Iiosia · Iiosia RPG is designed so that you can play any Character you like with as few boundaries as possible, enabling you to create any kind of Character you want, from a wily

Iiosia Role Playing Game

Core Rules Version 1.1

Written by Veriax

In association with Danny "Winston", Xaio, Ian "Death", "Elder" James, Tina, Larry, and

Jukettaja.

Cover art "Iiosia Ulthin" by D.M.

www.iiosia.com

Veriax Core Rules www.iiosia.com

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Contents

Page Page

Foreword 3 Chapter 9: Skill Descriptions 52

Introduction 4 Melee Weapon Ranks 52

How The Game Works 4 Strength Skills 53

What You Need 5 Two-handed Weapons 53

A Few Things to Remember 5 Melee Weapons 53

Glossary 6 Brawling 54

Chapter 1: Character Creation 7 Spear 54

The Character Sheet 8 Bow 55

Fate Points 10 Crossbow 55

Personal Information 11 Heavy Armour 56

Choosing Your Race 11 Large Shields 56

Languages 13 Forcing 56

Sight 15 Enduring 57

Attributes 16 Toughness 57

Racial Adjustments 16 Agility Skills 58

Determining Vitality 17 Short Bow 58

Skills 18 Small Shields 58

Choosing Skills 19 Martial Arts 59

Other Character Matters 21 Sling 59

Resistances and Weaknesses 21 Short Sword 59

Equipment 22 Unarmoured 60

Equipment Lists 23 Offhand Weapon 60

Equipment and the Character Sheet 27 Light Armour 60

Attack Strength 30 Athletics 61

Defence Strength 31 SneaUnarmoured k 61

Competing the Character Sheet 32 Sneaking and Sneak Attacks 62

Character Sheet (example) 33 Slight of Hand 63

Chapter 2: Changes to your Character 35 Willpower Skills 64

Increasing Attributes 36 Magic Resistance 64

Increasing Skills 37 Necromancy 64

New Languages 37 Demonics 64

Losing and Gaining Vitality 38 Witchcraft 64

Injury Table 39 Blessing 64

Ways of Recovering Vitality 40 Banishing 65

Chapter 3: The Most Important Rule 41 Healing 65

Chapter 4: States 42 Air 65

Blinded 42 Fire 65

Prone 42 Water 65

Chapter 5: Lighting 43 Earth 65

Chapter 6: Turn Order 44 Introverted Mind 65

Initiative 44 Extroverted Mind 65

Guarding 45 Intellect Skills 66

Chapter 7: Attribute Tests 46 Alchemy 66

Chapter 8: Combat 47 Barter 68

Attacking in Melee 47 Persuasion 68

Multiple Attacks 48 Awareness 69

Multiple Parries 49 Lore 69

Critical Hits 49 Apothecary 69

Critical Misses 49 Chapter 10: Maps and Tokens 71

Shields 50 Scale 71

Ranged Combat 51 Chapter 11: Glancing Strikes 73

Chapter 12: Conclusion 78

IRPG Character Sheet 79


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Foreword

Hello and welcome to Iiosa Role Playing Game!

As the creator if this setting and system, I cannot thank you enough for whatever interest you might

have in this game and it's setting of Iiosia. I hope that upon delving into it, it doesn't disappoint you.

It is my hope that within these pages I have laid out as clearly as I can the guidelines with which to

play IRPG. Contained in this document are the basic rules, which mostly coveri how the game works,

character creation, and combat. All of these things should, hopefully, be well explained and easy to

understand.

It was always my intention with IRPG to create a flexible and dynamic game system which was easy

to follow and had a bare minimum of calculations and conundrums within it. I wanted IRPG to have

fast-paced and deadly combat which would encourage those who played it to work as a team in order

to ensure their very survival.

My heartfelt thanks go out to those wonderful individuals who have taken the time to play the game

with me, helping to develop and improve the system into that which we have here today. Without

them, the game wouldn't be half of what it is in it's current incarnation.

That's not to say that there's not more to be done - there is. I actively encourage you, the player, to get

in touch with me and let me know what you think of the game. Tell me about it's strengths and

weaknesses, ask questions, tell me if I've not explained something well enough or if anything is

unclear, or needs adding or possibly changing. I will welcome any and all feedback you might want to

give.

To get in touch with me, you can send me an e-mail at [email protected]

Along with these Core Rules. I plan to bring out at least three other texts to accompany it:

The Magicians Manual, which will detail spell casting along with the (many) spells which can

be cast within Iiosia RPG.

The Bestiary, within which can be found an array of monsters and demons with which to

populate IRPG games with.

The Game Master's Manual, which will contain more advanced and optional rules along with

more guidelines on how to run a good IRPG game.

And in the future I hope to release more expansions and supplements to accompany the game, forever

expanding and improving to make IRPG a fantastic game to play for both novice and advanced role-

players alike.

I sincerely hope you have a lot of joy playing IRPG, and once again truly thank you for looking into

it.

~Veriax


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Introduction

Iiosia. A world which very name means "Turmoil". To the south, demons dwell in the land of

Chkarthamore. In the north, odd, misshapen creatures warped by dark magics migrate southwards.

Iiosia's past is blanketed in conflict and destruction, and its future is as uncertain as the peace which is

held between its borders.

Iiosia, a land rich in lore, in strife, in magic and in battle, is now your home. Within it, you will shape

your destiny, overcoming the trials and tasks set before you on your path to freedom, to glory, to

honour, to riches, fame, or just simple self gratification. Iiosia. Go forth, then, and embark on a

journey you will never forget!

This is Iiosia Role Playing Game!

How The Game Works

Iiosia Role Playing Game (Iiosia RPG) is a table top game in which you and a group of friends

embark upon quests and adventures within the land of Iiosia. Within it, you control the actions of one

person, who is your Character. Your Character can be anyone you want. The first step in Iiosia RPG is

to design your Character by giving them a personally and decide what what they might be skilled in

and what their physical and mental capabilities are. As you create your Character while you read this

document, you will come to learn all you need to know about how to play Iiosia RPG.

Iiosia RPG is designed so that you can play any Character you like with as few boundaries as

possible, enabling you to create any kind of Character you want, from a wily rouge who lives on his

wits and fights with his fists, to a nomadic spellcaster, a noble night, or anything in between. But don't

worry, Iiosia RPG is designed to be simple and easy to learn, as well as being flexible and detailed

enough to keep it interesting!

Once you have your character, you'll be taking him or her on an adventure. It's likely that you won't

be doing this alone, however! Your character will probably be joined by several other people each

with their own Characters to join you.

As a group, the Characters must try to work together within the game to overcome the challenges put

in their way. This is important, since Characters will have differing abilities and playing to the

strengths of each person's Character may well alleviate some of your own Character's weaknesses.

As well as the Characters, once person must assume the roll of the Games Master. The Games Master

(or GM), is, for all intents and purposes, "In Charge". He or she will guide your Characters through

the adventure, telling you where you are and what you can see. Once you react to this, and take

actions within the game (usually involving dice rolls), it is the GM who will tell you what the results

of the actions you take are. The GM will also take on the roll of all of the enemies you meet, as well

as all the other people within Iiosia who you may come across in your adventures. It is the GM's job

to help guide the players through the adventure in a fair, fun, and engaging way.


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What's the aim? Who wins?

The Characters are not attempting to "beat" the GM, and nor is the GM attempting to kill the players.

Instead, see each session of the game as a scene in a movie, a chapter of a book, or an episode of a TV

show. Within Iiosia RPG you're telling a story together, and living out the lives of your characters,

seeing then develop and gain in strength as they successfully overcome the foes and challenges they

face.

So, think of the aim of the game to tell a grand story which is worthy to bards to sing tales of as

people gather around the fires of their local inns to listen. If you tell such a story, and especially if you

have fun doing it, then congratulations, you've won the game!

What You Need

Iiosia RPG requires a bare minimum of equipment to play. That is, you, two or three other friends,

some pens and paper, and either a pack of cards or one of more ten-sided dice. That really is all you

need to start playing, though it will help if one of you has cut out some squares of card to use as

tokens, as this can help map out what is happening and where everyone is in combat situations. More

on this later.

A Few Things to Remember:

He/She

For the sake of convenience, examples of characters and players throughout this document are

referred to as males. There is nothing at all stopping the fairer sex from playing this game, or for

characters to female either. However, to save endless "He/She" and "(s)he-ing", the decision was

made to gear the language towards the larger demographic.

Dice: D10/D5

IRPG uses ten-sided dice (D10) to play. If you have none, a pack of cards with the picture cards

removed works just as well (with Aces equalling one). On occasion, you'll be asked to roll a five-

sided dice (D5). This can be achieved simply by rolling a ten-sided dice and halving the result,

rounding up odd numbers.

The Way of Re-rolls

In IRPG a player can re-roll dice at certain times in the game to try to force events to go in their

favour. If a re-roll is made, the player must accept the result of the re-roll. They cannot decide to use

the original result, nor may they re-roll the re-roll. A result can never be re-rolled more than once.

In the cases where they're re-rolling a roll where more than once dice were involved (for example, a

roll of 2D10's), then all of the dice involved are re-rolled, rather than just one.


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Glossary

Iiosia RPG/IRPG: Iiosia Role Play Game - this game!

Player: Someone who adopts a character and plays them in the game, deciding who they are and

governing the choices they make in their adventures.

GM: The GM, or Games Master, runs the game. The GM creates the adventures for the players to go

on, he guides them through it, acts as every creature the players meet, and he acts as a fair and just

referee.

PC/Player Character/Character: This is a players avatar, or character, within the game.

NPC: None Player Characters are people within the game who the players may interact with who is

not controlled by another player. Such people may be shopkeepers, innkeepers, or different characters

in the story which the players meet.

Monster: Monster is a term used for a creature within IRPG which will be hostile as soon as they

encounter the players, and must be slain or otherwise dealt with.

Creature: An all-encompassing term used for PCs, NPCs and Monsters

Skill Check: Skill checks occur whenever a PC attempts to do an action which involve an element of

chance. Scaling a wall, picking a lock, and breaking down a door are all actions which will require a

Skill Check to see if the action is successful.

St: An abbreviation for the Attribute of Strength.

Ag: An abbreviation for the Attribute of Agility.

Int: An abbreviation for the Attribute of Intellect.

Will: An abbreviation for the Attribute of Willpower.

Vi: An abbreviation for Vitality.

AS: An abbreviation for Attack Score.

DS: An abbreviation for Defence Score.


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Character Creation

Creating A Character

If you're going to be a Player in IRPG, then this is your first job. It's not hard (indeed, it only involves

the roll of four dice) - just grab a character sheet and pencil it in as we go. This document may seem

to be long, but don't worry. Much of it is simply reference material which can be looked up by the

GM as the game is being played to clarify certain things, so don't worry about the size of it.

Now that we're designing your avatar in the game, have a little think about what kind of character you

want to play. Remember, there are no set classes or character types in Iiosia RPG, so even if you like

to play thieves, there's nothing stopping you playing a thief who dabbles in magic or is good at

forcing locks open rather than picking them. Have a brief look at the skill descriptions in the second

half of the document to see if anything takes your fancy if you're not sure.

Example: This is an example, or an example of an example, if you

like. Throughout this document you'll find these dotted around to help

explain things in an exemplary way, amazingly enough.

The Character Sheet

The Character Sheet stores everything you need to know about your character while you play the

game - who they are, what they're good at, what they're fighting with, and what they're carrying. Let's

start filling it out, shall we?


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Iiosia RPG Character Sheet

Personal Information Player Name: Height:

Character Name: Weight:

Sex: Focus:

Race: Languages:

Profession: Sight:

Age: Fate Points:

Attributes Base Current

Strength:

Agility:

Willpower: Spells:

Intellect:

Vitality:

Skills

Strength Skills R: Agility Skills R: Willpower Skills R: Intellect Skills R:

Forcing Athletics Persuasion

Brawling Sneak Awareness

Melee Weapons Short Sword Lore

Special Abilities: Special Ability Skill Effect

Quick Reference - Attack Strength: Weapon: Weapon: Weapon:

Attack Score (AS):

Attacks:

Parries:

Damage:

Quick Reference - Defence Strength: Armour: Shield: Un-armoured:


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Resistances & Weaknesses Physical Fire Air Earth Water Ice Poison Disease

Equipment

Weapons

Weapon Size Notes Damage AS Attacks Parries

L

M

T/S

T/S

T/S

Un-armed - AS equal to Strength -2 D5

Armour

Armour Type Size Notes DS

Un-armoured - - DS Equal to Strength or Agility -2

Shield

Shield Type Size DS Notes

Backpack

Tiny/Small Tiny/Small Medium Large

Coin:

Left Hand: Right Hand:

Who Are You?

Notes:


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Fate Points

Before you decide anything concrete about your character, you should determine how affected they

are by the Fates - mysterious forces which are believed to shape an individual's life and destiny.

Fate points have two major uses within the game:

First, they are used to improve your skills and abilities, so that your character becomes stronger and

more skilled in what areas you see fit. A character will gain more Fate points throughout his

adventures, and he can use them to increase his abilities once he has chance within the game to rest

and reflect on the things he has learnt.

Second, Fate points are used to re-roll dice within the game, so that you can try to alter the course of

things by seeing if the Fates may lend a hand and favour your character. It is wise to have at least one

Fate point at hand since it may well save your character's life.

The number of Fate points you start out with depends on the GM. The more you have, the more

skilled and experienced your character is for their first adventure, and you'll have access to more

powerful attacks and spells when you start out. Though this means you'll probably be facing tougher

challenges and more deadly foes, too.

Fate points are "spent" during Character Creation to increase their skills and abilities. They are also

used to re-roll dice in the game, and this includes any dice rolled in the Character Creation process.

Note, however, that you can only re-roll a result once, and you must take the result of the second roll.

You do not have to use all of the Fate Points allocated to you at Character Creation if you do not wish

to. You can leave one or two spare in order to use them for re-rolls in the adventure to come, and to

save them for improvements on your character in the future.

Example. Bill is creating a character. Bill's GM tells him that he has

Eight Fate Points to spend making his character. He makes a note of

this somewhere - it'll be important!


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Personal Information

The first section is your character's Personal Information, some of which might not make a huge

impact of the game, but it serves to get a good idea of who they are. This information will rarely, if

ever, change.

Player Name: This is your name. It's assumed that this is the easiest part of the Character-making

process to fill out.

Character Name: Give your character a name if you've got one in mind. Your character's name may

well be influenced by their Race, so you might want to choose that first and then decide on something

which sounds suitable for your character or race. It can also be a nickname, if you wish.

Sex: While this will have no affect on how you make your character as far as the rules are concerned,

it's best to have this written down so everyone's sure whether they're male of female.

Profession: Here you can enter a description of your character's job or area of expertise. This can be

anything you like, from Trapper, Mage, Scribe, Knight, Archer, Soldier, Squire, Scout, or anything

else. While this has no effect on any rules per se, it helps give a better idea about who they are.

Example: Bill has a good idea what kind of character he wants to be.

He's thinking of being some kind of rouge, who has lived by his wits

and quickness in some urban settings, stealing what he can to survive.

He writes "Rouge" in his Profession, along with his own name and his

character's Gender. He decides that his character will be called

Valon. We'll be seeing a lot of Valon as we cover more of the rules.

Race: This will be either Human, Atia, Dwarf, Troll or Halfling. Each race has differing qualities -

some are more akin to magic, some better at fighting, some hardier than others etc. The details of the

races are explained in more detail below, so if you're not sure what you want to be yet have a read

though that as your Race is one of the most important choices to make in Character Creation:

Choosing your Race

A great many different races inhabit the world of Iiosia. Some are mindless beasts, whose only

concern is where the next meal is coming from. Others are bent on destruction, wishing to kill,

enslave, and dominate over others. However there are those races which have developed their own

civilisations which are more sophisticated and are able to co-exist with others (for the most part).

These are the races we are concerned about, because the only races a player can play as are those

which have the civility to get along with others without trying to enslave them or kill them for food.

These races are summarised briefly below.

Also, you may notice that some Races gain free "skills". Make sure you remember this when you

come to choose your Skills later on.

