Part 1 – Core Mechanics

Tier and Experience

Tier represents the overall competence of a character and it depends on the total amount of experience points (exp from now on) that a character has. Character options such as skills, talents and magic are gained by spending exp, while exp is awarded by the Game Master (GM from now on) in many different ways.

Tier is also used to indicate attribute improvements and the amount of times a character can benefit from certain options.

Attributes

Attributes represent a character’s physical and mental capacities. These are: strength, agility, mind and presence. Starting player characters’ attributes range from 1 to 3, and they can normally go up to 4. The higher the attribute, the more competent the character is in that area.

Strength determines:

Hit points, which represent the amount of damage a character can receive.
Recovery points, or a character’s capacity to regain hit points.
General skills like athletics and physique.
Damage with melee weapons.
Carrying capacity.

Agility determines:

General skills like acrobatics and stealth.
Most combat skills, like initiative and melee combat.
Damage with ranged weapons.

Mind determines:

General skills like analyze and survival.
Special skills, from medicine to knowledge of the world.

Some characters, like animals and monsters, might have Instinct as an attribute instead of Mind in order to give a better representation of their psyche.

Presence determines:

General skills like charisma and coercion.
Special skills involving artistic performance like acting and dancing.

Both mind and presence can either determine:

Determination points, which represent a character’s capacity to push their limits.
Mettle, which reduces the amount of mental or spiritual damage received.
A wide variety of skills like willpower, channeling, runecasting, and spellcasting.

Strength, mind or presence also define a character’s threshold, which is the amount of negative hit points that precede death.

Attribute Die

Attributes can work as a fixed value and also as a roll, since some character options require an attribute die roll to determine their effects.

Table – Attribute Die shows the equivalent dice for each attribute.

Table – Attribute Die
Character’s Attribute	Attribute Die
1	1d4
2	1d6
3	1d8
4	2d8
5	1d10

For example, the Respite activity allows a character to regain [1d STR] hit points. If the character has a strength attribute of 3, then they would regain 1d8 hit points.

Skills

Skill rolls represent a character’s efficacy in a wide variety of areas. They are divided into:

General skills that can be attempted by all characters. E.g.: charisma and physique.
Combat skills that are used while fighting. E.g.: defense, initiative and melee combat.
Special skills that usually can only be attempted by characters trained in them. E.g.: forgery, medicine and spellcasting.

There are two types of skill rolls:

Tests: Skill rolls made against a given difficulty set by the GM.
Clashes: Skill rolls made between two or more opposing characters.

Skill rolls are made in the following way:

You make a pool of d6s equal to your character’s attribute connected to that skill (for example, athletics is connected to strength).
You add 1d6 for every training bonus that your character has in that skill (and another 1d6 if your character has expertise in that skill).
You roll the dice and you count the amount of dice showing 4s, 5s and 6s; these will be the number of successes.
In tests, you compare the number of successes to the difficulty value set by the GM. If you roll equal or more successes than the difficulty value, you win the test.
In clashes, if you roll more successes than your opponent, you win the clash. In ties, the one who rolled the most 6s wins the clash except when the clash involves an attack (e.g. melee combat vs defense). In such cases, the attacker wins on ties. If both characters fail to roll a success in a clash, they must repeat the clash until it is resolved.

Advantage

In both tests and clashes, if a character rolles 2 or more successes than the ones required, they can benefit from a bonus called advantage. Many abilities already contemplate their advantage bonus and attacks even have their own combat advantage options that will be explained in the combat section, but if an ability or roll does not contemplate one already, the GM can rule one if they see fit based on the circumstances, plausibility or even the impact of the roll, since some rolls might not even need to specify the advantage.

For example, a character makes an athletics test vs a difficulty 3 in order to climb a wall, and they roll 5 successes; in that case, the GM could rule that the character managed to climb the wall faster or in a particularly effortless way.

In either case, characters can only benefit from one advantage bonus per roll.

Table – Test Difficulty
Difficulty	Value
Routinary or Easy	No need to roll
Considerable	1
Challenging	2
Demanding	3
Hard	4
Tough	5
Astonishing	6
Epic	7
Legendary	8
Mythological	9
Nearly Impossible	10

Rulings on Skills Rolls

Sometimes stories need more options than success or failure; therefore, whenever they see fit, GMs can apply the following rulings when calling for skill rolls:

No Need to Roll: A character succeeds on a test without having to roll because the difficulty is too trivial compared to the character’s skill or because being trained (or having expertise) is enough to pass the test. For example: The GM asks for a test of knowledge of the occult, but since a character has training in that skill. the GM rules that that character succeeds without having to make a roll.

Failing Forward: Not all failed tests should equal failed actions. Because of common sense or because the story would benefit from it, a GM can decide that a failed test can still accomplish the desired intention but with an extra complication. For example: A character tries to open a lock using lock picks and fails the test. The GM could rule that the lock was opened but the lock picks were broken or the lock fell into the ground, causing lots of noise.

Partial Successes: The GM can lower the difficulty of a test in order to allow a partial success. If the character manages to succeed thanks to the lowered difficulty, the GM can add a complication or a partial result. For example: the character barely manages to jump the chasm but now is hanging on the edge.

