93 lines
3.6 KiB
Markdown
93 lines
3.6 KiB
Markdown
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---
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title: "Core Rules: Basics"
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description:
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date_pub: 2023-04-22T16:41:00-04:00
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section: rules
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content_type: feature
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short_code: rhb
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---
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Designed to emulate the fun and fantasy of the earliest versions of the world's most famous roleplaying system, without getting bogged down by an excess of rules.
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These rules are still a Work-in-Progress, so if there's some rule or feature you need that isn't here yet, feel free to either use the equivalent rule from your favorite B/X-compatible retroclone, or roll a die and see what happens.
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[[toc]]
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### How to Play
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There is one _referee_. Everyone else is a _player_.
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The referee's job is to describe what's happening in the game, and the players describe how their characters respond.
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Sometimes, dice are rolled. These dice are described by how many sides they have (d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20, and d100).
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### Doing Things
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Simple tasks are assumed to succeed. If the task is dangerous or complicated, roll the dice for a _check_.
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For most checks, roll a 20-sided die (d20) under a character's most relevant _ability_ score.
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For hard (or very hard) tasks, you can subtract 1 (or 2) from the ability before the roll.
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### Abilities
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Each player character (_PC_) has 6 abilities that help to define how they can interact with the world.
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- **Strength (STR)** - Raw physical power, affects melee damage and carrying capacity.
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- **Dexterity (DEX)** - Speed and agility of movement, affects _armor class (AC)_ when under attack.
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- **Constitution (CON)** - Mettle and gumption, affects _hit points (HP)_ gained at each level.
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- **Intelligence (INT)** - Knowledge and reasoning, affects languages known and arcane magic.
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- **Wisdom (WIS)** - Experience and insight, affects divine magic.
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- **Charisma (CHA)** - Appearance and social capability, affects hirelings and pact magic.
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### Saving Throws
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When something (bad) happens to a character or monster, they can usually make a saving throw to avoid some (or all) of it.
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To make one, roll 1d20 and consult the appropriate table (with higher results doing better).
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- **Death** - Poison, death ray, bleeding out.
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- **Wielded** - Wands and other aimed items.
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- **Paralyze** - Paralysis, petrification, being buried alive.
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- **Blasts** - Breath weapons and other area effects.
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- **Spells** - General magic, including from rods and staves.
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### Alignment
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Cosmic principles that represent broad world views
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- **Law** - Order, truth, and justice. Typically prosocial.
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- **Chaos** - Anarchy, power, and chance. Typically pro-individual.
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- **Neutrality** - Balance, mediation, and detachment.
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### Character Creation
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1. Roll Abilities
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- Roll 4d6 and drop the lowest die (aka "4d6DL") for each.
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- Either roll 4d6DL once for each ability in order and see what kind of character comes up, or make all 6 rolls and assign the results to fit a particular class and/or race.
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2. Choose a Class (and, optionally, a Race besides human)
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3. Determine Starting Level
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- If playing a legacy character, update starting XP appropriately.
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4. Roll Starting Hit Points
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- Type is determined by class, number is determined by level.
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- Re-roll any 1s or 2s.
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5. Choose Alignment
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6. Note Starting Languages
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7. Buy Equipment
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8. Determine attacks and AC
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### Legal Information
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> This work includes material taken from the System Reference Document 5.1 (“SRD 5.1”) by Wizards of the Coast LLC and available at https://dnd.wizards.com/resources/systems-reference-document. The SRD 5.1 is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License available at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode.
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