Core Stats & Rolls

"How Play Works" taught you the basic roll. This guide goes one level deeper: the six Core Stats, the skills attached to them, how training works, and the three defenses that protect you. Think of it as your reference for everything behind the dice.

Before you start

No prior reading required, though "How Play Works" is a helpful lead-in since it covers the basic roll this guide builds on.

The six Core Stats

Core Stats are the numbers that describe what your character is naturally good at. There are six, and they touch almost everything you do.

• Strength (STR): physical power, melee combat, carrying capacity.
• Agility (AGI): speed, reflexes, dodging, stealth.
• Endurance (END): health, stamina, resisting poison and disease.
• Cognition (COG): intelligence, problem-solving, technology.
• Intuition (INT): awareness, perception, reading people and situations.
• Charm (CHA): personality, persuasion, leadership.

Higher is better. Most actions add one of these six to your roll.

Skills, and the stat behind each

A Skill is a specific thing your character can do, like sneaking or hacking. Every Skill is tied to one Core Stat, so when you use a skill, you already know which stat it leans on. Here's the full list, grouped by their stat.

Strength

• Brute Force: breaking, smashing, forcing through.
• Intimidation: pressuring others through threat and presence.

Endurance

• Durability: surviving hazards, conditions, and injury.
• Stamina: grappling, sprinting, climbing, jumping, swimming.

Agility

• Parkour: fast, precise movement over tricky terrain.
• Stealth: moving unseen and unheard.
• Stunts: acrobatics and daring physical feats.
• Thievery: pickpocketing, lockpicking, sleight of hand.

Cognition

• Crafting: making items with a toolkit.
• Critical Thinking: solving puzzles and analyzing clues.
• First-Aid: treating wounds and stabilizing people.
• Hacking: breaking into and manipulating digital systems.
• Linguistics: reading, writing, and decoding languages.
• Recall: remembering facts, figures, lore, and events.
• Survival: shelter, foraging, and tracking.
• Rationalism: applying science to mysteries and tech.
• Technology: operating and repairing devices and machines.

Intuition

• Awareness: noticing details in your surroundings.
• Faith: rituals, prayer, and reading divine signs.
• Fight-or-Flight: sensing danger before it lands.
• Magic: tapping into Einsol's ancient magic and Spell Weaving.
• Naturalism: connecting with and reading the natural world.
• Nuance: reading intentions in social situations.

Charm

• Coercion: forcing compliance through pressure.
• Con-Artist: selling a ruse and masking your intent.
• Dishonesty: lying and concealing information.
• Diplomacy: negotiating and resolving conflict.
• Insight: reading emotions and trustworthiness.
• Performance: entertaining through art and showmanship.
• Persuasion: convincing others and shifting their views.

You don't need to memorize these. Just find the skill that fits what you're trying to do, and the stat comes with it.

Making a Skill Check

When the outcome is uncertain and it matters, you make a Skill Check. The steps:

1. Pick the skill that fits the action.
2. Roll the d20.
3. Add that skill's number. The number is its Core Stat, plus any training your character has put into it.
4. If you're trained in the skill, also roll your Aptitude Die and add it (more below).
5. Meet the GM's target number or beat it to succeed. Matching the number counts, so the rule of thumb is "meet it to beat it."

Now and then a circumstance, item, or ability gives you Edge, a +2, or a Hindrance, a -2. They stack, and the GM will tell you when one applies.

Training: Aptitude and your Aptitude Die

When your character is trained in a skill, it means you have Aptitude in it. Aptitude does two things. It adds a permanent flat +3 bonus to that skill, and it lets you roll your Aptitude Die on top of the d20 whenever you use the skill.

Your Aptitude Die is a single die that grows as you level up, reflecting your rising mastery. It starts as a d4 and steps up over your character's life, to a d6, then a d8, and beyond. So the more experienced you are, the bigger the bonus your training adds. Untrained in a skill? You just don't roll the die. You can still try, you simply lean on your Core Stat alone.

How hard is it? The target number

You don't set your own target, the GM does. They size up the task, decide roughly how hard it is, from trivial to nearly impossible, and land on a number for you to beat. There's a small random swing built in, so the same kind of task isn't always the exact same number. You usually won't know the target before you roll. You just describe what you do, roll, and find out.

Your three Defenses

When something comes at your character, an attack, a trap, a mental push, you protect yourself with a Defense Roll. There are three, and each is built from two Core Stats:

• Fortitude (Endurance + Strength): resisting physical harm, poison, and disease.
• Reflex (Agility + Cognition): dodging attacks and traps, and reacting fast.
• Will (Intuition + Charm): resisting mental effects and staying focused.

A Defense Roll is a d20 plus the matching modifier. The Combat & Mechanics guide covers how these play out in a fight. For now, just know your character has three shields, and which one you use depends on what's coming at you.

Quick recap

• Six Core Stats describe what your character is good at: STR, AGI, END, COG, INT, CHA.
• Every skill is tied to one Core Stat. Pick the skill that fits, and the stat comes with it.
• A Skill Check is a d20 plus the skill's number, plus your Aptitude Die if you're trained. Meet the GM's target or beat it.
• Training (Aptitude) gives a flat bonus and an Aptitude Die that grows as you level, from a d4 upward.
• A natural 20 is a critical success, a natural 1 a critical failure. Your three Defenses are Fortitude, Reflex, and Will.

Next up

• Combat & Mechanics: turn order, actions, and how a fight flows
• Magic & Weaving: how Spell Weaving works

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