Humans: Humans emerged from humble beginnings to become one of the most influential and

powerful races on Iiosia. They inhabit various areas across Iiosia and have come to be a common

sight across the world.

Humans are the most adaptable and well-rounded race a player can be, although having no particular

weaknesses is offset by the fact that they have no special strengths, either.


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Age: Humans generally live up to 60 years old. Those embarking on a dangerous life of adventure

will be anything from 15 to 50, though.

Height: Humans can generally be anywhere between 5' to 6'6" tall

Weight: A diverse race, humans weigh anything from 90 to 300lbs which can be attributed to either

muscle mass or fat.

Atia: These tall and frail folk are what remain of a grand civilisation which fell into ruins long ago due

to some terrible event which has been largely lost to history. The atia, having no homeland of their

own, tend to be solitary people who either come to inhabit human settlements or have a more

nomadic, wandering lifestyle.

They are naturally intelligent, and have an affinity with magic, but are a physically frail race and lack

strength and endurance. The atia can see as well at night time as they can during the day thanks to

their cat-like eyes.

Age: The atia do not live long, since their bodies are generally weak and wear out quickly. They

rarely live more than 50 years.

Height: Atia are a tall race and easily reach heights of 6' to 6'6",

Weight: Because they are slender and frail, Atia rarely exceed 170lbs in weight.

Dwarves: The stout, sturdy dwarves are renowned for their skill in battle and their gruff demeanour.

They are the only race which distains magic and have no dealings in its use. One of the most ancient

of the races, dwarves tend to look upon other races with what at best could be called arrogance and at

worst could be called distain. Although largely private and reclusive, occasionally dwarves are found

away from the Dwarf Kingdom searching for treasure, fame, or a good fight.

Dwarves are hardy fighters who can endure many hardships, but lack grace or any abilities with magic

at all. Thusly, they cannot use any of the Magic Arc Skills. They are the only race who are limited in

this way. Dwarves do, however, have keen eyesight underground, and can see in pitch blackness.

Age: They are one of the longest lived races, and can live for over 600 years, with 100-500 being

usual for an IRPG Player Character.

Height: Being true to their Dwarves rarely reach heights exceeding 5'6", averaging 5'2", and rarely

dropping below 4'10"

Weight: A stocky, bulky race, Dwarves can easily reach weights of around 250lbs.

Skills: Dwarves get two ranks in Magic Resistance free (just make a note of this somewhere for now)

Trolls: The Grellkin, or Trolls as they are more commonly known, are giant, lumbering creatures who

hail from an inhospitable volcanic island called Xakarah. Because of this they have a practical

immunity to fire and heat and have become some of the worlds finest smiths and metal workers. They

have a reputation for being stupid and little more than beasts, but this is unfair and untrue.

Because of their physical strength and toughness they make ideal candidates when hired as warriors

and bodyguards. Trolls are also highly allergic to sunlight, and if exposed to it will turn them to stone.

Trolls counteract this by wearing a magical stone Somewhere on their bodies, called a Sun Stone.

While wearing this stone a troll suffers no harmful effects from the sun's rays, so obviously Trolls do

not want it to be lost or taken from them. Trolls can also see fairly well underground, but not as well

as Dwarves can.

Age: They live for a long time also - 140 years being a good age for a troll to reach.

Height: : The trolls are towering creatures, reaching heights of around seven feet.

Weight: They have the weight to match too, being mostly, muscle, and so can weigh anything from

300lbs to 700lbs.

Fire Resistance: Trolls have a -5 Fire Resistance modifier (make a note of this for later).

Halflings: Though as stout as dwarves, Halflings lack the power and physical presence of their

cousins, and instead posses all the guile and quickness which a dwarf does not. Halflings have a

reputation for being untrustworthy and downright mean creatures, and for the most part this is entirely

true, although exceptions always exist.


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Halflings are not as strong as other races, but their small form belies their quickness and slight of

hand.

Age: Halflings live relatively short but very busy lives. Halflings rarely live beyond 40.

Height: Halflings are a little shorter than dwarves, being an average of just over 4' in height.

Weight: They also weigh slightly less dwarves at around 150-200lbs each

Skills: Halflings receive one additional rank in Sneak for free.

Age, Height, Weight: The parameters for all of these are explained within the Races covered above.

Some races are taller than others, some weight more, and some live for longer. You can make these

whatever you like so long as you make them akin to the details explained within your race's

description.

Example: Bill figures that Valon is a Human, so he jots that down

under Race in his Personal Information.

He makes him 5'11" and 160 lbs. He decides he will be 23 years old.

Bill's Character Sheet now looks something like this:


Player Name: Bill Height: 5'11"

Character Name: Valon Weight: 160lbs

Sex: Male Focus:

Race: Human Languages:

Profession: Rouge Sight:

Age: 25 Fate Points:

Focus: This will be listed as one of your attributes: Strength, Agility, Intellect or Willpower. Don't

choose it yet, as it specifies what kind of skills your character has the most affinity in. It's best to leave

this blank until you know more about what skills are available for your character to learn and what

you want them to be good at.

Since Focus is not used during Character Creation, the details of it are not covered here. That said,

Focus can be summarised by stating that whichever Attribute the character is Focussed within, then

that attribute and all skills which fall under it will cost less Fate Points to increase later in the game

than those the character is not focussed on.

Languages: With Iiosia being a diverse place filled with many people, there are numerous languages

spoken throughout it. Although it's assumed that your character knows the most common language in

order to communicate with most other people they'll encounter, a character can learn other languages

both within character creation and, more rarely, in the game itself.

Learning Languages

Throughout Iiosia there are a number of languages which are spoken throughout the different lands

and among the differing races. The most common of these is Runish, which is spoken by the Humans

of Rune and all other Humans throughout the world. It is assumed that all characters can speak Runish

in order to communicate with the other characters and the NPCs they'll meet on their adventures. It is

HIGHLY recommended that all PCs speak Runish unless the group is willing to be forced to

communicate via other methods or translation.

There are three other languages which are relatively common throughout the world. These are Atian,

Dwarven, and Grellkin. These are spoken by their corresponding races, and it's assumed that if the

player has chosen one of these races then their character will know their races language. This is not a


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hard-and-fast rule, though. If you decide that your character has grown up without learning their races

language, then they do not have to.

Several other, rarer languages also exist:. Tar'tchii, Sign, Elvish, Ghrealian, Gilth, and Draconic.

Tar'tchii: These are vile and dark creatures which lurk in the dark away from sunlight, although they

were at one time a beautiful race with their own civilisation. Since this civilisation has long been lost,

the language the used within it is all but forgotten also.

Sign: This language is not one formed vocally, but physically with the hands, with differing gestures

having different meanings. It is a language useful not only for the deaf and mute, but also for thieves

and other agents of stealth since it enables them to communicate without making a sound.

Elvish: Elves are an offshoot of the atian race which became isolated for a long period of time. They

have developed their own language which is nigh impossible for anyone other than a elf to learn,

since they are an elusive and solitary race which rarely comes into contact with the rest of the world.

Ghrealian: The Ghreal are a ruthless power-hungry race who have been corrupted with the Dark Arc.

Their primary goals are to conquer and enslave, although they have also formed their own language

and literature. Since they are so intolerant of other races, it is difficult for any other to know of their

language.

Gilth: The small humanoid Gilth are known to make scratching upon the walls of the caves which

they inhabit in northern Nethicka which could be described as a written language, albeit a simple one.

Draconic: The Dragons and Dragonlings have their own language, which is not only hard to learn

because dragonkin are so rare, but because the language is made up of a series of guttural groans and

growls which is nigh impossible for anything but a Dragon to utter from his vocal cords.

If a player wishes their character to be able to speak another language in addition to Runish (and their

race's mother tongue for Elves, Dwarves and Trolls), they must expend some of their initial Fate

Points in order to do so. Because some languages are better known than others, some are easier to

learn. Those which are not will have taken a great deal of time and effort to learn, and therefore a

character must expend more Fate to have come to know them.

The cost of additional languages in Fate points are as follows:

To learn... Costs... Dwarvern, Atian, or Grellkin 1 Fate point each Sign, Ghrealian, or Gilth 2 Fate points each Tartchii, Elvish, or Draconic 3 Fate points each

Example: Bill's character speaks Runish, so puts that under

languages. Bill also thinks that it'd be great if his character had

picked up another language, too, so decides he can speak Atian. This

costs him one Fate Point, reducing his total from eight to seven, and

he jots "Runish" and "Atian" onto his Character Sheet.


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Sight: Within IRPG there are four differing light conditions which will be present at certain areas and

at certain times of day. Some races have the ability to see in certain light conditions, better than

others, and thus have an advantage over creatures who are not able to see as well as they can. This is

known as their Sight, and their Sight corresponds to the darkest lighting condition in which they can

see perfectly well in.

Lighting (and Sight) in IRPG is broken into four types, these are Clear, Dim, Night, and Pitch:

Lighting and Sight Variations

Type of Lighting/Sight Occurrence

Clear - Good visibility, little or

nothing to prevent eyesight from

being hampered

Daytime, Well-lit interiors

Dim - Heavily shaded and deep

shadows

Badly-lit Interiors, dense

forests, twilight/dawn

Night - Blackness with the vague

outlines of objects and creatures

visible

Very badly-lit Interiors,

Night-time

Pitch - no visibility, creatures won't

be able to see their hand if they

hold it in front of their faces

Unlit undergrounds, Sealed

rooms, (Blinded creatures)

Characters (and creatures) who can see in a certain Lighting type are assumed to see in all the Lighting

types brighter than theirs. Thus, if a creature can see in Night lighting, they can also see in Dim and

Clear lighting also.

As Sight is primarily a racial factor the race you chose for your character will effect what their Sight

is. The differing Sight values for the character races are as follows:

Race Sight

Human Clear

Atia Night

Dwarf Pitch

Troll Dim

Halfling Dim

Example: Valon is a human. Therefore his sight rating is Clear.

This means that he can see perfectly fine in daylight and well lit

areas, but as darkness becomes more dominant he will struggle to

see clearly.

Fate: As we covered earlier, Fate is used both in improving your character and to help them avoid

unfortunate events and force things to go their way. Fate is accumulated throughout your character's

adventures. Record your character's current Fate points here, although it's about to change as we

spend some of them on your characters skills and abilities.


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Attributes

Below Personal Information we have your character's Attributes, which display your character's

physical and metal abilities. These will change more often than your Personal Information.

Strength: This shows your character's physical power, which affects his effectiveness in using heavier

weapons and armour. It also represents his ability to endure pain or other physical hardships such as

poison and injuries.

Agility: Agility represents your character's reflexes, speed, dexterity, and conditioning. Agile

characters are better suited to using lighter armour and weapons.

Willpower: The willpower of a character represents their strength of mind. Willpowers main use is

that of the forming and casting of spells, and thus any mages must have strong Willpower if they wish

to be able to bend the powers of magic to their will. You'll noticed that there's a "Spells" field

included in the Character Sheet for willpower - this is a record of how many spells the character can

cast and is explained in greater detail in the Magic Manual.

Intellect: A character's Intellect tells you of their speed of thought and their ability to reason,

comprehend, and remember. An intellectual character will likely be more alert than his fellows, and

have knowledge in areas which could prove useful on adventures such as healing, knowledge on

specific subjects, or talking himself out of trouble.

What values your attributes are given depends upon dice rolls and your Race. Initially, they'll be

valued from a range of 1-10, with a value of 1 representing total ineptitude, and a value of 10 being an

extremely high measure of ability. As characters improve, certain races can increase some attributes

to levels exceeding values 10, but this is not possible during Character Creation.

Rolling Your Attributes

The race that you've previously chosen for your character will have a large affect on his Attributes,

since some races are naturally more agile than others whereas some are more attuned to magic

casting. However, the game is designed to be as open as possible, so if a player wanted to play as a

strong Halfling or bumbling Atia then they could do just that.

Attributes are rolled using four, five-sided dice (D10/2) - the results of which are then assigned to one

of the four Attributes. You can choose which dice roll to assign to each Attribute, so you're not

forced to take them "as they come".

After this, you must adjust your rolls based on your racial abilities, as detailed in the table below:

Racial Adjustments:

Race Strength Agility Intellect Willpower

Human +3 +3 +3 +3

Atia +1 +2 +4 +4

Dwarf +4 +2 +3 -

Troll +5 +1 +2 -

Halfling +1 +5 +3 +2


17

NOTE: You may only re-roll one of these dice, at the cost of one Fate point. You may not re-roll

more than one. As always, you must accept the result of the second result.

Example: Bill rolls his four 5-sided dice (i.e. Rolls D10's and halves

the results). He gets a 5, a 4, and two 1's.

He decides to use a Fate Point to re-roll one of the 1's, but only gets a

2, which he has to keep. His rolls are therefore: 5,4,2 and 1 As a

Human, he'll add +3 to all of these when he allocates them to his

Attributes. He decides he wants his character to be Agile and Smart,

so he assigns the 5 to Agility, the 4 to Intellect, the 2 to Strength and

the 1 to Willpower. Since he adds +3 to all of those for being as

Human, his final attributes end up being:

Strength 5, Agility 8, Intellect 7, Willpower 4. He makes a note of

these as follows:


Strength: 5

Agility: 7

Willpower: 4 Spells:

Intellect: 7

Primary Attack Score, Attack, Total Defence Score, and Base Vitality: These are all Attributes which

are used in combat. They are derived from your other Attributes and Skills and, aside from Vitality,

are not something we are concerned with during Character Creation. They are covered a little on in

the bulk of the game rules.

During their adventuring career, your character's inevitably going to get hurt from all the fighting and

exertions that you put him through. An individual can only take so much punishment until they pick

up a serious injury... or worse. This is represented by a character's Vitality, which shows how much

punishment they can take before they are worn down.

Calculating Vitality: A character's vitality is easily calculated by combining the sum total of their

Strength (physical strength) and Agility (fitness) Attributes, and adding them to the base value shown

in the chart below:

Natural Vitality Scores

Race Vitality

Human 10

Atia 5

Dwarf 20

Troll 15

Halfling 7

Record this total in Base Vitality. A character's Vitality will be reduced when that character takes

damage, and will increase when they receive healing or rest. The box at the bottom of the Character

Sheet marked Current Vitality should be used to record these changes. A Character may not be

restored to a Vitality level beyond their Base Vitality, although their Base Vitality may eventually

increase as you spend Fate points.

Example: Bill's Character has a Strength of 5 and Agility of 8. Adding

these to the Human's Natural Vitality of 8, Bills character has a total

Vi of 21


18

Skills

Beneath these sections your character's skills will be recorded. Skills are a way to customise your

character to show what they are really good at. They display the character's prowess with a certain

weapon, their athletic abilities, their magical focuses, and/or their specialist knowledge in certain

areas. Skills represent things which add new abilities that a character can do, such as wielding specific

weapons, wearing armour, casting spells or perfuming other specific actions.

Each skill in the game is governed by one of your character's attributes, so choosing a skill with a high

parent attribute will further increase success with that skill. However, skills can also be used to bolster

up weaker sides to your character. For example, a Halfling might not be naturally adept at using a two

handed sword, but by being skilled with such a weapon, a two handed sword-wielding Halfling could

be rather dangerous!

How Skills Work

The world of Iiosia is filled with a great variety of people, who each possess varying skills and

abilities at certain things, be it swordplay, heightened awareness, magic, sneaking, general knowledge

and a host of other such things.

Within IRPG, Skills are used to represent a character's expertise in whatever area the Player

chooses. They further flesh out your character by showing what exactly he is best at and

where his main strengths lie.

Skills are taken in Ranks, which range from zero to ten (0-10), with a rank of 0 designating

that the Character has but the basic understanding of that Skill, and a rank of 10 displaying

the Character's total mastery over it. Broadly speaking, a Skill's Rank shows the bonus that

Character receives to any dice roll affected by that skill. So a Rank 3 will add 3 to any roll

made using that Skill.

At Skill Ranks 5 and 10, Characters gain Special Abilities to the relevant skills. These

abilities let your character perform specified actions to do with that skill, be they in the form

of extra re-rolls, special attacks, or another such bonus. These Special Abilities are described

further on in the Skill Descriptions chapter.

