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System Basics

Orcrest uses a dice pool system, where instead of getting raw bonuses (i.e. +4) to rolls, you get additional dice in your pool. Each dice pool is constructed by the rolling character adding positive dice, while either a set difficulty or the targeted character adds negative dice to work against it. All dice are rolled, and the final tally is given.

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The dice used are not, however, standard numerical dice. Instead, each rolls a combination of ✦ (Success) and ▲ (Advantage) for positive dice, and ✧ (Failure) and ▽ (Disadvantage) for negative dice. There are six total dice, three positive, three negative, with each getting more powerful as they get upgraded. The positive dice are: ◼ (Bonus), ◆ (Ability), and ⬢ (Expertise), while the negative dice are: ◻ (Malus), ◇ (Difficulty), and ⬡ (Challenge). Effects that say, for example, "Add ◼" add the specified die to your dice pool. As a general rule, any shape that is filled in (✦▲◼◆⬢) is positive, and any that is hollow (✧▽◻◇⬡) is negative.

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Success and Failure

✦ (Success) and ✧ (Failure) results cancel each other out, leaving a final result that is the difference between the two. Any roll that results in at least one ✦ is a successful roll, and the more the ✦ the better the result. Conversely, the more ✧ in a result the worse the failure. As you need at least one ✦ to succeed, "ties" (no ✦ and no ✧) go to the defender, but can be flavoured as the action not working due to something outside either character's control.

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Advantage and Disadvantage

▲ (Advantage) and ▽ (Disadvantage) result cancel each other out. A failed roll can still result in advantage, and a successful roll can still result in disadvantage. Advantage has two primary purposes: from an RP perspective, it determines how well you did something. An attack that fails but provides advantage could be a good strike that was parried, but put your opponent off balance. An attack that succeeds but provides disadvantage might be a strike that lands well, but overextends you. From a mechanical perspective, there are effects that you can select for your character that allow you to spend ▲ while rolling to achieve additional effects, or punish an opponent based on their ▽ result. ​​

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Abilities and Skills​

Abilities are your primary stats. They start at 1 and are capped at 4. Skills are what each roll actually uses. Each skill is associated with an ability, and a character may have a single Expertise point in a skill that further modifies the roll. Each character gets 6 ability points and 6 expertise points at character creation. These are the only points a character gets, so choose wisely. When rolling a skill, you get a number of ◆ (Ability) dice equal to the governing ability. Then, if you have Expertise in the skill, one ◆ is upgraded to a ⬢ (Expertise) die. (ex. If you roll Attack with an ability of 4 and Expertise, you'd roll 3◆,1⬢).

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Ability and Skill List

• Physical governs what a character can do with their body. Associated skills:

  • Athletics is a measure of how agile, quick, or strong a character is.

  • Endure is a measure of how long a character can strain themselves.

  • Sneak is a measure of how stealthy a character is.

• Mental governs what a character can do with their mind. Associated skills:

  • Academia is a measure of how much knowledge a character has.

  • Arcana is a measure of how well a character understands magic.

  • Perception is a measure of how well a character can pick out details.

• Spiritual governs what a character can do with their soul. Associated skills:

  • Healing is a measure of how good a character is at mending wounds.

  • Insight is a measure of how well a character reads others.

  • Nature is a measure of how well a character interacts with the natural world.

• Communal governs what a character can do with their words. Associated skills:

  • Assist is a measure of how good a character is at helping others.

  • Influence is a measure of how good a character is at convincing others to do their bidding.

  • Performance is a measure of how good a character is at putting on a show in front of others.

Physical and Mental (whichever is higher) both additionally govern the Attack and Defence skills.

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Types of Rolls

• Difficulty Checks are checks done against a static difficulty. This is represented by a number of ◇ (Difficulty) dice. For example, a “Difficulty 3 check” would involve a character’s typical dice pool for a given skill, and ◇◇◇. These checks are typically used for when a character is trying to do something difficult that is not opposed by another character (ex. climbing a wall)

• Challenge Checks are checks done against a character’s defences. This is done by taking the initiating character’s typical dice pool, and then adding the defending character’s skill dice to the pool as negative dice. These checks are used in combat (Attack vs Defence), Stealth (Sneak vs Perception), or any other situation where one character is trying to do something and another is trying to stop or avoid it.

• Contested Checks are checks to see which of two characters do a specified thing better. Both characters can do a Difficulty Check of an agreed Difficulty value and whoever gets more successes wins. For example, if two characters are in a foot race, both can do Difficulty 0 Athletics checks, or if two characters are trying to convince an NPC to do what they want instead of what the other person wants, both characters can agree on a Difficulty and then roll an Influence Check with the agreed Difficulty. This operates just the same as another contested check, except if neither character gets any successes then the NPC refuses to help either of them.

• Group Checks are checks to determine one character's success against multiple characters at once (ex. Sneaking past a group of guards). A group check is a series of Challenge Checks, with the roller gaining ◼ for each successful check on subsequent rolls. Once a character has completed four total checks (or a check against all opponents), the group check is over. If a character succeeds on all their checks, they succeed on the group check. Otherwise, they fail. A character succeeding or failing on a group check succeeds or fails for everyone in the scene, regardless of if they were one of the four checks rolled.

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Progression

Characters start with 6 HP, 6 Ability Points, and 6 Expertise Points. None of those increase with level. Characters also start with two Talents, and gain an extra Talent every level until they have 6 total Talents at the level cap of 5. Characters in an IC area for ~1 hour will earn a coin drop that they can click to collect. Each instance of coin collection gives 5 silver, up to a maximum of 25 per day and 75 per week. Additionally, coins collected give 1 experience, up to a maximum of 2 per day and 6 per week. A character’s first coin per day can be expedited by interacting with a Temporary node.

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Nodes and Harvesting

Each week, characters may harvest up to three nodes. Nodes represent the bulk of a character's earning potential each week. There are three primary types of nodes:

• Resource nodes are a guaranteed harvest that gives a specified material. Resource nodes can only be harvested by the faction that controls them.

• Treasure nodes are a harvest that you must defeat NPC characters to unlock. These are typically found in dungeons.

• Temporary nodes are nodes that you must succeed a skill check to harvest (though failing doesn't count as one of your three per week). Temporary nodes are found scattered amongst the wilderness.

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Archtypes

Archtypes are descriptive, and are meant to be quick references for character’s capabilities. Each talent will contribute to various archtypes, and players will be able to choose between any archtypes they have unlocked, of the maximum tier they’ve unlocked an archtype at. Archtypes will display in the initiative order, and is a fair piece of information to base combat strategies on. The Tier 1 and 2 Archtypes are viewable below. There are additionally Tier 3 Archtypes that can be discovered through play.

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Dice Table

This is made public for those who want to delve into the nitty gritty of how things work under the hood, but this information is by no means necessary to learn to operate in the system. Positive dice are intentionally skewed to be slightly better than their negative counterparts, to encourage proactive action and keep combat flowing. The dice and their faces are as follows:

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For additional information, ​the dice have the following averages: 

• ◼ (Bonus): 0.33✦, 0.66▲

• ◆ (Ability): 0.63✦, 0.63▲

• ⬢ (Expertise): 0.83✦, 0.83▲

• ◻ (Malus): 0.33✧, 0.33▽

• ◇ (Difficulty): 0.5✧, 0.5▽

• ⬡ (Challenge): 0.75✧, 0.75▽

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