Alignment - There are three alignments in Skure. For those players unfamiliar with such a thing, a char's alignment is their nature, their outlook on the world, and their feelings towards others, namely strangers. These three alignments are as follows:
Good - Characters of good nature feel that the whole is greater than the individual. They are altruistic, open-minded, and caring. This does not mean that good characters are soft or pacifistic - far from it. Good characters will fight to the last straw if they feel that it would help the overall good. Good characters tend to lean towards The Followers of Nexus in hopes that such an organized force will be able to rid evil from Darlow and regain the peace, bounty, and happiness that survived throughout before its destruction.
Neutral - Neutrality, by its definition, implies balance and equality between that of good and evil. Neutral characters usually side with good or evil since the forces of Nexus and Voleron are so prominent in how the world is surviving and progressing. The difference with neutral chars is that they want to maintain a balance. If forces of good want to eliminate all aspects of evil in the world, neutral characters feel that an imbalance exists because people are inherently selfish and need to hold this aspect of their individuality. Likewise, if evil forces want to remove all aspects of good from Darlow, it is up to the neutrals to convince (and possibly even fight) them that the world simply cannot function without a proper sense of benevolence. It should be noted that neutral characters can also remain amongst themselves, siding with neither, in which case they are considered nomads. Such groups are rare.
Evil - Those of evil nature are generally blunt, selfish, and admittedly ignorant. They care for little more than themselves and they feel no remorse for others. There are degrees of evil nature, but that is left up to the role-players. In a short summary, evil chars fight together for a common cause - to dominate the world. Once Darlow has been purged of all that is good, the cataclysm can reign and all The Minions of Voleron and those of evil tendencies can prosper in whatever way they see fit. If killing another is needed to progress oneself, so be it. Other evil characters will likely think nothing of it. It is the outbreak of this nature that has brought Darlow to its present state of death.
HP (Hit Points) - The hitpoint count is probably the most vital to the character, representing stamina. A character's hitpoint count can be derived from any number of things. Generally, larger characters have more HP. Characters that have an affiliation for close, physical combat are tougher and thus have a higher HP count. Maximum HP measures the highest HP count the character can have while their current count is an indicator of how they are doing now. When a character suffers a hit, it is taken off of their HP, so keep an eye on it. There are many rules in the game stemming from this statistic. Keep them in mind when playing:
- HP cannot exceed maximum. No healing spell or item or specialty can put a character's current HP over their maximum.
- Characters fall unconscious at 0 HP; NPC monsters are dead at 0 HP. An unconscious character can do no action and is considered out of commission for the battle. They cannot be healed, only revived. Unconsciousness is removed once the battle ends. Any hit upon an unconscious character renders them dead immediately. During battles between player groups, characters are considered to be dead at 0 HP, not just unconscious.
- Characters are dead at -10 HP. A dead character is the same as an unconscious character during the regular campaign. At this point, unless a powerful cleric is around or unless an ally has a valuable healing potion, a dead character is out for the battle. Dead characters cannot be attacked. Dead characters can be revived after battle with cost.
- Characters are destroyed at -30 HP. At -30, a dead character has been mutilated beyond comprehension. They are so dismantled that they cannot even be revived by any means. A character is permanently out of commission for the battle. Reviving them after battle is a lengthy and costly task.
Essence - Not every character has magical abilities. For those that do, this is the count that measures how much magical strength they have within them. It is focused around the spiritual force of whatever shard(s) they have (Nexus or Voleron or both) within their possession. Those characters that have learned to utilize their powers in a more controlled manner have higher essence:
- Essence cannot exceed the maximum. Essence does not increase on level-up unless the character spends both of their bonus points to gain 1 essence.
- If a character (in battle) moves and then casts a spell, it requires one more point to cast the spell.
- A character may (with risk) cast a spell even if they do not have enough essence. For each essence short of the casting cost, there is a cumulative 25% chance that the spell will instantly fail and the character becomes stunned. Their essence is then reduced to 0, but not below.
Attack Rating - A rating of attack represents how physically strong the character is and how well they can apply to a physical attack. Like HP, larger characters usually have higher attack ratings than smaller characters, but this is not always the case. A high attack rating could reflect how deadly their attack could be. Slaughterers have a very high attack rating because their blades are long, jagged, barbed, and everything else that makes those weapons dangerous. A higher attack rating will mean more damage upon a successful hit. Attack ratings DO NOT reflect how accurate characters are in hitting.
Defense Rating - This is the statistic that allows characters to avoid damage from physical hits. Since physical attacks are the most common form of offense in Skure, having a good defense rating can come in very useful. A high defense rating could reflect a number of things. Primarily, it is the armour of the character, its thickness and/or its coverage over the body of the char. Characters with little armour have low defense ratings. Beetles, for example, have huge defense ratings because their shell covers just about every vulnerable part of their body.
Speed Rating - Possibly one of the most important statistics in the game of Skure, simply because it has so much bearing on how the game works. A character cannot deal damage if they cannot hit and speed is the statistic to have for such a thing, although by itself it doesn't make a character hit. Other factors come into play. Speed also represents the order of the turns amongst all the participants in the battle; highest speed goes first, lowest speed goes last. High speed is a self-explanatory representation. Quite often, small characters with good reflexes have higher speed while large, lumbering ones are much slower.
