Roma Eternal Rules

This system aims to be fairly simple, yet mechanically sound. The setting is VERY low fantasy - it is, up to this point, historical, with the exception of the existence of extremely (think one in a million or less) magical 'potential' and even rarer mythical creatures, to some extent. The Empire has, for instance, a small handful of creatures such as Minotaurs in its possession, and exactly one Frost Giant. Don't even think about trying to play one. If you want to play a mythical creature that is vaguely equivalent to a human (many outright don't exist or, at least, aren't known by the Empire, such as Dragons and Fey), PM me. If you want to play someone with some magical potential, also PM me, keeping in mind that anyone who attempts to use magic without a deep understanding of it will almost certainly blow out their own brain in short order. This assumes, therefore, that you are playing a normal human being of some caliber, though you may feel free to include some fluffy low fantasy elements as you choose. The system is very gritty and fast-paced. If you bite off more than you can chew, expect death.


There are SIX core stats, listed below:
STRENGTH - Controls damage done, primary determinant in grappling and other checks involving raw muscle. The base score of 6 has no effect on your damage done, but every point above raises both the minimum and maximum 'Damage potential' of all your weapons by one, while strength scores below 5 reduce them by one. Strength is required for effectively using many heavy weapons and armors. Strength is also the sole determinant of your unarmed damage, useful if you get disarmed. An essential stat for cleaving your enemies with a single blow.
DEXTERITY - Controls how much you can do in a turn in combat, before armor limitations, and affects your passive dodge. See the Perception section for details on dodging. A score of 6, assuming you are not wearing armor that limits it, allows you 7 Action Points in combat. It costs 1 AP to move 1 meter, 3 AP to attempt a regular attack with a dagger, and 7 AP to attempt a regular attack with a warhammer. Each point of DEX above 6 grants you 2 additional AP, though almost all armor caps your AP to a certain number (leather armor, for instance, caps your AP at 12.). Essential for everyone.
CONSTITUTION - Controls how much damage you can take without dying. Damage in Roma Eternal is not quite like typical systems of HP, and instead each weapon has a 'damage potential' attached to it, with a minimum and maximum value. Upon scoring a hit, the attacker rolls this value for hit severity (Minimum can be represented by rolling, for weapon with 4-8 damage potential, 4d2, for instance), whereupon the defender then takes a value equal to half their CON + Armor Value, rounded up. Using the aforementioned example, say that you have a CON of 6 and are wearing Leather Armor, which has an Armor Value of one, making your total defensive score 4. If the attacker rolls a 4, the hit is a GLANCE, and does no damage. However, if the hit is a 5, the hit LANDS, and takes you down one point of health. Every character has six points of health: [HEALTHY] [LIGHTLY WOUNDED] [WOUNDED] [GRAVELY WOUNDED] [UNCONSCIOUS] [DEAD]. At [WOUNDED], ALL of your stats go down by one. At [GRAVELY WOUNDED], ALL of your stats go down by two. Additional penalties may be applied for targeted injuries at limbs or body parts, or other special maneuvers, like gouging out eyes. Additionally, scoring three points of damage higher than your opponent takes them down by TWO points of health, and every two points higher takes them down one additional point. Using the previously mentioned example, consider if your opponent had instead rolled a 7 against your defense of 4 - you would be [WOUNDED] instead of [LIGHTLY WOUNDED], representing a more serious hit. If someone managed to roll a massive 13 points of damage against your defense of 4, you wouldn't even be rendered unconscious to await a decision, you'd just be killed on the spot! CON is essential if you plan to be taking hits.
PERCEPTION - Perception is checked against Dexterity for determining to-hit-chance - PER 6 vs DEX 6 grants a 60% chance to hit on a typical, non-targeted attack, on equal footing. PER 7 vs DEX 6 grants a 75% chance to hit - a significant advantage. Being two points above your opponent - PER 8 vs DEX 6, for instance - grants a 90% chance to hit on a typical non-targeted attack on equal footing, meaning you can safely hit, or attempt to, say, target a specific body part. The inverse is also true, with PER 6 vs DEX 7 having a mere 45% chance to hit, and PER 6 vs DEX 8 having a 30% chance. Hitting is represented by rolling a 1d100, with a roll lower than your to-hit-chance landing. 3 AP may be spent to 'actively' dodge, mind, reducing your to-hit-chance for that round by 15%.
INTELLIGENCE - Mostly an out-of-combat skill, each point of INTELLIGENCE gives you fifteen extra out-of-combat skill points to assign when granted, and dramatically increases the efficiency of out-of-combat training. HOWEVER, Intelligence is also checked when you want to establish an advantage, spot useful items or possibilities within the Arena, or figure out your opponent's weakness. Intelligent characters may find getting gold easier, as well as entering easier fights without losing renown.
CHARISMA - Charisma, many argue, is the most important skill for any Gladiator. In the end, it doesn't matter if you're the best fighter in the world, if you can't make the crowd cheer your name and hang banners of your colors. That show you put on may be to turn away dramatically and ignore the crowd as a cold, efficient killer - but Charisma ensures that you do it well and gracefully. This skill is abstract, but very important, increasing your renown gain from all actions significantly, making talking to anyone out of the arena far easier, and ensuring that the crowd is far more inclined to give you mercy if you make a mistake. Do not ignore it.

