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.

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.

Retraining

Through dilligence and hard work, a character can change their own attributes. This is announced by the player during the season, and then at the end of the season the change will reflect in the character's attributes.

This can be used to change one attribute at a time, and only in the form of reducing an attribute by one to increase another by the same amount.

Scaling

This explains what the abstract numbers that represent a given attribute actually mean. This gives a rough idea of what a character who has a given level in an attribute what they should be capable of, and what challenge level a DM should give them.

Prowess

XI. The pinnacle of mortal ability, a character who reaches this level of prowess is going to attract the attention of higher powers.

X. A titan on the battlefield, a warrior who will die immortalized in legend.

IX. A character who is capable of fending off relatively large groups of fodder on their own, or even two or three highly skilled warriors.

VIII. A master of the art of war, there are almost none who could take them on in single combat, but small groups of competent warriors will give them trouble.

VII. An accomplished expert, one who could give almost anyone a run for their money alone.

VI. An expert. Someone with great skill and natural ability, likely the greatest warrior in their group.

This is about the level of an average bear.

V. Highly adept, far greater than most warriors. This is the limit a character can start with.

IV. No slouch at all, someone who can leverage their natural prowess to great ends.

III. Either an experienced warrior with little natural talent, or someone with great natural talent who has practically no experience.

II. A dabbler, someone with some experience with warriorship.

I. Someone who has had scarce time or interest in athleticism or fighting.

O. Someone who possibly has never even picked up a blade.

Erudition

XI. To learn is an act of bravery. The wise know this, for one truly can learn too much.

X. There is little in the world they do not have at least some passing knowledge of.

A character can learn five spells at this level.

IX. On the subjects in which they are expert, there is nothing they do not know.

VIII. They have learned to put the impossible to practical use.

A character can learn four spells at this level.

VII. They have learned of things that others could not imagine.

VI. Their casual knowledge surpasses what could be called mundane.

A character can learn three spells at this level.

V. A true scholar, with a wide breadth of knowledge. This is the limit a character can start with.

IV. Learned even of other lands, peoples, places, and things.

A character can learn two spells at this level.

III. Highly educated on their own culture and history.

This is the minimum level of anyone considered "well educated."

II. Well educated on matters local to them and their own interests.

A character can learn one spell at this level.

I. Someone who likely does not even know much about their own people or history.

O. A profoundly uneducated individual.

Cleverness

XI. More deft than God and twice as clever.

X. What they cannot do, cannot be done. At least not by them alone.

IX. Their broad skills and ease at which they are able to perform almost everything is the envy of the world.

VIII. Only those with the greatest natural ability or with magical aid could hope to reach the level of someone at this degree.

VII. Their skill surpasses near everyone, reaching beyond the level of mundane skill.

This is around where, for an average person, magic would be necessary to imitate this level.

VI. Likely the most skillful person of any group they're in.

V. Someone whose life involves a great deal of lived experience. This is the limit a character can start with.

IV. Their skill is well developed, though nowhere near the level of a true master.

III. Someone who is reasonably adept at their chosen specialty.

II. A character with a wealth of practical knowledge and experience.

A casual grifter is around here.

I. A character who could not be called adept at much.

O. Someone with no broadly applicable skills.

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.

Multiple Attacks

If a character has an ability that triggers on being attacked, unless the ability specifies otherwise it only works once per enemy turn. So if they are struck by multiple opponents, subsequent ones will have to be countered by either a different ability or not at all. The character being attacked multiple times chooses one opponent to use their Prowess against, while other attacks against them on that turn use only their armor as a defense.

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.

Army Traits

A given unit will have traits, like a character, that represent what the bulk of the unit is. For example, a unit with experiencing fighting underground or that's primarily composed of a single lineage will have one or more traits reflecting that.

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.

Retreat

Remember that an army, when confronted by another army, is always able to retreat. They leave everything behind that they can't carry with them and disperse. This is only not the case in exceptional circumstances where the defending army cannot flee for whatever reason, like being trapped against a cliff.

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.

Veterancy

For every year that an army has been out in the field without being disbanded or absorbed into a larger unit, it gains veterancy. Veterancy is a flat bonus equal to the number of years the unit has been around.

Travel

The default setting on the server is Nostrum, and Nostrum is small (and safe) enough that one can travel between the major settlements on the continent with only a little fear of violence. This is not the case with the rest of the world. Travelers, especially wealthy ones, are extremely vulnerable to predation, accident, catastrophe, and malice.

Destinations

Anywhere in the world can be chosen as a destination, even places that one isn't sure how to get to. Of course, traveling somewhere that one doesn't know for sure to exist or how to reach there is a lot harder and less guaranteed than traveling to somewhere relatively nearby and safe.

Routes

After deciding to leave but before embarking, prospective travelers will be presented with one or more routes available at that time. Routes change with the season, as circumstances in the world shift. One port that has been closed due to a local war might reopen after the passage of a season, and one path rendered uncrossable by winter might thaw in the spring.

A route determines everything about the potential travel. Typically, the tradeoff between routes is how expensive they are, how many occurences there will be, and how dangerous it is.

Occurences

An occurence is when something happens in the course of the travel. Some occurences are unavoidable: if one is planning on traveling through the Narrows, passing Narrowese customs is always going to be an occurence. The number of occurences represent the length of the journey. The shorter the journey, the less random occurences. The longer the journey, the more there are.

Occurences are either boons or banes. A boon is something positive happening, like encountering an unlikely ally or finding something interesting on the road. A bane is something negative, like a challenge that resources must be spent to overcome.

The baseline is four banes, and one boon. When an occurence is due to happen, the DM either chooses one from the list, rolls, or has the players roll for what specific occurence takes place. The more dangerous routes will have more banes, the less dangerous routes will have less.

At DM discretion, the players who are choosing a route can submit occurences to the DM that they would like a chance of encountering on the route. The players must submit them in pairs of boons and banes, though.