people talking. Hearing through a thick barrier: Hearing through a slightly louder disturbance like a busy street or through a thick wall. Hearing through a battle or loud disturbance: Hearing through a loud disturbance like music or combat or at great distances. Wake up from minor disturbance: A chance for a character to wake up at a minor disturbance, like someone walking in the room or something touching them gently. Wake up from major disturbance: Any sort of loud noise or touch against the character causes them to wake up, so long as they are within hearing range.

Heavily Distracted awareness: Something big is happen-ing like an explosion or something is keeping the charac-ter’s focus heavily. Slightly Distracted awareness: Something minor is hap-pening to draw attention, but isn’t completely enthralling or doesn’t last very long. Passive awareness: Basic passive awareness with no distractions and nothing focused on, walking down a street with just one’s thoughts. Focussed awareness: Performing mindless or simple tasks or otherwise not heavily taxing engagements, like light conversation. Tunneled awareness: Something heavily consuming and distracting, like performing surgery or fighting someone. Pitch Black: If it is pitch black a the situation, then it becomes impossible to make a check based off vision, but once that can be made through feeling the walls or hearing can still be made at a negative. Poorly Lit: Low moonlightDimly Lit: Dim candlelight.Evenly Lit: Normal daylight. Brightly Lit: Bright, sunny day. Blinding: Skill attempt is impossible.

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Climbing

Climbing (STR, END) will be strength based usually, with a need to make endurance checks every few 10 feet. Climb-ing a ladder does not require a check.

Exhaustion Difficulties: (END) Every 10 feet of climbing requires an END based test. If at any point they can reach a flat area or crevice of some kind, and rest for a time, then they can continue forward, restarting the process.

1st 10-feet 1 success2nd 10-feet 2 successes3rd 10-feet 3 successes4th 10-feet 4 successes5th+ 10-feet increase required success by 1

Rope Difficulties: (STR)Climbing rope 1 success

Modifiers:knotted rope

-2 TN

swinging/moving rope +1 TNslippery rope +3 TN

Wall Difficulties: (STR) wooden structure, stone structure, rockface.Wall with some hand-holds

2 successes

Wall with many hand-holds

1 success

Wall with few hand-holds

3 successes

Wall with no hand-holds

Impossible (unless heavily favorably slanted and not slippery, in which case it its 1 success)

Modifiers:Favorably slanted wall -2 TNHeavily favorably slanted wall

-4 TN

Maliciously slanted wall +2 TNHeavily maliciously slanted wall

+4 TN

Slippery +3 TNMedium armor/lightly encumbered

+1 TN

Heavy armor/heavily en-cumbered

+3 TN

Climbing rope: Climbing an unknotted rope hanging securely.

Knotted rope: Climbing a knotted rope. Ordered grips make it significantly easier to climb. Swinging/moving rope: The shifting motion while trying to climb hinders your ability to proceed.Slippery rope: Rope with decreased friction, whether it be rain, oil, or sweat making it difficult to climb.

Wall with some hand-holds: While there are places to hold oneself the path is not easy-going.Wall with many hand-holds: Many places to grip ensur-ing a relatively easy ascent.Wall with few hand-holds: Few handholds make the task of scaling such a wall a tricky proposition.Wall with no hand-holds: Scaling such a wall is physi-cally impossible without specialized equipment made for such a task, or if you are a gecko.

Favorably slanted wall: The wall is slanted making it easier to climb than a vertical wall.Heavily favorably slanted wall: A wall whose is angled greatly which allows climbing to be much easier.Maliciously slanted wall: A wall angled towards you mak-ing it harder to keep a hold.Heavily maliciously slanted wall: A heavily angled wall making you nearly have to hang in order to scale.Slippery: Coated with a substance making it more difficult to maintain your grip.Medium armor/lightly encumbered: The extra weight you bear makes it not only more difficult on you muscles, but on the hand holds that support you.Heavy armor/heavily encumbered: The considerable weight on your person makes it very difficult for you to maintain grip, and for the holds to not break under the weight

When failed:When failed, the character falls short in their jump, end-ing at either the distance that they achieved, or in the case of a critical failure (no successes), they fall close to their original jumping point. If there are hand-holds of any kind, and they have any dice left, they can attempt to grab onto the wall to stop their fall. See “Falling Damage” in the Universal Rules section.

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History

History (INT) is the ability to give an accurate account of historical events (factions involved, family lineages, famous battles, histories of countries and organizations)t

Recent History 1 successHistory 3 successesAncient History 5 Successes

Modifiers:Local History -2 TNPersonal Faction/Nation History -1 TNScholarly Culture -2 TNLibraries Burned/Records Lost +3 TNForeign Faction/Nation History +3 TNForeign Local History +5 TN

Recent History: Events within the last 10 years.

History: Between 11-500 years ago.

Ancient History: Events 500+ years ago.

Local History: Events local to the character’s home re-gion.

Personal Faction/Nation History: Events to do with the character’s personal Faction or Nation.

Scholarly Culture: Events tied to a culture of scholarly tradition, be it written or oral traditions.

Libraries Burned/Records Lost: Events tied to an area that has had its records or libraries destroyed in the past, or for other reasons doesn’t have a good understanding of its past.

Foreign Faction/Nation History: Events specific to an-other Faction or Nation other than the character’s home.

Foreign Local History: Events local to another place dis-tant from the character’s home.

Intimidate

Intimidate (CHA) lets the character get their way by threatening people with harm, physical, emotional or social, and overpowering them with force of will. If the character successfully Intimidate a person, they either give the character what they want, move out of their way, or at least are more hesitant about resisting them, and make some concession. The roll is opposed by the opponent’s Willpower, rolled at TN equal to the characters Willpower.Interrogate (gain info) vs. WIP (TN equal to WIP)Bend to Will (perform simple favor)

2 success vs. WIP

Modifiers:The target has friends with him +2 TNThe target has seen you fail in some way before.

+2 TN

The target has defeated you in some way before.

+3 TN

The target has just witnessed you demonstrate your prowess or threat.

-2 TN

Target knows for an objective fact that you can not harm him in any way.

+5 TN, Sincerity check can negate this.

Upon success or failure, the victim of intimidation now dislikes the character for a great amount of time and will avoid them, or come back for vengeance.

Interrogate (gain info): Coerce someone into giving away otherwise undisclosed info.Bend to Will (perform simple favor): Force someone into doing something for you that poses low risk to them.

The target has friends with him: Having someone to provide support makes it harder to coerce them.The target has seen you fail in some way before: Past failures make it harder to back up your threats.The target has defeated you in some way before: Not only have have you failed in front of them, but they have caused the failure making it extremely difficult to force your will upon them.The target has just witnessed you demonstrate your prowess or threat: Fear is a natural motivator, and sets in more when you can back up your threats.Target knows for an objective fact that you can not harm him in any way: They called your bluff, and know you can’t hurt them making it all but impossible to coerce them.

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Jumping

Leaping (MOB) The skill of true coordination, agility and gymnastic feats. Used in actions that require extreme bal-ance and coordination, like jumping impressive distances or heights, walking along a tightrope, or effectively rolling.

Horizontal Leaping Difficulties: (MOB) Assuming run-ning start. Triple required successes for not having a run-ning start. Generally, the amount of successes dictates the distance leapt, but the character can choose to have landed at a shorter distance within the distance that their successes allows.

3 feet 0 (No check)6 feet +1 success9 feet +2 successes12 feet +3 successes15 feet +4 successes18 feet +5 successes21 feet +6 successes+ +

Modifiers:Encumbered E1 (+2 TN), E2 (+4 TN),

E3 (+6 TN)Slippery +2 TNVery Slippery +4 TNJumping onto a thin sur-face

+3 TN

Jumping from unstable surface

+2 TN

Vertical Jumping Difficulties: Single step. Is not a sepa-rate roll, but is simply the reachable height, based on the successes of the Leap. The character can choose to have not jumped as high as their successes might allow for.

1 foot 1 success2 feet 3 successes3 feet 5 successes4 feet 7 successes5 feet 9 successes

Encumbered: Your legs can only push so hard. The extra weight make it harder to reach desired height/distance.Slippery: Jumping on a slippery increases the risk of mak-ing a mistake.

Very Slippery: An extremely slippery surface make it dangerous to attempt jumping without error.

Jumping onto a thin surface: Landing on a thin surface without breaking it requires careful coordination.Jumping from unstable surface: The unstable surface makes hinders your ability to successfully complete the jump.

When failed:When failed, the character falls short in their jump, end-ing at either the distance that they achieved, or in the case of a critical failure (no successes), they fall close to their original jumping point. If there are hand-holds of any kind, and they have any dice left, they can attempt to grab onto the wall to stop their fall.

See “Falling Damage” under Universal Rules.

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Orate

Orate (CHA) is a character’s ability to hold the attention of a crowd and how well they speak to and manipulate an audience. This skill only applies to speaking to crowds or people.

Captivate 2 successes vs. average WIPInspire 3 Successes if severely demoral-

ized2 Successes if just apathetic1 Success if eager but disunified

Stir to Violence 3 Successes vs Average WIP if tranquil2 Successes vs Average WIP if calm but discontent1 Success vs Average WIP if already angry

Diffuse Violence 5 Successes vs Average WIPSpread Word/Lies 3 Successes vs Average PER.

Modifiers:Foreigner/Outsider +2 TNBad Reputation +3 TNTrusting Crowd -1 TNKnown Authority -2 TNFolk Hero, Religious Leader

-3

Captivate: Catch the attention of the crowd and make them actively listen.Inspire: Moves people to act at varying difficulties depend-ing on their willingness to complete the act.Stir to Violence: Causes people to riot becoming harder the more passive the crowd is.Diffuse Violence: Stops a riot in it’s tracks; however it is difficult to accomplish as people do not listen well in rage.Spread Word/Lies: Convince people to hear and spread what you say, be it truths or falsehood.

Foreigner/Outsider: Being unrelated to the person/people in question makes them question your motives.Bad Reputation: You are not known for not being trust-worthy, so people are unwilling to listen.Trusting Crowd: The people are eager to listen and be-lieve your words.Known Authority: You are well known and people heed your words.

Persuasion

Persuasion (CHA) is the ability to influence and change an individual’s persons disposition towards the character or to change their point of view or opinion on an issue or subject. Influence another person is largely based on their starting disposition, the character’s charisma and choice of words. All attempts should be within the realm of reason; outrageous attempts like convincing a King to give up their crown to a stranger no one knows should be impossible.

Ask favor vs. WIP, unless Willing. Get someone to Agree 2 success vs. WIP

Modifiers:Hated +3 TNDisliked +1 TNIndifferent/Unknown No modifierLiked -1 TNLoved -3 TN

Ask favor: If an character has successfully persuaded a person, then they can ask for a single favor. More successes over the person allow for greater favors, though it should never reach ridiculous demands.

Get someone to Agree: Getting someone to agree is sim-ply to get people on the characters side in an argument or to convince them that one course of action is better than another, as long as it stays within the realm of reason. Any time falsehoods are used, it stops being a Persuasion at-tempts and instead Sincerity must be used.

Hated: If the person hates the character, then it is consider-ably harder to have the character’s words heard.

Disliked: If the character is disliked, then it becomes harder, or is a stranger in a xenophobic place, then it is more difficult.

Indifferent/Unknown: If the character is regarded indiffer-ently, then there is no modifier.

Liked: If the character is well-liked, then it certainly makes getting their way easier.

Loved: If the character is loved by the target, (either in a platonic, parently way, or in an enamored fashion) then it becomes very easy to get what they want.

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Politics

Politics (INT) is a character’s knowledge of current events, from the local level to the national to all of the known world. It covers things from what nations are at war with each other, what nobles are courting others, etc.

Well known 1 successKnown 3 successesLargely Unknown 5 Successes

Modifiers:Local -2 TNPersonal Faction/Nation -1 TNGossipy culture -2 TNPropaganda +3 TNForeign Faction/Nation +1 TNForeign Local +3 TN

Well Known: If the events are often talked about and com-mon knowledge, then the attempt is very simple remem-brance.

Known: The events are known by some, but not all. Largely Unknown: The event lapsed into obscurity and is known by only a few.

Local: The event was local to the character.

Personal Faction/Nation: The event was specific to the character’s faction/nation.

Gossipy culture: The event occurred in a culture or place where gossiping is frequent and common place.

Propaganda: Events are largely changed, spun and twist-ed, making it very difficult to know the truth. Failing the roll with some successes allows the character to know the Propaganda.

Foreign Faction/Nation: Events specific to foreign faction or nation to the character’s home.

Foreign Local: Events local to foreign, far-away area to the character’s home.

Research

Research (INT) The skill of finding out information, either through pouring through libraries or finding the correct people to speak to. Requires one or both and time being spent for a Research attempt to be made.

Commonly Known/Recent Infor-mation

1 Success

Known/Near-Recent Information 3 SuccessesUnknown Information 5 Successes

Modifiers:Purposefully Hidden Information +4 TNForeign Language +3 TNUnwelcome Guest +2 TNFamiliar Subject -1 TNLight Bribe -2 TNHeavy Bribe -4 TN

Commonly Known/Recent Information: The informa-tion trying to be found is commonly known, recent or well document.

Known/Near-Recent Information: The information is known by some or there is little documentation.

Unknown Information: Information known by the few with barely any documentation, if any.

Purposefully Hidden Information: Information that is closely guarded and hidden away.

Foreign Language: Trying to learn information from a foreign language, usually through a translator.

Unwelcome Guest: Character is an unwelcome foreigner attempting to gain information.

Familiar Subject: Requires the character to have already attempted the check through another skill, and failed.

Light Bribe: Character gives a light bribe in order to gain information, Wealth 2. Bribe must go to someone that can actually help.

Heavy Bribe: Character gives a light bribe in order to gain information, Wealth 5. Bribe must go to someone that can actually help.

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Ride

Ride: (AGI) is a character’s ability to command an animal or contraption to successfully drive, steer and/or ride it. At it’s base, the character will understand the core of riding obvious creatures, such as a horse or a camel. Generally the riding skill only covers controlling the animal; for anything beyond controlling it, the animal itself makes the check, meaning the rider makes a Ride attempt to make the horse jump, and if successful, the horse then makes a jump check. All horses have a loyalty level, or are treated as Untrained.

Mount:HorseLoyalty:Loyalty Attribute, improved with training, care and famil-iarity. Increasing loyalty: Usual limit 4. [Not in Beta]

Riding tricks:Jump vs WIPCharge 1 success vs.WIPKnockdown 1 success vs.WIPTrample 2 success vs.WIPBite 1 success vs.WIPTurn vs. WIPAvoid (Obstacle) vs. WIPCalm Spooked Mount 3 success vs.WIPAvoid being thrown 2 success vs.WIP

Modifiers:Untrained +3 TNLoyalty 0 +2 TNLoyalty 1 +1 TNLoyalty 2 0 TNLoyalty 3 -1 TNLoyalty 4 -2 TNLoyalty 5 -5 TN

Jump: (CP cost 1) Simply getting the horse to jump, using its own abilities as per the Jump skill.Charge: (CP cost 4) Convincing the horse to charge into battle against armed opponents providing a visible threat. (This is required in order to initiate a Get Stuck In or Ride-by Attack action, but only has to be made once at the beginning of combat.)Knockdown: (CP cost 5) Convincing the horse to plough directly into one or multiple enemies to knock them over.Trample: (CP cost 2) Convincing the horse to deliber-

ately trample someone to death.Bite: (CP cost 2) Convincing the horse to nibble some-

one’s face off. In combat, this causes the horse to make a bite attack this Action (A Bite Attack, to the nearest unar-mored place, or barring that, the face or arm) with the horse devoting up to your Ride Successes in CP) as detailed in its profile.Outmaneuver: (CP cost 1) Leading the horse to catch up to/gain advantageous position on another horseman.Avoid (Obstacle): (CP cost 1) Cause the horse not to slam itself (or you) into an obstacle like a fence or a low hanging tree branch.Calm Spooked Mount: Calming down a panicking horse.Avoid being thrown: Preventing yourself from being flung bodily from the saddle during some upheaval of the horse.

Untrained: Controlling an untrained horse is a difficult task. Any time the rider fails a Ride attempt, they must im-mediately test against being thrown off the horse. If a horse ever goes under any formal training is no longer untrained, and has a Loyalty level.

Sincerity

Sincerity (CHA) is the ability to lie and act, keeping on a strong front and convincing people that it is true.

Lie vs. Awareness/PERPresent Fake Emotions 1 success vs. Awareness/

PER

Modifiers:Believable Lie -2 TNUnbelieveable Lie +2 TNRehearsed -3 TN

Lie: From simple to complex, this allows the character to lie. Present Fake Emotions: In more common terms, this is Acting.

Believable Lie: If the lie isn’t far from the believable truth, then the character gets a bonus. Unbelieveable Lie: If the lie is a great departure from the truth or what is believable, then the character gets a nega-tive. Rehearsed: Helpful for both lying and acting, if the lines are set ahead of time and the part premeditated and re-hearsed, then the character gets a bonus.

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Stealth

Stealth: (AGI) Moving without a sound and staying hid-den, stealth covers a character’s general guile and silent, tactical movement.

Hiding: (AGI) Not moving while in some kind of conceal-ment, or hiding along with other things in motion (blend-ing).

Hiding with Concealment vs. Awareness

Modifiers:Total Concealment No checkPartial Concealment -2 TNMinimal Concealment No ModifierNo Concealment Impossible

Stealth Maneuvers Difficulty: Slinking without sound 2 successesFalling/Jumping without sound 4 successesDodging sight 2 successes + vs.

AwarenessTrailing without notice 2 successes + vs.

AwarenessApplying camouflage 2 successesConcealing a weapon vs. PER/Awareness

Modifiers:Running +4 TNEncumbered (Light +1 TN, Medium +2

TN, Heavy + 3)Distraction Folk count as Distracted,

depending on levelMoving over loud material +3 TNMoving over soft material -3 TN

Hiding with Concealment: Concealment, silence and no movement are all that a character needs for make a hide attempt.