There is a section on the character sheet for Special Abilities where you can make a note of

any you've picked up. Unless you invest heavily in one skill, though, it's unlikely that you'll

manage you get a Special Ability at Character Creation.

Editors Note:

Rank 0?

While it might be thought unusual to have to spend your first Fate point on a Skill

to attain the Rank of 0, there is reasoning behind it. Since the ranks basically

represent bonuses, removing rank 0 and starting with rank 1 would mean that, as

well as gaining the ability of the skill itself, Creatures would get a +1 bonus to an

action straight away. Introducing rank 0 represents an individuals grasp on the

skill but also their lack of experience and expertise within it.


19

Choosing Skills

Skills are taken by spending Fate points on them. The number of Fate points needed to

increase a certain skill depends on how many ranks the character has in that skill (the more

ability a character has in a skill, the better they are at it and thus the harder it is to improve,

thus costing more Fate points).

The higher the Rank of a Skill, the more Fate points will need to be spent to increase it.

Below is a small table explaining how many Fate points are required to increase the Skills

through their various Ranks.

Character Creation Skill Rank Cost

Skill Rank: Fate Point Cost

0-4 1

5-9 2

10 3

The skills a Player may choose for their character are listed below. This is a list of skills

which is provided for brief reference. For more detailed descriptions of skills and the Special

Abilities which they come with, read the Skill Descriptions section below.

Certain Skills are marked with an asterisks (*). These are skills which all characters start out

at Rank 0 with. They are already marked down on the IRPG Character Sheet, and are skills

which cover basic abilities and equipment which don't necessarily require specialised training

or knowledge to use. These are "free" skills and any Fate points spent on these skills will

increase them from Rank 1 and upwards.

Strength Skills

2 handed weapons Spear Heavy Armour Melee Weapons* Bow Large Shields Brawling* Crossbow Forcing* Enduring Toughness

Agility Skills

Short Bow Short Sword* Athletics* Small Shields Unarmoured Sneak* Martial Arts Offhand Weapon Sleight of Hand Sling Light Armour

Willpower Skills

Witchcraft Magic Necromancy Magic Demonic Magic Fire Magic Water Magic Earth Magic Air Magic Healing Magic Banishing Magic Blessing Magic Extroverted Mind Magic Introverted Mind Magic Magic Resistance

Intellect Skills

Alchemy Apothecary Barter Persuasion* Awareness* Lore*


20

Example: Bill has six out of his eight Fate Points still remaining, since

he used one on a re-roll and one to learn Atian.

His character is a rouge and will have had to defend himself in dark

alleyways and suchlike. So he gives himself one Rank in Short Sword,

expending one Fate Point in doing so. This brings his Short Sword

Rank up to 1since he automatically had rank 0 in this skill just like

every other character.

He also takes one more rank in Sneak, three in Short Bow, and one in

Light Armour. Because Short Bow and Light Armour are not skills

already on the Character Sheet, he must start at Rank 0 for them.

Bill has one Fate Point left, but decides to keep it in case he needs to

force a re-roll in any dire situations he might find himself in.

He makes sure to record this remaining Fate Point on his Character

Sheet.

Skills


Forcing 0 Athletics 0 Persuasion 0

Brawling 0 Sneak 1 Awareness 0

Melee Weapons 0 Short Sword 1 Lore 0

Short Bow 2

Light Armour 0


21

Other Character Matters

Quick Reference:

These sections are included to make it quick and easy to look up often used information regarding

combat statistics. It's not something we need concern ourselves with at this stage.

Resistances & Weaknesses

Certain races within Iiosia can resist certain types of damage that they may have inflicted upon them.

Some races are resistant to heat and fire, others to poison or disease. Equally, the opposite could be

said and certain people or races may be weak to certain types of elements.

Curses, spells, and other enchantments can alter a character's Resistances and Weaknesses throughout

the course of their adventure.

Such resistances and Weaknesses are recorded here. They will be recorded as a number ranging from

10 to -10, which shows the either creature's resistance or weakness to the damage type in question.

A score of 0 shows that the creature has neither a resistance or weakness to that damage type, and

therefore no modifiers are made when damage is inflicted.

If a positive number is shown then the creature has a resistance against that type of damage, and any

damage received from it is reduced by the number shown. Thus, if someone had a resistance of six

against fire damage, then any fire damage they receive is reduced by six, so damage of seven or more

must be inflicted before the creature takes any damage.

Equally, a negative value represents a weakness to that type of attack and thus anyone with a

weakness will take additional damage on top of any otherwise sustained.

In the vast majority of cases a value of 0 will be assigned to these values, meaning that there is neither

a Resistance or a Weakness to take into account when calculating damage. However, certain races do

come with some minor resistances, as shown below:

Character Resistances

Race Resistances

Human Ice 2, Air 2

Atia -

Dwarf Physical 2

Troll Fire 10

Halfling Poison 5, Disease 5

As Bill's character is a Human, we can see that Humans gain slight

resistances to Ice and Air damage types. He then records this on his

character sheet:


0 0 2 0 0 2 0 0


22

Equipment

On the other side of the sheet is where you make a note of your equipment. These sections are for the

various kinds equipment you'll pick up; Weapons, Armour, Shields, and Backpack, along with their

various values and statistics which you'll learn as you play the game or keep reading this book.

The spaces for such items are limited (you'll note that there's just one slot for both Armour and

Shields, because a character can only have one of each equipped at a time. The Backpack is where all

the characters other equipment, such as food, healing potions, torches etc) is stored along with any

equipment they don't have equipped. You'll notice that the slots within the Backpack are limited also,

and are divided into Tiny/Small, Medium and Large slots which represent the size of the items carried

within and the total space available in the character's backpack.

Equipment is rarely done in the Character Creation Process. It is normally given out, or bought, at the

start of an adventure

There's also spaces where you can record what your character is holding in their right and left hands.

This can be important if, for example, someone needs to carry a torch, having this information on

hand will make it easier to see who's able to do so without having to relinquish a shield or whatnot.

There are three main ways in which a Player receives their character's starting equipment:

1. The GM allocates out the basic equipment before the first quest begins. He can be as generous

or as frugal as he wishes in this, though he should bare in mind what kind of adventure he's

sending the characters out on. It wouldn't do sending them into the equivalent of the seventh

circle of hell with a staff and pair of boots each. This is generally the fastest way to go about

handing equipment out, if you're in a hurry to get started.

2. The GM can hand out coin to the players with which to buy their equipment themselves.

Again, the amount of coin given will depend on the quality of the equipment which might be

needed on the upcoming adventure. Also, it's up to the GM if he wants to give the players a

pool of coin with which to share (and bicker over) or if he wants to hand out individual

amounts. It's worth baring in mind though that certain types of characters, such as warriors

with skills in weapons and heavy armour, will need more coin to buy their equipment than a

hand to hand, un-armoured specialist, for example.

3. The characters can start out with no equipment at all, and have to find and scavenge it as they

go through the adventure. This kind of scenario is ideal if the characters start off having being

captured, or have had their items stolen from them in some way.

Below are lists of all of the basic equipment within the game, including prices and attributes, are listed

over the following pages


23

Weapons - Melee

Weapon Name Type Damage Siz

e

Stat Requirements Notes Barter Cost

Unarmed 1D10 1/2 - S/A AS = Strength -2

Knife Short

Sword

1D10 1/2 T A Can be thrown 15m 12 5

Short Sword Short

Sword

D10 S A 13 10

Club Melee D10 L/

M

S Quarterstaffs are 2 handed 12 10

Mace/Sword/Hand

Axe etc

Melee D10+1 M S 14 20

Katana/Axe/Broad

sword etc

Melee D10+2 M S 7 Strength 16 25

Flail Melee D10 M S 7 Strength Ignores Shield Saves 16 20

Bastard

Sword/Battle axe

2 handed D10+3 L S 6 Strength Requires two hands 16 30

Claymore/War

Axe

2 handed 2D10 L S 7 Strength Requires two hands 18 30

Dai-

Katana/Double-

headed War Axe

2 handed 2D10+2 L S 8 Strength Requires two hands 20 40

Quarterstaff Spear 1D10 L S Requires two hands, can attack 5’

away, -2 when attacking adjacent

14 20

Spear Spear 1D10+2 L S Requires two hands, can attack 5’


14 20

Halberd Spear 2D10+2 L S 7 Strength Requires two hands, can attack 5’


16 35

Trident Spear 2D10+3 L S 8 Strength Requires two hands, can attack 5’


18 50


24


25

Weapons – Ranged

Weapon Name Type Damage Stat Size Requirements Notes Barter Cost

Bow Bow D10+2 S M 6 Strength Range 200m, 2 handed 16 40

Longbow Bow 2D10 S L 8 Strength Range 200m, 2 handed 18 80

Hand Crossbow Crossbow D10 S S Range 50’m, reload does not take an

action

17 70

Crossbow Crossbow 2D10+2 S L 6 Strength Range 150m, 2 handed, long reload 18 80

Re-curve

Crossbow

Crossbow 2D10+5 S L 8 Strength Range 150m, 2 handed, long reload 20 100

Short Bow Short Bow D10 A M 6 Agility Range 100m, 2 handed 14 20

Short Composite

Bow

Short Bow D10+2 A M 6 Agility Range 100m’, 2 handed 16 30

Bolas Sling - A T 6 Agility Range 30m, no damage – cause

target to be Prone

14 20

Sling Sling D10 1/2 A T 6 Agility Range 30m 12 10

Staff-sling Sling D10 A S 8 Agility Range 30m 16 18

Arrows - - - 5=S - Ammunition for Bows 12 2

Crossbow Bolts - - - 5=S - Ammunition for Crossbows 12 2

Sling Bullets - - - 10=S - Ammunition for Slings 12 1


26

Armour

Armour Name Type DS mod Size Requirements Notes Barter Cost

Un-armoured -2 - Strength or Agility

Fur Light Armour +1 M 12 15

Leather Light Armour +2 M 6 Agility 15 30

Studded Leather Light Armour +3 M 8 Agility 16 45

Chain Mail Heavy Armour +4 L 7 Strength -1 Agility, -2 Spell Rolls 16 50

Splint Mail Heavy Armour +5 L 8 Strength -2 Agility, -3 Spell Rolls 18 80

Plate Mail Heavy Armour +6 L 9 Strength -3 Agility, -4 Spell Rolls 20 120

Buckler Small Shields - S DS 6 12 10

Wooden Kite Small Shields - S DS 7 14 20

Steel Kite Large Shields - M DS 8 16 40

Tower Shield Large Shields - L 6 Strength DS 9 -1 Agility 18 80

Castle Shield Large Shields - L 8 Strength DS 10 -1 Agility, -1 Spell Rolls 19 100


27

General Store

Name Size Effects/Notes Barter Cost

Set of Common

Clothes

S 14 2

Set of Fine Clothes S 16 10

Provisions 5 = S Prevent hunger and starvation. One provision must be eaten per day

to prevent Attribute Penalties of -1 accumulative for each day

without food. Death occurs if any Attribute reaches 0

- 1

Bandage 5 = S Heal D10 Vitality points. Required for healing characters that have

been KO’ed

- 1

Bedroll M A bedroll lets you recover +1 bonus Vitality per hours rest 13 5

Rucksack - Carries general equipment collected 13 5

Rope +1 size per 10ft of rope 1/ft

Grappling Hook D Attaches onto the end of a rope, enabling it to catch onto objects for

a secure climb. Requires Agility test.

13 5

Matches (20) T For lighting fires/torches/lanterns/fires - 1

Torch S Each torch will light an area 30’ diameter for 6 turns - 2

Lantern S A lantern will light an area 30’ diameter for 12 turns 12 5

Oil S Refuels a lantern. Still requires re-lighting 12 2

Compass T 14 5

Spyglass T When looked through, a character can see up to 200’ away in detail 16 20

Lock picks T Required to pick locks, as well as possessing the Security skill 14 8

Alchemical Reagent 5 = S Required for the creation of potions using the Alchemy skill. 18 20

Empty Vial S Used for creating potions using the Alchemy skill - 1

Potion of Healing S Heals 2D10 Vitality 18 30

Potion of Luck S +2 to all rolls for 2 turns 18 30

Potion of Ability S +2 to all attributes for 2 turns 18 30


28

You'll see that each weapon and piece of equipment has its own sets of various values and statistics.

While you probably don't fully understand everything that's covered, don't worry. Everything that you

don't understand is covered in relevant sections below.

For now, though, we are only concerned with filling out the Character Sheet with these items we are

only concerned with one that is universal throughout all of them: Size. And this leads us nicely onto

the subject of...

Equipment on the Character Sheet

People can only carry so much. It would be unrealistic for a character to be carrying around half a

dozen long swords and two sets of plate mail armour. Where is he putting all of that stuff?

IRPG utilises a very simple system that avoids weight calculations and complex inventory

management and instead judges items on their bulk and weight and sorts them into these categories -

Tiny, Small, Medium, Large, Huge, Massive and Gigantic. Tiny items will be things such as a set of

provisions, or a tinderbox, whereas a Large item may be a two handed sword or a suit of armour, and

Massive items things like Anvils. Because of practical and physical limitations, characters in IRPG

cannot carry items of greater weight and bulk than Large items.

On the IRPG Character Sheet, you'll notice that the slots for equipment are pre-designed for items of

certain sizes. In the weapons section, you can see that there is room for one Large weapon, one

Medium, and three Small weapons. This shows the maximum number of weapons a character can

carry on their belt, across their back, and in other easily reachable places (one of the three small slots

may be a knife tucked into a boot, for example).

Weapons


L

M

S

S

S


Since each item in IRPG has a size value, and since the number of slots on the character sheet limit

the amount of which size of item may be carried, characters are therefore restricted in what they can

lug around.

The size of an item slot shows the maximum size of an item that can be placed into that slot. Note that

it is possible for a character to place an item of lesser size into a slot of greater size, so a character can

carry five Small weapons in their Weapon section if they wish to by placing Small weapons into the

Medium and Large slots. The reverse, however, is not true, and characters cannot go placing Large

items into Small item slots!


29

Weapons and armour which are found and equipped should be recorded on the reverse side of the

Character Sheet, along with the weapons statistics. If Valon were to have a Short Sword and a Short

Bow equipped, it would look like this on his Character Sheet:

Weapons


L Short Bow M Range 100m, 2 handed D10

Short Sword S D10

S

S


Weapon Details

Not everything can be filled out just from information from the weapon's stats on their own, because

the wielder's skill with the weapon must also be taken into account.. The AS (Attack Strength),

Attacks and Parries fields are all factors which depend on the character's skills and attributes.

Now, the keen-eyed of you may have noticed that there's already been a table in the Skill Description

section that will tell us how many Attacks and Parries Valon will have with his Short Sword based on

his short sword skill Rank. To save you finding it again, here is that table below:

Melee Weapon Skill Ranks

Rank AS Bonus Attacks Parries

0 0 1 1

1 1 1 1

2 2 1 2

3 3 1 2

4 4 2 2

5 5 2 2

6 6 2 3

7 7 2 3

8 8 3 3

9 9 3 4

10 10 3 4

Valon has Rank 1 in Short Blades, so we can see that he has 1 Attack and 1 Parry. We can write these

down too.


30

Also, ranged weapons always grant the wielder 1 attack an 0 parries (this is explained in Ranged

Combat below, but it has relevance here) so we can also fill this out too:

Weapon Size Notes Damage AS Attacks Parries Short Bow M Range 100m, 2 handed D10 1 0

Short Sword S D10 1 1

The other sections for Armour and Shields can be filled out in much the same way. Valon does not

use a Shield, so he leaves this area blank. He can afford a suit of leather armour though, so makes a

record of this:

Armour

Armour Type Size Notes DS Leather Light M Requires 6 Agility +2


If a character does not wish to equip an item, but wishes to keep it for future use, then he will record it

in his Backpack. The Backpack is where a character keeps all of the equipment which they don't

always need readily to hand. Any extra weapons or valuable items will be included in the Backpack,

too. Below is an example of Valon's Backpack after he's picked up some extra equipment at the

General Store:

Backpack

Small Small Medium Large 5 Provisions 5 Arrows Bedroll 5 Provisions 5 Arrows

5 Bandages 5 Arrows 20 Matches

Torch Coin:0

We can see from this that Valon seems to be very well prepared for his upcoming adventures with

plenty of food (provisions) and healing items (bandages) as well as other gear, though he does seem to

have spent all of his coin. Let's hope he doesn't need any spare cash wherever he is going!


