The Core Rules
The Core Rules
The Grayleaf System has one engine underneath everything: when an outcome is uncertain, you roll dice, count successes, and compare them to a target number set by the Game Master. This chapter is the short version of that engine. The full rules for each system live in their own chapters, and this chapter tells you where to find them.
While the core rules are built around a near-future Urban fantasy setting, they mostly stay out of that lore and focus on the core mechanics. As the core underlying rules should easily be able to adapt to most any setting, and having that entangled with lore that needs rewriting or discarding would hinder a would be Worldbuilder's ability to, World build.
The Basic Roll
Every uncertain action uses the same roll: 2d6, plus one d6 per level of the Trait that applies, plus one d6 per level of the Core skill that applies. Dice showing 4, 5, or 6 count as successes. The GM sets a target from the Standard Difficulty Model, and you need that many successes to succeed cleanly.
Effortless Actions. If an action is routine, nothing is at stake, or your skill makes it trivial, there's no roll: it just happens.
Success with a price. When you miss the target, your action doesn't flat-out fail. It still happens the way you described, but the GM introduces a complication, now or later, that flows logically from what you did. You rarely ever get a bare "no"; you get "yes, but…"
Damnation and Salvation. A roll of nothing but 1s is Damnation: automatic failure with a complication. A roll of nothing but 6s is Salvation: automatic success with a flourish, even below the target.
Opposed rolls. When two sides act directly against each other, both roll and compare successes. Higher total wins; ties go to the one with fewer 1s.
Say what you're doing, not what you're rolling. When you want to do something, describe the action and the GM will determine the skill that applies. So you would say, as you decide to act: "I wanna throw this brick at that cop's head." The GM announces the roll: "That'll be Strength + Melee." You roll, the GM notes whether you meet the target SDM, and the fiction continues with appropriate consequences of your roll.
Standard Difficulty Model (SDM)
The SDM is the ladder the GM uses to set targets for every not-Magic roll. The GM picks the difficulty from the fiction, not from the math, and never tells you how many successes you need:
SDM 1: Easy. 2 successes.
SDM 2: Standard. 4 successes.
SDM 3: Moderate. 6 successes.
SDM 4: Hard. 10 successes.
SDM 5: Very Hard. 14 successes.
SDM 6: Improbable. 18 successes.
SDM 7: Nearly Impossible. 26 successes.
The examples are only a guide: climbing a knotted rope in good weather is Easy; climbing a cliff in a storm while someone shoots at you is Very Hard to Improbable.
Your Character
Traits are the seven broad stats: Charisma, Constitution, Dexterity, Intelligence, Perception, Presence, and Strength. They measure who your character is. Each level adds a die to related rolls, and each Trait quietly powers something else: Dexterity sets speed and Stamina, Constitution sets Health, Intelligence sets how many Actions you get in combat. The full list of what each Trait does lives in the Traits chapter.
Core Skills are the thirteen ladders of mastery: Firearms, Melee, Martial Arts, Magic, Technology, Medicine, Crafting, Stealth, Investigation, Intimidation, Persuasion, Deception, and Driving, each rated 0 to 5. Higher rungs both add dice to rolls and unlock new things: weapons, techniques, and Effortless Actions. Specializations and high-rung perks are detailed in the Core Skills chapter.
Building a character from scratch is covered in the New Character Guide.
Combat
Combat runs in rounds of about ten seconds. Everyone rolls 2d6 + Dexterity for initiative, and the highest total acts first. On your turn, your Intelligence gives you a number of Actions and Minor actions: big things and small things, in any order. You may also take reactions during other people's turns, but they're drawn from your next turn's pool. Movement comes from Dexterity.
Attacking is the Basic Roll with a Trait plus skill pair: Strength + Melee for melee, Dexterity + Firearms for guns, Presence + Magic for magic attacks, against the MSDM plus cover. A hit deals full damage, first to Armor, then to HP. A miss that isn't a Damnation still lands, but the target gains an Opportunity: Dodge, Disengage, or Counter.
Drop to 0 HP and you're incapacitated, with a short window to stabilize or be stabilized. A total party knockout isn't automatic death; the GM and players decide whether this is the moment a character's story ends. Full rules for initiative, turns, reactions, and injury are in the Combat chapter.
Health, Stamina, and Wounds
Damage comes in two kinds. Batter damage chips away at Stamina (5 points per Dexterity level) and overflows into Lethal once Stamina is spent. Lethal damage eats HP, and lethal overflow inflicts Wounds: body parts pushed past usable. Healing is a Medicine + Intelligence roll with successes doubled into restored HP, and magical healing calls on Medicine as well. Wounds, limb replacement, medical gear, and the full damage math are in the HP and Healing chapter.
Funds
Most transactions run through a character's Funds in two halves: Wallet and Account.
Wallet is what you carry: cash, gold, cred-sticks, whatever the fiction treats as spendable on the spot. Ammo, bribes, bar tabs come out of the Wallet. Account is what sits in the bank, guild vault, pirate's cache, or offshore ledger: usually larger, more secure, but only yours when you can reach it.
Reach is the variable. In one fiction the Account might as well be in your pocket: cards, app taps, instant transfers, spendable anywhere, the wallet only mattering for off-grid or untraceable funds. In another, a 90s-era world where online banking was just entering the average person's reach or earlier, the Wallet is the only money you can use mid-scene. The Account is what you own, not what you have: that big bribe means a bank or ATM run during downtime, and hoping it doesn't get stolen on the way.
Friction sets the finance. In a high-Trust setting, or one where you work on someone's behalf, Funds can be free-flowing: players might never edit them. In a survival fiction, Funds can be the only thing between the Party and a slow, painful death: every meal, bullet, and bandage becomes a Funds-versus-World decision, and a party that can't reach its money is broke no matter the ledger.
Gear
Weapons each carry a shorthand stat line: Damage, Range, Rate, Mag, Fire mode, Concealment, Modifications are all decoded in the Stats, Concealment and Modifications chapter, with full catalogs in the two Weapons chapters: firearms, explosives, and bows, then melee and Vectored weapons.
Armor is a second health bar that gets hit first. Its DR absorbs damage from each attack, its HP pool depletes as it takes hits, and when the pool is gone the armor Breaks and stops protecting you. Strong armor and up also carries Wound Negation. See the Armor chapter.
Cover has structure ratings from A to E, each with an SDM modifier and a health pool of its own. The Cover and Concealment chapter explains what each rating stops and how cover takes damage.
Magic
Only the Unbound and Demons can use Magic, and every Magic user has a Shape: the personal form their power takes, which decides what's easy and what's nearly impossible for them. Magic rolls use the same engine but a higher Magic Standard Difficulty Model, and a Magic user can always guarantee the effect they want by taking 1 Warp. Warp is the meter for how much reality you've annoyed: it bleeds off daily and spikes at half and full breakpoints with nasty consequences. Max Warp is based on Presence and Magic. Ritualized magic is slow, shared, and safe; spontaneous magic is fast and risky. Shape, Foci, Keystones, Warp, and the full MSDM ladder all get their complete treatment in the Magic chapter.
Vehicles
Vehicles move in mpT (Movement Per Turn), have a structure rating like cover, and require a minimum Driving skill to handle without a check. When a moving vehicle hits something, its speed converts into damage and compares against the object's structure. The full vehicle catalog and collision rules are in the Vehicles chapter.