Game Mechanics

Ainneve uses a subset of the Open Adventure (OA) Complete Rulebook (the 'red book') , and the Basic Rulebook (the 'blue book'). We do not implement all the parts to keep things simple, so you may see some discrepancies between this document and the OA rulebooks.

Character Creation
- Overview
- Archetypes
- Races
- Foci
- Talents
- Abilities
- Attack and Defense
Leveling
Money and Equipment
Weight and Encumbrance
Transport
Time and Movement
Combat
Magic

Character Creation

Overview

Choose up to two archetypes from Warrior, Scout, and Arcanist (this determines your base Primary Traits, i.e. stats).
Choose a race, Human, Elf, or Dwarf.
Choose a Focus based on race.
Add 7 points to your traits as you wish.
Calculate Secondary Traits (based on Primary Trait values)
Select Abilities, i.e. skills
Calculate your Attack and Defense numbers

Archetypes

Warrior
- Strength - 6
- Dexterity - 4
- Charisma - 4
- Vitality - 6
- +2 Power when attacking
- 1d6+2 Health upon leveling
Scout
- Strength - 4
- Perception - 6
- Intelligence - 6
- Dexterity - 4
- 1d6 health upon leveling
Arcanist
- Perception - 4
- Intelligence - 6
- Charisma - 4
- Magic - 6
- -2 stamina
- 1d6-1 health upon leveling

Note that trait values are between 1 and 10 inclusive.

Note that we are not using feats from Basic rules, but rather talents from the Complete Rulebook. Though this seems to make Scouts and Arcanists out of balance (because in Basic rules they receive more feats than the Warrior), it’s OK because we’re also using abilities. Your character’s intelligence determines abilities, and the Scout’s and Arcanist’s high intelligence basically gives them more abilities to substitute for the lack of feats.

Races

Out of the 10 races in fantasy OA, players can choose one of these three:

Human
- Focus - agility, cunning, or prestige
- +1 Will Save, +3 Language Points
Elf
- Focus - agility, spirit, or alertness
Dwarf
- Focus - brawn, resilience, or alertness
- +1 Will Save

Foci

Agility
- +1 Strength, +2 Dexterity, +2 Reflex Save
Alertness
- +2 Perception, +1 Charisma, +2 Reflex Save, +2 Language Points
Brawn
- +2 Strength, +1 Vitality, +1 Fortitude Save
Cunning
- +1 Perception, +2 Intelligence, +3 Will Save
Prestige
- +1 Intelligence, +2 Charisma, +3 Language Points
Resilience
- +1 Dexterity, +2 Vitality, +3 Fortitude Save, +2 Will Save
Spirit
- +1 Vitality, +2 Magic, +2 Language Points, +1 Fortitude, +1 Reflex, +1 Will

Talents

Warrior
- Leader
- Bloodlust
- Tough as nails
Scout
- Burglar
- Unseen
- Surprise attack
Arcanist
- Surge
- Essence Transfer
- Regenerate

Since we have three talents for each archetype, and your character gains a talent with each level, it’s a good setup for a three-level demo game.

Note that in the complete OA rules you randomly choose talents, but for simplicity our players can choose directly any talent from their archetype. This way we don’t need to implement all the talents.

Abilities

OA uses Abilities, which aren’t really mud skills but any action your character takes during a tabletop game. However for our purposes we can use abilities as skills.

Out of the 50 abilities OA lists in the Complete Rulebook (beta_v2), here is a useful subset grouped by Trait:

