![[Player Guide Header.png]] # 1 Player Guide # 2 Create a Character When your group has chosen a setting to play in, you need to create a character for yourself. Characters consist of a few components that are explained in more detail in the player guide. The first step of character creation is to get an empty character sheet (see the downloads section). The recommended steps of character creation are the following: 1. Draft a rough concept 2. Think of a background 3. Choose talents, maneuvers and traumas 4. Level abilities 5. Purchase equipment Each character needs a concept of some sort. Do you want to play a cunning thief with a soft spot for orphans or a battle-scarred veteran who seeks redemption? Do you want to play a swashbuckling fencer with a tongue as sharp as your sword or a monk who is obsessed with arcance and forbidden knowledge? Once you have a rough idea of your character, you can think about your background story and write it down in your character sheet. After that, have a look at the talents and traumas and choose them to fit your character concept. Then level up your abilities to fit the requirements of your chosen talents. Distribute any ability points (AP) you may have left. Then take a look at the equipment and adventuring gear lists. Purchase what you think your character would take on an adventure and what you can afford. # 3 General Rules ## 3.1 Rolling Dice The most important tool for playing FoG besides your imagination are the dice that determine the outcome of a situation. One dice roll can contain one or multiple dice. The standard dice notation is **1d6** for a single six-sided die, **2d6** for two of them or **1d10** for a single ten-sided die. The first number is the amount of dice to roll and the second number is the amount of sides these dice must have. If you gain a numeric bonus to a roll, it can be written as **2d6+3** for example. This means that you roll two six-sided dice and add 3 to the result. To play Favor of the Gods, you need multiple **d6** and two **d10**. ## 3.2 Exploding Dice Whenever you roll a 6 with a six-sided die, it _explodes_. That means that you may roll another d6 and add the results. So, if you roll 4d6 and two of them come up sixes, you may roll another 2d6. These extra dice may also explode. ## 3.3 Rolling Chance Dice Sometimes a chance roll is required (denoted as 1d100). To determine a chance, take 2d10 and declare one of them to be the ones and one of them to be the tens before rolling. Now, if the tens die shows a 5 and the ones die shows a 2, the result is 52. If the chance is 52% or lower, then the chance was met. ## 3.4 Some General Rules * All values are rounded down if decimals do not make sense. * A specific rule overrules a general one. * Nothing happens if a rule says to do something and another rule says you cannot do that. * Common sense overrules any rule at the GM's discretion. * When something is not covered by the rules, it is up to the GM to come up with a ruling. * One round takes about 6 seconds in-game (1 minute equals 10 rounds). * One field usually equals 1m (~3.3 ft) of distance. * If your movement would be halved more than once, it is instead reduced to 1 field. * An ally is anyone you consider friendly. You are also your own ally. Anyone can refuse to be targeted by something that only targets allies. * In effect descriptions, "adjacent" or "next to" describes something that is up to 1 field away from something. # 4 Abilities Your character has a set of abilities that cover all actions you may want to take. Whenever you want to do something where success or failure leads to an interesting outcome, the game master (GM) will prompt you to roll for the ability that fits your described action the best. Sometimes multiple abilities are applicable to a situation. In that case, the player decides which check to make. You may also ask to use a seemingly unrelated ability if you can describe how it applies. However, the GM still has to approve (GM hint: approving it encourages creative solutions). ## 4.1 Social Abilities * **Charm** influences how well your words are received. It is used to sway opinions and convince others. The check is made against the target's willpower. * **Deception** influences how believable your lies are. It is used to disguise truths and intentions as well as to convince others that you are someone else. The check is made against the target's intuition. * **Intimidation** influences how dangerous others think you are. It is used to force action, encourage the telling of truths and demoralize or infuriate foes. The check is made against the target's willpower. ## 4.2 Physical Abilities * **Athletics** influences how strong you are, how high you can jump and how fast you can run. It is used to perform acrobatic feats and many other strength-based actions. * **Craft** influences how well you execute your craft and how well you follow instructions and recipes. It is used to create items or perform actions that are part of your learned trade. * **Dexterity** influences how quick your reflexes are and how well you perform tasks that require a delicate touch. It is used to evade or disable traps, manipulate mechanisms, play an instrument and perform tricks. * **Stealth** influences how well you are able to hide from others. It is used to move