Total Concealment: Total concealment, meaning being on the other side of a wall or staying in total darkness with no noise or movement.

Partial Concealment: Partial concealment is kneeling behind something or standing behind a pillar or heavy shadows or heavy camouflage.

Minimal Concealment: Thin concealment, standing in a corner behind a door, light shadows, light camou-

flage.

No Concealment: Standing in the open.

Slinking without sound: Halved movement or slower

Falling/Jumping without sound (max 10 feet): The art of falling onto a surface without making noise. Requires land-ing on all fours, and landing on a non-loud material.

Dodging sight: Dodging sight is the ability to stay out of someone’s range by moving quickly and quietly.

Trailing without notice: Is the ability to follow someone without them knowing.

Applying camouflage: Applying heavy camouflage can take time and require materials like paints, or more simply just dirt and properly colored clothing.

Concealing a weapon: Within the realm of reason, a per-son can conceal weapons, against other people’s Perception or Awareness.

Running: Trying to do things quickly makes them consid-erably harder.

Distraction: Causing a distraction is always a good idea.

Moving over loud material: Materials like gravel.

Moving over soft material: Hard packed dirt, cobblestone Things that don’t make noise when being walked over.

Non-creaking wood.

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Song of SwordsSurgery

Surgery: (INT, WIP)The skill of tending to the wounded, saving lives. Staunch Bloodloss Successes temporarily stop

Bloodloss, these successes concurrent

Perform Surgery vs. Wound Level, Stop Bloodloss and half of Pain

Perform Surgery on Self (WIP)

vs. Wound Level

Restoring Functionality (easy)

1 success

Restoring Functionality (routine)

3 successes

Restoring Functionality (difficult)

5 successes

Restoring Functionality (miracle)

7 successes

Modifiers:No Help +3 TN

On Self +1 TNSterile Conditions -1 TNImproper Tools +2 TNCompetent Assistants -2 TN

Staunch Bloodloss: Staunch bloodloss is something any-one can do, simply applying pressure to stop bloodloss. Perform Surgery: A lengthy process generally requiring tools, the character can attempt to at the least patch up a wound.Perform Surgery on Self (WIP): Surgery can be per-formed on the character by themselves, but it requires a willpower test to push through the pain and fear. Restoring Functionality (easy): Resetting a shoulder, helping sprained ankle. Restoring Functionality (routine): Performing a birth, setting broken limb, pulling a tooth. Restoring Functionality (difficult): Fixing shattered jaw, restoring voice to cut throat.Restoring Functionality (miracle): Fixing a seriously damaged eye, or restoring partially severed limb. No Help: Even unskilled helpers can be invaluable to a surgery. On Self: Simply due to poor vision and awkward angles, performing surgery on oneself is harder. Sterile Conditions: Having clean, safe conditions with little distraction is helpful. Proper Tools: Having the proper tools is important. Competent Assistants: Having competent, knowledgeable helpers, ones that also have the surgery skill or at the least have helped before, is even more invaluable.

Swimming

Swimming (END, STR) Generally the checks will simply be END based, with occasional STR checks such as swim-ming through rapids or swimming in armor. Average breath 30-60 seconds, up to 5 minutes until loss of consciousness.Float No checkswimming in calm water

1 success

level 1 rapids 2 successeslevel 2 rapids 3 successeslevel 3 rapids 4 successeslevel 4 rapids 5 successeslevel 5 rapids 6 successes level 6 rapids Impossible; pure luck to

survive (No.)

Modifiers:medium armor/lightly encumbered

+2 TN

heavy armor/heavily encumbered

+5 TN

*Many other checks are still required, this is simply an at-tached swimming check.

Failure: Failure generally means that the person cannot keep their head above water, and needs to begin holding their breath. They can continue to attempt normal swim checks for a number of tries equal to their END score be-fore they run out of breath and begin drowning.

Drowning:s in danger of drowning. They must immediately make a swim check using their STR at an increasing difficulty. For each round they fail the strength check, their HET is decreased by one until zero, where the character has drowned. The above modifiers apply. If a character makes a successful strength check, they can then make another normal swim check to make it the rest of the way. If they fail again, repeat the process.

See “Drowning” under the Universal Rules section.

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Tracking

Tracking (PER) is the art of following the tracks and trails of anything that moves. It’s most commonly used for hunt-ing in the wilderness.

Tracking in Soft Ground 1 SuccessTracking in Hard Ground 3 Successes

Modifiers:Recent -3 TNStorm/Weather +3 TNHeavy/Clumsy creature -2 TNLight-footed +2 TNHidden tracks +5 TNDim Light +2 TNVery Low Light +4 TNPitch Black Impossible

Tracking in Soft Ground: Tracking in soft ground like sand or dirt or snowTracking in Hard Ground: Tracking in hard ground like small amounts of dirt over rock, or a field.

Recent: Tracks that have been made within the last 6 hours. Storm/Weather: Recent or current storm or other bad weather that might damage or remove tracks. Heavy/Clumsy Creature: Creatures larger than a man, or other heavy creatures that might be called clumsy can leave larger tracks. Light-footed: Some creatures, regardless of their size, may have the light-footed trait, and leave litle to no tracks. Hidden tracks: Tracks that were intentionally hidden. Dim Light: Lanterns or torches or a very foggy day. Very Low Light: Moonlight. Pitch Black: Pure darkness, no light whatsoever.

Chapter 3:Proficiencies

Proficiencies represent a character’s skill with weap-ons, and the uniqueness of each individual’s progression through the world of violence. A Proficiency is divided into three parts: The Proficiency Core, the Specialization Grid, and the Mastery.

The CoreThe Core is the center of the larger Proficiency’s opera-tion. All forms of One Handed Sword, for example, share the same Core. Parry, Thrust, Cut. Maneuvers that every swordsman should understand. Each Core contains the fol-lowing:

-Cut-Thrust-Parry-Block-3 Proficiency Pool

The Specialization GridThis is the large lattice-work of interconnecting nodes that sprawls across the page. Each of the colored dots on this grid represent something different. Red dots are “Maneuver Nodes,” Blue dots are “Talent Nodes,” and Yellow dots are “Pool Nodes.” When a character unlocks one of these nodes, he gains its bonuses in combat, and can use them at will when fighting with a weapon that falls within the Proficiency.

Advancing on the Grid

A character can Unlock a node that is connected by a black line (a “path”) to any Node or Core which he has already unlocked. The expenditure to Unlock a node is 1 Arc Point.

Talent NodesWhen a character acquires a Talent Node, he gains the Tal-ent contained within and adds it to his Talent List. Talents are passive abilities which affect certain actions that a character takes when employing the Proficiency for which he acquired the Talent. Refer to the Talent section of the document for details on available Talents.

Maneuver NodesWhen a character acquires a Maneuver Node, he gains access to the Maneuver contained within it when using the proficiency in which he acquired the Maneuver. Maneuvers are moves or techniques that can be performed in combat.

Refer to the Maneuver section for more details on what

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Pool NodesEach point of the yellow Pool Node adds to either your Combat Pool or Missile pool in the given proficiency.

A character’s Combat Pool is the combination of his Adroitness and the Pool value of his current Proficiency. This is the amount of dice he has to divide up between his actions every Round. Each die spent from a Combat Pool generally translate into one die being rolled when used in maneuvers.

Missile Pool, which is made up of your Perception score combined with your Proficiency Pool from the Missile Proficiency you’re using. The Missile Pool is not like the Combat Pool in that it doesn’t have a “refresh” stage, as soon as a character elects to take a Shooting action, his Missile Pool is formed, any Pain he has is subtracted from it, and he then uses it.

Mastery[Not included in Beta]

Progressing

When a character purchases his way into a Proficiency by spending 3 points to unlock the Core, he gains a small set of bonuses that apply to him in combat when he uses a weapon in the category. From here, he can buy (with Pro-ficiency Points purchased at a 1 for 1 cost with Arc Points) advances down the grid. Any Node adjacent to a Node he has already unlocked can be unlocked with if the points are available. As soon as a Node is unlocked, its contents become available for use. Simple as that.

Maneuvers:

Offensive Maneuvers

ThrustActivation: 0 StandardRequirements: Have a Weapon capable of thrusting.Basic attack at Thrust TN, inflicting Thrust damage (gen-erally of bludgeon or piercing type), and +1 damage per Bonus Success. If you are thrusting, and forced to make an Initiative Contest, you gain a +1 die bonus.

StrikeActivation: 0 StandardRequirements: Have a Weapon capable of Striking.Basic attack at Strike TN, inflicting Strike damage (can be of cut, bludgeon or swung piercing type), and +1 damage

per Bonus Success. If you are striking, and your enemy

chooses to Parry, you may immediately sacrifice up to 1 CP from your attack pool to reduce the enemy’s Parry

pool by 1 as well.

BeatActivation: 0 StandardRequirements: Weapon capable of swinging, First Clash, Offensive OrientationAdvanced Attack at Strike TN, ignoring Range Penalties, and targeting either enemy’s weapon or shield. If success-ful, enemy cannot use target weapon or shield to defend OR attack in the following exchange. Enemy takes Shock equal to 2x Bonus Successes.Successful Beat does not change your Combat Range.

HewActivation: 1 StandardRequirements: Weapon capable of swinging, target has a shieldAdvanced Attack at Strike TN, aimed at an enemy’s Shield. This attack cannot be Blocked, but can be parried or Voided. If successful, the defender first takes Shock equal to Bonus Successes. Defender’s Shield then sustains an attack as-per the Attacker’s Strength, Weapon Damage, and Bonus Successes. If this breaks the shield, any excess dam-age is then applied to the defender’s Shield-Arm.

Break [Not Usable in Beta]Activation: 2 StandardRequirements: Weapon capable of swinging, target weapon has a Haft valueAdvanced Attack at Strike TN, aimed at an enemy’s Weap-on. This attack cannot be parried, but can be Voided or Blocked. If successful, the defender first takes Shock equal to Bonus Successes. Defender’s Weapon then sustains an attack as-per the Attacker’s Strength, Weapon Damage, and Bonus Successes.

DisarmActivation: 1 StandardRequirements: Enemy has a WeaponAdvanced Offense at Thrust or Strike TN, targeting an en-emy weapon. If successful, the enemy must make a KD roll at a target equal to Bonus Successes. If he fails, his weapon is immediately thrown from his grasp.

MurderstrikeActivation: 2 StandardRequirements: You are using a sword with a Guard valueConverts weapon temporarily into a 2H bludgeoning weapon, with +1 Strike TN, no Thrust TN, that inflicts Bludgeoning damage equal to the weapon’s Guard value. Converting the weapon back to its normal self costs 1 die.

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Half-SwordActivation: 2 StandardRequirements: You are using a swordConverts weapon temporarily into a 2H weapon, with -1 Reach, a -1 Thrust TN, a +1 Strike TN, and a -1 Parry TN. This weapon inflicts an additional +2 Thrusting damage, but suffers a -1 to Cutting damage. Converting the weapon back to its normal self costs 1 die.

FeintActivation: Variable StandardRequirements: NoneAdvanced Offense. When making a basic Strike attack, declare a Feint to change the target of the attack, and to add 1 CP per 2 CP spent on this maneuver to the attack pool. The second target of the attack may either be a cut or a thrust. Only weapons with the Fluid Thrusts quality can Feint from a thrust.

Hilt-Push[The Push is a form of Winding & Binding (simplified for Beta,) in which combatants have leveraged their weapons against each other, and now push, sliding their weapons against each other, in a fight for points of strength and leverage, to try and force themselves into an advantageous position, allowing them to hit the enemy with full force at little or no risk to themselves.]Activation: 1 StandardRequirements: You have just parried the enemy’s attack, enemy has just parried your attack. Enemy weapon is not more than 1 stage longer than your weapon.When activating this maneuver, yours and the enemy’s weapons become ‘locked,’ and remain so until the Push ends. When locked, weapons’ Reach ceases to be a factor.If you have the Hilt-Push maneuver, you gain a +2 to your CP during the Push. If you do not, you gain no bonus, but may still perform all of the maneuvers detailed herein.

During the Push, characters no longer have Initiative, they have Advantage. Unlike in regular combat, characters without Advantage cannot attempt Advantage maneu-vers. Rounds still follow normally, with Actions flowing as usual. In the first Action following the initiation of the Push, neither character has Advantage, and both must make a Wind action to try and gain it, or else try to Evade from the bind.

Advantage Maneuvers

Slide-ThrustActivation: 0Standard attack at Weapon Thrust TN aimed at chest, head, or belly. If successful, the attack inflicts damage as a nor-mal thrust.

Slide-CutActivation: 1Requirements: Can only be performed if enemy’s weapon is Levered Down.Advanced attack at Weapon Cut TN. If successful at surpassing enemy defensive, no Defense Successes are subtracted from your Bonus Successes for the purposes of inflicting additional damage. As soon as a Slide-Cut is used, success or fail, the Push ends.

Lever-DownActivation: 2Advanced Attack at Weapon Parry TN, this maneuver gains +1 CP if your weapon is 2H and enemy weapon is 1H. If successful, enemy suffers Shock equal to bonus successes, and cannot Wind or Bind in the next Exchange, only Evade.

Hilt StrikeActivation: 1Requirements: NoneWeapon is used to half-sword or quartersaff, and bludgeon opponent with off-end. Counts as a Strike with a Strike TN 7 weapon that inflicts Str+0b damage and +1 shock. As soon as a Hilt Strike is used, success or fail, the Push ends.

Grapple[Not in Beta]

Non-Advantage Maneuvers

WindStandard defense at Weapon Parry. If successful, enemy attack is negated and Advantage is taken. This Maneuver is also used in the first round of the Bind to secure Advan-tage.

BindAdvanced defense at Weapon Parry. If successful, enemy attack is negated and Advantage is taken, AND enemy suffers Shock equals to Bonus Successes. If unsuccessful, all Bind successes are nullified, and enemy attack passes through with all of its successes as Bonus Successes.

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EvadeActivation Cost: 4Identical to the universal Evade maneuver.

Snap-HitActivation: 2 StandardRequirements: One of your Swinging attacks was just par-ried or blocked without Bonus SuccessesYou may spend the Activation Cost to keep Initiative, on the condition that your next attack is a Strike, aimed at the opposite side of the opponent’s body. This Strike is made at +1 TN. If that attack is also parried or blocked, you may repeat this process up to two additional times, each time keeping Initiative, aiming at the other side of the op-ponent’s body from the most recent attack, and suffering another +1 TN.

Shield BashActivation: 0 StandardRequirements: You have a shield.Basic Offense at Block TN, delivered at Hand range, in-flicting STR bludgeoning damage. Cannot be Parried.

HookActivation: 1 StandardRequirements: You have a weapon with the Hook quality. (This includes Half-Swording and Murdestrike-activated swords.)Advanced Offense at Thrust or Strike TN, targeting enemy Shield or enemy himself.If targeting Shield: If successful, enemy must make a KD roll equal to Bonus successes or be unable to use his shield in the following Exchange. You keep the initiative.If targeting Enemy: If successful, enemy must make a KD roll equal to Bonus Successes or be rendered Prone, and suffer Shock equal to Bonus Successes.

TripActivation:1 StandardRequirements: NoneAdvanced attack made at Short range using the legs, or arms, with all associated Range penalties. The attack TN is 7. The enemy may not parry this attack, but may use any Void, or attempt to buy the initiative and attack through it.If successful, the enemy must make a KD roll equal to Bo-nus Successes or be rendered Prone, and suffer Shock equal to Bonus Successes.

Defensive Maneuvers

ParryActivation: 0 StandardRequirements: Weapon capable of Parrying.Basic Defense at Weapon’s Parry TN. If enemy’s successes

are met, attack is negated, but attacker gains initia-tive. If bonus successes are earned over enemy successes,

defender gains initiative.

BlockActivation: 0 StandardRequirements: Have a ShieldBasic defense at Shield’s Block TN. If enemy’s successes are met, attack is negated and attacker gains initiative.

Staff-ParryActivation: 1 StandardRequirements: Weapon with the Staff special attribute, ability to apply 2 hands to the weapon.When this ability is activated, the character’s weapon immediately gains the Staff Parry bonuses detailed under weapon special rules. This decreases the weapon’s reach, but increases its Parry TN, making it more useful in parry-ing.

Parry-OffActivation: 1 Standard, 3 vs SwingRequirements: Enemy attacks with a thrust (for standard cost) or a swing (vs Swing cost)Advanced Defense at Parry TN. If successful, the at-tack is negated and the defender wins the Initiative. Next Exchange, if a thrust attack is made at the defeated target (now defender,) he immediately suffers Shock equal to the Bonus Successes of the Parry Off.

Block-OffActivation: 1Requirements: Have a shield.Advanced Defense at Block TN. If successful, the attack is negated, the defender wins Initiative, and the target imme-diately suffers Shock equal to half of the Bonus Successes.

ObviateActivation: 2 StandardRequirements: Have a shield.Advanced Offense at Block TN, targeting an enemy weapon. If successful, the target’s weapon cannot be used to make attacks this Action or the next. If used against an attack being made this Action, success cancels the attack, and returns half of the CP allocated to the cancelled attack to the enemy.

RiposteActivation: 2 StandardRequirements: Enemy is making an attackAdvanced Defense at Parry TN. If successful, defender seizes initiative, and may make a basic attack in the next Exchange that is an exact mirror of target’s defended attack in hit location, with bonus dice equal to the defeated At-tack’s successes.

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Simultaneous Parry & StrikeActivation: 3 StandardRequirements: NoneAdvanced Offense/Defense. When using this maneuver, you may declare a Parry and a basic attack, either Thrust or Strike, with the same weapon. If you do not have the initiative, and you are being attacked, your Strike resolves after the enemy attack, assuming you are still capable of attacking.

Simultaneous Block & StrikeActivation: 0 StandardRequirements: You have a shield.Advanced Offense/Defense. When using this maneuver, you may declare a Block with your Shield, and a basic at-tack, either Thrust or Strike, with your weapon.You must devote CP into each of these two maneuvers, and neither can be more than half-again as large as the other. If you do not have the initiative, and you are being attacked, your Strike resolves after the enemy attack, assuming you are still capable of attacking.