GMs can allow partial successes when it is mathematically impossible for a character to succeed. For example: the GM considers that the difficulty of a charisma test is 4 but the character, in the best case scenario, can only roll 3 successes.

Critical Failures: Critical failures are failures with extra complications or greater consequences. They can occur when: 1) a character fails a crucial test (not every test) by a difference set by the GM or by a specific character option; 2) when the GM rules a partial success (previous ruling) but the character fails the roll anyway; and 3) when a character rolls a 1 on the d6 granted by a determination point and the character fails the test (determination points are described further below).

Some character options already specify the consequences of rolling a critical failure, but when having to come up with one, some simple examples are:

Weapons dropped or trapped in the environment.
Weapons and tools becoming damaged (item condition).
Magical effects producing contrary or totally different effects than the ones expected.

Critical failures could also be seen as opposites to advantages, and like advantages, a character can only suffer one critical failure per roll.

When it makes sense, GM could declare the possibility or even effect of critical failures before players roll the dice, not only to raise tension but also to inform players in case they would like to take precautions before the roll.

Skill Value

Skill value represents how effective a character is in a given skill, and some talents have it as a requirement or even use it.

A character’s skill value is calculated in the following way:

Skill Value = The corresponding attribute + the amount of training bonuses + 1 if the character has expertise in that skill.

For example, a character that has an agility of 3 and 1 training bonus in acrobatics would have a skill value of 4 in Acrobatics. If the character were to have expertise in the skill, the skill value would be 5 instead.

Dice Modifiers

Dice modifiers alter dice rolls and even their results, and they are either gained through exp purchases or circumstantial bonuses.

Training adds +1d6 to a skill. A character can be trained in many skills but a single skill can only be trained once per tier (max. 3). Each training bonus can be gained by spending 3 exp per skill per tier.

Expertise adds another 1d6 to a skill but it can only be gained once per character. Expertise can be gained by spending 3 exp on the talent of the same name.

Focus adds 1 to a single die’s total after making a skill roll (e.g.: you make a skill roll with 3d6 plus 1 focus, resulting on a 3, 4 and 6, and you add the focus to the 3 to transform it into a 4, and by doing so, you roll three successes instead of two). You can apply many foci to a skill roll but only one per die. Focus can be gained by spending 2 exp on the Focused talent. Foci can also be gained through circumstantial bonuses, magic and items.

Rerolls allow you to roll again one die after making a dice roll. You can reroll many dice in a dice roll but each die can only be rerolled once. Rerolls can be gained through talents and magic, and these sources specify the type of roll that they apply to. If they do not specify it, then they can apply to any roll.

Guaranteed Success allows you to voluntarily change the result of one die from a skill roll to a 4. Successes from your pool can be gained through talents and magic.

Boons add 1d6 to your dice pool when making skill rolls. Boons do not stack (they can only occur once per roll) but they cancel out banes.

Banes subtract 1d6 from your dice pool when making skill rolls. Banes cancel out boons and they do stack but every 2 banes beyond the first, and after being reduced by boons.

For example, if a character has 2 boons, they only gain +1d6 on the skill roll. If the character has 2 boons and 2 banes, they do not get a bonus nor a penalty. If they have 2 banes, they receive a -1d6. if they have 3 or 4 banes, they receive -2d6. If they have 5 or 6 banes, they receive -3d6. If they have 1 boon and 3 banes, they only receive a -1d6 because the boon will cancel one bane.

Boons and banes are granted by the GM depending on the circumstances but they can also be gained through talents and magic.

Many Dice, One Result

When players roll many dice for effects such as damage, healing, temporary hit points and resting (which will be explained further below), they must choose only one of the resulting dice to determine the value of the effect. In most cases the player would be inclined to choose the higher result, but some abilities might work better with specific numbers. Also, for every discarded die that rolled its maximum possible result, the character gains a +1 on their total result.

For example, if an attack deals 1d10, 1d8 and 2d6 damage, and the player rolls a 4, 7, 4 and 3 respectively, the player can choose the 7 as the amount of damage that their character will do. If the player rolls a 4, 7, 6 and 6, they can still choose the 7 for the amount of damage their character will do, but since each of the d6s rolled a 6, they can discard both of them and gain a +1 for each discarded die and add it to the total of 9 damage (7 + 2).

Rolling many dice not only increases the chances of a better result, but many abilities might improve the chosen die based on the results of the other dice.

The Many Dice, One Result rule does not apply to skill rolls.

Hit Points

Hit points represent the amount of damage a character can receive, and they are calculated in the following way:

Hit Points = (Strength x 2) + 6

Characters cannot regain more hit points than their maximum value.

Temporary Hit Points

Temporary hit points work like regular hit points but with the following particularities:

Characters can have more temporary hit points than their hit point maximum value.
Characters can only have one instance of temporary hit points at a time. If they gain more than once, they must choose which one to keep.