silently, camouflage yourself and hide items. * **Toughness** influences how much damage you can take and how robust your health is. It is used to resist poison and disease. ## 4.3 Mental Abilities * **Awareness** influences how attentive you are to your surroundings. It is used to look for items, people and hidden mechanisms, listen for noises or consciously use any other senses. * **Intuition** influences how well you are able to interpret unknown situations and judge a person's intentions. It is used to estimate the power of an enemy, to detect lies and to read the body language of people and animals. * **Nature** influences how well familiar you are with the outdoors. It is used to find and identify plants and animals, follow tracks through the wilderness and pathfinding in general. It also entails knowledge of diseases, poison and medicine. * **Reasoning** influences how well you are able to make sense of circumstances and how quick your wit is. It is used to do calculations, translate texts, read between the lines and find patterns. Reasoning also represents your depth of knowledge. * **Willpower** influences the strength of your convictions. It is used to resist attempts at persuasion, intimidation and unwanted mystical influence. ## 4.4 Combat Abilities * **Assault** influences the power and precision of your attacks with melee and throwing weapons. * **Defend** influences how well you are able to evade and deflect incoming attacks. * **Shooting** influences how well you are able to predict the movements of your target and aim with shooting weapons. ## 4.5 Making Ability Checks To use an ability, roll **2d6** and add your character's respective ability modifier. The modifier is a static bonus to the roll that represents the character's training. To succeed with a task, the result of your roll is _checked_ against a difficulty that is set beforehand (by the GM). The result of your roll or check must be equal to or higher than that difficulty. Sometimes you gain an **advantage** or **disadvantage** to an ability check. Gaining an advantage of 1d6 means that you get to roll an additional die and gaining a disadvantage of 1d6 means that you get to roll one fewer die. If you gain advantage **and** disadvantage to a check at the same time, they cancel each other out. For example, if you gain 2d6 advantage and 1d6 disadvantage, then you gain a total of 1d6 advantage to your check. If disadvantage reduces your roll to zero dice, the result of your check is equal to your ability modifier. ## 4.6 Difficulty The difficulty of any task depends on the situation. Climbing up a rough rock wall with large crevices and rocks to hold onto is not that challenging. However, if it is raining and the rocks are wet, the difficulty increases. If there are loose stones that may break off, difficulty increases. If a strong wind is blowing, difficulty increases. If you are carrying a heavy load, difficulty increases and so on. Another example for the compounding of difficulties is convincing a peasant that you are a noble (but you actually are not). If you are not wearing the right clothes, difficulty increases. If the peasant has frequent contact with nobility, difficulty increases. If you travel alone, difficulty increases. If you meet them at a place where nobility are very rarely found, difficulty increases and so on. ![[Difficulties]] # 5 Character Level The current level of your character is equal to the sum of ability points (AP) you have assigned to increase ability modifiers and gain talents and maneuvers. Whenever you assign any number of AP, the character's level automatically increases by that much. At the beginning of a new adventure the GM tells you what level you start at. It is recommended to start at least with level 16. ## 5.1 Leveling Up During the game, the GM will award you a number of experience points (XP) for challenges you have overcome or when reaching certain milestones. Whenever your character has earned enough XP, you may use these points to assign AP to abilities and/or acquire new talents and maneuvers. This is possible whenever you finish a long rest. To gain one AP, you must spend a number of XP equal to your current level. Any number of AP gained this way must be spent immediately. That means that a level 20 character must spend 20 XP to gain one additional AP. This increases the character's level to 21 which means the next AP costs 21 XP and so on. If that character wants to gain a new talent that costs 3 AP at level 20, they must have accumulated at least 63 XP (= 20 + 21 + 22). ## 5.2 Maximum AP There is a limitation to how many AP you may spend on increasing an ability modifier. Your character may only have an amount of AP invested in any ability that is equal to your character's level divided by 4 (note that values are rounded down by default). Up to level 4, you may invest up to one AP into any ability. This means that a character of level 8 may have up to 2 AP assigned to any single ability. At level 12, the limit increases to 3 AP, at level 16 to 4 AP and so on. # 6 Talents and Maneuvers Another way to spend your AP besides increasing ability modifiers is to acquire new talents or maneuvers which provide you with additional options. Gaining a talent or maneuver costs a certain amount of AP denoted on the respective