31

Now that we've got all that worked out, it's time to look at...

Attack Strength

In short, Attack Strength is a measure of how powerful a PC or creatures attack is. It is an indication

of both their physical abilities and their skill with the weapon they attack with. The higher an Attack

Score is, the more likely the attack will hit, and the more damage it will do.

A Player Character's Attack Strength will vary based on their skills, equipment, and basic attributes.

A characters AS is worked out by first determining whether they'll be using Strength or Agility as

their main Attribute when attacking. If their character is using a larger melee weapon such as a sword,

axe, spear, or other two handed weapon, then they'll be using their Strength. If they're using a small,

more nimble weapon, such as a short sword, or dagger, then they'll be using Agility.

At this stage, a character's AS is equal to the Attribute they'll be using.

Once we know which Attribute (Strength or Agility) the character is using to attack with, we add any

Ranks the character might have in a Skill which corresponds to the weapon they're using.

For example, we know that Valon uses an Agility based weapon, his short sword. Valon's Agility is 8,

and his Rank in Short Swords is 1. Therefore, when attacking with his short sword, is AS is 9:

Weapon Size Notes Damage AS Attacks Parries Short Sword S D10 9

Generally, a character will be using a weapon which is relevant to the highest of these two Attributes.

However, there may be times during adventures where a character is forced to use whatever weapons

they're able to get their hands on.

A Player Character's AS will vary depending on what weapon they're using and how proficient they

are in it's use. If a character uses two different weapons (a sword and a bow, for example) then, once

calculated, their Attack Scores will be different for each and should be recorded in the relevant AS

field in the Weapons section of their character sheet for easy reference.

For example, as well as his short sword, Valon also uses a short bow. Once again this uses his Agility

of 8, but this time his Rank in the weapon skill is 2, so his Attack Strength is 10 for his short bow.


L Short Bow M Range 100m, 2 handed D10 9

Short Sword S D10 10

S

S



32

Sometimes characters are unfortunately forced to fight without weapons at all, if they have been

disarmed or have become separated from them in some way. Fighting without weapons or armour in

IRPG is generally a bad thing and should not be attempted. However, situations may well arise when

PCs and creatures are forced into doing so out of sheer desperation.

When making and unarmed attack, a character will fight with their Strength Attribute. Their AS value

is calculated using this, except that they receive a -2 penalty. Damage done in unarmed combat is D5.

Because this is always a possibility, the character sheet includes a space for you to record your

character's un-armed Attack Strength for quick reference.

In Valon's case this is 3 (his strength of 5 -2). This isn't very high at all - if he ends up without a

weapon he's in serious trouble!


L Short Bow M Range 100m, 2 handed D10 9

Short Sword S D10 10

S

S

Un-armed - AS equal to Strength -2 D5 3 The Skills of Brawling and Martial Arts will work to nullify these penalties and make characters

stronger in combat without using weapons.

Defence Strength

The Defence Strength shows how well a creature is at avoiding damage. Creatures with higher DS

will be harder to kill in combat.

A character's DS is worked out by taking either their Strength or Agility (whether they're trained in

Heavy or Light armour, respectively) and adding the DS bonus offered by the armour itself (noted in

the equipment lists, later), along with their rank in that armour type.

Valon picked up a suit of leather armour, which gives a +3 DS bonus. That is added to his Agility of

8, resulting in Valon having a DS of 11. He would then add any Ranks he had in Light Armour, but

since he is only at Rank 0 he receives no bonus. This is fine, though - had he not taken Light armour

he would not be able to use it at all!

A character who is wearing no armour must rely on their natural toughness or guile to see them out of

harms way. Therefore, their AS will be their Strength or Agility (whichever is highest), minus 2.

For Valon, his Enamoured Defence Strength is 6 (Agility 8 -2).


Un-armoured - - DS Equal to Strength or Agility -2 6 The Skills of Unarmoured and Toughness will to nullify these penalties and make characters stronger

in combat without using armour.


33

Completing the Character Sheet

For although we know everything we need to know about Valon, it's best that we fill in the Quick

Reference sections on the front of the Character Sheet so that we can see at a glance what Valon's AS,

Damage and other useful and often-used values are.

Once filled in, Valon's Quick Reference sections look like this:

Quick Reference - Attack Strength:

Weapon: Short Sword Weapon: Sword Bow Weapon: Unarmed

Attack Score (AS): 9 10 3

Attacks: 1 1 1

Parries: 1 0 1

Damage: D10 D10 D5

Quick Reference - Defence Strength:

Armour: 11 Shield: ~ Un-armoured: 6

Who Are You?

If you're so inclined, you can write a brief description of your character here, describing their

appearance, personality and/or their history. This is an optional step and might even be done later

once you have a better idea of who your character is. You might even use it to chart his adventures so

far, if you want!

Notes

Lastly, we have space here for any Notes you may wish to make about things you discover on your

adventure. A scrawled message on a wall saying "Left Passage Leads To Death!" is something your

character may want to make a mental note of, so you can write things that you might think are

important here.

That's It!

And we're done! Your character's got a race, mental and physical abilities, and a set of skills to help

him on his adventuring career. If you've not yet already, fill in the rest of the Personal Information and

give him a name and a profession, and record any Fate the character has left to carry over to his first

adventure.

While finishing up, Bill realises that he hasn't given his character a

name or a Focus yet! How silly of him, but that goes to show how

important it is to ensure you've not forgotten anything.

He also decides to Focus on Agility. This will make it easier for him to

increase the majority of his skills.

Now he and Valon are ready to start playing.


34

Iiosia RPG Character Sheet(example)


Player Name: Bill Age: 23

Character Name: Valon Height: 5' 11"

Sex: Male Weight: 160lbs

Race: Human Focus: Agility

Profession: Rouge Languages: Runish, Atian

Fate Points: 1 Sight: Clear


Strength: 5

Agility: 8

Willpower: 4 Spells:

Intellect: 7

Vitality: 21

Skills


Forcing 0 Athletics 0 Persuasion 0

Brawling 0 Sneak 2 Awareness 0

Melee Weapons 0 Short Sword 1 Lore 0

Short Bow 2

Light Armour 0


Quick Reference - Attack Strength: Weapon: Short Sword Weapon: Sword Bow Weapon: Unarmed

Attack Score (AS): 9 10 3

Attacks: 1 1 1

Parries: 1 0 1

Damage: D10 D10 D5

Quick Reference - Defence Strength:

Armour: 11 Shield: ~ Un-armoured: 6


35


0 0 2 0 0 2 0 0

Equipment

Weapons


L Short Bow M Range 100m, 2 handed D10 9 1 0

Short

Sword

S D10 10 1 1

S

S

Un-armed - AS equal to Strength -2 D5 3

Armour


Un-armoured - - DS Equal to Strength or Agility -2 6

Shield


Backpack

Small Small Medium Large 5 Provisions 5 Arrows Bedroll 5 Provisions 5 Arrows 5 Bandages 5 Arrows 20 Matches

Torch Coin:0


Who Are You?

Notes:


36

Changes to your Character

Introduction

Throughout the course of your adventures, your character will get better at what they do. The more

adventures a character goes on, and the more they do within those adventures, means that they'll

become more experienced and so be more adept at whatever it is that do. They do this by earning Fate Points with which you can spend on your character, increasing skills and

attributes in much the same way as you've done during Character Creation.

Characters gain Fate points as they progress through the trials and tribulations which the GM sets

them through. How the characters earn these points is up to the GM, and will depend on how well the

characters are doing and, most importantly, how quickly he wants the characters to develop.

If he's wanting the PCs to develop swiftly, then he may hand out several Fate points throughout the

course of a session (one for killing the dragon, one for saving the princess, one for finding the secret

treasure, and another for surviving). If a more slow-paced game is being played, then perhaps just one

or two points will be awarded for a session's play.

Fate points should be awarded as equally as possible across the group of players, to avoid some

becoming more powerful than others and taking all the limelight - this wouldn't be any fun for the

others. It is fine to award the odd one for flashes of genius and great deeds of valour, but the GM

should generally keep the players at as an even as possible.

Important: Character's can only spend Fate Points on their character when they're resting for

one hour or more. This represents the character thinking on their past experiences and deriving

conclusions from their actions, therefore learning from what they've been though. This is an important

rule to remember, as it stops characters adding Fate Points to skills and abilities as and when they

need them depending on what they happen to be encountering at the time.

The Influence of Focus

A character's Focus shows where their natural abilities lie, which will be in one of the for main

attributes of Strength, Agility, Willpower or Intellect. This is an important decision for a player to

make, for it will affect how their character develops and grows stronger.

The attribute the character is Focussed in will be easier for the character to increase, as will all the

skills which are governed by that attribute. The attribute and skills which fall under a character's

Focus need one less Fate Point to increase than those he is not Focussed in.


37

Increasing Attributes

Attributes are your primary abilities and will effect every action and skill you attempt to perform

pertaining to that attribute. Since they effect a greater degree on actions, attributes cost a greater

amount of Fate Points to increase them than skills do.

Below is a chart showing you how many Fate points it will take you to increase a certain Attribute.

You'll notice that the higher the attribute is, the more Fate Points it costs to increase it. This is because

the better someone is at something, the harder it is for them to get better at it. Increasing developed

attributes and skills requires more training and concentration, and thus the higher an attribute or skill

is, the more Fate Points it will cost to increase.

Fate Point Costs for Attributes

Attribute Value Focussed Attribute Unfocussed Attributes

1-4 2 Fate Points 3 Fate Points


10+ 4 Fate Points 5 Fate Points

You'll also notice that there's the possibility to increase attributes to values over 10. This opportunity

only arises for certain races who can gain abilities beyond what might be considered "normal" by

human standards:

Trolls can increase their Strength attribute to a maximum of 13

Halflings can increase their Agility attribute to a maximum of 13

Elves can increase their Willpower attribute to a maximum of 13

Attaining these levels would obviously require a large amount of Fate Points to achieve, but doing so

would greatly increase a characters prowess and would demonstrate them as being truly powerful

individuals.

Increasing Vitality

It is important not to neglect Vitality when improving your character. Having the abilities to perform

impressive feats with your prowess is no good if you're dead.

Vitality is a derived attribute based largely upon a character's Strength and Agility. Because this is the

case, a character's Base Vitality will increase by 1 for ever point they increase their Strength and

Agility by.

In addition, a player can spend 1 Fate Point exclusively on Vitality to have his character's Base

Vitality increased by 3.


38

Increasing Skills

Increasing skills works in much the same way as increasing Attributes does, only that it takes few

Fate Points to increase skills than it does Attributes.

Fate Point Costs for Skills

Skill Value Focussed Skill Unfocussed Skill

1-4 1 Fate Point 2 Fate Points


10+ 3 Fate Points 4 Fate Points

Learning New Skills

Of course, characters are not expected to just stick to the skills they had at Character Creation. As

they move around the world, seeing things and doing things and meeting people, they are bound to

pick up new tricks and talents.

If a players wishes their character to gain a new skill that is not already on their Character Sheet, then

they can do this at the cost of 2 Fate Points for a Focused skill and 3 Fate Points for an Unfocussed

skill. This will gain them rank 0 in that skill, and from then on they can continue to add ranks to that

skill as normal.

Learning New Languages

As characters move around the world they'll hear things and talk to people not of their ilk, and thus it

is possible for them to pick up dialects which they didn't know before.

Such a thing as learning a language is not easily done when living an adventuring life, however, and

so the cost is high to do so. Languages take 2 more Fate Points to learn after Character Creation than

they did during it. Thusly, the costs are as follows:

To learn... Costs... Dwarvern, Atia, or Grellkin 3 Fate point each Sign, Ghrealian, or Gilth 4 Fate points each Tartchii, Elvish, or Draconic 5 Fate points each

However, if there is a member within the party that speaks the language the character wishes to learn,

this additional cost is negated providing the character who knows the language is willing to teach it.


39

Losing and Gaining Vitality

Of all a Character's Attributes, Vitality is the one which will alter the most. As it shows the

Character's general health, this value is constantly changing as they take damage and receive healing.

It is important for all Characters in IRPG to keep their Vitality as high as they can, as if it is ever

reduced to 0 or less they run the risk of receiving a critical injury or even being killed outright.

Bring Reduced to 0 Vitality

When a creature is reduced to 0 or less Vitality, they have succumbed to their injuries and can play no

immediate further part in the game. Monsters and other creatures other than the Characters within

the game are assumed to have died and take no further part in the game.

Characters, however, are a different matter. When a Character is reduced to 0 or less Vitality they are

counted as being KOed. When this occurs, they must immediately roll on the following table to

determine if they have come to serious harm from their injuries.

To use the table, simply roll a D10, and modify the result by adding the Character strength to it, then

subtracting the level the Character's vitality was reduced to.

Example, Valon sustains heavy injuries and is reduced to -3 Vitality.

He must now roll on the Injury Table below. He rolls a D10 and

scores 4. Valon's Strength Attribute is 5, so he adds 5 to the D10 roll,

resulting in 9. He must alter this by -3 now, since that's what his

Vitality was reduced to. So his result on the Injury table is 6; Broken

Ribs! He could, however, elect to re-roll this using a Fate Point in the

hope of scoring a better result. Doing so also puts him at risk of

rolling something even worse, though!


40

Injury Table

D10 + Strength -

current Vitality: Result Effect

2 or less Death The character is dead. He is removed from the game until he is

resurrected by a powerful healer. The Resurrection spell is

covered under Healing magic. If the Player wishes, he may create a new character to play as,

which will be worked into the game's storyline via deliberation

with the GM. 3 Lost Leg Upon losing one of their legs, a character suffers Strength -3,

Agility ½ and (if the leg has been cut off) Vitality 1/2 . If the second leg is also broken/removed, the same penalties

apply to the characters modified statistics 4 Lost Sword

Arm Determine Randomly which arm is lost. The character suffers -2 strength and -2 agility, and Base

Vitality is reduced to half its normal level until the character

rests. Also, that character must either resort to their off-hand to fight

with, sacrificing any shield and fighting with -4 AS, or keeping

any shield they have and sacrificing their ability to attack at all.

2 handed weapons may not be used by that character until the

arm is restored. 5 Lost Shield

Arm When the character’s none sword arm is put out of action, the

character suffers -2 strength and -2 agility, and (if the arm was

cut off) Vitality ½. In addition, shields, offhand weapons, and 2

handed weapons may not be used by that character until the arm

is restored. 6 Broken Ribs The character suffers from broken ribs until treated by an

apothecary or healed with the Mind spell Bind Bones. The

characters Agility, Strength and Vitality are all halved for as

long as the ribs remain broken. 7 Broken Leg Upon losing one of their legs, a character suffers Strength -3,

Agility ½ and (if the leg has been cut off) Vitality 1/2 . If the second leg is also broken/removed, the same penalties

apply to the characters modified statistics 8 Broken Sword

Arm When the sword arm is put out of action, the character suffers -2

strength and -2 agility, and (if the arm was cut off) Vitality ½.

Also, that character must either resort to their off-hand to fight

with, sacrificing any shield and fighting with -4 AS, or keeping

any shield they have and sacrificing their ability to attack at all.