Threshold

Characters also have a hit point threshold that represents how many negative hit points a character can have before they are killed. It is calculated in the following way:

Threshold = (Strength + 3) × -1

If a character’s hit points go beyond that negative number, they die. If they reach and stay inside that threshold, they must make a Threshold Test (Physique or Willpower) vs a difficulty equal to the amount of damage received (after damage reductions) that put them inside their threshold. This is what happens depending of the result of that test:

Success: They become staggered.
Advantage: Characters act as normal.
Failure: They become unconscious but stable.
Critical Failure 2+ (a failed test by a difference of 2 or more successes than the ones required): They become unconscious and dying.

Staggered (Condition)

Staggered characters suffer 2 banes on all skill rolls and can only take 1 action or 1 quick action per turn. Regaining enough hit points to return to a positive amount (at least 1 hit point) clears this condition.

Unconscious (Condition)

Unconscious characters cannot act or perceive their surroundings and they can be killed with the execute maneuver. Every half an hour onward, an unconscious character can make a test: Physique or Willpower vs difficulty 3. Success: They become conscious (and staggered if they are still inside their threshold). Failure: They remain unconscious.

Stable (Condition)

A stable character is not dying (condition) regardless of whether they are conscious or not.

Dying (Condition)

After an amount of minutes equal to their strength attribute, dying characters must make a test: Physique or Willpower vs difficulty 3. Success: They remain unconscious but become stable. Failure: They die.

For ease of gameplay, we recommend that only player characters and important non-player characters (NPCs from now on) track whether they are staggered, unconscious or dying (same with wound rolls; see below). Other NPCs like common enemies could perfectly die when they reach 0 hit points, even more so if they have no healing at their disposal.

Recovery Points

Recovery points represent a character’s capacity to heal.

Healing activities and abilities allow characters to spend recovery points to regain hit points. Characters have a given amount of recovery points and they are calculated in the following way:

Recovery Points = Strength

Characters cannot regain more recovery points than their maximum value.

Determination Points

Determination points represent a character’s capacity to push their limits.

Whenever a character makes a skill roll, they can spend 1 determination point and gain 1 boon on their roll (+1d6, does not stack). This boon, granted by the determination point, explodes, which means that the player can continue rolling that die and add successes as long as they keep rolling a 6 on that d6.

We recommend using a d6 of a different color or shape when rolling the boon granted by determination points in order to track its possible explosions in an easier manner.

Determination points can be applied before or after the roll.

Characters have a given amount of determination points and they are calculated in the following way:

Determination Points = Mind + Presence

Characters cannot regain more determination points than their maximum value.

Rolling 1s on Determination Points

If a character rolls a 1 on the boon (d6) granted by the determination point, and the character fails the test, the GM can apply the Critical Failure ruling (see Rulings on Skill Rolls).

Resting

The rest activity allows characters to regain hit points, recovery points and determination points. This activity applies to living characters, while undead and constructs have their own way to recover.

Rest (Activity):
Varies
The GM determines the value of your rest based on Table – Resting Factors and by the end of it you benefit accordingly:

If the value is positive, roll as many d6s and choose one of the results. The number on the chosen die will be the amount of hit points, recovery points, determination points that your character regains. You choose how to distribute these points.

If the value is 0, you only regain 1d4 hit points.

If the value is negative, make a Test (Physique or Willpower) vs a Difficulty equal to your Resting Conditions Value but as a positive number:

Success: You regain 1 hit point.

Failure: You gain the fatigued condition until you have a rest of positive value.

During a rest, characters can spend unused recovery points before fully benefiting from this activity.

Regardless of the rest value, you regain all hit points lost to non-lethal damage.

Fatigued (Condition)

Fatigued characters gain 1 bane on all skill rolls and -5 speed for every instance of this condition.

Resting Factors

These are the factors that determine the value of the rest activity with examples below in italics.

Table – Resting Factors
	Place	Resources	Time
Beneficial	+2 ^{_{An environment intended for recovery or a personal room.}}	+2 _{^{Fresh food.}}	+2 ^{_{A whole day of rest.}}
Good	+1 _{^{A common room or a place with adequate temperature.}}	+1 _{^{Warm food or rations.}}	+1 _{^{6 to 8 hours of sleep.}}
Subpar	-1 _{^{Camping in natural or underground terrain.}}	-1 _{^{Stale or scarce food.}}	-1 _{^{4 to 5 hours of sleep.}}
Challenging	-2 _{^{Not having a camp in natural or underground terrain.}}	-2 _{^{An empty stomach.}}	-2 _{^{3 or less hours of sleep.}}
Extreme	-4 _{^{Not having a camp in hostile weather.}}	-4 _{^{Consecutive days without food.}}	-4 ^{_{Consecutive days without sleep.}}

Respite

Respite is another activity that allows players to regain hit points or determination points; it takes less time to perform but characters gain less from it.

Respite (Activity):
5 minutes
You spend 1 recovery point and regain [1d STR] hit points or 1 determination point; in either case, you also regain all hit points lost to non-lethal damage.

[1d STR]

[1d STR] means that the character must roll their strength attribute once.

Strength 1 rolls 1d4; strength 2 rolls 1d6, strength 3 rolls 1d8; strength 4 rolls 2d8, strength 5 rolls 1d10.

