Wildsea sparknotes: The dice mechanics

actions

• forged in the dark system

1. Build your dice pool

• Add 1d6 for the edge you want to use
• add up to 3d6 for relevant languages/skills
• add up to 2d6 advantage dice

2. Describe the action

3. Roll and note the highest roll

• 6 is a triumph, no drawbacks
• 4/5 is a conflict, success with a drawback
• 1/2/3 is a disaster, failure with a complication/drawback
• Doubles = twist

Twists

• Everyone except the dice roller suggests an unexpected outcome of the roll
• should never
  • invalidate or override the roll
  • force a player to accept something about their character that they hadn't planned

Cutting

• removing dice results starting from the highest
• cut reasons
  • because of difficulty (dm will say so)
  • for precision (take 1 cut for precision)
  • for impact (take 1 cut for impact)

Impact

• low
• normal
• high
• massive
• scales based on how impactful the chosen action would be in real life, would it be average (kicking a door), below average (kicking a reinforced door), above average (kicking a rusty door), or super massive (ramming a ship into a door)

edges

• how do you attempt to solve the problem?
• grace, iron, instinct, sharps, teeth, rides, veils
• adds 1d6 to your dice pool
• inherently flexible, and should give some inspiration/direction for how you want to approach a problem
• page 80

skills

• areas where you have expertise, giving you a natural advantage
• brace, break, concoct, cook, delve, flourish, hack, harvest, hunt, outwit, rattle, scavenge, sense, study, sway, tend, vault, wave walk
• also flexible, but not as much as edges, be creative
• each skill has a rank from 1-3, are that many d6 to your roll using that skill
• general recommendations: something to traverse (wave walk, vault, outwit, delve), something to survive/fight (break, hack, Hunt, flourish, brace, vault), something to acquire (hunt, scavenge, harvest), something to uncover (outwit, study, sense)
• page 82
• you can always do things without skills, it just means you aren't as good at it

languages

• similar to skills, rank 1-3
• smattering, knowledge, fluency
• languages are powerful, and grant you cultural knowledge and lore
  • low sour: default language
  • chthonic: ancient human language, gives ancient human lore
  • saprekk: ektus language, gives lore of the ektus and deserts, heat, and sand
  • gaudimm: gau language, gau lore, knowledge of caves and tunnels
  • knock: tzelicrae language, tzelicrae lore, understanding of insects
  • brasstongue: merchant language, grants knowledge of cargo routes and negotiation tactics
  • raka spit: hunter language, lore about beasts and birds
  • lyre-bite: songwriter language, deeper understanding of whispers, pre-v songs
  • old hand: sign language, understanding of relics
  • signalling: flag/flare/signal lamp language of travellers, grants understanding of ships, weather types, and seagoing hazards
  • highvin: scholarly ancient language, pre-v lore

aspects

• traits, gear, and companions
• traits
  • properties of yourself that make you unique (ie youre really big)
• aspects form your hp, when you take damage you mark off on your aspects track
  • mark an appropriate aspect for the kind of damage you take, but this can be flexible/creative

aspect development/modification

• usually takes a project and a milestone
• results in a change in the track for an aspect
  • increase the track at the cost of complications/limitations
  • decrease the track to gain powerful abilities
• aspects can also be combined
  • new name, new type, track = sum of the two original tracks, add all additional rules
  • be creative!

mires

• insecurities, phobias, savage tendencies
• each mire is a two box track
• mires are marked when you do something fucked up or see something fucked up or something bad happens to you
  • when your character experiences the horrors of the sea or turns to savagery
• narrative
  • one marked mire: let hints of the condition bleed into your roleplay, show your difficulty
  • two marked mire: let it be the forefront of your roleplay, show your suffering
• mechanical
  • automatically cut equal to the mire's marks whenever you go against it

drives

• motivations, goals, what drives your character to sail
• whenever you advance your goal, get one of
  • a whisper
  • clear a mark of mire
  • a minor milestone
  • a major milestone

milestones

• rewards for completing narrative goals, things important to your character
• used for modifying aspects, improving a skill/language, and gaining new aspects

minor

• once per session after doing something that has a small but lasting effect on your character
• examples: personal goals, memorable npc encounters, surviving a hard-won fight

major

• same idea, but should be recorded after a narrative arc that built up to some conclusion
• examples: solved a mystery, took down a pirate captain, visited the under-eaves

usage

• take tasks with a narratively appropriate milestone to progress projects
  • minor = fill one box
  • major = fill three boxes
• projects
  • 3 track
    • add a box to an aspect
    • develop an aspect (add a rule)
    • gain a new skill rank
    • gain a new language rank
  • 6 track
    • gain a new aspect
    • combine two aspects

resources

• can be used/consumed to gain advantage on action rolls if appropriate
• salvage
  • inorganic material salvaged
  • repair gear, craft new gear, attack
• specimens
  • organic bounty of the wildsea
  • heal traits, cook meals, attack
• whispers
  • words that have power
  • discover secret information (speaking them under your breath), twist the narrative of the world (by speaking them aloud), force a change in the world (by shouting them)
• charts
  • documents, maps, information
  • discover locations, record safe routes

temporary tracks

• project tracks
• tracks for temporary benefits
• tracks for temporary injuries

benefits

• mark a box whenever you use it, once the track is full it's used up

injuries

• mark boxes with good nights rests, surgical care, and going to a med tent

combat

golden rules

• no weapons needed, anything is a weapon if you try hard enough
• no combat skills needed, be creative
• focus is fluid, but tracked
• you can do a lot more than just attack while you have focus
• death is always an opt-in
• combat doesnt always end in a defeated foe

combat mechanics

• damage taken and dealt out is represented by marking tracks and aspects
  • a successful hit means dealing one mark of damage
• attacks can also have extra effects, like disabling aspects, leaving them vulnerable, etc.
• 12 different damage types
• positioning on the battlefield is important for determining cuts/advantage
• characters always get a chance to react to attacks from enemies

ship

Basics

Ratings

• ship stats
• roll dice equal to the number of unmarked boxes in the rating

Taking damage

• takes damage to the rating boxes
• Could also damage a room/structure of the ship
• Could also damage cargo

Journey mechanics

Stations

• helm (required)
• watch (required)
• engine
• maps
• weather watch

Helm

• three options for journey progress
• cut a path: decent speed, one box of progress
• forge ahead: swift progress, two boxes of progress, no chance for the watch to spot anything
• drop anchor: ship stops and everyone rests, undercrew takes over watch, time to work on projects/repairs

Watch

• roll a single d6
• page 73 for the watch roll table results, potentially leading to an encounter
• making a discovery
  • consume a chart and a whisper to make a discovery

Engine

• normal tending to the engine
• throw extra fuel in to take advantage of the extra speed
• cover up the engine to take advantage of the extra stealthiness

Cartigraphising

• creation of charts of where you're travelling through
• mechanic: a track

Weather watching

• roll a 1d6 and use the table on page 75

character creation

• pick a bloodline, an origin, and a post
• then follow the quickstart kit for each of the choices to end up with a full character!
  • should have 3 edges, 15 skill ranks, 6 aspects, 6 resources, 3 drives, 3 mires
  • follow the rightmost section on each page + pick two aspects from each of bloodline, origin, and post