There's no lore on this page. This page is an explanation of all the underlying mechanics for the setting.

Challenges

When a character is presented with something they cannot overcome through trivial effort, that's a challenge. Whether or not a character succeeds on a challenge is determined by one of their three attributes.

There are two forms of challenge: a static challenge, and an opposed challenge. A static challenge is something like a locked box, or a door. It doesn't itneract with the person trying to overcome it, except in response to the challenger. An opposed challenge is something like a duel. Both the challenger and the challengee are trying to do something: hurt the other person, win a race, what have you.

In the case of a static challenge, if the person attempting to overcome it has higher stats than the challenge calls for they overcome it. If they fail, usually nothing happens. In the case of an opposed challenge, whoever has the higher attribute wins and this is generally to the detriment of the loser.

The Three Attributes

Prowess, Erudition, and Cleverness. These three attributes and any traits they may have make up the essence of a character on Ayaria.

Prowess

Prowess is the measure of a character's acumen with mundane combat. It is also the measure of how physically robust they are, with a higher Prowess meaning the character is stronger and more resistant to injury.

Erudition

Erudition is the measure of a character's learnedness. It is used to represent their magical acumen as well.

Cleverness

Cleverness is the measure of a character's skillfulness. Anything that isn't directly related to their raw physical power, their general knowledge, or their ability with magic uses Cleverness. This includes stealth, sleight of hand, lockpicking, perception, survival, etc.

Less Than Zero

If an attribute is ever reduced to less than zero, that character can no longer take actions that use that attribute.

Traits

Everything that could be considered a quirk, learned skill, ability, and so on are all considered a trait.

Identical Traits

Identical or nearly identical traits stack. If you have two traits that give you a bonus to a specific action, then both bonuses add together. If you have a trait that says you are strong, you are weaker than someone who has two traits that say they are strong.

Literally the same trait, i.e. learning the same trait multiple times, does not work.

Advancing Traits

Some traits represent a novice level of skill, ranging through that of a master. If one wants to become a master of something, they must first be a novice. Then when they become a master, instead of adding that trait they replace their previous novice trait with it.

Combat

These rules govern combat between players. When at an event, whatever the DM for the event says goes. When players are in conflict outside of that context, or without a DM available, these are the rules for that. Events should also play out close to this ideal.

Initiative and Turn Order

Initiative is determined by which side strikes first. When the first blow is struck, everyone on the attacker's side then takes their turn. When the attacker's side is done, the defenders all take an action.

Actions

Every player gets one action on their turn. They can also move around within their given zone either before or after taking that action. An action can be something like retrieving an item, attacking, casting a spell, or using an item. If something is readily accessible on their person, like on a bandolier or in a scabbard, taking out the item and using it constitutes one action. If something is stowed away, like in a rucksack, taking it out of the container counts as one action and they will need to use a subsequent action to actually interact with it.

Movement and Zones

Zones are determined by barriers in the environment that make intuitive sense. If a fight inside an inn has spilled out into the street, moving from inside the inn to the outside counts as moving from one zone to another. Such movement is considered one action.

Joining Combat and Ganking

A gank is when an outside party not part of the initial battle joins the conflict. This is only permitted in the narrow circumstance that the group was nearby, and it would be reasonably possible for them to be made aware of the conflict and join in before its conclusion.

If an outside group wants to join the combat, their first option is to wait until the conflict is over and show up after the fact. From that point, they can investigate what happened, tend to the survivors, and make a plan for what to do next.

Alternatively, if the original combat's pace substantially slows down then outsiders can find an opportunity to join in that case. For example, if one side retreats and barricades themselves in somewhere, and the attackers do not try to assault the barricade immediately.

Determining A Hit

When two characters are engaged in melee, determine whose Prowess is higher. Also add together all of their relevent traits and modifiers from equipment. Whoever's Prowess is higher wins the melee and injures their opponent, unless their opponent's armor is higher than the difference between their modified Prowess, in which case they strike the opponent but do not injure them.

This can result in an attacker who vastly underestimated their opponent being injured, even though they were the one to initiate the attack.

Health, Damage

When a character has been injured in combat, their Prowess is reduced by the amount they lost the opposed challenge. So if their opponent beat their Prowess by 4 and it was not reduced by armor, the loser reduces their Prowess by 4.

When a character's Prowess has been reduced to -1, they're incapacitated and can no longer take actions or defend themselves.

Healing

Healing does not take place during combat, barring few exceptions. In order for a character to be healed, one must have medical supplies, tools, and a healer. To determine whether the wound can be healed, add together the healer's Erudition and Cleverness, then add together all relevent traits. If it's higher than the amount the character's Prowess is negative, the wound can be healed.