Carrying Capacity

Carrying capacity defines the amount of items a character can carry and it is calculated in the following way:

Carrying Capacity = Character size + Strength

Where character size is 6 for small characters, 8 for medium characters and 10 for large characters.

The result is the total amount of equipped item slots a character possesses.

Each item has a load (an abstract way to measure an item’s mass and volume) that determines the amount of item slots it occupies.

In terms of load, items are divided into:

Regular [R]: These occupy one item slot and must be written down in the Equipped Items or Packed Items sections of the character sheet.
Superlight [⅓]: Every 3 superlight items occupy one item slot and must be written down in the Equipped Items or Packed Items sections of the character sheet.
Bulky [B]: These occupy two item slots and must be written down in the Equipped Items or Packed Items sections of the character sheet.
Unencumbering [U]: These do not occupy item slots and are limited by common sense. They must be recorded in either Unencumbering section of the character sheet.

The Equipped Items section is for items that a character is carrying on themselves, while the Packed Items section is for items that a character is carrying inside a bag that they are wearing (see Bags and Other Containers below). Both the Equipped and Packed sections have a subsection for unencumbering items.

Some items might have higher loads than bulky; in those cases, the number of item slots it occupies will be specified between the brackets. For example, an item with a load of [4] occupies 4 item slots.

Design note:

We do not do this for Regular and Bulky items to avoid confusion between loads and quantities.

For ease of gameplay, only weapons, armor, tools and important consumables should occupy item slots. The rest, based on the GM’s judgement, should be unencumbering items.

Drawing or stowing one item from the Equipped Items section takes 1 quick action, while drawing or stowing one item from the Packed Items section takes 2 actions.

Characters that carry a greater load than what their capacity allows gain 3 banes on all strength and agility skill rolls and become hindered, slow and defenseless.

Hindered (Condition)

Hindered characters have their speed reduced by half and cannot perform the quick step maneuver or any similar maneuver such as dash or reactive step.

Slow (Condition)

Slowed characters only have access to 1 action during their turn.

Defenseless (Condition)

A defenseless character cannot defend from attacks. This could be due to being grappled, unconscious, unaware of the attack or any other similar circumstance. Characters attacking defenseless characters in melee do not need to make attack rolls against them; instead, they make damage rolls against them directly. When making ranged attacks against defenseless characters, the attacker must make a Test vs a difficulty set by the GM. Circumstances like distance, illumination, cover and terrain should be taken into consideration. In either case (melee or ranged) an attack against a defenseless character benefits from a combat advantage.

Bags and Other Containers

Bags have both a load and their own item slots.

This means that the character carrying a bag must write down the bag’s load in their character sheet’s Equipped Items section, and by doing so, they can benefit from the bag’s extra item slots, which become the character’s Packed Items section.

For example, a small-sized character with strength 2 would have 8 equipped item slots. If this character carries a backpack (a bulky [B] item with a carrying capacity of 10), they would have to dedicate 2 equipped item slots to the backpack because it is a bulky item, which will leave them with only 6 equipped item slots for other items, but they will benefit from 10 packed item slots from the backpack.

Characters can only benefit from one bag’s packed item slots and cannot loop bags inside of other bags. If they carry more than one bag, the contents of the other bags must be contemplated in their Equipped Items section.

Meta Currencies

Meta currencies are resources that players can spend to influence the game.

Heroes of Countless Stories has an intentionally lethal combat system and these meta currencies exist in order to push a little bit the survivability of player characters, who, in the long term, are the ones who are the most exposed to the dangers of the world.

There are two meta currencies: hero points (only available to player characters) and fortune points.

Hero Point

When spent, hero points allow a player to benefit from one of the following options:

Reroll as many dice as they want from any dice roll.
Regain 1 determination point.
Gain 1 extra action until the end of their turn (unique bonus).
Reduce a damage source received by 2d6. The total is added and the roll cannot be modified.

Player characters gain 1 hero point at the beginning of each session and all unspent hero points are lost at the end of the session.

Alternatively, a GM running a one-shot that actually takes more than one session or a short adventure can determine that players will only have a hero point for the entirety of the one-shot or short adventure.

Fortune Point

When spent, fortune points allow a character to reroll one die.

Fortune points are gained through talents but the GM can also award a fortune point (character) to player characters for good roleplaying, a great character moment or any significant contribution to the game. There is more information on this in the following section.

Fortune points always specify their source in brackets, for example there is a fortune point (cooking) and a fortune point (minstrel). A character can have any amount of fortune points but only one from the same source.

Part 2 – Character and Personality

There are three mechanics that reinforce a character’s most distinctive narrative aspects, and these are: traits, fundamentals and character arc. These options are meant for player characters and important NPCs, but if the GM wants to apply them to any NPCs to flesh them out, they are more than free to do so.

Traits

Traits are adjectives that help define a character. Mechanically, characters start with 3 traits in tier 1, but players can describe their character beyond this limitation.

Player characters can pick any trait that they want in order to form and describe their character. When deciding traits for their character, players can think about them the way a writer would conceive traits for characters in a play or a novel; therefore, the only limitations here are language itself and their imagination.