2 handed weapons may not be used by that character until the

arm is restored. 9 Broken Shield

Arm When the character’s none sword arm is put out of action, the

character suffers -2 strength and -2 agility, and (if the arm was

cut off) Vitality ½. In addition, shields, offhand weapons, and 2

handed weapons may not be used by that character until the arm

is restored. 10 -1 Attribute Determine randomly which Base Attribute is permanently

reduced by 1: 1-2 = Intellect 3-4= Strength 5-6= Willpower 7-8=Agility


41

9-10= Player Choice 11 -1 Attribute One of the Character's Base Attributes is reduced by -1. The

Player can chose which Attribute to reduce. 12 -3 Base

Vitality The Character's Base Vitality is reduced to 3 less than what it

was before the Injury. 13 Concussion The characters head is jarred and they become concussed for the

next D10 turns after they come back from being KO’ed. All of

the character’s statistics bar their Vitality are halved for the

duration of the concussion. 14 or more Just KO’ed No further serious effects

* Attributes can never be reduced to a Value less than 1. If the character sustains an injury which

may result in this, then the Attribute is reduced to 1 and does not go any lower

Once the Injury (if any) has been resolved, the Character still risks the risk of bleeding to death as he

lies helpless and motionless on the floor. This state, known as being KOed, lasts for D5 turns, during

which time another Character must reach him and heal him to 1 Vitality or above via bandages, a spell

etc, otherwise the character will die of blood loss, internal injuries, or other such nasty things,

regardless of the result of the Injury Table.

Ways of Recovering Vitality

There are four ways to restore lost Vitality in IRPG.

1. Through bandages, and the Apothecary skill.

When attempting to apply a bandage, a character must test on their Intellect to ensure they try apply it

correctly and in the correct place. A bandage which is not placed correctly is in effect useless and has

no effect.

The standard difficulty of 12 is used when applying bandages. If successful, then the injured character

gains D10 vitality from the treatment. The Apothecary Skill adds bonuses to applying bandages - it

adds the characters Skill Rank to the damage healed by it.

2. Via magical Healing spells.

Spellcasting is covered later in the rules. Certain spells have the ability to restore lost Vitality points if

they are successfully cast.

3. With the use of healing potions.

Healing potions are rare things in Iiosia and highly saught after. They will be drunk as an Action in

the usual turn order and, although different potions have differing effects, healing potions offer

perhaps the most potent form of healing.

4. Through resting over time, usually sleeping, where the body naturally heals and rejuvenates

itself. For every hours rest a Character gets, they will recover half of their Strength points in

Vitality.


42

The Most Importat Rule!!! Beyond this point we come to the nitty gritty - how to actually play the game. Now we'll learn what

all those attributed we rolled and skills we chose are actually used in the game.

The rules are made up of several small sections which are mostly here for reference.

However, before we start with all that, there is one very, very important rule you must be aware of if

you are to play IRPG. This is the most important rule, ever, EVER! Okay?

Use your common sense and have fun!

Alright, so that's two rules, but in general terms if everyone follows that rule then the game should be

a success. Whereas the rules outlined from now on are important, they are not the most important

thing in the game. They are there to provide structure and guidance, but should not be put in the way

of the spirit of the game, which is to encourage camaraderie, storytelling and fun.

That said, it is important that they're there to keep the structure and limits of the game in place. As

such, it is the GMs job with the help of the Players to implement them as subtly as he can while still

keeping the game as fluid and structured as he can.

Remember, when in doubt, use your common sense.


43

States

Certain times within the game creatures will unfortunately (or fortunately, if they're Monsters) come

under adverse conditions that hamper their ability to function and are hazardous to their continued

survival. These states are often the result of special attacks or spells, though others situations, devised

by the GM or which might just arise during the game, are the effects of which are descried below.

Blinded

Blinded creatures suffer -4 penalties to both AS and DS along with all other actions they take and

ranged attacks are impossible to make. They may not cast spells which require a range greater than

Touch, and spells are cast at a -2 penalty. The creatures movement is also halved for the duration of

the blindness.

Prone

Prone creatures must spend an action getting to their feet. While prone they may not attack in either

melee or with missile weapons. Attacks against them count as critical hits.


44

Lighting

Light and darkness are not only things of an ethical nature, but also a practical one. The level of

lighting within a certain setting will have an effect on game play within IRPG. The darker a place is

the greater the debilitating effect it will have on those trying to perform actions within it.

Lighting levels can be easily split up into four categories, which from lightest to darkest go: Clear,

Dim, Night, and Pitch. The table below goes over what differing light levels might have on the game.

It is up to the GM to decide what light levels are present at any given time, and thus rolls made must

be adjusted accordingly.

Type of Lighting Areas Covered Effects

Clear - good visibility, little or

nothing to prevent eyesight from

being hampered

Daytime, Well Lit Interiors -

Dim - heavily shaded and deep

shadows,

Badly Lit Interiors, dense forests,

twilight/dawn

-1 AS, max range 20'

Night - blackness with the

vague outlines of objects and

creatures visible,

Very Badly Lit Interiors, Night

time

-2AS, -1DS, max range 10'

Pitch - no visibility, creatures

won't be able to see their hand if

they hold it in front of their

faces.

Unlit underground, Sealed Rooms,

(Blinded Creatures)

-4AS, -4DS, all physical

actions -4, ranged attacks

impossible.

Certain races have the ability to see in certain light conditions, and some spells also grant the user the

capability to alter lighting levels for the caster and others in the area. It is assumed that if a creature

can see in a lighting level then they can also see perfectly well in all lighting levels which are brighter

than the one stated. For example, Dwarves have a natural ability to see in Pitch dark, and thus they

will incur no penalties when operating in this or any other lighting conditions either. Elves, on the

other hand, can see in


45

Turn Order

During a combat encounter, the action is segmented into turns. During the course of a turn, each PC,

NPC and creature can perform a series of activities such as moving, attacking, or other actions such as

applying bandages.

Initiative

To determine who goes first in a turn, Initiative is rolled. Each PC rolls a dice and adds their Agility

to the roll. The GM rolls dice in the same way for each NPC or creature and adds their Agility to the

rolls. If a set of monsters have the same Agility score, then their Initiative roll is used collectively and

they all act at the same time.

From this, we are able to see who reacts quickest to the situation and, thusly, who can go first, as the

PCs and creatures then act in descending order of initiative.

If two PCs roll the same Agility roll then they can decide between them which of them acts before the

other. If a creature (or set of creatures) rolls the same initiative as a PC, then the PC automatically

take their turn before the creatures do.

Taking a Turn

Within their turn, both PCs and Monsters can only do a certain amount of things with the short

amount of time a turn is supposed to represent. A PC or monster may therefore

AND

Movement

A PC or creature may only move once during their turn, either before or after they have attacked, cast

a spell, or performed an action. A creature can move up to the number of squares equal to their Agility

attribute (i.e. a Character with Agility 6 can move 6 squares; the equivalent of 30 feet). A moving

creature does not have to use all of their movement up, but if they stop moving and perform an action,

they may not move again afterwards.

Attacking

A creature can attack in their turn if they choose, either before or after moving. They attack with as

many Attacks as they have with their chosen weapon, as described in the Combat section.

Casting a Spell

If it has the ability, a creature can try to cast a spell of their choosing, either before or after moving.

Whether the spell is successfully cast or not, it still counts as the creature having (attempted to) cast a

spell

Move Attack OR Cast a Spell OR Perform an Action.


46

Performing an Action

Actions are miscellaneous tasks creatures may wish to perform while in a combat situation which is

not either attacking or casting spells. Such activities may be: Drinking a potion, applying a bandage,

swapping weapons (in and out of their pack pack), searching a fallen foe for loot and equipment,

opening a door, trying something which results in performing a Stat Check (bashing open something,

picking a lock etc) or Guarding (described below)

Guarding

Guarding is a special action which any PC and some NPCs may make during a turn. It represents

them reading themselves for an attack, rooting themselves to the spot and preparing for an enemy's

strike.

Guarding counts as an action, and thus someone performing a Guard may not attack or cast any spells,

although they may still move BEFORE they declare they are Guarding; they may not move

afterwards. Thus, in effect, when someone declares that they are Guarding, their turn is effectively

over

What Guarding does do is it enables the PC to instantly attack the first enemy which comes within

striking distance. This means that they can attack a creature within the creature's turn as it moves

within the PCs melee range.

The attack is made as normal and worked out in the same way as any other attack, with the exception

that only one attack is made despite how many Attacks the Guarding creature might have with the

weapon they're using. This represents the hurried nature of the attack; the Guarding creature is merely

reacting to the charge of another - he does not have time to gather momentum and reign a flurry of

blows down on them.

Once this attack is made the Guarding creature is assumed to be no longer Guarding and must declare

they are going to continue doing so in their next turn. Regardless of the result of the Guarding attack,

the creature may parry as normal if they are attacked in that turn.

Guarding can also be used with ranged weapons if the potential target is out of Line of Sight.

Guarding with a ranged weapon represents the archer readying their weapon and lining up a shot,

ready to let loose when an enemy comes in sight. The shot is made as soon as an enemy creature

comes within line of sight.

Spell-casting cannot be used in conjunction with Guarding. Spells require a degree of concentration

and forethought which goes against the nature of what Guarding represents.


47

Attribute Tests

When a character takes any kind of action which involves a chance of failure, then they must make a

check to see whether or not they are successful. to do this, an Attribute Roll is made.

To do this, it must first be determined as to which attribute is being used. if the character is, for

example, trying to bash down a door, then a Strength check needs to be made. If he is trying to climb

a ladder quickly, then he would roll on Agility

Then, the GM will judge how difficult the task being performed is. this will show what target the

player is trying to reach when he rolls his Attribute Check

The GM can use the table below to roughly judge how difficult the action is, and the total the player

needs to roll

Difficulty Target

Easy 11

Average 13

Difficult 15

Challenging 17

Hard 19

Very Hard 21

Foolhardy 25

Elsewhere in this document there are several tables which contain guidelines on how certain factors

affect actions in certain situations. When using these modifications, it is assumed that the starting

target is 15 - Average, and the modifiers affect the target accordingly from there.

Once these have been decided, the player then rolls a dice and adds the attribute being used to the dice

roll. in addition, if the character possesses a skill in the area which covers the action being performed,

then they may add their Skill Rank to the roll

If the total of the roll, + the attribute + any skill ranks uses is equal to, or exceeds the pre-determined

target, then the action is successful, otherwise, it fails.

Note that it can be the case for a character to be unable to reach the total no matter what they roll. In

such cases, the action is simply beyond that character's abilities and they should stick to doing things

within their skill level. Also, a roll of a one always fails, regardless of what needs to be rolled.

Example: Valon finds himself traversing a thin ledge which teeters

over a deep gorge. The wind is whipping around him and he runs the

risk of losing his balance and falling off! He needs to make an Agility

test, and the GM tells him the difficulty is 14. He rolls a D10 and gets

a 6. He adds his Agility of 8 onto this to score a 14. A narrow success,

but a success nonetheless!


48

Combat

Introduction

Now it's time to learn about combat and put all that AS and DS business we just worked out to good

use!

Combat is practically an inevitability in IRPG. Throughout their adventures the PCs are bound to

come across monsters and other enemies which stand in their way of riches and glory!

The system in IRPG is designed around fast-paced and deadly combat. In IRPG, combatants cannot

sustain blow after blow, and even the toughest warriors will succumb to two or three hefty hits upon

their person.

Survival in IRPG relies heavily not on ones ability to take damage, but to avoid it altogether will skill,

good armour, and the party working as a team.

Attacking in Melee

Melee combat is the most common kind of combat in Iiosia RPG - it is the clash of steel upon steel,

sword on shield - the real good stuff!

To attack something in melee, the attacker must have his target within his Attack Zone, which is

everywhere within 5 feet of him in every direction. If you are using maps and tokens, as described

below, then when looked on a grid Valon's melee Attack Zone would look like this:

When a NPC or creature makes an attack, they roll a dice and add their AS value to the roll. This is

their total Attack Strength for this particular strike against their enemy.


49

As explained earlier, a Character's AS is the combination of either their Strength or Agility

(whichever Attribute is governing the weapon they're using) plus whatever AS bonus they get for

ranks in that weapon.

The creature which is being attacked will then try to defend themselves by parrying (or avoiding) the

blow. They too will roll a dice, and add their DS to the value.

A character's DS is equal to their Strength and Agility (depending on if they're using Heavy or Light

armour respectively) plus their skill rank in that type of armour.

Their score must beat the attackers in order to avoid taking damage and losing Vitality.

If the attackers score is equal to or more than the defenders, then the attack has hit home and damage

must be worked out.

This is done by rolling the number of dice attributed on the weapons profile (for example, 1D10+2),

and further adding the difference between the attack and defence scores that have just been rolled.

This represents particularly successful attacks hitting a weak point in the opponents armour, or

catching their enemy off balance.

Example: Valon is attempting to attack a foul undead skeleton with his

Short Sword.

He rolls a D10 and rolls a 7. He then adds his AS of 9 for a

total of 16.

The skeleton then defends, or Parries. He rolls a D10 and

rolls 8. His DS is only 6, however, so his total DS is 14.

Since Valon's Attack Strength beat the Skeleton's Defence

Strength, he does damage. His short sword does D10 damage

and, in addition, Valon's AS beat the skeleton's DS by 2, so he

does 2 additional damage for a total of D10+2 damage. He

rolls a 5, resulting in a total of 7 Vitality damage to the

Skeleton.

Multiple Attacks

A PC or creatures Attack value shows how many times they may attack in one turn with a certain

weapon type. As they gain skill and experience, fighters become more adept at using their chosen

weapon and thus are more deadly when wielding it. Additional attacks are gained through ranking up

in weapon skills.

When a PC or creature has more than one attack, they may make that number of attacks against an

opponent, or against multiple opponents if they wish to. They must declare how they are distributing

their attacks before rolling any dice. So if, for example, a PC is facing two enemies and has two

attacks, then he can chose to either attack one enemy twice, or each enemy once, and he must declare

which option he chooses before rolling any dice.

Attacks always take place on an individual basis and are worked out one at a time.


50

Multiple Parries

A parry represents an attacked PC or creature blocking with their weapon, or somehow otherwise

attempting to avoid a blow struck towards them. The more parries someone has, the more attacks they

can attempt to defend themselves against.

A parry gives the defender the ability to roll a dice and add the total to their DS when attacked . To

start with, most PCs and creatures will have one parry, meaning that that can try to defend themselves

against one attack with a roll of a dice.

If someone has more than one parry, then they can defend themselves against more attacks in the

same turn; fending off a single opponent with more than one attack, or multiple opponents. Once

someone is attacked so many times in a turn that they are out of parries, then they only have their DS

to protect them and are unable to add a D10 roll to it.

Unlike Attacks, Parries cannot be used at the discretion of the player. A PC or creature will always

parry every attack they can in the order in which they come in, until they have no parries remaining.

This is because no one will ever wilfully stand idle and let someone smash a club into their head in

case they had to react to something later - it just wouldn't happen.

Defence rolls against ranged weapons are also counted as parries.

Multiple Attacks and Multiple Parries

The above examples are used with the assumption that the attacker has but one attack to make, and the

defender one parry. This will be common to begin with as PCs will be relatively unskilled in the

weapons they're using, and will be largely combating creatures of similar skill ranges.

As things progress however, and both PCs and creatures become more powerful, combats multiple

attacks and parries will develop.

Critical Hits

When either a PC or a creature attacks and rolls a 10 on their dice roll, then this counts as a critical

hit. When this occurs, the attacker finds some chink in the defenders armour or catches them wrong

footed, and is able to land a very damaging blow. When this occurs the defender may not add a dice

roll to their DS since the strike totally bypasses the defenders defences. Note that, although they do

not get to roll a dice, the defender will still count as having attempted a parry as if they had rolled a

dice.

A minimum of the weapon's base damage must be inflicted upon the target in the event of a critical

hit, even if the target's DS is so high that it will beat the attacker's total even without the D10 roll - the

attacker's base weapon damage will still be dealt. This is to ensure that there are no "unbeatable" foes

in Iiosia RPG.


51

Critical Misses

In contrast to a Critical Hit, a Critical Miss occurs when an attacking PC or creature rolls a 1 when

rolling their attack dice. When this occurs the attack automatically fails and, in addition, the attacker

may not perform any more attacks or move that turn. In effect, as soon as a character rolls a Critical

Miss their turn is over.

Shields

Carrying a shield can be an excellent form of defence against attack. They offer the wielder an extra

chance to defend themselves against attacks, even though they are bulky and take up the use of a

character's free hand.

