Gamocles uses a roll and keep system inspired by AEG’s Legend of the Five Rings RPGs. Whenever the Boss calls for a check, the player rolls a total of 10-sided dice (d10) that is almost always a sum of Trait and Skill scores, and keeps his choice of a number of dice that is predicated by the check. The total of the numbers rolled by these dice is then checked against a Target Number (TN).
When a Skill check is called to be made, it always means that the dice pool contains d10s equal to the total of the skill points in that particular Skill, and the trait points in the Trait that the Boss deems most appropriate to be used based on the player’s description of the action undertaken. If the dice kept are 0 or less, the total rolled defaults to 0.
For example, if the Boss calls for a Combat(Cmb) check against a undefending opponent (ie. it’s not a combat roll that would see the defender rolling a DR), and Nalac, a PCU Agent has a Cmb score of 3, she must first describe the manner in which she undertakes the action and then the Boss decides whether what she described is more appropriate to be rolled with her Grit score or her Instinct score. Since Nalac is a berserking motherfucker with no regard to her own safety, the Boss calls for an Instinct roll. Nalac has an Instinct score of 2. So the roll will be a 5k2 against the victim’s TN15. The TN is determined by circumstances such as the speed the poor fucker is running away from Nalac, the state of their ragged clothes, or their unheard pleads for mercy. Nalac has none.
This is read as “5 keep 2, TN 15”. Another time, the same Agent, Nalac, may be called to make an Grit/Combat check. What sets these two instances apart is Nalac’s player’s descriptions of her character’s actions. The latter contained bodily elements of proper combat situations, such as perfectly parrying a torpedo; while the former had to do with Nalac just wanting to kill something.
A player can choose to fail any check. The choices of dice kept after a roll has been made, fall completely upon the player that rolled the dice.
If a dice that rolled 10 is kept, the dice explodes. You roll the dice again and the number is added to the total. This effect can only happen once and it still counts as one die roll. So in a 2k1(15) roll, if one die comes up at 10, it is rolled again. It comes up at 6. This one die rolled a 16. An otherwise impossible feat is accomplished.
Any check that succeeds by 15 or more than the TN is considered a critical. Any check that fails by 15 or more than the TN is considered a fumble. Criticals and fumbles must have a prominent narrative effect, more impactful the more the check exceeded or failed to reach the TN. It falls solely to the Boss to provide the appropriate descriptions for extraordinary successes or failures of the PCs. (Some Scrolls, advanced arcane effects, or Variations change criticals and fumbles and make them mechanically important.)
The maximum number of dice that can be rolled are 10. The kept dice will always be equal or less than the dice rolled. If any check calls for a roll of more than 10 dice (eg. 12k8), roll 10 dice and treat the extra dice as +4 to the total number after the dice to be kept have been chosen. So a roll of 12k8 becomes a 10k8+8.
If any check calls for of more than 10 dice - or more than the dice rolled - to be kept (eg. 12k11 or 3k4), roll x dice, where x the specified amount of dice by the roll while following the rule above about a maximum of 10, keep all of them and treat the extra kept dice as +4 to the total number after the dice to be kept have been chosen. So a roll of 12k11 becomes a 10k10+12 (4+4=8 from the two extra dice that rolled, and 4 from the one die that was kept) and a 3k4 becomes 3k3+4.
If any check, under any circumstances, has a negative number either of dice rolled, dice kept, or both, the check automatically fails, and this is considered a fumble.
There are cases where an opposed check has to be undertaken, more often than not, in non-combat scenes. When an opposed check has to be taken, the player that acted first, rolls the appropriate combination trait and skill with no TN. He may keep any dice he chooses up to the limit posed by that particular check. Their sum is treated as the TN for when the opposing player makes his respective skill check. The combat OR-DR roll (see ch.4) is not an opposed check.
Skill check: (T+S)kT ≥ TN
The Character Sheet
The character sheet is divided into several sections. You will find their descriptions below.
Traits (T) are a quantification of your character’s tendencies regarding actions and reactions. In Gamocles, traits describe the intangible powers that factor in a character’s way of living and behaving. As the same action can be undertaken with a vast array of feelings, intentions, and approaches in terms of means and manners, traits are mostly reductions of your characters’ idiosyncrasies as these have been forged throughout their life.
Traits’ abbreviations are: Grit (G), Instinct (I), Movement (M), Reason (R), Will (W).
Skills (S) are the prowess of your characters’ tangible abilities and properties, quantified. As you will read in their descriptions below, all Skills have broad varieties of being employed but more often than not, their object of intention is quite clear and distinct, as opposed to Traits that have a well-defined subject (the PC) yet the object is amiss, everchanging.
All Skill checks follow the formula: (T+S)kT ≥ TN. A Skill with a negative value (such as from character creation or other effects) affects both its roll and keep instances. For example if a PC has Grit 2 and Arcane at -1 and a G/Arc is called, they roll 1k1. They roll 1 die as the roll is normally G+Arc, ergo 2-1, and they keep 1 die because even though their G score is 2, they cannot keep more dice than they rolled.
Skills’ abbreviations are: Arcane (Arc), Craft (Crf), Combat (Cmb), Defence (Def), History (His), Language (Lng), Manipulation (Mnp), Network (Net), Subtlety (Sub), Tactics (Tct).
Offensive Rating (OR) is a character’s measure of combat skill, for all types of weaponry.
For any PC: OR=M+I+Cmb+Weapon Rating
Defensive Rating (DR) is the PC’s will to survive with the help of his fortitude, his reflexes, his luck, and his armour.
For any PC: DR=G+I+Def+Armour Rating
Variations are the features that ultimately make the difference between two PCs that have the same values in Traits and Skills. Every character may get as many Variations as they wish to as long as they meet the prerequisites and have the appropriate points to do so. Since a Variation denotes a specific change in the character’s playstyle, it is suggested that the road towards justifying a character having that particular Variation to either be included in the PC’s backstory or to be narrated and implemented in their in-game course.
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