Sor's Ascension

Sor's Ascension

Premise

Dread has come to the lands of Olzulzuza(known in the Old Tongues as The Legendary Domain), for the dread lord Sor has laid low his greatest enemy: The Stoked Empires. He has slain all their dynasty but one, even their first ruler the great dragon Asrilenge. He has claimed the heir to the throne and now she rests with him as his consort, and she has born him a foul spawn that already now consumes scores of men. A foul demonic force that will in time threaten all the known world.

The only force that has ever battled Sor to a standstill is the Twilight Crone, Uktang, and she is as foul as he, dwelling in the southern marshes, threatening the dwarves of Zan Edos and the elves of Wenevicira.

Those nations not too devastated by the depredations of the Uktang and Sor, or worse, are either complacent or neck-deep in war and politics. Olzulzuza needs heroes that can either unite the lands against Sor, rally his old foes against him or gather the strength and artifacts needed to strike him down themselves. Great rewards have been promised and, of course, there is also the benefit of being able to stay alive if Sor and his spawn are defeated in time.

Will you be heroes of the lands? Or merely another addition to Sor's tally of the slain?

Dry Mechanics

System

The system is ORE. An action is stat + skill to get a dice pool of D10's. Matching rolls are a success, for instance, 7, 8, 9, 10 is a failure, but 1, 1, 1, 4, is a success. Width(number of matching dice) determines HOW successful and fast you are, height(the number the matching dice have) usually means little, except in combat where they determine hit location. If trying to oppose someone else's action and you beat their width, you foil them(though in some cases, if you get a match but fail to beat their width you may be able to subtract your width from theirs to lessen their success). A character may aim, or in the case of skills, take their time in attempting a task. For every round spent aiming or slowly and calmly, +1d per round, up to a maximum of 2d, can be added to your pool. This won't work for every situation, and the GM has final edit on when and where it can or can't be used.

Character Creation, Minimum

New characters have 70 points to distribute between Attributes, Advantages, and Skills. Attributes start at 1, are limited to 5, and cost 5 points to increase by 1. Advantages use their rules as written in REIGN unless modified in cost or effect, as noted at the bottom of the page. Skills start at nothing (0), are limited to 5 (or 4+MD or ED), and cost 1 point to increase by 1. A skill die may be promoted to an Expert Die (ED) for 1 point, and an ED may be promoted into a Master Die (MD) for 5 points. You may have as many MD and ED as you want, however you will never roll more than 4 dice and an ED OR a MD, or 5 dice if you possess neither. You can only apply one MD or one ED to any roll, and the absolute maximum roll for any player character is 10d, including their special die.

Every character has three Passions: A Mission, a Duty, and a Craving. A Mission is something concrete, achievable. A noble knight in a princess's entourage, for instance, might have a Mission of escorting her safely from her castle to another city far away. Progress is easily defined, and the Mission has a definite end; it is over when the Princess reaches her destination in safety and with dignity. A Duty is more ambiguous and abstract, and colors how that character sees the world around him. The knight's Duty, for instance, might be to protect his princess's honor, dignity, and pride no matter what the personal cost. A Duty is open ended and a way or code of life. A Craving is much more personal and is a desire that can be fulfilled, but has no end, whether literal or metaphorical. The knight's Craving, for instance, might be known far and wide as a gallant and courageous warrior.

When a character is acting in line with, directly fulfilling, or similar, their Passions, that character receives a +1d bonus. This bonus stacks with the other two Passions. If the princess's wagon is ambushed on a lonely forest road, the knight leaping to her defense and combating the bandits would be following his Mission, protecting the princess on her journey, his Duty, protecting the princess's honor, dignity, and pride, and his Craving, as his ferocity will be known far and wide, spread by his comrades and prisoners. He would receive a +3d bonus to all of his pools, though he still cannot roll more than 10d, or 9d+MD or an ED. The extra dice could be used to offset any penalties instead. Likewise, if the knight is secretly cavorting around with a bar wench while he neglects the princess, he would suffer a penalty of -1d as he's neglecting his mission. If he were to be cavorting with a bar wench while the princess were in a situation in which her pride, dignity, or honor might need to be protected, he would suffer a -2d penalty. If he were to, somehow, neglect the princess in a situation where he's failing to complete his duty, get into a fight, and then attempt to run away or flee, he would suffer an impressive -3d penalty.

