Combat System Explanation

This page is in the middle of a significant overhaul and things will be changed, added or removed quite often as the combat system is rendered obsolete in place of a new one. 

This is an explanation of the combat system used here within the Otherworld Roleplaying community, which is in itself a modified version of the Open Legend RPG system, and all credit goes to them. This guide will assume that you have already come up with a concept and other such necessary lore information for your character first, so this won't detail how to make your character from a story perspective but will instead do so from a gameplay perspective.

Attributes
Each person is good at some things, and bad (or even just mediocre) in others, and this shows in how they handle combat. Every character has eighteen different types of attributes, divided into four categories, that are used to specialize your character.

Purchasing Attributes
Each character has a total of 25 points that can be put across 10 attributes, each attribute being able to be raised to a max of 5 points. However, not all attributes have to have points put into them and for the most part there will be at least one attribute without any points put into it by the end of your character creation process.

A simple way to take these following numbers and distribute them across your base attributes: 5,4,4,3,3,2,2,1,1,0

In addition, all Extraordinary Attributes are not allowed to have points put into them on character creation, as these can only have points put into them through bonuses offered by the use of augmentations (pieces of technology or cybernetics the user might have on their person when combat begins), or through the use of temporary consumable items. Through said previously mentioned means, it is also possible albeit difficult to have an Attribute Score go beyond 5.

Each attribute starts at 0 with 1d6 as a roll, and every additional point adds another d6 to the total roll (with the max of 5 being 6d6 total). The "average" (equivalent of a 0 mod in our current system) is a 2, which is if you perfectly distribute all of your points over all your attributes, giving you 3d6 to roll (about equivalent to a 1d20, with better lower bounds and slightly worse higher bounds) each. In the event that you don't have your character sheets ready just yet or are still porting them over from the old system for whatever reason, assume that you have two points in every attribute because the points a character will have will allow for an average of two points for every single one of the basic ten attributes.

Physical Attributes
Agility - Dodging attacks, moving with stealth, performing acrobatics, firing weapons or picking pockets.

Fortitude - Resisting poison, shrugging off pain, surviving in a desert, or wearing heavy armor.

Might - Swinging a maul, jumping over a chasm, breaking down a door, or wrestling a foe to submission.

Mental Attributes
Learning - Recalling facts about history, the natural world or the mystical, or any information you picked up from an external source.

Logic - Innovating new crafting methods, deciphering codes, jury-rigging devices, or getting the gist of a language you don’t speak.

Perception - Sensing ulterior motives, tracking someone, catching a gut feeling, spotting a hidden foe, or finding a secret door.

Will - Maintaining your resolve, resisting torture, studying for long hours, staying awake on watch, or staving off insanity.

Social Attributes
Deception - Telling lies, bluffing at cards, disguising yourself, spreading rumors, or swindling a sucker.

Persuasion - Negotiating a deal, convincing someone of something, haggling a good price, or prying information out of someone.

Presence - Giving a speech, singing a song, inspiring an army, exert your force of personality, have luck smile upon you

Extraordinary Attributes
Unlike other attributes, if you don't have any points put into these attributes then you are unable to use them untrained no matter what.

Alteration - Changing shape, altering molecular structures, turning one material into another via transmutation.

Creation - Channeling higher powers, manifesting something from nothing, regenerating, or divinely bolstering.

Energy - Creating and controlling the elements to one's advantage, e.g. fire, cold, electricity.

Entropy - Disintegrating matter, kill with a single word from one's lips or snap of one's fingers, creating undead, sickening others.

Influence - Controlling the minds of others, speaking telepathically, instilling fear, create illusory figments, or cloaking with invisibility.

Movement - Teleporting, flying, hastening, or telekinetically pushing.

Prescience - Seeing the future, reading minds or auras, viewing from afar, detecting magic or evil, or communicating with extraplanar entities

Protection - Protecting from damage, breaking supernatural influences, dispelling magic, exiling extradimensional beings.

Auxiliary Attributes
These attributes instead are calculated by merging existing attribute scores into such an auxiliary attribute score.

Toughness - Protection from attacks that test endurance, bodily health, sturdiness, and survivability. For example, foes attempting to poison you, drain your life force, or stun you will target your toughness. The calculation for this attribute is 4 + (FORTITUDE + WILL).

