Eldritch Quickstart Guide.pdf

Credits

Eldritch Role Playing Design:

Dan Cross and Randall Petras

Quickstart and Adventure:

Dan Cross

Layout:

Kosala Ubayasekara

Playtesters:

Brian Black

Chris Pettit

Darren Sweet

David Hefner

Dee Mike

Denis Paquet

Jason Toney

Jeff Wry

Jennie Mar

John VandeBrook

Kelley Ohlert

Kevin Chiasson

Pete Ohlert

R.R. Hunsinger

Ray Teetsel

Shane Mangus

Todd Bingham

Author’s Note: Table-top role playing games

(RPGs) are unique among game forms.

Generations of people discovered how playing

catapults their creative minds into diferent realms,

while assuming adventurers’ lives not yet imagined.

But what really makes these games unique? I believe

it’s the social aspect. Not even video games can

compete with the fun of friends sitting together to

spin collaborative stories.

Combat : Attacker rolls dice to determine

“Potential Harm”, opponent chooses defense type;

any exceeding “threat points” afect armor, then the

body. here is no traditional, somewhat boring hit-

or-miss “attack roll”.

Action resolution : he challenge for many actions

is determined by a random roll, the diiculty of

actions represented by a basic system which plays

very quickly, allowing for instant results that do

not interrupt the low of the story. No heroic act is

impossible.

Pregen Character art:

Character Clip Art & Color

Customizing Studio

Productions, Inc.;

Authors Larry Elmore and Ken

Whitman, Art and

Illustrations by Larry Elmore

Unfortunately, too many gamers today miss out

on the true RPG experience, seemingly glued

permanently to their computer chairs, their alter-

egos running around in binary realms of imagining.

One can only assume these poor souls yearn for a

place of limitless creative immersion, but lost their

way in Massively Multi-Player Dungeons.

Character Concept : You will play exactly the

character you want, with plenty of room for

development and diversity. New characters are

created through a point-buy method, granting

full lexibility of design. Characters advance by

levels of experience without being tied to speciic

occupational classes.

Luckily, you hold in your hands a game that

celebrates a long tradition of games played with

polyhedral dice, paper and pencils in actual 3-D

space. he authors honor the roots of the hobby

without reinventing the wheel (or digging up the

carcasses of sacred cows). Herein, you’ll ind fun

rules of play and an open-ended invitation to

explore high fantasy worlds anew, whether veterans

of the game form or refugees from online tourist

traps.

Magic : here are diferent sources of power;

mystic study, supernatural awareness, primordial

connection, and psychogenic ability. Magic

is powerful and lexible, while uniied and

streamlined rules prevent ludicrous efects. Fighter

and thief types are just as viable at any level as

those schooled in magic, and “multi-classing” is

not restricted. ERP Characters can specialize in one

area or dabble in many.

he Eldritch Role Playing (or ERP for short)

system is written for gamers who enjoy having

myriad character options, exciting and diverse

action scenes, without losing a narrative focus.

Adventuring campaigns are about the development

of characters into true world-shaking heroes,

supported by the rules described below in a

nutshell:

Most importantly, the game is not diicult to play

or learn, whether by young adults or big kids like

the authors.

~Dan Cross

Table of Contents

The Action System

Multiple Attacks

Introduction

Order of Defense in Battle

Why another Fantasy RPG?

Designing Monsters and NPCs in

Eldritch Role Playing

Dice conventions

Magic in Eldritch

Abilities

The Magic System

Sample Character Creation

A Brief Description of Play

Equipment

Sample Adventure

Defense

Spells Known list

Armor

The Adventure

Potential-Harm and Threat Points

The Attack Action

Basic martial ability and Weapon Statistics

Visit the Eldritch forums at

www.goodman-games.com/forums to connect with other fans, talk to the

designers, and post stories from your games!

www.goodman-games.com

Introduction

“he hero may refuse the adventure or deny the ability

to move beyond the status quo. he heralded event may

even be ignored – All of these constitute the ‘Refusal

of the Call.” ~Joseph Campbell, the Hero with a

housand Faces

purchase of rank D4 with character points. Many

in-game calculations require the highest possible

number rolled on a die-rank. his number is the

Maximum Rank Value, abbreviated MRV.

T a b l e 1.1 D i e -R a n k s h i e R a R c h y

Character Skill

To all intrepid Masters of the Game:

Die Rank

Average

D4 (Average human rank)

his Quickstart guide to the Eldritch Role Playing

(ERP) RPG enables you and your gaming group to

travel far beyond the threshold of the familiar into

a fascinating realm of new role-playing challenges

and experiences.

Respectable

Good

Great

D10

Superb

D12 (Highest Player

Character rank)

Why another Fantasy RPG?

