Table of Contents

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”.

When you roll 2d6 to determine the outcome of an action, we call those 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.

Use a d12 for your wild die.

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.

Add your knucklebones together

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.

Add any bonuses the natural result of your knucklebones roll.
Add any bonuses or penalties to the result of the dice roll.

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.

When rolling with proficiency select the highest pair of knucklebones
When rolling multiple sets of knucklebones, use the best result and add any bonuses

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.

When rolling with expertise, select the highest pair of knucklebones

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

Snake Eyes

Seraph Eyes represents good luck bringing about unlikely success or bringing about exceptionally positive results.

Seraph Eyes

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.

Rolling with Advantage

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.

Rolling with disadvantage

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.

Wild Seraph Roll
Wild Seraph (advantage)
Wild Snake roll
Wild Snake (disadvantage)