list. Most talents and maneuvers have conditions that have to be fulfilled before you are able to acquire it. Such conditions may be either a certain ability modifier (for example three points invested in intuition; denoted as _Intuition 3_) or another talent/maneuver (for example _Medic_). Once you have gained a certain talent, you do not lose it if the conditions are not met any more. The benefits of a talent are permanent and passive. They do not require any action to activate. Maneuvers on the other hand are actively used by spending resources. Whenever you want to use one of your maneuvers, the cost of the action increases by **1 vigor or focus**, depending on the type of ability check that is required: vigor for physical and combat abilities (except shooting) and focus for social and mental abilities as well as for the ability shooting. If a maneuver applies to a **favor**, it also requires focus. - [[Talents]] - [[Maneuvers]] # 7 Traumas Traumas act as an opposite to talents. You may choose **up to three traumas** during character creation. Each trauma has a certain value and by choosing them during character creation, you gain an amount of AP equivalent to the value of the chosen trauma. These extra AP do not increase your level. **Note**: You do not get any AP if you gain a trauma during the game! When gaining a new trauma through damage or stress, you may choose one from the list of traumas that fits the cause of your near-death or breakdown. You may also roll a 1d100 (chance die) and choose that number from the list. If you roll for it and it does not fit the situation at all or that number does not exist in the list, just roll again. Whenever one of your mental traumas is triggered, you may try to overcome the trauma. To do so, make an ability check for either willpower or reasoning against difficulty 20. If your check succeeds, remove the trauma from your character sheet. If your check fails, you gain an amount of stress equal to the difference between your result and the difficulty. - [[Traumas]] # 8 Vigor and Focus Vigor and focus are expendable resources you may spend to amplify your ability checks. Assigning AP to certain abilities increases the maximum vigor or focus of your character. Both resources replenish when resting. Some of your actions cost either vigor or favor. If you have depleted your vigor reserves, you pay the cost by taking that amount of damage instead. Likewise, if you have no focus left, you pay the cost by taking that amount of stress instead. You cannot have more vigor or focus than your corresponding maximum. ## 8.1 Amplifying Ability Checks When making an ability check, you may pay any amount of vigor or focus (depending on the ability) to gain a bonus of the same amount to the dice roll. You cannot spend more than 10 of any combination of vigor and focus on a single roll this way. Vigor is spent to amplify physical and combat ability checks (except shooting). Focus is spent to amplify mental ability checks or shooting checks. ## 8.2 Maximum Vigor Your maximum vigor is equal to 3 plus the sum of the modifiers of the following abilities: * Athletics * Dexterity * Toughness ## 8.3 Maximum Focus Your maximum focus is equal to 3 plus the sum of the modifiers of the following abilities: * Awareness * Reasoning * Willpower # 9 Vigilance Vigilance represents how attentive you are when you are not actively looking out, so whenever you are not making an awareness check. This is used to detect others that are trying to sneak up on you or trying to move past you undetected. In that case, the GM makes a stealth check for the sneaking creature and the difficulty is your vigilance. If you are about to walk into a trap, your vigilance is checked against the trap's stealth to determine if you walk into it. Your vigilance is **8 plus your awareness** ability modifier. Inform the GM what your vigilance is at the start of an adventure and when the value changes. # 10 Combat and Actions ## 10.1 Turn Order When combat ensues, the game becomes turn-based. The turn order is determined by the combatants' vigilance where those with the highest value go first. During one round of combat, each combatant gets a turn in the turn order. If you have the same vigilance value as an NPC, you may go first. If you have the same vigilance value as another player character, you may either agree on who goes first or both roll for dexterity. In the latter case, the one with the higher result goes first. ## 10.2 Actions Each combatant may perform one **regular** action, one **movement** action, one **quick** action and any amount of **boost** actions during each round of combat. You decide the order in which you take your actions. ### 10.2.1 Regular Actions You can perform your regular action only during your own turn. A regular action is usually an attack or an ability check. During your turn, you may forgo one regular action. If you do, you may either perform an additional movement action this turn or an additional quick action until your next turn. ### 10.2.2 Movement Actions You may only take a movement action during your own turn. The most common use of a movement action is traveling a distance of fields equal to your movement value. Your movement value is five plus half the modifier of your athletics ability. Examples for other movement