Ranged Maneuvers

SharpshotWhen making an attack on an opponent at Short range or closer, you may spend 3 MP to make a Sharpshot, which does not roll on the Shooting Table for missiles, but instead hits the location chosen by you at the time of shooting—rolling then on that Hit Location table.

Quick SelectionWhen making an attack on an opponent you can see clear-ly, you may spend 1 MP to choose a specific arrow with which to shoot him out of your supply of arrows without having to knock a special arrow at the start of the round.

Power DrawWhen making an attack on an opponent, you may spend 1 MP to increase the damage your bow inflicts by 1 automati-cally.

Rapid ShotWhen making an attack you may spend 1 MP and reserve dice from your missile pool until after your attack has been resolved and fire an additional shot with your remaining pool. You may do this as many times as you wish so long as you can pay the activation cost and still have more dice for the shot.

Universal ManeuversSome maneuvers are so intuitive that they are available to every character regardless of proficiency. These are listed here.

Offensive

Hand ParryRequirements: Have a free hand, or hand holding cloak, hat, etc. Enemy is thrusting, or cutting with fewer than 4 dice.Basic Defense with off-hand at TN 6. Successful parry negates enemy attack as normal parry.Failed parry results in damage to hand as though struck with half Bonus Successes, in addition to normal enemy attack. If Hand Parry is performed while hand is properly shielded from harm with a cloak, hat, towel, blanket, cat, etc, failed parry results in damage to hand as though struck without bonus successes. Hand also gains Armor 1. This is not cumulative with any sort of gauntlet, glove, etc, already in use.

Double AttackRequirements: You have a second weapon.Attack with both weapons simultaneously, dividing CP between both attacks. Can be any combination of attacks desired, and enemy can attempt to parry/block/void them both in any combination. If attacks are aimed at same or adjacent locations, both can be separately parried with the same weapon/shield.

PunchActivation: 0Attack at Short range at ATN 6. Inflicts Str-2b damage, plus ½ of Bonus Successes. Gauntlets, Cestus, etc, add +1 dam-age. Half of total damage is inflicted back upon hand.If Parried, count as a Strike against striking arm with no Bonus Successes.

ElbowActivation: 0Attack at Hand range at ATN 6. Inflicts Str-1 damage, plus ½ of Bonus Successes. Armored elbows, etc, add +1 dam-age.If parried, count as Strike against striking arm with no bonus successes.

KickActivation: 1 (2 if aimed above belly)Attack at Medium range at ATN 7. Inflicts Str-1b damage, plus Bonus Successes. Sabatons, iron plated boots, etc, add +1 damage. Successful attack also forces Knockdown at Bonus Successes.If parried, counts as Strike against striking leg with no bonus successes.

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Defensive

VoidActivation: 0+Encumbrance StandardBasic Defense at TN 8. Does not gain Initiative without at least 2 Bonus Successes.

Void & StrikeActivation: 1+Encumbrance StandardAdvanced Offense/Defense. When using this maneuver, you may declare a Void or Aggressive Void, and a basic attack, either Thrust or Strike, with your weapon. You must devote CP into each of these two maneuvers, and neither can be more than half-again as large as the other. If you do not have the initiative, and you are being attacked, your Strike resolves after the enemy attack, assuming you are still capable of attacking.

Aggressive VoidActivation: 0+Encumbrance StandardAdvanced Defense at TN 9. If successful, defeated attacker suffers half of defeated attack’s CP in shock immediately.

EvadeActivation: 0+Encumbrance StandardRequirements: Cannot have made an Offensive Maneuver in the previous Exchange, or made a Defensive Maneuver that involved making Basic Offensive Maneuvers as part of it.Basic Defense at TN 4. If you successfully evade enemy attack, you exit the Engagement and become a Bystander.

Talents

Melee Talents

Rapid ReactionWhen you are hit by a melee attack in combat, you may alter the roll to see which location is hit by 1 in either direction.

SternYou suffer 2 fewer Shock from all injuries (but not from maneuver effects and weapon abilities that inflict additional Shock.)

Superior VoidYou perform all Void maneuvers are performed at -1 TN.

Swift SwordYou gain +1 dice to Initiative Contests.

Snap-OffIf your Strike attack last Exchange was parried but tied, allowing you to retain Initiative, you gain +1 die to a swing made this Exchange to the other side of the target’s body.

Stop-CutWhen buying the initiative to attack an attacking enemy’s weapon-arm, you gain +1 dice to the Initiative Contest.

SpecialistOne maneuver of your choice (chosen at the time of acquir-ing this Talent) can be performed at 1 less CP cost from now on as long as you are using this proficiency.

CatstepWhen successfully Voiding an enemy attack, you gain the Initiative on a tie, instead of requiring Bonus Successes.

Power AttackWhen spending 1 CP to increase the damage of a Strike as-per Strike rules, you increase the damage by an additional 1.

Flourishing DrillsIf you made a Strike that either hit, or was Voided in the last Exchange, you gain +1 dice to any Strike you make in this Exchange.

AccuracyWhen an attack made by you hits an enemy, you may modify the Hit Location Roll by 1. If the enemy has Rapid Reaction, you must make the modification first.

Bad WarWhen engaging multiple enemies at the same time, you may declare attacks on up to 3 of them simultaneously with the same weapon, dividing your pool into multiple attacks as though you had three weapons. These attacks must, however, all be made on a horizontal or diagonal vector. (There are situations in which this would be logically im-possible, at GM discretion.)

JuggernautWhen you suffer damage, you may spend 2 CP to delay the Pain inflicted on you from coming into play until the next Refresh. Shock comes through as normal.

BehemothStriking attacks you perform inflict an extra 1 shock per bonus success.

Looping SwingIf a Strike made by you misses or is Voided, you regain 1 of the spent CP from the attack.

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BruiserWhen you inflict damage with a melee weapon, you cause 1 additional Pain per Wound Level, before subtracting WIP.

Helm-SplitterWhen making downwards strikes to the head or neck, you inflict +1 damage.

Shield-BreakerWhen attempting to Hew enemy shields, you inflict +2 damage.

InfighterWhen fighting an enemy inside of your weapon’s reach, your penalty to attacks is 1 less than it would be normally.

Arm-GuardYou gain +1 dice when defending attacks made to your arms.

IronwallYou gain +2 bonus dice to Knockdown tests.

Ranged Talents

Skilled MaintenanceYour bow’s range increments all increase by 5 yards, be-cause of your expert knowledge in caring for and warming up the weapon. This only applies when you are using a bow you are familiar with and have had for long enough to learn its quirks (about a week, half that if in active use)

Lightning ReflexesYou may draw and shoot your bow in the first Bystander Phase in a combat, even during surprise, assuming the weapon is already strung and not out of handy reach.

Quick StringerYou can string your bow in one Phase instead of two.

Mean SpiritedYou take measures to ensure that the arrows are always in-fectious. Loose heads that come off when pulled out, filthy coverings applied casually, etc. Wounds inflicted by your arrows have a +1 infection chance.

Mobile ArcheryYou have mastered the skill of moving and shooting a bow at the same time without much loss in accuracy. You may move up to half of your Walking speed while continuing to fire normally during the Bystander Phase.

Horse ArcheryYou have learned the trick of firing a bow from horseback, timing the release with the hoofbeats of the animal and an instinctive understanding of that rhythm. When shooting from horseback, you suffer only half of the Horse Archery Penalties for your missile attacks with this proficiency.

Naval ArcheryYou know a thing or two about shooting at long distances on a moving vessel, at a moving vessel. When on uneven or moving footing, you suffer half of the normal penalties to shooting with a bow.

Exquisite MarksmanshipYou are really, really good at making that arrow go where you want to. It’s a talent that borders on the preternatural. When you hit a target with an attack, you may adjust the roll on the Damage Table for exact hit location by 1.

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Chapter 4:Character

Advancement

Character AdvancementIn this section, you will learn how to use Arc Points to ad-vance your character’s Attributes, Skills, Proficiencies and other statistics.

Spending Arc PointsWhen a player spends Arc Points advancing his charac-ter, they are removed from his Arc Pool, and considered expended.

Leveling up ProficienciesNumber of Arc Points Spent

Number of Proficiency Points Gained

1 1

Leveling up AttributesPrevious Attribute Level

New Attribute Level

Arc Cost

1, Human Minimum 2 32 3 53 4 74 5 95 6 116 7 137 8 158 9 179 10, Human Maxi-

mum19

Leveling up SkillsWhen levelling up Skills, you spend 1 Arc, and receive a number of Skill Points equal to your Intelligence score, which you can then use to purchase skills at the costs de-tailed in the Skills section.

Skill Level Target Number SP to Increase Skill Bonuses

1 8 1

2 8 2 Gifted 1*

3 7 3

4 7 4 Gifted 25 6 5

6 6 6 Gifted 37 5 7

8 5 8 Gifted 49 4 9

10 3 12 Mas-tery**

*Gifted: Grants one extra Die for the pool. **Mastery: Grants 1 automatic success, in addition to the pool.

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Chapter 5: Wealth & Inventory

This section covers a character’s belongings, his wealth, and how he goes about getting more (or losing!) either or both.

WealthA character’s net wealth and spending power is represented by the Wealth attribute. This number ranges between 1-10, with 1 being impoverished to the point of starvation, and 10 being excruciatingly, obscenely wealthy. It does not merely represent his wealth in currency, but also in valuables, con-nections, debts (the good sort!) and land.

A character’s starting wealth is determined by his social class and his life path.

PurchasesEvery item has a Value, a number that represents the amount of wealth required to purchase it. If a character’s wealth exceeds the value of an item available for purchase where he is (Item Value can fluctuate depending on cir-cumstances and location) he can simply buy one. This does not affect his wealth in any meaningful way. This is be-cause the Wealth stat is exponential, someone with Wealth 3 does not have twice as much money as Wealth 2, he has many, many times as much money.Purchasing an item equal to the character’s Wealth score in value reduces his Wealth by one, unless he can pass a Persuasion attempt with difficulty determined by the value of the item (and maybe the merchant’s tenacity.) If this test succeeds, you can acquire the item without losing wealth. However, if this test is failed, you lose the point of Wealth, and the purchase is made automatically--you’ve invested money that you can’t get back, and still got hosed. If you botch the test, you lose two Wealth points instead of one. See the Persuasion skill in the Skills Section for more detail. There is no way to acquire an item above your wealth score without some significant event contributing to it, at the GM’s discretion.

Gaining and Losing WealthWealth is positively affected in one way only: The addition of a source of Wealth equal to or higher than your current Wealth. This can be in the form of stock in a sharecropping operation,, treasure recovered from a dungeon, a series of valuable trade contacts acquired, a successful venture that will ensure lasting income, a strong series of investments sure to pay reliable dividends in the future, or something as simple as hard payment. When the value of the payment is equal to your current Wealth, your Wealth remains the

same, but is made Robust. Robust wealth is harder to decrease, even if its hard buying power does not increase.

Robustness is denoted in a box next to the Wealth score. If you gain yet another payment equal to your already Robust Wealth score, your Wealth increases by one point.If the Value of the payment is higher than your previous Wealth, then your Wealth rises to the new level. If your Wealth was Robust before, it loses this quality once in-creased. It takes time and money to secure your new invest-ments against catastrophe.

Robust WealthHaving Robust Wealth of a certain value is kind of like having half an additional Wealth point. It means that while you don’t necessarily have a ton more money than someone with non-robust wealth of the same level, you have more ways to replenish it quickly, more backup investments, and are essentially that much more secure. When you make a Purchase using Robust Wealth, you may make purchases at your Wealth level without losing a point of Wealth, and without making a Bartering check.

LifestyleLifestyle represents a character’s monthly expenditures and the cost of living.

Cost per month is the amount your Wealth lowers each month you live in this manner unless your Wealth is equal to or above the Expenditure Cap.If your lifestyle ever decreases past Impoverished, you have a pretty good chance of starving or freezing to death.You can maintain a lifestyle through employment, or work, of gainfulness appropriate to the lifestyle.

Living Quality

Cost Per Month

Expendi-ture Cap

Appropriate Career

Impov-erished Lifestyle

1 1r Dirt Farmer, Begger

Frugal Living

1 5 Farmer, Goat-herd, Soldier

Reason-able Means

2 7 Tradesman, Arti-san, Clergy

Extrava-gant Life-style

3 9 Merchant, Lesser Nobility

Obscene Hedonism

5 10r Italian Banking Tycoons, Power-ful Nobility

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Items

Food & LodgingA cup of wine, an apple, a loaf of bread: 0Bare Breakfast for a Peasant: 0Hearty Breakfast for a Freeman: 1Lavish Dinner for a Merchant 3Decadent Supper for a Noble 4Obscene Meal for a King: 5Large meal for several men: 5Feast worthy of a dozen noblemen: 6Twenty-course banquet fit for Sulla’s optimates: 7A month’s rations for 1 man: 1A month’s rations for 10 men: 3A month’s rations for 100 men: 5A month’s rations for 1000 men: 6A month’s rations for 3000 men: 7A month’s rations for 10,000 men: 8A night’s lodging at an inn for 1-3: 1A week’s lodging at a common house: 2A week’s lodging in a fine hostel: 3The lease of a small building for six months: 4

Fineries, Jewelry, and TreasuresA silver ring 1A fist-sized bag of pepper 1A gold tooth 2A bottle of Excellent Wine 3A gold torque or cloak pin 3A simple gold wedding ring 4A pound of cinnamon 4An excellent of silverware for one 5Some excellent porcelain dishware 5A Fine garment suitable for a noble gathering: 5A magnificent golden ring studded with gems 6A silver choker set with a ruby the size of a quail egg 7A pound of uncut cocaine 7A large pail of diamonds: 8The Crown Jewels of a respectable nation: 9The exquisite regalia of a God-King: 10A 12x12 inch cube of solid gold weighing slightly over half a ton, with a modern value (circa 2013) of ~25 million US dollars: 10

Animals, Mounts etcPersonable and Friendly Dog: 1Donkey: 1Theoretically Seaworthy Rowboat: 2Ox, Workhorse: 2Vicious Attack Dog: 2A lesser Riding Horse: 3A Trained Bear: 4

A Lesser Warhorse (Courser, Rouncey): 4

A Superior Riding Horse: 5A Superior Warhorse (Destrier, Imported Arabian War-

horse): 5An Exquisite Warhorse (Polish Charger of near-human intelligence that thirsts for blood): 7

Tools, Items, Hardware, MiscellaneaClimbing Equipment 2Saddle & Riding tack 2Blankets, camping supplies 1Cheap Surgeon’s Tools 5Expensive Surgeon’s Tools 6Spyglass 6Compass 4

Excellent Map of a ProvinceRope 100 feet 1Poisons(Illegal)Rare medicinal substances 1-6Cart 1

ServicesGuide, 1 day: 1Guide, 1 week: 3Servant, 1 month: 4ay’s work by a Cheap Surgeon (Skill Level 1-2)Day’s work by a Decent Surgeon (Skill Level 3-5)Day’s work by a Outstanding Surgeon (Skill Level 6-8)

Squire10 Low quality Mercenaries:10 High quality Mercenaries:

Purchasing in BulkThough a character with wealth 5 can simply purchase, without penalty or expenditure of his Wealth, a Value 4 item, costs do tend to mount when buying in large quanti-ties.

In general, when making purchases, every multiple of 10 that a character buys of a value X item, increases the actual cost to him by +1. Buying 10 Value 4 items is effectively Value 5. Buying 100 Value 4 items is effectively Value 6, etc.The GM may, at his discretion, round these numbers either way, in the case of sneaky players attempting to stretch the system by purchasing 9 Value 5 items, 9 Value 4 items, 9 Value 3 items, etc, to try and get around the rules. Don’t be a tool.

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WeaponsWeapon Qualities

HandsThis details how many hands are required to wield the weapon.

ReachThis details the reach of the weapon. Reach gives weapons an advantage in initiative, and makes it harder for enemies with shorter weapons to close to striking range.Weapon Reach Initiative Bonus DiceHand +1Short +2Medium +3Long +4Very Long +5Extremely Long +6Ludicrously Long +7

TypeWeapon Type details what Proficiency each weapon uses.StrikeThe first number outside of parentheses is the Strike TN of the weapon. This is the target number used when making striking attacks. The second number is the bonus to dam-age, and the letter next to that is the type of damage this weapon inflicts with this sort of attack. So, 5(+1c) would be a Strike TN of 5, and then +1 to damage of the Cutting type.

ThrustThe first number outside of parentheses is the Thrust TN of the weapon. This is the target number used when making thrusting attacks. The second number is the bonus to dam-age, and the letter next to that is the type of damage this weapon inflicts with this sort of attack. So, 6(+1p) would be a Strike TN of 6, and then +1 to damage of the piercing type.

Guard/HaftThis number is added, as armor, to the total DR of the sword-hand against enemy attacks, as long as the weapon is being held.For hafted weapons, this number is used for determining a weapon’s resistance to damage from Break maneuvers and when being set against charges, and also again when being couched from horseback.

DefenseThis is the Parry TN of the weapon, the number which must be rolled over to gain a success when performing a Parry with it in combat.

