| This may seem pretty complicated
and tedious, but it can be hell of fun and adds a vital component to an
RPG, the tension of the game component. It is very easy to learn the procedure
as you may notice.
You can throw all the three tests at one time if you
are the owner of dice with different patterns or colours and determine
their destination before the throw, e.g. red might always be the first
throw, blue the second and yellow the third.
if the hero is a bloody beginner, he will have some
values that are less than zero, so to succeed he has to overcome more than
just the dice he rolls, he has to add the negative number to the dice roll.
Let us have a look at some "Befooling" lesson the hero has to learn by
failing:
| The TaP and virtues of the hero: TaP "Befool":
-5 Virtues of hero: IN: 12, CH: 10, CH: 10. The player rolls: IN:10, CH:
9, CH: 10. |
So although she throws less dice points in every single
test of virtue, she fails in the whole, because she cannot split up the
five negative points between her tests. The IN-test only gives 2, i.e.
12 minus 10, the first CH-test gives 1, i.e. 10-9 and the last test gives
nothing but zero. So it is 2 plus 1 equals 3, not 5. The hero fails.
In this example you can also see that there are some
talents where you might have to try one virtue twice. This happens when
one of the virtues is much more important to perform the talent test than
the other. (And, note of the translator, when the inventor of the game
could not find three important virtues to stand a test. This would give
a negative value in TaP "Game Design")
Simpler and harder talent tests
Sometimes heroes, as they are heroes, try to do something
really outstanding and incredible. In these situations the gamemaster might
decide to make a test more difficult to succeed. (The absolute opposite
might happen, too, but that should not happen too often and is most of
the times and hint for the group of heroes that there is something wrong
"or especially right" with their environment, because a black magic spell
eases your tests.)
As in tests for virtues a harder test is an additive,
the simpler test a subtraction to the initial zero.
In such cases you have to add this additive to your
dice roll and despite it stand the test. You can shorten some procedures
if you do not count it to your dice but instead subtract it from your initial
TaP-value, which is exactly the same as you might have noticed. |
| Now, for some examples:
The gamemaster wants a "Climbing"-test plus
an additive of 4, the hero has a TaP of 3 in "Climbing". She simply subtracts
4 of her TaP of 3 and the result is a -1, i.e. the hero would have to stand
a test of -1. (see above)
The master demands a "Climbing"-test plus 4, again,
the hero has already a very bad TaP of -3. With the additive this increases
to -7. It is time for her to pray to Phex, the god of luck.
The master wants you to perform in cooking minus
2, the hero's value is TaP "Cooking" +3. Since the additive is negative
you might as well add it to the hero's TaP of 5 (Short lecture on math:
to subtract a negative number, is to add its absolute value) |
Automatic success and failure
Now that we made it even more complicated, we gonna ease
the rules step by step. A talent test is automatically failed when throwing
20 twice, no further calculations necessary, and a double 1 means automatic
success. This is a rule that cannot be reasoned by what we said so far.
Just take it as it is.
As a gamemaster you might have recognized that a talent
test succeeded in a higher rank the more points a hero did not have to
spend from his TaP. The maximum a hero can keep is his amount of TaP. This
is particularly interesting when comparing a performance in "Sensitivity"
from a guard to a "Sneaking" test of a passing hero or when competing as
for example in "Singing". The ones who keeps more points is the better
one. But nobody can be better than throwing double 1.
Some notes
On the following pages you will find the table of basic
values of TaP of all types of characters that are presented in this rule
book.
As mentioned above these are not all the talents existing
in the world of Arkania and the types of characters are only the most general
ones. Hardly any one will exactly fit into these categories. These rules,
however, are also valid, when you expand these basic rules to the full
RPG-system of Realms of Arkania. That is why we leave it like this here
with the promise to widen your view in the near future.
The table of talents gives a column entitled Citizen,
these ate the values for a typical arkanian inhabitant on average. If you
want to create your own type of character feel free to do so and use the
values of the standard citizen to decide whether you should be better or
worse in distinct categories. A huntsman, for example, would probably be
better in wilderness talents but worse in the knowledge of reading and
writing.
The easier way, however, is to adapt to one of the
given categories and simply change them into the right direction by the
15 points you get in the beginning. |