Some talents, that in turn determine characters’ abilities, will have trait-like names such as brave or observant; having that in mind, players do not need to gain these options for their characters in order to describe them as brave or observant in terms of traits.

If a player enacts their character around their traits by staying true to them even under dire circumstances or by briefly acting against them for a moment of narrative greatness, the GM could grant them a fortune point (character).

Fundamentals

Fundamentals represent a character’s identity, beliefs and desires. They work in very similar ways to traits, but instead of being descriptors, fundamentals are the answers to questions concerning a character. These questions are:

Who are you?
What do you believe in?
What do you want?

Fundamentals help players understand and give form to their characters, and they also can grant fortune points (character) by playing around them, just as with traits.

Character Arc

As player characters gain exp, they will grow, but since not all growth relies on talents, powers and combat tricks, players are encouraged to question, expand and evolve their character’s personality along the story. Therefore, when reach higher tiers, players can:

Gain one more trait.
Change an old trait for a new one.
Answer their fundamentals again.

For example, a player could have a tier I character with the traits bold, skeptical and witty; who, in terms of fundamentals, is a merchant sailor from the port of Tirus that believes that the world is an ordinary place and that wants to have a peaceful and profitable life. After an adventure that proved the existence of magic and other extraordinary elements, in tier II the player in charge of this character could swap the trait skeptical for curious and even add superstitious to the list. For fundamentals, the character can go into tier II as the captain of the Sword of Tirus that believes that the world is more than it seems and that wants to join the Sea Knights of Queen Arbella. Tier III will await this character with endless, narrative possibilities.

If the story does not contemplate reaching tiers 2 or 3, the GM can decide to segment the story in acts instead of tiers. Like that, tier 1 characters can still gain and change traits, and rethink their fundamentals.

Part 3 – Conflict and Combat

Turns and Rounds

Players act through their characters according to the flow of the story, but in combat, or any other similar situation, the GM segments the game in rounds, and these rounds are composed of the turns of each of the participants.

Initiative

Initiative is used to determine the order in which characters take their turn in a round.

Initiative is determined in the following way:

All characters involved make an initiative skill roll (they roll an amount of d6s equal to their agility + 1d6 for every instance of training in initiative + another 1d6 if they have expertise in initiative + any other bonuses) and every player keeps track of the amount of successes that they rolled (which are the dice that resulted in 4s, 5s and 6s).
The GM will start calling numbers from higher to lower; for example: the GM could say “initiative 4.” This means that all participants that rolled 4 successes on their initiative skill roll take their turn. Once they have done so, the GM will call participants who rolled 3 successes in their initiative roll for them to take their turn and so on.
In order to resolve ties in initiative, player characters always act first, followed by their allies and then the antagonists. So, to complement the previous example, when the GM calls for initiative 4, all player characters that rolled 4 successes on their initiative skill roll take their turn, then their allies (if there are any) and then the antagonists. Once all these participants have taken their turns, characters with an initiative of 3 will take their turn and the process will go on until all participants with lower initiatives have acted.
When the last participant has taken their turn, the round will be over; if the conflict or combat continues, a new round immediately begins and participants will roll a new initiative and the GM will call for higher to lower results once more until the situation is over.

Alternatively, in social encounters where characters compete to act first, they can roll their initiative using their presence attribute instead of their agility.

Actions in Combat

During combat, all participants have 2 actions and 1 quick action per turn and 1 reaction per round.

Action: Attacking, moving and using most abilities takes 1 action.
Quick Action: Some maneuvers like drawing, stowing or interacting with items, as well as activating some abilities, take 1 quick action. Alternatively, abilities that take 1 quick action can be used by spending 1 action instead.
Reaction: Some maneuvers and attacks of opportunity, which allow you to attack outside of your turn under certain conditions, take 1 reaction.

There are some things that characters can do during their turn that should not require actions; for example: talking, dropping an item, ending a spell effect, etc. These count as free actions and should be limited by common sense.

Attacks and Defense

Attacking and defending follow the same rules of clashes (both characters roll their respective skill and whoever gets more successes wins the clash) but with one exception: the attacker wins on ties.

All attacks specify the skills involved in their clash. Most of them use the melee combat or ranged combat skill rolls against the defense skill roll, but there are some cases where other skills will be used. For example, when casting a hex spell, the attacker rolls their spellcasting skill while the defender rolls their willpower skill.

Once the attack has been resolved, then the attacker can proceed with the effects of that attack. Usually that effect is a damage roll that will subtract hit points from the defender, as explained further, but in other cases, it could be some sort of debuff, like the hex of the previous example. These alternative attacks will specify what happens when the attack resolves.

If the attack and defense roll contain no successes, they clash must be repeated.

Attacks of Opportunity

Attacks of opportunity happen outside of a character’s turn and are caused whenever:

An enemy moves around, away or beyond (but not towards) another character.
An enemy stands up from prone on their own right next to* another character.

In either case, the character in question can spend 1 reaction and make an attack of opportunity against the enemy that triggered it.