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Melee WeaponsWeapon Hands Reach Type Strike Thrust Guard/Haft Defense Special CostKnives

Small Knife 1 H Knife 5(-2c) 6(-1p) - 10 - 1Long Knife 1 S Knife 6(-1c) 6(-1p) - 10 - 1Rondel Dagger 1 S Knife 7(-1c) 6(0p) - 7 - 1Cinquedea 1 S Knife 6(0) 7(+1) - 8 - 2Misericord 1 H Knife - 6(0p) - 10 Armor

Piercing 11

Curved Dagger 1 H Knife 6(0c) 7(-2p) - Draw 1 2

Puukko 1 H Knife 7(-1c) 6(0p) - 10 1

Folding Knife (Navaja)

1 H Knife 6(0c) 7(-1p) - 10 Draw 1

1H Swords Hands Reach Type Strike Thrust Guard/Haft Defense Special CostArming Sword 1 M Sword 6(+1c) 6(+0p) 1 6 - 2Schweizerdegen 1 S Sword 6(+0c) 5(+1p) 1 7 Armor

Piercing 1 (thrust)

2

Falchion 1 M Sword 6(+2c) 8(+0p) 1 7 Armor Piercing 1 (strike)

1

Short Sword 1 M Sword 6(+0) 6(+0p) 2 6 - 1Espada Ropera 1 M Sword 7(-1c) 6(+2p) 2 6 - 4Messer 1 M Sword 6(+1c) 7(+0p) 1 6 Draw 1 1Scimitar 1 M Sword 6(+0c) 8(-1p) 1 6 Draw 2 4Scythe-Sword 1 M Sword 7(+1c) 9(-2p) 1 7 Draw 3 1Yataghan 1 M Sword 6(+2c) 7(+0p) 0 6 Draw 2 1Saber 1 M Sword 6(+1c) 7(+0p) 1 6 Draw 2 2Kilij 1 M Sword 6(+2c) 8(+0p) 2 7 Draw 2 4Dussack 1 S Sword 6(+1c) 6(+0p) 3 6 Draw 1 12H Swords Hands Reach Type Strike Thrust Guard/Haft Defense Special CostBastard Sword 2 L Sword 7(+1c) 6(+2p) 3 6 Armor

Piercing 1 (thrust)

4

Goedenak 2 M Sword 6(+3c) 8(-1p) 1 7 Armor Piercing 1 (Strike)

1

Estoc 2 L Sword 8(-1b) 6(+2p) 3 6 Armor Piercing 2 (thrust)

4

Grosse-Messer 2 L Sword 6(+2c) 7(+0p) 2 6 Draw 2 1Claymore 2 L Sword 6(+2c) 7(+1p) 4 6 - 2

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Longsword 2 L Sword 6(+2c) 7(+1p) 3 6 - 2Zweihander 2 VL Sword 7(+4c) 7(+2p) 3 7 4

Montante 2 VL Sword 6(+3c) 7(+1p) 3 7 4

1H Blunt Hands Reach Type Strike Thrust Guard/Haft Defense Special CostClub/Truncheon 1 S Blunt 5(+0b) 6(-1b) 0 6 0

Warhammer 1 S Blunt 6(+2b) NA 0 7 Armor Piercing 1 (strike)

1

Light Mace (Knobbed)

1 S Blunt 6(+1b) NA 0 6 Armor Piercing 1 (strike), Shock 2

1

Light Mace (Flanged)

1 S Blunt 6(+1b) NA 0 6 Armor Piercing 2 (strike)

1

Light Mace (Spiked)

1 S Blunt 6(+0b) NA 0 6 Armor Piercing 1 (Strike), Bleed 2

1

Hand Axe 1 S Blunt 6(+2c) NA 0 7 Armor Piercing 1 (Strike)

1

War Axe 1 M Blunt 6(+3c) NA 0 8 Armor Piercing 1 (Strike)

1

Light Flail 1 M Blunt 7(+2b) NA 0 10 Armor Piercing 2, Chain 2, Shock 2

1

Two-Headed Flail 1 M Blunt 8(+2b) NA 0 10 Armor Piercing 2, Chain 2, Shock 2, Multi-Hit 2

2

Arming Spike - - - - 7(+0p) - - Attachment

2H Blunt Hands Reach Type Strike Thrust Guard/Haft Defense Special CostLarge Club 2 M Blunt 6(+1b) 6(+0b) - 6 1

Great Axe 2 L Blunt 6(+4c) NA - 8 Armor Piercing 2, Shock 2

2

Heavy Warhammer 2 M Blunt 6(+3b) NA - 6 Armor Piercing 2

2

Heavy Mace (Knobbed)

2 M Blunt 6(+3b) NA - 7 Armor Piercing 1 (strike), Shock 2

2

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Heavy Mace (Flanged)

2 M Blunt 6(+3b) NA - 7 Armor Piercing 2 (strike)

2

Heavy Mace (Spiked)

2 M Blunt 6(+2b) NA - 7 Armor Piercing 1 (Strike), Bleed 2

2

War Flail 2 VL Blunt 8(+4b) NA - 8 Armor Piercing 2, Chain 2, Shock 2

2

Polearms Hands Reach Type Strike Thrust Guard/Haft Defense Special CostShort Spear 1 M Polearm 7(-1c) 6(+1p) - 7 - 1Arming Spear 1 L Polearm 7(-1c) 6(+2p) - 8 Staff 1Spear 1 VL Polearm 8(-2c) 6(+2p) - 8 Staff,

Charge-Set1

Pike 2 LL Polearm NA 7(+2p) - 10 Charge-Set 1Light Lance 1 VL Polearm NA 6(+1p) - 10 Staff, Lance

Charge 31

Heavy Lance 1 EL Polearm NA 7(+2p) - 10 Lance Charge 3

2

Hussar Lance 1 LL Polearm NA 8(+3p) - 10 Lance Charge 3

3

Spetum 2 VL Polearm 7(-1c) 7(+2p) - 6 Charge-Set, Specialism: Disarm (6)

1

Partisan 2 VL Polearm 7(+1c) 7(+2p) - 6 Charge-Set 2Swordstaff 2 EL Polearm 7(+2c) 7(+2p) - 10 Charge Set 2Ahlspiess 2 L Polearm NA 7(+4p) - 6 Armor

Piercing 2 (thrust)

2

Quarterstaff 2 VL Polearm 6(+0b) 6(-1b) - 6 - 1Longstaff 2 EL Polearm 7(+0b) 6(+0b) - 6 - 1Forest Bill 2 EL Polearm 7(+2c) 8(+2p) - 8 Armor

Piercing 1 (cut), Specialism: Hook (6)

1

Black Bill 2 VL Polearm 6(+3c) 7(+2p) - 7 Armor Piercing 2 (cut), Specialism: Hook (5)

1

Ranseur 2 VL Polearm 8(-1c) 7(+2p) - 6 2

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Bardiche 2 VL Polearm 7(+4c) NA - 8 Armor Piercing 2 (cut), Shock 2

3

Lochbar Axe 2 VL Polearm 7(+3c) 7(+1p) - 8 Armor Piercing 1 (cut), Specialism: Hook (6), Shock 2

2

Glaive 2 VL Polearm 6(+1c) 6(+1p) - 7 Staff, Draw 2

3

Voulge 2 EL Polearm 7(+3c) 7(+2p) - 8 Armor Piercing 1 (cut)

2

Halberd 2 EL Polearm 7(+4c) 7(+2p) - 8 Armor Piercing 2 (cut), Specialism: Hook (6)

3

Bec de Corban 2 VL Polearm 7(+3p) 8(+2p) - 7 Armor Piercing 2 (strike)

3

Lucerne Hammer 2 VL Polearm 7(+4b) 8(+2p) - 7 Armor Piercing 2 (strike), Shock 4

3

Morningstar 2 L Polearm 7(+4b) 9(+2p) - 8 Armor Piercing 2 (strike), Bleed 2 (strike), Shock 2

1

Poleaxe 2 L Polearm 6(+2c/+2b)

6(+2p) - 6 Armor Piercing 2 (thrust), Armor Piercing 1 (strike), Shock 2

2

Winged Spear (Spontoon)

2 L Polearm 6(+0c) 6(+2p) - 6 - 1

Military Fork 2 VL Polearm NA 8(+1p) - 8 Multi-Hit 1

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Melee Weapon SpecialsSpecial EffectMulti-Hit When Weapons with “Multi-Hit” hit a target, two identical attacks occur. The second always hits the

area adjacent to (higher 1-3, lower 4-6) the first attack, which is rolled normally. The second attack gains all bonuses to damage that the first one does.

Bleed Weapons with “Bleed” inflict the value given as Bleed damage to a target upon hitting. This is regard-less of whether or not the hit inflicts damage.

Draw Cut Weapons with “Draw Cut” inflict bonus damage equal to the value given on attacks with 3 or more Bonus Successes. This damage is not added if the attack hits any sort of Hard Armor.

Armor Pierc-ing

Weapons with “Armor Piercing” gain the value given as bonus damage when they hit an area protected by Hard Armor.

Staff Weapons with “Staff” can be used with the Staff Parry maneuver.Shock Weapons with “Shock” inflict Shock equal to the value given pon hitting, This is regardless of whether

or not the hit inflicts damage.Charge-Set Weapons with “Charge Set” can be ‘set’ as a stance. Set weapons inflict +3 damage to charging mount-

ed adversaries, and have a -1 bouns to ATN when doing so.Specialism Weapons with “Specialism” also have a maneuver listed next to the Special Ability, and a number.

When using this maneuver, they use that TN for it instead of the one normally dictated by the weapon.Chain Weapons with “Chain” ignore a number of enemy Blocking or Parrying successes equal to the value

given.

Ranged Weapons

BowsRanged Weap-ons

ATN Draw STR Damage Range Special

Longbow 6 4 6p 20/50/100/200

Warbow 7 6 8p 30/60/120/250

Composite Horsebow

6 4 5p 20/50/100/200 Can be kept Strung

Composite Foot-bow

7 5 7p 30/60/120/250 Can be kept Strung

CrossbowsCrossbows ATN Span Damage Range Spanning MethodHand Crossbow 5 5 5p 5/10/15/20 Hand, CrannequinHunting Cross-bow

5 10 6p 20/40/60/80 Hand, Lever, Hook

Light Military Crossbow

5 20 7p 30/60/120/250 Hand, Lever, Hook, Crannequin

Heavy Military Crossbow

5 30 8p 40/80/150/300 Hook, Crannequin, Windlass

Heavy Arbalest 5 50 10p 50/100/200/400 Crannequin, Wind-lass

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SlingsSling Type

ATN Reloading Time Damage Range

Short Sling

6 1 round Str+2b 20/50/100/200

Long Sling

6 2 rounds Str+3b 30/60/120/250

Pole Sling

6 3 rounds Str+4b 20/50/100/200

Pole Slings can be used in a manner identical to a Large Club.

FirearmsFirearms ATN Reload Damage Range AmmunitionHand-Bombard 8 10/7/5 15p 10/20/50/100 Solid Shot, Shrapnel, SpikeFirelock Handgonne 6 6/5/3 10p 15/30/75/120 Solid Shot, SpikeMatchlock Arquebus 5 4/5/2 12p 25/50/100/200 Solid ShotBolt Action Rifle* 5 ½/5/¼ 15p 75/150/300/600 15.4mm

*Included For Reference Only.

JavelinWeapon ATN Damage Range (S/M/L/E) SpecialDart 6 Str+1p 15/30/45/60 High Arc (+1), Bending Shaft (1)Light Javelin 6 Str+2p 15/30/45/60

Heavy Javelin 7 Str+3p 10/20/30/40 Armor Piercing 1Soliferrum (Iron Javelin) 8 Str+4p 5/10/15/20 Armor Piercing 2, Shock 2Pilum 7 Str+4p 10/20/30/40 Armor Piercing 1, Bending Shaft (2)

Ranged Weapon SpecialsSpecial EffectHigh Arc If this weapon is thrown at Long range or more, it gets the number in parenthesis as a bonus

to damage.Bending Shaft

If this weapon is blocked with a shield, or impacts a shield, it becomes stuck in it, adding the number in parenthesis as an Activation Cost to Blocking with that shield.

Solid Shot Inflicts piercing damage equal to Str.Shrapnel Shot

Fires 4x rounds at ½ damage that hit simultaneously, but roll separately on to-hit table.

Spike Shot Inflicts Piercing damage equal to Str with +2 damage vs hard armor. +1 to loading time.15.4mm Inflicts Piercing damage equal to Str. Can be fired immediately when Reloaded.

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Armor

The Three AVsThese numbers are the damage reduction provided by the armor against each of the three damage types.

WeightThis is the number added to a character’s Encumbrance when the armor is worn.

AreaThese are the areas protected by the armor. Any attack that contacts the areas listed is subject to the damage reduction of the armor.

SpecialSome pieces of armor have special qualities or effects, positive or negative, which are taken into account in the Special section.[Beta Note: Blade-Thrusts as the term is used in this section are intended to represent the thrusting of swords with broader, spatulate tips, as well as the effects of arrows that lacerate as much as they puncture, I.E. broadheads and other non-Bodkin heads. These would logically have more effect against textile armor, and less against mail.]

Armor AV vs Cut

AV vs Pierce

AV vs Bludgeon

Weight Area Special Cost

Head

Cervelliere 8 7 6 0 Upper Head Worn beneath Great-Helm

2

Great Helm 8 7 6 4 Full Head -2 to Perception 3

Great Bascinet (Closed)

8 7 6 3 Full Head -2 to Perception, adds 1 additional ‘weight’ when closed. Can be opened mid-round as Quick Action (TN 5).

4

Great Bascinet (Open)

8 7 6 3 Full Head except Face Thrusts

-1 to Perception. Can be closed mid-round as Quick Action (TN 5).

NA

Armet 8 7 6 2 Full Head -1 to Perception 5Barbute 8 7 6 1 Full Head, Half

vs Face Thrusts-1 Perception 2

Sallet 8 7 6 1 Full head, except Lower Face

-1 Perception 2

Tailed Sallet 8 7 6 2 Full head, except Lower Face

-1 Perception, Applies half of AV to cuts to the neck

3

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Kettle Helm 8 7 6 0 Upper Head Applies half of AV to all down-ward strikes against head, neck, shoulders etc

1

Neck

Gorget 8 7 6 0 Throat & Neck 2

Bevor 8 7 6 1 Throat & Neck, Lower Face

3

Coif 6 4 3 0 Throat, Upper Head,

Against Blade-Thrusts, AV 6

2

Aventail 6 4 3 0 Upper & Lower Face

Against Blade-Thrusts, AV 6

2

Padded Coif 1 2 1 0 Throat, Upper Head

1

Chest

Breastplate 8 6 7 1 Chest, Belly Attacks from be-hind completely ignore AV

4

Full Cuirass 8 6 7 2 Chest, Belly 5

Pauldrons 8 6 7 2 Shoulder, Upper Arm

3

Elbow Cops 8 6 7 1 Elbow 3

Gauntlets 8 6 7 2 Forearm & Hand 3

Fauld 8 6 7 1 Hip, Upper Leg 3

Codpiece 8 6 7 1 Groin 2

Chausses 8 6 7 2 Upper Leg 3

Knee Cops 8 6 7 1 Knee 3

Greaves 8 6 7 2 Lower Leg 3

Sabatons 8 6 7 1 Foot 3

Textile Jack 1 5 3 0 Full Torso Against Blade-Thrusts, AV 2.

2

Textile Sleeves 1 5 3 0 Arms Against Blade-Thrusts, AV 2.

2

Textile Leggings 1 5 3 0 Legs, Groin Against Blade-Thrusts, AV 2.

2

Leather Jack 2 2 2 0 Full Torso, Arms 1

Leather Leggings 2 2 2 0 Legs, Groin 1

Leather Boots 2 2 2 0 Feet 1

Brigandine Vest 5 5 5 1 Chest, Belly, Hip 3

Scale Hauberk 5 5 5 3 Full Torso, Groin, Upper Legs, Arms

4

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Mail Hauberk 6 4 3 3 Full Torso, Groin, Upper Legs, Arms

Against Blade-Thrusts, AV 6

4

Mail Shirt 6 4 3 2 Full Torso, Upper Arms

Against Blade-Thrusts, AV 6

3

Mail Sleeves 6 4 3 1 Arms Against Blade-Thrusts, AV 6

2

Mail Leggings 6 4 3 1 Groin, Legs Against Blade-Thrusts, AV 6

2

Mail Boots 6 4 3 1 Feet Against Blade-Thrusts, AV 6

2

Shields

Block TNThis is the TN rolled against when backing Block actions with the shield.

EncumbranceThis is the number added to a character’s Encumbrance when using a shield in battle.

Passive AVThis is the amount added to a character’s Damage Reduction when an attack hits one of the Protected Areas of a shield. This is in addition to any lessening of damage done by Blocking or other maneuvers.

Protected AreasThese are the Hit Zones which are covered by the Passive AV of the shield.

DurabilityThis is the number rolled against on attempts made to damage the Shield with Hew or other maneuvers/effects.

Shield Type Block TN Encumbrance Passive AV Protected Areas DurabilityBuckler 7 0 4 Shield hand, Shield forearm 15 (Metal)Small Shield (Targe, Duel-ing “Pavise”)

6 1 4 Shield Arm below shoulder, Chest, Upper Abdomen, Side (shield-side)

8 (Wood)

Large Shield (Hand Pavise, Round Shield, Scuttum)

5 2 5 Shield Arm, Chest, Upper Abdomen, Side,

12 (Wood)

Tower Shield (Pavise, Kite Shield)

4 4 5 Shield Arm, Throat/Neck, Chest, Belly, Groin, Shield-side Upper Leg

15 (Wood)

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Shield DamageWhen a shield sustains damage, first compare the damage done to the shield with its Durability. Upon taking damage equal to its Durability, the shield moves to the next stage of damaged, and resets its damage to 0. So a shield with 8 Durability suffering 16 damage would be damaged by 2 steps, going from Undamaged to Significantly Damaged, and now giving the bearer penalties due to its damage.Draw Cut damage does not affect Shields, but Armor Piercing does reduce its Durability by the specified amount.

Shield Damage LevelsDamage Effect PenaltiesUndamaged Shield is fine. NALightly Damaged Shield has

taken a few hits.

-1 passive AV

Significantly Damaged

Shield is ding-ed up, pieces are missing or deformed.

-1 Passive AV, Block TN in-creased by 1.

Badly Damaged Shield is seriously dam-aged, you can see through it.

-2 Passive AV, Block TN in-creased by 2.

Splintered Smashed to pieces, you are left holding a grip, if any-thing at all.

Shield is now destroyed and useless.

Chapter 6:Combat

Just the Goods: Cold Steel and the Song of Swords.

