Pathos, Mania, Advantage and Disadvantage have been discussed. Equipment is the final chapter, well, was until I added #8! However, some examples will accompany the basic concept of equipment in Grunt below.
Equipment, in combat, does not do intrinsic [rolled, random] damage, but enhances damage or reduces damage. In other actions, equipment, is likewise considered as an extension of the will, amplifying or reducing effects of actions, be they Body, Mind or Spirit actions.
The basics of Body, Mind & Spirit Actions are covered here, In The World #1, and focus on individual actions, not group actions like Battle or Counsel of War or the results of actions, like injury, maiming and death.
The basic mechanics are general, resolved with a 1d20 or specific, resolved with a 1d6.
Overall Body Check
A general or complex action, such as climbing, or throwing, are a function of an overall ability, the Body. These efforts are resolved by doing a 1d20 check against the 3 to 18 body ability, with a 1 miraculous, a 20 disastrous, and the margin of success indicated by the negative die difference: Ability – Roll = Level of Success.
For instance, if an archer has been detailed to run a message to the rear guard through enemy infiltrators, and his Body is 12, then he must roll a 12 or less, with a 1 indicating that he has arrived ahead of time and that he has perhaps noticed something important about the enemy dispositions. If he rolls a 9, and the backup runner rolled a 3, getting there, let’s say 6 minutes before him, then he might suffer some social penalty. We will revisit this example of the upstaged runner under Spirit. [Yeah, I didn’t go back to this, but it might make an interesting solo adventure.]
If our runner rolls a 20, that could be a blunder or he might have been noticed by archers and has to dodge arrows or be feathered to death, or both.
Specific Body Check
Lets’ say he stumbled. He must now make 3 simple checks against his individual body abilities.
To determine if he was injured, he must make a Strength check on 1d6. If he fails he loses the die difference in hit points [which are temporary body points].
He must roll a Stamina check to see if he can try and make the rest of the run as intended. If he fails this, then he must change to a different action, the run and blunder having depleted him. Perhaps he can stalk the rest of the way, taking longer, hide until morning, begin stalking the sentries, or simply cause a diversion for the back up runner by charging the enemy sentries or leading them back to his own lines. In the case of a failed Overall check, and then failure of a Stamina check, the character must choose a different course of action.
Third, whether he is injured or diverted, he has blundered and must check and see how bad it was, by an Agility check. To determine if he made noise that alerted the enemy archers, he rolls a 1d6 against his 1d6 agility score. If his agility is 3, and he rolls a 5, the difference is 2, so we can say he was heard by two archers.
Lets’ say this messenger has blundered, avoided injury by making his Strength check, and made his Stamina, permitting him to continue his run for the allied camp, but that he failed his Agility check to determine if he alerted sentries, and that he did alert two nasty, Scythian sentries with his 5 roll against his 3 Agility. Both Scythians loose arrows in the dark.
In daylight, the Scythians would make a 1d6 against Agility, Knit or Kit [since they are skilled they use the applicable skill that favors them, if unskilled always go against Knit which is learning ability.] archery check to see if they could hit our messenger. He might then use his Agility to try and reduce damage. But in the dark, they loose without proper aim [darkness inflicts the use of the least favorable of the 3 abilities] and it is up to our messenger to dodge, if hit, using his agility to reduce damage.
Darkness: costs either a disadvantage in action or, in the case of a skill, the use of the least favorable applicable ability.
Total Darkness
In the case of a moonless or stormy night, the firing of the archers might be regarded as random, in which case the action might be resolved by having the messenger make an agility check.
He makes two rolls, 1 for each archer: a 1 indicates that 2 arrows have missed him in the dark. A 3 indicates that he has been uninjured but his clothing or armor has been impacted. [A 6 would have meant being hit by 3 arrows and probably slain.] If the GM decides on such a dicey use of agility, then that ability might not also be used as damage reduction.
A close call like this might be used by the GM as an adventure hook, such as the arrow deflecting gave the Scythians a sound cue, and they are now slowly stalking the messenger, making this a different action. We will return to this latter, below.
This is the standard use of Overall and Specific Ability in actions, whether physical, mental or spiritual.
Grunt Checks
A Grunt check is a method by which this combat-oriented game does not become so meat-headed that it cannot be used to replicate combat with firearms, and might also be expanded into a more complex social setting for fantasy and science-fiction play.
There are cases when a 4th and even 5th ability, from outside the overall ability governing the action, should be taken into consideration.
For instance, in dueling, Kit ability of the character to have a better understanding of his weapon than the other fellow, who is using the same weapon, is key. Dueling against a man using a different weapon requires an even higher level of weapon knowledge. So, at the outset of a duel, each player should make his Mind Kit check and compare the difference.
If Koragus has a 5 and rolls a 4, against Dioxippus who has a 6 and rolls a 2, then we subtract Koragus’ 1 die difference from Dioxippus 4, which leaves Dioxippus with 3 advantages, that is 3 re-rolls of any roll his controlling player does not want.
We then look to the disadvantage determined by Spirit Social, for a calm check: whose palms are sweating, who is nervous and who is better focused? In this case Koragus, a goon, with only a 3 Spirit Social, against Dioxippus, with his 4 Spirit Social, each roll a 3. the difference in favor of Dioxippus is 1, meaning that 1 successful roll by Koragus may be re-rolled at the GM’s discretion.
In the various actions described below, under body, and then under Mind & Spirit, it will be noted with a GC, if a grunt check is required. A Grunt check will consists of an advantage roll and a disadvantage roll preceding the action. Grunt Checks also apply to simple actions, like a climber, assigned to scale an icy cliff at night, making a Spirit Animism gut check for disadvantage and a Mind Wit check for some kind of advantage.
[Let us note that I neglected to factor Grunt checks in the rest of the game. When used, Grunt check advantages and disadvantages should be used to cancel out or augment those gained in the pathos roll, to arrive at one for each. I favor Grunt checks as an option fro a gear specific setting, such as pistol dueling, man-hunting and spell-casting, to include conducting sacrifices before battle.]
Before we get to the specific skills, let us make some stipulations:
Current hit points, even if the character is down to 1 Hit Point, do not influence performance or call for advantage or disadvantage checks. Characters die quickly enough in Grunt as is.
But, War has his grinding wiles, and there is a way to determine his pleasure or impatience with your puny actions.
Overall Body Actions may be initiated only as many times a day as a character has Stamina points. A player with a 1 Stamina may only attempt a single action on the day. If he attempts a second, he must make a check against Strength, and if he fails, well, he fails to act and suffers hit point loss equal to the die difference.
Once an action is initiated, the character may only act at full capacity for as many rounds as he has Stamina. Once that number of rounds has been reached, for his next round of action he loses 1 Overall Body point, for the purpose of factoring his actions, at the start of every round. He does not lose individual body ability points. As soon as that character is granted rest, he recovers these overall ability points at the rate of his Stamina at the end of each round.
This is why boxers rest between rounds and why Roman soldiers fought in shifts, to arrest and reverse the decline of their physical powers. For this reason, firearms use and more complex equipment operation are covered under Mind. For instance, rowing and sailing are primarily physical. But Piloting, crewing and navigation of the same vessel are pre-dominantly, and increasingly cerebral.