Usually, when making an attack of opportunity, characters can only perform a Basic Attack with a melee weapon, but some talents can expand the options.*Note: The right next to used in the second point refers to the distance. When playing using the theater of the mind style, this distance is adjacent; and when playing with a grid, this distance is 5 paces.

Damage Rolls

Damage rolls are made by rolling dice and adding the appropriate bonuses. The dice depend on the source of the attack; for example, if the attack was made with a weapon or ability, the character will have to roll the dice specified by the weapon or the ability. The bonuses, on the other hand, depend on the attributes and talents of the character making the attack.

Here are the steps to make a damage roll:

The attacker rolls the dice pool corresponding to the attack made (see the following section for more information on this).
The attacker picks only one die result among all the ones rolled.
The attacker adds any bonuses if applicable to the result of the chosen die (although these bonuses are infrequent).
The total result (chosen die + bonuses) represents the amount of damage made by the attack, which will interact with the defender’s toughness or mettle in order to calculate the amount of hit points lost by the defenders. This will be explained in the section Toughness and Mettle.

Building a Damage Pool

A damage pool is usually comprised of the following dice:

The source die, which represents the weapon, ability or magical effect that is causing the damage. For example, a dagger and a greatsword would add 1d6 and 1d12 to the damage pool respectively.
The lethality die (1d10), in case the attack is dealing lethal damage.
The attribute die, which depends on the attribute of the attacker and the type of attack that is being made.

Table – Attribute Die

Table – Attribute Die
Character’s Attribute	Attribute Die
1	1d4
2	1d6
3	1d8
4	2d8
5	1d10

Melee attacks add the strength attribute die; ranged attacks (like bows and crossbows) use the agility attribute die; while extraordinary sources, like magic, use the mind or presence attribute die.

So, for example, if a warrior (strength 3: 1d8) successfully attacks an enemy using a greatsword (1d12) with the intention to deal lethal damage (1d10), then the damage pool would be: 1d8, 1d12 and 1d10. The warrior will roll the three dice together and will pick one of the resulting dice of their choice. That die will determine the amount of damage done by the attack.

Lethal and Non-Lethal Damage

The lethality die, in the form of 1d10, is added to the damage roll whenever the source of the attack is lethal. Since most weapons and offensive abilities deal lethal damage, we recommend all attacks to be considered lethal unless specified otherwise by the attacker.

A character can intentionally choose to do non-lethal damage when attacking their target. When doing so, the character does not add the lethality die to their damage pool before the roll.

Note: If a character attacks with lethal damage but they do not pick the resulting number on the lethality die, the attack still deals lethal damage. In order for the attack to deal non-lethal damage, the character must say so when building the dice pool.

If a character loses their last hit point with an attack that deals non-lethal damage, then they become unconscious and stable.

Exploding Damage Rolls

Rolling 10s on damage rolls explodes them. This means that if a player rolls a 10 on a die, that player must roll another die of the same type and add the result to the previous 10. If the player keeps rolling 10s, then they can keep adding them to the total result.

An exploded die and all the following values generated from it count as a single result for the purposes of picking only one die in a damage roll.

For example, if a warrior with Strength 3 hits an enemy with a greatsword, they must roll 1d8 (the attribute die because of their Strength 3), 1d12 (the greatsword’s source die) and 1d10 (the lethality die, since a greatsword is a lethal weapon). Then, they roll a 5 on the attribute die, a 10 on the greatsword die and a 7 on the lethality die. When having to pick one of the results for their damage roll, that player can choose the 10 from the exploded greatsword and then roll 1d12 (which could be the same as the one already rolled or another d12, just keep track of the results) since that was the die with which they got the resulting 10. Let’s say that this second d12 rolled a 4; if so, that will allow the player to add 4 to the previous result of 10, totaling 14.

This means that if a player rolls many dice and gets many potential exploding dice as a result, they can only explode and continue exploding one of those original results. Following the previous example, if the player rolled a 10 on both the greatsword die and the lethality die, then the player could only attempt to explode only one of the two dice. That chosen die can keep exploding.

Wounds

When a character receives a damage in the double digits (10 or upwards) after reductions from toughness or mettle, and still live, they must roll on Table – Wound Check.

Table – Wound Check
d10	Effect
1 – 5	Nothing happens.
6 – 7	One piece of your equipment chosen by the GM becomes damaged (item condition).
8 – 10	You become wounded (condition). Roll on Table – Wounds to determine your wound.

Wounded/Injured (Condition)

A character becomes wounded or injured when they have at least 1 wound or injury.

Each wound and injury must be treated before a character can start recovering from them. Abilities such as Dress Wound and Treat Wound and Injury can do so.

Each wound and injury is recovered in its own time. It takes 2d4 + 4 days to recover from one wound, while an injury’s recovery time varies depending on its severity. Abilities such as Physician’s Treatment and Treat Wound and Injury can speed up the recovery time.

Table – Wounds
d10	Effect
1	Your speed is reduced by 10.
2	Your maximum hit points are reduced by 2.
3	Increase by 1 the difficulty of your Threshold Tests.
4	Your maximum hit points are reduced by 4.
5	You gain -1 agility.
6	Your speed is reduced by half.
7	You gain -1 strength.
8	You gain -5 to your resting conditions value.
9	You gain -1 strength and agility.
10	You gain an injury instead. Roll on Table – Injuries to determine it.