Combat in Song of Swords carries two aims: Realism, and Playability. It’s good fun, and easy too, but it also repre-sents real-life violence better most RPGs, and every battle, however small, carries with it the serious risk of injury and death. Your characters would be wise not to take bloodshed too lightly, and if you need any convincing, just check out the Injury and Healing tables on page [NEED PAGE REF]. Pay close attention to the Infection entry.This is not to say that you should shy away from combat, and it certainly doesn’t mean that you should break and run as soon as things turn red. That’s called a rout, and it’s where 90% of all the casualties happen. When you enter battle, you should do so knowing that anything can happen, and there’s no such thing as a done deal. One bad roll is all that stands between your character and a funeral pyre, so face danger with caution, or meet death with dignity.

Important Concepts

Combat PoolA character’s Combat Pool is the combination of his Adroitness and the Pool value of his current Proficiency. This is the amount of dice he has to divide up between his actions every Round. Each die spent from a Combat Pool generally translate into one die being rolled when used in maneuvers.

CombatantAny character in an Engagement is considered a Combat-ant.

EngagementA bout is a group of 2-6 Combatants engaged in combat, on two or more sides attempting to duke it out.

TurnA Turn is the passage of one entire Bout Order. When every Bout in the Order has completed its Clash Count or con-cluded, the Turn ends, and a new one begins.

RoundA Round is made up of two Actions and a Refresh, and represents combat progressing in a Bout. In each Round, every character declares an Action, resolves it, and then

declares a second Action, and resolves it as well. The

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Song of Swordsorder in which these Actions are resolved depends on

the Initiative of those involved.

InitiativeInitiative decides who, in a Clash, declares and resolves their actions first. Characters gain Initiative either by start-ing the combat with it due to Orientation, or seizing it by successfully defending against enemies, or using the Steal Initiative maneuver.

RefreshA Refresh occurs at the beginning of a Clash, and restores the Combat Pools of each character in the Bout to their current maximums (adjusted for Pain and holdover Shock from the last round.)

ActionThere are two Actions in each Clash, which consist of char-acters declaring Maneuvers in the order of Initiative, and then carrying them out in the order of Initiative.

Attack“Attacks” all have a similar core mechanic. A number of CP are devoted to the attack, and these are rolled at a TN, usually the Strike or Thrust TN of the fighter’s primary weapon. Most of the time an enemy will also declare a De-fense, which is rolled in contest. If the Attack Roll scores more successes (dice equal to or over the TN,) then the Attack is successful, and each success over the opposing Defense Roll’s total is considered a Bonus Success.

When declaring Basic Attacks (Strike, Thrust etc), a char-acter must also designate an intended zone of attack (Neck cut, Chest cut, Head cut, etc) where he is attempting to land the blow.If the attack is successful, reference the Universal Rules section for Hit Location and Damage tables.

DefenseDefenses, which include Blocks and Parries, all have a similar core mechanic. A number of CP are devoted to the Defense, and these are rolled at a TN, usually the Block or Parry TN of the fighter’s primary weapon or shield. Defenses are declared in response to Attacks, and if the De-fense Roll is equal to or higher than the Attack Roll, then the Attack is thwarted, and the Defender is not affected by the attack.

The Overall CombatCombat in Song of Swords is extremely in-depth. Indi-vidual fighters engage in complex, gripping exchanges of blows, beats, parries and counters, while archers and jave-lineers duel at a distance, or fire into melee. Shield walls and formations clash, dozens of men can slash and stab at once.

However, if you were to try and have an entire battlefield go at once in Song of Swords, each combat round would take six hours and require ludicrous and impractical book-keeping. For this reason, combat in Song of Swords is subdivided into Engagements, which are groups of char-acters fighting independent of each other, simultaneously. Each Engagement then proceeds through several Rounds of combat (the number of Rounds is determined by the Clash Count of the Engagement, essentially how fast the fighters are moving) before moving to the next Engagement, and then the next, until each Engagement has acted. Once that happens, the Turn ends and a new one begins, starting at the top, with the Engagements acting again.All the while, in between each Engagement, “Bystanders,” which is to say people not actively locked in an Engage-ment, prowl around the outskirts, shooting missiles, flank-ing vulnerable enemies, or moving in to support their allies or help the wounded.

This creates a sort of living battlefield, in which lots of stuff happens simultaneously, but everyone still gets their turn in the spotlight, a meaty, fulfilling slice of combat instead of one move before being whisked off to someone on the other side of the field.

Combat ModifiersThere are certain conditions which can influence combat, making it harder to fight for low visibility, difficulty nego-tiating terrain, or difficulty practically engaging the enemy. A few of these, and their example effects, are detailed here.

Pitch Black Impossible to fight or shoot, maybe Grapple*

Poorly Lit Halved CP and MP.Dimly Lit -5 CP and MPExtreme Heat +2 to Encumbrance for terms of

Fatigue.Unsteady Footing (Boat, Rubble, Leaning Building)

-2 CP, +2 Missile TNs.

Fighting in Pitch DarknessFundamentally similar to fighting blind, fighting in the dark is hard. However, it is possible for men deprived of their senses to inflict violence on one another, it just isn’t easy. Engagements like this tend to turn into waiting matches, listening contests, or just blind flailing in the hopes of in-flicting injury first. The danger such methods pose to friend and foe alike cannot be underestimated! What results from this is barely combat, and is best left to the GM to decide.

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Order of the Overall CombatThe flow of an entire combat follows these simple steps.

Step 1: Combat BeginsBlades are drawn, weapons are hefted, bows are raised. The moment Combat begins, everyone in the vicinity who wasn’t surprised, asleep, or otherwise prevented from act-ing becomes involved. This first phase happens before Turn 1, and does not happen again in the same combat.

Everyone who is logically already engaging each other should be formed into Engagements, everyone else begins as a Bystander, and must move in to engage others in the following phase.

Step 2: Bystander PeriodThe Bystander Period marks the beginning of the Turn. In this period, before Engagements begin duking it out, everyone who is a Bystander (not already locked into an Engagement) may act, either taking taking actions unrelat-ed to combat (Ex. Trying to untie the skiff from the dock so that they can escape,) rushing in to join in a fight, rushing in to start a new Engagement, or using missile weapons. Bystanders should declare their actions in order of highest Adroitness to lowest (with ties occurring simultaneously.)

Using Missile WeaponsCharacters who wish to use Missile Weapons may choose from one of two actions in the Bystander Period: Reloading or Shooting.Reloading: Different weapons have different methods of reloading, detailed in their own sections. Reloading takes a full By-stander Period, unless otherwise stated.Shooting:Also referring to Throwing, Loosing, Firing, etc, this is the act of actually using a missile weapon to try and kill some-one or hit something. This phase relies on the Missile Pool, which is made up of your Perception score combined with your Proficiency Pool from the Missile Proficiency you’re using. The Missile Pool is not like the Combat Pool in that it doesn’t have a “refresh” stage, as soon as a character elects to take a Shooting action, his Missile Pool is formed, any Pain he has is subtracted from it, and he then uses it.Once you decide to shoot someone, the process is simple.Step 1: Pick a target, and declare your attack. This can be a regular Shoot maneuver, or a more advanced maneuver, with as many MP devoted to it as you feel appropriate. If the target is aware of you (Perception may be required if you are hidden or well disguised, or if he is facing another direction,) he may declare a defense with CP up to his Per-ception Pool. (If this is the first round, and the character has not yet had a Refresh filling his combat pool, he can still take this action, he just suffers a decrease to his Pool at the Refresh equal to the amount he spends here.)

If the Missile-User is for whatever reason allowed to

make multiple attacks in this period (if for example he is firing two pistols or hand-crossbows, or has some

Maneuver or Talent that allows him to fire his bow multiple times or fling multiple javelins,) he must divide his Missile Pool between all of the attacks launched in this manner.Step 2: Roll attack and defense (if any) simultaneously. Roll for hit location using the table below and resolve dam-age.

Starting and Joining EngagementsTo start an Engagement, a character only needs to move to his target, an unoccupied enemy, and announce that he’s Engaging him. This is contingent upon being able to actual-ly get to the target, and upon the enemy being a Bystander. Joining an existing Engagement is also as simple as getting to it.When entering an existing Engagement, a character en-ters into that Engagement as though he is entering for the first time (see below,) and declares Orientation against an enemy, who then declares back. Entering an Engagement does change its Clash Count.

The Clash CountThe Clash Count is made up of the following formula: Half the number of fighters in the group (on both sides,) subtracted from the highest Adroitness score in the En-gagement. An Engagement’s Clash Count is essentially the number of Rounds that it will run before 5 seconds passes. Each Round is of variable length, though the ab-solute maximum that an Engagement’s Clash Count could normally reach would be 9 (two characters, both with 10 Adroitness, fighting a duel), which would be 9 Rounds, and a whopping 18 Actions occurring in 5 seconds, meaning that each Action would be performed in a bit under a third of a second.

Step 3: The Engagement OrderAt this stage, as soon as the Bystander Phase ends, each Engagement should assess or reassess its Clash Count, so as to determine which Engagements act in what order. This represents how quickly the fight is actually moving. Larger fights logically go slower, as the combatants have to watch out for each other and generally clash less rapidly.Engagements play out one at a time (though in realistic terms they should be considered as happening simultane-ously,) in order of highest Clash Count to lowest. Each Engagement plays out in the same way.

Step 4: Engagement ResolutionEngagements are made up of up to 3 individuals fighting up to 3 other individuals. An Engagement can ‘contain’ more individuals in the Engagement Reserve, but these things have a maximum ‘front’ of 3 people to a side. If the men behind have longer weapons, like pikes or spears, they may be able to fight as well (at GM’s discretion, of course.)

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Song of SwordsFirst Round Orientation: In the first Round of an

Engagement, immediately after its formation but before any blows are struck, all of the fighting characters must perform an Orientation Announcement. This is essentially the players declaring whether or not their characters will go Offensive, Defensive, or Cautious. Each has its advantages.

Offensive: Or “Red,” is a character moving in determined-ly towards an enemy with the intention of attacking. Going Offensive enables characters with them to use the Beat and Shield Assault maneuvers. Characters who go Offensive automatically take Initiative over Cautious and Defensive characters, but must contest it AFTER selecting maneuvers against other Offensive characters.

Cautious: Or “Yellow,” is a character approaching combat in a more reserved manner, and being prepared to revert to defense against enemy pressure. Going Cautious grants no access to special maneuvers. Characters who go Cautious automatically take Initiative over Defensive characters, but automatically lose Initiative to Offensive characters. Against other Cautious characters, an Initiative contest takes place before announcing maneuvers, with the loser becoming Defensive and then being allowed to select a maneuver.

Defensive: Or “Blue,” is a character approaching combat in a more reserved manner, and being prepared to revert to defense against enemy pressure. Going Defensive allows a character to use Full Evasion in the first round of combat. Characters who go Defensive automatically cede Initiative to both Offensive and Cautious characters. Against other Defensive characters... Nothing happens. They simply do not engage each other in this Round. If they are not engaged, then they can perform an Orientation Announce-ment again.

Orientation Announcement: First every combatant an-nounces what Orientation, or color, they are not declaring. This can be easily represented with three colors of dice (red, yellow and blue, following the color scheme of the orientations,) with one being placed down, and the other two being held in the hands (“Put up yer Dukes” style) or beneath cups.On the count of three, each combatant opens one hand, or lifts one cup, revealing the Orientation they choose. It is important that this be done simultaneously, and not with hesitation. In the first Round, all Combatants will have to select Targets, and the Targets they choose will determine whether or not they have Initiative, based on the principles listed above.

Playing out the Engagement: Engagements play out in a series of Rounds equal to the Clash Count of the Engage-ment. In each Round, there are three phases: The Refresh and two Action phases.

The Refresh: At the Refresh, each combatant in the fight regains his full Combat Pool, minus any penalties

he might be enduring, like Pain, Shock holdover from a previous round, or exhaustion. The Combat Pool is equal to the PP (Proficiency Pool) of the character plus his Adroit-ness score. This can be reduced by Encumbrance penalties, which will be very common for characters wearing armor. It should be noted again that it is not necessary or advis-able to let one’s opponent... Or even one’s allies, really... know what one’s total Combat Pool is. You are allowed and encouraged to keep it secret. The GM, of course, is the exception, as he can be trusted to preserve this information in the spirit of fair play.

The First Action: The first action consists of characters with Initiative declaring their actions.

First Round Only: If this is the first Round and the characters have just determined their Orientations, then they must each choose targets, starting with the Offensive characters (who should all select their targets in order of reverse Adroitness rolling off at Adr /5 for ties) and then Cautious characters (whom, if they were targeted already by an Offensive character, cannot choose anyone as they are now Defensive) and finally Defensive characters. Char-acters who would gain Initiative from this arrangement do so, whereas those who would not (such as Yellow/Yellow confrontations, or Red/Red) either make their Initiative Contests to see who must concede the Initiative to the other (in the case of Yellow/Yellow) or else wait until after Ac-tion declaration to roll these tests to see who will hit first (in the case of Red/Red.)

The characters then declare their Maneuvers for the Ac-tion, starting with characters with Initiative (or characters going Red/Red who might have Initiative shortly) in order of reverse Adroitness. After characters with Initiative have declared, characters without Initiative may declare their actions. Characters who declared Red and selected Red targets must now roll Initiative Tests to see whose attack will make contact first.Maneuvers are declared by selecting a maneuver, paying the CP cost for its activation (if any) and then assigning it a number of CP at the player’s discretion.

Initiative Contest: Initiative Contests are made at Adroit-ness at TN 5. The character can gain bonuses from Talents and other sources to this roll. A character also gains a +1 bonus if he is using the Thrust maneuver, as well as a +1 bonus for each stage of Reach he has over the enemy. The winner of this Contest gains Initiative, whereas the loser does not have it. In the case of highly unfortunate char-acters who have declared Red, and then lost an Initiative Contest after having already declared their maneuver... It is too late to change that maneuver, and the enemy will now carry out their own unabated.

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Song of SwordsFirst Action Resolution: All of the Maneuvers de-

clared now resolve. All characters with Initiative resolve their Maneuvers first, whereas characters without Initia-tive resolve their Maneuvers second.

Defensive Maneuvers which counteract Offensive Ma-neuvers do so regardless of the order of resolution, a char-acter with Initiative who decides to Parry against a char-acter without Initiative can still apply the Parry successes against any attack made by the Initiative-less character.

At this time, any injuries that might arise from blows struck, and their effects of Shock and Pain, go into effect immediately.

Initiative Reassignment: After action resolution, Initiative shifts based on the success of actions.-If a character with Initiative successfully attacks his target, he retains Initiative.-If a character with Initiative Critically Fails an attack, he loses Initiative to the character whom he was attacking.-If a character without Initiative successfully defends against an attack, he gains Initiative. (NOTE: Defensive Maneuvers sometimes detail specific circumstances in which the defender does not gain Initiative, in which case it stays with the attacker.)-If a character without Initiative successfully attacks a character with Initiative, he gains Initiative.

The Second Action: The second Action proceeds almost identically to the first, except that CP spend in the first Action is still spent, and the characters must make do with what they have left.

Ending an EngagementIf there are no more characters in an Engagement who are hostile to each other (either because their enemies have all fled or been killed,) the Engagement immediately disinte-grates, and all of the combatants become Bystanders, ready to act in the next Bystander Phase.

Ending an Engagement’s Turn in the OrderWhen an Engagement either runs out of people left to fight, or reaches the end of its Clash Count, its Turn is over, and the next one in the Engagement Order gets to go.

Combat Turn EndWhen the last Engagement in the Order has either ended or met its Clash Count, the Turn ends, and a new Turn begins, starting with a new Bystander Phase, and then proceeding as normal. Combat does not end until there is nobody left taking hostile action against anyone else.

Readying a Weapon

BowsBows, by nature of their design and ease of use, can be fired once in the Bystander Period as long as the user has ammunition within reach.

Crossbow SpanningCrossbows must be Spanned in order to be used, which can require several rounds in some cases. To determine how long it takes a Crossbow to reload, check the Crossbow’s Span value.

SpanThis is the amount of “Strength” that must be put into the bow before it is considered drawn and prepared to fire. A Missile Action spent spanning a crossbow fills its Spanning requirement based on what tool is used to Span it. Span-ning methods that specify Per-Round allow the weapon to store strength, thus being Spanned over multiple Reloading Ac-tions.

Spanning MethodHand: 1x strengthLever: 2x strengthHook: 3x strength, on foot only.Cranequin: x2 strength per round.Windlass: x3 strength per round, on foot only.

Firearm ReloadingReloadThe number of rounds that must be spent reloading in be-fore the weapon is ready to be fired.

Speed ReloadingSpeed reloading is a Proficiency test at base TN 8 that can be declared as soon as a character begins reloading. The number of successes required is determined by the weapon. If successful, the weapon’s reloading time is reduced to the listed number.

Matchlock: 4/5/2This means that it takes 4 Reloading Actions at base to reload a Matchlock, but with a Proficiency roll at TN 8 that scores 5 successes or more, the time may be reduced to 2 rounds.

SlingsThe number listed for a Sling is the number of Reloading Actions it takes to load a rock into the sling. After this, the projectile can be aimed and flung as a Shooting Action.

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Mounted CombatMounted characters in general have the following combat advantages:

- A+2 Height Bonus to CP (more in the case of some exotic mounts, like Elephants)- A +1 Reach with all weapons- Attacks launched on the Charge inflict +2 damage (more in the case of exotic mounts, like Elephants, or extremely fast and strong horses)- Attacks launched on the Charge with Lances properly held use the Mount’s strength instead of the rider for determining weapon damage. (If somehow, inconceivably, the horse is weaker than the rider, use the higher strength instead.)

In InitiativeMounted warriors may either Get Stuck In, which is to say, charge into a Bout and then stay there, swinging away, or Ride-by, rushing in to take a swing at the enemy, and then continuing on to safety, to reengage next Turn.

Getting Stuck InWhen a Mounted combatant enters combat, he rolls Red, Blue and Yellow, just like any combatant, and declares attacks, actions and defenses just like other characters. However, there are certain limitations:

1: The character is limited in how he can Void. He cannot Void blows or thrusts against his legs, because they are engaged in the stirrups. He can however Void against blows or thrusts aimed at his torso, arms, or head.

