Book:How to Play
Using the ideas in this book, Game Masters and players can craft stories that fall anywhere in the gamut: from simple, light-hearted tales that last an hour or an evening, all the way to richly-detailed, legendary epics that take months or years to finish.
When the players and GM meet to participate in the story, it's called a session. A session might be a regular Thursday night occurrence which lasts for a couple hours after work, or an all day Saturday affair. The duration of a session is entirely up to the participants. An adventure involves a particular series of events in the story with a defined beginning and prospective ending. Adventures usually span one or more sessions. Finally, a campaign is a saga consisting of several adventures, and by extension, quite a few sessions.
Whether you're gathering for just one session or a thousand, the object of the game is to portray your characters, pursue their goals, and overcome the challenges they encounter along the way.
The Basics
Any story contains three things: the setting (the where and when), the characters (the who), and the plot (the what, why, and how).
The setting is the GM's responsibility. It can be limited to a single inescapable room or opened to the far reaches of the multiverse.
There are two kinds of characters: those whom the players portray and those whom the GM portrays. Characters controlled by the players are called Player Characters (or PCs). All of the characters and creatures that the players meet — friend or foe — are called Non-Player Characters (or NPCs). These are the characters controlled by the GM.
The plot is a joint effort of the GM and the players. The GM presents obstacles, challenges, opponents, allies, and opportunities. The players determine how the story proceeds based on the actions of their characters.
Setting the Scene
A typical role-playing session is guided by the narratives of the GM. He describes the setting and actions that occur while the players weave together a mental picture of the scene. They ask the GM questions to further detail the scene in their minds. When a player wants his character to take some kind of action in the story, he tells the GM.
“As the dust settles, the four of you realize that you've fallen into a cave or perhaps an underground room,” the GM says. “A beam of warm daylight pours in through the hole in the ceiling through which you came. The air in this place smells dusty and stale, but not unpleasant. Listening for a moment, you hear only the periodic crumbling of earth from the ceiling above; it would seem no one is around.”
“Is anything in the room?” one player asks.
“Broken shards of earthware, a few old, crumbling statues and some dated relief work along the walls,” the GM replies.
“Does it look like we can get back out?” another player asks.
“The ceiling is easily 10 feet off the ground, and at first glance, there don't appear to be any doors leading out of this chamber.” the GM notes.
“Maybe there's a hidden door out of here,” a third player suggests. “I'm going to take a moment to search the room.”
Spoken Dialogue
The GM acts out the spoken lines of the NPCs, and the players, acting as their own characters, engage in dialogue. Some players find it enjoyable to change their voice or demeanor when portraying their characters (some even employ props).
“I've never seen a device like this before,” the GM mumbles, performing the part of a wise, old wizard.
“Are you certain?” one of the players asks. “We were told that if anyone in this city knows, it would be you.”
“Aye, I've never seen its equal.” the GM replies. “It's likely a remnant from some forgotten culture, but its purpose is not readily apparent to me.”
“Masked assailants tried to take it from us earlier,” a second player states. “We fear for our safety, but if this is important, we can't let it fall into the wrong hands.”
“You should call on a friend of mine at the Royal Academy in the capital. He's well-read in the field of magic archeology.”
“But that's like… a week's travel!” a third player exclaims.
It’s possible that the players and GM can spend an entire game session in dialogue and description and the table doesn’t see a single die roll.
Rolling the Dice
The element of chance is very important to any role-playing game. It adds suspense and surprise to the game. It wouldn't be much fun or very exciting if the players went through the story with no element of chance of success and failure. This is where the dice come in. The dice used in Immortal Legacy are ten-sided dice — that is, they have ten sides that are numbered from 1–10. (Your dice may have a “0” printed on one side — this is a 10.) In this book you will often see the abbreviation d10. This is simply another way of telling you to roll a ten-sided die.
Whenever there is a task before a character that constitutes a challenge or something that is integral to the story, a roll is needed. Trivial tasks, like putting food in your mouth or going to sleep, don't require rolls. Unless, of course, you have no hands or are an insomniac, then they might require rolls. But for most people, simple tasks like these don't require rolls. Rolling the dice for any mundane action would undoubtedly make the game too slow, boring, and complicated — but jumping a chasm, tickling a sea monster, or swallowing a golf ball-sized hunk of wasabi without crying… now that requires a roll.
Luck isn't the only factor; a character's innate talent and learned experience also play a part. Attributes represent a character's giftedness while skills represent a character's training. A roll requires you to add the face-up number on the die to your ranks in a particular skill and then add your points in the attribute that corresponds to that skill. The circumstances surrounding the task can influence your roll as well. Beneficial circumstances grant a bonus; detrimental circumstances impose a penalty. For example, it's harder to see in fog, and it's easier to avoid attack behind cover. The sum of all of these numbers is your total result for the roll.
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+ | attribute | + | skill | + | bonuses | + | −penalties |
The object is to roll the highest number possible. An opposed roll compares your result to the result of another character’s roll. A difficulty roll compares your result to a set Difficulty Level (or DL). A power roll translates your exact result into some kind of quality, accuracy, or extent. Chapter 6: Skills explains all of the rolls you can make, how to determine success, and what happens when you fail.
Critical Success and Critical Failure
| The GM can feel free to alter any rule in this game. For instance, your GM may not enforce Critical Failures. She may not enforce Critical Successes either! Maybe she wants the 10 you roll to continue “exploding”, so that if you roll 10 a second time, you can add a third roll to the 20 you have already rolled and so on. Maybe your GM is sadistic, and requires critical failures to "explode", subtracting that number from your total. We encourage players and GMs to experiment and see what works and is fun. |
If you roll the die and it comes up 10, this is a Critical Success. Essentially, this means Lady Luck gives your character a kiss and so the character performs much better on the given action than normal. You can roll the die again and add that number to the 10 you have already rolled.