The way a shield is used is it gives the user a special 'parry' roll against any attack of their choice

during the turn, which is in addition to any other parries they may have with their weapon. Unlike

other parries, the PC can choose when to use a shield to defend against an attack.

The shield block works in the same way as defending a regular attack, except that shields add their

own DS to the D10 roll, plus the wielder's shield skill Rank. Damage is worked out in the normal way

also, should the parry not block the attack.


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Ranged Combat

Short Bows, Bows, Crossbows and Slings can all be used to attack from a distance. Indeed, using

these weapons in melee combat is extremely ineffective. They cannot be used to attack any enemy

within melee combat, and offer no parries if the character happens to be wielding one if attacked.

To attack with a ranged weapon, the Character firing the missile weapon must have either an arrow,

bolt or stone to fire (depending on the weapon used) and be able to at least partially see the target.

An attack such as this is worked out in much the same was as a regular melee attack, with the attacker

rolling a D10 and adding his AS with a what weapon he's using, and the defender rolling a D10 (if

they have the parries to do so) and adding their DS to the score, with damage being the weapon's

stated damage plus the difference between how much the attackers score has beaten the defenders

score.

However, to represent the difficult nature of notching an arrow and letting loose at a target, the

attacker's AS may be modified depending on certain factors effecting the shot being made. The GM

will work out what penalties, if any, the attacker will receive to their AS before the attack is made.

The following examples can be used as guidelines on how to modify a ranged attacks AS:

Factor effecting the shot being

made

Effect on the

attacker's AS

Target is Massive +3

Target is Huge +2

Target is Large +1

Target is Medium 0

Target is Small -1

Target is Tiny -2

Over half range -1

Under a quarter range +1

Target adjacent -4

Target Partially Obscured (<50%) -1

Target Very Obscured (>50%) -2

Target Stationary +1

Target Unaware +1

Fog -1

Dim Light -1

Darkness -2

Target is running -2


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Skill Descriptions

Skills are summarised in more detail below.

Melee Weapon Ranks

Unlike most skills, which just offer a base +1 bonus to that skill per rank, melee weapon skills add a

wider arrange of bonuses since combat is slightly more complex. The following chart shows how skill

ranks affect Attack Score, Attacks, and Parries. The higher these numbers, the better. The more

attacks a character has, the more chances he'll have to strike at his opponents. Likewise, a greater

number of parries will enable a character to counter a greater number of blows when they come under

attack.

Melee Weapon Skill Ranks

Rank AS Bonus Attacks Parries

0 0 1 1

1 1 1 1

2 2 1 2

3 3 1 2

4 4 2 2

5 5 2 2

6 6 2 3

7 7 2 3

8 8 3 3

9 9 3 4

10 10 3 4

Special Abilities

As a character's prowess increases within their chosen skills they will pick up tricks which will further

their usefulness within the game. These are known as Special Abilities, and are gained by characters

whenever they reach rank 5 and 10 in a skill. These abilities are described within the skill descriptions

below, and can provide a variety of bonuses and special attacks which become available to the

character as he chooses them.

Unless otherwise stated, a character can take any Special Ability for a skill that they wish. Certain

Special Abilities might stack with another, meaning that one might only be chosen if a certain one is

taken at rank 5. A player must be careful what Special Abilities they choose and make sure they select

the ones best suited to how they want their character to be played.

N.B. Willpower Skills

Willpower skills do not receive Special Abilities. This is because Willpower skills are concerned with

magical spells, and the character will gain a greater variety of spells to cast as their skills increase.

Thus, they already gain more abilities from increasing skills, and have no need for additional Special

Abilities.


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Strength Skills

Two-handed weapons

Characters using this skill will be more proficient with large weapons requiring two hands to wield,

such as large axes and claymore swords. These weapons can be slow and unwieldy, and the user

sacrifices the use of a shield when using them. However, they are capable of inflicting huge damage

upon those unfortunate enough to get in the way, and can be devastating in the hands of a skilled user.

Two handed weapons may not be used with a shield. Characters with no skill in Two handed weapons

may not wield them.

Special Abilities:

Cleave. Whenever the player kills an opponent in a single attack (i.e. they reduce him from

full to 0 Vitality in one turn), then they are allowed a single free 'follow through' attack roll on

the next nearest opponent. The player can move up to 5' and attack an available foe, if

possible. This is a free move and attack which are taken as soon as the enemy has been slain.

It can only be used once per turn.

Mighty Blow. Player may choose to perform an all-out attack forgoing all attacks for the

round in return for a single attack which, if it connects, automatically counts as a critical and

does an extra D10 damage.

Berserk. The character can choose to sacrifice their parries for that turn so that they gain a

number of extra attacks equal to their number of parries.

Swordmaster: The Character gain +1 attack, parry, and AS, in addition to any other bonuses

they may receive.

Heavy Hitter: The character receives a +6 damage bonus to all two handed swords.

Melee Weapons

This category of weapons encompasses a wide range of “regular” weapons widely employed and used

across many continents of the world. The world wide usage of such weapons – swords, axes and

maces – shows their proved effectiveness in battle, which can be increased with greater skill and

strength from the user.

Melee weapons is one of the skills all characters start with.

Special Abilities:

Flurry: The player can, if he wishes, trade in any Parries they have for additional attacks.

Parries used in this way may not be used in the following round, and he regains them on his

next turn.

Swift Blade. The player gains the option of gaining +2 attacks for a turn, but these attacks will

be made at a hurried pace and suffer a -2AS penalty. In addition, none of these attacks will

count as a critical, even if a 10 is rolled.

Perfect Strike: The player can make a single Perfect Strike against a single opponent, in

which they may make but a single attack which gains a +4 AS bonus .

Shield Breaker: Any defender who makes a successful Shield Roll against a character with

this skill must roll a D10, and on the roll of a 1-5 their shield is cracked and must be

discarded. (The roll may be altered for magical shields).

Pommel Strike: The player may elect to hit his opponent with the hilt of his weapon instead of

attacking normally. A single normal attack is made, which, if successful, does D5 damage and


55

will stun the opponent, staggering them backwards 5' and preventing them from performing a

Spell, Action or Attack in their next turn.

Fend: The player can make two Guard attacks when he declares that he is making a Guard

action.

Brawling

Sometimes weapons aren’t needed to get the job done, and some individuals to just as well with their

fists and feet. Characters skilled in brawling use brute force to smash heads and break bones, having

no concern for finesse, and though brawling may not be as effective as fighting with weapons, anyone

who can do it will be pleased they can when they’re rendered unarmed.

Characters with this skill so not suffer the -2 penalty to Strength when fighting without a weapon.

Special Abilities:

Haymaker. The player may sacrifice all of his attacks and parries for one all out attack which

will ignore the enemies DS if successful in the same way as a critical.

Hammer Fists: The player now does D10+2 damage with his first as opposed to 1D5.

Shunt: Instead of their normal attack, the player may elect instead to Shunt their opponent. No

damage is done during this attack, but the character may move himself and his opponent up to

15' in a desired direction. If the resulting move results in his opponent hitting a wall, then the

opponent takes a single attack at AS 15 for D10 damage.

Feint: The player may elect to Feint instead of attacking. If they do this, then they sacrifice all

of their attacks, but prevent their opponent from attacking them or moving in their next turn.

Not that this does not stop their opponent from attacking other available targets.

Spear

Spears and halberds are long, hafted weapons, used to dismount cavalry and fight at a distance, thus

keeping the wielder out of harms way. Spears are obviously not suited to indoor use; their long hafts

making it extremely difficult to manoeuvre towards an oncoming opponent before they are in striking

distance, but if used correctly they can be used to strike enemies before they are within range to bring

their own weapons to bare.

Spears are large weapons which require two hands to use. Spears have the unique ability to attack

opponents up to 5’ (or one square) away from the attacker. However, as a downside and due to their

large and unwieldy nature, attacks with spears against opponents who adjacent receive a -2 penalty to

AS to represent the wielder having difficulty bringing his weapon to bare. Parries, however, are

worked out as normal.

Special Abilities:

Keep Them At Bay! The player, when performing a Guard action, actively prevents any

opponent from entering an adjacent square to themselves, even if they have used their Guard

attack for that turn.

Close Quarters Expert. Player is now so skilled they can use their weapon at close quarters

with no penalty, thus removing the -2 to AS against adjacent enemies.

Hurl: The player can throw their spear at an enemy within 20'. The attack is worked out in the

same way as any ranged attack, but does 2D10 damage. The spear must be retrieved from the

area it was thrown to in order to be used again. Each time the player uses this ability, roll a

D10. On the roll of a 1 the spear is broken and cannot be used again.


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Impale: The player may make a single, devastating attack, which does double damage if it

successfully hits.

Sweep: The character may use a Sweep attack, which effects all adjacent creatures (allies and

enemies alike). Each attack is treated as a regular attack.

Bow

Skilled users of a bow are able to pepper an enemy with arrows before they get close enough to attack

themselves, providing a low risk option to cause damage. Bows inflict high damage and have a long

range, and are easy to reload though they requite strength to pull the draw-string back far enough to

achieve a decent shot. Though not a powerful as crossbows or as convenient as slings, bows are a

widely used and tried and tested long ranged weapon, and skilled users can hit relatively small targets

from long distances. However they are useless in close combat, offering no offensive or defensive

capabilities at all.

These weapons require two hands to use effectively and so a shield may not be used alongside a bow

in combat. Characters with no skill in bows may not wield them.

Special Abilities:

Point Blank Shot. The Player is able to use his bow attack against adjacent opponents.

Crack Shot. Critical hits are scored by the player on a roll of a 9 or 10.

Snipe: By sacrificing their movement for a turn, the player receives a +4 AS bonus to their

attack.

Hunter: The player does not receive penalties to AS if the target is Small or if the target is

moving.

Crossbow

Crossbows are deadly long-ranged weapons, firing a short, steel-tipped bolt at any unfortunate target

within a large range. Sadly, these weapons have a long reload time and are cumbersome, thus making

them ill suited for more fast moving individuals, but their power and range make the trade-off worth it

for some. Those accomplished in the use of the crossbow gain increased accuracy and loading times.

Crossbows are heavy and demanding weapons and require two hands to use – so a shield may not be

used alongside one in combat. In addition, crossbows are awkward and time consuming to reload, and

doing so counts as an Action in the turn order. Characters without the Crossbow skill may not use

them.

Special Abilities:

Fast Reload. Reloading the crossbow no longer counts as an action.



moving.

Cross-club: The player can use their crossbow as a melee weapon, and receives all the attacks

and parries that they would if crossbow was a melee weapon when using it as such. Attacks

performed in this way do D10 damage.


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Heavy Armour

Heavy armour offers the wearer the best protection against enemy assault, as sword strikes and axe

slashes simply graze off armoured steel plates with little or no effect. Wearers of heavy armour are

able to wade into combat with little fear of injury from all but the most dangerous and larger weapons

and enemies they come across. This comes at a cost, however, as heavy armours is extremely costly

and cumbersome, and wearers suffer a loss to quickness, mobility and agility when encased in their

suits of steel.

Heavy armour is very cumbersome and takes practice to get used to moving in effectively. For this

reason a character who does not have this skill may not wear it.

Special Abilities:

Light As A Feather. The character no longer suffers Agility penalties for wearing heavy

armour.

Magical Affinity: The character no longer suffers Spell Roll penalties for wearing heavy

armour.

Specialist: The character receives a further +1 DS bonus for wearing Heavy Armour.

Large Shields

Shields are used to block blows before they come into contact with the body, nullifying the attackers

strike totally, and often protecting from incoming missiles too. Shields are used on one arm – taking

away the users ability to use a two handed weapon or a bow or crossbow, but adding another factor of

protection which may well provide the difference between life and death. Those masterful in the use

of a shield can block many attacks that would otherwise have caused them grave injury. Large Shields

are heavy and slow a user down, but effective at what they do and will aid a fighter greatly in battle.

Large Shields are heavy, awkward pieces of equipment that require their user to be familiar in their

use to be used correctly, and thusly a character with no skill in Large Shields may not use them.

Special Abilities:

Force Back. Upon a successful block, the user forces their opponent back, preventing them

from making any more attacks that turn.

Shield Wall. The player sacrifices all of his attacks in order to block with his shield. Until the

next round, the player may make Shield Rolls against all attacks made against him, and gain a

+1 bonus to them, too.

Shield Bash. Upon a successful block, the character will counter-attack his opponent,

attacking with an AS equal to the shield's Block Roll, and doing D10 damage.

Expert Blocker: The character can re-roll any failed blocks.

Forcing

Brute strength solves everything. Individuals with the Force skill can rely on the strength in their

bodies to overcome obstacles with strength that others could not, be it breaking down a door, heaving

a barricade out of the way, or bending iron bars – users of the Force skill can perform feats of strength

that others would not find possible.


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This skill gives the character a bonus whenever attempting to perform a feat of strength such as

lifting, pulling, pushing etc.

Special Abilities:

Very Strong: The character can re-roll any failed Forcing checks.

Bash. The character can automatically bash through a door or other barricade without the

need to roll a dice, so long as it was in his abilities to do so in the first place.

Lift. The character can automatically lift a heavy object without the need to roll a dice, so

long as it was in his abilities to do so in the first place.

Enduring

Some people are just more durable than others, and able to withstand hardships and punishments

which would bring others past the limits of their endurance. Those who can endure more punishment

than others have a better chance to shrugging off the effects of injuries, diseases, curses, poisons, and

harsh conditions such as extreme cold and heat.

A character with this skills gains bonuses when they test to take damage from potions, resisting

diseases and the like. N.B. This skill is unique in that you gain a Special Ability at Rank 0, 5, and 10.

Special Abilities:

Poison Resistance. The character is gains a -5 damage resistance from Poison

Disease Immunity: A character with this skills a -5 damage resistance from Disease

Elemental Resistance: A character with this ability will take -5 damage from fire, ice and

other elemental based damage

Elemental Immunity: A character can only take this ability if they have Elemental Resistance.

Elemental Immunity increases the damage resistance from -5 to -10

Physical Resistance. The character gains a physical resistance of -2.

Physical Enduring. The character gains a physical resistance of -4. This can only be taken if

Physical Resistance is taken beforehand.

Toughness

Sometimes only the strong survive. Tough characters are able to withstand wounds that would strike a

lesser man down, and are able to shrug off wounds which would be mortally wounding to others. The

toughness skill means that the characters body is akin to their armour, and such characters sometimes

shrug off the need to use armour at all.

By taking the Toughness Skill a character will remove the -2DS penalty to their strength when

fighting without armour. Any further ranks taken in Toughness will further increase the character's

DS by 1 per rank.

Special Abilities:

Mind over Matter. This Ability will enable the character to simply ignore the damage he may

sustain from one attack, once per day.

Fast Healer. A character with this Ability will heal Vitality from resting twice as fast as

normal.

Resilient. The character can now add +2 to any Injury rolls he makes.


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Endurance. The character can shrug off even more blows than normal, and gains +1 parry, in

addition to any other parries they may have.

Agility Skills

Short Bow

Short bows are smaller versions of their larger cousins, and while they suffer from a decreased range

and smaller damage potential, they are less cumbersome to carry around and do not require great

strength to use – thusly they are often the choice of less brutal races or more refined characters.

Short bows are precise, unique weapons and require this skill in order to be used. They require two

hands to wield.

Special Abilities:

Rapid Shot. The character can now fire two shots per turn rather than just one, if they do not

move in that turn.



moving.

Point Blank Shot. The Player is able to use his bow attack against adjacent opponents.

Sure Shot: The character can re-roll a missed shot IF he has not moved and will not move this

turn.

Small Shields

Shields are used to block blows before they come into contact with the body, nullifying the attackers

strike totally, and often protecting from incoming missiles too. Shields are used on one arm – taking

away the users ability to use a two handed weapon or a bow or crossbow, but adding another factor of

protection which may well provide the difference between life and death. Those masterful in the use

of a shield can block many attacks that would otherwise have caused them grave injury. Small shields

are lightweight and provide little protection, but it is often better to have one than not.

Special Abilities:

Rapid Block. The character can block twice in one turn, rather than just one. The character

cannot block the same attack twice.