2: Secondly, the character is limited in how he can be at-tacked. One cannot thrust or strike Upwards at the charac-ter’s Groin from the ground, since there a good bit of Horse in the way. Attacks against the Head or Neck launched from the ground also suffer a +1 CP activation cost, above and beyond any penalties inferred by the Mounted man’s bonus to Reach.

3: The Mounted man cannot use any maneuvers which would involve his legs (like Kick, Knee, or Grappling somehow with his leg) while Mounted.

Mounted characters may, instead of making a Full Evasion to try and leave combat, roll their mount’s Mobility at their Ride skill as a defense, if they did not attack in the previ-ous exchange (the same as Full Evasion,) and if successful negate any enemy attack and leave the Bout.

Ride-by AttackWhen charging into a Bout, the Mounted combatant may announce that he is going to Ride-by instead of engaging normally.

Chapter 7:Universal Rules

Universal Special Rules are the rules of playing the game that are referenced everywhere else, but are ubiquitous enough to warrant their own section.

Critical FailureWhen a character rolls 0 Successes on any roll, he some-times suffers what is called a Critical Failure. Specific failures are often listed in the entry section of actions, but in general it can be assumed that getting no successes at all results in a significantly more grievous failure than merely failing to meet the number of successes required.

[Critical Successes Not in Beta]

Drowning:s in danger of drowning. They must immediately make a swim check using their STR at an increasing difficulty. For each round they fail the strength check, their HET is decreased by one until zero, where the character has drowned. The above modifiers apply. If a character makes a successful strength check, they can then make another normal swim check to make it the rest of the way. If they fail again, repeat the process.

First STR Check No modifier.2nd STR Check +1 TN, -1 HET3rd STR Check +2 TN, -1 HET4th STR Check +3 TN, -1 HET+* +*

*Continue on in like fashion until the character makes a successful strength check, or until the character reaches 0 HET.

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Falling Damage:When a character falls they roll on the first table below to determine what body part they land with. They then take a wound as if struck with a swung blunt object to the area hit at Strength determined by the distance fallen, and surface fallen onto. Armor does NOT reduce this damage, and only Half TO is subtracted from the total. The character also take additional wounds to the adjacent body parts as deter-mined by the falling table at half damage.

d10 Area Hit Adjacent Areas 1 Head Neck and Shoulder2 Neck Shoulder and Head3 Upper Back Lower Back and Head4 Chest Upper Abdomen and Head5 R or L Foot Thigh and Lower Leg6 R & L Foot Thigh and Lower Leg x2

(right and left)7 R. Side Upper Arm and Thigh8 L. Side Upper Arm and Thigh9 R. Forearm Hand and Upper arm10 L. Forearm Hand and Upper arm

Ground Type Damage per Feet fallen.

Hard (Cement, Stone, Packed Dirt, Cobblestones, Hardwood floor, a thoughtlessly placed pile of bricks)

1 per 3’ fallen

Solid (Earth, carpeted floor, col-lapsible structure (falling through a cart, wagon, canopy, an armored man)

1 per 6’ fallen

Soft (Straw, trampled battlefield earth, mud, Sand, a Person, a pile of dead people)

1 per 12’ fallen

Water (clumsily fallen) 1 per 30’ fallenWater (controlled dive) 1 per 60’ fallen

Injury & Healing

What injuries are and how healing works.

Bloodloss:Total Bloodloss Required Successes to Stave Off5 1 success10 2 successes15 3 successes20 4 successes+ +

Whenever a character has an amount of Bloodloss equal to 5 or more, they must make an END test each round. For every five points of Bloodloss that a character has, the test requires one more success. If the Bloodloss test is ever failed, they lose 1 point of HET temporarily. If the Blood-loss test is ever botched, then they lose 2 points of HET temporarily.

Losing Health:Any time that a Bloodloss test is failed, a point of Health (HET) is temporarily removed. When a character’s HET reaches 1, all of their other Attributes are temporarily halved. When a character’s HET reaches 0, they imme-diately pass out and continue to bleed, making END tests and losing HET into negative amounts.. When their HET reaches a negative amount equal to their unmodified total HET, they die.

Regaining Health:Once a wound has been treated via Surgery so that no more Bloodloss can occur, HET lost to Bloodloss will begin replenishing at a rate of 1 HET per week.HET lowered by Infection is also recovered in this manner, but only after the Infection ends.

At the same time, wounds themselves heal at a rate deter-mined by the amount of surgical skill used in treating them, and the severity of the wound to begin with, detailed below. Regardless of how long it takes for the wound to heal, the Bloodloss replenishes as detailed above.

Staunching BloodlossCharacters can attempt to staunch the loss of blood with the Surgery skill and whatever materials are at hand. A wound must be targeted with this skill, which, if successful, termi-nates all bloodloss from that wound, and halves the amount of pain caused by it.

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Treating WoundsIn order to stop a wound from Bleeding permanently and to reduce the Pain it causes, the Surgery skill must come into play. A Surgery check made at appropriate difficulty for wound level Treats the wound. Treated wounds have their Bloodloss reduced to 0 (unless reopened somehow,) and their Pain reduced by half. Treated wounds begin heal-ing immediately. Healing time depends on the character’s maximum normal HET, and the level of the wound.

InfectionThe shock of a wound can kill a man, or he can bleed out before the injury can be staunched, but the most insidi-ous and terrible way to die of a wound is infection. In the course of healing, a wound can become infested with bac-teria and parasites who quickly cause the wound to become gangrenous or otherwise infected.

Keeping a wound clean requires diligence and a supply of fresh bandages and clean water, but there is always the chance of infection. The Infection Chance is normally equal to the level of the wound, however, some wounds specify an increased Infection Chance, and this can raise the number up to a maximum of 10.

24 Hours after the wound is sustained, a character must roll a HET Check against infection at TN 8, with a Diffi-culty equal to the Infection Chance. Success means that the wound is not initially infected. However, halfway through the healing process, roll again, this time at half Difficulty, to see if the wound has been infected since then. (If in a particularly clean and safe environment, no second check is necessary.) Both of these rolls can be affected by circum-stance and extraneous factors.

Infection ModifiersWound was treated with Surgery immediately after it was inflicted.

-1

Wound is treated with an expensive poultice -2

Wounded party is allowed to rest and avoid strenuous activity

-1

Wound was inflicted in a fairly clean environment free of filth (being cut with a well maintained dress sword during a parade, being injured by a practice weapon).

-2

Wound was inflicted by a bludgeoning weapon. -1

Wound was inflicted by a piercing weapon. +1

Wound was inflicted in an unclean environment. +1

Wound was inflicted with a filthy weapon. +2

Wounded party has partaken of strenuous activity. +1

Wounded party did not receive adequate care after the injury.

+2

Wound was intentionally infected after being sustained.

+3

When a wound is infected, the character begins a struggle to survive the infection as the wound heals. Each day after the wound becomes Infected, the character must roll a Health check at the wound’s Infection Chance. Failure causes all of the character’s Attributes to be reduced by 1. All attributes besides Health cannot be reduced below 1. When the character’s Health is reduced to 1, he has contracted irreversible sepsis. When Health reaches 0, the character dies of sepsis.

Wound Healing Times (in Weeks)

Health

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8+

1 2 2 2 1 1 1 1 0

2 3 3 2 2 2 1 1 1

Wound Level

3 4 4 4 3 3 3 2 2

4 8 8 8 6 6 6 5 5

5 60 60 60 48 48 48 36 36

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Amputating LimbsIf it is overwhelmingly obvious that a character is not go-ing to survive an infected wound on a limb, the limb itself can be amputated any time before the character reaches irreversible sepsis. An amputation is dangerous in its own right, since it can also be infected! However, when done by a proper Surgeon, it is relatively safe. Amputation is a Routine Surgery, and if done correctly, the resulting wound has Pain: 20-WIP, Bloodloss: 20, but only counts as a level 1 wound, with an Infection Risk of 1. Assuming the ampu-tation is done in a clean place by professionals, the infec-tion risk for it will also benefit from several of the positive modifiers listed above.

Damage

Hit LocationsIn Combat when making Strike or Thrust maneuvers, one does so while declaring a target on the enemy’s body. This target may be any of the zones detailed in this listing. If the attack is successful, roll 1d10 on the table of the Hit Loca-tion selected to determine which part of the body was hit.Determine then whether or not the location hit had armor-ing before calculating damage.

Head Swing1-3: Shoulder4-7: Lower Head8-10 Upper Head

Neck Swing1-3: Shoulder4-7: Neck8-10: Lower Head

Torso Swing1-3: Hip4-7: Side 8-10: Chest

Upper Arm Swing1-3: Elbow4-7: Upper Arm8-10: Shoulder

Lower Arm Swing1-3: Hand4-7: Forearm8-10: Elbow

Upper Leg Swing1-3: Knee4-7: Thigh8-10: Hip

Lower Leg Swing1-3: Foot4-7: Shin8-10: Knee

Groin Swing1-3: Groin4-7: Belly8-10 Upwards Lower Face

Face Thrust1-3: Neck/Throat4-7: Lower Head

8-10: Upper Head

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Chest Thrust1-3: Belly4-7: Chest8-9: Shoulder10: Throat

Belly Thrust1: Groin2-3: Hip4-7: Belly8-10: Chest

Arm Thrust1-3: Hand4-7: Forearm8-10: Upper Arm

Groin Thrust1-3: Thigh3-7: Groin8-10: Belly

Upper Leg Thrust1-3: Knee4-7: Thigh8-10: Hip

Lower Leg Thrust1-3: Foot4-7: Shin8-10: Knee

Sustaining Damage from Attacks[DMG vs DR]When a character is hit in combat, after Hit Location is determined, damage is calculated by comparing the total Damage inflicted to the suffering character’s Total Dam-age Reduction (DR): His Toughness (TOU) combined with his Armor Value (AV) versus the appropriate damage type (Cut, Pierce, Blunt). If the DR is equal or higher to the Damage, the attack inflicts no injury.If the DR is less than the Damage, then the margin by which it is less determines the level of the Wound. (8 Dam-age vs 6 DR would be 2)

ShockShock is the immediate reaction of a character to an injury. When a character sustains Shock, either through a wound or through a weapon or maneuver effect or any other source, his Combat Pool is immediately reduced by the amount of Shock inflicted. Shock is not permanent, it is a forced expenditure and the dice can be regained at the next Refresh.

However, in the event that Shock sustained would reduce a character below 0 CP, he can be pushed into

the negatives, and this negative will be subtracted from his total amount gained at the next Refresh. (I.E., if a character has 10 CP at base, but is moved to -5 CP through Shock, the next Refresh will only bring him up to 5 CP again.)Bludgeoning attacks tend to inflict a lot of shock, both through wounds and effects.

PainPain represents the lasting pain from injuries. When in-flicted by wounds, Pain is always reduced by the willpower of the victim (this is represented in the wound entry,) and is subtracted from the character’s CP at the beginning of every Refresh. Pain is not subtracted immediately from a character’s CP, it takes a second to “kick in.” If a character is reduced to 0 or even negative CP by pain, he is consid-ered to be in such unspeakable anguish as to be incapable of doing much of anything except scream and gnaw at the dust.

Damage TypesEach of the three damage types (Cutting, Bludgeoning, Piercing) has what a separate Wound Table for each hit location, as well as functioning differently against different sorts of armor.

Universal Tests:

Knockout: When making a knockout check, roll your END at TN 8. You need a number of successes specified by the event. Failure causes the character to be knocked uncon-scious for an amount of time equal to 1d10 minutes.

Knockdown: When making a Knockdown check (either as specified by a wound or effect, or because your CP has been reduced to the negatives by Shock or Pain) roll an Agility test at TN 8, aiming for a number of successes specified below. Failure results in your character being knocked prone and losing half your combat pool. Stand-ing can be done during the character’s next Action Phase but until the character starts an Action Phase standing your pool remains halved. Once they start an Action Phase standing their pool is no longer halved.

Cause of KD Successes RequiredTripped Enemy Bonus SuccessesShock 3Damage or Effect Specified in Effect

Attribute Tests: Any time you are called upon to perform an Attribute Test, the standard difficulty for this is TN 8. Untrained Skill tests, however, are made at TN 9.

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UPPER HEAD Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5

Upper Head Swing Bludgeon

Bleed: 1 Shock: 4 Pain: 4-WIP Blow to the side of the head. Ow.

Bleed: 2 Shock: 8 Pain: 6-WIP Tem-ple is glanced. May lose consciousness (KO at 1)

Bleed: 4 Shock: 12 Pain: 8-WIP Skull fracture, may lose consciousness (KO at 5)

Bleed: 6 Shock: All Pain: All Skull shatters, immedi-ately unconscious. [Difficult Surgery vs Brain Damage]

Skull crushed. Brain and bone every-where. Death.

Upper Head Swing Cut

Bleed: 3 Shock: 2 Pain: 6-WIP Cut on the scalp, not serious.

Bleed: 5 Shock: 4 Pain: 8-WP Deep cut on scalp, blood runs into face.

Bleed: 8 Shock: 10 Pain: 12-WP Cracked skull, nearly invisible, but devastating. (KO at 4)

Bleed: 14 Shock: All Pain: All Severe skull fracture, brain damage, immediate unconsciousness. [Difficult Surgery vs Brain Damage.]

Blade cleaves through top of skull down to the teeth. Instant death.

Upper Head Swing Pierce

Bleed: 4 Shock: 3 Pain: 4-WIP Rak-ing glance to the side of the head.

Bleed: 6 Shock: 6 Pain: 6-WIP Deeper rake across scalp lots of blood.

Bleed: 12 Shock: 5 Pain: 10-WP Skull cracked, gushing blood. (KO at 3)

Bleed: 20 Shock: All Pain: All Skull penetrated, in-stantly unconscious. [Miracle Surgery vs Brain Damage]

Point penetrates straight through skull into brain, instant death.

LOWER HEAD Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5

Lower Head Swing Bludgeon-ing

Bleed: 0 Shock: 5 Pain: 3-WP Tapped jaw, pos-sibly bruised.

Bleed: 1 Shock: 8 Pain: 4-WP Solid strike to jaw, jar-ring! (KO at 3)

Bleed: 3 Shock: 12 Pain: 6-WP Frac-tured jaw, possibly several lost teeth! (KO at 4)

Bleed: 4 Shock: 15 Pain: 10-WP Bro-ken jaw. (KO at 5) [Routine Surgery vs Face Deformation]

Neck Broken. Instant death.

Lower Head Swing Cutting

Bleed: 1 Shock: 2 Pain: 6-WP Cross cut on the face, probably on the cheek, mouth or chin.

Bleed: 4 Shock: 4 Pain: 8-WP Direct hit on side of face, classic German dueling scar.

Bleed: 8 Shock: 8 Pain: 12-WP Direct hit cleaves through cheek, damaging several teeth. (KO at 3)

Bleed: 12 Shock: 12 Pain: 18-WP Blade cuts cheek from corner of mouth to behind the ear, lots of teeth lost, cheek muscle damage. (KO at 4) [Difficult Surgery vs Face Deformation]

Blade either cleaves through entire side of head, decapitat-ing above the jaw, or most of the way through. Death is mercifully instanta-neous.

Lower Head Swing Piercing

Bleed:2 Shock: 2 Pain: 4-WP Grazed jaw.

Bleed: 4 Shock: 3 Pain: 6-WP Stabs through cheek, chipped tooth!

Bleed: 8 Shock: 6 Pain: 9-WP Several teeth broken, cheek ripped open, jaw fractured. (KO at 3)

Bleed: 14 Shock: 9 Pain: 14-WP Jaw shattered, many teeth destroyed, may lose tongue. (KO at 5), [Difficult Surgery vs Speech Loss.]

Point slams through brainstem. Instant death.

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NECK/THROAT Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5

Swung Bludgeon-ing Neck/Throat

Bleed: 0 Shock: 6 Pain: 2-WP Hard blow to the shoulder and neck, will leave a deep bruise.

Bleed: 0 Shock: 10 Pain: 3-WP Harder blow, right to the side of neck, enormous shock. (KO at 3)

Bleed: 2 Shock: 15 Pain: 6-WP Broken collarbone, some internal bleeding. (KO at 5)

Bleed: 7 Shock: Total Pain: Total Shattered collar, severely damaged windpipe, brachial nerve damage.

Snapped neck. In-stantaneous death.

Swung Cutting Neck/Throat

Bleed: 4 Shock: 4 Pain: 4-WP Cut on the neck, pain-ful, but not deep.

Bleed: 6 Shock: 6 Pain: 8-WP Serious cut to side of neck, passes dangerously close to windpipe.

Bleed: 12 Shock: 8 Pain: 12-WP Slashed throat, possible vocal chord damage. [Difficult Surgery vs Voice Loss.]

Bleed: 20 Shock: 12 Pain: 14-WP Throat and Jugular cut, spray of blood, needs a Godlike surgeon now. [Miracle Surgery to stop Bloodloss!]

Decapitation. Instant death, head completely or nearly severed from body.

Swung Piercing Neck/Throat

Bleed: 6 Shock: 4 Pain: 5-WP Puncture wound in neck, not good!

Bleed: 10 Shock: 5 Pain: 5-WP deeper puncture wound, nicks major artery!

Bleed: 20 Shock: 7 Pain: 8-WP Punctured carotid or jugular, extreme bleeding!

Bleed: 25 Shock: 10 Pain: 12-WP Severed carotid or jugular, cracked vertebrae, (KO at 3)

Carotid and jugular severed, throat destroyed, neck bro-ken. exsanguination takes milliseconds. Functional decapita-tion. Death.

SHOULDER Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5

Swung Bludgeon-ing Shoulder

Bleed: 0 Shock: 3 Pain: 3-WP Blow to the shoulder. No real damage.

Bleed: 2 Shock: 7 Pain: 5-WP Hard blow to shoulder, severe muscle bruising.