If a character is not healed promptly, then their wounds will fester and grow worse. Their Prowess will continue to reduce by 1 per day they are not healed. When a character's Prowess reaches a negative score of either -2 or double their Prowess (whichever is higher), they die.

In contrast, if a character was injured but their Prowess did not reduce to below zero, they will gradually recover their Prowess at a rate of one point per day.

Ranged Combat

If someone is struck at range, their Prowess is not added to their defence. However, their armor's rating is doubled to determine how powerful the blow is, after the missile's penetration is factored in.

For example: someone wearing armor with a rating of 5, made out of bronze. Someone strikes them from afar with a steel crossbow bolt. Because steel is able to pierce bronze, the armor's effectiveness is reduced by 4. So the armor's value has been reduced to 1, and against the ranged attack, doubled to 2. So the ranged attacker then uses their Prowess against that value to determine whether or not the blow injured their armored adversary.

Stealth and Flanking

If a character is not aware of or cannot see the person that is attacking them, they cannot defend themselves from the blow. In other words, their Prowess is not added to their defence. When a character is struck like this, add the attacker's Cleverness as well as their Prowess together to determine the efficacy of the blow.

Armies

Occasionally, large forces come into conflict with each other. These rules govern those confrontations.

Sizes

A legion have anywhere between five to twenty thousand souls, made up of some combination of cohorts.

Cohorts have one to two columns, for a total of one to two thousand souls.

Columns consist of five to twenty sections, for a total of five hundred to two thousand souls.

A section is composed of five to twenty patrols, for a total of fifty to two hundred people including their support staff.

Patrols are composed of a group of individuals, five to twenty soldiers strong.

Individuals are composed of anywhere from 1-10 soldiers, the smallest unit and not really considered an army.

Once there are enough of a smaller category to make up two of the larger category, the given army becomes that larger category. So an army made up of nineteen individuals that gets their twentieth member then becomes an army made up of two patrols, and so on.

A given unit can be anywhere from half-strength to twice-strnegth. When a unit is at half-strength, that means it has around half the amount of soldiers it would usually be expected to fight with. A twice-strength unit has twice the amount of soldiers it would usually be expected to have.

Half-strength units halve their effectiveness after all modifiers are added. Twice-strength units increase their effectiveness by half again.

Logistics

Every soldier in the army needs to be paid, fed, and their equipment maintained. The higher quality the soldier, the more expensive this is.

First-rate soldiers cost 30 pence per season. They provide a bonus of 3 per unit.
Second-rate soldiers cost 20 pence per season. They provide a bonus of 2 per unit.
Third-rate soldiers cost 10 pence per season. They provide a bonus of 1 per unit.

These costs are averaged across a unit, so no matter if a third rate patrol has nine or eleven soldiers, it costs 100 pence per season to maintain.

Using Armies

An army, once assembled, is typically used to fight against other armies. When an army is put to a task, an officer must be assigned to the unit with the task. Officers are then in control of that unit. Orders from that point on are interpreted through the officer's lens, if they are followed through at all in the event of a mutinous officer.

When armies collide, add the officer's Cleverness to the bonus provided by the quality and number of units. This is the army's effectiveness. An officer with a Cleverness of 2 leading an army consists of two third-rate units would have a total effectiveness of 4.

Compare the attacking army's effectiveness to the defending army's. If it's higher, then the defending army will have to either retreat or lose an amount of units equal to the difference.

Attacking Armies of Different Sizes

If an army is more than two size categories larger than the other, i.e. a group of individuals fighting a cohort, then the larger army automatically wins unless the smaller force has fortifications.

If an army is only one size category larger, i.e. a group of individual fighting a patrol, then it isn't an automatic loss. Instead, the larger army doubles its effectiveness after all other bonuses are totaled up.

Seasons

An army can take actions twice per season. The first half of the season has one action and its outcome, then the second half has its action and its outcome. The exception is during the winter, when all armies cannot take any actions.

Fortifications

There are two kinds of fortifications: field fortifications, and fortified settlements. Field fortifications take an army's action to setup, and stop existin once the army leaves the area. Fortified settlements are much more permanent.

Field fortifications double a defender's effectiveness when an enemy army attacks into them. Fortified settlements remove the bonus the attacking army has for being a larger force, including winning outright if its force is sufficiently large.

In the event of a prolonged siege, an army's cumulative effectiveness decreases by one for each season it's forced to endure without supplies. If supplies are able to be smuggled inside the defenses, then the effectiveness of the army returns to its pre-siege level.