As a seasoned Game Master, you might scof at the

notion of yet another fantasy role-playing system

(FRPG). Who needs another “elves, dwarves, and

dragons” game, when so many continue to utilize

tired tropes and game mechanics? I feel your pain;

I felt the same way. And yet I was excited when

my friend Randall Petras ofered to collaborate on

a new epic fantasy game. Like most aicionados

of tabletop gaming, we had developed our own

preferences over the years, and had a very good

idea of how we felt an epic fantasy RPG should

be designed. he trick was creating a game that

translates our preferences into an efective theme

and style, while diferentiating itself from the

competition. here is no guarantee that anybody’s

vision will be particularly marketable in our small

industry. Nevertheless, after an arduous journey in

design and playtest, we think we created something

special. And Goodman Games ultimately agreed;

there is indeed room for another iteration of the

epic fantasy game.

*Superhuman

D16 (Roll D20, re-rolling

values greater than 16)

*Extreme

D20

* Generally reserved for special monsters or powerful

magic items granting such ability.

A single ability can branch of into several

narrower focuses; each branch represented by up

to two additional dice, with each die representing

successive tiers of ability. here are up to three tiers

of ability in any one branch, beginning with the

root ability, called basic. Next is specialization, and

mastery , respectively.

hese tiers are often separated by an “>” sign

wherever listed in the rules. For example, Weapons

(basic) > Swords (specialization) > Long Sword

(mastery) . he basic rank plus all of its branches

constitutes an ability tree . A Specialization is a

reinement of a basic ability. As a rule of thumb,

any skill Specialization should be applicable to

roughly 10% to 20% of the situations that apply to

a base ability. Likewise, Mastery is a reinement of

a Specialization, and should be applicable to about

10% to 20% of the uses of the Specialization. he

GM might allow the roll of additional dice if he

deems a Specialization or Mastery relevant to the

task or attempted feat. For instance, if one creature

is shadowing another in the city, and one character

happens to be specialized in City Stealth , he would

add his Specialization to the roll. If he had mastered

Shadowing under the same branch as “City Stealth,”

then he would add that die as well.

With that said, let us start our journey…

Dice conventions

his game rates character abilities on a scale of

D4 through D12: he higher the polyhedral

die size, the better the proiciency level. For any

single ability, die type corresponds to “rank”; the

more sides on the die, the higher the rank. Ability

ranks normally progress from D4 through D12.

his is the “ die-rank .” Note that most abilities

in the game default to an untrained score of D4.

Some abilities require more training, requiring the

Part 1

Sample Character Creation

In the Eldritch Role Playing game, you can play

any sort of character imaginable. However, to better

illustrate how the game works this Quickguide

provides pregenerated characters. Note that all

pregenerated characters in this Quickstart guide are

simpliied characters, for purposes of illustration,

and do not relect all choices in the core rules.

Active Defense Pools (hit points)

Weaponry (Weapons + Specializations +

Masteries): 22

Evade (Relexes + Agility ): 8

Dodge (Speed + Agility): 8

Delect (Base Melee MRV + Shield + Magic):

In this instance, imagine that you are a young

adventurer, preparing to embark on a life-

threatening mission. Now we will walk you through

a signiicantly condensed character sheet.

Passive Defense Pools (hit points)

Toughness (Endurance ×2 + Resistance): 28

Resilience (Resistance ×2 + Willpower +

Arcanum tree): 20

Armor

Armor: Studded leather 1d6

Shield: does not hold a shield. No damage

reduction.

Name: You, A Young Adventurer

Melee : D10 (basic) + D8 in Swords

(specialization) + D4 Long Sword (mastery)

Weapon speciics : Long Sword +3 threat point,

2 max-split, +2 initiative. Only characters

specialized in a weapon group enjoy speciic

weapon bonuses.

Abilities

Abilities are at the heart of ERP, and describe any

skill or capacity known by a creature. Note that

you, the player, choose the level of your character’s

intellect, wisdom, and charisma. here are no rules

in ERP to restrict these abstract attributes. Nor

are there rules to dictate whether the character

relies more on brute strength versus adroitness and

speed in battle. You have full freedom to interpret

such attributes within the scope of your desired

character concept . he rules do not force an

interpretation of ability. he die-ranks measure

levels of knowledge and proiciency, not the exact

type of proiciency or capacity. he player or GM

ills in those details.

Ranged Attack : D4 (basic, a default

automatically granted).

Unarmed Attack : D4 (basic, a default

automatically granted).

Distinguishing Abilities:

*Agility D4

* Arcanum D4 (basic) > Supernatural D4

(specialization)

*Relexes D4 (5 th in initiative order)

*Resistance D4

*Scouting D8 > Underground D4 (or Outdoors

D4)

*Speed D4

*Willpower D4

Your sample character’s abilities relect that you

are a highly skilled adventurer. For example, your

proiciency with melee weapons is great, meaning a

basic die-rank of D10.

You are not only generally proicient with melee

weapons, but are adept with swords as well,

specialized at a rank of D8. Finally, you are a

master of the long sword—although, among

masters, considered only average—with a rank

of D4. You would write this logical succession of

ability as Melee D10 > Swords D8 > Long sword

D4. Whenever you wield a long sword and attack

Racial Features (human) :

*Willpower D6

* Endurance D6.

Plik z chomika:

Inne pliki z tego folderu:

Inne foldery tego chomika: