Basic RP Rules Reference

To begin, this guide is meant to be the starting point for newcomers to get a handle on the forum’s battle system, as well as an easy reference for veterans in case they need one. These are not necessarily hard and fast rules, but if you wish to deviate from them when running a battle, you should make sure all other players involved in the RP are aware of your changes.

Basic Rules
Characters start with 30 Stamina (usually midara, the seducing character) and/or 30 Willpower (usually heroes).
Battles are turn based, each character using abilities from their character sheet (their profiles are located in the Character/Enemy creations tab of the forum). The abilities’ chance to hit is determined by a dice roll, using Random.org or any other preferred method (more on the Quick Reference Guide below).
One player acts as the DM, managing the rolls of both characters. This is done for ease of writing the scene, it’s not a must by any means. The DM decides the turn order as well (more relevant for team battles than 1v1).

Quick Reference Guide
- Even rolls hit. Odd rolls miss. Random numbers are generated between 1 and 100.
- Even rolls over 85 are considered Critical Successes. Odd rolls below 16 are considered Critical Failures.
- When the move doesn't define what a Critical Success does, the opponent is Stunned, meaning the user is able to attempt an immediate follow-up.
- When the move doesn't define what a Critical Failure does, the user is Off-Balance, meaning they may be auto-hit by the next attack.
- If a move hits multiple times, then only the first roll of the move counts for the normal Critical effect; every subsequent Critical roll either makes the move’s next roll auto-succeed (if it’s a Critical Success) or auto-fail (if it’s a Critical Failure).

Common Status Effects
Stunned - Character will be unable to act next turn, skipping their next action.
Off-Balance - Character will be auto-hit by the next attack targeting them.
Paralyzed - Character will be unable to act next turn, and will be auto-hit by the next attack.
Bind - Character will be unable to perform normal actions, and must attempt to Struggle each turn to escape. Successfully escaping a Bind does not end the turn like failure does (the player calls their character’s action as such: Struggle + Action, or just Action if the Struggle is implied).
Fascinated - Character must make a roll at the start of their turn. If they succeed, they take their turn as normal. If they fail, their turn is skipped.
Charmed - The next Willpower attack against the character will deal +1 damage.
Dazed - Character has Disadvantage on all non-Struggle actions, taking the lowest of 2 rolls every time they roll for such an action.

Note that status effects are not limited to the ones shown above, they are just guidelines and can be shared by everyone. Most characters have unique status effects, so don’t be afraid to be creative.

To reiterate, almost none of the rules listed here are necessarily set in stone: some DMs have their critical rolls work differently, have different definitions for common status effects, start with higher/lower Willpower and Stamina, etc. This is simply to act as a guide for those who need an easy reference.

And remember, as always, have fun.

I cannot thank you enough for this. I have trouble remembering the status effects and the Critical Success/Failure rules, so this will hopefully make RP's easier for me.

Is there a page with like, the other rules/guidelines for someone that might wanna join in, but doesn't know shit about how it works.... asking for a friend.... nah, i'm asking for myself.

I have a suggestion for combat: Give Crit stuns a cool down. It's endlessly frustrating on those occasions where RNG is just plain unforgiving, and the player is left unable to move for several turns. Some people have already made slight tweaks to fix this, like making it so only the first attack of a multi-hitter can cause crit stuns and the like, but I feel like crits and crit fails need to take a tweak too.

Either a three or five turn cool down would be nice. Not too long and not too short of a cool down, ensuring the player isn't left tearing their hair out over bad luck.

You have a point. I never found it an issue, partly because I personally don't mind the midara winning too much because... reasons. However, it can help bring the result of the fight closer to an average, so even if the player's in a losing fight they're allowed to at least FIGHT before getting steamrolled. I'm going to incorporate a 2 turn cooldown (as in two turns must go by after the Stun before they're Stunned again.)on all Stuns in my upcoming RPs that I DM, see how it feels.

I'm the kind of player who enjoys the battles as both a game to have fun with, as well as the more obvious reasons for being on this site XD I enjoy when a game feels more fair and doesn't leave too much to chance, but I also feel like having the player be able to more reliably fight back will add to it. Either you win and your fighter might get something out of it they can carry over to their next bout, or the player can enjoy a longer build-up to their loss.

From a player's view I have both been Crit Stunned chained from full health to death, and have made a seemingly impossible comeback by Crit Stun chaining a midara.


Admittedly, I use a higher crit rate when I DM than what Solowingpixy suggest in the rules. But I understand why you would think that's not fun.

Maybe we could try adjusting crit rate, like lowering it from 1 -15 and 85-100 to simply 1 -10 and 90 -100?

That could help mitigate poor luck too, actually. That could be a very good idea, PfP. I'm going to try putting both to practice to see how a battle turns out next time I DM a battle.