Bleed: 4 Shock: 12 Pain: 6-WP Dislo-cated shoulder, arm useless [Routine Surgery vs Ruined limb]

Bleed: 5 Shock: 15 Pain: 10-WP Shoulder broken, may never recover. [Difficulty Surgery vs Ruined Limb]

Bleed: 12 Shock: 20 Pain: 15-WIP Shoulder Collapsed, internal bleeding, recovery unlikely. [Miracle Surgery vs Ruined limb]

Swung Cutting Shoulder

Bleed: 1 Shock: 1 Pain: 4-WIP Shallow cut to the shoulder.

Bleed: 3 Shock: 2 Pain: 6-WIP Deep cut, significant pain and bleeding.

Bleed: 6 Shock: 6 Pain: 12-WIP Cleaves into meat of shoulder, halts at collarbone.

Bleed: 8 Shock: 8 Pain: 14-WIP Broken collarbone and cracked ribs, serious bleeding and muscle damage.

Cloven from shoul-der to hip. Instant or near-instant death..

Swung Piercing Shoulder

Bleed: 2 Shock: 1 Pain: 3-WIP Shal-low stab in the shoulder, painful but not serious.

Bleed: 5 Shock: 2 Pain:5-WIP Deeper stab, raking effect to the shoulder. Painful and bloody.

Bleed: 7 Shock: 4 Pain: 9-WIP Hits deep into the muscle, chipped collarbone.

Bleed: 12 Shock: 8 Pain:12-WIP Collarbone cracked, nicked artery, lots of blood.

Bleed: 20 Shock: 15 Pain:15-WIP Penetration into the subclavian artery. Almost as bad as being stabbed in the heart.

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RIBS/CHEST Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5

Swung Bludgeon-ing Chest

Bleed: 0 Shock: 5 Pain: 3-WIP Blow to chest, shock absorbed by ribs.

Bleed: 1 Shock: 8 Pain: 6-WIP Bruised ribs, minor bleeding.

Bleed: 2 Shock: 12 Pain: 8-WIP Cracked ribs, bleed-ing, exceptional pain.

Bleed: 8 Shock: 20 Pain: 12-WIP Ribs broken, fragments lacerate flesh.

Bleed: 15 Shock: Total Pain: Total Ribcage shattered, great bloodloss,

Swung Chest Bleed: 0 Shock: 2 Pain: 4-WIP Shal-low cut across chest, ribs do their job. No serious effect.

Bleed: 2 Shock: 4 Pain: 5-WIP Deeper cut, raking ribs.

Bleed: 5 Shock: 6 Pain: 10-WIP Cracked ribs, laceriation within ribcage, no organ damage but very painful.

Bleed: 20 Shock: 12 Pain: 15-WIP Ribs cloven, severe bleeding in chest cavity.

Blade cleaves through ribs and into center of chest cavity. Lungs, heart, major blood vessels cut, near-instant death.

Piercing Chest Bleed: 2 Shock: 2 Pain: 3-WIP Point rakes across ribs.

Bleed: 4 Shock: 4 Pain: 4-WIP Minor penetration, point halted by rib.

Bleed: 6 Shock: 6 Pain: 7-WIP Point sticks through ribs, no organ damage, but it is a close thing. Significant bleeding.

Bleed: 25 Shock: 10 Pain: 14-WIP Point slams through ribs, punctured lung. Extreme bleeding and suffocation! [Difficulty Surgery vs Lung Damage]

Heart pierced, death is instantaneous.

Side Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5

Bludgeoning Side Bleed: 0 Shock: 4 Pain: 4-WIP Smacked in the side. Bad bruise, but that’s it.

Bleed: 0 Shock: 8 Pain: 5-WIP Hard blow, winded, may cause nausea.

Bleed: 1 Shock: 12 Pain: 7-WIP Severe blow to side or belly, nasea and pain, but no internal damage.

Bleed: 5 Shock: 10 Pain: 12-WIP Blood in mouth, organ damage. Merci-fully little Risk of infection.

Bleed: 25 Shock: Total Pain: Total Internal organs ruptured, survival would be nothing short of a miracle. [Miracle Surgery to halt Bloodloss] [Infection Risk +5]

Cutting Side Bleed: 2 Shock: 2 Pain: 6-WIP Cut across the side and belly, painful, but shallow.

Bleed: 4 Shock: 3 Pain: 7-WIP Deeper cut, lots of blood.

Bleed: 6 Shock: 7 Pain: 12-WIP Blade pentrates into side, serious that survivable damage to organs. [Infection Risk +3]

Bleed: 20 Shock: 25 Pain: 20-WIP Disembowelment, extreme damage and survivable is close to unthink-able. (KO at 5) [Infection +5]

Individual is cloven nearly or totally in half. Death is instan-taneous.

Piercing Side Bleed: 4 Shock: 2 Pain: 4-WIP A Stab to the side, no significant damage.

Bleed: 6 Shock: 5 Pain: 5-WIP Small penetration at an oblique angle, bleeding is a risk.

Bleed: 9 Shock: 7 Pain: 9-WIP Your side is pierced, bleeding, but misses organs.

Bleed: 14 Shock: 11 Pain: 12-WIP Organ damage, se-vere bleeding, real Risk for infection. [Infection Risk +2]

Bleed: 18 Shock: 14 Pain: 16-WIP Extreme penetration, organ and intestinal damage! [Infection Risk +5]

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HIP Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5

Bludgeoning Hip Bleed: 0 Shock: 5 Pain: 3-WIP Glancing blow to the hip.

Bleed: 1 Shock: 9 Pain: 5-WIP Solid blow to hip, jarring and painful. (Knockdown at 2)

Bleed: 3 Shock: 12 Pain: 10-WIP Cracked hip, bruised bone, (Knockdown at 3)

Bleed: 5 Shock: 15 Pain: 12-WIP Hip broken. Automatic knockdown, leg may be crippled. [Difficult Surgery vs Crippled Leg.]

Bleed: 7 Shock: 20 Pain: 18-WIP Hip is destroyed. Leg prob-ably won’t recover, automatic knock-down. [Miracle Surgery vs Crippled Leg.]

Cutting Hip Bleed: 1 Shock: 1 Pain: 5-WIP Cut into the hip, no significant damage.

Bleed: 2 Shock: 3 Pain: 7-WIP Deeper cut, bleed-ing, extremely painful.

Bleed: 5 Shock: 5 Pain: 12-WIP Blade digs deep into hip, may fall. (Knock-down at 3)

Bleed: 10 Shock: 12 Pain: 12-WIP Bro-ken hip, blade nicks artery. (Knockdown at 4.)

Bleed: 20 Shock: 15 Pain: 20-WIP Blade cleaves into hip, cuts artery, knocked down automatically. [Difficult Surgery vs Crippled Leg.]

Piercing Hip Bleed: 1 Shock: 3 Pain: 4-WIP Shallow stab to the hip.

Bleed: 3 Shock: 5 Pain: 6-WIP Deep stab to the hip. Bone is glanced. (Knockdown at 1)

Bleed: 6 Shock: 9 Pain: 10-WIP Bone chips, weapon may get stuck. (Knock-down at 3)

Bleed: 8 Shock: 10 Pain: 10-WIP Hip fractures as point penetrates through. (Knockdown at 4)

Bleed: 12 Shock: 12 Pain: 14-WIP Hip is smashed, may never recover. (Knock-down at 5) [Miracle Surgery vs Crippled Leg.]

UPPER ARM Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5

Bludgeoning Up-per Arm

Bleed: 0 Shock: 2 Pain: 2-WIP Bruise on the upper arm, not significant harm.

Bleed: 0 Shock: 5 Pain: 3-WIP Harder blow, severe bruising on tricep.

Bleed: 1 Shock: 8 Pain: 5-WIP Intense trauma, fractured humerus.

Bleed: 2 Shock: 12 Pain: 9-WIP Broken humerus, extreme pain, needs treatment. [Difficult Surgery vs Crippled Arm]

Bleed: 5 Shock: 20 Pain: 12-WIP Humerus shattered,fragments driven into surround-ing flesh, limb may be unsalvageable. [Miracle Surgery vs Crippled Arm] [Infection +2]

Cutting Upper Arm

Bleed: 1 Shock: 1 Pain: 4-WIP Cut on arm, minimal damage.

Bleed: 2 Shock: 3 Pain: 7-WIP

Bleed: 3 Shock: 5 Pain: 10-WIP Blade cleaves through flesh, chips humerus.

Bleed: 6 Shock: 6 Pain: 14-WIP Blade breaks humerus, arm is severely damaged, may never recover use of arm. [Difficult Surgery vs Crippled Arm]

Bleed: 20 Shock: 20 Pain: 15-WP Arm severed just below the shoulder. Extreme bloodloss. [Infection +3]

Piercing Upper Arm

Bleed: 2 Shock: 1 Pain: 4-WIP Shal-low puncture on upper arm. Trivial injury.

Bleed: 3 Shock: 3 Pain: 5-WIP Deeper puncture, some muscle dam-age. Bleeding.

Bleed: 5 Shock: 5 Pain: 8-WIP Penetration deep through arm into humerus, terrible bleeding.

Bleed: 8 Shock: 8 Pain: 12-WIP Grievous bone damage, going to be difficult to set. [Difficult Surgery vs Crippled Arm]

Bleed: 15 Shock: 15 Pain: 15-WP Penetration through bone, clipped artery.

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ELBOW Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5

Bludgeoning Elbow

Bleed: 0 Shock: 6 Pain: 4-WIP Blow straight to the elbow. Arm goes numb. May drop item (Knockdown at 1)

Bleed: 0 Shock: 10 Pain: 6-WIP Harder impact, bruising, impact to nerves. Arm tingles painfully, may drop item (Knockdown at 3.)

Bleed: 1 Shock: 15 Pain: 10-WIP Elbow fractured, automati-cally drop item.

Bleed: 3 Shock: 20 Pain: 14-WIP El-bow broken, item/weapon dropped, needs treatment. [Difficult Surgery vs Crippled Arm]

Bleed: 6 Shock: 20 Pain: 18-WIP Elbow smashed to pieces, exquisite pain, item automatically dropped, arm will almost certainly be crippled. [Miracle Surgery vs Crippled Arm.]

Cutting Elbow Bleed: 1 Shock: 5 Pain: 5-WIP Shal-low cut to elbow.

Bleed: 3 Shock: 6 Pain: 8-WIP Deeper cut to elbow, nerves nicked, may drop item (Knockdown at 2)

Bleed: 5 Shock: 8 Pain: 14-WIP Nerves cut, bone chipped, item auto-matically dropped. Arm will not func-tion until healed.

Bleed: 7 Shock: 12 Pain: 15-WIP Nerves severed, arm nearly cloven off, bone broken. Item automatically dropped. Arm may not recover func-tionality [Difficult Surgery vs Crippled Arm]

Bleed: 20 Shock: 20 Pain: 20-WIP Arm severed at the elbow, massive bloodloss, limb irrecoverable, infection is a serious risk. [Infection Risk +3]

Piercing Elbow Bleed: 3 Shock: 5 Pain: 4-WIP Painful stab in elbow. May drop item (Knockdown at 1)

Bleed: 6 Shock: 5 Pain: 6-WIP Deeper penetration, nerve injury, may drop item (Knock-down at 3)

Bleed: 10 Shock: 8 Pain: 10-WIP Spike penetrates clear through elbow, automatic weapon drop, arm may not recover. [Difficult Surgery vs Crippled Arm]

Bleed: 14 Shock: 12 Pain: 14-WIP Extreme injury to elbow joint, nerves destroyed, arm loses functional-ity and may not recover. [Miracle Surgery vs Crippled Arm]

Bleed: 20 Shock: 20 Pain: 18-WIP Arm rendered totally unusable, will probably need to be amputated, definitely will not recover functionality. [Arm automatically crippled] [Infection Risk +4]

FOREARM Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5

Bludgeoning Forearm

Bleed: 0 Shock: 3 Pain: 2-WIP Sharp blow to the forearm. That stings!

Bleed: 1 Shock: 7 Pain: 4-WIP Hard strike to the wrist, sever bruise, may drop held items (Knockdown at 3)

Bleed: 3 Shock: 12 Pain: 10-WIP Broken bones, pos-sible snapped wrist. May drop held items (Knockdown at 4) [Routine Surgery vs Crippled Arm]

Bleed: 6 Shock: 15 Pain: 14-WIP Forearm is shat-tered, automatically drop held items. [Difficult Surgery vs Crippled Limb]

Bleed: 10 Shock: 15 Pain: 15-WIP Forearm crushed, staggering damage, automatically drop item, limb may never recover. [Dif-ficult Surgery vs Crippled Arm]

Cutting Forearm Bleed: 1 Shock: 1 Pain: 3-WIP Shallow cut on the forearm. Will be fine without treatment.

Bleed: 3 Shock: 3 Pain: 6-WIP Deep cut, painful but not debilitating.

Bleed: 6 Shock: 10 Pain: 16-WIP Serious cut, muscle and tendon damage, possible fracture. May drop held item (Knockdown at 4)

Bleed: 8 Shock: 12 Pain: 15-WIP Broken bones, seri-ous muscle damage, automatically drop held item, arm may not recover. [Dif-ficult Surgery vs Crippled Arm]

Bleed: 20 Shock: 15 Pain: 20-WIP Arm cloven off just beneath the elbow. Serious bloodloss. [Infection Chance +3]

Piercing Forearm Bleed: 2 Shock: 1 Pain: 2-WIP Puncture wound on the forearm.

Bleed: 5 Shock: 4 Pain: 5-WIP Deep puncture on the forearm, more blood, no vital damage.

Bleed: 10 Shock: 6 Pain: 7-WIP A deep puncture to the forearm, chipping bone, nicked vein. May drop item. (Knockdown at 2)

Bleed: 14 Shock: 8 Pain: 9-WIP Veins are torn, blood ev-erywhere. May drop item. (Knockdown at 3)

Bleed: 18 Shock: 12 Pain: 12-WIP Com-plete penetration of the arm, bloodloss serious. Item auto-matically dropped. [Difficult Surgery vs Crippled Arm] [Infection Risk +4]

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HAND Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5

Bludgeoning Hand

Bleed: 1 Shock: 5 Pain: 3-WIP Pain-ful strike on hand. May drop held items. (Knock-down at 1)

Bleed: 2 Shock: 7 Pain: 5-WIP A severe blow to hand. Frac-tured phalanges. May drop items. (Knockdown at 3)

Bleed: 2 Shock: 6 Pain: 6-WIP Hand smashed, items au-tomatically dropped. [Routine Surgery vs Crippled Hand]

Bleed: 3 Shock: 10 Pain: 8-WIP Hand bones shattered, damage severe, item automatically dropped, may not recover. [Difficult Surgery vs Crippled Hand]

Bleed: 8 Shock: 12 Pain: 12-WIP Hand completely smashed. Will probably need to be amputated. Time to consider a hook. [Miracle Surgery vs Crippled Hand] [Infection Risk +3]

Cutting Hand Bleed: 1 Shock: 2 Pain: 5-WIP Pain-ful cut on hand. May drop held item. (Knock-down at 1)

Bleed: 3 Shock: 4 Pain: 7-WIP Deep cut, bruised bones, may drop held item. (Knockdown at 2)

Bleed: 5 Shock: 8 Pain: 10-WIP Bro-ken hand, may drop held item (KD at 5)

Bleed: 8 Shock: 12 Pain: 16-WIP Severe damage to hand, 1-3 fingers severed, auto-matically drop held items.

Bleed: 15 Shock: 12 Pain: 18-WIP Hand destroyed or severed. Jet of blood erupts from wound. [Infec-tion Chance +5]

Piercing Hand Bleed: 1 Shock: 2 Pain: 3-WIP Glancing hit on back of hand. May drop held item (KD at 1)

Bleed: 2 Shock: 3 Pain: 4-WIP Deeper penetration of hand. May drop held items (KD at 3)

Bleed: 4 Shock: 5 Pain: 6-WIP Hand impaled, item auto-matically dropped, may not recover. [Routine Surgery vs Crippled Hand]

Bleed: 4 Shock: 9 Pain: 10-WIP Hand seriously damaged, probably won’t recover. [Miracle Surgery vs Crippled Hand]

Bleed: 18 Shock: 15 Pain: 15-WIP Point tears through hand to forearm, tearing open vein. Extreme bloodloss.

THIGH Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5

Bludgeoning Thigh

Bleed: 0 Shock: 3 Pain: 3-WIP Hit on thigh. Impact totally absorbed by dense muscle.

Bleed: 0 Shock: 5 Pain: 4-WIP More solid hit, painful bruising on thigh, still nothing seri-ous.

Bleed: 1 Shock: 10 Pain: 7-WIP Severe bruising, minor femur damage pos-sible knockdown (Knockdown at 2)

Bleed: 3 Shock: 15 Pain: 10-WIP Fe-mur fractured, auto-matic knockdown. [Routine Surgery vs Crippled Leg.]

Bleed: 5 Shock: 20 Pain: 20-WIP Compound Fracture of Femur. Unspeak-ably horrific, does not bear thinking about. Automatic Knockdown, [Dif-ficult Surgery vs Crippled Leg]

Cutting Thigh Bleed: 2 Shock: 1 Pain: 4-WIP Shal-low cut on thigh.

Bleed: 4 Shock: 3 Pain: 5-WIP Deeper cut on thigh. Superficial damage.

Bleed: 10 Shock: 6 Pain: 12-WIP Seri-ous cut cleaves to bone, anguish, pos-sible knockdown. (Knockdown at 2)

Bleed: 20 Shock: 12 Pain: 15-WIP Deep cut to thigh, chipped femur, severed artery. Medic! Automatic Knockdown, [Dif-ficult Surgery vs Crippled Leg.]

Bleed: 25 Shock: To-tal Pain: Total Blade cleaves through the femur and either severs leg entirely or gets stuck in hip/pelvis. This is close to unsurvivable. Au-tomatic Knockdown. [Infection Risk +5]

Piercing Thigh Bleed: 4 Shock: 2 Pain: 3-WIP Shal-low penetration of thigh.

Bleed: 6 Shock: 5 Pain: 5-WIP Deeper penetration of thigh, lots of blood.

