First Peek - Introduction

To whet your appetites I present to you, the reader, the first page of the Introduction Chapter of the Core Rules book. More will follow, but for now...

What is this game?

This is a work in progress containing a core rules system designed with one thing in mind – Roleplaying. These rules are inspired by a variety of muses, pooling from experience playing many different game systems and playing styles. But enough of me, what's this all about? A roleplaying game is a game about telling stories. In that story are characters. The main characters, the stars, are played by the players. One player is designated as the Games Master, or GM, and their job is to guide the story and mediate the rules. The GM sets the scene, detailing what the players see, and takes the role of all the other characters and extras that fill the game world. Although the system was designed with a fantasy setting in mind, the rules are easily adapted to any genre. It's the players' and GM's choice if magic is available or not, or whether any religions are in the world. There is a stock game world supplied with these rules, but it's use is entirely up to you. YOU decide who the gods are, who the rulers of the kingdoms are, who the the villains are. This is YOUR story. Enjoy.

Nomenclature

Throughout this rules set, we refer to cards using two letters or a number and letter representing the value and the suit. King of Spades, for example, is KS. Seven of Hearts is 7H. An Ace is always a 1. A Face card is a King, Queen or Jack, and is used to activate Talents. They hold a value of 10 and follow the same rules for Trumping as regular cards. To Trump a card is to match a card with another card of a lesser value, or a same value with a better suit. The Effect is the value of a card when compared to others, usually when attempting to Trump an opponent’s Play. The Play is the number of cards used in a Skill Check. A Total is the sum of all the cards in a Play. The highest value card in a Play is called the Lead. When referring to an Attribute we are talking about the 9 core abilities that every character possesses; Strength, Resilience, Speed, Deduction, Intuition, Retention, Reflex, Wits and Manipulation. Aptitudes are the root statistics tied to Attributes; Power, Intelligence and Cunning. The Forte and Weakness is the highest and lowest Aptitude, respectively. A Skill is a measure of a character’s expertise in different areas. The Pool is the deck/s of cards in the middle of the table, not being used for players’ Hands. As players and characters use Skills and play cards from their Hand, they are replenished each round from the Pool. Characters controlled by the players are called Player Characters, or PCs, and characters controlled by the GM are called Non-Player Characters, or NPCs.