However, it can work the other way. If you roll the die and it comes up 1, this is a Critical Failure. Essentially, this means Lady Luck kicked your character in the crotch and the character fouls up the task somehow. Your GM will let you know if your roll carries some kind of extra misfortune: jamming your gun, breaking your lock pick, or destroying a priceless vase.
Rewards and Consequences
A successful roll improves things or avoids danger. In the best case scenario, a failure results in nothing. In the worst case scenario, you die. Rolls can cause characters to lose or gain “_conditions_,” which are status effects that grant bonuses or impose penalties. They can also sustain “damage,” receive “healing,” incur “knockout,” or change “disposition.” They could ingest “concoctions” and poison, contract “illness,” or be invaded by a “symbiote.” These are all explained in Chapter 9: Life and Death. Characters can also experience the effects of magic spells cast upon them (see Chapter 13: Magic) or spirit arts performed upon them (see Chapter 16: Spirit).
Fate Points
Fate is the force that guides all life, whether it's counted as influence from the powers that be, mere chance, unrelenting will and determination, or a destiny preordained by prophecy. Every character can influence their own fate.
The GM awards Fate Points as you play the game for anything from a good decision to a funny quote, or even just showing up. New characters begin the game with three Fate Points. You can't have more than five Fate Points at a time.
Uses
You can use a Fate Point to allow any one of the following:
Re-rolls
You can use a Fate Point to re-roll the dice once, or force another character (friend or foe) to re-roll the dice (Fate has saved your neck, so to speak, by a hair's width). Though the GM may allow re-roll after re-roll costing point after point of Fate, we suggest just limiting it to one re-roll.
Bonuses
You can use a Fate Point to attempt an act of bravado and heroism in game. Using a Fate Point in this manner gives the character a +10 bonus on any roll before you roll it, or you can use a Fate point to add a +5 after you roll it. This reflects the character's ability to use strength and courage to overcome a dramatic situation.
Surpassing Limits
You can use a Fate Point to overcome personal limitations or act against your nature. For example, a berserker blinded by rage can spend a Fate Point to regain control. A mage who has depleted their reserve of magic can spend a Fate Point to use their own life as fuel. Each rule in this game that incorporates Fate Points will explain the specifics.
Expoints
Short for Experience Points, Expoints are a measure of how your character has evolved. What pitfalls have they overcome? What monsters have they slain? What villains have they defeated?
At the end of every game session, the GM should decide how many Expoints to award each player, with variance depending on how well each character did.
Awarding Expoints
If a character took little part in the events, contributed little, and the player was distracted, the player deserves few Expoints.
Expoints should be granted based on the following factors.
- Showing up. If people show up and play, they deserve an Expoint. Every session. More tyrannical GMs may overlook this rule if a player comes especially late or is more disruptive than helpful, but generally that kind of behavior will only lead players to leave the group.
- Contribution to in game events. Despite whether the character single handedly defeated the super villain or simply helped the others cross an obstacle on their way to the villain's lair, if the character took an active part in events, an Expoint should follow.
- Role-playing. If the player did an admirable job in playing through his character's personality, motivation, and background, an Expoint point should be awarded here. To be honest, some players are great gamers, but horrible role-players. Don't worry so much. If they make a concerted effort to speak, act, and think like the character, even if it comes off poorly or not at all, an Expoint may be given.
- Dramatic Milestone. If the characters reach a climax or overtake an important plot point in the story through their deeds, an Expoint can be given out for each one.
- Challenges Overcome. GMs can hand out Expoints for each encounter survived or challenge met. Sometimes more or less Expoints will be earned depending on how the challenge was overcome. For instance, if the group steals the horses from the peaceful people of River's End, one Expoint is given to each player, but if the group negotiates with them for the horses, two Expoints could be given. If the players slaughter the entire population of the town and take the horses for themselves, maybe no Expoints are given.
Using Expoints
With experience comes rewards. Expoints are what allow your character to become better at whatever it is that they do. To give players the ability to intricately customize their characters, this game lacks the concepts of character classes and experience levels. Players may personalize aspects of their characters à la carte as they progress through the story using their awarded Expoints.
Some players arrive with a character concept. Others decide a direction as they go. The ins and outs of imagining, recording, and improving your character are detailed in the very next chapter, Chapter 3: Character Creation.
Etiquette
This section details not rules per se, but suggestions to keep your games fun for the players and the Game Master.
Staying Focused
It's a blast to goof off with your friends — around the game table or otherwise. An off-topic joke or a story here and there during the game is perfectly fine, so remember to keep focused and stay in character for the rest of the time. Your GM may (and should) let you rowdy players know when it's time to come back to the game. Also, try to pay attention and avoid outside distractions (we're looking at you, mobile phones and laptops). Few things infuriate the GM more than "Huh? What happened?"
Rolling Etiquette
It may seem like common sense, but there are a few rules of dice-rolling etiquette that should be mentioned. When you roll…
- … roll on a hard, flat surface.
- … if your dice fall on the floor, re-roll them again on the table.
- … don't wing your dice at the GM or other players. Glass eye surgeries are expensive.
- … roll in a location that at least one other person can see.
- … don’t re-roll a failed check that you think no one saw.
Basically: don’t cheat. This only makes the GM and other players resent you and creates negative vibes around the table. The prospect of failure is what makes rolling the dice important and the game itself suspenseful.
Disagreements
Don't argue with the players or GM about rules. The GM has final say on whether game rules apply and can even override the published rules. Basically, whatever the GM says about the game is law. If you do have some kind of concern about a call your GM has made, express it in a calm manner. First and foremost, Immortal Legacy is a game and is supposed to be fun for everyone involved.