Movement Rating - The difference between movement and speed is enormous in terms of how the game works but seems vague when just looking at the words. Allow me (Dagolar) to clarify. Speed reflects reflexes, dodging ability, and dexterity. Movement reflects how well a character can move through the battlefield. Aside from specifying a number, movement can be of three forms: Ground, Climbing, or Flying. Ground is the default; the other two are specified in the list of class specials. The movement rating itself, the number, is the maximum number of spaces the character can move in a single turn. DIAGONAL movement COSTS 2 SPACES. They must move east and then north - 2 spaces. They cannot just move northeast as a single space - it counts as 2.
It should be noted that movement rating does not increase as a character advances.
When a character's experience equals or surpasses what they require for a level up, they advance to the next level. In doing so, they become stronger and learn how to use their abilities more effectively. The amount needed for level up never changes when a character levels. The amount of CURRENT experience they have is simply subtracted by the amount needed to advance. For example, if a character needs 100 experience points for a level up and they manage to get 123, they will advance one level and have 23 points left. The amount of experience any character needs ranges from the fastest at 60 per level to the (dreaded) slowest at a whopping 150 per lv. All the rules for progression are here.
Magic Rating - The rating itself is quite obvious, but the number sitting beside the rating is not. It represents not how intelligent the character is in using their powers but rather how well-versed they are and how far they can reach out into using the energy of Darlow, Nexus, and Voleron to further their ends. Magic ratings rank between 0 and 10. A rating of 0 means the character has no background in magic at all; this comprises more than half the classes in the game. As the rating increases between classes, more spells and spell categories become available to the character. When a magic-using character promotes, their magic rating often goes up to accomodate their new form.
In terms of leveling up, a magic rating itself will not increase. It does, however, reflect how much MP (Magic Points) the character will receive. So, if you happen to be looking over a character who has a magic rating of 8, understand that their prowess with magical powers is definitely not to be tested. Even a magic rating of 6 is considered high at the beginning of a campaign.
Size Rating - Another simple idea with a larger impact on the game rules. Clearly, the higher the size rating of a character, the larger they are, physically. For reason of mathematics in some areas of the game, size rating varies from 4 to 12. No character is ever smaller than 4 or larger than 12. This is because certain effects, like paralysis, take the size rating of a character squared into account in terms of %. A size rating of 1 in terms of % would have virtually no impact on the game. Likewise, a size rating of 18 would be way too high for a % scale.
Size ratings reflect how much HP the character will receive. It makes sense that larger characters can suffer more damage while smaller ones cannot. Here is the list of size numbers and the corresponding actual size of the number:
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Tiny
Small
Normal
Normal +
Large
Very Large
BIG!
Huge
Enormous
Cat
Dog
Human
Tall Human (6.5 ft)
Large Horse
Taro (12 feet, 1200 lbs)
Elephant
House
Mansion
Reflex Rating - Like the strength rating, reflex rating has an impact on two things. Certain items require a certain reflex rating to be used or equipped, especially ones that need a quick set of fingers, like daggers. The rating itself also displays, indirectly, how much speed the character will gain over their advancement. There is no definite relation here in terms of this rating to the size of the character, although it does seem to be that smaller characters have higher ratings than large characters. This rating also ranks from 1 to 10, lowest to highest.
It could be said that a character can define their magic-using class by the components they choose. For example, if a mage choose water, cold, and air, they could be constituted as an "ice mage".
If you are playing a magic-using character, make sure to speak to your BM before selecting components. Some combinations of components may give your character NO SPELLS! So, here are all the magical components of Skure. Primary components are ones that will, by themselves, give spells to the character at the beginning of their journey (level 1) or at least very early (Level 5 and under). They are marked with *. In conclusion to this, It is often wise to choose at least one primary component.
Fire*
Earth
Air
Water*
Cold*
Thunder*
Light*
Dark*
Energy
Storm
Mind*
Armour
Power*
Shield
Flame*
Ice*
Bolt
Shadow*
Heal*
Cure*
Life
Regenerate*
Stat-Up
Stat-Down
Protection*
Light*
Dark*
Pain
Kills - Number of enemies the character has managed to kill. For NPCs, this would mean bringing them to 0 HP. For PCs, -20.
Assists - Number of enemies the character has aided in killing. This is up to the judgement of the BM, but it is advised to all BMs to be rather generous. Up to 3 players can claim an assist on a kill. This could vary from dealing a good solid hit that lowered the enemy's HP, poisoning it (although if the poison is responsible for killing, the character that poisoned it claims the kill), paralyzing it, or weakening it in some way so as to make it easier for someone else to finish the job. Again, BMs, be generous. Thanks.
Defeats - Not a nice number to keep track of, but anyway...This is the number of times the character has been roughted up enough to be brought to -20 (dead).
Team - A character's team affiliation will go here as well as their rank (Captain, Lieutenant, Scout, or Warrior) and their standard position in battle (Front, Middle, Rear combined with Assault, Support, or Lurker; more details on this later). Characters can switch teams and so this should be updated in the game directly.
Loyalty - If a character is part of a kingdom, clan, or any organized fighting force that encompasses multiple groups (like The Minions of Voleron), that will go here.