Guard - Protection from attacks that can either be dodged, deflected, or directly withstood via raw physical power. Enemies would need to overcome your guard in order to hit you with a grenade, shoot you with an arrow, or smash you with a maul. The calculation for this attribute is 4 + (AGILITY + MIGHT + ARMOR).

Resolve - Ability to resist mental domination and stand brave in the face of danger. Enemies who wish to charm you, deceive you with illusions, or frighten you must target your resolve.The calculation for this attribute is 4 + (PRESENCE + WILL).

Hit Points - An abstract measure of how well one can ignore pain, avoid deadly blows, and maintain a presence on the battlefield in spite of wounds or exhaustion. If they reach zero, you are rendered incapacitated and are at risk of death.The calculation for this attribute is 4 + ((FORTITUDE + PRESENCE + WILL) x 2).

Your Turn
Self-explanatory enough, what to do on your turn including what actions do and what you can do as an action.

Rolling
To determine the outcome of something such as an action, you roll a certain amount of six-sided die (d6), the specific number starting with a single d6 and going up with each additional attribute point for the given attribute needed. If the maximum possible number by any single die is rolled (for example, if you roll a six, an additional die of the same type is rolled (referred to as "exploding"). If the max number is rolled again, another additional die is rolled until the dice have stopped "exploding", i.e. something else is rolled. In order to succeed at a roll, your roll needs to be compared with what is called the "Challenge Rating".

The Challenge Rating (or CR for short) is the number a player's roll is expected to beat when rolling for an action in order to succeed at said action. Typically, this number starts at 3 with zero attribute points and increases by three for each point you have in a given attribute, ultimately capping off at 18 with five attribute points. This isn't a hard cap though, as this score can be artificially increased beyond 5 and up to 9 with the usage of augmentations and temporary consumable items. If the number rolled is higher than said challenge rating, then you succeed. If not, you can either succeed with a twist or fail in a way that still lets the story progress, whether one occurs or the other is determined by the GM.

In addition, the way damage is calculated is that the player's attack roll is compared to the target's Defense (usually Guard, Toughness or Resolve depending on what is required), then the difference between those two numbers is the amount of damage that is done.

Lastly, if up to three NPCs in a single group with the same stats are taking part in combat then their rolls are done individually but if more than three NPCs under the same conditions are taking part in combat, then their rolls are done collectively.

Actions
Actions are what you take to get big things done in combat. Your action can be taken to do one of the following:

Making a damaging attack. Damaging attacks are carried out in three basic steps: Determining your attribute score versus the target's defense score, choosing your target and then rolling your attack.

Inflicting a bane. Instead of trying to damage your target, you can also inflict a bane on the enemy which follows the same basic steps.

Invoking a boon. Like inflicting a bane, you can also choose to invoke a boon on an ally with your Major Action, the basic steps taken for such an action are choosing your target, rolling to invoke and then determining your boon's power level in case said boon has multiple possible power levels.

Assisting an ally. You can also use your Major Action to boost an ally's next roll by giving them Advantage 1, if you have an Attribute Score of 1 or higher in that attribute.

Defending an ally. After an enemy has rolled a successful attack against you or an ally, you may make an action roll in order to attempt to ward off the attack. If your attribute roll is higher than the targeted defense score, then your roll replaces the targeted defense score for that attack only (if you are wielding a weapon with the Defensive property, your attack roll will have Advantage according to its rank).

Initiative
Combat itself starts with each party performing an Agility check (Simply your character's [or characters'] Agility score) to calculate their initiative, which determines turn order. The highest total goes first, the second highest goes second, so on and so forth. All self-explanatory enough.

Advantage
Sometimes, the circumstances will either give you a significant edge when trying to perform an action. This is called Advantage.

If you have Advantage on a roll, roll an additional number of die matching your advantage level when making a roll, then add the result of those additional die to your base roll to make your new total. For example, if you have Advantage 1, you would roll one additional die and remove the lowest single roll make your new total.

Disadvantage
However, other circumstances will do the exact opposite. This is called Disadvantage.

Having Disadvantage on a roll works almost identically to rolling with Advantage, but instead of adding the result of the additional die rolled, you subtract the result from your base roll in order to make your total. As per the previous example, if you have Disadvantage 2, you would roll two additional dice and then subtract the two highest rolls to make your total.

One example of where Disadvantage would come into play is trying to attack multiple targets, as the attacker is given 1 level of Disadvantage for each additional target being attacked.

