This tactical roleplaying system involves two kinds of participants, the Players and the Game Master. The Game Master develops the scenario, controls non-player characters, resolves actions, and generally arbitrates the rules.

Each player controls one character. These characters are the protagonists in the story that the Game Master and Players are collectively telling. The following mechanics are important for players to know.

Advancement

Over the course of the game the characters gain power in three primary ways.

• Levels: The Game Master awards levels as the game progresses. All players are the same level. These grant the characters an additional 45 points to distribute among their primary stats and, at certain levels, gives access to new Technique options. Level is the primary indicator of combat difficulty.
• Tech Points (TP): The Game Master awards Tech Points, or TP, for engagement, roleplaying, progressing in the story, and winning battles. These determine when characters learn a new Technique and characters with Power Link can ‘invest’ TP into learning powerful Dual/Triple Techniques with other characters.
• Equipment: Throughout the game the characters gain access to increasingly useful equipment. New equipment can be found in towns, dropped by certain enemies, stolen from enemies with techniques, found hidden on maps, or given to a character by a NPC.

Primary Stats

Each character has the following primary stats.

• HP: How much damage you can take. At 0 hp you are KOed. You cannot be healed from 0 HP by normal means, you must be by an item or technique with the revive trait. Characters automatically revive after a battle ends.
• MP: Nope. There’s no MP. Why? I know removing this is not true to the source but it didn’t add enough to justify the increased tracking complexity.
• Evasion: Dodge physical attacks and avoid critical hits.
• Hit: Physical attack accuracy and critical hit chance. This also amplifies physical damage from ranged weapons.
• Elemental: This amplifies all non-physical damage.
• Strength: This amplifies all physical damage.
• Elemental Defense: This decreases non-physical damage taken.
• Stamina: This decreases physical damage taken.
• Speed: This determines the total number of Reacts a player can use in battle. It cannot be increased after level 1 except by using Speed tabs or Items.

HP has a max cap of 999, speed has a max cap of 16, and all other stats have a max cap of 99. Item bonuses can push stats beyond their max caps to ★ and ★★.

Equipment Slots

Each character has the following equipment slots. These can be altered by traits during character creation.

• Weapon: Your weapon is listed here. All weapon types provide a set bonus and range. This generally does not improve, except in the case of legendary weapons, so the focus for weapon upgrades is on their secondary effects.
• Armor: Your armor is here. All armor types provide a set bonus. This generally does not improve, except in the case of legendary armor, so the focus for armor upgrades is on their secondary effects.
• Accessory: An accessory can be equipped here. Accessories provide a wide variety of beneficial effects.
• Expendable Items: By default, characters can carry up to three expendable items.

Action Economy

During combat, each player may take up to three actions and ready one react – if they have any reacts remaining. This constitutes a player’s turn.

A round of combat is finished when all players, all enemies, and all NPCs have taken a turn.

Normal Actions

All characters may take the following actions during their turn.

• Strike: One physical attack using their weapon against a target within their weapon’s range. The attacker’s Hit and target’s Evasion determine if an attack misses, deals normal damage, or deals critical damage.
• Move: Move up to their base movement. By default, characters have 3 movement but this can be altered by Traits and Equipment.
• Technique: Use one of their techniques. Some techniques take two or three actions or use.
• Use Item: Use one of their equipped expendable items.
• Dual/Triple Technique: If you have the Power Link trait, have invested TP into learning a collaborative technique, and meet all other requirements (such as range); you and an ally can both use actions to use the known Dual/Triple technique. These often take multiple actions from all participants.
• Push: Push an adjacent target of your size one square away from you. (This cannot be used on units with the Heavy trait).
• Aid: Wake an adjacent sleeping ally or reduce the duration of any other status effect by one round.
• Climb: Climb up to/down to from a higher elevation. This may take multiple actions depending on height. (Units with the Heavy trait cannot use climb.)

Normal Reacts

All characters may ready the following reacts on their turn if they have reacts remaining (based on their Speed stat).

• Counter: Spend one react to counter attack the first enemy to attack you. Your attacker must be within your weapon’s range and you receive a Hit bonus against the attacker as their guard is down.
• Dodge: Spend one react to completely dodge the first physical attack or physical technique that targets you.
• Shield: Spend one react to shield an adjacent ally, redirecting all physical attacks or techniques from them to target you instead.
• Ready an Action: Spend one react to delay one to three actions from your turn so that they will take effect on during an enemy’s turn based on a simple criteria (e.g. I will use that technique when they come in range, I will heal the player the enemy attacks, etc). No nested if statements by default, the criteria are singular in goal – if X happens I will do Y, but there is a trait to add complexity.

Status Effects

The following status effects are commonly seen in game.

Negative Status Effects

• Blind: While this is in effect, the first Attack action taken each round automatically misses.
• Paralyzed: While this is in effect, no Reactions may be taken.
• Poisoned: While this is in effect, treat maximum HP as being 10% lower. When this first takes effect it also lowers current HP by 10%. Maximum HP returns to normal after Poisoned ends but the lost HP must be healed normally.
• Stop: No. A random status effect that causes a player to lose multiple rounds of actions while, also, being unable to interact at all is an engagement killer. It’s not true to the source but this status effect is gone anyway.
• Sleep: While this is in effect, no actions or reactions may be taken. This can be ended immediately with the Aid action.
• Slow: While this is in effect, take 2 less actions per turn (to a minimum of 1 action per turn).
• Charm: While this is in effect, treat allies as enemies and enemies as allies. Players remain in control of their characters while doing so.
• Chaos: While this is in effect, outline your actions as normal… The Game Master will then implement them in random order.
• KOed: No actions. No reactions. No interactions. This only occurs when a character is reduced to 0 HP. Normal healing cannot raise HP from 0 or remove the KOed status, only an item or technique with the revive trait can remove it.

Positive Status Effects

• Protect: While this is in effect, all physical damage taken is reduced by half.
• Barrier: While this is in effect, all non-physical damage taken is reduced by half.
• Haste: While this is in effect, take one additional action per turn.

Uncommon and rare status effects may be used by certain monsters or bosses.

Elemental Damage Types

All entities in the game possess one of seven different types.

• Red: Fire and Lava.
• Blue: Water and Ice.
• Green: Air and Nature.
• Yellow: Earth and Lightning.
• Black: Shadow and Space.
• White (White): Light and Life.
• Nonelemental: Neutral. Physical.

This determines their elemental resistance, elemental weakness, and what techniques they can learn. The elements exist in opposition to one another.

• Red <– Elemental Weakness –> Blue
• Green < — Elemental Weakness –> Yellow
• Black <– Elemental Weakness –> White (White)
• Same Type <– Elemental Resistance –> Same Type

Damage Type Special Effects

Weakness: The designed damage type is super effective, dealing double damage.

Resistance: The designated damage type is resisted, dealing half damage.

Nullified: The designated damage type is nullified, dealing no damage.

Drain: The designed damage type is drained, healing the target instead of harming them.

Reflected: The designed damage type is reflected back, harming the user instead of the target.

Magic: This a special damage type and, by default, the only one that can overlap with another damage type. Magic techniques are more powerful and can harm creatures that resist/nullify mundane damage types…but there are rare instances when using Magic is disadvantageous.

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Non-Player Characters