Capybara

What if we started with 7.8, added what we learned from 5e Adv and System 8, and tried to make the ultimate version of System 7?

Basics

Build Points

At character creation, the DM will tell you how many Build Points you have. As you adventure, more Build Points will be awarded.

Each BP can be spent to:

• Add +1 to an Attribute
• Advance a skill from:
  • Non-proficient to proficient
  • Proficient to expertise
  • Expertise to mastery
• Gain a Talent (if those are a thing)

In terms of comparison to other RPGs, one BP is about one "level" worth of advancement, and "1st-level" is equal to about 15 BP.

Power Sources

There is another source of power, independent from Build Points. In some games, characters may start with many Power Sources even at a low level of Build Points, whereas in others, they may have few Power Sources at all levels.

This allows DMs to create worlds with different levels of power: in some worlds, there may be many skilled adventurers, but the concept of any one person having world-shaking power is unknown. In others, things we would call superpowers are not uncommon, even among barely-trained individuals.

A typical template for Power Sources is thus:

• At the beginning of a character's adventuring career, they have 1 Power Source
• After each significant "arc" of their adventure, they typically go through some downtime, evolve as a character, emerging with 1 more Power Source (it may have been gained at the climax of the previous arc, or during downtime, or its discovery kicked off a new arc)
• Most characters have one or few arcs; few have more than 3. They might be described as such:
  • First arc (1 PS): Hero
  • Second arc (2 PS): Paragon
  • Third arc (3 PS): Superhero / Legend / Demigod (depending on the world's conception of power)

All of these variables can be tweaked by the actual players and game masters; suffice to say, more Power Sources means more powerful characters.

See Power Sources for a list.

Skills

Skills represent special training and experience. For instance, a warrior might have a lot of training in the use of heavy melee weapons, and can execute sweeping strikes, staggering blows, and deadly cleaves. A sorcerer might be skilled with fire magic, forming fireballs, blazing waves of flame, or walls of fire.

Skills do not represent things anybody could do (even if they could only do it 5% of the time). Balancing on a beam, climbing a stone wall, swinging a sword at a target, shooting an arrow: these are ordinary skills, and they do not need special rules; they simply use basic Attribute checks (e.g. Str check, Dex check, etc).

Mechanically, skills are also Attribute checks; what makes one "proficient" is that you can do things that are not possible for someone without the skill.

Expertise

If you have Expertise in a skill, you roll two dice and use the higher one. Some uses of a skill require Expertise.

Mastery

If you have Mastery in a skill, you may assume success for anything where a roll of 10 is required, and when you do roll, add +10 if your die roll was less than 10.

Skill List

See <./Skills.md>

Attributes

Str/Dex/Con/Int/Wis/Cha of course.

Movement, yeah, if you want it.

Also...

Wounds and Injuries

There are no Hit Points. There are no damage dice. Instead, every weapon/spell/etc inflicts one of three intensities of damage: light, moderate, or heavy.

Note: any type of damage beyond heavy is treated as heavy, unless special rules apply.

Wounded

When you suffer damage, you are Wounded. There are three levels of Wounded, and you can only be in one state at a time.

Wounded States

• Lightly wounded: once per round, the DM can impose disadvantage on any check you make.
• Moderately wounded: you suffer disadvantage to all checks.
• Heavily wounded: you must pass a Con check to take any action at all, and you have disadvantage to everything.
• Dying: you cannot take any actions, and must pass a Con check (DC = 1 per round you've been in this state) each round:
  • Failure: you advance to the next state (i.e., dead)
  • Success: you do not advance, nor does your situation improved.
  • Critical Success: you stabilize, remaining unable to act, but no longer need to make these checks. Any damage at all removes your stabilization.
• Dead: you are dead. You may yet be saved by magic or some very difficult healing skill checks within a very brief window.

Entering Wounded States

If you are not wounded, light damage causes lightly wounded, moderate causes moderate, etc. However, if you were already wounded, things are a bit more complicated:

• If you suffer damage that would increase your wound level, you simply advance to that level.
• If you suffer damage less than your current wound level, ignore it.
• If you suffer damage equal to your current wound level, you must pass a Con check vs the attack's DC; if you fail, you advance to the next wound level.

Notes

The above describes the rules for PCs and certain elite NPCs. All normal NPCs use a different set of states:

• Lightly wounded: as normal
• Moderately wounded: as normal
• Dying (with no chance of self-stabilization, PCs can choose to stabilize, but otherwise assume they die after the encounter ends)
• Dead

Soak

Everyone in the game can attempt to Soak at attack. This means that, after suffering damage, you roll a Con check against the DC of the attack that inflicted said damage. If you succeed, you reduce its intensity by 1 (heavy -> moderate, mod -> light, light -> none).

Skills, gear, or other effects could modify this (for instance, some gear automatically soaks damage before you attempt to do the same).

Injuries

Any time you suffer Wounds, you can instead suffer an Injury. Injuries have specific penalties (as opposed to the generic ones caused by Wounds), and generally take longer to heal (some can never be healed completely, or even at all!), but they do not count as "Wounded". Thus, it may be beneficial to "trade in" wounding damage for Injuries.