In certain situations, you may be greeted with both of these at the same time. What you would do in this situation is subtract the Disadvantage level from your Advantage level.

Abilities
Every characters has their own tricks up their sleeves that they can use to change the tides of battle, or even just quirks that make them who they are. These come in five different forms: Feats, Banes, Boons, Perks and Flaws.

Feats
Feats act as the actions and abilities your character possesses that make them stand out from the rest, giving them their own specialized roles and utilities in combat. Each character, upon creation, will have a total of eight feat points, each feat usually costing 1-3 points. In addition, some of these feats have prerequisites which require a certain level or above in a given attribute in order to use it at all.

A list of current feats can be found here, but a list of custom feats specifically for this community may be put up in the future.

Boons
A boon is a minor ability that can be invoked by its user, if they have the pre-requisite attribute modifier(s) to do so, in order to apply a positive effect on themselves or their allies. These aren’t tied to any particular spells, attacks or items.

A list of current boons can be found here, but a list of custom boons specifically for this community may be put up in the future.

Each boon’s description will usually have the following sections:

Power Level - The attribute score needed. If multiple power levels are listed (such as 2 / 4 / 6), then the boon can be invoked at multiple tiers of power, each tier making the boon more effective yet affecting the attribute roll’s CR (Challenge Rating).

Attributes - The specific attribute(s) that can be used to invoke the boon, which can be done only if at least one attribute has an attribute score greater than or equal to the Power Level. Each attribute is usually followed by the maximum power level that can be cast with the given attribute in parentheses, e.g. Entropy (7) or Might (4).

Invocation Time - How long it takes to invoke the boon. Most take one major action. For boons that take longer, no additional actions can be made until the boon is invoked. If interrupted, this amount you have to wait resets.

Duration - Most boons have a duration of “sustain persists”, which indicates that the invoker must use a sustain action every round in order to keep the boon in effect. If you have a boon in effect and don’t sustain it, the boon’s effects cease at the end of your turn.

Because sustaining a boon is a minor action, which can only be taken once per turn, you can typically sustain only one boon at a time. You do not need to sustain a boon on the round in which it is invoked as long as you are not sustaining any other boons.

Description - What the boon looks like and how it works from an in-universe perspective.

Effect - The same as description, but instead from a gameplay perspective.

Banes
Banes act similarly to boons albeit with one fundamental difference: They instead allow the user to apply negative effects on their enemies in order to help them deal with a threat in ways other than simply dealing damage, as opposed to applying positive effects on allies.

A list of current banes can be found here, but a list of custom banes specifically for this community may be put up in the future.

Each boon’s description will usually have the following sections:

Power Level - The attribute needed. If multiple power levels are listed (such as 2 / 4 / 6), then the boon can be invoked at multiple tiers of power, each tier making the boon more effective yet affecting the attribute roll’s CR (Challenge Rating). As with Boons, each attribute is usually followed by the maximum power level that can be cast with the given attribute in parentheses.

Attack Attributes - This is a list of the attribute or attributes that can be used to inflict the bane. As long as you possess at least one of the listed attributes at a score greater than or equal to the power level, then you can inflict the bane.

Attack - This list indicates what type of attack roll to make when inflicting the bane. Each entry consists of an attribute that the attacking player should roll, and the defense score targeted by the attack. If the attacker’s roll equals or exceeds the target’s defense score, then the bane is inflicted.

Duration - A bane typically remains in effect until the target resists it by using the resist banes action, hence most banes have a duration of “resist ends”. If a target fails three resist rolls against a bane, the bane can no longer be resisted. It persists for an extended duration indicated in parentheses.

Description - What the boon looks like and how it works from an in-universe perspective.

Effect - The same as description, but instead from a gameplay perspective.

Perks and Flaws
Perks and flaws are the different quirks your character has, which can be both positive and negative; perks acting as the former and flaws acting as the latter. Each character is allowed two perks and two flaws respectively.

A list of current perks and flaws can be found here and here respectively, but a list of custom perks and flaws specifically for this community may be put up in the future.

Possessions
The material possessions you have to your name, which include finances and physical items such as, say, weaponry or housing.

Wealth Level
Your wealth level determines how well off you are and is determined by points, and can range from a score of 0 (a beggar or street urchin) to a score of 9 (the supreme leader of an entire large empire), each determining the types of goods and services you can acquire. For a reference point, your everyday citizen will likely have a wealth level of 1-2 on average.

