These are your characters core values. Athleticism, Constitution, Dexterity, Intellect, Notice, Wisdom, and Evasion. These are each important in their own ways. Read on to see the details of what each of them do.
Features
Athleticism
Your character’s Athleticism Feature shows how strong they are. A high Athleticism means you can lift heavy objects. You can lift items that weigh up to 3 kg times your Athleticism Feature. For example, if your Athleticism is 10, then you can lift items weighing 30 kg or less. You can push or pull objects that weigh up to 2 times this weight easily. If you try to lift something heavier, you’ll need to make an Athleticism check.
You can lift, but not carry up to 10 kg times your Athleticism Feature with a successful check. For pushing or pulling, the limit is 15 kg times your Athleticism Feature with a successful check.
Athleticism with Melee: Your Athleticism Feature increases melee attack damage. For every 8 points in Athleticism, add 1 extra damage die. So, if you usually roll 1d6, you’ll roll 2d6 instead. If you’re using a two-handed weapon, you will instead add 1 extra die for every 6 points in Athleticism. For unarmed attacks, add your full Athleticism Feature to the damage. Think about this when deciding if your character should focus on melee combat. If you’re not very strong, your attacks won’t be very powerful.
Enhancing your Athleticism: Enhancing your Athleticism Feature increases how much you can carry while traveling. When you create your character, you get a backpack with 10 bag spaces for items. Each time you enhance this Feature, you gain 1 extra slot, letting you carry more. You can instead choose to increase your Base Movement stat by 2, showing that you can get around more easily.
Having a low Athleticism: If your Athleticism Feature is 5 or less, then you will be incapable of sprinting. If your Athleticism Feature is 3 or less, then your inventory is halved. If you are carrying more items than you have available bag spaces, your Movement is halved. Your Movement becomes 0 if the items on your person total more than twice your available bag spaces. If your Athleticism Feature is reduced to 0, then your Movement stat will also be reduced to 0, and you will fall prone, as you are now too weak to hold up your own body. You will remain prone until your Athleticism Feature is increased to at least 1.
Your character’s Constitution Feature measures their resilience. A high Constitution allows your character to endure challenges they might typically struggle with. This Feature is also relevant when your character faces passing out, vomiting, torture, intoxication, and similar threats. A crucial but rare time for this Feature is when your Life stat drops below 0.
Becoming Unconscious: If your Life stat drops to 0 or below, you must make a Constitution check to avoid becoming unconscious or worse. The target number starts at 25 and increases by 4 with each check made this way before completing a full rest. Succeeding means you stay conscious despite having a negative Life stat, while failing means you become unconscious. If your Life stat goes below the negative equivelant of your Race level, the check becomes about avoiding death, with the same target number. Failing this check means your character dies, while succeeding means your character is just unconscious.
How dying works: If your Life stat drops to a value equal to or lower than the negative equivelant of your Race level, your character becomes unconscious. At the beginning of your next turn, you must make a Constitution Feature check or start dying. The RR for this Feature check is the same as listed in the above section. If you fail, your character dies at the start of your next turn unless your Life is restored to 1 or more, which will wake you up but leave you prone.
When an entity dies, its spirit drifts into the Paranormal Plane, where it lingers for one week. After that, Nyro, the Lord of the Dead, takes the spirit into the void. Once this happens, the spirit can only be retrieved with strong Radiant Magic.
Enhancing your Constitution: Enhancing your Constitution Feature will make your character more resistant to harmful effects. Each time you enhance your Constitution Feature, you will gain a permanent +1 modifier to all of your Natural Resistances.
Having a low Constitution: If your Constitution Feature is 5 or less, failing a Constitution Feature check will make your character feel dizzy or nauseous for 30 seconds, giving you a -1 modifier to this Feature until it passes. If this Feature is 3 or less, you will have a -3 penalty to all Natural Resistances due to a weak immune system, but it cannot drop below 0. If this Feature reaches 0 or less, then your character will die in 30 seconds unless the Feature is raised to at least 1.
Constitution
Dexterity
Your character’s Dexterity Feature shows how quick they are. A high Dexterity means quicker movements beyond just how far you can go in a short time. It relates more to your hand-eye coordination and reflexes. You use your Dexterity for tasks like juggling, balancing on a narrow surface, or throwing with accuracy. This Feature affects thrown and ranged weapons, as well as your character’s Evasion Feature.
Dexterity with thrown and ranged weapons: Whenever you attack a target using a thrown weapon, or a ranged weapon, you will have a +1 RTH modifier for the attack for every 10 points you have in this Feature. This bonus does not apply with fire-arms.
Enhancing your Dexterity: Enhancing your Dexterity Feature will increase how quickly you can do things. Each time this Feature is Enhanced, you will be given one additional Action Phase to be used at any time during each of your turns. These are still Action Phases, so using it after your Attack Phase or Perform Phase does not allow you to repeat either of those Phases.
Additional Attacks: You are able to exchange 2 Actions Phases to allow yourself to attack 1 additional time when you use your Attack Phase to attack using a weapon or the Unarmed Fighting skill.
Having a Low Dexterity: If your Dexterity Feature is 5 or less, you will have 1 less Action Phase each turn. If your Dexterity Feature is 3 or less, your Movement Phase will be removed from each of your turns. If your Dexterity Feature is reduced to 0, you will only have your Attack Phase each turn.
