Character Basics

Hit Points

Hit Points (HP) are an abstraction of your character’s general physical health. These mostly come into play during combat. Your character’s maximum Hit Points are equal to 20 + twice their Body modifier. A negative Body modifier can result in a Hit Point maximum below 20.  

Temporary Hit Points

There are several ways a creature can gain temporary Hit Points. These Hit Points are treated separately from a creature’s normal hit points, allowing a creature to have a total pool of Hit Points over their normal maximum. A creature’s temporary Hit Points cannot exceed half their normal maximum Hit Points. Temporary Hit Points can stack from multiple sources. Temporary Hit Points expire after 1 minute from last receiving any. When a creature with temporary Hit Points takes damage, the damage goes first to the temporary Hit Points and only begins to damage the creature’s normal Hit Points after the creature has no more temporary Hit Points remaining.  

Dying and Death Round Counter

When a creature reaches 0 Hit Points, it falls Prone and enters Critical Condition. A creature in Critical Condition has 3 turns to be stabilised or gain Hit Points until it dies. That is, if a creature ends its turn in Critical Condition three rounds in a row, it dies. Each time a creature enters Critical Condition, the timer reduces by 1, to a minimum of 1. Meaning, if a creature has already entered Critical Condition, been stabilised, and entered it again, it now has 2 turns until it dies. This timer resets when the creature regains Hit Points up to its maximum. A creature within 5 feet of a creature in Critical Condition can attempt to stabilise the creature for 2 actions with a DC 20 Medicine check, or a DC 10 Medicine check if they have a first aid kit.   While in Critical Condition, a creature has 1 Action on their turn and they cannot take Reactions. Additionally, they may spend 1 Composure in order to gain another Action. A creature in Critical Condition must use an Action to yell or to speak coherently.   If a creature in Critical Condition gains Hit Points, they exit Critical Condition. If a creature is stabilised but still at 0 Hit Points, they exit Critical Condition and are no longer dying, but they still only have 1 Action on their turn and cannot take Reactions. Any Attribute or Skill checks made while at 0 Hit Points have a −5 penalty. If a creature in Critical Condition was brought out of the condition with temporary Hit Points, when the temporary Hit Points expire, they drop to 0 Hit Points, but are stable.  

Composure

Composure represents your character’s cool and ability to cope with stress. Your character’s maximum Composure is equal to their Willpower score.   A point of Composure can be used as a reaction either to pass a roll you’d otherwise fail, to turn an enemy’s hit against you into a miss, or an enemy’s critical hit against you into a regular hit, or to take an additional 2 actions on a turn. Reaching 0 Composure will cause a character to have a breakdown, automatically failing Willpower checks and suffering a −2 penalty to d20 rolls as long as they have 0 Composure. A magic user character automatically loses all Focus Points if they reach 0 Composure, and cannot regain any while at 0 Composure. A character at 0 Composure automatically regains 1 Composure upon completing a rest. To regain further Composure, a character must engage in activities that would relax them. There are some abilities that grant Composure, but it is ultimately up to the GM to reward Composure to players during play.  

Dodge

Dodge represents a character's ease of being hit by an attack. All creatures have a Dodge of 12 plus their Agility modifier plus their Perception modifier. For example, a character with an Agility score of 7 (+2) and a Perception score of 4 (−1) has a Dodge of 13 (12 + 2 − 1). Creatures may wear armour, and each targetable region of a creature is able to have its own armour. Armour provides Damage Threshold (DT), absorbing some or all of the damage from an incoming attack, though wearing more armour can lower a creature's Dodge.  

Speed

Speed represents how quickly your character can move in combat. A creature with an Agility score of 5 has a speed of 30 feet, meaning they can move up to 30 feet by using one Action to move. Each point in Agility equals 5 feet of speed, so a character with 1 Agility would have a speed of 10 feet, and a character with 10 Agility would have a speed of 55 feet. Generally, one square or hex will represent 5 feet.  

XP

There are no discrete "levels", and instead, character scaling is done more incrementally by spending Experience Points (XP). XP can be spent to increase proficiency modifiers, acquire perks, and increase a character's magical repertoire. It costs 3 × the level you are increasing to XP to increase a Proficiency bonus (to increase from +2 to +3 costs 3 × 3 = 9 XP). Perks vary in their cost.  

Perks

Perks are abilities your character has. In a way, they represent tricks and skills a character has learned. There are a myriad of different perks that suit different playstyles and types of characters. Many perks require a character to have a minimum proficiency score in a related Skill. For convenience, the perks are broken into four loose categories: ranged combat, melee combat, mobility and utility, and magic.