Table – Injuries
d12	Effect
1 2 3	Torn Muscle (Arm): Your character suffers 2 banes on all skill rolls that depend on that arm and -2 on strength-based damage rolls with that arm. Recovery time: 2d6 + 10 days.
4 5 6	Torn Muscle (Leg): Your character suffers 2 banes on all skill rolls that depend on that leg and -10 speed. Recovery time: 2d6 + 10 days.
7 8	Internal Bleeding: You gain the bleeding condition (2) until treated and every time you lose hit points from physical sources other bleeding, you gain the bleeding condition (2). Recovery time: 2d6 + 10 days.
9	Broken Bone (Arm): Your character suffers 5 banes on all skill rolls that depend on that arm and -5 on strength-based damage rolls with that arm. Recovery time: 3d10 + 30 days.
10	Broken Bone (Leg): Your character suffers 5 banes on all skill rolls that depend on that leg and their speed becomes 10. Recovery time: 3d10 + 30 days.
11	Broken Bone (Torso): Your character suffers 5 banes on all strength and agility skill rolls. Recovery time: 3d10 + 30 days.
12	Fractured Skull: Your character suffers 5 banes on most skill rolls and must be taken out of the game until they recover. Recovery time: 4d10 + 30 days.

Bleeding (Condition)

At the beginning of their turn, bleeding characters lose an amount of hit points equal to their bleeding condition value.

Ways to Die

The most common ways for characters to die are:

If their hit points cross beyond their threshold.
If they have an amount of wounds and injuries equal to their maximum strength (without counting penalties from wounds and injuries).
If their maximum hit points are reduced to 0. There are some effects that do so but among the most common ones are wounds and injuries.
If a special effect, like a spell, says so.

Toughness and Mettle

Toughness and mettle reduce the amount of damage that characters receive. Toughness reduces physical damage while mettle reduces mental or spiritual damage.

Toughness and mettle are calculated in the following way:

Toughness = armor bonus.

Mettle = mind or presence.

There are bonuses besides armor that improve toughness, but these are extraordinary physical abilities or characteristics that tend to be infrequent. In the case of mettle, the bonuses that improve it tend to be mental, spiritual or magical.

There are two general rules regarding toughness and mettle:

Unless specified, all damage sources deal physical damage. This is because physical damage tends to be more common than non-physical damage.
If the attacker deals equal or less damage than the defender’s toughness or mettle, the defender still loses 1 hit point.

For example, if a character with toughness 4 (because they are wearing heavy armor) receives 8 points of damage, they would only lose 4 hit points. If they receive 3 points of damage, they still lose 1 hit point.

Resistance

Characters can have Resistance to specific effects or types of damage, which means that it lowers the chances to be affected by the former and reduces the damage of the latter. It works in the following ways:

Against effects, Resistance grants 1 boon on the skill roll to avoid that effect. For example, having resistance to sleep grants 1 boon on willpower skill rolls to avoid an effect that would make someone fall asleep.
Against damage, Resistance grants +2 to toughness or mettle against damage rolls that deal (or partially deal) the type of damage that is being resisted. For example, having resistance to fire grants +2 to toughness against damage rolls from a source that deals fire damage, like a spell or a flaming arrow (which deals both physical and fire damage).

Note: A character with resistance to fire that is being targeted by an attack that deals fire damage, for example, would only benefit from the +2 toughness against the damage and not from a boon on the defense skill roll to avoid the attack, since the attack is not an effect. If the attack were to add an effect, like the burning condition, then the character would benefit from a boon on their defense skill roll.

A character can only benefit from one resistance per effect or attack in case they have more than one suitable resistance. If so, the character can choose the higher bonus among them.

Immunity

As the name indicates, immunity makes a character immune to effects or damage of that type. For example, a character that has Immunity to fire cannot be affected by fire effects or lose hit points due to fire damage.

If a character receives an attack that deals many types of damage, and among these is the type of damage that the character is immune to, then GM must omit any dice or bonus of that type when the damage is calculated.

Weakness

Weakness makes characters more susceptible to effects and damage. When a character that has weakness against an effect, they gain 1 bane on the skill roll to avoid it; when they receive damage that matches the type of their weakness, the attacker gains +1d10 (of the same type of the weakness) on their damage roll. Naturally, this d10 can explode. For example, a character that has weakness to sleep would make willpower skill rolls with 1 bane, while a character with weakness to fire damage would receive +1d10 of fire damage every time they are hit by an attack that deals such type of damage.

If a character that has many weaknesses is targeted by an effect or attack that triggers them, then all instances of weakness are applied. For example, if a character that has weakness to holy and blunt damage is hit by an attack that deals both types of damage, then the attacker must add +1d10 holy damage and +1d10 blunt damage.

If a character ends up being targeted by an effect that triggers resistances and weaknesses at the same time, then those respective boons and banes granted by the resistances and weaknesses will cancel out one by one, and any surplus would end up determining if there are any benefits or penalties left.