Your character’s Intellect Feature shows how smart they are. A high Intellect means you can solve problems, remember facts, and understand situations better. Your GM decides when to test your Intellect. If it’s an easy problem, you won’t be tested. For harder problems, like puzzles, your GM will ask for an Intellect check. This means your character needs to pause and think to find the answer.
Intellect with Fire-Arms: Any time you attack a target using a fire-arm, you will have a +1 RTH modifier for the attack for every 10 points you have in your Intellect Feature.
Enhancing your Intellect: Enhancing your Intellect Feature will improve how effective you are with your skills. Each time this Feature is enhanced, you will get a permanent +1 modifier to all of your skills.
Having a low Intellect: If you Intellect Feature is 5 or less, then you will be unable to read or write. If your Intellect Feature is 3 or less, then you are unable to speak intelligibly, cannot cast any spells, and cannot use any fire-arms. If your Intellect Feature is reduced to 0, then your mind will go numb, making you catatonic and mentally paralyzed. You will be considered as unconscious until your Intellect Feature is increased to at least 1.
Intellect
Your character's Notice Feature measures their awareness. A high Notice lets your character notice things that others might overlook. You'll use this Feature throughout the game whenever your character wants to use their senses to find something. For example, if your character is patrolling a cliff and you want to know if they see anything important, you'd make a Notice check to find out what, if anything, they see.
Enhancing your Notice: Enhancing your character’s Notice Feature will increase their response time; how quickly they can react to situations. Each time you enhance this Feature, you will gain a permanent +2 modifier to your Evasion Feature.
Having a low Notice: If this Feature is 5 or less, then anytime you fail an Evasion Feature check, you will become prone. If this Feature is 3 or less, then you must choose 1 of either sight, hearing, sense of smell, or taste to be lost to your character, until the Feature is increased above 3. If this Feature is reduced to 0 or less, then you will be unable to succeed at any Evasion Feature checks and any attacks that hit you are considered a critical hit.
Notice
Your character’s Wisdom Feature determines their street smarts and how well they are able to take care of themselves. Having a high Wisdom Feature will increase your Dodging Ability, making it more difficult for foes to hit you in battle. It will also aid you in survivability in rough situations. You may not be able to figure out how to get out of the hole, but you sure aren’t dying here.
Enhancing your Wisdom: Enhancing your Wisdom Feature will increase the likeliness of hitting your targets, as well as making it harder for attackers to hit you. Whenever you enhance your Wisdom Feature, you will increase your Battle Caliber by 1.
Having a low Wisdom: If your character’s Wisdom is 5 or lower, they struggle to understand situations and think clearly. They can't use any positive modifiers for Deception, Insight, and Unarmed Fighting Skills, and will have a -5 penalty for each skill. If their Wisdom is 3 or lower, they will find it harder to spot attackers and evade them, losing the Battle Caliber bonus to their Dodging Ability. If Wisdom falls to 0, they can't think during stressful moments, their Dodging Ability becomes 0, and the modifiers for Deception, Insight, and Unarmed Fighting increase to -10.
Wisdom
Your character’s Evasion Feature determines how efficient your character is at avoiding dangerous situations, and most often used when avoiding traps or things that harm an area of effect. This Feature is unique to the others. Your Characters Base Evasion Feature will be equal to the average of your starting Dexterity and Notice Features. This means that increasing your Notice and Dexterity will not necessarily increase your Evasion Feature. This value is set unless something specifies that it increases or decreases your Evasion. Just in case you have not read the section about your Notice Feature, enhancing your Notice will increase your Evasion.
Evading: Whenever you are threatened by an AoE range of a spell, explosion, blast attack, trap, etc., you will likely be asked to make an Evasion Feature check. The RR for this check will be determined by what and how your character is at risk of being harmed, but all follow the same general mechanics.
Having a Low Evasion: If your Evasion Feature is 5 or less, then any time you make an Evasion check, you will roll 2d20 instead of 1d20. Whichever d20 results the lowest will be considered as your roll for that Feature check. If your Evasion Feature is 2 or less, then you cannot succeed Evasion Feature checks.
Enhancing your Evasion feature: Unlike the other Features, this Feature cannot be directly enhanced. Your Base Evasion Feature can only be increased by enhancing your Notice Feature. This is, of course, not taking into account any modifiers you may have to your Evasion Feature from other sources. Enhancing your Evasion simply means that your Evasion Feature is higher, which is a lot considering how often you will be using this Feature.
Evasion
Determining Your Starting Features
To determine what your characters starting Features are, you will need 2d8. Roll these dice 5 times, recording each result. Re-roll any results of 2 or 3. Once you have 5 numbers, repeat the process. Keep the first set of numbers seperate from the second set of numbers. Next, pick 3 numbers from the first set, and 3 numbers from the second set. This should give you 6 numbers between 4 and 16. These are your starting Features. You will now distribute these numbers, however you want, amongst the 6 primary Features; Athleticism, Constitution, Dexterity, Intellect, Notice, and Wisdom. Your Evasion Feature will be the average of your Notice and Dexterity Features. These are your characters Base Features.