Strength:
- Escape - in OA, the ability to free yourself from restraints and break free of jail cells. I think we may want to overload this as a combat flee ability as well.
- Climb - represents the proficiency in climbing difficult slopes or sheer walls. climb tests are repeated for every "turn" a character is hanging from a wall or structure.
- Jump - the ability to leap great distances such as across pits or over obstacles. encumbrance may affect jump distance.
Perception
- Lockpick - opening a lock without a key
- Listen - the ability to hear distant or quiet noises. Characters may listen intently near closed doors or long hallways for approaching enemies or other hushed activities.
- Sense Danger - a subconscious knowing of when something bad will happen. In OA this passively buffs your Reflex Save. We may want to make this a semi-active ability so players can evaluate mobs and dangerous situations.
Intelligence
- Appraise - determine the worth of an item
- Medicine - healing, curing conditions and removing poisons
- Survival - the ability to procure shelter, fire, food and drink in an otherwise inhospitable or untamed location
Dexterity
- Balance - the ability to stay centered and not fall from a narrow ledge or walkway. It is a character's ability to keep their equilibrium even on unsteady terrain.
- Sneak - remaining unseen and unheard while moving
- Throwing - tossing an item or weapon
Charisma
- Animal Handle - calming and communicating with animals. Useful for riding, and perhaps pets/familiars?
- Barter - lowering the price of an item for sale
- Leadership - improve grouping

When 50 skills are available you distribute a number of +1’s equal to your character’s intelligence trait, and 10 -1’s. If we use about 15 skills instead we can distribute 3 -1’s and a number of +1’s equal to your intelligence divided by 3.

Note that each ability can be an example of how to ‘code something’ in Evennia.

Attack and Defense

Attack number = (strength if melee, or perception if ranged) + (weapon damage number) Defense number = dexterity + (armor toughness number)

Leveling

Note that in OA characters start at level 0.

When characters gain a level they get more HP and more ability points, and access to more spells (if they have points in magic). Gaining levels requires experience points (XP):

Level 1 = 500 XP Level 2 = 2,000 XP Level 3 = 4,500 XP

XP awarded for mob kills = mob’s level * 10.

OA recommends that the gamemaster (GM) divides the XP-to-level by 5 to get the amount of experience a characters should earn per ‘session’. We don’t really have a concept of session in muds but we can find a similar rule of thumb to calculate the experience curve over time.

Money and Equipment

OA uses copper, silver, and gold coins.

1 Gold = 100 Silver = 10000 Copper

See the Weaponry and Armor tables in the rulebook for descriptions of items. We can choose a diverse subset of these.

Weight and Encumbrance

In OA all items have a weight number. A weight equals 1 kilogram. 100 coins = 1 weight.

For every (strength * 2) weight a character carries they receive -1 Encumbrance penalty.

For example, a character with strength 3 suffers -1 Encumbrance for every 6 weight carried.

Every character has maximum weight they can carry, lift, and push or pull. Carry = strength * 10 Lift = strength * 20 Push or Pull = strength * 40

Transport

OA has descriptions for horses, carts, etcetera. We can implement a riding horse and a war horse in the demo as vehicle examples.

Time and Movement

OA has lots of rules for time and movement, better suited for small party tabletop play; we don’t need to use most of these. We can use movement costs by reducing movement speed over difficult terrain (see page 52 of beta v2).

Combat

OA has a full set of combat rules, but we can implement a simpler subset. For example, see https://groups.google.com/d/msg/evennia/48PMDirb7go/ecQ-CXlhpDYJ .

Magic

Magic spells require Mana Points (MP).

Mana Points = Magic Trait

In OA mana points replenish after eight hours have passed, but in the demo mud we’ll need to re-balance this rate to make sense.

OA uses several magic types; we can implement the subset of:

Black Magic
White Magic

When you choose points for your character’s Magic Trait you also decide how many points go into what magic type.

OA groups magic spells by tiers. You can use any spell from a tier equal to or less than your character level. For example a level 2 character can use tier 0, tier 1, and tier 2 spells.

OA uses a memorization mechanic where you only can cast a spell you’ve memorized, but for simplicity we can use mana points as the primary limiter on spell use.

Spells

Black Magic

Tier 0

Spell: Arcane Bolt
- Cost: 1 Black
- Casting Time: 1 half turn
- Duration: Instant
- Range: melee/reach/ranged
- Effect: Fires a bolt of arcane energy toward the target, striking them and doing BM - DEF damage.
Spell: Itch
- Cost: 1 Black
- Casting Time: 1 full turn
- Duration: 4 full turns
- Range: melee/reach/ranged
- Effect: Causes the target's skin to itch severely. Target makes a will save at casting time or lose 1d6-2 to their DEF trait unless they spend a full-turn action scratching.

White Magic