Volatility

Just like with resistance, immunity and weakness, some characters have volatility to specific effects or types of damage; but contrary to the previous qualities that are either positive or negative, volatility could be both.

When a character with volatility is affected by or receives damage from a source of their volatility, the GM or player must make a roll and apply the result based on the character’s volatility.

For example, Arcane Volatility states the following:

Arcane Volatility (Passive): When you are affected by a magic effect or lose hit points due to magic damage, roll 1d10 and gain the respective unique bonus until the end of your current or next turn:

1 to 5: 1 bane on all skill rolls.
6 to 9: 1 boon on all skill rolls.
10: 1 extra action (unique bonus).

If a character has more than one volatility and they trigger with the same source, resolve them one by one.

Note: If a character is targeted by an effect or attack that triggers a character’s different immunities, resistances, weaknesses and volatilities, the first thing that must be done is to resolve the immunities, then apply as normal and one by one the resistances, weaknesses and volatilities. For example: a character can gain +2 toughness against one attack due to their resistance to slash damage but their attacker can also add +1d10 cold damage to the damage pool because of the target’s weakness to that type of damage.

Distances

Heroes of Countless Stories can be played using the theater of the mind (TotM from now on) or grid playstyles.

In the TotM playstyle, positions and distances are narrated and imagined, and the following table can be used as reference:

Table – TotM Distances
Description	Approximate Distance
Adjacent	5 paces
Close	10 paces
Short	30 paces
Medium	60 paces
Long	120 paces
Very Far	Within sight

Alternatively, when using the TotM playstyle, the narrator can use the term skirmish as an abstract and simple way to refer to all the participants involved in a given melee combat. These participants count as if they were all adjacent to each other unless a special circumstance would change this.

For example, during a single combat there could be two different skirmishes, one right on the castle’s bridge and the other on top of the walls.

Grid playstyle uses a mat (squared or hexed) and miniatures, and these indicate the positions and distances of the characters involved. In this style, every square or hex on the mat would represent a length of 5 paces.

Every ability in HOCS specifies the distance in both the TotM and Grid playstyles.

Sizes

There are three size groups and each size group is subdivided in three size categories. These serve as indicators of a character’s size but also, and as the following section shows, determine the bonuses and penalties that characters of different size groups or categories could receive when interacting or fighting with each other.

The following list presents examples in parentheses.

Minuscule group:

Fine category (beetle).
Diminutive category (mouse).
Tiny category (cat).

Conventional group:

Small category (gnome).
Medium category (human).
Large category (ogre).

Extraordinary group:

Huge category (African bush elephant).
Gargantuan category (blue whale)
Colossal category (fully grown dragon).

Combat Bonuses and Penalties

Against larger characters:

Characters gain 1 focus on attack rolls against larger characters of their same size Group (e.g. medium vs large), or 1 boon per size group against characters of a larger size group (e.g. conventional vs extraordinary).
Characters gain 1 focus on stealth skill rolls against larger characters of their same size group, or 1 boon per size group against characters of a larger size group.

Against smaller characters:

Characters gain +1d8 damage against smaller characters of their same size group, or +1d10 damage per size group against characters of a smaller size group.
Characters gain 1 focus on coercion skill rolls and on skill rolls when resolving physical maneuver attacks (such as grapple, trip, etc.) against smaller characters of their same size group, or 1 boon per size group against characters of a smaller size group.

Outnumbering/Outnumbered (Condition)

A character or a group of characters are outnumbered when they fight in close melee proximity (a skirmish in terms of TotM) against a larger force of enemies in terms of number. outnumbering characters gain 1 boon on melee attacks against outnumbered characters.

Flanking/Flanked (Condition)

A flanked character has at least two adjacent enemies on opposite sides. Flanking characters gain 1 boon on melee attacks against flanked characters.

Defenseless (Condition)

Attacking more than once per turn grants 1 bane on the second and subsequent attacks until the end of that turn.

Moving more than once per turn reduces by half a character’s speed when performing their second and subsequent move maneuvers.

Attacking an adjacent character with a ranged attack grants 1 bane on the skill roll.

Combat Advantage

Combat advantage is a type of advantage that occurs in clashes when a character succeeds on their attack roll (or defense skill roll in the case of counter) with 2 or more successes above their target’s result.

Have in mind that a character can only benefit from one advantage bonus per roll (regardless of what type of advantage it is), and in the case of combat advantages, they must choose it before they make the damage roll.

These are the combat advantages bonuses available to all characters:

Impact (Passive – Combat Advantage): You gain [1d6] or [1d8] on the damage roll.
Tempo (Passive – Combat Advantage): You do not gain 1 bane on your second and subsequent attacks until the end of your turn. If you gain this combat advantage as part of an attack of opportunity, the bonus applies until the end of your next turn.
Aegis (Passive – Combat Advantage): You gain 1 reroll on a defense skill roll until the end of your next turn.
Counter (Passive – Combat Advantage): The character that attacked you provokes an attack of opportunity from you. This combat advantage only occurs when you succeed on a defense skill roll with +2 successes.