Formula for success:
For anything you attempt to do, you must "roll" against you skills/attributes.
For example, if you want to try to Climb a wall you would "roll" against
you Climbing skill. To "roll" i run a program that spits out a random
number from 0-100. If the number that comes out is BELOW your skill,
you succeed. However, if circumstances change, such as someone dumping
burning pitch at you, there would be a roll penalty. So in this case
the penalty would be about -50, so if what you roll is less than your skill
- 50, you will still be able to climb to wall. There are however
several exceptions. Some things that fall into the category of "common
sense" require no roll, such as walking, picking something up, eating,
etc. There can also be outside factors that limit these "common sense"
actions, such as a severed limb, paralization, etc.
Attacking
If you come upon some hideous creature or just a poor old man in a
rocker, and for some reason or another decide to attack it, the Attack
Rules come into affect. Each person invovled in the battle will decide
what to do. Your choices are
Attack with weapon
Attack with item
Cast
Defend
Run away
Brutal Attack
Attacking with your weapon means that you will roll against your dex (if melee) or perception (if ranged) after adding such bonus' as weapons mastery skills other combat skills. With THAT SAME ROLL, you will roll against your targets dodge/defence after adding bonus' or penalties. If you succeed on both accounts you will do you item damage + str/dex/perc bonus + skill bonus - targets AC for your total damage to your target.
Attacking with an item means that you will use some equipped item, such as a shield, to attack your oppenent. I will roll against your targets observation, and if your target doesn't notice, you automatically hit your target. This will only do your attribute bonus, unless otherwise specified on the item. If your target does notice you will have to roll against their defense with a penalty of 15%.
Casting means that you will use a spell instead of attacking. Whether the spell is offensive or defensive, your defence for that round will be -10, as your concentration is elswhere.
Defending means that you give up your opportunity to attack and focus on defending yourself. For that round your defence will be +15
Running away is just that, trying to run away. If you have a higher speed and more stamina than your opponent, you will automatically succeed. If you have lower speed and stamina you will automatically fail. If none of these conditions are true, you have a 50% chance of succeeding, and if you fail your oppenent will automatically hit and do +5 damage. A slightly different version of this is advancing or retreating, which you will automatically do after your opponents attack.
A brutal attack is when you concentrate on hitting yor target and forget about defence. For that turn your chance of hitting is +15% and your damage +10., but your defence is reduced to zero.
Stamina
Stamina is what your character draws upon for strenous situations.
Some examples are running, melee combat, and climbing. Out of these,
running take the most stamina, and climbing the least. When you run,
your stamina consumption is as follows: Base Stamina - 5/speed *
seconds running = end Stamina. If you run out of stamina, your character
must stop running and any action the requires stamina will have a 50% decrease
until stamina is increased. If you continue without stamina, your
character will start losing health and for every 10 minutes spent without
stamina performance for all skills is reduced by 5%. In combat, your
stamina consumption is as follows: Base Stamina - 5/(strength + weapon
skill) * minutes fighting = end Stamina, with the same consequenses after
running out. For any other stamina consuming action the formula is
Base Stamina - 1/Skill * minutes spent = end Stamina.
Poisons
In AoA there are many different ways of becoming poisoned, from a magical
attack to tainted blades, all of which are deadly if not treated.
Different poisons will do a certain amount of damage at regular intervals
until the victim is dead. In some places antidotes are easily found,
and in others they are costly items found only in shops. Poison will
only effect life, it will not decrease skills, stamina, or mana.
Burns
Burns are lasting attacks that can be obtained in AoA, but are much
different from poisons. Burns do not do continuous damage but rather
impair the area of the burn. For example, if you had a burn on your
right arm, anything wielded in that arm would suffer penalties from the
burn. Depending on the severity, this could range anywhere from a
1% deduction to a 90% deduction. Burns can be treated with salves
or spells.
Alchemy
As of right now Alchemy is an un-obtainable skill in AoA, though Alchemist
can be found as NPC's throughout Asgard. You can buy their products
and services, though you cannot become one. If circumstances allow,
I might add this feature at a later date, but only after winning the trust
of Alchemists...
Karma and Fame
Karma and Fame are the mechanisms that determine how people react to
you. The higher the fame, the more extreme these reactions will be,
and Karma determines whether you are known in a good, bad, chaotic, or
lawful way. How much these move depends on your Charisma. If
your Charisma is 5 or less, you are sub-human. If your Charisma is
6-10, your are disturbing in personality/appearance. If its 11-15,
you are just unlikeable. 16-25 is standard, 26-35 is likable, 36-45
is high, 46-90 is incredible, 91-100 is god-like. Your Charisma factor
is the numerical value for how much your Karma moves in each direction.
For Sub-human the factor is -4, Disturbing is -3, Unlikeable is -2, Standard
is 1, Likeable is 2, High is 3, Incredible 4, and god-like 5. For
negative factors, you multiply negative Karma points by the factor, and
then subtract from your total, and for positive you divide by the factor
and then subtract. If it is a positive factor, you multiply positives
and add and divide negatives and add. For example, if after killing
and innocent townsman worth 25 karma points while having a Charisma factor
of -2, you would do: Previous Karma - (-25 * -2), for a loss of 50
karma. If you did this while having a factor of +5, you would do
: Previous Karma + (-25/5), for a loss of 5 karma.
How much a creature is worth in Karma and Fame, I add up their character attributes and skill points and divide it by 10. For example, if some blacksmith had 60 str, 10 dex, 20 app, 20 pers, 5 perc, 0 intel, 0 wis, 35 hlth, 50 end, 100 blacksmithing, and 40 bargaining, he would be worth (60+10+20+20+5+0+0+35+50+100+40)/10, or 34 fame and karma points. Each NPC/Beast has an allignments in both of the two balances, good vs.evil, chaos vs. law, and hence your karma scale has two different balances. If that townsman is alligned towards evil and law, the penalties for killing him would push your karma towards good and chaos. NPC's will have a certain chance of determining your allignment based on your fame and their wisdom, therefor it is a good idea to try to maintain your karma in the same allignment as the people you are trying to befriend/ally.
Currency
Currency value changes in each counrty you are in. Countries
with high economy tend to have more valueable currency. However,
every country's currency is based on the same scale; 10 copper pennies
to a silver penny, 10 silver pennies to a gold penny, 10 gold penny to
a copper mark, 10 copper mark to a silver mark, 10 silver marks to a gold
mark, 10 gold marks to a silver crown, 10 silver crowns to a gold crown.
Prices for equipment will change in every city you go to, but a Kargan
gold mark will always be worth more than an Archapeligan gold mark.
Government friendliness
Aside from your karma and fame, each government has their own opinion
of you. This is effected by your actions toward that governments
officials and citizens, and your criminal record. If you go on a
murdering spree in Ostport, the Archapeligans will despise you, etc.
Specific Targeting
When you attack you can choose to target a specific area of the body.
There is a 20% penalty to your chance of hitting, though you can do extra
damage or damage to a specific area. You can target the head or any
limb at this penalty. If you hit the head with a bladed weapon or
an arrow, it is an instant kill. If you hit the head with a blunt
weapon, it does twice the damage and subtracts 10% from each of your enemies
attributes and skills (temporary). If you hit a limb with a bladed
weapon it does half the damage but will incopacitate that limb, making
it impossible for your target you use anything with that limb. A
blunt weapon will cause them to drop anything they are holding in that
limb, and subtracts 10% for anything that they use in that limb.
An arrow in any limb will do half the damage and no special affects.
They rest is coming!!! (Not much left to tell though... e-mail me with any specific questions)