Exact rules TBD (I've made this system a dozen times, so we know how it works already).

Combat

Attacking

If you have a weapon, magical power, or even just a good ol' fist, you can attack enemies in an attempt to damage them.

Every attack uses a skill of some kind, which inevitably equates to an Attribute check:

• Strength-based melee weapons use Heavy Melee Weapons, a Strength skill.
• Dexterity-based melee weapons use Light Melee Weapons, a Dexterity skill.
• Ranged weapons use Ranged Weapons, a Dexterity skill.
• Unarmed attacks can be either heavy or light melee, at the attacker's option.
• Magical attacks use a skill assigned by the Power Source that granted the magic; for instance, Practitioners use skills such as Faith (wis), Bond (wis), Pact (cha), or Arcana (int).

Defending

Unless the attack specifies otherwise, every defender is entitled to a Defense check, using whichever Attribute qualifies in the situation:

• Melee attacks can be parried using Strength if the defender has a weapon or shield with which to parry.
• Direct attacks can be dodged using Dexterity.
• Worn armor provides an Armor attribute, based on the armor's defensive value.

To speed gameplay, enemies (excepting certain elites) do not roll these Defense checks, but always use a result of 10 on the die. PCs have the option of doing this as well.

Turns

Combat is separated into "rounds". In each round, every combatant gets one "turn", consisting of a number of "actions", typically:

• 1 standard action
• 1 swift action
• 1 free action

Turn Order

Turns are not taken in any particular order. Instead, anyone can act whenever they wish. If two combatants want to act at the same time, and neither agrees to yield, they roll an opposed Dex check to determine order. If more than 2 combatants want to act simultaneously, everyone makes such a check, and their turns proceed in order of highest to lowest result.

Acting on your turn

When taking your turn, you must choose what to do with each of your actions:

• Act now
• Ready a specific action (e.g. "I will use Cleave with my sword" or "I will cast Fireball") for a specific trigger (e.g. "if the Orc Captain attacks my friends" or "if the enemy sorcerer attempts to flee"). If the trigger happens, you may use the specified action as an interrupt; in this case, no Dex check is required--you automatically interrupt them.
• Waste the action this round

Acting out of turn

You need not declare intent to act right away. If someone takes an action whose result is undesirable, and you wish to counter it, you may attempt to interrupt their action. To do so, you make an opposed Dex check, and if you win, your action happens first. The other actor cannot change their action when you do this, so there is some advantage to reacting, rather than acting.

Using this option does not preclude you taking a normal turn later in the round, although the action you used is not available in your regular turn.

Unusual Circumstances and clarifications

No PCs act

If the DM deems that no PCs are acting within a reasonable time frame of the start of the round, the DM can take an NPC turn.

Some groups may prefer to set a specific window of time (e.g. an egg timer or hourglass) rather than yield to subjective judgment.

Acting decisively

When a PC declares that they are taking their turn, they must declare their actions within a reasonable time (allowing for rules lookups, clarifications, etc). They cannot simply declare they are acting, then start thinking of what to do.

Surprise

Actors who are not aware that combat has begun (e.g. creatures who are sleeping, those who fail to perceive a hidden threat, etc) cannot begin acting until the first round of combat. In these cases, there is a special round of combat before the first round called a "surprise round", which works exactly like a normal round, except those who are surprised can neither take turns nor act out of turn.

Per-round effects

Any effect that takes place "once per round" (or similar verbiage) takes place at the very beginning of each round, before anyone is allowed to take their turn, unless otherwise specified in the description of the effect.

Equipment

Armor

The primary

Skills

Physical Skills

Defense

Intervene, Taunt, Aegis, etc

Heavy Weapons

Proficient

• Cleave: chain 1.
• Power Charge: move 1-2x base, advantage to damage.
• Slam: critical damage, provokes.

Expertise

• Knockdown: tbd
• Whirlwind Attack: aoe melee

Mastery

• Bladestorm

Combat Mobility

Proficient

• Evasion
• Tumble

Expertise

• Aerial Attack
• Disengage
• Extended Reach

Mastery

• Spring Attack

Ranged Weapons

Proficient

• Aim: swift; advantage to next attack
• Called Shot: cause injuries at a penalty to hit

Expertise

• Multi-shot: shoot 3 targets

Mastery

• Kill shot: ded

Sneaky

Proficient

• Sap: stun
• Sneak Attack: if undetected, attack does critical damage

Expertise

• Expose Armor
• Vanish

etc

Magical Skills

Divinity

Proficient

• Exorcism: remove hostile magic or possession
• Power Word: Shield: absorb damage
• Repentance: CC a creature with a soul

Expertise

• Consecrate: area is hostile to evildoers and their magic
• Power Word: Sanctuary: one target is invulnerable briefly
• Redemption: one target must accept divine judgment or be annihilated

Mastery

• Power Word: Barrier: large shield absorbs damage, forfends evildoers
• Reprieve: warp allies to a safe place out of time
• Vengeful Gaze of God: cause harm, blindness, etc to evildoers

Fire

Proficient

• Fire Resist: you resist fire
• Fire Shield: attackers suffer fire damage
• Flames!: cone of fire damage

Expertise

• Fireball
• Wall of Fire

Mastery