Carrying Capacity
Excluding the clothes on their back and any physical augmentations they may have, each character can hold up to 2 + (LOGIC x 2). In addition to standard items, there are two additional types of items: Heavy items and bulky items, which are counted onto the item limit.

The maximum number of heavy items a character can carry is equal to that character's Might score.

The maximum number of bulky items a character can carry is two, but holding more than one gives that character a significant debuff, but the item (or items) must remain in their hands unless they wish to drop it and use something else.

Weaponry
The wide array of weapons you may use in combat, whether it be ranged, melee or anything in between so long as it is made to hurt people. A rundown and examples of how ranged weapons such as firearms work can be seen here, and the same can be found here for melee weapons.

Armor
Protection you may equip to protect yourself from harm. A rundown of how armor works and the varieties available can be found here.

Augmentations
Any cybernetics (robotic prosthetics aiming to be just as effective, or more effective, than the parts they are replacing) or other such devices that may be on the character's person. These don't count towards carrying capacity and may come with minor gameplay features.

Each augmentation's description will usually have the following sections:

An item with the area property always makes multi-target area attacks or invocations of the listed size and shape, and cannot be used to make non-area attacks. If an item has multiple area sizes, the attacker chooses from them with each attack.
 * Appearance: Description of the armor's appearance from a lore perspective, if it has an external appearance.
 * Type: Simply put, what type of augmentation it is. A full list of possible properties is listed down below:
 * Detachable - It is able to be taken on and taken off at any time, such as a holographic glasses or a pair of boots with propulsion capabilities.
 * Fixed - If it is attached to the person's body at all times, such as a limb prosthetic or a
 * Passive - If the bonuses or abilities offered by the augmentation are granted at all times.
 * Active - If the bonuses or abilities offered by the augmentation are only granted when the augmentation is properly activated. Make sure to specify the conditions under which the augmentation is activated, and how long it is activated for in actions, turns, minutes, or any other unit of time (or until it is turned off again by the user.)
 * Health Points: If a fixed augmentation such as a limb prosthetic, it may possibly have its own health pool that an attacker can target separately, which may shut the prosthetic down if brought down to zero until it is repaired somehow. Depending on the size of the augmentation, attack rolls made against it may have a certain level of Disadvantage. The current formula for calculating the HP of any given augmentation is (3 + ((GUARD / 2, rounded down) + PROTECTION)), but this is subject to change.
 * Wealth Level: Unless obtained in other ways besides just buying it, how expensive the augmentation is to purchase.
 * Attribute Bonuses/Penalties (If Any): Self-explanatory, what attributes receive bonuses because of this augment when it is activated, and how many points in said attributes does it grant? This CAN and often DOES include Extraordinary Attributes, which can not have permanent points put into them otherwise except under very specific circumstances.
 * Boons: If any can be cast by this augmentation, what boons (and their respective power levels) can be cast by using this augmentation? Can they be casted onto the user, one (or more) allies, or both at the same time?
 * Banes: If any can be cast by this augmentation, what banes (and their respective power levels) can be cast by using this augmentation?
 * Properties (If Any): Any other benefits, drawbacks or simply unique traits that this augmentation offers with it. A full list of possible properties, in addition to the list of properties described in the List of Firearms page, is listed down below:
 * -|Area= Area

Banes associated with this item can be delivered via an alternate method, such as a weapon or other damaging attack. Applying the item's augmentation is an attack is a move action which consumes the item. Upon application, you choose a bane the item can invoke. The next attack made with the augmented item made with the augmented item triggers that bane if your roll is equal to or above the target's defense score. An example of this could be a round for a firearm that combusts when hitting a target (like a real-life Dragon's Breath round), casting Persistent Damage as a representation of fire damage.
 * -|Augmenting= Augmenting

Has a specific condition set that causes the item to trigger one particular action.
 * -|Autonomous= Autonomous

When making a damaging attack with this item, you may automatically inflict a listed bane if your attack roll exceeds the target's defense by 5 or more. The bane can be triggered this way in lieu of other banes, efen if hte item or wielder cannot access the bane. The invoking attribute for this bane is equal to the attacking attribute.
 * -|Baneful= Baneful