Equipment is handled differently than REIGN as noted at the bottom of the page and in Handled here until further notice

Character Creation, Basics

Characters have six basic stats, Body(Str and Con in D&D terms), Coordination(Dexterity and aim), Sense, Knowledge, Command(Your presence and natural charisma) and Charm(How well you get on with people). No stat can start higher than five. Before building your character you have a basic 1 in each stat.

There are a variety of skills, each tied to a stat, and all start at zero. Outside of normal points in them, which contribute to the dice pool when rolling them, there are also Expert Dice and Master Dice. ED and MD. ED are set to a number of your choosing before rolling, helping you choose the result(especially useful in combat) and MD are set to a number AFTER the rolling, meaning that if you have even a single MD you will rarely fail except at very difficult tasks or when opposed by someone skilled. On occasion skills may be used with other stats than the one with which they are associated(for instance, Knowledge+Parrying to judge someone's fighting skills). At most you can have five in a skill, Fight and Weapon skills cannot have Master Dice assigned to them.

Body Skills: Athletics(leaping, jumping, throwing, lifting), Endurance(driving yourself to keep functioning despite exhaustion), Fight(unarmed combat and improvised weapons), Parry(when defending against incoming attacks), Run(sprinting), Vigor(resisting poison and disease, and recovering from injury and exertion).

Coordination Skills: Climb(speaks for itself), Dodge(avoiding injury by getting away from it), Perform(with a specific art or talent), Ride, Stealth, Weapon(attacking with a general category of weapons, for instance: Axes, hammers or crossbows).

Knowledge Skills: Healing(medicine, herbs and light surgery), Language(Each race has their own, no one needs to invest points in knowing theirs. Human is the common language all races speak when trading), Lore(Knowing ancient stuff), Strategy, Student(of a specific topic, anything not already covered is admissible), Tactics(like strategy, but for small groups. Also helps you win at board games).

Command Skills: Haggle, Inspire, Intimidate, Perform(same as the Coordination skill, but more relevant to stuff like storytelling or some non-musical performances).

Sense Skills: Direction(helps you not get lost), Eerie(helps you sense the unnatural), Empathy(helps you tell if others are lying), Hearing(do your ears work?), Scrutinize(searching an area for clues or objects), Sight(can you see, boy?), Primal(goblins, elves and kobolds only: Sense of smell and other diffuse senses that the civilized races rarely use).

Charm: Fascinate(get people's attention and keep it), Graces(knowledge and use of etiquette), Jest(entertaining with humour), Lie(this one should be obvious), Plead(winning someone over by looking adorably pathetic).

Every character also has three other important attributes. Missions, Duties and Cravings. Something they want to accomplish, something they try to live by and something they just plain want for themselves. All characters get bonus dice when working TOWARDS these things, and penalties when working against them(or trying to ignore them, like an alcoholic trying to quietly sneak through a brewery).

Everyone has 70 points to start with, a stat point costs 5 points, and a skill point costs 1. Turning a normal die in a skill into an expert die costs 1 point, turning an expert die into a master die costs 5 points. While you can have more than one ED and MD in a single skill, you cannot use ED and MD in the roll, or more than one ED in a single roll. There are also Advantages that can be bought at varying costs, listed in the next section.

At base, before selecting a race or gaining advantages, your Torso can take 10 wounds, your head 4 and each of your limbs 5.

Character Creation, Advanced

Beauty(1, 3 or 5 points): If you're trying to use any form of social skill and roll a success at a low height(the matching numbers), then your Beauty will enhance the height to 3, 7 or 10(for purposes of opposed rolls or minimum requirements) depending on what cost you buy it at. Usually used with Charm and Grace, but can also be relevant in other cases. It usually only works on your own race.

