Three Actions, Four Outcomes

Two ideas carry this whole game, and you can learn both before the first scene ends.

You get three actions on your turn. Not a move and a standard and a bonus — three interchangeable actions, spent however you like. Strike three times. Stride, Stride, Strike. Cast a spell (that's two) and Raise a Shield with what's left. Every ability in the game is priced in the same currency, so the question on your turn is never what am I allowed to do — it is what are these three worth.

Every roll has four outcomes. Not hit or miss. Beat the DC by 10 and you critically succeed; miss it by 10 and you critically fail. Most of the game's texture lives in that spread — the same spell can stun, or merely shake, or backfire, depending on one die.

What the numbers do

Every check in the game is one formula: d20 + attribute + proficiency + item bonus + circumstance and status bonuses, minus penalties. Proficiency is the part that matters most, because it includes your level — trained is level + 2, expert level + 4, master + 6, legendary + 8. Untrained adds nothing at all, not even your level, which is why a level 12 fighter is still bad at Occultism. The full construction is in @Missing file, the ranks in @Missing file.

You do not have to compute any of it. The sheet does — @Missing file is the GM's standing instruction to read your printed totals rather than re-derive them.

What to expect at this table

• Tactics are rewarded and legible. Flanking is a flat −2 to your target's AC. @Missing file turns a spare action into a friend's bonus. @Missing file tells you what you're fighting. The math is out in the open so you can play against it.
• The multiple attack penalty is the throttle. Your second attack is at −5, your third at −10. Three Strikes is almost never the best turn.
• Failure is granular. A failed save against @Missing file still costs you. A critical failure is a story beat, not just a bigger miss.
• Death is a track, not a moment. Dropping to 0 starts a clock you can be pulled off of. See @Missing file.

Where the rules live

Eighteen rules pages under Rules/ hold the full text, and each one is short. Read @Missing file and @Missing file tonight; everything else you can look up in the ten seconds before it matters. The complete license and attribution for all of it is in @Missing file.