Bleed: 10 Shock: 9 Pain: 10-WIP Bone is glanced, artery nicked. (Knock-down at 1)

Bleed: 15 Shock: 10 Pain: 12-WIP Fe-mur cracked, artery severed. (Knock-down at 3)

Bleed: 20 Shock: 15 Pain: 14-WIP Leg completely impaled, artery severed, bone broken. Automatic Knockdown. [Dif-ficult Surgery vs Crippled Leg.]

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KNEE Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5

Bludgeoning Knee

Bleed: 0 Shock: 6 Pain: 3-WIP Glancing blow to the knee. Disrup-tive, but no major damage. May trip. (Knockdown at 2.)

Bleed: 0 Shock: 8 Pain: 5-WIP Solid blow to the knee, bruising, may trip. (Knockdown at 3.)

Bleed: 2 Shock: 12 Pain: 7-WIP Dam-aged knee, bruised or chipped bone, may fall down. Knockdown at 5.

Bleed: 3 Shock: 15 Pain: 10-WIP Bro-ken knee, automatic knockdown, may never recover. [Dif-ficult Surgery vs crippled knee.]

Bleed: 5 Shock: Total Pain: 18-WIP Knee smashed, au-tomatic knockdown. Would take an act of God to recover. [Miracle Surgery vs crippled knee.]

Cutting Knee Bleed: 0 Shock: 3 Pain: 6-WIP “Motherf-”

Bleed: 1 Shock: 5 Pain: 8-WIP Deep cut to knee, painful contact with bone. May fall. (Knock-down at 1)

Bleed: 2 Shock: 10 Pain: 10-WIP Chipped bone, jarring and painful. (Knockdown at 3)

Bleed: 3 Shock: 15 Pain: 15-WIP Knee shattered. Auto-matic Knockdown. Leg may never recover. [Difficult Surgery vs crippled knee.]

Bleed: 20 Shock: Total Pain: Total Leg severed at knee. Knockdown automatic. Death by exsanguination likely to follow without medical attention. (Infection Chance +3)

Piercing Knee Bleed: 2 Shock: 6 Pain: 5-WIP A glancing stab to the knee.

Bleed: 4 Shock: 8 Pain: 7-WIP Knee injured, knock-down at 2.

Bleed: 7 Shock: 9 Pain: 9-WIP Knee fractures, pain is intense. (Knock-down at 4.)

Bleed: 12 Shock: 16 Pain: 16-WIP Kneecap shattered. Probably won’t recover. Automatic Knockdown. [Dif-ficult Surgery vs crippled knee.]

Bleed: 15 Shock: 20 Pain: 20-WIP Knee shatters, leg bends wrong way. Auto-matic Knockdown. Odds of recovery: Dubious at best. [Miracle Surgery vs crippled knee.]

SHIN Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5

Bludgeoning Shin Bleed: 0 Shock: 6 Pain: 4-WIP Glancing blow to shin. No real damage, but man that stings.

Bleed: 0 Shock: 10 Pain: 6-WIP Harder blow, may fall. (Knockdown at 1)

Bleed: 3 Shock: 14 Pain: 8-WIP Fractured shin, ago-nizing, and may fall. (Knockdown at 4.)

Bleed: 5 Shock: 20 Pain: 14-WIP Shin breaks, excessive pain. Automatic Knockdown. [Routine Surgery vs Crippled Leg.]

Bleed: 10 Shock: 20 Pain: 16-WIP Com-pound fracture of the shinbone, excessive damage. Leg may never recover. Auto-matic Knockdown. [Miracle surgery vs Crippled Leg.]

Cutting Shin Bleed: 0 Shock: 4 Pain: 5-WIP Grazed shin, pain-ful but no lasting harm.

Bleed: 1 Shock: 6 Pain: 7-WIP Deep cut, bone contact. (Knockdown vs 1)

Bleed: 2 Shock: 11 Pain: 9-WIP Chipped shinbone, some blood, may fall. (Knockdown at 3)

Blade: 3 Shock: 16 Pain: 14-WIP Deep cut cleaves into bone, automatic knockdown. May never recover. [Dif-ficult Surgery vs Crippled Leg.]

Bleed: 15 Shock: 20 Pain: 20-WIP Leg severed halfway down shin. Auto-matic Knockdown. [Infection Chance +3.]

Piercing Shin Bleed: 2 Shock: 4 Pain: 4-WIP A light fracture to the shin.

Bleed: 5 Shock: 5 Pain: 6-WIP Deep puncture, chipped bone. (Knockdown at 2.)

Bleed: 8 Shock: 10 Pain: 8-WIP tendon grazed, leg freezes up. Possible bone fracture. (Knock-down at 3)

Bleed: 10 Shock: 12 Pain: 10-WIP Shinbone breaks, tendon damage. Severe muscle damage. Auto-matic Knockdown. [Routine Surgery vs Crippled Leg.]

Bleed: 17 Shock: 16 Pain: 20-WIP Compound fracture of shinbone, leg ruined, may never recover. Automatic Knockdown. [Dif-ficult Surgery vs Crippled Leg.]

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Song of Swords

FOOT Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5

Bludgeoning Foot Bleed: 0 Shock: 2 Pain: 2-WIP Foot thumped. Unfor-tunately, feet are kind of designed for that. Minimal damage.

Bleed: 0 Shock: 5 Pain: 3-WIP Foot hit harder, actual pain, may trip. (Knockdown at 2.)

Bleed: 2 Shock: 8 Pain: 7-WIP Equivalent to an ankle sprain, painful and debilitating. (Knockdown at 4)

Bleed: 3 Shock: 10 Pain: 10-WIP Foot is broken, automatic knockdown. May not recover, stay off it. [Routine Surgery vs Crippled Leg.]

Bleed: 5 Shock: 15 Pain: 18-WIP Foot is smashed entirely, multiple compound fractures. May not recover, amputation worth considering.

Cutting Foot Bleed: 0 Shock: 2 Pain: 4-WIP Light cut on foot, unpleasant.

Bleed: 1 Shock: 4 Pain: 5-WIP Deep cut into the meat of foot. Painful but not serious.

Bleed: 1 Shock: 8 Pain: 6-WIP Serious damage to foot, pos-sible bone fractures. (Knockdown at 3.)

Bleed: 3 Shock: 12 Pain: 12-WIP Bro-ken foot, tendom damage, possible toe loss. Automatic knockdown.

Bleed: 10 Shock: 15 Pain: 10-WIP Foot destroyed or severed at the ankle. Automatic Knockdown, severe bleeding. [Infection chance +3]

Piercing Foot Bleed: 2 Shock: 2 Pain: 2-WIP Glancing blow to foot, no major damage.

Bleed: 3 Shock: 5 Pain: 5-WIP Foot stabbed. (Knock-down at 1.)

Bleed 4 Shock: 6 Pain: 10-WIP Foot impaled, fracture of small bones. (Knockdown at 3)

Bleed: 5 Shock: 9 Pain: 12-WIP Foot is nailed to the floor. (Knockdown at 5)

Bleed: 7 Shock: 12 Pain: 18-WIP Foot impaled, ankle damaged, tendons damaged. Automatic Knockdown, may not regain func-tionality. [Difficult Surgery vs Crippled Leg.]

GROIN Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5

Bludgeoning Groin

Bleed: 0 Shock: 10 Pain: 10-WIP A modest thump between the legs. Painful and debilitating.

Bleed: 0 Shock: 15 Pain: 15-WIP A harder blow, enough to cause bruising and ex-treme nausea. May lose consciousness. (KO at 2)

Bleed: 3 Shock: 20 Pain: 20-WIP Serious damage, reproductive organs may be damaged, surgical assessment advised. May lose consciousness. (KO at 3) [Routine Sur-gery vs Sterility]

Bleed: 10, Shock: All Pain: All Severe damage to repro-ductive organs, but also to pelvis and innards. Possible organ damage. May lose consciousness. (KO at 5) [Difficult Surgery vs Sterility]

Bleed: 15 Shock: All Pain: All The horrors borne within this wound level do not bear consideration. Severe internal or-gan damage, instant knockout, may never recover. [Miracle Surgery vs Sterility.]

Cutting Groin Bleed: 2 Shock: 8 Pain: 14-WIP Jimmies rustled, not a good day.

Bleed: 4 Shock: 12 Pain: 16-WIP Severe cut, signifi-cant damage. May lose consciousness. [KO at 2] [Difficult Surgery vs Steril-ity]

Bleed: 8 Shock: 15 Pain: 20-WIP Excessive damage, blade strikes pelvis, internal bleeding and terrible damage. [KO at 3] [Miracle Surgery vs Sterility]

Bleed: 20 Shock: All Pain: All Blade cleaves deep, artery cut, excessive dam-age to reproductive organs within and without. [KO at 5]

Blade cleaves pelvis in twain, coming to rest deep in torso. Mercifully near-instant death.

Piercing Groin Bleed: 4 Shock: 8 Pain: 12-WIP Your lizard brain cries, vehemently,“Do not make a habit of getting hit like this.”

Bleed: 8 Shock: 10 Pain: 15-WIP Stabbed in groin. Excruciatingly painful, chance of reproductive organ damage. [Difficult Surgery vs Steril-ity]

Bleed: 15 Shock: 15 Pain: 18-WIP Deep stab in groin nicks artery. Possible loss of reproductive capability. [Miracle Surgery vs Sterility]

Bleed: 25 Shock: All Pain: All Artery severed, reproduc-tive organs dam-aged beyond repair, unconsciousness likely. [KO at 5]

Point slams through groin into abdo-men, severing major artery and cracking pelvis. Death from shock and exsan-guination follow instantly.

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Belly Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5

Bludgeoning Belly Bleed: 0 Shock: 5 Pain: 4-WIP A solid blow to the stomach, winding but not serious.

Bleed: 0 Shock: 8 Pain: 5-WIP A harder, bruising blow to the midriff.

Bleed: 0 Shock: 10 Pain: 6-WIP Severe blow to the stomach, brachial response might result in unconsciousness. (Knockout at 3)

Bleed: 3 Shock: 15 Pain: 7-WIP Tremendous wind-ing blow to the stomach, may vomit (EN at 2), may lose consciousness (Knockout at 4)

Bleed: 5 Shock: 20 Pain: 8-WIP Pos-sible organ damage, will be sick, will amost certainly lose consciousness (Knockout at 6)

Cutting Belly Bleed: 1 Shock: 3 Pain: 5-WIP Cut straight up across belly-button. Not deep, but damn close.

Bleed: 4 Shock: 5 Pain: 8-WIP Deep-er cut, significant flesh wound, some muscle damage. Not pretty.

Bleed; 10 Shock: 8 Pain: 10-WIP Serious cut belly, muscle damage, lots of bleeding, near organ damage.

Bleed: 15 Shock: 12 Pain: 15-WIP Cut belly, intestinal and organ damage. Get a doctor. Get one fast. [Infection Risk +4]

Blade cleaves into belly, through organs and sternum. Instant death.

Piercing Belly Bleed: 3 Shock: 3 Pain: 4-WIP Shal-low stab to side of midriff. No real damage.

Bleed: 6 Shock: 5 Pain: 6-WIP Deeper stab, muscle damage and lots of bleeding, but mercifully no organs hit.

Bleed: 10 Shock: 10 Pain: 12-WIP Stabbed in the gut, organ and intestine damage, this is serious. [Infection Chance +4]

Bleed: 20 Shock: 10 Pain: 14-WIP Severe internal damage. If this hap-pened in a hospital today, your odds would be poor. [Infection+4]

Point slams straight through guts to sever central artery of trunk. Exsanguina-tion occurs within seconds, uncon-sciousness is instant.

UPWARDS LOWER-HEAD

Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5

Bludgeoning Upwards Lower Head

Bleed: 0 Shock: 5 Pain: 4-WIP blow to the jaw, head rolls with it well.

Bleed: 2 Shock: 8 Pain: 5-WIP Firmer blow, blood in mouth, possible lost tooth. Youch.

Bleed: 3 Shock: 14 Pain: 8-WIP Serious damage to jaw, frac-ture maybe, head jerked hard, may lose consciousness and several teeth. (KO at 3)

Bleed: 7 Shock: 20 Pain: 12-WIP Broken jaw, almost certain uncon-sciousness. (KO at 5)

Jaw smashed, skull shattered, neck bro-ken. Instant death.

Cutting Upwards Lower Head

Bleed: 1 Shock: 4 Pain: 6-WIP Cut vertically across the chin or lips. Going to leave a scar.

Bleed: 3 Shock: 5 Pain: 8-WIP Deeper cut, pos-sible chipping of jaw, may contact chin, lip, cheek, brow.

Bleed: 8 Shock: 8 Pain: 16-WIP Up-ward slash catches eye! Severe damage, may lose eye. [Miracle Surgery vs Lost Eye]

Bleed: 18 Shock: 18 Pain: 20-WIP Face bisected, extreme damage to jaw, teeth, and skull. May lose eye or nose, serious medi-cal complications either way. [Miracle Surgery vs. Facial Deformity] [Infec-tion Chance +2]

Head cloven through the teeth to the brain, instant death.

Piercing Upwards Lower Head

Bleed: 3 Shock: 4 Pain: 5-WIP Point glances off jaw, terrible bleeding below mouth.

Bleed: 6 Shock: 4 Pain: 6-WIP Point sticks into neck behind jaw, terrible bloodloss,

Bleed: 10 Shock: 7 Pain: 5-WIP Serious puncture in sub-mandible, severe bleeding.

Bleed: 15 Shock: 12 Pain: 12-WP Point penetrates through jaw, breaking it, into roof of mouth. Not quite lethal, but close. Tongue may be damaged, surgery required. [Difficult Surgery vs Lost Voice]

Point penetrates into brain through bottom of head. Death.

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Song of Swords

Chapter 8:‘Likely’ Encounters

Milanese GuardsmanStr: 5 Wip: 3Agi: 4 Wit: 5End: 4 Int: 3Het: 4 Per: 4Adr: 4 Cha: 6Tou: 4 Mob: 6Prof: Polearm/Halberd 7 Maneuvers/Talents: (Hook/Power Attack)Equipment: Spear, Brigandine Vest, Barbute (0 en-cumbrance)CP: 11

German MercenaryStr: 6 Wip: 5Agi: 5 Wit: 6End: 5 Int: 4Het: 5 Per: 4Adr: 6 Cha: 7Tou: 5 Mob: 8 (6)Prof: 2H-Longsword 8Maneuvers/Talents: (Beat, Hew, Murderstrike, Hilt-Push, Parry-Off/Stop Cut)Equipment: Zweihander, Breastplate, Pauldrons, El-bow Cops, Gauntlets, Chausses, Cervelliere (Enc 2, -2 CP, -2 Mob)CP: 12

German HalberdierStr: 5 Wip: 3Agi: 4 Wit: 5End: 5 Int: 3Het: 4 Per: 4Adr: 4 Cha: 6Tou: 4 Mob: 6 (5)Prof: Polearm/Halberd 7 Maneuvers/Talents: (Hook/Power Attack)Equipment: Halberd, Brigandine Vest, Gauntlets, Tailed Sallet (Enc 1, -1 CP, -1 Mob)CP: 10

Time Traveling Scythian WarriorStr: 5 Wip: 4Agi: 6 Wit: 6End: 5 Int: 4Het: 4 Per: 4Adr: 6 Cha : 7Tou: 5 Mob: 8Prof: Polearm-Halberd 5, Bow 6Maneuvers: (Hook)Missile Maneuvers: (Mean Spirited, Horse Archery, Rapid Fire)Equipment: Scale Hauberk, Barbute, War Horse, Composite Horsebow, Light Lance (No Enc)CP: 7 MP: 10

BrigandStr: 4 Wip: 4Agi: 5 Wit: 5End: 6 Int: 2Het: 4 Per: 4Adr: 5 Cha :6Tou: 4 Mob: 7Prof: 1H Cut & Thrust: 2Maneuvers: (Beat, Block Open/Rapid Reaction)Equipment: Brigandine Vest, Padded Coif, Short Sword, Buckler (0 Enc)CP: 7

Horses

WarhorseStr: 10 Wip: 5Agi: 7 Wit: 5End: 9 Int: 2Het: 7 Per: 4Adr: 6 Loyalty: 3Tou: 8 Mob: 13Prof: NibbleBite Attack: H Range ATN 6, (Str-2c)

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Appendix

Analyze pg. 16Arc Points pg. 13Armor pg. 49Attributes pg. 8Attribute Tests pg. 61Awarding Arc Points pg. 14Bloodloss pg. 58Bystander Period pg. 54Character Advancement pg. 39Character Sheet pg. 72-73Climbing pg. 18Combat Terms pg. 52-53Damage Tables pg. 62-70Damage Types pg. 61Defensive Maneuvers pg. 29Drowning pg. 57Enemies pg. 74Falling Damage pg. 58Healing Wounds pg. 59Hit Location pg. 60-61History pg. 19Infection pg. 59Intimidate pg. 19Items pg. 41Jumping pg. 20Knockdown pg. 61Knockout pg. 61Melee Talents pg. 31Melee Weapons pg. 43Mounted Combat pg. 57Offensive Maneuvers pg. 27Orate pg. 21Pain pg. 61Persuasion pg. 21Politics pg. 22Proficiency Description pg. 26-27Proficiency Grids pg. 33-38Races pg. 9Ranged Maneuvers pg. 30Ranged Talents pg. 32Ranged Weapons pg. 47Reloading pg. 56Research pg. 22Ride pg. 23Shields pg. 51Shield Damage pg. 52Sincerity pg. 23Skill Terminology pg. 15Shock pg. 61Stealth pg. 24Surgery pg. 25Swimming pg. 25

Tracking pg. 26Treating Wounds pg. 59Universal Maneuvers pg. 30Wealth pg. 40

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Thank you Page

good job on making it through our book, i truly hope that you enjoyed it, and will continue to play our game for years to come. as said before, this is a rough beta, a demo, of the true

game that is to come, and if you’d like to help us succeed, look out for our kickstarter in the very near future.

thanks again for the battles,

- zachary T. irwin, designer, producer, ceo

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