The Basics of RPGAnywhere
Creating a Character
Character creation is designed to take less than 15 minutes. There are 4 important areas of a character:
The Name
One of the most important things about a character is their name. Let it resound and earn respect from other players. A memorable name, like other famous heroes that have come before you.
Skills and Expertise
There are 6 primary skills. Each skill has 2 areas of expertise available. Skills provide an extra die to be used for success rolls. Expertise adds yet another die as well.
The player can select a set number of skills to be trained in and a set number of expertise available within those skills.
The Six Skills
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1. Might (Athletics, Fortitude & Weaponry)
Raw physical power, resilience, and combat prowess
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2. Agility (Acrobatics, Marksmanship & Evasion)
Swiftness, dexterity, and reflexes
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3. Knowledge (Lore, Medicine & Scholar)
Learned information and scholarly expertise
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4. Awareness (Investigation, Perception & Insight)
Keen observation, sharp senses, and insightful deduction
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5. Performance (Diplomacy, Distraction & Deception)
Charisma, social skills, and captivating presence
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6. Subtlety (Infiltration, Tinkering & Pickpocket)
Operating in shadows, remaining unseen and unheard
The Role
Each character gets a role (which has special skills). Roles are typically story setting specific.
For Aetheria and Occultis Mechanica, there are no classes or professions. Characters can be whatever you want them to be. Their abilities and choices affect who they are.
The Equipment
Equipment in RPG Anywhere varies by world setting. The Storyteller might auto-assign equipment, have players roll on a random table, base equipment on life choices, or tie it to character roles.
Core Mechanics
The Story Teller presents the scenario and lets the players decide what they want to do, then determines what skill, equipment, and/or roles they need to use.
Building Your Dice Pool
- → Minimum number of die that any player will have for any challenge is 1
- → Skill proficiency adds 1 die
- → Expertise adds 1 additional die
- → Any equipment that can help with the challenge adds 1 additional die
- → Based on the world setting, character role can provide additional die
- → A player can help another player by adding 1 final additional die (doing so eliminates their actions for that round)
Example
A player ("Jeff") wants to knock a burly guard unconscious. The challenge success can be a single success or may require multiple successes.
- → "Jeff" gets 1d6 as a base always
- → "Jeff" has the Might skill (+1 die)
- → "Jeff" has a rolling pin (+1 die)
- → The player gets to use 3d6 to try and succeed
- → If "Jeff" also had Weaponry, the player would roll 4d6
Rolling / Success / Failure / Critical Failures
The Roll
- • A roll of 5 or 6 on a single die is a success
- • A roll of 6 explodes and the player can roll that die again to try for an additional success
- • If the required number of successes are rolled, they succeed
- • If they do not make the required number of successes, they fail
- • If they fail and the rolls include a 1, it is a critical failure
Success
The action goes off as planned. The team is successful. (In the example, the guard is knocked out)
Failure
The team failed in that objective and now they need to be prepared to perform damage control. (The guard is hit but is now angry and preparing to subdue the team)
Critical Failure
The team has critically failed and needs serious damage control. (Jeff trips and knocks himself out. The team must survive and rescue Jeff)