The 'base' of a skill is 6. This level is the average of a healthy adult, give or take. 7 is notably above average; a soldier of a year or two to a normal man, for instance. 8 is much above average - an IQ of 160 versus one of 100 would be a good comparison. 9 is exceptional; Michael Phelps to a normal human in swimming. 10 is the peak of human potential, and cannot be exceeded by normal means. Non-human creatures may have values higher than 10 in some stats. You begin with all stats at 6, and can distribute 4 points as you wish (though no stat can be 10, and only one may be 9). Additionally, you can take a stat down to 5 to gain one extra skill point to distribute, or down to 4 to gain 2 to distribute as you please.


SKILLS

There are two classes of skills: Combat, and Out-of-Combat. They do not overlap, and if I award you points for Combat skills, you cannot put those points into Out-of-Combat skills. These are listed below.

COMBAT - You begin with 30 points to distribute in these. Every 5 points is one rank of the skill. Every rank of a weapon skill grants you a +5% To-hit-chance with that specific weapon type, while each rank of Dodge gives a flat -5% To-hit-chance to your opponent. Block gives a .5 increase to your armor value when a shield is equipped per rank, plus a -5% To-hit-chance when actively blocking (though keep in mind, shields take up one full hand, reduce your AP value dramatically, and can be disarmed). The costs to add in a point increases by one for every rank. For instance, with my starting 30 points, I can only increase any skill to rank 3 - it costs me 5 points to make it rank 1, 10 to make it rank 2, and 15 to make it rank 3. Rank 1 can be considered 'dabbling', rank 2 'amateur', rank 3 'journeyman', rank 4 'trained', rank 5 'professional', rank 6 'veteran', rank 7 'elite' and rank 8 'world-class'. These may sometimes be invoked for certain combat actions, such as disarming or advanced maneuvers.
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DAGGER
SWORD
HAMMER
AXE
SPEAR
BOW
THROWING
UNARMED
DODGE
BLOCK


OUT OF COMBAT - You begin with 30 points to distribute in these, and every point of INT gives you an extra fifteen. Every 5 points is one rank of the skill. The same rules for Combat skills applies in increasing rank values. Most of these are abstract bonuses, make sure to link them when doing applicable out-of-combat action. Lore applies to all academic and esoteric knowledge. The same rank structure applies to out-of-combat skills.
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STEAL
SNEAK
ETIQUETTE
PERSUASION
THREATENING
CRAFTING
LANGUAGES*
LORE
TRADING

*Special skill - Everyone starts with 1 rank of languages, representing 1 known language. The costs to increase Language do not go up, and every rank is 1 extra language known.