Cannibal Smile(3 points dwarves and humans, 1 point for kobolds, goblins and elves): You can bite for Width(number of matching dice) shock damage, +1 killing damage. It can also help intimidate people if they know you can do that sort of damage by biting.

Hard as Leather(5 points): Head, body and limbs all acquire 1 extra wound.

Knack for Learning(5 points): Choose a skill, all future improvements on that skill are 1 XP cheaper.

Lucky(3 points): Once every two sessions you can reroll an entire pool where you had no matches.

Madman's Luck(5 points): Allows you to burn an XP point to reroll an entire pool of dice.

Thick-Headed(2 points): Your head has one more wound.

Humans: Have no modifying traits at all, they are the baseline by which all other races are compared.
Elves: Have 1 less wound in their limbs, but can do killing damage with wooden weapons and heal twice as fast as humans. They are also capable of speaking to animals and savage races that are part animal(snailmen, ant men, snakemen, etc.). Elves are poorly welcomed by most other races, but can use human-sized equipment
Dwarves: Have one more wound in their body, but cannot use two-handed weapons other than crossbows, warhammers and war axes. Armor made for other races will also not fit dwarves. Due to their low stature they have an easier time taking cover.
Goblins: Can use equipment sized for dwarves or goblins, cannot use two-handed weapons other than crossbows or polearms. Demons may stop to speak to goblins rather than attacking them outright, and for some reason children tend to like them.
Kobolds: Have one less wound in each location, can use equipment sized for any other race by jury-rigging it to fit them(though it will no longer suit the original race), cannot use any two-handed weapon, gain one extra die on any Dodge roll due to their small size. Their small stature makes any non-ranged attack on large creatures result in a hit on the torso instead. Kobolds heal twice as fast as humans.

You may hail from any of the nations of Olzulzuza, though goblins, elves and kobolds will find the lands much harsher than humans and dwarves.

Combat, Damage & Healing

All weapons do Width + X damage in Shock or Killing, sometimes a combination of both. If a limb has no more free wounds(that is, they're all either shock or killing) any further shock damage to that limb becomes killing. Once a limb is entirely killing damage, all further damage to it is applied to the torso. If any body part is full of a combination of shock and killing, further killing damage replaces shock damage at a rate of one for one. Slashing weapons deal one additional killing damage to limbs, piercing weapons deal one additional killing damage to the torso and crushing weapons deal one additional killing damage to the head.

If the Torso is filled with shock, or a combination of killing and shock, you become "dazed" and have one less die in all pools you roll. If the Head is filled with shock, or a combination of killing and shock, you are unconscious. Limbs filled with killing damage are unusable until healed. A Torso or Head full of Killing damage means you're dead.

Armor subtracts from all damage applied to the location it covers, at a rate of 1 shock & killing per point of armor. Wooden or leather armor is one point, chain is two points and plate is three points. Artifact armor or rare materials(for instance dragonscale) may protect more. Heavy armor also impedes all attempts at athletics or stealth.

Most shock damage disappears after a brief rest which cures shock damage equal to the width of a Body+Vigor roll(assigned as the player prefers), any capable healer can remove Width shock damage with a single application of the skill from the body part of his choice, but only once per day per character. Killing Damage heals at a rate of one point for a week without injury, or faster if tended to by a capable healer. Certain concoctions may assist characters in healing faster, and certain races naturally regenerate quickly.

Combat dice pools cap at eight normal dice, or eight normal dice and an expert die.

Equipment

Handled here until further notice, link also contains combat rules at the bottom, slightly more elaborate than the ones written here.

Esoteric Knowledge/Martial Styles

Similar abilities can be learned(or at least accessed as something you can pay XP to learn) from experiences, encounters with enemies or by meeting NPC's who already have such abilities. If you really MUST start with one of these abilities, however, ask me and we'll negotiate.

List of skills currently greenlighted
Words Fail, My Beloved(1)
The Taste of My Tears(2)
Exquisite Whine(1)
Dogged Persistence(2)

List of skills currently banned

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