Throw Shield: The character can use his shield as a projectile, launching it like a discuss at

his opponents. The attack is made in the same way as a ranged attack (using the Character's

Small Shield's skill) and the attack will do D10 damage. The shield will need to be recovered

from where it was thrown to be used again. Also, when this ability is used roll a D10. On the

roll of a 1 the shield breaks and cannot be used again.

Shield Bash. Upon a successful block, the character will counter-attack his opponent,

attacking with an AS equal to the shield's Block Roll, and doing D10 damage.

Martial Arts


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Strength is not the only factor in combat; agility can also be used to fight when a character is

unarmed, using speed and quickness combined with a knowledge of where to hurt an opponent. Those

skilled in Martial Arts can fight without weapons adequately, and masters of the skill can fight equally

as well as those armed with swords and axes

Taking this skill allows characters to use Agility in close combat while unarmed. They will not suffer

any penalties for doing so, and additional ranks will increase AS, attacks and parries as normal.

Special Abilities:

Throw. The character can make a special Throwing attack instead of a regular one. This is a

single attack worked out in the usual way. It does D10 damage but also enables the character

to move his target up to 10' away, where they will be Prone unless they make an Agility check

on 16

Deadly: Attacks using the skill now do D10+2 damage.

Feint: The player may elect to Feint instead of attacking. If they do this, then they sacrifice all

of their attacks, but prevent their opponent from attacking them or moving in their next turn.

Not that this does not stop their opponent from attacking other available targets.

Block. This Ability gives the character +1 parry, in addition to any other parries he may have

through his rank in the skill.

Sling

Slings are compact, lightweight weapons which require one hand to use, so a shield may be equipped

while using one. They have a relatively short range and the bullet they use is small and causes low

damage, but they make an excellent utility weapon. Slings are often frowned upon for being simplistic

and weak, but are in fact deadly in skilled hands.

Slings require a lot of practice to use efficiently and therefore cannot be used without this skill.

Special Abilities:

Headshot. The slinger can make a single attack which suffers a -2AS penalty, but if it

connects always counts as a critical.

Rapid Fire. This skill enables the character to attack twice in one turn, even if they move.

Short Sword

Sword swords are blades no longer than two feet long, and shrink down to six inch daggers.

Lightweight weapons, they do not require great strength to use, relying on deftness and quickness to

be wielded effectively. They do not wound as deeply as larger weapons, but are a suitable alternative

to those unsuited for heavier weapons who still wish to pack a punch in close combat.

Short swords can be used unskilled, though their combat effectiveness due to this is reduced

dramatically.

Special Abilities:

Specialist. The character gains +1 AS and +1 Damage with Short Swords in addition to other

bonuses.


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Disarm. The character, instead of attacking normally, can make a single disarming attack

against his opponent. Work out the attack as normal. If the characters total AS exceeds his

opponents DS by a total of 4 or more then his opponent's weapon is wrenched out of his hand.

Swift Strike. This Ability allows the character to gain +1 attack, in addition to any others he

may have

Deadly. The character gains +4 damage while using Short Swords

Unarmoured

A character skilled in Unarmoured need not concern themselves as much with protective layers of

leather and metal. Those adept at un-armoured combat use their lack of armour to help them evade

blows altogether – surviving where another might have been hacked to pieces through their ability to

avoid the attacks of others. However, it should be noted that even the most skilled in Unarmoured

cannot match the protection of the better armours in the world.

Unarmoured allows characters to use their Agility attribute as their DS without receiving the -2

penalty for doing so. Further ranks in this skill will increase their DS accordingly.

Special Abilities:

Duck. With this Ability, the character can ignore one set of damage that he may normally

have had inflicted on him once per day.

Artful Dodger. The character receives a +1 bonus to DS in addition to any other bonuses. This

skill can be taken more than once for an accumulative bonus.

Quickness. The character is able to duck and weave about, and gains an additional Parry on

top of any others they may have.

Offhand Weapon

Two hands are better than one – characters with an off-handed weapon have a small blade equipped in

their other hand rather than a shield, which gives them greater offensive capabilities. While this style

of fighting is somewhat risky and has a greater margin for error, its exotic style and unpredictable

nature make it difficult to defend against for some opponents. Those skilled in off-hand weapon

fighting often inflict more damage in combat and are more durable and versatile fighters as if, for

example, their sword arm is disabled, they will be able to fight on regardless.

When this Skill is taken, the Character can use a Small Weapon in their off-hand, providing that it is

free. The off-hand weapon grants one additional Attack per turn.

This additional roll is made using the character's Offhand Weapon skill and not effected by any other

weapon or armour skills they may have. The attack roll is modified by 0 at rank 0 and increases to +1

at rank 1 and so on.

Special Abilities:

Double Strike. The character gains 1 additional attack with his offhand weapon

Three's a Charm. The character now has 3 attacks with his offhand weapon. A character must

take Double Strike before taking this Ability.

Parry. If the character wishes, he can trade his attack for an additional parry. The parry is

made in the same was as a block with a shield, and counts as having a DS of 9.

Light Armour


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Light armours are made up of hides and hardened leathers, which offer greater protection than going

un-armoured and more mobility than the heavier chain and plate alternatives. While offering less

protection than heavy armour, light armour does not require great strength to wear it, though some of

the leathers do require a nimble wearer to wear-in the armour and allow it to move with them. Light

armours are also lighter and do not inhibit the wearers mobility as heavy types do.

Special Abilities:

Specialist: The character receives a further +1 DS bonus for wearing Light Armour

Elite Specialist. The character receives +2 DS for wearing Light Armour. The character must

take the Specialist Ability before choosing this one.

Glance Away. The character gains an additional parry, over and above any other parries he

might have.

Athletics

Those skilled in athletics are more nimble, agile, and lithe than others, and have a greater chance at

performing actions requiring bodily dexterity, such as swimming, evading, running, jumping,

climbing, and falling. Athletics is a skill that may enable the character to get to an otherwise

inaccessible location, such as scaling a castle wall, or will enable them to escape dangers more easily,

such as dodging a trap, and the chance of success in those actions will increase in expertise.

This skill grants a bonus every time a character attempts to perform an action which involves some

kind of agility test such as jumping, swimming, climbing and the like.

Special Abilities:

Evade. With this Ability, the character can automatically ignore one Glancing Strike that they

may have otherwise have suffered once per turn.

Athlete. The character with this ability will be able to re-roll any failed Athletics Stat Check

they make.

Avoidance. This Ability will grant a free re-roll to any dice roll testing to avoid some sort of

trap, pitfall or other dangerous occurrence.

Heightened Reactions. When a character takes this ability they may add +2 to all initiative

rolls they make.

Sneak

Sneaks are adept at remaining unseen – hiding their presence from others and even sneaking past

people unheeded and without confrontation, moving silently, keeping to the shadows, watching and

listening from behind a door or round a corner. Skilled sneaks can even be able to perform actions

such as dropping poisons or sleeping drugs into peoples drinks.

A sneak check will be taken whenever a character attempts to move unseen from one place to another

or to remain hidden when they might otherwise be seen. This is a Stat Check and the difficulty with

vary based on the situation and the action being carried out, and will be at the discretion of the GM.

Characters with Sneak can also attempt to Sneak Attack enemies by catching them off guard and

preventing them from Parrying. To do this, a character must first make a Sneak Check to attempt to

approach the enemy unseen (and thus, Sneak Attacks may not be made by characters which are

already in combat with their target or be made against targets which know of their presence), and then

pass a further Sneak Check to see if they manage to get the attack in. If successful on both of these


63

rolls then they hit an automatic critical on their opponent. If either of these rolls fail then their attack

is wasted. More information on Sneak Attacks can be found elsewhere in the rules.

Sneaking and Sneak Attacks

Sneaking is the ability to move unseen and unnoticed to attempt to remain hidden from, sneak past, or

even engage creatures whom the sneak wishes not to be seen by.

All characters within IRPG have the Sneak Skill as they start out, as anyone can attempt to be stealthy

if they wish. However, only those whom are agile and adept at sneaking will be able to pursue this

type of action with any real chance of success.

Sneak tests are made in the same way as any other type of ability check, with the player describing to

the GM exactly what they wish to do, and the GM determining exactly how difficult that might be by

considering the action along with other factors which may affect the result of the action. A table

below is included as a guide to help the GM determine what kind of modifiers to include on such a

roll.

A successful Sneak roll will indicate that the character has succeeded in his aim, whereas a failed roll

will mean that they have been spotted by whomever they were attempting to sneak from.

Sneak Attacks

If a character possesses the Sneak Skill, then they can attempt to attack an enemy unawares and hit

him for critical damage whilst removing his ability to parry. To do so is not an easy feat, however,

and only adept sneaks can hope to get such a hit in on an opponent.

The first prerequisite for a sneak attack to be made is that the intended target must not know of the

presence of the attacker. If the target is aware of the attacker, then there is no chance that they will be

able to be snuck up upon and be Sneak Attacked.

If the intended target can see or is aware of the attackers presence, then the attacker must attempt to

hide from the target. This will require a successful Sneak test and thus it will then take at least two

turns to pull off the Sneak attack since the Sneak test will count as the current turn's action and so

prevents the attack from being made that turn. Thus, it is much more preferable to attack an enemy

who is initially unaware of the attackers presence.

Once this condition is met, then a Sneak check must be rolled to see if the attacker can sneak up on

his target and attack without being detected. This Sneak check's difficulty is determined by the GM,

and the table below is provided to help him determine what kind of difficulty a Sneak check might

need to be made against (this table is also included in the rules for Sneaking).

If the Sneak test is successful, then the attacker rolls damage as if he has just scored a Critical Hit.

Sneaking Modifiers

Condition Sneak Difficulty Modifier

Clear lighting 0

Dim Lighting 0

Dark Lighting +2

Pitch Lighting +4


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Rain +1

No Cover -2

Some Cover 0

Heavy Cover +2

Enemy Directly Aware of

Character

-4

Enemy In Combat +3

Enemy Alert -2

Enemy at Ease +1

Enemy Asleep +4

2 Enemies -1

3+ Enemies -3

Approaching from Behind +2

Approaching from the Front -2

Special Abilities:

Assassin. A character with this skill does an extra D10 damage every time they manage to do

a Sneak Attack

Expert Sneak. A character with this skill can re-roll one Sneak roll once per turn

Backstabber. This Ability enables the character to make Sneak Attacks against creatures

which are already within melee range, provided they make a successful Sneak test to do so.

They gain a base +4 bonus to the sneak roll to counteract the -4 modifier they should receive

from having the enemy being directly aware that they are there.

Sleight of Hand

Sleight of hand artist are able to create illusions with their fingers, making this disappear on your

person, picking pockets, opening locks and performing general skulduggery with ones fingers.

Though often a skill used in illegal activities, though not all employers of this skill are cut-purses and

thieves – they also include entertainers and illusionists among their ranks.

This skill grants the a character the capability of picking locks, pick-pocketing, performing card

tricks, and other feats of deftness with the fingers. Further ranks will add bonuses to rolls involving

these actions.

Special Abilities:

Pickpocket. The character can re-roll failed attempts to relieve people of their belongings

through pickpocketing.

Illusionist. With this Ability the character can re-roll failed attempts at causing sleight of hand

illusions such as card tricks, making objects disappear and other such actions.

Disarm. This Ability will enable the character to re-roll failed attempts at disarming traps.

Burglar. This Ability will enable the character to re-roll failed attempts at disengaging locks.


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Willpower Skills

Magic Resistance

Through training, those who dedicate themselves can begin to resist the effects of hostile magical

spells cast upon them by subduing the energy it takes to cast it. Such individuals are often mages

themselves, as they often already have much of the will and understanding required to perform such a

feat, but sometimes wizard-hunting warriors often endeavour in such things to resist the curses they

will undoubtedly come across. Those highly skilled in Resist Magic will be able to nullify all but the

most powerful spells cast upon them.

With this skill, the character has a chance to resist the effects of any spells cast upon him. To do this,

the character must beat the difficulty of the spell by making a Willpower test and adding his Magic

Resistance Rank to the roll. If he succeeds then the spell does not effect him.This skill only affects

spells cast directly at the character. It does not stop him from receiving magical damage from spells

not cast directly at him, nor does it stop him from actively dispelling any spells cast in any other way.

Unfortunately, this skill will also have a chance of preventing positive spells, such as healing,

from affecting the character.

Necromancy Power

Necromancy is the study of death, and with what lies beyond death. It is unsurprisingly the

most shunned magic type of them all, bringing with it the most stigma and hatred.

Necromancers are often found living alone, conducting experiments on dead bodies. The

more powerful necromancers command groups and even armies of undead servants, bound to

their will by magic.

Demonics Power

mages who specialise in Demonics specialise more often than not in opening routes through

the planes to Inferis – the source of Dark Magic itself and home of the demons. With their

power, Demonigists can speak with and even summon demons forth – this is often very risky,

as demons are known to turn on mages who disturb them without warning or offering.

Witchcraft Power

Witchcraft is primarily concerned with inflicting curses and hexes upon people rather than

harming them directly. Of all the Dark Arcs, it is the most accepted – a witch/warlock can

make a living on selling curses to people who want to take them away and “gift” them to

others, though they must keep a very low profile when doing so.

Blessing Power

A Divine mage who blesses bestows aid upon those near him, making them hardier in battle

and granting other boons which will aid and help them. Blessing mages can ply their trade at

local temples, with bands of adventurers or on the wider field of battle; proving equally

useful in all situations.


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Banishing Power

Banishing magic is the most holy of the magic arcs. It focuses on banishing unnatural and

demonic creatures from Iiosia, and is more often than not wielded by holy priests and monks

in their battles with the undead.

Healing Power

Healing magics are concerned with the restoration and rejuvenation of a fellow's friends.

Healers are perhaps the most popular form of magic-user, and for good reason – their

inclusion will save lives and make battle easier, and even raise comrades from the dead.

Air Power

Air mages control the power of the winds and the clouds. They are able to bring forth highly

destructive forces, rivalling that of Fire mages, and as such are treated with much respect and

reverence, though perhaps not the fear that Fire mages command.

Fire Power

The destructive powers of fire have as much symbolism with the Dark Arcs as they do with

the Nature ones, and as such Fire has become the “dark horse” of the Druidic Arcs. A Fire

Mage can unleash devastating spells upon his enemies when his wrath is stoked.

Water Power

Water magic is the least offensive of the Nature Powers. Water mages have many useful

abilities over water that makes them versatile additions to have on explorations, and are

especially valued in areas where rainfall is lacking.

Earth Power

Earth mages exhibit the qualities of their chosen element – their magic is strong and powerful

and creates great defences. Earth magic is extremely useful for protecting the caster from

harm, as well as bringing the power of rock and earth against his enemies.

Introverted Mind Power

Introverted Mind mages use their magical abilities to empower their own minds with

supernatural abilities, giving them power to see into the future, sense things around them

which their natural senses cannot see, and move objects with telekinesis.

Extroverted Mind Power

Extroverted Mind mages are able to project their thoughts into the minds of others, and are

able to implant thoughts and emotions, alter their perception of the world around them, have

conversations using telepathy, and even control their victims through mind control.

N.B As there are many spells, magical skills are covered in depth in the separate Magic Manual.


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Intellect Skills

Alchemy

The Alchemy skill allows the user to create potions which have varying effects with which to aid

himself and his party as well as harm or otherwise debilitate the enemy. What affects these potions

have and to what potency depends the alchemists skill.

Reagents

Potions are created from the mixing of various reagents. A reagent is something from a creature which

has some sort of magical properties. It could be a lock of hair, a tooth, a tuft of fur or sliver of skin.

Mixing reagents together is what gives potions their magical properties and generally the more

reagents a potion requires the more powerful the effect of that potion will be.

Reagents are either bought, or they are taken from certain creatures after they have been killed. The

Bestiary book shows what creatures have reagents upon (or within) them. Once such a creature has

been killed then the alchemist can try to take the reagent from their body. Only alchemists have the

know-how to be able to do this - they receive this ability at Alchemy Rank 0.