A consumable item can be used once to invoke a boon at the listed power level. This invocation boon succeeds automatically without a roll and cannot be invoked with multi-targeting. Afterwards, the item is consumed and cannot be used again. For example, a syringe of accelerant that invokes a certain level of the Regeneration boon.
 * -|Consumable= Consumable

The wielder of this item is automatically afflicted with the indicated bane at the listed power level. The bane cannot be shaken off using the "resist a bane" action. Furthermore, the cursed item cannot be unequipped unless the wielder is subject to the Restoration boon at a power level high enough to dispel the bane.
 * -|Cursed= Cursed

When making a damaging attack with this item, it may inflict a particular type of damage in lieu of the type it will normally deal.
 * -|Damage= Damage

Some weapons are so effective that their potency makes the wielder significantly more capable. Attacks made with this weapon gain advantage equal to their Deadly value.
 * -|Deadly= Deadly

An expendable item can be used once to make an attack or invoke a bane. Afterwards, the item is expended and can not be used again. An example of this could be a flashbang that is thrown and inflicts the Blinded bane when detonated (possibly in an area alongside the Area property) for a period one time before the flashbang is considered used.
 * -|Expendable= Expendable

An item with this property automatically invokes and sustains a single instance of the indicated boon without requiring the wielder to make an invocation roll or use the "sustain a boon" action. If the duration of a boon is instantaneous, the item automatically invokes the boon each round at the start of the wielder's turn. The wielder does not have to invoke this effect. The item's effect persists automatically unless the wielder spends an action to deactivate it, in which case it remains deactivated until the wielder spends a minor action to reactivate it.
 * -|Persistent= Persistent

Banes inflicted or boons invoked by this item have advantage equal to the item's Powerful value, ranging from 1-3.
 * -|Powerful= Powerful

Targets suffer Disadvantage 1 on resist rolls to shake off banes inflicted by this item.
 * -|Potent= Potent

The wielder does not have to roll to invoke this item's listed boons if they are targeting a single creature. The invocation automatically succeeds. If the item also has the Area property, it may still benefit from the automatic success gained by the Reliable property.
 * -|Reliable= Reliable

The item becomes either self-aware or capable of basic human reasoning. It has no inherent bond with its wielder, and is treated like any other NPC. It gets its own turn and array of actions. The item gains no mental or social attributes, only the ability to think. At the GM's discretion, it may also gain a particular mode of movement such as walking, climbing, flying or swimming.
 * -|Sentient= Sentient

Any dice rolled for actions involved with this item treat a result of 1 as a result of the maximum instead and as such explodes into an additional die of the same type as per usual. However, the amount of attribute die that are rolled are halved (rounded up). This means that less die are rolled, but the possibility of exploding is doubled.
 * -|Unstable= Unstable

The item possesses a unique property none of the above cover, that is explained in full detail in this description.
 * -|Special= Special

Utility Items
Items that may give the player a temporary helping hand in combat, such as a one-time teleportation beacon, a healing syringe, or a form of medication that offers a temporary increase in a given attribute or set of attributes. These will count towards the overall carrying capacity, and also take the relevant attribute into account when attempting to use them.

Each external item's description will usually have the following sections:


 * Description: What the item looks like from an in-universe perspective.
 * Type: Is the external item a consumable such as a drug, or a technological device such as a teleportation beacon?
 * Wealth Level: How expensive the item is to purchase per individual unit.
 * Weight: Regular, heavy or bulky?
 * Attribute Bonus (if any): What passive attribute bonuses are granted by the item once it is activated or consumed. This CAN include Extraordinary Attributes but any score increase will only be temporary, seeing as permanent Extraordinary Attribute scores are restricted solely to augmentations.
 * Duration: If simply an attribute bonus or some other benefit that isn't a Boon or a Bane, how long does it last before the effect ends?
 * Boons: If any can be cast by this item, what boons (and their respective power levels) can be cast by using this augmentation? Can they be casted onto the user, one (or more) allies, or both at the same time?
 * Banes: If any can be cast by this item, what banes (and their respective power levels) can be cast by using this augmentation?
 * Traits (if any): What other benefits and drawbacks it applies upon use. One example of a trait a consumable item can have is being able to replenish a certain amount of health. The exact list is to be determined.

Lore Items
Items which are relevant to your character's backstory, or simply things that your character hold near and dear to their heart, but otherwise give no gameplay advantage and are merely there for roleplaying purposes.