Introduction
It’s not as difficult to understand the general adventuring rules of Fantasy Wargaming as other aspects, like creating a character, but actually using them in the form provided can be cumbersome. Making it easier to use is mostly a matter of consolidating and rearranging the various modifiers.
All adventuring that is not combat, magic, or appeals is resolved on the Secret Door Identification table. Yes, this should have been called the Adventuring Table, or something like that. It’s just a name; get over it.
To accomplish any general feat, you add together various modifiers to obtain a factor, which is the column of the table you roll percentage dice against. For instance, a character tries to climb a cliff face. He adds up all modifiers and rolls a Luck die, and obtains a factor of 3. He rolls percentage dice against the 3 column and gets a result of 80, which is a partial success: the character slips partway down the cliff face, but catches himself before falling completely off. (See Effects at the end of the adventuring rules for the meanings of “success,” “partial success,” and “failure.”)
General modifiers
The following modifiers apply to all adventuring rolls.
Professional thief | +2 |
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Warrior | +0 |
Mage or cleric | −1 |
Combat/adventuring level | +1 per level |
Exhausted | −2 |
Half endurance | −2 |
Endurance 3 or less | −3 |
The modifiers in the first section do not change frequently. You may wish to add an “Adventuring Factor” (AF) statistic to the character sheet that sums up all of the relevant modifiers that do not change often. For instance, the Adventuring Factor of a magician with two combat levels who grew up as a thief is +3.
Luck
Every roll in Fantasy Wargaming includes the Luck die. This is a six-sided die with the following values: −2, −1, 0, 0, +1, +2. Add the result of the Luck die to the general modifiers.
Situational modifiers
Each situation has its own special circumstances. Each obstacle has characteristics that affect the final factor. For instance, locks have a degree of required Agility and a degree of required Intelligence to pick them. These required characteristics are the minimums a character needs to handle the particular situation. Subtract this degree from the adventurer’s characteristic and apply this as a modifier (shown below with a Δ). The book recommends that the GM keep a crib sheet of all the characters’ characteristics to calculate these factors quickly.
For example, an adventurer with an Agility of 10 and an Intelligence of 14 tries to pick a lock with a degree of required Agility of 12 and a degree of required Intelligence of 9. His modifier will be (10 − 12) + (14 − 9) = +3.
Additional situational modifiers may be given in the following list. Degrees of required characteristics will present a suggested abbreviation (for instance, a lock may be described as Agi 12, Int 9).
Finding things (including secret doors and compartments)
Roll once for every five minutes spent searching.
Characteristics: Degree of required Intelligence (Int).
Using tools | +1 to +3 |
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Opening locks
Characteristics: Degree of required Agility (Agi); degree of required Intelligence (Int).
Using thieves’ tools | +1 |
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Using makeshift tools | −1 |
Without tools | −3 |
Previous attempts | −2 per failure |
Escaping traps
Find traps using “finding things,” above. Use the following modifiers to escape the trap just as it is sprung. If already trapped, use “negotiating an obstacle,” below, to get out.
Characteristics: Degree of required Physique (Phy); degree of required Agility (Agi).
Chain mail | −1 |
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Plate mail | −2 |
Otherwise encumbered | −1 to −4 |
Negotiating an obstacle
Characters with high or low Intelligence or Bravery may want to record a separate “Negotiating Obstacles” (NO) factor on their character sheets.
Characteristics: Degree of required Physique (Phy); degree of required Agility (Agi).
Intelligence 14+ | +1 |
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Intelligence 8− | −1 |
Bravery 14+ | +1 |
Bravery 8− | −1 |
Using tools | +1 to +5 |
Picking pockets
Regular thieves may want to record a separate “Pick Pockets” (PP) factor on their character sheets, adding in factors from Bravery and Charisma.
Characteristics: Use the victim’s Agility and Intelligence scores as degrees of difficulty. Also subtract the victim’s combat/adventuring level from the thief’s.
Bravery 14+ | +1 |
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Bravery 8− | −1 |
Charisma 14+ | +1 |
Charisma 8− | −1 |
Miscellaneous situational modifiers | −4 to +4 (GM’s discretion) |
Previous attempts | −2 per failure |
Examples
Alric is a warrior trying to reach a cave on a mountainside which is rumored to be the lair of an evil magician with a great hoard. The son of an unemployed free townsman, Alric grew up as a thief in the streets. He has Physique 15, Agility 16, Intelligence 9, and Bravery 14, and has a combat/adventuring level of 0. His “Adventuring Factor” (AF) is therefore +2. He has a “Negotiating Obstacles” (NO) factor of +1.
First Alric must scale the mountainside. The GM has decided that the cave is 100 feet up a steep, but not sheer, slope. The climb is an obstacle he rates as Phy 12, Agi 14, Dmg 1d6+2. Alric is not using any tools to make the climb. The GM therefore determines the final column on which to roll as follows:
Column = AF + NO + ΔPhy + ΔAgi + Luck
Alric’s player rolls −1 for Luck, so the calculation is:
Column = 2 + 1 + (15 − 12) + (16 − 14) − 1 = 7
Alric is virtually guaranteed success. Sure enough, he rolls 55 against column 7 of the adventuring table, a success. He climbs up to the cave.
When he arrives, he expects to find a tunnel leading into the mountainside. But there is only a small hollow and a blank wall. Alric thinks there may be a secret door here, so he begins to search for one. The GM knows there is indeed a secret door here, rated Int 14. Therefore, the column of the table to consult is AF + ΔInt + Luck. Alric throws a 0 for Luck, so the column is 2 − 5 + 0 = −3. Alric rolls percentage dice and gets 27: partial success. He doesn’t find a secret door, but he’s found some scrapes on the rock floor that suggest that there really is one here.
Alric spends another five minutes searching for the secret door. The calculation is the same as before, but the previous partial success lets him try again at +1. His Luck roll is +1, so he’s rolling against column −1 this time. His percentage dice come up 15, so this time he finds the secret door and opens it.
Now Alric strides into the tunnel carelessly. The GM has placed a pit trap on the floor just inside the secret door, rated D-Int 10, E-Int 10, Phy 12, Agi 16, Dmg 2d6. Alric blunders onto the trap and springs it! To see if he escapes, the GM must consult column AF + ΔE-Int + ΔPhy + ΔAgi + Luck. Alric rolls −2 for Luck, so the column to use is 2 − 1 + 5 + 0 − 2 = 4. Odds are good he’ll escape, but he rolls 98 on percentage dice, falling into the pit and taking 8 points of damage!
Adventuring Experience
Each time Alric succeeds at an adventuring task, he should make a note of the percentage chance he had to succeed. This will be used later for calculating experience. The following table simplifies the calculation for you. Simply note the column used when success was achieved, and read the amount of experience you get for that success.
Column | −5 | −4 | −3 | −2 | −1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10+ |
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Experience | 50 | 48 | 45 | 40 | 33 | 28 | 23 | 18 | 13 | 11 | 8 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
Therefore, from the example above, Alric would get 3 points for scaling the mountainside and 45 points for finding the secret door. You don’t get points for failure or partial success.