Collecting reagents is difficult and may well go wrong. For this reason each reagent has a difficulty

associated with it when attempting to collect it (which is also in the Bestiary). An alchemist takes an

Intellect test against this difficulty and adds his alchemy Rank to the roll to see if he successfully

collects the reagents. If more than one reagent is present, he rolls separately for each one.

If this is being done while combat is still ongoing, then collecting reagents count as an Action.

Collecting reagents on a single corpse only counts as one action, despite how many reagents might be

found upon it or how many successes or failures he has while collecting them.

Making Potions

The potions which can be made are listed below. Potions need something to be contained in, thus, a

Potion Vial is required for each potion created. A potion will be automatically made if the caster has

enough Skill Ranks, Reagents, and time mix the potion in. In game terms, mixing a potion also counts

as an Action, and thus it is better for the alchemist to prepare what potions he might feel he needs

before an encounter when time is less of a restraint, rather than during one.

Potion Types

Alchemy

Rank

Potion Reagents

Needed

Effect

0 - - The Alchemist can collect reagents

1 Lesser Resist Element 2 -3 resistance to chosen element for 2 turns

Lesser Resist Pain 2 -2 resistance to physical damage for 2 turns

2 Potion of Lesser Poison 3 D10 damage for

Lesser Potion of Defence 3 +2 DS for 2 turns

Lesser Potion of Luck 3 +1 to all rolls for 2 turns

Lesser Potion of Ability 3 +1 to any Attribute for 2 turns

3 Lesser Potion of Focus 3 +2 ranks to any Skill for 2 turns

Lesser Potion of Healing 2 Heals D10 damage

Potion of Truth 3 The drinker is forced to tell the truth for 2 turns

Lesser Potion of Fate 3 1 re-roll for the next turn

4 Water Walking 3 Caster can walk on the surface of water for 2

turns.


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Resist Element 3 -6 resistance to chosen element for 2 turns

Holy Water 3 2D10 damage to an undead creature. Can be

thrown up to 15'

Potion of the Rat 4 Drinker is turned into a rat for 2 turns

Potion of Healing 3 Heals 2D10 Vitality

Potion of Poison 3 Whomever ingests this poison takes D10 damage

for 3 turns.

5 Cure Poison 3 Will prevent the drinker from taking further

damage from any poisons which they may be

affected by.

Cure Disease 3 Will prevent the drinker from taking further

damage and penalties from any diseases which

they may be affected by.

Resist Pain 2 -5 resistance to physical damage for 2 turns

Potion of Blindness 4 Drinker suffers -4AS, DS, and attribute checks,

plus half movement, for 4 turns

Potion of Ability 3 +2 to all attributes for 2 turns

6 Potion of Fate 3 Grants the drinker and additional re-roll which

may be used any time before he next rests.

Potion of Luck 4 +2 to all rolls for 2 turns

Potion of Defence 3 +5 DS for 2 turns

Potion of Fire 3 Can be thrown 15', doing D10 fire damage

within 5' of the target.

7 Potion of Focus 4 +5 Ranks to any known skill for 5 turns.

Potion of Paralyse 4 Drinker treated as Prone for 2 turns.

8 Greater Potion of Healing 3 Drinker is healed to full Base Vitality

9 Knit Bone 4 Drinker restores one broken limb in the same

way as the Healing spell Knit Bone

Grow Limb 4 Drinker restores one lost limb in the same way as

the Healing spell Grow Limb.

10 Deadly Poison 5 This poison will kill anyone who ingests it,

reducing their Vitality to 0.

Using Potions and Coating Weapons

If a character wishes to drink a potion during their turn it will count as an Action and the potion's

effects will take effect instantly.

However, administering potions with harmful effects to enemy creatures is not so easy. No one is

going to willingly drink a potion of paralyse, poison, or other such effects, so the potion will have to

be administered the in one of two ways:

1. Either by subterfuge or trickery, i.e. by dropping the potion's contents into a drink or onto

food, tricking the intended target into taking a swig via a Persuasion test, or some other

devious means.

2. Or forcefully, by coating a weapon in the potion. This is an Action, and means that the chosen

weapon is now coated in the potion and whatever effects the potion has will take effect

alongside any other damage done by that weapon. These effects will be worked out the next

time weapon successfully does damage to an opponent, after which the weapon acts as

normal.

Because the potions effects will only affect the next hit, putting such an effect on a missile

weapon such as an arrow is a risky business - if the shot misses, the potion is wasted.


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Note that the weapon does not have to be wielded by the character at all, but could be applied

to any weapon the alchemist wishes. This will take one Action reguardless of the type of

weapon coated, and must be done on weapons that the Alchemist or the person coating

weapons can physically reach.

Carrying Potions

Potions created by the alchemist are stored like all other items within his backpack, and can be shared

out among his fellow characters as he sees fit.

Each potion counts as a Small item.

Special Abilities:

Collector. An alchemist with this ability can re-roll failed rolls to collect reagents

Efficient. An alchemist with this ability requires one less reagent than he otherwise

would need in order to mix a potion.

Mixer. By taking this ability, the alchemist can create potions more powerful than he

normally could. Alchemist can mix any potion he chooses so long as he adds an

additional reagent for each rank the potion he is trying to create exceeds his alchemy

skill.

Barter

Barters are people who always look for a good deal – and then know how to make it better. Those

skilled at barter can gain valuable and rare goods cheaper from sellers who would normally charge

full price for those who did not haggle, thus saving precious coin which can be spent elsewhere.

When attempting to Barter the character will make a Stat Check against the Barter score of any

particular item, and if successful will receive 25% off (rounding up) for that item. However, and

unsuccessful roll will mean the character is unable to Barter with that shopkeeper any longer on any

other of their goods until at least a day passes within the game.

Special Abilities:

Haggle. This Ability will increase the price dropped from items from 25% to 50%,

Advanced Haggle. This ability can only be taken if Haggle has been taken earlier. It will

enable the character to get 75% off the items base price on a successful Barter Check

Persistent. By taking this Ability, the character can continue to barter with a shopkeeper on

items despite how many failed attempts at Bartering they make. They may not make more

than one Barter attempt on a individual items, though.

Persuasion

Not every situation need be resolved by axe and blade – talking your way out of a situation can be

much less costly. A character with this skill has a glib tongue that enables them to talk their way into

or out of almost any situation – from bribing a guard to convincing a hungry ogre not to eat them for

supper. Those skilled in Persuasion are quick witted and can be very manipulative and persuasive to

get their own way to anyone willing to listen.

Special Abilities:


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Diplomat. This Ability allows the character to re-roll a failed attempt at attempting to coerce

an creature.

Bribe. The Bribe Ability enables the character to automatically succeed once per day in a

Persuasion test if they offer money for what they want. The amount needed for such a feat

will be determined by the GM, who will increase the bribe amount the more excessive the

demand is.

Awareness

Some people are just more alert than others – as if they have a sixth sense. Someone with this skill is

one of them. With Awareness, a character may be able to spot things that others may well overlook

entirely. Such things include traps, ambushes, secret doors, and subtle things about people such as if

they are concealing a weapon, and if they are lying when they are speak.

Special Abilities:

Acute Senses. This Ability will enable the character to re-roll failed attempts at spotting

hidden, unseen things.

Spot Trap. This Ability will enable the character to automatically spot one trap once per day.

No roll is needed for this

Spot Hidden Door. This Ability will enable the character to spot one hidden door once per

day.

Spot Hidden Person or Objecy. This Ability will enable the character to spot one hidden

object OR one hiding person once per day.

Lore

Lore is a measure of a character's general knowledge combined with their common sense. Characters

with a high Lore skill will have a greater chance of knowing important titbits of information which

will be helpful in adventures, such as whether a mushroom is edible, what the effects of a potion

might be, an attribute of a certain creature, and numerous other things which they might have picked

up or discern from what they already know.

Special Abilities:

Linguist: Upon taking this Ability, the character can learn a language of their choosing. This

Ability can be taken twice (at Rank 5 and Rank 10) for two bonus languages

Fast Learner. When taking this ability, the character will roll a D10 every time they earn a

Fate Point. On the roll of a 6+, the character receives two fate points and not just one.

Learned. By taking this Ability, the character is allowed to immediately take one other

Special Ability for any of the Skills that he has Rank 1 or above in. Thus, he is able to take

able to take Special Abilities in Skills before he would otherwise be able to do so. Learned

can be taken twice; both at Lore Rank 5 and at Rank 10, with Abilities awarded to Skills each

time.

Apothecary

The arts of healing are not only performed by alchemist and mages. The art of a basic bandage to tend

a bleeding wound or splint to help a fractured limb heal is highly sought after in those of the

adventuring profession, and a skilled healer can mean the difference between life and death in many

occasions.


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This Skill allows the character to add his Skill Rank to the roll when determining whether or not a

bandage is applied successfully in order to heal someone. It also adds the Skill Rank to the amount of

Vitality healed by a bandage.

Special Abilities:

Resourceful. The character now no longer needs bandages to use this Skill. He instead uses

whatever comes to hand - strips of cloth, needle & tread, and other such means to bind

wounds.

Splint. With this Ability, the character can now use his Apothecary Skill to heal broken

bones. To do this, he must make a Skill Check on 16, and if successful the bone will be

healed in a week. If he fails the Skill Check he fails to heal the break.


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Maps and Tokens

It is highly recommended that the GM find some means of mapping out combat situations along with

the players. This will greatly help with combat situations, which are often hectic and confusing, and

will likely require some degree of tactical awareness and planning in the part of the PCs in

particularly tough battles. Drawing out maps is also very useful for working out things like ranges for

missile weapons and spells, and determining Line of Sight, among other things.

Such maps need not be complex nor expensive - simply drawing out room layouts with a marker pen

onto paper would serve quite adequately. A slightly more elaborate way of mapping is to use

whiteboard markers on a sheet of clear plastic which is laid out on a large sheet of paper marked with

1" squares. This provides and adaptable and reusable surface which is also inexpensive and will

require little storage space.

Using some means to track the positions of the PCs and Monsters alongside a map of this kind also be

extremely useful. While there are many ranges of fantasy miniatures which could be used for such a

purpose, simple squares of card, labelled with what they represent, will do nicely. Also, with peices of

card, you can easily use them to track a creatures Vi points by writing them on the token and altering

it with a rubber and pencil when that creature is injured.

Scale

Assuming that you're going to be using maps and tokens (and it's strongly suggested that you do), then

we need to determine what scale everything is within the map. Everything in Iiosia RPG is measured

in feet in increments of five, and, while you can use any scale you feel like using, the rules will

assume that one inch is equal to five feet. This is why it's suggested to use one inch squared paper, or

some form of measuring device with imperial measurements, to make working out distances quick

and simple.

Movement

A Character or Monster can move as many squares on the map as they have points in Agility. While

moving, Characters can move past other Characters with no hindrance, as can Monsters move past

Monsters in the same way. Thus, in the example below, Valon can move past Reiss to engage the

skeleton further down the hallway. Valon would not be able to move through the square occupied by

the skeleton even if he wished to, since it is a Monster and will now allow him past.


73

However, no token can occupy the same square as another, be they friendly or an enemy, at the end of

their turn. Following on from the last example, Valon failed to destroy the skeleton in his turn. When

it comes to Reiss and his turn, the knight has little he can do, since he cannot engage the skeleton in

close combat because Valon is occupying the square he would need to be on to attack it, and as tokens

cannon occupy the same square Reiss is unable to attack the skeleton in melee combat.


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Glancing Strikes

Glancing Strikes occur when a Character or Monster moves into or out of the Attack Zone of a hostile

creature, without engaging that creature, and the creature is not being engaged themselves.

Though the idea of this sounds somewhat baffling, in practice it is easy to understand and adds a large

degree of tactical thinking and risk taking to battle.

First, let is remind ourselves of a creature's Attack Zone, which is a 5' radius around him, or every

adjacent square, as demonstrated here once again by Valon:

In the diagram below we can see that Valon is taking on a foul necromancer and his two skeleton

guards. Valon knows that, if he destroys the necromancer, then his undead minions will collapse and

cease to be a thread. Thus, he attempts to attack the necromancer and does not concern himself with

the skeletons.

In the diagram below we can see that Valon is in luck; he can move between the skeleton's Attack

Zones and strike at the necromancer head on. In this example, no Glancing Strikes occur, since Valon

does not move out of or through any creatures Attack Zones; he only enters the necromancers in order

to attack him, and the necromancer does not receive a Glancing Strike for this.


75

Now, in the following example we can see that Valon is already in a skeleton's Attack Zone when he

decides to move away and attack the necromancer nearby. In this case, the skeleton will receive a

Glancing Strike attack and this must be worked out in Valon's turn as soon as it occurs. How to do

this is described below.


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Next a similar example, with the only difference being that Reiss is now assisting Valon in the fight.

Because Reiss is in the skeleton's Attack Zone, the skeleton will not receive a Glancing Strike on

Valon since he is distracting it enough that it's attention is set too much on Riess to make a swipe for

Valon. In this case, then, Valon can move and attack the necromancer unhindered.


77

Now, we see Valon charging past two skeletons in order to attack the necromancer. Because Reiss is

in the Attack Zone of the first, the first skeleton receives no Glancing Strikes on Reiss. However, the

second skeleton is unhindered, and as Valon moves through its Attack Zone the skeleton will receive

a Glancing Strike for each square Valon tries to pass through within its Attack Zone - in this case two,

before Valon can finally reach the necromancer to engage it.


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Working out a Glancing Strike

When a Glancing Strike occurs, both the attack and the defender roll a D10 and add their Agility to

the roll. If the attackers roll is higher, then they catch the defender with a Glancing Strike, and cause

damage equal to their base damage.

The defender, whether hit or not, can continue on if they wish with the rest of their move. They can

decide to stop moving after a Glancing Strike if they wish, or change their minds about where they

were going if they, for example, find themselves sorely wounded.

Glancing Strikes do not count towards Attacks or Parries for the purposes of combat; neither is used

in Glancing Strikes.


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Conclusion

Well, there we have it. You now know everything you need to know to play an IRPG adventure. Draw

your sword, ready your bow, and prepare your spells, for a world of adventure, treasure and danger

awaits!

These rules only cover the basic mechanics of the game. The Game Master's Manual will go into

more depth about running an extended campaign including rules and guidelines covering more

involved aspects of the game including more advanced rules and fleshing out the game and the setting

to have it more in-keeping with the world that it's set upon.

IRPG is a system designed to be fun, fast, and flexible. It is very important to remember that the rules

which you've just read are secondary to the fun of the game and the narrative of the story. That's not

to say they should be forgotten, and they should always be withheld in times of doubt and uncertainty.

If you're going to be the GM, then your job is the most important of all. Your task is to make the game

challenging, fun, fair, and engaging. Don't let the players cheat, or give them too much room to run

riot, but don't put a strangle hold on the game either.

If you're going to play as a character, then have fun in the game, play your character, listen to the GM,

work as a team and try to survive!

But the most important thing is that you all enjoy yourselves, and as the maker of IRPG I sincerely

hope that you do just that.

Anyway, as I stated in the Foreword, I welcome all comments and feedback on the game. Please

email me at [email protected] with your thoughts.

Have fun out there, and be careful!

~Veriax


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Iiosia RPG Character Sheet

Personal Information Player Name: Age:

Character Name: Height:

Sex: Weight:

Race: Focus:

Profession: Languages:

Fate Points:


Strength:

Agility:

Willpower:

Intellect:

Vitality:

Skills


Forcing Athletics Persuasion

Brawling Sneak Awareness

Melee Weapons Short Sword Lore


Quick Reference - Attack Strength: Weapon: Weapon: Weapon:

Attack Score (AS):

Attacks:

Parries:

Damage:

Quick Reference - Defence Strength: Armour: Shield: Un-armoured:


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Equipment

Weapons


L

M

T/S

T/S

T/S


Armour

Armour Type Size Notes DS


Shield


Backpack

Tiny/Small Tiny/Small Medium Large

Coin:


Who Are You?

Notes:

Documents

Iiosia · Iiosia RPG is designed so that you can play any Character you like with as few boundaries as possible, enabling you to create any kind of Character you want, from a wily