System Basics
Dice Used
Roleplaying games are played with a wide array of dice. In this game, the most important die is the six-sided cube, often referred to as a d6. You can find these in a number of popular games like Yahtzee or Monopoly.
Knucklebones. The most common roll you will make uses two six-sided dice. We call this pair of dice, “knucklebones”.
Knucklebones
Wild Dice. Sometimes you will roll a special 12-sided die along with your knucklebones. Wild dice are also used to break ties.
Wild Die
Other Dice
Specialized rules for magic and combat will require rolling other types of dice. These dice will be referred to using the classic method used in similar games. The notation is as follows.
- The number of dice
- The letter “d”
- The number of sides on each of the dice
Using this notation, knucklebones would be described as “2d6” because they are two six-sided dice. These basic rules only cover the use of knucklebones and wild dice.
Rolling
You only roll your knucklebones when you take an action that is difficult enough that success is not guaranteed. Under normal circumstances, you would not need to roll to walk across a room, but you might roll to see if you can make it across a particularly rickety bridge.
Difficulty Rating. The DR (Difficulty Rating) of this action represents how high you must roll to succeed. An easy action has a DR of 7 while a very difficult action might have a DR of 12 or higher.
The Game Master determines the DR of any roll.
Bonuses & Penalties. The most common bonuses and penalties will be from your attributes. Some magical items or technological marvels may add other bonuses. Curses or other circumstances may result in penalties.
Proficiencies
During the character creation process, you will determine your character’s proficiencies. When your proficiencies apply, you roll an extra set of knucklebones and use the best result.
Expertise
Additional character features may allow you to upgrade a proficiency to an expertise. When your expertise applies, you roll one more set of knucklebones, using the best result.
Snake Eyes & Seraph Eyes
If any one pair of your knucklebones shows 1 and 1, you have rolled Snake Eyes. When you roll 6 and 6 on any one pair of knucklebones, you have rolled Seraph Eyes. These have special effects in combat and when casting spells.
Snake Eyes represents bad luck negating successes and complicating failures. This could be something as simple as an ill-timed sneeze causing a slip of the hand.
Snake Eyes
Seraph Eyes represents good luck bringing about unlikely success or bringing about exceptionally positive results.
Seraph Eyes
Advantage and Disadvantage
Your Game Master may rule that you are rolling under particularly advantageous or disadvantageous circumstances. In these situations, you roll a wild die and replace one set of knucklebones with the result.
Advantage. When you have advantage, you roll a wild die and use the result in place of your worst knucklebones roll.
Replace the knucklebones showing 1 and 3 with the wild die showing 7.
Disadvantage. When you have disadvantage, you roll a wild die and use the result in place of your best knucklebones roll.
Replace the knucklebones showing 3 and 5 with the wild die showing 7.
Wild Snakes and Seraphs
When rolling with advantage, a 6 on your wild die can partner with another 6 on any of your knucklebones.
But watch out! When you roll with disadvantage, a 1 on your wild die can partner with another 1 to produce Snake Eyes.