actions are switching weapons, reloading a weapon with the aspect _long reload_, climbing a ladder, standing up from the ground or swinging on a chandelier. In some cases you might need to make an ability check to be able to successfully perform your movement action. You may combine traveling fields with a smaller movement such as dropping an item and/or drawing a weapon. ### 10.2.3 Quick Actions Quick actions allow you to interrupt enemies and generally act outside of your own turn. Whenever any combatant performs any kind of action, you may respond to that action with a quick action. Such a response is then resolved before that action and might even prevent it. If multiple participants want to respond to an action, the priority is passed in the turn order. When a response is responded to, the latest response is always resolved first. You may also let a quick action resolve, then respond to the action underneath again. You can imagine the actions as a stack of cards where everyone may put cards (quick actions) on top and the stack is resolved from the top down. ### 10.2.4 Boost Actions A boost action may be added to any other action to improve or alter its effects. Choose all boost actions you want to apply to another action as soon as you declare to perform it. Often, boost actions will grant you additional dice to specific actions. There is no limit to the amount of boost actions you can take during one round. ### 10.2.5 Attacking To execute an attack, make the appropriate ability check. The damage you deal to your target is the difference between your ability check and the target's defend difficulty. When attacking as a regular action, the cost is **1 vigor** when making an assault check and **1 focus** when making a check for shooting. Wielding a weapon grants you advantage to attack rolls depending on the specific weapon. ### 10.2.6 Defending **Note:** Defending is not an action by itself. It is part of the attacker's action. To _actively_ defend yourself against an attack, make a **defend** check. The amount of damage you take is the difference between your adversary's attack difficulty and your ability check. Each active defense costs **1 vigor**. Armor and shields grant you advantage to defense depending on the specific item. If you are not wearing a shield, you cannot actively defend yourself from throwing and ranged weapons. You can choose not to defend yourself actively. In that case, your defense does not cost you vigor and you make an ability check for **toughness** instead of defend. You gain the advantage of your armor to that roll, but you also gain **2d6 disadvantage**. ## 10.3 Ambush If you are ambushed, you may only perform a quick action during the first round of combat. ## 10.4 Preparing an Action You may spend your regular action to prepare an action for later. In that case you choose a regular action and until your next turn, you may perform it as a quick action. ## 10.5 Preventing an Action If your action is prevented somehow, it does not have any effect. The action slot still counts as used and you cannot use a different action instead of the one that was prevented. You may still use any other actions you have left. # 11 Resting and Exhaustion There are two types of rest you can take to replenish some of your resources: short and long. Each one has a different effect on your well-being according to your comfort during that rest. ## 11.1 Short Rest A short rest requires you to be comfortable and not do anything strenuous for at least one hour. Finishing a short rest replenishes your vigor and focus according to the quality of the rest. ## 11.2 Long Rest A long rest requires you to be comfortable and not do anything strenuous for at least eight hours where you must spend at least six of those hours sleeping. You may only profit from finishing a long rest once a day. Finishing a long rest replenishes your vigor and focus, and heals damage and stress according to the quality of the rest. ## 11.3 Quality of Rest The quality of a rest is influenced by its duration and the quality of food, shelter, safety, bedding and entertainment. All of these factors combined are expressed by comfort. The higher it is, the higher the rewards of the rest. ![[Rest Quality]] ![[Rest Comfort Modifiers]] ## 11.4 Marching Travelling by foot or on horseback or doing similarly physically demanding tasks for more than eight hours between long rests requires you to spend 1 vigor and 1 focus per additional hour. After twelve hours of labor, each further hour additionally causes you to gain 1 exhaustion counter. ## 11.5 Staying Awake Whenever you stay awake for more than one whole day, you gain 1 exhaustion counter. After another twelve hours awake, you gain 1 additional exhaustion counter. Then, after another 6 hours awake, you gain 1 additional exhaustion counter. Then, for each further hour awake, you lose 1 focus. # 12 Favor While adventuring, you will come across places of spiritual importance or creatures of divine origin, witness some supernatural event or accomplish a goal of your deity and thus garner divine favor in the form of favor counters. You cannot have more than a number of favor counters equal to your level divided by four (but at least one). Unless the GM says otherwise, you start the game without any favor. You can earn it with your actions during an adventure and use it to conjure supernatural effects. - [[Favors]] ## 12.1 Invoking Favor Before you can invoke a favor, you need to pray for **answers** by performing a ritual (see below). Each favor has a certain type of action that is required you need to take for its invocation. To invoke a favor, remove a favor counter, choose a favor from your answers, take the appropiate action and resolve the effect. If you would gain favor while you have no answers or you already have your maximum favor counters, gain a drive counter instead. During invoking a favor, if an effect lets you choose a target, you may choose any valid target within 30 fields and line of sight if the effect itself does not say otherwise. ## 12.2 Performing a Ritual Getting answers to your prayer requires you to perform a religious or mystic ritual to commune with the divine. It takes at least **30 minutes** of unbroken concentration. The virtue of a ritual depends on different factors such as the location and the use of religious symbols and scripture, and other paraphernalia such as candles or incense. When finishing the ritual, select a number of favors from the list according to your ritual's virtue. The selected favors are your new answers that replace your current answers. You can only select each favor once during one ritual. ![[Ritual Quality]] ![[Ritual Potency Modifiers]] # 13 Aspects and Counters Both aspects and counters model the current state of your character. Aspects describe binary states that are not time-limited while counters describe states that have varying degrees and/or are time-limited. ## 13.1 Character Aspects Gaining an aspect can be the result of outside circumstances or sometimes your own decision. ![[Character Aspects#^439bc4]] ## 13.2 Character Counters A character can gain different counters during the game. Counters cause various effects at different times. Almost all kinds of counters are either decaying or growing, meaning that their amount automatically decreases or grows over time. ![[Character Counters]] # 14 Items ## 14.1 Mundane Items The equipment you take on your adventures plays an important role. Especially weapons, armor and shields may decide over life and death in a dicey situation. At the beginning of the game, the GM tells how much money you have available to purchase equipment and adventuring gear. The costs of listed items are relative to each other and may differ during the game. Though FoG is not an economic simulation, the GM may consider local availability of labor and resources when determining prices of items. - [[Equipment]] ## 14.2 Alchemy Alchemy encompasses first aid, medicine and poisons. These concoctions have a potency which is rolled at the moment of consumption (not during preparation). ## 14.3 Weapons Wielding a weapon grants you an advantage to your attack rolls according to its bonus (see equipment list). Weapons may also have aspects that can be used during the game and are referenced by talents and maneuvers. For example, brandishing an intimidating weapon may grant you an advantage to intimidation checks while a prestigious sword might grant you an advantage to charm checks. ## 14.4 Ammunition Ranged weapons require ammunition. When you go to pick up shot arrows or bolts, there is a 50% chance that they are broken. Ignited flammable ammo cannot be reused. Fetching ammo from a backpack is a movement action. If you possess an item for carrying ammo (such as a quiver or bandolier), you may draw as part of your attack action. ## 14.5 Throwing Weapons You may draw a throwing weapon as part of your attack action. When trying to retrieve a throwing weapon, there is a 10% chance that you cannot find it or it is broken. ## 14.6 Armor and Shields Wearing armor grants you an advantage to your checks for active as well as passive defense according to its bonus (see equipment list). A shield grants you an advantage to your **active defense** only. It also allows you to actively defend against projectiles and thrown weapons. Armor and shields can also have aspects that are useful in- and outside of combat in the same way weapons do. ## 14.7 Durability and Repairs When an item is damaged, it gains damage counters (see below). When an item breaks, it becomes unusable and it cannot be repaired. Repairing an item costs 10% of the price of a new one for each damage counter removed. ## 14.8 Improvised Items If you are using an item in a way that it was not intended for, but somewhat fulfills its function, it is an improvised item. In that case, you make all ability checks that you are using it for with 1d6 disadvantage. ## 14.9 Unarmed Attacks When using your body as a weapon, it has the item aspect *quick*. ## 14.10 Reckless Usage When attacking with a weapon or defending with either shield or armor, you may put 1 damage counter on it to gain 1d6 advantage to your check. ## 14.11 Item Aspects This list includes all weapon aspects and their effect. ![[Item Aspects]] ## 14.12 Item Counters Items can have counters analogous to character counters. ![[Item Counters]] ## 14.13 Important Adventuring Gear Do not forget to pack a lantern and some rope. Maybe even chalk or coal to mark your way through the caverns and some marbles or caltrops just in case. Maybe also get some dice... ![[Adventuring Gear]]